Chapter Six
Luke reached the abandoned logging road, where Garrett had told him the vehicles would be parked, before anyone else arrived. His brother’s Jeep and the lodge’s old beater pickup that Jonathan drove glimmered in the starlight ahead. Approaching cautiously, Luke focused all his senses to discern whether any unwelcome visitors waited there. Satisfied the area was deserted, he dropped his duffel—saved from the doomed pickup at the last moment—and knelt in the shadows by one of the Jeep’s wheels. Still on high alert, he was anxious to see with his own eyes that Sally and Jen were unharmed.
He didn’t have long to wait. Quiet voices drifted to him, and he studied the darkness until he caught sight of the beam from the flashlight moving through the trees. Cowboy loped into the clearing first, followed by Jonathan, carrying Jen. Luke rose silently and moved a step away from the Jeep. Jonathan evidently spotted him, bent at the waist and set Jen on her feet.
The little girl jogged toward him. At the last second, Luke dropped to his knees and caught her in a hug.
“Luke!” Her voice was low, yet filled with excitement and joy.
He held her tightly, picking her up as he got to his feet, her heart beating rapidly against him. She wound her arms around his neck and her quiet sniffling gave away her tears. Strong emotions formed a lump in his throat.
Damn. He loved this little girl and he wouldn’t handle it well if anything happened to her. “It’s all right, Jen. You’re safe.”
Luke couldn’t read Sally’s expression when she finally stepped into the feeble light cast by the moon. Worry was obvious and understandable. The axis of her world had just tilted several degrees. He’d fix it if he could, but it wasn’t within his power. All he could do was give his life if that was what it took to keep them both safe.
He settled Jen on one arm and held his other out to Sally. She hesitated a moment, searching his eyes, then shuffled toward him. Luke reached for her when she paused and pulled her in for a three-way hug. Once she was beside Jen, Sally relaxed against him and her stuttering sigh yanked at his heartstrings even as her warmth reminded him of comforts he’d not thought of for a long while.
Jonathan strode toward his pickup, and Garrett was futilely trying to control a pleased grin when Luke frowned at him over Sally’s head.
Garrett cleared his throat, propped his hands on his hips and became the serious big brother. “Mission accomplished. Now let’s get you back to the lodge. These two young ladies are asleep on their feet.” He walked to the Jeep and opened the driver’s door.
Luke released Sally, then set Jen on her feet next to her mother. “We won’t be going to the lodge.”
Sally’s surprised gaze darted toward him.
Garrett’s raised eyebrows clearly said he thought Luke had lost his mind. “What? It’s the safest place. Where else would you go?”
“Those jerks trying to run us off the road changed everything. I don’t know the whole story…yet.” He met Sally’s gaze before turning back to his brother. “What I know is if they find out Sally didn’t die in the crash, you can bet they won’t give up. If we go to the lodge, they’ll come after us. Think of Aunt Peg and Rachel.”
The muscle flexing in Garrett’s jaw told Luke he’d made his point.
“What makes you think they won’t come anyway?” Jonathan stood at the rear of his pickup, concern evident in his stance.
“They might, but you’ll be ready for them, and when they don’t find any sign of us, they won’t have any reason to stick around.” Luke glanced between Garrett and Jonathan, their silence signifying they didn’t like his idea one bit, but they apparently agreed with his reasoning.
Sally turned, her hand on Jen’s shoulder. “I can’t ask you to do this, Luke. You’ve done enough. You should stay here with your family.”
Luke tousled Jen’s hair and weighed his words carefully. “I’m aware you haven’t asked me to go any farther with you, but like it or not, I’m not letting you go by yourself.”
Sally shook her head sadly. “You don’t know everything.”
“Then fill me in.” Luke leaned back against the Jeep and crossed his ankles as though he had all the time in the world.
Sally’s eyes took on that deer-in-the-headlights look, darting around the small clearing, finally landing on her daughter.
Jen smiled with maturity beyond her years. “It’s okay, Mom. We’ll keep your secret.”
Sally allowed one sob to escape as she hugged the girl, and it was a moment before she found her voice. “I’m in the witness protection program. I have to assume whoever blew up my home and tried to run us off the road was sent by the man I testified against eleven years ago. The marshal in charge of my case is on his way to pick us up and find us a new place to live…and new identities.”
Luke did the math in his head. They’d celebrated Sally’s twenty-eighth birthday before his deployment. That made her twenty-nine now. She’d been only eighteen when she testified and gave up everything she knew to go into hiding. No wonder her scumball boss hadn’t been able to dig up anything on her.
Her story also made those thugs who evidently wanted her dead a whole lot more serious than they’d been a few minutes ago. International espionage or organized crime could be behind the attempt—something he hadn’t considered until now.
Sally’s guarded expression made it clear she expected him to change his mind. No chance of that happening. “All the more reason we shouldn’t hang around in familiar territory. We need to disappear tonight, before they regroup and come back to check their handiwork.”
She started to interrupt, and Luke held his hand up to stop her. “Your problem became my business when my truck went over the cliff. Those men were trying to kill all three of us…not just you.” He glanced toward Garrett. “Can I borrow your Jeep?”
The keys were already in Garrett’s hand and he tossed them through the air. “Where will you go?”
Luke caught the keys easily. “A place the people looking for Sally won’t know anything about. It’s better if you don’t know either.”
Garrett’s lips settled into a firm line. He obviously wasn’t happy with that answer, but he knew it was the right move. “Check in when you get where you’re going.” It wasn’t a request.
Cowboy whined, his tail moving slowly from side to side, clearly reacting to Garrett’s change of mood.
“We will.” Luke studied his brother’s concerned expression for a silent moment before his gaze swept to Sally, trying to gauge how much argument was left there. He was pleasantly surprised when she slid an arm around Jen’s shoulders, stepped away from him and guided her daughter to the Jeep.
His brother stepped toward him, and Luke shook his hand with a firm grasp meant to convey he had this under control, knowing full well his big brother would worry about him anyway. When they turned away from each other, Luke shook hands with Jonathan before tossing his duffel in the backseat and climbing behind the wheel.
“One more thing, Bro. If you could call a tow truck and get what’s left of my ride out of the canyon before those creeps climb down there and find out there aren’t any bodies or footprints, we might stop them right here.”
Jonathan, returning from his truck, shoved a blanket through the window into Luke’s hands. “Jen might need something comfortable to lay on.” The big guy had such a soft spot where the girl was concerned. Luke could identify.
“Thanks, man.” He accepted the offering and placed it between the seats, then started the Jeep and listened to its quiet purr as the two men stepped away from the side. With one last wave, he shifted into reverse, backed a tight horseshoe and crept slowly down the mountain. After turning right on the county road, where he’d ditched his truck, he drove without benefit of lights, watching the mirrors carefully for another mile or so before he flipped on the headlamps.
An audible sigh of relief came from Sally as the lights lit up the area in front of the vehicle. It was the first sound she’d made since she buckled her seat belt. Jen, bless her heart, knelt between the bucket seats with a hand on each of their shoulders. She should have been in her seat belt too, especially on this damn road, but Jen apparently needed their contact as much as Luke needed hers. In a minute, I’ll ask her to sit down and buckle up. For right now…he reached around her head to pull her close for a kiss on the cheek.
She grinned in delight. “Did it work just like in the movie?”
A tiny sound that might have been a laugh came from Sally’s half of the cab. Luke glanced her way, but she was still concentrating on the view out in front of them.
He swept his attention back to Jen. “Not quite. I revved the truck up and headed for the edge of the canyon.” He made the sound effects and waved his arms in the air, letting loose the steering wheel for a second, chuckling as Jen got into the story. “Then I remembered my duffel…containing the only clean clothes we’d have until we could get to a store. I grabbed it, along with a couple other things I thought we might need, and jumped out at the last minute, like we planned. The duffel broke my fall, which was good, but the bad guys were too close. I didn’t have time to cross the road and get into the trees.”
Sally swung around to stare at him. “What did you do?”
“Well, there I was, hanging over that cliff, with that heavy canvas bag in one hand, while my truck ground and scraped all the way to the bottom and then started on fire. Those clowns—there were four of them—got out of their vehicles and looked over the edge as though they were afraid of heights or something. I could tell they weren’t about to climb down and make sure we were all dead. But I didn’t know how long I could hold on either.” He paused for dramatic effect and smiled at Jen’s impatient sigh.
Sally was halfway grinning now, and damned if it didn’t seem like all the ugly stuff that had gone between his leaving her and his coming home no longer existed. Interesting that he thought of this place as home.
“A couple of them began shooting down in the canyon. I guess they thought they might get lucky and hit something. Then one of them started talking. It wasn’t English, but I couldn’t hear well enough to recognize the language. And, thankfully, they didn’t stick around much longer.”
Jen giggled, jumping up and down on the floorboards in her excitement, and Luke laughed…until the stricken expression on Sally’s face pulled him up short. His first instinct was to comfort her, but when he touched her shoulder, she tensed.
“Where are we going?” Jen yawned through the question.
“To stay with a friend of mine for a few days, until the heat is off here. Then we’ll get busy finding you and your mom a new place to live.” Luke wrapped his arm around her slender shoulders. “How’s that sound?” Providing the heat did die down in Huntington. There was a good possibility it would never be safe enough for Sally and Jen to return and resume their lives, but he’d break the bad news to Jen when it became necessary.
“Good.” She leaned close enough to whisper in his ear. “Mom needs a job too.”
Luke nodded his head. “Right. A job.” Hopefully, one where she wouldn’t be persuaded to date the boss. He now understood her reticence to have the sheriff question Emmett Purnell, because it was highly unlikely he was involved in the destruction of her house. If Luke had known her history, he’d have been okay skipping that step. It stood to reason Purnell wouldn’t take his implication in the crime lightly.
Jen clutched her blanket, pushed herself onto the backseat and wiggled until she apparently found a comfortable position. The seat-belt buckle clicked into place, making Luke smile. She unfolded the blanket and draped it over her body. When Luke glanced in the rearview mirror next, all movement had stopped. Soon her breathing slowed and deepened into a peaceful sleep. Luke lit up the face of his watch. Zero five hundred hours. Hell, it’s morning.
His gaze swept to Sally. Her long brunette hair hid most of her face, but he could tell by her crossed arms and stiff spine she wasn’t asleep. Not even close. “We need to talk, Sally.”
She straightened even more, then slowly turned her head to look at him. Her eyes were wide with dark circles beneath them. Worry drew her brows together, but the rest of her expression was flat, as though she’d turned off her reaction to everything.
Sally squared her shoulders. “Yes, we do. I’m so sorry, Luke. Sorry you got involved in this. Sorry about your truck. Why are you so calm? You should be mad as hell.”
Luke chuckled. “If you knew how many anger management classes I’ve attended since I got back, you’d have a whole different opinion of me. Why would I be angry with you? None of this is your fault.”
“You don’t know that,” she said.
“Yeah…I do.” He reached for her hand and wrapped it in his larger one. “Are you ready to tell me everything yet?”
“There’s not much to tell. I witnessed a murder, and when I went to the police, they arranged for a US Marshal to pick me up. I eventually learned I’d be placed in the witness protection program in exchange for my testimony. When it was all over, they found me a place to live in Huntington.”
Luke squeezed her hand. “Who was it? Who did you testify against?”
Her reluctance was noticeable. “His name is Clive Brennan. A natural-born US citizen, but it turned out his allegiance was with Russia. It was probably a Russian dialect you heard while you were hanging off the cliff. My testimony put him away for fifteen to twenty years, a travesty in itself. Mississippi has a ten-year minimum, so, with time off for good behavior, he was released three months ago.”
Luke frowned. “Why is he after you now? You can’t hurt him after he’s served his time.”
“I don’t know.” Sally’s gaze danced away from his for only a second, but it was enough to make him wonder why she was withholding information.
He wouldn’t push her now. Her emotions were too raw. His presence too new and unexpected. “What about this marshal that’s supposed to show up?”
“Marshal Greg Lambert. He’s been my contact for nine years. I’ve spoken to him a few times on the phone, but I’ve never met him before. Now he’s on his way to pick Jen and me up to hide us away again.” Sally scooped her hair back from her forehead angrily.
“You’re not in favor of that?”
“I wouldn’t care if it was just me, but Jen doesn’t deserve that. She won’t understand. All she’ll know is I’m tearing her away from her friends and the only life she…” Sally’s voice broke on the last word and she quickly glanced away. “She hasn’t done anything to deserve this.”
Sally hadn’t done anything to deserve it either. Luke felt a jagged hole open in his chest at the thought of never seeing her and Jen again. Was a new identity really the best thing for them? The only way to keep them safe? Was he being totally self-serving to want to find another way—to believe he could protect her as well as the feds? She at least deserved another option. “If you decide that’s not what you want, you can count on me. I’ll stay with you all the way, sunshine.”
Sally smiled for the first time since she’d walked out of the forest, and Luke’s heart melted. She squeezed his fingers. “Are you sure, Luke? I mean, I haven’t exactly greeted you with open arms. In my own defense, showing up the way you did brought up all the bad memories. Do you have any idea how much I worried about you…all those months?”
“In my defense, I was half loco when they rescued me.” He focused his attention toward the front, emotions swamping him.
“You really hurt us, Luke. You hurt Jen.” Her voice cracked, but she pushed through. “Don’t hurt her again.”
Luke turned toward her, and the plea in her glossy eyes broke him into little pieces. No anger or bitterness lingered in her expression—only a fierce love for the daughter she’d brought into the world. That was one of the things he loved about her. Still, Luke had no trouble believing he’d kiss his chances with her good-bye if he crossed that line again.
He could live with that, because he would no more hurt Jen than willingly return to Afghanistan.
“You have my word. Hurting you or Jen in any way was the last thing I wanted to do. The two of you are important to me. If you don’t believe anything else, please believe that. If there was a way to get back the time we’ve lost, I’d do it in a heartbeat. In fact, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you and that little girl right there.” He looked in to her eyes for a second, warmed by the acceptance he found there, as though he’d finally said something right. Perhaps he should have copped an insanity plea right up front. Maybe his actions were more understandable under those circumstances. Figures. The bad news was: There was a distinct possibility the crazy still resided within him.
Luke brought her fingers to his lips for a kiss before he released her hand. “You’re exhausted. Why don’t you lean that seat back and get some sleep?”
She glanced at him again, a slight tilt to her head. “You have to be just as tired. I’ll stay awake and we can talk or play a stupid game.”
Luke grinned, reminded of the times the three of them had played Jen’s word games until all hours of the night and the hilarity that had ensued. “Sounds fun, but it’s not necessary. I don’t really sleep much anymore.” He felt her looking at him and braced himself for the questions he knew would follow…and the truth he was determined to share.
“Ever? Surely you must sleep sometime.” Her voice was wary, as though she had to ask but wasn’t sure she really wanted the answer.
“Unfortunately, that’s true. I catch an hour or two now and then before I wake up in a cold sweat. My experiences with Uncle Sam changed me—and not for the better. I have nightmares and headaches. I get startled easily, and when I do, I come up swinging. But I’m better than I was, and I’m grateful for that. Mostly I try to stay awake.”
“How long has that been going on?”
Luke shrugged. “Started while I was over there…in that filthy prison.” A shudder worked its way slowly through him. “I thought I’d seen it all with my SEAL unit, but I didn’t have a clue. After my team member, Ian Mathias, and I were captured, the interrogator at the camp where we were held started his psychological warfare. Ahmed Kazi was his name—the name he took when he converted to Islam. He was born in New York, but, man, that guy hated Americans, and military personnel were apparently the lowest in his opinion. He had it in for us from day one. A master at the art of torture, he wanted us to anticipate what was going to happen next.
“Ian drew the short straw—he didn’t make it.” Luke struggled to keep his voice steady. “I dream about him a lot. Relive that helpless feeling when I’m filled with so much hate my heart’s pumping like a locomotive and there’s not a fucking thing I can do to save him.” Anger filled Luke, and he clenched his hands in a death grip around the steering wheel to keep his rage from escaping.
“My God.” Sally’s whisper was nearly inaudible, but her warm, caring touch on his leg snatched him back from the brink. “I knew it was bad, Luke, but I didn’t realize you still lived with it night and day. Is there anything I can do to help?”
Focusing on her face, he fought to get his anger under control. He never wanted her to see that side of him. “You already have. That picture. I wasn’t kidding about you and Jen saving my life. You kept me from giving up. Gave me a reason to keep fighting. Calmed me when I woke from a dream, breathing so damn hard my ribs ached. After Ian was killed, you were all I had.” Luke paused to see if he was giving her too much information—convincing her he really was crazy. Her rapt attention as she turned toward him seemed to ask for more.
“The bond we had before I deployed took on new meaning after I was captured. I…took some liberties—embellished a bit. Hope you don’t mind.” He stole a glance in her direction, and she still hadn’t looked away. Might as well get it all out in the open. “I’ve imagined making love to you in a hundred different ways. Just so you know, sunshine, we were incredible together.” Was that a grin working at the corners of her lips or just wishful thinking? “That’s what makes what I did to you so terrible. You never gave up on me once, yet I took it on myself to decide you wouldn’t want half a man back from the war.” He stopped then, strangely bereft of words.
“That was wrong of you.” Sally nodded her head in agreement. “But I can’t begin to comprehend what you went through. Nor am I qualified to decide how you should react to everything that happened.” She looked in to his eyes. “I’m really glad you’re here, Luke.”
Luke’s surprised gaze collided with her sure and steady one. A full-on gorgeous smile blossomed across her otherwise tired visage. He reluctantly jerked his eyes back to the road, unable to control a pleased grin. “Yeah? Does that mean you’ll give us another chance?”
“It might…on one condition.”
“Which is…?”
“Honesty is a big deal for me. I won’t settle for less.” She flinched as though something pinched her on the last word, regret worrying her gorgeous eyes for a split second before she blinked it away and smiled a little too brightly.
Luke frowned. Was she still haunted by his lie? He knew only too well what it was like to be unable to forget, and he didn’t want that for her. It wasn’t conducive to the plans he dared have for their life together.
Luke spotted a turnout ahead and stepped on the brakes, pulling over a little quicker than he should have. He leaned toward the woman whose opinion meant everything to him, took her hand again and placed it over his heart. “You won’t ever have to settle, sunshine.” Releasing his seat belt and then hers, he hooked one arm around her waist, pulling her to the edge of the seat until she was close enough her breath tickled his cheek. He leaned in slowly with a grin, almost touching, then nibbled and teased the corner of her mouth before he took possession of her lips. She responded to him as though she’d wanted this as badly as he had, opening for him when he ran his tongue across the seam of her lips. When he delved inside like a starving man, she met his searching tongue with parrying thrusts of her own. She tasted of honey and smoke, and he couldn’t help a rumbling laugh against her soft lips.
“What’s so funny, sailor?” Sally kissed him again and then drew back to look in his eyes.
“We’ve been smoked. Do I taste like a bonfire?” His hand settled on her neck and stroked gently.
“A little. Me too?” She obligingly bent her neck so he could take full advantage of her satiny skin.
Luke pulled her toward him again. “I love the way you taste.”
She leaned into him as he nipped at her bottom lip before he pressed his mouth to hers and lost himself in the homecoming he’d dreamed of so many times. He pressed her back against the seat and deepened the kiss, needing to claim her as his own so there’d no longer be any question. By her soft moans and the way she fisted her hand in his hair, she was as caught up in the heat of the moment as he was. In only a few minutes, they were both breathing heavily.
Remembering where they were, why they had set out and the nine-year-old girl sleeping in the back, Luke reluctantly released Sally. He pulled back to his own side of the vehicle and leaned against the steering wheel while he caught his breath. Turning an apologetic smile her way, he shifted the Jeep into gear. “That was a hell of a lot hotter than anything I imagined.”
One side of her mouth shot upward in a smug grin, and she placed her hand, palm down, on his thigh. The warmth of her touch set off a chain reaction that ended with his jeans becoming tight and uncomfortable.
She lowered her voice to a sexy murmur. “Speaking of that—you’ve got your work cut out for you, Luke Harding.”
He eyed her curiously. Should he be worried by the obvious challenge in her smile? “Yeah? How’s that?”
“I fully expect you to show me those hundred different ways you’ve imagined us making love.”
Luke coughed, steering the Jeep onto the roadway again. “Damn it. You’re killing me here.”
Her sweet peals of laughter were music to his ears.