Bitter Wild (22 page)

“We’d
been chasing Russell Jester for several bloody days. He’d been on a killing
spree the likes of which I’ve never seen before. Needless to say, the pressure
to stop him was immense. When my team and I rolled into the quiet little town
of Decatur, Montana, I was exhausted and frustrated and more than a little
uneasy. My concerns didn’t lessen any when we realized the fugitive had stolen
horses and gear from his latest victim before disappearing into the mountains
that surrounded the small community. Sheriff Stan Pritchard was immeasurably
helpful. He explained that chasing Jester down wouldn’t be easy. We’d need a
tracker and guide to find him in those mountains.

“I’m
sorry to say that my first meeting with Ms. Nolan wasn’t a courteous one.
Frankly, I made an ass of myself. Ms. Nolan thankfully overlooked my
shortcomings, however, and agreed to lead the manhunt. She organized the entire
search within a matter of hours. I have no doubt that she saved my life on
multiple occasions, but I’ll simply tell you about two of them.

“There
was a bridge that spanned a chasm which we had to cross. Unbeknownst to us, the
fugitive had sabotaged the bridge. Ms. Nolan crossed it without incident, but I
was barely past the midway point when we realized it was about to fall. I don’t
mind telling you that I was more frightened than I have ever been in my life.
There was nothing but open air beneath me and I knew I had no chance of
reaching the other side before the bridge collapsed. Ms. Nolan managed to throw
me a rope, which I’d barely tied around myself when the bridge went. It wasn’t
until she’d practically hauled me up the side of that cliff that I learned
she’d had no time to anchor the other end of the rope to anything but herself.
Her shoulder was dislocated badly. I’ve been trained to perform CPR, but not to
fix a dislocated shoulder. She told me what to do, and endured my fumbling
attempts to carry out her instructions.

“As if
that wasn’t enough, she continued to guide me on the search for this extremely
dangerous fugitive. I learned later that she’d barely recovered from a vicious
bear attack that had taken the life of her fiancé and almost cost her her life
as well. She was in pain every step of the way, yet she refused to stop, to
allow Russell Jester to escape. When we finally caught up to him, I made the
mistake of dropping my guard. Jester was a cunning man. He faked his own death
and set up an ambush. He captured Ms. Nolan and used her as a human shield. We
were on the top of a cliff. There was nowhere for him to run and no way for me
to stop him. Ms. Nolan knew that if Russell Jester killed me and then her,
there would be no one to keep him from disappearing into the mountains forever.
Faced with that possibility, Casey Nolan did something I’m certain I would not
have had the nerve to do. She threw herself and the fugitive over that cliff.

“The
fall killed Russell Jester instantly. Ms. Nolan suffered numerous injuries,
including a concussion, a broken arm, broken ribs and a punctured lung, and a
badly broken leg. Had she not taken this radical action, I most certainly would
have died on that cliff. I owe this woman my life, as do countless others who
might well have been victims of Russell Jester’s violent nature. In my entire
life, I have never been so honored to know any other person, nor so grateful
for the aid of a civilian. Ladies and gentlemen, Ms. Casey Nolan.”

Jack
turned around to indicate Casey. He could clearly see the tears in her eyes. He
watched as John rose and offered her his hand. The applause was loud enough to
make it impossible to hear what John whispered to her as she stood. Jack backed
out of the way as the emcee came forward. He offered Jack the felt covered case
that held the award certificate. Jack turned and offered it to Casey. She took
it from him, finally searching his gaze with her own as she did so. Jack wanted
desperately to touch her, to tell her he loved her. He wanted to kiss her tears
away and hold her trembling body in his arms. But John was still by her side,
his arm supporting her. Jack couldn’t bring himself to push the other man
aside. Especially not at this moment that should be all Casey’s. So he backed
away, leaving her and John in the spotlight while the applause continued.

Casey
was exhausted by the time the banquet ended. Her leg was aching badly and her
heart was almost as bruised. She was so confused that she didn’t know what to
think or do. Jack had seemed nothing but cool toward her from the first moment
they’d met earlier. Yet his speech had felt so personal. His praise of her, his
insisting that he was honored to know her had sounded too real. And then, when
he handed her the award, she’d searched his gaze, desperate to understand what
he thought and felt. For a moment, it had seemed that he’d been full of a
torrent of emotion. Yet an instant later his gaze was completely shuttered,
leaving her with no idea what he was feeling. He hadn’t so much as glanced in
her direction once during the remainder of the banquet. It was more strain than
she could bear. She turned to John.

“I’m
exhausted.”

He was
on his feet immediately. He pulled out her chair, then slipped his arm around
her waist so that she could take some of the weight off her injured leg. They
turned and found Skip and Jack had risen as well.

“Are
you okay?”

She
gave Skip a tight smile. “My leg is bothering me a bit, I’m afraid.”

Jack
and Skip escorted them through the crowd, parting the way like a pair of
icebreakers in the arctic. Casey was too grateful for their help to worry about
people who might be offended by their impatience. Her leg was hurting and she
felt like she was on the verge of tears. She didn’t understand Jack, couldn’t
reconcile this cold, unfeeling side of him with the man she’d been so intimate
with. It was as if they were two different men, one a stranger she didn’t even
want to know and the other a lover she could barely stand to be apart from. She
was afraid to find out which of them was the real Jack Hall. She wasn’t at all
sure her heart could take it. She just wanted to get away from him, to curl up
on her bed with Chance and lick her wounds. She’d have to face him again. She
had two days in the city. It was part of her award. She would be shown any and
all sights she wanted to see before returning to her ranch and her life.
Sometime in those two days, she would have to see Jack again. She had to tell
him about the baby. She just could not do it tonight.

Jack
and Skip escorted Casey and John to the elevators. They were staying in the
same hotel that was hosting the banquet. John jabbed at the elevator call
button while Casey tried to hold her tears at bay. She heard the bell that
announced the arrival of the elevator and breathed a small sigh of relief. She
heard the doors open almost at the same instant that Jack said her name. Her
eyes shot to him in response to the longing she heard in his voice. There was
still no emotion in his eyes, though. Nothing at all.

“Thank
you for saving my life.”

She
felt her throat tighten. She nodded, but couldn’t speak. John led her into the
elevator and she turned to bury her face in his chest as the tears started to
fall. A moment later the doors closed and she let go of the sob that had been
choking her.

Jack
stared at the closed elevator doors, replaying his last sight of Casey over and
over in his mind. She’d been clinging to John like he was the only life raft in
a raging sea. Jack didn’t suppose there was any way to ignore what that meant.
He turned around, stopping only when Skip reached out and caught his arm.

“That’s
it? You’re going to let her go with nothing more than, ‘thank you for saving my
life’?”

Jack
rounded on his longtime partner and friend. “What the hell do you want me to
do? You saw the way she was hanging onto him. Obviously, she’s not interested
in me anymore.”

Skip
shook his head. “You know, I used to think you were a smart guy. Hell, there
have been a few times I was actually envious of you. I can see now just how
misplaced that envy was. You’re in love with her! You’ve got it so bad that you
can’t stand the thought of being without her. Do you have any idea how precious
that is? Maybe she’s in love with John. And maybe she’s just relying on him to
get her through because the man she really loves is too damned mule headed to
tell her how he feels. One thing I know for sure, if I ever met a woman I cared
about half as much there isn’t anything in heaven or hell that would keep me
from telling her so.”

He
turned around and stalked off, leaving Jack to fume impotently. He walked off,
heading for the hotel bar. He needed a drink. At least one. Maybe a hell of a
lot more. He ordered a scotch, then nursed it while he battled with himself.
God knew he wanted Casey. He wasn’t at all sure that he didn’t need her on some
level. He thought about his mother and father. They’d loved each other. His
mother had given up everything she knew for his father. She’d turned her back on
her own family because she loved him that much. Jack took another sip of the
scotch and realized something he’d never thought of before. His mother had
chosen her husband over everything she’d ever known and she had never once
regretted it. Not when they had to struggle to keep the bills paid. Not even
after he was killed. She’d loved him unconditionally right up until the day she
died.

Jack
thought of the way Casey had looked at him before she went off that cliff. That
hadn’t been some transitory emotion in her eyes, it had been love. The same
kind of love he’d seen in his own mother’s eyes when she looked at or talked
about his father. He sat the drink down and buried his face in his hands. It
had been there all along and he’d refused to look at it. Casey loved him. He
loved her. Surely that was all that mattered. If it had been enough for his
parents, couldn’t it be enough for them? The answer was obvious. It was enough
for him. He’d have to ask Casey if it would be enough for her. He pushed away
from the bar, threw a few bills at the bartender, and all but ran for the door.

Casey’s
tears had come and gone fairly quickly. She’d gone from broken hearted to angry
to just plain sad. John had wiped at her tears, cursed Jack Hall repeatedly,
then gone into mothering mode. He’d insisted that she let him order some room
service, since she’d done little more than pick at the meal she’d been given at
the banquet. He pushed all the right buttons when he told her it was unhealthy
for the baby for her to skip meals. She’d reluctantly agreed to let him order
some food and then listened silently as he asked if they had any peaches.

She’d
had a lot of cravings for peaches during her pregnancy. Sometimes she wondered
if her baby somehow knew the role the fruit had played in his or her
conception. It didn’t really matter why she longed for the fruit. She simply
couldn’t seem to get enough of them. And every time she ate them she remembered
that night in the cabin. She supposed that was to be expected. She wished she’d
find a new craving, though, because the constant reminder was starting to wear
on her emotional stability. She was on edge enough with her hormones going
crazy because of the pregnancy. She didn’t need any additional stress.

She’d
changed out of her dress and was now wearing a comfortable oversized tee shirt
and a pair of shorts. Normally she wore an old terrycloth robe as well, but the
room had felt unusually warm when she got back upstairs so she’d left the robe
in her room. Now she was stretched out on the couch with her aching leg propped
up on a pillow. John had changed out of his tux as well. He wore a worn pair of
pajama bottoms and a tee shirt, his usual lounging outfit. He was off in his
bathroom, getting her some Tylenol for the pain. She refused to take anything
stronger because she was afraid it might hurt the baby. She leaned her head
against the thick couch cushion and sighed a second before there was a knock at
the door.

John
appeared in his bedroom doorway a moment later. He had a glass of water in one
hand and two pills in the other. He handed them to her before going to the
door. Casey swallowed the pills and leaned over to set the glass on the table
as John opened the door. She jerked upright as she heard her brother curse.

“What
the hell do you want?”

Her
heart did a crazy flip-flop as she heard Jack’s voice.

“I need
to talk to Casey.”

“She’s
tired. You can talk to her tomorrow.”

Casey
called out to him. “It’s okay, John. Let him in.”

She
could see the tension in her brother’s body. He was still furious with Jack. He
still thought the worst of him. He backed out of the way, though, and she made
a mental note to remember to thank him for always being there for her when she
needed him. She struggled to sit up straighter as Jack stepped into the room. His
eyes came to her immediately and she saw him glance at her, then at John once
more. For the first time all night, she saw a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.
Inexplicably, she felt a need to comfort him, to take that disquiet away. Before
she could, someone else appeared at the door. The waiter obviously picked up on
the tension in the room. He looked uneasy as he announced that he had their
room service order. John invited him to bring the tray in, telling him to put
it on the low table in front of Casey. John gave him a tip and hustled him out
the door as quickly as he could manage. Then he came straight to Casey’s side.

At that
moment, Casey felt a little bit like a bone lying on the ground between two
aggressive dogs. As if on cue, Chance decided to make his presence known. He’d
been lying on the floor beside Casey, but he rose and slowly walked to Jack.
After a momentary pause, Chance stepped forward and nudged Jack’s hand with his
head. Casey watched as Jack bent to stroke the dog.