The Perfect Outsider (11 page)

Fire crackled and popped softly in the stove.

“What?” she whispered, her voice thick, and Jesse was suddenly unable to tear his attention from her lips, the way her breathing was making her chest rise and fall. And before he could even think to finish his sentence, he leaned in and he kissed her mouth.

She jerked back, eyes wide in shock.

But before she could say a word, a loud banging sounded on the bedroom door.

June spun around just as the door was flung open by Brad, shotgun in his hand, his face white.

Sonya was right behind him, her eyes bright with fear, a radio in her hand. Molly was at her side. She pointed straight at Jesse, arm outstretched.

“It’s his fault!” yelled Molly. “He brought them here!”

“
What’s
his fault?” said June. “What’s going on?”

“Davis just called in,” Sonya said. “A posse of five henchmen is approaching the rock crevasse that leads to the tunnel. He could hear them talking. He thinks they said something about a mole in the safe house.”

“See?” yelled Molly, borderline hysterical. “You shouldn’t have brought him here. He’s leading them in somehow.”

June shot a glance at Jesse

He was tense, eyes narrowed and hard as he stared at Molly.

“It’s not possible,” June said. “Jesse has no way of contacting—”

Davis’s voice crackled suddenly through the radio in Sonya’s hand. June took it from her, stepping out into the passageway. Brad started to close the bedroom door.

Jesse placed his hand on the door, stopping it from closing. “June, let me help,” he said.

“Are you crazy? It’s your fault they’re here!” Molly kicked the bedroom door closed in his face, and he heard the key turning in the lock.

His muscles strapped tight in a band across his chest. He jiggled the handle. Locked.

Cursing, he swung around, glared at the windowless rock walls, listening to the sound of urgent talking fade down the passage. He raked his hand angrily over his hair, frustration burning through his blood, and he swore again. He felt as though he’d entered some kind of surreal universe, being trapped in a cave room by a woman and a motley assortment of kids and adults with guns.

He could break down the door, do something rash, which was what he was pumping to do right now, but he had little doubt that that trigger-happy Molly kid would blow him apart with that twelve-gauge before he was out.

Maybe henchmen arriving would be a good thing.

* * *

There was better reception in the kitchen where the radio could pick up waves through the windows from the portable repeater June had rigged up outside.

“June to Davis. Can you repeat? What’s going on?” June released the key, tension winding tight in the kitchen. She glanced at the others gathered around her.

The radio crackled to life. “Davis to safe house. Five armed henchmen combing the woods.” He spoke quietly, as if he wasn’t far from the men.

“They came close to the crevasse entrance but veered south before discovering it. I followed them for about two miles. They’re actively searching for something with hunting spots—all are armed. Are you getting this, June?”

“Loud and clear. Go on, Davis,” June said, releasing the key again.

“I heard one say something about a mole on the inside and that they were waiting for the mole to make contact.”

Ice shot down June’s spine. She keyed the radio.

“Are you sure?”

“That’s what it sounded like. Over.”

“Are they still moving south, away from the tunnel entrance?”

“Yes.”

“Go back and guard the tunnel entrance, Davis. I’ll send someone to relieve you in an hour. Copy?”

“Copy.”

Molly’s eyes were huge. “Do you want me to go relieve him? I’ll go now.”

“You need sleep,” June said crisply.

“
Sleep
—are you crazy? With them out there?” She flung her arm out in the direction of the hill.

“It’s Brad’s turn next.” June’s tone brooked no argument. Molly scowled and stomped out of the kitchen.

June slumped onto a stool at the kitchen counter, heart pounding.

Maybe Jesse really is a mole.

The memory of his kiss filled her mind. She thought of the compassion she’d seen in his eyes and sensed in his touch. He
felt
like a good man. Or was she being completely blinded by her physical attraction to him? Was seducing her a part of his game?

June scrubbed her hands over her face, wondering when this job had gotten so damn complicated. She wished Hawk Bledsoe would return. She wanted him to nail Samuel and for this whole thing to be over, because she was wearing dangerously thin.

Chapter 6

I
t was morning, early. The rain had stopped and the sun was painting the world that beautiful gold that comes when the angle of the sun is still low. June put on a pot of coffee, feeling exhausted. She’d taken one of the beds in the nursery where Lacy and the twins were sleeping, but she’d lain wide-awake listening to the others breathe, thinking how different the rhythm of a child’s breathing was from an adult’s, how close this mother and her babies had come to losing their lives.

Were they alive now because of Jesse?

June had also mulled over what Davis had told her when he’d returned to the cave house later in the night. Instead of going back to guard the canyon entrance as June had instructed, Davis had taken it upon himself to follow the posse of henchmen deeper into the woods as they’d beat the bush and panned hunting lights through the trees.

“I definitely heard them say the word
mole,
” he’d told June.

“But it wasn’t clear that this mole was inside our safe house?” she’d asked.

“No. At first I assumed they meant the mole was in the safe house, and I figured immediately that the mole was Jesse, but as I followed them farther it became blatantly clear that they’re no friends of our stranger—they were hunting him. I heard one say Samuel wanted him dead or alive.”

“They referred to him by name?” June said.

“No—they don’t know who he is.”

So he isn’t working for Samuel.

Adrenaline trilled through June.

“One of them said the stranger shot Jason Barnes. And, June, I heard them say Barnes died from his wound earlier today.”

Jesse had killed him.
June cursed softly. Samuel was not going to let this slide. This whole town was going to blow. “Did you recognize the guys in the posse?” she said quietly.

“Rufus Kittridge was leading the group.”

“The
mayor?
Are you serious?”

“Lumpy Smithers was there, too. And Monica Pearl. I saw both their faces when they were momentarily illuminated by the hunting spots, but I didn’t get a good look at the others.” Davis shook his head as if in disbelief. “Who’d have thought Monica Pearl was one of Samuel’s enforcers. She’s so…sweet.”

And pretty, thought June. That was the danger of Samuel Grayson and his cult. The more clean, friendly, benign the facade—the more sinister what lurked beneath.

“Just before I left them, I heard Mayor Kittridge yelling at Lumpy that he should’ve gotten a better look at the stranger’s face. Lumpy argued it was dark, raining and that Jason was badly injured. Rufus hit back that Samuel maintained Lumpy should have gone after the Matthews woman and her kids instead of trying to save Jason. I swear, June, they were wire-tense, really going at each other. Lumpy sounded real choked about Jason dying.”

Davis had also returned with a small, muddy pacifier that he’d found while following the men.

“Maybe it belongs to Dr. Black’s baby?” he said.

Dr. Rafe Black’s infant son had been kidnapped last month and so far there’d been no leads, no ransom notes, nothing—Rafe was devastated. June made a mental note to go search the area around where the pacifier had been found. Rafe Black was a good man, and he was not a Devotee.

* * *

Once the coffee was ready, June poured a mug and set it on a tray along with a toasted bagel for Jesse. Outside the bedroom door she waited while Sonya unlocked it.

“Morning,” he said as the door opened. “I take it we weren’t invaded last night. Too bad. The enemy might have sprung me.”

“They didn’t find the tunnel,” she said as she set the tray on the table. He’d just showered—his hair was damp. He was wearing jeans, his engraved belt and a button-down denim shirt over a white T-shirt—he looked all Wyoming cowboy, and it was a look that really did it for June.

“I’m sorry about last night,” he said quietly.

She glanced at him and knew instantly he was talking about the kiss. Her pulse quickened and her mouth felt dry. All she could think about suddenly was how she’d wanted to kiss him back. Instead, she looked away and fiddled unnecessarily with the napkin on the tray. “It’s me who should be apologizing,” she said quietly. “For locking you up. But I had to be sure that you weren’t the mole who’d brought the henchmen so close last night.”

She looked up at him and her heart kicked. He exuded a new kind of energy this morning. Sleep had restored him. And his eyes crackled with an intensity of focus that made her feel hot inside.

“Either way, you are the reason they came looking, Jesse,” she said. “When Davis returned he told me the men were armed and actively hunting you. But it seems no one saw your face the other night and they don’t know who you are.”

A quiet electricity seemed to ripple through his body. “I’m not sure whether I should be pleased or disappointed,” he said.

“It appears you killed one of them, Jesse. A man named Jason Barnes died of a gunshot wound to the neck.”

Silence filled the room.

“Jesus,” he said softly.

“Samuel is after your blood.” She inhaled deeply. “Obviously you don’t work for him. I’m really sorry I locked you up. I—I’ve never done anything like this in my life. It’s just—things got desperate.”

His gaze went to the door.

“It’s not locked. You’re free to go.”

His attention shifted back to her, eyes intense. He stood slowly and took a step toward her. June’s knees felt weak.

“Don’t go into Cold Plains, Jesse, please—they’ll kill you.”

“You said they hadn’t seen my face.”

“You can’t just show up in a town like Cold Plains with stitches on your head and no belongings. They’ll instantly peg you for the man they were hunting.”

“June, I—”

“
Please,
it could endanger us all.”

He studied her intently. “Show me around the house,” he said, something dark entering his voice.

A whisper of trepidation feathered over her. “You don’t want your breakfast?”

“Not in here. But after a tour of the house I’d love a cup of coffee, if you’ll share one with me.”

She smiled. “You make it sound like a date.”

His eyes held hers for several beats. “June, I am sorry—about the kiss.”

“I’m not,” she said very quietly, her cheeks warming.

But even as she said the words, she realized the stupidity of them—she was physically attracted to, and quite possibly falling for, a man she didn’t know at all. He could have loved ones waiting for him to return, worrying about him. There might be no room in his life for someone like her.

June turned and walked to the door, telling herself she didn’t want there to be room for her, anyway—she had a life mission. Falling for a stranger who might wake up and realize he belonged to someone else would break her heart. It was ridiculous even to be thinking like this.

She opened the door and strode briskly down the passage. “Kitchen and main living area are this way,” she said coolly.

* * *

Jesse entered the living space behind June. A fire burned in a big stone hearth, next to which sat a gaunt, hook-nosed, middle-aged man with wary eyes. He was drinking from a pottery mug. Eager was curled at his feet. The man nodded at Jesse. Eager’s tale gave a small thump.

“Morning,” the man said.

“This is Davis,” June said. “He’s the one who followed the hunting party last night.”

Davis got up, and Jesse stepped forward to shake his hand. Davis had a firm, wiry grasp. Jesse put him in his fifties, and his eyes were not friendly.

“Those guys want your head, mate, whoever you are,” he said to Jesse.

Jesse snorted. “Thanks for bringing back the information. Got me out of the bedroom.”

Davis, however, wasn’t going to let Jesse off that easy.

“No one knows we have a safe house out in this valley,” he said coolly. “Those henchmen were not looking for a secret crevasse or a tunnel or a cave house. They were looking for you—
you
brought them out onto the west flank. We’re just lucky they didn’t stumble onto the tunnel. Because if they find it—people are going to die.”

“I’m sorry.” Jesse didn’t know what else to say, and he judged it imprudent to point out that henchmen had already, apparently, been on the west flank searching for Lacy Matthews and her daughters.

Davis reached for his gun. “I’m going to relieve Tiffany, who’s out there with a radio right now, watching. But we’re not militia. We’re not trained for this. We’re just ordinary folk who want to get safely the hell out of Cold Plains now.”

“We’ll have you all moved out of here within the next few days,” June told Davis. “That hunting posse didn’t find any sign of Jesse. I don’t think they’re going to come back this way in a hurry.”

Davis grunted and left.

“Do you believe that, June?” Jesse said, watching Davis go.

“That they won’t be back for a while?” She sighed deeply. “I hope they won’t. Because Davis is right. We’re not equipped for this.

“This is the kitchen.” June stepped into a beam of sunlight streaming down from skylights above and sun flamed like fire on her hair, stalling Jesse’s thoughts entirely. And in that instant he wondered if he’d ever come across a more enigmatic or beautiful woman. He liked everything about her—her grace of movement, her strength. Her surety of vision. Her courage. He loved the way she looked. And when she turned to face him in the kitchen—dear God—those clear, summer-sky eyes.