Will of Steel (12 page)

“I'm sorry.”

“Yes, so am I. There are bad men in the world. But there are good ones, too,” Sassy reminded her. “I'm married to one of them, and you're about to marry another one.”

“If Davy doesn't find some horrible new way to stop it,” Jillian said with real concern in her voice.

“He won't,” Sassy said firmly. “There are too many people in uniforms running around here for him to take that sort of a chance.”

She bit her lower lip. “Ted was going to see about Sammy. I don't know if Harris might try to hurt her, to get back at me.”

“He won't have the chance,” Sassy said. “John and two of our hands took a cattle trailer over to your house a few minutes before I left to pick you up at the hospital. They're bringing her over here, and she'll stay in our barn. We have a man full-time who does nothing but look after our prize bulls who live in it.”

“You've done so much for me,” Jillian said, fighting tears.

“You'd do it for me,” was the other woman's warm reply. “Now stop worrying. You have two days to get well enough to walk down the aisle.”

“Maybe we should postpone it,” she began.

“Not a chance,” Sassy replied. “We'll have you back on your feet by then if we have to fly in specialists!” And she meant it.

J
illian carried a small bouquet of white and pale pink roses as she walked down the aisle of the small country church toward Ted, who was waiting at the altar. Her arm was sore and throbbing a little, and she was still worried about whether or not Davy Harris might try to shoot one of them through the window. But none of her concerns showed in her radiant expression as she took her place beside Ted.

The minister read the marriage ceremony. Jillian repeated the words. Ted repeated them. He slid a plain gold band onto her finger. She slid one onto his. They looked at each other with wonder and finally shared a kiss so tender that she knew she'd remember it all her life.

They held hands walking back down the aisle, laughing, as they were showered with rose petals by two little
girls who were the daughters of one of Ted's police officers.

“Okay, now, stand right here while we get the photos,” Sassy said, stage-managing them in the reception hall where food and punch were spread out on pristine white linen tablecloths with crystal and china to contain the feast. She'd hired a professional photographer to record the event, over Jillian's protests, as part of the Callisters' wedding gift to them.

Jillian felt regal in her beautiful gown. The night before, she'd gone out to the barn with Ted to make sure little Sammy was settled in a stall. It was silly to be worried about an animal, but she'd been a big part of Jillian's life since she was first born, to a cow that was killed by a freak lightning strike the next day. Jillian had taken the tiny calf to the house and kept her on old blankets on the back porch and fed her around the clock to keep her alive.

That closeness had amused Ted, especially since the calf followed Jillian everywhere she went and even, on occasion, tried to go in the house with her. He supposed he was lucky that they didn't make calf diapers, he'd teased, or Jillian would give the animal a bedroom.

“Did anybody check to see if I left my jacket down that trail where I took Sammy for her walks?” Jillian asked suddenly. “The buckskin one, with the embroidery. It hasn't rained, but if it does, it will be soaked. I forgot all about it when I came to stay with Sassy.”

“I'll look for it later,” Ted told her, nuzzling her nose with his. “When we go home.”

“Home.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “I forgot. We'll live together now.”

“Yes, we will.” He touched her face. “Maybe not as
closely as I'd like for a few more days,” he teased deeply and chuckled when she flushed. “That arm is going to take some healing.”

“I never realized that a flesh wound could cause so much trouble,” she told him.

“At least it was just a flesh wound,” he said grimly. “Damned if I can figure out why we can't find that pole cat,” he muttered, borrowing Rourke's favorite term. “We've had men scouring the countryside for him.”

“Maybe he got scared and left town,” she said hopefully.

“We found his truck deserted, about halfway between the Callisters' ranch and ours,” he said. “Dogs lost his trail when it went off the road.” He frowned. “One of our trackers said that his footprints changed from one side of the truck to the other, as if he was carrying something.”

“Maybe a suitcase?” she wondered.

He shook his head. “We checked the bus station and we had the sheriff's department send cars all over the back roads. He just vanished into thin air.”

“I'm not sorry,” she said heavily. “But I'd like to know that he wasn't coming back.”

“So would I.” He bent and kissed her. “We'll manage,” he added. “Whatever happens, we'll manage.”

She smiled up at him warmly. “Yes. We will.”

 

They settled down into married life. Ted had honestly hoped to wait a day or so until her arm was a little less sore.

But that night while they were watching a movie on television, he kissed her and she kissed him back. Then they got into a more comfortable position on the
sofa. Very soon, pieces of clothing came off and were discarded on the floor. And then, skin against skin, they learned each other in ways they never had before.

Just for a minute, it was uncomfortable. He felt her stiffen and his mouth brushed tenderly over her closed eyelids. “Easy,” he whispered. “Try to relax. Move with me. Move with me, sweetheart…yes!”

And then it was all heat and urgency and explosions of sensation like nothing she'd ever felt in her life. She dug her nails into his hips and moaned harshly as the hard, fierce thrust of his body lifted her to elevations of pleasure that built on each other until she was afraid that she might die trying to survive them.

“Yes,” he groaned, and he bruised her thighs with his fingers as he strained to get even closer to her when the pleasure burst and shuddered into ecstacy.

She cried out. Her whole body felt on fire. She moved with him, her own hips arching up in one last surge of strength before the world dissolved into sweet madness.

She was throbbing all over, like her sore arm that she hadn't even noticed until now. She shivered under the weight of Ted's body.

“I was going to wait,” he managed in a husky whisper.

“What in the world for?” she laughed. “It's just a sore arm.” Her eyes met his with shy delight.

He lifted an eyebrow rakishly. “Is anything else sore?” he asked.

She grinned. “No.”

He pursed his lips. “Well, in that case,” he whispered, and began to move.

She clutched at him and gasped with pure delight.

He only laughed.

 

Much later, they curled up together in bed, exhausted and happy. They slept until late the next morning, missing church and a telephone call from the sheriff, Larry Kane.

“Better call me as soon as you get this,” Larry said grimly on the message. “It's urgent.”

Ted exchanged a concerned glance with Jillian as he picked up his cell phone and returned the call.

“Graves,” he said into the phone. “What's up?”

There was a pause while he listened. He scowled. “What?” he exclaimed.

“What is it?” Jillian was mouthing at him.

He held up a hand and sighed heavily. “How long ago?”

He nodded. “Well, it's a pity, in a way. But it's ironic, you have to admit. Yes. Yes. I'll tell her. Thanks, Larry.”

He snapped the phone shut. “They found Davy Harris this morning.”

“Where is he?” she asked, gnawing her lip.

“They've taken him to the state crime lab.”

She blinked. “I thought they only took dead people… Oh, dear. He's dead?”

He nodded. “They found him with his leg caught in a bear trap. He'd apparently been trying to set it on the ranch, down that trail where you always walk with Sammy, through the trees where it's hard to see the ground.”

“Good Lord!” she exclaimed, and the possibilities created nightmares in her mind.

“He'd locked the trap into place with a log chain, around a tree, and padlocked it in place. Sheriff thinks he lost the key somewhere. He couldn't get the chain loose or free himself from the trap. He bled to death.”

She felt sick all over. She pressed into Ted's arms and held on tight. “What a horrible way to go.”

“Yes, well, just remember that it was how he planned for Sammy to go,” he said, without mentioning that Harris may well have planned to catch Jillian in it.

“His sister will sue us all for wrongful death and say we killed him,” Jillian said miserably, remembering the woman's fury when her brother was first arrested.

“His sister died two years ago,” he replied. “Of a drug overdose. A truly troubled family.”

“When did you find that out?” she wondered.

“Yesterday,” he said. “I didn't want to spend our wed ding day talking about Harris, but I did wonder if he might run to his sister for protection. So I had an investigator try to find her.”

“A sad end,” she said.

“Yes. But fortunately, not yours,” he replied. He held her close, glad that it was over, finally.

She sighed. “Not mine,” she agreed.

 

Rourke left three days later to go back to Africa. He'd meant to leave sooner, but Sassy and John wanted to show him around Montana first, despite the thick snow that was falling in abundance now.

“I've taken movies of the snow to show back home,” he mentioned as he said his farewells to Jillian and Ted while a ranch hand waited in the truck to drive him to the airport in Billings. “We don't get a lot of snow in Kenya,” he added, tongue in cheek.

“Thanks for helping keep me alive,” Jillian told him.

“My pleasure,” he replied, and smiled.

Ted shook hands with him. “If you want to learn how to fish for trout, come back in the spring when the snows melt and we'll spend the day on the river.”

“I might take you up on that,” Rourke said.

They watched him drive away.

Jillian slid her arm around Ted's waist. “You coming home for lunch?” she asked as they walked to his patrol car.

“Thought I might.” He gave her a wicked grin. “You going to fix food or are we going to spend my lunch hour in the usual way?”

She pursed her lips. “Oh, I could make sandwiches.”

“You could pack them in a plastic bag,” he added, “and I could take them back to work with me.”

She flushed and laughed. “Of course. We wouldn't want to waste your lunch hour by eating.”

He bent and kissed her with barely restrained hunger. “Absolutely not! See you about noon.”

She kissed him back. “I'll be here.”

He drove off, throwing up a hand as he went down the driveway. She watched him go and thought how far she'd come from the scared teenager that Davy Harris had intimidated so many years before. She had a good marriage and her life was happier than ever before. She still had her morning job at the local restaurant. She liked the little bit of independence it gave her, and they could use the extra money. Ted wasn't likely to get rich working as a police chief.

On the other hand, their lack of material wealth only
brought them closer together and made their shared lives better.

She sighed as she turned back toward the house, her eyes full of dreams. Snow was just beginning to fall again, like a burst of glorious white feathers around her head. Winter was beautiful. Like her life.