Conard County Marine (9 page)

She bit her lip. “The whole night frightens me. And look what happened when we took that walk. I was scared the whole time with the feeling that somebody was watching. Of course someone was watching. Probably a dozen people looked out their windows or around the corners of their houses as they walked their dogs. It was ridiculous. But you were so nice about it.”

“Because I don’t think it’s ridiculous,” he said firmly. He wasn’t about to tell her that he’d felt they had been stalked. It would only scare her more, and for all he knew it was just some ambling idiot who was curious. Being watched was not necessarily a threat. “I told you, we feel it when someone watches us. Instinct.”

“But it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

“No,” he agreed, hoping he wasn’t misleading her. “In most situations it doesn’t mean anything at all.”

Then, surprising both of them, she rose and came to sit right beside him on the couch. Almost as if it were an instinct, he draped his arm around her shoulders.

“You’ll get past this, Kylie. I swear. It’ll take time, but you’ll find your normal life again.” Another lie? He hoped not. God knew, he had to fight these same battles every single time he emerged from a combat zone. Maybe they never really quit, just got more controllable.

She felt so good as she leaned into his side, making it entirely too possible to forget she was wounded in some important ways. His whole body leaped in response to her curves, her closeness, her scents.

“Am I bothering you?” she asked.

“You’re making me crazy.”

“Crazy?” Her head snapped up and she looked directly at him. “Should I be sorry?”

“No. I can deal with it. You’re one hell of an attractive woman, Kylie, but I won’t take advantage of you.”

He was pleased to see a small smile begin to tickle the edges of her mouth. “What if I said I wanted you, too?”

“Tell me that again in a few days. Right now...”

Her smile faded. “You don’t trust me.”

“No, I don’t want to hurt you. How can either of us be sure you’re ready for a fling?”

Because a fling was all it would be. He could extend his leave, but he’d have to depart eventually. Leaving her behind. He didn’t want to leave more wreckage.

“A fling, huh?” She rested her hand on his chest. “You have no idea how good that sounds to me right now.”

“Why?”

She closed her eyes. “You. Escape. I don’t know.”

“This is never a good way to escape. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for long. But a little later...I’m definitely open to the possibility. I want you. I just want it to be good for both of us.”

“You’re saying I’m fragile.”

“Aren’t you?” He caught her hazel eyes and saw sad acknowledgment there. Yeah, she knew it, too. She was fragile and too open to being hurt again. God, he wished he could fix this.

She rested her head on his shoulder. “This okay?”

“Fine.” It was more than fine. He liked it a whole lot.

“Tell me more about yourself.”

“Sanitized version only.”

“Fair enough.”

“I’ve been a marine since I was eighteen. And by the way, we resent being called soldiers. The army are the soldiers. We’re marines.”

“Got it.” He heard the faintest hint of humor in her response.

“Anyway, I’ve been in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I wouldn’t want to send any postcards home. Let’s just say it was a bad experience for everyone, no matter what side they were on. Yes, I have nightmares—sometimes when I’m awake. But I had some good times, too, like a year in Okinawa, and a vacation in Japan. And believe it or not, I developed an unquenchable love for Korean food in Okinawa. There was a restaurant near the base that I went to as often as I could afford it.”

“That sounds yummy.”

“Oh, it was. The family that owned it were really nice to me and introduced me gradually to their delicacies. When I got home from that assignment, I was disappointed that I couldn’t get rice with every meal.”

“And then?”

“Some time at Marine Corps Barracks Eighth and I. Then the Middle East. Mostly when I came home from there I came back stateside. And I’m young to be a gunnery sergeant.”

“Gunny,” she said slowly. “Glenda called you that.”

“Anyway, that’s the condensed version. There’s a whole lot I’ll never talk about, and even more that I’d prefer not to remember. But it wasn’t all bad. I was thinking earlier about the kids I played soccer with in Afghanistan. Give kids a ball and they have a ball, if you don’t mind the pun. I loved those times.”

She stirred and he could hear the smile in her voice. “I can picture it. You’re one big guy.”

“Mostly I played a whole team unless one or two of my buddies joined in. Then they often played against me, which gave the kids no end of delight.”

There was a knock at the door and Coop immediately pulled away. “I’ll get it. Seems kind of late for an unannounced drop-in.”

She stayed on the couch, but a glance at her told him she’d tightened up completely. Her face had that pinched look again. Damn the SOB who’d done this to her.

He opened the door and found a five-year-old boy standing there holding out an envelope. The kid was cute with tousled brown hair and eyes too big for his round face. “What’s this?”

“It’s for a lady who lives here. A guy asked me to bring it tonight.”

Coop stared at the envelope, and all his instincts zoomed into hyperdrive. “Can you wait here for a few minutes? I’ll leave the door open.”

The little boy said, “Sure. I live just down the street.”

Coop pulled out his cell phone and called Connie. “Cuz, get over here right now. We’ve got an interesting, very young messenger at the door.”

Chapter 6

C
onnie arrived fast in her official vehicle, but without lights or siren. Kylie waited in the living room doorway, wondering what was going on and why Coop had called her. He wouldn’t say anything except that he wanted Connie to talk with the child.

Kylie didn’t know the boy, but that was hardly surprising. Given her amnesia, she wouldn’t have any memory of him much past the age of two. But he looked vaguely familiar, and she wondered why Coop didn’t ask him his name. In fact, all he said to the boy was, “My cousin will be here soon. You know Deputy Parish?”

“Which one?” the boy asked.

Coop chuckled quietly. “The lady.”

“Yeah, she’s cool. She came to talk to us at school a few weeks ago.”

“Well, she’s my cousin and I’m sure she’ll be interested in the envelope. Okay by you?”

The little boy grinned. “Sure.”

So the kid was okay with whatever was going on. Kylie was not. Her level of anxiety was pushing to new heights. She tried to tell herself not to overreact, but the simple fact was, these days she was afraid of almost everything, even little boys at her door holding an envelope. Who could possibly have sent him and why?

It had to be some innocent thing, a note from a neighbor perhaps. She hadn’t heard the beginning of Coop’s conversation with the boy, however, which left her wondering why he’d felt it necessary to call Connie.

But then Connie arrived, in full uniform, and the smile on her face was friendly as she approached. “Hey, Mikey, what are you doing out so late?” When she climbed up the porch, she squatted in front of the boy.

“A man asked me to bring this envelope to the lady who lives here,” Mikey answered.

“A man you know?”

Mikey shook his head. “He was kind of funny looking, though.”

“Funny how?”

“Too much hair.” Mikey wrinkled his nose. “His sunglasses were big enough for a clown.”

Kylie couldn’t mistake the way Connie tensed. Her tension snapped to Coop like lightning, and then hit Kylie with a fresh wave of her own.

“I see,” Connie said. “And what did we say about talking with strangers?”

“I didn’t talk to him,” Mikey said defensively. “He just handed the envelope out the car window and said he hoped I’d take it to the lady at this house tonight.”

“He was definite about the time?”

Mikey furrowed his brow. “He gave me a dollar and said I could keep it if I came right after dark.”

“Okay. And which lady is it supposed to go to?”

“The one who just came here.”

Kylie’s heart jammed her throat. She tried to drag in air, and was glad that she was able to reach the chair and sit.
Don’t overreact
, she told herself again and again, but the advice didn’t take root.

For a little while, she seemed to drift far away to where the activities around her receded into the distance. Mikey’s parents came. Mikey got a talking-to about strangers again, then a couple more cops arrived.

And the contents of the envelope remained unknown.

Finally she was drawn back into the moment by a pair of khaki-clad legs standing right in front of her. “Kylie?” Connie said.

Slowly Kylie raised her head. “An envelope for me.”

Connie nodded. “And a stranger approached another child in this town.”

Kylie felt nearly punched. How could she have overlooked that in the midst of her own self-preoccupation? Connie must be worried beyond belief. “You must be half out of your mind.”

Connie shook her head. “Not yet. I may get there. Anyway, we’re taking this envelope as evidence. We haven’t opened it yet. Maybe we’ll get some prints on whatever’s inside, okay?”

“Take it. But...you’ll tell me what it says?”

Connie flashed a humorless smile. “It’s probably some sappy love poem. Who knows? It could even be empty.”

Kylie’s heart jerked again. The idea of an empty envelope seemed somehow more threatening than a note. “But the little boy is okay?”

“He’s fine. The only fear he experienced came from his mom and dad. Which is a shame. Sickens me to raise our children with fear. But sometimes...”

Connie started to turn away, then paused. “I need to get to the office. You’ll be okay here with Coop?”

“Absolutely.”

“All right. Count on a visit from me tomorrow. Meanwhile, we’ve got a stranger to nail.”

A stranger. The words rolled around in Kylie’s head like lead balls. A stranger who had the town on alert for its children, and had now evidently sent something to her by way of one of those children.

None of it made any sense at all. If someone wanted to reach her, why come through a child? And if some creep was after a kid around here, why send something to her?

Coop brought her a mug of hot chocolate and sat on the couch. He patted the space beside him invitingly, but she wasn’t ready to take it. “What do you think about all of this?” she asked him.

“It’s weird. Maybe Connie will figure out something.”

“But you called her as soon as you saw the child?”

“As soon as Mikey said a man wanted him to give you something. That’s a bit different.”

Indeed it was. And it told her that the fears she’d been experiencing weren’t merely nutty. “You think...you think that guy could still be after me?”

Coop frowned. “I don’t know. How can I know? I’m just not willing to take chances, that’s all.”

She closed her eyes, trying to deal with it. For weeks she’d been told and had been telling herself that she no longer had anything to fear. The fright had remained, but everyone had treated it like a leftover scar from the attack.

Now someone was saying it was possible she had something very real to fear. That she might be unfinished business.

She felt as if she might shatter into a thousand pieces.

*

Coop had been doing pretty well since his arrival back in the States. Few nightmares, few moments where time collapsed and put him back on the battlefield. All that changed when a little boy showed up bearing an envelope for Kylie.

He’d seen kids that age used for nefarious purposes before, and it always blackened his heart when innocence was corrupted or abused. This kid Mikey now had a new reason to fear strangers, and while Connie had been gentle, his parents had not. Just as bad, the child had been used to strike fear into Kylie’s heart. Of that Coop had not the least doubt, even if he couldn’t prove it yet.

Fury bubbled in him, just one instant away from turning into a cataclysmic eruption. Mikey’s visit had clearly gotten to Kylie. She was sitting over there in the chair practically trying to disappear inside herself, and she wouldn’t come sit beside him where he could at least remind her she wasn’t alone.

Oh, yeah, he wanted to erupt. But he had no target, the most maddening thing of all, and he had to find some way to make this easier on Kylie. He couldn’t promise safety that she wouldn’t believe now, nor could he even be sure she needed protecting. Or that he could provide it.

But, God, he needed to do
something
.

The urge to action was familiar to him. So was waiting. And with effort he tried to push himself into a premission mindset, when time moved like sludge and nerves stretched like wires about to snap, awaiting the right moment.

There was no right moment now. Just an awareness that something very wrong in this town was threatening Kylie or children or both. How the two could be linked, he didn’t know, but he was sure the police’s focus would be on the fact that yet another child had been approached by a stranger.

A disguised stranger. Too much hair was possibly real, but sunglasses big enough for a clown? Little Mikey’s description had painted deception all over the stranger.

But there was no way to know what the guy was after. He was sure doing a good job of creating emotional chaos, though. A great job. How much of it was distraction? And if any of it was distraction, which part? The kids or the message to Kylie?

Long practice made it easier for him to reach the nerve-tightening patience of awaiting the moment. Sure, he’d have liked to pound something, but he’d long since learned that that was wasted effort. He needed a clear head, and he needed to ratchet his tension down enough that it wouldn’t interfere.

He kept watching Kylie, though, thinking how beautiful she was even in her distressed state. She wasn’t ready to believe that the note was harmless, and neither was he, frankly. But why the hell involve the kid, except as a cover?

The thing with a stranger talking to a child had begun just before Kylie came home, so how could it be linked to her in any way? But he had a gut certainty that it was.

She spoke then, telling him her thoughts had run in the same direction. “I don’t want a child to be hurt because of me.”

Ah, hell. He felt his heart rip and could have groaned with the ache he felt for her. Hadn’t this woman been through more than enough? “You shouldn’t worry about that. There’s no reason to believe that. It started before you came home, Kylie.”

“It was no secret I was coming home. Glenda spent two weeks packing me out of my old apartment. Why involve the kids? Why?”

“Diversion.” It was the only answer to the question she asked. “But we don’t know that. We don’t know anything yet. This guy could be some creep who gets his jollies from getting everyone upset, that’s all. He may not hurt anyone at all—may not want to. He’s just enjoying the show.”

“Then he’s as sick as the guy who attacked me.”

He couldn’t argue with that. Finally he rose and without asking permission scooped her up out of her chair and planted her sideways on his lap on the couch, holding her close. She didn’t struggle, but she didn’t relax, either.

He stroked her silky hair with one hand while he kept the other arm wound tightly around her. “Just remember, you’re not alone. I won’t leave you alone for a minute, okay?”

“You can’t promise me that. You came to see Connie and her kids. You have every right to do that and I’d hate myself if I prevented it.”

“And while I go visit them, Glenda will be with you. Okay? For heaven’s sake, don’t be worrying about how I spend my time. I’m pretty sure Connie would be on my side, anyway. You’ve been friends for a long time. You think she isn’t as worried about you as she is about anyone else?”

A small sound escaped her. “She’s got enough to worry about.”

“And you’re as important as everyone else. Why wouldn’t you think so? A lot of people actually care about you, Kylie. A lot.”

“I should have just stayed in Denver,” she said tautly. “I feel like I brought the horror here with me.”

“You can’t possibly hold yourself responsible for that. What were you supposed to do, Kylie? You’d suffered severe injuries and amnesia. Glenda said you can’t even work yet. So what would have happened? You’d have wound up on the street. Sure, that’s the answer.”

After a minute, he felt her begin to relax into his embrace, and then a small laugh escaped her. “You’re right. Are you always so logical?”

“Not always,” he admitted. “Right now I’d like to wring someone’s neck, but the problem is I don’t know whose. So here we are, blind and blindsided by some jerk who may just be getting his laughs for all we know.”

She sighed and snuggled a little closer. His body leaped in immediate response and he hoped like hell she didn’t feel it. He didn’t want to be a source for more worries.

“If he wants me, I just wish he’d leave the children out of it. But another thing worries me.”

“Yes?”

“I could be the diversion. If everyone thinks he really wants me and lets their guard down about the children...”

He hadn’t thought of that, and was astonished by his own oversight. He was usually quicker than that. But one thing he knew with certainty. “Folks aren’t going to let their guard down about the kids. Trust me. They’re everyone’s primary concern.”

“I hope so.”

“You know Connie better than I do. What do you think?”

She graced him with another small laugh. “She’d never let that happen.”

“Exactly. And from what she’s told me, the whole dang sheriff’s department isn’t going to get lax, either. At most they’ll spare a little time for keeping an eye out in your direction. But no one is going to stop worrying about the children until they catch the guy.”

“You’re right.”

“So we’ll skip the part about you feeling guilty for coming home?”

She twisted until her head lay in the crook of his arm and she could look up at him. “Hey, Gunny?”

“Yo?”

“I bet your men feel secure with you.”

Surprise washed through him. “Why would you say that?”

“Because you’re clearheaded and focused on what matters. Me, lately I’ve been scattered all over the place, thoughts flying like crazy birds in every direction. When I talk to you, you ground me again. I bet they appreciate that as much as I do.”

Instead of accepting the compliment, he found himself looking at his hands and thinking of all the horrible things they’d done. She wouldn’t even want them holding her if she knew. Yeah, it was war. But war carried a price that got burned into the soul, the same as terror had been branded on her. But that was something he wasn’t prepared to share with an innocent.

“Just don’t put me on a pedestal,” he said finally. “I’m an ordinary guy with plenty of flaws.”

“I’m sure you are. Well, I’m not sure about the ordinary part, anyway...”

He laughed. “Cut it out.”

She smiled, still cradled in his arms, and he saw that the shadows had withdrawn a little. Not completely, but she was pushing them into the background. Remarkable resilience, he thought. After all she’d been through, he wouldn’t blame her for having the screaming meemies tonight. A kid shows up at the door with an envelope for her from a stranger? He wouldn’t have blamed anyone for freaking out.

“Why did you call Connie?” she asked again.

“Because it all felt wrong. A kid at the door with an envelope for you from a stranger? It was hardly a leap of brilliance not to take the envelope and close the door.”

“I guess not.” She chewed her lower lip and her fingers worried a button on the front of his flannel shirt. Oh, man, the places that made his thoughts run. He yanked them back into line like an out-of-step squad. Not that it helped much with this woman’s soft curves filling his arms and lap, and her scents filling his senses.