Cougar's Mate (17 page)

"Yeah, I guess I really needed the sleep."

"I'll say. Just glad you were able to. Some guests can't take all the sounds of nature out here. The birds singing, owls hooting at night, the old woodpecker pecking at the old tree near the road, and the wind rushing through the leaves."

"Not me. I much prefer this to the sound of traffic. But that’s not what kept me awake last night."

He grinned.

She hated to ask him about getting something to eat. "Did you eat already? I guess it’s about time for lunch. Did you want me to fix us something?” She had to do something. She was afraid he’d already given up waiting on her and had already eaten.

"Ham and eggs sound good to me. What about you? I can make them.”

She smiled. No man had ever fixed her meals before. And Chase always seemed eager to please. “I may never want to leave.”

“You can’t. We’re married, remember?”

She chuckled. "Right.” She set out the plates and silverware.

“I don’t have company out here a whole lot, so it’s my pleasure.”

Before long, she was enjoying her eggs and ham. Despite having eaten well last night, she was hungry and loved Chase’s cooking.

When they were done eating, he sat back in his seat and just from his serious expression, she feared he’d begin questioning her again. Maybe he was afraid he’d taken it too far with her last night, and he had to know the truth.

She swore he waited to speak until she finished her meal first in the event he upset her and she couldn’t eat any longer. It had to be killing him not to know what was going on, and she appreciated his having had so much patience.

He finally said, "Is there anyone we need to contact to let them know you're safe?"

Here came the questions she knew he was dying to ask. She quickly shook her head. But she suspected he’d gotten an update from Dottie—that her twin brother and parents were deceased.

"Okay, I don't want to push you on this because you're perfectly welcome to stay with us in our town, out here with me at the cabins for as long as you like. So no problem with that at all. I don't want you to feel you have to run again. It's just not safe. We're all like family and protective of our kind here. So if you're in any kind of trouble, we'll back you up with everything we’ve got. It would help if we knew what kind of trouble you're in and can prepare for it, if anyone comes snooping around, though."

She took a deep breath and let it out. "If anyone comes looking for me—showing off a picture of me and stating I was wanted for something, or I am a person of interest? It's all a lie. Okay? Whatever they tell you--
none
of it's true. And if I go back, I'm dead. Well, I'd be dead before I ever made it back. More expedient that way."

Chase’s expression darkened considerably as he sat stiffer in his chair and studied her for a moment. "Okay," he said slowly, his eyes hardening a little. "I'm damn serious about watching out for you. I'm not letting anyone who's under my watch come to harm again."

She wondered if he meant more than losing his wife and baby. She strived to smile, but she was certain the look wasn't in the least bit sincere. Chase might try, but she knew Hennessey was a ruthless killer and he had to silence her before it was too late.

Chase smiled a little back, only his smile was genuine. "You don't believe me. That's all right. I aim to prove it to you."

He couldn’t. Not considering what was going on.

A knock sounded on the door and her heart skittered as they both looked that way. "I'll see who it is," Chase said, and hurried to get the door.

Shannon quickly stood. She didn’t know what to do, so she waited until he reached the door, and peered through the peephole. “Ah, Hal’s here. He’s supposed to help me replace the windows on two of the cabins. I nearly forgot about it.”

“I wonder why,” she said.

He smiled and opened the door. “Come on in, Hal. I’ll grab my coat and gloves.”

“Morning,” Hal said to Shannon who quickly greeted him, then went to take care of the dishes.

Chase said to Shannon, “You’ve got my phone, right?”

“Yes, thanks,” she said.

“Okay, we’ll be out there all morning. Weather is supposed to turn really cold for the next couple of days. Talk of snow even. Are you going to be all right?"

"Yeah, sure, go ahead and do what you need to do. I'll be all right here just chilling out. Is there anything special you'd like for lunch?"

He smiled then. "Salmon steaks. And anything else works for me. But remember we’re going to the anniversary party tonight.”"

"Right."

When the men left, she waited until they disappeared beyond the pine trees, then she hurried to turn on the TV and checked the news to see if there were any reports of a missing woman. She felt panicked, afraid Chase would catch her in the act. This was the first time she’d even thought about checking the news on the TV though. That showed how tired she’d been, and then with so many outings, she’d been tired all over again. She’d wished he’d had a smart phone so she could have accessed the Internet that way.

She flipped from one channel on the TV to the next.

Nothing. Hennessey probably didn't want everyone to go after her. Just himself and a couple of his loyal kin that he could count on. Or it had happened so many weeks ago, it wasn’t on the news now.

She found Chase's laptop in his bedroom, and she felt guilty about sneaking a look at it. She was certain he wouldn’t mind if she used it. He would definitely smell her scent on his computer. At least she’d been in his room now so he wouldn’t wonder about that. While she was at it, she stripped the bed and began to wash the linens. Then, she hoped his laptop wasn't password protected so she could get onto it and do some searches.

She had no idea where Yuma Town was in relation to other locations in Colorado. She needed to know that also when she ran again, where she could go that would be safer than the panicked way she had run off the last time. After researching terrain and the routes she could take, she still considered asking Chase to pay for a bus fare for her. But she was afraid Hennessey would locate her too easily that way, even if Dan could get her false ID. If she ran as a cougar, then what? Unless she could kill Hennessey, where could she go as a cougar?

She was dying to look at her Facebook page and her emails. But she didn't dare. What if someone could tell she had accessed them? Maybe they couldn't, if she didn't respond, but she didn't want to chance it.

She felt bad that Chase wanted to get her more clothes as if she planned to live here permanently. What had happened between them last night was something they both seemed to really need, but she just couldn’t stay here forever.

She sighed. Here, the people were sympathetic to her cause. She wasn't likely to find that anywhere else. Certainly not a shifter-run town like this. She turned off his laptop and found some dust cleaner, then began to dust the place.

She needed to wash her sheets and some of her clothes and so it became laundry day. Once she had put the last load in the dryer, she heard the men coming to the door. She headed into the kitchen to begin cooking the meal.

Chase unlocked the door and led the way inside. “I guess I should have said Hal was staying for the meal.”

“I figured as much,” she said cheerfully. “How’d it go?”

“Another couple of hours on it after we eat and then we’ll head on over to the anniversary party.”

That night after the anniversary party, Shannon was feeling antsy about the nighttime arrangements. Last night had been impetuous for them both. She didn’t regret the intimacy, having needed the release as much as he had, but she knew, with her planning to leave as soon as she could, that they shouldn’t do it again. She’d cleaned all the sheets but hadn’t made up her own bed yet, so after grabbing her linens from the dryer, she headed for the guest bedroom. She thought it was better just leaving it unsaid.

She felt Chase’s eyes on her back and she wondered how Chase would react to her returning to the guest room. Would he try to convince her they should sleep together? Or realize this was for the best? She hoped he’d leave well enough alone because she was afraid if he pressured her at all, she’d cave right in.

***

Shannon had been so quiet at the anniversary dinner, smiling appropriately, nodding, saying a few words to maintain propriety, but Chase knew her heart wasn’t in it. He wasn’t certain what was going through her mind, but he suspected from when he’d told her he’d wanted to get her some snow boots and other clothes for her for a longer, more permanent stay, she was immediately putting out the stop sign. Even so, he’d called an order in to Millicent when he’d bought Shannon the hot pink sweater, based on the clothing sizes of the purchases he’d already made. Dottie had dropped them off at the house while Shannon had still been asleep this morning. He had put them in the guest room so as not to disturb her while she was still sleeping in his bed.

He hoped she’d be pleased with the slipper boots, snow boots, another bra, another pair of jeans, a pair of turquoise sweats, five T-shirts, three proclaiming
Yuma Loves Pumas! Pumas Love Yuma! Cougar Power!
—because she needed to feel that she belonged here.

When she’d washed the guest bedroom linens, he worried that she intended to leave for good and as a kindness to her host, she had washed them. But then it appeared she was intending to make the bed and sleep in it again. He waited a minute or two, and then figured he’d help her make the bed, and maybe they could talk.

He didn’t want to pressure her into staying with him in his bed tonight, though he definitely wanted her in it—with him. Not because of the sex, though he wouldn’t discount that. But because he thought the more she got used to being with him, the closer she got to him, the less likely she’d leave.

“I’ll help you,” he said, before she could object, and he moved to the opposite side of the bed and began to help her make the guest bed.

“Thanks,” she said. “Last night was… special. But it’s better if I sleep here from now on.”

“Did… was I too pushy?” He hated the insecurity in his words but he feared he’d pushed her before she was ready for anything this intimate. Even though she’d acted as though she had wanted him as much as he had felt the same raging need to make love to her.

She shook her head, but she avoided looking at him, and he feared she was tearful again.

He dropped the corner of the sheet he was supposed to tuck underneath the mattress and came to her side, but she quickly held her hand up to keep him from comforting her. “It’s… it’s nothing. I just need to do this.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Are you certain?” His eyes were on hers, watching her emotions, seeing the turmoil. It was killing him not to be able to push through her barrier.

She nodded, her eyes filled with tears.

He let out his breath and returned to the other side of the bed, helped finish making it, then said, “If you need anything, you know where I am. Good night, Shannon.”

As much as it killed him to do so, he had to give her the space she needed. Let her come to terms with this on her own. He wasn’t letting her go.

He walked out of the bedroom and shut the door, his heart feeling like it had been filled with stones, then ripped out, and thrown into Lake Buchanan where it sank to the bottom.

He hoped she’d change her mind and join him, or maybe even call him and ask him to return to her room, but he knew it wouldn’t happen.

He retired to his bed, undressed, and climbed into the clean sheets, disappointed he couldn’t breathe in her delightful scent. Was that why she had washed the sheets? To clean away everything that had happened between them last night?

He sighed, wanting to kiss her more, to hold her tight, wished to make love to her again. He shook his head at himself, not believing after vowing he'd never marry again, never find anyone again, he was already thinking along those lines. He would do anything to protect Shannon, he told himself. And she wasn’t having any part of it.

Hell, he was really, really interested in her. In more than a protective sort of way. He reached over and grabbed his laptop off his bedside table, opened it up to answer emails and something, maybe his police training, made him check his browser history. He’d smelled her scent on his laptop, but she’d dusted the furniture with a lemon cleaner and moved the laptop to do so. Still, his police instinct and cat wariness kicked in.

In the browser history, he discovered she’d accessed maps, terrain features of Colorado, bus locations, and schedules. He ground his teeth. He’d thought Shannon was feeling safe with him. She was like a deer ready to bolt. He just couldn’t let her.

His cell phone rang. Grabbing it off his bedside table, he saw it was Dan. "Yeah, Dan?" He knew his buddy would have news or he wouldn't be calling at this late hour.

"Okay, I have bad news. Are you alone?"

Chase's heartbeat quickened as he set his laptop down on the bedside table. "Yeah, what's going on?"

"I finally got a police bulletin that shows a picture of Shannon that isn’t really the best of shots. But between that, her approximate age, and that she has no living relatives, and that her first name is Shannon, I’m betting this is her. In Canyon, Texas, Shannon Rafferty is wanted as a person of interest in an ongoing investigation concerning the murder of her boyfriend, Ted Kelly."

Chase felt numb. She’d said that. That if she was called a person of interest in some investigation to know it was all a lie. "Tell me all about it."

"When her boyfriend didn’t show up at work—and get this, he was a cop—“

Chase couldn’t believe it.

“—his family grew concerned. They tried calling both him and Shannon, and there was no response on either of their phones. They discovered a bloody scene where her boyfriend, Ted, was stabbed numerous times in the kitchen of his home and left for dead. They determined he had died approximately forty-eight hours earlier. She and her car were reported missing shortly after that. Her car was found a few days later, purse, ID, credit card, cash, keys, her clothes, and a couple of bags. Everything appeared to have been left intact. They don’t have much crime out there or the car would have been stolen along with everything that she had left behind. Instead, the old farmer who reported it was afraid she’d met with foul play and didn’t want to leave his fingerprints on anything so he didn’t touch anything. The fingerprints that were lifted belonged to Ted Kelly and someone else who wasn’t in the database. Had to have been Shannon’s since the car’s registered in her name.”