Lawman's Perfect Surrender (6 page)

Anna smiled and gave the air in front of her body a sweep with her hands. “I went for a jog. You know I always jog in the evening.”

Ford chuckled, a deep, affectionate sound. “So, you decided to stop in for coffee? After a
jog?
”

“No harm in that.” Her eyes twinkled with delight.

“You never drink coffee at night. Especially when you jog, Anna.”

Anna laughed, the aged sound adorable. The love between them was obvious. She could do no wrong in Ford’s eyes. The woman had to be in her seventies and had the energy of a woman twenty years younger. Athletic and thin and nowhere near frail, she was an inspiration.

“I came here to see her for myself.”

The entire exchange touched Gemma, and also revealed a side to Ford she didn’t think emerged often. The soft light in his eyes, the soft light of love.

“Anna…?” Ford warned in a teasing way.

“Do you think I’d pass up a chance to meet your new girl? I knew you wouldn’t tell me about her and I couldn’t wait.”

“She isn’t my girl.”

“No, but you desperately need one.” She patted his muscular bicep.

His affection disappeared behind a lowered brow and intensifying eyes. Even with the one person he loved like a mother, he still kept his boundaries firmly in place. Whatever haunted him, it was significant.

“Why don’t you bring her by the house this weekend? I’ll make us something special for the Fourth of July. You can grill some ribs. Your favorite. I don’t feel like attending the fireworks this year. It’s changed so much…”

“Anna…” Ford cautioned again. “I told you, I’m working.”

“Oh, all right, then when you’re finished
working,
bring her by the house. When will that be? Is August enough lead time?”

Ford sighed. “Anna…?”

Lighthearted laughter answered him before she turned to Gemma. “Good to meet you, dear.”

Gemma shook her hand, feeling the strength in it. With that, Anna headed for the door. But over her shoulder she called, “When your work is finished, you bring her to see me.”

Ford gave her a salute with two fingers, and muttered to Gemma, “She doesn’t understand that when my work is finished, I won’t be staying with you anymore.”

“No?”

He turned a startled look to her. She was just as startled.

“I heard that,” Lacy said as she approached, sparing Gemma further embarrassment.

She couldn’t believe what she’d said. Of course, she didn’t want Ford to stay after his work was finished…after Jed was taken care of. It was just that Anna seemed so sure.

Hooking her arm with Gemma’s, Lacy was about to take her toward the door when all three of them saw Anna pass outside the café window. She winked.

“She may have a point,” Lacy said.

“What point?” Gemma asked.

“Are you two ready to go?” Ford stopped the banter irritably.

“When I told her you were staying with Gemma her whole face lit up and she went into this long explanation about how she thought fate had finally stepped in to guide you.”

“When did you tell her that?” Gemma asked while Ford’s mood darkened all over is face and body language.

“This morning when she came in for coffee.”

“That sounds like Anna,” Ford said, his mood boomeranging in a way that captivated Gemma.

Lacy grinned her entertainment. “I told her about the day the two of you met. Imagine how intrigued she was.”

Ford’s mood returned to annoyance. “No imagination necessary. Are you two ready to go now?”

Gemma wasn’t. “What did you tell her?”

“Exactly what I saw.” Her now mischievous grin left no doubt as to her meaning.

She and Ford had noticed each other. “Ford has orders to stay with me. There’s nothing more going on than that.”

“Orders,” Lacy cooed. “Now that’s romantic! Anna thinks so, too.”

“You’re going to be late.”

Gemma noticed Ford’s more consistently flat demeanor and Gemma, seeing that, asked, “Are you sure you want to drive us?”

“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t.” He looked right at Lacy.

Lacy breathed a single laugh and, arm still hooked with Gemma’s, headed toward the door.

Ford followed them outside, scanning the street for anything suspicious. He opened the passenger-side door for Gemma. Lacy opened the rear door herself, beaming a knowing smile.

“In all seriousness, Ford,” Lacy said from the backseat, “It’s truly impressive how well Bo Fargo runs that police department. Gemma is a lucky woman to have your protection.”

Only Ford’s eyes moved to the rearview mirror.

“You must be so relieved, Gemma. I don’t know what I’d do if a man came after me like that. It’s so rare when we have that sort of thing in this town. But so comforting to know we have policemen like you, Ford.”

Again, Ford’s eyes shifted to the rearview mirror. The compliment rolled off him as though he didn’t believe her. Didn’t he think Lacy was being sincere? Wasn’t she?

Gemma looked into the backseat. Lacy’s eyes shifted from the rearview mirror. Her smile seemed genuine but her gaze held something else. She turned to the window, leaving Gemma wondering what she was thinking as Ford pulled to a stop in front of the community center.

“I’ll be waiting for you when you get out,” he said.

Jed would be foolish to try and attack her in a crowd.

“Why don’t you come in with us?” Lacy gathered up her purse.

“I don’t attend these seminars.”

“There’s something for everyone. You really should try it,” Lacy said.

“No thanks.” His gaze pinned her in the rearview mirror.

Gemma stepped out of the front seat and waited for Lacy to come around the SUV, watching Ford walk toward the café where he’d questioned her.

“He’s always been the quiet, brooding type,” Lacy said as she joined Gemma. “Sexy, though.”

Gemma headed for the community center entrance. She refused to talk about sexy. There was something that she did need to know, though. “What happened to his parents?”

“His whole family was murdered when he was a teenager.”

Gemma sucked in a breath while Lacy opened one of the community center doors. Murdered? His entire family? No wonder he didn’t want to talk about it.

“You can read about it in the newspaper archives at the library. Everybody knows about it. I’m surprised you don’t by now.”

That was because Ford couldn’t talk about it. He kept the pain locked inside.

“There’s no question about why he became a cop. And it’s no wonder the crime rate in Cold Plains is so low. Ford may not talk about losing his family the way he did, but everybody knows that’s why he’s such a stickler for the law. Everyone likes that about him. Crime doesn’t fit here and he keeps it away.”

Gemma liked that about him, too. And Cold Plains as a whole. How could she not? She may have inadvertently led crime to this quiet, peaceful town, but Ford would fight it for her.

She walked beside Lacy into the bustling community center. People were everywhere. Leaving or entering the building, emerging from a hallway, moving into an auditorium and socializing near the tonic-water counter. Lacy told her the water came from Cold Plains Creek and had some kind of healing power. Fountain-of-youth type of thing. She’d have to remember to buy another case of it. At twenty-five dollars a bottle, Jed would be furious if he ever knew.

“I could see you winding up with someone like him,” Lacy said, waving to a woman holding a bottle of tonic water.

“Ford?” They entered the auditorium where tonight’s seminar was being held.

“He’s a cop and he’s great-looking.”

Yes, a little too much of both. “I don’t want to see anyone for a while. I’m still so messed up. I need to figure myself out first, you know?”

Lacy smiled and they took a seat. “Well, you’re off to a good start by coming here.”

Gemma agreed. “This does make me feel better. I may have made bad choices in the past, but that doesn’t mean I have to keep making them.”

“That’s my girl.” She patted Gemma’s thigh, as if they were old friends. “That’s what Samuel noticed about you. You’re eager to improve. I think that’s why he’s so partial to you.”

“He’s partial to me?” And why did he care if she was eager to improve? “How do you know that?”

“He told me. He admires anyone with that kind of strength and initiative. He wants you to succeed. The more people who succeed in this town, the better it will be.”

While Lacy intended to convey Samuel’s good intentions, there was an odd note to the way she spoke of him. Hero worship. Over the top. Samuel admired Gemma and wanted her to succeed. Why did he care that much? As a quite popular motivational speaker, she supposed he would have personal interest in anyone who was striving to go from being abused and downtrodden to thriving. Part of his work. Overcoming the mental side effects of her abuse was her goal. She hadn’t known Jed would become violent after she married him. Once she’d discovered that dark side, she’d felt stuck with him. Looking back, she realized that was because he’d beaten down her self-esteem so far that he’d controlled her. He’d controlled her with physical violence.

It hadn’t been easy to climb out of that hell and find the courage to leave. That had only been the first step. She hadn’t truly begun to feel capable of taking charge of her own destiny until she’d met Samuel and attended one of his seminars. He’d given her hope. He’d given her a light to follow. Light that had restored her self-esteem.

That went against everything Ford had insinuated about the people in this town, about Samuel. She didn’t get it. Why was he so negative? The seminars empowered her. They redirected her thinking. Whether Ford thought they were useless or not, they were helping her. Healing her.

A few stragglers entered the auditorium and found seats. The seminar would begin soon. But Gemma couldn’t stop thinking about Ford.

“What happened to his family?” she asked. “How were they murdered?”

“Burglars broke into their house. His dad woke up and fought one of them but he was shot. By then the rest of the family was awake. His younger brother was shot and his mother was raped before she was killed. Ford hid through it all. That’s the only reason he’s alive today. Otherwise, he would have been killed along with them.”

“Were the burglars ever caught? How many were there?”

“No. There were two. It’s been speculated that they were passing through town.”

“How old was he when it happened?”

“Fourteen.”

Fourteen.
He was just a boy. A boy who’d hidden while his family had been tortured and slaughtered. He’d survived and they’d all died. It was a horror she couldn’t begin to imagine. He must have issues with guilt. How could he not? Though there had been nothing he could have done to save them, he might blame himself for not trying. It explained his evasiveness, his refusal to talk about his family.

“That poor man.”

“Don’t feel sorry for him. He’s made a life out of avenging them.”

That was no way to make a life.

Sitting back against her seat, Gemma could see how Ford would bottle something like that up, and she could also see how it would lead him to consume himself with law enforcement. But to carry that torch the rest of his life? That heavy burden? A debt he felt he owed? Didn’t he see what he was giving up? What did he want out of life? It was one thing to want a career in law enforcement, and quite another to do it out of obligation, forsaking his other needs.

“Ford’s a good man, Gemma. You couldn’t be in more capable hands.”

She nodded. “I know.”

“And you’re going to be the envy of every single woman in town. A handsome cop staying at your house. Protecting you. How romantic!”

“Needing protection because my ex-husband is trying to kill me isn’t what I’d call romantic.”

“I saw the way you looked at Ford when you met him.”

“Good evening, everyone,” the boisterous voice of Samuel Grayson boomed through the microphone. His tall, fit frame moved fluidly across the stage. Not a strand of dark hair was out of place, and his suit was of the finest materials.

“You have the power.” He pointed to the audience. “Each and every one of you.” He strode to one side of the stage, stopped and strode to the middle again, where he faced forward and turned his head to scan the auditorium.

“You have the power to stop your ego from controlling your thoughts and actions.” He strode to the other side of the stage now. “Your ego is hungry for gratification,” he nearly shouted, walking back to the center. “It will seek out that gratification at any cost. It will throw you in front of a bus. It will lash out at those around you. Give less to receive more.”

Gemma leaned closer to Lacy. “He must be talking about my ex-husband.”

Lacy snickered behind her hand.

“Don’t ask what your ego wants,” Samuel continued. “Ask what
you
want, my fellow citizens.” He looked from one side of the auditorium to the other. “What do
you want?
”

“I want a boyfriend,” Lacy whispered.

I want Ford,
Gemma almost replied.

* * *

Ford spotted Bo, dressed in a black uniform and wearing his badge, standing next to Grayson’s spread of tables underneath a huge white canopy at the center of the park. Similar in height to Grayson but brawny and unapproachable, Bo was bland in contrast to the community leader’s popular appeal. Swarms of admirers flocked near him. This was the place to be if you were anyone in Cold Plains. How many of them had a
D
on their hips?

He guided Gemma underneath the canopy. She wore a crinkly white sundress that scooped low in the front, hinting at bare breasts underneath. Her dainty leather sandals revealed painted toenails and she moved that petite, fit body of hers with smooth and feminine strides, no longer hindered by the injuries she’d sustained from her ex. The healing cuts and bruises on her face were letting her beauty shine through. She looked as hot as the ninety-five-degree day. He was still sweating, and not just from the temperature. It hadn’t helped that she’d kept looking over at him, checking out his uniform all the way here, as though his being a cop turned her on.