Lindsay McKenna (22 page)

“Because you’re strong. Stronger than any man I know.”

“And what? Men are always stronger than women in your world?”

Talon saw the feistiness in her eyes. “I’m rethinking it,” he admitted.

“I like a man who is humble. That’s a good sign.”

He frowned. “Of late, I have been. Not before...”
Not before being tortured.
It had taken chunks out of his soul that were missing to this day. But, somehow, Cat was bringing those stolen pieces back to him. She accepted him for who he was right now, no questions asked.

“I’ve seen men cry before, Talon,” she told him, sliding her fingers across the hard line of his jaw. “Trauma makes all of us cry sooner or later. There’s no shame in it. Not ever.” Cat narrowed her eyes on Talon. “Do you believe that?”

“I do now,” he told her.

“And don’t you feel better because you did cry?”

Nodding, he grimaced and muttered, “Yeah, oddly, I do.”

Cat grinned. “You men are all alike. You think crying makes you look weak or something. When in reality, it shows you’re strong. I don’t get it. A man has a heart that feels just like a woman’s heart does. God created tear ducts in both genders.” She gave him an amused look.

Talon grazed her soft lower lip. “I did trust you, babe. I knew you’d hold me. My gut told me you had whatever it took to let me get it out of my system.” He searched her eyes, saw tears come to them. Tipping her chin up, Talon kissed away the tears. He felt humbled as never before because Cat was entrusting her being with him. Utterly. Totally. Without any demands or borders. As she opened her eyes and smiled up at him, Talon took her mouth gently, breathing his life, his breath, into her. Claiming her forever.

* * *

C
AT
SAT
AT
the table much later as they ate a late evening meal. It was almost eight o’clock. She finished every bit of food on her plate. The quiet shared between them wasn’t stilted or forced. So much had happened earlier in her bedroom with Talon that the aftereffect was a peace she’d never thought existed. But it did. With Talon.

She got up and brought over the coffee, filling their mugs after the meal. Talon looked thoughtful as he thanked her. The beard darkened his face and Cat smiled to herself as she sat down at his elbow. He no longer looked threatening. When she’d first discovered him on that icy, snow-covered road, he’d appeared more animal than human. This afternoon she’d discovered the human within him. And she loved him even more for being courageous enough to be vulnerable with her.

“What are you going to do if Gus is able to buy the Triple H?” Cat asked. She saw his eyebrows fall, and Talon stared down at the cup in his hands for a moment.

“Be happy. At least our home will be with someone who will care for it.”

“Gus is doing it to help your mom. That’s pretty humbling to me.”

Talon nodded. “I’ve been thinking my way through it all. Gus is an astute businesswoman, but she’s also fiercely loyal to the people around her. And I know my mother has been a friend to her ever since Gus came back to the Bar H when Val was sixteen. A lot of years of friendship shared between them.”

“It’s love,” Cat said quietly, avoiding his eyes. She opened her hands around the cup. “I was always trying to figure out what love was, Talon. I finally got that my father did not love me. And I don’t honestly remember my mother. I was so young when she died. I watched kids at school. I watched the wranglers at the ranch where my father was employed. I tried to piece together what love was.”

“You never got a chance to experience it,” Talon said gently, looking at the puzzlement in her expression.

Cat nodded, sadness moving through her. “When I met Sandy, after moving here seven years ago, I remember we had a long discussion about love one day. She’d just gone through a round of chemo and I’d driven her home afterward. She was feeling so miserable, but she wanted to talk about love with me. She told me about her first husband, Gardner, how he loved her so much that she couldn’t give it words. And then Sandy birthed you. She told me about the special, maternal love she felt for you. And when Gardner died of a heart attack and she met Brad, how it was another kind of love.” Cat hitched her shoulder. “I think love is a pretty rubber-band kind of experience. It’s different for different people. Gus loves Sandy. Sometimes, I think she sees your mother as one of her grown children.” Cat smiled softly. “Gus has a lot of children who aren’t her blood kin, but she considers them her extended family. That’s another kind of love, I suppose....”

Talon reached over and captured her hand. “It’s something I wrestle with, too, Cat. When I joined the Navy and got into the SEALs, I was surrounded by women when we had downtime at Coronado. These women threw the word
love
around all the time. But when they used it, I didn’t feel it. I didn’t sense it.”

Her fingers curved into his. “Well, in defense of those women, I can remember telling the first guy that showed any interest in me that I loved him.” She snorted. “I didn’t have a
clue
of what I was saying. I wasn’t lying to him, I just didn’t know the difference between my feelings.”
Until now.
Cat knew what real love was, finally. And she loved Talon but wasn’t going to admit it. They needed time together first. And it was way too soon to say anything.

“That’s different,” Talon said. “These women kept score on how many SEALs they took to bed. That was a lot different than your experience.”

Cat’s brows rose. “Are you serious? Women kept count?”

He saw her blush. Cat’s innocence was showing again, but he didn’t laugh. “It’s a culture,” he said. “SEALs are seen as the ultimate male to bed. It’s a bragging right between them, I guess.”

“Wow,” she murmured, thinking about it. “Is that where you found out it wasn’t love? It was...well...I guess, counting coup?”

He grinned a little. “Counting coup? That’s one way of seeing it. But yeah, these women liked hanging out around SEALs and felt good if they could bed one or two of them.”

“Sort of a game?” she wondered, frowning. She’d just gone to bed with Talon, and it was serious business. It wasn’t about bragging she’d bedded an ex-SEAL. The thought rather horrified Cat.

“To be fair, it was a game both sides played,” Talon admitted.

“But,” she said, trying to grasp the whole idea, “if...if you go to bed with someone, shouldn’t it be serious? I mean, something special between you and the other person?” And then she grimaced. “Not that I’m throwing stones. I thought the men in my life liked me...maybe loved me, but I was wrong.”

“I think a lot of women confuse sex with love,” Talon said. “Men see it differently. Sex is sex. The act doesn’t need to have any emotional tie to it.” And then he gave her a tender look. “With you, when I love you, my feelings are involved, Cat. It’s me wanting to please you, make you happy. I like to see your smile afterward.”

Nodding, she absorbed his husky words. “Thanks, I needed to hear that. Because I feel the same toward you, Talon. Just being with you lifts me. Makes me hopeful. Happy.”

“It’s the same for me, babe.” He squeezed her fingers. “You make me happy.”

Her throat tightened with emotions as she drowned in his warm gray eyes. She heard the feelings behind Talon’s words. He meant them. And her heart did a little dance inside her chest. How badly she wanted to say she loved Talon, but she couldn’t yet. But, until that time came, she could touch him, kiss him and love him when it felt right.

Cat reached for his hand, enclosing it between hers. “Gus loves your mom. I know that. And I think Gus wants to give Sandy her home back so she’ll fight to stay alive. For you. For herself.”

“Love is a strange thing, isn’t it?”

She met his sober look. “Complex. Many layers. Like a torte cake.”

Talon studied her in the low light, seeing the happiness banked in her eyes for him alone. “Whatever we have, I like it. And it suits us, Cat. That’s all that matters.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“I
DON
’
T
WANT
you to leave.” Cat watched as Talon shrugged into his denim jacket, the morning cold, near freezing, in early July. Her body glowed from their recent lovemaking. He’d awakened her near dawn and the tenderness he’d shared with her still made her eyes moist. She stood near the door, waiting for Talon as he collected his baseball cap from the top of the sofa, heading her way, his smoldering gaze on her.

“I don’t, either.” He halted in front of her. There was such love shining in her drowsy blue eyes that Talon felt his body tighten with need for Cat once more. They’d spent an hour in bed with one another hours earlier, and he’d made love with her. Every time was better. He’d just showered, shaved and gotten ready to leave to go to work at the Bar H.

It was six o’clock. Cat wore her lavender silk robe around her tall, curvy body. Talon knew her body, held her heart, and he felt her warm gaze slide around his heart, holding him gently in her hands.
Beautiful hands. Loving hands.
His heart ached at the thought of separating from her this morning. She would be on duty at 3:00 p.m. with the fire department for a forty-eight-hour shift. He was going back to the ranch. Talon hated not being able to see Cat for two days. Worse, when she got off duty, she’d spend the next two off days at the ranch. They’d both agreed they couldn’t sleep with each other or even show their affection at the ranch. It wouldn’t have been appropriate.

He slid his hand around her upturned face. When her lips softly parted, Talon groaned, leaned down and skimmed them, feeling her instant response, her arms sliding around his shoulders, pressing the length of herself against him. “No fair,” he murmured, kissing her lips lightly. “Keep this up and I’ll carry you upstairs and keep you prisoner in that bed.”

“Mmm, I’d love nothing better,” she whispered, savoring the taste, the strength of his mouth sliding against hers. She could smell the cleanliness of his skin, his male scent, and her womb contracted with need. “Bed versus work, huh?”

Talon absorbed her tall, firm body against his. He grinned and moved strands of hair away from her brow and temple. The change in Cat was heart-stopping. Her cheeks were flushed a pink color, her eyes danced with amusement. The past few days loving her were the best he’d ever shared with a woman. Groaning, Talon said, “You’re the first woman to ever make me think twice about not going to work.”

She moved her hips against his, feeling Talon becoming hard once more. Cat savored the power of herself as a woman to sway him. “Same here,” she whispered against his mouth, reveling in his strength, his tenderness. “I find myself not wanting to go to work, either. All I can think about...feel about...is you, Talon.”

“It’s the same for me,” he admitted thickly, resting his forehead against hers, closing his eyes. “I keep thinking this is all some kind of fevered dream.”

“Better not be,” Cat said with a short laugh, pulling away, grazing his cheek, watching his eyes turn predator-like upon her. Her breasts tightened beneath his heated look. “It’s real. It’s wonderful....”

“I don’t know what it is, but I like it,” he said, forcing himself to release Cat. Talon turned and picked up his baseball cap and settled it on his head. “Give me a call later. I’ll have my cell on me.”
Because I need to hear your voice. Listen to your breathy laughter. I’m starving for you already.
Talon felt drugged or maybe addicted to Cat. Oh, he knew he’d always been powerfully drawn to her and he’d thought it was just about sex, that was all. But there was so much more. He couldn’t keep his hands off her as she wrapped her arms around herself, following him to the door. He saw the sadness in her expression because he was leaving. God, it felt like they were invisibly joined to one another, and to leave sent excruciating agony through him. Spinning from feelings that clamored so brightly within his heart, he cupped her cheek, kissed her gently and rasped, “Call me?”

“I promise,” Cat whispered, leaning into his mouth one last time, one last kiss before he left. The cold air swept in from the morning and she lifted her hand. “Stay safe out there.”

He halted, his hand on the doorknob, and gave her an intense look. “You’d better stay safe, too, babe. No heroics out there on your shift, okay?”

Cat grinned. “No worries. I’ll see you in a couple of days.” Her throat tightened as he nodded and turned away, walking down the sidewalk toward the garage where all vehicles were parked. Standing in the doorway, Cat shivered from the below-freezing air. The sky was a pale blue and to her right she could see the first rays of the sun touching the hill far above them. She absorbed Talon as he walked down toward the garage. There was no question of his confidence, his shoulders thrown back, the boneless way he walked in his cowboy boots. He looked rugged, like the West itself, like Wyoming was. Her heart beat with such fierce love for him.

Turning, she closed the door, the warmth sweeping through her as she padded across the living room and took the stairs. She’d already showered with Talon, finding new and beautiful ways to love him. Shaking her head, a faint smile on her mouth, Cat walked into her bedroom. Talon was stretching the boundaries of her love life in ways she never realized existed. Her lower body glowed with satisfaction.

Choosing a pair of jeans, a warm red sweater, thick socks and her boots, Cat swung into her morning routine. After getting dressed, she pulled on her firefighting boots and quickly laced them up. In early July, the weather didn’t warm up until around noon. She didn’t have to be at work until three. Just as she finished getting on her boots, her cell phone on the bed stand rang.

“Hello?”

“Cat? This is Cade Garner. I just wanted to let you know that the judge late yesterday afternoon denied Magee bail. Not only that, he slapped a million-dollar bail on him.”

Relief fled through her. “Oh, that’s great, Cade. Is there anything else I have to do?”

“Mandy Parker, our county prosecutor, wants to meet with you sometime in the coming two weeks,” Cade said. “She’s building a case against Magee and needs your help. She said it was a good thing that a year ago, when Magee slammed you into the wall, you went to the E.R. That is going to cinch the case against him. It shows a pattern of abuse toward you.”

Cat closed her eyes and remembered that evening Magee had shoved her savagely. He’d cracked two of her ribs and she’d gone to the E.R., knowing he’d done some damage. There, after telling the doctor what had happened, X-rays were taken and photos of the massive bruising on her right side. All of that was turned over to the sheriff. Magee had spent thirty days in jail after admitting he’d done it. That was a year ago.

Opening her eyes, Cat went over to look out the window. “Can she put him away, Cade? Because frankly, I’m scared. If he gets out, I know he’ll come after me.” She felt fear just thinking about it. Magee was almost as big as Talon was and he had a short temper, to boot.

“No worries,” Cade assured her. “He’s going nowhere.”

“But what if he makes bail? You said he has a fancy California attorney.”

“Unless that attorney can convince a bail bondsman with enough money, Magee is going nowhere.”

“Would you let me know if that happened? If Magee made bail?”

“In a heartbeat, Cat. Look, don’t worry, okay? A million-dollar bail is a helluva lot, even for a California attorney to scare up.”

“Why does Magee have an out-of-state attorney?” Her heart was picking up in beat.

“My take is that Magee works for the Garcia drug cartel that now owns Ace Trucking. And Magee is one of their drivers. Someone in the organization must have called this attorney over here to try and spring him until his trial date because they need every driver they have. Not everyone is going to truck drugs around a six-state area. Magee is important to their distribution systems, Cat.”

“Ugh,” she whispered. “Then drug money could spring him.”

“It could, but I’m watching over this case, Cat. I’m not going to let you hang out there alone and uninformed. If that happens, I’ll be calling you right away. Okay?”

Cat’s mouth thinned. “Thanks, Cade.”

“Go enjoy your day. It’s beautiful out.”

She clicked off her cell, frowning. Cat didn’t feel safe. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t. How she wished Talon were here. He would protect her. He knew how to fight, how to defend her. She didn’t. Pushing the cell into the back pocket of her jeans, Cat went to the closet and took out a dark green down vest and shrugged it over her red sweater. By noon, she’d be shedding the winter gear for light cotton. That was the way spring in the Tetons went. Freezing in the morning, warm in the afternoon. And then, as the sun went down, freezing temperatures once again.

The condo felt lifeless and empty as she hurried down the stairs. As she put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher, her mind gnawed on Magee being in jail and a part of a drug cartel. Cat knew Cade and the sheriff’s department were well aware of the intrusion into Teton County. She’d met deputy sheriff Shelby Kincaid at Mo’s a week earlier. She was their chief tracker for the department. Cat remembered sitting with Shelby and her husband, Dakota Hunter. He was an ex-SEAL like Talon. Cat wondered if they knew one another.

Her mind went back to their conversation about tracking two murderers and how they’d found them. Shelby had been drugged and captured by one of the criminals. The blonde deputy was even taller than Cat, and she had cringed when she’d heard the details of Shelby’s capture. She would have died if not for Dakota tracking her with his wolf at his side. Shelby had come so close to death.

Shivering over those memories, Cat shut the dishwasher and turned it on. If Magee was out, he’d do the same thing to her and she knew it. She hadn’t pressed charges the first time, afraid he’d want to get even. Cat knew he’d kill her. She leaned against the counter, her arms wrapped protectively across her chest. Cat didn’t want to die. God, she’d just found Talon. Discovered what love...real love...was like. She’d never felt happier than right now. And it was because of Talon. While they were both deeply wounded by different circumstances, Cat had a connection with him, an understanding. She missed him so much. The condo was lifeless without his larger-than-life presence.

Damn.
Turning, she picked up the washcloth and wiped down the stove. Cat remembered having lunch with Shelby a month earlier, just the two of them. Shelby was the only woman deputy, but she was a good one. Cat recalled their lunch conversation that day at Mo’s. She had confessed to her deep love for Dakota. At the time, Cat remembered the shining look in Shelby’s eyes, heard the softness in her voice every time she used Dakota’s name. Cat had sat there wondering if she would ever find someone like that. Her eyes sparkled.

Well, Cat had found someone. And this morning, looking in the bathroom mirror, she had seen the new softness in her face, the luminous look in her eyes, and now she understood how Shelby felt. It was love.
Real love.

After wiping down the counter, Cat rinsed off the washcloth beneath the faucet. Shelby and Dakota had been married in October last year. And she’d been invited. Everyone who knew the couple was happy for them. Dakota had joined the sheriff’s department, part-time, as a tracker. So many people, tourists in particular, got lost in the Tetons, Yellowstone Park and the Wind River Range in Wyoming. Shelby and Dakota were usually very busy from June through October due to just that: tourists getting lost on trails, without a compass, extra food or water. It happened all the time.

She needed to go to the grocery store and made a list. Being back on the shift with the fire department, Cat’s life became regimented. She had to make an appointment to get her truck in for an oil change. Maybe Sandy was available for lunch? Cat wanted to see her, to get back on her schedule so she wasn’t left alone. She called Gwen Garner and gave her the shift schedule for the month. And then Cat called Sandy. Yes, she had no one coming over for lunch, so Cat would bring some food from Mo’s and they’d enjoy an hour together.

* * *

C
AT
HURRIED
BACK
to her condo after having lunch with Sandy. It was one o’clock and she had to get ready for her shift that began at three. Her heart was full with happiness. Sandy’s admittance that she looked at her like a daughter mingled with her observation that Talon loved her. Did he? He’d never said the words. Unlocking her front door, Cat stepped in. It was growing warm outside and she needed to swap out her cold clothes for her firefighting uniform.

“I’ve been waitin’ for you, Cat.”

She gasped as her most terrifying nightmare stood in front of her. Beau Magee appeared in the hall of her condo. Shock bolted through her and she froze. He was wearing a pair of Levi’s, a dark gray shirt and work boots. His thumbs were hooked in his belt, his dark brown eyes narrowed upon her.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, her breath raspy. Heart taking off at a gallop, Cat was confused. Beau was in jail! Why was he
here?

“You and I have some unfinished business.” He walked toward her, his gaze never leaving her stunned face. “And if you try to turn and run, I’ll tackle you. So stay where you are.”

Her throat ached with fear. His mouth curved in a frightening smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Beau was over six feet tall and heavily muscled. His dark brown hair was short and recently washed. Cat took a step back because he got too close to her.

“How did you get out of jail?” she demanded. Every cell in her body screamed for her to run. To escape.

“I got bail,” he said easily. “And I wanted to come and see you as soon as I got out.”

Cat quivered inwardly. She had seen this look in Beau’s eyes before. “Get out.”

His smile increased as he slowly looked her up and down. “Now, is that polite, Cat? You know, when we hooked up, you were the sweetest girl I’d met. Now you got a sour look on your face.” He reached out and tried to touch her cheek. She jerked away. How could she escape? She’d shut the door. She had no weapons. And she saw a hunting knife hanging off his belt. He’d always carried one on him.