Burn on the Western Slope (Crimson Romance) (34 page)

They held daytime jobs, friends, families. They were scattered throughout the country but bowed down only to Javier Mass. The FBI busted his brother, Nelson, on many occasions, but the charges never stuck.

Garret glanced at Chayton, whose face had paled considerably over the last few minutes. Had he known? Even suspected? No, Garret doubted it. Chayton may have a low regard for law enforcement but he would never condone such activities.

Though Garret briefly wondered why Tanner was dumping all this information on them, he realized it was for no other reason than to shock them. Or maybe to brag. Or more likely since he knew he was going down he’d take as many with him as possible.

Garret could never understand how one man held such power over people, but it was the way of life. If individuals formed together and worked as a team, they might destroy Javier and all he stood for. Instead, they all wanted to kill each other, so worshipped the man who stood the chance of losing the most yet the ability to gain the most.

Garret had so many questions, but he couldn’t let down his guard for even a moment. Castro was growing restless. Garret was surprised he allowed Tanner to keep talking. He could easily put a bullet in his brain.

Garret and Castro raised their guns to each other at the same time. “Garret, you’re under arrest.”

“Oh, you’re hilarious,” Garret said.

“Drop your weapon, Garret. Maynard, cuff him.”

Garret eyed Officer Maynard, who wasn’t eager to step any closer to Garret. Szalowski stood to the side. His eyes flicked to Tanner, Castro, then Chayton. He fidgeted.

Garret maintained his tense stance, ready for the next move.

The deafening noise of a helicopter shook the house as it neared. Garret bit back the acid bile in his throat, hoping it was Buchanan with backup. It could be Nelson and Javier Mass with their crew.

If that was the case, they’d never make it out alive.

“You know the Mass family won’t stop until they get their loot, don’t you?” Tanner said. “When it comes to his collection, Javier can get pretty mean.”

“Garret, drop your weapon before I make you drop it,” Castro said. “Tanner, shut your trap before I make you shut it.”

“Hah, you and what army?”

Pointing his gun at Tanner’s forehead, Castro fired. Tanner instantly fell to the floor, his eyes vacant and blood pooling from his body. Garret dove for cover. Reagan screamed.

“Oh, there’s my army now,” Castro said as the helicopter lowered to the snow, tossing powder on the windows.

Garret glanced around for Chayton, but couldn’t locate him. He inched toward Reagan, his first instinct to protect her.

Gunfire racked the room. Bullets whizzed past, breaking collectibles, smashing pictures to the floor. At first, he thought the volley came from outside. But he saw it was the chief fighting against his officers. He moved to stand, gun at the ready.

The gunfire stopped. The bone-chilling stench of smoke rent through the air. Garret heard Reagan cough.

Reagan. He wanted to hold her in his arms and tell her everything would be okay. He hated that she was so far away, out of his sight, and he hated that he couldn’t see if she was unharmed. Had she been shot? Was she struggling for her last breath?

Peering from behind the kitchen island, he saw Szalowski kneeling over Castro. Pale and shaky, the officer dry heaved until he could no longer suck in air.

“Reagan?” Garret called.

When she didn’t answer, he felt as if his life was being sucked out of him.

“Reagan?” he demanded, this time more forcefully.

“Yeah, I’m okay. We’re okay.”

“Chayton?”

“I’m here.”

Skimming the area for Maynard, Garret found him hunkered over, bleeding but alive. He crawled towards the officer. “What happened?”

“Castro shot me. He was just shooting all over after he killed Tanner. So Szalowski shot him.”

Garret checked the injury. “It’s a flesh wound. You’ll be fine.” He left Maynard and approached Szalowski, who shook. Garret patted him on the back. “Are you okay?”

He didn’t answer, but Garret didn’t have time to tend to him until he found out who was outside. If it was Javier or Nelson or the good guys.

“Garret?” Buchanan’s voice.

Relief came in large, gulping breaths.

“Yeah,” Garret hollered. “I’ve got it under control. I’m opening the door. Don’t shoot.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

“I was thinking we could move in together.”

Garret lounged on the couch beside Reagan. They’d just completed a bowl of squash soup she’d prepared as a way to get her mind off the events that had transpired over the past few days. Her dad had been released from the hospital today. Refusing to infringe on her privacy, he rested in a hotel.

Frank’s ankle was sprained and his knee in a brace. He was bruised, but the bullet Tanner had fired only grazed him. Reagan was grateful nothing worse happened. Every time she closed her eyes, she pictured them on the couch. Most times, they weren’t safe in her nightmares.

She’d told her story to the FBI several times, wrote a statement, and had been interviewed by a forensic psychologist. Now Garret was babying her in case she was about to lose her mind or something.

She enjoyed the being babied part. Garret rubbed her feet, her shoulders, whispered sweet nothings in her ear and had taken her to the bedroom and made passionate love to her as if his life depended on it. It was the only way Reagan could dispel the horrors from her head, so she didn’t mind.

“What?” Reagan exclaimed. How dare he think they would just live together. She would not have another relationship like the one she had with Kyle, merely living together as they both pursued different dreams.

She didn’t know what to do with her life anymore. She didn’t know what to think.

She’d had a lot to digest over the last few days. So had Chayton and Garret. Chayton’s best friends were both involved in the mob, and Chayton had been questioned extensively over the past few days. She hated how they put him through the wringer, but he didn’t mind. He was too shocked and confused, and the FBI must have finally believed he had nothing to do with his friends’ dealings. She could only imagine the disillusionment he must feel at Chris and Ray’s betrayal.

“I just thought, you know, we could live together,” Garret continued. “Get to know each other better. I don’t want you to leave. I don’t want to lose you again. If I thought you might marry me, I’d ask you, but I know you don’t want to jump into anything like that right now.”

“I don’t want to, or you don’t want to?”

“I just assumed — ”

“So you think you can just room with me? Have as much free sex and free labor as you like? Do you expect me to pick up your socks and clean your bathroom?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Good, because you might as well know Naomi got onto me for not putting my dirty towels in the hamper.”

Garret removed the moose from her chest and replaced it with his mouth. “I don’t mind a few dirty towels.”

“I don’t accept anything but fidelity in a relationship.”

“Good. Same goes for me. See? We’re already agreeing.”

“Oh, Gar,” she said sarcastically. “You’re so romantic.”

“Fine, marry me then.”

“You’ve got to be joking.”

“Why would I be joking?”

“This is not how I pictured my big moment.” At the rate her life was going, she hadn’t pictured a big moment.

Garret untangled himself from her body and knelt on the floor. “Is this better?”

“No. Get up.”

Garret rose and sat beside her on the couch, his eyebrows drawn and his lids down, shielding his magnificent eyes like the shade on a window.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” he said.

“What were you afraid of?”

“Losing you.”

Her breath whooshed out. He’d almost lost her. She’d almost lost him. They’d almost lost their lives.

“I’ve been thinking about leaving this place.” Actually, she had been thinking. About how much she’d love to wake up in Garret’s arms every morning. “We barely know each other — ”

“We know a lot about each other and we’ve been through things that most couples will never go through.”

“You like the mountains. I’ve decided I miss the beach.”

“Good. I’m tired of the cold. You can teach me to water ski.”

Reagan couldn’t concentrate when Garret glanced at her with those potent eyes and smiled at her with that disarming smile. She looked away but he cupped her cheeks, dumping a well of hope inside her. She desperately wanted this to work but was so afraid it wouldn’t.

“I’ve never been able to settle.”

Garret chuckled. “Have you looked around you? You’re in the most unsettled part of the United States. Whenever you feel enclosed, we’ll roam. Together.”

Could she live this lifestyle? This never knowing what would be in store for Garret with his next assignment? This fear that it could happen again.

She was afraid of being alone, wondering if one of the Mass brothers would break in at any moment and finish the job. Tanner was dead, so he couldn’t be a witness, and the only true witnesses were now the ones who’d heard Tanner’s confession. She wondered if the FBI was planning to bust the Mass family, but they were secretive about everything after they took her statement, as if she hadn’t suffered enough to be entitled to their information.

“Besides, you’ve never seen this place in the summer,” Garret added. “It’s magnificent. But we can use your money and buy a cottage on the bay front for the winter if you hate it so much.”

“Oh, so you’re after my money? What if I told you the FBI confiscated it all?”

Garret wriggled his eyebrows up and down. “Yeah well, I never told you I have some money of my own.”

“Really?”

Nodding, Garret gathered her in his arms and carried her to the bedroom. She shrieked. Shutting the door with his foot, he tossed her on the bed, crawled above her, and rested on his hands, his nose only inches from hers.

“It’s not from stealing jewels, is it?”

“Nope.” He trailed kisses down her neck, igniting a fire that surpassed the chemical reaction of lust.

It was easy to believe things could work out like this, but Reagan didn’t want to fool herself. She could take the risk and try, believing anything significant was worth a chance even if it ended it failure, but she feared this would end in nothing but heartbreak. How long would she have him before he went undercover again? His last assignment had been eighteen months long. Could she honestly live with that? It took a special woman, in her opinion. Was she special enough?

“Garret?”

“Hmm?” he asked, his lips on her body, sparking her skin.

“How long before you go back to work?”

“I don’t.”

“Don’t what?”

Garret lifted his head, and the seductive pout of his eyes feathered into her, making her lose all reason. She puckered her mouth, preparing for a kiss, but he didn’t follow through.

“I’m not going back to work,” he said. “I have to meet with Buchanan and tie up some lose ends, but I put in my resignation notice yesterday. I’m staying here, and I plan to pursue you until you fall for me like I’ve fallen for you.”

Reagan shifted so that she was lying on her side, facing him. “What about the Mass family?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when and if we have to. You can’t worry about it now.”

“But — ”

“I’m in love with you, Reagan.”

“What?” She might have misunderstood him. The way her heart pounded, she wasn’t sure if she could hear anything anymore.

“That’s why I want to move in together. Not because I want to have sex with you every day and night, though the thought did cross my mind, but because I want to spend every waking moment in your presence. I love your smile, the way your eyelashes flutter when you’re confused, the quirky habits you have, and the fire that lights your eyes when you’re angry.”

“You quit your job because of me?” Reagan didn’t like the idea. She didn’t want him to regret giving up anything for her.

“No. I’ve been thinking about it anyway, and Buchanan knew that. That’s one of the reasons he gave me this assignment.” Which Garret had apologized for profusely during the past couple of days, after they’d finally made it home.

“What will you do now?” Reagan asked. She imagined them like this every day, facing each other, looking into each other’s eyes, touching each other’s bodies. But what would happen when the romanticism fell away and they were nothing but two people with different ideals?

“Besides spend my life making you happy?” Garret asked. “Well, I considered what you said about going into business together, and why not? You could sell your sketches and art or hire yourself out as a graphic designer. I could take photos and we could even open up a craft supply shop, which you said Tanyon needed. Or we’ll open an art gallery where you sell your sketches and I’ll sell my photos. Or we’ll do it all.”

“You’ll get bored.”

“I wouldn’t get bored with you, honey, and if I need an adrenaline rush, I have thousands of feet of mountain to climb.”

Could she take a leap of blind faith and risk losing her heart to the only man who ever held it?

Yes. She could. Because Garret supported her heart in his tender fold, he didn’t clasp it too tight, or threaten her with the feelings she had for him. He was a hero. God, a sexy hero. A man who, even though he’d lied to her, lied to her for the right reasons. Or, at least, forgivable reasons. Reasons she could understand.

He’d risked his life for her.

“You can’t keep me in the dark anymore,” she said.

“I promise I’ll never lie to you again.”

“You — ”

“Shh,” Garret interrupted as he pulled her blouse over her head and played with the lace on her bra. “Let’s not discuss it anymore.”

“But I — ”

“No doubts. I want to show you how much you mean to me. Where should I start?” He unfastened her bra and peeled the straps from her shoulders.

“Just let me say — ”

“No.” Garret posted a finger over her lips to quiet her.

She curled her fingers in his hair and whispered, “I love you, too.”