Iron Cowboy (13 page)

“Well!”

“They have a little girl named Tris.” She gave him a smirk. “So, you see, not everybody dislikes living in Outer Cowpasture.”

“Touché,” he replied.

“Maybe he has friends who could get those three guys on some sort of terrible federal charge,” she murmured. “We never found out who the DEA agents were,” she added. “One of them does undercover work, so he wasn't identified. The other, the child's mother, was a DEA agent, too. Her husband bought property here, but they're living in Houston until the end of the school year because of their daughter. They didn't want to put her into a strange school midyear.”

“Do you know everything about everybody here?” he asked curiously.

“Sure,” she told him. “Everybody does.”

He glanced at the door, where Tony was just entering with soup and sandwiches on a tray. He glared at his ex-boss. “She needs to eat her lunch.”

Jared got to his feet. “I was just leaving.” He smiled down at Sara. “Eat it all up, like a good girl.”

She flushed. “I'm not a kid.”

He sighed. “Compared to me you are,” he said quietly, and he looked lost.

“My mother was nineteen when she had me,” Tony said abruptly.

Jared glanced at him, curious.

Tony shrugged. “It isn't the age, it's the mileage,” he clarified, meeting the other man's eyes. “She's got almost as much mileage as you have. She just looks younger.”

“I suppose so.”

“I like babies,” Tony said, setting the tray across Sara's legs.

Jared withdrew into his safe shell. He didn't say a word.

“Try not to get killed,” Sara told him. “I'm in no condition to go to a funeral.”

He laughed. “I'll do my best.”

Tony glanced at him. “They'll try again,” he said. “The minute they make bail, and they'll make it.”

“Yes, I know,” Jared replied. He pursed his lips. “I've had an idea.”

“What?” Tony asked.

Jared glared. “Oh, sure, I tell you, and you tell her, and she tells everybody in Jacobsville.”

“I only gossip about people I like,” Sara protested.

“And pigs fly,” he returned. “I'll come by tomorrow and check on you.”

“I'll be fine,” Sara protested.

He glanced at her belly with an unreadable expression. “I'll come by anyway.”

He turned and left without another word.

“We could have offered him lunch,” Sara told Tony. “Even if he isn't part of our family anymore.”

“He'd curdle the milk,” Tony muttered.

Sara laughed and finished her soup.

Jared went straight to Police Chief Cash Grier's office when he left Sara's house.

Cash was on the phone, but he hung up when Jared walked in and closed the office door.

“I haven't let them out yet,” Cash told him, anticipating the reason he'd come.

“They'll skip town the minute they can make bail,” Jared replied.

“In the old days, I'd have thrown them out the back door and charged them with attempted escape.”

Jared glowered at him. “Civilization has its price.”

Cash sighed. “Spoilsport.”

Jared sat down in the visitor's chair without being asked. “They'll be as much a danger to Sara as they are to me,” he said. “We have to find a way to prove they're kidnappers.”

Cash's dark eyebrows went up. “We could stuff you in their van under a blanket and catch them at the city limits sign,” he suggested dryly.

Jared chuckled. “That's just what I had in mind.”

“It would be entrapment, I'm afraid,” Cash replied, leaning back in his chair. “We'll have to find a legal way to keep them locked up.”

“Suppose we have Tony the Dancer arrested for breaking and entering?”

Cash blinked. “Are we having the same conversation?”

“You could put him in the cell with the three kidnappers,” he continued. “Tony could offer to help them get me, for revenge.”

Cash whistled. “And I thought I was the only dangerous person in town.”

“I didn't inherit what I've got,” Jared told him. “The first company I started was a security business. I hired my men and myself out to oil companies as protection against terrorist attacks. An elderly oil tycoon with no dependents took a liking to me, taught me the business and left his company to me when he died. Eventually I sold the security company and parlayed the oil business into a worldwide corporation.”

“So that's how you know Tony the Dancer.”

Jared nodded. “He was the first man I hired, in the days before he worked for a legitimate authority. He still does odd jobs for me, from time to time.”

Cash pursed his lips. “Then I suppose you know about his real background?”

Jared chuckled. “I check out everybody who works for me. His dossier was, to say the least, impressive.”

“Yes, and how fortunate for him that he's not wanted in the States,” Cash replied. “The only man I know who's a target for assassination in more countries than Tony is an undercover DEA agent named Ramirez.”

“I know him,” Jared said unexpectedly. “He worked for me, too, in the early days.”

“He worked for a lot of people. He's involved in a case right now, so if you see him anywhere, pretend you don't know him.”

“Isn't it risky for him to go undercover again?” Jared asked, curious.

“It is in Texas. He helped bring down the late drug lord, Manuel Lopez. But he's not known locally, except by a few of us with ties to mercenaries. His name was never mentioned when his partner's child was kidnapped by drug smugglers here last year.”

“I understand you brought down some of the kidnappers.”

Cash nodded. “Some skills never get rusty.” He leaned forward. “Who talks to Tony, you or me?”

“It had probably better be you,” Jared said heavily. “He'd enjoy cutting my throat right now because of Sara.”

“You didn't put Sara in the hospital,” Cash replied, misunderstanding.

“No, but I may have gotten her pregnant,” he said uncomfortably.

Cash's good humor eclipsed. His black eyes flashed at the man across the desk.

“We're all capable of making ungodly mistakes,” Jared said quietly. “I don't think I've ever been around an innocent in my whole life. In recent years, women are as aggressive as men when it comes to sex.”

“Not all of them,” Cash said in an icy tone. “And Sara's only nineteen.”

“I didn't find that out until it was too late,” he said. “She seems older than she is.”

“Considering her past, that isn't surprising.”

Jared nodded. “I didn't know about that, either.” His eyes held a sad, faraway look. “My daughter died eight months ago,” he said. “I've grieved until it was an effort just to get out of bed in the morning. I don't understand how, but Sara brought the sunlight back in for me. I never meant to hurt her.”

“I'm sorry,” Cash said. “I know what it is to lose a child.”

Jared met his eyes. There was, suddenly, a bond between them, forged of grief.

“Tony seems very fond of Sara.”

Jared's face hardened. “Well, I'll take care of that when the time comes. If she's pregnant, that's my child. No way is he raising it.”

Cash's eyebrows arched.

Jared cleared his throat. “He's not going to be able to settle down, anyway.”

“You need to meet a few people around town,” Cash told him. “Starting with Eb Scott.”

“Eb Scott lives here?” he exclaimed.

“Yes. He's got a state-of-the-art training center for military and government resources,” he said. “A lot of exmercs work for him.”

“I'd never have expected Scott to be able to settle down.”

“Most people said the same about me,” Cash replied, smiling. “I think it comes down to what's important to you. It used to be work, for me. Now it's Tippy and our baby. And Rory,” he added. “My brother-in-law.” He chuckled. “He's twelve years old.”

“It's still work that gets the major portion of my time,” Jared replied. “But just recently I've begun to wonder if I don't have my priorities skewed.” He studied his boots. “There aren't many women around like Sara. Of course, she's years too young for me.”

“Judd Dunn, my assistant chief, is married to a young woman who was twenty-one at the same time he was thirty-two. They have twins and they're very happy. It depends a great deal on the woman. Some mature sooner than others.”

“I guess they do.”

Cash got to his feet. “I think I'll go have a word with Tony.”

“I think I'll stop by the flower shop and start working on my campaign.”

“Campaign?”

“Tony's not marrying Sara,” Jared said shortly.

“That would be her decision,” Cash cautioned.

“Yes, well, he can't afford as many roses and chocolates as I can, so let's see him compete!”

Cash knew when to shut up.

Sara was curious to see Cash Grier at her door. It must have something to do with the would-be kidnappers, she thought.

“How's it going, Sara?” he asked, smiling. “Feeling better?”

“A lot, thanks. Why are you here?”

“I have to talk to Tony.” He moved closer to the bed. “You wouldn't mind having someone else stay with you for a couple of days, would you?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Well, I'm going to have to arrest Tony for breaking and entering,” he began, “and I don't want you to be here alone.”

“Arrest…?”

“Now, calm down,” he said. “It isn't for real.”

“What isn't for real?” Tony asked, carrying two cups of coffee. “We can talk in the living room,” he told Cash. “Sara, will you be okay for a few minutes?”

She couldn't put two words together.

Cash put his finger to his lips, walked out with Tony and closed the door, leaving Sara worried and quiet.

“But I didn't do it to steal anything,” Tony was protesting. “I had to feed the cat!”

“It isn't for real,” Cash insisted. “We want you to have to be thrown in with the kidnappers. Jared's having you arrested. You're furious at him. You want to get back at him. They'd love to help, I'm sure.”

Tony put his coffee cup down. “Okay, now, you're starting to scare me. Have you been drinking?”

Cash chuckled. “Not today.” He leaned forward. “Here's the deal. I have to turn the men loose. All I'm holding them on is a weapons charge. I can't convince a sane judge to set a million dollars bail for a weapons charge. They're going to skip town the minute the cell door opens. If they do, they may try to grab Sara again, or they may go after Jared. Either way, it's going to lead to tragedy.”

Tony pursed his lips. “Oh. I get it. You want me to lead them into a trap so that you can charge them with kidnapping.”

“That's exactly what I want.”

Tony's eyes narrowed. “Jared put you up to it.”

“He did,” Cash confessed. “He's worried about Sara.”

“Not enough to keep himself from seducing her,” Tony said angrily.

“I heard about that, too. He's sorry he did it. But if you have plans to help her raise the baby—if there is a baby—you're in for the fight of your life,” he added. “He's just starting to feel possessive about her.”

Tony scoffed. “He goes through women like a sword through tissue paper,” he said coldly.

“Like a man who's afraid to risk his heart twice, I would have thought,” Cash replied solemnly. “He told me about his little girl.”

Tony's hard demeanor softened. “Yeah. That was rough. She was a sweet kid. He didn't spend nearly enough time with her, but he loved her. She loved him, too. Hell of a tragedy.”

“Let's not have another one,” Cash said. “Help me get these guys off the street before they do something stupid. Sara might not be so lucky a second time. And they wouldn't hesitate to kill her, after she foiled their plan so deftly.”

“I thought about that, myself.”

“It's only going to be for a couple of days,” Cash said, “but we need somebody to stay with Sara. I thought maybe Harley Fowler…”

Tony's dark eyes twinkled. “Did you? I was thinking that Jared might be willing to sacrifice himself.”

“Let him stay with Sara?”

Tony nodded. “It might be just the thing to get them both to sort out their priorities. And you could have extra patrols on the house, too. Just in case.”