Silver Thaw (24 page)

Chloe gave him a questioning look. “How do you know it’s a she and not a he?”

Jeb chuckled. “Trust me, it’s a girl, and she must be trained so she doesn’t go potty on the floor. Girl kitties are very smart and remember where their boxes are. All you need to do is show her once. Just set her on the litter. She’ll know what it’s for.”

“All girls are smart,” Chloe replied, giving Jeb a defiant look.

Amanda nearly intervened; Jeb wasn’t aware that Mark had frequently told Chloe that all females were born with half a brain.

Jeb nodded. “You’re absolutely right, Chloe. Most girls are very smart.”

“Frosty is
extremely
smart,” the child insisted. “She knew right where to go when she got lost in the dark.” She lifted an adoring gaze to Jeb’s sharply carved face. “She knew Mr. Jeb would give her food and be kind to her.”

Bozo moaned, his mournful gaze fixed on Chloe.

“Uh-oh,” Amanda said. “I think you have a gigantic furry friend who’s feeling a little jealous, Chloe.”

Chloe lifted an arm to invite Bozo closer. “Don’t be jealous. Just because I like Frosty doesn’t mean I don’t still love you!” Bozo plopped down beside the child, eyed the kitten for a moment, and then began licking her still-wet fur. “Be gentle,” Chloe warned. “She’s way littler than you.”

“That’s what she needs,” Jeb said. “The licking will stimulate her system and bring her body temp back up.” He pushed himself to his feet and regarded their now-cold meal. “Thank God for microwaves.”

After scooping their salads onto dessert plates, Amanda reheated the portions of casserole and returned them to the table. Chloe reluctantly left Frosty in Bozo’s care while she resumed her meal. The conversation revolved around the kitten, Bozo’s gentleness with her, and things the small creature might need during the night.

“Food, for sure,” Jeb said between bites. “The pabulum mixture should do the trick. She looks pretty young
and may not be completely weaned yet. It’ll settle well on her tummy. At least I’ve never had a kitten get sick from it yet.” To Chloe he said, “If she isn’t weaned, she’ll need to eat every couple of hours.” He directed a twinkling look at Amanda, his message clear. Night feedings would probably fall to her.

“What does ‘wean’ mean?” Chloe asked.

Amanda fielded that question. “Most baby mammals need milk from their mothers, who have teats on their tummies where the little ones can suckle. Over time, the mommy encourages her babies to eat more grown-up food and drink less milk until the babies are finally weaned.”

“Did I need milk when I was a baby?” Chloe asked.

Amanda felt her cheeks flush. “Yes, you did.”

Chloe frowned. “Mommy, all you’ve got on your tummy is a belly button.”

The heat in Amanda’s cheeks radiated down her neck. She felt sure she’d gone as red as a candied apple. Jeb cleared his throat, excused himself, and went to scrape his plate while the mother-daughter conversation continued.

Lowering her voice and leaning close to her daughter, Amanda explained that human mommies had breasts just above their tummies.

Chloe asked several more questions and Amanda did her best to give straightforward answers. Soon after, Chloe resumed her position on the floor with Bozo and Frosty, leaving Amanda free to gulp down the rest of her meal and hurry into the kitchen.

“It’s not your job to be cleaning up,” she told Jeb as she nudged him aside to scrape what remained on her plate into the slop bucket Jeb had brought in from the
laundry room. “If this continues, I’ll renegotiate my wages down to five hundred a month.”

Jeb grinned. “Like hell. We made a deal. No reneging now!”

Amanda settled in beside him to take the dishes he rinsed and put them in the dishwasher. Battling a smile, she said, “Thank you for doing the disappearing act. Her questions came at me from left field.”

With a chuckle, he said, “Around here, with farm critters giving birth left and right every spring—well, Chloe will be catching both of us off guard with questions we don’t expect.” At Amanda’s alarmed look, he laughed again. “I’ll send her to you for answers if you like. But I’m pretty sure I can handle them on my own. I was trained by one of the best—my mother.”

Amanda was coming to love Kate Sterling. “So what did she say when critters were born on your farm?”

Jeb’s teeth flashed in a broad smile. “She told us that Dad found all the newborns under a cabbage leaf in the garden. I actually believed it until I was about eight and one of Dad’s expensive brood mares dropped a foal when I was alone in the stable. It scared the bejesus out of me.”

Amanda sniggered. “Your poor mother. How did she explain that one?”

Jeb leaned around her to stick a plate in the rack. His chest grazed her back, making her acutely aware of his nearness. “All she did was threaten me with death if I blabbed to my younger brothers and sisters. According to her, kids should remain innocent for as long as possible. Reality comes calling soon enough.”

Amanda took Jeb’s place at the right-hand sink to
scrub the casserole dish. “In a way, I see her point. On the other hand, I’m not so sure I want Chloe to miss out on the beauty of nature. Seeing a lamb born—well,
that
has to be something.”

“I’m glad you feel that way because I’ll have babies popping out all over the place in a few months, and my vegetable garden won’t be planted yet. I keep my starts in the greenhouse until well beyond the last frost.” He gave her a sidelong glance. “Even worse, I don’t plant cabbage.”

“Why not?”

“I detest the stuff. Who wants to eat something that once had a gooey, bloody baby under it?”

Amanda laughed until her sides ached.

*   *   *

School resumed on Monday, but the decision had already been made that Amanda and Chloe should remain at home. Amanda hated missing work, but the small amount she made in wages wasn’t worth taking any unnecessary chances. She called Mystic Creek Elementary, asked to be put through to the cafeteria, and, after Delores answered, requested a leave of absence.

“Not having you here will put me in a pinch,” the head cook said, “but take all the time you need, Amanda. Nobody in town is sure what that monster did to you, but you and that child need to stay away from here until he’s caught. I’ll get a temp in to cover for you until this is over.”

Amanda paced inside Jeb’s office, squeezing the portable phone so hard that her knuckles ached. “I really appreciate this, Delores. I’ll keep in touch. If you get in a bind, I’ll show up no matter what. I promise.”

“No, don’t call here again. There’s caller ID on the phone lines. I don’t want every staff member in this building to know where you’re hiding out.”

It hadn’t occurred to Amanda that her call to the school would show under Jeb’s name. Whoever had answered the phone and spoken to Amanda now knew where she and Chloe were. She’d just compromised their safety.

Jeb sat at the kitchen table drawing pictures with Chloe. The little girl’s cheek was close to his, and her breath came between slightly parted, upturned lips. She was enraptured with his efforts, even though Jeb thought his drawing of a horse looked more like a dinosaur. It was humbling when a six-year-old totally eclipsed his artistic endeavors. There was no mistaking what she was drawing. He could almost hear Bozo bark.

“Yours is really good,” he said, and was rewarded by a smile from beneath Chloe’s glowing eyes. The child had evidently had little praise from men, and she reacted like a flower bud accustoming itself to the warmth of the sun.

“So is yours,” she said loyally. “But its nose is kind of funny-looking.”

The nose wasn’t the only funny-looking part. Jeb was frowning in feigned disapproval of his drawing when he heard Amanda’s light step on the slate floor. Glancing up, he took one look at her face and immediately set down his pencil.

“Excuse me for a minute, princess,” he said to the child. “I need to talk to your mommy in private.”

Chloe barely glanced up from her drawing, which depicted Bozo and Frosty snuggling together on the floor beside her chair.

Jeb grasped Amanda’s elbow and led her to the living room. Her arm was rigid and her face was blanched. Once they were safely beyond Chloe’s earshot, he said, “What’s wrong?”

“I gave away where we’re staying. I didn’t mean to! I’m just not used to all the phones having caller ID.”

Jeb winced. He wanted to say, “Oh,
shit
.” Instead he looped an arm around her taut shoulders. “You called the school on my landline,” he guessed aloud.

“I didn’t
think
. I should have been smart enough to use your cell.”

Bending low, Jeb pressed his forehead against hers. Her scent surrounded him, a heady combination of shampoo and woman. He wished he might hold her for hours. “It has nothing to do with how smart you are, Mandy. I knew you meant to call in and ask for a leave of absence, but I never considered the damned caller ID thing, either. As for using my cell phone, same thing. My number and possibly my name would have shown up on the school’s line.”

She went limp against him. “Delores said not to call there again until I’m sure it’s safe. Someone else had to put me through to her, and whoever it was might blab.”

“Did you give your name to the other person?”

“I think I just asked to be put through to the cafeteria.”

Jeb tightened his arms around her. “There’s no reason to panic, then. To whoever first answered the call, you were just a female voice on the line, and I know Delores will keep your whereabouts secret.”

“How will we get Chloe’s homework?” she asked. “If you go in to get it, everyone will know where she’s staying.”

Thinking fast, Jeb said, “First off, I’m calling Ben to come over and stay with you. Then I’m going into town to get you a cell phone, which I
won’t
put under your name or mine. Second, I’m stopping by the sheriff’s department. Barney can have another deputy pick up Chloe’s work from the school. Then Barney can get it from him and drop it off here.”

“But then the other deputy will make the connection and guess where we are!”

“The deputies already know where you are,” Jeb replied. “And trust me, they’ll tell no one. They’re used to dealing with creeps, and they know about the charges you filed against Mark.”

No sooner had he spoken than Jeb wished he could call back his last words. Having all her dirty laundry aired in public had to be humiliating for Amanda. She probably wondered how she would ever be able to hold her head high in this town again.

She withdrew from his embrace and straightened her spine. “That’s good. After seeing those charges, they’ll do everything within their power to protect my daughter.”

There it was again, her tendency to put Chloe first. To hell with her own feelings. “You’re really something—you know that? Chloe is lucky to have you as her mother.”

“She wasn’t always lucky, but now, yes, she’s finally gotten halfway lucky.”

As Jeb watched her walk back toward the kitchen, he wondered how long it would take before she stopped blaming herself for things that had been beyond her control. He wished he knew how to wash away her bad memories. But that wasn’t possible and never would be.

*   *   *

“This phone is a nightmare,” Amanda complained after getting Chloe into bed that night. She touched the screen and rolled her eyes. “Where on earth did you come up with the name Onrietta Parker? Is Onrietta even a name?”

Jeb, sitting beside her at the table to show her how to operate the Apple device, felt unsettled by the question. Though Ben had come to stay with Amanda and Chloe while he was in town, Jeb had still been worried and distracted when he reached the Verizon store. “I pulled the name out of my hat as they set up the phone. I, um . . .” He tugged on his ear. “Don’t get mad. Okay? I had to come up with something fast, so I named you after a chicken.”

“A
what
?” She gave him a startled look.

“A chicken,” he repeated. “I’ve been naming my hens for Chloe, and that one stuck in my brain. Actually, the chicken is named Ornrietta because she pecks the other hens, but I left out the ornery part.”

Jeb saw her lips twitch. “Well, I guess I can be thankful you left that bit out.” She gave him a quizzical look. “A chicken? It suits me, I guess. I’m the biggest chicken you’ll ever meet.”

“I never meant—”

“I know you didn’t. I’m joking. Want to hear me cluck?”

He grinned. He enjoyed seeing her spunky side. “I think you’re one of the bravest people I’ve ever known,” he told her, “and I’m
not
joking.”

As if he hadn’t spoken, she resumed her study of the device. Jeb guessed she disliked receiving compliments almost as much as she did accepting help.

“And Parker? What hat did you pull that from?”

“It’s my mother’s maiden name.”

Amanda nodded. Then she gave Jeb a sideways look, the twinkle in her eyes telling him he was off the hook. “I don’t suppose the name matters. The important thing is that the phone can’t be traced back to me.”

“If the name bothers you, I can go online and change it.”

She shook her head. “No. In retrospect I just wish you’d left the
ornery
part in. I could use a good dose of it, I think.”

Jeb agreed. He’d often wished that she’d had a baseball bat handy when Mark Banning came after her with his fists and boots.

“Does it cost a lot to make phone calls under your plan?”

He detected a hopeful note in her voice and suspected that she wanted to call her mother. “I pay a monthly fee for unlimited calling and texting. You can use your new phone as often and for as long as you like. It won’t add to my bill.”

That was the truth. Jeb had signed up for a family plan that morning, purchased the device for a hefty chunk of change, and from now on, the additional phone service would cost him more money each month. But her usage wouldn’t add to the tab.
Now I’m lying by omission
. He wouldn’t allow himself to feel bad about that. She’d needed a cell under a different identity, and he’d gotten her one.

“How much do these things cost?” she asked. “I need to pay you back.”

“I was due for an upgrade.”
Another lie of omission
. He
had
been due for an upgrade, but he hadn’t used it to get the phone.

She searched his gaze. “Even so, I need to offset the cost.”

“Are you going to be impossibly stubborn about this?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Jeb burst out laughing. “Am I supposed to act surprised?”

*   *   *

After the iPhone lesson, Jeb handed Amanda the revolver that he’d recently started hiding atop the kitchen cabinet. The piece looked gigantic in her slender hands. He expected her to act as if it were a bomb about to detonate, but instead she grasped the handle with a firm grip. Keeping the barrel directed downward at the outside wall, she sighted in on an imaginary target. Jeb noted her stance and how she held the butt.

“You’ve been around weapons?” he asked

“All kinds.” She disengaged the cylinder and twirled it with a fingertip to make certain it was fully loaded. “My dad was a hunter and had a huge collection of guns. When I was in my teens, we had gun-cleaning night once a week. We took a weapon apart, cleaned it, and reassembled it, timing each other. I could do this one in five minutes flat. Well, it might take me a bit longer now. It’s been a while since I practiced.”

“Are you a decent shot?”

Jeb saw the proud lift of her chin and guessed her answer. “Way better than decent.”

*   *   *

Now that Jeb had learned Amanda knew how to handle firearms, he apparently felt better about leaving her and Chloe alone in the house for a few minutes, because he began measuring the downstairs windows. He explained
as he took notes on his phone that he intended to go out to his shop to cut some lengths of square trim.

“Call me paranoid,” he said over his shoulder, “but as safe as I believe we are with this high-tech security system, I see no harm in taking some old-fashioned precautions. Wood in the window slides stops the panes from opening. In order to get in, you’d have to shatter the glass, and the sound would set off the glass-breakage detectors.”

Amanda couldn’t help but admire his physique as he bent and shifted to study the measuring tape time and again. He worked with a fluid economy of movement for so large a man. His wash-worn flannel work shirt clung to his skin, revealing a play of muscle in his back, shoulders, and arms every time he changed position. Watching him gave her a strange, tingling sensation low in her stomach. She’d once been attracted to Mark, but never with the intensity that she now felt toward Jeb. Even his scent, distinctly masculine, filled her with yearning.

“I appreciate your taking such good care of us.”

He flashed the dazzling grin that always warmed her. “For my ladies, I cover all the bases.”

His
ladies? Amanda felt as if she were standing on a rickety raft in the middle of a lake with boards breaking away beneath her feet. She remembered Jeb saying that life was a dance. But for her, moving with the rhythm presented a challenge that she wasn’t certain she could take on. She’d fallen into the metaphorical lake all too often.

He donned his jacket and then stepped over to the kitchen security panel near the back door. “I’ll be gone only a few minutes, but just to be safe, reset the alarm after I go out. Okay?”

Keeping the system on all the time had already become a habit. “No worries. I’ll watch the monitor. When you get back, I’ll let you in.”

He bent to kiss her just below her ear. Until now, Amanda hadn’t realized how sensitive that spot was, or how the tickle of his breath against the side of her neck would tantalize her. “When I get back, will you help me dream up some passcodes for my computer and network? I put in some temporary ones, but they aren’t as strong as Gowdy thinks we need. He wants letters, numbers, and symbols. I haven’t had time to sit down and do it.”

Trying to collect her composure, she said, “Sure. We’ll think of some humdingers.”

Amanda locked the door after he exited onto the back porch. Then she returned to the panel to reset the system. But when she selected Stay, the screen flashed Fault!

She frowned, wondering what that meant. Toward the bottom of the menu, she saw a choice that read, View Faults. When she pressed the button, an alert popped up, saying that the front door was open.
What the heck?
She knew good and well that it was closed and locked. She turned to check that zone on the monitor, only to see that the kitchen screen had gone blank.

A jolt of fear shot up her spine. For an instant, she stood frozen in place. Then she ran toward the door to call Jeb back.
No, no, no
. The gun. She needed to get the gun! She changed directions so fast that she nearly tripped over her own feet. Once at the cabinet, she went up onto her tiptoes to grab the Magnum.

“Well, well, well,” a familiar male voice said from behind her. “Nice digs, sweetheart.”

Amanda whirled, gripping the butt of the .357 with both hands. Mark stood at the opposite side of the
kitchen table. He wore faded jeans and a red T-shirt topped by a black jacket. His stance was relaxed, his expression smug, and his lips were curved into the smile she’d learned to dread. It made him look almost angelic, and he always sported it right before he did something evil. How many times had she seen him flash it at Chloe right before he slugged or kicked her?

Compared to Jeb, Mark looked insubstantial, but Amanda had felt the strength behind his fists too many times to be fooled. His cheeks were flushed as if he’d been running, and his dark hair was a tousled mess. It was his eyes that made her blood run cold. The blue irises glinted like glass in harsh sunlight, but you saw no emotion when you delved deep. It was like locking gazes with a lizard.

“Your cowboy finally dropped his guard. I knew he would sooner or later. And I’ve been waiting. I’m a very patient man.”

His smile deepened. This was Mark at his most treacherous—clever, self-assured, and certain he was invincible. The air between them felt oily, filming her nostrils each time she breathed. If malignance had a smell, this man exuded it from every pore. She could almost feel his brutal fingers closing over her throat, squeezing until her lungs burned for oxygen and her vision went black.

Shoving away the images and gathering her courage, she cocked the weapon and sighted in on his forehead. “Get out of this house, Mark, or I’ll bury a bullet right between your eyes.” The calm resolve in her voice surprised even her. “Now. If you think I don’t have the guts, you’re dead wrong. Your reign of terror is over.”

Still smiling, Mark brought up his right hand. In it, he
held the revolver that he’d often pressed to her temple for nasty games of Russian roulette. “It appears we have a standoff. Play it smart, Amanda. Come with me without a fight, and I’ll leave Chloe alone. It’ll be just you and me, and we’ll settle this.”

Amanda knew better than to fall for that. Mark would kill her, making it look like an accident, and then he’d get sole custody of their daughter. “Not on your life.”