by Lora Leigh
Dash watched her admiring the clothes and couldn’t help but allow a smile to tilt his lips. She didn’t hold much back, and she had something on her mind she was ready to say. Dash just wondered if he wanted to hear it right now. He had a feeling Cassie would keep him off-balance every chance she had.
“Can you keep secrets, Dash?” she finally asked him carefully as she watched him zip the bag up.
Dash looked over at her quietly for long moments. “It depends,” he finally told her gently. “If they’re secrets your momma should know, then I might have to try to convince you to tell her.”
She blinked, long thick lashes covering her eyes for a half a second.
“Would you tell her if I said don’t?” she finally asked.
Dash sighed deeply. “I don’t know, Cassie,” he told her seriously. “Secrets are big things. Little girls should always trust their mommas with their secrets. Even if they think it could get them in trouble.”
Cassie watched him silently. He could see her expression clearing, her eyes brightening a bit more than before.
“It’s a good secret,” she finally said. “A secret ‘bout momma.”
Now how could he resist? He grimaced. “Uhhh, Cassie, don’t tell tales on your momma,” he finally sighed. He was desperate to know anything she would tell.
She giggled lightly, knowingly.
“Momma might be angry with you, Dash,” she finally whispered, staring up at him with big, slate-blue eyes. “Be careful or she might yell at you. Momma doesn’t yell really loud, but boy, she can be scary when she does yell.”
Dash restrained his chuckle as relief poured through him. He wanted to know every soft inch of Elizabeth inside and out, but he didn’t want Cassie telling tales, either. This tale, he figured he could handle.
“What does she sound like when she yells?” he asked her, his voice just as soft as though it were actually secret. Hell, he knew she was pissed and getting madder by the second.
Cassie looked at the bathroom door. “Like she might take away the candy bars for a week.” Cassie nodded solemnly, but Dash could have sworn he saw laughter lurking in the little girl’s eyes. “You better be nice to her or she might not let you have any treats.”
Dash almost winced. Yep, he agreed with Cassie, that might be a bad thing. Unfortunately, he had yet to know what it was like to be really treated by Elizabeth.
“I’ll get my own candy bars,” he confided with a grin. “What would she do then?”
Cassie evidently hadn’t considered that angle.
“Oh.” Cassie pursed her lips, considering. “Would you get me one, too?” Her curls seemed to bounce around her face as she smiled up at him sweetly. Pure innocence. Or so she wanted him to think.
Dash snorted. Oh, she was a charmer all right.
“I don’t know. Messing with your momma over your candy bars might really get me in trouble.” He frowned as though thinking the matter over. “I might not want to chance that, Cassie.” The little girl obviously liked her candy bars. But she was also enjoying the game of learning how great an ally Dash would be.
He watched as she pulled at one of her curls thoughtfully. Her head tilted and he swore he could see her quick little mind working in those wide blue eyes.
“I could tell you how to get her unmad at you,” she finally confided sweetly. “I know the secret. Momma can’t resist.”
Now this might be interesting. Dash glanced over her. “You tell first. Then we’ll talk candy bars.”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “This information is worth a lot of candy bars, Dash.” She shook her head at him as though he disappointed her. She was obviously expecting so much more from him.
Dash wanted to laugh. He was surprised to realize how easily it was building in his chest. She was a tough little thing, for sure. He would have expected her to be huddled in fear, flinching at each sudden sound. Instead, she appeared to have completely forgotten about the day before.
“Hm,” he finally grunted, as though he might be reluctant to bargain. “What amount are we talking here?”
He hadn’t had much experience with kids, but Cassie made it real easy to find common ground with her.
“Well.” She scrunched her face up as she glanced back at the bathroom door before turning back to him with an innocent smile. “At least three chocolate bars. I really like chocolate, you know.”
Dash wiped his hand over his face, fighting his amusement. Damn. She was good. Her momma would kill him over three candy bars.
“Three, huh?” He sighed as though it could be a possibility. “How mad will your momma get over these three chocolate bars?”
She straightened the sleeve of her shirt. Ran her hand over the soft material again and then looked up at him with those angel’s eyes as though she had nothing more on her mind then making his life easier.
“Well, it would be controllable if you knew the secret to make her unmad.” She shrugged her pitifully thin shoulders negligently. “So, do we have a bargain here?”
Oh, she was good.
“I don’t know.” He cocked his head sideways. “I don’t have any chocolate bars right now.”
She pressed her lips together as she placed two small fingers at the bridge of her nose and shook her head as though she had lost all hope for him. Finally, she sighed as though more than put out. Her eyes were twinkling, though, the shadows of fear easing.
“I’ll take you on your word then,” she sighed. “But you really should stock up on chocolate bars. It’s more precious than gold when dealing with kids, ya know.”
He nodded solemnly. “I’ll keep that in mind. So what’s the secret?”
“Kisses.” She leaned back as though she had just pulled off the coup of the century. And to beat all, she was laughing at him.
“Kisses?” he asked her carefully.
She nodded confidently. “Lots of kisses, Dash. And Momma’s already upset. You better pucker up.”
She was giggling. She clapped her hand over her mouth, though, when her momma walked quickly from the bathroom, dragging a wide-toothed comb quickly through her unruly locks.
“You forgot hair bands for me, Mr. Prepared-For-Everything,” she muttered in irritation as she swept the waist length curls behind her shoulder and lifted her head.
Her eyes narrowed instantly. Her hands went to her slender hips, emphasized by the snug fit of denim and the black blouse tucked into the waistband.
“What are you two up to?”
Cassie’s eyes rounded instantly as she jumped from the bed and flew to her momma’s arms.
Elizabeth caught her easily, a smile crossing her lips, even if it was highly suspicious. She accepted the little girl’s exuberant kiss to her cheek, though, and returned it warmly.
“Don’t we have pretty clothes, Momma?” She leaned back to allow her mother to admire the dark gray velour outfit. “Dash has good taste, huh?”
The little girl was almost as tall as her mother. Dash watched them covertly as he rose to his feet, lifting the bag from the bed as he flexed his shoulder muscles, checking the fit of the leather bands that held the knife sheath between his shoulder blades.
“Yes. Dash has good taste.” She allowed her daughter to slide to the floor, laying her arm across her shoulders. “Get your coat on now, Cassie. It looks like Dash is ready to leave.” Her voice cooled measurably. “Maybe you better hurry and use the bathroom first, though. We might have a lengthy drive ahead of us.”
Cassie bounced away while her mother looked after her. When the door closed, Elizabeth turned back to Dash.
“No chocolate bars,” she said as she sat down at the edge of the bed to lace the boots Dash had provided for her. “It makes her too hyper and she won’t eat her meals. Right now, vitamins are more important.”
He knew there was no way she had heard their conversation. She lifted her head after finishing, glancing at his questioning expression.
“She bargains for chocolate, Dash. What did she promise
in return?” He watched her lips press together as though she were trying to control her own grin. “Don’t believe that child. She really doesn’t know the secret to the universe, or ancient druid curses. She just thinks she does.”
Hell, she hadn’t offered those to him, he thought with a spurt of amusement. But then again, he knew the little girl was after a hell of a lot more than chocolate. The little conniver was after a bit of matchmaking.
He shook his head as Elizabeth rose to her feet, her eyes narrowing on him.
“Well?” she asked him curiously. “What was it?”
He shrugged. “Can’t tell. Chocolate secrets are sacred, you know.”
She snorted at that. Thankfully, Cassie chose that moment to come bounding out of the bathroom. Elizabeth turned quickly to take care of washing and drying her hands, then a quick pat to thick childish curls and getting her into her coat. The whole time, Cassie talked.
“Are we really going to a ranch, Dash?” She stared up at him in amazement. “I’ve never been to a ranch before.”
“Definitely a ranch, Cassie.” He opened the door.
Two feet of snow greeted him and more was still falling.
“Come on, chatter box.” He swung her up in his arms and began pushing through the snow to the Hummer, making certain to clear a path for Elizabeth as she moved behind him.
“I’m hungry, Dash,” she informed him as he strapped her into the back seat, looking up at him with wide eyes. “Can we get something to eat? I want some pizza.”
He glanced back at Elizabeth, catching the surprise in her expression.
“Let’s get rolling first, squirt,” he chuckled. “Then we’ll see what your momma thinks is best.”
He closed Cassie’s door, then opened the front passenger door, gripping Elizabeth’s waist and lifting her into the high seat. He realized he had left her to make her own way into the vehicle the night before. She tensed in his arms, but allowed him to help her in, casting him a surprised glance as he pulled her seat belt forward.
“I remember my manners sometimes.” He cleared his throat as she snapped the strap in place. He made a mental note to remember them more often, though they were self-taught. He might have to polish them a bit. Maybe Mike would have some ideas. Hell, he was married now, he should know.
The outside lights cast a dim, ethereal glow around her. Her dark hair glistened; her blue eyes appeared darker, more mysterious. Her lips shone with the delicate coating of moisture from the nervous tongue she stroked over them.
She drew in a deep hard breath, lifting her breasts against her shirt. He remembered the bra. Lacy, flimsy. It was a tempting piece of confection that drove him crazy when he thought about it.
He cleared his throat. “Pizza?” he asked her softly. He was starved, but not for food.
She swallowed tightly. “That’s fine.”
They both jumped at Cassie’s squeal of pleasure from the back seat. Dash nodded abruptly before he closed Elizabeth’s door and strode quickly to the driver’s side. The pizza would be easy enough. Loosening up Elizabeth might be a bit harder.
Chapter Seven
“This guy is a friend of yours?”
Elizabeth was nervous about their arrival at the Toler ranch. She had gone from having no one to help her, having no options, to having Dash take over and find options she could have never found for herself.
For two years she had depended on no one but herself. She had kept her and Cassie alive, often only by the skin of her teeth, but they were still alive. She had made her own decisions. Had protected Cassie alone and accepted the responsibility that each move, each decision, was the best she could make at the time.
Now Dash was making the decisions and he was doing it without informing her of the consequences, should any of them fail. She felt like she was in the dark, foundering for solid footing amid a situation she was unfamiliar with. She didn’t know Mike Toler. Didn’t know his family, his strengths or his weaknesses and she didn’t feel safe.
She watched Dash now, noticing his relaxed posture, his air of confidence and control. How she longed to feel so in control of any situation. The lights from the dash reflected off his hard face, the dull gleam of the night vision windshield giving him an almost other worldly appearance. The unfamiliar lights cast his expression in stark relief and made his eyes almost glow as he glanced over at her.
“He’s a fellow soldier,” he said simply as he shrugged those broad shoulders.
Hard, muscular shoulders. She had gripped the smooth, tight flesh earlier that morning, allowed her nails to clench on the supple skin as he ate from her mouth. Her fingertips tingled at the memory. Her mouth watered with sudden hunger to know his taste again.
“A fellow soldier doesn’t tell me much, Dash.” She pulled her mind back from the erotic possibilities that shimmered within her mind. She couldn’t let herself lose focus. Cassie’s life was too important. “Even friends aren’t always dependable.”
“Likely why I haven’t made any.” He didn’t appear regretful or bitter. It was a statement, nothing more. “We fought in Afghanistan together. In conditions like we knew, you learn the mettle of the men you fight with. Mike wouldn’t betray a kid. He put his life on the line too many times to save one. And he wouldn’t betray me. He owes his life to me.”
It was information. Nothing more. There was little emotion in his voice other than respect. Elizabeth thought of the people she had believed were her friends once. People she cared had for, had believed cared for her. She had loved them. Openly. Never questioning their honesty or their commitment to her. She had learned quickly that the least controversy had even those friends she had grown up with pulling back.
Yet, here was Dash, going to a man he had fought with, confident of that man’s loyalty, his honor. It made little sense to her.
“How can you be sure?” It was her greatest fear. A betrayal that would cost her the life of her child. “You’re trusting this man with Cassie’s life.”
“I’d trust him with my own.” He flashed her a dark look. “You don’t fight with a man for a year in hell and not know what he’s made of, Elizabeth. Mike’s a good man. He won’t let us down.”
“You expect me to just take your word.” She kept her voice low, aware that Cassie was still awake in the back. She regretted the fact that her internal alarm clock had failed her today, allowing her to sleep until Dash awoke them both. She had needed to talk this out with him.
“The fairy says it’s okay, Momma,” the little girl piped in then, her voice soft, reassuring.
Elizabeth closed her eyes painfully, her chest tightening. How she wished Cassie’s fairy, whoever the hell it was, would tell her. But then again, this fairy thing was already starting to concern her. As they had walked from the basement to their apartment two days before, Cassie had whispered that the fairy didn’t want them going back to their room.
Please, Momma. The fairy says to stay here. To wait. I don’t wanna go up there.
Had Cassie somehow known their enemies were there?
Elizabeth knew children had an advanced sense of their surroundings. One parents lost as they matured. The ability to see and sense things that parents rarely made sense of. Was the fairy merely a way for her to explain this?
“Tell the fairy I said thank you, Cassie.” She looked between the seats, smiling at her little girl. “But Momma needs to make sure. Adults don’t have fairies to guide them.”
Cassie looked up over at her with amazing sobriety. “You can use my fairy, Momma. I’ll tell you what she thinks.”
And how did she answer that one? Cassie never failed to surprise her.
“Thank you, honey, but Momma needs more than just the fairy’s word right now. Okay?” She kept her voice gentle. She didn’t want to hurt Cassie’s feelings. Didn’t want her to sense that her mother had lost her belief in fairies long ago.
“I understand, Momma.” Cassie settled back in her seat, her smile flashing in the darkness. “You can
talk to Dash all you like about it then. I know it’s going to be okay.”
Elizabeth’s fists clenched as she turned back and faced forward. Snow still fell, though not as thick as before. The roads were deserted, the country lane blending into the surrounding landscape until only the faintest hint that it was actually a road remained.
She hated not knowing. Not being certain. She didn’t know this rancher, this ex-C.I.A. agent Dash was taking them to. She didn’t know Dash. Yet she was being expected to trust merely because she had no other choice.
“Why are you trusting me, Elizabeth, even this far?” he finally asked her. “You could have left the motel while I showered. You could have made any attempt to escape me. And you would have if you felt the need. Why didn’t you?”
Dash’s voice was gentle. It was dark and demanding, but the underlying softness soothed the ragged edges of her nerves.
She pushed her fingers restlessly through her hair. He hadn’t hurt her when he had the chance. He had killed a man for her. He had followed her through a blizzard and taken her farther away from the men searching for Cassie. He had haggled with Cassie over chocolate bars and carried a tote of clothes for months, picking up more here and there because he knew theirs were being destroyed.
He had bought her daughter a bicycle. Had sent her a robe. He had done so many things, even before he found them, to make Cassie’s life, and hers, easier. How could she not take the chance?
“You made your point.” She laced her fingers together tightly. “But I still don’t know this man. I can’t trust like this, Dash. Not after all this time.”
“Then trust me,” he suggested. “You can, Elizabeth. You know you can.”
She stared out at the steadily falling snow, trying to maintain her control as he turned carefully from the road and drove beneath a sign announcing the Bar T Ranch. They were within only a few miles of this potentially dangerous situation. She braced herself for it, knowing she had no choice now but to trust Dash.
The dashboard clock was lit at nearly nine o’ clock. The normally hour-long drive had taken over three hours, counting the stop for Cassie’s pizza. Pizza that now sat like a lump in her stomach.
“Put on your coat, Cassie.” She kept her voice even. If they had to run, she didn’t want her daughter without some protection.
She tensed as Dash reached down between his seat and door, his body shifting, moving carefully. When he pulled the holstered gun from the cavity and handed it to her, she stared back at him in shock.
“I wouldn’t take a chance with your life,” he told her quietly. “I need your trust, Elizabeth. Here is mine in return.”
She stared down at the weapon before raising her eyes to his once again.
“Would you expect another soldier to follow you blindly?” she finally asked him somberly. “Would you ask him, with no explanations, without outlining whatever plan I pray you have, to just follow?”
He was silent for long moments as he laid the revolver on the console between their seats and gripped the steering wheel with both hands as he maneuvered through more than a foot of snow.
“There’s a chance that I can arrange a place of safety for you and Cassie. One that Grange can’t infiltrate or access in any way. A place where Cassie will be as safe as gold in Fort Knox.”
Elizabeth took a deep breath. She had been praying for nothing more. Nothing less. But the tone of his voice warned her that she might not like the answer.
“Where is this place?”
He glanced at her. “I’d rather not say until I can be certain, Elizabeth. This requires a place without little ears and more time than we have in this Hummer. Another soldier would understand this. Just as he would understand that I have those I trust. That even if he doesn’t know them, he understands that the contacts are important. Another soldier would understand that a commander knows what the hell he’s doing, and he will explain the full plan and discuss it when he knows it’s a plan.”
Elizabeth grit her teeth. Tight. Damn him.
She bit back the curse that wanted to sizzle to her lips as she turned away from him, staring outside the Hummer resentfully. He was right. But she damned well didn’t have to like it.
“Ohhh, Momma. Dash is good…” Cassie’s awed voice was filled with respect for how easily Dash had managed to turn the tables on a mother she had never managed to outwit. And never will, Elizabeth thought with affection, though she was still a little irked at Dash.
Elizabeth snorted. “Remember the phrase ‘getting too big for your britches’, Cassie?” she asked her daughter, using a firm tone of voice. “Dash could be in danger here.”
“Uh oh,” Cassie sing-songed. “Better remember what I told you earlier.”
Elizabeth glanced over at him curiously.
“Too big for my britches, huh?” he muttered for her alone. “Elizabeth, darlin’, you have no idea.” Then he said to Cassie, “I’ll remember your advice, honey, just as soon as I get the chance. You got your coat on now? We’ll be there soon.”
Scarlet heat flamed through Elizabeth’s body, flushing her cheeks in aroused embarrassment as she turned quickly away from him, remembering just how big he could get. Definitely too big for his britches. She swallowed tightly then breathed in with slow even breaths to fight the sudden hard thump of her heart. Damn him. Did he have a countermove for everything?
The rest of the drive was completed in silence. Elizabeth steeled herself for the coming arrival. Death or safety. With each move she had made over the past two years it came down to this. And though she was beginning to trust Dash to a point, finding it in her to trust someone on his say-so alone was harder.
The Hummer pulled through the snow easily, though Dash didn’t push for speed. Still, all too soon they rounded the last small hill and the two-story ranch house came into view. It was well lit. The front door opened as the wide entrance to a garage slowly began to rise.
A tall man moved easily from the porch along a shoveled walkway, timing his steps to coincide with Dash maneuvering the Hummer into the wide garage. As they cleared the door, it began to lower once again, enclosing them in the brightly lit area as Dash cut the ignition.
“Momma.” Cassie’s voice was faint. “The fairy says it’s okay. She really does.” But Elizabeth heard her daughter’s fear as the strange male began to come alongside the vehicle.
“Come here, baby.” Elizabeth unbuckled her seat belt as Dash did, grabbed the service revolver in one hand and motioned her daughter to her with the other.
In an instant Cassie was over the console. Her thin arms wrapped around Elizabeth’s neck, her head burying against it as she trembled.
“Elizabeth?” Dash turned to her, watching Cassie in alarm.