Chapter 4

A few hourslater they were tucked safely into the little house that had been built behind the sheriff’s office. He’d been glad the house had been added since he’d had no plans to live with his parents on the family ranch once he’d moved back to Laurel Valley. His time as an Army Ranger and then the work he’d done for the DEA had made him a nomad of sorts, and there was no particular place he’d called home.

It was tucked back in the trees, a little over a quarter mile from the station, but he was trying to see it through Lily’s eyes. It was made of the same river rock that adorned many of the other buildings in town, with a wide front porch and a single fern that hung on a hook that his mother had brought during her last visit.

But the inside was bare. Just basic necessities and furniture. White walls and a handmade rug in shades of blue his sister had made him for Christmas. A set of four white dishes—because it’s not like he ever invited anyone over for dinner. And he sure hadn’t been dating. Lily might have left him, but he was still married.

But seeing her in his home hit deeper. He wanted it to be their home. No, he wanted them to build a home together.

It wasn’t often he’d seen her relaxed. She was always so tough. So in control. She was snuggled next to him in the big king-size bed where he’d dreamed of her. Her hair was down and spread around her shoulders, her skin flushed and her breathing even in sleep. He couldn’t stop touching her, running his finger across her shoulder and feeling the silkiness of her hair while the lightning flashed through the bedroom windows.

He’d waited a year to get her out of his system. And he realized that a lifetime wouldn’t be long enough. Lily Crow was his—for now and forever.

The storm was as bad as the weathermen predicted, and it wasn’t expected to stop for two more days. And if their next two days were spent like the last hour had been, he wasn’t sure he’d survive it. She was everything he’d remembered and more—his dreams come to life.

He’d seen too much before he’d settled in Laurel Valley. His time as a Ranger had changed him. Watching friends die had a tendency to do that to a man. He wasn’t sure why he’d agreed to take the job as sheriff, but in doing so he thought it would bring him the peace and quiet he desired. A simple life with simple needs. He no longer needed to prove himself to anyone. And he no longer felt the need to risk his life for the sake of the rush the next op would bring him.

Another rumble of thunder crashed, rattling the windows, the lightning closer than it had been the time before. The lights in the bathroom flickered twice and then went out, so he slid out of bed and pulled on a pair of sweats to do a walk-through of the house. Some habits died hard.

He grabbed his weapon and his flashlight from the nightstand table kept the beam low so he didn’t wake Lily. The generator would be kicking on in a minute or so if all was well, but if his power was out that meant that all of downtown was probably out as well. The bed-and-breakfast, restaurants, and bars all had generators, but there were a few homes that didn’t have them.

The floor was cold beneath his bare feet, and it looked like the weather had turned cooler sooner than they’d predicted. He stopped in the hallway and adjusted the thermostat so the heat would kick on when the generator came to life. As soon as he had the thought the lights he strategically left on around the house came on with a soft glow.

The sat phone he’d taken with him from the station rang, and he blew out a sigh. He’d known it was coming. It was part of the job. But there was a part of him that wanted to be selfish and stay curled up next to Lily for the next two days.

He took the call and then walked through the house and checked all the locks. And then he went back to the bedroom and put on his uniform and his police-issue rain gear, strapping on his utility belt and grabbing a couple of extra flashlights for safe measure.

He leaned over Lily and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, and then he kissed her forehead and watched her wrinkle her nose in protest. Her obvious disgruntlement made him grin. Lily was a prickly creature to be sure.

“Wake up, sweetheart. I’ve got to go out for a while.”

Her eyes fluttered open and she turned so she could see him better. “I’m awake. What time is it?”

“Just after midnight,” he said.

“I need to get up early and start tracking my skip. This rain is going to make it impossible to find him.”

“I don’t think anyone is going anywhere, including your skip. If he’s in Laurel Valley he’s stuck here. The roads are closed and power lines are down. That’s why I’m heading out. I’m not sure what time I’ll be back, but don’t leave. It’s too dangerous. You’re welcome to whatever you need here. There’s food in the kitchen and you already know where the shower is.”

Her cheeks flushed and she bit her bottom lip, and then her hand came up in a sweet gesture and touched the side of his face. When she kissed him it was as if time stopped and everything was focused on that one moment where her lips met his.

“You could tempt me to stay,” he said, pulling away.

“But you can’t.” She let him go and snuggled back into the pillow.

“I’ll be back when I can. We’ve got power lines down and roads washed out. A couple of college kids coming home late are stranded out by Mill Pond. I’ve got a deputy headed over there, and I’m going to go deal with the power lines. I hooked the boat to my truck earlier, so things should go fairly quickly.”

“Be careful.” Her voice faded away as she drifted back into sleep.

Blaze stared at her a second longer. He wanted to say more. To tell her what had been brewing inside of him this past year. He’d known she’d come back, because whether she realized it or not, this was where she belonged.

He loved her. He’d had plenty of time to think about it after she’d walked out of his life. They had a lot to learn about each other still, but he knew as sure as he was breathing that she was meant for him. He only had to make her come around to the same realization. In the end, it would have to be her that made the decision to stay.

* * *

Lily sat up straight in bed, her heart pounding and her hands damp with sweat. The dream was always the same. She’d only been a cop for two years. But it had been two years too many. Long enough to watch her partner, Tony DeLuca, gunned down for no good reason.

It had been a routine call for a domestic disturbance. They’d been to the same house more than a dozen times before. The woman never pressed charges, but the neighbors’ complaints made a visit necessary. The woman would answer the door, her lip bleeding or her eye swelling shut, and she’d tell them she fell and that everything was all right.

It made Lily sick every time they took a call to that house because she knew one day the woman wouldn’t be able to answer the door at all. And there was nothing they could do about it.

She’d known in her gut when they got that last call that things would be bad. Her instincts were never wrong. But she and Tony took the call and knocked on the door, just like they had so many times before.

The woman answered the door like she usually did, and Lily could see the red marks in the shape of fingers around her throat. Her pupils were dilated so they were big as black saucers, and a streak of blood was smeared under her nose. Her hands shook and she only cracked the door an inch or two. The terror on the woman’s face was enough to send chills down Lily’s spine. Something was different about this time, and Lily’s hand automatically went to pull her weapon from her holster.

Tony tried to get the woman to come outside and talk to them for a bit without the husband interfering, but it was as if she were frozen in place. The shots that fired through the door took them all by surprise. And by some horrible stroke of bad luck, all three bullets hit Tony right in the middle of the chest.

If Lily had been the one to knock on the door that night—like she had almost every time before because she was a woman and the less threatening of the two—she’d be the one buried and gone instead of Tony. Lily had been given a second chance at life at the expense of her partner’s, and it was something she’d never forget.

After the shots had fired, Tony’s body had slammed back into her, falling on top of her, so she was trapped beneath his heavier frame. The breath was knocked out of her and for a few seconds, she was completely paralyzed. There was no amount of training or scenarios that could prepare you to catch your partner as he died.

Lily had still been on the ground, scrambling to her knees to call for backup, when two more shots sounded from inside the house—a shot for the wife and another the husband inflicted on himself.

She’d turned her badge and gun in that day, while Tony’s blood had still been sticky on her hands. Nothing her captain could say would change her mind. She didn’t have the guts to make it as a cop. But she had good instincts, and she had a nose for finding the bad guys. Becoming a bounty hunter was her only other option if she wanted to utilize her skills.

She shook herself out of the memories of the dream and looked around the room, trying to reorient herself to the present while repeating in her head that there was nothing she could do to change the past.

The rain still pounded down against the roof. It looked as if buckets of water were being poured onto the windowpanes, distorting the images in the street. Darkness still hovered in the sky, but she wasn’t sure if that was because of the clouds or because it was still the middle of the night. No matter the time, she was wide awake and she might as well get up.

She stretched slowly, feeling the soreness in her muscles. She’d known it was inevitable the moment she’d ridden into Laurel Valley. She knew she’d end up right where she was—in Blaze’s bed. She was his wife. And the knowledge brought a panic inside her she didn’t know how to deal with. She’d never been someone’s wife, or even had to care for or be responsible for another person.

Her parents had died in a car crash when she’d been fifteen and Jacob had been nineteen. Jacob was already involved with the wrong crowd, but after her parents’ death and the responsibility of raising his teenage sister, he’d kicked things up a notch, taking bigger risks for bigger money. She’d gone to the police academy after she’d graduated high school and never looked back. Jacob had taken a different route.

Blaze had asked her why she’d not gotten the marriage annulled. And the truth was, she hadn’t wanted to. She’d liked the idea that even on the other side of the country, she belonged to him. And she’d known the moment she’d stepped into Blaze’s presence for the first time that he was meant for her.

Lily remembered her great-grandmother from her childhood—she’d been impossibly old and she was blind as well. But she’d had the sight. And she’d told Lily there would be a man one day who’d be her equal, her perfect match, and not even the afterlife could keep them separated.

The words had etched themselves in Lily’s mind through her teenage years and through her time at the academy and then on the job. When she’d left law enforcement to become a bounty hunter she’d put the dreams of her childhood behind her and focused on the job. But then she’d met Blaze O’Hara, and her grandmother’s words rushed back in an instant. It was as if the air had been sucked out of the room, and she knew with certainty that her grandmother’s prediction was right—not even the afterlife could keep them separated.

The last thing she wanted to do was hurt Blaze. She wanted to be with him. She wanted to be his wife. But she’d come here to do a job, and she couldn’t let someone like Jackson Coltraine go uncaptured. He was evil. And the longer he was out among people the more likely he was to hurt someone.

Her pack was on the chair in the corner of the room, and then she remembered her backpack of clothes was in the saddlebag on her bike. If her bike was still where she’d left it, that was, and not floating down the street with the cows and who knew what else.

The important thing was she had her paperwork to capture Jackson Coltraine. She could pick up clothes and other supplies anywhere. And she could appreciate Blaze’s warning about the roads, but the itch at the back of her neck was telling her she needed to get out there and start looking. Coltraine was dangerous. And even sick, he wasn’t someone to underestimate.

Before she could get back to work she needed coffee and a shower. In that order. So she rummaged through one of Blaze’s drawers until she found a spare T-shirt, and she pulled it over her head, enjoying that the soft cotton smelled of him. Then she headed to the kitchen to see what more she could learn about the man who was her husband.

The way someone lived spoke a lot about a person. Blaze’s house was sparse—only a couch and a flat-screen TV on the wall in the living room. There were no pictures or other collectible-type things sitting around. Her own apartment looked much the same way, but mostly because she was never there and hadn’t even unpacked all of the boxes that were still in storage. She wondered what Blaze’s excuse was because he obviously spent time here.

The appliances in the kitchen were clean and well used. There was food in the refrigerator—not TV dinners and other various dips that most bachelors would have—but real food that made up ingredients for recipes. It was obvious the man cooked, but that made sense considering his mother was a well-known chef. She wanted to dig deeper—to learn more about the man he was. But she wouldn’t lower herself to snooping past what was right in front of her eyes.

She’d bitten off more than she could chew with Blaze, she thought, searching through cabinets in the kitchen until she found what she needed for the coffee. She’d hurt him by leaving. But she’d had no choice. She’d had a responsibility to bring her brother back so he could face the consequences of his actions.

And maybe one of the reasons she hadn’t come back was she was afraid to let Blaze know too much of her. That if she let him get too close he’d know her secrets and her shame. They had a lot to learn about each other. What if she let herself fall in love with him and then he ended up not liking the person she was? A person who could stand by helplessly as three people died around her. A coward who couldn’t pick up her badge and gun again to protect and serve.

Lily waited impatiently for the coffee, glancing at the clock above the microwave to see it wasn’t quite dawn yet, and still Blaze wasn’t back from wherever he’d gone. She looked outside again, hoping the rain had magically stopped while the coffee had been brewing, but no such luck.

It mattered not. She’d wait a couple hours, gather a few supplies, and then set out to find Jackson Coltraine. He was still recovering from whatever illness he’d picked up, so he’d be weak, unable to move as quickly or adapt in harder conditions. He’d be looking for a place he could lie low for a while until the rain passed and he could recoup some of his strength. She only hoped he decided not to endanger any of the citizens of Laurel Valley. Coltraine was dangerous and desperate—two things that made for a deadly combination.

The coffee trickled into the pot, and she finally lost patience and stuck her cup beneath the drip. She took the first scalding sip, feeling the blood start to move through her veins, and then she took it with her to the shower.

The bathroom was as clean and sparse as the rest of the place—white towels and washrags stacked in the cabinet above the toilet and a white shower curtain. And she noticed he’d picked up the damp towels from their earlier shower. Army habits died hard. Despite the tattoos and the streak of rebellion in Blaze to forge his own path and work the job however he saw fit, he was still a product of structure and order.

She turned on the water and then stripped out of Blaze’s shirt and got in, taking her coffee with her and enjoying the dual stimulation to get her brain back in working order.

She knew the moment he stepped into the bathroom. Her senses were too honed for her to not recognize the change in the air. But she also recognized that it was him.Her head dipped back under the spray, rinsing the remaining shampoo away, and then she pulled the curtain back.

“Good grief. What happened to you?” she asked, her eyes widening at the sight of him.

He’d stripped out of his shirt and had dropped it in a sopping heap on the floor. Despite the protection of the shirt, his chest and arms were covered in streaks of mud. So was his face. Black stubble whiskered his cheeks, but splatters of brown covered the left side of his face all the way to his hairline.

“I had to track down the truck from the electric company. They’d taken a wrong turn and had to abandon their truck because the water was rising too fast. So I had to unhook the boat and go get them. I gave them a ride so they could take care of the power lines before anyone got hurt. It’s as bad as I’ve ever seen out there. The people without generators are going to be without electricity for a few days.”

He worked at the buckle of his belt, but the leather had gone stiff and was crusted with mud, so it wasn’t easy to get off. Lily leaned down and turned the water a little hotter because his lips were blue and his teeth chattered. He finally got the belt loosened.

The fact that he’d left the dirty clothes on the floor was a telling sign of how exhausted he must be.

“Hand me a towel and I’ll get out and toss your clothes in the washer,” she told him.

“Thanks. Though I wouldn’t mind your company. I’ll let you scrub my back,” he said.

It would’ve been a more effective offer if he hadn’t been asleep on his feet.

“You’ve got another thing coming if you think the sight of you covered in mud and God knows what else is going to get me in the shower with you.”

“I’m not sure I’d have the strength to do anything but drop you, so I think you’re probably safe.”

“And the romance is dead,” she grinned. “I’ve always heard that about marriage.”

“Wait until you meet my parents. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come around a corner and seen things I shouldn’t have seen. I’m lucky I’m not scarred for life.”

She stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her, and then moved out of the way so he could step in. He hissed as the hot water hit his skin.

“Your parents,” she said, the thought of meeting them making her blood run cold. She sat down on the toilet seat and put her head in her hands.

“Yeah,” he said, seemingly unbothered. “It’ll be nice to finally tell them we’re married. Then my mom and sister can stop trying to set me up on dates.”

Her head snapped up at that and she arched a brow. “And have you been on many? Dates, that is.”

He grinned as he scrubbed all the mud from his body. “Jealousy becomes you, darling. And no, in my family married men don’t date.”

“How mad are they going to be?”

“Not even a little,” he said. “Believe me, they’ll be so happy I’m not going to grow old to be a crusty bachelor that they won’t care we kept it a secret.”

“You never told anyone?”

“Just Colt,” he said. “What about you?”

“No,” she said softly. “I didn’t really have anyone to tell. It didn’t seem like a good conversation to have with my brother.”

“We’re going to have to talk about all this, you know,” he said, lathering up a second round for another scrubbing. “We’ve got to figure out logistics. I know we can do it if we put our heads together and compromise.”

She sighed. “We’ll figure out something. But not now. There’s no rush.”

“And you’ve got a skip to catch,” he said, wiping the water from his eyes so he could look at her. “Don’t think for a second I’m going to let you skip town with another fugitive again. I don’t care if I have to go all the way back to New York with you.”

“I have to do my job,” she said, coming to her feet. “It’s how I make a living.”

“I’ve never had an issue with your job. Only the leaving. I moved your bike over to the police garage, by the way. And I grabbed your backpack while I was at it. I figured you’d probably need a change of clothes. Though you might want to toss them in the dryer first as they’re a little damp.”

Lily’s heart did a small flip in her chest that he’d thought of her. It was the little things, her mother had always told her, that made a relationship last.

“Why does it smell like coffee in the shower?” he asked quizzically.

“Here.” She handed him the coffee mug and waited while he took a long, lukewarm sip.

“This is a little weird, as I’ve always been under the impression that coffee should be drunk while not naked and soaking wet.”

She gave him a half smile and said, “Well, I guess it’s my job to get you out of your rut and bring some excitement to your small-town life.”

He grunted. “Believe me. Small-town life is heaven compared to what I’ve been doing the past fifteen years. It’s funny because growing up I couldn’t wait to get out of this place. So I joined the army and I excelled quickly, thinking the harder I worked the less likely I’d have to come back. But after you experience a few things, you start to realize that living in peace instead of chaos and enjoying the simpler ways of life is the real adventure. Marriage, children—those are all things I thought would bore me to tears. But the older I get the more I look forward to those things.”

“It’s definitely an adjustment,” she said. “You’ve travelled all over just like I have. And there are not a lot of places like Laurel Valley. You can’t disappear here. Being nameless and faceless is an impossibility. I’ve always been anonymous. Had to be in my line of work. I don’t know my neighbors and they don’t know me. I don’t hang out with friends after work.”

“That’s a lonely life,” he said, turning off the water and taking the towel she handed him. “And one you won’t be able to sustain forever. The human species is built for relationships with other people. There have been people in your life. People you’ve been close to.”

“My parents,” she said softly. “My partner when I was a cop.”

“That’s the first time you’ve told me you were a cop,” he said.

Her gaze narrowed as she watched his expression. “But you somehow already knew I had been.”

“I did a background on you the first time you stepped foot in Laurel Valley. You rode in on that bike with nothing but attitude and a chip on your shoulder. I wanted to make sure the woman I had the hots for wasn’t a complete reprobate.”

She felt the tightness in her chest. How much did he find out about her in that background check? That was the real question.

“That’s very responsible of you,” she said. “I’m glad I passed the test.”

He just smiled at her, the devil in his eyes, not caring a bit that she was irritated.

“Laurel Valley is a good place with good people,” he said. “It’s a community that cares about each other. The people here just do things differently. But mostly it’s entertaining, unless you’re waist deep in raging waters, listening to people who should be tucked away safe in their homes while they yell out instructions.”

Lily snorted out a laugh. “I can only imagine the excitement. Sometimes I miss cop life.”

“Yeah, these are the days I wish I’d chosen any other profession,” he said, wrapping the towel around his waist. “After I got the power line guys taken care of, I drove out to help my deputies with the stranded kids. The road is completely washed out. There’s no way through from either side or around unless you go by boat, and the water is moving fast enough that it’s better you don’t try it unless it’s an emergency. People are going to be stuck in their houses for days until the water recedes, or until they get restless enough to unhitch their boats and go joyriding. So probably by noon.”

Lily smiled at the obvious affection he had for the people of Laurel Valley, even as the affection equaled the exasperation.

“Those kids were stuck on top of their car and it took all of us to get them down and to safe ground. Their car washed away about five minutes after we got them to safety.” He wiped a hand over the scruff on his face. “I’m too tired to shave. We’re working shifts so I can take a few hours to get some sleep. We’re going to be spread thin the next week or so.”

“Let’s get you to bed before you fall down where you stand,” she said.

“You shouldn’t have given me the coffee. I find I’m feeling very alert. Rejuvenated even.”

She laughed and pushed him into the bedroom. “I can see that.”

* * *

“I need to get back to work soon,” Lily said sometime later. “I’ve got to catch Coltraine while he’s weak and not expecting me.”

“It’s too dangerous with the water levels the way they are.”

“That’s why I’ve got to go. Gotta catch the bad guys and put them away.”

She went limp in his arms and he kissed her forehead while she slept. “You should’ve stayed a cop. I bet you were a good one.”

Her breathing was even with sleep but she answered, “I wasn’t a good cop. Good cops don’t let people die.”

And then she didn’t say anything else as sleep claimed her fully, but the words she’d spoken echoed over and over in his mind. He knew the torment of what it was like to watch partners and friends die. And he hated that she’d been living with all that trapped inside of her and no one to share it with.