Gage Read online

  “Ford wouldn’t have killed me,” Gage insisted.

  “He convinced me otherwise.” And that’s all she could say for several seconds. “Remember, I disappeared for a week after we got married?”

  “Oh, yeah. I remember. And that’s when you told me you’d had the marriage annulled.”

  It was hard to deal with those old memories that were still so raw and painful, but Gage had to know. It might make him understand the danger. Not from men like Freddie Denton or Sampson Dalvetti. No, this danger was much closer.

  “My father had me committed to an insane asylum in Mexico,” she explained, trying to sound clinical. “Let’s just say it wasn’t a fun place, and he did that to me to prove that he had complete control of me and my life.”

  Gage’s mouth dropped open. “He put you in a crazy house?”

  “He did. And he called me every day to remind me that he could keep me there while he murdered you.” She stared at him. “Gage, he did that and didn’t leave a paper trail or any trace of what he’d done.”

  He turned her to face him. “You should have told someone.”

  “I did! I told the authorities in Mexico, but my father had fake doctors’ reports saying I was paranoid and needed to be institutionalized. He has a lot of power. A lot of friends in the right places to do whatever wrong he wants to do.”

  Gage didn’t answer, but she could see his jaw muscles stirring. He let go of her and stared out at the rain and the runway.

  “After I thought you were dead, I dug into those files because I was looking for some proof that he’d killed my mother,” she continued. “I figured I could send him to jail for the rest of his life.”

  Gage shot her another glare. “If he sent you to the crazy house and killed your mother, then he’d kill you. It was too dangerous for you to go looking for proof that could put you in the grave.”

  “I know. And that’s why I stopped after the doctor called from San Antonio.”

  Another aha flash went through his eyes.

  “I quit looking for proof of my father’s guilt because I wanted a baby. And I wanted to keep my baby safe.”

  “Clearly, you failed at that,” he mumbled. “Why’d you use my sperm and not some anonymous donor from a sperm bank? That would have been a heck of a lot safer for you if your father found out.”

  She hesitated, carefully considering her answer. Gage probably wouldn’t want to hear that the only baby she wanted was his. No. Not with everything that’d happened between them. Besides, it might make him feel as if she were trying to pressure him to coming back into her life.

  “Going through a sperm bank would have added another step to the process,” she settled for saying. “To keep my father from finding out, I would have had to create another identity to get a donor. It just seemed simpler to use what the doctor in San Antonio was offering me rather than go to another source.”

  Gage looked at her, and Lynette braced herself for the next set of questions. The ones where he would press for the truth about what she’d just told him. Or maybe he’d want to know how she felt about that decade-old annulment. She couldn’t tell him that it’d crushed her. That it had left a wound inside her that would never heal.

  No. Gage couldn’t know that.

  Because it would make him go after her father. Not with the cool head of a CIA operative, either. Gage would confront him in a hot moment of temper, and there would be one of two outcomes.

  Gage would kill her father.

  Or her father would kill him.

  Without proof that her father had done the unspeakable crime of killing her mother, Gage would look guilty of killing an innocent man. One with lots of power and money. A man that Gage had let plenty of people know that he hated and would like to see dead.

  The wave of nausea hit her so quickly that she hadn’t felt it coming. Lynette took a deep breath. Several of them. It didn’t help. She hadn’t had a twinge of morning sickness, but maybe that’s what this was. Or maybe she was just sick at the thought of never seeing Gage again.

  But it was worth the price to keep him alive—especially now that he hadn’t been killed eleven months ago.

  Lynette buttoned her coat and reached for the door handle to open it. “Where are you sending me?” she asked.

  He didn’t answer right away. He continued to stare at her. “To a friend who’s a federal marshal over in Maverick County. He’ll keep you safe.”

  She hoped that was true. Hoped that safety was even possible at this point. “Will my father or another hit man be able to trace where the plane is going?”

  “I’ll take care of that,” Gage promised. “I’ll contact you when everything’s been resolved.”

  She believed him. Well, she believed he would try anyway. “And you’ll be careful?”

  “Deal. Hey, I’m a careful guy,” he added, splashing each word with his trademark drawl and cockiness.

  Mercy, this was torture, knowing that Gage would have to face down a killer while she was tucked away in another county with a marshal.

  Since there was nothing else to say that wouldn’t get her in more trouble, Lynette just nodded and opened the door of the SUV. Gage did, too, on the driver’s side. But before her foot even touched the ground, Gage caught on to her and yanked her back inside.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  He didn’t get a chance to answer. In front of them, on the runway, the small plane burst into a ball of flames.

  * * *

  GAGE DIDN’T THINK about what had just happened. He went on autopilot, relying on his training and experience. The second he had Lynette on the seat, he threw the SUV into gear, slammed his foot on the accelerator and got them out of there.

  Fast.

  “The plane blew up,” Lynette said. She wasn’t just shaky. That was pure panic Gage heard in her voice. “The plane blew up.” She just kept repeating it while she stared back at the ball of flames.

  Yeah, it’d blown up all right. That meant they had an even bigger problem than he’d anticipated, and he had anticipated some pretty bad things.

  “Why did it blow up?” she asked, the panic going up a notch.

  “I’m not sure.” But he had to find out. Somehow.

  Gage glanced at the secure phone attached to the dash. It was supposed to be untraceable, but Gage couldn’t take the risk that someone had managed to tap in to it. He also couldn’t risk calling his handler, Sherman Hendricks. Sherman wasn’t dirty. He was positive of that, but it didn’t mean someone around Sherman hadn’t discovered that Gage was still alive and betrayed him.

  “Who did this?” Lynette asked. She still had her attention fastened to the rear window. Her eyes were wide, and she was shaking all over.

  “I don’t know that, either. Not yet. But put on your seat belt,” Gage ordered.

  With the slick, wet roads and the speed he was going, conditions were ripe for an accident. That was the last thing they needed if someone was already on their tails.

  Lynette did put on her seat belt, though he didn’t know how she managed with her hands shaking like crazy. “I was supposed to be on that plane.”

  Stating the obvious, but it was unnecessary to remind Gage of that, and he couldn’t let what could have been distract him now. He got off the airport road and took the first side road he could.

  “Did the pilot blow up the plane?” Lynette asked.

  Possibly.

  And that was another reason Gage couldn’t call his handler. Sherman had also arranged for the pilot, who was a former operative. Hell. If they had a leak in communication or a mole, it was a really bad time for it. Gage needed backup and resources, and at the moment he was short on both of those.

  “I’ll get answers soon,” Gage promised her. “But first, I have to get you someplace safe.”

  She shook her head. “Is that possible?” Her shaky voice hadn’t calmed even a little. Probably because she’d had a double whammy of danger this morning.

  “Eventual
ly, I’ll find somewhere for you to go.” It would take some doing since he couldn’t contact anyone in the CIA for help, not until he’d cleared up the possible leak issue.

  “Oh, God.” She dropped her head against the back of the seat and slid her hand over her stomach.

  That shot a new round of alarm through him. “Are you okay? Are you having pains or something?”

  It hit him then. She could lose the baby. She was only weeks into this pregnancy, and the trauma of all of this could cause her to miscarry.

  That hit him even harder than the explosion.

  Until minutes ago, Gage hadn’t known about this baby. He darn sure hadn’t planned it, either, but he would do everything within his power to keep Lynette and the child safe.

  “No pains,” she assured him. “I’m just scared for the baby and us.”

  So was he, but Gage kept that to himself. Lynette was barely holding it together as it was, and she didn’t need to know that he was shaking in his boots.

  Oh, man.

  He’d faced enemy fire and cold-blooded assassins, but that felt like Little League compared to this.

  She glanced behind them again, but Gage already knew there wasn’t anything to see now that the airport and flaming plane were out of sight. No one was following them, and to make sure it stayed that way, he rolled down his window and tossed out the secure phone.

  “Just in case,” he told Lynette.

  “In case of what?” she asked.

  He didn’t intend to answer that, either. It wouldn’t do her or the baby any good for him to go through all the nightmarish scenarios that could play out.

  “Just in case,” he repeated.

  That obviously didn’t ease any of her concerns, but it was a necessity. Now, the question was—what was the next step? Gage went through his options and discarded them as quickly as they came.

  Until he got to the last one.

  Hell.

  It was the only one that made sense. But it wouldn’t be easy. Still, he had to put his personal feelings and issues aside and consider what was best for Lynette.

  Though it wouldn’t be easy for her, either.

  “Are we going back to my house?” she asked, taking him by his arm.

  “No.” Not a chance. That’s exactly where he’d directed a CIA cleanup team to go. A team that might have dirty agents who could leak their location. He didn’t want Lynette near the place.

  Gage turned onto the main road, and almost immediately he saw the lights from the town. Silver Creek.

  Home.

  Where he wouldn’t be welcome.

  But hopefully Lynette would be. Well, maybe she would be after Gage explained some things.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked. The concern was rising again.

  Not just in her but in Gage, too.

  Because in a few minutes he would walk into the sheriff’s office and face the brothers who thought he was dead.

  Chapter Six

  Ahead of them on the road, Lynette spotted lights from a squad car.

  The blue flashes of light whipped through the darkness and the rain-streaked windshield. Someone, probably one of Gage’s brothers, was no doubt responding to the explosion at the airport. Maybe they’d find something that would ultimately lead to an arrest.

  Her father, Nicole or Patrick.

  Any one of them could be behind this.

  Any one of them could want her dead.

  That was suddenly crystal clear to her. The hit man was proof of that. Ditto for the exploding plane. But while Patrick or Nicole could be the culprit, this felt like her father’s doing. Not getting his pristine hands dirty but rather hiring someone to blow her to smithereens.

  And he or the person responsible had nearly succeeded.

  She was about to remind Gage that they should get as far away from this place as possible. But Gage slowed down and turned into a parking lot.

  A familiar one.

  She looked at Gage as if he’d lost his mind. “This is the sheriff’s office,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah.” And that’s all he said.

  She huffed. “But your family doesn’t know you’re alive. Plus, there’s the danger with the drug lord guy coming after them if he finds out you’re not dead.”

  Another yeah. He parked, turned off the engine. “I’m aware of all of that. I also know that anything I do at this point is a risk.” He paused. “But doing nothing could be an even bigger risk.”

  Maybe. But when she thought about that, she shook her head. “We could go to a city like Dallas or Houston and get lost in the crowd.”

  He looked at her, his head cocked to a familiar angle. “My brothers will protect you with their lives.”

  They probably wouldn’t protect him though. There was bad blood because he’d left after the annulment and had had only minimal contact with them since. He’d turned his back on his family, and that wouldn’t earn him a warm, fuzzy welcome.

  Especially since he was riding in on the heels of danger.

  “This is just so we can regroup,” Gage explained. “We’ll tell as few people as possible and then leave as quickly as we can.”

  Because they sure as heck didn’t want the news to get back to Sampson Dalvetti. The problem was it was very difficult to keep secrets in a small town. Lynette had managed it so far with the pregnancy….

  But she froze.

  And remembered that her father was a devious man with all those resources to help him with his deviousness.

  Oh, mercy.

  If her father knew about the baby, then he could have been so enraged that he would have sent that hit man.

  “Let’s do this fast,” Gage told her. “I don’t want you out in the open any longer than necessary.”

  She didn’t budge. “Let me go alone. And you can disappear again. It’ll be safer for you.”

  “Yeah. But not safer for you. I’m not leaving you in a parking lot in the rain. Heck, I’m not leaving, period, until I know you’re protected.”

  She tried to object, tried to make him understand this was a bad idea, but Gage didn’t listen. He hurried from the SUV, took Lynette by the arm and he got her moving toward the back entrance of the sheriff’s office. The second he had the door open, he shoved her inside and then stepped protectively in front of her.

  The sound of the movement and door must have alerted someone because Lynette heard footsteps. A moment later, Gage’s older brother Mason appeared in the hall.

  She silently groaned. Mason wasn’t the friendliest of the Ryland clan. In fact, he looked far more dangerous than the criminals he arrested as a Silver Creek deputy. Thankfully, they didn’t cross paths a lot because Mason did the bulk of the work to run the family ranch.

  Mason made a slight sound. Barely a reaction at all. “So, you’re alive,” he snarled.

  Gage gave his usual “yeah.”

  Not much of a welcome-home outpouring. Unlike hers. She’d kissed Gage, for heaven’s sake. Something that shouldn’t have happened. The brothers stood there, staring at each other, and it seemed to her as if they had an entire discussion without saying a word.

  Mason finally lifted his shoulder. “Anyone else know you’re back from the grave?”

  Gage shook his head. “Just Lynette and my handler.” He stepped to the side so that Mason could see her. “It has to stay that way. Who else is here?”

  “Just me. Grayson and Dade are on their way to the airport to check out the explosion.” Mason paused. “Did you have anything to do with that?”

  “Indirectly,” Gage admitted. “The pilot and plane were supposed to get Lynette away from here.”

  “Someone tried to kill me,” she volunteered. “A hit man.”

  Mason’s eyebrow swung up. “Who’d you piss off?”

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure.”

  “There’s a slim possibility it’s connected to me,” Gage admitted. “There’s a good reason I let everyone believe I was dead.”

 
; “Who’d you piss off?” Mason repeated, directing it this time to Gage.

  “The wrong person.” Gage paused then mumbled something she didn’t catch.

  “What’s wrong with your voice?” Mason asked.

  “A failed attempt at a disguise. It’ll wear off soon.” Gage huffed. “I need to use your phone. A landline.”

  Mason hitched his thumb to the office behind him. “Anything else?”

  “Watch Lynette for me. Don’t let her out of your sight.”

  As if he knew his order would be obeyed and obeyed well, Gage walked past his brother and disappeared into the office. Mason looked at her, at her wet dress, coat and hair.

  “You knew he was alive?” Mason’s question had an edge to it. But then, Mason always seemed to have an edge.

  “No. Not until about an hour ago when he broke in to my house.” It seemed like an eternity since that’d happened. Her entire world had been turned upside down in that hour, and she suspected Mason was feeling some of that, too.

  Mason studied her, as if checking for some clues in her body language. “So, what’s going on?”

  She wearily shook her head. “We’re not sure. A drug lord threatened to kill all of you. And me. That’s why Gage faked his death. He figured if the drug lord thought he was dead, there’d be no reason to come after us.”

  “That’s Gage. Always too stubborn to ask for help. Well, until now. But I suspect his help-asking has more to do with you than him.” Mason studied her some more. “Are you two back together or what?”

  “No.” And she couldn’t answer fast enough. Lynette even hiked up her chin and tried not to show any doubts. “Gage got word of the hit man, and he came to save me. That’s all. I was supposed to get on that plane, leave and go to safety so that he could get out of here, too. But someone blew it up and messed up those plans.”

  Mason stayed quiet a moment. “So, what now? Gage just leaves again and pretends to be dead?”

  Lynette hated the thought of it. Seeing him even for this short time had reopened all the old wounds that had never fully closed. Never would.