In the Lawman's Protection Page 12

  “Probably closer to thirty. It was sunset two days ago when you fell in. You woke up and helped me stitch you the next morning, and then you were out all day yesterday and a lot of today. It’s midafternoon now.”

  She wasn’t expecting the muttered curse that fell from his lips.

  She laughed nervously. “Got a big date that you’re missing?”

  He began patting around the bed. “I need my phone. Do you know where it is?”

  “It’s broken, remember? You were asking for it before the fever.” She got the pieces from the table and brought them over to him. “It got crushed in the fall or the river.”

  He muttered another curse before standing, completely naked and a little unstable, and walked to the window.

  “It’s too late. Damn it. I didn’t expect this.”

  Natalie had no idea what he was talking about. “Expect what?”

  He didn’t answer, just rolled his shoulder and stretched his arm as if to test the usability. It had to have hurt him, but he didn’t complain. Then he walked over to the couch where she’d hung his clothes—getting steadier with every step—and got dressed.

  “Ren, what’s going on?” Obviously she was missing something important. She struggled to keep her voice calm.

  He walked to her and cupped her face in his hands. “We have to go. We’re going to be walking out this afternoon.”

  “We are? Why? Where?”

  He closed his eyes like he was in pain. More than just the pain in his shoulder. Something deeper. “We’re closer to a town than we originally thought. I saw some smoke a few miles away before I fell in the river. So get together whatever you can so we can walk out in about thirty minutes.”

  “Are you sure we’re that close to civilization?”

  He walked over to her and leaned his forehead against hers. “Yes. I’m positive. I just wanted a little more time with you alone before giving you back to the rest of the world. And then the mountain lion...”

  He still looked pained. She knew he wasn’t telling her everything. But what he was telling her was enough.

  She smiled and kissed him softly. “I don’t think I wanted to go back to the rest of the world, anyway. Go do whatever it is you need to do. I’ll be ready in thirty minutes. I trust you.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  I trust you.

  The words echoed through Ren’s mind as he stepped outside the cabin and moved quickly through the trees where he kept the lockbox with items he thought he might need: his Glock, Omega badge, a set of handcuffs.

  Another phone right now would be pretty damn handy, too. Although it would be too late to call off the agents Homeland Security had sent.

  He’d run out of time while he was unconscious. He knew they were here to take Natalie. To confine her in a windowless box of a room and force her to tell them every single detail about her life with Damien Freihof.

  He remembered parts of what she’d said to him while he’d be in and out of delirium with fever.

  I married a monster.

  Buried in the snow.

  Perfect shell.

  I love you.

  He slammed the bottom of his fist against the tree, gritting his teeth at the reverberations that coursed through his arm and wounded shoulder. It was no less than he deserved.

  Natalie was completely innocent. She was good and gentle and kind. Brandon and Andrea had tried to warn Ren of that from their first meeting with her, but he hadn’t wanted to believe it.

  And now Homeland Security wanted to take her in and break her. Not through physical torture, but they wouldn’t need to use that. Because there were so many ways someone as gentle as Natalie could be broken.

  Like learning she’d given her heart to and trusted the wrong person.

  He clamped down on the howl that wanted to rip from his throat. Because at the end of it all, it wouldn’t be Homeland Security’s brutish methods that would break Natalie.

  It would be Ren’s attention and kindness.

  But hell if he was going to let them take her. She might be heartbroken by the time this was all done, but he wasn’t going to let her mind and spirit be crushed by what they would do to her. And he knew agents were out here right now, preparing to seize the cabin and take Natalie in.

  He stayed low, moving outward toward the higher ground that would give him the tactical advantage. If he had to guess, there were probably two or three agents out here for the arrest. Two who would knock openly on the door—especially since they thought they had another law enforcement officer inside who would help with the arrest—and a third who would stay hidden and make sure there were no surprises.

  Ren would take out that third agent first.

  From up on the ridge he could see the snowmobiles they’d used to get here, leaving them parked half a mile away to keep sound from traveling to the cabin. He would need to work quickly to disarm the first guy before the other two burst through the cabin door. And do it all without killing or seriously injuring the other law enforcement officers.

  He spotted them—three just like he’d thought—as they were splitting off from one another. All three already had their sidearms out, which meant they were definitely taking this seriously.

  Ren moved quickly in the direction the backup man had gone. He estimated he had about five minutes to disarm and subdue this one before the other two entered the cabin.

  Ignoring the pain from his injuries and weakness from a day and a half ravaged by fever, Ren moved silently between the trees. He kept his own sidearm holstered at his waist. No matter what, this couldn’t become a shootout.

  Ren knew these woods much better than the agents, and they weren’t expecting anyone to be out among the trees. Agent Three was looking in the direction of the cabin when Ren moved up behind him, got out his weapon and knocked him on the back of the neck.

  The man crumpled to the ground without a sound. Taking out his handcuffs, Ren bound the man around a small tree, then used a ripped part of his shirt as a gag. He hadn’t hit him that hard; the guy was already groaning and would be awake in a couple of minutes.

  “Be back with your friends in just a second, buddy,” Ren whispered, then ran toward the other two agents.

  One had just peeked through the window to see what was happening inside the cabin, and was signaling to the other. Ren needed to get them far enough away that there wouldn’t be any chances of Natalie hearing them.

  “Hey, fellas,” he called softly from behind them, Omega ID already in hand, praying this would work.

  They swung around with weapons raised but he’d been expecting that. Ren kept his credentials out toward them, while raising a finger to his lips.

  “Ren McClement, Omega Sector. Been waiting for you guys to get here for a while.”

  They lowered their weapons exactly like he’d wanted them to do.

  “McClement, what are you doing out here rather than in there with the suspect?” Agent One asked.

  Suspect, not witness. Not informant. That confirmed everything he needed to know.

  “We were told that Omega didn’t necessarily want us butting in,” the second man said, the look they gave each other clearly stating they didn’t care what Omega Sector wanted. The two law enforcement organizations were independent of each other, neither under the other’s jurisdiction. Generally, they were after the same bad guys and it rarely caused conflicts.

  Today there would definitely be conflict.

  Ren motioned them closer to him, farther from the cabin, and they came. When they got close enough, he stuck out his hand like he wanted to shake. “Like I said, I’m Ren.”

  “Mark Jaspers,” the first guy said. “And this is—”

  Ren didn’t wait for the second introduction. He grabbed Jaspers’s outstretched arm and yanked, pulling him forward and into a vicious punch to the
jaw that knocked him to the ground.

  Not-Jaspers witnessed it, and was in the process of pulling his weapon back out when Ren swung around and roundhouse kicked him, knocking the gun into the trees. An uppercut to the jaw had the other agent stunned and stumbling backward.

  “What the hell?” Jaspers croaked from the ground as Ren grabbed not-Jaspers by the collar and threw him down next to Jaspers, pointing his Glock at both men. “What the hell are you doing, McClement?”

  “Sorry, guys, but I’m not going to be able to let you take Ms. Anderson today.” There was no damn way he was calling her Mrs. Freihof.

  “Are you in on it with her?” not-Jaspers asked. “Working with Freihof?”

  “No,” Ren spat. “But neither is she. And she doesn’t know where he is. She’s running from him.”

  Jaspers tried reason. “Why don’t you just let us take her in, make that clarification for ourselves? I’m sure if you’ve found it to be true, we will, too.”

  “No offense, guys, but I’ve seen the tactics you use when questioning someone you consider to be hostile.” Never quite enough food, water, sleep. No bed. Sitting in hard chairs in windowless rooms for hours upon hours. Ren had never felt bad about it when it was someone who knew something that law enforcement needed to know in order to save lives.

  But it damn well wasn’t happening to Natalie.

  “Omega has a plan in place to draw Freihof out,” Ren continued.

  “You missed that deadline this afternoon, McClement,” Jaspers said. “You didn’t report in, didn’t show up. You missed your chance.”

  “There were circumstances that couldn’t be helped. The plan will still work. So I’m just going to keep you guys here a few extra hours until I can get her out and in front of the media. Freihof will come.” Ren knew that for an absolute fact now that he knew what had happened between them. How Freihof had tried to control every part of her life. Letting Natalie wander free without him wouldn’t even be an option.

  “You do this, your career is over,” not-Jaspers said. “It won’t matter if it’s for the greater good or not. Your time with Omega will be done.”

  Ren already knew that. Had known it as soon as he’d come up with this plan. But he didn’t grieve the choice. It was time to stop living in the darkness that had been his constant companion for so long. Step into the light.

  Natalie and her innate generosity of spirit and kindness had shown him that in such a very short time. He prayed there would be some way to get her to forgive him for what he’d done, what he was about to do. Some way to get her to share the light with him, once they had taken Freihof out for good and he could never hurt her again.

  He brought Jaspers and his partner into the woodshed and tied them, before going back to get Agent Three—now conscious—and brought him back also.

  “There will be someone here to release you guys in the next couple of hours. Just don’t get yourselves killed in the meantime.”

  “You’re done, McClement,” Jaspers bit out. “Your entire career washed down the drain. I hope she’s worth it.”

  Ren moved a gag over the other man’s mouth.

  “She is.”

  Ren took a phone from one of the agents and stepped outside, immediately calling Omega.

  “Steve Drackett.”

  “I’m going to need a Homeland Security cleanup in aisle four.”

  “Damn it, Ren. You missed the deadline. What the hell is going on? I was about to send agents in there myself. What happened?”

  “It’s a long story involving a mountain lion and near death.”

  Steve actually chuckled. “Doesn’t it always?”

  “Are we too late for the media blitz?”

  “I can maybe keep the press here in Riverton for thirty more minutes.” Steve’s voice was tight. “They passed restless two hours ago.”

  Ren grimaced. They would need to take a snowmobile. He would move the other out of her path and tell her he ran into some hunters. But this meant more lies to Natalie and not enough time to explain about the whole plan.

  Who Ren was. What he needed her to do. She’d be blindsided.

  But there was no other way. He had to get her in front of the cameras. Once that happened, Homeland wouldn’t take her out of play if she was the best bet of luring Freihof in.

  “Do it. We’re on our way. We’ll be there in twenty-five.”

  “Please God, tell me there are no dead Homeland Security agents at that cabin.”

  “No, but some very pissed-off ones. You need to send someone to get them in the woodshed.”

  “You know those guys can make your life hell, right? We may not work for them, but they have the ear of pretty powerful people.”

  Ren took a calming breath. “I know. I crossed a line. I’m done.”

  The other man said nothing for a long second, then ironically echoed Jaspers’s words. “I hope she’s worth it, my friend.”

  His answer was still the same.

  “She is.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Like she promised, Natalie had all their stuff returned to the backpacks, and had even cleaned up as best she could, when Ren arrived back a little over thirty minutes later.

  He strode through the door and walked right up to her, lifting her in a one-armed hug with his uninjured limb.

  “What?” she said as he kissed her, ignoring the pain from her hurt back. There was a desperation to him she’d never seen before.

  “We have to leave right now.”

  “Oh.” She’d known that was coming but had hoped he would come back and say they had more time. She liked it here. Just the two of them and her painting.

  He closed his eyes for a moment, almost like he was fortifying himself before reopening them. “I ran into some hunters. They gave me a snowmobile to use to get us into town. But we’ve got to go right now. My family got word of the accident and they’ve been frantic. I need to get in touch with them right away.”

  She felt terrible. Of course they needed to go. “Sure. I’m ready.”

  “Peaches. I...” He stepped away from her, eyes tortured. “When we get there, everything will change.”

  “I know.” She’d always known that. “The real world. It’s okay.”

  He looked at the phone in his hand. “Damn it, we’ve got to go right now.” He rushed over to the door and ushered her out. “Just, once we get to Westwater, stay near me, okay? I promise I will explain everything as soon as I can.”

  Westwater? That was the nearby town? Natalie forced herself to breathe down the panic. She’d known they were somewhere in or near Colorado, but had no idea they were so close to Grand Junction where she’d lived with Damien.

  It didn’t matter. She would get out of here as soon as she could. Maybe she wouldn’t be able to go to Montana with Ren right away, but she could meet him there later. There was so much they needed to talk about.

  Ren got her situated on the snowmobile, before sitting behind her, surrounding her with his warmth.

  “We’ll need to talk,” he said. “I ran out of time, and that’s on me, but just promise me we’ll talk when we get there. That you’ll give me a chance.”

  She turned to look at him over her shoulder and smiled. “Of course.” There was nothing she wanted more.

  He didn’t smile back, that tortured look still in his eyes as he put the only helmet over her head, started the machine and soon had them flying.

  The faster they sped, the more worried Natalie became. Something must be pretty desperately wrong for him to move them at such a reckless pace.

  Less than twenty minutes later he stopped them. She could see the lights of the town a few hundred yards away, but he didn’t drive the snowmobile all the way in, even though it probably wouldn’t even be that uncommon.

  He stood and helped her take off he
r helmet.

  “Why did we stop? A lot of Colorado towns allow the use of snowmobiles on the street.”

  He began walking, holding her hand. “We have to walk the rest of the way and there are things you need to know before we make it into town.”

  Her gut tightened, but she kept up her steps with him. “Okay.”

  “Natalie, I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

  “About what?” She almost stumbled over a root sticking up on the uneven ground but he held on to her arm, righting her.

  He grimaced, continuing to propel them forward. “About a lot. I need your help. It’s important. Bigger than you or me. Or even us. A lot of lives are at stake.”

  “Ren, what’s going on?” she whispered.

  He stopped and ran his hand through his brown hair. They were just on the outskirts of town. “God, Peaches... Natalie... I never meant...”

  “McClement!” A woman rushed into the woods. “Thank God. You guys have got to move right now. We’re going to miss our window to hit the evening news if you don’t.”

  Natalie just watched as Ren turned to the woman, not correcting her at the wrong name.

  “Lillian, I need a few minutes. Natalie doesn’t know what’s going on.”

  He knew this woman?

  And what was it that Natalie did not know? Evidently a lot.

  Lillian just shook her head. “What the hell have you been doing in that cabin for the last five days if not explaining what we need?” She looked back and forth between Ren and Natalie. “Oh.”

  The petite woman who sounded vaguely familiar turned to glare at Ren as she obviously figured something out. Something Natalie still couldn’t. “Damn you, McClement. But we’re still out of time. We’ve got to go.”

  As she came closer, Natalie realized this was the same woman who had sold her the ticket for the train. Why would she even be here?

  Natalie grabbed the woman’s arm gently. “Why are you here if you work for the bus company?” Maybe the train and bus company were owned by the same corporation or something.

  The compassion—pity—in the other woman’s eyes made Natalie’s heart sink more.