Dangerous Refuge

chapter Twenty-four



Shaye awoke, feeling both disoriented and safe. She was on her side in a bed, one bare leg over an equally bare male leg, her cheek on a man’s smooth, muscular shoulder, and her arm around his lean and naked waist. Gradually she realized Tanner was as wrapped around her as she was around him. She sighed and enjoyed the simple intimacy, wondering when the last time was that she’d awakened to such peace. Or been so thoroughly satisfied by a man.

Then she realized that she never had.

Before she could get nervous about it, strong, tapering fingers gently counted down each vertebra in her spine, stroked her bottom, then slowly counted up her spine to her nape, caressing, and going back down, lingering at the curve of her hips.

“A woman could get used to waking up like this,” she said, nuzzling closer, breathing in the scent of clean man.

“So could a man,” he said. “How do you feel?”

“Fine, why?”

“It was a tight fit. Did I hurt you?”

He felt the blush that spread from her breasts to her face.

“Any sounds I made had nothing to do with pain,” she muttered against his chest.

“You sure?”

“Trust me. I would know.” She bit him on his shoulder with enough pressure to make her point.

He smiled and his fingers continued their journey down her spine, but this time they lingered in the shadow crease below her tailbone. His other hand slowly caressed the soft breast that was plumped up against his chest. The feel of her nipple drawing tight was lightning in his blood.

The telephone in the kitchen rang.

“Ignore it,” he said. “I’m going to.”

He shifted and brought her mouth to his. While the phone rang and rang, they enjoyed the kind of utterly lazy, exploring kiss that they’d been too impatient to have the night before. His biceps flexed and his body tightened. Without breaking the kiss, he pulled her up over him like the sweetest kind of blanket.

The phone in the kitchen stopped ringing.

The cell phone in his discarded jeans started clamoring.

“Who has both numbers?” Shaye asked against his mouth.

“No one.”

“You wish.”

“Yeah. I wish.”

With one hand he groped on the floor next to the bed. Finally he fished the still-yammering phone from a pocket. The incoming call was local, but that was all he could tell. He answered the damn thing.

“What?” Tanner snarled.

“Hell of a way to answer the phone. This is—”

“Deputy August,” Tanner said.

Shaye stiffened and began to slide off him. He held her in place with casual strength.

“How was Meyers last night?” the deputy asked easily.

“Who is Meyers?”

“Not who. Where. The town.”

“It’s barely after seven,” Tanner said. “Is there a point to waking me up or do you just harass citizens at random?”

“I’m having breakfast at the Western Café at eight. You can join me there or you can see me at nine at the office. You’d rather eat breakfast. If Shaye happens to be handy,” he added sardonically, “bring her. It will save time.”

August hung up.

Tanner stared at the phone, thinking like a homicide cop—hard, fast, and mean.

“What is it?”

“Deputy August wants company for breakfast at the Western Café at eight or I can talk to him at the sheriff’s office at nine. He recommends breakfast. He said it would save time if I brought you.”

She blinked. “Really.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Remember what we did yesterday?”

“Computer search, grubby pawnshop, fancy pawnshop, Rua’s name, ate at the rib joint, came back here, soaked in hot springs, and crashed. Plan on talking to Rua today, after we find out what August might know.”

Tanner’s grin was as hard as his eyes. “Short and simple. If August tries to make it complex, you don’t remember. Got it?”

“Sweetie, I was so lost in your midnight-sapphire eyes I didn’t remember my middle name.”

He laughed so hard she nearly fell off his chest.

“I can’t wait to see August’s face when you hand him that one,” he said.

As Tanner and Shaye drove down the east face of the Sierras, slanting sunlight filled Refuge valley.

“Beautiful,” he said, as if seeing it for the first time.

The fields gleamed bright green and every pond and irrigation ditch looked like liquid diamonds. Beyond the settlements and pastures, the sagebrush and mountains fell away in shades of silvery gray and navy blue. Clouds cast an ever-changing patchwork of dark, silky shadows.

“If we had time, I’d pull over and just enjoy the view,” he added. And you. Last night was barely an appetizer. “But if we had that kind of time, we’d be back in bed and I’d be so deep inside you we’d both scream.”

“I thought you liked the way I tickled your fancy.”

“That wasn’t a tickle, honey, it was a full-on, full-length squeeze. And I can’t wait to do it again.”

Shaye felt heat liquefy her. “Change the subject or I’ll have to go back and change my underwear.”

“Don’t say things like that when I’m driving.”

“Pot, kettle.”

“If you stick out that sweet tongue at me, I’ll take it as an invitation to get naked right now.”

She looked at her watch and said reluctantly, “We’re late as it is.”

“What else is August going to do but wait for us?”

“Start on his pork chops or chicken-fried steak.”

“I’d rather start on you. And finish.” His breath hissed out in a curse and he did the smart thing—changed the subject. “Is the food where we’re eating any good?”

“Don’t know about the chops, but the chicken-fried steak with country gravy is awesome. None of this frozen, pre-breaded hamburger garbage. They make their own from scratch, including pounding flour and seasonings into the round steak until it’s tender.”

Tanner’s mouth watered. He realized that he was hungrier than he’d been in a long time. “Steak it is.”

The café wasn’t big, and looked even smaller with its dark wood paneling and cast-iron light fixtures shaped like wagon wheels. Photos of several generations of western actors hung everywhere in sight. Many were signed. Despite the photos and movie posters, there was no attempt at glitz. Like the West itself, the café was what it was.

The early-morning rush had already come and gone, and the breakfast-at-leisure folks weren’t quite ready to venture out yet. All of the patrons looked like they worked and lived locally.

A waitress—and they were waitresses here, not servers—led them to August’s table, which was next to the back door so that he could make a fast exit without disturbing the other patrons. John Wayne stared down at the booth, young and radiating the quality that had made him a star.

August radiated the mood of a man with a rock in his boot.

Having delivered her two charges, the first waitress went back to chat with the patrons at the counter. They were old enough to be her father or grandfather, and she obviously enjoyed their company, smiling and swapping jokes.

Tanner and Shaye took the same side of the booth.

“Here y’are, Deputy,” a different waitress said as she slid a steaming plate of pork chops and eggs in front of August. “Gravy on the side just like you like it.”

“Thank you, Darla,” he said.

“Can I get you two anything?” the waitress asked.

Tanner summed up the woman as automatically as he had summed up the café and its patrons. She was around thirty-five, pretty in a lean sort of way, like many of her generation who were raised on ranches.

“Two coffees and two orders of chicken-fried steak,” Shaye said.

“Sure you don’t want to split an order? They’re big.”

“No problem,” Shaye said. “If he can’t eat all of his, I’ll help him.”

Tanner snickered.

August shook his head.

Smiling, the waitress poured two more cups of coffee and left.

“I shouldn’t be seen taking my breakfast with you two,” he said, reaching for his knife and fork. “Well, at least one of you.”

“And I have strong feelings about you,” Tanner said. “Yet here we are.”

“Yeah.” August sawed off a chunk of pork, dipped it in the gravy, chewed with obvious pleasure, and swallowed. “Sheriff won’t be here anytime soon.”

“And the staff will alert you if he comes into the parking lot,” Tanner said.

“You don’t miss much, do you?”

“Only my mama’s cooking.”

August looked at Shaye. “Never figured you for the type to hook up so quick with a clown.”

“Aw, how sweet of you to notice,” she said. “Is that why you wanted to see us this morning? Or did you want all the juicy deets about how we spent the night?”

Under the table, Tanner’s hand clamped on her thigh. Hard.

“Get to the point, August,” he said.

The deputy smiled faintly. “Your lady sure has a mouth on her.”

“And he loves every bit of it,” she assured the deputy.

Tanner’s hand tightened on her leg as he said, “You wanted to talk, August. Talk.”