Micah sat in the kitchen alone, half-irritated by his promise to Olivia. He didn’t make promises—to anyone, ever—and yet he’d made one to a blond-haired, green-eyed woman who had somehow managed to get under his skin. Not just with the haunting sadness in her eyes, not just with the sobs she’d been unable to control, but also with the story she’d told him about who she was and where she’d come from.
She’d never had a chance in hell against a man like Samuel. She’d been a victim ripe for the picking, already kicked around by life. He was only surprised that Samuel hadn’t tried to take things further with her, make her one of his very special girlfriends. Of course, that probably wouldn’t have happened until Samuel personally tattooed the D on her hip, marking her as his forever.
Micah wrapped his hands around the coffee mug, the thought of his brother touching Olivia making him half-sick. Thank God Olivia had gotten out when she had. It was just unfortunate that she’d had to run before grabbing her son.
It was midafternoon. Breakfast had come and gone and everyone in the house was busy with duties or whatever.
After Sam woke up, Micah had left Olivia’s room and gone to his own quiet small space where all he’d been able to think about was the kiss he’d shared with Olivia. He was shocked to realize he somehow wanted to be the hero she’d never had in her life, the man she could depend on to get her son back, to make her world right.
If Sam hadn’t awakened when he did, Micah had a feeling the sexual attraction between him and Olivia might have spiraled completely out of control. It had been a long time since he’d been with a woman, an even longer time that he’d been with a woman whose name he’d remembered after having meaningless sex with her. He wasn’t proud of that, it was simply a part of his life he hadn’t thought much about.
Once he’d lost Johanna to Samuel something had broken inside him, the part of his heart that allowed people in, the part that allowed him to trust. He’d decided at that time that he would live his life alone, and up until now he’d never regretted that decision.
His sole goal when he’d arrived here was to pay back his brother for the bullet to his head, for the migraines that sometimes brought him to his knees and for the death of the woman he’d believed he’d once loved.
Now he’d made a promise to a woman he couldn’t seem to get out of his head, a woman whose kiss had fired a flame inside the pit of his stomach that still hadn’t stopped burning.
Despite all the reasons he shouldn’t, he trusted her. He believed her story and he also believed her newfound horror of Samuel. Samuel might have been able to “turn” her at one time, but Micah knew there was no way she could be corrupted by Samuel again.
She wanted her kid back and then they’d figure out a place for her to go where she could start a new life and this time learn to stand on her own two feet. He sensed a deep core of strength inside her. All she had to do was tap into it and she and her kids would be just fine.
He’d finally fallen asleep and had awakened just a few minutes before, long enough to pour himself a cup of coffee and sit at the table to think about options for finding Ethan and Rafe’s little boy, Devin.
He looked up as Darcy Craven entered the kitchen. She paused at the sight of him, as if considering running out of the room. Since the moment he’d met her, she seemed to be avoiding him and that, coupled with a strange sense of familiarity about her, intrigued him.
“Darcy, why don’t you sit and have a cup of coffee with me?”
“Okay,” she said with a faint touch of reluctance.
He watched as she got a cup and filled it with the brew. Darcy was young, probably no older than twenty-two or twenty-three, but she gave the aura of an older, more mature woman.
She sat across from him at the table and he noted her long, dark hair and bright blue eyes. Was it her eyes that made him feel the odd sense of familiarity? Or the shape of her face? She definitely reminded him of a woman he’d known years ago, but if he thought about it, she could remind him of lots of women he’d known through the years.
“I met your fiancé. He’s asked me to look for his son,” Micah said.
“He’s frantic to find him.” Her blue eyes flashed with the fire of anger. “It was wicked for somebody to give him a little boy and tell him the child was Devin and then have the baby ripped away from him by the true biological father.”
Micah nodded. “So, what’s your story? I’m still trying to figure out who is who and all the connections between Samuel, Cold Plains and everything else.”
Darcy looked down into her coffee cup, as if considering how much or how little to share with him. “A few months ago I discovered that the woman who raised me, Louise Craven, wasn’t my real mother. As Louise was dying, she told me that I’d been left with her by my biological mother who feared for my life. Louise told me she was haunted by my mother who seemed to vanish into thin air and now that I was an adult it was time I searched for her and become the family we were meant to be.”
“No leads at all?” Micah asked, still studying her features intently.
“Ford McCall, he’s one of the local cops and one of the good guys, showed me a picture of one of the dead women, one who is a Jane Doe. He seemed to think I looked like her, but really the only resemblance was that we both have blue eyes. I don’t know if she’s my mother or not.”
“Do you have the picture?” Micah was aware that one of the five murder victims was listed as an unidentified Jane Doe, but he hadn’t had any contact with Ford McCall, one of the few law enforcement officers in town who was working on their side, or seen whatever picture the man might possess.
“No, but I can get a copy from him.” She took a sip of her coffee. “I just want to find out who my mother is, whether she’s alive or dead and why she left me with Louise when I was a baby. Louise told me my mother grew up as a foster child in a small town. I found out she was from the small town of Horn’s Gulf and I went there and showed the photo around but nobody could tell me if she was the foster girl who lived in town for a short period of time.”
“Horn’s Gulf. That’s where I’m from,” Micah replied in surprise.
“I know.” She frowned and in that gesture a rivulet of shock shot through Micah.
The shape of her face, the dark hair…the frowning gesture that he’d seen not only in his own mirror on occasion but also on his brother’s face. Was he just imagining the resemblance?
“What about your father?” he asked with a forced nonchalance, although his heart suddenly beat an unsteady cadence.
Once again, Darcy looked down into her coffee mug, as if unwilling to meet his eyes. “What about him?” she countered in a faint whisper.
“He’s Samuel. Samuel is your father, isn’t he?” Micah felt as if his heart had stopped beating in his chest.
Darcy’s blue eyes looked miserable as she met his gaze. “There was a note pinned to my pajamas the night my mother left me with Louise. It said ‘keep my precious baby safe from Samuel. Never let her know the truth.’ But, before she died Louise told me the truth, that my father was a dangerous man named Samuel Grayson who was running a cult in Cold Plains. That’s what brought me here in search of my mother.”
She paused to take a sip of her coffee and he noticed her hand tremble slightly as she set the cup back down on the table. “I came here and forced myself to go to some of Samuel’s seminars. I made friends with some of the Devotees, all the while trying to find out any information about my mother that I could, but nobody was talking. I got a job working as a receptionist in Rafe’s office and I finally told him the truth about my father. Rafe knows, and June knows, and now you know, too, and I hate it. I hate that he’s my father,” she said fervently.
“But that makes you my niece,” Micah replied, the new information rolling around in his head.
A tentative smile curved her lips. “And I haven’t decided yet if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
An unexpected burst of laughter left Micah’s lips and he wasn’t sure who was more surprised by the spontaneous response, he or she. “I hope given some time we’ll both decide it’s a good thing.”
“Time will definitely tell,” she said, meeting his gaze boldly now.
A sense of respect swept through him for the young woman…his niece. She’d come into the lion’s den seeking answers about her mother, answers that so far hadn’t been forthcoming.
She would be a fool to trust him completely, knowing him for only a couple days and knowing that he was Samuel’s brother.
A surprising swell of emotion rose up in his chest. He had no family except for Samuel. There had been no aunts and uncles, no cousins, only a nervous mother who had escaped a brutal man five years before he’d met his own death in a drunk-driving accident.
Micah had never thought much about having a family. He’d certainly never felt any family love or support when growing up on the small ranch in Horn’s Gulf.
His mother had been distant, his father had inspired fear rather than love and he’d written off his sick brother when they’d been young kids.
When he’d arrived here at the safe house, he hadn’t expected to find a niece, nor had he expected to find a woman like Olivia. He wasn’t sure how to handle the whole thing.
He hated the fact that Olivia had seen him at his very weakest, so sick with his vicious headache the night before. When the two men standing beneath the streetlamp had finally parted, Micah’s head had reached full pound mode.
He was both nauseous and weak as he’d made his way back to retrieve the rucksack and continued on to the safe house. He’d barely managed to make it to safety.
“Are you okay?” Darcy’s voice pulled him from the moment of the night before when he had feared his headache would ultimately be the death of him.
“I’m fine, just trying to digest everything that I’ve learned in the week that I’ve been here.”
“All you really have to remember is that when meeting people from Cold Plains, you can’t trust anyone other than the people Hawk introduces you to or the ones June has vetted.” She took another sip of her
coffee and then carefully set the cup on the table. “I just want to find my mother.”
Her blue eyes filled with emotion. “I’d hoped to find her alive, to be able to build a relationship with her, but I think she might be dead. I think she might be the Jane Doe that Ford has been trying to identify. Unfortunately, until he identifies her with her name, I won’t know if she’s my mother. Louise told me my mother’s name was Catherine, but that’s all I know.”
Micah frowned. “Catherine George. That’s who you reminded me of the night I first saw you in the woods. I think I called you that.”
Darcy leaned forward. “That must have been after I fainted at the sight of you.” When Micah had stumbled into Darcy and June in the forest the first time they’d met, Darcy had assumed he was Samuel and had dropped into a dead faint. “Catherine George? Was she in Horn’s Gulf?”
“Yes, but there were several Catherines in our school. To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to the girls who flocked around Samuel, but the moment I saw you I thought of her.” He shrugged. “And now I see myself and Samuel in your features, but your eyes still kind of remind me of Catherine George. Maybe it’s just because they’re so blue. I wouldn’t take that name to the bank. It’s possible Catherine George is alive and well and never had a daughter she gave up to protect. You get that picture from Ford and I’ll take a look at it and maybe I can make a definite identification.”
She flashed him a grateful smile and then stood. “Thanks.” She paused for a moment. “You know, you might look a lot like Samuel, but you’re really nothing like him.”
“That’s the best compliment you could give me,” he replied. She nodded and left the kitchen, leaving Micah alone with his thoughts. There were times when he was haunted by the possibility that he was more like Samuel than he wanted to admit.
He’d worked as a mercenary, infiltrating for the sole reason of taking out a life. He’d fooled men and women, pretending to be something he wasn’t, focused solely on what he’d been paid to do.
Did that make him like his brother? Were they both narcissistic power seekers who simply used different methods to achieve their goals?
Disturbed by his own thoughts, he got up from the table and carried his and Darcy’s cups to the sink where he washed them out and set them on a drainer to dry, then went in search of Olivia—telling himself he needed to pick her brain about everything she knew about the Community Center—but in the depths of his heart he suspected he just wanted to see her beautiful, sweet smile to erase the doubts about himself he’d just entertained.
* * *
Olivia had learned soon upon arrival at the safe house that it was located in Hidden Valley, and her favorite place to spend time was in the secret garden where the sun shone down and Sam could play in the last of the late summer grass.
Besides, she felt like they needed the sunshine to keep their internal clocks set right. It would be easy in the cave to lose track of day and night and she wanted to know exactly how many days she’d been without her baby Ethan.
At the moment she was seated next to June, who had been sharing with her the trauma of nearly dying a month before when two of Samuel’s henchmen had managed to infiltrate the safe house. Nearby, Jesse Grainger, a rancher from the Wind Rivers foothills, walked the rows of vegetables, giving the two women a chance to talk alone.
Initially it had been June who had saved Jesse’s life when she’d found him half-dead and suffering from amnesia in the forest. But on the night of the attack, it had been Jesse who had saved June’s life and in the process he’d won her heart.
One of the infiltrators had been killed and the other had been taken away by the FBI, leaving the location of the safe house a secret.
Sam sat at their feet, his attention divided between the sippy cup of juice he clutched in his chubby hand and Eager, the black Lab that lay dozing at June’s feet.
“Sooner or later Sam’s going to make a grab for Eager,” Olivia said as she watched her son sizing up the big dog.
“Eager is very tolerant of people and children as long as I don’t have his work leash on him,” June replied. Eager was a search and rescue dog who June often took with her to the woods to help hunt for people in trouble—or people trying to cause trouble.
The warmth of the mid-September sunshine on Olivia’s face was welcoming and yet she couldn’t help but wonder if Ethan was enjoying the sunshine. Was he someplace swinging or playing in a sandbox, enjoying the last of summer with other children his age? Or was he locked up in some room with an armed guard as a playmate?
“Micah promised me last night that he’d get my son out of Cold Plains,” she said to June.
“He strikes me as a man who doesn’t make promises easily,” June replied with a touch of obvious surprise.
“I just hope Ethan is still in town.” Olivia swallowed hard against the lump that had risen in her throat. “You know there have been those rumors of illegal adoption activity.”
June nodded. “That’s Rafe and Darcy’s biggest fear for his son, that he’s already been adopted out to somebody and they’ll never be able to find him.”
“If that happens to Ethan then I’ll spend the rest of my life looking for him. Surely when Samuel is eventually brought down, the FBI will find paperwork or something that will name a baby broker, somebody who will be a lead to where the children went.” She tried to tamp down the anxiety that threatened to take hold of her.
But a different kind of anxiety filled her as Micah stepped outside. Every nerve in her body hummed at the sight of him. Instead of wearing the camouflage clothing she’d been accustomed to seeing him in, he wore a pair of jeans that hugged his slim hips and a long-sleeved navy polo shirt that stretched across his broad shoulders and muscled chest. He was clean-shaven and the scent of minty soap clung to him.
He looked sexy and rugged and utterly capable of accomplishing anything he put his mind to. He smiled as he approached and her heart fluttered, the memory of those sensual lips pressed against her own heating her insides.
“Nice day to be out here,” he said as June stood from the bench where she and Olivia had been seated.
“Unusually warm for this time of year,” June replied. “Won’t be long and it will be too cold to sit out here. I hate to think about the snow falling.” She looked from Micah to Olivia and smiled. “I think I’ll head inside and get started on something for dinner.” As she moved toward the door, Jesse gave a nod to Micah and Olivia, and then, along with Eager, they all disappeared back inside.
“Mind if I sit?” he asked and gestured to the place next to her on the bench.
“Of course not,” she replied, although she couldn’t halt the rapid race of her heart at his nearness. “I want to thank you for all the things you got from my house.” She’d been delighted when she’d opened the rucksack earlier and had discovered not only diapers, but also clothes for both her boys and for herself.
“I figured your life was in a big enough uproar that at least you should have some of your own things to make you feel better.”
She rubbed her hands down the thighs of her well-worn, comfortable jeans. “I definitely feel better in my own clothes.” The long-sleeved cotton red blouse she wore didn’t tug across her breasts and made her less self-conscious than she had been in the borrowed things. And she couldn’t believe he’d thought to throw in the bottle of her favorite perfume.
“I want to pick your brain about the Community Center,” he said.
“What about it?” she asked in surprise.
“I believe that somewhere in that building are the secret rooms we’re searching for, that it might be the place where Samuel is holding both Rafe’s son and yours. It’s just a gut feeling, but I want you to tell me about every room, every doorway you know of in the building.”
“Why do you think there are any more secret rooms there?”
Micah’s eyes narrowed slightly and, with the cast of the sun on his lean face, he looked more like his brother than ever before. “Because Samuel is a sadist and I think he’d get off on the idea of having his nightly seminars with all his people gathered in the auditorium and not knowing that some of their loved ones are locked up right beneath where they stand.”
He shrugged. “I’m just trying to get into his head, to think the way he’d think.”
“Try not to do too much of that,” she said drily. “I think his head is a very dangerous place to be.”
He smiled and in the warmth of that gesture all semblance of Samuel fell away. Samuel smiled often, pretending to be a loving father figure, a benevolent leader who wanted nothing but good for the town and its people. But she realized now that when Samuel smiled, no real warmth danced in the depths of his eyes.
“There really isn’t a lot to the Community Center. Samuel has an office there, where he spends most of his time during the days and the evenings. I sat in the reception area. There are a couple small rooms that are used for more intimate counseling, and then there’s the auditorium where he holds his town meetings and seminars.”
“What about storage closets?”
“There are three that I know of,” she replied thoughtfully. “But somebody told me they’d already found a tunnel beneath the Community Center that led out of one of the closets.”
Micah nodded. “I can’t help thinking if there’s one tunnel then there could possibly be another one, leading to another place inside the building. I know the one that was found is thought to be an old settler tunnel used as a hiding place from marauding Indians, and I assume Samuel might intend to use that as an escape route if he ever needs to. It leads partway up the mountain, but he isn’t the type to leave himself only one option for escape.”
Sam reached out and grabbed Micah’s knees and pulled himself up to his feet. Micah looked surprised as Sam gave him one of his most charming grins.
“Sorry,” Olivia said and reached out to grab her son.
Micah lifted a hand to stop her. “He’s fine.”
Sam slapped him on the knee and laughed, as if agreeing with Micah that he was just fine. A small smile curved the corners of Micah’s lips. “He doesn’t seem to have many trust issues,” he observed.
Olivia smiled ruefully. “He’s never met a stranger he didn’t like. Children are born pure and trusting. They have to be taught not to trust. Unfortunately they learn too early that people aren’t always what they seem, that promises are rarely kept and that sweet unadulterated trust they’re born with is broken.”
She should have learned her lesson about trusting men when she’d been old enough to realize her father had abandoned her and her mother when she was just a baby.
“Have you ever been in Samuel’s house?”
She blinked at the question that came out of nowhere. “A couple times, mostly just long enough to step into his foyer to deliver or pick up paperwork. But, last year he gave a big Christmas party there and invited all the people who work for him. Why?”
“According to what Hawk told me, they haven’t been able to get anyone inside. They have no grounds for a warrant and it’s guarded at all times. Not even any of the men who are working undercover have managed to get through the front door. What’s it like on the inside?”
Sam sat back down on the ground, apparently bored by the adult conversation. He made no move to crawl away. Sam was pretty much content wherever he found himself. It was Ethan who had been her little explorer, always crawling or running with her chasing after him.
“Olivia?” Micah’s voice pulled her back and she looked at him.
“Samuel’s house is beautiful. I’m sure you already know it’s in an area of town with huge houses and yards that abut the mountains. Inside, there’s a large foyer with a grand staircase that leads to the next floor, although nobody went upstairs the night of the party. The party was held in the great room, and it is magnificent with a stone fireplace and a wet bar and a wall full of sliding doors that lead out to a balcony. The house is built on a rise, so when you walk in you’re actually on a second floor.”
“Selling tonic water must be lucrative,” Micah said drily.
Olivia grinned ruefully at him. “Oh, Samuel gets money from much more than just the tonic water. We pay to attend his workshops. If he suggests private therapy then that’s another expense. I imagine he probably gets a kickback from all the businesses in town.”
“Yeah, that’s what we figure, but according to Hawk they’ve been unable to gather enough evidence of
anything to get Samuel behind bars. He’s played things very safe and close to his vest. Even some of his devoted worker bees that we’ve managed to gather up won’t turn on him.”
Olivia leaned back thoughtfully and raised her face to the sun, needing the warmth to fill her soul as she went back to the night she’d seen Samuel kill a man.
She finally returned her gaze to Micah. “You know, even if I go to the FBI and tell them what I saw Samuel do, it’s only my word against his and I’m sure he’ll have half a dozen people who will alibi him for that time on that night. I honestly don’t think my statement would move your investigation any further along and, at the moment, all it would do is put my son at greater risk.”
Micah raked a hand down his lean, handsome features. “And we don’t want that to happen.” He released a deep sigh. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think you’re right. If it comes down to your word against Samuel’s, he’ll be pulling alibi witnesses out of his ears.”
“There’s a lot of fear in that town. People are afraid to speak up against your brother,” she said.
They fell silent, the only sound the song of a bird in a nearby tree and Sam patting the ground like it was a drum. For Olivia it was a tense silence as her mind refused to stop playing the kiss they’d shared through her head.
She couldn’t stop thinking about the way it had felt to be held in his arms. She also couldn’t help but worry about him. It was obvious he was determined to take down Samuel at all costs. Hopefully in the process he’d find her son and reunite her with him.
But, in the meantime, she knew the danger he faced each time he got near Cold Plains. She understood that those nights when he crept beneath the cover of
darkness into the streets of Samuel’s paradise, the risk of him losing his life was very real.
Definitely her trust in him grew by the minute, especially after he’d shared so much personal information with her. But she didn’t want to care about him. She didn’t want her heart to somehow get tangled up in his.
There was a battle brewing, a battle of epic proportions. What frightened her more than anything was the fact that there was no way of knowing which brother would remain standing when the war was won.