Elizabeth's Wolf

Chapter Seven

“This guy is a friend of yours?”

Elizabeth was nervous about their arrival at the Toler ranch. She had gone from having no one to help her, having no options, to having Dash take over and find options she could have never found for herself.

For two years she had depended on no one but herself. She had kept her and Cassie alive, often only by the skin of her teeth, but they were still alive. She had made her own decisions. Had protected Cassie alone and accepted the responsibility that each move, each decision, was the best she could make at the time.

Now Dash was making the decisions and he was doing it without informing her of the consequences, should any of them fail. She felt like she was in the dark, foundering for solid footing amid a situation she was unfamiliar with. She didn’t know Mike Toler. Didn’t know his family, his strengths or his weaknesses and she didn’t feel safe.

She watched Dash now, noticing his relaxed posture, his air of confidence and control. How she longed to feel so in control of any situation. The lights from the dash reflected off his hard face, the dull gleam of the night vision windshield giving him an almost other worldly appearance. The unfamiliar lights cast his expression in stark relief and made his eyes almost glow as he glanced over at her.

“He’s a fellow soldier,” he said simply as he shrugged those broad shoulders.

Hard, muscular shoulders. She had gripped the smooth, tight flesh earlier that morning, allowed her nails to clench on the supple skin as he ate from her mouth. Her fingertips tingled at the memory. Her mouth watered with sudden hunger to know his taste again.

“A fellow soldier doesn’t tell me much, Dash.” She pulled her mind back from the erotic possibilities that shimmered within her mind. She couldn’t let herself lose focus. Cassie’s life was too important. “Even friends aren’t always dependable.”

“Likely why I haven’t made any.” He didn’t appear regretful or bitter. It was a statement, nothing more. “We fought in Afghanistan together. In conditions like we knew, you learn the mettle of the men you fight with. Mike wouldn’t betray a kid. He put his life on the line too many times to save one. And he wouldn’t betray me. He owes his life to me.”

It was information. Nothing more. There was little emotion in his voice other than respect. Elizabeth thought of the people she had believed were her friends once. People she cared had for, had believed cared for her. She had loved them. Openly. Never questioning their honesty or their commitment to her. She had learned quickly that the least controversy had even those friends she had grown up with pulling back.

Yet, here was Dash, going to a man he had fought with, confident of that man’s loyalty, his honor. It made little sense to her.

“How can you be sure?” It was her greatest fear. A betrayal that would cost her the life of her child. “You’re trusting this man with Cassie’s life.”

“I’d trust him with my own.” He flashed her a dark look. “You don’t fight with a man for a year in hell and not know what he’s made of, Elizabeth. Mike’s a good man. He won’t let us down.”

“You expect me to just take your word.” She kept her voice low, aware that Cassie was still awake in the back. She regretted the fact that her internal alarm clock had failed her today, allowing her to sleep until Dash awoke them both. She had needed to talk this out with him.

“The fairy says it’s okay, Momma,” the little girl piped in then, her voice soft, reassuring.

Elizabeth closed her eyes painfully, her chest tightening. How she wished Cassie’s fairy, whoever the hell it was, would tell her. But then again, this fairy thing was already starting to concern her. As they had walked from the basement to their apartment two days before, Cassie had whispered that the fairy didn’t want them going back to their room.

Please, Momma. The fairy says to stay here. To wait. I don’t wanna go up there.

Had Cassie somehow known their enemies were there?

Elizabeth knew children had an advanced sense of their surroundings. One parents lost as they matured. The ability to see and sense things that parents rarely made sense of. Was the fairy merely a way for her to explain this?

“Tell the fairy I said thank you, Cassie.” She looked between the seats, smiling at her little girl. “But Momma needs to make sure. Adults don’t have fairies to guide them.”

Cassie looked up over at her with amazing sobriety. “You can use my fairy, Momma. I’ll tell you what she thinks.”

And how did she answer that one? Cassie never failed to surprise her.

“Thank you, honey, but Momma needs more than just the fairy’s word right now. Okay?” She kept her voice gentle. She didn’t want to hurt Cassie’s feelings. Didn’t want her to sense that her mother had lost her belief in fairies long ago.

“I understand, Momma.” Cassie settled back in her seat, her smile flashing in the darkness. “You can talk to Dash all you like about it then. I know it’s going to be okay.”

Elizabeth’s fists clenched as she turned back and faced forward. Snow still fell, though not as thick as before. The roads were deserted, the country lane blending into the surrounding landscape until only the faintest hint that it was actually a road remained.

She hated not knowing. Not being certain. She didn’t know this rancher, this ex-C.I.A. agent Dash was taking them to. She didn’t know Dash. Yet she was being expected to trust merely because she had no other choice.

“Why are you trusting me, Elizabeth, even this far?” he finally asked her. “You could have left the motel while I showered. You could have made any attempt to escape me. And you would have if you felt the need. Why didn’t you?”

Dash’s voice was gentle. It was dark and demanding, but the underlying softness soothed the ragged edges of her nerves.

She pushed her fingers restlessly through her hair. He hadn’t hurt her when he had the chance. He had killed a man for her. He had followed her through a blizzard and taken her farther away from the men searching for Cassie. He had haggled with Cassie over chocolate bars and carried a tote of clothes for months, picking up more here and there because he knew theirs were being destroyed. He had bought her daughter a bicycle. Had sent her a robe. He had done so many things, even before he found them, to make Cassie’s life, and hers, easier. How could she not take the chance?

“You made your point.” She laced her fingers together tightly. “But I still don’t know this man. I can’t trust like this, Dash. Not after all this time.”

“Then trust me,” he suggested. “You can, Elizabeth. You know you can.”

She stared out at the steadily falling snow, trying to maintain her control as he turned carefully from the road and drove beneath a sign announcing the Bar T Ranch. They were within only a few miles of this potentially dangerous situation. She braced herself for it, knowing she had no choice now but to trust Dash.

The dashboard clock was lit at nearly nine o’ clock. The normally hour-long drive had taken over three hours, counting the stop for Cassie’s pizza. Pizza that now sat like a lump in her stomach.

“Put on your coat, Cassie.” She kept her voice even. If they had to run, she didn’t want her daughter without some protection.

She tensed as Dash reached down between his seat and door, his body shifting, moving carefully. When he pulled the holstered gun from the cavity and handed it to her, she stared back at him in shock.

“I wouldn’t take a chance with your life,” he told her quietly. “I need your trust, Elizabeth. Here is mine in return.”

She stared down at the weapon before raising her eyes to his once again.

“Would you expect another soldier to follow you blindly?” she finally asked him somberly. “Would you ask him, with no explanations, without outlining whatever plan I pray you have, to just follow?”

He was silent for long moments as he laid the revolver on the console between their seats and gripped the steering wheel with both hands as he maneuvered through more than a foot of snow.

“There’s a chance that I can arrange a place of safety for you and Cassie. One that Grange can’t infiltrate or access in any way. A place where Cassie will be as safe as gold in Fort Knox.”

Elizabeth took a deep breath. She had been praying for nothing more. Nothing less. But the tone of his voice warned her that she might not like the answer.

“Where is this place?”

He glanced at her. “I’d rather not say until I can be certain, Elizabeth. This requires a place without little ears and more time than we have in this Hummer. Another soldier would understand this. Just as he would understand that I have those I trust. That even if he doesn’t know them, he understands that the contacts are important. Another soldier would understand that a commander knows what the hell he’s doing, and he will explain the full plan and discuss it when he knows it’s a plan.”

Elizabeth grit her teeth. Tight. Damn him.

She bit back the curse that wanted to sizzle to her lips as she turned away from him, staring outside the Hummer resentfully. He was right. But she damned well didn’t have to like it.

“Ohhh, Momma. Dash is good…” Cassie’s awed voice was filled with respect for how easily Dash had managed to turn the tables on a mother she had never managed to outwit. And never will, Elizabeth thought with affection, though she was still a little irked at Dash.

Elizabeth snorted. “Remember the phrase ‘getting too big for your britches’, Cassie?” she asked her daughter, using a firm tone of voice. “Dash could be in danger here.”

“Uh oh,” Cassie sing-songed. “Better remember what I told you earlier.”

Elizabeth glanced over at him curiously.

“Too big for my britches, huh?” he muttered for her alone. “Elizabeth, darlin’, you have no idea.” Then he said to Cassie, “I’ll remember your advice, honey, just as soon as I get the chance. You got your coat on now? We’ll be there soon.”

Scarlet heat flamed through Elizabeth’s body, flushing her cheeks in aroused embarrassment as she turned quickly away from him, remembering just how big he could get. Definitely too big for his britches. She swallowed tightly then breathed in with slow even breaths to fight the sudden hard thump of her heart. Damn him. Did he have a countermove for everything?

The rest of the drive was completed in silence. Elizabeth steeled herself for the coming arrival. Death or safety. With each move she had made over the past two years it came down to this. And though she was beginning to trust Dash to a point, finding it in her to trust someone on his say-so alone was harder.

The Hummer pulled through the snow easily, though Dash didn’t push for speed. Still, all too soon they rounded the last small hill and the two-story ranch house came into view. It was well lit. The front door opened as the wide entrance to a garage slowly began to rise.

A tall man moved easily from the porch along a shoveled walkway, timing his steps to coincide with Dash maneuvering the Hummer into the wide garage. As they cleared the door, it began to lower once again, enclosing them in the brightly lit area as Dash cut the ignition.

“Momma.” Cassie’s voice was faint. “The fairy says it’s okay. She really does.” But Elizabeth heard her daughter’s fear as the strange male began to come alongside the vehicle.

“Come here, baby.” Elizabeth unbuckled her seat belt as Dash did, grabbed the service revolver in one hand and motioned her daughter to her with the other.

In an instant Cassie was over the console. Her thin arms wrapped around Elizabeth’s neck, her head burying against it as she trembled.

“Elizabeth?” Dash turned to her, watching Cassie in alarm.

Elizabeth shook her head. “She’s frightened.” She ran her hand down Cassie’s back soothingly. “Big men scare her, Dash. Except you. She thinks she knows you…” She let it trail off.

She and Cassie didn’t know the man now standing patiently on the other side of Dash’s door, his expression concerned as he waited on Dash to open the door.

Dash breathed out deeply as she watched him somberly. “She’s just a baby…” She tried to explain, afraid Dash would now expect more from Cassie than she could give. Cassie had her moments of terror. Her moments of happiness. Elizabeth had learned to accept each as they came.

“I know that, Elizabeth.” His voice was soft, though his eyes flashed dark fire at her reprisal. “I was worried for Cassie. Not Mike. We can sit here as long as you need.”

Elizabeth shook her head. Better to find out now what awaited them here in this new atmosphere.

“If she finds safety, she’ll calm down.” She left the rest unsaid.

Dash pushed his fingers wearily through his hair as he pulled the keys from the ignition and opened the door. Cassie tensed, a small, mewling whimper escaping her lips.

Dash stopped. His jaw tightened before he closed the door back once again.

“Cassie.” His voice was so incredibly gentle as he turned that Elizabeth wanted to cry at the sound. Had she ever heard a man speak to her or her daughter with such warmth? “Cassie. The door’s closed, honey. Won’t you look at me?”

Elizabeth rocked her baby slowly, knowing the fear could lead to deep, shuddering tremors that came so close to convulsions they terrified her.

Surprisingly enough, Cassie peeked up at him, though her hands gripped Elizabeth’s neck so tightly they felt like bands of quivering steel.

“I’ll be okay.” Cassie was fighting to be brave, but her voice trembled with her fear. “The fairy said it’s okay. The fairy is always right. She’s always right.” Elizabeth could hear the tears filling Cassie’s voice now.

“You know, Mike has a little girl, too,” Dash suddenly said softly. “Just a few years older than you are. Her name’s Mica. And I bet, living out here without any little girls to play with, that she’ll be very happy when you come in the house.”

Cassie’s head lifted further. She glanced outside the Hummer. “Is she here now?” she asked him suspiciously.

“She’s in the house, Cassie,” Dash said. “I heard her playing when I talked to Mike on the phone earlier. Would you like to meet her?”

Cassie didn’t loosen her grip on Elizabeth, but the shudders eased perceptively.

“You’re sure she’s here, Dash?”

“Tell you what, I’ll step out here and talk to Mike and have him get Mica to come to the inside garage door.” He indicated the closed door at the side of the wide room. “How does that sound?”

Elizabeth lowered her head, kissing her daughter’s curls as she fought to hide her tears. Dash was being gentle, understanding. His voice wasn’t patronizing as Dane’s would have been, but kept its usual inflection without being demanding.

“He’s a good daddy?” Cassie’s voice was still rough. “He doesn’t hit his little girl, does he?”

Elizabeth glanced at Dash. She prayed only she saw the spark of violence that shot through his eyes for a second.

“No, Cassie.” He swallowed tightly. “Mike would never hit his little girl. You can even ask her if you want to. Mike loves his little girl very much. He would never hit her.”

“She’ll come to the door?” Cassie worried. “I can see her before I get out?”

“Yes, you can. And I’ll close my door when I get out. That way, you won’t get cold waiting.” Or frightened that there was access to her by the big man standing outside, Elizabeth guessed.

Cassie nodded cautiously.

“Good girl.” Dash smiled tenderly as he eased his door open once again and stepped out of the Hummer.