Lawman Lover - Lisa Childs (23 page)

He had lost the woman he loved. James intimately knew the white-hot intensity of that unrelenting pain.

Now it was over.

E
VEN ABOVE THE RACKET
of the riot, Rowe heard her scream as he ran through the prison guards toward where he’d left Macy. He actually felt her scream, throbbing inside him, rushing through his veins with the adrenaline coursing through him.

While the warden had gloated, the sheriff had regretfully admitted to leaving Macy with Alice quite a while ago. They should have been gone. If Alice was as smart as he’d always believed she was, she would have forced Macy into his truck. She would have driven off with her, away from Blackwoods, away from Rowe.

But then, given the beating Jackson had taken before his death, Alice had toyed with him, too, just as she must have toyed with Macy. Why else would they still be close enough to the prison that Rowe could hear Macy’s scream?

Killing wasn’t just Alice’s way of hiding her corruption; the woman must have actually enjoyed it. Why else would she have tortured a co-worker? First Jackson, beating him before she killed him, and now Macy.

So Rowe felt no compunction over pulling the trigger and sending a bullet straight into Alice O’Neil’s twisted brain.

But had he fired it in time? Had she hit Macy with that damn scalpel that she’d kept swinging at her as she taunted her with it?

He jerked open the truck door and pulled Macy from the passenger side. The dome light illuminated her pale face and wide eyes and the blood that already stained her clothes.

“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice shaking as badly as his hands as he lifted her in his arms. “Did she hurt you?”

“No…” But the denial slipped through her lips with a moan.

“You’re not all right.” She had been through hell because of him.

But instead of resenting him for it, she lifted trembling fingers to his face. “Are you all right?”

Rowe nodded in assurance. “I’m fine. Thanks again to your brother.”

Hope brightened her eyes, chasing away some of the fear that haunted her. “He’s alive?”

He couldn’t tell her what had happened to Jed—not here, not with her being as fragile as she was.

“
T
ELL ME WHAT HAPPENED
to my brother!” Macy demanded. She had waited long enough, enduring the sheriff’s questions and Rowe’s pompous supervisor’s questions. And any time she’d tried to ask about Jed, Rowe had silenced her with a look, as if she were supposed to deny the man who mattered most to her.

Or had mattered most…until she’d unzipped that body bag and found Rowe Cusack. She hadn’t realized then what he would come to mean to her. She hadn’t really realized it until he’d run into the middle of a prison riot.

Rowe lifted his gaze from the fire he’d started in her hearth while she’d taken the shower he’d insisted she have before they talked. It had felt good to wash off Elliot’s blood, and Alice’s....

She shuddered but refused to give in to shock again. She was stronger than that. She was Jed’s sister. “Tell me…”

There had been casualties at the prison. It was all over the news, but he’d asked the sheriff, who’d driven them back to her cabin, to shut off the radio before Macy heard who those casualties were. Guards or inmates?

“Macy…” Rowe stared at her so strangely, his light blue eyes gleaming in the firelight, that he unnerved her.

Her breath caught in her throat, so that she could only whisper, “He’s dead?”

“No, he saved my life.” Rowe sighed wearily. “He saved my life twice.”

She waited, knowing there was more to the story, more that Rowe struggled to admit to her. So, when he remained silent, she prodded him, “And?”

“So I let him go.”

“What?” Shock struck her again, despite her best efforts to withstand it.

“There was a prison break.”

“Several inmates escaped.” She’d heard that on the news just as Rowe had had the sheriff shut it off. “Jed escaped?”

Before Rowe could reply, she shook her head. “But he wouldn’t do that. He’ll never get his appeal, never be able to prove his innocence.”

“He thinks it’s the only way he can prove it,” Rowe explained, “the only way that he can draw out the real killer.”

“And you let him go?”

“He saved my life,” Rowe repeated. “Twice.”

“But all the authorities are going after the escaped convicts. They’re considered armed and dangerous.” Especially Jed, given that he had been convicted of killing a cop. “He could get killed.”

“Your brother survived a riot and three years in a corrupt prison,” he needlessly reminded her. “He’s resourceful.”

“He’s innocent, though. Why couldn’t he wait for you to prove that?” Dread clutched her heart. “He knows you don’t believe him.”

And if Rowe didn’t believe in her brother, he didn’t believe in her.

She’d declared her love, but he hadn’t reciprocated. “Do you think he killed Doc, too?”

Rowe shook his head. “James had some guards kill Doc. It was what started the riot.”

“But that was days ago.”

“The warden had bypassed the alarm to the sheriff’s office, thinking he could regain control. It wasn’t until the prisoners got into the offices that he pulled the alarm.”

“His arrogance will prove his downfall,” she murmured.

“His pride,” Rowe added. “His fear.” And she wondered now if he were still talking about the warden. He closed the distance between them and caught Macy’s hands in his, tugging her toward the bed as she had tugged him just the night before.

She dragged her feet, going but not quite willingly, not until she knew for sure what was really going through his head. “Rowe…?”

“I know your brother didn’t kill Doc,” he replied, “and I know he didn’t kill anybody else either.”

“You believe in him?”

“I believe in
you,
” he said. “And you believe in him.”

“But do
you?
”

“Your brother is a hero, not a killer,” he said, as if he believed it. He wasn’t just humoring her; he respected her brother as much as she always had. “We’ll prove his innocence.”

“We?”

“I need you, Macy, by my side…for the rest of our lives.”

“What are you saying?”

“That I love you.” He lowered his head and brushed his lips across hers. Then he reached for the towel she had wrapped around herself and pulled it loose until it dropped to the floor. A ragged breath slipped through his lips. “You’re so beautiful....”

She skimmed her fingers across his tautly clenched jaw. “You’re not so bad yourself…”

He grinned, and warmth spread through her, his happiness warming her more than the fire. “Will you marry me?”

She laughed and reminded him, “We’ve only known each other a few days.”

Before, when she’d had her life all mapped out, she had planned when she would get officially engaged: after she’d graduated premed. And when she would get married: after medical school but before she started her residency. And when she would have children: after she’d gone into private practice. But nothing in her life had gone according to her plans.

If it had, she never would have met Rowe Cusack, and that would have been far more tragic than her derailed plans.

“Does it make a difference how long we’ve known each other?” he asked, stepping back.

But he didn’t seem mad about her reaction to his proposal, because he pulled off his shirt and tossed it down onto her towel. Then he undid his belt and, with a pop of a snap and a rasp of a zipper, he dropped his jeans and his boxers.

Her breath escaped in a sudden rush.

“Do you think you’ll love me less when you get to know me more?” he prodded her, as if he believed time was the only reason she hesitated.

She shook her head, sending droplets from her wet hair flying. Some landed on his chest and trickled down over the sculpted muscles. She leaned forward, flicking out her tongue to lick them away.

His flat nipples puckered. She closed her lips over one and tugged then flicked her tongue across it. He clutched his hands in her hair and tilted her head up. Then his mouth covered hers, kissing her deeply.

When he finally pulled back, she panted for breath. “I don’t think I can love you more,” he said. “But then every time I look at you, it’s like my heart stretches, making more room for you.”

“Rowe…” Tears stung her eyes.

He lifted her onto the bed and followed her down, covering her naked body with his. Skin slid over skin and lips over lips. They loved each other with their mouths and their hands, kissing and caressing.

Her need for him built until she ached with wanting him. Then he parted her legs and joined their bodies, thrusting deep inside her, filling the emptiness she hadn’t even realized she’d felt until she’d met him. They found their rhythm together, her rising to meet his every thrust. She clutched his shoulders and his back and locked her legs tight around his lean waist. She would never let him go.

But then the passion exploded, curling her toes and pulling a scream from her lips. He buried himself deep and, with a shout of release, filled her with his pleasure. Then he clasped her tight against his madly pounding heart, holding her close.

And she knew it didn’t matter how long they’d known each other. The only plans that mattered to her now were the ones they would make together.

“I will marry you,” she said, pressing a kiss to his lips.

“When?” he asked. “I don’t want a long engagement.”

“Then we better get busy,” she said. “Because I can’t get married until we find Jed, so he can give me away.”

R
OWE STARED DOWN AT
M
ACY’S
face, her cheek pressed against his chest as she slept in his arms. He wanted to slide a gold band on her finger now, to make her his wife before she changed her mind.

Because he couldn’t have gotten this lucky. The most amazing woman in the world couldn’t have fallen for him. He didn’t doubt her love now. But would it last if he couldn’t keep his promise to her?

“It doesn’t matter, you know,” she murmured sleepily. “Even if you can’t help my brother, I will never stop loving you.”

He grinned. Even asleep, she knew what he was thinking. Her quick mind never shut off.

“I will never love you any less,” she vowed. “Only more. More and more every minute of every hour of every day of the rest of our lives.”

Maybe she wouldn’t love him less if something happened to Jed. But she wouldn’t be truly happy, completely happy, until her brother was safe and exonerated.

“It matters to me,” Rowe said. “I promise you that I will save your brother.”

He owed the man. Jedidiah Kleyn hadn’t just saved Rowe’s life—he had given him a life when he’d sent Rowe to Macy.

In a body bag.

Now Rowe hoped he could keep the promise he’d made to his fiancée…because he suspected the person from whom Jedidiah Kleyn most needed saving was himself.

H
E WAS ON THE WRONG SIDE
of the bars again. But this time animals hadn’t locked him up. Men of law and order had—arrogant, self-righteous men who would not accept bribes.

Yet.

Jefferson James had found few men that he had not been able to buy. But if he had not been able to buy them off, he had been able to kill them. Until Rowe Cusack.

Hell, he hadn’t even been able to kill the girl. No one had.

Jefferson’s partner was dead. His guards were either dead, too, or locked up like he was. While Jefferson could find someone else willing to try to kill Cusack and the girl, he doubted they would be any more successful than the others had been. According to his lawyer, their testimony wouldn’t be the problem anyway. It was all hearsay or inadmissible.

There was only one person about whose testimony Jefferson needed to worry: Jedidiah Kleyn. Right now every law enforcement officer in the area was out looking for the escaped convict. Other inmates had gotten out during the riot, but it was Kleyn that everyone sought because of what he was. A cop killer.

Jefferson had to make sure that they didn’t bring him in alive. Even behind bars he had power and influence—enough to put out a shoot-on-sight order on Kleyn. He needed the man dead. Very dead.

J
ED
K
LEYN STOOD IN THE SHADOWS
of the dark woods surrounding the burning prison. He was no longer inside those cement walls and barbed wire. No longer locked behind bars like an animal.

But he wasn’t free. He wouldn’t be free until he finally proved his innocence. Three years had changed him. It had taught him things about survival that he hadn’t even learned during his tours of duty in Afghanistan. Now he fully accepted that in order to prove he wasn’t a killer, he might have to become one.