Another Chance (22 page)

From the
culvert under the driveway that led to Jordan’s house, Frankie Lambert had
watched the two kids come running out of the woods and drive away.  He had
already crawled a half a mile in the ditch along the shoulder of the highway,
from the small dirt road where he had hidden his car.  He had crawled over
broken bottles and a few beer cans that had been tossed aside by uncaring
passengers in cars traveling the busy road, but the sandspurs had been the
worst things he had encountered.  There weren’t many of them, and they
weren’t something he was familiar with, but he had had to stop for several
minutes to pull them out of his arms and legs.  He could still feel some of
the thorns rubbing against his clothing and knew he would have to dig them out of
his skin tomorrow.

He had heard
the cry of a mountain lion just before the two kids tore out of the woods and
jumped into their car.  Frankie couldn’t help wondering about that. 
He had recognized the sound from hearing it on television and knew there were
no mountains in Florida, but he did remember something he had seen on the same
program about the Florida panther.  He was nervous and wanted to be away
from here, but not without Jordan!  He was too close to turn back now, not
even in the face of an encounter with a panther.

He stayed low
to the ground and slipped slowly through the skimpy cover of the grass growing
in the driveway and up toward the barn.

He knew about
the dog, and had learned only today from the man at the feed store that Jordan
appeared to have a boyfriend living with her now.  He wasn’t really
worried about either.  He knew his pistol would take care of the both
problems.  He cherished the feeling of the gun resting against his ribs in
the shoulder holster beneath his shirt.

Having heard
the cry of the big cat in the woods behind the house, he was glad he had
decided to make his approach from the front, in spite of the fact that he had
recognized two different cars from the Sheriff’s department cruise slowly by on
the highway while he had been crawling down the ditch.

He slipped
along the driveway on his belly, lying still every few feet until he came to
the part of the road that was closest to the back of the barn.  It was
darker there than the front of the barn so he slipped under the fence and crept
along beside the barn until he was lying on the ground at the front.

He lay there
for a long time watching the house and the nearby tepee, gratified to see they
were dark and quiet.  Satisfied, he entered the barn and stood up, glad to
be concealed by the shadows and for a chance to stretch his legs for a few
minutes before he moved on up to the house.  He could hear horses moving
restlessly and hoped they didn’t start neighing.  He didn’t know what kind
of system Jordan might have set up but he had heard of people putting modified
nursery monitors in their barn so they could hear that everything was alright
with their horses.  He couldn’t imagine people getting that emotionally
involved with an animal.

Of course,
Lambert had never allowed himself to become emotionally involved with people,
much less an animal, until Jordan.  And now, this close to her, he could
feel excitement racing through his veins.

One of the
horses stuck his head out over the opened top portion of his stall door and
looked down the aisle at Lambert.  His ears flicked back and forth a few
times and he snorted softly.  Tempest felt uncomfortable with this human
in the barn.  He normally had a very kind temperament and had never
exhibited any aggression toward humans.  That went against his nature and
his training.  He shook his head and drew back into his stall.  He
felt Wolf’s feelings reaching out to him and shared what he was feeling with
the Indian man he had come to accept.  He felt the urge to look at the
stranger in the barn again and returned to look out into the barn.  He
didn’t like the way the man smelled.  He had watched in growing discomfort
as the man had slithered through the grass growing in the middle of the two
rutted dirt driveway since his nose had first alerted him to the man’s
presence.

All the horses
knew when Wolf silently approached the barn from the darkness.  They
didn’t see or hear him, but they felt his presence and the calmness his mind
conveyed to them.

Wolf entered
the barn through the back window of Tempest’s stall, counting on the horse’s
movements to cover any noise his entry might make.  The big sorrel gelding
remained with his head over his stall door, watching the stranger, as Wolf
crept up beside him.

Wolf could see
that Lambert had entered Jordan’s office and with a flashlight was looking
through the desk drawers.  He wondered if the intruder had yet discovered
the pistol she kept there and was glad he had removed the bullets.

Wolf slipped
the latch on Tempest’s door open and stepped out into the barn, remaining
against the wall while he pushed the door shut again.  He was glad he’d
made a point of making sure the hinges on the stall doors were well
oiled.  Silently he stepped toward the office.  At the door, he paused
for a moment, retrieving his Glock from the back of the waistband of his jeans,
thankful to have it resting comfortably in his hand.  Then he reached his
empty hand inside and flipped on the overhead bulb, flooding the small space
with almost blinding light.

Lambert
dropped and fired his gun at almost the same instant the light came on, but
Wolf had lunged into the room and was out of the line of fire.  Before
Lambert could recover, Wolf was on him, one hand locked around the wrist of the
hand that held Lambert’s gun pushing it to the floor, the other hand, shoving
his own gun into Lambert’s face.

“Drop the gun,
or die.  Your choice.”  Wolf’s voice was calm and almost matter of
fact as he spoke.

The sound of
the gun firing had reverberated through the night and in the guest bathroom at
the house, Jordan jerked to her feet.  Her head shook negatively and she
whispered Wolf’s name softly.  Not again!  Oh, please God!  Not
again!  She unlocked the door and jerked it open even as she pressed the
speed dial for the Sheriff’s Department, and then ordering Bhrandii to heel, she
left the sanctuary of the bathroom and raced through the house and out the
front door toward the barn to help the man who she now realized she was in love
with.

Wolf could see
Lambert was surprised to have been caught so off guard.  His eyes were
large and with the gun pointing at his nose, it was easy to see the fear in his
eyes.  “How does it feel, scum bag, to be the one down?”  He could no
more resist taunting Lambert than he had been able to resist scaring those two
kids.

Lambert swore
at him, but opened his hand and dropped his gun on the office floor.  “Do
you think you’re protecting her honor?”  He asked, his mouth frothing in
anger and fear.  “She has no honor!  She’ll use you and when you’re
used up, she’ll come looking for me!”

Wolf laughed
softly, but there was no humor in his cold eyes.  “Yeah, like she’s been
lookin’ for you while you were in prison?  Jordan hates what you
are!  She hates it bad enough, to let me, a cop, move in with her just so
we could trap you.”  Wolf pushed to his feet and hauled Lambert up
roughly.  “You’re going back to prison, Lambert.  You are under
arrest.  Anythin’ you say can and will be used against you in a court of
law…...”  He turned Lambert around facing the desk, holding his hands
together with a painful grip on the man’s fingers and shoved his pistol back
between his shirt and his pants along the back of his spine as he finished the
Miranda Rights.  He forced his prisoner to lean over the desk while he
pulled a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket.  He’d make sure the
escapee was cuffed before he patted him down for any other weapons he might
have on him.

Lambert felt
fury building inside him like nothing he’d ever known before.  Back to
prison!  He’d rather die!  He jerked his body to one side, attempting
to roll out from under Wolf’s control.  “I’ll kill you like I did the
other one,” Lambert growled, continuing to struggle to escape from his captor’s
grasp.  “I won’t go back inside!”

Wolf tightened
his pressure on Lambert’s fingers, lifting up on the muscular arms with the
painful leverage he had on both the criminal’s hands.  “Go ahead and
struggle.”  He growled and stopped trying to slip the cuffs around the
man’s wrists.  He removed his gun from the waist band of his jeans
again.  He slid it up to the back of his prisoner’s head.  “To keep
you from getting’ to Jordan, I will gladly put a bullet in your brain.”

Unexpectedly, Lambert
shoved back in spite of the pain to his arms and fingers, in spite of the gun
against the back of his head.  He was determined not to go back to
prison!  He was determined not to lose this chance to avenge himself with
Jordan.  His shove pushed his head back against the barrel of the pistol,
causing it to slide to one side and although it discharged, the bullet missed
completely, slamming into the roof of the office.  He shoved again, making
Wolf step back and loosening his grip on Lamberts fingers.

As he
struggled to maintain control of the frenzied mad man, Wolf felt his restraint
slipping and applied all the pressure he could to the fingers within his
grasp.  He felt bones in the felon’s fingers breaking but still Lambert
struggled.  Then Wolf lost his grip and Lambert was free!  He whirled
and slammed his body against Wolf, knocking him back into the wall.

Wolf’s head
hit the door frame, hard and as he resisted falling, he saw the escapee coming
at him again.  He pulled his gun from behind his torso and pulled the
trigger twice even while he regained his balance and stepped to the side.

He saw Lambert
falter.  First shock registered on the felon’s face, then fear.  One
of Lambert’s hands grasped at his own chest and came away dripping with
blood.  Lambert looked at Wolf and swore.  He took another step
toward him, then his attention was drawn to the office door and he took another
staggering step, his bloody hand extended toward the open door, his eyes were
looking out into the barn, where Jordan now stood, her pistol pointed at his
chest.

Wolf heard
Jordan scream his name as Lambert slowly crumpled to the floor, his hand still
reaching toward her.  Wolf stepped around the wall, into the door. 
“It’s over, Jordan.”  He spoke softly.  He saw the pistol in her
hand, still pointing at Lambert’s prone figure on the barn floor.

She stood with
her left hand over her mouth, her eyes locked on Lambert as he writhed in the floor
of the office; her right hand still clutching the pistol was now beginning to
tremble weakly.

Wolf saw
Bhrandii’s solid body between her and Lambert’s form, his muzzle lifted in a
soundless snarl.  Both of them were totally fixated on Lambert.  He
stepped across the figure on the floor and stopped directly in front of
Jordan.  Slowly he reached for her handgun and removed it from her
trembling fingers.  He slipped it into the waistband of his jeans, then
both his hands grasping her shoulders he spoke again, almost whispering. 
“It’s alright, Sugar.  He can’t hurt anyone else now.”

Slowly her
focus shifted to him and tears slipped from her eyes as she wilted against
him.  “I heard the first shot and I was so afraid he had killed
you!”  She spoke around sobs that shook her whole body and if his arms
hadn’t been supporting her, she would not have been able to stand.  “I was
so scared.  I was afraid I’d lost you, too!”

He held her
like that as she struggled to regain control of her emotions.  As her
tears subsided, he tucked one hand under her chin and raised her head so she
was looking up at him.  What she saw in his eyes as he gently wiped her
tears away, caused her breathe to catch in her throat.  After erasing her
tears, he gently pressed her head back to his chest.  She could feel his
heart beating wildly beneath her ear.  She rubbed her cheek against his
chest, her eyes closed, loving the warmth that radiated from him.  Her
arms reached around behind him, slipping over the hard muscular feel of his
shoulders beneath his thin shirt.  She knew she was more than just a job
to him!  She had seen it in his pale eyes.

He breathed in
deeply, treasuring the smell of her and the feel of her in his arms,
finally.  Gently his kissed the top of her head, loving the touch of her
silky hair against his lips.  “It’s over, Jordan.  He’ll never bother
you again.”

In the
distance they could hear the screaming of approaching sirens howling through
the darkness.  Wolf allowed his hands to slip down her back, drawing her
closer against him, drinking eagerly of her smell and the touch of her hands gripping
his shoulders.

Her face was
buried against his chest, her arms caressing his broad back.  His head
slipped around the top of her head and down against her cheek.  He used
his cheek and chin to push her loose hair back so he could feel her cheek
against his.  Slowly he turned his face and he felt her respond as he
nudged her head around so their lips were almost touching.

“I’ve wanted
you in my arms like this since the first time I walked around the back of the
trailer and saw you standin’ there.  I’ve dreamed it.”  He voice was
soft and husky as his breath caressed her ear.

“Me,
too.”  She wondered if he could feel her heart pounding against his
chest.  “I’ve wanted to be in your arms worse than I’ve ever wanted
anything in my life.”

His head
turned just enough to allow his lips to barely touch hers.  “I felt it,
and it’s been so hard to maintain any semblance of professionalism.”  His
lips touched hers again, lingering only for a second.  He lifted his head
and brought one hand around to cradle her cheek.  “My
job
here is
over
. 
From here on, I’m just a man and you’re a woman.”