The thought of his mother being scared enough to hire a security firm bothered Dante more than he could believe. “I’ll stop in at the hospital on my way through. It’ll take me between four and five hours to get there. I can be there around seven in the morning.”
“Oh, Dante,” Julia begged, “please wait until morning. The last thing we need right now is another Thunder Horse in a ditch. And I don’t think your mother could worry about one more thing.”
“Okay. I’ll wait until closer to sunup. Expect me at noon.”
“Good. Just a minute. Your mother wanted to talk to you one more time.”
Dante braced himself, his eyes burning as his mother got on the phone. “Dante, your brothers are going to be okay.”
“I know, Mom. I’m worried about you.”
She snorted, the sound hitching with what he suspected was a sob. “I’m a tough old bird. Don’t you go worrying about me. And don’t you come rushing out here thinking we all need saving. Maddox will be home before you know it, and Pierce and Tuck will be up and giving him hell. Take care of yourself, son.”
“I will. I love you, Mom.”
“I love you, too.”
When he rang off, Dante stood for a long time, with the phone in his hand, his thoughts flipping through all the chapters in his life, so many of them, including the days he’d spent riding across the Badlands on wild ponies he and his brothers had tamed. Their Lakota blood had run strong through their veins and their mother had encouraged them to embrace their father’s heritage.
Wakantanka,
the Great Spirit, had watched over their antics, protecting them from harm.
Dante closed his eyes and lifted his face to the sky. Where was the Great Spirit when his brothers’ truck had flipped? Perhaps he’d been there. Otherwise they would both be dead.
A hand on his arm brought him back to the apartment.
“What’s wrong?” Emma stood beside him in a short baby-blue filmy nightgown, her pale skin practically glowing in the darkness.
“My brothers were in an accident.”
She gasped. “Are they okay?”
“So far.”
“You have to go to them.”
“We’ll leave in the morning and stop at the hospital in Bismarck on our way to the Thunder Horse Ranch.”
“I meant to ask, just where is the Thunder Horse Ranch?”
“In the Badlands north of Medora.”
“Okay.” She smiled. “I’ll be sure to pack my snow gear. In the meantime, you need sleep. It’s a long way there.”
He shook his head. “I can’t sleep.”
“Then come lay down with me. Even if you don’t sleep, you can rest.” She took his hand and led him back into her bedroom, offering him comfort he gladly accepted.
When he stretched out on the bed beside her, she lay in the crook of his arm, her cheek pressed to his chest, her hand draped across his belly. He lay staring at the ceiling, thinking about his brothers and his mother and wishing his father was still alive.
“Stop thinking,” Emma whispered against his skin. Her warm breath stirred him, reminding him that he wasn’t alone with his thoughts.
Emma skimmed her hand over his chest and down his torso and back up in soothing circles. “Think of something else,” she urged as her hand drifted lower.
He captured her wrist before she bumped into the rising tent of his shorts. “Once again, don’t go there unless you mean it.”
She tipped her chin and stared up at him. The little bit of light shining around the edges of the blinds gave her face a light blue glow and her eyes shone in the darkness. “I mean it.”
He let go of her wrist and her hand slid lower until it skimmed across his shaft, which became instantly hard and pulsing.
He drew in a slow steadying breath. “Why are you doing this?” A sudden thought reared its ugly head and he flipped her over on her back and pinned her wrists to the mattress.
Her eyes rounded and shone white in the darkness.
“Are you doing this out of some misguided sense of pity?”
Emma shook her head. “No. Not at all.”
“Then why?”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so forward.” Her eyelids swept low over her eyes. “I understand if you’re not interested in someone so...so...”
“So what?” he asked.
“Inexperienced,” she finished, a frown settling between delicate brows.
He nudged her knees apart and settled lower between her legs, letting the hard ridge of his erection brush up against the juncture of her thighs. “Oh, I’m interested all right. But why are you? I don’t need anyone’s pity.”
She glanced away from him and he’d bet her cheeks were flaming. “I was curious,” she whispered.
“About what?”
“If the second time would be as good as the first?” She stared up at him, the limited lighting making her face glow a dusky-blue.
The tension leached out of him and he dropped low to steal a kiss. Though it wasn’t stealing when she gave it freely. Emma tasted of mint and smelled like roses, the scent light and fragrant but not overpowering. Samantha had reminded him of honeysuckle growing wild and untamed. The two women were as different as night and day.
Where Sam had captured his interest with her unfettered ability to grasp life by the horns and ride, Emma was like an English rosebud, waiting for the sunlight to unfurl.
He released her hands and bent to claim her lips in a crushing kiss. Partly because of the burning desire ignited inside him and partly out of anger for making him think about Sam again. He’d tried so hard to put that chapter of his life behind him, to forget what he’d lost in her and how life had stretched before him empty without her in it.
Quiet, studious Emma had been the first woman he’d even considered dating since Samantha’s death. And after having coffee with her, he’d refused to see her again, afraid that being with her meant he was dishonoring the memory of Samantha. Or that he was finally starting to forget her.
The truth was that Samantha was gone forever and Emma was lying beneath him, willing to slake the hunger in his body. If he made love to her, it would mean nothing but a physical release to him. His body recognized needs his mind had refused to let him satisfy.
Once he started, he couldn’t seem to stop and Emma didn’t cry out or tell him no. Part of him wished she would.
He trailed kisses from her mouth to the edge of her jaw and down the long line of her throat to the pulse beating wildly at the base.
Her fingers curled around the back of his neck and urged him to continue his downward path to the swells of her breasts beneath the sheer fabric of her nightgown.
He grabbed the hem and ripped it up over her head and tossed it aside.
She lay beneath him, bathed in the soft, gray-blue light shining around the edges of the blinds, her breasts peaked, the nipples tight little buds.
Dante swooped down to taste first one, then the other, rolling the taut buttons between his teeth and across his tongue. When he sucked it into his mouth, she arched her back off the bed, pressing it deeper into his mouth. He gladly accepted, flicking the tip with his tongue.
Slowly, he teased his way across her ribs, slid a hand between her legs, and parted her folds to stroke the strip of flesh hiding there.
Her breath caught and held.
When he started to remove his hand, she covered it with hers and pressed it down, encouraging him to continue.
For someone who’d never had a lover, she learned quickly and wasn’t too shy to let him know what she liked.
Before long, her breathing grew ragged and she dug her heels into the mattress, her bottom rising above the sheets as she called out his name. “Dante!”
Her body pulsed beneath his fingers until finally the tension subsided and she fell back to the bed, with a shuddering sigh. “Amazing.”
Dante cupped her sex and leaned up to kiss her full on the lips before lying on the bed beside her.
“Wait.” Emma leaned up on her elbow, her hand going to the hard line of his manhood. “What about you?”
“Watching you was enough for me.”
She frowned, her fingers curling around him. “But you’re still...”
“Hard?” He laughed though it took a lot for him to force it out. “I could drive nails with it right now.”
“Then, please.” She tugged on him, but he refused to budge.
“I don’t have protection.”
“We didn’t have it last night.”
“And that was pushing the limits. I won’t risk it again. Now, if you happen to have something...?” His lips twisted. “I thought not.” He tucked an arm behind his head and pulled her up against him. “I’ll take a rain check in the meantime. Sleep, Emma. I have a feeling tomorrow will be another long day.”
Emma settled beside him, curled against his side. Whether he wanted her there or not, she wasn’t too proud to take advantage of his offer to hold her until she went to sleep.
Warm, safe and satisfied, she drifted to sleep with a smile on her face. She had to remind herself she was an independent college professor and that when all this was over, Dante would move on and possibly never see her again.
But while she had the chance, she’d take whatever scraps he was willing to throw her way. If it meant she was desperate and lonely...well, then it was true. She
was
desperate and lonely, and whatever memories she stored up during her time with Dante would have to do.
In her life history, she was destined to be alone. The men who’d come and gone in her life had been prone to have an aversion to commitment. Emma had long since convinced herself it was her or at least the magnet she seemed to carry around that attracted men who refused to commit.
Tomorrow was another day and she’d better get some sleep if she wanted to be awake when they finally made it to the Thunder Horse Ranch.
Chapter Eight
Dante glanced across at Emma as she leaned back in the seat of the SUV he had rented for the next couple of weeks. She hadn’t spoken much throughout the trip and the circles beneath her eyes were more pronounced. Though she’d slept part of the night, they hadn’t really had a decent night’s sleep in two days.
The back of Dante’s neck was stiff and he could feel some of the bruises and sore muscles he’d acquired in the helicopter and trailer crashes.
He’d insisted on a four-wheel-drive SUV for the trip, knowing the roads to the ranch could be difficult during the summer and impassible in a two-wheel-drive vehicle during the harsh North Dakota winters.
The insurance company would take their time sorting out the details of replacing the Jeep. A full investigation would have to be performed by the National Transportation Safety Board on the helicopter crash and the FBI would assist the state police with the case since it involved federal equipment and personnel.
If Pierce and Tuck were in any shape to assist, theirs was the closest FBI regional office to the crash site. Though they would not be assigned the case, Dante knew they would be involved enough to keep him informed of the progress.
So far, not a single terrorist organization or survivalist group had stepped forward to claim responsibility for shooting down his helicopter.
He’d checked in with his boss, who informed him that the police and investigation team from the state crime lab had combed over the burned out hull of the helicopter finding no more evidence or gleaning any more information than he’d already imparted. The snowstorm had covered the snowmobile tracks and more snow was predicted within the next twenty-four hours.
The winter that had held off until now had set in and wouldn’t loosen its hold until late April.
Emma slept for the first hour and a half of the drive to Bismarck. The road crews had worked hard to clear the interstate highways between Grand Forks and Fargo and between Fargo and Bismarck. Other than a few slick spots, they hadn’t had to slow too much, but the wind blowing in from the northwest pounded the rental, forcing them to use a lot more gasoline than if it had been calm.
By the time Dante reached the hospital in Bismarck, he was ready for the break before the additional three-hour trip to Thunder Horse Ranch. The clouds were settling in, making the sky a dark gray. If they didn’t get on the road soon, they might not make it to the ranch. The weather reports on the radio were predicting whiteout conditions starting after dark.
As he pulled into the hospital parking lot, he braced himself for what he’d find. Cell phone reception had been limited between Fargo and Bismarck, with long stretches without any reception whatsoever.
When they’d neared Bismarck, he’d checked his phone. No missed calls and no text messages. He prayed that no news was good news, and climbed out of the car, stretching stiff muscles.
Before he could get around to the passenger side, Emma was already on the snowy ground, pulling the collar of her coat up around her ears.
They entered the hospital together. Emma took his hand and squeezed it. “If your brothers are anything like you, they’ll be fine. Thunder Horse men seem to be pretty tough.”
He returned the pressure on her hand, thankful she’d come with him. Dante remembered where the ICU was located having been there when his father was taken there. He’d died in the ICU shortly after he’d been admitted to the hospital.
The acrid scent of disinfectants and rubbing alcohol still brought back bad memories and reminded him of his loss.
It was exactly noon when he stepped out of the elevator and saw his mother, surrounded by Julia and Roxanne, talking to a man in a white lab coat.
Dante hurried forward, still holding on to Emma’s hand. “What’s going on? How’s Pierce?” he demanded.
His mother turned, her face lighting up when she saw him. “Dante.” She wrapped him in her arms and hugged him so tight he could barely breathe. And it felt good. Like coming home.
After a moment, he set her away from him and asked again, “How’s Pierce?”
“Oh, Dante.” His mother wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and Dante’s stomach fell.
Roxanne stepped forward and draped an arm around Amelia’s shoulders. “He woke up.” A smile spread across her face and her eyes misted. “He woke up a while ago. Briefly. The doc says that’s a good sign.” She bit down on her bottom lip and a tear slid from her eye and down her cheek.
For as long as Dante had known Roxanne, she’d never cried in front of him. To see her cry now was nearly his undoing. “Is he going to be okay?”
The doctor stepped forward. “As far as we can tell, he appears to be recovering. We’re going to keep him a little longer to monitor his condition. If he continues to improve, he should be able to go home.”
His mother smiled through her tears. “It’s a miracle.” She shook her head. “The news showed pictures of his truck and it’s a wonder he’s still alive.”
“Where’s Tuck?”
“Someone looking for me?” Tuck appeared behind him, carrying two cups of steaming coffee. He walked with a limp, but he was wearing jeans and a clean flannel shirt and, other than a few bruises on his face, looked like Tuck. He started to hand the coffee to Dante. “You look like you could use this more than I can. Other than a few bruises and scrapes, I’ll live. What happened to you?”
Dante had forgotten the bruise at his temple until that moment. He shrugged. “I ran into the door in my apartment.”
His mother’s eyes narrowed. Amelia Thunder Horse had that keen sense and woman’s intuition. She always knew when he was lying. For a moment she looked like she was going to call him on it, but then she noticed the woman standing behind him and raised her brows asking politely, “Are you with Dante or are you waiting to speak with the doctor?”
Emma opened her mouth to speak, but Dante jumped in before she could. “Mom, this is Emma Jennings.” Rather than burden his mother with their problems, he blurted, “Emma’s my fiancée. She’s come to spend Christmas with us. I hope you don’t mind.”
The family converged on the two, shock in everyone’s expressions, especially Emma’s. But she recovered quickly, wiping the surprise from her face.
His mother enveloped Emma in a bear hug, her eyes wet with unshed tears. “Wow, this is a surprise. A much-needed surprise. After all the tragedy and worry...this is wonderful.”
Julia took her turn hugging Emma. “Congratulations. I’m so happy for you two. I’m Julia, Tuck’s wife.”
“I’m Tuck, one of Dante’s brothers.” Tuck hugged her, looking over the top of her head at Dante, pinning Dante with his stare. “How come we haven’t heard anything about her up until now?”
Roxanne shoved him aside. “I’m Roxanne, Pierce’s wife. Nice to meet you.”
Emma hugged one after the other, muttering her thanks, looking flustered, her cheeks bright pink.
His mother wiped another tear from her eye and sniffed. “This is all so sudden.”
Dante slipped an arm around Emma’s waist and pulled her up against him. “I know. Seems like only yesterday we met. But when you know, you know. Right, Emma?” He smiled down at her, praying she’d continue to go along with his ruse.
She looked up into his eyes and nodded. “That’s right. You just know.” She looked out at the people surrounding her and gave a shaky smile. “I hope you don’t mind my showing up unannounced.”
Amelia hugged her again. “Not at all. There’s plenty of room at the ranch and I’m just so happy that Dante’s found someone. I’ve been worried about him since his return from the war.”
“Mom—” Dante took his mother’s hand “—I’m fine. I have a great job with the CBP and I’m still flying.”
“And now you have Emma.” Amelia sighed. “All my boys will be happily married and giving me grandchildren.”
The elevator door pinged behind Dante, and Sheriff Yost from Billings County stepped through and strode to Amelia, taking her into his arms. “Amelia, darling. I came as soon as I could get away.”
Dante’s back teeth ground together at the proprietary way Yost held his mother in his arms.
Tuck stepped forward, his fists clenched. “What’s he doing here?”
Amelia frowned at Tuck. “It’s all right. William came when I called. He’s working with the Burleigh County sheriff and the state police to determine the cause of the accident.”
Dante stiffened, his arm tightening around Emma. “I thought you said Pierce’s brakes went out.”
Amelia shot a glance at Tuck.
Tuck faced Dante. “We had the truck hauled to the forensics lab in Bismarck. A mechanic did a preliminary look at the brakes. They’d been cut almost all the way through.”
“When?”
“We don’t know.” Tuck rubbed the back of his neck. Scratches and bruises stretched down his arm, his elbow skinned and raw.
Yost interjected, “I spoke with the mechanic myself. Since the brake lines weren’t completely severed, it took a while before all the brake fluid leaked out.”
“We didn’t know until it was too late to do anything about it.” Tuck’s gaze went to the door of a room across from the nurses’ station.
A nurse stood and walked their way. “If you could, please move your family reunion to the waiting room. We don’t want to disturb the other patients.”
The group moved to the waiting room.
Dante glanced around the room, his gaze going from Tuck to Julia. “Where’s Lily?”
Julia smiled. “When Tuck’s supervisor heard he’d been in an accident, he and his wife came to the hospital. His wife is keeping Lily right now.” Julia took Tuck’s hand. “We were just about to leave to go pick her up now that Tuck’s been released. We’d planned on going back to the ranch, but now that you’re here...”
“Emma and I are headed that way.”
“Then you’ll want to get there before the weather,” Yost said. “The reporters are predicting another twenty-four inches and whiteout conditions late this afternoon.”
Tuck pulled Julia’s arm through his. “If you’re heading back now, I’d like to stay until Pierce comes out of it.”
Dante nodded, his gaze shifting briefly to Yost and back to his brother. “I’d feel better if you stayed. I can check on things back at the ranch and over at the Carmichael Ranch, as well.” The Carmichael Ranch was adjacent to the Thunder Horse Ranch. Pierce lived with Roxanne at her ranch when he wasn’t on duty with the FBI in the Bismarck office. Maddox Thunder Horse usually handled the day-to-day operations of Thunder Horse Ranch while Roxanne ran the Carmichael.
“Thanks.” Roxanne took his hand. “I’m not leaving here without Pierce.”
Dante squeezed her hand. “I didn’t expect you to.”
Amelia wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. “Be careful getting there. I don’t know what I’d do if another one of my boys gets hurt.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be fine. You guys worry about Pierce. Emma and I will figure things out back at the ranch. I would like to visit Pierce before I leave.”
“He’s only allowed one visitor at a time for a few minutes only.” His mother smiled apologetically at Emma. “You can stay here with us while he goes.”
Dante left Emma in his mother’s hands, walked across the polished tile floor to the room his mother indicated and pushed through the big swinging door.
Pierce lay on a hospital bed, his large frame stretched from the headboard to the footboard. Covered in wires and tubes, he lay still as death, his bronze skin slightly gray, cuts and bruises marring his face.
Dante had been to visit soldiers in worse shape, but seeing his brother hooked up to all the gadgets and monitors hit him hard. They’d already lost their father. This shouldn’t be happening.
His own helicopter crash seemed insignificant since he’d walked away from it relatively unscathed. Pierce was strong and with the help of
Wakantanka,
the Great Spirit, he’d pull through. But a little prayer wouldn’t hurt.
Dante closed his eyes and lifted his face skyward.
“Wakan tanan kici un wakina chelee,”
he spoke the words softly, feeling them in his heart and the hearts of his ancestors. May the Great Spirit bless you, Thunder Horse.
* * *
E
MMA
EXITED
THE
hospital at Dante’s side, her head still spinning with the congratulatory words of Dante’s family echoing in her ears. Pulling the hood of her jacket up around her ears, she waited until they got in the SUV before saying, “What was that all about?”
Dante twisted the key in the ignition and backed out of the parking space. “What was what about?”
A shot of anger burst through her. “Fiancée?” She didn’t know why his lie was making her so mad. Perhaps it was because his family had welcomed her so openly and with such love...it made her mad to build up their expectations only to disappoint them.
His lips twisted and he shot a quick glance at her. “I’m sorry. It was the only thing I could think of that would keep my mother from asking too many questions about my appearance and why you were with me.”
“So you told her we were engaged? I could think of a dozen other things we could have told her but that.”
“It’s only for the short term, just through Christmas break. Once Pierce is out of the ICU and is home and well enough, she’ll quit worrying about him and we can straighten it all out.”
“I don’t like lying to your family.” Emma glanced out the window at the bleak skyline. “Especially to your mother.”
“I don’t like seeing her cry,” he said softly.
All the anger slid away as Emma recalled the tears in Amelia Thunder Horse’s eyes and the shadows of worry over her sons’ accident. If Dante had told her he’d been shot out of the sky, she might have had a heart attack or at the very least a nervous breakdown.
Emma sighed. “I guess you did the only thing you knew how. I wouldn’t want to burden your mother more when your brother is in the ICU.”
Dante reached across the console and squeezed Emma’s hand and kept holding it for a while afterward.
She stared down at his big fingers clasped around hers, her chest tightening. “You have a nice family.”
“Yeah.”
“You and your brothers are close?”
“They’d do anything for me and vice versa.” He turned to her. “What about you? Do you have siblings?”