Elusive Echoes (20 page)

"Nor did I toss them in the trash." She set
the letter back onto the pile with a sigh that shook her body. "He
took a calculated risk that I'd have no reason or desire to go to
the police with his unopened letters, and I'll bet an expert
couldn't pull even one of his fingerprints off the letters
themselves because he would have worn gloves. He would have been
careful never to send anything he touched directly. No way to prove
he's the one who sent them."

Mel drew her knees up in front of her and
laid her forehead against them. Whatever wounds were being opened,
Sean understood they ran deeper than maybe even Mel knew.

"Do you remember the two men he describes
here?"

Mel lifted her head and shook it slowly. "I
tried to forget everything. It could be he only described them
because that's all he remembers."

She plucked at the piping on
the edge of the sofa. Sean hadn't missed that she'd said she
had
tried
to
forget. Which probably meant she remembered way too much. He laced
their fingers together again, a small gesture of comfort, and far
too late to offer it, but it was all he had.

"DC recommended an attorney for me. Steve
Wilson. And your dad was going to see about hiring an investigator
for me."

Sean smiled. Now he understood Justin's
query about their helicopter pilot's investigative connections. "I
overheard Dad and Ryan talking the other day. Dad was going to talk
to Joe. He's got friends in the business."

Mel sighed. "I can't explain this, but I
have a hunch whatever Denny wants, it has absolutely nothing to do
with my baby. Like this is a smokescreen."

"Then we'll figure that out, too. But for
now, we're going to concentrate on locating your child." Sean
flipped the last letter over and saw a calendar beneath. "What's
this?"

"Oh, that's nothing." Mel reached for it,
but he held it away from her.

He'd seen the same system of dots and
letters seven months earlier on the calendar his sister-in-law had
used to prove to the whole family that no way was she pregnant.
Only this one had a small red X marking the day before, and a
question mark in two weeks.

Sean's gaze flew to Mel's face, and he was
assaulted by a sudden influx of emotion he was at a loss to define.
She stood frozen, her eyes wide, fingertips resting against her
lips, and she looked like she was holding her breath.

Although her body language gave him the
answer, he had to know, had to hear it from her lips. So he spoke
slowly, careful to keep his voice even. "Last night? You told me it
wasn't the right time of the month to get pregnant."

Mel let out a slow breath and closed her
eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she met his gaze. "I
needed to check before I was sure. But yes, I suspected I was wrong
even when I told you that."

Her honesty took him by complete surprise
and inflated his emotional response into anger. "Why? Why didn't
you tell me the truth?" He grabbed her arm a little more roughly
than he'd intended. "Were you ever going to tell me?" She flinched
at his force, but didn't pull away from his grasp and he instantly
loosened his hold. "I'm sorry." He rubbed her arm. "It's just . . .
you aren't alone in any of this."

"I know I'm not alone." She sighed and took
his hand. "If it turned into something to be concerned about, yes,
of course I would tell you."

"Then why not just tell me the truth last
night? That it's possible I got you pregnant." He laid the calendar
back on the coffee table, noticing that his hands were shaking.

Mel threw a leg over him and moved onto his
lap. She cradled his head in her soft hands and met his eyes. Her
fingers tickled his ears. "There was nothing we could do about it.
You had just made amazing love to me, in a way I hope you'll do
again soon. I didn't want to ruin that moment. We'll have time to
think about it later if we have to."

He had to say something but she was playing
with his ears. His suddenly very erogenous ears. He closed his
eyes, giving himself over to her touch. But only for a moment
before reality intruded in the form of a blond teenaged boy. A
missing baby girl. The possibility of yet another new life having
been created.

"No." He covered her hands
with his own, stilling them. "Wait a minute. Mel, I came at you
like a freight train last night. I didn't even
think
about using protection. We need
to talk about that. About the possibility of—"

Mel slipped her hands free
and laid them on his bare shoulders. "It wasn't like it was
assault, Sean. Not even close. It was pure passion and . . . I
loved it. I wanted what happened at least as much as you. And
unless you stopped somewhere on the way home last night, I got in
at least one good bite." She caressed his neck with her thumb. Her
voice lowered, took on a husky quality. "Do you have any idea how .
. .
incredible
it
feels to be wanted so much that all reason goes away? To know that
someone you love feels that strongly, that passionately about
you?"

Her eyes were wide,
amazed.
And
amazing
. Sean struggled for control.
When she licked her lips, he almost lost the battle.

She continued in a soft whisper. "And how
wonderful it feels to be loved so much by you that you want to take
care with me?" She melted against him. "Please hold me for a
while."

Sean's protective instincts sparked to life.
He smoothed a hand along the back of her head. "For the rest of
your life, Sweetness."

****

Sprawling next to Sean on the sofa, Mel
lifted her head, feeling even more well-loved from the emotional
closeness they were sharing than when she and Sean had actually
made love. She chuckled.

Sean's eyes flew open. "What?"

"You have a new bite." She kissed him where
his neck met his shoulder. "Right there."

His hand flew up to the dark mark. "I'm
never going to hear the end of this." He raised serious eyes to
hers. "And you know if I got you pregnant last night, we're going
to end up sitting through a lecture."

She laughed. "First of all,
if I did get pregnant,
we
made it happen, not you. Second, it would probably
be a whole intervention we have to sit through. But third . . . it
wouldn't be the end of the world . . . would it?"

Sean's jaw dropped. He looked confused and
maybe just as conflicted as she felt.

"I'm not saying we should try to have a
baby," she added quickly, feeling just a little breathless when she
considered the possibility that it was already out of their hands.
"I'm just wondering if—if you'll—"

"Oh, Sweetness." His hands moved to her
shoulders. "My preference is to have some time for just you and me.
But if we made a baby? Darlin', how could I not love our
child?"

Tears flooded her eyes. "Right answer."

Chapter Twelve

Work with Devil's Advocate was slow-going
but steady. The horse still took his time warming to Sean before
each training session. He sometimes snapped his teeth a bit when
taking an apple, but Sean counted it a plus that Dev no longer
tried to kick his head in when being turned out in the paddock.

Dealing with Dallas Northrop, on the other
hand, was beginning to tick Sean off more than was probably healthy
for the horse's attendant. As far as Sean could tell, Northrop
didn't do anything but use up good breathing air. He never worked
with Devil's Advocate. In fact, he steered clear of all the horses.
He frequently disappeared, which actually Sean didn't mind. Except,
unfortunately, the man never stayed gone. Dev wouldn't tolerate
Northrop in his presence. The few times he was around, Sean had
ended up cutting the training sessions short.

When Northrop approached Sean just after Dev
had sidled his way into the paddock, Sean couldn't resist
maneuvering them so the other man's back was toward the fence just
to see what would happen. Dev's ears had already gone flat against
his head the second Northrop appeared.

"Did you get my note?"

"You've left several notes, Northrop." Sean
kept his eyes fixed on the horse and his tone deliberately cool. "I
assume I got them all, but maybe you'd like to let me know which
note you're concerned about."

Northrop made an impatient sound. "Do you
have an idea when this horse'll be ready to go?"

Using his forefinger, Sean tipped his hat
back and regarded the man with a carefully blank expression.
Whenever he spoke with Northrop, Sean intentionally adopted a slow,
lazy drawl, and he tended to exaggerate that even further when
Northrop tried to strong-arm him in any way. "Now that depends on
where y'all want him to go."

In the door to the stable, Ricky coughed
back a laugh and turned his attention to rearranging the harnesses
on the wall.

"He's been here four days." Northrop leaned
against the fence. "All you've done is put him outside, talk to
him, then put him back inside."

"Rehab training isn't an
exact science. The horse hasn't been comfortable since he got here.
He's not eating well, and he's still too skittish to do more than
exercise him in the paddock. He needs a few days just to get used
to new surroundings."
And to people who
give a crap, you jerk.
Sean fixed a smile
on his face that was as phony as the man he smiled at.

Dev edged toward the fence, his eyes
tracking Northrop's movements. The man in question remained
oblivious.

"Well, do you have any idea when he'll be
calm enough to go to stud?"

Dev was within biting range but still
behaving.

"Like I said, it's not an exact science."
Sean shrugged. "You're gonna want him at his best. Mating's
stressful."

Watching Dev for signs of an imminent
strike, Sean considered moving the horse's intended victim to safer
ground.

Then Northrop spoke again, making a critical
error in his word choice. "Yeah, I guess you'd know about that,
given how much time you're spending with that pretty little
bartender in town."

Sean narrowed his eyes and took a step
forward. As he expected, Northrop stepped back. When he spoke, Sean
used a soft tone that anyone else would have recognized as an angry
warning. "I'm here on-site to work with the horse. I'm not your
personal servant and my business is none of yours. Long as I do my
job."

Northrop held his hands up in apparent
surrender that Sean saw right through to its rotten core. "Hey,
yeah. No problem. I just noticed that sweet thing and how you spend
a lot of time with her. Didn't know you had your brand on her."

Fists loosely clenched, Sean stepped forward
once more, and Northrop tried to step back again, finding himself
pressed against the fence with nowhere to go. He stiffened but
didn't flinch.

Dev moved quickly, teeth snapping on air
just as Sean, moving with nearly equal speed, pushed the irritating
man to the side and down. The hat Sean had tipped back slid off in
the melee.

Northrop was visibly shaken as he picked
himself up off the ground, brushing the dust from his fancy city
jeans.

"That horse don't much like you, Northrop."
Sean shrugged, bending over to retrieve his hat. He slapped it
against his leg to dislodge the dust and resettled it on his head
before casting a narrow-eyed stare at the horse's objectionable
attendant. "I can't think why that might be."

His face red, his eyes still wide with shock
over the sudden attack, Dallas Northrop moved carefully past the
fence. "Just get me an estimate on when you plan to be finished
with the horse." He stalked off toward his trailer.

From inside the stable, Ricky sniggered.

Sean turned his back on Dev's angry
attendant to look at the horse. Dev eyed him back. Blowing softly,
he waggled his ears back and forth, shaking off some unseen
fly.

Almost nonchalantly, Dev turned his head in
the direction of the open pasture beyond the paddock. He twitched
his ear again and blinked.

"Yeah, I know," Sean said to the horse. "Not
my finest moment. Nice work, though."

"Did he just wink at you?" Mel's voice came
from behind him.

"
You
are a distraction." Sean tossed a
grin over his shoulder. "Are you going to behave or do I have to
ban you from the stables?"

"Oh, you're not nice. I came to see my big
guy."

Sean spun around, a suggestive comment at
the ready, only to find Mel had moved to the fence.

"And he's happy to see me, aren't you, Dev?"
Mel leaned on the fence, clucking her tongue gently.

About to pull her back a step, Sean dropped
his arm. Dev was responding to Mel. His ears pricked forward,
showing interest. With a quiet whuffle of greeting, he took a
cautious step in her direction.

Sean was enthralled by the interaction
between Mel and the troubled horse. He forced himself to still his
protective instinct as the huge horse took another two steps closer
to Mel. Something powerful was happening here and Sean stepped back
to watch, though he remained vigilant. When the horse was close to
the fence, Mel held out her hand. Sean held his breath but Dev only
snuffled expectantly at her palm then nuzzled her hand.

"Next time I'll bring an apple." She slowly
ran her hand along the top of Dev's nose and upward to gently rub
the space between his eyes. Sean felt his jaw slacken as the big
horse pushed into her touch.

Mel had a natural connection with Dev. If
Sean could figure it out, maybe he could use it to help the poor
horse. Because as much as he didn't want Northrop to realize it,
Sean had sure as heck been wracking his brain before this moment,
just trying to find a way to reach Devil's Advocate. Maybe the
ability to connect wasn't so much in any expertise he'd managed to
acquire. Maybe the secret was in finding common ground. Sean
stepped back and watched the two wounded souls begin to forge a
bond.