While continuing to survey the area with dark, narrow eyes, Bryan nodded. “Amelia is working with Bruno.” He slanted a glance at Joe. “Seems she wasn't too pleased that you didn't want to marry her, so when Bruno showed up looking for you, she decided on some revenge. She's a bitch, but to her credit, she doesn't know Bruno intends to kill you. She thinks you'll get beat up a bit more, affording her the opportunity to take care of you.”
“That bitch!” Luna stiffened, but Joe immediately shoved her head back down. “She was in on the beating, then,” Luna said, her voice muffled against Joe's chest. But not so muffled that he couldn't hear her gloating overtones. “I
knew
it. And she wasn't taking care of Joe anyway. All she did was fondle his butt.”
Bryan appeared intrigued by that disclosure.
Joe ground his molars together. He thought about hitting Bryan again, just for giving Luna that information. She'd never let him hear the end of it now. “Wanna tell me how you figured all this out?”
Bryan shrugged. “I had tracked Bruno the night he jumped you in the parking lot, but the bastard got away. Again. Then Amelia showed up, and I figured that was a little too patâ”
“I told you so,” Luna crowed.
“âand I started watching her. Sure enough, she had several calls from Bruno that I picked up with a listening device. They planned to follow you, so I planned to follow you too. Hell, you're easier to keep an eye on than Bruno.”
“So you've been spying on me all this time?”
“Good thing, too.” Bryan prodded Quincy, who was wide awake and aware now but staying silent out of a healthy sense of self-preservation. “This bozo has been working with Dinah Belle. I didn't know that till today by the way. I just saw the car leaving the night of the fire and knew it was a hatchback. When I saw her get out of a hatchback at the pharmacy, then saw her feeling you up in the aisle, I knew she was in on it.”
Luna knotted a hand in Joe's wet hair and pulled his face down to hers. In a voice as low and mean as any criminal's, she said, “Feeling you up?”
“Bryan exaggerated.” Joe gently disengaged her tight fingers, then said to Bryan, “I didn't see you in the drugstore.”
“ 'Course not. I didn't want you to see me. And besides”âhe winked at Lunaâ“you were busy fending off Dinah.”
“But you figured out she and Quince were together, so you left me that damned note?”
“It was the only thing I could think to do. I knew Bruno was in the area. If I'd told you outright who I am, you'd have gone after him yourself.” He levered an implacable look on Joe. “But he's mine.”
“Big payoff?” Joe asked with sarcasm.
Bryan shook his head. “No, our association is more personal than money.”
“How so?”
“None of your damn business.” Bryan took aim and fired into a line of trees. Shots were immediately returned and they all scampered to the other side of the shed.
“I bet it involves another woman,” Luna whispered far too loudly.
“Doesn't matter now,” Bryan complained, “the dumb ass is complicating the hell out of things by pulling this stunt. No way the local police are going to want to let me have him.”
Joe pondered that for a moment. If he didn't press charges, and no one else witnessed Bruno's attack, Bryan could still take him in. It'd simplify things a lot if Joe didn't have to deal with him. He didn't want to further disrupt the kids' lives. Things were going to be complicated enough dealing with Quincy.
Somehow, he'd make everything right, and to that end, he made a sudden decision.
Joe knew what he had to do, just as he knew how Luna would react. He dreaded upsetting her, but he really had no choice. He clasped her shoulders, drew a breath, and said, “I'm going to go get him.”
Luna straightened. “But he has a gun.”
“Tactical rifle,” Bryan muttered, earning a shove from Joe. “Sorry.”
“It won't be safe here for much longer,” Joe reasoned. “And then what happens to the kids?”
Bryan looked at Joe with speculative admiration. “You going to sneak up behind him?”
“That's the plan.”
Luna punched Joe's chest. “At least let Bryan go along for backup.”
“And leave you here alone with Quincy? No.”
“Then I can go for your backup. I can shoot a gun. How hard can it be?”
Bryan snorted.
“You,” Joe told her with a firm shake, “are going to keep your sexy little ass right here, without moving, until Bryan tells you otherwise, do you understand me?”
“This is a stupid plan, Joe.”
“Don't push me, Luna.” Despite her insults, there were tears in her eyes, and seeing Luna upset did awful things to his gut. He buried that reaction, which could dangerously weaken and distract him, beneath firm resolve. “You're already in it deep enough for leaving the house.”
Her anguished gasp blasted him. Annoyance replaced some of the wrenching terror in her golden gaze. “I saw him creeping up on you! You were busy with Quincy. What was I supposed to do?”
“Trust me?” Joe narrowed his eyes, knowing he fought dirty but unwilling to risk her involvement. “But no, that would never occur to you, would it, Luna? You don't trust me at all, not with your safety, and not with your heart.”
Bryan looked away with a whistle. Quincy just stared between them, his eyes darting this way and that.
“Of course I trust you.”
“Then you'll damn well stay put.” He released her and slipped his knife from his pocket. With a quiet
snick-click
, it was open. He asked Bryan, “You got any restraints?”
“ 'Course.” Bryan pulled disposable hand and foot ties from his pocket. “These ought to do it.”
Joe accepted the configured, woven nylon cords. “Keep him busy while I run into the woods behind us. I'll circle around and find him.”
“You good enough to do that without getting your ass shot?”
“Yeah.” Joe stared at Luna. “I'm good enough.”
Luna sat there, silently miserable, her eyes narrowed and her mouth flat. The rain finally slowed, but they were all soaked through, and Joe was without a shirt. He barely felt the icy chill in the air. All his concentration was on keeping Luna and the kids safe.
Bryan leaned back against the shed wall. “I have a feeling I'll have my hands full with her.” He kicked the toe of a boot against Quincy. “What do I do with this jackass if he moves?”
Joe looked at Quincy, and without hesitation, slugged him again in the jaw. Obligingly, Quincy slumped into another dead faint. “Glass jaw, the cowardly bastard.”
Bryan actually laughed, which infuriated Luna.
She thrust her chin up and glared. “You're both idiots.” And then to Joe, “I swear to God, Joe Winston, if you get hurt I'm never going to forgive you.”
“No faith at all.” Half smiling, Joe cupped her cold, wet, dripping cheek, gave her a quick kiss, then disappeared from sight. The odds of him actually getting hold of Bruno were fifty-fifty. But if nothing else, he'd draw the fire away from Luna. If he caught a bullet, he could live with that. But no way in hell could he live with her getting hurt.
It would have been helpful if the rain had continued to mask his footsteps, but at least this way he could see. And just as Bruno might hear him move, he would definitely hear Bruno.
Bryan's gun fired into the surrounding woods, giving Joe the distraction he needed to advance and helping him peg Bruno's location when Bruno fired back. Like a bull elephant, Bruno moved without an ounce of stealth. Of course, he thought he had them covered. He thought he had the upper hand.
For a good five minutes Joe crept through the woods, barely making a sound. He circled the shore, constantly gauging the direction of each shot Bruno fired.
And finally, Joe found him.
Chapter Seventeen
L
una had never known such numbing fear. Bryan Kelly, damn him, seemed unconcerned. In fact, every so often he grinned, especially whenever he fired his gun. Or maybe that was a grimace. She wasn't sure. In some ways, he reminded her a little of Joe in his ridiculous enjoyment of the lethal game.
He glanced back at her, noted her agonized expression, and shook his head. “Quit fretting, woman. Winston knows what he's doing.”
“Of course he does,” Luna said, but she knew that even Joe couldn't fight a bullet.
Quincy groaned and held his head. His face was bruised, swollen, covered in blood that had run from his nose down his chin. He looked like hell. But it was his fault Joe had gone outside in the first place, so Luna couldn't find any sympathy for him. For the most part, she ignored him and his measly complaints. If Joe got hurt, she'd add another punch to his assorted bruises.
Luna watched Bryan as he swiped a forearm across his face, pushing his wet hair aside and wiping away the rain. Like Quincy, he had blond hair, only Bryan's was darker, long and unkempt, boldly streaked from the sun. He also had brown eyes. But where Quincy's were dark and fathomless like Austin's and Willow's, Bryan's were as light as honey and framed by long, dark lashes spiked from the rain. Joe had left a few bruises on him as well, but somehow they seemed to go with the man.
“I am sorry if I hurt you,” Bryan muttered distractedly while tracking her face. “Instincts are a bitch sometimes.” He turned away to watch for Bruno. “When you came up behind me like that, I just assumed it was one of the other women.”
Luna glared at him. “If this is your way of asking for forgiveness, you can't have it.”
“No?” He didn't smile, but she could tell her refusal amused him.
“You let Joe go out there alone.”
That made Bryan laugh. “Hell, did you really expect me to try to stop him?”
Suddenly it grew quiet. No more shots. No noise at all. Luna's heart leapt into her throat and lodged there. She shoved herself to her feet and started to step around the shed, but Bryan caught her arm and held her at his side.
They both peeked out.
Foliage rustled. Bushes parted. And into the clearing, Joe emerged, tall and straight, head high. He limped slightly, favoring his bad knee, but then, he had a large, trussed-up man slung over his shoulder. A long, black rifle hung from his other hand. Luna stared at him in disbelief as his long legs brought him steadily forward.
“Well, I'll be damned,” Bryan muttered as he walked away from the dubious safety of the shed.
Luna dashed out across the clearing, her feet splashing on the sodden ground.
“Joe.”
Lingering electricity crackled high in the pewter sky with a dramatic strobe effect. In the distance, thunder grumbled, mimicking the stern look of Joe's harshly carved features. The air was thick and dark and dismal, miserably cold.
Joe didn't bow under the weight he carried. In fact, he had that ominous, threatening aura about him again, as if he could tackle a pride of lions without breaking a sweat.
Luna noted the start of a black eye, a few more scrapes on his bare chest and shoulders, but what she noticed most of all was the triumphant satisfaction in his beautiful blue eyes. He'd enjoyed himself, and for that reason more than any other, she wanted to clobber him.
Luna stopped at Joe's side, her eyes wide. “Is this Bruno, then?”
Joe gave one sharp nod and strode past her, heading for the house. The man slung over Joe's shoulder resembled a burly bulldog in both appearance and tone. He grumbled and growled, but couldn't say much, not with the way Joe had gagged him with a piece torn off his shirt.
Luna hurried after Joe. “What are you going to do with him?” She worried for Joe's knee, for the outcome of it all, and for her heart. Foolishly, she'd held out a small hidden hope that Joe would decide he liked Visitation, and that he loved herâenough to stay. But how could he ever be content in Visitation when he so obviously enjoyed taking risks?
“I'll turn him over to Scott,” Joe said with a surprising amount of indifference. Of course, Bruno looked as though he'd already been a recipient of revenge, so perhaps Joe had gotten it out of his system.
“Bruno is
mine.”
Joe paused, turned to look at Bryan over his shoulder, then with a satisfied shrug, he dumped the portly man to the wet ground. Bruno kicked and screeched, and Luna imagined that if he weren't gagged, his foul curses would have filled the air.
“Fine.” Joe put his hands on his hips. “Then you haul his ass to the front of the house.”
Luna gasped. “Fine? That's it,
fine?
Just like that, you'll give him over to Bryan? You don't care? Since the day I first heard about Bruno, you told me
you'd
be the one to get him.”
“I did get him,” Joe reminded her.
“But I . . .” Her words trailed off as possibilities jumbled her thoughts. She shook her head. “I thought it was personal to you, that you wanted to take him back in yourself.”
“It's personal to me,” Bryan stated with unequivocal insistence. “I didn't sit up on that damn hill night after night watching your place just to let someone else have the satisfaction of putting Bruno back behind bars.”
Joe ignored Bryan. “I don't give a damn what happens to Bruno as long as he stays out of our lives.” Very gently, he cupped the back of Luna's neck and waggled her head. “I just wanted to make sure you and the kids were safe, babe. That's all that matters to me these days.”
“That's all?” Luna's voice quivered, along with her lips.
“I can guarantee Bruno will be out of sight for a good long while.” Bryan knelt down next to the fallen man to loosen the hobbles on his ankles so he could walk. Bruno's torn shirt was bloody, and his face looked much like Quincy's, with the obvious signs of battery. “You gigged him,” Bryan said, recognizing the knife wound in Bruno's right shoulder.
“He was going to shoot me. I had no choice but to disarm him.”
Luna staggered back, dumbfounded at the casual way Joe disclosed a close call on his life.
He shrugged his shoulders to relieve the tension now that he wasn't burdened with Bruno's considerable weight. “He'll be okay. I'm damn good with my knife. I know how to wound without killing.” And then, looking beyond Bryan, he added darkly, “Want me to demonstrate on old Quince?” The lethal blade appeared again in his hand.
Quincy, who had been silently creeping away, froze in horror. He whipped around to face Joe and looked ready to faint.
Joe crooked a finger. “Let's go, Quince. Scott's gonna want to talk to you, too.”
Quincy looked very undecided about whether or not to go quietly, or to try running for it. Luna looked up at Joe. “Why was he breaking into our shed?”
Joe's mouth flattened and his eyes darkened with renewed fury. His expression was enough to make up Quincy's mind; he rejoined them without a word.
“He's Willow and Austin's father.” Joe slipped his arm around Luna's waist and hugged her. “He wanted to run the kids off because they're starting to look like him. It wouldn't have been too long before people noticed the similarities, and that would have shot Quincy's reputation all to hell.”
Quincy wrapped his arms around himself and turned away. “I have a wife, a stepson, a life here. If people found out . . .”
Luna's heart ached for what the kids would have to face, yet Quincy was their father, and he didn't seem to even care. “They have a life here, too, you bastard.” Joe pulled her back before she could reach him. She would have said more, but she didn't get the chance.
Into the silence, another woman's cheery voice intruded. “Brother, you just can't keep out of trouble, can you?”
Almost as one, they turned toward the side of the house and there stood a tall, slender woman, her feet braced apart at the very edge of a messy mud puddle. Her long, wet, and badly tangled black hair danced in the wind. She wore muddy black jeans and a shirt that had probably once been white, but was now soaked and stained and torn. One whole shoulder and part of her bra showed. She had her hands propped arrogantly on slim hips. An enormous smile dominated her face.
Bryan straightened, checking her out with curious, masculine appreciation. “And this is?”
Joe pinched the bridge of his nose, as if in pain. “My little sister.”
Alyx swaggered forward, then peered down at Bruno, who lay curled on the ground, silent and still. She nodded at Joe. “Excellent job. Is he dead?”
Bryan pulled back in astonishment. His interest changed to wary disbelief. “Bloodthirsty female, isn't she?”
Bruno attempted to grunt and wiggle his way into a sitting position now that Bryan had loosened his tethers. Alyx almost appeared disappointed at the signs of life.
Joe scowled at Alyx. “What the hell happened to you? Are you all right?” He closed the space between them, but not before grabbing Luna's hand and hauling her along. “Did you have a damn car wreck?”
“Of course not.” Alyx went on tiptoe to kiss Joe's cheek. Luna watched, bemused, until Alyx next drew her into a tight embrace. “I ran into an incredible guy named Jamie Creed on this old winding road. He just sort of came out of nowhere, as if he knew right where to find me. Very spooky event, I don't mind saying.”
Joe closed his eyes. “Oh, God.”
Alyx looked at Luna and bobbed her eyebrows. In a dreamy voice, she said, “He's delicious, isn't he? So dark and mysterious andâ”
“Alyx.”
She heaved a sigh at her brother.
“Anyway
, he told me there was trouble here and that we had to hurry. He was so convincing, I naturally believed him.”
A muscle twitched in Joe's jaw. “You let a strange man into your car?” His voice had dropped to very threatening tones.
“And a good thing I did, given the drama going on here! But, ohmigod, Jamie drove, and I have to tell you, the man is a complete maniac.”
Joe snarled. “No kidding. Is there a point to this story?”
Alyx absently patted her brother's chest. “Don't be so testy, Joe. We got here in time to see Amelia sneaking around the property. When I asked her what she was doing, she tried to hit me, so I hit her first.” Alyx rubbed her knuckles with glee, which left Luna bemused and Bryan shaking his head. “Just like you showed me, Joe. Pow, right in the nose. She dropped like a stone.”
Luna had never met a woman like Alyx Winston, and she was naturally speechless.
“I'm not sure what she was up to, but it kept her from trying to get inside the house, I can tell you that.” Alyx grinned.
“The house is locked up,” Luna finally said after finding her voice. “Willow knew not to let anyone in except me, Joe or Deputy Royal.”
“She let Jamie in.” Alyx appeared worried. “The kids seemed to know him and trust him, and he acted very familiar with them. I hope that was okay?”
Luna said, “Yes, that's fine,” at the same time Joe pronounced, “No, it is not okay.”
Alyx only listened to Luna. “Great. By the way, the deputy is already here, too. He pulled up while I was”âshe gave a not so subtle coughâ“restraining Amelia, and when he got in the middle of it, he sort of got knocked down, too.” To Joe, she hurriedly explained, “I didn't
know
he was a deputy, now did I? If I
had
known, I wouldn't have hit him as hard as I hit Amelia. But boy, has he ever got a foul mouth. He started cursing and carrying on something awful. Singed my ears, I don't mind telling you. Unfortunately, he pulled me off Amelia or I'd have knocked her out, just as you taught me to do.”
Joe looked very harassed. “Exactly where is Scott? You didn't hurt him, did you?”
Luna stared at Joe. He said that as if Alyx was capable of hurting a grown man trained as a law official. It wasn't like Scott was a slouch. No, he wasn't Joe, but he looked big and strong enough to Luna.
“Scott's the deputy?” Alyx grinned. “He's okay. He just has his hands full locking Amelia into the back of his cruiser.” And as an aside to Luna, “She's not a very nice woman, but then, Joe dated a lot of losers before now.”
At that precise moment, Scott stomped around the side of the house. He looked beyond furious, and he wore twice as much mud as Alyx. It covered his chest and most of his legs and one whole side of his head and face.
With a resigned sigh, Joe crossed his arms and waited. Luna moved closer to him. She was so relieved that he wasn't seriously hurt, she couldn't stop shaking and she couldn't stop touching him. Joe felt solid and strong, and she needed the reassurance that he was truly unhurt.