The Outsider's Redemption

As soon as the waitress walked away, Sarah dived into the chips, dipping one into the salsa before slipping it between her lips. “I absolutely love Mexican food. Don’t you?”

“I like it well enough.”

Sarah nibbled on another chip. “Actually I love anything hot and spicy. The first three months I was pregnant I got sick every time I ate a bite of food with a little zip to it. It drove me nuts. But now I can eat anything without getting sick. Well, most of the time anyway.”

A few minutes, and a couple of thousand words later, the waitress returned with their food and drinks. He ate and half listened to Sarah’s chatter. If she kept this up all the way to Mexico, he’d have to seriously consider gagging her or at least stuffing cotton in his ears. If they actually went to Mexico. He needed more reason to believe this whole operation was on the up-and-up before he sealed this deal.

“Have you ever been afraid, Cody?”

He looked up and met her gaze, wondering where the question had come from and when her tone had changed from light to deadly serious. “Not lately.”

“But you have been at some time in your life?” Old memories surfaced. He pushed them aside, back into the dead file where he’d buried them long ago. “I imagine everybody’s been scared of something at one time or another.”

“I’m scared now. Excited, but still scared, especially when I stop to think about what would happen if something went wrong.”

Her voice caught, and a protectiveness he didn’t want to acknowledge rattled inside him. “No one’s making you go through with this, Sarah.”

“You have a short memory, Cody. You said you wouldn’t let me out of your sight until you’d delivered me and the disk to Daniel Austin.”

He swallowed hard. He’d made a lot of mistakes in his life, but that’s all they’d been. Mistakes in judgment. He’d never jumped sides, never played on the team that wore the black hats. Yet here he was, aching to give comfort and solace to the enemy.

And all because the bad guy was a woman. A scared, young pregnant woman. “I’m just doing my job, Sarah.”

“I know. I guess we’re all just doing what we have to do. I don’t want to change anything. But, all the same, I’m a little scared.”

Silence grew thick and suffocating between them. He pushed his plate away, his appetite lost to an unexplained regret that had crept into his gut.

A few minutes later, he paid the bill and they left the restaurant, the silence still holding between them. And strange as it seemed, he missed her chatter.

SARAH WINCED, trying to bite back the groan that hung in her throat. She’d bragged about being able to eat anything, but Carmelita’s enchilada platter had proven her wrong. Her chest burned as if she’d swallowed fire, and her stomach was turning itself inside out.

She closed her eyes as a new wave of nausea washed over her. Cody turned his gaze from the road to her. “Is something wrong?”

“Just a little upset stomach. I’ll be fine.”

“You don’t look fine.” Cody reached up and flicked on the inside light, knocking the edge off the grayness of dusk. “You look like you saw a ghost.”

“It’s nothing. I just get pale when I feel queasy.”

“You’re not about to do anything drastic are you? We’re a long way from a hospital.”

“Drastic?”

“You know, like have a baby.”

“No, cowboy. But maybe you better pull over for a minute. I might do something drastic like lose my dinner.”

He pulled over, only now he looked a little pale himself. Obviously he wasn’t used to tending a sick woman. He stopped the truck and jumped out, rushing around the truck to open her door.

“Try to breathe a little fresh air. Maybe that will help.”

She cradled her head in her hands. “Do we have much farther to go?”

“Half the night.”

She groaned.

Cody hunched down beside her. “Look, we don’t have to rush. Daniel’s the one who had us waste time driving in the opposite direction. He can just bide his time until you feel like traveling.”

“Thanks.” His concern surprised her. Todd had hated it when she first started waking up with morning sickness, always finding a reason why he couldn’t stay around, until the morning he’d just walked off for good.

“We can sit here as long as you need to. There’s no rush.”

“It’s all right, Cody. I can make it,” she assured him. “I just needed to stop for a minute. I feel better now.”

“Like hell you do.” He took her hand. “I don’t know much about having a baby, but I know when a woman’s hurting. You need to see a doctor, and I plan to find you one.”

“No. I have something to take.” She unzipped her purse and located the small bottle of antacid tablets. “A couple of these and I’ll be good as new.”

“You had a blow to the head earlier today. Now you’re nauseous. We’re seeing a doctor.”

“Dan won’t like that.”

“That’s just too bad.”

“I have a better idea.”

“We’re not calling your mother in Africa.”

“That wasn’t my idea. I was going to suggest calling my gynecologist in Washington. Dr. Marino knows my history and he knows how my stomach reacts to spicy food. If he thinks I should see a doctor, I’ll follow his advice.”

“Okay, but even if he says you don’t need to see a doctor, I’m finding a place for us to stay tonight. Tomorrow we’ll get up early and drive into Mexico. That makes more sense anyway.”

“Then you’ll have to get two rooms.”

“Why?”

“I can’t sleep with you.”

He dropped her hand. “Nice try, Miss Rand, but you and I are going to be real close tonight. I don’t buy your innocent gambit.”

She shuddered. “What does that mean?”

“That I have no intention of giving you the chance to run out on me like you did at the airport. I’ll be right beside you all night long, but you don’t need to worry about your virtue with me. I’m choosy about who I take to bed.”

She swung her legs back into the truck and folded her hands over her bulging stomach, suddenly aware of how her misshapen body must look to him. She’d have laughed out loud if she didn’t feel so bad.

Still, it would be her first time to spend a night with a cowboy. Maybe there was some kind of charm attached to carrying that tote bag.

Chapter Three

A half hour later Cody turned off the nearly deserted asphalt road and pulled onto a completely deserted dirt one. It was too dark to see anything except sporadic clusters of brush that bordered the road and an occasional stubby tree.

The antacid tablets had eased the stomach discomfort and her head no longer ached from the blow she’d received earlier that day. She was tough, always had been. It was only her petite size that fooled people, but she couldn’t deny that a bed would feel really good about now. They hit a hole, and she grabbed hold of the armrest to keep from falling over onto Cody. “Is this the most desolate place you can find?”

“On short notice.” Apprehension set her stomach rolling again. “You said we were going to look for a place to spend the night. You surely don’t expect to find a motel down this lousy excuse for a road.”

“Not a motel, but the sign back there said there’s a fishing camp down here with rustic cabins.”

“I don’t doubt the rustic part.”

“It won’t be the Holiday Inn, but we shouldn’t have to worry about anyone finding us down here.”

“That sounds as if you think someone is still looking.”

“I haven’t spotted anyone who looked even vaguely suspicious since we left the restaurant, but I don’t take chances unless I have to.”

She put her hand to her mouth, almost catching the end of her fingernail between her teeth before she jerked it away. It was no time to show weakness. “Mr. Austin failed to mention that delivery of the files would be this dangerous.”

“Would it have made a difference?”

She considered the question. “It might have. I wouldn’t have worried about myself so much, but I have my unborn child to consider.”

“Now’s a fine time to think about that.”

His attitude annoyed her. “Don’t you ever take risks, Cody Gannon?”

“All the time.” He nudged his Stetson back a notch, and a sprinkling of dark, wavy hair peeked out from under the edge of the hat. “I just don’t want tonight to be one of them.”

“That makes two of us.”

SARAH LEANED against the doorframe of the small office while Cody registered them as Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter. He paid the bill for one night’s lodging in advance—in cash.

She lost track of the conversation, as the middle-aged woman who’d introduced herself as the owner drawled on, more nosy than she had a right to be. Instead Sarah shuffled through memories, searching for something pleasant to latch on to.

A morning five months ago when she’d stood in Dr. Marino’s office and he’d told her that the test she’d taken at home had been accurate. She was carrying a new life inside her. The events that followed played in her mind, turning sour when she got to the point where she delivered the news to Todd.

“You don’t look so good.”

She jumped at the voice. The woman had walked over to stand beside her. “I ate some spicy food,” Sarah answered, looking away from the woman’s appraising stare. “I took a couple of antacid tablets. I’ll be fine. I just need a bed.”

“Hmmmph. I’d say you need a sight more than that.” The woman’s gaze traveled from Sarah’s swollen nose to the dried bloodstain on the front of her clothes. Then she looked back at Cody, disgust twisting her mouth and narrowing her eyes.

It took Sarah a few seconds to decipher her meaning. The woman believed that Cody had hit her. “This isn’t what it seems,” Sarah assured her and then wondered why she bothered. It was clear from the woman’s patronizing smile that she didn’t believe her.

The woman laid a hand on Sarah’s shoulder. “I’ll be working until nine. If you need anything, just call me.” Her gaze shifted to Cody and then back again. “And you don’t have to put up with anything as long as you’re staying in one of my cabins. I have a night watchman on duty. He’s tough as a wild coyote. Nobody scares him.”

Sarah looked up to find Cody doing his own impression of a big, tough Texan behind the woman’s back. Any other time, she’d have had to laugh. Even now, she managed a smile. “If I need you, or the night watchman, I’ll definitely call.”

The woman stood in the door and watched them as they left the office and walked back to the truck. The cabin she’d assigned them was at the end of the road, set off by itself.

“That’s the first time I’ve been accused of being a wife beater,” Cody said, as he took her elbow and guided her around a rut in the path.

“She didn’t accuse you.”

“Oh, no? If looks could kill, I’d be waiting on morgue pick-up right now.”

“As it is, you better walk a thin, straight line or I’ll have her sic the night watchman on you.”

“She’s probably calling him right now, to put him on alert so he can start flexing his big, tough muscles. Of course, once he finds out its a looker he’s to protect, he might flex a new muscle. Then you’d be wishing you had me back.”

“Or maybe not. I haven’t seen the big, tough watchman yet.” But his comment stayed with her. Cody saw her as attractive. Interesting, especially since most of the time he treated her as if she had something contagious.

The night watchman stepped into the clearing surrounding the office just as they reached the truck. The woman hadn’t lied. The man was big, at least a head taller than Cody with muscles a body builder would have envied. A gun rested in a holster at his waist but it was the chainsaw he held in his hand that sent shivers up Sarah’s spine.

“It’s almost dark. Why would he be chopping down trees this time of night?” she asked.

Cody opened the truck door for her. “He’s probably cutting some logs into firewood.”

“Hmm. Does chainsaw massacre have any meaning for you?”

“It didn’t. It does now.” He touched a hand to her arm. “But don’t worry. You have a cowboy to protect you. You know, so many cowboys, so little time.”

“You against the machismo guard dog. Now I feel so much better.”

SARAH STEPPED inside the cabin. It was one room, with a sink, range, table and four chairs on one end and a bed, chest and upholstered chair on the other. An open door led to a closet-sized bathroom. The mattress was lumpy, narrow, topped with a faded spread and two pillows that had lost their fluff years ago. Still, it had been an extremely long and eventful day, and she couldn’t remember when a bed had looked so inviting.

Cody reached to take her coat from around her shoulders. She held on to it for a second, then relinquished it. If she made too much of a fuss, he’d figure out why she never let it out of her sight.

Cody hung up the coat and then walked over to stand beside her. “Now that we’ve settled for the night, you should give your doctor a call.”

“If it will make you happy. But I’m fine.” She called the after-hours number and left a message for her gynecologist to call her back. Then she slipped out of her shoes and stretched out on the bed. “My mother always said that the best thing for a queasy stomach is to lie very still and think pleasant thoughts.”

“Yeah, well my mother always gave me a cold, wet cloth for my head. We weren’t big on pleasant thoughts around my house.”

He walked away and came back a few moments later with a damp cloth. The bed shifted as he sat down on the edge of it and pressed the thin washcloth against her forehead. She stared up at him, studying his expression. The worry was evident. She wondered if it was really for her.

“Why don’t you crawl under the covers and get comfortable,” he said. “If you need anything, I’ll be right here.”

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve said since you met me at the airport.” She closed her eyes. Actually, promising to be there for her might be the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her, she decided, as she took his suggestion and snuggled between the sheets.

Too bad the emotion stemmed from the fact that he was being paid to deliver her and the disk. Both of them had to be kept safe and sound until they were turned over to Daniel Austin. Then his duties would be fulfilled, and he’d no longer be there if she needed anything.

Neither would anyone else.

CODY PACED the motel room. The air conditioner hadn’t stopped running since they’d come in, nearly an hour ago, but still the air was sultry and suffocating. He hated being cooped up in this one-room cabin, hated more that this operation had gone wrong. Beginning with the moment Sarah Rand had stepped off that airplane—pregnant.

He glanced at her sleeping form, her blond hair all mussed and spreading over the pillow, the rounding of her stomach beneath the sheets. The cloth he’d given her had been tossed aside, the corner of it dangling from the edge of the honey-colored nightstand. He picked it up and carried it into the cubbyhole of a bathroom.

A cold, wet cloth. That was the extent of what he knew about tending an upset stomach. Sarah, on the other hand, appeared to know what to do for every ailment. From bumps on the head to indigestion, she was a walking medical encyclopedia.

Amazingly enough, Dr. Marino had backed her up when he’d called, said that if she was having no further complications, rest was probably the best thing for her. But, if she became sick to her stomach again or developed a lasting headache, she was to see a doctor at once.

A rectangle of fading light found its way through the narrow window at the back of the cabin and caught Sarah in its glow. Cody stared at her for a minute, then swallowed hard. The woman might look all sweet and innocent when she was asleep, but the images were totally deceptive. She was a woman willing to sell out to the devil himself for cold hard cash.

And if ever there was a devil walking around in a man’s body it was Tomaso Calderone. Murdering innocent people came as easily to him as swatting a mosquito did to most folks. Only he seldom did the killing himself. He paraded around his palatial estate wearing designer clothes and partying with a bevy of beautiful women while his paid assassins did whatever it took to keep the drugs rolling into the States and the money rolling into his bank account.

Anything for money. Calderone and Sarah Rand had a lot in common.

The pager at his waist vibrated. He pulled it loose and cradled it in his hand while he checked the number. More bad luck. It was the number to the office phone at the Smoking Barrel.

He crossed the room and stopped at the window. It looked out on the back of the building. A narrow river meandered a few yards away. Beyond that, the land stretched into thorny brush, a few scrubby trees and a line of ever-present barbwire.

Moonlight painted them in shadows and whispers of silver, a magical touch that contradicted the ruggedness of the land. He’d lived in Texas all his life, wandered from one part to the other, found work where he could, staying in one place only until the need to move on would hit again. That had never taken long, not until he’d arrived at the Smoking Barrel.

He exhaled sharply and moved away from the window. The Smoking Barrel was part of his past. It held nothing for him and he had no desire to hear anything Mitchell Forbes had to say. He hoped the man didn’t hold his breath waiting for him to return the page.

Determined and weary, he strode back to the door. He needed to move the truck out of sight, park it beyond the patch of thick brush. His job was to keep Sarah Rand safe until the disk was delivered into Daniel’s hand, and he never quit on a job until it was finished. But once it was, he planned to get as far away from Texas and the Smoking Barrel as he could.

Montana sounded good to him. So did Alaska. Muscles tight and drawn, he opened the door. It creaked and groaned, but Sarah didn’t move a muscle. Just as well. This might be the last night she slept in a bed without bars around it.

The thought burned in his brain and pulverized his will. He wanted to see Calderone brought down more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life, but he hadn’t bargained for this.

“CODY.”

He jumped, his head flying from the back of the chair as he reached for the lamp switch. “What’s wrong?” The grogginess of sleep cracked his voice.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I just wondered if you were still here.”

“I’m here.” He pushed up his sleeve and checked his watch. Only eleven-thirty, but it seemed much later. “How are you feeling?”

“Good. I told you all I needed was some rest. Getting out of that bouncing truck didn’t hurt either.” She pushed up on her elbows. The sheet fell from her shoulders, and he realized with a jolt that between the time he’d fallen asleep and now, she’d crawled out of most of her clothes, including her bra. The silky border of her slip dipped low, and her nipples were outlined against the revealing fabric.

She’s not only pregnant with another man’s baby but she’s a rotten mercenary, he reminded himself, hoping his body was listening.

Apparently noticing the direction of his gaze, Sarah grabbed the sheet and pulled it up to her neck. “How well do you know Daniel Austin, Cody?”

“Well enough.”

“That’s a nonstatement if I ever heard one. What did he tell you about me?”

“Not much.” Not that she was pregnant or that she was almost as good at disguises as Dan himself. Her ability to appear innocent was messing with his mind and he knew better. “He said you were bringing some files that he wanted and that I was to make sure you and the disk arrived safely.”

“Why didn’t he meet me at the airport himself?”

“I couldn’t say.”

She sat up straight and stared at him, her pink lips all pouty. “I just don’t get it, Cody. Are you always this curt, or do you just not like me?”

Cody hesitated. Any answer he gave would have to be an out-and-out lie or else give too much away. She had to believe that both he and Austin were working for Calderone now.

“It’s the situation that’s making me edgy,” he finally answered. “Not you.” He walked to the sink for a glass of water. On second thought, he filled two of the glasses with water from the tap. He walked back to the bed and handed one to Sarah.

“Is this a peace offering?” she asked, taking the glass from his hands.

“You could call it that.”

“Then I accept.”

She drank heartily, no sissy sipping. If he’d met her anywhere else but under the present circumstances, he’d have sworn she didn’t possess an ounce of pretense. But then he would have sworn the same about Mitchell Forbes before he found out differently.

“So tell me, Sarah, what do you plan to do once you deliver the disk to Daniel Austin?”

“Go back to work and save all the money I can. I have insurance to pay the hospital and doctor expenses, but I want to stay home for at least six months so that I can bond with my child. I think that’s important, don’t you? I mean those early months are crucial in an infant’s development.”

“I don’t know much about infants,” he admitted. “But it makes sense that a baby would like to have its own mother around while he’s adjusting to the world. I doubt my mother had that option, though, and I grew up just fine.”

“You grew up kind of grouchy,” she corrected him, “with a serious lack of social skills. Anyway, you said he, and I think my baby’s a girl.”

“Is that what your doctor said?”

“No, but I’m good at predicting things. You know, it’s like I see them before they happen. And every time I think of my baby, I picture her dressed in a dainty pink dress with little pink booties and a lacy bonnet. In fact, I’m so sure that I already bought the bonnet.”

Cody turned away. He was seeing things, too, and they stuck in his throat so that he could barely swallow. The image was of Sarah in a prison-gray uniform, her shiny blond hair cut short and stuffed under a cap while she slaved away in a prison laundry. But she must really take him for a fool, talking about saving money when she’d struck a million-dollar deal with Dan.

He swung back to face her. She was smoothing the sheet over her stomach, looking at the bulge as if it were some treasure she’d just discovered. Sweat beaded on his forehead, even though the room had finally cooled. This pregnancy thing was getting to him.

His pager vibrated. He grabbed it, thankful that this time it was not the Smoking Barrel’s number that appeared on the screen. Grabbing the phone, he punched in the number.

“Where are you?” Daniel asked, not bothering with small talk or even a hello.

“At a fishing camp just outside of Blanco.”

“Blanco? What in the hell are you doing there?”

“We stopped for dinner, and the enchiladas made Sarah sick. I had to find a place for her to get some R-and-R.”

“The woman gets an upset stomach, and you find her a bed. How sweet.”

“Save the sarcasm, Austin. If you wanted this done differently, you should have done it yourself.”

“I had other matters to attend to. Just remember that there is no margin for error in this operation, Cody. None. Nada. So don’t start mollycoddling the dame, and don’t fall for any of her tricks.”

“I’m not falling for anything. And if you’re so concerned about the success of this operation, why didn’t you level with me from the beginning?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Then let’s start with your failure to mention that Sarah Rand was pregnant or to tell me that someone else might know she had the disk.”

“I told you everything you needed to know. Now I’m telling you to get out of that cabin and hightail it to Nuevo Laredo. I’m waiting on you.”

“Yeah, well I don’t hightail so well on back roads, but we’ll clear out of here just before daybreak, after Sarah’s had a good night’s rest.”

“You know how important this is, Cody. We’ve let Calderone slip through our hands too many times. If Sarah is the source of the DPS’s leak, we have to stop her.”

“And where does Mitchell Forbes fit into this?”

“Sarah isn’t the only one Calderone is using. It looks like he was also in tight with her ex-boss, Grover Rucker, and everyone knows Grover and Mitchell were good friends. They went on hunting trips together all over the world. Very expensive hunting trips.”

Cody uttered a few well-chosen curses under his breath, though he had no idea whom they were directed toward. Probably himself for letting Sarah play with his emotions. “I’ll keep my end of the bargain. We’ll leave here first thing in the morning.”

He broke the connection before Daniel had a chance to argue further.

Sarah stared at him. “I take it that was Daniel Austin.”

“Yeah.” The response came out far gruffer than he’d intended.

“Why is it that you get upset every time you talk to him? I’ve never known him to be anything but nice.”

“Exactly how did you meet him?”

“He used to tease me when he came into the office, mostly because I never recognized him. One day he’d come in clean-shaven and debonair, downright handsome for a man in his forties. The next time I’d see him, he’d be twenty pounds overweight with thick glasses and thinning hair.”

“That’s Daniel. The master of disguises.”

“It hit me hard when I heard he was dead. Not that I’m supposed to hear that kind of thing, but I did.”

“How did he contact you about copying the files? Did he come to your office?”

“No. He called me on the phone and asked me to meet him in this bar downtown—one of those places Todd would have died if he thought I’d gone into alone.”

“And you just rushed out to a sleazy bar to meet a dead man?”

“He obviously wasn’t dead if he called me. Besides, I trust Daniel more than anyone else I know. He’s been with the department for years. Next to Mitchell Forbes, he’s probably the most respected agent around. If he tells you something, you can count on it.”

Cody threw up his hands, irritated with himself for taking part in this conversation. “Get some sleep, Sarah,” he said, tired of dealing with a situation he couldn’t change. “You’ll need it before this is over.”

“What about you? Where will you sleep?”

“On the floor.” He reached across her and retrieved the extra pillow.

She patted the space beside her. “There’s room in the bed, and you’d be a lot more comfortable.”

“I don’t think so, Sarah.” He unbuttoned his shirt, slipped it from his arms and tossed it across the foot of the bed. “I found a quilt in one of the chest drawers. I’ll make a pallet.”

“You prefer the floor to sharing a bed with me?”

“Yeah, strange as that may seem.” He liked his snakes in the grass to hiss instead of smile before they bared their fangs.

“You are strange, cowboy.” She shook her head, dismissing him as if he were some kind of kook.

Actually, he had that same feeling. It was definitely a first, turning down an invitation to sleep with a sexy woman. A sexy, traitorous, pregnant woman. The floor would be just fine.

CODY PULLED the shades on the windows, leaving the room pitch dark, and quiet except for the sound of Sarah’s rhythmic breathing. Evidently guilt did not keep her awake nights.

He toed out of his boots and stretched out in the chair, resting his feet on the side of the bed. Slowly his thoughts turned away from Sarah Rand and back toward the Smoking Barrel.

Mitchell Forbes, a real Texas hero. A rotten father who’d let his son and the woman he’d gotten pregnant live through hell while he accumulated land and money and made a name for himself in the annals of Texas lawmen. But Mitchell as a traitor? He just couldn’t swallow that.

He reached for the pistol he always kept within reach. Cold, hard, deadly. It was the only thing Cody had left that he could still count on. Finally he fell into a restless sleep.

Hours later, his mind drugged with sleep, he woke to the sound of tapping. Padding across the floor in his stockinged feet, he retrieved the beeper from the chest where he’d lain it. The number was the one for the Smoking Barrel, only this time it was followed by 7-6-7.

His muscles tightened, and a surge of adrenaline set his nerves on edge. Seven, six, seven. SOS. Moving as quietly as he could, he picked up the phone by the bed and called the Smoking Barrel. There was always a chance it wasn’t Mitchell Forbes at all. One of his buddies might need him.

Penny Archer answered on the first ring. “I have bad news,” she said as soon as she heard his voice.

“Real bad news.”

“Is it Mitchell?”

“I’m afraid so.”