Cochise_A Montana Bounty Hunters Story Read online

  No time to kiss him goodbye—however awkward that might feel with an audience.

  After she climbed on behind a park ranger, she glanced over her shoulder. Cochise’s steady gaze locked with hers for a long, charged moment, and then the engine started, and they pulled away.

  Sammy consoled herself knowing that she and her sister would be delayed while they gave their statements before they’d be released. Surely, she’d see Cochise again. After all, she and her sister would need a ride back to Bear Lodge.

  Chapter 8

  A week passed. A week that was so busy Sammy had little time to worry over the fact Cochise hadn’t contacted her. As if.

  The day they’d left the Kootenai forest, she and Sheri were met in Eureka by Sheriff Miller. He wore a huge smile on his face when the ATVs pulled up outside the park building, where authorities had set up an ad hoc operations center. The number of people who’d poured into Eureka to assist with the search was shocking to Sammy, given that no one had known for sure that a hostage situation was occurring until Hook had called in asking for assistance to airlift Brady out of the woods.

  All Sammy could think was that Jamie had gone straight to worst-case-scenario territory when she’d contacted the PD and park service, and then the authorities had reacted with an overabundance of caution.

  The sheriff greased the wheels, getting them interviewed the second they entered the building, and then hustling them into his SUV to return them to Bear Lodge. Sammy couldn’t very well complain about the haste of their departure. Sheri was near the end of her rope worrying over Brady.

  The trip back had felt surreal. Sheriff Miller wanted the details of the search and takedown and nodded when she described Ford’s final moments.

  After she’d finished with her story, he sighed. “Mercier would make a great deputy. Any chance you can convince him?”

  She chuckled. “After seeing him work with his team, I know he wouldn’t want the job.”

  “Do I have to worry about you jumping ship?” he asked, shooting her a worried glance.

  “Oh, hell no.”

  “That’s good,” he said, his voice gruff. “You work well with other agencies. Would you consider working investigations?”

  Her eyebrows shot upward. “I’d love to.”

  When the sheriff dropped them at Sammy’s truck, she’d asked Sheri for moment as she ducked inside the bounty hunters’ office to see Brian Cobb. She’d used the excuse of returning the earpiece she’d forgotten she was wearing, and then asked him to confer her thanks for everything they’d done to help rescue her sister.

  Brian’s eyes had twinkled as she’d stalled a second longer than she should have, trying to figure out how to leave a message for Cochise. He’d cleared his throat and asked her for her cellphone number—in case they needed to reach out to her for anything. Grateful he hadn’t teased her, she scribbled her number on a pad and waved goodbye.

  After a quick shower and change of clothes, the women had headed to Kalispell where they’d remained for the next two days, waiting to see Brady every time he woke up and the nurses allowed him visitors. His family had all given her big hugs and thanked her for her efforts to save their “boy.”

  Sammy had shaken her head. “He saved himself and my sister. If he hadn’t thought quickly…”

  Brady’s father had puffed up. His eyes misted. “That’s my boy.”

  The family had welcomed the women to the corner of the waiting room they’d claimed for their family, sharing food other relatives brought in throughout the day.

  After Brady was moved from the ICU, the women made another trip home for Sheri to pack a bag and head back to spend time with Brady. His family didn’t mind the intrusion, not when Brady’s face lit up like a Christmas tree every time she entered his room. Sammy arranged for Sheri to stay in the same hotel as the Brady family, and then watched as her sister drove off in her own car. The next few days that Sammy spent alone was the longest period she’d ever spent alone in their home.

  Which gave her plenty of time to mull over her future and her feelings for Cochise.

  Although she’d only known him for a short while, she was pretty sure she loved him.

  When that had happened, she wasn’t sure. But she suspected the moment might have been on that first morning, when he’d looked across the bench seat of her vehicle and told her, Whatever move you want to make…

  She recognized and understood his need to protect women, all women, from harm. It was ingrained. Earned through his deep grief. And yet, he’d proven his respect for her skill and strength on that first day when he’d offered her the lead.

  After more days passed, Sammy began to worry that he simply didn’t feel the same way she did about him. He didn’t call. Not once.

  Back at work, she set her mind to her job, kept tabs with a very happy Sheri, and muddled through her days. Her nights, however, were interminable as she relived the fleeting moments she’d spent inside Cochise’s arms. She’d never experienced that kind of passion before and knew her life would be pretty empty if she never had that again.

  * * *

  Cochise was happy he was stuck on a hilltop in the middle of fucking nowhere, sighting down his rifle at a blue pup tent.

  He was happy because, for once, he was alone. Just the mosquito buzzing next to his ear for company. Since he’d left Eureka, he’d been surrounded with people who didn’t get why he was fucking irritated as hell that this hunt wasn’t already over.

  The first night, after he’d spent the afternoon on horseback heading into high country near Whitefish, he’d muttered and bitched at Reaper and Dagger because they hadn’t already found Maynard Wallace.

  “He’s a slippery bastard,” Reaper drawled.

  His wife Carly openly stared at Cochise, and he knew she was wondering what bug had crawled up his ass.

  “He’s pissed because he didn’t say ‘no’ when I asked him to come up here to finish this,” Jamie drawled.

  “Why’s that?” Carly asked, not looking away from him.

  Cochise aimed a glare at Jamie, but that didn’t shut her up.

  “He’s pissed because he didn’t get to kiss a certain deputy goodbye.”

  “Oh?” Carly’s eyebrows shot up. And then a smile stretched. “You wouldn’t be talking about that cute Deputy McCallister back in Bear Lodge, would you?”

  When Cochise’s glance went skyward as he counted slowly in his head, she whooped.

  “All right, I have to hear everything,” she said, gripping Jamie’s arm and tugging her away from Sunny Holcomb’s barn, where wranglers were saddling extra horses the hunters had rented for the trek into the mountains.

  And, of course, Jamie had shared every embarrassing detail, including sound effects to imitate squeaking bedsprings and bear-like bellows. As if he and Sammy had actually made that much noise. He’d never known Jamie was such a damn gossip.

  The guys had ribbed him endlessly. Hook had offered him the use of the sat phone to give Sammy a call, but Cochise didn’t want an awkward as hell call. He wanted Sammy resting against his body when he told her how much he’d missed her and wanted a chance for them to make things work.

  But as the days stretched into a week, he knew he’d made a mistake not accepting that offer of a call. Especially after the sat phone got stomped on by a horse, ending any chance of him letting her know he hadn’t forgotten about her. That he was doing his best to finish this damn job, so he could spend time with her.

  “I hear movement below the ridge,” came Hook’s voice. He was parked on a ledge below where Wallace had pitched his tent.

  When Tessa had led them to the empty tent, they’d figured Wallace was away hunting. From the depth of debris in the firepit, Wallace had been here a while, trying to “live off the land” rather than show his face in public. They’d been sitting on the campsite since yesterday, dug in and camouflaged, waiting for him to return.

  They had three days left to find him and bring him in before t
he $15,000 bond expired. To Cochise’s mind, split so many ways, the bounty wasn’t worth his being stuck in the mountains.

  Hook drew a breath and released it before looking down his scope again.

  A head appeared over the rim of the ridge. Wallace hauled himself up, his rifle slung over one shoulder, and dropped a string of dead birds on the ground beside the fire pit.

  The embezzler had lost a few pounds. His flannel shirt hung on his shoulders. A steady diet of protein could do that to a man. He’d probably thank them if they offered him a candy bar.

  From the corner of his eye, he watched as Sky rose into a crouched position. “Maynard Wallace!” he shouted. “Fugitive Recovery Agents! We have you surrounded.”

  Wallace glanced at the birds then dove for the dirt beside his tent.

  “Seriously, asshole?” Sky said. “We have you surrounded. You’re not going anywhere.” Sky tapped his ear. “Cochise, you want to show him we’re serious?” he said softly.

  Cochise scanned the camp through his scope and noted the Billings Bulls hockey pennant fluttering on the center tent pole. After regulating his breathing, he gently squeezed the trigger.

  The shot rang out, severing the pennant from the pole and sending it fluttering to the ground.

  “Goddammit, don’t shoot!” Wallace said. He went to his knees and held up his hands.

  “Really, that’s it?” Reaper sounded disappointed.

  “He’s terrific at hiding,” Carly said dryly. “Doesn’t mean he’s brave.”

  “While you’re on your knees, move to your right, away from your weapon,” Sky called out.

  Still cussing, Wallace sidestepped on his knees.

  “I need you to remove your shirt, buddy,” Sky said, continuing issue orders. “We have to know you don’t have any other weapons on you. Move slowly.”

  Cochise watched his every move and twitch, his finger a quarter inch from the trigger.

  When Wallace bared his pearl-white chest and rotund belly, a snicker sounded. “I can’t ever unsee that,” Lacey said.

  “Hook, can you move in?”

  Hook rose with his Glock in hand and moved purposefully toward Wallace, his gaze never leaving the kneeling man. When he stood behind him, he said, “Go to your hands and knees. Now, lie flat and lift your hands behind your head.” After Wallace complied, Hook knelt with a knee in the center of Wallace’s back, holstered his weapon, then quickly cuffed him, using just one hand. When he rose, he dragged Wallace to his feet. “All clear,” Hook called out.

  The team moved in. Sky snagged the rifle then searched the tent, backing out with two more weapons in his hands. Then he dragged out a backpack and emptied the contents on the ground. He emptied the chambers of the guns and set them beside the pack.

  “I’ll gather his belongings,” Lacey said. As she repacked his things and wrapped the weapons in T-shirts, Dagger took down the tent, set Wallace’s bedroll in the center of it, and rolled them together, so that the bundle could be tied to the bottom of the pack.

  “We’re ready, Carly,” Jamie said.

  Carly led the horses into the clearing, ropes tied to saddle horns so that they followed in a string.

  Wallace scowled. “How the hell am I supposed to mount when my hands are behind me?”

  Reaper smiled and pushed him toward one of the horses. When they stood beside it, Reaper grabbed Wallace by the belt and pitched him upward. Before Wallace fell over the other side, Reaper grabbed his leg and arm and turned him to face forward, and then guided his foot into the stirrup. “Any more questions?”

  As Reaper walked away, his smile slipped, and he grimaced while he rubbed his lower back.

  Carly shook her head. “We’ll be back home in our own bed tonight. No excuses, Reaper,” she sang.

  “We about ready?” Cochise gritted out. If the women said they needed to take a trip to the woods, he might lose it. It would take most of the day to get back to the road. Calculating in his head, he figured he could be back in Bear Lodge, showered, and standing on Sammy’s doorstep sometime before ten PM. And no, he wouldn’t even consider waiting to see her until a polite time of morning.

  “A little anxious to get home?” Jamie asked as she walked to her horse.

  Cochise ground his teeth. “Been wearing these clothes for three days straight.”

  “So, you’re anxious to get back to take a shower?” Lacey called out, laughing.

  He gave both ladies the blackest scowl he could manage, which sent them into gales of laughter.

  Sky stepped up beside him and clapped a hand on his shoulder, partially slapping the stiches that were nearly healed.

  Cochise held back a wince, but just barely.

  “Hope she’s not on shift, buddy.”

  He didn’t bother to pretend he didn’t know who Sky was talking about. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll find her.”

  “Should have called her, buddy,” Hook said, stepping up into the stirrup and swinging his leg over the saddle. He unknotted the rope tied to his saddle and clucked at his horse. Moving past Wallace, he reached for his horse’s reins and led him away.

  Cochise appreciated that Hook wasn’t wasting time. He strode to his own horse, slid his rifle into its scabbard, and mounted.

  “Can’t believe how easy that capture was,” Lacey said. “Almost makes me embarrassed we couldn’t find him all by ourselves.”

  Jamie whistled for Tessa, who flew to her side. “Maybe we should talk to the big boss about purchasing you a tracking dog. We could use another on the team.”

  As both women mounted their horses and rode away, he heard Lacey say, “Do you think he could be trained to sniff out bombs, too?”

  Dagger groaned.

  Cochise couldn’t help it. For the first time in days, he smiled.

  Chapter 9

  Before he drove into Bear Lodge, Cochise swallowed his pride and called Brian.

  After Brian stopped pretending that his laughter was a coughing fit, he called around to find out whether Office McCallister was on duty that night.

  Thankfully, she was not. He hit his house first then had to ignore the bird that had nested in a corner of his living room ceiling after some other critter had torn through a screen window. He’d worry about “relocating” the nest later. He needed a shower.

  Twenty minutes later, he was in his Expedition and heading to her apartment. Only, when he turned into her driveway, he realized he needed to do some groveling, so he turned around, found some flowers in the local supermarket, then plucked wilting blooms from the bouquet before he headed back.

  He noted her truck was parked outside and girded himself for the coming confrontation.

  Standing at her front door, he felt foolish. He wore his newest blue jeans, a blue Western shirt with pearl buttons that he’d never worn before, and his hair was scraped back in a rubber band. He was as presentable as he could be. So, why was he nervous?

  Feeling as though he was getting ready to take a really tough shot, he drew a deep breath and waited for calm.

  The door swung open, and he blinked in surprise.

  Sammy stepped forward, and then gasped when she saw him there. “What the hell?” She pressed her hand against her chest.

  So, he’d already blown step one. He thrust out the flowers, misjudged the distance, and slapped them against her chest. “Fuck.”

  Sammy stared at the flowers then glanced up into his face. A moment later, her lips twitched. Then she bent at the waist and began to laugh.

  Heat spread across his cheeks. He wasn’t quite certain what to do. She hadn’t invited him in.

  When she straightened, she met his gaze again, and then reached for his wrist and dragged him over the threshold. Once inside, she shut the door and settled her back against it. Her smile vanished, and one dark blonde brow arched. “It’s been a while.”

  Cochise resisted the urge to tug at his too-tight collar. “When we got back to Eureka, Dagger and Lacey called. They’d lost the trail of the man
they were after. They needed the dog.”

  “They needed the dog…” Her other brow rose high.

  He cleared his throat. “Jamie asked me to come along. Hook, too. Thought we’d knock it out in a day.”

  She folded her arms over her chest. “You couldn’t call?”

  Cochise didn’t like her posture or her tone. He gave her a frown. “I didn’t want to talk to you on a sat phone with an audience. Like I said, I thought I’d be back in a day or two. But then…” More heat suffused his face. “A horse stomped on the sat phone.”

  “Uh huh.”

  She didn’t believe him? He almost blurted she could check with Hook, but he wasn’t ten years old. Again, he held out the flowers. “These are for you.”

  She studied his face for a long moment then reached out a hand, taking her sweet time to accept the bouquet. “They’re pretty.” She straightened away from the door and walked toward her kitchen.

  He trailed behind her, unsure about her mood. Sammy pulled a vase from a cupboard and filled it with water. Still silent, she cut the rubber band from around the bouquet and placed the flowers, one bloom at a time, into the vase. Again, taking her time.

  Annoyed now, he reached for the remainder of the flowers, swiped them from her hand, and plunked them in the vase. “I have some things to say,” he growled.

  “Obviously.”

  Her tone was even, which confused him. Anger, he could handle. “Look, do you want me to go? I know I should have called. I didn’t mean to wait so long. But I’ll leave, seeing as you’re pissed.”

  He rubbed his hand over his head frustrated and disappointed with how things were going. He’d thought they had a connection.

  She moved toward her front door, and his shoulders sagged. Jesus, he hadn’t been inside two minutes and she was showing him out.

  But she turned the deadbolt, locking them inside. When she didn’t turn around, he took a chance and stepped close behind her.