Safe with a Stranger

He took it briefly. Just long enough to feel an electric shock of warmth running straight to his groin.

“Josh Ryan.” Jerking back his hand, he noticed his words had been uttered in a much lower tone than normal.

“Do you live around here?”

He shook his head. “Don’t live anywhere at the moment. Where’re y’all from? Is that a West Texas drawl I hear?”

“Born and raised in Midland,” she said and nodded. “But I haven’t lived there for years.”

It occurred to him then that she must have a husband around somewhere. Had she been his wife, he wouldn’t have let her out of his sight. As for the kid…Well, as much as he didn’t care for kids, and as much trouble as this one seemed, had Jimmy been his son he would’ve never trusted the two of them out alone.

“Where’s home for you, then? Your husband waiting somewhere that you need to call?”

She glanced down at the table and then over at Jimmy. It took him a moment to notice, but her son definitely didn’t have her coloring. Between her reaction to his question and the difference in their looks, Josh wondered if she was one of those new age single women who’d adopted a child without benefit of marriage or father.

“Jimmy’s father and I are divorced. He’s…in Europe. I’m bringing my baby back to the States to live.”

Josh’s gut was telling him something she’d said was a little off. Maybe a white lie. Whatever it was, he decided he needed to shed himself of these two in a hurry. He was becoming too intrigued by a pair of dewy amber eyes and a baby who reminded him too much of things that couldn’t be.

They each ate what they’d ordered. She had a chef’s salad, he had coffee with pecan pie and Jimmy had juice, a few bites of his mother’s meat and cheese and enough saltine crackers to build a crumb-filled castle.

“Hope that’ll hold y’all for a while,” he said. “It’s nearly time to get you two back to the bus station.”

He’d rather not learn any more about her or hang around her kid any longer than necessary. It was already past time to be on the road again.

“Yes, I agree. Those two goons should’ve given up and left by now.” She began packing up Jimmy’s things. “Our bus leaves in a half hour.”

They made their way back to the truck and he settled them in before he climbed behind the wheel again. On the way back he kept sneaking looks at her when she wasn’t paying attention.

She was a stunner, all right. With neat khaki pants, a formfitting brownish-colored top and a light suede jacket, her curves weren’t obnoxious or too obvious. But they were definitely in all the right places. The gaze from her bright eyes darted down to Jimmy and then back out the windshield, always checking. And that danged silken strand of blond hair still dangled over one of her shoulders as if it was just begging to be played with.

Something nagged at him. Though her clothes weren’t overtly expensive and her manner wasn’t snooty, Clare just seemed to ooze sophistication. She had a worldly character about her.

So what was she doing taking a bus? And what had those two suits really wanted with her and the kid?

Stuff those thoughts. He didn’t want to get any more involved than he’d already become. All he wanted was to get the both of them on their way and then wash his hands of the whole damn puzzle.

Josh drove around the bus station twice, trying to be sure the suits weren’t still hanging around outside. He spotted Clare’s bus parked at an outdoor gate, already loading and with a long line of passengers waiting to climb on. The two of them wouldn’t even have to walk through the station to board.

“I’m not going to get out,” he told her as he idled by the curb. “I’ll just drop y’all off. You’ll be okay, right?”

He couldn’t wait until she got out of his truck. The sexy vibes she’d been throwing off were a distraction, and he needed that about as much as another hole in the head.

She nodded as she unbuckled and prepared herself and her son to go. “Sure. We really have to thank you again for all you did for us. I don’t think we would’ve made it without you, and I wish there was something more I could do to say thanks.”

The various ways he could think of were not suitable to say aloud to a near stranger. “No problem. Take care of yourself and Jimmy, ya hear?”

Josh watched as she carried the toddler to the end of the line. She looked vulnerable. Vulnerable, worldly and sexy. What a strange combination. He didn’t think he’d ever met anyone like that before in his entire life.

While he sat in the pickup with his tongue hanging out and watched as her line inched toward the bus door, two dark figures came out of nowhere and grabbed her and Jimmy. The same two dudes who’d tried and failed at the roadhouse. Ah, hell!

He was out of the truck in an instant.

Chapter 2

Running full out, Josh reached them in time to lunge at one of the bad guys. That one took a swing and caught Josh hard on the chin, and then the same dude spun, hoisting Jimmy in his arms as he took off.

“Jimmy!” Clare shouted while fighting the other guy.

Before Josh could intervene, she stomped her foot on the goon’s instep, shoved her open palm up under his chin and then rammed her knee into his groin. That guy crumbled, and Josh took off after the one with Jimmy.

Josh caught up to him with no trouble. But slowing the slime-ball down without hurting the kid in his arms was tough. Josh finally had the guy in a choke hold at about the same time as Jimmy started squealing and squirming. The boy wiggled like a greased calf at a fair, which seemed to confuse the goon, who couldn’t hang on to the kid.

Josh used the opportunity to take his shot, poking his fingers hard into the guy’s eye sockets while jerking Jimmy from his grip with the other hand. Josh didn’t spend time gloating over his handiwork, just tore back toward the bus and Clare with Jimmy thrown over his shoulder.

“Jimmy, thank heaven,” she sobbed when Josh reached her. Relief and gratitude filled her eyes.

“Let’s go.” He grabbed her elbow, heading outside.

“Go where?”

“Anywhere but here. Get in the truck. Y’all are safer with me than on that danged bus, no matter where we end up.”

After about a half hour of silently driving in circles, trying to lose the goons for sure, Josh thought better of his last remarks. “So where were y’all headed? Is there some other way you can get to wherever you’re going?”

Clare turned to him, the tension in her face clear and alarming. “Um…”

Well, that wasn’t much of an answer. In fact, this babe had been real slow coming up with any straight answers. He doubted that a word she’d said since the moment they’d met had been on the level. Well, he’d had enough.

Josh spotted an all-night discount department store in the next block. The huge lot was busy with people coming and going and he figured they could join up and get lost in the crowd of trucks. He pulled in under the low-hanging branches of a willow and shut down the engine.

“What are we doing here?” Clare softly asked.

When he turned to answer her, the sight he beheld left him flabbergasted and holding his breath. There, through the low light and in the passenger seat of his old beat-up pickup, sat the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen holding a sleeping angel in her lap. Was it just a trick of lighting that made her suddenly look like a Madonna? Her skin was exquisite, like fine china. Every strand of her hair lay in silky perfection. Her nose wasn’t too small or too large, but just right. And her long lashes lay against high cheekbones as she gazed down at the babe in her arms.

Josh swallowed hard against the lump in his throat.

The mother and child made such a compelling picture that Josh wished he knew how to draw. He’d never been an artist, and he wasn’t sure that even a Michelangelo could manage to capture the perfect essence of this mother and child.

His heart ached for all the pictures like this one that he would miss seeing in his lifetime. The pictures of a loving spouse and child that he would never have—and that his brother and sister would miss having in their lives, as well. Those thoughts sobered him, left him melancholy and finally made him angry. Exactly the way he’d spent the last fifteen years of his life. Mad as hell with no way to let it loose and no one to take it out on.

But Josh wasn’t the kind to dwell on his troubles for very long. He was much more an action kind of guy. Kick butts, take names and take charge. It was the way he’d operated for most of his life. So, burying his personal problems like always, he decided to focus on Clare’s troubles instead.

“We need to talk.” He swiveled to a position in his seat where he could watch her face as he questioned her. “I want answers about what the hell is going on. And don’t give me any of that bull about not knowing those two sleazy dudes or why they were after you. I’ve been shot at, sucker punched and chased tonight, and I want to know why.”

Clare didn’t know what to do or say to answer his questions. She didn’t know who to rely on. Was Josh someone to trust? Did she dare?

She kept perfectly still and stared at the man who was for all purposes a complete stranger. But as the flickering light from one of the parking-lot lamps filtered through the windshield and seemed to water down the edges of his face with soft gray tones and shadows, her insides softened toward him, too.