Babes In Arms

He wondered again if she was a showgirl, yet she was a long way from Vegas or Reno. Someone with money was involved, for three men to be after her.

Colin glanced at the darkened windows, feeling safe with the storm raging outside. Where were the men now who were after her today? In a Stillwater motel? In this storm they couldn’t scour the countryside, so they had to be holed up somewhere.

Colin stretched out his arm and picked up the television remote control. “We might as well have the television on in the background.”

“Do you mind if we don’t?” she asked hastily, her eyes wide and fear plain in their green depths. His gaze locked with hers while the air seemed to crackle with tension between them. A log fell in the fire, yet all of Colin’s attention focused on the woman facing him. Her lashes fluttered and she turned away abruptly.

Studying her, he placed the remote control on the table with deliberation. “You don’t want to go to the cops. You don’t want the television on. Maybe it’s time you tell me a little about the trouble you’re in.”

Three

Katherine’s heart lurched. She had expected him to quiz her more when she first climbed into the pickup with him. But gradually, as the hours passed, she had stopped worrying. Sitting attentive and still, he was waiting for her answer. Awareness that he was a lawman made her blood run cold. As far as she knew, Sloan had not gone to the police to get her back, but that could change at any time.

Stalling for a moment while she decided how to answer, she sipped ice water and wiped the corners of her mouth with her fingers, staring down at her plate. “I’m divorced now, but I had an abusive husband.”

“If you’re divorced, why do you still fear him?”

Lies swirled in her mind, stories that might satisfy Colin, but one look into his alert brown eyes and she decided to tell him the truth. “I’m pregnant and my ex-husband wants me back.”

“He wants his baby?”

“It’s my baby,” Katherine replied fiercely, and then realized how she had snapped her answer at him. “I’ll be gone tomorrow, so why don’t we just leave it at that,” she suggested, holding her breath and praying he would stop questioning her.

“Look, you had three pros chasing you,” Colin replied with an obvious note of impatience in his tone. “That’s big muscle with money and power behind it. I’ve given you shelter and run a risk. I’d like to know just how big a risk I’m taking here. I’m not going to run and call your ex-husband, but I want to know what I’m up against as long as I have you under my roof.”

“It shouldn’t matter. I’ll be gone as soon as the snow stops, and they can’t get to us until it stops.”

“Katherine, I can imagine all sorts of scenarios. If you know about someone’s million-dollar fraud, if you know where a body is hidden—lots of reasons that even after you are gone, those guys might come after me. They might want to know what you told me.”

“Oh, no! Oh, it’s not anything like that. I have an abusive husband who wants me back badly.” She could see the doubt cloud his eyes, and once again she debated what to say. Watching orange flames curl around logs, she bit her lower lip. “My name didn’t mean anything to you, did it?”

“Katherine Manchester.” He shook his head. “No. Should it?”

“My ex-husband is Sloan Manchester,” she answered cautiously.

The name struck a chord, and Colin tried to remember where he had heard it. “That sounds familiar,” he said and memory stirred. Manchester Oil. “Louisiana. He’s a political candidate. Oil and big business.”

“That’s right,” Katherine said with resignation. “His father is Tyson Manchester of Manchester Oil. There are politicians who want Sloan to run for governor of Louisiana.”

“I wouldn’t think a man running for governor could risk having his ex-wife stalked, much less gamble on taking you back against your will. There’s a law against that.”

“He expects them to get me and take me back without anyone knowing.”

“Go to the press. Let me take you to the police.”

“No!” She pushed back the chair, her eyes going wide and color draining from her face as she stood.

Katherine seemed ready to bolt in spite of the storm. Colin stood and reached out to take her shoulders. She flinched and jumped away from him, her hands going up to shield herself.

“Hey, hey!” he said in a gentle voice, holding up his hands. “Calm down, Katherine. I swear I won’t hurt you.”

She backed away from him, biting her lower lip, and he wondered what kind of monster Sloan Manchester must be.

“Sit down and we’ll talk. Just relax. I won’t call the police if you don’t want me to,” he said, keeping his voice low, trying to bank his anger.

Her ex-husband was running for governor while Katherine was sitting in Colin’s kitchen, six months pregnant with the man’s baby. He was sheltering a woman on the run from one of the most powerful men in the country. Colin wondered what he had gotten himself into. He should have left her alone, he told himself. Just left her the hell alone.

“As soon as the storm abates, I’ll be out of your life,” she said quickly.

“Let’s sit down. Want to sit in front of the fire? I can do the dishes later.”

She nodded, but he noticed she didn’t make a move toward the chairs near the fire. She stood waiting, as if frightened to step in front of him. He moved around the table and went to put another log on the fire. As the wood crackled and popped, he closed the screen and turned to face her.

Looking like a lost child, the bulky purple sweater covering her, Katherine sat in a wing chair with her legs curled up beneath her.

“Are you really divorced?”

“Yes. At the time I asked for the divorce, Sloan had another woman in his life.” She looked down at her hands in her lap while Colin listened. He noticed her nails were neatly clipped and she had long, slender fingers. “Sloan wasn’t in the public light then. I asked for the divorce at the right time and he said yes. I got the divorce as quickly as possible. He regretted it almost instantly. It seems he wants what he can’t have,” she added bitterly.

“I gave up any money from him, but I had a little money left from savings and I took that with me. At the time of the divorce Sloan’s parents were in Europe, or his father would have stopped him from getting the divorce. His father had political ambitions for Sloan long ago.”

His back warmed by the fire, Colin moved to a wing chair, turning it to face her. If she was telling him the truth, she shouldn’t be so frightened and she should go to the police and get help.

“Katherine,” he said gently, fighting the urge to touch her lightly, jamming his hands into his pockets instead while fire heated his side. “If Sloan has given you a divorce, he can’t force you to come back.”

A look of pain crossed her features and was gone.

“He’s a powerful man and his father is as well. They would bribe and pressure people to get what they want. He has friends in high places, friends at court. He’s bribed people before to get what he wants in business.”

“Then he sure as hell shouldn’t be elected governor.”

Her expression was pained. “I can’t fight him. He would turn everything against me.”

“It won’t look good to have it come out that he’s abusive or that he’s trying to force you to return. If those thugs following you take you by force, that’s kidnapping.”

She faced him with a steady gaze. “My father was sent to prison for embezzlement I have bad blood in my family, as Sloan has so often reminded me. We’re Old South with relatives who were in the Confederacy, so I was acceptable to his parents and in certain social circles in New Orleans, but Sloan has said he can make me look like the most evil bitch from a corrupt family. Now I have the baby to consider.”

As Colin swore softly, Katherine bit her lip and looked down, rubbing her arms again. He reached out to tilt her chin up, but the moment he stretched his hand out and lightly touched her, she flinched and jerked away. He put his hands into his pockets again.

“Katherine, I will never hit you,” he said quietly, silently cursing Sloan Manchester. “I have never in my life hit a woman. Not even in the line of duty.”

Her eyes widened as she stared at him and the fear dissipated in her expression. She bit her lip. “It’s an automatic reaction.”

He wanted to reach for her, to draw her into his arms and just hold her and reassure her that she was safe. The cynical side of him gave a silent laugh. Sure, Whitefeather, safe as a mouse in a building with a cat. Those three guys had not given up their hunt. The snow might slow them, but eventually they would find out who drove a blue pickup and where he lived. And they might do it in spite of the storm.

What was it about this woman that had brought out the protective instincts in him from the first moment he had seen her? She was almost as tall as he was, taller than nearly all the women he had ever known. She was independent, resourceful and capable of caring for herself. Capable of eluding the three hoods after her, so why did he have all these protective feelings on full throttle? And if she didn’t stir his protective instincts, she stirred his desire, which should have been even more unlikely in her garish makeup and baggy clothing. The fuzzy sweater looked like a molting bear. And she had to be six months pregnant!

Colin rubbed the back of his neck. “I think some lawmen I know would listen to your story.”