The citizens of Bliss–1. Barbarians–0.
Yeah, he might have to rethink his attitude about this town.
* * * *
Callie’s hands were shaking as Zane helped her off the back of his bike. It was funny because while they’d been driving through the valley, her arms wrapped around his waist, she’d felt perfectly safe. He’d insisted she wear the helmet and it had been too big on her head, but something about being with him, feeling the sunshine on her skin as she rode, had calmed her immensely.
She knew that road like the back of her hand, but with Zane driving, it felt new. She’d never been on the back of a bike before. Now she understood why so many people drove through the mountains on them. There was a freedom she’d never felt in a car.
But now she was back to reality, and the reality was someone wanted to kill them.
Zane stood back while she opened the door.
“I won’t be too long and then we can head into town. I’m pretty hungry. I think you’ll like Stella’s,” she said. She wasn’t sure she had enough in the place to feed him. Now that their cabin was no longer safe, she had to wonder if they would move in here. She would definitely need to buy some groceries.
“Why is your door unlocked?” He stared at her, his hands on his hips.
“Uhm, because I didn’t lock it.” She stepped inside. “And honestly I don’t know where I put the key. It’s okay, though. I totally know how use a credit card to get it open.”
“That is not making me feel better,” he said, examining the door. She could tell he was not impressed. “You don’t even have a deadbolt.”
“I don’t even like the sound of that. And if I had one of those things and I used it, how would Stef get in when I’m in the shower? How would my neighbors get in when they need to borrow something?”
“They wouldn’t and he shouldn’t,” Zane replied.
As though speaking had conjured the man, the door opened and Stef strode in.
“Callie?” He put a hand over his heart, breathing in deeply. “Thank god. I heard from Stella, who heard from Laura at the Stop ‘n’ Shop, who talked to Mel who told her the invasion had started and Nate’s place was ground zero.”
“What?” Zane asked.
Stef looked at him. “Sorry. The Bliss gossip mill is powerful. At some point it goes through Mel and aliens get injected. Is everyone okay? I called Nate. He said there was a fire. He also said the Barbarians are back. What does that mean?”
Actually, she wouldn’t hate having an answer to that question. She understood part of it. “This is some kind of motorcycle gang? Is that why Nate was so upset about the campsite we found?”
“They’re camping here?” Stef turned to Zane. “You brought them into my town?”
Stef could be possessive. Of pretty much everything. And overbearing.
Zane stared a hole through her best friend. “I didn’t exactly send out an invite, Talbot. And I’ve offered to leave.”
“You’re not leaving.” She had to get that thought out of his head. Zane reminded her of an anxious predator. His shoulders were bunched up, fists tight at his sides. If she didn’t bring the tension level down, Stef was going to get put on his backside. It was time to see if she had any influence over the man she’d spent all night making love with. She moved in, putting a hand on his chest and looking up at him. “I need you here with me. It’s like Nate said. They wouldn’t stop coming after me.”
He seemed to forget that Stef was even in the room. His eyes softened, and she found herself wrapped up in his arms. “Babe, I’m not going to let them even get close to you. I promise.”
Even Stef lost his hard edge. “I don’t know a lot about what happened. Nate wouldn’t tell me more than you got hurt and the operation went south. Do you honestly think these people are after you? The fire wasn’t an accident?”
Zane was much more calm when he answered. “No. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the kitchen window. It wasn’t a mistake.”
“But I thought you put the president of the club in jail,” Stef said. “Along with most of his members.”
“Most of his immediate members,” Zane agreed. “But the Barbarians have chapters all over the southwest. Think of them almost like franchises, in a way. We weren’t able to connect them all so they’re still up and in operation, and they still answer to their president. Ellis was the president of the home club. Just because we put him in prison doesn’t mean he’s down for the count.”
“Where is Nate and what is he planning on doing about this?” Stef asked.
“He’s gone into the station house. He’s going to make some calls,” Zane explained.
“I’m going to send Callie out of town for a while. She’ll go to Dallas and stay at The Club. The owner is a friend of mine and he’s got connections to a security firm. She can stay there until this is all over,” Stef said.
Oh, that was not happening. She turned, moving out of Zane’s arms. “No. You put me in this position, Stef. You don’t get to decide to pull me out of it now. I’m involved with Nate and Zane for better or worse. No one is going to protect me the way they can.”
“And the first thing I’m going to do is get you a damn deadbolt,” Zane groused. He took a deep breath, shaking his head as though attempting to shake off some unnamed emotion. “Look, Stef, this happened not an hour ago. Can we have some time to adjust? We need to figure out who’s here and why. I’m going to stick to Callie like glue, and you have to know I would give my life for her. I think what happened this morning shook those bikers up, too. They weren’t expecting an armed mob.”
It had been such a relief to see her neighbors pouring out of their cabins. This was what she would never get in a city. Bliss was a family. They might bicker from time to time, but when the chips were down every man and woman in this town would be there for her. A whole lot of the kids, too. “I called Marie when it happened.”
Stef’s lips curled up. “That had to have scared the shit out of them.”
Zane’s hands found her shoulders, connecting them. “I know these guys. I spent years riding with them. They work in the shadows. They’ll think twice about attacking us like that. And obviously we won’t be going back to our cabin. We’ll find someplace safe and hunker down. I know I haven’t shown it, but I was good at my job, and part of that was protecting my partner. Callie is safe with me.”
Stef seemed to consider that, and she prayed he came down on the side of reason. Stef was perfectly capable of kidnapping her and shoving her someplace he decided was safe if he was scared enough. He could be relentless about protecting the people he considered to be his family. And he definitely was serious about protecting his town. Jen sometimes jokingly called Stef the King of Bliss. It was a fitting nickname.
Stef held out a hand. “All right then. Callie’s made her choice and I’ll honor it, but you have to know that if this gets worse, my offer is still open.”
Zane shook his hand. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
She thought she could trust them to not kill each other. “I’m going to take a quick shower and change. I’ll be right back out.”
“I’ll be here,” Zane promised her.
She started for her room, Stef following behind.
“I want to know you’re okay,” he said quietly.
She glanced back. Zane was facing away, his gaze apparently on the rows of framed pictures she kept on the wall. Her mother had put most of them there, lovingly cataloguing her childhood and their life together. God she missed her mom. She wished her mom was still in this room so she could walk in and ask her advice about Nate and Zane. What she wouldn’t give for another few moments with her.
“I’m as okay as I can be.” She loved Stef, but she wasn’t sure she could confide in him about this. If she got a chance she would talk to Jen or Rachel or Nell. They wouldn’t potentially punch anyone. Well, Rachel might, but she would blame pregnancy hormones.
“Are you sure? I know Nate’s having
trouble fitting in around here,” Stef said. “I’ll be honest I’ve started to wonder if I made a mistake by bringing him here. This particular plan of mine isn’t going the way I thought it would.”
“How did you think it would go?”
He leaned against the doorjamb, his voice low. “I was certain Nate would walk in here, take one look at you and realize how stupid he’d been.”
She sighed because now she truly got it. Yes, he’d been trying to help Nate, but he’d also been trying to give her what she needed. “Sweetie, I love that you love me so much and I’m thrilled to have this time with the two of them again, but I don’t know that this is anything more than another fling. I don’t think Nate stays here a long time. I think he’ll want to move back to Dallas, or maybe New York or DC. He doesn’t want to be a small-town sheriff the rest of his life. And Zane will go where Nate goes.”
Despite how beautiful the night before had been, she knew it wouldn’t last forever. She would get a few months, perhaps a year, and then they would move on and she would be left behind again. She didn’t fit into their world. Though she’d thought about moving to Denver, she wouldn’t live the way Nate would want to. She would find a group of outcasts and make a family. It was what she knew, what she genuinely loved.
“I don’t understand. Why would anyone ever leave here?” Stef looked genuinely confused. “I thought if he came here, he would get it.”
She reached up and touched his face. “Not everyone loves this place.”
“Then they’re crazy and they’re not worthy of you,” he insisted.
Her heart hurt as she realized what he was really doing. “When did you find out I was thinking about moving?”
He was quiet for a moment. “When you talked to Marie about putting your cabin up for sale. I won’t let that happen, you know. I’ll buy it and it will be waiting here for you when you come to your senses. You don’t know what it’s like out there. You belong here.”
“Well, now I’m not going anywhere at all,” she replied, trying to put a smile on his face again. He would do exactly that. He would buy her place anonymously and keep it as a shrine. “At least not until the threat passes, and who knows, maybe this whole episode will show Nate how nice it is to be in Bliss. I know he was impressed with how quickly we form an armed militia.”
She should be more optimistic. Yes, they’d walked away once before, but that didn’t mean they would do it again. And the truth was Nate was stuck here for a while. He might come around. Bliss had a way of working its magic on people. Zane hadn’t even given it a shot yet.
She hadn’t been fair to Stef. He had issues with being left behind. Issues she knew all too well. “How about if I get serious about moving, I’ll come and talk to you. I won’t make that decision without talking to you. You know you’re my family, Stef. You and Max and Rye. Even if I did move, I wouldn’t ever stay away for too long.”
He nodded. “Okay. I can live with that, but I think you should give the big idiot a chance. He might like it here now that you’ve got him to come out of the shadows.”
“I heard that,” Zane said from the next room.
Stef laughed. “You were starting to scare the tourists, man. There are stories of a wild man running through the woods half dressed. We already have enough Sasquatch enthusiasts. We don’t need more.”
“What the fuck is a Sasquatch?” Zane asked.
“Bigfoot, asshole. They think you’re Bigfoot,” Stef said with obvious relish.
“What?”
“It must be the fact that you could use a haircut,” Stef said.
She sighed. Maybe she’d been hasty thinking they could get along. “I’m taking a shower now. Don’t kill each other.”
“My hair is fine,” Zane was saying. “And I’ve got like zero body hair. This smoothness is all natural.”
“All I can tell you is what I hear,” Stef replied.
She left as they started to argue, but it was obvious the crisis had passed.
Men were weird that way.
* * * *
Three hours later, Zane watched Callie thank Stella as she placed a cup of coffee in front of her. He nodded from across the booth but kept his eyes down until the café owner left to wait on another table. Callie reached her hand out to cover his. He gave her a half-hearted smile that she seemed satisfied with.
She was dressed in a flowing skirt and blouse that she’d changed into when he’d taken her by her place. He’d walked around the small cabin while she’d showered and gotten ready. Callie’s cabin was as small as his and Nate’s, but there was a homey quality to it that called to him. He’d stared at the framed pictures spread out around the cabin, a map of her life. Pictures of her with her mother, of her as a child with her hair up in pigtails. There had been one of her and Nell when they were younger, the women smiling with flowers in their hair. He’d stared for the longest time at the one of four children sitting on a bale of hay. The twins, who had to be Max and Rye Harper, had been making silly faces for the camera while a young Stef had stared at it solemnly. Callie sat close to Stef, leaning into the boy as though letting him know everything would be all right.
It didn’t make him want to punch the fucker less though. Bigfoot his ass.
He focused on Callie. Everything about her was calm, but Zane couldn’t forget that not too long ago, her life had been in danger. Again.
“What’s good here?” He picked up the menu and started to study it. He had no appetite whatsoever, but it would worry Callie if he didn’t eat. His brain worked overtime. He could still smell the carpet burning, feel the heat and the panic when he realized what was happening. Because of the neighbors’ quick thinking, the cabin had been mostly saved, though it would take a lot of money to make it livable again. A lot of money neither he nor Nate had. It was something he should think about. Callie would need someone who could provide for her. He wasn’t sure exactly how he fit into that scenario.
“I would stick to standard diner fare. Pancakes, bacon, burgers, and such. Hal is a fantastic fry cook. Unfortunately, he considers himself something of an artist. Stella gives him complete control over the daily specials.” She turned a little green as she spoke.
He looked up at the chalkboard over the counter. It proudly claimed that Ceviche de Hongos with black beans and lemon was the special of the day. “What is that?”
She shrugged. “I have no idea. It doesn’t sell well in small-town Colorado. Although the people around here are free-spirited, their spirits still tend to like burgers and fries and ice box pie. Except for Henry and Nell. They’re vegans. They protest here regularly.”
Despite feeling sorry for himself, he felt his lips curl at the thought of the weird chick from the meadow protesting at a hole-in-the-wall diner. He tried to imagine the kind of man who married a woman like her. This Henry guy had to be a gentle soul who’d never once harmed another.
At one point in his life, he would have said people like that were naïve and deserved what the world gave them. But he was starting to think maybe those people needed to be protected. Maybe the strong of arm should protect the strong of heart.
Because scars could heal, and those naïve assholes out there still thought the scarred could be beautiful.
Because Callie, after all these years, still had that air of innocence about her.
The brunette from last night walked up to the table. She was dressed in jeans and a shirt with the diner’s name across the chest. Her eyes were red and puffy. The night before had not been kind to her. Or rather, Stef hadn’t. He couldn’t forget how those two had gone at each other. Zane looked out the window as she talked to Callie, sensing she wouldn’t want his pity.
He knew that feeling. He watched as people strolled down Main Street. Right down the road was the sheriff’s office where he’d left Nate to deal with the reports required from last night and this morning. His stomach churned at the thought of what Nate intended to do. This afternoon Nate was going to call their old boss at the
DEA. He was hoping to get some sort of backup. Zane was on Callie duty, and he couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do.
Well, he’d be happier if they were back at her cabin. He didn’t like to go out much anymore. Again, not a trait that led to gainful employment. She was really entrenched in this town. If he stayed here with her, where would he work?
“He’s an asshole.” The brunette, Jen—yeah, that was her name—had tears seeping from her eyes.
“Oh, sweetie, he’s confused,” Callie said, her hand reaching out to pat Jen’s.
It had been like that all day. Wherever Callie went, hard luck stories found her. When the smoke had finally cleared and they salvaged what they could, he’d found Callie rocking a baby so one of the neighbors could grab a cup of coffee. A teen had begged her for a ride into Bliss, and Callie had obliged. Before they had even set foot in the station house, the crazy dude with the tin foil hat had run up to her and hugged her, telling her he was glad she hadn’t been abducted. Apparently tragedies like fires or earthquakes were ripe opportunities for alien abductions. In the end, she’d ended up comforting the older man and promising him that some sort of detector thing would be here by the end of the week.
Callie had been a pretty butterfly, flitting around offering advice and comfort and an ear to bend to anyone she saw. Zane had been the big, hulking beast who followed her around.
No one was going to flatten his butterfly, damn it.
Jen sniffled. She looked Zane right in the eyes. “Well, I hope you’re not an asshole.”
Not sure what to say. “I’ll have to work on that.”
“You better. You take care of my friend or I swear I will…I don’t know what I’ll do, but it’ll be bad.”
The slender woman seemed perfectly serious. Zane had been intimidating all of his life because of his height and build. The scars had only added to his badass factor. People turned away from him in Dallas or stared in horrified fascination. Not this one, though. She’d said he was stunning. A fallen angel. She was a little crazy, but she seemed awful nice.