She nodded and climbed aboard the ambulance with Lizzie.

  * * *

  GUY WATCHED THEM GO, wishing he could follow, but there was still some cleaning up to do.

  He turned to Etta. “We’re going to find a way to help you, Etta. Some way to get you out of this ramshackle house and in among people who’ll care.”

  Etta sagged into that rickety kitchen chair looking drained. “Been thinking about leavin’ but I been livin’ this way too long to change.”

  “You might be surprised. The sun doesn’t have to be only outside. It can be inside, too.”

  Etta dragged her gaze to him. “And some folks call you a stupid damn redskin.” She shook her head, then looked down. “Damn fools everywhere. What do I need ’em for?”

  Sometimes Guy wondered that himself.

  * * *

  THE TRIP TO the hospital seemed to take forever, the ambulance jouncing over the rutty road.

  “Sorry for the bumpy ride,” one paramedic said.

  “Like you pave the county roads,” Valerie answered.

  At last they turned onto smoother pavement. Flashing lights but no siren. No real urgency. That relieved Valerie just a little. She needed assurances from a doctor, treatment for Lizzie.

  Lizzie looked so tiny on that huge stretcher. One of the medics was on the radio, describing the situation. Except for dehydration, it didn’t sound that awful. Not yet, anyway.

  When they arrived at the hospital, she climbed out of the ambulance to make way for the stretcher. The first thing she saw was May and Chet standing just outside the entrance. They both rushed toward the stretcher.

  Moments later, Lizzie and her parents were whisked away. Valerie stood alone outside the ER, suddenly aimless. Lizzie didn’t need her now, needed only Chet and May. Later she could see her niece.

  Right now, Valerie needed something else. Someone else. Someone who’d walked through this fire right at her side.

  She turned around, wondering how to get to Guy’s apartment. She couldn’t remember. She hadn’t paid much attention when he’d taken her there. Maybe she could get directions from someone.

  Then she saw the Suburban squeal up, lights flashing.

  Guy jumped out and came running toward her. A muddy, grassy mess from his night crawling overground.

  She didn’t care how dirty he was when he wrapped his arms around her. Held her tight.

  “You’re coming home with me,” he said.

  It was the only place she wanted to go.

  * * *

  GUY PRACTICALLY MOTHERED VAL. He steadied her up the stairs. Put sugary food in front of her and a sweet cola in her hand. Told her to drink. Got her a blanket when she started to shiver.

  Sat beside her, holding her hand. “Drink. Eat. Don’t argue with me.”

  She felt no desire to argue with him. Instead she obeyed his orders, draining half the cola in one draft. Eating a cinnamon bun as if her life depended on it.

  He reached for the same for himself. A short time later he pressed another bun into her hand. “You need the sugar,” he reminded her. “But you know that.”

  Yes, she knew that. After all the adrenaline, she did need every sugary morsel. Licking the stickiness off her fingers, she accepted another soft drink.

  “I’ll be okay,” she finally said.

  “You will,” he agreed. “You’re tough. Tough as ten cops.”

  “I doubt that. You were there.”

  “It wasn’t my niece.”

  “She might as well have been. I’ve been beside you all the way through this. You never cared less than I did.”

  “Just doing my job.”

  Right, she thought. Right.

  * * *

  AN HOUR LATER, May called. Guy waited while Val talked to her sister, then disconnected.

  She looked at Guy, smiling. “Lizzie’s okay. She’s going to be fine. They want to keep her overnight, though. I can visit once they get her into a regular room.”

  “Want me to come with?”

  “Of course. You did as much as anyone to bring Lizzie home. Then I gotta figure out how to thank most of this county.”

  “I think the news will be enough.”

  Val finally sagged into the recliner and fell into a deep sleep.

  Good, Guy thought. He took the opportunity for a long, hot shower to wash away the infinite filth that covered him in the last stages of this case. He wished he could as easily shower away the ugliness in his brain. Then he dressed in a fresh uniform.

  Still a lot of cleaning up to do with the case. T’s to cross and i’s to dot. There’d be a whole lot of forensic evidence to review, too. Not that they’d need much after the scene in the Margolis household, but charges other than kidnapping could probably be leveled against Phillip Margolis, too, charges like child abuse. Guy wanted to throw the entire book at that monster.

  He wished he’d been the one to shoot Margolis. Val didn’t strike him as the type who’d be able to brush it aside. She was the type who’d carry that single shot with her for the rest of her life, no matter how justified it had been. He’d rather carry that burden himself.

  He sighed quietly, wiping his face. He saw an Indigenous face in his mirror and he’d always been proud of it, even when others tried to steal that pride.

  He brewed a pot of coffee while Val continued to sleep away her exhaustion. Glancing at the clock, he figured it wouldn’t be long before Val wanted to go to the hospital.

  Reluctantly he carried a mug of coffee toward the recliner, then shook her gently.

  She came instantly awake, instantly alert.

  “Coffee,” he said, handing her the mug. “Then I’m taking you home so you can clean up before we go to the hospital.”

  She offered him a faint smile. “I guess you already took care of that for yourself.”

  “Hell, yeah. That damn brush was prickly.”

  At long last she laughed. “Bet I had an easier night than you did.”

  “That depends on your perspective.”

  An old towel in the trunk took care of wiping the dirt and dust from the driver’s seat in his vehicle. The outside was splattered with mud. Well, Gage wouldn’t like that. All official vehicles were supposed to gleam.

  Then he chuckled quietly. As if Gage would care this time.

  The end of this long siege was beginning to get to him, too. After all the fear, all the worry that they’d never find Lizzie, after all the effort they’d put out to find the little girl, it had started to sink in that Lizzie was okay, the job was successfully concluded.

  Odd, he couldn’t remember ever having felt at loose ends before.

  He drove Val to the Chamberlain house, then waited outside for her. Unfortunately, that gave him time to think about Val. About how much he’d started to dread the day when she returned to Gunnison. About the hole she’d leave behind in him.

  Then he started counting all the reasons he shouldn’t feel this way. There were probably a dozen or more, but he stopped at a few. Her job was elsewhere. She wouldn’t quit to stay here. He wouldn’t want her to either. What would she do here?

  He wouldn’t quit to follow her. Not that she’d want him to.

  Nope, there was that huge cultural and possibly even racial divide. Separate lives intersecting only because of a crisis. He needed to remember that.

  Val emerged from the house thirty minutes later, wearing one of those business suits he’d first seen her in. Resuming herself. Resuming her own life.

  Maybe sending a message. And maybe he should read it. The hole inside him began to grow.

  * * *

  AT THE HOSPITAL, May and Chet were clearly so happy that they could barely contain their joy. Both of them profusely thanked Valerie and Guy.

  “You saved her.” May beamed at them. “And, Val, I knew you’d help.”

  “I couldn’t have done it without Guy. He gets most of the credit.” Then a tear ran down Valerie’s face. “I’m so glad she’s okay. Can I see her? Can we see her?”

  “Of course!” Both May and Chet spoke at once.

  Chet reached for the door. “She’s sleeping,” he said. “Poor tot needs the rest.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Valerie answered.

  Stetson in hand, Guy followed the three of them into the room. Lizzie lay in a large raised crib with net topping over it. An IV ran into her arm.

  “The IV will come out soon,” May said. “Then we can take her home. Plenty of food, the doctor said. That man didn’t feed her enough.”

  Guy got his first good look at Lizzie. To think all this time he’d known her face only from photographs. She was even more adorable in life.

  Adorable? That didn’t sound like a word he’d usually use. Hah. This whole experience had changed him in unexpected ways.

  He stood for a while, looking at the child whose plight had consumed him for so many days, and felt good about himself.

  Then he moved quietly. “I need to get to the office. This case needs winding up.”

  Valerie hesitated. “I’d like to come along, Guy. I want to know everything.”

  He nodded. “Come on. And when we’re done with this, I gotta find a way to help Etta.”

  Val followed him out the door. “You’re right. It’s wrong to leave her out there all by herself on the edge of poverty.”

  “It’s wrong for a lot of people, but she did a great thing, didn’t she?”

  “It wasn’t easy for her either.” Val smiled. “Remarkable, when you think about all she’s been through with that beast.”

  “She said it was the best thing she’s done in her life.” He didn’t mention how glad Etta had been to see Phillip shot. No need to bring that up, not when it was probably raw for Val.

  Phillip Margolis was still in the hospital, under sedation, under guard. Not that the coward was likely to try anything, not when it might cost him his leg.

  What they wanted were the rest of the details, details that might lock his prison cell even tighter.

  And eventually they wanted to know why he’d chosen Lizzie Chamberlain to give to his wife, although they had a good idea about that. Still, they needed the creep to say it. To brag.

  Guy suspected the man would brag quite a bit.

  Valerie again looked out of place in the front squad room, as out of place as she had upon her arrival. But this time she was greeted with nods and smiles. Those who spoke called her Detective.

  She had become a recognized part of the team. Guy wondered if she realized that.

  After they’d wound up the paperwork with as much as they had learned, Guy suggested he drive Val home.

  Once in the Suburban, she spoke wearily. “I want to hear that man tell it all. I want him to nail himself with his own mouth.”

  “Me, too,” Guy agreed as he pulled up in front of the Chamberlain house. “A full confession.”

  “Yeah.” Instead of climbing out of his vehicle, she leaned her head back and turned it to look at the house. “There’s still one thing I want to know.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Why May never heard Lizzie cry.”

  The question slammed Guy. Val had mentioned it before, but he’d forgotten all about it during the hunt. Answers tended to come later when a case was solved.

  “Yeah,” he said reluctantly. “Yeah.” But maybe neither of them truly wanted to know.

  The question hung there like a huge loose end.

  Then Val looked at him. “Can I come to your place, Guy?”

  Chapter Twenty

  “Sure,” Guy answered, slipping his vehicle into gear. He tried to sound nonchalant but wasn’t sure he succeeded. His heart began a slow, steady throbbing as he drove through town. It continued as they both exited the vehicle and headed for his apartment. The stairway had never seemed so long.

  Inside, he asked her if she wanted coffee, or just to sleep.

  She smiled faintly and gestured, the movement taking in the entire place. “You haven’t committed, have you.”

  He stilled, surprised by the comment. “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, you’re committed to the job, all right. I’ve seen it. Total commitment.”

  “Then what?” He scanned his own apartment. Only partly furnished.

  “I mean this place. You may be committed to your work, but you’re not committed to staying here. Some part of you believes you’ll be moving on. To what, Guy?”

  He remained quiet as he looked around again. Maybe she was right. What did that mean about him?

  “At home,” she continued, “I have plenty of furniture. So I can entertain. So I can be comfortable all the time. I hung pictures on the wall. I have some appliances on my counter. It looks like a home, not a waystation.” She studied him. “It’s obvious you don’t have friends come over. Do you feel you don’t have any?”

  He blew a long breath.

  She looked into his eyes. “All you have on the walls is that beautiful blanket your mother made. Do you think about going home to your family all the time? Or something else? You don’t feel permanent, do you?”

  He felt stripped uncomfortably bare. He wanted to ignore her questions, dismiss them lightly. The problem was, there was truth in them. Maybe a truth he needed to face.

  “I don’t know,” he said finally.

  She shook her head and looked pained. “You’ve built walls around yourself. As clear as the boundaries of your reservation. You just don’t believe you belong. You view everything through the lens of how you’ve been treated by Whites all your life.”

  He tried not to wince in response to words that struck him painfully. “Maybe so. With good reason.”

  She nodded, then sat on the edge of the recliner. “I’m sure you have reasons. You’ve shared some of them with me.”

  “So?”

  “So maybe you need to commit yourself. To this county. To the place where you work and live your days. To the people around here. They can’t all be jerks, can they?”

  No, they weren’t all jerks. Problem was that he was always steeling himself against meeting another one. They showed up. Boy, did they show up, and too many of them did it overtly.

  But he was also trying to steel himself against Val, wasn’t he? Wondering at some level what his family would think if he got more involved with her. Some of them already objected to him being a cop. How would they react to Valerie?

  “Maybe,” she said slowly, “you ought to wear the plainclothes you’re entitled to wear now and stop worrying about the bigots. You know who you are. If they can’t deal with it, tell them to shove it. You’re a detective with the Conard County Sheriff’s Department. Have more confidence in yourself. You deserve to.”

  He didn’t know what to say. She didn’t understand. Or maybe she understood more than he wanted to believe. He wanted to ask who she was to criticize him.

  But deep inside he knew it was a critique he deserved. Maybe one he needed.

  “Val...” But he didn’t know what to say. Home truths. He needed to think about them. But Val didn’t give him time, not then.

  She smiled at him. “Take me to bed, Guy.”

  His head exploded as if light burst through him. For a split second his world turned brilliant, so bright he couldn’t see anything.

  Then he took a long breath and reached for her hand. “Val, come with me.”

  “All the way, if you want.” Her smile lingered as she took his hand and rose.

  All the way? But he couldn’t question her, not then. His pulse pounded through him, the desire for her that he couldn’t ignore, that he no longer needed to ignore, rising in him as he led her to his bed.

  “I hear the thunder,” he said.

  Her smile broadened. “Me, too.”

  * * *

  SHE WAS EXQUISITE. Val didn’t wait for him to undress her, but slowly shed her jacket, then reached for the buttons on her creamy blouse. Still smiling.

  “You, too,” she said huskily. “Or I’ll do it myself.”

  He wouldn’t have minded, but neither did he want wait.

  All at once they sped up, clothes flying everywhere.

  Falling together, they landed on the bed. Their hands began to move in a journey of discovery. Her skin was as smooth as silk and when she writhed against him, her hips rising, he felt the blaze rise in his own body along with zings of lightning.

  Oh, he heard the thunder all right. It hammered in his ears, filling him with its power.

  He caressed her breasts, their nipples pebbling beneath his fingers. He ran his hand down her side and finally reached her center. She arched against him, then closed her hand around his staff.

  Her voice was breathless. “Now, Guy. Fill me now.”

  He couldn’t have waited a second longer. Sliding into her hot wet depths felt as good as a homecoming. She moaned and tightened around him as her hips began the rhythm as old as time.

  He rose and fell with her, riding the storm of desire. Higher and higher until at last thunder clapped a final time.

  Together they found deep contentment. Deep satisfaction.

  Together. As one.

  * * *

  THEY FELL ASLEEP, wrapped in his comforter, wrapped in each other’s arms. Val had no idea how long she slept, but when she woke all she wanted to do was snuggle closer.

  Guy. His warmth. His strength. His kindness. His determination. So much to admire.

  Then there was his sexiness. She had to stifle a giggle for fear of waking him, of him pulling away. She squeezed her eyes closed, remembering their lovemaking. As far as she was concerned it had been perfect. She hoped he felt the same.

  Desire had been running like a current all along, beneath her fear and anguish. Buried because it was out of place. The wrong time.