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She caught his hand. “Thank you. For everything.”
He bent impulsively and kissed her forehead. “You’re easy to take care of,” he said softly.
“You came to see me. What about?” she wondered.
“You knew I was coming.”
“Yes. I felt it.”
He drew in a breath. “I talked to the sheriff in Texas. We both remember a man who seemed to have more than one face...”
She sat straight up in bed. “That’s it! That’s it!”
He thought she was having a reaction to the medicine. “Are you all right?” he asked worriedly, coaxing her to lie back down.
“I kept seeing a man sitting at a dressing table, trying on wigs,” she blurted out in a rush. “I didn’t know what it meant. Now I do. The man who’s after you, that’s him!”
He felt cold chills down his backbone. “Your mother said you think he’s coming here.”
“Yes. Soon.” She held his hand. “You must be very, very careful,” she said, her face drawn. “Promise me.”
Her concern made him feel warm inside, as if he were sitting in front of a cozy fire with a cup of hot chocolate. “I promise.”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “I’m very sleepy.”
“Rest is the best thing for you. I’ll come back another time.”
She smiled. “That would be...very nice.”
He got up. She was already asleep.
A man sitting at a dressing table, trying on wigs. At least now, thanks to her, he had some idea of what might be coming his way. He would have to take precautions, and soon. He looked down at the sleeping woman with odd, possessive feelings. He wasn’t psychic, but he knew that she was going to play an important part in his life.
CHAPTER THREE
TANK PAUSED TO talk to Clara and the doctor when he left Merissa’s room.
“She’s asleep,” he told them.
Clara smiled. “I’m so glad. Those headaches are terrible. You think there may be something bad causing them,” she said to the doctor, who looked surprised at her intuition. Clara stared at him with wide, soft eyes that seemed almost transparent. “It’s not a tumor,” she said in a soft monotone. “There’s nothing...”
The doctor laughed. “It amazes me, that you can see that.”
Clara looked self-conscious. “It comes and goes. I never know when something will pop into my mind. Merissa has a true gift. She can, well, look at something and see what’s going to happen. I can’t.”
“It’s a very rare ability,” the doctor told her.
“It makes us outcasts,” Clara replied. “We rarely leave the house. People stare and whisper. I hate going to the grocery store. One woman even asked me if I kept a familiar.”
“Good Lord,” Tank muttered.
“We’re pretty much used to it by now.” Clara laughed. “And we do get a lot of people who ask us to read for them. That’s usually hit-and-miss and I tell them that, but they come anyway. Sometimes we’re able to see something that saves lives, or even marriages. It’s a good feeling. It almost makes up for the notoriety.”
“You handle it well,” Tank said.
“Thanks.”
“She said her neurologist did tests and gave me his number,” he told Clara. “I’ll confer with him. But you’re right. She showed no signs of having any impairment beyond the migraine. You call me if she doesn’t get better,” Dr. Harrison told Clara firmly. “I don’t care if it’s two in the morning.”
“I owe you a great debt just for what you’ve already done,” Clara said. She pulled out her purse. He protested but she handed him a large bill anyway.
“Gas money,” she told him. “Don’t argue.”
He just shook his head. “I’m on retirement, you know,” he said.
“Doesn’t matter. You came here as if we were family, and retirement isn’t usually enough to buy food and medicine at once.”
He smiled. “All right then. Thank you,” he said formally.
She smiled back.
* * *
TANK WANTED TO STAY. He hated leaving that sweet blonde woman in the bedroom. He’d felt possessive while he was looking after her. It was a new, and strange, feeling. He’d had brief romances over the years, but he’d never found a woman he could think of in terms of a future together. Now, all at once, his mind was being changed.
It disturbed him, thinking about the chameleon federal agent who had led him into the ambush on the border. He’d dismissed Merissa’s vision at the beginning, but after speaking to Sheriff Hayes Carson in Texas, now he was sure she was right.
* * *
A FEW DAYS later, the storm was still annoying everyone, but there were some changes going on at the ranch. All the men had started carrying weapons, even when they weren’t riding fence. And whenever Tank went outside, at least two men were nearby, watching—something that Mallory had ordered.
New surveillance equipment was installed by a local company. It seemed to disconcert the man who set up the cameras that so many armed men were walking around near Tank.
“Something going on that you’re worried about, mate?” the technician asked Tank. “I mean, men with guns everywhere. You’re never alone for a second, are you?”
Tank shrugged. “My brothers are overprotective. Probably nothing, but there may be a threat of some sort.”
“And you know this from what, an informer?” the man probed.
Tank pursed his lips. “A psychic.”
“Fair dinkum?” the man drawled in a thick Australian accent. He shook his head. “Don’t put no faith in them things, mate, they’re all bogus. Nobody can see the future.”
Tank didn’t argue. “Maybe you’re right. But we like to err on the side of caution.”
“It’s your money,” the man said, and went back to work.
He was through quickly. “This’ll set you right, mate,” the installer told Tank with a smile. “This is state-of-the-art stuff. Nobody will be sneaking up on you now. No worries.”
“Thanks. It does rather feel like being in prison, however.” Tank sighed, looking around at the state-of-the-art camera towers.
“We pay a price for safety,” the other man replied. “With your life at stake, this seems a pretty fair dinkum one, you know?”
Tank smiled. “I know.” It didn’t occur to him then to ask how the man knew his life was on the line, since he hadn’t elaborated about the threat to either the woman at the company’s office or this installer.
“Well, that should do it,” the man replied. “Oh, and I did put a small camera in your office, just to square things up. It’s hidden, so you won’t have to worry about somebody spotting it.”
“Where?” Tank asked, concerned.
The other man put a hand on his shoulder and grinned. “If you don’t know where it is, you can’t tell somebody, right?”
He laughed. He had a similar appliance in his truck, a Lo-Jack, and where it was installed nobody knew. “I get it.”
“Good man. If you have any questions or concerns, you can call us, right?”
“Right. Thanks.”
“Just doing my job,” he replied, and grinned again.
Why should Tank suddenly think of a play, with one of the characters complaining that another character “smiled too much”?
Curious, he watched the man climb into a nice, late-model car and drive off. Why wasn’t he in a company truck, like most technicians drove?
So he called the security company and asked.
“Oh, that’s just Ben.” The woman in the office laughed, although she sounded just briefly disconcerted. “He’s eccentric. He likes women, you see, and he thinks they’re less likely to be impressed by a guy if he’s in some company vehicle.”
“I see.”
“Not to worry,” she returned. “I’ve known him for years. He’s just curious, to put it politely. But he knows his job, and he’s good at it.”
“I’ll stop worrying.”
“We’re happy to have the work,” she added gratefully. “It’s been a bit slow, lately, with the economy in such a bind.”
“Tell me about it.” Tank sighed. “We’re looking for new markets for our cattle. Everything’s slow.”
“I guess you’re selling off stock.”
“Sold it off before winter,” he corrected. “And a good thing it was. We’re having to truck in feed. This storm is bad.”
“I know. I had to get a lift to work with a friend.” She laughed. “If he hadn’t been able to drive in this, you wouldn’t be speaking to me now.”
“Good thing your guys can work in this mess,” Tank said. “I didn’t want to wait for the weather to break to get the system installed.”
“Expecting some sort of trouble?” she asked. “Not that it’s my business.”
“No, nothing out of the ordinary,” he prevaricated. “But we had a threat about one of our bulls. Best to be safe.”
“Oh.” She hesitated. “Not worrying about some sort of attack on people there, then?”
He laughed deliberately. “What in the world would somebody attack us for?” he asked. “I did jaywalk last week, but I hardly think the sheriff’s coming by to arrest me.”
She laughed, too. “Silly thought. I suppose your cattle are quite expensive.”
“And that’s an understatement,” he replied. “A friend of ours was visited by rustlers a few weeks ago. Had one of his prize bulls taken. Not going to happen here.”
“Not with our equipment on the job, I promise you,” she replied. “Thanks again for the business. If you know anybody else in need of surveillance equipment, we’d be grateful for the work.”
“I’ll pass that along.”
He hung up.
* * *
THE STORM DID BREAK. Snow was still piled everywhere, but the sun came out. Tank had phoned Clara to make sure Merissa was better.
“She’s back at work already.” Clara laughed. “Would you like to speak to her?”
“Yes, I would, thanks.”
There was a brief pause. “Hello?”
Tank loved her voice. It was soft and clear, like a prayer in the wilderness. “Hello,” he replied softly. “Are you better?”
“Much. Thanks again for your help. The doctor called in a prescription for me at the drugstore,” she added. “He says it will help prevent the headaches, if I can tolerate it.” She laughed. “I’m funny about medicine. I can’t take a lot of it. I used to take feverfew for migraine, and another herb, but they weren’t working.”
“Modern medicine to the rescue,” he mused.
“Modern medicine is just a reworking of ancient Native American and indigenous folk medicine wrapped up in pills,” she pointed out.
“Have it your way.” He smiled, then paused. “When the snow melts a bit, how would you like to go over to Catelow and have supper at that new Mediterranean eatery everybody’s talking about?”
Her intake of breath was audible. “I’d love to,” she said with flattering quickness.
He chuckled softly. “I like Greek food,” he said. “Well, I don’t like resinated wine, but that’s another thing.”
“What is that?”
“The wine?” he asked. “It’s an acquired taste, a wine with resin in it. It’s quite bitter, but I’m told that many people like it.”
“Sounds uncomfortable.”
“To me, too. But I love the food.”
“I like spinach salad with goat cheese.”
“So do I.”
