Chapter Twenty-Two—Montgomery

Sheriff Miller Brown sat at his desk, a half-eaten sandwich and an old cup of coffee in front of him. He beamed when he noticed Montgomery walk through the door, but it turned to curiosity when Swayze followed behind him.

“Well, Salt. I think it’s safe to say you need a favor? You never come visit like this.”

Montgomery shook his outstretched hand and gestured toward Swayze who, with a nervous look, shook his hand. “This is Swayze. Swayze, this is Sheriff Miller.”

Swayze sat quickly, folding her hands into her lap. The way Sheriff Brown looked at Montgomery, she knew they’d be safe there. Mont turned, shut the office door, and sat down. Abruptly, Mont pulled the arm of Swayze’s chair and adjusted her closer to him so he could put his palm over her shaking hands.

“We have a predicament, and we’re not sure how to go about it. I know I can trust you.”

“Of course you can, son.”

Mont cleared his throat. “Swayze has been on the run from her brother for almost two years, and she thinks he has found her.”

“Do the police know?”

She lowered her gaze and shook her head. “No. I was so scared for my son that I ran, and he has found me every time,” she whispered that last part.

“I need the entire story. Why did he scare you?”

Swayze blew out a breath. “He killed my husband outside of the restaurant where we were celebrating our anniversary.”

The sheriff’s eyes rounded. Had bringing her there been a bad choice?

“Okay,” he said. “Go on.”

“He has found me every time we moved. First in Kansas City, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and finally Texas. I think he may know about Mont and me, and if so, I think he is trying to sabotage the ranch. I’m scared. He—he is an ex-marine. Did some time overseas and knows stuff. I think he’ll try to kill Montgomery if he gets close enough.”

Montgomery had known she felt that way, but she’d never said it out loud.

“Why haven’t you gone to the police?”

“He would find us before we had a chance to get a case started. He watches me before he strikes, and if he notices me having dealings with a lawyer or cops around—he’d end it. I’ve been so scared for Ryker. I don’t want him to be an orphan.”

Officer Miller blew out a sharp breath and cradled his head in his palms. “Man, this is—some serious shit, son. What have you gotten yourself into?”

Montgomery sighed. “Don’t start today; we need help, not a lecture.”

He scoffed and stood up. “Yeah, y’all need some help all right. Have you two looked him up yet?”

“He’s a ghost,” Montgomery said. “Can’t find anything about him.”

“But why are you so sure he is here?”

“Someone watched Ryker and me in the grocery store parking lot yesterday. I chased after him but couldn’t catch up.”

“Him? You don’t say your brother, why?”

“Because I couldn’t tell if it was him or not. He looked smaller, but his weight fluctuates because he’s a little loopy in the head. He has a fixation with me. That’s why he killed Dylan.”

“Has he ever—”

“No, but he has tried a couple of times since I started to date Dylan.”

God…Montgomery’s heart hit his gut.

Her own brother.

Montgomery ran his palm over his jaw in irritation.

“We need someone on the lookout around town. Maybe some people you trust.”

Officer Miller nodded his head slowly. “I could get into trouble for withholding information for a murder.”

Swayze nodded. “I know, thank you.”

He wiped his eyes and handed Swayze a card. “Call me if you need me. I’ll take care of this.”

Mont followed Swayze from the police station and into the cab of his truck. He started the engine and drove toward her duplex. “We’re getting all your stuff today. You don’t need to be alone again. We can work everything out after this is all over with. We can trust him.”

“I know we can.”

Crows circled over the wooded area behind her house when they pulled up, and Montgomery’s stomach knotted. Why were they so close to their house now? It made a difference when it was in the woods, but now their home?

Mont slung tires into their driveway and turned to Swayze for the keys. “Give them to me.”

“Why are you looking like that?”

“Something isn’t right. You stay right here and lock the doors.”

“I want to see—”

“No.” Montgomery shut his door and locked the car with his keys, which earned him a look from Swayze. She could get out from the inside but not without the alarm going off.

The stillness of the place made his stomach crawl. He opened her door quickly, noticing her place had been completely ransacked, which made him sick because she didn’t have much to begin with.

Silently, he walked through her apartment until he knew it was clear, but something in the bathroom caught his eye. The vent from above her bathroom sink had been popped off.

He went closer and stepped up onto the counter to see that it connected with the duplex next door, and an awful smell reeked from inside.

Someone had gotten into Swayze’s apartment through the venting system that connected with her neighbor’s. With chills racing up his arms, he jumped from the counter and barreled outside to see Swayze still sat in the passenger seat of his truck with a worried look on his face.

He dug his cell from his pocket and called Miller Brown. “I think we need your help sooner than we had hoped.”

***

Montgomery waited for the police to get there, not wanting to tamper with any evidence, especially not a homicide.

Miller Brown walked out of the old lady’s apartment with a deep frown on his face. “She’s been butchered. God—it’s a crime lab’s worst nightmare. There is so much blood. Geez, uh, so whoever did this climbed through the venting system and into your bathroom. They cleaned their hands there and began to rummage through your home. I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t have just broken into your duplex, unless they killed her so they could spy on your first.”

Swayze covered her face with her hands and began to sob. Mont wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his chest. “Sways,” he cooed. “This is not your—”

“It is.” She jerked away. “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t rented the apartment next door, Mrs. I don’t even know her name would still be alive.”

Miller Brown hushed her. “We don’t want anyone to overhear anything. A crowd is starting to accumulate,” he said.

There were a few vehicles stopped on the highway looking their direction. “Right now, you’re lucky to be alive,” he said. “You are sad because Mrs. Doughty has passed away, but thankful you weren’t there. Nothing about your brother. Hush it for now.”

Swayze wiped her face. “Can we go now?”

“Go straight home,” the sheriff said.

Montgomery pulled Swayze toward the truck and buckled her in. “We’re going home now. I’ll tell Abigail to go straight home with Kathryn and lock the doors.”

“She’ll tell Kaden,” Swayze whispered.

“Kaden is the least of our worries.”

Mont pulled into the driveway and hurried them both toward the door. Kathryn sat with Ryker on his small foldout couch in front of the big TV. They were both asleep for their naps, and Abigail jumped up to shush them.

Abigail met them both in the kitchen. “What’s wrong?”

“When Kathryn wakes up from her nap, I need you to take her straight home and lock the doors.”

She narrowed her hazel eyes. “Why, what’s the matter? Honey.” She bent her knees to look at Swayze. “Have you been crying? What did you do to her?”

“Nothing,” he said. “Her brother is after her, and we think he broke into her apartment and killed her neighbor. Tell Kaden at your own risk.”

Abigail gasped. “Kaden’s ass has been right all along. Crazy as a fox.”

“I’m sorry,” Swayze said.

Abigail tucked her arm around Swayze’s waist and rested her head against her shoulder. “Sweetie, I don’t think I could ever be mad at you. I’ve known since the moment I saw you that you were broken on the inside. Montgomery has brought you back to life. You needed to be here for that to happen. Why is your brother after you?”

Montgomery shook his head, and Abigail took the hint.

“Okay. We can have some wine until the babies wake up, and then I’ll go home and lock my doors.” She wanted to ask Swayze more but didn’t. Mont appreciated that about her. It made him feel Swayze was safe around her and had a friend.

Kathryn and Abigail left an hour later with a promise to let them know she made it home safe. Swayze’s body was relaxed for the first time in what seemed like days to him. Those two glasses of wine had her laid-back and less frantic.

Montgomery walked over to Swayze, pulled off the Keds he had bought her, and carried her like a baby toward the sofa. Ryker sat in the living room at his small table, eating his supper.

Montgomery rubbed Swayze’s feet in his big palms, causing her to groan. “Do you think we’re safe here?” she asked.

Montgomery continued to massage her foot. “You’re safe with me. I can protect both of you. You don’t trust me?”

“I trust you,” she said. “I just know how persistent my brother can be, and—”

“Stop worrying,” he whispered. “I’ll give Ryker a bath, and you take a shower in our room.”

Swayze got up and walked toward the shower. Mont knew she was worried, though the alcohol had made her a little less stressed. A nice, hot shower would put her at ease.

Montgomery ran Ryker a bath and put him in with his toys. Slipping from the room, he walked over toward their bathroom where Swayze took a shower. Her back was to him; the silhouette of her soft curves shown through the steamed glass.

Montgomery let out a low whistle, and Swayze jerked around to see him. A soft, sexy smile pulled at her mouth. “You just wanted me in the shower so you could watch me.”

He shrugged. “I never said I was a gentleman, did I?’

Mont put his finger up to her and went back to check on Ryker. He had suds on his face, and Montgomery took the opportunity to wash him. He dried him off and put him into his PJs.

Mont helped Ryker to his bed for his thirty minutes of watch time and gave him a banana. Montgomery caught Swayze as she exited the shower, a towel in her hand, and he took it upon himself to slide his palm against the curve of her bottom and pull her close.

Her wet body soaked his shirt and jeans. “I will do anything to have you for the rest of my life,” he said. “I love everything about you,” he whispered. “Your spirit, your touch, the way you beg to be touched without a word. There is something about the way you look at me, even when you’re angry, I feel it, baby girl. I love that you’ve done all of this for your son. I hate that you’ve had this hard life, and I want to take that burden from you. I want you to love me freely, and I’ll be the man that makes that happen, I swear.”

Swayze let a tear run down her cheek but lifted up onto her toes to meet him. In the back of his head, he knew Ryker lay in the other room watching TV, and thirty minutes of this would be shorter than he wanted, but well worth it.

“Are you just gonna tease me?” she finally asked.

Montgomery chuckled deep, sliding his palm over her bottom and up to the nape of her neck. He kissed her deep like he felt he was falling and picked her up to his hips.

Mont carried her naked body to the bed and tossed her into the center of it. Her bare skin felt like silk underneath the roughness of his palms. She mewled at his kisses up her thighs over her hips and to her breast.

Swayze tangled her fingers into his hair and squirmed around beneath him. Montgomery sucked a peaked tip into his warm mouth, and Swayze groaned loudly.

He couldn’t help his grin when he let it go and searched over for the other one. The dreamy look on Swayze’s face filled every ounce of pride in his body. That was what he wanted so badly from her. That relaxation and trust. It made him come apart on the inside.

Montgomery heard Ryker laugh at the TV from down the hallway and jerked his zipper down, pulling his cock out from his boxer briefs. Swayze urged him on with her hips and pulled at his shoulder until he settled between her legs and thrust inside of her.

Mont cursed beneath his breath, kissing a path up her neck to capture her sweet mouth. He gripped her hair in his grasp and pulled, loving the hushed groans from her sweet mouth. Mont hiked her leg up over his shoulder and dug deeper, finding her clit with his thumb, and he pushed her closer to the edge.

Her pleas in his ears pushed him harder, faster, and curses filtered from his mouth like a sailor. It’d felt like pent up emotion from years, and it’d only been days since he’d sunk into her.

“Baby,” he cooed, biting at the curve of her neck.

Swayze pulled tighter at his hair, a cry broke from her mouth, and her body jerked. He loved seeing that look on her face. Montgomery rolled her over onto her stomach and gripped her waist, sinking deep into her from the back.

Swayze’s chuckle hit him in his gut. Mont pressed his palm against her upper back, and rode her until he couldn’t take another minute, pulling out to explode into his hand. He got up and cleaned himself off, bringing Swayze a warm washcloth for herself.

Swayze had that heavy-lidded look on her face. She stood up from the bed and wrapped the towel she’d never used around her body. Montgomery couldn’t help but watch her walk around the room and get dressed, until he noticed the movement in his bedroom window.

It was quick, but he had been certain something moved.

“Stay here,” he said.

“What is it?”

“Go into Ryker’s room with him. Pull the curtains—”

His alarm blasted throughout the house.

“Get into the room. Now!”