Harmony's Way

CHAPTER 5

Harmony was unable to even fix her own clothes. Lance helped her dress, his touch gentle after he released the cuffs and the gag from her mouth.

She avoided his eyes, keeping her head down as tremors shook her body. This wasn’t the woman they called Death. The woman who trembled beneath his touch wasn’t the killer portrayed in the file Braden had given him.

Lance carried her to the office couch, then fixed his clothes, strode to his desk and picked up the link. Attaching it to his ear, he clicked the inner office link and waited for Lenny to pick up.

“Blanchard.” Lenny’s voice was quiet as he answered the summons.

“Lenny, I’m slipping out the back entrance and heading home. I’ll be there if anything important comes up.”

“Gotcha, Sheriff. Everything’s pretty quiet for now,” Lenny answered. “But Alonzo’s been stomping around town again, trying to stir up trouble.”

Lance grimaced. H. R. Alonzo had been a thorn in his side since the day Megan had opened her home as a halfway house for the Breeds selected for the National Law Enforcement Induction.

The six men and women were spending the next year at Megan’s home, learning tactical maneuvers and command situations from several members of the family who worked in law enforcement. There were a lot of them.

“Keep an eye on him and let me know if the situation begins to heat up.”

Lance turned as Harmony lay across the couch, her eyes closing. Her face was drawn and pale, exhaustion marking her features as she curled into herself.

“I gotcha, Sheriff. We’ll see ya in the morning,” Lenny drawled. “And I don’t blame you, dealing with that Wyatt dude would wear me out too.”

Lance grimaced. Jonas was well known in Broken Butte by now. And not well liked.

“I’m out then. Keep me updated.” Lance severed the link before breathing out wearily and smothering his own yawn.

He hadn’t slept a wink last night after Harmony left. Hell, he had been in the office before daybreak searching for information on her. He strode across the room and knelt by the couch, gently brushed back the hair that had fallen across her face.

“I have to leave,” she whispered, her eyes struggling to open as he stared down at her.

His little cat was thrown off balance, shaken. The mating had thrown her into a reality she was ill equipped to deal with.

“Come on, let’s take you home and get you to bed, baby.” He helped her sit up, before lifting her to her feet. “You won’t have much rest before it builds again.”

He wrapped his arm around her waist as he led her from the office to the back door.

Sliding the electronic key through its slot, he waited for the click of the lock before opening the door and moving quickly from the exit.

His Raider was parked in front of the door, so getting her into the passenger seat was accomplished without a problem. She slumped into the comfortable seat, her eyes drowsy, her body nearly boneless.

Lance allowed a grin to quirk at his lips as he buckled her in, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“Go ahead and nap, baby, I’ll wake you when we get home.”

He brushed the hair back from her face, his fingers lingering against the incredibly soft skin of her cheek as she stared up at him. Exhaustion marked her face, glazed her eyes. How long had it been since she had slept?

“I have someone trailing me,” she whispered.

He frowned down at her before scanning the parking lot, knowing instantly what she was talking about.

“Have you identified him?”

She shook her head slowly. “I’m weak,” she said then, distress filling her eyes. “I can’t be weak, Lance.”

“It’s okay, baby, I’ve got your back. You rest, I’ll keep an eye out for your tail.”

She shook her head, drugged with the exhaustion overtaking her.

“I can’t be weak,” her voice slurred. “I can’t be…”

Between one second and the next she was asleep. Lance sighed as he closed her door gently before loping to the driver’s side. After closing his door, he set the radio to link into Lenny’s line.

“Lenny, I’m setting security protocols on the way to the house,” he told the sergeant as he activated the energized shields around the vehicle. “Track GPS and see if I have a tail on the way.”

“You got problems, Sheriff?” Lenny’s voice was concerned.

“I don’t know yet. See if you can detect anything suspicious from the public GPS and let me know.”

GPS protocols were required on all vehicles, though they could be disconnected legally in many areas. He didn’t have high hopes of Lenny catching anything, but it was worth taking the chance.

“I got you, Sheriff,” Lenny answered. “I’ll let you know if we catch anything.”

He pulled out of the parking lot, hitting the main street as he headed home. Lance cracked open his window, and for the first time in his life, he deliberately opened his mind to the whispers flowing on the wind.

A world of secrets, of pain, happiness and fears could be heard in the winds, his grandfather had once told him. If he listened close, then the wind would bring him what he needed, but only if he was willing to hear what it had to say.

He had never been willing before. Lance had fought the secrets of the wind, and his place as its chosen child. He had believed he could live without it, and perhaps he could, but he knew that saving Harmony was more important than his reluctance to follow something as unseen as the air around him.

As he drove, he let the wind blow around him, curling around his body, and Harmony’s, before he detected the whisper at his ear. There were no words, there was the whisper of her cry, but he had heard that before. Behind the cry, though, was the secret he searched for, the whisper of deceit. And the warning.

He was being watched. Lenny hadn’t reported on the GPS, which meant control wasn’t picking up the tail, but the winds whispered the knowledge.

He grimaced at the illusive whispers. There were no answers, and that was the part that had driven his reluctance over the years. There were no answers, no proof, nothing to hold on to to give him what he needed to solve the problems he faced.

He was a sheriff. He dealt in facts, in proof. A whisper of danger, or a ragged cry that only he could hear, and a strong intuition weren’t enough to arrest a man. They weren’t enough reason to pull the trigger.

He had learned that years before in Chicago, deployed with the highly advanced SWAT team. His scope centered on a suspect, he had ignored the demand that he pull the trigger. He had fought the winds whispering at his ear, tugging at his trigger finger. Seconds later, a mother and her unborn child had died. A casualty to a bastard terrorist determined to take out as many innocents as possible.

And now the winds were at his ear again, a subtle scream of horror, pain and warning. And in those winds he heard Harmony’s name.

Glancing over at her, he sighed heavily. She was slumped against the door, boneless, nearly unconscious with exhaustion. That depth of weariness wasn’t caused by the heat alone. She had been running on nerves and sheer will alone for too long.

Did she ever sleep?

He heard the answer in the wind. She ran, she fought, and even in sleep she was on guard. Until now.

She was weak, she had whispered. Unable to fight, and she was scared by that weakness.

As he drove to the edge of town and headed for home, Lance knew that protecting Harmony would mean more than just protecting her from whatever danger now followed them. It would mean protecting her from herself. Because Harmony would try to run. Once she awoke, once the heat had settled down, fear would tear her from him, no matter her desire to stay.

Was this the reason Jonas had brought her to him?

Lance frowned at the thought, wondering how the hell the other man could have known there would be a chance of this happening.

He felt the wind curl around his arm then, a whispery stroke that reminded him of the blood and saliva samples the Breed scientist, Elyiana, had taken from him the year before, after Braden had worked on the force. According to her and Jonas, it was required by any law enforcement official working closely with the Breeds.

It was a ruse. He sensed it, heard the whispered affirmation at his ear. Jonas had been planning this for a while, but why?

There were no answers there. There was only the cry, shattered, broken, a wail of soul-deep agony that caused his heart to clench, and his spirit to ache. It was Harmony’s pain.