“This is the last thing I expected to happen.” He leaned through the opening and kissed her fiercely before hurrying down the drive to his own car, parked in front of the house. Ally trailed him out to the main road before he waved to her, and they went in different directions. By the time she reached the ranch, she realized she’d just experienced what it had been like to be his ex-wife.
She eyed their uneaten picnic in the sack next to her.
Her body ached with unassuaged longings that wouldn’t go away until she was in his arms again.
There was no guarantee of when she’d next see him.
And if he’d been called in to a dangerous situation, he could be injured. Or worse...
Ally poured out her thoughts to Silver as she put the horse back in her stall for the night. The more she thought about it, the more she marveled that his ex-wife had stayed with him for as long as she had. To realize that every time he walked out the door she might never see him again was anathema.
That will be your life if you marry him, Ally.
He hadn’t asked her for an answer yet. He was giving her time to think about it. Luckey had told her why his first marriage hadn’t worked. He’d given her a taste of love without trying to make love to her. If he had, she would have gone wherever he led, because she loved him with every fiber of her being. He was honorable to the core.
By the time she went inside the house, she’d lost her appetite and went up to her room to do some work before she left for the university in the morning. Her parents had gone over to her uncle’s house, sparing her from having to explain why she’d come home early with red eyes and a blotchy face.
Ally still hadn’t heard from Luckey before she turned out the light and went to bed. It wasn’t until the next morning on her way to work that she heard some news on the car radio that turned her inside out.
“We have breaking news that Michael Landrey, a Texas Ranger with Company H in Austin, Texas, was shot in the line of duty in the Highland Park area last night, leaving two wanted criminals dead. A veteran with the department, the many-times-decorated Ranger died at the hospital in the early hours of the morning. He was coming up on retirement and leaves behind a wife and two married children. More information will be forthcoming on our noon broadcast.”
Ally was so badly shaken, she sat in her reserved parking space at the university in order to pull herself together. The news explained Luckey’s silence. She’d been around him and his friends just long enough to realize these men had a rare bond with each other. The loss of one of their own would leave its mark.
Tears poured down her cheeks. That poor man’s family. His wife’s pain had to be excruciating. After thinking he’d be home with her to enjoy the years they had left together, he was gone.
One of Ally’s colleagues pulled into the space next to her. Embarrassed to be seen in her condition, she wiped her eyes and hurried inside to her office. One of her students was waiting there to talk to her.
Functioning on autopilot, she was thankful when they concluded, and was about to make her way to her classroom when a tall, striking male appeared in her doorway. Her heart thumped outrageously.
“Luckey...” She wanted to launch herself into his arms, but couldn’t do that with other students and faculty walking back and forth. He was dressed in the same clothes he’d worn last evening. It meant he hadn’t been to bed yet. His attractive features looked drawn with pain. “Come in,” she said. “I heard the news on the radio.”
He closed the door behind him and took her into an embrace. “I’ve been up all night and need to go home to sleep, but I had to see you first. I promise to call you tonight.” He kissed her softly on the lips before disappearing out the door.
Ally clutched one of the chairs nearest her. While she stood there trying to catch her breath, she heard a voice. “Dr. Duncan? Can I talk to you for a minute about my thesis?”
* * *
AT A QUARTER to seven in the evening, Luckey heard his cell phone ring. Roused out of a deep sleep, he reached for the device on his bedside table. It was Randy. The tragedy had hit both brothers hard, because Mike Landrey had been a colleague of Randy’s as well as a personal friend of their father’s.
The sight of his grieving widow and family at the hospital had come as a double blow to Luckey, considering he’d just told Ally he wanted to marry her. He might have known Mike’s death would be blasted over the news, but he’d hoped to be the one to tell her first.
This was the kind of news that had always terrified Linda. She’d feared that one day a couple Rangers would come to their door and she’d know why. Luckey had no doubt that when his ex-wife heard today’s news, she’d be thankful she’d moved on.
But all his concern was concentrated on Ally. What had the news done to her? When he’d found her at her office that morning, all it took was one glance at her face and he knew he’d arrived too late. They needed to talk.
Wearing a pair of sweats, he walked through the house to the den, intending to check his emails before phoning her. No sooner had he sat down at his desk then his cell rang again. It was Phil from the surveillance team.
“Phil? What’s up?”
“I’ve just sent you some videos. When we posted ourselves down the street from the orphanage on Monday, we saw a man in a black car parked across the way. The young woman in question came out the front door at 5:00 p.m. and got in the car. We followed it to a spa downtown off Windsor Road.”
Luckey knew it. He’d had a feeling about the young Chinese woman, who couldn’t meet his eyes and had suspicious bruising.
“The car turned into an alley regulated by a gate,” Phil continued. “Our video shows men coming and going from the spa all night. Tuesday morning the same man in the black car came out through the gate and dr
ove the woman to the orphanage, at 8:00 a.m.”
“Could you tell his ethnicity?”