Cody Walker's Woman

He looked at her, his eyes bleak. “Remember what I told you, and what D’Arcy said about Larry Brooks betraying Callahan’s partner, Josh Thurman? D’Arcy still didn’t know Brooks was in the militia, and he dispatched Brooks and McKinnon to bring Callahan in. As soon as he heard Callahan was alive, Brooks informed Pennington, and I had to do some fast tap dancing to explain how it came about I hadn’t killed him the year before.”

Keira thought about asking him how he escaped Pennington’s wrath, but decided against it. She wanted to hear the end of this story first.

“Brooks firebombed Mandy’s house on Pennington’s orders to get Callahan. It almost worked. Everyone thought Mandy was dead—only Brooks and Pennington knew the real target was Callahan, and they thought he was dead, too. Callahan figured it was safer for Mandy and him to play dead until he could work out a plan. They hid out in my cabin—just as they did after Tressler’s death.” He sighed. “Most of the rest of the story you already know. But Callahan and Mandy almost didn’t reunite...because of me.”

Keira knew she had to ask. “Who told him?”

“I think Mandy intended to, but before she could find a way, he guessed. He confronted us, and...I...I told him the truth.” He shook his head and added softly, “He deserved to know. It wasn’t right not to tell him—I know how I would have felt. But he’s a proud man. Very possessive of Mandy.”

“That had to hurt him where he was most vulnerable.”

“Yeah.” Cody’s tone indicated this was a gross understatement. “Even worse, he still needed my help setting the trap for Pennington. It galled him—I know that—but he didn’t have much of a choice. It wasn’t just his life at stake. It was Mandy’s, too. And despite everything, he still loved her.”

Keira carefully digested what Cody had told her. While it still hurt to think of how much he had once loved Mandy, she honestly believed he hadn’t planned to seduce her that fateful New Year’s Day. Cody just wasn’t that kind of man. It happened; he regretted it; he accepted his responsibility. But he couldn’t change it—he just had to live with it. He could even put himself in the other man’s shoes and say he didn’t blame Callahan for hating his guts.

But Cody wasn’t quite finished. “Callahan still loved her. And she...she never loved anyone but him. So I told him,” he added in a low voice.

Keira turned a perplexed face toward him. “Told him what?”

Cody smiled crookedly. “The other truth Callahan deserved to know.”

“I don’t get it.”

“I told him Mandy cried...after I made love to her.”

“Oh, Cody.” Her tender heart, the one she hid from the world, ached for him, for the wound to his pride...and his heart. But she was also fiercely proud of him. What other man would have done it? What other man would have pocketed his masculine ego, suppressed his own love for a woman, to atone for something he hadn’t planned but still blamed himself for? She couldn’t think of any man...except for him. It was another reason to love him. Another in an ever-growing list of reasons.

She wanted to cry for him, but tears were one of the things she’d denied herself for years. And besides, tears weren’t what he needed right now. He needed to know she understood. She put her hand on his, curling her fingers and squeezing to let him know she empathized with what he had gone through. His hand turned so that it was clasping hers, and she stared at it for a moment. Her hand looked so small wrapped in his hand.

But there was still something she didn’t get. “You’ve told me this whole story,” she said, with a puzzled expression on her face, “but you still haven’t explained what ‘amateur’ means.”

Cody’s smile turned rueful. “Six years ago we were so caught up in the hostility between us we both acted like amateurs. Not once, but twice. We knew better, and we knew it could have gotten either or both of us killed, along with Mandy. But it didn’t stop us. It’s just a subtle reminder, that’s all.”

His smile faded away. “Callahan doesn’t hate me anymore—he’s forgiven me. So has Mandy. And I’ve forgiven myself.”