Tina Leonard - A Man Of Honor

He shook it off, telling himself the storm—and too much time alone on his ranch—was making him imagine things. Being half Navajo didn’t necessarily make him a mind reader, as some people seemed to think. But he did feel deeply, a trait he’d had all his life.

Taking an armload of firewood inside, he tried to force his mind off Hunt’s latest secret assignment.

Ten minutes later, the knock at his front door came as no surprise. Though he’d been dozing in the recliner in front of a crackling fire, his mind had been waiting. He got up reluctantly, bracing himself for what he knew he would hear.

Opening the door, he stared at the two men standing in the bitter black night. Framed by the yellow light from the porch lantern, they looked serious and official.

“Mr. Greer?”

Official-looking identification flashed at him, which Cord ignored. He kept his gaze fastened on the men instead, nodding once.

“We regret to inform you that your brother was killed tonight while on a sensitive assignment. Though we can’t divulge more than that at the present time, you may rest assured that your brother, Hunt Greer, died an honorable death.”

He let a moment pass. “You’re positive it was my brother?”

“Yes,” the tall man assured him.

The fools. Whom did they think they were kidding? Hunt wasn’t dead. Cord had felt something strange, an odd passing through his soul, but not the disconnection he would feel if Hunt was dead. He waited, his jaw tight.

His silence appeared to unnerve the smaller officer. “We would like to inform the fiancée.” He checked his paper. “She should be notified. Regretfully, we don’t have her location.”

You never will, Cord vowed. He wouldn’t allow these two lame excuses to go to Tessa’s door and frighten her out of her wits with their lack of emotion. Regret to inform you. She was carrying Hunt’s child, and the shock these unfeeling clods would give her could cause harm.

“I’m sorry,” he said with a shrug. “I’m not aware of her location myself.” He told the lie easily to spare her the pain.

The men shifted. “You don’t know where your brother’s fiancée is?” the taller man asked, his voice edged with surprised disbelief—and obvious disappointment.

Cord noted the foreign accent, possibly Mexican, Spanish more likely. “No, I don’t,” he said softly, his voice clear and hard as the ice forming on the streets. “My brother and I weren’t close.”

He shut the door. Oh, he’d known where Tessa was almost every time she rendezvoused with Hunt after he completed his assignments. Cord had pleaded with Hunt not to take his fiancée to places that teemed with unrest, pointing out that he risked her life as well as his. Should some subversive foreign faction ever figure out Hunt was breaking their codes and moving equipment and people in and out of high-risk positions, he would be at risk. Tessa might even divert his attention, getting both of them killed.

Nonsense, Hunt had laughed. Tessa and Hunt, two people who lived life to the fullest while Cord stayed on his ranch, watching after his cattle and tending a few crops. Hunt was an adventurer, and Tessa had caught his fever. “Having her with me sharpens my focus,” he’d told Cord. “I’m knife aware when she’s there. She makes every moment that much more defined.”

Cord had turned away, but not in disgust at his brother’s selfishness. He’d completely understood. Tessa was the kind of woman any man would want to protect, to give all his heart and soul.

She’d stolen Hunt’s heart the first time he met her—and then she’d stolen Cord’s.

“Who is it?” Tessa called as she rubbed sleep from her eyes. Running a fast hand over her hair, she cautiously waited at the door. Who could be knocking this late at night?

“It’s Cord, Tessa.”

Her heart plummeted with dread the moment she heard his deep voice. There was only one reason Cord would show up on her doorstep without calling, only one mission that would bring him to her house despite the hour.

Hunt. She’d been fearing the worst, and clearly, the news Cord had about his brother was too serious for a phone call. Swallowing tightly, she opened the door to stare at him.

His darkly handsome face was drawn and worried. “May I come in?”

“Of course.” She stepped back, drawing her robe tightly around her with fingers that clenched the soft velour lapels for nervous support.

Closing the door behind him, he said, “Tessa—”

“Cord. Please. Just tell me. Don’t try to spare me.” She was speaking too fast, but Tessa couldn’t stand the tension knotting her insides.

“Two men came to my house tonight. They claimed they had news about Hunt, but…” He squinted at her as he considered his next words. “I had the strangest hunch they were really looking for you.”

“Looking for me?” She sank into an overstuffed chair covered with a bright tropical fabric and motioned Cord to sit in the wicker chair across from her.

“Their story was that they had come to tell me Hunt was dead.”

“Oh, no!” Even though she expected the worst, hearing it shattered her. Tears instantly burned her eyes.

“Wait.” He held up a hand. “Tessa, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there was something off about their story.”

“What do you mean?” She could barely push her voice through her stiff lips. Her entire body seemed frozen, unable to move.

He got up, moving pantherlike to look out every window in the den of the small, three-bedroom house. What he thought he might see in the darkness, Tessa didn’t know.

“They had ID. They had the right uniform. They almost said the right words. Almost.”

“Almost?”

“Almost, if I wasn’t already inclined to be cautious because of Hunt’s work. Almost, if they hadn’t followed up their song-and-dance routine by asking me where to find you.”

She shook her head, puzzled, trying to follow Cord’s words and yet unable to think through the blinding haze of sadness.

“They said they wanted to inform you that Hunt had died an honorable death while on a sensitive assignment. You know, the usual clichés.”

Pain flowed through her every nerve ending at hearing the blunt words. “But if you don’t believe them—if you think they were really looking for me…” Panic rose inside her. “Are you suggesting someone wants to use me to flush Hunt out?”

“I don’t know. And I don’t want to get ahead of myself before I get some answers out of the military.”

He waved a hand dismissively but not with much emphasis, and Tessa realized he was exhausted. Her gaze sought the clock; it was nearly midnight. Cord would have gotten up at about four in the morning to check on his cattle. “You’re tired,” she murmured.

Cord sent her a sharp, assessing glance. “I’m not tired.”

She knew better. “Did you just find out?”

He shook his head.

“Why did you wait so late to come tell me?” He studied her, every inch of her, and Tessa’s eyes widened under his scrutiny. “Tell me. I have to know everything.”

“I told them I didn’t know where you were.” He hesitated, watching her. “I didn’t want them to follow me here.”

“Oh.” Tessa felt something inside her begin to unravel. Her strength, perhaps. After all the months of worry about Hunt, Cord was trying to tell her as gently as possible that not only were they not going to find out that Hunt was alive, but also that the worries were about to intensify. Unconsciously, she ran a soothing hand over her rounded stomach. Somehow, somehow I will take care of this child. I will not be afraid.

When Cord’s weight suddenly filled the space beside her, Tessa felt her eyes begin to overflow. He put his arms around her in the most unobtrusive, supportive way—and she allowed her head to sink against his broad chest. “I have to hear everything you’re thinking.”