Page 19 of Her Guarded Hero

“Nope. Hunter keeps things close to his vest unless it’s pertinent to a situation.”

Sighing, Dalton had to agree. “Yeah, he only mentioned your voodoo after you showed up out of nowhere when he was in L.A.”

Zed barked out a laugh. “How come I’m thinking that’s not what he called it.”

“Probably because you know Hunter. Still I don’t know why you’re signaling onto me.”

“Man, you’re blaring across the continent, I couldn’t help but pick up on it. So, tell me why this former mother-in-law is calling today. I take it has something to do with your wife’s death, right?”

Dalton gritted his teeth so hard he thought his jaw might break. “No, my daughter. Today would have been her eighth birthday if she’d lived. Her name is Regan Elizabeth.”

“That’s a beautiful name,” Zed said quietly.

Vivid images of her silky black curls and navy-blue eyes floated behind Dalton’s closed eyelids. He could hear her laughter, it would ring out like chimes. Regan’s joy was contagious, he could still feel the fierce hugs that she gave him with her little arms. Every time, Dalton would breathe in the strawberry scent of her baby shampoo and savor the power of her love.

“She was a beautiful little girl. She was only three years old when her mother killed her.”

He could feel Zed’s shock through the phone.

“God, I’m so sorry. No wonder you don’t want to talk to your former mother-in-law. Why Tahoe?”

“The last four years I’ve been climbing mountains. I wanted to do all the seven seconds, starting with K2, but there were permit issues, so I did Ojos del Salado first, then Mount Kenya, followed by Mount Townsend. Last year I climbed Mount Logan in Canada.”

“And this year?”

Dalton took a moment to formulate his answer. “Mount Logan changed my perspective a little bit. I didn’t feel quite the need to punish myself with the climb after witnessing the peace and beauty of Logan. I wanted to recapture the serenity.” Dalton swallowed, he almost couldn’t get the words out. Finally, “Hunter said you and Marcia are having a baby girl.”

“Yeah.” There was a wealth of satisfaction in Zed’s voice.

“I’m glad for you. Girls are a gift,” he said quietly. A gift and a curse, he thought to himself, but he would never say that out loud. The air coming into the cab of his truck was frigid, he could see his breath, it looked like a heavy fog of death.

“Are you listening to me?” Zed asked.

A stream of white mist came out of his mouth as Dalton asked, “What?”

“You’re not tracking. Stay with me, Sullivan.”

Dalton forced himself to pay attention. He needed to stay in the present. The past was the past. How could he tell Zed that some risks were beyond him? That it was better to face the certainty of nothing, than the tiny chance of soul-shearing agony?

“Dalton?” Zed asked quietly.

He blinked, his daughter’s smile fading from his mind. “I’m here. What did you say?”

“Do you need me to have Dex or my guy Kane arrange it, so your former mother-in-law can’t get through to your number again? Better yet, do you want me to arrange it so that her credit is tanked, and there’s an arrest warrant out for her?”

More mist gusted out as Dalton chuckled. “Dex would never go for it. It’s just not in his nature.”

“Hell, I know that. Kane would do it. The arrest warrant would only be for unpaid parking tickets though. Unfortunately, he’d be kind of a pussy when it came to a little old lady.”

Dalton grinned. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that Zed had called.

“You’re not answering. So, I’ll take that as a yes.”

“No. No arrests,” Dalton sighed. “I’m going to call Dex. He knows about Norma. I’m going to have him do a little digging and see if there is something going on I need to be aware of. There shouldn’t be. I want those people wiped out of my life, but if there is something that is going to bite me in the ass, I want to know about it.”

“Good idea.”

“Fettuccini, Kool-Aid and peaches, huh?” Dalton’s lip curled as he thought about the flavor combination.