His First Noelle Page 2

  “I bet the girls just can’t get enough of those curls, can they?” she continued, smiling as she tweaked a few more strands. “It’s a good thing you don’t have any dimples, Roy, because dimples and curls would have made you downright irresistible, and that’s hardly fair to any of the rest of the men in this town, is it?”

  “Right,” one of the men drawled. “’Cause he beats them off with a stick now, doesn’t he?”

  She looked up and sent the offender a scowl that managed to be as quelling as it was disappointed. “Clark.”

  Clark’s smug smile instantly fell and he reached down and popped a rubber band against his wrist. “Sarcasm isn’t a weapon,” he said, seemingly by rote. “I can be clever without being cruel.”

  Judd blinked, stunned. What the hell...?

  She beamed approvingly at Clark, her pale green eyes lighting with pleasure. “Intelligence is attractive, but only when it’s put to good use. Wouldn’t it be a shame to waste that fine mind, Clark? Have you given any more thought to going back to school, pursuing that dream of architecture we talked about?”

  Clark glanced at the floor and sheepishly shuffled his feet. “I’m still thinking about it.”

  “Thinking is good, but taking action is better. Make the choice and commit to it.” She smiled indulgently. “You know you can do it.”

  What was she? Judd wondered. Some sort of life coach? A daytime TV junkie? Both?

  “You’re determined to make sure that I’m an officer short on my police force, aren’t you?” ZZ Top scolded with a good-natured grimace.

  She rolled her eyes as she continued to work on Roy’s curly hair. “As if you couldn’t handle the whole thing by yourself,” she said fondly. “You’re so efficient, you’ve shaved all the hair right off your head to keep from having to fix it. I hope Mossy Ridge appreciates you, Les. You do a fine job. Just like that lovely wife of yours, this community is lucky to have you.”

  Les’s chest puffed with pride and he ran a hand over his bald head, which had turned decidedly pink.

  Any minute now Judd fully expected all three men to jump up, start dancing in circles around her and break into “Whistle While You Work.” But she wasn’t Snow White, they weren’t dwarves and he sure as hell wasn’t Prince Charming, though he had been accused of being the Prince of Darkness a time or two.

  “Ms. Montgomery, I’m Judd Anderson, your security specialist. I’m here to escort you to your permanent location while you await the trial. Please collect your things. We need to go.”

  There, Judd thought. Firm but polite, the equivalent of Move your ass, please.

  She stilled and finally, very slowly, looked up at him. Though he was too well-trained to betray an inkling of unease, the force of that droll green gaze when it met his was nothing short of...cataclysmic. Like a tsunami meeting a hurricane, an earthquake in the middle of a tornado, planets colliding in space. He felt like he’d been sucked into the resulting vacuum, powerless as a whole new galaxy formed around him...and he was staring directly at its princess.

  Predictably, his cell phone vibrated from his front pocket—Jeb, no doubt, because there was no way in hell he wasn’t picking up on that little emotional anomaly. He didn’t know when he’d ever been so affected, when he’d ever simply looked into a pair of eyes—admittedly, very pretty ones—and felt the earth move. An inexplicable coil of heat spiraled into his loins, curling around his dick, and his fingers twitched with the urge to touch her, to run the pad of his thumb over her bottom lip.

  “I understand that you’ve recently left the military,” she said, her tone conciliatory, as though she were speaking to a sullen teenager, “and adjusting your demeanor to your new civilian life might be a bit of a struggle. But your transition would be a lot smoother if you were to remember that you’re no longer at liberty to issue orders and no one you speak to is obliged to follow them.” The barest hint of irritation flashed in her gaze. “Most particularly me,” she added.

  Clark, Les and Roy all chuckled, then quickly turned their amusement into fake coughs when she shot them another one of those mysterious glances that somehow, to his utter astonishment, turned the three into awkward ball-less wonders.

  Evidently she figured she was going to be able to do the same thing with him, Judd thought, feeling his jaw involuntarily clench. Perfect. Now all of him was hard. But if she thought she was going to be able to dress him down and wrap him around her little finger as easily as she had these hapless fools, then she’d better think again.

  Oh, hell, no.

  Better to disabuse her of that notion toute suite.

  He smiled at her, twisted his lips just enough to be patronizing. “Since we both speak English and understand the language, communication, obviously, isn’t an issue. This is more of a comprehension problem. I apologize,” he said with a small nod. “Where I stated the facts, you heard an order. In future, I’ll make sure you understand the difference.”

  He straightened, going into Obedience or Death mode, and looked at each of the men in turn. “Les, check the perimeter. Roy, call your lookouts for an update. Clark, sweep the street. There were twelve vehicles and a motorcycle when I arrived. One minivan, six sedans, two trucks, three SUVs and a Harley Davidson. If there’s a change in any status quo, I want to know it. Move.”

  They all scattered and bolted into action. Satisfied, Judd turned to look at her. “Those were orders,” he explained patiently, in the same condescending tone she’d used. “They followed them because it’s their job, just like it’s my job to keep you safe. Any directive I issue is for your protection, Ms. Montgomery, not for my amusement or due to my lack of understanding the difference between military and civilian cultures. I’m not obliged to say please or ask nicely and, so we’re clear, I don’t work for you. I work for Ranger Security. Ranger Security works for the client, Ed Johnson, who hired the company to protect you at all costs.” He lifted a brow. “With me so far?”

  Her lips curled into a smile that more resembled a snarl and her entire body seemed to vibrate with anger. For whatever reason, Judd got the impression that he’d just awakened a dormant volcano. Perversely, he looked forward to the eruption. “Oh, I think I can grasp the concept. You’re in charge.”

  He nodded and grinned at her, enjoying this much more than he should have. “See?” he said, rocking back on his heels. “Not too difficult. Now get your things,” he repeated. “We need to leave.”

  Her eyes narrowed fractionally. “Right.”

  Imagining he could see the steam billowing from the top of her head, she turned abruptly on her heel and left the room.

  He released a pent-up breath, one he didn’t even realize he’d been holding. Four days, he thought as a blaze of heat kindled in his loins, the memory of her mouth making his own water.

  Four days. Alone. With her.

  God help him.

  2

  OF ALL THE unmitigated nerve, Noelle thought, seething as she angrily slung her things into a bag. Had she ever met a more provoking man? One that, with a mere slightly condescending smile and a handful of words, had turned her mind purple with rage?

  On purpose.

  Honestly, she’d always prided herself on her ability to get along with almost anybody, on never allowing herself to be goaded into an argument or unpleasantness because, nine times out of ten, the instigator didn’t argue to make a point, but to sling mud. Noelle had never minded getting dirty—she’d done a tour with the Peace Corps, had dug wells in Africa, helped build schools in Guatemala, had worked clean up after hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes. She’d worked in countless soup kitchens, free clinics and homeless shelters. Service was her passion, her gift, and it fulfilled her in ways that the people closest to her had never understood.

  Like her parents, who’d basically turned over her admittedly sizable trust fund, then washed their hands of her. “Fine, Noelle,” her father had said, exasperated and angry. “You win. I’ll go ahead and sign over the money. And when you
’ve given it away to every bleeding heart group in the world and saved every endangered animal on the planet—when it’s all gone and you have no other choice—maybe then you’ll grow up and get a real job like the rest of us.”

  That dart had penetrated because she did work—hard, dammit—but she was paid in kindness rather than cash, satisfaction in lieu of a check. And why shouldn’t she be able to do what she wanted? Thanks to her grandparents who’d put the money away for her after hitting a seven-million dollar jackpot in a Vegas slot machine, she could afford to serve others, to offer a little financial assistance to causes she cared about. She’d paid cash for her modest house, had no debt and had socked away a good portion in an investment portfolio which, even in this poor economy, still made her plenty of money.

  Hell, she wasn’t stupid. She was just different.

  It pained her that her mother and father had never understood her, that they weren’t proud of her, that ultimately, the way she’d chosen to live her life had disappointed them and caused a rift. Other than the obligatory cards at Christmas and on her birthday—which happened to be on the same day, thus her name—she hadn’t heard from them in more than two years and each time the postmark was from a different part of the world.

  Christmas, probably due to it being her birthday, was always particularly tough. Because when the volunteering was over and every hungry mouth had been fed, in the end she was still in front of a lonely tree, opening the two presents she’d ultimately bought for herself and singing a mash-up version of “Jingle Bells” and “Happy Birthday.” Her parents hadn’t even bothered to send a gift last year, but had just stuck a check into the card that had arrived a week early. From Morocco. Though her father loved to tout the get-a-real-job idea to her, he’d fully embraced early retirement. Her lips tilted. She often wondered if the air was thinner up where he sat on top of his high horse.

  Though she knew it was petty, she hadn’t made an effort to get in touch with them and let them know that she was the single witness to a high-

  profile crime, that the infamous Winchester clan of Calgary county had tried to kill her three times in the past four months—the bulk of which had happened in the last few weeks—to keep her from giving testimony in court.

  Noelle had never given too much thought to her own death until someone had deliberately attempted to take her life. The resulting terror and anger had been nothing short of enlightening. Not only had it put her in touch with her own mortality, it had forced her to reevaluate her very existence, to measure her days in minutes rather than hours. She’d always lived by the “do the next right thing” mantra, but it seemed even more significant now. Even more important to make sure that her life, however humble or short, made a difference.

  And though she’d consoled grieving parents after the last three world disasters and had held the hand of a dying child who’d been belatedly pulled from the rubble of a recent tornado in Alabama, she’d never witnessed a deliberate death.

  An execution.

  Both were senseless, but the latter haunted her to no end. Perhaps because the tornado had been a freak of nature and the murder...had not. The end of Rupert Nichols’s life had been cold-blooded and merciless. It had been ended over something as trivial as a differing opinion on a brand of ketchup, she’d later find out.

  Travis “Tubby” Winchester—the nickname was a throwback to his elementary school days when he’d evidently had a bit of a weight problem—had pulled Rupert Nichols out the back door of his Main Street café, forced him to his knees, casually put a gun between Rupert’s eyes, said, “Nobody argues with me. I’m the Decider,” and then pulled the trigger. He’d adjusted his jacket, pocketed the weapon, then climbed back into his waiting car and driven away as though nothing had happened.

  Noelle had seen all of this from her vantage point behind a parked car. She’d been volunteering at the free clinic on the other side of the alley and had noticed a pair of unusually small, malnourished kittens when she’d come in earlier in the day. She’d put out some food for them and had planned to look for them when she’d finished her shift. That’s what she’d been doing in the alley when Tubby’s car had pulled in. She’d been wedged up under the back tire of an SUV, trying to coax the kittens from beneath the vehicle with a piece of beef jerky when she’d heard Rupert’s initial cry.

  It’s odd the thoughts that flip through a person’s mind when faced with a horrible situation. For instance, when Tubby’s car had driven past, she’d been more worried about the cats darting under one of his tires than being seen by the legendary local crime boss, that beef jerky had been a poor choice to lure the kittens in the first place and how having a little packet of tuna in her purse wouldn’t be remiss for times like this.

  It was as though her brain had been trying to think of anything but the dead man across the way.

  She’d scrambled from her inadvertent hiding place, falling once in the process and tearing a hole in her jeans, then stumbled toward him, her heart pounding in her suddenly roaring ears. She’d known he was gone—that the neat hole between his sightless eyes was deceptively small for all the damage it had done—but the impulse to help, to do something was too strong to ignore. A lump welled in her throat.

  In the end, all she could do was close his eyes and dial 911.

  Having made her home in Mossy Ridge during her childhood and teens, then as her “base camp” when she was between volunteer and relief postings, Noelle knew Rupert well. He’d been her Little League soccer coach, was allergic to fire ants and lived in a gray-and-white Cape Cod style house a couple of streets over from her own place. The Main Street Diner had been in his family for as long as she could remember and, while it was never going to be famous, the café served a good meat loaf and had the best banana pudding this side of the Mason-Dixon line.

  His family, understandably, had been devastated.

  Thankfully, during those awful seconds just after the shooting, Noelle had had the presence of mind to get a look at the license plate. She’d always had a good mind for numbers—could still remember her locker combination from high school—and while her eye witness account might have been questionable considering her position, poor lighting and a host of other factors, knowing that number had solidified her as a credible witness.

  The district attorney, who’d been trying to nail Tubby on a cache of other crimes he’d managed to wiggle out of, had been practically giddy with excitement. While he’d managed to put away some of the notorious crime boss’s underlings for various offenses—drugs, prostitution, racketeering, even murder—he’d never been able to get a single one of them to turn state’s evidence against their leader.

  And now, thanks to her, their leader was in custody.

  In a bold move that had ultimately sent his family into hiding, the presiding judge had revoked bond and no amount of threatening or a well-argued point from one of Tubby’s exorbitantly expensive attorneys had been able to convince him otherwise. Tubby had been remanded until trial and that, as they say, was that.

  But it hadn’t kept him from putting a hit out on her and Noelle had known that every day closer to the trial date put her closer and closer to danger. Tubby and his crime family hadn’t been able to avoid the law for this long because they were innocent—it was because most people didn’t have the nerve to confront them or put their own families at risk. But Noelle didn’t have any family close enough for them to use as leverage—she tried not to consider how sad that was—and she’d thought too much of Rupert to be bullied or frightened into silence.

  When the threatening letters and phone calls had started, she hadn’t been surprised. Though shaken, she’d installed a top of the line security system, added a canister of mace to her key chain and a gun to her purse, then had brushed up on her self-defense skills.

  But when someone had taken a shot at her outside the local Piggly Wiggly—she and her Pink Lady apples had fallen to the ground when the window behind her had shattered, resulting in brui
ses on both of them—that’s when she’d really gotten unnerved. A second shot had blasted through her living room window the following week, and the only thing that had prevented her death was the fact that she’d bent forward to retrieve the remote control from the coffee table so that she could rewind Pride and Prejudice and watch Mr. Darcy strip down and dive into the lake again.

  She’d forever credit Colin Firth and Jane Austen for saving her life.

  But this last attempt had terrified her even more. Evidently having decided that there was too much room for error with a bullet, her attackers had hurled a Molotov cocktail through her kitchen window and tried to burn her to death. She’d shoved Lilo and Stitch, her new kittens, into a pillow case, much to their howling displeasure, and climbed out the upper-story window of her guest bedroom. Thankfully, she’d neglected to cut away a tree limb that had grown too close and she was able to scramble to safety.

  It was at that point that Ed Johnson, one of her oldest and dearest friends from their local Red Cross agency, had stepped in and hired Ranger Security. Mossy Ridge’s tiny police force didn’t have the manpower or the preparedness to deal with this sort of issue. According to Ed, a former military man himself, Ranger Security was the best in the business and he was confident in their ability to keep her out of harm’s way. Noelle released a small, shaky breath as a burst of heat mushroomed slowly inside her once more.

  Clearly she and Ed had differing definitions on what exactly constituted “safe.”

  Because she’d felt many things when she’d looked up and caught a glimpse of Judd Anderson, but interestingly enough, safe wasn’t one of them. Truth be told, she hadn’t even had to look up. The instant he’d walked into the room, she’d felt the change in the atmosphere, a significant recalculation to her own personal barometer. A strangely pleasant sort of pressure had invaded the shabby but cozy space, making it difficult to breathe and the fine hairs on her body had prickled to attention, a testament to his particular energy.