Chapter Eleven

Another hour passed before they were ready. Dezarae had gone in the house and got cleaned up while Jeb stayed away from her tempting body.

As he sat beside her in the old vehicle, he watched her out of the corner of his eye. Her face was the picture of total concentration on safely navigating them during the twenty-mile trip to town. She hadn’t looked him in the eyes since she’d run from the garage.

She wore a softly colored patchwork sweatshirt and another pair of hip-hugging jeans. Her coat was in the backseat along with the one of her father’s that she lent him. Dezarae had her thick black hair pulled back away from her face, allowing him easy access to her side profile.

Please don’t let me find out I’m married. His stormy gaze looked out the window at the passing land-scape. Why won’t she talk to me?

“If I apologize for my actions in the garage, will you say something?” Jeb broke the silence that still teemed with sexual tension.

With a brief glance at her passenger, Dezarae sighed. “Have you done something you feel the need to apologize for?” Her dark eyes moved back to the seemingly nonexistent road.

“No, but I will if you feel I should apologize.” Hell, no, I don’t feel I did anything wrong. Except stop.

“Then you don’t have to.” Dezarae fell silent as they approached the spot where he’d busted through the guardrail.

Jeb’s gray eyes widened as he saw the mangled debris. It was like he’d tuned to stone. His mouth formed an “o” as the vehicle slowed.

“Did you want to go look?” Dezarae asked in a quiet voice.

“Please.” His voice was slightly strained.

Carefully, Dezarae stopped the car, letting it idle. She watched in silence as he pulled on the coat and got out to head down the hill. Allowing him to face this alone, she sat in the car.

Jeb stood at the top of the embankment looking at the burnt remains of the vehicle he’d crashed. “I was lucky to survive,” he said to no one in particular.

Making his way cautiously down to the bottom, he walked to stand beside the crushed metal. He looked for anything that might give him a clue to his past. There was nothing he could see.

His mind wasn’t jarred by this at all. None of it was familiar to him. Of course there wasn’t much left except the car’s frame, anyway. Then, coupled with the new snow that had fallen, he knew there wasn’t going to be anything for him to find.

Disappointment and frustration welled up inside him. Will I never know who I am? Seconds before he yelled in aggravation, a gentle sound reached him.

“You okay?” Dezarae had joined him. Her dark eyes were full of compassion as she looked at him. One gloved hand reached out to rest on his arm.

Jeb couldn’t begin to describe the feeling that filled him at hearing her soft voice. “I still can’t remember,” he answered, pulling her closer to wrap his arms around her.

Dezarae relaxed against his chest. Together they stood there and looked over the remains. After a bit, she patted one of the strong arms around her. “We should get going.”

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“Let’s get going, Johnny Reb,” Dezarae said, removing herself from his embrace.

“Right behind you, Firebird. I’m right behind you.” Taking the time for one more look over the wreck-age, the dark brown–haired man turned to scramble up the hill after his savior.

“How long before we get to town?” he asked once they had begun driving again.

“Once we get to the main road, about ten minutes. If they cleared it.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Dale may have some information for you when we get there.”

“Okay,” he replied in a monotone voice.

Dezarae looked at him in surprise. “Don’t you want to know?”

“What if who I am isn’t good?”

“Then you change,” she said matter-of-factly. Reaching across the car, she patted his hard thigh. “I don’t believe you are a bad person.”

“But you did,” Jeb said placing his callused hand over her softer one to keep it where it was.

“And I was wrong,” she insisted.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because, Johnny Reb, if you were truly a bad person, whether you lost your memory or not, you will still be bad. Evil that is learned can be forgotten, but those who are truly evil always will be.” Dezarae pulled her hand free. “I don’t think you are evil.”

“Why do you still call me Johnny Reb?”

She shrugged. “Don’t know. Does it bother you?”

“I guess not.” He admitted looking back out the window. It bothers me you may still think of me as something bad from the South.

***

“I can’t believe this weather,” the man swore. “Choppers can’t fly and the damn roads are closed.”

“Calm down, Cade. We’re going anyway. A satellite image shows a break in the system, and we’re taking it,” another teammate said.

“I just don’t like it, Maverick. Not at all.”

“None of us do man, none of us do,” Maverick responded.

“I know.”

“How’s the wife?” Maverick asked, trying to lighten the mood.

“Jayde’s fine,” the man’s voice softened. “She wants to know when you’re getting hitched.”

Maverick just shook his head. It wasn’t like he was the only single man in the team, either. For some reason, though, they were all after him to get married.

“It’s gonna take one hell of a storm to get me to the altar, Cade. I would marry Jayde or Alexis but—”

“We’d kill you.” A deep voice joined the conversation. The leader of Megalodon Team walked in and glared at Maverick.

“See, Harrier,” Maverick said, not at all threatened by the intimidating presence of the man there. “You and Cade have the good women.”

The two happily married men glanced at each other and grinned. Harrier spoke. “I can’t wait to meet the storm that gets you there.”

Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Maverick teased, “Hold your breath, man, please hold your breath.”

***

Dezarae parked in front of the police station. “Come on,” she said, climbing out. “Good work, old man,” she said to the vehicle as they left it.

Jeb followed. Shadyville wasn’t as small as he had believed it was going to be, but it wasn’t exactly a huge metropolis. He walked behind her into the building.

“Sheriff,” she called out as soon as she opened the door. “Are you here?”

A tall handsome man popped out from around the corner. As his eyes landed on Dezarae, he gave her a huge smile. “Hey, Dez.”

She smiled easily at the man. “Hello, Shawn. Where’s Dale?”

“He’s at the diner getting coffee.” He nodded towards the man behind her. “Who’s that?”

“This is Jeb. The man from the accident.”

Jeb had been watching the man who had asked his firebird for her hand in marriage. The second Dezarae had said his name, Jeb disliked him. He had become surprisingly possessive of her in the little time he had known her.

The man was handsome. He was tall, not as tall as Jeb himself, but still tall. He had a thick head of light-brown hair, blue eyes, and a moustache that was neatly trimmed. Within seconds, Jeb knew that he could beat him in a fight; where he knew that from he couldn’t say.

The way Shawn kept his blue eyes on Dezarae aroused Ross’s protectiveness even more. Still, he stepped forward and offered his hand after Dezarae gave his name. “Hello,” he said.

“Hey, man,” Shawn said easily, shaking the hand.

The door opened behind Shawn, sending a wave of cold air over them all. It was the sheriff. “Dez,” his loud voice boomed. “How you doing, girl?”

“Fine, Dale, fine.” She walked over to him and hugged him affectionately.

“Well, come on back.” He speared Jeb with a glare. “You, too, boy.”

Boy? Boy?! Jeb barely controlled his tongue, but at Dezarae’s look he remained silent and followed them. Neither of the other men there missed the exchange.

Shawn stayed up front as the trio went into the sheriff’s office.