Clay turned his glare on T-Rex. “You did this. She wouldn’t have turned against me if you hadn’t gotten in the way.”
“I divorced you months ago,” Sierra said. “Before Mr. Trainor was even in the picture.”
T-Rex nodded. “Face it, Ellis, it’s over. Learn to live with it.”
A sheriff’s vehicle pulled into the drive.
Clay shot one last, piercing glare at T-Rex. “It’s not over until I say it’s over.” Then he climbed into his truck and drove past the sheriff’s SUV without stopping or slowing down.
One of the sheriff’s deputies got out. “Everything all right here?”
“It is now,” Sierra said, leaning into the warmth and strength of T-Rex.
“Want me to go after Ellis?” the deputy asked.
T-Rex glanced down at Sierra, his brow raised.
Sierra nodded. “He needs to learn he can’t treat me this way.”
The deputy nodded. “I’ll let the sheriff know. And let me know if I can help. I’m only a 911 call away.” With that parting comment, he turned his vehicle around and left.
Sierra looked up into T-Rex’s eyes. “Thank you for being here.”
“My pleasure,” he said, without removing his arm from around her.
She didn’t want to move out of his embrace, but she had a job to do. “I guess I’d better get back to the children.”
“I have an alternative proposal,” T-Rex said.
Sierra’s heart leaped. “A what?”
“An alternative to going back to work. I need someone to help me with a project I’m working on, but it requires that you come with me right now.” He stared at her, his gaze unblinking, almost as if he were willing her to say yes.
When T-Rex looked at her with that level of intensity in his eyes, Sierra found him very hard to resist. “I can’t leave,” she said. “I’m working.”
“No worries,” Brenda called out from the doorway, still carrying Eloisa. “Take the rest of the day off. The babies are all down for a nap, and the toddlers are happy playing. I can handle them. Besides, there aren’t that many of them, it being Friday and all.”
“Are you sure?” Sierra frowned. “I can’t leave you to handle all of them.”
“I did it before we hired you. I can do it again.” Brenda winked. “How many chances do you get to have a hunky man ask you to help him?” Brenda leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “If you don’t take him up on it, I’ll take your place.”
A little stab of jealousy hit Sierra in the gut. She glanced toward T-Rex, a thrill of anticipation making her shiver from top to toe.
“You know you want to,” Brenda whispered. “Besides, if you stay here, Clay may come back.” She glanced at the children, just beginning to calm down after the second confrontation in as many days they’d had to witness.
A heavy weight of guilt settled in the pit of Sierra’s gut. “I can’t let this happen to the kids.”
Brenda bit her bottom lip. “You didn’t let it happen. Clay is responsible.”
“Yes, but if I wasn’t his ex, he wouldn’t be coming to the community center, frightening the babies.” Sierra shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to quit until he settles down.”
Brenda grabbed her arm. “No. You can’t quit on me. The children love you.”
“Yes, but I can’t risk it. Clay might get more violent and hurt one of them. It’s bad enough he’s scaring them. The parents aren’t going to put up with it for long. Heck, they’re already telling me their children are having nightmares.” Sierra straightened her shoulders. “No. I have to do this. I thought I could stay in Grizzly Pass, but I’m beginning to see it’s just not going to work. Clay will never leave me alone.”
Brenda frowned. “Why is he bothering you now? It’s been months since your divorce. You’d think he would be over it and moving on.”
“Sierra.” T-Rex stepped up to the two women. “I have to go. Will you come with me? Or are you staying here?” He held out his hand.
Sierra stared at his hand as if it would lead her into an alternate universe, a place she’d never considered. Despite the fear of the unknown, she reached out her hand and took his. “I guess I’m going with you.”
Brenda tightened her hold on her arm. “Just remember, you’re loved and wanted back here. But if you find something better, I’ll understand. Oh, and you can’t get out of our tour tomorrow. I need you when we take the moms and kiddos to Yellowstone for our ranger-led activity.”
Sierra hugged her friend. “Don’t worry. I’ll be here, bright and early.”
Brenda’s gaze shifted to T-Rex, and she smiled. “Take care of my friend.”
T-Rex nodded. “I will.” He tightened his hold on her hand and led her out of the community center. “What was that all about?”
Sierra sighed. “I can’t work there anymore.”
“Did she fire you?”
“No. I quit. As long as Clay continues to harass me, I can’t be around the children.” She glanced back at the community center. “I’ll miss them.”
“You should have had the deputy take him in.”
“He’d just be out in a few days and even more annoying. He might harm one of those babies. I know if they were my children I wouldn’t want me to be their caregiver. Not as long as Clay keeps coming around.”
T-Rex nodded. “I get it.”
“Even though we’re divorced, he’s still managing to run my life.”
As the handsome marine held the door for her, Sierra climbed into his truck.
He rounded the vehicle and slid in behind the steering wheel.
“Enough of my troubles.” Sierra forced a smile to her face. “What is it I’m going to help you with?”
“I need another pair of eyes.”
“Another pair of eyes?”
“I’m going up in a helicopter looking for anything out of the ordinary in the hills.”
She leaned forward, her heartbeat skittering against her ribs. “We’re going up in a helicopter? I’ve never been in a helicopter.”
“Then this will be a first for you. Are you up for the task?” He started the engine but waited for her response.
“Yes!” She laughed out loud, her entire body shaking with excitement. “When?”
He glanced at his watch. “In five minutes, if I can get to the fairgrounds by then.”
Chapter Nine
While they’d waited for clearance for a civilian to go along for the ride in the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, T-Rex and the pilot, Major Bailey, and copilot, Lieutenant Strohm, studied several contour maps and the route of the oil pipeline. Some of the larger abandoned gold-rush-era mines were noted on the map, their locations clearly marked.
T-Rex waited, on edge, praying Major Bailey’s commander would allow Sierra to join the search. He’d told the major she was part of Homeland Security’s platform in Grizzly Pass. It wasn’t exactly the truth, but T-Rex wouldn’t have gone without Sierra. Not when Ellis would likely stalk her and possibly force her to go with him and hold her hostage who knew where and for how long.
Ellis needed someone to take him out behind a barn and beat some sense into him. Even then, T-Rex doubted the man would listen.
When the approval came through, T-Rex released the breath he’d been holding. He realized he’d be a whole lot more effective knowing Sierra was right beside him and not at the mercy of her abusive ex-husband.
Once off the ground, T-Rex stopped thinking about Ellis long enough to look out the side of the aircraft.
Major Bailey and his copilot were using the time in the chopper to log flight and training time. By flying through the hills, they’d get some much-needed nap-of-the-earth flying in. At the same time, they’d be flying close enough to the ground that T-Rex and Sierra could look for any signs of extensive road use, vehicles out on old logging or mining trails or people back in the hills where there normally wouldn’t be any, especially when not in hunting season.
Sierra sat in the seat beside him, her eyes wide and bright, her hands gripping the safety harness strapped around her lap and shoulders. She looked at once terrified and excited.
T-Rex smiled. The woman might have been in an abusive situation, but she had a lot of gumption and a sense of adventure. She’d do all right once she got far enough from Ellis’s influence.
What bothered T-Rex most was the fact he wouldn’t be there to run interference against her ex-husband. He’d be out of Grizzly Pass just as soon as they fixed what was wrong in the area.
He leaned toward the open doorway and stared down as the helicopter neared the hills. Based on the map T-Rex had brought along with him depicting the route of the oil pipeline, they were getting close to one of the first points the pipeline inspectors would have checked. It was on the edge of the Beartooth Mountains in a grassy meadow. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. The dirt road leading up to it was slightly overgrown with grass and bramble.
Flying a direct path, they entered a valley between two hills. The helicopter pilot followed the pipeline to the area where a pipeline inspector had been shot and killed since the military team had arrived in Grizzly Pass. Hovering between the hills, the pilot lowered the aircraft to fifteen feet above the valley floor.