Bulletproof Christmas

by Barb Han

  Rory tackled the nurse and the two of them flew into the side chair.

  “Call for help,” he shouted to Cadence.

  “I hit the panic button as soon as I got a look at your face,” she said, and he registered the sound of an alarm coming from the nurses’ station. “What should I do?”

  He was on top of the brown-haired nurse, pinning her arms to her sides with his thighs. “Can you get dressed?”

  “Yes.” She immediately moved to get her clothes, walking tenderly on her bad ankle. He saw that she had on some kind of compression boot that was giving her structure and support and he was glad for that at least.

  But damn. He’d put her in jeopardy again. She was injured and needed him to be solid for her and all he could think about before was his anger. It was the curse of his parents to put himself first over others in his life and let anger override rational thought.

  “Who are you?” he asked Brown-haired.

  Before she could respond, a blond-haired nurse popped her head inside the door. “What do you need, sweetie—”

  Panic rippled across her features as her gaze swept the room.

  “Annalise, are you okay?” The stress in her voice was meant for the nurse on the floor.

  “Your friend here just tried to drug my friend,” he bit out.

  “Help,” Annalise said, and he almost wished he had knocked her out so she couldn’t talk.

  The door closed, the nurse disappeared and Cadence looked at him with a helpless expression. It was only a matter of time before security showed.

  “What do we do now?” Cadence asked.

  He’d tell her to run but there was no use. She couldn’t get far and Brown-haired would most likely scream. She already was, in fact.

  He reared his fist back and looked her dead in the eyes. “Keep it up and I won’t hesitate to shut you up myself.” The threat was idle but she didn’t know that.

  Based on the fact that she clamped her mouth shut, she believed him. And that was a relief because nothing inside him could ever allow him to strike a woman.

  “What did you put in her IV?” he barked.

  Tears sprang from Annalise’s eyes. Her lips compressed into a thin line and she shook her head.

  Footsteps fired off in the hallway. He was running out of time.

  “Annalise, you have one chance to get this right. Tell me why you did this and I won’t press charges.” She’d have hell to pay for her actions as soon as Administration figured out what she’d put in the IV. “At the very least, you’re looking at losing your job and a lawsuit. At the worst, jail.”

  Annalise’s brown eyes widened.

  “I’m dressed,” Cadence said. “Let’s get out of here before everyone comes back.”

  “We’re safe. It’s this one who should be worried.” He held Annalise’s gaze. “That’s right. They’ll lock you up and throw away the key, Annalise.” He could see that he was gaining ground with her. “And I’ll testify to exactly what I saw. The evidence supports my story, by the way.”

  She faltered, her chin quivered, and it looked like it was taking great strength to keep her emotions in check. There was so much fear in her eyes and something else, too. Helplessness?

  “I’m sorry.” Her gaze bounced from Cadence and Rory. “What have I done?”

  “Nothing, because I stopped you,” Rory ground out.

  “I’m a single mom and he said he’d kill my kids if I didn’t put that in her IV.” Her desperation caused her chin to quiver again as tears streamed down her cheeks. “It’s no excuse but I was so scared.”

  “Did he say what the substance is?” Rory shouldn’t have been shocked when tears streamed down her face but she’d caught him off guard. Her tortured expression punched him.

  “No and I didn’t ask. How was I supposed to make a choice?” Annalise shook her head. The thought of having to choose between a pregnant stranger in her care and her children twisted her face with guilt. “I didn’t want to know.”

  He could relate to her conflict because he had a similar one going on inside. Hurt a single mother’s career when it sounded like she was the only parent to a pair of kids or throw justice to the wind. She wouldn’t have done this if not for extreme circumstances.

  The door burst open and a man wearing a security uniform barreled into the room. He was middle-aged, his hair a solid white, and Rory could take the man down in a heartbeat if he wanted. Instead, he put his hands in the air. “We don’t want any trouble.”

  “This is a huge misunderstanding, Robert,” Annalise said with a glance toward Rory. “I’m okay.”

  Rory hopped to his feet and held out a hand. She took it in a show of trust. “We don’t have a problem here.”

  “I made a mistake, which caused a problem. None of this is their fault,” Annalise admitted as she sat up. She was trying to force even breaths. “I’m one hundred percent to blame for this. I take full responsibility.”

  Cadence stood in between the security guard and Rory as she mouthed, “It’s time to go.”

  “Hold on, ma’am. That’s not advisable.” The nurse who’d been standing behind Robert took a step beside him.

  “I’m leaving and there’s nothing you can do to stop me, so save your energy.” Cadence folded her arms and glared at the nurse standing next to the security guard.

  As far as security went, Rory couldn’t imagine what an overweight fiftysomething man could accomplish. He’d be no match for Rory. But he had no intention of getting into a fight or pushing to see how far the guy would take that stun gun resting in his palm. Robert had come in hot, geared up for a fight. And like a cornered animal, he’d come out fighting.

  “It’s fine, Meredith,” Annalise soothed. “Like I said, totally my fault. I tripped on his shoe and we both fell over. This guy was checking to make sure I was okay before he let me get up. That’s all. I’m sorry I yelled earlier. It’s under control.” Annalise said it like it was nothing, like she was brushing lint off her scrubs.

  Based on her scowl, Meredith wasn’t buying the excuse. She wore her skepticism like a billboard, front and center with a spotlight trained on it. One eyebrow cocked, she asked, “Are you sure you’re okay, Annalise?” She made eyes at her coworker.

  “Yes.” Annalise wiped her hands down her scrubs again. “I’m a little shaken up from taking a tumble. I knocked my head on the tray stand and took a pretty good fall. But I’m good.” She lifted her arms up and made a show of giving herself a once-over. “See.”

  “Where do we sign out?” Rory asked Annalise.

  “I’m afraid I can’t advise you to do that,” Meredith interrupted.

  “Either way, we’re walking out that door,” Cadence insisted.

  Meredith stood there for a minute, staring into Cadence’s eyes. “Are you sure you want to risk your babies?”

  Cadence’s chin jutted out at the suggestion she’d do anything purposely to hurt her children. “You need to do a better job of keeping people safe in here. A stranger walked in and started tampering with my IV and where were you? I think my babies and me will be safer on our own.”

  It was Cadence’s turn to shoot a furtive glance at Rory and he saw a flicker of emotion behind her eyes. Guilt?

  She’d lied to him. Again. Building a bridge between shores seemed insurmountable but none of that mattered right now. He needed to get her out of the ER.

  “She wouldn’t hurt her children,” he snapped at Meredith, who drew back as though he’d physically punched her.

  The woman could think what she wanted. Cadence might be a handful and she wasn’t being honest with Rory, and he was presently upset about that fact. But no one could say she wouldn’t be a good mother.

  He moved to her side and urged her to lean her weight on him before walking her out the door and to the elevator.

  Once inside, he
pushed the L for lobby.

  “Thank you for what you said back there about me being a good mother,” she said once the doors closed and they were alone again. “Did you mean it or was it your way of telling them to back off?”

  “Both.” He took her hand and stormed out of the hospital. He led her to the passenger side of his vehicle and then took the driver’s seat. He gripped the steering wheel and bit back his anger. “When did you plan on telling me there was more than one baby?”

  * * *

  “LATER. WHEN I THOUGHT you could handle it.” Cadence should’ve come clean with Rory from the beginning. There was no good answer for her actions, so she leaned back against the headrest and pinched the bridge of her nose in an attempt to stem the raging headache forming between her eyes. The cold had ripped right through her while walking to the vehicle and the frigid air caused her brain to hurt. At least she had a compression boot on her right ankle now and that was giving her relief. She’d refused pain medication, even though the doctor had reassured her she could take a low dose.

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Rory’s voice was low and steady, angry.

  “I still can’t figure out how I’m going to take care of one baby, let alone two,” she admitted. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but—”

  “No excuses, Cadence. If we’re not honest with each other there’s no point in trying to candy coat this. The babies will suffer and I don’t want that.” He was right.

  Cadence took a minute to let those words sink in. “We’re not off to the best start, are we?”

  “No, but it doesn’t have to be that way.” Again, Rory made sense.

  “I can do better. I want to do better. The babies deserve it.” Maybe she and Rory could establish some common ground from which they could build some trust. She shelved her fears that he’d ultimately take off, leaving her to hold the bag for the time being.

  “What about the sex of the babies?” He paused a beat. “Do you know?”

  “We’re having daughters,” she supplied.

  “When?” His voice gave away nothing of his thoughts. But that was Rory. He needed time to digest.

  “I’m due in March but my doctor warned me they could come early.” An odd feeling of relief washed over her at spilling the details. She’d kept the news about the girls to herself so long. Talking about them, about the pregnancy made it feel less daunting.

  “That’s soon,” he said and she could tell the news was sinking in.

  It didn’t feel all that soon for her. But then she’d had more time to reconcile the pregnancy.

  “Girls,” he said low and almost under his breath. There was a reverence in his tone that warmed her.

  “That’s right.”

  “Have you thought about names?” he asked and then held up a hand. “We can discuss the babies later. Right now, we need to find a place to hide out for a few days.”

  His statement closed the subject for now. She could almost hear the questions swirling in his thoughts, questions he must have. Talking to him about their daughters felt better than she knew to allow.

  “I’d like to make contact with Ella or one of the twins to make sure everything is okay on the ranch,” she responded.

  “We can do that before we stop off to rest.” Rory pulled off the highway. He bought one of those pre-paid phones that didn’t require any identification or a credit card. “No one can track this phone back to us.”

  Did she want to know why he was so adept at hiding in the shadows? Or why that life was so appealing to him? What did that say about him? Did this have anything to do with his upbringing? All she knew for sure was that he sure seemed comfortable with all this. Whereas she was so far out of her element it wasn’t funny. At least the nurse was able to put some magic salve on her foot to soothe the cuts and insect bites.

  Rory handed the phone to her once they were back inside his truck.

  She called Ella’s number. The line rang but her sister didn’t pick up. “She won’t answer because she doesn’t recognize the number.”

  “Too many reporters calling?” he asked.

  “Yes, among other unscrupulous people.” The call rolled into voice mail so she left a message. “I know she’ll listen to it, so we should wait a few minutes to give her a chance to call us back.”

  “While we wait, can I ask you a question?” His tone was deep, serious, and that sent a warning ripple through her body.

  She sat straight up.

  “You can ask me anything, Rory.”

  Chapter Nine

  “Why didn’t you contact me when you found out you were pregnant?” Cadence couldn’t read Rory’s emotions based on his steady tone but her heart dropped anyway. Should she admit just how brokenhearted she’d been when he walked out and slammed the door behind him? How devastated she’d been when days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months without hearing from him?

  What good would it do to admit it to him now? An annoying voice in the back of her mind reminded her that nothing would change between them no matter how many heat-of-the-moment revelations there were.

  She’d had a crush on him from the day she’d seen him in the barn on that cold October morning when he’d come to live and work on the ranch. They’d grown up around each other but not together. She’d spent the first summer doing the most ridiculous things trying to get him to notice her. Fifteen seemed so grown up compared to a twelve-year-old. She’d picked up a cigarette butt and had pretended to be smoking to seem older to him. And when he’d told her those things will make you sick, she’d dropped it faster than a hot iron skillet handle.

  When she’d embarrassed herself in the barn trying to kiss him, she’d given up. He hadn’t noticed her much anyway except for being kind to her like the other ranch hands were. She’d lost interest when he’d given her no sign of sharing her affection.

  She’d gone away to college and he’d started tracking poachers. He rarely ever came back to Hereford but the few times he did when she was home on break caused her stomach to flip. Old times, she’d told herself. Unrequited love and all that.

  And then late last spring had happened—a wild fling with the best sex of her life—and he’d regretted it so fast that he’d broken up with her, walked away and never looked back. He was only in Cattle Barge and on the ranch because of a job, because of work offered by her brothers.

  “By the time I found out I was pregnant I had no idea where you’d gone,” she admitted. That part was true. Could she have found him? Probably. Her brothers didn’t seem to have trouble locating him in order to offer a job.

  He shot her a look that said he was thinking the same thing she was.

  “Be honest. If I’d asked you to come back without telling you the real reason, would you have?” she asked.

  He stared out the front windshield for a long moment.

  “Guess we’ll never know.”

  He didn’t speak it out loud but he was right. Being forced back together wasn’t the same thing as coming together voluntarily. The pregnancy clouded everything. Plus, he’d shown up at the ranch for a job. When it came to their relationship, he’d walked out once. And since history was the best predictor of the future, he’d do it again. If she weren’t in danger, would he have stuck around this long? She doubted it.

  But then she didn’t figure Rory would desert his own children.

  The throwaway cell phone buzzed and that could only mean one thing. Ella’s call was perfectly timed to break the awkward tension filling the cab.

  “Are you okay?” Ella’s voice was frantic.

  “Yes. Had a close call,” she admitted, owning up to one of them. “But Rory is here and we’re safe for now.”

  “Where are you?” Ella asked and then immediately said, “Never mind. Don’t answer that. I’m just happy that you’re not hurt. I’ve been worried sick
about you and the baby.”

  Rory grunted.

  She ignored him. This didn’t feel like the right time to share the news she was having twins.

  Cadence understood why her sister would be in a panicked mode. Each of the Butlers had been targeted or involved with someone who’d been targeted for murder since their father’s death over the summer and the bad news didn’t stop there. They’d found out about dozens of lawsuits trying to lay claim to their land and their father’s fortune. It seemed the whole world had spun out of control following their father’s death and Cadence felt like she hadn’t gotten a chance to mourn his loss. Colorado had been more of an escape. Being pregnant and so very sick that first trimester had distracted her. Or maybe she just couldn’t face the fact that her father was gone and never coming back.

  “I’m fine and the babies are good.” Because of Rory, but she didn’t explicitly say that. Ella would know. “What about at the ranch? What’s going on there?”

  “Not a thing. It’s been quiet and that’s why I was worried about you. That, and you haven’t answered any of my calls or texts,” Ella admitted.

  “I lost my purse a while ago. Phone was inside. So no one bought the will being read early?” Cadence asked, remembering that Christmas Eve was Near. Wow, the first Christmas without their father. How sad was that? His presence would be missed so much. And her babies? She rubbed her belly. They would never know their grandfather. A tear escaped and she swallowed a sob. The sudden burst of emotions caught her completely off guard, but she was beginning to realize that pregnancy hormones had a way of bringing on the internal drama.

  “Nope,” Ella admitted.

  “I don’t like that,” Rory said under his breath but loud enough for Cadence to hear.

  She nodded because she was thinking the same thing. It meant someone on the ranch could be involved. There was no way anyone from security would allow themselves to be compromised or turn against the family, at least she hoped. Although, that could explain a lot.

  “What about Ed? I thought he was out of town. Is that true?”