Bulletproof Christmas

by Barb Han

  “Ed’s in Amarillo. He headed there right after he left the ranch this afternoon,” Ella supplied.

  “If someone’s tracking his movements, he should be warned,” Rory said.

  Ella gasped. “That’s a good point. I’ll call him to let him know as soon as we get off the phone.”

  A horn honked somewhere behind them, causing Cadence to jump. She glanced around, noting that someone was getting impatient for a car to relinquish its parking spot. Relief flooded her. Of course, the people trying to get to her wouldn’t be making any noise to give her and Rory a heads-up that they were coming. Instead, there’d be a bullet flying toward her most likely aimed at her chest.

  Again, Cadence couldn’t think of one person who would want to hurt her or her babies.

  “We better go,” she said to her sister, needing to keep moving.

  “Rory,” Ella started. He acknowledged her. “Take care of my sister.”

  For once, it didn’t sound like an insult. Cadence didn’t mind having someone else watch her back and especially since the person was Rory. He might be angry with her and maybe even a little hurt—and she could give him that after hiding her pregnancy from him this long—but he would take a bullet for her if need be. She didn’t question his loyalty to her and, even though he might not admit it yet, the babies.

  After ending the call, a thought struck.

  “Is there any way the person after me is trying to get to you?” she asked.

  Rory’s jaw fell slack for a split second, indicating that he hadn’t thought of the possibility. He straightened in his seat and started the engine. “The guy with the rifle on your land had the business end pointed at your bedroom window.”

  “That still strikes me as odd when I think about it. How did anyone know that I was home?” she asked.

  “The will reading was big news. There’s no telling how long he’d been there. He could’ve been camped out on your property for days.” Rory navigated onto the highway, put on his blinker and steered into traffic. “I know how to find out, but we need to find a place to camp for a few days to let your ankle heal.”

  “Christmas Eve is in four days. We don’t have time,” she said, noticing it was after midnight.

  “I’m doing a lousy job of keeping you safe while running away from the problem,” he said after a thoughtful pause. She ignored the double meaning. “I’m no good at it.”

  “Then where do you suggest we go?” Normally, she knew exactly where Rory would end up—out on the range where he could disappear without a trace. He was most comfortable there and he knew this area of Texas better than anyone. Even the Butlers knew less about their land, which was saying a lot considering the fact that they’d grown up on it and it was part of their souls. Of course, when she really thought about it, Rory had, too.

  She remembered the day he’d shown up at the ranch as vividly as if it had happened yesterday. He wasn’t a day more than fifteen years old. His hair was curly, a little too long, and his eyes a little too wild. He reminded her of the best of the land, untamed and beautiful in its own right.

  Her heart squeezed a little more thinking about what her father had said about him... That he reminded him so much of himself at that age. That he could be lost forever if someone didn’t intervene and look out for the kid.

  She didn’t see any similarities between her father and Rory.

  She’d had a crush on Rory from the minute he strolled—too casual a word for what he’d done, romped over her heart was more like it—into her life. Of course, she’d been his best friends’ little sister. Three years age difference had meant a lot at twelve and fifteen. Now, it seemed like nothing.

  “I have no idea,” he said, but his voice lacked his usual certainty.

  “There was a guy who came into my room before the nurse. I think he was a janitor,” she said.

  “How well did you see his face?” he asked.

  “Not well. He kept his chin to his chest and he was wearing a ball cap.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to force a picture. “I didn’t think much of it before because he blended in but after what happened with the nurse, the timing of his visit strikes me as odd.”

  “It does me, too,” Rory admitted. “What else do you remember about him?”

  “He was shorter than you and my brothers,” she remembered. “I’d say he was five feet ten inches if I had to guess. He had on jogging pants underneath a gray shirt. But he looked like every other guy. I mean, he was pushing a mop and he took the trash can out.”

  “I saw him. He’s the reason I rushed into your room,” Rory said.

  “Do you think it was Dex?” Cadence’s voice cracked with tension.

  “It’s possible.”

  “How could he know about the nurse’s kids?” she asked.

  “That’s easy enough to figure out at her area at the nurses’ station,” Rory said. “She most likely had pictures up and he figured he could use them to get to her. Whoever this guy is, he thinks on his feet.”

  “These are the kinds of people you deal with on a regular basis, aren’t they?” Cadence asked, realizing how much he knew how to think like them. Would that be enough to keep her and the babies safe?

  * * *

  AFTER DRIVING FOR two hours straight, Rory pulled off the road at a familiar campsite. It was remote and hardly anyone knew about it, which was just the way he liked it. When he’d first walked out of Cadence’s life, this is where he’d come to get a grip on his emotions so he could move on.

  “Stay in the cab. I’ll set us up,” he said to Cadence.

  “Are we camping in this cold? The radio said it was going to dip below freezing tonight,” she said with a look of horror.

  Rory suppressed a laugh. “No, I’m not going to let you freeze. Believe it or not, I’m damn good at my job and I wouldn’t be if I got frostbite and lost my fingers or toes.” He wiggled his fingers and smiled. The break in tension was needed to regain perspective. More often than not, perspective came with patience and silence.

  He could admit that living on the range had lost some of its appeal lately. Being alone with no one to talk to after being with Cadence and not being able to stop thinking about her had made him soft. Doing his job meant keeping a sharp mind and everyone at a safe distance.

  Cadence had made that difficult. Being with her made him think he had to make a choice between living on the range that he loved or being with her.

  He climbed out of the cab and took in a deep breath. Being out of town and away from all the cars and activity, he could finally breathe again. It didn’t help as much as he would’ve liked.

  A world without Cadence had lost its appeal.

  He was too young for a midlife crisis but feeling a complete loss of identity was the best way to describe what it had felt like to leave Cadence. He’d figured getting back on the range in the job he loved would be enough to fill the void. It hadn’t been and he’d been wrong on both counts.

  The tent on the back of his conversion vehicle was set up and ready to go in less than ten minutes. He’d done it so many times he could set it up in his sleep. He’d built the platform for a foam mattress long ago. He’d even rigged an extra battery to his truck’s heating system for those freezing nights when he was too far from civilization to get back and needed a few hours of shut-eye.

  There was a stash of power bars and coffee. He had supplies to make a fire and the setup for a pot to boil water.

  Early in life, being on the range had been his solace. The feel of a light summer breeze on his skin had brought a sense of peace he’d never known with people, until Cadence.

  Had she rocked his world? Hell, yeah.

  But watching his parents had taught him that love was toxic, too. His parents probably didn’t fight from day one, either. There’d most likely been a honeymoon period in which they’d gotten
along before having kids.

  Speaking of which, Rory wondered where his sister had landed. Was she still on the road with what’s-his-name? Was she trapped in a bad relationship? Marriage? The last thing she’d said before she left home was that she’d rather die than end up like their parents.

  Rory couldn’t agree more.

  “That’s quite a setup,” Cadence said, and the sound of her voice caught him off guard.

  He hopped out of the vehicle’s bed to help her climb inside.

  She took his hand and he ignored the electricity shooting up his arm and the heat pinging between them.

  “It’s warm in here,” she said, rubbing her hands together.

  “Afraid all I have is coffee to drink.” Warm liquid would soothe her throat and he wanted to give her as much comfort as he could.

  “I’d take hot water right now,” she said.

  “Then hold on.” He could do that. He gathered a few supplies and hopped out of the truck bed.

  Fifteen minutes later, he was handing her a cup of warm liquid.

  “I’m impressed, Rory,” she said, taking the offering. “It’s easy to see why you’re the best at what you do.”

  “Being alone has its disadvantages. It doesn’t always make me the easiest person to get along with,” he admitted. He’d need to learn to give-and-take to make co-parenting a possibility with Cadence.

  “We do the best we can, right?” It was a peace offering he would take.

  He needed a minute to mull over his thoughts about what had happened at the hospital. All that stress couldn’t be good for the baby, correction, babies. Rory couldn’t even go there right now about suddenly having two lives depending on him.

  Cadence’s physical description of the janitor matched Dex’s.

  An idea popped about how Rory could find out. Local poachers may have seen Dex and his cohorts. One of the poachers could possibly lead them to Dex’s location. Rory needed to find a way to infiltrate a poaching site while bringing Cadence along. That wasn’t going to be easy. She didn’t exactly fit in out there with her manicured nails and ivory skin, and especially not while she was pregnant.

  But nowhere was safe and especially not in the city. The person or persons targeting her wouldn’t expect her to be out on the range and that’s most likely why Dex had started there. Rory could circle back to the original campsite for clues as to who this guy really was. There was another consideration. Dex might be a gun-for-hire but his identity could help lead them to his boss. Sheriff Sawmill needed an update, too. It was too risky to take Cadence to his office.

  “What’s going on? What are you thinking?” Cadence asked, breaking into his thoughts.

  “I have a crazy idea.”

  “It can’t be worse than sleeping in the back of a conversion vehicle in the freezing cold,” she joked. He’d missed that quick sense of humor. He’d missed her smile, too, but this wasn’t the time to make a laundry list of all her good qualities.

  “This is going to seem like The Four Seasons compared to what I’m about to recommend,” he admitted.

  “Oh, no. It is worse, isn’t it?” she asked on a laugh.

  “I can always take you back to the ranch,” he suggested.

  She shook her head and she was right. He was just throwing it out there to feel like he was giving her an out. There was no out. There was only catching the guy involved and forcing him to talk. Rory reminded himself that he’d been doing a terrible job of keeping her safe so far. She had the cuts, scrapes and swelling to prove it.

  A fresh sprig of anger sprouted, welling up inside him at his failures.

  “Hey. Remember that time I was in the barn when you first came to the ranch? I was cornered by a rat and completely freaking out,” Cadence said before taking a sip of water.

  “I think you asked me to go get your dad.” He chuckled. “You were practically climbing the walls.”

  “Do you remember what you told me?” she asked.

  He thought about it for a while. “Knowing me, it was probably something stupid like stay put until I take care of it.”

  She practically pinned him with her stare. It was the one she had that said she could see right through him and wasn’t buying anything he said.

  “You told me that I was wearing your favorite color. Blue. Like the sky.” She sounded a little offended that he didn’t recall. “And that I should focus on that while you took care of things.”

  “And did you listen?”

  “Yes. It kept me from panicking. I was able to calm down while you did whatever it was that you did to get rid of that thing,” she said. “Ever since then I think of the color blue when I get scared. I think of the beautiful Texas sky and it calms me down.”

  Well, damn. How was he supposed to respond to that? “I was a know-it-all kid back then. I would’ve said anything to keep you quiet and hold on to my job. As I remember, you told your father about the rat and he gave me a pat on the back. Told me I’d done a good job.”

  If his off-hand comment surprised her, she didn’t immediately show it.

  The warmth on her face faded when she said, “Guess you’ll say just about anything to get your way.”

  “Is that what you think?” Rory bit out through clenched teeth. He didn’t like being called a liar and he especially didn’t like the fact that all he could think about was kissing Cadence since he’d seen her.

  There was so much heat between them that when she leaned forward he could almost taste her. She smelled like flowers and he figured she’d washed up while in the hospital.

  Emotion overtook logic and Rory closed the gap between them until their lips pressed together. He couldn’t ignore the pull she had, so he stopped fighting it.

  He kissed her tenderly, afraid of doing anything that might hurt her.

  She parted her lips and welcomed his tongue inside her mouth. She tasted sweet and exactly like he remembered—a fact that he’d thought about far too many times in recent months while alone on the range.

  He brought his hand up to her neck and felt her pulse pounding at the base. The tempo matched his own as need stirred inside him.

  On some level, he knew this was a mistake. It would only complicate matters between them and make him want things he shouldn’t. But he couldn’t care about that while she brought her hands up to tunnel her fingers into his hair and deepen the kiss.

  Their breaths quickened as she scooted onto his lap and repositioned until her full breasts were flush against his chest.

  Rory dropped his hands to her sweet hips, which were fuller than before.

  But that put the brakes on for him because it also reminded him that she was pregnant.

  Running with his emotions instead of using his brain had gotten him into this mess in the first place—the one where his mind was convinced that he couldn’t live without her and that scared him more than any physical threat he’d faced.

  Plus, she was so damn sexy. He was already stiff and his length pulsed against her, so that made pulling back more difficult than climbing a rock covered in honey.

  “Cadence.” His mouth moved against her lips when he spoke.

  She pressed her forehead to his. “Yes.”

  “Is this a good idea?”

  “Probably not.”

  Silence sat between them, thick with sexual tension. It felt a little too good to be right where he was, to be holding her.

  Cadence finally blew out a slow breath, the kind meant to garner strength. And then she climbed off his lap.

  Cold air blew through the tent the minute she pulled away. Or was it just his imagination playing tricks on him? Either way, he retied the straps of the small cloth window meant to let light inside and tossed on another layer before exiting the tent.

  He’d almost let his emotions run wild and now all he could think about was that ki
ss. Just how much he’d missed Cadence was a punch to the gut.

  Maybe they’d both be better off if he made other arrangements for her. Being this close was messing with his mind.

  Was being this close to her a good idea?

  If it only involved him, he’d say no and move on with his life. But there were other lives to consider now.

  Could he be this close to Cadence and not fall for her again?

  Not kiss her again?

  Chapter Ten

  Seventy-two hours of rest in a tight space had Cadence ready to climb the walls. Three more days passing also meant that Christmas Eve was tomorrow. Thinking about her father not being there for the holiday caused a physical ache. Everything was going to be different this year.

  Her entire life had changed in less than half a year.

  She placed her hand on her belly. Technically, next year would be her babies’ first Christmas but ever since she’d felt one of the little bugs kick in her stomach, they were real to her. Before that, she’d felt like she had the flu for a few months and the reality of the pregnancy hadn’t been able to sink in while she spent most of her time trying to keep food down.

  “Good morning,” Rory said as he slipped inside the canopy. She hadn’t heard him leave, or return for that matter. But when she’d opened her eyes a few minutes ago she knew he was gone because his side of the mattress was empty.

  Cadence stretched sore arms and legs. The swelling in her ankle had gone down, which felt like a miracle.

  “What time is it?” She felt lost without her cell phone or any of her usual comforts from home.

  “Half past ten,” he said, handing her a cup of warm water. “Wish I had something to put inside to give it flavor. Didn’t you used to drink chamomile with lemon?”

  “Sometimes.” She was surprised he’d noticed those little things about her.

  “This is better than nothing.”

  “What’s it like out there?” She’d only left the pop-up tent to use the bathroom and take short walks. But she was amazed at how well Rory knew how to take care of injuries. He was used to relying on himself, on not having an ER on every street corner and she admired his independence. She always had and that was most likely part of the draw she felt toward him. That, and his ridiculous good looks. He had that rugged cowboy image nailed and his kiss had practically imprinted on her lips. She’d thought about it more than she wanted to admit in the last forty-eight hours.