by Regan Black
“Fox, it’s a mess. My mess. Just drop me off and extricate yourself while you can.”
“No. You’re staying. And not just because I still can’t cope when Baby John cries.”
The joke fell flat. He reached up and rubbed her shoulder. “Come on, Kelsey, you’ve been on hand for all my family drama.” She should have someone in her corner...and he wanted her to realize that someone was him.
Fox checked his rearview mirror as they drove through town. On a hunch, he took a turn where he might normally go straight and a beat-up van with a primer-gray door followed.
Kelsey swiveled around in her seat. “I knew the black car I saw at the ranch was too nice for them.”
Then who had been in the car watching his house? One problem at a time. Fox pulled into the gas station nearest the sheriff’s office, ignoring Kelsey’s miserable groan. The van cruised by, close enough for him to confirm the man in the seat was one of the men from the parking lot.
He went ahead and topped off the gas tank and as he drove off, the van trailed behind them.
“You won’t reconsider?” Kelsey asked.
“Would you in my place?”
“No,” she admitted, dejected.
“Start talking,” he said. He wanted to know what he was up against.
“My family history is a long, ugly story. I was born into a separatist community way up north. Rural, isolated. It might as well have been a different country.” She spoke quickly, listing off bullet points that should’ve been supported by a slideshow. “I am one of twelve children in my family, and I did help Mom with the babies younger than me. That’s all true. And I did run away from home when I was fourteen because I wanted to be more than a mother.”
He’d never thought she’d lied. “That’s fair.” The way her mind worked, he couldn’t imagine her happy if she couldn’t learn and explore.
“Not where I’m from.”
“Meaning?”
“I ran away,” she repeated. “I broke rank. My brothers have been trying to take me back ever since. If you let me go, they’ll leave you and the baby alone.”
“You’re afraid of them.” He glanced over. She was steadier now, calmer.
“More accurately, I don’t look forward to another confrontation. I don’t want you and Baby John getting tangled up in this. I can handle them.” She said it like an affirmation. “I have handled them before. It’s how I made it this far.”
“How old are you?”
Her auburn eyebrows snapped together. “Why is that relevant?”
Because it distracted her. “Twenty-eight or so?”
“Ha. I’m thirty and I know you know that.”
He managed to stifle the smile. “All I’m saying is that you’ve done a great job evading your persistent family on your own. I’m happy to lend a hand this time.” And in any future attempts, as well.
“What about the baby?”
He’d thought the same thing. “We’ll let him sleep through it.” Fox had to keep the mood light or she’d see exactly what he thought of her brothers scaring her this way.
She thumped her head back against the headrest a few times. “I didn’t think they’d catch up with me so quickly. I never would’ve agreed to help as a nanny if I’d known.”
“That might be my fault.” If he’d brought this on her, unwittingly or not, he’d fix it.
“How?”
“Do your brothers know what you do?”
“Pretty much. They’ve followed me everywhere and they’ve been in the real world enough to know girls can do math.”
Fox cringed at the backward mind-set. “I’ve mentioned you by name at the ranch and in town. This is on me.”
She shook her head. “I doubt it. They know how to hunt and track. We were in town for the baby, to deal with my car, and for plenty of other reasons these past few weeks. I worked my way through school waitressing or babysitting. That’s where they look first.”
Her assessment didn’t ease his guilt. If he’d kept her in the office as an assistant—the job she’d come for—this might not have even been an issue.
She reached over and patted his thigh. “Seriously, Fox, they always find me. I create escape plans every time or I wouldn’t be here now. If you pulled over, I could straighten them out.”
“Does straightening them out include leaving the Crooked C?”
“That would be the best thing for you,” she said softly.
He admired her honesty, though his chest constricted at the thought of her walking out of his life as easily as she’d walked in. “If you keep doing the same thing, you’ll keep getting the same result, Kelsey.”
“I’m aware.” She sighed. “Same goes for them.”
“True.” Fox decided he wouldn’t take no for an answer. “We’re almost to the ranch. If they come onto the property, we’ll stop. You’ll call Trey and I’ll press charges for trespassing.”
“That’s a bad tactic, Fox.”
“Just tell me who’s behind us.”
“My older brother, David, is the redhead in sunglasses,” Kelsey replied. “He brought Saul along this time.”
This time? He bristled. This would be the last time. “Is that good or bad?”
“Well, David has a mean streak. Saul keeps his cool and usually keeps David calm, but he can be sneaky.”
“Good to know.”
The van with her brothers boldly followed when he made the turn onto ranch property. He drove far enough to leave no doubt about the property lines or intentions before he pulled over. Shoving the gearshift into Park, he turned to her. “I’ll talk to them while you call Trey and drive on to the house.”
“Fox, it should be me doing the talking,” she protested.
Her voice cracked. It might be her family drama, but she needed an ally. Kelsey was a grown woman. She’d put herself though a rigorous college program and become a respected equine geneticist. How had she accomplished so much with a threat like this looming over her?
“Go.” He climbed out of the driver’s seat. They could argue later. “Get to the house and take care of John.” He glanced toward the battered van. “I’ll deal with this.”
“But—”
“Go.” He turned away, had to trust her to do the right thing for the baby if not herself.
The van slowed and stopped several car lengths behind his truck. Grateful they hadn’t tried to run him down, Fox gave her brothers a point for common sense.
He walked closer to the van as Kelsey eased away. It felt like a victory already that she was doing as he asked, trusting him to handle this.
“You lost?” Fox asked the driver, Kelsey’s brother David. He seemed a bit thicker through the shoulders than Saul.
“We know exactly where we are,” Saul replied.
David’s mouth slanted into a sneer. “You have something that belongs to us. We’re here to collect.”
“I can’t imagine what that would be,” Fox replied.
“The woman raising your kid is our sister,” David snapped.
“Easy,” Saul said to his brother, then turned back to Fox. “We don’t expect you to know or understand the whole story.”
David drummed his fingers on the steering wheel while Saul spun a tale of Kelsey being abducted and brainwashed.
The story was so outrageous, the picture they painted of her so bizarre, it seemed only her name had been kept the same. Though he wanted to challenge them, Fox thought better of it. He was currently outnumbered and unarmed. Despite this being his property, he couldn’t risk hoping that the brothers weren’t carrying weapons of some kind.
“Interesting,” he said. “Bottom line, you’re on private property. You need to turn around now.” He pulled out his phone. “I’ll have to call the sheriff if you refuse.”
“We just want to take o
ur sister home where she belongs,” Saul told him. “We’ve missed her.”
David’s sneer returned. “I’m sure she’s great with your brat, but she has family responsibilities elsewhere.”
A voice in Fox’s head clamored that Kelsey was his family. And Baby John was not a brat. He struggled to keep his hands loose while a vision of pounding this jerk into the ground hazed his vision. “Where can Kelsey reach you?”
Saul handed Fox a business card from a cheap motel outside of town. “My number’s on the back. We look forward to hearing from you.”
“Have her call soon,” David snarled. “Or you’ll regret it. I’d hate to see this nice spread torn up for no reason.”
“Is that a threat?”
Saul’s smile was oily. “No,” he said smoothly. “We don’t want trouble. Just our sister.”
David rolled up his window and backed away. His tires kicked up dust and debris when he made a U-turn and hit the gas.
Fox dusted himself off once they were out of sight. Then he checked his phone and smiled—he’d managed to get good pictures of their faces and van along with the entirety of the license plate. That would help both the sheriff and Wyatt when he reported this pair of annoying trespassers.
* * *
Quickly adjusting the driver’s seat, Kelsey drove away, her eyes on the rearview and side mirrors for as long as possible. Her brothers weren’t killers, but that didn’t make them safe people. She called the police, reporting trespassers on the ranch without naming her brothers.
Coward.
What lies would they tell Fox? Would they try to convince him she was married? Her father had drawn up a marriage contract on her fourteenth birthday and scheduled the wedding for the weekend after she turned eighteen.
No choices for her. No chance to fall in love with a boy her own age. The contract was only binding within the confines of the community. That was small comfort when her brothers were feeding Fox lies so they could take her home.
They’d gotten her fired before. During her sophomore year in college they’d nearly cost her the scholarship she’d busted her butt to earn. Without her aunt’s intervention at that time, who knows where she’d be now.
Her palms went damp and her anxiety returned with a vengeance, pulling tight across her shoulders. She focused on her breath, leaning on the earliest lessons of the martial arts classes she’d taken to protect herself. Parking in front of the big red barn, her thoughts skittered like the colorful leaves in the autumn breeze.
The baby’s safety was paramount. She should call Wyatt and the ranch manager. Maybe it would be better to drive over and ask Bailey to keep an eye on Baby John so she could go back for Fox. As she reached for the key to do just that, the baby started fussing. The sound snapped her out of the tizzy. They would be safe upstairs and she could make more calls from there.
She was familiar enough with the ranch now to have a good idea of how long it would take Fox to walk back. With that timer running in her head, she lifted the baby from his car seat and headed inside, locking the doors behind her. Heading straight back to the nursery, she rocked him back to sleep and then tucked him into the crib.
She peered through the windows after bringing in the groceries, but there was still no sign of Fox. Her heart heavy, she walked back to the room she’d initially shared with the baby.
Packing now meant less of a delay when he kicked her out. She had faith in Fox, but it was nearly impossible to believe things would work out. Her brothers were master manipulators.
She’d miss this place and the man who’d built it. His breeding program was an excellent fit for her interests and skills. She pressed her hands to her eyes, refusing to cry. There were other places she could be useful but she’d never find another ranch as beautiful as this one or a boss as smart and dedicated and sexy.
Not that sexy was a trait she actively sought in a boss. Fox was the exception. This was the first and only time she’d trampled on the line between personal and professional activities.
She heard someone pounding on the door and her body braced for battle a moment before she heard Fox calling her name. She rushed downstairs to let him in before he woke the baby.
She flung open the door, the urge to jump into his arms immediately quelled by the thunderous expression on his face.
“They told me you’d be gone.”
“I’d never leave the baby.” She pointed to the monitor on her hip. “I’m sure they told you a lot of things.” She stepped back to give him room, pleased when he turned the dead bolt, locking them inside.
“I didn’t believe them,” he said, his voice ragged.
She glared up at him. “Right. That explains why you were so happy to see me answer your door.” She shook the tension from her hands. Being angry with him solved nothing. He wasn’t the first person her brothers had fooled. Resigned, she started up the stairs.
“Kelsey, wait.”
She didn’t.
He caught her at the landing and turned her around. She was prepared to quit, to spare him the hassle of firing her, but then her resolve slipped as he gathered her close. He was shaking all over, his heart hammering under her ear. She stroked his back, trying to soothe him.
“Fox?” His reaction shocked her. “What is it? What did they say?”
“Hush.” His arms banded around her, making it hard to breathe. Then he kissed her with a needy desperation. “You...you’re here,” he said, easing back. He traced her jaw with his thumb, tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “That’s all that matters.”
She looked up into his face and knew better. “What did they tell you?” He kissed her, his lips trembling, and she knew she was in for an uphill battle. “Do I need to pack?”
He nudged her into his home. “Only if you want to go back with them.”
“Never.” The idea of returning to her original family held no appeal.
“Then stay.”
“That’s it?” It couldn’t be that easy.
“I’d like you to tell me the whole story, but only when you’re ready.”
She owed him that much and sooner rather than later. No matter what he’d said to make her brothers leave, they would be back. “I’m ready.”
Fox fixed himself a cup of coffee and a cup of hot cocoa for her and set both on the kitchen island. “If I could, I’d pack up all three of us and head out of here tonight,” he said.
Her mouth dropped open. “You can’t,” she protested. “Your entire life is here.”
“Well, if I can’t go, then neither can you,” he said. “You’re an indispensable part of my life here.”
“If you’re worried they’ll be back—”
“I sure of it,” he interjected.
“Take comfort that they only want me,” she finished. “They won’t hurt the baby.”
“That’s not any comfort at all,” he said. “They struck me as motivated enough to ignore any collateral damage.”
She dunked a miniature marshmallow into the cocoa with her spoon. “I’m sorry.”
“Talk to me,” he urged gently. “I’ve spoken with Wyatt and the sheriff and we’re all on alert to their threats, but you know them best.”
The chocolate turned bitter in her mouth. “What threats? They tell lies about me and why they’re trying to take me back, but they’ve never threatened anyone before.”
“Why, Kelsey?”
“Money.” She yanked out the band and pins and let her hair unwind. Massaging her scalp, she gathered her thoughts. “If they take me back, they can profit when the marriage contract is fulfilled.” There, the worst of it was out.
Fox’s lips pursed. “You said you left home just before your fifteenth birthday.”
“I did. My brothers told you I was abducted?”
“They did,” Fox confirmed. “It was quite a tale.”
“A few months before I escaped, I was in town with my mother, running herd on my siblings. I bumped into a woman who looked familiar. It was my mother’s oldest sister. I hadn’t seen her in years. She left the family after her husband died in an accident. Her father had been arranging her second marriage during the funeral.”
“Cold.”
“Normal,” Kelsey corrected. “Where I grew up that was normal.” It was so hard to explain it to outsiders. “Aunt Greta told me she’d come to love her first husband. They’d only had one child, a girl, and the man her father wanted her to marry next was much older. He had no use for little girls. She left to make sure her daughter wouldn’t be taken from her.”
Kelsey sipped her cocoa. “When she and her daughter left, they were written out of our family history. My mother never mentioned her name again. I figured out Greta helped others who wanted to leave our community. When I escaped, I ran to her.”
“So not everyone is tracked down and harassed the way your brothers hound you?”
She shook her head. “What else did they tell you?”
“They blustered.”
There was plenty he left unsaid, but that was secondary. Fox couldn’t find the right solution without all of the information. “They won’t give up on me because of the marriage contract my father negotiated when I was fourteen,” she said.
“Fourteen?”
His shock rolled over her and he shot to his feet, outraged.
“The wedding was delayed until I turned eighteen,” she added quickly. “Money changed hands, though, so time is irrelevant. Based on what Aunt Greta learned, it comes down to mineral rights. A major deposit spans both properties. My brothers won’t profit unless both families agree to let the developers in.”
“Which is why your marriage was arranged in the first place.” Scowling, he braced his hands on his hips. “This is appalling.”
She agreed. “My father died a few years ago but the contract is considered binding within the community. My brothers are determined to get rich.”