“Do I need to muzzle you?” I demanded.
She clamped her mouth shut and shook her head.
“The contractions are lasting longer and are closer together,” Sahdev said. “I expect that the baby will come in the next hour.”
Nyx hurried up the hall, carrying a cup of ice chips and a spoon. “There’s cold beer in the garage fridge. Looks like you could use one.”
“Thanks, Nyx.”
She handed the ice chips to Sahdev, who lifted a spoonful to Libby’s mouth.
“I’m going to stay and keep an eye on Jerrilyn,” Nyx said, taking a seat in a rocking chair. “Make sure she plays nice with the good doctor.” She picked up one of the discarded neckties and snapped it between her hands. Her meaning was clear. One disrespectful word directed at Sahdev, and Nyx would gag her.
I wandered toward the living room, where Kyle and Levi sprawled on the leather couches. They looked exhausted and demoralized.
“I thought I’d feel like celebrating once we beat the Wilcox Brigade,” Levi said. “But I don’t want to party. I feel like going to bed and sleeping for a week.”
I’d seen this reaction before. “It’s not unusual to feel down after a successful operation. You’ve been through a lot, seen a lot. Shouldn’t expect to feel like partying.”
Levi gave a wan smile and nodded.
“Where’s Bear?” I asked.
“Outside,” Kyle said. “I think he’s checking out the condition of the ranch.”
“Gonna go introduce myself.” The brawl I’d provoked by insulting the cowboy hardly counted as a real introduction. I walked outside. Couldn’t see Bear from the porch. I was halfway to the big barn when I spied him on top of a small hill.
No mistaking where he was, even though I never visited the place. A wrought-iron fence surrounded at least a dozen upright gravestones. I hiked up the hill, swung open the gate, and entered the Rasmussen family cemetery. Bear stood with his hands on his hips, staring down at a wide patch of overturned dirt.
Wasn’t my place to break the silence, so I waited for him to speak. My gaze wandered over the headstones. The largest and oldest stone bore the names Erick and Borghild Rasmussen. They died a few days apart in 1894. A Viking ship was carved into the granite and below it the words Takk for Alt. My lips moved as I sounded the words out in my mind. Thanks for all? Thanks for everything, maybe?
“The brigade killed my family and our ranch hands.” Bear spoke without looking at me. “I’d wondered what they did with the bodies.” He pointed at the disturbed soil. “Looks like they actually buried them, here, in the family plot.”
“If that’s right, it’s the only decent thing they ever did.”
He swung his head toward me, and his gaze moved up and down my body, pausing on my Janissary cut. He extended a hand. “Thank you. For saving Valhalla. For saving me. Kyle said you all are looking for a place to settle. You’d be more than welcome to stay here.”
“Appreciate that.” I shook his hand.
“I got to admit, I’m surprised that a member of a motorcycle club rode to my rescue. I don’t know much about you folks, other than what I’ve seen on TV. Guess I figured a biker had to be bad news, especially after dealing with that other fellow.”
“Tuck was bad news. A violent, abusive piece of shit. But I get it. I made a bad first impression.”
“You sure did,” Bear acknowledged with a grin. “But Kyle tells me you’re a good man, that you’re the leader of your group.”
“Yeah, I am the leader.”
“I’m not looking to sign on under your command,” he said slowly. “Valhalla is my family’s ranch. I know how to run it, and I don’t need anybody second-guessing my decisions.”
“Don’t know shit about ranching, but I’m willing to learn how to pull my weight,” I said. “What I do know is how to defend a property, how to fight, and how to protect my people from harm. You and me, I see no reason why we should butt heads.”
“I run the ranch. You’re in charge of security,” Bear said.
“Something like that.”
“And if we end up locking horns down the line?” he asked.
I shrugged. “We’ll either work it out or we won’t. It’s a big, empty country. Plenty of places to start over. But we can both try hard to make sure it doesn’t come to that.”
“Fair enough.” He tilted his head, eyeing me. “I was about to take a pickup and drive the access roads, checking the fences. Do you want to come along?”
The man was making a friendly overture, one I’d be a fool to reject.
“Be happy to.”
We spent the next hour driving around the ranch, while Bear assessed how much damage the brigade’s neglect had done to the place. When we pulled up in front of the house, Kyle greeted us on the porch.
“Libby had the baby. A little girl. Mom and daughter are both fine.”
“That’s good.” I’d check in on them later. Right now, I wanted to see Mac.
“She hasn’t stirred,” Hannah whispered when I entered the room.
“It’s no wonder,” I said in a low voice. “We got no sleep last night and after Tuck tried to kill her...” I couldn’t finish the sentence. The image of Tuck’s triumphant smile as he strangled Mac flashed before my eyes. My shoulders tightened and my hands balled into fists. Wished like hell I could kill the bastard again.
“Hey.” Hannah reached out, but hesitated, her fingers inches from my arm, like she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to touch me. I forced my muscles to relax and wiped the rage from my face before looking at the girl. Her brow puckered and she spoke hesitantly. “She’s going to be okay, you know.”
“Yeah. She is. We all are.” I glanced around the room. “Did you and Levi pack up Mac’s stuff? I wanna put up her moon lantern.”
“I know where it is. Be right back.” Hannah dashed from the room.
Light filtered into the room from the gap between the window frame and the blinds. Holding my breath, I bent over Mac. God. The bruises mottling her neck and face would haunt me forever. Hannah tiptoed back into the room and handed me the solar light.
“I’m going to go find Levi,” she whispered.
I set up the moon lantern, then stretched out next to Mac in the bed. Fatigue caught up with me. I dozed, waking up when the mattress shifted.
My eyes snapped open. Mac had rolled on her side. We lay face to face, and she looked at me, her eyelids heavy. She ran her knuckles over my jaw, smiling like she always did when her fingers brushed against the stubble. The woman loved my bristles, loved me to drag my chin over the soft skin of her thighs and breasts.
“Razor burn.” Her raspy voice was like a knife in my gut, reminding me of what she’d endured, of everything we almost lost.
I turned my head and kissed her palm. “You shouldn’t try to talk. Remember, Sahdev said you probably have a bruised larynx.” She frowned and shook her head. I pressed a finger against her lips. “Mean it, Mac. Rest your voice. You’re safe. Our friends are safe. Valhalla is ours. You got all the time in the world to say everything you want to say.”
She nodded and clutched my hand, her eyes glowing in the dim light. Her lips moved, silently shaping the words I love you.
“Love you too, darlin’.” I kissed her, then sat up, swinging my legs onto the floor and heading for the door. “I want Sahdev to check out your injuries again.”
I found Sahdev, Bear, and Kyle in the living room, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
“Mac woke up,” I told Sahdev. “You mind taking a look at her?”
He jumped up and hustled down the hallway toward the bedroom. I took his place on the leather recliner and leaned forward to address the men.
“We need to talk about Jerrilyn and Libby,” I said. “I got sympathy for a woman who just gave birth, who just lost her husband. And, of course, I don’t want any harm to come to the baby, but I can’t see how any of them have a place at Valhalla.”
“We could n
ever trust Jerrilyn,” Kyle said. “She’s going to want payback for her son and nephews.”
“She’s toxic. Rotten to the core,” I said.
“I don’t want to be a heartless bastard.” Kyle sighed. “But whether she wants to or not, Libby’s got to go, too. We can’t build a new life with a Nazi lover in our midst.”
“Even if she didn’t pull the trigger herself, Libby thought it was fine to kill my family in order to take the ranch.” Bear’s eyes were hard, his expression unforgiving. “You’re right. There’s no place for either of them at Valhalla.”
“I’ll talk to Sahdev. See how long Libby needs to recover before it’s safe to send her and Jerrilyn on their way. Until then, we got secure rooms in the back of the house where we can keep the old woman.” Maybe it was petty, but I liked the notion of locking Jerrilyn away in the same room that had held Sahdev. Give her a taste of her own medicine. I stood and looked at Bear. “Let’s go tell them our decision.”
I knocked on the door to Libby’s room. Nyx opened the door and gestured for us to come in. Libby was propped up against a pile of pillows, holding the sleeping baby in her arms. Jerrilyn, still zip tied to the chair, scowled at us.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to hold my granddaughter.” She tugged on the wrist restraints, bringing home her point.
“I’ll cut you loose for fifteen minutes.” I flicked open my knife and cut the plastic ties.
Bear approached the bed. “Do you mind if she holds the baby?” he asked Libby.
“It’s okay.”
Bear took the bundle from Libby and gently peeled back the blanket to peer at the baby’s face. The baby closed her tiny fist around his finger. Bear’s expression grew soft. “She’s a beautiful little girl. What’d you name her?”
“Emily. After my sister.”
“Hi there, sweetie,” he said.
Bear handed Emily to Jerrilyn. She touched the baby’s nose and the blond curls on top of her head. “I told you.” She raised a smug face to Libby. “All that heartburn meant that the baby’d be born with a full head of hair. She looks just like Boyd did when he was brand new.”
“You can’t stay.” I got right to the point.
“You’ll let us leave?” Jerrilyn asked. “You’re not planning on killing us?”
“Don’t make a habit of killing women,” I said. “Unless they give me no choice. We’ll give you a car, a full tank of gas, food and water, and all the things you’ve set aside for the baby.”
“This is a one-time act of clemency,” Bear added. “Don’t show your faces around these parts again.”
“You’d send two defenseless women out into the world without a weapon?” Jerrilyn asked in a phony, helpless voice that raised my hackles.
Bear snorted. “Lady, you’re a far cry from helpless. And you’re smart enough to know we mean it. You’ll stay gone.”
“We will,” Libby spoke up. “I’m from Idaho Falls. I just want to go home. I promise you’ll never see us again.”
“All right,” I said. “Soon as the doc says it’s safe for you and the baby to travel, you’ll go.”
“One thing I gotta know,” Bear said. “Was it my people you buried in the family cemetery, or yours?”
“Yours,” Jerrilyn said. “Boyd wanted to dump the bodies in a ravine, but Libby cried—you know, pregnancy hormones—and asked him to give them a proper burial. We had the boys dig a grave and put the four of them in the ground.”
“Four?” Bear startled. “What do you mean four?”
Jerrilyn shrugged. “A middle-aged couple and two hired men.”
“Those were the only people you found on the ranch?”
“Yes.”
“What’s going on?” I asked Bear.
“When I left for Wyoming to buy a horse, my younger brother was here,” Bear said. “If he’d died from the flu while I was gone, my parents would’ve buried him in the family plot. Put up a marker. They didn’t. The brigade didn’t kill him. So...where’s Finn?”
FORTY-EIGHT
Kenzie
Six weeks later
The screen door burst open and Hannah dashed onto the porch, her black hair flying around her shoulders as she danced with excitement. “Come on. Hurry up,” she called into the house.
“What’s up?” I asked, looking up from my book, the tale of a lusty eighteenth-century Highland lord and the dainty English beauty he kidnapped.
A few days after Tuck’s attack, when I was growing restless from enforced bedrest, Bear had knocked on my door. “Thought you might like these,” the laconic cowboy said. “I found them in the back of my mama’s closet.” He deposited a box of books on the foot of my bed.
I eagerly delved into the box. Bear’s mother had a secret stash of old bodice rippers, a positive treasure trove of politically incorrect, alpha-male excess. Vikings. Highland warriors. Medieval knights. Arrogant dukes. Pirates. A Wild West sheriff or two. Clearly, Bear’s mother was a woman after my own heart; I wish I could have met her.
I placed a finger in the book to hold my place. “What’s up?” I repeated.
“Bear promised to give me another horseback riding lesson, and Nyx said she’d watch.”
Bear ambled onto the porch, followed by Nyx. He nodded at me. “Afternoon, Kenzie.”
“Hi, Bear.”
“Come on.” Hannah tugged on his sleeve.
“No complaints about mucking out the stalls afterwards,” Bear reminded her, a sore subject after their last lesson.
“I promise.” She fished in her pocket and held up the contents. “I brought cotton balls to stuff up my nose and eucalyptus gel to rub underneath. I’m all set.”
Bear’s brow puckered, as if he couldn’t decide if she was serious. Finally, shrugging, he led the way toward the stables, Hannah on his heels, chatting eagerly.
“Is she yanking his chain?” Nyx asked, laughing.
“I’m not sure,” I confessed. “Last week she asked him to teach her how to ‘lasso a varmint.’ You should have seen his face. Bear is always so...unruffled. I think she likes trying to get a rise out of him.”
Nyx stared after their retreating figures. “She’s not the only one. I’d like to get a rise out of the big guy myself.”
“Nyx!”
“What?” She rolled her eyes. “You think I should be the only woman around here not getting some?”
What could I say to that?
Hannah turned around and waved at us. “Nyx, you promised.”
“That’s my cue.” She dropped a kiss on my upturned cheek. “Later, babe.” Nyx strolled across the yard, putting a little extra swing in her hips.
I smiled to myself. For all his old-fashioned manners and aw-shucks cowboy charm, Bear Rasmussen had been a rodeo star and no stranger to adoring females. At the last Round-Up, Kyle and I had watched him in action, trailing a bevy of admiring fans. Nyx might be surprised to discover that he was more than capable of handling her charm offensive.
I settled back into the porch swing and opened my book. Half an hour later, a silver pickup loaded with firewood parked in front of the house. Ripper and Kyle climbed out and headed toward the house, Hector on their heels.
“Looks like you guys got quite a haul,” I commented as the men climbed the porch. Hector trotted over to me and sniffed my outstretched hand before flopping down at my feet.
“Gonna be a long winter.” Ripper dropped down next to me on the swing. “We’ll need a shit-ton of firewood to get through it.”
It was late August—hot and sunny—but the men had already stockpiled cords of wood against the coming winter.
“Hey, Kenz.” Kyle’s lips curved up, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. I frowned. That was happening more and more of late.
“You all right?” I asked.
“I’m fine, sweetheart. Just tired. Think I’ll clean up and lie down for a while.” He looked at Ripper. “Call me when you’re ready to stack the wood.”
“Will do.”
“I noticed that, too. He’s been having trouble sleeping. Hear him walking around the house at night. Sometimes I find him sitting on the front steps, staring at the stars.”
“I thought everything would be good once we took Valhalla back from the brigade, but it hasn’t been that simple,” I said. “Bear hasn’t found any sign of his little brother. Sahdev blames himself for Tuck attacking me—”
Ripper raised his brows. “Doc made a tough call. Gotta admit, I wish there’d been a better option. When he turned himself over to the brigade, he outed you as a traitor to their cause.”
“It was a chaotic situation,” I said quietly. “Sahdev was thinking about Libby and the baby. Besides, Nyx was in the room with the brigade. We couldn’t have gone out the window together and left her behind.”
Ripper sighed. “Yeah. I get it. Don’t like it, but I get it. Sure as hell don’t want the doc to beat himself up over the way it went down.”
“Me, neither.” I twined my fingers through his. “And Kyle hasn’t been himself.”
Ripper blew out a breath. “I’ll talk to Kyle, try to get him to open up.”
“Good.” I scooted close and leaned against his chest. “Not so long ago, I never would have guessed that you and Kyle would become friends.”
“You and me both, but here we are.” He drew back. “I’ve been chopping wood all morning. I’m rank.”
“I don’t care.” I snuggled close. “I’ll take you any way I can get you.”
He slung an arm around my shoulders, and we slowly glided back and forth in the swing. In the distance, a peal of laughter erupted from Nyx.
“Nyx plans to make a move on Bear,” I said.
“Huh,” Ripper grunted. “Didn’t see that coming.”
“Sometimes the unlikeliest people end up together.” I smiled as soon as the words passed my lips.
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