Guardian Ranger

by Cynthia Eden

  “Everybody has a strength. Everybody has a weakness. Your strength, Ronnie, is that you look weak. Use that. Never let ’em see your real strength, not until it’s time to attack.”

  “I admire loyalty.” He stepped away from her. A faint breeze stirred the hair at her nape. “Do you think you ever could’ve been loyal to me?”

  She didn’t know what to say. The man was crazy, and at any moment, she expected him to snap and just shoot her. Her gaze darted to the left and tension had her body stiffening.

  The long, black car. The one that had run her off the road.

  “Jimmy’s car.” Now Wyatt sounded sad. “You and Jasper got the description right.”

  “You were driving. Not Jimmy.”

  “You had the flash drive.” Just that fast, anger whipped in his words. “The files should have been gone, but you had them.”

  She wouldn’t let him see her fear. “I gave the flash drive to Sydney. She has the evidence that can clear my brother.”

  He growled. “It wasn’t just the damn drive. It was all those pictures you kept talking about. Pictures from Cale’s time in the military.”

  Her breath caught. The pictures had linked Cale to Reed, but they hadn’t been much help for anything else.

  “Was I in those pictures, Veronica?” Wyatt asked her softly.

  She’d known that Wyatt had served in the army, but Veronica shook her head.

  “You wouldn’t be lying now, would you? Because those pictures...I won’t let them ruin things for me. Cale served with me when we had demolitions training.”

  Demolitions...the bomb at the sheriff’s station...

  “Reed was with us then. That’s how I knew he was in the business. With all those agents still circling town, I can’t have those pictures turning up.”

  “Y-you weren’t in the pictures,” she whispered, and it was the truth. He wasn’t.

  He exhaled slowly. “Well, then, I guess I just blew your house to hell for no reason. But, hey...” Now he flashed her a smile that held the edge of insanity. “Better safe than sorry, right?”

  How had he hid his darkness? “Why?”

  “For money, of course. Isn’t that why people do most of the things in this world?” He rolled his shoulders. “But when the smoke clears, it won’t be me who gets blamed for the crimes.” His smile had dimmed. “Folks will say Jimmy blew up your house. Just like he destroyed my station. Then, torn up by what he’d done, Jimmy came back here and shot himself.”

  Her knees buckled. Wyatt grabbed her, held her steady.

  Her lashes had lowered. She put her hands on his stomach, acting as if she needed balance.

  Don’t show him your strength.

  “You said you took care of him.”

  “And I did.” A pause. “Pity that kid never appreciated the lessons I taught him.”

  She shoved against his chest, and because he hadn’t been expecting the move, it was easy for her to grab the gun he’d had holstered at his waist. Her hand snapped up, fingers locked around the weapon. “Get away from me!”

  Wyatt blinked at her in surprise, and then his gaze dipped down to the gun that was inches away from him. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “And you shouldn’t have been a cold-blooded killer, so I guess we’ve both screwed up, huh?”

  Wyatt flashed his smile once more. The sight chilled her. “Veronica, you’ve got more steel in your spine than I thought.”

  She’d show him steel, or rather, lead, when she shot a bullet into his chest. “Why do you want Jasper out here? Is he next on your hit list?” she whispered. “Another EOD agent that you’ve been paid to take out, one that you were supposed to link back to Cale?”

  “Give me the gun, Veronica.”

  She couldn’t back up because the patrol car was behind her. She couldn’t move forward because Wyatt was blocking her path. “Get back!” she yelled.

  He didn’t get back. “You won’t shoot me.” So confident.

  “Yes. I will.” She was just as confident. “You were the one on the side of that road, shooting at me. Not Jimmy. You.”

  He still had that slight smile on his lips. “How are you gonna prove that?”

  “When Jasper gets h-here, he’ll take you into custody. We’ll find Jimmy. We’ll get proof that you were behind everything and not—”

  “Your Jasper’s gonna die today. Cale’s gonna die. They’ll both go out in a gun battle as they try to save you.” He gave a slow shake of his head. “But they aren’t gonna save you, either.”

  Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. “I can save myself.”

  “No, you can’t.” Then he lunged for her.

  She shot him. Didn’t so much as hesitate. The gun blasted and her ears rang and the bullet slammed into his stomach.

  His eyes widened in surprise as he looked down at the blossoming red on his shirt. Wyatt stumbled back, and she took that opportunity to slam her shoulder into him and knock him to the ground. Then she ran as fast as she could—not toward the old highway, but toward that long, black car that sat near the side of the crumbling house. Jimmy’s car. Because she could just see the top of Jimmy’s head in the car.

  She yanked open the passenger door. “Jimmy!” He was inside, his hands and feet tied. And his chest was bleeding. So much blood. She reached for him, yanking the ropes free that bound his wrists. He’d taken a shot straight to the chest.

  “Ms. Ver...on...” He tried to speak, but the words just came out as a rasp.

  “It’s okay. I’m going to help you, Jimmy.” He’d escaped this hellhole of a ranch once. She wasn’t letting him die there. She tried to slide him over to the passenger side. Wyatt had left the kid behind the steering wheel. She’d move him over and drive them both out of there. She rushed around to the driver’s side and—

  “Veronica!”

  Her head jerked to the left at that bellow. Wyatt was on his feet. He had reached into his patrol car. Pulled out— Oh, no, that was a shotgun in his hands. He’d gotten a shotgun, and he was pointing it at her.

  She jumped into Jimmy’s car. The back window shattered behind her. Ducking, she searched under the seat for the keys. Nothing. Not there. Not...

  “I’ve got the keys, Veronica!” Wyatt called out. “Why don’t you come and get them?”

  She wasn’t coming for them...because she didn’t need them.

  She grabbed the wires underneath the dash. Yanked down hard. Twisted them. Jerked the ends together and...

  The motor sparked to life. During all of Cale’s car talks with her, he’d made sure to teach her a few tricks over the years.

  “Hold on,” Veronica whispered to Jimmy. Then she slammed the vehicle into Reverse.

  She glanced up, just in time to see Wyatt standing behind the car. Aiming his shotgun at her. She slammed her foot down harder on the accelerator.

  The back bumper rammed into Wyatt even as he fired the gun. The blast had her jumping and yanking the wheel to the right. The car swerved, but beneath her sweat-slick hands, she managed to keep the vehicle steady. She glanced around wildly. Wyatt had disappeared or maybe—maybe she’d just taken him out and he was on the ground. Either way, she wasn’t about to get out of the car and check. She was just getting her and Jimmy the hell out of there.

  She shifted, preparing to head straight out on that bumpy drive, when a shotgun was shoved into the open driver’s-side window. The shotgun pressed right against her head. “Get out or die right there,” Wyatt snarled.

  She froze.

  “Get. Out.”

  Slowly, carefully, she eased from the car. Jimmy whimpered beside her. “No...Ms. Ver...on...”

  The right side of Wyatt’s face was covered in blood. His stomach was soaked red. But the guy was standing strong. The second she cleared the car, he jerked her against him. “Guess what?” he whispered as he put the barrel of that shotgun under her chin.

  She didn’t want to guess anything. She wanted to see Cale once more. She wanted to
see Jasper. Jasper. She wanted him so much.

  “It’s empty.”

  It took a moment for the words to register. Then she heard Wyatt’s smug laugh. “You could’ve gotten away.”

  She wasn’t looking at him. Barely felt the shotgun as it was yanked away and dropped in the dirt. Her gaze was on the driveway before her. A blue car was fishtailing as it swerved down that jagged road. And to the right, a motorcycle was coming right out of the overgrown brush.

  Wyatt bent and pulled a small pistol from the holster on his ankle. “This is the moment,” he said in her ear, “the life-or-death moment that everyone talks about but so damn few get to experience. I’ll give this moment to you.”

  Jasper had just jumped out of the blue car. He was closing in on her. He had a gun gripped in his hands. “Let her go!”

  Cale was shoving away from the motorcycle. He was armed, too, with a small gun that he had pointed right at Wyatt. “There’s no way out for you, Wyatt! Get away from my sister!”

  “Neither one of them will shoot,” Wyatt whispered in her ear. “Because they’re scared they’ll hit you.” He’d positioned the gun under her chin, holding it in exactly the same spot he’d put the shotgun. Only this time, she was betting this gun was loaded and ready to kill. “Or maybe they’re just afraid I’ll pull the trigger.”

  Her head was tilted back against him as she tried to get away from that weapon. But there was no place to go. She couldn’t get free.

  The two men she loved most were closing in. Just about ten feet away from her now. Why was Wyatt letting them come so close?

  Because he’s going to kill them both. Her breath stilled. That was Wyatt’s plan. He was using her to lure Jasper and Cale closer. And when they were close enough, he’d shoot one man, and the other still wouldn’t fire back because he’d be afraid of shooting her.

  Neither one of them will shoot.

  Wyatt had that part right. But he was still wrong about one thing. “I can save myself,” she whispered again. But it wasn’t just about surviving this mess. She was ready to risk her life for the men that she loved.

  You don’t risk your life for nothing. Cale’s number three rule. But this risk wasn’t for nothing. It was for everything. For their lives.

  She looked into Cale’s eyes. Her brother was only about seven feet away now. She’d never seen such fear in his eyes.

  “It’s going to be okay, Ronnie,” Cale told her. “You’ll make it out of this.”

  Would he?

  Her gaze darted to Jasper. No fear there. Just desperate determination. An intensity that would have scared her if she didn’t know him so well. He was looking at Wyatt, and promising death. “Get your hands off her!” Jasper snarled.

  “You messed this up for me,” Wyatt yelled right back at him. “You weren’t supposed to be EOD. You were just supposed to be a mercenary. Expendable...dead.”

  And she knew that Wyatt was going to shoot at Jasper first. Because Wyatt would rely on Cale’s bond with Veronica. A brother wouldn’t shoot at his sister, right? Jasper was the variable threat that Wyatt would want to eliminate first.

  I won’t let you kill him. She’d just found Jasper. He wasn’t dying.

  “He’s not...expendable,” she said, her voice flat and cold. “You are.” Then she drove her elbow into his ribs as hard as she could. He jerked behind her, startled, and the gun slipped away from her chin, moving about two inches.

  That two inches was all that she needed.

  She leaped toward Jasper even as she screamed, “Shoot him, Cale!”

  Jasper’s arms were reaching for her. She tried to push him back because she was afraid Wyatt would take the shot. But Jasper was too strong. Always so strong. He twisted, protecting her, using his body as a shield.

  Gunfire exploded behind her. Once. Twice.

  Then she felt the hard jerk that knocked Jasper—as a bullet hit him?

  “Jasper!”

  They were both on the ground. Jasper was on top of her, covering her with his body. But no, she’d wanted to protect him.

  “Jasper?” she whispered.

  His head lifted. He stared down at her with so much emotion blazing in his eyes that she couldn’t speak again. “Stay here,” he whispered, and he rose.

  He turned his back on her, and she saw the blood. The bullet had hit him. A bullet that she’d tried so hard to stop.

  She pushed to her knees.

  Cale was standing over Wyatt’s prone body. Cale’s legs were braced apart and his gun was trained on the sheriff. Only Wyatt wasn’t moving.

  “He’s dead!” Cale shouted. “Take care of Veronica!”

  Jasper turned toward her, but she was already wrapping her arms around him. His body trembled against hers, and that tremble scared her more than anything else. Jasper was always strong. Always so in control. Always...

  He kissed her. Hard, desperate. His arms wrapped around her so tightly that her ribs hurt. She didn’t care. She held him just as tightly, clinging to him as fiercely as she could.

  It had been too close. Too close. In those terrible moments, she’d realized...I don’t want to be without him.

  “Scared me,” Jasper rasped against her mouth.

  She could feel his blood on her fingertips. He was still scaring her. “Jasper, you’re hurt.” Serious understatement. The bullet hadn’t come out; she could see that much for herself. It was still lodged in his back.

  “Won’t ever...lose you...”

  “No,” she whispered at once. “You won’t. Jasper—”

  “Love you...Veronica Lane...”

  She couldn’t breathe. “Jasper, I love you, too!” She stood on her toes to kiss him again and that was when they fell. Jasper’s body seemed to crumble against hers, and they hit the ground. “Jasper?”

  She tried to shake him, to get him back up, but his eyes were closed. He wasn’t moving.

  “Jasper!”

  But he wasn’t answering. She remembered the blood on his back. The bullet. And Jasper’s skin seemed to be losing its warmth. The warmth that had been there to banish the chill and the worry that had cloaked her for so long. That warmth was fading now.

  Desperate, she looked up. “Cale! Cale, help me!”

  Her brother rushed to her side. Behind them, she heard the growl of more motors as other cars rushed to the scene. She didn’t look back at those cars. Didn’t look at anyone or anything but Cale and Jasper. Cale’s face was grim as he looked down at her lover. Jasper was pale, too pale.

  “Don’t leave me,” Veronica whispered to Jasper, and she pressed a kiss to his lips. “Don’t.”

  Her fingers curled around his. His lashes seemed to flutter. No, maybe that was just the wind. Not him, not...

  “I...won’t...” Jasper whispered.

  Her breath choked out. Jasper had just made her a promise.

  She wouldn’t let him break it.

  Sydney and Logan ran to his side. Veronica kept her hold on Jasper’s wrist, and even when the EMT crew came, she didn’t let go.

  She would never let go of the man she loved.

  Death could just wait. She wasn’t done with Jasper Adams yet. Not by a long shot.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Not many people bothered to come to the funeral. Seemed as if the folks in Whiskey Ridge were too betrayed and shocked by the actions of Wyatt Halliday to be able to forgive him, even in death.

  But Veronica was there. Standing silently beside the grave. To her right, the young deputy was looking as if he’d seen a few better days.

  The poor kid probably had. But at least Jimmy Jones was alive, thanks to Veronica. He could look forward to a whole lot of better days to come.

  “I’ve seen the way you look at my sister,” Cale said, the words whisper soft.

  Jasper turned his head to meet Cale’s hard stare. The man hadn’t really changed that much in the past ten years. A fierce fighter, a loving older brother and a man who would kill in order to protect the ones he cared for in
this world.

  The funeral service was over. The few mourners were turning away.

  Jasper shifted his stance lightly. That bullet of Wyatt’s had come close to his spine. A little too close for comfort. He’d taken six hits before and been able to keep walking. But that one bullet had almost taken him out.

  He’d been in the hospital for two weeks. Wyatt’s service had been delayed while Uncle Sam finished the investigation on the EOD murders.

  The case was closed now, mostly, anyway.

  “I still think she’s too good for you,” Cale muttered. He’d only been in the hospital for a day; the wound he’d received had been easy to patch.

  “You’re never gonna think anyone is good enough for her,” Jasper said. But Cale’s words were true. Hell, Jasper knew he wasn’t good enough.

  Veronica turned and smiled at him.

  But I don’t care if I’m not good enough. She wanted him. Somehow, that woman actually wanted him.

  “What kind of life will you give her?” Cale pressed. “Always running off on the next mission, leaving her behind. That’s what I’ve already done to her. Our parents left us. Then I left her, again and again, on the missions that called me.” His voice tightened. “Missions that I could have turned away, but I didn’t.”

  Because the man was a soldier at heart. The missions had called, and he had answered.

  Jasper had been like that once, too. But things were different for him now. In his missions, he’d always been looking for something...

  Someone.

  Veronica was walking toward him.

  I found her.

  “There won’t be any more missions,” Jasper said as he glanced back at Cale.

  Cale frowned. “What?”

  Instead of repeating himself, Jasper said, “I was wondering, are you interested in selling your part of the ranch?”

  “What ranch? I never fixed the place up and it’s blown to hell now.”

  Maybe. Or maybe it was just ripe for starting over. Maybe this town was the place that he needed. Veronica was the woman he needed.

  She was right in front of him now. They hadn’t been able to talk alone yet. Too many doctors. Too many EOD agents.