Same man.
And her body was begging her to forget all her worries and seduce Gage. Not that it would require much to get him on the bed with her. They were both operating on a short sexual fuse.
But sex was not going to satisfy them for long.
They had too many things to work out first.
Heck, she wasn’t even sure Gage would be around an hour from now much less long enough for them to resolve a decade of hurt and separation.
“I remember the first time I saw you naked,” he said. “It was on that very bed, and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.”
Lynette put on the socks. “Gage, that’s not helping.”
He pushed himself away from the jamb, strolled to her. “It wasn’t meant to help.” He pulled in a long, weary breath and eased down on his knees in front of her, his body in between her legs.
“Gage,” she warned.
“Lynette,” he warned right back.
He reached up and pushed her hair from her face. Just that simple touch went through her. Always did.
Gage groaned softly, slid his hands up the outside of her thighs and to her backside. “We have some things to work out before sex,” he told her. And he leaned in and buried his face against her breasts.
Just like that her argument started to dissolve.
“But at least all the secrets are out of the way,” Gage added. “You know I’m alive. And I know about your father’s threat and the baby.”
The argument returned in her head. Because all the secrets weren’t out of the way.
Well, not one secret anyway.
And it was a huge one.
“What?” Gage asked. He was doing the mind-
reading thing again. And would have no doubt pressed her for the truth.
But the phone rang.
Gage gave her a suspicious look, got to his feet and snatched the phone from the nightstand. He didn’t say anything, probably because there was no caller ID screen on the old-style phone.
Lynette waited, breath held, and prayed this wasn’t bad news. She’d already had enough.
“Hendricks, you have news?” Gage finally said.
Sherman Hendricks, Gage’s handler at the CIA.
She watched Gage’s expression and body language. There wasn’t much in either to help her figure out what the handler was telling him.
“No,” Gage finally said. “Just get that safe house ready.” And with that, he hung up.
Lynette got to her feet and faced him.
“It’s not good.” That’s all Gage said for several moments. “The informant who gave us info about the hit man didn’t just give the information to us. He gave it and more to the drug lord, Sampson Dalvetti.”
Her breath vanished, and she had no choice but to sink back onto the bed. “Dalvetti knows you’re alive?”
“It’s possible. In fact, Dalvetti might have hired both hit men so he could test the waters. He could have sent them after you. And then leaked it, knowing that if I was alive, it would get back to me.”
Oh, mercy. If so, then it’d worked. Dalvetti had maybe figured that Gage would come back from the proverbial grave to save her.
And he had.
But at what cost?
“I’m sorry. So sorry,” Gage whispered. He pulled her into his arms.
“You saved my life,” she reminded him.
“Yeah. But I’m the one who could have put you in danger in the first place.”
She was about to disagree with that, but the phone rang again. He leaned over and punched the button on the base of the phone to put the call on Speaker. However, as a precaution he didn’t identify himself.
Good thing, too.
Because it wasn’t his handler’s voice that greeted them this time.
“Lynette?” the caller said. It was her father.
Gage put his finger to his mouth in a keep-quiet gesture so she wouldn’t answer.
“Lynette,” Ford continued, “I’ve called every number at the Ryland ranch, so I figure if you’re not listening, you’ll get the message.” He paused. “I know that Gage is alive.”
Her heart went to her knees.
Gage mouthed some profanity. Was this a fishing expedition, or did her father truly know?
“I want to talk to both of you,” Ford insisted. “We have things to settle.”
Lynette wanted to tell him that talking wasn’t going to settle anything between them, but she didn’t want her father coming after Gage.
But Gage stood and moved closer to the phone. “Ford, what do you want?” he asked aloud.
Lynette nearly screamed and gave him a look that read, Have you lost your mind? Gage ignored her.
“I want to speak to you both, face-to-face,” her father informed them. “Now. I’m not far away, but your armed ranch hands won’t let me onto the property.”
“Good,” Lynette spoke up. “Because I don’t want you here.”
“Yes, you do,” her father disagreed. “I can call off Nicole, but that’ll only happen if you both agree to speak to me.”
“Is that so you’ll have a better chance at gunning us down?” Gage asked.
“Despite what you think of me, I don’t gun down people in broad daylight.” He huffed. “I just want to talk to you and my daughter.”
“No,” Lynette stated as clearly as she could through clenched teeth. “And how exactly did you find out Gage was alive?”
Her father took his time answering, as if he was giving thought to his answer. “If you want to know that, then meet with me. I’ll tell you.”
Lynette huffed. She didn’t want to know it at the risk of her father trying to kill Gage or her.
But Gage turned toward her. Studied her. He mumbled, “I’m sorry.” Before she could ask what the devil he meant by that, Gage turned back to the phone. “All right, let’s meet,” Gage said to her father.
“No!” Lynette insisted.
Gage touched her arm, rubbed gently. Probably a gesture meant to soothe her, but it didn’t work. She was far from soothed. She was angry, shocked and frustrated that her father had found out about Gage now. The timing was not good.
“It might help,” Gage whispered.
“It might not,” she whispered back. “This could be some kind of trick to draw you into a fight.”
“That’s why you won’t be doing this meeting.” Gage brushed a kiss on her cheek and turned back to the phone. “Meet me outside the guesthouse. Just me.”
“Lynette, too,” Ford fired back.
“No deal. Whatever you have to say, you can say it to me.”
Chapter Ten
Gage wasn’t sure it was the brightest decision to confront Ford, but he was damn tired of the man trying to run roughshod over Lynette. Ford had gotten away with it for, well, all of her life, and maybe the man just needed a good dose of his own bullying tactics.
“I don’t want you to do this,” Lynette repeated. “It’s not safe.”
He figured she’d repeat it again before he walked onto the porch to face Ford. “I’ll make it safe,” Gage promised.
Thankfully, the guesthouse phone had a direct line to the main house and to Mason’s ranch office. That’s the button that Gage pushed.
“Ford Herrington’s at the end of the road,” Mason informed him the second he answered.
“Yeah. I’m meeting him to settle some things.”
Mason paused. “Lynette couldn’t talk you out of it?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “You always were the hardheaded one.”
Gage couldn’t argue with that. “How many ranch hands are with Ford right now?”
“Two. I had them stand guard at the top of the road so we wouldn’t get any unexpected visitors. Both are armed, and I trust them.”
Good. If Mason trusted them, then so did Gage. “Call them for me and have them escort Ford to the guesthouse. I’ll meet them out front.”
Mason paused again, and Gage waited for his brother to try to talk him out of t
his confrontation, but then Mason just cursed and hung up. One down, another to go. He looked at Lynette, who was fuming, and knew this was another argument he had to win.
“Why don’t you get something to eat while I talk to your father?” Gage knew the lame suggestion would fall on her deaf ears so he played dirty. He glanced down at her stomach. “Think of the baby. It’s not good for you to go this long without eating.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she called him a bad name that questioned his intelligence and his paternity. But she turned and headed for the kitchen.
“I’m watching from the window,” she informed him.
Good grief. He wasn’t the only hardheaded person in the room. “Stay back. Away from the glass.”
That got her whirling around to face him again. No more narrowed eyes, but there was worry in them now. Gage went to her, slid his arm around her. Kissed her.
Then, kissed her again.
“That won’t work,” she snarled against his mouth.
“Yeah. It will. Because you’re going to think of the baby again and play it safe.”
“That’s not fair.”
“I know. But I can’t carry this baby,” he reminded her. “Only you can do that. And that means I do the caveman stuff and you grow us a healthy child.”
Gage didn’t miss how easily the us had flowed off his tongue. There was a lot for them to work out before there was an us, and it started with this meeting with Ford.
He drew his Glock from his holster, took a deep breath and stepped onto the porch. Gage also checked to make sure Lynette wasn’t right by the window. And that she was eating.
A winner on both counts.
She was munching on an apple as if she were in a race to finish it, and while she was close to the front door and window, she was staying back.
It didn’t take long—less than a minute—for the truck to come to a stop in front of the guesthouse. An armed ranch hand was on either side of Ford, and they all got out. The ranch hands stopped at the white picket fence gate. Not Ford. He walked toward Gage.
“That’s close enough,” Gage told the man when he made it to the bottom step. It was still drizzling and Ford didn’t have an umbrella, but Gage hoped the discomfort of the weather would speed things up. He didn’t want Ford on the grounds any longer than necessary.
“How did you find out I was alive?” Gage tossed out there for starters.
Ford lifted his shoulder. “I have my sources.”
“And those would be?” Gage pressed.
“Confidential.”
Gage wished he could wipe that smugness off Ford’s weaselly face, but that would only make this ordeal last longer. Best to hear what he had to say and then get him far away from the ranch.
“I haven’t told anyone you’re alive,” Ford insisted.
Gage didn’t believe him, but he had more important things to discuss. “Call off Nicole.”
He lifted his shoulder again. “I’ll try.”
“On the phone you said you could do it. That’s the only reason I’m out here.”
“I said I would if you both agreed to talk to me.” Ford made a show of looking at Gage. “You’re not both.”
Gage heard the movement behind him and cursed a blue streak. That’s because Lynette opened the blasted door and came out onto the porch with him. He shot her a warning glance, which did no good whatsoever.
“Now, you have both,” Lynette snarled. “Call off your lover.”
Her father seemed more than pleased that he’d gotten his way.
“I’ll put pressure on Nicole,” Ford told them. “I know some of her secrets.” He paused a heartbeat. “Yours, too.” And he was looking at Lynette when he said it.
Hell. Did Ford know about the baby?
It wasn’t something Lynette could keep secret for long because she would soon start showing, but Gage hadn’t wanted Ford to put two and two together and come up with the conclusion of the baby being Gage’s. That would only start another war between Ford and him. Gage needed some security measures in place so that Lynette wouldn’t be anywhere near her father when he learned she was pregnant.
“Yes, secrets,” Lynette repeated. She tried to step around him, but Gage blocked her. He couldn’t hog-tie her and put her back inside the house, but by God, as a minimum he could shield her body with his. “You mean like the secret you told me about my mother?”
A muscle flickered in Ford’s jaw, but that was his only response. “That was a long time ago.”
“Yes, there’s no statute of limitations on murder,” she fired back.
Gage didn’t want to take his eyes off Ford, but he turned around and gave Lynette another warning glance. This was turning ugly fast.
“There’s also a law against bribing a public official,” Ford said, pulling Gage’s attention back to him.
Gage braced himself for Lynette to ask what the heck that meant, but she didn’t say anything.
Oh, man.
“You didn’t think I’d find out?” Ford snapped, his attention still nailed to Lynette. “I always find out everything you do.”
“What are you talking about?” Gage just came out and asked.
Ford got that smug look again. “She didn’t tell you?” He clucked his tongue. “Lynette’s one for secrets. All that digging into my personal files prompted me to do some more digging, too. She bought a condo in Dallas, and she used an assumed name. Did she tell you that?”
No. But Gage guessed that’s where she’d planned to go when she could no longer hide the pregnancy. It was a smart move, but it hurt for Gage to think she’d had to do these smart moves on her own. And because they’d been necessary.
“What does that have to do with bribing an official?” Gage pressed.
“I need to talk to you,” Lynette whispered to him.
That put a big knot in his belly.
“See, it’s different when it’s your secrets being blabbed, isn’t it?” Ford questioned. “I figured you’d done the right thing about the annulment, especially after I’d made it so clear what the consequences would be if you didn’t. Imagine my surprise when last month I discovered you’d bribed an official. A judge, no less.”
Gage shook his head. “What the hell is this about?”
Ford smiled. “What my daughter needs to tell you is that you two are still married.”
* * *
LYNETTE FELT THE BLOOD drain from her head, and she was sorry she’d wolfed down that apple, because she was suddenly queasy, too. She’d intended to tell Gage about the annulment. Or rather the lack of one.
But she darn sure hadn’t wanted to tell him like this.
She looked at Gage, lowered her voice, so she could tell him something meant only for his ears. “I bribed a judge in Kerrville to fake the annulment.”
Gage blinked. Looked at Ford then her. “We’re still married?”
Lynette nodded. “Don’t read too much into it,” she added.
He stared at her. The same stare he’d given her when she’d told him he was the only lover she’d ever had. There was a reason for that.
She’d always considered herself a married woman.
That, and she hadn’t wanted another man. Just Gage. And her father was going to do everything in his power to make sure she didn’t get him.
Not then, not now.
“Any reason you didn’t tell me this?” Gage asked her.
She tipped her head to her father. “The reason is standing out there in the rain.”
“I told her I’d kill you if she didn’t get the annulment,” Ford volunteered. “Never wanted her to drop in bed with the likes of you. Her tramp of a mother already did that with your kin.”
Some venom went through Gage’s eyes, and he turned that venom on her father. “It takes a special kind of man to use a threat like that on a nineteen-year-old girl. But guess what? Lynette and I aren’t kids anymore, and I’ve been trained to take out scum like you.”
“Is that a threat?” Ford
snapped.
“You bet it is.” Gage took one step forward, and in the same motion, he pushed her behind him. “If you come near Lynette, if you utter another threat to her—veiled or otherwise—you’re going down.”
Ford chuckled. “You’d kill me in cold blood, Agent Ryland?”
“No.” Gage’s voice got eerily calm. “I’d wait until you pulled your gun first. But trust me, I’m faster. I can get a bullet in your brain so quick that before you blink, you’ll already be in hell.”
Oh, mercy.
Lynette had to do something to defuse this. It was already past taking a dangerous turn.
“I’m about to faint,” Lynette whispered to him. And she prayed she sounded convincing enough. “Please. I don’t want to fall. It might hurt the baby.”
That got Gage moving. “Get him out of here,” Gage told the ranch hands.
Gage kept his eyes on her father and his right hand on his gun, but he looped his left arm around her and got her inside. He kicked the door shut, lifted her into arms and took her to the sofa.
“Should I call the doctor?” Gage asked, looking down at her. No more venom in his voice. Just worry.
Well, for a couple of seconds.
“You’re not about to faint,” he accused. Gage cursed. “That’s playing dirty, Lynette.”
She came off the sofa. “I didn’t want you in a gunfight with my father. This is what I’ve been trying to prevent for over a decade.”
His anger and frustration returned with a vengeance. Gage kicked a wood magazine holder next to the sofa and hurried to the door. He looked out. Cursed some more. And locked it as if he’d declared war on it. He reholstered his gun and started to pace like a caged tiger.
“I’m not sorry for what I did,” she let him know.
Still pacing, he aimed his index finger at her. He also tried to speak, but the anger didn’t let the words come. Not that she wanted to hear what he had to say right now. Lynette had warned him that talking to her father would be bad, and Gage hadn’t listened.
“I’m not sorry about the nonannulment, either,” she added. Best to clear the air about that, as well, since Gage was going to stew for a while.
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