“Stop or I’ll shot,” Charlie yelled, as he saw Leroy just ahead of him. “I swear to God, Racine, I’ll shoot you in the back and not blink an eye.”
Leroy must have recognized the promise in Charlie’s voice, for he stopped running and turned toward him, a frantic defeat spread across his face.
At that moment the whine of a siren sounded in the distance, and Charlie knew Zack or one of his deputies was responding to Grace’s call.
“Get down on the ground,” Charlie commanded. “Facedown on the ground with your hands up over your head.”
Leroy hesitated but must have seen something in Charlie’s eyes that frightened him, for he complied. Charlie kicked the knife Leroy held in one hand and sent it spinning several feet away. He leaned over him and pressed the barrel of his gun into the back of Leroy’s head.
“Don’t try anything,” he warned the big man. “Don’t even blink too hard. One way or the other you’re going away for a very long time. It’s either going to be jail or hell.”
At that moment Zack ran toward them, his gun drawn and his eyes wide as he saw Charlie. “He killed Elizabeth and William, set up Hope to go to prison and tried to kill Grace.” Charlie’s voice grew hoarse with anger. “His knife is over there.”
“Charlie, you can step away from him,” Zack said, his voice deceptively calm. “I’ve got him now.”
Reluctantly, Charlie pulled his gun from the back of Leroy’s head and straightened. Before anyone could stop him, he drew back his boot and delivered a swift kick to Leroy’s ribs.
Leroy yelped and raised his head to look at Zack. “Did you see that? I want him arrested for assault.”
Charlie looked at Zack, who shrugged. “I didn’t see anything,” Zack replied.
“I’ve got to check on Grace. She was hurt,” Charlie said, as Zack pulled Leroy to his feet and cuffed him.
Charlie took off running in the direction he’d come from. He still didn’t have any real answers, couldn’t figure out why Leroy had done what he’d done, but at the moment answers didn’t matter—only Grace did.
She saw him coming and got out of his car. In the light from the nearby street lamp, he could see that her cheeks were shiny with tears, and she held her arm against her side, one hand pressed against the opposite upper arm.
“Charlie,” she cried, as he neared. “Thank God you’re okay.”
He reached her and pulled her gently into his arms, careful not to hurt her.
As he smelled the familiar scent of vanilla in her hair and felt the warmth of her body against his, Charlie did something he couldn’t remember doing since he was a young boy and his mother had died—he wept.
It was nearing dawn when Charlie followed Grace home. The night had been endless for Grace. At the hospital, she’d received eight stitches in her arm and then spent most of the rest of the night with Zack, telling him everything Leroy had told her.
She was beyond exhaustion yet elated. Zack promised her that first thing in the morning he’d get the wheels of justice turning to release Hope.
Hope was coming home, and it was time to tell Charlie a final goodbye. When they reached her house, she pulled into the driveway and parked. Charlie pulled in just behind her.
She didn’t have to be afraid anymore. She could get out of her car without waiting for Charlie and his gun to protect her. She no longer needed him as a private investigator, a criminal defense attorney or a bodyguard. It was time for them to move on with their lives.
She got out of the car with weariness weighing on her shoulders and the whisper of something deeper, something that felt remarkably like new heartbreak.
Charlie joined her on the sidewalk and silently walked with her to her front door. “You’re going to be all right now, Grace,” he said.
She unlocked the door and then turned back to face him. His features looked haggard in the dawn light, and she fought her impulse to reach up and lay her palm against his cheek. “Yes, I’m going to be all right,” she replied softly.
“Hope should be released sometime tomorrow, and the two of you can begin rebuilding your lives.” He reached a hand up, as if to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear, but instead he quickly dropped his hand back to his side. “You don’t have any reason to be afraid anymore. It’s finally over.”
She nodded, surprised by the rise of a lump in her throat. He stared at her, and in the depths of his beautiful gray eyes, she saw his want, his need of her and she steeled herself against it, against him.
“Then I guess this is goodbye,” he said, although it was more a question, a plea than a statement.
Her chest felt tight, constricted by her aching heart. “Goodbye, Charlie.” She said the words quickly, then escaped into the house and closed the door behind her. She leaned against the door and felt the hot press of tears at her eyes.
She should have been happy. The bad times were behind her, so why was she crying? Why did she feel as if she’d just made the biggest mistake of her life?
Chapter 14
“It’s just a movie, Grace,” Hope said plaintively. “We’ll go straight to the theater, and when the movie is over, we’ll come right back here.”
Grace took a sip of her coffee and frowned at her sister. It had been a week since Hope had gotten out of the detention center and moved into Grace’s house.
The spare bedroom was now filled with all things teenage. Grace welcomed the chaos, the laughter and the drama that had filled the last seven days of her life.
Hope’s release wasn’t the only positive thing that happened over the last week. Although Lana had been devastated to learn that the man she’d married had done so only for the sake of Lincoln’s inheritance, the knowledge that he’d murdered William and Elizabeth had nearly destroyed her.
She’d come to Grace begging for forgiveness, both for the horrific things her husband had done and for her own mistake in sleeping with William on that single night.
She’d explained that William had been missing Elizabeth desperately and invited her to have a drink with him. One drink led to half a dozen and suddenly they were both making the biggest mistake of their lives.
She hadn’t told William that she’d gotten pregnant. She met Leroy a month later, and when she gave birth William assumed, like everyone else, that Lincoln was Leroy’s child.
Grace assured her there was nothing to forgive and made Lana promise that she would allow Grace and Hope to get to know Lincoln, who would share in the inheritance that William had left behind.
“Earth to Grace.” Hope’s voice penetrated Grace’s thoughts. “So can I go to a movie with Justin or not?”
Grace sighed, wishing this parenting stuff was easier. “I don’t know, Hope.”
Hope reached across the table and took Grace’s hand in hers. “Grace, I know Justin has made some stupid mistakes in his past, like dropping out of high school, but he’s really a nice guy. He deserves another chance.”
“You’ll go right to the theater and come right back here?” Grace asked.
“Pinky swear,” Hope replied, lacing her pinky finger with Grace’s.
“Okay. We’ll consider this a test run.”
“Cool.” Hope was out of the chair almost before the words had left Grace’s mouth. “I’ve got to call him and tell him I can go.”
As she ran for her bedroom, Grace leaned back in her chair and sighed. This would be the first time Hope would be out of her sight since coming home.
Maybe part of her reluctance in letting Hope go was because Grace didn’t want to spend the evening alone. Being alone always brought thoughts of Charlie and a sadness that felt never ending.
She hadn’t seen him in the past week, but every time she got beneath the sheets on her bed she saw him in her mind, felt him in her heart.
Forgetting Charlie was proving more difficult than she’d thought. She got up from the table and carried her coffee cup to the sink, then stood by the window and stared out into the backyard.
He
’d accused her of holding back, of confusing him when they’d been dating. She remembered the night he’d called her, so excited by his big win in court that day, asking her—no, begging her—to drive in to celebrate with him.
The sheer force of her desire to be with him had frightened her, and she’d told him she couldn’t make it. Hours later she’d changed her mind and decided to surprise him. Unfortunately she was the one who had gotten the biggest surprise.
Hope walked back into the kitchen. “It’s all set. Justin will pick me up at seven.”
Grace turned from the window and forced a smile. “And you told him you needed to be home right after?”
“Yeah, but I was thinking maybe after the movie Justin could come in and we could bake a frozen pizza or something. I think if you talk to him for a while, you know, get to really know him, then you’ll like him.”
“That sounds like a nice idea,” Grace replied.
Hope walked over to stand next to Grace and looked out the window. “When Mom left, I thought nobody else would ever care about me,” Hope said softly. “I figured if my own mother didn’t like me enough to stick around, why would anyone else like me?”
Grace put her arm around Hope’s slender shoulders. “I know. I felt the same way.”
“But, then I met Justin and even though he had a reputation as a tough guy, he made me feel better. He told me I was pretty and nice and that it was Mom’s problem, not me, that drove her away.”
“And now we know that she didn’t leave us at all,” Grace replied.
They were silent for a few minutes, and Grace knew they were both thinking of the mother they had buried two days before.
Hope finally looked at her. “It’s important to me that you give Justin a chance, Grace. You don’t have to worry about him taking advantage of me, or anything like that. Justin knows I want to stay a virgin for a long time and he’s cool with that.”
“I promise I’ll give him a chance,” Grace replied.
Hope reached up and kissed Grace on the cheek. “I’m going to go take a shower and get ready. Seven o’clock will be here before I know it.”
Once again she left the kitchen and Grace turned her gaze back out the window. She could definitely relate to those feelings Hope described, of believing that if her mother didn’t love her enough to stick around that nobody else would really love her.
She’d carried that emotion into her relationship with Charlie, and despite her deep feelings for him, she’d kept a big part of herself walled off from him, certain that eventually he’d leave her, too. She had to be unworthy of love because her mother had found her so.
Charlie told her she needed to accept partial responsibility for the demise of their relationship, and he was right.
She had treated him like a good-time Charlie, flying into his life for fun and laughs but never sharing with him any piece of herself, of her life here in Cotter Creek.
No wonder he hadn’t seen their relationship in the same way she had. She’d given him so many mixed signals.
And now it was too late for her, for them.
Charlie sat on the back of his favorite stallion and gazed at the fencing he’d spent the last week repairing. It had been grueling physical work, but he’d welcomed it because it kept his mind off Grace.
He hadn’t even gone into town during the past week. When he needed supplies, he sent one of his ranch hands in to get them. Charlie hadn’t wanted to run into Grace or even see her storefront.
He wondered if everyone had that one love who stayed with you until the day you died and haunted you with a bittersweet wistfulness.
Leaning down, he patted his horse’s neck, then grabbed the reins and turned around to head back to the house. It was too bad there wasn’t a pill he could take that would banish all thoughts of Grace Covington from his mind. He was just going to have to live with his regrets and the overwhelming ache of what might have been.
Just then, as he approached the corral, Charlie saw the car pull into his driveway. Her car. His heart leapt, then calmed as he cautioned himself with wariness.
Maybe something else had happened—a legal issue she wanted help with or a question that needed to be answered. As he dismounted from the horse, she stepped out of her car, the fading sunlight sparking on her glorious hair and tightening the lump that rose up in his chest.
She looked lovely in a turquoise and white sundress, with turquoise sandals on her feet and a matching purse slung over her shoulder.
She couldn’t keep doing this, he thought, as he walked slowly toward where she stood. She had to stop using him as her go-to man.
“Grace, what’s up?” he asked, his tone curt.
She leaned against her car door. “Hope just left to go to a movie with Justin.”
He frowned. “And you drove all the way out here to tell me that? Gee, thanks for the info, but I’m not sure why I need to know that.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets, afraid that if he allowed them to wander free he’d reach out and run a finger across her full lower lip.
“Earlier this evening Hope and I had a chat about our mother and how she felt when we thought she’d abandoned us. She told me she thought nobody would ever love her again, and I realized that’s exactly how I’d felt.”
She pushed off from the door, her eyes dark and so sad that Charlie felt her sadness resonating in his own heart. “I hope both of you feel better about things now that you know the truth,” he said.
“I don’t feel better,” she exclaimed and her eyes grew shiny with tears. “Oh Charlie, you were right about me. I did use you, but somewhere along the line I fell in love with you.”
“And then I got drunk and stupid and screwed it all up,” he replied, as a hollow wind blew through him. “We’ve been through all this, Grace.”
He sighed with a weariness that etched deep into his soul. “I can keep Hope out of jail for a crime she didn’t commit and I can probably keep you safe from some crazy stalker, but I don’t know how to get you to trust me again.”
She took several steps closer to him and that amazing scent of hers stirred the desire he would always feel for her. Still he kept his hands firmly tucked into his pockets, not wanting a moment of weakness to allow him to touch her in any way.
“I swore I didn’t believe in second chances, that only a fool would give a man her heart again after he’d broken it once.” Again her eyes took on the sheen of barely suppressed tears. “And then I realized I’d never really given you my heart for safekeeping the first time. How could you know you were breaking it when you didn’t realize it was yours?”
Charlie stared at her, afraid to believe what he thought her words might mean. “Why are you here, Grace?”
“I’m here because I realize I’m a different person now than I was when we were dating. And if I can believe that I’m a different person, then why can’t I believe that you are? I’m here because for the first time in a year and a half I don’t have my anger at you to fill me up, to protect me. And without that anger all I’m left with is my love for you.”
Tears fell from her eyes and splashed onto her cheeks. “I’m here to find out if it’s too late for me…for us.”
Charlie’s heart swelled so big in his chest he couldn’t speak. He yanked his hands out of his pockets and opened his arms to her.
She fell into his embrace and he held her tight, feeling as if he were complete for the very first time. The scent of vanilla and jasmine smelled like home. Grace smelled like home.
“Charlie?” She raised her face to look at him. “It’s not just me anymore. I’m a package deal. Hope is and will always be a part of my life.”
“I always wanted a sister-in-law,” he replied.
“Sister-in-law?” Grace stared at him, and that sweet lower lip of hers trembled. “Is that some kind of a crazy proposal, Charlie?”
He dropped his hands to his sides and smiled at her. “Give me a dollar.”
“What?”
“You heard me
, give me one.” He held out his hand.
She opened her purse and pulled out a dollar bill. He took it from her and shoved it into his back pocket. “You’ve now retained the lifelong services of a criminal defense attorney and bodyguard.” He pulled her into his arms, his gaze warm and soft, relaxed. “Better yet, you’ve got my love through eternity.”
She returned to his embrace. “All that for a dollar? You’re cheap, Charlie.”
He grinned at her. “Only for the woman I love.” His smile faded and he gazed at her intently. “Marry me, Grace. Marry me and be my wife. Share my life with me.”
Charlie’s words filled Grace with a kind of happiness that she’d never before experienced. This was right, she thought. This was the first right thing that had happened in a very long time, and she had no doubt that it would last forever.
“Yes, Charlie, I want to marry you. I want you to be my good-time Charlie, my bad-time Charlie, my forever Charlie.”
He kissed her then, a hungry yet tender kiss that held both the regrets of the past and the promise of the future. He wasn’t the only one with regrets. Grace knew that their future together might have begun sooner if she’d been less afraid of putting her heart on the line when they’d been dating.
“Better late than never,” she murmured, as their kiss finally ended.
“Second chances, Grace. Sometimes that’s all we need.” His eyes glowed with a light that always weakened her knees and curled her toes. “How long does that movie last?”
She grinned. “Long enough,” she exclaimed, and grabbed his hand. Together they ran for the ranch house where his bed and their future awaited.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3004-4
THE RANCHER BODYGUARD
Copyright © 2009 by Carla Bracale
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
The Rancher Bodyguard Page 15