A Silverhill Christmas

by Carol Ericson

  RIO STARED OUT THE WINDOW as Cora patted his fresh bandage. “Looks better already. Are you still groggy? You have time to catch a little more sleep before we land.”

  “I’m wide awake now. Do not give me any more happy pills.” He shot Cora one of his deadliest snarls, one that reduced bad guys to quivering blobs of jelly. She smiled her know-it-all nurse’s smile.

  After Cora packed her bag and moved across the aisle, Tori slid into the seat next to him. “You agreed to be our bodyguard, didn’t you? For a price.”

  Yeah, and what a price.

  Her guileless green eyes didn’t show a hint of guilt, not one speck of consciousness regarding the rest of the conversation that had taken place after he’d agreed to protect her and Max. The part where she had dropped the bombshell that she called Silverhill home.

  He had agreed to take the job, but hadn’t he changed his mind after she’d given him the bad news? He chewed his bottom lip, drawing blood. No, he hadn’t. They’d been interrupted by Ivan the Terrible before he could nix the agreement.

  But she must’ve known he’d back out once she changed the rules of the game. Instead she’d taken advantage of his helplessness, packed him on the Gulfstream and headed for home. Her home.

  Tori dipped a napkin in water and dabbed his lip. “Be careful. You’re still dehydrated. Drink some more flu ids.”

  He growled and snatched the napkin from her hand. “I’m dehydrated because you and Nurse Ratched over there drugged me.”

  Cora smirked, never raising her eyes from her magazine. “You needed rest, Rio. You lost some blood and your body was going into shock.”

  “My body’s still in shock.”

  Tori grabbed his hand. “We still need you, Rio—Max and I. You rescued him. You risked your life to save us. I can’t think of a better audition for a bodyguard.”

  Her thumb ran across his knuckles, and he closed his eyes, savoring her closeness. She’d saved him, too. If she hadn’t reacted so quickly after he’d been shot, he would’ve lost a lot more blood.

  He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her wrist. “I never thanked you for helping me. I could’ve bled out on that deck.”

  “I never would’ve allowed that to happen.” She cupped his face with her hand, tangling her fingers in his hair.

  Rio dragged in a breath. “It’s not that I don’t want to protect you and Max. I’d go to the ends of the earth to do that.”

  “Just not Silverhill.”

  “I guess I don’t have a choice now, do I?”

  “You don’t have to mingle with your brothers if you don’t want. We can stay at my brother’s ranch. I already called him to let him know we’re on our way.”

  He ignored her reference to his half brothers. “It’s your brother’s ranch, not yours?”

  “My parents had left it to both of us, but I sold out my share to Jared.” She shrugged, but her stiff shoulders hinted at pain and regret.

  “Sounds like you couldn’t wait to get out of Silverhill. Why is it so important to return there now?”

  “I told you before. Home and family became important to me only after I lost mine. Besides, it’s the safest place I can think of. Everyone knows me there.”

  Including all those McClintocks.

  “There is one problem with your timing.” Rio raked his hands through his hair, catching his breath at the pain in his shoulder.

  Tori blinked. “What’s that?”

  “It’s ski season. I’m not that familiar with Silverhill, since I just visited the one time, but it looked like the place does a brisk business for skiers. Don’t forget. That’s how my mother met Ralph McClintock. She was a ski instructor, and I never knew a more rootless person than my mom.”

  The blank look on Tori’s pretty face told him that the desire to return to her roots had blinded her to any other factors.

  “Silverhill is going to be filled with strangers at this time of year, Tori. You’re not going to recognize every face on the street. And that’s an advantage for Alexi, not you.”

  She hugged herself as her face blanched. “Maybe the CIA will get Grant to talk about his association with Alexi. In the meantime, I guess that just means you’re going to have to work harder to earn your money.”

  The fasten seatbelt sign pinged, and Derrick’s voice scratched over the speaker. “We’re coming in, folks.”

  Rio yanked up the shade and pressed his forehead against the cold window, gazing at the snowcapped Rockies. If the CIA couldn’t stop Alexi Zherkov, the Mad Prince would know exactly where to look for Tori and Max. His reluctance to meet up with his half brothers represented only a sliver of his uneasiness at returning to Silverhill. His greater concern involved Tori and Max.

  Her decision to go home just put her life in danger.

  TORI WANTED TO SMACK Jared’s tight face. Had living in the mountains his entire life frozen his heart? Would he go on blaming her for their parents’ deaths forever?

  She settled in the backseat of Jared’s Range Rover and pulled Max close, wrapping his oversize jacket around him. Rio slid in on the other side of Max and raised his brows. He must consider her crazy for wanting to return to her cold fish of a brother, but Rio wouldn’t understand the pull of a place. He’d never experienced that with his mother. He never had a place to call home.

  Jared adjusted his rearview mirror, making eye contact with Rio. “So you’re really the long-lost McClintock brother? What are the odds of that? But leave it to my sister to drag one of the McClintocks into her mess. She always had one of those boys dancing to her tune, jumping in to save her.”

  Tori clenched her teeth. The only reason she’d decided to stay at the ranch was because Jared and his family were going away for Christmas. He hadn’t changed a bit.

  Rio narrowed his eyes. “As her brother, why didn’t you jump in to save her?”

  Jared’s face reddened, and then he shook his head. “That’d be a full-time job, which you’re about to discover.”

  “Lucky for me it is a full-time job.” Rio reached across Max and squeezed Tori’s thigh.

  She grinned her thanks. It felt good to have Rio in her corner. She hoped he didn’t swallow Jared’s clumsy remarks about the McClintocks hook, line and sinker. Sure, they’d helped her out, but they’d helped out all their friends. Of course, maybe she’d had a few more troubles than the rest of their gang.

  She’d watched Rio’s face during Jared’s diatribe, watched for the characteristic hardening of the jaw and the crease between his eyes every time someone mentioned his brothers. But he’d either gotten used to being compared to the rest of the McClintocks, or he’d learned to school his features into indifference.

  She relaxed her shoulders and began pointing out land marks to Max, who leaned across her lap to peer out side. “Pretty soon we’ll be on Main Street. It’s the busiest street in Silverhill and should be all decorated for Christmas.”

  “Is that where Cora and Derrick will be?”

  “No, sweetie. Cora and Derrick are staying in Durango. They’re going back to Hawaii.”

  “Are they going to see my father?”

  A knife twisted in Tori’s gut, and she exchanged a quick glance with Rio. She knew leaving Max with Alexi would have jeopardized Max’s safety—maybe not today, not tomorrow, but somewhere down the line, one of Alexi’s enemies would attempt to take out his revenge on Alexi by harming Max. But Max loved his father. Alexi had fostered an unhealthy relationship with Max, spoiling him and yet imposing a strict set of rules and regulations, unnatural for a little boy. In short, he had been grooming him to be Prince of Glazkova.

  “I don’t think Cora and Derrick know your father.” She tousled his hair. “Your father is very busy right now.”

  Jared snorted. “That maniac’s going to come after you, isn’t he? I’m glad we’ll be on vacation.”

  Rio jerked forward and clamped his hand on the side of Jared’s seat. “Watch your mouth around the boy.”

  Jared cou
ghed and grasped the steering wheel. “Sure.”

  Rio’s fingers dug into the leather seat. “Apologize to your sister.”

  “Sorry, Tori.”

  “Whatever.” A thrill of pleasure zinged through her veins. That’s the first apology she’d ever heard from Jared, as insincere as it seemed. Rio had embraced his duties as her bodyguard and protector, and she felt that embrace all the way across the seat.

  The big car swept down the hill and rolled onto Silver hill’s Main Street. As she pointed out the Christmas decorations to Max, Tori’s heart was sinking down to her toes.

  The people. The crowds.

  She gripped her hands in her lap. “Is it always this crowded now at this time of year?”

  Jared answered, “Yeah. As some of the other ski resorts get more exclusive and more expensive, it drives people to Silverhill. Winter’s worse, but summer’s not much better these days. If Rod McClintock gets his way and sets up his dude ranch on his property and the Price property he got his hands on when he married Ennis Price’s granddaughter, summer is going to be as packed as winter.”

  Tori sucked in her lower lip and slid a glance toward Rio. He’d been right. Alexi wouldn’t have too much trouble slipping a couple of his goons into this winter mix. Slap a pair of ski boots on them and they’d blend right in.

  Rio started questioning Jared about the ranch, the location, the entrances, the terrain and every other detail about it.

  Tori sighed and kissed the top of Max’s head. They’d be okay—not because she’d returned to Silverhill, but because she had a McClintock on her side…the right McClintock.

  RIO COLLAPSED ON THE bed in the guest bedroom at the Scott ranch, folding his good arm beneath his head. When he’d met Tori’s brother and got an earful of his barbs against her, he’d wondered why the heck she’d want to return to Silverhill. Then she’d begun telling Max about the countryside out the car window and sharing stories with him about her childhood. The warmth in her voice had sent an ache to the pit of Rio’s stomach.

  Despite her jerk of a brother’s attitude toward her, Tori had come home. And she wanted to share this home with her son. The only thing his mother had wanted to share with him was the open road. He’d never even met his grandparents. They’d up and moved back to Mexico when his mother had run away from home as a teenager.

  Children’s shrieks blasted up the staircase and Rio dragged a pillow across his head. Tori had two nephews and a niece, and they were tearing around the house with their newfound cousin. Kids adapted so easily. Jared’s three kids had accepted Max as one of their own, no questions asked.

  What if he had met his half brothers when they’d all been Max’s age or even older? Would they have accepted him? Offered him that familial bond?

  His mother had never bothered coming back to Silverhill, even after the wife Ralph had cheated on with her had moved on. Ralph had known of Rio’s existence. He’d proven that, after trying to turn that property over to him. Why hadn’t his father come to steal him away in the middle of the night from his selfish, hedonistic mother?

  He jumped at the rap on the door. Tori poked her head in the room. “Are you okay in here? Do you need some more rest? Dinner’s going to be ready in about a half an hour if we can ever get those kids to settle down.”

  He perched on the edge of the bed. “I’m good. How are you feeling?”

  She stretched her arms above her head and twirled into the room. “I feel great. I know my brother’s an ass, but his wife’s a sweetheart and I adore the kids. Are you going to the doctor tomorrow for your shoulder?”

  “Yeah, but Cora and Derrick did a good job. I think I’m good to go. Give me a few minutes and I’ll be right down. After dinner, I want your brother to give me a tour of the ranch. I want to scope out any weak spots.”

  Tori dropped her arms and wrapped them around her body. “I-it’s going to be okay here, isn’t it, Rio?”

  He bounded from the bed and embraced her, pressing her body along every line of his. It seemed like forever since he’d held her in his arms. He brushed his lips against hers and whispered against her mouth, “I’ll protect you.”

  She kissed him through her smile. “I know you will.”

  When Tori left the room, Rio went into the adjoining bathroom and splashed some water on his face. As he swiped a towel across his face, his cell phone rang in the bedroom. He checked the display and slid it open.

  “Hey, Ted.”

  “How’s the shoulder, man?”

  Rio rolled his injured shoulder as if to check before answering Ted’s question. “It’s still there. No problems.”

  “Good, because you have other problems.”

  Rio’s pulse ticked up a few notches. “Oh?”

  “Mad Prince Alexi knows everything and he’s coming for his son…and his ex-wife.”

  A FEW DAYS AFTER THEIR arrival, the silence of the house had Tori looking over her shoulder. She banged the cupboards in the kitchen as she got herself a snack just to hear the noise.

  “Everything okay?” Rio poked his head into the kitchen, clutching his cell phone, a furrow between his brows.

  “Everything’s fine. Just a little too quiet without the kids.” The tension eased out of her shoulders. She didn’t have to worry with Rio in the next room jumping at every sound. Tugging the refrigerator door open, Tori asked, “You want something to drink?”

  “Water.” He wedged a shoulder against the partition between the kitchen and the family room. “You really miss your brother?”

  She laughed and poured him a glass of cool water from the fridge. “He’s amazingly pompous, isn’t he? Still, I enjoyed seeing Max play with his cousins.”

  He took the glass from her hand, their fingers touching. It had been torture being in this house with Rio and keeping a cap on her feelings. She didn’t want her brother weighing in on the inappropriateness of falling for your bodyguard, but Jared and his family had left for Florida this morning. There was nobody left to judge her, nobody left to keep her and Rio apart. Except Rio.

  He took a long pull from the glass and set it down on the counter. “Tori, after Christmas, I think you and Max need to find another place to hide out from Alexi.”

  Her hand jerked, and her own water sloshed over the side of her glass. “I feel safe in Silverhill.”

  “He knows you took Max. Silverhill is the first place he’ll look.”

  “He can look, but he can’t touch. He’s going to come after me with lawyers anyway until I can prove he’s a dangerous criminal.” She raised her chin. “We can protect Max here.”

  “For how long? Do you always want to be on your guard, afraid of the very silence?”

  She banged her glass on the countertop. “I can’t spend my life running and hiding. I’ve already spent the past two years on the move—trailing Alexi, hoping for glimpses of my son. Do something about Alexi. Arrest him.”

  “I wish we could. The local cops in Maui were able to charge Alexi’s men with weapons violations, but they didn’t have anything to pin on Alexi. He’s more slippery than that ice frosting the sidewalk on Main Street.”

  “I’m staying here.” She narrowed her eyes and leveled a finger at Rio. “It seems to me that I have more confidence in your abilities than you do.”

  A muscle ticked in his jaw, and his dark eyes flashed fire. He took a step toward her and stopped when someone banged on the front door.

  Tori tripped back and grasped the handle of the refrigerator. Would it always be this way?

  Rio held out his hand and crept to the office. The safety of his gun clicked while he inched toward the door and leaned against it. His chest rose and fell with every breath, and his coiled muscles looked ready to spring into action. He twitched the curtains at the window bordering the front door.

  Tori held her breath, but Rio shook his head and stepped back. “It’s for you.”

  Crinkling her brow, Tori crossed the room and peered out the window. She gave a shriek and flung ope
n the front door, landing in the arms of Rafe McClintock, youngest McClintock brother and town sheriff.

  Rafe hoisted her in his arms and staggered into the room where he swung her around. “You’re heavier than I remember, or I’m getting old.”

  She smacked his shoulders with her open palms. “You’re getting old.”

  “Where’s your boy?”

  “Max is upstairs sleeping. He’s still recovering from our whirlwind escape from Maui.”

  Rafe kissed her square on the lips and handed her to his brother, Rod, standing silently in the doorway. Rod hugged her and pecked her cheek. “It’s great to see you again, Tori.”

  She rubbed her knuckles along his lean jaw. “You, too. I heard you married Ennis Price’s granddaughter. That must’ve broken hearts all across southern Colorado.”

  Rafe grinned. “Yeah, especially those hearts set on getting a piece of old Ennis’s ranch, the Price Is Right.”

  Rod shot his younger brother a look that would turn most men to jelly, but Rafe shrugged it off and laughed.

  Tori turned toward Rio, standing stiffly by the kitchen counter, tension radiating from his body in waves. Her hands flapped uselessly. “Your bro…umm…Rio’s here.”

  Rafe launched forward, hand outstretched. “We heard you were in town. That’s why we dropped by, although we wanted to wait until Tori’s dry stick of a brother left.” He pointed to Rio’s weapon shoved in his waistband. “Not planning a little fratricide, are you?”

  Rio clasped his brother’s hand, his jaw tight. The clasp lasted a few beats longer than necessary, and Tori wondered if Rio was trying to squeeze the life out of Rafe. She turned to Rod to break the awkward silence, but he offered no help at all.

  His eyes narrowed before he pushed off the doorjamb and sauntered toward Rio. “That land’s still yours if you want it. I never filed the papers.”

  “Not interested.” Rio shrugged.

  Tori sucked in her lower lip, twisting her hands in front of her. This was not the happy reunion she’d hoped for. “Where’s Ryder?”

  Rafe grinned at his two brooding brothers. “Ryder and Julia are coming in tomorrow. She just had a baby a few months ago. Did you know that?”