Cowboy Bodyguard

by Dana Mentink

  Larraby’s mouth quirked. “Too bad. You would have fit right in.”

  “I won’t have that talk in this house,” Tom said. “Past is past.”

  Shannon knew of the rage that simmered between the biological half brothers. Keegan was the product of an affair between Bryce Larraby and Keegan’s mother. Bryce had never acknowledged Keegan, and the hurt ran deep. Keegan’s troubled youth had led him into all sorts of difficulties, until the Thorn family took him in and eventually adopted him.

  “Let him talk,” Keegan said, eyes sparking. “Makes him feel like a big man, like dear old dad.”

  Tom put a hand on his youngest son’s shoulder, the pressure quieting him.

  Larraby shrugged. “Personally, I think Mason is on the take, always has been, but no one can make anything against him stick. I don’t believe a word he says.”

  Jack stared at Larraby. “So where does that leave us?”

  “You’re protecting Dina Brown’s baby,” Larraby went on, “and as far as I’m concerned, that’s your business. I’ve got bigger problems right now, because the Aces are prepping for their national run, heading for a convention in Reno. They’ll be in the vicinity, and if the Tide shows up looking for the baby, there’s gonna be a turf war.” His gaze drifted momentarily to Keegan, who stared right back.

  Larraby’s radio squawked, and he silenced it, turning to Jack and Shannon. “If you’re hiding this baby from the Tide, you better hide her well. That includes keeping your secrets from Mason. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

  Jack nodded. Shannon didn’t answer.

  Larraby waited a beat. “I will back up your story to Mason for a few days. As far as I know, you two are married and have a new little bundle of joy. If I get any orders to start an official investigation, though, then no more hands off. Understood?”

  “Yes,” Jack said. “You’re giving us time. Thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me.” Larraby strode to the door. “The Tide is as dangerous as they come, almost as dangerous as a crooked cop. They want Dina, and they will go after the baby to find her. Watch your backs.”

  The door closed behind him.

  Evie stood, hands on hips. “All right, Jack William Thorn. I know you’re the strong, silent type, but now you’re going to spill it.”

  Shannon knew what her unspoken thoughts were. Why would you take all this risk with a woman who abandoned you, a woman who wants nothing to do with Gold Bar?

  Jack blew out a breath. “It’s complicated, Mama.”

  She snorted. “Not really. What’s going on between you two?”

  Keegan turned a chair around and straddled it, a mischievous smile on his face. “I can’t wait to hear this.”

  Shannon watched Jack heave in a breath and drop the bomb. “Shannon and I are married,” he said. “We have been for seven years now.”

  THREE

  It took Jack a while to go through the whole story again. Parts of it, he could hardly wrap his mind around himself. He was a husband to Shannon, sort of, and caring for an actual, real live infant.

  “So, you’ve been married?” Keegan said. “All this time? And you kept it a secret?”

  He looked away from the merriment in Keegan’s eyes and the hurt in his mother’s, feeling lower than pond scum.

  Shannon cleared her throat. “We... I...realized the marriage was a mistake right after we went through with it. We’re getting a divorce, but we just haven’t gotten around to it.”

  Evie straightened and stared at Shannon. “This is too much. Keeping this secret was hurtful enough, but now finding out you’ve been stringing him along for seven years?”

  Shannon went hot all over.

  “Mama,” Jack said. “This is as much my fault as hers. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. I just...didn’t want to talk about it.”

  “You don’t want to talk about anything,” Keegan said. “Except horses and saddles. Silent as a man being shaved, as Granddad used to say.” He was still enjoying the whole drama.

  The baby’s fussing turned into an all-out holler.

  “I’m going to find Annabell some baby things.” Evie walked by, and Tom caught her around the waist.

  “I’ll help.” He looked at her and squeezed again. Their eyes met, and she sighed, some of the anger leaking out of her. She did not exactly smile at Shannon, but her tone was softer.

  “We’ll do everything we can to help you both.”

  “Thank you,” Shannon said.

  The time was broken up by his mother’s forays into the attic to find clothes, mostly in blues and yellows, leftovers from their babyhoods.

  “The Thorn boys were all big tykes,” she said, “so little Annabell will be swimming in them, but at least she’ll have clean clothes to wear. Look, though. I found some pink things. Must have been from when I was expecting Barrett. I thought for sure he was going to be a girl.”

  Keegan laughed. “He would have been one unattractive girl. Big as an ox and just as graceful.”

  Shannon mumbled a thank-you.

  Jack marveled at the sheer joy on his mother’s face as she sorted the clothes to take them to the wash. Even though the baby was not her kin, and they’d just shocked her badly, she had instantly offered up whatever she had. He blinked back a strong surge of emotion. His mother had a true servant’s heart. She didn’t deserve the hurt he’d dished out, not one bit of it.

  She even managed to locate a bassinet, which made her eyes swim. Barrett ambled into the room with his arm around his wife, Shelby. Jack knew Keegan had filled him in on the latest bombshell.

  “Perfect timing,” his mother said. “Barrett, can you go pick up diapers? I’m thinking a newborn size? She’s four months old, but tiny.”

  Jack’s oldest brother rubbed his beard and broke out in a look of sheer panic when his mother began to expound over the various diaper options.

  “Uh... I thought they just came in a one-size-fits-all kinda deal.”

  Shelby laughed. “I’ll go with him. We’ll get bottles and formula and all the trimmings. Good practice for the future,” she said, elbowing him.

  The expression of half terror, half longing on Barrett’s face made them all laugh.

  When they finally finished rich bowls of stew with crusty slabs of bread, Shannon and Keegan tackled the dishes, while Evie rocked the baby in the adjoining room. Jack sank into a chair next to her. “I’m sorry.”

  “You should be,” she said with spirit. “I always told you keeping a secret is the same as lying, and here you were keeping quiet about a thing as important as marriage. Inexcusable.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She skimmed the baby’s downy head with her cheek. “Is it what you wanted, Jackie? The separation and the divorce?”

  Her hands were so strong, he thought, calloused and capable, but she held the baby so tenderly. “I wanted her, Mama. I wanted Shannon.”

  “Still?”

  He shook his head. “I only need to be kicked in the teeth once to learn my lesson.” Part of his heart would always want her, but wanting and trusting were two different breeds.

  “So, it’s going to be a divorce, then? When the baby is safe?”

  Divorce. Ugly word. He swallowed, throat dust-dry. “Yeah.”

  She bit her lip. “But this is probably painful for you. I mean, pretending to live as Shannon’s husband...”

  It had taken him seven years to excise her from his every thought, but he was stronger now, over it, over her. Their marriage was made of flimsy paper. They were joined by nothing more concrete than words on a certificate. “We have to continue on, just until Dina makes contact with her brother. Then, after that...” He shrugged. “Nothing has changed.”

  “Nothing?” She looked deep into his eyes.

  He nodded. Nothing.

  �
��Are you sure it isn’t better to give Annabell to the police, in spite of what Larraby said?”

  “No, not sure, but I saw the bruises on Dina’s arms, Mama, the burns.” His fingers gripped the chair arm, fighting down the anger he felt that a man would choose to dominate a woman, physically hurt the mother of his own child. “We have to give her a chance to get free of the Tide.”

  “But, Jackie.” Her voice was a soft murmur. “Shannon?”

  Shannon looked over her shoulder at that moment. He glanced back, telling her silently and reminding himself. There’s nothing between us, Shannon. Don’t worry. I know that.

  She turned away, wave of dark hair falling across the curve of her cheek, hiding herself from him, like she did from the rest of the world. Hurt thrummed again through his chest.

  They decided it would be best to dive into the next round of explanations with Shannon’s mother the following morning, since Shannon could hardly keep her eyes open. The baby’s bassinet was next to the guest-room bed, where Shannon would sleep.

  Though his body was wrung out with fatigue, he found himself still dressed, pacing his tiny room, filled with energy that no amount of reading or sit-ups could dissipate. He longed to play his guitar. Instead, he rummaged through his drawer until he found the small box that he had not been able to open since she’d returned it to him. The diamond set in the gold engagement band glimmered at him, taunting him for his stupidity. Six months of savings and weeks agonizing over the style, it had meant everything, and now it was only a dust catcher. Maybe that was what it had always been. He shoved it back in the drawer, pulled on his boots and let himself out.

  The ranch at night always soothed him. There was music in the hush of the breeze stirring the grass and the springtime frog symphony echoing in the creek bed. Quiet places spoke to his soul—always had. Sunset brought the end to the clamor of horse trailers coming and going on their thousand-acre property, where they boarded and trained some sixty horses at a time. Nighttime held no clang of Ella’s hammer on the anvil as she crafted new horseshoes, no buzz of Keegan’s motorcycle along Oscar’s unused airstrip that Jack was saving every penny to buy. The only thing better than the quiet of the sleeping ranch was the divine peace he got when he flew his Cessna.

  Lady, his mare, was sidled up to the split-rail fence, and Jack was surprised to see Shannon there, a blanket clutched around her, stroking Lady’s neck with tentative fingers. He cleared his throat so as not to startle her.

  She jumped, shooting a guilty look at him. “The baby is sleeping.”

  “They do that from time to time, I hear.”

  Shannon’s long fingers made trails in Lady’s coat.

  “You always wanted me to learn to ride.”

  Pushed her to, as a matter of fact. Softly insistent, as was his way. The quietest bull in the china shop. “Shouldn’t have pressed.”

  “Well, what self-respecting resident of Gold Bar doesn’t know how to ride a horse, right?” Her tone was bitter, brows drawn when she turned to him. “I never fit in here, no matter how much you wanted me to.”

  “You could have, if you slowed down for a hot minute and gave it a chance.”

  He expected anger. The tremble of her lip surprised him. “I can’t slow down, Jack. Not ever. I wish I could, but unless I’m in high gear, I feel like a failure.” She rested her forehead on the fence, and the surrender in it broke his heart.

  He moved closer, reaching out toward her slender shoulders, the craving strong. Something told him his touch would not be welcome. Not anymore. He froze, and she straightened and strode back into the house, posture hunched.

  Stroking Lady’s neck, he watched Shannon go, sorrow knifing him swiftly and mercilessly for all the ways they’d failed each other.

  * * *

  Shannon dreaded explaining the whole bizarre situation to her mother, but it had to be better than staying with the Thorns, who were polite, in spite of everything. She phoned the hospital to learn that T.J. was still in a coma. The Tide remained at his bedside, minus Cruiser, according to the night nurse. Since Evie was still laundering baby clothes, and Jack had a trailer full of newly arrived horses to unload, it was not until the afternoon that they left for the Gold Nugget Inn. By that time, Shannon was about ready to commandeer the keys and drive herself.

  Her mother, Hazel, swathed in a checkered apron, met them in the lovely front parlor of the Gold Nugget Inn, which was mercifully empty of guests. She limped up on her cane, and Shannon felt a stab of guilt that she had not been able to visit more. Each visit left her riddled with guilt at leaving her mother, who’d lost her leg to diabetes. But Hazel would not tolerate the merest suggestion that Shannon should take any time off to tend to her, nor hire extra help at the Inn.

  “You gotta fly, honey,” she’d said. “You were born to do it.”

  Now tears coursed down Hazel’s plump cheeks, and her uncle, Oscar, kept scratching his white beard in puzzlement as the three followed Hazel and Oscar to the empty dining room and closed the glass-paned doors.

  “You’re married?” Hazel wiped her eyes.

  Shannon heard Jack let out a breath. “Technically, yes, but nothing has changed. We just haven’t gotten a divorce yet. We’re pretending we’re Annabell’s parents to protect Dina, until she can find her brother. Officer Larraby knows the truth, and the Thorns. We need you to keep the secret. There are very bad people looking for the baby.”

  Her mother shook her head. “I always dreamed about you getting married, Shannon, but this...” She shrugged, and Shannon realized how much their hasty action, and the concealment of it, had cost their families.

  I’ll get married someday, she wanted to say. When I meet the right person. But the words felt wrong in her mouth.

  “We’ll do whatever you need, of course. I’m so happy to have you here.” Her eyes riveted on Annabell. “May I hold her?”

  Shannon handed the infant to her mother, who wore an expression of such rapture, it made Shannon squirm.

  “Is it okay if we stay here? Just for a few days?”

  “Of course it is,” her mother said, eyes glued to the baby’s every movement. “We’ll put you in the Garden Room. No one is in the Night’s Stay Room, either, so you can use that if you need extra space for the baby’s things.”

  Shannon had always loved the Night’s Stay Room, which adjoined the larger Garden Room. In the 1850s, customers would sometimes pay for their lodging with a pouch full of gold dust, and Hazel had discovered, in the old attic, a genuine brass scale, complete with weights. How many times had Shannon sneaked into that room when it wasn’t rented out, fascinated by the mechanism that analyzed so precisely, neatly measured value? She loved the precision of it—no ambiguity, unlike every other part of life.

  Oscar fidgeted. “Sure, sure. That’ll do. Slow season before summer arrives. We got a room for you, Shannon, but, uh, well...”

  Shannon frowned. “What is it, Uncle Oscar? You’ve never been any good at beating around the bush.”

  “Uh, I get it that you’re trying to convince folks you’re married and raising a baby and all, but it doesn’t seem proper...”

  Shannon finally got it, and a flood of heat went to her cheeks. Jack wore a pained expression.

  “He can bunk with me,” Oscar said. “It’s right across from yours, on the top floor.”

  “It’s not necessary...” she started, but how exactly were they supposed to carry on the happy family facade with her staying at the inn and him at the Gold Bar? She swallowed. “It’s only for a little while, until we locate Dina’s brother.”

  “Sure, sure,” Oscar said.

  “I’ll rock the baby for a while, shall I?” her mother said.

  Just don’t get used to it, Mom, she wanted to say. I’m not back together with Jack, and there are no babies in our future. But it tugged at her heart to consider how much she’d disap
pointed the woman who’d been her only true champion. I’ll do better, Mom.

  A frown crossed her mother’s face. “Honey, I just remembered something. I got a phone call yesterday afternoon. Someone who said they were your friend and they’d heard you were home for a visit. They wanted to chat with you.”

  Her stomach dropped. “Who?”

  “They didn’t give a name. Someone with a real raspy voice.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “I...I told them you were coming soon. I’m sorry.” She frowned. “Was that bad?”

  “It’s okay. You didn’t know. Did he or she leave a number?”

  “No, and the ancient rotary phone we have here doesn’t show recent callers or anything fancy like that. All I can tell you is it was a local call.”

  “Local?” Jack frowned.

  She nodded. “I have to press a button to accept if it’s a long-distance call. Like I said, ancient technology.”

  “Mason’s still in Los Angeles,” Shannon said. “As far as I know, and it couldn’t be Cruiser.”

  “Could we have a third party involved here?” Jack said.

  Shannon blew out a breath. “Why not? Seems like everyone in the world is after us.”

  “We’ll sort it out, Shan.”

  She shouldered her bag, desperate to get upstairs and away from Jack’s quiet gaze. Turmoil bubbled in her stomach. Jack stopped her near the spiral staircase. He moved close, standing a full head taller than her, shoulders broad and strong. He was lithe as a cat in spite of his bulk, a trait she’d always admired.

  “Here,” he said without preamble, holding something out to her.

  The slender circle of gold fell into her palm, sending ripples of pain through every nerve as she recognized it. Her wedding ring.

  “Jack, this isn’t...”

  “I know what it is and isn’t,” he said sharply. “You’re playing a part, and so am I.” His eyes shone stark blue, like the interior part of the flame that burns the hottest. “Take it.”

  Unable to answer, she shoved the ring on her finger, turned on her heel and marched up the steps without looking back.