A Cowboy to Keep

by Karen Rock

  The urge to open up to her last night had caught him off guard. Something in her grit, her compassion, her depth had beckoned him, like a beacon across a stormy sea. Giving him comfort and shelter...and much more.

  Their kiss.

  He traced her smile in the picture and rested the pad of his index finger on her lips.

  After hearing the bitter truth about him, she’d touched his scar, kissed it, celebrated what was ugly about him. She’d changed the emotions he associated with it. What had been a reminder of his greatest failure was now also a very personal moment he shared with a woman he had come to care for deeply.

  It was no matter that he’d only been here a few days, he was a man who knew his mind and heart, and what they both wanted was Dani, teasing him, challenging him, listening and caring, laughing at and with him to the same degree.

  But it wasn’t to be. As much as she brought him alive, he’d never be whole or healed until he righted his wrongs and got justice for his brother.

  But what if that never happened?

  He flipped over the picture. Then a solitary life, chasing shadows, was what he deserved.

  End of story.

  Not the happily-ever-afters his mother liked reading.

  If only he could give one to her...or justice, at least.

  He needed a break in his mission. Bad.

  An alarm shrilled and he bolted to his feet and raced outside. Flames arced skyward, flickering like a struck match in the night.

  Fire!

  He thundered down the path, rounded a corner and observed an engulfed structure. Tanya’s house. Acrid smoke burned his nose and stung his lungs so that he coughed as he neared, his heartbeat thundering in his ears.

  His heart struggled to deliver oxygenated blood, his mind scrambled to unravel the situation, make sense of the smoke billowing from the front windows and door, the scarlet fire flickering inside.

  Tanya!

  Was she inside?

  He reached the porch and squinted through the window, eyeing the best point to enter. Tanya had to have made it out.

  And then he saw her. A glimpse of a female figure in the flame-lit kitchen, her arms over her face, caught...trapped...

  Adrenaline jittered through him as he pulled his T-shirt over his mouth and pushed himself forward and up the crumbling steps.

  Flames rose from the warped floorboards and ash thickened the air, dialing visibility to nearly zero.

  “Tanya!” he shouted into the roar of the fire.

  “Tanya!” A faint call, a female voice. Why would she call her own name unless...

  The horrifying thought nearly knocked him down.

  Dani. It had to be.

  “Dani!” Shoving through the smoke, his skin so hot it felt like it was peeling right off his bones, he lurched into the kitchen. When he saw the shape of a woman collapsed on the floor, he lunged, snatching her up, his pulse screaming, spots appearing before his eyes.

  “Dani,” he cried, though he couldn’t hear his own voice. Her head lolled, mouth open, eyes shut.

  A flaming beam followed by a ceiling section crashed at his feet and he stumbled back, the path back out blocked.

  Where to go?

  Think.

  The flash of a cat’s tail caught his eye as it disappeared into the murk.

  Mittens. Heading for the back porch. Any chance it still stood?

  Only one way to find out.

  Relying on his memory, he lurched through the dense gray air, boots grinding on broken glass. All around him the hiss and blat of the inferno beat at his eardrums, louder than the rush of blood.

  His foot crashed through floorboards and for one heart-stopping moment, he was trapped. Stay calm, he ordered himself, trying to curb the panic. Save Dani. He wiggled his boot right, then left, then right again, each second agony as he held his breath, feeling his head start to spin.

  Lungs burning, he yanked his boot loose at last and stumbled several more steps, the back stairs nearly tripping him once more. Mittens streaked away, and then pieces of the night sky appeared through the smoke as he pushed himself outside, tough talking himself to go farther and farther and farther. He was so tired it felt like he was walking through wet concrete.

  A fair distance away, he carefully laid Dani on the grass by a fence post, the shrill of sirens growing louder. A fire truck tore up and an ambulance followed. Somewhere behind him, he heard the yelling of a gathering crowd, but no one had spotted him and Dani yet.

  “Help!” he hollered, turning and waving, his voice faint and as dry as the ash that rained around him.

  A gasping sound snatched back his attention and Dani’s eyelids fluttered.

  “Tanya,” she croaked.

  Emotion rushed through him, a powerful, battering wave. “I didn’t see her,” he murmured against her temple, holding her close.

  “Is she okay?” Her lids lifted higher and concerned hazel eyes met his.

  “I don’t know. I need to get you some oxygen.”

  She sat up a little more. Looked around. “How am I out here? Did you...? Did I...?”

  “You’re safe now.”

  Her trembling hand rose and landed on his cheek. Came away wet. Was he crying? “Thank you.”

  He clutched her to him. Felt the solid reassurance of Dani in his arms, this woman who hadn’t hesitated a moment to race head-on into a fire for a friend, to chase down trespassers and round up escaped horses. Her small size belied her huge heart and spirit, and every moment he spent with her sent him closer to the line he couldn’t cross.

  He rested his cheek on her head. Maybe he was fooling himself and he’d crossed that line already. Had fallen hard that first night, when she’d held him at gunpoint without another person for miles to back her up.

  He realized, as he held her to him and kissed the top of her head and felt her cling to him, that he would do anything he could to make her happy, to keep her safe. He didn’t ask himself how he could know this after four days. It just seemed clearer to him than anything he had worked out in all the years before.

  So how, when the time came, would he ever give her up?

  * * *

  TWO HOURS LATER, Jack circled the charred remains of Tanya’s house, his thoughts on Dani, who still hadn’t returned from the ER with Diane. She’d been more than a little shaky when she’d finally stood and had flat-out refused to go to the hospital without Tanya accounted for...until she’d fainted.

  If it hadn’t looked strange, he would have brought her there himself, but Diane had stepped in and quietly insisted he stay for the investigation.

  Now he could only wait and worry.

  One fire marshal squatted inside the gutted house, flashlight in hand, inspecting wires on the now exposed beams while another tramped through the structure, sifting through debris. A third scribbled on a small pad as he questioned the last staff members on site, Jori Lynn and Blake, while a fourth unfurled yellow crime-scene tape as he carefully paced around the structure.

  The rest of the firefighters had left an hour ago, the inferno out. The roof had collapsed and burned. One wall had fallen. Breezes stirred thick ash so that it drifted in heaps. The stench of burned wood dirtied the air and his lungs burned as if he’d been chain smoking for hours. A circling blue light on the dash of a sheriff’s department SUV caught his attention. The large black vehicle slowed to a halt and Lance stepped out, his uniform so crisp it looked like it could do the walking for him. His polished badge glinted.

  “Heard the call come in. Thought I’d stop by.”

  “Glad you did.”

  In the distance, the inspector flipped his pad closed, and Jori Lynn and Blake waved before disappearing into the darkness, heading toward staff quarters. With Larry up at the main house reassuring the a
larmed guests that everything was fine, he and Lance could speak freely.

  He stepped over blown-out window frames and pieces of metal littering the front yard to join his cousin by his vehicle.

  “This was Tanya’s house. Smiley’s girlfriend.”

  Lance took off his hat and waved it in front of his face slowly, his brow creased. “Any idea what caused it?”

  Jack shoved his hands in his pockets. “Waiting on the fire marshal.”

  Lance propped the heel of his boot on the tire behind him and crossed his arms over his chest. “You okay?”

  “Why?”

  “You’re black, from head to toe, looks like the back of that hand is burned and your knee is cut.”

  Jack stared down at his pink knuckles and the slash in his jeans, dumbfounded at the red stain. He hadn’t felt it, couldn’t, not with his mind so full of Dani and how close he’d come to losing her.

  “You should get medical attention.”

  Jack shot him a look. “I’ll get a Band-Aid.”

  Lance pulled out a pack of butterscotch candies and offered the roll to Jack. “Heard Larry’s filing a report on the horses and some missing guest items. We’ll have uniforms out here tomorrow.”

  “Good.” Jack waved away the candy. “I need more eyes out for Sam Perkins, too. He didn’t show up at the fire.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Their stable manager, Dani, was there. She could have been killed.”

  “How’s that?” Lance’s cheek bulged and the smell of butterscotch competed with the fumes from the fire.

  “She went in after Tanya.” One of the fire marshals yelled something and waved the other over.

  Lance turned around and they watched the men jabber over a scorched piece of flooring. Lance whistled. “Gutsy gal. Any sign of Tanya?”

  One of the investigators began taking pictures while another reopened his pad and jotted down notes. Jack craned his neck, angling for a better look. “No. But her car’s gone.”

  Lance rubbed his jaw. “Smiley.”

  “Yes. Dani and I spotted him and a partner yesterday up by Spark Canyon. Because of the storm, couldn’t get close enough to them to capture him. Thinking he might have been spooked at the close call and came back for Tanya’s car.”

  “She could be an accomplice.”

  Jack shifted on his feet, his knee starting to throb. “Or a victim. Dani was pretty sure Tanya planned on convincing Smiley to turn himself in.”

  “Maybe he wasn’t persuaded.” Lance eyed a dangling gutter swaying in the wind. “If she’s not back by morning, we’ll file a missing person’s report and issue a BOLO for the vehicle.”

  Jack nodded, his thoughts turning to Dani. If she wasn’t back in thirty minutes, he’d head up to the hospital.

  “Hey, Gary,” he heard Lance say, voice rising, and looked up to see one of the fire marshals approaching.

  The pale man neared, shoulders curved inward, as though he recoiled from some unseen blow. Tight curls framed his forehead. He tugged off his gloves one finger at a time. “Sheriff.”

  “Your preliminary assessment? You can speak freely.”

  Gary’s eyes shifted to Jack. “Inconclusive evidence for arson. We’ll be sending in our full team tomorrow.”

  “Any signs of foul play?”

  Gary pulled out a tissue and blew his nose. At Lance’s nod, he said, “None so far. I’ll be in touch.”

  Static and garbled voices crackled from Lance’s police radio as the marshals left.

  “Better get that.”

  Jack followed Lance to his SUV. Lance pulled out his handset, listened to the dispatcher, then gave rapid-fire instructions on a response to a domestic call. After ending the exchange, he slid behind the wheel and peered up at Jack.

  “We located the Phillips’ safe-deposit box today.”

  Jack rested his arm on the top of the SUV and pressed his stinging hand to the cool metal. “What was in it?”

  “Three hundred K and passports. Same names as the ones on the Madagascar tickets. Plus some numbers that turned out to be Swiss bank accounts.”

  Jack chewed on the information for a bit before asking, “Fleeing the country?”

  “There’s no record of that couple on the manifest.”

  “They missed their flight.” It was more a statement than question, since they both knew why the would-be travelers were “detained.”

  “Question is,” Lance mused, his expression thoughtful, “what were they running from...or who?”

  “Hoping Smiley can answer that. Let me know what you get with the BOLO and I’ll check out those caves tomorrow if I can.”

  Lance’s eyebrows rose. “So you’ll be finishing up in time for the family reunion. You could bring Dani, though I still make the better date.”

  A short laugh escaped Jack. “I told you, you’re not my type.”

  “So you’ll bring Dani?”

  “Let it go, Lance.” Jack drummed his fingers on the door panel.

  “You know detectives.” Lance’s shoulders lifted then fell, his smug smile as irritating as it’d ever been. “Once we bite down, we don’t let go.”

  “So that makes you a dog?”

  “Wolf.” Lance regarded him with grim amusement. “And if you don’t show up for your mother, you’re an—”

  Jack slammed the door shut, cutting off his cousin, and gave Lance a mocking salute as he reversed and drove away, horn beeping.

  In the quiet, the mules brayed and bats swooped over roadside ditches, straining insects. Blue spokes of moonlight rotated through the fields.

  Dani at Cade Ranch.

  For the first time since his brother’s death, he could picture himself home again...

  ...with Dani.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  “HEY,” DANI CALLED to Jack as she leaned over the corral’s fence. All around her, the early morning sky glowed like a pearl as the moon slipped to the horizon, a half-lidded eye. She watched Jack circle a coil of rope overhead then toss it. The rope snapped through the air, and the loop dropped neatly over a fence post.

  He and Milly looked up when she called out again and the sight of him, tall and broad-shouldered in the growing light, his feet planted, his jaw firm, briefly eased her anguish over Tanya’s disappearance. Since giving her statement to the police at the hospital, Dani had spent the night cuddling the displaced Mittens, unable to sleep, imagining worst case scenarios for her friend.

  Finally, she’d given up, gotten dressed and wandered outside, hoping to find Jack. And here he was, faithful to his word about Milly. The horse’s ears lay flat, and she stood as far as she could from a saddle mounted on the fence. Maybe it wasn’t such a good day for her, either.

  “Hey, yourself.” After putting the horse back into the pasture, he ambled over and gathered her hands in his. “How’s your head?”

  She looked up at his face, into his thick-lashed brown eyes, even though she knew it was going to feel like someone was hooking her insides out through her chest.

  You love him.

  This man had saved her life and stolen her heart. Her hand rose to the small, aching bump on her temple. It didn’t bother her as much as her conscience did. “Fine.”

  You’ve been falling for him since you met and you haven’t told him a thing.

  “Glad to hear it.”

  “I wanted to thank you.” Guilt lodged in her throat, making it difficult to breathe. “For last night.”

  He ducked his head. Examined his boots. He looked good in black, she mused, taking in his dark T-shirt. Like he’d been drawn in charcoal.

  “No need.”

  “You risked your life.”

  His hands tightened around hers. “And you could have died.
” A jagged edge serrated his words.

  “I don’t remember everything. I mean, I heard the horses and went out to check, saw the fire and ran to get Tanya. The rest is black.”

  He brought her fingers to his mouth and his words whispered against her knuckles. “You were crazy for going in there.” His hand shook slightly.

  A shivery feeling began in her stomach, spread. “I know.”

  “Reckless.” He was smiling, but not like usual. There was a vulnerability in it, a hesitancy; it was all over his face, swimming around in those beautiful brown eyes, too.

  “Yes.”

  “And brave.” He pressed her hand to his scar and her whole being melted, liquid with joy.

  How he must trust her to be so vulnerable. It wasn’t so long ago that he’d averted his face around people, hiding his imperfection, which, to her, was what was most perfect about him. He wore what wasn’t right about him on the outside, for the world to see, instead of hiding it, like she did. She had to tell him.

  How could she tell him?

  How could she not?

  He might discover it anyway if he found her in his databases.

  “Scared is closer,” she admitted. With all that he still didn’t know about her, she couldn’t bear for him to heap false praise on her. “I was afraid Tanya was in there.”

  “Her car wasn’t back when I checked earlier.”

  She blinked fast, eyes pricking. “Where is she, Jack? Did Smiley take her?”

  He released her hand and squinted down the dirt road that led to the front gate. A horse rolled in the grass behind them and a rooster released a throaty crow into the crisp, spring air. “It’s possible. A missing person’s report will be filed if she doesn’t show up in the next few hours. And they’ll be looking for her car.”

  “I blame myself.” Her words were a notch above a whisper. She peered at him through her bangs.

  He tipped her chin with one finger and searched her eyes. “No. She made her own choices.”

  A deep tremble shook her. “But I told her to convince Smiley to turn himself in. She said she’d do it herself if she had to.”

  “And that would have been the right thing to do,” Jack said, firmly.