Rancher's Dream

by B. J Daniels

  Now everyone was excited about Billie Dee’s upcoming wedding. The whole family would be standing up with her—including her daughter, who would be flying in for the ceremony. Lillie and AJ were planning the whole shindig.

  Hawk had to laugh. If his brother wasn’t smitten, well, he would eat his hat.

  He looked around the ranch yard at his growing family. Tucker and Kate were curled in a corner laughing about something. Darby and Mariah were cooing at their son sitting in a carrier on the picnic table with Lillie and Trask doing the same thing. Lillie was saying the two boys would be like brothers growing up. From the gleam in Lillie’s and Mariah’s eyes, he suspected it wouldn’t be long before they had another announcement.

  But it was Flint and Maggie that held his gaze. Flint had his hand over the baby growing inside her. He’d never seen this Flint before. A blissful family man.

  His gaze shifted to Drey, who had been talking to AJ. Now she met his gaze. He felt that spark across the entire yard. She grinned and raised her water bottle to him. He raised his beer and couldn’t help the fool grin that he knew spread across his face. Men in love, he thought. Could they be any goofier?

  Hawk was glad that no one brought up what they’d recently been through. He was almost fully recovered and so was Drey. Ethan’s body had been removed from the house, the government taking possession of all his assets. Jet’s body was also removed, the information he was trying to escape with to be used as well as what they had against Ethan in the investigation. Lena had been up to her neck in the crime. But she, too, was gone.

  Fortunately, it hadn’t taken long to clear Drey of any involvement. She had been able to get her old job back as the local librarian, a job Hawk knew she loved. She wanted to work—just until they had their first baby. He couldn’t wait and was thankful that the doctor had given her assurances after her miscarriage all those years ago that she should have no problem getting pregnant again.

  Drey had said she didn’t want to wait so they would be working on that real soon, he thought, grinning again.

  “I’m sorry Dad couldn’t be here,” Cyrus said. “I’m tempted to go up into the mountains to check on him.”

  “It’s summer. You’d have a hell of a time getting him out of the mountains,” Hawk said. He didn’t say what he’d been thinking about Ely Cahill. That he probably didn’t have that many summers left. “I’d leave him be. He’s happy wherever he is. Anyway, you need to go to Denver and pick up that bull.”

  Cyrus grumbled. “You really aren’t going to go?”

  Hawk shook his head, still watching Drey. “I have other plans.”

  EPILOGUE

  HAWK STUDIED DREY in the light from the campfire. Her cheeks were flushed from the crackling fire’s warmth. Sparks rose and drifted out over the lake like fireflies before winking out. Overhead, stars twinkled in a deep blue velvet Montana sky. The warm breeze carried the summer scents. Only a sliver of moon hung on the horizon above the dark pine-covered mountain.

  Drey was looking into the flames. He wondered what she was thinking. He hoped she wasn’t reliving the horror. Coming that close to dying...

  Her gaze rose to him as if she’d sensed him watching her. She smiled across the campfire at him.

  “I’d offer a penny for your thoughts...”

  “I was thinking how much I love this.” She looked out at the lake, the surface silvery under the starlight. “How much I love being with you here,” she said, her gaze coming back to him.

  He moved around the fire to sit down next to her on the blanket. “Warm enough?”

  She nodded as he put his arm around her and she leaned into his chest. He felt as if he had been blessed and didn’t deserve it. For so long he thought they would never find their way back to each other. It had taken almost losing her to make him come to his senses. He regretted each lost year, month, minute, second and promised himself he’d never make that mistake again.

  It was why he’d asked her to marry him in front of his entire family at the family summer picnic. She’d smiled and said yes, throwing her arms around him. They’d been oblivious to the family’s cheers and applause. It had been only the two of them lost in the moment. That night, they’d run away and gotten married.

  He knew his sister, Lillie, would eventually forgive him. She loved nothing better than a huge family wedding. Let Cyrus give her one, he’d told her. She was busy with Billie Dee’s wedding, so that had taken some of the sting out of it for her.

  Also, when he’d told his sister that he couldn’t wait another day to be married to Drey, Lillie had cried. The woman was a true romantic. “I knew she was the only one for you. Didn’t I tell you that?”

  “Numerous times,” he’d said with a groan.

  The horses whinnied from the darkness as he got up to throw another log on the fire.

  “You know what I want?” Drey asked.

  “Name it.” Hawk knew he would move heaven and earth if she asked him.

  She stood and started taking off her clothes.

  “I’m not sure where exactly this is headed, but I’m liking it,” he said as he began to take off his clothing, as well.

  She laughed and dropped the last of her clothes on a log next to the fire, then ran to the edge of the water and jumped in.

  Montana lakes never got what anyone in the South would call warm. But it was summer, the warm air like a caress, and his beautiful wife was naked and calling to him from the starlit water.

  He finished undressing and raced out to dive in and swim out to her. Her body felt silken as he pulled her to him. Water beaded on her lashes. He’d never seen anyone more beautiful. He kissed her until they both went under.

  Surfacing, she said, “First one to the tent...” She swam toward the shore as if trying out for the Olympics.

  He watched for a few moments, in wonder at the woman he’d married, then he swam after her, anxious to find out what the loser of the race would get. Smiling, he couldn’t wait. Tonight they would make love beside the lake just as he’d dreamed for so long. He was so filled with joy that he felt as if he would burst.

  Drey was waiting for him in the tent. She tossed him a towel. “You know I used to dream about this.”

  “Me trying to get you into my tent?”

  Laughing, she said, “You and me up here like this. Married, planning our future.” She lay down on top of the sleeping bag. “For so long I never thought it could happen.”

  “I know,” he said as he dried himself off with the towel. “I’m sorry it took me so long, Mrs. Cahill.”

  Firelight played on the side of the tent, making warm gold patterns across her naked body. “Mrs. Cahill. I do love the sound of that.”

  He dropped the towel and joined her on the sleeping bag.

  “Let’s make a baby tonight,” she whispered.

  He looked into her beautiful eyes. “Oh hell, let’s make two.”

  * * * * *

  Rachel McCall never thought she’d return to her hometown of McCall Canyon, Texas. But when long-buried family secrets come to light, she has no choice. And the only person she can turn to for help is the one man she’d hoped to avoid: Texas Ranger Griff Morris. Because it won’t take long before he learns she’s carrying his baby...

  Read on for a sneak peek at USA TODAY bestselling author Delores Fossen’s

  Finger on the Trigger.

  New York Times bestselling author B.J. Daniels takes you to the small town of Gilt Edge, Montana in her captivating and compulsively readable Cahill Ranch series!.

  Renegade’s Pride

  Outlaw’s Honor

  Cowboy’s Legacy

  Hero’s Return

  “Super read by an excellent writer. Recommended!”

  —#1 New York Times bestselling author Linda Lael Miller on Renegade’s Pride

  * * *

 
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  Finger on the Trigger

  by Delores Fossen

  Chapter One

  Something wasn’t right.

  Rachel McCall was sure of it. Her heartbeat kicked up a notch, and she glanced around Main Street to see what had put the sudden knot in her stomach.

  Nothing.

  Well, nothing that she could see, anyway. But that didn’t help with the knot.

  She walked even faster, trying to tamp down her fears. It had been only a month since someone had tried to kill her father and had kidnapped her mother. That wasn’t nearly enough time for her to force the images out of her head. The sound of the shot. All that blood. The fear that she might lose both her parents.

  There were images and memories of the other things that’d happened over the course of those two days, too.

  Remembering that wouldn’t help her now, though. She had to get to her car, and then she could drive back to the inn on the edge of town and figure out why this “not right” feeling wouldn’t budge.

  She continued to walk from the small pharmacy up the street to where she’d parked her car. There had still been plenty of daylight when she’d gone into the pharmacy twenty minutes earlier to wait for her meds to be ready, but now that the storm was breathing down on her, it was dark, and the sidewalks were empty. There were so many alleys and shadows. Enough to cause her nerves to tingle just beneath her skin.

  Rachel silently cursed herself for not parking directly in front of the pharmacy, but instead she’d chosen a spot closer to the small grocery store where she’d first picked up some supplies before going for the meds. That grocer was closed now—as was seemingly everything else in the small town of Silver Creek.

  She’d chosen this town because in many ways it’d reminded her of home. Of McCall Canyon. But bad things had happened there, and they could also happen here.

  The moment her car was in sight, she pressed the button on her key fob. The red brake lights flashed, indicating the door was unlocked, just as a vein of lightning lit up the night sky. A few seconds later, the thunder came, a thick rumbling groan. And it was maybe because of the thunder that she didn’t hear the footsteps.

  Not until it was too late.

  Someone stepped out from one of those dark alleys. She saw only a blur of motion from the corner of her eye before that someone wearing a white cowboy hat pulled her between the two buildings.

  The scream bubbled up in her throat, but she didn’t manage to make a sound before he slid his hand over her mouth.

  It was a man.

  Rachel had no trouble figuring that out the moment her back landed against his chest. But she didn’t stay there. The surge of adrenaline came. And the fear. She rammed her elbow into the man’s stomach, breaking free, and turned to run. She didn’t make it far, however, because he cursed and hauled her back to him.

  “Shh. Someone was watching you,” he said.

  She continued to struggle to get away, until the sound of his voice finally registered in her head. It was one she definitely recognized.

  Griff.

  Or rather Texas Ranger Griffin Morris.

  How the heck had he found her? And better yet, how fast could she get rid of him?

  Rachel pushed his hand away from her mouth and whirled around to face him. She hoped the darkness didn’t hide her anger. Even if it didn’t, Griff didn’t seem to notice, because his attention was focused across the street.

  “Shh,” he repeated, when she started to say something.

  Rachel nearly disobeyed him on principle just because she didn’t want Griff telling her what to do. But she wasn’t stupid. His own expression told her loads. Something was wrong. The knot in her stomach hadn’t been a false alarm.

  She followed Griff’s gaze and tried to pick through the darkness to see if she could figure out what had caused him to grab her like that. There was a row of buildings, mom-and-pop type stores, all one and two stories high. Like the side of the street that Griff and she were on, that one had alleys, too. If someone was hiding there, she couldn’t see him.

  “Who’s watching me?” she whispered. That was just the first of many questions she had for Griff.

  He didn’t jump to answer, but merely lifted his shoulder. Since he still had his left arm hooked around her waist, she felt his muscles tense. Felt the handgun that he’d drawn, too. Apparently Rachel wasn’t the only one who’d thought something was wrong.

  “Is this about my father?” she pressed.

  That only earned her another shoulder lift. For a couple seconds, anyway. “Your dad’s alive, by the way. Just in case you want to know.”

  She hadn’t needed Griff to tell her that. Rachel had kept up with the news about his shooting. Her father had survived the surgery and had been released from the hospital. She hadn’t wanted him dead. But Rachel no longer wanted him in her life.

  That applied to Griff, too.

  “I got here about five minutes ago,” Griff went on. He tipped his head toward the end of the street. “I parked up there and came to your car to wait for you. That’s when I saw the guy across the street. He’s about six feet tall, medium build and dressed all in black. I didn’t get a look at his face because he stepped back when he saw me.”

  Even though Griff and she were at odds—big odds—she believed everything he’d just said. Griff wasn’t the sort to make up something like that just to get her in his arms again. Though it had worked. Here she was, right against him. Rachel was about to do something about that, but Griff spoke before she could put a couple inches of space between them.

  “Keep watch of the alley behind us,” he said. “I don’t want him backtracking and sneaking up on us.”

  That tightened the knot even more, and Rachel wished she’d brought her gun with her. Too bad she’d left it at the inn.

  “There might be nothing to this,” she whispered. However, she did turn so she could keep an eye on the back alley. “Unless...” She almost hated to finish that. “Has there been another attack? Did someone try to kill my father again?”

  Griff didn’t answer right away, but he did spare her a glance. He looked down at her just as she looked up at him. Their gazes connected. It was too dark to see the color of his eyes, but she knew they were gunmetal gray.

  Rachel also knew the heat was still there.

  Good grief. After everything that had happened, it should be gone. Should be as cold as ice. But here it was, just as it always had been. Well, it could take a hike. Her body might still be attracted to Griff, but she’d learned her lesson, and she wouldn’t give him another chance to crush her.

  “There have been new threats,” he finally said. A muscle flickered in his jaw. “Both emails and phone calls. Have you gotten any?”

  She shook her head. “No, but then I closed my email account and have been using a burner cell.”

  Of course Griff knew that, because he was the reason she’d gone to such lengths. Rachel had been trying to get away from him.

  “How’d you find me?” she snapped. “Why did you find me? Because I made it clear that I didn’t want to see you.”

  There was too much emotion in her voice. Not good. Because it meant she was no longer whispering. Rachel tried to rein in her feelings so she could keep watch and put an end to this visit.

  “Your meds,” G
riff said.

  Because she was still doing some emotion reining, she didn’t immediately make the connection. Then Rachel remembered she’d needed the pharmacist to call her former doctor in McCall Canyon to verify the prescription for her epilepsy medicine. Without them, she would have had a seizure, something that hadn’t happened in two years.

  Rachel cursed herself for that lapse. She should have figured out a way to get the meds without anyone having to contact Dr. Baldwin. Of course, Dr. Baldwin shouldn’t have ratted her out to Griff either, and as soon as she could, she’d have a chat with the man about that.

  “I’d been so careful,” she mumbled. She hadn’t meant to say that aloud, and it got Griff’s attention because he glanced at her again.

  “No. You haven’t been. You shouldn’t have parked here. If I could find you, then so could the person who made those new threats.”

  She couldn’t argue with that, but what Rachel could dispute was that the person who’d made those new threats might not even be after her. Yes, a month ago someone had put a bullet in her father’s chest while he’d been in the parking lot of the sheriff’s office where both her brothers worked. But that person, Whitney Goble, who’d been responsible for the shooting, had tried to kill Rachel’s father so Whitney could set up someone else that she wanted to punish. Now Whitney was dead.

  Not that it helped lessen the memories just because Whitney was no longer alive.

  No. Because of everything else that’d happened in the twenty-four hours following the shooting. That was when they’d learned that her father also had secrets.

  Well, one secret, anyway.

  That, too, twisted away at her. Just as much as reading the threat he’d gotten and seeing him gunned down in the parking lot. But the truth was her father had been living two lives and had a mistress and a son living several counties over. Her brothers, Egan and Court, hadn’t known. Neither had her mother, Helen.