Rancher Rescue

by Barb Han

  She could feel his physical presence next to her before his arm slipped around her shoulders. “You would have been fine. And you will be, once we get Noah back safely.”

  Easy for him to say. He didn’t know her. She didn’t want to dwell on her shortcomings. Not now. She’d have time enough to examine those later when this was all over and her nephew was safe. “I thought she needed a break. The responsibility was becoming a burden. And then I didn’t even think twice when I found out she’d had an accident climbing. I just assumed she’d been reckless.” A sob escaped. “What does that say about me?”

  “That you’re human.”

  “Or I’m clueless. No wonder she didn’t trust me with the truth. She must’ve known how little faith I had in her.”

  He guided her chin up until her gaze lifted to meet his.

  “When people tell you who they are, it’s best to believe them.”

  “What if they change?”

  “Only time can tell that. Besides, it never does any good chasing what-if. You have to go on the information you have. Move from there.”

  “I guess.”

  “Look. You’re strong. Brave. Determined. You were doing right by your sister. She trusted you or she never would have sent Noah to stay with you. As for the restaurant, she might’ve been worried she was being followed. She might’ve had a hunch there’d be trouble. I’m guessing she didn’t bet on anything of this magnitude. She must’ve thought with Noah safe, she could handle whatever came her way.”

  His words were like a bonfire on a cold night. Warm. Soothing. Comforting.

  Katherine reached up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

  * * *

  A LIGHT TOUCH from those silky lips and a hot trail lit from the point of contact. Caleb’s fingers itched to get lost in that chestnut mane of hers. She slicked her tongue over those lips and his body reacted with a mind of its own. His blood heated to boiling. He swallowed hard. Damn.

  One look into Katherine’s eyes and he could see she was hurt and alone. He wouldn’t take advantage of the situation even though every muscle in his body begged to lay her down right then and give her all the comfort and pleasure she could handle. Another time. Another place. Might be a different story?

  Then again, he’d never been known for his timing. He’d taken Becca in when she’d showed up at his door in trouble. Anger still flared through him when he thought about the bruises on her face and her busted lip. No way would he turn away a woman who looked as though she’d been abused. Caring for her and giving her a place to stay until she got on her feet had been the right thing to do. Having a relationship was a bad idea.

  He’d opened his home and developed feelings for her. Look how that turned out, a little voice in his head said. She’d left after a year, saying she needed time to figure herself out.

  Katherine faced a different problem. She was being brave as hell facing it rather than running and hiding. “Let’s see what else is here.”

  “While I’m here, I should find some clothes and change.”

  Caleb walked away. If he hadn’t, he couldn’t have been held responsible for his actions. His body wanted Katherine. He was a man. She lit fires in him with a slight touch. A spark that intense couldn’t lead to anything good. He could end up in a raging wildfire of passion. Weren’t wildfires all-consuming? And what did they leave in their wake? Devastation and tragedy.

  The image of walking into the kitchen and finding Becca’s Dear John on the counter wound back through his thoughts as Katherine entered the room.

  Caleb refocused and searched for something that might be significant. A medical file. A sealed envelope. A scribble on a piece of paper. He kept an eye on Katherine. Her tightly held emotions were admirable. Pride he had no right to own filled a small space inside him.

  An hour into the search, her expression told the story. Eyes, dark from exhaustion. Lips, thin from anger. Muscles, tense from frustration.

  He moved behind her and pressed his palms to the knots in her neck, ignoring his own rising pulse.

  “I know I haven’t painted a good picture of my sister, but I can’t imagine what she could’ve gotten herself into that would cause this. She could be irresponsible, but she had a good heart. Whatever she did would have to have been an accident. Something she fell into. She wouldn’t have caused this much damage on purpose. She was sweet. Harmless. She isn’t—wasn’t—the type of person who’d do something malicious.”

  “What happened between the two of you?” He doubted she’d tell him but he took a chance and asked anyway.

  Katherine sat for a moment. She leaned forward, allowing him to deepen the pressure on her neck and move his hands to her shoulders.

  “She was fifteen. Rebellious. There was this one time I specifically told her not to go out. I needed her home to let a repairman in. She didn’t listen and left anyway. Probably out of spite. We had to go the night without A/C in the middle of a Dallas summer. I’d been in class all day and then worked the afternoon shift as a hostess. I was hot. Miserable. I decided to wait up for her. The minute she waltzed through the door, I blew up. Told her she was a spoiled brat.”

  “You had every right to ask her to pitch in more. It wasn’t like you asked her to gut a hog.”

  “I didn’t ‘ask’ anything. I demanded she stay home. I thought it was my job to tell her what to do with our parents gone, not that she made it easy. She didn’t want to listen and was never there when I needed her. I resented her. I learned pretty fast that I couldn’t depend on her and had to learn to do things on my own.”

  “You should be proud of yourself.”

  “I could’ve been more sympathetic. But Leann did what she did best—disappeared. When she came home, I noticed she’d been drinking. I came down on her too hard.”

  Caleb knew all about self-recrimination. Hadn’t he been beating himself up with worry since his last girlfriend left? Hadn’t the ache in his chest been a void so large he didn’t think he’d ever fill it again?

  Caleb increased pressure, working a knot out of Katherine’s shoulder.

  A self-satisfied smile crossed his lips at the way her silky skin relaxed under his touch, and for the little moan that escaped before she could quash it. “You always this tough on yourself?”

  Katherine hugged her knees into her chest. “A week later when she left, she didn’t come back. I didn’t hear from her for years.”

  Caleb couldn’t imagine how difficult it was for Katherine to say those words out loud. She couldn’t be more than twenty-six or twenty-seven, and seemed keenly aware of all her misjudgments now. A few years younger than him, she bore the weight of the world on her shoulders. The knots he’d been working so hard to release tightened. “Your sister was old enough to know better. You were trying to do what was best. I’m sure she knew that on some level.”

  “No. I had to close myself off because it was too painful repeatedly being disappointed by her. We stopped speaking. I didn’t hear from her again until this year. Noah had barely turned four. I didn’t even know I had a nephew before then.”

  Caleb moved to face her and took a knee, reaching out to place her hand in his. Her skin was finer than silk, her body small and delicate. The point where skin made contact sent a jolt of heat coursing through him. “Life threw you for a loop, too. Besides, you did what any good person would. You stepped up to fill impossible shoes and did your best. Because you weren’t perfect doesn’t mean you failed. You’re an amazing woman.”

  He looked at her, really looked at her. There was enough light to see a red blush crawl up her neck, reaching her cheeks. Her skin glowed, her eyes glittered. The fire in her eyes nothing in comparison to the one she lit inside him.

  He studied the soft curves of her lush mouth and then let his gaze lower to the swell of her firm, pointed breasts. All he felt was
heat. Heat and need. Her jeans, balanced low on slim hips, teased him with a sliver of skin between the edge and the bottom of her T-shirt. Damn that she was even sexier when she was hurting. He pulled on all the strength he had so as not to take her lips right there...then her body.

  Caleb needed to redirect his thoughts before he allowed his hormones to get out of hand. She made it difficult to focus on anything but thoughts of how good her body would feel moving beneath his. Alter the circumstances and things might have been different. Last thing Caleb needed was to get tangled up with another woman who showed up at his door with a crisis. He pushed all sexual thoughts out of his psyche.

  “Since there’s nothing here, we’d better go. I’m actually surprised no one’s been watching the place.”

  Her gaze darted around the room. “Where do we go next? We can’t go back to your ranch, can we?”

  “No. I don’t want to put my men at risk any more than we already have. What about your place? Any chance Leann passed a file to you in Noah’s things?”

  Hope once again brimmed in her shimmering eyes. “I hadn’t thought of that. It’s a possibility.”

  Caleb glanced at his watch, ignoring the ache in his chest for her. “If we leave now, we’ll make it before daylight.”

  He preferred to move under the cover of night anyway.

  She pulled back as they started toward the door. “Wait.”

  Caleb eased more of her weight on him, ignoring the pulsing heat on his outer thigh at the point of contact. “What is it?”

  “I want to grab more medicine and something from Noah’s room first.” Katherine pushed off him to regain balance.

  Her phone vibrated and she froze.

  “Take a deep breath and then pick up,” Caleb said.

  She exhaled and answered.

  “Is he breathing?” She paused. “Good. He has asthma. There’s an inhaler he uses and I have medicine. I can bring them wherever—”

  The guy on the line must’ve interrupted because Katherine became quiet again and just listened. “What time?”

  Her expression vacillated between anger and panic.

  “Where?” She signaled to Caleb for a pen and paper.

  He retrieved them and watched as she jotted down “Sculpture at CenterPark” and then ended the call.

  Her wide-eyed gaze flew up to him. “They want to meet tomorrow afternoon.”

  “Did they mention anything about the file we’re looking for?”

  She shook her head. “They only said to bring it to NorthPark Center.”

  “Good, it’s out in the open. What time?”

  “Three o’clock.”

  Caleb glanced at his watch. “We have plenty of time to check it out first.”

  “They told me to come alone.” Determination thinned her lips before she turned and walked away.

  He wouldn’t argue as he closely followed her, ready to grab her if she faltered. She was determined to walk on her own; he’d give her that. The way she did “stubborn” was sexy as hell. Now was not the time for the conversation he needed to have with her. The one that said no way in hell was he allowing her to go by herself.

  “Before we leave, is there any place we haven’t looked? Did she have a secret hiding spot?”

  “None she would share with me.” As she moved behind the sofa, she stopped suddenly. “I didn’t think about this before, but it makes perfect sense. We might not find anything, but it’s worth checking out.”

  Katherine limped down the short hall and into the master bedroom.

  She stopped in the middle of the room and looked up at the ceiling fan. “She had a small diary when we were kids that she hid by taping it to the top of one the blades. I found it when I was helping my parents spring clean once.” A hint of sadness darkened her features. “Found out just how much she was sick of me when I peeked at the pages.”

  Caleb righted a chair that had been tossed upside down and settled it in the center of the room. “Let me look.”

  Even on the chair, he couldn’t see the tops of the half-dozen blades.

  Puffs of dust floated down when he wiped the first. More of the same on the second. His hand stopped on a small rectangle on the third. “I found something.”

  “Can you tell what?” Her voice brightened with hope.

  “It’s secure.” He didn’t want to take a chance on damaging it by ripping it off. His fingers moved around the smooth surface. Tape? He peeled the sticky layer off the item. “I’ll be damned. It’s a cell phone.”

  “Thank God, they missed it.”

  “I don’t recognize the brand,” he said as he palmed it.

  “Think it works?”

  He pressed the power button. “It’s dead. If we can find a store that sells these, we can buy a new cable or battery. We’ll look up the manufacturer when we get back in the car.”

  “Okay.” She spun around. “Oh, and I need to find something else.”

  He followed her down the hall to Noah’s bedroom.

  “I know it’s here somewhere,” she said, tossing around toys and clothes.

  “What are you looking for? I’ll help.”

  “No. I found it.” She held up a stuffed reindeer. “It’s Prancer. One of Noah’s favorites. He apparently used to sleep with it all the time. Now he’s into the rabbit. I was just thinking he’ll need as many of his things as possible to make my place feel like home.” She gathered a few more toys from the mess.

  “Prancer? Seems like an interesting choice for a name. I mean, why not Rudolph?” He examined the stuffed animal.

  “Noah thinks the other reindeer get overlooked. Said Rudolph gets all the glory,” she said, melancholy.

  Caleb couldn’t help but crack a smile. “How old did you say he is?”

  “Four.”

  “Sounds like a compassionate boy.” He tucked the stuffed animal under his arm. “We’ll keep Prancer safe until he’s back with Noah.”

  When Caleb looked at her, his heart dropped. A dozen emotions played across her delicate features. Fear. Regret. Anxiety.

  He walked to her and took her hand in his.

  “We’ll find him. I promise.”

  Before he could debate his actions, he tilted his head forward and pressed his lips to hers gently. The soft kiss intensified when she parted her lips to allow him access. His mouth covered hers as he swallowed her moan.

  Both his hands cupped her cheeks, tilting her face until his tongue delved more deeply, tasting her.

  She pulled back long enough to look into his eyes.

  “I believe you mean that,” she said, her voice like silk wrapping around him, easing the ache in his chest.

  Caleb always delivered on his commitments. He hoped like hell this time would be no different.

  Chapter Five

  Exhaustion dulled Katherine’s senses, but she managed to follow Caleb back to the car. The visit hadn’t produced any real optimism. All their hopes were riding on a dead phone.

  And what if there’s nothing there? a tiny voice in the back of her mind asked.

  What then?

  Hot, burning tears blurred Katherine’s vision. Her mantra—Chin Up. Move Forward. Forge Ahead—had always worked. She’d survived so much of what life had thrown at her repeating those few words. Hadn’t she been stronger because of it?

  Then how did she explain the hollow ache in her chest? Or the niggling dread she might live out the rest of her days by herself. Everyone let her down eventually. Who could she lean on when times got tough? Who did she really have to help celebrate life’s successes?

  Before meeting this cowboy, she’d never realized how alone she’d truly been. She gave herself a mental shake as she opened the car door and buckled in.

  Caleb found her
cable-knit sweater in the back and placed it over her as she clicked the seat belt into place.

  She slipped the sweater over her shoulders and closed her eyes, expecting to see the attackers’ faces or to hear their threats replaying in her mind. She didn’t. Instead she saw Caleb and relaxed into a deep sleep.

  * * *

  KATHERINE DIDN’T OPEN her eyes again until she heard Caleb’s voice, raspy from lack of sleep, urging her awake. For a split second she imagined being pressed up against him, snuggled against the crook of his arm, in his big bed. She’d already been introduced, and quite intimately, to his broad chest and his long, lean, muscled thighs. He’d left no doubt he was all power, virility and man when his body had blanketed her, pinning her to the ground. Her fists had pounded pure steel abs. Warmth spread from her body to her limbs, heating her thighs.

  The reality she was curled up in her car while running for Noah’s life brought a slap of sanity.

  “Where are we?”

  “Dallas. If the address on your license is correct, we’re a couple blocks from your house.” He glanced at the clock. “Don’t worry. We have plenty of time before the drop.”

  She sat up and rubbed sleep from her eyes. They were at a drive-through for a local coffee shop.

  Coffee.

  There couldn’t be much better at the moment than a good cup of coffee save for finding Noah and having this whole nightmare behind her.

  Caleb handed her a cup and took a drink from his while he pulled out of the parking lot.

  “I ordered black for you.”

  “Perfect.” Katherine took a sip of the hot liquid. The slight burn woke her senses. A blaze of sunlight appeared from the east. “You’ve been driving all night. You must be exhausted.”

  Caleb took another sip from the plastic cup. “I’m more worried about that leg of yours. At some point, we need to take another look. Didn’t want to disturb you last night while you looked so peaceful.”

  “I’m surprised I slept at all.” Katherine stretched and yawned. She glanced down at her injuries. Blood had soaked through a few of the bandages and dried. Most were intact and clear. All things considered, they were holding up. “You dressed these well. My ankle feels better already.”