Rustling Up Trouble

by Delores Fossen

  The siren came closer, and Blue spotted Colt pulling to a stop near the white house where Woody had said he’d parked. Despite the fact there were now two ranch hands in place to give him backup, Colt didn’t get out right away. Several moments later Blue’s phone dinged.

  No sign of Woody or the hired gun, Colt texted.

  Heck. That wasn’t what Blue wanted to hear. He wanted the assassin arrested and locked away so he couldn’t attack again. It also would have been nice to question Woody some more, too.

  A car’s here, Colt added. I’ll look around.

  Blue relayed the texts to Rayanne and continued to keep watch.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw Rayanne push the voice-mail button on her phone, and even though the sound was obviously turned down, Blue still heard her mother.

  “I’m sorry you didn’t answer, Rayanne.” Jewell’s voice was soft. Soothing, even. “I just wanted to check and see how you were. Are you taking care of yourself?”

  Blue got another flash of memories. Of Rayanne in the back pasture when she came to his aid. And when she’d put her own life in danger.

  No, she hadn’t been taking care of herself.

  She’d saved him.

  “Your sister visited me this morning,” Jewell went on. “She brought Seth with her. They wouldn’t admit it, but I could tell he was there to protect her. Rosalie said Blue had come back and was staying at the ranch....”

  Well, that would have been an interesting conversation. Since Jewell didn’t know the reason he’d walked out on her daughter and now had put both Rosalie and her in danger, Jewell was likely one upset mama.

  “Soon maybe you can tell me how you feel about Blue’s return,” Jewell continued. “Or not. I doubt you’ll want to talk about him, but here’s some motherly advice. Forgiveness is good for the soul and the heart. I love you, Rayanne. We’ll talk soon.”

  So, not a riled mama protecting her baby girl. Blue expected Rayanne to dismiss that “motherly advice” in some way, but instead he heard a sound that he darn sure hadn’t expected to hear.

  “You’re crying?” he asked when he heard the distinctive sniffs.

  Blue glanced at her again and saw her quickly wipe away the tears. “It’s hormones. They’ve got my emotions out of whack.”

  Because Blue considered himself a smart man, he didn’t challenge that, though he wished he could go to Rayanne and pull her into his arms. He’d known her a couple of years now and had never seen her close to crying. Maybe hormones had something to do with it, but he figured the main reason was the stress over her mother’s situation.

  And their own.

  “There are only four people I’d take a bullet for,” Rayanne added in a mumble, “and my mother’s one of them.”

  “Who are the other three?” he automatically asked. Why, he didn’t know. Wait, yeah, he did. He wanted to hear Rayanne say who exactly was important to her.

  She paused so long that he wasn’t sure she’d actually answer. “Rosalie, Seth and now the baby.”

  “Wait.” Now it was his turn to pause. “I’ve heard you say that before. Before I left, I mean, and before you were pregnant. You didn’t say the baby then—”

  “Because I had no idea that I was pregnant when you left.” She stood, and after another glimpse of her expression, Blue knew that she expected this conversation to end.

  It didn’t end, though.

  Rayanne tilted her head to the side. “Just how much of your memory are you getting back, anyway?”

  “Some things.” And some of those things he wouldn’t share with her. No reason for her to relive the shooting here at the ranch when her memories were no doubt way too fresh. “It’s nowhere near complete. More like flashes of images, sounds...scents.”

  Her eyebrow rose. “Scents?”

  “Of you mostly and that night we were together before I left. You smelled like cinnamon.”

  She looked away, and Blue figured that was a good time to get his attention firmly back on the window.

  “I’d had a cinnamon latte,” she confirmed. “You remember our conversation?” Rayanne added that last part tentatively, like a woman walking on eggshells.

  Again, he remembered only parts of the chat they’d had, and Blue pressed himself for more, hoping his brain would cooperate. However, before that could happen, his phone rang, and he saw Colt’s name on the screen. Blue put the call on speaker, hoping this wasn’t another dose of bad news.

  “Still no sign of either of them,” Colt explained. “You’re sure Woody was headed this way when he left the ranch house?”

  “Not positive. He could have gone elsewhere. I lost sight of him for about five minutes or so while I was getting Rayanne to safety.”

  “So she’s okay, then,” Colt said, sounding very much like a brother.

  “Yeah,” Blue verified. For now. He needed to keep it that way.

  “Well, Woody’s car is empty and completely clean inside,” Colt continued a moment later. “From the looks of it, the steering wheel and gear stick have been wiped down. Nothing in the glove compartment. There’s not even a scrap of paper or debris on the floor. I phoned in the license plate, and it’s bogus.”

  Probably because Woody hadn’t wanted the vehicle traced to him. He was an ATF agent, after all, and knew the tricks to staying hidden.

  “Then how did the assassin find Woody?” Blue asked, more to himself than Colt.

  “Hard to say. The ranch hands and I are following the tracks now, and it appears the gunman came in from the main road. Probably walked here, because I don’t see evidence of a second vehicle. That could mean he had Woody under surveillance.”

  Yeah, or else the guy had managed to put a tracking device on the car. But the assassin didn’t need a tracking device or surveillance for that. If Jewell knew about Blue being at the ranch with Rayanne, then it was likely all over town.

  So maybe the gunman was solely after Woody this time instead of Rayanne and him?

  “Wait,” Colt said, grabbing Blue’s complete attention.

  “What is it?”

  Then Colt cursed. “I found something. Blood. And lots of it.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Blood.

  Considering her queasy stomach, it wasn’t a good thing to keep thinking about, but Rayanne couldn’t get it off her mind.

  Blood that Colt had found near the car parked by Tucker’s house. Fresh blood that indicated a fresh, possibly fatal wound despite the fact that so far they had found no body, and no one had shown up at E.R.s in the area sporting a wound that could have produced that amount of blood.

  It’d cost her a good night’s sleep, and she figured it would continue to cost her until she learned if the blood belonged to Woody or the assassin who’d tried to kill Blue and her. She was praying it was the assassin, but if it was, then why hadn’t Woody contacted them?

  Or maybe the blood was from both men, the result of an attack that left them both injured. They could have both managed to escape. Maybe they were in hiding and tending their wounds. She hadn’t heard any gunshots, but that didn’t mean the men hadn’t used other weapons.

  Woody could be out there somewhere, bleeding.

  Dying, even.

  With that unpleasant thought repeating in her head, Rayanne gave up on another attempt to sleep, threw back the covers and got up. She caught a glimpse of herself in the chrome base of the lamp on her nightstand. Even with her reflection distorted, the lack of sleep was evident all over her face.

  She checked her phone again, something she’d been doing throughout the night, hoping that by some miracle she’d somehow missed a call with an update on the investigation. An update to tell her that everything was okay. Bad guys had been caught. The danger had passed.

  No missed calls, though.

  The sun had just come up, the light spearing through the edges of the curtains, and outside, she heard sounds of the ranch hands, their day already beginning. Normally, she’d be starting it right al
ong with them. Doing whatever needed to be done.

  Riding fence.

  Checking on the new foals.

  Anything to stay busy and keep her mind off her mother’s upcoming trial and her daily contact with a father and brothers who resented her being there. And she kept busy to keep her mind off Blue.

  Of course, she was no longer grieving his death in between the bouts of cursing him for walking out on her.

  No.

  With Blue under the same roof, she was cursing him for a different reason.

  He’d disappeared to save her. Then he had returned to save her. And he just kept on trying to save her. As if she needed a cowboy hero in a leather vest to do that.

  Okay, it was nice to have one, especially when that protection included the baby.

  However, her vest-wearing hero only added to her worries, too. She couldn’t risk that kind of hurt again, no matter how many times Blue saved her. She couldn’t go back to that dark place that she’d barely managed to claw her way out of five months ago.

  “Relationships,” she mumbled like profanity.

  Well, at least one relationship hadn’t kept her up all night. Thanks to Seth’s prodding, Rosalie would be leaving for a safe house soon. Of course, Seth’s prodding hadn’t worked on Rayanne. She had no intention of dropping the investigation and going into hiding.

  Blue wouldn’t, either.

  And that was another reason for her to stay put. He would never admit it to her, but he was nowhere near 100 percent, and that bum shoulder could get him killed the hard way.

  The sound of hurried footsteps in the hall got her jumping to her feet. Rayanne braced herself for a knock. And for more bad news. But no knock. The door flew open, and a naked Blue came rushing in.

  Well, he was nearly naked, anyway.

  She’d noticed the naked parts first. His bare chest. Bare feet. In fact, the only clothing he had on was his jeans, and they weren’t even fully zipped.

  Rayanne hated that she noticed he was commando.

  Heck, she wasn’t faring much better in the clothing department, and Blue noticed, too. She was wearing just a T-shirt that didn’t cover much, especially since there was more of her to cover these days.

  “What’s wrong now?” she asked because it had to be something bad for him to come rushing in here half-dressed.

  Rayanne braced herself for news that the assassin had been spotted near, or in, the house. But that was when she realized that Blue didn’t even have his gun.

  Blue shook his head as if to clear it, and he tore his attention from the T-shirt that barely covered her bottom. He bolted toward her and hauled her into his arms.

  “I got my memory back.” His words rushed together, the excitement and breath in his voice. “When I woke up, it was just there.”

  “All of it?” she asked.

  “I think so. Go ahead, test me on something. Anything.”

  Sadly, the thing that came to mind first and foremost was the part about them landing in bed. Since he was half-naked and totally happy and she was in his arms, it was best to go with something much safer.

  “How about the conversations you had with Woody right before you faked your death? Do your memories mesh with what Woody told us?” she asked.

  He nodded, pulled back, and his grip melted off her. That question also melted some of the giddiness in his eyes. “Yeah, and that means Woody probably risked his life coming here and telling us everything he knew.”

  “Probably?” she questioned.

  “I have no idea what’s been going on with Woody for the past five months. Yes, he came here to give us that information, but we can’t completely trust his motives.”

  Blue was right and still doing everything to protect her. Even if it meant not trusting an agent he’d once trusted with his life. After all, Woody could be trying to cover up his involvement in those guns that had made it back into the wrong hands.

  “So where were you all these months?” Rayanne risked asking.

  And it was a risk.

  Because he might tell her a truth that she wasn’t ready to hear. Just in case, Rayanne turned away so he wouldn’t be able to see her face. He’d already seen her cry in the past twenty-four hours, and that was more than enough. Best not to let him see any pain that this might bring to the surface.

  “After I left and faked my death, I kept you under surveillance,” he said after taking a deep breath. “I had to make sure Gandy or whoever was behind the kidnapping-hit order didn’t go after you.”

  Strange. She’d felt his presence but had dismissed it because of her sheer anger at his hasty, unexplained departure.

  “I never saw you,” she settled for saying.

  “That must mean I’m pretty good at my job.” He added that carefully, as if he sensed something was wrong. It was. This conversation was scaring the heck out of her.

  “What’d you do then?” she pressed.

  “I kept investigating. Kept looking for answers. Then three days ago I heard from a criminal informant that someone was hiring for a hit on you.”

  Even though she already knew that, it was still hard to hear. Even harder to feel it. Had the person who’d ordered the hit known she was pregnant? If so, that made him a special kind of monster.

  “I didn’t know that Woody had essentially blown my fake-death cover,” Blue continued a moment later, “so I posed as a triggerman willing to do the hit on you. I came here to the ranch to warn you, but those men caught up with me before I could do that.”

  Yes, and now the burning question was, who had hired those men?

  If they could just catch the remaining assassin, alive, then he might be willing to cut a plea deal, give them answers and put an end to this. Of course, if Woody or Caleb had been the one to hire him, he would be even more hesitant to speak to anyone in law enforcement.

  “I know what’s bothering you,” Blue tossed out there like a gauntlet. “The wording might not be exact, but you said once I got my memory back, then I’d know more of how I felt about what happened between us.”

  Rayanne pulled in her breath and was glad she wasn’t facing him.

  “That night, after we made love, you said you’d take a bullet for me,” Blue reminded her.

  Really? Of all the things that had gone on, why had he remembered that?

  “I was caught up in the moment,” she insisted. Rayanne no longer had any idea if that was even the truth. “I figured that’s why you left the way you did.”

  “What?” Blue stepped in front of her.

  No more hiding her face, so Rayanne tried to hide any hurt that might be there.

  “What else was I to think?” She shrugged. “Even though it was just a slip of the tongue, I’d never said anything like that to anyone but family, and then you up and disappeared. I thought you got spooked because maybe you believed I was looking for a commitment.”

  Blue just stared at her as if she’d sprouted an extra eyeball.

  Rayanne threw her hands in the air. “Look, I don’t have a lot of experience with relationships, okay? I’m not exactly a warm, open person.”

  “But you are.”

  That hung in the air for several moments before he huffed and continued. “All of this tough-girl stuff is just a wall you put up because it crushed you when your father didn’t fight for you to stay at the ranch. He sent you and your sister packing, but he kept his sons. That cut you to the core.”

  She hated that Blue was right.

  Hated even more that he could see through her so easily.

  That wall was the only thing that’d allowed her to survive, and she couldn’t tear it down yet.

  Not even for Blue.

  “Whatever,” Rayanne mumbled, and she silently cursed the tears she felt threatening. “I just want you to know that I’m taking back that bullet remark. I didn’t mean it.”

  His hands went on his hips. “You’re sure?”

  “Of course.”

  Either she hadn’t said it with e
nough conviction or else he flat-out didn’t believe her.

  “Good,” he said. “I don’t want you taking any bullets for me.”

  All right. That went along with the hero stuff and watching over that he’d been doing. But she figured he knew that taking a bullet was just another version of the L word. And it was a word that didn’t apply here.

  She hoped.

  Blue wasn’t a man to play around with. Beneath those hot cowboy looks was a dark agent who likely had as much fear of the word as she did.

  “Are you wearing panties under that T-shirt?” he asked.

  Of all the things she’d expected him to say next, that wasn’t one of them. Though she had noticed that his gaze kept drifting in that direction. Just as hers kept going to that open flap in his jeans.

  “Yes,” she snapped. Barely there panties but still panties nonetheless.

  He made a slight sound of disappointment, went to the door, shut it and then came back her way.

  “I’m going to tell you something,” Blue said. “And then I’m going to kiss you.”

  Again, he’d managed to surprise her. And fire up some heat inside her. This conversation was certainly going in a strange direction.

  Rayanne dropped back a step, and her gaze automatically went to his bare chest and unzipped jeans. There was a thin line of dark hair that arrowed down from his navel right to the part that his zipper barely covered.

  That part of him and the threat of a kiss had her going all warm and golden.

  Exactly what she didn’t need.

  “You think kissing me is a smart thing to do?” she asked, and kept her gaze on that zipper so he’d know exactly what she meant. Talk about playing with fire.

  “No, I think it’ll be a really stupid thing to do, but I’m doing it, anyway. And I promise it won’t go any further than kissing. After...”

  But he stopped, shook his head, and then without even getting into the telling her something, Blue pulled her to him and kissed her.

  Oh, mercy.

  She’d never gotten a bad kiss from Blue, but this one immediately hit all the right buttons. The firm pressure of his mouth on hers.

  His taste. His scent.

  The way he hooked his arm around her and drew her close. Closer.