Wrangled Fate: Book One: Black Claw Ranch

by Lane, Cecilia

  “What about her stuff? You won’t tell me where she’s at, so is someone going to get her car and clothes off my property?”

  “Arrangements will be made.” Judah sighed. “Consider what I said. Stick close to home for a few days and let this blow over.”

  Ethan sprawled onto one of the benches lining the porch and stretched his long legs in front of him. As a final rejection of any threat Judah’s cops and clan posed to him, he slid his Stetson down over his eyes and folded his hands over his chest.

  There was nothing to consider. He was done with Tansey Nichols. Her possessions would be gone as soon as his home and land were found free of any missing brother. He could get back to his version of normal with bears that needed to brawl every damn day. His only concern would be keeping Black Claw afloat.

  Any wolf caught fucking with his herd would be ripped to pieces and left for the scavengers.

  Boots thunked up the steps. The earthy aroma all bears carried twisted around identifiable thick spices. Ethan didn’t bother lifting his hat.

  “This on your girl?” Jesse asked.

  “She ain’t my girl,” Ethan snapped. All the serene calm he wore as a fuck-you to the Hawkins clan disappeared as he stiffened and jerked his hat into place.

  Jesse shrugged. “You left together, and came back alone. Lawman shows up as we’re winding down for the day. Can’t help but see a connection.”

  “She found a picture at The Roost of me and her brother together.”

  “So that’s why they were asking how often you leave the ranch without one of us tagging along.”

  “This is for the best. With Viho culling our herd and trail rides starting up, there’s no time for distractions. Judah involved and her out of our hair is the best conclusion.”

  Images whirled into his mind from his bear. The beast snarled with each one, but didn’t stem the flow. Tansey belonged to them. Separated left her alone and in danger. The woman wandering the woods with wolves lurking in the darkness was plain enough to decipher.

  Ethan kicked the rebellious creature to the back of his head.

  “She’s not a distraction if she’s your mate. Everything else is secondary to her.”

  “You go take a swing at her if you’re so interested.” A growl rattled in his chest and his lips lifted in a silent snarl.

  Jesse quieted and tilted his head to the side in a show of submission.

  “If she’s my mate, she’ll understand the pressure we’re under year after year. That’s how it’s supposed to be, right? Perfection between two people?”

  “Now you sound like a child,” his second chided. Another tilt of his head exposed his neck. He knew he pushed even his limits granted by the position and years of familiarity. “You know that’s not how it works. Even mates have their fights and hurdles to jump. The willingness to keep doing that and stay in love sets them apart.”

  “Love is just a drug and addictions are a road to ruin. I’m not looking to fall apart as soon as I don’t get my fix.” His chest ached. He resisted the urge to rub at the pain and tension. No relief would come.

  The pain was all bullshit anyway. Instincts gone haywire. He’d be fine just as soon as he lost the memory of her honeyed scent and the taste on his lips. A bottle of whiskey and a welcoming stranger at the bar would do the trick.

  His entire body tensed in revulsion.

  Ethan slouched back into his posture of uncaring and slid his hat over his eyes. “We still have a ranch to run and cattle to protect. I’ll take first watch tonight,” he said gruffly.

  Jesse waited a few seconds more, then stomped off the porch.

  He couldn’t do anything about Tansey or her stubborn conviction that he had information on her brother’s whereabouts, but he could watch for Viho. Dammit, he’d take that threat from her life if he lined up the shot.

  Chapter 12

  Tansey pursed her lips and watched Chief Hawkins ease into the police station parking lot from her spot just down the street. He came from a different direction than the past four mornings and pulled his cruiser around the building. He didn’t poke back around the corner to enter through the front, so he must have taken a back door.

  She twisted the key in her ignition and zipped down the street and into the same spot she’d parked in every damn morning since Ethan brought her there.

  The man’s face flashed heat through her mind. He’d become a black hole since she pushed her way out of the bar and left him gaping at her like a fish. He hadn’t tried to find her and she couldn’t get any updates about him from the Chief of Police. She normally wouldn’t care, except he was the prime suspect in Rye’s disappearance.

  Tansey blasted through the gate separating the tiny lobby and the rest of the police station. The handful of officers lifted their heads, but didn’t bother getting up. Jenny just rolled her eyes and went back to filing her nails.

  She locked on to her target coming out of the break room. “You’re avoiding me!”

  Judah lifted his hands, warding her off with a steaming mug of coffee and a file folder. “There is nothing new to tell you, Miss Nichols.”

  Tansey followed his retreat into his office. “Why isn’t that man sitting in your cell?”

  “As you’ve been told, we followed up on your information and found no signs of your brother.” Judah set his mug down and then placed his folder in the exact middle of his desk. His hands folded over top as soon as he seated himself.

  “He lied about knowing Rye! What else could he be lying about? Maybe he has some murder shack out on some desolate corner of his ranch and that’s where Rye was taken.”

  “I assure you that’s not the case.”

  “And Viho? Why haven’t you talked to him yet?”

  “We’re still conducting interviews, Miss Nichols,” he said flatly.

  His weaselly answers just made her angrier. “So you can’t find him. Top notch detective work, Hawkins. You’ll find my brother in no time with that work ethic.”

  Judah slammed to his feet, bumping his desk in his haste and spilling his coffee. His hand wrapped around her upper arm before she could react. He hauled her to her feet. His hard grip didn’t give her any choice but to move or be dragged like a tantruming toddler.

  Tansey stomped her way to the door and back out into the parking lot. She rubbed at her arm as soon as he released her. She wouldn’t be surprised if she bruised.

  “We will contact you when we have new information,” Judah said between clenched teeth. “Have a pleasant day. Away from my station.”

  Tansey glared at Judah’s retreating back and the glass shaking in the slammed door. She stalked around her car, kicked at a tire, and let off a scream of frustration.

  Maybe she’d gone too far with sassing Judah. That didn’t warrant being dragged out of the police station. She’d been looking for her brother for a solid month and nobody seemed willing to do anything! Not the local cops, not Viho, and now Judah found his place on the list.

  Of them all, she hated to admit, Ethan was the only one to actually get her somewhere. He put her in front of Judah and outed Viho as a snake. Sure, he did it with his own—likely criminal—knowledge, but it was actionable information no one else provided.

  The hot ball of frustration and her foot throbbed together. Tansey yanked open her car door and slid inside, not knowing where to go.

  She circled slowly through one neighborhood, then another. She wanted to get a feel for the town and have an understanding of where someone might go to disappear. All she’d gotten were suspicious looks for her creeptastic investigation.

  Most neighborhoods were exactly like the ones she grew up in. Some were richer than others, some had messier yards, but they were all homes.

  Then there were the private drives that looked like cul-de-sacs from her vantage point on the street. Houses clustered together, usually around some center point. She thought those belonged to clans like Ethan’s.

  Regardless of their positioning, none contain
ed her brother. She’d driven around and poked her nose where it didn’t belong since an officer handed over her keys and said her bag was in the backseat. Nothing was missing inside. She checked. Ethan might be a disappearing murderer, but he wasn’t a thief.

  After more than an hour of aimless wandering that put her no closer to finding Rye, her stomach grumbled. She found a parking spot reserved for guests staying at Muriel’s and hopped out, trying to figure out what she wanted to eat. She took off across the town square.

  She’d been so focused on finding Rye and learning the nooks and crannies of a new town that she hadn’t stopped to really look at the place.

  Adorable. Cozy. She bet with snow on the ground and smoke curling out of fireplaces, it could be featured on the poster of any cheesy holiday movie that was secretly a sinister horror full of abductees being ground into sausage by the unassuming side character at the edge of town.

  Tansey unclenched her fists and tried to shake off her frustrations.

  Spring was just beginning to take hold in Bearden, and nothing made that more apparent than the gathering of people in the green town square and meandering up and down Main Street.

  On one side of the road, a woman quickly wrote down an order and dashed through the doors of a busy coffee shop. Another kicked out a wooden sign and scrawled the daily special in chalk and decorated it with flowers and steaming mugs.

  Opposite Mug Shot, a surly man frowned from the window of Tommy’s Diner, then taped up a printed sheet of paper. Tansey squinted and chuckled. NO SPECIALS. JUST ORDER, the sign read.

  Further down, the firefighters pulled a big red fire truck out of the building and crawled all over it. Then out came the buckets and soap suds, and Tansey understood the gathered onlookers choosing to take their coffee on the patio seats. The trash talk thrown from one man to another quickly turned their sponges into weapons and left more than one shirt clinging to heavily muscled bodies. One more walked out of the bay, shook his head, and walked right back inside.

  Rye would have hated it and relentlessly mocked the idyllic scenery. The tourists snapping photos would be the subject of ridicule. Tansey could almost hear him label the place a stifling tourist trap. So how did he wind up in the small town?

  The question was an extension of all the rest. The whys piled up in her head right along with the hows. Why did he leave? How could he not let her know?

  Her hurtful inner voice chose that moment to claw to the front of her mind. The answer to her questions was the same. She drove him away.

  Tansey sucked in a breath and pushed back on the stinging doubt. She couldn’t let it eat at her. There was hope. She needed to learn patience. Rye would be found.

  “That’s her.”

  Tansey cast a glance over her shoulder. The trio of elderly women she’d passed leaned in and whispered to one another. A whisper to them, anyway. She heard them clear as day.

  “Missing brother, I hear. She’s been harassing Judah Hawkins all week, poor boy.”

  Tansey nearly snorted. Judah wasn’t some wizened codger, but he was definitely not a boy.

  “Did you hear the McNamaras out on Still Wind Road had their shed broken into? I wonder if the two are related.”

  Cheeks burning, Tansey whirled on the trio. “What was that?”

  They didn’t slow. The one in the middle fixed her with a warm smile as they passed. “Oh, good morning dear. I hope you’re enjoying your stay with us.”

  Tansey narrowed her eyes at the fake niceties. “Just lovely,” she said between gritted teeth. “Everyone is so polite and friendly.”

  Mostly true. At least they had the grace to gossip quietly if they did so at all.

  The leader nodded with her viperous smile still on her face and let one of the others open the diner door for her.

  Tansey spun on her heel and stalked back up the street. Being tossed from one establishment was enough for the day and she didn’t want to hold her tongue.

  Luckily, with lunch approaching, Hogshead Joint had its doors thrown open to lure in passersby with the mouthwatering scent of barbecue.

  Wanting to avoid any more gossip, Tansey took a seat at the far end of the bar. She cracked open her wallet and scowled, then placed an order for the cheapest sandwich combo on the menu.

  She’d need to pick up a shift somewhere if she intended to stay any longer, or she’d find herself cozy in the back seat of her car at night. Not the first time, and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last.

  She’d tried to keep moths from fluttering out of her wallet by working whenever Viho stopped for more than a day or two. Keeping busy was better than staring at cheap motel artwork and imagining how her brother met his end. And that was better than socializing with the Vagabonds.

  Maybe Muriel would be kind enough to give her a closet to sleep in as exchange for helping in the kitchen and changing out the guest linens. The work was the kind she wanted to do in her own bed-and-breakfast one day.

  The one day dream shrank down to a distant pinpoint the longer she stayed on the move.

  She just needed to make ends meet for a little while longer. As soon as she could be convinced Rye wasn’t in Bearden, she’d make her way back to a lonely apartment and wait for someone to give her a call.

  Tansey hated the idea of giving up on her brother. Something ugly crawled up her spine and settled deep in her brain. Staying in Bearden felt like the last hope of seeing Rye again, but other than a single picture and the word of an outlaw, there was no sign of him.

  She’d been boxed in, and she needed time to rebuild her options. A steady paycheck would be useful. She could save up to hire someone else to take the case. A retired detective, maybe. Someone with more credentials than Viho and more credibility than Ethan.

  Speak of the devil.

  Ethan sauntered through the door like the embodiment of cocksure cowboy.

  She hated and loved every step he took. She didn’t want to be anywhere near the man and couldn’t help but get an eyeful of him.

  Dark jeans clung to his thick thighs, just like the days she’d been with him. She thought he had a collection of denim made specifically for him. She knew the deep green t-shirt that stretched over his chest hid a mass of muscle. The brim of his cowboy hat hid his eyes. Blue, or silver, she wondered.

  Tansey hunched in on herself and cut her inspection short.

  Not good enough. A quick peek found him abruptly stopped on his path toward the bar. He lifted his face slightly and his nostrils flared.

  Shit.

  Ethan fixed his eyes on her and stalked toward her with the lethal grace of a predator determined to catch his prey.

  He leaned against the bar on his elbows and swiveled his head in her direction. “What are you doing here?” he asked in a low voice.

  “Just trying to have a peaceful meal. Which you’re ruining.”

  Ethan mumbled something under his breath and adjusted his hat. “I meant in town. Shouldn’t you have run back home by now?”

  Tansey took an obnoxiously loud slurp from her straw and popped her lips when she finished. “What’s the saying? Friends close, enemies closer?”

  Ethan struck as fast as any snake, unwinding to his full height and wrapping his hand around her arm. Something silly like digging in her heels didn’t stop him. He maneuvered her between the few occupied tables and out onto the empty deck.

  Huh. She didn’t know the place was so big or had such a lovely view of the river.

  Too bad it was ruined by the big brute probably intending to toss her over the side.

  “Would you stop? I’ve been shoved around enough for one day.”

  The hand on her arm didn’t let go, but his grip loosened. His eyes darted to her skin. “Who did this?” he demanded in a growl, blue eyes going to icy silver in a flash.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she hissed and jerked out of his grasp.

  He replaced his hand immediately, stroking fingers over the marks. Warmth flared to life at the spot and s
pread through her like sinking into a hot bath.

  “Tansey.” Her name on his lips was pure gravel that sank right to her middle and demanded her undivided attention. “Who?”

  A shiver worked through her body. “Chief Hawkins,” she answered in a rush.

  “Good girl.” Another growl rumbled out of Ethan. “He shouldn’t have done this. Especially not to you.”

  She didn’t want his praise or his sympathy. Not even the tingles spreading across her skin would make her admit otherwise.

  “I happen to bruise easy and none of you brutes know your own strength.” She slapped away his hand and made a face. “I—maybe—deserved to get dragged out of the station.”

  Ethan stared down at her, then cracked a stunning smile. “Now, that I believe. What did you say?”

  “I asked why you weren’t in a jail cell.” His face fell and she used the moment to put more distance between them. Holy hot damn, he made it difficult to breathe. Or think.

  It was easier when they didn’t touch, but he was huge. Getting out of arm’s reach would put her at a ridiculous distance and she didn’t want to shout their business across the restaurant. Who knew how long the deck would remain quiet.

  “Woman, what will it take for you to believe I don’t know what happened to your brother?”

  “Rye looking me in the eye and telling me that himself.”

  “You sent Judah out to my place already. They didn’t find anything.”

  “You could have him somewhere else. You could have,” she gulped, “buried or burned him.”

  “You shot at me and I welcomed you into my home. I tried to help you.” He took a step closer, hands held out like he wasn’t a threat.

  She’d been fooled once before, though. She couldn’t trust him. He’d already been caught in a lie. “Probably just some perverse reliving of your crime.”

  Ethan advanced on her again, a rumble trickling from his throat.

  She shoved at him and he snatched up her wrists with one hand. He crowded her backward until her shoulders hit a wall. He lifted her hands high above her head and caged her in with his body.