“I told her she should marry me,” Gray blurted.
Dylan’s eyes widened with stunned surprise. “What the hell, man?”
“I know. What can I tell you, it was a moment of crazy.” Gray slicked a hand through his shaggy hair and released a deep sigh. “I’m just so worried about her safety. She needs somebody to protect her twenty-four hours a day. She’s a double reward for anyone who might manage to kidnap her right now.”
“It might be tough for somebody to get a ransom payment from Jethro now that he’s in a coma,” Dylan replied.
“He still drifts in and out. According to the kitchen gossip they think he’s conscious sometimes and only pretends to be unconscious.”
“Even if he was conscious there’s no guarantee he’d pay a ransom. He wasn’t willing to do it for Trevor’s baby girl despite Gabby’s pleas.” Dylan couldn’t hide the disgust that laced his tone.
Had it only been a little over three months ago that Dylan’s mother had been murdered trying to save Trevor’s baby girl, who’d been kidnapped from Cheyenne’s nursery, the kidnapper believing the baby he stole was a Colton heir?
Even when the family knew it wasn’t a Colton who had been kidnapped, Gabby, falling in love with Trevor and feeling guilty because she had been the one who had placed little Avery in Cheyenne’s bed for a nap, had begged Jethro to pay whatever ransom was demanded, and Jethro had refused.
Thankfully, Avery had been found unharmed and the ranch hand Duke Johnson had been arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Dylan’s mother. Unfortunately, his arrest hadn’t answered many questions, but had instead created more when it was determined he was just a hired gun and didn’t know who the mastermind behind the kidnapping attack had been.
“So, any guesses as to who might have attacked Cath last night? Who might be behind all of this?” Dylan asked. Gray knew that even though the man who had actually killed Dylan’s mother was behind bars, Dylan still burned with a frustrated need to get to the head of the wicked snake and cut it off.
Gray motioned him into the tack room. “Suspects abound,” he said dryly as he leaned with a hip against a sawhorse that held a saddle astride it. “Trip is definitely toward the top of the list of people I don’t trust.”
Dylan laughed. “Trip doesn’t have the brains that God gave a gnat.”
“True, but Darla does and I think Tawny is smarter than she pretends to be and I think there’s nothing the three of them would like more than to be millionaires in their own rights, living in their own houses and not beholden to allowances from Jethro.”
Dylan nodded. “And then there’s Stewie Runyon. I’ll be the first to admit he’s a hard worker. There isn’t much around this place he won’t do and without complaint, but he’s way too closemouthed for my liking. He’s harder to read than a ticked-off bull.”
“I’ve got my eye on several of the ranch hands...Jared Hansen and Cal Clark, to name two.”
“Jared reminds me of a young puppy who just wants to please everyone and I don’t know that much about Cal Clark except he’s a hard worker when he’s around.”
“Yeah, but he tends to disappear occasionally and never has a believable explanation as to where he’s gone,” Gray replied.
“So, enough about murder and mayhem, you never told me how Cath reacted when you suggested she marry you.”
“Stunned dismissal,” Gray replied, the knot in his stomach that always formed when he thought of Catherine tightening.
“She just needs to hire a full-time bodyguard,” Dylan replied.
Gray frowned, surprised to discover he didn’t like the idea of any other man besides him being around her twenty-four hours a day.
Dylan grinned. “Ah, I can tell by the look on your face that the idea doesn’t sit well with you. You don’t want her, but you don’t want anyone else around her, either.” One of his brown eyebrows quirked upward. “Or, maybe you still want her even after all these years.”
“Nah, that’s not it,” Gray said even while his heartbeat stepped up in rhythm. “Nothing about the situation has changed. Besides, she wasn’t the woman I thought she was years ago and nothing I’ve seen of her since I’ve been back at the ranch convinces me of anything different.”
“You don’t really know her now,” Dylan said. “It’s been nine years since you were teenage sweethearts. Both of you are different people than you were then. Maybe you should get to know the woman she is now.”
“Why would I want to do that?” Gray asked gruffly. “She means nothing to me.”
“So, why aren’t you dating some hot honey from town or one of the maids who watch you with hungry eyes?” Dylan asked, his voice teasing.
“Why aren’t you?” Gray countered.
Dylan sighed. “I guess we’re just a couple of misfit cowboys more comfortable with the animals on this place than with women.” He tapped Gray’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s grab a couple of mounts and take a ride. It will get our minds off murder and kidnapping and women.”
Gray nodded and minutes later the two men were racing across the browning land, the October breeze holding the scents of seasonal transition...the memory of autumn and the promise of winter to come.
What madness might the winter bring to the Coltons and their staff? Would anyone be successful in finding the missing Cole Colton and bringing him home to see Jethro before the old man died?
Who was the mastermind behind the kidnapping attempts and who else might lose their lives in what Gray was beginning to think of as a house cursed?
And then there was Catherine. Maybe it would have been easier on him if he hadn’t pulled her into his arms after her collapse at the petting barn, if he hadn’t held her and remembered the taste of her lips against his, the feel of her breasts in his palms and the magic of their lovemaking.
He’d almost forgotten that, until he’d held her in his arms again and now it was again emblazoned in his brain. He had a feeling he and Dylan could ride from here to Alaska and still that memory would be fresh and painful in his mind.
* * *
Darla stood at the window of her bedroom in her suite of rooms, a frown attempting to form despite her latest round of Botox shots.
She turned away from the view and instead sank down on the edge of her bed, the dissatisfaction that had been inside her for the past couple of months getting stronger with each day that passed.
When she and Jethro had divorced, she’d had enough blackmail material to use against him to broker a deal that had assured her and her two children a wing in the house and a monthly allowance that would give the three of them an adequate, if not fine, living.
But that was no longer enough. She was tired of being treated like poor relatives whose very presence the rest of the family were forced to endure. She’d been married to the miserable bastard, Jethro, for one long year. She and Trip and Tawny deserved so much more.
Unfortunately if they left the Dead River Ranch they had nowhere else to go and precious little money to take with them. What Darla really wanted was a place like this for herself and her children from a previous marriage, a place where they were in charge and didn’t have to kowtow to the true Colton heirs.
Although she played nice, she hated all of them and she didn’t even want to think about what might happen to her and her kids if the old man really did kick the bucket. She had no idea what was in his will for her, if anything.
She had a feeling they’d be out on the streets and the very idea of that happening was absolutely untenable.
It was definitely time to up her game, to pull out all the stops to make sure the future she desired for herself was assured.
Chapter 6
Catherine stood in the fenced area of the petting barn, checking food and water supplies and trying not to dwell on the memory of what had happened here almost a week before.
There were several ranch workers in her sights so she felt safe despite the fact that the sun hung low in the sky. She had another half an hou
r or so before twilight would fall and she planned on being safely inside the house long before that happened.
She’d spent the past week close to the house, spending much of her time in her suite reading the material Dr. Kendall had given her about how to have a happy and healthy pregnancy.
She’d already decided where in the sitting room a crib and whatever else was necessary could be added, having decided not to put her baby in the nursery with Cheyenne.
Maybe she’d feel differently about the nursery when the baby was finally here, but right now she felt the safest place for her child was in her room with her. Perhaps in six months’ time the house would once again feel like a haven rather than a war zone.
“Working hard or hardly working?” Gray’s deep voice pulled her from her thoughts as he stepped up to the fence.
She’d seen very little of him in the past week and cursed the sudden jump in her heartbeat at the sight of him. “Just wasting some time with my little furry friends until dinner,” she replied.
Even at the end of a long day at work, he looked sexy with his jeans hugging his long, lean legs and a brown plaid flannel shirt stretched taut across broad shoulders. The hint of a five-o’clock shadow darkened his jaw, only adding to his rugged handsomeness.
“You have any groups scheduled to come through in the next couple of weeks?” he asked.
“One group from the local grade school, but that’s it,” she replied, trying to hide her surprise that he was actually talking to her. “I imagine that will be the last one for the season. By the time November arrives it’s usually too cold for anyone to want to bring kids out here.”
“I’ve heard that you do a good job with the kids.”
Once again she tried to hide her surprise. Was that some kind of a compliment from him? Was he actually attempting a civil conversation with her? “I love interacting with the children,” she replied.
“You’ll make a terrific mother.” Although the words were kind, his eyes remained dark and fathomless, not allowing her a glimpse of his inner emotions.
“Thanks. It’s really all I’ve ever wanted to be.” She opened the gate and stepped out of the fenced area. “I never had the drive that Amanda had to become a vet or anything like that and while I greatly admire Gabby’s project for troubled teens, I always just wanted to be a wife and mother.” She offered him a small smile. “At least I got it half right.”
“And you still don’t intend to tell Dirk that he’ll soon be a father?”
Catherine shook her head. “If and when he finds out about the pregnancy or the baby, I’ll figure something out to make sure he believes it isn’t his. The only thing the baby would mean to him would be a way to get money, to somehow share in any inheritance that will eventually come my way. Besides, he’s not cut out to be a father. He has none of the qualities I’d want for my baby’s father. He’s nothing but a snake in the grass.”
They began to walk toward the house. “So his whole relationship with you was all about the money?”
“Somehow everything is always all about the money, isn’t it?” Catherine sighed with a hint of disgust. “Faye was murdered because somebody wanted to get at Cheyenne and demand money. Cheyenne’s bodyguard was beaten to a pulp because somebody else tried to kidnap Cheyenne to gain a king’s ransom.” She gave a slight shake of her head and instead focused back on him. “I never told you how sorry I was about your father’s passing. He was a good man.”
“Thanks. Yeah, he was,” he replied, his gaze shooting off in the distance ahead of them. “I miss him every day.”
“I keep telling myself that I’m prepared to say a final goodbye to my father, but I don’t know that you’re ever really prepared for that,” she said.
“I’ve always believed Jethro was one of those people that Heaven wouldn’t want and the devil wouldn’t take,” he said and a small burst of laughter escaped Catherine.
“He has been known to have more than his share of ornery,” she replied.
“He’s a cranky, stubborn old coot who might still have plenty of life yet to live,” Gray replied, his affection for Jethro unmistakable in his tone. Catherine knew her father had always had a soft spot in his heart for Gray and it was obvious the feeling had been mutual.
“I just hope he lives long enough to be reunited with Cole.” She stopped walking, grabbed a strand of her hair and began to twirl it as she thought of the missing heir, the half brother who had been kidnapped as a baby so many years ago.
Gray reached out and gently placed his hand over hers, halting the whirling of her hair. “I would have thought you’d grown out of that habit by now,” he said and she thought she heard just a hint of tenderness in his voice.
An illusion, she thought as he quickly drew his hand away. She dropped hers to her side. Still, for just a moment that illusion of caring had warmed her, had made her feel not so alone.
She continued walking slowly, marveling at the fact that they were having a normal conversation, something that hadn’t happened between them in all the years that he’d been back at the ranch. For the rest of the walk to the house they spoke about neutral subjects, the weather, the health of the stock and the new help that had been hired for work both inside and outside of the house.
All too quickly they were at the place where they parted ways, her to go into one of the official entrances of the house and him to go around to the back door for employees.
She lingered, oddly reluctant to halt this new communication between them. It would be nice if after all this time they could put the distant past behind them and at least be friendly with each other.
“I heard that you worked in Montana while you were away. Did you like it there?”
He shrugged. “It was okay. It was a much smaller spread than this one. The owner and the foremen were both decent men, old friends of my father.”
“Did you do any bull riding while you were out there?”
His sensual lips turned up into a grin that nearly stole her breath away. She couldn’t remember the last time he’d really smiled at her, and she’d forgotten how that smile could make a woman feel as if she were the only person on the face of the planet.
“A little, brought home a couple of big buckles and a few trophies.” There was no boast in his voice, only a matter of fact. “But I think my bull riding days are done.”
She looked at him in surprise. He’d always entered the bull riding competitions at rodeos around the area. “Really? Why?”
Once again his broad shoulders moved in a shrug. “I don’t have the passion for it like I once did.” His gaze moved from her to the land surrounding them. “I don’t have any passion for a lot of things anymore.”
He glanced back at her. “Are you taking care of yourself?” His gaze slid from her eyes to her stomach and then back up again.
In just that single gaze she once again felt a touch of gentle caring, a hint of the old Gray she’d once thought had hung the moon. “Absolutely. I’m taking my vitamins and eating healthy and getting plenty of sleep and if that’s not enough Amanda has been giving me daily tips about what to expect when.”
“That’s good. We wouldn’t want anything happening to the newest Colton heir.” A bite of bitterness laced his tone, immediately fracturing what had been until now a pleasant conversation.
His eyes were once again dark and impossible to read. “You’d better get inside so you can clean up for dinner,” he said as he took a step back from her.
“Then I guess I’ll see you around sometime tomorrow,” she replied, wondering what had pulled him back from her, what had changed the tenure of the conversation from pleasant to strained.
“See you,” he replied as he turned and walked away.
She slipped into the house and headed for her suite. She’d been so careful not to ask why he’d gone to Montana in the first place, why he’d left her without a single word of explanation. The splendor of loving him and the pain of losing him had happened years ago. It was
water under the bridge. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t interested in hearing some kind of an explanation for what had happened. She just knew it didn’t really matter now.
She realized her time in the sun with Gray was over, but she had to admit to herself that he still got to her, that even after all this time, even carrying another man’s baby, there was a part of her that had never forgotten what it had been like to be loved by Gray Stark.
* * *
Gray stalked around to the employee entrance and headed for the employee dining room. He’d spent the past week thinking about what Dylan had said to him the day they’d ridden the ranch together.
It was true, Gray didn’t know the grown-up Catherine and he’d decided today that he’d take a first step toward getting to know the woman she had become.
It bothered him that he had a feeling if he allowed himself, he’d like her...if he permitted it, he’d want her again and that would be a repeat of the nonsense that had driven him away from home nine years ago.
“Be smart, boy. You’re nothing more than a ranch hand and she’s a Colton. No way this barnyard romance is going anywhere. Get out of it now, before it goes any deeper. Leave her be to find the man who’s right for her.”
Gray’s father’s voice hammered in his brain, a memory of the night before Gray had left for Montana. It had been his father who had set up the job that would take Gray away from Catherine. It had been his father who had made Gray realize that loving Catherine would only lead him to ultimate heartbreak and wasn’t the best thing for her.
As he walked into the room where the staff all gathered to eat, the first thing he heard was the sound of Allison Murray, Catherine’s maid, and one of the new kitchen hires, Lucinda Garcia, in the middle of an argument.
“I heard she doesn’t even know who the father of the baby is,” Lucinda said as she went around the table filling water glasses from a large pitcher.
“That’s not true,” Allison replied, her cheeks dusty with the color of high emotion. “Miss Catherine isn’t like that. She’s a true lady and wouldn’t sleep around. You just need to keep your mouth shut and stop implying bad things about Miss Catherine.”
The Colton Bride Page 6