She hadn’t thought about her injuries with him so damn close and not quite touching. Kelsey watched him dress and leave the room.
All of the morning-after-discomfort-and-regret without any of the sex. She flopped onto her back as much as she could, hands in her hair. “Ugh.” She wanted so badly to have him hold her with more than comforting her as his goal.
Ronan had always known how to get her hot and bothered. She wasn’t the type to turn the tables. No. She’d just tell him in no uncertain terms what she wanted him to do to her.
That always got his attention.
~~~
Oh, the hot water was heavenly. She leaned into the pressure. Yes, it stung where her skin had been abraded and rubbed to a sensitive spot, but the warm spray pulsed on her muscles and bruise sites and definitely eased some of the stress out.
She rinsed the shampoo from her hair. Enticing, the inescapable aroma of vanilla bean filled the bathroom.
A door closed, in what sounded like her bedroom. She hurriedly finished rinsing and twisted her hair to remove the excess water.
Sonny’s visit the night before had her on edge. She reached from the glass shower doors for the robe hanging from the hook, but left the water running. Stepping from the enclosure, she wrapped herself securely and then tied the sash.
If it were Ronan in her room, he would’ve said something. He’d understand her checking.
If it wasn’t Ronan, then she had to be ready. Not waiting like a damn baited doe in the shower.
She pressed her ear to the door, unable to hear anything over the sound of cascading water.
Behind her, another discreetly closed door waited. Hopefully, it didn’t lead into a closet or something. She slowly twisted the handle and pulled. It opened silently into a predominantly male bedroom.
Kelsey almost laughed out loud at the realization of where Ronan had put her. An adjoining room? Sneaky. Sneaky. Sneaky. And while she should’ve been pissed, she couldn’t help but admire his cockiness. He was so certain of her answer and yet so insecure at the same time.
She crossed the room with a few steps and exited his door to the hallway just as quietly. Looking up and down the hall, she tiptoed to her bedroom door and stopped to listen.
“No, boss, I’m not sure where Mr. James is. Yes, she’s in the shower, right now. Okay.” He waited for a long moment, his voice familiar to Kelsey… she just couldn’t place exactly where she knew it from. “Okay, grab her and bring her to the back of the property. Okay. I got it. Yes. You want me to repeat it again? And you’ll leave my family alone when I bring her, right?”
What Sonny had broken had been her self-control regarding anger. She was done. She didn’t care that whoever it was on the phone had family in danger. She didn’t care because she was the one he wanted to hurt.
She waited for him to open the bathroom door, before she slipped back into Ronan’s room. One thing Kelsey could count on would be Ronan’s obsessive compulsion to have protection available in every room. His father had been the same way. Even decorative firearms on the mantels or shelves worked and were kept highly maintained. Where he slept would be covered in hiding spots for weapons.
The man was a walking cowboy for hell’s sake. He didn’t know how not to have a weapon of some kind.
Reaching under Ronan’s mattress close to where his hand would fall, if he were sleeping, Kelsey almost gave up on finding a gun there. But her fingers brushed the butt and she eagerly grabbed it from its hiding place. A standard six-shooter. Easy to load and easy to fire.
She rushed to the door at the adjoining bathroom and peeked through the cracked opening. She hadn’t closed it because she didn’t want to be too loud. The man reached in to the shower and turned off the water, his blurry form hard to make out in the steam.
He turned, searching the room.
Kelsey needed an element of surprise. He’d be expecting her to go back to her room, but would he? What if he saw the door?
And he did. He moved toward it and Kelsey stepped back far enough to allow it to open and for him to find her waiting, gun trained on his chest.
Chapter 17
“You guys are doing a great job. I really appreciate the extra effort you’ve put forth lately with my absence and now with the extra patrols needed.” Ronan took in the proud expressions of the men he employed. Each face was familiar and he’d grown to trust each one to a specific degree.
They’d never be allowed in the house alone, but he trusted that they knew who to protect and who was in charge and even to take their jobs very seriously. “I’m counting on you to follow Smith’s lead —” He searched the faces. “Wait a minute, where’s Smith?”
The men looked amongst themselves. A man in the middle lifted his hand. “He said you needed him at the house?” And he glanced at the man next to him, shrugging.
At the house? No, Ronan would never ask any ranch hand to come to the house unless he was there. And he wasn’t there. He was in the damn barn. “I’ll be right back. Give the MacAllisters a call. Tell them something has developed and I need their help.” Telling the MacAllisters might be premature, but a stone settled in his gut and his instinct told him he wasn’t wrong to suspect something was off.
Puzzled, he left the barn and started across the drive. He couldn’t quite place his finger on what was bothering him. Why would Smith be anywhere but where Ronan had told him to go? The kid had worked for Ronan for a couple years. He worked whenever and wherever Ronan needed him.
Before he’d worked a consecutive six months for Ronan, Smith had been promoted to field lead and then supervisor and then foreman of the multiple men Ronan kept on payroll.
All that aside, where was he? And why had he said Ronan needed him at the house?
Mid-stride, Ronan stopped. “What the hell?”
Kelsey held a gun at Smith’s back, making him walk from the front door to the steps of the deck. Even dressed in the robe Ronan had left on her bathroom door, she sent a chill through his heart as she stared stonily at Smith’s head. Her lips moved and Smith stopped, placing his hands at his sides.
Ronan reached for his sidearm. He didn’t know what was going on, but he’d be damned before Smith would do anything to Kelsey – not that she appeared to be in trouble. Ronan held his fingers just centimeters from claiming his gun.
“You’re going to die, you know that? Devlyn Caracus isn’t someone you mess with. And you screwed with him, big time.” Smith muttered, matter-of-factly. “My family’s going to die. Your family. Everyone here. We’re all dead.”
Kelsey’s face turned red.
She lifted her arm and slammed the butt of the gun against Smith’s head. He crumpled to the ground, falling down the stairs to land at Ronan’s feet.
Ronan lifted his eyebrow and slowly raised his gaze toward Kelsey. “You haven’t even been up for long. How was your shower?”
Kelsey laughed, her smile bright and worth the weird moment. “Really? That’s all you’re going to say? How was my shower?” She pointed at Smith. “Your driver tried abducting me so he could deliver me to Devlyn. Why didn’t you help me just now?”
He tilted his head, tucking his jaw. “Do you think you couldn’t do it? If that’s the case, and you just put yourself in danger, I’d like to know why? I can’t lose you to some half-wit who isn’t quite sure what it means to be half-broke and stupid.”
She doubled over with laughter. “You don’t know what it’s like to be half-broke, either.” She straightened, wiping tears from her cheeks and still laughing. “Oh, my word, that’s hilarious.”
“I notice you didn’t say I don’t know what it’s like to be stupid either.” Ronan climbed the steps, and stood in front of her, so close he invaded her space. “Kelsey.” He tucked a wet strand of hair behind her ear. “Are you okay?” Because he didn’t give a shit about the man fallen at the stairs. He needed Kelsey, even if he couldn’t admit it.
She gazed down at Smith before turning her attention to Ronan. “I
’m sorry. He works for you. But he was on the phone with Devlyn which means Devlyn has cell service and he must be in town. But that guy is supposed to take me to Devlyn at the back of your property. He’s going to hand me over like I’m nothing. Devlyn is threatening him with his family. You might want to warn them.” Kelsey wrapped her arms around her waist. She looked down at the robe and clenched the material at her throat tightly together. “I’m sorry. I…”
Turning, Kelsey disappeared into the house.
Where the hell had the spitfire gone that had just downed a rough ranch hand with a simple pistol-whipping?
~~~
Kelsey wouldn’t open her door or come out.
Smith finally woke up and Robbie gave a few punches to get him to spill the time and exact location. The blubbering mess the other ranch hands drove toward town had lost all his bravado. Having sympathy, Ronan had one of the other men call his family and warn them. But it wouldn’t keep Ronan from turning him.
The last thing Ronan needed was Devlyn getting a head’s up they were coming his way. They being the newly arrived MacAllister brothers.
Standing beside his dark-as-sin horse, Pig, Slate pulled on thick leather riding gloves. “You know, if we’re riding to meet Devlyn, there’s less likelihood Kelsey will get hurt here.”
Ronan shook his head, tightening the saddle at Redbird’s girth. “No. I was standing right inside the barn and Smith had the audacity to enter my home. Who knows who else Devlyn has on his payroll.” He checked the reins, patting Redbird as she calmly underwent the maintenance. “I think Devlyn needs to go.”
Astride Revenge, the beautiful chestnut brown gelding, Robbie pushed into their conversation. “I agree with you, Ronan, and not because I owe the bastard money. While jumping job to job on the ranches, I heard rumors, ugly stories and they always centered around the Caracus gang.” He pointed at Ronan. “I also heard rumors about a vast treasure buried in the Lacey Caverns in mid-Montana. You should round up your employees and straighten them out on gossiping.”
Ronan rested his hand on the top of Redbird’s saddle, peering between the pommel and the horse’s neck. “Yeah, I started that rumor.” He bent and double-checked the security of the buckle. But the responding silence had him looking up.
Slate and Robbie stared at him.
“What the hell for?” Robbie flipped his hand at Ronan.
Stepping into the stirrup, Ronan lifted himself onto his horse. He offered a slight shrug. He didn’t have to explain himself to anyone. He knew what he was doing when it came to investments and currency. No one had the right to question him on that. “Business.”
Robbie pushed his horse closer until his knee was inches from Ronan’s. “I’m not educated like you and my brother there, but I’m not stupid. Why don’t you give us a little more of an explanation as to why you would spread stories like that when it affects us and our business as well.”
“You benefit from it, too, Robbie.” Not for the first time did Ronan wish Redbird wasn’t so steady. She could’ve shifted him away from Robbie’s closeness, but nope, she was perfectly happy where she was. Girl was probably sleeping on her horseshoes. He adjusted his Stetson. “Okay, yes, there are sapphires and silver lines all through the caverns, but only the lower ones. The real find in the higher tunnels is the fresh water. It’s not only fed by the Lonely Rivers. I’m still trying to figure out where its origins are.”
“But how does that help anyone business-wise?” Slate mounted his horse last, always cautious to make sure he was ready before doing anything. The veterinarian in him excelled at his own fastidiousness.
Flicking his reins, Ronan took the lead, waiting for them to fall in beside him. “Your business has been slower, right? So has most of the business in Colby. Who owns most of the debt notes in Coldwater County?”
Ronan continued, pointing at his chest. “Me. If the businesses fail, I fail. And I don’t fail.” Surveying the land that he’d grown up on, Ronan tried imagining being anywhere else. And he couldn’t. He was tied to Lacey Caverns, the land was a large piece of who he was. “With your dude ranch and a couple other newer investments inside and outside of town, I think Coldwater County can thrive, in more ways than one. But to flourish, I’ve learned you need to stoke fires, garner interest. What else is there to be excited about besides the scenery? Well, not much. So I spread some stories to a few of my seasonal ranch hands that I might need them sometime soon for a monumental find in the caverns. I hinted at jewels and the Salish legend.” He smirked. “Nothing more than a few kernels and the land is humming with entirely fabricated stories. They added our feud to it as well.”
“We haven’t had an uptick in bookings yet.” Slate watched to the right of them.
Robbie watched to the left. Ronan kept an eye on what was in front of them as well as continuing to watch behind them. “You wouldn’t yet, though. You just found out about the stories. Next thing you do is advertise a tour through the Lacey Caverns and a campout beside the famous Lonely Rivers. Romanticize it. Make it more than a vacation at a dude ranch. Appeal to the fantasy of it. Shit, guys, I can’t do all of it for you.” Next thing they’d want was for him to clean the rooms at their bed and breakfast.
Five horses and riders broke up the green and brown tree line just past the yellowish-green prairie grass. They held their spot at the tree line, not moving toward Ronan and the men. The ones that were off their horses moved to climb on but they didn’t ride.
“We’re still thirty minutes early. Looks like Devlyn had the same idea.” Ronan curled his fingers into his palms. He wouldn’t reach for his gun yet. From three-hundred yards or so he’d have a hard time hitting his target. He’d be stupid to not be a little nervous. Yet the excitement thrummed in his veins of performing the single most archaic and natural instinct for man. Protecting what was his.
As if they all thought the same thing, Ronan, Slate, and Robbie prodded their horses to a trot, then galloped.
Devlyn Caracus swung down from his horse, still protected by the tree line.
Ronan wanted to laugh. Did he think there was safety in the forest? That was Ronan’s forest. He wasn’t afraid to go in and flush out trouble.
The rest of the men with Devlyn aimed rifles at Robbie, Ronan, and Slate.
Slowing, Robbie and Slate pulled their guns. Ronan did the same. With ten yards left before they ran over the Caracus gang, they stopped and dismounted, leaving their rides unanchored. If shots started, the horses would run – hopefully, not far.
Devlyn scowled. When he spoke his voice sounded like gravel grinding under metal. “What the hell are you doing here? You want to die?”
Click. Click. Click. Click. Each man cocked their rifles, aimed at different heads. Ronan didn’t flinch at the two pointed toward him. “Someday.”
Devlyn chuckled, but his humor was short-lived. “You’re a smart ass. Okay. Where the hell is Smith?”
“Sitting in jail by this time, I’d imagine.” Ronan tapped the muzzle of his gun against his mid-thigh.
The movement caught Devlyn’s eye and he spit to the side. “You think I’m scared of a little gun, boy?” He took one step forward. “I’m not afraid of a rich pussy like you.” Devlyn turned to Robbie. “Twins. I never would’ve guessed. No matter. Does the rich one own your balls now, MacAllister?”
Ronan snapped his fingers, gaining Devlyn’s attention. “No. I don’t. But I settle his debts. And he is family. You happen to hold one of those and you’ve screwed with the other.”
A breeze rustled the leaves and pines overhead. Their conversation served little in intimidating anyone. More or less they bantered to test the temperaments.
“Well, now,” Devlyn’s steely gaze sharpened over a scraggly beard. “You’ve done the same with me. Except I don’t owe you shit. Except revenge.” He moved his hand from behind the long pale duster. Clenched in his fingers, the silver blade glinted. “I’ll take mine slow. And you won’t know when. And you won’t know who or how.” His s
tained teeth and greasy clumped hair suggested a hard life with little contemporary pleasures.
But his reputation preceded him.
And not for the first time did Ronan think Devlyn deserved death based solely on the things he’d done. Add in the things he wanted to do to Kelsey, and Ronan was more than happy to serve the justice he needed.
With four rifles pointed his way, how the hell would he pull it off?
Chapter 18
Guessing that the men would take Smith to the barn to get details from him was easy. Waiting for them to get the exact location was harder than she thought it’d be. Every thud of flesh on flesh had her wincing. She knew all too well what a beating felt like. She hated getting hurt and even though Smith had wanted to turn her over to Devlyn, she understood his motives which made it hard to hate him.
Kelsey rolled her shoulders. Steady in the ladder created by sturdy White Fir branches, she watched from her perch as Caracus and his men showed up at the location Smith had revealed to Ronan and the MacAllisters. Where she waited in the tree she could hear them as they set up to wait for Smith.
Kelsey had picked the spot well. She could see from all the angles and hear almost everything as long as they didn’t move too far away.
After Ronan and the MacAllisters had left the ranch to get ready to deal with the gang, she’d finished dressing in her leather boots and brown pants. A dark hooded sweatshirt held the gun she’d borrowed from Ronan’s room. No one had bothered taking it from her and she’d tucked it securely into the folds of the robe as she’d run inside.
Yes, Ronan wanted to protect her. He’d promised he would. And she didn’t blame him for her getting hurt by Sonny again. She even gave him the credit for Sonny’s death. The bastard had needed to die and Ronan had been smart enough to see it. His shrewdness warmed her and she thought again about that morning, in bed with him. Why hadn’t she pushed it? Kelsey could’ve had him – maybe for the last time, if she’d only pushed. He’d said he might still have feelings for her. The giddiness that brought her almost ached.
Sorrows and Lace Page 10