Last Stand Ranch

by Jenna Night

  Julie nodded. “This is Bobby.”

  A young man who couldn’t be much more than twenty, sporting curly red hair and neon-blue half-glasses, smiled and nodded.

  “He’s our techie,” Elijah said quietly. “Anybody has computer or phone issues, we rely on him.”

  “And this fine couple would be Mark and Linda.”

  Julie gestured toward a lanky man with thinning hair who looked to be about Elijah’s age. “Mark’s a cowboy. He works here at the ranch. Linda is a juvenile probation officer.”

  Linda was a petite blonde woman barely more than half her husband’s height.

  “There are women riders in Vanquish?” Olivia asked.

  Linda smiled broadly and nodded. “Absolutely.”

  “Let’s see,” Julie continued. “Have you met my son Jonathan?” she asked as a tall, slender young man with a shy smile walked around a corner and into the kitchen. “Where’s—oh, there you are,” she said as a dark-haired, bronze-skinned man came around the corner. “Honey, meet Olivia Dillon. Olivia, this is my husband, Joe.”

  “Welcome,” Joe said.

  A man of few words, like his son.

  Olivia took a deep breath and positioned herself so she was facing everyone. “If you don’t already know, you’ll know soon enough that I told a lie that almost sent a man to prison.” She looked around the room. “Everybody should know that before you sign on to help me. And if you want to back out, I don’t blame you.”

  “We’ve all made mistakes.” Joe glanced around the kitchen and everyone nodded. He turned to Olivia. “Our offer of help isn’t just for perfect people.” He clapped his hands together and smiled. “Now, let’s give thanks for the food and dig in!”

  After they prayed, Julie made sure Elijah started a plate for Olivia.

  “Why don’t you go sit down,” Claudia whispered in Olivia’s ear. “You must be tired.”

  “I am.”

  Olivia found a spot on one of the couches in the living room. Elijah pulled a coffee table close in front of her, set down her food and some cutlery, and then came back with a glass of iced tea and a cloth napkin.

  When he came back with his own dinner, he sat as far away from her as possible. He immediately engrossed himself in talking with Bobby and his brother.

  She got the message.

  And yet, there was a moment after he’d walked with her down from the ridge, when they were on his motorcycle, when he was getting her settled and then taking off to meet up with the ambulance at Claudia’s house, when she’d felt a connection with him. And she’d thought he’d felt it, too. He’d held her close and she’d felt his strength radiating into her. She’d needed him and he’d been there. She’d poured all her trust into him without a second thought and he’d safeguarded it. And her. She was sure they’d shared some kind of bond.

  She must have been delusional from loss of blood.

  When she finished eating, Olivia set her empty plate on the low table in front of her. “Thank you, that was delicious.”

  Julie smiled, “Glad you liked it.”

  Joe, who sat beside her, patted his wife’s knee. “I’m a lucky man.” From what Olivia could see he laughed and smiled easily, unlike his son.

  “Okay,” Elijah said briskly. “We need a plan on how we’re going to keep an eye on Olivia and find out who’s after her.”

  “Aunt Claudia, I could get a security system up around your house that would cover all the main buildings.” Bobby pushed his neon-blue glasses up his nose while looking at an electronic tablet balanced on his lap. “You could monitor it from your kitchen or your bedroom or wherever you want.”

  He glanced up for a response. Claudia, who was sitting on the couch beside Olivia, looked at him for a long time before slowly shaking her head. “I don’t know if I could live like that. Feeling like I’m always under observation.” She glanced at Olivia. “I know it’s the way of the world these days. But it’s not the way for me.”

  “I don’t want you to have to change your lifestyle,” Olivia said.

  “It wouldn’t have to be permanent.” Bobby glanced back and forth between Claudia and Elijah.

  “No,” Olivia said a little more forcefully. “If she doesn’t want to do it, she doesn’t have to.”

  “You’re right, of course,” Joe said calmly. “No one’s going to force anyone to do anything.” He glanced at Bobby. “It’s a good idea, but we’ll just have to think of something else.”

  Olivia’s faced burned with regret. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head and cleared her throat. “I appreciate your help. Everybody’s help. I don’t know what I would have done without you.” Her gaze drifted to Elijah. His dark eyes were focused on her, but he kept hidden whatever emotion might lie behind them. Then she turned to Claudia. “I thought I could leave whatever danger was trailing me back in Las Vegas. I didn’t mean to bring it here.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Joe said.

  How many times had Olivia sat across from a woman at the safe house and uttered those same words? They were so much easier to believe when you were the one saying them. Harder to believe when you were on the receiving end.

  “Olivia, honey, I was so happy when you called and said you’d decided to come visit that I couldn’t fall asleep that night,” Claudia said, her voice a little shaky. “I’m still glad you came.”

  “We don’t have to decide everything right now,” Elijah said. “But it would be a good idea for you to spend tonight in a place where you’ll have plenty of people looking out for you.”

  “Spend the night?”

  Julie caught her eye and said gently, “I bet right now you really want to get some rest.”

  It was true. She was exhausted, and her arm and shoulder ached. Elijah had grabbed her pain pills from the car, but she didn’t know where he’d put them and she hated to ask someone to go get them.

  “Do you really think Kurtz might try to shoot me again?” She directed her question at Elijah.

  He shrugged. “What was your experience when you worked at the safe house? Could you predict what anybody would do?”

  “No.” She let go a sigh. “When someone’s mind is twisted and angry, they’re capable of anything.”

  “Yeah.” His expression softened slightly and she could see compassion in his eyes. “That’s been my experience, too.”

  * * *

  A few minutes later, Elijah walked into the house from the back veranda, disconnecting from his call and tucking his phone into his back pocket. Everyone in the family room looked up at him. “Deputy Bedford will be by in the morning.” He turned to Olivia. “He wants to talk to you again.”

  She nodded and looked down, seeming to shrink in upon herself as if she was trying to disappear. He wanted to go over and sit next to her, put an arm around her, tell her he would make sure nothing bad happened to her. But that would not be a good idea.

  Having other members of Vanquish around reminded him that he hadn’t revived the church’s motorcycle outreach group to find himself a girlfriend. He’d done it because there were so many people who needed help. And because he’d survived so much when others hadn’t. He had a debt to pay.

  “Has Bedford developed any leads?” Mark asked.

  “Nothing he was willing to talk about over the phone.”

  “I think I’d like to lie down,” Olivia said quietly. She turned to Claudia. “How about you?”

  Claudia nodded.

  “Are we sharing a room?” Olivia asked.

  Claudia glanced at her niece, and then looked away. Apparently she hadn’t told Olivia they’d agreed that only she would stay the night.

  Elijah stepped in to fill the awkward silence. It had been his idea, anyway. “We thought it would be good if you stayed here tonight.” He glanced at Claudia
and she gave him an uncertain smile. “But your aunt wants to go home and sleep in her own bed.”

  “I can’t sleep anywhere else,” she said apologetically.

  “And I can’t imagine you got much sleep last night,” Julie threw in. “Not after everything that happened.”

  “No.” Claudia shook her head. “I didn’t.” She turned to Olivia. “Also I really need to get home to feed the dogs and the cats.”

  “Raymond and Denise don’t take care of the animals?”

  “No.”

  “Oh.” Olivia bit her bottom lip and rubbed her injured arm.

  “Is your pain medication wearing off?” Elijah asked.

  “I don’t know.” She sounded disoriented. Then she nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Let me get it for you.” He headed for the kitchen.

  He read the directions on the sheet of paper the hospital had given Olivia, filled a glass of water, took a pill out of a bottle, and jotted down the time and dosage on the back of the paper.

  He walked back into the living room and held out the pill and the water.

  She wouldn’t look him in the eye, but she took the medicine. When she reached out to take the pill from his hand, her skin felt warm. He hoped she wasn’t getting a fever. Her body had been through a lot in the past thirty or so hours. She had been through a lot.

  “I hope this pill doesn’t make me groggy in the morning,” Olivia said wearily.

  “According to the directions, I don’t think it’ll last more than six hours.”

  “Good. I’ve got a job interview tomorrow.”

  “Are you sure?” It was the first Elijah had heard of it. Maybe Olivia was confused. Maybe the drugs from the hospital combined with the pain and the terror she’d been through were mixing her up.

  “At the senior living facility. Golden Sands.”

  Elijah turned to Claudia and she nodded.

  “Aunt Claudia knows the guy that runs the place,” Olivia added. “They need somebody to help with their arts-and-crafts program. It’s just part-time, but it’s something.”

  She was beginning to sniffle, as if she might cry. Her reddish-blond hair had fallen in front of her eyes and Elijah was so tempted to reach out and brush it away that he made himself take a step back. He needed to keep his eyes and ears open. Stay objective. Avoid getting emotionally involved. She’d be safer that way.

  “You should reschedule the interview,” he said.

  “No!” This time she did look at him, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. But her expression wasn’t sad. Or pleading. She was clearly determined.

  She sniffed loudly and sat up straighter. “I lost my job in Las Vegas and I’ve had a hard time finding another one. This wouldn’t be the same kind of work that I was doing, but it would be meaningful. Aunt Claudia lined up the opportunity for me and I intend to make the best of it.”

  She turned to Elijah. “So, no. I won’t reschedule. I’m going.”

  “Okay,” Elijah said. “I’ll take you.”

  “Thank you.” Olivia used her good arm to push herself up off the couch. “I’m going back to the house with you,” she said to Claudia. “After everything that’s happened, I don’t think you should go back alone.”

  “She won’t,” Linda said brightly, also standing up. “Mark and I are going with her.” She beamed at Claudia. “I love that cute little office with the day bed you have downstairs by the kitchen. And Mark’s never met a couch that didn’t double as the perfect bed for him. He’ll sleep in the living room.”

  Olivia’s jaw dropped slightly as she looked around the room. Her gaze finally settled on Elijah.

  “Well, you’ve certainly got all this planned, don’t you?” she said.

  “It’s what we do.”

  She turned to Claudia “After everything that’s happened, you and I should stick together. I could go back to your house with you. Elijah could come, too. We’d have three people protecting us.”

  “You and I can move into Claudia’s house tomorrow,” Elijah said.

  “Why wait?”

  “Because nobody’s out to kill your eighty-year-old aunt. They’re after you. If Kurtz is that determined, he may try something tonight, when he knows you’re already injured and vulnerable. I would think you wouldn’t want Aunt Claudia in the same house with you. I don’t want her in the same house with you. We’ll have time tomorrow to make her house more secure before you move back in.”

  “Oh. That makes sense.” The fire went out of her eyes.

  Elijah turned to Mark and Linda. “Now that we’ve got that settled, why don’t you take Aunt Claudia home. We can take care of things here.” His gaze shifted back to Olivia. His first impression of her was right. Trouble was hot on her heels. He just hoped he could keep that trouble from taking over his town.

  SEVEN

  Olivia rolled over in bed and was instantly jarred awake by a sharp pain jabbing into her shoulder. She groaned and glanced at the small clock beside her. This was the third or fourth time she’d woken up since going to bed. At least this time she could take another pain pill.

  She sat up and flicked on the bedside lamp. The guest room in the Morales house was comfortable and beautiful, with the same relaxed, rustic, Southwest feel as the main rooms downstairs. But it wasn’t home. Who knew when she’d be able to get her furniture out of storage and settle down in one place again? She reached up to touch the area where she’d been shot. She shivered, even though the room wasn’t cold.

  The bottle of pain pills the hospital gave her sat on the dresser, but she’d need to go downstairs to the kitchen for a glass of water. Mentally thanking Claudia for packing an overnight bag for her, she reached for her robe at the foot of her bed. She tucked her good arm into a sleeve and let the fabric drape over her sore shoulder.

  She headed toward the stairs, stepping softly on the thick carpet, trying not to wake anyone. But at the top of the stairs she could see dim light glowing down in the living room. Someone was already awake. Maybe they’d heard something. Dogs barking. A car engine prowling up the drive. The sound of someone ratcheting a shotgun.

  Fear twisted her nerves from head to toe, turning the dull pain in her shoulder into a piercing jolt and setting her teeth on edge. She grabbed the banister with her good hand and started down the stairs.

  Elijah sat on one of the leather sofas, his booted feet on the coffee table, watching the flat-screen TV on the wall with the volume turned down low. A laptop lay open with an electronic tablet beside it on the table in front of him. He had a pistol within reach on the sofa cushion.

  Bobby sat at the dining room table, visible through the open, airy design of the common area. He was facing a laptop computer screen, the bluish glow reflecting on his glasses and giving his bright red hair a more muted, brownish appearance.

  Jonathan, sprawled on the second living room couch, flipped the page of a thick paperback book.

  Olivia reached the bottom of the stairs and all three of the men looked up. Elijah was on his feet in an instant. “What’s wrong?”

  “Something up?” Bobby asked, looking directly at her.

  “I don’t know.” The sudden, intense attention was disorienting. “I was going to ask you if there was something wrong.” Olivia looked for reassurance in the tense expression on Elijah’s face. “Why are all of you awake?”

  “Why are you awake?” Elijah asked.

  Jonathan set his book aside and stood up.

  “Did you hear something?” Elijah demanded, sounding like a battlefield commander. “Did you see something?”

  “I don’t see anything,” Bobby said, his attention back on his computer.

  “See anything? What are you looking at?” Confused, Olivia turned to Bobby, and then back to Elijah. “Do you have security camer
as set up around your house?”

  “What woke you up?” Elijah barked.

  “My shoulder,” Olivia barked back. She dug the bottle of pain pills out of her bathrobe pocket, held it up and rattled it. “I came downstairs to get a glass of water.”

  Elijah’s shoulders relaxed slightly. She realized he had his pistol in his hand.

  He tucked the gun into the waistband at the small of his back.

  She sighed. Nothing like annoying the people trying to help you.

  She walked by Bobby on the way to the kitchen and paused to see what he was looking at on his computer.

  The screen was split into twelve images. She recognized the wooden crossbar at the entrance to the long driveway, the front door and a couple of views of the veranda at the back of the house. The other images were views of the outside of the house, and some other buildings, maybe a barn and a stable.

  She looked up and saw Elijah watching her. “Who are you?” She gestured at the computer screen. “Why do you have so much security at your house?”

  “It never hurts to be careful.” He started toward the kitchen. “I’ll get your water.”

  Olivia maneuvered around Bobby’s chair so she could block Elijah’s path. “Wait.”

  He stopped, his dark eyes intensely focused on her. Her mouth suddenly felt dry, but she held her ground.

  “You already know a lot about me,” she said. “You know a couple of humiliating things I would keep secret if I could. You know I lied about Ted Kurtz and you know I never gave Aunt Claudia the time of day until I needed her.”

  Olivia’s eyes began to burn. Speaking that second truth aloud made her chest hurt.

  Don’t cry. You will not cry. She cleared her throat. “There are lots of things going on right now that I don’t understand.” Tears started leaking out despite her best efforts to hold them back. She awkwardly wiped them away with her good hand. “I think you should tell me something about yourself. And tell me why you’re doing this for me. You don’t even know me.”

  “She’s got a point,” Jonathan muttered.

  Elijah shot him a brotherly glare. Jonathan picked up his book and sat back down.