Last Stand Ranch

by Jenna Night

  Bedford glanced at the house. “I’m going to go get those vitamins from your aunt so we can have them tested.”

  After Bedford walked away, Elijah wrapped his arm around Olivia’s shoulder and pulled her close to his side.

  “It’s finally over,” she said, wrapping her arm around his waist and hugging him tight.

  He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “Some things are over. Some things are just beginning.”

  TWENTY

  Eight months later

  “It’s about time you married that girl,” Arthur said to Elijah as he rolled his wheelchair over to him.

  Olivia grinned. These days it seemed as if she either grinned or laughed all day long. They were in the art room at Golden Sands. A couple of weeks after the arrest of “Denise” and “Raymond,” Larry had called Olivia to say he’d been given the authority to rehire her if she was interested. She’d immediately accepted the offer.

  “The wedding is the day after tomorrow,” Elijah reminded Arthur. “I expect you to be there.”

  “I thought maybe it was today because of the way you’re dressed. Slacks, a dress shirt and a tie? I didn’t think you owned anything besides jeans and a black leather jacket.”

  “Funny.” Elijah reached out to squeeze his friend’s frail shoulder. “We’re on the way to our rehearsal dinner. Think you could save up some wisecracks for the wedding reception?”

  “Oh, I’ll have plenty to say there.” He winked at Olivia before he started to roll away. “You look beautiful as always.”

  “Thank you.”

  Elijah reached for her hand and kissed it. She felt as if her whole body was glowing. “Are you going to be able to stand being away from your job for the next couple of weeks?” he asked.

  “Arthur assured me he’ll keep everybody in line.”

  “Good.” Elijah flicked off the lights. “Let’s lock this place up and get going.”

  Olivia looked out at the late-spring sunlight shining on the hills, highlighting all the brave bits of green poking out of the earth. Hard to believe just a few months ago she had looked out at those same hills with a heart full of fear.

  “When I picked up Vanessa at the airport yesterday, she told me Ted Kurtz finally returned to Vegas, where he was arrested and charged with assault,” Olivia said. “His ex-wife is finally willing to testify against him. Other charges will be filed soon. He isn’t going to get away with all the terrible things he did.”

  “And Ricky’s recovered and back at work.” Elijah stepped up behind her, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to his chest. “So it really is over.”

  He brushed his warm lips against the side of her neck and she melted against him.

  “Are you ready to go face a restaurant full of family and friends?” he asked.

  “I am.”

  They locked up the classroom and walked out to Elijah’s truck, their destination a steak house in town. Once there, Olivia didn’t make a move to get out of the truck. Instead, she sat with her gaze resting on the row of shiny motorcycles in the parking lot.

  “You change your mind?” Elijah asked after a few seconds. “Have you decided you don’t want to marry me?”

  Olivia shook her head. “No. It’s just that my mom and her husband, plus my dad and his wife and their children are in there. Together. We’ve never all been together in the same room before. Usually, my parents can’t even carry on a civil conversation over the phone.”

  Elijah reached over and brushed the hair from her face. “Whatever happens, we’ll make the best of it.” He kissed her cheek. “You’ve faced down someone trying to kill you. I think you can handle a family squabble if one pops up.”

  “True.”

  “My sister and older brother both made it into town today so you’re going to meet them plus a few other members of the Morales family. I might need some moral support, too.”

  Years ago, when she’d felt so lonely, she’d prayed to be surrounded by family. Now that prayer had been answered.

  She had Elijah. Someone by her side when things got tough. Someone she could take care of when things got tough for him. A true partnership. The best gift of all.

  “I’m ready,” she said, opening the truck door. “Let’s get started.”

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from SUDDEN RECALL by Lisa Phillips

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  Dear Reader,

  I came across the announcement for the Killer Voices contest just days before the entry deadline. I needed to write a suspenseful first page for a story and I immediately knew what the setting would be. I’ve driven cross-country several times, and each time I’ve found myself uneasy driving through those long stretches of beautiful, empty desert. What if I ran into trouble? What if my car broke down? What if someone with evil intent came along and there was no one around to help?

  Yeah, I scared myself on those drives. I almost scared myself writing that first page, too.

  My original idea turned into a story about someone in danger who feels very alone. But then help arrives! First in the form of a menacing-looking motorcycle group. Then in the form of an estranged family member. After that, complete strangers in a town she’s never visited before step up to offer assistance.

  We can’t always see where our help will come from before it appears. In the Killer Voices contest, I received help from Elizabeth Mazer, an editor I’d never met before. Complete strangers in the Harlequin Community Forum offered encouragement and congratulations. And, thank goodness, family and friends supported my efforts.

  Olivia and Elijah couldn’t see what form of help would show up before it appeared. They couldn’t know when it would appear. But they trusted God and moved forward one step at a time.

  Sounds like a good plan to me.

  Jenna Night

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  Sudden Recall

  by Lisa Phillips

  ONE

  The beat-up, rusty truck was parked askew on the side of the highway. In the beam of his vehicle’s headlights, US Marshal Jackson Parker saw the lone blonde woman kick the flat tire with her black cowgirl boot. He chuckled to himself in the dark of his cab. Sienna did not deal well with feeling incapable, and those lug nuts had probably been tightened by machine.
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  What was she doing on this lone stretch of highway so late at night, anyway? Her hands were fisted by her sides, halfway covered by the sleeves of a chambray shirt that made her look ordinary when she was anything but. Like she didn’t want to be seen. But then why come to his small Oregon town? As far as Parker was concerned, there were limited reasons a CIA agent, or former CIA agent—whichever she was—would want to hide in plain view.

  Sienna was either working a job or running away from some kind of trouble.

  Parker debated for a second, then pulled over behind her. He left his lights on, since there weren’t any streetlamps this far out of town. He was at the tail end of a long night that capped a long day, still in his sweaty clothes and bulletproof vest. The scratch he’d gotten on his face from the fugitive they’d taken down today hurt, but it wasn’t bleeding.

  Being a marshal was better than climbing through hot jungles and eating sand with every bite, or parachuting into hot zones and barely getting back out alive. Life wasn’t exactly boring now that he wasn’t a navy SEAL, but at least the job was faster, safer and he could stop for a cheeseburger and large fries on his twenty-minute drive home.

  He pulled his tired body from the front seat before he trudged over to her.

  “You look like you could use some help.” He doubted a person with CIA training was accustomed to needing anything. And yet she’d been bested by a flat tire. He gave her a wry grin.

  Her brown eyes were wary. Her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which only served to give him full view of her features.

  How was she going to play things this time? Would she continue with the ruse that they didn’t know each other, or was she finally going to admit she’d seriously wronged him? Why persist in giving him no information whatsoever after what they’d shared?

  Parker scrubbed his hands down his face. Did he even want to know the answer? He winced when he caught the scratch on his left cheek. “Ma’am?”

  “Um...yes. I need help.”

  “You have a spare?”

  She shook her head, a jerky motion. Seriously, now she was scared of him?

  Parker folded his arms. “There’s no one out here. We’re all alone.” Her eyes flashed, and she took a step back. Parker gave her a second, but her facial expression didn’t change. “Sienna. You can give it up.”

  “How do you know my name?”

  Parker sighed. “You’re really going to do this. You don’t show up, you don’t call, I don’t hear from you. Nothing. Then you move to my town and for a year I have to deal with you pretending like we don’t even know each other. I want to know what’s going on, Sienna. None of this makes any sense to me.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  He stepped closer. Her eyes widened, and she took a half step back. She was going to have to get over this being-afraid-of-him thing pretty quick. He wasn’t the bad guy. Parker leaned down a little and softened his voice. “What’s going on? You can tell me.”

  Maybe this whole thing—being here—was a cover, and he had to go along with it. But it didn’t completely ring true. There was definitely something going on. This woman was not your average country girl who lived on a ranch. Not by any stretch.

  The last time they’d met, it had been as a CIA agent and a navy SEAL. They’d spent days with each other at one of the forward operating bases in the Middle East, where she’d laid out all the details of his team’s mission so they could plan their attack. She’d still been there after it was completed successfully, and they’d been able to tell her that everything she’d informed them about had been spot-on.

  It hadn’t been a typical set of circumstances. CIA agents generally filed reports, and the intelligence would come down the wires to their SEAL team. But she’d been there herself, recovering from an injury and itching for payback. Parker and his team had been enamored with the lady spy, so tiny but so tough. No one had ever beaten them so badly at pool before, and they’d have let her do it. But she’d whipped them, anyway.

  Those few days, before and after, had felt like a vacation to his men. A chance to ease off the stress of consecutive wartime missions. The single guys had tripped over themselves trying to impress Sienna Cartwright, but she’d made it clear Parker was the one who had her attention.

  They’d taken things slow. Talked for hours, shared stories of their lives. He’d never told anyone the whole story about his father’s illness and what his life had been like. But he’d shared it with her.

  And now she acted like she didn’t even remember.

  Trees drifted in the night breeze. They whooshed against one another like ocean waves. “Someone’s coming,” she whispered.

  They were alone as far as he could tell. If she was in danger or there was some kind of threat, then she of all people knew he was capable of taking care of her.

  She hadn’t seemed to mind that fact before. She’d actually told him it was one of the things she liked best about him. Despite the fact she was a clearly capable woman, CIA agents had active threats against them. She’d appreciated his ability to defend both of them if need be.

  They hadn’t said the word love, not when it’d been only a matter of days before they were separated. But they’d had plans to meet up later. He’d foolishly thought she meant everything she’d said about caring for him. About wanting to see what the future might hold for them. He’d also unwisely thought she might be different.

  But apparently not.

  Time had taught him the hard way that women couldn’t be trusted. Now his heart wanted an explanation—a seriously good one if she thought she was going to make amends—but that didn’t appear to be her plan.

  And a woman like Sienna always had a plan.

  “Are you in some kind of trouble?”

  She peered up at him from beneath her lashes. Her full lips moved like she desperately wanted to say something. Parker’s heart was tied in knots, an uncomfortable feeling that resembled the state he’d been in after his wife of four years ran off with his SEAL teammate while the guy was home on leave recovering from an injury. But that was years ago.

  Sienna was different than his ex. And not just because she was a spy. So why was she proving, yet again, that he couldn’t trust his heart? Maybe all women were like that. But when he looked at her, despite the overwhelming evidence, he just didn’t want to believe it.

  “Someone is coming,” she said again.

  Parker glanced around. A vehicle had crested the hill behind him, headed toward them. “It’s just another truck.”

  Sienna flinched. “They’re coming.”

  “Who?” Parker touched her elbow. “Is someone after you?”

  * * *

  The year of memories Sienna had made since she’d woken up with no knowledge of who she was didn’t help her current situation. She had no idea what to do about the giant sweaty guy in front of her who looked like the epitome of the all-American hero. It also didn’t help her understand why she was so anxious just because a vehicle was coming down the street toward them.

  It was like being inside a tornado while the world swirled around her.

  She glanced around and tried to assess the threat. It was something she did instinctually, although what it meant for whom she’d been before she lost her memories she had no idea. Her aunt wouldn’t tell her anything, claiming the doctor had instructed her not to for fear she’d cause Sienna to make up memories instead of recalling real things. So instead Sienna had to live with a blank.

  And she hated it.

  The big guy with the bulletproof vest and the silver-star badge on his belt looked over his shoulder. The van wasn’t slowing down. If anything, it’d sped up. When he looked back at her, his features were shadowed.

  Was he going to tell her his name?

  He knew hers, though how he could’ve learned
it was anyone’s guess. Small town, maybe? The handful of times they’d come across each other at the grocery store or the movies—but not at her church, interestingly enough—he only stared at her. Did he think she was some kind of criminal?

  The tires on the van squealed and the air filled with the scent of hot rubber. The man with her moved his body between Sienna and the oncoming vehicle, a protective stance she understood but didn’t appreciate. Did he think she was helpless? Sienna leaned around him in time to see the side door slide open. Men with guns and black masks jumped out while it was still moving.

  Immediately, the man in front of her yanked her arm almost out of its socket as he took off at a run, forcing her to match his punishing pace toward his truck. He pulled her down on the passenger’s side and drew his weapon. The fast rat-a-tat of automatic gunfire slammed the metal of his truck, across the hood. He lifted up and returned fire.

  More machine-gun fire replied. Air hissed out of the tire on the far side from where Sienna was hunkered down. Glass shattered in a spray across the pavement.

  He pulled her up and shoved her toward the trees. “Plan B. Run!”

  Sienna tucked her elbows in and ran into the forest. On her weekend runs, to mix up her workout some, she often ran at this pace for thirty-second spurts just to see if she could. After two minutes now her lungs started to burn. Branches slapped her arms and legs as she sped between trees, and the sound of booted feet pounded the dirt behind her. She glanced back for a second to make sure it was him and not one of those masked men.

  Her foot hit something and she stumbled. The man grabbed her arm while she righted herself. “Faster.”

  Faster? She was almost ready to drop right there and then. Her lungs were about to explode, and he didn’t sound much better. Either he had asthma, or...

  Sienna looked up at the darkened sky. “Is that a helicopter?” The words came out with each pant of her breath.

  He didn’t slow down. He glanced behind them, not even losing his stride. “Left.” His voice was barely above a whisper.