Returning to the living room, she pulled a book from Mr. Noble’s shelf, a mystery by a popular author she enjoyed. She dragged a chair closer to the window, wrapped herself in the sleeved blanket and used the morning sun to read, hoping to distract herself from thoughts of Jake in the shower.
Several minutes later, Jake strolled down the hall, towel drying his hair and smelling like soap and steam.
He walked to the window where she was reading and stared out for a moment. “I think the snow has slacked up enough that I can get out now, get to a phone and call for reinforcements.”
“We,” Chelsea said.
He turned his regard from the window and met her level gaze. “What?”
“You said ‘I can get out,’ but you meant ‘we can get out.’” She arched one eyebrow meaningfully. “Right?”
“Chelsea, I can’t let you put yourself in harm’s way.”
She faced him, scowling, and planted her hands on her hips. “It’s my decision, not yours. I’m going with you. I need to check on Darynda and the other neighbors, and I want to get word to my parents that I’m safe. If they got word about the blizzard, they’ll be worried.”
With a heavy heart, Jake thought of his family, sitting in the hospital in Amarillo, wondering what happened to him. “I need to call my sister and check on my dad, too.” He rubbed his chin, thinking. “But all that takes a backseat to finding Brady and contacting the authorities. I don’t want you in harm’s way if I find Brady at your house.”
“And I don’t want to be here alone if Brady comes back for any reason...say, to take a horse or get rid of Noble’s body, for instance.”
Jake’s gut soured at the idea of Chelsea facing Brady alone. He grunted his agreement. “What if you stayed with your neighbor while I checked your house?”
She tilted her head, her expression shrewd. “What if we both stayed with my neighbor while the cops checked my house?”
“I can handle Brady.”
“I have no doubt you can, but you don’t have to. Let the police bring him in. Let them call out their SWAT team or the FBI or whoever they use to catch armed escapees, and you—” She stopped short, as if catching herself before she gave something away.
“And I what? Sit on the sidelines? That’s not who I am, Chelsea. I want this guy caught, and I want a hand in bringing him in.”
“And I want...” Shadows filled her eyes, and she ducked her head.
“What, Chelsea? Tell me.”
“I want you to stay with me,” she said softly, almost apologetically, her gaze on the arm of the stuffed chair where she sat as she traced the pattern of the fabric with her fingertip. “You make me feel safe. And...I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Her honesty touched him, and he covered her hand with his and squeezed, joking, “Shucks, Chelsea. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you cared about this ole cowboy.”
Her eyes went to their joined hands, then rose to meet his gaze. The tender emotion he saw looking back at him landed a mule kick to his chest and wiped the teasing grin from his face.
A heartbeat later, Chelsea twitched a lopsided grin at him. “Don’t flatter yourself, sweetie. It’s just nice to have someone with your...um, skill set...around when there’s a killer on the loose.”
A little jab of disappointment poked him under his ribs, and he sobered, realizing her dismissal of her feelings was the source of his hurt. Over the past couple of days, he developed a fondness for Chelsea that went beyond her pretty face and Marilyn Monroe curves. Her wit, her intelligence, her compassion... Chelsea was the real deal in so many ways.
Of all the women he’d met all over the world, he’d found one of the most intriguing and endearing a mere fifty miles from the home he’d fled ten years ago. The irony didn’t escape him. Now that he had the career he thought he needed to make a difference, to give him a sense of purpose, life threw this woman in his path to show him what his life still lacked.
His friends and former black ops teammates Alec Kincaid and Daniel LeCroix had both recently found love and a new level of happiness and direction for their lives. Was that what he wanted? Could he give up his career to settle down, maybe start ranching again?
If his father died, the family ranch would need— Jake cut the thought off unfinished. He refused to think in those negative terms. Dad had to pull through.
“Not that you aren’t easy on the eyes and all,” Chelsea said, drawing him out of his straying thoughts. “But a handsome mug is really of no use when the bullets start flying. Ya know?”
He flashed her a quick grin and gave her hand a final squeeze. “All right, then, you can ride out with me. But you stay at Darynda’s. I’ll get the horses saddled.”
She pulled a sassy grin as she rose from her chair. “There you go with the ‘I’ thing again. I can saddle my own horse.”
He caught her arm as she turned to leave and cupped her jaw with his hand. “Maybe so, but...you don’t need to see Mr. Noble and have that image in your head.”
“Oh. Right.” The reminder of poor Mr. Noble’s body out in the stable turned the food in her stomach to rocks. She swallowed hard to keep her breakfast down. “So do we just...leave him out there? That seems heartless.”
“It’s a crime scene, Chels. We can’t move the body until a forensics team can investigate and collect evidence against Brady.”
She bit her bottom lip and nodded. “I know you’re right. I just feel so bad for Mr. Noble.”
He rubbed his thumb along her cheekbone, then tugged her close enough to kiss the top of her head. “And I love that you care so much.”
Her scalp tingled where he’d kissed her, and her thoughts cartwheeled hearing him use the word love in a sentence about her. She was still rooted to the spot, savoring the moment, as he headed outside to ready the horses.
“Better wrap up,” he called over his shoulder. “The sun is out, but it’s still as cold as brass balls out there. One brush with hypothermia is enough, huh?”
She nodded. “I’m on it.”
After watching from the window as Jake struggled through the deep snow back out to the stable, Chelsea helped herself to hats and gloves from the front closet. She layered on another sweater and more socks and found another thick shirt and socks for Jake.
Thirty minutes later, two horses were saddled with the third in tow, a lead clipped to his harness. Jake had them waiting by the back door, ready to ride out when she finished gathering the clothes and a thermos of hot tea to take with them. While Jake donned the extra clothes and outerwear she’d set out for him, she asked, “What about Nela and Sadie? We can’t leave them here with no one to take care of them.”
Jake considered her question as he rebuttoned his coat. “We can send someone to get them once we find a phone.”
Chelsea frowned her dissatisfaction with his answer. “Who will we send? The cops? They’ll just take them to the pound, and who knows what will happen to them then. Darynda will take them until I know my parents’ house is safe. I know she will.”
Jake scratched his two-day beard as he mulled their options. “Okay, get a big towel to wrap kitty in. I doubt riding a horse in freezing temperatures is Nela’s idea of fun. We’ll bundle her up papoose-style to safely immobilize her legs so we can hold her.”
“Roger that, Spy Guy.” Chelsea grinned, and a warm ribbon of pleasure spun through him.
Accommodating her request had been easy enough, yet her smile made him feel as if he’d accomplished something important. Because he’d made her happy. He rubbed a spot at the center of his chest where the pleasant fullness was centered. A kind and selfless woman like Chelsea deserved to be happy all the time, and he sobered realizing how much he wanted to be the one making her smile.
“We should do the same with Sadie. This snow’s too deep for her to walk very far in.”
Jake rubbed his hands together. “All right. Two pet burritos coming up.”
Chelsea disappeared down the hall for a moment and ret
urned with a bath towel for Nela, then took the throw from the couch for Sadie.
Jake wrapped a squirmy and upset Nela in the towel and held the bundled cat until Chelsea had mounted her horse. “Hold her tightly. She’s not a happy camper.”
“I bet.”
Returning to the living room, Jake scooped the Australian cattle dog into his arms and tucked the blanket around her. Sadie wiggled, unsure about the arrangement, but gave Jake’s face a quick lick of trust as they headed into the cold together. He held Sadie under one arm as he climbed into his saddle. “All right, I think we’re all here. Lead the way to Darynda’s, ma’am.”
With a click of her tongue, Chelsea coaxed her horse to set off across the snowy field between the Nobles’ house and the Joneses’ home.
Being on a horse again felt good to Jake, like spending time with an old friend. Maybe he still had more ranching in his blood than he’d realized. And watching Chelsea in the saddle was a thing of beauty. The lady knew how to sit a horse. Her butt and legs moved in rhythm with her mount, guiding, shifting, tensing or relaxing as needed. Her skill brought sultry images to his mind and ideas of how it would feel to have her riding him, her legs wrapped around his hips, their bodies moving together...
Jake gritted his back teeth and shoved the erotic thoughts down. His mission now was to check on the neighbors, deliver Mr. Noble’s animals into Darynda Jones’s care and capture Brady. He needed to stay focused on that job and not let his desire to test Chelsea’s skills in bed distract him. Brady had proven himself deadly, and Jake couldn’t afford to let his guard down.
Although...if Chelsea’s parents’ house turned out to be criminal free, would she be amenable to a little recreational sex before he set out after Brady? The catch was to make sure she understood anything that happened between them was just that...recreational. The last thing he wanted was to hurt Chelsea. If Chelsea misconstrued his intentions toward her and began believing they could build a relationship...
Jake snorted under his breath. Look at him putting the proverbial cart before the horse. Other than a few tender glances and some shared confidences in front of an intimate fire, he had no reason to believe Chelsea felt anything for him other than gratitude and friendly concern. He could have totally misread what he thought was physical attraction.
Jake tried to shove thoughts of tangling limbs with Chelsea aside, but even as they rode up in the Joneses’ yard, he couldn’t deny the hum of desire still resonating in his veins. Only when he remembered the gruesome carnage Brady had left in his wake at Mr. Noble’s did Jake’s attention shift fully to the job at hand.
“Let me take the lead, check things out,” he warned.
Chelsea shot him a worried look, but she reined her horse and let Jake ride up to the house first.
Chapter 10
Chelsea held her breath, her heart thumping anxiously as Jake rode all the way around Darynda’s house before returning to the front yard and nodding his all clear.
After riding up beside Jake’s horse, Chelsea zipped Nela more snugly inside her jacket and clutched the cat to her chest. With a hand down from Jake, she swung out of her saddle and slid to the ground.
As Chelsea followed Jake to the front door, she noticed a small section of the yard had been partially shoveled and large dog paw prints filled the area. Jake set Sadie down in the cleared spot, and Sadie eagerly sniffed around and found a place to squat.
Chelsea knocked on the door and called, “Darynda, are you there?”
The thin window covering over the side glass was tugged back, and a young face peered out, followed by a child’s shout. “Mommy, there’s people here!”
A moment later, the door opened, and a young brunette woman wearing a stained sweatshirt and faded jeans and carrying a baby on her hip glanced warily from Jake to Chelsea and back to Jake. “Can I help you?”
“Hi, Darynda. We need a favor or two.”
A large tan dog, some sort of pit bull mix from the looks of him, appeared beside the young mother and barked at the visitors on his porch. Then, spying the other dog in his yard, the pit bull surged past Darynda and into the yard with a “Woof!”
“Dooley, come back! I just got your feet dried!”
“Want me to get him for you?” Jake asked.
Darynda glanced past Jake and worried her bottom lip with her teeth. “I... Oh, he’s all right, I guess.”
The child they’d seen earlier peeking out the window appeared from behind Darynda. “Who are they, Mommy? Can they come to my tea party?”
“Go finish your lunch, Gabby.” Darynda used her free hand to push her daughter back toward the inside of the house, then gave Jake another curious look. “I’m sorry, what did you say you needed?”
Gabby stayed put, staring with big brown eyes at the strangers at her door.
“Our first order of business was to make sure you and your kids are all right. Everybody safe here?” Jake asked, leaving out reference to Brady until he had a chance to feel the situation out.
A tired smile tugged the corner of Darynda’s mouth. “How sweet. Yeah, we’re doing okay, all things consid—” She glanced to Chelsea and stopped. “Oh! Chelsea, hi! I just recognized you. Geez, it’s been a long time! How are you?”
“Pretty well. Can we come in?”
“Of course! I’m sorry. I—” She backed up, opening the door wider and shouting past them, “Dooley! Come on, boy!” She paused and wrinkled her brow. “Is that Sadie? Mr. Noble’s dog?”
Gabby clambered forward. “I wanna see the doggie!”
Darynda caught her daughter’s shoulder and tugged her back again. “Later, honey. Go finish your lunch like I told you to.”
“Unh!” Gabby whined.
“One!” Darynda said, her tone firm. “Two...”
“Okay, okay! Don’t count!” Gabby scampered away.
With the doorway clear now, Chelsea stepped inside, then faced Darynda with a puckered brow. “I’m afraid Mr. Noble is dead.”
Darynda gasped and pressed a hand to her mouth. “Oh, no! What happened?”
Jake exchanged a look with Chelsea. “Long story. We’ll explain everything once we get the animals settled.”
“We have his cat, Nela, too,” Chelsea added. “And his horses.” Darynda’s eyes widened as Chelsea unzipped her jacket, and Nela poked her head up. “We need help with all his animals until we can—”
“We have some other business to take care of,” Jake cut in. News of a killer on the loose and murdering her neighbors could send the young mother into a panic. He wanted to reassure the young woman she was safe before he dropped such an explosive bomb on her.
“Oh, well...I guess I can help.” She peered into the yard at the three horses and frowned. “We haven’t had horses in our barn for years, but it’s dry and secure. I think we have some hay, but you’ll need to bring back some feed if they’re going to stay more than a day or two.”
Chelsea followed Darynda to a back bedroom, where they settled Nela in and closed the door. Jake spotted a cordless phone on the counter and tested it for a dial tone, although he knew it was likely nonfunctional without power to the base. He was correct.
Darynda noticed the phone in his hand when she returned to the kitchen and shook her head. “Sorry, it’s dead. I’d offer to let you use my cell phone, but the battery ran out last night while I was talking to my husband.”
“Do you have a car charger?” Chelsea asked. “If your car will start, we can use the car’s battery power to make a call out.”
Darynda turned up her palms. “I had one. But Gabby was playing with it the other day and now I can’t find it anywhere.”
Jake scowled. “Can you look for it again? It’s important that we get a call out.”
Darynda chewed her bottom lip and bounced the fussy baby on her hip. “Is this about Mr. Noble? What happened to him?”
Jake drew a measured breath and said flatly, “He was shot. And we believe his killer is still in the area.”
/> Darynda’s face blanched, and she sank onto a kitchen chair. “What?”
Jake and Chelsea took turns explaining the situation to the young mother, who grew visibly more pale and upset as they laid out the events of the past two days. Although clearly shaken by the news of a killer on the loose and her neighbor’s murder, Darynda rallied her composure and squared her shoulders. “How can I help?”
“For starters, by finding that car charger. The sooner we get a call out to law enforcement the better,” Jake said. “And I want Chelsea to stay here with you until Brady is caught.”
“Of course,” Darynda said, nodding.
Chelsea shot him a disgruntled look. “Hang on, mister. Don’t I get a say? Maybe I want to stay with you.”
Jake shot Chelsea a stern look and shook his head. “You know why that’s a bad idea. It’s too dangerous.”
“If it’s dangerous for me, then it’s more dangerous for you to go alone,” Chelsea countered.
He frowned at her skewed logic. “That’s not true. I’m trained to deal with this kind of situation. You’re not.”
“But I can help you.” Chelsea flattened her hands on the kitchen table and leaned toward him, an earnest and eager appeal on her face. “I want to help you.”
He shook his head again. “You’d only be in the way.”
Hurt flickered in her eyes, but he refused to back down, even if it meant she was mad at him. Even if she hated him for leaving her behind. Chelsea mattered too much to him to risk her getting caught in Brady’s cross fire.
“It’s my house, Jake. And I have a personal stake in catching Brady. I have since he stuck that gun in my ribs and carjacked me two days ago.”
He shifted his gaze to Darynda. “You want to help? Make her see reason. Explain to her why she can’t go chasing armed killers.”
Darynda held her hands up. “Leave me out of this.”
“Jake,” Chelsea said, reaching across the table to take his hands in hers, “I’m willing to take the risk if it means stopping Brady before he hurts anyone else. I can’t sit here and do nothing while you risk your life, alone. Surely you can understand that? There’s got to be something I can do to help you.” Her green eyes bore into his, her stare determined and full of conviction.
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