The Ranger

by Angi Morgan

This paltry little house was a shack compared to what she’d be living in next week. Just one thing was in her way. She glanced at the chessboard and the unfinished game that Rey had been playing against an unknown opponent.

  Switching the CD player to her music, she twisted the knob as loud as her ears could stand it. The neighbors were far enough away and used to the loud bass reverb powering from her speakers. She reset the Civil War chess pieces on their squares. The silver-based pieces representing the south called to her. It was illogical—everyone knew that the south lost.

  This time, in her game, they would definitely win. She removed three pieces from the north. After all, she’d removed them from her game board in real life. Just a few more details and everything would be perfect.

  Now what had she done with that leather skirt and jacket?

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Why haven’t they called?” Brandie chanted from the bed. She clasped her cell between her palms as if she were praying with it, then twisted the small blanket as she flipped to her other side.

  Mitch watched her grow more upset as the sun rose higher in the sky. She hadn’t slept and as a result of her staying awake, he’d been awake all night, as well. He wasn’t taking any chances with her safety.

  Not after that unknown witch on the mesa had shot King before he could say a word. One second the man opened his mouth to speak and the next he fell to the ground with a hole in his chest. Mitch didn’t try to convince Brandie to leave her house for a safer venue. Nope, she needed to be close to her son’s things. Even he could see that.

  She’d curled up on Toby’s bed, and he’d set his butt on a cushion with his back against the bedroom door. He faced the window, ready for an intruder. No one was getting to her and that included her parents who had stayed over and slept in Brandie’s room. She didn’t have to face anyone until she was ready.

  If they hadn’t already been awake, the texts and messages from Cord would have awakened him every hour. He’d ignored them all along with an occasional text from Pete asking for updates. He’d wait, talk things over with Brandie and see if she wanted them in the loop. Or if she wanted their help.

  At the moment the answer was a decisive no.

  “Do you still have eggs in the fridge? Since we’re up, might as well make breakfast.”

  She rolled over to face him, one of Toby’s stuffed dinosaurs in her arms. “Mom and Dad get up early. They’ll take care of things.”

  “You ready to get up, then?”

  “No. Not yet.” Her eyes slowly dropped to a half-closed position, then all the way shut.

  He took out his cell, responding once to each lawman that he’d get back with them later. He wanted a notepad and pen because something important was at the edge of his memory. There was something about this puzzle that he couldn’t piece together. If he wrote down what he could remember from the case files, maybe he could put questions together that Brandie could answer or allow him to ask Cord about.

  “Aren’t you tired?” Her words were mumbled into the fuzzy brontosaurus. “You could squeeze in behind me if you want to stretch out.”

  “I’m fine.” He’d be curled much too close to her on that junior-size bed.

  “Oh.” She shifted closer to the edge next to the wall.

  “There’s no way I’ll fit on that short bed.”

  “Okay. It was just a thought. Might have been nice.”

  “Do you want me to hold you?” He was surprised. Totally willing and very surprised. Wait. No way. He was staying put. Not that he couldn’t use a few minutes of shut-eye. But Bud Quinn was on the other side of that wall and could come into this room at any moment wanting an update.

  “It’s probably safer to stay where we are,” she whispered.

  Bud might have apologized to his daughter, but he still had a hot temper and didn’t need to be provoked. Mitch stayed exactly where he was, satisfied that Brandie had thought him holding her would be nice.

  They’d get Toby back and send her parents to their own home. Then he’d hold her exactly how he wanted. And that would be skin to silky skin. It wouldn’t happen straight away, but when things were back to normal...it wouldn’t take long.

  He rubbed his eyes, attempting to get the image of a naked Brandie out of his head. It just got more vivid. He needed to think about the case.

  First objective—get Toby back. Then figure out how to tell the spitfire hugging a stuffed green fur ball that he was head over heels in love with her.

  Yep. One-hundred-percent in love. It was the only thing that explained his actions. Toby might have a daddy crush, as Cord put it, but Mitch definitely had a sexy Brandie crush.

  “How long have you been a Ranger?”

  He looked up from his phone into her brilliant wide-awake blue eyes. “Just under three years. Almost all that time has been undercover. I was a state trooper before that. And four years with the Austin PD narcotics unit—I joined the force straight out of junior college.”

  “I don’t know anything about you. As often as I wanted to know, I never asked before. I didn’t consider it any of my business. Do you have family?”

  “No brothers or sisters. My mom and dad are still around. But they split when I was young. They also fight a lot and it makes it easy to avoid them.” Real easy after years of practice.

  “So where did you go for Christmas? Did you spend it with friends? When you left for that week, I didn’t really think you’d be back.” Brandie squished the stuffed toy closer to her breasts.

  “I said I would be, but I get it.” He had a sudden urge to be a stuffed brontosaurus. “I haven’t kept up with many friends. They do most of their talking through social media and in my line of work, that could get me killed.”

  “So where did you disappear to then?”

  “A hellish week of training in Austin. Didn’t sleep a wink on that soft hotel bed. Two months on that army cot in the garage and I’m spoiled for life.”

  “Was it the cot or the smell of grease? So no permanent address?” She smiled softly.

  How she could still have a normal conversation with what she’d been through in the past couple of days was beyond his understanding. But that was one of the things he loved about her. One of the reasons he was in love period. He’d never met anyone like her.

  “Nope. This is the longest I’ve been in one spot since I stopped wearing a trooper uniform.”

  “Do you like it here?”

  He liked her. Would go anywhere she wanted to go. Take her and Toby away, or find a quiet, safe place to stay here in Marfa. “Very much.”

  “You look surprised.”

  “I sort of am.” Now wasn’t the time to explain just how surprised he was that he’d fallen in love. “I grew up in the city. But these last three years working in smaller towns has been okay. I like the people here in Marfa. For all the turmoil behind the scenes, it’s pretty quiet. Working on a car wins every time if put up against being undercover with dope dealers. I like the challenge of finding the problem and fixing it.”

  “Did you really walk away from your job last night?”

  “Let’s just say that I didn’t gain any points by not reporting back to headquarters.”

  She swung her legs over the edge of Toby’s dinosaur bedspread. She began to say something several times. Indecisive wasn’t her norm. “I, um, need to tell you about Toby’s dad. His name was Private Tobias Ryland.”

  “Okay.” Not that it mattered to him. It had never mattered.

  “You see, we weren’t serious or anything. In fact, we’d only gone on a couple of dates while he was visiting one of his friends in Alpine. I told him I was pregnant after he returned to Fort Hood. His unit shipped out soon after. He was supposed to have added us to his will and stuff like that. Guess he didn’t get around to it.”

  “Did you contact the military? How did you find out he was...dead?”

  “His best friend in Alpine called me. I was already back here by then.” She paused, smiling with
the slightest upturn of her lips. “Thank you, Mitch. I don’t have many friends. You coming back to help, well, it just means the world to me.”

  She stood and put a hand out to help him to his feet.

  “I couldn’t run back to Austin.”

  She completely caught him off guard with the kiss. Her hands caught his cheeks and brought his lips to hers, holding him in place. Why his hands cupped her slender fingers against his stubble instead of wrapping around her body, he’d never know. Sooner than he wanted, it was over and she was sinking back to the pads of her feet from her tiptoes.

  “Thank you for coming back. I can’t ask you to go away and leave us. Toby needs your help.” She dropped her arms against her jean-covered thighs. “I need your help. I wouldn’t be able to get out of his bed if you weren’t here.”

  “Of course you would.” He hooked a strand of her gorgeous red hair behind her ear. “You’re the strongest and bravest person I know, Brandie.”

  She dropped her head to his chest, wrapping her arms around his waist. “What are we going to do if they don’t call, Mitch? What are we going to do?”

  He tilted her chin back so he could look into her eyes, which were filled with tears again. “We won’t stop looking. We’ll bring him home. Don’t doubt me, Brandie. We will find him.”

  She stepped back, shoving her hair out of her face, and blew out a long breath. “Tell me how long we wait. You make that decision. Do you think we need to bring Pete and Cord back? Just tell me what to do and don’t make me decide. It’s too hard to think.”

  “I can do that.” Convincing her parents that he was capable of making decisions might be another story. “But to be honest, Pete and Cord didn’t stop because you told them to. They’re still looking. Ready to get started?”

  “I’m going to grab a quick shower before I face my parents.”

  “I’m grabbing coffee.”

  The smell of bacon and eggs filled his nostrils. He was a lot hungrier than he wanted to admit.

  Olivia was in the kitchen, her apron on top of her clothes. She’d made a breakfast casserole and was scooping out the first spoonful for Bud.

  “Good morning, Mitch. I can fix you regular eggs if you prefer them.”

  “Is that the recipe they serve at the café?”

  “Sure is.”

  “I can’t get enough of that stuff. Load me up with as much as you can spare.”

  “You’re a lucky young buck not having to worry about cholesterol.” Bud forked a bite into his mouth. “No real bacon. No fried eggs. How’d you sleep?”

  Brandie’s father didn’t pause between bites or questions.

  “I didn’t, sir.”

  Olivia set his plate in front of him along with a large cup of coffee.

  “That going to be good for my daughter if you’re called into action today when you find my grandson?” Bud set the fork down and crossed his arms on the edge of the table, leaning forward.

  Mitch could finally see through the rough edges. Bud Quinn’s eyes were just as puffy as Olivia’s. They’d been crying. They were worried and scared. Everybody was doing the best they could.

  “I’ve gone without sleep before. I give you my word that I’ll bring Toby home.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that, son.”

  “So am I, sir.”

  He’d finished half his plate when Brandie joined them wearing the worn jeans he loved. The old T-shirt was worn through in places but she had a tank on under it. Bud harrumphed, letting Mitch know that he’d seen the way he’d looked at his daughter.

  “Are you really going to wear that, sweetheart?” her mom asked. “What if someone stops by?”

  “Don’t worry, Momma. I’ll be working at the café getting it cleaned up. I’ll go nuts if I just sit here waiting.”

  “We’ll hold down the fort here, then,” she announced.

  “You ready?” Brandie asked.

  The last bite went into his mouth, he gulped the last sip of coffee and they were soon climbing into his car.

  He shifted into gear and teased, “So much for me making the decisions.”

  Chapter Twenty

  The cleaning was going well. Most of the broken stuff was in a pile at the back of the garage. Two hours of physical labor and no sleep had Brandie ready for a nap.

  “I have no idea how I’m going to work repairs into the budget.” She barely got the words out before a yawn overtook her.

  “I can help.”

  “Oh, no. Dad and I will figure it out with the insurance company.” She picked some of the glass pieces out of the jukebox. It crushed her heart to lose this antique. “Did I ever tell you that this jukebox is how my dad first spoke with my mom? She was looking at the songs and he asked her if she liked traditional rock or country.”

  “I wonder if someone can restore it?”

  “Oh, I can’t afford that. You know we’re barely treading water around here. I have to get this place open again soon or there’s no reason to try.” She sat in a clean booth, suddenly so tired she could barely move.

  “Why don’t you lie down awhile?”

  “There’s so much to do. And what if that woman calls?”

  She checked the volume on her cell again to verify she hadn’t switched it to vibrate or mute. It was as loud as it would go. The background picture of Toby with his favorite dinosaur made her choke up. She wouldn’t cry again. She didn’t have the strength.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll wake you up.” Mitch scooped her from the vinyl seat and carried her to his comfy cot.

  The lack of sleep had definitely caught up with her. Her arms were too heavy to lift. She barely got one crooked under her head before the faint sounds from the café faded into complete silence.

  Brandie woke with a start. Voices—lots of them—broke into her dream of pushing Toby on his swing in the backyard. In the dream she’d gone from laughing with her son to having her numb hands tied to the posts. Fighting the pins and needles shooting through her arm, she pushed herself to a sitting position, her arm waking from sleep a second later. She recognized those voices.

  “Why’s he being so stubborn? He’s put his entire career at risk. Does he plan on confronting the kidnappers alone?” Cord answered from inside the café.

  “They wouldn’t be here if they’d heard from the kidnappers. Any word on the missing drugs?” Pete asked.

  “Never even found the device Mitch put inside the duffel lining.”

  “Did you try tracking them the old-fashioned way?” Nick Burke’s voice was as quiet as usual, but she knew what they were talking about. Toby’s abductors.

  “Hey, you’re awake,” the sheriff said from the doorway. “Mitch, Brandie’s awake.”

  There was no way to avoid it. She’d given him permission, and Mitch had taken charge. He’d brought the law back on to the case. She had enjoyed the couple of hours of peace they’d had. Even if she’d been worried out of her mind. There would be no getting rid of these guys. Facing the kidnappers alone would be even harder.

  “Feel better?” Mitch squeezed past Cord, Pete and Nick. “I told them to wait to move the jukebox. And for the record, there’s no news about Toby.”

  “What are they doing?”

  His hair was wet, still dripping enough to dampen his collar. He’d finally showered—he hadn’t had time when she’d left the house so quickly and he’d refused to take one here if she was alone.

  “They thought it was easier to move the jukebox out through the garage for the guy to pick it up. Andrea found a restorer willing to take it. I didn’t think you’d want it to just hit the landfill. Looks like it’s going to get stuck to me.”

  “That’s fantastic, but I meant what are they all doing here?” She answered positively, even though it broke her heart to part with the antique. “Did you say Andrea?”

  “Yeah. I was surprised. Your friends came to help clean up and get the place open again.” He grabbed her hand, excited for once with a smile as big as a canyo
n.

  She jerked him to a stop and whispered, “Mitch, I can’t do this now. I don’t think I can pretend that nothing’s wrong.”

  “Your friends don’t expect you to fake anything. They’re here to help. Period.”

  Friends?

  They went through the doorway and met a small crowd. Nick Burke and his fiancée, Beth Conrad, stood near the kitchen. Pete and his fiancée, Andrea Allen, were at the counter. Cord was just inside the door looking at his wife, Kate, who sat in a booth with their son.

  “We wanted to help clean up, Brandie,” said Andrea.

  “I hope you don’t mind us just barging in.” Kate lifted Danver into her arms.

  “It’s purely selfish on our part,” Beth added. “We don’t have anywhere to meet while the café is closed.”

  She was about to lose it. Fall apart. Her seams were coming undone because of their kindness.

  “I really don’t think this is a good—”

  “No. Just say thank-you and let them help.” Mitch squeezed her hand, wrapped tight within his own. “You said you wanted me to make some decisions for you. Well, this is the first. And if either of these guys try to talk to you about Toby, they’ll have to answer to me.”

  “Right. I might. Just so I can knock some sense into you.” Cord slowly threw a fake punch at Mitch.

  “I forced Nick to leave his beloved cows for the afternoon. But seriously, Brandie. Just say the word and we’ll head back to the ranch,” Beth said.

  “We’re not here in a law enforcement capacity,” Cord added. “We realize the kidnapper might not see it that way. We’ve canvassed six blocks and made certain it was clear.”

  “We just couldn’t stand you facing all this alone,” Andrea said.

  A quick look around the room showed her how valuable their help had already been. Everything was in order, but the friendship they were offering meant so much more. “Please stay. I’ll see if I can get some food together.”

  “Oh, no, you don’t.” Andrea dashed to her side and gently tugged her to Kate’s booth. “We’re taking care of food and cleanup. You just sit down and don’t worry about a thing. Maybe you can play with Danver so Kate can help me finish the storage room.”