But her feet wouldn’t move forward. She backed away from her door. Retreating until her back hit the wall.
“The gun, Amy. Where is your gun? Can you get it?”
Amy shook her head, no. Where was it?
Another bang, followed by more cracking.
“Amy, I need a verbal response. Can you get to your gun?” Bo’s smooth voice ripped her thoughts from death and rape. Being sold into slavery.
“It’s...It’s, I can’t think.” She gripped the monitor harder, holding onto the device, like she could somehow anchor to Chloe.
Why hadn’t she told Ranger about the strange sounds she’d heard in the past couple of weeks? The lights she swore she saw in her old barn at night? Maybe they weren’t her imagination. Maybe it had been Santos all along.
“Amy, listen, I know you’re scared, but I need you to take a deep breath. Focus,” Bo said. Amy heard cursing through the phone in the background. Ranger. Her eyes squeezed tight.
Would she ever see Ranger again? Would she get the chance to tell him she really did care for him? That she wanted him in her life?
She heard a scraping sound through the phone, rough breathing, and a new voice. This one harsh. Dark. And sent from Heaven. “Amy, honey, I need you to listen to me, okay?”
The tears threatening her eyes spilled down her. “I’m scared.”
“It’s okay, honey. We’re almost there. But I need you to get your pistol. Do you still keep it in your closet?”
Bang!
Amy jumped, flattened her back to the wall. That one sounded like the hinges broke loose from the door.
“Dammit, Bo, go faster. I can hear the bastard through the phone.”
“Ranger,” Amy whispered. Frozen in fear like a statue. Unable to run. To speak.
“Amy Ann Carter. Go to your closet right now.” Ranger’s harsh tone snapped her attention back to reality.
“I can’t. I can’t get my feet to move.” They might as well be cement.
“Concentrate on my voice. I’m not going to let you go. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. I want you to walk to your closet. Now.”
Amy concentrated. Focused her energy on picking up her right foot and taking a step.
Bang. Metal crunched. Her back hit the wall again, that one small step getting her nowhere.
“I think...I think he’s in the house.”
“Dammit Amy, move your ass to the closet now.” Ranger’s voice rose.
The closet.
Her gun.
Her baby.
“Chloe.” Amy breathed, her throat closed off. No oxygen, no air could get through. She hid in her room like a scared rabbit. Left her baby alone and unprotected.
“Don’t go out there. I’m almost there.” Ranger’s voice was desperate.
Fear for her child obliterated the selfish terror for her own life. Only a coward would be too scared to take care of her own flesh and blood. No. “I’m going to get Chloe.” Amy ignored Ranger’s shouts, and without looking at the screen, tapped the hang up button and shoved her cell into her robe pocket. She dropped the monitor on the bed and ran into the closet, ripped open the gun cabinet and pulled out her shotgun.
She flew back through her bedroom and grabbed the door handle.
Glass shattered.
Her heart skittered through her chest so fast she almost passed out. No. No fear. Protect her baby. She swallowed, clutched the gun, and slowly turned the knob and opened the door to her bedroom. So scared now she couldn’t feel her fingers or feet.
She swallowed, but her throat didn’t work. Her hands shook. Chloe. Chloe. Chloe. Amy repeated her daughter’s name over and over. Stepping from her bedroom into the kitchen. Slow. Steady.
She caught a glimpse of a man through the small window in her kitchen door. Tall. Skinny. Dark ski mask. They made eye contact and the man stopped. Something familiar whispered through her mind.
He kicked the door. Her heart slammed into her throat. Not familiar. Just deadly. Amy took off running to the nursery.
Chloe slept, on her back, her tiny hands up above her head. So sweet. So perfect and innocent. Amy gripped the gun tighter. She would protect her daughter with her life.
Moving faster now, with purpose, Amy crossed to the nursery door and locked it. She backed up to the crib and took aim.
Chloe was the reason Amy kept living after Shane’s death. Her baby had needed her mother. Amy didn’t have a choice but to get out of bed in the morning. Keep going. Keep living. Keep the only part of Shane.
Amy primed her gun.
The kitchen door crashed in. Wood and glass shattered. Amy steadied the butt of the shotgun to her shoulder.
Another crash, like someone kicked over a chair. The man had seen her run through the kitchen.
Amy felt behind her, smoothed a hand down the baby blanket. Touched Chloe’s satiny cheek. Unable to resist, she leaned down and placed a kiss to her head, inhaling that scent, that special perfect scent that was specific to her baby.
“I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise.” Amy braced herself, and lifted the gun once more. She took aim at the door. Let the bastard come. If he thought he would hurt her or her baby, he would have to do it with a hole in his chest.
Chapter 10
“Dammit, floor this machine. I can hear the bastard trying to break in the back door.” Sweat broke out across Rangers brow and dripped down into his shirt collar. Fucking Lobellos, he knew it. He knew it with every single fiber of his being.
“I've got the gas pedal on the floorboard. It won't go any faster.” Bo leaned forward over the steering wheel, swerving to the right and left as the road curved.
Unable to resist, Ranger pressed the cellphone to his ear. Listening for every nuance of sound. He heard the door open. Heard her harsh intake of breath. The banging sounded like it was right there, in the phone. Then nothing. Silence. Had the bastard got inside the house?
Ranger slammed his fist into the dashboard. Bo cut him a look but held silent. Anything happened to her, or Chloe...
He wouldn't think like that. He had to keep his shit together for Amy. And for Chloe. He would protect them both with his life.
He knew the moment Amy entered Chloe's room, he heard her quiet sob and then the soothing sound of a mother with her baby. A silent baby. Please let her be okay. Please let Amy be okay. Please let Chloe be okay.
Ranger wanted to scream in the phone for Amy to pick up, but he knew that would just scare and distract her. Instead he leaned forward, put his forehead on the dashboard he just punched a dent in, and took a deep breath. “Come on baby. Come on, lock the door.”
He heard an explosion and his heart plummeted to his stomach. The bastard was inside the house. Bo cut a sharp right, Ranger flew sideways and then righted himself. The police cruiser spun tires down Amy's driveway. He flipped on the overhead lights and siren.
“Maybe the siren will scare them off,” Bo said.
Ranger didn't answer. He ripped his gun from its holster, cocked it, and exploded from the police cruiser before it stopped ten feet from Amy’s front porch.
The front door was secure. Ranger ran straight up to it and threw his shoulder against the door, slamming inside, not even registering the pain from the blunt force.
“Amy!” Ranger shouted, plunging through the living room, barely catching a shadow of movement. The intruder. Man. Tall. Thin. Face covered. The man bolted out the back door.
“Bo. Out the back.” Ranger kept running straight to Chloe's nursery. Cold sweat drenched his temples and dripped down his back.
“On it.” Bo rushed past Ranger in pursuit.
Ranger stopped at the closed nursery door. “Amy, honey. It's Ranger. Are you okay?” Ranger put his hand on the lever style doorknob.
“Ranger?” Her voice was weak, faint.
“Yes. Open the door.” He held his breath, waited what seem like an eternity before he heard the soft snick of a lock. She pulled open the door. Amy stood there, a huge shot
gun clutched at her chest, pale, shaken. Her eyes wide with fright.
Ranger tucked his pistol in his pants, and then he gently cupped her face between his palms. “Are you okay?” Tears streamed down her lovely cheeks.
Ranger forced his chest to unlock and take in a breath. Another breath. She was okay. He was holding her in his arms right now.
“Chloe?”
Amy nodded and relief crushed him. He pulled Amy into his arms, unable to think beyond just holding her. She shook in his arms, her entire body dissolving into tremors and sobs. The soft heartbreaking noises stabbing him repeatedly like a knife in the chest.
“Hush. Hush baby. I'm here. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” Careful as his shaking hand would allow, he removed the shotgun from Amy's grip and leaned it against the wall. Then, unable to hold himself back a minute longer, he yanked her into his arms.
Her heart raced against his chest, her hands clenched and twisted his shirt. She cried harder. “Oh God. What if, what if something happened to Chloe. It's all I could think about.”
Ranger soothed a hand down her hair and rubbed her back with his other. “Nothing did happen. You protected her.”
He should be the one protecting both of them.
No, not his family. Not his wife. Not his baby.
But dammit, he wanted them so bad. He wanted Amy. Chloe. He wanted to protect. To love them both.
Ranger shuttered and ducked his head, nestling his nose against her neck, savoring the sweet smell special only to Amy.
If something had happened to her, to Amy or Chloe... He couldn't even finish that thought. Nothing was going to happen to them.
Because he would protect them. Whether he had the right or not, this aching driving need controlled him. Possessed him. Amy was in his every thought. The only way Ranger would get a future out of this life would be with her.
He knew he didn't deserve her, and he never would. And he knew he'd always have to deal with the memory of his best friend. But right now he didn't care. He wanted her too much, too deeply. All-consuming desire ripped through him.
Her sobs quieted to soft hiccups. Gently, he sifted his fingers into her hair and tilted her head back. Her tear-reddened eyes tore at his already raw emotions. Unable to wait, to fight the desire, Ranger lowered his head, pausing just above her lips.
“Tell me to stop.” Ranger didn't even recognize the ragged whisper from his own lips.
He felt her tremble. A soft low moan tore from her lips a split second before she lifted on her toes and closed the distance between them. Her breath mingled with his.
Ranger’s resistance evaporated. He groaned into her mouth, deepening the kiss, taking possession, slanting his head taking more. Her soft sounds of pleasure filled his ears like sweet heaven. Never had anything tasted this good, felt this right. This woman. His woman. Her fingers were on his cheeks, soothing down to his shoulders and then gripping his biceps. Ranger plunged deeper into her mouth and she met him head on. Not just taking but giving.
He cupped her ass and lifted her against him. Her soft breasts smashed against his chest and he nearly came undone. She fit against him so perfectly.
His conscience whispered somewhere in the far distant back of his mind, not yours.
Ranger crushed it into dust. Shane was dead. He wasn't coming back.
Ranger would make her his.
A soft cry interrupted his thoughts. He lifted his head, panting, out of breath, shaking with need. He tried to get his emotions under control. Amy’s eyes met his and he realized she was just as affected as him.
Chloe cried out again from the crib and Amy rushed over, scooping her up into her arms. The sight of her lips swollen from his kisses, holding Chloe to her chest, filled his chest to the point that he thought it would burst. Ranger placed a hand on his sternum and rubbed the pressure.
“He got away.” Bo approached, out of breath, his voice raspy from running.
Ranger couldn’t break his gaze from Amy.
“Is everything okay in here?” Bo continued.
Don't scare her. Don't take too much, too fast. He had to take it slow. Easy. He turned to see Bo bracing both hands in the doorframe, bent forward sucking in air.
“Everything is fine here, he didn’t get into the nursery,” Ranger said.
He sensed Amy's movement and she stepped next to him. Fuck taking it slow. Ranger wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into him.
“He was at the door.” Amy's normally strong voice was weak and wobbly as a newborn colt.
“I had my gun aimed at the door.”
“I'm so proud of you.” Ranger kissed the top of her head. The call was too close. Way too close.
“Did either of you get a look at his face?” Bo said.
“He had on a ski mask.” Her voice broke.
Rage ripped through his veins. Ranger knew exactly who had tried to break into her house. And that was one Mexican that was about to disappear from the planet. “I didn't get a look at his face, but we both know who it was.”
Bo Lawson stood tall, his ice blue eyes as cold as pressed steel. “You don't know it for a fact. I have to collect evidence. Follow the law. You don’t call the shots here.”
“You want me to sit on my thumbs and wait for the locals while a sex trafficking murderer just tried to get my woman?”
Bo’s steady gaze didn't flicker. “Don't you mean Shane's woman?”
After thirty minutes of arguing and talking and interviewing, Bo left. Amy fed Chloe and rocked her back to sleep, checked the baby monitor and pulled her door partially shut before walking into the kitchen. Part of her prayed Ranger would leave. The other part prayed he would stay.
Tonight’s scare honed in just how truly alone she was out here. Her family farm was beautiful. Sprawling. Isolated.
Amy emerged from the hall, into the living room, and stopped cold. Ranger stood with his back to her, facing the fireplace. The mantle. Shane’s picture and the folded flag from his casket.
The two men she loved in the same room.
At least in spirit.
“Ranger?” She forced herself to speak, the words dry and ashen on her tongue.
He turned then and the emotion in his eyes nearly floored her. “When you called Bo, when I heard your voice and knew you were in trouble, I couldn’t think.”
Amy approached him, tentative. She had scared him. Or Santos or whoever that had been in her house had scared them all. “It’s okay. I’m okay. You made it in time.”
His jaw clenched, his lips formed a hard line. The emotion in his blue eyes changed to anger. “Yes, I did. Barely.” His voice wasn’t ragged with pain anymore. Ranger stormed to her, grabbed her arms. “All because you are too stubborn to let me in.”
Her own anger rose, but she forced it down. Amy knew he was reacting to the fear. Knew it deep in her heart. “You’re right. I am afraid. I’m afraid of what people will say when they find out about us. I’m afraid of what Mavis will try to do when she finds out.”
Ranger had refused to back down earlier. He said she was worth fighting for. Well, he was worth it too.
“When they find out? Find out what? You won’t let me close enough to make anything worth finding.” His words were harsh, but his hands gentled on her arms. His thumbs brushed up and down continuously, rubbing. Teasing.
“When they find out how I feel about you.” The air left her lungs. She’d said it. She’d admitted it. Now she needed him to fight for her, because she didn’t know if she was strong enough to take it all the way alone.
“And how do you feel about me?” He wasn’t giving in; he was going to make her say it. “I need to hear the words Amy. I need you to come to me. To know that it’s just you and me.”
Her heart constricted. She tried to swallow, but her throat wouldn’t work. Could she really say her feelings out loud? Amy glanced past Ranger, trying to center her emotions. Shane stared back at her. His gaze accusing.
Did she want to give u
p on her only chance at love again because of her past? Because she was hung up on a marriage that had been falling apart?
“Look at me. Shane is dead. I know you love him. I’m not asking you to forget about him. I will never forget him. I will love him with you.” Ranger’s voice broke. Amy ripped her gaze from the picture. Ranger’s eyes turned red, wet with unshed tears. Her heart cracked. This strong man cried for his best friend and for the first time, Amy let herself realize she wasn’t the only one grieving.
Ranger continued, “I’m asking you to give us a chance. I’m here, right in front of you and I love you.”
A tear slipped down his cheek. Amy reached up, her hand shaking with raw emotion. This man needed her. Loved her. Fought for her. Was she too scared to try?
She lifted up to her toes and pressed a kiss to his lips.
“No.” Ranger grabbed her face and held her away. “I need you to say it. To know you want me.”
Amy gazed into his eyes, searching for something, anything to make her stop. But all she saw was open love. “I want you.”
Amy held her breath, waiting. Dying. Hoping. This would be so much easier if it was just lust. But her feelings for Ranger had never been simple. She always wanted more with him. They could have a life together. A happy life. Amy just had to shake the chains of Shane’s memory.
“You have no idea how often I’ve dreamed of you saying that.” Ranger slid his hands up her back and around her neck. “I dream about you every day.”
* * *
Ranger’s entire body tensed. She drove him crazy with her worries. Pulling away one minute and reaching for him the next. But now her liquid brown gaze stared up at him with vulnerability.
Then her eyes slid shut and she offered her lips to him. His hand trembled with raw desire as he threaded his fingers in her hair, locking her in his grip. Her lips parted. “Please, I need you.”
That was it. Lust raged through his body and Ranger crushed his mouth to hers. He groaned against her lips, her taste sweet torture. That one wild night they’d had together had been enough to make him addicted.
Men of Mercy: The Complete Story Page 30