Cowboy to the Rescue

by Stella Bagwell

  Even as he spoke, Christina’s mind was racing ahead, planning her next move. “That’s where you’re wrong. Geraldine has a tape recording that Paul made a week before you killed him. We discovered it among his things only a few days ago. He was having a very enlightening discussion with Edie Milton.”

  His beady eyes widened, telling her that she’d momentarily stunned him.

  “Edie? She didn’t know anything about Paul’s little accident.”

  “Maybe not, but she knew you were a major thief. That’s why you disabled the brakes on her car so that she’d be killed on the interstate.”

  He sneered. “She was greedy—like you. That’s why I killed her. She wanted more hush money. But I know she wouldn’t have talked about the stock thing. She didn’t want to go to the penitentiary any more than I did.”

  “She did talk,” Christina flung back at him. “And so did the person who got the succinylcholine for you. Geraldine has a signed confession.”

  His mouth fell wide open. “Gloria Westmore? How—she moved out of the state! You couldn’t have known about her!”

  Suddenly, from somewhere inside the house, the sound of a door opening and closing caught Lawrence’s attention, and his gaze swung toward the open doorway.

  Christina realized it was her one opportunity to make a move. All at once, she snatched up the burning candle and leaped to one side, out of the path of the gun barrel.

  From the corner of her eye, she could see him turning, aiming and preparing to shoot. At the same time, she ducked and flung the candle straight at the picture window. The heavy metal holder crashed through the glass, while the burning wax stuck to the lace curtains, sending small flames crawling up the fabric.

  “Christina!”

  Lex’s yell sounded somewhere in the hallway and she tried to shout a warning back at him, but the sound of her voice was blocked out as Lawrence fired the pistol at her.

  Wildly, she dove behind an armchair while across the room the flames were growing, filling the room with smoke. She could hear bullets sinking into the padded upholstery as Lawrence began firing the gun into the chair. At that moment, Christina wondered if she’d ever see Lex again.

  When Lex shot into the room, he hardly noticed the fire consuming the curtains and spreading across the outside wall. Through the smoke, he could see Lawrence, the gun raised in his hand as he moved straight at Christina.

  Fear and rage poured through Lex, blinding him to everything except saving the woman he loved. Like a rampaging bull, he charged across the room and, with a flying leap, tackled the man from behind.

  When both men hit the floor, the impact was so great that Lawrence lost his grip on the pistol and the weapon went sliding across the tile. Lex immediately rolled Lawrence on his back, with plans to smash his fist into the other man’s face, but he was already knocked unconscious and was as limp as a rag.

  Seeing the man was no longer a threat, Lex rose to his feet and shouted, “Christina! Where are you?”

  Sobbing with relief, she emerged from behind the chair and stumbled straight into his arms.

  “Oh, Lex, thank God you finally got here!”

  “Christina! Oh, Christina!” His hands raced wildly over her face and down her arms as he tried to reassure himself that she was alive and safe. “Are you okay? The bullets didn’t hit you?”

  “I’m fine—you came just in time!” She glanced down at Lawrence. “We’d better get him and get out of here. This room is about to go up in flames!”

  Nodding, Lex quickly leaned down and grabbed Lawrence by the front of his shirt, while nearby Christina scooped up the pistol to use as evidence later.

  “Some folks would find it easy to leave him here to burn,” Lex muttered as he began to lug the man toward the door. “But, damn it, I can’t!”

  Christina reached to help him drag the man’s deadweight, and as her gaze met his, love flooded her heart. There was no point in denying it anymore.

  For more than a century, the Saddler house had endured storms, lightning strikes and grass fires. With the ranch miles away from any sort of fire department, barns and sheds had often burned to the ground, but the house—the ranch’s very heart—had always remained like a proud, invincible fort.

  Lex, Matt and several cowboys from the bunkhouse desperately fought the flames with garden hoses and saddle blankets. Miraculously, they managed to contain the fire until a fire truck arrived and doused it completely. But not before the flames had eaten through the outer wall of the den and onto the vine-covered patio.

  Later, after the sheriff had carted Lawrence away in handcuffs and the commotion around the house began to settle down, Christina and Lex stood staring at the charred ruins. The sight of his beloved home so scorched and scarred filled her with regret, and she dropped her head onto his shoulder and began to sob.

  “I’m so sorry about the house, Lex! I caused the fire with the candle. But I had to do something—he was going to kill me.”

  Groaning, he let his arms circle around her, and as he held her tightly against him, he buried his face in her thick curls. “It doesn’t matter, darling. Even if the whole thing had burned, it wouldn’t have mattered. As long as you’re safe.”

  Lifting her face up to his, she tried to smile through her tears. “Thank you for saving my life,” she whispered.

  “No thanks necessary,” he murmured.

  He was bringing his lips down on hers when Matt rounded the corner of the house and cleared his throat loudly.

  “Uh—Lex? Sorry to interrupt. But Ripp is waiting out front to take you and Christina to the sheriff’s department. Sheriff Travers is waiting to speak with you.”

  Lex glanced regretfully at Christina. “We’ll take this matter up later,” he whispered in her ear.

  Hours later, just before the sun was beginning to break through the branches of the crepe myrtles surrounding the sheriff’s office in Goliad, Christina and Lex finally left the building and headed back to the Sandbur.

  The night had been long and weary, but neither one of them had really noticed or complained. Lawrence had been booked on several charges and was finally behind bars, where he belonged. Christina and Lex had spent the past couple of hours giving information to law officials. However, this was only the beginning of the testimonies they’d need to give. Due to the multicounty crimes involved in the case, the Texas Rangers had been called in to deal with the investigation. This afternoon, after Christina and Lex had a chance to rest, they’d be supplying depositions, along with Paul’s journal, to the Rangers.

  “I just don’t get it,” Lex said to Christina as he turned the truck onto the main highway that would take them to the Sandbur. “Why did Lawrence show up at the ranch instead of waiting to meet you at the restaurant? He was taking a hell of a chance at being caught.”

  Christina crossed her legs to get more comfortable, and as she did, she noticed that soot stains from the fire smeared down the front of her jeans. When she’d thrown the candle at the window, some of the hot wax had fallen onto the back of her hand. Blisters had now risen on her skin, but the minor injury couldn’t begin to dim the satisfaction she’d felt when they’d watched a deputy escort Lawrence to a jail cell. She’d not captured him exactly the way she’d planned, but he was now where he belonged, and he’d live the rest of his life behind bars. She had no doubt about that.

  “Because he didn’t have the money to obtain the evidence from us. So he figured he was going to have to get it the only way he knew how—by force. I should have suspected as much, but I was expecting him to show up at the Red Road Inn with a stalling story, which would have been enough on its own to incriminate him.”

  “Don’t feel badly. None of us were thinking Lawrence had enough guts to show his face on the Sandbur. But we should have been considering his sanity rather than his guts,” he said, then glanced thoughtfully over at her. “There is something else you can explain to me, though. How did you guess that Lawrence had administered succinylcholine t
o Dad? That’s not an everyday, common compound that normal folks are familiar with.”

  “After I read the autopsy report on your father, the fact that he had no cuts or contusions kept haunting me. From photos and the information Geraldine had given me, it was obvious that your father was a strong, strapping guy. Over six feet tall and well muscled. Lawrence wouldn’t have physically been able to toss him over the side of the boat, and even if he’d tried, the scuffle would have caused some minor injuries, not to mention alerted the other two men that something was happening. Without any outward signs of struggle on Paul’s body, it stood to reason that he’d been disabled in some other way.”

  Lex nodded. “I see the deduction. But the succinylcholine—how did you come up with that particular drug?”

  “Lawrence worked as a chemist for Coastal Oil. True, that’s different than working in medicine, but he still had a good idea of how chemicals and compounds worked. When he decided to kill your father, I calculated that he’d probably looked for a drug that would be hard to trace, but possible to get his hands on without throwing up too many red flags. Yet in the end, Lex, I guess you could say that I simply made a lucky guess.”

  His profile grim, Lex shook his head. “Now that Lawrence is talking his head off to try and save his hide, we know that he had a nursing friend that worked in surgery. Apparently, he’d given her a pretty penny to steal a bottle of the stuff from the hospital pharmacy. He’d given her some cock-and-bull story about his wife needing it to relax a bad back, and she’d bought the excuse.”

  “Her name was Gloria Westmore. I tricked him into letting her name slip while he was holding me at gunpoint in the den,” Christina said.

  He cast her a wan smile. “You’re smart. You know that?”

  “I try to be,” she said, smiling back at him. But was she really? Christina asked herself. Maybe she was clever about solving crimes and finding people that didn’t want to be found. But had she been smart to fall in love with Lex? Her heart kept singing yes, but her mind continued to worry and wonder.

  Just before they’d entered the jail, they’d had a couple of minutes alone together, and Lex had used the time to hold her close and kiss her briefly on the lips. He’d told her how terrified he’d been when Gracia had told him about seeing Lawrence and how relieved he’d been when she’d stumbled out from behind the armchair. Yet he’d not said anything about loving her or about what the future might hold for their relationship. But then, maybe expecting that the trauma of the night might have made him open his heart to love was taking hope a bit too far.

  She was lost in her thoughts when he said, “There’s still one more thing that I’m curious about, Christina. Red and Harve, how did you know they were innocent in all of this? All the evidence made it appear that they were probably just as guilty as Lawrence in the stock scheme and Dad’s death. I believed they were.”

  Realizing it was important for him to understand what had happened all those years ago when his father died, she answered, “Red and Harve couldn’t fake the emotion they showed when they spoke to me about Paul’s death. Even after all this time, it shook them to recount the story about their late friend. Both of them said they were so frightened when your dad went overboard that they panicked and ended up making stupid decisions about where to take him for medical help. As for the stock scheme, they simply believed that Lawrence had given them a smart tip, and they’d always been grateful to him for giving them the chance to make a pot of money. Neither man had any clue that Lawrence had stolen private company information and used it to his own advantage.”

  With a disbelieving shake of his head, Lex said, “What’s so incredible to me, Christina, is that Dad went out of his way to be a friend to Lawrence. How could he have turned on him?”

  She reached across the console between them and touched her hand to his. “Greed overtakes a lot of people, Lex. But Lawrence is going to pay for his greed now. And in the end, that’s what matters the most.”

  “Yeah,” he said softly. “You were so right that first evening you came to the Sandbur, when you spoke to me about finding the truth. It is more important than I could have ever imagined.”

  By now they had reached the ranch house and Lex parked the truck at the side of the structure, next to Christina’s vehicle. Gray daylight was spreading across the yard, and behind them she could hear the guys from the bunkhouse heading down to the barns. The realization suddenly hit Christina that this place had truly become her home. She couldn’t picture herself going back to the city and not waking up to Cook’s breakfasts, to Lex sitting across the table from her, or to riding across the range with him at her side, eating off a chuck wagon and listening to music around a campfire. Yet now that Paul’s case was wrapped up, she had no right or reason to stay here, and that fact was settling in the bottom of her heart like a heavy chunk of ice.

  “Finally. We’re home and alone,” Lex said. Then, with a weary but happy grin, he reached over and pulled her toward him. “And I have about a thousand things I want to say to you.”

  Home. Could he possibly know how wonderful that sounded to her? The soft look in his eyes sparked a bit of hope in Christina, and she studied his face closely as he drew his head down to hers.

  “A thousand?” she whispered. “That’s…quite a bit of talking.”

  “I thought talk was what you wanted.”

  Hearing him say that he loved her had once seemed so important. But after last night, after going through moments when she’d not known whether she’d remain alive to say anything to Lex, she realized that words weren’t always the solution. And right now Christina felt it was more important to show him that she trusted him and how very much she wanted him in her life.

  “I’ve had time to think about that, Lex,” she murmured, then reached beneath his arm and pulled the latch on the door. “And we—uh—need to go inside. I want to—show you something important.”

  His brows peaked with interest, but he didn’t ask questions as he climbed to the ground, then helped her out of the cab.

  As they walked to the house, she wrapped her hand around his and didn’t let go even after they were inside.

  The kitchen smelled like fresh coffee, telling her that Cook was already in, but not anywhere to be seen in the room. As much as Christina loved the other woman, she was glad she wasn’t around. Christina didn’t want anything or anyone to interfere with her plans.

  “Where are we going?” he asked as she led him out of the room, down the hall and on toward the staircase. “Don’t you want breakfast?”

  “We can eat later. This is too important,” she told him in a hushed voice.

  “There’s no reason for being so quiet,” he reminded her as they reached the second floor. “Mom is still with Nicci, and they won’t be home until later this evening. We’re not going to disturb anyone.”

  “That’s right,” she told him with a wicked smile, then opened the door to her bedroom and tugged him inside.

  After she carefully shut the door behind her, she turned to him and saw a puzzled, almost comical look on his face.

  “Christina, what are you doing?”

  Smiling seductively, she said, “I thought you were an experienced man, Lex Saddler. Do I have to spell this out to you? I want us to make love. And you told me if that ever happened again, I’d have to do the asking.”

  The confused look in his eyes suddenly turned somber, and she began to tremble as he cupped his hands around the sides of her face.

  “Why now, Christina?”

  Regret filled her eyes. “Last night, when Lawrence started firing his gun, I was terrified he might kill you or me and that I—I’d never have the chance to tell you how much I love you.”

  His eyes full of wonder, he cupped his hands against the sides of her face. “You love me? Oh, Christina! Why didn’t you tell me before?”

  Why hadn’t she? Now that both of them had been in serious danger of losing their lives, her reasons seemed ridiculous. “I di
dn’t think it would matter to you. You’d said that other women had fallen in love with you and they’d not gotten any love from you in return—I thought I’d be just one more.”

  The soft glimmer she saw in his eyes looked incredibly like love, and the idea set her heart pounding loudly in her ears.

  “Oh, darling, you’re not just any woman. You’re my life!” Bending his head, he brought his lips next to hers. “The night we found the disk with Dad’s journal, I realized I loved you, but I couldn’t tell you. I knew the words would be just that—words to you and nothing more. And then last night—when I saw Lawrence about to shoot you, I was seeing my world ending right before my eyes. Christina, weeks, months, years wouldn’t make me love you any more than I do now. I want you to be my wife. You’ve got to believe me.”

  Incredible joy swept through her, and she stared at him in amazement. “Your wife? I never thought I’d hear you say those words.”

  “Well, I’m waiting to hear your answer. I’m waiting to hear you say you can be happy living here on the Sandbur, with me.”

  She blinked rapidly as happy tears filled her eyes. “I love the ranch, Lex. I was just wondering how I was ever going to be able to leave it—and you. Now I won’t have to. I’ve been a career woman for over ten years, and it’s been good. I want to be a wife and mother now—more than anything.”

  Laughing now, he lifted her off her feet, then allowed the front of her body to slide against his until the tips of her toes were back on the floor and her lips were hovering beneath his.

  “Dad has been gone for nearly twelve years,” he said gently. “When you first came to the ranch, I never believed that you—that the two of us together—would ever discover what really happened to him.”

  “But we did,” she whispered happily.

  “Yeah, we did. But more than that, Christina, you walked into my heart and showed me what it’s like to love. Really love. And, honey, I may not be the ideal husband or the greatest dad, but I’m damn well going to try.”

  “That’s all I’ll ever ask, my love,” she whispered, then with a happy sigh, closed the last breath of space between their lips.