License to Love Series:Trilogy (Contemporary Western Cowboy Romance)

by Rose, Amelia

  Woody raised the pitchfork ready to drive it into the man’s chest. Even from where he stood he could see the tear stains trailing down the dirt on Alyssa’s face causing the rage to roar up within him like an inferno. He ran across the short space, pitchfork outstretched like an extension of his arm and lunged toward him.

  A growl of frustration and anger tore across the building, echoing across the open space with such intensity that it sounded as if a wild animal were loose in the building. As Woody rushed toward him, Sanders’ eyes opened widely and the sneer fell. He dodged to the right at the last moment and the pitchfork just barely grazed across the flesh on his left forearm before their bodies came into contact, jarring Woody’s grip and causing the pitchfork to fall to the ground.

  Sanders pressed the screwdriver into Woody’s side. Although Woody could feel it searing into his skin, he had managed to dodge the jab at the last minute. Instead of a direct puncture the screwdriver glanced into his body at an angle, preventing it from deep penetration.

  At the same instance, as if the world was suddenly turning in slow motion, Sanders had managed to drop to the floor and roll out of the way to avoid Woody and the pitchfork.

  Turning around, Woody tried to pick up the pitchfork in the same movement. Instead it slipped from his fingers and he was forced to turn around and face Sanders empty handed. As he ran towards Sanders, Woody’s foot caught the edge of the pitchfork and kicked it over to the side of the room with such force that Woody knew he would not be able to get back to it until he could get the upper hand in the fight.

  Sanders lunged at him again and Woody was able to hit his arm with such force that the screwdriver was flung across the room. It fell near Alyssa and he noticed her jump in her chair. As he was momentarily distracted by his attention on Alyssa, Sanders seized the opportunity to run at him and land a punch on Woody’s stomach.

  Woody felt the air rush out of him and he doubled over. It was then that Woody noticed the bloody paper towels that had been duck taped to Sanders’ side. In one quick move, he managed to turn so that he fell forward onto Sanders and punching him in that damaged area. Then it was Sanders turn to scream as he fell to his knees.

  Woody stumbled away from him and made his way back to where the pitchfork laid in the dirt on the far side of the room. He picked up the weapon and spun around, the pitchfork once again raised out in front of him in case he needed to immediately defend himself.

  When he raised his head he expected to see a madman running at him but there was nothing there. The room was now empty and Woody stood completely still to make sure he wasn’t missing something. The area where he had last fallen during the scuffle showed a trail of bloody drops and footsteps leading away from the area and toward the back of the room to the previous section of the barn that Woody had come through.

  For a couple of moments he was positive that Sanders was hiding somewhere in the room, and that as soon as he went to help Alyssa he would be charged. He knew that the smart thing to do would be to wait until he was absolutely certain Sanders wasn’t coming back but when he looked at Alyssa’s quiet tear-stained face he knew that he couldn’t wait any longer to rush to her side.

  As he ran across the room to her, he heard the faint sound of an engine turning over and tires crunching over the loose gravel, signaling that Sanders had left for good.

  Alyssa had her eyes squeezed firmly shut, and when he touched her hand she flinched in pain, biting her lip as more tears flowed. He looked down and noticed that her pinky had been horribly mangled and was bleeding in several places.

  “Alyssa,” he breathed. She opened her mouth, but not her eyes. He was worried that she couldn’t open her eyes. “Are you okay? What did he do to you?” Woody whispered to her. When he leaned down, she shut her mouth when he started pulling at the tape to free her hands. When he couldn’t break it with his hands he pulled out his small pocket knife and began to cut on the tape. It was so tightly wound against her flesh that the skin around it was twisted and purple. He worked the blade in and tried to move slowly so as not to accidentally cut her skin.

  “Don’t worry Alyssa. I’m going to have the tape off in just a minute.”

  “I don’t know how you’re doing it, but stop trying to trick me. I’m not opening my eyes,” she said as she spat the words out at him, thrusting her chin out in defiance. His heart swelled with pride, and he immediately set down the knife and placed both hands on her cheeks.

  “He’s gone, Alyssa. It’s just me.” Woody whispered as he leaned down and kissed the tears on her eyelids.

  She gasped and flung her eyes open, blinking at the sudden light.

  “Oh, Woody! “ She cried through quivering lips. “I thought I’d never see you again! I thought he was just tormenting me. First the screaming and then all of the noises…” She trailed off as more tears clouded her vision and ran down her cheeks.

  Woody let go of her face and picked the knife up again, immediately sawing at the bonds on her hands. In a few seconds he’d freed her and she flung herself up from the chair into his arms.

  She buried her face into his shoulder and sobbed uncontrollably. Woody stood very still for a moment before gently pulling back from her. He wiped her eyes with his fingers and then trailed his hand down to her stomach. “Is the baby okay?”

  Alyssa’s eyes widened in shock and the corners of her lips began to tremble. “You mean…”

  Woody tilted his head and studied her, but when she didn’t say anything else he reached in his pocket and pulled out the test.

  She held it in her hand and looked at it, the blinking pregnancy still visible on the grey background.

  They both smiled and hugged each other tightly. For a little while neither of them spoke.

  *

  Alyssa stared at the test in her hand in mounting disbelief. The burst of energy and relief that she had felt only moments before when Woody had let her free from the chair now faded into exhaustion and she found herself wanting to sit down again. She looked around the room but the only chair in there was the one that had kept her prisoner. And she was not returning to that chair for comfort.

  Pregnant

  It was only one word but in it there were a wealth of possibilities suddenly springing up around her. She closed her mouth and looked up at Woody, realizing for the first time since he’d handed her the test that this might also mean the end of their relationship.

  “I didn’t know,” Alyssa stated softly, finally answering his initial question about the baby’s well-being. “He took me before I found out what it said.” She placed her hand over Woody’s that was still resting on her abdomen. “I wasn’t lying to you before. They told me I couldn’t get pregnant without surgery and hormone treatments.” Tears began welling up in her eyes as she spoke. “I don’t know what happened, but I will understand if…”

  Her voice trailed off and she lowered her head to look at their hands. She couldn’t bear to think of the rest. He didn’t want kids. He had told her this and she knew what the consequences of her pregnancy might mean to their relationship. But she couldn’t bear to think of losing him now.

  She felt his finger under her chin, his free hand pushing her face back up to meet his gaze. “When I saw this test, I couldn’t think of anything else other than you and that baby. I knew that I had to get to you no matter the risks because the two of you are the most important things in my life. I want to be there with you and our child, and I can’t imagine any part of any day in my life without you in it.”

  He paused and looked down at her and she saw the concern and the worry as it stretched across his features before he started talking again. “When I went into that house today and saw that blood and realized that you were gone, I knew I couldn’t stop the world from turning. I will protect you and I will make sure that you have the best care possible but unless I keep you in a cage, things are going to happen. You are in no more danger with this pregnancy than you are driving to the grocery store and I had to come
to terms with that.”

  He leaned down and kissed her, his lips pressing into hers so gently that she was overcome with an overabundance of warmth and love. She put her arms around his neck and pulled him close, relief crashing down over her.

  When the kiss was over, Woody swept her up into his arms and headed back to the car, her head resting on his shoulder. She finally let the exhaustion sweep over her and by the time he loaded her into the front of the Thing, her lids were so heavy she could hardly keep her eyes open.

  *

  As soon as Woody was close enough to town to get a decent signal on his cell he had called Melinda and let her know that he had found Alyssa but that Charles Sanders had gotten away. He could hear the edge in her voice, and he knew that he was in some serious trouble from her, but it no longer mattered.

  Now he was in the waiting room of the hospital in Lawton while they stitched up her finger, checked out the wounds on her arms and checked on the pregnancy. She had been so mentally exhausted that she had fallen asleep before they had even been able to get down to the highway to drive to the hospital.

  Woody had no intentions of returning to the farm until Sanders was safely behind bars. He told Melinda to close and lock the shop and to let all of his clients know that he would not be returning until further notice. He then called a friend of his, Zack, for a favor. Woody was just finishing up the phone call to ensure that Zack would come in and finish the repairs to the vehicles currently being worked on when he heard the door behind him open.

  When Alyssa came out into the waiting room with the doctor he jumped to his feet and immediately hung up the phone. “How is she?” he asked, the excitement creeping into his voice.

  “She and the baby are both fine.” The doctor said as a smiling Alyssa leaned against him. “We only had to put four stitches in her finger and none of them are severely broken, just a few hairline fractures. The skin on her wrists and calves will heal soon and we prescribed a salve to help with that issue.”

  “And the baby?” he looked down at Alyssa and smiled.

  “Do you want to tell him?” the doctor asked Alyssa.

  “Tell me what?” he asked, worry edging each word.

  “They did a special ultrasound known as a trans-vaginal, and they were able to see everything very clearly. In fact the umbilical cords are developed and it looks like the babies are growing well.” Alyssa told him, her smile broadening.

  “Babies?” Woody repeated with an obvious shocked expression on his face.

  “Yes. There are two eggs which have successfully implanted themselves,” the doctor assured him, handing over an ultrasound that showed two small white dots. “Since Alyssa has an irregular cycle, we calculated her gestation based on other information.” The doctor’s voice had lowered on this last part, and Woody realized that even though they were in their own section of the waiting room, they were still within earshot of the other patrons, but he didn’t care.

  “And what does that mean?”

  “Traditionally we would count back to the date of the last menstrual period but here we are using the believed conception date combined with the ultrasound to estimate that she is what we would consider six weeks along, even though it has only been four weeks since the eggs were fertilized.”

  “So I have less than nine months before I’m going to be a daddy?” he asked.

  “Yes, and given the fact that Alyssa is carrying twins I think that is a short estimate. Most twin gestations do not last the full nine months. These next few months are going to be important and she’ll need to be seen regularly by an obstetrician.”

  “Is there any danger in traveling in the next few weeks?” Woody asked.

  “As long as you take regular breaks so she can stretch her legs and go to the bathroom, I don’t see any problem with it,” the doctor stated. “I would just strongly recommend making an appointment within the next month.”

  “Sure thing!” Woody exclaimed before turning around and grabbing Alyssa under her arms and twirling her around in the waiting room. When he kissed her, a round of applause shot up from the others who were there waiting.

  Alyssa blushed and gave them a small wave before heading out with Woody to the parking lot. Once they were safely in the car, Woody headed north, away from Stanhope.

  “Where are we going?” Alyssa asked when she realized they weren’t headed back to town.

  “Wherever we want,” Woody answered. “Melinda helped me make arrangements, and my friends at the bank made sure that the account was completely untraceable. I plan on keeping you out of Stanhope until Sanders is safely captured and locked back up. Hopefully they’ll catch him within the next couple of days and we can go home to start getting the house ready. Until then, I figure the road is ours.”

  “Anywhere you have in mind?” she asked as she smiled at him and patted her stomach, still unable to believe that she was pregnant with twins.

  “I thought that we might start taking in some of the sights around the country. Does that sound good to you?”

  “Anything sounds good to me as long as we’re together,” she told him as she smiled, placing her hand over his and leaning back into the seat before closing her eyes. A few moments later her breathing was a lot heavier, and Woody knew that she was sleeping peacefully.

  “I agree,” he whispered.

  Wounded Pride: Book 3

  Chapter 1

  Melinda hung up the phone with Woody and immediately signaled to the deputies standing around her.

  “Sanders was last spotted at the Garrison farm. Apparently he was holding Alyssa there, but now he’s gone. He took her car and it looks like he has a stab injury on his right side. Move out from the farm in all directions and canvas the back roads. He couldn’t have gotten too far, people.” She clapped her hands together and climbed into her SUV, determined to corner Sanders at the farm.

  When she took the dirt road leading out the farm she didn’t brake, and even though the SUV was weighted down, she took the corner almost on two wheels. Her speedometer never fell below forty. Her jaw was clenched together so tightly that she could feel her teeth grinding in their sockets.

  How could Woody have found him before her?

  That was the single thought that kept running through her mind, over and over. She had always looked out for her brothers, and the one time that Woody had really and truly needed her to be there for him, she hadn’t been able to.

  When she had realized that Alyssa had been taken by Sanders, Melinda felt her fear begin to tighten around her. It was that protective instinct that let her know when it was time to take charge and keep the boys out of trouble. Now that she knew Woody had been able to get Alyssa back safely she felt a little better, but it didn’t help that both of her brothers were now out there on the run from a criminal with a history of tracking down his prey.

  He’s too dangerous out there in any capacity. What happens when they catch him and he finds another way out, and then another? What will become of my brothers’ lives now? How long would they be forced to stay in hiding?

  These were the questions that had been plaguing her since she had gotten the call of Charles’ disappearance. Although her official role was that of an officer of the law who was bound to capture him and return him to the custody of the court, her closer role as a sister was causing overriding emotions. She was not sure what she would do if she confronted Charles all alone, but a large part of her was worried that he might not make it back alive were she to find him in such a circumstance.

  Melinda had never thought of herself as a stone cold killer, but her family had never been threatened like this before. It was as if the practical and the emotional side of her were dead locked in an anticipation game of “What if?”

  Her heart was pumping in her throat when they pulled up at the Garrison farm and she could feel that anticipation of a conflict coiled tightly in her stomach, churning with anger. As soon as the truck came to a stop, she jumped out of it, barking orders for her d
eputies to secure the crime scene as she ran around back and began the process of infiltrating the large building.

  Woody had told her where in the large dairy farm the confrontation had been, and she immediately walked toward that area to see what information she might be able to gather.

  Peering around a door frame, Melinda stepped into the cool darkness of the massive structure with her gun drawn. She did not see anyone but she was immediately assaulted by the fragrant smell of old hay and mildew. Rounding the stalls, she carefully made her way through the barn’s maze of concrete and cinderblock stalls, securing and clearing each section before moving onto the next. Woody had said that Charles had driven out from the farm, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. Sidestepping into the third section where Woody had told her he’d found Sanders and Alyssa she was extra cautious. After a brief pause, she swung her gun around and pointed it to the middle of the room.

  Sure enough, there was a chair with some duck tape hanging off it in the middle of a small clearing just like he’d described. On the far side of the room there was a table with a few different tools on it. There were also quite a few blood stained paper towels and wadded pieces of duck tape lying about as well.

  Woody had mentioned that the wound which had caused the blood at the farm was Sander’s. Apparently Alyssa had managed to stab him in the side with a paring knife before he took her. It was not enough to do any permanent damage but it had been enough to slow him down some. Woody had seemed to feel that without that wound he would have stood a lot less chance of getting Alyssa back.

  He fought like a caged animal, sis. If he hadn’t had a weak spot, I don’t think I could have taken him down. Woody’s words floated back to her in that stale barn air. He had not thought of his actions before rushing in head first. Neither of her brothers ever did. However, she was forced to carry the burden of worry around with her.