High-Stakes Colton

by Karen Anders

  “You’re never going to get away with this.”

  His gut clenched in bone-deep fear.

  Alanna!

  *

  “Who’s going to stop me? Jake? Texas Ranger McCord? Did you hire him to spy on me?” At the widening of her eyes, he smirked. “That’s right, I recognized him. Took care of one of his undercover baby Rangers. Should have seen the look on his face when I shot him in the chest.”

  He gestured with the gun, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t think clearly, couldn’t decide on any course of action, because too many things were racing through her brain all at once. Jake? A Texas Ranger? Henry was a murderer and a drug dealer! Jake? Daisy was in danger!

  “Come here,” he said. She hesitated, not wanting to get within arm’s length of him, debating for a split second whether to step back and rush out the door, but she couldn’t because Daisy would be trapped with him.

  “A bullet can move faster than you, Miss Colton. Don’t even think about it,” he said calmly as if reading her mind. The barrel of the gun moved toward Daisy.

  “No!”

  “Ah, I see we’ve found common ground.”

  As soon as Alanna was close enough, he shocked her by suddenly grabbing her hair and yanking her against him, her back to his chest. Her scalp on fire, an instant later she also felt the cold muzzle of the gun against her temple. His voice next to her ear made her shudder. “Don’t get any bright ideas. I already have enough for both of us.” His fist was still in her hair, and tears sprang to the corners of her eyes as he gave it a vicious twist. “Now, I will release you, and you will do as I say, when I say. Are we understood? I don’t want to do anything to mar my ticket out of here.” To punctuate his statement, he tugged her even more tightly back against him.

  “Yes,” she choked out.

  “Good,” he said with oily smugness, releasing her as suddenly as he’d grabbed her.

  She staggered forward and landed hard on her hands and knees on the hay-covered wooden floor of the barn.

  She met Daisy’s eyes who, without moving her head, looked down at her hand, partially buried by the straw. She still had the knife she’d used to cut the twine. Her breath hitched and she nodded imperceptibly.

  “Get up. It’s time to go.”

  Still reeling from the information Henry had revealed about Jake and then Henry’s sudden attack, she scrambled up, wanting to keep her eye on him at all times.

  “Go? Where?”

  “Somewhere I’ll be safe. Then I’ll let you go.”

  She faced Henry, whose back was to the open loft. The rope creaked and swayed, then she saw the glimpse of dark hair. Jake! Relief and pain swept through her, mingling with her shock.

  She lifted her chin. “I’m not going anywhere with you,” she snapped.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver lighter. “You will unless you want it to get a little hotter in here.” With a flick of his finger, a small flame flared.

  Daisy moved. Raising the knife, lightning-quick, she stabbed Henry in the upper thigh. He cried out and the lighter flew out of his hand into the bale stack, immediately igniting the hay.

  “You little bitch.” He bellowed in pain and backhanded Daisy with the gun, clipping her temple. She flew back and didn’t move.

  “Daisy!” Alanna screamed, going to her, but Henry blocked her path. She sobbed once, going for the gun, but Henry fought her off while smoke started to fill the loft as more bales caught. He grabbed her by the hair and jerked her back, then shoved her forward as she lost her balance and she crashed so close to the burning hay that she got a lungful of acid smoke. Her legs shook violently beneath her, and she coughed violently.

  Then Jake was there coming through the door. Alanna gasped. Henry, tipped off by her expression, whirled as Jake punched him in the face. They wrestled over the gun and Jake managed to knock it out of Henry’s hand, but it was between her and the struggling men. They wrestled; both of them getting in blows to the face and body. The sounds of the horses squealing and kicking at their stalls filtered up from below as they got the first scent of smoke.

  Clay materialized at the edge of the loft doorway, but Henry kicked him in the face and he disappeared from sight.

  Alanna crawled across the floor on her hands and knees, reaching for the gun, but Henry and Jake knocked into her and she lost her grip.

  Henry got the upper hand and shoved Jake so hard, he almost went out the opening, but at the last minute caught the side and teetered there.

  Henry scrambled for the gun and brought it around just as Jake got his balance. The gun discharged and the bullet hit Jake. He grunted, stumbled and smashed his shoulder against the loft’s wall, the impact a terrible thud.

  “Jake!” Alanna screamed as blood blossomed. Jake clutched at his shoulder as Henry recovered and brought the gun up again. His face contorted in an ugly sneer. Spying a bale hook in one of the bales, Alanna snatched it and lunged off the floor and sank the business end of it deeply into Henry’s back. He howled, trying to reach it as Jake pushed off the wall and slammed into him.

  Knocking Henry right into the fire, an inhuman scream came from him as he reeled away. Clay, still dangling from the loft doorway, caught his ankle and sent him flying out the doorway.

  There was a sickening scream and then a terrible sound of his body hitting the ground.

  Clay pulled himself all the way up and rushed over to Daisy. Calling her name in an anguished voice, he scooped his hands under her, lifted her into his arms and headed for the loft stairs. Alanna ran to Jake and helped him up.

  Together, panting from the smoke and heat, they pounded down the stairs. “Call for help,” Jake said as Alanna ran for the locked stable door and lifted the crossbeam and threw them open.

  Clay ran out and set Daisy down on the ground as hands came running.

  “Daisy!” Ellen screamed as sirens sounded in the distance.

  The roof of the stable was fully engulfed in flames as horses started running from the open stable doors. Alanna, careful of hurtling equine bodies, ran back inside and saw Jake, his shirt soaked with blood, running down the aisle, opening stall doors and herding horses out, yelling, “Ha!” The horses didn’t need any more encouragement then as the animals, already terrified from the scent of smoke, headed for the open doors.

  Clay was doing the same thing down the other aisle and Alanna started on the stalls closest to her. Smoke was pouring through the stable alleyway and Alanna started coughing, the air thick with a choking haze. She got turned around, not sure where the door was. Coughing harder, she leaned against the wall, overcome until a steely arm clasped her around the waist and hauled her against him, coughing deeply. He forced her to crouch where the air was clearer. Then he put his fingers to his lips and a sharp whistle pierced the air. She heard a responding whinny and then the sound of pounding hooves on concrete. The blue roan came rushing toward them through the swirling smoke. Jake grabbed on to the horse’s saddle and dragged himself up. He reached down and, grunting in pain, hauled her across his lap.

  “Let’s get out of here, boy,” he rasped to the horse, his voice weak.

  Valentine shot down the alleyway, his innate sense of direction leading him to fresh air and the open stable doors. He burst out into the stable yard. Jake carefully held Alanna until she was safely on the ground. But Jake teetered, then fell, rolling onto his back as Sheriff Watkins, Texas Rangers, fire and EMT rolled into the stable yard, sirens flashing. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daisy sitting up, a bloody gash on her temple, but she looked like she was going to be all right as her mother supported her back. Clay kneeling beside her in the dirt, his face soot stained, blood streaked and dirty. His heart was in his eyes as he stared at Daisy.

  The firefighters poured out of the first truck as a second one, the tanker, came to a stop. They connected hoses and got water on the blaze while Alanna looked down into Jake’s pale face. He said softly as if his heart was breaking, “Alanna.” He ra
ised his hand, the backs of his fingers just brushing her cheek, his expression going very still. She held his gaze for a frozen moment, and then she abruptly looked away, an awful, shaky feeling sliding through her.

  “Are you all right, babe?”

  Her? Was she all right? He’d been shot, not her. He’d risked his life for her. She shivered, her chest suddenly aching. She didn’t think she had ever loved him more than she did at that very minute, and Lord, but it hurt. More than anything, more than her next breath, she wanted to curl up in his arms and rest her head on his shoulder. She wanted to hold on to him and never let go. He closed his eyes, then passed out.

  He couldn’t be a Texas Ranger. He would have told her. He wouldn’t have kept that information to himself. He couldn’t be there under false pretenses to spy on her. No.

  She wouldn’t believe it. Maybe Henry was mistaken. But her breath caught in her throat, her heart suspended when she saw his badge. It was clipped to his chest. The evidence that he was exactly what Henry said he was. She leaned forward and unclipped it, looking down at it as tears welled in her eyes and her throat tightened into a hard lump. Oh, God. Oh, God. This had all been engineered.

  Her heart fluttering wildly in her throat, she stared blindly across the yard, her stomach rolling over. Lord, how was she going to get through this?

  Before she had time to assimilate the fact that she’d been set up, EMTs grabbed her, giving her oxygen as another set started to work on Jake. She felt as though she was in a surreal daze as she watched them pull open his shirt, stem the flow of blood, hook up an IV and lift him onto a stretcher, then haul him away.

  Fowler was there, gathering her up in his arms, murmuring her name, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Jake’s ashen face as they wheeled him to an ambulance. With the siren blasting and the tires sliding on the pavement, the ambulance took off.

  Fear, rage, love and the need to protect him mixed into a terrible roll of emotions cutting through her. She had finally learned how to trust, had fallen deeply into love.

  And the man she had given her heart to, the man she had just said she loved, had all along been betraying her. Even as he made love to her night after night, he was working against her and her family.

  Had everything she’d felt for him been a lie?

  An illusion?

  And the trust she had given him lay between her as burned-out a husk as the barn behind her.

  Betrayal bitter on her tongue, she tightened her hand around the silver star as the pin stabbed into her palm and blood trickled between her fingers.

  Chapter 17

  Jake floated, trying to anchor himself. His eyes fluttered open and the bright light from the window to his left showed an overcast day.

  He licked his dry lips and when he tried to move tensed up with pain.

  He’d been shot.

  Alanna!

  He tried to sit up and his boss said, “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Jake collapsed back onto the mattress and turned his head.

  “Alanna?”

  “She’s fine and so are the two kids. They’ve been treated and sent home. The barn is a loss, but you got all their ponies out so no loss of livestock. Henry Swango is dead. Broke his neck when he hit the ground. Miss Colton’s statement to us was that he had killed Tim Preston. He recognized you. He thought she was working with us to apprehend him.”

  “Except for the barn, best possible outcome. Henry got what he deserved and Tim got justice.”

  “No argument there. The doctor will be here shortly. When you’re ready to be released, I’ll be back to get you. Don’t be a pain in the ass, and do what the nurses tell you.”

  “Yes, sir,” Jake said, his voice flat.

  His boss left and the doctor came in, a man in his forties with a pair of black-rimmed glasses, kind blue eyes and smelling of antiseptic.

  “Mr. McCord, I’m Dr. Lambert. How are you feeling?”

  “Sore, but glad to be alive.”

  He nodded and chuckled. “Yes, I’m sure. There’s good news all around. The bullet didn’t do any serious damage. It went through and through and completely missed any bone. You have some slight muscle damage that I repaired, but all in all, not bad. We cleaned and irrigated the wound and removed any foreign objects. I’d say we’ll keep you for a couple of days and then you can finish your convalescence at home.”

  “Thanks, Doc.”

  “It’s my pleasure. I’ve never met a Texas Ranger before, but let me say it’s an honor.”

  Jake smiled and reached out his hand. The doctor shook it and then exited the room.

  A few seconds later the door opened again and Jake said, “You forget something, Doc...” He turned his head and his brain froze as his words trailed off. Alanna stood there, her eyes bruised and red rimmed. Dammit, the knowledge that he’d been responsible for making her cry cut through him with sharp regret.

  “I came here to get an explanation. I want to hear it from you.”

  His breath hitched and he closed his eyes briefly before he met her sad and angry gaze. “I’m a Texas Ranger. I was sent in to Colton Valley Ranch Stables to keep you under close surveillance and discover any clues to the whereabouts of your missing father. I was supposed to get close to you—”

  When she made a soft, painful sound, he paused. “Alanna, I got too close and then I couldn’t pull away. It wasn’t planned. It just happened.”

  “It just happened?” she repeated and swiped at her cheeks. “I trusted you,” she said, advancing on the bed, shouting. “You betrayed me. Did you feel anything for me?”

  “Yes, dammit. I didn’t do this lightly, but I couldn’t help myself.”

  “Right. And if you had found out I had done something to my father?”

  “That didn’t happen. I’m not going to project what I would have done in the future.”

  She talked right over him. “Would you have cuffed me yourself, booked me yourself and thrown me in jail?”

  “Alanna, please, all I can say is I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you. It was my job!” he shouted back.

  “Well, good. I’m glad we have that cleared up. You broke my heart and betrayed me all in the name of justice. Congratulations. I don’t know who’s worse. Henry...or you!”

  She whirled and ran from the room. Shocked down to the bone, a sick, hollow feeling settled heavily inside him. He realized he’d lost the best thing that had ever happened to him.

  He rang for the nurse. When she came in he said, “I’m in pain.”

  She upped his pain meds, but nothing she had in the IV bag was ever going to dull the agony of losing a woman like Alanna.

  *

  After he’d gotten discharged from the hospital, Jake got into his own truck, his boss behind the wheel.

  “Where’s Valentine?”

  “We shipped him back to TDCJ French Robertson. He’ll be there waiting for you.” He stared at him for a moment, then put the truck in gear and drove out of the hospital parking lot. “You look like hell, McCord,” he growled.

  Jake felt like hell. Jake stared at him, his expression fixed and controlled; then without a flicker of emotion, he said, his voice flat, “Thanks.”

  “This have anything to do with the pissed-off Alanna Colton and her visit?”

  “No comment.” It had taken practice, but he’d learned to shut down and disconnect. He used his professional training to accomplish it. All it took was focus.

  “All right, taking the fifth is your prerogative. I know that assignment turned out to be more than you bargained for, but for what it’s worth, you acted beyond the call of duty”

  Jake groaned. “Does that mean—”

  “Yup, boy howdy, we’re giving you a commendation for heroism. And, for that matter, so did Valentine.”

  “You giving my horse a medal? He deserves it. I don’t need it.”

  “Doesn’t matter and, yes, we’re giving him a medal, too. You’re getting it and you’re going to look proud whil
e we’re pinning it to your chest.”

  Jake sighed. They rode in silence for a while, and then Jake said, “Boss, you been at this a long time. You ever think about getting out?”

  “Yeah, once when a bust went bad and I lost my partner. That was tough going, but they don’t make sissies Rangers,” he said, giving Jake a quick glance.

  “No, they don’t,” he agreed.

  After they pulled up to his place near French Robertson, Valentine gave him a deep, joyous whinny from the corral. He walked over to the fence as the roan galloped to the rails seeking a rub. Jake pressed his forehead to the gelding’s face and closed his eyes and took comfort from his four-legged friend.

  “Jake, rest.”

  “Boss, I lost my badge.”

  “I’ll get you another one.”

  “Don’t bother... I’m out.”

  “What? Jake—”

  “I’ll train a replacement, then attend the ceremony, but after that I’m gone.”

  His boss left, not happy with Jake’s decision, but he wasn’t the one Jake cared about.

  Being holed up in the house would drive him stir-crazy and a terrible restlessness came over him. He’d already ditched the sling, his arm painful, but he’d been kept in the hospital mostly due to the smoke inhalation, his lungs a little raw still. He got into the car, propelled by a force he couldn’t name, he ended up in front of Jennifer Preston’s little white house.

  He got out of the car and went up to the porch. Knocking on the door, he heard the sound of a baby crying inside. He took off his hat and fingered the brim.

  The door opened and Jennifer stood there.

  “Jake?” she said, a catch to her voice, and then she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. “It is you. Come in,” she said warmly. He entered the house and saw Tim’s daughter in a playpen. Jennifer bent down and picked her up.

  “This is Emily.”

  Jake reached out and smoothed his hand over the baby’s downy hair and her satiny cheek. She reached up and curled her tiny little hand around his finger. His heart tightened. She turned her head and looked at him and he was struck at how much she looked like Tim. In her, Tim lived.