Cowboy Brothers of Rainbow Canyon: A Western Contemporary Cowboy Romance

by K. C. Crowne

  “Amy,” I called out. “You’d better open this door right now, dammit!”

  “Wyatt?” she called as if she was pleasantly surprised to see me. “Is that you?”

  “You know it is,” I growled. “And we’re gonna put an end to this bullshit tonight!”

  “Just a second!”

  Fucking furious was the only way to describe how I felt. It took all the restraint I had not to kick the damn door down. And the restraint was loosening by the second. As I waited, I moved my fingers to the pocketknife I always carried it. I had no intention of pulling it out of my pocket. I was a big man; I could overpower a woman Amy’s size easily. However, I did feel better having it.

  “Amy! Let me in now!”

  This time there was no reply. I had no idea what the hell she was doing, but it couldn’t be anything good. And more than that, I had good reason to think she had Jess. There wasn’t a thing on Heaven or Earth I wouldn’t do to keep her safe.

  More time passed, more silence. I was done waiting. I turned my body and slammed my shoulder into the door, the wood cracking and splitting around the lock. A shriek sounded from inside the apartment.

  “Wyatt! What the hell are you doing?”

  I pulled my shoulder back and hit the door one more time. Pain shot out from where my shoulder had made contact, but I didn’t give a good Goddamn about that. The door cracked and split even more, and it came loose on the hinges enough for me to see a sliver of the apartment. Amy’s trim figure rushed around inside.

  “Stop this right now!” she shouted.

  I pulled back one more time and hit the door. The last slam did the job, the lock coming loose and the door swinging open. I rushed into the apartment just in time to watch as Amy raised a gun in my direction.

  “Don’t move a muscle, Wyatt!” she shouted. Her hands shook as she held the gun.

  Was Amy a killer? Lord only knew the lengths she’d go to to maintain her delusions, to get what she wanted. I wasn’t about to take any chances. I stopped in my tracks and raised my palms. As I did, I scanned the living room for any sign of Jess.

  “Amy,” I said quietly. “Let’s not do anything crazy, alright?”

  “Do anything crazy.” She spit the words back at me like they were the most insulting words she could imagine. “You’re the only one being crazy, Wyatt.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked. “You tellin’ me that I’m bein’ crazy for not givin’ you more money after the generous settlement you got in the divorce?”

  “You’re crazy for all of it!” she screeched, the gun pointed at my chest. “For not seeing how good we were together, for not seeing that we would have been happier being away from your family, and for…”

  She trailed off. I wasn’t sure what she was going to say, but I had a feeling I didn’t want to hear it. She had clearly lost her fucking mind.

  “Where’s Jess?”

  She narrowed her eyes and sneered. “Of course the first thing you do is ask about that little bitch. Screw her! You’ll be better off when she’s gone.”

  “When she’s gone?” I asked. “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?”

  Lord knew I didn’t want to draw a blade on Amy, but if she insisted on pointing that gun at me, it would be self-defense. She was shaky, nervous, and deranged as hell. What little grip on sanity she’d had was fading by the second. Amy was like a woman possessed, and a loaded gun in her hand was more like a bomb waiting to go off. It was only a matter of time before something got her jumpy and made her pull the trigger.

  It was a potential tragedy in the making. But if Amy was going to act irrationally, it only meant that I needed to be even calmer in response. Two hot heads would make the situation blow up like a lit stick of dynamite.

  “I’m doing what needs to be done, Wyatt. Jess is an obstacle. She’s standing between you and me. How can you not see it?”

  I took a long, slow breath as I measured my next words carefully. My hands were still in the air. “Amy.” I murmured her name. “I know this is tough. But if you wanna talk about this, we’re gonna have to start with you puttin’ the gun down and tellin’ me where Jess is. Can you do that?”

  She shook her head. “Jess is fine, for now. But there’s not a chance in hell I’m putting this thing down.”

  “That thing is makin’ a bad situation even worse. I don’t know what you’ve done, but you can come back from it. You haven’t gone too far.”

  “You sound just like her,” she spat, putting a hard emphasis on the word her. “Trying to be all rational and calm. But you’ve pushed me too far, Wyatt. I needed to do something drastic to get your attention.”

  “Alright, you’ve got my attention.” I watched her with a calm expression. “Now, tell me what you want. Is it about the money? Because I can sign it over right here and now if you promise that Jess and I can leave safely.”

  That didn’t seem to mollify her. If anything, it put Amy even more on edge. “You still don’t get it, do you?” she asked. “This isn’t about the money, Wyatt. This is about me and you, two people who are destined to be together. And the fact that you don’t see it…” Tears formed in her eyes – a look for Amy that I wasn’t used to.

  “You think we’re supposed to be together? After all you pulled?”

  “I was in love with you, Wyatt! I am in love with you! And love makes people do crazy things!”

  “There’s a difference between the kinds of crazy things love makes you do and what you’re doin’, Amy.”

  “It isn’t true, is it?” she asked, more desperation creeping into her voice.

  “What’s not true?”

  “The baby. You’re not really going to have a baby with her, are you?”

  There was no sense in lying about it. “Yes. I am. And Amy, you’re gonna have to square yourself with that. It’s not easy to hear, but it’s the truth.”

  She said nothing as more tears formed in her eyes and trickled down her cheeks as the gun continued to shake in her hands. For a moment, I worried she might pull the trigger accidentally.

  “That baby was supposed to be mine!” she screamed, pushing the gun toward me for emphasis. “We were supposed to be a family! How can you not see it? How can you not see that you’re still in love with me?”

  I was on edge. I’d known Amy to be a liar, a cheat, a schemer to the core. But this was a side of her I hadn’t seen before. She was totally unhinged, a desperate woman at the end of her rope. I began to fear she might know she was going down and decide to take Jess and me down with her. And where the hell was Jess? All I wanted was for her to be safe, her and our baby. I’d do anything for the two of them.

  “Amy, you wanna talk about this, we can talk about this. But it’s not gonna happen with that gun pointed at my damn face.”

  She glared at me furiously. “You still don’t get. This gun’s the thing getting you to listen to me. And it’s going to be the thing that makes you cut the bullshit and tell me how I know you feel deep down. So just say it, Wyatt! Tell me that Jess means nothing to you, tell me that you know you and I are meant to be together!”

  She was right about one thing – pointing a gun at someone was a good way to get them to tell the truth. Or maybe to get them to say whatever it’d take for the person to put the damn gun down. But I wasn’t the lying sort.

  “Amy, you need to end this right now. Put that gun down and it doesn’t have to go any further.”

  “No!” She roared, like a violent, deadly storm. “I want you to tell me that you still love me! Jess means nothing to you, and we’re meant to be together. Just say it! How hard can it be?”

  My gaze was fixed on Amy. I took a slow breath, weighing my next words carefully and speaking in a quiet voice. “None of that’s true, Amy. I love Jess, and there’s no future for you and me. And there’s certainly not gonna be any future for you if you don’t lower that damn gun.”

  She looked as if I’d snatched the last bit of hope she had. The
gun shook even more wildly in her hand, and more tears streamed down her cheeks, her mascara running. I might’ve just signed my death warrant, given her the thing to push her to pull the trigger.

  But if that were so, I wasn’t about to go down lying about the woman I loved. I braced for whatever hell was next. And what was next wasn’t at all what I was expecting. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted her.

  Slowly, Jess stepped out of the bedroom, a massive object in her hands. I recognized it as the antique vase Amy had stolen from the house the night she’d left. Jess hoisted the thing over her head with all she had, barely able to hold onto it as she moved toward Amy. Her eyes flicked to me, briefly meeting mine as she moved.

  “You fucking prick!” Amy screamed wildly as Jess approached from behind.

  Jess heaved the vase at Amy, the thing slamming into her before dropping to the floor and shattering into a million pieces with a deafening crash. The impact was enough to push Amy violently forward, the gun dropping from her hands. As soon as it hit the ground it went off, a crack sounding from the gun as the bullet pinged around the room, eventually hitting the couch with a soft thwack.

  Jess had missed her head, having hit her on the shoulder. Amy was stunned but aware of what had happened. “You bitch!”

  Diving toward the gun, I scooped it up and clambered to my feet. Once I was up, I pointed it in the air and yelled. “Amy! It’s over. Don’t make another move.”

  Amy’s eyes flicked from the gun to me. I didn’t point it at her, of course, but she raised her hands into the air anyway. With a click, I turned on the gun’s safety. Jess rushed over to me, throwing her arms around my body as I kept my eyes on Amy.

  “Oh my God,” she sobbed. “I can’t believe you got here!”

  “You think I’d stand around while you were in trouble?” I asked. “Gorgeous, you must be mistakin’ me for some other cowboy.”

  “I knew you’d come. I knew it.”

  Amy dropped her gaze to the ground.

  It was over.

  Jessica

  “Wyatt, you can’t do this! You can’t be serious!”

  I watched as Wyatt slipped the phone he’d just used to dial the police back into his pocket. After that, he put the gun on a table by the door, far from Amy, who Wyatt had told to sit on the couch.

  “It’s done, Amy. Whatever you were trying to pull, it’s over.”

  Adrenaline pumped through my body. The vase was in pieces on the ground all around us. I hadn’t intended to really hurt Amy, and it looked like I’d been successful. The slam of the vase into her shoulder had jostled her more than anything, and she seemed more stunned than injured.

  “Wyatt, it’s not too late,” she said, pleading in her voice. “You can call them back and tell them that it was all some kind of misunderstanding. You don’t have to do this. I’ll leave you alone, I promise.”

  “Amy, three of your neighbors already called the cops after all the racket we made,” he told her.

  Amy sobbed loudly, shaking, and I couldn’t figure out if they were genuine tears or if they were another one of her acts. I wondered if Amy even knew the difference at this point.

  He wrapped his arms around me and held me close. “You’re safe now, baby.”

  “You came for me.”

  “Of course, I did.”

  Neither of us spoke, and we held each other. Wyatt kept an eye on Amy, who sprawled on the couch and stared off into space, totally stunned.

  “You okay?” he finally asked. “She hurt you?”

  “No,” I assured him. “She didn’t get the chance. But if you hadn’t showed up…” I shuddered.

  “Shh,” he said, moving his arm over my back. “You don’t need to think about any of that now. You’re safe. You and the baby.”

  I glanced at Amy again, knowing that our words of love and reassurance to one another had to be like a knife in her heart. I was done worrying about how she felt, and Amy seemed to be off in her own little world. She sat silently, like she’d shut down.

  Wyatt led me to a large chair and sat me down, my heart slowing by the second as he held me. In what seemed like no time at all, the police arrived, rushing into the apartment and surrounding Amy as we sat in the corner and watched.

  “Officer, the gun she used is on the table by the door,” Wyatt announced immediately so the cops would see it.

  We watched as the cops handcuffed Amy and led her out of the apartment. The same stunned, disbelieving expression was on her face as they carted her away. When she was finally gone, I knew for sure it was all over.

  The officers interviews us for a time, asking questions about what had happened. I told them everything that had happened since Amy had shown up at my apartment. I was exhausted and ready to leave, ready to be alone with Wyatt.

  “Thanks, officers,” Wyatt said, shaking their hands as they prepared to leave. “’I appreciate your help.”

  Then they were gone, one of the officers letting us know they’d be contacting us for more information as the case progressed. More relief flowed over me as the last officer left the apartment.

  “What’s going to happen to her?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “She made some serious decisions tonight – breakin’ the law several times over, for one. Truth be told, I don’t know what’s gonna happen to her. But hopefully she gets the help she needs.”

  There was something seriously admirable about the way Wyatt spoke about Amy. Bad blood wasn’t in short supply between the two of them, but he still managed to keep a cool head, wishing the best for her even when he had all the reasons in the world to wish her good riddance. Wyatt was a good man, through and through. And he would be an excellent father, I had no doubt.

  “We need to get out of here,” I said, looking around the apartment. “This is not where I wanna be right now.”

  “I feel you on that one.” He rose from the chair and extended his hand to me, that strong, rough, and warm hand that I remembered taking all those weeks ago when he’d first found me in the rain. I could hold that hand forever.

  And maybe I’d get the chance.

  Wyatt chuckled as we left the apartment. I eyed him, a small smile on my face. “After what we’ve been through, I gotta ask what’s so funny.”

  “Nothin’,” he said. “I was just thinkin’ about how this all started with me saving your life. And now you finally got the chance to return the favor.”

  I smiled. There was a certain poetry to it. “That’s right.” I poked his side. “And I’m not gonna let you forget it.”

  “Been wonderin’ about that vase,” he said with a frown. “Damn thing finally got put to some good use.”

  “Yep,” I said with a smile. “Don’t forget about it – you get on my bad side and wham!”

  He laughed again as we stepped into the elevator and started down. “Good mental note to not ever underestimate you,” he agreed. “Amy had you tied up and everything?”

  I nodded. “I managed to get out. Just in time, too.”

  He put his arm around me, resting his hand on my shoulder. “It’s all done now, Jess. We got through it together.”

  “It’s almost all done,” I said. “There’s still the matter of my old life here that I need to take care of.”

  “Then let’s not waste another second. We’ll go back to your place and pack whatever you need. And if you’re still on the hook for some lease money or whatever, I don’t wanna hear another word about it –I’ll take care of it and that’s that.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but I could sense Wyatt’s stubbornness coming to the foreground. “Fine,” I said with a smile. “If you want to whisk me away, then I’m not gonna try to stop you.”

  “‘Atta girl,” he said with a grin.

  We took his truck to my old apartment. The place was still a mess from the packing, not to mention the tussle I’d had with Amy. Wyatt entered my apartment, a strange expression settling on his handsome features. Something was troubling him.


  “What’s on your mind?” I asked. “Does it look like too much of a pain in the butt to get all this packed?”

  “Nah,” he said. “It’s not that. Not at all.”

  I frowned as I watched him. It wasn’t like Wyatt to get all cold and distant. I took his hand in mine and stepped in front of him. “Wyatt,” I said. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

  He shook his head as if he didn’t know where to begin. “What happened,” he mumbled. “I’m gonna speak straight with you, Jess – it scared the hell out of me.”

  “Same here.”

  “You were in danger and there was a chance something awful might’ve happened. I’m not a man to feel fear, but knowing I might never see you again…” He looked away, his gaze steely.

  I squeezed his hand and he squeezed mine. Then he turned those golden eyes onto me. “Know that as long as you’re in my life, I’m never gonna leave your side. Ain’t a damn thing I’d let do you harm. I’m your man, Jess. And you’re my woman. No one’s gonna stand in our way. Got it?”

  There was a hardness to his words, but one directed at anyone or anything who might try to come between us. It made me feel good to know I had Wyatt on my side.

  He took his face into my hands. “I love you, Jess. And with every second that passes, every little thing that happens, it makes me more damn certain of the way I feel about you. I want to build a life with you, little lady, one for you and me and the baby. Come hell or high water.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Tears welled in my eyes, and I bit my lip as his words echoed in my mind. “I love you too, Wyatt. And I want that too. More than anything.”

  “That’s good to hear.” He wiggled his eyebrows as a slow smile spread on his face. “Speakin’ of wantin’…”

  His big, strong hands moved down from my shoulders to my hips. I didn’t know if it was the adrenaline or just how freaking crazy-attracted to him I was, but the moment his hands fell on my curves, I felt a rush of arousal between my legs, accompanied by a small flood of wetness.