The Cowboy’s Targeted Bride

by Carla Cassidy

  And she didn’t trust him.

  He shoved this thought out of his head. He had to get over it. She couldn’t help the way she felt right now. In any case, he was glad Krista had stopped by to not only bring Caleb home from school but also to lift Lily’s spirits.

  Krista and Henry stayed for another hour or so, and by the time they left, Jerod had dinner on the table. He’d smothered the hamburger patties with canned tomato sauce and had added in some seasoning and then topped each of them with mozzarella cheese. He’d also made some garlic bread on the side.

  “This looks delicious,” Lily said and looked at him in surprise.

  “I used my imagination a bit, so I hope it tastes as good as it looks,” he replied.

  “I’m sure it’s going to be awesome,” Caleb said with a look of confidence at Jerod.

  “Then maybe you should taste it before your mom and I do,” Jerod suggested.

  “Okay.” Caleb cut a piece of the hamburger patty and popped it into his mouth. He chewed a couple of times and then his eyes widened, he grabbed his throat and fell off his chair.

  “Okay, you little comedian,” Jerod said with a laugh.

  Caleb giggled and got back in his chair. “Actually, Mom, it’s really good.”

  “I didn’t know you could cook anything other than egg mistakes,” she said to him.

  He laughed. “I still have a few tricks up my sleeves when it comes to cooking.”

  “Like what?” Caleb asked.

  “Oh, I can grill a really good steak and make a good pot of chili,” he replied.

  “Hmm, Caleb and I love chili,” Lily replied.

  “Then maybe tomorrow night I’ll make a big pot of it,” he said. He was grateful to see Lily a little more relaxed this evening.

  Their good moods lasted through the meal, and then they all settled back into the living room, Lily stretched out on the sofa, Jerod in the chair and Caleb seated on the floor.

  “Is Mr. Bowie going to catch the man who hurt you, Mom?” Caleb asked.

  “I’m sure he will. That’s what the police do...they catch the bad guys,” she replied. “But I don’t want to talk about that tonight. Did I ever tell you about the time one of my students tried to tell me he didn’t have his homework because his baby sister ate it?”

  “So what happened?” Caleb asked.

  “He told me they had to go to the hospital and cut open her stomach to get it out, but it was too yucky to turn in from being in her stomach with her formula.”

  “That sounds like a pretty tall tale to me,” Caleb said with a laugh.

  “Did you believe him?” Caleb asked.

  “No, son. I didn’t,” she replied with a laugh. “But I should have given him an A for his story-telling skills.”

  “Do you have any funny stories from when you were younger?” Caleb asked Jerod.

  “Yes, tell us some funny stories, Jerod,” Lily said. “I feel like being entertained tonight.”

  “When all the cowboys at the Holiday Ranch were younger, we used to play pranks on each other all the time,” Jerod said. He allowed his mind to drift back in time and began to talk about some of the funniest things they’d done to each other when they’d all been nothing but boys.

  He told them about throwing smoke bombs into the bathrooms of unsuspecting victims, about putting smelly things beneath bed pillows and other silly things.

  The more Caleb and Lily laughed, the sillier his stories became. He loved to see Lily laugh. Her pretty eyes sparkled, and all the worried lines on her face disappeared. Then Lily began sharing more student funnies, and before they knew it, it was Caleb’s bedtime.

  While he showered, Caleb and Lily continued to talk about funny things. Jerod was just grateful to see her smile, to hear her laugh despite what had happened to her and the injuries she’d sustained.

  “I guess laughter is the best medicine,” she said once Caleb was in bed and the two of them were alone once again.

  “I love the sound of your laughter,” he replied. “I’d love to hear it every day of my life.”

  Her cheeks turned a pretty pink. “Jerod...about the conversation I had with you earlier this morning...”

  “It’s already forgotten,” he replied and gave her a reassuring smile. “We just need to move forward, Lily.”

  She opened her mouth to respond, but a knock on the door interrupted her. Jerod grabbed his gun from the end table next to where he had been sitting. He held it before him and then opened the door.

  He immediately dropped the gun barrel to point at the floor as Dillon greeted him. “Come on in,” Jerod said and opened the door wider to allow the lawman inside.

  Any levity Jerod might have felt before disappeared as he saw the grim lines of Dillon’s face. “Good evening, Lily,” Dillon said.

  Lily rose up and swung her legs over the edge of the sofa so she was sitting up. “Hi, Dillon.”

  “I told you I’d come by today and check in with both of you. Lily, how are you doing?”

  “I’m still in some pain, but I feel a little better this evening,” she replied.

  “She’s frightened, Dillon. And I’m frightened for her,” Jerod said and gestured Dillon into the chair. He then sat on the sofa next to Lily.

  “I certainly understand your fear given what happened,” Dillon replied.

  “So, what do you have for us?” Jerod asked.

  “Unfortunately, not much.” Dillon frowned, creating a deep crease across his forehead. “My men went over the area in and around the school parking lot, but we found nothing of evidentiary value there. I’ve also been unable to find any witnesses to the attack.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me,” Lily said. “As far as I know, we were the only two people anywhere around.”

  Jerod reached over and took her hand in his. Every time he thought of her all alone in the parking lot with a knife-wielding attacker, he wanted to hurt someone. He wanted to find the perpetrator and beat them within an inch of their lives.

  “I spent today at the school interviewing all the teachers who stayed late and helped with the cleanup. To be honest, it was difficult for some of them to have confirmed alibis concerning the time of night.”

  “What do you mean, confirmed alibis?” Lily asked.

  “For instance if the person is married, then they have an alibi witness who can attest to the fact that they came home at a particular time. But for people like Brad and Carol and several others who have no spouses or children, they have no alibi witnesses if they just went to home and to bed alone.”

  “Did you get any sense of anyone lying about their whereabouts at the time of the attack?” Jerod asked.

  “I didn’t. And of course there’s no guarantee that the attacker was attending the events at the school last night.” He looked from Lily to Jerod. “Are you sure neither one of you can think of anyone who would want to seriously harm Lily for any reason?”

  “I swear on my life I don’t know anyone,” Jerod said fervently, not only trying to convince Dillon, but Lily, as well.

  “Dillon, we can’t think of anyone,” Lily replied. She pulled her hand from Jerod’s grip and leaned forward. “Trust me, if I knew who was behind this, I’d make sure you could arrest them.”

  “Yeah, well, unfortunately right now it looks like no arrest is going to happen any time soon.” A flash of anger lit the depths of Dillon’s eyes. “I hate it when things like this happen in my town. First that nasty doll and now this, and we have gotten no evidence and currently have no real suspects in this whole mess.”

  Lily looked at Jerod for a long moment, and he knew instantly what she was about to tell Dillon. “There was one other incident between the bride doll and the attack last night.”

  Dillon sat up straighter. “What are you talking about? You didn’t call me about anything else.”<
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  As she explained about the boxers and the note, her cheeks dusted with color, and once again Jerod was struck by how pretty she was. Despite the difficult conversation, in spite of the fact that she was clad in pajamas and was injured, she drew him to her.

  “You should have called me when you got them. Do you still have the items?” Dillon asked.

  “We threw them away,” Jerod replied remorsefully.

  Dillon frowned once again. “That’s unfortunate.”

  “We weren’t thinking,” Lily replied. “But now we think the person who left the boxers is also the same person who attacked me.”

  “From now on, anything you get, anything that is abnormal or strange that happens, you need to call me right away. And for God’s sake, don’t throw anything else away.” Dillon stood. “I’m sorry I didn’t come bringing answers tonight, but we’re going to continue to work hard on the investigation.”

  “Dillon, thank you for coming by,” Lily said.

  “I wish I could have told you something positive.” He moved toward the front door. “Jerod, you want to walk me out?”

  “Of course.” Jerod got up from the sofa, and the two of them left the house.

  “I’ll tell you, Jerod, this one has me stumped. Everyone I interviewed spoke highly of Lily. She has a stellar reputation both personally and professionally,” Dillon said.

  “I agree, and yet there’s no question that somebody tried to kill her last night,” Jerod replied.

  Even in the darkness of the night, Jerod saw Dillion’s facial features tighten. “Yeah, and I’ll tell you what worries me most—somebody tried to kill her last night, and they didn’t succeed. So my biggest fear right now is that another attempt is coming.”

  Dillon’s words twisted Jerod’s stomach, because he knew they were true. Somebody was going to try again to kill Lily, and he had no clue from who or from which direction the danger would come.

  Chapter 9

  It had been three weeks since the attack. Lily’s stitches had been removed, and she was healing nicely. She’d returned to work, and now she and Jerod had a new routine—he took her to work each morning and picked her and Caleb up when school was over.

  The only result of the attack on her was that she’d suffered several nightmares, something she’d never endured before. And they were always the same—a faceless figure chased her down a dark street wielding a big knife.

  She now wandered the house, feeling restless. It was Saturday, and Jerod and Caleb were horseback riding. Jerod had insisted she stay in the house with the doors locked. He didn’t want her outside at all. He didn’t want her vulnerable in any way.

  She went into the kitchen and looked out the window to where the two were visible. Since the attack, they never rode the horses out of sight of the house.

  The sight of the two of them together swelled her heart. Jerod was the man she’d always dreamed of Caleb having in his life. The father/son bond she saw building between them every day both touched her and scared her.

  There was no question she was falling in love with Jerod, and that really terrified her. When she wasn’t with him, she thought about him. When she was with him, there was always a tension inside her. It wasn’t a bad tension, rather, it was the anticipation of a smile from him, or a touch, no matter how simple. She had no idea how he felt about her. Certainly he’d been kind and caring to her. But that didn’t equate love.

  She’d entered into this marriage to save her ranch and to have Jerod’s baby. It had been a business deal of sorts. She’d known she would have to have sex with him to fulfill her end of the bargain, but she hadn’t expected that she’d like it so much.

  They hadn’t made love since the attack on her, and for the last couple of nights she’d found herself yearning for his touch on her naked skin and wanting him to kiss her until she was mindless with desire.

  She wanted her husband to make love to her again, but he didn’t appear to have the same level of desire for her. She was afraid that he looked at making love to her as nothing more than a means to an end. She had the feeling she could be any woman who was open to giving him a child.

  And that was depressing. She hadn’t told him that she was a few days late for her period. Was she pregnant? She didn’t know. There had been occasions in the past that she had been a couple days late, but they had been rare. Even though pregnancy was the goal, she was worried that once the goal was met, he’d be done making love with her.

  She moved away from the window and instead went to the oven to check on dinner. One of the things she’d discovered about her husband was that he loved Mexican food, so she’d made an enchilada pie for tonight’s supper.

  She hadn’t expected to find love again after her dismal heartbreak over Cody. She especially hadn’t intended to find it with Jerod, but now that she had, instead of filling her with joy, it filled her with a strange kind of anxiety and despair.

  What if he never loved her? What if her pregnancy ended any growing relationship they had been building. Would their intimacy that had nothing to do with making love suddenly end? She’d begun to feel like he was her very best friend. Would she lose even that when she got pregnant?

  A half an hour later, Caleb and Jerod were back in the house, their energy and good spirits contagious as they all sat to eat. “You should come riding with us, Mom,” Caleb said. “I’m getting really good in the saddle, right, Jerod?”

  “Right.” Jerod grinned at Caleb. “Before long you’re going to be riding circles around me.”

  Lily had come to look forward to their dinners, when they came together and talked about their days. These moments over food truly felt like the family time she had yearned for.

  There was always laughter, and seeing the happiness in her son’s eyes was worth almost anything, including her being in love with a man she suspected didn’t and might never love her back.

  After dinner they cleared the dishes and returned to the table. Earlier in the week they had gone shopping and had bought several board games they could all play together. Saturday nights had become official game nights.

  She recognized now she should have been doing these kinds of things with Caleb all along. She should have engaged with him far more in the evenings instead of allowing him to play his video games alone in his bedroom.

  Caleb hadn’t even mentioned playing video games in weeks, preferring to spend his evening time with them even if they were only watching television. This was definitely one of the positive new changes that had come with Jerod.

  The other positive thing that had come with Jerod was the ranch had finally stopped bleeding money. He’d sold one of their stud bulls to a neighbor for a premium price and had used the proceeds to get in hay for the winter. He still continued to work on getting the books into the computer whenever he had spare time.

  For the first time since Cody had left her so long ago, she felt optimistic about the ranch’s future, and it was all because of Jerod. For the first time in years, she didn’t feel stressed about the ranching business. She believed in Jerod’s capability to turn things around.

  They played games until it was Caleb’s bedtime, and then once he was tucked in, she and Jerod went into the living room and sat on the sofa together. He turned on the television, but instead of watching anything in particular, he gazed at her.

  “How are you feeling this evening?” he asked.

  “I’m good. Everything is pretty much healed up,” she replied. She fought the impulse to lean into him. His scent—one of fresh air and a hint of his spicy cologne—was now familiar and comforting. She wished she felt comfortable enough with him to snuggle up against him, but she didn’t.

  “I’m not talking about just your physical condition, how are you doing mentally...emotionally?”

  “Okay?” She looked at him curiously. “Why do you ask?”

  “I don’t
know if you remember or not, but last night you had another nightmare.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “I don’t remember it.”

  “I managed to calm you down and you didn’t wake up,” he replied.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she quickly said.

  He smiled. “Don’t be sorry. I just wish this ordeal hadn’t given you bad dreams. Are you not feeling safe?”

  She laughed. “Short of wrapping me in bubble wrap, I feel very safe with you.” It was true. All her doubts about Jerod being part of a scheme to have her killed had dissipated in the time since her attack.

  He reached out and dragged a finger down her cheek, the simple touch instantly flooding her with a welcome warmth. “Trust me, if I could wrap you in bubble wrap to keep you completely safe forever, I would.” Instant bereavement swept through her when his arm dropped back down to his side.

  She released a deep sigh. “Actually, this afternoon I was feeling a bit restless. Despite going to work every day, I’m feeling a bit cooped up.”

  “Maybe it’s because you haven’t been able to get out on horseback or move around freely outside.”

  “That’s part of it,” she agreed. “I’m just tired of some unknown person having so much power over me and my life.”

  Once again he reached out and pushed the errant strand of hair away from the side of her face. This time she leaned into the touch. “I know you’re tired of the precautions we’ve been taking, but I would never be able to forgive myself if anything happened to you. Caleb needs his mother, and I need you.”

  She savored his words. His gaze was intent, and as she fell into the depths, she knew what she wanted more than anything in this moment was for him to take her into his arms and make sweet love to her.

  She captured his hand with hers and brought it to her lips. “I’m ready for bed. What about you?”

  “Definitely,” he replied, and in his eyes she saw a flame that made her excited for the night to come. The only thing she didn’t want to think about was if Jerod wanted to make love to his wife because he desired her, or was he simply making love with her to make a baby?