by Barb Han
The RV door opened and a man who looked to be in his late fifties stepped out. He wasn’t tall by Texas standards, coming in around five feet ten inches if Riggs had to guess. A tiny woman who, oddly, resembled Cheyenne’s mother stepped out with him. She waved. Cheyenne’s father had made an excuse about why he had to miss the wedding, so this was the first time Riggs was able to look his father-in-law in the eye.
Riggs thought about the irony of a man not wanting his own daughter around because she looked too much like her mother but then marrying someone who did. Maybe Cheyenne’s assessment was misguided.
“Hello, Dad.” Cheyenne got out of the truck, but she didn’t make a move to hug her father and vice versa. Instead, she leaned against the truck and folded her arms.
Riggs joined her so he could keep an eye on things.
“Cheyenne,” was all her dad said in response.
Riggs walked up to his father-in-law and extended a hand. When her father took the offering, Riggs realized the man’s palms were sweaty. He shot a look of fear and regret at Riggs.
“Good to meet you, sir,” Riggs said.
“Same to you,” her father said.
“Hi, Virginia.” Cheyenne introduced Riggs to her stepmother.
“Ma’am,” he said after a hearty handshake.
“I’ll leave you alone. I just wanted to come out and say hello,” Virginia said.
Riggs started toward the driver’s side of the truck and was stopped by Cheyenne’s hand. So he moved closer to her and noticed the tight grip she had on his fingers.
“Dad, I need to get something off my chest,” Cheyenne started after sucking a breath.
“Oh,” her father said.
“I still need you in my life and you’re gone all the time. Most of the time, I can’t reach you and when I do leave a message you don’t get back to me for weeks. I’ve been married more than half a year, and this is the first time you’re meeting my husband. I just have one question...why?” She’d clearly done her best to stay calm, but her words rushed out anyway.
“Because I can’t stand seeing the disappointment in your eyes and not knowing what to say or do to make it better—just like when your mother died. I felt like I failed you by letting her die and I’m failing now.” He threw his hands up in the air. “Renting the RV was supposed to help me heal from losing the love of my life, but I’ve learned one thing. I can’t outrun the pain.”
“Then, stick around and deal with it. Be here for me and I’ll do the same for you.” Her voice hitched on the last few words.
Her father stood there for a long moment before making eye contact with her.
“Is there any chance you can forgive a foolish old man?” he asked. “Because I feel like I lost the two great loves of my life when she died. Her and you.”
Cheyenne released her grip on Riggs’s hand before charging toward her father and wrapping him in a hug.
“It’s never too late for forgiveness, Daddy.”
Riggs wondered if the same could be true for their relationship.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Can you stick around?” Cheyenne’s father asked when she finally released him. The torment in his eyes when she’d first seen him had softened. It was crazy how much they were able to clear up in one short conversation. Being face-to-face helped. It was so good to see her father’s face again.
“We have to take care of something first. But I promise to spend as much time together as you can stand once we clear something up,” she said. Her answer seemed to satisfy her father.
“I’d like to invite you and your wife to camp on the ranch. There’s plenty of room and you’d be closer to your daughter,” Riggs offered. It was a sly move because he would want her father in a secure location. She also believed Riggs was being honest about the two of them being closer. “I can call ahead and get you set up through security.”
Her father’s gaze bounced from Riggs to her and back.
“What do you think, honey?” he asked.
“I’d like it very much, Daddy.”
Now it was her father’s turn to beam. “Then, that’s what we’ll do.”
Cheyenne sighed with relief.
“I’ll get your father set up with directions if you’d like to say goodbye for now to Ms. Virginia,” Riggs said.
Right again.
Cheyenne disappeared into the RV after first knocking. Riggs was a whole lot better at navigating family. Of course, with five siblings, he had more experience.
“I’m really happy to see you, Virginia,” Cheyenne said.
“Well, it’s good to be here.” Virginia smiled through her surprise at the gesture.
Yeah, Cheyenne needed to get better about acknowledging her stepmother. Virginia made her father happy. Their relationship was different but that didn’t mean it wasn’t special. Cheyenne could see that now.
“I just wanted to let you know how happy you make my dad,” Cheyenne said. She imagined her father would be so much worse off without his new wife.
“Do you think so?” Virginia asked and it was the first sign of insecurity Cheyenne had seen.
“Yes. I really do,” she reassured her before adding, “My husband asked if you guys would like to camp at the ranch. The land is unbelievable, and I think you both would love it very much. I’d like it if you came.”
Virginia smiled. “I’d like that, too.”
Cheyenne said her goodbye as she exited the RV. Seeing her father and her husband standing there talking made her realize how much she wanted to be with Riggs. Could he accept her for who she was?
“We were just finishing up,” Riggs said to her.
“Virginia and I will be on our way as soon as I run the idea past her,” her father said.
“I just did. She was happy about it,” Cheyenne assured him. “And so am I.”
“We’ll head out, then, since your husband has made all the arrangements,” her father said.
“See you later.” Cheyenne gave her father one last hug before claiming her seat on the passenger side.
Riggs got behind the wheel and put the gearshift into Drive.
“You didn’t correct my father about being my husband,” Cheyenne said to Riggs. “Was that on purpose or were you just being polite?”
“I am your husband, Cheyenne. You’re the only one who can change that.”
“And what if this doesn’t turn out the way we’d hoped with Anya? Can you live with me not wanting to have children?” she asked.
“I married you and I meant it.” He barely got the words out when he slammed on the brakes. “Hold on a second.”
The entrance to the RV park was barricaded.
“Stay low,” Riggs warned as he slid down in his seat.
She realized he was searching for a possible shooter as he grabbed his cell and slid it onto the bench seat toward her.
“I have a group text with my brothers. Send out an SOS and let them know where we are,” he said.
“My dad,” she said, firing off the text.
Riggs put the vehicle in reverse and flew backward, kicking up one serious dust storm. “Text your father and tell him to get inside the RV, lock the door and stay put until you call him.”
Cheyenne did that next. Riggs’s phone started dinging left and right with promises of help. Her father agreed to do as she asked. And yet her pulse still skyrocketed as panic squeezed her chest.
“Do you have anything we can use as a weapon in here?” she asked.
“Not sure,” Riggs responded. “There has to be something around, though.”
She unbuckled her seat belt and then hopped in back. Keeping low, she rummaged around. There were tools that might come in handy. Nothing like bringing a wrench into a gunfight. Possible gunfight, she reminded.
“I found these.” She grabbed everyt
hing hard and metal that she could find, returning to the front with a fistful of options.
Riggs came to a roaring stop in front of her father’s RV. The dust cloud made visibility next to impossible.
Cheyenne’s cell rang, causing her heart to drop. She checked the screen. Her father.
“Hello, Dad. Is everything okay?”
“Someone’s here. He wants to talk to you and said you should come inside.” There was a mix of shock and fear in her father’s voice that drilled a hole in her chest.
“I’m coming. Stay put and don’t do anything to make him angry. Okay, Dad?”
Before her father could answer, there was a rustling noise on the line before it went dead.
As Cheyenne reached for the door handle, Riggs touched her shoulder. She brought her hand on top of his, needing the comfort of his touch.
“I’m not letting you waltz into a trap,” he said quietly. “I can’t lose you, too.”
His phone was blowing up, but he didn’t budge.
“I don’t know what else to do, Riggs. It’s my dad in there,” she said before issuing a sharp breath.
He nodded. “Give me a few second to think up a plan. Okay?”
“I don’t know how much time I have. If I don’t head out of here in a second, he might get trigger-happy,” she said.
“He was nervous before. His hand shook. He’s not used to this. I think we have time,” Riggs said.
“Yeah, but are you willing to bet my dad’s life on it?”
* * *
A SHOT FIRED.
On instinct, Riggs ducked. And then he snapped into action. He jumped out of his truck as Cheyenne bolted out the passenger side. Sirens pierced the air; the cavalry was on its way.
Was it too late?
Without hesitation, Riggs opened the door to the RV. Inside, Virginia was on her knees with her hands clasped behind her head. Hoodie stood behind Cheyenne’s father with the barrel of his gun pointed at his temple.
There was no sign of blood and that was the first bit of good news.
Cheyenne’s father had his eyes closed and he looked to be whispering a prayer. There was a look of resolve on his face, like he was ready to join his first wife.
Not today, if Riggs had anything to say about it.
“Stop,” Cheyenne said from behind him.
“You’ve gone too far. You keep poking around where you don’t belong.” Hoodie’s voice had a hysterical note to it.
“You took an oath to save lives, Douglas,” Riggs aid.
“How did...” The hood came off. The doctor would be considered attractive by most standards. He was a couple of inches taller than Cheyenne’s father. He had sandy-blond hair and tanned skin, with a runner’s build.
“Authorities know who you are, Kyle,” Riggs continued. “Don’t make this any worse than it already is.”
The doctor’s eyes were wild.
“Worse? It’s a little late for that.” He squeezed the trigger.
By some miracle, the bullet misfired. Riggs took advantage of the situation by diving headfirst toward Kyle. Riggs managed to shove Cheyenne’s father out of the way a second before crashing into the doctor.
The gun went off in a wild shot again as Riggs struggled for control. He wrapped his arms around Kyle and body-slammed him onto the floor of the RV. The tile shook like there’d been an earthquake. Kyle tried to wiggle out of Riggs’s grasp.
No dice.
Riggs clamped his arms around the guy like a vise. “You’re not going anywhere but jail, where you belong.”
“You’ll never get her back,” Kyle said through gritted teeth. He tried to point the barrel of his weapon at Riggs.
“The hell I won’t,” Riggs said. “My family won’t rest until she’s home where she belongs and you’re rotting in a cell for kidnapping my daughter and killing Ally.”
Cheyenne’s father snatched the gun out of Kyle’s hand unexpectedly. The older man took a couple of steps back before pointing the barrel at Kyle’s head.
“Keep moving and I’ll shoot,” he warned and the tone in his voice said he meant every word.
In the next minute, the RV was flooded with O’Connors. Colton zip-cuffed Kyle and tossed him in the back seat of his service vehicle. Cash stood next to Cheyenne while she hugged her father and comforted Virginia. The afternoon had been traumatic for both of them.
Riggs walked over to his brother Colton, who stood next to Dawson.
“Why?” Riggs asked. “What would make a successful, well-paid doctor sell babies?”
“A gambling addiction for one,” Colton said. “Once we got a name, we did some digging. He’s in over his head in debt with men who don’t take kindly to folks who can’t clear their debt. And Becca was in on the take.”
“Sonofabitch is willing to destroy people’s lives to feed his own addiction.” It had taken all of Riggs’s restraint not to knock the guy out. He wanted him to be awake and aware of where he was going...jail.
“That’s not all we found, Riggs. Caroline is alive and lives in Houston,” Colton said.
“What? When? How?”
“Garrett hasn’t stopped investigating and neither has Cash. I’ve been on it, too. We didn’t want to say anything until we were one hundred percent certain. The trail came out of the alpaca farm. Turns out Dad was on the right trail,” Colton said. “Arrests at the farm are being made as we speak.”
“That’s great news.” Riggs was almost speechless. He thought about another mother and child who needed help. Loriann and her son would be well cared for. Riggs would put the wheels in motion with the family attorney when he headed back to the ranch.
A dirt cloud broke behind a vehicle that was moving toward them, catching their attention before Colton could answer.
Instead, he put a hand on Riggs’s shoulder and said, “Go get your wife. We found something that belongs to you.”
Riggs’s pulse skyrocketed. He stared at his brother for a long moment before Colton urged him to get moving. He did, taking Cheyenne by the hand and bringing her to where Colton stood.
The vehicle Riggs recognized as Gert’s came to a stop. His brother’s assistant came out of the driver’s seat. Instead of moving toward them, she went straight to the back and opened the door.
Riggs caught his brother’s eye. Colton nodded. So Riggs turned to his wife.
“I love you, Cheyenne. I always will,” he began, turning her away from the vehicle so she faced him.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she looked at him the same way she had on their wedding night...with love in her eyes.
“I wouldn’t care if you couldn’t have children. I married you. Plus, there are other ways to have a family,” he said before locking gazes. “I want you to come home. I want to do better by you. I want to learn to talk to you when I think something’s wrong. What do you think? Is that what you want?”
He didn’t finish his sentence before she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“Yes, Riggs. I love you more than I could express in a thousand lifetimes. But I’ll take this one if you’ll give it to me,” she said. “I don’t want to hang on to the rope any longer. I want to let go and fall into your arms.”
“I love you with all that I am, Cheyenne,” he said. “And there’s one more thing you need to know.”
Confusion knitted her eyebrows together.
“My brothers found her,” was all he said. All he had to say before recognition dawned on her. “What do you say we go meet our daughter?”
More of those tears streamed now as Cheyenne nodded.
“Yes,” she said, repeating the word a few more times as he turned her around.
There Gert stood, next to her car. A pink bundle in her arms. A smile plastered on her face.
Home. Their daughter was finally home.
Cheyenne practically ran to Anya. Gert immediately handed over their child. Riggs followed and his heart swelled the minute Cheyenne turned around and beamed at him. He couldn’t be happier to have Cheyenne and Anya together with him where they belonged.
“Meet our daughter,” she said with the sweetest smile on her face.
The baby wasn’t the only one who was finally home.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Margaret O’Connor sat in her library on the velvet couch. This was the place Riggs could normally find her—the place she loved most in the house. She’d said countless times how at home she felt among her books. Now that the house was filled with new life and new faces, she didn’t spend as much time in the room as she used to. He saw that as progress, considering the innumerable hours she’d stayed here after her husband’s murder.
He glanced at the long line of his brothers waiting behind him in the hallway, Cash, Colton, Dawson, Blake, and Garrett. They all seemed ready. He knocked lightly on the door, not wanting to surprise her or catch her off guard. Not in her sanctuary.
“Come in,” her voice was less frail than it had been in the days after losing her husband. Finn O’Connor had left big shoes to fill on the ranch. Each of his sons, including Riggs, was now ready to take their rightful place on the ranch, working side by side as their father had intended when he’d built a successful cattle ranch all those years ago.
There was something very right about all of his brothers being home. Even Garrett was making the transition home with his new fiancée in a moment Riggs wasn’t sure he’d ever see. His brother had always gone rogue. He’d always needed to buck convention and do his own thing. Of course, it didn’t help matters that Garrett and Cash had been gas on fire for as long as Riggs could remember. Then there was Garrett’s relationship with Colton, more fuel to the blaze.
“I have company.” Riggs stepped inside the library, and then each of his brothers stepped inside the room. They made a half circle behind a very confused Margaret O’Connor.
No one wanted to miss this moment—a moment that had been thirty years in the making. Each of his brothers took a spot, hands folded in front of them like they were in church. This moment deserved that kind of reverence, Riggs thought, as emotion knotted in his throat. He figured his brothers were struggling just about as much as him, considering how many pairs of eyes were cast to the floor.
