Lassoing The Last Dance (Double Dutch Ranch; Love At First Sight Book 4)

by Mary J. McCoy-Dressel

  Was this going to be where she died?

  She slammed one palm against the wheel and pressed on the accelerator. Nothing. Roxanne searched for her phone. The car behind stopped. A man got out and raised a rifle to his shoulder and just stood there. Without a doubt—her nightmare began all over again. No. No. This can’t be happening! A cold fear swept over her. One of them had never been caught? This only happens in freaking movies! She dialed Randy.

  Glass shattered as he busted the window with the butt of the rifle. Glass covered her. Her cheek stung. “Get your ass out of there, Roxanne.”

  Nate? No way! Fear choked her. Leaning forward to block his view, she attempted to stick her phone into her pocket, but he yanked her out. She wiped at the blood on her face. “What is going on? I t-thought you didn’t have anything to do with w-what h-happened to m-me.”

  He slammed the door then shoved her against it and held her there with his hand against her throat. God, help me! Please. Not this again. As quickly as he held her, he released her. How far would she get if she ran? “Leave me alone, you jackass. What’s this about? Nate?”

  He leaned the rifle against his shoulder. His knee pressed into her thigh. “I’m not done. You’re still breathing.”

  “What? You were involved after all.” She damned herself for letting her guard down. Any minute her stomach would heave. Where could she go? Her thoughts of escaping were out of control. She didn’t know if the call to Randy went through.

  “I had nothing to do with what happened to you. I sat back and let the other ordeal play out. Whoever the hell they were nearly took care of the job for me. How lucky can one man get to have someone else take the blame?” A low and demonic snicker snarled from his throat.

  If she had learned anything about survival, this time she wasn’t going down without a fight. She had the flat heeled shoe today. “You’ll have to shoot me in the back,” she said, as she kneed him with all her might and took off running. Her eyes adjusted to the blackness. She wouldn’t get far. Staying to the side of the road worked to her advantage, close to the edge where she could disappear. His footsteps came closer. Go away!

  “How far do you think you’ll get? You can’t run from me, Roxanne.”

  “You’re a liar! I hate you.” He was right. She came to a complete stop and faced him. “Not very far, thanks to your friends who did this to me.”

  “I had nothing to do with what happened to you. Do you honestly think I can’t take care of my own—”

  Lights shone off into the distance as someone turned onto Rocky Road, but they were too far back to be of any help at this moment. She could be dead and carried off by wolves before they got here.

  He strode toward her, and she backed up. “You aren’t as brave as you think you are, Roxanne.” Nate removed the rifle from his shoulder and pointed it at her. She halted. “You look pretty in my crosshairs, even handicapped.” He lowered the rifle. Again, he walked toward her, stopped in front of her, and laughed like a nut. “How ironic, huh?”

  Roxanne slapped his face and attempted to do it again before he caught her wrist, twisting it in the process until she succumbed before he broke it.

  He clenched a handful of her hair. The tighter he held her, the closer he pressed his body into hers. Night sounds brought it all back, and she grabbed his hair and pulled.

  “Why’d I ever marry you?” She took hold of the hand that held her hair and dug her nails into his flesh until he let go, and she fell to the ground.

  “Good question since you cheated on me—”

  “I never cheated on you. Never! Where’d you get such a stupid idea? That’s why you hate me so?” She had to stall.

  “I followed you to Canyon Junction on one of your so-called trips to see Nora. Yeah, Nora all right. Saw you in town with some long-haired guy. Holding hands across the table, too, in public where everybody knew but me.”

  “Rob? No, he’s just a friend and he’d been there with his girlfriend. Maybe you should’a stuck around long enough to see the truth instead of jumping to conclusions. A friend, Nate. Cheating on you was enough for you to want to kill me?” Roxane got up from the ground. “You’re nuttier than I knew you were.” She had to distract him long enough for the car in the distance to come closer.

  “You were with him again after you moved here. Same place. Same table and same hand holding. Say good-bye to lover boy down the road, too. You’re playing both of them.” Again, he pointed the rifle at her. “Because he’s next. Too bad he hadn’t died back there in the barn but seems someone—namely you, bitch, saved him.”

  She kicked at him while screaming for him to release her. “Lover boy down the road isn’t only my lover. He’s my husband. Take that, you jealous, psychotic maniac! See, long hair is just a friend. You were wrong. Wrong! You’re wrong about it all. We’re divorced, you crazy fool.”

  The car came up faster than she had anticipated. Randy? Nate dragged her off the road and pushed her to the ground. “Shut up!”

  He put down his rifle and pulled her hair back to raise her head. Was it Randy’s truck? The cab lights and roll bar? It had to be. Don’t leave! But wait… He pulled beside her truck, got out, and ran up to the window. She squirmed trying to get away or make noise. Just one scream was all she needed to get out. One scream. The pistol pressed harder. He’d shoot if she didn’t remain silent.

  “Roxanne?” Randy called out.

  Nate held her firm with his handgun pressing into her spine and his hand over her mouth. Her gaze flicked around. Randy called her name again, and Nate dug the barrel even harder until her spine hurt. Still, she fought to get free with no luck. The door shut, and the glow from the side of the truck told her Randy had found her phone. He got back in his truck and drove away.

  NO! Come back…

  Nate let her go for a moment and she jumped up to run, but he grabbed her prosthetic leg, pulling her back as she tumbled to the ground. Her hand fell right across the rifle he had earlier put down. Think fast. After all day, the prosthesis dug into her swollen stump, and him yanking it didn’t help. She had one chance to make a move.

  Nate grabbed the back of her shirt to yank her up, and she brought the rifle with her. “You think I’m an idiot? You got nowhere to go.”

  Clutching the rifle to her chest, out of his sight, and still wriggling to get free of his hold on the back of her shirt and hair, she growled out, “You’ll pay for this.” Oh, God, help me get this right. “They’ll all know it was you.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I have an alibi all set up. They’ll think one of Kim’s guys is still out there. This minute, there’s a hot little number who’s in bed with me at a hotel near the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, if anyone asks. We’re on our pre-honeymoon. We got airline tickets to Las Vegas.” He pushed at her again. “Walk into the desert, Roxanne.” He released the hold on her and shoved her forward. She gripped the rifle with both hands.

  She turned, swung the rifle with all her might, and slammed it against Nate’s head. He hit the ground hard and didn’t move. She leaned over to check his pulse, but he clenched her wrist. Roxanne bit his hand and got up to run toward the road, but somehow Nate stumbled closer.

  “Roxanne? Where are you?”

  Randy’s voice. Oh, God, thank you. “Over here!” Nate gained distance and was close now. She played it over in her mind first, spun around as quickly as she could. Roxanne fired the rifle and stumbled back…

  “Bitch!” Nate tackled her to the ground and covered her mouth. She wriggled out of his hold, crawled, and picked up the rifle from the ground. She couldn’t say where her strength had come from, but she needed every ounce… “Here, Randy!” Nate took off in the opposite direction, and she crawled away as a bullet whizzed over her head.

  “Roxanne, get down.”

  “Randy. He ran off.”

  She ambled toward him as another shot rang out. Randy fired off three rounds in return and ran up to her. “Come on, hurry.” He slid his arm around her wais
t, rushing her along toward his truck parked down a ways. “He who?”

  “Nate! I bashed him in the head with the butt of the rifle. I don’t think he’ll get far. He’s bleeding.”

  “He’s involved with them? I never trusted him.”

  “No, but he has his own agenda. A great big misunderstanding and a jealous bone.”

  Randy shook his head. “Son of a damn bitch.”

  “When we get to the truck head out of here. I’ll hold him off. Call the sheriff.”

  “Where’s my phone? I can barely walk. Something went wrong with my prosthetic. It isn’t fitting right. The pin, I don’t know…”

  He passed her his phone. “You can do this. Here. Call for help, but not until you get clear.” At the truck, he opened the door. “Hurry up. Get out of here.”

  She took his hand as he assisted her up into the truck. “What are you going to do? Come with me.”

  He laid the rifle on the front seat. “Roxanne, get the hell out of here.” Another shot rang out, close this time. “Go!” Another shot.

  The windshield shattered, and a tire was shot out with the next shot. “Bastard! Come on.” Randy lifted her out of the truck. “Go around off the road. Lie down,” he whispered as they bent down beside the truck. He handed her his second gun. “Kill his ass if he comes this way. Don’t move when you get around there. Do it, Roxanne. Keep your head down.”

  ***

  Randy fired off a couple rounds to cover her. He made his way back to her truck and knelt, listening. His heart slammed harder with each beat. Thick saliva made it hard to swallow. His hand tightened on the semi-automatic pistol, and his finger eased to the trigger. “Come on out, you chicken-shit coward.”

  “Lover boy? Is that y-you? Come on n-now. You don’t have to…die…t-too…”

  He crouched down and made his way to Nate’s car, around the back, and off the road. Still listening, he tried to place where Nate was but, more than likely, he was doing the same thing—trying to hear where he waited. Randy tossed a rock to his right. In his mind, he had to decide right now what he’d do. He’d never wanted to be in this position again.

  Roxanne would never be free unless Nate was out of the way. Randy checked his breathing. His extra magazine was in the truck. How many shots had he fired? He counted them in his mind. Five rounds out of eleven. Six were left in his Glock.

  A groan sounded nearby and then a thud. He crawled closer, got up slowly to charge, but Nate lay sprawled out on the ground, his face bloody. He didn’t move. Shit.

  The sound of sirens tore down the road and vehicles slid to a stop. Randy secured Nate’s handgun then dragged Nate’s unconscious body onto the road. “You just got lucky, asshole.” He held one hand up when the deputies got out of their cars with guns drawn. “Whoa, guys, I got it under control.” He handed Nate’s weapon to the sheriff and told him Nate’s rifle was in his truck. He’d been robbed of knocking the shit out of this asshole, but he was glad Roxanne got one over on him.

  “This is Nate Evers again. He came after Roxanne. This proves we foiled his plan the night he was at her house.” Randy breathed hard while looking around to where he told Roxanne to wait. He rushed toward her when she made her way to the road with her arms held open. “It’s okay, honey.” He wrapped her up tight in an embrace.

  “Did I kill him?”

  “He’ll be all right. How in the hell did so many lunatics get involved?” he asked rhetorically.

  She explained, “Nate sat back watching it all unravel. He waited for one of them to kill me. All his threats toward me before I left him were real. Kim’s men failed, so he decided to do it himself like he had planned all along. He was going for you.” She succumbed to his arms, and he used all his might to swathe her in his safe hold.

  “You did good. Nora came out to tell me you didn’t show up at the Double Dutch. She said you weren’t answering your phone. I figured time got away from you, then I saw your missed call with no message.”

  “Just hold me.”

  “I pictured you dancing with music blaring and you couldn’t hear your phone. Why’d you go back to the ranch?”

  “Knowing I’d be on my feet all evening with prep, I had come back here for different shoes. I was on my way back when he came up behind and rammed into me.”

  Sheriff Thompson came up to them. “Come sit in my vehicle. We’ll need you both to come to the station to give your statement. How’d he get whacked in the head?”

  Neither of them spoke at first, but then Roxanne said, “It was him or me.”

  “Self-defense. Do you need medical care, Roxanne?”

  “I’ll be fine, Sheriff. Thanks to Randy—my…” She covered her face with her hands. “Thanks to this heroic fella.”

  “I’ll need a tow truck,” said Randy. “She’ll probably need a flatbed. He rammed her off the road. It looks like she’s stuck in a rut.”

  “We’ll take care of it. You two can ride with me to the station when they get your vehicles squared away. I never liked that guy. He’ll be in my jail for a long while.”

  Roxanne hugged herself. “I was never wrong about Nate, but after the chaos with Kim, I had hoped I was wrong.” Roxanne shook her head, sobbing.

  “Dear God, Roxanne,” said the sheriff as he opened the rear door to his vehicle. “What is wrong with people these days? Divorce isn’t good enough anymore?”

  EMTs drove away with Nate. A deputy followed. “We’re not all assholes, Sheriff,” said Randy, assisting her inside. “Most of us are decent folk.” He slid in the seat beside Roxanne and trembled. “Come over here. Do you need to get your leg looked at? You said something went wrong.”

  “I’ll take care of it at home.”

  “Sheriff, we need to follow my truck to the ranch. Take hers to Dewey’s Collision in town. Nate’s can burn as far as I care.”

  “The hell with his car for tonight. I already arranged tows.” Sheriff Thompson took a seat behind the wheel and took notes with a foot still out the door.

  It’d been a while since he sat in the back of a sheriff’s car. The interior had changed a lot since then. “Don’t try to walk. I’ll carry you in like I did after we got married.”

  She shushed him. “Don’t let Leon hear you.”

  The sheriff took his notepad and went over to Nate’s car. Soon flashes went off as he took pictures.

  Randy slipped his arm around her and placed a kiss against her temple. They sat in silence.

  Roxanne released a big breath and laid her head against his shoulder. “Thank you. Those two words don’t seem like enough. I saw you drive on past after you stopped at my car. He had me pinned to the ground.”

  “Shh.” His body shook inside. His hands involuntarily balled into fists. He needed to hit something, and he needed to fucking scream. Randy squeezed her closer in protect mode. He glanced out the window at the first tow truck driver who pulled up beside them. The sheriff hailed him over to Randy’s truck.

  Roxanne entwined her fingers with his hand resting around her shoulder. “I’ll be forever indebted to you.”

  He observed the cut and the dried blood on her face. “It’s what husbands do. Well, it’s what the right husband does.” Randy lifted her face and kissed her, and then he opened the door. “Let’s get these trucks accommodated. We still have people to explain this to at the Double Dutch. I’ll break the news to Nora that we can’t make it.”

  “We’re going to make it. I’ll change clothes. We can’t disappoint them. Your sister came a long way to be here this evening, and right now she’s stranded at the ranch with strangers.”

  “And you’ve been traumatized. Brooke isn’t a stranger in Canyon Junction. She’ll find her way. You don’t have to do this.”

  “Yes, I do. I’m not giving in to the wrong-doings in life. I still have a life to live. Let’s not tell them about this until after the party. I don’t want them to look at me with pity.”

  “Do you think this will remain quiet? We have to tell the
m when we go back to the ranch. At least family. You deserve the love they have for you, whether it’s pity or concern.”

  She sighed but agreed. “They’ll make me go home. I know they will.”

  “So be it.” Randy got out to check the goings-on with their vehicles.

  The trucks got hooked up, and the sheriff drove him and Roxanne to the ranch. While his got unloaded, Roxanne hobbled into the house on his arm and he left her to change. On the way back outside to change the tire, Tristan called. “Hey, we’ll be there in about an hour and a half. Better bring out the whiskey for anyone not pregnant.”

  Tristan chuckled. “Yeah, Nora, Brenna, and Brooke. What the hell you talking about, Randy? Why so long?”

  He’d not be chuckling later. “We have to deal with some things right now. Y’all, including me, are going to need a strong shot. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  “Is Roxanne all right? Nora worried when she couldn’t get a hold of her. She’s been nagging me to call you, but you didn’t answer, either.”

  “Yeah, everything’s good. Tell Nora she’s okay.” Randy rolled his eyes. Was she okay? He hung up and went back inside. Roxanne sat on the chair in the bedroom, her head in her hands, and she cried while his heart toppled.

  He knelt in front of her. “Just now hitting you? I’ll call and break the news to them now.”

  Sniffling, she took a tissue from the side table to wipe her eyes and another to blow her nose. “No, we’re going. I need a minute to pull myself together and change. Where’s the sheriff?”

  “He’s out there talking to the driver. I’ll ask Leon about doing the statement tomorrow. Dammit, we don’t have a vehicle to drive.” Randy peered at the throw rug over the wood floor. Standing, he brought Roxanne to her feet. “Unless you want to ride the bike over to the Double Dutch, we’ll have to go with Leon. There’s nothing like wind blowing through your hair, and a rumble between your thighs on a go-to-hell night.”