Don Mitchell raised his hand in a gesture of acknowledgment but stayed at his post to speak to the next vehicle coming up from Tombstone way.
“What the hell you been up to, Kade?” Sal sauntered over and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “ ‘Bout time you get your lazy ass back to work.” His gaze flicked to Kelsey. His black brows rose and his mustache twitched. “Excuse me, ma’am. Didn’t see you.”
“Sal, this is Kelsey Nichols, a reporter from San Francisco.” Kade gave Kelsey a smile when he looked at her. “Kelsey, this is Sal Valenzuela, one of the biggest pain-in-the-ass agents there are.”
“Nice to meet you, Sal.” She reached across Kade to shake Sal’s hand. Kade’s gut tightened as she leaned close, the soft curve of her breast brushing his shoulder.
As Sal shook Kelsey’s hand, Kade scowled. He didn’t particularly like the way Sal’s dark eyes roamed over Kelsey.
After Sal and Chuck exchanged greetings, Kade nodded toward the checkpoint. “What’re you and Don doing at this CP today? Get transferred while I was gone?”
Sal shook his head. “No. Short staffed. Talk about one hell of a mind-numbing day.”
When he thought about the man responsible for smuggling illegal immigrants and drugs across the border, Kade narrowed his eyes. “Any new leads on El Torero while Eve been gone?”
“The man’s a ghost.” Sal shrugged. “I’m beginning to think he doesn’t exist.”
Kade checked the side-view mirror. “Car coming. We’d better head on out.”
“Get your ass on out of here.” Sal smiled in Kelsey’s direction, tipped his hat, and headed back to the checkpoint.
“Do they use that huge trailer to detain illegal immigrants?” Kelsey asked, finally addressing a question to Kade.
“No.” Kade fixed his gaze on Kelsey’s beautiful brown eyes. “The UDAs sit on the ground until we can ship them back to the border to process.”
In the most adorable way that made Kade’s heart rate pick up, Kelsey twisted her lips into a questioning expression. “What does UDA mean?”
“Our politically correct term for undocumented aliens,” he said, “sometimes referred to as illegal aliens, or just illegals.”
Kelsey’s expression went scholarly, as if she were making notes in her head. The shift was almost imperceptible, from wide-eyed girl in a new place to sharp-as-nails reporter. She’d probably be a bear in an interview, if she had a mind to eat her subject instead of stroke his ego.
Tombstone eased into view, rising off the desert floor like a mirage. Kelsey smiled and looked out the window, still giving off that combination business-pleasure attitude. “How did Tombstone get its name?”
“There’s an interesting story,” Chuck piped up as they drove through the town. “A prospector named Ed Schieffelin discovered rich silver veins in the Goose Flats area in 1877.”
As Chuck continued, Kade held back a grin. Chuck loved a good story. “That old boy named his first mining claim ‘The Tombstone,’ after soldiers told him the only thing he’d find in those hills was Apache Indians and his own tombstone.
“On our left,” Chuck went on, “is the Boothill Graveyard. So many of the folks buried there died suddenly or were killed with their boots still on, so it became known as Boothill.”
Chuck launched into a story about the town’s first mayor and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
“Fascinating,” Kelsey murmured, then looked back out the window. “Is that all there is to it? I think I missed the rest of the town.”
Kade grinned and said, “If you blink you miss it. From the highway there’s not a whole lot to see of ‘The Town Too Tough to Die.’ ” Kelsey smiled and Kade pointed to the gentle swells of land. “When I was a boy and Mom and Dad would drive through here, I used to imagine a dusty road replacing the highway, and wagons instead of cars. I’d picture gunslingers on horseback, plodding along the gritty trails, and prospectors mining for silver.”
“It’s so... empty... so open and free.” Her gaze traveled over the desert valley where it was easy to see as far away as fifty miles or more.
Kade glanced at her as she stared out the window, drinking in the landscape. “I can almost picture what you just said, Kade. Take down those telephone poles, get rid of the asphalt, replace the soil that was blasted out to make room for the highway, and nix the occasional passing car... I bet it would look much like it did over a hundred years ago.”
He smiled. So, she could see it. She did get a sense of how it was out here, half-old, half-new—just from this little car ride. Ms. Kelsey Nichols wasn’t just a big-city girl after all.
And he still couldn’t believe his luck, getting to bring her home with him.
***
Images whirled through Kelsey’s mind as she pictured what Kade had shared. She tried to imagine him as that little boy who made up stories about cowboys, outlaws, and prospectors whenever he was in this part of the country.
“What do you think of the Wild West?” Kade asked as they headed deeper into rural country.
“It’s beautiful.” Southeastern Arizona had a rugged magnificence she’d never imagined that captivated her completely. No wonder settlers came out west to start a new life in places like this. The land had a way of calling to a person’s soul and claiming it.
Clouds had built up around the mountains, but the sky in between was an endless cerulean blue. The final road they took was paved, too, but they had to cross several washes, some full of mud from flash floods.
Kelsey still couldn’t believe that she was in a vehicle with Kade, and that it was his house where she would be staying. Her attraction to him was staggering, but she kept reminding herself that men were men, and the memory of Davis was still way too fresh.
No more mistakes. And no mixing business with personal, either.
Her heart rate increased when they finally drove up a dirt road to a sprawling ranch home. It was an absolute oasis in the desert surrounded by enormous weeping willows, cottonwoods, and junipers. Nothing but ground-hugging mesquite bushes and tumbleweeds survived for miles outside the fenced-off yard, but inside the yard everything grew lush and green from the expansive front lawn to the extensive flower and vegetable gardens.
As they reached the ranch house, a black rottweiler bounded toward the vehicle, followed by a grubby little boy. Kelsey studied him with a reporter’s eye, sizing him up at around eight or nine. Kade parked the SUV, and as soon as he opened the door, the boy launched himself at the man.
“Dad! I missed you.”
Dad? Kelsey’s jaw dropped. Kade was a father? He had a son?
There was no doubt that boy was Kade’s, from the vibrant blue eyes to the chestnut hair, to the dimple in one cheek.
Damn it, Kelsey. Don’t go wide-eyed over a cute kid and a dog. And a cowboy hunk. You’re a reporter. A professional. You can do this.
She grabbed her purse and laptop bag, and followed the others out of the SUV.
As she stood beside the vehicle, the rottweiler sniffed at her jeans and slobbered on her shoes.
Even the friggin’ dog is cute. And I thought rottweilers aren’t supposed to be cute.
“Trent.” Kade gave the boy a fierce hug and set him back down on the ground. “I missed you, too, kiddo. Did you behave?”
“Yup.” The child nodded so hard his hair flopped into his eyes. “I did all my chores and helped Grandma in the garden, fed the pigs, and found a rattlesnake, but I didn’t get close to it, I ran and told Grandma and—”
“Slow down.” Chuck crouched down, eye level with Trent. “What’s this about a rattler?”
The boy squirmed. “I found it this morning and told Grandma and she chopped its head off with a shovel and she gave me the rattles. They’re really long and so cool, you wanna see?” He grabbed his dad’s hand and tried to pull him toward the house.
“Hold on.” Kade looked like he was holding back laughter at his son’s constant verbal stream. “Trent, this is Kelsey. She’s the reporter
who’ll be staying with us.”
The adorable little dynamo actually paused for a second and looked at her. “Whoa, you’re a girl. We thought you were a boy. Isn’t Kale a boy’s name?”
Kelsey grinned and extended her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Trent. My real name is Kelsey but I go by Kale C. for my work.”
He gave her a gap-toothed smile and shook her hand, and she noticed he smelled of bubblegum and dog. He would easily be as handsome as his dad when he grew up. “You wanna see my snake rattle?”
Chuck patted Trent on his shoulder. “Take Kelsey to the guest room, and then you can show her the rattle.”
“Okay.” The boy grabbed her hand and started for the house, hauling her along like he’d probably hauled his dog when the big brute had been a puppy. “How old are you? I’m nine. Well, almost nine. My birthday is in four days on the Fourth of July. It’s summer, so we don’t have school now. Grandma says there’s six more weeks until school starts and she can’t wait, ‘cause then she’ll get some peace and quiet. She calls me Taz. She thinks I’m like the Tasmanian Devil. Ever heard of him? He’s on Bugs Bunny. I watch it all the time on Cartoon Network.”
Kelsey laughed. “I’m twenty-five and I think Taz is a good nickname for you.”
“My dad’s old ‘cause he’s thirty-four now. But Grandma and Grandpa are lots older.”
“What’s this about your grandma being old?” came a voice from the porch before a mature yet youthful woman stepped through the screened door. She had the same blue eyes as Trent and Kade although her brown hair was streaked with gray.
Kelsey had a feeling she’d have a hard time holding back a smile around this kid whenever he was on a roll. “Grandma, this lady is Kelsey, the reporter who’s staying with us. She’s not a man, though, and she’s twenty-five. I’m going to show her my snake rattle after I take her to the guest room so she knows where it is.”
The woman clasped Kelsey’s hand in a firm grip. “I’m Sadie Turner. I see you’ve met the welcoming committee.”
Kelsey returned the woman’s warm smile and thanked her for her hospitality. “You look too young to be Kade’s mother,” she added, “and certainly not a grandmother.”
Sadie laughed, a genuine sound that made Kelsey feel comfortable at once. “I’m plenty old enough, and have the battle scars to prove it.”
Trent nodded solemnly. “Grandma’s real old, ‘cause she’s over fifty and Grandpa’s really, really old ‘cause he’s older than that.”
“Off with you, and show Kelsey her room.” Sadie gave Trent a playful swat on his behind. “And wash up. You’re filthy.”
“Okay.” He pulled Kelsey through the screened-in porch, then the glass-and-oak double doors of the house, jabbering all the way. Kelsey could tell he was the kind of kid who could wear a person out with his enthusiasm and chatter, but he’d already won a place in her heart.
The house was spacious, with exposed beam ceilings and acres of unglazed Saltillo tile. The furnishings were Southwestern and casual, the type of home where a person would immediately feel comfortable. Country music played in the background on a stereo in the family room. They passed a wood-burning stove that Kelsey assumed would work in the winter since the stovepipe climbed into the ceiling and the stove looked well-used.
Trent pulled her through a spotless kitchen that smelled of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls. They headed around a corner, then down a long hall, and he stopped at the first room.
“This is the guest room. Dad’s is that one right next to yours, and the one at the end of the hall is mine. Grandma and Grandpa’s room is way over on the other side of the house. Do you wanna see mine now?”
“Sure.” Kelsey tried to calm the nervous flutter stirring in her belly at Trent’s words.
Kade’s room, right here?
“I think he’ll be a good chaperone, don’t you?”
Kade’s voice startled Kelsey, so close his breath tickled the back of her neck, and she caught his earthy scent. She whirled, sending her elbow into his hard stomach. “Oh. I’m sorry. No—no, I take it back. You deserved that.”
He rubbed his side. “It’s dangerous startling you, darlin’.”
“Next time you might not be so lucky, cowboy.” She couldn’t help be mesmerized by those blue, blue eyes. She wanted to kiss him again, to taste him.
She shook her head, shaking the thoughts from her mind and turned away. “Hold on, Trent, I’ll take a look at your room once I put my bag and purse in here.”
Antique furniture of a deep mahogany filled the guest room. Cream brocade with a rose design covered the bed, matching drapes hung at the windows, and a beautiful Victorian lamp perched on the nightstand. It looked like a picture-perfect room at a bed-and- breakfast. A four-poster bed occupied the far side of the room, and she plopped her belongings beside it.
Kade followed, setting her two suitcases on the rose-colored throw rug as Kelsey turned to face him. For a moment neither of them moved.
The tension in the room tripled.
Emotions warred within her and she didn’t know whether to kiss him or kick him in the shin and make a run for it.
He winked, then headed out the door. “Let’s see that snake rattle, Trent.”
Kelsey didn’t have any problem showing interest in the rattle as Trent presented it to her. Although the thought of the rattlesnake that had once owned that rattle made her a little squeamish.
After they checked out the rattle, Trent grabbed Kelsey’s hand and took her on a tour outside the house.
***
Warmth stirred in Kade’s gut as he observed Kelsey with his son. She listened to Trent’s nonstop jabbering and looked suitably impressed at everything he presented to her, including Roxie the rottweiler, a dead June bug, and Rock, his pet turtle.
When Trent dashed off to search for one of the barn cats, Kelsey grinned at Kade. “You have a wonderful son. So much energy and utterly honest.”
“To a fault.” Kade returned Kelsey’s smile. “The kid doesn’t know how to lie. I wonder how charming you’ll find him once you’ve been around his endless talking for a while.”
“He might wear me out, but I can tell he’s one great kid. I’ve always wanted to have at least a couple.” Her voice went soft and her thoughts seemed far away. “But my ex-husband insisted we weren’t ready and he worried that I would get fatter.” She bit her lip and blushed, obviously embarrassed from letting something slip he was sure she hadn’t intended to.
“Your ex sounds like a stupid ass.” He thought about punching the shit out of a man he didn’t even know. “You’re perfect.” He put his hand on her upper arm and looked into her sensual brown eyes. “Personally, I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
“Thanks.” She shrugged away from his touch. “I’m not sure any man could truly love a woman as she is. I heard more than enough lies from Davis to convince me of that.” Her expression darkened. “Not to mention all the lies my father told my mother.”
Kade caught her hand, bringing her eyes back to him. “I’m not lying, and I’m not your ex or your father.” He squeezed her fingers. “They both sound like bastards.”
Kelsey looked startled, then laughed. “That’s them, all right.” He dropped her hand before she could pull away, and they walked through Sadie’s apple and peach orchard toward the barn. The air was completely still, a prelude to a monsoon storm. Thunderheads had built up all around the valley and it smelled of rain.
Her gaze drifted around the orchard, barn, and cattle pens. “How long have you lived here?”
“I grew up in this house.” He sidestepped a watering hose and sprinkler head hidden in the grass and made sure Kelsey didn’t stumble over them.
“When I graduated high school,” he continued, “I moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona for four years, then went into FLETC, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, in Artesia, New Mexico. Once I was officially an agent, I was stationed along the Texas border.”
; Kelsey ducked under the branch of an apple tree. “How did you end up back on the ranch?”
“When Trent’s mother died five years ago, I felt he needed his grandparents,” he said. “So I managed to get a transfer here and we moved in with Mom and Chuck for what I thought would be temporary.”
She glanced up at him and he met her gaze. “I’d have already built my own house on a stretch of property I own if Trent hadn’t needed his grandparents so much. I just couldn’t separate them with him being so young.”
“I didn’t mean to pry.” Pink flushed her cheeks. “About your wife and—”
He squeezed her shoulder. “You didn’t.”
“Dad Dad Dad Dad.” Trent charged toward them. “Come see. Come on, come on.” He grabbed Kade’s hand.
Trent led the way, pulling his dad toward the barn. “Wait till you see.” When they entered the dusty barn, Kelsey sneezed and Trent said, “Bless you. Come on now and see.”
He pulled Kade around the saddles and tack to a cardboard box in one corner as he continued his endless but endearing chatter. “Look, Barny had kittens. Lots of kittens. It took me a long time to find her, but I did, and I counted five kittens, and one is orange like her and two are black and I think one is calico, and the other is white.”
“Adorable babies.” Kelsey crouched next to the box, then sneezed. “The mama cat is beautiful.” Her eyes watered and she sneezed again.
“Cute kittens.” Kade stroked one of the rat-like things as the mama cat kept her narrowed gold-green eyes on him. “I think Kelsey is allergic to cats or the barn, so maybe we’d better scram.”
“I’m—” She sneezed. “Fine. Really—” Sneeze. “I am.” Sneeze.
With a laugh, Kade grabbed her hand and pulled her up. “Come on, Sneezy.”
Trent looked at his dad. “Kelsey’s like Aunt Dara. She always sneezes when she comes out to the barn, too. Come on. I wanna tell Grandma and Grandpa about the kittens.” The boy charged out the door and headed back to the house.
“I don’t think I’ve”—Kelsey sneezed—“ever sneezed so many times in my life.” Sneeze.
Kade: Armed and Dangerous Page 4
