Ruining the Rancher (Masterson County Book 3)

by Calle J. Brookes

  She turned her head and looked at him. She’d known he was in there the moment she’d walked in behind Nikki. Just known.

  Levi was looking at her, too. Pan could always feel his eyes on her and had from the very beginning. He might have said that he'd first developed feelings for her that day they'd almost lost Phoebe and Joel, but he’d looked at her before then. And she'd known it. It was time she stopped lying. To both him and herself. She'd never been as attracted to a man before as she was to Levi Daniel Masterson. "I have no idea what to do about it."

  Nikki leaned closer. "Have you ever thought about just—"

  The window two feet from where they sat shattered around them. Something hot and fiery shot across Pan’s arm, knocking her down into the hard booth seat. It was then she saw all the blood.

  39

  People screamed. Yelled for others to get down. He'd recognized the sound of gunfire the instant it had broken out. All he could think about was Pan. Getting to her. The three dozen people in the diner were either hunkered on the ground or racing toward the rear of the restaurant.

  Not him. Levi fought the crowd to get to the two women who had been the closest to the window. He reached the table and grabbed the first strawberry blonde he could. Pan’s pretty cousin Nikki. She was crying, and had lost her glasses somewhere. Without them he suspected she was completely blind.

  Someone's hands were there to take her from him. He looked up into Rowland Bowles’ face. "Take her, quickly. I don't know how badly she's hurt and she can’t see to get herself out of here.”

  "I've got her."

  Levi turned back. Pan and Nikki hadn't panicked, at least. They'd been small enough to huddle together underneath the tabletop instead of exposing themselves to more gunfire by running.

  But they had been directly next to the glass, and there was blood. A lot of it.

  Her cousin had been covered with it, and so was Pan.

  Levi fell to his knees beside her. "Pandora Claire, honey, look at me. Were you hit?"

  Tyler blue eyes blinked up at him. He’d never forget the terror in those eyes—or the relief when she recognized him.

  "Levi, I…" She blinked and pulled in a deep breath. And then, right before his eyes, she pulled herself together. His girl wasn’t a wimp, he'd give her that. "The bullet went through my arm, and I'm bleeding. The glass… I think your coat stopped most of it. It's my arm the got the worst of it. I think Nikki was hit. I need to check on her. Where is she?"

  Never had he been prouder of her than in that moment. Pan could hold herself together, of that he had no doubt.

  It was one of the things that had first made him fall in love with her that day. This girl was stronger than she looked, and he adored her for it.

  "Bowles has her. She’s getting taking care of."

  "Someone will need to call her brothers. Let them know."

  "Honey, I think the entire town knows by now. Joel's after the shooter, I’m sure. He'll catch him, and make him pay. I promise." Levi helped her pull his denim jacket from her shoulders. Glass fell to the floor. Her upper right arm was bloody, but she was moving it freely. He grabbed the napkin dispenser from the floor where it had been kicked in the chaos. He pulled several of the brown papers free and pressed them against the wound in her arm. "Come on, honey, let's get you over to Perci and Nate. Let them patch you back together again, okay?"

  She shocked the hell out of him when she threw herself against his chest and just clung to him for a very long moment.

  Levi scooped her up and carried her out into the street toward the approaching sirens.

  40

  Viv hadn’t been able to run away. Not with her father and his damned wheelchair blocking her path. She wouldn’t have been able to leave him, even if she could. How could she? He would have been completely helpless.

  And it had been over almost before it had truly begun. Viv was still shaking. Her father had been pushed out of the path of everyone, thank goodness. She’d thought it had been Levi, and that didn’t surprise her. He was quick like that.

  She looked around for him. It took her a moment to find him, even though the diner was small. So many people were in the way. Like always.

  Levi was pulling women from beneath the front table. Bloody women.

  Tylers.

  She fought a smile. She hadn’t missed when that damned Pandora had walked in.

  “Quit it! He’s not interested in you,” her father said harshly from near her elbow. “He wants that girl there and he’s the kind of man who goes after what he wants.”

  “He wants your ranch. I can give it to him.” She bit back the sharp words and the anger. Viv loved her father, she truly did. But in his last days he’d lost whatever filters he possessed. And he was making it clear how much she had disappointed him, yet again. All he’d wanted her to do was find a damned husband to help her run the ranch her father had worked his entire life.

  Because he didn’t trust she could do it. Hell, she didn’t want to do it. She wanted the money from it, and that was it. If she could just get Levi...

  But no. He wanted that girl.

  For now.

  41

  The prepaid cell rang. Only one person had that number, and he answered it quickly.

  “Hi, Viv. Where’s my money?” John paced back and forth in the old cabin while he waited for the answer. She’d ignored his texts for the last hour.

  He was conflicted—riding a high knowing he had taken a life, and terrified out of his mind.

  Those Mastersons and Tylers would be looking for the killer. And they were enough to terrify anyone.

  “You’re not getting it, you idiot.”

  “What do you mean?” John stopped pacing.

  “You hit the wrong Tyler. It was Nikki, you asshole. Pan is just fine. All wrapped up in Levi’s arms.”

  He winced. Still… “I need that money. And whatever else you got for me.”

  “Screw you. I’m not paying for something I didn’t get, and you can get your high from someone else.”

  It was the fear of losing his supplier that terrified John the most and he knew it. No one else anywhere near there could give him what he needed—not like Viv could. Combine that with the loss of five hundred grand…John would make her pay. Just like his brother Tom had wanted to make the Tylers pay for ruining his life. “Then I’m not keeping quiet about what you tried to pay me to do. What do you think Nikki Tyler’s brothers will think if they learn you told me to do it? You’d better hope the sheriff doesn’t find me soon, Viv. I’ll never forget this.”

  John slammed the phone to the ground, and stomped it beneath his boot. Damn her. He should have known Viv was jerking his chain.

  She’d pay. He’d make sure of it. Viv was going to get exactly what she deserved.

  It would serve her right if he got Pan Tyler away from Levi Masterson, all right. Give Viv exactly what she wanted—and let every Tyler and Masterson know exactly why he had done what he had done.

  See Viv get with Levi Masterson, then!

  42

  "Well, why the hell hasn't someone stopped him?" Levi knew he was being unreasonable, but as he paced the waiting room waiting for Pan to be sewn back together again, he couldn't stop himself. Joel had stopped by the hospital see how she and her cousin Nikki were doing. Levi had finally left Pan’s side, but only because Nate and Joel had ganged up on him. She was with his brother Nate and her sister, after all. And someone needed to speak with Joel.

  "I have men on it, Levi, but these things take time. You think I like this?"

  "Hell no, I know you don't like it, but it's fact. Someone could have been killed today. And everyone’s talking about how they saw John Rutherford out there! How am I supposed to just stand around and do nothing? Just what would you be doing if it was Phoebe?"

  "Exactly what I am doing. Or did you forget that Phoebe could be a target of this bastard, too?"

  "Or you could. All of us could. We need to find him and we need to sto
p him now." Before he hurt her again. Levi fought back the instinct urging him to get his ass right back next to her. To circle and protect. The way he was supposed to.

  "What's Nate saying? How is she doing?"

  "Stitches, and a damn scar. That's it. She got lucky. But the bullet went through her and lodged in her cousin’s collarbone. They’ve got Nikki back in surgery now." Nikki, who hadn’t done a damned thing to the Rutherfords in her entire life. Any more than Pan had. Or Phoebe or Pip or Perci. Levi looked at his brother. "Get men out there to find him, because you and I both know it's only a matter of time before the rest of those Tylers start hunting. Nikki’s brothers are going to be pissed. And start hunting themselves.”

  Joel winced. Both men knew Levi was right. Nikki Tyler had three older brothers, and that whole gaggle of cousins. Men who wouldn’t be content to just sit back and do nothing.

  "Just don't do anything stupid, Levi. Focus on keeping Pan safe, and that's it. Let my office focus on finding John Rutherford.”

  "You'd better find them fast, Joel, before I saddle up right next to those Tylers and hunt for him myself. That's my girl in there, and I'm not going to risk her ever again."

  43

  Pan sat on the hospital bed and listened to what he had to say. She'd rarely seen Levi angry like that, but it was hard to miss the fury. For her.

  Perci leaned closer, as she applied the bandage to the wound on Pan’s arm. "That guy's got it bad for you, Pan. And I don't think he's joking around. What are you going to do about him?"

  She didn't have a clue.

  Her sister finished with her arm, and Nate gave her a shot of antibiotics and a painkiller. The painkiller left her head a little woozy, but she was determined to leave the hospital on her own two feet.

  Levi was waiting for her, like she'd known he would be. In the diner, in that nano-second after she realized what was happening, her first thought had been for him. Of whether he was okay, or hurt, or even dead.

  Her second thought had been that he was coming for her. She had just known that Levi was coming for her. And he had. He had been there in the very instant she looked up. Like he always was. She’d counted on that.

  That mattered.

  What she was going to do about it, she didn't know. Maybe it was time she revised her plans a little? Maybe it was time she just made a choice then stuck with it?

  Maybe it was time… She didn't have to work for Levi any longer. She could go back home, help her father and Perci with the kids.

  It would definitely work. It might make money tight, but she could find something online to do. There wasn't anything holding her back, if she wanted to leave. Just him.

  But, it was time for truth. Pan didn't want to leave him. He looked at her when she walked closer, and he stepped away from his older brother. He and Joel really did look a lot alike.

  But there was something about Levi that just made him stand out for her. Wasn't it time she acknowledged that? Wasn’t it time she just stopped hiding behind her plans, and being so afraid? She knew why she had become so obsessed with planning out her future over the last two years. Since they'd lost their mother. It was all about control; she hadn't been able to control what had happened two years ago, any of it. But she controlled her plans now.

  Although… it almost seemed like those plans were starting to control her. She didn’t know how much longer she could live like that.

  But she would not find her answer in anyone else other than herself. That was just the way it was going to have to be.

  Pan held her hand out to him; knowing he would meet her halfway. He reached for her instinctively, just like she had known that he would.

  44

  She was quiet; Levi didn't force her to say anything. He wanted to ask her how she felt, how she was, if he could do anything to make her feel better, but he didn't. A wise man knew when it was best to just wait. Adrenaline had crashed for both of them, no doubt. He'd probably have more nightmares, this time of finding her bloodied and dead in the midst of the diner. He knew it. He loved this woman, every day just made that more and more clear to him. Every time he had almost lost her pounded that into his head and heart completely.

  He damned well loved this woman. It wasn’t about sex or attraction or Tylers and Mastersons. It was about him and her and how much he loved her. Period. The depth of that love had finally hit him today when he’d seen all that red.

  He pulled the truck into the drive and parked in front of the house. Pan had dozed off on the drive. No doubt Nate had given her something to make her sleepy. Levi headed around the front of the truck and pulled her door open quietly. It was easy to scoop her out and hold her close for just a minute. He stood there in his front yard, staring down at her for the longest time.

  Until someone touched him on the shoulder; a soft brush that startled him. He turned slightly, his arms tightening around the woman who meant the world to him.

  Phoebe stood there, a look of compassion and understanding in the blue eyes so much like Pan’s. Other than the hair color, Phoebe resembled Pan the most of the other sisters. Same sweet round little face, same big blue eyes, same killer expression when they smiled. He blinked. Sometimes it was hard to look at her and Joel when they were together.

  His brothers Joel and Matt were the luckiest guys in the world. He knew that. And so did they.

  His hold tightened even more. He could've lost her today. Just what that meant sent him shaking.

  "Get her inside, I've got the guest bed ready. We’ll let her sleep tonight; the morning is soon enough for questions… For both of you."

  He looked at the sky, it was nowhere near time for him to hit the hay. There was work to be done. There always was. "I need to head to the barn, check on the bulls. Swing by the calves. Their mamas."

  Phoebe nodded, as she held open the front door for him to carry her sister in. "I've already started dinner; make sure you're in time to eat. I'll watch over her for you, I promise." There was something in her tone that told him she did understand. And that she approved. That it was just a given that he loved her sister. Because it was right.

  45

  When she woke, there was a handsome man sitting in the chair next to her bed, snoring. He’d changed into his customary sleep clothes—those gray shorts again—and nothing else. She half suspected if he didn't live with a bunch of people, the man would sleep in the nude. A small smile hit her lips at that. Especially as she studied his body closely. She had brothers, she knew what men looked like—well, she knew what teenage boys looked like. And she had all those cousins, it's not like she was naïve. She may have only kissed one, but she knew what men looked like.

  Levi was a fine example of the masculine shape, of that she had no doubt. His arms were strong, his chest and abs were well defined, and the thinnest line of dark hair ran down to disappear beneath his waist line. Her fingers tangled, she half wished she had the right to touch.

  She'd seen Pip and Phoebe touch their husbands before, casually, easily—even for Pip, who was extremely shy—and at that exact moment, she envied them the right they had to touch them and they cared about.

  She cared about Levi; that she would never deny from this moment on. When she had realized that he was in there as well, that he could have been dead just yards away from her, something in her had shifted. Changed.

  Make her see things a little bit more clearly.

  Levi’s eyes opened, and then he was looking right at her. “Honey, how are you feeling?”

  “Like someone shot me.” She didn’t want to talk about her arm. She wanted to feel him hold her. Pan took a deep breath, then held her hand out. To him. “Levi…will you hold me for a while?”

  She didn’t have to ask twice.

  46

  Levi wanted nothing more than to hold her, hold her as tight as he possibly could. This was his world right there. And he had almost lost her.

  Josh Tyler had positively identified John Rutherford as the man who had shot out the Ma
sterson Diner window. Pan and Nikki had been the most injured, but four other people had been hurt in the mad panic that had happened immediately after.

  Pan and Nikki could have died. No one had realized it at the time, but the bullet that had lodged in Nikki’s shoulder had just nicked an artery. The girl could have bled to death. Would have, if Bowles hadn’t carried her to the ambulance himself.

  It could have been Pan.

  That’s all he could think about. “Honey, I…I should go back to my own room, before I do something you’re not ready for.”

  “Shouldn’t it be my job to decide what I am ready for—when I am ready for it?” Her tone was even, direct. As was her gaze. Pan wiggled her thin little fingers at him. Luring him. “Come here. I really need you to hold me, remind me that we are both ok. Together.”

  Her fingers trembled and that told him the truth—Pan was serious. And still frightened. Of him? Levi’s gut tightened. That was the last thing he wanted.

  “Baby, are you afraid of me?”

  She shook her head. “No…not of you.”

  “Of?”

  “This. You, me. A bed. What could happen next. What I want to happen next.” Her fingers wrapped around his and she pulled lightly.

  Levi went, his heart suddenly pounding at what she was implying. But…he didn’t want his girl rushing into anything she wasn’t ready for because of what had happened in that diner. He didn’t want her feeling pushed at all. “Honey, what are you asking? I know this isn’t a part of your plan.”

  “No. It wasn’t. But…I think it’s time my plan changed. I want…to plan with you.”

  He needed no more encouragement than that.

  Levi wrapped his arms around her and showed her just exactly how much she meant to him. When they were finished, she redressed—this time in his shirt—and cuddled close to his chest.