by Robin Perini
The questions cloyed at the base of her neck. She recognized why he asked, but each query felt like an underlying accusation. “Don’t you think I’ve racked my brain, gone through every possibility? And just so we’re clear, I haven’t dated anyone since I learned I was pregnant with Dylan. He’s my only focus.”
“And before? Maybe someone who didn’t want to break up? A stalker?”
“I hate to go against the stereotype of what you see about New York women on TV and in the movies, but I was more focused on my education and proving myself in my career than in serial dating.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice.
The more she justified her life, the more the fury bubbled deep in her belly. “This is getting us nowhere.”
He winced. “You’re right. I’m not a cop, I’m a rancher. We need professional help.”
Courtney tightened her hold on Dylan. “Why am I afraid I’m not going to like what you’re about to say? Please don’t tell me you want to call the police.”
“Not the police, but a friend. He works for a company called CTC. Covert Technology Confidential. They’re local. I trust them, and they take...unusual jobs. On the down low. CTC has the expertise we need to identify who wrote that note.”
Her entire body shivered. Were they really going down this path? “What if all the guy wants is the money? What if we gave him the money and he does go away? Wouldn’t that be safer?”
“Do you really believe that?”
“I want to. I know you don’t want to give in to blackmail, and part of me agrees. But the part of me that’s desperate to protect Dylan thinks we should pay.” There. She’d finally spoken the words aloud.
With a solemn nod of his head, Jared contemplated her quietly for a few moments. “I understand. But I have to ask this. Could you live knowing he threatened to kill Dylan, wondering if tomorrow is the day the abductor might come back with more threats, more requests? Or that he’ll succeed?”
Jared’s words were stark and harsh. She couldn’t stop the chill settling at the base of her spine. “Of course not. I don’t want to look over my shoulder the rest of my life. I don’t want to be terrified Dylan won’t come home from school one day. You see it on the news and wonder what you’d do if the worst happened to you. Yesterday the fear became all too real. It’s a nightmare I can’t escape.”
He didn’t respond, and she realized it was her call. She twisted her hands in her lap. Both were such a huge risk. “You really think your friends can help?”
“I do. From what I’ve seen, they have experts working for them that I wouldn’t bet against.”
She studied his face, his strong jaw. She recognized the determination in his eyes. She might not know Jared well, but something in that intense gaze, in the loyalty Velma had showed him convinced her to believe in him. She sucked in a long, slow breath. “Okay. We’re in this together. Call them.”
Jared gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder, strode across the room and picked up the landline. He dialed a number. “Ransom. It’s Jared King. I need your help. And I need your word you’ll keep it very quiet.”
While he spoke to the man he’d convinced her to place her faith in, Courtney shifted Dylan in her arms. Poor baby. He was down for the count. She slipped his blanket from the diaper bag and placed it on the thick rug before laying him down. His face looked so sweet, so innocent. She shuddered at the flash of the memory of yesterday. She could have lost him. She almost did. Right now, she’d never felt more vulnerable.
Part of her wanted to run away from the world, just disappear, but that would solve nothing.
A loud knock sounded at the door. Roscoe walked inside. She placed her fingertips on her lips and nodded down at the sleeping baby.
“The men have surveyed the immediate area. Nothing suspicious,” Roscoe said in a low voice, eyeing her with skepticism.
His loyalties were clear. She didn’t blame him. But she wouldn’t allow him to get in her way, either.
Jared held up his hand and finished his conversation. “I’ll see him when he gets here.” He hung up the phone and turned to Roscoe. “Léon from CTC will be here later today. Make sure he has everyone’s full cooperation.”
Roscoe straightened, a scowl twisting his countenance. “Can I talk to you for a few minutes? Alone.”
Jared gave the man a quick nod. He pulled out a Glock from the desk drawer and slipped it into his waistband. “I’ll be right back.”
They disappeared through the door. She had to wonder if he had a weapon hidden in every room. Right now, that didn’t seem to be a bad idea.
“I don’t think Jared’s foreman likes me,” she whispered at the sleeping baby.
Velma hovered in the open door. “Faith isn’t Roscoe’s forte, and he’s definitely not subtle. He doesn’t like anybody he doesn’t know, but if he takes your side, he never wavers. He was foreman for Jared’s daddy, and when Mr. King passed on, Roscoe watched the place until Jared could come home from the Army to take over the ranch. He’s made it his job to keep the boy from working or worrying himself to death like his father. He’d do anything to protect Jared.”
“And I’m someone who came here with trouble in my wake. I get it,” Courtney said.
“You don’t know her!” Roscoe’s shout filtered from the other side of the house. “She’s after the money. Just like—”
A door slammed shut and the angry words muffled.
Velma gasped.
Courtney’s eyes widened. Just like who? Dylan squirmed on the blanket, letting out a small cry. Within seconds his lungs burst into a scream.
She scooped him up, but he had that I’m-not-happy-and-you-can’t-placate-me-’cause-I’m-hurting look. She dug into her bag for the numbing cream for his teeth and rubbed some on his gums, then slipped him some baby pain reliever. “There you go, Jelly Bean. It’ll be better soon.”
Just as Dylan calmed a bit, Jared burst into the room.
“What’s wrong with him?” he asked, his voice edged with worry. “Does he need a doctor?”
The front door slammed. Dylan howled.
Courtney winced. “He’s teething. It’s normal, but uncomfortable. The medicine should start working soon.” She met Jared’s gaze. “Is there a safe place I can put Dylan down for a nap? I think you and I need to settle a few things.”
“About more than you realize,” Jared said.
He glanced over at Velma. “See if you can’t do something with Roscoe. I’ll show Courtney their room.”
“Old coot,” Velma muttered, slipping out of the room.
With a sigh, Jared picked up the blanket from the floor and grabbed the diaper bag. “Let’s go.”
He led her down a wide hallway. She placed her hand on his arm and he paused. “Am I going to be a problem for your foreman? I could talk to him.”
The tic returned to Jared’s jaw. “He’ll get over it.” He nodded at a door on the left. “That’s my room. You’re across the hall.”
He clearly didn’t want to continue the conversation. Courtney would have preferred to leave it, but she had to ask. “If I’m going to stay, I need to know that Dylan will be protected.”
“Roscoe’s got a hot head, but he’s never let me down. He won’t now.”
“Forgive me if I reserve judgment.” Truthfully, the man’s feelings didn’t matter. She wouldn’t be letting her guard down around anyone. Not until the blackmailer was caught.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” With a quick push, Jared opened the door to a perfectly decorated, perfectly neat and tidy guest room. Her luggage and Dylan’s car seat sat in one corner. The queen-size bed dominated the space, but it would definitely do.
“There’s an attached bath,” he said, stepping aside so she could enter. “If you retrace our steps and hang a right, you won’t miss the kitchen. When I’m not around, Velma can help you find anyth
ing you need.”
Courtney entered the room. “It’s lovely.” She pushed the comforter toward the end of the bed. Dylan still whimpered in her arms.
She sent Jared a sidelong glance. “It may take a while to get him to sleep. He’s pretty fussy.”
He backed away from her and settled in the doorway, with his shoulder propped against the jamb. She paced back and forth. Slowly Dylan grew limp in her arms. She expected Jared to get bored and leave, but he simply stood and watched her every move.
What was that expression on his face? Longing? Sadness? A little of both?
Once Dylan’s breathing evened out, she laid her son in the center of the bed and slipped pillows beneath the fitted sheet on either side of him to create a makeshift crib.
“You’re resourceful.”
Courtney shrugged. “I can’t take credit for the idea. The hospice nurse who took care of my mom used the trick to keep her from rolling out of bed.”
“I’m sorry. Did you lose her recently?”
“A lifetime ago. I was ten. Brain cancer.”
“Losing a mother is hard,” he said, his voice laced with understanding.
“You, too?”
“Car accident when I was just a little older than Dylan. That’s when Velma came to live here.” He paused, his gaze focused on his son. “I guess we both know what it’s like to live without a parent.”
“Seems so.” Courtney sent him a sidelong glance. His hooded gaze reminded her of that night at the Waldorf. She’d been sitting alone, not intending to speak with anyone, and when he’d entered the bar, her heart had skipped a beat.
He’d been everything she’d dreamed of in a fantasy. One too many drinks had given her the courage to sit on the barstool next to him.
He’d been wary at first, but something about him. She’d asked him a simple question. His favorite drink. The rest of that night they’d simply talked. He’d asked her about her favorite New York attractions and why. They’d connected about the important things. The importance of family ties, of honesty, of how they both felt as if they’d been born in the wrong era. How disposable the world seemed.
That night she’d felt...complete. For the first time.
She placed Dylan’s favorite blanket on top of him, reassured herself he was safe. She shifted her weight. “I know we need to talk more, but I can’t leave him. I’d be checking on him every five minutes.”
“What if you could watch over him from the other room?”
“You have a camera?”
He returned a few minutes later with a small wireless device and pointed the lens at the bed.
After a few seconds he held the phone up to Courtney and an image of Dylan sleeping filled the screen. “Better?”
Courtney gripped the cell. After Dylan’s birth she couldn’t count the nights she’d spent watching over him, terrified of making a mistake. Of missing something, of not being enough for him. She’d felt so alone. Eventually she’d worn herself out. That’s when Marilyn had stopped her on the elevator. The grandmother of nine had held her hand and told her it was going to be fine. Courtney had burst into tears, and Marilyn had saved her sanity, agreeing to watch Dylan every day. From that moment until yesterday Courtney had felt confident that her baby was in good hands.
And now... Marilyn was gone, losing her own life protecting Dylan.
Courtney was alone again. Except for Jared, and she still didn’t know exactly what that meant.
With a tight grip on the phone she followed him to the study. He gestured to the couch and she sat down.
“Before you start, I want you to know I was planning to tell you about Dylan,” she rushed to explain. “I tried to find you when I realized I was pregnant, but the hotel wouldn’t give me your name.”
Jared grimaced. “They wouldn’t give me yours, either.”
“You tried to find me?” Courtney couldn’t quite believe it. They both knew what had happened that night.
“I went out to get us breakfast. When I returned, you were gone. The concierge wouldn’t say anything.”
She flushed. “I thought you were sorry... Why didn’t you order room service?”
“I needed to think. What happened between us was...”
“Unexpected?” she finished with a small smile.
“Very.” Jared shifted in his chair. “My accountant forced me to buy that suit to meet with some bigwigs from a company who wanted me to sell off half the ranch. I hated that suit. It wasn’t me. I needed some air to figure out how to tell you that the man you drank tequila with wasn’t the man you thought.”
She smoothed her dress. “I have to admit I was surprised when I found out where you lived, what you do for a living. When I met you in New York, you fit right in.”
“Maybe for a day or two. I missed the sky the moment the plane landed,” Jared admitted. “Are you disappointed? In me?”
How was she supposed to answer that? She could only be honest. It was all they had between them. “More like stunned. You acted like you belonged at the Waldorf as much as here.”
“The tequila didn’t give me away?” he asked.
“I wasn’t drinking white wine, now, was I?” She settled back against the chair, foggy memories of the night filtering through her mind.
His hand touching hers on the bar. The moment he’d tucked her hair behind her ear and her breath had caught. The second she’d leaned into him and when she’d turned her head he’d kissed her for the first time.
The racing of her heart when he’d whispered an invitation she couldn’t refuse.
Even now she flushed. She could never have imagined herself falling for a man in a few hours, and yet, she had.
He grinned, his eyes crinkling as the smile reached his eyes. “Hardly.”
This was the Jared she knew. Quick wit, give and take. He’d challenged her that night, seducing her with something special, something she’d never felt with the men she’d dated. Only now did she realizing it was the cowboy in him. Who knew a big city girl could melt for a country boy the way she had. She’d wanted him, and she hadn’t been disappointed. In anything. “I’m a quick learner,” she said. “That was a first for me.”
“Doing shots?” Jared raised a brow. “Or falling into the arms of someone you didn’t know.”
She winced at the truth. “Both.”
“Me, too,” Jared said. “We couldn’t be more different.”
She glanced from her Chanel dress to his jeans and Western shirt. “True. But the moment I found the note I was relieved you lived across the country and nowhere near my world. Dylan is safer here than in New York. We’re both safer with you.”
“I wish I were sure about that.”
* * *
JARED LOOKED AWAY and the room went silent with shock. He hated seeing the uncertainty on Courtney’s face. He hated revealing the truth.
She clutched the phone. “We are safe here, aren’t we?”
“It’s complicated, but we committed to being honest with each other.”
From the moment she’d told him Dylan was in danger he’d mulled over the idea that he should send her and Dylan to CTC. Ransom had protected his location with the security of a military complex. They didn’t know who they were dealing with. Whoever it was, they were dangerous.
He leaned forward in his chair, resting his arms on his jeans. “I’ve been having some trouble with the guy who owns the ranch north of here. I don’t think he’d go so far as to drag you into our family feud, but he’s unpredictable. Last week someone dug up the posts on a fence bordering the property. Several dozen of my cattle wandered onto his land. He’s a loose cannon, volatile even. His goal is to drive my family off this land.”
Courtney’s knuckles whitened on the phone and she stared at her son’s image through the screen, not meeting Jared’s gaze.
“I have the sheriff looking into the vandalism, but the investigation is going nowhere.”
His statement jerked her head up. “If the blackmailer finds us here, if he sees the sheriff—”
Jared held up his hand. “I’m withdrawing my complaint. I’ll give the sheriff some excuse and deal with the Criswells on my own. Who knows, maybe if I back off, they’ll get bored with these destructive pranks.”
Jared was 99 percent certain the Criswells were responsible. He wasn’t sure if it was Ned or Chuck or both, though. Ned had always been a greedy SOB. The bad feelings between the Kings and the Criswells had been going on since Ned and Jared’s father competed for the quarterback position on their high school football team.
After his father’s death, the feud hadn’t died. When they’d discovered oil on the King property, the old animas had reignited with a vengeance.
Too much money made enemies of acquaintances as well as friends.
Jared should probably have dealt with the Criswell issue on his own in the first place. Too much like five years ago, when Alyssa had disappeared, he’d counted on the law. After the vandalism, he’d called Blake Redmond, who’d taken over as sheriff for his father. Blake had investigated. Ned, of course, had denied any involvement in tearing down the fences between the two properties. There’d been no proof.
There still wasn’t, but the Criswells were the only ones who had anything to gain.
Courtney rose from the sofa, pacing back and forth. “Maybe coming here was a mistake.” She turned the phone around, providing Jared an unfettered view of his son. The baby lay sound asleep, and completely vulnerable. “I just don’t know. There are too many variables. What am I supposed to do, Jared? I don’t have anywhere else to go. But I have to ask. Can you protect us?”
Her words sliced at his gut, much too close to the five-year-old wound that had never fully scarred over. This time would be different. This time he had friends who could do more than law enforcement ever could. He crossed the room, took her hands in his and looked deeply into her eyes. “I know you have no reason to believe in me, but I promise you, we’ll get this guy. I’ll do whatever it takes to make certain you and Dylan are safe.”
