Landon

by Delores Fossen

  She’d already gotten a couple of stitches on her forehead where Ward had hit her with his gun. Half of her face was covered in bruises, and there was way too much worry in her eyes. Of course, none of that worry was for her own injuries. It was for Courtney’s and his.

  “I’m fine,” Landon told her, something he’d already said a couple of times. Judging from the way she was nibbling on her lip, he might have to keep repeating it.

  “You were shot. Courtney was shot. And Emmett’s killer is still out there.”

  “The only thing that you left out is that Courtney and I are going to be fine.”

  The doctor had already told them that. Courtney had lost plenty of blood, but the bullet was a through-and-through, so she wouldn’t even need surgery. She’d been admitted to the hospital, though, for a transfusion, and Landon had made sure the security guard was posted outside her door. If that sniper, aka Emmett’s killer, managed to get away from Grayson’s team, Landon didn’t want the snake slithering into the hospital to try to finish off a job for his dead boss.

  “Are you going to be fine?” Landon asked Tessa the moment the nurse stepped away from him.

  She nodded, but he wondered if that was the biggest lie of the night. This nightmare was going to stay with her for the rest of her life, and it wasn’t even over yet.

  Landon got up from the examining table, trying not to wince. He pretty much failed at that. It felt as if he’d just gotten his butt kicked, but if he could have pretended he wasn’t aching from head to toe, he would have. Each wince caused Tessa to look even more worried.

  He shut the door and went to her. Not that he thought they needed the privacy, but his mind was still on that sniper showing up. Or at least it was on the sniper until Tessa leaned in and kissed him.

  Gently.

  Both of them had busted lips, so anything long and deep would have caused some pain. Even that light touch seemed to cause her to flinch, just a little.

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “Don’t be. You saved my life.” There were tears in her eyes now.

  “You saved mine, too.”

  And since he wanted to do something to rid her of those tears, he risked the pain and kissed her for real. There probably was some pain involved, but his body must have shut it out. Tessa’s, as well. Because the sound she made wasn’t one of pain. It was that silky little purr of pleasure.

  Landon might have just kept on kissing her if the door hadn’t opened and Grayson hadn’t walked in. Tessa tried to move away from Landon as if they’d been caught doing something wrong, but Landon kept his arm around her.

  “Are all the deputies okay?” Landon immediately asked.

  “Everyone’s fine. We caught the sniper,” Grayson said.

  Those six words made Landon feel as if a ten-ton weight had been lifted off his shoulders. And his heart. Even though one of the reserve deputies had been injured, none of his cousins had been hurt in this fiasco, and they had Emmett’s killer.

  Landon cleared his throat before he spoke. “The sniper’s alive?”

  Grayson nodded. “And he’s talking. His name is Albert Hawkins, a former cop. Once he heard Ward was dead and had fingered him for Emmett’s murder, I guess he figured if he talked, it might get him a plea deal with the DA or at least get the death penalty off the table.”

  Landon wasn’t sure he wanted deals to be made with his cousin’s killer, but as long as he spent the rest of his life behind bars and gave them some answers, then he could accept it. Well, he could accept it as much as he could anything about Emmett’s murder. And while he didn’t like that a killer would be giving them those answers, the man who’d orchestrated all of this—Ward—was past the point of being able to explain the hellish plan he’d set in motion.

  “Did Ward have Emmett murdered because of me?” Landon asked, and he hoped it was an answer he could live with.

  Grayson took a moment, probably because this was as hard for him as it was for Landon. “No. It wasn’t because of you. Ward sent Hawkins to kidnap Tessa so they could use her to find Courtney. Emmett showed up to talk to Tessa about Joel, and when he tried to stop the kidnapping, Hawkins killed him.”

  Tessa shuddered, shook her head. “So I’m the reason Emmett was killed.”

  Landon wanted to nip this in the bud. “No, he died because he was doing what was right.” Landon would have done the same thing in Emmett’s place. But it might take him a while to convince Tessa that this wasn’t her fault.

  “I wish I could remember,” she whispered.

  Landon hoped she didn’t get that wish. Judging from Grayson’s expression, he felt the same way.

  “Hawkins gave you a huge dose of drugs that night,” Grayson explained. “He said you were fighting like a wildcat, so he hit you on the head and drugged you and he’s the one who put that tracking device in your neck.”

  Landon gave that some thought. “So the plan was to let her go so that she’d lead him to Courtney?”

  Grayson gave another nod.

  Landon had to hand it to Ward—it was a plan that could have worked. Even if Tessa had remembered who’d murdered Emmett, she wouldn’t have necessarily connected the killer to Ward. Plus, Tessa had the baby with her, so Ward must have believed that Courtney would come for the child.

  But something didn’t fit.

  “Then who put Tessa in the burning barn?” Landon asked.

  “Hawkins. On Ward’s orders, though. After Tessa didn’t lead him to Courtney, Ward figured it was time to cut his losses and get rid of her. He didn’t want Tessa coming to any of us for help in case we figured out what was going on. So he used the tracking device to find her, drugged her again and put her in the barn.”

  “Any idea why he didn’t just kill me?” Tessa’s voice wasn’t exactly steady with that question.

  “Again, Ward’s orders. He wanted your death to look as if it was connected to Landon. That’s why he wrote what he did on the boulder.”

  It turned Landon’s stomach to think about how close Ward had come to making this sick plan work. If Landon hadn’t seen the burning barn, he might not have gotten to them in time.

  “Hawkins also admitted to putting the note on Emmett’s body,” Grayson went on. “That was Ward’s idea, too, he says. He also says Ward staged those injuries he got and murdered the other guy just so he could leave another of those taunting notes.”

  It was a good thing Ward was dead, because Landon wanted to pulverize the man for that alone. It’d been torture for Landon to believe he was the reason Emmett had died.

  “Please tell me you’ve arrested Joel for this deadly partnership with Ward,” Tessa said. “Or was Ward telling the truth when he said he was going to kill him?”

  “No, he’s dead, all right. It was set up as a suicide, but I think Ward was tying up loose ends.”

  And those loose ends included committing more murders tonight. Or rather trying to commit more. It was stupid that so many people had died to cover up a dirty federal agent’s crimes.

  “The cops did find something interesting near Joel’s body,” Grayson continued. “Proof of payment for the hit on a man named Harry Schuler.”

  Landon knew the name, and clearly, so did Tessa. She touched her fingers to her mouth for a moment. “One of the reasons I was investigating Joel,” she said, “was because I believed he murdered Schuler.”

  “And he apparently did,” Grayson verified. “I figure Ward had the proof all along and decided to leave it next to Joel’s body.”

  They might never know why Ward had done that. Perhaps to “prove” that Joel had been overcome by guilt from all the illegal things he’d done. But Joel wasn’t a man with that kind of a conscience. He might have had no conscience at all.

  “So with Joel and Ward dead, the danger is really over,” Tessa said.
But she didn’t sound overjoyed by that as much as just relieved.

  “It is,” Grayson verified, and he checked the time. “By the way, as soon as we caught Hawkins, I called the safe house and asked them to bring the baby. They should be here soon. I figured Courtney would want to see her daughter.”

  “She will,” Landon agreed.

  But Courtney wouldn’t just want to see the baby. She would take custody of her. As she should. After all, Courtney was the baby’s mother, and she’d been through hell and back to make sure Samantha was safe. Still, Landon felt a pang of a different kind. Not just because they’d all been through this nightmare but because the baby would no longer be part of his life.

  Oh, man.

  When had that happened?

  When had he gone from being married to the badge to missing holding a newborn? For that matter, when had his feelings for Tessa deepened?

  And there was no mistaking it—they had deepened. But just how deep were they? Deep, he decided when he glanced at her.

  “Are you okay?” Grayson asked him.

  Landon didn’t want to know what had prompted Grayson to ask that, but he hoped he didn’t look as if he’d just been punched in the gut. Though it felt a little like that. A gut punch that made him also feel pretty darn happy.

  Grayson tipped his head to Landon’s arm, which the nurse had just stitched. “You’re sure? You both look beat up.”

  They were, but Tessa and he nodded. Being beaten up wasn’t something Landon wanted to experience again anytime soon, but it could have been a lot worse.

  Grayson volleyed glances at both Tessa and Landon and hitched his thumb to the door. “I need to get back to the office. Will you let Courtney know the baby’s on the way?”

  They assured Grayson that they would, and Tessa and Landon went out into the hall as soon as Grayson walked away. Courtney wasn’t far, just a couple of doors away, but Landon had something on his mind, and he didn’t want to wait any longer.

  “Before all hell broke loose, you told me you were in love with me,” Landon said to Tessa.

  A quick sigh left her mouth. “I’m sorry about that.”

  His stomach dropped, and he stopped, caught on to her shoulder. “You’re sorry?” And yeah, his tone wasn’t a happy one.

  “I know how your mind works,” she explained. “Hearing that will make you feel obligated in some way, and that’s not what I want you to feel.”

  She would have started walking away if he hadn’t held on. He did remember to hold on gently, though, because her shoulders were probably bruised, too.

  “What do you want me to feel?” he came out and asked. Except it sounded like an order. So Landon softened his tone and repeated.

  And he kissed her, too, just in case she needed any help with that answer.

  When he pulled back from the kiss, she was looking at him as if he’d lost his mind. Which was possible. But if so, this was a good kind of mind losing.

  She kept staring at him as if trying to gauge his mood or something. So Landon helped her with that, too.

  “Tessa, do you want me to be in love with you?”

  Still more staring, but her mouth did open a little. “Do you want to be in love with me?” she countered.

  Hell. This shouldn’t be this hard. He was fumbling the words. Fumbling this. So he went with his fallback plan and kissed her again. This time he made it a lot longer, and when he felt her melt against him, Landon thought this might be the time to bare his heart to her.

  He was in love with her.

  Desperately in love with her.

  However, he didn’t get out the words before he heard the commotion in the hall. He didn’t draw his gun, though, because this commotion was from laughter. He soon saw the source of the laughter when Gage and Kade came into sight. Kade had the baby bundled in his arms.

  “Told you,” Gage said before they even made it to Landon and Tessa.

  Kade chuckled. “Yep.” Then Kade glanced at Landon and smiled. “Gage and I were just saying that it wouldn’t be long before you two were back together.”

  “And that caused you to laugh?” Landon asked.

  Gage shrugged. “We were just wondering if you’d have that thunderstruck look on your face when you realized you couldn’t live without Tessa. You got that look. And Tessa’s got that same look about you.”

  Landon glanced at Tessa, and he frowned. And not because he didn’t feel that way about Tessa. He did. But he wasn’t especially pleased that his cousins and Tessa had figured this all out before he did. Because Tessa did have that look on her face, and that meant he did, too.

  Well, hell.

  What now?

  Landon got that question answered for him because the baby started to fuss, and besides, Courtney had already waited too long to be with her daughter.

  “We can talk about this later,” Tessa said, taking Samantha from Kade. Gage dropped kisses on both Tessa’s and the baby’s cheeks, and his cousins strolled away, still smiling like loons.

  Landon gave the baby a cheek kiss, too. His way of saying goodbye. Tessa did the same before they opened the door to the hospital room. Courtney was clearly waiting for them, because the moment she spotted the baby, she got out of the bed. Since she still had an IV in her arm, Landon motioned for her to stay put, and they brought the baby to her.

  He could see the love, and relief, all over Courtney’s face.

  “Thank you,” Courtney said, her voice clogged with the emotions. “Grayson had the nurse tell me that the danger was over, but I didn’t know I’d get to see Samantha so soon.” Tears spilled down her cheeks, but Landon was certain they were happy tears. She tried to blink back some of those tears when she looked at them. “I can’t ever thank you enough.”

  “No,” Landon teased, “but you can let us babysit every now and then.”

  The moment he heard the words leave his mouth, he froze. It was that “us” part. It sounded a lot more than just joint babysitting duties.

  And it was.

  A lot more.

  “I’m in love with you,” Landon blurted out, causing both Tessa and Courtney to stare at him.

  “I’m guessing you’re not talking to me,” Courtney joked. She snuggled her baby closer, pressing kisses on her face.

  Since Courtney needed some time alone with the baby and since Landon didn’t need an audience for the more word fumbling and blurting he was about to do, he gave the baby another kiss. After Tessa had done the same thing and hugged Courtney, Landon led Tessa back into the hall.

  “You don’t have to tell me that you love me,” Tessa tossed out there before he could speak.

  “I have to say it because it’s true,” he argued.

  She stared at him as if she might challenge that, so he hauled her to him and kissed her. It was probably a little too rough considering their injuries, but Tessa still made that sound of pleasure.

  Landon suddenly wanted to take her somewhere private so he could hear a lot more of those sounds from her.

  “Here’s how this could work,” Landon continued after the kiss had left them both breathless. “We could be sensible about this, and I could just ask you out on a date. One date could lead to a second, third and so on—”

  “Or I could just remind you that I’m crazy in love with you, and we could skip the dates and move in together.”

  He liked the way she was thinking, but Landon wanted more. Heck, he wanted it all.

  “We could have lots of sex if I move in with you.” She winked, nudged his body with hers.

  He liked that way of thinking, too. Really liked it after she gave him another little nudge, but Landon wanted to finish this before his mind got so clouded that he couldn’t think.

  Landon looked her straight in the eyes. “How long will I
have to wait to ask you to marry me?”

  Tessa didn’t jump to answer, but she did smile. Then she kissed him. “Two seconds,” she said with her mouth against his.

  “Too long. Marry me, Tessa.”

  Landon let her get out the yes before he pulled her back to him for a kiss to seal the deal. This was exactly the all that he wanted.

  * * * * *

  Look for more books in USA TODAY

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  THE LAWMEN OF SILVER CREEK RANCH, coming in 2017.

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