12-Alarm Cowboys

by Cora Seton

  *

  Skye was in the kitchen, trying out the new cupcake recipe she’d picked up last night on the internet—chocolate with a bacon and marshmallow cream filling—when Dane came in. He’d avoided her since Jax left, so she fully expected him to walk right past her and grab something from the fridge, then walk out straight back out without saying a word. But after getting a soda, he walked over to the island where she was working.

  “Mind if I try one?” he asked, motioning to the last batch of cupcakes she’d just taken out of the oven.

  “Sure, go ahead. Careful though, they’re still a little hot.”

  He nodded and unpeeled the wrapper, taking an insanely large bite and chewing it as if the filling was room temperature. Then he raised an eyebrow. “Hey, this is actually pretty good.”

  She knew she shouldn’t let it, but for whatever reason, his surprised tone pissed her off so bad she almost threw a marshmallow covered spoon at him.

  “You don’t have to act so shocked,” she said. “I realize you think I’m an idiot for quitting my job to bake cupcakes, but I do know what I’m doing.”

  Her brother looked like he was about to argue, then had the decency looked contrite. “I didn’t mean it that way.”

  She tossed the mixing spoon back in the bowl so hard that some of the filling slopped over the side. She ignored it. “Then how did you mean it, Dane? Because I’d really like to know.”

  She expected him to get defensive. It’s what he’d done any time she called him out about anything since they were kids. But he didn’t. Instead, he gazed at her with a sadness in his eyes she’d never seen before, not even when their parents had died.

  “I just meant that I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I know I haven’t been the kind of brother you needed since Mom and Dad died, but I really tried.”

  Skye stared at him, dumbfounded for a moment. Then she ran around the cupcake covered island and threw her arms around her brother, squeezing him tightly.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” she demanded. “You’re the best brother a girl could ever have.”

  Dane laughed as he hugged her back. “Yeah, right.”

  “You are,” she insisted.

  He pulled away to look at her. “I know I said some really shitty stuff when you came back to Dallas. I’m sorry about that, too. But I’m even sorrier about shipping you away to college right after Mom and Dad died without ever asking if it was what you wanted.”

  She felt tears burn her eyes, and quickly blinked them back. The day Dane had put her on a plane for college had almost been as bad as the day they’d lost their parents. Hearing he’d been hurting just as much made her feel like a bitch for thinking all the terrible things she had about him.

  “Let’s just forget about that, okay? It’s in the past.” She gave him a small smile. “Besides, I understand why you did it. You thought it would be best to get me away from home and all the bad memories. I get it.”

  Dane shook his head. “I wish I could look you in the eye and tell you that’s why I sent you off to college, but I’d be lying to you, and to myself.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He picked up another cupcake, but instead of eating it, he stared at it pensively. He was silent for so long, she didn’t think he was ever going to answer. But finally, he took a deep breath and looked at her.

  “I didn’t ship you off the college for your benefit, Skye. I did it for mine. Because every time I looked at you and saw how unhappy you were, it was a reminder that Mom and Dad were dead because of me.”

  Skye reeled back as if her brother had slapped her. Dane was home when the fire had started, but that didn’t mean he was responsible—even indirectly. She refused to believe that.

  “Don’t say that,” she pleaded. “The fire was an accident. It was nobody’s fault they died. It was just a stupid, horrible accident.”

  “The fire was an accident. Faulty wiring.” Dane’s mouth tightened. “But what happened afterward was all on me.”

  Her brother looked so torn and broken right then that her heart broke for him. It was obvious he’d been carrying this pain around for a long time. She only wished she understood why.

  “Dane, what are you saying?”

  He turned his attention back to the cupcake again and carefully peeled off the wrapper. Like he didn’t want to waste any of the cake by letting it get stuck to the paper.

  “I was in the basement playing video games when I smelled the smoke,” he said softly, not looking at her. “I thought mom had burned something in the oven, so I didn’t pay any attention. Then I heard the flames. I didn’t even know flames had a sound until that night, but they do. When I ran upstairs, the whole first floor was on fire. I still don’t know why the smoke alarms never went off—nobody ever figured out that part. I shouted for Mom and Dad, yelling for them to get outside.”

  He stopped to wipe tears from his eyes with the heel of his hand. “I was sure they heard me, so I ran outside. I didn’t see them right away, so I ran around the whole house. That was when I realized they hadn’t come out, that they were still in there. I ran back inside and tried to get up the steps, but it was too late. The fire had run up the walls and collapsed the whole landing, crushing the stairs.”

  The tears he couldn’t seem to shed ran freely down Skye’s face. She put her arm around her brother’s broad shoulders. “None of that was your fault, Dane. You did all you could. No one could have made it up those stairs, even in full firefighter’s gear.”

  He shook his head. “I could have gotten up those stairs and gotten to them in time if I hadn’t panicked and run out of the house first.”

  “You were barely out of high school, Dane. You did what any eighteen-year-old would have done. You shouted for Mom and Dad to get out of the house, then you got out yourself. I never held you accountable for their deaths. Nobody did.”

  “Maybe not, but I held myself accountable,” he said. “After becoming a firefighter and talking to some people, I realized how stupid that was. But back then, every time I saw you staring off in the distance with tears in your eyes, or heard you crying in your bed at night, all I could think was that it was my fault. So, when people told me that Mom and Dad would have wanted you to go to college, I figured that would probably be best for both of us if you left Dallas, but especially me. That way I wouldn’t have to look at you and remember what I did.”

  Skye wiped the tears from her cheeks with her fingers. “Why didn’t you ever tell me any of this?”

  He looked at her, his eyes still wet. “Probably the same reason you never mentioned you’d rather make cupcakes than work on Wall Street—because we were both so caught up in our own issues that we didn’t bother seeing things from the other’s perspective.”

  She gave him a wry smile. “We’re some screwed up siblings, aren’t we?”

  He laughed and gave her a hug. “Yeah. But I think we’re getting better. And your cupcakes really are good. Mom would be proud.”

  Skye liked to think so.

  Dane leaned back against the island, watching as she frosted the rest of the cupcakes. For the first time in almost forever, they simply talked—about college, why she’d left her job on Wall Street, and how the events with their parents’ death had made Dane want to become a firefighter. It was an amazing few hours. Skye felt like she was meeting her brother for the very first time.

  After his fourth cupcake, Dane announced he was going to check outside to make sure everything was quiet. Skye thought that was an unnecessary risk, but knew she’d never talk her brother out of it. They might be in a good place after their heartfelt conversation, but Dane still wasn’t going to take that kind of advice from his little sister.

  “Be careful,” she warned. “And take your cell phone.”

  “I will.” He grabbed his cell from the counter. “Keep the door locked.”

  Skye finished cleaning the mixing bowl and set it in the dish rack to dry, then opened Jax’s laptop so she c
ould do some detailed break-even analyses of her newest cupcake. While it tasted great, she needed to figure out how much it would cost to make based on the ingredients, as well as how much money she could expect to make by selling them. It wasn’t nearly as much fun as baking, but it was just as important to her new business as how good a cupcake tasted.

  She was so wrapped up in the numbers she didn’t hear her brother come back until he knocked on the door. Beside her, Rodeo was immediately on his feet, his ears lifted and his eyes trained on the door.

  “It’s okay, boy,” she told him as she slid off the stool. “Dane just forgot to take the key with him.”

  Rodeo must have wanted to see for himself because he walked to the door with her. Grinning, she undid the lock and opened it, a smart-aleck remark on her lips, only to jump when she saw that it wasn’t Dane.

  “Aiden! Oh my God, I thought you were dead!”

  Opening the door wide, she threw herself into his arms. Tears filled her eyes. She was so relieved to see him alive and okay. Blinking, she took a step back, then grabbed his hand and tugged him inside as she closed the door. Beside her, Rodeo growled.

  “Rodeo, this is Aiden,” she said, reaching down to pat the dog on his head. “He’s a friend.”

  Rodeo growled again, this time baring his teeth. Aiden tensed.

  She gave Aiden an embarrassed look. “Sorry. He’s never like this. I’ll go put him in the bedroom.”

  Skye hooked her fingers in Rodeo’s collar and gently but firmly led him away from Aiden. Rodeo resisted, barking the whole way to the bedroom and refusing to take his eyes off Aiden. When she finally got him inside, she ordered him to sit and told him to behave, then closed the door.

  Aiden was standing where she’d left him, still looking a little nervous.

  “Sorry about that. Rodeo is usually so good with people.” She studied his face. He looked pale and his eyes had dark circles under them, like he hadn’t slept in days. “Aiden, what happened between you and Jordan? The cops in New York told me that you were missing. Someone called them to say you and Jordan had gotten into a fight at his apartment. The police thought he killed you.”

  “He tried.” Aiden ran his hand through his curly, dark hair. “Jordan’s out of his mind, Skye. After you left, he went crazy, saying he was going to come down here and kill you. That if he couldn’t have you, no one could.”

  She shuddered. Jax and Dane had been right. From what Aiden said, it sounded like Jordan was more far gone than any of them had thought. She was just grateful Aiden hadn’t been hurt.

  “I need to call the police and tell them that Jordan is definitely in Dallas.”

  She turned to go into the kitchen, but Aiden caught her arm.

  “We don’t have time. Jordan’s already on his way here.”

  “How…?”

  Aiden shook his head. “I don’t know he found you. He must have followed your new boyfriend from the fire station. Maybe even your brother. Who knows? Right now, it doesn’t matter. We need to get you out of here before he shows up.”

  He tightened his hold on her hand and pulled her toward the door.

  “Aiden, wait! I can’t just leave. My brother’s here.”

  Aiden glanced over his shoulder at her, but didn’t stop. “Your brother’s fine. I talked to him when I first got here. He’s waiting for us outside.”

  Skye let him lead her out the door and down the steps to a dark blue minivan. If her head wasn’t spinning, she would have laughed at the idea of Aiden driving a minivan, even if it was a rental.

  They were halfway there when she realized Dane was nowhere in sight. She slowed her steps as worry began to overwhelm her. What if Jordan was already here? What if he’d hurt her brother?

  She looked around, her eyes lingering on her brother’s truck before turning to Aiden. “Where’s Dane?”

  Aiden practically dragged her the rest of the way to the minivan. “He must have gone in the barn to get something. I’ll find him. Let’s get you in the van first. I don’t like you out in the open like this.”

  He hit a button on his key fob and opened the sliding door on the passenger side, then shoved her in the second row of seats and leaned in to buckle her seatbelt for her. What the hell? She wasn’t a five-year-old.

  “I need to borrow your phone,” she said. “I have to let my boyfriend know what’s going on.”

  Aiden’s clicked her seat belt into place, his hands stilling on the metal as he lifted his head to look at her. “You mean Jax? We can call him as soon as I get you someplace safe.”

  Skye was about to say okay when something struck her. “How do you know Jax’s name?”

  Aiden stared at her for a moment, then looked away. “You mentioned him to me a few times back in New York.”

  Ducking out of the minivan, he slammed the door closed, then ran around the front of the vehicle. Instead of going into the barn to look for her brother, though, he opened the driver’s door and got in. Suddenly, everything that had felt so right a mere sixty seconds ago now felt completely wrong.

  She’d never told Aiden or anyone else in New York about Jax. Not even her girlfriends. While she’d always harbored a serious crush on him, his name had absolutely never come up in conversation once. Why would it? It’s not like Aiden would have been interested in hearing about a hunky cowboy from Dallas with six-pack abs and irresistible dimples.

  A wave of suspicion crawled up her back. She slowly reached down, unbuckling her seat belt as quietly as she could. “Aren’t you going to get my brother, Aiden?”

  He glanced at her in the rearview mirror as he put the keys in the ignition. “He can meet up to us later. I need to get you out of here.”

  The suspicion gripping her was edged with fear now. She locked eyes with Aiden in the mirror. “How did you know I was at the ranch?”

  He tore his gaze away from hers, but not before she saw his dark eyes harden. “Jordan told me before he left New York. He called your brother. Dane said you were staying with some guy you knew back in high school. I think that’s what really set Jordan off and made him come after you, knowing you were sleeping with another man.”

  Her heart dropped into her stomach. Dane said Jordan had called the day after the fire at the hotel. If her ex-boyfriend had started the fire, he would already have been in Dallas, which meant Aiden was lying his ass off.

  It also meant Aiden was the one who’d tried to kill her and Jax. No wonder Rodeo didn’t like him.

  Aiden must have realized she was onto him because he reached for the door lock button at the same moment she grabbed the handle of the sliding door. If she hadn’t already unbuckled her seat belt, she wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in hell of making it.

  Skye hit the ground outside the van and was running for the barn before Aiden even got out.

  “Skye, stop!” he shouted. “Don’t go in there!”

  She ignored him and kept running until she got to the barn where Jax kept the farm equipment. She looked around wildly for her brother, but all she saw was a gigantic tractor, lawn mowers, and every kind of power tool imaginable. The place smelled to high heaven with gasoline and grease, and she had to fight back a cough.

  “Dane, are you in here?” she shouted.

  When he didn’t answer, she called his name again. Still nothing.

  She ran toward the back of the barn, becoming more convinced with every step that her brother had never come in here, when she rounded the side of the big John Deere tractor and tripped over Dane’s body.

  Skye screamed as she hit the floor, not in pain but out of terror that her brother was dead. She pushed herself up from the dirt and scrambled over to Dane. She knew from the first-aid class she’d taken in college that she shouldn’t move him because she could hurt him even more, but she gently rolled him over onto his back anyway. She had to know if he was alive. Tears spilled onto her cheeks when she saw the blood flowing from a gash along the left side of his head. But then she saw his chest slowly
rise and fall, and her heart almost exploded with joy.

  She pressed her hand to the wound, hoping to stop the blood, when Aiden came around the tractor. She lifted her head to glare at him.

  “Why did you do this?” she demanded. “I thought you were my friend, damn you!”

  “I was your fucking friend,” he ground out. “But I wanted to be more than that!”

  Skye was still reeling from that when Aiden took a coil of rope from a hook on the wall and advanced on her. She tried to defend herself with one hand while keeping the other pressed to the wound on Dane’s head, but Aiden grabbed her arm and dragged her away from her brother.

  She fought like crazy, trying to punch him with both fists, but as mad as she was, she wasn’t nearly strong enough to do any damage. Aiden caught her flailing arms and tied her hands in front of her, then shoved her back against the wall of the barn so hard she fell. She hit the ground hard, the breath exploding from her lungs.

  She lay there gasping for air, trying to twist her wrists free as Aiden yanked her arms above her head and tied the end of the rope to a hook on the wall. Then he stood there glaring down at her.

  “Do you really think I spent all that time convincing you to dump that jackass Jordan just so you could come back here and jump into the bed with that walking cliché you’re sleeping with?”

  He took a step toward her and she couldn’t help but flinch. He immediately stopped and held up his hands in what he probably thought was a placating gesture. But it was hard to think of him as calm and reasonable when he’d just tied her up and hit her brother on the head.

  “When you told me you wanted to quit working in investments and start a bakery, I thought you’d do it in New York,” he said. “I was ready to help you, figuring we would do it together. I’d been waiting for years for you to see that Jordan was just using you, and when you finally did, you just up and left.”

  She was tempted to point out that he had encouraged her to chase her dreams, then decided that wasn’t a very good idea. “You killed Jordan, didn’t you?”

  The sudden change of subject seemed to catch Aiden off guard for a moment. But then he shrugged. “He didn’t really leave me much choice. I stopped by to talk to him and the bastard said he was getting ready to fly down to Dallas to beg you to take him back. I had to kill him to protect you from falling for his crap and getting sucked back into his life. I stuffed him in the trash chute in his apartment building. They’ll be lucky if they ever find the body.”