by Elle James
“I don’t want your pity,” she muttered against his shirt.
“You never did.” He laughed, though the sound held no humor. “You don’t know how many times I wanted to beat the crap out of your stepfather.”
“I wouldn’t let you,” she said, remembering his anger when he’d seen the bruises Greg Hemming had left on her arms and face.
“You should have. That man was a sorry excuse for a human. Anyone who’d hit his wife and daughter should be stood in front of a firing squad.” He smoothed his hand over her hair. “I cheered the day I heard he’d died.”
Bree stiffened. She’d wanted to celebrate the fact Greg would never hit her mother again, but she couldn’t. He’d died because of her. Thus, her exodus from Wolf Creek Ranch, the town of Eagle Rock and her home state of Montana.
For the past thirteen years, she’d jumped at every phone call and cringed when a police officer approached her. She’d fully expected someone to show up to arrest her and take her back to Montana to stand trial for murder.
Chapter 8
Angus had always had a soft spot for Bree’s tears. He’d never been able to stand by and do nothing when she cried. So many times he’d wanted to march next door to have it out with her stepfather.
The man had been a mean son of a bitch, who’d hit Bree’s mother and Bree for the smallest infractions.
When Bree had run into him downstairs because she couldn’t see through a haze of tears, Angus had assumed his brother Duncan had something to do with making her cry.
He’d marched out to the porch, prepared to punch is brother in the face.
Duncan had sat calmly on the steps, denying saying anything that would have made Bree cry.
Had he been Colin or Sebastian, Angus wouldn’t have believed him. But then, Colin and Sebastian would have owned up to what they’d said.
“Angus, don’t let her hurt you again,” Duncan said. “She’s got some issues. I don’t know what they are. She’s not sharing. But you heard her…she doesn’t plan on staying.”
Duncan never stood, and Angus couldn’t hit a man who wasn’t standing to fight. Frustrated that he didn’t have an outlet for his violence, Angus stared at his brother. “I know. Don’t worry. I don’t plan on falling in love with her again. She’s only staying until Wolf Creek Ranch is safe.”
Duncan leaned back against the post and crossed his arms over his chest. “For your sake, I hope that’s soon.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I think you know.” Duncan’s gaze met his without flinching.
Anger made Angus want to throw that punch despite the fact his brother wasn’t prepared to defend himself. “Shut up, Duncan. You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He turned to head back into the house.
“Yeah. There’s a train wreck coming. I hope you see it before it hits you in the face.” Duncan pushed to his feet and headed off across the yard toward the barn.
Angus would have chased after his brother and made him take back his comment, but the image of Bree with tears in her eyes ate at him. He entered the house and climbed the stairs, stopping in front of the room she occupied.
When she refused to let him in, he entered his room, climbed out the window onto the upper deck and pushed open the window to Bree’s room, fitting his big body through the small opening.
He hadn’t sneaked out a window since he was a teenager, and he was surprised at how much smaller the windows had gotten since then.
Now, as he held Bree in his arms, he couldn’t think about letting go.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” Bree said, her face against his chest, her breath warming him.
“You shouldn’t be crying,” he shot back, tightening his hold.
She wasn’t pushing back. In fact, her fingers curled into his shirt and pulled him closer.
This is where he’d wanted to be for the past thirteen years. With Bree. Holding her, stroking her hair and making love to her for the rest of their lives.
The urge to kiss her made him tip up her chin and stare into her tear-washed brown eyes. “I’m sorry about what happened to your mother. But it sounds like she’s going to be okay.”
Bree nodded. “The doctor said she and her foreman will live. But the horse, the chickens...the cat.” She shook her head. “It was all so senseless.”
“We’ll find who did this,” he vowed and bent to press a kiss to her forehead.
“Don’t,” she said. “You don’t want to kiss me.”
“Oh, sweetheart, you’re so wrong. I need to kiss you like I need to breathe.” And he covered her mouth with his, as if to prove his point.
When their lips touched, there was no going back. He breathed her in like air, his tongue sweeping across the seam of her mouth.
She opened to him as naturally as a flower to the sun, giving him the access he craved.
Angus dove in, taking her tongue in a caress that was so intense he didn’t come up for air until he had to.
Then he pressed his forehead to hers and dragged in air, his hands smoothing down her back to rest on her flannel-clad hips. “Bree, what happened to us?”
“I can’t.” She buried her face in his shirt, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. “We can’t be us,” she whispered. “You deserve better.”
“I don’t understand. There is no one better for me. You are the only one I ever wanted.”
She shook her head, her fingers curling into his chest, her sobs breaking Angus’s heart.
“Bree, talk to me. Explain to me why you think you’re not the one for me. Help me understand.” Then it occurred to him, and it felt like a knife had been stabbed into his gut. “Are you in love with someone else?”
Bree leaned back, her eyes wide, before her brows furrowed. “No. Never. How could you even think that?”
The knife eased in belly, and some of the weight lifted from his chest. “Then why would you think you’re not good enough for me?”
“I can’t…” she sucked in a shaky breath. “I can’t tell you.”
“Bree, you can tell me anything. I won’t judge you.”
“You won’t have to.” She stepped back, pushing his hands away from her. “Trust me, you’re better off without me.”
“Bree—”
“Please, Angus, you need to go. We can’t be together, now or ever.”
When he reached for her again, she stepped away. “Please. Go.”
Angus didn’t want to go. He’d held her in his arms again and wanted to keep on holding her.
The determined set of her jaw brooked no further argument. She wanted him out of her room and her life.
Angus nodded. “You might have given up on us, but I haven’t. This isn’t over.”
She shook her head. “Angus, it has to be. You need to move on and live your life without me in it.”
“I don’t want to. There’s no other woman I want. We were meant to be together.” He hated himself for practically begging for her to take him back. But he couldn’t help it. He’d only been living half a life since she’d left Montana. He realized that now.
“It has to be this way,” Bree said. “I promise. Someday you’ll understand that it was for the best.”
Angus snorted. “For who?”
Her eyes filled again, and she added softly, “For you.”
“I’ll never understand.”
“I should go,” Bree said. “I never should have come here.” She squared her shoulders. “Tomorrow, I’ll get a room in town.”
“No.” Angus took a step toward her. “I’ll leave you alone. You need to stay nearby to be here when the CDC, and whoever else needs to check on Wolf Creek, comes to ask questions. And you said yourself, you need to care for the animals.”
She paced across the room. “I shouldn’t have come here. I could have stayed at Wolf Creek.”
“You couldn’t use the water there for drinking, bathing…anything. It’s not safe.”
“It’s not fair for me
to be here. You and your family have been so good to us. It’s not fair to you.”
“Not fair? Bree, you aren’t making sense.”
“I know. I know.” She waved her hand, her movements frenetic. “There’s so much…I know…I can’t…”
“What are you not telling me?”
She stopped and stared across the room at him, her face contorting as if she was holding back another bout of tears. “Nothing,” she choked out.
Angus knew she was lying. The question was why. Apparently, something had her scared to tell the truth. But what?
No matter what it was, she wasn’t going to tell him anytime soon. He’d have to gain her trust to find out what was really bothering her. To do that, he had to keep her close.
“I’ll leave,” he said. “But you have to promise to stay. If you go back to Wolf Creek, I’ll go with you.”
“No.” Bree shook her head. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you.”
At least she cared enough about him to spare him from being exposed to the same poison that had put her mother in the hospital. “That’s the deal. You decide,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Stay here until it’s safe, or we both go back to stay at Wolf Creek.”
A frown furrowed her brow. “You don’t have to go with me to Wolf Creek.”
He shook his head. “Yes, I do. You’re not going alone.”
She chewed on her lip.
Angus could almost see the gears churning in her head. He bit back a smile.
“I’ll stay,” she said, finally. “Only until it’s safe to return to Wolf Creek.”
Angus dropped his arms to his sides. Though he wanted to take her into his arms again, he knew he had to take it slow and figure out what was keeping her from letting him love her.
Unless he was reading her all wrong, and that kiss had been a fluke, Bree still had feelings for him. And she was fighting to keep from succumbing to them.
Sweetheart, you are not going to win that battle. Not if there’s an ounce of fight left in me.
He gave her a slight nod. “Get some sleep. We have work to do tomorrow.”
She hugged her arms around her middle and watched wordlessly as he backed toward the door and left the room.
Angus entered his own room, stretched out on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.
Though Bree had kicked him out of her room, he couldn’t help but feel a little better about their situation.
For some reason, she thought she had to stay away from him to protect him from something.
All he had to do was determine what that something was and reassure her nothing could be bad enough that it would make him give up on her.
Angus wanted her in his life for better or for worse. He just had to convince her that he could handle whatever it was she thought was so terrible she couldn’t be with him.
All while trying to find his father.
Another night settled around them, brutally cold. He prayed his father had the strength to stay alive until they could find him and bring him home.
Chapter 9
Bree was awake before sunrise. Sleep had been sporadic, broken up by horrific nightmares about her stepfather and the barn burning with him inside.
When it wasn’t about Greg, it was about horses walking like zombies and then falling to the ground, dying horrible deaths with internal bleeding.
When she woke, Bree realized how her dreams hadn’t been the stuff of fiction, but of reality remembered. She’d been so depressed by the events, she hadn’t been able to go back to sleep. Instead, she dressed in the clothes Mrs. McKinnon had supplied, pulled on her boots and jacket and headed out to the paddock with the horses from Wolf Creek Ranch.
In the gray light of predawn, she walked among the animals checking their eyes, their noses and their gums. Some were better off than others but all appeared to be on the mend.
She breathed a sigh as she rubbed the neck of a bay gelding.
“How are they this morning?” a feminine voice called out from the fence.
Bree turned to see Molly sitting on the top rail, surveying the animals in the pen.
“I think they’ll make it,” Bree said.
“Good. I was sorry to hear about the mare, chickens and cat that didn’t.”
Bree nodded. “Me, too.” Her chest tightened at the thought of the mare slowly dying from the rat poison. Anger burned anew at the senseless murder. “Why would anyone poison the drinking water?”
Molly shrugged. “To get someone to leave?”
“That’s making sure they leave. If not temporarily to the hospital, then permanently to the cemetery.” Bree shivered. Her mother had been that close to death.
“Do you think someone wants the ranch so badly they would kill to get it?” Bree frowned.
“Land prices have been rocketing with the influx of celebrities from California buying up ranches for vacation homes.”
“But why kill? Why not buy it outright? Either way it will have to be purchased.”
“Are you an only child?” Molly asked.
“Yes.” Bree answered. “And I don’t have any close relative who would inherit if I am out of the picture.”
“You might want to look at your mother’s will, just in case she’d thought of someone else to leave the place to.” Molly frowned. “Did your stepfather have any other relatives who might contest the will and claim rights to the land?”
Bree shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
Molly gave a slow nod. “Something else to check.”
“How would I know?” Bree asked.
“My mother is all about genealogy. She has a subscription to one of those genealogy websites. You might find something on it.”
“Thank you for the suggestions.” Bree walked toward Molly and tilted her head. “Why are you talking to me when some of your brothers won’t? Aren’t you afraid you’ll appear as though you’re consorting with the enemy?”
Molly shrugged. “Thirteen years is a long time to hold a grudge. I figure, as long as you don’t hurt my brother again, you deserve the benefit of the doubt.” She jumped down from the top rail, landing lightly on her booted feet. She gave Bree a tight smile. “But, if you hurt him again, all bets are off. You will suffer the wrath of the McKinnons.”
“Ms. McKinnon, were you going to see to Thunder’s hooves today, or do you want me to clean them?” Parker Bailey, the handsome Iron Horse Ranch foreman stood in the doorway to the barn, wearing a toolbelt and carrying a pair of hoof nippers.
“I’m going to look at his hooves. You can start on Raider. I think he picked up a stone on the ride yesterday. We need to take them out again today and I don’t want them going lame on the trail. And for the hundredth time, it’s Molly, not Ms. McKinnon. You make me sound as old as my mother.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Parker said. “We’ll need to hustle. I believe your brothers wanted to head out at sunup.”
“And I’m too young to be called ma’am.” Molly sighed, gave Bree a quick glance and shook her head. “Parker needs to shed some of the decorum he learned in the military. We’re all just people out here. No rank. No pomp and circumstance.” She frowned. “He’s hard headed.”
“How long has he been working for your father?”
“Three months. You’d think he’d have learned by now.”
“Why did your father hire a foreman?”
Molly’s lips tightened. “He didn’t think I could handle the job.” She snorted. “I know more about this ranch than anyone…except my father.”
“I’m surprised your father hired a foreman. From what I remember, he was always pretty hands-on.”
“Mother threatened to leave him if he didn’t spend some time with her…away from the ranch.” Molly grimaced. “I think she wants him to retire.”
“And he didn’t have a son here to pass on the responsibility to.” Bree gave Molly a sympathetic smile.
“Bingo. Give the lady a prize.” She headed
for the barn.
Bree fell in step beside her. “Maybe he wanted to spare you that much responsibility. He might want you to have a life of your own.”
“I have a life.” Molly’s shoulders pushed back, and her chin rose a notch. “This ranch is it. I don’t want anything else.”
“How about a home and family of your own?” Bree ventured.
Molly shrugged. “My brothers haven’t ponied up with wives and kids. Why should I? They’re older.”
“Your father and mother might be looking out for your happiness.”
“Then they’re going at it the wrong way.” She entered the barn and went straight for a stall with a big black gelding that must have stood at least sixteen hands high.
She led it to a post, hooked the lead onto a ring and went to work cleaning his hooves.
Parker was busy working on a bay gelding, picking packed dirt and rocks out of his hooves. Every once in a while, he glanced up, his gaze on Molly.
Bree’s lips twitched. The man seemed more interested in Molly than just making sure she was okay. Perhaps there was more to Mr. McKinnon’s hiring decision than met the eye.
“There you are,” a deep, rich voice sounded behind Bree, making her jump.
Angus stood in the barn entrance, wearing jeans, boots and a wool-lined jacket.
Bree swallowed a sigh. “Are you heading out to the canyon to look for your father again?”
“We are.” He frowned. “The SAR folks will be out there soon with their dog.” He looked up at the clear sky. “It’s supposed to be warmer today. I expect some of that snow pack will melt.”
If their father was buried in the snow, the likelihood of his surviving was slim. This day would likely be the last they could hold out hope for finding him alive. The surface of the snow would melt some in the sunshine, but it would freeze again overnight. The water would turn to ice, making it impossible for anyone trapped in it to move.
Her heart hurt for the McKinnons. They loved their father so much. He was such an integral part of their family, Bree couldn’t imagine the McKinnons without him.
