by Linda Conrad
She could only feel. The momentum built deep in her core. The inevitable loomed larger with every relentless move.
Nearly blind and deaf with need, at last she had no delaying tactic left and dove over the edge. Fierce and razor-edged, her freefall was so intense that she couldn’t help crying out with the sheer joy of it.
Sam soon joined her, arching his back as he found his own release with a shout.
Gasping for breath, she collapsed over him as their bodies pulsed together with the all-consuming wave. Laughing and crying at the same time, she wished the rush could never end.
That real life would never intrude.
Chapter 17
The moment he could breathe again and make his limbs do as he demanded, Sam rolled them both over, keeping her snuggled in his arms. She sighed and burrowed closer.
Lying on his side in the darkness, he reveled in the warm feel of the woman beside him and dwelt on the sensations still pulsating through his body. She’d been incredible. They were amazing together. He couldn’t have asked for a better lover.
But what was he to do with these emotions? It felt as if what they’d done was not just sex but something a damned site more.
He should never have agreed to, or maybe in truth suggested, this. He should’ve known better. The rolling wave of feelings for her and her son had apparently messed with his mind.
Now what?
As she scooted her bottom against his groin, what he wanted next was all too obvious. The need to be inside her again, to kiss her into passion and take them both right back to those fireworks, threatened to ruin his long-running and up-to-now famous control.
Aw hell. What was he thinking? His control where she was concerned had already left the building. Gone the way of his many vows to do nothing but keep her safe. And what’s more, along with his loss of control, he’d probably also lost his job. This little dip into a personal quest, like something out of King Arthur’s tales, was bound to cause a bad mark on his record that might never be erased.
His job. Sam didn’t give a rip about the job. He’d just been making the motions over the past couple of years anyway.
But he did care about Grace and Mikey. He would give anything to wrap them both up and carry them to a place where no one had ever heard of Serrano—or of any Mexican drug lords for that matter.
Though such a place might only be in his head. A dream world. Not reality. In real life no place would be safe. Not until Serrano was dead.
He listened to Grace breathing. Slow and steady. She’d fallen asleep cocooned in his arms.
The trust she’d given him was astounding. After all her troubles, she’d thought only of his interests.
She’d wrangled her way inside his soul and made him talk about losing his little brother. Something he hadn’t done since the day Denton had died. Wide cracks in the shield of guilt he’d worn for too many years fell open, exposing the raw nerves and self-incrimination he’d lived with every day since then. It was painful to be so exposed, but necessary if he would ever lead a normal life.
And suddenly he wanted a normal life. Being with Mikey had made him hungry to be a father. Being with Grace, making love to her—loving her—was the best thing that had happened to him in…forever.
But when Serrano was no longer a threat, she’d be gone. He knew that. She’d told him often enough. And she’d proved it at least once before.
What was Sam to do to prepare himself for her departure?
Well, for one thing, he could stop thinking that far ahead and dwelling only on himself. He had bigger worries at the moment.
He believed Grace wasn’t as mentally and emotionally strong as she pretended. That seemed abundantly clear to him now. She needed to spend more time with a psychiatrist. She’d only taken a few weeks during the trial to see the FBI’s mental health professionals. Afterward she’d insisted that she didn’t need help, swearing that having a child had changed her. Becoming a mother was all the healing necessary.
He couldn’t see her as recovered. Pain and sadness continued to linger on in her eyes. It was there whenever she thought no one was looking.
When the threat from Serrano was over, getting her the help she needed would be his first priority.
Meanwhile he needed to step up his game where Serrano was concerned. Tomorrow he would call Travis and have him start closely checking every man who entered the ranch to work. He could also nail the windows shut and alarm the doors. And hide a weapon in every room he might enter.
Most of all he needed to make a new plan. A plan to stash Mikey and Grace someplace safe while he went to Mexico in search of Serrano. The only way to end her nightmare for good was to put Serrano either behind bars—or below ground.
* * *
Grace sat at the kitchen table the morning after the most spectacular night of her life, feeding Mikey and waiting for Sam to walk back through the door. He’d said he needed to go outside to make better preparations for an attack. But that scared her, made her feel more vulnerable than ever.
Every possible emotion careened through her mind and confused her brain. In her childhood dreams, at least as much as she could remember before Jose, the morning after such a spectacular night would be reserved for cuddling and whispering words of devotion.
Sam wasn’t even in the bed when she’d awoken this morning. He’d already gone downstairs to the kitchen. She’d found him drinking coffee, waiting for her and Mikey to show up. After she’d fumbled the baby into his high chair, Sam had left, saying something about calling Travis and Gage. But without a word about last night.
After last night, Sam had broken down the icy walls Jose had constructed in her mind and body, leaving her too open and…
And what? Changed. That was for sure. A little lost? Yes. But mostly, she felt deep in her bones that the strange emotion at the top of her current list had to be love.
Yeah, she was well and truly sunk. And definitely in love with Sam.
Mikey, too, had formed an attachment. In one way this would be good for the baby. Her son needed a man in his life. A good and decent man. But loving Sam could be a bad thing if the man in question didn’t return their feelings. More terrible still would be if, when Jose was safely in jail, Sam went back to his job and stopped protecting them. Forgot about them.
Yet she didn’t want to talk to him about her fears or her dreams. Couldn’t think of a way of telling him how she felt. The biggest reason she’d stayed silent was to be sure he didn’t start thinking she’d set out to trap him all along.
So she sat and stewed and waited.
After she finished with Mikey’s breakfast. And finished washing down the mess he’d made in the kitchen. And then finished washing him down and changing his clothes. Grace thought she and the baby should take a little walk in the sunshine. Outside her window it seemed like a lovely spring day.
Maybe they’d find Sam nearby the house somewhere. And Mikey would love a chance to see the horses again.
Holding the baby in her arms, she stepped through the kitchen door and realized a large crowd of people had gathered down by the barns. This must be the start of what Sam had said was the Bar-C’s spring cutting.
Hesitating, she drew a huge breath of air into her lungs and looked over the scene. Men were already taking the horses, both moms and babies, out of the barns and into the small fenced-off areas Sam told her were called rings or corrals.
Fascinating.
“Da!” Mikey held out his arm and pointed toward the horses.
“No, baby. I told you. It’s ‘horse.’ Can you say horsey?”
“Da…da!”
When Grace finally glanced up to where her child was pointing, she noticed Sam heading in their direction. “Ah. It is him. I sure wish you were right, Mikey. I wish he was your daddy.”
Suddenly the tears backed up behind her eyes. Swallowing hard, she bit her lip and waited until Sam came closer before trying to say anything.
“What are you two doing outs
ide?” Sam’s hat was pulled low over his forehead and his voice was gruff.
“It’s such a lovely day,” she answered with as easy a tone as she could manage. “The flowers are blooming and there’s a wonderful light breeze. We came outside to find you, hoping we could all go down to see the horses.”
Sam stood silently for a moment while he screwed up his mouth as if he was considering it.
Then he turned his head back to the barns. “I suppose we could watch the foals from outside the fence while the hands parade them out of the barn. But not for long. When the real work begins, it’ll be messy and…”
“And—what?”
He twisted back to her. “And lots more men will be arriving after a while. The real wranglers. I’d rather you and Mikey stay in the house out of sight when they arrive.”
“Oh.” He’d brought the threat from Jose back into their conversation with a thud.
The day seemed to cloud over. Flies buzzed around her face. Her morning was ruined.
“Da!” But Mikey’s day still shone with possibility.
“Hey, bud. Come on over here.” Grinning, Sam pulled the baby out of her embrace and sat him in the crook of his arm. “Want to walk down to see the horses with me? Looks like your mama already has her boots on and is raring to go.”
The three of them started over the fields, heading toward one of the many fenced rings. Mikey babbled away, making no sense at all but enjoying himself anyway.
“I wonder when Mikey will be able to say more words. Understandable words.” Sam smiled and nodded at the baby’s nonsensical conversation.
“Pretty soon, I would imagine. He’s already making most of his wants clear enough. And he’s right where a one-year-old boy should be. At least the doctors’ charts all say that.”
“A year old? He can’t be that old. When?”
“Tomorrow, actually. What would you think if we have a little party for him? We could invite your brother’s niece and your aunt June. And I’ll bake him a cake. That is if we can get hold of a cake mix and frosting. I wouldn’t want to try making anything from scratch.”
Sam chuckled. “I’ll bet you’d be a great baker if you worked at it. Studied on it. My mom left lots of cookbooks.”
His good humor and trust in her competence made her smile. “Not this time, please. No one would want to take a chance on my baking. I’ll practice up for the next time, though.”
“Okay. We can make a quick trip into town later today. After you practice using the thirty-eight.”
There he went, ruining the beautiful day again. She nodded and hung her head, watching her step through the fields.
“Are you all right?” he asked after a few silent moments.
“Sure.”
As they came closer to the fence, Mikey picked up the volume of his babbling.
“The baby seems to like it here.” Sam grinned as Mikey jumped excitedly in his arms. “How about the baby’s mama? Have you been happy staying on the ranch, Grace? It can be, well, a little rough and isolating.”
“I love it here.” Oops. That may have been a bit too strong. She didn’t want him to guess what she really loved was him—and that she would love any place where he went.
But Sam just nodded as he kept on watching the men work with the horses.
“How about you, Sam? Are you happy being back home? I can’t imagine how you stayed away so long.”
He gave her a quizzical stare. “Hadn’t given it that much thought.” Looking out toward the ranch hands, he added, “Times like the spring cutting were always the best on the ranch. And maybe I would like to try my hand at gentling a horse again. I used to be pretty good at it.”
Exhaling a long breath, he lifted the hat off his forehead and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. “So, yeah, I guess I do miss some points about living on the ranch.”
A really good sign, in Grace’s opinion. If he could remember the good things over and above the bad things that had happened on the ranch, then maybe he was beginning to overcome his guilt. She hoped so. In fact, she hoped he would start loving the idea of being on the ranch again. Want to stay here for good. Getting him to settle down would be a big boon to their relationship.
If they really had a relationship. If it wasn’t all in her mind.
“It’s time to head back.” Sam spoke to Mikey, “We’ll come down later and visit the horses, son. After the ranch hands’ work is done for the day. Right now, we need to call Auntie June. You like Auntie June, don’t you?”
Instead of the tears and anger Grace had expected from her child when he moved away from the fence, Mikey smiled and patted Sam’s cheek. “Dune.”
“Well, I’ll be darned.” Sam laughed. “Guess you remember her and like her. That’s my good boy. Me, too.”
His good boy?
Yet another good sign in her humble opinion. He was beginning to think of Mikey in different terms than just a witness he had to protect.
Now, if only he would start thinking of her in a different, and very special new way, too.
Sighing under her breath, she quickened her step to catch up. “Why are you calling June?”
“Well, I’d originally wanted to ask her to babysit while we went to town for cake mix. But I’ve been thinking that over. The idea of you being off the ranch while all these unknown cowpokes are milling about town is too risky.
“Besides,” he added. “I need to stick around this afternoon and work on additional security and safeguards for the house.”
“Oh.” Darn him. He kept taking her wonderful dreams of the two of them doing domestic things, like baking cakes and having birthday parties, and smashing them to bits with images of Jose and his men coming after them.
Sam turned to study her. “Don’t look so miserable. I didn’t mean we won’t have a cake. I’ll call June and ask her to stop at the store for a mix and then bring it out to us. You can bake the thing tonight.”
“Oh! Okay, I guess that’ll work.”
She would rather her dreams not be interrupted by a day filled with security precautions and learning to fire a handgun. But tonight…tonight they would become closer over preparations for a party. And afterward she would find some way of seducing him back into bed.
They were good together—whether he realized it or not. And she intended to do everything in her power to remind him of that fact at every opportunity.
* * *
Bumping along in the back of an open pickup, Serrano’s men Hector and Pedro were being driven to the horse barns on the Bar-C ranch.
Alone in the truckbed, Hector used the opportunity to speak to his compañero. “It’s a good thing we’ve been assigned to work with the horses. Not with the cattle.”
“Yes. A good thing. I don’t know about cattle or sheep. I know horseflesh.”
“Si. That’s what I told them. Right after I learned a baby had been spotted in an old house near the horse barns. Maybe we’ll get lucky and see some signs of his child and the mother. Keep your eyes open.”
“His? How do you know this baby is Serrano’s boy?”
Frustrated by the non-too-smart Pedro, Hector screwed up his patience one more time and said, “Good guessing. Who else would be hiding a child on the Bar-C?”
Hector openly touched the handgun he had hidden inside his denim jacket to remind Pedro of why they were really here. “We are prepared to do what is necessary.”
“So soon? But you told el jefe we would wait. That we would look around and make a good plan.”
“I told the boss that story to make him happy. But if we find his child, we must act fast. The lawman who hides the woman and baby is smart. Too smart. If we wait too long, he may make it impossible for us to capture them. Remember, the woman might disappear again at any moment. And the next time, the boss’s contact in L.A. probably won’t be able to help us find her.”
Shaking his head slowly, Hector went through every scenario in his mind and decided the minute he was sure, they should act.
“No, it must be done quickly. The sooner the better.”
Pedro began to pout. “But I like working with horses. Can’t we at least stay for the earmarking?”
“Don’t be stupid.” Hector nearly drew down on the idiot sitting beside him. “We’re not here to work with horses. Jose Serrano does not pay top wages to horse wranglers.”
“But—”
“Just shut up and do what I tell you.”
“Wait. How will we get away with the baby? We didn’t drive our own truck on the range.”
Lifting a shoulder, Hector said, “I’ll think of something. We both know how to drive and you know how to start a truck without a key. Don’t you?”
“Si, but it’s so far to the gate. What if…?”
“Maybe we would be smarter to ride horseback off the ranch. We could disappear onto the range, and it might take days for them to track us down. We’d ride into town, grab the truck and be in Mexico before they had any idea where we’d gone.”
The more Hector thought about that solution, the better he liked it. Taking a baby on horseback would be no trouble.
“Hector…”
“No more conversation. We’re almost there.”
“Look!”
Hector turned his head in the direction where Pedro was pointing. A tall, lean man and a beautiful woman strolled across the fields toward an old farmhouse. And on the man’s shoulders was a brown-skinned baby who looked to be about a year old.
Amazing. Could he really be this lucky?
Luck, nothing. Hector knew the good fortune came because he was smart. Smarter than the next guy. Maybe even smarter than Jose Serrano.
Yes. They were almost there.
Chapter 18
It felt like the longest day in Grace’s memory. Longer than her twenty-hour labor ordeal having Mikey. And even longer than the weeks-long horrors at Jose’s hands after the kidnapping.
She’d been trying to keep busy ever since they’d been watching the horses early this morning. Learning to shoot a handgun, for one thing. It turned out she was a good shot. But the feeling of a handgun was totally different than a shotgun.
