His Defender

by Stella Bagwell

  “‘The remains were that of a Noah Rider. A white male, sixty-one years of age. Last known address, Hereford, Texas.’”

  Sheriff Perez added, “Jess has the idea that he’s heard that name mentioned on the T Bar K before. Is it familiar to you?”

  Ross was clearly stunned; his jaw fell. “Noah Rider! Why, he was Dad’s foreman! Years ago—long before Hugh or Seth and I were old enough to run things.”

  “Had you or any of your family been in contact with this man?” Perez continued to question.

  Ross glanced at Isabella then back to the sheriff. “I can’t speak for Victoria or Seth, but I haven’t even thought of the man in a long while, much less been in contact with him. We were all just small children when Noah worked on the ranch. But we all liked him. He used to make little trinkets for us out of pieces of leather or wood. And once he talked Dad into buying an Appaloosa gelding for Seth. And believe me, getting Dad to buy an App took some doing.”

  Ross’s last bit of information came very near to putting a grin on the sheriff’s face. But he just as quickly seemed to remember the seriousness of the moment and continued to question, “How long has it been since Noah Rider worked on the T Bar K?”

  Ross shook his head. “I don’t remember exactly when he left the ranch. All I can tell you is that it’s been many years.” He looked at Jess. “Did you ask Victoria? She might remember.”

  Jess frowned. “Since I wasn’t sure what connection this man might have been to your family, I wanted to talk to you before I broke the news to Victoria. She’s…been pretty upset about this whole thing. But we’ll speak to her this morning—as soon as she can make time between patients. Maybe she can give us some answers,” Jess said hopefully.

  It was obvious to Isabella that Jess was concerned about his new wife and wanted to protect her from any unnecessary grief or worry. Isabella could understand the lawman’s feelings. She’d been experiencing the same protective concern for Ross. This was a somewhat normal feeling for a lawyer toward a client, but deep down Isabella had to admit that her desire to shield Ross had more to do with her heart than with any legal obligation—which only proved that she was sinking into a mire from which she couldn’t climb out.

  Still clearly stunned over the news of the old foreman’s death, Ross took off his hat and scraped a hand through his dark hair.

  “Noah Rider murdered. And on the T Bar K, at that. It’s unbelievable.” He looked around at the four other people in the room as though they could give him some answers. “What could he have been doing on the ranch?”

  “If we knew that,” Jess told him, “we’d probably have the killer behind bars before the sun set this evening. Right now we’ve got to find more pieces of the puzzle if we ever expect to see the whole picture.”

  Fifteen minutes later Isabella and Ross walked out of the sheriff’s office and straight to Ross’s pickup truck, which was parked on a street adjacent to the side of the brick building.

  The sun was bright in a cloudless blue sky and Isabella realized the weather couldn’t have been more beautiful on this summer day. And yet she felt chilled to the bone by all she’d heard in the sheriff’s office. A killer was out there somewhere and she couldn’t help but think that Ross might be his next intended victim.

  Once they’d climbed into the vehicle, Ross stuck the key in the ignition, but made no move to start the engine. Instead, he looked over at Isabella, his expression dazed.

  “Noah Rider. Killed on the ranch. My ranch!” He shook his head, still unable to accept the fact. “I just can’t get over it. All along I’d been figuring the John Doe was just some transient, some stranger who’d met an untimely death by accident. But then the incident was declared a homicide. And now I’m told the victim is an old acquaintance. Someone who once worked for my family! Hellfire, what’s going to happen next?”

  The distraught look on Ross’s face prompted Isabella to lean across the seat and touch his arm.

  “I’m so sorry about Noah Rider,” she said gently. “It can’t be easy to hear that an old friend has been murdered.”

  He heaved out a breath. “It’s shocking, Isabella. The entire circumstances surrounding this incident are incredible.” He glanced at her anxiously. “Do you think the person who shot at Jess is the same person who murdered Noah?”

  She settled back in the seat and snapped on the seat belt. “I could only speculate, Ross. But one thing is obvious to me,” she said grimly. “If they are the same person, then there’s a killer among you on the T Bar K.”

  For the first time since she’d met Ross, a look of real concern crossed his face and she felt her own fears rise up to prickle her skin and cause her to grip the handbag in her lap.

  “God help us,” he murmured, then, starting the engine, he backed onto the street and headed the truck toward the ranch.

  Throughout the drive, Ross said very little and Isabella didn’t urge him to talk. She understood his head was reeling with the new developments he’d just been given at the sheriff’s office. As for Isabella, she had her own things to think about.

  The threat of Ross being arrested was more or less over. Legally, he didn’t need her any longer. She could pack up her things and head to Dulce. Her mother would be relieved and happy to see her again. And she could finally begin to get the house she had rented in living order. But none of those things held quite the appeal they’d once had.

  Once had! Why didn’t she just admit it? she scolded herself. Those things were all she’d thought about, all she’d dreamed and wanted for the past ten years. Now a few days with Ross Ketchum had come along and changed her.

  The realization sent a different kind of fear rumbling through her like a freight train with no brakes. She couldn’t let herself fall for this man! He was a confirmed bachelor. To him, a woman was entertainment, a pleasant diversion and nothing more. If she fell in love with him, she’d be making the same horrible mistake her mother had made with Winston!

  No, the best thing Isabella could do now was wind up this job as quickly as she could and head to the reservation where she belonged. It didn’t matter that the crimes committed here on the ranch were still unsolved. She wasn’t a law officer. She wasn’t a detective. He could hire a better person for the job.

  By the time they arrived back at the T Bar K, Isabella had decided to tell Ross immediately that she would be leaving the ranch tomorrow. The thought saddened her deeply, which only proved even more that it was high time she ended her stay here at Ross’s home.

  At the back of the house, Ross parked the truck. As they walked onto the porch to enter the kitchen, Isabella started to speak at the same time he caught her by the arm. The sudden contact of his fingers caused her senses to go on high alert.

  “Bella, before we go in, I want to talk to you a moment.”

  She’d been so preoccupied with how she was going to tell Ross of her plans that the serious tone of his voice didn’t register, until she looked up at him. Then her heart began to bang against her ribs. Something was on his mind. And from the way he was looking at her she was beginning to believe that she might be that very something.

  In a small voice, she said, “I—I want to talk to you, too.”

  His brows drew together. “About what?” he asked.

  Shaking her head, she wondered why her breathing seemed to go haywire every time he touched her. Why just looking up at his face made her tremble with a yearning that threatened to consume her common sense. No man had ever made her feel so wanton, so much a woman.

  “No,” she finally managed to say. “You go first.”

  He drew her aside, to a spot on the porch shaded by the nearby branches of a cottonwood. As Isabella waited for him to talk, she watched the mottled light dance over his rugged features. He was so vibrant, so utterly male. His presence was so powerful she couldn’t imagine the world without him in it. And yet a part of her understood he wasn’t invincible. If someone wanted to kill him…

  She inwardly shud
dered and tried to focus her mind on what he was about to say.

  “What is it you wanted to say, Ross?”

  His green eyes suddenly grew as soft and tender as the spring grass sprouting beneath a snowbank. Isabella felt her heart quicken in response.

  “I just wanted to tell you…how grateful I am to you. For sticking up for me in the sheriff’s office.”

  Isabella’s throat grew tight as a gentle tide of emotions ebbed over her heart. Maybe this man did respect and appreciate her in his own way. “That’s my job, Ross.”

  His green eyes fell sheepishly to the toes of his boots. “Yeah. I know it’s your job. But I’m difficult to deal with. You don’t have to tell me that.”

  Surprised at his sudden display of humility, she said, “You’re a man who’s accustomed to speaking for himself. I understand that, Ross.”

  He looked up at her then and smiled a crooked smile. “That’s right. How did you figure that out?”

  Isabella’s heart turned over as his hand slid down her arm, then latched on to her hand.

  “That’s my job, too,” she said thickly. “To know my client’s way of thinking.”

  My client. Is that the way she thought of him? Ross silently wondered. To him, they were so much more. Especially since those reckless kisses they’d shared at the secret meadow. Since then, he’d spent most of his waking hours aching to touch her, make love to her. And the fact that he couldn’t only made the wanting worse.

  The sensual thoughts brought a smoky shadow to his eyes as they searched her lovely features. “Then maybe you can tell me what I’m thinking right now,” he dared.

  Shaken by the intimate look on his face, Isabella’s eyes quickly darted to a spot in the yard. “I—uh—can’t read every thought. Maybe you’d better tell me.”

  The tightening of his fingers over hers brought Isabella’s gaze back around to his.

  “I’m thinking how very glad I am that you decided to take this case,” he said.

  Up until now she’d believed he was nothing but rawhide. Now she was seeing for herself that he had some feelings beneath his tough exterior. And that was going to make it much harder for her to keep her heart distanced from this man, eventually to tell him goodbye.

  “I haven’t done all that much, Ross,” she countered.

  He shook his head. “The sheriff has backed off. I can breathe a sigh of relief.”

  And I can go home. But I don’t want to. I don’t want to leave this man.

  She tried to ignore the little voice in her head. Or were the words really coming from her heart? Dear God, if that was the case, then she was stumbling, falling into the same trap as her mother had fallen into.

  Drawing in a deep breath, she said, “I can’t take credit for that. Sheriff Perez is a smart man. He doesn’t believe you’ve committed any crime and he doesn’t want to waste San Juan County’s time and money trying to prosecute the wrong person. Plus, he doesn’t seem the type that would ever want to accuse a person he believed to be innocent.”

  Ross didn’t make any sort of reply and Isabella was surprised by the troubled frown wrinkling his face. “So what’s the matter?” she asked. “You just said you could breathe a sigh of relief. Is something else worrying you?”

  “A whole lot is worrying me, Bella. None of this is over. Oh, sure, the sheriff’s department no longer considers me a suspect, but a lot of people around here still do.”

  Puzzled by his comment, she shook her head. “Ross, I thought you didn’t care what people thought. You told me that knowing you were innocent was all that really mattered to you.”

  He squeezed her hand, then with a sigh, he dropped it and turned to face the piney bluff rising up some thirty feet away from the house. His shoulders were tense and she realized that he was carrying a great weight and probably had been ever since his father had died and left him in charge of the ranch.

  “I did think that way, Bella. I believed it didn’t matter about the gossip—what people were saying behind my back—my sister’s back. But it does. My father was a hell of a man. Some people considered him an outlaw and others hated him because he was tough, hard-working and disciplined enough to make this place into something big. But to me he was a loving father and the T Bar K was his legacy to us children. I can’t stand by and let this murder thing tear it all down.”

  Isabella was touched by the resolution in his voice and the devotion he felt for his family. And she wondered how different things might have been in her own life if she’d had a father like Tucker, a brother who cared that he had a sister, a mother, a heritage of proud Apache blood.

  Stepping to his side, she asked, “What do you mean, tear it down?”

  She watched his nostrils flare as he drew in a deep, weary breath.

  “I hadn’t said anything to you before.” He shrugged as his eyes settled on her face. “In fact, I haven’t said anything to Victoria or Linc or anybody about this. But the ranch is beginning to suffer.”

  Her brows drew together. Had she heard him right? “Suffer? It appears to be thriving to me.”

  “Oh, it is thriving. As far as the cattle and horse crop goes. But the T Bar K makes most of its money through private sales to ranchers both in and out of state. In the past couple of months, sales have dropped like a rock in a bucket of water. No one wants to do business with a ranch that’s under a murder suspicion.”

  Her heart ached for him. “I didn’t know. I’ve been so busy concerning myself over the legal part of things that I hadn’t stopped to think how all of this might be affecting the ranch. And you never said anything. You’ve acted as though everything was going along normally.”

  He grimaced. “I didn’t want to alarm Victoria. Or Linc. But Linc has already guessed what’s happening. When horse buyers quit asking to see the stock, he pretty much knew something was wrong. As for me—well, I guess for a while there I didn’t want to admit that something like this could touch me.”

  Yes, she could remember back to the first day she’d met him. She’d gotten the impression he didn’t need or want anyone’s help. From his attitude that day, he’d seemed to be a man without a care. Obviously he’d been hiding a few things, Isabella thought.

  She said, “I guess a lot of people don’t believe in our judicial system. That everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Instead, they choose to believe gossip. But I really don’t think this will last for long, Ross. Especially when they see that you’re not being arrested or accused of shooting Jess.”

  He took off his hat and ran a hand through his dark, wavy hair. “It can’t last long. Otherwise, we’ll be working in the red. Since Hugh died and I took over the reins, that’s never happened.” He tugged his hat back on his head, then reached for both her hands. Once he was holding them tightly, he said, “That’s why I’m so glad you’re here, Bella. You can get to the bottom of this.”

  Her heart sank. He believed she was going to stay on and investigate this case. How could she tell him she had to leave? Especially now that he’d expressed how much he needed her?

  “Ross I’m not a detective or a private investigator. And that’s what you need now. Not a lawyer.”

  “You’re an Apache. You have special tracking skills.”

  She made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a groan. “I’m only half Apache, remember? I couldn’t track a bear in a snowstorm.”

  “You’d never make me believe that,” he said, then tugged her toward the door. “Now come on and let’s see if Marina has lunch ready. I’ve got to go to work.”

  Isabella didn’t argue. Her heart just wasn’t in it. And that was the whole problem. She’d gone from being attracted to the man, to liking then to caring for him. Which only enforced the fact that she needed to leave this place.

  Ross opened the door leading into the house and gestured for her to pass in front of him, but the moment she started to step over the threshold, his hand came down on her shoulder. She paused to look up at him.

  “I’m sorr
y, Isabella. You said you wanted to talk to me about something. What was it?”

  Tell him now, Isabella. Tell him you’ve got to go.

  The little voice in her head was firm. But it couldn’t match the warm, needy feeling she got when she looked into his eyes.

  “Uh—I was just going to—ask you a few things about Noah Rider. But we’ll do that tonight. After supper.”

  He gave her a slow grin. “I’ll try not to be late.”

  Chapter Eight

  To Ross and Isabella’s surprise, Jess, Victoria and their three-year-old daughter, Katrina, showed up just as Marina was about to serve the evening meal. The cook quickly added three more place settings to the table.

  Isabella had already learned that Katrina was a child from Jess’s previous marriage, but from the close interplay between Victoria and the toddler, anyone would have thought they were actual mother and daughter.

  With the five of them gathered around the table, Isabella watched as Victoria filled the child’s plate, and she could only think how lucky Ross’s sister was to have a husband who obviously adored her and a child to call her own. A ready-made family.

  For years now, Isabella hadn’t been able to imagine herself with any kind of family. Oh, sometimes she’d dream that some bronze brave would come along and fall madly in love with her and she with him. And that the two of them would live the rest of their days together on the reservation, raising their children among their own people. But those dreams had been more fantasizing than anything.

  In real life, she’d not been able to actually picture herself giving her heart, her trust to any man. She’d tried with Brett and she’d come close. But now she thanked her lucky stars that she’d not been deeply and profoundly in love with him. At least her heart, if not her ego, was still intact. She’d made a lucky escape. So why, all of a sudden, had she started envisioning herself as a wife and mother?

  She didn’t answer the question running through her mind. But then she didn’t have to. Her eyes did it for her as they settled on Ross’s face.