Wyoming Christmas Ransom

by Nicole Helm

  “I did what I had to do,” she continued in that same maddeningly even voice, like this wasn’t messed up. “I was careful. I don’t need scolding or disapproval. I’m a grown woman. You should be more concerned about the fact someone burned your cabin down.”

  “I’m more concerned about the fact someone shot at you and then you decided to run into a burning building.”

  She folded her arms across her chest, her nose going up in the air. “Those are gross exaggerations.”

  Screw the hospital gown. He crossed the room because maybe erasing the space between them would help him make sense of her.

  But she was standing there, soot covered and exhaustedly pale. “You will not risk your safety for this. Do you understand me?”

  “What I understand is you’re not the boss of me, Will. You’re not the anything of me.”

  That horrible knot in his chest only tied tighter and sharper. It didn’t make sense. She didn’t make sense. His hand itched to...do something, touch her or...something. Which also didn’t make sense and so he just stood there frozen and confused. Something like anger starting to work through him.

  “You know what? I don’t care. I don’t care if I’m not your boss or in charge of you or what, you won’t dare risk your life for this again. Period. This is my thing and whoever this person is, he’s after me. You won’t be hurt in this. I won’t allow it. Go home. Get some sleep and... You’ll stay away from me until this is solved.”

  “Like hell.”

  Something inside of him snapped, that tight knot maybe. Because he stepped closer. So close their noses were almost touching and he could see the darker flecks of brown in her eyes. “Get it through your head that I cannot bear the thought of you being hurt by this.”

  She stared up at him, though something in her posture softened. Then she reached out. If he wasn’t so churned up or whatever he might have sidestepped her cool, small hand pressing against his cheek.

  It was nearly impossible to breathe through that. All those tight knots inside him loosened, but the spaces filled with something else. Something familiar and dangerous and he shoved it all away and used his good hand to pull hers off his face.

  But he didn’t let her hand go. It seemed odd her hands were so small when she was such a force. So strong and determined, but her hand in his felt fragile somehow. So he met her gaze, and that didn’t help him understand anything that was happening, but at least it gave him her to focus on.

  “Go home. Get some sleep. Be safe, my God. But you need rest. You know you do.”

  She swallowed. “Okay, on one condition. You promise you’ll stay put. Do what the doctors say. Don’t try to get out of here. Not without me. Please.”

  He glanced at the IV stand, then her hand in his again. He had to get out of here. He knew he did, but... “Okay.” He squeezed her hand. As much as he needed to get out of here, he needed her, too. “I promise.”

  Chapter Six

  Gracie would admit to precisely no one she felt like she was going to pass out and throw up at the same time.

  She stepped out of Will’s hospital room, and maybe she could blame the dazed double vision on the fact Will had voluntarily touched her. He’d taken her hand and squeezed it and made a promise to her and...

  She was probably hallucinating, really.

  “I don’t want you going back to your house,” Laurel said, popping up out of seemingly nowhere. “It’s not safe.”

  “They or he or whoever it was didn’t see me.”

  “They saw your truck. Which Vanessa has taken care of by the way.”

  “A Carson is taking care of my truck? Vanessa Carson at that?”

  Laurel wrinkled her nose. “I know, but she promised to be on her best behavior. I would have had Cam do it, but I gave him a different job.”

  “Laurel, please tell me you didn’t.”

  But Laurel didn’t tell her anything. She led her to the entrance of the hospital and there was Cam, Laurel’s brother, freshly home from a stint as a marine.

  “I don’t need a bodyguard. Cousin or otherwise,” Gracie grumbled.

  “And here I was hoping to get some practice in,” Cam replied. For as military as he appeared on the outside, Gracie had grown up with him. Cam was strong and somewhat detached, but he was kind. All the Delaney cousins had made her feel welcome and part of the family even when their parents hadn’t.

  “Cam’s going to start a security business now that he’s home for good.”

  “That’s great,” Gracie replied, trying not to seem ungrateful. She smiled at Cam. “I don’t need security.”

  “The shot-out window on your vehicle says otherwise,” Cam replied gently. “It isn’t safe for you to be alone until Laurel determines what’s going on. I’m going to take you to your place to gather your things, then we’ll head to the Delaney Ranch.”

  “If I’m not safe, why would you bring me home? I’m not sure your father would care for that.”

  “Dad can deal,” Laurel said firmly. “I’ve already told him as such. I’ve also told Cam to bar the door to your bedroom until you’ve slept eight hours.”

  “I don’t like this,” Gracie said firmly. But exhaustion had stolen her will to fight or do much of anything.

  “Feed her before she sleeps,” Laurel instructed Cam.

  Gracie figured she must be really be exhausted because she couldn’t even work up a comment about how she didn’t need someone forcing her to eat. She could only follow Cam out to his truck.

  Cam said something, but Gracie yawned and couldn’t make it out. The next thing she knew, she startled awake in a dark room. The bed was comfortable and something about it all was familiar.

  But she didn’t remember getting here. She didn’t remember anything from the hospital parking lot on.

  Her phone chimed and she realized that’s what had woken her up. She glanced at the time on her phone screen. Five in the morning. Which meant she’d actually slept something like twelve hours if not more. The light of the phone also gave her a clue as to where she was.

  The Delaney Ranch. When her parents had died, she’d bounced around from family member to family member until fifth grade. Then she’d landed at the Delaney Ranch with her four cousins and had stayed through high school.

  Though her cousins had been great, Gracie’d had no illusions Uncle Geoff considered her one of his own. Even if she was his late brother’s only child.

  Gracie scrubbed her hands over her face and tried to focus her brain on the present. Text message. Someone had texted her. At five in the morning?

  She opened the message. From Will.

  Meet me at my cabin.

  She frowned at her phone. Will had promised to stay put. He had promised. Why would he be at the cabin before the sun even rose and when it had been on fire not all that long ago? Besides, he didn’t have a car. His had been totaled. How would he have gotten there?

  Something didn’t add up and she needed to figure it out.

  Coffee. Good lord, she needed coffee. And food. She got out of bed and stumbled to the door. It was weird, as many years as she’d spent living at the Delaney Ranch, it had never felt like home. She’d been a permanent guest at best.

  On a sigh, she headed for the kitchen. The smell of food and coffee about made her whimper.

  When Gracie stepped into the kitchen, her cousin Jen was standing in front of the big stove, humming all too happily for 5:00 a.m. She turned and smiled at Gracie. “I’d hoped you’d sleep longer.”

  Gracie only grunted. Jen moved to the coffee maker and poured a generous mug before sliding it in front of Gracie. “You just let me know when you’re functioning. Cam’s doing some kind of recon nonsense. Dylan and Dad are doing the ranch chores.” She frowned. “Dad’s been acting so weird this week,” she muttered.

  “He doesn’t want me her
e.”

  Jen waved it away. A few minutes later she put a plate full of eggs, bacon and toast slathered in butter in front of Gracie.

  “Have I ever told you I love you with all my heart?”

  Jen grinned. “Not since you lived here and I made you breakfast back then.”

  Gracie dove into the breakfast and coffee and felt almost human once she was finished. But feeling human meant figuring out what was going on with that cryptic text message.

  “Do you know where Laurel is?”

  “Sleeping, hopefully. But she has to be back at it tonight, and she did say you could wake her up if it’s important.”

  “No. That’s fine. I don’t suppose you have a car I could borrow?”

  “Sorry. I’ve got to be at the store at seven, but I can drop you off somewhere. Cam could probably pick you up whenever you need another ride.”

  “Cam and Laurel didn’t insist you keep me here till I have some kind of shadow?”

  Jen laughed. “Of course they did. I’m just not listening.”

  Gracie chuckled, but it died as she stared at the text message on her phone again.

  Surely Will wasn’t up at that burned-down cabin freezing his butt off waiting for her. He wouldn’t have broken his promise to her. She really hoped.

  “Can you drop me off at the hospital?”

  “Sure, but they’re not going to let you in to see Will at this hour.”

  “I know, but I’d rather wait there than here. I don’t want to run into your dad. Sorry.”

  “I’m sorry,” Jen replied.

  “Don’t be. You’re perfect and my favorite person right about now.”

  “How about some more food?”

  Gracie frowned at her phone. Something wasn’t right. But if Will had broken his promise... “Sure, I’ll take a little more.”

  * * *

  WILL STARED AT the needle in his arm. He’d promised Gracie he’d stay put, but it was almost seven in the morning and how long could he be expected to reasonably keep a promise?

  Someone had tried to kill him. Someone had burned down his cabin, and all the evidence he’d compiled over two years trying to figure out who his wife had been sleeping with was certainly gone.

  Which meant he had to be so close. Or at least they thought he was. But what had he done differently in the days leading up to his car being tampered with that might lead someone to think he knew?

  The only thing he could think of was going into Rightful Claim. Had someone in that bar heard him talk to Gracie and assumed he’d come up with the killer’s identity? Panicked and messed with his car? What exactly had he said that night? All he remembered was telling her he had new information.

  And her telling him she cared about him.

  But that wasn’t important right now. What was important was someone must have overheard that conversation and thought he had more information than he did.

  No matter how often he tried to tell himself to be methodical and rational when working this all out, the only reason to tamper with his car, burn his cabin, shoot at Gracie—Christ—was they had killed Paula in the first place. An affair wasn’t a big enough thing to cover up with murder, but murder certainly was.

  Which meant he couldn’t be stuck here. Both a sitting duck and ineffective when someone was out there trying to get rid of him and all his stuff. When someone had shot at Gracie, who had nothing to do with this. Not really.

  Keeping his promise to her was only putting her in more danger. Yeah. Exactly. He ignored the pit of guilt and began to pick the edge of the tape on his arm.

  Again, just as he was getting somewhere, the door opened.

  Gracie stepped in, but stopped short at the sight of him. “You’re here,” she said, frowning.

  “Of course I’m here. Where else would I be?” He surreptitiously smoothed the tape back into place.

  She looked down at the phone she was holding in one hand. “Did you text me a few hours ago?”

  “Text you? What? I don’t even have my phone. Laurel said they didn’t uncover any of my belongings from the accident. Burned or lost in the snow.”

  Gracie’s eyes widened and she let out a whoosh of breath.

  “What’s going on?” he demanded.

  She took a few careful steps toward his bed. “Or maybe your stuff was taken,” she said gravely. “Someone texted me from your number at five this morning asking me to meet them at the cabin.” She held out the screen to him and he squinted at the text.

  Meet me at my cabin.

  “Someone has my phone and is trying to lure you to them.” He flung the blankets off his body. Luckily they’d let him change into regular clothes last night so he didn’t feel completely ridiculous, even if they were too-big sweats someone had left him at Gracie’s behest. Because his clothes were burned up. “We have to get out of here.”

  “You haven’t been cleared.”

  “They said they might release me today. We’re just speeding it up a bit. Gracie, someone is after me. Actually, no, worse. Someone is after you.”

  “I think I’ve survived a little better than you have,” she said, gesturing at his cast and IV and probably him in general.

  “I won’t give them a chance to do to you what they’ve done to me.”

  Dark brown eyes studied him with a kind of emotion he could only guess at. Something like hope, a warmth he hadn’t seen from anyone else in years. For years, Gracie had been his only source of good.

  If she’d felt pity for him, she’d hidden it well. Or maybe her pity didn’t suffocate like the town’s pity had when he’d still lived down there.

  “Laurel has my cousin basically bodyguarding me. Sort of. I may have slipped away this morning.”

  “Don’t slip away again,” he said firmly. “Let someone watch out for you.” He pointed to the phone still in her hand. “Someone is trying to lure you to an isolated spot, and using me to do it. You need to be protected.” He didn’t like the idea of this random cousin protecting her, but she was a Delaney. She had a million people on her side, and he had to trust that.

  Her eyebrows drew together. “Who will protect you?”

  Protect him? He’d never had anyone protecting him. Not really. He’d never known his dad, and for as long as he could remember his mom had been the one in need of protection from a string of men who’d always taken advantage of her. Then she’d married Phil and basically washed her hands of her useless son. He’d had Paula by then, and even though he couldn’t believe his wife had never loved him, it hadn’t lasted. Not the way it was supposed to.

  “Will.”

  He shook his head. This was all ancient history. He needed to focus on a little more current history. Who was after him? What kind of man had been sleeping with his wife? “It doesn’t matter. I don’t need protecting,” he muttered, trying to turn away.

  But Gracie grabbed his good arm. “It matters to me. We’re in this together, Will. You’re in danger.” She frowned down at her phone before shoving it into her coat pocket. “And I guess it’s possible I’m in danger, too.” She let her hand drop from his arm.

  “Which is why—”

  “We protect each other.” She stood there, fierce warrior that she always was. It amazed him, the weight this tiny woman carried on her shoulders, how that sweet, soft demeanor could fool a person into thinking there was no steel underneath.

  But he remembered, quite clearly, the day she’d come to his door to tell him Paula was dead. A quiet determination. A sense of purpose. A strength he’d envied when it felt like his world had been pulled out from under him.

  “Then you have to get me out of here. I can’t sit here and wait around. I have to get out there and figure out what’s going on. I don’t care if the police are looking into it this time. I’m the one who’s been looking into it for two years. Paula’s lo
ver might have destroyed my evidence, but he can’t destroy the things I know. I just have to work out the puzzle.”

  “We, Will,” she said resolutely. “We.”

  “So, you’ll get me out?”

  “First, you have to understand and accept you can’t shut me out of this. If I help you get out of here, then you are stuck with me until this is over. Cam and Laurel won’t be happy with me, but they can’t... Laurel can’t bend the rules and Cam won’t.”

  “But you will?”

  “If you promise me we’re in this together? Yes. I know Laurel did everything she could with Paula’s case, but sometimes even our best isn’t enough. You’re right. You have the most evidence, the most stake. They’re bound by rules. I don’t have to be. But that doesn’t mean we should work against them. I’m going to text Laurel about your number texting me. We want them investigating, too. We’re just going to investigate...our way. Together.”

  He didn’t want to risk her, but he couldn’t do this alone, either. Not with a broken arm. She was the only one he trusted. She was the only one he had, and that wasn’t just because of the circumstances he’d been living in the past year. It was her. Her strength and steadfastness and support.

  He’d just have to be strong enough and smart enough to protect her, for as long as he needed her. He held out his arm with the IV needle in it. “All right. We’re in this together.”

  She smiled and nodded, pulling her phone out. She typed in a text to Laurel about the phantom text message, then shoved the phone back in her pocket. “Okay, so how do we get out of here?”

  “First, you’re going to have to pull this out of me,” he instructed.

  She looked at the needle grimly, but she nodded. “Don’t look.”

  Chapter Seven

  “Crap,” Gracie muttered.

  “What?” Will demanded. His eyes were still squeezed shut even though she’d removed the IV needle a full minute ago. She’d even bandaged it up with a Band-Aid she’d found in one of the cabinets.