Wrangler's Rescue

by B. J Daniels

  The woman appeared to be trying to contain her fury. She rose to her full height, fire in those blue eyes. “Well, she can’t get him back without this,” she snapped, holding up the passport. “When I know where he is, I’ll be happy to send his passport so he can come home.”

  “That is thoughtful of you,” Flint said. “But I’ve already filed for a new one for him and put a rush on it. One of the joys of being in law enforcement. So he doesn’t really need his old passport anymore. The new papers are on their way to the police commissioner in St. Augusta. AJ and Cyrus will be picking them up there.” It was a bluff, but Cyrus wasn’t coming home soon anyway. “I’ll let you know when he gets here since the FBI will be wanting to talk to you both. They’re as anxious for him to get back here as you are.”

  She threw the passport down on his desk and stormed out. He waited until he was sure she was gone before he picked it up and called AJ. Cyrus would be able to come home without waiting for the new paperwork Flint had applied for. Even he couldn’t make bureaucracy move fast.

  But first AJ had to tell Cyrus that he had a home—and family—waiting for him. The fear was that he wouldn’t care because all of that had been stripped from his memory forever.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  “ENJOY YOUR SWIM?”

  AJ jumped. She hadn’t seen Cyrus standing in the shadows of cottage number four and the one closest to the beach as she returned from her walk.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” he said as he stepped out of a shadow. He’d changed clothes from earlier and now wore a short-sleeved white shirt and khakis. If it was possible, he looked more handsome, more sexy, even more male. His dark hair was still damp from his bath and she caught the sweet scent of soap as he closed the distance between them.

  Her heart took off at a gallop. She felt sixteen and tongue-tied, so she merely smiled and nodded as she slowed her pace. He fell in beside her as the moon rimmed the horizon over the ocean. A breeze stirred the palm fronds and ruffled her hair.

  She stopped to brush it from her eyes. Before she could, he reached over, his work-roughened fingertips grazing her cheek. A shiver ran the full length of her. She slowly raised her gaze to meet his gray eyes, remembering the dream she’d had. Heat rushed to her center, her legs weak under her.

  What she saw in his eyes though confused her, which was why she never saw the kiss coming. One minute he was looking at her, searching her gaze as if he thought if he looked deep enough in her eyes he could see her soul.

  The next he’d slid his hand around the back of her hairline and drew her into the kiss.

  For months, she’d been waiting for him to kiss her. To make that first move past just friends to something more. And now, out of the blue, he was kissing her. It came as such a surprise, she didn’t react at first.

  It ended as quickly as it had begun.

  She felt dazed, off balance, disoriented. She hadn’t realized that she’d leaned into him, into the kiss, until he pulled back and she had to get her feet under her. But before she could, he grabbed the front of her beach cover and pulled her over to the side of the dark cottage, pinning her against the wall in the ebony shadows.

  “Who are you?” he demanded, his voice sounding hoarse as if filled with emotion. She stared at him, breathless and wide-eyed. He still had a handful of her beach cover in his big fist. He gave it and her a little shake. “Why were you asking around town about me?” She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. “And don’t lie to me.”

  Her voice sounded strained and small when she finally found the words. “It’s true. I have been looking for you.”

  “Why?” he demanded, keeping her pressed against the wall, his body blocking her escape.

  “I’m a friend of your family.”

  He blinked and loosened his hold on her a little. “My family?”

  She nodded. “Your family in Montana.” She could see the suspicion, the fear. “I know you’re having trouble with your memory. I’m not sure how much you remember about falling overboard from the cruise ship.”

  Shaking his head, he said, “Nothing before I woke up in the water near drowning.” She listened as he told her about hanging on to a buoy until he washed up on this shore with no memory of how he’d gotten there.

  She felt like crying. “I thought that might be the case when you didn’t seem to recognize me. But maybe I can help you.”

  He let go of her but stayed where he was, his body so close that she would have to push him aside to leave. “What makes you think I need help?”

  She swallowed, uncertain how to proceed. “Don’t you want to know what happened to you?” She saw barriers come up but just as quickly fall. All the anger and fight seemed to go out of him, draining away like water into sand. “Come to my cottage and we can talk. I’ll tell you everything I know. Maybe it will help you remember.”

  He studied her as if still uncertain. “We’ve never kissed before.”

  “No, we haven’t,” she said. Tears filled her eyes. After all that time of dreaming about their first kiss, she’d never imagined it would be like this. “We were friends.”

  “Friends? So you aren’t my wife?”

  The question took her by surprise. “No.” She swallowed and looked away, afraid he could see how much his question had hurt her.

  “But we were close.”

  She shifted her gaze to him again. His intent gaze made her squirm. “I thought we were getting that way before you left.”

  “Then how do you explain this wedding band on my finger?”

  “I can’t explain why you would do something so impulsive as marry a woman you just met. It wasn’t like you. It shocked us all because it was so out of character.”

  “Especially you.”

  Her eyes filled. She hastily wiped at them. “Yes.”

  “I can see that I hurt you. And yet, you’re the one who came looking for me.”

  She swallowed. “I had a strong feeling that you were still alive.”

  “And my wife? Why isn’t she here?”

  How did she tell him that Juliette had gotten his death certificate as quickly as she could and was now pressuring his family to pay her off by selling the ranch? Worse, that there was a good chance she was the reason he’d ended up going overboard at sea? “She refused to believe you could have survived.”

  He said nothing for a long moment. His gray gaze bored into her. “But not you. You thought you knew me better.”

  She raised her chin in defiance. “Yes.”

  Cyrus chuckled before looking out at the ocean for a moment, but he didn’t move. She held her breath, unsure what would happen now. “Why didn’t you say something right away when you saw me?”

  “I could tell you’d been hurt and I was afraid you might run away thinking I’d come here to harm you.” His gaze came back to her. “I just want you to be...well.”

  “My memory may never come back.”

  “Or something might trigger it. Perhaps...your wife.”

  “Is she coming down here?”

  “Do you want her to?”

  “I’m not sure what I want.” He glanced over his shoulder again. “This family you say I have, why haven’t they come down here?” He quickly answered his own question. “You haven’t told them where I am.”

  “No.”

  He cocked his head as if curious about her motives. “Why is that?”

  “Because I felt you needed time. I was afraid even hearing this might overwhelm you. Was I wrong?”

  “No. Tell me about you and me.”

  AJ took a moment to gather herself. “The last time I saw you we went horseback riding together.”

  “When was that?”

  “Weeks ago now, before you went to Denver to buy a bull for your family ranch. You’re a rancher back in Montana.”

  He looked
disbelieving. She couldn’t blame him. He had no memory of that life apparently. Also he had to be wondering how he’d ended up here after what he’d been through. She’d spent sleepless nights, wondering the same thing.

  “A rancher? Shouldn’t I remember that?” Before she could answer, he said, “Come with me.” He reached for her hand. “We can talk in my hut.”

  She nodded and, taking a steady breath, walked with him across the moonlit-drenched beach and up into the trees and dense vegetation. It was cooler up here. The sea breeze stirred the palm fronds, the night shimmering in moon glow and deep shadows. It seemed to her a symphony of soft sounds, the waves washing onto the beach, the palms sighing, the nightly insects chirping in.

  When he let go of her hand at the doorway into where he’d been staying, AJ hugged herself, afraid of what was going to happen, afraid of what wouldn’t. He drew back the netting at the door and stepped back to let her enter. His “hut” was a basic lean-to with a hammock and a couple of chairs that he might have found in the hurricane debris and repaired.

  “Understand, after you left Montana, there’s a lot I don’t know,” she said as she took the chair he offered her. He stood silhouetted against the night. The view through his netted doorway was spectacular. She wondered how many nights he’d lain in the hammock looking at the sea that had spit him out on this beach, wondering how he’d gotten here and why. “Could you please sit down?”

  He hesitated, but only for a moment. As he took a chair he said nothing, waiting, studying her with both suspicion and fear, and maybe hope?

  “The last time I saw you, you promised to come back after a few days. Billie Dee was making her Texas chicken and dumplings, your favorite.” He frowned. “She’s the cook at the Stagecoach Saloon that your brother and sister own.”

  “I thought my family ranched since I’d gone to Denver to buy a bull?”

  “Your brother Flint is the sheriff, Tucker is a deputy, Darby owns a saloon with your sister, Lillie, and Hawk ranches with you.”

  He shook his head. “Wouldn’t you think that if any of this were true I’d remember?”

  “You’ve been through a lot. You were injured when you fell off a cruise ship...or were pushed.”

  His eyes widened. “Why would you say that?” He was nervously turning the wedding ring on his finger.

  “You were married on the cruise ship to a woman you’d just met only days before.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “I don’t know what happened on the ship, but I’ve met your wife.”

  He looked down at the ring on his left hand and quit fiddling with it. “But I was with you before I left?”

  She nodded. “I thought you and I were getting...close. We liked each other and I thought...” She cleared her throat. “Then we got a call that you’d fallen off a cruise ship. At first we didn’t believe it. We thought you were on your way back from Denver. You’d purchased the bull and should have been home by the time we got the call. Then we found out that you’d gotten married on the ship. It was so out of character...”

  “But you say you’ve met my wife and that’s why you suspect I was pushed overboard?”

  “Juliette.”

  She could see that the name meant nothing to him.

  “She said it was love at first sight.”

  “You don’t trust her.”

  She let out a bark of a laugh. “She is in Montana right now trying to force your family to sell the ranch and buy her out. She showed up with your death certificate as quickly as she could get it.”

  AJ hadn’t meant to blurt that out. “I’m sorry.”

  He sat back and rubbed his neck. “If this is true, then you must think me a fool.”

  “That’s just it,” she said leaning toward him. “The Cyrus Cahill I know would never have done something so impetuous and I think I know you pretty well.”

  * * *

  “CYRUS CAHILL.” He tried out the name on his tongue and cursed under his breath. Nothing felt familiar—except this woman. He’d wanted to kiss her again, as worried as he was that she might be the danger he had to fear. According to her, he’d already been fooled by one woman—his apparent wife.

  He was so close to AJ in the confines of his hut that he ached to kiss her. She touched the tip of her tongue to her lower lip. It was his undoing. He reached over, cupped the back of her neck and pulled her to him. This time, he kissed her the way he’d been wanting to from the beginning.

  Her hands went to his chest. She pressed her palms into his flesh. And for a moment, he was lost in her wonderful mouth, lips, the surprise flick of her tongue, before she pushed him back, shaking her head.

  “Maybe I’m more impetuous than you thought,” he said.

  “What you are apparently is married.”

  He looked down at the ring again. “So it seems. But it doesn’t sound like much of a marriage since you believe she’s the one who tried to kill me.”

  They sat within inches of each other, their knees almost touching, both breathing hard. His body ached for her, but she was right. He had enough problems without falling for this woman. Because if he made love to her, that’s exactly what would happen, he feared.

  He got to his feet. “What do we do now?”

  “Your brother Flint—”

  “The sheriff.”

  “Is sending your passport. He got it from—”

  “Juliette. My wife.”

  “Once it arrives, we should be able to leave. If that’s what you want.”

  “And you have purposely not told her where I am.” He lifted a brow in question. “Are you protecting me? Or hiding me?”

  “Maybe both. I have good reason to believe she was behind you going overboard on that cruise ship. You aren’t her first husband to die under suspicious circumstances. In fact, you’re the fifth. Your wife is being investigated in two states for the deaths of her husbands.”

  He let out a humorous laugh. “And here I was thinking you were just jealous.”

  She lifted her chin, her eyes sparking. “Who says I’m not? But if you really did fall in love with her at first sight... Well, then, I plan to get you back to her—and your family in Montana, and wish you luck.”

  “And if I don’t go back?”

  “Is that what you want?”

  He moved to the doorway, his back to her as he looked out. “How could I know what I want? Remember? I have no memory before I woke up in the ocean, alone in the dark, confused, afraid, injured and drowning.” When he turned, she was beside him, so close he could smell the sunscreen and sea salt on her skin.

  She placed a hand on his arm and he felt a ripple move through him. “It’s why I didn’t tell you right away. I could tell that you were...scared.”

  Because of the feeling that he had something to fear. Someone to fear. “You really believe my wife pushed me from the cruise ship.”

  “Or someone she got to help her, yes, based on what we know about her. I’m told it’s hard to fall off a cruise ship unless you were drunk and climbing on the railing.”

  He thought about that. “Maybe that’s what I did.”

  “You’ve never been much of a drinker.”

  “Right. But apparently I never did half of the things I did before I ended up in the ocean.”

  She pulled her hand back. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe when you see your wife, your memory will come back, all of it including what happened after you met her.”

  He studied her for a full minute. “What does she look like?”

  “Blonde, blue-eyed.”

  “Like you,” he said. “She sounds as if she married me for my money. Do I have money?”

  “You’re comfortable but your brother said you’re what is called ‘land-poor.’ Your wife might have gotten the wrong idea because you were buying a three-hundred-thousand-dollar bull
.”

  “Is that a lot for a bull?”

  She laughed. “I have no idea. You were cautious about buying it but Hawk—”

  “The brother I ranch with.”

  “Yes, he thought it was a good investment.”

  He considered all of this. She made him sound like a cautious man who wasn’t impulsive or rash. But standing here with her, he also knew what powerful feelings for a woman could do to a man. “I have a lot of things to think about. Do you have photos of my family?”

  She pulled out her phone and moved closer to him. He could smell the sweet scent of her.

  “This is your brother Flint and this is your sister, Lillie, and her husband, Trask. This is your brother Darby and you at the Stagecoach Saloon.”

  He stared at the photo of himself. He looked so different, he wasn’t even sure he would have recognized himself. So clean-cut, so confident in who he was, so...cowboy.

  “This is Hawk.”

  “The brother I ranch with. We all have the same dark hair and gray eyes.”

  “Yes, and this is Tucker and his wife, Kate. Tucker is the oldest of you boys.”

  “You don’t have a photo of you and me together?”

  She seemed to blush. “No, we never...” She hesitated and then said, “On that horseback ride we went on?”

  “Yes?”

  “We almost kissed for the first time but your horse got jealous and tried to nudge you off the mountain we were on.”

  He laughed, feeling his heart beat a little faster. “That could explain why I’ve wanted to kiss you for days now.” But it explained little else, he thought. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid none of those people—”

  “Maybe this one will make you remember.” He looked at her phone screen and saw himself sitting on a horse. “I thought you might recognize your horse.”

  He chuckled. “My jealous horse.” For a moment, they stood together listening to the island sounds around them as if they were the only two people in the world.