by Caroline Lee
She’d done that? God, his sweet little wife had killed a man? For him?
This time he did groan, thinking what it would mean to her to have done that.
Loving someone means you will do whatever is necessary to protect them.
Verrick’s words echoed in his head. Shannon had protected him. Did she love him?
His vague musings were cut off when someone grabbed him from behind—his uninjured arm—and wrenched him to his feet. He tensed to defend himself, but when his unknown assailant spun him around, he relaxed.
It was Verrick.
“Lucas!”
That was all he said, but it was enough. The other man grasped him by his shoulders, his grip tight enough to make Lucas wince, but the relief in Verrick’s eyes spoke volumes.
He’d been scared?
Scared for Lucas?
Remembering what Shannon had said about Verrick loving him once, and wondering if that meant he could still love him, Lucas forced a smile. “I’m alright. My wife saved me.”
The older man was breathing heavily, his eyes skimming over Lucas, as if making sure he wasn’t lying. But then he nodded, squeezed Lucas’s arms once, and stepped back. He didn’t say anything, and Lucas was glad for it. He wasn’t sure how he felt about this man, and wasn’t prepared to have to decide yet.
And then he wasn’t thinking about Verrick, or Pierce, or Thomas Ryan at all, because Shannon had thrown herself off the porch and into his arms.
The rest of the world faded as he wrapped himself around her, not caring about the dust and the blood that covered him. He buried his head in her sweet-smelling hair and inhaled deeply, feeling the terror and tension ease.
She was safe. Their baby was safe. He was safe, although it had taken a sacrifice from his wife he wouldn’t have asked for.
Her small arms snaked around his middle, and he felt the fullness of her as she pressed her body against his. The body that would soon swell with their child, and would comfort him for years to come.
He squeezed his eyes shut and refused to think how close he’d come to losing her. “I love you, Shannon.”
She pulled away just enough to tilt her head back and meet his eyes. She didn’t say anything, but he could see her confusion in the way her brows tilted in and her lips tightened.
Didn’t she believe him? Couldn’t she see how much she meant to him?
He dropped a kiss to her forehead and suddenly felt inexplicably buoyant. He loved her, and thanks to her, he now had a lifetime to prove it. But—he tried to lift his right arm to brush away a strand of her hair, and instead winced in pain—maybe not right now.
“You’re hurt!” she gasped, concern replacing the doubt on her face. “I didn’t realize…” She was fumbling for his arm. “Let me see!”
Lucas’s laugh was tinged with pain, but he couldn’t help it. He was alive! “It’s fine. I’m fine, thanks to you.” He pulled Shannon against his side with his good arm. “You can fuss over me inside.”
“Cora will have to help. Cora!”
Lucas followed her gaze to see his sister-in-law staring down at them from the porch. No, she wasn’t staring at them, she was staring at Verrick. And interestingly, he was staring back just as intently. At Shannon’s call though, Cora dragged her attention back to the embracing couple and raised a brow questioningly. As if she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary about the last few minutes’ proceedings.
“Are you alright?” Shannon asked. “I heard the bullet hit something behind me?”
Cora grinned. “I’m fine. Looks like we’re all fine, actually.” Her gaze flickered around the yard once, before landing back on Lucas. “But…”
Shannon stiffened. “What?”
“I’m sorry, but Pierce’s second bullet, the one that, you know, zipped past us?”
The one that had burned its way out of the barrel against Lucas’s side while they’d been grappling? Yeah, he knew, and found himself nodding along with Shannon to Cora’s question.
“Well,” she continued, suddenly looking rather concerned. “I’m really sorry, but it went in through the open door, and…”
Lucas tightened his hold on his wife. “What?”
“That vase that belonged to your mother? The one I moved to the little table in the foyer? I’m sorry, but it shattered that.”
A broken vase?
A broken vase and a small hole in his arm were all they had to worry about from this misadventure? Well, that and a million bruises, but that was all. Things could’ve been much worse.
He felt the chuckles building in his chest, and didn’t bother to stop the smile that spread across his face. When Shannon looked up at him quizzically, he squeezed her again.
“I always hated that vase.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but hers wasn’t the voice he heard.
“Me too.”
Lucas’s head whipped around at Verrick’s bland agreement, and their eyes met in recognition of their shared opinion. Verrick had lived here at Sunset Valley years ago, after all. Lucas vowed one day soon, he’d sit down with this man and find out answers.
For now, though, they were all safe and the danger was past. The laughter built inside him again, and he wondered if this was just the aftermath of the shock. But Shannon’s arms snaked around him once more, and he gave in to relief.
His arm might hurt like the blazes, and he’d been willing to become the killer he’d always despised, but his wife was safe beside him, and that’s all that mattered.
Chapter Ten
“Mind if I join you?”
Shannon started at the sound of her husband’s voice, but shifted over to one side of the porch swing, so he could slide in next to her. His right arm was resting in a sling, but his injury wasn’t as bad as she’d feared, and she’d changed the bandages frequently.
It was sunset, three days after Pierce’s death, and this was the first time Lucas had sought her out to be alone with her. Granted, for a lot of that time he’d been in bed—on her own orders!—recovering since his wound, but she couldn’t help but feel the two were somehow linked. He’d declared his love for her, only to watch her become the thing he hated most. A killer.
Tonight though, he reached for her right hand where it lay beside him on the swing’s wooden boards. He didn’t look at her, but just watched the sunset and stroked his thumb over her palm, like he had all those weeks ago at the train station. She’d missed his touch so much since Pierce’s death, but didn’t have to guess at the reason he didn’t reach for her in the night.
They sat in silence while the sun sank below the horizon, and when only the pink-tinged sky remained, she screwed up her courage and asked, “What did the sheriff say?”
The lawman had come out to the ranch today to speak with Lucas. He’d been out three days ago to collect Pierce’s body, but both times Lucas had insisted he meet with the man alone. To protect her? Or because he was ashamed of her?
“That Pierce’s funeral wasn’t well-attended, and Baker hasn’t been seen around. Also, after all those complaints I filed against him, the Sheriff and everyone else believe me that Pierce’s death was self-defense.”
“Oh.” Neither of them looked at one another, but she twisted her hand in his grip until she could twine her fingers through his. “I’m glad to hear about Baker, but I wonder where he went.”
“I don’t know. But I’m guessing my—I’m guessing Verrick might know something about that.”
A few moments of silence passed while Shannon worked up the gumption to ask what she’d been wondering for days: “Have you spoken to him yet…about everything?”
Lucas’s silence was answer enough, but she saw him shake his head once. Braver now, she turned slightly on the swing, so she could see him. No matter his opinion of her, she ached for his pain and wanted to heal it as well as she’d sutured and tended to his bullet wound.
“I think you should invite him to dinner.”
“What?” He glanced at her,
then away. “Why?”
“Because he cares for you.”
“I didn’t think he could care for anything.”
There was a bitterness in his voice she didn’t recognize, but understood.
“He cares for you. We all saw it after… Well, he was just as worried for you as I was. And I think, if you’d let yourself admit it, you’ll see you want to care for him, as well.”
“Care for Verrick? The west’s most-feared gunslinger?”
Was it her imagination, or was there a touch of longing mixed in with his bitterness?
She smiled gently and waited until she could catch his eye once more. “Care for your father.”
He stared at her, and after a dozen heartbeats, sighed. “You think he’d come to dinner with us?”
Trying to hide her exultant smile, she nodded. Then thought a moment and shrugged. “I don’t know. But you can always ask.”
“Huh.”
She squeezed his fingers, willing him to agree. “I know you have questions—”
“Like if I actually own this ranch.”
“What?” That hadn’t been what she’d meant at all. “What do you mean?”
He shrugged too nonchalantly. “Sunset Valley is Thomas Ryan’s ranch, and he made a deal with Pierce which was overridden when he married my mother and I was born. But if I’m not his actual son, maybe Pierce should’ve been the one to inherit…”
Horrified at the thought of Lucas torturing himself like this, Shannon shifted to face him. “Lucas, you can’t think that. Pierce didn’t deserve this land. Besides…” She swallowed, suddenly hesitant. “Verrick said…”
When she trailed off, he was the one to squeeze her hand. “Said what?”
“Did you know your father studied law at one point?”
“Verrick?”
She shrugged slightly. “I didn’t ask details. But yesterday he was in the kitchen while I was preparing dinner, and when I mentioned Pierce’s claim to the land, he said you were the legal owner.”
Verrick had stood there in the shadows of the kitchen, watching her work for several long minutes, before telling her he’d studied to be a lawyer in his youth. That had been a surprise, but also a relief when he’d continued his explanation.
“He said your mother was Thomas Ryan’s legal heir, and you were her legal heir, so therefore the ranch belongs to you, regardless of your parentage.”
Lucas was staring down at their joined hands. “He said that? The ‘regardless of my parentage’ bit, I mean?”
She nodded, even if Lucas wasn’t watching. “I think he’s unsure how to treat you—how you want him to treat you. I think he wants you to like him, but isn’t sure how to build a relationship with you.”
“That’s why you want me to invite him to dinner?”
“Well, that, and so you can get some answers.”
“Like whatever happened to Baker.”
That hadn’t been what she meant. Shannon opened her mouth to correct him, but then rethought it. “Well, yes. I guess.” She and Lucas hadn’t discussed that day yet, so he didn’t know… “Verrick handed me his revolver, and then ran off, saying that he had to find Baker.”
“I was wondering if that’s what the third shot was—him finding Baker. But Blake tells me there’s been no evidence of another gunfight around the house, and Verrick got back to me awfully quickly…”
Shannon’s eyes widened. “There was a third shot?”
“There were three shots, really close together. One was Pierce, obviously, and one was you. But the third sounded an awful lot like Verrick’s Army revolver.”
Shannon resisted the urge to scoff, but did frown slightly. “Are you sure? You were…distracted.”
“I…” Lucas exhaled and looked away. “I don’t know. It could’ve been him confronting Baker, but we never saw the man. I’d kinda hoped… Well, I guess I wanted Verrick to have been the one to have shot Pierce, for your sake.”
That was unexpected.
“You do? Why? So you don’t have to be married to a—”
Her brain caught up with her mouth and snapped it shut before he could hear her bitterness. After all, this was the first time they’d spoken about it, and it would be silly to ruin it.
But he’d heard anyhow, and she watched his expression turn gentle.
“I don’t think you’re a cold-hearted killer.” Still without meeting her eyes, he brought her palm to his lips, the same heart-melting way he’d done before. “I am in awe of the sacrifice you were willing to make for me.”
In awe of…?
Shannon swallowed. Those were some of the most beautiful words anyone had ever said to her.
“But I know how you feel about…” About your father. About Verrick being a killer.
“I know what I said that afternoon in the kitchen. About not being able to respect a killer. That’s what my mother taught me all those years, after all. But she was the one who told me to send for Verrick when Baker showed up.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “She was the one who’d been lying to me all those years.”
Shannon could feel his hurt and confusion at his mother’s betrayal, but knew there wasn’t anything to be done. His mother was gone, unable to explain or defend herself to her only son, and Shannon couldn’t do a thing for him, except to maybe comfort him with her presence. Her love.
She reached over and wrapped her other hand around their joined hands, trying to show him without words she understood and would support him in any way she could. He glanced down at their hands, and when he finally looked up, she could swear she saw the beginnings of a wry smile on his lips.
“Verrick told me something that day, Shannon.” He held her gaze. “Right after I found out about the baby. He said if you love someone, you’d do anything to protect them. When he told me that I thought…well, I thought maybe I understood. I knew I loved you and the baby, and I wondered if maybe that’s how he’d felt about me, or about my mother, at one time.”
Shannon blinked at her husband, straining to hear him over the blood pounding in her temples. He loved her. To admit it so casually must mean it was true. He loves me.
Lucas didn’t seem aware of her suddenly hopeful heart. “But it wasn’t until later that day I knew what he’d said was true.” He took a deep breath, one which Shannon felt herself copying. “When I stepped out of that stable and saw Pierce holding a loaded rifle and climbing the steps to get to the house, where I knew you were…well… I just…” His grip on her hands tightened. “I knew at that moment I’d do anything to protect you, just like Verrick said.”
Even become a killer.
Lucas nodded, as if able to understand her thought. “I realize now I was being high-and-mighty, judging Verrick like I did. I realize I’d never really been tested, never had someone I loved so deeply threatened like that. I realize I would kill a man to protect someone I loved.”
He loved her. He loved her!
But then Lucas looked away. “I’m just…just so sorry you had to see me like that.”
Shannon blinked, trying to calm her soaring heart long enough to understand what he was saying. “Like what?”
“We were fighting, and when he reached for that gun again, and I knew he could hurt you, I just snapped. I didn’t just become a killer, I became… Well, Verrick said loving someone meant doing anything to protect them, but what I did was horrible. I became a killer with my bare hands.”
Shannon shifted slightly and squeezed his hand once, waiting for him to look her way again. When he did, she smiled. “But you didn’t, remember?”
“I remember.” His chuckle sounded forced, but that was alright, because at least he was trying. “You saved me. I would’ve never asked my wife to pick up a gun, not when I was there to defend her, but you… You did it without asking, and for my sake.”
“And I’d do it again.” She took a deep breath. “Because when you love someone, you’ll do anything to protect them.”
She watched his eyes widen
as he understood what she was saying. And then the most beautiful smile spread across his face, tugging at his lips, until his teeth shone bright in the dim light.
“Truly, Shannon? You love me?”
“I’ve been terrified for weeks, because I didn’t think there was any way you could love me as much as I love you.”
He untangled his hand from hers and wrapped his good arm around her shoulders. Pulling her against him, he kissed the top of her head. “How could I not love you, wife? You’re kind and sweet, and make my life wonderful. I love talking with you, and sharing my life with you. And I sure as hell love kissing you.”
His lips found her temple, and she smiled.
But her smile faded when she remembered her old fear. “You might not mind being married to a killer—”
He cut her off with a kiss right above her ear. “The fact you were willing to do it for me still leaves me in awe.”
She swallowed down the thrill his words gave her, and focused on her other sin. “But being married to a liar is just as bad.”
His lips stilled and he straightened. “A liar?”
Shannon kept her eyes glued on the horizon where the pinks were slowly turning to purples.
“I...” She exhaled, then inhaled, as if armoring herself against her own confession. “It’s been eating me up inside, the way I lied to you in my letters. Since before I even got here. But then you were so sweet to me, and I thought maybe…” She sighed. “But then you started hiding things, and I knew you were hurt by my lies after all. And meanwhile, I was falling in love—”
“What are you talking about? What was I hiding?”
She shrugged. “You weren’t telling me everything about Pierce and Baker. Even when I pressed you.”
“Oh.” In that one syllable, she felt the tension ease out of his shoulder. “Yeah.” His arm moved, snuggling her up against him as he shifted his legs out in front of the swing. “I was hiding stuff, but I shouldn’t have. I was trying to keep you from worrying.”
“Keep me from worrying?” She tried to wiggle around in his grip, but no luck. “Knowing you weren’t telling me something—such as a gunslinger being hired to kill you!—made me worry more.”
