Cowboy to the Rescue

by Stella Bagwell

  She looked up at him, and it suddenly struck her that he had been well and truly frightened for her safety. The idea made her heart want to hope that he might actually care for her, that his caring might one day turn to love.

  “Whenever I told Lawrence that your mother wanted money, I honestly believed he could have put his hands around my neck and choked the life out of me. But I knew he wouldn’t. The man is the epitome of a wimp. Still, he’s dangerous. I have no doubt about that.”

  His fingertips began to slide gently against the back of her hand. “I kept imagining him following you, maybe trying to run you off the highway. Sometime back, that happened to my cousin, Luci. And she could have easily been killed.”

  “Well, thankfully, neither he nor anyone else followed me. Now we’ve got to hope that Lawrence will be desperate enough to show up at that restaurant with a satchel full of money.”

  With a slight shake of his head, he tightened his fingers around her hand and leaned his face toward hers. “I don’t want to talk about that anymore tonight, Christina. I want to talk about you—us. You said you wished that you’d met Mercedes under different circumstances. Well I can’t help but wonder how things would’ve been if we’d met some other way.”

  “I’m not sure we would have met. I live in San Antonio. You live here. Our paths would have probably never crossed.”

  “No. You’re wrong about that. We were meant to meet.” His eyes softly roamed her face. “I’ve been thinking a lot, Christina, about that night we spent out on roundup. You seemed like you really enjoyed being outdoors with the cowboys and the horses—and me.”

  She looked away from him while wondering why her heart was hammering, why she suddenly felt so scared. Funny how she’d faced plenty of dangerous situations during her years as a law officer, yet none of them shook her like the thought of never having this man’s love. In some strange way, the night they’d spent sleeping in bedrolls under the stars had affected her even more than the night they’d actually made love. Something about sharing that part of his life had given her an even deeper glimpse of the man than being physically connected to him had.

  “I did really enjoy it,” she told him, then tried to laugh to ease the turmoil in her heart. “I thought sleeping on the ground would kill me, but it didn’t.”

  His fingers continued to massage the back of her hand. “Not very many women like the ranch. Not after they’re on it for any length of time,” he admitted. “It’s very isolated.”

  “I don’t think of it as being isolated. The ranch is always full of activity—a little settlement unto itself.”

  His eyes grew warm and tender, but then he quickly looked away, as though he was embarrassed that he’d let his emotions show. “You’re different, Christina. From the moment I met you, I realized that, but I didn’t want to admit it to myself.”

  His gaze turned back to her, and this time there was a hint of regret on his face. “I’ve been looking at everything—at you—in the wrong way.”

  Christina couldn’t stop her groan. “Oh please, Lex, don’t expect me to believe that you’ve had this sudden emotional lightning bolt hit you and you think it’s love. I—”

  “I wasn’t going to tell you that I love you. I wouldn’t do that unless I was sure. I’d never lie to you like that. Besides, you wouldn’t believe me if I said such a thing to you.”

  Feeling as if she was being torn to shreds, Christina rose to her feet and walked to the edge of the porch. With her back to him, she said, “I’m glad you realize that.”

  Long, pregnant moments passed before he moved behind her and slipped his arms around her waist. “I guess I want you to understand how important you’ve become to me.”

  Christina was suddenly trembling all over, as though she was standing on a dangerous precipice and the slightest breeze might topple her over. Everything inside of her was urging her to turn to him, to tell him that she loved him. Loved him utterly and completely.

  I’ve had more than one woman fall in love with me.

  The words Lex had spoken to her in the attic were suddenly spinning through her head, blocking the vow of love from spilling from her lips. He’d been told by more than one woman before that he was loved, but that obviously hadn’t brought out any sort of commitment from him. And like he’d said, it certainly hadn’t made him love the women in return. It would be stupid of her to think that telling him she loved him would somehow fix anything.

  Bending her head, she pushed the next words past the lump in her throat. “I believe that, Lex.”

  Instantly, he turned her toward him and fastened his lips over hers. As soon as the soft, moist curves yielded beneath his own mouth, hunger struck him hard while, at the same time, joyous bells clanged in his head. She was the very thing his heart, his soul, had been searching for. He didn’t just want this woman; he needed her.

  Once the kiss threatened to completely steal his breath, he broke the contact between their lips and mouthed against her neck, “You can believe me, darling.”

  Suddenly her hands were in the middle of his chest, levering a small, cold gap between them. The forced separation had him looking questioningly down at her.

  Her beautiful features were full of pain, and the sight totally confused Lex. The only time he’d ever made women miserable was when he’d given them a final goodbye. Yet Christina seemed to be just the opposite. The closer he tried to get, the more miserable she appeared to be.

  And it suddenly struck him that making love to Christina, hearing her say their relationship would keep going, was only a tiny portion of what he wanted. He wanted her to be happy, deep-down happy. He wanted to love her. Really love her.

  Oh God, what was happening to him? he wondered. And what could he do about it now? She’d never believe he was falling in love with her. He wasn’t even sure he could believe it himself.

  “I—um, I’m sure you’re very tired,” he said gently. “And I’ve got a long day ahead of me tomorrow. Maybe we’d better say good night.”

  The relief on her face actually stung him, but then she gave him a wobbly smile, and his heart felt like a piece of iron that had just been thrown into a smelting pot.

  “I think you’re right,” she said, then carefully eased out of his arms. “I’ve got a busy day tomorrow, too, getting things coordinated with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department.”

  To his surprise, her eyes suddenly turned watery, and for one split second, he started to jerk her back into his arms, to beg her to listen to what had just dawned in his heart. But she needed time, he realized. And he did, too. Time to figure out how to prove his sincerity, his newfound devotion to her.

  When you love a person the way I loved your father, you just know.

  A few days ago, Lex couldn’t comprehend what his mother had once told him about falling in love. But now the meaning of her words was crystal clear to him. He loved Christina, and because he did, he saw more, felt more, understood things that had only been mysteries to him before. It was like stepping into a new world, and even though the path was scary, he realized he had to keep walking ahead.

  With a wry smile, he stepped forward and ran a gentle hand over her red hair. “Don’t worry, my sweet. Everything is going to be all right.”

  Chapter Twelve

  The next day, in spite of spending most of her time on the telephone with one law official after another, Christina couldn’t shake Lex’s parting words of the night before.

  Everything is going to be all right.

  What had he meant by that? Had he been talking about the sting to catch Lawrence or their fragile relationship? God, she wished she’d questioned him before he’d left the porch and retired to his room.

  She’d thought she’d have a chance to speak with him this morning, before the day became hectic, but her sleep had been erratic, and by the time she’d finally pushed herself out of bed and stumbled down to the kitchen for breakfast, Lex had already left the house.

  Now it was growing
late in the evening, and he was quite late in returning to the house. Cook had prepared supper, but Christina had told the woman to put the whole meal in the warming drawer. Sharing supper with Lex had become her favorite part of the day, and she wanted to enjoy it for the few evenings that were left before her time here on the ranch was over.

  She was in the den, going over a folder of information she planned to hand over to the DA while watching the evening news on the television, when she heard a vehicle drive up at the west end of the house.

  Since Lex always parked his truck in that area and entered the house through the kitchen, she jumped from the couch and hurried through the house to greet him. Just knowing he was home filled her with relief. For some unexplainable reason, she’d been anxious about his safety.

  By the time she reached the kitchen, she expected to find Lex already there. But the room was empty, and an odd feeling of alarm sent a chill through her.

  Something wasn’t right.

  She stepped onto the back patio and glanced toward the west end of the house. When she did, her breath caught in her throat as a sinking feeling hit the pit of her stomach.

  Lawrence Carter was walking rapidly toward her. And from the cold look on his face, he wasn’t on the ranch to make a deal. Why hadn’t she guessed something like this could happen?

  Of all the days for Lex to be delayed, this wasn’t the one he would have chosen. He’d planned on being home early this evening to eat supper with Christina, and then he’d planned on taking her on a leisurely drive over a few parts of the ranch she’d not yet seen. She’d been working herself to the point of exhaustion over his father’s case, and he wanted her to relax, to forget about Lawrence Carter and insider trading and paralyzing drugs. But mostly he simply wanted to be alone with her, with no outside distractions.

  But one problem after another had occurred today, and he’d spent the past four hours helping the hands move a herd of cows from a pasture with a broken windmill to an area of the ranch where water was plentiful.

  After unsaddling Leo and leaving him in the capable hands of a stable groom, Lex left the horse barn and started across the ranch yard on foot. Since most of the cowboys had already retired to the bunkhouse, the work area was quiet, and the long shadows of evening were beginning to cool the hard, packed earth.

  Halfway to the house and lost in thought, he was faintly surprised when he suddenly spotted his teenage niece, Gracia, riding one of her cutting horses toward him. Normally, she rode those particular horses only in the practice arena.

  When she reached him, she pulled her mount to a rapid stop. “You’re out late this evening,” she observed.

  “So are you, young lady. Why aren’t you riding in the arena?”

  She shrugged. “Cloud Walker needed a bit more exercise, so I rode him down the road for a couple of miles.” She wrinkled her nose and glanced back in the direction she’d just traveled. “Who is that creepy man at Aunt Geraldine’s house? I saw him on the back lawn with Christina. They were walking together toward the house. Christina was smiling like he was a friend, or it looked like she was smiling. Is he a guest of hers?”

  Icy fear rushed through Lex as his gaze shot past Gracia and on toward the house. “A man? What did he look like?”

  She made a face of disgust. “Like a weirdo. Skinny and sorta old, with plastered hair. What is he doing here?”

  Jerking his cell phone from the pocket of his jeans, he tossed it to the teenager, then took off in a run toward the house. “Call your father, and tell him what’s going on!” he shouted over his shoulder. “Now!”

  As Christina reentered the house, her mind was frantically searching for a way to deal with the maniac pointing an automatic pistol at her back.

  Clearly, he had evil on his mind, and she had to think fast to come up with some diversionary tactic and snatch the weapon from him before he decided to use it.

  As they walked into the kitchen, he asked gruffly, “Who else is in the house?”

  “I don’t know,” she lied. “The maids could be upstairs.”

  Christina wasn’t about to tell him that Cook and the maids had left hours ago. With Lex still out working, there was no one here but her.

  “What about that old crow that calls herself a cook?”

  Christina silently promised herself she was going to make this man pay for every evil thing he’d said and done to the Saddler family.

  Looking over her shoulder at him, she said, “If you mean Hattie, she’s retired for the night.”

  He grunted. “What about Geraldine and Lex?”

  “I—I don’t know. This is a big house.”

  After mouthing a few curse words, he waved the gun toward the swinging door that led from the kitchen to the rest of the house. “I’ll take care of them if I have to. Where’s the safe in this dump, anyway? In Paul’s office?”

  “Why would Paul still have an office? He’s been dead for twelve years. Thanks to you,” she said coldly. “The safe where Geraldine locked the evidence is in the den.”

  Actually, the only safe in the house that Christina was aware of was located in the den. And she only knew about that one because Lex had opened it one night to show her a set of antique jewelry that had belonged to his great-grandmother.

  “Take me to it! And be quick about it!”

  He shoved the gun against the back of her rib cage in an effort to hurry her along. Christina shouldered through the swinging doors, then made a sharp right down the dimly lit hallway leading to the den. Normally, the room was the least used in the house. Mostly, Geraldine stuck to her office in the parlor, and Lex used the kitchen for his hangout. As for Christina, she spent most of her time in her little office, but this evening she’d taken her work with her to the den so she could relax on the couch while she waited for Lex to return. Now she took hope in the fact that the den was located at the rear of the house.

  If she could throw something through the picture window that faced the back lawn, there was a slight chance one of the men at the bunkhouse would hear the crash and come to investigate.

  “You’re making a mistake, Lawrence,” she said in a deliberately calm tone. “This isn’t the way to handle things.”

  “You said I was stupid, but you and that bitch Geraldine are the stupid ones for thinking I’d give you a cent,” he gritted between clenched teeth.

  She’d been stupid, all right, Christina thought, for not anticipating this deranged man making a counter move of some sort. But not in a million years would she have thought he would be crazy enough to show up here at the ranch. Damn it! If only she had her revolver. But it was stashed away in the bureau in her bedroom.

  When they reached the den, she could see the room appeared the same as when she’d left it. A table lamp shed a small oval of light near the end of the couch where she’d been working. Nearby, on a small table, a fat scented candle flickered in the semidarkness. Next to it, she’d dropped the folder jammed with notes concerning Paul’s case when she’d hurried out to meet Lex. Across the room on the television screen, a female news anchor was continuing to read the evening news and the wild thought that her homicide might be the next story flashed through Christina’s mind. But just as quickly, she flung the thought aside.

  She had to fight in every way she could against this man. She had to stay alive—to stay with Lex as long as she could, in any way she could.

  Deliberately drifting toward the table where the papers were lying, she pointed to the farthest wall of the room. “The safe is over there. Behind that shelving with the horse sculptures.”

  Following close on her heels, he said, “Get over there and open it! And don’t try anything funny!”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” Christina said sarcastically. “I’m not a funny kind of girl.”

  “Shut up and do as I say!”

  Intensely aware of the gun pointed at her back, she walked ever so slowly across the room. All the while, her mind was racing, calculating. The only things she r
ecalled being inside the safe were the jewels and a few old maps of the ranch from when Lex’s great-grandparents had first purchased the property. There was nothing that she could use to fake Lawrence out, even for a few seconds.

  Stall, Christina! Stall! Lex will surely be home soon!

  The moment she reached the table, she paused and glanced back at her captor. His gaze was roaming wildly about the room, as though he expected someone to jump out of the shadows. For a second, while his eyes darted away from her, she considered leaping straight at him, but before she could make a move, his eyes were back on her, demonic and threatening.

  “Did I tell you to stop, bitch?”

  “No. But I don’t have the combination to the safe. Besides, all the evidence isn’t here. Geraldine has some of it with her.”

  “Then you’d better get it here. Fast!”

  Christina stared at him. If he was brazen enough to walk into the house without knowing how many people might be inside, then he’d obviously come here prepared to shoot whoever got in his way.

  “She isn’t here. She’s away—on a trip with her daughter.”

  “You’re lying! She was supposed to meet me tomorrow at the Red Road Inn. She couldn’t be away on a trip.”

  Seeing she’d obviously confused him, she pressed her luck even further in hopes that she’d get him so distracted, he’d lose his focus. “I don’t know where you got the idea that I would allow Geraldine to join our meeting,” she told him. “The only guests at that little party were going to be you and me, buster.”

  His face turned beet-red; then he sucked in a deep breath and shook like a wet dog. Christina braced herself, half expecting him to lift the pistol and fire at her. Instead, he surprised her by suddenly taking on an eerily calm appearance.

  “I’m beginning to see right through you,” he said, with smug certainty. “You and Geraldine don’t have any evidence at all. You’re running a bluff. You can’t prove anything.”