“I know what I’m doing,” Hank said, giving Ben a self-assured look.
Gage hoped Hank knew what he was doing, because Gage sure didn’t.
As soon as Sultan was saddled, Hank and Gage rode out onto the ranch property, and Gage marveled at the splendor of the sun spilling over the ridge of mountains. The peaks of the mountains in the range to their north already bore a cap of snow. They crossed a sprawling pasture where golden bales of hay in large rolls dotted the field, and a chill wind swept down from the hills, hinting of the winter that would arrive all too soon.
Gage inhaled deeply, his nose filling with the scent of leather, fresh air and fecund earth. For months he’d been surrounded by the exhaust fumes of military trucks, the smell of gun oil and deafening blasts of machine guns and explosives.
Patches of frost lingered on the grass in the pasture and sparkled like diamonds in the early morning sun. Nature seemed to be showing off this morning, pulling out all the stops to impress him.
Kate would love this view.
He twisted his mouth in thought and knitted his brow. Why was he viewing the world in terms of what Kate might think? He was in an open field where a sniper could be hiding, but he was considering how Kate might enjoy the morning vista at the Bar Lazy K Ranch. Sheesh.
Get your head in the game, Prescott.
“So what is our objective with this ride, sir?” he called to Hank, who rode well ahead of him. He needed to catch up to Hank, but he wasn’t sure how to get his horse to move faster. He tried giving Blaze a little kick with his heel.
“Relaxation is my objective,” Hank called back. “I need to think, get things straight in my head.” He paused then added, “But since I agreed to check the fence, we’re also looking for damage. When Cole brings the herd back, they’ll be put in this pasture to graze.”
Gage was uncomfortable with the distance that was growing between his horse and the senator’s. He could hardly protect Hank if he kept trotting off so far ahead.
“Go, horse! Giddyup!” Gage slapped the reins on Blaze’s shoulder, and the horse picked up his pace for a few steps, then settled back into a lazy walk. “Senator Kelley, slow down. I need to stay with you, and this horse seems to only have two speeds, slow and slower.”
Hank glanced behind him and chuckled. “Greenhorn.”
Gage gritted his teeth and was considering issuing another warning to the senator when they reached the set of ATV tracks left in the dirt the night before. Ben’s handiwork, repairing the damaged fence, was obvious as well. “Sir, the people who cut the fence here and went joy-riding on the pasture might have been testing the security system. The people responsible could be watching the ranch, monitoring your movements right now. We don’t know that the people who cut the fence last night and broke the bunkhouse window weren’t the same people who have threatened you.”
Now Hank reined in his horse. “How would anyone know I was here? I’ve only told my closest associates and family that I’m staying with Cole.”
“You’ve hardly kept a low profile while here. The first day you went into town for lunch. You’re out in plain view of telephoto lenses and sniper scopes now. And cell phone calls are easily traced. You’ve had your phone glued to your ear since we arrived, despite our request that you not make calls.” Gage tugged the brim of the ball cap he wore down to better shade his eyes. “Honestly, sir, you’re not making my job easy when you defy our recommendations. You’re incredibly exposed out here.”
The senator sighed, and his shoulders sagged. Then with a deep inhalation, his chin came back up, and he stiffened his spine. “I won’t be turned into a prisoner in that house. I won’t give these people that kind of power over me!”
“You mean the way Lana is a prisoner?” He knew it was a low blow, but the man needed a wake-up call.
Hank turned angry eyes toward Gage. “You impertinent ass.”
“Maybe so, but have you thought about how you are jeopardizing the safety of those around you? When are you going to shelve your pride and tell me what is really going on? Who is threatening you? Why are they threatening you? What do they want?”
Hank’s face shuttered. “I can’t talk about it.”
“Meanwhile, your silence is putting Lana, Cole—hell your whole family—at risk. They went after Lana, so what’s to stop them from gunning for any of your other children or your wife? Is that what you want?”
“Hell, no! Of course not! But this is a delicate matter with higher stakes than you could imagine. I have to handle this my way!” With a kick of his heels and flick of his reins, Hank took off with his stallion at a canter.
Gage slapped his reins and nudged Blaze’s flanks with his heels, but the horse only moseyed along at a sedate pace, leaving Gage farther and farther behind Hank. He huffed his frustration with the senator, with his inexperience on a horse and with his sense that something terrible would happen to Hank if he didn’t let Gage and Bart do their job properly.
Hank and Gage returned to the ranch a couple of hours later, having found no further damage to the fence of the lower pasture. As they rode up to the stable, Gage spotted Cole and a few hands unloading a trailer of cows and calves into a holding pen. Cole stopped what he was doing when he noticed his father riding up from the pasture and met them on their way to the stable.
“Welcome back, son. Looks like a productive calving this season,” the senator called to Cole as he reined his stallion and dismounted.
Cole stepped up to Blaze and caught the horse’s bridle. “I suppose. What were you doing out there?” he asked, nodding toward the pasture.
Gage swung down from Blaze and muffled a moan of discomfort. Every muscle in his backside and thighs ached.
“I needed some air, and Sultan needed exercise.” If Hank heard the suspicious tone of Cole’s question, he didn’t give any indication. “While we were out, we checked the fence in the lower pasture for Ben. It all looks good.”
“You—?” Cole hesitated, then seemed to recall his father’s upbringing, and gave a tight nod. “Thanks.”
Hank patted Sultan’s neck then headed back toward the house. “If you’d have one of your men put Sultan and the other horse up, I’m going to—”
“I don’t think so,” Cole interrupted, his voice loud and harsh.
Hank stopped, turned to his son, clearly startled.
Cole hitched his thumb toward the stallion. “Put your own horse up. My men are busy with ranch business, and they’re on my payroll, not yours.”
Hank frowned. “Then Ben—”
“Is helping me.” Cole took Sultan’s reins and held them out to his father. “I told you when you came here that I’d put you up for as long as you needed to stay, but I wouldn’t let you interfere with the operation of my ranch. We’re busy today and will be for days to come as the herd’s brought in from the mountains. You can tend to your own horse or you don’t ride.”
The senator lifted his chin, but his expression was contrite if awkward. “All right. I…can still put a horse up. Follow me, Gage. I’ll show you what to do.”
Gage nodded to Cole as he took Blaze’s reins and started into the stable, his gait slow and somewhat bowlegged.
“Prescott?” Cole called.
Gage paused, faced Cole. A grin dented Cole’s cheek. “A soak in the hot tub will help those stiff muscles. Feel free to use the one up at the house.”
Gage quirked a quick, wry grin. “I appreciate it. I’ll do that tonight.”
The following Monday night, hours after he’d retired for the evening, Gage answered a knock on the guest room door and found a rather unhappy-looking Hannah in the hall. She held out a phone to him and arched an eyebrow. “You have a phone call. In the future, I’d prefer not to be your answering service at this hour. Ask your lady friends to call your cell. You do have one, don’t you?”
Gage blinked, caught off guard. Lady friends?
“Uh, yeah. I—sorry for the bother.”
Hannah sniffed and
turned on her heel.
Gage raised the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
“Gage? It’s Kate Rogers, from down at Ira’s Diner.”
As if she had to explain who she was.
Gage’s stomach flip-flopped, as if he were an adolescent with a crush, before he recognized the tremor in her voice that shoved giddy pleasure aside in favor of alarm.
“Hi. Is…something wrong?”
“I’m sorry to wake you at this hour. I called the ranch because I didn’t know how else to reach you, but—”
“Kate, what’s happened?”
She hesitated, sighed. “It’s Larry. He hit Janet again.”
Gage’s hand tightened around the cordless phone. A white-hot fury coiled in his gut.
“They were fighting over something to do with money, and he snapped.” Kate’s voice trembled, and he longed to tuck her close and soothe away her fears. “She got away from him and came to my house, but I think he might come here looking for her.”
“Damn,” he muttered. Gage gritted his teeth, thinking of the two women alone at Kate’s house and vulnerable to Janet’s violent husband.
“I hate to ask this, but… I really don’t know who else to call. No one else in town has been willing to get involved and—”
“What can I do?” he asked without hesitation. If Kate needed him, he’d move heaven and earth to help her. To protect her.
“It sounds silly, I know but—”
“Why don’t you let me decide if it’s silly. Talk to me, Kate.”
“Can you come over? Stay with us? Just…just in case Larry shows up?”
“I’m on my way.”
Twenty minutes after they’d hung up, the tall, dark and brooding bodyguard was on Kate’s front stoop, filling her threshold with his broad shoulders and hard square jaw.
Kate clutched the edge of the door for support, because just the sight of Gage in his faded blue jeans and a gray Henley shirt made her weak in the knees. He sported a five o’clock shadow, and his mouth, as always, was pressed in a grim line. His hair looked damp, as if he’d recently showered, and guilt kicked her for having pulled him away from his evening routine. Had he been in bed already? Asleep, as she’d been when Janet had pounded on her front door?
“Thank you for coming,” she managed to wheeze after taking a moment to find her breath. “Come in.”
“No problem.” He glanced past her as he stepped inside, bringing the crisp scent of autumn leaves and cool night air with him. “Any trouble since you called?”
“No. Janet was embarrassed to have you see her split lip, so she went to bed in my room.”
Which left her alone with Senator Kelley’s handsome bodyguard.
“You’re sure this isn’t an imposition? What about the senator? Aren’t you supposed to be watching him?”
“Not until my shift starts at 6:00 a.m. I handle the day shift, and another guy covers the night hours.”
She nodded awkwardly. “Oh.”
Now what? She had little experience with men, much less with having one with so much magnetism alone with her. Emma’s parents would probably frown on her entertaining a gentleman without a chaperone, but Janet was asleep just down the hall. That counted, right?
Gage walked into her living room, his gaze taking in her decor. She tried to see her home through his eyes, wondering what he’d think of her handmade quilt wall hanging, her basket of knitting by the couch, the simplicity and scarcity of decorations other than the ceramic pitcher and bowl set Emma had made for her their last Christmas together.
He wiped his hands on the seat of his jeans, drawing her attention to his backside. “Nice place.”
Her pulse fluttered nervously. Had he seen her staring at his behind? “Uh, thanks.”
She might have taken a vow of chastity until marriage along with Emma, but that didn’t mean she was dead. She wasn’t immune to a good-looking, testosterone-exuding male. “The house had been on the market for a couple years, and the previous owners were desperate to sell it, so I got it for a steal. It needed a little renovating but—” Oh, heavens. Don’t let her start prattling like a ninny!
She bit her bottom lip to stop the logorrhea, and Gage’s gaze dropped to her mouth, heat flaring in his navy eyes. Her heart answered by doing a little jitterbug, and, of course, she felt her cheeks flush.
She turned toward her kitchen, hoping to hide her schoolgirl reaction to him. “Can I, um…get you anything? A soda maybe?”
“No. I’m fine.”
Wiping her palms on the legs of her flannel sleep pants—she hadn’t wanted to look as though she’d dressed up for him, but now she worried that the pjs were a bit too informal—she led him into the living room and sat on the end of her couch. He sat next to her. Right next to her. Close enough that she could smell the remnants of soap from his recent shower. Close enough that she could feel his body heat enveloping her. He leaned back against the cushions and stretched his arm along the back of the sofa. The sleeve of his shirt tickled the nape of her neck, and Kate’s toes curled. She was like a live wire, hypersensitive to his every move, his proximity, the whisper of his breathing in the quiet room.
As much as she’d hated calling him, imposing on him, she was twice as happy that he’d agreed. She’d waited for him with the tingle of anticipation a child would have on Christmas Eve. Had she used Janet’s very real problem with Larry as an excuse to invite the intriguing newcomer in town to her home?
She chewed her lip again as misgivings bubbled up inside her. What did she know about entertaining a man? And what sort of compensation might he be expecting for his trouble?
“This happen often?” he asked.
Her gaze darted up to meet his. “Hmm?”
“Larry snapping. Janet coming over here in the middle of the night. Happen often?”
“Um, every now and then. More often lately. I think Janet tried to hide the truth from me at first, but now that I know, she comes over whenever she needs a place to retreat. Last time was about a month ago.”
He nodded, his brow furrowed.
“And how often does Larry follow her over here? Put you in the line of fire?”
“About half the time.”
“Do you call the police when he comes?”
“I have, but I think I mentioned before that Larry is chummy with most of the guys on our small force. He went to school with them, grew up with them. And Janet will never press charges.”
A dark scowl puckered his brow. “I could handle Larry, given five minutes alone with him.”
Kate bolted upright, her body tensing. “No! That’s not what I asked you here for. Violence isn’t the answer to violence. Beating on Larry only exacerbates the problem, feeds the cycle of evil.”
He tilted his head, lifting his eyebrows and taking a long hard look at her. “The Zooks teach you that?”
She gave a tight nod. “The Amish are pacifists.”
“And do you truly believe everything they told you, or are you just repeating what they believe because it sounds good?”
She folded her arms over her chest, affronted. “Are you suggesting I’m an empty-headed parrot, merely spouting back what I’ve heard without thinking things through for myself?”
His gaze flickered with some emotion—amusement? challenge?—and his eyebrows shot up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t say that well. I meant no offense. I only wonder how closely your beliefs match what the Zooks taught you. How much you’ve accepted and integrated into your life, and what you’ve rejected as…” He seemed to fumble for the right word.
“Naive? Old-fashioned? Backward?” she offered. “The members of the Zooks’ congregation have been called that and worse.”
“And what do you call their lifestyle? Their beliefs?”
Kate relaxed again, leaning back into the cushions where Gage rested his arm. She considered moving but didn’t want to appear…priggish. But the intimate seating arrangement made her more than a bit self-conscious, acutely aware of h
im in even the smallest ways. The crisp black hairs that peeked out at his collar, the masculine beauty of his hands and blunt-tipped fingers, the tiny lines that bracketed his mouth.
Not laugh lines. She didn’t see Gage as the sort who laughed enough to have earned that distinction, a truth that speared a sadness to her core. Rather, she imagined the fine creases around his eyes and the firm line of his mouth were evidence of hard living. After all, he’d been a soldier. What kind of death and chaos had he witnessed while serving overseas?
She shivered, considering the differences in their experiences. She’d been sheltered, protected, immersed in the Zooks’ simplistic lifestyle while Gage had faced the brutal realities of war and hardship. How could they possibly find any common ground?
Chapter 7
“Kate?”
Only when Gage spoke did she realize she’d been staring. At his face. His mouth.
And she’d never answered his question about the Zooks’ beliefs.
She jerked her gaze to her hands in her lap and cleared her throat. “Well, I’d call the Amish lifestyle…refreshingly simple and unencumbered by the clutter of the modern world. And I think their beliefs—for the most part—are right on target. The kind of core family values that politicians espouse and too few truly live by.”
Gage grunted and pulled a face, and she realized what she’d said. “Oh! I don’t mean Senator Kelley. I mean, I wasn’t saying—”
“Don’t apologize on my account. The man cheated on his wife with multiple other women while portraying himself as a family man to his constituents. He’s a liar and scum. My job is to protect him. Not agree with him or his choices.”
She tipped him an awkward lopsided smile. “He has been a less than stellar role model at that. When Cole comes into the diner, he refuses to talk to anyone about his dad.” Her shoulders sagged. “I don’t think the senator was a very good father.”
“And I think any comment from me on that point might constitute a breach of confidentiality.”
He gave her a halfhearted smile, but even that hint of a grin was enough to capture her attention and set her pulse scrambling again.
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