скачать книгу бесплатно
She stared up into his face and recognized that Thunder Horse stubborn streak in the tightness of his jaw. He wasn’t going to budge on the matter.
The ache in her head intensified and her shoulder burned where she’d been nicked. She willed herself to be stronger, squeezing closed her eyes as a wave of nausea washed over her. When she opened her eyes, her vision was no less blurry, maybe having something to do with the tears of frustration threatening to fall.
Dear God, she refused to cry in front of Pierce. She’d already spent the past two months crying when no one was looking.
With her horse gone, the shooter still at large and herself just about too tired and bruised to muster up the energy to do anything at all, she decided not to argue with the man. Instead, she clamped shut her lips and tried to keep as far away from Pierce as possible. A difficult task, considering she was sitting in his lap.
After a few minutes, the sway of the horse lulled her into a daze. Giving up the fight, she leaned into his body and stayed there the rest of the ride back to the Thunder Horse Ranch.
The scent of leather and denim and the familiar earthy, musky male aroma set her heart beating faster and heat radiating throughout her body, reminding her of better times and of all they’d lost.
If she hadn’t called off the engagement then she and Pierce would have married by now. They might even have had a baby on the way. She’d loved Pierce so much, had been so sure that she’d finally found someone she could count on, someone who could be a real partner in her life as well as a lover. Losing that hope had hurt. It still hurt.
A sob rose in her throat, choking off the air to her lungs. Her head aching with each passing mile, Roxanne stiffened and tried to move away from Pierce.
The arm around her tightened, pinning her. Short of making a big fuss and possibly falling off the horse, Roxanne had no choice but to stay put.
Rather than relive their final days as an engaged couple, Roxanne forced herself to think through what had just happened. “What do you think that man was after?” she wondered out loud.
“I don’t know, but he seemed pretty determined to shoot you.” Pierce’s grip tightened on the reins.
The stallion danced sideways, seemingly confused by his rider’s instruction to slow.
A slight movement of Pierce’s legs, and loosening the reins, set the horse in a forward motion again.
“If someone wanted to shoot me, why would he wait until I was out in the canyon? There are easier ways to find me, in places where he could have gotten close enough to get a much better shot.”
Pierce liked that thought even less if the way he tensed was any indication, but before he could reply, the stallion beneath them stumbled, jolting Roxanne. She winced, pressing a hand to the back of her skull. “Ouch. Must have hit my head harder than I thought.”
“I’ll get the doctor to come out as soon as I’ve got you settled.”
“I’m fine. Just a flesh wound and a bump on the noggin. I’ll be back in the saddle by morning.”
“Not if you have a concussion.” His voice was firm, unyielding. “The doctor will have to clear you to my satisfaction before I let you leave the ranch.”
“Hey, get this straight, mister.” She poked him in the chest. “The decisions about what I can and cannot do are between me and the doctor. You’ve got no part in them, or in anything else that has to do with me.”
She recognized the mulish expression on his face and knew what he’d say before he even opened his mouth. “When you don’t know what’s good for you then somebody has to step in.”
“You’re not good for me—we’re not good for each other. We can’t even ride a couple of miles of trail together without fighting.” She took a deep breath, forcing her voice to sound calm, collected. “Just let me go home, Pierce. I’m not your problem anymore, and I can take care of myself. I’ve been running a ranch by myself for years. I think I can make my own decisions.”
Another jolt and the pain reverberating around the inside of her skull made her cringe. Well, darn it all. Why did she have to be so weak in front of the one man she’d sworn to never show an ounce of vulnerability again?
“Look,” Pierce said. “I don’t want you at the ranch any more than you want to be there. But I won’t let you go home until the doc says you can.”
Her chest tightened at his harsh words. Once they could barely stand to be apart. Now they could barely stand to be together. Too much had happened. Irreversible actions and words with permanent consequences. “Okay, I’ll stay until the doctor can convince you that I’m all right. Which I am.”
Roxanne didn’t relish the idea of being at the Thunder Horse Ranch with Pierce there. She’d been over a couple times to meet Tuck’s fiancée and get measured for her bridesmaid dress, but she’d left as soon as possible to avoid any chance of running into Pierce.
Why did he have to be the one to find her out in the canyon? Why couldn’t it have been Tuck, or one of Pierce’s other brothers? Why did her already horrible day have to sink to the new low of having to depend on the man who’d encouraged her brother to join the FBI and then let him die in that explosion?
What had happened had been inexcusable and irreversible. She knew that for sure. Not because of the FBI—the official word they had given her was that Mason’s death had been ruled unavoidable.
No. Roxanne knew Pierce was responsible for her brother’s death because that was what he had told her himself.
Chapter Two
Pierce insisted on carrying Roxanne into the cavernous great room of the Thunder Horse Ranch house, despite her objections. The feel of her body against his brought back so many memories he could barely breathe.
“I can walk, really.” She kicked her legs and pushed against his chest. “Let me down.” Twin flags of color rose in her cheeks as he entered the room where two of his brothers and his mother stood gaping at them.
Stopping just inside the entry, Pierce braced himself for the onslaught of questions his family was sure to ask.
His mother was the first to remember her manners. “Roxy, good to see you, sweetie,” she said as though it was an everyday occurrence for her son to stroll in carrying his ex-fiancée. “Oh, dear, is that blood?” She lifted a hand to her own cheek, her eyes widening. “For goodness’ sake, Pierce, let her have the lounge chair,” she commanded. “I’ll get some coffee. Maddox, you call Doc Taylor. Pierce, give Dante the details of what happened in case you need his help with anything else.”
Pierce smiled despite the gravity of the situation. Though thin and petite, his mother had a will of iron, with a bossy streak to match. She didn’t hesitate to tell her boys what to do, no matter that they were all grown men who now towered over her small frame.
“Yeah, what happened?” Dante planted himself in front of Pierce, his gaze taking in the torn shirt and bloodstains. “Are you hurt, too?” His arms crossed over his chest, his eyebrows knitting in a fierce frown, clearly ready to take on anyone who might be a danger to their family.
“I’m fine, Roxanne’s the only one hurt,” Pierce said. “Found her out on the northernmost corner of the ranch.” Pierce’s jaw tightened. “Someone was using her for target practice.”
“The chair?” Roxanne tipped her head toward the chair Pierce’s mother had indicated. “At least put me down. It’s not like I can’t walk.”
“Yeah, why are you carrying her?” Dante asked. “Are her legs injured, too?”
“She’s not all that steady on her feet. Her horse threw her and she hit her head. I think she might have a concussion.” Pierce relented and eased Roxanne into the chair.
“What were you doing out by the canyons?” Dante asked, turning his focus to Roxanne.
“I was checking on the wild horses.” Roxanne sat in the chair, her chin tipped upward, one hand feeling the back of her head. She winced. “I was following Sweet Jessie. I found her by the watering hole near North Canyon. When I went down to check on her, I heard a loud bang. Something stung my arm and almost knocked me out of the saddle. Whatever nicked me, hit Jessie—most likely in the shoulder, but I couldn’t say for sure. She might have tripped or been hit because I think I saw her drop to the ground before my mount took off. The shooter came after me. That’s when Pierce found us.”
Dante swore. “Did you see who it was?”
Roxanne sighed. “No. I didn’t. He was on a dirt bike in full-coverage gear, including a helmet.”
Tuck entered the room, carrying his baby girl, Lily. “What’s going on?”
His beautiful blonde fiancée, Julia Anderson, followed him. When she noticed Roxanne on the chair, she hurried around to stand in front of her. “Good Lord, Roxanne, are you all right?”
Pierce frowned. Apparently the two women had already met while Pierce had been wrapping up his previous assignment in Bismarck. What else had he missed?
Roxanne smiled. “Don’t worry, Julia, I’ll be fine for the wedding.” She pushed against the seat cushions, preparing to stand.
Julia laid a hand on her uninjured shoulder. “I’m not worried about the wedding. I want to know what happened to you. Holy smokes, you’re bleeding.” Julia reached out to touch Roxanne’s other arm where Pierce had wrapped his shirt around her injury.
“It’s nothing. Just a flesh wound.” Roxanne shot a glance toward Pierce. “Pierce patched me up and it’s not bleeding so badly anymore.”
The baby, clearly picking up on the distress in Julia’s voice, leaned away from Tuck, reaching for her mother.
Julia turned automatically to play with Lily’s hands, rather than take the baby, keeping most of her attention on Roxanne. The baby giggled and buried her face in Tuck’s shirt.
A sharp pang tugged at Roxanne’s gut. She knew things hadn’t been easy for Tuck and Julia. A quickie Vegas-style marriage—followed by an even quicker divorce—had separated the couple only hours after they’d met. Tuck hadn’t even known their brief union had resulted in a daughter until a few weeks earlier. But now that their differences had been worked out, the little family looked so natural and beautiful together, full of so much love and happiness.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Pierce’s oldest brother, Maddox, said as he paced the floor. “Who would want to shoot at you?”
“It doesn’t make sense to you?” Roxanne snorted softly. “I was the one being shot at and it makes no more sense to me. Maybe he wasn’t shooting at me at all. He could have been aiming for the horse for a little target practice.” Her lips tightened. “There are idiots out there that get a kick out of killing defenseless animals.”
Pierce’s jaw clenched. “They’re idiots, all right, but they’re not stupid enough to shoot at the horses in front of a potentially hostile witness. And it’s not like he didn’t realize you were there. If you were in between the shooter and Sweet Jessie, he had to be shooting at you.”
Maddox inhaled and let his breath out slowly. “I’m glad it was only a flesh wound.” His shoulders pushed back and he looked around the room at his younger brothers. “We’d better get out there and see if we can find out who did this.” He turned to Dante and Tuck. “You two take the truck. I’ll take the four-wheeler.”
“I’m going by horse.” Pierce straightened, anger building with each breath he took. Someone had shot at Roxanne, tried to run over her and almost killed her. The bastard needed to be found. If he’d been faster, smarter…maybe he could have taken the guy into custody back in the canyon. It was his fault Roxanne was still in danger. Pierce should have gone after him while he’d had the chance.
Dante grabbed his cowboy hat from the coat tree in the hallway. “We have to find whoever did this. The prairie and canyons are dangerous enough without people shooting at one of us.”
“Who would want to hurt Roxanne?” Tuck handed the baby to Julia, who nestled Lily into the crook of her arm, a frown marring her brow.
“I don’t know, but we sure as hell are going to find out.” Pierce clamped his hat on his head, grabbed a box of bullets from the gun cabinet and headed for his father’s office. For what it was worth, he placed a call to the sheriff’s department. When the dispatcher came on, Pierce explained the situation and the approximate location.
The dispatcher promised the sheriff’s department would be out to investigate as soon as they had a deputy available. Pierce hung up, shrugging. He’d done the right thing by reporting the incident, but he didn’t have a whole lot of faith or respect for the local sheriff. The man still stood by the theory that Pierce’s father had fallen from his horse and died of head injuries. Pierce and his brothers disagreed. No way their father had fallen from his horse. The man could ride before he learned to walk. But the sheriff refused to put in the effort to find the truth. And Pierce refused to let Roxanne’s safety depend on that kind of man. Whether she liked it or not, he still considered her his responsibility. He wouldn’t let her down, not this time. Not again.
Pierce grabbed a couple of walkie-talkies from a shelf and emerged from his father’s office.
At the same time Amelia Thunder Horse reentered the living room, carrying a large tray filled with thermoses of coffee, and plastic bags filled with sandwiches and trail mix. She eyed the box of bullets but didn’t say anything about them. “No one’s leaving without food. You never know what’s going to happen out there on the plains or in the canyons. They didn’t name it the badlands for nothing.”
Pierce tossed a walkie-talkie to Maddox, grabbed a plastic bag of trail mix and one with a sandwich from the tray, snagged a thermos, kissed his mother’s cheek and headed for the door. “Thanks, Mother.”
She called out after him, “Wakan Tanka kici un.” May the Great Spirit bless you.
He smiled, a tug of nostalgia tightening his chest. His mother didn’t often use the Lakota language his father had taught her and all of his sons. Only when a greater need arose.
In the barn, Pierce removed the saddle from Bear, rubbed him down and settled him in a stall with feed. He led his own stallion, Cetan, out of his stall, threw a saddle over his back and cinched it. Pierce was guiding the horse out into the barnyard when a voice called out.
“I’m going with you.”
Pierce turned toward the sound, his pulse quickening, his jaw growing rigid.
Roxanne stood with her feet planted wide, hands fisted on her jean-clad hips—more beautiful than he remembered and just as stubbornly determined.
“We don’t need your help.” Pierce turned his back on the woman and led the horse away from the barn door. “Besides, isn’t the doctor on his way to check out your noggin?”
Roxanne strode for the barn. “I’ve been falling off horses since I was five years old—Doc’s not going to tell me anything about concussions that I don’t already know. But don’t forget, I wasn’t the only one injured. While you boys play detective, someone needs to check on Sweet Jessie, and her foal. I’m the local contact for the Bureau of Land Management when it comes to those horses. It’s my—”
“Responsibility.” Pierce turned back. “And it’s my responsibility to catch that madman with a gun before he gets a chance to come after you again. You’re staying.”
“I’m not your responsibility, and you don’t get to decide where I go. Maddox said I could ride Sassy.” She marched into the barn and grabbed a bridle from a nail on the wall.
“Did the fact escape you that you were the target of a shooter?”
“No, it did not.” She squared her shoulders, standing taller. “I wasn’t prepared before. I’m aware now and will take precautions.”
“And how will you do that?” His gaze panned her lithe form. “You aren’t carrying any kind of protection, are you? Where’s your rifle?”
“I don’t carry one. Besides, you have one.” She frowned. “Look, Pierce, I’m being sensible. I could have snuck off on my own once you were gone, but instead I’m going with you. I’m willing to be careful, I’m willing to take precautions, but I’m not willing to sit around and do nothing when there’s so much that needs to be done. Accept that I’m going and stop wasting precious time by arguing. It’ll be dark soon.”
She held his gaze a moment longer, then disappeared into a stall and emerged leading Sassy, the sorrel mare.
Pierce didn’t wait around to bicker with the confounded woman. He didn’t want to see Roxanne; he wanted the hell away from her, especially when fire blazed in her beautiful eyes and she stood so defiantly.
Planting his foot in the stirrup, he swung up into his saddle and yanked the stallion around to the north. Named after the Lakota word for hawk, Cetan could outrun even the swiftest of the wild horses in the canyon. He could easily outdistance any of the other horses in the barn, if Pierce chose to let him have his head.
But it would be foolish to expend the horse’s energy when they had a long ride ahead of them. Instead of galloping off into the distance, Pierce nudged the stallion into a canter. That way, Roxanne wouldn’t have any trouble catching up with him. He still didn’t like the idea of her riding out while the gunman was still at large, but the idea of her sticking close and letting him protect her was a hell of a lot better than having her ride out alone.
In the short time they’d been in the ranch house, dark clouds had rolled in. The weather in North Dakota could change at the drop of a hat. Thunder rumbled long and low in the west. Wakan Tanka grew angry. Perhaps the Great Spirit reached out to punish those who brought violence to the people and the creatures of the plains.
The approaching storm reflected Pierce’s mood. He growled under his breath. Sure, he’d expected to see Roxanne as part of the wedding party. She and Tuck were the same age and had been friends throughout high school. They had been like brother and sister.
Despite the differences between Pierce and Roxanne, Pierce couldn’t deny Tuck’s request to have Roxanne as one of Julia’s bridesmaids.
He’d told himself that he’d be fine seeing her again, but he’d been wrong. Time hadn’t healed old wounds, as his mother always liked to say. Nothing could cure death. Roxanne had made it clear that when her brother had died, she wanted nothing more to do with Pierce. No wedding, no future…nothing. Even though he knew it was no more than he deserved, it still made his gut twist just to think about it.
All the old feelings he’d had for her hadn’t waned one bit. No amount of dating or bedding other women would wipe Roxanne from his mind. He’d barely even tried, the wounds to his heart still too fresh. He told himself he preferred to be alone. No, he deserved to be alone.
Truth was, no woman measured up to Roxanne and he’d failed her so completely, the damage could never be healed.
At the approaching thunder of hooves, Cetan pranced to the side.
Pierce pulled back on the reins, but the stallion would have none of it. His competitive spirit wouldn’t let another horse catch up or move ahead of him. He arched his back, kicked his hind legs into the air and would have thrown a less experienced rider.
Accustomed to surprising mood swings in the horses he’d tamed from the wild herds of the canyons, Pierce rode out the rough bucking and brought Cetan to a halt.
Roxanne approached with a hint of a smirk curling the corners of her lips.
Pierce’s back teeth ground together. When she pulled in beside him, he eased control on Cetan’s reins and let the stallion take the lead in a steady trot. Pierce didn’t speak or acknowledge her presence. He was afraid of what he might say. Yet, he kept an eye on Roxanne, just in case. She was hurt, and she was in danger. Even though she hated him, he knew he couldn’t live with himself unless he kept her safe.
ROXANNE’S GAZE BORED into Pierce’s back. She should have ridden with Dante and Tuck in the truck. But she knew where she was most comfortable. When trouble struck the badlands of North Dakota, Roxanne preferred to be in the saddle. Besides, she was more likely to find Sweet Jessie and her foal off the beaten path, and they were her priority right now.
The fact that she had been injured, along with Sweet Jessie, wasn’t something Roxanne let herself think about. She didn’t know why anyone would choose to target her—or if he would try to attack her again—but sitting around and thinking about it would drive her crazy. With all the problems she’d been having with the ranch and her finances, the thought of another disaster in her life threatened to crack her self-control. The only way she knew to deal with the strain was to focus on something else—a problem she could fix.
Checking on the horses fit the bill, even if it meant riding with her ex-fiancé.
She’d avoided Pierce since her brother’s death. The only time she saw him was from a distance when they happened to be in Medora, the small town where she purchased supplies. She had noticed that Pierce hadn’t been home much since the explosion, and why should he? His work with the FBI kept him busy. Just like it had kept Mason busy when Pierce had lured him into that danger-filled world.
A booming clap of thunder shook the earth and air around her. The mare beneath her skittered sideways, tossing her head in the air with a frightened whinny.
Roxanne glanced at the incoming storm, doubt tugging at her gut. Maybe they should have waited until the following day to be out on the prairie. With no trees within sight, that left the two horses and riders as the tallest spires within miles—lightning rods for what looked like a nasty storm about to break over the landscape. Easy targets for a determined shooter, should he choose to return. But no, she wasn’t letting herself think about that now. She’d set a mission for herself, and she wasn’t going home until it was completed.
A flash of lightning snaked across the sky, followed closely by an answering rumble. Sassy pulled against the reins and swung back toward the barn and shelter from the oncoming storm.
