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She didn’t seem convinced. “Whatever you say, Colton.” She turned to Laura. “It was nice to meet you.”
“You, too.”
He envied what his friend Blake had with Miranda.
Compton had become a safe haven for Colton since leaving the Rangers. The quiet, laid-back lifestyle suited his needs. He had nearly everything he needed here, except someone to share it with. He was ready to settle down and start a family, and had been thinking about it more and more lately. But he doubted that would even be possible given his past.
He watched as Laura sorted through clothes on the rack. She was just the kind of woman he would choose to fall for if he could. She was beautiful and smart, and she was compassionate, too. He’d seen it when he’d trailed her, noticing her kindness toward her elderly neighbor. Even the way she’d bent and rubbed his old mutt this morning on the porch had touched his soul. Laura was a good person, a giver. And too many people had already taken more from her than she had to give.
She tucked her hair behind her ear as she leaned over the rack to get a closer look at the tag. He got an up close view of her creamy white skin and long, graceful neck. She moved her head and caught him staring, but she didn’t look upset. Instead her pink lips lifted at the corners, then she turned back to the jeans’s tag.
He pulled his eyes away from her and tried to focus on something else. No sense pining after something he could never have.
He spotted a man looking their way and Colton’s radar went off. It was possible he was merely admiring Laura’s good looks. She was a fresh, new face in town, after all. But something about the man’s expression caught Colton’s attention. The man kept glancing at his phone, then curiously back at Laura.
He was probably overreacting. No one knew Laura was here. No one could know. Still, he led her away from that department and headed for the grocery aisle with the excuse that he needed to pick up a few things. She went willingly and didn’t argue.
As they approached the frozen foods section, Colton spotted the man again. This time he was peeking out from behind a freezer, his cell phone raised as if he were trying to get a photo of them.
“Wait right here,” Colton told her. He moved away from her and around the freezers. The man’s eyes never left Laura, further confirming for Colton that he was targeting her. He approached the man from behind, grabbed him by the shirt and yanked his phone from his hand.
“Hey, what are you doing?” the man protested.
Anger pulsed through him when he scanned the device and saw several photos of Laura on the man’s phone. “Why are you watching her?”
“I—I need the money. At first I thought it was nothing, but then when I saw her, I couldn’t believe it. I’m in deep. I need the money.”
“What are you talking about? What money?”
“The reward.” He motioned toward the cell phone. “It was posted this morning on one of the social media sites I’m on. I, of course, just scrolled on through it, but when I saw her...”
“Show me,” Colton demanded, then watched eagle-eyed as the man scrolled through his social media pages. He stopped when he found what he was searching for and showed it to Colton. “Here it is. Like I said, I couldn’t believe it was her.”
The image stopped his blood cold—a photo of Laura with the caption Have You Seen This Woman? There was a reward for anyone who could bring her home.
The message had been posted this morning by an account named Bring Laura Home. Colton saw that it had already been liked and shared many times.
Colton noted that the man hadn’t yet given away Laura’s location...and he wouldn’t.
He pocketed the phone. “You’ll forget about her if you know what’s good for you. Bother her again and I’ll make sure you regret it. Got it?”
The man nodded solemnly. He didn’t seem like a threat, just an opportunist, and that was what Randall had been hoping for by sending out that message.
He’d in essence placed a bounty on Laura’s head and Colton was sure there would be a line of people hoping to collect.
He sent the man on his way, then retrieved Laura. “We have to leave now.”
He grabbed her arm and led her away.
“Wait! What about the buggy?”
“Leave it,” he barked, hurrying her along.
Anger bit through him at his own foolishness. He’d let down his guard and placed Laura in a perilous situation. Protecting her should have been his first priority.
“What’s going on?” she asked in a low voice as they made it to the truck. “What happened back there?”
Fear tinged her features, making him feel like a heel for getting so worked up.
“It was probably nothing, but I’d rather not take the chance.”
She crawled into the truck. Colton scanned the parking lot and the front of the store, making certain the mystery man hadn’t followed them out. Satisfied he hadn’t, Colton slid into the truck, gunned the engine and roared away before anyone had the opportunity to follow.
* * *
Whatever had happened at the store had Colton shaken. She could see it in his tense muscles and the vein throbbing in his neck as he drove like a maniac. He didn’t let up on the accelerator until he pulled into the ranch and stopped the truck in front of the house.
“What happened back there?” Laura asked him again as they got out of the truck and walked inside.
He locked the door, then turned to her. “Someone was watching you.” He pulled a cell phone from his pocket and handed it to her. “He had this on him.”
She opened the phone and saw a message on the screen asking for information about her location and offering a reward. She gasped at the amount. Ten thousand dollars was a lot of money, but she supposed that was only a drop in the bucket, since her father still owed Randall close to fifty thousand dollars.
“It looks like Randall is reaching out to anyone who might know your whereabouts.”
“This man had my picture and he was watching us.” She swallowed hard. “Did he follow us there?”
“I don’t think so. I think he just happened upon us and recognized you from your photo.”
Her heart started pounding and fear crept into her soul again. It seemed Randall would do anything to get his hands on her.
“I thought you said I was safe, that no one knew I was here.”
“No one does and no one is going to know,” he rushed to assure her. “We just need to stay low here at the ranch and not go out in public again.”
“But he knows. This man knows I’m here.”
“He only knows approximately. That store is ten miles away from here and there’s a lot of country between there and here. Besides, it’s centrally located. For all he knows, we could be in another city. We’re still okay.” He turned away, heading for the kitchen.
She stared at the phone number at the bottom of the message. It was most assuredly Randall’s number. She recognized it from the multiple calls he’d placed to her trying to win her affection.
Laura thought about the men last night. She’d seen their expressions in the lamplight. They’d been on a mission and she was their target. Had Colton not been there, she didn’t know what might have happened to her.
Without a second thought, she dialed the number. It rang twice before a man answered.
“It’s Laura,” she said through clenched teeth. “I’m calling to tell you to leave me alone.”
“Laura! Where are you? I’ve been searching all over for you.”
“I know you have. I’m calling to tell you to stop hounding me. Don’t you understand I don’t want anything to do with you?”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible, Laura. You belong to me now and no one is going to keep us apart...not even that loser cowboy you’ve taken off with. My men told me all about him swooping in and whisking you away. I will find out who he is and then I will find you and, when I do, you’ll have a lot of explaining to do.” The threat in his voice was real and terrifying.
“Who are you talking to?” Colton asked, reappearing in the den.
Laura was at a loss for words even as Randall ranted on in her ear. “Is that him? Tell him I’m coming for him, Laura. I will find you and, when I do, you’ll be sorry you left me.”
Colton grabbed the phone from her and listened a moment as Randall’s threats continued. The last words she heard before Colton threw down the phone and smashed it with the heel of his boot was Randall’s promise to butcher them both if she didn’t return home.
She stared up at Colton warily as common sense prevailed. “I don’t know why I called him.” She hardly even remembered dialing the phone. All she knew now was that it had been useless, pointless. Randall controlled her life now more than ever. Even when she wasn’t with him, she was thinking about him and wondering if and when he would find her. She hated the feeling of loss of control that he’d saddled her with. It wasn’t fair that a man she hardly knew could have so much power over her life.
Colton sat beside her on the couch. She expected him to be angry at her foolishness, but instead she saw understanding in his expression. “You needed to try one more time.”
She nodded. He did understand. “There should be something I can do, something I can say, that will end all of this and make him just leave me alone.”
“There isn’t,” Colton said grimly.
Well, she wouldn’t continue to be Randall’s victim. But she also didn’t want to depend on someone else to keep her safe. “I want you to do something for me, Colton. I want you to teach me to shoot a gun. I want to be able to protect myself if I need to.”
He didn’t seem surprised by her request. He only nodded and said, “Okay.”
Laura stared at the smashed phone on the floor, imagined that was Randall’s head and kicked it herself.
She wouldn’t be his victim any longer.
* * *
Teaching Laura how to shoot was an excellent idea and he was glad she was up for it. He loaded up an ATV with weapons and a few rounds. It felt good to be doing something, anything, besides sitting around and waiting. His lips quirked as he watched Laura walk out of the house wearing one of his T-shirts tied at the waist, her pretty auburn hair floating in the breeze. Milo tromped along behind her as she approached him. The dog had taken a quick liking to her and he couldn’t blame him. She just kept growing in his estimation. And her spunk and determination truly amazed him. When he’d realized she’d called Randall and confronted him again, he’d been terrified at first and then proud that she was still able to stand up for herself after all the man had put her through.
“Are we going somewhere?” she asked when she noticed the ATV.
“I thought we’d go out onto the edge of the pasture so the gunfire doesn’t spook the animals.”
He hopped onto the ATV and she climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He was mega aware of the daintiness of them as he started the engine and set out across the pasture.
He still couldn’t believe Randall was demanding she marry him. It sounded to him like something that would happen in the Third World countries he’d been in, not in modern-day America. It was a terrible situation for anyone to find themselves in. But the bitter taste in his mouth was so familiar. The fact that her father’s gambling had pulled her into this mess resonated with him. He was constantly amazed at how far people would go—how far he’d gone—in the name of the next big score.
He didn’t like remembering how far he’d fallen before his ranger brothers had intervened for him. But, besides him, who else would intervene on behalf of Laura?
He reached the clearing and set up a target of aluminum cans. He then ran through a basic tutorial on the pistol he’d picked out for her.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” he asked gruffly.
“Absolutely.”
He held out the weapon to her. “It’s heavier than it looks.” When he gave her the full weight, her eyes widened.
She raised the gun, aiming it toward the cans. Colton stood behind her, reaching around her to move her hands into the correct positions. He noted the way her body fit just right between his arms. The scent of her shampoo wafted up to his nostrils, sending his senses reeling. He had to push thoughts of her that had nothing to do with protecting her from his mind. His past was everything she’d been fighting against for years. He tried to concentrate on the task at hand.
“Be ready for a kickback. It can be jolting if you aren’t used to it.”
She fired the gun and it kicked, jarring her backward against his chest.
She squealed at the kick, then laughed. He grinned, understanding the rush she was feeling. The first time shooting a gun was a frightening yet exhilarating experience. To him, it had become second nature, so it had been a long time since he’d shared that feeling with anyone.
“That was amazing,” she told him.
“Let’s try it again.”
She was a quick learner and soon became accustomed to the kick of the gun and even managed to hit one of the cans. With practice, he felt certain she could become an excellent marksman.
“You did good,” he told her.
“Thank you for teaching me this. It helps. I feel a little bit more in control than I have. I keep asking myself how this all happened to me. I should have been able to do something or say something that would have prevented this.”
“I doubt anything you could have done would have made much of a difference. Randall is dangerous.”
Narrowing her eyes, she shot him a quizzical look. “How do you know about him?”
Personal experience. “I know the type,” he said instead. “Driven, power-hungry, controlling.”
“He doesn’t seem to care that I want nothing to do with him.”
“No, that probably makes him want you even more. It’s the challenge, Laura. If he can take what he wants, it gives him a feeling of control.”
She shook her head. “I can’t believe my father put me in this position.”
“How long has he been gambling?”
“My mother got sick when I was twelve. It started then. When she died, it was like the problem kicked into overdrive. He stopped going to work. He started taking the rent money, then the grocery money, then—” Her voice caught. “Somehow, I still don’t know how he did it, but when I started college, my father managed to get into my bank account and take the money I’d saved for my tuition. He wiped me out. My tuition check bounced and I was politely asked to leave, since, according to their records, I was never truly enrolled.”
His stomach turned at such a story of desperation. He remembered that feeling all too well, and it was just one more reminder of all the people he’d hurt. “Yet you kept going. You became a nurse.”
“I worked nights, weekends, whatever I had to do to pay for my classes. I knew if I gave up, I’d be stuck forever. But it looks like I’m stuck regardless.” Bitterness tinged her words.
It stung him. Being around Laura was a constant, painful reminder of all those he’d hurt. God had been reminding him about that lately, forcing him to come to terms with his behavior. But having her around was...hard. Real hard. She was clearly suffering, yet during times like these he felt powerless to help. All he knew to tell her was what God was teaching him about his own situation. “Forgiveness is the toughest thing of all, but usually it’s the only thing that will set you free.”
“Forgiveness?” She scoffed. “In the past several years, I’ve lost my mother, my father for all purposes and my future. He doesn’t deserve my forgiveness.”
They were the words he’d expected—still expected—to have thrown at him for his behavior, but his friends and family had been kind even though he was certain they must have harbored the same anger and resentment that Laura felt. His one gratitude was that at least he hadn’t been married, hadn’t become a father or a provider who’d failed those completely dependent on him. “Forgiveness isn’t about what someone deserves. In fact, it’s not even usually for the person that needs forgiving. I know I certainly didn’t deserve forgiveness, but Jesus gave it regardless.”
She stared at him. “I suppose you have to believe that to be a soldier. But you have no idea what I’ve been through. My father doesn’t deserve the kind of absolution you’re talking about.”
“Sometimes, forgiveness is more for us than the other person. It releases us from the burden we carry around. At least, that was how it was for me.”
She stared at him. “Who did you have to forgive?”
Something caught his ear before he could answer her. He glanced into the surrounding wooded area on the edge of the pasture. He’d definitely heard something moving in the brush. He gripped his gun and scanned the area. Probably it was just a deer or other critter, but it raised his senses regardless.
