Cowboy Who Came For Christmas

And then another sound outside. A tap at the back door, maybe?

Adan’s hiss hit the air. “Where did you put my gun?”

She rushed into her bedroom and came out with his big, heavy handgun. “And here’s your badge, too.”

Taking both, he checked the gun then stashed his badge in his pocket. Grabbing his coat, he glanced back at her. “Stay here,” he said. “I’m going out to check.”

Sophia’s emotions ran the gamut between scared and anxious to sad and full of regret. She’d only known Adan Harrison for about three hours, and in that time, she’d held a gun on him, watched her friend knock him out and they’d tied him up and put tape over his mouth. Now, she was so glad he’d come to Crescent Mountain. The man exuded confidence and power and made her feel secure. But those traits didn’t hide the one glaring thing Adan’s presence had brought out in her—the solid fear she’d managed to keep at bay by sheer force and willpower.

For the first time in years, she didn’t feel safe here.

* * *

ADAN SLID ALONG the rough plank walls of the square brown cabin. He’d checked around the big front porch and found nothing. But here on the side of the house, he hit the ground with a penlight and saw fresh footprints by the back window of one of the bedrooms.

Someone snooping, or someone leaving through a window. He checked the windowsill but it didn’t look as if the window had been opened. Fresh snow was encrusted over the bottom of the glass and the thick wood casings. He did see a couple of imprints. Looked as though someone had placed a hand against the outside sill. Then he heard a crunching sound out in the woods.

Adan cut his light and turned to stare into the swaying trees. Something was definitely out there. Or someone. Had ol’ Joe seen his truck down on the road and followed the path Adan had taken to get up to the cabin?

Or had the man he’d come to find been here all along? He waited in the shadows, his breath hitching in the cold, his hands freezing against the steel of his gun. A shuffling and rustling in the distant woods had him on the move again. He reached the edge of the cabin’s garden and stood silent behind a giant oak tree.

More thrashing about and then the woods went quiet. Deciding to circle back around, he trotted from tree to tree, hiding behind snowdrifts and limbs heavy with ice and snow until he thought he’d cleared the area in the woods where he’d heard the noise. But the heavy snow and the midnight darkness kept him from finding anything. Following his own footsteps, he could imagine how easy it would be to get lost out here at night. Maybe whoever’d been snooping around had gotten confused and crashed into a ravine. Or they’d purposely caused a distraction to lure him away from the cabin.

When he heard a scream, he started running through the knee-deep snow, falling and getting up again until he hit the porch and rushed inside the cabin.

Sophia stood there staring at a piece of paper, her face as pale as the night. Adan hurried to take the paper from her. “Where did you find this?”

She pointed to the back door. “Inside the screen. I heard someone and I thought it was you.” She shuddered, took in a breath. “When I opened the door I found this.”

Adan stared at the artist’s rendering of the man he was chasing. “Do you know this man, Sophia?”

She sank down on a dining chair, shock evident in her eyes. Holding her chest, she gave him a frightened stare. “I... I don’t know. I mean, I just got scared when I saw that someone had left that there.” She gulped in air and shot a worried glance at the door.

Adan’s gut told him she was lying. This woman who’d been so strong and sure was now shaking and uncertain. Fear colored her skin white. Her hands were cold, her actions jittery and unsure. She kept staring at the mug shot in the picture with a shocked expression on her face.

“You know this man, don’t you?” Adan asked again. “Sophia, did you help this man escape earlier tonight?”

She hurtled out of the chair and crossed her arms as if to stop the shaking. “Why do you keep asking me that?”

He grabbed her, his hands rubbing her arms over her heavy sweater. She stared up at him but she couldn’t seem to speak.

Finally, she asked, “The man you’re tracking? You said he’s a wanted felon. What did he do?”

Adan decided it was time to come clean. Someone had left that poster on this woman’s door on purpose. That same person had obviously broken into his truck and found the flyer. If Joe Pritchard was here, the battle had just begun, but Adan had to take on that battle.

“He robbed a gas station near the Texas border and killed the cashier. He’s been robbing people left and right all the way from Austin to the Arkansas border and some locals had him cornered, but he escaped. Based on maps we found in a vehicle he stole and abandoned, we believe he was headed here. He’s got a long rap sheet that stretches over years, but this time he’s committed murder and I need to find him.”

He held her there and looked into her eyes. “If you know him, if you’ve aided him in any way, you need to tell me now. Before he hurts someone else.”

She gulped a sob, held a hand to her mouth. “He killed a store clerk?”

“Yes, a woman. A single mother with two children.”

She let out another sob then pulled away from Adan. “I need to check on Bettye.”

Adan watched her, his instincts to protect her too strong to ignore. “We’ll check on Bettye. But you have to tell me what’s going on with you. Right now, Sophia.”

When she kept moving toward her bedroom, he grabbed her and turned her around. And that’s when he saw the sheer terror in her eyes.

Without thinking, Adan gently tugged her into his arms. “It’s okay. It’s all right. I’m not going to hurt you. No one is going to hurt you.”

She felt small and stiff, like a frozen doll. But he held tight and kept reassuring her while his mind raced with the possibility that there was a killer out in those dark, snow-covered woods. He’d protect this woman because that was part of his job. But from the terrified expression on her face and the way he wanted to wrap her in a cloak of warmth, Adan decided he was in this for the long haul. He shouldn’t feel this way about a woman he’d only known for a few hours.

And he had to ask again. “Sophia, did you recognize this man?”

She shook her head, but the look in her eyes told Adan differently.

Disappointment coursed through Adan. Had she helped this man escape? But if she had, why would he risk coming back to stick that poster in her door? Maybe as a warning or a threat? Or maybe to taunt Adan? To show him that he’d managed to let yet another criminal get away?

“Have you seen anyone matching this description?” he asked, his hands still on her shoulders.

“I’m not sure,” she said, a plea in the words. “I don’t know him and I didn’t help him, Adan. I’ve...never seen that man on Crescent Mountain.”

She turned and walked to the table and stared down at the grizzly face on the white paper. “I... I don’t know him and I don’t know why someone would leave this on my door.”

Adan put his hands on his hips and watched as she paced from window to window. For someone who repeatedly said she didn’t know this man, Sophia sure seemed nervous and agitated. She’d just said she’d never seen the man in the picture here on the mountain. But had she seen him or known him before?

She was lying through her pretty white teeth.

And Adan wasn’t leaving here until he found out the truth.

CHAPTER FOUR

ADAN STEPPED BACK and took a breath, his eyes watching Sophia with a big-cat precision. “Sit down.”

Sophia did as he told her, too weak and afraid to do anything else. No gun could protect her from the trail of lies she’d had to tell. But she’d stall as long as she could.

She had to protect Bettye and the others. She’d brought this trouble on all of them when she’d shown up on the mountain late one night, scared and in shock. The cluster of people who’d become her neighbors had helped her without asking too many questions, and she didn’t want to pull them into any kind of trouble with the law.

What if it’s him? Sophia’s stomach roiled each time she glanced at that sketch. What if you don’t have a choice?

Adan went to the stove and turned up the heat on the kettle, then searched through the cabinets until he’d found the tea bags.

She watched him, amazed. “How did you know...?”

His chuckle was quiet and sure. “My mama always makes hot tea when she’s upset.”

Sophia latched onto that tidbit, a wistfulness filling her soul. She ached for a family of her own but for now, Bettye and her other neighbors would have to do. “Your mama and you—are you close?”

He turned and gave her a quick glance. “Yep. I’m close to both my parents. They live in Austin, not far from my house. They help me take care of my daughter, Gaylen.”

So he was married. Good. Sophia could put yet another wall between them. And she could let go of that sizzle of attraction that seemed to spark her back to life each time he touched her.

“Where’s your wife?” She’d asked it before she could think it through. “I mean, won’t she be wondering where you are?”

He didn’t turn around, but his hand went still on the teakettle. “She’s gone.”

So much for trying to focus on the positive. So did that mean he was still married and his wife had left? Or did that mean his wife was dead? Sophia refused to ask.

“She left when Gaylen was eight months old,” he finally said. “I’m a divorced single father.”

Sophia’s heart went out to him and his little girl, but she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable by saying that. “So you’re a single father who chases criminals in the snow.”

“Yep.” He opened a tea bag and dropped it into a big floral mug. “And I need to be done with this and home by Christmas Eve.”

Sophia hoped that would happen. “You think you’ll find him around here?”

“I think so. He’s here for a reason, but he’d have to hunker down tonight or risk freezing to death.”

She decided to feel Adan out and get a few details in the process. “I wonder why he decided to come to Crescent Mountain.”

Adan left that statement out there floating on the air between them along with the scent of chamomile tea. Finally he said, “I wonder that, too.” He brought her the tea, his gaze sweeping over her face. “It sure would make my job easier if you’d just tell me the truth.”

Sophia didn’t know what to say to that. She wanted to shout that yes, she knew who Joe Pritchard was but...she thought he was dead. She thought he would never hurt her again. So how could that possibly be him out there?

But she couldn’t find her voice. She couldn’t speak his name. So she sat there and watched Adan while he watched her drink the herbal tea and she hoped against hope that Joe wasn’t on this mountain.

But Adan didn’t pressure her anymore. He pulled out his cell phone and tried to make a call. “No bars,” he finally said, frowning down at his phone. “Guess the storm is messing with the reception.”

“We never have good reception up here,” Sophia told him. “It comes and goes even on good days. If we have important calls to make, we go down into town and sit on a bench or do our business in the Crescent Diner. They have free Wi-Fi there.”

“I see.” He tapped his phone and put it away. “I wanted to check in with my parents and tell Gaylen good-night.”

He sat for a moment, his gaze on his phone. Sophia chanced a glance when he put it on the table and saw a picture of a pretty blond-headed little girl. His daughter?

Before she could ask, Adan picked the phone back up and started tapping away.

“Notes to myself,” he said by way of an explanation. “So I won’t forget the chronological order of things.”

Sophia couldn’t believe her world had shifted within the space of an hour. The Christmas decorations Bettye had helped her make and put on the tree now held a garish shimmer that only reminded her of other Christmases she’d rather not remember. Days and nights that had involved overly decorated rooms and expensive catered dinners. And a facade that crumbled like dry bricks.

Sophia didn’t miss that kind of fake holiday. Nor did she miss the disconnected misery of growing up moving from pillar to post and sometimes living with strangers.

She’d looked forward to a quiet Christmas on the mountain with real people who cared about her. She’d planned on baking all kinds of goodies for her friends over the next week or so before they all celebrated with a Christmas Eve get-together.

But all of that had changed. Now, she had one very good-looking, very serious man questioning and doubting her and one very dangerous, very angry man out there possibly searching for her. Tonight they’d both found her. Would there be a battle between them? She got the impression that Adan Harrison wouldn’t give up until he had Joe Pritchard in custody. But would he give up on questioning her? No doubt on that one, either.

She sank down on an old side chair and grabbed a turquoise-colored chenille throw and held it tight to her chest. She didn’t realize she was shivering until Adan bent in front of her and lifted the blanket from her. With slow, deliberate gestures, he carefully took the throw and tucked it over her lap and around her sweater leggings and old cowboy boots.

Sophia didn’t like men touching her, but this gentle giant did it in a way that made her want to cling to his hand and thank him. His eyes held no malice, no intentions other than to bring her comfort. When was the last time a man had been this kind to her? Especially a man who’d seen the business end of her shotgun?

“There,” he said, his eyes going a gentle burnished brown. Then he turned to a side table. “Here’s your tea.”

She nodded her head, still not used to this kind of reaction from a man. Or her reaction to that man. “Thank you.”

His gaze stumbled over her heated skin. “You don’t look so hot.”

She almost smiled at that. “Well, I wasn’t exactly expecting company tonight.”

He sank back on a stool made out of old floorboards and straightened the embroidered yellow cushion. “And I wasn’t exactly expecting to show up on your porch.”

She forced a smile. “Funny how life works, huh?”

He nodded. “Ready to talk now?”

Sophia looked down at the frayed threads of the secondhand throw. “About what?”

He gave her a long, hard stare. “You’ll have to tell me sooner or later.”

Sophia sipped her tea so quickly she burned her tongue. “Tell you what?”

“Why you reacted so strongly to this poster.”

He held it up, his intentions obvious and deliberate.

Sophia glanced at the drawing then looked away. “I just got scared when I saw it hanging on my door. I mean, someone was out there prowling around and whoever it was came up onto my back porch.”

“I was out there prowling around and you came at me with a shotgun.”

She shrugged, tried to put on a neutral face. “I guess two prowlers in one night sent me over the edge.”

Adan pulled out his phone. “Mind if I ask you some questions?”

“Haven’t you been doing that since you showed up here?”

“Part of my job, especially when I need some answers and I think you can give them to me.”

Sophia didn’t want to give him any information, so she pointed to his phone, thinking he was going to haul her in. “I told you, you might find it hard to get any service out here.”

“It’s okay. I have a password to protect any work-related information so I take notes on my phone’s notepad. But if you’re uncomfortable—”

“No, I just don’t have anything more to say.” She tried to swallow away the dryness tightening her throat. Then she lifted her chin and stared him down. “Even if it means you have to take me to jail, too.”

* * *

ADAN RUBBED A hand down his face. This day had not turned out the way he’d planned. “Okay then. I hope I don’t have any reason to take you to jail. The best thing you can do for yourself is tell the truth, understand?”

“Yes,” she said on a soft note. “I... I’m sorry I held a gun on you. I’m not a criminal.”

He glanced at the ever-present shotgun then pivoted back to her and decided not to tell her how many times he’d heard that comment over the years. “I don’t know about that.”

“I have a right to protect myself,” she said, her hackles definitely rising, her freckled skin flushing while her eyes became a fire-tipped blue.

Ignoring the current of heat running through his body, he said, “Yes, you certainly do. Why do you need to protect yourself?”

“I shouldn’t have to tell you that. It’s pretty obvious.”

Adan tried again. “Do you recognize the man in the sketch?”

She lowered her head, her gaze cutting to the floor. Adan couldn’t be sure if she was about to lie to him or if she really was agitated by seeing that wanted poster on her door.

“Sophia?” Adan wasn’t always patient, but he’d learned to be whenever he was trying to drag information out of someone. He waited for her to look at him and hoped she’d be honest.

She finally let out a long sigh and gave him a direct glare. But he didn’t see anything but sincerity and stubbornness in her blue eyes. “I haven’t seen him around here.”

Adan let out a grunt and got up. “That’s not what I asked.”

* * *

SOPHIA DECIDED SHE’D had enough questions for one night. “I’m going to see about Bettye,” she said, already reaching for her heavy coat and her gun.

“Hey, wait a minute,” he called after her.

But Sophia was tired of waiting, tired of looking over her shoulder and very tired of being afraid. “I told you, I haven’t seen that man around here, but somebody left that mug shot for a reason. I’m going to check on my neighbor, so you need to just back off.”

“I’m coming with you,” Adan called, his boots hitting the old hardwood floors as he chased after her.

Sophia opened the heavy latched door, a gust of cold wind and wet snow taking her breath away. She needed this blast of cold air to clear her head. After four years here on the mountain, she’d become happy again and she’d gotten her strength back. She wasn’t about to have a midnight confession with a Texas Ranger.

I’ll figure out something. I always do.

“Hey, wait up.”

The driving wind caused the heavy flakes to dance in a straight line across the woods. She gasped to catch her breath then motioned to Adan. He’d just come after her if she didn’t let him go with her. And to be honest, she didn’t want to be out here alone. Not if Joe Pritchard was roaming around.

Adan followed her down the slippery wooden steps and took hold of her arm to link it with his. “We need to stick together.”

“I agree.”

“Why do you feel this sudden need to check on Bettye? We just left her place.”

Sophia lifted a gloved hand in the air. “The weather, a criminal on the loose, because I can.”

“You’re sure stubborn,” he said on a hiss as the wind cut them both to the bone.

“Yes, I am.” She nodded. “Her cabin is dark, but she has a night-light. The power might have gone out.” Taking a glance back at her own cabin, she said, “I still have electricity, so she should, too.”

“Must be asleep,” Adan called over the driving wind.

Sophia nodded, her skin tingling as the icy flakes hit her and clung to her hat and hair. This was the worst snowstorm she’d ever experienced while living on Crescent Mountain.

How would Adan ever be able to get out of here?

Worried now that she’d have to contend with him for more than just tonight and wondering where Joe had gone, she steeled herself to deal with both of them. She wouldn’t let Ranger Harrison intimidate her and she wouldn’t let Joe Pritchard—or whoever it was—scare her. She was long past being afraid of anything.

Except the truth.

She’d worry about how to handle that later. She had to make sure Bettye was okay—she was spry and in good shape, but she was still getting on in years. If Joe knew Bettye was Sophia’s friend, he’d zoom in on her just to bring out Sophia.

When they reached Bettye’s porch, Adan pointed to the snow going up the steps. “No fresh footprints, but the downfall could have hidden any.”

“We left her about an hour ago,” Sophia replied. “I’d feel better checking the back porch and all the windows.”

Adan grabbed her by the arm. “Why are you so worried about Bettye?”

Sophia didn’t know how to explain that now. Telling him the truth would save her a lot of grief, but she didn’t want to give Adan something to pin on her, a bargaining chip to make her talk even more. Or evidence that could put her in jail.

“I care about her,” she finally said. “She’s helped me a lot and...she’s the only real family I’ve ever had.”

Adan’s eyes widened but he seemed to accept that explanation. At least that much was the truth.

“Let’s go around back,” he suggested, his gun now drawn.

Now he was taking her seriously.

“Will her dog alert?” he asked.

“He should if it’s a stranger,” she said, her voice carrying through the ferocious wind and clinging snow. “But he knows me, so he might not bother with us.”

Adan shined the flashlight at the side window, but the heavy bushes were so covered with fresh snow it was impossible to tell if anyone had been near the place. No sign of new footprints on the back porch, either. Not even a peep from Bettye’s devoted companion.

“Her bedroom is on the other side,” Sophia said, pointing to the right corner of the porch.

Adan nodded and helped her down the steps. They slogged through almost a foot of snow before they reached the other window.

And saw that the screen was not on the window. It was lying ripped and torn on the snow-covered grass.

Sophia turned and tried to run. “I have to get inside.”

Adan hurried and caught her by the arm. “Hold up. Do you want to scare her?”

Angry that he was wasting time, she shouted, “You saw that screen!”

Adan nodded. “Yes, and I saw the window. The glass is intact. No one went through that window.”

“He could have closed it.”

“He would have broken out a pane to get inside. The glass is intact.”

When they heard a dog barking from inside the house, Sophia yanked away from Adan. “I’m going inside.”

“How?”

She lifted the key ring from her coat pocket. “I have a key.”

She didn’t wait for him to ask her about anything else. Sophia’s heart was churning and shifting in the same blustery confusion as the wind’s unforgiving gusts. Her safe, quiet life was now in an uproar and her fears for her friend had multiplied twofold after seeing that busted window screen.

She was fighting two very determined men. One evil...and one good. She just wished she knew which one would win.

CHAPTER FIVE

BY THE TIME they’d made it back around the house, the rear porch light flickered on and Bettye cracked open the door enough to push a rifle barrel through it. “Who’s out there?”

Letting out a held breath, Sophia ran up the slippery steps. “It’s me, Bettye. I was worried about you.”

The door peeled back like a creaky old trunk lid. “I’m fine, honey. You sure scared Bandit, though.” She motioned them inside with the gun down and her left hand in the air.

Sophia smelled the faint scents of vanilla and lavender. A burning candle? Then she heard a man’s cough.

Adan shot her a confused glance before they entered the back door of the cluttered, cloying cabin. “What’s going on?”

Bettye gave them a sheepish grin. “Jacob saw y’all with me earlier and...came over to see what all the commotion was about.” She motioned to Adan. “Jacob, this is the Ranger-Man I was telling you about.”

Jacob? Sophia’s relief was followed by a bemused confusion. She’d always known Jacob Miller had a huge crush on Bettye, but Bettye had never indicated that she felt the same about the grizzled, cantankerous older man. He had to be at least eighty. He could barely walk!