Operation Cowboy Daddy (18 page)

“Let’s meet back here at midnight,” Ash replied. “It will be about an hour’s drive to Bitterroot and at one in the morning all the men on the ranch should be sound asleep.”

For the next half hour Ash explained his plans for the night and the layout of the Holiday ranch. When he was finished, the men left, but he knew they’d be back at midnight...the witching hour.

Ash grabbed himself a beer and sat on an old metal folding chair. He was too hot to stay in Oklahoma City when this was finished. Thankfully, he had plenty of money and several fake identifications to start a new life someplace else.

He’d been hearing reports that Florida had a big heroin problem. Sun and beach and a new business to grow, it definitely sounded like a plan.

And tonight he would get his son, the heir to Ash’s business dealings. He cracked open the beer and took a long draw, then leaned back with a satisfied smile.

The men on the ranch would never know what hit them. He and his men would go in hard and fast. Ash would take what was his and then Ash Moreland and his son would disappear forever.

Chapter 15

D
inner consisted of beef Wellington, a cranberry salad, homemade rolls, a cream-cheese green-bean casserole and renewed heartache.

It was almost eight when the three women sat down to eat and Mary had been unable to get Tony out of her head no matter how hard she tried.

He doesn’t care that I can’t have children.
Mary laughed as Halena said something outrageous.
We could adopt and fill a home with love.
The meal was utterly tasteless because Tony’s words whirled around and around in her head.

But he would never be okay with her deformity. He’d run like Rick had and she just couldn’t go through that kind of a trauma again. It was far better that he think she didn’t love him. Eventually he’d get over her, but she had a feeling it would take a very long time for her to forget him.

“Granddaughter, food is meant to be eaten, not shoved around from place to place on your plate,” Halena chided. “Cassie and I slaved over this glorious meal.”

Mary flushed. “I’m sorry, I’m just not very hungry this evening. I ate so much at lunch. Besides, I saw the chocolate cake on the counter and you know that’s my favorite. I don’t want to get so full that I can’t enjoy a huge piece of cake.”

“And ice cream,” Cassie added.

“And maybe a movie later?” Halena asked.

Cassie gave the old woman an affectionate grin. “And a movie later,” she agreed.

Mary tried to stay focused through the rest of the meal and when she helped with the cleanup, but thoughts of Tony kept intruding.

After the cake and the ice cream had been eaten and they were all seated in the great room to watch the movie, the action on the big-screen television couldn’t compete with the thoughts going around in Mary’s head.

What kind of cruel fate had blown Tony into her life? How wicked was it to bring into her life a man she loved, a man she could never claim as her own?

It was time to say goodbye. Tony would care for Joey until he got them into an apartment or a house. She was no longer needed here.

She gazed down at Joey, who grinned back at her, and her heart wept knowing that she wouldn’t see the baby again. She would no longer stand over his crib and watch him sleep. She wouldn’t see his happy glee as he sucked on his bottle, or his delight when she carried on long conversations with him.

Tomorrow she and Halena would return to the house and get on with their ordinary lives and put all these extraordinary events behind them.

The boy and the man who had woven baskets of love in her heart would be forever banished, except perhaps in her deepest dreams.

It was almost eleven o’clock when she and Halena climbed the stairs for bed. The late meal and the movie had made it a long night. Mary put Joey down in his crib and then went into the room across the hall, where Halena had been sleeping.

The room held two twin beds and Halena sat on the foot of one of them with a red sparkly turban on her head. She reached up and touched it and preened. “A new gift from Cassie.”

“Are you going to sleep in it?”

“I think if I wear it to bed I might dream-walk to a sparkly place.”

“Tonight you dream-walk to someplace magical and tomorrow we go home.”

Halena frowned. “The four of us?”

Mary shook her head. “No, just you and me.”

Halena’s frown deepened. “And so you won’t give Tony Nakni a chance. He loves you, Mary.”

Mary leaned against the doorjamb. “I know and knowing is enough for me.”

“Tony is a much better man than Rick.”

“But he’s still a man,” Mary protested. She drew in a deep breath and recognized since the moment Tony had entered her life she’d been wallowing in a self-pity that had been absent from her life for years.

Halena stood and walked over to her. She placed her hands on Mary’s shoulders and peered at her intently. “You do yourself a disservice, my granddaughter, and I believe you do a disservice to Tony. You’re strong and beautiful. You’re a survivor.”

“I am strong and I’m smart. I am a survivor and I have a wonderful, fulfilling life,” she replied and straightened her shoulders. “I don’t need a man to make me feel like a woman. For the last couple of weeks I’ve forgotten that I’m okay just the way I am.”

“You’re better than okay,” Halena replied.

Mary nodded. “And tomorrow you and I go home alone and get on with our lives, and we won’t speak of this again,” she said firmly.

Halena dropped her arms back to her sides. “Then it is so,” she replied. She walked back to the bed and sank down on the mattress. “But the leaves on the trees tell me you’ll live with regret if you don’t completely put your heart on the line with Tony.”

“The leaves on the trees can whisper all they want, but my mind won’t change,” she retorted.

She returned to her own room, where she pulled on her nightgown and then crawled into bed. A new sense of peace drifted through her.

Certainly she would always ache for what would never be, but it was time to remember who she was—a strong, proud woman who had a good life.

Thankfully, she fell asleep immediately. She dreamed that she was standing on the edge of a cliff. A cold wind buffeted her and she knew the only way to get out of the icy wind was to jump. But she couldn’t see what was beneath the cliff.

She was pulled from the dream and awakened by a loud clanging noise coming from someplace outside. She jumped out of bed and ran out of her room. She met Halena in the hallway.

“What’s going on?” Mary asked as she flipped on the hallway light. “What’s that bell?”

Halena shrugged and Cassie flew out of her bedroom, her eyes wide with fear. “It’s the cowbell on the front porch,” Cassie said. “It’s only rung when there’s an emergency.”

At that moment the sound of motorcycles filled the air, followed quickly by gunfire.

* * *

Tony awakened to the ringing of the cowbell. He shot out of bed, his heartbeat thundering loudly in his ears. Jerod was on night guard duty and he’d ring the bell for only one reason.

Danger!

Above the cowbell, the roar of motorcycles broke the silence of the night. Then gunfire. What the hell? Tony pulled on his jeans and a T-shirt, then grabbed his gun and cracked open his door.

In the spill of moonlight, four motorcycles were visible. They raced around, tearing up the yard and shooting indiscriminately in all directions.

Ash.

The name boomed in Tony’s head.

He was here for his son and he’d brought his army to help him. Tony’s blood froze as he gripped his gun firmly in his hand.

Doors began to creak open in the cowboy motel, letting Tony know the other men were awake. They would have their own guns and there was a potential for a bloodbath.

The night had gone mad. The men on the motorcycles were like marauding thugs from hell who were bent on destruction. It was impossible to see any of their faces. They were just dark silhouettes with headlights beaming brightly.

“What in the hell?” Sawyer stepped out of his room and into the open and then yelped and stumbled back into his room.

Tony’s heart plummeted. Had Sawyer been shot? Was he hurt badly? Somehow Tony needed to get to him and check on his condition. Dammit, this was all his fault and the last thing he wanted was for any of the cowboys to get hurt.

He opened his door a little more and fell to the ground, hoping the darkness of the night would cover him enough for him to get to Sawyer’s room.

Despite the coolness of the night his hands were sweaty and even above the roar of the motorcycles he heard his heartbeat pounding in his ears.

He crawled to Sawyer’s door and only rose up enough to turn the doorknob and open the door. He threw himself into the room, slammed the door behind him and stood. Sawyer was on the bed, a bloody towel pressed to his shoulder.

“How bad is it?” Tony asked.

“I think it’s just a flesh wound, but it’s made me mad enough to hurt somebody,” Sawyer replied.

Tony gazed at his friend worriedly. He didn’t look like he was going to hurt anyone anytime soon. His face was pale and it was obvious he was in pain.

Gunfire still rang out and Tony worried what other casualties might happen before this night was over. “I’ve got to get to the house,” he said urgently. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. Go,” Sawyer replied.

Tony had to get to the women and Joey and make sure they were okay, make sure they stayed safe. That was where Ash would go, and he needed to make sure he got there before Ash did.

“Call Dillon,” he said to Sawyer and then he opened the door and slid out into the chaos of the night.

He crouched just outside of Sawyer’s room and watched the men on the motorcycles tearing back and forth, hooting and shooting. It was like a macabre scene from one of Halena’s B-rated action flicks, except the danger was real and the bullets were deadly.

Adam crawled up next to him. “Tony, you okay?” He had to yell to be heard above the revving engines.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Sawyer took a bullet in the shoulder. I need to get to the house. I know Jerod was on guard duty tonight, but I don’t know where he is now.” The cowbell had stopped ringing minutes after the motorcycles had arrived and Tony worried about what might have happened to Jerod.

An urgent frustration filled him. All the lights in the house were on, like beacons crying out for help through the dark night. The house appeared a hundred miles away and there were crazed men on motorcycles with guns between him and the house where he needed to be. The air was thick with the acrid odors of gunpowder and gasoline.

“If I can get to the stables, from there I could probably make my way to the house,” Tony said. Several shots rang out from the doorways of the bunkhouse.

Tony turned his head to look behind them and saw several shadows racing across the lawn with guns blazing. As a couple of the motorcycles veered off in their direction, Tony prayed none of his other “brothers” got hurt.

“I’ll try to cover you,” Adam replied. “On the count of three.”

Tony drew in a deep breath, and when Adam got to three, he took off running. Adam fired a blaze of bullets as Tony raced across the open ground.

He got halfway to the stables before he caught one of the riders’ attention. The motorcycle turned to give chase.

“Yahoo!” the driver yelled, and if Tony hadn’t cut right and slid to the ground, the motorcycle would have struck him. As it was, it passed so close Tony felt the heat of the engine.

He got to his feet and ran, but a look over his shoulder let him know the motorcycle had turned around and was bearing down on him again.

As the driver began to fire his gun, Tony rolled to the ground, aimed and fired.

The driver cursed and lost control of his ride. Both rider and motorcycle fell to the ground. The engine whined like a baby wanting a bottle as the man cursed and screamed.

Joey. Mary! He had to get to the house. Where were the women? Were they all huddled together in the great room? Upstairs in one of the bedrooms? And where was Ash Moreland?

With a burst of adrenaline, Tony managed to make it to the stables, where he ducked just inside the door. Where was Dillon? It felt as if hours had passed since he’d told Sawyer to call the law.

There was so much gunfire. His gut tightened and he swiped his sweaty gun hand on his jeans. People were going to be hurt. People were going to die tonight.

He peeked outside the door and cursed as he saw the two motorcycles zigzagging between him and the house. He had to get past them. He had a sinking, horrific terror that told him Mary and Joey were in immediate peril.

* * *

“Take Joey and go upstairs to your room,” Cassie said urgently.

The three women had been standing helplessly in the great room while all hell broke loose outside. Cassie had been peering out the window since the commotion had begun and they had all come downstairs.

“Can you see Tony? Is he all right?” Mary asked as fear made her heart beat a million thumps a minute.

“It’s too dark. I can’t tell who is who, but the motorcycles are moving closer to the house. Please, Mary, go upstairs and hide in your room with the baby. You know he’s who they’re after.”

Mary hugged Joey tightly against her chest. He’d been crying since the roar of the first motorcycle, as if he knew the danger he was in.

“Go, granddaughter,” Halena said firmly.

Mary turned and hurried up the stairs. There was so much gunfire. Had Tony been hurt? Oh, God, was he lying out there bleeding? Had any of the other men been shot? Joey wailed as she turned into her bedroom.

She walked over to the side of the window and craned her neck to peer outside. She saw only dark silhouettes moving through the night and the headlights of the motorcycles as they roared back and forth across the yard.

She rocked Joey in her arms, trying to soothe him even as her fear rose so high she wanted to scream and cry with him. “It’s all right, baby boy,” she whispered. She tried to calm herself, hoping that would help him settle down.

He finally calmed down enough that she placed him in the crib and turned on the whirling mobile. He stared up at the dancing figures and waved his hands.

Protect him from evil and please protect Tony.

She turned around and gasped as the closet door flew open and Ash Moreland stepped out. “Little Mary Redbird,” he said as he pointed his gun at her.

“My name is Mary Redwing,” she replied, her voice nothing more than a trembling whisper. She leaned her back against the crib and stretched her arms out on either side of her to rest on the top of the railing.

Protect him from evil.
The words once again screamed in her brain. Evil was now upon them.

“Whatever,” he replied. “I appreciate you taking care of my boy, but now it’s time he come home to Daddy.”

“He’s not your son, Ash. Amy was seeing another man and Joey is his son.” Her entire body went cold as he narrowed his dark eyes. Frantically she glanced around for something she could use as a weapon, but there was nothing that could equal his gun.

“You’re a liar,” he snarled. “Now give him to me.”