The High Country Rancher (9 page)

She was risking it all, having him here, but he was a persuasive man, with his caution and certainty that she was in danger, and that he was the only one who could provide her with the protection she needed. She needed something from him all right.

Stretching up onto her tiptoes, she brushed her lips against his. Warmth spread throughout her body and put her case on hold. She was off-duty. It was the weekend.

“Um.” He pulled back, staring down at her with a seductive smile that made her heart flutter.

“Dessert?”

“What did you have in mind?” she asked.

“A banana split down at Ruby’s Diner.”

“My favorite.” She kissed him again and turned for the front door, feeling like a teenager about to embark on her first date.

“I remember saving my babysitting money for those, and movies at the Roxy Theater.” She grabbed her house key and slid it into the pocket of her jeans, lost in the snippet of nostalgia that went with a small-town Saturday night.

She stepped through the door with Baylor behind her and moseyed down the steps in the late evening twilight. Somewhere down the street a dog barked. The scent of lilacs hung in the air, along with a smell
she didn’t recognize. She turned at the gate and watched him stride down the path toward her, his hat pulled low, his sultry gaze locked on her, as if she were the only woman on the planet.

The smell reached his nose seconds before he heard the hissing noise.

Terror launched him forward as the natural gas ignited. He lunged for Mariah.

Slamming into her, he took her to the ground, covering her with his body.

Tongues of fire lashed out and roared over their heads, raining heat and fiery debris down on them.

They had to move or risk being burned.

“Can you walk?” he said into her ear.

“Yeah.”

He pulled Mariah to her feet and kicked the front gate open where it hung from a single hinge. Holding her next to him, he hurried across the street and away from the flames now shooting out of the roof of her house.

He heard the whine of a siren in the distance.

Baylor didn’t stop moving until they reached a wide expanse of grass in a neighbor’s front yard across the street.

Gently he lowered her to the ground and sat down next to her, brushing the blackened debris out of her hair.

“Saved by a banana split.” His attempt at humor didn’t erase the look of distress that pulled her eye
brows together and marred her beautiful face. He didn’t like the way she guarded her right arm against her body. She needed medical attention.

He glanced at the acrid black smoke rolling out of the roof into the air. Neighbors stood in the street and on the sidewalks watching the action, as a couple of fire engines pulled up on scene and firemen scrambled to douse the flames before they ignited the homes on either side of Mariah’s.

“What happened?”

“You didn’t smell the gas when you came outside?”

“No…I was preoccupied.”

“With the case. Dammit, Mariah. You have to listen to me. Someone wants you dead. This wasn’t an accident.” Frustration stirred in his body. What more proof did she need, and what happened if he wasn’t there to protect her the next time?

“You need to dump this case. Turn it over to someone else before you get hurt.”
Or worse.
He searched her face for some hint that his words were sinking into her brain, disappointed when she shook her head.

“Detective Maxwell is next in line, Baylor. He’ll take you apart…put you in—”

“Stop, Mariah.” He brushed his hand against her cheek. “You don’t have to protect me. I haven’t done anything wrong. Let me protect you. Come to the Bellwether.”

Mariah’s mouth went dry as she stared into Bay
lor’s eyes and gave his proposition a chance to sink in. If only things were different. If she weren’t a cop and him her suspect, if life were normal and…

“I can’t. Not like this.” She looked away and stared at what was left of her home as the firemen attempted to put out the fire. “My career is in shambles, and now my home, too. I can’t make a decision like that right now.”

With his hand he pulled her chin around, forcing her to meet his gaze. “This nutcase isn’t going to stop. Let me help you figure out who he is and what he wants, before he manages to kill us both.”

His reasoning worked its way into her brain, finding a measure of acceptance there. They were both walking targets for some reason and until they caught the creep turning their world upside down they couldn’t have a world…not together anyway. Realization clung to her thoughts. She was falling hard for Baylor McCullough.

“I have an interview with Rachel Endicott first thing Monday morning. I can’t let go of this case until I’ve had a chance to talk to her. She knows something.”

Baylor leaned closer. “Judging by her weird appearance at the ranch, yeah. She could have taken the pictures of Amy and her husband together.”

“Maybe, if she knew about the affair and wanted to catch him in the act, get a better divorce settle
ment. Could be what she felt went beyond jealousy.

Maybe
she
killed him.”

Pain shot through Mariah’s forearm and clear up into her shoulder, causing her to suck in a labored breath.

“What is it?” Concern played across Baylor’s face.

“My arm. I think it’s broken.”

Baylor stood up, spotting an ambulance as it pulled in just up the block. “Stay put, I’m going to get help.”

He moved into the street and waved for the EMS crew, who came running with their jump kit.

“What have you got?”

“Over here. I think she has a broken arm.”

They followed him onto the lawn and he stepped back while they assessed Mariah’s injuries.

Baylor searched the faces of the gathered crowd, fighting the sensation of being watched. Granted there were a ton of rubbernecking neighbors spurred by curiosity, but he couldn’t help feeling like the perpetrator of the explosion was there, watching, obsessing and planning to do it again, only with fatal results the next time.

“We’re going to transport her. The doc will have to set and cast her arm.”

Baylor dropped his search-and-destroy mode and watched them help Mariah to her feet.

She shook her head when they attempted to put
her on the gurney. “I can’t lie down, it hurts too much. I’ll walk.”

Baylor fell in behind the group as they steadied her and helped her to the ambulance. Taking one last look at the scene, he climbed in for the ride to the hospital.

M
ARIAH SHUDDERED IN
the darkness as she stood next to Baylor, trying to get used to the feel of the newly formed cast on her broken wrist. It was late, she was exhausted and she smelled like a chimney, but she wanted to know what had triggered the explosion at her house.

Baylor put his arm around her, and she absorbed the heat coming from his body, letting it calm her insides.

She focused on the spot where Fire Chief Bill Higgins shined his flashlight next to the outside wall of what was once her home.

“This gas meter blew. I’ll have to get the ATF in here to verify my findings, but it looks like it was rigged with some kind of a detonator.” He pointed out the pipe where the gas used to come into the house. It looked like an open flower with jagged petals.

She leaned into Baylor, drawing comfort from the feel of his protective presence. He’d managed to save her again. Maybe the third time really was the charm.

“Keep me posted. I’m sure my insurance company will be in touch.”

“No problem. I’ll make the call to ATF.” Bill Higgins moved away from them and headed for his truck.

“Where will you go?” Baylor asked as he turned her toward the sidewalk, stepping over the hose that had been used to save everything around her house, including his pickup.

“I’m going to my dad’s place for a while. After that, I’m not sure.”

He pulled her up short next to the truck, and lifted her chin with his fingers. Damn, her eyes were blue in the streetlight, and he wanted to taste her mouth in the worst way.

“My offer stands, just say the word.”

A smile bowed her lips. “I can’t make a decision right now.”

Baylor released her, opened the pickup door and helped her inside.

He took one last look at her demolished house before sliding in behind the steering wheel.

Mariah wasn’t safe in this town and there was only one place where he could protect her.

The Bellwether Ranch.

Mariah tried to relax where she stood in the viewing room with her father, waiting for Rachel Endicott and her lawyer to show up.

On her right arm, just below her elbow, she sported a neon-pink, glow-in-the-dark cast. She wiggled her exposed fingers as much out of nervousness as to make sure blood still flowed into them.

“I need a leave of absence, Dad.”

“I’ll sign off on one month. That should be enough time to get your arm healed and your pen hand working again.”

She’d made her decision not long after Baylor had asked her to come to the Bellwether. She didn’t know what the option would bring, but she planned to follow her heart.

“I’m not sure a month is enough. I’m thinking about resigning from the department.”

Ted Ellis’s eyes widened. “You’re going to throw away your career and your badge? For what? Be
cause one damn case is kicking your tail down the street?”

“No. Because this is your career choice for me. You pushed me and I didn’t push back. I never got the chance to explore what I wanted to do with my life.”

Her father was silent, a fact that helped calm her frazzled nerves. She’d seen too much in this line of work, and she knew somewhere under all the dregs, she had to expose her true passion. Art.

The door to the interrogation room opened and Rachel Endicott trooped in with her lawyer behind her. They pulled out chairs on the same side of the table and sat down.

“If that’s really what you want, Mariah, I’ll start the paperwork.”

She stared at her father. He was gruff, he was intimidating, but under his rough exterior, he understood.

“Thanks.”

“Better get going after your last interview before I turn this case over to Detective Maxwell. He’s been chomping at the bit for weeks. Tapes rolling on this interview.”

A zing of concern laced through her. Giving up the case was going to put Baylor in Maxwell’s cross-hairs. She dodged a moment of anxiety and left the viewing room.

Mariah sucked in a couple of deep breaths and clutched the case file a little tighter in her left hand.

She knew Baylor was innocent until proven guilty, but he lounged in purgatory between the two opposites. Maybe Rachel Endicott was his ticket out and it was Mariah’s job to expose the truth.

She shifted the file to her right fingertips and opened the door with her left hand. Awkward but effective.

“Mrs. Endicott. Mr. Pruett.” Mariah laid the file on the table, pulled out her chair and sat down. She opened the folder and put the pictures out in front of Rachel, gauging her reaction. She didn’t flinch, just stared at the photos calmly before looking up.

“You knew about your husband’s affair with Amy McCullough?”

Rachel glanced at her lawyer, then back at Mariah before answering the question.

“Yes. I knew about it.” She swallowed, her eyes luminous with tears. She blinked the tears away. “After everything I did for that bastard. I put him through law school, gave up my own career so he could thrive, and that’s what I get in return.” She slammed her hand down on the snapshots.

“So you killed him?”

Rachel’s face contorted with anger. “No! If I’d done it, I’d have skipped putting the cable around his scrawny neck, and gone straight for his—”

“Rachel. Keep to the specific questions.” Deiter Pruett patted his client’s hand.

Just when it was getting interesting, Mariah
thought as she shuffled the bagged pictures into a pile with her good hand.

“So you hired a private investigator to take these shots?” she asked, studying Rachel’s face.

“No. I didn’t.”

Mariah paused, staring at her as caution leaked into her veins. “Did you take them yourself?”

“No.”

“You had nothing to do with turning them over to the department?”

“No.”

What was Rachel hiding? It was clear she’d seen the pictures before. Her reaction, or lack of one, had given her away. “Have you seen these before?”

Rachel’s lips pulled into a straight line and she looked over at Deiter Pruett.

Mariah leaned forward and put her arms on the table in front of her, knowing the interview was over.

Rachel Endicott wasn’t going to budge an inch.

“My client refuses to answer any more of your questions, Detective Ellis. Without a subpoena.” Deiter picked up his briefcase from the floor next to him and stood up, helping Rachel out of her chair.

“One more thing,” Mariah said, sliding her chair back and coming to her feet to meet Rachel eye to eye.

“You were the last person to see your husband alive on April fifth. That was a Saturday. Court wasn’t in session. Did he tell you where he was going?”

“No.” Rachel gave her a downcast glance and brushed past, but Mariah was sure she’d seen a wary flash in the woman’s dark eyes. She knew something.

“Don’t leave town, Mrs. Endicott.”

Together the pair left the interrogation room and Mariah sat back down in her chair.

Rachel Endicott was a good liar, but her body language didn’t match her story. It would take some concrete evidence and a grand jury to pull a subpoena, neither of which she had.

The door opened and her father stepped into the room, breaking her chain of thought.

“I’ll talk to the prosecutor, give him everything we have, which doesn’t amount to a whole hill of beans, but we need to find out what she’s hiding.”

“I’m betting she has seen the photos before. They’re not exactly cutesy pics of the family. They’re shots you’d use to hurt somebody.”

“Blackmail?” her dad asked, taking the chair across from her.

“Maybe. But who would blackmail her, and why? Amy McCullough is dead. James Endicott is dead. There aren’t any more viable players in the mix.”

“I’ll approach the prosecutor, see if we can cut some kind of an immunity deal if she’ll tell us what she knows.”

“I like it. Do what you have to do.” Mariah scooped up the file and stood.

“Do you still want out?” Her father studied her face.

“Yeah. I’m going to take a one-month leave of absence. But you’ll keep me in the loop?”

Disappointment pulled his features down. “You’ll be the first to know if she takes the deal.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Mariah made an awkward attempt to hug her father with her good arm. “I’ll stay in touch.”

“Am I going to have to guess where you’re going since your permanent address is no longer habitable?”

“I’m going to follow my heart for a change.” She handed her father the case file and pulled open the door, stepping out into the corridor, fixated on reaching Baylor and the Bellwether Ranch as soon as possible. She didn’t even need to pack. A suspicious gas leak had taken care of that, and all that mattered now was the fact that no one had been killed or seriously injured in the explosion.

“I’ll call you in a couple of days.”

B
AYLOR REINED IN
T
EXAS
high on the ridge above the ranch house and studied a set of animal tracks he’d been following since noon. Bessy, his oldest and most seasoned cow dog, had taken off from the house last night chasing something and hadn’t returned.

“Bess!” he yelled for the umpteenth time, pausing to listen for any sounds that might lead him to her.

He spurred Texas forward, following the tracks
until they veered off the game trail and disappeared into the soft bear grass that covered the exposed hillside.

A knot fisted in Baylor’s gut as he stared at the trail ahead of him. Clearly pressed into the soft soil was a shoe print. He rode up on it and climbed down out of the saddle.

Squatting beside it, he traced it with his finger. It was a man’s boot. Right foot, he guessed. There were traces of the left boot track but it was partially off the trail and into the grass, pointed in the same direction as Bess’s paw prints where they left the path.

Someone had been up here last night watching the ranch below. Old Bess had caught their scent.

The hair on the back of his neck bristled as he stood and mounted up. He rode along the path a little farther, but didn’t find any human tracks. Whoever had been up here last night was savvy enough to cover their trail.

Caution laced through his veins as he turned Texas around for the descent off the mountain. He’d have to keep an eye on his dog Buck or risk having him disappear, too.

Halfway back to the ranch he spotted Mariah’s car coming up the driveway. She’d decided to take him up on his offer? Moving Texas into a slow canter, he covered the distance quickly and slowed his horse as she climbed out of her car and leaned against the door.

The afternoon sun touched her hair and turned it
to gold in the light. She pulled off her sunglasses and looked at him, a smile on her lips. “Does your offer still hold?”

“Whoa.” He reined Texas in and dismounted. A mixture of excitement and need surged in his body. He stepped toward her, not content until he could touch her. Something he had to do right now. “Depends.”

“On what?” she asked, her smile dampening.

“On the terms.” He tied Texas to the hitching post and strode to Mariah, pulling her into his arms. His desire ramped up and he was a goner.

“You’re a man who likes negotiations?”

“No, just the foreplay around them.” He pulled off his hat and put it on the roof of the car, then lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her slow and easy until he felt her respond. He deepened the kiss, letting loose a fraction of the desire thumping in his body.

Her arms locked around his neck and he pinned her to the car with his hips, tasting, touching, loving her with a primal need only she could satisfy in him.

He felt her heartbeat thud against his chest, and pulled back. Her cheeks were flushed, her lips full and soft, ready to be kissed again and again. “I missed you,” he whispered.

A seductive smile bowed her mouth, but he could feel a moment’s hesitation in her body as she stiffened.

“I’m taking a month off for now, but I’m considering resigning from the department. My heart’s just not in it anymore…and I want to be with you.”

“Are you sure? I mean…” He didn’t want to wait another second, but he’d respect her wishes.

“Yeah,” she said. “I want to be with you, but my experience is, well, it’s…I don’t have much.”

Baylor felt the air bottle up in his lungs.

“I focused on college, then the police academy, then the department. I just never found the one I wanted to be with.”

He brushed the hair away from her face, feeling her shiver beneath his touch as she closed her eyes.

“Sweet hell.” He kissed her again, this time holding back from an all-out assault. He wanted to take her, wanted to teach her, wanted to love her.

He pulled back, out of breath and caught between a rock and a hard place. He wanted her now, but he would wait until she was ready to give him what she’d saved for one man. Willingly and without hesitation.

“Come on, let’s take a ride. I’ve got a couple of stray steers up on the east ridge I’d like to herd down. And I’d like to take a look at the mine entrance where we came out.”

Mariah nodded, glad for the distraction and the time to let her out-of-control emotions step back in line. Baylor was a true gentleman, but that wasn’t the side of him she’d wanted to unleash.

“Not sure if I can ride with this.” She held up her casted arm. “But if we were to get stuck in there again in the dark, this could show us the way home.”

Baylor grabbed his hat off the roof of the car and
shoved it on his head. “You can rein one-handed, can’t you?”

“Yeah.” She gazed at him, relishing the view, from the slant of his stubble-darkened jaw to the contemplative gleam in his eyes, and her heart beat faster, sending tentacles of anticipation rocketing through her.

“We interviewed Rachel Endicott today.” Baylor took her hand and steered her toward the corral, where Jericho stood eyeing them.

“Get anywhere?”

“She knew about Amy and James’s affair.” His grip tightened on her fingers.

“I’m sorry. I realize that’s an unpleasant subject for you.”

He pulled her to a stop and turned into her. The air was filled with a tension so intense she could feel it vibrate between them.

“It’s in the past, Mariah, and I can’t live there anymore. Amy is dead, there’ll be no question-and-answer session. There are things I’ll never know, but as much as it riles me, I’ve accepted it.”

“I’m glad.” She searched his face, relieved when he smiled down at her. “Things can only get better from here. No more dips in the emotional dunk tank.”

A laugh rumbled in his throat and she felt the dark cloud lift.

“I once volunteered to sit in the dunk tank at the country fair. Good thing there weren’t many Girl
Scouts with good aim in my line just waiting to see my cowboy hat bob up on top of the water. But I did get wet.”

“Was it for a good cause?”

“Yeah. The local fire department needed a new truck.”

Baylor pulled the lead rope from over the corral gate and undid the latch. He snagged Jericho’s halter, clipped on the shank and led him out to the hitching post where a saddle sat on the end of the rail.

Mariah felt useless as she watched him brush the big bay gelding. “Can I get his bridle?”

“Yeah. In the tack room on the rack with his name carved on the front.”

Mariah took off for the tack shed next to the corral. She pulled open the door of the ten-by-ten shed and smelled the scent of leather and fly wipe.

A long shaft of sunlight pierced the darkness inside and allowed her to spot the bridle hanging on a rack at the back of the structure.

She stepped inside.

A quake of caution shook her as a flash of movement on the floor next to her right foot caught and held her attention.

Recognition and terror registered at the same time a scream gurgled up her throat.

Baylor heard it. Sharp and high-pitched, coming from the tack shed.

“Mariah!” He dropped the horse brush and raced
for the shed, his mind searching for a cause to her distress. Had she injured her broken arm again, pulling the bridle down off the rack? Dammit, he shouldn’t have let her attempt to get it.

He swung the door wide and stared inside.