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  “Yeah. Yeah, well. Maybe Seth isn’t your biological son, but he’s in your care. He’s your blood. To him, and to you I imagine, you’re mother and child. A lie to keep Seth safe doesn’t hurt me, and I know this whole time all you’ve been trying to do is keep Seth safe. I won’t hold that against you or fault you for that, and no one can make me. Even you.”

  She expelled a breath. “Noah, I want to go home. I want Seth and I want to go home.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do. Because this is over. You’re safe, and once we know Seth’s safe, that’s all that will matter.” Ever.

  Chapter Twenty

  The next few days were nothing but a blur. A hospital stay for her due to hypothermia and pneumonia, a hospital stay for Noah and Ty for their respective wounds. Vanessa and Seth were relatively unharmed, and to Addie, that was all that mattered.

  The police and the FBI were a constant presence, talks of being a witness and trials. If charges would be pressed against her or Noah for killing men. Addie was almost grateful for being sick and not quite with it.

  She was continually grateful for Laurel’s presence and help. For Vanessa’s bringing Seth to visit whenever the nurses would let her. Carsons and Delaneys working together to help someone who didn’t really belong.

  Bent is your home. Noah’s voice echoed in her head. Bent was her home. But what did that mean? The Carson Ranch? This town? He’d said he loved her once, and she hadn’t had the opportunity to say it back.

  Addie sat in the passenger seat of Laurel’s car, Seth’s car seat fastened in the back. Over three months ago, she’d made this exact trek. She hadn’t had a clue what would befall her back then.

  She didn’t have a clue what would befall her now. Noah had been released this morning, and he hadn’t come to see her.

  “Maybe he doesn’t want...” Addie cleared her throat as Laurel turned the car onto the gravel road that led up to the Carson Ranch. “He might not want me here. I did lie to him.” He’d said it didn’t matter, but that was in the aftermath of hell. Now it might matter.

  “He wants you here,” Laurel replied. “I am under strict orders.”

  Addie slid Laurel a look. “From who?”

  Laurel smiled. “Too many Carsons to count.”

  “I don’t want to... I brought all these terrible things on him, and he didn’t even come see me in the hospital. Why would he want me here?”

  “I think that’s something you’ll have to ask the man yourself. I also think you already know the answer to that, so you might not want to insult him and ask him that in quite those words.”

  “He could’ve died. A million times.”

  “So could you. And Seth. But somehow, you all fought evil together and won. I’d pat myself on the back, not worry about if Noah is overly offended by the sacrifices he willingly made.” Laurel frowned. “I am sorry we didn’t—couldn’t—do more. The police, me personally.”

  “Peter learned how to outmaneuver the police from birth, I think. I don’t blame you, Laurel. We all did everything we could, and like you said, we all fought evil together and won.”

  “I suppose.” Laurel smiled thinly. “And when you fight evil and win, then you face the rest of your life.”

  Addie blew out a breath and watched the house get closer and closer to view. “It feels like I’ve been running forever,” she murmured, more to herself than to Laurel.

  But Laurel responded anyway. “And now it’s time to stop. There isn’t anything or anyone to run from anymore, and if there ever is again, you have a whole town—Carsons and Delaneys—at your side.” She stopped the car in front of the house.

  Much like that first day all those months ago, Grady stepped out, his smile all for Laurel. Addie stayed in her seat, waiting for some sign, some hint that Noah actually wanted her here. She might have believed it in the snow and the woods at night, but in the light of hospital days and FBI questions, all her fears and worries repopulated and grew.

  He’d kept his distance. He was spending his days talking to FBI agents because of her. Maybe it’d had to be done, but that didn’t make it any less her fault. She’d lied to him. Maybe once he really thought about it, he’d realized he didn’t love a liar.

  Laurel had gotten out and was pulling Seth out of his car seat. Grady was unlatching the car seat from Laurel’s car. And still Addie sat, staring at the house, wondering what a future of freedom really looked like.

  Freedom. No longer a slave to whether or not Peter would find her. She was free. Sitting in front of the Carson ranch house, it was the first time that fact truly struck her.

  She stepped out of the car. Laurel handed Seth to her and he wiggled and squirmed, pointing at the house, then clapping delightedly. “No!”

  “Yes, we’re home with Noah, aren’t we?” Because she was free now. Free to take what she wanted, have it, nurture it. Free to do what was best for Seth’s well-being, not just his safety. Free to build a life.

  A real life.

  If Noah was mad at her for bringing Peter to his doorstep, mad at her for lying about Seth not being her biological child, well, she’d find a way to make up for it. She’d find a way to make his words true.

  Bent is your home.

  I love you.

  Grady took the car seat to the front door and Laurel placed the bag she’d brought to the hospital with some of Addie’s things next to it.

  “We’re going to head out,” Grady said.

  “You aren’t coming in?”

  “Uh, no. You enjoy your homecoming.”

  “My...” She glanced at the door. Homecoming.

  “Call if you need anything, or if the FBI get too obnoxious,” Laurel offered, walking back to her car hand in hand with Grady.

  Then it was just her and Seth, standing on the porch of the Carson Ranch, alone. It felt like a new start somehow.

  And it was. A new start. Freedom. A life to build. But she had to take that step forward. She had to let go of the fear...not just of what her life had been, but of what she’d allowed herself to be. A victim of fear and someone else’s power.

  Never again.

  She took a deep breath, steeling herself to barge in and demand Noah have a heart-to-heart conversation with her. No grunts. No silences. No I love yous and then disappearances. They weren’t on the run anymore and he couldn’t—

  The door swung open.

  “Well, are you going to come in or are you just planning on standing out in the cold all day?” Noah asked gruffly.

  She blinked up at his tall, broad form filling up the doorframe. “I thought I’d stare at the door for a bit longer.”

  “I see you’re still being funny.”

  “No!” Seth lunged for Noah and Noah caught him easily.

  “There’s a boy,” Noah murmured, the smile evident even beneath the beard. His gaze moved up to Addie, that smile still in place as he held Seth and Seth immediately grabbed for his hat hanging off the hook next to them.

  “Come inside, Addie.”

  Right. Come inside. Conversation. She’d tell him what she wanted. What she needed, and...and...

  She stepped inside and Noah closed the door behind her.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “How am I feeling?” she repeated, staring at him, something like anger simmering inside her. She didn’t know why, and it was probably unearned anger, but it was there nonetheless. “That’s all you have to say to me?”

  “No.”

  She frowned at him. “You don’t make any sense.”

  “You were just released from the hospital,” he said, as if that explained anything.

  “So were you!”

  “I wasn’t sick, though.”

  “Oh, no, just a gunshot wound.”

  It was his turn to frown. “Why are we fighting exactly?”
/>   Addie turned away from him. She didn’t know why she was arguing or what she felt or...

  She stopped abruptly in the middle of the living room when she saw a sign hanging from the exposed beams of the kitchen ceiling. Hand-painted and not quite neat, two simple words were written across the paper.

  Welcome Home.

  He’d made her a sign. Hung it up. Home. Home. She turned back to face him, and all the tears she’d been fighting so hard for the past few days let loose in a torrent of relief.

  “But...I lied to you. I made your life a living hell for days, and through the beginning and the end I lied to you about Seth. You’ve had time to think about that now. Really think about it. You have to be sure—”

  “I can’t say I like being lied to, but I understand it. You were protecting Seth, and there’s nothing about that I don’t understand. But...”

  Oh, God, there was a but. She nearly sank to her knees.

  “We have to promise each other, both of us, no more lies. Even righteous ones. Because the only way we fought Peter was together. The only way we survived was together. There can’t be any more lies or doing things on our own. We’re in this together. Partners.”

  “Partners,” she repeated, Seth still happily playing with the cowboy hat as Noah held him on his hip.

  “No lies. No keeping things from each other. We work together. Always. I promise you that, if you can promise me the same.”

  Addie swallowed, looking at this good man in front of her, holding a boy who wasn’t biologically her son but was hers nonetheless. “I promise you that, Noah. With all of my heart I promise you that.” She glanced up at the sign he’d made, this stoic, uncelebratory man. “I do want this to be my home,” she whispered.

  “Then it’s yours,” Noah returned, reaching out and wiping some of the tears from her cheeks.

  “I love you, Noah.”

  There was no doubt under all that hair and Carson cowboy gruffness, Noah smiled, and when his mouth met hers, Addie knew she’d somehow found what she’d always been looking for, even in those days of running away.

  Home. Love. A place to belong. A place to raise Seth, and a man who’d be the best role model for him.

  “I hear there’s some curse about Carsons and Delaneys,” she murmured against his mouth.

  “I don’t believe in curses, Addie. I believe in us. Hell, we defeated the mob. What’s a curse?”

  “I’d say neither has anything on love.”

  “Or coming home. Where you belong.”

  Yes, Addie Foster belonged in Bent, Wyoming, on the Carson Ranch, with Noah Carson at her side, to love and be loved in return for as long as she breathed.

  And nothing would ever change that.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Rugged Defender by B.J. Daniels.

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  Rugged Defender

  by B.J. Daniels

  Chapter One

  It all began with a kiss. At least that’s the way Chloe Clementine remembered it. A winter kiss, which is nothing like a summer one. The cold, icy air around you. Puffs of white breaths intermingling. Warm lips touching, tingling as they meet for the very first time.

  Chloe thought that kiss would be the last thing she remembered before she died of old age. It was the kiss—and the cowboy who’d kissed her—that she’d been dreaming about when her phone rang. Being in Whitehorse had brought it all back after all these years.

  She groaned, wanting to keep sleeping so she could stay in that cherished memory longer. Her phone rang again. She swore that if it was one of her sisters calling this early...

  “What?” she demanded into the phone without bothering to see who was calling. She’d been so sure that it would be her youngest sister, Annabelle, the morning person.

  “Hello?” The voice was male and familiar. For just a moment she thought she’d conjured up the cowboy from the kiss. “It’s Justin.”

  Justin? She sat straight up in bed. Thoughts zipped past at a hundred miles an hour. How had he gotten her cell phone number? Why was he calling? Was he in Whitehorse?

  “Justin,” she said, her voice sounding croaky from sleep. She cleared her throat. “I thought it was Annabelle calling. What’s up?” She glanced at the clock. What’s up at seven forty-five in the morning?

  “I know it’s early but I got your message.”

  Now she really was confused. “My message?” She had danced with his best friend at the Christmas Dance recently, but she hadn’t sent Justin a message.

  “That you needed to see me? That it was urgent?”

  She had no idea what he was talking about. Had her sister Annabelle done this? She couldn’t imagine her sister Tessa Jane “TJ” doing such a thing. But since her sisters had fallen in love they hadn’t been themselves.

  “I’m sorry, but I didn’t send you a message. You’re sure it was from me?”

  “The person calling just told me that you were in trouble and needed my help. There was loud music in the background as if whoever it was might have called me from a bar.”

  He didn’t think she’d drunk-dialed him, did he? “Sorry, but it wasn’t me.” She was more sorry than he knew. “And I can’t imagine who would have called you on my behalf.” Like the devil, she couldn’t. It had to be her sister Annabelle.

  “Well, I’m glad to hear that you aren’t in trouble and urgently need my help,” he said, not sounding like that at all.

  She closed her eyes, now wishing she’d made something up. What was she thinking? She didn’t need to improvise. She was in trouble, though nothing urgent exactly. At least for the moment. And since she hadn’t told anyone about what was going on with her...

  “Are you in Whitehorse?” she asked.

  “No. I haven’t been back for years.” There was regret in his voice that made her think he hadn’t left because he wanted to. Odd.

  “Me either. I came home to be with my sisters for the holidays. I appreciate you calling though. It’s nice to know that if I was in trouble, you’d...” He hadn’t exactly said that he’d come running. “Call. It’s good to hear your voice.”

  “Yours too. It’s been a long time.”

  Too long. She wondered if he ever thought of her—and their kiss. Her sisters referred to Justin T. Calhoun as her high school boyfriend. But in truth, they’d barely gotten together before she’d had to leave for college. There’d just been that snowy-day kiss. He’d gon
e on to reportedly get engaged to Nicole “Nici” Kent, break up, and then get married to and divorced from Margie Taylor while Chloe had been busy getting her journalism degree and working her way up from one newspaper to another larger one.

  While she’d dated some, none of the men she’d met stood up to what she called The Kiss Test. None of them had come close to Justin’s winter kiss.

  “So how long are you staying in Whitehorse?” he asked, dragging her from her thoughts.

  “Until the first.” The truth was, her plans after that were rather up in the air. Not even her sisters knew the real story. “Maybe longer.”

  “So you’ll be there for the New Year’s Eve Masquerade Dance.”

  It was only days away. Annabelle had been trying to talk her into going but Chloe had been adamant that she wasn’t. Her sisters had dragged her to the Christmas Dance and that was bad enough. Nothing could change her mind... Except Justin.

  She hedged. “I haven’t made up my mind yet about going. Are you thinking about it?” she asked hopefully.

  He laughed. “You and I never got a chance to dance.”

  They’d never gotten a chance to do a lot of things. “No,” she said. “You dance?”

  He chuckled. “You’d have to be the judge of that. Maybe I’ll see you there. It’s been nice talking with you, Chloe. You take care.” And he was gone.

  “Maybe I’ll see you there”? Not, “I’ll see you there”? Not, “let’s make it a date and I’ll come back to Whitehorse”? But still her heart was a hammer in her chest. Just the thought of seeing Justin again...

  She told herself that it had been years. He might have changed. The chemistry might not even be there anymore. How could she even be sure it had been there to start with? It had been just one kiss.

  The doorbell rang, followed by the front door opening and excited voices. Moments later, she heard noisy chatter on the stairs. Chloe wanted to put her head back under the covers.

  “I bet she’s not even up yet,” she heard TJ say.

  “Well, we’d better wake her up otherwise we’re going to be late.”