Wyoming Cowboy Ranger Read online

  Ty didn’t think. Everything around him blanked except getting to that man. If he caught him, this would all be over.

  He jumped the bar and ran, ignoring shouts of outrage over spilled beers and Grady’s own concerned calling after him. Outside, Ty caught the flash of the man disappearing across the street.

  Jen. Her store.

  Ty ran as fast as he could, ignoring all else except catching the man who had to be responsible for all this. The stranger disappeared behind the buildings on Main, but since Ty had a feeling he knew where the man was running to, he kept his track on the boardwalk.

  Once he got to the alley before Delaney General, he took a sharp turn and all but leaped into the back parking lot. Ty came to a stop, breathing hard, scanning the area around him, but there was nothing.

  Nothing. With quick, efficient moves, Ty checked the back door. Locked and he hadn’t heard a sound, so it was unlikely the man had beat him here and broken in.

  He scanned the dark around him, but there was nothing, not even that gut feeling that warned him someone must be watching. He’d had to have run somewhere else. Ty could search but there were too many options. He could have even stashed a vehicle behind another business on Main and taken the back road out of town.

  Ty cursed himself and he cursed the whole situation, but he also came to a conclusion.

  He was going to have to do something even more drastic than getting the cops involved. Something no one would approve of, and something that could get him in quite a bit of trouble.

  But Ty knew it was the only answer.

  * * *

  JEN HAD GOTTEN SURVEILLANCE. Bitterness ate through him like acid at the memory. How dare she protect herself against him and not Ty. She’d let that piece of trash into the back room of her store. Let him talk to her. She hadn’t called the cops on Ty.

  Red clouded his vision, and he had to be careful or the blood pounding in his ears would get too loud. Too insistent.

  He concentrated on the steering wheel underneath his palms as he drove in a deliberate circle around Bent. He thought about Ty chasing after him and losing.

  That made him smile. Yes, yes indeed. Ty wasn’t nearly as fast as him, was he? Ty wasn’t nearly as smart and strong and brave as he thought, was he?

  The comfort at that thought lasted only a moment as he thought about earlier in the day. Jen and her surveillance. Anger came back, swift and addicting. He liked the way rage licked through his system, revved his mind.

  Dr. Michaels said it was bad, but he didn’t think so. He liked it too much for it to be bad. Didn’t he deserve some of what he liked after everything he’d been through?

  The man who’d been in Jen’s store all day was clearly military, and he carried. He also touched Jen with far too much familiarity. The man guarding her would have to go on the list under the cop.

  Yes, that would be good. Ty, the cop, the man in the store. Targets were good. The rage was good, but it had to have targets. Purpose. That’s what Dr. Michaels didn’t understand.

  Maybe she’d go on the list, too. But not yet. Not now. First, he’d deal with the problems in Bent, Wyoming.

  He drove down the back road behind the businesses on Main. He looked at the brick of Delaney General, the heavy steel door that would be tough to break into.

  He’d have to make his move soon. He preferred to wait. Draw out the anticipation. Level out some of his rage lest he make a mistake.

  But they weren’t letting him, were they? And they’d be the ones who paid for his mistakes...so why not make a few?

  Chapter Six

  Jen had never felt particularly at home at the Delaney Ranch, though it was where she’d grown up. Unlike her brothers, she’d never been interested in the ranch work. She’d found the vast landscape unnerving rather than calming.

  When she turned eighteen and moved into the apartment above the store, she’d been happier. She felt more herself there, like the building had simply been waiting for her. She liked to think it was the connection to her ancestors who’d run this store rather than raise cattle or protect the town with badge and honor. Like Laurel had always wanted to be a cop, Jen had always wanted her store.

  So, waking up on the Delaney Ranch grated. But she did what she always did when she had to be here and didn’t want to be—she made herself useful. It was the one thing that softened her feelings toward the place. Making meals or cleaning up. Laurel used to make fun of her “überdomesticity” but Jen found comfort in the tangible things she could do.

  Surprisingly, Vanessa was the first person to enter the kitchen. Well, stumble was a better term for it. She was bleary-eyed, with messy hair, and she spoke only one word. “Coffee.”

  “Decaf?” Jen asked sweetly.

  “Don’t make me hurt you this early in the morning. I am allowed one cup of coffee per day and I will darn well take it.”

  Jen hid a smile and pulled down a mug. Though she knew Vanessa would just as soon do everything for herself, Jen didn’t have any issue waiting on people. Especially pregnant people. “Sit,” she ordered, pouring the coffee herself.

  Vanessa lowered herself into a chair at the table and grasped the mug carefully when Jen set it in front of her. “Thanks. I don’t suppose you’re taking breakfast orders?”

  “Only for pregnant women. The men around here get cold cereal as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Turns out I like you, Jen Delaney. I’m starving and the sound of everything makes my stomach turn.”

  Jen chatted with Vanessa over some possibilities until they came to something Vanessa thought she could stomach. Jen poured coffee for Dylan and then Dad when they arrived, but they both hurried out over some early meeting at the bank.

  Dylan, of course, gave Jen a stern warning not to head to the store until Cam came over to escort her. She rolled her eyes at him, but then he kissed Vanessa’s cheek and rested his hand on her belly and everything in Jen softened.

  And sharp Vanessa Carson-Delaney softened, too.

  “He’ll be such a good dad,” Jen said, more to herself than Vanessa.

  “I’m counting on it. I don’t have much in the way of good role models on the whole parenting thing.” She shrugged philosophically. “Though I guess Dylan doesn’t either.”

  Jen slid into the seat across from Vanessa with her own breakfast. “Doesn’t it bother you, living here?”

  “It’s nice digs,” Vanessa replied before taking a tentative bite of the oatmeal Jen had put together. “Apparently pregnancy has put your dad on his best behavior around me. Not much to complain about.”

  “Well, I’m glad, then.”

  “Gee, I think you mean that. Carsons and Delaneys might start holding hands and singing ‘Kumbaya’ before you know it.”

  Jen laughed. Even though it was ridiculous, the idea they were finding some common ground between their two families warmed her.

  As long as she didn’t think about Ty.

  They ate breakfast companionably before Vanessa made her excuses to go take a shower and get ready for work. “Don’t worry,” Vanessa offered on her way out of the kitchen. “I won’t leave till Cam gets here.”

  Jen huffed out a breath. She hated this babysitting. The stranger going after Ty, or her because of Ty, was hardly going to bust into the house and take her away. If he really was the stranger in her store, he’d already had ample opportunity to do that.

  She cleaned up breakfast, glancing at her phone when it trilled. She frowned at the fact the text was from Ty of all people. Her frown turned into a scowl when she saw what he’d texted.

  High Noon

  It was their old code. Back in the days before they’d had cell phones, he’d simply leave a little note somewhere she’d see it, and that’s all it would say for her to know to sneak out the back of the house and meet him at their tree.

  She shoved
the phone back on the counter. She was not responding to that. Not at all.

  She focused on cleaning, and if occasionally she happened to crane her head toward the window, she stopped herself before she took a look toward the old gnarled tree in the backyard.

  If Ty had something to say to her, he could come to the front door.

  Her phone trilled again.

  Come on, Jen. I need to talk to you.

  Baloney. She wiped her hands off on a dish towel, then typed a response. Then talk.

  I chased him last night.

  She blinked down at those words, then swore. Oh, that man. Was he a moron? Did he have any sense of keeping himself safe? Chased him! And what him? Were they sure the note leaver and the man at her store were even the same person?

  She shoved her phone into her pocket, then stalked to the front door. She yanked on boots, muttering the whole way. She marched out the front and around the back, a far cry from the teenager who would have snuck around, doing anything to avoid being seen by her family or the ranch hands.

  She didn’t care who saw her now, because she was about to give Ty Carson a piece of her mind.

  She stalked back to that old tree, determined to hold on to her anger and frustration, but the sight of him turned it to dust. His motorcycle was parked exactly where he always used to park it. Older and more lethal, he still looked windswept and she felt her heart do that long slow roll it had always done because Ty Carson was waiting for her.

  Her.

  She had to swallow at the lump that formed in her throat, embarrassed enough by the emotion to be irritated all over again. “We aren’t in high school,” she spat, terrified he’d read the rustiness in her voice as old longing.

  If he did, he didn’t comment on it. “No, we aren’t, but I thought it’d get your attention.”

  She lifted her chin, wanting to feel lofty and above him. “It didn’t.”

  “But me chasing after the guy did.” He patted the motorcycle parked in the grass. “Hop on now. I need to talk to you about what happened. Privately.”

  “Is this yard not private enough?”

  He tossed the helmet at her. She caught it out of reflex.

  “Nope.” He grinned. “Come on, Jen. You know you want to.”

  She did, God help her. She’d loved riding on the back of Ty’s motorcycle in the middle of the night back in high school. It had been the most thrilling thing she’d ever done, aside from share herself with him. Ten years later and her life was staid. Boring. Just the way you like it. You love your life.

  “Just up to the Carson cabin right quick, then I’ll bring you back.”

  The fact he was so calm confused her. The fact she was tempted upset her. “They’ll wonder where I am. They’re worried enough.”

  “So tell them,” he said, nodding toward the phone in her pocket. “This isn’t cloak-and-dagger.”

  “Then why do we have to go somewhere else?”

  Ty gave her a bland look. “You should really try to be more difficult, Jen. This back-and-forth is so much fun.”

  “I’m not getting on your motorcycle.”

  “All right. We can take your car.”

  She wanted to punch him, but it’d do about as much good as arguing with him. His body was as thick as his skull. “Fine. Just fine.” She pulled her phone out and texted Cam and Vanessa that she was with Ty, and she’d let them know the minute she was back. Then she jerked the helmet onto her head and glared at him as she fastened it. “Let’s get this over with.”

  She caught the boyish grin on his face, hated her body’s shivering, lustful reaction to it. He swung his leg over the bike, waited for her to take her spot.

  Your rightful spot.

  She was making a mistake. She knew she was making a mistake, and yet she clambered onto the motorcycle just like she used to. She wrapped her arms around his waist just like she used to, and he walked the bike a ways down the hill until they were far enough away from the house for the roar of the engine not to reach anyone.

  And oh the motorcycle roared and the wind whipped through her hair. She wanted to press her cheek to the leather at his back. She wanted to cry. It still felt like flying. It still felt wonderful. But she was old enough to understand it was having her arms around Ty, not the machine between her legs.

  It was like traveling back in time, visiting with someone who’d died, knowing you’d have to go back to the living all too soon. She was too desperate for that feeling to let it go, even knowing pain awaited her on the other side.

  He drove too fast, took turns too sharply, and through it all she held on to him, biting her lip to keep from laughing into the wind.

  When he reached the Carson cabin and cut the engine, it took her a moment to pull herself together and release him, then swing herself off the motorcycle. Took her far too many moments to wipe the grin off her face.

  She sighed at the tiny clearing and the ramshackle cabin no one lived in but the Carson family used off and on. So many firsts in that cabin, though it had clearly had some repairs over the years. Uneasily, she remembered that last year Noah and Addie had fought off mobsters from Addie’s past at this very place.

  “Isn’t it awful to be back here?”

  Ty shrugged. “I don’t care to remember Noah being shot, but he’s all right now. Lots of shady crap happened here over the years. Such is life as a Carson. Besides, Addie’s fixed it all up and they come up here. I figure they can take it, so can I.”

  She pulled off her helmet and hung it on the handle of the parked bike. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

  His gaze was on the cabin, his expression...haunted. Was it what had happened to Noah here or was it that ride that felt like going back in time?

  She didn’t want to know.

  “Let’s go inside.”

  “Ty—”

  He walked up to the door, pulling a key out of his pocket and ignoring all her protests.

  She could ignore his demands. She could be petulant and wait outside and refuse to do any number of things.

  But with a sigh, she followed him inside.

  * * *

  STEP ONE HAD been easy enough. Ty was a little surprised. Oh, he figured he still knew Jen well enough to press the right buttons, but it had all been so easy.

  Now came the hard part. He had to get her phone off her. Once he had that, it’d be easy enough to keep her here. Safe and sound and under his supervision. There was the potential that someone would figure out where he’d taken her, but he had to hope they realized what he was doing was for Jen’s safety.

  And if they had to move elsewhere, well, he’d figure that out, too.

  She’d probably consider it “kidnapping.” He preferred to think of it as “safekeeping.” She’d thank him eventually. Well, probably not ever to his face, but philosophically she might realize he did what was right.

  Maybe.

  Regardless, he was right. So, he had to go about getting her phone off her. “Why don’t you have a seat.”

  Eyebrows furrowed, she looked around the room. Addie’s redecorating had made it look family friendly and inviting instead of what it used to be—a place to hide from the law or trouble.

  Now it looked like a cozy cottage instead of an outlaw hideout. Ty couldn’t say he liked the change, but with Noah and Grady all domesticated now, who was he to complain? They’d bring their kids up here and teach them to hunt, or have sleepovers with their cousins or second cousins. Make a nice little Carson-Delaney future on old Carson land. On old Delaney land.

  Ty glanced at Jen, who’d taken a seat on the sky blue couch Addie had gotten to brighten up the living room. But Jen was the real thing that brightened the room. Her long, wispy brown hair and her pixie face, tawny brown eyes with flecks of green. She had a dainty, fairy-like quality to her and he felt like an oaf.
r />   She looked so right there it hurt, like someone had shoved a knife right in his heart. He was halfway surprised to look down and see nothing there except his jacket.

  Shoving his hands in his pockets, he ordered himself to focus. Get her phone away from her, and then keep her safe until the cops caught this lunatic. It’d be a few days, tops, he was almost sure of it.

  If it was more, well, they’d reevaluate then.

  He crossed to the couch, sat next to her. She raised an eyebrow at him, but he needed the proximity to get to her phone. So, he only smiled blandly in response.

  Clearly irritated with him, Jen crossed her arms over her chest. “So, you have something to tell me that just had to be done in private?”

  “Yes. The stranger that was in your store, he was at Rightful Claim last night.”

  Immediate concern softened her features, and he was momentarily distracted by all those things that had made him, of all people, fall for a Delaney in the first place.

  Jen had been the softest, sweetest place he’d ever had the pleasure of landing. Growing up with an abusive father, she’d been like a balm. It hadn’t mattered that she was a Delaney because she was kind. No matter how Grady or Noah had believed in the feud at the time—and wasn’t that a laugh now?—Ty hadn’t cared, because someone had loved him with a gentleness he’d never, ever had in his life.

  Jen blinked, looked away as a soft blush stained her cheeks. Like she could read his thoughts, or had a few memories of her own.

  “Jen—” But whatever ridiculous soft words had bubbled up inside him, desperate to be free, were cut off by the way she looked at him.

  Coolly. Detached, she returned his gaze. “You chased him. That’s what your text said.”

  Business. All business. Good thing, too. Best decision he’d ever made had been to get the hell out of Jen Delaney’s life. No use playing back over what might have been, or even what still lurked between them. “Yeah. I thought he was heading for your store, but I lost him.”