Colton Cowboy Hideout. Carla Cassidy

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СКАЧАТЬ they headed back to the truck Tanner remained vigilant, looking both behind them and around the trees surrounding them even though his shovel would be of little use against another flying bullet.

      They didn’t speak and Josie heard nothing to indicate they were being tracked, but then she hadn’t heard anything before the man had leaped out from behind the oak tree.

      The back of her throat threatened to close off and tremors filled her as a chill gripped her very soul. Jeez, she’d been shot. The creepy-crawly feeling she’d had for the last couple of weeks of somebody following her hadn’t just been her imagination. There had been somebody following her...watching her.

      Who was the man? Where had he come from? Apparently he’d followed her all the way from Granite Gulch and she hadn’t even known it.

      She stumbled across the ground, inwardly screaming. Once again her father was responsible for chaos and danger...a danger she’d brought here to Tanner.

      What if he’d been shot? What if he’d been killed? His daughters would have probably wound up in foster care, and the foster-care system had been responsible for Josie needing to go into the witness protection program for so many years.

      Who was the man? The question played over and over again in her mind. Was he one of her father’s old buddies? How had he known she would lead him to the watch? If Tanner hadn’t attacked first, would the man have shot them both if she hadn’t produced the watch? Oh, God, what a mess.

      By the time they reached the truck, her frantic heartbeat had begun to slow. Tanner helped her into the passenger seat and then he got behind the wheel and started the engine with a roar.

      “Are you losing a lot of blood? Are you keeping pressure on the wound? Do you feel like you’re going to pass out?” The questions fired out of him as the truck bumped across the land at what felt like a breakneck speed.

      “No, I’m not going to pass out.” She pulled the T-shirt away from her arm. Blood. Bright red blood, but not as much as she’d expected. “I think the bullet just grazed me.” She returned pressure on the wound.

      “Hopefully Troy is still at the house. We need to report this.”

      “No!” She straightened up in the seat and shot him a frantic glance. “Please, don’t do that.” He cast her a quick frown and she continued, “He can’t do anything about this. I’ll explain everything to you when we get back to the house. Just please don’t get the sheriff involved in this.”

      He made no reply.

      The drive back to the house seemed to take forever. Tears pressed hot behind her eyes. The tears weren’t for her. She never cried for herself.

      The emotion was the result of the close call they’d just had and because Tanner could have been killed because of her. He was just an innocent bystander thrust into the disaster of her life. He had nothing to do with her, her father, the watch or the danger that had come out of nowhere.

      When they reached the house Tanner parked next to the barn where they’d originally started from, and they both got out of the vehicle.

      “Let’s get you into my suite, where I can take a look at your arm and see if you need real medical care,” he said.

      Thankfully they managed to make it to his suite without encountering anyone else. Once there he unlocked the door and gestured her inside.

      Brianna stepped out of the nursery, took one look at the bloody T-shirt Josie held against her upper arm and turned pale. “Oh, my God, what’s happened? How did she get hurt? Did you hurt her?”

      “No, I didn’t hurt her,” Tanner replied with exasperation in his voice. “Brianna, take the girls to the dining room for lunch,” he added curtly.

      Lunch? Was it just now noon? It felt as if an entire lifetime had passed since she’d pulled up to the front gates to meet Eldridge and his family.

      Tanner led her through the master bedroom and into an adjoining bathroom, where he motioned her to have a seat on the commode. He disappeared for a moment and then returned wearing a navy blue short-sleeved pullover shirt.

      She sank down, her body once again trembling uncontrollably. Tanner gently pulled the T-shirt from her grasp and released a sigh of obvious relief. “It’s already stopped bleeding and I don’t think there’s a bullet in your arm.” He tossed the shirt to the floor and then bent down beneath the sink and retrieved a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and some cotton balls.

      “This might hurt a bit,” he said and then began to clean the wound.

      She closed her eyes and winced as he carefully cleaned the area. Instead of focusing on the pain, she concentrated on the outdoorsy, wonderful scent of him and the tenderness of his touch.

      “Thank God it’s not worse,” he said softly, his breath warm on the side of her face. “You were right—it’s just a graze.”

      She opened her eyes to look at him. “You could have been killed and it would have been all my fault.”

      “I could have gotten you killed with my kung-fu-fighting imitation,” he replied drily. He stepped back from her and grabbed a large bandage and some antibiotic cream.

      “You saved my life,” she replied. Tears once again blurred her vision as she thought of the moment the man had jumped out with his gun pointed at them.

      Tanner’s sensual lips thinned and he gently rubbed the antibiotic cream on her and then covered the bullet graze with the bandage. Once finished he stepped back from her and held her gaze. “And now you’re going to tell me exactly why an armed man would follow you here and want a watch that has only sentimental value to your dying father. Is your father really dying or was that just a lie?”

      She would have liked to take offense at his sharp, skeptical tone, but she knew it was more than warranted after what had just happened. “My father really is dying and he told all of us kids that he wanted the watch for sentimental reasons, but we suspect the watch is more than just a simple keepsake.”

      The musical laughter of a toddler drifted from the nursery, sending a new wave of horror through Josie. She gazed up at him and once again her vision blurred slightly by impending tears. “For the past couple of weeks I’ve had the feeling that somebody was following me, but I chalked it up to my overactive imagination. I didn’t know I was bringing danger here. I can’t believe I might have gotten you killed. I could have been responsible for your daughters becoming orphans.”

      “But that didn’t happen. Come on. Let’s get out of here and go into the living room, where we can talk more comfortably.” He held out a hand and after a moment of hesitation she grabbed it and allowed him to pull her up from the commode.

      They returned to the living room, where he gestured for her to sit on the sofa and he sat in a nearby chair. Brianna appeared pushing a two-seat stroller with the twins jabbering happily.

      Tanner didn’t speak until Brianna and the girls had left the suite for lunch. “Do you need something cold to drink? Or maybe a cup of hot tea?” he asked.

      She shook her head. “No, I’m fine.” She touched the bandage over the throbbing gunshot graze. “Thank you for cleaning me up.”

      He nodded and held her gaze СКАЧАТЬ