Wyoming Cowboy Protection. Nicole Helm

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СКАЧАТЬ He’d need Grady and Ty, or Vanessa and Ty if Grady couldn’t get away from the bar. Maybe even Clint could come over after school, assuming he’d gone today. This was an all-hands-on-deck situation.

      But as he approached the cabin, he frowned at a set of footprints in the faint dusting of snow that had fallen this morning. The footprints didn’t go from where visitors usually parked to the door, but instead followed the fence line before clearly hopping the fence, then went up to the front window.

      A hot bolt of rage went through Noah. Someone had been at that window watching Addie. He jumped from the horse and rushed into the house. Only when he flung open the door and stormed inside did he realize how stupid he looked.

      Addie jumped a foot at her seat on the couch, where she was folding clothes. “What’s wrong? What happened?” she asked, clutching one of his shirts to her chest. It was an odd thing to see, her delicate hands holding the fabric of something he wore on his body.

      He shook that thought away and focused on thinking clearly. On being calm. He didn’t want to scare her. “Somebody broke the fence and the cows got out.”

      Addie stared at him, blue eyes wide, the color draining from her dainty face as it had the day of the poisoning. He’d assured her that had nothing to do with her, and he believed it. He believed this had nothing to do with her, too, but those footsteps and her reaction to anything wrong or sudden...

      He wondered about that. She never spoke of Seth’s father or what she might be fleeing, and her actions always seemed to back up Laurel’s theory about being on the run from an abusive husband. Especially as she now glanced worriedly at Seth’s baby monitor, as if she could see him napping in his room through it.

      Noah shook his head. He was being paranoid. Letting her fear outweigh his rational mind. He might have a bit of a soft spot for Addie and her boy, which he’d admit to no one ever, but he couldn’t let her fears become his own.

      She was his employee. If he sometimes caught himself watching her work in his kitchen... A housekeeper was all he needed. Less complicated than some of the other things his mind drifted to when he wasn’t careful.

      Luckily, Noah was exceedingly careful.

      “Going to call in some backup to help me round them up.”

      “Shouldn’t you call Laurel?” She paused when he scowled, but then continued. “Or anyone at the sheriff’s department?”

      She had a point, but he didn’t want to draw attention to repeated issues at his ranch. Didn’t want to draw the town’s attention to Addie and that something might be going on, if it did in fact connect to her.

      Maybe the smarter thing to do would be keep it all under wraps and then be more diligent, more watchful, and find whoever was pulling these little pranks himself. Mete out some Carson justice.

      Yeah, he liked that idea a lot better.

      “I’ll handle it. Don’t worry.”

      “Does this have to do with the poisoning? Do you think—”

      Noah sent her a silencing look, trying not to feel guilty when she shrank back into the couch. “I’ll handle it. Don’t worry,” he repeated.

      She muttered something that sounded surprisingly sarcastic though he didn’t catch the words, but she went back to folding the laundry and Noah crossed to the phone.

      He called Ty first, then let Ty handle rounding up whatever Carsons could be of help. He didn’t tell Ty about the footsteps, but a bit later when Ty, Grady and Clint showed up and Noah left the cabin with them, he held Grady back while Ty and Clint went to saddle their horses.

      “What’s up?” Grady asked. “You think this is connected to the poison?”

      “I think I can’t rule it out. I don’t have a clue who’s doing it, but part of me thinks it’s some dumb kid trying to poke at a Carson to see what he’ll do.”

      Grady laughed. “He’d have to be pretty dumb.”

      “Yeah. I don’t want Addie to know, but...” He sighed. He needed someone besides him to know. Someone besides him on the watch, and Grady ran the one bar in town. He saw and heard things few other people in Bent did. “There were footprints at the window, as if someone had been watching her.”

      Grady’s jaw tightened. “You think it’s the ex?”

      “I don’t know what it is, but we need to keep an eye out.”

      Grady nodded. “I’ll tell Laurel.”

      “No. She’ll tell Addie. She’s just calmed down from the poisoning—now this. I don’t want to rile her more.”

      “Laurel will only do what’s best. You know that.”

      Noah puffed out a breath. “Addie’s settled from that skittish thing she was before. Hate to see her go back.”

      “She’s not a horse, Noah.” Grady grinned. “But maybe you know that all too well.”

      Noah scowled. “I want to know who poisoned my horses. I want to know who ran off my cattle, and I damn well want to know who’s peeping in my window.”

      Grady nodded. “We’ll get to the bottom of it. No one touches what’s ours. Cow, mine or woman.” Grady grinned at the old family joke.

      Noah didn’t. “No woman issues here,” he grumbled. But Grady was right in one respect. No one messed with the Carsons of Bent, Wyoming, and walked away happy or satisfied about it. For over a century, the Carsons had been pitted on the wrong side of the law. The outlaws of Bent. The rich, law-abiding Delaneys had made sure that legend perpetuated, no matter what good came out of the Carson clan.

      It was a good thing bad reputations could serve a purpose now and again. He’d do anything to protect what was his.

      Addie wasn’t his, though. No matter how he sometimes imagined she was.

      He shook those thoughts away. “Will you stay here and watch out?”

      “You could,” Grady suggested.

      “Addie’d think that’s weird. I don’t want her suspicious.”

      “That’s an awful lot of concern for a Delaney, cousin,” Grady said with one of his broad grins that were meant to irritate. Grady had perfected that kind of smile.

      Noah knew arguing with Grady about the cause of his concern would only egg Grady on, so Noah grunted and headed for the stables.

      Addie Foster was not his to protect personally. Grady’d do just as good a job, and Noah had cows to find and bring back home.

      When that weird edge of guilt plagued him the rest of the night, as if his mission was to protect Addie and asking for help was some kind of failure, Noah had the uncomfortable feeling of not knowing what the hell to do about it.

      When Noah didn’t know how to fix a problem, he did the next best thing. He ignored it.

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