Chapter Fourteen
Eventually Alice would have to get a good night’s sleep if she didn’t want to fall asleep over the lunch table, she just didn’t think that was going to happen any time soon.
All she’d been able to think about since her stumble at the line shack yesterday was that soul-searing kiss.
From Clint. She couldn’t decide what had her more unsettled—the fact that she’d actually kissed him back, or that Charlie had never crossed her mind.
Not even after she’d righted herself and her lips continued to tingle and her brain began to unrattle, Charlie was nowhere in her thoughts.
Heck, he hadn’t made an appearance until she walked past her old master bedroom door and almost collapsed from the reminder that she was a married woman—sort of.
Kade and Josh made their way into the kitchen from upstairs. “You all packed?” she asked.
“Uh,” Kade looked to Josh then back to his mother, “not exactly.”
“Then you still have time?”
“Definitely.” Josh nodded with a smile at the same time Kade flashed his buddy a stern, almost scolding look.
Focusing on his mother, Kade smiled more widely. “I have a little surprise for you too.”
“Okay…” She could use a good surprise right about now. Especially if it could keep her distracted from her own thoughts.
“We’ve got a whole week off.” Her son beamed.
“A week off?”
“For good behavior.” Kade nodded. His buddy rolled his eyes.
“Since when does the military give extra time off?”
Her son struggled to offer a casual shrug. Josh had developed a sudden interest in a non-existent piece of lint on his jeans.
“All right.” She crossed her arms. “Spit it out. What’s going on?”
“Well,” Kade ran a hand across the back of his neck, “I may have explained to my CO that there’s a serious threat at the ranch, and that my widowed mother is home alone all day.”
“And that worked?” She let her arms fall to her sides.
His arm still hanging from behind his neck, Kade chuckled. “Yeah, surprised the hell out of me too.”
Just then the back door opened and in walked Clint—the reason she’d barely gotten any sleep at all last night.
“Morning.” He held his hat in his hands. “I, uh, thought I’d check in before heading back out to work. Do, uh, you need anything?”
Her tongue seemed stuck to the roof of her mouth so she settled for a shake of her head. At that moment, Clint’s phone dinged with a text. He glanced down, frowned, and slid it back into his pocket.
“Something wrong?” she asked.
Clint shook his head. “Nothing serious.”
“Is it about, you know, the fire?”
“No.” Clint seemed to relax at her question.
Had he been having as rough a time of it as she was? Somehow she was going to have to find the strength to talk to this man without sounding like a babbling idiot. But now with an audience wasn’t going to be the time.
“I’d better get back to work.” He cast a glance in the boys’ direction. “If you two are looking for something to keep you out of trouble, I never turn down a helping hand.”
The two looked at each other a moment, seemed to have some silent communication, almost like an old married couple—though Alice suspected in many ways military teams were indeed like old married couples when it came to having each other’s backs—and then stood straight. “We’re all yours,” Kade offered.
Clint placed his hat on his head, and dipped his chin at her. “You let me know if the sheriff has anything else to say.”
She figured if communication was going to happen, now would be a good time to put everyone at ease. Sucking in a deep breath, she flashed the brightest smile she could muster. “I will.”
Was it wrong of her to wish the sheriff would call sooner than later so she’d have a chance to hear that deep timbre again?
The back door snapped shut as the three men strode away from the house. Clint’s mind had been reeling from yesterday’s kiss with Alice. If he’d gotten any sleep last night, he hadn’t noticed. But at the moment, whatever he was feeling needed to be pushed aside.
“So what’s really going on?” Kade matched Clint’s quick stride.
Clint glanced over his shoulder, making sure they were out of earshot of the house. “Text was from Carson. His phone’s going crazy with alerts. Security cameras picked up a truck parked by the east pasture line shack and two guys making more noise than a high school brass band.”
“And you didn’t tell Mom because…?” Kade’s voice held more curiosity than accusation.
“Your brother didn’t want her anywhere near this. Said to grab you two if you were available. We all know if she heard, she’d be storming off beside us.”
“Mom is a bit of a pistol,” Kade said. “She’s also tough and smart.”
Didn’t he know that? “So you want her to come?”
“I didn’t say that.” Kade sighed. “But I want it on record, she’s not a delicate flower that will shrivel with the first cold wind.”
On that, Clint could easily agree, but he also knew he didn’t want Alice anywhere near that shack, especially if Ray and his buddies were up to no good.
“For what it’s worth, I’m with Carson. I like your mom too much to put her at risk.” Josh shrugged. “Just lead the way.”
Clint veered right, heading toward the bunkhouse instead of the barn. “We should grab some firepower. Better to have it and not need it…”
“Than need it and not have it,” Kade finished, following Clint up the bunkhouse steps.
At the door, Clint threw the bolt, stepped into the dim cool, and went straight to the locker where the long guns lived.
Habit made the rest easy: check clear, magazines, chamber, sling.
He passed one across to Kade, another to Josh, kept the third.
“I worked with Ray a short while before he took off. I wouldn’t have thought him dangerous back then, but now, knowing all I do…
” He didn’t have to say anything else. Both men understood and nodded their agreement.
The men handled the weaponry like old friends.
No talk. No drama. Just done. They definitely understood.
Rifles in hand, they exited the bunk house and climbed into the waiting truck. The engine roared to life and they drove faster than they probably should have toward where Carson had said all the activity was.
“So,” Kade broke the silence as they bumped along a rutted trail, “do we have a plan?”
“Hard to plan when you don’t know what you’re up against.” Clint focused on the land ahead. “We’ll park behind that rise. Approach on foot from there.”
Ten minutes later, they crested the small hill overlooking the east pasture. Sure enough, a beat-up old truck was parked, engines running, a few feet from the shack.
“I count two,” Josh murmured, his military training evident in his posture. “One inside, one out back.”
Clint nodded. “We’ll circle around. Kade, you take the south approach. Josh, east. I’ll come in from the north.” The three men separated, moving with practiced stealth toward the small structure. Closer now, Clint could hear voices—agitated, impatient.
“Ray sure as hell better show up soon,” this came from a face he didn’t recognize.
“He knows what he’s doing,” came the reply from inside, the voice familiar, but Clint couldn’t place it. “Besides, we’ll have plenty of time.”
Clint caught Kade’s eye across the clearing, giving him a slight nod. They moved in closer, weapons ready.
A loud crash came from inside the shack, followed by colorful cursing. “Damn it, would you be careful? You’re making enough noise to wake the dead!”
“I thought that was the idea.”
“No, you idiot. We’re just supposed to keep the cameras busy, then as soon as Ray gets here, we’re gone.”
“And we’ll be richer than a small country.”
So they were right. Ray was on his way back, but why did he need these yahoos to keep the cameras busy? That part made no sense.
Clint signaled to the others, holding up three fingers. Two. One.
No longer trying to hide their approach, while Kade carefully opened a rear window to the single-room shack, rifle raised and ready, Josh covering him, Clint stomped up the two steps.
“About time you got here. If we didn’t like you, we’d be halfway to Mexico by now.” A bag in each hand, the man straightened and turned, his eyes popping wide, staring at the long end of a rifle. “Whoa, we’ll share.”
Share? Clint placed the voice now. He’d only met the guy a few times, a friend of Ray’s. “Hands where I can see them!”
The other guy spun, only to find Kade pointing a rifle at him from the other side of the window. “Go ahead. Make my day.”
“Ooh,” Josh chuckled, “I’ve always wanted to say that.”
The guy Clint didn’t recognize took a brazen step forward.
Clint slid his finger onto the trigger shaking his head, but Josh was the one, still smiling, who said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
The two men glanced at each other and the hairs on the back of his neck stood upright. “Who are you waiting for? Who did you think we were?”
Again, the two men exchanged glances, but neither spoke.
“You know,” Kade sighed, “my finger is getting tired. It would be really easy to slip and fire off a bullet. How do you feel about your family jewels?”
“You can’t do that. We’re not armed.”
His weapon still trained on the two bungling burglars, Josh turned to Kade. “Are we police?”
Kade shook his head.
“Texas is a castle law state, right? We can shoot anyone trespassing?”
Both Kade and Clint nodded.
Josh, on the other hand, smiled wider. “Then I guess he can. Shoot you, that is.” Not waiting for instruction, Josh grabbed a coil of rope hanging from a screw on the wall and quickly got to hog-tying the one guy.
Kade blinked. “Where’d you learn to do that?”
“I’ll tell you later.” Josh chuckled under his breath. “Don’t you have more important things to deal with?”
“Right.” Kade focused on the other guy still standing there with his hands in the air. “Who were you expecting?”
After a quick glance at his buddy tied up like a calf at a rodeo, he sighed. “Ray’s supposed to be here.”
Working as quickly as he had with the first intruder, Josh twisted the guy’s arms behind his back and made fast work of tying them.
“When?” Clint uttered.
The guy shrugged. “He said he had some business to attend to and would meet us here.”
Shoving the man over by his buddy, in no time, Josh had him tied up nice and neat.
Business. Here. Make noise. The dots connected for Clint and the others at the same time, as all three shouted, “The house!”
“Go.” Josh pointed to the door. “These characters aren’t going anywhere.”
Running full speed ahead like a fox chased by a pack of hounds, Clint took off for the truck. All he could think was he’d left Alice alone. What had he been thinking?