Sudden Setup

Brooding pale blue eyes examined her and she saw the dark circles cradling them. Whoever this guy was, he had a lot on his mind. There was something else there, too, but she didn’t want to analyze it because it made awareness electrify her nerve endings. It also made her aware that if she’d been asleep for two days she must look like a train wreck and have breath that could wilt a flower.

Blue Eyes dabbed the wet cloth on her forehead above her right temple. She winced.

He muttered a curse and pulled his hand back. “That hurt. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Why was she reassuring him? Reason took over, reminding her that he seemed intent on helping her. She was in a vulnerable state and while she couldn’t exactly trust him, she also had no reason to think he had plans to hurt her.

He gave her an apologetic look.

“Best as I can remember, I was hiking pretty far out on the trail. Most of how I ended up here is fuzzy. Am I allowed to ask what you were doing out there?” Ella flinched again when the cold, wet cloth touched her skin.

“No more questions,” Blue Eyes said. He made a move to stand.

Ella caught his elbow.

“Please don’t leave. My father was killed and that’s the last thing I remember. I have no idea what happened or how I got here. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I’ve just been told that I’ve been out of it for two days. I have a gash on my head that I don’t even know how it got there, and I’m so thirsty I could suck a cactus dry, and despite that, I really need to go to the bathroom,” Ella said, letting all the words gush out at once like a geyser whose time to erupt had come.

“Can you manage on your own?” He motioned toward the door and there was a storm brewing behind those blue eyes at the mention of her father.

“I believe so,” she said.

“Toothbrush and toothpaste are on the sink. Bathroom’s outside.” He turned and walked out.

Chapter Two (#u982c49f5-afbc-5378-bb6c-fda767e3dadb)

Holden needed air. He lifted his face to the sun. The Texas heat beat down on his exposed skin, warming him. Maverick Mike was dead?

For a split second Holden feared that he could be the reason, that the men who were after him had somehow connected him to his father’s friend. But that was impossible.

This was a wake-up call. Helping Ella had been a knee-jerk reaction and Holden could feel himself sliding down a slippery slope with nothing solid to grab hold of. He owed her father for offering him a place to stay when Holden was at a low point, and that was the reason he’d told himself that he stepped in with Ella. Speaking of her father, the news still hadn’t quite absorbed. Holden rubbed his chin through the overgrown scruff. How could Butler be gone?

The door opened and Ella froze as soon as she saw him standing there.

“I’ll give you privacy,” he mumbled. Someone needed to toss him a lifeline because the woman stirred feelings he hadn’t allowed in longer than he could remember—feelings he never wanted to experience again. Then there was the obvious fact that he couldn’t afford those feelings. They’d have him wanting to stick around and protect Ella Butler while they figured out who wanted to kill her. Holden reminded himself that he’d done his part. He’d kept her alive.

“Why did you help me? You could’ve walked away. Left me there. No one would’ve known any different.” She positioned her hands on either side of the doorjamb.

“No, I couldn’t have.” He made a move toward the door to indicate that he was done talking. She didn’t flinch.

“Sure you could. It would’ve been easy. My body would’ve been found eventually and no one would be the wiser that there was someone who could’ve saved my life.” She stared at him for a long moment without saying another word. “Something tells me you know how to cover your tracks, so there must’ve been some reason.”

“You’re welcome for saving your life,” he said, debating whether or not he should tell her everything. She needed to know that her fall had been no accident, but he’d keep the part about his connection to her father to himself. “Now that you’re up and around, I’ll drop you off in town tonight.”

“And then what? You’ll disappear?” Her gaze zeroed in.

She shouldn’t care what happened to him because she needed to be concerned about herself.

“Don’t worry about me,” he said.

“Too late for that.” She issued another pause while staring at him. There was something about her cornflower blue eyes that he couldn’t afford to notice. “I’d like to properly thank you for what you’ve done to save my life. Any chance I can convince you to come back to the main house with me?”

“Sweetheart, I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time. I really don’t need—”

“Obviously, you need a place to stay.” She glanced around as if for emphasis. “We’re always looking for a good pair of hands around the ranch. It’s clear to me that you’d make a good addition and we need more men like you.”

“You ought to be careful who you go offering jobs to,” he stated.

“I trust you.”

“That’s a mistake,” he said plainly.

“No, it isn’t. But even if it was, it wouldn’t be my last.” One of her balled fists was on her hip now. She had a lot of sass for someone in such a vulnerable position. He’d give her that.

This conversation was going nowhere so Holden did what he did best: went silent as he stared her down. She should be more afraid of him than she was acting. She had been earlier when she’d opened her eyes, and as much as he didn’t like it at first, her reaction was for the best. What had he done to make her so comfortable now?

“You want coffee?” he finally asked, shaking his head. She was as stubborn as the stories he’d heard about her father.

“That would be amazing, actually,” she said with a small smile.

“Then get out of my way.”

She twisted her mouth in a frown at his sharp tone but stepped aside. He walked straight past her without making eye contact even though she stood there expectantly for minutes afterward. And then she slammed the door shut. Not only was Ella stubborn but she had a temper. The nuances of her personality were none of his business. Period.

Holden refocused on the facts. Ella Butler had been missing for two days. His position at the cabin had been compromised from the moment he’d witnessed the attack, and he could see now that it was a miracle no one had shown up. The situation was declining. Fast.

There’d be a search underway by now. The news that “Maverick” Mike Butler was killed would be enough to create a full-scale media circus in Cattle Barge. Add a missing heiress to the equation and Holden couldn’t begin to wrap his mind around how out of control the coverage would be. He’d been so far off the grid that he’d missed all of it.

The news that her father had been murdered before an attempt had been made on her life sat in Holden’s gut like he’d eaten a pack of nails. The media attention surrounding her disappearance—and that would be big news—must be the reason the person who’d chucked that rock at her hadn’t returned. Holden had been watching out for the culprit.

She needed to know that the blow to her head wasn’t an accident. He wasn’t sure how she’d react, especially given the fact that she’d just lost her father. Normally, he’d suspect someone close to her, a family member. Money or greed would be motive for murder, and especially when considering the amount Maverick Mike had amassed. His fortune was legendary but so were his antics. He had a lot of enemies. Holden wanted to ask about the circumstances surrounding her father’s death but decided against it for the time being. He shouldn’t show too much interest in the Butler family. Once he settled into a new location far away from Cattle Barge, he could find out what had happened. Mike Butler’s death would be all over the news, so it would be easy to find.

Holden glanced at his watch. Ella had been gone a full ten minutes. Should he check on her?

A thousand thoughts rolled through his head. Adjusting while in action had always been Holden’s strong suit. He told himself this time would be no different. The door opened at about the time he’d made up his mind to mount his own search. She looked at him boldly.

“Coffee’s getting cold,” he snapped. She needed to be afraid. He set her cup on the table that he’d made by hand after he arrived last month. The cabin was the first place he’d bothered to put together anything that resembled furniture. His thinking had always been “get too attached to any one place and leaving would be that much more difficult.”

His plans had really gone south in Texas—but then he was beginning to see why the place was so appealing with its wide-open skies and thousands of stars at night.

Ella moved to the table and picked up the tin mug. She cradled it in her hands like it was made of pure gold when she sipped. A little sound of pleasure drew from her lips. “This is really good. How did you do this?”

“You haven’t had any for too long. Muddy water would taste good to you right now.” Holden kept the part that he liked giving her that small moment of happiness to himself.

“I promise the coffee’s not this good at the main house.” She paused and then her eyes brightened. “I don’t know what I’ve been thinking. My brothers and sister are probably frantic with worry right now. There’s no chance you have a working cell phone, is there?”

“No.” He was completely off the grid. There was no way to track him using technology.

“I need to reach them and let them know that I’m okay. I know what I said earlier about our money being tied up, but if you’re in some kind of trouble I can help.” The determined set to her jaw said she meant it.