Gunfire On The Ranch

“Who hired you?” Gabriel demanded, sounding very much like the lawman that he was.

The guy shook his head, and he opened his mouth as if to answer. But he didn’t. His eyelids drifted down, and his head flopped back, prompting Gabriel to check for a pulse.

“He’s still alive,” Gabriel said, glancing at Theo. “Go back in and check on Ivy and the others. Ivy still has my phone so tell her to disarm the security system. Also let Jameson know what’s going on.”

Theo didn’t like leaving Gabriel out there with just the hand, but he soon saw two other men making their way toward them. Not gunmen. These were dressed like ranch hands.

“I heard Gabriel,” Ivy volunteered. Which meant she was still too close to the blasted window. “I turned off the alarm.”

Good, because the sooner Theo got in the house, the sooner he could chew her out for taking a risk like standing too close to the window. But he didn’t get a chance to even start the chewing out. By the time he was through the door and into the foyer, Ivy was already headed up the stairs. Theo shut the door and followed her.

She stopped at the top of the stairs, looked at him, and he saw that her bottom lip was trembling. Actually, she was trembling all over.

“There really could be others?” she asked. Her voice was as shaky as the rest of her.

“Maybe.” And he hated that he even had to say that to her because it certainly didn’t help with her frayed nerves. “We just don’t know who or what we’re dealing with right now.”

She nodded. But didn’t budge. “I need a second to calm down. I don’t want Nathan to see me like this.”

Theo understood that. As a single mom, she probably wanted to be strong for her kid. But she took more than a second, and the trembling seemed to be getting worse. He figured it was a mistake, but since Theo didn’t know what the heck else to do, he put his arm around her.

Ivy automatically stiffened. Maybe because the last time she’d been in his arms, they’d still been lovers. But there was no trace of that attraction now, and Theo heard her try to choke back a sob.

She pulled away from him, hiking up her chin. Or rather, trying. She wasn’t doing a very good job of it until one of the doors opened and Jameson stuck out his head.

“Are you okay?” Jameson asked, his attention going straight to his sister.

She gave another nod. “Gabriel’s with one of the gunmen, the one who’s still alive. The other guy’s dead. Theo had to shoot him.”

Jameson’s attention went to Theo then, and he stepped back when Jodi came out of the room and into the hall. She didn’t hurry to Theo. She didn’t curse him, either. Considering that he hadn’t contacted her in a while, he deserved the cursing.

Ivy didn’t linger in the hall, though. She pushed past all of them and hurried into the room, no doubt to see her son.

“You came because of these gunmen?” Jodi asked him.

“Yeah,” Theo verified. “I tried to stop this.”

Jodi made a sound of understanding, and this time she went to him. Just as he’d done to Ivy, Jodi hugged him. For a couple of seconds, anyway. But then she eased back and punched him in the arm.

Hard.

“That’s for not calling me.” She punched him again. “That’s for letting me think you might be dead or dying somewhere.”

The emotion surprised him. So did the tears that sprang to his sister’s eyes. Jodi wasn’t the crying sort. Or at least she hadn’t been the last time he’d seen her. But she hadn’t been engaged to Gabriel Beckett then. Obviously, his sister had taken her life in a new direction.

“I love you,” Jodi added. “And you’re bleeding.” She used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe his cheek.

Theo hadn’t forgotten about the glass cutting him, but he also hadn’t figured it was serious since he wasn’t hurting.

“Who’s with Gabriel?” Jodi asked.

“Three ranch hands.”

Jodi glanced back at Jameson, and that seemed to be the only cue the Ranger needed to get moving. Maybe Jodi wanted her soon-to-be husband to have as much backup as possible.

“Wait here with them,” Jameson said to Theo as he headed down the stairs. “And don’t let them go outside until I say so.”

Theo doubted Ivy would want to venture out of the house as long as that gunman was out there, but since his sister was already nibbling on her bottom lip and looking around, she might try to disobey Jameson’s orders. Just in case that’s what she had on her mind, Theo took Jodi by the arm.

“Is there a bathroom in here so you can get me a cloth for this cut on my cheek?” he asked. Not that he particularly wanted to do that, but it would give Jodi something to do.

“Yes, this way.”

Theo followed her into the bedroom and then to the attached bathroom. It wasn’t that big, but it still took Theo a moment to spot Ivy because she was in the corner next to a claw-foot tub. She had a boy clutched in her arms.

Definitely not a baby.

This kid was older, school-age, and he was looking up at Ivy as if to comfort her rather than vice versa.

Jodi froze, practically in midstep. Ivy froze, too, but the boy turned and faced Theo. And Theo felt as if he’d just been punched in the gut. Because he knew that face. Or rather he knew the features, because he saw them every time he looked in the mirror.

Hell.

Ivy must have seen his reaction then, because she shook her head. Not a denial, exactly, since there was no way she could deny what Theo had just realized.

He was looking at his own son.

Chapter Four (#u49a61b35-618a-5e62-934e-9f9af9841507)

Ivy could have sworn her heart stopped beating for a few seconds. Theo knew. God, he knew.

From the moment she’d seen Theo by the side of the house, Ivy had feared this might come. In fact, at first that’s why she had thought Theo was there, that he’d found out about Nathan. It would have been safer if that’s why he’d been there. But it wasn’t going to be easy to deal with the storm that was brewing behind Theo’s narrowed eyes.

“Who is that?” Nathan asked, his attention suddenly fixed on Theo. “He’s not one of the bad men, is he?”

On the surface those were easy questions, but neither Ivy, Jodi nor Theo jumped to provide him with answers. Ivy wasn’t even sure she could speak yet, and she doubted Theo could, either, because his jaw was clenched so tight.

“Uh, this is my brother, Theo.” Jodi finally spoke up. “And no, he’s not a bad guy. He’s sort of a cop like your uncle Gabriel and uncle Jameson.”

Because Ivy still had her arms wrapped around Nathan, she felt his muscles relax a little. It would probably be a while before he completely relaxed. Even when he did, this had changed everything for him. Her little boy had heard those gunshots, had felt the terror that went along with him.

There’d be nightmares.

Ones similar to hers, ones she’d been having for a decade. And Ivy silently cursed the gunmen for that. Silently thanked Theo, too, for warning them, or those two thugs might have made it all the way into the house. Then her son might have to deal with more than fear, tight muscles and nightmares. They could all be dead.

A thought that sickened her to the core.

At the moment, though, Theo probably wouldn’t want her thanks. For anything. In fact, his shock had morphed into a glare that he was now aiming at her.