Gunfire On The Ranch

“How old are you?” Theo asked. His glare softened significantly when he looked at Nathan.

“Nine,” her son answered, meaning Theo could narrow down the date he’d been conceived.

Theo clearly wasn’t surprised by her son’s answer. Not after seeing Nathan’s face. In fact, Theo might even be able to remember the exact date of Nathan’s conception. Because it was the same night of the big blowup between her parents and him. A blowup that’d happened because her mom had found Nathan and her in bed together.

All of those feelings came back, too.

Ivy pushed them aside, that mix of pleasure and grief, and she got to her feet. It was obvious there were some things she needed to say to Theo. Obvious, too, that he had some questions for her, and she didn’t want him asking those in front of Nathan. Eventually, her son would have to know the truth, but now wasn’t the time. He wasn’t ready for it. Heck, she wasn’t ready for it.

“I’ll stay with Nathan,” Jodi volunteered. “He’ll be okay.”

Even though Ivy hadn’t said anything to her, Jodi and she were on the same page about what needed to be done. But Ivy didn’t want her explanation to Theo to come at the expense of her son’s safety.

Theo didn’t say anything, either. He just followed Ivy out of the ensuite bathroom and into the bedroom, and he pulled the bathroom door shut behind them. She didn’t go far, just a few feet away. Hopefully close enough so she could still get to Nathan if there was another attack but far enough away from Theo so that they weren’t in each other’s personal space. Even though it did seem a little late for that since they’d once been lovers.

He stood there staring, and she could see he was trying to work out what to say to her. Hopefully, he wasn’t going to yell at her, since she didn’t want Nathan to overhear something like that. At least at the moment Theo wasn’t yelling. In fact, he wasn’t saying anything. Theo put his hands on his hips, shook his head and turned that glare on her again.

“Why?” he finally asked, and he did keep his voice at a whisper. An angry one that dripped with emotion.

Since that simple word could encompass a lot of territory, Ivy went with a simple explanation. “I couldn’t find you to tell you I was pregnant.”

Ivy watched him process that, and she knew it wasn’t something he could dispute. Theo had vanished shortly after the attacks. Jodi had been in the hospital, still recovering from her horrific injuries, and she certainly hadn’t known how to get in touch with her brother.

“I left because you told me to leave,” Theo reminded her.

She couldn’t dispute that, either. Ivy had indeed ordered him out of her house and her life after the argument with her parents. In part, she’d done that for Theo’s own safety. Because she’d been afraid her father was going to beat him up or have him arrested for something. No way would Theo believe that now, though. And even if he did, it would only make him madder than he already was. He wouldn’t have wanted her fighting those kind of battles for him.

“Does Nathan know the truth?” Theo snapped.

Ivy shook her head, and she prayed Theo didn’t rush out and tell him.

“How about your late husband?” Theo again. “Did he know?”

“Yes. His name was Chad Vogel, and Nathan was eleven months old when I married him. But Jameson, Lauren and Gabriel didn’t know I was pregnant or that I had a child. Neither did Jodi. At least they didn’t know until I came back to Blue River two days ago.”

Now Theo cursed. “One of them should have called me. And don’t say they couldn’t find me, because Jameson’s a Texas Ranger. He could have tracked me down if you’d asked him to do that.”

“Yes,” she repeated. “And FYI, Jodi said I should tell you after she finally met Nathan day before yesterday. I just thought it was best if I waited until after the wedding to do that.”

Judging from his still-tight expression, Theo didn’t agree. And maybe he was right. Maybe she should have searched harder for him, especially after her husband passed away.

Theo glared at her a few more seconds before he finally glanced away and cursed some more. “Is Nathan healthy? Is he okay?”

It seemed petty for her to hesitate even a second to give him that info. But she knew that with each new bit, Theo would only want to know more and more. Then he would want Nathan to know who’d really fathered him.

Theo. And not Chad.

Of course, Nathan didn’t have a lot of memories of Chad anyway, since he’d died after losing his battle with cancer when Nathan had been only five.

“I’m sorry,” she said. It didn’t seem nearly enough, but there wasn’t much else she could say or do at this point.

There was a sound outside the window, a car engine, and Theo hurried to look while motioning for her to stay put. Just like that, her heart revved up again. Not that it’d gone back to normal, and that might not happen for a long time.

“It’s just the ambulance,” Theo told her. He stayed at the window with his gun drawn.

She was glad that it’d arrived. Now maybe the medics could save the gunman so they could find out what the heck was going on. And soon. It was probably too much to ask to find the person responsible for this attack and get him behind bars so that Gabriel and Jodi could get on with the wedding, but Ivy prayed that would happen. Her brother and Jodi deserved to have their special day.

“Did you love him?” Theo asked.

The sound of his voice cut through her thoughts, and it took Ivy a moment to realize that he probably wasn’t talking about Nathan. Of course she loved him. But Theo knew that and was asking about Chad.

“Yes. I did.”

In some ways that was a lie, but Ivy wasn’t about to get into that now. Besides, what Theo probably wanted to know was how she could go so quickly from him to another man. Especially when she’d had Theo’s child. But it was because of Nathan that she’d agreed to marry Chad. Once Theo got past the initial kick of anger, she’d maybe tell him more.

More that he wasn’t going to want to hear.

“Does it look as if the gunman is still alive?” Ivy said. It was definitely time for a change of subject, because whatever was going on outside that window was critical to their situation. A situation that didn’t necessarily have to include Theo.

He nodded. “The guy’s moving, clutching his chest.”

Probably because he was bleeding and in pain. She wasn’t certain of the details of his injury, but Ivy had heard Gabriel’s quick phone chat that he’d had with Jameson.

And now she moved on to the part about Theo not having to be in Nathan’s or her life. “For the record, I don’t expect anything from you,” Ivy continued a moment later. “We were practically kids when I got pregnant, and the feelings you once had for me are obviously long gone.”

Theo gave her a look that could have frozen the hottest levels of Hades. “I’m not leaving,” he spat out. He stared at her as if he might repeat it, but then he shook his head. “I just need to stop whoever sent those thugs, and then I can deal with everything else.”

That sounded like some kind of threat. And Ivy wasn’t immune to it. She’d never had to share her son with anyone. Not even Chad, who had been a “father” in name only, had been able to spend much time in the parent roll because of his health problems. She didn’t feel ready to share Nathan with Theo, either.

“Yeah, we were kids,” Theo went on, “but we sure as hell aren’t kids now.” He paused again, those jaw muscles stirring like crazy. “You should have found a way to tell me.”

Ivy huffed. “You can say that now,” she argued. “But we were in a different mind-set back then. Remember?”

“Of course I remember. Your mom caught us in bed. Your dad blew a fuse when she told him, and he ordered me to stay away from you. That should have been the time you backed me up, but you didn’t. You agreed with him and told me to get out of the house.”

Ivy had indeed told Theo to leave, but she darn sure hadn’t agreed with her father. Sherman Beckett could be a hard man sometimes, and he hadn’t approved of Theo and his minor run-ins with the law. Ironically, her dad had thought Theo would get her pregnant and then run out on her. Strange how all of that had worked out. Strange, too, that Theo had become a lawman, the last thing her father or she would have expected him to become.

“Then you and your brothers actually considered me a suspect in your parents’ murders,” Theo added. Judging from his tone, that was still an extremely sore spot for him.

It was for her, too.

Because she hadn’t stuck up for Theo. That had obviously been the straw that had broken the camel’s back. As soon as Theo’s name had been cleared, he’d left Blue River.

Ivy was about to put an end to this conversation, or a temporary end at least, but she heard the footsteps in the hall. Both Theo and she pivoted in that direction, and she felt herself gear up for another fight. If a gunman had actually made it into the house, he wasn’t getting to Nathan.

“It’s me,” Jameson called out.

The relief came, but it didn’t completely wash away the adrenaline punch she’d gotten when she thought they could be near another attack. A moment later, the door opened, and her brother came in.