Diana Palmer Christmas Collection: The Rancher / Christmas Cowboy / A Man of Means / True Blue / Carrera's Bride / Will of Steel / Winter Roses

He chuckled at her fury. “Sorry. You can’t. I had probable cause.”

“What probable cause?”

He glanced at her in the rearview mirror with a rakish grin. “You had a hamburger for lunch, didn’t you, ma’am?”

She was openly gasping by now. The man was a lunatic. He must be a friend of the brothers, that was the only possible explanation. She gave up arguing, because she couldn’t win. But she was going to do some serious damage to four ugly men when she got back to Jacobsville.

The ranger pulled up in front of the Harts’ ranch house and all four of them came tumbling out of the living room and down to the driveway. Every one of them was smiling except Corrigan.

“Thanks, Colton,” Leo said, shaking the ranger’s hand. “I don’t know what we’d have done without you.”

The man called Colton got out and opened the back seat to extricate a fuming, muttering Dorie. She glared at the brothers with eyes that promised retribution as her handcuffs were removed and her suitcase and purse handed to her.

“We found the bull,” Cag told the ranger. “He’d strayed just out behind the barn. Sorry to have put you to this trouble. We’ll make our own apologies to Miss Wayne, here.”

Colton stared at the fuming ex-prisoner with pursed lips. “Good luck,” he told them.

Dorie didn’t know where to start. She looked up at Colton and wondered how many years she could get for kicking a Texas Ranger’s shin.

Reading that intent in her eyes, he chuckled and climbed back into his car. “Tell Simon I said hello,” he called to them. “We miss seeing him around the state capital now that he’s given up public office.”

“I’ll tell him,” Cag promised.

That barely registered as he drove away with a wave of his hand, leaving Dorie alone with the men.

“Nice to see you again, Miss Wayne,” Cag said, tipping his hat. “Excuse me. Cows to feed.”

“Fences to mend,” Leo added, grinning as he followed Cag’s example.

“Right. Me, too.” Rey tipped his own hat and lit out after his brothers.

Which left Corrigan to face the music, and it was all furious discord and bass.

She folded her arms over her breasts and glared at him.

“It was their idea,” he said pointedly.

“Arrested for rustling. Me! He…that man…that Texas Ranger tried to infer that I had a bull hidden in my motel room, for God’s sake! He handcuffed me!” She held up her wrists to show them to him.

“He probably felt safer that way,” he remarked, observing her high color and furious face.

“I want to go home! Right now!”

He could see that it would be useless to try to talk to her. He only made one small effort. “Tira’s sorry,” he said quietly. “She wanted to tell you that she’s going to the Coltrains’ party with Charles Percy. I was going to drive, that’s all. I’d planned to take you with me.”

“I heard all about your ‘plan.’”

The pain in her eyes was hard to bear. He averted his gaze. “You’d said repeatedly that you wanted no part of me,” he said curtly. “I wasn’t about to let people think I was dying of love for you.”

“Wouldn’t that be one for the record books?” she said furiously.

His gaze met hers evenly. “I’ll get Joey to drive you home.”

He turned and walked away, favoring his leg a little. She watched him with tears in her eyes. It was just too much for one weekend.

Joey drove her home and she stayed away from the ranch. Corrigan was back to doing the books himself, because she wouldn’t. Her pride was raw, and so was his. It looked like a complete stalemate.

“We’ve got to do something,” Cag said on Christmas Eve, as Corrigan sat in the study all by himself in the dark. “It’s killing him. He won’t even talk about going to the Coltrains’ party.”

“I’m not missing it,” Leo said. “They’ve got five sets of Lionel electric trains up and running on one of the most impressive layouts in Texas.”

“Your brother is more important than trains,” Rey said grimly. “What are we going to do?”

Cag’s dark eyes began to twinkle. “I think we should bring him a Christmas present.”

“What sort of present?” Rey asked.

“A biscuit maker,” Cag said.

Leo chuckled. “I’ll get a bow.”

“I’ll get out the truck,” Rey said, shooting out the front door.

“Shhh!” Cag called to them. “It wouldn’t do to let him know what we’re up to. We’ve already made one monumental mistake.”

They nodded and moved more stealthily.

Corrigan was nursing a glass of whiskey. He heard the truck leave and come back about an hour later, but he wasn’t really interested in what his brothers were doing. They’d probably gone to the Christmas party over at Coltrain’s ranch.

He was still sitting in the dark when he heard curious muffled sounds and a door closing.

He got up and went out into the hall. His brothers looked flushed and flustered and a little mussed. They looked at him, wide-eyed. Leo was breathing hard, leaning against the living-room door.

“What are you three up to now?” he demanded.

“We put your Christmas present in there,” Leo said, indicating the living room. “We’re going to let you open it early.”

“It’s something nice,” Cag told him.

“And very useful,” Leo agreed.

Rey heard muffled noises getting louder. “Better let him get in there. I don’t want to have to run it down again.”

“Run it down?” Corrigan cocked his head. “What the hell have you got in there? Not another rattler…!”

“Oh, it’s not that dangerous,” Cag assured him. He frowned. “Well, not quite that dangerous.” He moved forward, extricated Leo from the door and opened it, pushing Corrigan inside. “Merry Christmas,” he added, and locked the door.

Corrigan noticed two things at once—that the door was locked, and that a gunnysack tied with a ribbon was sitting in a chair struggling like crazy.