Rancher's Refuge

Austin frowned. “You’re planning to stay in Whisper Falls?”

“Maybe. It seems to be a nice, quiet town.”

“You have family here?”

She pressed her lips, looked away, moody. “No. No family.”

Odd, he thought, to relocate with no family, no job, no personal belongings. “I can ask around.”

“Thank you.”

He held out a cup and when she reached to take it, he didn’t let go. Her gaze fluttered up, startled, and he saw panic rising.

“What are you afraid of, Annalisa? No one here will hurt you.” He knew as sure as he knew her eyes were the purest blue he’d ever seen, someone had hurt her. “Who did this? Who hurts you? Your husband? Is that it? Are you running from your husband?”

The last part stuck in his craw, a wad thick enough to choke him.

She stared at him across the cup that joined their hands. A tiny muscle twitched beneath her cheekbone. Finally, she licked her lips and whispered, “Boyfriend.”

Austin released the cup along with the breath he hadn’t known he was holding. He vacillated between relief that she wasn’t tangled up with an abusive husband and fury at her jerk of a boyfriend.

“He broke your arm and dumped you out at the waterfall?”

“I ran. He pushed me out of the car and tried to...” She bit down on her lip, eyes wide with the painful memory. “I ran into the woods, praying he wouldn’t follow me.”

“Did he?”

“I don’t think so. I think he’ll go back to San Diego without me.”

“San Diego?” That explained a few things. His mystery lady was a long way from home.

“We were on our way to a conference in Nashville. James likes to drive, to make a vacation out of business trips.” Her lips twisted. “To rip off the big bosses anytime he can, although he has all of them fooled. I saw the sign about the waterfall and wanted to see it.”

“What happened?”

She lifted one shoulder as if the load she carried was too heavy. “James doesn’t need much to lose his temper. Hopefully, he went on to the conference.”

“But you aren’t sure? He could still be around, maybe in town waiting for you to show up again?”

“Possibly.” Her lip trembled.

Great. Just terrific. “Was this the first time he hurt you?”

“No.” Her face darkened with a fierce determination. “But it’s the last. I won’t go back. I won’t see him again. No matter what he does.”

Rage boiled in Austin’s gut. If he could get his hands on that jerk... “Maybe you should call the cops.”

Not that he wanted anything to do with cops.

Hands raised in a defensive gesture, she jerked back in panic. “No! Please. I can’t. Don’t say anything. I’ll leave here today and won’t bother you again. Only promise you won’t tell anyone, especially the police.”

“A scum like that shouldn’t get away with hurting a woman.”

“The police won’t help. Trust me. I’ve tried.”

In a way, he understood her reluctance. The police weren’t always helpful. Sometimes they were dead wrong.

Austin gazed into her pretty face and saw fear. He heard the tremor in her voice and the desperation.

A heaviness came down around him, a cloak of responsibility and dread. He knew what he was about to do and he didn’t like it one bit.

No matter how much he wanted Annalisa Keller to leave, he couldn’t send her away.

For the next few days or weeks or months, until his conscience would let her go, Annalisa was here to stay.

Chapter Four

Annalisa braced the broom beneath her cast and swept the porch with her good arm. Tootsie, the funny little poodle, darted back and forth, growling and nipping at the broom straw.

Three days had passed. Three days that would have been pleasant if not for the ax hanging over her head. Her time at the Blackwell ranch was up and she had nowhere to go.

Each morning, Cassie went off to work at the Tress and Tan Salon and didn’t return until dinnertime, usually with a pizza or other fast food. Last night, after a meal of takeout tacos, she’d painted Annalisa’s toenails. Annalisa glanced down at her bare feet, smiling a little at the orange-and-black tiger stripes. She’d forgotten how much fun a friend, or a sister, could be. She and Olivia had done that kind of thing. A long time ago.

With a sad ache beneath her rib cage, she paused to look out over the peaceful yard, thinking about the strangeness of life. She missed Olivia with a depth as raw as her emotions. How had she let anything or anyone come between her and her only blood kin?

She had a plethora of questions, most of them for herself. How had she ever come to be here, in this place, at this moment? If she hadn’t asked to see the waterfalls, James wouldn’t have gotten angry, and she would have gone right on to Tennessee and then back to California. Maybe. Or maybe he would have become angry about something else. Sooner or later, he always did.

Yet in some twisted way or for some twisted reason, she’d thought herself in love with him. What was wrong with her? Where had her life gotten off course?

“God, I am so broken,” she whispered to the wispy clouds. “How can I ever put myself back together when half the pieces are missing?”

The sky didn’t answer and the gnawing emptiness in her chest spread. Fear and yearning had been her companions for such a long time that they’d supplanted more positive emotions. She’d become a black hole, devoid of joy.

Yet, two strangers had thrown out a life preserver. Reluctant though he may have been, Austin Blackwell and his sister had done more for her in three days than the man to whom she’d given her love and her life.

But her time was up. Somehow she had to find a way to make it on her own without help, without James.

At the memory of her ex-boyfriend, dread, like an iron weight, pressed down on her shoulders. Tension tightened the muscles of her neck.

She glanced to the right and then the left, irrationally afraid that James would come crashing through the brush and find her.

A slight breeze ruffled the leaves of a nearby chinquapin oak, bringing with it the scent of moist, fertile earth and gathering autumn. Peace and quiet reigned here in the remote Ozarks, but she struggled to relax for more than a moment at a time.

If she was jumpy here, how would she feel once she left this ranch and the people who’d given her a modicum of safety?

Acorns thudded to the ground and a pair of squirrels raced down the shingled bark after the feast.

Tootsie gave them little more than a glance.