Rangers: Silver-Star Seductions: A Two-Book Box Set (6 page)

She didn’t think she could do that. She wasn’t good at pretending and there was no way she could fake it. Which meant she had to follow her nature and be honest. But how in heck was she going to do that?  She loved him to a fault and she didn’t know if she could break it off.

It wasn’t until he said her name that she realized they’d arrived at her house. She turned to look at him.

“What’s wrong, Willa?”

She shook her head, not trusting her voice and that sent him into motion. He reached for her hand but she pulled it away.

“What is it?  Willa, you’re starting to scare me. Has something happened you haven’t told me about?  Did someone say something to you tonight or do something to you?”

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

Willa screwed up her courage as best she could. “I know, Zeb.”

“Know what?”

“I know you’re just here ‘til you can wrangle yourself back into the action in El Paso. I know that the moment you do, you’ll be outta here lickety split. And this time maybe you’ll say goodbye, but you’ll still go and I’ll still be left watching you drive away and knowing that this time you won’t be coming back and –”

“Willa.”

“No. Let me finish. I know it’s coming and it’s what you want but I can’t keep doing … this. Not knowing what’s coming. I just can’t. Better we stop it now.”

He was silent for a long time and when he did speak his words shocked her. “You’re right.”

“I … I am?”

“Yes. I came here not intending to stay one second longer than I had to. This is the last place on earth I wanted to be. But it changed when I got here, Willa. I found something I didn’t expect. Something that gave me a hope that I’ve never had before.”

“Zeb.”

“No, it’s my turn. You deserve the truth. I love you, Willa. I do. And I want to be with you. I don’t like Calder County. There are still too many bad memories. Given the choice I’d head back to El Paso tonight. If you’d come with me.”

“You want me …?”

“Yes. I do.”

Willa had never dreamed such a thing would happen. It was what she wanted more than anything. And what she couldn’t have.

“I wish I could. God do I wish I could. But I can’t Zeb. I … this is my home. There are people here who depend on me, people who call this home. I can’t walk away from it. It’s all I have. All I know.”

“I know, honey. I do. And I want you to be happy. I don’t know the answer but I don’t want you to give up on us. At least let’s try and work this out.”

Had he said he was willing to stay she might have fallen blubbering into his arms. But he hadn’t and she feared that meant he was managing her, giving her just enough to keep her on the hook.

“Okay,” she finally spoke again. “We can do that. Tomorrow. Right now, I’m tired and I just want to crawl in bed and sleep. Thanks for taking me out. It was … nice.”

She started to get out of the car but he took hold of her arm and stayed her. “That sounded like a brush off.”

“I'm sorry. I don’t mean it that way. I … I’m just tired, Zeb. And I need some time. To think. It’d be best if you didn’t stay tonight.”

“You sure?”

“Yes. I am. Good night, Zeb.”

He hesitated a moment then released her and she got out of the car and hurried to the house. She didn’t look back as she let herself in and closed the door. She leaned back against it and listened to the sound of his car until there was silence.

“I know you’re there.” She felt for the light switch and sure enough there were all five ferrets lined up, watching her.

“How about a treat?” Willa asked and headed for the kitchen with all five on her heels chattering away.

She had to use a stool to reach the cabinet above the refrigerator where she kept the tin of popcorn. It was one of the extravagances in her life. Once a month she’d get a tin of cheese flavored popcorn. The ferrets loved it but she had to keep it tucked away because they were very smart and resourceful creatures.

Willa piled a big bowl full and set it on the floor then laughed as all five dove for it. After returning the tin to the cabinet, she took a tray of meat from the refrigerator. Whenever they slaughtered an animal for food, she kept the cuts no one wanted for cooking for Lobo and Bobby. She’d defrosted two nice sized leg bones for them.

Bobby was lying on the swing on the back porch when she walked outside. His nose twitched and then his eyes opened. He hopped down, stretched and ambled over her. “You wanna come in for the night?”

His response was to mosey to the door.

“Lobo?” She called and walked to the edge of the porch.

He appeared out of the darkness, tail wagging. “Got something for you, big guy. Come on in.”

She held the door for them and followed them into the kitchen. She’d already laid out the meat covered bones on their mats for them and it didn’t take any encouragement for them to dig in.

Satisfied that all of her animal family was content, she went upstairs. She took off her boots and dress and slid into a pair of soft but nearly thread-bare knit shorts and pulled on a tank top.

She’d just walked into the bathroom to brush her teeth when she heard the sound of a car. Her heart leapt. Zeb?  She ran to the bedroom window to look out and hope turned to anger.

Willa ran downstairs, snatched up her shotgun and hurried to the front window. Carl and Carter Ellis climbed out of the front of the old beat-up truck. Two other men jumped out of the bed and all four started toward the house. It wasn’t lost on her that all four were armed.

They had to have been watching. All this time she thought they’d given up, but the first time Zeb wasn’t there they showed up. Willa ran to the kitchen and started to pick up the phone but she saw Lobo standing there with his hackles raised.

She knew as well as she lived and breathed that if the men got in the house, Lobo and even Bobby would fight for her. And get shot in trying to help her.

“You have to go,” she said and raced to the back door. “Now. Come on Lobo. Bobby?  Bobby!”

She shooed them both out of the door. “You stay out of sight, you hear me?”

Both animals bounded off the porch, each in a separate direction. Willa locked the door and walked back to the entrance of the hall, watching the front door.

She jumped as the door rattled and shook from the pounding that started. “Willa!  Open the fucking door. Willa!  Willa, open the goddamn door or I’ll kick it in. Willa!!”

She racked in a load to her shotgun, trying to stem the rush of nausea and trembling that suddenly gripped her. She should have called 911 or Zeb. Now it was too late.
God help me
. She couldn’t remember ever being this afraid, not even when Clay would come at her with those big fists of his clenched.

The door burst in, slammed against the wall and a man charged in. She saw the gun in his hand. Could she turn and run, make it out of the back door before he spotted her and fired. “I got her!” The man crowed and started in her direction.

The next minute passed in sickeningly slow motion. Willa felt the bile rise in her throat, felt her hands grip the gun and her finger pull the trigger. The sound was deafening. Something dark splattered from the man at the same moment he was propelled backwards, his arms flailing and feet trying to find purchase. His gun went flying.

He fell to the floor just as a second man rushed in. Willa pulled the trigger again and the second man spun to one side with a scream. Now what?  The shotgun shells were in the kitchen, in the drawer of the cupboard.

She had no choice. There were two more left and those were Ellis men. Willa made a dash for the kitchen. She made it to the cupboard and jerked the drawer open. Unfortunately, she pulled too hard and the drawer came free of the cupboard, scattering its contents all over the floor.

Dropping to her knees, her hands shook as she searched for the shells. Yes!  She had them. Footsteps in the hall had her hands shaking worse. She got one shell in the gun but dropped the other. Damn. She cut at look at the door then made a grab for the shell.

Hope swelled as she slammed the shell into the gun. She looked up and her breath caught in her throat. Carl Ellis stood above her, holding a deer rifle, his brother Carter one step behind him. Willa went to raise the shotgun and the last thing she saw was the butt of Carl’s rifle coming straight at her face.

You’re my ever after.

Like a sudden strike of lighting on a clear night it came to him. Zeb saw it. Willa in that old swing, begging him to push her higher, her face lit up like a Christmas tree with joy as she swung into the air. And the way she looked up at him when he stopped and the swing slowed to a halt. “You’re my ever after, Zeb Childress.”

His eyes filled with tears as he remembered the love shining in her eyes, the innocence and pure love that looked up at him. She had loved him when no one else did and he’d been so damaged and lost that he hadn’t seen it. Not even when he left Calder County.

A flash of her looking at him as he got into that old pickup. The sadness and pain. She’d loved him and he’d never realized how much having that kind of love meant.

Until now.
Please
g
od don’t let it be too little too late
. Zeb slowed and executed a three point turn just three miles from the apartment where he was staying. The things Willa had said were running in a constant loop through his mind. He couldn’t let it go. He had to talk to her and make her understand.

He was a couple of miles from her place when something darted out into the road and stopped. Zeb stomped the brakes, skidding to a stop on the dirt road. It was Lobo. Zeb got out of the cruiser. “Hey boy. What are you doing way out here?”

Lobo barked and then turned but took only a few steps before looking back at Zeb. Zeb recognized the feeling that crawled up his spine. Fear. Lobo was trying to tell him something and it could only have to do with one thing. Willa.

“Show me,” he said and ran back to his vehicle.  Lobo followed and jumped into the cruiser.

Zeb drove like a possessed man.  His heart shot into a panicked beat when he saw the front door standing open. He drew his sidearm the moment he stepped from the vehicle and approached the house. He was at the front steps before he realized the wolf was standing off to the side, tense like he was ready to bolt.

Zeb dismissed that and cautiously ascended the steps. What met his eyes when he peered inside had his heart hammering. One man lay dead in the front room and another was unconscious on the floor, both suffering from what appeared to be shotgun blasts.

Thoughts for his own safety fled. “Willa!” He tore through the house looking for her.

She wasn’t there. All he found was Lobo standing at the base of the steps to the back porch and the ferrets scurrying this way and that in some kind of a panic on the porch. Lobo barked and drew his attention then took off across the back yard.

Zeb jumped off the porch and started after Lobo. It didn’t dawn on him for several minutes that he had not bothered to be mindful of snakes. That thought creeped him out but didn’t make him break stride. All he could think of was Willa. Where was she and what the hell had happened in her house?

On through the darkness he ran. Every now and then he’d lose sight of Lobo but the wolf always seemed to slow and wait on him to guide him to wherever they were headed. It was in that darkness, running toward an unknown destination that it fully hit Zeb. He loved Willa and the thought of life without her was like looking at a yawning abyss filled with nothing but darkness and pain.
Please God let her be okay.

*****

Willa woke with a start. It took only a split second to realize she couldn’t move which caused terror to sink its putrid claws into her, making her want to scream her lungs out. She was tied spread-eagle on the ground, the ropes attached to crude stakes.

A fire was burning not ten feet from her. Carl Ellis stood beside it, a bottle of booze tilted up to his mouth as his brother Carter tossed dead branches onto the fire.

This wasn’t good. They were dangerous sober. Drunk they were downright lethal. Unpredictable and impossible to reason with. And to make it even worse, she was naked. Nausea born of fear bubbled in her gut and rose in her throat and her body started to shiver despite the warmth of the night and the heat rolling off the fire.

Willa knew the only way to mitigate her fears of what might happen from blooming into full blown mindless terror was to gather her wits and, as her brother had always taught her, evaluate her situation to see what was at her disposal.

She offered up a silent prayer for strength and looked around as much as she could without drawing attention. All of a sudden, she realized where she was. On her own property, near the hunting lodge her great grandfather had built when he first laid claim to this land.

It’d been years since anyone had used the lodge. Ethan, Zeb and their friends used it when they were in high school. They’d get beer and bring girls and party. She hadn’t been there herself for more than a ride-through looking for a stray since Ethan died.

It was a good ways from the main house, probably three miles, but still within Lobo and Bobby’s territorial range. Which meant they might have followed.

Not that a bobcat and a wolf were going to get her out of the predicament she was in, but the idea of not being completely alone offered some small comfort. If only she hadn’t sent Zeb away. She hated herself for the thought because surely if he’d been there he would have tried to defend her and could have ended up wounded or dead. No, it was best that he hadn’t been there. The idea of something happening to him was far worse that what she now faced.

She kept her eyes on the men at the fire as she tested the rope, tugging with both arms to see if she could loosen the stakes. They were sunk into the ground deep but she did feel a slight give in the right one, so she intensified her efforts.

Just as she felt a wiggle, Carl turned and looked her way.

*****

Zeb nearly tripped over Lobo as the wolf came to an abrupt halt. Zeb realized the reason. There was a light in the distance, a fire. He knelt down beside Lobo. “Okay, buddy let’s go.”

Together they crept toward the light. The closer they got the clearer the scene became and what he saw made his blood boil.

Carl and Carter Ellis stood before a fire, passing a bottle between them. On the other side of the fire was Willa, staked out on the ground. Carl took another swig from the bottle and looked in her direction. “Well, looky here who’s awake.” He handed the bottle to his brother and reached toward the fire. When Zeb saw what was in his hand, rage exploded hot and blinding.

He held a branding iron. “Not so high and fucking mighty now, are you cunt?” Carl stumbled over and waved the branding iron over her. “Yeah, I’m going introduce you to this, bitch. Just as soon as we’re finished with you. Oh yeah, we’re gonna have us a party. I’m gonna fuck you every way possible and when I’m done, I’m gonna let Carter have a go at you.

“And when we’re tired of that, I’m gonna brand you. Your ass, your tits, your pussy and your face. I’m gonna fuck you up the ass with this thing and then we’re gonna drag your ass back home and throw you in the snake pit and you can die the same fucking way you killed my brother.”

That did it. Zeb stood, raised his weapon and started forward. “Texas Rangers. Drop the iron and step away from the woman.”

Carl turned and stumbled then lurched toward the fire at the same time Carter bent down and grabbed a rifle off the ground.

“Drop it or I’ll put you down.” Zeb continued marching toward them.

Carter raised the rifle to his shoulder and Zeb fired. A howl came from Carl as his brother fell. “I’ll fucking kill you. Kill her, you mother fucker!”  He whirled in Willa’s direction, the branding iron in hand. Zeb took a bead on his back but before he could fire, Lobo appeared out of the darkness and leapt onto Carl’s back.

The branding iron flew from Carl’s grasp as the wolf took him to the ground. Zeb ignored the screams of pain as the wolf tore into him and ran to Willa’s side. His hands shook as he untied her ankles and then her wrists. All the while Carl’s screams got weaker.

By the time Willa was free, all sounds from Carl had stopped. Rather than throw herself into Zeb’s arms, she got up and went to stand over Carl’s body. His throat had been ripped out, his face a mask of pain and terror.

She knelt down and opened her arms to Lobo who bounded to her with tail wagging. She hugged him tight for a long moment then stood and turned to face Zeb. “How did you know?”

Zeb gestured toward Lobo.

“I don’t understand. Lobo went all the way to town?”

“No.” Zeb stepped up closer. “I came back.”

“Why?”

“Because I wasn’t honest with you. With myself. There is something here worth staying for, Willa. I had to come back and tell you.”

All at once, all of the emotion she’d been holding with such a tight rein released and she rushed into his arms. For a long time he just held her as she sobbed against his chest. When she had cried herself out, she pushed back far enough to look up at him. “You saved me.”

“I’m thinking it might just be the other way around, honey.”

“No. You came back. You saved me.”

“I love you, Willa and if Calder County is where you want to make our home and our life together then that’s what we’ll do. All that matters is that I have you.”

It was all she’d ever dreamed of. Who would ever have thought that dream would come true in such a place and in such a manner? Fresh tears streamed down her face. “I’ve always loved you, Zeb. Always.”

He smiled and reached out to cup her face, his thumbs rubbing away the tears. “Honey, I want to take you home, and I know that’s what you want, but I have to call this in and we have to wait for a team to come process the scene. Can you do that?”

She sniffed and drew herself up then looked down at her naked body. “I’m not real keen on a bunch of strangers seeing me butt naked.”

“Shit!” Zeb quickly stripped off his shirt and helped her into it. “Better?”

“Yes. Thanks.”

He gave her a soft kiss on the cheek then pulled out his phone and placed the call to the Sheriff’s department. “They’re on their way.”

“He’ll come for me you know.”

“Who?”

“Clancy. When he finds out, he’ll come for me.”

“Then I’ll put him down.”

She nodded and sank to the ground, holding onto Lobo. Zeb sat down beside her, looping his arm around her. She leaned her head on his shoulder, grabbed his free hand in a grip like a vice and stayed that way until the deputies arrived.

*****

It was just a few hours until dawn by the time the statements were done, the bodies collected, and the house quiet. Willa stood in the front room of the house, looking at the blood on the floor. She was still wearing only his shirt.

“I’ll take care of that.” Zeb came up behind her. “Go get clean and get some rest. It’s been a long night.”

“No. I’ll do it.” She strode past him and returned a few minutes later with a bucket and a mop.

Together they cleaned up the mess in silence, her mopping and him changing out the bloody water. When they’d finished, she shut the front door, wedged a chair under the door knob to keep it closed then turned to face him.

“Go get clean and get some sleep, Willa.”

She wanted to do just that but something was weighing on her. 
You have to tell him.

Willa didn't want to. She didn't want to do anything that would threatened what he'd offered, but how could they have a future built on a lie?

"I will but first, we have to talk.  I have to tell you something."

Zeb reached for her hand but she avoided his touch.  "No, please.  Just hear me out."

"Okay."

"I'm not – normal, Zeb."

"Pardon?"

"I'm not normal.  I—I can talk to animals."

"That's pretty obvious."

"No, I mean I can understand them.  They talk to me."

His eyes widened a bit and then returned to normal.  "So you're saying you can actually carry on a conversation with them?"

"Yes."

"So?"

Shock rippled through her at his nonchalance.  "You mean that doesn't bother you?"

"Why should it?"

"Because – I don't know, because it's not normal?"

"It is for you, honey and I love you, Willa – all that you are.  Now will you please get cleaned up and get some rest?"

She nodded and held out her hand. Zeb hesitated then took it and let her lead him to the bathroom. She turned on the water, then faced him and peeled out of the shirt.

“Wash the ugly away.”

Zeb knew she wasn’t talking merely about soap and water. He understood. What she’d experienced was humanity at its worst, and it wasn’t a first for her. Her life since her family had died had not been filled with joy or security.

He knew that feeling all too well, the dirtiness that came from memories of pain, loss, and mistakes. The unclean feelings that could consume you because you had nothing with which to dilute or wash it away. He’d lived that for too many years to count and like her, was ready to be cleansed.

Zeb stripped out of his clothes as she stood there silently watching and then took her face in his hands. The kiss was soft, a gentle press of lips that was the most potent thing he’d ever experienced. She gave all that she was in that kiss, offered all she had, and in doing so claimed him. Completely.