Cowboy Bodyguard Read online

  “Cruiser,” Dina said, mouth trembling, as she peeked past his shoulder, while the baby sucked contentedly. “And Viper.” The bottle shook in her hand. “They found us again, and now they’re gonna kill me and take my baby.” The last bit came out as a whimper.

  Shannon pulled Dina away from the window and folded her and the baby into an embrace. The gesture made his breath catch, for some reason. Both women looked at him.

  “Hide in the bathroom,” Jack commanded. Dina ran with the baby, almost closing the door behind her except for a crack.

  Shannon’s eyes were unreadable, shimmering with tension and something else. Guilt, probably, though she wouldn’t let that trouble her for more than a moment. She must have been desperate indeed to call him up.

  As Jack continued to peer out, the two bikers surveyed the row of hotel rooms, considering. They weren’t sure which one was Shannon’s. They would wait, take shifts, and eventually, they’d know. There was no time to get the women out a rear exit without being detected, unless they climbed out the high bathroom window, and that would be tricky with a baby. They were trapped.

  He could tell by Shannon’s quickened breaths that she’d come to the same conclusion. Her look to him was one of barely contained panic. His brain said call the cops. His gut said there was no other way, but somehow, his heart overruled them both.

  He turned around and handed Shannon his cell. “Tell Dina to lock the bathroom door and call the police.”

  “But...”

  “Do it, Shannon.”

  “Dina,” Shannon called. She pushed her way in. Her gasp told him the truth before she emerged with the baby in her arms.

  “She bolted. Climbed out the window and left the baby on a towel. The diaper bag is stashed under the sink.” Shannon fingered a piece of paper scribbled with a lipstick note. “‘I’ll be back in two days. Keep her safe for me. Don’t let them take her.’”

  He met Shannon’s eyes, the iridescent pools that pulled him in. “How do you want to play this?”

  “I promised to buy Dina a few days to find her brother. If we call the cops now...”

  He nodded. “Baby goes into foster care, most likely.”

  Shannon bit her lip. “If the gang takes the baby, Dina will never get her back...” She shook her head. “I promised. A few days, I promised.”

  “A promise is a promise,” he said, trying not to choke on the irony.

  She lifted her chin, voice gone hard. “I understand if you don’t want any part of this. It’s not your mess. I shouldn’t have called you.”

  He didn’t answer. Then he clapped on his Stetson, threw open the door and strode out, Shannon on his heels, still clutching the baby. That hadn’t changed, anyway. Shannon had never shied away from trouble.

  The riders approached quickly, coming up close, too close. Viper spoke first. “It’s her. The doctor.”

  “What are you doing here, Doc? Saw you beelining from the hospital,” Cruiser said. “Sudden vacation?”

  Jack straightened to his full height, a good four inches taller than either man. “Who wants to know?”

  Cruiser cocked his head. “Who are you, Cowboy?”

  “Name’s Jack Thorn. Yours?”

  “Not here for a meet and greet.”

  Jack stared him down. “Then why are you here?”

  “I want the girl and the baby.”

  Jack arched an eyebrow. “I don’t have a girl and a baby to hand over—not that I would anyway.”

  “So, who do you think you are? John Wayne?” Cruiser glared.

  Jack didn’t answer, just stared.

  Viper spoke up. “Doc treated our brother T.J. back at the hospital. We think she’s hiding somebody who pushed him down the stairs. Girl Doc here is a liar.”

  “First point, she’s not a girl,” Jack said, looping an arm around Shannon’s waist. She went rigid. Every cell in his body felt stunned by the physical connection, as if some deep part of him remembered the woman he ached to forget. He punched the feelings back. “This is a woman, a doctor, and she’s here with me, nobody else, so watch your mouth.”

  Cruiser’s hands bunched into fists. Jack kept his palm relaxed on her hip, ready. Anticipating an animal’s reaction was nothing new for him. He could tell when a horse was about to bolt, to kick, to struggle. Cruiser was going to make a move and soon.

  Cruiser’s brow furrowed. “I think you’re lying, too.”

  “I don’t care what you think.”

  “Who are you, Cowboy?”

  His mind whirled, searching and discarding ideas.

  If things got physical, it would probably end with the baby being taken and Shannon hurt. Best to talk his way out of it.

  “Like I said, name’s Jack.” He held his chin high. “I’m her husband.”

  Husband. The word seemed to flutter in the wind like a Fourth of July flag. Viper strode past them and pushed into the hotel room. After a moment, he returned. “No one else there.”

  Cruiser’s eyes narrowed. “And I suppose that’s your baby?”

  You said it. I didn’t.

  TWO

  Jack felt Shannon pull away a fraction, heard a soft exhalation of air.

  When Cruiser took a step toward the door, Shannon moved to meet him. “Stay away from my baby.”

  Cruiser smiled. “Going all Mama Bear on me now? Baby’s pretty young to be traveling.” He jutted his chin. “Bringing it to a hotel in the middle of the sticks?”

  Jack shrugged. “It was a good halfway point. We’re meeting up for a much-needed vacation,” he continued. “Our jobs keep us too busy, don’t they, Shan?” He nuzzled her ear, dizzied by the feel of her warm skin, his brain wondering what in the world he was playing at.

  “Uh-huh,” she mumbled, heat rising off her.

  “I think you’re lying,” Cruiser said. “If you’re married, where’s the ring?”

  Jack smiled. “I thought we’d already covered that I don’t care what you think. Cowboys and doctors have to use their hands a lot. Rings are inconvenient when you’re saddling horses, not that it’s your business.”

  Cruiser glared at him. “I still think you’re lying, Cowboy, and if I find out you’re hiding Dina, I’m gonna kill you both and take what’s ours—Dina and her baby.”

  Jack released Shannon and stepped forward, every muscle taut. He came nose to nose with Cruiser. “No one,” he murmured, “is going to touch my wife.”

  Cruiser raised a fist, and Jack did the same, jerking his head toward the building.

  “All right, but before we get this rodeo started, here’s a tip. Make sure the camera gets your good side,” Jack said.

  Cruiser jerked, gaze finding the security camera mounted on the wall. He stepped back a pace, breathing hard. “I want Dina and the baby. They belong to the Tide. Anyone who gets in my way is my enemy. The Tide doesn’t forget, and we don’t forgive. We are going to be watching you.” He stalked back to his bike, along with the other man, and drove off in a roar of exhaust. Jack led Shannon back into the hotel room.

  Seconds ticked in awkward silence between them. How could he explain what he’d done letting them think the baby was theirs and he and Shannon a loving couple? He could come up with nothing, so he stayed quiet.

  “They think we’re married,” she said finally.

  “We are, technically.”

  “Only because we haven’t done the paperwork for a divorce.”

  “It’s been seven years, Shannon. If you really wanted a divorce, you would have made it happen.”

  “I do want one, Jack.” Her mouth hinted at more to come, but she stayed quiet. He wanted to kiss her then, to press her lips to his and find out the truth. Mouths lied, but kisses didn’t.

  He hooked his thumbs in his belt loops. “For the time being, it looks like we’re gonna have to pla
y at being nice married folks until we get Dina and her baby out of this jam.”

  A glimmer, a flicker, a shadow, rippled across her face. Her mouth thinned into a grim line.

  “Anyway,” Jack said, putting them back on safe ground, “it bought us some time so Dina can find her brother.”

  “I’m not sure anymore...” She pressed a trembling hand to her mouth.

  “I am. Pack up. We’ll get a cab to the airstrip in the morning. I’ll keep watch tonight. They may come back. Not that easily put off. You can tell Dina where we’re headed. You have her cell number.”

  “And where exactly are we headed?” she said over her shoulder.

  He looked into the luminous eyes of the woman who was still his wife—legally, anyway—wondering what he had just gotten himself into. “Home,” he said. “To Gold Bar.”

  * * *

  Emotions tumbled through Shannon’s insides as Jack landed the plane on the neglected airstrip on her uncle Oscar’s property. The sky was mellowing into a palette of lustrous sunset golds, set off by the brilliant green hills. After seven years, with as many visits as she could manage, Gold Bar was just as gorgeous as she remembered, and just as claustrophobic. It was a small town, where everybody knew everything, a place she would probably never return to if her mother and uncle were not still residents.

  The pastures of Jack’s family’s Gold Bar Ranch were dotted with contented horses that meandered, tails swishing, over the thousand acres. She thought of Jack’s brothers. A new structure was visible, set apart from the main house. Jack’s brother Barrett and his new wife, Shelby, lived there. Jack’s twin, Owen, was engaged to Shannon’s best friend, Ella Cahill, a farrier who had narrowly escaped being framed for the murder of a local heiress’s nephew by a merciless con man. It pained her that she hadn’t even known about Ella’s dire situation until after it was resolved. Too busy to take calls, she’d told herself. Too busy to be a friend.

  She eyed Jack. He had the same angular features and strong jaw, but there was something more pinched about his mouth, and his denim-blue eyes were harder. He wore his favorite cowboy boots, the ones he’d steadfastly refused to replace, instead having them resoled again and again. The fragrance of his barn jacket teased her, holding the faintest scent of a life far away, oiled leather, hay, the ranch. His life, not hers. You should ask about his brothers, make small talk. But the memory of a long-ago conversation with Jack robbed her of the words. Seven years ago, practically before the ink was dry on their marriage certificate, she’d told him their impulsive marriage was over.

  It was a mistake, Jack.

  As if she was critiquing a medical chart, instead of dooming a marriage.

  I was scared, confused. I’m leaving for med school, and that’s all I can focus on.

  I’m patient, he’d said.

  I’m not coming back to Gold Bar, Jack. Not as your wife.

  The marriage was an error in judgment. She’d been overwhelmed, and Jack had refused to admit that they’d outgrown each other. You did what you had to do. Now, if she could just get through this without losing everything she’d worked for. In typical Jack fashion, he had not pressed her for details about her current situation, allowing her to share as much as she knew. Jack was patient; he was completely her opposite.

  The facts seemed clear enough. Dina was being abused by a man who lay in a coma for which the Scarlet Tide blamed her. The Los Angeles detective who had been investigating the case was on the take, and thanks to Jack, they could keep Annabell safe until Dina returned. John Larraby, an officer with the Gold Bar Police, was a high-school peer of theirs, and though she’d never liked him personally, maybe he could be trusted to help. It would be so much easier to tell him everything, but what would happen to Annabell? Whatever Dina had or hadn’t done, she did not deserve to lose her baby.

  Shannon checked her phone messages. Her supervising physician was unhappy at her sudden departure, which she’d blamed on an emergency. It was the truth. What bigger emergency was there than a bunch of bikers ready to abduct a scared teen mom and her baby?

  She’d had no choice but to run, but the potential professional consequences were terrifying. She’d labored for years to reach the final stages of her emergency-room internship. What if she lost it all? Then what would she be? Who would she be? She realized Jack was staring at her.

  “Did you tell anyone we were coming to Gold Bar?” he asked, eyes flicking from his cell-phone screen to her.

  “Only Dina. I texted her, like you said.”

  “Work?”

  “I phoned to tell them I had to take an emergency leave, but I didn’t mention where I was headed.”

  He frowned, blue eyes darkening to the color of a restless sea.

  “Why?”

  “Because my brother just texted me that Larraby’s at the house, asking for you.”

  Cold prickles erupted all over her skin. Had Mason alerted the local police somehow? But how would he know where they’d gone?

  Her mind followed the trail. He might have found out from the hospital about her hastily arranged vacation, used his police connections to discover her hometown, checked flight plans and contacted local police. In other words, he’d made a guess that had paid off.

  “We can’t trust the cops,” she said, holding the baby, as Jack helped her out of the plane and into a dusty SUV. “Detective Mason is in the Tide’s pocket. Larraby will believe what he says.”

  “We may not have a choice.”

  As they drove to the ranch, Shannon frantically tried to figure out what she would say to Larraby, or the Thorns, for that matter.

  She knew her own cheeks were flushed red as they entered the Thorn home. Jack’s parents, Tom and Evie, had been kind and gracious to her, but she had not seen them since she left for med school.

  “I’m not going to tell anyone about this,” Jack had said after their city-hall marriage in Southern California. “I want to tell my family properly, to present you as my bride.”

  But that time had never arrived, and Jack had revealed during the flight that he’d never gotten around to telling them at all. So how were they going to explain it? It was ludicrous.

  Her feet dragged like anchors as they neared the front door. The baby began to cry.

  Evie Thorn’s eyes opened wide in shock as she looked from Shannon to the bundle in her arms. “Shannon... I... A...baby? I didn’t know.”

  Me neither. Shannon gulped, with no idea what to say, but Evie offered a shaky hug, brushed back her bob of graying hair and ushered them in. John Larraby stood at the table with Evie’s husband, Tom, and youngest son, Keegan, who flashed her a puzzled smile, a half-eaten apple between his fingers. Owen and Ella were away for a while, Tom explained, visiting friends and purchasing a new wheelchair for Ella’s sister, Betsy.

  Larraby greeted them. If he was surprised at her sudden arrival with a baby in tow, he did not show it. “I got a call from Detective Hal Mason in Los Angeles.”

  So it had been Mason who called. She rocked the baby, who had begun to fuss.

  “What did he say?” Jack asked.

  Larraby’s dark gaze settled on her. “Says he wants to talk to Shannon Livingston about a patient she treated recently.” He raised an eyebrow. “And to congratulate you both on the new baby.”

  The baby wriggled against Shannon, as if she could feel the embarrassment rising off her in waves. “I...uh...”

  The announcement took the Thorn family by storm. Evie’s mouth was open in a wide O-shape of surprise. Keegan, too, was slack-jawed with astonishment. Only Tom seemed cool and collected.

  “So, he told you about the baby?” Jack shot her a look, and in a flash of cold fear, she understood. The only way Mason could have known that Shannon was caring for Annabell was if the two gang members had told him. So, it was true. Mason was on the take.

  “Well, this i
s a surprise, of course. We didn’t know that you two were still together,” Tom said.

  “Should I pass along your cell-phone number to Mason?” Larraby asked.

  Jack didn’t answer, but he locked eyes on Shannon’s. She knew him well enough to know the nonverbal. Your call. Should she lie to Larraby or trust him?

  She wanted to straighten out the whole ridiculous scenario. I’m not going to fold neatly into this family and start raising children in Gold Bar. It’s all a ruse, a misunderstanding that we’re going to clear up right now.

  Shannon took a breath and made a decision. “She’s not ours. She’s a friend’s, but there are good reasons why we’re pretending otherwise.”

  Larraby hooked his thumbs in his gun belt. “Might this friend be the person the Tide believes pushed their brother T.J. down the stairs?”

  Seconds ticked by that felt like hours. “This friend,” Shannon said carefully, “is a nineteen-year-old who has been beaten and terrorized by her boyfriend. She’s been in and out of shelters, afraid to stay and unable to leave for fear of what the Tide will do. She’s done nothing wrong. We are pretending to be this baby’s parents to give her a few days to find her brother. It’s her only chance to get herself and her baby out.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “Motorcycle gang members are tough to prosecute. They stick together no matter what. They’d take a bullet for each other.”

  “So would we,” Keegan said.

  Larraby’s mouth tightened. “I’m going to lay it out for you. I don’t like Mason. We worked together on a task force because the Aces are the local motorcycle gang in this region, and they are sworn enemies of the Tide. We had some trouble a while back when the Tide came to town seeking revenge for some slight or another.” His gaze drifted momentarily to Keegan, who stared right back. “You know all about the Aces, don’t you, Keegan?”

  “I was only a prospect,” Keegan said. “I never patched in.”