Landon. Delores Fossen

       Chapter Six

      Landon had told Tessa that he was taking her someplace she wouldn’t like. Well, it wasn’t a place where he especially wanted her to be, either, but his options were limited.

      And that was why Tessa was now sleeping under his own roof.

      Or at least, the roof of the guesthouse at the Silver Creek Ranch where Landon had made his temporary home. Until he could come up with other arrangements, it would be Tessa and the baby’s temporary home, too. With more than a half-dozen lawmen living on the grounds, it was safer than any other place Landon could think to take them.

      Landon poured himself a fourth cup of coffee, figuring he’d need a fifth or sixth one to rid him of the headache he had from lack of sleep, and checked on the baby again. She was still sacked out in the bassinet his cousins had provided. Maybe Tessa was asleep, as well, because he didn’t hear her stirring in the bedroom.

      Since Tessa had been the one to do the baby’s 2:00 a.m. feeding, Landon had brought the infant into the living-kitchen combo area with him so that Tessa could sleep in. Of course, he’d done that with the hopes that he might get in a catnap or two on the sofa—where he’d spent the night—but no such luck. His mind was spinning with all the details of the attack. With Tessa’s situation. With Emmett’s murder. And despite all that mind spinning, Landon still didn’t have the answers he wanted.

      But maybe Tessa would.

      By now, those drugs she’d been given should have worn off, and that meant maybe she would be able to tell him not only who was behind the attack at the hospital but also who’d murdered Emmett.

      Landon had more coffee and checked outside. Something he’d done a lot during the night and yet another of the reasons he hadn’t gotten much sleep. No signs of gunmen. Thank God. But then, the ranch hands had been told not to let anyone other than family and ranch employees onto the grounds. Maybe that would be enough to stop another attack.

      However, the only way to be certain of no future attacks was to catch the person responsible. Joel, maybe. He was the obvious person of interest here, but Landon wasn’t ruling out Quincy. Too bad neither Landon nor any of his lawman cousins had been able to find any evidence to make an arrest for either man.

      Landon heard the two sounds at once. The baby whimpered, and Tessa moved around in the bedroom. He didn’t wait for Tessa to come out. Since it was time for the baby’s feeding, Landon went ahead and got the bottle from the fridge and warmed it up, just as the nanny had shown him when they’d arrived yesterday. Thankfully, there were three full-time nannies at the ranch now, so he hadn’t had to resort to looking up bottle-warming instructions on the internet.

      He eased the baby from the bassinet, silently cursing that his hands suddenly felt way too big and clumsy. The baby didn’t seem to mind, though, and she latched on to the bottle the moment it touched her mouth.

      Without the baby’s fussing, it was easier for Landon to hear something else. Tessa’s voice. She wasn’t talking loud enough for him to pick out the words, but it seemed as if she was having a conversation with someone on the phone. The guesthouse didn’t have a landline, but there was a cell phone on the nightstand for guests—something that apparently Tessa had decided to make use of. But before Landon could find out who she was calling, Tessa quit talking, and a moment later the bedroom door opened.

      And there she was.

      Landon hated that slam of attraction. Yeah, he felt it even now, and it was proof that attraction was more than just skin-deep. Because despite the bruises on her face, the fatigued eyes, and the baggy loaner jeans and shirt, she still managed to light fires inside him that he didn’t want lit.