The Colton Bride. Carla Cassidy
She frowned and raised a hand to twirl a strand of her hair. “It must have just been a strange beam of the moonlight against one of the windows because when I got out of the Jeep and went to the fence to check it out there were no lights on anywhere. So, I came back out to get into the Jeep and...” Her voice trailed off and she turned her head to look at him, her eyes huge and as dark blue as he’d ever seen them. “He came out of nowhere. I heard a faint footstep in the grass behind me and before I could react, he had me.”
“He was obviously waiting for you and he probably shined a flashlight in the barn in hopes that you’d stop and check it out.” A lump formed in the back of Gray’s throat, a lump of both fear and anger.
“Do you have any idea what would have happened if you hadn’t managed to scream? If I hadn’t been in the stables to hear you?” His voice betrayed the depth of his fear and he drew a deep breath to gain control.
“I’d be dead.” Her voice trembled as her hand released her strand of hair.
“No, I don’t think so, but you’d be gone and I imagine a pretty hefty ransom would have been asked for your safe return.” Gray grabbed the steering wheel and squeezed it so tight that his knuckles whitened. “This is exactly what I warned you about.”
“Who would have thought that a simple trip to a doctor’s office in Laramie would have resulted in this?” She worried the necklace in her hands as if it were a magical talisman.
“Who knew you were going to Laramie?” Gray fought his need to vent his anger, an anger that had nowhere to go except in her direction.
He was upset that she hadn’t taken his warning about her safety seriously, that the evocative scent of her filled the interior of the car and that he wanted to both yell at her and pull her into his arms at the same time.
“Amanda knew because she set up the doctor’s appointment for me. Agnes knew because I told her I wasn’t going to be here for lunch or dinner. I don’t know who else might have known, but surely you can’t think anyone from the house had anything to do with this,” she protested.
“I wouldn’t put this past Trip. I don’t trust him or Tawny or Darla. We’ve got ranch hands we know little about, new hires all over the house. Any one of them could see you as a ticket to a new life. Catherine, you need to wake up. Somebody in your house is up to no good. There have already been murders committed and no suspect has been identified in those deaths.”
Once again she twirled a strand of her hair. “Everything is happening so fast. I just learned I was pregnant yesterday and now suddenly I’m attacked.”
“And there’s no doubt in my mind that whoever tried to take you tonight knows that you’re pregnant, which makes your kidnapping twice as valuable as taking anyone else.”
She released a weary sigh. “Just take me back to the house. At least I know I should be safe in my own private suite.”
Gray started the Jeep engine, deciding now wasn’t the time to tell her that with her suite on the ground floor it wasn’t exactly a tall tower to be breached with great difficulty. There was really no place in the entire house that she was safe. After all, it had only been two months ago that kitchen help Jenny Burke had been found murdered in the pantry.
“Catherine, you’ve got to take this threat seriously. You can’t be out alone after dark. You need to keep yourself surrounded by people all the time and we should probably call the chief of police when we get back to the house.”
“Why call him and complicate everything?” she countered. “What’s the point? The only description I have of him is that his hands were huge and in thin black gloves. He felt strong as an ox as he pulled me away.” She shivered. “But, I have no idea what he looked like and I’m assuming you couldn’t tell anything about him, either.”
“Medium height. Medium build.” Gray sighed, knowing she was right. There was really no point in calling out the chief with nothing more to offer him. The man would be long gone from the woods by now.
He pulled into the garage in the lower portion of the mansion and parked her Jeep in its usual spot. He turned to look at her and noted that her lower lip trembled slightly and fear still darkened her eyes.
“You’re safe now, Catherine.” He couldn’t help but want to erase that fear.
She nodded. “Thanks to you.” She opened her door and got out and he did the same. As he rounded the car to where she stood, as if unsure where to go or what to do, he noted that she still grasped the necklace tightly in her fingers.
“Is it broken?” he asked.
She looked at the clasp and released an audible sigh of relief. “No, it must have just come unfastened.”
“Do you want me to put that back around your neck where it belongs?”
For the first time some of the fear left her eyes. “Do you mind? I bought it today to celebrate. Eventually it will go to my daughter or my son’s wife. I’m just so grateful that you found it. I thought it was lost for sure.”
She handed him the necklace and turned her back to him. As she swept her hair to one side, baring the back of her delicate neck, he fought the impulse to press his lips against her soft skin.
Damn her for scaring him. Damn her for reawakening his desire for her despite all the years that had passed, in spite of all the bitterness she evoked in him.
And damn her for his shaking fingers as he tried to clasp the delicate gold chain at the nape of her neck. “You need a husband, somebody who can watch over you through the day and be at your side at night.” He finally managed to get the necklace on.
She turned and looked at him. “Thanks for the advice,” she said dryly. “Unfortunately I don’t seem to have any volunteers for the job at the moment.”
“I’d volunteer.” The words left his mouth before any thought entered his brain. “You could marry me...of course it would just be a marriage in name only, but nobody else would have to know that. It would give me a reason to keep you close and safe.”
Catherine stared at him for a stunned moment and then laughed. “Sure, that makes sense. For the past four years you’ve made it obvious you don’t even like me. A marriage between us for any reason is an absolutely ridiculous idea.”
“You’re right, of course,” he said stiffly, wondering what on earth he’d been thinking when he’d even made the crazy offer. Obviously he hadn’t been thinking at all.
Catherine would be more apt to marry the society-page playboy, money-grubbing father of her baby than a lowly ranch foreman. He’d learned that lesson nine years ago and he should have remembered it now.
“Then I’ll just say good-night,” he said and turned to head toward the garage door.
“Gray?”
He turned back to face her.
“Thank you,” she said and for just a split second he thought he saw a yearning in her eyes.
Trick of the light, he told himself. “No problem,” he said curtly and then left the garage and went outside into the cool night air. He headed back to the stables, needing to process everything that had just happened, needing to lick the wounds of humiliation that stung like a swallowed wasp inside his chest.
As he walked, he kept his gaze moving, seeking anything or anyone who might be out of place, who might signify danger. Even before the events of tonight, all the ranch hands had suffered from the knowledge that nobody could be trusted.
Two kidnapping attempts of Cheyenne, two murders in the house and even the former chief of police in Dead, Hank Drucker, had not only been discovered to be a dirty cop who got arrested, and was now dead, his death was being investigated as either a suicide or a murder.
Gray had the feeling of danger permeating not only the Dead River Ranch, but also the nearby small town