The Cowboy's Bride

“You think you want to be a rancher?” Cody asked her as he parked the truck on the top of a rise overlooking a good part of the Silver Spur cattle operation and cut the engine. “Then you ought to be able to spend a night on the range.”

Callie didn’t mind hard work. She did mind being jerked around. “For no purpose?” Callie challenged.

“Oh, there’s a purpose.” Cody climbed out of the cab and reached into the bed of the truck for a bedroll.

“I’d like to hear it,” Callie said as he climbed back into the cab and settled the bedroll between them on the bench seat.

Cody pulled the brim of his hat lower over his eyebrows and stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Someone’s been trespassing on the Silver Spur operation. From where we’re going to be, we’ll have a clear view of the road. I see any vehicle that doesn’t belong, I’m going to take after it like a bat out of hell.” Cody pushed the seat back as far as it would go so there was maximum leg room between him and the dash.

Callie hated to see him looking so darn comfortable. “We’re going to be out here all night?” Until dawn? “Is that the plan?” she asked incredulously.

“Looks like.” Cody turned slightly toward her and gave her a taunting smile. “Got a problem with that?”

Callie blew out a frustrated breath and swung around so her back was flush against the passenger door. Just because he planned to play sheriff all night didn’t mean she had to stay awake. According to the terms of Max’s will, all she had to do was stay near him. She looked hopefully behind the seat at the narrow cargo space on the floor and then at the bed of the truck. She saw no other bedrolls. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a sleeping bag or a blanket I could borrow.”

“No. And that’s another thing you gotta learn.” Cody waggled a lecturing finger her way. “As a rancher, you’re responsible for your own gear.”

A sharp retort played on the edge of Callie’s tongue.

He didn’t think she could handle it. Having failed in his efforts to sweet-talk her off the Silver Spur, he was now trying to scare her away. Well, it wasn’t going to work. Callie reached for the thermos of steaming coffee she’d brought along. “Fine. I’ll be responsible for my own bedroll then.” Now that it was too late for her to bring anything along. “You’re responsible for your own coffee.”

Cody slanted her a bad-boy grin. “Darlin’, I got my own beverage.”

Callie didn’t like the way he said that. She watched him reach past her and remove the flask from the glove compartment of his truck. “What’s in the flask?”

Cody regarded her unrepentantly as he uncapped it and took a long, thirsty swig. “Guess you’ll never know.”

Inwardly, Callie fumed, but outwardly she kept her face expressionless as Cody recapped his flask and reached for the rifle.

Her anger with him mounting, she watched as he checked to see if it was loaded. Unfortunately, it was. “You’re not planning to use that on anyone, are you?” she asked.

“Humans?” Cody put the safety on, double-checked it, then slid it carefully back in the gun rack behind the seat. “Not likely. But all nature of beasts are out here this time of night.”

Callie knew the wildlife in that area of Montana was plentiful. It included deer, elk, moose, even the occasional bear and coyote. “You can’t scare me, Cody, no matter what you say or do.”

“Fine. Then you won’t mind getting out of the cab so I can catch a little shut-eye.”

Callie blinked. He was carrying this a little too far, even for him. “And where, pray tell, am I supposed to go?” she asked.

Cody shrugged as he turned up the collar on his denim jacket. “That, my soon-to-be neighbor and once-and-future bride, is up to you.”

16:54

CODY STRETCHED OUT on the bench seat, propping his bedroll behind his head. He watched as Callie lowered the tailgate and climbed into the bed of the pickup truck. He wondered what she would think if she knew that the beverage he was drinking had been plain water. Not that it really mattered. There was no doubt about it. She was royally ticked off. Which made them just about even. He was ticked off, too.

Callie was keeping something from him, Cody thought. Maybe even more than he would ever care to know. She was doing it now. She’d done it when he’d known her before. He could tell by the way she wouldn’t look him in the eye, in her deliberate evasions and carefully worded answers to some of his questions.

There were some areas of her heart and life that were open to scrutiny. Other areas were strictly off limits. And that was what bothered Cody most. He wanted to love Callie with all his heart and soul. He admitted it.

But how could he love a woman who continually shut him out? Who told him only part of every story? Who kept things from him even now? Never mind contemplate marrying her, will or no will....

Cody didn’t know a lot about marriage, only what he’d witnessed between his parents as a child, but he knew one thing, he thought fiercely. His parents had shared everything with each other, even up to and including their death. There had been no secrets in his parents’ marriage. There would be none in his.

Furthermore, did she really think she could entertain another man in his house, right under his nose? Did she think she could go around lying to and deceiving him and he wouldn’t notice? An hour later, he still had an ache in his heart that wouldn’t quit. Of course it was his fault. Once again, he had ignored all the danger signs and allowed the two of them to get too close, too fast.

He hoped that staying out on the range all night would make her so mad at him it would be no hardship at all for them to stay apart. If she was still seeing red when they got married tomorrow, even better. With her considerable temper flaring, she was bound to walk out on him right away. At the very least she’d avoid him like the plague. And sooner or later, she’d realize she wasn’t cut out for this life and she would sell the bull’s-eye property back to him. He could build the house he had always dreamed of building. And with her out of his system once and for all, he could marry and settle down and have a family of his own. The fact that every time he envisioned his wife, he envisioned Callie was of no consequence, he told himself sternly. Nor was the fact they were already married and had been since Mexico.

He knew some would call it a sham wedding, but deep down it didn’t feel like a sham to him. And that went double since they’d now made love. Not as man and wife, as he’d hoped they would, but as two people who had been, and always would be, passionately in lust—or was it love?—with each other.

His only hope of surviving this situation emotionally was to get Callie out of his life again once and for all, Cody thought as he stared at the ferocious clouds above. And that was what he was determined to do.

CALLIE SAT IN ONE CORNER of the pickup bed, her back against the rear window of the passenger compartment. Cup of coffee in her hands, knees drawn up to her chest, she stared at the black sky overhead. The storm that had been closing in all evening was getting incredibly near. The wind was whipping up and in the distance she could hear the plaintive howl of a coyote. At least she assumed it was a coyote. She knew there was a lot of wildlife in territory this wild, and that it all liked to come out at night. For the moment, however, she was safe enough, since she doubted any wild animal would be ornery or clever enough to jump up over the closed tailgate and into the bed of the pickup with her. And if she was threatened, surely Cody would protect her.

Without warning, it began to rain. Callie swore as big fat drops fell on her head. In the distance, near the horizon, wicked lightning flashed. She turned around. Cody was wide-awake and drinking from that darn flask again. She knew he knew it was raining, yet he made no offer to let her come into the cab of the truck with him.

It began to rain harder. Callie took off her jacket and tented her head and shoulders with it. There was still no response from Cody. The next time lightning illuminated the sky, Callie began to count. When she hit three, an ominous roll of thunder followed. The storm was three miles away, but it was getting closer.

Adrenaline pumping in her veins, Callie looked around. She’d be damned if she would stay in the bed of the pickup like a sitting duck, regardless of what Uncle Max wanted. Will or no will, she was getting out of here.

CODY HEARD THE CREAK of the tailgate opening and knew he had won. Callie was going to come to him and beg to get inside the cab with him. He’d let her, of course, but only after she had told him everything she had been keeping from him so far. And the first thing he wanted to know was who she had been entertaining.

Noticing it was taking her an awfully long time to circle around to the front of the truck, Cody glanced in the rearview mirror. He was shocked to see Callie striding away from the truck, toward the woods.

Damn that woman, didn’t she know the trees were every bit as dangerous as the open plain?

Pushed into action, Cody vaulted out of the truck. “Callie, come back here!” he ordered grimly.

Pumping her arms and legs all the harder, she yelled back, “Go to hell!”

The pelting rain practically blinding him, Cody dashed around and planted himself directly in her path. Like her, he was getting very wet, very fast. “Where are you going?”

Callie balled her hands into fists at her sides. “Where do you think?”

Cody bit back an oath. His plans hadn’t included either of them getting wet, and he was uncomfortably aware of how her wet sweater clung to her breasts. “You may not have noticed,” he pointed out smoothly, “but you are headed into the storm, not away from it.”

Callie squared her slender shoulders and shrugged off his warning. “Can’t be any worse than what I’ve already suffered,” she announced stubbornly as the rain began to pour down on them in earnest.

Cody wanted nothing more than to pick her up and carry her back to the truck if need be, but he did not want to show he cared. She had enough of a hold on him as it was. On the other hand, trying to talk sense into her was something he would do for any of his hired hands under the same circumstances. Tipping the brim of his hat back with one finger, he regarded her patiently. “You’ll get struck by lightning,” he said calmly.

“Why should you care?” Callie countered thickly.

Cody couldn’t be sure but he thought those were tears running down Callie’s cheeks.

“You don’t care about me,” she accused, looking almost more miserable than he felt as lightning flashed overhead. “I don’t think you ever did.”

Cody swallowed as thunder rumbled in the sky.

She was getting to the heart of the matter, all right, but he saw no reason to do so in the torrential rain. Nor did he have any desire to get struck by lightning, which was getting closer all the time.

“Get in the truck, Callie,” Cody ordered grimly. If she wanted to continue discussing this, and he didn’t, they could do so somewhere safe.

“You get in the truck,” Callie countered, pivoting on her heel. Hands swinging at her sides, she marched away from him. “I’ve had enough of you for one evening!”

Cody snorted in derision and took off after her. Three paces, another flash of lightning and an almost simultaneous clap of thunder and he was at her side.

She swore. “I told you—I’m walking out of here.”

“Not in this storm, you’re not.” Putting an end to the argument once and for all, Cody scooped her up into his arms and flung her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She was damp, warm and completely resisting.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Callie pushed on his waist ineffectually.

His mouth set grimly, Cody headed for the truck. “What I should have done a long time ago. Taking you home.”

15:40

“ALL RIGHT, WILD MAN. You have proved your point.” Callie faced him in the ranch house kitchen. She was soaked to the skin and so was he.

Cody swept his hat off his head and sent it sailing across the room, where it landed with a crash. “Darlin’, I haven’t begun to prove my point.”

She knew that he was furious and he had no reason to be. Unfortunately, Callie couldn’t explain without incriminating herself further in his eyes. “I’m getting out of here.”

She headed for the back door. Cody moved to bar her way. Every virile inch of him braced for action, he folded his arms in front of him. “I thought we had settled this,” he said firmly, inclining his head toward the door behind him. “That storm is vicious.”

A warm rush of color suffused her cheeks. “You are not the boss of me, Cody McKendrick.”

He watched her closely. “Maybe not, but I still am not going to let anything happen to you. So you’re staying here, whether you like it or not, Callie.” As he completed his command, his voice dropped another emotional notch.

“Because of Uncle Max? And the will?” Callie challenged, scowling.

“Because of me.” Cody tossed off his soaked denim jacket. Wordlessly, he closed the distance between them and took her into his arms. Before she could protest, he lowered his head to hers and kissed her thoroughly, and he did not stop until she was soft against him, her mouth open beneath his. “I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you,” he confessed huskily at last.

Callie realized the impossible had happened. The old innately gallant Cody was back. Without warning, tears of happiness were streaming down her face. Her emotions were in tumult. “Oh, Cody—”

“‘Oh, Cody’ what?” he asked, baffled, as he smoothed the damp ends of her blond hair away from her face.

“It’s too late,” she said, crying. “Too late for us to go back and remake the past.”

“It’s never too late,” Cody disagreed softly.

As if to demonstrate that, he drew her into his arms and kissed her even more passionately. And while they were kissing, there was a brilliant flash of lightning, followed by a deafening crack of thunder, loud enough to drive them apart. And then the lights went out.

“THAT SOUNDED awfully close!” Extricating herself from Cody’s arms, Callie paused a moment to let her eyes adjust to the sudden blackness in the room, then rushed to the window. All she could see in the darkness of the night was the gusts of wind and the blowing rain. Shivering, she turned to Cody, who was looking out another window toward the same vantage point. “Did you see where it hit?” she asked anxiously.

Cody pointed to the mailbox at the end of his drive. Callie could see that the metal box had been split in two and knocked to the ground, and what was left of the wooden post was flaming. Thankfully, the rain was already putting the fire out.

Callie shivered uncontrollably as she realized that could have been her or Cody who had been struck if he hadn’t insisted they get out of the storm when they had. Realizing they were both drenched to the skin, Callie watched as Cody moved to a kitchen drawer and brought out a powerful flashlight. “I’ll call the power company,” he said. He dialed, then, frowning deeply, put the kitchen phone down. “On second thought, I won’t.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The phone is dead. It happens a lot when we get bad storms. I’m sure it’ll be fixed by morning.”

“How do you know it’s the lines and not just your phone?” Callie asked, shivering again, this time more from fear than cold, although the storm was still raging mightily.

Cody reached into his pocket and picked up his cellular phone. He dialed again, but there was too much static and interference on the line and the call did not go through. “Like I thought,” he said after he hung up. He folded the phone and put it on the counter. “You okay? You seem awfully jumpy.”

“It’s the storm.” And Buck and Pa and not knowing where they are or what they are up to now. She hoped they weren’t foolish enough to come back and try to take shelter here at the ranch house along with her and Cody. But she knew they were arrogant enough to try anything.

“Look. We’re dripping everywhere. Let’s get a bottle of brandy out of the pantry and get out of these wet clothes” Cody lit the way with the powerful beam of his flashlight. He stopped short as he opened the pantry door. “What the hell —”

Callie came up behind him. She saw what he saw and moaned. “Oh, no...” All their clothes were in a heap in the pantry and they had been doused with maple syrup, butter, catsup, mayonnaise, steak sauce...

Cody stared grimly at the mess. “Someone was here in our absence.”

“Apparently,” Callie murmured tightly, unable to hide the depth of her bitterness.

Cody laced an arm about her shoulders and gave her a hard, searching look. “You feeling okay?”

“Jim-dandy, under the circumstances,” Callie said wearily as even more tears welled in her eyes.

Expecting Cody to lash out at her and blame her for this, too, she stiffened her spine and braced herself for the tirade. Instead, he said gently, “You don’t look very good, Callie.”

Which wasn’t surprising, Callie thought. It looked as if absolutely every item of clothing she possessed, including the new things in her trousseau, were here, covered with sticky, smelly goo. And what if they weren’t alone? “Maybe we should check the house out first,” Callie suggested. Still shivering with the combined effects of the cold and shock, she edged away from him slightly. “Make sure everything else is okay.”

As Cody studied her, his gaze turned cautious. “You want to tell me what you think is happening here?”

Callie brushed by him and ignored the question. “I think we should check the rest of the house out to make sure whoever did this isn’t still here. Hopefully, it was just some teenage vandals playing a prank,” she concluded desperately.

“We don’t have teenage gangs or vandals out here, Callie.”

Ignoring his thoughtful gaze, Callie raced to the back door, which was somewhat illuminated by Cody’s flashlight. She checked around it, saw nothing and no one suspicious, then locked up. “I think we should check the entire house anyway,” she said. If Buck and Pa had done this, she was going to cart them off to the sheriff herself. “It won’t take long if we split up.”

“All right,” Cody said after a long pause. “You do this floor. I’ll check everything out upstairs, gather up some towels and blankets and be right back.”

As soon as he left, Callie saw movement outside the back door. Headed up the steps was Ray Anderson, the local sheriff. He had a yellow rain slicker on over his khaki uniform. A very honest and blunt-spoken man, he had been one of Max’s poker-playing buddies and a regular at Pearl’s diner when Callie had worked there during her teenage years.

“Callie?” He lifted the beam of his flashlight until they could see each other clearly. “Everything okay in there?”

Callie closed the door to the kitchen so they would not be overheard. Then she held the back door open and motioned the sheriff out of the storm and into the mudroom. She knew she had to trust someone. She figured it might as well be the law, since she was going to be talking to them eventually anyway. And Sheriff Anderson had had several run-ins with Buck and Pa years ago, when they were attempting to peddle their faulty insurance to senior citizens in the general area. Buck and Pa might never have given Sheriff Anderson reason enough to arrest them, but they had skated dangerously close to the edge more than once.

“No,” she said quietly, watching the rain drip off the brim of his hat. “It’s not.” Taking a quick breath before she could lose her nerve, she rushed on, “My pa and Buck are back in town. They were both here tonight. I saw Buck empty out Cody’s wallet. I’m not sure how much cash he got but I know he stole several credit cards.”

Sheriff Anderson focused on the way she was wringing her hands. “You saw this and you didn’t try to stop him?”

Callie was silent, ashamed. She lifted her hands in a helpless gesture. “I tried but he tripped me and shoved me away. Then Cody came back and—” Callie couldn’t go on.

“Does Cody know?”

“Only that they were stolen. Not who did it.”

“He called in to report the theft.”

“Yes. Before the storm hit.”

Sheriff Anderson studied her in silence. Finally, he said, “Cisco Kidd told me what’s going on, that you’ve asked him to find out about outstanding warrants on your kin. I checked. There are a few.”

“Good.” Callie drew a deep breath and wiped her eyes. “It’s what I figured.”

“So if you can tell me where they are, I’ll show up and arrest them. Get them out of your hair.”

“Thanks.”

“Before I do that, there’s something I need to know. Are you afraid of your brother, Callie?”

Tears gathering in her eyes, she nodded. She wanted to tell Cody everything about Buck and Pa’s sudden reappearance in her life, but she feared he would never understand, not in a million years. And that in turn made her want to leave before Cody ended up hating her, again. She knew she couldn’t bear it if they ended up more estranged than before.

“What about your pa? What’s he been up to?” Sheriff Anderson continued to press.

Callie gulped. That subject was even more complicated. She studied the rain-soaked toe of her boot. “He wants me to extort money from Cody.”

“And you refused?” Sheriff Anderson raised his voice slightly to be heard above the roar of the wind.

“Yes. But I know him. He’ll be back to try again. So will Buck. They’re even talking about implementing a Plan Two, whatever that is.” Callie only knew it sounded evil.

The sheriff frowned as lightning forked across the sky. “You think they’re responsible for the mischief on the ranch lately, the theft of the bull, the fire in the fields and so on?”

Callie nodded. “And some petty vandalism that was done inside the house tonight.”

Sheriff Anderson frowned. “What does Cody have to say about all this?”

“He doesn’t know it’s them, not for sure, anyway,” Callie said sadly.

“But you think he guesses.”

Callie thrust her hands in her pockets and shrugged. “At some of it. At least, he’s hinted as much.”

Sheriff Anderson was silent a long moment. “This must be pretty hard on you,” he said sympathetically at last. “Being caught between Cody and your family.”

Emotion tightened her throat as Callie shook her head in silent misery. “I keep thinking about my ma and how she would have expected the family to stay together, no matter what.” She would have expected Callie to be able to control Pa and Buck, the way she had. Of course, her ma had never expected that Pa and Buck would become as dangerous, or criminal, as they had.

“Sometimes you have to do what is right, even if it goes against what someone else wants,” the sheriff said gently. He looked behind him at the dark and stormy night before turning back to Callie. “You think those two are going to come back tonight?” he asked flat out.

Callie bit her lip. She hated to call out the cops to stand guard over them just yet. She and Cody were starting to get so close. She could feel it in the way he had kissed her. He might not want to want her, but he did. He might not want to protect her, but he couldn’t help that, either.

She looked up at Sheriff Anderson. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“With the telephone lines down, I’ve been handing out a few of these.” The sheriff reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, square, electronic device. He paused just long enough to punch in a code, then handed her a beeper. “I want you to keep this with you, Callie. If you see them, page me, and one of my deputies or I, whoever’s closest, will be out right away to haul them to jail. Meantime, I got other places to check on.”

“Thank you.”

The problem was, Callie wasn’t sure that simply arresting her kin for what were up to this point mostly misdemeanor offenses would do the trick. In fact, she realized miserably, if Pa and Buck spilled their guts about the Mexico debacle to everyone in town and made Cody a laughingstock of the community—or, worse, got off without even being convicted because of lack of concrete evidence against them—it might even make things horrible for Cody.

No, there was only one way to free Cody from Buck and Pa once and for all, now that she had alerted the sheriff to their presence. And that was for her to leave. Without her here, they would never be able to blackmail Cody again. Without her to use as a weapon against Cody, Buck and Pa would have no choice but to be arrested or leave, never to return again. Either way, they would be out of Cody’s life forever.