COCO AWOKE, EAGER to start the day—a feeling she’d never actually enjoyed before—and rolled over to awaken Rian with a passionate kiss that ended with a mischievous smile. God, he was gorgeous. Those sleepy eyes and stubborn mouth were enough to send her into orbit. There must be something magical about the Bradford Ranch because since arriving she’d been nothing but happy.
“What’s that for?” he asked, smiling, still half-asleep. “Not that I’m complaining.”
“I can’t wait to get up, get moving and start the day. Want coffee?” She started to hop out of bed but he caught her hand and pulled her back. “Oh! Rian!” she dissolved into a fit of giggles when he rubbed his stubble across her neck.
“What’s the rush?” he asked, his arm wrapped around her belly and holding her close. She could get used to this. He squinted at the morning sun streaming into the bedroom and sighed as if remembering there was work waiting for him. “There are some things I don’t miss about the country,” he admitted.
“I figured you’d be out of bed already to feed the cattle.”
“That’s Kane’s job. I left him to it.”
She noted the subtle sour note to his voice and she called him on it. “Everything okay between you and Kane?”
He sighed and rolled away, surprising her when he climbed from the bed, fabulously naked until he jerked on a pair of jeans, concealing the view of his perfect ass. He turned back to her, all sense of drowsy softness gone from his gaze. He pushed his hand through his hair in an agitated manner before scooping up a shirt and pulling it on. “Look, we have to talk.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“Yeah, it’s...not a great conversation.”
She lost her smile. “What do you mean? What’s going on? Is it something with my dad? Is he okay?”
“He’s fine. I’m sorry, it’s not about the case. Well, it sort of is, but it really has to do with us.”
Now she was confused. They’d spent half the night exhausting each other and the rest of the night curled in each other’s arms but she got the distinct impression that he was...breaking up with her. “Okay...so out with it,” she told him, trying not to show that she was shaking inside.
“We both knew that this was a temporary thing and, well, it was all good as long as no one knew about it, but Kane knows and I can’t risk the company’s reputation by continuing to mess around with you.”
“Mess around with me?” she repeated, stung. “Stop calling it that. I’m not a booty call.”
“You know I don’t feel that way,” he said, with the nerve to glower. “But we both knew that this wasn’t anything we were going to publicize.”
“Yeah, I know, but I thought that maybe things had changed,” she said, cringing at how stupid she sounded. Of course things hadn’t changed. She was just a convenient way to dip his wick. Fabulous. Her cheeks flared with embarrassed heat and she wanted to cry. So much for her wonderful morning.
“Things did change,” he admitted, seeming caught between a rock and a hard place, but she was out of sympathy. “I like you a lot, CoCo, but you have to admit that our worlds just don’t mesh, so what were we doing? We were playing with fire and I can’t afford to let the company get burned.”
“How nice of you to come to that revelation after we had sex,” she said coolly. “You could’ve let me know last night that you’d come to this decision instead of waiting until after you’d gotten laid.”
He winced. “I know it’s bad timing. I was going to tell you last night but then you were so excited about your sketches and I didn’t want to ruin the night.”
“Thank you for leading me on,” she said icily. “I feel so much better knowing that you offered me a pity romp in the sack for the sake of preserving my good mood.”
“Oh, c’mon, it’s not like that. You’re twisting my words all up.”
“No, that was pretty much exactly what you said. You’re the one saying this shit. I’m just the one flabbergasted at your nerve.”
“It’s not as if we were dating,” he reminded her. “We were just having a good time, right?”
“Sure, Rian. That’s exactly what we were doing.” But tears sprang to her eyes and she hated that she felt so broken at the idea of breaking up that she couldn’t stay another minute in that room with him for fear of embarrassing herself further by openly bawling. “Thanks for the memories,” she said and then bolted.
Rian was smart enough to stay behind.
* * *
KANE SAW COCO run down the stairs and exit through the front door, tears streaking her face, and he knew Rian must’ve delivered the news. He set his coffee cup down and caught Laci’s confused stare but before he could explain, Rian bounded down the stairs to glare at him as he said, “It’s done. Happy?” and then chased after CoCo, though in his opinion he should’ve let the girl walk off some steam. He returned to his coffee but Laci had put two and two together.
“What’d you do?” she asked, annoyed. “I have a feeling your hands are all over this one. Fess up. What’d you make that boy do?”
“He’s not a boy, he’s a man, and if he’d thought like a man, he wouldn’t have put himself in this position.”
“Answer me.” Laci propped her hands on her hips. “Please tell me you did not meddle in their relationship.”
“That’s exactly the problem. There shouldn’t have been a relationship. She’s a client. We have a hands-off policy and you know it. Without it, where’s the integrity? Trust me, it’s better this way. Less mess.”
“Sometimes life’s messy,” she said, slapping her oven mitt down. “And you of all people should know that. And while I understand that you have to do things to protect your reputation, if you can’t see that your brother is in love with that woman, you’re blind as a bat.”
He scoffed. “In love? Not hardly. I know you’re a romantic at heart and you like to play matchmaker but Rian’s a player, not a guy comfortable with a commitment. I’m doing that poor girl a favor.”
“Kane Dalton, that’s not your job to judge. Shame on you for being a meddling fool in business that’s none of your concern. You’re right, Rian is an adult, so you better let him make his own choices instead of bullying him into making choices that you think are right for him. He loves her. And you just made him break up with her. Sort of like when my daddy made you break up with me. How’d that make you feel?”
Damn the woman had a sharp tongue but a sharper mind. Was he making the same mistake? But Rian had known better! “Rian knew not to mess with a client,” he said stubbornly. “This is on him, not me.”
“Has Rian ever broken that rule before?” she asked, crossing her arms and glaring.
“No,” he had to admit.
“Then what makes you think he would lightly trip over something so big? He didn’t mean to fall in love, you big dolt. No one does. That’s the beauty of it. I spent a good portion of my time last night after dinner convincing that poor girl to take a chance and then you sent Rian to crush her heart, making me out to be a liar!”
Aw, hell. How was he supposed to know what the women were laughing and carrying on about in the kitchen after dinner? The tips of his ears burned but his stubborn tongue refused to admit he’d stepped over the line. Not that he had to. Laci was burning a hole in his head with that blazing fury directed straight at him. “This is just the way it has to be—”
“Bullshit. Don’t you go selling me a bag of goods when you know full well you screwed up and put your nose where it didn’t belong. I can’t believe you, Kane. Your brother is a good man and you need to trust that he can handle himself. And for the record, I like her. I like her a lot. She’s spunky and courageous and she isn’t put off by that Dalton obstinate streak that’ll likely be the death of you both!”
Laci scooped up her oven mitt and marched back to the kitchen, leaving him slack-jawed at the verbal ass-chewing she’d just given him. How am I the bad guy in this? He thought of Rian and how up to this point he’d never so much as crossed a toe over the line in spite of being a consummate player, always keeping things professional in spite of the aggressive women that sometimes waved their tails beneath his nose, and he realized he might’ve overreacted to the situation.
He took the last swallow of coffee in his mug and prepared to make amends, if only to get back in the good graces of his wife, but as he walked to the screen door and stepped out on the porch everything seemed to move in slow motion as shots rang out and CoCo, emerging from the barn, crumpled to the ground, and Rian dived to cover her fallen body with his own.
“Stay back!” he said to Laci when she came running. “Go to the bedroom and lock the door!”
Laci didn’t waste time arguing and fled up the stairs. He reached into the armoire by the door and pulled his gun. Who the hell was out there? And how did they find the ranch?
* * *
“WHAT THE HELL have you done?” Rian screamed, holding pressure against CoCo’s stomach where a fountain of blood was spilling onto the dust. He looked at the stranger walking toward him, the man’s gun pointed straight at him, but he didn’t care about dying. He’d let CoCo down. He’d brought her all the way to Kentucky and she’d been shot anyway!
Tears blinded him but he had to keep pressure on the wound. “Who are you? Why have you done this? What’d she ever do to you?” He was babbling, losing his cool and his training, but he’d never held the woman of his dreams dying in his arms before and he lost all sense of objectivity. He was at a disadvantage. He could only hope that Kane could get to him before the man blew his head off, too.
“The entire Abelli line deserves to die for being the thieving liars they all are,” the man said with a thick Italian accent. “Her father stole my father’s work and passed it off as his own. Then pushed my father out of the company without so much as a penny for his vision. We lived in poverty while Enzo’s star rose. Enzo Abelli is a thief and a crook. His blood will run with his daughter’s but first, he must know loss.” He cocked the gun and leveled it at Rian with a dispassionate stare. “Goodbye, Mr. Dalton.”
A second shot rang out but when Rian expected to feel the rip of a bullet tearing through his flesh, the Italian dropped to the ground in a heap. Rian whipped his gaze around, shocked to see Warren with his smoking shotgun.
“Son of a bitch comes onto my land and starts shooting up the people I love? Not happening on my watch! Adeline, call 911, the girl’s been hit.”
Rian sagged with relief at not being dead but the feeling was short-lived as CoCo was still leaking like a sieve and growing paler by the minute. Good God, she was going to die in his arms. He saw Kane run out and do a quick perimeter search to make sure the Italian had been working alone.
Kane jogged over to Rian, concern in his eyes. “She’s going to make it, buddy,” he promised, though his eyes told another story.
Tears blinded Rian as he tried to keep CoCo from bleeding out, but there was so much blood. A gut shot... It was usually a game ender. “I don’t know where he came from. He just popped out of his car and shot her. I wasn’t paying attention. It’s my fault. It’s my fault!”
“Stop it!” Kane said sternly, getting his attention. “We don’t have details and in the absence of details we deal in facts. What we know is that he’s dead and he’s not going to hurt anyone else. Now we have to focus on CoCo.”
Rian jerked a nod and swallowed, getting a hold of himself. The sound of ambulance sirens splitting the air sent a wave of shaky relief through him. Kane waved the ambulance over and it stopped short of Rian and CoCo in a puff of dust as the sheriff deputies rolled in behind the ambulance. It was a three-ring circus but Rian only cared about CoCo.
Why’d he let her go off by herself into the barn? Why’d he go and do something as stupid as saying he wanted to end things? If he’d just kept his mouth shut, they would’ve been in the bedroom still, and maybe they would’ve seen the strange Italian pull up and they could’ve stopped him. Too many questions without answers. He climbed into the ambulance with CoCo, refusing to leave her. He didn’t care who the man was at the moment. He just wanted to make sure CoCo was going to be okay. They’d find the answers to everything else later.
Fight, baby. Fight.