Chapter Seventeen
Becky’s head throbbed, her throat so sore it hurt to breathe. Sophie screamed in her car seat. They were both as sick as dogs. It took all her strength to get her baby into the house. She felt her baby’s head—fever. Her poor girl.
“Mommy will fix it.” She got out the liquid Tylenol and double checked to make sure she gave her the correct dose.
Jiggy stuck close to Becky as she gave Sophie a bath and then tried to get her to nurse. Her little nose was stuffed up and she cried in frustration. Saline, suction, and a vaporizer finally soothed her and Sophie fell asleep. They were both so tired, Becky put her in bed with her. Jiggy curled up with them.
Becky rubbed his ears, a wave of love for her pet threatening to make her cry. Again. But she couldn’t cry or her own nose would stuff up miserably. She’d accepted the offer on the trailer, talked to the lawyer, and sold her mom’s rings at a pawn shop and returned to the lawyer’s office to give that money to her.
She’d bought them time.
Just don’t think about the rings. Or Logan. God, just don’t think.
Her head was swimming with throbbing agony, her arms so heavy. “Make sure I wake up if Sophie cries.”
Jiggy licked her hand.
Finally, Becky closed her eyes, willing herself to rest. Tomorrow she’d get them someplace safer. Tomorrow…
“Stop. Please.” The barking stabbed her brain. So loud it ricocheted in her skull like a pinball machine. She couldn’t bear it. Something tugged on her shirt.
Becky swam up through heavy fatigue. Something niggling at her brain. But she was so tired.
A sharp pain cut through her confusion. She forced her weighty eyelids up. “Jiggy?” She struggled to get her bearings. Her dog was shaking her shirt like a rag doll. He must have caught her skin when he’d bitten her shirt. “What?”
Sophie lay next to her and—a thick, sickeningly familiar scent seared Becky’s nose and throat.
Smoke. Oh God. The trailer was on fire. Becky grabbed her baby, hit the ground, and tried to crawl while carrying Sophie. They had to get out.
…
“She’d better be there.” Logan’s frustration hit the nuclear zone as he swung the truck around and headed toward Becky’s trailer. He’d gone there a few hours ago and it had been empty except for Jiggy. If the dog was there, Becky would be going back, but he hadn’t been able to wait. He’d been running all over Dallas checking the places she might go—the offices of her doctors, lawyer, and realtor—he kept missing her.
“Don’t growl at me because you lost your wife,” Sienna’s voice through his truck’s Bluetooth jerked him back to their conversation. “The wife that not one of us knew about.”
He’d had to confess everything to get Sienna to cooperate and track Becky’s phone GPS. Once a Marine’s administrative assistant didn’t break laws and hack into secure sites unless she believed the cause was worthy. “I have to find her. She doesn’t know that I want our marriage to be real.”
“Ease up, cowboy. I’m looking right at her phone’s GPS coordinates. She’s at the trailer. You charmed her into that ridiculous contract, you can charm her into keeping you.”
Could he? He ground his jaw. “I had leverage then. She’d do anything for her baby. She trusted me to keep them both safe from Dylan.” And now she was alone, no protection. Anxiety gripped his shoulders and neck, pushing him to hurry. “While they were at the ranch, they were safe. A punk like Dylan isn’t going to tangle with me.”
“You think he’d go after her if he knew she was alone?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t do shit to find out.” God, he was pissed at himself. He’d been so focused on his own goals, so sure that his money and name would help Becky get full custody, he hadn’t done anything more to find out. “The only good news is he probably doesn’t know she left the ranch.”
“You sure he doesn’t know? The Ridgemonts own Ridgemont Communications…their holdings include a huge cell phone division.”
The hairs stood up on his neck. If Si could track the GPS on Becky’s phone, so could the Ridgemonts. “Goddammit.” Calm the hell down. “Dylan’s not going to do anything. He hasn’t made a move since he found out she was married to me. And there’s the custody case. If he tries anything, it’ll backfire.”
“Think he really wants his kid?”
“No, he wants revenge on Becky and to make Sophie go away.” Becky had told him Dylan didn’t want Sophie, and he’d threatened her and Sophie that first day he’d approached her in the parking lot. “I think his family wants her to clean up Dylan’s mess. But the social worker is all over them, just like she is us. He can’t take a chance.”
“Come on, you’re rich. When you don’t want to do a job yourself, you—”
“Hire it out.”
“Damn it, Logan, you should have called us in on this right from the start.”
“I’m asking you for help now, Sienna. Get the guys on Dylan, rip his life apart, and find out if he’s got anyone watching Becky. Get everything you can.”
“You really do care about her.”
He turned down her little street and slowed by her trailer. “More than anyone or any—oh fuck.”
“What?”
“Smoke.” He saw a glow through the front window. His pulse jacked. Heart pounded. His mind cleared to razor sharp. “Trailer’s on fire, call it in.”
Logan shot out of the truck and ran up the steps to the front door. Sounds of flames crackling warned him, but he felt the door. Hot. He wasn’t getting in this way. Was that Jiggy barking? No time.
He ran around to the carport side of the trailer, cleared the steps, and pressed his palm to the door. Little warm. Tried the lock—open. He’d think about why that door was unlocked after he got his girls out.
As soon as he opened the door, he saw flames and smelled gasoline. Quickly, he assessed the flames roaring in the living room and heading for him in the kitchen doorway. Go. He raced in, hooked a right to the hall. The heat behind him was intense. “Becky!”
A bark. Right there in front of him. Logan dropped to his hands and knees and grabbed Jiggy’s collar. “Show me.”
The dog shot forward. Smoke rolled down the hall, filling every crevice. Flames crackled menacingly. They weren’t going out the way he came in.
Didn’t matter. He had to find them.
Jiggy led him straight, bypassing the baby’s room into what had been Becky’s mom’s room.
A cough. They were in there.
Logan kicked the door closed, got to his feet and duck-walked to the noise in front of him. Using his cell phone light, he saw Becky at the waist high window, fighting to open it.
He angled the phone light to the floor. Sophie lay at her feet, barely crying. Logan shot to his full height and grabbed Becky by the arms. She flailed, trying to fight him in an adrenaline fueled panic. “Becky, it’s me. Logan.”
“The window won’t open.” Her voice was thin, broken. “Don’t let Sophie burn. Not my baby, too.”
Too. Like her family.
Her broken words ripped his heart out of his chest. He nudged her aside, and grabbed the window. Didn’t budge.
Using his phone light, he saw the nail holding it shut. No time. “On the floor with Sophie. Hold the dog.” He ripped the bedspread off and covered them. Then he wrapped his arm in his jacket and shattered the window. Shoved out all the pieces, and with another blanket he covered the remaining glass. “I’m handing you out first.”
Flames licked beneath the door.
His heart pounded viciously. If that door went, and with the window open feeding the flames oxygen, they would burn. He scooped up Becky, got her out and on the ground.
Thank God.
He handed out Sophie and Jiggy. It was going to be a tight fit for him. Flames exploded through the door with a roar. Logan dove out the window, hit the ground, picked up his wife and daughter and got away as sirens cut through the night.
…
Becky didn’t have her phone, wallet, money, or even her shoes. She sat on the hospital bed, holding her sleeping daughter.
She still didn’t know how Logan had ended up at her trailer, saving them from the fire. Once they got out, all hell broke loose. Fire trucks and police cars screamed to a stop in front of the fully engulfed trailer. The paramedics got there soon after and wanted to take Sophie to the hospital as a precaution.
Logan stayed with Jiggy, swearing to take care of him.
The doctors determined Sophie and Becky had a virus and appeared okay otherwise after the fire. They treated both Becky and Sophie’s viral symptoms, and now Sophie was asleep. All Becky had to do was figure out who to call to come get them, where to go, and how to survive.
Had her car made it through the fire? Even if it did, the keys were in her purse, which she assumed burned with everything else she owned. Besides, she couldn’t sleep in a car with her sick baby. She had nothing, not even diapers for Sophie.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw flames and tasted bile.
“Becky.”
She jumped at his voice.
Logan stood at her bedside. His dark hair was shoved back, his clothes torn and bloody.
Bloody. “You’re hurt.” Her gaze shot back to his face. A cut slashed over his cheekbone, and his arms and hands had more injuries. She’d been sitting here thinking about herself and he’d been hurt.
“It’s nothing.” He laid his hand on Sophie’s back. “Doctor said she’s okay.” He lifted his eyes to hers.
She loved his light green eyes, tried to drink them in. Imprint them forever. “I didn’t wake up. Neither of us did. We were sick. Jiggy woke me.” Where was her little guy? “Where is he?”
“He’s at a house. Safe. He’s fine, I promise.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. “Don’t take him from me. Please, I’ll find a place that takes dogs.” She wasn’t being rational, knew in her heart Logan would never take her dog from her, but she couldn’t help it. It was just too much. How ironic that she’d finally sold the trailer and it burned down. Freaking perfect.
“Don’t cry, sweetheart. No one is taking Jiggy from you.” He sat on the bed. “I meant that Jiggy is at the house we secured for you. He’s waiting for you. He can’t come in the hospital or I’d have brought him with me.”
Relief sagged through her. “Somewhere for us to stay? Me and Sophie? I don’t have my purse, or ID, or ATM card to get money out. I pawned my mom’s rings, but I gave that money to the lawyer.”
His jaw clenched. “I’ve been searching for you. I had Sienna track the GPS on your phone. You wouldn’t answer my calls or texts. I had to find you.”
“Why? Why would you risk it? Your dad is going to hear about this.”
His eyes blazed. “I’d never let him hurt you, Becky. Ever. Brody drew up the paperwork, I signed over my land and the buildings to my dad. Camp Warrior Recovery is on hold.”
His words ran together in her head, formed clumps, and spun. It didn’t make sense. The whole reason he wanted the deal was to get the permanent deed to his land so he could build the camp. “Logan, no. Your land and camp is everything to you.”
“Wrong.” He stretched his legs out next to her and pulled her into his side. “You have no reason to believe this, but I know I screwed up. I’m your husband, the one person in the entire world you should know has your back. But you didn’t know that because I didn’t have the guts to tell you I love you. You really thought I’d choose the land over my girls?”
His girls?
“You love me?” As soon as the words were out, she was desperate to call them back. She was sick, had a fever, had been through a fire, and was probably hearing things out of pure desperation.
Rubbing his hand on her arm, he said, “I don’t think I understood how much I love you until I came home and found you gone. You’ve had a horrible night and a rough few days. I don’t expect you to forgive me right away, but I’m asking you to give me a chance to prove that I love you and can be worthy of you. I’m going to protect you until I know you and Sophie are safe. That part is not negotiable—the fire tonight wasn’t an accident, it was purposely set in your living room.”
Becky was still trying to take in that he was here and loved her. Wanted to prove himself when his last sentence sank in. “Someone was inside my trailer?”
“Yes.” A nerve ticked in his jaw. “The windows were all nailed shut. They used an accelerant, probably gasoline.”
The horror caused her to lean into him, seek his strength, his warmth. Memories of the fire that took her father and brother swirled with tonight’s events. “I’m scared.”
Logan put his arm around Becky’s shoulders. “You’re not alone. I’m staying with you. My friends from Once a Marine are on their way as we speak and already working on the case.”
She tipped her head up, cold determination forming in her gut. “It’s Dylan. He tried to kill his own child.”
“He went after my wife and child. I’m going to destroy him. He’ll never threaten you again.”
“Yours? Even Sophie?”
He brushed her hair back, his mouth kicking up at the corners. “She had me the minute I held her in my arms on the horse.”
Logan had come for them. It was starting to fully sink in. “You really gave up your land? For us?”
The fury in his eyes melted into warm pools. “I gave up my heart for you. It’s yours. The land and my dreams are nothing without you to share them with.”
Her heart swelled. She was sick, dirty, and homeless, but she had a real family.
…
Logan leaned against his truck parked outside the Lustor Nightclub. He had a score to settle.
“I can’t figure it out.” Hunter Reece shifted, his cold-eyed stare scanning the parking lot. “Where the hell does your pretty little wife put all that food she eats? Never seen a woman eat so many fajitas. I mean they were good, but damn.”
Logan smiled despite the reason they were there. “Becky was starving today. She and Sophie are feeling better.” Becky had lost a few pounds, but judging by the way she’d attacked dinner they’d cooked together for his friends, she’d get back up to fighting weight soon.
“She’s a special woman, and that baby…man that kid’s got some killer eyes on her. If she ends up with her mom’s smile?” Hunt shoulder bumped him. “You’re going to need my sniper skills when she’s a teenager and starts dating.”
“Oh hell no. Sophie’s not dating.” God. Just the thought… Nope.
A truck pulled into the parking lot, slid into a spot, and cut the engine. Dylan jumped out and swaggered toward the VIP entrance.
Time to focus on the job. Okay, technically this wasn’t part of the job; this was pure revenge and staking out his territory.
Becky and Sophie belonged to him.
Logan shadowed the man across the parking lot to the back VIP entrance door. Just as Dylan reached for the door, Logan sprang, grabbing his wrist and spun him.
“What the hell?” Dylan froze as recognition cut off his outrage. “Knight.”
“That’s Mr. Knight to you, ass wipe.”
Understanding filled his eyes. Backed in a corner, Dylan puffed up his chest. “You can’t harass me like this.”
“Okay, then how about like this?” Logan grabbed Dylan’s shirt, lifted him off the ground, took three steps, and slammed him against a wall.
Shock dropped Dylan’s mouth open.
Logan got serious. “I’d love to rip your fucking face off, so if I were you, I’d shut up and listen. You’re done, Ridgemont. You’re going back to prison and all your lawyers and family connections won’t be worth piss.”
Calculation chased out some of the fear in the bastard’s eyes. “You’re bluffing. They’re going to clear my name. Prove that bitch was driving—”
Logan jerked him forward and slapped his head back up to the wall. “You’re a real slow learner, Ridgemont. That bitch is my wife and I’ll kill for her. Which, by the way, I’m trained to do.”
Hunter leaned his shoulder against the wall, facing Dylan. “Logan is real messy about his killings, too. See, now me? I like the clean shot. It’s what makes me an excellent sniper. But cowboy here? He gets all enraged and does really gross things with his knife…makes me want to puke.” He sighed. “Sometimes I take the kill shot because that screaming just grates on my nerves.”
Dylan swung his head back and forth. “You can’t touch me. I’ll file charges—”
“Do that when the police come to arrest you for attempted murder of Becky and Sophie.”
He shook his head. “You’ve got nothing.”
Logan leaned in so close, he could smell the expensive alcohol and rancid sweat. Silently he thanked his Once a Marine buddies—they’d found the goods on Dylan. “Garrett Lunger has been arrested. Turns out, he wants to save his own skin. He’s told the cops and D.A. all about the man who hired him to kill Becky and Sophie.” In a fire meant to terrify Becky in her last moments. Logan wanted to hurt this rat bastard in a bad way.
The color leeched from Dylan’s boyish face. His hands on Logan’s arms slipped off. Panting like a caged animal, he blurted out, “No. I don’t know him. Cops can’t connect me.”
Sirens blared as cars pulled into the nightclub. Dylan struggled, trying to escape.
Logan’s rage fought his self-control. The need to beat Dylan into a mass of pure agony, then lock him in a room and set it on fire pounded in his brain.
“Stand down, cowboy. You’re just holding him for the cops.”
Hunter’s calm voice cut through the red haze demanding vengeance. For Sophie’s sake, they had to do this legal or he’d jeopardize Becky getting full custody. The cops would overlook this little chat, but if he crossed any real lines…
Logan dropped his hands and stepped back.
The police swarmed in. A uniform spun Dylan, shoved his face against the wall, and cuffed him. “Dylan Ridgemont you are under arrest for…”
It was over. Logan walked away. It was time to go home.
…
“It’s really over.”
Logan eyed his wife hugging herself and gazing out the window into the dark night. “The nightmare with Dylan, yes. You’ll get custody. Sophie will be safe.”
She nodded, but said nothing else.
Logan had been patient for three days. Becky had been sick and when he wasn’t taking care of her and Sophie, he’d been working the case with all his friends. He’d also made sure to notify the courts and social worker of their address change.
And every night, Becky slept in his arms.
But what would happen once the custody case was final in just two weeks? Would Becky fully forgive him for not putting her first when he should have? It’d be so much easier if he could keep supporting her, if she needed him to provide for her and her daughter. Then he’d have more time to get her to love him enough.
His mother had loved him, but not enough. Indigo could have stopped touring and lived nearby, gotten her life together and proved to the courts she could be a mother. She hadn’t done that. It hadn’t been until he’d seen what Becky would give up for Sophie that he’d finally realized the truth.
His mother was a flake. She’d kept Logan as long as he fit her life, but she wouldn’t change for him.
Becky had given up her dream of being a nurse, or at least put it on hold, and kept Sophie. She’d cared for her dying mother with a newborn. Becky stuck when she loved.
He wanted her love to be real, the kind that stuck no matter what happened—even when he screwed up. He had to give her the chance to choose, free of financial pressures and worries about her daughter.
Enough. Logan went to his dresser and got out the first item. Going to Becky he put his arms around her. “This is yours.”
She tilted her head down.
He opened the small square box.
She gasped. “Logan. My mom’s rings.” Her hand trembled as she took out the two gold bands with the single diamond. She lifted her gaze. “I thought they were gone.”
“I had Brody buy them back as soon as the pawn shop opened the next morning.” He turned her, sliding the rings on her right hand. “You won’t sell them again.”
“Thank you.” Tears spilled over her cheeks. “They are all I have left of all of them. Everything else is gone. But when I look at these, I remember not only my mom, but my dad and Tyler, too.” She threw her arms around him. “Thank you so much.”
He pulled her tight, wanting to bind her to him forever. “It’s my pleasure, baby. You can give them to Sophie someday, and she’ll have a piece of her grandmother.”
She showed him her tear filled brown eyes. “You understand.”
“I do.” Framing her face with his palms he wiped her tears. Becky smiled and cried and rarely hid what she felt. He loved that, but he wanted to be the one to kiss her smiles and wipe her tears. “I have something else that’s yours.” He handed her a folder.
She frowned. “What is it?”
“Your savings account with fifty thousand in it. There’s another smaller account for Sophie.”
The blood drained from her face. “You’re leaving?” She shook her head and shoved it back at him. “I don’t want this. I don’t want your money.”
He tossed it to a chair. “Listen to me, I’m staying. I love you and Sophie. I will do everything in my power to keep you both. You’re my family.”
“Then why?”
“I want you to love me enough to stay, not because of what I can give you. You’re both free, you have enough money, you don’t have to stay.” He wasn’t sure if this was making sense, but he’d held back from her once, tried to protect his heart, and Becky had ended up alone and not knowing how he felt. Never again. So he told her the ugly truth. “No one’s ever loved me enough to stay.”
“I do and so does Sophie. You’re her father.” She closed her eyes, regret squeezing her face. “I only left because your father threatened Sophie. Otherwise, I’d have talked to you.” When she opened her eyes, gold shimmered in her orbs. “I would have fought him for you, but Sophie is a baby. I have to protect her first.”
“Damn right. Don’t ever change that, Becky. It’s one of the things I love about you. You didn’t know what I’d do to keep you and Sophie safe. The difference is now we can protect her together. You won’t ever have to wonder where I stand—I stand with you to protect our daughter.”
Not long ago, those words—father and daughter—would have terrified him. Now they gave him his dream, the one he hadn’t even wanted to admit to himself. “You’re my family.”
“We are.” She burrowed into his arms, all her soft curves fitting against him. “I love you, Logan. I won’t leave again.”
The moment was perfect.
She looked up. “But you have another family. I invited Pricilla and Pam over tomorrow.”
His face hardened. “No. And I don’t want to talk about them. This is our time.”
“That wasn’t a question, cowboy. This is my home too and I want them here.”
“You forgive them?”
She shrugged in that thin robe. “There’s nothing to forgive. They thought I was using you for money. They love you, Logan. They barely knew me.”
Oh, he wasn’t letting them off that easy. “They lived in our house for over a week because you’re so tender hearted. They knew you well enough.”
“Forgive them, Logan. All they did wrong was defend you. Abby’s coming, too.”
He stared at her, his sweet girl with so many layers. “You’re not going to budge on this, are you?” Becky had a spine of steel.
“I love you too much to let you throw away your family. And before you start ranting, your father isn’t invited. I’m pissed as hell at him. He should never have let you sign your land over to him. That camp is important.”
He couldn’t help it, he smiled. “You’re sexy when you defend and take care of me.”
“You’re mine. I take care of what’s mine. Tomorrow is for family. Tonight…” She stepped back and let her robe slide off her shoulders, “is just for us.”