Chapter Six
While Olivia talked with Nakos outside the barn, Nate leaned against an ATV a few feet away and crossed his arms. Several sections of pre-cut pine were lying in a trailer attached to the vehicle, and he was supposed to be heading out to the southern pasture to replace fence posts with Olivia.
Except, just like she’d been doing a lot lately, she was hedging on working with him. For the past two weeks, while he followed her around doing this and that, getting familiar with the ranch, she’d barely spoken to him, never mind looked him in the eye. If learning a new skill required a hands-on approach, she’d delegated it to her foreman to teach Nate. It was starting to piss him off, but he’d mucked this up all on his own.
Put them alone together, and she high-tailed her perfect ass from the vicinity. Accidentally bump one another? She jumped like she’d been electrocuted and created more distance than the Grand Canyon. Try to start a conversation, and he swore she bit her tongue to force one word answers.
The damnedest part of all was, her behavior didn’t appear to be nervousness or her acting skittish, but rather her countering as if that was what he wanted. She’d somehow regressed back to before they’d sat on her porch his first evening in town and formed a tentative bond. After that night in her kitchen, when he’d nearly lost his mind and succumbed to his baser needs, it was like she thought he didn’t want to be around her.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
In reality, the only thing he had to look forward to when he climbed out of bed was her. The addicting smile. The lilt of her voice. Those eyes...
The separation was, no doubt, for the best. They’d been getting a little too...close and, Christ knew, he didn’t deserve a shred of the happiness she brought him. And yet, all he wanted was more of her. More everything.
Every. Waking. Moment.
And damn, but she’d helped with his nightmares. Or, Bones had, based on her suggestion. Since switching the doors around and letting the dog sleep with him, Nate was able to slip into a deeper REM knowing Bones would wake him at the first stirrings of trouble.
“It’s the last ATV, little red.” Nakos adjusted his black cowboy hat. “We’re short as it is since most of the men had to double up in order to keep half the horses back for shoe replacement. The vet’s coming next week for a six-month check.”
Nate glanced heavenward, attempting to stay out of it. Again, he was torn between wanting to make things right and needing to keep her at bay. Sun beat on his face and a cool breeze swept down from the mountain, bringing the scent of pine to override hay.
Nakos sighed. “Is everything okay?”
Out of the corner of his eye, Nate watched Olivia carefully. But her only answer was a duck of her head and a nod. Early morning light hit her auburn strands, which she had tied at her nape in a braid. Between that and her fair complexion, she looked like an angelic version of a cowgirl. A fitted green flannel shirt, tight as sin jeans, and knee-high brown boots added to the image.
That was the other thing. She showed very little skin, but thanks to their episode in the kitchen, he knew what lay underneath and how freakin’ fantastic she felt up against him.
She shielded the sun from her eyes with her hand. “I’ll stay back and shoe the horses. You’d be more productive fixing fence sections, anyway.”
Nakos gave Nate a once-over and disbelievingly eyed her. “Are you sure?”
“Yep.”
“Whatever you want.” Nakos thrust his thumb in the direction of the barn. “Supplies are out. Radio me if you need anything.”
Nate straightened and waited for Nakos to mount the ATV before climbing on behind him. He held the back of the seat, giving the foreman room to maneuver as Nakos drove them over the plains to the southern pasture. Which took twenty minutes. It still floored Nate how much land encompassed Cattenach Ranch.
So much...breathing room. Honestly, he couldn’t remember a time in his life where he could freely breathe. It was a luxury never afforded to him.
Parking next to the first post in a very long succession of fencing, Nakos dismounted while Nate glanced around. Olivia hadn’t taken him this far south yet. The Laramie Mountains were clearer, peaking over the horizon like a fortress. Yellow grass in every possible direction was turning green as several heads of steer grazed over a slight hill. A two-story log cabin dotted the landscape just west.
“Is that your place?” Nate jerked his chin toward the house.
“Yes.” The foreman unloaded two pine sections from the trailer and surveyed the fence. There was roughly eight feet between posts, with two horizontal boards making up the enclosure itself. “Mae had the place built when my family came to work for the Cattenachs.”
“When was that?” The way Nate figured it, he and the guy had to get along if Nate was gonna stick around. Olivia throwing them together today seemed as good an opportunity as any to get to know him better.
“We left the reservation a year after the accident that killed Olivia’s parents. We were nine. My parents moved back to the reservation when Justin enlisted.” Nakos went to the trailer and hauled out a toolbox, then lumbered to the fence once again. “This whole section needs replacing. We can work down the line.”
“Okay.” Nate followed the foreman’s cues. They used a sledgehammer on the boards that were rotten or loose, then Nate held the new section while Nakos nailed them in place. They got a few done before Nate spoke again. “Where’s the reservation?”
“Between here and the Thunder Basin National Grasslands.” Nakos pointed due north. “Arapaho tribe.”
Nate had never heard of it. He and Justin had served with a guy who was part Cherokee, but that was the extent of Nate’s knowledge on Native Americans. “What’s that phrase you say to Olivia every morning?”
“Hebe? It means hello.” The foreman grunted as he nailed a board in place. “The elders are trying to teach new generations the tongue. Only about half speak it now.”
Three hours later, Nakos tossed Nate a bottle of water from the back of the ATV and checked the satellite phone. Only two transmissions had come through the radio, but Nakos was hell-bent on watching that, too.
Removing his ball cap, Nate swiped sweat from his brow with his forearm and replaced the hat. “You’re awfully protective of her.”
Nakos stared at the land and sighed. “You would be, too, if you knew her better.”
More than a little shocked the foreman wasn’t jumping down Nate’s throat at the comment, he crossed his arms. “What does that mean?” Olivia seemed more than capable. He hadn’t witnessed her taking any unnecessary risks. Besides, he’d just met her and he’d take a bullet if it meant saving her gorgeous ass. He didn’t need to know her any better. The situation was already amped to DEFCON One.
Nakos passed Nate a small bag of chips and dropped to the ground, leaning his back against a post. “She doesn’t like to be a burden, so by the time she does ask for help, she’s neck-deep in a problem. She cares. About everything and everyone. Too much, which means she rarely pays attention to her own needs.”
Nate sat next to the foreman and drew his legs up, resting his elbows on his knees. “Could have worse traits than that.”
“No argument there.” With a nod, Nakos dug into his chips and chewed. “But add in the fact she’s got no one but Mae left, who’s watching out for Olivia while she takes care of everyone else?” He tossed his hat by his hip and ran his fingers through the short black ponytail at his nape. “When we were twelve, we went swimming by the creek up at Devil’s Pass. She found this deer trapped in the barbed fence and rescued the thing. Once free, it got spooked and kicked her. She tumbled down the incline and broke her ankle. I was tempted to knock her unconscious just to carry her back. Nope. She had to walk herself.” His gaze grew distant. “It still gives her fits sometimes, the ankle.”
He hadn’t really said anything Nate didn’t already know about her personality, but he was getting a glimmer of their dynamic and how far back it went.
In the military, Nate had to depend on and trust his unit or men died. Sometimes it had seemed like they’d been dropped at the ends of the earth and left there. But he’d never, not once, had a person in his life that came close to what Olivia and Nakos shared. Nate had been in town for under a month, and he cared about her more than he should. Tack on twenty-one years like she and the foreman had together, and Nate would probably have her in bubble wrap in a locked room. His, the only key.
“I’m not the only one protective of her, either.” Up went Nakos’s brows. “Are you the pot or the kettle?”
Wiping a hand down his face, Nate huffed a laugh. “Touché. But why aren’t you two married with kids? You obviously care about her.”
“She never looked at me the way she does you. Yes, I’ve got eyes.” He rose and took Nate’s wrapper, shoving both into the ATV bag. “If we went that route, it would be because she thought it was the right thing, not because she wanted to, and that’s not happening.”
Nate stood and dusted off his jeans. “Nothing will happen with me and her.” At Nakos’s doubtful scowl, Nate shrugged. “It won’t. But, for as long as I’m here, you’ve got another set of eyes on her.”
For the longest time, Nakos studied Nate as if dissecting meaning and calculating odds. Finally, he grabbed his hat and set it back on his head. “The only reason we had this Kumbaya heart-to-heart is because Justin said you could be trusted and your background came back clean. Piss me off, and I wasn’t kidding about them never finding your body.”
Damn, but Nate wanted to smile. “I can shoot a fly off a donkey’s ass from fifty kilometers away.”
“Then we understand each other.” Nakos bent to retrieve a sledgehammer when the walkie-talkie crackled to life.
“Nakos?” Olivia’s frantic wail pierced clean through Nate’s chest. “I need you up here. Now.”
They both scrambled to get the radio, but Nakos got to the ATV first. Except she wouldn’t answer, no matter how many times he cued, and Nate went into panic-mode.
While Nakos tried and failed to get her to respond via radio or phone, pacing all over the field, Nate detached the trailer and started the ATV. “Let’s go. You can try her again on the way.”
Christ, they were twenty minutes from the house. He’d never heard that tone in her voice and damn if nothing in all his experiences sounded worse. The radio silence was almost more frightening than her frenzied request.
What in the hell could’ve happened? She was supposed to be in the barn putting on horseshoes.
He drove them as fast as the vehicle would allow over hills and across the prairie, but Nate could almost run faster than the damn thing. Nakos keyed up all the ranch hands on the walkie-talkie, but none of them were closer than they were.
“Hell.” Nakos growled. “She’s not responding and Mae’s not answering the house line.”
“I’m going as fast as I can.” Not fast enough, though.
Some protector Nate turned out to be. The first time he wasn’t within spitting distance of Olivia, and she was in trouble. The most ungodly scenarios shoved through his mind and acid burned a path from his gut to his throat.
Finally, he rounded a bend and parked not far from the barn. Both he and Nakos dismounted and rushed to where Mae had been pacing, her white hair flying around her face in the wind.
She ran over, meeting them halfway. With wide, blue eyes, she pressed her finger to her lips, telling them to be quiet. “Amy stumbled into the barn about an hour ago and collapsed, covered head-to-toe with bruises. We called Hank. Doc’s on the way.”
“Who’s Amy?” Or Hank, for that matter?
Mae sighed, her brows tight in concern. “Kyle’s sister and Olivia’s best friend.”
Nakos, mouth grim, tried to round Mae, but she grabbed his arm. “Listen to me.” She made a sound of duress. “After we phoned the doc, Amy’s husband Chris showed up. With a gun. He has the girls in the barn. I called Rip, but he’s thirty minutes out on a traffic problem.”
Nate’s heart stopped so fast, it left skid marks.
Obviously having heard enough, Nakos stalked to the ATV, pulled a revolver from the bag, detached a rifle from the back, and handed the smaller piece to Nate. “You go in the front. I’ll head around back. We’ll cover both sides.”
Nate checked the chamber, finding it loaded, and nodded. He glanced at Mae. “Wait here.”
He strode to the open barn door, his heart firing on all cylinders. Unable to catch his breath for fear of Olivia being hurt—or worse—he ducked his head inside the structure and forced himself to rely on training over emotion.
Olivia sat on the floor halfway between the front and back exits, a dark-haired woman sprawled in front of her, head in her lap. A walkie-talkie was in pieces and partially under a stall. From what he could tell, the entire right side of what he assumed was Amy’s face was puffy. Bloody nose, eye swollen shut, cut lip. She barely seemed conscious.
The husband stood off to the side, too close for comfort, with a 9mm aimed at the ground. His jogging pants were dirty and his sweatshirt didn’t fare much better. The stench of beer engulfed soil and hay, burning Nate’s nose. The prick was a scrawny bastard, too.
Rage pounded Nate’s temples, and he tried to dial it back to think clearly. Only a sad sack hit a woman. Assuming this was a domestic case, which it appeared to be. And then to bring a weapon into the mix, involving someone else to boot, made this prick not worth the shit Nate wiped off his shoes.
Nakos poked his head around the door on the other side, nodded at Nate, and lifted the rifle. “Drop it, Chris.”
The guy flinched and pressed the barrel to Olivia’s forehead. She closed her eyes on a whimper, a tear trickling down her too-pale and soiled cheek.
Oh, hell no.
Nate lifted his revolver, bracing the bottom with his other hand. “He said drop it.”
Chris turned his head and stumbled to the side, sending Nate’s pulse toward stroke-level. “Who’re you?”
Great. Slurring his words, barely on his feet, and drunk off his ass. This situation just kept getting better.
“Lower the weapon or you’ll never find out.” Slowly, Nate stepped deeper into the barn.
Nakos followed suit until both of them had Chris trapped.
“This is a private matter.” Chris shoved the barrel at Olivia so hard, her head snapped back.
She sucked in a harsh breath, trembling.
This fucker’s balls were going to become intimate with Nate’s boot. And his fists. Soon as the gun was out of play. “Private is what your jail cell will look like.” Right after a very long hospital visit. “Drop. It. Now.”
“Nate.” Nakos’s determined gaze flicked to his and back to Chris. “I don’t see a fly, but there’s a donkey’s ass right there.”
Nate’s words from his conversation with Nakos back at the fence. Got it. But Chris’s trigger finger could twitch before Nate got things handled. “You sure?”
“Positive.”
“What in the hell?” Chris spun, jerking the barrel away from Olivia...
And there was the opening.
“Olivia, baby. Don’t move.” Nate fired a shot, hitting the brim of the prick’s tan cowboy hat and spinning it off his head.
Neighs rent the air. Hooves stomped dirt inside the stalls.
While Chris reeled and dropped the weapon, Nate strode forward, shoved his revolver in his waistband, and planted Chris face-first in the dirt. With a knee between his shoulders and a firm hand on the back of his neck to hold him, Nate toed the gun farther from them.
He whipped his attention to Olivia. “Did he hurt you?” Christ, say no. He visually scanned her for injuries, finding nothing. But that didn’t mean...
She shook her head repeatedly, tears leaving tracks on her dirty cheeks. Her gaze dropped to Amy. “She’s pretty bad, though.”
Nakos set his rifle behind him and squatted next to the women. “You’ve looked better, Ames.”
She tried to smile, but it reopened her lip and sent blood trickling down her chin.
“Mae!” Nakos ran his hands down Amy’s arms, her legs. “Do you think anything’s broken?”
She shook her head and closed her eyes.
“Hank’s here.” Mae ran into the barn, quickly scanned her surroundings, and knelt beside Nakos. “Rip is just pulling in, too. We’ll get you all fixed up, sweetheart.”
“Let me up!” Chris squirmed, but got nowhere for the effort.
Nate dug his knee deeper into the bastard’s spine. “You ever want use of your legs again, you’ll shut up and stay still.”
Turned out, Hank was a two-hundred pound, fifty-year-old woman with black hair down to her ass. She walked in carrying a doctor’s bag circa the 1900s with one hand on her hip.
“Well, give her some room.” She set the bag down, opened it, and knelt on Amy’s other side, shining a penlight in her eyes. “Where’d he hit you and with what?”
“His fists.” Amy struggled to draw breath and winced. “Kicked my side. Punched my face.”
“Nothing on the back or neck? Did you fall at any time?”
“No.” Amy closed her eyes.
“She needs an ambulance.” Nate had to shove his homicidal rage back into a hidey hole at seeing her curvy form mottled with injuries. Flashes of Darla swam before his eyes and he involuntarily squeezed Chris’s neck. The guy cried out, and Nate loosened his grip.
“Closest hospital is in Casper. We’ve got it handled.” Hank sighed. “Olivia, you got a room for her? I need to better examine her.”
“Yes.” She glanced at Mae. “We can put her in the extra guestroom.”
“All right.” Hank stood. “Nakos?”
“Yeah. I’ve got her.” With an arm under her knees and behind her back, he lifted Amy and cradled her to his chest. At her wince, he froze. “I’m sorry. I’ll go slow.”
A forty-something man with a Fu Manchu and brown officer’s uniform waddled into the barn, favoring one leg. He ran a hand over his thinning brown hair. “I apologize for the delay. The Hendersons decided it was a good idea to plow their minivan into the Garrison’s ditch and take out a mailbox in the process.” He glanced from Nate to Chris to Amy in Nakos’s arms, then finally, Olivia. “Looks like you got it covered.”
“I’m taking Ames up to the house.” Nakos strode out, Mae and Hank on his heels.
Chris squirmed. “I didn’t do nothin’, Rip.”
The sheriff lifted his thick brows. “Doesn’t look like nothin’ on your wife’s face. She run into a wall all by herself? A hundred or so times? Is that your story?”
Nate gritted his teeth. “He had Olivia and Amy at gunpoint when Nakos and I got here.”
“And who might you be, son?”
“Nathan Roldan, retired U.S. Army and her new...handyman.”
Rip swiveled his attention to Olivia. “That true?”
“Yes.” She rose unsteadily to her feet, looking like a gentle breeze could topple her.
Nate shook his head and gnashed his molars into a fine powder. “Could you slap some handcuffs on him, please?” He needed to take care of Olivia before the adrenaline crash fully hit her. He shook with the urge to drag her against him and simultaneously comfort them both.
Silently, Rip pulled cuffs off his belt and secured them on Chris’s wrists behind his back. “Sit up, now.”
Chris, with a petulant scowl, did as he was told.
Nate rose and stretched, then collected the guns. He held up the rifle. “Nakos’s.” The revolver. “Mine.” And the 9mm. “Douchebag’s.”
“Give me the short version.” Rip took the 9mm, put it in a bag he pulled from his pocket, and stared at Olivia. “We’ll get into details later at the station.”
She ran a shaking hand across her forehead while Nate set the remaining weapons on the floor. “I was here with the horses when Amy stumbled in looking like...” Her voice hitched and her eyes welled. “Looking like that. She collapsed. I guess she’d walked all the way here, though I don’t know how. She didn’t say much. Chris showed up. He held the gun on us. Nakos and Nate came. And...” She shrugged. “They diffused the problem.”
“Good enough. Let’s go, Chris.” Rip hauled the guy to his feet. “Tell Amy I’ll come get a statement from her tomorrow, if she’s up to it.”
Olivia nodded. Once Rip left, she closed her eyes and let out the most God-awful sob Nate had ever heard.
And that was it. The straw that broke the soldier’s back.
He erased the short distance between them and pulled her against him. She pressed her face to his chest while he wrapped his arms around her tight enough to crack ribs. He breathed for the first time in an hour and struggled to bank the need to kiss the shit out of her in sheer relief. She trembled, and he kissed the top of her head, letting his lips linger in her rain-scented hair.
He ran his hand down her braid and closed his eyes. “You’re all right. Everyone’s safe.” A few thousand more times, and he might get his heartbeat to believe the words.
“Safe,” she muttered against his chest and went eerily still. Her fingers fisted his tee as she slowly lifted her head. Her cornflower gaze swept over his face, wide and unblinking. “Safe,” she repeated as if in afterthought. A small wrinkle formed between her brows like she’d come to some sort of conclusion while he tried to figure out what the equation was in the first place.
“Oh God.” She unfurled her fingers from his shirt and stepped away so quickly, he got whiplash. “I did it again and...” She waved her hand, indicating them. “I’m sorry. I can’t...” Turning, she jogged toward the exit.
Damn it. “Olivia.”
But she was gone.