Spurred (Steele Ranch 1)

“Kady!” he shouted, his voice all but shaking the walls.

“Here.”

I glanced at him and he frowned, his head whipping around.

“I’m out here.”

Cord spun around, lifted the window so it was opened more than a few inches and stuck his head out. I remembered that all windows from the second floor looked out over the roof of the wraparound porch.

“Holy fuck, Kady. It’s okay. Everything’s okay.”

After a second, Cord backed up and stood, his hand out the window still as he helped Kady climb back through. Once she’d stepped down onto the floor, Cord picked her up in his arms, hugged her tight. She wrapped her legs around his waist, held on for dear life and started to cry.

I sighed, willing my heart to slow as it appeared she was in one piece. Unharmed. Scared shitless, but whole. She was in this tiny little nightgown that barely covered her ass, and I had to wonder what the fucker would have done to her if he’d seen her in that. I ground my back teeth together at the thought, glad the guy was dead.

Jamison and Sutton stood in the doorway, relief clear on their faces, but averting their eyes.

“We’re taking her out of here,” Cord said, walking toward the door.

They stepped back, gave him room to pass and I followed.

“Call Archer. Get his men out here to find out who that fucker was,” he ordered, taking the stairs at a slower pace, probably not to jar Kady. “Why he was in the damned house.”

“I called him on the way up here, said he got a call from the house already,” Sutton said, referring to the sheriff. He was a friend of ours, we’d had beers with him on occasion and he’d take this shit seriously. “Should be here soon.”

Kady must have called 911 before she called us. Smart girl.

“She’s not coming back here until this shit’s figured out. If Archer needs to talk to her tomorrow, she’ll be at our house.”

Jamison and Sutton didn’t say anything. They didn’t need to. Someone had almost hurt one of ours and we were going to find out why. Until then, I wasn’t letting Kady out of my sight. Based on the way Cord held her to him, he felt the same way. There was no fucking way we were letting her go.

8

CORD

Holy shit. I’d been to war. Seen battle. I’d prepared for it, trained. Armed to the fucking gills. But this? With Kady? Fuck. I’d never been so scared before. Ever. She was clinging to me, her arms and legs wrapped around me in a death grip, crying into my neck. With one arm wrapped around her upper back, the other cupping her ass, I carried her out of the house. I knew Jamison and Sutton would take care of shit, find out what the fuck was going on. I wanted to do it myself—that was my way, to protect what was mine—but Kady was more important. The fucker was dead and couldn’t hurt her ever again. The relief of that, of knowing she was okay, that Sutton had put down the dirty bastard before we could even get to our girl…

Riley drove home quickly, but not recklessly. I carried her into the house and right into the great room. She felt so good in my arms, the lush feel of all of her soft skin in her tiny little nightgown. Riley dropped down onto the sectional sofa and waved his fingers at me to hand her over. I’d carried her out of the main house at Steele Ranch, I’d held her in my arms as he drove back to town. He wanted—no, needed—a turn holding her. Knowing she was alive.

But I didn’t give them much room, just sat on the coffee table so my legs almost bumped Riley’s, my elbows on my knees. She’d stopped crying, but her face was splotchy and her eyes red rimmed. Her hair was a wild tangle. Her fingers curled into the front of Riley’s shirt as if afraid he might disappear.

“Want to tell us what happened?” Riley asked, his voice soothing. He kissed the top of her head.

She took a deep breath, let it out. “There…there isn’t much to say.” Her green eyes held mine. “I was asleep and a sound woke me. At first, I didn’t know what it was, but I heard it again. I went to the bedroom door, peeked out. There wasn’t anything to see, the house was dark.”

Her voice was soft, weary.

“Then there were more noises, and I knew someone was there. For a second, I thought it was maybe Jamison or Sutton. Or the other men who lived on the ranch, but they wouldn’t come in the house without at least knocking.”

“Sutton said you called the police?”

“I did, but I didn’t know how long they would take because the ranch is really out there. I didn’t think they’d be able to help in time. I was panicking. I-I decided to call you, but as it rang, I remembered you were in Helena.”

I flicked my gaze up to Riley and the look in his eye told me we were thinking the same thing. Thank fuck we came home when we had.

“But you answered and well…you know the rest,” she finished.

“And the roof?” I asked, thinking of how I’d found her crouched in the corner by the brick chimney. It was a perfect place to hide. Dark and since her window was on the back of the house, she wouldn’t have been visible from the driveway. The only way the fucker would have seen her was if he’d done as I had, stuck his head out the window and looked hard to the left.