Читать книгу Triggered - Elle James - Страница 9

A knock on the door brought Ben off the couch and up on his bare feet in seconds. He must have fallen asleep after tossing and turning on the narrow couch. Every noise had kept him awake until way into the wee hours.

The sun shone through the filmy curtains, lighting his path through the boxes and furniture. From what he could see of the front porch, two men stood there in tan uniforms.

The local law enforcement.

As he pulled the door half-open, footsteps sounded on the stairs behind him.

“Who is it?” Kate descended the flight of stairs in a light blue baby-doll nightgown, pulling a robe over her shoulders that only came down to midthigh. Her creamy legs and the glimpse of her breasts through the thin material of the gown had Ben’s jeans tightening.

With the door gaping, he had no choice but to open it the rest of the way.

The two men in tan uniforms stared at him, then their eyes drifted to the woman on the stairs behind him.

A flash of anger burned through his bloodstream and Ben moved to block their view as much as he could. “Can I help you?”

The bigger man stepped forward. “I’m Sheriff Fulmer, this is Deputy Schillinger. We’re here to see Katherine Langsdon.”

Ben’s eyes narrowed. “For what reason?”

The sheriff’s lips pulled up on one side in a sneer. “Now, I guess that’s between me and the lady.”

“It’s okay, Ben.” Kate laid a hand on Ben’s arm and stepped up beside him. “I wanted to call on them this morning anyway. We had a break-in last night.”

“Sorry to hear that. Can you describe the perp?”

She shook her head. “No, he was wearing all black and a black ski mask.”

“Not much I can do to help without a detailed description.”

She tipped her head to the side. “Then why did you come out?”

“Ms. Langsdon, as the only living relative of the late Kyle Kendrick, you have been served.” The sheriff handed her a thick envelope, his face poker-straight.

“What?” She took the packet, her cheeks blanching, making the bruise stand out even more.

“What’s this all about?” Ben slipped an arm around Kate as she opened the envelope, every protective instinct on alert in the face of the sheriff and his deputy.

“Back taxes? The will said nothing about back taxes.” She looked up at the sheriff.

“Sorry, Ms. Langsdon, I only deliver the bad news, I don’t create it. Your father was the one who didn’t pay. Since he left the ranch to you, you’re responsible now.”

Ben didn’t like the sheriff’s tone or the way the man hit her with the notice so soon after coming to her father’s ranch.

“Twenty-seven thousand?” She snorted softly. “I can’t afford twenty-seven hundred.” Kate stared at the paper in her hands. “That would completely wipe me out and then some.”

The sheriff shrugged. “You might consider selling this dump. Pretty young woman like you will find it difficult to manage a place this size all alone.”

It was all Ben could do to keep from punching the sheriff for his patronizing words. Ben barely knew Kate, but any woman would resent the sheriff’s inference that a woman couldn’t run a ranch.

“I’m not alone.” Kate clutched the envelope to her chest, her chin rising. “I have Ben.” She edged nearer to Ben.

His chest swelled, his arm automatically tightening around her middle, pulling her closer to him.

The sheriff’s brows rose. “Hired hands don’t always stick around.”

“He’s not the hired hand. He’s…” Kate’s hand waved, in search of the right word.

Afraid she’d say he was her bodyguard, Ben finished for her, “I’m her fiancé. We will be working the ranch together.”

The sheriff’s eyes narrowed. “What did you say your last name was?”

Ben’s lips twisted. “I didn’t. Now, if you’ll excuse us.” He moved to shut the door.

The sheriff shoved his foot in the way. “Don’t cross me, cowboy.”

Ben’s brows rose and he stared down at the boot in the doorway. “Did you have more business to discuss?”

The sheriff stared at Ben for a long moment, then replied, “No.”

“Then have a nice day.” Ben glanced down at the boot and back up at the sheriff. Ben’s free hand clenched into a fist, ready to take on the arrogant sheriff if the need arose. He’d seen law enforcement officers who let the power of their position go to their heads. This sheriff appeared to be one of them. He made a mental note to watch the man. He could cause trouble for himself and for Kate.

The sheriff finally moved his foot. “I’ll be seeing you around Wild Oak Canyon.”

Ben shut the door, muttering, “Not if I can help it.”

Kate turned away, her gaze on the legal document the sheriff had given her. “Twenty-seven thousand dollars.” She looked up at Ben, her eyes glazed. “That’s more than I have in every savings account.”

“Surely you have a thirty-day notice on it.”

“Thirty days until they seize the property for back taxes owed.” She shook her head. “I don’t believe this. I should never have come.”

“Can’t you go back where you came from?” As he made the suggestion, his gut clenched. If Kate left, he wouldn’t have to be around her. He could forget the way she made his body hum to life.

Kate shook her head. “No. I quit my job. They’ve already leased the apartment we lived in. Not that I’d go back. It’s no safer in Houston than here.”

“What do you mean?”

“I left Houston after my apartment was broken into and ransacked.”

“In Houston?”

“Last week. The day after my father’s will was read.”

Ben didn’t like it. Hell, she wasn’t any safer in Houston than in Wild Oak Canyon. Ben resigned himself to being her protector until he could convince Hank he had the wrong man for the job. “Was your Houston apartment in a bad neighborhood?”

Kate shook her head. “I hadn’t had any problems in the four years I lived there. Whoever did it tore everything apart.”

“Any writing on the walls or threats?” Ben asked.

“No. They even ripped the cushions on my sofa. Every drawer was tossed, even the contents of the refrigerator.”

“They’re looking for something,” Ben stated. “The day after your father’s reading, you say? Did your father leave you anything besides this ranch?”

Kate’s eyes widened. “Yes.” Before Ben could question her, she ran up the stairs.

The blood racing through Ben’s veins had nothing to do with whatever item she might have received from her father and more to do with the way her bottom swayed side to side and the vision of smooth, creamy skin visible along the curves of her legs. “More clothes. She damn well better wear more clothes,” he muttered.

Kate paused at the top of the stairs, glancing down at Ben, her brows dipping. “Did you say something?”

“I’ll get my clothes on.” He strode back to the couch he’d spent the better part of the night lying awake on, thinking of the sexy legs on a woman he had no business looking at that way.

Hank Derringer was paying him to provide protection from a problem, not to become the problem or one more thing Kate had to be protected from.

He pulled his T-shirt on over his head, calling himself every kind of fool. If he had any cell phone reception at all, he’d be calling Hank and asking for a different assignment. One with a less attractive woman and…no kids.

“Hi.”

Speak of the devil.

Ben’s head poked through the neck of his T-shirt and he stared down at the pint-size version of Kate. Light reddishblond curls lay in bright disarray around the child’s shoulders.

She held out a brush. “Mommy told me to brush my hair.”

Without thinking, Ben took the brush from the girl. He’d brushed Sarah’s hair so many times he could have done it with his eyes closed. He knew just how to ease the tangles free without making her cry.

His throat closed as an image of his dark-haired daughter flashed into his memories. God, he missed her.

Lily looked up at him, her green eyes so like her mother’s. “Please?” She turned her back to Ben and fluffed her mane of red-gold hair out behind her, waiting expectantly.

Just like Sarah had.

All of the air left Ben’s lungs as if he’d been kicked hard in the gut. Yet his hand moved, reaching out to lift a lock of silky red-blond curls. He dropped to his haunches and ran the brush along the strand, picking out the knots with care.

He hadn’t felt this emotionally wrung out since Sarah and Julia had died. But the more he brushed Lily’s hair, the more his shoulders relaxed and the tightness in his chest loosened.

By the time he finished working the tangles out of the child’s hair, he could swallow again. “All done,” he said just like he had when he’d brushed Sarah’s hair.

“Thank you.” Lily turned and hugged him tight, her fresh, baby-shampoo scent filling Ben’s senses.

Over the top of Lily’s head he spied Kate standing on the bottom step, her eyes round. Was that a tear trickling down her cheek?

Kate ducked her head, a hand swiping at the moisture. Seeing Ben brushing Lily’s hair had hit her like a Mack truck. Lily’s father had died before she was born. Kate had been a single parent from day one. Seeing someone else, especially a man, brushing her daughter’s hair sent a flood of longing through her, for Lily and herself.

Lily didn’t know what it was to have a daddy. Just like Kate. Kate swallowed hard on the lump forming in her throat. “Lily, sweetie, go get dressed.”

Her daughter’s face lit. “Are we going outside to play?”

Kate smiled and patted her daughter’s head. “You can play, but I have work to do outside.”

“Yay!” Lily darted up the stairs, her bright curls bouncing as she went.

Kate descended from the last step and held out her hand. “My father left this key for me and a video disk.”

She dropped the key and the disk into Ben’s hand.

“What does the key go to?” Ben turned it over in his fingers.

“I don’t know. I’ve tried to watch the disk, but I couldn’t get it to work. The letter from the attorney had a note from my father to contact Hank Derringer for help.”

“Maybe Hank can get someone to look at the disk and see if they can pull the information off.”

Lily was down the stairs again, wearing shorts, cowboy boots and pulling a shirt over her head.

“Stop, young lady,” Kate ordered, afraid her daughter would miss a step and tumble the rest of the way down the stairs. “You can’t go out without me, and I’m not dressed.”

“Please, Mommy.” Lily looked up at Kate with a slight pout on her pretty pink lips.

“I’ll take her,” Ben offered. “We can discuss the key later.” He handed it back to her, setting the disk on an end table.

Kate curled her fingers around the key. “I’ll be ready in a minute. I need to finish unloading the rental van and get it back to town.”

Ben smiled and raised his hands palms upward. “I’m here to help.”

Kate’s heart skipped several beats as the man’s smile transformed his face from frowning, brooding darkness to sunshine. “You should smile more often,” she said without thinking.

Immediately, his face changed back into the brooding cowboy, his forehead creasing. “I find little to smile about these days.”

Kate wondered what made him so sullen and sad but didn’t want to push the issue, not when he’d thrown up a no-trespassing sign in the way his body stiffened and he turned away. He took Lily’s hand in his. “Ready?”

The two left through the front door.

Yes, sir, the cowboy had issues. Hell, didn’t everyone?

Kate climbed the stairs, her footsteps slow at first and speeding up as she neared the top. For the first time in months, she wanted to get outside and enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. She refused to believe the hired hand had anything to do with her sudden surge of energy.

A pair of jeans, a snug-fitting ribbed T-shirt and tennis shoes completed her outfit. After she pulled her hair up into a ponytail and settled a baseball cap over her head, she hurried out to join Lily and Ben, her steps light, eager to finish unloading and settle into her new life.

Ben and Lily squatted beside the moving van, pointing at something on the ground.

“That’s a scorpion, Lily,” Ben was explaining. “Don’t try to touch or pick one up, they have a really bad sting.”

Lily hunched over, staring at the insect crawling across the ground. She looked up and spied Kate. “Mommy, come see the scorpion.”

Kate smiled and squatted beside her. With the three of them all gathered in a circle so close, her stomach knotted. This must be what it would feel like to be a family unit. Mommy, daughter and…daddy. Troy would have been a good father to Lily. He’d been so excited about the arrival of his firstborn, only to be robbed of ever seeing her.

Lily was a beautiful baby and an even prettier little girl with a grown-up sense of responsibility and a child’s joy of exploring.

“The day’s not getting any longer. I guess we better get this van unloaded so that I can return it to the rental center in town.” Kate stood, pulled the padlock key from her pocket and unlocked the back of the van.

For the next twenty minutes, Kate and Ben worked in silence, carrying boxes and furniture into the house. Lily helped a little, then lost interest and wandered around the yard, picking flowers and investigating her new home.

Kate kept a close eye on her. After last night’s break-in, she wasn’t feeling exactly trusting of her new environment.

Lily had strayed to the corner of the house when Kate and Ben hauled out the sofa with the repaired cushions she’d brought with her from her apartment.

Getting the sofa through the door took them several tries, tipping it in multiple directions, before they finally shoved the item through. When the sofa cleared the door frame, Kate tripped over a throw rug and landed on her bottom, the edge of the sofa coming down hard on her ankle. “Ouch!”

“Are you all right in there?” Ben called out over the top of the sofa.

“Yes, just not very graceful.” Kate stood and put pressure on her ankle and felt pain shooting up her leg. She swallowed a yelp and lifted her end again. There was no time for injuries. The van needed to be back before three o’clock or she’d have to pay for another day’s rental.

Once they got the sofa settled into the living room, Kate headed toward the door, trying to hide her limp.

Ben shook his head and pointed to the sofa they’d just placed. “Sit.”

“I’m fine, just a little sore. It’ll work itself out.” When she tried to walk past him, he grabbed her arms and made her stop.

“Let me see.” His grip was firm but gentle and his tone the same.

The warmth of his hands on her arms sent shivers of awareness throughout her body. “Really, it’s fine,” she said, even as she let him maneuver her to sit on the arm of the couch.

Ben squatted, pulled the tennis shoe off her foot and removed her sock. “I had training as a first responder on the Austin police force. Let me be the judge.”

Kate held her breath as he lifted her foot and turned it to inspect the ankle, his fingers slipping over her skin.

“See? Just bumped it. It’ll be fine in a minute.” She cursed inwardly at her breathlessness. A man’s hands on her ankle shouldn’t send her into a tailspin.

Ben Harding was a trained professional. Touching a woman’s ankle meant nothing other than a concern for health and safety. Nothing more.

Then why was she having a hard time breathing, like a teenager on her first date? Kate bent to slip her foot back into her shoe, biting hard on her lip to keep from crying out at the pain. Her head came very close to Ben’s. When she turned toward him she could feel the warmth of his breath fan across her cheek.

“You should put a little ice on that,” he said, his tone as smooth as warm syrup sliding over her.

Ice was exactly what she needed. To chill her natural reaction to a handsome man paid to help and protect her, not touch, hold or kiss her.

Whoa, there, girl. Kate jumped up and moved away from Ben and his gentle fingers, warm breath and shoulders so broad they could turn a girl’s head. “I should get back outside. No telling what Lily is up to.”

Ben caught her arm as she passed him. “You felt it, too, didn’t you?”

Kate fought the urge to lean into him and sniff the musky scent of male. Four years was a long time to go without a man. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Ben held her arm a moment longer, then let go. “You’re right. We should check on Lily.”

Kate hurried, no, ran for the open door, her heart racing, her breathing ragged. Just as she crossed the threshold into the open breezy, South Texas sunshine, a frightened scream made her racing heart stop.

“Lily!” Kate burst out onto the porch.

The sound of engines racing up the gravel driveway greeted her. A man wearing a do-rag over his head with a bandanna pulled up over his mouth and nose straddled a huge motorcycle in the middle of the yard, holding a doll by its hair. He laughed, the sound so evil it made Kate’s skin crawl.

“That’s Lily’s doll.” Kate flew off the porch and would have scratched the man’s eyes out if an arm hadn’t circled her waist and yanked her back.

“Go back to the house. Now,” Ben said into her ear, his voice tight around the command.

“But Lily—”

“Go.” He shoved her back behind him.

Kate hesitated.

The roar of engines rose to a crescendo. An army of bikes swarmed into the yard, stirring up dust where the grass had long since died.

Kate ran for the house. Before she could reach the porch, a motorcycle cut her off. There must have been twenty bikes racing around the yard in a tight circle, trapping Ben and Kate in the center. The dust rose in a cloud, choking visibility to everything beyond.

Beyond panic, long past frightened, Kate screamed into the smoke screen, “Where’s my child?”