Rancher's Refuge

“I ran. He pushed me out of the car and tried to...” She bit down on her lip, eyes wide with the painful memory. “I ran into the woods, praying he wouldn’t follow me.”

“Did he?”

“I don’t think so. I think he’ll go back to San Diego without me.”

“San Diego?” That explained a few things. His mystery lady was a long way from home.

“We were on our way to a conference in Nashville. James likes to drive, to make a vacation out of business trips.” Her lips twisted. “To rip off the big bosses anytime he can, although he has all of them fooled. I saw the sign about the waterfall and wanted to see it.”

“What happened?”

She lifted one shoulder as if the load she carried was too heavy. “James doesn’t need much to lose his temper. Hopefully, he went on to the conference.”

“But you aren’t sure? He could still be around, maybe in town waiting for you to show up again?”

“Possibly.” Her lip trembled.

Great. Just terrific. “Was this the first time he hurt you?”

“No.” Her face darkened with a fierce determination. “But it’s the last. I won’t go back. I won’t see him again. No matter what he does.”

Rage boiled in Austin’s gut. If he could get his hands on that jerk... “Maybe you should call the cops.”

Not that he wanted anything to do with cops.

Hands raised in a defensive gesture, she jerked back in panic. “No! Please. I can’t. Don’t say anything. I’ll leave here today and won’t bother you again. Only promise you won’t tell anyone, especially the police.”

“A scum like that shouldn’t get away with hurting a woman.”

“The police won’t help. Trust me. I’ve tried.”

In a way, he understood her reluctance. The police weren’t always helpful. Sometimes they were dead wrong.

Austin gazed into her pretty face and saw fear. He heard the tremor in her voice and the desperation.

A heaviness came down around him, a cloak of responsibility and dread. He knew what he was about to do and he didn’t like it one bit.

No matter how much he wanted Annalisa Keller to leave, he couldn’t send her away.

For the next few days or weeks or months, until his conscience would let her go, Annalisa was here to stay.

Chapter Four

Annalisa braced the broom beneath her cast and swept the porch with her good arm. Tootsie, the funny little poodle, darted back and forth, growling and nipping at the broom straw.

Three days had passed. Three days that would have been pleasant if not for the ax hanging over her head. Her time at the Blackwell ranch was up and she had nowhere to go.

Each morning, Cassie went off to work at the Tress and Tan Salon and didn’t return until dinnertime, usually with a pizza or other fast food. Last night, after a meal of takeout tacos, she’d painted Annalisa’s toenails. Annalisa glanced down at her bare feet, smiling a little at the orange-and-black tiger stripes. She’d forgotten how much fun a friend, or a sister, could be. She and Olivia had done that kind of thing. A long time ago.

With a sad ache beneath her rib cage, she paused to look out over the peaceful yard, thinking about the strangeness of life. She missed Olivia with a depth as raw as her emotions. How had she let anything or anyone come between her and her only blood kin?

She had a plethora of questions, most of them for herself. How had she ever come to be here, in this place, at this moment? If she hadn’t asked to see the waterfalls, James wouldn’t have gotten angry, and she would have gone right on to Tennessee and then back to California. Maybe. Or maybe he would have become angry about something else. Sooner or later, he always did.

Yet in some twisted way or for some twisted reason, she’d thought herself in love with him. What was wrong with her? Where had her life gotten off course?

“God, I am so broken,” she whispered to the wispy clouds. “How can I ever put myself back together when half the pieces are missing?”

The sky didn’t answer and the gnawing emptiness in her chest spread. Fear and yearning had been her companions for such a long time that they’d supplanted more positive emotions. She’d become a black hole, devoid of joy.

Yet, two strangers had thrown out a life preserver. Reluctant though he may have been, Austin Blackwell and his sister had done more for her in three days than the man to whom she’d given her love and her life.

But her time was up. Somehow she had to find a way to make it on her own without help, without James.

At the memory of her ex-boyfriend, dread, like an iron weight, pressed down on her shoulders. Tension tightened the muscles of her neck.

She glanced to the right and then the left, irrationally afraid that James would come crashing through the brush and find her.

A slight breeze ruffled the leaves of a nearby chinquapin oak, bringing with it the scent of moist, fertile earth and gathering autumn. Peace and quiet reigned here in the remote Ozarks, but she struggled to relax for more than a moment at a time.

If she was jumpy here, how would she feel once she left this ranch and the people who’d given her a modicum of safety?

Acorns thudded to the ground and a pair of squirrels raced down the shingled bark after the feast.

Tootsie gave them little more than a glance.

By sheer force of will, she focused on the poodle and closed the mental door on James.

“Lazy,” she murmured, gently touching the dog’s paw with her toe. Tootsie rewarded her with a doggy smile and bright button eyes. “Nothing like your master.”

Each morning after a shared breakfast, Austin made himself scarce. She wondered if he always worked without stopping, or if he was avoiding contact with her. She felt guilty to think she might be keeping him from his usual routine. This was, after all, his home, his solitude, which he apparently preferred to her company.

Who could blame him for that? She was the interloper. No doubt, Austin Blackwell considered her a pathetic excuse for a woman and couldn’t wait to get her out of his house. She’d talked to him about James which was probably a mistake. She still didn’t know why she’d opened up, considering she’d never told anyone.

“Desperate measures,” she murmured and earned a cocked ear from the comical dog. She’d needed the Blackwells. She needed them still, but the fact remained, Austin had given her three days.

To repay their kindness, she’d cleaned and cooked and done laundry. None of that was enough, of course. She had to move on. Even though Austin hadn’t mentioned the three-day limit again, self-preservation dictated finding a job before he showed her the door.

Rubbing at the itchy juncture of cast and upper arm, she wondered who would hire a one-armed employee with no references or identification?

If she wasn’t such a coward she’d call James and demand he send her belongings.

Not that he’d ever responded to any of her demands. The more she wanted something, the more stubbornly James held back.

She wondered where he was now and what he was doing. Would he look for her? What would he say to their friends and colleagues when she didn’t return? She’d put him in a difficult situation and she knew very well he wouldn’t take her betrayal lightly. That’s the way James thought. This was her fault. Sometimes she wondered if he was right.

With a soul-heavy sigh, she looked out at the quiet acreage flowing away from Blackwell Ranch in shades of green and gold. Black cows dotted green fields. A pair of calves bucked and played, tails twitching over their backs. Miles of fence disappeared into the woods that led to Whisper Falls, the falls where she’d hidden from James and prayed.

She thought about that prayer, had thought about it a lot. Just as she pondered the man who claimed to love her and the cowboy who’d rescued her that day.

Tootsie suddenly yipped and spun to face the tree-covered mountain, floppy ears lifting out to each side. Annalisa reached behind her to the door handle, ready to escape inside. She’d heard nothing from James, but she was not brave enough to believe he would let her go without retribution.

The two big dogs, Hoss and Jet, broke through the distant woods and raced across the pasture pink tongues flapping, toward the quivering, prancing Tootsie.

Some of her tension drained away.

When Austin and his horse appeared directly behind the dogs, Annalisa’s scalp prickled. Her grip tightened on the door knob. Too much thinking about James had made her unduly jittery. She had no reason to fear the cowboy. He might be abrupt but he’d also been kind. So far.

Loose and easy in the saddle, Austin rode the horse directly to the edge of the porch, bringing with him the smells of deep woods and heated horseflesh. Annalisa propped the broom in the crook of her cast to stroke Cisco’s velvety nose.

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