CHRISTMAS AT THUNDER HORSE RANCH (9 page)

“No.”

“What about your folks?”

“Gone.” Which was true about both. Her mother was dead and she had no idea where her father was.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m used to being on my own.”

“No one should be alone during the holidays.”

She shrugged. “I don’t mind.” Which was another lie. She hated the holidays for just that very reason. As much as she tried to tell herself it didn’t matter, watching others laughing and taking time off to spend it with their families had always been hard on her. She’d been happy to spend her weekends alone on the dig. Digging in the dirt meant she wouldn’t have to spend her weekends in her empty apartment. Perhaps she’d get a cat for company.

They traveled in silence the rest of the way to the ranch. The weather held all the way up to the last turnoff leading up to the sprawling ranch house when the first snowflakes began to fall. It wasn’t long before more followed, cloaking the sky. By the time Dante parked in front of the house, the wind had picked up, blasting the snow sideways.

“You can go on in,” Dante shouted over the wailing Arctic blast. “I need to check on the foreman and the animals in the barn.”

“I’ll go with you.” She zipped up her coat, pulled her hood over her ears and shoved her hands into warm gloves. The frigid wind stung her cheeks, making her blink her eyes. Snowflakes clung to her lashes in clumps.

“You should go inside. I can handle this.”

“Please,” she said. “I need to stretch my legs.”

“In this?”

“You forget, I’m from North Dakota, too.” She grinned and followed him to the barn out behind the house.

Several horses were out in a corral, their backs already covered in a thin layer of snow. They trotted along the fence as Dante and Emma approached.

Dante opened the gate and snagged the halter of a sorrel mare. “Think you can lead her into the barn?” he yelled into the wind.

Never having been around horses, Emma figured there couldn’t be much to walking a horse into the barn. She reached up and slipped her gloved hand through the harness.

The mare jerked her head up, practically lifting Emma off the ground. She bit down hard on her tongue to keep from screaming and tugged on the harness, urging the horse toward the door to the barn.

Dante passed her, leading a big black horse that danced sideways, tossing its head.

Thankfully, the mare followed the black horse through the door.

Once inside, out of the wind, the horse settled into a plodding walk.

“You can let go of her, she knows which stall is hers,” Dante said. “I’ll get the other two.”

“What can I do?”

“Fill two coffee cans with sweet feed out of that bucket.” He pointed to the corner where two large trash cans stood. One had big block letters drawn on the side that spelled out SWEET FEED. The other had CORN, written in capital letters.

Taking two coffee cans from a shelf above the trash cans, Emma opened the sweet-feed bucket and filled the trash cans with the sweet mash of grain and corn and what else, she had no idea, but it smelled like molasses. The horses already in their stalls whickered, stomping their hooves impatiently.

The barn door swung open and Dante entered leading two large horses. He took them to their stalls and came back to grab the two cans. He filled the feed troughs in two stalls and returned to fill the feed buckets with more grain for the other two horses.

“I didn’t see the foreman’s truck outside. I hope he gets back before the storm gets any worse.” He glanced down at her. “Ready?” he asked, holding out his hand.

Emma nodded and took his hand. He had to push hard to open the door, the wind was playing hell against the barn.

Once they were outside, Dante closed the barn door and then took off at a slow jog toward the house.

The snow had thickened until she could barely see the large structure of the ranch house in front of her.

Dante led the way, holding her gloved hand. When they reached the house he twisted the doorknob on the back. It was locked. Tearing his glove off his hand, he reached into his pocket for his keys and unlocked the door, pushing Emma through first. He quickly stepped in behind her and slammed the door shut.

Emma stood in a spacious kitchen with a large table at one end and a big gas stove at the other. Red gingham curtains hung in the window over the sink, making the blustery winter weather outside look cheerful from the warmth inside. For all the beauty and hominess, something wasn’t right.

As she raised her hand to push her hood off her head, she stopped and sniffed.

Dante must have sniffed it at the same time, his nose wrinkling as he unzipped his jacket.

“Gas,” Emma said softly.

When Dante started to shove his jacket off, Emma’s heart leaped. “Don’t move!”

Immediately, his hands froze with his jacket halfway over his shoulders.

“You smell it too?” she asked. “If you take your jacket off, as dry as it is in here, it might let out a spark. My hood does it every time I push it back from my head.”

“Good point.” He glanced at her. “Get out.”

“I’m not going without you.”

“If something happens to me and you both, no one will be around to get help. Don’t argue, just get out.” He walked to the door, holding his arms away from his sides to keep the Gore-Tex fabric from rubbing together and potentially causing a spark.

Emma’s lips pressed together. “Okay, but be careful. I’d hate for my brand-new fiancé to go up in flames before I get a ring out of it.” Though her words were flippant, her voice quavered. She opened the door carefully and exited.

Dante left the door open, the wind blowing snow through the opening onto the smooth tile floor.

Emma hunched her back to the frigid cold and waited while Dante turned every knob on the stove and the one for the oven, as well. Once he’d secured the stove and checked the gas line into it, he left the kitchen, disappearing around a corner into the darkened house.

By the time he returned, Emma’s teeth were chattering and her eyelids were crusted with snowflakes.

“It’s safe now. I have all the exterior doors open and there’s a good breeze blowing through.”

Emma stepped in from the outside. Although she was out of the wind, she was still cold and shivering. The clouds had sunk low over the house, blocking out any light from the setting sun well before dusk. Darkness descended on Thunder Horse Ranch.

Dante pulled her out of the breeze blowing through the house and enveloped her in his arms. “I want to wait a few more minutes before I feel confident it’s safe.”

Leaning her face into the opening of his jacket, she pressed her cool cheeks to his warm flannel shirt.

He took her hands in his, unbuttoned his shirt and pushed them inside against his warm skin. He hissed at the cold but didn’t remove her hands. “Warmer?” he asked.

She nodded, not certain she could talk at that point. Her teeth were still clattering like castanets.

After a good five minutes with the cold wind blowing through the house, Dante closed the back door and went around the house closing the rest, mopping the snow-drenched floor with a towel he’d grabbed out of the bathroom.

When Emma started to take off her jacket, Dante placed a hand over hers. “Wait until it warms up in here to at least sixty degrees.”

Content to do as he said, Emma stuck her hands in her pockets and glanced around the kitchen. “Did you locate the source?”

His brow furrowed. “One of the stove’s burners was left on.”

Emma’s gaze captured Dante’s. The attacks on Dante’s helicopter, the trailer incident, his brothers’ cut brake lines and now a house filled with gas were all too close together. “Does that happen often?”

“Never. When my mother talked my dad into buying a gas stove, she promised she’d handle it with care and always turn off the burners. He didn’t want a gas stove in the house, afraid one of us kids would light our hair on fire or something. Mom was cautious about the knobs. If she even suspected she might not have turned off the stove, she’d drive a hundred miles back to check.”

“Could she have left it on when she rushed to the hospital after your brothers’ accident?”

“Maybe, but not likely.”

“Coincidence?” Emma asked, shaking her head before he answered.

“I think not.” He glanced around the kitchen. “Julia had said something about Mom hiring a security team to set up surveillance around the house. She’s had some incidents, as well.” He nodded to the corner. “Looks like they’ve started the work but have yet to install the cameras.

Emma followed his gaze, noting where wires stuck out of the corners of the room.

Dante left the kitchen and strode through the rest of the house, moving from one room to another.

Emma followed. Wires stuck out of the walls in every common area and in the hallway.

“What kind of incidents were they having here?” Emma asked, trying to keep up with him, noting the homey decor and wood flooring.

“I don’t know. I think she was afraid to say anything in front of my mother. I’d hoped to find out more from the foreman.”

“But he’s not here.”

No, and Dante had a lot of questions for the man. Where the hell was he?

When Maddox had started traveling to his wife’s country of Trejikistan, he and his mother had hired Sean McKendrick to manage the ranch in Maddox’s absence. Amelia was capable of a lot of things, but it was a lot for a lone woman. Sean had proven himself knowledgeable about horses and cattle and a good carpenter when things needed fixing. And he seemed to have a good heart and a love for the North Dakota Badlands.

Dante stopped in the living room and glanced down at an answering machine. A light blinked three times, paused and blinked three times again.

He punched the play button and listened.

“Mom, it’s Dante. In case you’ve seen the news reports about the helicopter crash involving a border patrol agent, I’m okay. Yes, it was mine, but I’m not hurt. Call me when you get a chance. Love you.”
He erased the message.

“Good thing you got home first,” Emma said. “Or else the jig would be up.”

The second message played.
“Amelia, Sean here. Had to go into Medora at the last minute to pick up some supplies and the Yost boy. If you get back before I do, the horses need to come into the barn before the storm hits.”
Dante deleted the message and played the third.

“Amelia, Sean again. Having troubles with the truck engine. Don’t think I’ll make it back to the ranch before the storm. I’ll get a room at the hotel for the night and be back first thing in the morning. I’m putting a call into the Carmichael Ranch to have the foreman come over and take care of the horses.”

As he deleted the last message on the answering machine, the phone rang.

“This is Dante.”

“Dante, I’m glad you’re home. It’s Jim Rausch from the Carmichael Ranch. Sean tells me he’s stuck in Medora for the night and there’s some horses needing put up before the storm.”

“I’ve already taken care of them,” Dante reassured the man. “How are things your way?”

“Everything’s locked down. Looks like that storm’s gonna last until sometime in the middle of the night. I just wanted to get everything in place so that I’m not out in the snow in my house shoes. How’s Pierce doing? Your family make it back to the ranch with you?”

“No, they’re staying in Bismarck, close to the hospital. Pierce is still out of it. Although he did wake briefly.”

“Sorry to hear that. What about Tuck?”

“Banged up, but on his feet.”

“Good,” Jim said. “Glad he’s okay. I saw in the news about your helicopter crash. I guess you’re okay if you’re at the ranch.”

“I am. I left a message on Mom’s answering machine about it, but since she hasn’t been home, and she hasn’t seen the news, I didn’t bother telling her. She’s got enough to worry about.”

Jim snorted. “And then some.”

“Tell me about it.” If anything were happening at the Thunder Horse Ranch, news would have made it to the Carmichael Ranch. Though Pierce spent his weeks in Bismarck, he commuted to the Carmichael Ranch where his wife, Roxanne lived.

“There’s been one accident after another. First the barn door fell off its hinges and nearly crushed your brother Maddox the day before he left with Katya. Three days later, the hay caught fire in the barn. Sean was able to put out the fire before it did any damage, but it was close.”

“What do you know about the security system Mom’s having installed?”

“Sheriff Yost’s son has a security business. He’s doing the work. From what Roxanne said, he’s not finished.”

“No, not even close.”

“Roxanne tells me Maddox is cutting short his stay in his wife’s country to come home early because of all that’s been happening. Your mother tried to convince him she’s fine, but none of us like what’s happening. And now this crash with your brothers. It’s enough to push a sane woman over the edge.”

Exactly Dante’s worry. “Thanks for the update.”

“Glad you’re there to take care of things. Let me know if you need any help.”

“Thanks, Jim.”

Dante hung up the telephone and stared across the floor at Emma. “I’m sorry to say, but I think by saving my life, you’ve walked into a bigger can of worms than we originally thought.”

Chapter Nine

Emma insisted on spending the night on the couch in the living room. Being alone in the big house with Dante made her uncomfortable. After being in the presence of his family and extended family, she found herself wishing she really did belong and that was a dangerous thing to do.

She had bad luck with families. Her father had left when she was a little girl. As a single parent, her mother had left her alone since the age of twelve so that she could save money on babysitting.

To survive, she’d learned to cook and do her own laundry and that of her mother’s or it wouldn’t have gotten done. Her mother worked her day job and a night job to keep her in a private school.

A month after Emma graduated from high school, her mother caught a staph infection at the nursing home where she cleaned rooms. Within two weeks, she’d died.

Completely alone at eighteen, Emma had depended on herself since. Too many times when the world seemed too harsh or the tasks too hard, she’d gone back to her rented room and cried herself to sleep. She’d have given her right arm to have someone hug her and tell her everything would be all right.

She’d completed her undergraduate degree working nights washing dishes at a local restaurant. Then she worked her way through her master’s degree as a teacher’s assistant. She’d captured the attention of the department head and was offered a teaching position when she completed her master’s and went on to get her doctorate, determined that no matter what, she would always be able to support herself without working two jobs like her mother had.

All in all, she’d had a limited family experience, whereas Dante’s family was almost storybook perfect. Lucky man.

Dante had gotten up before dawn, dressed and went out to tend to the animals, leaving Emma to dress and scrounge in the kitchen for breakfast. The refrigerator was well stocked with enough food to feed an army. A freezer in the pantry was full of what looked like a half a cow’s worth of packaged beef, frozen homegrown vegetables and loaves of bread.

She supposed they had to buy in bulk when they could only get to the major grocery stores once every other month and maybe not at all during the fierce winters.

Whipping up a half a dozen eggs, she chopped onions, tomatoes and black olives and tossed them in a skillet, pouring half the eggs over the top to make an omelet.

When she had two plates loaded, the back door opened and a frigid blast of air slammed into her. “Holy smokes.” She danced out of the draft and grabbed the pot of coffee she’d made and poured a cup full. “Sit. I have breakfast ready.”

“Thanks.” Dante stomped his feet on the mat to get the snow off his boots and sniffed the air. “Smells better than gas.” He winked and shrugged out of his jacket, scarf, gloves and an insulated cap. “You don’t have to wait on me, you know. My mother taught us boys to cook and clean dishes.”

“I know. But I was up and it gave me something to do. Besides, it’s just as easy to cook for two as it is for one.”

“Thanks.” He pulled out her chair and waited for her to sit, before claiming one for himself. Then he wrapped his hands around the mug of coffee and let the steam warm his face. “Heaven.”

His appreciation of her efforts warmed her. “Have you heard anything about your brother?”

“As a matter of fact, my mother called late last night after you were already asleep.”

Emma held her breath, praying for good news after all the bad.

“Seems Pierce woke up late last night demanding dinner.” Dante smiled. “He’ll be okay if he’s already bellowing for food.”

Emma let go of the breath she’d held, a weight of dread lifting from her shoulders. She’d never met Dante’s brother, but she understood how horrible it was to lose a family member and she didn’t wish that kind of loss on anyone. “Thank God.”

“They hope the doc will declare him fit and cut him loose today.”

“That soon?”

“He’s already been up and they’ve moved him from the ICU. It’s only a matter of time before they throw him out.”

“That’s good news.”

“I got ahold of Tuck and told him what happened to us.”

Her head jerked up. “Does he know we’re not really engaged?”

“No, I didn’t tell him that part. I figured it would be hard enough to keep Mom from knowing about our crash without disappointing her about seeing her last son settling down.”

“Now that your brother is going to be okay, shouldn’t we tell her the truth?” The thought made her belly tighten and she set down her fork, no longer hungry. Amelia had been so happy at her son’s announcement.

“No. Let her enjoy her Christmas. After the holidays, when everything settles down and we’ve figured out what the hell’s going on, we can break it to her. She’d be better prepared to handle it then. Maddox will be back with his wife, Katya. Maybe they’ll have a baby or something to keep Mom from worrying about me.”

“Are they expecting?”

Dante laughed. “I wouldn’t be surprised. And in the meantime, Tuck works for the FBI. He’s going to put feelers out on the crash, the trailer demolition that almost included us and the explosives that took care of my Jeep.”

Emma’s lips quirked upward. “Must be handy having a brother in the FBI.”

“Even handier to have two,” Dante corrected. “Pierce is also in the FBI.”

“Two FBI agents and a CBP agent. Don’t you have one more brother? Is he in the FBI, as well?”

“No, he’s the only one who stayed to be a full-time rancher.”

Emma glanced around. “Then where is he?”

“He married Katya Ivanov, a princess from Trejikistan.” He raised his hand. “It’s a long story, which I’m sure they’d love to tell you all about over the holiday. They’re visiting her brother in her home country and should be back soon.”

“You have a very interesting family. How do you keep up with them?”

“Through Mom.” Dante smiled. “She’s the glue that holds us all together.”

Having met Amelia Thunder Horse, she could see how. The woman was open, loving and cared deeply about her boys and wanted them to be happy. And she seemed to include their wives in her circle of love.

An ache built in the center of her chest and her eyes stung. To change the subject before she actually started crying, she swallowed hard and asked, “How much snow did we get?”

“It wasn’t as bad as the weatherman predicted. We only got about a foot. We should be able to make it to town and collect the foreman and whatever supplies we might need.”

“I think your mother’s pantry and freezer are stocked for the apocalypse.”

He laughed out loud. “Just wait. You haven’t seen how much the Thunder Horse men can eat.”

“If they’re all as big as you, I can imagine.”

Dante helped her clean the kitchen, proving his mother had taught him well. If he bumped into her more than he should have and reached over her, pinning her against the counter, it was only to get to the cabinet above.

Emma didn’t read anything more into it than she dared. Dante Thunder Horse was a very handsome helicopter pilot, and he could do a lot better than dating a mousey college professor like Emma Jennings.

By the time they’d finished the dishes, she was flushed and her body oversensitized to his every touch.

“I’ll be ready to go as soon as I brush my teeth.” Emma hurried away to lock herself in the bathroom. The woman staring back at her in the mirror was a stranger. Her cheeks were full of color and her brown eyes sparkled. Even her dark brown hair was shinier. What had gotten into her? This was all make-believe and would end when the holiday was over.

The devil on her shoulder prodded her. So what did it hurt to live the dream for a few short days?

“A lot. It could hurt a lot,” she whispered to the woman in the mirror.

Herself.

And Dante’s mother when they finally told her the truth. But she’d support Dante in any decision he made, as any good mother would. She’d see that Emma wasn’t the right woman for Dante and accept that it was a mistake.

The warmth of the woman’s arms around her still resonated with Emma, and she missed her mother all over again.

She asked herself again, what would it hurt to pretend she was a part of this family, if only for the holiday? It would help Amelia get through it without more undue stress, Emma would have Dante and his family around her for protection and she wouldn’t spend Christmas alone.

She ran a toothbrush over her teeth and made a solemn vow to herself not to lose her heart to a man that was still in love with a dead woman.

Splashing her face with water and then drying it on a towel, Emma squared her shoulders, hurried out of the bathroom and slammed against a solid wall of muscle.

Dante’s arms came up around her to steady her on her feet. “Are you okay?”

Her breath lodged in her throat, her body tingling everywhere he touched it from her thighs to her breasts. “Yes.” Emma’s fingers curled into the fabric stretched across his chest. “Yes, I’m fine.” Her pulse thumping hard in her veins, she straightened and stepped back.

“I was just about to knock and see if you were going to be ready anytime soon.”

“I’m ready. All I have to do is grab my coat.”
And pull myself together.

“Wear your snow pants. It’s extremely cold and windy out there.”

“Okay.” She hurried to the living room, jammed her legs into her snow pants and dragged them up to her waist, zipping and snapping them in place. Her boots went on next and finally her jacket. So much for being sexy in the morning with Dante. Dressed up like the Michelin Man, she looked like any other guy gearing up for the North Dakota weather. Puffy and shapeless.

“I’m ready.” She crossed to stand in front of him, feeling lumpy and ugly.

A smile slid across Dante’s face and he cupped her chin. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re cute when you’re all bundled up like the kid in
A
Christmas Story?
”

She stared up at him, not sure if he was serious or just pulling her leg, surprised by the gleam in his eye and even more surprised when he bent to kiss her and whispered, “I missed you last night.”

Before she had time to digest his comment, he turned and walked out the door into the cold, biting wind, stopping long enough to hold the door for her.

She walked through, still wondering why he’d kissed her and what he’d meant by his words.

* * *

T
HE
DRIVE
INTO
Medora took twice as long as usual with the fresh snow and the unfamiliar vehicle. Dante didn’t know the full extent of the little SUV’s limits and wasn’t willing to test them any more than he had to. He needed to get to town, pick up the foreman and do some asking around about what was going on in the area.

Maybe someone had information that would shed light on the happenings out at the Thunder Horse Ranch. He might also find out if the accidents were limited to the Thunder Horse family or if others in the area were having similar issues.

In Medora, Dante stopped at the diner, figuring Sean would probably hang out there with nowhere else to go until the truck was running.

He parked the vehicle on the main road running through town and helped Emma down. They entered the diner together. As he suspected, Sean was seated at one of the tables with a cup of coffee, a plate with a half-eaten biscuit and one of the biggest gossips in town sitting across from him. The local feed-store owner, Hank Barkley, knew as much, if not more, about everybody’s business than Florence Metzger, the owner of the diner.

Sean stood when he spotted Dante and held out his hand. “Good to see you in one piece. I heard Pierce is feeling better.”

Dante almost laughed out loud at the news.

Hank rose to his feet and shook Dante’s hand. “Heard he was hollering for breakfast. He had us all worried.” The man’s inquisitive gaze fell on Emma and he asked, “Who do you have with you?”

“Emma Jennings.” He introduced the men to her and asked, “Got room for two more?”

“Sure,” Hank said. “We were just killin’ time.”

“Yeah, looks like we have until spring.” Sean glanced out the window. “I don’t think this batch of snow is going to melt until April.”

Emma slipped out of her jacket and took one of the seats at the table. Dante sat in the chair beside her, his leg touching hers. Even through the thick snow pants and his insulated coveralls, he got a jolt. Something about Emma made his blood hum and his libido kick into overdrive. It had been a long night alone in his bed. Between getting up to check on her and lying in his bed awake but dreaming about making love to her, he’d slept little. A twinge of guilt accompanied these feelings. Memories of Sam were fading, which caused him more pain.

“Everything holding up out at the ranch?” Sean’s words broke into his thoughts.

Dante nodded. “I took care of the animals before I left for town.”

Sean and Hank sat across the table from Dante and Emma, each lifting his cup of coffee.

“Mack said he’d have to order a water pump for the truck and it would take a day or two for it to get in,” Sean said.

“Then it’s a good thing I came to get you.” Dante glanced up at Florence when she stopped at the booth.

“Dante Thunder Horse, if you aren’t a sight for sore eyes.” The diner owner hugged him and looked over at Emma with open curiosity. “Is this the little filly you’re engaged to?”

Emma’s eyes widened.

Dante pressed a hand to her leg, his lips twitching. “Who’d you hear that from?”

Florence propped a fist on her ample hip. “I have a cousin working at the hospital in Bismarck.”

Sean smiled. “I got the news from Hank.”

Hank’s chest puffed out, proudly. “Heard from Deputy Small, who got it from Sheriff Yost.”

“I suppose the whole town knows by now?” Dante sat back and glanced at Emma.

Her face was pale and she gnawed on her bottom lip.

She hated lying to people and the more folks who knew, the more she’d probably consider she was lying to. He draped an arm over her shoulders and leaned over to kiss her cheek. “The answer to Florence’s question is
yes
. This is Emma Jennings from Grand Forks. My fiancée.”