Cowboy Who Came For Christmas (Harlequin Romance) (13 page)

Adan put his hand around her waist and lifted her, his strained voice seeping out one question. “Do you want to get killed?”

“I don’t want either of you to die,” she retorted, tears in her eyes. “Let me go, Adan.”

“Not a chance.”

Another round of shots filled the cold, dark night.

Adan grabbed her rifle and tossed it to David, then he pushed Sophia to the ground. “Cover us, David.”

She watched as Adan fell beside her and passed out.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

S
OPHIA
’
S
HEART
PUMPED
with a mad dash through her body. She didn’t know whether to shoot into the woods or try to get away. She’d gladly face Joe and try to shoot him, but that would only make David and Adan go all hero on her. She couldn’t risk either or both of them getting killed.

David nodded toward her. “See to him. I’ll cover you.”

He fired off a round of shots for good measure and then hurried to kneel with her beside Adan.

Sophia tugged at Adan’s coat. “Adan? Adan, wake up.”

“He’s bleeding pretty bad,” David said. “Best thing to do now is get him home.”

“And you, too,” Sophia replied, biting back tears while she held her fingers to Adan’s wound to stop the bleeding. The relief of finding David alive warred with the horror of seeing Adan shot and unconscious. He’d jumped in front of her and now he was bleeding.

She chanced a glance toward the woods. “But Pritchard will keep coming. He has a weapon now and he’ll come back up the mountain.” Shaking her head, she added, “He wants me. He won’t give up.” Because she had something else he wanted, too.

“Then we’ll be ready for him,” David said, his salt-and-pepper hair flashing in the moonlight. “He’s not as scary as he seems. He didn’t leave like he said because he wants to take you with him.” He shrugged. “’Course he stole one of my finest hunting rifles, and he’s using it now.”

Sophia swallowed the fear of hearing those words. “Why didn’t y’all go on down into the valley?”

David lowered his head and whispered. “My old truck was low on gas and it ran out about a half mile down the way. He made me wait in the cold for y’all. Said you’d come looking and you’d stop to help me.”

He gave her a grizzly but apologetic glance. “He actually said running out of gas would work because you’d come looking and he would get your car and take you with him. So now I wish I’d thought that through more.” He glanced toward the woods. “But he threatened to hurt Karen and the rest of y’all, too.”

“It doesn’t matter. He used y’all as a means of getting to me. You’re right, though. He knew we’d come after you.”

“Now we’re trapped here with a shot Ranger,” David pointed out. “And a crazy man gunning for us.”

Sophia glanced over the now quiet woods. Joe Pritchard wouldn’t let go so easily, but she was through putting her well-meaning friends in danger. And she refused to let him take her off this mountain. She’d have to find a way out of this without getting anyone else involved.

She moved toward Adan. “We’re not trapped, but we have to avoid being shot ourselves. Let’s get Adan back to my place and you can tell me all about it.”

David nodded and after duck walking around the vehicle so he could put the guns inside, he helped her lift Adan onto the backseat. Not an easy task since they had to stay low and Adan was six feet of solid muscle.

She got him settled then stroked the hair off his forehead. “Adan, we’ll get you somewhere safe, I promise.”

Another shot rang out but Sophia hurried and got the door shut, her mind whirling with turmoil when she heard Adan grunt and fall over the seat.

Then she heard a voice that still haunted her dreams echoing eerily over the now still woods.

“Sophia? Why don’t you just give up and come with me, sweet thing. Took me a while to find you, but now that I have, you know I’ll never let you go.”

Sophia jumped out of the SUV and answered with a volley of rifle shot. “David, can you get us back up the mountain?”

“Sure.” He stayed low and inched his way toward the driver’s side while Sophia trained her rifle on the woods across the way and covered him.

“Sophia, don’t make me hurt any more of your friends,” Pritchard called. “I’ll take them out, one by one.”

“You’ll regret ever coming to Crescent Mountain,” she called. “Go away, Joe.”

“Not without you,” he called. “I’ve had about enough of this mountain. I want off and I’m taking you with me, one way or another.” Then he let out a hoot. “We got us some unfinished business to take care of, don’t we, sweetheart?”

When Sophia heard him stomping through the woods, she jumped in the back of the SUV and cradled Adan’s head in her lap. “Drive, David.”

The sound of gunshots chased them up the hill, hitting metal and chrome and shattering glass all over the back of the already dented SUV.

David didn’t waste any time getting the vehicle turned around. He spun in the mud and ice but managed to head back over the ruts left from earlier. The engine groaned its way up the curving, treacherous road but David held steady.

“You okay?” he called to Sophia.

“Yes, how ’bout you?”

“I’m a tough old bird,” he said on a chuckle. “Now that I’m headed home I’ll be right as rain.” Then he turned solemn. “Is my Karen all right? Really all right?”

“She is now,” Sophia replied. “She was scared and worried about you, though.”

“I was sure worried about her, too.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Remember, Karen was a nurse. She’ll know what to do with that gunshot wound.”

“I hope so.”

Sophia felt for Adan’s pulse and found a weak thread stringing together each soft beat of his heart. She took off her scarf and held it against his wound. Then she leaned her head down to hold on to that thin thread pulsing through his body and hoped they’d get him home before it was too late.

And all the while, they listened as gunshots chased after them, pinging against the SUV like pebbles falling off the mountain.

* * *

“G
ET
ME
SOME
water and clean cloths,” Karen said, her hand touching her husband’s arm while he and Jacob helped Adan into Sophia’s cabin. “Put him there on the couch.”

“No,” Sophia said, thankful that Karen had taken charge. “Put him in my room. He’ll be more comfortable.”

Bettye and Karen shot each other a knowing womanly glance. “Okay, suga’,” Bettye replied. “David, can you take him back there?”

David indicated yes with a quick nod. Jacob helped him lift and drag Adan to the bedroom.

“Open his shirt,” Karen called. “I’ll get water boiling so I can at least clean the wound.”

Melissa stood with her hands to her mouth, her brown eyes on Adan. “Is he gonna die?”

“Not if we can help it,” Karen replied. “Melissa, are you scared of the sight of blood?”

Melissa shook her head, but Sophia saw a deep fear in the girl’s eyes. “No, I... I just don’t want Adan to die.”

Bettye gave her granddaughter a worried glance. “C’mon, honey. Let ’em take care of him. We can help.”

Bettye dragged Melissa into action and then pushed Karen and Sophia behind the men. “We’ll take care of the water. You go on and check on him.”

Sophia followed Karen into the little bedroom. “He’s been unconscious since we started back up the mountain. I tried to stop the bleeding but I’m really worried.”

Karen helped the men place him on the bed. “Honey, he’s got a messy hole in his left shoulder but from what I can tell, he should be okay. The bullet hit the fleshy part, thankfully. I’m pretty sure it’s a through and through. The main problem now is to debride the wound and let him rest, then we need to keep an eye on him until we can get him to a doctor.”

She looked from Adan’s ashen face back to Sophia. “We don’t want infection to set in.”

“Can you get the wound cleaned out?” Jacob asked, his smile gone.

“I’ll try,” Karen replied, one hand pushing at her short hair. “It’s a blessing that madman was still a good ways out in the woods when he started shooting. If he’d been in closer using that particular gun, your Ranger would be missing a shoulder.” She turned to David and hugged him close. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“I’m just fine,” David replied. “That Pritchard idiot would be wise to keep going downhill.”

“He’ll be back,” Sophia said. “I shouldn’t have gotten any of you involved.”

“Honey, we became involved the day you showed up in his car,” Bettye retorted. “You were in no shape to handle this alone.” She gave one of her eloquent shrugs. “We knew what we were getting into and we all made a pact to keep what we knew to ourselves. We didn’t know you only
thought
you’d killed the fool. But we can deal with that, too.”

“If we can keep the Ranger alive to help,” Jacob said with a bob of his half-bald head.

Sophia pushed back the tears burning in her eyes. “I thought I was done with Joe. I never dreamed he’d find me here.”

“You thought you’d killed the sorry—”

A groan from the bed brought them all around. Adan’s eyes opened wide. “You tried to kill Joe Pritchard?”

Sophia stared into Adan’s feverish gaze. “You need to rest, just rest.”

“What’s going on?” he asked, glancing around.

Sophia gave Karen a helpless look.

Karen leaned over and held her hand on Adan’s midsection to keep him still. “You’ve been shot, but I’m a retired nurse. I have my medical bag and we’re boiling water. I’ll need to see if it’s a for-sure through and through.” She gave him a pat on the arm. “You’re mighty lucky it wasn’t worse or lower, near your heart.”

Adan lay back down. “Am I gonna live?”

“Yes,” Karen said, now applying pressure to the wound with a clean towel. “If I have anything to do with it, you’ll be up and around soon.”

But Adan tried to get up. “I’m fine. As long as I’m still alive, might as well go after him.”

“No, Adan.” Sophia leaned over him, her hand touching on his brow. “No. Karen has to check you over. You got hit in your left shoulder, so you need to rest.”

“I’ve had worse wounds.” He blinked then stared straight into her eyes. “Did you...kill him?”

“Not this time,” she replied, wondering how much he’d remember later.

“Nor before either, if I’m hearing right.”

Then he passed out again.

* * *

A
DAN
WOKE
UP
in the middle of the night, a white-hot fever making him toss off the covers and grunt out words his mama wouldn’t appreciate. At first, he couldn’t remember where he was or why he was here.

He tried to lift up off the big bed, but a soft hand on his arm and a sweet whisper in his ear held him back. “Just rest, Adan.”

“Where am I? What’s going on?”

“Adan, it’s Sophia. You’re with me. I mean, you’re back in my cabin. You...you were shot.”

He remembered being on the road. And the cold. So cold. Gunshot. Had to save her. “Chasing someone.”

“Joe Pritchard,” she said. “He...he shot at us.”

Adan closed his eyes, images of darkness curling and hissing along his frayed nerve endings. If he hadn’t been so run down and sleep deprived, he could have handled this better. “Hurts like all get-out.”

“I know. Karen checked you over and dressed the wound. She’s afraid to probe inside the wound, so we have to wait until we can get you to a doctor.”

He blinked again, the scent of flowers flowing around him like fresh air on a spring day. “Karen?”

“Yes. She’s a nurse. Joe...he took her husband, David, hostage. But they ran out of gas and Joe made David wait until he saw us.”

“Joe’s not so dumb after all. Setup.”

He remembered most of it but now he wanted to sleep, just sleep. But so many shadows pushed at his mind. He had to stand watch over Sophia. He needed to be somewhere. Somewhere important...

He watched as she fussed with the bedding, trying to get his to-do list back in sharp focus. “Water?”

“Yes, but just a sip.”

She brought him a glass with a straw. “You have a big bandage and tape over your wound and your left arm is in a sling, so be careful.”

He nodded and allowed her to help him up just enough to sip a few swallows of the cool water. He lay back against the cushioned pillows, his strength sapped. “Be better by morning.”

“I hope so.”

She moved away, but he reached out his hand to her arm. Adan knew he needed to watch over her. “Stay.”

Sophia’s hair fell around her face, that flowery scent teasing at his nostrils again. “I’ll be right here.”

He had to make sure. “Right here by me?”

She hesitated, her fingers touching on his forehead. “Right here watching out for you.”

He wondered when she’d decided to become his protector. He feared she’d go out there alone. “Where’s your rifle?”

“Right here by my side.”

“Good girl.”

He didn’t want to let go of her hand. He wanted her near so he could take care of her. “I should be the one on watch.”

“No. You need to rest that shoulder. You lost a lot of blood.”

He tried to smile. “No rest for the weary.”

She smiled back at him. “I sure know that feeling.”

Adan closed his eyes but he held back from a dead-tired fatigue that tried to tug him into darkness. “Sleep here, with me. Keep me warm.”

He heard a sharp intake of breath, but he was too sleepy to tell her he’d be a perfect gentleman. He only wanted someone near, someone to hold. He wanted Sophia.

And yet, she didn’t make a move toward him.

But just before he drifted off, he felt the bed shift and heard a feminine sigh. Then a small hand curled in his and squeezed his fingers.

“Go to sleep, Adan. I’ll be right here, I promise.”

Adan smiled, his hand still in hers. As long as he kept her near, she’d be safe.

Then he slept.

* * *

S
OPHIA
DIDN
’
T
SLEEP
at all.

She was in her bed with a man who treated her differently than any other man she’d ever known. A man who hadn’t made any moves on her except to protect her.

I only thought I knew love.

She closed her eyes to hold back the tears, memories of being at Joe’s brutal mercy coloring the darkness with slippery shadows. That had not been love.

Possession. Control. Cruelty. A forced confinement. But never love, no matter how much he’d tried to convince her. No matter that she’d tried to convince herself.

I should have left him that first night.