Guarded by the Cowboy (WEST Protection Book 2) Page 17

  “You think you can get away with this? A little bitch like you?” A deep voice she recognized as Thornburne’s snaked into her ear, hot and sickening. Her stomach clamped.

  With icy terror flooding her veins, she battled to find some way out of this. She wasn’t strong. She couldn’t fight a man of his size.

  But she had her wits.

  Thornburne pinned her flat to the wall, but he couldn’t see what she was doing. She had one of two choices—a knife in one hand or a phone within reach.

  Above all, Lauralee was confident in her strengths.

  She reached for the phone—which happened to be Thornburne’s that Boone had confiscated precious hours before.

  Barely able to glance down at the screen, she somehow managed to press the right button that would dial the lines of every guard on the Black Ranch.

  The ringtone made Thornburne freeze with his body still smashing hers to the wall.

  “What the fuck is that?”

  “It’s your…phone,” she gasped. “Someone’s…calling you.”

  “Black. Give me that, you bitch.” He spun her and yanked the phone from her hand, too busy answering his boss’s summons to notice that she had the knife in hand too.

  She dropped to a crouch and lashed out, slicing Thornburne’s Achilles.

  The man crashed into the wall, all ability to stand gone when she cut the only tendon holding him upright.

  He bellowed, but she was already twisting the key in the door lock. Isadora stood there waiting for her, eyes wide with fear—and dare she say, hope?

  “Let’s go!” Lauralee whirled and ran, hoping the woman who must be weak from lack of exercise, who’d half-starved herself during her imprisonment, would be able to keep up.

  When she glanced over her shoulder and saw Isadora more than five paces behind her, she raced back for her, grabbed her hand and urged her faster.

  Where to take her? The ranch had many vehicles, but she couldn’t trust any to have keys left in the ignition. They turned a corner. Shouts were coming from somewhere in the house. Boone and Black? Or was it the WEST team?

  Isadora tugged hard enough on her hand to make her look back in time to see men behind them.

  “Oh God! Run as fast as you can!” Lauralee’s only thought was a quick getaway. And since their own legs weren’t doing the job, she chose something that did.

  They burst out a side door and raced to the paddock.

  She skidded to a stop as her gaze fell on Butch, the ranch foreman. She narrowed her eyes, daring the man to raise an alarm.

  Isadora’s breath caught as she noticed the man too. Neither moved for a moment, and then Butch walked away without saying a word to stop them.

  Relief spread through Lauralee’s veins, but they were far from in the clear.

  “Can you ride bareback?” she called to Black’s wife.

  “Yes!” Under a burst of speed, the woman rushed past Lauralee, grabbed on to a horse’s mane and hurled herself over its back. She lay sprawled across its spine, and for a terrifying instant, Lauralee wondered if the woman would have enough sense to command the horse to move.

  She managed to seat herself atop her own horse, righted herself and dug her heels into its sides. “Head for the mountains, Isadora!” she cried, racing across the field. “You’re free!”

  * * * * *

  Judging by the shouts and ruckus coming from outside, something big had gone down. Either Boone’s team were raising hell…or Lauralee had done something.

  Like managed to free Isadora Black.

  Using every ounce of his strength, Boone flattened Black to the floor. He tried to kick a leg out, but Boone anticipated the move and pinned him with a knee in the back of his thigh.

  Black cussed and flailed, but Boone got a hand on his weapon. The barrel of a gun pressing into the back of his skull stilled the man right damn quick.

  “Don’t. Fucking. Move,” Boone grated out.

  The fight had taken a lot out of Boone, but his adrenaline was still pumping hard and fast. Which was good—he’d need it to finish this. Black might be under control with the influence of a .45, but a lot more guards in his employ might try to stop Boone. That didn’t even count the number of ranch hands who might come to Black’s defense.

  Boone shoved himself to his knees, still weighting the man down. He dug some zip-ties from his pocket.

  “You’re in luck, Black. I learned early in this line of work how handy zip-ties can be. I always carry a few, and you’re big, but I like my zip-ties big enough to wrap around a man’s wrists and ankles. Hold your arms above your head and put your wrists together. If you make one wrong move, I swear to Christ I’ll put a bullet in your skull, and I’ll make it look like one of your employees did it.”

  Black obeyed, easing his arms up and locking his wrists for Boone to bind them tight enough that he couldn’t break free.

  “Just for good measure, you get two.” He tightened a second around his wrists before moving to his ankles. When the man was trussed up and lying helpless on the floor, Boone slipped his weapon into the holster at his ribs and reached for his phone.

  He jerked it to his ear as he ran out of the room. “Where the hell are you guys?” he demanded when Mathias picked up.

  “Little…busy…cuz.” A couple meaty thumps sounded on the other end.

  Cussing, Boone thundered through the house, heading straight for the place he knew his wife had gone.

  Isadora’s room.

  When he reached the location, his heart stopped at the sight of a body crumpled on the floor and blood pooling there. He jerked his hand up automatically to cover his stalled heart, before he realized he wasn’t staring at the beautiful love of his life.

  Thornburne was rocking back and forth, hands clasped around his knee and his foot dangling in such a way Boone at first thought it broken. Then he put two and two together.

  Lauralee had taken his knife right before he tossed her to safety. And Thornburne’s Achilles looked to be cut.

  A grim smile stretched over his face as he stared at the man who somebody had freed from the shed and swung his gaze to the open door of Isadora’s empty prison.

  His amazing, smart, incomparable wife had incapacitated this son of a bitch and freed the woman they’d come for. When Boone reached her, he would kiss her senseless. Following that, she’d receive a nice long lecture on taking risks with her personal safety.

  Right after he found her. Where could she be?

  He left Thornburne rocking and bawling about the severed tendon that would take long, painful months of rehab before it could even bear his weight and went in search of Lauralee.

  Following the commotion outside, he stood in the yard, looking around. In the paddock, the horses were riled, running the perimeter.

  Noah ran past him, waving an arm for him to follow.

  In a few long strides, Boone caught up to his brother. “Where’s Lauralee?”

  “She and the woman escaped on horses.”

  “Jesus!” He didn’t know if that was a smart move or a wrong one. Horses were slower, but they could go places trucks couldn’t.

  They must have a pretty good lead time too, because they were nowhere in sight.

  “Come on! Mathias and Landon need backup!” Noah kicked up the speed, outstripping Boone. They raced around the stable and he saw why they needed backup.

  Both men were on the ground, taking beatings from four big ranch hands. And off to one side stood the foreman.

  Boone and Noah jumped in. Boone had blackened an eye and broken two fingers of one man before Flaherty saw what was happening.

  “Call them off!” Boone commanded to the man in a roar.

  “Stop! All of you, stop!” His booming voice had the same effect as the thunderous voice of a supreme being, because all four men stilled immediately, one with his foot still cocked back to kick Mathias in the balls.

  Boone shoved the guy in front of him down on the ground and crushed his boot into hi
s nape. Glaring around at the others, he waited for them to realize their fun here was finished and it was time to go back to tendin’ horses.

  Flaherty met his stare. Boone gave a single nod in the Wynton way. “Get them outta here.”

  The foreman grunted and waved a hand to the men, who slowly peeled themselves up and staggered after their boss.

  Boone leveled a look at Landon, still lying on the ground. He held out a hand to him, and his cousin took it. Boone yanked him to his feet. “You good, man?”

  “Besides some bruised ribs, I think so.”

  “I’ll be pissin’ blood for a week after the kick that big motherfucker gave me.” Mathias planted his hand on his back and stretched gingerly.

  Noah looked to Boone. “Black?”

  “Tied up in my room.”

  “I’ll go after him. Landon, you’re with me. Boone, you and Mathias search for the women. Landon and I will catch up.”

  Boone pivoted to stare at the mountains in the distance. The view of a certain mountain peak was straight ahead—the same view he’d taken Lauralee to see that first evening when he realized he was falling in love with her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Damn these mosquitoes. Couldn’t a woman catch a break even after breaking through her fear of Thornburne and stopping him in his tracks? Or managing to ride bareback all the way up the long, arduous and rocky trail leading to this mountain with a woman who looked about to pass out and fall off her horse?

  She slapped two insects on her arm, sitting side by side, sucking her blood.

  Isadora threw her an imploring look. “Can we stop? I…I’m tired.”

  “A little farther. I don’t want anybody to find us except my husband.”

  “You’re married to a man who works for WEST Protection?”

  Pride surged through her. “Yes. Your message reached us, thank God. How did you get it out?”

  “Through a maid. She’d deliver my tray…then she was gone.” Her voice was dead and flat—she’d obviously long ago given up on life. But now she had a chance to live again.

  Lauralee shuddered to think what had befallen that maid. She could only guess that she’d taken over her position.

  She pointed to an outcropping of rock that flattened out enough for the horses to safely stop. “There. We’ll stop there.”

  In silence, they wove through underbrush toward the area. Lauralee’s inner thighs screamed with exertion. She wasn’t used to riding so far at once, let alone without a saddle. As a kid, she’d been enough of a daredevil to risk riding without a saddle, and thank goodness for the practice. If her father had known she’d someday need the skill, he might not have grounded her for doing it.

  Long minutes later, they reached the spot. Lauralee dismounted first and patted her horse, hoping it had the good sense to not run off. Then she reached up to help Isadora off her mount.

  The woman practically fell into her arms. They crumpled to the ground together, but neither had the strength to get up again and they sat there, panting and recovering from their ordeal.

  Lauralee needed a plan—fast. If those men caught up to them, how would they escape? Looking at Isadora, it was clear the woman had used the last of her reserves to get this far. And she was far too heavy for Lauralee to toss across a horse and lead away in haste.

  All she had on her was Boone’s knife, still coated in Thornburne’s blood. She lifted her jaw a notch—she didn’t regret hurting that man. Truth was, she would have done far worse in order to get away.

  She pulled out her burn phone, but there was no signal. Even though they weren’t that high in elevation, the mountains blocked signals. “Damn,” she said and put the phone in her pocket.

  Isadora wet her dry lips. “What do we do now?”

  “First, we’re going to sit here and rest a while. Are you okay?”

  Their eyes met. Isadora’s teared over and then droplets spilled down her cheeks. She reached out and gripped Lauralee with what was most likely the last of her last reserves as she burst into tears.

  “Thank you. Thank you so much. From the bottom of my heart. You did something no one else would do for me in all those months I was locked in that room. I… Thank you.” She choked on sobs, and Lauralee wrapped her in her arms and held her through the storm.

  “It’s going to be all right now. You’re away from him, and we will help you.”

  “He’ll come after me.”

  Lauralee shook her head. “We won’t let that happen.”

  “What will happen to me now?” Her voice trembled.

  “We’ll help you get a new identity. Start over.”

  Isadora fell silent after that response, and Lauralee was glad for the moment to compose herself. After all, she was pretty damn scared too. What if they couldn’t manage to get off this mountain? How would she find Boone again?

  She hid the tremor in her fingers from Isadora by clenching them in her lap.

  “Are you part of WEST Protection too?”

  “Yes. Though I’m not usually on the physical end of things—I’m behind the scenes in the tech branch.”

  Isadora stared at her. “And you managed to get me out? Alone?”

  “I—” She started to say she had help, but truth was, she’d been alone in that corridor, and she wasn’t as helpless as she’d once believed herself to be. She was strong, powerful, a force to be reckoned with. Just ask Thornburne.

  She steeled her spine. “Yes. But I never would have had the guts to do such a thing if not for my h-husband.” Oh God, her husband. She wanted Boone so bad. Her throat closed off, and this time Isadora embraced her through her bout of tears in a bond of sisterhood.

  “We’re going to get off this mountain.” Isadora gave a watery laugh. “I don’t even know your name.”

  She found herself laughing too. “It’s Lauralee. Lauralee Wynton.” The last name rolled off her tongue with pure, natural ease. She may not have come to be a Wynton in a conventional way. She didn’t have a white dress or a reception with some drunk aunts doing the chicken dance. But she was no less of a Wynton.

  At least, she hoped when this was all over, and they went home…that she still would be something more to Boone than a coworker. She prayed that he still saw her as his wife.

  * * * * *

  “Yahh!” Boone dug his heels into his horse, spurring it faster.

  “Christ, Boone, killin’ that horse won’t help you reach her any sooner.” Noah’s shout came from far behind, but he couldn’t slow down. Couldn’t stop. He had to reach Lauralee.

  Had she even made it to the mountain? The trail was rocky and from what he guessed, neither woman had a saddle. Could Lauralee even ride bareback? Shit, now he was about to explode again. His heart raced and his blood pressure made his ears pound.

  Mathias pulled up beside him, reached over and grabbed Boone’s reins. He gave them a tug to slow the horse.

  “What the hell are you doin’, man?” Boone narrowed his eyes on his cousin, who he’d rather punch than look at right this minute.

  “Taking over where your good sense is lacking. Now slow this horse before you injure it! This isn’t you, Boone.”

  His chest felt ten times too big, swollen with fear and rage at the situation he’d put Lauralee in. If he’d been there for her… Hell, if he hadn’t dragged her into this in the first place…

  Against his urge to again spur the horse faster, he took his cousin’s advice and slowed the pace. The others caught up to them, and the four rode in silence for a hundred yards. The morning had faded to afternoon, but the overcast sky and darkening clouds didn’t bode well for a campout for two women without so much as a horse blanket between them.

  His chest heaved as he struggled to draw a full breath of air. “Fucking hell.”

  “She’s probably fine. They’re probably both sitting on a rock up there, bitchin’ about what’s takin’ us men so long to rescue them.” Noah’s quip didn’t ease Boone, though the other guys laughed.

&nbs
p; “That’s not Lauralee. She doesn’t wait for someone to rescue her unless it’s to get her out of that maid’s uniform.”

  The guys stared at him.

  “Come again, cousin?” Mathias chuckled. “Did you just say maid’s uniform?”

  Picturing the blue dress didn’t help matters—it only made him want to reach Lauralee faster…to put his arms around her and feel her arms around him. To know she was truly unharmed, and they could start their lives together.

  Now he had to explain. “Black insisted that Lauralee took a maid’s position in his household while I was a guard.”

  “I thought you said Black called you out. That he knew who you were by name.”

  “Only because someone told him. I’m not sure how, and there are so many security leaks in this mission that I know Ross will have my ass for it. But dammit, he should kick his own ass too, because I didn’t have the backup I needed until I got you three here.” He ground his molars, already preparing his speech to blast his brother and let him know where their shortcomings lay.

  He trained his attention to the trail, searching for the tracks that would guide them to the ladies. Unless they got turned around and were heading in another direction. Did Lauralee even have a good sense of direction? He knew how she moaned at the end of her release, but he didn’t know the most basic things about the woman.

  For instance, was she a good driver? Had she traveled? Did she like roller coasters? Dammit, there was so much to learn. And the biggest question of them all: would she choose to end this sham of a facsimile of a marriage the minute they returned to Stone Pass?

  He brooded for a while, glaring at the ground until his eyes caught on a hoofprint. “There!” He took off following it, but minutes on their trail later, the tracks seemed to end.

  “What the hell? Where did they go?” he practically bellowed.

  Mathias and Noah exchanged a look. They knew he was losing his mind. So did Landon. Hell, he knew it too and didn’t give a damn. He just needed to find Lauralee.