Guardian Ranger (17 page)

Her head was tilted back against him as she tried to get away from that weapon. But there was no place to go. She couldn’t get free.

The two men she loved most were closing in. Just about ten feet away from her now. Why was Wyatt letting them come so close?

Because he’s going to kill them both.
Her breath stilled. That was Wyatt’s plan. He was using her to lure Jasper and Cale closer. And when they were close enough, he’d shoot one man, and the other still wouldn’t fire back because he’d be afraid of shooting
her.

Neither one of them will shoot.

Wyatt had that part right. But he was still wrong about one thing. “I can save myself,” she whispered again. But it wasn’t just about surviving this mess. She was ready to risk her life for the men that she loved.

You don’t risk your life for nothing.
Cale’s number three rule. But this risk wasn’t for nothing. It was for everything. For their lives.

She looked into Cale’s eyes. Her brother was only about seven feet away now. She’d never seen such fear in his eyes.

“It’s going to be okay, Ronnie,” Cale told her. “You’ll make it out of this.”

Would he?

Her gaze darted to Jasper. No fear there. Just desperate determination. An intensity that would have scared her if she didn’t know him so well. He was looking at Wyatt, and promising death. “Get your hands
off
her!” Jasper snarled.

“You messed this up for me,” Wyatt yelled right back at him. “You weren’t supposed to be EOD. You were just supposed to be a mercenary. Expendable...
dead.
”

And she
knew
that Wyatt was going to shoot at Jasper first. Because Wyatt would rely on Cale’s bond with Veronica. A brother wouldn’t shoot at his sister, right? Jasper was the variable threat that Wyatt would want to eliminate first.

I won’t let you kill him.
She’d just found Jasper. He wasn’t dying.

“He’s not...expendable,” she said, her voice flat and cold. “You are.” Then she drove her elbow into his ribs as hard as she could. He jerked behind her, startled, and the gun slipped away from her chin, moving about two inches.

That two inches was all that she needed.

She leaped toward Jasper even as she screamed, “Shoot him, Cale!”

Jasper’s arms were reaching for her. She tried to push him back because she was afraid Wyatt would take the shot. But Jasper was too strong. Always so strong. He twisted, protecting her, using his body as a shield.

Gunfire exploded behind her. Once. Twice.

Then she felt the hard jerk that knocked Jasper—
as a bullet hit him?

“Jasper!”

They were both on the ground. Jasper was on top of her, covering her with his body. But no, she’d wanted to protect
him.

“Jasper?” she whispered.

His head lifted. He stared down at her with so much emotion blazing in his eyes that she couldn’t speak again. “Stay here,” he whispered, and he rose.

He turned his back on her, and she saw the blood. The bullet had hit him. A bullet that she’d tried so hard to stop.

She pushed to her knees.

Cale was standing over Wyatt’s prone body. Cale’s legs were braced apart and his gun was trained on the sheriff. Only Wyatt wasn’t moving.

“He’s dead!” Cale shouted. “Take care of Veronica!”

Jasper turned toward her, but she was already wrapping her arms around him. His body trembled against hers, and that tremble scared her more than anything else. Jasper was always strong. Always so in control. Always...

He kissed her. Hard, desperate. His arms wrapped around her so tightly that her ribs hurt. She didn’t care. She held him just as tightly, clinging to him as fiercely as she could.

It had been too close.
Too
close. In those terrible moments, she’d realized...
I don’t want to be without him.

“Scared me,” Jasper rasped against her mouth.

She could feel his blood on her fingertips. He was still scaring her. “Jasper, you’re hurt.” Serious understatement. The bullet hadn’t come out; she could see that much for herself. It was still lodged in his back.

“Won’t ever...lose you...”

“No,” she whispered at once. “You won’t. Jasper—”

“Love you...Veronica Lane...”

She couldn’t breathe. “Jasper, I love you, too!” She stood on her toes to kiss him again and that was when they fell. Jasper’s body seemed to crumble against hers, and they hit the ground. “Jasper?”

She tried to shake him, to get him back up, but his eyes were closed. He wasn’t moving.

“Jasper!”

But he wasn’t answering. She remembered the blood on his back. The bullet. And Jasper’s skin seemed to be losing its warmth. The warmth that had been there to banish the chill and the worry that had cloaked her for so long. That warmth was fading now.

Desperate, she looked up. “Cale! Cale,
help me!
”

Her brother rushed to her side. Behind them, she heard the growl of more motors as other cars rushed to the scene. She didn’t look back at those cars. Didn’t look at anyone or anything but Cale and Jasper. Cale’s face was grim as he looked down at her lover. Jasper was pale, too pale.

“Don’t leave me,” Veronica whispered to Jasper, and she pressed a kiss to his lips. “Don’t.”

Her fingers curled around his. His lashes seemed to flutter. No, maybe that was just the wind. Not him, not...

“I...won’t...” Jasper whispered.

Her breath choked out. Jasper had just made her a promise.

She wouldn’t let him break it.

Sydney and Logan ran to his side. Veronica kept her hold on Jasper’s wrist, and even when the EMT crew came, she didn’t let go.

She would never let go of the man she loved.

Death could just wait. She wasn’t done with Jasper Adams yet. Not by a long shot.

Chapter Thirteen

Not many people bothered to come to the funeral. Seemed as if the folks in Whiskey Ridge were too betrayed and shocked by the actions of Wyatt Halliday to be able to forgive him, even in death.

But Veronica was there. Standing silently beside the grave. To her right, the young deputy was looking as if he’d seen a few better days.

The poor kid probably had. But at least Jimmy Jones was alive, thanks to Veronica. He could look forward to a whole lot of better days to come.

“I’ve seen the way you look at my sister,” Cale said, the words whisper soft.

Jasper turned his head to meet Cale’s hard stare. The man hadn’t really changed that much in the past ten years. A fierce fighter, a loving older brother and a man who would kill in order to protect the ones he cared for in this world.

The funeral service was over. The few mourners were turning away.

Jasper shifted his stance lightly. That bullet of Wyatt’s had come close to his spine. A little too close for comfort. He’d taken six hits before and been able to keep walking. But that one bullet had almost taken him out.

He’d been in the hospital for two weeks. Wyatt’s service had been delayed while Uncle Sam finished the investigation on the EOD murders.

The case was closed now, mostly, anyway.

“I still think she’s too good for you,” Cale muttered. He’d only been in the hospital for a day; the wound he’d received had been easy to patch.

“You’re never gonna think anyone is good enough for her,” Jasper said. But Cale’s words were true. Hell, Jasper
knew
he wasn’t good enough.

Veronica turned and smiled at him.

But I don’t care if I’m not good enough.
She wanted him. Somehow, that woman actually wanted him.

“What kind of life will you give her?” Cale pressed. “Always running off on the next mission, leaving her behind. That’s what I’ve already done to her. Our parents left us. Then
I
left her, again and again, on the missions that called me.” His voice tightened. “Missions that I could have turned away, but I didn’t.”

Because the man was a soldier at heart. The missions had called, and he had answered.

Jasper had been like that once, too. But things were different for him now. In his missions, he’d always been looking for something...

Someone.

Veronica was walking toward him.

I found her.

“There won’t be any more missions,” Jasper said as he glanced back at Cale.

Cale frowned. “What?”

Instead of repeating himself, Jasper said, “I was wondering, are you interested in selling your part of the ranch?”

“What ranch? I never fixed the place up and it’s blown to hell now.”

Maybe. Or maybe it was just ripe for starting over. Maybe this town was the place that he needed. Veronica was the woman he needed.

She was right in front of him now. They hadn’t been able to talk alone yet. Too many doctors. Too many EOD agents.

But he’d have her all to himself. Soon.

“I was told there’s a briefing today,” she said, raising her brows. “Do we go to headquarters?”

Headquarters. That run-down building that the EOD had claimed. The new sheriff would need a better central location. The new sheriff in town would need a whole lot.

Jasper nodded.

He noticed that Jimmy was just a few steps behind Veronica. The kid had been shadowing her. Whenever he looked at Cale or Jasper, he turned ghost-white.

They’d be getting rid of his fear at that briefing. The EOD would share its findings, and the case would be over.

Jasper glanced over at the closed casket.

No more murders in Whiskey Ridge. No more fear.

Time to start fresh.

If
Veronica would have him.

* * *

T
HE
TICKING
OF
the clock on the small desk was way too loud. Every tick had Veronica tensing. She knew this meeting was necessary, but the last time she’d been in this building, well, she’d been scared to death.

Almost as scared as I am now.

Jasper was out of the hospital. Finally. The doctors hadn’t let her see him once he’d been wheeled back to the O.R. She hadn’t been family, and there’d been cops and agents all around him. She’d been pushed back. Veronica remembered pacing the floor of that narrow waiting room again and again. Then she’d broken down and slipped back into the recovery room. Gotten some scrubs, acted as though she belonged and seen
for herself that Jasper was going to be all right.

She’d even kissed him back there, until a stunned nurse had appeared, but that nurse had taken pity on Veronica and let her stay a little longer.

I just want to be with him a little longer.

Only her time was up now. The EOD agents had closed their case. They’d be leaving town, moving, as Jasper had once told her, as soundlessly as shadows as they slipped from Whiskey Ridge.

From her life.

“Cale Lane,” Logan said, drawing Veronica’s attention as the agent looked at her brother, “on behalf of the EOD, we want you to know that you’ve been cleared in this investigation.” The words were formal, real official sounding.

Cale just raised a brow. “I kind of figured that, you know, when you didn’t throw my butt in jail.”

Sydney’s lips twitched.

“Wyatt was pretending to be me,” Cale continued, voice harder now, “and Reed Montgomery was the one giving him the cases.”

Logan nodded. “From the intel that Sydney recovered—courtesy of your sister’s flash drive—Reed let his contact in South America believe that you were actually taking the EOD hits. Striker was assigned the jobs, but it was actually Wyatt who tracked and eliminated the targets.”

Targets.
Veronica swallowed. That was such a cold, clinical way of referring to people.

“I told Wyatt that I was getting out of the business, that I was gonna stay at the ranch more with Veronica.” Cale glanced her way. “That must have been when he decided he could use my name.”

“He planned to make you disappear,” Jasper said. She jerked at his voice, way too sensitive toward him. “You were supposed to be taken out on that case in the Caribbean, but you went off the radar.”

“Because I know a trap when I walk into one,” Cale muttered with a sad shake of his head.

“But when you vanished—” Now Sydney was talking. Gunner stood, still and silent, behind her. “—Wyatt knew he’d have to find you and kill you in order to tie up all the loose ends. He left evidence at his kill scenes, evidence to tie you to the crimes.”

“The guy picked up a lot of crime-scene knowledge from his time in the Dallas P.D.,” Logan said, tapping his fingers against a nearby file. “Seems he was even dating an M.E. for a while. I’m guessing she shared some tools of the trade with him.”

And Wyatt had used that knowledge to plant evidence against her brother.

“If the EOD caught Cale, Wyatt was counting on the evidence he’d left behind to send you to jail,” Sydney said. Her gaze was on Cale. “And if that didn’t work...” Now Sydney’s green stare drifted to Veronica. “Well, Wyatt knew that there was one thing that would always bring you back to Whiskey Ridge.”

Veronica hated being bait.

“Wyatt just had to bide his time and watch Veronica.” Jasper’s jaw tightened as he gritted the words.

“I don’t understand. Why’d he send those men after me at Last Chance?” Veronica asked. “If he was just biding his time...”

“Because he knew you weren’t going to stop looking for your brother,” Sydney said, her voice soft. “He wanted to move the game along. If you vanished, Wyatt must have thought that would sure grab Cale’s attention.”

“It would’ve grabbed it, all right,” Cale muttered, eyes glinting.

Logan delivered the next bit of news, saying, “Then when Wyatt found out that federal agents were in town, he started to cover his tracks.”

But she’d already figured that part out. The explosion at the sheriff’s station...the men who’d been killed. Wyatt had done it all. He hadn’t gone into the back in order to rescue Jimmy. He’d been getting an extra weapon, planning his kills, triggering the explosion.

Veronica glanced to the right. Jimmy stood, with his shoulders hunched and his chin down. The star on his chest gleamed dully. Jimmy wasn’t speaking. He looked so dazed that she wasn’t even sure he was hearing much of the conversation.

Jimmy’s best friend had tried to kill him, had set him up for murder. The guy just didn’t seem to have anyone he could rely on.

Veronica edged closer to Jimmy. When her fingers brushed against his arm, he flinched. His head snapped up, and he stared straight at her. “I didn’t run you off the road, Ms. Veronica. That wasn’t me!”

She nodded. “I know, Jimmy.”

“I realized it was Wyatt. He brought my car in...had his gun... I asked him...asked if he’d hurt anyone...”

All eyes were on her and Jimmy.

“He said...he said he’d try again for you. That I could...could help him...” Jimmy shook his head. “That’s not what I do. I don’t hurt people, especially not good folks like you....”

She blinked away the tears that wanted to fill her eyes. Jimmy had always been so good, to everyone. “I know you don’t do that, Jimmy.”

His lips trembled. “You...you shouldn’t have run to the car and tried to get me out. You should have left me.”

Now Veronica was the one to shake her head. “That’s not what I do,” she said, giving him the same words back. “Especially not to good folks like you.”

Some of the darkness seemed to leave Jimmy’s eyes. He offered her a faint smile.

We’re going to be okay, Jimmy.
They’d both made it through the nightmare. They’d survived.

She felt a light touch on her shoulder. She turned and found Jasper staring at her with his stark gaze. “You knew that Wyatt was going to take a shot at either me or Cale, didn’t you?”

A frown pulled down her brows. “I knew he was going to shoot you both. First you, then Cale.”

Jasper searched her eyes. “How’d you know who he’d go for first? Did he tell—”

“He knew that Cale loved me, so he trusted that my brother would never shoot, not when he thought I might be hurt.” She was her brother’s weakness. One that Wyatt had used. “And as for you...”

“He thought I didn’t love you?” Jasper’s words were flat.

She wasn’t sure what to make of that sudden lack of emotion. Clearing her throat, Veronica said, “He wasn’t sure if you’d hesitate as long. I wasn’t sure so—”

His hands tightened on her. “Let me make you sure. I would
never
do anything to hurt you. For the rest of my life, I swear, I’ll always protect you.”

“And I’ll always protect you,” she told him quietly. “Why do you think I ran toward you?” To cover him, while her brother took the shot.

“You ran to me.” He exhaled slowly. “Because you love me.”

“Hell,” Cale muttered. “This is it...my sister’s about to—”

“And you love me,” Veronica told him, lifting her chin and staring at him with all of the certainty she felt. “I didn’t doubt that. Wyatt did.
His
mistake.” A mistake that had cost the man his life.

Jasper pulled her closer against him. He acted as if no one else were in the room with them. Maybe to him, there wasn’t anyone. She’d never had a man focus so completely on her that way before.

As if she were every dream that he’d ever had.

“I love you more than life,” Jasper told her. His voice wasn’t so flat anymore. Emotion rumbled in his words. “Hell, you
are
my life, Veronica. I might have screwed things up at the beginning, but from here on out, I’ll be the man you need me to be. A man you can want—”

She rose onto her toes and kissed him. The silence around them was thick enough to slice. “You are the man I want.” She smiled at him.

“He’s gonna be in the family,” Cale growled, sounding lost. “The EOD agent who hunted me down is gonna be in
my
family.”

“Yes,” Jasper said, and he smiled, too, a big, bright, happy smile that took Veronica’s breath away. “I sure will be,
brother.
” But then Jasper glanced over at Cale. “Only I won’t be an EOD agent for much longer.”

What?

Jasper’s warm gaze turned back to her. “Seems that Whiskey Ridge could use a sheriff, and I know someone who could pull enough strings to get me that job.”

“I’m good with strings,” Logan added, offering a shrug.

Veronica knew her eyes had widened in surprise. “Y-you’re staying here?”

“Is this where you’ll be?”

A nod.

“Then this is the only place I want to be. We’ll build our home together. Live together. Be
happy
here.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m happy wherever you are.”

“Ah, damn,” from Cale. “Get a room before I poke my eyes out.” But she’d heard the happiness in her brother’s voice. Cale just wanted her safe. He wanted her to be loved.

And he knew that Jasper loved her.

The danger was over. Time for the living and loving to begin. She had everything that she wanted right there in front of her, and Veronica wasn’t about to let him go.

They’d survived a killer’s deadly game. Now it was time for the happy ending that they both deserved.

Time for love and a new life.

Jasper took her hand and led her outside, away from the others. The rain had finally stopped. The sun shone down on them, lighting the town.

Jasper turned toward her. “I’m sorry, Veronica.”

She stared back at him, her body held carefully still. “Sorry?”

“I wish I’d never lied to you. I wish I could go back and start things over.”

“I don’t want to go back.” She didn’t want to hear apologies or regrets. She much preferred it when he just talked about loving her. She stepped toward him, put her hands on his chest. “I just want to go forward, with you.”

“It’s so fast. What if you change your mind?”

He was afraid. Her big, tough ranger. Afraid he wasn’t worthy of love. “Do you trust me, Jasper?”

“With my life.”

The words had her heart beating faster. “Then trust me when I say that my mind won’t change. I love you. I’ll love you today.” She leaned up. Kissed his lips. “And I’ll love you for every tomorrow that comes.”