Page 23 of Rancher to the Rescue

“We’ll wait inside the truck,” Adam promised, figuring it was too dangerous to stand here in the middle of the street. He quickly added, “Prudence remembers.”

“How much?” Lawler’s tone held out a lot of hope.

“What we already know. But I think it’s significant she woke up with those memories,” Adam said.

“I agree,” Lawler said. “Now, to figure out why she has the memory lapses in the first place.”

“How long before you get here?” Adam was already calculating bottles and timelines in the back of his mind. This would set back their schedule. They would have to stick around long enough for another bottle. Plus, Angel had been wrapped like a burrito all night. Maybe they could take her out and let her play on the floor. Or whatever babies this age did. And, of course, depending on the state of Prudence’s house. The perp didn’t have anything in his hands but that didn’t mean he didn’t destroy the place.

“Forty minutes with lights and sirens to clear the path,” Lawler said. “I have a deputy closer. I can send him over to dust for prints on the door handles.”

“Sounds good,” Adam said.

“We can talk about the next steps once I get there,” Lawler said. There was an ominous quality to his tone that didn’t sit well with Adam.

“Okay,” he said casually, trying not to alert Prudence to his concern at what Lawler meant by that.

The sheriff’s statement had been a loaded one. Adam didn’t want to guess what it meant, because in every scenario he could think of, this little girl was taken away. A surprising amount of anger roiled through him at the thought.

8

“Is Lawler coming?” Prudence had only caught one side of the conversation. Despite Adam being cool on the phone, her stress levels climbed. There was something about his expression and careful choice of words that distressed her.

“Yes.” He placed his hand on the small of her back, and a trill of awareness shot through her. The world could be crashing down around her and that man’s touch would still elicit a response from her body. He urged her toward the truck and it dawned on her why. Safety.

“My purse might be in there. My cell phone,” she said. The fact her home had been broken into made her feel violated. And angry. She had no idea where this new bravado came from, but she couldn’t imagine going back to her old timid self.

“We’ll get both of them if they are,” he reassured, his voice a study in calm. One look into his eyes said he’d fight with his bare hands if anyone touched Angel.

A father’s instinct?

“And Lawler is sending a deputy over right away,” he continued.

As if to punctuate his sentence, she heard the sound of a siren wailing in the distance. It did little to calm her rattled nerves. The baby woke, blinking her eyes open as Adam helped Prudence into the passenger seat. Prudence was surprised Angel had slept through the dog racket.

“Scoot over,” he said, climbing in right behind her. He locked the doors, a stark reminder of the danger they were in. Then, he unlocked and opened the glove box. He palmed a handgun. “If the jerk comes back, he won’t get away so easily.”

The thought of the creep returning caused all of Prudence’s protective instincts to flare. One look into the little girl’s eyes and Prudence realized how much trouble she was in. If she was smart, she’d keep an emotional distance. The sheriff would find Angel’s rightful parents and she would be taken back home. Of course, that was the best-case scenario for all involved. So why did the thought cause an ache the size of the Gulf of Mexico to park itself inside her chest?

She didn’t even like babies.

Angel was an exception, of course. But still. The thought of having a child of her own had always sounded worse than a root canal.

Adam kept watch, surveying the area while they waited for the deputy to show. How messed up was that? Prudence didn’t have much but what she had was paid for. She thought about any valuables the jerk could have been stealing. Her laptop came to mind. She’d be lost without it. Her phone. She had credit cards and a little bit of money.

Most of her decorations comprised of art she’d created or items she’d picked up and refurbished from antique shops. There wasn’t anything worth much, except to her. Everything she’d worked for was inside those walls. Everything she’d built on her own after teen years that had kicked her butt.

And yet, right now, her main focus was keeping the baby safe. Maternal instincts she never realize she had kicked in, telling her to keep the baby in her arms safe, happy, and alive. Prudence had never felt a more powerful instinct. Was this how all mothers felt? It made her think about her own and miss her so much it physically hurt.

The wailing siren grew louder until a deputy’s vehicle roared up beside them. Angel frowned, her chin quivered, and she wound up for a good cry.

A young-ish guy stepped out of the marked SUV dressed in the same tan button-down shirt Lawler had on last night. At least Prudence’s memory seemed to be intact other than a blank spot where three days should be.

Adam slipped out of the truck and met the deputy in the street. She watched as he explained what had gone down. He pointed toward the backyard. It occurred to her that she left a key in an obvious spot, in a colorful planter. But then, half the reason she’d moved back to Lone Star Pass after losing her family was for safety reasons. It had been many years since she’d been that teen who’d been muted by a horrific act. No one got to make her go back to that place in her thoughts again. She bit back a curse. No one should get to disrupt her life again.

Speaking of which, she needed to go inside and take her meds. The new pill her doctor recommended needed to be taken at the same time every day.

Angel belted out a pitiful-sounding cry. Prudence checked the time. It was too early for a bottle. “What’s wrong, sweet girl?”