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Grayson gave him a description of the car and Mitchell vowed to do something special for Nan when this was over. Right now, all he could think about was Lillian’s safety. Losing her was not an option.
Chapter 13
“This is all your fault, you know.” Bryan sent her an angry glare as he hit the highway at an accelerated speed.
“How so?” Lillian worked at taking deep breaths to keep her nerves from screaming. She was trusting Nan to get help, praying a law enforcement vehicle spotted them soon. “Your brother is the one who threatened my sister and knocked me around. You’re the one who broke into my apartment and car, I’m assuming to swipe the evidence I have of Saint Brad’s handiwork,” she sneered.
His perspiration-damp brow furrowed as he snarled, “What the fuck are you talking about, threatened your sister? She’s dead.”
Those blunt words caused her heart to constrict but she concentrated on the puzzlement in his tone instead. “You honestly don’t have a clue what Brad is capable of, guilty of, do you?” she scoffed. “After breaking up with him because of his control issues, do you honestly think I’d take him back without being coerced? I don’t sit in awe of your brother, never had, never will. Only you do, you blind jackass.”
Bryan tightened his hands on the steering wheel as his eyes darted back and forth along the highway. “Don’t give me that bullshit. He told me how you went nuts when he ended it between you two, how you attacked him and left him with a concussion he damn near died from.”
Wincing, she shook her head in disbelief at the lies Brad was capable of. “I didn’t know he was hurt that bad. He’s the doctor, for God’s sake, not me. And he didn’t end it, I did when Liana died and he could no longer threaten her with harm if I didn’t stay with him. Believe me or not, I don’t care. I don’t know what you’re planning, but you won’t…” She broke off as a highway patrol came speeding out of a turnoff and roaring up behind them with sirens wailing. Relief washed through her, bringing a strange calmness in the wake of the danger she was still in. “Pull over, Bryan. You can’t… Oh!”
Not only did Sheriff Grayson’s cruiser join in the chase along with the highway patrol but hordes of riders were barreling across the fields bracketing both sides of the highway, every cowboy armed with a rifle. But as Bryan cursed a blue streak, refusing to slow down, it was the sight of Mitchell’s SUV coming at them from the front, followed by several more siren blaring police cars that settled the final dregs of her anxiety. Reaching over, she squeezed Bryan’s rigid arm, imploring, “Please, stop. You have to know it’s over.”
He slowed to a crawl and then stopped, his expression bleak as he pointed his gun at her. “I still have you to get me out of this.”
Mitchell came to a careening, sideways halt in front of them as the Dunbar brothers and their cowhands reined in their mounts and aimed their rifles with grim, determined expressions on the left, Kurt Wilcox and his loyal hands riding to the rescue on the right. As drool-worthy, panty-melting a scene as the cowboy posse made, it was the expression on her doctor cowboy’s face as he got out and came toward them with his hand stretched toward her that did it for her. I was an idiot for not trusting him with my heart as much as I did my body. There was no hiding or denying the fierce protective set to his face or the glint of profound caring in his eyes.
She reached for the door handle, swinging her gaze back to Bryan. “No you don’t.” Waving her hand around them, she smiled. “You may have been blind about your brother, but you can see what’s right in front of you now. Think about it, Bryan. Do you want to be a cop in prison for murder or settle for a plea bargain for kidnapping, which I promise to support?” With a deep breath and shaking hand, she got out of his car and walked toward her future.
Six months later
The sprawling green lawn surrounding Caden Dunbar’s home was teeming with the townsfolk of Willow Springs and his ranching neighbors. Two eight-foot-long tables held a buffet of homemade casseroles, salads and desserts, ten other tables offered seating for the picnickers who were enjoying the Dunbar’s hospitality at their annual barbeque. Young children were squealing on top of ponies in a makeshift riding ring, teenage boys were hitting baseballs out in a field and several grills were sending plumes of smoke-filled tantalizing aromas into the air. Mitchell leaned against the towering Ponderosa pine at the corner of the lawn, eating an ice cream cone, enjoying the shade against the afternoon September sun and watching Lillian fuss over babies.
A rueful smile curled his lips as Avery strolled over to the blanket carrying their three-month old daughter. As usual, Grayson was keeping an eagle eye on mother and daughter with the occasional glare toward Caden or Connor as a reminder to keep their boys away from his girl. If he kept it up, the sheriff would have more gray hair than Mitchell before the kid hit kindergarten. The five-and-a-half-month-old Dunbar baby boys were rolling around together on the blanket, their mothers, Nan, Leslie, Kelsey and Lillian laughing at their antics.
He had declined the invitation to the picnic last year, having just relocated and was still getting his bearings, but now wished he had attended. Spread out before him lay the picture of a close-knit community, faces of friends who would go that extra mile for you and a woman who had filled the empty void in his life Abbie’s passing left behind.
His palms still turned sweaty, his heart racing whenever he thought back to that evening when he’d seen Lillian’s pale face staring at him in wondrous disbelief through the windshield of her kidnapper’s car. He didn’t know how word of her kidnapping had reached their friends and the ranches so fast, but his gratitude remained endless. The way she’d gone to bat for Bryan McCabe, giving her blessing for a reduced sentence, stayed a bone of contention between them. No matter how hard he and Grayson argued against forgiving the man, that stubborn grit of hers took hold and they failed to shake it loose. She’d said she’d seen the moment he had believed her over his brother and regretted his actions, and she wanted nothing more than to put the incident behind her. The ten years he was spending in prison were enough of a punishment on a disgraced cop.
She’d had some explaining to do after they had returned to his house that night and he’d seen her bags packed. That evening had been the first of many open, candid conversations between them and the start of cementing their feelings for each other. Over the summer, he taught her to embrace her sexual submissive side and she, in turn, tried to stay patient whenever he lapsed and got ‘bossy’ when sex wasn’t involved.
Reaching into his pocket, he fingered the ring he brought with him, a peacefulness settling over him as he watched her walk toward him with a small smile that stirred his cock. Yeah, he loved her, enough to tie her to him and hopefully welcome a child of his own into this world within the next year. He held out his hand, noticed several people looking their way, Caden giving him a thumbs up and Connor winking.
It never failed. Lillian’s pulse skipped a beat as she took Mitchell’s hand and saw that same look on his face as she’d seen when he’d driven up to her rescue six months ago, along with everyone else. They were still in the process of working out the kinks in their relationship, and
that would likely continue for some time, being such opposites. But they’d been having a good time rounding out those jagged edges. She stayed up worrying when he would get a late-night trauma call and he didn’t complain when he traveled with her to the Taos Summer Art Festival and she had left him on his own to attend her booth. They’d gone rapid river rafting and he’d talked her into having sex on the balcony of the hotel room. There were some perks to shacking up with a man into kinky pleasures.
Over the summer he’d taught her to ride and she’d given him art lessons. He’d shown her how inventive he could get on horseback and how creative he could get with finger paints. They spent a weekend at Devin and Greg’s Wild Horse Dude Ranch for their wedding to Kelsey and Lillian loved the trail ride up to the top of the flat hills. Sydney and Tamara were a hoot after imbibing too much wine at Leslie’s bridal shower, celebrating their first drink after childbirth. Kurt and Leslie’s church wedding in Billings had brought tears to Lillian’s eyes.
“What’s that shit eating grin for?” Mitchell asked, yanking her against him.
Lillian plucked the cone from his hand, leaning against him as she licked the smooth, cold ice cream. “Mmmm, just remembering Taos, and the balcony, and riding back to the falls on Kurt’s ranch, and last week, when you brought out the finger paints...”
He lifted a brow. “Want to sneak away into one of the barns and fool around? I’m sure our hosts won’t mind.”
She huffed a laugh, that familiar thrill sweeping through her at the prospect. “They won’t, but their parents and a few other of our town’s not-so-open-minded elders might.”
“And we don’t want to offend anyone.”
She shook her head, looking around at the friends whose unconditional support and welcome had slowly eased her loneliness and helped her come to terms with Liana’s death. “No, we don’t. Funny, isn’t it,” she murmured, “how we both ended up here, grieving, and found a new home in the process?”
“Fate, kismet, call it whatever you want, I love you, Lillian. Marry me, stay here in Willow Springs with me, grow old with me, and I promise I’ll try not to be too bossy.”
Tossing the cone on the ground, she smirked. “You always did make it hard for me to say no to you, Doc. For better or worse, Willow Springs is home now and you’re the one I can’t live without.”
