The Deputy's Redemption Page 14

  Elise obviously liked that.

  She made a silky sound of pleasure, threaded her fingers through his hair and let him feast on her. It was just as good as the kisses, too, but soon it wasn’t enough, either.

  Elise tried to do something about that. She went after his shirt and would have managed to shove it off if his shoulder holster hadn’t gotten in the way. Colt had to stop the breast kisses to help her unhook it. The holster and gun went on the floor next to them, followed by his shirt.

  Then, her sweater.

  He got another punch of that burning need when her bare skin landed against his. He’d thought about being with her like this for years. Since they’d shared that first kiss way back when, and those years hadn’t diminished the need one little bit. He still wanted her—bad.

  “Let’s finish this,” she insisted.

  He had no plans to argue with that, either.

  Colt rid her of her jeans. It wasn’t a pretty maneuver, and the need made them fumble, but they grappled enough to get his jeans off, too.

  And then he remembered the stitches on her head. Something he should have considered before he even started kissing her.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he said.

  She blinked, as if trying to figure out what that meant. Maybe she was thinking about all the emotional fallout they’d have from this.

  “Your head,” he added.

  “Oh.” She sounded relieved and kissed him again. “You won’t hurt me.”

  Colt wasn’t so sure of that at all, especially since that latest kiss upped the ante tenfold. So did stripping off her panties. Ditto for his touching her in the center of all that heat.

  Oh, man.

  She was hot, wet and ready.

  And even though his mind kept telling him to slow down and be gentle, they were well past that stage.

  Colt gathered her beneath him and sank into her.

  The sound that Elise made was one of relief. Then, pure pleasure. It was a sound that slammed through him, and coupled with the feel of being inside her, there was no way Colt couldn’t do what she’d demanded.

  Finish this.

  He moved inside her. Elise moved with him. It was perfect. But perfect meant this would all end a heck of a lot sooner than he wanted.

  Still, Colt had no choice. His body was in control now, and it drove him to take her. To push her toward the only place either of them wanted to go.

  It didn’t take much. She was so ready that he felt that climax ripple through her. And in that moment, the moonlight landed on her face. So beautiful. As perfect as the moment.

  That couldn’t last.

  Colt pushed into her one last time, releasing them both from the blazing fire.

  * * *

  ELISE HAD TO catch onto Colt to stop him from immediately moving off her.

  “Your stitches,” he reminded her again.

  “Aren’t bothering me in the least,” she assured him.

  It was somewhat of a miracle. She’d been in pain for two days, ever since the attack that’d resulted in the stitches, but sex with Colt seemed to be the cure for even the worst pain.

  However, it obviously wasn’t a cure for Colt.

  He brushed one of those chaste kisses on her cheek and eased off her, dropping next to her on the sleeping bag. “I didn’t use a condom,” he murmured.

  She was surprised that he could think of anything at the moment. Her brain was still a nice whirl of pleasure and other post-sex sensations. “I’m on the pill, remember?”

  He no doubt did since she’d made such a big deal of personally getting them from her place.

  But maybe this wasn’t about the lack of condom. Maybe this was about the other thing that’d she been sure would surface.

  “You’re already regretting this,” she said.

  Colt stiffened and turned on his side so he could look at her. “No. That’s the problem. I’m not regretting it at all, and I should be.” He gave a heavy sigh. “It’s best to keep a clear head in the middle of an attempted-murder investigation.” He slipped his hand between them, touched her breast. “This doesn’t equal clear head.”

  His touch gave her a nice little shiver of pleasure. Enough so that she wondered if she could coax him into another round. Well, maybe not if he was trying to keep a clear head.

  “So, you’re sure there are no regrets?” she clarified.

  “Maybe one.” He swiped his thumb over her nipple, causing another of those nice little waves of heat to race through her. “I should have made it last longer.”

  So, not the kind of regrets that she was worried about. Still, Elise didn’t want him to feel hemmed in by what was essentially an old attraction.

  But she rethought that.

  Yes, it was an old one. But this didn’t exactly feel old.

  Oh, no.

  Not this. Not with Colt.

  However, this was exactly what was happening.

  She wasn’t just falling for him. She was falling in love with him.

  “Are you in pain?” he quickly asked, levering himself up. “You made a funny sound.”

  No way would she tell him that sound involved the L-word. That would send a man like Colt running.

  Before tonight, it might have sent her running, too. She’d always worked so hard to create her own life. And not one that she’d necessarily been born into. That was the reason she’d steered away from serious relationships. That, and no man had ever quite lived up to the one she’d left behind.

  Colt.

  “I’m fine,” she lied.

  But she wasn’t. This really put a crimp in the plans she had. Getting a ranch up and running would take plenty of time and hard work. Elise certainly hadn’t factored in a complicated relationship.

  And with Colt, it would be complicated.

  Even though she could essentially clear his father’s name, that wouldn’t put her in the good graces of Colt’s sister Rayanne, who had no doubt hoped that Elise’s testimony would put the blame on anyone but Jewell. Heaven knew how long it’d take to mend fences with her. And with Jewell herself.

  “So, what’s wrong?” Colt asked. “Because you’re being even quieter than I am.”

  Elise was about to turn the tables on him and ask him about that quietness. However, the quietness disappeared in a flash.

  The dogs started barking.

  The sound echoed through the house. Through her. And it brought both of them to their feet. They immediately started scrambling to put on their clothes.

  “It might be nothing,” Colt reminded her. “Reed said the dogs will bark at anything.”

  But Elise figured with their luck, it wasn’t just anything. It was something. Or worse—someone.

  “Darnell, I’ll be out there in a second,” Colt called out to the ranch hand. He zipped his jeans and put on his shoulder holster and gun. “You see anything?”

  “Not yet,” Darnell answered.

  The dogs didn’t stop. In fact, their barking got even louder, and Elise could tell they were on the side of the porch that was farther from the bedroom.

  The moment Colt finished dressing, he threw open the door. “Stay away from the windows,” he reminded her. “And don’t turn on the lights.”

  With his gun drawn and ready, he hurried to join the ranch hand.

  Elise pulled on the rest of her clothes and stepped into the dark hallway. Listening. But the only things she could hear were the dogs and Colt and Darnell’s mumbled conversation.

  She eased closer, keeping her footsteps light so she wouldn’t disturb them, and she found both men in the living room. Darnell was looking out the front window, and Colt, out the side one. They weren’t standing directly in front of the glass but, rather, were peering around the window edges.

  Elise held her breath. Waiting. Something she’d been doing a lot of lately. For the past couple of days, her life had been filled with one attack after another.

  Well, with the exception of making love with Colt.


  That’d been a wonderful reprieve, but Colt would no doubt blame himself for that lapse in focus.

  “I think I got something,” Colt said, and that sent Darnell scurrying to the side window with Colt.

  But Darnell shook his head when he had a look.

  “In the pasture near the fence,” Colt added.

  Elise wasn’t that familiar with Reed’s ranch. She’d only gotten glimpses of it when they’d driven in because Colt had been so anxious to get her inside. However, she remembered the fenced side pasture that led to a small corral area and a barn. If someone was out there, they were already very close to the house.

  And the dogs confirmed that.

  Their barking became even more frantic, and it sounded as if they were trying to get out of the glassed-in porch so they could go after whoever was out there.

  “Should I let the dogs out?” Darnell asked.

  Colt shook his head. “No. If the person’s armed, I don’t want the dogs hurt. Besides, I’d rather them stay put in case there’s an attempted break-in.”

  Oh, mercy. That really didn’t help with her nerves. It was bad enough having someone so close, but she definitely didn’t want another hired gun getting into the house. And it wasn’t much of a stretch to believe the person behind the attacks would just hire someone to come after her since there were already two dead hit men who’d tried and failed.

  “There,” Colt said, pointing toward someone on the left side of the window. “Did you see it that time?”

  Darnell didn’t jump to answer. Then she saw the muscles in his body tense. “Yeah.”

  Elise didn’t go closer, but she looked over their shoulders out into the night landscape. There was still a full moon, plenty light enough for her to see something she definitely didn’t want to see.

  A man.

  Elise caught just a glimpse of him as he ducked behind the barn. But a glimpse was all she needed to see that the man was armed with a rifle.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Elise, get down on the floor now,” Colt ordered her.

  She was already headed in that direction, which meant she had no doubt seen the latest threat outside the window. The armed guy less than twenty yards from the house. Hard to miss him with the moonlight glinting off the barrel of his rifle.

  Darnell and Colt both took aim at the man, but since he was using the barn for cover, they didn’t have a clean shot. But once they did, it was a shot that Colt would take. He doubted this was a neighborly visit at this hour, and with all the mess that Elise and he had been through, he didn’t intend to take any more chances.

  Colt fired off a text to Reed and his brother requesting backup ASAP and hoped Reed had been right about it not taking them long to get out there. With the gunman already in place, they didn’t have much time.

  The dogs continued to bark, and Colt wondered if that was the reason the guy was staying back. The Dobermans sounded ready to tear someone limb from limb, and probably would if they got the chance. It might just stop this idiot from trying to break in.

  “Is it just one man?” Elise asked him.

  “Yeah.”

  But Colt wasn’t holding out hope that the guy had come alone. If the person who wanted her dead was as desperate as Colt figured he was, there could be several hired guns out there hiding somewhere.

  “Go to the kitchen and keep watch,” he told Darnell just in case someone tried to sneak up on them from that direction. If that happened, hopefully the dogs would move to that side of the porch so they’d have some warning.

  That thought had no sooner crossed his mind when the dogs did exactly that. He heard the Dobermans scramble to the other side. No longer focused just on the pasture, something else had obviously alerted them. Something on the very side where he’d just sent Darnell.

  “I don’t see anyone,” Darnell called out.

  Hell.

  Colt hadn’t meant to curse out loud because he didn’t want to alarm Elise more than she already was. But she obviously heard his profanity and knew what it meant. That they might be right in the middle of an ambush, and if they couldn’t even pinpoint their attackers, there was no way to prevent something bad from happening.

  “I can keep watch out front,” she said. “And I’ll stay down and back from the windows.”

  Colt wanted to refuse, but the truth was, he needed her eyes and ears right now. Between Darnell and him, they had the sides and the back covered, but someone could use the road directly in front of the house to get to them.

  “Cooper or Reed should arrive in the next five minutes,” Colt told her.

  She nodded, moved to the wall between the front door and a window.

  “I’ve got a guy behind some trees,” Darnell called out. “I’m pretty sure he’s got a rifle, too.”

  Yes, that’s what Colt figured, too. With rifles, the shooters wouldn’t have to get too close to the house to do some serious damage.

  But what were they waiting for?

  With the dogs, they’d clearly lost any element of surprise, and they had to know that Colt and anyone else inside would be armed and ready. Colt immediately thought of a bad reason why they hadn’t already started to shoot up the place.

  Maybe they were waiting on even more firepower.

  Until he’d realized that, Colt had been about to text Reed and tell him to make a quiet approach. So that perhaps they would stand a chance at catching these guys and could get information from them. But no way could that happen now. Colt wanted sirens blaring in an effort to scare off these idiots.

  “The guy behind the tree isn’t moving,” Darnell said at the same time that Elise spoke up. “There’s someone driving up the road toward us. It’s an SUV, but the headlights are off.”

  “It is Reed or Cooper?” Colt asked.

  Elise leaned in closer to the window, prompting Colt to order her to stay back. She did but then shook her head. “I don’t think it’s Reed or your brother. I don’t recognize the vehicle.”

  Great. They were coming at them from all angles now, and Colt still didn’t know how many were out there.

  “There’s a gun on the top of Reed’s fridge,” Colt told her. “Get it.”

  Even though he hated the thought of Elise being put in a position where she might have to pull the trigger. Still, he had to be reasonable here and give her a way to defend herself if the worst happened. Especially since plenty of worst had already happened to them.

  Elise scurried into the kitchen, and it took her only a few seconds before she returned to the window. “The SUV stopped on the side of the road,” she relayed. “No, wait. It’s pulling off the road and into some bushes.”

  No doubt so it’d be out of sight. Maybe in place to ambush anyone who came to help. While Colt kept an eye on the guy by the barn, he sent a text to Reed to let him know what was going on.

  “Reed’s not far out,” Colt relayed to Elise and Darnell as soon as he got a response from his fellow deputy.

  The seconds crawled by, and Colt hoped that Reed’s presence would be enough to send these guys scattering. Maybe then he could pick off one of them and arrest the sorry piece of dirt.

  “The car door opened,” Elise said. “Someone got out, but I can’t see who. I think he’s heading toward the guy behind the trees.”

  So, three of them. At least.

  Finally, Colt heard a sound that he wanted to hear. Reed was obviously close by, and he had the sirens blaring at max volume.

  Elise blew out what sounded to be a breath of relief, but Colt didn’t do the same. That’s because the guy behind the barn moved.

  And not just moved.

  The man leaned out and fired a shot directly at Colt.

  * * *

  THE BULLET CRASHED through the window, sending a spray of glass all over the room. And right at Colt.

  “Get down!” Elise shouted, praying he wouldn’t get hurt.

  Colt didn’t listen. However, he did bolt from the window and ran toward her. H
e hooked his arm around her waist and pulled her to the floor.

  Not a second too soon.

  Because another bullet blasted through what was left of the window. Unlike the shots that’d been rigged with the remote control, the angles were totally different on these, which meant they had a real shooter on their hands.

  And it was obvious this guy was trying to kill them.

  With his arm still around her, Colt crawled with her toward the kitchen. She spotted Darnell, not on the floor, but he’d taken aim at the window where he’d been keeping watch. However, before Colt and she could even reach him, a bullet tore through the kitchen window.

  Then through the front door.

  Sweet heaven.

  All three gunmen were shooting at them, and they were trapped in the middle with no way out.

  “If anyone opens a door or window, the alarm will sound,” Colt reminded her.

  It was good that they’d get a warning, but Elise figured it was possible for those bullets to damage the security system. Then, while they were busy defending themselves and dodging gunfire, one of the shooters could sneak into the house.

  Colt pushed her to the side of the fridge door. Probably because it was as safe a place as they could manage right now. She reached to pull him down with her, but he went to the window, and both Darnell and he returned fire.

  The dogs had worked themselves into a frenzy now, and she could hear them trying to claw their way out. Maybe the gunmen would stay away from there because it was too dangerous for someone to go back to the glassed-in porch to check on the animals.

  Colt fired off another shot, pulled back, and this time the gunman’s bullet tore into the wall just above her head.

  “They’re using cop killers,” Colt told her.

  Her heart was already bashing against her ribs, and that didn’t help. “What?” she asked.

  “Teflon-coated bullets,” Colt answered while he volleyed his attention between the front door and the window. “They’ll be able to go through the walls of this old house.”

  It didn’t take long for her to realize just how true that was. The bullets coming through the front door were tearing through the half wall that separated the living room from the kitchen. With the shots coming from both sides of the house, it wouldn’t be long before the place was ripped to pieces.