Cowboys for Christmas (3 page)

It was also getting hot in here.

Moments later, JJ had a couple of the windows beneath the side-porch veranda open and the kitchen ceiling fan on. Her arms laden with the piled-high laundry, she ascended the stairs to the upstairs bedrooms.

First stop, her room.

As she entered, she smiled at the cozy bedroom. It was plain and simple decorated in red and brown hues. The room consisted of a queen-sized bed, a dresser, a night table and some shelves.

The furniture had been handmade from the knotty pine cultivated from their land. The guys made all their furniture in their sawmill located on the other side of the barn.

JJ felt safe and snug in here. It was full of memories of her being tied down on her bed and made love to with tenderness or fucked senseless by all three of her cowboys. Just remembering her sensual moans as their mouths kissed and licked her body parts or the sweet caresses of their hands upon her breasts or watching them with eager anticipation as their huge cocks drew closer to her…

Mercy, it was getting hot in here. JJ dumped the laundry basket onto her bed and began sorting through the items. When she had the underwear folded, she opened the top drawer and hesitated.

Inside the drawer, her few remaining undies were a tangled mess. A slither of shivers snapped up her spine. She gazed around her room. Nothing appeared to be out of order. Just the underwear.

Maybe Dan had been in here? No, that wasn’t something he would do. JJ frowned as she quickly rearranged the underwear and then placed the freshly laundered ones inside. As she slid the drawer closed, a sound creaked up from the main floor. She froze.

Was that the back door opening? She hadn’t thought to lock it.

Had Dan returned? She wanted to call out, but something warned her to keep quiet.

The buzz of the kitchen ceiling fan sifted through the silence. Rain began to pound once again onto the metal roof overhead.

JJ strained to listen. Did she hear footsteps? Yes, footsteps. They were light and slow from somewhere downstairs. A floorboard creaked.

Oh no
.

It was the loose plank in the hallway which lead from mudroom to the living room, passing the bottom of the stairs. JJ’s heart suddenly seemed to stop beating. She wanted to run, but her feet stuck to the floor like cement.

For some insane reason, she
knew
it wasn’t Dan. Or Rafe. Or Brady. They wouldn’t come in quietly.

Suddenly, JJ remembered seeing something yesterday right after Dan had made love to her up against the tree. But Dan had reassured her there was no one around, as he’d seen nothing out of the ordinary. She’d believed him. Had felt safe again. But someone must have gone through her underwear drawer. The steaks and cake were missing.

Creepy tremors rippled through her. Disbelief and terror made her move quickly and quietly to her bedroom door. She'd left it open.

She peered out and listened. Another sound. JJ fought back the scream that threatened to destroy the last shred of her self-control.

She needed to get out of the house. But the only way out was down was the stairs.

She could hide in Dan’s bedroom. It was the closest to hers. She struggled to go slowly as she crossed the hallway. A rumble of thunder cracked nearby. She jumped.

Damn! The storm was returning.

Once inside Dan’s room, JJ closed the door and felt just a touch better. She could hide under the bed. No, his closet. She’d hide in there. He had a rifle in there. The key to the rifle case was in a locked box on top of the closet. The key to the locked box was in his night drawer. He’d shown her once. Just in case of an emergency, he’d said.

This was an emergency.

JJ’s throat grew dry as she slid the drawer open. She found the key beneath the drawer lining.

Her heart cracked against her chest as she slipped into the darkness of Dan’s closet. Her hands shook as she brought down the locked box that held the key to the rifle case.

Good Lord! This was just too much to go through in an emergency. What if the intruder was already up here?

The familiar stirrings of claustrophobia slithered through JJ. She inhaled, trying to breathe. Her throat constricted.

No
!

She shook uncontrollably as she pulled the closet door closed just enough to give her the light she needed to be able to stick the key into the box lock. It popped open and she grabbed the other key.

Within seconds, she had the rifle unlocked. She darted the bullets into the chamber just like the guys had showed her during some lessons they’d given over the winter months.

Quietly she closed the door. She pointed the rifle in such a way that when the intruder opened the door she could shoot right in his chest area. Less chance of missing.

Her heart cracked like exploding cannons in her ears. She waited.

“JJ sounded stressed,” Brady said as he removed his shoes, slid them under the hotel bed and lay down on the lumpy mattress.

Rafe blew out a tense breath as he watched Brady cross his arms beneath his head and stare at the ceiling. He acted as if he wasn’t overly concerned about JJ and that they hadn’t just brought back some fast food for supper. It lay on the bed beside him, untouched.

But Rafe noted the muscles jump in Brady’s cheeks and the firm set of his jaw.

Brady was concerned. And Rafe was picking up on it. Big time.

“Before we headed out to grab the food, you said she said she was fine and there was a storm,”

Rafe replied, hoping to tell he was reading Brady all wrong.

“Yeah, that’s what she said.” Brady replied.

Rafe slung his jacket over the back of a chair and plopped himself down on his bed, leaving his bag of burger, fries and chocolate milkshake untouched. He settled on the other bed and took the same position as Brady. He stared at the ceiling, as frustration clawed through him. Why in hell didn’t they just go home?

“If we call North Country Air, I’m sure they’d get a pilot out to us by tonight and we could be back early in the morning, before the sun even rises,” Rafe suggested. Hope surged through him.

Yeah, that was a great idea.

Brady frowned. “JJ wouldn’t like that. She’d think we were babysitting her. Besides, Dan’s with her. I don’t want her mad at us for coming back early. She said for us to stay. So, we stay.”

Rafe laughed. “What? You’re afraid of a little bitty lady like JJ? Come on, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

Brady pouted. “Hell, she could threaten not to feed us, among other things. She’s got us by the balls and if she doesn’t like something we do, she’ll let go of them and then we’re in the doghouse. I for one prefer to be in her bed. We’ll hang here until we get what we need and then we’re heading back.”

Rafe nodded. Brady was right. JJ held a lot of power over the three of them. They needed to stay in her good graces. Besides, she was going to have to get used to being alone at the ranch house during the days and sometimes even spending some nights alone. Running a ranch included branding and haying and a shitload more things that needed doing when they got back into full swing. Still, Rafe just had a bad feeling he hadn’t been able to shake since Brady got off the phone with her over an hour ago.

For the short time Brady had spoken with her, Rafe had overheard. There had been something off in her voice. Sure, Brady had said there was a storm going on, and that she was probably nervous about it. But he just had that feeling something else was wrong.

JJ didn't know how long she'd been waiting in that closet with the rifle aimed at the door opening.

Waiting. Worrying. She didn't dare move. Didn't dare breathe.

Who was here? Why didn't they call out? Did they know she was home? Why didn't she hear anything anymore? Had they left?

What if they were right there on the other side of this door, waiting for her to come out? Was the intruder ready to pounce on her?

Sitting in here brought back crazy memories of her stepfather. Of the many times he'd come home drunk and flown into a rage if JJ or her mother said one wrong thing. Or if one of them gave him the wrong look.

Hell, he hadn't needed an excuse to lock her in closet so he could beat her mom. The dull thuds of fists pounding flesh, the harsh screams of her pain and her shuddering sobs when he finished using her as a punching bag rang like sharp blades of pain in her ears.

She'd pound on the closet door until her fists were bloody and raw. No one ever came to her rescue. No one ever called the cops.

Why would they? Her stepfather was a cop.

The couple of times they'd called for help, his cop buddies showed up. They removed him, he came back, and things just were worse.

Instinctively JJ's finger tightened on the trigger. She struggled to inhale a breath as, for an instant, she was thrust back to that time in her life when hope had been nonexistent. She'd known the only ways out had been to run away from the situation. Her mother was so afraid of him, she'd refused to even discuss such a thing. And JJ couldn't leave without her mom.

The only other way to get rid of him was to kill him.

So she'd killed him.

JJ blinked as she forced her thoughts back to reality.

The rain had stopped hours ago. The crack in the door was letting in too much light. The sun was shining. It was too hot in here. Sweat dripped into her eyes. She blinked away the stinging wetness.

Yet JJ refused to move. He could be out there. Waiting.

Her legs were cramping as she kept her crouch. She needed to go pee. Her hands were getting sore from holding the rifle.

Dare she peek out?

She shook her head. Why was she being such a wimp? She had a rifle. She could blow the intruder's head off.

This is my home
.

A fierce territorial rage suddenly slammed into her. She would fight to her death to protect her home and her men and not cower in some stupid closet.

Why in the world had it taken her so long to get herself some balls?

A burst of courage surged inside JJ. This daring to die for what was right was an odd feeling. It was something she hadn't experienced since the day she'd killed her stepfather.

Suddenly, she knew she would kill again, if she was threatened. And she was feeling

threatened. Big time.

Using the barrel of the rifle, she pushed the door open inch by inch. Silence met her.

From the angle of the sunlight, she knew it was late in the day.

Unease whipped through her. Dan hadn't returned. He
had
said he might be late.

But still…

She pushed the door open a bit more. Slowly, she stood. Then she slipped out into the bedroom.

No one. Not a sound.

It was very hot in here. Keeping the rifle trained at Dan's bedroom door, JJ tiptoed sideways to the nearest window and looked outside.

Raindrops sparkled on the glass panes. Beyond, the yard was devoid of movement. Large black clouds blinked with lightning to the east over the lake and shadows were spilling over the forest as the sun dropped behind the horizon in the west.

Despite the heat, JJ shivered.

It would be dark within minutes, and Dan wasn't back. She needed to get her ass downstairs and find out if she had only imagined someone being in the house.

Edging toward the bedroom door, she quietly opened it and stepped into the hallway. It was quiet here as well. For a few minutes, JJ stood at the foot of the stairs and peered down the stairway, half expecting someone to come running up. Uneasiness slithered through her as she expected someone to rush up the stairs and attack her.

Nothing.

Damn, JJ, but you have one hell of an imagination.
She'd been reading about anxiety and panic on the Internet and had discovered many of the people with this problem did have a very creative imagination. Little comfort when she sometimes couldn't control the panic or anxiety attacks.

She knew she needed to change her way of thinking. Knew too that medication could help her.

But she'd never liked the idea of popping pills. So far she'd managed to get away without the meds except for taking a prescribed pill to calm her nerves a couple of times since arriving here.

Okay, so she might have imagined someone lurking around earlier. Maybe the house had been settling and had made weird noises?

JJ grabbed her rifle tighter and descended the stairs. Immediately, she checked the doors. They were locked. She closed the windows she'd opened and lifted the receiver to the phone.

Dial tone.

Thank God
!

Just then, a low groan from somewhere outside had her bringing up the rifle. The sound grew louder. No, not a groan. An engine.

Dan!

She moved fast now, rushing down the hallway and into the mudroom. JJ expected to see Dan enter the yard on his all-terrain vehicle.

He didn't appear. Her hopes deflated.

Where are you, Dan?

Excitement shifted through her as she spied a bright blue floatplane skimming over the waves out on the lake. It was heading toward the ranch dock.

North Country Air was scrawled in white lettering on the side of the plane. It had to be Blue.

She was one of the female bush pilots.

JJ sent up a prayer of thanks as her anxiety eased a bit. She placed the loaded rifle behind the mudroom door and went outside to meet her guest.

Brady knew something was wrong the instant he spied JJ pacing on the dock while she waited for the plane. She appeared pale and wild-eyed as if she might be having another anxiety attack.

He was glad that Rafe had voiced his intuition that something was wrong back home and Brady had eventually decided it was best to return early.

As luck would have it, when they'd called North Country Air for a flight, Blue had been in town and come to their rescue. They'd met her within the hour at the airport and they had been airborne.

"What's wrong?" Brady asked as he tossed JJ the rope so she could help secure the plane to the dock. In a flash, he was on the dock and the instant she secured the rope, he gathered her into his arms.

She shivered against Brady as she buried her face into his shoulder and his protective instincts went haywire.