Texas Bride (21 page)

Jonah chugged three swallows, but it didn’t take
the edge off his shattered nerves. He was rattled, when he never got rattled. He was always cool under fire. Well, usually, he amended. Watching Maddie purposely draw gunfire was not a good example of how well he reacted in lethal situations.

“You need to calm down,” Boone advised as he wrapped a strip of Jonah’s shirt over her wound. “You’re starting to make
me
nervous.”

Jonah closed his eyes, inhaled a steadying breath and told himself that Mad Maddie Garret was going to live to see another day. They were going to have matching scars on their upper left arms, but that was better than the alternative.

The thought of a single scar marring her silken flesh tempted Jonah to grab his pistol and shoot Ward Tipton a few more times for good measure. That cocky bastard couldn’t end up fried to a crisp in hell fast enough to pacify Jonah.

“Want me to carry her outside while you pull yourself together?” Boone questioned.

“I’ve got it together.”

Boone frowned doubtfully. “If you say so.”

Jonah struggled to his feet and resituated Maddie’s motionless body in his arms. He couldn’t make himself release his possessive hold on her for even a second. Furthermore, he predicted the sight of her ashen face was going to haunt his nightmares for the next several weeks. He never again wanted to live through anything as terrifying as this showdown with Ward Tipton.

The incident had shot his nerves of steel to pieces. It would probably take him longer to recover from
this harrowing encounter than it would for Maddie to recuperate from her injury.

“What in tarnation was she thinking?” Jonah muttered as he rode toward Bar G Ranch with Maddie cuddled protectively against him.

“She was thinking of
you,
” Boone murmured in the darkness. “My guess is she invited the shot to ensure Tipton didn’t turn his weapon on you first.” He glanced sideways at Jonah and stared at him for a long moment. “What does it feel like to have a woman love you so much that she would take a bullet for you?”

Jonah didn’t have an answer. He couldn’t speak. Hell, he could barely even breathe!

B
y the time Jonah reached the ranch house he had composed himself—somewhat. He carried Maddie upstairs to her room, then sent Boone to deliver the news to Christina that Maddie had been injured. Although the girl was still unsteady on her feet, she insisted on seeing for herself that her sister was alive and would recover from her wound.

“Do you have laudanum in the house?” Jonah questioned Christina, who was clutching Boone’s arm to hold herself upright.

She nodded jerkily without taking her worried gaze off her sister.

“Good. Do you feel up to fetching it for me?”

When Christina reversed direction, still clinging to Boone for support, and exited the room, Jonah gently peeled off Maddie’s boots, breeches and shirt and tucked her in bed. He was so aggravated at Maddie for confronting Ward alone and then drawing his gunfire that he wanted to shake the stuffing out of her. Yet, simultaneously, he wanted to clutch her possessively to him and hold on to her until all these wild
emotions that were whirling through him finally settled back in place.

Jonah half collapsed on the edge of the bed and heaved a frustrated sigh. No one had ever gone to such dangerous extremes to protect him from harm and he didn’t know how to deal with it. But then, he didn’t know how to deal with half the emotions Maddie triggered inside him.

This daring female always kept him off balance and distracted. He never really found solid footing when she was around. Forbidden desire and sensible logic constantly warred inside him, and Jonah had bedded down, battle-weary, every night since Maddie had barged into his life and turned it upside down.

He glanced up when Boone and Christina arrived with the sedative and a pitcher of water. “I’ll sit up with her tonight,” he volunteered as he gave her a double dose of laudanum to ensure she slept through the worst of the pain. “Go back to bed, Christina. You need to rest, and I will make certain your sister gets any medical attention she might need.”

When Christina simply stood there, staring down into Maddie’s peaked face, Jonah glanced at Boone, silently requesting that he attend to her.

“Maddie is in capable hands,” Boone soothed as he gently turned Christina around and shepherded her toward the door. “You can check on her first thing in the morning.”

Christina glanced up at Boone with such trust and affection that Jonah rolled his eyes in exasperation. The girl was growing entirely too dependent on his friend.

In addition, Maddie had convinced herself that she was in love with him, Jonah mused as he cupped his hand behind her neck to force her to take a drink of water. What was the matter with the Garret sisters? Couldn’t they understand that he and Boone were only temporary intrusions in their lives? Jonah and Boone had been trained as warriors—guns for hire, more or less. They never stayed in the same place for very long and they weren’t supposed to become emotionally attached before they moved on.

Jonah pulled up a chair and plunked down in it. He expelled a loud sigh, then scrubbed his hands over his face. He had to focus on wrapping up this case, then get out of Maddie’s life before he lost the will to leave at all. Despite what she thought, he was the last thing she needed, and Forbidden Canyon was still the last place he wanted to be.

When Maddie grimaced, then moaned groggily, Jonah’s thoughts scattered like buckshot. Watching her suffer was killing him, bit by excruciating bit. He kept reliving that unnerving shoot-out in Ward’s office and it kept giving him cold chills.

“Damn it, princess,” he muttered at her. “
I
should be the one lying there, not
you.
”

What does it feel like to have a woman love you so much that she would take a bullet for you?
Boone’s words came back to him in a frustrated rush.

It felt like hellish torture, pure and simple, Jonah mused. Maddie had been willing to make the supreme sacrifice for a man who was unworthy and didn’t deserve her.
He
could see that as clear as day. Why couldn’t
she?

Maddie awoke to find that she and her sister had reversed roles. Christina looked the picture of health while she perched on the edge of Maddie’s bed. Maddie felt as if she had been trampled in a stampede. Her body was stiff and achy, and her left arm refused to move without every muscle pitching a fit.

“Thank goodness you’re finally awake,” Christina said in relief. “I’ve been worried about you, and Rosita has been beside herself for days on end.”

“Rosita always overreacts,” Maddie said in a voice that she barely recognized as her own. It sounded as if her vocal cords had rusted from lack of use.

Christina dimpled and grinned. “Yes, she does. And she still refers to me as the bambino, even though I’m rapidly approaching my sixteenth birthday.”

Maddie wondered why Christina thought it was imperative to mention her age, and decided it probably had something to do with her obvious infatuation for an older man.

“Things are pretty much back to normal around here. I only wish Papa…”

When Chrissy’s voice trailed off, Maddie reached out to grab her hand. “I know,” she murmured softly. “But I think Papa would be proud of us for standing up to adversity the way he always did.”

“Yes, he would.” Chrissy muffled a sniff and tilted her chin to a determined angle.

Maddie smiled, realizing that mannerism was definitely a Garret family trait.

After a moment Maddie glanced sideways to note
that morning sunlight was pouring through the windows. “How long have I been stuck in bed?”

“Four days,” Chrissy reported.

“Four?”
Maddie gasped, astonished.

Chrissy nodded her silver-blond head. “You have Jonah to thank for that. He wanted to ensure that you slept through the worst of the fever and pain. I tried to convince him, having been overdosed with laudanum myself recently, that you wouldn’t want to be drowsy constantly. But Jonah insisted that was the only way to keep you in one place long enough to recuperate. And if you vaguely remember being roused hourly during the night to sip water and take nourishment, that was his doing. He’s been fussing over you as much as Rosita has.”

Maddie vaguely recalled Jonah’s voice in the darkness, but she presumed she had been plagued with whimsical dreams of his gentle touch and the light whisper of kisses against her cheek.

Christina smiled impishly. “Your pretend husband has taken over around here. I’ve been calling him General Danhill. He’s been spouting orders left and right to ensure you are well cared for, and he and Boone have been cleaning up this area of Texas in typical Ranger fashion.”

Maddie frowned, bemused. “Cleaning up?”

“They have been sorting the good guys from the bad guys, and Jonah has interrogated every hired hand at both the Hanson and Tipton ranch,” she explained. “He and Boone were confused about exactly who had ordered my abduction, and they were determined to sort it all out and get the story straight.”

“I told them it was Ward,” Maddie insisted.

“Apparently they had been given conflicting information by one of the men who followed you back from Fort Worth. It seems Ward was very careful not to let the right hand know what the left hand was doing. Or in this case, his right-hand men and the left ones. One band of henchmen kidnapped me and two of his hired guns followed you to and from Fort Worth. Ward planted informants here and at Avery’s Ranch, and he received constant updates about the goings-on.”

Maddie sighed heavily. “All because Ward refused to let Avery get the better of him and because he was obsessed with impressing his father so he could become the next earl of Longwood.”

“
Lang
wood,” Chrissy corrected. “Boone and I rummaged through Ward’s desk, and we found several letters from his uppity father. Ward was exiled to Texas and his father insisted Ward had to redeem himself by becoming an honorable gentleman and a capable financial manager, if he hoped to save face after some sort of scandal that involved his best friend’s wife.”

“That two-faced, back-stabbing scoundrel,” Maddie muttered.

“You can say that again. Boone and I also found two bottles of laudanum in Ward’s desk, along with the tin cup I remember having shoved against my lips when I was constantly sedated.”

“I’m almost sorry that man is dead because I don’t think I’ll feel vindicated unless I can shoot him myself!” Maddie grumbled as she tried to lever herself up in bed.

Chrissy’s hand shot out to hold her in place. “You
are not getting up. I have been given specific orders to ensure that you stay put. For some reason your pretend husband is very touchy and adamant about you staying exactly where he left you.”

Maddie shifted uncomfortably. “Perhaps I was better off being sedated. That way Jonah couldn’t jump down my throat for daring to break the stalemate that night in Ward’s office.” She stared somberly at her sister, trying to make Chrissy understand why she’d done what she had. “I refused to see Jonah or Boone hurt on my behalf. They have suffered more than you know because of me. Better a wound in my shoulder than a hole through Jonah’s heart. And I will argue that point with him to my dying day.”

“And what point would that be, princess?”

Maddie glanced over Chrissy’s shiny blond head to see Jonah looming in the doorway, looking grim-faced, tough and so ruggedly handsome that her pounding heart did a back somersault in her chest and slammed into her ribs.

Chrissy popped up like a jack-in-the-box. “I think I’ll see if Boone would like a refreshing drink.” She grinned playfully at Jonah on her way out the door. “Don’t yell at my sister,
General.
She hasn’t fully recovered yet.”

Jonah ignored the teasing request and never took his eyes off Maddie as Chrissy brushed past him. He had spent the last four days racing from one place to the next, ensuring that all those who were responsible for causing an upheaval in Maddie and Chrissy’s lives were behind bars.

All except for that elusive Jesse Gibbs, who must have lit out for parts unknown. But Jonah was making
it his personal crusade to hunt the man down and see him punished for the torment he had inflicted on Maddie.

Jonah had encountered some wily mastermind criminals in his time, but Ward Tipton headed up the list. The man had been exceptionally shrewd, intelligent, manipulative and conniving. He never told his henchmen the same story—hence Beau Newton’s misinformation.

To this day Beau maintained that Ward had sworn to him Avery was responsible for the kidnapping. According to Beau, neither he nor Jesse Gibbs had been allowed any association with the men who had perished the night of the hostage exchange. Ward always rendezvoused with Jesse and Beau in a remote canyon, out of sight from the ranch house.

Ward Tipton had taken his cues from Avery Hanson, in attempting to gain control of Maddie’s ranch. But Ward had made Avery look like a second-rate crook in comparison.

Tossing aside his wandering thoughts, Jonah approached the bed. “Are you feeling better?”

Maddie eyed him warily as he towered over her. “That depends.”

He frowned at her. “That depends on what?”

“On whether you’re going to flay a few strips off my hide with your tongue if I feel up to it.”

She tilted her chin in typical Maddie fashion that was both adorable and exasperating. Jonah said, “You look well enough to hear the scathing lecture you deserve after that death-defying stunt.” He leaned down, bracing his hands on the edge of the bed, got right in her face and shouted, “Do. Not. Ever. Do. That. Again! Damn it!”

“Then do not ever try to draw gunfire to spare me,” she yelled back, then winced when she unintentionally jarred her left arm. “I saw you move sideways while Ward was holding me hostage. You practically dared him to turn his pistol on you, and I refused to stand for it!”

“Look, princess, I—”

She cut him off at the pass. “No,
you
look, Jonah Danhill.
I love you.
Can’t you get that through your thick head?”

“It isn’t love,” he insisted. “It’s gratitude.”

Maddie glowered at him. “You might tell me what to do occasionally and I might
allow
you to get away with it, but do
not
presume to tell me how I feel. I know what is in my heart. And it doesn’t matter how you feel about me because what is most important to me is that you are safe and in one piece.”

“Maddie—”

She hurried on before he could interrupt again. “I have decided to deed the land at the north end of this canyon to you because your family and clan bought and paid for it with their lives. It is your heritage and I’m giving you the responsibility of ensuring that the valuable water source that nourishes this valley is protected. It will be a place you can always call your own.”

“You don’t have to—” he tried to protest, for all the good it did him.

“I
do
have to,” she insisted loudly. “And besides, I owe you my life several times over!” Maddie decided that being shot had made her short-tempered and cranky, because her tone of voice was getting
sharper by the second. But she didn’t care. She was going to speak her piece and that was that.

“I can endure almost anything if I know you’re out there somewhere in the world,” she told him honestly. “But I
couldn’t
bear the thought of standing there in Ward’s office, watching you take a bullet for
me.
”

“And how do you think
I
felt?” Jonah demanded harshly. “You drove me half-crazy when you lurched away from Ward and he turned that pistol on you! I’ve spent every damn night sleeping in that chair beside your bed, changing the bandages on your wound and wishing it had been
me
who’d been shot, not
you!
”

“You already took a shot in the left arm,” she retorted. “I didn’t think you needed another one!”