Ruining the Rancher (Masterson County Book 3) Page 9

  Exactly where she belonged.

  She smiled shyly at him, red tinting her cheeks. He'd never seen a woman sweeter than his. “Honey…you are beautiful…so what's on your schedule for today?” He wanted her where he could see her until John Rutherford was found. Period. To do that, he’d have to know what she was doing at all times.

  "Hunter and I have a scene together today; it's the one where I tell him goodbye."

  "My favorite scene." He was teasing her, of course. Clark hadn't been too bad. He'd flirted and made his interest known, but he hadn't pushed. In the movie, Pan’s character had a mild romance with Clark's character, and then she returned to her fairy ways. There was nothing more heated than a kiss between them. It was a sweet story.

  “It's the last one we have together, until edits."

  “I want to know where you’re going to be at today.”

  She rolled her eyes, and put one fist on her hip. "You’re not going to turn all caveman like Joel and Matt, are you? Getting underfoot all day when I have things to do?"

  Levi reached out and hooked his arm around her waist. He brought her tumbling down on him—gently. She wasn’t anywhere near fully healed yet. "Probably. You've seen my brothers. Once we Mastersons finally get our girls, we do what it takes to keep them. We can't have some man like Hunter Louis Clark coming in and stealing our girls, now can we?"

  “You're a big doofus, Levi. If I wanted to be with a man like Hunter, I could be. But for some strange reason, I'm with you."

  He grinned. “Say it again."

  "Say what?"

  "Say that you, Pandora Claire, are here with me. Because I'm the best Masterson of the lot, and you love me—just the way I am."

  47

  Pan almost said it; almost did exactly what he wanted. But when she looked at the grin on his face she held back. Just because. And to be honest, maybe she wasn't quite ready to say I love you just yet.

  She thought she loved him. Otherwise she would not have gone to bed with him. She just wasn’t sure what was supposed to happen next. Other than hoping she had a minute or two with Pip just to help her figure things out a little bit. Pip was really good at helping people figure out what they were thinking.

  "One day, Levi, your ego is going to get the best of you."

  "Probably, but not today. Seriously, though, I am going to stick close to you today. Just in case. Make sure Clark isn't poaching my territory. In the meantime, I think we have a few minutes and I really want to snuggle." Pan let him do just that.

  48

  John knew what he was going to do. It was just a matter of waiting for the right moment. He’d have to get her away from Masterson for one thing.

  It shouldn’t be too hard to do.

  Masterson loved those damned bulls of his, after all. He did the same thing to a bull in a pasture clear across the property from where they were making that stupid ass movie.

  And then he waited.

  Just like he had expected, one of the hands went running for Masterson ten minutes before nightfall.

  It was almost too easy. He watched Masterson give Pan a clear set of instructions; she didn’t like it, but she eventually nodded.

  And then Masterson was heading exactly where John wanted him.

  All that was left for him to do was get her away from that damned Hunter Clark.

  49

  Viv knew she’d been stupid. She never should have promised John Rutherford half a million dollars to kill Pan. It had been spur of the moment and she knew it was going to come back to haunt her.

  He was a damned idiot—Joel Masterson would catch up with him eventually. And when Joel did—she had no doubt John was going to spill his entire damn guts.

  The biggest part of her wanted to pack up what she valued and run. Run as far away as she could.

  But that would leave her father alone.

  Viv didn’t know if she could do that.

  She spent hours debating just how to make that work. Her father didn’t have much time; everyone knew that. So she’d have to make the story good.

  Somehow.

  50

  Hunter smiled down at Pan as Levi Masterson took off with one of his ranch hands, enchanted by the little smile that kept playing over her pink lips when she thought no one was watching. Something had happened to the girl, something good. He’d heard about the diner shooting just yesterday, but didn’t know any details—other than that one of the Tyler sisters had been involved. From the fresh bandage on her arm, he suspected he knew which one. She looked fine to him. Beautiful. With that just loved glow some women got when they were happy. In love.

  Hunter suspected Levi Masterson had something to do with it.

  Sweet. If he was the type to get a kick out of romantic shit. Which he wasn’t. He felt a pang, though, of slight envy. It had been a long time since he’d been with a sweet woman like this one in front of him. Since he’d had someone to even care enough about him to watch him work from the sidelines, like Masterson had for most of the day. And the guy hadn’t wanted to leave her this time, either.

  Masterson had barely taken his eyes off of her in the last several hours.

  “How are you feeling today?” he asked, when they had a few moments between their final scene and Bowles letting them all go for the day. “The diner?”

  “Yes. I was there, but I was just nicked. My cousin Nikki is the one who was hurt the worst.”

  “Nikki, the...” Hunter’s chest seized for a quick moment when he put it together. He hadn’t been looking for the woman who had trod all over his ego today, but now that Pan mentioned her... “The one with the thick glasses?”

  The thick glasses and the sweet face, complete with girlish freckles over her nose. The one who ran a little used bookstore, of all things. Who probably sewed doll clothes or made cookies in her spare time. That one.

  And she had been hurt in a random shooting? Damn, it must have terrified her. It had him all those years ago when he’d… Hunter almost choked on the emotion suddenly hitting him. Why did he care so much about a clerk from little Masterson, Wyoming? She was nothing to him. “Is she going to be ok?”

  Pan nodded, her face oddly pale beneath the studio make-up still caking her face. It didn’t help that the flood lights were behind them or that it had started to rain lightly. “We think so. She has a broken collarbone, from where the bullet hit her, and it bounced off an artery. Rowland carried her to the ambulance himself. But she’ll be fine. Perci’s checking on her nightly, too.”

  “Good. Do they have any idea who or why?”

  “A man with a vendetta against my family and Levi’s. Joel will find him. They think it’s a guy who we tangled with several months ago. His brother died when he tried to kill my sisters. Joel’s the best.”

  Of course the sheriff was. Everyone in this town idolized the Mastersons. “He’s Levi’s brother?”

  The cheeks went red again. “Yes.”

  “I see. And your brother-in-law, then.”

  “Of course.”

  “Don’t you think it’s a little weird? Your three sisters with his brothers, and you with him? I could help you add some variety, if you like?” He grinned, letting her know he wasn’t entirely serious. Hunter was an actor, after all. And he wasn’t about to let her know that most of his attention was on a Tyler girl that wasn’t even there. That girl hadn’t deserved to be shot like that. Not like…Well, Hunter knew the pain that kind of violence could bring. Knew it intimately.

  “Perci is not with Nate. And don’t let her hear you say that. It’s a good way to get fried—”

  Something hard slammed into the back of Hunter’s head, sending him careening into her. Hunter tried to catch himself, but he couldn’t. His head struck the base of a flood light, causing pain for the second time in three seconds. He lay there dazed and unable to do a damned thing as a man he’d never seen before dragged Pan away.

  He struggled to his feet, and started after them. His feet slipped in the mud and he w
ent crashing down one more time.

  51

  Pan fought, but the man was on her before she could even react. She recognized him, even with the stupid disguise he wore.

  John Rutherford laughed as she fought him. Pan did everything she could to get breath enough to scream. But his hands were on her neck. She couldn’t breathe.

  She rammed her knee toward his stomach. Rutherford turned, deflecting her far too easily. His hand tightened on her neck, cutting her breath completely.

  Pan fought to stay conscious, but couldn’t…

  52

  “Poison,” Matt said, shoving a sheet of paper at Levi. “Arsenic, to be exact. Extra-large doses.”

  “Who the hell would do that?”

  “I can think of one person,” Nate said from behind him. Levi turned to look at the brother behind him, taking quick note of the dark blue scrubs Nate wore. He only wore scrubs when it had been a rough one at the hospital. Levi didn’t want to think about what it could have been. “Where’s Joel? Any news about Rutherford?”

  “Not that I’ve heard yet.” Levi shoved back the anger. “But Joel’s still out there.”

  “We need to call him, let him know about this,” Matt said, looking at the body of the bull who had been less than a year old. Levi would have to call Deane in the morning and let him know what the true cause of death was.

  This was going to be a bigger problem than he could have anticipated.

  But at the moment, Levi didn’t care. He looked back toward the flood lights where the film crew was no doubt finishing up.

  He needed to get back to Pan. Something just didn’t feel right.

  53

  Hunter opened his eyes and found himself lying on a couch inside the Masterson home. A blue-eyed strawberry blonde with thick glasses stared down at him, yet another Tyler female at her side. “Mr. Clark, how’s your head?”

  “Splitting.” He ignored the pain for a moment and studied her quickly. She was staring at him like he was a bug, completely without the awe that a lot of women looked at him with. All he saw was concern. Maybe—it didn’t seem like she was focused on him much at all. Her arm was in a sling, and she looked pale. Shouldn’t she still be in the hospital? It had been only two days since the shooting, after all. “Hi. I heard you were shot. How are you feeling?”

  “I’m ok. Perci and Maggie are making me stay here today, though. Can you tell us what happened? We came around the back of the house and there you were. We had some of the ranch hands get you inside out of the rain. Director Bowles has been looking for you; we sent Patton to find him and let him know you were hurt.”

  “I thought you were resting at the hospital. That’s what Pan—” He’d been speaking with Pan right before someone had struck him, hadn’t he? “Where’s Pan? She was right there with me when I was hit.”

  “We found you in the back yard. Like you’d tripped.” Nikki blinked at him again, making him feel like that bug.

  “Pan was with me. And someone hit me.” As the ramifications sank in, he forced himself to stand. “I think a man was there. He dragged her off into the woods. We need to get people looking for her. Now.”

  “I’ll get Levi,” the cousin said. “Nik, you ok with him? Not hurting too much?”

  “I’ll be ok, Mag, just find Pan.”

  Hunter took another long look at her.

  Her hair was down around her shoulders, and soft looking. Poor thing looked ridiculously vulnerable. Some man needed to scoop her up and take care of her.

  If his head wasn’t killing him and he wasn’t so worried about Pan, he would have wanted to touch. She looked so perfectly real. Nothing about her was Hollywood fake. Hunter had missed women like her.

  “Come on.” She stood abruptly the instant they were alone in the room. So abruptly Hunter almost didn’t get out of her way in time. “We need to find Pan.”

  54

  When Levi made it back to the last place he’d seen Pan, there was chaos. Perci and her brother Patton were yelling. Yelling for Pan.

  Levi changed course and ran toward Pan’s sister. He grabbed Perci and yanked her toward him, probably harder than he should have. “Perci, where is she?”

  “We don’t know. We think John Rutherford dragged her off into the woods.” Perci’s fear was hard to miss. Levi forced himself not to rush heedlessly into the woods. The only thing behind his place was a damned hill and the Preston place.

  Why would John Rutherford be headed there?

  “We know this for sure?” Nate asked from behind Levi.

  “Yes. Hunter was hit, but he saw enough to say what way the guy took my sister.”

  “Where is Clark?”

  “He and Nikki and Maggie headed to the Preston place. They’re going to get the people over there to block off their side of the mountain. We have to hurry!” Perci took off toward the woods lining the back of the property, less than ten acres behind the house.

  Levi was right behind her, Nate on his own heels.

  55

  John was starting to think what he’d done had been as stupid as it no doubt was.

  Pan was unconscious and he half thought he’d killed her. He didn’t want to. There was no point in it, and he truly didn’t have much of a beef with her. She hadn’t even been in the car when Sadie had been killed. She hadn’t been up there on the mountain that day when Joel Masterson had killed Tom.

  No, all she had was the misfortune of being hot enough to catch the notice of the man Viv Preston had decided belonged to her. Why should Pan pay because of Viv?

  Any more than John should pay for what Tom had planned and done to the Tylers. It wasn’t right.

  She shifted, coming to. He struggled not to drop her. He wasn’t anywhere near as big as his brother had been. Thankfully, she was a smaller woman. He twisted her, yelling at her to be still.

  Pan didn’t cooperate. She kicked at him and bit his neck hard enough to draw blood.

  John dropped her. On the arm that had a bandage on it. She cried out.

  He scooped her up again when he heard people yelling. They were coming for her, getting closer.

  He just hoped Levi Masterson was one of them.

  56

  What they were doing was insane, but Hunter didn’t say a word as Maggie Tyler drove the ranch truck over the potted road back behind the Masterson Ranch like a real bat out of hell. She beat any Los Angeles driver he had ever come across. She terrified him.

  He tried to fight the ache in his head as they bounced and jolted but it was getting harder and harder.

  A soft hand brushed over his arm. “You ok, Mr. Clark?”

  “Call me Hunter. And I’ll be fine. We just need to find Pan.” How in the hell was going to the ranch behind Levi Masterson’s supposed to help them find who had taken Pan? Hunter didn’t understand it.

  She leaned closer, but the rapidly darkening sky around them made seeing her difficult. “My brother works there. On the Preston Ranch. He’ll get the other people to help us look. And Perci will get the rest of the Mastersons. We’ll find her. I promise.”

  He only hoped they were right.

  Another bump sent the woman next to him careening right into his chest. Hunter’s head bumped into hers, sending stars straight to his brain.

  “Go faster, Mag. We need to get there before Gil heads home. If he does we won’t know anyone on the Preston Ranch who can help us.”

  Hunter bit back a curse as the woman did just that.

  57

  Viv was just about to go into her father’s room and tell him she was going to have to leave him for two days. She’d made up a story about her mother’s sister being in an accident and needing help.

  He hadn’t spoken to her aunt in years; she hadn’t worried he would try to confirm, at least.

  She’d just felt so bad for even thinking to deceive him right now.

  If Pan Tyler just hadn’t ruined all of her plans…she’d have Levi right now. And everything would be all right.

&nb
sp; If Pan and John hadn’t screwed everything up for her she would have had everything she wanted.

  Damn them.

  Just as she finished packing her suitcase, the front door of the ranch she’d despised her entire life burst open.

  She almost didn’t recognize the man standing there in the frame.

  But the strawberry blonde with terrified blue eyes was so damned distinctive.

  Viv fought a scream.

  58

  Pan knew that there were people somewhere that could help her. Her cousin Gil, Nikki’s older brother, was the ranch foreman. He would be around there somewhere. All she had to do was get away from John. Somehow.

  He shoved her into the house. “There, Viv. I got her away from your precious Levi. Just like you wanted.”

  “What?” It was the first time Pan had done anything other than scream since he’d hurt Hunter and dragged her away.

  “Didn’t know that, did you? Viv here is the one who wanted you gone. So she could have your boyfriend.” John grinned.

  The expression chilled her to the core.

  Pan didn’t waste time trying to talk. The instant Vivian Preston started yelling at Rutherford, Pan turned toward the door and ran.

  She never made it. His hands tangled in her hair and he yanked her to the ground.

  59

  Levi just kept going. The wooded hill behind his place wasn’t an overly big area. Maybe four hundred and fifty acres or so. Still, that was more than enough for a man to hide for a while, at least. If he was smart.