Page 17 of Deputies Under Fire (Renegade Canyon #2)

Rory sat in the back of the cruiser with Eden while Livvy drove them to his family’s ranch. He figured it was going to be a long time before the tension in his muscles eased up. And it was going to be a hell of a lot longer than that before he’d feel comfortable letting Eden out of his sight.

Thankfully, she seemed to feel the same way, and once they’d been checked out at the hospital and done the nightmare of paperwork that came with something like this, she hadn’t put up any argument about going to Dutton’s with him.

Part of that was no doubt because she wanted to see Tyler. So did he. He desperately needed to be with their little boy and make sure for himself that he was okay. Again, Eden had to be of a like mind. But no matter what her reasoning, Rory would be able to keep an eye on both her and their son.

Even though it was already getting dark, there was enough dim light coming from the dash for him to see the fresh bruise on her chin.

No stitches this time, but he’d heard the nurse say that Eden had bruises on her right arm and leg.

He had some scrapes and bruises as well, but they were blessedly minor for both of them. It could have been much, much worse.

They’d come damn close to dying.

Again.

And once again the killer hadn’t cared squat about their lives or any collateral damage from that IED blast. No one had died this time with this attack, but the driver of that Mack truck, Arlo Jenkins, had serious enough injuries that he’d had to be medevacked to a hospital in San Antonio.

Arlo had simply been trying to do his job and make a delivery to a store in town when he’d driven over that IED.

Livvy pulled to a stop in front of Dutton’s, and Rory spotted two ranch hands in a truck on the other side of the driveway. They were probably armed and ready in case the killer showed up here.

Dutton had taken other precautions, too.

There had been two more hands in another truck positioned by the gated entrance, and two others were patrolling the grounds.

The external security system was on as well, and while it wouldn’t be impossible for someone to sneak onto the ranch, the sensors and motion-activated cameras would make it a little harder to approach undetected.

Livvy turned toward them, resting her left arm on top of the steering wheel, and she looked back at them through the metal grating that separated the front and back seats. “Damn,” she muttered. “You two look like you lost a fight with a couple of heavyweight champions.”

Close. They’d lost a fight with a killer. A killer who possibly had been long gone even before the cruiser ran over those spike strips. Added to that, they couldn’t rule out any of their suspects as being responsible.

Livvy added a sigh. “Get some rest,” she said as he and Eden got out of the cruiser.

Muscles that he didn’t even know he had protested the simple movement.

Not a searing pain, thank goodness, but both of them would likely have to deal with the soreness for a while.

The impact of hitting those spike strips had been the equivalent of a collision.

And then there’d been the falls down the slopes.

Yeah, there’d be lots and lots of discomfort.

Muttering their thanks and goodbyes to Livvy, they walked up the porch steps to Dutton’s massive house, where seemingly every light was on. Dutton let them in, and the moment they stepped inside, they saw Grace standing to the side.

With Tyler.

Since it was past his bedtime, his son had sleepy eyes, but Rory was glad Grace and Dutton had kept him awake.

“Mama, Dada,” Tyler babbled, lunging for Rory, who caught him and immediately adjusted his position so he could get hugs from both parents.

Just that hug eased a whole lot of the aches in his body. Relieved plenty of stress, too. Things had been touch and go during the attack, but Eden and he had had a lot to fight for. This. Their precious little boy.

“I’ve been reading the reports of what happened,” Grace said. “But we can get into all of that in the morning. We can get into a lot of things tomorrow,” she added. “There’s lasagna in the fridge if you haven’t had dinner.”

“Thanks, but Livvy had some burgers brought from the diner while we were writing up our statements,” Rory explained.

Not that Eden had eaten much. And he hadn’t pressed her on that, either, since he figured her stomach was just as unsettled as his was.

Grace nodded. “All right, but if you get hungry, help yourself to anything in the kitchen. For now, I want you two to get some sleep. And that’s an order,” she said firmly, the concern all over her face and in her voice.

The concern was there from Dutton, too, and he used his phone to reset the security system while giving Rory the once-over. “We’ll catch this—” He stopped, barely cutting off what would have been a word that Tyler shouldn’t be hearing. “Person,” Dutton said, finishing his thought.

“Yeah, we will,” Rory responded, and he wasn’t just blowing smoke. They had to catch the killer. There was no other choice. Because until they did, no one was safe.

Not even their baby.

“Tyler’s been fed, bathed and he’s ready for bed,” Grace told them. “Leslie’s in the guestroom, and she has the monitor. She said just to let her know when she should turn it on so you two can get some sleep.”

Rory would be letting the nanny know that she wasn’t on duty tonight because he would be staying with Tyler. He’d sacrifice a good night’s sleep for the peace of mind that it’d give him to be in the room with his son.

“Nash is down for who knows how long so Dutton and I are going to catch some z’s while we can,” Grace added. She gave them gentle hugs before she and Dutton headed up the stairs toward the main bedroom.

Eden and Rory were right behind them, and Tyler leaned toward his mom so she could take him into her arms. She kissed the top of his head and held him close for several long moments. When they reached the nursery, she handed Tyler to Rory so he could do the same.

Since Tyler was rubbing his eyes now and fussing a little, Rory eased him into the crib, and he turned on his favorite mobile—horses—that someone had obviously brought over from Eden’s.

They both kissed Tyler again, and Rory texted Leslie to let her know there was no need for her to turn on the monitor.

Leslie quickly responded with a thumbs-up and a question. Are Eden and you all right?

No. They weren’t. They were shaken to the core and nowhere closer to IDing the killer. But Rory went with a thumbs-up emoji of his own.

They stood by Tyler’s crib until the boy drifted off to sleep. Even then, they didn’t move. Maybe exhaustion was playing into that because Rory seemed frozen in place, and he might have just stood there all night had Eden not turned to him. In a blink, she pulled him into her arms.

“I thought you’d been blown up,” she muttered, her voice cracking.

He’d thought the same about her, and Rory had experienced a mountain of relief when he had seen her coming down that slope toward him. And when she had dragged him into her arms, well, that’d been priceless.

Just as this hug was now.

Rory wasn’t naive enough to believe that those hugs would erase all the barriers between them, but he couldn’t help believing it was a start. They certainly felt like a unit. Like old times. And the old times escalated significantly when Eden eased back, and their gazes locked.

They stared at each other, and he saw her lips part as she sucked in a quick breath. He was doing some faster breathing, too, and his heart had revved up.

A lot of things had revved up.

And they just kept heading in that direction when they moved toward each other at the same time. Their mouths met, already desperate and hungry for what a kiss could give them.

And the kiss could give a whole lot.

Heat, comfort and oh, so much pleasure.

Rory dived right into the kiss. Right into the heat. And he let the taste and feel of her slide through him. Talk about a cure for all those aches and soreness. A cure for the nightmarish flashbacks, too. This kiss made him feel as if everything was right with the world.

It was temporary, of course. He knew that reality would soon set in. But for now, he just took everything Eden was offering him, and she was offering a hell of a lot.

She pressed her body against his. Her breasts to his chest. Center to center. He did some pressing, too, tightening his grip around her while staying mindful of her injuries. If she was feeling any pain, though, she wasn’t showing it.

Eden made a sound of pleasure that he knew all too well, and it hiked up the heat even more. Rory notched it up further by deepening the kiss, by pressing even more against her.

Of course, the pleasure took on an edge, as it always did. An urgent, demanding one that in the past would have sent them in the direction of the nearest bed. Or wall. Or floor. Location hadn’t always been high on their list of priorities. Only the release from this pressure cooker of heat.

But that couldn’t happen now.

And Eden seemed to remember that at the same time he did because she pulled back from him.

Her breath was gusting out now, and he could see she was fighting hard to rein herself in.

She got some reinforcement on that when she glanced down into the crib.

Tyler was still asleep, but it was best if he didn’t wake up and see his parents having sex.

Added to that, Rory wasn’t even sure Eden was physically ready for sex. She needed rest.

And some pain meds.

Rory forced himself to move away from her, but not before he gave her a somewhat chaste kiss on the cheek.

As chaste a kiss as it could be, considering their history.

To avoid the temptation of pulling her right back into his arms, he went to the en suite bathroom and saw the ibuprofen that Grace or Dutton had already set out for them.