Risky Christmas Read online

  She stood before one of the Clydesdales, petting its cheek and gazing up at its huge head. Then she let her forehead fall against its nose. The Clydesdale nickered but didn’t protest.

  Mason heard her sigh.

  “Mason talked a lot about this place.”

  Mason looked toward the far end of the stable along with Chloe. A man emerged from the shadows. He knew that voice. The man came farther into the light, wearing snow pants and a heavy jacket and winter boots. But his shaggy brown hair and eyes were familiar. Shock rendered him still.

  Tanner?

  His partner. His ex-girlfriend’s husband…

  “You.” Chloe murmured her surprise, doing a fine job of hiding her fear, if she was afraid. Maybe she wasn’t. He was going to have to get used to that. And then what she’d said registered.

  Was Tanner the second man who’d been with Axel? How could it be?

  Mason drew his gun and entered the stable. “Stay away from her.”

  Tanner stopped when he saw Mason’s weapon. “I should have known you wouldn’t be far behind.” He glanced over at Chloe. “A fine woman like that under the same roof would make me follow her around, too.”

  Missing pieces poured through Mason’s mind. Axel’s suspicion had always bothered him. Except it hadn’t been suspicion, it had been knowledge. And it was that knowledge that had kept him away from Donovan’s party. Donovan hadn’t known who Mason was. Axel had. Tanner had told him everything and had warned him the raid would probably be moved up. Maybe he and Tanner had planned it that way. To get rid of Donovan.

  “Was it convenient for you to have the FBI raid Donovan’s party?” he asked Tanner.

  “I haven’t flipped sides, if that’s what you’re implying.”

  “No? Chloe, go back into the house.”

  She sidled her way over to him and stopped. “I’m staying with you.”

  She had to know he didn’t have time to argue with her. And she was a fighter.

  “I got close to Axel. So close that he told me what he wanted to do.”

  “Take down Donovan and anyone who followed him so he could run his own prostitution operation? Run it under a false name?”

  “You were always quick.”

  Mason shook his head. “Why? Why throw away a legitimate career for…Axel?”

  “I told you, I haven’t flipped sides.”

  “You really expect anyone to believe you faked your own death for the sake of the investigation? Without telling anyone? You know the rules. That’s one you don’t break.”

  Tanner seemed to realize his tactic wasn’t going to work. “I don’t have rich parents, Mason. I have to live off what the government pays me, and that isn’t enough.”

  “Does your wife know what you’ve done?”

  Tanner’s face hardened and he said nothing. Mason also sensed Chloe looking at him. Was she alarmed that he’d asked such a question? Or had she just realized Tanner was his partner?

  He couldn’t stop to explain. He had to know what had driven Tanner to this extreme. How could he leave a beautiful wife for a life of emptiness and crime? “I wonder how she felt when they showed up to tell her you were dead?”

  “She probably celebrated,” Tanner sneered.

  Mason began to get a bad feeling about this. There was more that drove Tanner than making money illegally.

  “Oh, come on, Mason. Don’t play it like you didn’t know. It was always you she wanted, not me.”

  Chloe’s head turned toward him again.

  He couldn’t reassure her now. “We were finished a year before you started seeing her. She might have loved me once but she didn’t when she met you.”

  Tanner grunted a derisive laugh. “Being married to her made teaming up with Axel real easy. What did I have to lose? A lousy paying job and a wife who didn’t love me? I can make a lot of money working with Axel. Like I said, it was an easy choice.”

  “Tanner. Think about what you’re doing. You’re making a mistake. You’re basing your decisions on the belief that Renee still loves me.”

  “She does, Mason. She stayed away, but she does love you.”

  Mason shook his head, not buying it. “Is that why you’re here? Did you and Axel have some kind of agreement to get me before you went into business together?”

  Unmoved, Tanner said, “When we had sex on our honeymoon, it was your name she cried out, not mine. I started to hate her after that. You, too. Do you think I enjoyed working with you knowing my wife was probably thinking of you every time I slept with her?”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “She told me she still loved you. You, Mason. It killed me to hear it but I needed to know for sure before I started to work with Axel. I asked her and she said she got so tired of waiting for you to come around that she thought she’d fallen out of love with you. She said it wasn’t until shortly before our wedding that she realized she was marrying the wrong man, and that the man she should have married was you.”

  Mason shook his head, confused and then…not. He looked over at Chloe. It had never been as good with any woman as it was with her. Renee was nice and beautiful but she’d turned her back on him. Granted, he may have deserved it, but she’d allowed too much time and pain to pass. It only made him doubt that she ever truly loved him. He wouldn’t have known that if he’d never met Chloe. Renee didn’t have her special qualities. He couldn’t even name them all. The survivor in her defined a lot of who she was, but she also had professional drive. And heart. She had a pure, honest, loving heart, something he’d been craving without even knowing. Until now.

  Realizing he was still looking at Chloe and she was as immersed in the exchange as much as him, he wanted to tell her. He wanted her to know how much last night meant. How much he wanted to keep seeing her.

  Just as Mason began to turn his attention back to Tanner, the man drew his gun and moved quick in bringing the barrel against Chloe’s forehead.

  “Drop your gun, partner.”

  Chloe’s mouth dropped open, caught as off guard as Mason.

  “Think about what you’re doing,” Mason tried again. “It might not be too late to fix this. Give us Axel and work a deal. Don’t go any further.”

  “It’s already too late for that.”

  Mason’s cell phone rang.

  Tanner glanced down to Mason’s jean pocket and then back up at him. “Don’t answer it. There’s only one person I came here for tonight, but the problem is, now we have a witness.”

  Chloe remained calm.

  “If I kill you both, Axel will be blamed.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Mason said, keeping his gun on Tanner.

  “I’m not the only one who saw you at that cabin,” Chloe added. “CC will be able to describe you.”

  Mason didn’t correct her and say she wouldn’t.

  “Then I guess my work isn’t finished tonight.” And then with more force, “Drop your gun.”

  What, he’d actually try to kill CC with Teddy and Mason’s dad prepared for an attack? The deadly change in Tanner’s eyes warned him that he was about to shoot Chloe. He glanced at her and read her readiness. Keeping his gun aimed at Tanner, he waited for her move. She began to crouch. Knocking Tanner’s gun arm, he punched him. Chloe landed backward onto her hands, lifting her legs acrobatically and ramming the side of Tanner’s knee with the uninjured one.

  It was enough for Mason to block Tanner’s swinging aim and grab hold of his wrist to keep him from shooting anything living. Shoving his pistol under his chin, he felt Tanner go still.

  Mason’s phone rang again. This time Chloe slid her hand into his pocket and answered.

  “This is Chloe Bradford. I’m in the stable with Agent Jaffee. His partner is in here with us and he has a gun!”

  “Bitch!” Tanner spat.

  Mason managed to pry Tanner’s gun from his grip and hand it over to Chloe, who took it with her free hand and aimed for Tanner’s chest.

  “Yes. Ta
nner. He’s alive.” She paused. “Mason has him under control now.” She paused again, this time longer. “Okay, I’ll tell him.” She disconnected and tucked his phone into her own jean pocket. “There are agents down at the end of the driveway,” she explained. “They’re on their way.”

  “Good.”

  She turned to him again. “You knew they were here?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us?”

  “To keep it real for Axel…and Tanner,” he added with disgust.

  “They have Axel.”

  He shot her a quick look. “Where was he?”

  “He was waiting for Tanner down on the road.” She turned to Tanner. “Apparently, it wasn’t his idea to come here and he’s angry he’s caught.”

  Tanner roared and lunged, charging like a bull into Mason. They fell to the ground together, Mason struggling to maintain control of his pistol.

  Horses shuffled and whinnied nervously.

  “Mason!” Chloe shouted.

  Tanner was a madman with nothing to lose, clawing and punching wildly. Mason slammed his gun against his head. They wrestled. Breaking free, Mason rolled and jumped to his feet. Tanner was slower to stand. Mason punched him and moved behind him, hooking his arm around his neck. Tanner twisted away. Mason raised his gun, ready to fire.

  Tanner hesitated.

  The sudden bang of the stable doors opening preceded a swarm of four black-clad agents. “FBI! Don’t move!”

  They surrounded Tanner, who stared at Mason with crazed fury.

  Chloe gave the gun she held to one of the agents. After flipping the safety on his pistol, Mason tucked it into the back waist of his jeans and went to Chloe. She slid her arm behind him as he curved his around her upper torso.

  Tanner was cuffed and taken out of the stable. Mason followed, taking Chloe’s hand. They walked along the pathway to the front of his parents’ house. Everyone was outside. His mom and dad, CC, Deirdra and Teddy. The kids stood up on the porch in their pajamas, bundled in jackets and boots, huddled together by their older brother.

  Axel sat in an unmarked car. Tanner was led to the other side and forced inside. Mason could see the two begin to argue.

  Slipping an arm around Chloe, he would have walked with her toward the house, but she moved away, eyeing him warily before walking ahead of him.

  With Axel and Tanner caught, there was no longer any danger standing in her way. She could leave tonight and go back to her new apartment. She could be out of his life for good if that was what she wanted…what she truly wanted.

  Somehow, he had to make her want to keep seeing him. He wasn’t running anymore.

  Chapter 8

  Chloe saw the way Mason was looking at her and moved to stand beside CC. Once again, everyone had gathered in Bevy and Karl’s huge kitchen, where Bevy had busily prepared late night snacks and everyone had a glass of wine to relax and celebrate the resolution of an eventful night. Mason stood near the entryway underneath that damnable mistletoe. She could feel his desire to be alone with her and that scared her.

  After the way he’d withdrawn the morning after Christmas night, she wasn’t anxious to give in to hope just yet. They’d been under a lot of pressure with Axel on the loose. Things would be a lot different once they returned to normal. And normal for her was getting away from here and starting her new life in Woodland, Montana.

  CC elbowed her. “Mason’s under the mistletoe.”

  “I see that.”

  “I think he went there on purpose.”

  Chloe watched the way Mason answered something Teddy said and resumed staring at her. His eyes had a twinkle to them, as if he were smiling without it showing on his mouth.

  “You kiss him, then,” Chloe said.

  CC sent her an incredulous look. “He’s my brother.”

  “I’m not kissing him.”

  “I talked to him earlier. He said he was taking more time off from the FBI than he originally planned.”

  “Good for him.”

  “That means he’ll be around awhile.”

  Not so good for her.

  “Did you know Dad asked him if he was ready to start working the ranch?”

  Chloe turned from Mason’s intoxicating green eyes. “Why did he ask him that?”

  Flipping her blond-streaked hair back over her shoulder, eyes twinkling with mischief, she smiled big. “Didn’t think you knew that.”

  Was his entire family conspiring to get them together?

  “He’ll inherit the ranch when Mom and Dad die. Everybody’s known for a long time that Teddy doesn’t want to work it and neither do I. I wouldn’t be any good at it.”

  “Good for him.”

  “I think dad asked him for a reason.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

  Not so good for her.

  “Chloe, why don’t you and Mason go bring more firewood in?” Bevy suggested, sugar-sweet.

  A blunt no was on the tip of her tongue.

  “I’ll help Mason,” Teddy said. “You girls stay in here where it’s warm.”

  “Teddy, you will stay right where you are.” Bevy gave him an obvious warning look.

  Teddy glanced from her to Chloe and then to Mason. “Oh.”

  “Yeah, oh,” CC mocked. “You idiot.”

  Teddy grinned. “Hey, I’ve been happily married for years. I forgot how much of a chess game dating can be.” He went over to Deirdra and kissed her smiling mouth.

  Chloe looked from one expectant gaze to the next, ending with Mason’s triumphant one.

  “I need to talk to you anyway,” he said.

  CC elbowed her again. “He needs to talk to you.” She nudged her firm enough to make her take two steps toward Mason.

  With the kitchen silent and all eyes on her, Chloe slowly approached him. He led her to the front entry.

  “There’s plenty of wood by the fireplace,” Chloe pointed out.

  Mason looked there and then back at her. “We’ll just bring in a bundle,” he said, and then lower, “just enough to satisfy the family.”

  Satisfy the family.

  They’d be satisfied if she ended up with Mason. The idea kept her from reaching for her jacket.

  “I’ll carry the wood. You’re still limping a little.”

  After putting on his jacket, Mason took hers off the rack and presented her with it open and ready for her arms.

  Reluctantly, she slipped her arms into the sleeves and he adjusted it on her shoulders. She zipped it up and he handed her some gloves. She put those on and he pulled a hat down over her head. She was still wearing her hiking boots and so was he.

  Outside, the chill made her long for a fire right now. She followed Mason to the woodshed. There, he turned to face her.

  She bent to begin loading an armful. Just get this over with. Her leg was fine, she could carry a few sticks of wood. She’d endure the night and be alone in her own place in the morning. She’d start over. Fresh. New. It would rejuvenate her.

  Mason stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Wait.”

  Abandoning the wood, she straightened and faced him. Seeing his face worked to undo her.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t stay with you on Christmas night,” he said.

  The all-out apology might be enough if she didn’t know what had driven him away. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “And the way I avoided you yesterday morning.”

  “It was a mistake. We let it happen too soon, that’s all. No big deal.”

  “You don’t understand.”

  “Don’t I?”

  “That night…”

  Hearing his difficulty, Chloe wondered if he was only being nice because he’d saved her from Axel. It didn’t change the way he felt about women, or didn’t want to feel.

  “I wasn’t expecting it to happen, Chloe. And afterward, I wasn’t prepared for the way I felt.”

  Chloe stiffened. Letting her heart go free over this was risky. They had a long road ahead of them if they decid
ed to make a go of it. She’d never been afraid to end a relationship with a man she didn’t trust, no matter how much she liked him. But she was afraid with Mason. He’d already shown her he could walk away. She wasn’t ready to trust him. She couldn’t invest all of herself for a man who’d only end up disappointing her later.

  Somehow she had to make him understand that. “What are you saying? That you’ll move to Montana to be with me?”

  To his credit he didn’t avert his gaze. “That is a logistical problem.”

  Meaning, he was still too injured from past experience to take that big of a leap. “I don’t even know where you live.”

  “That’s obvious.”

  She could tell he was fighting a grin. Shock and something too close to blind hope flared up in her. “You live here?”

  “Well, no, not here. Missoula.”

  “You live in Missoula.”

  “We’d have to manage the long drive if we’re going to start seeing each other.”

  Was he serious? Catching herself falling for more of that the hope, the survivor in her cut it short.

  “You’re off the hook, Mason. You don’t have to do this.”

  “You know this is for real, Chloe.”

  Angling her head with all her doubt, she folded her arms.

  “You know, and you’re afraid.”

  “I’m afraid?”

  “I was afraid, too. I’m not saying I wasn’t. I was afraid of falling in love with someone who wasn’t real, of not finding someone like that.” He paused. “I have, Chloe. I found you.”

  Oh. That was so sweet. And deep down, she heard the truth of what he said.

  “You’re real,” he continued with the torture. “You don’t say things you don’t mean. I know that if you’re with me, you won’t be with anyone else.”

  “Renee was faithful to you.”

  “Yes, she was, but that wasn’t meant to be. This is. You and me. Don’t you feel it?”

  Yes, her heart cried out. Yes, she felt it. She felt it too much. What was beginning to brew to life between them was strong. Undeniable. Like nothing she’d ever experienced.

  She looked toward the house. Losing the last family she’d gotten close to had shattered her. She couldn’t bear to lose this one, too.