Page 56 of Tracking Down the Lawman's Son

He took his own advice that he’d given to Bree. Shoot to kill. Even if that meant Aubrey wouldn’t be able to tell them who’d hired her. He took aim. Fired.

And put two bullets in the woman trying to murder them.

BREECONTINUEDTOhold Gabriel even though the baby was asleep and had been for nearly a half hour. It was his bedtime, and she should have already put him in his crib for what would likely be a three-or four-hour stretch of sleep, but she needed to have him near her a few moments longer.

Those moments ended when Luca came into the guest room, and she could tell from his body language and expression that he needed to be near her as well. Along with that, he probably had updates on Aubrey. Updates she wanted to hear. So, she eased Gabriel into his crib, went to Luca and pulled him into her arms.

Bree hadn’t planned to kiss him. But that’s what she did, and the moment her mouth landed on his, she realized she needed this as much as he obviously did. Luca sank right into the kiss, stretching it out for several long moments before he ended it and pulled her close against him.

“There was nothing on Aubrey’s body to indicate who hired her,” Luca whispered. His voice was strained with fatigue, spent adrenaline and worry. “She had a burner phone, but she’d used that only to call another burner. We tried to call it, but no one answered.”

Bree had expected that. Aubrey’s boss likely would have demanded that she use a burner so Aubrey couldn’t be linked back to him or her. But Aubrey’s boss had almost certainly wanted her to kill or kidnap Gabriel, Luca or her, and the woman had failed. In fact, no one on the ranch had ended up getting shot except for Aubrey.

“Are you okay?” Bree asked him. She could only guess at the emotional toll this was taking on him.

He nodded, but she figured that was a lie. None of them were going to be okay until the killer was caught. The only thing they could do was make the ranch as safe as possible, but they all knew that might not be safe enough. Now that it was night, the killer could use the darkness to get close to the house. Bree tried to imagine which of their suspects could manage to do that. Maybe all of them.

Or none.

It was just as possible the killer would send another hired gun like Aubrey.

“I need a shower,” Luca said, stepping back from her. “I, uh, have blood on my clothes. After the CSIs had photographed the scene, I helped them move the body into a bag,” he explained.

Aubrey’s blood. Bree hadn’t seen for herself how that’d happened, but once she was secure in the house, Slater and he had gone to check the body, to make sure Aubrey was truly dead and no longer a threat.

Bree took Luca by the arm and led him into the bathroom. She left the door open to the bedroom so she could hear Gabriel and turned on the shower. When Luca just stood there, staringat her, she unbuckled his holster and laid it and his gun on the vanity.

He kept his gaze on her.

Bree didn’t shy away from that. After she pulled off his shirt, her eyes locked with his—those incredible brown eyes that always seem to drown her in heat—and she considered her options. She could go back into the bedroom and let Luca have that shower. Or she could do something about those raw nerves. Not just his but her own.

She went with option two.

So did Luca.

He slid his arm around the back of her neck and kissed her. Not exactly a kiss of comfort either since it was long, deep and filled with need. Still, his mouth did the trick of firing enough heat through her that the raw nerves just melted. Heck, she melted, but then she always did when Luca kissed her.

Maybe because his jeans had blood on them, he moved his hands between them to undo his belt and unzip. The touching added to the flames, especially since Luca didn’t break the kiss to do that. It took some maneuvering, some dipping down and moving to the side with him, but their mouths continued to pleasure each other while he rid himself of his jeans and boots.

Bree took full advantage of having a nearly naked Luca. She touched him, sliding her hands down his back over all those muscles. The man was certainly built. And even though she knew the feel of every one of those muscles, this moment, this now felt new, as if she’d never had him before. That was probably because her body was starved for him, and that’s why Bree didn’t hold anything back. She kissed and touched until Luca was cursing her.

Cursing her clothes, too.

That’s when she realized that unlike him, she was fully dressed. Luca did something about that. He yanked off her top,immediately kissing the skin he’d just bared. Her neck. Then, the tops of her breasts. He stopped though. Just stopped, and his gaze fired to hers.

“Is it okay?” he asked, nearly stopping her heart because she thought he might, well, be stopping. “I mean, Gabriel’s two months old.”

Her heart revved up again. “Yes, it’s more than okay.” Except now, she had to pause. “Well, it is if you have a condom.”

He pulled away from her, located his jeans and fumbled through his wallet until he came up with the foil wrapper. She’d known he usually carried one, but Bree had never been more thankful to see it.

Luca smiled, probably because of her obvious relief, and he launched back into another kiss. Not solely that, though. He was obviously a man on a mission, and that mission was to get her naked because he unzipped her jeans and push them down until they dropped around her feet. He lifted her, turning her so she was sitting on the vanity.

Then, he kissed her again.

This slam of heat was so hard and fast that she couldn’t catch her breath. Soon, though, she didn’t care if she ever caught it again because all she could think of was what Luca was doing to her. He was taking her on one wild ride all the while firing up the need until it became a throbbing ache in the center of her body.

Luca didn’t ease away that ache but added to it when he stepped between her legs and pressed them center to center. He was hard as stone and pushed against just the right spot to make the need skyrocket.

---