Page 67 of His Cowboy Heart

The man’s slurred words were drowned out by the sound of sirens. “Louis, what’s happened? Are you okay?” The cab I’d put Louis in had been heading away from where we’d seen the helicopter and heard all the rescue vehicles.

“You saw it too, right?” I heard Louis say, though it sounded like he was talking to someone else. “Ernie saw it too… what? Oh, sorry, Eddie. Eddie saw it too.”

“Louis, tell Eddie you’ll give him an extra hundred bucks if he takes you straight home right now.” There was more talking between Louis and the cabbie but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Just as Louis began talking to me again, lights began shining in and out of the windows surrounding the floor I was on. The sirens were so loud that all I managed to hear Louis say was “in your lobby” and then the call disconnected.

What the hell?

I got back on the elevator and hit the lobby button. It wasn’t until the elevator stopped on the bottom floor that I realized I had no clue what Louis had supposedly seen in my lobby, just like I didn’t know why the sirens and helicopter seemed to be surrounding my building now. It occurred to me that I could be dealing with some kind of gunman who was on the run and since my lobby doors weren’t locked yet, he’d taken refuge in my building. I pressed the button for my floor repeatedly in the hope that the elevator door would get the message and not open the door to let me off on the bottom floor like it was supposed to.

So much for Christmas wishes.

The elevator did open, but when I saw what was standing in front of the security desk that was unmanned because of the holiday, I stood frozen where I was. “No,” I cried out as the door began to close so the elevator could take me back up. I managed to stick my arm in the door before it fully closed. Thankfully, it opened again and I had the sense to step out of it. From there, I couldn’t move because I was in a state of complete shock. My phone rang again. I was so distracted that I answered it without thinking.

With a much clearer connection, Louis yelled, “I swear on all that is holy and good, I just saw a horse walk into the building.”

I didn’t respond to Louis because my heart was in my throat.

I had to be hallucinating. There was no way BJ and Flynn were standing less than half a dozen yards from me. It just wasn’t possible.

BJ nickered and bobbed his head. The big animal shook his entire body, spraying snow everywhere.

I wasn’t sure what was worse, the fact that I might be hallucinating or the knowledge that I wasn’t. Based on the rage in Flynn’s eyes and the way he held himself, I kind of wanted it to be the hallucination scenario, but the knowledge that he was alive and well overruled everything else.

“Flynn…” I began but then stopped. What the hell was I supposed to say? Ask him what he was doing there? The answer was obvious. One look in his icy eyes told me everything I needed to know.

Maybe if Flynn hadn’t looked so enraged, I would have been excited to see him, but all I was filled with was dread. I’d taken the coward’s way out and run from him without any kind of explanation. He probably no longer cared why I’d done it, but he still wanted his pound of flesh.

And he had every right to.

As afraid as I was of hearing how much Flynn hated me, if that was what it took to ease even an ounce of the pain I’d inflicted upon him, I’d take any and every cruel word he had to say to me because he deserved at least that. In my gut, I knew Flynn wouldn’t hurt me physically because that wasn’t who he was. He was the guy who laughed, who teased, who gave, who protected. He’d only ever hurt someone to protect someone or something else.

Now I was just like one of those thugs from the alley in Eden and Flynn was protecting himself from me.

I wiped my eyes with my shirtsleeve. I’d divested myself of the suitcoat I’d been wearing at the first opportunity, but even now, I didn’t feel like myself. Especially now that I was in Flynn’s presence. Even as I drank in the sight of him, I could tell that he’d lost a significant amount of weight. His normally tanned skin was ashen and his beard was long and unkempt. The skin beneath his eyes was nearly black from lack of sleep and his clothes were dirty and looked a couple sizes too big. Despite the fact that he was almost unrecognizable, he was still the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

I slowly walked toward the pair. My stupid, obscenely expensive, Italian-made shoes squeaked with every step I took. Just outside the lobby door was an array of lights and sirens.

Oh God, was Flynn going to be arrested? It didn’t matter because all it would take was money and a great defense lawyer, and since I had the first one in spades, getting the second one would be a breeze.

I forced away the presence of everything going on outside and focused on Flynn. The closer I got to the man who’d once loved me, the farther Flynn moved away from BJ’s side. At one point he even turned his back to me. I continued to move forward until I reached BJ. He gave me a much warmer welcome.

We all stood there in silence for what seemed like forever. I knew it wasn’t my turn to talk and it definitely wasn’t BJ’s, so that left one person, and he had the right to say whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.

“You have one chance to tell me the truth,” Flynn announced, his back still turned to me. “One chance,” he warned.

“I found out my father?—”

“I know all about how your father and cousin took you to court arguing that you weren’t doing what was in the best interest of the company shareholders by putting the reins in someone else’s hands, so don’t even bother with trying to sell me on that one.”

His words gutted me. If I told him the truth, he’d hate me forever, but if I lied to him, the outcome wouldn’t be any different. It came down to whatever would hurt him less.

BJ gave me a nudge. I put my hand on his soft nose in the hope of working up the courage to tell Flynn I’d bailed on him because I no longer had the same feelings I’d had for him back on the ranch.

I opened my mouth to say that exact thing, but instead I whispered, “I was afraid.” I wasn’t sure what part of my brain had decided it was time to be honest for the first time in a long while rather than run from something that I knew could hurt me, but I was grateful for it.

“I was afraid,” I said more loudly. “When I got the call that my father and cousin were trying to take the company from me, I knew I had to come back here and stop them. For Uncle Ray. For everything he’d worked so hard to build and for all the employees and tenants who relied on him. I didn’t want to leave. I was being a selfish asshole because I didn’t want to leave the ranch. I was selfish because I didn’t want to spend even five minutes apart from the person who finally made me feel like I was worth taking a risk on. But that isn’t who I am and that’s not the man you fell in love with.”

“I thought I’d fallen in love with someone who promised to be my home for the rest of our lives. I remember the promise that said I’d never wake up alone again,” Flynn said coldly.

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