Joanna Wayne - Point Blank Protector

“I appreciate that. If I have any other questions, I’ll get back to you. And if you think of anything else, call me.” He took a business card from his wallet and handed it to her.

Unfortunately Zach didn’t exit the house with Aidan. He walked over to join her at the door and placed his hands on her shoulders, massaging her tense muscles. She melted at his touch before abruptly pulling away. She had enough problems without feeding an unreasonable lust for him.

“Sorry,” Zach said. “I wasn’t trying to get fresh. You just looked stressed to the point of collapse.”

“I admit I’m a little frazzled. I wasn’t prepared for all of this.”

“Then we should go shooting when Aidan finishes up here. Nothing like firing a few rounds to loosen you up.”

She was definitely in Texas. “You don’t have to teach me to shoot, Zach. I know you’re busy, and I’m sure I can hire someone to—”

He put up a hand to stop her refusal. “You can’t hire better than me. I’ll show Aidan around and then I can take you back to Jack’s Bluff for a lesson.”

“Can’t we just practice here?”

“We could, but Jack’s Bluff has a shooting range already set up. And I have the perfect pistol for you. Lightweight. Easy to use. My sister Jaime has one just like it. She killed a striking copperhead with it last summer when she was horseback-riding with my niece Gina.”

Snakes. Killers. Time spent with Zach Collingsworth. Kali didn’t even want to think of what other dangers were waiting for her now that she’d moved to the ranch.

“It will give my Mom a chance to say hello, too. You may not remember her after not seeing her for fifteen years, but it’s good to know your neighbors out here.”

“Then I guess I’ll have my lesson at Jack’s Bluff.”

She watched Zach head outside and then rushed to shower and change clothes. She refused to entertain romantic notions about her and Zach Collingsworth, but there was no way she was going to climb in the car with him smelling like bleach.

And if she wore the gorgeous teal sweater she’d splurged on just before leaving Atlanta, well, it just made good sense that she’d want to make a good impression on her first visit to a neighboring ranch.

Chapter Four

Learning to fire a pistol was not the way Kali had envisioned spending her first weekend in Texas. In fact, the horrors that had greeted her arrival seemed to be dictating every aspect of her life. The peaceful, pastoral existence she’d dreamed of seemed to be balanced on a bed of hot coals with every step she made holding the potential for disaster.

Sitting in the front seat of a pickup truck and bumping and grinding down a maze of ranch roads with Zach Collingsworth merely switched the danger from an unknown killer to risks of heartache. There was simply no way to be around him and not pick up on his sensual, sexy vibes.

Their eyes met as they turned toward each other at the exact same moment. Kali struggled to breathe as if oxygen were in short supply. She turned away quickly, but couldn’t shake the vision of his dark hair spilling from under his Stetson and falling across his forehead, highlighting his chocolate-brown eyes.

Get a grip, girl .

It was a warning she had to heed. She hadn’t given up her job and apartment in Atlanta and withdrawn every cent of her savings to get buried in an old schoolgirl crush.

“I enjoyed seeing your mother and sisters again,” she said, choosing what should be a safe topic. “I remember Jaime a lot better than I remember Becky, but I don’t think I would have recognized either of them. Your Mom looks much the same, though, still as nice and attractive as ever.”

“Mom liked you, too. She’s never that talkative with people she doesn’t like.”

“Where was the rest of your family?”

“Probably up at Langston’s weekend cabin.”

“Oooh. Look. What was that?” Kali asked, as a large olive-and-brown bird that looked as if it was having a bad-hair day raced across the road in front of them and then disappeared into the brush.

Zach laughed at her enthusiasm. “Nothing but your common every-day roadrunner.”

“I thought they were just cartoon characters.”

“No, they’re for real.”

“Texas is different from Atlanta in more ways than one.”

“Surely you have birds in Atlanta?”

“None that looked like that, at least not in my neighborhood.”

“Did you live right in the city?”

“In the suburbs, but there were no wooded roads like this one, not even at the riding stables. Our trails meandered along a scenic creek at the edge of a park, but there was a shopping center just across the water that spoiled the effect.”

“Sounds far too confining for my tastes, not that I don’t like the excitement of city life on occasion. But you must have gotten out of town sometimes.”

“Not nearly often enough. Mom worked two jobs for most of my life to make ends meet. But somehow she always found the money for my riding lessons. She was pretty terrific.”

“I know all about terrific moms. Mine was always there when we needed her. She still is, but she’s taken on a whole new persona these days.”

“How’s that?”

“My grandfather had a stroke las summer and we found out he’d named her as acting CEO of Collingsworth Enterprises should he become unable to fulfill his duties for any reason. It blew our minds, but she jumped right into career mode. She’s doing a bang-up job of it—when she’s not driving Langston nuts. She loves to focus on what she calls the humanitarian side of the company.”

“I would guess that just from talking to her today. She’s involved in lots of charities and community events.”

“I’m sure she’ll do her best to enlist you in some of them.”

“I’d like that after I get settled in. So what exactly is Collingsworth Enterprises?”

“The whole kit and caboodle, to put it in our neighbor Billy Mack’s vernacular. It includes Jack’s Bluff Ranch, Collingsworth Oil and several production-related subsidiaries.”

“Sounds impressive.”

“That’s why I throw it around,” he teased. “How is your mom these days?”

Kali was hit by the familiar ache, but she tried to keep it from seeping into her voice. “Mom died of cancer last year.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks,” she said. “It was a tough loss.” Kali dropped the subject and hoped Zach would, too. The painful loss made her feel vulnerable and the events of Friday night had already left her feeling defenseless enough.

Zach stopped the car on a gentle incline at a spot where the dirt road disappeared into a sea of yellowed grass and scrubby brush. “Is this the shooting range?” she asked, not sure what she expected, but sure it was more than what looked to be just another pasture—albeit without cows.

“The range is off to your left,” Zach said, “just past that cluster of water oaks and sweet gum trees.”

She craned her neck for a better view. There was a mound of high grass that rose at least twenty feet, topped by a flat expanse that gave it the appearance of a plateau. In front of that was a cable with hooks. A bull’s-eye-type target hung from one of the hooks about midway down the cable. Not as sophisticated as she’d expected on what Sheriff Guerra had mentioned was the second-largest ranch in the state. No one could accuse the Collingsworths of being pretentious.

“The hill stops the bullets?”

“Right,” Zach said, shifting into Park, and killing the engine. “That’s the backstop to make sure that bullets that are shot here stay here, though there’s nothing beyond it but about forty acres of woods.”

“I’m guessing someone had to construct the mound since most of the terrain is relatively flat.”