Page 5 of Ranger Devotion

Shame crawled up the back of his neck.

Annie fumbled with a bandage, trying to attach it one-handed. Tate took it from her and, after removing the tabs, gently pressed it over the gash. “I didn’t come here for them.”

She froze. Her skin was warm and silky under the pads of his fingers. Tate lifted his gaze to meet hers. He’d come here to apologize, and he wouldn’t chicken out. “I’m sorry, Annie. For what I did. For what I said.”

She snatched her arm away. Color heated her cheeks. “It was a long time ago.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t change what I did. You deserved an apology back then.”

Her eyes sparked. “What I deserved was honesty.”

The words hit their mark. She was right. He’d been too much of a coward to give it to her. What he’d done to Annie…it was downright unforgivable. He’d humiliated her, and he’d never made it right. Instead, they’d ignored each other for the rest of senior year. At the bonfire party on graduation night, he’d been determined to finally apologize, but a fight had broken out before he could.

The memory of that night sent guilt and regret washing through him.

Coming here…facing his past…

Maybe this had been a huge mistake.

Tate searched for the right words, but before he could speak, Annie cut him off with a raised hand. “Don’t. It’s over and done with.” She gathered the trash from the table and rose from the chair. “Thank you for apologizing. And for what you did tonight.”

Sirens wailed in the distance. Frustrated, Tate stood. He’d never been good at expressing himself, and this situation dredged up old insecurities and shame. Then again, if he hadn’t come, he wouldn’t have been in the parking lot when Annie was attacked.

What had the knife-wielding assailant wanted? Was it only the laptop and the cell phone?

Or had the attack been targeted?

Tate might not be able to set things right with an apology, but he could ensure the case was investigated correctly.

He owed Annie that much.

THREE

Rain drummed against Annie’s umbrella as she stood in the parking lot watching Tate discuss the attack with a patrol officer. It was a miserable evening. Icy and wet. She shivered and huddled deeper into her jacket. A floodlight washed the area around Kayla’s Mercedes, but long shadows clung to the thick trees just off the edge of the lot. Her handgun sat heavy against the small of her back. She’d collected it from the house before leaving. Too little, too late, but it made her feel better to have it.

Tate crossed to her on long strides. The borderline reckless teenager she’d known was gone. In his place was a man who walked as if he’d made peace with himself. No swagger. No need to be liked. A cowboy hat hung low on his brow, shielding his face from the rain. Time had hardened his features, but in the best way possible.

Utterly unfair.

He was supposed to look worse. Time was supposed to have done its job. A receding hairline…a beer gut…something. Instead he’d gotten better-looking, and Annie resented him for it. More so when her heart tripped over itself as their eyes met.

Stupid hormones.

Tate came to a stop in front of her. The floodlight caught the cleft in his chin and the whiskers covering the lower half of his face. Despite the freezing temperatures, he wore nothing heavier than worn jeans and a light rain jacket. “You don’t need to be out here since the officer already took your statement.”

“I want to know if you find anything.”

“We didn’t.”

To the point. He’d never talked much, even as a teenager, but back then she’d chalked it up to grief. He’d moved to Oakwood to live with his grandmother after losing his parents in a car accident. Annie had been his tutor, hired by his grandmother to help him with algebra and essay writing. What started as a business arrangement morphed into a friendship and then, by the time of senior prom…

Well, then she’d thought it’d deepened into more.

A foolish schoolgirl’s fantasy.

She pushed the memories down. The attacker had run toward the two-lane road just beyond the gate. “When you arrived at the ranch, did you notice a vehicle parked on the side of the road?”

“No, but it could’ve been hidden in the trees.”