“Hey,” Max interrupted, only to have his wife’s hand clasped over his mouth.

“I love you, Callie Sheppard. You agreed to marry Zane. Will you marry me, too?”

A little smile curled her mouth up. “I never agreed to marry Zane. The truth is I don’t necessarily believe in marriage as an institution.”

“You do now!” Zane’s outraged shout exactly matched Nate’s own.

Callie looked between them. “Wow, way to double-team a girl.”

“Have no doubt, you will marry us,” Nate said with a light feeling invading his very cells. This was his future. These crazy, amazing people were his family.

“Hell, yes, she’ll marry you,” Stefan said with lazy menace. “I never thought I’d have to have a shotgun wedding in Bliss, but I will if you’re stubborn, little sister.”

“Fine, I guess I can compromise, but just this once.” Then she was running toward him, her face open and filled with love. For him. Nate dropped the microphone and braced himself for impact. When his arms were filled with soft, sweet woman, he sighed and clutched her close, not giving a damn that the entire town had watched him proclaim his love. Zane was suddenly at Callie’s back, the two of them crowding her the way they would for the next forty or fifty years.

“All of this is so touching.” Leander’s sarcastic voice cut through Nate’s joy, reminding him he had one thing left to do. “But none of it solves the problem that this town is woefully unprepared to handle the threat.”

Nate turned and faced his former co-workers. “Don’t worry about us. We can take care of ourselves. So you two should feel free to hightail it back to El Paso.”

Worthington leaned forward. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Nate didn’t want to hear it. “I said get the hell out of my town!”

The cheers erupted again, and Nate got lost in the crowd of people wishing him well.

* * *

Callie felt like the whole world had a warm glow around it. All through the reception hall people she knew and had grown up with were talking about her, Nate, and Zane. She’d lost count of the people who had hugged her in congratulations.

Stella winked at her as she walked into the small kitchen. “You’re the talk of the town, hon.”

She felt her face flush. “I don’t know about that. I think Nate and Zane are the ones people are talking about.”

Stella shook her head. “We might be talking about them, but we love you, Callie. We’re all happy that our favorite girl is going to be well taken care of. And don’t you doubt that. Max, Rye, and Stef already had serious talks with both of those boys about how poorly things could go for them if they step out of line. I heard Hiram mention that he still knew how to use a shotgun to the sheriff. And me and Hal certainly can take care of business if either one of them hurts you.”

Callie swung around quickly to try to see if Nate or Zane were running. They stood in the crowd, seemingly at ease, talking to the people around them. Zane laughed at something Jen said. Nate stood in a small group of the county’s ranchers, explaining something. Neither looked like they had been scared off by her friends and neighbors. Still. “Stella, you have to tell everyone to leave Nate and Zane alone. Couldn’t we let them settle in before we show them how crazy we are?”

Stella held a tureen of coffee in her hands. Callie helped her pour it out into the sink. “Not a chance. And don’t you worry. Those boys belong here. The big one knew it the minute he stuck his head outside of that cabin of theirs. And the sheriff is coming along nicely. It’s going to be okay, hon. They love you. They aren’t going to be run off easy.” She shook her head. “We’re out of coffee in here. Can you go to the storeroom for me? It doesn’t look like we’re breaking up any time soon.”

Callie nodded and walked out of the reception hall toward the small storage closet at the back of the town hall. It grew quiet as she moved away from the crowd. She breathed a little sigh of relief. It was great to be surrounded by friends, but she was really looking forward to the time when she could climb into the Bronco with Nate and Zane and head back to “Fort Naked” as Zane had started calling the naturist community. Tomorrow morning they were all going to the airport. They were going to the field office in El Paso, and once all the reports were filed, Nate had assured her that Zane would be safe. She felt her heart clench and a little smile cross her face. Nate would be coming home with them. Happy tears pricked her eyes. The three of them would come home to Bliss.

“Why wait? Why don’t we do this thing now?”

Callie stopped in her tracks. She could hear voices down the hall. There was only one strip of lighting on in this hallway at night to conserve energy. It made the entire place seem gloomy. She’d been in this building a hundred times before. There was nothing to be afraid of here, she told herself.

“You have to be patient. Wright is taking Hollister in tomorrow. That idiot will file a report with everything we need on it. The Agency has its head up its ass when it comes to stuff like this. They might have the numbers, but they don’t know where the account is. We just get a copy of the report and disappear. No one will ever even know what happened.”

Callie clasped a hand over her mouth to stop the gasp that almost came out. Worthington and Leander were dirty. She started to back down the hall. Her sneakers screeched against the slick floor, the sound resonating through the quiet hall. She winced and held herself still, hoping the agents wouldn’t notice. Please, please don’t let them come around the corner.

But suddenly metal flashed as Worthington rounded the corner, gun in hand. “Scream and I’ll shoot.”

Callie turned to run anyway, but Leander was on her.

He turned to his partner as he shoved his gun in the small of her back. “Shit. What do we do now?”

“Change of plans,” Worthington said as he pointed toward the door to the back parking lot.

Yep, it changed all of Callie’s plans.

* * *

Nate enjoyed a cup of coffee while he talked to a couple of the area ranchers. He looked up to see Zane in a discussion with Callie’s friend, Jennifer. He was shaking his head no, and Jen didn’t look like she was having it.

Nate nodded to James Glen and eased himself out of the conversation. He started to make his way across the room, intending to save Zane from Jen’s pleas. She’d been begging him to sit for her. She’d explained it as capturing Zane’s essence on canvas. Zane liked his essence just fine where it was. He was never going to be comfortable as an artist’s model. He was also not comfortable saying no to a woman. Even from across the room, Nate could see Zane’s eyes darting around, looking for someone to come and save him.

Rachel Harper stopped his forward progress. “Sheriff, have you seen Callie? I need to talk to her about the Winter Festival. We got volunteered by Marie. Considering her earlier speech, I’m not going to argue with her. Callie and I should talk about setting up a meeting.”

Nate looked around, his height providing him a view of the room. “I don’t see her.”

Rachel frowned. “I saw her walking out to the parking lot with those asshole agents you brought in. She hasn’t gotten back yet? I hope she was giving them directions on how to get out of town. Next time, Sheriff, just trust us to handle our own business.”

A little chill went through Nate. Leander and Worthington had left, and quickly, after the debacle of a town hall had happened. He hadn’t thought they would come back. What was Callie doing with them? The safety meeting had turned into a party, and Nate doubted that his former friends would have stayed for coffee and lemon pound cake.

“Zane!” Nate yelled across the room. He didn’t care that every head turned. “You seen Callie?”

Zane’s face went a little white as he looked around.

“Has anyone seen Callie?” God, Nate hoped the answer to that question was yes. He was getting a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. A whole bunch of things were suddenly making sense. He thought back to Leander’s earlier words. He said there was a lot of money to be made by men in their position. They were government employees and, at this level, there wasn’t a big honking paycheck attached to the job. How did a law enforcement drone make real money? He sold out his fellow agents. He sold their covers for cold, hard cash.

His old “friends” had sold out Zane. There was no way Nate would allow them to hurt Callie.

Chapter Fourteen

Callie pushed out on the bonds that held her hands together. The SUV she’d been shoved into moved through the night. Every second took her further away from Nate and Zane. The metal from the handcuffs felt cold against her skin, and they weren’t budging at all. She tried to twist her wrists, but that jerk Leander had put the cuffs on tightly around them. They bit into her skin. He hadn’t been willing to take any chances.

“You send the text?” Leander was driving the car.

“Yeah.” As Worthington said the words, there was a ping from his phone that let him know he had a text. “Looks like old Nathan is anxious about the girl. He says he’ll meet us wherever we choose, and he’ll bring Hollister with him. Maybe it wasn’t all for nothing.”

A low grumble came from Leander’s throat. “I don’t like it. I still think we should have taken Hollister out from a distance.”

“We don’t have that option now. That nosy bitch back there ruined everything. We can’t be sure Wright wouldn’t go ahead and call the agency to give them the account number. I’m sure he wrote the numbers down. He normally wouldn’t give them to the boss over the phone, but he might if he thought someone would get there first. Idiot. I thought Wright would be easy to turn. He lost everything. He needs the fucking money.”