Last Stand Ranch Read Online Free PDF

still didn’t want Claudia at risk—but Olivia didn’t deserve to be constantly on the run, either. Not when her only crime was crossing the line to try to help someone who’d been hurt.
    â€œIf you stay here,” he added, “you’ll have quite a few people looking out for you. If you take off running, you’ll be alone. And it could be a very short run.”
    Olivia’s eyes glistened. Claudia sniffed loudly and brought her hand to her mouth.
    Oh, yeah, Elijah had quite the way with the ladies.
    â€œI don’t want to go,” Olivia blurted out. “But I don’t want to stay, either. Not if Ted Kurtz has tracked me here. And yet I’m so tired of hiding. It feels like I’ve been hiding forever.”
    â€œRight here, right this minute, we’re fine.” Claudia frowned at Elijah while she pulled a tissue out of her pocket and handed it to Olivia. “Sometimes we just have to focus on that.”
    Olivia drew in a deep breath and wiped her eyes and nose with the tissue.
    Both women were upset and on edge. Elijah’s work here was done. It was a shame doing the right thing didn’t always make people feel good. But it might keep them alive.
    â€œI’ve got to get to work on that fence,” Elijah said to Claudia. “Call me if you have any trouble. Call 911, but have someone call me, too. I’ll be closer. I’ll get here faster.”
    â€œOkay.” Claudia nodded.
    Elijah climbed on his bike, cranked up the engine and headed back toward the Morales ranch. Mission accomplished. He’d found out what he’d wanted to know, he’d told the ladies what he’d wanted them to know and Olivia hadn’t killed him with a look.
    * * *
    â€œI’ve got eleven hundred acres, most of it heading due east from here.” Claudia pointed toward the far reaches of her ranch. “It joins up with federal parkland so there aren’t any public roads for a long ways. Ted Kurtz couldn’t sneak up on us from back here even if he was in the neighborhood.”
    Olivia gazed at the grassy land closest to the house, with stables, corrals and fenced pasture fanning out in every direction. The land to the north was rocky, forested foothills heading up into the mountains.
    â€œRaymond will be out here doing his maintenance work and looking after what few animals I’ve got left.” Claudia sighed softly. “This place used to be a lot busier, but after Hugh passed away I sold off most of the herd and started leasing out my grazing land.”
    â€œIt’s gorgeous.” Olivia wondered why her parents never came to visit. How come her dad, Claudia’s nephew, never brought her out here?
    â€œGetting outside always raises my spirits.” Claudia lifted her chin. “I’ve kept a few horses. Do you ride? I could saddle one up for you.”
    â€œI never learned how to ride.” Until recently, Olivia didn’t even realize she had a relative who owned horses.
    â€œWell, now you’ll have to stay around so you can learn.”
    In the quiet, they heard the rumble of Elijah’s motorcycle growing fainter. “So, Elijah likes to get into other people’s business?”
    Claudia laughed. “He’s been that way since he was a kid. He’s always on the lookout for trouble, always wanting to take care of things. He was an army ranger. I think he must have been pretty good at it, too. But he said he missed his family’s ranch after a few years and he came back home.”
    â€œI can see why he’d miss it. I wouldn’t mind living in a place like this.” Even though she couldn’t help picking out potential spots where Ted Kurtz or some thug he’d hired might be hiding. She was being irrational; she knew it. Jumping at shadows wouldn’t do her any good. Elijah was right, much as she hated to admit it. She had to make smart choices, be logical. But she also had