Vanessa Carson informs Dylan Delaney she’s pregnant moments before armed robbers break into his family bank...and Vanessa loses her memory. Despite the obstacles against them—including their feuding families—Dylan can’t forget the passionate night he and Vanessa shared. Now, trapped together in a remote cabin, the former soldier must use his best sniper skills to safeguard three lives...

NICOLE HELM grew up with her nose in a book and the dream of one day becoming a writer. Luckily, after a few failed career choices, she gets to follow that dream—writing down-to-earth contemporary romance and romantic suspense. From farmers to cowboys, Midwest to the West, Nicole writes stories about people finding themselves and finding love in the process. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two sons and dreams of someday owning a barn.

Also by Nicole Helm

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Wyoming Cowboy Sniper

Nicole Helm

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09390-3

WYOMING COWBOY SNIPER

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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Version: 2020-03-02

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For opposites who attract.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Epilogue

About the Publisher

Prologue

Dylan Delaney considered the scene around him an atrocity: Carsons and Delaneys of Bent, Wyoming, not just mingling in the same yard but celebrating.

Celebrating the marriage of his sister—an upstanding, rule-following sheriff’s deputy with too good of a heart—to a no-good, lying, cheating, saloon-owning Carson.

The fact his sister looked so happy as she danced with her newly pronounced husband was the only reason Dylan was keeping his mouth shut. That and a well-stocked makeshift bar in the Carson barn that had been transformed into a wedding venue for Laurel and Grady.

Dylan had been bred to hate Carsons and what they represented his whole life. Delaneys were better than thieving, low-class, lying Carsons—and had been since the town had been founded back in the eighteen hundreds.

Dylan’s siblings had always been too soft. Though Jen had held strong with him, Cam and Laurel were growing even softer in adulthood as they mixed themselves up with Carsons.

Romantically of all things.

Dylan had prided himself on being hard. On being better. Half his siblings had been happy to ignore the calling of the Delaney name, but he’d used everything he had in him to live up to it.

If it felt hollow in the face of his sister happily marrying Grady Carson, he’d ignore it.

“Worried about your precious bloodline, Delaney?”

Dylan sneered. Normally, he wouldn’t. Normally, he’d be cool, collected and cuttingly disdainful of Vanessa Carson even breathing the same air as him, let alone addressing him. But the liquor was smoothing out just enough of his senses for him to forget he never engaged with the Carson he hated the most.

“Aren’t you worried about catching a little law and order? Ruining that bad-girl reputation of yours?” Dylan smiled, the way he would have smiled at a dirty child who’d just smeared mud over his freshly dry-cleaned suit.

She wore the same shade of black as his suit, but not in a sedate cocktail dress that might have befit a wedding. He’d have even given a pass to a funeralesque sundress, because it was a rather casual affair all in all, and it felt like a funeral on his end.

But no. Vanessa wore tight leather pants and some kind of contraption on top that flowed behind her like a cape down to her knees. It knotted in the front above her belly button. A little gold hoop dangled there, mocking him.

He was so attracted to her, it hurt. He hated himself for that purely animalistic reaction that he’d always, always refused to act on. He’d dealt with cosmic jokes his whole life. This was just another one to be put away and ignored. He was stronger than the cosmos. Had to be.

She flashed a grin meant to peel the skin off his face. “My bad-girl reputation is rock-hard solid, babe.” She sauntered around Dylan and the makeshift bar, then started looking through the collection of bottles and cans.

The hired bartender blinked at her, clearly caught off guard and having no idea what to do despite making a living from serving drunk and rowdy wedding guests. “I can get you what you—”

“No worries.” She nudged the bartender away and rummaged around, then poured herself an impressive and possibly lethal combination of alcohol. She lifted her cup in Dylan’s direction, which was when he realized he’d been watching her. She drank deeply.

“If that was for my benefit, color me unimpressed,” he muttered, looking away from that long slender neck and the way long wisps of midnight-black hair danced around her face.

“Baby, I wouldn’t do anything for your benefit, even if you were on fire,” Vanessa said, her voice a smooth purr.

He refused to let his body react. “Someone’s going to be carrying you out of here if you drink all that.”

She laughed, low and smoky. It slithered through him like—

Like nothing.

“I could shoot you under the table, sweetheart.”

“Wanna bet?” he muttered, forcing himself to stare ahead even though he could feel her come to stand next to him.

She laughed again, the sound so arousing he wanted to bash his own head in.

“I know you didn’t just say that to me, Delaney. You’re not that stupid.”

Which poked at all the reactions he kept locked far, far away. Apparently the rather potent drinks he’d been downing in swift succession were the key to unlocking them. “I’ll repeat it, then. Want to bet?” He enunciated each word with exaggerated precision as he turned to look at her.

She smirked, somehow a few inches shorter than him even though she always seemed to take up so much space. “Oh, I’ll take that bet. How much?”

He named a sum he knew she couldn’t possibly afford.

She rolled her eyes and waved a dismissive hand that glinted silver and gold with an impressive array of rings, including more than one in the shape of a skull or dagger.

He despised her. Every inch of her. Which he drank in against his will.

“Delaneys love to flaunt their money.”

He flashed a wolfish grin, enjoying far too much the way her eyes narrowed as if preparing to ward him off. Good luck, little girl. “Chicken?”

Some little voice in the back of his head reminded him of propriety. Reminded him of his place in Bent and the fact that getting in a drinking competition with Vanessa would only end in embarrassment and trouble. It went against everything he believed and stood for, and he should just walk away.

He stood where he was and ignored that voice.

When he woke up the next morning, definitely not in his own bed, ignoring that voice was the last thing he remembered.

* * *

VANESSA WAS DYING. From the inside out. So, so many bad decisions made last night. But it was her brother’s fault for marrying a Delaney. That she was sure of.

She groaned, rolling over in bed as her stomach roiled in protest. She’d had her fair share of hangovers, but this one was truly something.

And now she was hallucinating.

Had to be. Because there was no way on God’s green earth that Dylan Delaney was in her bed.

No Delaney man was naked in her bed, in the middle of her apartment above her mechanic shop. She looked to the left. There was her little kitchen, the hall with the bathroom door. She looked to the right, at the door to the stairs down to the shop, and in that line of vision was clearly a man.

As she blinked at that shape of a man next to her, it was Dylan’s dark eyes that widened and sharpened. It was every gorgeous plane of Dylan Delaney’s face that went very, very hard.

Vanessa closed her eyes tight, counted to ten in a whisper. It had to be a dream. It had to be an alcohol-induced mirage. It had to be anything but the truth.

But when she was done counting, Dylan was still there.

“Apparently bad dreams do come true,” Dylan said, his voice all delicious rough gravel.

Get yourself together. Nothing about Dylan Delaney is delicious.

She watched, horrified, really she was horrified and not intrigued at all, as he flung the covers—her covers—off of him and stood, clearly having no compunction about being naked in her room.

With jerky movements, he pulled on his pants from last night. Last night. She’d...

“You can’t tell anyone.” If she’d been feeling better she would have kept that inside. Ignored the panic and held on to the upper hand. But she was dying, and she’d apparently slept with Dylan Delaney.

She remembered nothing. Nothing about last night beyond the wedding ceremony where her rough-and-tumble brother had promised himself forever to goody-two-shoes Laurel Delaney. A cop.

Beyond that, everything got fuzzier and fuzzier until...

Best kiss of your life.

Ha! She’d been drunk. How would she have known?

Dylan gave her one smoldering look—enough her heart started pumping overtime and her whole body seemed to blaze with heat. She could almost, almost picture them together, feel his big rough hands on her—

But Dylan Delaney, a bank manager, did not have rough hands. She was hallucinating. And was that a tattoo on his chest that disappeared as he pulled his shirt on and began to button it?

“Who on earth do you think I’d tell about this horrifying lapse in judgment?” he said disgustedly.

It didn’t sting, because she felt the same way. Except lapse in judgment was way too tame. Catastrophe of epic proportions was more appropriate.

A catastrophe she would also blame on Grady, because if he hadn’t married a Delaney, she wouldn’t have gotten drunk enough to sleep with one.

Dylan was now completely dressed, and she was still naked in her bed. Naked.

“We’ll both forget this ever happened,” Dylan said. No. He demanded it, like she was a peon to be ordered about. But even she couldn’t work up contrariness at his tone when this had happened.

“I don’t even know what happened. We didn’t really...” But he’d been naked, and she was naked so...

“I don’t remember either. So we’ll just say we didn’t.”

“But—”

“We didn’t,” he said firmly, patting down his pockets. “I have my wallet. No keys.”

“Surely neither of us were stupid enough to drive.”

“Surely neither of us were stupid enough to have someone drive us together anywhere.” He sighed, running an agitated hand through sleep-tousled hair. He did not look like his normal slick self. He was disheveled and...

Appealing.

No, not that.

“Hate sex is a thing,” she blurted, feeling unaccountably out of control and nervous. Which did not make any sense, but she couldn’t seem to straighten herself out. It had to be the hangover and all the booze still in her system.

He scowled, and Vanessa didn’t understand why her eyes wanted to track the small lines around his mouth or note the way dark stubble dotted his chin where it had been smooth last night.

There was something compelling about him. She’d admit it now and regain some of her control. They were polar opposites, and sometimes when polar opposites got drunk enough, they ended up attracting.

She’d swear off alcohol for the rest of her life right here, right now.

“Hate sex is not a thing. Not for me it’s not.”

“Apparently for drunk you it was.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I’m leaving. We’ll never speak of this again. And if anyone saw us...”

“We lie,” Vanessa supplied for him.

He seemed startled by that word, but what else was there to do?

Eventually, he gave a sharp nod. “Through our teeth.” He turned and strode out her apartment door.

Vanessa stared at the ceiling, hoping she never, ever remembered what had transpired and willing herself to forget about it for good.

Chapter One
Four months later

Vanessa Carson was not a coward. In her entire life, she’d never backed down from an insult, a challenge or a fist. She’d faced all three of those things practically since she’d been born, and yet none of it held a candle to this moment.

She sat in the driver’s seat of her ancient sedan in the back parking lot of Delaney Bank. She preferred her motorcycle but... Without thinking the movement through, she placed her hand over her stomach. It was starting to round, just a little bit. No one else would notice, but she could tell. It wouldn’t be long before other people would be able to tell, as well.

The morning sickness had been hell, but it seemed to dissipate more every day. She’d taken to eating better, and she’d sworn off alcohol for different reasons ever since that night. Her doctor said she and baby were healthy as a horse.

Luckily, she was surrounded by clueless men for the most part, so no one in her life had any idea. She was convinced it was paranoia that on more than one occasion she’d caught her cousin-in-law or new sister-in-law staring at her with a considering gaze when she did something like eat a veggie plate or pass on another hit of caffeine.

Paranoia or not, she had to face the music before anyone actually put the puzzle together. Had to. Before the music told him itself.

You are not a coward.

She repeated those words with every step toward the bank. She had never once stepped foot in Delaney Bank, would have rather chewed her own arm off—or simply driven the twenty-plus minutes to Fremont whenever she needed a bank.

But this wasn’t about asking for a loan or sullying the white halls of such an upstanding establishment run by the Delaneys. It was about the very unfortunate truth.

She was going to have Dylan Delaney’s baby.

For a few weeks she’d considered running away. Disappearing. Grady would likely try to find her, with her cousins Noah and Ty not far behind him. But it would have been possible if she’d played her cards right. Eventually, they’d have given up on her. Maybe.

But Bent was her home. Her life. Her mechanic shop was everything she’d built her life on. She’d paid in blood, sweat and tears for it. She wasn’t ever going to let a Delaney scare her into running away.

Your baby is half Delaney.

She paused at the corner of the bank building. Ruthlessly, she reminded herself Dylan wouldn’t want anyone to know that any more than she did. He’d agree to her plan. He had to. He’d never risk his reputation just to be a part of his baby’s life.

Which was why she had to tell him. He’d be spiteful if he found out some other way. She needed this to be quick, easy and painless. Which meant she couldn’t just stand here.

She heard a noise from behind her and turned to see a back door opening. Dylan stepped out, looking perfectly dapper in a suit with a briefcase clutched in his hand. He slid sunglasses onto his face in defense of the setting sun, his dark looks tinged with gold in the fading light.

She’d never understood her reaction to him—a tug, a want. No matter how much she knew she did not want the uptight, soft banker boy, something deep inside of her begged to differ.

Luckily, she was a smart woman who knew when not to listen to stupid feelings. She just needed to explain to him how things were going to be, and be done with him for good.

“Dylan.”

He startled, as if he recognized her voice instantly and how incongruous it was at his precious bank. He immediately scanned the lot before turning his gaze to her.

When he’d seen there was no one else around he took a few steps toward her, suspicious and uncomfortable, but not sneery. She would have preferred a little sneery to get her back up.

“Vanessa,” he said, his voice cool and clipped, though not nasty.

“Dylan. We need to talk.”

He raised an eyebrow. Such a disdainful look, and yet she didn’t feel that same animosity from him she’d always had when they’d been growing up. They’d avoided each other even more carefully than usual since Laurel and Grady’s wedding, which was hard to do in a small town when your siblings were married. But they’d done it.

Still, there’d been a cooling of antagonism on both their parts. Perhaps they now knew a little too well where unchecked dislike could lead. Being apathetic worked a heck of a lot better.

But she wished he’d be nasty, so she could be angry and defensive instead of so nervous she felt sick.

This is better. You can be calm and collected and show him he’s not the only one with some control.

“We really need to talk,” Vanessa repeated when he said nothing. “Privately.”

Again he scanned the lot and seemed satisfied no one lurked in the dusky shadows. “Follow me.”

He used a key card on a pad outside the door he’d come out of, then pulled it open and gestured her inside. She went, chin too high and sharp, shoulders back and braced for a fight.

But it wouldn’t be a fight. It would be a quick, informative conversation, and then she’d walk right out of the bank with this awful weight off her shoulders. She wouldn’t run her mouth. She’d just say it plain.

He stepped inside, the door closing behind him with a definitive slap. With a nod, he moved down the hallway, leading her to another door—this one glass. Inside was a fancy office. Evidently his, since his name was printed on the glass.

“You know, in my shop I don’t have to put my own name on the door to my office.”

“I’m guessing, in your shop, you’re not entertaining wealthy clients in your office.”

She flashed him a hard-edged grin. “You’d be surprised who likes me doing the oil change on their car.”

His lips pressed together. She couldn’t help but remember him not as the slick, suited businessman who stood before her but as the rumpled, slightly shaken man she’d woken up with that morning all those months ago.

He set his briefcase down and took a seat behind the big, gleaming desk, then ran a hand over the lapel of his suit jacket. He looked impossibly elegant. He wasn’t like his siblings. They were the down-home noble type. Laurel the cop, Cam the former marine and Jen the shopkeeper.

Dylan had style—with an edge to it. She didn’t know why he stayed in Bent when he was clearly meant to be somewhere a lot more posh than this nowhere Wyoming town.

She didn’t know why she had this odd memory of his hands on her feeling right.

Just insanity and liquor, she supposed.

“What did you need to discuss?” he asked in the cool, detached voice he’d almost always used on her. Even when they’d been in the same class in first grade, he’d spoken like that to her at the age of seven. Like he was inherently better.

It should have put her back up, but all she could do was stare at him behind his big desk, looking imposing and important in this big, fancy bank office.

She swallowed as an unexpected emotion swamped her. Regret. It was a shame the way her baby had been conceived because this whole Delaney legacy belonged to him or her too.

Money. The kind of reputation people slaved a lifetime to never live up to. The baby wouldn’t even have to deal with being the first commingling of Carson and Delaney. Laurel and Grady would always take whatever heat people blamed on a foolish curse, because they’d promised to love each other in front of God himself.

Not everyone in town took the feud between the Carson and Delaney families as seriously as she did, and not everyone in town believed the old tale that if a Carson and Delaney ever fell in love, the town itself would be cursed to destruction.

A story passed down from generation to generation since the Carsons had accused Delaneys of stealing their land back in the eighteen hundreds.

Enough people believed it to make it a thing.

The fact Bent hadn’t immediately crumbled or been struck by lightning didn’t soothe the most superstitious. They were still waiting for it. As for Vanessa, she was more of a take-life-as-it-comes type of girl. She’d deal with a curse if there was one, and she wouldn’t be surprised if life went on as it always had.

“I know you’re not here for the view. Or a repeat performance,” Dylan said, shocking her out of her reverie.

Repeat... She clamped her jaw shut so it wouldn’t drop. No one ever turned her off-center like this.

It was the baby softening all her edges. Which was fine and dandy, once she’d done her business. She was determined to be a good mother—the kind hers had never been—where her kid came first and foremost. And not one man was going to ruin that for her kid. She’d soften every last edge, sand off her tattoos and cut out her own swearing, drinking, idiot tongue if it meant giving this baby the kind of idyllic childhood she’d never had.

Which meant no strife with the father of the baby, even if Vanessa didn’t plan on him being involved.

The best way not to have any strife was to be quick and to the point. She took a deep breath in and let it out, forcing herself to meet Dylan’s dark, imposing gaze.

“I’m pregnant.”

* * *

THE WORDS LANDED like a blow, the kind that had your ears ringing and your eyes seeing stars. Even as Dylan’s brain scrambled to make sense of those two simple words, he desperately held on to his composure.

In business, composure was everything.

This wasn’t business.

Pregnant. Baby. She was telling him she was pregnant and that meant...

He opened his mouth to speak, though he wasn’t sure what it was he meant to say. No words or sound came out, anyway.

“I’m not asking you for anything,” she said clearly. Her gaze was calm, direct, but he saw the way she clutched her hands together in her lap. For a woman like Vanessa she might as well have been shaking in her boots. “I’d rather—”

“Yes, I can imagine all you’d rather,” he muttered. He glanced at her stomach where her hands were clutched. There was no evidence a child grew there, but one did and it was his.

His.

His heart squeezed as if gripped by some iron outside force, a mix of panic and awe. Mostly panic, he assured himself.

“But if I didn’t tell you, you’d figure it out and assume. So I’m telling you. You don’t need to worry or do anything. I’ll keep your part in this a secret and raise this baby myself.” Her hands squeezed harder, and he couldn’t seem to bring himself to lift his gaze from them to meet hers.

“Yourself,” he repeated stupidly.

“Yes. I’m capable. Maybe I don’t look like the most maternal—”

“I’m not challenging you, Vanessa,” he snapped, looking away from her hands. Her eyes were storms of a million things. Things he didn’t want to consider.

But she was pregnant with his child. His child.

Hell.

“Regardless,” she said, sounding surprisingly prim. “I wanted to be clear that I’ll be taking care of everything. As long as you don’t yap, we’ll be fine.”

“Fine,” he echoed. Fine. This was not fine.

She began to stand.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

She raised her eyebrows. “Home. I told you what I had to say and—”

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