“But if she was working with the grullo, he's probably running wild somewhere.”
“I think I can handle one wormy weanling.”
“And Angelâ”
“I can handle her, too.”
“Butâ”
“Stay here, Case. Rest.”
“Rest.” She laughed, though she was exhausted. “Where?”
“I'll find you a bed,” he said.
“You can't just find me a bed. And even if you could I can't affordâ”
“Case,” he said, touching his fingers to her lips. “This is a hospital. There are dozens of female nurses roaming these halls. I'm a rodeo cowboy. If I can't get a free bed, I'm gonna hang up my damned spurs.”
C
HAPTER
28
“C
ass.”
She sat bolt upright at the sound of her name. Bradley was leaning over her bed. She blinked, trying to get her bearings. Beige walls, beige drapes, beige coverlet. Memories rushed in on her. Sophie!
“How is she?” Her voice croaked with disuse. Despite everything, she had slept like the dead.
Bradley scowled at her. “Just relax for a minute.”
Her breath stopped in her throat. “Relax . . .” She tossed the covers back and froze, muscles losing their mission as a dozen inconsequential details flashed through her mind. She'd slept in her jeans. There was a hole in her sweatshirt. “Has sheâ”
He nodded. “Listen.” His face was very serious, his hand firm on her arm. “We have to talk.”
“No.” Terror whispered through her, more substantial than the world itself. She shook her head, knowing what he was going to say. “No.”
“You've got to tell me how this happened.”
“I don't know. I wasn't . . .” She felt tears flood her eyes. “I just went out to check the ewes. I should have . . . but now . . .” She put her hand over her mouth as if she could hold back the pain, the fear. “How am I going to tell her father?” She couldn't help remembering Clayton's blank stare after her mother's passing. His stoicism had continued, seemingly impenetrable, but there had been a chink in his armor, a chink that allowed his heart to be pierced, a hole to be left in his life. She knew that now.
“That's what we have to talk about,” Bradley said. “Are you adequately insured?”
Maybe it would be the same with Philip Jaegar as it had been with Clayton. He'd pawned Sophie off, seeming relieved to be rid of her, but perhaps he didn't realize how much he loved her, how much he'd miss her until she was gone.
“Cass!”
“What?” She jumped, nerves as taut as barbed wire.
“Are you insured? God, Cassandra, wake up. This could be serious. We could lose everything.”
She blinked. “We . . .” She shook her head, hoped she was dreaming. “A girl's dead and you're worried about . . .” A tear slid down her face. It felt hot and heavy. “What's wrong withâ”
“She's not dead.” His tone was dismissive, his brows low over his sea-foam eyes. “Not yet, anyway. But these concussions can be tricky. There might be memory loss. There might be . . .” He shook his head and held up a hand as if explanations weren't worth the effort. “The point isâ”
“What?” Something was coiled up tight in Casie's chest. “Wait. She's not dead?”
“She woke up a few minutes ago, just before I got here, but that doesn't mean they won't try to hold us accountable.”
“She's awake?” She jerked toward the door, but he caught her arm, spun her toward him.
“Cass, you can't talk to her right now.” His voice was very low.
She blinked at him as if she were dreaming. “What are you talking about? I'm not going toâ”
“I've contacted an attorney.”
“An attorney forâ”
“He agrees with me. Said it would be best to keep quiet until you have council. Whatever you do, don't admit culpability.”
“Culpability?”
“That includes apologies. An apology is as good as an admittance of guilt. I know the farm isn't bringing in a lot of revenue right now, but land prices are escalating andâ”
“Land prices . . .” She felt as if she were in a bad play. “What do land prices have to do with . . .” She shook her head again. “What are you doing here?”
“I went to the farm to see you. The girl said you were here.”
“What girl? Emily?”
He shook off her question. “This could be extremely serious, Cass,” he said and tightened his grip for emphasis.
She stared at his fingers. “Of course it's serious. Sophie's been injured,” she said, and yanking her arm from his grasp, jerked toward the door.
The light in the hallway seemed too bright, too invasive. She hurried toward Sophie's room.
“Cass. Cass!”
She knew Bradley was following her, but she didn't stop. In a moment she had pushed open the door and stepped inside.
Sophie Jaegar turned toward her. The three women standing by her bed in multicolored scrubs did the same.
“You're awake.” Casie's voice sounded distant and faint to her own ears.
“This isn't a good time,” said a dark-haired woman in a lemon yellow smock. “Dr. Gibson was just about toâ”
“How's Blue?” Sophie's lips were pursed, her face somber.
Casie shook her head, took another stumbling step into the room. “Sophie.” She touched the girl's hair and felt her own throat tighten. “You scared me half to death.”
Sophie's brows lowered even farther. “I'm fine. How'sâ”
“I'm so sorry,” Casie said and pushed a stray strand of glossy hair behind the girl's ear. “I should have stayed with you.”
Sophie's shoulders dropped a little. She exhaled. “I'm fine,” she said again. “How's Blue?”
“Blue?” Casie laughed. Her head felt light with relief. She sat down on the bed and reached for the girl's hand. “I don't think this is the time to worry about Blue.”
“But he's fine, right?”
“I'm sure he is.”
“What do you mean, you're sure?”
“I haven't been home yet. I came rightâ”
“You haven't been home? How long have I been here? Whatâ” she began and sat up abruptly, but the woman in the white smock put a hand on her shoulder.
“Relax, honey. We need you to just take it easy for a while.”
She pushed off her hand. “How can I relax whenâ”
“The colt's fine.”
Casie turned toward the door just as Colton stepped past Bradley. His boots were dirty, his jacket frayed, but there was something about his presence that seemed to release the aching knot in her chest. “He was a little disappointed that you weren't there to give him his breakfast.” He smiled down at her, dark eyes gleaming. “I know Case is a slave driver, kid, but if you needed to sleep in, you should have just said so.”
“We really can't allow this many people in the room,” said the dark-haired nurse.
“I'm a doctor,” Bradley said.
“Sophie! Soph!” Philip Jaegar came through the door like a storm trooper, face pale, perfect hair tousled. “Thank God you're all right.”
Casie hurried to her feet to make way, but Sophie held her hand just a second longer before relinquishing it for her father's. An IV pierced her lightly tanned skin.
“My God, Soph, you scared me out of my mind. What happened?” he asked.
Sophie shook her head. For the first time since they'd met, her makeup was imperfect. “It's no big deal. I was working with the grullo andâ” She shrugged and scrunched her face. “I guess things are a little blurry.”
“Grullo?” Jaegar lowered his brows and glanced at Casie. “What's she talking about? What happened?”
Bradley scowled at him. “Ms. Carmichael has nothing to say until her counselâ”
“She was working with one of the colts,” Casie said.
“Colts . . .” Jaegar shook his head. “You didn't have her handling those wildâ”
“Don't say any more,” Bradley warned.
“I shouldn't have left her alone,” Casie admitted.
“She was unsupervised?” Jaegar said. “With an untrained animal?”
“
I
was training him,” Sophie said.
“I'm sorry,” Casie said again.
“Sorry! Are you crazy?” Jaegar asked. “She's just a kid. Did you think I was paying you so she could do your work for you?” He turned to face her full on, but Colton stepped between them.
“Settle down,” he said. His voice was very low. It rumbled comfortingly in the sizzling tension. “Let's just simmer down a little.”
“Who the hell are you?” The charming Philip Jaegar was long gone. The worried father had arrived at last.
“I'm Colt Dickenson,” he said and offered his hand. Jaegar stared at it a second, but good manners finally won out, and with their return his face softened a little. Colt's lips curved up a little. “So you're Sophie's dad.”
“Yes, I . . .
Who
are you?”
Colt smiled that slow grin of his. “Just a friend of the family. Your girl's got a way with horses.” He gave his head a regretful shake and stuck his left hand in the front pocket of his jeans. “I shoulda never left those animals at the Lazy. I was going to pick 'em up, take 'em home, but when I saw your daughter with that colt . . .” He shrugged.
“They're
your
horses?”
“Yeah.” Colt nodded. “I was hauling them up to Canada.” He glanced around at the faces, but the expressions were blank, devoid of understanding. “To slaughter,” he explained, expression solemn. “But Casie here . . .” He shook his head. “She couldn't bear to let 'em go. Guess she thought she could save them. She's always had a soft heart.”
There were murmurs from the nurses. Somebody cleared her throat.
“Guess your girl does, too,” Colt added. His gaze was rock steady, but Jaegar shook his head, still not taking it all in.
“What?” he asked.
“Your Sophie here,” Colt said. “You must have done a real good job with her because she wanted to help out. Wanted to save them animals even though they're . . .” He chuckled a little. “Well, they're not the prettiest broncs I've ever seen.”
“Well, I . . .” Jaegar glanced at his daughter. Even
she
looked surprised. “Yeah, she's a good kid. Always has been.” He looked befuddled, as if they might have been talking about someone else, but in a moment reality seemed to settle back in. “You were responsible for her well-being,” he said, looking at Casie.
“I know,” she said. “I made a misâ”
“You can take this up with her attorney,” Bradley said. Standing very rigid, he curled a hand around her arm and tugged her back a step.
“You bet I will,” Jaegar said. “As soon as we get back home. I'll be callingâ”
“I'm not going back,” Sophie said.
The world went quiet. Every eye in the room turned toward her.
“What'd you say, honey?” Jaegar's voice was soft.
“I said I'm not going home.”
“Listen, sweetheart, I'm sure you're a little confused right now, but you'll feel better once you're in your ownâ”
“I'm going back to the Lazy.”
Jaegar blinked and scowled. “You don't have to do that, Soph. I want you with me. And Amber does, too. She said so.”
Sophie stared at him for several seconds. To his credit, he only fidgeted a little.
“Maybe,” she said. “But the colt needs me.” She glanced at Casie. “I want to go back to the ranch . . . if you'll take me.”
C
HAPTER
29
“S
o she's okay?” Emily glanced from Casie to Brad. The girl looked pale and unusually fragile. From worry? From stomach troubles? It was hard to tell with Em.
“I hope so,” Casie said.
“They'll run some more tests,” Brad said. “If they're smart, they'll do another MRI and continue to monitor her intercranial pressure, but I wouldn't want to put money on the brains of these backwoods butchers.”
Casie felt her hackles rise a little, though she didn't know why. It wasn't as if it was her job to defend her local medical professionals.
“Then what?” Emily asked.
“I don't know, Em,” Casie said. “She wants to come back here, butâ” She shrugged.
“But we can't afford the liability,” Bradley said, looking at Casie. “You dodged a bullet once. Don't expect to be so lucky again.”
“She wants to come back?” Emily raised her brows. “The girl's got bigger . . .” She grinned. “. . . more backbone than I thought.”
“Next thing you know, she'll be challenging you for rights to the garden,” Casie said.
“She's not touching my tomatoes,” Emily warned.
Casie chuckled. The house was quiet and comforting, filled with the scents of cinnamon and hope. “Have you heard anything from Ty?”
Emily shook her head, dreads dancing. “Nothing. Has anyone found Puke?”
“Not that I know of.”
“What's this?” Bradley asked.
Dammit. “Tyler,” Casie said. She was tired and it wasn't noon yet. There were chores to be done even though Colt had fed the livestock and done dawn check. She'd meant to thank him for that but he'd disappeared before she'd gotten a chance. “He's the one that took Sophie to the hospital.”
“The scruffy-looking kid I met last time I was here? He's not old enough to drive.”
“Farm kids can get a license at fourteen.” The fact was, she didn't know how old he was or if he had such a license. But she hoped Bradley wouldn't think to ask about that.
“Is he evenâ” he began, but changed his course midstream. “Wait a minute. Are you saying he stole your truck?”
She stared at him. Was he serious? “I'm saying he saved Sophie's life,” she said.
“How do you know that?”
“What?”
“You weren't here, right? There's something shifty about him. I could see that right away. Maybe he was the one who struck her.”
Casie glanced at Emily, strangely embarrassed by the accusation, and certain the girl would come to his defense, but she remained silent.
“He didn't,” Casie said, but he ignored her.
“Maybe he hit her, knew he was going to be in a pile of trouble, and took off.”
“He would never do that.”
“He's not really a felon,” Emily said.
Casie's stomach twisted. Brad turned silently toward Em.
“I mean, yeah, he had to go to court for punching that kid, but Sophie shouldn't have called him a felon.”
Casie opened her mouth to voice an objection, but Bradley spoke first. “He's had violent episodes in the past?”
“It was no big deal,” Emily said. “The other kidâ”
“I don't care what the other kid did,” Brad said, turning abruptly toward Casie. “What are you thinking, allowing him on our property?”
“
Our
property?” Casie said.
Bradley looked down his nose at her. “I thought we were in this together,” he said.
“Yeah, me too,” she said, and grabbing his keys from the counter, strode out the door.
Â
It only took a few minutes to reach the Robertses' farm. But one glance around the yard assured her that Puke was not there.
The slam of Bradley's car door seemed unearthly loud as she stepped alone into the world. The gravel crunched under her feet as she made her way toward the Robertses' front door.
“What do you want?” The deep timbre of the voice startled her.
She jerked to the right. Gilbert Roberts had gained several pounds and a few gray hairs since they'd last met, but she recognized him.
She steadied herself. “I'm Casie Carmichael,” she said and turned fully toward him.
“I know who you are.”
She cleared her throat. “I came by to see Ty.”
“You're the reason he don't get his chores done around here no more.”
She didn't know where to begin. Didn't know how much Ty's father knew. “I haven't seen him around for a while. I just wanted to make sure he was okay.”
He made a derisive sound through his nose. “Kinda hard getting the work done without that child labor, ain't it?”
She smiled, hoping to hell it was a joke. But if it was, he was dynamite at keeping a straight face. She refrained from wiping her palms on her jeans. “I hope you don't mind that he's been helping me out some.”
He let his gaze slip down her body for a moment. “I guess I can see why he'd rather do your chores than mine.”
The hair lifted eerily at the nape of her neck, but she refused to back away. “I, umm . . . Do you know where he is?”
The front door opened. A woman stepped out. She was tall and slim with worried eyes and a perfect peaches-and-cream complexion. “Ms. Carmichael . . .” She hurried forward to shake Casie's hand. Her fingers trembled when they met. “I'm Jessica Roberts. Are you here about our Tyler?”
“Yes.” Relief flooded her. She'd rarely been comfortable alone with men. But no one in her right mind would be comfortable with the grunter there. “Do you know where he is?”
“No. No, I don't. We haven't seen him since yesterday afternoon.” She shifted a worried glance toward her husband. “Boys, what can you do?” She smiled but the expression was strained. “I was hoping he'd just stayed at your place. Thought maybe you needed some help overnight or something.”
Casie clenched her fists, tried to figure out what to say next. “There's been . . .We had a little trouble at . . . Ty's fine.” She hurried to correct herself. “I mean, he was fine when I saw him yesterday. It's Sophie who's in trouble.”
“Who?”
“Sophie.” Her face twitched with the strain of trying to act reasonable, as if everything was okay, as if the sky wasn't falling. “She's kind of a guest of mine.”
“And you think the boy got her in trouble?” Gil's voice was little more than a growl.
“No! No.” Holy Hannah. Maybe she shouldn't have come alone. Maybe she shouldn't have come at all. “In fact, he saved her life.”
“What?” Jessica's tone was breathy.
“When she was knocked unconscious.”
Something flickered in Jessica's eyes. Was it fear? Gil's gaze got darker.
“We think she was kicked by a horse.” Casie flickered her gaze from one to the other, trying to figure them out. “Ty drove her to the hospital.”
“Tyler did?” Jessica put a hand to her chest.
“Drove her in what?” Gil asked.
“My truck.”
He lowered his brows. The anger burned a little deeper in his stony brown eyes.
“He just did it to save her,” Casie said, trying to assess the situation, trying to forestall any problems. “And I said he could use it anytime.” She hurried that lie in as quickly as she could, but Gil only snorted.
“And I suppose you think you got the right to let my boy drive illegal?”
“I thought . . .” God help her. “Doesn't he have a farm permit?”
“Did he tell you he did?” There was distrust in his voice, contempt in his eyes, ready at a moment's notice to find fault.
Casie felt the slow flame of anger flicker to life in her chest. “He didn't do anything wrong,” she said quietly.
“Then why are you here?”
“I just wanted to make sure he was all right.”
“That your car?” Gil asked.
She shifted her gaze toward Brad's Pontiac. “What?”
“It's got Minnesota plates.”
“It's my . . .” Her mind was tumbling with a dozen uncertainties. Where were they going with this conversation? And who
was
Bradley to her? “It's my fiancé's.”
“Something wrong with your old man's truck?”
Tension cranked up a little tighter. She straightened her back, wishing she'd never come here, wishing she could put it all behind her. “Ty didn't steal the truck, if that's what you're thinking.”
“It ain't what I'm thinking that matters,” he said. “It's what you're thinking that counts,” he said and took a step toward her.
It took all the strength she had to stand her ground. Even more to make a joke. “Half the time I wish someone
would
steal it.”
“And you think you finally got lucky, huh? Got it insured. Is that it?”
“No,” she said and gave up on any hope of salvaging the conversation. “That's not it.” A tremble shivered through her, but she raised her chin and narrowed her eyes. “I just wanted to make sure he's okay.”
The yard went quiet. She held his gaze. “Just call me, will you? When he comes home?”
“Of course we will,” Jessica said. Casie shifted her gaze to the other woman. “Of course.” There were tears in her eyes. “And you call us if you see him first.”
Casie got into the car, turned the key, and drove carefully out of the yard, ignoring the fact that her hands were shaking on the wheel. Perhaps she should go straight home. Maybe Ty had already shown up there. But she wasn't ready to see Bradley yet, and maybe if she visited some of her own adolescent haunts, she would catch a glimpse of Puke.
But the springs where she had sometimes swum as a girl were vacant. Puke was conspicuously absent at the Pony Espresso, and driving through St. Luke's extensive parking lot yielded nothing.
Â
Two hours later, Casie's head felt a little clearer despite the fact that her search had yielded nothing. The Lazy felt different with Bradley on the property, as if it wasn't quite her place anymore. But she shook off the feeling. Stepping into the tiny foyer, she toed off her boots and padded barefoot inside. No one was in the kitchen, but in a moment Emily emerged from the stairwell.
“Did you find him?” Her cheeks looked flushed; her eyes were swollen.
“No, but I'm sure he's okay.” Casie glanced upstairs, wondering about Brad.
“Has anyone else seen him?” Em said. “Did you ask around?”
“Some, but I don't really know where he hangs out.”
She scowled, looking agitated and unhappy. “He usually stays pretty close to home. But sometimes he plays a little football by the school.”
“Maybe you should have come with me,” Casie said.
“Yeah,” Em agreed and half glanced up the stairs. “Yeah, maybe I should have.”
Casie looked up, too. “Is everything all right?”
“Yeah. Sure. I'm just . . . worried about Ty, that's all.”
“I'm sure he'll show up soon,” Casie said, but the truth was, she wasn't sure of anything.
Â
Evening chores came and went without Ty making an appearance.
Supper was a painful affair. Bradley barely touched the soup they had concocted out of last year's root vegetables. Conversation was stilted and stiff.
“I'll take the cattle checks tonight,” Casie said as Emily began to clear the table.
Emily made a halfhearted attempt to argue, but she was easy to dissuade.
“And don't worry about the dishes,” Casie added.
“Maybe I'll just do them later. After I lie down for a while.” Em turned to head up the stairs.
Casie watched her go, then picked up her dishes and carried them to the sink. Bradley rose, too. She sent him a glance.
“Is she all right, do you think?”
“What?” He seemed preoccupied.
“Emily. I worry about her. She's been having stomach troubles for weeks. Still, she's usually full of energy. Now she seems so . . . distracted.”
“Didn't you say she and the boy were friends?”
“Yeah. They
are
friends,” she said and felt anger rise in her again. “What were you thinking, raising suspicions about him?”