Chapter 15
De Lorean held Chelsea to his chest in a crushing grip, his head bent close to her ear. "He's surrounded, you know. But you'd already guessed, that, hadn't you? That's why you're trying so hard to keep quiet. Isn't it, Chelsea Brennan? That's why you've bitten your lip until it bleeds, because you know the second he steps into the open he's a dead man. He's going to join all the others who've died here in this canyon down through the ages. The Comanche say it's haunted, you know. They say the spirits of the murdered still linger here."
He'd twisted her arm behind her back, trying to make her cry out. Trying to make her scream, so Garrett would step out of the sheltering rocks. And she'd clenched her teeth, refusing to make a sound. Until she'd felt the popping of her shoulder, and her cry had been wrenched from her unwilling lips.
Garrett lunged from the cover of the boulders and dashed across an open expanse, and she would have shouted a warning if de Lorean's hand hadn't been clamped firmly over her mouth. His paw covered her nose, as well, and she couldn't draw a breath. But the panic of not being able to breathe paled beside her fear for Garrett. She kept her gaze on him as he ran, fully expecting to see him cut down at any second. But somehow?somehow he made it. He dived behind another cluster of boulders, this one not bathed in white light as the other had been.
De Lorean's hand on her mouth eased its pressure, and she dragged a gulp of air into her lungs, then released it slowly in relief. She felt de Lorean's head moving as he scanned the ledge above, and he cursed in hot whispers that made her skin crawl. Why hadn't his men fired at Garrett? It was obvious he'd expected them to.
Her shoulder screamed, though the pressure on it had eased. Her eyes watered, making it even harder to see through the inky darkness to where Garrett now crouched.
De Lorean seemed to compose himself. He straightened a little, turning slightly so her body still remained directly between him and the boulders sheltering Garrett. A human shield, she thought, and hoped that wouldn't stop Garrett from shooting. He ought to shoot right through her to get this bastard.
But Garrett wouldn't. He was no more like her father than she was. She accepted that knowledge slowly, with dawning wonder, though she guessed she'd known it all along. Garrett was nothing like her father. Nothing like de Lorean. Nothing like any other man she'd ever known. She'd thought she could never love a man because of all she'd witnessed of that gender. But she'd been wrong.
"Very impressive, Brand," De Lorean called, not so loudly as before since Garrett was closer. "But I didn't see my son cradled in your arms as you sprinted past. And unless I see him soon, Miss Brennan is going to join her sister in death."
Garrett said nothing, didn't make a sound. Chelsea was glad. No use in his giving those killers above anything to shoot at-not even the sound of his voice.
Then de Lorean wrenched her already throbbing arm still higher behind her back. She hadn't been expecting that, and she cried out again, but quickly bit down on the scream. Damn! The fingers of her right hand were within reach of her left ear, and they were tingling and slowly going numb. Sweat popped out on her face, trickling into her eyes, and pain made her breathing quick and shallow. It hurt! The entire right-half of her torso was on fire. Even drawing too deep a breath brought more intense pain.
De Lorean gave one more tug, and dizziness swamped her. Her stomach convulsed, and her inability to move with the spasm only resulted in more agony. She thought she was going to vomit soon.
"You'll never see your son unless you let her go. Now, de Lorean! Let her go!"
So he could see her now. She realized that, and as she did, she lifted her head and straightened up as much as her captor would allow and tried to force her facial muscles to relax. She didn't want to look as if she was suffering. She didn't want to do anything to help the lowlife who held her.
"You didn't bring him, did you, Brand?" de Lorean observed flatly. "I should have known better than to trust you."
"De Lorean-"
"Pity. Now I'll have to kill you both. I, you see, am a man of my word." He lifted his gun to the side of Chelsea's head. She felt the cold steel, the circular shape of the barrel pressing tight to her scalp.
"No!" Garrett leaped out of his hiding place and ran forward.
In slow motion, it seemed, de Lorean's gun swung toward him, away from Chelsea, and his other arm fell away from her, as well. Leaving her free to sink to her knees in agony, or to run for her life. And in the split second she had to decide which to do, she knew that had been Garrett's intention all along. To distract de Lorean and give her the chance to escape. To take the violence that was directed at her, to take it himself in her place.
Just the way her mother had done.
Rage filled her and escaped in the form of a tortured cry that sounded only half-human as it split the night and echoed from the canyon walls.
Chelsea hurled herself at de Lorean while her battle cry still floated skyward, and at the instant she hit him, the gun he held spit fire and death. An earsplitting explosion was followed by the acrid scent of sulfur. Garrett jerked backward, his eyes wide, then closing as he staggered, teetered and fell like a giant redwood. Chelsea screamed, clinging to de Lorean's back, kicking and clawing him with renewed vigor. De Lorean wrenched her free and slammed her to the ground. She landed on her wounded shoulder, the wind knocked out of her, and fought for breath even as she scrambled to her feet again. De Lorean walked forward slowly until he stood right over Garrett's big, prostrate form.
"Where is my son, you bastard!"
But Garrett didn't answer.
"Die, then," the monster said, and he pointed the barrel downward.
She couldn't get there in time. She couldn't?
Two things happened at once. A knife came flipping through the dark, and a lasso sailed into view. The blade embedded itself in de Lorean's right arm, and he screamed aloud even as the lasso settled around him and was pulled tight. His gun fell and landed on Garrett's chest, and Chelsea wondered for a moment if the spirits said to haunt this place had come to Garrett's aid.
Then with a jerk of that spectral rope, the criminal was yanked right off his feet. He landed with a thud and a grunt. And as Chelsea looked on, shocked, forms took shape in the darkness. She only realized they were actual human beings when she heard a voice she recognized.
And then it didn't matter. She ran forward to where Garrett had fallen, and flung herself on him, heedless of the raw pain slicing her shoulder to ribbons. The tears she cried dampened his face. But there was more on his face than just her tears. Blood. Lots of blood. So much she couldn't even see his features. God, he'd been shot in the head. Chelsea went cold all over as nightmarish memories swamped her. For an instant she was a frightened little girl again, clinging to the lifeless body of her mother. That same sickening horror engulfed her now as she realized that her worst fears had come true. Garrett had stepped in to protect her, just as her mother had. And just as her mother had, he'd?.
"No," she whispered. She gripped his shoulders, shaking him. "No, Garrett. Not this time. Not you, too!"
A warm hand closed on her shoulder. "Easy, Chelsea," Wes said softly, bending over her, touching his brother with his other hand. "He's still alive."
Chelsea collapsed on Garrett's chest, sliding her arms beneath him and holding him to her as she sobbed in a terrifying mixture of relief and fear. "Please, Garrett. Please be all right. Just open your eyes and tell me you're all right."
But he didn't. And it took several pairs of hands to pull her away from his still body so his brothers could get close enough to inspect the damage, stanch the blood flow, then lift him into de Lorean's Jeep.
Jessi was there, climbing into the back with Garrett. And Lash, who told her he could help. Wes firmly guided Chelsea to the passenger seat, though she'd wanted to climb into the back with Garrett. Then Wes went to the driver's side and started the vehicle.
He shouted at his brothers through the open window. "Hog-tie that bastard and ge
t him into town. Lock him up and notify the Rangers. If I stick around here, I'm liable to kill him. Leave the others. One's dead, and the rest will keep. They aren't going anywhere."
"Don't worry, Wes, we can handle them. Take care of Garrett," Elliot replied, sounding older than he ever had.
And then the Jeep was bounding over the trackless ground.
"?hospital," Jessi was whispering in the back.
"Moving him any more than we have to is liable to kill him, Jes," Lash argued gently. "We can't even see how bad the damage is! Let's get him to the house and call for help."
Chelsea turned in her seat, reaching over it to lay a hand on Garrett's face. She had to touch him, to cling to him, as if doing so could somehow keep him from leaving her. She closed her eyes, a feeling of dread such as she'd never known settling in the pit of her stomach. She couldn't live with another death on her conscience. She simply couldn't. And she found she didn't really want to. Not without Garrett.
Something was pressed into her free hand, and she glanced down to see a cellular phone.
"Call for help, Chelsea," Wes instructed. "Tell them to meet us at the ranch."
She blinked up at the hoarse tone of Wes's voice and saw unashamed tears glistening on his dark lashes.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Sorry?" He shook his head and reached for her, stroking, the hair away from her face with a gentleness that surprised her. "Hell, Chelsea, he'd have been dead for sure if it hadn't been for you. De Lorean had him point-blank when you jumped on him. You saved my brother's life. I'm not gonna forget that any time soon. None of us are."
"B-but?if it wasn't for me, he wouldn't be?he shouldn't have?why didn't he just?." Her throat closed then, making it impossible to speak.
"Because it isn't in him, that's why."
Wes's hand touched her good shoulder, squeezed a little. It reminded her of the way she might have touched her own sister once upon a time. A reassuring shoulder squeeze-sometimes it worked wonders.
"Now stop your blubbering and make the call, okay?" He sniffed and took his hand away to knuckle his own eyes dry.
Garrett's head seemed to be engulfed in a cloud of pain. The waves of throbbing encompassed his skull and even reached down into the base of his neck. He couldn't pin-point the epicenter from which the waves emanated. It hurt everywhere. And his brain didn't seem to be functioning on all eight cylinders. Because it was a full minute before he heard the soft crying, and he still wasn't sure where it was coming from. And it was still longer before he smelled the combination antiseptic-and-mothball aroma that seemed to cling to Doc wherever he went, or felt a pair of old, leathery hands pressing against his head and causing even more pain.
It took even longer for him to think to open his eyes, and when he did, it took a while for his eyes to get the message.
"He was lucky," Doc was saying in his thick Spanish accent. "The bullet, it only grazed him. Lots of blood, but little damage."
"Guess we can call off the medevac chopper," said a voice that sounded an awful lot like his brother Ben.
"Hell, I can still use it. I think that jerk broke my jaw," said another, that sounded an awful lot like his brother Adam.
"So maybe you'll learn to duck when some Neanderthal takes a swing at you." Ah, now that voice made more sense. Wes.
"Now, Se?orita Brennan," Doc said, "you will let me take a look at that shoulder of yours. And I will not take no for an answer this time."
"But, Doctor, he's still unconscious." Ah, that was Chelsea's voice. The one he'd been waiting to hear. He sighed inwardly in relief. "Surely if it's only a graze and not serious, he should be awake by now."
Gee, she sounded awfully worried about him. He tried to smile at the thought, but wasn't sure if his facial muscles responded or not.
"That bullet hit him like a hammer, Chelsea," Jessi said softly. "He probably has a concussion, but-"
"But nothing. I want him in a hospital! I want him x-rayed and CAT scanned and-"
"Garrett, he will be fine," Doc said. "His head is harder than the brick."
"You're hurt, Chelsea," Jessi coaxed. "Let Doc have a look at you."
That was, Jessi, all right. Always?. Wait a minute. Hurt? Chelsea was hurt?
Garrett's eyes opened wide, and he found it wasn't quite the struggle it had been before. He fought to bring the room into focus. Not his room. The living room. He was at home at the ranch, sprawled on the couch like a sack of feed.
Wetness coated his palm, and he shifted his focus to see ol' Blue licking his hand. The dog looked back at him and whined.
"Garrett?" Chelsea dropped to her knees right in front of him. He was relieved. Shifting his eyes around looking for her was making him dizzy. "Garrett, you're awake."
Tear tracks marred her beautiful face, and her hair was even wilder than usual. Her swollen, puffy eyes searched his face, and she lifted one hand to his cheek. Her other arm hung oddly. She sort of clutched it against her side. And her shoulder looked funny.
"You?." He licked his lips, swallowed hard and tried again. "You hurt?"
"No. I wrenched my arm a little, but it's fine. No big deal."
He didn't think he believed her. But he had to know everything. "Bubba?" he asked when his painful scan of the room didn't produce any signs of the child.
"Marisella just arrived with him, Garrett. He's upstairs napping. She's watching over him. He's fine. Just fine."
"De Lorean?" Garrett asked, angry that it took so much work to make his lips move.
"In jail where he belongs," Wes said. "And you can have all the time you want with your girlfriend here, big brother, but not until Doc takes a look at that shoulder of hers. And that's an order."
Garrett frowned at her, gave her a nod, or tried to. "Go." Reluctantly, Chelsea took her hand away from Garrett's face and rose. Doc led her away, and Garrett tried to focus on Wes again, but found it difficult. Things were blurry and tough to look at for long. "Thought I heard the boys. Adam and Ben?."
"That's because we're here," Adam said, and took Chelsea's former position beside the couch. "You didn't really think Jessi and Elliot would follow orders, did you?"
"And lucky for you they didn't, you big lug," Ben added, leaning over the couch from behind so that his shaggy blond hair hung forward. "Don't tell me you didn't know there were snipers lining that ridge."
Garrett smiled, but it felt as if only one side of his mouth was working. "Wondered?why they didn't?pick me off."
"'Cause we picked them off first," Ben told him. "And don't think baby sis didn't get in on the act. She made at least one guy sorry he messed with this family."
"Yeah," Jessi said from somewhere beyond Garrett's range of vision. "Might say I Branded him."
Laughter surrounded him. Garrett relaxed a little because that sound, his sister and his brothers laughing in this living room, told him more than anything else ever could that everything was really all right. Finally all right.
"That's it, Garrett," Ben said, his voice softening. "You go on back to sleep. Just don't expect me to carry you up to your room. A hernia, I don't need."
Another round of laughter, punctuated by a happy whine from Blue and the sound of Ethan's gurgles as Marisella brought him down the stairs. He heard Chelsea speaking softly with Doc in the background. The kitchen, maybe. She sounded just fine. And he fell into a contented sleep.
"Good," she said. "You're awake."
He blinked, noting first that Chelsea wore a sling on her arm, and then that she was freshly showered and dressed, and that her hair was tamed down a bit. He slanted his gaze toward the window. Late morning at the earliest. Gosh, how long had he slept?
"Chelsea?." He stopped himself, noticing as he sat up that there was a suitcase on the floor beside her chair. His heart hurt worse than his head. And that was saying something.
"I wanted to talk to you before I left. I've been waiting for hours."
She'd been crying. Not violently or hysterically like yest
erday. But the signs were there. Her eyes started swimming again, even as he watched her.
"That's good, because I want to talk to you, too. I want to tell you-"
"Wait." She held up her good hand, and he fell silent. She bit her lip, looked at the ceiling, took a deep breath. "Just let me get this out, okay?"
"Okay." He leaned back on his pillows.
"I need?." She cleared her throat and met his eyes again. "I need to thank you, Garrett."
"I'm the sheriff, Chelsea. It's my job to rescue-"
"No, not for that."
He frowned, but waited.
"Garrett, before I met you I thought every man I ever met would turn out to be just like my father. You showed me?how wrong I was about that."
"That's good to know."
"I was angry at first that all that?that courting you did was only an act. Just a ploy to keep me and Ethan here where we were safe. But even so-"
"Now hold on a minute!"
"Please, will you just let me finish?"
He stared at her, jaw gaping, and decided it could wait. Maybe. At least until she'd let him get a word in edge-wise. He lifted his hand, palm up, to tell her to go on.
She sighed, pushing her good hand through her hair. She rose from her chair and paced the room. "There's more. I also never thought I could trust a man enough to?enough to be with him?the way we were the other night. But you showed me that I could."
Silence wouldn't cut it anymore. "Chelsea, you tried to make me believe it didn't mean anything. But I was your first, wasn't I?"
She nodded. "I lied. It meant something. But you really have to be quiet, Garrett, or I'm never going to get to the point here."
"I'm trying." He smiled at her, and she closed her eyes as if in pain. "Is it your arm?" he asked, suddenly concerned.
"No. The arm is fine, just a dislocated shoulder. Doc gave me something for the pain."
"Then why do you look like you're still hurting?"
She opened her eyes. "Quiet."
"I'm quiet. Go on."
She cleared her throat, then turned her back to him, pretending to look out the window. "I didn't think I could ever love a man," she said softly.
"Dammit, Chelsea, it doesn't matter." He flung back the covers and swung his feet to the floor and, gripping the arm of the couch, stood up. "It's selfish of me to ask you to. I don't care, Chelsea Brennan." He went up behind her, gripped her good shoulder and bent his head low, speaking soft and close to her ear. "I don't care if you can't love me the way I love you. I'll take whatever you can give and count myself lucky to have it, honey. If only you'll stay."
Chelsea went still. It was as if she'd frozen in place. "I thought," she whispered, still not turning to face him, "that I asked you to keep quiet and let me finish." Her voice wavered, and Garrett figured it was damned near time to give up hope. She was gonna shoot him down here and now.
"Sorry," he told her, giving her shoulder one last squeeze. "I had to get it said."
"I was trying to tell you, Garrett, that I never thought I could love a man." She turned very slowly, and when she looked up into his eyes, hers were brimming with tears. A shaky smile toyed with her lips. "But you proved me wrong once again. Because I do. I love you, Garrett Ethan Brand."
The grin that split his face must have been a mile wide. Sure as hell felt like it was.
"Hot damn! You do?"
She nodded.
"Then where the heck are you going?"
"To bury my sister."
"But you're coming back."
"If you?want me to."
"If I-hell, woman, I want you to wait for me to come along with you. I don't you want you away from me ever again. I want?." Garrett kissed her like he'd never stop. But he did stop. Because he wasn't finished talking yet. There was one more thing that needed to be said. He lifted his head, clasped her hand in his and lowered himself down on one knee. "You belong here, Chelsea. Do you know that yet? You're good for this family, and I think the Brands are good for you, too. I want?I want you to marry me, Chelsea. I want you to stay right here on the Texas Brand as my wife, and I want Bubba to be my boy. I'll love the two of you like nobody else ever could. I'll make you happy. I promise you that."
She smiled down at him as her tears spilled over. "I'm gonna hold you to that promise, Garrett. Forever."
"Forever," he echoed, and then he pulled her into his arms.
-THE END-
Click here to read an excerpt from the second book in the Texas Brands,
The Baddest Virgin in Texas.
A Brand of Christmas Page 16