by Diana Palmer
The old man sighed. “That little girl is my whole life, Tank,” he said heavily. “Don’t let them hurt her.”
“You know I won’t. Take it easy. I’ll see you soon.”
“You tell her…I love her.”
“I’ll do that, too.”
He hung up. Odd, the way Rafe sounded. It was disturbing. But at the moment, Bodie was the more urgent problem.
“You home?” Cane asked as he came into the room. He blinked. Tank was livid. “What’s going on?”
“Bodie’s selling herself to Will Jones for the rent payment,” he said bluntly. “I hear she asked you for a loan and you sent her packing, so she’s doing what she has to do to keep Will from throwing her grandfather out on the street.”
“Good God Almighty!” Cane exploded. “She never said anything about that!”
Tank glared at him. “Maybe she figured you were smart enough to know that she wouldn’t ask anyone for money if she wasn’t desperate.”
“She has a job near her college…”
“It’s part-time and she doesn’t work there except during school. She tried to get a job around here, even cleaning out barns, and there was nothing available. Will’s threatened to do something to the house so he can evict them. They’d have to live on the street, and her grandfather’s in bad shape. He has heart failure and all sorts of medicine that she can’t afford, either. Will even charged her for a tree she cut down on her mother’s place for Christmas!”
Cane felt two inches high. He’d never get over this if she was assaulted by Will and his stupid friend, trying to get enough money to stay afloat. Why hadn’t he asked her what she needed the money for? Probably, he thought, because he’d felt so guilty at making advances to her. She was very young. But that was no excuse to treat her the way he’d treated her.
“Where are you going?” Cane asked as Tank started out of the house.
“To save Bodie.”
“I’m going with you,” Cane said, and followed him out.
* * *
WHEN THEY GOT TO Will Jones’s house, all the lights were on inside. Tank pounded on the front door.
“Just a minute!” Will raged.
Tank pounded again.
Will came to the door, flushed and disconcerted. “Mr. Kirk?” he faltered.
“Invite us in. That way you won’t have so many fractures to explain,” Cane said, edging in front of his brother.
“But, uh, it’s not convenient…”
Cane shouldered in past him. On the sofa, a young man with his shirt unbuttoned was getting up. Bodie was sitting there, white-faced and disheveled, with her dress pulled off one shoulder and her hair ruffled. She was crying.
“Dear God,” Cane whispered. He went to her and started to pull her up. She winced and jerked away from his hand, shivering. Cane froze, sick to his stomach. “Tank!”
Dalton went around him, picked Bodie up in his arms and carried her to the door. He stopped, staring coldly at Will. “There may be charges pending. If I were you, I’d get a good lawyer.”
Cane followed close behind him. As they started out the door, he glanced at the side table. There was a laptop computer with a camera hooked up to it. On the screen was Bodie, being kissed by Larry, with her shoulder exposed. He almost exploded with anger. Without even thinking, he brushed against the table with his hip and accidentally, on purpose, pushed it onto the floor. It landed with a crash.
“You broke my computer! I’ll sue you!” Will raged as he picked it up.
“Accident. So sorry, but I’ll gladly replace it,” Cane told him icily. “I’ll have my attorney contact you. And the sheriff.”
“Wait!” Will was flustered, almost shaking. “Wait, we can work this out! She came here voluntarily, you just ask her!”
“What about her rent?” Cane asked coldly.
“What rent?” Will said unsteadily. “I mean, it’s paid up for two months. She don’t owe me anything. Not anything. Not nothing. I’ll swear to it!”
“You’ll need to,” Cane told him. He turned, his black eyes on Bodie’s averted face. “Let’s go.”
He held the door open for Tank. Bodie was sobbing. Cane had never felt so low in his whole life.
Tank put her beside him, with Cane on the other side, and he drove her back to her grandfather’s house. But trouble was waiting.
When he got out to open the door and try to explain things to Rafe, he found the old man lying on the floor in the living room. He was icy cold.
Tank came back out, hesitating as he opened the door. “No, don’t get out, Bodie,” he said gently. “Oh, God, there’s no nice way to say this. Your grandfather’s…gone. He’s gone, baby. I’m so sorry!”
“Gone? You mean he went out…?” She was so shocked that words weren’t making sense. “You mean, my granddaddy…is dead, Tank?” she whispered. “He’s dead?”
Tank nodded. “I’ll call the EMTs and the sheriff and stay here with him until they get here. You go home with Cane. You can stay with us until…we get things sorted out.”
“He’s dead. He’s dead.” She was white. She started shaking. Her whole life had fallen apart in the past few minutes. She felt empty and numb inside.
“I’ll take you home,” Cane said gently. He would have comforted her, but she slid away from him as he got behind the wheel and started the truck. She acted as if she couldn’t bear to even look at him. He didn’t blame her. Her life had been shattered.
* * *
CANE TOOK BODIE HOME TO the ranch, opened the door and hated having only one arm because he couldn’t just pick her up and carry her inside and hold her.
She got out of the truck, her head bowed and looking so defeated that it made him sick. He wanted to go back and beat the ever loving hell out of Will Jones and his friend.
Mavie came out onto the porch and hugged Bodie close, rocking her as she cried. “What happened?” she asked Cane.
“Her grandfather’s dead,” he said, leaving out the rest for now.
“Oh, you poor baby. Come on. Let’s get you inside and upstairs to bed. I’ll loan you some nightclothes, okay?”
“Thanks, Mavie,” Bodie choked out. “It’s just, it was so sudden! He said he had indigestion, that it was just a stomachache. I’d never have left him…!”
“It wouldn’t have made any difference, Bolinda,” Cane said gently. “It was probably instantaneous. My grandfather died like that. He just fell down. It was over in seconds. I was standing right beside him and I couldn’t do a thing.”
She didn’t look at him. “Thanks,” she said weakly. “That helps, a little.”
“I’m sorry.” He bit off the words. “Really sorry.”
She knew he meant more than sorry for her grandfather dying, but she didn’t say anything. She just nodded.
Mavie helped her up to bed. Bodie was crying so hard that she could barely see where she was going. Behind her, down the stairs, she heard Cane cursing.
* * *
CANE WAS SICK AT HEART. He’d treated Bodie like a prostitute negotiating a night in a motel, and there was nothing, nothing, he could do to fix the heartache he’d created for her. She’d gone to her stepfather’s house and done things she’d never forget in an attempt to save her grandfather’s home. Now her grandfather was dead, and Bodie had to live with herself. It wasn’t going to be easy, not for a woman who had been totally innocent and a person of faith.
All that could have been avoided if Cane hadn’t been such a pain in the neck. He’d been smarting, still, from the rejection of that woman in the bar who’d only wanted his money. But damn it, he knew Bodie wasn’t like that! He knew she wasn’t the sort of woman to ask for money on a whim, or for something frivolous. He even knew her grandfather had heart trouble. It hadn’t occurred to him how bad her financial situation really was until now, when it was too late to do her any good.
He sat down heavily on the sofa. He was remembering that photograph on Will Jones’s computer, and the sight of Bodie’
s tragic white face, numb with tears. His eyes closed on a shudder. He hoped that computer’s hard drive wasn’t recoverable, after he’d crashed it onto the floor. At least Bodie would be saved whatever notoriety Will had planned. There was gossip that he had some covert porn website that he produced images for. Obviously he’d planned to use Bodie and his friend to provide him with more content. God only knew what he really had in mind. Bodie was so innocent that she probably didn’t realize just how far the man might have gone if Cane and Tank hadn’t shown up at his door.
He leaned back against the sofa with a sigh. It was a horrendous mess. Bodie was all alone now, without her grandfather, probably without even a place to live if Will had his way. He had legal title to the property. No doubt he’d toss everything Bodie owned that was still there....
He jerked out his cell phone and called his brother.
“Get a mover, quick,” he told Tank solemnly. “Will is bound to throw out Bodie’s few things if he gets the chance.”
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t get the chance,” Tank said coldly. “We’ll move the furniture out of the guest bedroom and put it in storage. We can put Bodie’s things there. I’ll make sure it’s all safely transported. The sheriff’s on his way. Cody Banks is a good friend of mine,” he added with a cold laugh. “I’ll tell him what Will’s been doing. I’m sure there’s some statute that will cover it, even if Bodie’s not underage.”
“Have him check out Will’s ISP,” he advised. “And see if he has a social networking page that feeds into his covert website.”
“I can do that, too. If he’s got even one photograph of an underage female on it, he’ll be arrested.”
“I wish we could make sure of that,” Cane said heavily. “It’s all my fault. All my fault. If I’d just thought before I spoke…”
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” Tank agreed.
“We’ll have to help her with the funeral arrangements,” he added. “She won’t have a clue. He was a veteran, so there will probably be a little money from the military to help, but I’m fairly certain that she won’t have a burial policy.”
“Actually she will,” Tank reminded him. “We bought a policy for Rafe when he worked for us, and I’ve kept it on automatic payments ever since.”
“Thank God.”
“Yes, because regardless of what you think of her, Bodie will turn her nose up at any offer of charity,” his brother said quietly. “She’s proud.”
“Rub it in.” Cane grimaced.
“I should,” Tank replied. “You’re my brother and I love you, but Bodie will have to live with what she did forever. We did get there in time to save her from anything really traumatic, but what happened is bad enough in itself. She’ll consider that what she did was sell herself for money, even if it was for a noble purpose. It won’t be easy for her to live that down. Especially,” he added angrily, “if Will starts any rumors to the effect that he has special photos of Bodie in a compromising position.”
“We could sue him.”
“What for, exactly?” Tank asked reasonably. “He can say that Bodie went over there and posed for pictures of her own free will and that she’s of age. And with reservations, that’s exactly what happened. She won’t lie, even to protect her own honor.”
“Damn.”
“Let me talk to the sheriff,” Tank replied. “No way is Jones getting away with this.”
“Rafe was worried sick about why she went over there,” Cane said. “I imagine she’ll think she helped him have that fatal heart attack, as well.” He sighed. “I wish Morie was home,” he added heavily. “Bodie needs her more than ever right now.”
“I’ll call Mal,” Tank said, alluding to their elder brother. “When he knows what’s happened, he’ll come home.”
“Good idea.”
“Meanwhile, I’ll handle this if you’ll call the funeral home and get the process started. We can take Bodie over there in the morning to go over the arrangements.”
“Rafe had a lot of friends,” Cane recalled. “It will be a full house for the services.”
“I agree.”
“Thanks,” Cane said after a minute. “For what you did.”
“Thank Darby,” Tank replied. “Bodie told him everything and made him swear he wouldn’t tell you. But he didn’t promise not to tell me.”
“She didn’t want me to know?” Cane faltered.
“Apparently she thought you hated her.”
“Dear God.” He swore softly.
“She’s naive, in the nicest sort of way,” Tank said. “She doesn’t even date anyone. She’s had no experience of men at all. That will make what happened harder for her.”
Cane didn’t dare mention what had happened between himself and Bodie, but he thanked God now that it had. At least she hadn’t been totally innocent of men when that slimy toad put his hands on her. She would remember how tender Cane had been with her, even if he’d been a total fool later on. He’d loved kissing her. He’d loved it so much that he’d been scared to death of where it might lead. He’d been hurt too many times, and he was overly sensitive about saddling a woman with his disability.
His own insecurities had helped land Bodie in this mess, as much as his unreasonable behavior. He wanted to make it up to her. He just didn’t know where to start.
* * *
BODIE CRIED HERSELF TO sleep. Mavie sat with her for a little while, before she had to go downstairs and make supper for the brothers.
Cane walked into her room, leaving the door open. He sat down in a chair beside the huge queen-size bed and just stared at her, wincing at the ravaged little face in its frame of thick, wavy black hair. He reached out with his one good hand and tenderly smoothed a loosened strand back into place behind her ear. She looked so very vulnerable.
He recalled a night when he’d been vulnerable, and drunk. She’d brought him up here and helped him down onto the bed. Things were a bit hazy after that, but the sight of her in bed was bringing memories back into focus with startling clarity.
He’d kissed her that night. He’d kissed her with furious, feverish passion and pulled her down against his body, in his own bed. He’d stripped her shirt away and held her bare breasts against his chest, felt her shiver and heard her moan with pleasure....
How could he have ever forgotten such an experience? His dark eyebrows dipped together above the high bridge of his nose as he watched her sleep and remembered the forbidden pleasure they’d shared.
She’d never mentioned it. He’d even phoned her to make sure nothing terrible had happened, because he couldn’t remember. She’d lied and said he was too drunk to do anything, but he hadn’t been. He’d made love to her. He’d almost gone too far. How could he have forgotten something so shattering?
Bodie in his arms, loving him, holding him, wanting him. Bodie, who was innocent, experiencing passion for the first time with a man too drunk to appreciate her vulnerabilities, treating her as an experienced woman, showing her things that should have come much later in their turbulent relationship.
It was too late to go back and do it over. But, in a way, it was a blessing. That sickening boy, Larry, had a taste of Bodie, but not the first sweet taste of her innocence. That was owned by Cane, who would treasure it for his whole life.
At least she would have something of him to remember that, perhaps, wasn’t as distasteful as he thought it was. He did remember that she hadn’t fought him, not even at first. She’d melted into him as if she’d only just discovered pleasure. He could remember even now the taste of her mouth, the softness of her skin under his hands, the feel of her sweet young body twisting under his as she tried to get even closer to him.
The only thing that had saved her was that he’d been drinking. If he’d been sober, he might not have been able to stop.
Now that he had the memory, now that he knew how intimate they’d been, he was surprised that he hadn’t been able to recover that night sooner. But perhaps he’d been hiding from her, protec
ting himself from the possibility of yet another heartache. Bodie was young and impressionable, and there had been a time when she found him very attractive.
Not that she would ever again, he thought with something like desperation. She’d hate him forever for what he’d done by refusing her shy request for help. She’d be thinking that she’d never have had to go to her stepfather in the first place, or lose her grandfather who was worried sick about her. She’d be thinking that Cane had failed her. As he’d failed himself, so many times since his injury.
He took a long look at what he was doing to himself and the people around him, and he didn’t like it. He’d been so focused on his own needs and feelings and inadequacies that he’d totally ignored those of his family, and Bodie.
It was time to start looking outward, to stop feeling sorry for himself and put his life back together. The first step in that process was to stop going on benders and get himself back on track. He owed that to Bodie. And to himself.
He got up from the chair, bent and brushed his mouth tenderly over Bodie’s dark hair, so lightly that she wouldn’t feel it. “I’m sorry, honey,” he whispered huskily as he stared at her sleeping face. “So sorry. I swear to God, I’ll make it all up to you, somehow.”
He went out of the room and closed the door.
Downstairs again, he opened his cell phone and got the telephone number for the local funeral home. There was only one in town. At least he could do this much for Bodie. He could take some of the burden away.
CHAPTER SIX
RAFE MAYS HAD LIVED in Catelow his whole life. Locally he was quite well-known. So the funeral home was full from the time the wake was announced in the newspaper and on the local radio station.
Bolinda, in a black dress that Morie had insisted on buying for her, received visitors in the carpeted room in the funeral home. From time to time, she glanced at the closed coffin where her grandfather rested. He had wanted it that way. “No folks filing past gawking at me, if you please,” he’d been fond of saying.
People were kind. Some shared stories from the old man’s past, when he was young and handsome and had the pick of the local single women. He’d pursued Bodie’s grandmother with flowers and chocolates and even a nice palomino horse before he finally won her. Bodie knew that story by heart, but it was oddly comforting to hear it told. It was as if her grandfather lived on in the memories of people who had cared for him.