Broken Road

by Char Marie Adles

  She put her shoulders back, if he was gonna act like a stiff business man, then so would she.

  “Who the hell are you,” he drawled in a deep smoky burr, “and why in the hell are you on my ranch?”

  “Mr. Canter. I am Devil,” she told him and lighting decided it would be funny and strike right after her words, as if she were the devil and speaking her name was a curse. “And I’m here for the baby.”

  Chapter Five

  There was a knock on the door and then an awkward silence.

  Winthrop unfolded himself from his chair and stocked to the door. He peered out through the screen to see a thin figure on the porch in bad lighting. Frowning he opened the door and barked, “Who the hell are you and why in the hell are you on my ranch?”

  He froze when he got a better look at his little trespasser. She was a thin little thing and looked barely old enough to be in high school. She was coated from head to toe in mud and soaked to the bone, shivering. She even had mud smeared across her face. With the lighting he couldn’t see much else. But then she set her chin, looked him in the eyes and he nearly died inside for the third time.

  Icy blue eyes glared up at him, flashing with anger and she snapped back, “I’m Devil.”

  Lighting flashed in the sky and the thunder boomed as if in agreement with her words. Then her next words sank something else in his heart.

  “And I’m here for the baby.”

  Oh brother…you didn’t…

  His frown deepened. Had she just called him Mr. Canter? She had just called him Mr. Canter as if he were his father’s age!

  “Kid, listen, I don’t know why you came to my ranch looking like that. But I sure as hell don’t know why you came talking about a baby,” Winthrop said with an easy tone. “Go home kid, you’ll worry your folks.”

  Surely this isn’t the kid’s mom. She looks so tiny and young, but those eyes! The same eyes as not only Wade, but the baby too.

  “I came for Lilla, Mr. Canter. I assure you that I will not just take her away from you, understanding you are her family too. But I will have to take her back soon and as for your other demand I must say that I can’t,” the girl told him plainly.

  He couldn’t believe his own ears. She might as well have told him plainly to his face that she was a teen mom and proud to be one.

  Oh god…brother you didn’t, he groaned inwardly again. But he knew the answer and it made him sick. The girl barely looked old enough for high school!

  Then what she said hit him.

  “You say you can’t what,” he echoed.

  “I can’t go home. I don’t have a home,” she replied as if that didn’t matter.

  “For Christ sake,” Winthrop gritted through his teeth, “I will not let you take the child if you don’t have a place to stay.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest, raising a brow at him. “Oh really? She’s all I have and you’re going to keep her from me?”

  Of all the crazy things he could think about doing, he knew what he was thinking was going to turn around and bite him in the ass.

  But what choice do I have? My brother left her and the baby behind without telling me a thing!

  Winthrop rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “No, I couldn’t do that to you, but I can’t just let you take her. You’ll stay here for the time being.”

  The girl’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open the briefest fraction. Her amazed expression told him that he had shocked her.

  Winthrop had only known her for five minutes and he had surprised her by being kind. It’s not like he had much experience with women in the first place, but now he felt ashamed at his lacking in knowing.

  A blush crept into his cheeks and he turned toward the inside of the house. He cleared his throat and said gruffly, “Come inside. She’s upstairs.”

  The girl looked as if she wanted to bolt straight up the stairs to the baby, but she stayed where she was on the porch.

  She played with a long lock of hair with dry mud on it, picking at it in a nervous gesture. “Um, well that is kind and nice of you but you see I’m all dirty. Is there a hose around here somewhere I could use to clean off with?” She bit her lower lip and almost made him groan.

  Just to end his torture he picked her up around the waist which caused her to squeak and then he promptly set her down inside the door.

  “Up stairs on the first floor there is a shower on your right. Use that,” he said walking past her to show her the stairs.

  “Clothes? I didn’t bring any,” she said worried.

  He rubbed his face. “I’ll find some.”

  She walked up a few of the stairs and turned around.

  “Thank you for taking care of Lilla for so long, Mr. Canter,” the girl said with a small smile and went up stairs.

  Winthrop waited, tensed, until he heard the shower start and then he sat back down in his chair. “Brother what have you done, you son of a bitch,” Winthrop groaned into his hands. “She’s just a little kid!”

  Then why did he feel stirrings for the girl in his heart too?

  He slammed a lid on those thoughts. Best not go there. He had other problems to take care of. Like his niece and her young mother.

  Chapter Six

  Devil scrubbed furiously at the mud caked in her long hair and sighed in frustration. She had been in the shower less then ten minutes and it hadn’t relaxed her at all. Mr. Canter wasn’t the same man he had been in the picture. He looked older, years older, more roughened then the young grinning man had. He was also bigger and taller then she would have first thought, built like a pro boxer for all the muscle he had. He was most defiantly over six foot five and he was Native American to boot with long black hair in a ponytail and darkly tanned skin. He looked older then the happy young man in the picture, looked like a man who hadn’t smiled or laughed in a lifetime.

  “Stop thinking about him and focus on Lilla,” she scolded herself.

  When she had lost her nerve and turned weak, his silvery blue eyes had flashed with annoyance. And damn it if she didn’t want to sock him in the face for it.

  But it had been a hard last three weeks. Devil had to finish three more concerts on tour and locate the ranch before she could set off. Not that the disappearance of Wylde helped any, but she hated being weak. It reminded her of the days of a broken child better left in the dark. Those days her father beat her, Mama, Wylde, and Lily, her youngest sister.

  “Damn the man and may he rot in hell. I thank God for the day he died,” Devil whispered and with a snap turned off the water. She knew he was just being a nice person, she knew that, but couldn’t help but not like him. He was just another brooding cowboy who was caged up on his mountain.

  “I don’t see what sister saw in him,” she muttered. Devil stepped out of the spacious shower, spotting a towel and nabbing it. She wrapped it around her and debated putting on her old clothes. She looked at where the muddy cloth lay by the shower and decided against it. She would rather wait for the clothes Mr. Canter was bringing her.

  There was a hesitant knock on the door as Devil was running her fingers through her hair so she swung it open without thinking first and there he stood. Mr. Tall, Dark and Brooding himself with what looked like a T-shirt in one hand and some sweats in the other.

  He filled up the doorway with most of his lean body casually leaning on the door frame. His gaze ran over her in one quick sweep, then a much, much slower one. Something in his eyes darkened.

  Mistaking it as anger Devil snatched the clothes out of his hand and slammed the door closed in his face.

  “The door can’t protect you, you know kid,” he drawled in a half amused and half irritated tone, “You might want to lock the door.”

  Now that was a low blow, he knew it, and it had probably hurt her.

  “Do you think a little old door can save you from me,” she snapped back.

  There was a silence after that, then a deep rolling laugh. It shocked her as much as it did him. Of all th
e things Devil would have thought he might do, namely hit a wall, kick the door or curse, he laughed!

  Her next retort failed her. She worked her mouth for a moment, but still nothing come out.

  “I’ll wait, but you better hurry in there kid. Walking around in a towel is unattractive,” Winthrop said through the door. And went down the hall to the nursery.

  And had that been one of the biggest lies in his life. If a woman was over born to wear that towel, it would be her.

  “Damn it,” he growled at himself.

  He couldn’t, wouldn’t think of her that way. She was a kid and on top of that the mother of his brother’s child. But just then she had looked older then he had first thought with her being covered in the mud and all. But she was young, too young and still a teenager at best.

  Winthrop settled against the wall and put on his favorite scowl.

  She had spunk under all her nerves. So she was true to her Native blood after all, that in itself was enough to cool his heels. His mother had been Native American and his father white. When his mother left she left him hating women and Native women even the more.

  Devil was soon dressed and drowning in Mr. Canter’s sweat pants and shirt and ready to see Lilla. Having a family had always used to leave her wishing for a lonely life because of her father and her fear of men, but now she wanted nothing more then to hold Lilla close and call her, her own.

  …

  A squalling pink baby wiggled to be free of her blankets, the tiny peach face was scrunched up in frustration.

  Devil inched her way over to the ancient crib that didn’t look fit for a baby to sleep in and peered over the edge. Then she reached in and poked the baby’s cheek, marveling at how soft it was.

  Suddenly the baby stopped crying, stared at her for a moment, and started again, this time bawling fit to scare the ranch hands away.

  Devil panicked and picked her up in her arms. She thought back to Mama and what she used to do for Lily. She sighed as she thought of just the thing. Slowly swinging the baby in her arms she started humming one of her favorite songs from the tour music.

  Devil hummed “Don’t lie to me” and soon the baby started to coo. Her soft tender voice whispered the longing lullaby lovingly and she smiled as she sang to the tiny thing in her arms.

  Lilla’s eyes soon started to drift close and she softly snored sweet baby snores. Her little hand was still curled around a fistful of Devil’s long black hair.

  Devil finally smiled and it was the tenderest one she had ever given anyone.

  “I thank your mama for giving you to me. You are the greatest gift in the world. I have a feeling that I am going to miss you when she comes to take you back,” Devil whispered to the sleeping baby. Softly she pressed a kiss to the infant’s forehead. The baby sighed and settled against her.

  She continued to rock the baby and hummed softly. She sang to Lilla until she knew she asleep and put her into the crib. She watched Lilla for a moment as another rare smile crossed her lips. She now had a family, even if it was just her and the baby.

  However her smile faded as she thought of Lilla’s father. He wasn’t going to let Devil have the baby if his attitude was any indication. They both had rights to her as parents, but his was by blood and her’s was by paper, even if she was Lilla’s aunt.

  She would have to sit aside her fear of men and try to get along with the grumpy old man.

  How did he become so bitter? Now that she thought about it, it would seem that her sister left him before the baby was born and before she disappeared. Maybe Wylde leaving him made him into a women hater.

  Silently she slipped out of the room and down to the stairs to the main room of the lowest level of the ranch house. She wandered around the main room, staring at every single wall she could find in search of something that could make this place a home.

  They all turned up empty, bare of any kind of pictures or frames. No family portraits, or pictures, no singles either, just nothing. For such a big house you would think see people everywhere, but there was no one, but Lilla and Mr. Canter.

  Strange, Devil thought as she glided by. She shot a glance to the chair he had sat in before she had made him get up, from in front of the fire. It seemed to be the only personal area in site. And calling it a personal zone was going a bit far.

  The house felt like all other place she had been in her life. Empty, even if there were millions of people around. This house was not a home.

  Chapter Seven

  Light footsteps rang dully on the polished oak stairs and Winthrop sighed. Apparently it was too much to hope she had gone to bed. He waited for her to come closer to him and speak.

  Before to long there she stood, in his old college sweats and one of his favorite t-shirts. Her long black hair was still a bit damp; she looked both small and frail with her arms hugged tightly around her chest that way. With her back to the fire Winthrop could see the gently curved outline of her body through the white shirt.

  Suddenly her distance from his and her pose made sense to him.

  Good God, she was afraid of him!

  He tried not to let his shock show. About to say something he opened his mouth, but she beat him to it.

  “Thank you,” she said quietly, watching him closely. “For letting us stay here for the night, I mean,” she added quickly.

  He frowned. “What do you mean for ‘tonight’?”

  She shifted under his gaze. “Um…well, I can’t imagine you want us to stay here for long and I have some people waiting for me in town…”

  Devil had stopped talking as he rose out of his chair and came to tower over her. She swallowed passed a dry throat.

  “I said that you and the baby will stay here. You aren’t going anywhere,” he said, eyes glinting like steel.

  Devil flinched slightly at the looked directed in them at her.

  “You don’t have a home do you?” Mr. Canter raised an eyebrow in question.

  Devil frowned slightly. “Well no, but-”

  He continued on as if he hadn’t heard a word she said. “And what about your parents? You most likely ran away from home and you’re still too young to have a child.”

  “Now you wait a moment-” Devil said rising to the bait.

  “And then there is no way in hell you’re taking her away from me without a fight. She’s the only family I have now too,” he finished with a growl.

  Devil crossed her arms over her chest and lifted her proud chin a notch. “If you knew anything about me you wouldn’t have said half the crap that just sprouted from your mouth. You want answers? Fine, you can all the answers you want, but you better shut up afterward about it. I have no home, I’m eighteen years old, and both of my parents are dead and more then five years gone. I raised myself since I was basically five, so I can care for Lilla better then you. Not only that but she is the only family I have too, since my only living sister is missing!” She hated how her voice cracked and how the tears pored over from her eyes. She hugged her arms around herself and squeezed her eyes closed to block the nightmares of her childhood. She was not a crier!

  Winthrop felt so many things at once that it was making him dizzy, but he tried to sort them out. Relief was the one that she was of legal age, worry over the pain she seemed to be suffering alone that he had caused, and guilt at baiting her after all she had been through this night.

  For the first time in his life he felt like an ass and he didn’t care for the feeling at all, it burned in his gut.

  “Damn,” he muttered and gave into what his body was telling him to do. He went over to her and folded her into his arms as gently as he knew how.

  She stiffened at the bold contact for a long moment and slowly let her entire body relax against his. Finally she gave in, bawling her eyes out on his chest.

  Winthrop forced himself not to react to the press of her body against his. And he almost didn’t have enough will power to do even that.

  Sweet heaven she didn’t even have a bra on!<
br />
  So he bit his lip and held her as she cried. Each and every tear tore down a little of the walls around his heart and he was helpless to stop it, for he was the one to start all this.

  He smiled grimly. He was in a hell of his own making. How fitting it was for a woman hater to have both a baby and her young mother to be thrown his way.

  …

  Devil had had a rough day, followed by a rough night. She had awakened for the fourth time by five o’clock and just decided to stay awake. After a quick trip to the bathroom she passed by Lilla’s room and heard someone humming one of her newest song from her track that had been released only a few months before. The deep husky male voice was humming “Come back home” and who ever it was, was doing a damn good job of humming it right. So Devil slipped over to the doorway and peered in.

  To her utter shock it was Mr. Canter who sang her song, not only that, but he was smiling!

  Without realizing it she tripped over the door jam and fell face first onto the floor. When she looked up through her hair and she saw the taken aback expression on his face. She scrambled to get to her feet only managing to get caught up in the toys on the floor, this time landing squarely on her butt.

  By now Mr. Canter had put Lilla back to the crib and was trying to find a good place to latch onto Devil to lift her up. Finally he seemed to decide on her forearms and pulled her up to her feet.

  “Bit of a butterfingers are you?” he asked with a straight face, but his eyes were dancing with humor.

  “I-I just heard someone singing and I thought to see who it was in Lilla’s room,” she stammered.

  He eyed her and saw that she was only wearing his shirt and nothing else. He raised a brow and she blushed.