by Rita Herron
Right now, he needed to make her feel safe and assure her that he loved her and would protect her.
And her mother.
“I wents potty. Weady to go?” Lucy asked.
Brandon chuckled. “Yep, let’s do it.”
Brandon and Kim walked out to his truck, Lucy skipping ahead. “First, I’ll drive you around, then we’ll stop at the riding stables,” Brandon said as he swung Lucy into the backseat.
For the next hour he pointed out the sections of pastureland for his herd, and the stables and training pens for the quarter horses.
“I hired some ranch hands to help with the cattle, and trainers and groomers to work with the horses. Some of the employees live off the ranch, but a few stay in those cabins.” He pointed at a row of cabins along the east ridge, then glanced at Kim. “You took a job at the Bucking Bronc, didn’t you?”
“I figured it was time Lucy and I got out from Johnny’s so he could have a life.” Kim shrugged. “Besides, I finally earned my degree and figured I’d put it to use.”
Brandon arched a brow. “Your degree?”
She nodded. “In counseling. Brody hired me to help train the horses but also to lead small groups and work with the boys.” A frown darkened her face. “I hope we’re back next week for the second camp.”
He pressed his lips together but didn’t comment. Kim always had been a sucker for a kid in need. God knows, she’d put up with him and Johnny and Carter.
“You train some of the horses yourself?” Kim asked.
Brandon shrugged. “Yeah. You know I’m a hands-on guy.”
She twisted sideways, an odd look settling in her eyes.
“It’s ’mongous!” Lucy said, then giggled when she spotted a baby calf wobbling toward the pond. Ducks and geese fluttered on the water and several Herefords had gathered for a drink.
“You mean humongous,” Kim said with a smile.
“That’s what I said, ’mongous!” Lucy shouted.
Brandon chuckled. “Yeah, I’ve got five hundred acres. Sixty percent Hereford, forty percent Angus/Hereford and Brangus/Hereford cross.”
“Your breeding business is prosperous,” Kim said.
He gave her a sheepish look. “Yeah, it’s been lucrative. And you know how much I like being in the saddle.”
A blush stained her cheek for a second, and he remembered the times they had ridden together, her body rubbing his as she clasped her hands around his waist. Did Kim remember the good times, too? Or only that he’d dumped her?
They had finished the tour though so he parked at the barn where he kept his favorite trail-riding horses. “Okay, kiddo,” he said as he opened the back door and lifted Lucy down from the seat. “Now, the fun part.”
Lucy squealed, her pigtails bobbing up and down as she disappeared inside. He and Kim followed, bypassing the tack room.
“This bay is mine,” Brandon said as they stopped to pat a massive black stallion. “His name is Saint Salvador.”
Lucy giggled as the animal nudged its nose into her palm and whinnied. The remaining horses in the barn caught on, each kicking and neighing and peering over the stall railings begging for attention.
Lucy stopped at the third stall and stared up in awe at his best tobiano paint.
“I wike this one!” she said, rubbing his nose. “He wooks wike a leopard!”
“That’s because he’s a paint,” Brandon explained. “And an excellent choice, Lucy. He’s very gentle.”
Lucy wrinkled her nose. “Can I call him Spots?”
“Actually his name is Troubadour. But I think he’ll like Spots better.”
Kim grinned, and Brandon helped Lucy climb on the rail to see inside the stall.
Lucy clapped her hands. “Yippee! Now can we ride?”
“Let your mother make her selection,” Brandon said. “Then we’ll saddle up.”
Brandon watched quietly as Kim made her way along the stalls. Just as he expected, Kim chose a palomino. He and Kim worked together to saddle the horses, once again reminding him of their youth. Although Kim was petite, she had a natural way with animals just as she did with kids.
She’d done a wonderful job raising Lucy.
But before they took a trail ride, Brandon led Spots into the pen and helped Lucy in the saddle. She squealed with delight as he led her around the pen.
“Let’s go on the twails,” Lucy said as she bounced up and down.
“Not yet,” Brandon said. “First you and Spots have to learn to work together. He has to become comfortable with you, and you need to learn how to control and command him. You can ride on the back with me or your mom on the trail.”
Lucy started to pout, but Brandon held firm, and Kim backed him up.
“Safety always comes first,” Kim said. “But don’t worry, Lucy. It won’t take you and Spots long to become a team.”
Brandon unsaddled Spots and showed Lucy how to brush her. Then they fed her and gave her water.
“I wants to ride on the back with you, Daddy,” Lucy said as he led Saint Salvador from the stall.
Brandon glanced at Kim for approval, and she nodded, so he mounted then pulled Lucy up behind him.
When she wrapped her little arms around his waist, his heart swelled with love. As they rode across the pasture, he let himself imagine that they could be a family.
And for the first time since he’d bought the ranch, the place started to feel more like a home than a business.
TWO DAYS LATER, Kim sighed as she watched Brandon giving Lucy another riding lesson in the pen. He was a natural father, patient and attentive but firm, and he’d done everything possible to make her feel safe and protected, even cradling her the night before when she’d woken up screaming that a man was chasing her.
In fact, Lucy had turned to Brandon before her. A fact that hurt slightly, but how could she blame Lucy? Brandon was big and strong and tough, had always done everything to the extreme. And he’d always made her feel protected when she was young.
She leaned over the fence railing, reconciled to the fact that she and Brandon had to call a truce. Lucy adored her father.
Which would make it harder for them to leave, but sooner or later they had to. She wiped a smudge of dirt from her jeans. She and Brandon would arrange visitation, weekends, holidays, just as other couples who shared a child did.
Because her job at the Bucking Bronc Lodge was too important to her. It afforded her independence and fed her need to help others, and Lucy thrived around the other children.
Still, Lucy was getting attached to the Woodstock Wagoneer. The barn cat, Fifi, had had kittens, giving Lucy a thrill as she’d watched the mama deliver them. And, the night before, Brandon had driven them out to watch some of his hands herding cattle into the west pasture. Then Brandon had built a campfire outside, they’d roasted marshmallows, and he’d regaled Lucy with stories about how he and Johnny used to sneak onto the neighbor’s ranch at night and chase the baby calves into the pond. How they’d hidden behind haystacks and studied the older ranchers breaking horses. How they’d slept on the ground and counted the stars and dreamed about owning their own ranches someday. And they’d taken odd jobs at a rodeo in exchange for learning trick riding and roping.
Lucy had been mesmerized by every word her father said.
Still, sometimes she feared she would lose Lucy to Brandon.
A truck rumbled in the distance, and her nerves instantly jerked to alert. They still hadn’t heard from Carter, and neither had Johnny. It was just a matter of time before he surfaced.
He had nowhere else to go for help. Eventually he would turn to one of them. Either that or he’d come to exact revenge.
Brandon’s cell phone jangled, and he answered. “Hello.” A pause, then his smile faded. “Dammit. I’ll be right there.”
When he disconnected, he glanced at Kim. “Someone vandalized a couple of the barns on the west end. Probably some teenagers but I’d better check it out.”
Kim nodded, opened t
he gate, then stepped inside and closed it. “Okay. Lucy and I will brush Spots down and feed her.”
“Thanks.” He gave Lucy a thumbs-up. “You did great today, honey. I’ll be back in a little bit.”
“Bye, Daddy!” Lucy waved, then urged Spots into a canter. “You did good today, too, Spots. We’re a team now, aren’t we?” The paint dropped his head forward and then threw it back as if he understood, and Lucy broke into giggles.
Kim helped her dismount; then they led Spots to the grooming platform. But as she and Lucy worked, worry needled her. What if the vandalism hadn’t been teenagers?
What if it was Carter?
No…why would he vandalize the place? That would only draw attention to him. If he was hiding out on the ranch, that was the last thing he’d want.
The sun dipped lower in the sky, the spring air growing chilly by the time they led the paint into the stall.
Kim took Lucy’s hand. “Come on, let’s stir up some spaghetti sauce for dinner while we wait on your daddy.” Just saying the word sent a pang of longing through Kim. Before she was even pregnant, she’d dreamed of having Brandon’s baby and them being a family. And now they were.
Yet Brandon was committed to Lucy, he loved Lucy, not her.
In the kitchen, they washed up and Lucy helped add spices to the pot. Then Kim chopped fresh tomatoes, onions and herbs and sautéed some ground beef while Lucy drew a picture for her father at the kitchen table. Kim’s heart tugged at the stick figures of Brandon and Lucy holding hands as they stood in the middle of a field of daisies beside Spots.
Already her daughter had fallen for her father.
She understood the feeling. But Brandon had crushed her years ago, and she couldn’t allow herself to settle into a false sense of security and fall back in love with him.
Because he might break her heart all over again.
For all she knew, he and his wife might be planning a reconciliation.
That thought triggered a twinge of jealousy, but she squashed it. She had no claims on Brandon.
Only Lucy did.
What would Marty think if she knew they had a daughter? Where would Lucy fit in, especially if Marty demanded that he not see her?
Would Brandon give in and abandon Lucy as he had abandoned her years ago?
Anxiety knotted her stomach, and she set the sauce down to simmer and checked the clock. Where was Brandon? The vandalism must have been more serious than he’d thought....
“Mommy, can we play with the kitties before Daddy gets back?”
Kim sighed. “Sure, honey. I don’t want to heat the bread until it’s time to eat anyway.”
She wrapped the bread in foil, then took Lucy’s hand. Lucy tucked her lamb beneath one arm and they half skipped, half walked to the barn. Clouds had gathered from the east fighting with the moon for the sky, and the night seemed unusually dark and eerily quiet. In the distance, cows mooed, the sound of horses whinnying drifted in the wind, leaves rattled as the breeze picked up and insects buzzed and chirped.
A storm was brewing; she felt the hint of it in the air. Rain would be good for the grass, but thunderstorms always resurrected memories of her father’s temper.
And the night she’d almost lost Lucy…
She banished the memory as they entered the barn and flipped on the light, but the light flickered on, then off, pitching them into darkness. Thunder rumbled outside, but Lucy seemed oblivious as she barreled inside. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…”
Lucy darted past the tack room toward the back stall where the mama cat had delivered, and Kim followed, but suddenly the barn door slammed shut behind them. Kim jerked around, but a sea of black clouded her eyes.
“Hello? Is someone there?”
The raspy silence that echoed back made her skin crawl. Anxious to get Lucy back to the house, she felt her way along the wall in the dark, wishing she’d brought a flashlight. Suddenly the floor creaked behind her. A puff of breath cracked the stillness.
Then something hard and blunt slammed against her skull.
Stars danced in front of her eyes, then the world faded away as she collapsed onto the floor and blacked out.
Chapter Seven
Someone had painted ugly words on the side of the new barns, then beaten the interior walls with a hammer and ripped apart the wooden slats on one of the stalls.
Brandon rubbed the back of his neck, irritated. It had to be teenagers, although why the hell would they drive so far from the city just to pull some stupid stunt like this? Then again, he and Johnny and Carter had been hellions, had vandalized a few places themselves, and had skirted juvenile detention more than once.
It was one reason he’d decided to help out at the Bucking Bronc Lodge.
Night had set in and lightning cracked the tops of the oaks and mesquite trees as he left two of his hands to clean up the mess. The scent of impending rain filled the air, a hazy fog settling over the dismal gray sky. Deciding Kim and Lucy had probably finished grooming Spots, he drove straight to the house.
As he climbed out, he scanned the yard for Lucy, but didn’t see her. He did notice a pair of live oaks that would make a good spot for the fort he’d promised. He could built a platform between the trees, then make a rope ladder on one side, add a tire swing.... Maybe they would even add a second level....
His head was spinning with ideas as he kicked dirt from his boots and entered the house. The scent of spaghetti sauce filled the air, making his stomach grumble, and he paused to dip a finger in and taste it.
Damn, Kim could cook.
Of course she’d had to. Her old man sure as hell hadn’t made them any meals, and they’d lost their mother when they were young. Kim had taken care of her bastard father and Johnny and never complained. Now she’d earned a counseling degree to help other troubled boys.
He’d liked her as a kid. He’d loved her as a teenager.
And he admired the hell out of her now.
Then he spotted Lucy’s drawing on the kitchen table, a picture of him and her holding hands in a field of daisies beside her beloved Spots.
Emotions crowded his chest, and for a moment, his lungs tightened as he imagined working on the ranch all day, then coming home to dinner with Kim and Lucy. They would both be waiting with a smile and a hug....
But the house was quiet. Where were they?
Suddenly the timing of the vandalism made the hairs on his nape stand on end, and he strode through the house calling their names. “Kim? Lucy?”
The downstairs proved empty, so he raced up the steps two at a time. No one upstairs either. He told himself not to panic. They’d probably just taken a walk. Or maybe they’d gone to play with the kittens.
He jogged down the steps, then toward the barn, wanting them back inside the house before the storm. The wind intensified, swirling leaves and twigs across the path. The barn door squeaked as he hastily opened it and scanned the interior. Spots was tucked in his stall, already groomed and fed. Fatherly pride filled him. Lucy was an animal lover just like her mom.
Clouds rumbled as he vaulted back outside, then passed the riding pens to the storage barn.
But a streak of lighting illuminated Lucy’s stuffed lamb. It was on the ground outside the side door.
His instincts roared to alert. Lucy wouldn’t have left the lamb in the dirt....
Suddenly unable to breathe, he picked it up then hurried inside. The barn was pitch dark, making him more antsy, and he flipped the light switch, but it made a popping sound instead of lighting up. His nerves spiking, he grabbed a flashlight from the tack room and flicked it on, waving it across the barn between the empty stalls.
“Kim? Lucy? Are you in here?” He checked the first three stalls, adrenaline flooding him. “Kim? Lucy?”
The kittens meowed, and he peered in the last stall to the right and saw the mama cat curled in the box. But Lucy wasn’t inside.
Outside the wind picked up, hurling a limb against the side of the barn, and thunder clapp
ed, shaking the roof. Then a low moan echoed somewhere nearby.
He swung around, searching for the sound. The stall across from him.
He shoved through the stall door and froze.
Kim was lying in the shavings, deathly pale, blood seeping from a gash on her head.
KIM MOANED and tried to lift her head, but a throbbing pain knifed through her temple. She blinked against the darkness, and the world spun around her. Bile rose to her throat, and she sucked in a sharp breath to stem the nausea.
“Kim, honey, it’s Brandon. What happened?” She felt his hands gently lifting her hair away from her crown, then heard a low curse. “Kim, talk to me. Where’s Lucy?”
Slowly his words sank through the fog around her aching head, and a memory flashed back. She and Lucy…in the barn…looking for the kittens…the door slamming shut. Then pain…
Oh, God…
“Kim?” Brandon cradled her face between his hands.
Kim blinked, then looked into his eyes, willing the world to stay upright. “Lucy?”
Brandon’s face blurred in front of her. “Where is she, Kim?”
Alarm streaked through her. “Here with me…but I passed out. Maybe she went to the house to get help....”
“No, she’s not at the house, Kim. Someone hit you over the head.”
Reality strangled her. “Lucy…where is she?” Frantic to find her daughter, she tried to stand, but a dizzy spell assaulted her and she swayed. “Brandon, we have to find her!”
“Let me call a medic and then we’ll search—”
“No.” Kim dug her nails into his arms for support and pushed to her feet, tears blurring her vision. “We have to look now. If someone has her, they could be getting away.”
Panic streaked Brandon’s face. “She wasn’t in the horse barn or the house.” Brandon’s tone dropped a decibel as he lifted the lamb to her. “But I found this outside in the dirt.”
A wave of cold terror washed over her as Brandon helped her outside.
“Lucy!” Kim cried. “Lucy, honey, where are you?”
“Lucy, answer me. It’s Daddy!” Brandon shined the flashlight across the path leading into the wooded area behind the barn.