The Rancher & Heart of Stone

by Diana Palmer

  “I don’t have any money,” Keely told him. “I work as a veterinarian technician and I make minimum wage. Mama—” Her voice broke. She composed herself. “Mama had some money in a savings account, but it’s in her name and it’s tied up in probate. I won’t be able to get it for weeks.” She didn’t know if that was true, but it sounded convincing.

  He cursed sharply. “There must be something you can sell!”

  “She already sold it all,” she said bitterly.

  He muttered again, incoherent. “Then those friends of yours, the Sinclairs—they’ve got money. Ask them for it!”

  “I won’t.”

  “Your life is on the line, Keely!” he raged. “It’s not a game! Jock’s already said that he’s got nothing to lose. He’ll kill you if you don’t help us.”

  She felt very old. Her mother was dead, she’d almost died herself. Boone knew her darkest secret and would surely not want her anymore, even if he was compassionate and understanding about her injury. He was scarred himself. But Keely saw no future for herself.

  “I don’t care,” she said passively. “Let Jock do his worst. He might be doing me a favor,” she said with black humor. “God knows, I’m never going to have a husband or a family, the way I look.”

  “I’m...sorry,” he said slowly. “I’m very sorry, for what happened. I was so shocked that I couldn’t even do anything. I feel bad about that. And I didn’t think about how the scars might affect your life.”

  “Pity,” she said, and felt hatred seethe through her. “Until that moment, I thought you cared about me.”

  “I do care, in my way,” he said. “My parents were ice-cold with each other and with me. They never went out of their way to do one charitable thing for anyone else. I learned that you take care of number one.”

  “So did Mama,” she replied. “Neither of you was fit to raise a child.”

  “Tell me about it.” He laughed hollowly. “Once you came, our lives changed forever. She was too unstable emotionally to cope with a baby.” He sounded bitter. “You spent a lot of time with Carly.”

  A light flashed in her mind as she recalled Carly’s face. It was far more familiar to her than Ella’s. No wonder the other woman had been so protective of her.

  “But that’s all in the past, and I’ve got bigger problems now. You have to try to get me some money. Jock says he won’t wait much longer.”

  “Tell him to come see me. I can borrow a shotgun,” she mused.

  “It’s not funny!”

  “If you were in my position, it might be.”

  “Ask your friends if they’ll help out. Even two thousand might be enough,” her father persisted. “Take this number down, Keely. You can reach me here.”

  She grabbed a pencil and pad from inside the drawer by her bed. “Okay.”

  He gave her the number. “Do your best, honey,” he pleaded. “You lived against all the odds. I don’t want you to die over a handful of money.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” she said heavily, and hung up. It wasn’t until then she realized that she was shaking.

  * * *

  WHEN BOONE CAME back, he found Keely quiet and preoccupied, staring into space.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, because he knew at once that something was. He could feel it.

  She frowned. “How do you know something is?”

  He moved to the bed and dropped down lazily into the armchair by her bed. “I read minds. Come on. Tell me.”

  She sank back into the pillows wearily. “My father called. Jock’s running from the drug lords and he wants money to get out of the country. He told my father that if I don’t get it up for him somehow, he’ll kill me. The drug dealers will probably send him back to wherever he came from in a shoe box.”

  He took off his hat and dropped it on the floor by his chair. He ran a big, lean hand through his black hair. “I’ll turn Bailey loose on him, and when he gets through, Jock will fit in the shoe box. Or parts of him will.”

  “Is Bailey all right?” she asked.

  He smiled. “Doing great, thanks to you.” His smile faded. “I still can’t believe I listened to that self-centered little cheater when you told me what was wrong with Bailey. I wish I could go back and live those few minutes over.”

  “It turned out all right.”

  He nodded. “Only because you had the guts to do what you knew was right. You’ve got grit, Keely.”

  “I’m just stubborn,” she replied. “What am I going to do? I don’t have anything I could sell that would bring enough money to buy Jock a plane ticket.”

  “We’ll talk to Hayes,” he told her. “He’ll know what to do.”

  * * *

  AND HAYES DID. They arranged for a sum of money that Boone would give her father to lure him into a trap. Keely had already given Hayes the number where her father could be reached when she got the money.

  “You’re not going,” she told Boone when he and Hayes were discussing who was going to take the money to Jock.

  “Excuse me?” Boone asked haughtily.

  She flushed, but she wouldn’t backtrack. “You’re not going. Everybody around me is either dead or in danger, and you’re not going to join my mother at the local funeral home. Let him do it.” She pointed at Hayes. “He knows how to deal with criminals. He’s good at it.”

  “Thanks,” Hayes mused.

  “I was with a Special Forces unit in the Middle East,” Boone reminded Keely. “I came home.”

  She looked to Hayes for assistance.

  He grimaced. “Okay, I’ll work out the details once you get the money together. With any luck, we can nab both men.”

  “I’ll call you,” Boone promised.

  When Hayes left, Boone watched Keely with faint amusement. “You’re afraid I’ll get hurt.”

  She shifted on her pillows. “My mother is dead because my father wanted money. I don’t want to lose you...I mean, I don’t want Clark and Winnie to have to lose you.”

  He pursed his lips. “I could have wrung your neck when I saw those photos,” he said conversationally. “I could have wrung Clark’s, too.”

  “I know you don’t want him around me because I’m in another social class...”

  “Stop that,” he muttered. “I didn’t want him around you because you’re mine, Keely,” he said curtly.

  Warmth shot through her body like fire. Surely she was hearing things. Her expression said so.

  “We’ll have to do something about that self-image.” He chuckled. “I don’t know why you ever thought I didn’t want you. Even Clark realized I was jealous as hell.”

  “You hated me,” she exclaimed. “You ignored me when you came to bring Bailey to Dr. Rydel!”

  “Camouflage,” he replied. “I didn’t know about your shoulder, then,” he added, in a subdued tone. “All I could think about was my own defects. I’d already had evidence of how a woman would react to them. You’re so young, Keely. I thought you were too young to cope.”

  “I’m older than I look,” she replied.

  “We both are.” His dark eyes grew intent on her face. “I don’t care about the obstacles anymore. We’ll improvise.”

  She was tingling at the way he looked at her, but she was a little apprehensive. It was a modern world, in the circles Boone frequented. But Keely was living in the past. “I’ve never been...I’ve never had...I don’t know how...” She gave up, exasperated.

  “I know all that,” he said gently. “We’ll go slow. I won’t rush you.”

  “Yes, but it won’t matter,” she said earnestly. “Don’t you see? I was raised religiously, despite the bad role models my parents were. I don’t believe people should sleep together if they aren’t married.”

  “Funny,” he returned with a smile, “that’s exactly the way I feel, too.”

  She seemed to stop breathing. Her eyes were held by his. She felt funny. “It is?” she parroted.

  “It is. So we’ll get to know each other a lot better,
then we’ll make long-term decisions. Okay?”

  She smiled. Her heart was soaring in her chest. “Okay.”

  He chuckled deep in his throat. It was the first time he’d felt happy since the ordeal began.

  * * *

  HE GOT THE money out of his bank, in cash, and phoned Hayes, who had Keely call her father and set up a time and place for the money to change hands.

  “You got it!” her father exclaimed. “Keely, you’re a wonder! This will save my life!”

  “I thought it was going to save mine,” she replied suspiciously.

  “Of course, yours!” he said quickly. “I meant it will save us both! Where do you want me to meet you?”

  “Dad, I’m still in the hospital,” she pointed out.

  “Oh! That’s right. I guess I could meet you in the hospital, then,” he said.

  She repeated what he said, so that Boone and Hayes could hear him. Hayes nodded enthusiastically.

  “Yes, that would be fine,” Keely said. “When do you want to come?”

  “Ten minutes,” he said, and hung up.

  She put the receiver back down. “He’s on his way here,” she said. Her tone was bitter. “He said it would save his life. He wasn’t ever concerned about mine.”

  “I’m sorry, Keely,” Hayes told her. “But he never was concerned about the welfare of other people. If he had been, he’d never have sent Bobby that totally pure cocaine, knowing it would kill him.”

  Keely sighed. “I had hoped that—” She broke off, flushed. “Well, it would have been nice if he’d cared a little about me. But if he had, he’d have dived into that mountain-lion pit without thinking about the consequences when that little boy’s life was at stake.”

  “Which you did,” Boone replied.

  She nodded. “I didn’t think at all. I just reacted. Dad got sued by the parents because of it, but they called me to the stand and described the wounds I sustained trying to save the little boy. The family was shamefaced and asked their lawyer to withdraw the case. The little boy wasn’t even frightened, and he didn’t have a mark on him. But the judge wasn’t so forgiving. He said that Dad should have had better fencing in place, and he named a figure for Dad to pay the family. But by then, Dad spent all his money on his pretty gold digger and had to borrow on the game park to pay off the little boy’s family, and to take care of his legal fees. He lost everything. I guess he thinks I owe him for that.”

  “It seems to me that he owes you,” Boone said coldly.

  “Same here,” Hayes agreed. He got to his feet. “I’d better get some backup over here. I’ll talk to the security guard, too.” He glanced at Boone. “You staying?”

  “You bet I am,” Boone replied doggedly. “I’m not leaving her in here alone in case her father gets past you.”

  Hayes smiled. “I don’t think he will, but better safe than sorry. Want a gun?”

  Boone chuckled. “I never needed one. I still don’t.”

  “Okay. Sing out if you need help. Thanks, Keely,” he told her.

  She nodded.

  Hayes left and she stared curiously at Boone. “Why don’t you need a gun?” she asked him.

  “I had the highest score in my unit in hand-to-hand combat,” he said simply. “I could even disarm my men when they came at me with weapons.”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Wow.”

  He shrugged. “It’s a skill. We all have them.” He smiled at her. “Yours is handling animals. I never told you that Bailey bites, did I?”

  “He’s never bitten me,” she said, confused.

  “You’re the only person who knows him who can say that,” he told her with a twinkle in his eyes. “Like I said. You have skills.”

  She smiled back.

  He got to his feet and moved to the door, opened it and looked both ways. He came back into the room. He’d just turned toward the closet when the door opened suddenly and Brent Welsh came into the room.

  “Quick, Keely, give me the money!” he told Keely abruptly. “Hayes Carson was downstairs—he got Jock the minute we walked in the door! Somebody tipped them off!”

  “Then you should be safe,” Keely told him. “If Sheriff Carson has Jock.”

  “I’ll never have enough money to be safe,” he said. “But at least I can get away from the Fuentes bunch. Where’s the—”

  In a movement so fluid that Keely almost missed it, Boone caught Welsh’s arm, swung him around and pinned him to the wall. He held him there with one big hand while he flipped open his cell phone and pushed a button.

  “Let me go!” Brent pleaded with his captor. “I can’t go to jail here, they’ll kill me!”

  “What a tragedy that would be,” Boone drawled.

  The door burst open and Hayes walked in, closing his cell phone. He put away the .40 caliber Glock he’d been holding even with his right temple, and grinned at Boone. “You don’t forget that military training, do you?” He chuckled.

  Boone grinned. “I get in some practice on stubborn bulls at roundup. Here.” He propelled Welsh around so that Hayes could handcuff him.

  “Keely, tell them to let me go!” Brent called to his daughter. “I’m innocent. It was Jock! He did it!”

  Keely felt sick. She’d almost believed her father’s false apology. “I can’t help you,” she said sadly. “Nobody can, now.”

  Brent’s face darkened and he began to curse. Hayes grimaced as he pushed the man out of the room ahead of him and turned him over to a deputy.

  “Sorry about that,” he told Keely. “We had him, but he slipped away. We’ve got him now, thanks to you,” he told Boone, “and his partner, as well. I’ll talk to you later. Don’t worry, Keely,” he added. “These two are wanted for murder in Arizona. I imagine there’ll be an extradition hearing very soon. Good job, Boone. If you ever want to work for me...?”

  “I’d never fit in,” Boone told him. “I use real curse words.”

  Hayes made a face at him. “‘Crackers and Milk’ is a perfectly good curse,” he informed his friend.

  “Ha!”

  Hayes left with his dignity intact.

  Boone moved to the bed and tugged Keely up into his arms, careful not to jar her sore arm. “And now we can concentrate on happier times,” he said gently, smiling as he kissed her with breathless tenderness.

  * * *

  SHE HAD A room next to Winnie’s upstairs, the most beautiful bedroom she’d ever seen in her life. She was afraid to walk on the carpet, which was pure white, dramatic against the blue curtains and bedspread and the blue tile in the bathroom.

  “Gosh, the bathroom is bigger than my whole bedroom at home,” she exclaimed when Boone carried her in and laid her on the bed.

  “We like a lot of space,” he told her, smiling. “Comfortable?”

  She sank into fathoms of feathery softness. “Oh, yes!”

  Winnie and Clark came in behind them, bearing flowers and fruit.

  “The flowers came from the girls at your office,” Winnie told her, “and the fruit’s from Dr. Rydel.”

  “Does he often send you presents?” Boone asked darkly.

  “Only when I get bitten by rattlesnakes and end up in the hospital,” she told him solemnly.

  Winnie and Clark burst out laughing.

  Boone flushed a little. “Cut it out,” he muttered. He pulled his hat low over his eyes. “I’ve got to get the boys working out on the west pasture. I’ll be back in time for supper.” He grinned at Keely. “When you’re better, you can make us some more yeast rolls.”

  She laughed, flattered that he’d liked them. “Okay.”

  “But not yet,” he cautioned.

  She saluted him. He laughed out loud, winked at his siblings, and left them with Keely.

  “Imagine that.” Winnie sighed, smiling. “You and Boone.”

  Keely flushed. “He’s just being kind.”

  “Do you think so?” Clark mused. “I don’t.”

  “Shoo,” Winnie told her brother. “I’m going to sett
le Keely, then I have to go in and work for a few hours. I’m on a split shift this week.”

  “You’re worth a fortune, and you’re working for wages.” Clark sighed.

  Winnie made a face at him. “I like working for wages.”

  Clark’s eyes twinkled. “You like working with Kilraven.”

  Winnie blushed. “He’s just one of the guys I work with, now that I’m working dispatch full-time.”

  Clark wiggled both eyebrows and laughed as he walked out.

  “Besides,” Winnie told her best friend, “Kilraven doesn’t like me.”

  Keely had doubts about that, but she didn’t say a word. She just smiled.

  Winnie helped her get into a flower-print ankle-length cotton gown with short puffy sleeves and a high neckline. She winced at the scars. “You poor thing,” she said with genuine sympathy. “It must have been so painful!”

  Keely lost her self-consciousness at that expression. “Most people would have said how horrible it looks. Yes, it was terrible. The first few days were the worst of my life. And then, even when it started healing, there were the scars.” She shivered and leaned back into the pillows with a sigh. “But I guess it was really a blessing in disguise, because Jock had just gotten out of prison after two years, and he came on to me the day he got back. The scars were all that saved me from him. He thought I was repulsive.” She looked at Winnie meaningfully. “I was thirteen years old,” she said bitterly.

  Winnie sat down on the bed beside her and squeezed her hand. “Some men are animals,” she said gently. “Men used to come on to me when I went to parties because they knew who I was, who my family was. They didn’t really want me, they wanted the wealth and power I had access to. Boone spent a lot of time making threats.” She laughed. “That’s why I like working for the emergency management center,” she added. “Some of the newer people don’t even know I come from a wealthy background. They treat me like everybody else. It’s flattering.”

  Keely was curious. “Kilraven knows who you are.”

  Winnie nodded. She frowned. “It’s odd, isn’t it, that he doesn’t seem to mind.” She hesitated, looking down at her lap. “But most of the time he treats me just like he does the other dispatchers.”