by Linda Turner
He fed her because it made her smile and because he wanted to baby her and because even though she tried to hide it, he could see that she was definitely feeling the aftereffects of the accident. She ate, but not much, and was careful not to move much.
“Back hurting you?” he guessed.
She grimaced. “That and my head and just about every bone in my body.”
“Then it’s time for a pain pill,” he said, and rose to set the breakfast tray aside.
“But I don’t have any tolerance for those things,” she complained as he shook one out of the brown plastic bottle on the bedside table. “It’ll knock me out, and I want to visit with you.”
“Wah!” he teased, and drew a reluctant smile from her. “Come on, honey, don’t pout. The doctor said you need to rest, and you can’t do that if you’re in pain.” Holding the pill out to her in his palm, he wheedled, “Take it and I promise I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep.”
“And you’ll come back later and eat lunch with me?”
Laughing, he agreed. “That’s blackmail, but it sounds good to me. Now will you take the pill?”
Grinning, she took the pill and glass of water he held out to her and swallowed it in one gulp.
Not only was he back for lunch, just as he’d promised, but he carried her downstairs to the couch in the living room so that she could visit with his mother. He would have stayed to talk, but word had gotten out about the circumstances surrounding Elizabeth’s accident, and people were outraged. Nick’s office was getting flooded with calls about that and the reward for information about Napoleon’s killer. If they were lucky, today would be the day they got a break and the right person would call in.
“I don’t know when I’ll be back,” he told Elizabeth as he propped pillows behind her sore back and covered her with an afghan he retrieved from the back of the couch. “If you need me, just have Mom call me. I can be here in ten minutes.”
“She’ll be fine, dear,” Sara McBride assured him with an affectionate grin. “There’s no one here but the two of us, and if she gets tired, she can take a nap right there on the couch.”
“Stop worrying about me,” Elizabeth told him when he still lingered. “Believe me, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll still be sitting right here when you get back.”
“All right, all right. I’m going.” And unmindful of his mother’s presence, he leaned over and kissed Elizabeth goodbye. She was still blushing when he rose, kissed his mother on the cheek and headed out the door.
In the silence left in his wake, Sara McBride chuckled as she sank into the rocking chair in front of the fire Zeke had built in the fireplace. “Don’t be embarrassed, dear. Zeke has never cared who was around when he wanted to kiss a pretty girl.”
Here it came, Elizabeth thought. The conversation about all the old girlfriends, the past loves, just as she’d known it would. She didn’t for a minute think his mother made the comment to hurt her—not when she’d opened her home to her and cared for her during the night like she was one of her own daughters. Sara McBride was a kind woman—and an honest one. And Elizabeth appreciated that. Because as much as her heart wanted to deny it, she needed the truth about him as only his family could give her.
Settling back, she said wryly, “And there must have been a lot of them. He’s a very attractive man.”
Sara couldn’t dispute that. “He has his father’s charm,” she admitted with twinkling eyes. “Lord, that Gus was a flirt. He had dimples like Zeke, and he knew just how to use them to make a girl fall head over heels in love with him. I was twenty-one when I met him, and he had half the women in the county chasing him.” Grinning, she shook her head. “He thought he was God’s gift to the ladies, and so did they. I was sure he’d never look twice at me.”
Stunned that she could talk about her deceased husband with so much affection, when he’d obviously been as big a ladies’ man as her father, Elizabeth blurted out, “And that didn’t bother you?”
“What? That he flirted with all the girls before he fell in love with me? No—”
“No, I mean afterward. After you were married.”
Shocked, Sara stopped in mid-rock. “Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said quickly, cursing her wayward tongue. “I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s really none of my business. I just assumed it must have been painful for you—”
“Painful?” Confused, the older woman frowned. “Elizabeth, are you asking me if my husband was unfaithful?”
Trapped, it was too late to change the subject. Miserable, she nodded. “I’m sorry if I offended you.”
Far from offended, Sara stunned her by laughing. “I’m sorry,” she choked. “I don’t mean to laugh—I just don’t know how you ever came to such a conclusion about Gus. Oh, yes, he liked the ladies,” she said with a dismissing wave of her hand. “But that was before he met me. From the day he fell in love with me, he never looked at another woman.
“The McBrides are a loyal lot, Elizabeth,” she said with quiet conviction. “Gus was, and my children are. Once they give their heart, it’s forever. That’s why Joe never remarried. He loved Belinda with all his heart, and he’s never gotten over her...or the way she left him. It’ll take a very special woman to make him forget that.”
She sounded so sure—not only of her husband, but of her children. Confused, Elizabeth said, “But what about Zeke? The first day I met him I heard all about how he was engaged to one woman and caught with another. If commitment means that much to him, how could he have betrayed his fiancee?”
Sara had heard the same tale and all the other stories that had circulated about her youngest son over the years, and normally she wouldn’t have lowered herself to comment on something so ridiculous. But Zeke cared a great deal about this young woman. And whether she knew it or not, she cared just as much about him.
“Zeke and Rachel got engaged during her last year of medical school,” she explained. “He was finishing up his Ph.D. in California, and she was in Iowa. Neither one of them had much money, so naturally, they didn’t get to see each other very often. Then Zeke got a chance to surprise her on Valentine’s Day and flew in without telling her he was coming. He caught her with another man.”
“Oh, no!”
“It was awful,” the older woman said quietly. “He broke things off, and for the longest time, wouldn’t even tell the family what had happened. People talked, of course, and because he wouldn’t answer any questions and everyone knew he was a flirt, it was assumed that he was the one caught playing around. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. He’s just like his father. The woman who wins his heart will get his undying loyalty and devotion or he’ll never ask her to marry him.”
There was no doubting Sara’s sincerity, no doubting that she knew her son better than anyone. And too late, Elizabeth realized that she’d been as bad as the friends and neighbors who had judged him so wrongly. She’d assumed that because he was a man to whom flirting came easily, he had to be like her father and went around breaking hearts wherever he went. But if that had been the case, the women in town would not have cared how charming he was, they would have hated his guts. And Elizabeth knew for a fact that wasn’t the case. She’d seen the way his old girlfriends flocked to him—they still adored him. Because he was a man with principles who, unlike her father, hadn’t betrayed their trust.
Horrified at what she’d done, needing to talk to him, she pushed herself up from the couch and hardly felt her battered body tighten in protest. “Where’s the phone, Sara? Please, I need to call Zeke. I need to talk to him.”
“In the kitchen, dear,” she said, startled. “Sit down. It’s a portable. Let me get it for you.”
That was as far as she got. She turned toward the kitchen, took two steps, and came face-to-face with a man who had just slipped through the back door without a sound. In his hand was a revolver, and it was pointed right at Elizabeth.
Chapter 12
“Get o
ut of the way, Sara,” he rasped coldly. Madness glinting m his pale blue eyes, he motioned her aside with the gun. “I got no beef with you. She’s the one I want.”
Furious, she never budged. “Butch Jenkins, what the devil are you doing? Have you lost your mind? Put that thing away right this minute!”
“The hell I will! I told her to get rid of those damn wolves. They’re not wanted here. She’s not wanted here. I gave her a chance to pack up and get out of town and take those murdering monsters of hers with her, but she wouldn’t listen. Now she has to pay.”
Her heart threatening to beat right out of her breast, Elizabeth never took her eyes off the gun. It was trained right between her eyes. Beside her, she could feel Sara hesitate, and it terrified her. Don’t! she wanted to cry. Don’t play hero! You can’t win.
They couldn’t even call for help. There was no one to call. Zeke was in town, and Joe, thinking they would be safe there on the ranch, was checking the fence for downed wire. It would be hours before he and the hands returned.
“It’s all right, Sara,” she said quietly. “Just do what the man says and maybe we can find a way to talk this out.”
“Shut up!” he snarled. “I’m tired of all the damn talking. The lies! If you’d have just died last night like you were supposed to, this would all be over with now. But you had to make things difficult. You have from the very beginning. Well, now I’m calling the shots. Let’s see how you like that.”
Reaching into his pocket, he drew out a two-foot length of rope and threw it at Elizabeth. “Tie her up,” he ordered harshly, nodding at Sara.
“Butch, please don’t do this,” Sara pleaded. “I know you’re upset, but this isn’t the way. Let me call Joe and Zeke. We can all sit down and discuss this and see if we can find a way to work it out. No one has to get hurt.”
“You’re not going to,” he said pointedly, “as long as you don’t stick your nose into something that’s none of your business.” His eyes cold, he turned back to Elizabeth. “Tie her up. Now!”
Fear a thick lump in her throat, Elizabeth didn’t dare disobey him. There was madness in his eyes, a rage that destroyed rational thought. His finger twitched on the trigger of the gun, stopping her heart dead in her breast. Given the chance, he would kill them both. He was just looking for an excuse. She’d be damned if she’d give it to him.
Moving over to Sara, she started to tie her hands in front of her when he said sharply, “Behind her! And you’ll do it tight if you know what’s good for you. I’m not taking any chance on her getting loose and calling for help.”
Without a word, Elizabeth stepped behind her and began to wrap the rope around her wrists. Her head bent over her task, she racked her brain for a way to tie Sara so that she would be able to get undone just as soon as she had an opportunity, but all she could think of was Zeke coming home and finding his mother shot dead on the floor. With a will of their own, her fingers tightened the binding around Sara’s wrists until it was snug and inescapable.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered in a low voice that carried no farther than the older woman’s ears. “I can’t put you at risk. Zeke would never forgive me.”
The older woman nodded imperceptibly, and with a soundless sigh of relief that she understood, Elizabeth stepped away from her. “She’s tied,” she said flatly.
He checked, just as she’d known he would, and made no attempt to hide his disappointment that she hadn’t given him an excuse to shoot her “Too bad you can only follow orders when you’ve got a gun pointed at your head. C’mon,” he growled. “We’re going for a little ride.”
“No!” Sara cried. “Damn you, Butch, you can’t take that girl out of this house. Think what you’re doing! You’re in enough trouble already. Do you want to add kidnapping to all the other charges against you?”
“When a man’s protecting what’s his, he does what he has to do,” he said with frightening logic. “You know what those damn wolves did to us before, Sara. To my daddy. I saw him do it. Did you know that? I saw him blow his brains out. Because of the wolves. Because they cost us everything. I won’t let it happen again. Even if I have to kill her and every one of those damn bastards. I’m not losing my ranch!”
His face contorting with fury at the possibility, he jerked open the door to a nearby closet and pushed Sara inside. He slammed the door in her face and turned to grab Elizabeth by her hair. “You even look at me wrong, and you’re history,” he warned her, and shoved her toward the front door.
Pain streaking down her bruised back muscles like a hot flame, Elizabeth swallowed a moan and stumbled outside with him. A battered pickup sat in the drive, its motor still running. Muttering curses when she didn’t move as fast as he wanted her to, he dragged her over to the passenger side and jerked open the door. “You’re driving,” he growled. “Get in.”
Don’t do it! a voice in her head cried. If you leave the ranch with the monster, you’ll never live to see Zeke again.
But what other choice did she have? she wondered frantically. The man had lost it; he was totally out of touch with reality. No matter what she did, he was going to kill her. The question was when? If she went along with him peacefully, she could buy herself some time and hopefully come up with a way to get away from him.
Jt was, she knew, a slim hope, but it was the only one she had at the moment. Not uttering so much as a whimper, she climbed up into the seat and slid over under the wheel. Seconds later, following his terse orders, she drove to the ranch’s main entrance and turned right. And all the while, his gun was jammed into her side.
It was one of those days when the whole world seemed to be going crazy. The phone was ringing off the wall at the sheriff’s office with calls from indignant people who felt sure they knew who had tried to kill Elizabeth, and Zeke could have used at least three more people to help him handle them all. But there was a traffic accident out on the interstate, a train off the rail in the northern part of the county and a domestic disturbance that all had to be dealt with. With one deputy out with the flu and the other two investigating the accidents, Nick had to deal with the disturbance complaint, leaving Zeke to handle the phones.
And they were ringing off the wall. There were three lines, and he couldn’t hang up from one call without another coming in almost immediately. Everyone had to be put on hold and wait their turn to speak to him, but people didn’t complain. The attempted killing of Elizabeth had shaken people, and they were just beginning to realize that someone in the community, one of their neighbors, had a serious problem. They wanted him caught, and they called in with the most trivial information, hoping they could help. And Zeke was thrilled. People were talking, and eventually someone would realize they knew more than they thought they did.
Taking the next call, he said, “Sheriff’s office. McBride speaking.”
“Zeke! Just the man I wanted to talk to,” Hazel Abbot said briskly. The town librarian, she was prim and proper and didn’t suffer fools lightly. She’d been ruling over the bookshelves in the old Carnegie Library for forty years and could, to this day, intimidate grown men who dared to raise their voices above a whisper in its rooms. “It’s about that reward you’ve got everybody talking about. I think I have some information you might be interested in.”
Surprised, Zeke said, “And what might that be, Miss Abbot?”
“I saw two men throwing something off the Beaver Creek bridge out on Thomasville Road,” she told him, all business. “I was driving out that way to visit my sister and came around the curve, and there they were. I couldn’t see what they were throwing, but they quickly turned away when they saw me, as if they had something to hide. I don’t know if that’s much help to you, but I thought you should know.”
“You did the right thing,” Zeke assured her, jotting down notes. “What day was this? Did you get a look at either one of the men?”
“It was late in the afternoon last Tuesday,” she said promptly. “The library closes at two that day, and I always v
isit my sister.”
“And the men?”
She hesitated, then admitted, “I don’t like the idea of naming names when I didn’t get a good look at either one of them, but a little farther down the road, Chester Grant’s wrecker was parked on the side of the road.”
“And he wasn’t with the vehicle?”
“No. I guess this doesn’t sound like much, does it?” she said regretfully.
Zeke started to tell-her she’d been a big help when he looked up to see Chester Grant himself walk into the office with Nick. “It could be important, but I can’t tell you for sure until I check it out,” he told her quickly. “I’ll get back to you.”
“Look who I ran into outside working up the nerve to come in,” Nick told him as he hung up. “I think Chester’s got something he wants to say to us. Don’t you, Chester?”
Numbly, the other man nodded, then he just stood there, inside the door, looking like death warmed over. Exchanging a glance with Nick, Zeke went to the coffeemaker and poured a cup of coffee. “You look like you had a rough night, Chester,” he said, holding the cup out to him. “Why don’t you sit down and tell us about it?”
He took the cup and wrapped his hands around it, only to frown down into the black brew. “Nobody was supposed to get hurt.”
“Who got hurt, Chester?” Nick asked quietly. “Who’re you talking about?”
“That lady, the government one.” Looking up sharply at Zeke, his eyes were tortured. “I didn’t do nothing, Zeke. I want you to know that. I didn’t lay a hand on her. You know me. I wouldn’t do something like that. I thought we were just going to scare her. That’s all it was supposed to be. At least in the beginning.”
Burying his hands in his armpits to keep from reaching for him and pounding him into a bloody pulp just for thinking about scaring Elizabeth, Zeke growled, “Who’s we, Chester? Who are you mixed up with?”
Looking sick, he swallowed thickly. “He’ll kill me for sure if I tell you. He’s crazy! The wolf wasn’t even supposed to get killed. Why do you think we left that meat with the strychnine in it outside the holding pen? We just wanted her to know we could’ve killed all of them if we’d wanted to.”