A Real Cowboy

by Carla Cassidy

  She trembled with both fear and anticipation. It was midnight. Everyone was in place. She just wanted this all to be over.

  Seconds ticked by in loud clicks in her mind, a form of torture that might have driven her insane. Lucas kept his hand on her arm, preventing her emotions from getting the best of her and ruining the plans.

  What was happening? Who was in there? Would she recognize him? Her brain tried to access anyone from her past who might now be in the diner, but she couldn’t think of anyone.

  Lucas once again reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone. He listened for a moment and then returned the phone to his pocket. “It’s over. We can go inside.”

  Nicolette stared at him, frozen now that the time she’d been waiting for had arrived. They’d heard no gunshots, so apparently Dillon and his men had handled the situation exactly the way they’d hoped.

  The frozen inertia passed and she scrambled for the door handle to get out. When she reached the front of the vehicle, Lucas was there. He took her arm and together they walked around the side of the building to the front door.

  They entered and it was like a scene from a crime movie. Both Jeff and another man in a black-and-red dress shirt stood in the middle of the diner, hands cuffed behind their backs and surrounded on all sides by Dillon’s men with their weapons drawn and centered on the two.

  Nicolette looked at the man Jeff had met and a trembling began inside her. His dark hair was slicked back with an excess of gel and his eyes were the dark, flat color of a shark’s. He was tall and muscular, and she’d never seen him before in her life.

  “I don’t know you.” Her voice sounded unnaturally loud in the otherwise silent diner. “I don’t know who you are.” This time a light edge of hysteria crept into her voice.

  She took a step toward him. Lucas tightened his arm on hers, but she pulled away from him, lost in a sea of incomprehension, of rage. Nobody moved as she approached the suspect.

  She stopped just in front of him, her heartbeat smashing against her ribcage and echoing inside her head. “Who are you and why do you want my son?”

  “I don’t have to say anything to anyone,” he said with a sneer.

  Before Nicolette knew her intention, she slapped him. The slap was hard enough to sting her hand and redden his cheek. She sobbed and began to pummel him in the stomach until Lucas pulled her away and Dillon stepped between her and the man.

  “I was wondering if you were going to let that bitch throw any more punches while I’m cuffed and defenseless,” he said to Dillon.

  Lucas pushed Nicolette behind him and stalked toward the man. Dillon and several of his men grabbed Lucas. “I can’t let this go any further,” Dillon said to Lucas. “We all need to calm down here.”

  Nicolette could feel Lucas’s energy, his angry tension snapping in the air. She knew that anger had been driven by the fact that the man had called her a bitch. But he finally stepped back and instead placed an arm protectively around her shoulder.

  “According to his identification his name is Del Hawkins and he lives in Oklahoma City.” Dillon looked at Nicolette as if maybe the man’s name would somehow ring a bell of recognition in her head.

  She leaned into Lucas. “I don’t know him. I’ve never seen or heard of him before in my life.”

  “I just stopped in for the biscuits and gravy,” Del said. “I don’t know what’s going on or why I’m under arrest. You all are making a big mistake here.”

  “Shut up,” Dillon said to him. “Let’s get these two in a squad car and get them out of here and to the station.”

  As several of the other officers took charge of the prisoners and led them outside, Nicolette remained weak and boneless against Lucas’s side.

  Dillon approached where they stood. “Hopefully with a little time in jail he’ll be more willing to talk. In the meantime we’ll be checking out whatever we can about him, and by sometime tomorrow I should have some information for you that will resolve everything.”

  “Thanks, Dillon,” Lucas said. “We’ll be anxious to hear from you tomorrow.” Nicolette couldn’t speak as tears chased down her cheeks and sobs welled up inside her.

  She’d hoped it would all be over. She’d hoped that tonight would be the end, but they were leaving here with more questions than they’d come with and absolutely no answer as to who was after Sammy.

  * * *

  Despite the late night, Lucas awoke before dawn, the sound of Sammy’s deep, rhythmic breathing oddly comforting. For now he was safe, and Lucas would do everything in his power to keep him that way.

  He was just a kid, for crying out loud. Who would want to take him from the mother who loved him so deeply? He rolled over on his back in the small twin bed and stared unseeing at the still-dark ceiling.

  Nicolette had been a basket case on the way home from the diner. She’d cried the entire drive back to the ranch. The sound of her weeping had cut him to the core. He had no words of comfort to give her, could think of nothing to say that might ease any of her pain. He hadn’t felt this impotent since he’d been a kid trying to survive on the streets.

  He could only hope that today would bring her answers, that somehow Dillon could ferret out what and who had put Sammy at the center of a kidnapping scheme.

  Unable to stay in bed any longer, he grabbed clean clothes from the closet and then crept down the hallway to the bathroom. He tried to keep his mind completely blank as he showered and then dressed for the day.

  By the time he was finished and headed downstairs, the house was still silent around him. He made coffee and when it was finished he carried a cup to the table and sat down. It was only then that the blessed blankness of his mind filled with myriad thoughts.

  Last night had been a nightmare, and he hoped that Nicolette had found comfort in sleep without dreams. His dreams had been on the unpleasant side.

  They had begun happy enough with a dream of him and Nicolette in bed making love, but it hadn’t taken long for that scene to melt away and instead he and Nicolette were wandering the ranch, screaming out Sammy’s name.

  Finally that scene had disappeared and Lucas was once again a young teenager, homeless and hungry and knowing that danger could come for him at any moment. He wanted his mother and then he transformed into Sammy, crying out for his own mother.

  A tense, terrible night followed by nightmares that had chased him through sleep. Still, despite the lack of peaceful sleep, he felt wide-awake and alert.

  His fingers now tightened around his coffee cup. He never wanted Sammy to be in a position where he was alone and afraid and crying for his mother. Lucas knew the scars that lingered and he never wanted Sammy to possess those kinds of scars.

  He looked up as he heard the back door unlock and open, and Adam came inside. “Morning,” Adam said and headed directly for the coffee. “How’d it go last night?” He joined Lucas at the table.

  Adam frowned and sipped his coffee as Lucas filled him in on the night’s events. “Hopefully Dillon can get some answers from Del Hawkins and this danger to Sammy will be over once and for all,” Lucas finished.

  “Speaking of Sammy, Cookie told me to tell you that tonight is pizza night so if you want to bring the boy for dinner he’ll set an extra plate.”

  “If you talk to him, then tell him to set that plate. Sammy would love dinner with the other cowboys.” Lucas smiled as he thought of Sammy’s excitement. He was certain that there would be no issue with Nicolette letting Sammy go with him to dinner. Nicolette had to know by now that nobody would get to Sammy as long as Lucas was around, and he intended to be near them at all times now.

  “You’ve gotten close to them,” Adam said. “Not just to Sammy, but also to Nicolette.”

  Lucas wanted to protest Adam’s assessment, but instead he took a sip of his coffee and then formulated his reply. “Yeah, I’ve gotten close to them,” he agreed. “It’s impossible not to get close to a kid like Sammy. He’s open and curious and wants to be a cowboy just l
ike me. If I had a son, Sammy would be like what I’d want.”

  “And Nicolette?”

  Lucas leaned back in his chair and frowned. “I’ll admit she’s gotten under my skin more than a little bit. But, you know I have no desire to have anything permanent with any woman. None of us have ever sought any real relationships in all the years we’ve worked here. The twelve of us, we’re all damaged goods.”

  Adam sighed and raked a hand through his dark hair. “Cass would kick your butt for saying that. She had always hoped that she’d rehabilitate us to the point where we could all live normal lives. She fantasized that we’d all eventually fall in love, get married and have families of our own. She wanted to rock our children, be a beloved grandma.”

  “But, she’s dead now,” Lucas said flatly. “And I know we’re all still grieving her.”

  Adam gave a curt nod, his dark eyes filled with pain. Lucas knew Adam had been the first young teenager that Cass had taken on. He’d been especially close to Cass and his grief still clung to him. “We just need to move ahead as if she were here.”

  “And you really think we can do that with Cassie in charge?” Lucas didn’t want to betray Nicolette’s confidence that Cassie had no intention of sticking around for the long term.

  “I don’t know...maybe. She seems like she’s trying to learn the ins and outs of the ranch business.” Adam shrugged. “She’s no Cass. She’s much more fragile, but she might toughen up. Time will tell. She’s supposed to meet me in just a few minutes. I’m driving her out to the Garmand Ranch to look at a bull.”

  “Are my ears ringing?” Cassie walked into the kitchen, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved blue blouse. “If somebody would have told me a couple of months ago that I’d be getting up at the crack of dawn to drive to a ranch to look at a bull, I would have told them they were full of bull.”

  Adam smiled at her and in his smile Lucas saw genuine affection. It seemed the foreman might have a little crush on the new boss, and for some reason that depressed Lucas. He hoped Adam didn’t get any romantic ideas about the new owner, because he was fairly sure she was here only temporarily and, like all the others on the ranch, Adam had already had more than his share of heartache.

  Cassie and Adam had been gone for only about fifteen minutes when Nicolette made her first appearance of the day. Clad in an emerald green robe, with eyes red and still swollen from the tears she’d wept the night before, the sight of her moved him on all kinds of levels.

  He had to fight his need to pull her into his arms and onto his lap and cradle her in his comforting arms. She’d obviously had a rough night of sleep.

  “Nightmares?” he asked and watched as she shuffled her way barefoot to the coffeemaker.

  She poured her coffee and then turned to face him, her back leaning against the counter. “That was only when I finally managed to fall asleep. I had trouble turning off my brain for a long time.”

  “Did your brain come up with anything new that might be helpful?” he asked.

  She joined him at the table and curled her fingers around her cup. “Nothing specific.” She took a drink of her coffee and then continued, “Four thousand dollars is a lot of money to pay for the kidnapping of a child, and that was only what Jeff was being paid. Surely somebody was paying Del, as well. No matter how I twist it around in my head, I just can’t make sense of it. I mean, is there some kind of child trafficking ring working here in town?”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Lucas replied. “I haven’t heard of any other kids in town being in danger or kidnapped. Hopefully Dillon will have some answers for you later today,” he replied. “On a different subject, Cookie is serving pizza tonight for dinner and I’d like Sammy to eat with us at the bunkhouse. Would that be all right?”

  Her smile lit up his heart. “That would be more than all right,” she replied. “He’ll be absolutely thrilled.” Her smile lasted only a moment and then defaulted into a frown. “I just wish I knew who was behind these attacks on Sammy.”

  “You need to let Dillon do his job.”

  “I know. I just want all of the answers now.” She took another drink of her coffee and the frown disappeared from her forehead. “Now you’re seeing yet another side of me that you probably didn’t know about.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Impatience.”

  He offered her a small smile. “Maybe in this case, but I don’t think impatience is a normal emotion for you. I’ve seen your patience with Sammy too often to believe that.”

  “Speaking of Sammy, I think maybe I’ll just keep him inside today. He can play his video games and watch movies and just have a quiet day. I need a quiet day. I’ll keep him inside until it’s time for him to go with you for dinner.”

  He recognized that what she really wanted was her son nearby, close enough that she wouldn’t have to worry about his safety, and he couldn’t blame her.

  “I think that sounds like a good idea. Maybe I can teach him how to tie a rope and we can practice some lassoing skills in the great room.”

  “Just as long as you don’t rope anything valuable,” she replied. “Maybe I could act like a cow and run around the room and you could teach Sammy to lasso me.”

  And that’s exactly the way they spent the morning after breakfast. It was a couple of hours of welcomed laughter as Nicolette ran back and forth in the room with her fingers at her forehead like horns and Sammy tried to lasso her.

  She even made mooing noises, causing Sammy to fall to the floor in a fit of giggles more than once. He got close several times but never managed to get the rope over his mother.

  Lucas finally took the rope from him and easily roped Nicolette over her head and pulled the rope tight, trapping her arms against her sides. He slowly reeled her toward him and Sammy laughed and clapped his hands.

  Nicolette was laughing as Lucas pulled her close to him. He saw the laughter in her eyes, heard the giggles as Sammy danced around them, and he wanted to reel her all the way into his arms. He wanted to pull her close enough to feel her body intimately against his. This all felt like home. It felt like family.

  He dropped the rope and stepped back from her, needing to stop the fantasy, halt the thoughts that suddenly raced through his mind. “And that’s how you rope a lady cow,” he said to Sammy.

  “Hey, who are you calling a cow?” she asked, but her laughter faltered just a bit. She unwound herself and stepped out of the rope. “I think that’s enough lassoing for the day. How about we eat some lunch?”

  After a lunch of sandwiches, Nicolette and Sammy disappeared upstairs and Lucas paced the lower level, willing his cell phone to ring and for Dillon to call them with some answers.

  He wanted this whole thing solved so that he could gain some distance from Nicolette. He had to get out of this house and back on Lucky.

  He needed the fresh pasture-scented air to sweep Nicolette’s sweet fragrance out of his head. He needed to be in the barn oiling saddles with the soft neighs of the horses. He needed to be back at the bunkhouse, sharing evenings with his fellow cowboys and not fantasizing about a family he’d never have.

  It was just after three when he finally got a call from Dillon. “What have you found out?” he asked.

  “Absolutely nothing,” Dillon replied, his frustration obvious in his voice. “Del Hawkins lawyered up faster than we could blink our eyes, and it’s not some local-yokel ambulance-chaser lawyer. It’s Raymond Russell from Oklahoma City.”

  Lucas whistled beneath his breath. Raymond Russell was part good old boy and part barracuda. The defense lawyer had made a name for himself two years before on a national level when he’d defended a prominent doctor who’d been accused of killing his wife. Against nearly insurmountable odds, he’d gotten the doctor off and had made a reputation for himself.

  “Does Del Hawkins have the money to pay for that kind of a defense?” Lucas asked.

  “Not according to what little we’ve managed to learn about him. He’s single, a ca
r salesman and in fact has a gambling problem that has his finances on the brink of disaster. Somebody else is paying for his defense and all we know is that it’s an anonymous donor.”

  Lucas frowned, wondering how on earth he was going to tell Nicolette this new twist. He knew that she’d hoped that Del Hawkins would talk and the mystery would finally be solved. But, this was simply more bad news. It was obvious Del Hawkins was just another link in a chain of evil.

  Chapter 11

  Lucas had managed to escape the house with Sammy for dinner without telling Nicolette that he’d spoken to Dillon earlier in the day. He felt bad about holding on to the information of Del’s representation by a shark lawyer, but with Sammy in Lucas’s custody for the evening meal, she and Cassie had decided to drive into Bitterroot and eat at Tammy’s Tea House, a quaint little eatery in town that catered more to the womenfolk in Bitterroot.

  He hadn’t wanted to ruin her evening, and thankfully she hadn’t asked if he’d heard anything from Dillon, so he hadn’t lied outright except by omission.

  He and Sammy watched the two women drive off and then he clapped a hand on Sammy’s shoulder and together they began the walk to the bunkhouse.

  “I’d even eat liver and onions to have dinner with you and the rest of the cowboys and I totally hate liver,” Sammy said. “But pizza is a lot better.”

  “I agree,” Lucas replied. “Liver isn’t one of my favorite foods, but pizza is terrific.”

  Lucas’s heart squeezed tight as Sammy slipped his small hand into his. “I think this is the very best time of my life,” Sammy said.

  Lucas’s heart squeezed a little bit tighter. “I’m glad you’re having a good time now, but I hope your future has lots of good times.”

  If he had a future, Lucas thought, and tightened his hand around Sammy’s. They’d been lucky twice in saving Sammy, but Lucas couldn’t help but wonder how long that luck would hold and when danger might threaten again.

  “I just wish my mom and I could stay here forever. I could grow up and be one of Cassie’s cowboys and ride horses and do cowboy work.”