Right. The guy who nearly got her clock reset in an almost bar fight. Would he leave his sister in the middle of nowhere tied up to freeze to death? Rory hoped not for Sadie’s sake, but if he did, Rory wanted to get his hands on him . . . now.
“This isn’t any small thing. If I hadn’t found her when I did . . .” Rory hung his head, then turned and stared at Sadie. Every cut, nick, and bruise sliced a strip right off his heart.
He shouldn’t feel this way. This deep. But he did. Something about her spoke to him since that day in the feed store. Her quiet intensity, contrasted with her soft, sweet smile, and the I’ve-seen-way-too-much-in-my-short-life look in her eyes.
“Mr. Kendrick.” The deputy called him out of his dark thoughts.
“Sorry. It’s been a long day.”
The deputy pointed his pen at Sadie, then him. “So, you two together, or something?”
“No. We’ve never officially met.” He went to the diner where she worked sometimes. He never sat in her section. Just watched her from across the room. He saw her at the feed store sometimes and the gas station where she worked, too. The woman worked her ass off.
“What are you still doing here then?”
“Her father hasn’t shown up to take care of her. I can’t just leave her here,” he snapped.
“My partner went out to her place. Her father isn’t well. He’s unable to come in his condition.”
That surprised Rory. He had no idea her dad was ill. Poor Sadie, two people she had to take care of and not one of them showed up for her. “I take it you didn’t find her brother.”
“Her dad said Connor hasn’t been home in days.”
That raised a red flag for Rory. Connor could definitely be involved then.
“Her father thought Sadie was at work. He didn’t even know five of his horses were missing.”
“So it was Connor.”
The deputy nodded. “Evidence points that way. If there’s nothing else you can tell me, I’ll be on my way. I’ll talk to her tomorrow morning, get her side of things.” The deputy pulled out his handcuffs.
“What the hell are you doing with those?”
The deputy picked up Sadie’s hand and carefully put the cuff on, avoiding hitting her bandaged wrist. Rory stood and leaned forward. The deputy eyed him, a warning to back off. He hooked the other side of the cuffs to the metal bed rail.
“If she is involved, I don’t want her escaping before we can determine who else is a part of this.”
“I’m telling you, she didn’t do it. Take those off her.”
“Mr. Kendrick, you said it yourself. You’ve never met her. I’ve dealt with her brother many times. Sadie isn’t one to do anything wrong, except if you count the ways she covers for Connor. You don’t know what really happened out there. I’ll have a deputy stationed outside until she wakes up and answers our questions.” He stared down at Sadie again. “I want to believe she isn’t in on this. She’s suffered enough, but I need to do this by the book and treat her like the suspect she is until I confirm otherwise.”
Rory fell into his chair, defeated. Nothing he could do about the cuffs, or changing the deputy’s mind. But he didn’t like it, or this feeling that he’d failed to protect her.
“No matter how this turns out, she owes you a huge debt of gratitude. You saved her life.”
She didn’t owe him anything. But if her brother was involved, he sure as hell had to answer for what he’d done.
“If she wakes up, give me a call. We’ll get this sorted out.” The deputy handed over his card. Rory stuffed it into the front pocket of his too small shirt.
Rory sat with his feet propped on the cart beside Sadie’s bed, his arm along the length of her leg, his hand over hers. He rolled his head to the side when someone entered the room. He expected the nurse to come back and check Sadie’s vitals again, but Ford and Colt walked in and stopped short, both their gazes locked on his hand on Sadie’s.
“What are you guys doing here?”
Ford held up the pizza and six-pack in his hands. “I brought dinner and beer. Thought you might be hungry.” He set both on the tray table at the end of the bed.
Colt held up a duffel bag and yanked the shirt down from over his shoulder and tossed it to Rory. “Brought you one of your shirts. Stopped by her place and talked to her dad. He’s not well at all and scared for her. I told him we’d take care of her and see she gets home whenever they release her. I packed her some clothes.” Colt dropped the bag at the end of the bed without hitting Sadie’s tiny feet.
Rory pulled off Colt’s flannel that had kept him warm but was damn uncomfortable when it pulled and pinched every time he moved. He tossed the flannel on Sadie’s bag and pulled the dark gray thermal on. Comfortable and able to flex his arms and move his shoulders, he relaxed.
“Thanks, guys.”
“There’s something you should know.” Colt unscrewed the cap on one of the beer bottles and took a long pull. “I found the Higginses’ five horses, saddled and grazing in the back pasture outside their house.”
“Based on the missing horses, the deputy thinks her brother is involved.” Rory swore and shook his head.
Colt scrunched one side of his mouth into a lopsided frown. “Those damn fools just left them there. That or they turned them loose and the horses found their way home.”
“They hurt her, left her and the horses, they don’t give a shit about anyone or anything, just taking the cattle and running off with them.” Ford clenched his hand tight on the end of the bed frame and stared down at Sadie.
Rory popped the top on his own beer and drank deeply, wishing it was something stronger. “I find her asshole brother, he’s going to wish he never stepped foot on our land or left his sister for dead.”
“Why the hell is she handcuffed to the bed?” Colt asked, shaking his head. “Even if she took the cattle with those guys, she’s suffered enough.”
“She didn’t do it.” The warning in Rory’s voice made Colt narrow his eyes.
“I never said she did it. I’m just saying . . .”
“I know, I’m sorry. I’m pissed and tired and frustrated as hell.”
“So, a normal day,” Ford tried to tease him out of yet another of his black moods.
Sometimes Rory found the overwhelming responsibility to oversee the ranch and take care of his family wore on him. He spent too much time working, not enough time . . . doing anything else. He couldn’t remember the last time he took a day off. He couldn’t remember the last movie he went to see in the theater, let alone the last time he went out with a woman. He vaguely remembered sex involved more than a hot shower and his hand.
He felt Sadie’s soft skin beneath his fingers. In the past, just the sight of her stirred something deep inside him that felt like the crack of a seed just beginning to sprout. But without any light inside him, it died each and every time he walked away from her without so much as a hello.
Now, sitting beside her, touching her skin after all he’d been through today, it felt like the newest seed to crack open inside him not only sprouted, but sprang a new leaf, trying to reach up and out of his chest and finally grow into something. What? He didn’t quite know, but he was tired of everything he wanted and needed being smothered under responsibility.
“Rory, you stare at her any harder, you’ll wear a hole in her.” Ford handed him a paper plate with two slices of bacon and tomato pizza. His favorite. “Eat, man. We’ll figure this out.”
“Nothing to figure out. We need to find her brother and whoever else did this to her.”
“The cops can’t even find that fuck.” Colt wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. “Asshole’s been running around for years doing anything he damn well pleases.”
“She always pays the price,” Ford said.
“What do you mean?” Rory asked, eyeing his brother.
“It’s no secret she’s the one who cleans up that guy’s messes. That fight with Colt isn’t the only time he went into that b
ar and started some trouble. She’s paid off bar tabs, gambling debts, lawyer bills when Connor actually got caught, and settled up with folks when her brother stole their shit.”
“No way she can come up with the cash for the herd. Fuck. Those were some prime beef cattle.” Colt might be the youngest and the most reckless of them, but he understood that he was just as responsible for the success of the ranch as any of them. Oh, he’d skipped out on work plenty of times, but when he was really needed and the chips were down, Colt came through.
“Since when did you two start keeping tabs on Sadie’s family?” The last thing Rory wanted to find out was that either one of them was dating her, or had in the past. They were brothers. There was an unwritten, unspoken code to follow. Why Rory was even thinking about dating her, he didn’t know. Nothing had changed. Based on the few times they’d run into each other, she had no interest in him.
“If you spent any amount of time off the ranch, you’d know all this,” Ford scolded. “Everyone in town knows that everything at the Higgins place went to shit when Sadie’s mother died. She’s been mother, maid, and caretaker of her brother and father since she was sixteen.”
“She missed all the fun in high school,” Colt added. “She kept her head in her books, after-school work at the diner and gas station, and tending to her daddy’s ranch the best she could. Guys would hit on her in school, ask her to bonfires and dances, but she never accepted.”
“Ah, little brother, is there a woman out there who actually turned you down?” Ford teased Colt.
“She was damn pretty then, even more beautiful now.” His eyes held a gleam of sadness when he glanced at her and took in all her injuries. “I never asked her out, but I wanted to. She doesn’t smile very much. I always thought she needed a break.”
Rory understood exactly what Colt meant. Sadie had been running hard her whole life just to keep up, but no matter how hard she ran, she just kept falling behind, her brother putting one obstacle after another in her path, keeping her from getting ahead.
“Her daddy used to run some pretty nice horses,” Colt went on. “The ones I saw today are the last of his stock. Looks like she’s sold them off over the years.”
“Yeah, to pay off her brother’s debts.”
“I wouldn’t mind having a few of those horses to breed,” Colt said. “Her place is falling into disrepair. Looks like her father’s health is declining fast.”
“Do you know what’s wrong with him?” Rory asked.
“I didn’t ask. He didn’t say.”
Sadie began to stir in the bed. Whether disturbed by their voices or another nightmare, she flinched and shook.
“What’s wrong with her?” Colt asked.
“Bell said she’d probably do this off and on through the night due to the trauma she suffered.” Rory slid his fingers up her arm and down, trying to soothe her.
“Rory,” she whispered, tensing under his hand. “Dev-vil,” she mumbled.
Ford and Colt both turned to him. Colt busted out laughing. “She thinks you’re the devil, man.” He tipped his head. “You two know each other? Did you actually leave your monastery and we don’t know about it, monk?”
Rory hated that nickname. The glare he sent his brothers only made them smile more. “I don’t know her.”
“In the biblical sense,” Colt prodded. He never knew when to quit.
Rory leaned forward in his chair and bit out, “You want to live, you’ll shut the fuck up.”
Ford planted his hand on Colt’s chest to stop him from sputtering another smart-ass remark. “Let it go, little brother, or you’ll be laid out on the floor.”
“Rory. Devil,” Sadie muttered again. “Get him.” She thrashed about in the bed.
Rory stood and pressed lightly on her shoulders to hold her down so she didn’t hurt herself more. “Shh. You’re okay.” He gently ran his fingers down her hair again and again. “Shh.” She settled back into a deep sleep and his fisted gut let loose again, but the band around his chest remained tight. He didn’t understand why she called his name and thought him some kind of devil. He’d helped her. He’d never done anything to her. So why did she fear him this way?
“Hey, man, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. The way you looked when I got to the two of you. I can’t imagine what you saw and felt seeing her strung up like that.” Colt hung his head and shook it. “I see you want to—”
“Doesn’t matter what I want,” Rory cut him off. “I found her. I’ll see she gets home safe. That’s all there is to this.”
Ford laid a hand on Rory’s shoulder. “If there’s more—”
“There’s nothing.” Rory shook off his brother’s hand, hoping those two didn’t start spouting all kinds of assumption, thinking they knew anything. There would never be anything between him and Sadie. Right? What the hell would she want from a guy like him? A man who’d turned hard and shut off everything inside himself except his drive to get the job done, keep the ranch surviving and thriving, and see his brothers find their way out of their grief after losing their parents and become the men they were today. Happy. Making their own way in the world. Just what his parents would have wanted for them. Exactly what he’d promised them the day he put them in the ground. He’d take care of Ford and Colt. He’d make sure they always had a home and they stayed together. Granddad helped hold them together when they were kids, but as the oldest, Rory took on the responsibility of parent and big brother.
Rory fell back into his chair and avoided looking at his brothers, knowing the cold, hard truth. “I don’t know her. She doesn’t want to know me. You heard her. She thinks I’m the devil.” Rory shook his head, trying to ignore the tightening of his gut and the hurt that settled in his heart that she’d think such a thing about him. Had he become so closed off from other people that they feared him because he’d never let anyone really get to know him?
Sadie twitched and moaned again, clamping her hand down on his arm and holding tight, her nails digging into his arm. “Rory. Get them.”
“You might consider that she knew those cattle belonged to us and told her brother and his friends that you were going to go after them.”
Rory wanted to believe Ford’s words. He really did. He covered Sadie’s hand with his and she relaxed. He tried to pull his arm free, but she clamped down tight again. For whatever reason, she didn’t want to let him go. He didn’t want to let go of her. He stared at her face, hoping for any sign that she knew it was him sitting beside her. When he turned back to tell his brothers to go on home, he found they’d already gathered the empty pizza box, plates, napkins, and empty beer bottles and left without so much as a goodbye. Not that he’d have heard them; he was so focused on Sadie and the colliding thoughts in his head.
One side of himself told him he was crazy for thinking she’d wake up and be happy to see him. The other side told him to walk away now before she woke up and called him the devil to his face and ordered him out.
Neither side won; they just kept up the verbal war in his head. He talked himself out of getting to know her better and into staying right here beside her. Funny, no one talked him into anything. He wanted to stay. He wanted to convince her she didn’t know him, but he wanted her to. The why and how of it eluded him, but he didn’t get up and walk out the door. This was where he wanted to be. Right beside her.
CHAPTER 4
Sadie felt the bite of the wire cinch around her wrists, ankles, and body like a vise. She screamed and fought to get free, but nothing worked and the cold froze her down to her bones. The devil dude came after her with the knife raised over his head, slashing it down. She screamed again and his image turned into a much larger, darker man, then shifted back to the devil dude again. “Rory. Devil,” she gasped, thrashing to get away.
Someone grabbed her shoulders, shooting pain through her arms and up her neck. Her eyes flew open and she stared into a pair of golden-green hazel eyes. “Stop. You’re hurting me.”
Rory pulled
his hands away from her and held them up in front of him like he was being stopped by the cops. “I’m trying to stop you from hurting yourself. Calm down. Take a breath.”
For the first time she realized she was nearly hyperventilating. She tried to put her hand on her heaving chest, but something clanked and tugged sharply on her arm. She stared down at her aching hand and saw the handcuffs. She panicked, which didn’t help her breathing situation.
“Hey, now. Look, this hand is free.” Rory picked up her hand and held it softly in his big one, which set off a new round of fear. Why was he here? Where was here? Was she under arrest?
“I didn’t steal them. I tried to stop them. You have to believe me. I’d n-n-never . . .” She couldn’t get any air. Flashes of light sparkled in her vision.
“Sadie, damnit, breathe.”
She couldn’t. Everything went dark.
Rory wanted to shake her awake. Bell rushed into the room along with a nurse and a dark-haired woman. Luna, if he remembered her name right, who worked at the diner with Sadie. He stood over Sadie feeling like he’d just been kicked in the chest by a horse.
“Rory, what happened?” Bell asked.
“She was having another nightmare, thrashing around in the bed. I touched her shoulders to steady her and keep her from hurting herself. She woke up, saw me, and I don’t know . . . She freaked out.”
“What did you do to her?” Luna demanded.
“Nothing,” Rory bit out.
“Panic attack.” Bell tapped the monitor by the bed. “Her heart rate is coming down. She passed out. She’ll wake up soon.”
Sadie’s heart rate might be slowing down, but his stopped when her eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp. He fell back into the chair he’d sat in all night and raked his hands through both sides of his hair and tried to hold it together. He’d barely slept. His back ached from the uncomfortable seat. He needed a huge dose of caffeine and a chance to set the record straight with Sadie. If she called him the devil one more time, he might lose it. He hated that she thought he’d hurt her.
Stone Cold Cowboy Page 4