by Ann Major
“I’m fine, but I’ve got to catch that damn Demon before he bolts for the barn and I have to walk all the way back.”
“Don’t cuss.”
“Sorry!”
The kid didn’t look the least bit sorry as he sat up and got ready to spring to his feet.
Luke put a hand on his shoulder. “Not so fast. Why don’t you sit here a minute or two, catch your breath.”
“I said I’m okay,” the boy protested impatiently, looking defiant.
Just as Luke would have done at the same age.
“Right. And I say it’s too soon to be so sure. What’s your name?”
“Daniel.” His bottom lip curling, the kid stared at the ground.
“You got a last name?”
“’Course I do! Wakefield.” There was fierce pride in his low tone, the kind of pride Luke had never felt for his biological father. When the kid tried unsuccessfully to shake loose from Luke’s iron grip, his bottom lip grew even more prominent.
“My name’s Luke Kilgore.”
“Glad to meet you, Mr. Kilgore,” Daniel said automatically.
“Glad to meet you, too.”
The boy on the ground didn’t look a thing like the blond, blue-eyed Wakefield bunch. Luke’s mind raced backward.
“How old are you, Daniel?” Luke asked slowly, as unwanted pressure pounded in his temples.
This couldn’t be happening. But it was. The angry kid looked just like he’d looked at the same age.
“Five.”
The number was a sucker punch in the gut.
Damn her. Was this why she had married Wakefield so quickly? Had she been pregnant? Had she slept with them both and hoped to pass off his baby as the wealthier Wakefield’s to get the ranch back? Had she despised the thought she might be carrying a Kilgore?
Luke clenched and unclenched his fists. When one speculated, one was usually wrong. What mattered now was finding out the truth.
“Does your mother know where you are?” Luke asked in a low, even tone. “That you were riding Demon bareback?”
The kid tensed and then lowered his eyes guiltily. “Sure. I was with Manuel, so it’s okay.”
“Right,” Luke said softly. “What do you say we catch Demon so the two of you can run along home, back to the ranch, so your mother won’t worry?”
“She’s not worrying. She’s too busy getting ready for her meeting with some guy.”
“That would be me.”
“Oh. Are you rich? Some car, huh? Long.” His eyes lit up. “Like a bus.”
“Not exactly. It’s called a limousine. Limo for short. What do you say we catch your horse?”
Luke and Daniel stood up together, and Manuel joined them. Demon’s ears shot forward and he whinnied. As Luke and the boy dusted themselves off, the blood bay gelding hung his head and licked his lips.
Good sign, Luke thought as Manuel slowly approached the horse.
The well-proportioned gelding didn’t run away. He stood docilely, allowing Manuel to retrieve the reins. Manuel swung himself onto the horse. Then Luke lifted Daniel up to the mounted man.
A shadow passed over Daniel’s face as he looked down. “I got you all dirty. You’re gonna tell Mom on me.”
“I’m not sure what I’ll say to her. But I’ll catch up to you two at the house,” Luke said, his tone hard as he dusted himself off again.
“Did you come to buy a horse or something?” the kid asked.
“Or something.”
“Good, ’cause me and Mom could sure use the money.”
Money—had she married Wakefield because his daddy had been a banker and he’d owned Wild Horse Ranch? Or to give her baby a name?
When had she learned she was pregnant? Was her pregnancy the reason she hadn’t taken his calls or answered his letters?
“See you,” Daniel said, dismissing Luke casually.
Then the boy leaned forward with the ease of a natural rider. Soon boy, man and horse were cantering down the shoulder of the road while Luke stood still and silent, watching them.
Luke identified with that half-wild kid. Almost as if Luke was riding Demon himself, he felt the calves of those thin legs gripping the powerful animal. They were his legs, his knees squeezing tight, his lean body leaning forward, his hands lightly holding the reins. It was him urging the great creature faster, faster, until the ride became exhilarating.
“Breathe, Daniel. Don’t forget to breathe,” Luke whispered.
Then horse, boy and man were flying, airborne, united, and Luke’s own soul rushed after them. He hadn’t felt this alive in years.
What if the kid was his son?
No sooner had the trio melted into the haze of the horizon than a knot of longing formed in Luke’s throat. Should he have let Daniel back on the beast so soon? The boy had said he was fine, and he was with Manuel. But was the boy okay? What if he had a concussion?
Acute parental anxiety was new to him and made him feel foolish. The kid probably wasn’t even his. But whether he was or he wasn’t, Luke’s concern caused beads of sweat to break out on his brow.
Had Caitlyn wanted him gone so he wouldn’t find out about Daniel? Was that why she’d been afraid? If so, she was far more deceptive than he’d believed.
Luke wanted answers, and he wanted them now. Grabbing his cell, he punched in Hassan’s number. It was probably midnight Hassan’s time, but Luke didn’t give a damn.
As always, Hassan’s voice was warm with paternal interest in a way that Luke’s biological father’s never had been.
“Raffi. You had a safe journey? No problems?”
“Only one. I just met Daniel.”
There was a long silence before Hassan finally spoke. “I saw him at Keeneland. He looked so much like you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was right? He is yours, then?”
Three
As soon as his limo had returned to Caitlyn’s ranch and braked in front of the house, Luke flung open his door. He felt torn by the conflicting emotions raging inside him. He wished he’d never come to Texas; he was glad he’d come. He wished Hassan had leveled with him from the beginning; he was glad he’d seen the boy with his own eyes. He was furious at Caitlyn and yet filled with tenderness for her bravely defiant little son. He was in such an irrational state, he knew she was the last person he needed to talk to, but he wanted her to know that if the kid was theirs, he wouldn’t walk away from her or Daniel.
“The boy looked so much like you,” Hassan had said over the phone. “I couldn’t forget about him and do nothing. That is why I helped her. That is why I sent you and nobody else. If you are family, so are they.”
“You could have told me.”
“I was so struck by him when I saw him, I knew you would be, too. I know what it is…to nearly lose a son. I wanted you to see him for yourself. To be struck by him as I was.”
Oh, Luke felt struck, all right.
“There are some things a man must see and feel for himself, decide for himself,” Hassan had said.
Fisting his hands, Luke stormed toward the round pen and frowned when he found Lisa instead of Caitlyn. The young woman leaned against a railing, watching and listening to the commotion in her gooseneck trailer.
“Where’s Caitlyn?” he demanded.
“Ah, back so soon.” Lisa batted her long eyelashes boldly as she fingered the falls at the end of her quirt.
“Caitlyn better not be in that trailer with your horse!”
Her brows snapped together. Sucking in a miffed breath, she quit fiddling with her quirt. “Why not? She knows what she’s doing. Why, she’s almost got Ramblin’ Man loaded. And in record time. He can be a brute, that one.”
Luke’s fury and impatience vanished. The thought of Caitlyn in that tiny trailer with a huge, unpredictable stallion that had to weigh well over a thousand pounds made his gut clench. Was she suicidal? He wanted to scream at her to get the hell out of there, but of course he couldn’t do that without endangering her
even more. So, instead, he moved soundlessly around the pen, taking a circuitous route so as not to spook the stallion. He’d wait behind the trailer until she’d safely loaded the horse.
When he reached his destination and she still hadn’t come out, his heart began to thud more forcefully. Then he heard her soothing voice, along with the nervous clatter of Ramblin’ Man’s hooves.
Why couldn’t the beast just load?
“No bees today,” she was saying in that feather-soft purr. “Nothing for a big boy like you to be scared of. Come on, baby, just one more step and you can go home. Don’t you want to go home?”
And then Luke’s cell phone rang.
Before Luke could shut it off, the horse had exploded, his head banging into the roof, which caused him to react even more wildly. Hooves banged. Caitlyn screamed. Ramblin’ Man, his eyes round, burst from the trailer faster than a rocket off a launchpad, dragging Caitlyn behind him by a slender foot. Somehow she’d gotten tangled in the longe line.
Easy to do in such tight, dimly lit quarters, he thought grimly.
With a cry of sheer terror, Lisa leaped out of the round pen so she could watch the drama from the other side of the railing without risking her own neck.
It had been a while since Luke had dealt directly with horses, but he remembered that when a fifteen-hundred-pound horse wanted to take one step, five men against his chest couldn’t stop him. Ramblin’ Man wanted out of the pen, and if somebody didn’t get him under control, he’d trample Caitlyn or drag her to death first.
Without a thought for his own hide, Luke placed both hands on the railing and threw himself into the pen. Yelling to Lisa to throw him her quirt, he caught it on the run and raced toward the horse.
Thankfully, Manuel sprang into the pen alongside him. With the other man’s expert help, Luke soon grabbed the double-braided marine rope Caitlyn had been using as a longe line. With it and the quirt, he took charge. Applying pressure, he soon had Ramblin’ Man’s attention and respect.
“Stay where you are,” he ordered Manuel. Ramblin’ Man had heeded a few commands and had stopped to stare at them, so Luke handed Manuel the heavy, webbed line. “Keep his attention focused on you while I free her.”
Manuel nodded grimly and clucked to the horse.
Not wanting to spook Ramblin’ Man further, Luke walked slowly to Caitlyn. She was sitting up by the time he reached her, tugging fiercely at the line around her ankle.
Before he could hunker down beside her, she’d snatched the line loose and was glaring at him as if everything was his fault—which, unfortunately, it was.
“Were you trying to kill me? Is that your idea of a solution, Kilgore? There was a time when you knew a thing or two about horses.”
He still did. He owned a stable, and several of its horses were champions.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I was upset about something else and I forgot about my damn cell phone.”
“City slicker!”
“I said I was sorry.”
“Well, don’t just stand there gaping at me, give me a hand up before somebody else calls you and Ramblin’ Man finishes what he started.”
Luke pulled her to her feet, but no sooner had she put her weight on her ankle than she gave a cry that pierced his heart. Damn it. Against his will, he cared about this woman.
Crumpling against him, she cursed under her breath, coupling his name with several colorful invectives that would have made him laugh under different circumstances.
“Let me go!” she yelled.
“If I do, you’ll fall on your delectable ass!”
“Anything’s preferable to being in your arms!”
“Hey, you jumped me this time,” he said, grabbing her.
“Did not!”
Pulling her closer, he swung her into his arms. “You’re not walking on that foot till we figure out what’s wrong with it.”
“You can’t tell me what to do.”
“Just you watch me.”
When she began pushing at his wide shoulders, he ignored her puny struggles and carried her toward the gate with long, even strides.
“Open it,” he commanded.
“The hell you say. Put me down this minute.”
“In the house. On your bed. Not until. Unless you enjoy lounging around in my arms, you’ll open the damn gate.”
When she hesitated, he whispered against her earlobe, “Your choice. I can stand here all day. Hell, I’m beginning to think you’re stalling so I’ll kiss you again.”
As his mouth descended toward hers, she moved her head away from his. Unloosing more highly creative curses, she grumpily lifted the catch. Then she crossed her arms over her breasts and endured his carrying her to the house in stony silence. This time, when he’d climbed the stairs to her porch and stopped at the front door, she reached out and twisted the doorknob.
“Where’s your bedroom?” he asked. They stood in the living room, which was filled with pictures of her parents and Daniel. As usual, her dominating mother was frowning in every shot. Funny, there wasn’t a single shot of Robert, Cait’s beloved, belated husband. Again, Luke wondered why she’d married the other man so quickly after Luke had left. She’d seemed so madly in love with him, Luke was no longer sure he believed her mother’s version of the story.
“Just put me on the sofa and go.”
“Don’t make me ask again.”
“Down the hall. First door on the right.”
When he finally laid her down on her rumpled bed, she moaned—maybe from the pain in her ankle, maybe from exasperation that she had to deal with him—and he felt an unwanted twinge of sympathy.
“I’d better take a look at that ankle,” he whispered, his deep tone uncustomarily gentle.
To his surprise she didn’t object, although she did wince when he unzipped her boot and removed it. Taking great care not to hurt her any more than he had to, he examined her ankle, slowly moving it in circles, first one way and then the other.
She grimaced. “You know, this foot play isn’t my idea of fun!”
“Nor mine.”
Pearly dots of perspiration dotted her brow. “So, how much longer are you going to do this?” she said through gritted teeth.
“You have full range of motion. I think we should ice it.”
“There’s a bag of peas in the freezer. Bottom shelf.”
“Okay. Can I get you anything else? A glass of water?”
She shook her head. “After you get me that sack of peas, I’d like for you to go back to London.”
“You’re going to need some help around here.”
“Not from the likes of you.”
Ignoring that dig, he went to the kitchen, returning swiftly with the peas, which he pressed against her ankle. “Now, if you’ll give me the name of your doctor, I’ll call him for you. You need to have your ankle checked out by a medical professional as soon as possible.”
“Haven’t you done enough damage for one day? I want you gone. Lisa can help me with the rest.”
As if on cue, the front door banged open, and Lisa called out to her.
“Lisa!” Caitlyn yelled, sounding panicky. “Back here.”
“Mom?” Daniel cried. The boy’s flying footsteps resounded in the hall as he raced ahead of Lisa and slammed into the bedroom. “Mom!” he began breathlessly. “Oh, Mr. Kilgore? You’re still here.” He suddenly looked doubly anxious.
Daniel had changed into a white shirt, so there was no evidence of his fall.
When Luke’s knowing gaze locked on Caitlyn’s face, she whitened. Noticing that she was fisting and unfisting the top edge of her sheet, Luke sank down onto the bed beside her. He couldn’t believe it, but he almost felt sorry for her.
Leaning closer, he whispered, “You and I have a lot more to talk about than your financial mess, don’t we? Or am I wrong about Daniel being the real reason you’re so anxious to get rid of me?”
“How did you know his name?”
“I met h
im a while ago. He’s the reason I came back so fast.”
She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. “This isn’t happening.”
“So, is he mine?” Luke murmured even more softly against her ear.
Her eyes widened with guilty alarm.
“Is he?” Luke repeated, determined to make her answer.
She closed her eyes, and lifted her chin up and down ever so slightly.
“Thought so,” he whispered. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do…when we’re alone.”
She stiffened. “I was going to tell you,” she said in a voice too low for Lisa to overhear. “This afternoon.”
“Right.”
“I was!”
He stared through her.
“This doesn’t have to change anything,” she murmured tightly.
“Are you out of your mind?” he whispered.
“You said this was the last place you wanted to be.”
“That was before my little run-in with Daniel. Now, I want to know how this happened, and why you never bothered to inform me.”
“You were gone, remember? Robert was here. And now? A man like you couldn’t possibly want any permanent ties to me or him or this place.”
Luke remembered his mother leaving and how awful he’d felt without her. It was unacceptable to think of Daniel growing up without both his parents, if possible.
“You don’t know a damn thing about what I want. Apparently you never did. But I’ll give you a real big clue—Daniel changes everything.”
Lisa was frowning, her intent gaze never leaving their faces.
Curious as well, Daniel tiptoed nearer. “Why are you in bed when it’s daytime? Are you hurt, Mom? Or sick…like Daddy?” His voice thinned. “Why is Mr. Kilgore still here? Why are you both whispering?”
Forcing a weak smile, Caitlyn reached out and smoothed Daniel’s dark, tousled hair. “It’s just my ankle. I got tangled up in the longe line. I’ll be fine in no time.”
“Since it’s all my fault that your mother was hurt, I’m going to stay here to help you all out till she’s better,” Luke said.
“No…” Caitlyn sputtered.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Cait! Why, I think that’s real generous of you, Luke,” Lisa said. “It’ll be a pleasure having you around.”