by Diana Palmer
“It’s a hell of a mess, I’ll tell you that,” he said angrily.
“Worse than you know. With his record, he may never get a chance to go home again. They’ll want to send him right back to the detention center and keep him there.”
“Damn!”
She felt furious at Cy Parks for this. Kells shouldn’t have been on his property, but he was a kid, and he didn’t think. Why did Parks have to abide by the very letter of the law?
It seemed forever before Luke pulled up in front of the neat brick building that contained the police and fire departments and the city jail.
“In here,” he indicated, holding the door open for Belinda.
The building was air-conditioned and very neat. Luke opened the door that had Police written on it, and ushered her to the counter, behind which a clerk sat.
“We’re here to see about bail for the Kells boy,” Luke said.
“Ah, yes.” The clerk took a slow breath and sorted through papers, shaking her head. “Mr. Parks was furious.” She glanced at Luke. “He’s still here, you know, giving the chief hell.”
Luke’s blue eyes turned to steel. “Is he, now? Which way?”
The clerk hesitated. “Now, Luke—”
“Tell me, Sally.”
“He’s in his office. I have to announce you.”
“I’ll announce myself,” he said shortly and forged ahead, leaving a startled Belinda to follow him.
This was a side of Luke that she hadn’t seen before. He barged right into Chief Blake’s office with only a preemptory knock, and found the chief looking uncomfortable while a tall, whipcord-lean man with venomous light green eyes and jet-black hair raged at him.
Cy Parks turned as Luke entered the office, his lean face as unwelcoming as a brushfire. “I won’t drop the charges,” he said at once, narrow-eyed and threatening. “I don’t want juvenile delinquents camped on my south pasture, and I’ll have every damned boy on the place in jail if that’s what it takes to keep them out of my cattle!”
“That sounds familiar,” Belinda said under her breath.
Luke wasn’t intimidated. He walked right up to Cy, almost on eye-level with the man, and pushed his hat back on his blond hair. “I taught Kells to use a rope,” he said angrily. “He’s crazy about roping. He’s been practicing on my cattle, but they don’t have horns.”
Cy didn’t speak. But he was listening.
“He’s an inner-city kid who got arrested for swiping a CD player. He didn’t want the appliance, he wanted to get back at his mother for letting his stepfather beat him up.”
Cy’s stiff stance relaxed just a little.
Encouraged, Luke plowed ahead. “He’s not a juvenile now, so if you press charges, they’ll lock him up for good. He’ll never get out of the justice system. He’ll become a career criminal in between terms in prison, and I’ll lose the most promising young cowhand who’s ever come my way.”
Parks’s eyes narrowed. “He likes cattle?”
“He’s obsessed with cattle,” Luke replied. “He’s drained Belinda dry and now he’s starting to pick my brain. He has a natural seat on a horse. He eats, sleeps and breathes cattle since he’s learned how to tell one breed from another.”
Parks’s jaw clenched. “I don’t like kids around me.”
Luke didn’t blink. He noticed that Cy always kept his left hand in his pocket, and he knew why. The man hated sympathy; it was probably why he was so mean. It kept most people at bay. “Hating kids isn’t going to bring yours back,” Luke said quietly.
The other man’s face clenched. He stiffened and, for an instant, it looked as if he might throw a punch at Luke.
“Go ahead,” Luke invited softly, evenly. “Punch me if you feel like it. I’ll give you a free shot. But let the kid go. The last thing on earth he meant to do was damage any of your stock. He loves cattle.”
Cy’s fist balled by his side and then relaxed. He moved his shoulders, as if they felt stiff, and glared at the other man. “Don’t mention my past again,” he said in a tone that chilled. He glanced at the police chief. “If I drop the charges, do you let him go?”
“With a warning,” Chief Blake agreed.
Cy hesitated. He turned toward Belinda Jessup, who was pale and quiet and obviously upset. “What was the idea behind this summer camp?” he asked curtly.
“I brought six inner-city kids to the country to see what life could be like,” she replied calmly. “Most of them have never seen a cow or a pasture or a small town. They grew up in poverty, with parents who didn’t really want them, and all they saw were people working themselves to death for minimum wage or men in luxury cars dealing drugs for big money. I thought, I hoped, that this might make a difference.” She folded her hands behind her. “It was making a major difference in Kells, until now. I’m sorry. I should have been watching him more carefully. He’s spent two days practicing with the rope. I suppose he thought he was in Luke’s pasture when he roped the bull.”
“Hell of a difference between a purebred Santa Gert and one of those damned mangy Herefords,” Cy said curtly.
“Hey,” Luke said testily, “don’t insult my Herefords!”
They glared at each other again.
“What about Kells?” Belinda interjected before things escalated too far.
“Let him go,” Cy said shortly.
Chief Blake smiled faintly. “I’m glad you decided that,” he said, rising. “I never thought roping a bull should be a capital crime.”
“You haven’t seen my new Santa Gert sire,” Cy returned.
Blake just chuckled and went to the back to bring out Kells.
Kells was chastised and miserable, and looked as if the world had ended. He grimaced when he saw Cy Parks standing there.
“I guess I’m going back to Houston, now, huh?” he asked Belinda with overly bright eyes.
“No, you’re not,” Luke said curtly, glaring at Cy. “You’re coming over to the bunkhouse at my place for the rest of your camp leave.”
Kells looked as if he’d been knocked sideways. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I’m not,” Luke assured him. “If you want to rope cattle, you have to be around them. Besides, we’ve got to talk about the future. Your future,” he added. “Let’s go.”
Kells hesitated. He walked up to Cy Parks and bit his lip while he searched for the right words. “Look, I’m sorry about what I did, okay?” he asked hesitantly. “I knew them cattle didn’t look exactly like Mr. Craig’s, but I thought he might have had some more, and that was them. I never meant no harm. I just wanted something alive to practice on. Ain’t no challenge in roping a few boards nailed together.”
Cy looked uncomfortable. He made a strange gesture with his right hand. “All right. Don’t do it again.”
“I won’t,” Kells promised. “Them bulls sure are pretty, though,” he added with a shy smile. “That breed started on the King Ranch in South Texas, didn’t it?”
Cy’s lower jaw fell a little. “Well, yes.”
“Thought so,” Kells said proudly. He smiled. “I’ll know next time how to tell a Santa Gertrudis from a Hereford.”
Cy exchanged a complicated glance with Luke. “I guess you could bring him over to see my new Santa Gertrudis bull,” he said gruffly. “Call first.”
Luke and the other occupants of the room gaped at him.
Cy glared back. “Are you all deaf?” he asked irritably. “I’m going home. I don’t have time to stand around and gossip all day, like some I could name.” He tipped his hat at Belinda in an oddly old-world gesture and stormed out the door.
Kells caught his breath as the rancher lifted his left hand out of the pocket to open the door, but Cy, fortunately, was out the door before it was audible.
“What happened to his hand?” he exclaimed.
“His Wyoming ranch burned up in a fire,” Luke said quietly. “His wife and young son were in the house at the time. He couldn’t get them out. Not for lack of trying, that�
�s how he got burned.”
“Oh, boy,” Kells said heavily. “No wonder he hates kids. Reminds him of the one he lost, don’t you think, Miss Jessup?”
She put an affectionate arm around Kells. “Yes, I do. Poor man. Well, let’s get back. I left the others at lunch.”
“Sorry about all the trouble,” Kells said.
Luke grinned at him. “It was no trouble.” He glanced at the chief of police and smiled. “Thanks, Chet.”
Chet Blake shrugged. “All in a day’s work. I was trying to get him to drop the charges when you walked in. But I didn’t get far, I’m sad to say. I couldn’t budge him.”
“He’s a hard-nosed fellow,” Luke agreed. “But he did the right thing in the end.”
“So he did. Maybe he’s not frozen clean through just yet,” Blake replied.
They drove back to Belinda’s camp in a companionable silence.
“I’m taking Kells with me,” he told her when he pulled up in front of the cabin, and the boys piled out onto the porch to greet Belinda. “I’ll get him settled and you can come over in a couple of days and check on him.”
“I thought you were kidding!” Kells exclaimed. “You meant it?”
“Of course I meant it,” Luke told him. “You’re a natural cowboy, Kells. I’m going to make you into a top hand. Then, when you get through school, and if you’re still of the same mind, I’ll take you on as a cowboy.”
Kells could hardly speak. He stared down at his hands in his lap and averted his head. There were bright lights in those dark eyes until he blinked them away. His voice was still choked when he said, “Thanks, Mr. Craig.”
“Luke,” he corrected. “And you’re welcome.”
“Have fun,” Belinda told Kells.
He got into the front seat beside Luke and closed the door, leaning out the open window to wave to his friends. “I’m going off to learn cowboying, you guys! See you!”
They waved back. Belinda joined them on the porch and waved the truck off with a grin.
“Is Kells going to jail?” Juanito asked.
“No, he isn’t. Mr. Parks dropped the charges,” she said with heartfelt relief. “In a day or so, we’ll drop by the Craig ranch and see how Kells is doing. But for now,” she added with a groan as she saw the disorder of the small kitchen and dining-room table, “we’re going to have a dishwashing and housecleaning lesson.”
The groans were audible even outside the cabin.
Chapter Four
Belinda kept busy with the remaining boys in her small group for the next two days, taking them swimming and fishing. They were like prisoners set free, with plenty of time to enjoy the natural world around them, and no regulations and time schedules penning them in. It was more than a vacation for them; it was a glimpse into another world. With any luck at all, it would sustain them when they had to go home, give them goals to work toward, give them hope.
Two days after Kells’s run-in with the law, they piled into the van and went over to Luke’s ranch to see how the eldest of the group was making out.
They hardly recognized him. He was wearing new boots, jeans and chaps, a long-sleeved shirt and a raunchy-looking hat. He grinned at them from the corral fence, displaying blazing white teeth.
“Hey!” he called. He jumped down and went to meet them. “Miss Jessup, I rode a horse all morning and Mr. Craig even let me cut out a steer and lasso it! That’s a quarter horse,” he informed the other boys knowledgeably, nodding toward the horse in the corral. “His name’s Bandy and he’s a cutting horse. He’s trained to cut cattle, so you don’t have to do much work except sit in the saddle and let him do everything. He’s one smart horse!”
“Well, he certainly thinks he is,” Luke interrupted, joining the group. “What do you think of my new hand?” he asked Belinda, indicating Kells. “Looks the part, doesn’t he?”
“Yes, he does,” Belinda said, smiling. “We need a photo of him dressed like that,” she added.
“I took one this morning,” he replied smugly. “He’ll have some interesting photos to show the folks back in Houston.”
“I’m going to work hard, Miss Jessup,” Kells said solemnly. “Harder than I ever did before. Now that I got something to look forward to, school won’t be so bad.”
“I’ll tell you a secret, Kells,” Luke told him. “School was hard for me, too. But I got through, and so will you.”
“My real name’s Ed,” Kells said quietly. “Never told nobody else.”
Luke smiled. “Is that what you want me to call you?”
Kells hesitated. “How about Eddie? I like Eddie Murphy, you know.”
“I like Eddie Murphy myself,” Luke replied with a grin. “I’ve never missed one of his movies yet.”
“Son of a gun!” Kells was impressed.
“I actually saw him once,” Belinda volunteered, “down in Cancun, Mexico, on holiday. He’s just as nice in person as he seems to be on the screen.”
“Did you talk to him?” Kells asked.
She shook her head. “I was too shy.”
Luke pushed his hat back on his head and studied her with a keen, searching look. “Shy, hmm?”
She gave him a hard look. “Yes, shy! I do get shy from time to time!”
He looked pointedly at her mouth. “Do you, now?”
She flushed. “Do you think we could see those Holstein milk cows you mentioned the other day?”
“Sure we could!” Luke said at once. “Kells, suppose you take the boys along to the pasture and explain why we like to keep Holsteins for milk cows?”
The youth beamed. “I’d be tickled, Mr. Craig! Come on, guys. I know my way around here now!”
The group, impressed, followed Kells.
“Why can’t I go, too?” Belinda asked.
“Because I have plans for you, Miss Jessup,” he drawled. He caught her hand in his and led her toward the white frame house.
“What sort of plans?” she asked suspiciously.
He paused with a secretive grin. “What do you think?” He leaned closer, threatening her mouth with his, so that when he spoke she felt his clean, minty breath on her lips. “Well, I could be thinking about how big and soft the sofa in the living room is,” he murmured. “And how well two people would fit on it.”
She could barely breathe. Her heart was thumping madly against her rib cage.
“Or,” he added, lifting his head, “I might have something purely innocent in mind. Why not come with me and find out?”
He tugged at her hand and she fell into step beside him, just when she’d told herself she wasn’t about to do that.
He led her up the steps and into the house. It was cool and airy, with light colored furniture and sedate throw rugs. There were plain white priscilla curtains at the windows, and the kitchen was spacious and furnished in white and yellow.
“It’s very nice,” she said involuntarily, turning around to look at her surroundings.
“Can you cook?” he asked.
“A few things,” she replied. “I’m not really good at sweets, but I can make rolls and biscuits from scratch.”
“So can I, when I set my mind to it,” he told her. He sat down at the kitchen table and crossed his legs across one of the other chairs. “Can you make coffee?”
“The best,” she returned, smiling.
“Let’s see.”
He pointed her toward the cabinet where the coffee, filters and drip coffeemaker were located, and sat back to watch her work.
“There’s a chocolate pound cake in the cake keeper, there,” he indicated a huge rubbery container. “If you like it. My sister brought it over yesterday. She always bribes me when she wants something,” he added on a chuckle.
“What did she want?”
“A babysitter,” he replied. “I get to keep her son and daughter when she and Tom go to the opera at the Met in New York City. It’s an overnight trip.”
“You really must like kids,” she observed.
“I lik
e them more as I get older,” he said. “I find I think more about having some of my own. After all, the ranch has to have somebody to inherit it after I’m gone.”
“What if your children don’t like ranching?”
He grimaced. “Horrid thought.”
“Some people don’t like animals. I’ve actually met a few.”
“So have I. Not many.”
“It could happen, though. Then what would become of your plans for a dynasty?”
“I suppose they’d go up in smoke.” He dropped his hat on the floor beside his chair and stared at her until it became uncomfortable. The sound of the coffee dripping grew louder and louder in the tense silence. “Come here.”
She just stood and stared at him, confused.
His blue eyes were glittery. There was a look on his face that made her knees weak. He was hypnotizing her.
“I said, come here,” he repeated softly, his voice almost a sensual purr.
She walked to him, feeling every step all the way to her heart. This was stupid. She could get in over her head. She didn’t really know him at all. She was letting herself be drawn in….
He reached up and pulled her down onto his lap. Before she could utter the confused thoughts rattling around in her mind, he had her head back against his shoulder and he was kissing her as if his life depended on it.
She gave in to the inevitable. He was strong and warm, and everything female in her responded to him. She hadn’t realized how close two people could become in a relatively short period of time.
His arms contracted. Then, all at once, he let her go and stood up. His face was harder than she’d ever seen it. He held her tight by the upper arms, staring down into her green eyes with a curious expression.
“I think we should give the coffee time to finish,” he said huskily. “Let’s go find the boys.”
“Okay.”
She followed him back out the door, noticing the economy of his movements as he scooped up his hat and put it back on his head. He went a little ahead of her, keeping some distance between them. She felt uneasy, and she wondered if she’d been too acquiescent to suit him. Perhaps she should have hit him or protested or something. Obviously she’d done something wrong.