by Sophie Oak
“Hi,” Hope said, waving a little. “I think I mentioned I might not make it home.”
McNamara’s face split into a high-wattage smile. “You did, indeed, Hope. And I offered a little help.” He held out a hand. “Trev McNamara.”
Noah nodded and took the proffered hand. McNamara had been a hell of a quarterback. And he’d walked away from it all. “I know who you are. Noah Bennett. You and Hope know each other?”
“We just met today.” Hope sniffled a bit, but she moved closer to Noah.
He could feel himself stand a little straighter. Fuck, what was she doing to him? “Her car is trashed. Do you happen to have a tow cable?”
Trev smiled. “I certainly do. We can get her out of here. No problem. Where am I going?”
Noah could see the hesitation on her face. He took over. “Uhm, I think we need to get to Del Norte.”
She shook her head. “If you don’t mind, I should probably go to Bliss. It’s a little town between Del Norte and Creede. I have some friends there.”
She was from Bliss. His heart constricted a little.
Trev’s smile was practically a mile wide. “You’re from Bliss? My ranch is just outside of Bliss.”
Noah felt his eyes widen. What the fuck was that? There was only one ranch anywhere close to Bliss. The Circle G. The Circle G was pretty damn big. There wasn’t any room for another spread. “Really? I thought the Circle G was outside of Bliss.”
“You’ve heard of it?”
Noah’s stomach rolled. “James Glen owns the Circle G.”
Trev settled his cowboy hat on his head with a satisfied air. “He’s owns half of it. I own the other half.”
“He sold our fucking land?” He hadn’t meant to yell, but he was pretty sure his voice echoed through the valley.
Trev’s mouth dropped open. “Holy shit. Are you Noah? James’s brother?”
“Yes,” he spat out. “I’m Jamie’s brother, and I really want to figure out why he would sell our land.”
He would have gone on, but Hope stopped him. She didn’t say a thing, merely turned stark white and then started to fall, her every muscle seeming to lose control. She started toward the ground.
He closed the distance between them as quickly as he could, his arms coming up to catch her as she fell. “Hope?”
Trev shook his head. “She’s out.” He sighed. “We’ll have to call the doc once we get her out to the ranch.”
Noah checked her pulse. It was strong and steady. “I’m a doctor.”
“No way. You’re a vet. If I don’t call the people doc, he’ll have my head. I haven’t been in Bliss for long, but I’ve heard what Doc Burke does to the men who piss him off. He’s very thorough with the prostate exam. She’s probably dehydrated. I’ve seen it plenty of times. Get her into my truck. I’ve got air conditioning.”
“I do, too. I’ll take care of her.” Noah held her, lifting her up. Her eyes fluttered open.
“Don’t tell James.” She went limp again.
Fuck. She knew his brother. They all knew his brother.
And his brother had a lot to answer for.
* * * *
James looked out over the front porch. It looked to be a damn busy day at the Circle G. First they find out Beth is pregnant, and now they had visitors. He could see cars from a mile away. And there was a long line of them. What the hell was going on?
The first SUV pulled into the circular drive, and Caleb Burke hopped out.
“Hello, Doc.” James was a bit surprised to see him. Apparently Bo was more worried about Beth than he’d said. Doc wasn’t known for his love of socializing, so this had to be business. Caleb Burke was known as being a bit taciturn, though that had changed slightly in the days since Alexei Markov had come back to Bliss and forced Doc to acknowledge his feelings for Holly Lang. The lovely redhead got out of the truck following Alexei, who handed her down.
“James. Is my patient here?” Doc was all business. He was focused on some task at hand.
“I think Beth is in the guesthouse.” He pointed toward the back.
“Not Beth. Wait. What’s wrong with Beth?”
“She’s pregnant.”
Caleb slapped his hand against his forehead. “Goddamn it.”
“Doc doesn’t like pregnant women?” James asked, looking at Holly.
Holly grinned while Alexei patted his partner’s shoulder in what seemed like a sign of solidarity. “Doc is horrible at reading sonograms. I made him promise to take a continuing education class. I can see him now with a bunch of bright-eyed tech students.”
Caleb sighed. “I’m going to start preaching birth control. So, none of this tells me where my patient is.”
“Uh, if you’re talking about the calves I have coming, I don’t think you’re going to be much help. Unless you’re going to be more than the people doc.” James had had to deal with his own calving for a couple of years now since the vet had retired and they had no one to take his place.
Doc’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead. “I’m talking about Hope.”
James felt his heart clench a little. Hope was in trouble. Damn it. She was in trouble, and she wouldn’t talk to him. Now she needed a damn doctor. “What? What’s wrong with Hope?”
Doc shrugged. “No idea until I see her. Your partner called me. He said she passed out. He’s bringing her back here because it’s closer than my office.”
James was surprised at the little thrill of panic that went through him. “What happened to Hope? What made her pass out? Why the hell was she with Trev?”
As far as James knew, Hope hadn’t even met Trev. Trev, Bo, and Beth had kept to the ranch in the weeks since they’d gotten here. There had been an enormous amount of work to be done. With Wolf’s help, the men had completely reposted the fence along the east pasture. They had worked their butts off because Wolf was leaving.
Doc merely shook his head. “No idea. And I won’t know until I see her. Where can I set up?”
Holly came up behind him. “Don’t mind Caleb, James. He’s got the worst bedside manner ever. I’ll show him to the guest room. We’ll set up in there. Don’t worry. I’m sure she’s fine. Trev told Caleb that her heart rate is steady, and she didn’t hit her head when she fell.”
She’d fallen. Why had she fallen? Caleb’s voice cut through James’s thoughts.
“Hey, you didn’t mind my bedside manner last night.” It was said without a hint of leering playfulness.
Alexei patted his partner on the back. “He’s also got no good manners when it come to being discreet.” He leaned in toward Caleb. “I don’t think we should be talking about how many times we make her scream last night. We must to be discreet about how good we become with the double penetration.”
Holly’s eyes rolled. “Yeah, Alexei’s the one to teach Caleb how to be discreet. Both of you take a left at the first hallway. Second door on the left. Set up there.” Holly’s men walked in the house. Her face suddenly turned serious. “Trev called about ten minutes ago. I think that was his truck about a quarter mile behind us. There’s something else he told me, Jamie.”
Oh, god, how much worse could it be? In the distance, he could see another truck coming up the drive. Trev’s. There was a second truck behind the first. It was Grand Central Station at the Circle G. He started down the steps. He wanted to see Hope. He was surprised at how much he wanted to make sure she was okay. He wanted to put a hand on her and make sure she was fine. After all, he’d promised Logan he would take care of her.
No. He’d promised Logan he’d figure out what was wrong with her. That didn’t mean he had to care for her. But what if this was his chance? What if this was his way in? He wanted her. He wasn’t getting any younger. Maybe it really was time to think about settling down.
Trev got out of his truck—alone. A dark Chevy pulled up behind him.
“Trev, where’s Hope?” James asked. He wanted to carry her to Doc Burke and to let her know it was going to be okay. It had to be ok
ay.
Holly followed behind. “Jamie, I need to talk to you.”
But he could already see what she wanted to talk about.
Noah.
Five years older, looking a little worse for the wear. His little brother had obviously decided that working out was a good hobby. All of the boy in Noah seemed to have burned away, leaving nothing but a hardened man in his place. He easily lifted Hope into his arms as he pulled her out of the cab.
“I can walk,” Hope protested.
“And risk you taking another header? No way, sweetheart. You’re going to be a good, obedient girl and let the doctor look at you.” Was that rough command really coming out of his brother’s voice? Noah had always been the soft one.
James had to take a deep breath. What the hell was his brother doing here? And why was he holding Hope like he had the right to do it?
“I don’t need a doctor.” Hope looked pale and somewhat frail in Noah’s arms. James didn’t like the tight feeling in his gut.
He stepped up. “I’ll take her. Doc’s already here.”
Noah’s arms tightened around her. “I have her.”
James wasn’t going away. His brother couldn’t waltz in here and think he was just going to take charge. Hope had been left in James’s care. Logan was the closest man to Hope. He’d asked James to watch out for her. In his caveman brain, that made her his. “I know her. Give her to me.”
But then it looked like Noah had gotten to know his inner caveman, too. “And I saved her. Let me through.”
Holly got in between them. “Hey, you two are fighting over her like two dogs over a bone.”
A huge mutt thumped his tail. It was a monstrous thing. Holly looked down at the dog. “Actually the dog here is better behaved than the two of you. Trev, would you mind carrying Hope in so Caleb can do his overly thorough exam? Sorry, sweetie, he’s planning on taking blood and everything. If he could haul you to an MRI, he would. He really likes to run tests.”
Trev hoisted Hope’s body out of Noah’s arms before he could complain. The former pro quarterback didn’t even seem to notice her weight as he hauled her up.
“I really can walk.” Hope let her arms drift up around Trev’s neck.
Trev’s mouth was curved up in that perpetually mysterious smile he had. James always thought Trev seemed like he was amused with everything that went on around him. He handled everything with an odd calm, from untangling a terrified calf from barbed wire to dealing with buyers. Trev was always in control. “I think I should just do what Holly tells me to. I make it my goal to never argue with a pretty lady.”
He strode into the house, the screen door swinging behind him.
Holly looked from him to Noah. Her eyes narrowed. “I know your momma is no longer with us, but I remember her, and we mommas stick together. You two boys behave.”
She stalked off, the screen slamming shut again, but with an irritated sound this time.
He was alone with Noah. And Noah’s enormous dog.
He needed to breathe. He needed to calm down. Something had happened, or Noah wouldn’t be standing here. He would still be in New York with his wife. Ally wasn’t with him. Fuck. What had happened? And why was he driving that piece-of-shit truck? The last time James had talked to him, Noah had talked about his new Benz. Something was up with Noah, and he owed it to him to listen. He was the big brother. He had to be patient.
“You want to tell me what the fuck you think you’re doing selling off this ranch?”
Patience blown. “It’s my fucking ranch. You got your goddamn money. You want to tell me how you spent that? And if you have a problem with me, then you should feel damn free to take your ass right back off my land. Get back to New York, city boy.”
He turned and started back in the house, not waiting for Noah or issuing an invitation. His head was spinning. How dare that little shit walk back in here after five long years and start questioning his business decisions?
Noah was hard on his heels. “Hey, I have a right to ask about this. This used to be my home. My father worked here. My parents helped build this ranch.”
Now he remembered his childhood? James turned and stalked into the kitchen. It was one of the biggest rooms in the house. He didn’t remember much about his biological mom. She had died long before he could really know her, but when he thought about his real mom, he saw her in here. She would cook for hours, and he and Noah would sit at barstools hoping for a taste.
He needed to talk to Beth about redecorating.
“And you walked away from it.”
“I got married, Jamie.”
“And left this whole town high and dry. You can’t walk back in and start questioning me. You haven’t been here.”
Trev walked in and went straight for the coffeepot. It was always on these days. Beth or Bo came through every couple of hours and put on a fresh pot. What must that feel like? To have not one but two people who cared enough to check on a coffeepot? All James had was a wayward brother who started harping on him the minute he rolled his ass back into town.
“Well, I have to start questioning you when you make such dumb-ass decisions.” He pointed toward Trev, who was refilling the travel mug he almost always carried with him. “Do you know who he is?”
Trev McNamara had been a tabloid favorite. The bad boy of football. He’d been fired from his pro contract after he’d failed one too many drug tests. “I’m not stupid. I know exactly who he is.”
“Uhm, maybe y’all should leave me out of this.” Trev looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here.
“You sold off part of the ranch to a guy who spends all his time with strippers,” Noah said with an ugly twist of his lips.
Trev shook his head. “I have been stripper free for one thousand eighty-seven days. Certified. Well, professional stripping. Beth has gotten really good. She tends to like hard rock.”
“I’m glad you’re amused, man.” James was actually kind of glad Trev was here. Maybe Noah could see he hadn’t just been sitting around.
Trev sighed. “I’m not really. I’m actually getting a little pissed off at your brother. I don’t like getting pissed off.”
Noah turned to Trev. “Sorry you’re pissed off, but I want to know what exactly you did to get my brother to sell part of the ranch.”
“Half,” Trev said, and the word dropped like a rock. He simply tipped back his mug, but James could tell he was getting riled. His fingers tightened around the mug. Damn it. The last thing in the world he wanted was to cause Trev hell.
“Half?” Noah fairly screamed the word. “You gave away half the ranch our fathers worked to build to some ex-athlete addict? What the hell were you thinking, Jamie?”
“I was thinking I needed the fucking goddamn money. I didn’t give it away. I was thinking if I didn’t find a partner, I would go into bankruptcy. I was thinking I couldn’t hire hands or buy new stock, and damn straight couldn’t pay the vet when my stock got sick. I was thinking I had to save our fathers’ hard work, and I was thinking it all a-fucking-lone.”
Noah backed down, his face turning a little gray. “I didn’t know the ranch was in trouble.”
“Yeah, well, you never asked. You weren’t here after Dad died. You weren’t here during the drought or the wildfire that burned five thousand acres or the sickness that took half my herd a few years back. You weren’t here when my bills got so high I seriously considered bankruptcy. You weren’t here. Trev was.”
Noah took a deep breath, visibly swallowing. “How much?”
God, as pissed as he was with his brother, he didn’t have the heart to tell him. “It doesn’t matter now.”
Noah simply turned to Trev. “How much?”
“Ten million,” Trev replied with hard eyes. “Ten million, and we both formed a loose partnership with a man who knows how to make money in this market. The Circle G is still considered small. We’ve gone all grass fed and all organic. We’re selling to specialty markets and upscale restaurants, and
it’s going to pay off. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll take my ex-addict ass elsewhere.”
James felt so fucking tired all of a sudden. “Trev.”
Trev shook his dark head. “No, he needed to know. He needs to know what a little prick he’s being if he’s going to stand half a shot at healing the breach between you. And you tell him to keep a civil tongue in his head when he talks to my wife or Bo or we’re going to have some trouble. I’m going to go check on Hope. Doc should know something by now.”
The room went quiet, a weird, eerie silence that seemed to permeate the walls. He turned and looked at his brother who had gone stock-still. “What are you doing here?”
Noah turned his eyes up to him. “I lost everything. I wanted to come home.”
He stared, not knowing what to say.
The front screen squeaked. “Hello to the house!”
James sighed. Nate. That figured. Oh, well, saved by the bell. “We’re in the kitchen.”
Sheriff Nathan Wright walked in, dressed in casual clothes for once. He was in jeans and a T-shirt that looked worse for the wear. James’s eyes went to a large, nasty-looking spot on Nate’s shirt. He waved James off. “Spit-up. Charlie likes to vomit. A lot. It’s his little hobby.”
Charlie Hollister-Wright was one of Nate, Callie, and Zane’s newborn twins. “Can a two-week-old baby have a hobby?”
Nate nodded. “Yep. The twins’ hobbies are spitting up, hanging on their momma’s boobs just before spitting up, and doing this real cute thing with their legs that makes me not care that I’m covered in baby vomit. Now I heard Hope was murdered by a sand-dune monster.”
Despite the previous drama, James bit back a laugh. “It’s gone through Mel, then?”
“Yep. Apparently the aliens have taken to the dune. Now, before it got to Mel, Hope had passed out on the side of the road, been kidnapped in Del Norte, and will be sold for her body parts—someone’s been letting the Farley twins watch horror movies—and, my favorite, she’s pregnant with your secret love child. That’s why she passed out.”
“Oh, god, no.” People were talking about them? Of course people were talking about them. Everyone gossiped in Bliss. It was the town’s pastime. “The first one, Nate. She passed out. Doc is with her now. Uhm, my brother found her.”