Colorado Heart (9781101612026)

by Holby Cindy

  The scene she walked in on was intimate. Manuel sat on the side of the bed. Rosa, thank God, was awake and had her hands on Manuel’s bruised and bleeding face. Tears streamed from Rosa’s eyes, tears of gratitude, Cassie was certain, because both of them were still alive.

  “What happened, Manuel?” Cassie asked. She sat the bowl of water and towels on the bedside table. Manuel gingerly moved aside so Cassie could see the spreading bruise on the side of Rosa’s face. Cassie knew Manuel’s injuries were probably more serious, but also knew that he would not let her help him until he was certain Rosa was fine. Cassie wiped the blood from Rosa’s face as Manuel began.

  “We were just finishing up dinner when the donkey started braying,” Manuel said. “I thought it might be a coyote, so I turned Max out. Then we heard gunshots. I took my rifle and went out. Three men were shooting the sheep. I shot at them but one of them roped me and dragged me to the place where you found me. The others tied me up and beat me until I passed out.”

  “I tried to stop them,” Rosa added. “One of them kicked me here.” She pointed to the side of her face where the skin was broken. “That is all I know until I woke up here.”

  “I think they shot Max,” Manuel said. He covered his face with his hand. Max was the last link they had to their only child, a son, who’d died four years ago in the south of Mexico while trying to help the beleaguered plantation workers. “I heard him cry out, and have not seen him since.”

  Cassie didn’t know what to say to comfort him. If Max was able, he’d be beside Manuel. He would have died to protect him; he might be dead already. “We’ll find him,” she said, but she didn’t hold out much hope.

  “I am fine,” Rosa said. “Manuel is the one who is hurt the worst.”

  “I think I agree with you,” Cassie said as Manuel protested his injuries. They slipped into Spanish, gently chiding each other over the risks they each had taken this night. Cassie, satisfied that Manuel’s injuries weren’t life threatening, although he would be laid up for a few days, left him to Rosa’s tender care.

  Her mother still sat in her chair. Cassie put her to bed, which consumed the next half hour, and then she picked up the mess she’d made earlier. The rain still pounded against the roof, although the earlier thunder and lightning had moved on. Jake had been gone a long while. A good long while. Cassie looked at the small windup clock that sat on the mantel. Maybe an hour?

  He must have left. Why shouldn’t he? Why would he want to get caught up in her problems? He’d made it plain he didn’t want her here, and he certainly didn’t want her sheep here, as he’d said many times since the day they’d met.

  You’re not being fair . . . Jake said he was going to put Darby in the barn and check on her stock. That wouldn’t take an hour. Not unless something else had happened.

  Sitting around worrying about it wouldn’t change it, if it had. Cassie put on her coat and hat, picked up her rifle and went outside. The air had changed. Where before there’d been a chill in the air, now it was balmy and heavy with the rain that still poured from the skies. Cassie squinted against the thick curtain of water and made out the darker shadows of the barn and outbuildings that lay below the cabin, but no light shone from any of them.

  He’s gone . . . Why did she believe him when he said he would stay? Why should he stay? Cassie grabbed the lantern that hung by the door and went down to the barn. Water chased her down the slope as she went; the ground was saturated and couldn’t hold any more. The water kept on rolling, past the barn and on down the path and into the stream that bisected her land. Would it flood?

  Cassie slipped into the barn. Suzie the cat ran to meet her with a questioning meow. The buggy sat in the aisle and Darby was in the stall next to Puck. Both turned their heads in her direction. Libby was in a stall also and wheezed a greeting.

  “Jake?” Cassie called out. The only answer was the rain pounding on the roof. She walked through the barn and out the door on the opposite side. Cassie leaned the rifle against the door and lifted the lantern. The fence that they’d worked on so hard was trampled and the white patches scattered across the pasture were dead sheep. At least twenty, and probably many more that she couldn’t see. So much waste. And where were the rest of them? Scattered who knows where, after all her promises to keep them home. Watkins had to be behind this. He’d sent his men to attack Manuel while he was at the meeting being cooperative.

  Cassie called out again. “Jake?” In the distance she saw a light bobbing up and down. It had to be Jake; if Watkins wanted to do any more damage, he had plenty of opportunity and he definitely wouldn’t be walking around her pasture with a lantern. Still, she kept her hand on her pistol until she was sure.

  “Cassie!” he called back. “Is something wrong?” He trotted into the circle of light cast by her lantern. Water streamed from his head and his clothes. He couldn’t have been any more wet if he’d fallen into a tub full of water. He’s still here . . . His gun belt was strapped around his waist. He was prepared for trouble, but there was none to be found. Not now. Only a fool would be out in this weather. Or someone who thought he could help a fool.

  “No, I was just worried,” she admitted. “You were gone so long.”

  “I was looking for Max,” Jake said. He wiped his hand across his face. Raindrops still hung on his lashes and his eyes were as stormy as the night.

  Cassie was afraid to ask but she had to know. “Did . . . Did you find him?”

  “No. No sign of him. I kept walking bigger and bigger circles. I counted thirty-seven dead sheep, but no sign of your dog.”

  “I hate to think of him out there somewhere, especially if he’s hurt.”

  “There’s nothing more we can do tonight.”

  Cassie didn’t know why she was standing in the rain looking at him. Just looking at him. At the way the water sluiced into the hollows of his jaw and around the cords of his neck. The way the raindrops hung to his hair and lashes. “You’ve done more than anyone could expect,” she said. He was close enough that she could touch him if she wanted to. Did she want to?

  “Without doing anything at all,” Jake finished for her.

  “No,” Cassie started, but words failed her. How could she tell him what it meant to her that he was here, and that he had stayed, that she hadn’t had to face this alone. Instead, she just stood in the rain looking at him.

  He took another step. A step that brought him so close to her. Close enough that she could feel the chill off his skin. He had to be cold. He would probably be sick. Yet here they stood with the rain pouring over them. He placed his hand on her cheek and the place he touched instantly warmed.

  “I’m sorry this happened,” he said. “Life isn’t fair sometimes. That’s not an excuse; it’s just the way it is.”

  “I know.”

  “I have a feeling you’ve had more than your share of unfair.”

  She made a noise, something between a laugh and a sob. He looked at her for a long moment, a moment when she really wasn’t sure what was going to happen. A moment filled with anticipation. Then he dropped his hand and wrapped his arms around his body. “Can we get out of the rain? I’m freezing.”

  Without a word Cassie went back into the barn and Jake followed her. He picked up her rifle and trimmed the wick on his lantern before hanging it on the hook on his buggy. Suzie met them and trailed after them. Steam rose from Jake’s body as they quickly passed through, and Libby brayed as he walked by her stall. As they came to the opposite door, Cassie handed Jake the lamp, scooped up Suzie and put her inside her jacket. They took off at a run up the slope to her house. As if they could suddenly stay dry.

  It wasn’t until they reached the porch that Cassie realized Jake would be spending the night. And she had no place for him to sleep.

  FIFTEEN

  It was in the wee hours of the morning that Jake decided he
’d much rather sleep outside on the ground than on a cold hard floor. The ground seemed to be more giving, or maybe using his saddle as a pillow made the positioning that much more comfortable. The coons scratching and chattering beneath the floorboards didn’t help either. All in all it was a miserable night. The fact that Cassie was right on the other side of the wall didn’t help much either.

  Dang it, she’d gotten under his skin. He should be at home right now, lying in his big bed with Josie chewing on his arm, and thinking about his day on his ranch doing his work.

  But Cassie needed help. There were dead sheep scattered around her pasture, a missing flock and a dog that could be hurt or dead, and Manuel would be hard-pressed to do anything after the beating he took.

  He really should let Cade know what was going on too. Not that they’d be able to prove anything. But he should know, just so he could let Watkins know that this would not be tolerated. Jake decided he’d had enough suffering on the floor. He got up, folded up the quilt Cassie had given him the night before, stretched his sore muscles and pulled on his pants that he’d left hanging by the fire to dry. They were still damp, but that wasn’t surprising considering how wet he’d been. Jake went out the back door to relieve himself. The sky was still gray and threatening but the rain had stopped for a while. That was a good thing. Rains like the one they had last night were bothersome, especially when warm air came with them. The mountain peaks were still covered with snow, and with the quick melt and sudden rush of water there was a chance of a flash flood washing down from the ridges that surrounded them.

  Manuel was up when Jake went back in. He was putting wood in the stove, and Jake went to help him. “How are you feeling?” Jake asked.

  Manuel tested his jaw. “Lucky to be alive?” he replied with a painful smile. His face was heavily bruised and he rubbed his side before filling the coffeepot with water. He must have taken some punches to his body also.

  “Do you think you cracked a rib?” Jake asked. “I got thrown one time and busted a couple of them. It sure was hard to breath.”

  “I am breathing,” Manuel assured him. “It is not that difficult at the moment.”

  Jake found his shirt and boots and put both on. The murmur of women’s voices came from the room where Cassie and her mother slept. That was something else that was strange, how Cassie’s mother had thought he was her husband. The woman had obviously had something go wrong with her at some time. It looked to Jake to be a miracle that she survived it. Not him, he’d rather be dead than left in such a state. He had no one to care for him anyway.

  Now that was a sad thought.

  “I looked for Max last night,” Jake said to Manuel. “There was no sign of him.”

  Hope filled Manuel’s dark eyes. “That is good to know. Thank you.”

  “From what I saw, over thirty sheep are dead,” he added. “I’ll help you gather them up before I head into town.”

  Manuel almost sighed in relief. “That would be most helpful,” he said. Jake was glad to help; it would give him a chance to find out more about this strange little group that had settled in Angel’s End.

  Cassie and Rosa came in with Cassie’s mother between them. They guided her to the same chair she was in the night before. Jake suddenly felt very much in the way as they settled her for the day. “I’ll just go out and get started,” he said as Cassie walked out the back door without a word.

  “No,” Rosa protested. “I will fix breakfast first.” She pulled out a chair at the table for him. “Please sit and tell us about the meeting last night so we might better understand what to expect.” The side of Rosa’s face was swollen and had a strange greenish cast. Jake felt himself getting angry all over again. What if Cassie had been here when it happened? What if she was the one they kicked aside and left lying in the rain? He had to do something to make sure this didn’t happen again. Because if it did, he knew the outcome would be worse, much much worse.

  Rosa put cups of steaming coffee in front of Jake and Manuel as Cassie came back into the house. She was wearing those confounded boys’ clothes again. The ones that she liked to hide behind. There was no denying she was a woman, so why was she trying to hide it?

  As Jake stirred milk into his coffee, the sudden realization of what happened to Cassie struck him. She admitted it was something bad. She didn’t like to be touched, although she tolerated him somewhat. She dressed like a boy. She carried a gun everywhere she went. She’d gone crazy when he came up behind her last night; at the time he thought it was because she was so angry, but it could have something to do with what troubled her.

  It made sense. He couldn’t outright ask her, but he knew in his heart that she’d been raped at some time. And her mother had more than likely witnessed it, which is what led to her sorry condition. It had to be the reason why she came here. The letter with the promise of land must have seemed like a godsend at the time, although now, after last night, not so much.

  Right now he wanted to kill someone in the worst way. He wanted to kill the bastards who’d attacked Manuel last night and he wanted to kill whoever hurt Cassie so badly in the first place. Hell, he even wanted to kill her grandfather, Sam, who was already dead, for going off and deserting her when she was just a girl. You got it bad, Jake.

  Jake took a drink of his coffee. It was hot and strong, just the way he liked it, and he gave Rosa a nod and a smile. Yeah, he was in it, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be. Just a few short months ago he’d been mourning the loss of Leah to Cade Gentry. He wasn’t looking to fall in love with a pixie mix of stubborn and sweetness with a side of sass.

  Love? Now where did that come from? He needed to get away from Cassie Parker and her problems. He needed to think things through. Jake was a planner and he was always very careful about the decisions he made. Cassie Parker was not something he’d seen coming. Jake studied her as she fixed a plate of food and took it to her mother. She sat down next to her to feed her.

  “Can you tell us what happened last night at the meeting?” Manuel asked.

  Rosa sat a plate of eggs with a huge piece of ham down before him. She went back for a pan of biscuits and joined the two men at the table.

  Jake gave them the details of the meeting and summed up the conclusions for the couple. “Most everyone was nice, a few were not,” Jake said. “Cassie agreed to keep her sheep on her property and everyone else agreed to wait and see if she could.”

  “And now they’ll know that I can’t,” Cassie said.

  “No one is going to blame you considering the circumstances,” Jake said. Cassie put her mother’s plate in the sink and fixed one for herself. She didn’t sit down, instead just leaned against the cabinet and ate.

  “Oh I know they won’t blame me,” she agreed. “They’ll just say it’s too much responsibility for me. That I’m a woman, all alone. That I don’t have any business trying this on my own, much less with sheep. They’ll find lots of reasons not to blame me, but the fact of the matter is, our sheep are out there somewhere and I’m responsible for them.”

  “We’ll get them back.”

  “It’s not your problem, Jake, it’s mine. You’ve got your own place to run. You’ve spent enough time on my problems. You need to go take care of your own.” Cassie scraped her plate into a bowl and then looked at it, stricken for a moment.

  Max . . . Lord, let that dog be alive.

  Cassie went to the door and put on her coat. “I’m going out to find the sheep.”

  “Wait,” Jake said as he jumped up from the table. “You can’t just take off by yourself without a plan.”

  “Like I said, Jake, it’s not your problem. I appreciate all your help.” She wouldn’t look at him. And short of picking her up and locking her in her room there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop her. What had got into her? Last night he’d thought that there could be something between them. Dang,
he’d even thought about kissing her, but something held him back. Maybe it was the fear that seemed to be hiding in her pale blue eyes. “I’m serious, Jake. Don’t try to stop me,” she threatened, and Jake couldn’t help but recall the first time he met her on the trail. Cassie shut the door in his face.

  “Give her time, Mr. Reece,” Rosa said. “She needs time to work things out in her mind. A lot of unexpected things have happened.”

  Rosa was right about that. “Let’s see to those dead sheep,” Jake said. He had his own chores to do. The sooner he was done here, the sooner he could get back to his own.

  “What will you do with them?” Jake asked Manuel later when they had hitched the wagon to the two mules and gone out into the pasture. Cassie was long gone, off on Puck, searching for the rest of her flock.

  “Save what wool we can,” Manuel said. “Burn the bodies.”

  “Why do you raise sheep?” Jake asked. “I don’t mean that as in it’s not the thing to do, I mean, how do you make a profit? I can’t imagine there’s a call for the meat like there is with cattle.”

  “For the wool,” Manuel explained. “Rosa spins it and we sell it.”

  Jake recalled seeing a spinning wheel in the main room of the house. He hadn’t thought much about why it was there.

  “She also does the dyes,” Manuel explained. “We’ve always made a good profit. Of course, now we’ll have to find new buyers since we no longer have our contacts in Texas.”

  “Why did you leave Texas?” Jake asked. They’d come to the first body and together they heaved it into the back of the wagon.

  “Cassie had the land,” Manuel said.

  “Come on, Manuel,” Jake said. “I know something bad happened in Texas. Cassie told me that much. And since I’m knee-deep in your trouble I’d appreciate knowing some of the reasons why.”