by B. J Daniels
That was not what he wanted to hear. “One of the sisters could change my bandage for me. Really, I would be much more comfortable in my own home. I have plenty of people to look after me.”
The doctor wavered. Jonas knew that the hospital staff would be much more comfortable with him gone, as well. A half dozen of the brothers and some of the SLS sisters had been coming and going since his “accident.” He’d seen the way the hospital staff looked at them, the men in their black pants and white shirts, the woman in their long shapeless white dresses.
“I’d prefer you stay another day at least. I’ll give instructions to one of your...sisters for after that. We’ll see how you’re doing tomorrow.”
“I’m feeling so much better. I promise that when you release me, I will rest and take care of myself.” His head ached more than he had let the doctor know. He didn’t want any medication that would make his brain fuzzy. He needed his wits about him now more than ever.
“Like I said, we’ll see how you are tomorrow,” the doctor said, eyeing him suspiciously. The man knew Jonas couldn’t be feeling that good, not with his head almost bashed in. He also knew the doctor had to be questioning how he could have hurt himself like this in a fall.
Jonas just wished he would go away and leave him alone.
“I need to ask you about these pills you’ve been taking,” the doctor said, clearly not leaving yet. “One of your church members told me they were for a bad heart, but that’s not the medication you’re taking.”
“No, it’s not for a heart ailment,” Jonas had to admit. “I’d prefer my flock not worry about my health, Doctor.”
“If you’re suffering from memory loss at your age, then we need to run some tests and see—”
“I have early-onset Alzheimer’s,” Jonas interrupted.
The doctor blinked.
“It is in the beginning stages, thus the pills I’m taking. I can assure you that I’m being well taken care of.”
The doctor seemed at a loss for words.
“I believe Brother Zack is waiting in the hall,” Jonas said to the doctor. “Would you ask him to step in here? I need to talk to him.”
Realizing he was excused, the doctor left. A few moments later, Zack stuck his head in the door.
Jonas motioned him in. “Close the door. Have you seen Sister Rebecca?”
“Not since last night.”
“Who was on duty at the second nursery last night?” he asked.
Zack frowned. “Sister Alexa.” His eyes widened as he realized what the leader was really asking. “Sister Rebecca was taking care of the...special baby.”
The angel. That’s what Jonas had told his flock. That he’d had a vision and Lola’s baby was a chosen one.
“Sister Rebecca.” Jonas nodded and closed his eyes for a moment. He’d known it, but had needed Zack to verify his suspicions. Rebecca had been with him since the beginning. If there was anyone he knew he could trust, could depend on, it was her. He slowly opened his eyes and stared up at the pale green ceiling.
Zack stood at the end of the bed, waiting. Rebecca and Zack had never gotten along. Jonas blamed it on simple jealousy. Both were in the top positions at SLS. He knew how much Zack was going to enjoy the task he was about to give him.
“Go back to the complex,” Jonas told him. “I want Sister Rebecca—” if she was still there “—restrained. Use the cabin where Sister Lola stayed. Guard it yourself.” He finally looked at Zack, who nodded, a malicious glint in his gaze even as he fought not to smile.
“I’ll take care of it.”
* * *
AFTER THE SHERIFF LEFT, Colt stepped to Lola and Grace and pulled them close. He knew the sheriff was worried and with good reason. Jonas was an egomaniac who enjoyed having power over other people. He ran his “church” like a fiefdom. He would be incensed to have lost Lola and the baby, but there was really nothing he could do. At least not legally. Once the DNA results came back, once they had proof that Grace was Colt’s daughter...
He tried to put it out of his head. Jonas was in the hospital. He’d lied to the sheriff. It was over. Hopefully, the man would move on with some other obsession.
Colt cooked them breakfast while Lola fed Grace. He loved watching them together. It made his heart expand to near bursting.
Their day was quickly planned. First the DNA tests, then shopping for baby things. Never in his life had Colt thought about buying baby things, but now he realized he was excited. He wanted Grace to have whatever she needed.
At the doctor’s office DNA samples were taken, then Colt took Lola and Grace to the small-box store on the edge of town. He was amazed at all the things a baby needed. Not just clothing and a car seat, but bottles and formula, baby food, diapers and wipes.
“How did babies survive before all of these things were on the market?” he joked, then insisted they get a changing table.
“It’s too much,” Lola said at one point.
“It’s all good,” he’d said, wanting only the best for his daughter. At the back of his mind, like a tiny devil perched on his shoulder, a voice was saying, “What are you doing? You are going back on assignment soon.”
He shoved the thought aside, telling himself that he’d cross that bridge when he got there. He still had time. But time for what? There hadn’t been any offers on the ranch. It was another thought that he pushed aside. Instead, he concentrated on Lola and Grace, enjoying being with them. Enjoying pretending at least for a while that they were a family.
He didn’t even need the DNA test. That was all Lola. “We need it for Jonas should he ever try to take Grace again,” she’d said. “Also, I don’t want you to have doubts.”
“I don’t have any doubts.”
She’d given him a dubious look. “I want it settled. Not that I will ever ask anything of you. And I will pay you back for all the baby things you bought. I called this morning and am having some money wired to me.”
“That isn’t necessary.”
But she said nothing, a stubborn tilt to her chin. He hadn’t argued.
Instead, he took them back to the Stagecoach Saloon where, the moment they walked in, he knew that Billie Dee was cooking up her famous Texas chili.
Lillie Cahill Beaumont just happened to be there visiting her brother, along with Darby and his wife, Mariah. They oohed and aahed over Grace and Lola did the same with their babies.
By the time they got home, Colt was ready for a nap, too. After Lola put Grace down, she came into the bedroom and curled up against him. He held her close, breathing in the scent of her. He’d never been more happy.
Chapter Fourteen
The next day, Jonas couldn’t wait for the doctor to stop by so he could hopefully get out of the hospital. He knew that Zack was taking care of things on the complex, but he worried. He still couldn’t believe that Rebecca would betray him. It shook the stable foundation that he’d built this life on. Never would he have suspected her of deceiving him.
When the doctor finally came by, he hadn’t wanted to send Jonas home yet. It took a lot of lying to get the doctor to finally release him. It was late in the day before he finally got his discharge papers.
Elmer picked him up at the hospital and drove him to the compound. He liked Elmer, though he’d seen the man’s faith in their work here fading. He and Lola’s father had been friends. Jonas suspected Elmer only stayed because he had nowhere else to go. But that was all right. Jonas still thought that when the chips were down, he could depend on Elmer.
Once at the compound, Zack was waiting, Excusing Elmer, Jonas let Zack help him inside. He was weak and his head ached, but he was home. He had things that needed to be taken care of and had been going crazy in the hospital.
Three of the sisters entered his cabin, fussed over him until he couldn’t take it any longer and sent them scurrying. The pain in his
head was better. It was another pain that was riding him like a dark cloak on his shoulders.
As soon as he was settled, Jonas asked Zack to bring him Sister Rebecca. “She’s still detained in the small cabin, right?”
“She is,” Zack said.
“How is her...attitude?”
“Subdued.”
Jonas almost laughed since it didn’t seem like a word Zack would ever have used. “Subdued? Is she on anything?”
“No, but I’ve had the sisters chanting over her every few hours. I thought it was something you would have done yourself had you been here.”
He was both touched and annoyed by Zack taking this step without his permission. But he needed Zack more than ever now so he let it go. “You did well. Thank you.”
Zack beamed and Jonas saw something in the man’s eyes that gave him pause. Zack wanted to lead SLS. The man actually thought he had what it took to do it. The realization was almost laughable.
“Bring Sister Rebecca to me,” he said, and closed his eyes, his head pounding like a bass drum. He wondered if he shouldn’t have put this off until he was feeling better.
Zack hurried out, leaving him peacefully alone with his thoughts. Lola had made a fool out of him by sleeping with Colt McCloud. To add to his embarrassment, she’d gotten pregnant. That child should have been his.
Instead, he’d put aside his hurt, his fury, his embarrassment and offered to raise the baby as his own. Still, she’d turned him down. How could she have humiliated him even more?
He let out a bark of a laugh. What had she done? She’d almost killed him—after giving him hope that she was weakening. The latter hurt the most. Offering hope was a poisonous pill that he’d swallowed in one big gulp. And now even his flock was turning against him.
Was he losing his mind faster than he’d thought? Could he trust his judgment?
He started at the knock on the door, forgetting for a moment that he’d been expecting it. “Come in.”
The moment Rebecca walked through the door, he could see the guilt written all over her face. Brother Zack stood directly behind her. He started to step into the cabin, and Jonas could tell Zack thought he was going to get to watch this.
“That will be all, Zack.”
The man looked surprised and then disappointed. But it was the flicker of anger he saw in Zack’s eyes that caused concern.
Jonas watched his right-hand man slowly close the door, but he could tell he’d be standing outside hoping to hear whatever was going on. Was Zack now becoming a problem, too?
He saw Sister Rebecca quickly take him in. In her gaze shone concern and something even more disturbing—sympathy, if not pity. His head was still bandaged, dark stitches under the dressing, but his headaches were getting better. Stuck in the hospital, he’d had plenty of time to think over the past two days.
It was bad enough to be betrayed by Lola, even worse by Sister Rebecca, because he’d come to depend on her. She had to have known that Lola’s baby had gone missing. It would have been the first thing she would have checked. Seeing the baby missing, she should have come to him.
He was anxious to talk to her, but as he looked at her standing there, he felt a loss of words for a moment. He kept telling himself that he was wrong. Sister Rebecca had been with him for years. She wouldn’t betray him. Couldn’t. He’d always thought she was half in love with him.
Which was probably why she hadn’t come to him to let him know the baby wasn’t in her crib. Even if she’d seen Lola with that bundle in her arms entering his cabin, she should have come to him. If she had, his head wouldn’t be killing him right now. But he suspected Rebecca had wanted to be shed of Lola and the baby he was so determined to make his.
Since Zack had locked up Rebecca, she would know she was in trouble. He wondered what story she would tell him and how much of it he could believe?
* * *
COLT ALMOST CHANGED his mind. Things had been going so well that he didn’t want or need the interruption. He enjoyed being with Lola and Grace. If he said so himself, he’d become proficient at diaper changes and getting chubby little limbs into onesies. He liked the middle-of-the-night feedings, holding Grace and watching her take her bottle. Her bright blue eyes watched him equally.
“I’m your daddy,” he’d whispered last night, and felt a lump rise in his throat.
So when Julia had called and said it was important that they meet and talk, he hadn’t been interested.
“If this is about you needing me to forgive you—”
“No. It’s not that,” she’d said quickly. “I doubt you can ever forgive me. I know how badly I hurt you.”
Did she? The news had blindsided him. Hell, he’d been expecting her to pick him up at the airport—not break up with him to be with one of his friends. He still couldn’t get his head around how that had gone down. No warning at all. He’d thought Wyatt hadn’t even liked Julia. He knew that Darby didn’t think she was right for him. Not that Darby had ever said anything. But Colt had been able to tell.
He could laugh now. He used to think that Darby just had his expectations set too high. But then Colt had met Mariah and realized that his friend had just been holding out for the real thing. Darby had done well.
“Julia, I can’t see what meeting you for coffee could possibly—” It had been Lola who’d insisted he meet with Julia. She’d walked in while he was on the phone. As if gifted with ESP, she’d motioned to him that he should go.
“Fine,” he’d said into the phone. “When and where?” He had just wanted to get it over with.
Now he drove past the coffee shop, telling himself that there was nothing Julia could say that would change anything. But she’d sounded...strange on the phone. He suspected something was up. Did he care, though?
He circled the block, saw a parking space and pulled his pickup in to it. For a moment he sat behind the wheel debating what he was about to do. And why had Lola been all for him seeing his ex? Was she worried that he wasn’t over Julia? Or was she hoping to hook the two of them up again?
He’d heard her on the phone calling a car dealership to order a vehicle. “You don’t have to do that. You can use my pickup whenever you want.”
“I need my own car, but thank you,” she’d said.
He thought of the discussion they’d had after he’d hung up from Julia.
“I knew that was Julia on the phone,” Lola had said. “I wasn’t eavesdropping. You talk to her in a certain way.” She’d shrugged.
“A certain way?”
“I can’t describe it, but you owe her nothing.”
“Then why should I meet with her?”
“Because it won’t be over until you tell her how you feel,” Lola had said.
He had laughed. She made life seem so simple, and yet could her life have been any more complicated when he’d met her? “Okay, I’ll meet with her with your blessing.”
“You don’t need my blessing.”
He stepped to her and, taking her shoulders in his hands, pulled her close. “All I care about is you and Grace. You have to know that.”
“So you’ll talk to her. You’ll be honest. You’ll see if there is anything there that you might have missed. Or that you want back.”
He’d wanted to argue the point, but she’d put a finger to his lips.
“You should go. She’ll be waiting.”
Let her wait, he thought now as he glanced at his watch. Let her think he wasn’t coming—look how she’d treated him at the Billings airport.
Then, just wanting to be done with this, he climbed out and walked down to the coffee shop. It was midafternoon. Only a few tables were taken. Julia had chosen one at the back. Where no one would see the two of them together and report back to Wyatt?
As he pushed open the door, he saw her frowning down at her phone. Checking the time? Or
reading a text from Wyatt?
She looked up as if sensing him and motioned him over. “I got you a coffee—just the way you like it.”
Except he’d never liked his coffee that way. Julia had come out to the ranch when they’d first started dating with some caramel-mocha concoction. When he’d taken a sip, he’d had to force a smile and pretend he’d liked it. His mistake.
“It’s good, huh. I thought you’d like it. You always have the same boring coffee. I thought we’d shake things up a bit,” she’d said. And from then on, she’d decided that was the way he liked his coffee.
“Thanks,” he said now, without sitting down, “But I never liked my coffee that way. I’ll get my own.” He moved to the counter and ordered a cup of black coffee before returning to the table.
She looked sullen, pouting like she used to when he’d displeased her—which was often enough that he knew this look too well.
“So what is it you want?” he asked as he sat down but didn’t settle in. He didn’t plan to stay long and was regretting coming here, no matter what Lola had said. He couldn’t see how this could help anything.
Julia let out a nervous laugh. “This is not the way I saw this going.”
“Oh?”
She seemed to regroup, drawing in a long breath, sitting up a little straighter. He was suddenly aware that she’d dressed up. He caught a hint of the perfume she used to wear when they were together because he’d commented one time that he liked it. He frowned as he realized she hadn’t been wearing it the day they’d accidentally run into each other.
“What’s going on, Julia?”
She looked away for a moment, biting down on the corner of her lower lip as if nervous. He used to think it was cute.
“I’ve made a terrible mistake. I didn’t mean to blurt it out like that, but I can tell you’re still angry and have no patience with me. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been so late, you would have drunk the coffee I ordered you and you wouldn’t be looking at me as if you hated me.”
He wasn’t going to try to straighten her up on any of that. “Mistake?”