by Regina Duke
“Are you going to do that?”
“Hell no. The nurses already put an extra bed in her room for me. I went to school with four or five of them.” His voice dropped a bit. “Dated two of them before I met your mother.” He chuckled.
Kenzie was confused. She’d never heard her father talk about such things. “Dad, should you be joking around at a time like this?”
Her father’s voice grew more serious. “Kenzie, honey, your mother and I share a lot of history. We used to joke around all the time. It’s the best way to face adversity. Pretend you’re laughing. If Bad Luck thinks you’re enjoying yourself, he’ll give up and go bother someone else. Your mother used to say that all the time.” He added wistfully, “Then she slowed down. Got tired. I should have made her get a check-up.”
Kenzie forced some cheer into her voice. “Don’t go shouldering blame, Dad. I’ve been doing that all evening. I’ve got that one covered.”
“You’re a good girl, Kenzie. See you in the morning?”
“Of course.”
“Surgery’s scheduled for 8 a.m. Plenty of time to see to the animals.”
Kenzie smiled. Now that was the father she remembered. “I’ll be there, Dad. Don’t worry.”
She hung up the phone and felt as if her last ounce of strength had left her. “Clayton? Would you mind playing host? I need to lie down.”
“Go on up to bed,” he said gently. “After everyone leaves, I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“My brothers’ rooms are upstairs at the front of the house. I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you slept there.”
“Thanks.” He kissed her softly. “Now go on. I’ve got some things to take care of.”
Kenzie wanted to ask him what sort of things, but her brain wouldn’t focus. She nodded and trudged up the stairs. The room fell quiet for a few moments as everyone watched her slow ascent. She closed her bedroom door and moved zombie-like to the bed. She sat on the edge of it and picked up the little porcelain figures Clayton had given her. She pressed them to her lips and kissed them good night. Then she placed them under her pillow and lay down fully clothed. She didn’t have the strength to go back down and fetch her cell phone. She’d have to charge it in the morning. Her last waking thought was that her mother would have scolded her to put on her jammies.
* * *
Clayton spotted Kenzie’s phone and picked it up. He ran a hand over his forehead and wondered how much of Kenzie’s problem he should share with these friends and neighbors.
Doreen Patterson made the decision for him. She brought him a cup of coffee, and settled at the dining room table. “Clayton, does this trouble of Kenzie’s have anything to do with that smashed Mustang over at the quarry?”
Clayton stammered with surprise. “You…you know about that?” He glanced around the room, realizing that everyone was listening.
Doreen shrugged. “I know about the car because Darlene here came over for dinner and mentioned she’d seen a new abandoned vehicle when she checked on our property. Andy’s father left him the quarry, which was closed for business before he inherited it. We tried selling it when Andy got hurt, but no one wanted it. The Shanes were so sweet. They told Andy that they would accept the old quarry as collateral on that loan.”
Clayton’s eyebrows met. He addressed Darlene. “As a deputy sheriff, did you have to report to someone about that car?”
Darlene shrugged. Years of working among male officers had put some swagger in her tone. “No need. It’s on private property. I checked to see if anyone had reported it missing, and I told my folks it was there. But Dad wasn’t worried about it. He’s too busy getting ready for a big leatherwork shipment to a stable in New York City. So we left it alone.”
Clayton fiddled with Kenzie’s phone. After a few seconds, he realized that everyone in the room was gathering around and waiting for him to speak, so he did. “Look, everyone, I’m really fond of Kenzie.”
Axel and Taylor exchanged a smile. “Yeah,” said Axel, “we could kind of tell.”
“She came home to help her folks, but she left a bad situation in Denver. It turns out…I hope she’ll forgive me for sharing this, but…Todd, the man she fell in love with in college, turned out to be a really bad dude. Or at least, that seems to be his career aspiration. He put Kenzie in debt and lied to her about everything. When her mother asked her to come home and help out, she took his Mustang in order to get home, and then…well, she told me she was so hurt, she wasn’t thinking straight. She wanted revenge on Todd, so she pushed the Mustang over the cliff.
“Ever since she arrived, Todd has been threatening her, and now….” He lifted Kenzie’s phone in the air. “Now he’s threatening to come after her. He figured out where she is.”
Darlene prepared a forkful of cake for consumption, but before she popped it into her mouth, she said, “Interesting. He never reported the car missing.”
“And we think we know why,” said Clayton. “I went down there with Kenzie because we thought it was strange that he hadn’t sicced the law on her for taking the car. And we found over a hundred thousand dollars in the trunk.”
A murmur raced around the room.
“Where is it now?” asked Darlene.
“We took it out of the trunk and hid it in a slag heap. Thor and Ryan Hutch are investigating what Todd did to collect that much money. Kenzie was terrified she’d be hauled into some criminal mess.”
Darlene swallowed cake. “Maybe my folks don’t want that car in the quarry. And since Kenzie’s folks have an interest in the place now, maybe they don’t want it there either.” She prepared another bite of cake.
Clayton frowned. “I don’t get it.”
Doreen leaned back in her chair and seemed to pick up on her daughter’s train of thought. “Brady? Don’t you have a front loader for sale over at the garage?”
Brady nodded. “Yep. Sure do.”
Clayton frowned, still trying to figure out where this conversation was going.
“Well, Andy and I have a big old backhoe that just sits out at the quarry. I wonder if it still runs?”
A smile crept across Brady’s face. “Maybe we should find out.”
Doreen nodded. “Good. We’ll need both of them. This here ex-boyfriend can’t have Kenzie arrested for stealing a car that ain’t there, now, can he?”
The light began to dawn for Clayton. “Are you thinking of moving it?”
Brady made eye contact with several of the men in the room. “Oh, we have a few ideas. Mainly, first thing in the morning, I say we take that front loader down to the quarry and put it through its paces.”
The group liked that idea a lot.
Axel raised a hand. “Is this ex-boyfriend a nuisance? Or is he real trouble?”
Clayton lifted Kenzie’s phone in the air. “I’ll let you decide.” He powered it up and shared the last ten messages from Todd.
Taylor clasped Axel’s arm. “She must be terrified.”
Darlene set her fork down long enough to peer at the phone. “Humph. Did you leave all that money hidden down there?”
“Yes,” said Clayton. Then he remembered. “No! Kenzie brought a bundle home to her mother. She thought one reason she was so exhausted was from worrying about money. She left it in the fridge.”
Axel frowned. “Why the heck—”
But all the women nodded. “Perfect place to make sure her mother found it.”
Darlene stood up and straightened her weapons belt. “Is it still there?”
Clayton went to look. Darlene was right behind him, and the others straggled after. He spotted the cash in a fat envelope behind a dish of leftover green beans and pulled it out.
A murmur went through the group.
Darlene said, “Do you mind if I take this? Run a few checks on the serial numbers?”
“No, not at all. I’ll explain to Kenzie in the morning.”
“Meanwhile,” said Darlene, “if this guy shows up here at the house, what’s the plan?” She let h
er gaze settle on the guns on the kitchen table. “You taking him hunting?”
Clayton almost laughed. “No. I just—the farm is kind of isolated and….” He let it trail off as a chuckle rippled through the group.
Perky Erin Masters chirped, “It felt that way to me, too, when I first moved here. But don’t be fooled. Eagle’s Toe is smack dab in the middle of the twenty-first century.” She pulled out her cell, and several others followed suit.
Doreen nodded and offered, “Make one of them there message lists so you can reach everyone at the same time.”
After a few minutes of everyone talking at once to get the list set up, Clayton looked around the group. “Everyone covered?”
Darlene said, “Test it.”
Clayton typed the message. “Everyone covered?”
A room full of phones beeped and chimed, followed by a chorus of “Got it.”
“Good.” Clayton juggled his phone and Kenzie’s, stuffing them in a pocket.
Darlene said, “Leave her phone on. This yahoo thinks he’s scaring her, so he’ll probably keep sending threats until he actually gets here.”
“And then what?” asked Clayton.
“First,” said Darlene, “put these guns away. You don’t look like much of a hunter to me. And second, come into the dining room. You need a plan. If anyone asks you about it later, say my mother came up with it. Ordinarily, I’d be telling you to call 911 if he shows his face around here.”
Clayton paused. “Should we?”
“No. I’ll get the message on my phone, like everyone else. That will alert us all.”
“Will you get in trouble for this?”
Darlene shrugged. “My uncle is the sheriff. We flipped a coin about which one would come out here. So I’m not worried. If we need backup, I’ll call from my patrol car. Now listen up, everybody. If we get that message…just send HELP,” she added for Clayton’s benefit, “…here’s what we’re going to do.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Kenzie awoke in the morning to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. A few moments later, there was a tap at her door.
“Come in!”
Clayton entered with a tray. He said, “I thought you might enjoy coffee in bed for a change. I assume this is not your usual start to the morning, but I’m hoping to make an extremely good impression.”
Kenzie laughed briefly, then remembered everything that had gone on the day before and fell silent.
Clayton said, “If you like, I can be feeding the animals myself. And then we’ll go to the hospital.”
Kenzie shook her head. “Communing with animals is what’s been keeping me sane, along with your company, of course.”
Clayton tilted his head to one side. “You slept in your clothes.”
Kenzie looked down at herself as she maneuvered into a sitting position so Clayton could deposit the tray over her lap. “Too tired to change last night. Two cups? I hope that means you’re having coffee with me.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” said Clayton softly.
“How late did everyone stay?”
“Until eleven or so.” He poured coffee carefully into both cups. “Sugar? Milk?”
“Just sugar.” Kenzie felt her tension easing as Clayton fussed over her. “I just don’t get it,” she said.
“Don’t get what?” asked Clayton, smiling sweetly.
“I just can’t believe that you aren’t already taken.”
Clayton puffed up a bit. “I assume you mean in the sense of marriage, not in the sense of a Liam Neeson movie.”
Kenzie laughed again, then caught herself. “Oh my gosh, how are you able to make me laugh on the morning of my mother’s surgery?” She reached out and touched his hand. “When I came to bed last night, I was afraid I would never laugh again.”
Clayton pretended to jot a note down on the knee of his jeans. “Note to self: Able to make her laugh in the face of adversity, 20 points.”
Kenzie smiled and sipped her coffee. For a few seconds, the two of them sat there holding hands and saying nothing. At last, Clayton cleared his throat and said, “I better get out of here so you can get dressed. I mean, changed.”
“I guess so,” said Kenzie, “although I should probably feed the animals in this outfit and clean up afterwards.”
It proved to be the right decision because the pigs wanted petting and the goats wanted to play and the chickens needed feeding and no one had cleaned the coop for a while. Kenzie allowed herself to get lost in the mundane chores of tending to the animals. They were such sweet souls and so peaceful. They didn’t know that her mother would be on the operating table this morning. And maybe that was for the best.
They arrived at the hospital at seven forty-five. They went straight to her mother’s room, but she was already gone. Her father was waiting for them there.
“The doctor said we should go to the waiting room outside the surgery. They said they would move her to recovery after she comes out and give her a new room later.” John sounded tired and confused. Kenzie gave him a big hug. “It must’ve been a very long night,” she said.
John nodded. “But the doctor said everything is going according to plan. They came and got her at six to prep for surgery.” He seemed unable to move.
Kenzie was relieved when Clayton took charge. “Let’s head to the waiting room.”
“Good idea,” said Kenzie, secretly concerned about her father’s mental state. “We’ll stay with you, Dad. Every minute. And don’t worry, the animals are fine.”
For the next three hours, Kenzie’s universe was limited to plastic chairs, a linoleum floor, and holding hands with the only two men in her life that she trusted completely. Clayton was a strong arm to lean on when she needed one most. He never left her side, except for a brief trip to the men’s room. When he returned, he said softly, “You should have told me I made that coffee too strong.”
They all tried to laugh.
When the doctor came through the door, they stood up, waiting to learn if their lives would ever be the same.
“Everything went great,” he began.
Kenzie, John, and Clayton shared a group hug.
As the doctor kept talking, Kenzie nodded and tried to keep up, but she was so flooded with relief, she wasn’t sure she understood much. “When can we see her?”
“She’s in Recovery right now. John, I’m going to have the nurses show you to her new room on the cardiac floor. You can wait for her there. If you like, we’ll arrange for you to stay over again tonight.”
“Good. Okay. Thanks, Paul. So glad you made it through med school. You saved her life.”
The doctor smiled warmly. “Bet you never thought that summer job would come to this,” he said gently, gesturing at his surgical scrubs. “Consider it a thank you gift. If you want to talk to me, the floor nurses will page me.” He shook John’s hand, then left.
Kenzie moved her gaze back and forth between her dad and the doctor’s back. “You know him?”
“Remember that college student who spent summers working the farm when you were in junior high? That was Paul. When he came up short on med school tuition, your mother and I offered a helping hand.”
“Wow.” Kenzie shook her head. “When Mom is well enough to come home, you two need to fill me in on your secret lives.”
“No secret,” said John. “Just neighbor helping neighbor.” He glanced around at the empty chairs, and his tone wobbled. “Guess I thought one or two of them might come over and wait with us.” He looked away.
Clayton laid a firm hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, John. They were all at your house last night, and I think they’ve got a few surprises for you. They figured Kenzie and I would be here, so they could help out their neighbor elsewhere.”
John looked puzzled. “Kenzie? You know I hate surprises.”
Kenzie laughed, and her relief was so total that she found it hard to stop. She never saw the tears coming, but when they did, Clayton wrapped her in his arms
and murmured, “It’s all right, sweetheart. Everything will be all right.”
* * *
Clayton convinced John to let him buy lunch, but the older man would only agree if they ate it in the room where he was waiting for his wife. Neither John nor Kenzie finished their hamburgers. When Paul dropped by personally to escort John to Recovery after Marigold woke up, Clayton murmured to Kenzie, “We need to take care of some things while your dad is occupied.”
He was pleased when Kenzie didn’t hesitate. She kissed her dad and told him they would check back later. “Call us when Mom is in her room, if you think she can stand to see us for a bit.”
Downstairs in the Mercedes, Clayton started the engine before showing Kenzie her phone. “Todd is not a nice man.”
Kenzie began to read the most recent message, but rolled her eyes and dropped the phone in the cup holder. “That part of my life feels a hundred years away.”
“Don’t let your guard down yet. Darlene texted me earlier that a man on a motorcycle was spotted on the road between Pueblo and Eagle’s Toe. He fit Todd’s description.”
Kenzie closed her eyes. “When will it ever end?”
“Soon,” said Clayton calmly. He glanced sideways at her and flashed an impish smile. “After you went to bed last night, some of us came up with a plan.”
Kenzie straightened up and opened her eyes. “What plan?”
“You’ll see.” Clayton was grinning now, but forced himself to stop talking before he could give anything away. “Just promise me that you will trust me and follow my lead when Todd shows up.”
Kenzie nodded and slipped her hand under his arm. “I will.” She pulled back abruptly. “How did she get Todd’s description?”
Clayton felt his color rising. “I, um, well, I had to show them the messages on your phone so they’d know what we’re dealing with. And Darlene asked if you had any photos of him.” He cringed, waiting for her to explode.
Instead, she leaned against his arm again. “Okay. That makes sense.”
Clayton was amazed. Not only was she beautiful, she was the most reasonable woman he’d ever met. He grinned like a man in love.