“Wait, I’m not hungry. We just ate not that long ago.” Following her friend, Harper was clueless as to what was going on.
Elizabeth turned to her friend. “Didn’t you see the woman? I mean, really see her? She was covered in bruises. Someone had beat her up, badly. Then when I gave her the bag and she saw the gift card, she looked around before grabbing it. I think there might be a bully on the street hurting these women. Or at least this one. Her gift card was only for ten dollars. I want to make sure she gets enough to eat and maybe even give her another gift card with the hopes that she can keep it.”
Harper looked around at the various people on the streets around them. “Do you think whoever hurt her is watching us?”
That caused Elizabeth to stop. She hadn’t thought about that. It might be dangerous to them both, as well as to the other lady, if her attacker saw them giving out gift cards. Since the homeless woman had a roller bag she was pulling behind her, Elizabeth figured the woman wouldn’t have trouble keeping the clothing items, but the food and gift card might be a problem.
Not wanting to cause more pain for the homeless woman, she thought about how she might help her.
“I didn’t think about that. Come on, we can still check on her and make sure she’s okay. Maybe we can even find a local homeless shelter to help her. Can you look that up on your phone while I try to talk to her?” Elizabeth started walking again, but with purpose and a desire to help the woman. Something inside her was drawing her to the lady. She wasn’t sure if it was God leading her or just her own intuition, but the sad woman needed her help, and Elizabeth wasn’t going to turn her back on her.
It only took ten minutes and another cheeseburger for the homeless woman to give them her name—Mary—and to finally speak to Elizabeth and Harper. “Thank you.” The woman spoke so softly, they could barely hear her.
“I’m glad we could help.” Elizabeth bit her lip and looked to Harper, who nodded encouragement. “I was wondering about your injuries.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Is this a regular occurrence? Does the same person, or people, do this to you regularly?”
She didn’t want to assume anything or make the poor woman uncomfortable, but she had to know if Mary was in danger. There were several options for a woman in Mary’s situation, and she knew Harper would help any way she could as well.
Mary didn’t speak; she continued to eat the food set before her. She had already consumed two small cheeseburgers, a medium order of fries, and a large Coke. Now she was on her second Coke, third cheeseburger, and a large order of fries, compliments of Harper.
When the woman continued to eat in silence, Elizabeth thought of ways to coax her to speak again. “When was the last time you ate a meal?” It appeared as though she hadn’t eaten in days and wasn’t sure when she would eat again.
Mary shrugged and looked at the two women seated with her, then went back to her meal and shoving food into her mouth, as though this were normal.
Harper decided to try her hand at getting the woman to open up. “If we gave you a couple gift cards, would you be able to use them for yourself?”
This caused Mary to stop eating and just stare at the plastic tray containing what was left of her lunch. She gulped and took a long drink of her Coke. Just when the girls were about to give up, Mary said, “How do you know?”
It felt as though a ton of bricks had just dropped on Elizabeth’s shoulders, and she slumped in her chair. Before saying anything, she looked around the restaurant to make sure no one was paying them any attention. When she was confident they weren’t being watched, she asked, “Who’s stealing your food and money? We want to help you, Mary.”
“Big Bart. He owns the streets, and we have to pay him for protection.” Mary looked back down at her food and pushed a fry around in the pool of ketchup on her cheeseburger wrapper.
“Then why are you all bruised? Did he hurt you? Or someone else?” Harper asked in a low voice.
Elizabeth knew that, as a nurse, Harper had seen a lot. But in their hometown, she doubted there were many cases of women being abused, at least not this bad. Had a woman been beaten this horribly, word would have spread like wildfire through Beacon Creek.
Mary shook her head and pulled her hands into her lap. “I couldn’t pay. Someone had given me five dollars for food and Big Bart said it was his. I refused to give it to him, so he made me give it to him. He said I was an example of what happens when we don’t obey him.”
Elizabeth put a hand over her mouth and tried to stifle the cry that was aching to come out. She told herself she could cry later. Right now, Mary needed her to be strong. She needed to be strong. Even though she knew crying wasn’t weakness, society said it was. So she tried very hard not to cry in public, especially in front of a woman who was battered and broken.
“That stops today. I found a shelter online that isn’t too far from here. Will you let us take you there?” Harper moved to put her hand on Mary’s back, but at the last second pulled it back. She knew someone in Mary’s position wouldn’t want a stranger touching her—not yet.
“But they don’t let us stay very long. After a few days, I’ll be back out on the streets again and Big Bart will come looking for his money,” Mary whispered.
“Don’t worry about him. We’ll deal with him. We want you to get a good night’s sleep and maybe get your injuries looked at. I’ll speak with the director of the shelter—maybe they can help you get a job and move to a safer place until Bart is gone.” Elizabeth wasn’t exactly sure what could be done about Bart, but if he had beaten up a woman in front of witnesses, maybe they could all work together and report him to the cops. Getting Bart off the streets, even for a little while, would be good for everyone.
Once Mary was finished, Elizabeth and Harper took her to the women’s shelter a few blocks away. They were more than happy to help Mary, and promised to keep her there until all her injuries were healed. The director even offered to take her to a different area once she was ready to leave. They didn’t have an employment program at that shelter, so Elizabeth was going to do her homework and find someone who could help the women on the street get back on their feet.
When they walked back to their SUV, they noticed a couple men watching them. At first Elizabeth thought they might be homeless men. “Do we have any more of those gift bags?” She nodded toward the group of men leaning against a wall with their arms crossed and eyes narrowed.
Sophia and Mia looked uncomfortable. Mia said, “I think we should go. Those men aren’t happy about you taking that woman away.”
Elizabeth’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean? Mary? Why would they care about her?”
“Because the tall guy, Bart, owns the streets, and the homeless work for him, or so he says. He told us to leave and not come back, or next time he would drive home his words.” Sophia’s jaw tightened, and she looked like she was ready to spit fire.
“Did they hurt you?” Harper asked incredulously.
Sophia was one of the women Elizabeth never had to worry about. But in this case, knowing what she did of Bart, she hoped that Sophia didn’t have to use her skills learned in the army. No one was exactly sure what Sophia did, but she served her country well in Europe—not the Middle East, as most had assumed. Elizabeth had her suspicions, but had never asked Sophia about it. She knew that when her friend was ready she’d talk about it, if she could.
Harper and Elizabeth both stared at the four men across the street. The tall one, Big Bart, had on jeans and a button-up cowboy shirt. His black hair was long and mostly covered by his big cowboy hat, but it looked clean, as did his clothes. The other three men all wore basically the same thing as most cowboys in town. Looking at them, no one would think they lived on the streets. So why were they claiming to own the streets and shaking down the homeless for what little money and food they had?
Was this some sort of gang?
While Elizabeth continued to stare at the men, Bart pulled away from the wall he
was leaning against and strode across the street without even looking for cars.
“What? Didn’t your friends tell you to leave?” Bart looked her up and down and sneered. “This is my town. If I catch you interfering again, you won’t walk away unharmed.”
One of his friends scanned the rest of the girls. “You rich chicks are all the same. You think you can come into our town and help the homeless by giving them a few scraps and then leave feeling good about yourselves,” he chortled.
The hairs on the back of Elizabeth’s neck stood on end. “Why are you stealing from the homeless and beating them up? You look like you could work for your own money. Why don’t you?”
All four men laughed, and Bart took a step closer and invaded Elizabeth’s personal space. She wanted nothing more than to step back away from his bad breath and imposing figure, but she knew that would signal weakness, and he would only take advantage.
Instead, she put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him, daring him to touch her. She’d grown up with five brothers on a ranch and knew how to protect herself. Plus, she had Sophia backing her up. These men wouldn’t know what hit them if Sophia lost her cool.
“We do work. We work the streets. We’re the ones who keep the inhabitants safe here. This is our territory. If you want to help them, feel free to leave any donations with us next time, and we’ll see to it that anyone who has need will get it.” Bart snorted, and a bit of his spittle sprinkled her cheeks.
She wiped her face with her hands. “No. Leave them alone, or you won’t be the ones walking away at all.” Elizabeth was itching for a fight, but she knew that not all her friends were up to brawling in the streets with men bigger than they were. She wasn’t sure she could best Bart, but she would give it her all if she had to.
Lord, I don’t know what you want from us here, but please protect us and help us to do the right thing. Your Word says to turn the other cheek, but are we to let these bullies get away with hurting homeless women, or even ourselves? she prayed silently, hoping God would intercede on their behalf.
While she did want a fight, especially after hearing everything Mary had to say, she knew it would be wrong to goad a fight out of them. It would be easy, but not the Christian thing to do.
Big Bart brought his beefy hand up and grabbed her shoulder. Before he could get a word out, Elizabeth grabbed the thumb, pushing in on her shoulder and twisting it back, causing the big man to cry out and fall to his knee. She couldn’t be sure, but she thought she might have broken his thumb.
She stepped back and growled through clenched teeth, “Never touch a woman without her permission. If you ever try anything like that again in front of me, I’ll make sure you’re singing soprano for weeks to come. Got it?” She raised her eyebrows and looked at the men with Big Bart.
Sophia stood next to Elizabeth, flexing her arms and staring them down. Anyone who looked at Sophia would know she was strong, especially when she flexed her guns. Thank goodness the woman worked out practically every day. She did own the local gym, after all.
Bart stood up. “This time you’re getting away with this. But if I catch you in my neighborhood again, no matter why you’re here, I’ll pay you back for this.”
All four men turned around and headed away from the girls. A group of locals had formed a crowd and were watching. Some had their phones out taking video, but not one of the men in the crowd had come forward to help.
“Why is it that people are always anxious to run to a scene and take videos or photos and post on social media, but not one is willing to step in and help?” Elizabeth shook her head at the watchers and wondered why none of the men in the crowd had offered to help them.
Could Bart be so scary that even the local cowboys feared him? She had never seen so many men ignore women in need of help. Not that Elizabeth thought she and her friends needed rescuing, but someone should have stepped in and at least looked like they were going to help defend the ladies. It was part of the cowboy code, after all.
Before the girls could get in their car to leave, a police cruiser pulled up and called out to them.
“Great, just what we need.” Elizabeth shook her head and sighed and realized they were going to be lucky if they made it home in time for supper.
Chapter 4
“Ma!” Logan Hayes called out as he entered his parents’ kitchen. “Ma, I’m home.”
“Upstairs, honey,” his mother, Judith, called out. “I’m with your dad. I’ll be right down.”
Hank, Logan’s dad, had recently suffered a heart attack and was home resting. The doctor said he would be alright, but no one was taking any chances. Hank was stuck in bed with a hovering wife who wouldn’t let him do anything.
Logan had quit his job in LA to come home and help the family business. It was always the plan to come home and take over, but Logan had enjoyed his time away in LA, especially the beaches. A buddy of his had a family home in Venice, and they spent several weekends each summer at the house on the canal.
Now he was home, and would begin the task of managing the family’s general store in Beacon Creek, Montana. While he wanted to jump right in and start making the changes he and his dad had spoken about over the past year, he knew he first had to get the books in order. And before that, he needed to see his dad and make sure he really was going to be alright.
The stress of the business problems had caused his father, who had always been healthy, to eat wrong and forgo exercise. Which in turn caused his heart to weaken from all the stress. Logan wished his father would have been upfront with him about how bad things had gotten. He would have come home much sooner if he knew what was really happening with the business.
Logan put his suitcase in his room and decided he’d unpack later. Instead, he went back downstairs and began dinner preparations so his mom wouldn’t have to worry. He knew his sister, Leah, was watching the store, and she’d be home sometime after the store closed at seven o’clock.
While he was looking through the fridge, he realized that he would need to go grocery shopping the next day if he wanted to make sure everyone, including himself, ate healthy.
One of his friends back in LA was doing his cardiology internship, and he stressed the importance of healthy, fresh foods for the whole family. Especially Logan’s father while he recovered from his heart attack. He said to go light on the beef, but heavy on fruits and vegetables, with seafood and poultry as much as possible.
Montana wasn’t a hotbed for seafood, but they did have great trout streams, and his father also liked the local bass. He had heard there was a salmon farm, so he’d have to look into getting some salmon as well.
While he was thinking about all he needed to buy to get their stores up to par, his mother came down to help him.
“Logan, it’s so good to see you again. Thank you for coming home, son.” Judith walked to her son and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“I wish you would have told me how bad it was sooner. I’d have come home,” Logan chided.
His mother sighed. “I know, dear. I told your father we should bring you home, but he insisted that you should get as much out of LA as possible. He’s always been healthy, and we had no clue this would happen.” Judith looked at what Logan had pulled out of the fridge and she scrunched her nose.
Logan chuckled. “I know, it’s not much. I’ll go do some shopping tomorrow morning and get the house stocked with healthy choices. No more greasy cheeseburgers or frozen meals, Ma. We have to cook fresh foods going forward.”
He looked at the head of lettuce on the counter and the meager salad toppings he had discovered. There was a bag of sunflower seeds and a balsamic vinaigrette dressing, and that was all they had besides the chicken breast he had pulled out of the freezer.
Shaking her head, Judith went to the pantry and looked through it. “I guess we’ll have to get rid of croutons and the packaged bacon bits?”
Logan nodded. “I can cook up some bacon and crumble it for future salad toppings,
but we need to prepare as much fresh food as possible. The vitamins and nutrients are exactly what Dad needs right now. Not to mention, it will help to keep us from getting run down or sick as well.”
He knew that changing their eating habits was going to be difficult. It was for him when he’d first moved to LA, but he’d never felt better once he got all the toxins out of his system. Even though he was twenty-eight years old, he felt more like he did when he was in high school, like he could play an entire basketball game and then get up the next day and work on the ranch without any cares. Which was something he had done many times.
“Is Pops up for a visit from his wayward son yet?” Logan grinned at his mom as he waited for the chicken to defrost in the microwave.
“I think he would really enjoy that. I’ll finish the dinner if you want to go up and see him. He really has missed you, Logan.” His mom’s genuine smile sent warmth to his heart.
He had missed his family. It had been two years since they came out to visit him in LA. Logan hadn’t wanted to come home since she moved back; it would have been too difficult to see her and not kiss her. Now that he was home, he’d have to find a way to deal with his emotions. There was no way in the small town of Beacon Creek they could stay away from each other. At some point, he’d see her and have to be polite and talk to her. He only hoped the first time he saw her she wasn’t with a boyfriend.
Leah had told him his high school sweetheart was dating someone rich and handsome, but he didn’t want to think about it. All he wanted to do was help his father recover and get the business back in the black.
Family was all that mattered.
Family was everything to Logan.
Later that night while he was readying for bed, Logan reflected back on what his father had looked like when he entered his bedroom. Logan knew the man would be pale and sickly, but he wasn’t prepared for how gaunt his face was. His father wasn’t obese or anything, but he had always been stalky and strong. Lifting bales of hay and carting around fifty-pound sacks of grain kept a body strong. But when he looked at his father, he could have sworn the man had been bedridden for ages.
Second Chance Ranch Page 3