On the Lam

by SUE FINEMAN

  “No, your grandfather left it to you. The ranch is yours, Callie, and so is the life insurance money. Course, you’ll owe inheritance taxes, if you haven’t paid them already.”

  She groaned. “As if I need more taxes.”

  “We’ll get it straightened out. I’ll call the attorney in Austin and have him send me the divorce papers, so we can get things back on track. Callie, why didn’t you come to me in the first place?”

  “I didn’t think you handled divorces, Mr. Houser.”

  “I don’t handle many, but this is one I’ll be happy to handle. I want to see Tommy Ray Caldwell run out of this county. All we need to do is find ourselves a new sheriff. Tommy Ray wouldn’t have been elected last time if we had anyone with the guts to run against him. Randy Woford can’t handle the job, but he does all right as a deputy.”

  Callie glanced at Bo, lying on the bed with his right arm over his eyes, and wondered if he’d want the job of sheriff. Could he handle the job without two good arms? Maybe, but if he stayed in Caledonia, she wanted him on the ranch with her. “Bo’s brother has a law enforcement background. Maybe he’d be interested in the job.”

  Bo lifted his arm off his eyes. “What job?”

  “Tommy Ray’s job as sheriff.”

  Bo burst out laughing. “A sheriff who’s afraid of horses?” As Callie finished her phone call, he was still laughing.

  Callie sat beside him on the bed. “You know, it’s a long walk back to town if he can’t ride a horse.”

  Another burst of laughter came from Bo. After making love last night, Bo was in a better mood. Her face warmed just thinking about their night of intimacy. It was the first time in her life she’d ever truly made love with a man.

  Bo pointed to the phone in her hand. “Call Brady.”

  Callie punched in the number and Neen answered. “Callie, I’ve been trying to reach Greg, but I can’t get through.”

  “He’s out on the trail with Skeeter. The phones don’t work in some areas. I’m sure you’ll hear from him this evening.”

  “He’s riding a horse?” Callie heard the laughter in Neen’s voice.

  “If he can’t ride, he’s gonna do a whole lot of walking. The spot we marked is probably three or four miles from the campsite by the river, and it’s another long stretch back to the ranch, only they can’t go back to the ranch because Tommy Ray is there.”

  Callie talked with Brady for a few minutes, telling him about Bo having an operation on his arm.

  “When are you coming back, Mama?”

  “As soon as Bo gets out of the hospital, honey. Did you think I forgot you?”

  “No, but—”

  “Baby, I miss you like crazy, and we’ll be there in a few days. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Bo took the phone and spoke with Brady. “Hey, pal, your mom and I went out riding on Buttercup and Betty Grable.”

  Callie couldn’t hear Brady’s side of the conversation, but she knew he’d be glad to talk with Bo. Brady drank in Bo’s attention. After the way Tommy Ray treated him, she’d been afraid he’d shy away from all men, but without half trying, Bo had won him over.

  “Are you taking care of Aunt Neen while Uncle Greg is gone?” asked Bo.

  Brady didn’t have any aunts and uncles, but the Gregory family had accepted him as one of their own. What she wouldn’t give to read him a story, tuck him in, and kiss him goodnight. Callie’s heart hurt with missing her little boy, but it wasn’t safe to have him here in Texas where Tommy Ray could get at him.

  <>

  Callie walked to the hospital with Bo just after dawn the next morning. Her big, handsome, slightly sunburned cowboy didn’t look like he belonged in a hospital bed. The gown barely covered the essentials, and his legs were too long for the bed. She sat by his side, holding his hand, until they came to take him to surgery. After a long, sweet kiss, she stepped back and watched two people in green scrubs roll Bo into the operating room.

  The nurse pointed to the waiting room. “The doctor will be out to talk with you as soon as he finishes the operation.”

  Callie poured herself a cup of coffee in the waiting room. Bo couldn’t eat or drink anything that morning, so she didn’t have anything either. The coffee wasn’t good, but it would have to do, because she refused to leave that room until she knew the man she loved was going to be all right.

  An hour later, Albert and the pastor of her church and their wives walked into the waiting room. “We come to wait with you,” said Albert.

  “Does Tommy Ray know you’re here?”

  “No, ma’am,” said Pastor Bickley. “No one knows but the four of us, and Stan, of course. He didn’t think you should be here alone. He said you were going through some rough times, and that’s what the church is for, Callie, to help us through the rough times.”

  “They got a prayer vigil going at the church,” said Albert, “but nobody else knows where you’re at. Ain’t nobody gonna tell Tommy Ray where to find you.”

  Callie knew they wouldn’t mean to, but somebody would let it slip. It was just a matter of time. She hoped Bo would be out of the hospital before Tommy Ray found out where they’d gone.

  After an incredibly long wait, the doctor finally appeared. He sat with Callie and her friends and gave her the news. “The damage to Bo’s arm was more extensive than we anticipated, but all the metal is gone. We also removed that piece of shrapnel from his upper arm and the piece from his left leg.”

  Callie nodded. She wondered why the doctors didn’t remove all the shrapnel before.

  “We removed quite a bit of scar tissue from his previous surgeries, and several bone chips that undoubtedly caused him pain. We gave him an artificial elbow. After he heals, his arm should function better than before, and the pain should disappear.”

  The doctor stood. “Mrs. Gregory, if you have any more questions, please feel free to call my office.”

  “Yes, sir. Thank you, doctor.”

  Four sets of eyes stared at her. After the doctor left the room, Albert’s wife said, “Mrs. Gregory?”

  “Oh, Greg told the people here at the hospital that Bo and I were married, so the doctor would talk to me. They don’t give information to anyone who isn’t family, and his family couldn’t be here today.” From the looks on their faces, these people didn’t buy a word of it. What would they think if they knew she and Bo shared a hotel room, or that they’d been having sex? Callie held up her head. “Think what you will of me. Bo still needs your prayers.”

  The pastor’s wife stood and gathered her purse. Her thin lips pressed together in disapproval. “Callie, your poor dear mother would be ashamed of you.”

  Callie jumped to her feet, seething inside. Her poor dear mother had pushed her into marrying Tommy Ray Caldwell, so she could save face with her friends who preached Christian love and then withheld it when folks needed it most. “Don’t you dare speak to me of my mother, Miz Bickley. You don’t know anything about this, and I’ll thank you to keep your mouth closed about it in town.”

  “Shame on you, Callie. Cheating on a man like Tommy Ray Caldwell, when everybody in town knows he married you to give your poor little boy a name.”

  She felt the heat rising inside her and knew this wasn’t the time or the place to say what needed to be said. Trouble was, once she got riled up, she had an awful hard time cooling down.

  Callie leaned into the woman’s round face. “Have you ever been raped? Have you ever been forced to marry somebody you didn’t love? Has your husband ever beat you so bad you couldn’t hardly walk to the bathroom the next day? Does he beat your kids? Have you ever had someone steal everything you owned? Has he ever tried to kill you?”

  For once in her life, Mary Bickley couldn’t speak.

  “Until you’ve walked in my shoes, don’t you dare judge me or mine.” She backed up a step and scanned all their faces. “Don’t any of you judge me. What I did then and what I’m doing now is between me and God.”

  “Amen,�
�� said Pastor Bickley. He grabbed his wife’s arm and steered her through the door. Albert’s wife followed, but before Albert left, he gave Callie a wink. “That was long overdue, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. We’ll be praying for Bo, and for you, too, Callie. You take care now.”

  Callie shook so hard she sat down and took deep breaths to calm down. Eight years ago, she was an innocent girl pushed into making a bad decision. She knew this wasn’t Daddy’s doing, not really. It was Mama’s, and part of the reason was Mama’s friendship with Mary Bickley. Miz Bickley was the pastor’s wife, but she was also the most opinionated, unforgiving woman in town.

  Now that Callie thought about it, her own mama wasn’t much better. Mama didn’t know Brady came out of rape. Would it have mattered? Probably not to Mama, but Daddy would have taken his gun after Chet if he’d known, and he wouldn’t have forced her to marry anyone.

  The volunteer called, “Miz Gregory?”

  It took Callie a moment to realize who she was talking to. She rushed to the volunteer’s desk. “Yes, I’m Callie Gregory.”

  “You can go see your husband now.”

  Callie followed the directions to the recovery room, where Bo lay in a bed with an IV in one arm and a big white bandage on the other one. She brushed the hair off his forehead and he opened his eyes.

  “Callie.” The word came out whispered and hoarse.

  She gently stroked his face. “It’s all over, Bo. The doctor fixed you up good as new and you’re gonna be just fine.”

  He lifted his head slightly and stared at his arm. It was propped on a pillow, his fingers pink and a little orange from the solution the doctor had used in the operating room. He flexed his fingers and winced, but Callie knew he’d seen what he needed to see. He still had an arm.

  Callie straightened his pillow and kissed his forehead. “Close your eyes and rest, Bo. I’ll be right here.”

  His eyes drifted closed.

  The nurse directed Callie to the room Bo would be in after he left the recovery room. “He’ll be up in an hour or so.”

  Callie thanked the nurse, and then she walked back to the waiting room and out to the balcony with Bo’s cell phone. She wanted to call his family in Tacoma, so she called Neen’s number, the only one she could remember. “Bo is out of surgery and doing fine. Would you pass the word to his mother, please? I can’t remember her phone number.”

  “She’s right here, Callie.”

  A second later, Carol Gregory came on the line, and Callie told her that Bo would be all right. “He was so afraid they were gonna cut it off. The first thing he did when he woke up was look to see if his arm was still there.”

  “He’s been through hell with that arm. He adjusted to the loss of hearing in one ear, but not to having a weak arm.”

  Callie knew how much the weakness in that arm bothered him, especially when he made love. “The doctor said they took out all the metal and bone chips and a bunch of scar tissue. They even took out a piece of metal in his leg.”

  “So he’ll have full function in that arm?”

  “No, the damage was worse than they thought. It won’t ever be like it was before the bombing, but once it heals, he shouldn’t have all that pain to deal with.”

  Carol groaned. “He’ll have a hard time dealing with that.”

  “Yes, he will, but he’s a strong man.” And he didn’t need to know about that part until his arm healed from the surgery. Maybe once the pain went away, he’d have an easier time dealing with his limitations.

  And maybe he’d hate her for pushing him into having the surgery.

  Chapter Nine

  Albert said no one else knew about Bo’s operation, but the more Callie thought about it, the more she knew that Mary Bickley would tattle to Tommy Ray as soon as she got back home. Miz Bickley had never been able to keep her mouth shut, and she’d never liked Callie.

  How long did she have before her husband showed up at the hospital? Every time she passed a window, Callie looked outside for Tommy Ray’s patrol car or pickup, and every time she rounded a corner, she half expected him to jump out and grab her like he did in Tampa. Another beating like that and she’d be lying beside Mama and Daddy in the Caledonia Cemetery. Only now, it wasn’t just her life on the line. Tommy Ray would kill Bo, too.

  After the nurse settled Bo in his room, Callie sat with him while he dozed and nurses drifted in and out of the room, checking on their patient. He was so handsome it hurt her heart to look at him, and she loved him so much.

  Everyone at the hospital thought she was his wife. What would it be like to be married to this man, to make love in the hayloft, to bear his children, and grow old with him? To be well and truly loved? If only she’d found him first, before Chet raped her, before Tommy Ray blackmailed her parents and pushed her into marrying him.

  Bo stirred and opened his eyes. “Hello, wife.”

  “Hello, husband.” She held a cup of water and lifted the straw to his lips. He drank, but his eyes didn’t leave her face. He seemed to have faded beneath the layer of sunburn, but his eyes held relief.

  Later that afternoon, while Bo slept, Callie walked down to the waiting room and outside on the balcony to call Mr. Houser. She told him about her argument with Mary Bickley. “Knowing Miz Bickley, it won’t take long for word to get back to Tommy Ray, and he’ll know right where to find me and Bo.”

  “Well, now, Tommy Ray has something else going on right now. You know he fired Randy?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Well, his other deputies are off in other parts of the county, so Tommy Ray is here alone, and he’s got the Richardson boys locked up in the jailhouse. Leroy said you told them it was okay to take the safe from the ranch.”

  “Yes, sir, I did. Shoot, they already had it out of the wall.”

  Mr. Houser chuckled. “They couldn’t open it, so they blew it up and it still wouldn’t open, but somebody called Tommy Ray about the explosion. When he saw what they were doing he locked them in the jailhouse. He said it was his safe and they stole it from the ranch. I asked the sheriff for the combination. After all, a man oughta know the combination of his own safe.”

  Callie couldn’t hold back a little laugh. “Tommy Ray doesn’t know spit.”

  “If I can show the judge the ranch belongs to you, he’ll have to release them.”

  “Does the ranch belong to me?”

  “Oh, yes, ma’am. If it’s all right with you, I’m going over to the sheriff’s office and ask Tommy Ray to vacate the premises. Your divorce is pending—I got the papers from Austin today and scheduled a new court date—and he’s got no business living there and keeping you away from your family home.”

  Callie paced on the balcony, the phone at her ear. Tommy Ray wasn’t likely to give over the ranch peacefully. He’d be mad as a nest of hornets and twice as dangerous. “Have you seen Greg and Skeeter? Did they bring the horses back yet?”

  “Haven’t heard anything around town, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Maybe they found something out there. I surely hope they did, and I hope it’s worth something, because I’m gonna need money real soon, and if I can’t get it any other way, I may have to sell a piece of the ranch.” Starting a business would take a lot of money, and if she had to pay the back taxes on the ranch, she might not have anything left of that money she found in the safe.

  “Don’t go getting in a hurry about selling some of the ranch, Callie. Give us a little time to see what else we can do.”

  A little time might be all she had. Leroy and Dwayne and the safe might keep Tommy Ray busy for another day, but she couldn’t count on it. No, sir. He could be on his way to San Antonio right now.

  Too bad she left her gun back at the ranch. Of course, if she used it here in the city, she could find herself in another jail, in another piece of trouble. And trouble was something she already had plenty of, thank you very much.

  Callie stayed at the hospital until the nurse chased her out that e
vening, and she returned early the next morning, before Bo woke. The doctor came in at seven. He talked to Bo, but he didn’t tell him everything he’d told Callie right after the surgery.

  Bo watched the doctor examine his arm. “How soon can I get out of here?”

  “You don’t like our luxury accommodations?” the doctor asked with a smile.

  “Not especially. Thanks for saving my arm, Doc.”

  “My pleasure. Everything is going well, so you can leave this afternoon, but I want to see you in my office if there’s any sign of infection.”

  “I’m going back to Tacoma to recuperate. You have the name and phone number of my doctor there.”

  “I’ll have my nurse fax the surgical records. Take care of yourself, Bo, and don’t forget the physical therapy.” He shook Bo’s hand and left the room.

  Bo’s mood had improved so much, Callie knew he was relieved to have it over and done with. “Did your friends in Iraq get injured, too?”

  He nodded. “Skeeter had a head injury from the same bomb that injured me. Clovis lost his leg, Franklin lost an eye, and Wilson went home in a box. And then there were the kids. War is hard enough on adults, but those kids will be scarred inside and out for the rest of their lives.”

  By noon, Bo was getting antsy, and she knew he was anxious to get out of the hospital and back to the hotel. They gave him pain pills now instead of shots. She could take care of him at the hotel. After he rested for another day or so, they’d make plans to return to Tacoma.

  While the nurse prepared his discharge papers, Callie helped Bo dress, all but his shoes. He stretched out on the bed to rest while he waited.

  Callie walked down to the cafeteria to get herself something to eat. She got a chef’s salad and brought it up to Bo’s room so she could eat lunch with him, but as she walked around the corner, she heard Tommy Ray’s angry voice. “Where in the hell is she?”