“What are you doing? Let go.” She tried jerking away again, but his hand clamped down on her upper arm.
“You and I need to have a talk.” His gaze cast in the direction Dax had gone. “I don’t know who the hell that guy was, but whatever is going on, it ends now.”
“Look, you don’t get to tell me what I can or can’t do, or who I can and can’t do it with. If you remember, we’re no longer engaged. Now, let me go.”
His teeth ground together and the muscles of his jaw bunched. “Not until after we talk.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.” She dug in her heels, but Scott gave a hard yank. She stumbled as he dragged her through the crowd. “So help me if you don’t let go right now, I’ll scream.”
“You don’t want to do that Dani. It doesn’t look good for either of us.”
“There is no us.” Her shout drew the attention of those closest to them.
Scott stopped and spun her around. His free hand came up to cup her jaw. His fingers dug into the soft tissues of her cheeks, making her sputter. Leaning in, he dropped his voice to a harsh whisper.
“I swear, if you make a scene, you’ll regret it.”
“Or what?” She gripped his wrist, trying to peel his hand off her jaw.
“Or you won’t like what happens next.”
“Don’t you dare threaten me.”
“Dani…” Her entire body stilled at the sound of her father’s voice. “Please. There are things we need to discuss. Let Scott take you home. I’ll explain everything later tonight.”
“I’m not going home with him. I’m not going anywhere with Scott.”
Her father drew in a deep breath. “Honey, I need you to listen, and I need you to do as your told.”
“I’m not a little girl…”
“No, but you are my daughter. Danielle…”
Her father was the only person who ever said her full name. It was used with the greatest respect and tenderness. He never raised his voice to her in anger, but that name always drew her full and complete attention. He needed her to listen.
Her father cleared his throat. “Trust me. Everything is going to work out. I need you to listen. Scott and I talked things out.” He gave a hard stare at Scott. “He won’t hurt you.” Her father’s gaze cut to the vice-like grip Scott had clamped around her arm.
Beneath her father’s stare, Scott loosened his grip and he released her jaw. He did not let go of her arm.
“Daddy?” What was he doing here, and why was he letting Scott hurt her?
“I’ll be home just as soon as the bull is loaded. We’ll discuss everything over dinner.”
Chapter 19
Dax
Dax jogged back to the pen where Studer’s bull had been placed. Tom Studer asked him to look into a few select breeding arrangements. What he’d really done was send him off when Dani arrived at the pens. Fortunately, he ran into Caleb, who introduced him to Drake, and the two of them handled things for him while he went in search of Dani.
That gave him an opportunity to spend time with Dani.
Such a simple thing, taking her for a ride on the Ferris wheel, but he sensed it meant something more to her. Something special. After a career of jumping out of planes for a living, rides at a fair did nothing for him.
Putting a smile on Dani’s face?
That meant everything.
He may be a thrill seeker, but no one would ever say he was a romantic. He was more of the don’t-make-things-complicated-for-me kind of guy. With Dani, all that got turned on its head.
He wanted to do special things for her because her reactions filled him with joy. They were pure and unfettered reactions which did funny things to his insides. It wasn’t a sexual thing, but rather something much more profound.
The way her face beamed when he put a smile on her face made his heart thump in the best possible way. Her smiles were all the sustenance he needed, and he realized how empty his life had been before she entered his life.
All those nameless and cheap fucks were exactly that, a means for temporary physical release which in the end left him empty and hollow. Dani filled the emptiness inside. She made him want to be more than a memory.
He wove his way through the crowd, one which was slowly thinning now that the auctions had come to a close.
One of the ranchers Studer had introduced him to earlier in the day lifted his arm over his head when he saw Dax and waved him over.
“Hey there.” Dax couldn’t remember the guy’s name. The man glanced around, looking ready to get out of there. Most of the wheeling and dealing had finished. Dax understood the man’s eagerness to get back to work. The fair might be over, but there was still plenty to do.
“Hey Dax. Tom had to deal with something and asked me to load up his bull. Since you’re here…”
“Yeah, no problem. I’ve got it.” He shook hands with the man and assured him he had the bull in hand.
Some people might think leading a bull around by a tiny rope didn’t make any sense. But the ring in the bull’s nose helped to keep it in check.
Honestly, bulls were surprisingly gentle creatures, when they weren’t spooked. Put a bull in a pasture with his cows, however, and all bets were off. Bulls were notoriously territorial and protective of their herds.
Dax led the animal and it ambled along behind him, chewing its cud as its docile brown eyes took in all the humans. There were no cows to protect, so the bull remained steadfast and calm.
He lead the bull out the back of the pens and loaded it into the trailer behind Studer’s pickup.
As he was latching down the trailer gate, his cell phone buzzed. He wiped the dirt from his hands and fished his cell phone out of his pocket. A quick look at caller ID and he relaxed. His father had been trying to get a hold of him over the past few days.
The conversations were always the same and grated on his nerves. He avoided them by ignoring his father’s calls.
Where are you?
When are you coming home?
Your mother misses you.
We need to talk.
It was because of that last one that he stopped taking his father’s calls altogether. He knew they needed to talk, and they would…when he was ready for it. Not when the imperious Seth Kingston demanded it.
But the call was not from his father. It was from his mother, and he would never disrespect his mother by not talking her call.
“Hey mom. How are you doing?” Sweat beaded his brow and he wiped off the perspiration with the back of his hand.
“Seth…” Her voice sounded stressed.
“Is everything okay?”
“Where are you?” There it was again. A tiny tremor.
He wondered if his father had put her up to this call. It would be just like his father to try and leverage the relationship between mother and son to get his way.
His mother, however, refused to get between the two of them. It was a line she never crossed.
If the next thing out of her mouth was, When are you coming home, he would know if his father pressured her into making this call.
“Just sorting things out.” He tried to deflect, seeing if his father’s hand was indeed interfering in his relationship with his mother.
“I need you to come home.”
It wasn’t a When are you coming home, but pretty close. He prepared to defend his decision.
“We talked about this. I need a little time to sort a few things out before I come home, and no, I don’t know how long that’ll be. I promise, you’ll be the first to know.”
“No honey, I need you to come home now.” Her voice cracked and a tiny sob escaped her normally calm composure. “I’m sending the jet, but I need to know where to send it.”
Sending the jet? That was very unlike his mother and hinted at an urgency she had yet to mention.
“What’s wrong?”
His mother was the strongest woman he knew, and she never lost her shit. Her stoic composure never once slipped
. Something had her rattled.
“Please, Dax, just tell me where you are. The pilots are on standby and ready for take-off, but they need a destination to file the flight plan.”
“Tell me what’s wrong.”
“I need you.”
“Tell me what’s wrong and we’ll figure out how to handle it.”
“Alexander Kingston,” her voice rose in pitch, “if you don’t answer me right now…” The use of his full name normally would’ve drawn his nuts up tight, but her soft sobs trailing at the end had him leaning forward and gripping the phone as if he could crawl through the connection to hold his mother in his arms.
He didn’t hesitate.
“Send it to Bozeman Montana. Wait, let me see if Peace Springs has an airport big enough for the jet.”
Like all things, they did things bigger and better in Texas and that included the family’s personal jet. He hadn’t flown in it since leaving home, and didn’t understand the urgency behind his mother sending it. He could buy a regular ticket, like a regular guy.
Only, he wasn’t a regular guy.
His father called him a legacy. The weight of their family’s legacy weighed heavily on his shoulders.
Too heavy.
A quick check of the local airport revealed it was too small for the family jet to land. It would have to go to Bozeman.
He let his mother know where to send the jet, then pressed for the urgency of her call.
“Now tell me what’s wrong.”
“It’s your father…”
It took a minute to figure out what was going on. Her voice cracked, becoming unintelligible, and he couldn’t understand what was happening at first. But then it became all too clear. His father was in intensive care, in unstable condition, and they didn’t know if he would make it through the night.
“I’m coming home.”
“Thank you.” It gutted him that she thought it necessary to thank him for coming home for what amounted to a family emergency. He still didn’t know what was wrong with his father. His mother had been too distressed to explain.
He ran a hand through his hair and debated his next move. He needed to let Dani know he had to leave town.
Their nighttime rendezvous would need to be postponed.
A few minutes later, Studer ambled up to the truck. He glanced at Dax, his brows pinched together.
“We ready to go?” Studer spat on the ground and another frown wrinkled his brow.
“Locked and loaded.” Dax kept his voice smooth. His family’s problems would put a dent in Studer’s ranching operations. That would be something he regretted. Studer was a solid, hard-working man and Dax didn’t like leaving Studer in a lurch.
Somehow, he needed to make his absence as painless as possible.
There was so much that Studer could benefit from, ways to turn the ranch profitable again, but it was too soon for Dax to suggest those changes. The man didn’t know him well enough, and Dax had yet to broach the subject of his ranching connections.
Maybe he could talk to his father and see about Kingston Ranch branching out? Studer could use the capitol investment, and it would be a way to keep Dax near Dani, at least until she graduated. Then they could decide whether to stay in Montana, or move to Texas. He didn’t have a feel on how attached Dani was to Montana, or her home. One way or the other, one of them would need to move.
As soon as he flew home, and figured out whatever was going on with his father, he would return to finish out calving season, and maybe present Studer with a proposal.
He gave a chuckle. There would likely be two proposals: one for business and one of a much more personal nature. Which reminded him to speak to his mother about his grandmother’s ring.
Tom said nothing as they loaded up.
Studer tossed Dax the keys and climbed into the passenger seat. The man looked like a great burden had settled on his shoulders. A deep scowl settled on his face, and Dax thought little of it as they climbed inside.
Knowing when to give a man space to wrestle with his demons, Dax said nothing. He drove back to the ranch while Studer stared out the passenger side window. The man looked more than troubled, he looked sick to his stomach, like he’d sacrificed a virgin to the devil.
Dax considered asking what was going on, but sensed Studer needed space. Besides, they weren’t buddies who sat around the campfire shooting the shit. Right now, he was nothing more than a hired hand.
Soon, that power dynamic would shift.
Once Studer found out Dax’s intentions with Dani everything would change. For one thing, he’d have to come clean about how he knew as much as he did about cattle ranching. And maybe that was a good thing. Crowbar Ranch was a small operation compared to Kingston Ranch. Studer had some great ideas, but they were outdated and costing him money he couldn’t afford to lose. There was much Dax could do to help Studer turn things around.
He left the old man to his worries as he gripped the wheel and let his thoughts drift to a more immediate issue.
His father.
His mother said his father was in intensive care. Unresponsive had been one of several concerning words she had used. As a certified paramedic, Dax knew enough to worry, but he also understood how his mother might exaggerate. She didn’t understand medicine the way he did.
What she failed to mention was what landed his father in intensive care. In his haste, he hadn’t asked. All he knew was that his father had collapsed.
But why?
Had there been an accident?
Heart attack? Stroke?
Like Dax, his father had been born in the saddle and began his ranching career at the tender age of nine. His father never stopped, moving from high school to shouldering the burden of a legacy spanning generations.
Dax began the same, following his father’s footsteps as he learned everything there was about cattle and the business of ranching. But then, doubt crept in. Sometime during high school the urge to do more with his life stirred within him.
Enlisting in the Air Force had been his way of defying his father. Like many young men, the urge to separate himself from the expectations his family rose within him. He felt trapped, and suffocated beneath the weight of a family legacy he didn’t want. He needed to discover the man he could be, rather than the one he was destined to become.
With an epic Fuck You, he left home, enlisted in the Air Force, and saved lives by risking his.
The most rewarding job in the world, he made a difference rescuing wounded warriors and bringing them home… alive.
There was one mission, one he would never forget. He and his team had been called in to rescue the crew of a downed medivac helicopter. Three Army soldiers. Two were members of the Army’s equivalent of a medical evacuation special operations team, similar to Para-Jumpers. The third had been the pilot.
A woman.
He still remembered the tenacious Warrant Officer. Ariel Black pulled two injured medics out of her downed helicopter before it exploded. As if that hadn’t been heroic enough, she did it with a busted-up leg, and took a bullet in the process. She defended their position, holding off armed men, until Dax and his team arrived.
Guns blazing, they swooped in, neutralized the threat, and rescued the injured. It was just another day in the life of a Para-Jumper, but it meant the difference between life and death for those three individuals.
That’s what he lived for. It’s what he’d trained for. It was also the mission which ended his career. Like the pilot, he took a bullet, and shrapnel from a grenade. Everyone made it out, but the trajectory of his career had been irrevocably altered.
Worse, it justified his father’s anger. Putting his life on the line risked everything his father had spent his life working to maintain. It was the great rift which separated them. His father didn’t understand why Dax risked his life. Dax would have it no other way.
There were things in life which mattered, and he needed life to make sense. No matter the cost. No matter the personal
price.
He needed to do that now, swoop in and rescue his father, even knowing it was crazy.
This wasn’t an armed engagement.
His father wasn’t pinned by hostile fire.
Extensively trained physicians, in the calm of civilian life, took care of his father.
He couldn’t save the day.
Not that it didn’t stop him from stepping on the gas pedal harder than was wise. He pushed the limits of the truck with its trailer and prize bull inside, racing toward Crowbar Ranch.
He wished he could drive straight to Bozeman and meet the jet, but Dynamo was at the ranch. He couldn’t leave without his dog.
Or his girl.
“You look troubled.” Studer leaned back in his seat and adjusted the seatbelt over his lap. He seemed to have snapped out of his funk.
“I need to leave.”
Studer said nothing for a time, merely shook his head. After a few minutes, he lifted his hand.
“I appreciate the time you’ve given me. I hope you were able to sort out some of your issues.”
He hadn’t. Crowds still made him anxious. Loud sounds didn’t bother him nearly as much as they used to. He handled the fair much better than he thought possible, but chalked that up to the presence of one person in particular. He needed to talk to Studer about Dani. When he returned from Texas, he’d ask properly for Dani’s hand in marriage. He sensed the gesture was something Studer would appreciate.
“I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone. I got some bad news about my father.”
Studer stiffened in the seat. “Bad?”
“He’s in the hospital.” He took in a deep breath. “Intensive care. My mother doesn’t know if he’ll pull through.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that. Of course, you need to go home. I really appreciate all the help you’ve given me these past few weeks. Calving season is nearly done.”
“I’m sorry to leave.”
“It’s okay. Family comes first and I’d never ask you to stay knowing you’re needed at home.” Studer gazed out the window and gave a deep sigh. “Managing this ranch doesn’t get any easier. Each year seems worse than the last, but hopefully things will be looking up.”
Dax: Military Heroes (The One I Want Series Book 4) Page 15