Brody (27 page)

Olivia shook her arms to try to stop the pain as the blood flowed back into them. She couldn’t keep standing there while her family continued fighting.

She couldn’t see Brody and Rodrigo, but she saw Elena on top of Caleb, a rock in her hand. Olivia ran toward her, letting out her own battle cry. She slammed into the other woman with a bone-jarring grunt.

They rolled onto the ground with Olivia on top, but Elena didn’t stop. She started kicking and punching, snapping her teeth as she tried to get close enough to bite Olivia. It was like fighting a wildcat, but Olivia managed to get to her knees, out of Elena’s grasp. She staggered out of reach.

“
Puta
. Come back here and let me show you how to fight.” Elena’s mouth was coated in blood as though she’d been feasting on raw flesh. Olivia didn’t want to know whose blood it was—she just wanted to stop her. The beautiful girl had turned into a hideous caricature of herself, completely mad and lost in a world of darkness.

Olivia held up the knife. “You come near me or my brother and I will kill you.”

Caleb interjected from behind her. “Don’t fight with her, Liv. Let me handle this.”

She didn’t reply, but in her heart she knew there was no way she would let her brave brother die for her.

“Stay out of this, Caleb. Find your own battle. This bitch is mine.” Now it was Olivia’s turn to bare her teeth in a snarl. “We have something to settle between us.”

Elena’s screeching laugh made Olivia’s ears hurt. “The only thing to settle is who will die first. You bleed,
puta
. Your hands shake and are slippery. The knife will slide from your hands quick.”

Olivia didn’t need a reminder of just how bad her hands were. The multiple cuts stung and her palms were wet with her own blood. Before she could change her mind, she yanked off her sleeve and wrapped it around her hand.

“Now I’ve got you.” Olivia circled around, waiting for Elena to strike. It was only a matter of seconds before she did, leaping at her with her fingers shaped like talons and her mouth open in a scream.

As battles raged around him, Brody had to focus on Rodrigo or he might lose him. The bastard had already broken his nose and knocked his knife into the woods. After a tussle on the ground, Rodrigo had retreated into the brush, hiding.

If he didn’t kill the outlaw now, Rodrigo would be a ghost haunting Brody for the rest of his life. He couldn’t lose sight of him, even though he ached to check on Olivia. But she was strong and had three brothers to help her. He had to believe the Grahams would survive.

A movement in the bushes to his left revealed Rodrigo’s whereabouts. Brody lunged around to flank him, surprising the outlaw as he crouched down. He resembled a dark demon released from hell to wreak havoc on earth.

“Come on then, Ranger, shoot me.” Rodrigo got to his feet, his hand on the pistol strapped to his hip.

Brody was startled to realize the outlaw had called him “ranger.” Rodrigo knew exactly who he was and what his mission was.

“Ah, you are surprised, no? I know many things, Ranger. I know you are a coward who ran from battle and your brothers died.”

Brody reeled back as though Rodrigo had punched him. His breath was trapped in his throat, leaving him unable to speak or breathe. How could Rodrigo know?

“The second I saw you, I sent a man to Texas and he returned with much to say.” Rodrigo chuckled, a nerve-scraping sound. “I know you, Armstrong, and your cowardice.”

It had been his first battle, but not the last. Brody had made a horrible mistake. He’d been making up for it ever since. He wouldn’t let a piece of dog shit like Rodrigo make him feel guilty.

“And I know you, Robert Hansen.”

It was time for Rodrigo to be surprised. His mouth dropped open and he cocked his head as though listening to something only he could hear. Brody wanted to crow in triumph. He’d had a list of Texans who had worked for Mexico in the war. Based on the man’s stories, he’d hazarded a guess at the “real” Rodrigo. And Brody had been dead right.

“You’re not the only one who can find information. I’ll be sure to bring your dead body to your daddy so you can get a proper burial.” Brody’s colt cleared leather before Rodrigo’s gun did.

It was a test of speed, accuracy and courage. Gunshots echoed around them as Brody fired once, twice, three times. He felt a sting on his left side but ignored it.

When the smoke cleared, he stood and Rodrigo lay still on the ground. Blood leaked from three wounds in his chest, staining the leaves and pine needles beneath him with a crimson river. Brody took a deep breath to slow his heart.

An unholy scream came from his left. He turned to find Elena bearing down on him, blood dripping from the knife stuck in her chest. She wailed and threw herself on her brother’s body, then lay still.

He saw Nicholas, bleeding but alive, standing beside Caleb and Matt, also looking as though they’d been in a battle. The Graham boys had survived, but what about Olivia? He couldn’t see her anywhere and panic clawed at his heart.

Just as he stepped toward where he’d last seen her, a hand landed on his shoulder and he spun around, gun cocked. Olivia stood there, looking even worse than when he’d seen her ten minutes earlier. Her left hand was cut up and bloody, most of the top half of her dress was wrapped around her right hand, which was as bloody as the rest of her.

“I thought you’d left me.”

Brody dropped the gun and snatched her up in his arms, holding her tightly against him until he didn’t know where she ended and he began. Their blood mixed together, as did their tears.

He wept for what he’d almost lost and for the amazing gift he’d found. Words couldn’t even begin to express just how overwhelmed he was with gratitude. He’d almost lost her, the woman who owned his heart, his soul, his life.

Against impossible odds, they had triumphed, using heart and love to guide them. The Grahams had taught Brody so many things, but the most important was this: Nothing mattered at the end of the day except the woman in his arms and the men at his back. Family.

They had survived together.

They left the bodies where they lay, taking the horses back with them to the ranch. Olivia rode one of the
vaquero
’s horses, unwilling to go near Elena’s or Rodrigo’s. As soon as they could, the Grahams would sell the animals to put money in their hands for winter.

Olivia wanted to ask all of them what had happened and how they had found her, and most of all, why Brody had left. She let him bandage her up as best he could; then he let her do the same to him. By the time they mounted up, everyone had some sort of clothing used as a bandage.

She was sore, exhausted and in pain, but she kept her back straight and rode home with her family. Brody rode beside her, shirtless, the gunshot wound in his side seeping blood through the makeshift bandage. She was worried about him, but he didn’t even wobble a bit in the saddle. Eva would be able to doctor him when they got home.

Home
.

It was Olivia’s home but not Brody’s. Would he leave again? She wouldn’t know the answer to that until she found out why he had left the first time. After she’d told him she loved him, he hadn’t done the same. He had shown her the depth of his feelings by tracking the outlaws down and killing them, but the man hadn’t said a word to her since the fight was over.

He’d just held her so tightly she could hardly breathe, then examined all her wounds before bandaging the worst ones with his own shirt. As much as she enjoyed looking at him bare chested, in the bright sunlight, she saw the scars that littered his body. The one on his jaw stood out the most. It looked like a saber slice, possibly from the war since it was pinker than the other scars.

He was a mystery to her still, even after all the time they’d spent together. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, they crowded up her throat and she couldn’t get even one out.

Olivia stopped the horse, earning surprised glances from everyone.

“Liv, what are you doing?” The entire left side of Matt’s face was swollen and starting to purple. Someone must have hit him with a big branch.

“I need to talk to Brody.”

“Now?” Caleb had his arm in a sling, the knife wound from Elena’s mad attack making his left arm useless.

“Yes, now. You three take the rest of the horses. We’ll be along in a few minutes.”

“Jesus, Liv, I—” Matt began.

“Now.”

Although she knew they wanted to argue the point with her, they did as she asked, leaving her alone with her man. Was he her man though? He had never made a declaration of love or even commitment of any kind. Their deal had been to find Benjy, which they hadn’t, and return to Texas, which they had. Nothing else was said or promised.

“What’s wrong?” Brody’s voice was scratchy and exhausted sounding. He looked like he could sleep for a week.

“Why did you leave this morning?” She had to ask. She had to
know
.

He sighed, the sound making her heart pinch. “I’m a coward.”

Of all the things he could have said, that was the last she expected. In fact, she laughed at the notion.

“You? I might believe that of any other man, but you? No.” She shook her head.

He looked at the retreating group of horses and brothers. “There are a lot of things you don’t know about me.”

“Understatement.”

He clucked his tongue with a frustrated sound. “I know I don’t talk much and I’m a pain in the ass, but you talk a lot and are a bigger pain in the ass.”

“Flattering too.”

He threw up his hands. “I am a coward, a yellow-bellied coward who left his comrades to die at the hands of the Mexicans. I hid up a tree until they left, until the bodies of eighteen men were all that was left.” He rubbed his hands down his face, the rasp of whiskers loud in the quiet air. She tried to imagine Brody hiding from battle but couldn’t do it. “I was scared, Liv, shitting my pants scared. After I was sliced in the face, I ran. First battle off the farm and I wet myself. Because of my cowardice, my brothers died while I watched.”

She sucked in a breath. “Oh, Brody, I’m so sorry.”

His eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I told everyone I had been hit in the head and was unconscious during the battle. Said the Mexicans thought I was dead so they didn’t shoot me. The wound on my jaw lent truth to my story. Lies, all lies.”

Olivia moved her horse closer and took his hand. “You survived and that’s what your brothers would have wanted.”

“You don’t know that. I could only think about me and how small a man I was.” His chuckle sounded more like a painful sob. “After that I was a machine, fighting and killing, trying to win a shred of my pride back. Then the war was over and I still hadn’t found what I was looking for. Whatever it was I needed to be a man again.”

She kissed the back of his shaking hand, willing him to go on. This was what she needed to hear, what he needed to say.

He turned to look at her. “When I met you, you drove me loco, pushy and bossy as you were. Somewhere along the way my heart got involved and I got scared. When I left your ranch this morning, I was running again. Coward that I was. That’s when I realized, all that time I was fighting and killing, being a ranger and chasing people, I was searching for you.”

Olivia’s heart pounded hard against her ribs at the love in his eyes. She didn’t need to hear the words. He would say them in time.

“You found me.” She managed a smile although her entire face hurt at the effort.

“I almost lost you. Jesus, Liv, I almost lost you.” He squeezed her hand. “I ain’t a poet or even any good with words, but I’d be right pleased if you’d marry me.”

Shirtless, bloody and filthy, Brody Armstrong proposed to Olivia Graham, equally bloody and filthy. She didn’t even feel any pain when she launched herself onto his horse and kissed him. The saddle horn dug into her hip, but she didn’t care.

Like Brody, she had finally found what she was looking for. Love.

C
HAPTER
F
OURTEEN

E
va and Hannah fussed over everyone like mother hens, stitching, washing, bandaging and even removing the bullet lodged just under Brody’s skin. Supper was canceled and everyone ate whatever they could find. No one minded, of course, because the Grahams had all returned home safely, if not in tip-top shape.

Brody sat on a rocking chair on the front porch, smoking a pipe, with Matt beside him on the other chair. It was a beautiful night with a velvet sky full of stars, and the symphony of insects singing around them.

“All this bloodshed and we still haven’t found Benjy.” Matt’s voice was tinged with a sadness that ran deep.

“No, but we know Rodrigo had him at one point, and that he sold him to a hacienda in Texas.” Brody tasted the bittersweet knowledge that the boy had been in Texas all the while they were in Mexico searching for him.

“Do you know which one?”

“No, but I will.” Whether or not he remained as a Texas Ranger, Brody would find Benjamin Graham.

“I appreciate that. Liv wanted so badly to find him. She was closest to him, a second mother. The day it happened—” Matt swallowed audibly. “He had a sore throat and stayed home. I can’t help wondering if she had stayed with him what might have happened. I made her come with us to watch over the other little ones.”

“Life changes course on a whim. A few seconds here, a minute there, and things would be different.” Brody had suffered from that kind of thinking too many times to fall into it again. “You can’t play that ‘if ’ game, Matt. It will eat you alive.”

“I know, but I’m going to sleep better knowing he survived. He’s a tough little boy, so much like my dad.”

Brody thought every Graham boy must be just like Stuart Graham had been. The man had given them courage, honor, dignity and an unerring sense of what was right. Brody envied them for that.

“Olivia must take after him too.”

Matt snorted. “She is stubborn as a mule and twice as ornery, isn’t she?”

Brody didn’t need to answer such an obvious question.