Heartstrings (28 page)

She looked up at him. Her smile rivaled the sun. “I talked to Mom about her letting me make a record. She said I could.”

“Whoa. I thought we agreed to wait a little.”

She stopped and faced him. “No, you agreed. I don’t want to wait. I know I can do this, Seth. And with you endorsing me... C’mon. I’ll be fifteen in a few months, and I’m far from the youngest singer ever to get her big break as a teenager. Loretta Lynn, Tanya Tucker, Leann Rhimes, Taylor Swift... I could go on.”

“Yeah, and not one of them would tell you it’s all a bed of roses. Emily, fame isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I’ve done a lot of stupid things in the name of fame.”

“I’m not you. Besides, you’d be there to help me.” She stared up at him with eager green eyes that were surrounded with way too much makeup. He wanted his little girl, but he’d never have the little girl in the videos Abby had given to him. He did have this amazing young woman who was asking him to help her pursue her dreams.

He didn’t need to read a parenting book about teenagers to know this was a rare event.

Or that he’d be a fool not to grab onto it with both hands. “Okay. We’ll talk to your mom and maybe plan a trip to Nashville. I’ll introduce you the president of my record company. If he likes what he hears, you’ll get a deal.”

“Oh God! Really?” She clasped her hands together and bounced on her toes in a tight little circle.

He held up a hand, stopping her when she faced him again. “But there’re a few conditions in all this.”

Some of her exuberance faded. “What conditions?”

“I produce at least your first three albums. I help you pick your music, and for the first four years, you only tour with me. You finish school and you must maintain at least a B plus average.”

She caught her bottom lip between her teeth. “Okay. Anything else?”

“Yeah... I’d like you to add my name to yours.”

“What do you mean?”

Seth stroked his goatee and cleared his throat. “You’re my daughter, Emily. I’m planning to ask your mom to marry me. I’d like us to be a family and that includes you starting to think of me as your dad. I’d like to adopt you, just to make everything legal.”

She turned away from him and wrapped her arms around her middle. “What about my dad–Mike?”

“Yeah, Seth, what about me?”

They both turned at the sound of Mike’s voice as he stepped out of the shadows, pointing a gun at them.

“What are you doing?” As fear froze Seth’s blood, he wrapped an arm around Emily’s shoulders. She seemed to be too shocked to believe what was going on.

Mike was dressed casually in jeans and western shirt. He held a Glock with a steady hand. “I’ve lost everything because of this brat. So, I’ve decided to take some of it back.”

“Daddy?” Emily’s quiet voice shook with fear.

He jerked the gun toward her. “I gave up everything for you, Emily. I even loved you, but as soon as this son-of-a-bitch shows up, you fall all over him.”

She sobbed and clung to Seth’s side. He pushed her behind him.

“Mike, put the gun down.”

“Or what? You’ll sing me a song?” He took a few steps toward them. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve hated your guts?

The question stung more than he wanted it to.

“Do you remember that time we competed in the Tri-County Rodeo?”

He hadn’t wanted to enter, but his father insisted, hoping he’d win and get the notice of the national circuit. He’d been a senior in high school, a decent roper, but never wanted or aspired to be a rodeo cowboy. Mike had entered the same rodeo, as had half the wannabe cowboys in the area. Although Seth competed, he’d hoped Mike would win. But in the end, Seth got the silver buckle. The buckle he still wore when on stage. “That was a long time ago.”

“Do you know what your beating me cost me?” Mike was close enough, the whiskey and the sweat smells wafted over. But he held that damned gun in a deadly steady hand. And way too close to the girl he’d give his life to protect.

Was this what a father’s love was like?

“Dad wouldn’t let me try again. He said that was the last rodeo and it was time to get serious about my life. Hell, you didn’t even want to ride. That’s all I ever wanted to do. It was my ticket out of this hell-hole of a town.”

Was he off his rocker? “Put the gun down and let’s talk about this.”

“Fuck you. I’m done talking.” He reached for Emily, and before Seth could move, Mike had her by the arm and the gun pointed at the back of her skull.

Emily screamed and sobbed louder. Her distress cut through him in a way nothing ever had. “You don’t want to do this. What about Tammy Jo and your new baby?”

“What about them? Tammy Jo betrayed me. She won’t even let me see my boy.”

None of this was making sense. “Mike, what’s going on here? What are you going to do with Emily?”

He moved the gun from her head to train it on him. “A young girl who appears to be white? Do you have any idea how much I’ll get for her on the market?”

The market? Did he seriously mean the human trafficking market?

“Put the gun down, Mike.”

Deputy Clint Grier stood behind him with a Glock pointed at his boss’s head. “You know I won’t miss if I pull this trigger.”

“Drop it, Ritter.” Out of the darkness came another voice. Seth recognized it as the Texas Ranger, Wayne Cover. “We have enough to send your sorry ass up the river. Don’t add murder to the list.”

The part-time singer and fulltime sheriff’s deputy moved in at the same time as the drummer Texas Ranger and the other sheriff’s deputy from Grier’s band.

Mike was completely surrounded and with nothing to lose, he was more dangerous than before. He shifted his aim at Emily again.

Seth didn’t think his actions through. He let instinct take over and fell forward, taking Emily into his arms and falling to the ground.

A gun went off and everything went black as pain exploded through his right shoulder. The last thing he heard was Abby screaming his name and his little girl’s sobs.

* * * *

Abby and Emily held onto each other in the hospital waiting room. An ambulance had rushed Seth to the biggest medical center in Amarillo. He had to survive this. He had to!

The scene of him falling with Emily and Mike shooting him wouldn’t stop playing in her head. Hell, the images of coming upon Mike holding that gun to her baby’s head about killed her. As much as it had destroyed her to not walk onto the scene, she’d pulled back and immediately called Clint’s phone number. His amateur band was closing the show and had just finished the set.

Carolann and Frank held each other across the aisle. No one spoke. The Texas Rangers had already been to the ranch and arrested five of the ranch hands including the manager–all of them charged in an elaborate operation of trafficking illegals out of Mexico and to points north.

Her former in-laws looked sick. Carolann was a little too ashen as tears ran down her face. Abby feared she was having chest pain and was hiding it. She’d catch her wincing every now and again. Frank’s health wasn’t much better. His Parkinson’s was taking its toll in his agitated state. Usually, the shaking was under control, but tonight he shook like a drunk coming off a bad binge.

In the thirty years she could remember the man being in her life, she’d never seen him cry. Until now.

Their son had disgraced them beyond belief. And the man who had become an adopted member of the family had been rushed to surgery. Put there by their son.

Despite the early morning hour, the waiting room was packed. Two TVs bolted to the walls played and replayed the news coverage of the hell she and her family had survived only four hours ago. Not only had they made the local news, CNN and FOX had the shooting of country star Seth Kendall by the McAllister County Sheriff as breaking news.

She turned away from the scenes as a doctor entered the room. She untangled Emily’s arms from around her and stood. “Dr. Weber?”

The surgeon smiled and took her hand. “Abby, it’s been a long time.”

She and Bruce Weber had worked together years ago. “How is he?”

Emily stood beside her and wrapped her arms around her. “Is my–my dad gonna be okay?”

Bruce puckered his brow as if in confusion but turned on a charming smile and nodded. “Mr. Knight will be fine,” he said, referring to the name under which Seth was registered for privacy purposes. The bullet had gone straight through, but Seth had lost a lot of blood and had been rushed to surgery to close the wound. “The surgery went smoothly, and I don’t foresee any lasting damage.”

“Thank God!” Carolann put her hand over her heart.

Abby closed her eyes and prayed a silent thank you.

“Can we see him?” Emily asked.

Bruce smiled and nodded. “Yes, he’s been asking about you.”

Abby and Emily entered the private room. Seth lay in a bed with his right arm in a sling. An IV dripped into the back of his left hand, and he looked silly in the bright teal hospital gown, but Abby had never been so glad to see him.

Emily rushed ahead and came up short at the bed. He reached out with his left hand, and she took it. “I was so afraid.”

He smiled and brought her fingers to his lips. “Me, too, sunshine. I didn’t want him to hurt you.”

She sat on the edge of the bed and touched his face. “How could he–he want to sell me?”

He pulled her down to his chest and caressed her hair. “I don’t know, honey. But you aren’t going anywhere.”

“You saved me.” Emily lifted her head and looked into his face.

“I’m your father. I’d gladly die for you.”

Emily sniffed and big tears rolled down her face. “I love you.”

Seth made a choking sound and pulled her to him again. “I love you too.”

He looked up at Abby as she wiped away the tears in her eyes. She took his hand and touched Emily’s shoulder. “I love you both.”

Emily moved and Abby sat beside him.

He got his emotions under control and smiled as he looked from Emily to Abby. “Don’t you think it’s about time the three of us become a family?”

Careful not to put too much pressure on the IV in the back of his hand, she gently squeezed. “We already are.”

“I was thinking something permanent and legal.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “What do you have in mind?”

“Emily, can you find my jeans? They should be in the drawer over there.”

Emily did as asked and then peered over her shoulder at him.

“In the right front pocket you’ll find something. Get it and bring it here.”

Emily muttered, “Holy crap.”

Abby couldn’t pull her gaze from his to see what excited Emily. He let go of her hand and Emily dropped a ring into his palm.

As he held the diamond ring out to her, Abby gasped. “I’ll probably wish I’d waited to do this and been a little more romantic about it, but I can’t wait any longer. I don’t want to live without you.” He glanced at Emily, who was behind her. “Either one of you. I’ve been doing that for far too long already.”

Her heart jumped into her throat, and she covered her mouth with her hand to keep it from escaping.

“Abigail, will you marry me?”

She lost her breath and could do nothing but nod. She held out her shaking left hand and he slipped the ring onto her finger.

He smiled. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Emily whooped and kissed first her and then Seth on their cheeks. “Of course it’s a yes!”

Abby giggled and stared down into the beautiful eyes of the man she loved while time seemed to slow.

“Well, aren’t you gonna kiss him, Momma?”

He grinned and slipped his arm around her waist. “Yeah, aren’t you gonna kiss me?”

“For the rest of my life.” She leaned forward and brushed her lips against his.

He held her against him and kissed her with a restrained passion that promised so much more.

He broke the kiss, and she lifted her hand to get a better look at the huge marquis cut diamond with round diamonds on either side of it. “Sweet mercy, this thing’s a rock! Seth, I can’t wear this. I’ll lose it. Or be mugged. Dear Lord!”