Just One Kiss (The Dream Catcher Series-Book Two) (17 page)

Inside, Lee was laughing because he’d hid the money so well, they’d never find it. But Tor delighted in knocking him down every time he moved.

Lee struggled, trying to tie his leg up so the bleeding would stop. With one arm and badly injured shoulder, it was near impossible.

His shoulder was killing him, but he needed to fight Tor off of him. It was a losing battle and finally blackness surrounded him.

“What we gonna do…we didn’t find nothing…” The voices swirled in his head as he felt the blackness surrounding him.

“Maybe he ain’t got any money after all…” Frank laughed. “Leave him be. He’ll bleed to death…Serves him right.”

They rode off laughing.

Lee felt himself falling down into a hole and never reaching a bottom. The black void seemed to stop all his movements. His mind registered that he needed to tie himself up, but the void sucked him in.

It was dark before he heard or saw anything again. The sun had gone down, and he wondered if anyone was looking for him yet.

His wounds kept him from getting up, he was weak and getting up didn’t seem an option. But if he didn’t, he’d die, he told himself. Just like he’d told himself many times during the war. If he lay there, he’d bleed to death and he knew it.

The crickets and locust were making a noise; he thought he heard a coyote but he couldn’t be for sure. His eyes opened and Joe stood over him swearing up a storm.

“Joe…is that you…” Lee cried out, hardly able to open his black eye. He reached out and found Joe’s arm, and grabbed hold of it tightly.

“It’s me, boy. Come on, I gots to get you to the doctor…”

“No…wait…put me down. I got to tell you something.”

“But you is bleedin’ to death, Mr. Lee…” Joe protested.

Joe laid him down once more and stared down at him as he tied the leg as best he could.

“I want you to do something for me, Joe. I didn’t make it to town. But I still got the money. So I want you to just throw me on my horse and send me home…they didn’t get the money, Joe. I hid it.”

Joe stared at him as he started to lift him.

“Where’d you hide it?” Joe asked, lifting Lee to his shoulder.

“Under my saddle between the saddle and blanket, wrapped into the blanket so if they moved it, it still wouldn’t be obvious. Now listen to me, Joe. Take the money and get into town…”

“Now? But Mr. Lee, you’re hurt. You don’t know how bad. I ain’t gonna leave you stranded out here in the middle of nowhere. Bleedin’ like you are.”

“Please Joe, listen. I want you to go see Mr. Weatherby, the bank manager. Pay him and get back here with the doc.”

“But I needs to take care of you first…”

“No…listen to me, Joe. You’ve got to get to town and pay the taxes. They won’t be expecting this and now is the time to move. Get them paid, it’s important. Then get the doc to come out with you. No one will expect anything if they see you comin’ back with the doc.”

“But Mr. Lee, you is hurt…”

“I’ll be okay…just do it…please…” Lee begged. “I can make it back to the farm. And I can’t make it into town. Not like this. Besides, they might have someone watchin’ in town. If you go, they’ll just think you’re getting the doc or something.”

“You a mighty strong headed man…” Joe fussed as he helped him into the saddle. “It could cost you your life and you know it.”

“This is the best thing that could happen. They won’t expect you to be carrying any money. I want you to do this for me, no matter what, Joe. If I don’t make it, then the property must go to Hattie and Sam and you.”

Joe stared up into his face. “You gonna be okay? You gotta make it.”

“Sure…I’ll be fine, now, go on…” Lee urged. “Help me on my horse. I’ll make it back to the house.”

Joe mounted him on his horse, tied the reins in his hands, and looked at Lee with a frown. “Be careful and get home. Miss Hattie is beside herself with worry…”

Lee smiled, and leaned towards the saddle horn. “See ya…”

Joe took off at a gallop never once looking back.

Lee rode slowly back to the farm. His shoulder was killing him. Joe had wrapped a bandana around his leg, but he’d lost a lot of blood. He could barely see out of his good eye to head his horse in the right direction.

“Easy Shortenin’, those bumps sure do make a man hurt,” Lee muttered as he nearly passed out again. He knew his horse would get him home, he’d trained him well. And if Hattie was waiting for him, he’d be alright.

But as he rode into the yard, Hattie was on the porch. She ran down the steps toward him and reached up to help him off the horse…

“Dear God…what did they do to ya?” she screeched, throwing an arm over his shoulder and trying to help him up the steps to the house.

He leaned against her hard, almost passing out on her. He smelled the sweet scent of roses, and smiled.

“You sure smell nice…” he whispered.

“Well, I can’t say the same for you…” she chuckled, pulling him solidly against her as they made it up to the porch.

***

The house was dark, and he was leaning on her now, so it was hard to maneuver him.

As best she could she helped him towards her bedroom and laid him on her bed. Running to get a pan of water and bandages, she hurried back to see him passed out on the bed.

“Oh, Lee…” she cried, looking into his face long and hard.

She cut his shirt away from him as she looked at his wound and began cleaning it. From the coloring of his face she could see he’d lost a lot of blood. It was the same shoulder where he lost the arm. She mopped the wound up with a clean rag and water and placed a bandage lightly on top of it. After reapplying more pressure to his leg, she sat back and waited. She wished she knew more about doctoring but she didn’t. Feeling helpless, she sat beside him close at the bed. The need to touch him played in her mind. If she had her way, she’d take off all her clothes and climb in bed with him. But he wouldn’t get any rest that way, she was sure.

She watched his face, her worry growing.

He came to a couple of times and smiled up at her.

“Where’s Joe?” she asked him.

“He’s gone to pay the taxes.” Lee smiled up into her worried face. “Don’t frown so…I made him go. They won’t expect him to have the money to pay them. It’ll be safer this way. He’s bringing the doc.”

“They didn’t get the money?” she whispered as she moved closer.

He managed another smile. “No.”

“I told you not to go…” she warned as she stared down into his sapphire eyes.

Lee smiled as she handed him some whiskey and he took a sip. His hand drifted up to caress her cheek, then slid inside her shirt and touched the tip of her nipples. Instantly they responded and he smiled.“Unbutton your shirt and let me kiss you…” he demanded.

“But Lee, baby…you’re hurt.”

“Yes, in more places than one. Unbutton it,” he demanded.

She fumbled with the button, but opened it for him, threw it on the floor, then threw the camisole down too. He looked at her. “Lock the door. I want to kiss you and we don’t need an audience.”

“But baby…this isn’t the time…”

“Please…”

“Okay, …whatever you want.” She sighed. She walked over to the door, her breasts swinging. She came back and he pulled her down to the bed with one hand. His lips touched her breasts and he laid with her for a long time, kissing, loving, touching, and looking. She was squirming with aches and needs, but knew he couldn’t fulfill those needs right now. He was hurt. But somehow his loving took his mind off his hurting, and she knew that too.

He sighed happily. “A man could find heaven on your breasts. I've dreamed of you pillowing me like this. This is my heaven.”

She blushed.

He smiled, and his hand moved away. “I sure could use a kiss about now.”

She smiled, and lowered herself so she could touch his lips with her own. The moment she did he groaned, and she started to pull away. But he shook his head. “No, don’t go away…”

“I’m not going anywhere, honey, but you are in pain.”

His glance captured hers. “In more ways than one.”

Then he collapsed.

She moved her lips against the hand that caressed her cheek. “Oh…Lee…my sweet, sweet Lee,” she whispered.

She moved away from the bed, and temptation itself. Fastening her shirt, she sat beside the bed, holding his one hand in hers.

She fell asleep as she settled in the rocking chair she’d pulled up against the bed, her hand holding onto his.

It was way into the night before he came to. The kids were asleep, Joe hadn’t returned yet, and he looked very awake as he squeezed her hand.

She wiped her eyes and stared at him with a lazy smile.

He brought her hand to his lips, folding it in his. He smiled as he kissed her.

“From the moment you walked out of those bushes, I knew you were going to be important to me…I just didn’t know how much.” He looked straight into her eyes as he said it. “You had so much spunk and sass. I spent a whole war thinkin’ about you, and tryin’ hard not to, for both our sakes. How I shouldn’t love you, shouldn’t want to be with you. How I could put your life in such danger by loving you, but it changed nothing. When I lost my arm, I dreamt about coming home…to you. I remembered how you said you’d take care of me. But honey, it was your face I saw in my sleep, your face I saw in my dreams. Only you.”

“Oh, Lee…” she gasped. “That’s all I wanted to hear.”

“To think you returned my love. That was more than any man could hope for,” he whispered as he pulled her down so he could kiss her proper on the lips.

She felt herself growing warm and wet and wanting him.

She came up for air only for a moment. “It’s always been you…Lee. Only you! My God, the first time you kissed me, you stole my heart. And if you hadn’t kissed me, it wouldn’t have mattered, I’d have kissed you.”

“God…We have to be together, we have to…” He sighed and passed out once more.

She looked down into his face, brushed the hair from his forehead, bent and kissed him on the lips and admitted aloud, “Yes, my darling Lee, we do, ‘cause I want to have your babies.”

Chapter Ten

The doc spent the better part of the next morning pulling the bullets out of Lee’s shoulder and leg, and bandaging him. As he joined Joe and Hattie in the kitchen, he shook his head.

“I thought he died in the war,” the doc said as he thanked Hattie for the coffee. “It was a pure shock when Joe came into my home last night and told me what had happened.”

“We all did…” Hattie said. “I put a stone up for him…the newspapers said he’d died. I almost wish he’d stayed quiet about being home. This wouldn’t have happened.”

“Joe says the Jeffries are at fault for this…” the doc said, sipping his coffee slowly. “He’s got every right to file charges.”

Hattie brought her cup to the table. “They are at fault…”

“Do you think he’ll file charges, then?” the doc asked, his eyebrows raised.

“I don’t know…he passed out pretty quick last night when I got him in there. Have you known Lee long?”

Doc Witherspoon shook his head. “Met him before he rode off to the war. Had some trouble out this way and old Doc Smithers needed my help. His Pa was a stubborn one and got shot up by the Jeffries a time or two. I reckon Doc Smithers knows him better than I do. But I always liked Lee and Dil. They are almost the same age as myself. Anyway…He lost a lot of blood. He really needs a transfusion, but I’d have to match his blood, and find a donor…” the doc explained.

“If you need it doc, I’ll volunteer…” Joe stood up from the table and eyed the doc.

“He don’t think he needs it, but without it, he’ll be kind of weak for a while, and knowing him as I do, that won’t set well with Lee.” The doc nodded. “Let me take some blood from you and see if I can match it pretty well, then.”

“Alright,” Joe insisted.

It took the doc a while to get the blood, but he took it on the back porch and did some kind of testing, then he came back in a hurry.

“It’s pretty close, let’s do it.” The doc nodded. “Transfusions are kinda new here, but we’ve found they work well when one loses a lot of blood.”

Joe agreed.

The doc stared at ole Joe. “Alight, Joe, let me get things fixed up. I’ll call you in there when I’m ready. It will make all the difference in the world when he starts healing.”

Joe nodded and smiled at Hattie.

Joe chuckled when they were lying on the same bed. “I always knew I was part Nelson.”

Lee heard him and laughed.

When the doc was ready, Joe spread his arm out and waited. Hattie had helped the doc set up.

“He’s going to be alright, isn’t he?” Hattie asked, watching the way Joe’s blood flowed from him to Lee.

“He’ll be fine. Of course, he might have a time getting around at first. That leg is pretty busted, but he’ll mend. He’s a strong one; he’s young and healthy. He’s had a few other bullets taken out of him too…” The doc looked at them both. “Must have been from the war. They did a good job on his arm. And he’s learned to use the rest of his body to his advantage. That’s great.”

“He never said nothin’ about them bullets…” Joe shook his head. “I guess the war nearly did him in then…and someone thought it had…He’s been especially quiet about the war, not tellin’ nothin’.”

The young doc nodded. “He’s changed some since he left. Gotten a lot quieter. Losin’ an arm had to be traumatic for him. He doesn’t seem to be half as hot-headed as he used to be. Which is good. The Jeffries bunch are cunning and a hot head wouldn’t win with them. I’m very happy that he got the taxes paid on this place. Legally, no one else can touch it, except you. And Lee.”

Hattie shrugged. “Now that he’s back, I guess things will settle out, especially since the taxes are paid.”

The doc smiled. “Lee’s had a tough time here. I’m a little surprised he came home after the war. So—how’s our little Violet’s leg now?”

“She hardly complains, doc.” Hattie smiled, casting a quick look outside. “She’s not even limping with it any longer.”

“She’s a little toughie too.” The doc smiled.

“Do you think now that the taxes are paid that we’ll have less trouble with the Jeffries?” Hattie asked.