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Authors: Cara Covington

Love Under Two Benedicts (22 page)

BOOK: Love Under Two Benedicts
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Her gaze found her men among the twenty or so people combing the slight rise on the edge of town between the general store and the ranchland. Matthew’s brown uniform stood out, as did Steven’s hastily bandaged arm.

She sat in the back of Matthew’s cruiser, with one of his fathers in the front seat and the other in the back beside her.

“Unless that bastard picked up his shell casings, they should be finding something soon,” Caleb Benedict said.

“Sorry son-of-a-bitch better not show his face around here again. The women alone would beat him to bloody death for threatening two of our own,” Jonathan Benedict said.

“Damn right,” Caleb agreed.

Kelsey felt warmth suffuse her at those words. She turned to Jonathan, who sat beside her.

“You need to insist your son sees the doctor.”

Both men smiled. “Don’t you worry, sweetheart,” Jonathan said. “As soon as they find the evidence, Bernice will see to it if he doesn’t.”

“He’s doing what he can to take care of you,” Caleb said. “That’s the Benedict way. Once they’ve finished their search, he’ll head on over because you asked him to.”

“I’m sorry he got hurt. I don’t understand why anyone would try—”

“Now, sweetheart, if you’re apologizing, you can stop right there. None of this is your fault. It’s the fault of the man who pulled that trigger,” Jonathan said.

“And the fault of the man who sent him,” Caleb said.

“You think someone…”

“The first attempt was some asshole, pardon my language, behind the wheel of a car running you off the road and the second a sniper attack. Speaks to two separate M.O.’s.” Caleb said.

Since Caleb had been a Texas Ranger, she guessed he knew what he was talking about. She turned her attention back to the men. Steven held up his hand, and everyone seemed to stop. Adam and Matthew both came over to him. Matt got down on his knees beside his brother. A few seconds later, he held up what looked like a baggie with something in it.

“Good.” Caleb turned to Kelsey. “Now they’ll be able to know what caliber bullet, and from that, the make and model of gun. If they seize the weapon, they’ll be able to prove it was the one used because they have that casing.”

Matthew handed the bag to Adam, then came toward the car. He leaned in through the open back window and placed a kiss on Kelsey’s face.

“We’ve done all we can going over where the shooter stood,” Matthew said. “Adam’s going to get all the volunteers together, see if their canvass turned up any descriptions of the perp. In the mean time, we need to talk. Since Mom’s still with Benny at the ranch, let’s head over to the big house.”

“Certainly,” Kelsey said. “Just as soon as one of the doctors over at the clinic has a look at Steven’s arm and gives him a proper bandage.”

 

* * * *

 

It seemed the most natural thing in the world to Steven to worry about his woman and do everything in his power to protect her and keep her safe. Being the recipient of that same treatment was something else again.

He’d known she’d been taken back to that other shooting five years before. That knowledge had kept his voice calm, his actions gentle even as he’d wanted to swear with the pain from his wound. He did his best to downplay his injury. He hadn’t lied to her. He really had only been grazed. But it hurt like hell.

“There,” Dr.
 
Adam Jessop said as he smoothed the bandage into place. “Cleaned, disinfected, and antibiotic cream applied. I imagine it stings like hell.” He raised one eyebrow, and even though Kelsey sat next to him and he wanted to spare her, he never could lie to his Uncle Adam.

“It stings,” he said.

Steven felt himself scowl when Dr. Adam looked over at Kelsey. “I’ll give him a prescription for Tylenol with codeine.” He went over to the PC that sat on the counter in the exam room. The clinic had gone to computers a few years back, which made the pharmacist in town happy as all prescriptions were now printed out and legible.

“And it appears you need a tetanus booster.”

“Well, hell,” Steven said.

Kelsey leaned in and kissed his shoulder. “Sorry, sweetheart.”

He looked over at Matthew who stood on the other side of Kelsey. His brother’s smirk grounded him as much as Kelsey’s affection soothed him.

“Just a pinch.”

Steven wondered why doctors always said that before jabbing those big ass needles into his arm and twisting them every which way. At least it felt as if they did.
 
Uncle Adam gave him the shot in his left arm. Steven supposed it was better than having to stand and lower his pants, but not by much.

He couldn’t help the slight hiss as he inhaled sharply.

“F…ooey, that hurts.”

“It was just a little pinch,” Dr. Adam reiterated. Steven noted the twinkle in the man’s eyes.

It was a sad world, Steven thought, when your own doctor, who was also a family member, laughed at your pain.

“Come on, tough guy. By now the dads will have the coffee made and some of Mom’s cookies out,” Matthew said.

“One day, it will be your turn in here,” Steven said to his brother. “And I will remember your lack of sympathy.”

“Men,” Kelsey said, “are such babies.”

It took only a few minutes to drive over to the big house. When he’d been a kid, this was where they came for Sunday dinner to visit Grandpa Pat and Grandpa Gerald and Grandma Kate. His grandfathers were gone, but Grandma Kate was still alive, and about four years ago, his fathers had retired from ranching, turned the operation over to him, and moved with his mother into the big house.

He’d never lived here, but it always had felt like home.

As he suspected, his fathers were in the dining room, setting out refreshments. When they stopped ranching, they both decided to learn how to cook and bake to give their wife a break—so that she could, in effect, share in the concept of retirement.

Already comfortable at the table and happily eating some cookies, Lusty’s sheriff nodded to him when they came into the room.

While they’d been combing the grass looking for those shell casings, Matthew had told him what he’d learned just moments before Steven had called him.

“Sit down, Steven. I’ll pour you some coffee,” Kelsey said.

“I’ve got it, sweetheart. You sit down and take it easy, now.” Jonathan waved her into a chair. Steven sat on one side of her and Matthew the other. Matt turned his chair slightly so that he faced her.

“How’s the shoulder?” Matthew asked her.

“Sore. Coming off Daisy and rolling on the ground to get behind those rocks wasn’t fun, but it sure as hell beat the alternative. I forgot,” Kelsey turned to Steven. “How are the horses?”

Both mounts had run off, spooked by the gunfire. Steven was pleased to give Kelsey one bit of good news anyway. “They made it back to the barn. Jim, one of the hands, checked them over. Not a scratch. They’re both fine.”

“That’s a relief.” Then she turned her attention to Matthew. “Your mom’s all right staying with Benny a little longer? I just feel like we should—”

“Kelsey.”

Steven knew it was Matthew’s tone that got Kelsey to stop talking. He shared a look with his brother. Their woman was nervous, as if she knew she wasn’t going to like whatever it was Matthew was going to say to her.

“Yes, Matthew?” Kelsey said.

“Sweetheart, we need to talk.”

 

* * * *

 

Kelsey didn’t know why she felt so damn nervous. Maybe it was part of an adrenaline crash. In a few short hours, she’d gone from being in a great mood, to terror, then worry, to fury.
 
There’d only been one time before like it, and she really didn’t want to think about that other time right now.

But it was time for her to pull up her big girl panties and hear whatever Matthew needed to tell her. She couldn’t afford to hide or withdraw from reality. That bullet had only grazed Steven, but it so easily could have killed him.

Inside her head a voice of rebellion whispered, this is why it’s a bad idea to get involved with anyone. People you love get hurt, and sometimes they die.

Kelsey ignored that voice. It was already too late. She’d become involved with the brothers Benedict. She’d found love under two Benedicts, and she would not, could not, go back.

“All right. I just know I’m not going to like this.” She inhaled deeply. Then she let the air out and nodded.

“We know there’ve been two attempts now aimed at you. We couldn’t figure out why, so it didn’t make any sense. Kelsey, this afternoon the Austin P.D. sent me the file on Philip and Sean’s deaths.”

Kelsey felt her heart sink. “They killed the man who did that. His face was caught on the store’s surveillance camera. Then the police closed in, and there was a gunfight and he died.” Kelsey stopped for a moment, steadied herself. Beside her, Steven moved closer, and put his hand on her shoulder.

That simple touch helped.

“There was absolutely no doubt he was the one,” Kelsey said.

“All that is true. But the authorities never caught the second man.”

“There was no second man.”
 
She’d said that automatically. At the time, the Austin police had told her there had been a second man, a getaway driver. They’d questioned her because they’d believed she’d seen this man.

According to the police, he’d been behind the wheel of a car that had also been in the store’s parking lot.

“Sweetheart? I need you to listen to me, and I need you to believe me. The Austin police never pushed the matter because of the trauma you suffered. However, that store had two cameras, one inside, one outside. The outside camera clearly shows you in your car
and
shows the getaway car. He was parked right in front of you, facing you. It wasn’t even full dark out, so you must have seen him.”

“I…” Kelsey was shaking inside, and she couldn’t seem to stop it. “I really don’t remember seeing him.”

“I believe you,” Matthew said.

“Sometimes, when we witness horrific things, our subconscious will take over and edit our memory of the event,” Steven said. “I think the moment you witnessed your family being murdered, your subconscious just shut your mind off for a little bit.”

“I remember seeing them shot, and then the next thing I remember is being at the hospital.” No one said anything. Steven’s arm had come all the way around her, and Matthew held both her hands, his thumbs rubbing the backs of them. In that moment, it felt as if the world only contained her, Steven, and Matthew.

“You think the getaway driver is the person trying to kill me now?” Kelsey asked.

“Yes, I do.”

“Why now? It’s been five years.”

“I don’t have an answer for that,” Matthew said.

“Maybe he got sent up for something else and only came out of the system,” Adam said. “There was that newspaper interview you did about the restaurant. The reporter dedicated a few paragraphs to your past and how you’d found triumph after tragedy. That’s how Benny’s mom picked you for her son. Maybe that’s what drew his attention to you, too.”

“If so, he might have been hanging around the restaurant a time or two, getting an idea of your routine,” Caleb said.

“In any event, keeping you safe may hinge on you remembering what that guy looked like,” Matthew said.

“I just draw a blank,” Kelsey said. Her nerves had eased, and the shaking stopped. She wrapped her hands around Matthew’s and leaned into Steven’s embrace.

“By yourself,” Matthew agreed. “Under hypnosis, you might remember everything.”

“You want me to submit to hypnosis?”

Matthew squeezed her hands. “I want you to think about it. We need to stop this guy, honey. We need to keep you safe.”

“One of your dads said this attack had a different M. O. than the one with the car.” Kelsey felt as if she grasped at straws. In her heart, she knew Matthew was right. She knew she should just say yes, she’d do the hypnosis thing, but a part of her fought reality.

“Caleb’s right,” Adam said. “It just means the asshole hired someone.”

“Why?” Kelsey asked again. “It’s been five years.”

“If we catch him, and he’s convicted as an accessory to murder, sweetheart, he could get the death penalty,” Matthew said.

No one said anything for a long moment, letting her have the silence. No one looked at her as though he thought she was being foolish. And she knew if she said no to the hypnosis, then that would be the end of it.

“I’ll think about it. The concept scares me, but I’ll think about it.”

“Good girl.” Matthew leaned forward and kissed her.

“I’m taking the shell casings into Waco. Their lab can tell us what we need to know,” Adam said. “I suspect a high-powered sniper weapon.”

“Isn’t that a kind of rare gun?” Kelsey asked.

“This is Texas,” Adam said. “We have every sort of gun under the damn sun here.”

“Oh. What about the canvass?” Kelsey recalled that one of the dads had said some of the townsfolk had volunteered to ask others if they’d seen any unfamiliar vehicles in the area at the time of the shooting.

BOOK: Love Under Two Benedicts
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