Stone Cold Cowboy (27 page)

“Hey, pretty girl. On your way to work?” Grandpa Sammy asked.

“Heading out now. When you see Rory, would you tell him I left him a note in the office.”

“Sure thing, pretty girl. You have a good day.”

“You too.” She kissed Sammy on the cheek, smiling when he grinned at her. She loved the old guy. He nagged his grandsons unmercifully about settling down and giving him a grandbaby. She couldn't wait to tell him that Rory was finally going to give him one.

C
onnor stared in disbelief at his phone and the text his sister sent him. He'd kept this burner and turned it on once a day hoping to hear from Sadie. Hoping she changed her mind and came through for him. He threw the phone against the cave wall, splintering it into several pieces on the jagged rocks. He stomped on several pieces on the floor, freaking out and trying to think what this really meant.

“Fuck.” If she made good on her threat, he was screwed. He'd spend the next ten-plus years of his life in a cell. If Torres's people didn't kill him first to keep him from talking.

“What the hell is wrong with you now?” Derek asked, dropping the duffel bag filled with cold medicine on the floor.

Frustrated, pissed, he spoke without thinking. “We're fucked.”

Derek's gaze locked on him. His eyes narrowed to menacing slits. “What do you mean?”

Sadie's cryptic message could mean only one thing. “She's going to rat me out to the cops.”

“Did you fucking tell your sister where we are?”

“No.”

“Then how does she know?”

Connor didn't really know, but his paranoia about recent events led him to one conclusion. “You heard the damn helicopter.”

“Enough about the damn helicopter. I told you a dozen times, it's nothing but the forestry service or news copters.”

“And you say I'm stupid. It's the cops hunting us down.” The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

“Then why aren't they surrounding this place demanding we come out with our hands up?”

“They will be soon.”

“You should have let me fucking kill her.”

Connor scratched at his arm, drawing blood from the wound that never healed because he couldn't leave it alone for all the creepy crawlies under his skin. The anger rose up inside him, turning into a fury he couldn't control.

“You don't have to. I'm going to fucking teach her a lesson.”

If she'd just helped him out when he needed the money to get out of this mess, he'd be out of this damn cave and living somewhere with a shower, a refrigerator, some fucking decent heat.

“She can't fucking tell me what to do anymore. I'm a grown man, not some kid for her to order around and bend to her will. I'll make her see. She can't take everything and leave me to fend for myself. She owes me. Half that fucking ranch is mine, and she's going to pay up or fucking shut up for good.”

Connor grabbed his backpack and headed for the cave entrance.

“Go get her, man. Fuck that bitch up.” Derek answered his ringing phone. “Trigger, man, too bad you're not here. Connor is worked up and after his fucking bitch of a sister. It's hilarious.”

Only Derek would get off on Connor's need for revenge.

Connor didn't often regret anything in his life, but as he stepped out of the hole he'd been living in far too long, he wished things hadn't gone so far or so wrong. He wished he lived back on the ranch, in his room and the home he'd always known. He'd like a shower, a hot meal, to watch TV and kick back with a few beers. He hadn't had any of that in a long time. He'd likely never have it again. Not here. Not with the cops after him. Not with his sister about to rat him out. That fucking Kendrick cowboy stole her away and turned her against him.

Everybody walked all over him. Derek. His sister. He was tired of going along. He wanted to be in charge. He'd show his sister that she couldn't threaten him and get away with it. If Derek ever pulled that knife on him again, he'd bury it in the guy's chest.

Fuck his sister and her do-the-right-thing bitching. He'd show her. She'd pay up his half of the ranch, or else. Yeah. She'd give him what she owed, so he could get out of here before he ended up dead or in a cell. He'd find a new place to live where no one knew him, no one told him what to do, and his own sister didn't fuck him over.

R
ory walked into the kitchen after coming back to the house early to shower and pack the picnic dinner Sadie requested. At first, all he could think about was what happened last time they went on a picnic. A split second after that, he thought of this picnic and the chance she gave him to make things right. To celebrate the baby on the way. To tell her how much he loved her and couldn't wait for them to be a real family. In fact, he'd snuck away three days ago to buy her a ring. He didn't even tell his brothers. He'd kept it from his grandfather. He could add up the time he'd been with Sadie and come up with the fact she was late and they were having a baby. He didn't need the wake-up call this morning to confirm it. He'd been waiting on her to tell him for sure so he could gauge how she felt about it.

If he read her right, she'd only given him a small glimpse of how truly happy and excited she was about the baby. He owed her the same, because she'd read him all wrong. She saw his worry and concern, but she hadn't looked deeper to see that he wanted her, this baby, and any more she'd gift him. The weeks they'd
shared together proved his life before had been so much less than complete. Now, if he lost her, he'd know what he was missing and life wouldn't be worth living.

His grandfather walked in and slapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. “Hey, son, your girl left you a note in the office.”

“What's it say?”

“How should I know, it's your note.”

“Didn't you work in there today?”

“No, I went into town most of the day to get supplies and have my checkup with my sweet thing.”

His granddad loved Dr. Bell, or Dr. Bowden as she went by now that she'd married Dane. She'd always be his granddad's sweet thing and just Bell to Rory and his brothers. They'd gotten close these last months since she and his buddy Dane got together. Dane was the complete opposite of him. Dane played the field and left every blonde for a hundred miles in his wake, but he'd fallen for Bell, and they shared something special. Rory had seen it every time they got together, and he'd wanted the same for himself. He never thought he'd have it, because while Dane had run wild, Rory had somehow turned into a hermit on his ranch. Not by choice, but by circumstance. Now, he'd give up everything to spend his life with Sadie and their baby.

“Everything okay?” Rory's concern for his aging grandfather rose up.

“Fit as a fiddle. Blood pressure is down, so she adjusted my medication. What's going on with you and my pretty girl?”

“Nothing.”

“Don't look like nothing. You keep staring at her like she holds the key to some secret.”

“She's the key, Granddad. She unlocked everything good in my life.”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah. Don't gloat. I get that you're happy I found someone, but I really don't need you pressuring me right now.”

“Oh, why is that if everything is so great with you two?”

“It is great, but we've got something we need to talk about and some plans to make. Let us do it in our own way and in our own time.”

“Things have moved pretty fast. It seems to be working for you, so why slow things down now?”

“I'm not slowing things down.” In fact, he planned to take a huge leap forward. Forget all the getting to know you better, living with each other to see if things worked out. No, he planned to marry her and love her and do anything and everything to make her happy the rest of her life.

“Okay then.”

“That's it. After all the pushing, that's all you have to say?”

“I wanted you to open yourself up to letting a woman into your life and experiencing a real and true partnership that is based on love. You've done that. You know what it is now. It is the better part of life. It is what makes us live and live well.”

“You don't have to convince me that Sadie is the best thing in my life. Everything will work out. It has to.”

“Rory, if something is wrong . . .”

“It's not. It's good. Really great. I need her to know that I feel that way.”

His grandfather pushed him toward the office. “Go see what she left you.”

Rory walked into the office thinking of all he needed to do for his picnic, but mostly he tried to think of an imaginative way to ask her to marry him. It needed to be special. Especially after the underwhelming way he'd reacted to the pregnancy news.

The note sat atop the large photos he'd left on the desk. He thought he might frame the one that showed the house, barns, and pastures. With his mind on picture frames, he turned the note and absently read the words.

“Fuck.” Rory read the note again, trying to understand what she meant about him smoking out Connor. “Damnit, Sadie, why didn't you just tell me where to find him?”

Rory pulled his cell from his pocket and dialed her phone. The nerves in his belly tightened his gut. It twisted painfully when her phone went to voice mail. He waited out her sweet voice telling him to leave a message. “Sadie, sweetheart, call me the minute you get this.”

Something about the note niggled at his mind. He stared down at the photo again and back at the note and back again, wondering what she'd seen that he missed. Her words didn't make sense.

Smoking. Smoke.

His eyes locked on the spot he'd picked up the letter from and stared at the hills and the puff of smoke that looked more like a wispy cloud. He'd missed it the other times he studied the pictures. He'd been looking for a trailer, shed, or some other makeshift building hidden in the trees or out on some remote spot on the property. He'd never thought to look in the caves.

“Fuck.” Frustrated she'd seen what he missed, and might have put herself and their child in jeopardy by
tipping off Connor that she knew where to find him, he tried her cell again. Nothing. Voice mail. It could be nothing but that she'd gotten busy on her shift at the diner and couldn't answer. She might have left her phone in her purse, despite the fact he'd told her to keep it close just in case.

His mind spun one dark thought after another; all of them ended badly.

He jumped when his phone rang. He swiped the screen to accept the call and put it to his ear without looking to see who called and desperate to hear Sadie's voice. “Sadie, where are you?”

“It's Agent Cooke.”

“What now?”

“Something is going down right now. I'm not sure what, but I got a cryptic message from Beck about Connor going off on some drug-induced tirade. I take it Sadie isn't with you.”

“No. She found the hole Connor's been hiding in. She gave him an ultimatum to turn himself in today or she'd turn him in.”

“Where should she be?”

“At work.”

“Hold on. I just got something.”

Rory held the line, with his patience straining against the precarious grip he tried to hold on to for Sadie's sake. She needed him calm and thinking clearly, not going off half-cocked and out for murder if her brother put her in harm's way. Again.

S
adie cleared the
dirty dishes from a table and loaded them into the plastic tub. She pulled the wet rag from
her apron and wiped down the table. Tired after her shift and ready to go home to Rory, she picked up the heavy tub and carried it back to the kitchen and set it next to the sink.

“Here you go, Ronnie.”

“Thanks a lot.” The sarcasm in the young guy's words made Sadie smile. He worked hard, but didn't really like cleaning up at the diner. Still, he made decent money for a high school senior.

“You headed home to that smokin' hot man of yours?” Luna stared at her from the other side of the counter. She stuffed her order ticket into the carousel and spun it toward the cook.

“I am. We've planned a sunset picnic.”

Luna gave her a saucy smile and a wink. “Going to have something hot and sweet for dessert under the stars?”

The smile bloomed easily on Sadie's face and in her heart. “I hope so.” Sadie worried about her friend working the late shift and getting off in the wee hours of the morning. “Careful driving home tonight. It's awful dark on those back roads.”

“I will. We need a girls' night soon.”

“Definitely.” Sadie wanted to share her news with her best friend, but first she needed to clear the air with Rory so they could celebrate.

The bell over the door jingled. “Hey there, Wayne. How's my favorite customer.” Luna and Wayne had a regular Tuesday and Thursday night dinner date. Wayne ate here each week. Same days. Same time. Always in Luna's section. He ate, but he really came for her company.

“I'll leave you to your hunky cowboy.” Sadie winked at her friend.

“He's my guy,” Luna said with such affection, Sadie believed she really did have a soft spot for the silver-haired man.

“Have fun. I'm outta here.” Sadie stopped off in the small office to collect her purse and sweatshirt. She pushed her arms through the sleeves and zipped up the front over her white T-shirt and black denim skirt. Her feet ached in her black boots. She couldn't wait to get home and take them off. Well, after her dinner with Rory. They had some things to talk about, but she knew it would all work out. It had to. For their sakes and the baby's. Life couldn't be so cruel to take her mother and father so young, then bring Rory into her life to show her real and true happiness, only to take it away before they'd really had a chance to live the life they both wanted. Yes, things hadn't happened the usual way for them, but they loved each other. They deserved a chance to be happy.

She had Rory and the baby, and all she needed now was to end this business with her brother. Stop him from stealing Rory blind, and get him to accept that he needed to take responsibility and pay the consequences of his actions. When faced with jail or death, most rational people would choose a life behind bars to no life at all. Her brother hadn't acted rationally in a long time. She hoped he found a clear moment to realize she was trying to save his life.

Sadie walked back through the kitchen area, waved goodbye to Ronnie, and stepped out the back door, breathing in the cold evening air. She dug her keys out of her purse and headed for her truck. Halfway across
the parking lot, she stopped midstride, pivoted, and headed back to the diner to grab two thick slices of apple pie to take on her picnic. She'd smelled the sweet, cinnamon scent all afternoon and craved a slice. She hadn't eaten in hours. Her stomach grumbled even at the thought of food.

Shoes scuffed across the blacktop behind her, rushing and drawing close. She turned to look over her shoulder just as someone grabbed her around the chest, his hands locked in front of her. She couldn't move her arms, but struggled to get free.

“Let me go.”

“You're coming with me.” Connor's deep voice held a hysterical edge. High, he'd probably been binging on meth for days. He smelled like stale cigarette smoke, beer, and body odor. His bony chest pressed against her shoulder blades. After she'd been held in Rory's strong arms, against all his tight muscles, the difference in her brother's scrawny frame startled her. His choices were sucking the life right out of him.

“Connor, let me go.” She struggled to break his hold, but he didn't release her. Stronger than he looked, he managed to haul her back several feet to a waiting car with the trunk open.

“Don't you dare.”

He didn't heed her warning and shoved her backward, so she fell into the gaping hole. Her shoulders hit a tire iron. Connor pulled her feet up over the lip and they thudded on the spare tire. She reached for Connor, but he swatted her hands back, grabbed her purse strap, and yanked it away from her. He pulled a gun from behind his back and pointed it right at her chest. She immediately covered her belly with both hands.

“Stay put. Don't move.”

Sadie narrowed her eyes, fury spreading through her body in a wave of anger she couldn't contain. “This is the second time you've pointed a gun at me. You truly have lost your mind, you know that? I get my hands on you, I'll teach you a lesson about empty threats and doing stupid things.”

“It's no threat. You move, and I'll shoot you.”

She almost believed him, but then his hand shook and a trace of fear filled his eyes. He couldn't quite make himself do it. Instead, he slammed the trunk, sending her into darkness. She sighed out her relief, knowing next time she might not be so lucky. Her brother was slowly losing his mind.

“Fucking bitch. You think you can just turn me in to the cops. Your flesh and blood. No fucking way.”

She slammed the flats of her hands up against the trunk lid and pounded them against the rough metal over and over again. “Let me out. We can talk about this.”

“I'm done talking. All you do is tell me what to do. He left you everything. Half that ranch is mine.” She heard the deep hurt and anguish in his voice. He missed their father and grieved for him as hard as Sadie did. They'd done it alone, because he'd chosen his life and she'd chosen hers and they no longer shared the bonds they'd once had as children.

“Connor, please, let me out. We'll talk this through. I'll pay for a lawyer.”

“I don't need a fucking lawyer. I need money. With you out of the way, it'll all be mine.”

Stupid idiot. He couldn't possibly believe that he'd see a dime from their father's estate when the cops
were after him. Irrational, delusional. Sadie slammed her hand against the trunk lid again.

The returned hard thud made her jump. He must have slammed his fist on top of the trunk. That didn't disturb her as much as the warning and ominous tone in his words. He'd gone to the dark side, drawn in by the drugs and the evil men he hung out with until he believed the only way to handle a problem was to eliminate it.

“Connor.” No answer. “Connor!”