The Circle Eight: Tobias (2 page)

“Fuck.” He threw himself out of bed and staggered sideways, landing hard on the old chair beside the bed. It cracked beneath his weight and splintered. His ass slammed onto the floor, jarring his spine hard enough to make his teeth slam together.
 

He stared at the jagged pieces and his throat closed. Pops had made the chair long ago when Tobias had come to live with his grandfather. It was how they had formed a bond, building a few pieces of furniture, but this chair had been the first. To a lonely, wild child, it was something solid, something stable. Now Tobias had broken another memory of the man who had shaped his life.
 

He didn’t know how long he sat there feeling sorry for himself, but it was long enough for the sun to rise high in the sky. He finally got to his feet, slowly this time, and went outside to piss.
 

The ground tilted this way and that, but he held onto the side of the house, splinters digging into his fingers that he’d have to be sober enough to pull out later. It was April, or at least he thought it was. The days blurred together, although winter had been long enough to make it hard to get to town for more whiskey.
 

Tobias pissed behind a tree since the outhouse was literally full of shit and needed to be closed over and new hole dug. Another task he hadn’t gotten around to doing. So he pissed on a tree and shit in the bushes. No one was around to care.
 

He knew he was a pitiful mess. A ridiculous, pitiful mess.
 

He made his way back to the house and his stomach reminded him he hadn’t eaten in quite some time. After some scrounging he found a bit of jerky and a biscuit that might have been made a decade earlier. It was food
and his body needed it. He resisted the urge to chase the food down with his favorite drink. Instead he went back outside to the well and used every ounce of energy he had to pump the handle until he got some cool water. It tasted good, surprising him. He splashed some on his face and hair, waking himself up a bit more.
 

Tobias wandered over to the gravestone that sat beneath the big tree outside the house. Pops had loved to watch the sunset from that spot. Now he could see it every day from his final resting place.
 

“Ah, Pops, I miss you.” Tobias sat down with a thump and rested his arms on his knees. “I’ve failed at just about everything.”
 

The wind rustled the branches above him, the leaf buds emerging after the cold winter. Somewhere in the distance, birds chirruped at each other and a hawk squawked in the morning air. It was peaceful outside, but he would never discover the same within his soul. It was as black as the ashes that coated his heart.
 

“I wish you were still here. Selfish, I know, but if’n you were here I wouldn’t be alone.”
 

Not entirely true, of course. Tobias had run everyone else off in one way or another. He was alone because of his own stubborn foolishness. He’d gotten fired from his last job a month ago. No, it had been three months.
Three months
.
 

Where had three months gone?
 

Into a bottle, he thought sourly. With very little money left, he had to do something besides drink himself into the ground beneath Pops. Not that anyone would notice if it happened. Hell, he could lay there stiff as a dead opossum for months until someone found him. Likely never even get buried. Such was the life of a man who didn’t give a shit.
 

“What can I do?” He shook his head. “I’m lost, Pops. I can’t find my path.”
 

Tobias looked south as though he could see the start of his fall from humanity. It had been five years ago when they had fallen for that con man, Vaughn Montgomery, or O’Connor, as they knew him. Losing the deed and money had been the first step to hell. Now Tobias was trapped there with no way back up.
 

He needed a miracle.
 

Chapter Two
 

Rebecca stepped through the heavy underbrush onto the bank of the nearby creek. The sounds of birds singing and squirrels chattering greeted her along with the gentle burbling of the water.
 

Peace. Finally a moment of peace.
 

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The last few days had been draining. The break in little Sarah’s arm was the last home visit she hoped to make for at least a week. Perhaps the good people of Texas would not need her services. She could wish on a star but that didn’t mean anyone was listening.
 

She set her basket on the thick green grass and sat down cross-legged. The dew soaked through her skirt but she didn’t care. The cool morning was a perfect time to find a few moments to herself. Although there were herbs to be collected, she wanted to sit still if only for a short time. She’d fled the house just as the sun rose, escaping the children. It was easier that way for her. No complications or expectations from anyone.
 

It was a beautiful spring day. She watched the water tumble over the stones beneath and the fish darting in the shadows caused by the dappled sunlight. Rebecca knew she had stretched herself physically to the breaking point. She rode all over the county at a moment’s notice. The need to help others was a call she couldn’t ignore. However, she was nearing the end of her limitations.
 

Rebecca sighed. She would have to start to say no when people asked for her services. How could she do that? It went against her very nature to not help people. She’d given up a great deal for a career. Now she was caretaker for everyone who needed her, an entire county made up her family.
 

That was why she did what she did. Community wasn’t just a word to her—it was part of who she was. The remoteness of the Circle Eight had been the main reason she had to travel even greater distances. If she were in a more central location in Briar Creek, the traveling to help others would be cut in half.
 

Yet she hadn’t been able to bring herself to leave home. Leave her family. A circle was a never-ending link, just as the Grahams were. Leaving the ranch would be the hardest thing she would do in her life, which was saying a lot. Her brother Matt would be furious and argue with her endlessly until she relented.
 

How could she convince them it was the right thing to do when she wasn’t sure herself? If only she had someone to share her burdens, a partner. It was yet another wish that would never come true. The one person she had selected to be her partner hadn’t wanted her. Therefore she didn’t want anyone.
 

She had been nine when her parents died, but her father had been the rock to which they all clung. Her father used to say, “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” Until she was much older, she never understood that saying. Now she did. Wishing didn’t make anything come true. She had to work for it and begging to make something happen was a surefire way to fail.
 

She had worked exceptionally hard to distinguish herself from the others in the Graham clan. Everyone had something they did well. Rebecca was a healer and she had to stay true to who and what she was. It was her path and she wanted to stay on it. Veering away scared her.
 

She shook off her maudlin thoughts when she spotted a vine of passionflower and got up to start collecting it. The aromatic plant helped people sleep and relieved anxiety; of late, she’d used quite a bit of it. She settled down with her knife and started harvesting.
 

An hour passed while she moved from plant to plant, alternately washing her hands in the creek between cuttings. She used scraps of burlap to wrap the different cuttings. Her basket was overflowing and she was more relaxed than she had been in months. Her quiet time was shattered when she heard footsteps crunching through the woods. Annoyance lanced through her.
 

Without looking up, she spoke. “If that’s you, Ben, tell Matt I’ll be home for dinner. I’ve got a few more plants to collect.”
 

“It’s not Ben.” The stranger’s voice startled her and she dropped her knife into the bush.
 

Rebecca thrust her hands into the bush, her heart pounding, scrambling for the knife. She’d been taught to defend herself, to always be armed, no matter what. She found the hilt of the knife within seconds and whirled around to face the man. A pistol sat at the bottom of her basket, beneath all her clippings.
 

Stupid, stupid, stupid.
 

“Miss Graham.” He inclined his head. She stared at him, trying to figure out who he was. He was tall and broad with clothes that marked him as a ranch hand. His face was shadowed by the brim of his hat so she couldn’t quite see him. “You hold that knife like you know how to use it.”
 

“I do, along with the pistol in my pocket, so don’t try anything stupid.” She peered at him, trying her best to look fierce even if her knees knocked together and her heart pounded hard enough to crack a rib. He didn’t know the pistol was nowhere near her pocket and she wasn’t about to share that information. “What do you want?”
 

“It’s Will. He got hurt and needs tending. I came to you because you’re the Doc.” The man’s voice was still unfamiliar.
 

She felt a stirring of recognition but could not place the man. Perhaps he worked for Angus MacRae, their closest neighbor. “Who
are
you?”
 

He smiled then and shook his head. “Five years is a long time, ain’t it?” He took off his head to reveal dark brown curls and even darker eyes. She searched his rough-hewn features and finally saw it.
 

“Jeb Gibson?” Her face flushed with heat. Gibson. Not the one who haunted her thoughts but his brother.
 

“Yes, ma’am. But Jeb was just a nickname. My real name is James and I use that now.”
 

Jeb, or rather James, had been fifteen when they’d met, two years younger than her. He was twenty now and he’d grown into a large man. He still had a shy smile but his eyes had lost the innocence. They were harder, cloaked in shadows. She wanted to ask him about Tobias, but knew it would be a mistake.
 

Anything to do with Tobias was a mistake.
 

“I never thought to see you again,” she blurted. Rebecca resisted the urge to wince. “I mean, I haven’t seen you in five years. I thought perhaps your ah, family had moved.”
 

“Some of us did. Will and I work at Donovan’s ranch. He got hurt when a tree fell on him we were cutting down. He’s in a bad way, Miss Graham.” James’s face tightened. “I’d appreciate if you could come with me.”
 

“Of course.” Rebecca didn’t hesitate. She remembered Will as being the shyest of the Gibsons. A slender young man who had lived under the thumb of his tyrant older brother. “I need to go home and get my things.”
 

James nodded. “It’s best we hurry. It’s about half a day’s ride and we need to make a stop.”
 

Rebecca tucked the knife into the basket and started up the bank. “I can be ready in an hour.” She had been exhausted when she’d arrived at the creek but the morning had reinvigorated her. Now the knowledge the young man she’d known, and liked, was hurt gave her an additional burst of speed. “Where do we need to stop?”
 

“Er, I have to tell Tobias.”
 

Rebecca almost fell on her head. “Pardon?”
 

“It won’t take long. I gotta tell him about Will no matter what bad blood is between us.” James’s mouth twisted.
 

She wanted to ask him about the bad blood or why the idea of talking to his brother was a chore. Yet the only thing she could focus on was the fact she would see Tobias again.
 

Rebecca didn’t know if she was excited or terrified.
 

She walked back to the ranch house beside James. He’d grown broader in the last five years. Much broader. He was as big as her brothers now. No longer the thin boy she’d met when she was a foolish girl. Life had changed both of them, in many ways.
 

“Can I carry the basket?”
 

She started at the sound of his deep voice. “No, thank you.”
 

The awkward silence returned. They were strangers of a sort. She didn’t know him and he didn’t know her. When they got closer to the house, she saw him tense up. She didn’t blame him for that. The Grahams and Gibsons had been at odds since they met. She hoped her brothers weren’t at the ranch presently. The last thing she wanted was to get into another argument with them about her traveling to treat people.
 

Fortunately, there was no one about in the yard. “I need to go inside and pack my bag. Will you come inside?”
 

James hesitated and she almost took back the offer. He was already upset about his brother and adding tension would be cruel. “I could use a cup of coffee.”
 

Rebecca let out a breath and nodded. Perhaps she would be lucky and it was only Eva inside. She opened the door and stepped in.
 

Not lucky. Unless bad luck was considered lucky.
 

Her brothers Matt and Caleb stood beside the table while her sister-in-law Hannah and their housekeeper Eva sat. All of them turned to look at Rebecca and James. Matt and Caleb straightened, their expression darkening. What were they all doing home?
 

“Rebecca.” Matt was still her brother and although older, they looked similar with their brown hair and the Graham blue-green eyes. All the Grahams had like features, only Catherine, the youngest girl, had blue eyes. His gaze moved to James. “Who’s this?”
 

Caleb crossed his arms, equally as big as Matt, and a former Texas Ranger. “Good question.”