Cowboy from the Future (32 page)

“I’m
trying to save him.”  Addy leaned down to breath into Jake’s mouth and checked
his pulse.  Nothing.  Goddamn it!  This wasn’t going to work.  She could feel
it.  It wasn’t enough.  A new idea occurred to her.  “We have to shock him.” 
She grabbed Cade’s hands and flattened them on Jacobi’s chest.  “Hurry.”

Cade
shot her an incredulous look, his eyes damp and dazed.  “What…?”

“Do
it!  Shock him with you powers.  It’ll restart his heart!”

Cade
blinked and looked back at Jake.  His hands glowed for a beat and then he
zapped his brother with his Voltyn electricity.  Jacobi’s body arched and then
went limp.

Addy
checked his pulse.  Still nothing.  “Again.”  She ordered.  “Use more.”

“But,
it could harm him if I…”

She
cut off Cade’s concern.  “What could possibly be more harmful than
not
breathing?
  Just trust me and do it, again!”

Cade
nodded and zapped his little brother, again.  Jake’s pulse stayed silent. 
“Again.”  Addy ordered, crying now.  “It should work.  I
know
it
should.  Hospitals in my time use electricity to save lives.”

But,
there was nothing, nothing,
nothing
.

The
ground continued to quake.  A thick mist from the geyser covered them as they
huddled over Jake.

Deke
dropped his head into his hands.  “He’s gone.”  He said hollowly.  “Cade, he’s
gone.  Not even Addy can get him back.”

“He’s
not gone.  I won’t
let
him be gone.”  Cade zapped him for a fourth
time.  “Jake, you fucking
wake up!
”

The
power he used charged the air around them, causing the small hairs on Addy’s
arms to stand up.  For a fraction of a second, she saw purple sparks race along
Jake’s skin, Cade’s energy passing through every part of him.

…And
she knew it finally worked.

Jake
jolted as the electricity slammed into him, his eyes snapping open like a
Frankenstein
movie.  “Holy
shit!
”  He gasped, panting for breath.  “Are you people trying
to kill me?!”

The
ground went still again, but Addy didn’t notice.  She sat back, sobbing in
relief.  “Damn it, Cade.  Don’t you
ever
tell me your powers are a stain
on the world, again.”  She got out.  “Figure out what
else
they can do,
so you can keep saving this idiot family.  I can’t lose you guys.”

Cade
glanced at her and gave a luminous smile.  “Okay.”

Jake
batted his brothers away, as they inspected him for injuries.  “Quit poking me,
will you?  God, you guys are just a bunch of old women.”  He tried to get to
his feet.

Deke
muscled him back down, still searching for mortal wounds.  “Shut up and stay
still.  Addy’s right.  We aren’t losing you, again.”

“You
didn’t lose me.  I’m
fine
.”

Cade
helped Deke hold him down.  “You were hit with a sal-gun.  You were
dead
,
Jake.”

“I
wasn’t dead.  I was just resting for a second, after I heroically saved your
ass from…”  Jacobi trailed off mid-word, his gaze locked on something behind
them.  His jaw sagged, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing through the
waning mist.

Addy
turned and found herself face-to-face with Mount Rushmore.

A
much, much younger Mount Rushmore, with no red ivy growing on the granite or
presidents with missing noses.  Addy got to her feet.  It worked!  The geyser
had really done it.  They’d somehow been transported back to South Dakota and
into the past.  The question was:
 
When were they
exactly?
 
Hopefully, they’d hit the right year.

“Holy
shit.”  Cade murmured, his lips barely moving.

“Now
you know how I felt when I woke-up in Shadow-of-the-Gods.”  Addy said softly.

The
smoke was nearly all gone now and she spotted a road in front of them.  She’d
never been so happy to see discarded food wrappers and plastic bottles by a
highway.  Stooping down, Addy picked up a crumpled convenience store receipt
from a new pile of garbage, smiling when she saw the familiar date.

She
was home, exactly when she’d left.

Jake
escaped his brothers’ aggressive care and staggered to his feet.  “We’re in the
past.”  He gave his hands an excited clap.  “Hell yeah!  Look at the Four Gods
up there!  We actually did it!  I cannot
wait
to meet Dr. Quinn!”

Addy
quickly grabbed hold of his sleeve when Jake would’ve stepped right onto the
asphalt.  “No, don’t walk in…”

All
three Westins jolted as a minivan roared by, doing fifty.  Cade and Deke aimed
their guns at it.  Jake stumbled back, cursing loudly.  It zoomed by them and three
sets of eyes flashed over to Addy in astonishment.

“…in
the road.”  She finished, smiling at their disbelief.  “That was a car.  It’s
okay.  You’ll get used to them.”

“Get
used to metal monsters?”  Deke scowled down at Addy, like she was to blame for
all of automotive history.  “Bullshit.  We should kill them.”

“That
would be very hard, considering they aren’t alive.”

“I
can kill anything.”  He assured her.  “Now, I don’t know what the hell is
happening, but I didn’t agree to come to the past.  However you brought us
here, you should’ve fucking
asked
first.”

Cade
flashed his brother a glare.  “Don’t be an ass.”

“He
can’t help it.  It’s part of the Westins’ DNA.”  Addy arched a brow and humored
his lunacy.  “Deke, do you want to come to the past with the rest of the
family?”

He
considered that, like he actually had a choice.  “Yeah, fine.”  He finally
muttered.  “Got nothing else to do.”  He looked around and picked a direction. 
“Which way do we go?  This way, right?”

“I
don’t know…”  Addy began but he’d already started walking, Jacobi hot on his
heels.  Hopefully, they were headed towards a hospital, because she planned to
check Jake in and make was really alright.  She looked over at Cade, who was
examining a beer can on the ground like he’d discovered the Ark of the
Covenant.  “You okay?”  She asked softly.

“Yes.” 
He cleared his throat and glanced at her, looking uncertain.  “I just… Now,
that I’m here, I wonder how I will fit.”

“You
fit fine, cowboy.”  Addy wrapped her arms around him.  “See?  Right where you
belong.”

Cade
smiled at that, his expression clearing.  “
Nynan
.”  He agreed, hugging
her tight.  “And, you know, I have a feeling about our future.”

“
You
have a feeling?”

“Yeah,
a strong one.  I don’t think we should ignore it.”  He leaned down to kiss her.
 “It’s telling me I need to marry you, before you slip away from me.  Without
you, I wouldn’t want to go on, no matter the century.”  He rested his forehead
against hers.  “So, I’m asking you, lady.  Be my wife?  Please?”

Addy
grinned up at him, happier than she’d ever been.  “Well, since you said
‘please’…”

We hope
you’ve had an amazing time on your all-inclusive tour, Glamper!

As you
wrap up your stay with us and mosey into the sunset,

know that you’ll
always have a home here in the great American West!

Brown’s Glampling Tours Official Pocket
Guide

Five
Months Later

“Why
did I ever let him watch
Knight Rider?  Dr. Quinn
was way less
stressful.”  Addy scowled at the trail of dust Jacobi’s jet black sports car
left on the road and sat back down on the porch swing with a “humph.”  “I
swear, I should let Deke hunt automobiles down and save myself the gray hair. 
Why does Jake need a car like that in Wyoming?  It’s just impractical.”

“Then,
you shouldn’t have bought it for him, instead of the SUV.”  Cade told her, not
looking up from his sandpapering.  “And since when do you care about
practicality?”

“Since
I became pregnant and married and not at all a scatterbrain.”

“You
were never a scatterbrain.”  He shot her a look through his lashes.  “But, you
will
never
be practical.  It’s one of the million things I sort of love
about you.”

She
smiled at him.  “You’re such a flirt.”  She settled back, her palm on her
rounded stomach.  “And anyway, I
didn’t
buy Jake that dumb car.  I just
helped him order it from the dealer.”  There were no more shirtless overall
debacles, but the Westins were still terrible at shopping.  Thank God she was
there to lend her expertise.

“You
helped him earn the money for it, Adeline.”

“No,
I just showed him how to use the internet. 
He
was the one who memorized
every damn thing Maria Del Sol said and decided to invest in all the companies
who made all that stupid future stuff.  And
you’re
the one who
encouraged him to do it.”

“It
was a good idea, that’s already paying off.”  Cade argued.  “Jake doesn’t think
he’s a screw up anymore and the kid’s gambling skills are finally being put to
use.  You preferred it when he was playing cards?”

“I’d
prefer him to make less money and to not have to worry about hosing him off the
gravel.”  Addy shook her head.  “I’m going to get him a chauffeur.  At least
until he’s thirty.”

“I
don’t think he’ll give up that car.  Not even for you.”

“I’m
going to get him a
female
chauffeur until he’s thirty.”

“Oh. 
Well, that’ll work.”  Cade stepped back to examine his work.  “You’re the
inventor in the family.  Do you think paint or stain?”

Addy
looked over at the part cradle/part rocking chair/part
something
he’d
built and hide her grin.  Her husband was many things, but a carpenter wasn’t
among them.  She lived in fear of the day he discovered power tools.  “I think
paint.”  She said seriously.  “A lot of paint.  Maybe purple.”

Cade
considered that, in deep, artistic thought.  “Green.”  He finally decided.  “I
can see the baby’s aura, now --It glows inside of yours-- and it’s the purest, brightest,
most vibrant shade of green you can imagine.  It’s beautiful.”  He met her gaze
and smiled.  “Like your eyes.”

Jesus,
he was getting good at romance.  “Paint it green.”  She agreed, loving the guy.

No
one could adjust to living sixteen hundred years in the past better than Cade
did.  He’d adapted to her world far better than Addy had ever fit into his.  He
loved classic rock.  And barbequed potato chips.  And using his powers to turn
lights on and off without hitting the switch.  And
God
did he love
coffee.  One sip and he’d admitted that Addy had been completely right to
complain about missing it.

He
even liked
Dirty Dancing.

Despite
his new interests, though, he was still indisputably Cade.  The essential core
of him would never change, no matter what century he lived in.  Cade needed a
sense of purpose and a place to belong.  He was never going to be content
playing golf in Scottsdale.  It hadn’t taken Addy long to realize that he would
be happiest doing the same things he’d enjoyed doing back in the future.

…And
horses were the thing he liked most.

The
man had such a gift with them.  Buying a ranch had been a no-brainer, although
Addy hadn’t mentioned the actual
cost
of ten thousand pristine acres
near Jackson Hole for fear he’d have a heart attack.  The Westins had some
difficulty understanding “paper” money, so Addy could write checks with all
sorts of zeroes without them comprehending just how much she’d spent.  It was
kind of cute.

Cade
worried about her bankrolling the new family business, though, which was
silly.  Addy had plenty cash in her trust fund, and all she’d planned to spend
it on was designer handbags and comfortable bras.  Wyoming real estate was a
way
better investment.

Besides,
Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and some of the Outlanders’ horses had landed in the past
with them, which provided the business with some
very
unique stock. 
Their distinctive pink and blue spots were already putting Shadow-of-the-Gods
Ranch on the map.  Thanks to Addy’s marketing skills, people from all over the
world were contacting them, wanting their own horse of a different color.  Addy
had no doubt that Cade was going to make even more money breeding horses than Jake
did with his stock market schemes.  Hopefully, her husband wouldn’t start
driving a shiny death-machine, too.

More
important than the success of the business, though, the secluded property gave
the Westins a place in this world.  Since the three of them were
her
place in the world, Addy found the ranch the perfect place to relax and grow
her baby.  She was already picturing a little girl with red hair and lavender
eyes.  …And maybe some superpowers.

Addy
rocked back in her swing, soaking in the tranquility of their home.  Off in the
distance, she could see Deke walking in the high grass with one of his dogs.  The
goofy Labrador loped beside him, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.  Deke
liked coffee and
Dirty Dancing
,
too, but dogs were definitely his
favorite part of the past.  So far, he’d adopted four of the scraggliest,
mangiest, ugliest mutts imaginable, lavishing them with attention.  Any
homeless, hungry creature who needed a home found one with Deke… and it was
filled with tennis balls and Milk Bones.  Under the grouchy exterior, the guy
really was a soft touch for lost souls.

Caring
for his pets was helping Deke heal the last of his wounds from the Wilderness War. 
Every day, Addy could see him improving.  He was bathing and talking.  She’d
even caught him laughing a few times.  She’d give him another couple months for
self-healing and then she’d find him a nice girlfriend to finish off the
touch-up work.  Some strategic postings on dating sites should do the trick. 
“Handsome, brooding, war hero with mysterious past and cowboy skills” seemed
like one hell of an online profile.  There wasn’t a doubt in her mind, she
could get him married off within the year.  Addy wasn’t going to be satisfied
until everyone was as blissfully in love as she was.

Twisting
her wedding ring around her finger, she glanced over at her husband.  There was
one
thing she still had to take care of, though.  “You know, you do owe
me a honeymoon.”

“What’s
a honeymoon?”

“It’s
a trip, where we go somewhere pretty and have exotic sex in exotic ways.”

Cade’s
head snapped up.  “You’re kidding me.  That’s a real thing?  Really?”

“Of
course.”  Addy arched a brow.  “Want to see Devils Tower in the twenty-first
century?  I can get us the honeymoon suite at a really nice lodge, with a view
of the monument.  Or we could take a cruise.  Fly to Paris.  Go on safari.” 
She gave a meaningful pause.  “
Or
we could visit Yellowstone.”

“No.” 
He shook his head, knowing where this was headed.  “I told you, I do not ever
wish to return to that place.  It isn’t safe.  What if you’re swept into the
future, again?”

“Then,
you’ll save me.”  If she was lost, Cade would find her.  Addy knew that
straight down to her soul.  “But I think a better idea is for you to come
with
me.”

Cade
grunted, unconvinced.  “I will
always
come for you.”  He agreed.  “But,
I’d rather not
have
to.  I am happy right where I am, with you safe and
sound beside me.”

She
smiled at that, briefly distracted.  “I’m glad.  I’ve worried that you might
not like it here.”

“I
would be happy anywhere you are.”  He headed over to crouch down in front of
her swing, his eyes serious.  “But I am
very
happy in this time.  Happier
than I’ve ever been.  My brothers are content and prospering.  You and our baby
are more than I ever dreamed of having.  There are lots of horses for me to
work with every day.”  He glanced over his shoulder at the multimillion dollar
view.  “Gods only know how much all of this actually
cost
…”

“I
told you, it was
about
the same as the sixty gold coins I promised you
for the room.  You wanted me to pay my back rent, didn’t you?”

Cade
flashed her a skeptical look and kept going.  “…but, I know you bought the
ranch to please me and to make my brothers feel at home.  It’s difficult to be
exasperated with you for
blatantly
deceiving
me about the price,
when I know it comes from you caring so much.”

“You
helped me when I was stranded in your world, Cade.  Of
course
, I’ll help
you find your way here.”  She lifted a palm to touch his cheek.  “Please don’t
worry about the money.  I love this house.  I love being here with you and Deke
and Jake.  I bought the ranch to please
me
.  This is where I click and
that’s a rare thing to find.”  She grinned.  “Besides, you
have
mentioned that you like horses.”

“And
I will pay for them.  The
actual
cost.”

She
rolled her eyes.  “Half.  This is my home, too.  My family lives here.”

Cade
hesitated.

“Please?”

As
usual, the “please” won her the argument.  Cade always gave in when she played
that card.  He smoothed back her hair.  “
You
are where I click, lady.  I
like
you
, even when you drive me crazy.”  He hesitated.  “Do you know
what else I like about this time?”

“
Star
Trek
reruns that remind you of your home planet?”

“I
like that nobody here cares that I’m a Voltyn.  In town, I can walk into any
shop I wish.  People talk to me without insults.  You wear my ring and carry my
child, and I don’t have to kill anyone to keep you.”  He shrugged.  “Which I
would
,
but I like that I don’t have to fight every day for the right to exist.  I like
that I can live here with you in peace.”  He nodded like that really was a
miracle.  “So, yes.  This time is far,
far
better than the one I left
behind.”

“At
least for five hundred years or so, until there’s that pesky nuclear holocaust.” 
That weighed on Addy’s mind.  Even though it was so far off, she’d seen the
devastation it left firsthand.  Even Quel could’ve been saved if he’d been born
into a different world.  “If there’s a way to stop the flash, we need to do it,
Cade.”  There was still time to save the future.

Cade
groaned.  “Will you never give up on this idea?”

“No. 
And our grandchildren’s grandchildren’s grandchildren will thank us for my
stubbornness.  That’s why I’m thinking we should go back to Yellowstone.  Maybe
if we travel through that geyser
again
, we’ll wind up in a
different
time.  Earlier.  Before the flash.  Maybe we can fix things.”

“Addy…”

“Think
of how proud you’ll feel when you save the world.”  The more Addy thought about
it, the more she knew that was why she’d been sent back, in the first place. 
So she could find Cade and they could work together to rewrite history.  “This
is going to work, Cade.  Trust me.  Sometimes, I have strong feelings about
stuff.”

“I
know.  And I have strong feelings that you can accomplish anything, Adeline
Westin.  If you set your mind to changing the future, I am sure you can do it. 
And I’m sure you’ll beguile me into helping.”  He placed one of his glowing
hands on her stomach.  “
Later
.  Right now, all I want to do is be with
you and our child.  Can’t this ‘honeymoon’ trip wait for a while?”

Addy’s
heart melted.  She was very, very happy too, so she was willing to compromise
on the schedule.  The great thing about time travel was that the future wasn’t
going anywhere.  “Well, since I
do
sort of love you a lot, I
suppose
you could convince me to have some fun here at home.  I’m a reasonable lady,
after all.”

Cade
slowly smiled.  “Fun in the shower?”  He suggested eagerly.

“Still
not missing that sonic bathhouse thing-y, I take it?”

“Four
gods, no.”  He leaned in to kiss her.  “You’ve converted me to primitive water
bathing and there’s no going back.”