Love Under Two Benedicts (21 page)

“She’ll make a wonderful granny. She was so great with Benny yesterday,” Kelsey said. “I think they both just clicked right from the first moment. Love at first sight.”

“I think they did, too. So when Mom gets here, do you want to go riding?”

Kelsey grinned. “I haven’t been riding for several years. I’m probably rusty, but yeah, I’d like to.”

“I have a mare that I use for some of the less experienced riders in the family. She’s pretty gentle, really.”

A cell phone rang, and Matthew pulled the device off his belt and looked at the call display before answering.

“Hey, Adam. I was finishing breakfast and then—” Matthew stopped talking, and Steven could see by the expression on his brother’s face that something had happened.

“Okay, I’ll head out from here and pick you up. No sense in our taking two cars. Just give me five.” Matthew closed his cell phone and looked to see what Benny was doing. Then he turned to Steven and Kelsey.

“Rangers got a call from the manager of a motel just outside of Coleman in response to the BOLO they issued yesterday. So they responded, and now they have one Deke Walters in custody.”

“And Benny’s mother?” Kelsey asked quietly.

Matthew, once more, checked to see the little boy was busy playing and not paying the adults any attention before he turned a somber face to them.

“She wasn’t with him. She’s missing.”

* * * *

Kelsey paid close attention as Steven saddled the mare. It had been several years since she’d last sat a horse. As she watched him work, the process of readying a mount to ride came back to her. As she stood inside the neat barn, time seemed to melt away. The scent of horse and hay had once been her favorite aroma.

She’d taken riding lessons when she’d been a horse-mad twelve-year-old girl growing up in northeastern Pennsylvania. She’d saved her allowance all winter, plus did odd jobs for her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Pierce, so that come the summer she could take those lessons and spend time with her equine friends.

When she’d married Philip and moved to Austin, she’d found a riding stable outside of the city and resumed the pastime. That had been just one more thing that had been lost in the aftermath of the trauma five years before.

“I suppose if I hadn’t been such a hard-ass about trying to keep the relationship between the three of us just about sex, I could have gone riding weeks ago.”

Steven looked up, his grin wide. “Darlin’, you and I both know there’s no way I can comment on that statement and win. So I’m just going to smile and say you look lovely today.”

“You’re a pretty smart man,” Kelsey said. There was so much about the brothers Benedict that she liked and admired. Their quick minds ranked up near the top of the list.

“My momma didn’t raise no fools,” Steven said with an exaggerated twang.

Kelsey laughed. Then the smile died as she thought again about Matthew’s phone call of just minutes before.

The state cops as well as Matthew and Adam had questioned Deke Walters. He claimed he had no idea where Benny’s mom had gone. “Where do you think Ginny Rose is?”

“My guess is she’s going to try and find her way back here,” Steven said

“That’s what I think, too. Matthew sounded disappointed when that trucker stepped forward to say he saw her leave the motel room and take off across the field. I think he wanted to keep Deke in custody.”

“Can you blame him, really? Judging by the letter Ginny left, Deke Walters put his hands on her on a regular basis. The man likely deserves to spend some time in jail. Unfortunately, he doesn’t deserve to be charged with Ginny’s disappearance.”

 
Kelsey had no tolerance for anyone who abused someone smaller or weaker than themselves. She didn’t know anything about Walters but could easily picture him, a big bruiser of a guy in a wife-beater T-shirt holding a can of beer while playing armchair quarterback.

“Let’s hope someone sees her and soon. It’s a long way from that motel back to here.” Kelsey knew she’d worry about the woman until she was found.

“On top of the distance, there’s the danger of just being out in open country. She’s a city gal and likely doesn’t have a clue how to survive in the wilderness.”

They’d decided not to say anything to Benny. Not until they had something positive to report to him. For the most part, the little boy seemed happy. He certainly loved all the new toys the people of Lusty had given to him, and he enjoyed the attention they were lavishing on him. Yet there were moments when his little lip quivered, and Kelsey knew he really wanted his mother.

“Come on, sweetheart. There’s nothing we can do for Benny right now. Mom’s taking good care of him,” Steven said.

The tenderness in his expression and in his voice told her more than his actual words how attuned he was to her. She’d never believed men could be so macho and so caring at the same time until she’d taken up with these Benedict brothers.

“I know you’re right.”

Steven handed her the reins of her horse, a chestnut mare named Daisy. When he offered her a leg up, she accepted, swinging her right leg over the horse.

“That hurt,” Steven said as she settled herself in the saddle.

He’d obviously seen her wince. She wasn’t going to lie to him. “Just lifting my own weight hurt my arm and shoulder a bit. It’s all right. I can’t baby it too much, or it’ll just get even more painful and stiffen up to boot.”

“I know. Damn it. I hate like hell that you’re in pain.”

Steven swung up on the back of his black gelding. Kelsey thought both man and beast appeared strong, arrogant, and in charge of the world.

The brothers had been careful to make sure she knew they respected her right to be an independent woman. She also had no doubts whatsoever that they each had definite limits in mind for that independence and would do what they felt necessary to take care of her and keep her safe.

It surprised her some that she was okay with that.

“Did you read the story of how the Benedicts came to be settled on this land?” Steven asked as the horses began to move.

“Didn’t Sarah bring the ranch into the family when she married Caleb Benedict? She’d been widowed, hadn’t she?”

Steven raised both eyebrows as he shot her a teasing look. “You only skimmed the barest amount of information when we took you to the museum, didn’t you?”

“You expected me to read and retain when I was still trying to adjust to the fact that you and your brother wanted to share me? When all the hormones in my body were jumping up and down with fevered excitement, yelling at me to strip and get started?”

Steven grinned. “We got to you right away, did we?”
 
He brought his horse to a stop, and she mimicked the move. Then he leaned over and kissed her quickly. He sat back, apparently not really expecting an answer. “I suppose for someone who didn’t grow up in Lusty, the concept would be a strange one.”

“You think?” Kelsey asked.

Steven only laughed and clucked at his horse.

Kelsey followed him as he led the way away from the house and barns out into the open fields of the ranch. “I only employ a handful of men now,” Steven said, “as the ranch is more of a tradition than anything else. Most of the family’s wealth comes from investments, land and property development, and manufacturing businesses purchased over the years. And then there’s the oil, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Actually, I think it could be said that oil was the foundation of the whole damn thing.”

When he didn’t say any more, Kelsey fell silent, wondering if she was going to have to drag the story out of him. He led her to a small hillock or one that looked small. Once they were on top of it, he brought his horse to a halt and turned in his saddle. When she turned her gaze in the direction he indicated, she gasped, for she could see the big house, and the “new house,” and most of Lusty.

“When Caleb, Joshua, and Sarah moved into the big house, it was shortly after the death of its owner, a man named Maddox. Maddox had struck a business deal with Sarah’s father for her hand in marriage. They discovered after several attempts were made on her life that Maddox had married Sarah solely for the inheritance left to her by her paternal grandfather. He’d planned to have her killed to get it.”

“That’s horrible! Oh, I’m so glad I didn’t live in those days. Why, women were little more than chattel in the eighteen hundreds!”

“That’s a fact,” Steven said. “Anyway, in the end Maddox died at the hand of Joshua Benedict, and Sarah inherited his entire estate as well as the one left to her by her grandfather.”

“I’ll bet she shared it with her men,” Kelsey said.

“You’d win that bet.”

Daisy responded well to Sarah’s guidance. “I’ve missed this. I really love riding.”

“Matt and I would go out as often as we could when we were kids. Since he came back home from Chicago, we’ve picked up the habit again. Most Sundays we go for a nice long ride. This next Sunday, we’ll all three go together.”

“What was she like? Matthew’s wife?”

“I only met her once, and I didn’t like her. I think he fell in lust with her, and she fell in lust with the family fortune.”

“Huh.” Kelsey never gave much thought to the fact that the Benedicts were extremely wealthy. Knowing Susan as she did, it was hard to think of the Benedicts as being rich.

“Matthew refers to the years he was in Chicago as his rebellious stage.” Steven stopped then, his gaze somber. “I thought I’d never get the chance to meet you.”

What an odd thing to say
. Kelsey turned to ask him what he meant when a gunshot exploded, kicking dust up by her horse’s hooves.

* * * *

“The Rangers are going to send an alert to the truck stops and service centers between Coleman and here,” Adam said. “Beyond that, there’s not much we can do to find Ginny.”

They entered Lusty city limits, and in moments, Matthew pulled the cruiser to the curb in front of the sheriff’s office.

“I’ll follow up, speak to some of them by phone,” Matthew said as he got out of the car. “Let them know Ginny isn’t a criminal. I don’t want them spooking her away.”

Once inside the building, Adam went to his desk, tossing his hat on the rack as he passed. “Matt. There are a lot of people who think that when a mother deserts her son, it’s a pretty criminal act.”

Matthew looked over at his best friend and understood that Adam wasn’t seeing the situation the same way that he, Steven, and Kelsey were.

“She was in an impossible situation and did what she could to keep her son safe. The little guy was clean, healthy, and happy. He’s not an abused kid, Adam. Every indication is that Ginny loves Benny and has been a good mother to him. I think Ginny left Deke because the reality of having given her son up got through to her like nothing else could.”

Adam scrubbed his hands over his face. “Okay. That letter pretty much speaks to her intent. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. If she shows up here, we’ll talk to her and then reassess the situation.”

“Thanks. We feel pretty strongly about this. Kelsey does, especially.”

He sat down at his own desk and turned on his computer. First, he’d check his e-mail and then he’d contact the Waco police. Just before they drove over to Coleman, the Waco PD called Adam and told him they had seized the mall’s surveillance tapes. Matthew was hoping they’d had some luck there.

As soon as he saw the e-mail from the Austin P.D., Matthew opened it. He’d nearly forgotten about the request he’d put in to Patrick Carmichael yesterday. The detective had sent the case file as a download attachment.

Matthew hadn’t expected any surprises as he read, but he got a couple of them. The first rocked him.

“She witnessed the shooting.” He looked over at Adam when that man swore and didn’t wonder that he didn’t have to explain himself.

“No wonder it took her so long to open up about it.”

“I thought she meant that she’d just waited outside in the car when it happened and saw them after the gunman escaped. But she actually saw it happen.” Matthew kept reading.

He got his second shock, and this one made all the pieces fall in to place.

“Son of a bitch. I know who’s trying to kill her.”

Before he could explain to Adam, his cell phone rang. He looked at the call display. Seeing his brother’s name inexplicably sent a chill down his spine.

Chapter 19

Kelsey refused to go back to the house. She knew neither Steven nor Matt were happy with her implacability. That was just too damn bad.

She wasn’t too happy about Steven’s refusal to go to the clinic either.

“It’s only a graze, honey. I’m fine.” He’d hugged her, and she’d finally started breathing again. Eventually, the internal shaking had stopped. Then the fear disintegrated under a barrage of red, hot fury.

Some son-of-a-bitch had taken a couple of shots at them, wounding Steven.