Ransom Canyon (22 page)

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she answered. “Absolutely nothing.”

The boy who’d always been kind to that shy little girl. The man who opened up to her as he did with no one in his world. The lover who always waited for her to make the first move. The father of her child who wanted her safe and near.

The man who’d just discovered he loved her when she’d loved him all her life. All were with her tonight.

“I love you, Quinn,” he whispered against her hair.

“I know,” she answered. “I know.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Lauren

L
AUREN
SAT
ON
the tailgate of Lucas’s old pickup and swung her legs as he draped a blanket over her shoulders. The night really wasn’t cold, but she liked the thought of him taking care of her.

He was her first boyfriend. The first guy who liked her, really liked her. It was exciting, newborn and somehow very grown up, all at the same time.

They were back in the pasture where Lucas loved to watch the stars. It was his favorite place, and she knew when he was away at college it would be hers. That is if she ever got a car and could come out here.

She knew it was on the Kirkland ranch and didn’t belong to them, but somehow it was their secret spot. Maybe she’d write about tonight in her diary, then when she had a few friends over, she might read about exactly what it was like in the moonlight.

“I can’t believe your dad looked at me and ordered me to take you home.” Lucas laughed. “Man, did he look mad at all those old folks after the concert. I think if he’d had access to a cattle truck, he would have loaded them all in, walkers and canes included.”

Lauren smiled. “He wouldn’t have trusted you if he knew you’d bring me here first and not straight home. I’m sure he thinks I’m safe at the house by now.”

“I know. If he knew we’d be stopping out here alone, he’d probably be madder than hell.” Lucas sat beside her. “This is where you’re supposed to say that he’d be all right with it.”

She giggled. “I can’t lie. If he knew we were here, he’d shoot you. It’s nothing to do with you, though. It’s just that he hasn’t finished lecturing me yet about boys. I think I’ve got at least another year of lectures before he’ll trust me to go out.”

“I’ll wait,” Lucas said. “Now and then, when I’m home, I’ll call and we can talk, but, Lauren, we got to do this right. It’s too special not to.”

She smiled up at him. “You make me feel good when you say stuff like that. Even if you don’t mean it.”

“What if I did, Lauren? Would it scare you?”

“A little, maybe. I don’t think long-term like you do.”

He covered her hand with his. “We’re going to both change in the next few years. We need to start out as friends. I’d like that.”

“Me, too.” She’d never had a date. She had a great deal to figure out before she could even talk about what happened after friends.

He must have felt the same way because they talked about the stars and the few months of school that were left. He told her again about what the Texas Tech campus was like and how different life would be for him there.

They talked about the night at the Gypsy House and how she still owed him a blood debt.

Half an hour passed, and she finally said she needed to go home. Even though she loved being with him, Lauren felt like she was lying to Pop. For the second time in her life, she knew she was doing something he wouldn’t approve of. Maybe when she was a little older it wouldn’t matter, but now she didn’t want to lie to him.

Lucas must have felt the same way, because he didn’t try to kiss her. He’d said he’d wait. Maybe he knew that what might be growing between them was more than a few stolen dates. Or, maybe he simply didn’t want complications right now.

They were folding up the blanket when she heard the rumble of an engine.

“Someone’s on the ranch,” he whispered.

They climbed into the truck and listened. After a while Lucas whispered, “It sounds like they are driving the fence lines. Like they’re checking for something.”

“But what?”

“Maybe a break in the fence. But cowboys do that in daylight, not at night. They wouldn’t be checking this fence anyway. There are no cattle here.”

Lauren thought for a minute and asked, “When are cattle moved in this pasture?”

“Another week, maybe sooner. Mr. Kirkland is buying calves now.” Lucas turned toward her. “That’s it! Whoever is driving out here is checking to see if the cattle are on grass yet. Somehow they know a herd is coming. They just don’t know when.”

“Who sets the date?”

“Kirkland, but there are lots of factors to consider before they’re moved. We all know the work is coming, but which pasture, how many cattle, even when the trucks come, all has to be figured out along with a dozen other details like weather and the vet’s schedule. Collins has a ranch hand named Arlo who sets his dates and the number of cows moved on the Collins place, but from what I hear, Kirkland makes the call here on the Double K.”

“So,” Lauren whispered, “if I were a cattle rustler, I might come out every night to check.”

Lucas nodded slowly. “And if I wanted to make sure none of the cowhands were wandering around, I’d shoot at the first one I saw.” Lucas thumped his head against the back glass. “I heard one of the men say he didn’t plan to check this pasture at night, no matter what the foreman said. Some, if not all the men, are leery of the chore.”

“Take me home, Lucas, and we’ll wait for Pop. I want to tell him our theory.”

An hour later they were watching a movie when her dad stepped through the front door. He looked tired, but when he saw Lucas he didn’t react like she thought he might.

“You didn’t have to stay, Lucas,” he said, straightening to his sheriff’s stance. Pop was acting like Lucas had stayed to babysit her until an adult got home.

Lucas stood. “I wanted to talk to you, sir. Lauren and I have a theory about what happened on the Kirkland ranch.”

“Can’t it wait till morning?”

Lauren jumped in. “When Lucas was bringing me home he told me about seeing a car driving the back pasture road late last night.”

Together they told her father all the facts, except that they’d been on the land tonight. To his credit, the sheriff listened.

“Why didn’t you go to Kirkland with this?”

Lucas answered. “We tried calling both his house phone at the ranch and his mobile. He didn’t answer either.”

“I can believe that.” Pop smiled as if he knew a secret. “Thanks for telling me. I promise I’ll check on it tomorrow morning. Good night, Lucas. Thanks for seeing my daughter home safely.”

“You’re welcome.” Lucas walked to the door. “Good night, Lauren. See you at school Monday.”

“See you,” Lauren answered.

When the door closed, she expected her pop to start his lecture on never letting anyone into the house when he wasn’t home, but Pop just picked up one of the bowls of popcorn and asked what movie was on.

“Aren’t you going to lecture me?” she asked.

“Nope. You must have trusted the guy or you wouldn’t have let him in. Plus, you two came up with the best theory on why Kirkland got shot that I’ve heard.”

They went over facts of the case in a way that he’d never talked to her about his work. It was as if, now that she was sixteen, she wasn’t a kid anymore. Or maybe Margaret had convinced him he was being too hard on her. Who knew, maybe Pop was just getting old and more relaxed.

As they turned out the lights, she asked, “So, Lucas is okay?”

“I wouldn’t have asked him to see you home if he wasn’t. Kirkland thinks a lot of the kid.” Pop reached his bedroom door and turned to say good-night.

“So, it’s all right if I go out on a date with him sometime?” She opened her door a few feet down the hall. “That is, if he ever asks me.”

“No. He’s too old for you.”

“But only by a year.” She forgot to add that they were only a year apart in age by three days. “He’s graduating early.”

“We’ll talk about it later.” Pop closed his door before she could build her defense.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Yancy

Y
ANCY
LOADED
ALL
the old folks into their cars, then walked the few blocks to the retirement community. Ellie had already driven to the other end and promised to make sure each got to their little bungalow safely.

He didn’t mind the walk. He needed to clear his head. The only danger might be one of the old folks running over him, and he hoped they were all ahead of him.

When he was in prison, his mind mostly drifted. Every day was about the same. Now that he was out, it was like waking up in a new world every morning. There were things to figure out. Reading hidden meanings in what folks said and what they didn’t. Trying to jump into the conversation at the right time. Knowing when to shut up. Part of Yancy wanted to go back to his cell, just for a day or two, to rest his brain.

He straightened and walked faster. The sheriff said he was a deputy tonight. Him, Yancy Grey from nowhere, who didn’t have a family, or a driver’s license, or a bank account, or much of anything else. He was a deputy, if only for tonight.

Slowly his shoulders slumped as he remembered what the ex-con named Cowboy had told him. Yancy knew he was in trouble the minute he’d seen them, and it hadn’t taken the pair long to figure out who he was. Cowboy said he was one of them and always would be. If he didn’t go along with them, they’d name him as one of their gang if they got caught, and he’d get the same time they got. So, like it or not, Yancy was a part of their gang. If all went as planned, Cowboy promised he’d get a cut; if it didn’t, they’d meet up again in prison.

The first time he’d gone, Yancy had been caught stealing. He really had no one to blame but himself. If Cowboy turned him in just to get back at him, every day of prison would seem ten times as hard. Yancy didn’t want to go back. He couldn’t.

That night in the shadows of Dorothy’s Café, Yancy hadn’t said a word. He’d simply listened. Part of what they said had to be true. Both Cowboy and Freddie knew the ropes. They had a man at the Collins ranch helping them, filling them in on details no one in town would know. A guy named Arlo would keep them informed and hide the cattle truck they’d stolen until they made the raid.

The plan was to go in right after Kirkland moved his cattle to the far pasture and round them up the first night. This wasn’t going to be a small operation. They planned to pack the truck and be a few hundred miles down the road before dawn.

Cowboy said they’d get rid of what they were driving now, so no one would catch them. The truck they’d stolen to haul eighty head was already hidden on the Collins place. Cowboy knew someone in New Mexico who’d take the calves off their hands. Freddie promised they only wanted Yancy as a lookout. Someone far enough back from the crime to give them warning.

It crossed Yancy’s mind that he should report the cons to the sheriff, but he didn’t know any details. Not the man’s full name on the Collins ranch or the night it would happen. All they’d told him was that they had a plan in the works, and when it came through, they’d be rolling in money.

Freddie had even hinted that Yancy could make more in one night than most folks around town made in a month.

But, Yancy didn’t care about the money. He had enough to take Ellie out on a date, and that seemed enough. But he was too scared to say anything to Cowboy or Freddie. All he’d done was nod as if he was going along with whatever they said.

A few days had passed and, when he didn’t hear from them, Yancy figured they’d either changed their plan or moved on. He didn’t care as long as they didn’t bother him.

Yancy turned into the Evening Shadows Retirement Community trying to figure out what a normal person would do, not that he’d ever be normal with guys like Cowboy and Freddie turning up to remind him how worthless he was.

Plan or no plan, they’d reminded him that the life he was living would never work for long. There’d always be someone who noticed something different about him, or one of the cons showing up to remind him he wasn’t like most people.

When he saw Ellie waiting for him on the office steps, he forgot about being a deputy or worrying what Cowboy had planned. It wouldn’t happen for a while, if ever. He had plenty of time to think about how to handle his problem. With luck, he’d have a few more days to be normal. Maybe that’s all a guy like him could hope for.

“Did they all find their own little houses?” he asked as he walked up to the steps of the office. She looked so prim and proper in her dress-up clothes, but he kind of missed the cape.

“I think it was a full night for them.” She patted the step beside her. “I’m just happy that they made it back home safe and sound. A few of them got so wound up, I got worried.”

“Me, too. I’m getting attached to them.” He sat down so near they were touching. “The day I got to town someone stole my backpack. I had no money, no clothes, nothing. The guys got together and gave me what I needed, but it was the women who had the idea to hire me to help out around the place. I figured it’d last a month, maybe more, but they’re talking about building more bungalows and reopening the pool and getting the city to put in a park over where we burned the tree branches that first day. When that happens they won’t just need a handyman, they’ll need a manager for this place.”

Ellie leaned back with her elbows on the next step. “So you’re thinking you might stay? I’ve lived here all my life, and I think it’s a great place to live.”

Yancy thought of Cowboy and Freddie. Maybe the best thing to do was run. “I might. I have to see how things work out.”

His brain fell off track again when he noticed that without her cape she didn’t seem so round. She did have big breasts, though. He had to remind himself not to look at them again, and again, and again.

He decided to step out on a limb. “Ellie, would you mind if I kiss you?”

“No, I wouldn’t mind. I’ve already rubbed my lipstick off.”

He decided that was a definite yes. He leaned in, liking the way her breasts cushioned the contact just before his lips hit hers. There were a few things about kissing a chubby woman that made it downright delightful.

Half an hour later, when she left, Yancy figured he’d practiced kissing until he had it down pat. Funny thing about kissing, it pretty much erased every other thought in your mind. He wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t some kind of kissing overload disease that could happen if he got too much of a good thing.

He made it to his room, undressed and fell into bed thinking that if heaven was just reliving one day in your life over and over, he hoped it was this one.

Unfortunately, at dawn the next morning hell came to call. Yancy opened his eyes to see both Cowboy and Freddie perched on the end of his bed like hungry vultures looking for roadkill.

Cowboy started talking before Yancy was fully awake. “We need you to do us a little favor.”

“I can’t.” Yancy sat up. “I have to work today.”

“This won’t take long.” Freddie pushed hard against Yancy’s chest. “We need you to be somewhere tonight at exactly midnight. All you have to do is be there as a lookout. If you spot any trouble riding, fire one shot. We’ll do the rest.”

“I don’t have a gun.”

Freddie dropped an old dirty .45 beside Yancy. “You do now. Set up at the county road where it turns off toward the Double K.”

When Freddie straightened, Yancy couldn’t miss how the man patted the knife at his side.

Both cons backed away, but it was Cowboy who left the parting promise. “Be there at midnight and be armed, or we’ll be back, and you and that chubby little girlfriend of yours won’t look so pretty when we get through with you. You don’t want to see what Freddie can do with a knife faster than you have time to yell.”

Yancy didn’t breathe until he heard the office door slam behind the men. He was afraid to move. Afraid to touch the gun. Afraid to picture what might happen if he didn’t play along with their plan.

The nightmare he’d had for years in prison had come to haunt him. There was no way out. He had to do what they said, and when he did, he’d give up the chance to be a normal man...he’d be a criminal. Again. And, if they got caught, he’d be back in prison.

He no longer had to worry what normal people do. Yancy Grey knew he wasn’t normal and never would be. That one night of kissing Ellie would be his last. Even if they didn’t get caught on Kirkland’s land, Yancy knew he’d have to run. Staying in town would just be asking to get caught.

All morning he worked, swearing he would not take anything from the old folks. Tonight, he’d take Cap’s keys and do his midnight watch, then he’d park the car back in the same spot and catch the six o’clock bus out of town. He’d take a few clothes and all the money he’d saved, but he’d leave the leather shaving kit and the warm wool coat and the good gloves.

If he didn’t do exactly that, Ellie might get hurt. He might get killed. It was time for him to wake up from his dream of living a normal life.

He worked until dark trying to get as much done on his lists, then he walked to his room behind the lobby.

Yancy was so tired and worried he almost didn’t notice the tray of food on the counter. Pot roast with all the trimmings, and a slice of cherry pie.

A small note had been shoved under the plate. It read:
Enjoy your supper. We don’t know what we’d do without you. Miss Bees.