Against Me (Cedar Tree Book 3) (27 page)

Some rustling as Gus hands the phone over and the next I know my girl is sniffling on the other side.

"Ah, little one–"

"He ran out in front of me, Caleb," she sobs in the phone, "caught a bullet that was meant for me. Not even a hesitation."

"He's a good dog, babe. The best," I try to soothe her, grateful as hell for that rangy mutt.

"Shot the fucker, though. Fucker may not be an appropriate name for him an longer though," she chuckles through her tears.

"Why's that?"

"Remember that issue I had with my aim at the range? Well, I still have it."

After an extremely tense and stressful day, followed by ten minutes of my life I'd rather never repeat, the burst of laughter that explodes from the pit of my stomach feels fantastic.

"Ya hit his groin?" I ask when I can manage to get a word out.

"Annihilated his jewels, more like it," she deadpans, with a little snicker.

I can see Mal shaking his head beside me, a smile on his face.

"Atta girl,
Yázhí
. Atta girl. Gonna be there as soon as I can. We've just gotten on the road and I'll be another two hours at least."

"Do what you do, Caleb Whitetail. I'll be here when you're done. Love you."

"Back at you, sweets. Love you too."

When I hang up, I can feel Mal's scrutiny.
Wow
, he mouths. Smartass.

"She killed his dick? And this is your girlfriend? Fuck man, can't wait to meet this one," he chuckles.

"Better watch yourself too. Even from her chair, she could whip your ass." I tell him with a grin.

"Chair?"

Right. He wouldn't know, in fact, neither of us knows much about the other's life these days. Only what we think we do. We may as well spend the next two hours stuck in this rattling shit box getting reacquainted.

By the time I have Malachi safely settled in with the burner phone and one of the trackers Neil stuck on me, now wedged between the heel and sole of
his
boot, I finally head back in the direction of Cortez. Gus already called to say they had taken Blue into surgery and he'd had to virtually drag Katie out of there to get her looked over at the hospital.

He's waiting for me in the lobby when I drive up, eager to get going.

"Quick briefing and I'm off, but I'm relieved as fuck to see you in one piece. Things got hairy for a while there with you out of reach." Gus motions for me to sit, but I'm too wired.

"Malachi needed a bit of convincing," is all I share for now, not wanting a lengthy discussion.

"Fair enough, we'll get details later."

Like hell.
Not sure I'm gonna volunteer how my little brother took me down and have it held over my head at every opportunity.

"The guy Katie castrated is alive and been flown to Durango with Lifeline and in surgery. Irks me that taxpayers are spending money on a douche like that, but whatever. Not a coherent word from him and no ID yet, but he's not our Mexican friend. He's Caucasian. Second shooter who was gone before I got there, apparently was picked up by one of the patrol vehicles coming in after Joe when he shot out of a back road into the Ute reservation. Looks like he'd been waiting there for all emergency vehicles to pass before making his escape and missed one. Some scared as shit punk kid off the street with a large scope rifle beside him. I'm off to the sheriff's office, where Joe has him waiting for questioning. I want in on that."

"What about Neil?"

"Jesus, he's lost a lot of blood, but that kid is tough. He's in surgery here and Emma is on her way in. I've called the office in Grand Junction as well. Dana's like a mother to him. She was gonna leave right away. Doc says he'll be ok. Nicked his femoral artery but the little fucker managed to tie himself off so good he didn't bleed out. Katie is livid with him; he made her believe it was 'just' a leg shot. She never saw."

This has taken way too long already and I'm fucking antsy as shit to get to my girl.

"Thanks man, but I gotta go see her now. Where?"

With a smile and a finger pointed in the right direction Gus slaps me on the back and without another word I take off to find her.

The room has three bays, all with the curtains drawn and I don't know which one she is behind.

"You're late..." I hear the smile in her voice and following it to the curtain on the far left.

"How did you know it was me?" I want to know as I pull back the curtain and take her in; covered in dirt and scrapes, with a fresh trickle of blood down the side of her head and her eyes red rimmed. But beautiful and bright smiling and so very fucking alive.

"I feel you," she says simply, and I kick off my boots, climb into the stupid little bed and wrap myself around her. I feel her too―everywhere.

After a few minutes of just breathing her in, I ask her about the events at the barn and I tell her about my day with Malachi. We don't let go, staying wrapped up together and whispering quietly as if we were just catching up on our days.

The clearing of a throat has me look up―straight into the smiling face of Naomi.

"Well, well, well," she says to Katie, "I see you picked up an extra blanket."

Katie sticks her tongue out, only making Naomi laugh out loud.

"Get your own hot guy, girlfriend."

"You guys are keeping me too busy here. And besides, every time I turn around, another one is off the market. So unfair."

Stretching, I reluctantly let go of Katie, but if they're gonna be talking about guys, I'm gonna find a coffee.

"Don't leave yet, Romeo," Doc holds me up, "I'm actually glad you're here. With Katie coming in banged up,
again
,” she says with a pointed look at the patient, “And with her taking a six foot tumble down an elevator shaft, I decided it was probably a good time to get some confirmation on a question we had floating around last time you were in here already.”

Katie knows just as well what Naomi is talking about as I do, guessing from the death grip of her hand around mine.

"Go on, we're ready," I urge her on.

With a little bit of trepidation showing on her face, unsure how we're going to take the news, she says, "It's positive. You're pregnant."

"T
hat was Sergeant Teva from the Grand Junction PD," Joe says after hanging up the phone. “The little creep in our cell as well as the eunuch – courtesy of Katie here – are well known thugs to her. Never thought we'd come full circle, but apparently Brian Crowe's name and picture raised a flag when it popped up on her feed this morning, combined with the description of our injured perp, she is convinced that's his buddy Rolf Baird. Brian has a sheet with mostly small time stuff, nothing too disturbing, which may have been why he got cold feet, but Rolf is a different story. He's been in for two counts of assault and is suspected in the death of a prostitute last year. Lack of evidence has ground that investigation to a halt. These are local boys to Grand Junction though. She's confused as to what they would be doing all the way in Cedar Tree, unless they were sent out there. She'll beat the bushes today and get back to me if she finds anything out. Says to say hi."

Joe came in this morning, just as Clint and his crew were leaving. They had been here at the ass-crack of dawn with replacement glass for the kitchen window and a giant board to close up the hole left by the broken sliding door. The replacement for that would take a few days. If I'd had any reservations left about Clint, they flew out the window this morning when he came in, lifted me clear out of the chair and hugged me against his big bear body.

"Did good, little lady. Hear you blew his nuts to kingdom come - you're a legend in these here parts now," he put me back down with a chuckle.

Yeah. Big Neanderthal Clint was definitely growing on me.

After the shock/surprise/elation/raw terror of last night's news from Naomi, Caleb and I didn't talk much. I guess we both needed time to process what we had known was a possibility, but were shocked to find out that the hormone levels indicated a pregnancy that was at least a few weeks further along. That would mean it happened our first time together when we thought we were protected. When Caleb admitted that the condom we used was one he had carried around for at least three years, waiting for the right opportunity, I could see Naomi had a hard time keeping a straight face. At times I would find myself smiling at him and he'd smile back. It was like having a delicious little secret that wasn't ready to see the light of day yet. Let the knowledge settle in for each of us first. We aren't that young anymore and would be middle aged by the time the kid turns ten. Crud. Scary thought, that, but I have to admit there is no paralyzing fear and the shock is starting turn into an almost giddy excitement. Not even worrying about logistics that much anymore. Not after the events of yesterday. If I can handle a shoot-out, I can certainly handle a couple of dirty diapers.

Naomi made me an appointment to come see her for a prenatal visit and to see about an ultrasound in a month, and told me I was cleared to leave after she took out my remaining stitches.

We checked in on Neil before we left the hospital and I begged Caleb to take me to the veterinarian clinic to see Blue before heading home. Blue had just come out of surgery and was groggy, but lifted one eyelid when he heard my voice. I couldn't hold back my tears when I saw the shaved patch of skin where they'd managed to dig out the slug he took for me. After being assured he'd be well taken care of and could probably come home tomorrow to continue recuperating, Caleb had to drag me out the door.

With a patrol car stationed outside, we rolled into bed, with a pile of extra blankets to ward off the night cold that snuck in from the broken windows and wrapped around each other tumbled into a deep sleep.

"Huh," Caleb grunts, rubbing his hair, which is starting to grow a little longer. I like it. "Wouldn't be cartel. They wouldn't hire outside help unless high quality; not some thugs off the street. Odd."

"And it's not likely from Grand Junction either," I add, "this has to be connected to Sue's murder somehow. Unless there is something I am missing somewhere."

"Well I don't have a lot of details on that case, I'll defer to Sergeant Teva for that one, and I'm sure she's figured the same possibility. She's got a great rep with local law enforcement, so let's wait to see what she comes back with," Joe suggests.

"Any word from Manny on Benji? Is he talking?"

"Talked to him last night, actually; he's put the screws on Benjamin, told him right now he'd go down for aiding and abetting, but if he continued to protect the guy, they'd have no choice but to charge him with the arson and murder as well. Apparently, that had impact. Gorge Guzman. I called it in to Gus right away and he's been trying to get a hold of one of his FBI contacts. Still trying to work with their support, but they have about three years' worth of man hours invested in this case against the Agave cartel and aren't about to negotiate that away over a drug deal gone bad. I just don't see it happening."

I try to sort all the information, while I work on another pot of coffee in the kitchen.

"Better make that decaf. Right, little one?"

My hand halts mid-air with the scoop of full strength coffee grinds ready to drop in the filter. Right. Replacing it in the canister without being too obvious about it, I quickly pull out the decaf coffee and proceed, hearing Caleb's low chuckle behind me; which I pointedly ignore.

"Okay, so we have Malachi somewhere close by and safe. We now have a name for the rogue cartel guy who was working hand in hand with Mal's second in command of the Klesh, Benjamin. Those two were trying to pin the creaming of drug shipments for their own profit on Mal, putting the lovely Duarte brothers on his tail. Completely unaware of the rat in their own house, they’re after Mal full force, ironically using this Guzman to flush him out by coming after me, with the added benefit of taking out the one person who can place creepy Ernesto at Larchwood the night of Sue's murder. How am I doing so far?" I pause to take a breath and am met with nods.

"Go on," Caleb encourages.

"To get them to back off us... off me, is to convince the Duarte brothers about Guzman's duplicity and Mal's innocence, at least as far as pilfering their drug shipments goes. But that still leaves the fact that I've seen one of them at Larchwood with their father the night of the murder; nothing can undo that. In fact, I'm surprised the feds haven't shown up on my doorstep yet. I would've thought they'd be thrilled to have another potential nail in Duarte's coffin."

I'm standing at the counter and take two cups in one hand, while reaching out to the island with my other. Without even thinking I shuffle the two steps it takes to get there and slide the cups in front of the guys; Caleb with an ear-splitting grin on his face and Joe with his mouth hanging open. Then I turn around, look at my chair and realize what I've just done. I swallow hard before looking at Caleb.

"I think I need crutches or something."

He smiles even bigger. "Done," he says.

After dealing with Joe's surprise at my progress and my own shock at my body's automatic movements, we spend some more time discussing the point I brought up. A valid one. Not to mention the oddballs from Grand Junction who showed up shooting out of the blue. Twenty minutes of talking in circles and Joe announces that he's heading back to Cortez and will be in touch with any news. Caleb and I are not far behind, hoping to get a few necessary supplies at Wal-Mart for when Blue comes home; my puppy needs food and a bed. And maybe we'll pop in at Walgreens to have a look at some crutches.