Capturing the Cowboy's Heart (31 page)

          
*
   
*
             
*

Cade looked up through the rain to see Doc Andrews racing across the
storm darkened
pasture toward them.  Still spry for a man of seventy, he moved quickly.

“Sorry it took so long,” the gray-haired man, who had once been his father-in-law, said as he dropped to his knees by the sickly animal and opened his bag.  “I left right after Burk called, but there was an accident on my way out here.”

“An accident?” Cade replied distractedly as he tended to the fallen bull.

“Yeah.”  Doc Andrews adjusted the brim of his hat, shielding his face from the
blowing
rain.  “A young woman skidded off the road in her pickup.  Not too far from here.  Made a hell of a mess of her truck, not to mention your fence.”

Cade’s head snapped up.  “A woman?”

“Who was it?” Burk asked as he moved around to the other side of
Bluster
.

The doc shrugged.  “Couldn’t tell you.”  He began examining the fallen bull.  “Don’t think she’s from around here.  Although seems to me I’ve seen that truck somewhere before.  That color sort of sticks in one’s mind.”

Cade’s heart stopped. 
No!  It couldn’t be her!

He reached out, his hand gripping the front of Doc Andrews rain-soaked shirt.  “What color?  What color was the truck?”

“Take it easy, son.”  He pried Cade’s fingers loose from his shirt.  “It was blue.”

“Baby blue?” Cade blurted out, his heart pounding.

The older man nodded.  “I reckon you could call it that.”

“Oh, God, no!” 
He
shot to his feet.  It was happening again.  “I...is she...?”  He couldn’t bring himself to say the words. 

“She’s alive,” Doc assured him as he tended to the bull.  “I stayed with her until the ambulance arrived.”

He nearly dropped to the wet ground as relief surged through him. 
“Thank God.”

“You know her?”

“Yes.” 
He
raked a trembling hand through his hair. 
“
H...how
was
she
when you left her
?”

“Took a hard knock to the back of her head.”

“
Y
ou talked to her?”

“No, she was still unconscious when the ambulance took her away.”  He reached into the front pocket of his raincoat and pulled out Lacy’s tape recorder, handing it to Cade.  “She was holding this when I found her.  I stuck it in my pocket and forgot about it in all the commotion.  Can you see to it she gets it back?”

His
eyes burned as he reached for the recorder.  “Sure.” Memories of the last time he saw Lacy flooded his mind, long hair whipping about in the wind, blue eyes wide and sparkling with the excitement of their engagement.  And her laughter...

“Cade?” Burk said
, his wet face creased in concern.

He nodded.  “It’s Lacy.”

Burk cursed.

“Where were they taking her?”
he asked.

“County
. 
Who is she?”

“My fiancée.”
  He met the questioning gaze of t
he man whose daughter
Cade
had loved and lost, a man who would always be a very important part of his life.  “This isn’t the way I planned to tell you.”

Doc reached out to clasp a hand over
his
shoulder.  “You’d best get going, son.  Burk and I can handle the bulls.” 

No more words needed to be exchanged.  Cade turned and sprinted back across the pasture toward his truck.  He vaulted the fence without breaking stride. 

Hang on, Dalton, I’m coming.

He sped down the road, slowing when he passed by the place Lacy had gone off the road.  The muddied ground held deep ruts where the truck had skidded over it.  Pieces of wood from the splintered fence posts were scattered across the wet grass like match sticks.  And the truck...

An animal-like cry filled the inside of
his
truck. 
His cry.  Cade
struggled to
see the road through the hot tears that blurred his vision.

“Don’t you even think about dying on me, Dalton.”  

He reached for the tape recorder, desperately needing to hear her voice.  But when he rewound the tape partway and hit play it wasn’t Lacy’s voice he heard.

“Cade won’t know what hit him until it’s too late.  And with his main money maker dead, he’ll be forced to sell the ranch.”

“Well done,
Danners
.  The Flying T is as good as mine.  And Tyler will have nothing.  He’s going to wish he had died in that fall at nationals once I’m through with him.
 
Hell, he should have died in that car accident two years ago.  I didn’t expect his wife to be the one behind the wheel that day.”
  

“You mean that was an accident?  Tyler was supposed to die that day instead of his wife?”

“Yes, but it all worked out anyway.  An eye for an eye.  His bull killed my son.  I killed his wife.”

Cade listened
to the recorded words
in shock.  Anger and pain threatened to consume him.
 
Danners
and
Brandt
were going to pay
dearly
for what they’d done.

             
*
             
*
             
*

Lacy awoke, her head feeling as though it had been split in two.  Forcing her eyes open, she realized she wasn’t lying in her bed back at the ranch.  She was lying in a hospital room.  Then it all came rushing back.

Danners
and
Brandt
chasing her.  The rain.  The accident.  She sucked in a breath.  She was alive!
 

“Hello, beautiful.”

She turned to find Cade seated next to her bed in one of the oversized hospital chairs.  He looked tired.  His blue eyes were lined by dark circles, his jaw unshaven.  But he’d never looked so good. 

Her gaze moved down to the large hand that held hers tight. 
“Bluster
...” she said in a hoarse whisper.  

“Shh, don’t try to talk.
  Bluster’s fine.
”  He stabbed at the call button on the bed rail.

“Yes?” a voice replied from a nearby speaker.  

“Miss Dalton’s awake,” he said, gently squeezing her hand. 

“I’ll let the doctor know,” she replied
and
then the speaker light went out.

Lacy managed a small smile.  “I feel like I have the world’s largest hangover.” 

“A concussion is more like it.”  He reached out to touch her face, tenderly caressing her cheek.  “You’ve been out of it for two days.”

“Two days?”  She couldn’t believe it.  “I remember going off the road.  My truck...”

“You decided to make your truck a convertible.  Geezus,
Dalton
, when I thought I’d lost you...” his voice cracked.

She
heard the pain in his voice
and k
new
at that moment
the
true
depth of his love for her. 
She managed a weak smile. 
“You really didn’t think you’d get out of marrying me that easy, did you?”

He released her hand and stood, walking over to the window.  “Cade?”

“I’m selling the ranch,” he announced without turning around.

She
gasped.  “
You can’t.
  You love that ranch.”

Silence.

“
I
love that ranch.  Why, Cade?  Why when you’ve fought so hard to keep it?”

He spun around.  “Why?  Because my trying to keep that broken down ranch
running
nearly got you killed.”

“That’s not true.”

“It is true,” he argued, his voice tight with emotion.  “I hired
Danners
...that bastard!”

“You know about
Danners
?”  

He
nodded.  “So does the sheriff. 
Danners
and
Brandt
are sitting in jail as we speak, awaiting trial for murder and a whole shitload of other charges.”

“I had no idea Mac-”

He hushed her.  “I know you didn’t.”

The anguish in his eyes tore at her heart.  “I’m so sorry about Karen.”

He walked back to the bed, jaw clenched, tears in his eyes.  “I
still can’t believe
that bastard ran
her
off the road.”

“
For revenge,” she recalled.  “How could he blame you for what a bull did during a rodeo?”

“
Jason Brandt
was green and panicked after he was thrown. 
My
bull charged and the kid
froze.  I guess
Brandt
needed someone to blame
for what happened and since it was my bull...
”

“Mac confessed?”

“No. 
You
somehow managed to record them talking.”

Things were still a bit hazy.  “They were in the next aisle,” she recalled.  “I had my tape recorder out.”

“That recording gave the sheriff all the evidence he needed to bring them in.  After their arrest,
Danners
confessed everything he knew in an attempt to save his own sorry ass.”

“
I remember trying to get to you, to give you proof of what they’d done
. 
They tried to stop me.”

“Thank God they failed.”

“They’re both going to pay for what th
ey did to you,” she said.  “
That’s all that matters.”

“You’re wrong about that, Dalton.”  He leaned over her
, brushing his lips across hers
.  “You are all that matters to me now.  If I
had
lost you...”

“
Y
ou didn’t
,” she said softly. 

“I need you in my life, Dalton.  Don’t ever leave me.”

“I
have no intention of going
anywhere, cowboy. 
I’ve developed
a particular fondness for a certain ranch called the Flying T, and I have every intention of raising our children there.  So selling it is out of the question and that’s that.”

“Stubborn woman.”

She
smiled.  “You
haven’t seen anything yet
.”

His mouth moved over hers
again
.

“Uhh, hmmm,” Burk said, clearing his throat from the doorway.

“Looks like Sleeping Beauty has finally awakened,” Katie joined in with a wide Irish grin as she followed Burk into the
hospital
room.

Burk held a bouquet of fresh flowers clutched in one hand, his weathered brown hat in the other.  “Suppose she was just waiting for Prince Charming to kiss her.”

Katie nodded.  “I think you’re right.”

“Too bad Cade got here first.”  He shot Katie a wink, then handed Lacy the flowers they’d brought for her.

She
twirled them around
slowly,
admiring them.  “They’re beautiful.  Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Katie said.  “We’re just so glad that you’re going to be all right.  We’ve all been worried sick.  Especially Cade.”

“Speaking of which,” Burk said with a grin, “I just saw the chaplain down the hall.”  He looked to Cade.  “Should I go fetch him?”

Cade’s mouth curled into a wide
grin
as he looked down at Lacy.  “You got any plans for today?”

She laughed softly.  “Hmm, let me think.  I suppose I could fit you in somewhere between getting my temperature taken and my next sponge bath.  But I think we need a license first.”

“Tell you what, I’ll give you that sponge bath if you promise to marry me as soon as you’ve recovered.”

“On that note,” Burk said, slapping his hat back onto his head, “I’m outta here.”

“Me, too,” Katie said, fanning herself.  “It’s getting a little hot in here for me.”

“
Katie, b
efore you go,” Lacy called out, “I was wondering if you might consider being my maid-of-honor.  I’ll understand if—”

“I’d love to!”

“You would?” Burk said, seemingly surprised by Katie’s reply.  “You do realize you’d have to wear a dress, don’t you.”