Her Lucky Cowboy (19 page)

“You’re going to stay right here with me for a while so I can take care of you for a change.”

“I’m supposed to work a shift at the clinic.”

“I’ll call them and let them know what happened. No way you can stand on that leg all day. You need to let it rest.”

“Now you sound like me.”

The water went off. The shower door opened. He waited to be sure she didn’t slip and fall.

“I need your help.”

The quiet plea made him open his eyes and turn to her. She stood just outside the shower, a dark blue towel wrapped around her dripping wet body.

“All of a sudden, I’m very tired.”

“It’s okay, sweetheart, I’m here.” He went to her and snagged another towel off the bar on his way. He wrapped it around her shoulders and helped her the few steps to the toilet seat. He held her arms and helped her sit down, though she mostly just let her legs loose and fell onto the seat. He took the towel from her shoulders and draped it over her head, wiping the water from her short hair. When he took the towel away, her hair stuck up in spikes. He smiled, leaned down, and kissed her.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

Tears welled in her eyes again. “I’m a wreck, as Blake put it.”

“You’re going to be fine, sweetheart.” He raked his fingers through her hair. Not satisfied, he grabbed his brush from the counter and swept her hair back from her face.

He used the towel to dry off her arms and legs. She pulled the towel wrapped around her away from her hip and thigh. He hissed in a breath. “Damn, sweetheart, that looks bad.”

“Raw. Do you have some antiseptic?”

“Yeah, the stuff they gave me in the hospital.” He found the bottle under the sink and handed it to her, along with several cotton pads. “That’s going to sting like crazy.”

“Yeah, I know.” She clenched her teeth and got the job done.

He squirted out a generous amount of antibiotic ointment onto her outstretched finger. She spread it over the cuts with a hiss of pain that made his gut tighten. He winced for her.

He cut several bandages, which she used to cover the worst of the scrapes. He handed her the roll of gauze. She wound it around her leg and the bandages and secured it with the strips of tape he handed her.

“My clothes are ruined. I don’t have anything to wear.”

“Wait here. I’ll be right back.” Dane went into his room, opened his dresser drawer, and pulled out a gray T-shirt. He opened another drawer and found an old pair of dark blue sweat pants, then walked back into the bathroom. Bell’s eyes were half closed. She sighed out her weariness when he handed her the clothes. “These should do for now.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s the least I can do.”

“Can you get me some ice for my knee?”

He glanced at her outstretched leg. “That’s really swollen.”

“I twisted it.”

“Let’s get you into bed, then I’ll get you a bag of ice to put on that.”

He turned and left her alone to get dressed. He closed the bathroom door, leaving it open a crack so he could hear her if she needed him. Walking over to the bed, he pulled his pillow from under the cover and dropped it on top. He snagged a soft blanket draped over the chair by the window and tossed it onto the bed, too.

Bell stood in the doorway, her hands braced on the frame, her hurt leg stretched out in front of her, his sweats dangling off her foot. His shirt went down to midthigh, the sleeves down to her forearms. “You look so damn cute in my clothes.”

“I look like a dwarf.”

“A cute dwarf.”

“I need to lay down. I’m a little light-headed.”

Dane went to her, lifted her right off her feet, and carried her to the bed. He gently laid her down and pulled the blanket up and over her.

“It’s really sexy that you can pick me up like that and carry me around.”

He leaned down and kissed her. “Just don’t say that about my brother, too.”

“It’s not the same.”

“Good.” He brushed his fingers over her cheek and into her hair. “Tell me you’re okay.”

“I’m fine. Crashing after an adrenaline rush.” She closed her eyes.

He pressed his forehead to hers and inhaled her sweet scent mingled with his shampoo and soap. It did something to his system to smell him on her.

He stood, but stopped from leaving when she grabbed his hand. “Don’t go yet.”

“I need to get some ice for your knee.”

“Come back.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

He went to the hall outside his room and called down the stairs. “Blake!”

“Yeah?”

“Ice for Bell’s knee.”

“On the way.”

Dane went back into the room and sat on the bed beside Bell, taking her hand and linking his fingers with hers. He rested it on his thigh and stared at her. He didn’t know what he’d do if something happened to her. They hadn’t had enough time together. Not by a long shot. Hell, this was the first time she’d come to his house.

“Is it strange to have a woman in your bed you’re not sleeping with?”

“No other woman has been in this house, let alone my bed, Bell.”

“If it’s not that, why are you staring at me?”

She hadn’t even opened her eyes.

“Dane. Ice.”

Dane turned just in time to catch the bag his brother threw at him from the door. “I’ll meet you downstairs when you’re ready.”

Right. Blake still had something to tell him.

Dane grabbed the second pillow from under the covers, let loose Bell’s hand, and pulled back the blanket covering her. He gently lifted her leg and stuffed the pillow beneath her knee. “This is going to be cold.” The ice bag molded to her knee. The pillow helped hold it in place.

Bell’s fingers wrapped around his arm, preventing him from standing up. He leaned down to her ear and whispered, “The answer to your question is, you’re the only woman I want in my house and in my bed.”

He kissed her cheek and pressed his forehead to hers. When he stood, she stared up at him. “Get some rest, sweetheart. I’ll be back in a few minutes to check on you after I talk to my brother.”

He walked to the door but stopped when she called to him.

“Dane.”

He turned and closed the distance between them again. “Yeah?”

“You keep calling me sweetheart.”

“You are mine.”

“I like it.” Her eyes fell closed again, and she snuggled into the bed and blankets.

He tucked the blanket around her, leaned down, and kissed her on the forehead. He stood over her, staring at her beautiful face. It took him a second to bring himself to leave her. He’d never forget how she looked in his bed. Exactly where he wanted her every day and night.

Blake met him at the bottom of the stairs. “How is she?”

“Passed out. Tired after what happened. The scrapes are bad. So is her knee, but she’ll be fine. What aren’t you telling me?”

“I called the sheriff’s office. They just pulled up. That was no accident. Someone tried to hit her.”

“No fucking way.”

“Come outside. I’ll show you and the deputy the pictures I took.”

Dane hesitated to leave Bell alone in the house. The thought of someone hurting her on purpose made him furious and afraid for her.

“She’ll be okay. Come on.”

The deputy who had stopped by to question Dane about Brandy the night of the benefit stood by his car. He waited for them to come down and join him.

“What’s this about, Mr. Bowden? I received a report about a hit-and-run.”

Blake took his cell phone from his back pocket. “I was driving here to see my brother and help out on the ranch today. On my way in, I found Dr. Bell sitting on the side of the road, crying.”

Dane groaned. He hated thinking of her out there alone, scared and hurt.

“She told me she was jogging and a car pulled out of some trees and nearly hit her. She scrambled to get out of the way and fell down a fifteen-foot embankment into the drainage ditch. She managed to get back up to the road on her own, but she’s got some nasty scrapes and bruises.”

“She twisted her knee and can barely walk on it,” Dane said.

“Where is she now?” the deputy asked.

“Upstairs, asleep.”

“I’ll need to speak to her.”

“Later,” Blake said. “Take a look at these.” Blake showed them the photos. “Now, if I’m sitting in a car inside these trees, I’ve got a clear view down the hill Dr. Bell was running up. The cover isn’t that dense. Look at the ruts he left when he accelerated out of the dirt and onto the road. He left a bunch of beer bottles behind.” Blake pressed his lips together and went to the photo of the street. “I think he saw her fall, thought he hit her, and peeled out of there. Those skid marks prove he left in a hurry. From his vantage point in the car, he wouldn’t have been able to see down the hill where Bell fell.” He brought up the picture of the steep incline down to the ditch.

“Damn, that’s a far drop.” Dane ran his hand over the side of his head. She must have slid most of the way down on her right side.

“I saw the skid marks on my way here. I’ll go down and check out the scene. I’ll still need Dr. Bell’s statement. Do you know what kind of car? A truck maybe?”

“She said a car. Upset and in shock, she could have said car but meant a truck,” Blake explained. “I passed five or six vehicles before I saw her.”

“I’ll bring her into town later this evening. I want her to rest for now,” Dane said.

“I’ll get started on the report and take some photos at the scene, too. Send me the ones from your phone. Include a list of the type and colors of the vehicles you can remember,” the officer ordered Blake and handed him his card with his phone and email. Blake typed it into his phone and sent the pictures. “Thanks.”

“Have you heard anything else about Brandy and Rowdy?” Dane couldn’t help but ask, despite the fact information had been scarce.

“Nothing new.”

Dane needed to call Brandy’s mother and find out what she knew and see how she was holding up, taking care of Kaley and her ailing husband.

“I’ll see you later this evening with Dr. Bell to take her statement. In the meantime, anything else happens, call it in.”

Dane waited in the driveway while the deputy drove away. He stared at his brother, wondering who the hell would do something so reckless and hateful as to try to run down a woman jogging on the road.

“What the fuck happened out there?” Dane asked, wishing for a logical answer he’d never get.

“I don’t know. I can only say what it looked like to me. Whoever was driving that car had to see her coming. If he didn’t want to get caught out there doing whatever he was doing, then why not drive out and down the road at a normal pace? She probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it.”

“Unless she might have recognized them. She meets a lot of people at the hospital and clinic. Any one of them might have recognized her.”

“Why run her down?” Blake asked. “She’s the nicest person I know. She helps people. Who would want to hurt her?”

“I don’t fucking know, but if I find out and get my hands on them, they’ll wish they never did something as stupid as this,” Dane vowed.

“Things are getting serious between you two, huh?”

“Not getting serious. They are serious.”

“You’re different with her.”

“God, I hope so. I’ve tried damn hard to get to know her without screwing this up.”

“You really like her.”

“She’s different. She makes me think. She makes me want to be better.”

“All good things, bro. I’m happy for you.”

“How come you didn’t bring Justin?”

“He and Gillian went to breakfast with Uncle Lumpy.”

Dane always laughed under his breath at the man’s name. “You didn’t join them.”

“I came to see how you’re doing and check in with your guys on the progress they’ve made with the fencing.”

“It’s all done. I finished the south pasture yesterday.”

“Don’t let the doc hear you say that. She finds out you’ve slowly been working your way back to running the ranch, she’ll have your ass.”

“Don’t I know it. I only took care of about three hundred feet of fence. We’re all good for the horses to arrive tomorrow.” Dane couldn’t wait for the twenty quarter horses to be delivered. With them and the ten his father had left for him to take care of and breed, he’d have the start of a good business, along with the three hundred head of cattle he had on the property already.

“We’ll be here bright and early in the morning. I’ve assembled a good herd for you from several ranches.”

“Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem. I didn’t think you’d be interested in the horses more than the cattle.”

“I’ll keep the cattle business going, but I need more of a challenge. Breaking and training horses will be just the thing I need.”

“No breaking horses until your leg is a hundred percent.”

“The ones you’re sending me won’t need to be broke. That’ll be next year. I’ll be all healed up by then.”

“Go take care of your girl. I’ll check on your crew.”

“I can’t thank you enough for everything, but especially finding Bell this morning and bringing her here. The thought of her left out on the road . . .”

Blake clamped his hand on Dane’s shoulder. “I know, bro. I don’t want to think about it either. She’s tough. Had to be to grow up the way she did. She’d have gotten herself here on her own if she’d had to.”

Dane didn’t doubt it. “I’ll catch you later.”

Blake took off for the stables. Dane went back into the house and up the stairs. He stood in his bedroom’s doorway staring at the beautiful woman sleeping in his bed. He needed to do something, whatever it took, to make her want to stay.

Chapter 13

“F
uck!” Rowdy hit his palm on the Mercedes’ steering wheel.

He loved this ride. Smooth. Fancy with all the gadgets. Still, he missed his truck. He pulled the bottle of whiskey from in between the seats and took a swig. He stared at his bag of coke on the passenger side floorboard. Luckily, it hadn’t dumped out. He needed another fix after he’d fucked up killing Dane’s new bitch. He thought he’d hit her, but now he didn’t think so.

He kept his speed at the limit and tried not to look at any of the oncoming drivers. He didn’t want anyone to notice him.

“Damn.” He smacked his hand on the wheel again. “I almost had her.”

He’d found Dane’s place in the middle of nowhere and scouted it out the last few days. He’d even snuck up on the porch and watched Dane kicking back and talking on the phone, the TV on. He didn’t catch much of the conversation, but he did catch his girl’s name. Bell. He followed him the other night when he drove down to her place and sat out front kissing her in the front seat of his truck.

Rowdy waited for the clothes to come off and Dane to fuck her good, but instead, nothing happened. She got out and went back inside. Dane left with a smile on his face that Rowdy didn’t get at all. He’d been turned down and left out in the cold. Still, the man drove away smiling. Which could only mean he really had a thing for the dark-haired bitch.

It became even more evident when Rowdy followed her to work the next day at the hospital. He picked her up again on her way home. She and Dane went to dinner together. Some swanky restaurant. Dane wore a suit. She wore a pretty blue dress. Rowdy watched them through the window, his rage boiling in his gut with every smile and laugh they shared. He had that once with Brandy. Dane took it away, moved on, and never looked back at the wreckage he left in his wake.

Well, if he wanted this Bell lady, Rowdy would take her away.

He’d missed this time. He wouldn’t miss again.