Montana Secrets (17 page)

He sent up a silent prayer as he gripped the bars. His hands were damp, but he pulled himself to his feet and quickly locked his arms to hold his position. He struggled to stand fully erect, and after a moment sweat dripped into his eyes and stung. But a little sting was nothing compared to what was happening in his leg. He
burned.

His sweaty hand slipped on the bar and he wobbled slightly before he caught himself. Fire clawed at him, the sensation near his foot changing from burning and stinging to pure, unadulterated pain. He gasped as the hurt spread like a wild fire. Up his calf, his knee. Oh, God help him, his thigh and even parts of his groin. He dropped his head forward and growled.

“Seth?” Grace's tone was soft, not meant to startle, and now that he knew she was there, she hurried around the bars to stand in front of him, the
smile on her face nothing short of breathtaking. “Seth, you're doing wonderfully! Concentrate. Slow, deep breaths. Hold the pose for as long as possible.”

He did as she instructed, breathed deeply in order to combat the pain, but just staring at her created a different type of pain. A different kind of need. What would he do if she left him again?

“Uncle Seff!”

Had it not been for Lexi's voice he wouldn't have known what hit him. One minute he struggled to remain standing as he stared into Grace's beautiful face and the next, the gym tilted at an odd angle and Grace's expression turned to one of horror.

Grace reached for him, but it was too late. The force of Lexi barreling into him from behind had him going down on top of Grace in a tangle of arms and legs and grunts. Pain streaked through him and nausea followed, hitting him hard and fast. Through it all he was conscious of Grace beneath him, gasping for air from having a hundred-eighty-pound man drop on top of her with a forty-pound child squirming all over his burning legs.

He
felt
Lexi on his legs. Experienced every aspect of the unbearable pain she caused when she trampled him in an attempt to get up. “Lexi, get off! Oh, God.” Seth lowered his head to Grace's chest. “Grace, help me. It
hurts.
”

 

G
RACE WAS STILL SEEING STARS
. She closed her eyes as her head spun. A distant part of her mind registered Lexi clambering on top of them and running from the room, but Seth's groans of pain were of more concern to her than his niece. He could
feel?

She brushed her hands over his head, his back, feeling his sweat-drenched T-shirt and trembling body.

“Grace. Sorry. Oh, God, help me, it hurts so bad.”

The sound of his pain put her in motion. She wormed out from beneath him, careful not to jar Seth any more than necessary. “You
feel?
”

His breathing ragged, his mouth was bracketed by white lines of pain in a face nearly purple with strain. “Yes. Ah, yes. Hot coals burning me alive.”

“Since when? When you stood or—”

“Before,” he muttered. “Tingles and heat. Some cold. I thought I'd imagined it all.”

Grace frowned, angry and hurt he'd kept some thing so important from her. “Don't move. I'll call your doctor and see how quickly we can get you to the hospital for an MRI. We'll need a back brace and an ambulance—”

Seth shook his head and caught her hand in his, held her in position hunched over him. “No. Can't go anywhere in this weather.”

“What the— Who won?” Brent asked from the doorway.

“Seth was standing at the parallel bars and Lexi knocked him down in her excitement,” she explained quickly as she checked Seth for further injury.

“Youch.” Brent's stride ate up the distance and he kneeled on the other side of Seth. “Can I help?”

“Where's Lexi?” she asked.

The words had no sooner left her mouth than the front door slammed shut and Grace looked up in horror.

There was a blizzard outside and Lexi had just taken off.

“G
RACE, SHE CAN'T HAVE GONE
far. Look in the barn if she's not on the porch. Brent, help me back in my chair.”

Grace ran down the hall, grabbed her coat from the peg and shrugged it on as she stepped outside, thankful the wind hadn't obliterated the tiny footsteps visible in the snow.

“We'll follow you,” Seth suddenly called from behind her.

She turned and glared at Brent for pushing Seth outside, taking in Seth's clothes, wet with sweat, his face drained. “No, you won't. I can't concentrate on Lexi if I'm worried about you. Go back inside and watch to make sure she doesn't come out when I'm not around to see her.”

“Grace—”

“Brent, make sure he doesn't go anywhere!” She waited for Brent's nod before leaving the porch and hurrying across the wide yard to the barn. The wind was strong, the snow blowing so sharply each flake
cut into the skin of her face. She pulled on the handle of the barn doors, but they wouldn't budge so she walked around to the paddock, holding on to the weathered wood for support when the wind nearly blew her off her feet. Climbing over the slippery metal rails without losing her balance took some doing, but she entered the barn through the entrance in the side.

Grace found herself surrounded by horses huddled together for warmth. They nickered when they saw her, shifting together with loud
thumps
of their hooves.

“Easy,” she murmured, carefully keeping an eye on the horses until she could get out of the pen.

“I said come down!”

“No! Go away!”

Grace looked up, her eyes widening when she saw Lexi straddling a rafter over the barn's open middle, her chubby legs dangling thirty feet aboveground.

“I'll take the doll back if you don't come here,” Roy threatened from his position in the loft, his words slurred.

“Uh-uh, you can't—she's mine.”

Grace kept her mouth closed, not wanting to startle Lexi into falling. She crossed the floor to the ladder leading to the loft just as Roy reached out a hand and tried to snag one of Lexi's feet. A hand
ful of hay fell to the ground floor, knocked off by his boot.

“You want me to tell your daddy you're up here? He's told you over and over to stay down.” He reached for her again.

“No—”

Roy managed to grab Lexi's boot with one hand. “Get down
now!
” he ordered, pulling on her leg.

Grace raced up the ladder, hoping to calm the situation before Roy wound up yanking Lexi down off the rafter and hurting her. When she reached the loft she tripped over a nearly empty bottle of bourbon…and a porn magazine that had been tossed aside.

“Lexi,
don't move,
” she urged hoarsely.

The child stuck her lower lip out. “You're mad at me.”

Grace forced a smile. “No, honey, I'm not. I know you didn't mean to knock your uncle Seth down. He's fine, okay? He's waiting for you, so why don't you come down and talk to him?” She slid a glance toward Roy and found him glaring at her, his hand still holding on to Lexi's foot. “Let go of her.”

Lexi jerked her boot away and Roy reached out to grab her foot again, stumbled, then used the barn wall to steady himself. “You little—”

“Don't do that! She'll fall.” Grace couldn't help
but cringe when Roy turned his full attention to her and gave her a salacious look. A lump of disgust clogged her throat and a shudder ran through her before she could stop it. “Get away from her and let her get down.”

Roy leaned back against the barn wall directly under Lexi and raised a brow. “Why should I?” A grin spread over his features. “What'll I get in return?” he slurred. “You ready for a real man now?”

A trickle of sweat ran down her back despite seeing her breath in the frigid air. A real man? Seth was a real man. Caring and strong and oh so gentle. Not a drunken, perverted monster who liked to threaten women and children.

Maura's words took on new meaning. Life
was
too short. She wasn't the frightened little girl Earl had raped in the dark.

“Get away from her.”

“It'll cost you.” Roy's smile widened. “I want a kiss.”

Which he'd use to force more. “Let her get down.”

Roy took her comment as acceptance, his gaze sweeping from her face to her breasts and back again, the bulge in his pants obvious to someone who knew what it was.

“You want it bad, don't you?”

“Want what? Grace, if you stay, I wanna stay,” Lexi grumbled, oblivious to the danger.

“Climb down and go to the house, Lexi.
Now,
” she ordered, her tone one the child immediately heeded.

Seth had called his niece a monkey and, sure enough, Lexi expertly maneuvered the rafters, scooting along the beam until she reached a point over the loft where two crates were stacked up.

Grace stepped forward to help, but Bernard grabbed Lexi by the waist and held on to her, walking the distance across the loft, past Grace, to set Lexi on her feet by the ladder.

“Can't I stay? Uncle Seff's prob'ly still mad at me.”

“
Go,
Lexi.”

Frowning, Lexi grabbed hold of the ladder and descended, her footsteps loud as she ran across the packed earthen floor.

“Well now…”

“I'm not going to kiss you.”

Roy gave her a once-over and licked his lips. “Like hell.”

Hands shaking, Grace shook her head. “Stay away from me.”

“I let her go. What's the problem?”

“I said no.”

“You screwed your own father, an' you're sayin' no to me?”

“Earl
raped
me and he wasn't my father!”

Bernard shrugged. “You were old enough.”

She wanted to close her eyes, to retreat into that place she'd go when Earl abused her, but she couldn't. She wasn't a victim anymore, and she also wasn't entirely sure Lexi was gone.

Focus. Breathe deeply. She fought the darkness within her that almost overwhelmed her.

Roy stepped forward. “You're gonna like me, Grace. We'll get along fine while this storm blows through.” He lunged at her then, closing the distance between them and grabbing her by the arm before she remembered her self-defense classes or could get away. Grace brought her knee up to emasculate him, but she hit his upper thigh instead.

Bernard cursed and used his greater weight to shove her down onto the wood planks. Pain sliced through her ribs. The dust and dirt layering the loft choked her. She couldn't breathe. Roy climbed on top of her, his hands yanking at her comfortable work-out pants, breaking the string and pulling them down even as his knees pried her legs apart. She twisted, her hands and nails clawing at him anywhere she could reach.

“Bitch!” He hit her hard. Knocked her head back until her skull struck the loft's floor. Bright pinpoints of light appeared before her eyes, and desperate, she twisted, frantic, the move allowing her to roll completely over onto her back. She reached out blindly and raked her nails down his face.

Roy cursed, grabbed her hands, and Grace used the change of position to bring her knee up again. This time her aim was true and she nailed him in the groin as hard as she could, relishing his growl of pain.

Still, he didn't let go. No, his grip squeezed until her fingers tingled and went numb, then he shifted both her hands into one of his as he straddled her waist and backhanded her.

“You like it rough? Well, baby, I can get as rough as you want.”

Gracie-baby, you're just like her. Your mama liked it like this.

Grace shoved Earl's voice aside and deliberately went limp, closed her eyes and prayed her trick would work and Roy would think she'd fainted. It was nearly impossible to stay still, but she was rewarded when he paused, his breathing ragged and loud, the smell of alcohol nearly making her gag.

Roy straightened and released a grunt of satisfaction, a low, harsh laugh, and then shifted to one side. He yanked at her pants, one-handed, but when he was able to pull them down without her protest, he freed her hands with a jubilant laugh.

That's when she moved. Grace didn't hesitate. She hit Roy Bernard for all she was worth and scrambled out from under him, but the floor was slippery with loose hay and she couldn't get to her feet fast enough. Roy downed her again, cursing
and laughing at the same time as he ground himself against her buttocks. Grace reached out and clawed for the edge of the loft, desperate to escape, when her fingers found the handle of a pitchfork. She gripped it tight as she tossed herself over onto her back and swung with all her might.

Everything happened in slow motion.

Roy's eyes widened and he lunged to the side to avoid the tines of the pitchfork, but in their battle they'd gotten closer to the edge. And when he scrambled out of the way, he kept going—going—all the way over to the barn floor below.

Abrupt silence filled the air and Grace hesitated, too shocked to do more than stare at the spot where Roy had disappeared. Dazed, in pain, she peered over the edge, spying Roy's body lying motionless on the floor, his head bleeding.

She clamped a hand over her mouth and moaned at the sight, at the pain in her side, her back. Her face. Wondered if her ribs were broken or simply bruised. The ladder was right there, but the effort it would take to climb down seemed insurmountable.

Surely Brent would come find her soon.

Stars danced before her eyes and she lowered her head to her arm just as a gun blast splintered the air.

 

S
ETH COULDN'T BELIEVE HIS EYES
.

He'd waited for Grace and Lexi on the porch, but
not long after she'd gone around to the side and entered the barn, one of Jake's deputy friends had slowly driven his SUV up the snow-covered driveway to check on them. The deputy had taken one look at his pain-ridden face, waited while Brent explained what had happened, and was in the process of asking if Seth needed a ride to the hospital himself when Lexi crawled out from under the lowest fence rails, sobbing her heart out.

Brent ran over and snatched Lexi up, carrying her back to Seth and setting her in his lap. A quick check proved she was physically unharmed, but it took a while to get her calmed down enough to understand she was angry because Grace had ordered her to go to the house so she could kiss Roy.

About that time the wind died down, and Seth and Brent stared at each other in shock when they heard Grace scream. The deputy and Brent took off at a run, and Seth ordered Lexi into the house, desperate to get to Grace.

The barn doors were fastened shut from the inside, so while Brent went around through the side, the deputy blasted through the front.

Seth struggled to wheel himself through the snow, praying the whole time. Lagging way behind the others, he finally made it to the barn and saw the deputy kneeling beside Roy.

“He's unconscious.”

“Where's Grace?” Seth asked, his gaze searching for her.

Brent ran toward them from the rear, looking in the tack room, the stalls. Seth wheeled himself deeper into the barn, his fear nearly drowning him.

“Grace!”

“Up…up here.”

He looked up to see her hand hanging over the side of the loft and cursed his inability to get to her. Brent climbed the ladder and long, torturous seconds passed as he heard Brent asking her questions, murmuring reassurances.

“Is she all right? Brent, what's going on?”

“I'm okay,” Grace called, her tone filled with pain.

The deputy climbed the ladder and helped Brent get Grace to the edge of the loft, her coat draped over her shoulders. She had one arm wrapped around her side and her breathing was ragged and shallow. Her hair was loose and full of straw. The sight of her bloodied mouth, the stiff way she moved, terrified him.

The deputy moved slowly down the ladder so he could assist Grace in turning and maneuvering without falling, but once on solid ground Grace's legs gave way despite the deputy's hold and she sank to the barn floor. Her coat slid off her shoulders and Brent draped it around her again, tucking it close for
warmth. The deputy shot him a guarded look and that's when Seth noticed her workout pants weren't tied, realized her shirt was ripped and hanging open, her bra visible beneath.

Seth wheeled close and smoothed his hand over her bowed head, and Grace automatically turned toward him, leaned against his legs much like she had in the shower just hours ago. He bent forward and wrapped her in his arms, his eyes burning.

“Lexi?”
she cried suddenly, jerking away from him and dazedly searching the barn.

“Shh. She's in the house. She's fine, safe.”

“I'll go check on her,” Brent volunteered, his gaze bright with worry.

Seth had to clear his throat twice. “What happened?”

She blinked. “When I got in—inside the barn she was up in the rafters. Roy said—he said if I wanted to get her down I had to k-kiss him.”

Seth noticed the deputy pull a notepad from his belt and begin taking notes. He motioned with his hand for Seth to keep Grace talking.

“What happened then?” he urged.

Grace trembled and shook as she told them Bernard wouldn't take no for an answer. How he'd ripped her pants, pawed her, tried to rape her.

Seth couldn't stand it any longer. He shoved the
locks of his chair into place and bent, carefully lifting Grace onto his lap. Sobbing, she curled against him and cried.

 

T
WO DAYS LATER
G
RACE
finally managed to escape the house and Seth and Brent's overprotective smothering. At first she simply wanted to get away from the chaos since neighbors and friends had been bombarding the ranch seeking news, gossip and a peek at Jake and Maura's two newest additions to the family.

Grace smiled slightly and shoved her hair out of her face, wincing when the move strained her ribs. Since she couldn't head out the door for a run as she liked to do when she had something on her mind, she'd discreetly borrowed the keys to Jake's truck and disappeared.