Desire sparked in his eyes and his face
turned beet red, before he gave her a sexy lopsided grin that
caused all kinds of tingles to dance through her. Then his gaze
drifted over her shoulder and he saw Cole behind her. "Bout damned
time you got here," he said grumpily.
"Bout damned time you let Cassie make an
honest man of you," Cole flipped right back at him.
"Congratulations, man." Cole walked over and stuck out his hand,
but Luke pulled him into a man hug and slapped his back.
"Thanks for coming, although I told your
hardheaded ass you didn't need to."
"I wanted to come and check out the scenery
in Phoenix," he said and his eyes traveled to the pretty blue-eyed
nurse who'd been arguing with Luke when they walked in. He gave her
a wink and she blushed. "Looks pretty damned good so far," he said
exaggerating his drawl.
Luke bristled and said gruffly, "If you'd
quit being a hound dog, I want to get my ass out of this
place."
The petite nurse moved to put her finger in
Luke's chest, her nose barely reaching above his navel. "Then you
need to sit your
ass
down in that chair," she pointed at the
chair then brought her finger back to poke him again, "and I will
gladly roll your
ass
out of here!"
Cole and Cassie hooted in laughter, but Luke
just stared down at the woman angrily. Cole walked over to Luke and
grabbed his arm then told her with an amused chuckle, "Sugar, I
like your style," before he forced a grumbling Luke down into the
chair.
Once they reached the front exit, Luke had
made them leave the wheelchair at the hospital exit, insisting on
walking to the truck. He didn't want to wait in the crowd of cars
under the canopy, or in the throng of people on the sidewalk
waiting for their ride.
As they made the hike toward the truck, the
Arizona sun was out full force, and the heat radiated off the
pavement scorching Cassie's toes where they peeped out of her cast.
She noticed Luke was sweating profusely, and breathing hard by the
time they got his surly ass to the truck.
Texas was hot, but Arizona was in a
different league than her home state...this felt like hell. She
noticed that although Luke was sweating and his cheeks were
flushed, his face was paler than it had been inside the hospital.
She and Cole wrangled him up in the truck, then she walked around
the truck and slid in the driver's side before Cole, so she could
sit between the two men. Luke put an arm around her shoulders and
pulled her closer to him.
Heat poured off of him in waves, and she
tried to pull away from his stickiness. "Darlin' it's too hot for
cuddling right now. Let Cole get the air going first," she said and
slid back over to the middle. He grunted and then leaned his head
against the window.
Cole slid in the truck and cranked it up
then fiddled with the dash to crank up the a/c to high. "Man, I
couldn't take this heat day in and out. I'd fucking melt."
"It feels like it sometimes for sure,"
Cassie agreed.
"He doing okay over there?" Cole glanced
over at Luke.
Cassie saw his eyes were closed, and his
shirt was drenched. "We need to get him to my house and in bed. The
nurse gave me a prescription for antibiotics and pain medicine...we
need to get them filled on the way home."
Cole nodded and put the truck in drive. She
gave him directions to a nearby pharmacy where she went in and got
Luke's medicine and fresh bandages and other supplies to redress
his wound, then headed back to the truck and gave Cole directions
to her house.
They pulled up in front of her cozy little
stucco house with the teal blue shutters and clay tiled roof,
looking so neat and pristine on the outside, but she remembered the
mess James had made of it on the inside. She groaned and told Cole,
"I'll clear off a spot on the couch for him, until I can get the
bedroom cleaned up."
"Maid take the week off?" Cole teased.
She felt tears burning behind her eyes and
told him, "No, James decided to redecorate, before he shot
Luke."
"I'm sorry, Cassie," he told her with
sincerity.
"Things can be replaced, Luke can't. I'll
clean up the mess."
Cole opened the door and let her out. They
walked around the truck and helped Luke out and each of them took
an arm to guide him to the porch. Concerned that his color hadn't
gotten better even with the a/c in the truck cooling him off, she
reached up and felt his forehead. His skin was still burning up,
and his cheeks were still flushed. And he was quiet, not himself
for sure. That worried her more than the flush.
The nurse had told her he might spike a
fever and to give him Tylenol if that happened, but Cassie wasn't
sure if he was just overheated or if he truly had a fever. She'd
get him settled, give him his prescriptions and keep an eye on
him.
She dropped Luke's arm then put her key in
the lock before flinging open the door. Cole helped Luke inside and
then whistled. "Jesus, Joseph and Mary..." he said his eyes
traveling over the piles of her things, which now amounted to
garbage strewn across her home.
"Amen," Cassie said and walked inside where
she began picking up stuff to clear a path for them. Once she had a
cleared trail to the couch, she swept all the stuff off the sofa
and motioned for Cole to bring Luke over. She fluffed a pillow and
put it in the corner by the arm and helped Cole ease him down. Luke
groaned, and she felt his head again. Still scorching hot. "I'm
going to get a cool rag for his head."
Cassie ran to the kitchen and filled a bowl
with water and a few ice cubes, and then searched the drawer and
found a couple of clean dish towels. She walked back in the living
room and dipped one of the towels in the bowl then wrung it out and
put it on his throat, and repeated the process to put one on his
forehead. "Luke are you awake, baby? Talk to me."
He opened one glazed eye and said weakly,
"Yeah, I'm awake," then closed his eye.
She grabbed the white pharmacy bag from the
sofa table where Cole had sat it when they came in and asked him,
"There's bottled water in the fridge, can you grab a couple?
There's a beer in there too, I think if you want one instead."
Cole went to do as she asked, and Cassie
quickly read the dosage instructions for the meds and then opened
the caps to pull out the correct amounts. When she looked up, Cole
handed her one of the cold bottles that he'd already opened for
her. "Sit up if you can, Luke. You have to take your medicine."
"Can't..." he said in a voice as weak as a
kitten.
She swallowed hard and looked at Cole. "Can
you help him sit up?"
He nodded and went over to slid his arm
under Luke's shoulders to hold him up. "Luke open your eyes,
sugar," Cassie told him, then set the water down and picked up his
hand to drop the pills in his palm.
"Open up, Luke," she said then guided his
hand to his mouth and he popped in the pills. Quickly, she lifted
the bottle of water to his lips and encouraged him to drink the
whole bottle. When Luke was done, Cole slid him back down on the
pillow.
"I'm worried about him..." Cassie said
quietly.
"Me too--what do you think it is? He was
pretty perky at the hospital, but after we got him across the
parking lot to the truck, he looked pretty bad."
"The nurse said he'd probably spike a
fever...maybe the antibiotic will help. I'm going get him some
ibuprofen too." She was back with the pills in her hand, and Cole
lifted him up again, and they managed to get them down his
throat.
"Okay you keep an eye on him and I'll go get
the bedroom cleaned up."
"Sure you don't want me to help?" Cole asked
then his eyes traveled around the disheveled living room again.
"No, you stay with Luke, and I'll take care
of it. I'll set up the spare room for you too."
"Don't go to any trouble for me, darlin'. I
can clean it up when I go in there later."
Cassie nodded and took off for her bedroom
before she broke down in tears in front of Cole and Luke. She was
worried sick about Luke, and was an emotional mess over the state
of her home, but she'd managed to keep it together, so far. She
didn't think she'd be that lucky once she was alone.
She walked into the room and saw her
clothing strewn all over. Some of it was ripped to shreds, mostly
her lingerie. She ran into the bathroom and got a big garbage bag
out of the linen closet then started stuffing things into the bag
without looking at them. If she looked, she would lose it. Bowie
was a fresh start for her, and she wouldn't be needing suits and
heels to ride horses, or lingerie to impress Luke. He loved her
clothed or naked, and she didn't have to worry about enticing a
response from him that was for sure.
When she filled one bag, she went and got
another out of the closet and repeated the process, until her floor
was cleared. She went into her walk-in closet and re-hung the
clothes on the floor that weren't ripped, reorganized her shoes,
then saw her safe at the back of the closet was open. She swallowed
hard, not wanting to look inside.
Her mother's jewelry was in there. The only
thing she had left of her. And her rodeo queen crown, and the
little stuffed bear that Luke had won for her at the State Fair in
Dallas on their second date. Her original paperwork for Bellamy
& Barton was in there too, along with her investment
information and a couple of large cashier's checks for commissions
she'd earned, she hadn't had a chance to deposit yet.
Feeling like she had lead in her feet,
Cassie took a couple of steps to stand in front of the safe. She
stooped down, then sat on the floor in front of it and opened the
door fully. She felt along the top shelf, and sighed when she found
her crown. It wasn't worth a lot to anyone else, but to her it
meant the world. It represented her youth and her roots and was a
wonderful memory that could never be replaced.
She reached to the back of the shelf and
found the bear, and it was in good shape too. After a quick hug to
her chest, she put it back inside and went to the second shelf to
find her mother's jewelry. Her heart stopped when she found the
shelf was clean, and a loud wailing sob erupted from her and tears
started rolling down her cheeks.
Sticking her head farther inside, she looked
around each shelf carefully, but still didn't find it. All the
paperwork she had in there was gone too, as were the checks. She
sat back on her haunches and tried to calm her unsteady breathing.
She didn't hear Cole when he came into the closet, but she felt his
hand on her shoulder.
"You alright, darlin'. What's the
matter?"
"H-he took my mama's jewelry...and my
papers," she said in a broken whisper.
"Do you know if he had them with him when
they arrested him?"
She hiccupped then said, "N-no I don't know
anything. Detective Roberts didn't mention it."
"It had to be with him, if you think about
it. Luke caught him here, and he didn't make it to the car. Either
that or it's somewhere in this mess."
She looked up at him with hope surging
through her, and she sucked up her tears. "You're right."
Cassie pushed up to her feet, and hugged
him. His arms stayed loose around her for a second, then he hugged
her back. "Don't cry, darlin', we'll find it."
"You call that detective guy and I'll look
around the living room," he said and then started out of the
closet.
"It's a woman," Cassie said to his back.
He stopped and looked back over his shoulder
at her. "What?"
"The detective is a woman," she gave him a
watery chuckle. Funny that he automatically assumed it was a
man.
Cole shook his head and then walked out
through the bedroom door. Cassie thought about the pretty
detective, and wondered if maybe she should introduce her to Cole.
She seemed like his type...and they were both in law enforcement.
Maybe they'd hit it off. Cole was too wrapped up in his career, he
needed something else in his life...or someone. He was always
worried about everyone else, he needed to worry about himself
more.
But first things first, she needed to call
the detective and find out if that snake James had her mother's
jewelry. Cassie walked back into the living room and fished her
cell phone out of her purse. She saw Cole on his hands and knees
searching through the rubble. Luke was laying quietly on the couch
and she saw that his color had gotten a little better, which
relieved her. Grabbing the white card Sabrina Roberts had given
her, she dialed her cell number.
Detective Roberts told her James had some
paperwork belonging to her on him when they arrested him, but
Cassie's mother's wedding rings, the pearls her father had given
her mother on their fifth anniversary, and the antique brooch that
had been passed down from mother to daughter in their family for a
hundred years, was not among his possessions.
Fresh tears welled up in her eyes, as she
thanked Sabrina Roberts then hung up the phone. She sucked in a
deep breath trying to calm herself. Cole looked up at her from the
floor. "They don't have it?"