The Cattleman (Sons of Texas Book 2) (44 page)

“Don’t worry. They’re around. If you use the panic button we gave you, you’ll see them in about thirty seconds.”

“Panic button. Shit.”

“This is serious business, Pic. And we take is serious.
What happened at that old house was a violent act. At some point, we and Blake Rafferty and his partner believe the bad guys will go after one of you personally. Maybe it’s already happened once with that hit and run up in Fort Worth.”

Pic couldn’t disagree about the
killing of the calf. The carcass had been taken up to Fort Worth for a necropsy even though he suspected Drake’s comment about it being shot being once in the head to be correct. “Did you put extra people with Drake and his wife?”

“Sure did. With her being pregnant, she’s particularly vulnerable. If some
asshole goes after her, meeting up with Steve Logan and his partner is something he won’t foget.”

Pic stared at him a few seconds, lost for words
, not wanting to ask just how far these guys would go to protect the people they guarded. “And Mandy?”

“Already done. We put a partner with Chris.
She’s covered.”

Pic huffed. “That’ll piss her off. She’s already
felt like she was in jail. She’s worried about what the kids at school and their parents are gonna think.”

Marcus shrugged. “Chris and Angelo try to stay out of her way
, but if she has a problem, they can be there in under a minute. She’s got a panic button, too.”

“How long do you think this is gonna go on?”

“As long as it takes.”

Pic’s life had suddenly become an alternate universe.
He couldn’t recall ever fearing another human being for his own safety or that of the people he cared about. Finally, he said, “If the sonofabitch doing something to one of us is what it’s gonna take to get him caught, I hope he does it soon. This is getting clear crazy.”

He opened his trailer door, but before he stepped inside, he turned back to Marcus.
Back at the ranch he and his cohorts were staying in one of the ranch’s guesthouses. “Will you be going back to the ranch before you go to Dallas?”

“I’ll be stopping by there,” Marcus said.

Pic dug a small envelope from his shirt pocket. He had tried to call Mandy several times before he left the ranch, but never reached her. Earlier, when they had taken a break for dinner, he had written her a note that somebody had to deliver. Then he had written Kate a note and asked her to do just that. With no cell phone service and him not planning on leaving this location before Tuesday or Wednesday, he didn’t want to go a week without contact of some kind. “See that my sister gets this, okay?”

“Glad to,” Marcus said, taking the note.

****

Amanda stood in the middle of her living room surveying the collection of cardboard boxes she had picked up at the grocery store, some packed, some partially packed, some empty. One more indication that in her mind, she had already accepted the job at Odessa High School.

She hadn’t yet told Eric Frazier she was taking his job offer, but she might as well
She hadn’t heard a word from Pic since Wednesday, five days ago. She had no intention ever again of letting herself languish waiting for him. Been there, done that. Thus she had begun sorting items she would dispose of.

True, h
e had left a couple of messages to call him on her voice mail on Thursday, but back then, she had been too upset to return his calls. Now that she had had time to think and get past her anger, she wished she could talk to him, but he was out of range.

She had cried enough to fill a bucket with tears. She had hardly slept. She couldn’t make herself eat. She felt as if she were moving in slow motion, as if she had dived into the pool with a big rock tied to her ankle. But s
he was doing better. This morning, she had awakened without tears.

Her doorbell chimed. Grateful for the distraction, she hurried to the door and looked through the peephole.
Kate!

Kate Lockhart had never been to her house.
Kate rarely came to Drinkwell for any reason.

Amanda
swung the wooden door open and pushed the screen door out. “Kate, come in.”

“Hey.” Kate
thrust out a small pot of flowers, forcing Amanda to grab it. “African violets,” Kate said. “I was supposed to bring a bouquet, but the cut flowers looked so pitiful I figured they’d be trash by sundown.”

Pic.
Amanda held the pot with a trembling hand. Tears burned her nose and eyes, but she bit them back. “Uh, thanks.”

“They’re not from me. They’re from Pic
.”

Amanda found a weak laugh. She didn’t dare speak or she would break down.

Kate walked into the living room and looked around at the multiple boxes. “Moving?...Or what?”

Kate probably didn’t know about the job offer from Odessa High School
. “Uh, just, uh, packing some things before school starts.” Amanda wiped away an aberrant tear with a fingertip.

“Hey, it’s okay with me if you want to cry,” Kate said. “He’s a good guy, but he’s a dumb
turd. How you put up with him, I don’t know.”

She dug in a leather hobo bag the size of a suitcase. “He told me to give you this.” She handed over a small envelope. “I was supposed to get here with it before the weekend, but I had to be at a horse show. I didn’t have time to detour t
hrough Drinkwell. Pic will wring my neck if he finds out I was so late bringing it.”

So Pic had given her the note before Friday
? And Kate had been hanging onto it the whole weekend? Amanda suppressed an urge to scream. But she was so happy to hear from Pic, she couldn’t be angry. She took the envelope, but didn’t open it. “Would you like something? I’ve got some Cokes. Or some tea.”

“Can’t,” Kate said. “Will’s waiting for me back at the ranch.” She turned for the door.

Amanda followed her. “Well, uh, thanks for the plant. And the note….And thanks for coming by.”

“Aw, hell, Amanda.” Kate suddenly
turned and wrapped her in a big hug smothering her with warmth and Euphoria, Kate’s favorite fragrance. “You’re like part of the family. I don’t know what’s going on between you and that dumb-shit brother of mine, but I want you to get things worked out, okay?”

Kate gave her shoulder a little shake and t
hey parted. Now Amanda couldn’t hold back sniffles. “We will. I’m sure we will….” When she looked into Kate’s face, her eyes, too, glistened with tears. “No kidding, Kate. I’m sure we will.”

Kate nodded.
“Well, I gotta go.”

“
Thanks again for the plant.”

“Sorry it’s so pitiful. But hey, it was the best that flower shop in Drinkwell had to offer.”

“Kate, it’s fine. It’s lovely. I love African violets.”

Amanda stood on the porch watching
Kate drive away, waving at the two security guards who now obviously watched over her. They no longer even tried to be subtle. Chris had told her what had happened at the old house and they believed everyone was in danger. Her life had taken on even a more surreal quality.

She walked back into the house and to the kitchen, leaned a hip against the kitchen counter as she read Pic’s bold printing:

DEAR AMANDA
. I’M NOT MUCH OF A WRITER, AS YOU KNOW. TRIED TO CALL YOU, BUT GOT YOUR VOICE MAIL. I’M OUT OF TOUCH NOW. WON’T BE BACK BEFORE TUESDAY ORWEDNESDAY, DEPENDING ON HOW THINGS GO.….I KNOW YOU’RE MAD AT ME. YOU WERE MAD EVEN BEFORE THE PICNIC, BUT WE NEVER GOT TO THE BOTTOM OF IT. I’M ASKING YOU NOT TO LEAVE BEFORE WE GET A CHANCE TO TALK. LOVE, PIC.

Love?
Had he really printed the word
love
? Had he been bucked off his horse and hit his head?
Good grief!
After writing that word, his fingers might have fallen off. The tears came again, but she dampened a sheet of paper towel and dabbed at her eyes.

She owed it to him
and to herself to talk.

But that didn’t mean she was
giving up the job in Odessa.

****

Time dragged until Saturday.
Ten days since Amanda had last seen pic at the Double-Barrel family picnic and five days since Kate’s visit.

She
crouched at the end of the pool in her racing pose, then plunged into the water and swam with all her strength and ability. For a week, she had exhausted herself physically—running in the early morning hours to beat the heat, swimming all out later in the day, trying to force herself not to think about Pic Lockhart.

As he had done every day, her bodyguard Chris dutifully sat at the end of the pool watching her. After she finished, he would dutifully follow her home
. Now, with the enhanced security, he was parking across the street in front of her house and his partner had taken the position in front of the vacant lot down the street until some other mysterious person relieved him. All that they did only reminded her of Pic.

She touched the opposite end of the pool and turned into a backstroke. She should have been timing herself. She had surely set a record.

But exciting as that possibility was, she couldn’t think about it for thinking about Pic’s note. She couldn’t let herself read too much into his signing it with the word “love.” He had said he would be back to the ranch Tuesday or Wednesday and now it was Saturday and she hadn’t heard from him.

She’d had a dozen conversations about Pic with that voice in her head. Some had been repeats and three-peats of discussions already held. Reassurance hadn’t come from any of them. At one point
after his note, she had even convinced herself she should be the one to call him.

But every time she came close to pressing in his number, she remembered that Pic hadn’t been open
and honest about the beautiful woman from Austin. He hadn’t spoken a lie, but he had lied by omission. Amanda couldn’t erase the memory of Zochi’s hand on his forearm and the lure in her eyes as she looked up at him. He had been practically speechless looking back at her. What had passed between them had had been profoundly prescient. Every time she thought about it, the image sent her into tears again.

She had done the right thing. She had faced the truth. Again. Even if Zochi weren’t a part of the picture, the time would never come when some woman was not giving Pic the eye. Just like his big brother, he was smart, good-looking and fun
, not to mention his being one of the sexiest men she had ever known. And practically everyone in Texas knew who he was, that he was single and an heir to a fortune. No fairly ordinary woman like herself could defeat that combination and she might as well face that fact.

She still didn’t know exactly what the crisis at the old house had amounted to.
Chris had told her the vandals had thrown a dead calf into the cistern, but Gail had told her that Pic had gone down into the cistern to get it. It was the talk of all the hands at the ranch. If that were anything more than gossip, Amanda would be shocked. Pic was terrified of water that was more than knee deep. She had seen him go out of his way to walk around a puddle. She had coaxed him into the shallow end of the pool once and gradually led him toward the deeper water. He had panicked, fearing he was drowning when his feet could no longer touch the bottom and she had practically had to rescue him.

Bill Junior and Betty had done him and Drake a disservice by not getting counseling for them after Johnny Mize’s drowning.
But in typical Lockhart macho bullshit fashion, Bill Junior’s attitude had been that the boys needed to “man-up.”

She was running out of time. Eric would be calling in a few days for her final decision. She had already had one conversation with him and all but given him a “yes.” Indeed she was moving on. The thought filled her with emotions she couldn’t describe.

She finished her swim late in the morning. As she left the pool tired, but on an endorphin high, Chris fell in step beside her. He reached for her gym bag. “Let me carry this for you. After a workout like that, you must be tired.”

She handed it over. As anxious and miserable as she was, she managed a smile
for the first time in a week. “Thank you. It must be awfully boring for you sitting around watching me swim.”

“
Not at all. I enjoy watching a good athlete. I’ve been wanting to ask you, did you ever compete?”

“In college
in Lubbock. I was on their swim team.”

“
Texas Tech University, right? Now you’re a coach, right? What are you doing in a place like this?”

She had never had more than a few words of conversation with Chris. All she knew about him was that he had done something dangerous in his military
service. Pic must have told him facts about her. “This is my hometown. Grew up, graduated from high school, the whole nine yards. I came back to take care of my dad when he was sick and I’ve been here ever since. I guess you could say I sort of got stuck.”

“Watching you is like watching the
pros. You’re wasting your ability in a podunk town like this Drinkwell.”