Rita Herron - Cowboy in the Extreme

Brandon soaked in the moment, memorizing the details of her face. Tiny freckles dotted her pug nose, and her long auburn lashes curled against her baby-soft skin. She had a quirky little mouth like Kim, and a defiant stubborn chin like his.

“You got horses?” Lucy asked on a yawn.

“Yes, ma’am, I sure do,” Brandon said. “Maybe you can sleep in the car on the way, and in the morning I’ll show you around and you can pick out which horse you want to be your own.” He patted her foot. “Would you like that?”

She bobbed her head up and down. “Uh-huh…” Her voice faded as her eyes drifted closed.

But he could have sworn the smile stayed tucked in place, as if she was dreaming about an Appaloosa or palomino and the fort they would build.

He filed the moment away in his mind to treasure forever. One of the first memories in a lifetime of endless ones to come, he hoped.

Kim returned a second later with a small pink rolling bag and a backpack in the shape of a bunny rabbit and set them on top of her suitcase. “I still don’t think this is a good idea.”

Her wary expression infuriated him, but he tempered his tone. “It doesn’t matter if you like it or not, Kim. Keeping Lucy safe is my job now, and I’m not going to let her down.”

Anguish flickered in her eyes and something akin to fear followed, but he didn’t take time to analyze it. He yanked up both suitcases to carry to his SUV. “I’ll be back to get Lucy.”

“No, I’ll carry her.” Kim leaned over to pick up her daughter, but Brandon caught her arm.

“You may not think much of me, Kim. And God knows, my old man was vile. But I’m not like him. I would never hurt Lucy.”

Her stunned eyes met his, the wariness dissipating. “I…know that, Brandon.”

His throat thickened, making his voice sound like he’d swallowed gravel. “That’s not the reason you kept her from me?”

She shook her head. “God, no.... I…would never think that.”

For a second, he couldn’t speak. It was as if they had stepped back in time to a moment when she trusted him and he trusted her, and their love had sparked to life.

Then he looked down at Lucy again and an image of her as a baby taunted him, hammering home the reality of the years he’d missed, and anger surged through him again.

Exhaustion lined Kim’s face as she leaned over to scoop up Lucy, and concern for her and the ordeal she’d been through tonight suffused him. They needed to get on the road so she and Lucy could rest.

So he relented and carried the suitcases to his SUV, then opened the back door for Kim to settle Lucy in the back. Kim secured the seat belt. Then he returned to the cabin and grabbed a couple of pillows to make Lucy’s ride more comfortable while Kim retrieved her purse and phone.

Kim settled into the front seat without saying a word, and he cranked the engine and headed down the drive away from the ranch. He was desperate for a confrontation, but bit his tongue.

They would have heated words, and he didn’t intend to become his father and subject Lucy to his wrath. He didn’t want to scare her again.

He punched in the sheriff’s number before they made the turn-off onto the main road from the Bucking Bronc Lodge toward San Antonio.

“Sheriff, it’s Brandon Woodstock. Kim Long and her daughter are going to my ranch until you find the person who broke in.”

“Fine. You heard from your buddy Carter?”

“No,” Brandon said. “But I’ll let you know if I do.”

When he disconnected, Kim was watching him with that wary look again.

“I need to call Johnny and tell him where we are.”

He slanted her a dark look. “Johnny knows about Lucy?”

Kim twisted her hands together, then gave a slow nod. “Brandon—”

“Don’t,” he said sharply. Pain knifed through him again. Betrayal at its worst. The two people he’d loved more than his own life had both lied to him for years. “There’s nothing you can say that will make what the two of you did to me right.”

Then he shut down. He’d had more emotional upheaval today than he’d had in years. The weight of it was choking him. Part of him wanted to roll up and die.

But then Lucy shifted in the backseat, and he saw her tiny reflection in the rearview mirror, and for the first time in years, he realized he had something important to live for. Someone more important than himself or his goals.

He had a little girl.

Love mushroomed inside him, filling him with a kind of deep-seated joy that he’d never experienced.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught Kim’s troubled expression, but he couldn’t reach out to her or forgive her, so he let the silence between them fall.

By the time they’d passed through San Antonio and sped down the long deserted stretch of country road leading to his ranch, fatigue had claimed Kim and she’d fallen asleep. Occasionally he noticed a few cars passing, one behind him in the distance, then a trucker on a late run.

But a few more miles down the road, as the scrub brush, cacti and pastureland took over and the houses and buildings of San Antonio faded into the dust, he noticed headlights behind him. Distant hills outlined the horizon, the sky an inky well with a quarter moon sitting low over the tops of the mesquite and juniper trees.

The sound of an engine speeding up broke the silence. Then tires squealed and he tensed as he realized the vehicle was bearing down on him. Was it a cop?

He checked his speedometer. He hadn’t been speeding. And it was the middle of the night. Maybe the cop was on his way to an accident somewhere, but there were no blue lights or a siren.

Then suddenly the vehicle shot forward, gaining on him fast.

Brandon frowned. Was it Carter? Could he have stolen a truck and followed them from Kim’s?

He accelerated and rounded a curve, careful to keep the SUV on the road. He had precious cargo inside.

But the truck raced forward, swerving left, then right, then zoomed up beside him and skimmed his side just as he neared the ravine. Sparks flew from the guardrail and his truck. Gripping the steering wheel to keep the SUV on the road, he lifted his foot off the gas, hoping the truck would pass. Instead, the driver suddenly swerved a hard right toward him and rammed his side.

Sweat beaded on his skin as the SUV lurched out of control. Kim jerked awake, startled.

“Brandon?”

“Hang on,” he said between gritted teeth.

The truck rammed them again, Kim cried out in shock and the SUV hit the side of a piney oak, spit gravel, then began to spin, fishtailing back and forth, skidding toward the ravine.

Chapter Four

Kim screamed as the truck skidded across the asphalt and Lucy jerked awake.

“Mommy!” Lucy cried.

“Hang on, honey,” Brandon said in a gruff voice.

Tires squealed, and the gears made a grinding noise as the truck’s headlights beamed across the ravine.

Kim clenched the dashboard to brace herself. They were going to crash!

Brandon threw out an arm to protect her as the truck spun a hundred and eighty degrees. Headlights pierced the darkness from an oncoming car and the vehicle that had slammed into them screeched past, flying down the road.

Brandon swerved closer to the ditch to avoid hitting the oncoming car, hanging on to the steering wheel to control the truck as it careened to a stop. They nosedived into the embankment, but he managed to miss going into the ravine by just a few inches.

“Mommy!” Lucy cried again.

Kim pivoted to check on her daughter. “Lucy, are you okay?”

Lucy tried to unfasten her seat belt. “What’s wrong?”

“Sorry, honey, I had to stop fast to keep from hitting that other car.” Brandon cut the engine and glanced at Kim worriedly. “Are you all right, Kim?”