What should he tell him? Calum shuddered. The truth? All of it? He rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. The first words from his mouth had to be—I’m sorry. He needed to talk to Jasper but he had to get himself under control first. Judging by his racing heart, that wasn’t going to be anytime soon.
Calum reached Jasper’s room to find he’d already gone. Disappointment sank like a stone in his stomach. Jasper hadn’t bothered to straighten the bed. That sort of surprised him because the guy was such a neat freak. The rug was rumpled too. He’d left in a hurry, probably desperate to get away. Calum flung himself facedown on the bed. His hands clenched on the dark cover and he groaned. Wet. Was that his come or Jasper’s? But when Calum lifted his hand, it was stained red.
What the fuck? Calum pushed himself up and stared at the cover. There were a couple of dark patches toward the top and he rubbed them. His fingers came away smeared with blood. Maybe Jasper had cut himself shaving. Not that he’d needed a shave. Christ, he could have cut himself on his suitcase, on anything. Then the thought struck him that Jasper might still just be getting into the cab, and Calum ran. He dashed out of the main entrance and sagged. No sign of a cab, though in the distance he thought he saw the shadow of a vehicle traveling without lights.
Too late.
Calum kicked at the dirt. He’d fucked it up. Jasper might have been leaving in a few days, but they could have spent them together. They could have emailed, shared vacations, still had something. Calum headed toward the stables and the comfort of Blue, wondering who he was trying to kid. A long distance, under the radar romance? This might be Wyoming but it wasn’t Brokeback Mountain. They couldn’t live separate lives and steal illicit moments. What if Seth really was his? There was another heap of responsibility there. How many ways could Calum split himself?
Something glowing in the dirt drew his attention. Raining moonstones? When Calum bent to see what it was, he sighed. One of Angie’s glow-in-the-dark beads. He looked a little farther and saw another. Had she laid a trail? Calum expected it to lead to Misty, but it bypassed the stables and led to the rear barn. He didn’t find another for a while. She wasn’t exactly making it easy, but Calum knew how thrilled she’d be that he’d followed and now that Jasper was gone, there wasn’t much else to do. Plus he needed distracting.
When he found three beads together in the back barn, he saw a patch of something wet in the dust. Calum rubbed it with his fingers. Oh hell. Blood. Calum’s brain struggled to put two and two together. Blood in Jasper’s room, blood here, Angie’s beads. Was Angie hurt too? Was she someplace with Jasper? Calum kept looking and found a couple more beads near the rear door. Another lay at the foot of the silo ladder.
A muffled thud made him jump. What the fuck? It sounded like it had come from inside the silo. Oh Christ, is Angie in there? Playing hide and seek? Calum banged on the outside of the silo. “Anyone there?” Then he pressed his ear to the metal and listened. He heard something. A groan?
Calum sprinted up the ladder, flung open the lid and peered down into the darkness. A figure lay at the bottom. Not Angie. Calum thought his heart was going to stop. “Jasper,” he whispered then yelled it, “Jasper!” Calum fumbled at his belt for his phone. Listened to it ring and ring and debated running back to the ranch to wake his father, until finally he answered.
“What the hell—”
“Listen,” Calum shouted. “Jasper’s trapped in the grain silo. I need rope. I need help and I need it now. Check Angie’s in bed and then come.”
“How—”
“I don’t know. There’s no time.”
“But Angie—”
Calum wanted to scream at him. “Just check she’s okay and then come help me. We have to get him out. He has asthma.” Calum exhaled. “I need to go in after him.”
“Do nothing until I’m there,” his father snapped. “I don’t want two of you trapped. I’m coming.”
Calum bent over the opening. “Jasper? I can hear you breathing. You keep doing that. In and then out. Don’t fuck it up. I’ll get you out of here real fast. How the hell did you get in there? Shit. Don’t answer that. Just keep breathing. Oh fuck. Hurry up. Not you. My dad.”
He thought his heart was going to leap out of his throat. Calum felt around the lid for the safety rope and pulled it up the outside of the silo. He checked the fastening was tight and then tied himself to the end. The moment he saw his father coming, he was going in. Fuck it, I’m going in anyway.
“Don’t you dare,” his father shouted.
Calum sat on the rim of the hole.
“You need to check what the grain’s doing or you’ll cover him when you go in,” Vera called.
They were in robes, running toward him with flashlights.
“Is Angie okay?” Calum asked.
“In bed asleep,” Vera shouted. “I’ve called the emergency services, just in case.”
“Gunner’s on his way too.” His father began to climb the ladder. He was panting when he reached Calum. “What—”
“I don’t know,” Calum blurted.
Calum took the flashlight and shone it down into the grain store. Jasper lay motionless on one side. On the other side was a slope of grain.
“Lucky we’re waiting on a delivery,” his father said. “You should be okay, but be careful.”
Calum knew his father wanted to tell him to wait and that he didn’t say it meant a lot to Calum.
“You can’t hold me,” Calum said. “I’ll drop the rope and climb. When I’m down, pass me the longer rope. Get Gunner to fetch the Jeep to pull us out.” Calum shifted and then paused. “He’ll need his inhaler,” he called to Vera. “Find his luggage and look for it. Hurry.”
Calum tucked the flashlight in his jeans and climbed down the rope into the silo, hand over hand, trying to keep clear of the slope of grain. He dropped the last couple of feet, felt the grain cascade over his boots and bent to lift Jasper’s head. Oh God, tied up and looks like he was gagged. This is because of me. Calum swallowed hard and pulled out the flashlight.
“Hey, Jasper. I have you now. Hang in there.”
Jasper’s eyes were closed, his pale face mottled with blood, his breathing fast and noisy.
“Dad, I need a knife,” Calum shouted. “He’s tied up.”
“Catch.”
“Wait ’til I put down the light.”
If the knife hit the grain, he’d never find it. But his father shone a light down and the knife landed smack in Calum’s palm. He flicked it open and sawed at the rope tying Jasper’s wrists and then at his ankles. Who the fuck had done this?
“Rope coming down,” his father called.
Calum tried not to think about Jasper’s rapid pulse and shallow breathing, or the blood matting his hair or the graze on his chin because it made him want to kill the fucker who’d done this. He couldn’t afford not to focus solely on getting Jasper out of here as fast as possible.
Calum tied the longer rope under Jasper’s arms, talking to him all the time, telling him to keep breathing, not to give up. Calum kept coughing. The air was so heavy it was hard even for him to breathe.
“Okay,” he shouted to his father. “Pull him up.”
“Gunner’s in the Jeep. You hang on to the rope too. He’ll pull you both up.”
“Okay. Ready.”
Calum wasn’t certain the rope would hold them both, but it would take two of them to get Jasper down the outside of the silo. His father wasn’t strong enough to lower him. Calum could hear the roar of the Jeep and then Jasper started to move. Calum kept him straight and grabbed hold of the rope above Jasper’s head.
They swung together in the air, hanging face-to-face and Jasper’s eyes fluttered open. Calum gasped in relief.
“Flying?” Jasper croaked.
Calum was the one who couldn’t speak now.
“Going up? Angel. Good.” Jasper gasped the words and then his eyes closed again.
Calum’s father shouted instructions to Gunner a
s they rose in the darkness. When they reached the hole at the top of the silo, his father gripped Calum’s wrist and helped him climb out to sit on the rim. Between them, they maneuvered Jasper into Erik’s arms and then Calum pulled up the loose rope that Gunner had unfastened from the Jeep. Calum wrapped it around the lid and then around himself before tying Jasper to the other end.
“Can you manage?” his father asked.
“Yes. Climb down the ladder and guide him to the ground.”
Calum knew his father was trying to take some of the load of Jasper’s weight. How the hell had he been carried up here? As Gunner caught hold of Jasper and the pressure on Calum’s arms and shoulders eased, he groaned in relief. Calum untied himself and slid down the ladder, feet and hands on the sides, in the way he had as a kid when his father hadn’t been looking.
Jasper lay on his back, Gunner at his side.
“Sit him up,” Vera barked as she ran back toward them.
Calum pulled Jasper into a sitting position.
“I can’t find his luggage. I don’t have his inhaler,” Vera gasped. “The paramedics are on their way. We need to keep him calm, try to get him to breathe more slowly. Lift his arms too. They said it helps him breathe.”
But when Calum started to lift Jasper’s arms his cry of pain stopped him.
“Loosen his clothing,” Vera said. “Get that tie from around his neck. What the hell happened? How did you know he was in there?”
“I followed a trail of beads. I thought Angie had left them, but she’d made Jasper a bracelet. He must have snapped it and dropped the beads as he was dragged or carried out here. Who the fuck did this?”
Calum dropped the tie and sat behind Jasper, let him lean back against his chest and reached round to unfasten the buttons of his shirt.
“Christ,” Gunner murmured as he shone the light on Jasper. “Looks like he’s been kicked.”
A ball of fury writhed in Calum’s chest. “What the fuck have you done?” he snapped at his father.
“Nothing.” His dad stood leaning against the silo, breathing heavily.
“Calum—” Vera began.
“Someone tries to poison him—twice—and now this. He was fucking leaving. What did he do to deserve this? Is it a crime for him to make me happy?”
He felt Jasper’s hand settle on his thigh and try to squeeze.
“Shut up, Calum,” Vera snapped. “Why would your father have anything to do with this?”
Calum glared at the gray-faced man holding on to the ladder with one hand. He looked shocked and exhausted, his other hand rubbing his chest.
“Ring. Pete,” Jasper gasped between a whistling inhale and exhale.
“What about them?” Calum asked.
“Did. This.” Jasper forced out the words.
“That’s crazy,” his father said.
“Call the police,” Calum snapped.
“I already have,” Vera said.
Jasper’s breathing grew worse. Calum could feel him struggling.
“Slow,” he whispered in Jasper’s ear. “In and out, slow and steady.” He dropped his voice even lower. “We’ll try fast later.”
Jasper fell limp in his arms, unconscious but still breathing.
“Don’t die, don’t die,” Calum whispered.
He looked up when he heard his father groan and then watched in horror as he slithered to the ground at the foot of the ladder.
“Erik,” Vera screamed.
“Go help your father,” Gunner said and moved to support Jasper.
Calum pulled his father flat. He was utterly lifeless. Not breathing. No pulse. Oh fuck. He tilted his head back and breathed into his mouth.
“Wait for his ribs to fall, then do it again,” Vera said. “Then chest compressions.”
Calum breathed again into his father’s mouth. “Does he have medicine?”
“Yes.”
“Go get it.”
Calum placed the heel of his hand in the center of his father’s chest, put his other hand on top and interlocked his fingers. He pressed down then released, and counted. Calum couldn’t afford to panic, but he felt as if he were being pulled apart by wild horses. As he worked on his father, maybe the guy who’d ordered Ring and Pete to kill Jasper, his gaze was fixed on the man in Gunner’s arms.
After thirty compressions, Calum stopped, tipped back his father’s head, pinched his nose and blew into his mouth until his chest rose. Did it again and then went back to the chest compressions. When he heard the groan fall from his father’s mouth, Calum sagged. Vera skidded to a halt at his side and pushed a tablet into his father’s mouth.
“He’s breathing again,” Calum said.
“Thank God,” Vera panted.
Gunner raised his head. “Jasper’s stopped.”
Calum flung himself over to Jasper, pulled him out of Gunner’s arms and laid him flat.
“Don’t you fucking dare die,” Calum growled and, tipping Jasper’s head back, he breathed into his mouth.
He had no idea if this was right thing to do with someone who’d had an asthma attack, whether he could force air down constricted airways, but he wasn’t going to sit back and do nothing.
“Oh Christ, what a mess.” Gunner groaned.
“Don’t even think about it,” Calum snapped. “I’m not kissing you as well.”
The sound of an emergency vehicle pierced the quiet of the night and a tear dropped from Calum’s eye to land on Jasper’s cheek.
Note to Jasper: Don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t die.
Chapter Fifteen
Jasper opened his eyes to see a sweet smile on a face he didn’t recognize. A blonde woman stared down at him. Heaven? Ah, ambulance. He had a mask over his face and he guessed he was breathing oxygen. Oh God, I’m alive.
Shit, I hurt all over.
“Back with us, Jasper? That’s great. We’re taking you to the hospital so we can check you out.” She turned to a man lying on the other side of the vehicle. “How are you feeling, Erik? Pain gone?”
“Yeah,” he mumbled through a mask. “Chest feels tight, but I’m okay.”
Jasper tried to sit up, and when he couldn’t move, fear swamped him. His heart pounded. “Can’t…can’t…”
The woman turned back to him. “Whoa, boy. Keep that heart rate steady.”
“Can’t…move,” Jasper gasped. Oh God, what if I’m paralyzed like Ben?
“That’s because we’ve fastened you down. Don’t worry. We’ll get the two of you to the hospital fast as we can.”
Fear over his own situation subsided under worry about Calum. Would Ring and Pete go after him? Anxiety surged up his throat and emerged as a strangled groan. Jasper couldn’t remember if he’d managed to tell them who’d done this. He tried to move again and gasped in pain.
“Slow breaths, Jasper,” the woman said. “We think you’ve broken a couple of ribs. Lie still.”
“Water,” Jasper croaked.
“You’re getting fluids.” The woman nodded to a drip.
“His throat’ll be dry from the grain dust,” Erik said.
“Just enough to wet your lips then.”
Jasper sucked at the liquid. Not enough but it helped. The moment he began to relax, another thought popped up and the tension rushed back. What if Calum’s father had faked a heart attack so he’d get put in the ambulance to finish what Ring and Pete had started? Jasper clenched his fists on the side of the cot and tried again to push himself up. He moved a little but pain and the woman’s hand stopped him from doing more.
“Hey, lie still,” she said more firmly. “You can’t break those restraints and I want you doing nothing more stressful than breathing in and out. Okay?”
She moved out of sight and Jasper glanced at Erik Neilson. Ah. Crazy to think the guy had faked anything. He looked like a ghost under the translucent mask, his skin chalky white, his lips colorless.
“Pete and Ring,” Jasper rasped.
“Yeah. You said.”
Thank God for that. Hopefully the police had arrested them. Jasper tried to rerun everything in his head, to remember what the two had said to each other.
“Why the hell would they do this?” Erik asked.
“They wanted it to look…as though I’d hung myself.”
“Why would you do a damn fool thing like that?”
“Broken heart. I’d been pushed into leaving—poisoned sandwiches, a burr left under a horse’s saddle, Calum and I having a fight.”
“Christ, I don’t need this sort of publicity for the ranch.”
Jasper couldn’t help wonder what ranked higher in importance—his death or the reputation of the ranch. Why bother wondering? Erik didn’t give a shit about him.
“You sure it was Ring and Pete?” Erik asked. “They were camping with the other guests.”
“I’m sure.”
“Why did they change their minds about hanging you?”
“I was too battered. Ring was heavy handed.” It frustrated Jasper he’d not even managed to land a decent punch on either of them. “They’d not planned it well. Pete decided…they’d kill me…get Calum blamed.”
“Oh God. Did they think you were dead when they tossed you into the silo?”
“No. They thought the fall might kill me…or the next delivery of grain. They knew I had asthma… They’d gagged me.” Jasper trembled. “I thought I’d die.” Christ, I nearly did.
It was a while before Erik spoke again. Jasper’s breathing had eased, his pains now dull aches.
“Why the hell would they want you dead?”
“Apart from the fact that I’m gay, and apparently it’s not a good idea to be gay in Wyoming? I think…bad publicity.”
Erik stayed quiet.
“Someone want your business to fail?” Jasper asked. “Or you to fall out with Calum.” He took a couple of deep breaths. “If Calum thought you’d ordered this done to me, what would he have done? Maybe they have a grudge against Calum or you. Do they?”
“Shit,” Erik groaned. “Ring wanted to marry Angie.”
Jasper looked across at Erik.
“He spent a few weeks being nice to her, instead of ignoring her. After I said no, he went back to ignoring her. If…if I’d thought he really cared for her, I might have said yes. I want my kids to be happy. But I suspected he angled for a share of the ranch.”
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