A Cowboy Worth Loving (Canton County Cowboys 1)

by Charlene Bright

  “They’re going to meet us at the house,” Lucy told her. Collinswood had a volunteer fire department and ambulance service. The closest real hospital was in Houston, over fifty miles away. But the medics who drove the ambulance were retired firefighters, so he’d at least get care on the way there. Kayla nodded and ran the back of her hand over her brother’s bruised face.

  “He’s so damned stubborn! Why doesn’t he realize that I’d rather lose the land than him?”

  Lucy put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. She didn’t know what to say. Mike came racing across the field with the truck, and as they were loading Gavin into it, she saw Tuck, standing near the house, smiling. Once Gavin was inside and Mike and Kayla were headed back toward the house with him, Lucy went after Tuck. She ran toward the most evil man she’d ever known, and Brance, not sure what was going on, followed at her heels. When she got close enough to the old man, she pulled her hand back and slapped him hard across the face.

  Tuck narrowed his eyes, seething with anger. “You’re gonna be sorry you did that, little lady.”

  “I’m sorry I ever knew you. That’s what I’m sorry about. You’re disgusting. You have more money than God already! Why can’t you just leave these innocent people alone?”

  Tuck laughed. “Innocent you say? Maybe I ought to tell you just how innocent that boyfriend of yours is.”

  “Are you talking about the file you have on him?” Tuck’s face fell, and it was Lucy’s turn to smile. “I’ve seen it and so has Gavin.”

  “What file?” Brance said.

  “The one that chronicles the hormone-enraged stupidity of a young boy. Go ahead and threaten to tell everyone in this county about what Gavin was accused of. The people who care about him already know, and we don’t believe for a second that he’s capable of hurting a woman. You, on the other hand… well, you and I both know what you’re capable of.”

  “You know?” Brance said. He looked shocked and confused.

  “Stupidity? That’s what they’re calling rape these days?”

  “You son of a…” Brance lunged for him again, too quickly for Lucy to stop him. He got off a right cross that any prize fighter would be proud of, which left Tuck sitting on the pavement, spitting out blood. “You’re all going to be sorry!”

  “It was worth it,” Brance said. “Come on, Lucy. We need to get to the hospital.”

  Tuck continued to sit on the ground as they climbed into the truck. Brance drove over to where Satan still stood and got out. He pulled the saddle off of the horse, took off the bridal then gave him a tap on his butt with a curt, “Go home.” Satan took off at a run in the direction of the house. Brance threw everything back into the truck and hopped in. He looked over at Lucy. “How did you know?”

  “Apparently, Tuck has hired a P.I. to dig into his background. Tuck’s son took great pleasure in informing me about it this morning.”

  Brance was silent for a minute and then asked, “Gavin told you what really happened?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “Yes.” Lucy hadn’t known it for sure until that very moment. But she did believe him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Gavin opened his eyes. The bright light pressed down into them from the fluorescent tubes above the bed. The ceiling was laid out in a grid-like frame, made of polystyrene squares, and he knew that he wasn’t on the ranch. He turned his head slightly, the motion causing both pain and nausea. He saw a plain cream wall with a cheap commercial print of a field of flowers, and underneath that, asleep in a chair, he saw his sister. There was a tube draining into his arm. He followed it up and saw the IV bags hanging from the poles above the bed. Damn them! They’d taken him to the hospital. He looked back at Kay. The poor thing had dark circles under her eyes, and her pretty face was pinched up like she was having a bad dream. He couldn’t imagine having to tell her what he’d told Lucy this morning--or was that yesterday? He realized he didn’t know. He had no concept of time. It could have been last week, even. The point was, if Tuck knew, soon everyone would, and Kay should hear it from him first.

  He realized then that Lucy was conspicuously absent. Not that a man should really expect his lawyer to be at his bedside in the hospital. He just remembered how comforting she had been at the house, and he was so afraid now that she knew what he’d been labeled as, she was gone for good. Kayla stirred and her eyes fluttered open. Her eyes were so like his own that it was strange sometimes for him to look into them. “Hey, you’re awake,” she said sleepily.

  He smiled. His face felt like it was coming apart. “Yeah, you too. How dare you sneak me into a hospital while I was sleeping?”

  “You were face down in a field.”

  “I was taking a nap.”

  “You’re ridiculous.” Her eyes filled with tears.

  “Hey, don’t cry. I’m sorry.”

  “You scared me.” She sat up and wiped the tears on the back of her hand. “You’re all I have left, Gavin. If you leave me, I’ll be all alone.”

  “Come here.” Kayla got up and went over to the side of his bed. He put his left arm up and pulled her down into a hug. Every one of his muscles felt like they were on fire, but it was worth it. “I’m not going anywhere, okay? You’re stuck with me. I’m sorry for that.”

  She had fresh tears when she pulled her head up. “What were you thinking?”

  “I wasn’t. I wanted to talk to Tuck. I was about halfway out there when I started seeing spots. I should have turned back then, but I’m not that smart. I don’t remember much after that.”

  “The doctors say you have a concussion. Nothing’s broken, at least--except maybe your common sense.”

  He grinned. “That’s been damaged for a while now.”

  “Don’t I know it? Brance and Lucy are in the waiting room. The nurse will only let one of us in here at a time.”

  “Lucy’s here?”

  “Of course. She was worried about you, too.”

  Gavin felt relief wash over him. “Did Brance behave himself in Dallas?”

  “He was a perfect gentleman,” she said.

  Gavin laughed. “Now I know you’re lying. Send him in first.”

  “Be nice.”

  “Always.”

  She gave him a kiss on the cheek, and he watched her go. A few minutes later, Brance stuck his head inside. “Hey there, how are you feeling, bro?”

  “Like I got ran over by a truck.”

  “I guess it’s safe for me since you probably can’t move too fast hooked up to all of that stuff there.”

  “You have something to be worried about?”

  “Nope. I was a perfect gentleman with your sister. I haven’t laid a hand on her.”

  “Good.” Gavin’s face turned serious then. “Lucy knows about Corpus Christie.”

  “I know.” Brance sat down in the chair next to the bed. “You should have seen her get into Tuck’s face about it.”

  “She did?”

  “Yep, she slapped him, too. It was beautiful.”

  Gavin smiled. Lucy was beautiful. “Kay wasn’t there?”

  “No, she was on her way to the hospital with you. She doesn’t know anything. But…”

  “I need to tell her. I know.”

  Brance nodded. “You know, that lawyer lady has only known you a few weeks. She’s not willing to turn her back on you because of this. She told me she believes you’re innocent. If she’s willing to stick by you, you know Kayla will. Hell, I can’t imagine the thing that would make Kayla walk away from you. She thinks the sun rises and sets on her big brother, you know that, right?”

  “I can’t imagine why,” Gavin said.

  “That’s because you let one thing one stupid decision that led to a horrible experience haunt you. The rest of us see you. That part of your life is in the past. It never shoulda happened, but it did. You have to just leave it where it belongs, in the past. You can’t let it define who you are. We don’t. I wish I had a dollar for every
stupid decision I’ve made in my life when it involved a woman.”

  “Thanks, Brance. You’re a good friend. I don’t care what everyone else in town says about you.” Gavin grinned.

  Brance stood up. “Me neither. I’m going to let Lucy come in.”

  Gavin nodded. “Thanks.”

  “By the way, that nurse in the pink scrubs…”

  “Go get Lucy!” Brance grinned as he went out the door. Gavin was still smiling when Lucy walked in. “Hi,” he said. Her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and her pretty face was free of makeup. Her green eyes looked red and swollen, like she’d been crying.

  “Hi, how are you doing?”

  “I’m okay. I’m sorry for scaring you guys.”

  She nodded and came over closer to the bed. “You have to stop being so stubborn. What did you think you were going to do, anyway? Were you going to beat Tuck into submission?”

  “It sounds like fun,” he said with a smile. “But Brance told me you beat me to it.” Her face turned the same color as her hair.

  “Yeah, I snapped, I guess. It was your fault. I was worried about you.”

  “I’m sorry I made you worry, but I can’t deny that I’m happy you care enough to worry.”

  She sat down next to the bed. “One of the first things they teach you in law school is not to get personally involved with your clients. I’ve broken that rule over and over where you and Kayla are concerned. I care about you both, and I don’t want to see you lose your land. But, you need to stop running off half-cocked and let me do my job, okay? I’m really pretty good at it.” He nodded.

  He was still caught up in the fact that she’d said she cared about him. He wanted to touch her, but he was afraid to. He had to ask her something first. “Lucy, do you believe that I didn’t rape and beat that woman?”

  Her green eyes penetrated his hazel ones as she said, “Yes. No matter how foolish you can be sometimes, I can’t even begin to imagine you doing that. You were a kid, and those people used you to punish each other for their own shortcomings in their marriage. I’m glad you didn’t tell me which Senator it was. I’m not sure that I could resist the urge to track him down and tell him what I thought.”

  Gavin did touch her then. He reached up and cupped her face in his hand. He didn’t have the strength to pull her down to him, so she brought her lips down to meet his, and it was her tongue that parted his this time. Every ache and pain he’d felt was suddenly gone. They were replaced by the comfortable tingly feelings the endorphins were sending to every part of his body.

  ***

  Gavin spent two days in the hospital. Lucy spent most of those two days at her office in Houston on the internet and the phone. Since Gavin was in Houston, she stayed at her own apartment and worked from her office. That way her paralegal and the legal secretary of the firm could help her with filing all of the motions that they needed to get moving on.

  On Friday morning, the surveyor that she’d hired was going out to the ranch with his crew. Brance volunteered to take them out to where Lucy wanted the survey done, along the river, so Lucy could stay in the city until Gavin was released. Lucy knew the survey was a long shot, but she planned to go into court armed with anything and everything she could find if for no other reason than to confuse the process enough to stall it for years. That was what Tuck feared the most.

  In her studies of the maps of the land in dispute, Lucy discovered that the river ran along part of the land that Tuck was claiming didn’t rightfully belong to the Walkers. The land was surveyed back in the early part of the century, and when it was surveyed again, suddenly there was some kind of discrepancy. Lucy hadn’t been able to figure out how that happened, but she started looking closely at a law that Texas and Oklahoma had been using themselves to take land away from ranchers along the Red River between the two states. There had already been two new surveys done: one by Tuck’s people, and one that the Walker’s had to pay for themselves. But what Lucy noticed was not in the report were any notations on how the changes in the river had affected the boundaries over the decades. It was impossible to believe that it hadn’t, and although it was grasping at straws, it was worth a shot to see if maybe it had changed to their benefit.

  There were a couple of possibilities the surveyors would look at. The first would be if avulsion had happened. Avulsion usually happened during a flood, which was something that Texans hadn’t seen in a while thanks to the dry seasons they’d had. During avulsion, a river would abandon its channel and create a new river bend. That would leave a peninsula of sorts untouched by the water, and in that case, regardless of how much change there was in the boundary, the state’s border stayed put.

  The other option, the one Lucy was hoping might help their case, was the natural course that a river takes causing erosion or accretion. The river changed course slowly over time by gradually sweeping away the land in its path. There were no new channels created, and therefore the land boundaries moved with the river.

  “Hey Lucy,” Jenny said as she stuck her head in the small office. “I have Heath Stevenson on the line.”

  “What does he want?”

  Jenny gave her a sympathetic smile and shrugged. Jenny had been around during the engagement and the break-up. She had also been hit on by Heath. She knew well what a snake he was. With a sigh, because she knew he wouldn’t leave her alone if she didn’t, she pressed the flashing light and took the call.

  “Heath, what is it now?”

  “Hello, Red.”

  “If this is a social call, I’m hanging up.”

  “No, it’s business.”

  “How did you know I was here? Are you having me followed now too?”

  “No. But I do need to talk to you about that. Can you spare me ten minutes?”

  Lucy looked at the time. It was already one p.m. She had to pick Gavin up at three. “No, not really. Why can’t you just tell me on the phone?”

  “It’s important, Lucy. It could actually help your case. It will definitely help your boyfriend.”

  With a growl, Lucy agreed to see him. He said he was ten minutes away. He was in her office in five. He sat down in the chair without being asked, like he owned the place or at least still worked there. That annoyed her more than anything. “Okay Heath, I’m really busy, so ten minutes. Go.”

  “I talked to Senator Rosen’s wife last night.”

  “And?” Senator Rosen was a big supporter of the BLM in Texas. He was one of the driving forces behind Texas landowners having their land basically stolen by the state.

  “She’s the woman that claims Gavin Walker raped her.” Lucy had just taken a drink of water. She choked on it and spit it back out.

  “How do you know that? Part of his plea deal was that the victim could remain anonymous outside of the proceedings.”

  “She and I are old friends. I looked at the timeline and the ages of the woman and her husband. I figured it out.”

  “Why? Why are you pressing this issue? It has nothing to do with the land dispute.”

  “It could,” he said. “If you want to use it.”

  “What the hell are you talking about, Heath? You’re talking in circles.”

  “Okay, let me start at the beginning. First of all, I am no longer representing my father. He and I can’t see eye to eye long enough to get through a lengthy court battle. Hell, we can barely make it through breakfast. Second of all, Tammy Rosen likes me a lot. She’s left her husband, who it turns out was an abusive SOB for the duration of their marriage.”

  “So you’re willing to sleep with a woman who falsely accused a man of rape ten years ago? You think she’s changed?”

  “I think she was operating under extreme duress. She was a battered woman. She was frightened of her husband.” Lucy rolled her eyes. She had a hard time thinking that a woman that afraid of her husband would be willing to sneak around with an eighteen-year-old kid. “You can doubt that if you like, Luce, but here is what she is willing to do. She will make a s
tatement that she falsely accused him of rape. She will go to the DA and asked that they make his conviction go off the books so that people like my father won’t be able to dig it up any time they like.”

  “What makes her think the DA won’t charge her and put her in jail for making false allegations?”

  “In two months, it will be ten years. The statute of limitations will be up. He won’t have time to charge her.”

  “Gavin could charge her civilly if he wanted to.”

  “True, but as part of the deal she wishes to make here, she wants a contract that states he won’t and that this was all settled out of court.”

  “What about Senator Rosen?”

  “It would be her word against his. But Gavin is free to file a civil suit against him, which will effectively ruin his career. He’s running for re-election one more time, and after that term, he plans on retiring. He also works as an advisor to the White House in matters regarding land. The accusation alone could ruin him.”

  “Why now? Why is Tammy Rosen suddenly ready to admit what she did?”

  “I like to think I had a little to do with it, but she’s told me that she’s always felt badly for the boy. She feared for her safety when she was with her husband, as well as being fearful of the prospect of going to jail. Her ex-husband is an old man. She’s moved on, and she doesn’t fear him any longer. The statute for charges being filed is running out. It’s a good time.”

  “I have one more question,” Lucy said. “How does this help us beat your father and the state of Texas?”

  “I think that Senator Rosen would rather reach an out-of-court agreement on that than to face his own civil trial, wouldn’t you?”

  “So you’re talking about bribery?”

  “No,” he said, standing up. “I’m talking about an exchange of goods. Gavin needs his land; the good senator needs his reputation. I think a common goal could be reached here for them both.”

  As Heath was leaving the office, Lucy said, “Heath! What do you get out of this?”

  He smiled. “The satisfaction of seeing my father lose, finally.”