Rancher's Deadly Reunion

by Beth Cornelison

  “No, Zane.” She waved him back to the tree. “It’s not going anywhere. Don’t go back in until the firemen say it’s safe.”

  The distant whine of sirens drifted to them over the chirp of crickets and light stir of the leaves.

  Brady braced on one arm as he leaned over his father, sucking in deep lungfuls of air. He gripped his father’s arm and gave it a hard shake. “Dad, can you hear me?”

  “Is Grampa gonna die?” Connor asked, a frightened quiver in his voice.

  “No, sweetie,” she said automatically, wanting to allay his fears. Then with a heavy sinking sensation in her chest, she realized she couldn’t be sure of that outcome and amended, “Let’s pray not.”

  “What about Kip?” the boy asked.

  She glanced over to where Zane held the dog and saw Kip’s tail move. “Zane’s taking care of her, sweetie.”

  Piper hugged her son tighter and kissed his head. Sitting there, comforting Connor was the first truly motherly act she’d ever performed for her son, and she wanted to get it right. Tears pricked her eyes, not only in worry about Roy and knowing how tragic the whole situation could have been, but because she knew she’d missed so many mothering moments in Connor’s life, moments Pam had filled with tenderness, instead of Piper. Clearly, Pam had done a terrific job raising Connor, but she was gone. Despite all the excellent male role models her boy had in his life now, no one could take the place of a mother.

  But was she prepared for all it meant to be Connor’s mother? Not just occasional guest appearances, but a full-time, ever-ready parent at her son’s beck and call? An active caregiver, teacher and protector? Her head swam, and she knew it wasn’t from any excess carbon monoxide she’d inhaled while saving Roy. The magnitude of taking responsibility for a child, her child, was overwhelming. She hadn’t even worked up the courage yet to tell her father that Connor was her son. How did she find the wisdom and strength to be the parent she needed to be?

  She squeezed her eyes shut as she clung to Connor, and she forcibly shoved those thoughts away. Now was not the time to weigh the life-changing choices she’d made tonight and the repercussions of her new reality. She needed to focus on now. On Connor. On the crisis at hand.

  As the wail of sirens grew louder, she glanced over at Brady and Roy. Her brothers were huddled over the Summerses, murmuring in low tones. Roy’s eyes were open, and with a sigh of relief, she jostled Connor. “Look, your grampa is awake. That’s a real good sign.”

  Connor raised his head to cast a teary gaze to Roy. When her son tipped his head back to send her a watery smile, her heart rent wide, filling her with a bittersweet agony.

  A fire engine led the emergency vehicles that bounced down the gravel drive from the main road, and Connor sat taller, craning his head to see, clearly intrigued by the arriving cavalry.

  Josh jogged to meet the arriving help, directing them past the main house toward the Summerses’.

  “Everything’s gonna be all right now, buddy,” Brady said over his shoulder. “You do what the ambulance workers tell you to do. Okay?”

  Connor wiped his cheeks, and when an ambulance rolled to a stop in front of them, he peered up at Piper with a nervous look. “Will I have to ride in the ambulance to the hospital?” he asked, pronouncing the word am-bull-ence.

  “Maybe.” She flashed him a smile. “Would you like that? Wouldn’t that be exciting?”

  His furrowed brow and wrinkled nose answered for him. Then, obviously trying to appear brave, Connor shrugged. “I guess.”

  “What if I rode with you?” she asked. “Would that be okay?”

  He glanced to Brady and said, “Will Grampa and Uncle Brady come, too?”

  “Don’t worry, Connor. I’ll stay right beside you,” Brady said, and she could feel the tension leave Connor’s small body.

  She knew Connor didn’t know or trust her the way he did Brady. But the unintended snub still cut her. She could only hope that in the months to come he would learn to love her the way he did Brady.

  A female EMT, her red hair pulled back in a ponytail at her nape, knelt in front of Connor and Piper and smiled. “Hi there, cutie. Are you my patient or is your mom?”

  Piper’s pulse tripped, and though she would have glossed over the EMT’s technically correct assumption, Connor didn’t.

  “My mom’s dead.”

  The woman looked concerned, glancing toward the house and then toward the spot where her partner was assessing Roy.

  “I’m a friend,” Piper offered as the only explanation to correct the wrong turn of the conversation. “And yes, Connor here is your patient. There was, as best we can tell, a carbon monoxide leak in their house.”

  “Oh,” the EMT said, patting Connor on the knee. “I see. Can I take a look at you?”

  He nodded shyly. “Will you help Kip, too?”

  The woman’s eyes lifted to Piper’s.

  “Their dog.” Piper nodded toward Zane and Kip.

  “We’ll do everything we can for Kip. Okay, sport?” The EMT ruffled Connor’s hair. “Why don’t you and your friend come over to my big van where I’ll have more light and you can wear a cool mask like a jet pilot?”

  Piper accompanied Connor to the open end of the ambulance, noticing that a second ambulance had just arrived. The red-haired EMT pointed the newly arrived crew toward Brady.

  Drawn by the hullabaloo in the ranch yard, her parents emerged from the main house in their bathrobes and cast anxious looks around the crowd.

  While Piper held Connor’s hand, the EMT secured an oxygen mask, then checked his temperature, blood-oxygen level and blood pressure. The EMT hid her concern well, but Piper saw the shadow cross her face when she read Connor’s blood-oxygen level.

  “Hey, sport, we’re gonna go for a ride, okay? I want the doctors at the hospital to check you out.”

  The other EMTs rolled Roy to the end of the ambulance on a gurney, and Piper’s father hurried over to check on his foreman.

  The redheaded EMT glanced up at Piper. “You’ll have to meet us there. No room for you with two patients.”

  “But I promised him—”

  “Sorry. Rules are rules.” The EMT climbed in the back of the ambulance and prepared to help her partner lift the gurney inside.

  Connor’s eyes grew large, and Piper felt a catch in her chest. She hated that she was being forced to break the very first promise she made the little boy. Leaning close to give Connor’s forehead a kiss, she whispered, “Hey, Grampa’s gonna ride with you, and Brady and I will meet you at the hospital. Lickety-split.”

  “Promise?” he asked.

  “Cross my heart.”

  She struggled for a breath of the cold night air as the ambulance pulled away, red lights flashing. She’d just been reunited with her son. The thought that she could have lost him tonight sent a spike of icy fear to her bones.

  * * *

  Piper made her way to the second ambulance where Brady sat on a stretcher with the oxygen mask in his hand. A sheriff deputy was holding a mask over Kip’s nose while Zane patted the dog and their mother hovered behind him, her face pale with worry.

  Crouching next to her brother, Piper rubbed Kip’s ear. “How is she?”

  “I’ve called the vet. They’ll keep her at the clinic on oxygen for a few days. He’s on his way to pick her up.”

  After nodding to Zane and giving Kip’s head a pat, she moved to Brady’s side. “How do you feel? Why haven’t they taken you to the hospital yet?”

  “I told them I wasn’t leaving until I talked to the fire department. And made sure Kip was okay.”

  She opened her mouth to protest, and he caught her fingers with his free hand and squeezed. “I’m feeling better by the minute. But then...” He frowned. “I wasn’t exposed to the carbon monoxide as long as Connor and Dad.”

  Brady’s gaze shifte
d to something behind her, and she turned to find one of the firefighters striding across the yard. As he approached, the fireman held out a wad of plastic sheeting in his hand. “Found your problem. It wasn’t a leak. This was stuffed in the ventilation pipe, completely blocking the escape of the bad gases.”

  Michael frowned at the man and took the balled up plastic from him. “What do you mean, it was stuffed inside? How could that happen?”

  The firefighter shrugged. “Only way I know is someone put it there. It didn’t get there on its own.”

  A chill shimmied up Piper’s spine. “You mean, someone intentionally blocked their ventilation?”

  “Seems that way.” The fireman turned as a sheriff’s deputy stood and approached. He held the offending plastic out to the officer. “Here’s the culprit. Found it in the main ventilation pipe.”

  The deputy’s posture reflected his surprise, and his countenance darkened. He asked the fireman the same questions Piper just had and drew the same conclusion. The deputy divided a look among his audience. “You realize this means the nature of our investigation changes? We have to consider criminal intent.”

  She nodded, and a shiver shook her to her core. Piper cast a side-glance to Brady and her brothers. They all wore the same angry scowl.

  “We’ll need to question all of you privately.” The deputy pulled a pen from his breast pocket. Glancing to the fireman, he added, “That’s evidence. I need you to make a statement about where you found it and sign paperwork confirming the chain of custody.”

  Criminal intent. Piper’s head spun as if she were the one who’d been deprived of oxygen. Someone had tried to kill Brady and his father? And her son. Or was the malice directed at one of them in particular and the other two were written off as collateral damage? Who could want to hurt the Summerses, and why? What the hell was going on at the ranch? Arson, poisonings, attempted murder...

  Nausea churned in her gut, and she met Brady’s stunned gaze with her own.

  With a shrill whistle, the deputy summoned another officer and shouted a request for an evidence bag to be brought over. “Well, what do you say? Ladies first?”

  * * *

  An ambulance had been called, and the blocked pipe discovered before it had finished the job. Damn it!

  Ken lowered the night-vision binoculars and stomped over to kick the cottonwood tree under which he’d watched the emergency vehicles arrive. He’d been so sure he’d found the best way to eliminate the cowboy. A peaceful death in his sleep was even a merciful way to go. Ken clenched his back teeth. He should have just put a bullet in the guy and been done with it.

  Except it would have been too easy for the cops to trace the shooting to him. He paced a tight circle while the emergency vehicles’ lights blazed in the valley below. Enough of eliminating the competition and waiting for Piper to come to her senses concerning him. He obviously needed to take his efforts up a level. If he wanted to be with Piper, he’d have to take his case straight to her. Lay it all on the table and make it happen. She’d resist at first, he knew. He’d seen her independent streak. But he’d break her pride, humble her. She’d learn that he was her destiny and accept it. Or she would die.

  Chapter 13

  Two hours later at the hospital, Piper sat in the room on the pediatric floor where they were keeping Connor for observation and oxygen treatments, and she reviewed everything about the evening. From her dancing with Brady and their kisses, to his pain-borne terms for sharing custody. Then finding him at her window as she went to bed and discovering someone had purposely blocked their ventilation pipe. Like the evening’s ups and downs, her emotions had roller-coastered from one extreme to another. She was physically and mentally exhausted. But she couldn’t sleep.

  She wouldn’t sleep. Not while Connor was dealing with oxygen deprivation. His doctor said he was lucky. Brady had gotten their boy out before permanent brain damage could be done. Connor would be fine and was resting comfortably. But she was compelled to hold vigil beside his bed and monitor him, protect him. She held Connor’s small hand and willed his body to feed on the oxygen and revive.

  The room door opened, and Josh pushed Brady into the room in a wheelchair. Brady wore an oxygen cannula attached to a tank that he held in his lap with one hand, while he guided the IV stand with his hydration drip with his other hand.

  “Hi. How’s he doing?” Brady whispered.

  “Pretty good, all things considered.” Piper filled him in on everything the doctor had told her, and Brady visibly relaxed. “What about you and Roy?”

  “I’m okay. Going home tomorrow...or rather as soon as they dismiss Connor. Roy is conscious and recovering, but his heart rate is off so they’re going to keep him at least twenty-four hours.”

  “He was well enough to talk to the sheriff about the incident,” Josh added.

  Piper straightened in her seat. “Did he know anything?”

  “Only that he’d heard Kip making a fuss about eight o’clock and brought her inside.” Brady took a slow breath before continuing. “He thought it might be coyotes or some other nocturnal creature. Didn’t see anything, though.”

  “What did my parents say? Did they see anything? Did anyone?”

  “Nope.” Josh angled the wheelchair in a corner and took the only other chair in the room. “Just like no one has any info on the poison in the pond or who started the hayfield fire or any of the other crap that’s happening around the ranch.” He scowled and gave her a level look. “The sheriff’s department is still acting like it’s an inside job.”

  “That’s insane!” she said louder than she intended and immediately winced and quieted. She glanced to the bed where Connor slept. He stirred slightly but didn’t wake. In a whisper, she continued, “Pointing fingers at the family is just their way to excuse their lack of progress finding the vandal.” She shuddered. “Except vandal isn’t strong enough anymore.” She gave Brady a pointed look. “Whoever it was tried to kill you, Connor and your Dad.”

  She could tell he wanted to deny her assertion, but instead, he slumped back in the wheelchair and frowned.

  “That’s the only reason someone might have for purposely blocking that pipe.” Piper divided a look between Josh and Brady. “There has to be something that happened in the last few months that set this person off. Did one of you get in a car accident or pick a fight in town or stand a woman up or...something? Think!”

  “Don’t you think we’ve been racking our brains?” Josh replied, his dark eyebrows furrowed.

  “Could Karl have done it? For spite?” she suggested. “I mean, I know I’m the one who angered him, but...”

  Josh shook his head. “Dad talked to Karl about the incident in his office. Smoothed things out with him, he said.”

  Piper squared her shoulders, a bit startled by the announcement. “So Dad is bringing him back on?”

  Josh shook his head. “No. Karl already took another job somewhere else. But Dad said they parted on good terms.”

  “Oh.” She nodded stiffly. “Well...good.”

  “Hey, if we’re going to have a big discussion about this, maybe we should go into the hall?” Brady suggested, nodding to Connor’s bed. The boy had roused and was rubbing his eyes.

  “Where am I?” Connor asked.

  Piper turned to him and stroked his cheek. “Hey, sweetie. You’re at the hospital. Don’t you remember riding in the ambulance?”

  Connor’s eyes widened. “The hospital? Am I gonna die?”

  Her heart flip-flopped. Of course. The boy’s last experience with a hospital must have been when his parents died.

  “No,” she said and squeezed his hand. “You’re going to be just fine. The doctors just want to keep an eye on you for a little while. How do you feel?”

  “Sleepy. My head hurts.” He raised a hand to the nasal cannula and tugged at the tubes. “What’s this?”

&
nbsp; She gently guided his hand away. “Don’t pull on that. It’s giving you special air to breathe to make you stronger.”

  His gaze moved past her to Josh and Brady. He crumpled his forehead seeing Brady in the wheelchair and hooked up to IVs. “Brady? Are you hurt?”

  “No, buddy. Just need special air, like you.” He patted the oxygen tank on his lap.

  “Why do we need special air?” Connor asked, raising his arm and frowning at the IV tube taped to the back of his hand.

  The three adults looked from one to the other, and finally Piper launched into a simplified explanation, leaving out the fact that the bag blocking the pipe had been malicious. Intentional. The thought sent a chill to her core, but also fired a resolve to find the perpetrator. Whoever had been vandalizing the ranch, trying to hurt the family’s business, had escalated to attempts to harm people she loved. They had to be stopped at all costs.

  * * *

  The next morning, after returning to the ranch for a couple hours of sleep, Piper found her mother in the mudroom, just coming in from the stable after her morning ride. “Brady and Connor have been released from the hospital.”

  Her mother glanced up after pulling off her first riding boot and smiled. “Oh, that’s good news!”

  “Can I borrow your car to pick them up? The guys are busy...you know, covering for the shortage of hands at the moment, so I thought—”

  “Of course.” Her mother caught Piper’s hands with her own. Melissa’s hands were cold from being outdoors, but the gentle squeeze she gave Piper’s fingers sent warmth deep to Piper’s core. “You know where I keep the spare key, right?”

  Piper nodded. “Thanks, Mom.”

  When Piper started to pull away, Melissa tightened her grip slightly, and her expression darkened. “Do you know how Roy is this morning?”

  “Holding his own, Brady said. But the doctor wants to keep him a while longer for observation and one more treatment in the hyperbaric chamber. They expect him to be fine. No permanent damage.”