Cowboy with a Cause

by Carla Cassidy

  He returned to his paper as she stepped away. He never lingered, was always home on time. Their marriage would probably last at least fifty years, Mary thought. They were so young and had already learned the fine art of compromise.

  Mary had once believed she’d be celebrating anniversary after anniversary, that when she’d said her vows years ago, they actually meant something. But that hadn’t been in the cards for her and the choices she’d made since then would forever keep her alone, would forever keep her from reaching out for love ever again.

  Still, she couldn’t halt the leap of her heart when the café door opened and Cameron walked in. He looked so handsome, so tall and strong in his khaki uniform, but there was no smile on his features as he slid onto one of the empty chairs at the counter.

  “You’re a bit late this morning,” Mary said as she poured him a cup of coffee. “I hope it’s because you overslept.”

  “Fat chance,” he replied, a deep frown cutting across his handsome forehead. “Melanie Brooks was attacked last night in her home.” He kept his voice low, so Mary had to lean forward to hear him.

  She gasped. “Is she all right?”

  He nodded. “She’s fine, but it looks like it’s possible our killer isn’t finished or hasn’t moved on yet.”

  Mary was horrified by the news, but there was a tiny part of her that was relieved that the latest potential victim hadn’t been a waitress from her café.

  With the murders of the first two women, Mary had begun to think that somebody was targeting her personally by killing members of her staff, women she cared about.

  “Any clues?” she asked.

  Cameron shook his head, his frown deepening. “It was almost midnight when I got the call and we spent most of the rest of the night chasing down alibis and looking for any fingerprints or physical evidence that might have been left behind. But we didn’t get the answers we needed.”

  “And so you’re back on the merry-go-round of long hours and too little sleep,” Mary replied sympathetically.

  Cameron smiled at her ruefully. “And I’m not sure but I think I’m on my way to an ulcer.”

  “Cameron, you have to take care of yourself,” Mary replied, wishing she were in a position to take care of him, to feed him properly and see that he got his rest.

  But that would never happen. No matter how much she cared about Cameron, no matter how she ached to fall into his arms, to explore the emotions she sometimes saw in his eyes when he gazed at her, she would never allow that to happen. She couldn’t allow that to happen.

  This man, who was sworn to protect the people in Grady Gulch, the man who made her heart beat faster than any man had in the past ten years, had the capacity to destroy her life if he got too close.

  By allowing him any deeper into her life, she took the risk of losing everything most dear to her...her café, her friends and, most importantly, the son who was her very life.

  Chapter 12

  Melanie didn’t want to go to lunch at the Benson ranch, but she also didn’t want to stay in the house, which no longer felt like a sanctuary.

  The very last thing she wanted was to sit around with Adam and remember everything they had shared the night before and again this morning. In one sentence she had been telling him that they couldn’t make love again, and before the conversation was over, she’d enticed him back into her bed. Adam was a passionate, gentle lover who had touched her not only physically, but emotionally, as well.

  As she got ready for the lunch outing, she couldn’t stop thinking about what it had felt like to be in his arms, to feel his naked skin against her own. It had been sheer magic...until the moment he’d asked her about her foot.

  The magic had vanished and reality had slammed into her with the force of an eighteen-wheeler. Reality was that he was a temporary boarder who would eventually move on with his life and she knew in the very depths of her being that his new life wouldn’t include her.

  The fact that he’d worried about hurting her because of her leg, that it was the first thing he’d asked about after their beautiful lovemaking the night before made her realize that whether he would admit it or not, he hadn’t forgotten even in the throes of desire that she was a woman in a wheelchair.

  He hadn’t made the same mistake when they’d tumbled into bed together that morning, but his concern from the night before had continued to play in her head.

  As she pulled on a long-sleeved pink sweater to go with the jeans she’d already wrangled on, she also couldn’t help but think about the horrific events that had happened before they made love.

  If Craig Jenkins wasn’t the culprit, had she been targeted as the next victim by the serial killer? Had his unsuccessful attempt only created a need to try to kill her again?

  The thing that horrified her most of all was that he’d known her name, and that meant there was a strong possibility that she knew him. Was it possible that one of the male dancers she used to hang out with in New York was mentally twisted and had followed her here to Grady Gulch? The murders in the small town hadn’t begun until she’d come back here. Had she brought danger home with her?

  No matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t come up with a name of anyone she thought might be capable of murder, especially ones as senseless as these. And if somebody had followed her from New York to Grady Gulch, then why would they kill Candy Bailey and Shirley Cook? Besides, a male dancer from New York City suddenly appearing in the small town of Grady Gulch, Oklahoma, would definitely be fodder for gossip.

  Looking for a killer who might have reason to want her crazy or dead could be a waste of energy. There was no way she had any connection to the other two victims. Maybe she’d just been picked randomly, an easy kill because she couldn’t walk, because she couldn’t run away.

  She shoved these thoughts out of her head, determined to focus on more positive things, as she finished getting ready to go and meet Nick’s brother, his wife and their little son.

  She’d gone to high school with Nick. He was a year older than her and she had only vague memories of a dark-haired, handsome young man walking the halls. She didn’t know his wife, Courtney, at all. Adam had explained to her that Courtney had grown up and gone to school in the nearby town of Evanston.

  With a quick spritz of her favorite perfume she proclaimed herself ready. She wheeled into the living room, where Adam awaited her. His smile warmed her from head to toe and made her think of how his lips had felt against her own mere hours before.

  “You look great,” he said.

  “You said casual,” she said, a sudden attack of nerves zinging through her as she slid her hands down her jean-clad legs.

  “Absolutely. If we showed up in anything but jeans, Courtney and Nick wouldn’t know how to treat us.”

  “Are you sure you can get me into their house?” she asked worriedly.

  “It’s not going to be a problem,” he replied.

  “What about getting me from my wheelchair into your truck?”

  “Get that frown off your face,” he demanded with mock anger. “We’re not going to have any problems, okay?”

  “Okay,” she replied, realizing that she trusted him completely. If he said it was possible, then it was definitely so.

  It took only seconds for him to wheel her out of the house and down the ramp toward the driveway, where his truck was parked.

  “Oh, by the way, I arranged for a security system to be put in here while we’re gone this afternoon,” he announced.

  She sat up straighter in her chair in alarm. Didn’t he realize she couldn’t afford a security system? He’d definitely overstepped the boundaries of their relationship this time. “Adam,” she began.

  He stopped her from saying whatever she was about to say by placing his hands on her shoulders and giving them a gentle squeeze. “I’m paying for it and it’s for my own peace of mind.”

  She tilted her head back to look at him and he grinned.

  “Hey, you aren’t
the only one living in that house. I don’t want some bogeyman sneaking up on me while I’m sound asleep.”

  “I don’t think you really fit the killer’s profile,” she replied dryly as they came to a stop by the passenger side of his truck.

  “You never know. It’s possible somebody could mistake me as a girlish figure if I have enough blankets over me.”

  She laughed. Not in a million years would anyone ever mistake his big, strong body as a female one, even if he was covered with a hundred blankets.

  Her laughter died just as quickly as it had begun as he opened the truck’s passenger door. The distance from where she sat to the seat in his truck looked immense. The truck was high enough off the ground that she knew there was no way she could simply stand and carefully balance on one foot and then pivot to sit.

  The old helplessness, a surge of self-pity and anger rose up inside her. She couldn’t even get into a damn vehicle to take a ride without help.

  “Some people can’t even get out of bed,” Adam said softly, as if he’d read her thoughts, as if he felt her negative emotions. “Soldiers come home from the war with no legs or no arms and yet continue to lead productive, happy lives.”

  His words shamed her, and she suspected he’d meant to do that. He reached down and put the brakes on her chair, then crouched down beside her. “I know this is all hard on you, Melanie, but at some point you have to realize that you’re still a vital, valuable human being. You need to keep focused on the things you can do, and other than walking, I don’t believe there’s a thing in this world you can’t do, especially after last night. Quick thinking and the ability to force yourself to move saved your life.” He frowned, as if worried that he’d made her mad.

  She reached out her hand and placed her palm on the side of his face. “Thanks. I needed that. Now, get me out of this chair and into your truck so we can enjoy a lunch at your family’s ranch.”

  He stood and slid a hand beneath her knees as she wrapped her arms around his neck, and in one graceful movement he lifted her out of the chair and deposited her solidly on the truck seat. “See? That was easy.”

  And it had been. She buckled herself in as he wheeled the chair to the back of the truck, folded it down and then loaded it onto the bed.

  Moments later they were on their way, a pleasantly warm breeze flowing through the open windows of the cab.

  “We’d better enjoy this mild weather,” he said as he gestured to his lowered window. “Winter will be here before long.”

  “Ugh, I hate winter. The cold seeps through my bones and there’s nothing to do to pass the gray, snowy days,” she said.

  “I love winter. There’s nothing better than curling up in front of a roaring fire with a cup of hot chocolate or cider in your hand. You can watch a marathon of old movies, go through a box of old pictures or just cuddle beneath an oversize fleece blanket.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Who would have guessed that the heart of a true romantic beat in that big, broad chest?” she teased.

  He flashed a wry smile. “There’s only a few chosen people I allow to see that particular side of me.”

  Melanie relaxed against the seat, her head filled with a vision of the two of them snuggled beneath a blanket with a fire crackling and popping in the living-room fireplace.

  Would he still be staying in her house when the snow started falling? That would be only a month or two from now. Or would he have moved on to another location and perhaps a new woman by then?

  She willed these thoughts away. It was a beautiful day and tomorrow was just a promise, and yesterday already a memory. The only thing to cling to was the present and she couldn’t think of anything else she’d rather be doing than sitting next to Adam at this moment.

  His clean, woodsy scent eddied in the interior of the truck cab, a scent that had filled her bedroom the night before and chased away any imagined odor of evil that might have lingered there.

  As they drew closer to the ranch, Melanie felt a nervous flutter in her stomach. She told herself it didn’t matter to her whether Nick and Courtney liked her or not. After all, it wasn’t like they were going to be permanent fixtures in her life. Still, even knowing that, it seemed terribly important to her that they did like her.

  The Benson place was a rambling ranch house guarded on either side by tall, massive evergreens that stood sentry as wind barriers. As Adam parked the truck, Melanie eyed with trepidation the three stairs that led up to the wraparound porch and front door.

  She felt the nerve that pulsed in her neck as he got out of the truck and brought her the wheelchair. She was grateful that nobody was standing on the porch to watch the process of Adam lifting her from the truck to the chair and then wheeling her to the stairs, where he turned her around and pulled her backward up each step to the porch.

  “Piece of cake,” he said as he knocked on the door.

  It had been a piece of cake. For months Melanie had worried about the logistics of leaving the house, had grieved over the fact that she would probably never be able to have lunch dates with girlfriends, that she would be a prisoner inside the house, with only Tilly’s occasional company to break the monotony.

  Maybe fate had blown Adam in her direction to kick her butt, to remind her that she still had a life to live and it could be lived very well from a wheelchair.

  She sat up straighter as the door opened and Nick smiled in greeting. “Hey, guys. Come on in. Courtney is in the kitchen and the rug rat is running around here somewhere.” He stepped back so that Adam could push Melanie across the threshold.

  When Courtney appeared in the living room, Adam made the introductions all the way around.

  “Melanie, why don’t you come on in the kitchen with me? You can cut up some lettuce for the salad while I finish up with the chicken,” Courtney said. “We’ll leave the men out here to do their male bonding.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Melanie agreed, pleased that Courtney had given her a task to help with the upcoming meal and wasn’t treating her like a strange guest or an invalid.

  She started wheeling herself across the room but halted when a darling little dark-haired toddler with a cleft chin just like Nick’s raced into the room and then came to a stop at the sight of her.

  “And you must be Garrett,” Melanie said as she wheeled herself a little closer to where he stood.

  He nodded and moved a step closer to her, his gaze sweeping not just her, but also the wheelchair curiously. With the quickness of a hummingbird he ran to her and crawled up on her lap. “Go!” he said.

  Nick, Courtney and Adam froze, as if an enormous faux pas had just been committed and they weren’t sure how to react to it. Melanie knew exactly how to react. With the warmth of the little boy snuggled in her arms, with his complete acceptance of who and what she was, joy filled her heart.

  Together she and Garrett made the noise of a roaring car engine as she wheeled him into the kitchen.

  * * *

  “Have you told her yet that you’re in love with her?” Nick asked Adam.

  Adam turned and looked at his brother in surprise. The two were out in the stables, having left the women and Garrett alone in the house after lunch.

  Adam started to protest, but then he stuck his hands in his pockets of his jacket and sighed. “Is it that obvious?”

  “Maybe only to me,” Nick said with a small smile. “But I’ve never seen you look at a woman the way you look at her. It’s the same way I look at Courtney.” Nick stroked the mane of one of the horses in the stalls. “You know how she feels about you?”

  Adam toyed with the plastic chips in his pocket. “I never thought much about having a wife and kids. And according to Melanie, she has no intention of ever getting married or having a family.”

  Nick grinned at him as they moved farther down the building, which smelled of fresh hay, leather and horse. “You know how that goes. You tell yourself that until you find the right one, and then you can’t wait to get a ring on
her finger. You can’t wait to spend as much of each day as you can with her and have her in your bed next to you every single night.”

  “That’s what I want with Melanie,” Adam said, vaguely surprised to recognize his want, even more surprised to verbalize it. The fear that somehow he’d turn into a Sam had vanished in the moments he’d spoken to his brother that morning on the phone.

  There was no question that Sam had mental issues, but Adam had recognized there was no hidden mental illness inside himself. Was he ready to admit that he wanted, needed, a family of his own? He’d never wanted that before, but Melanie made him want those things.

  They left the stables but stood just outside the door, with the warm afternoon sunshine on their shoulders.

  “Have you really thought it through? I mean, what it would require to be married to a woman in a wheelchair?” Nick asked.

  “Probably not,” Adam admitted. “But it doesn’t matter to me. Whenever I’m with her, I don’t see the wheelchair. I see only her. I know she’ll need help occasionally, but she’s fiercely independent and I don’t care what extra care might be required.”

  “Just make sure that if you decide to pursue it, it’s with your eyes wide open.”

  “I think they are,” Adam replied and then frowned. “I’m just not sure that she feels the same way about me. I know she likes me.” He thought of their lovemaking and felt a warmth sweep into his cheeks. But lots of women these days fell into bed with men fairly easily, with no intention of following through on a real relationship. Still, he couldn’t believe that Melanie was one of those women. Surely she had to care about him more than just a little.

  Nick clapped him on the shoulder. “Good luck with things, with her. I’d love to see you settled down and happy with a family of your own. There’s nothing like it. And now we’d better head back to the house.”

  As they walked, Adam checked his watch. “I was hoping that I would have heard something from Cameron by now.” He’d told Nick and Courtney about the attack on Melanie and the fact that a security system was being installed while they were eating lunch.