Seeking the Sheriff (Masterson County Book 1)

by Calle J. Brookes

  Nate looked for Phoebe again. Somehow she’d managed to grab on to a tree that had caught on a rock near the bank.

  And one of those damned twins was swimming out toward her.

  Nate forced his horse to cross the waters.

  Chapter 35

  Phoebe did her best to swim toward shore, but she was tiring. And her arms were hurting. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep going. She’d lost her hearing aid somewhere—she couldn’t even hear the rush of the water around her.

  Then movement on the banks caught her attention. The water pulled her under, but she fought her way to the surface. She looked back toward the shore. The water slammed her into something, and she went under again, grabbing, grasping for anything she could.

  Her hands went around a tree root as if by a miracle. If she could just hold on a little longer…she could pull herself along the tree trunk toward the shore. If the tree just stayed jammed up against the rocks that jutted above the water…If the rocks weren’t too slippery.

  Phoebe wasn’t going to give up.

  Her sisters couldn’t really be there, could they? Pip, the strongest swimmer in their family, was swimming toward her with a look of determination on her face.

  Phoebe forced herself to hold on to the log as tightly as she could. She didn’t even dare reach out to her little sister.

  If the log broke free, it could snap back and hit her—or yank Pip under the waters completely. Pip yelled something, but there was no way…Phoebe shook her head quickly. Pip yelled again.

  And then her sister was right there next to her. Reaching.

  Phoebe refused to let go. She would pull her sister down under the water if she tried to take Pip’s hand. The pressure of the river would kill them both. “No! Go back, Pip! Go back!”

  But Pip was the most stubborn of her siblings, by far. She held up her hand, and that’s when Phoebe saw it.

  Pip had a rope tied around herself. If it got caught on something, Pip wouldn’t stand a chance.

  Phoebe dared to look past her sister toward the bank. And there the other twin was, Perci. Perci was tied off to a tree that jutted out of the water near the shore, holding on to the rope that was tied to Pip.

  It wouldn’t work. There was no way Perci would ever be strong enough to pull them both out. Ever. Phoebe wasn’t even certain Perci could pull Pip out against the raging current.

  Pip got right in Phoebe’s face, so close Phoebe couldn’t miss what she said. “Go! I have the rope! Go first. Then help pull me back!”

  Pip signed with one hand, making sure Phoebe couldn’t misunderstand.

  The force of the water threatened to yank Pip away, but her sister wrapped her arm around Phoebe and refused to budge.

  No matter what.

  Pip wasn’t about to leave Phoebe out there. Any more than Pip would her.

  Pip moved past her, grabbed the log herself.

  The longer they argued, the more strength Perci was going to exert. If Phoebe made it back to shore, she and Perci could pull Pip. Pip, who had the rope.

  The rope was Phoebe’s only chance at all. There was no other way she could make it to shore.

  If she let go, she was as good as dead.

  Which meant so was Pip.

  Phoebe forced herself to inch back up the rope, toward Perci, her injured arm protesting all the way.

  Chapter 36

  Nate jumped off the horse and ran, the instant they were clear of the river crossing. He yelled Perci’s name, telling her to just keep holding on, as more shouts came from the cliff than forty feet above them. This part of the flooded river flowed through rocks taller than a four-story building. Phoebe was damned lucky she had gone over the edge south of there. If she’d been down here, she would have been killed instantly.

  He scrambled over the loose rocks toward the woman trying in vain to hold on to the ones she loved.

  Perci looked up at him, an expression of such stark terror on her face. The terror was immediately replaced by sheer relief the instant she recognized him. Such hope…such trust. Damn her. “I can’t hold the rope much longer. I can’t pull them. I can’t.”

  “We can!” Nate wrapped his arms around her and started to pull. Matt did something even riskier. He went in at the water’s edge, bracing himself behind a large boulder, and grabbed the rope with both hands. Matt started tugging even more strongly.

  They were getting those girls out of the water, no matter what.

  And then they were going to go find Joel.

  Chapter 37

  Joel had a massive headache, but he dove at Tom Rutherford as the man aimed the rifle over the cliff’s edge, knocking the man aside before he could squeeze off another round. Phoebe had to be down there somewhere. Why else would the man be shooting down that way?

  Phoebe.

  He had to find her. Joel didn’t have time to screw around with Tom Rutherford.

  Joel grabbed for the rifle, and his hand connected. He drove his elbow into Rutherford’s nose as hard as he could. Rutherford might be a big sonofabitch, but so was Joel.

  And he had a hell of a lot more incentive to win.

  Rutherford lurched back. His momentum was enough to break Joel’s hold on the rifle.

  Rutherford swung out and clubbed Joel across the face with the grip, cursing. Joel went down.

  Instead of coming at Joel, Rutherford went to the side of the cliffs again. He aimed the rifle at whatever was down there. “Damned Tylers ruining everything! Should have killed them off one by one before now!”

  Joel lunged to his feet and knocked into the bigger man just as Rutherford shot off another round.

  The two men went down.

  Rutherford was too close to the edge. Rocks crumbled beneath him.

  Somehow the bastard held on.

  It was all Joel could do to keep the man from sending him catapulting over the side of the ledge.

  Rutherford grabbed a handful of rock and dirt and jammed it in the direction of the still bleeding hole on Joel’s chest. Rutherford bucked Joel off of him and charged.

  Joel kept fighting. What other choice did he have? Phoebe needed him.

  The two men rolled, each one dominating at some point or another. Until Joel realized they were so close to the damned edge.

  Then he focused not on subduing Rutherford, but on getting free of the man’s hold. Before Rutherford killed them both.

  Finally, he got lucky.

  Two inches from the edge.

  Someone yelled out below him. A woman. Phoebe.

  Joel did the only thing he could.

  He pulled back his arm and drove his fist into Rutherford’s face.

  The other man screamed as he fell over the ledge to the river forty feet below.

  And then Joel was at the edge, searching.

  For her.

  Chapter 38

  Matt wrapped his arms around Phoebe and lifted her out of the water toward the shore. Nate’s arms were there to take her the rest of the way.

  And then the Masterson brothers were pulling Pip out of the raging waters. Nate turned Pip on her side and smacked her on the back. Pip expelled lungsful of water.

  Phoebe collapsed on the grass and tried to catch her own breath. Joel. They needed to find him. Find the Rutherfords before they hurt someone else.

  She rolled to her side, coughing, trying to get the water out of her own lungs. Dirt flew up around her.

  Hard hands grabbed her and yanked her behind a large boulder.

  She looked up into Matt’s green eyes. Green eyes the same as his brother’s. “Stay! He’s shooting at you!”

  At least that’s what she thought he said. Phoebe wasn’t taking any chances, but her sisters were exposed.

  She yelled their names, wishing she could just hear them.

  One of the twins was lifted over the boulder and shoved toward her.

  Pip. Phoebe wrapped her arms around her little sister.

  Matt came behind them. He crowded her a
nd Pip together, then covered them with his own body, trapping them against the rock.

  Phoebe just held her sister and clung, praying Joel and Perci and Nate were all going to be ok.

  Chapter 39

  They’d just about pulled the third Tyler woman from the water when the shots rang out from above. It missed Phoebe by inches, but Nate doubted the woman had realized what it was. He wrapped Persephone in his arms and yanked her behind the large tree. He covered her with his own body, protecting as best he could.

  She was still tied to the damned trunk—like a sacrificial goat—as water rushed over them both from the knees down.

  Another shot struck far too close to her face for his comfort, sending shards of bark into the air. Nate pulled his knife free and sliced through the rope.

  He dragged her toward the rocks sheltering her sisters.

  They’d just reached the edge of it when a shout rang out above. Nate looked toward the ledge, just in time to see a large male body fall.

  For one long horrific moment, he was terrified he’d just watched his older brother die.

  Until someone shouted his name from above.

  Joel waved from the top of the ledge, then called for Phoebe.

  Thank God, it hadn’t been his brother.

  Nate yelled back.

  Chapter 40

  Joel was going to pass out at any moment. He just hoped he’d reach the relatively flat clearing where his brother was before that happened. Before he closed his eyes, he needed to see for himself that Phoebe was safe.

  They met him halfway down the hill.

  He hadn’t realized Matt and the twins were there, too. But he pushed thoughts of them aside. He just needed to see her.

  He looked at Nate. “Where is she?”

  Nate reached for him and cursed. “Damn it, Joel. She’s safe. Perci’s seeing to her now. How badly are you hurt?”

  “I’ve been shot. But I need to see Phoebe.” He pushed past his brother. Headed toward the two redheads leaning over a third. He said her name, even though he knew she probably couldn’t hear him at the moment. He just needed to say it.

  He’d thought he’d lost her before they’d even had a chance together. No more. He was going to take his chance, no matter what.

  She sensed him or something. Big Tyler blue eyes popped open, and she looked straight at him. “Joel!” And then she was reaching for him. “You’re bleeding. Perci, he’s still bleeding! Tom Rutherford shot him.”

  Nate turned his brother toward him. Joel protested, turned back to the woman struggling to stand.

  “Small caliber rifle.” Joel gasped out. He reached for Phoebe with the arm he could still feel. She slipped against his side, and he just held her for a long moment.

  She and her sisters were mud-soaked, but he’d never seen a trio so beautiful. She’d been in the water, hadn’t she? And her sisters had gone in after her.

  Apparently so had Matt and Nate, who were soaked themselves.

  He had a lot to be thankful for. But first…he looked at his brother. “Is she hurt?”

  “Yes. We need to get you both to the hospital. But she’s better off than you are. At least she’s not bleeding anywhere that I know of.”

  “Take care of her. You take care of my girl first, Nate. You promise me that. Matt can patch me up in the meantime. But you take care of her first.”

  It was the last thing Joel said.

  He pitched forward into his brother’s arms as the darkness claimed him.

  Chapter 41

  They wrapped her in a warm blanket, then did the same to Perci and Pip. The three of them sat shivering on the same hospital bed. The state police and someone said DEA would be there soon to take their statements. Phoebe had missed most of it.

  Tom Rutherford was dead. There was no way he could have survived that fall. No one knew where his brother had ended up. It was just sheer luck that Joel had survived up there. She tried to fight off the shock, but couldn’t.

  He’d missed falling over that damned forty foot cliff by inches. Inches. That’s all it would have been.

  And for what? Marijuana? A few simple bucks? She’d heard the brothers arguing over pot plants before she’d lost her hearing aid when she’d fallen. Pot. On Tyler property.

  It had all been about them growing illegal drugs.

  Why their ranch? Had it been because he’d wanted to make trouble for their family by getting Phoenix into trouble? That’s what Matt had said he’d been told. Phoebe could hear again. Pip had had the foresight to grab the spare hearing aid Phoebe kept in her bedside table. It wasn’t the best, but she could hear again. She had that again, at least.

  Phoenix had apparently awakened a few hours ago and spilled the whole entire story to Pan and Joel’s brother Levi.

  He’d spotted Rutherford on their property over a week ago. The day after, the bloody message had arrived. Phoenix had followed, found the pot plants Rutherford had planted on the corner of the Tyler property. He’d overheard Rutherford and his brother laughing about how if they were ever caught they’d just blame the Tylers. It had been a sick sort of revenge.

  Phoenix had been afraid Joel would blame their family if he saw them like the previous sheriff had blamed Phoenix for the wreck.

  Phoenix had tried to bring Rutherford down himself. It hadn’t happened.

  It had just made things so much worse. Until Rutherford had caught Phoenix snooping and beaten him within an inch of his life.

  And then Rutherford had gone to the cabin to find any evidence Phoenix had collected.

  He’d found Joel and Phoebe instead.

  The shivering wouldn’t go away.

  Joel had almost died. She had almost died.

  If it hadn’t been for her sisters and his brothers, they both would have.

  Pip and Perci shifted closer simultaneously, once again doing that twin thing of knowing what the other was thinking. Phoebe took some comfort in that.

  Perci was uncharacteristically quiet. Pip asked Phoebe if she was going to be ok.

  Phoebe wasn’t certain.

  She needed to see Joel.

  “I need Joel.”

  She looked at her sisters and knew they looked just as she did. They looked like they’d been through a literal mud-drenched hell. She wiped at her eyes quickly, and her own hand came away covered with mud.

  They needed showers. Why hadn’t the hospital let them take showers?

  They weren’t in any danger of dying. Her arm hurt—it might be broken, she wasn’t certain. They had walked into this hospital on their own two—ok, six—legs. They would walk out of it on their own legs, too.

  But first, she needed a shower. And she needed to make certain Joel was ok.

  She didn’t realize tears were slipping down her cheeks to mingle with the mud until Perci told her not to do that. That it was only going to make the mud on her face worse. Her sisters both reached for the box of tissues on the table.

  “We need showers. Let me see what’s taking so long.” Perci slipped from the hospital bed gingerly.

  Phoebe cataloged her movement. Perci had borne the brunt of the pressure, the force of the water raging around her as she’d struggled to keep Pip from being yanked away.

  The current could have snapped that rope and swept Pip down the raging river, just as it could have Phoebe if she’d not been lucky enough to grab that tree root.

  And it could have swept Perci right out along with them.

  They could all have died because of a madman’s thirst for revenge and his greed.

  Had the Masterson brothers not made it to the river at the last minute...Phoebe couldn’t think about that right now. They had survived, and that madman hadn’t. She and her sisters were hurting and bruised, but they were alive. And that was all that could matter.

  She needed a shower.

  And she needed Joel.

  Not necessarily in that order.

  Chapter 42

  Nate looked at the bedraggled young woman
standing in the midst of the ER, and something in him cracked. There were more fire and backbone in that woman than ten men at times. Today had just cemented that for him.

  Never would he forget seeing her standing there hugging a damned tree, almost chest-deep in a raging flood, with a rope wrapped around her waist while she held her sisters’ safety in her hands. Never would he forget the hope and relief that had been in her eyes when he’d wrapped his arms around her and helped pull her sisters from the waters.

  And never would he forget how she looked right now.

  “Persephone?”

  “We need showers. And Phoebe’s going crazy. She needs to know how he is. And soon. I think her arm’s broken and she won’t let me see again. She just wants to sit there and wait for word on him. He’s all she can think about. She’s going to go into shock soon. ”

  She was shivering and soaked through.

  He looked at Tiff, the head nurse on shift. She had a compassionate look on her face; one he understood. “Tiff, her sisters need showers and dry clothes. Blankets. And talk to Dr. Rodrick; I want him to take a look at Perci’s sister Phoebe personally, ok?”

  “Sure thing, Dr. Masterson.” Tiff held a hand out to the younger woman. “Come on, Perci. Let’s get you and your sisters taken care of.”

  She’d just started down the hall with Perci when the ER doors opened. Nate’s youngest brother rushed in, the smallest Tyler clinging to him like a monkey.

  Their new housekeeper held the hands of the other two boys.

  The rest of the Tyler children had arrived.

  Pan’s eyes widened, and she cried out when her gaze landed on Perci. “Oh, Perci…”