Iron Cowboy

by Diana Palmer

  She frowned. “Well, I never have before. But I might make an exception for you. Grandad would have loved talking with you about North Africa.”

  “I would have enjoyed it, too.” He glanced again at his watch. “Lord, I’m late!”

  “I have to get back home, too.” She looked down at the tombstone. “I’m sorry about your daughter.”

  He sobered. “I’m sorry about your grandfather. Holidays are the worst times, aren’t they? I stayed drunk for two days last Christmas. It was my first without her.”

  “I don’t drink,” she replied. “But my heart wasn’t in celebrating. I spent Christmas day at one of the senior citizen homes, reading to a lady who didn’t get any company.”

  He reached out unexpectedly and touched her hair. “I wouldn’t have guessed you had so many soft spots. Sara. Isn’t it?”

  She nodded, thrilled by the faint caress. “Sara Dobbs.”

  He smiled tenderly. “I’ll be in touch.”

  She smiled back, her eyes twinkling with emotion. “See you.”

  He drove off in a fancy red sports car like ones she’d seen on televised auto shows. She smiled as she considered his interest in her because of Grandad’s favorite subject. First Harley, now the iron cowboy. She felt better than she had in years.

  But she wondered if her ogre would still be interested if he found out how young she was. She’d just keep that to herself, she decided, like her past. There was no need for him to know anything about either subject yet. And by the time there was…well, maybe it wouldn’t matter anymore.

  On Thursday, when she got home from work, she sorted out Grandad’s books, carefully pairing subject matter with time period, in case Jared Cameron wanted to borrow one. She knew her grandfather wouldn’t have minded. He enjoyed teaching students about the amazing contradictions of the North African theater, where what many called a “gentleman’s war” was fought. Rommel had actually called a truce during one bloody battle and sent his men to help move Allied wounded off the battlefield.

  Patton had entered the campaign too late to face off against Rommel, but he had read Rommel’s book about the strategy and tactics of World War I. The general was known for his own lightning strike sort of attack; he said that fewer soldiers were lost when battles were won quickly. Both soldiers led from the front, and both were respected by not only their own men, but by the enemy as well.

  Her hands touched a book by a missionary who’d worked in Africa and stilled. This had been one of Grandad’s favorite biographies, although it had nothing to do with World War II. The author of the book was a physician. He’d gone to Africa, sanctioned as a missionary, and remained there for many years treating natives. The book had inspired Grandad to missionary work, but he’d chosen to become a college educator instead. He’d regretted his decision later in life and had sold the idea wholesale to his daughter’s husband.

  Sara put the book aside, shoving it into a bookcase with undue savagery. If only he’d realized what the consequences of his fervor for mission work would be…

  She stacked the books she was through sorting and got up. Morris was crying to be fed.

  As she moved into the kitchen, she felt suddenly nauseous, and that pain in her stomach came back full force. She managed to get the sack of dry cat food and poured some of it into his bowl. Then she sat down and groaned. She was so sick she could barely move. It hurt to move, anyway.

  She rested her forehead on her forearm, draped across the scarred little kitchen table where she and Grandad always had meals. She was sweating. It wasn’t that hot in the house. She had a window air conditioner, and it was running full tilt.

  These sick spells were getting closer together. Could she be having the same virus week after week? she wondered. Or could it be something else?

  Her grandmother had suffered from gallbladder disease. She remembered, barely, the old lady being taken to the hospital when Sara was about four years old to have an operation. Doctors had removed it. She recalled that old Mrs. Franklin had complained of terrible pain in her stomach and feeling nauseous.

  But gallbladder problems were in the upper right area of the abdomen. This felt like it was dead-center. Could she possibly have an ulcer?

  It would pass, she told herself. She’d just sit very still and not move around and it would go away, like it always did.

  But it didn’t go away. An hour later, it hurt to walk and nausea washed over her unexpectedly. She barely made it to the bathroom in time to lose her breakfast. The pain was horrible. She’d never felt anything like it. She felt feverish as well. Something was wrong. Something bad.

  She crawled to the phone in the living room and pulled it down on the floor with her. She pressed in 911.

  When the dispatcher answered, she gave her symptoms and then her name and address. The lady told her to stay on the line while she sent the paramedics out.

  Sara leaned back against the wall, so sick she couldn’t bear the thought of being moved. The pain was in her side, her right side. It was so bad that even the lightest touch of her fingers caused her to jump.

  Morris, sensing that something was wrong, came into the living room and rubbed against her, purring. She petted him, but she couldn’t let him get into her lap.

  Fortunately she hadn’t locked up for the night. She’d managed to reach up and turn on the porch light. When the paramedics knocked, she shouted for them to come in.

  One of them was a girl she’d gone to high school with, a brunette with short hair who’d been kind to her when other students hadn’t been.

  “Hi, Lucy,” Sara managed as the woman bent over her with a stethoscope.

  “Hi, Sara. Where does it hurt?”

  Sara showed her. When Lucy pressed her fingers against it, Sara came up off the floor, groaning.

  The three paramedics looked at each other.

  Lucy put the thermometer into Sara’s ear. “A hundred and two,” she remarked. “Any nausea?”

  “Yes,” Sara groaned.

  “Okay, we’re taking you in to the hospital. What do you need us to do?”

  “Get my purse on the sofa and make sure I’ve turned off everything and then lock the door with the key that’s in this side of the dead bolt,” she said weakly.

  “Will do. Curt, can you check the appliances and turn off the lights?”

  “Sure. What about the cat?”

  “He can stay here, he’s been fed and he has a litter box. I’ll get my boss to run out and feed him tomorrow…” She sat back with a sigh. “My goodness, it stopped hurting,” she said, smiling at Lucy. “I may not need to go to the hospital…”

  “Get her loaded, stat!” Lucy said at once, and moved away to speak into the microphone on her shoulder so that Sara couldn’t hear. She nodded as the reply came back. When she turned, Sara was on her way into the ambulance, arguing all the way. She wouldn’t know until hours later that the cessation of pain had been a signal that her appendix had perforated. If she’d argued successfully to stay home, she’d have been dead by morning.

  Four

  It was all a blur to Sara. She was surprised that they’d prepped her for surgery and had her sign a consent form only minutes after she arrived at the hospital.

  Dr. “Copper” Coltrain, the redheaded local surgeon, was already masked and gowned when they wheeled her in.

  “Hi, Dr. Coltrain,” Sara said, her voice drowsy from the preop meds. “Are you going to carve me up?”

  “Only your appendix, Sara,” he replied with a chuckle. “You won’t even miss it, I promise.”

  “But it feels fine now.”

  “I imagine so. That’s a very bad sign. It means it’s perforated.”

  “What’s that?” she asked, while a capped, gowned and masked woman beside her put something in a syringe into the drip that led down to the needle in her arm.

  “It’s something to make you comfortable,” came the reply. “Count backward from a hundred for me, will you?”

  Sara smiled, sl
eepy. “Sure. One hundred, ninety-nine, ninety-eight, ninety…”

  She came to in the recovery room, dazed and completely confused. She wanted to ask them what they’d done to her, but her lips wouldn’t work.

  A nurse came in and checked her. “Awake, are we?” she asked pleasantly. “Good!”

  “Did Dr. Coltrain take out my appendix?”

  “Yes, dear,” the nurse replied.

  Sara closed her eyes again and went back to sleep.

  One of the great unsolved mysteries of small town life is how quickly word gets around if someone local is injured or killed. The process seems to consist largely of word of mouth. Someone who works at the hospital is related to someone who owns a small business, and phone traffic increases exponentially. Soon after the incident, it’s an open secret.

  Exactly how Jared Cameron found out that Sara’s appendix had gone ballistic was never known. But he showed up about the time they’d moved Sara into a semi-private room.

  Tony Danzetta came with him and stood quietly outside the hospital room while Jared walked into it. The nurse who was making Sara comfortable and checking her vitals did a double take when she saw him and his companion.

  “Don’t mind Tony,” Jared told her. “He goes everywhere with me.”

  Sara peered at him past the nurse. “Don’t worry about it,” she told the nurse in a still-drowsy tone. “He’s not the only man who carries protection around with him.”

  The nurse burst out laughing. So did Jared.

  Sara closed her eyes and drifted off again.

  The second time she awoke, it was to find Jared lounging in the chair beside her bed. He was wearing working clothes. He looked really good in denim, she considered through a mixture of drugs and pain. He was very handsome. She didn’t realize she’d said it out loud until he raised both eyebrows.

  “Sorry,” she apologized.

  He smiled. “How do you feel?”

  “I’m not sure how to put it into words.” She looked past him at Tony, still standing patiently outside her room. “I seem to have lost my appendix. Do you suppose you could send Tony the Dancer out to look for it?”

  “It’s long gone by now. You’ll improve. While you’re improving, I’m taking you home with me.”

  She blinked. “That will cause gossip.”

  “It won’t matter to your friends and what your enemies think doesn’t matter to you. Or it shouldn’t.”

  “Put that way,” she agreed, “I guess you’re right.”

  “You can’t stay at your house alone, in this condition.”

  “What about Morris?”

  “Tony the Dancer drove over to your house and fed him on his way here,” he said carelessly. “He’ll look after your cat until you’re able to go home.”

  She was too groggy to wonder how Tony had gotten inside her house. The EMTs had locked it. She moved and grimaced. “I didn’t realize that an appendix could kill you.”

  “It can if it perforates. Those stomach pains you were having were probably a symptom of chronic appendicitis,” he said.

  “I guess so. I never thought it might be dangerous. How long have you been here?”

  “Since they took you in to surgery,” he said surprisingly. “Tony and I went out to supper until you were in recovery, then we sat in the waiting room until they put you in a room.”

  Her eyelids felt heavy. “It was nice of you to come.”

  “We’re each other’s family, remember?” he asked, and he didn’t smile. “I take responsibilities seriously.”

  “Thanks,” she said weakly.

  “Not necessary. Try to go back to sleep. The more rest you get, the faster you’ll heal.”

  She stared at him a little drowsily. “Will you be here, when I wake up?”

  “Yes,” he said quietly.

  She tried to smile, but she wasn’t able to get her lips to move. She fell back into the comfortable softness of sleep.

  It hurt to move. She tried to turn over, and it felt as if her stomach was going to come apart. She groaned.

  The big man who went around with the ogre came and stood over her. He had large dark eyes, and heavy black eyebrows. His dark, wavy hair was in a ponytail. He had an olive complexion. He was frowning.

  “Do you need something for pain?” he asked in a voice like rumbling thunder.

  Her eyes managed to focus. He looked foreign. But he had that Georgia drawl. Maybe he was of Italian heritage and raised in the South.

  He grinned, showing perfect white teeth. “I’m not Italian. I’m Cherokee.”

  She hadn’t realized that she’d spoken her thoughts aloud. The painkilling drugs seemed to be affecting her in odd ways. “You’re Mr. Danzetta,” she said. “I thought you were a hit man.”

  He laughed out loud. “I prevent hits,” he replied. “I’m Tony. Nobody calls me Mr. Danzetta.” The frown was back. “It hurts, huh?”

  “It does,” she managed weakly.

  He touched the call button. A voice came over it. “May I help you?”

  “This young lady could use something for pain,” he replied.

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Minutes later, a nurse came into the room, smiling. “Dr. Coltrain left orders so that you could have something for pain.”

  “It feels like my body’s been cut in half,” Sara confessed.

  “This will help you feel better,” she said, adding something to the drip that was feeding her fluids. “It will be automatic now.”

  “Thanks,” Sara said, grimacing. “I sure never thought losing a tiny little thing like an appendix would hurt so much.”

  “You were in bad shape when you came in,” she replied. She glanced at Tony the Dancer curiously. “Are you a relative?”

  “Who, me? No. I work for Mr. Cameron.”

  The nurse was confused. “Is he related to Miss Dobbs?”

  Tony hesitated. “Sort of.”

  “No, he’s not,” Sara murmured, smiling. “But Mr. Cameron doesn’t have any family left, and neither do I. So we said we’d take care of each other if one of us got sick.”

  “The boss said that?” Tony asked, his dark eyebrows arching.

  The nurse frowned. “How can you be deaf with ears like that?” she wondered.

  Tony glared at her. “I am not deaf.”

  “I should think not,” she agreed, paying deliberate attention to his large ears.

  “Listen, I may have big ears, but you’ve got a big mouth,” he shot right back.

  The pert little brunette gave him a gimlet stare. “The better to bite you with, my dear,” she drawled. “You’ve been warned.”

  She wiggled her eyebrows at him before she turned back to Sara. “If you need me, just call. I’m on until midnight.”

  “Thanks,” Sara told her.

  She winked, gave the bodyguard a glance and waltzed out of the room.

  Tony made a rough sound in his throat. “My ears are not big,” he muttered.

  Sara wouldn’t have dared disagree.

  He glowered. “People are supposed to be nice to you in hospitals.”

  “Only when you’re sick,” Sara told him, smiling. “Thanks, Tony,” she said as the pain began to diminish, just a little.

  “No problem.”

  “Where’s Mr. Cameron?”

  “He had a phone call to return,” he said, and looked worried.

  “Do you go everywhere with him?”

  “Well, not everywhere,” he replied. “He gets antsy if I follow him into the restroom.”

  “I never knew anybody who had a bodyguard,” she told him. She moved drowsily. “In fact, I never knew a bodyguard.”

  “First time for everything,” he said, and he smiled.

  She smiled back. He’d looked frightening the first time she saw him, standing beside Jared’s truck outside the bookstore. But now he was starting to resemble a big teddy bear. She closed her eyes and went to sleep, but not before she heard a soft, deep chuckle. She’d said it al
oud.

  Jared walked in with a scowl, pausing to stare at Sara, who was fast asleep. “Did they give her something for pain?” he asked Tony.

  The big man nodded. He wasn’t smiling now. He looked both intelligent and dangerous. “Is something going on?”

  Jared looked toward the door, paused to push it shut and put his cell phone away. “Max thinks they may have tracked me here.”

  “That isn’t good,” Tony replied.

  “We expected it,” Jared reminded him. “We’ll have to be extravigilant is all. I told the foreman to put a man with a rifle at the front gate and keep him there, even if he has to have catered meals.” He cursed under his breath. “I hate hiding out,” he said harshly. “If they’d let me do what I please, we could have handled this on our own, and more efficiently. They’re going to protect me to death!”

  “Not here,” Tony said slowly. “You know they’re doing the best they can. Meanwhile, this is the best place to be.”

  Jared let out a long breath. “It’s the waiting.”

  Tony nodded. He glanced toward the bed. “What about her?” he asked. “She isn’t going to be in the line of fire, is she?”

  The other man stuck his hands in his pockets and looked stern. “She hasn’t got anybody else.”

  “Yes, but she has no idea what’s going on. She could become a target.”

  Jared glared at him. “Then you’ll just have to call in a marker and get some backup, won’t you?”

  Tony sighed. “I gave up a hot tub and HD TV to come down here.”

  The glare got worse. “Don’t blame me. I was willing to come alone. Your boss decided I needed baby-sitting,” Jared said irritably.

  “My boss was right,” Tony replied. He shrugged. “I guess I can live without the hot tub for a few weeks.”

  Jared put a hand on his shoulder. “Sure you can. You need to reread Sun Tzu.”

  “I can quote it verbatim,” Tony told him. “This isn’t my first job.”

  Jared chuckled. “No. Of course it’s not.” He stared back at Sara. “We can’t let them hurt her.”

  “We won’t,” Tony replied. “I promise.”