If the Dark Wins (Finley Creek Book 4)

by Calle J. Brookes

  He knocked on the front door, carefully avoiding her booby-trapped trick board. It took her a moment to answer.

  The suspicion in her eyes had him stepping back, giving her some space. The woman was so damned skittish at times. “What do you want?”

  “I’m going to start plowing back there tonight. I’m hoping to get it done before the storms hit. I wanted to make sure you were waking before I started.” He couldn’t help himself; he grinned at her. She just looked too cute and snuggly right there. “Unless you want to say to hell with the fields and cuddle this cowboy for a few hours.”

  He shot her his most pleading look.

  “You like to push things, don’t you?” She tightened the sash on the silk robe, once again in purple--she liked that color--and opened the screen door. “So how long are you going to be here?”

  “Probably a couple of hours. Hank’s bringing over the equipment in a few minutes.”

  “I’m going to take a shower.” She held up a hand when he grinned. “Control yourself. I’m going to shower--alone.”

  “Always ruining this man’s fun.” He gave her a hang-dog look. “Anyway...anything I need to know before I get started back there?”

  “There’s a sinkhole on the western edge of the acreage. Big enough to swallow a tractor if you go in. Don’t go in. If you do, I might not come rescue you.”

  “You’re heartless, Doc. You got to work tonight?”

  “Yes. I’m the trauma surgeon fellow on duty tonight.”

  “I’ll try not to take too much of your evening then.” He knew when to retreat with a lady. And Hank and the tractor were pulling up behind Travis’ truck. “Happy showering...”

  “Git.”

  LACY CLOSED THE DOOR, forcing herself to ignore what was happening in her backyard. She’d signed the lease. Whatever he did with the land was technically none of her business. But the idea that two men were in her backyard while she was in the shower weirded her out.

  She had to admit he hadn’t done anything to make her not trust him. If anything, he’d been helpful and funny and unthreatening in every way.

  Yes, he’d flirted, and she’d definitely known he’d meant what he’d said, what his eyes had told her. But he hadn’t pushed.

  She knew men well enough to know the truth. Travis was attracted. Strongly attracted. And she was going to have to decide how to deal with that.

  After her shower, she had a few hours until she had to leave for the hospital. She was on from nine p.m. until nine the next morning.

  It was just past five-thirty. She’d leave at eight, to make sure she had enough time to drive the thirty miles into town, and then get changed into her scrubs at the hospital.

  That didn’t mean she was going to just sit around watching Travis Worthington-Deane from the window.

  Which she had been doing for more than fifteen minutes now.

  He just looked so...perfectly cowboy out there. He had on worn jeans and a western style short-sleeved shirt that made his shoulders look ridiculously broad. The white cowboy hat on top of his head just completed the picture of hot western hero.

  Damn him.

  He climbed off the tractor and wiped his face. Repositioned his hat and said something to the older man at his side. She watched as he threw his head back and laughed.

  Travis laughed a lot, didn’t he?

  She wasn’t accustomed to being around someone who had that type of outlook on life. Was he always that happy?

  How was that even possible?

  Lacy forced herself to turn away from the sight of the man who seemed too good to be true, too larger than life, and focused on what she had to do next.

  It was just simpler that way.

  16

  Lacy made a point of getting in early enough ahead of her shift to catch Jillian before her friend clocked in for the first time since that damned Albright had almost killed them all.

  Jillian had taken a full twelve weeks off to help her family get back to normal, and to get counseling for herself. But it was time she returned to her former life.

  Her friend had struggled with that. Lacy understood it, sort of. Jillian wasn’t a coward—far from it. But she’d first met Justin Albright at FCGH. Somehow in her friend’s mind, the hospital had played a small part. That fear had grown, until the hospital had almost become a phobia.

  She got it. Lacy truly did. Two of her sisters Brynna and Mel, Ari, Lacy, Houghton, their friend Gabby, and Jillian herself had ended up in this hospital because of Albright’s actions. It was hard to forget.

  Weekly group therapy sessions with Jillian, Ari, Mel, and Gabby had made that clear to Lacy. The therapy sessions had sounded like a good idea at the time, but Lacy hadn’t found them too helpful.

  But at least Jillian had opened up a bit. It gave Lacy hope that Jillian would eventually get over the guilt she still felt. Jillian blamed herself, period. She seemed to think that she should have realized the man who had spoken with her casually a handful of times was the one responsible for the attacks on her family, on Lacy, and on Jillian herself.

  Her friend took a lot on herself. Lacy had no clue how to help her.

  The gods of Time were the only answer any of them had.

  “Hey.” She tapped Jillian on the shoulder as her friend was opening her locker. “You’re a little early.”

  “I had to drop Syd off at FCU. She’s considering taking a few videography classes.” Jillian was more subdued than she used to be. Considerably. Jillian had never been a loud person, but she didn’t fade into the background back before Albright. Now it was like her friend just wanted to not draw any notice at all.

  Albright had changed all of them. Even her.

  “You ok?”

  “Yes.” Jillian slammed her locker shut. Then turned and stared at Lacy. “This is stupid. The hospital had nothing to do with Justin Albright doing what he did. I don’t know why I am so scared to be here.”

  “Because the entire world changed, Jilly. I’m not going to go all pyscho-babble on you. If you need that, head down to psychiatry on your first break. But what he did changed our perception of the world. I know I’ll never forget even a minute of it. And I didn’t have that big of a part to play.” She sank onto the small bench in front of their lockers. “Sit down. We have a few minutes.”

  Jillian sat. “I don’t know what I want anymore, Lace. Before…before everything happened, I had a plan. I was going to work my way up here, help at home as much as I could. Help Dad with the mortgage with my overtime. Help Mel with therapy and dealing with Brynna. Albright changed everything. Now my home doesn’t even feel the same. Syd is gone more than she’s home now. She says it doesn’t feel right, and I agree with her. Even Brynna isn’t there much anymore. And I don’t blame her. She’s happy. Thank God, she’s happy. And Mel…half the time she’s not even in this country anymore. Heck, I see Gabby more than I see my own sisters. She and Elliot are over all the time, to see Dad. It’s like he’s adopted Elliot and Chance.”

  “And everything just seems so weird, doesn’t it?” Lacy checked the clock. They had a few minutes before they had to be out there making people better. She had time to try to make this sister of her heart better. She opened her arms and hugged her best friend while Jillian cried. When Jillian was finished Lacy handed her a tissue. “Hey, it’ll get better again. I’m sure of it. And just wait until you get a look at the new Chief of Medicine. He’s really pretty to look at, but he’s a real butthead once he opens his mouth. And guess what? He’s Chance and Elliot’s cousin. Talk about crazy coincidences, right?”

  The rest of the day went about as how she’d expected it to. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to escape Holden-Deane’s wrath twice. The man cornered her the first time to demand answers about a file that was Jacobson’s. The second time she’d just been unlucky enough to be the only one in her department when he blew through, bitching about the entire surgical department. She wasn’t sticking around for a third time at bat.

>   Jillian had clocked out an hour ago; Lacy hadn’t been so lucky.

  Still, she was going while she had the chance.

  She booked it toward the elevators.

  17

  Logan knew Rafael Holden-Deane was going to end up being a problem. This last run-in with the man had made that perfectly clear. He would change things more than he wanted, or needed.

  Logan forced himself not to grind his teeth while he waited for the next elevator. Someone in the crowd bumped him, forcing him into the woman standing directly behind him. Logan turned quickly, an apology on his lips, to the blonde behind him.

  The apology died off. Her again. Dr. Lacy McGareth was a damned idealistic hothead. Someone would need to rein her in one day. The woman just did not listen.

  He’d given her a direct order to give Mr. Matthews the standard prescription of Solpalmitraln and she had openly defied him, giving him another pain management drug instead.

  Logan had written her up and sent the report through the appropriate channels. She couldn’t do that without his say-so. Or Jacobson’s or Patel’s. But she had.

  She was going to bring more trouble down on them all again.

  She had nearly gotten him killed. Logan would never forget walking into the parking garage late one night after rounds and seeing someone beating her. He’d yelled out and that man had shot him.

  They said she’d saved his life, when she’d crawled to his side, beaten and broken, and administered what aid she could.

  He would certainly never forget his eyes meeting hers, while she told him to hang on, that help was coming. He’d focused on those eyes until it had.

  The crowd shifted again, sending Dr. McGareth right into his arms. His nose ended up buried in sweet-scented silky blonde curls. Small feminine hands spread over his chest but it was far too late. Her entire front pressed against his. He looked into startled green eyes—beautiful eyes. Eyes he still dreamed about in his nightmares.

  She might have been too hotheaded for her own good, but not for the first time, he realized she was an extremely attractive young woman. He’d watched her before that night; he’d watched quite a few of the younger female physicians and nurses when given the opportunity. He was a single man just in his mid-thirties after all. Every man watched, wondered. If they said they didn’t they were lying.

  Logan felt his body stir over a beautiful woman for the first time in months. Since before they had nearly died that night, certainly.

  No wonder; if he slid his hands down just a little bit he could hold her against him completely. His body had definitely stirred.

  Over Dr. McGareth—who had once told him he was an incompetent asshole with bullshit tendencies when he’d asked her to dinner that first time. She’d told him the second time that there would be no way in hell she’d ever give him what he wanted. “Beg your pardon, Dr. McGareth, I never—“

  “No problem,” she said awkwardly. “I should watch where I’m going. Didn’t mean to invade your bubble.”

  Logan forced himself to step back. Even though he didn’t want to. What he wanted to do would probably shock the woman partially in his arms.

  The elevator cart opened and he allowed her to enter before him. He had just stepped in behind her when Holden-Deane called her name. Dr. McGareth cursed, then slapped the button, closing the doors quickly.

  “He’ll call you out on it and you can’t afford another reprimand by a COM,” Logan told her, surprised she’d so boldly avoid the man who held her job in his hands. Still, she was not known for always respecting authority, this woman. For once, now that it wasn’t directed at him, Logan found it slightly amusing. When he’d been COM, she’d been one of the real thorns in his side. Now she was Holden-Deane’s problem. “Holden-Deane has always been an asshole.”

  “I can see that. I’ll deal with him later. Tonight… The rest of the night is mine. Not FCGH. Have a good night, Lanning.” As soon as the elevator opened into the parking garage she just…darted away. Like she couldn’t wait to get away from him.

  Like nothing significant had happened. Like she had barely realized he was even there.

  Like he was invisible again. Logan was so damned tired of being invisible all the damned time. At least when they’d been arguing, she’d been focused on him. This time, she’d been practically in his arms. She should have at least looked at him. But she just darted away.

  Into the parking garage where he almost died, where she could have died, as well.

  He rubbed the scars on his chest as he watched her go. And wondered.

  18

  Travis was out there again dressed in his typical work clothes, this time looking like he belonged on a western romance novel cover.

  Damn him.

  She’d never understood the appeal of cowboys before. Until this one.

  She’d never fully appreciated the way denim could make a man look until Travis Worthington-Deane strolled into her world.

  Lacy pushed that stray thought away, and told her errant hormones to keep themselves in check. Yes, it had been a long while since she’d given her hormones free rein. But that didn’t mean she had to be stupid because a good-looking man smiled at her sideways.

  “Worthington, any reason why you’re here again?” She hadn’t seen him since a few days before, when he’d given her a yearning, hang-dog look as he’d followed his older brother from the hospital. She’d known what he’d wanted. He had been planning on asking her for a ride, and she’d probably have given it to him.

  “You still sleeping, darlin’?”

  “I was. But I needed up anyway. I’m going to days for a few weeks again. My sleep schedule is all screwed up. Again.”

  “They keep doing that to you?”

  “Yes. People in my department have issues. Your brother has issues. He is screwing with every department in some mythical quest for efficiency. There’s an underground faction taking lottery tickets to see who gets to glue him to the basement floor. So far, my friend Jillian has paid the highest amount. He can’t just put someone somewhere and leave them. What do you want?”

  “I’m going to be rebuilding fences for a while. Just wanted to let you know I am here.” He reached out and wrapped some of her hair in his fingers. Lacy smacked at his fingers lightly. “Soft. Pretty. Can I have a good morning kiss?”

  He opened his arms. She was half tempted to jump him just to see if she could shake him up a bit. Just a little. She’d probably enjoy it, too. He looked all…perfect in his orange tee shirt and worn jeans. “Git. You have work to do. And... I’m going to be pulling down wallpaper for a few hours.”

  She was finally ready to tackle the room that Lori and Laynie, her two younger sisters, had once shared. She’d had a hard time even thinking about it. They hadn’t left much of themselves behind. She’d found a bag of their toys in the garden shed when she’d first moved in.

  The grief had almost overwhelmed her. Only Jillian had been able to help her through it. Her friend had held her tightly for as long as she’d needed. Reminded her that she wasn’t alone anymore.

  Those little girls would always live in her heart, she knew that. And those toys had been gently cleaned. She’d kept the two favorite stuffed animals and their two best dolls and donated the rest. It had been the right thing to do.

  Their room was going to be one of two guest rooms when she was finished. One for Jillian, in green and white, and one for Ari, in soft pink and rose. She’d picked the paint colors with her friends in mind. There were two headboards and footboards that she’d found in the shed, as well. Kevin had taken them back to his house to sand and stain and make them functional again. She had no clue where they’d come from, but Kevin had said they were most likely antique. They’d both had a stylized M carved into the headboards.

  M. McGareth. They might not have been from her ancestors, but she was going to tell herself that they were.

  And now they were going to be in her house.

  After she got the wallpaper do
wn and the walls painted.

  She started her task, and forced herself to keep her eyes off the windows and the long, hot man out there in her very own backyard. She needed to focus on the faded pink wallpaper. Wallpaper her own mother had probably hung twenty years ago.

  Wallpaper. Wallpaper. Not Worthington-Deane. Wallpaper.

  She didn’t get nearly as much done as she needed.

  After a few hours, he came back up to the front door. She met him there; once again her eyes had found their way right out the window to land on him.

  She was far more than pitiful, wasn’t she?

  Travis was going to prove to be a more distracting neighbor than she ever would have thought. She’d have to get control of herself—somehow.

  “I’m finished for the night, I think. It may storm again tonight and I don’t want to leave any sections half done. You get your wallpaper pulled down?”

  “Part of it. It’s being more difficult than I expected.” She washed her hands off in the sink as he pulled out one of her mismatched kitchen chairs. He dwarfed the chair, easily.

  Hell, he dwarfed her entire kitchen.

  And that meant he just had to go. Now. Before Lacy did something completely stupid that would change just about everything.

  THERE WAS something in her eyes. Confusion, fear, pain, they were all there for him to see.

  It had him standing up and backing away quietly. “Well, unless you need me to help pull paper down for a while, I’m going to get gone. Lots to do to keep me busy.”

  “That’s probably not a bad idea. Listen...can you stop the flirting thing? I’m not doing a relationship right now. I just...can’t. And you make me nervous because I can’t figure you out. Whether you’re serious or not.”

  There was a world of hurt in that tight little voice. Poor kid. He hadn’t meant to upset her. Not at all.

  While he was attracted, he didn’t want to pressure or hurt any woman. Ever. If she felt that strongly—he’d just keep his distance.