Westin Family Ties

by Alice Sharpe

  From this vantage point she could see a new structure going up on the far side of the lake over near the path leading to the old hunting lodge. She sat down on the rock, which wasn’t as easy as it used to be thanks to the baby, and discovered a stray shaft of light. She angled her face into its meager warmth and closed her eyes, letting her thoughts drift until she was in that warm, hazy place a mind enters when it’s exhausted through and through.

  She didn’t want to think of poor Mrs. Priestly or the explosion in the apartment or the stolen jewels or the feeling of being hunted.

  She didn’t want to think of Robert Banner’s grief over his grandmother’s horrible death, or the look on Donna’s face when she found out, or the way Emerson Banner’s frosty gray eyes had shifted from person to person as the others cried.

  Didn’t want to think of the heartache that had made her run from this place and then stopped her from returning—all these things had spiraled together into this moment of time, and this moment of time was turning out to be quite tricky…

  She rested her head on her folded arm and yawned. Sometime later, reality crashed its way into her consciousness when a pop in the air was followed by a searing pain in the arm that rested close to her stomach. Gasping, she pushed up the sleeve of her sweater to reveal blood oozing from torn flesh. Another pop and a sliver of rock by her shoulder whizzed into the air, hitting her cheek as it flew off.

  Instinct rolled her the short distance to the ground even as her brain fought to accept the obvious.

  Someone was shooting at her!

  Chapter Six

  Her knees absorbed much of the impact of the shallow fall. She lay still, hoping her assailant would think he’d fatally hit her and leave her to die.

  What about the baby? How much jostling could a baby take?

  Who was doing this? Who could be here? Why?

  Was hunting season open? Was there a poacher on Open Sky land? Or maybe one of the students involved with the mine excavation had just shot at a squirrel.

  A squirrel wearing a bright blue scarf?

  Or had a person who had rigged an explosion in Cherrydell followed her here?

  And then, heart jammed up in her throat, she detected the sound of someone coming down the hillside path. If she tried to get up and run she’d be shot in the back. She couldn’t roll to safety because she was too pregnant. But she couldn’t lie there like a bump on a log and wait for her attacker to finish the job, either.

  Another noise reached her ears, this time from down the hill. It was like an invasion… She almost jumped out of her skin when a big, wet black nose pressed against her cheek. Bonnie! The dog looked over her head, up the hill, growled menacingly, then leaped up on the rock and beyond, barking like crazy. Cassie heard another shot and more crashing sounds. She tried to press herself into the earth and squeezed her eyes shut…

  And jumped a half mile when a hand touched her head. A scream died in her throat as she twisted away and looked up—

  It was Cody. He knelt beside her, touching her face. “Are you okay?” he whispered, withdrawing his hand. There was blood on his fingers.

  “I—I think so. But Bonnie—”

  “I’ll be right back. Stay put.”

  Like she was going anywhere.

  He took off up the hill, barely making a sound, while she worked on finding a better position so she could see what was going on. She felt light-headed as she gazed into the sky. The weather was turning, the clouds were heavy and dark. The baby kicked her—never had she been so glad to feel a healthy kick. She shivered with the cold.

  The dog showed up first, once again nosing Cassie’s skin, panting and excited. Cody arrived a minute or two later, barely out of breath. He pulled Bonnie away and helped Cassie sit up, her back against the rock.

  She’d never seen his perpetually weathered skin that drained of color or his eyes that worried. “You’re bleeding,” he said, searching his pocket for the bandana he carried for emergencies. He wiped her face with it, then swore as he saw her arm. “We better get you to a doctor. Do you think you can stand?”

  “I can stand. But where is the person who shot me? What happened? Is Bonnie okay?”

  “Bonnie chased the shooter back up the hillside,” he said, wrapping the bandana around her arm. She winced as he knotted the cloth to keep it in place. “Under all the blood, it looks like it’s barely more than a scratch running along your skin,” he assured her.

  She’d started shaking, her teeth rattling together. A big plop of rain landed on her forehead. “I can’t believe the gunman missed me and the dog.”

  Cody dug into his shirt pocket and extracted a couple of brass casings. “These are from a .380 autoloader, a pistol. I found them up on the road. Wrong gun for the occasion. No range.”

  “Did you get a look at a vehicle?”

  “No. It was going around the bend by the time I got there. Bonnie probably saw it, but she isn’t talking.”

  And then he did something that took her totally off guard. His hands landed softly, tenderly on her stomach. It was the first time he’d touched her that way since they reunited, and she jolted. He pulled away at once.

  “It’s okay,” she murmured. Taking his hands, she placed them where he’d had them before. “Feel right there? That’s a baby bottom or a head, I think.”

  He smiled as the baby rolled against his palms, then his eyes met hers. “If the bullet that grazed your arm had been a couple of inches further to the left—”

  “I know. It could have been a tragedy.”

  He sat back on his heels, his hands gripped now between his knees. “So what in the hell were you doing up here by yourself?”

  His question wasn’t spoken loudly, but the anger that replaced the concern and tenderness of a moment before jolted her in a whole different way. “Wait a second—”

  “Are you forgetting what happened in Cherrydell? And how did someone get to the ranch so fast? We’ve only been back a couple of hours.”

  “There was an emergency contact paper with your name on it in my purse,” she admitted, as the cold rain picked up. “Someone must have seen it before you arrived, and then when you announced who you were, they put two and two together. We stopped last night at the inn, you know. They must have come straight out here and looked things over this morning.”

  He swore. “With all the increased coming and going because of the university, a stranger could go unnoticed. Why didn’t you tell me someone had access to your true identity?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “I just thought of it last night. I really didn’t think it was very likely.”

  “Do you have any other little secrets that could end up getting you killed to say nothing of my baby?”

  “Your baby? Since when is this your baby?”

  “Since the moment my sperm said ‘Howdy Ma’am’ to your egg.”

  She glowered at him for a second.

  He took a deep breath as he took off his hat and settled it on her head to protect her face from the rain.

  “Okay, I’m sorry, Cass. This is a hell of a time for us to argue. If you can’t walk I’ll go down and get Bandido and bring him back for you.”

  “And leave me here alone? No way. I can walk.”

  Standing, he offered her a hand.

  She accepted his help but still had to struggle. Getting on your feet, on a slope, while vastly pregnant wasn’t exactly a piece of cake.

  And neither was being shot.

  WHEN CODY HAD LEFT Cassie in their bedroom, he’d needed some kind of outlet, and there just wasn’t anything better for that than getting on a horse. He’d saddled up Bandido and ridden across the fields with a hazy goal of checking the nearby trail that they would take out to the Hayfork field when the time came to collect that part of the herd. He’d found the trail in good condition, and by the time he’d gotten back to the ranch he’d worked off a little of his anxiety.

  And then he discovered Cassie and the blue truck were both missing.
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  His first thought: she’d taken off again. He’d wasted time kicking rocks and swearing. Then his head cleared and he somehow knew she wouldn’t have done that without leaving so much as a note.

  She had to be nearby, maybe as antsy as he’d been. And if she was still on the ranch and she’d used a vehicle, that probably meant she went to the airfield or Adam’s place on the lake. With Adam at the trial, it seemed unlikely she’d go there.

  She loved the trail by the hangar, but would she really hike uphill in her condition?

  Of course she would. She’d walked with firm, fast steps the day before when he’d followed her. She was built like an athlete, slender but strong, and he doubted pregnancy had slowed her down much. So he’d taken off like a maniac, relieved when he found the blue truck parked at the foot of the trail. He’d tied Bandido to the truck and started up the trail with Bonnie at his side, climbing at a fast clip until he heard the first shot, and then he’d taken off at a dead run.

  His first glimpse of her huddled down by that rock had frozen his heart midbeat. He’d thought for sure she was dead. If the marksman had been a better shot or chosen the right weapon, she would have been.

  And if this gunman—or woman—was as persistent as it appeared, they’d try again…

  Cody and Cassie arrived at the bottom of the path more wet than dry. The rain had taken on a slightly icy feel as the storm darkened the sky. They piled into the blue truck with Bandido trailing behind, tethered by a long rope to the gate of the truck, Bonnie in the bed.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked Cassie for the tenth time.

  “I’m good. Really,” she said. Taking a deep breath, she sat back in the seat, looking vulnerable in her wet clothes and his hat. Her delicate hand rested atop the bulge in her middle, the bandana still wrapped around her arm.

  His heart just about exploded with the all the things he felt for her. As they started the trip back to the house, he wondered if she sometimes reeled with the same sense of convoluted déjà vu that he did. The last thirty-six hours had seen alternating episodes of the past colliding with the present. Riding in the truck? As ordinary as the rain. Explosions and gunfire? Surreal.

  And he didn’t have the slightest idea where they stood with each other except on rocky ground.

  He needed a map of some kind. Some key to unlock what she was really feeling and what she wanted, because as a mind reader he suspected he was worse than most men except maybe his father.

  That was probably why he’d always felt more comfortable with animals instead of people. Animals required things, sure, but they didn’t have hidden agendas. They didn’t play games.

  It was one of the reasons he’d put off marriage so long, and had planned to put off fatherhood. Talk about needing to anticipate needs. And he was just lousy at that.

  But it was too late. A baby was coming the way it seemed they always did—out of the blue. And today when he’d felt his son or daughter move inside Cassie’s body, he’d felt the first strong stirring of connection.

  “It looks like everyone is home,” Cassie said, leaning forward to peer through the rain. Sure enough, the house was lit up inside and out, and figures could be seen moving across the yard.

  “We’ll go inside and call Inkwell—”

  “I don’t want to call the sheriff,” she said.

  “Come again?” She had to be kidding.

  “The rain has undoubtedly washed away all traces of the vehicle from the dirt road,” she continued. “What is Sheriff Inkwell going to do except demand to know why someone would want to hurt me and I can’t even tell him that because I don’t know but if I contact him he will find out that I’m wanted for questioning and he will turn me over and I will have to go back to Cherrydell and who knows what story the Banners will have and how long I’ll be stuck there?”

  She said it all in one breath, fast and furious. He wasn’t any more anxious than she was to get involved with the law, but he wasn’t convinced they had a choice. So much had gone on at the ranch this year that had brought in police that he wasn’t anxious for repeats. Was it possible to keep Cassie safe?

  “I just want to remind you that the someone who just winged you already knows who you are and where you live,” he said.

  “Just give me a few weeks,” she pleaded. “Just let me have my baby.”

  “I’m not the one trying to stop you.”

  “I know. I just can’t face going back to Idaho right now.”

  And he didn’t want her to go back. “We’ll have to agree to a plan,” he said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean we’ll have to agree how to go about keeping you safe. No more wandering around by yourself, okay? I can stick around more than usual seeing as what time of year it is, and my father and brothers can take up the slack, but you’ll have to be willing to stay low until this is figured out.” He rubbed his wet head and looked over at her. “About a doctor—”

  “I’m okay for tonight. The baby is moving around like crazy. Sassy Sally has EMT training. She can check out my blood pressure and all that, and tomorrow I’ll find an obstetrician.”

  “Echo has training, too,” Cody said. “But promise to tell me if anything goes wrong.”

  “Of course I’ll tell you.”

  “Because when I saw the truck missing today the first thing I thought—”

  “Was that I had run away?” she finished for him.

  He nodded curtly. “Yeah.”

  “And how would you have felt about that? Kind of free? Kind of relieved?”

  “That’s a crummy thing to say, Cass.”

  She took off his hat and handed it to him. “I know it is. I’m sorry. But you can’t go around waiting for me to leave again. I told you I wouldn’t.”

  He took his hat from her. When he spoke, his voice was soft. “Let’s just say I know why you’re here and it’s not because of me.”

  She stared at him and he knew he’d just blown it—again. “Cassie,” he began, but at that moment, there was a knock on Cassie’s window and her door opened.

  Adam stood there, grinning. “Welcome home,” he said. “Man, you two look like a couple of drowned rats. Sassy Sally told us about the baby,” he added, his gaze darting down to Cassie’s stomach. “That’s great news.” His gaze transferred to Cody. “Everything okay?”

  “Not entirely,” Cody said. “There was a shooting up on the hill. Cassie was hit.”

  “What!”

  “I’m okay, really,” Cassie said, lifting her arm as if to prove it.

  “I’ll explain in a while,” Cody added.

  Adam’s gray eyes narrowed. He knew as well as Cody did that there’d been more violence connected to the Open Sky in the past six months than in the one hundred and twenty preceding years. “There’s a big fire burning in the living room,” Adam said, zeroing in on Cassie again. “Pauline is whipping up dinner, and you know she’s a hell of a cook. Come on inside and get warm. We’ve all missed you.”

  Cassie patted her hair in a fruitless attempt to tidy it and fumbled with her seat belt. Cody could feel her apprehension and knew she wished she could avoid the next few minutes, but big families tended to be in and out of each other’s lives and never more than when they all lived and worked together, breathing the same air, striving toward the same goals. And then around here you added the people who weren’t family but as good as: the foreman, Jamie, and Pauline, the housekeeper.

  The upside was that when one member stumbled, someone was always around to help them back to their feet.

  “Come on, Cass,” Adam urged, his voice soft. “I want you to meet Echo.”

  And that extra encouragement seemed to be enough, for the next thing Cody knew, Cassie had slipped out of the truck. She gave him a glance over her shoulder as she allowed Adam to lead her through the rain and into the house.

  And suddenly Cody was as nervous as she was. He took off for the barn.

  “WOW, THAT SCARF is gorgeous,�
�� Sassy Sally said as Cassie slipped the damp blue silk from around her neck.

  “You think so?”

  “Yes. It matches your eyes.”

  Cassie folded it into Sally’s hands. “You know what? It matches your eyes, too. It’s a little damp, but please, take it.”

  “But—”

  “I bought it used. Now I’m finished with it. Please, I’d really like you to have it.”

  Sally accepted it and laid it aside. “Thanks. Ethan will love it.”

  “Is Ethan the new fiancé I’ve heard talk about?”

  “Yeah. He’s not as handsome as Cody—who is? But he’s everything I’ve always wanted. He’s sweet, he’s kind, and he’s a veterinarian to boot. He took a partnership in Woodwind to be close to me. I can’t believe how lucky I am. I’m still pinching myself.”

  “I’m so happy for you,” Cassie said, and she meant it.

  “Cody told me what’s been going on,” Sally added, as she skillfully dressed Cassie’s wounds. She took Cassie’s blood pressure next, then listened with a stethoscope to Cassie’s heart and the baby’s. “You’re in great shape, but I don’t think it takes a medical degree to advise you to stay quiet for a few days. You’re really pregnant, and all that falling and stuff can’t be good. You’ll speak up if you go into early labor or bleed or anything, right?”

  “I’ll scream like a banshee,” Cassie assured her.

  “Good.” Sally returned the stethoscope and other supplies back to the ranch medical kit, then handed Cassie a piece of paper. “Cody asked if I know of a good obstetrician. This is the name of the guy who delivered my friend’s baby last year.”

  “You guys about done in here?” Adam asked from the doorway. He looked a lot like Cody. A few years younger, coloring a little lighter, resembling their father more, but the same tall, square-shouldered cowboy frame, the same smile. Maybe it was just that his smiles came along more frequently than Cody’s did.