Lies That Bind (10 page)

Tyler glanced up from under his eyebrows. “He doesn’t strike me as the kind of man to shoot at something he couldn’t see. Whoever did this was very well camouflaged. Quiet, precise.”

“Not that precise, or Nate would be dead now,” Tessa said.

A subtle quirk of her lips betrayed more emotion, the first crack in her hard-ass exterior. Maybe there was hope for them after all.

Rex scuffed his hands on his thighs. The rasp of denim drew their attention his way, then each returned to their own worlds. “You were both there.”

“Separated.”

Tyler rubbed the bridge of his nose. The guilt of that decision had to be eating him up inside. Again he was missing the obvious—that if they’d stayed together, both of them would have been shot…or dead.

“Easily taken out. One by one,” Rex said. “There was a reason they targeted Nate.”

“He was closer.” Tessa stared at a spot on the wall behind his head. “Made them nervous. Big risk. The shooter could have let him pass unless—”

“He found something,” she and Rex said together, gazes connecting for the first time since this nightmare had happened.

“No, he said he heard something and went to investigate. That’s when he was shot. But they didn’t kill him.” Tyler’s eyebrows scrunched together with his frown.

“He’s not stupid,” Tessa snapped. “He would have taken cover. The man did his time in the military. He’s a cop. He knows how to survive.”

“Or it could have been an accident,” Rex said. Two accidents in forty-eight hours? Rex wasn’t sure he believed it, but they had to consider all possibilities. “Maybe someone thought it was one of us. Nate was wearing a cowboy hat, riding one of the horses.”

“Why?” Tyler asked.

True enough. It was a far-fetched theory that meant someone was specifically targeting them, when there was no reason their deaths would benefit anyone.
Except leave Tessa unguarded
. Terror filled his heart. Heath and Carmen’s handiwork? Again, what good would it do them?

“And if they were lying in wait for one of us, they would have been quieter. Nate heard a noise and went looking,” Tyler said.

Rex forced the wild-ass guessing game out of his head. All this conjecture amounted to nothing.

“It’s getting late. I need to call the ranch and let Brett know what’s going on before he spies the horses loose in the corral and freaks out.” Saddled horses and bloodstains had a tendency to do that. Rex pulled his phone from his jeans pocket.

Tyler twisted the cap off his bottle. “Oh…
now
your phone’s working. I hope to fuck your little siesta was worth it.”

Now that pissed him off. Tyler had no business getting high and mighty.

Tessa was in Tyler’s space before Rex could work a response past his locked jaw. She leaned in, giving Tyler no choice but to ease back, his water bottle clutched in an increasingly tight grip that threatened to spew the contents.

“Don’t worry, sugar. You’ll get your turn.” Her voice dripped with honeyed lure. “And I promise you, answering the phone will be the last thing on your mind. If you could reach it in the first place.”

Tyler’s mouth gaped. Blood rushed into Rex’s cock.

She straightened, one vertebra at a time, not blinking, not breaking eye contact. Tyler was prey, and if he hadn’t figured that out by now, he deserved his fate. Aw hell, Tyler would relish it.

“You ponder that a spell while I check on my friend.”

Oh fuck, she’d pulled a Texas accent from her bag of tricks with that one. All innocence, Sunday school…prom night, under-the-bleacher blowjobs, cheerleader over the knee with those little panties caught around her thighs.

He watched her stalk toward reception. Each step made Rex harder than he’d been since…well, since earlier that day. Another inappropriate erection, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Tyler’s smart-assed comment was another matter.

“For the record…” He twisted around to find Tyler out of his seat and halfway to the men’s room. How long had he been sitting there, staring at Tessa’s ass?

Tyler’s dash caught Tessa’s attention. She monitored his progress, and for a second or two, Rex thought she might follow and corner Tyler in the restroom. But when she turned from the reception desk, Rex saw the worry lines etched between her eyebrows. He made a move to go to her. Those stay-away barriers warned him not to, and if that wasn’t enough of a message, the look in her eyes verified it.

He stood anyway and walked toward her. Tessa’s gaze hardened, a look Rex knew all too well. But he’d be damned if he let her scare him off this time.

He stopped about five feet from her. Why did he make everything about sex with her? This was a life-or-death moment, yet his mind kept drifting to how many ways he could fuck her, how many ways he could prove she never should have left them in the first place. That he never should have let her leave. That nothing was more important than her, not even the ranch that held his blood, sweat, tears, and just about every dime.

“Any word?”

She tensed all the more. “Not yet. I’ll be outside for a few.”

Rex returned to his seat as she walked away. Everybody needed their space. Tessa deserved hers. But it just about killed him to give it to her when every instinct bitched at him to be the hero and make this all right. And by God, he
was
going to make this all right. He was going to find the son of a bitch who did this.

* * * *

Tessa craved a breath of fresh air. She wasn’t going to get it in this hot, heavy humidity. The only breeze came from the hospital door hissing open. She aimed for the shady side of the concrete building. A whiff of cigarette smoke curled her way. Her body cried for a drag, and she didn’t even smoke. That alone showed how upset she was.

Tessa made it as far as the corner, then leaned against the rough surface. Too many things were out of her control—Derek’s death, Nate’s injury…her life. The attack on Nate was another breaking point, another straw she didn’t need. She’d sniffed out those submissive to her and targeted Tyler in her desperate need to reassert dominance, show she did have control over something. In reality, she didn’t. Her quaking insides proved that.

Poor Tyler. Cornered right there in the ER waiting room. It was either his worst nightmare or his greatest wish.

Of course, it was Tyler’s smart-assed comment that had set her off. He’d been venting his own frustration. It dug at her guilt, knowing she and Rex had been passing a leisurely afternoon tangled in bed while Tyler fought to save Nate’s life.

Shit…Nate.

Someone should know he’d been hurt, but she didn’t have a clue who to call. They were friends, yes. But only now did she realize how little she knew about the man. Maybe she’d find information on his cell phone.

Tessa started for the door, then ducked back around the side when she saw Ethel hustling toward the main entrance with a baby gift tucked under her arm.
Probably has those stashed in her closet, wrapped and ready to go
. Once Ethel was safely inside, Tessa headed for the ER doors once more. Her step faltered when she saw Rex standing outside the entrance. He’d been watching her, making sure she was all right. There was that little catch in her heart again. Falling in love all over again. But then, had she ever fallen out of love with him? With them?

Rex started her way when Tessa didn’t move, couldn’t move, not when the sight of him tempted her to burrow against his chest and never let go.

“Nate’s going to be fine. Doctor wants to talk to you.”

He swept his arm around her, his broad hand landing on the small of her back. Hot as it was, Tessa appreciated the different warmth that spread through her at his touch. Comfort, the quiet assurance all would be well.

Tyler met them at the entrance. Her heart twisted again. He’d been through hell and back…and looked like it. She felt doubly guilty for the way she’d treated him earlier. She’d make it up to him later. The stress release would do them good.

Tessa paused long enough to give his shoulder a squeeze. His soft exhale thanked her. He fell into step beside her. Somehow it felt right, the three of them facing whatever. They should have done so a year ago, rather than Tessa taking off to lick her wounds and salvage her foolish pride. How could they ever move on from that? She’d deserted them, cut them out of her life. How could they ever forgive her when she couldn’t forgive herself?

A man Tessa presumed was Nate’s doctor stood on the other side of the check-in desk, scribbling notes into a chart. A permanent furrow had etched a canyon between his eyebrows. Gray-splattered dark hair badly in need of a trim. Tessa guessed him to be all of thirty-five. He glanced up at their approach, dredged up a smile that backlit his blue eyes and crinkled the corners, and absentmindedly passed the chart off to the nurse sitting nearby as he walked around the counter.

“Hello, Ms. Fairchild. I’m Dr. Robert Baron.”

A strong handshake followed. Tessa gave him points for that, as well as for guiding them into a small consulting room with little more than a gesture.

“Nate is doing well.” Baron perched himself on the edge of a rolling stool, commandeering the only seat yet putting himself in a less intimidating posture. “We’ve stitched him up, given him a unit of blood, and have him on IV. We’re going to keep him overnight. You can see him if you want, but we have given him some pain meds, so he’s pretty much out of it. So please don’t make it a long visit. After what he’s been through, the man needs the rest. The doctor on the ward can brief you further.”

He tilted his head toward Tyler. “You don’t look so good yourself. Adrenaline rush ought to be wearing off soon. You need to be home. You all do.” He waved his hand over their clothing, stained with Nate’s blood. “It’s been a hell of a couple days for all of you. I’m sorry for your loss. When I heard Derek had died…” His shoulders drooped and his head fell forward with a slow shake, as if he couldn’t believe it.

An intake of breath brought him upright once more. “He started having severe migraines about a year ago. Loss of coordination too.”

Tessa’s stomach turned. A year ago, a year ago. God, she was tired of that phrase and the memories it dredged up.

“Brain tumors. Inoperable. Apparently he’d known for a while. About six months before we met. He refused chemo. Said he was going to get his affairs in order.”

Tears rushed in. Why hadn’t he said anything?

“He never told us.” Rex’s confusion echoed her own.

“No wonder he spent so much time to himself lately,” Tyler said. “We thought he had a honey on the side.”

Baron looked everywhere but at them. A red flush crawled over his face. “Derek might have been having seizures at that point. Bright light would have been excruciating. He took quite a risk, riding out on his own.”

Rex hooked his thumbs in his pockets. “A little heads-up might have been nice.”

“Doctor-patient privilege,” Baron further explained.

“And that usurps boyfriend-boyfriend sharing?” Tyler asked.

Another flush swept Baron’s features. “Yes, we were a couple. He didn’t want you to know about the tumors. He didn’t want you coddling him. Hell, these last couple of months, he didn’t even want me around half the time. And let me tell you, it’s hell when someone you love cuts you out.”

“Tell me about,” Rex and Tyler said together.

The words thrust into Tessa’s heart. She hugged her arms around her midriff to quell the pain. “It must have been hell, hearing secondhand that he was gone, Doctor.”

“It was.” Tears flooded his eyes. “Having to hide our relationship from the world… I never expected it to hurt this badly.”

They reached for him at the same time. Rex and Tyler touching his shoulders, Tessa his forearm. “You don’t have to hide from us. We loved him too. You share your grief with us, Dr. Baron.”

Baron blinked his vision clear. “Thank you. Robert…please.” He cleared his throat. “I know it sounds morbid, but I’ve asked the medical examiner to notify me when he completes the autopsy. I want to see how far the tumors spread. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn a seizure knocked him from the horse and contributed to his death.”

“Sheriff said the medical examiner did a preliminary look and found a hole in his head he presumed was a gunshot wound. Exposed to the animals and elements the way Derek was, it’s impossible to know for sure with just a look,” Tyler said.

In such close quarters, it was hard not to feel the tension radiating off Tyler.

Robert shook his head. “I was afraid of that. For a man like Derek, it might have been the last straw.”

“No, not suicide,” she told him. “There was only one bullet used from his gun, and that was to put the horse down when she broke her forelegs.”

“That’s…that’s good. I hate to think he’d… Have you contacted the funeral home yet? I’d like to know when the services are.”

“There’s been a lot to process since I arrived today.” A hell of a lot. Tessa couldn’t believe she’d been here less than a day. The impact hit her low in the gut. “Besides, there’s little we can do on a Sunday. As accommodating as the Simpkisses are, even they would be reluctant to open the funeral home on a Sunday.” They took the day of worship very seriously.

“We were going to talk about that tonight.” Rex pressed his hand against her back. Calm seeped into her muscles. “After Tito’s visit this morning, we were beyond upset when he suggested Derek died under suspicious circumstances. He even started to point his finger at us.”

Robert snorted. “One thing I’ve learned from working ER is that Tito Llano is nothing but bullshit. Don’t let him push your buttons.”

Was Robert
scolding
them? Tessa’s hackles rose. Not because he was doing so, but because he was right.

The doctor clenched his fist on his thigh. “And it galls me to no end that I have to report Nate’s arrow wound to him. He’s going to be like a dog with a bone, trying to dig up something that may or may not exist.”

Like the dead horse? A murder that didn’t exist? Fabricating that information didn’t explain the attempt on Nate’s life.

“He needs a big score for next year’s election. Someone needs to seriously run against him,” Robert added. “Even Derek threatened to do so after watching Tito work the crowd at Dog Days last week. I swear, Derek could be such a contradiction. Upbeat and ready to conquer the world one day. Depressed and ready to give up the next.”