Mindset (28 page)

Callie got tears in her eyes and smoothed his hair out of his eyes.  “No, Cade, you didn’t screw up again.  That asshole out there shooting at us may have screwed things up a little bit, but still, I’ll take it.”

“That’s what I get for trying to be romantic.  I told you I’m not any good at this.  My plan was to bring you out here, bribe you with candy and flowers, tell you I loved you, and convince you to marry me.  I was even willing to pull out all the stops and agree to build you a house, here on my land, and even put a white picket fence around it for you.”

“Oh Cade.”  Tears were rolling down her cheeks.  “You don’t have to bribe me.  I’ve loved you since I was a kid.  I thought you knew that.  I was afraid you were never going to love me back.”

He reached over and tried to dry her tears.  She leaned down and kissed him.

“So, how’s my plan working, sweetheart?  Are you going to marry me?”

“Boy, the lengths some men will go to, to get a woman to give up her freedom!  How much did you pay that guy to shoot you in order to win over my sympathies, anyway?”

He smiled and closed his eyes.  “Did it work?”

She smoothed his hair again.  “Yeah.  It worked.  I’m all yours, baby.  I have been for a long time.”  She resumed her vigil.

“It’ll be dark soon.  Think you can get on that horse? Cade?”  She looked over at him when he didn’t answer, and felt real fear when she saw he was no longer conscious.  It was everything she could do not to panic.  She felt for a pulse and let out a prayer of thanks when she found it.  He’d only passed out.  The bleeding had slowed down, but it hadn’t stopped completely, and she was afraid of what would happen if she didn’t get him to a hospital soon.  How was she going to get him up on that horse?  She didn’t think she could lift him by herself.

What am I going to do?
  Maybe the shooter had left.  She eased her head up over the rocks.  Nothing.  She eased up a little bit higher.  Silence.  Unsure how to proceed, she brought the rifle up to her shoulder and looked through the scope towards where she thought the shots had come from.  Just for the hell of it, she fired off another shot.  No response.  Then, from a distance and coming from the opposite direction, she heard an answering shot, and she fired off another round. 

“Hot damn, here comes the cavalry.  Cade!  It’s going to be ok, baby.  Help’s on the way, they’ll be here any minute.  Can you hear me?  Wake up!”  She was crying hard now and scared to death she was going to lose him. 
Please!  Please don’t leave me.  I love you.

She heard another shot fired, this time a lot closer.  She answered it with one of her own, and five minutes later, she heard the sound of a four wheel drive engine.  She called out when she saw them and ran out to meet her Granddad, Eva, Josh, and Jake.  They loaded Cade into the jeep, his head on Callie’s lap, and drove straight to the hospital.  They took Cade straight into emergency and then into surgery while Callie answered the sheriff’s questions.  A car was sent out to their picnic site to see if they could find anything, and they picked up the horse and brought it back to the ranch for them.  A deputy was stationed at the hospital as an added safety measure.

Callie couldn’t seem to pull herself together.  The waiting was killing her.  She was sandwiched in on the ugly plaid couch between her grandfather and Eva, who were both doing their best to comfort her without much success. 

After about two hours, a doctor came out looking for them.

“Are you the family of Cade Maguire?”  Everyone present said yes.

“I’m Dr. Vasquez.  Mr. Maguire is out of surgery now.  The bullet didn’t hit anything major, but he lost a lot of blood.  The surgery went well, and he’s stable, but we’re going to keep him in ICU as a precaution.  He should make a full recovery.”

Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.  “Can I see him?”

The doctor looked at Callie, and started to shake his head.  “It’s after visiting hours, miss.  You’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

“Please.  I have to see him.  We were together when he got shot.  He asked me to marry him tonight, and I just have to see him to make sure he’s okay.  I won’t stay long, but please, I just have to see him.  I can’t go home until I do.”

“It’s against hospital policy…”

“I need you to hear me, please.  I absolutely have to see him tonight.  I know you have rules, but I’m asking you to bend them for me this once.  Look, I don’t know what else to say.  Except, the only way I’m not going in there right now to see him is if you call security and have me removed.  Even if you do, you might as well know that I ran track in high school, and I’m pretty fast, so I’ll make it to his room before anyone catches me anyway, so you might as well save everyone a little bit of trouble and let me in.  That way I won’t have to run into every room until I find the right one.  I’d hate to disturb anyone.  I don’t mean to be a bitch about it, but I love him, and I just can’t leave without seeing him first…”

The doctor threw up his hands and gave her the room number where she could find him.  “Has anyone ever told the lady she’s hardheaded?”

A loud chorus of “Yes!” answered the doctor’s question.

Chapter 21

Cade regained consciousness in stages.  Sound was the first of his senses to register.  He tried to open his eyes to find out what that beeping was, but he couldn’t quite manage it, though he kept trying.  He decided to sleep a little longer, but half an hour later the beeping interrupted his rest again.  He never used an alarm clock, but he thought he might have fallen asleep with Callie in her room again – big smile – and it was her alarm.  He tried to reach over to what he thought was her night stand to turn it off but found his hand weighed down with something too heavy for him to move. 
What the hell?

When he was finally able to open his eyes, he looked down at his right arm and saw Callie asleep in a chair with his hand in hers and her head on top of both.  In a rush, everything came back to him, and his first thought was,
thank God she’s alright
.  He tried to slide his hand out from under her without disturbing her so he could touch her hair, but he’d hardly had the thought before she came awake with a jerk and looked up at him.

“You can’t possibly be comfortable like that.”

“Hey, you’re awake.  How are you feeling?”

“Horny.”

She laughed.  “I guess that answers that question.”  She lifted his hand in both of hers and kissed it.

A nurse walked in, eyeing Callie cautiously, and approached the opposite side of the bed from where Callie was sitting to check Cade’s vitals.  “It’s good to see you awake now, Mr. Maguire.”  She looked pointedly at Callie and added, “Visiting hours begin shortly.  There are several people waiting to see you – and abiding by hospital rules – I’ll send them in shortly.”  Callie just raised that one eyebrow and returned her glare. 

“What was that all about?”

“Nurse Ratchet there tried to make me go home last night.  I tried to be nice and explain how we were engaged and that it was now officially my place to stay at your side, but she wouldn’t listen to reason.  She was all about spouting off hospital rules and regulations, and finally I had to just flat out tell her that I was not leaving.  Then she had the nerve to send in the deputy who was guarding your door to ask me to leave.  He was much more reasonable, though, and when she tried to send in hospital security, I convinced him it was his duty to follow orders and not let anyone come in.”

Cade had to smile.  “You mean you batted those pretty eyelashes at him until you had him wrapped right around your little finger.  Or did you use the waterworks?”

“A little of both, actually.  But you know what they say… All is fair in love and war.  We had a little war last night, so I figure it’s time for a little love now.  And I’d made up my mind that I was not going to leave you alone to wake up in a strange place all by yourself.”

“Well, hell, Callie.  Nurse Ratchet obviously didn’t know who she was dealing with, did she?  Anyone who knows you could’ve told her that once you set your mind to something, there’s not a thing in the world that’s going to move you.  Which reminds me, I can’t believe some of the stunts you pulled last night.  You could’ve been shot, for God’s sake…”

“You mean like you were?  Listen, baby, if you really think it’ll make you feel better to rant and rave and lecture me, I guess you can go ahead and get it all out of your system, but really, Cade, what good would it do?  What’s done is done, and everything turned out just fine.  Wouldn’t you rather just kiss me?”  She smiled radiantly at him.

“Come here.”  She stood up and leaned over.  He put his hand underneath her hair on the back of her neck and pulled her the rest of the way to meet his mouth.  The kiss sizzled between them, making them both want more of each other.

“Well, I guess he’s feeling better.  What the hell is he doing with our baby sister?”

The couple broke apart to see Josh, Jake, Eva, and John just inside the room, all smiling at them.

“Your sister, my wife.  Pretty soon, anyway.  So get used to it, assholes.  Not you, John.  Sorry Eva.”

“So you finally asked her, huh?”  Jake asked.

“Told you she’d say yes.”  Josh added.

“Well of course she was going to say yes.  That was a given,” John added.

“Hold it.  Do you mean to tell me that all of you knew he was going to ask me to marry him before I did?”

Three voices answered in the affirmative.

“Cade!”

“Welcome to my world, sweetheart.”

“I didn’t know he was going to pop the question, but I told you he loved you, didn’t I?”

The sheriff walked in just then with a grim look on his face.  “We found your shooter about a hundred yards away from the crime scene.  Dead.  Looks like one of your warning shots caught him in the neck, Ms. Dubeck, and he bled out.  This is obviously a case of self-defense, so no charges are pending.”

Callie had to sit back down.  She looked at Cade and then the sheriff.  “I never even saw him.  I just shot in the general direction where I thought he might be.”

“His name was Raymond Boyd, New York driver’s license.  He was a convicted felon who’d served time for assault, rape, and stalking.  We found this in his wallet.”  He unfolded what turned out to be a cover from a fashion magazine from a few years ago, featuring Callie and Eva posing together in colorful spring outfits.  It was the last photo shoot they’d done together.

“Looks like he picked the two of you as his next victims.  Since both of you recently moved here from New York, we’re guessing he must have started stalking you there and followed you out here.  You’re lucky you got him before he got to you.  If anything else comes up, I’ll let you know, but it looks like the case will be closed.  Before I leave, I’d like you to take a look at his picture and see if you recognize him.”  He handed Callie a photograph, and Eva walked to her side to study it with her.

“He looks familiar…”

“Eva, isn’t that the doorman from your apartment building in New York?”