Taming Rafe (30 page)

Kat didn’t have the heart to suggest that even if by some miracle Rafe won the event, the cost of Manny’s medical care would far exceed the purse. But maybe . . .

“Have you ever heard of Mercy Doctors? They travel to villages and have a grant program in partnership with St. Jude’s to bring kids to America for treatment.” She didn’t add that because of her recent turn of events, the Mercy Doctors clinic that might have been able to help Manny might have to close its doors.

Before Lucia could answer, Kat heard Rafe’s name over the loudspeaker.

“He’s up again!” Manny said, pointing to Rafe as he settled in on his bull in the chute.

“This one’s named Clean Break,” Nick said. “He’s never ridden him.”

Kat sat on the stairs, her chest on fire. It hurt every cell inside to watch him climb aboard, but a new exhilaration had replaced the fear. If anyone could hang on, Rafe Noble could. He knew what he was doing. He was born to be a modern-day gladiator.

Still, she held her breath as Rafe rosined his bull rope, heating it with the friction of his glove for a better hold. Then he wrapped it into his grip, clenching his fist into a tight ball. He blew out, pounded his vest, and gripped the rail. Kat thought she saw his lips move. Then he looked straight into the camera, straight into her heart, and nodded.

The bull erupted from the chute. Clean Break arched his back and hit the ground in a bone-jarring, four-footed landing.

Kat clasped her hands together on her lap as Piper, Nick, and Stefanie cheered.

Clean Break bucked again, twisting his back legs to one side, his head to the other. Rafe wrenched back. He braced his arm, his face stony and tight.

“C’mon, Rafe!”

The bull landed, threw his weight forward, his head back. The horns skimmed a breath away from Rafe’s head.

The crowd gasped.

Kat’s hands burned.

Clean Break went airborne again, all four hooves leaving the ground. The landing shook Rafe’s hold.

Kat’s back teeth ached.

The bull twisted again. Rafe lost his seat, flipped out over the back end.

Kat covered her mouth, holding in her scream.

He landed inches from Clean Break’s hooves.

“Get up!” Kat yelled in tandem with about ten thousand other people.

Rafe lay there, curled, paralyzed as the bull rounded on him.

“Get up, Rafe,” Nick growled loud enough for Kat to go cold.

The bull took a bead on Rafe, lowered his horns.

A bullfighter took the horns on his padded shorts as a couple of cowboys rushed in. Rafe leaned on them hard as they dragged him out.

The animal trotted into the chute, as if satisfied with a job well done.

Kat sat in horrified silence. On the monitors, the camera caught Rafe sitting down, his face tightening in pain. He touched his knee,
then leaned back, blowing out hard, covering his eyes with his gloved hand.

Beside Kat, the Nobles barely breathed.

Rafe tore off his hat and threw it. His expression scared her as he pushed himself up from the stool, shoved away the EMT trying to help him, and turned toward the cameras. He smiled and waved to his adoring fans, his eyes full of danger.

As Kat watched him, as the crowd cheered, she felt something breaking inside. She knew this Rafe Noble all too well, had seen those eyes before. The day Rafe Noble, at the end of his rope, had driven into the hotel and fallen at her feet. Broken. Defeated.

“How badly do you think he’s hurt?” Stefanie said, her tone matching the fear deep inside Kat.

“I don’t know.” Nick took off his hat, ran his hand through his dark hair, and looked at Kat.

A look, it seemed, that contained everything. The hope that she’d somehow change Rafe’s life. The fear that he’d lose his brother to something beyond his control. And even, somehow, Rafe’s desire to do something powerful and good with his riding.

“I’ll go check on him.” Kat stood, and it hit her. “Where’s Lolly?”

Nick frowned. “She’s not with you?”

“She mentioned having a meeting this morning,” Piper said, “although I don’t know with whom.”

“Maybe she’s with Lincoln,” Kat said, remembering Lolly’s almost angry explanation of his job offer.

“Who?” Piper asked.

“Lincoln Cash. She’s moving out to Hollywood to cook for him.”

If Kat had sprinted out to the middle of the ring and jumped on a bull, whooping in the air, it would have had less effect than these words. Stefanie looked like she’d been slapped.

Piper shook her head. “No way would she move away from Phillips to be with Lincoln. She loves John.”

“Everyone knows she loves John,” Stefanie added, as if Piper needed confirming.

“John loves her too,” Nick said, shrugging when his wife looked at him.

“Then why did he leave?”

Nick held up his hands in surrender.

Piper got up. “Where’s Bradley?”

Kat gave her a look. “He’s been calling me on my cell all morning.” She didn’t add that she hadn’t picked up one of his calls, not sure how to tell him that they weren’t leaving together. Now or ever.

Piper pushed past Nick and Stefanie, came out to stand on the steps near Kat. “I’m assuming you could probably track down Lincoln Cash’s cell number.”

“Uh, sure.” Kat dug into her pocket, produced her cell. “Call my assistant, Cari. She can find just about anyone.”

Piper grabbed the phone. “Stay put. I’ll find her.” She turned to Kat. “And tell Rafe that we’re rooting for him.”

Rafe gritted his teeth so hard that he thought his molars might crumble and limped back to the locker room.

The EMT walked beside him, a little skittish and visibly peeved after Rafe had nearly taken his head off. Like it or not, this was the real Rafe Noble. At least if he wanted to survive it was.

He’d taken the ride too seriously. It had ceased to become a sport, an adrenaline high, and had become something that gave him purpose. Something he put his heart and soul into.

The more he cared, the more it hurt when he wrecked. As soon as he hit the ground, the fear rushed through him, and he was back in the Las Vegas arena, watching the hooves crash down on his best friend.

Paralyzed.

Defeated.

He opened the door to the locker room and pushed the EMT back. “Leave me alone.”

“Let me look at your knee—”

“Stay away from me.” He slammed the door behind him. The last thing he needed was to have someone see him shut down and weep at the pain.

Thankfully, the rest of the contestants congregated out in the hallway, watching the other riders, helping them mount the bulls, giving pep talks. Technically the bull riders might be competing against each other, but the real opponents were the bulls.

Rafe leaned against his locker, breathing hard. He’d felt his knee rip when that bull switched directions on him, and it tore further when he landed.

In the past, Rafe would have sworn. Instead, he sent his fist into the lockers. The entire row shuddered.

He closed his eyes, frustration sweeping over him, and crumpled to the floor.

“You lost your hat.”

Rafe didn’t look up as he shielded his face with his hand. “What are you doing here?”

He heard Kitty walk toward him. She climbed over the bench and sat on it. “I brought you your hat.”

He reached for it, not looking at her, staring instead at those ridiculous red boots. “Thanks. Now leave me alone.”

“Oh no, you’re not getting it back,” she said, snatching the hat away. “I want you to sign it. For my Rafe Noble collection.”

He frowned, anger the easiest emotion to latch on to. Did she think his sitting here on the floor might be for her amusement? Did she not figure out that his entire body screamed in defeat? that he might have damaged his knee beyond repair?

No, more than that, that if he wanted to ride again, it would have to be on PeeWee, the bull that could finish him off?

“Gimme my hat.”

“No.” Kitty put it on her head, made a face. “I suppose the smell will make it sell better on eBay. Rafe Noble’s hat from his last ride.”

“That wasn’t my last ride,” Rafe snarled, not sure where those words had come from because . . . well, yes, it had been.

“Your fans might agree, but I know when I see quit. And you have it written all over you.”

He lunged for his hat. Kitty jerked away and he fell back against the lockers.

Her smile dimmed. She took off the hat, rubbed her hand along the crown, and fingered the arrowhead he’d stuck in the band. “You know why your fans love you?”

Rafe glared at her, hating how pretty she looked with her brown hair tumbled down around her shoulders, dressed in a GetRowdy shirt like a fan. The slightest remnants of the Montana sun remained on her freckled nose, in the shine of her beautiful eyes. Right then,
all he could think of was her in his arms under the fireworks. And how he’d wanted to be the man she said she believed in.

A noble man.

“Your fans love you because you embody for us what we want to do.”

“You want to ride bulls?” He reached again for his hat and wished she’d put up more of a fight when he grabbed it from her hand.

“No. I want to go after what I want with the kind of courage you have. I want to fight my fears and get on that bull and dig in my spurs and hold on to the dream.”

Rafe swallowed, his throat thick and tight. He wanted to ask about her dream, but the words wouldn’t emerge. In that moment he knew the answer he wanted and couldn’t bear for it to be wrong.

But like she always did, Kitty knew him and how to read his mind to apply the balm he needed. She knelt beside him and ran her hand over his face. “I want
you
, Rafe Noble. I’ve been falling for you since the day you asked me if I wanted your autograph. I never should have said yes to Bradley, and I’m sorry for that. You make me feel like the woman I’m supposed to be. The woman who shows you that God loves you.”

He wasn’t sure what to say, how to speak the words piled in his chest. The ones that told her that she’d somehow freed him to be the man he wanted to be. The man who lived up to said name. So he gave it his best try. “I’m . . . falling in love with you too, Katherine. I should have said it, should have followed you to New York.”

She looked away.

Rafe turned her face toward him and lifted her chin. “Please
forgive me for the way I treated you. I’ll do anything to help you raise money for those kids.”

Kitty smiled and framed his face with her hands. “Yeah, I know.” Then, while he sat there, broken in every way, she kissed him.

He curled his gloved hand around her neck and kissed her back. Like before, he lost himself in her touch, in her love. In the magic that was Kitty Russell Breckenridge.

Rafe leaned back, touching her forehead to his. “Wow, you’re so beautiful; words don’t seem enough.”

She shook her head. “You’re in delirious pain.”

“That’s true, but it doesn’t affect my eyesight.” He blew out a breath as a fresh wave of pain washed over him.

Kitty sat back, looked at his leg. “It’s bad, isn’t it?”

He nodded as she unbuckled his chaps and then the brace, easing it off his leg. He managed not to cry out, but when she ran her thumb down his face, he knew it showed.

“You’re seeing the doc.” Kitty came around behind him, shoving her hands under his arms, pulling him, with his help, from the floor. She looped his arm over her shoulder. “Then we’re going to figure out how to get you through that last ride.” It sounded more like a command than a pep talk.

“What? I don’t—”

“I know you want this, Rafe. And I believe in you. You’re the toughest bull rider I know, and you can figure out how to stay on that bull for eight seconds.”

If he hadn’t seen her forced smile, he might not have known what it cost her to say that. But she didn’t understand the situation.

“I drew PeeWee for my next bull.”

The name registered nothing on her face.

“The bull that killed my friend.” He winced as she moved him toward the door.

She didn’t pause or glance at him. “Mmm-hmm.”

“Kitty!” He slammed his hand on the door before she could open it.

She looked at him. “What? So you have to ride the same bull. So you might need God a little more than usual for this ride. God never said bull riding would be easy.”

He blinked at her.

“I’d think a big tough guy like you should know that bad things happen out there. It’s nobody’s fault. They just do. But God has asked you to do this big thing, and you have the opportunity to show the world that there’s more to Rafe Noble than a bad attitude and a poster-boy smile. That you have the stuff inside that makes you a real hero. The kind of hero Manny needs.” Her voice dropped. “The kind of hero I need.” She ran her hand down his vest. “The thing is, I need to know that you’re sold out for this and trusting God to help you if I’m going to sit in the stands and not go crazy with worry.”

A tear formed in the corner of her eye, and she wiped it away. “I believe in you, Rafe. And I’m . . . I’m impressed. So don’t let me down, cowboy.”

Rafe didn’t deserve her; he knew that much. But he wasn’t so stupid as to tell her that. Or to let her down. In that moment, the cold streak of fear turned hot inside him. “Okay, cowgirl,” he said as he opened the door. “Let’s do this.”