Taming Rafe (32 page)

Rafe breathed hard through his desire to take the man apart slowly, make him hurt. “Okay, listen. I just want Kitty. You can go. Do whatever you want.”

“You never should have interfered. Never come into her life.
The fact is, you did this. You wrecked everything. And now . . . you made her so distraught that she’ll have to jump. But psychosis runs in her family.” He smirked. “Sort of.”

“Leave her alone,” Rafe said, watching how Kat clawed at Bradley’s grip. She didn’t seem to be able to look at him but kept edging along the side of the building.

“You want her, you come and get her.” Bradley pushed her, and she disappeared over the edge.

Rafe issued a cry that came from so deep within him that he thought he might lose himself with the breadth of it. He lunged toward the place where she’d been.

Bradley kicked him, dead center on his damaged knee.

The white-hot pain should have stopped Rafe, but it didn’t. He scrambled to the edge, his heart already through his chest, moaning with an agony he’d never felt before. “Kitty!” He couldn’t look.

Bradley kicked him again, and Rafe’s head spun. Through the haze of pain, he saw Kitty.

She’d fallen. But not fifteen floors, thank God in heaven. She lay crumpled on her penthouse balcony, moaning but alive.

Rafe turned just as Bradley raised his leg to kick him in the gut. He caught Bradley’s pant leg and pulled.

Bradley went down with Rafe landing on top of him. Bradley twisted under him, but this time, Rafe didn’t hold anything back. “This is going to really hurt,” he said as he sailed a punch into Bradley’s nose.

Blood spurted as Bradley hollered.

Before Rafe could land the next blow, strong arms clamped around him. They pulled him off Bradley, dragging him toward the door as security swarmed the roof.

CHAPTER 23

“Y
OU REALLY MADE
the papers this time.” Cari came into Kat’s bedroom without knocking, holding a stack of newspapers. She tossed them on the bed. “They all want to know how Bradley Lymon could have been such a creep.”

“That seems to be the universal question.” Kat pushed herself up onto the pillows. “I’m still having a hard time believing that everything you said about him turned out to be true. I knew that something wasn’t right ever since I returned from Montana, but even long before that, I had all those strange migraines. But I never dreamed that he was poisoning me.”

“I doubt many people would immediately assume the person they are going to marry wants to kill them.” Cari sat down next to Kat.

“I should have listened to my friends sooner.” Kat’s arm still ached where she’d smacked it on the balcony. She’d spent at least one night in the hospital, where the doctors had flushed from her system the extra potassium chloride as well as the drug Bradley had shot into her arm at the arena. Thankfully, it hadn’t taken full
effect until after she’d fallen off the roof. However, by the time she awoke, Rafe had already been transferred to the Hospital for Special Surgery for his knee. Although she’d called and even pulled some strings, Rafe refused to take her call.

She tried not to let that dig a hole into her heart. But who was she kidding? Obviously Rafe agreed with the papers when they called her “naive.”

“How bad is it?” Kat picked up a paper and saw a photo of herself exiting the hospital. She made a face.

“You look better than Bradley.” Cari pointed to a color picture of Kat’s former fiancé in his broken-nose glory.

Kat cringed. “Yeah, that’s pretty.”

“So, are you feeling better? Back to your normal self?”

Kat leaned back in her pillows. “I don’t think I’ll ever be myself. Actually I’m not sure who I really am. Am I Kitty, a cowgirl who rides horses? Or am I Katherine, my grandfather’s princess?”

“Why can’t you be both?” Cari leaned forward. “Or maybe it’s Kat Noble, philanthropist and lovely wife to New York hero Rafe Noble?” She motioned to a picture of the shattered entrance to the hotel, with Rafe’s picture next to it.

Kat smiled. “Those Nobles sure know how to make an entrance. How angry is Grandfather?”

Cari shrugged. “Not too angry, considering they saved your life—or tried to save your life. He’s even thinking of dropping the first set of charges on the condition that Rafe pays the hotel reconstruction costs.”

“He’ll go broke.”

“Not hardly. He’s got sponsorship offers up to his ears, according to his sister. Like I said, it’s all about spin.”

“But he has to use that money for Manny’s treatment.”

“Rafe donated his entire purse to the Breckenridge Foundation, and I took the liberty of faxing Manny’s medical information and grant application to Mercy Doctors. Hopefully, he’ll be at St. Jude’s by the end of the month.”

“Really? Wow, Cari, thank you so much.”

“And by the way—” she crossed her leg and pulled up her jeans, revealing cactus stiletto boots—“I’m seeing your fascination with bull riders.”

Kat felt a sweet smile building from within. “Speaking of . . . He hasn’t, I mean . . .”

Cari’s smile faded. “No, he hasn’t called. Piper did, though. He was going to start some physical therapy yesterday.”

Kat rubbed the edge of her sheet. Why hadn’t he at least called? “You don’t think he thought that I really wanted to, you know, run away with Bradley?”

“Oh, please. I did arrange to install padding on the sidewalks around the hotel, just in case you decide to take another header off the roof.”

“Funny. I think I remember being pushed.”

“Yeah, well, sources say you were going to jump. Did you know the balcony was below you?”

“I saw it, yeah.”

“Well, even with drugs in your system, your aim was pretty good.”

“How’s Lolly this morning?” Kat had moved her mother into the penthouse after her discharge so she could care for her, but honestly, John did most of the caring. He’d rarely left her bedside. And Angelina had mothered them all.

“She’s better. Had pancakes for breakfast. Oh, and she identified Bradley as her attacker, which made the judge deny him bail. Flight risk.”

“Is she still headed out west to work for Lincoln?”

Cari let out a burst of laughter. “They’re engaged.”

“Lincoln and Lolly? No way, she loves John.”

“You’re absolutely right. John gave her a ring this morning. It’s gorgeous too. The funny thing is that he hasn’t left here once, so he must have had it with him.”

“Gotta like a man who is prepared. Only, I have this feeling he’s been prepared for quite some time.” Unlike someone else she knew. Kat blew out her disappointment and moved the papers off her lap and onto the bed, where she’d scattered her iPod, remote control, and recently finished B. J. King novel.

Cari reached across her and picked up
Unshackled
. “Can I read this? I heard it’s good.”

“It is. I love the romance—Jonas is such a great guy.” Patient. Willing to stand by the woman he loves, unlike
some
people. Okay, she was clearly still reeling, because Rafe had stood by her—had chased after her.

Apparently, however, he’d changed his mind between then and now. His fingers hadn’t been broken, had they? He could still use a telephone, right?

“Lolly liked the book—and Jonas too.” Cari flipped open the front cover. “Why didn’t you get John to sign it?”

“John? Why would he sign my book?”

“Because he’s the author.” Cari closed the cover. “Didn’t you know that?”

“No. No, I did
not
know that.” Kat suddenly understood Lolly’s
outburst of fury and frustration about being tired of waiting for her happy ending. “Did Lolly?”

“Not until recently. I heard them having
that
heated conversation yesterday all the way from my office. Before the ring.”

“I can’t believe John didn’t tell her—”

“Would you? Think about it—a cowboy writing love stories?”

“Cowboys sing love songs.”

“To their cows!” Cari lowered her voice. “But as I was coming in this morning, I heard him singing to her, so maybe you’re right.”

Kat smiled, thinking of the song Jonas had sung over and over, and guessed which song John had sung to the woman he loved. “Still, that’s a big secret to keep.” She might have decked him.

The thought made her sigh. No, she wasn’t Katherine Breckenridge, because
she
would have never considered
decking
someone. But apparently she wasn’t Kitty either.

“Not as big as embezzling money from your rich fiancée.” Cari dropped the book into her bag.

“I can’t believe that Bradley fooled me—all of us—so badly.”

“He didn’t fool Piper. Or me. I knew there was something about him I didn’t like. I think the moral of this story is that all that glitters isn’t gold.”

“I should have seen through him too,” said a voice behind her.

Kat found a smile for her grandfather as Cari got up and stepped aside. “I wanted to check on you before I left for London.” He looked more tired than usual, lines on his handsome face, his white hair thinner. He still carried the regal Breckenridge air, however, in a three-piece suit, carrying his sterling-silver-tipped cane. He sat on the side of her bed and took her hand. “I wanted to tell you how sorry I am.”

Kat looked at her hand in his, his thumb running over the top. “You were just looking out for me.”

He tried a smile, but it came off as a twitch, and she saw his eyes glisten. “Yes, Katherine, I was.”

“But you’re not taking away the Breckenridge Foundation.”

He pulled his hand away and shook his head.

“We don’t need you to underwrite us anymore, okay?” Kat said. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t need you.” She touched his arm.

He looked at her. Then took off his glasses and wiped his eyes.

Kat glanced at Cari, who leaned against the door.

“You were always so much more than I could have ever hoped for,” he said softly.

Kat’s eyes clouded.

“I’ll call you from London.” He leaned over to press a kiss to her forehead, then patted her leg through the covers before he left.

“As usual, I’m completely in the dark,” Cari said. “Are you talking about Bradley . . . or something else?”

Kat touched the place where her grandfather had sat. “I’m going for a walk in the park.” She pushed back the covers, slid out of bed.

“Are you okay? You want me to come with you?”

She shook her head as she started for her dressing room.

“Kat?”

She turned.

Cari stood in the door. “He’ll call.”

Kat sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe he decided that he simply didn’t fit in my world. That knowing me, loving me, was too much trouble.”

“Please. The guy just about jumped off a roof for you.”

“I nearly got him killed.” Kat went to her dressing room. Why
hadn’t
he called? She’d practically thrown herself at him. And hadn’t he said he was falling for her too? She tugged on her jeans and an old sweatshirt and stared at her footwear choices. Right, like there was any question. She reached for the red boots.

The September air smelled of autumn leaves and fading flowers as she crossed the street and fell into the solace of the park. Two Canada geese paddled in the pond. A jogger ran by. Kat strode over the bridge toward the Chess and Checkers House, then meandered down past the ball fields, where a couple of kids were tossing baseballs. She finally turned up the path toward the carousel.

Another Karen Carpenter song hung in the air from the loudspeakers of the carousel, something about birds and all the girls in town following a blue-eyed hero. Rafe didn’t have blue eyes, but those sweet-as-chocolate brown eyes worked just fine to attract the populace of Manhattan and beyond.

Kat bought a ticket at the booth, waited in line with four other people, then walked around the carousel until she found her favorite horse, Hornet. She climbed aboard, shaking her head. She’d never outgrow this part of her, the cowgirl inside. But she didn’t want to either.

“All that glitters isn’t gold.”
Maybe she hadn’t found her storybook ending. But she
had
found herself and the grace and peace to stop striving to be someone she didn’t have to be. Wasn’t supposed to be.

In the end, perhaps that was the happy ending she’d really been looking for.

As the ride started, Kat closed her eyes, letting herself go back to Montana, the fresh breezes, the movement of her horse as she
rode, laughter and strong arms, and two-stepping and bull riding, and . . .

She opened her eyes. The carousel was still moving, the song not quite over when she saw him standing in the shadows. He was leaning against a tree, his arms folded, watching her.

She closed her eyes again. She was just dreaming. When the music died, she opened her eyes.

Rafe smiled. He didn’t move toward her as the horse stopped, but he simply uncrossed his arms. Then she saw why. Behind him stood a wheelchair.

She climbed down from Hornet.

“I’m looking for somebody.” He pushed the wheelchair with one hand, leaning on it as he took a hop toward her.

“Yeah, who?” she answered, not moving.

He nodded toward the carousel. “Someone who can teach me to ride.”

She touched Hornet’s smooth wooden frame. “I got a great horse here.”

Rafe took another hop toward her. “Bet his name is Shadow or Beauty.”

“Hornet. Fastest stallion in the West.”

“Is that so? Think I can stay on him?” He hopped until he was just a foot away.

“I dunno. Are you tough?”

“I think so.”

“Can you handle pain?”

“Tryin’ to.”

“Are you afraid of a challenge?”

He grinned. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

Kat made a face. “He’s pretty wild. I’m not sure you can tame him.”

Rafe shook his head, real slow. “Not sure I want to. How about I just go easy with him, let him learn to trust me. I promise not to break his spirit.” He took a final step toward her, lowered his voice. “In fact, you can teach me how.”

How was she supposed to stay angry at him when he looked at her like that, all his emotions in his incredible eyes? She stepped off the carousel, closed the distance between them, and curled her hands into his shirt. “Think I’m a pro, do you?”

“Oh, I know it.” He pulled her toward him. “But don’t tell anyone. It’s our secret.”

Kat grinned, running her fingertip down his handsome, unbarbered face. “Took you long enough. I was getting worried. How’d you find me?”

“Cari. And I figured out the carousel.”

“You were paying attention, then.”

“It was hard not to.” Rafe cleared his throat, his expression sobering. “Sorry I didn’t call, Kitty, but you gotta give a man some credit for wanting to be upright when he tells his lady that he hopes she’ll give him a second chance. That, if she’ll have him, he’ll try to be everything she wants—a bull rider or a gentleman. If he has to, he’ll even live in New York.”

She ran her thumb over his chin, trying to find words but failing.

“So?” He smelled devastatingly good, freshly showered, if not shaved.