Texas Lawman (18 page)

“Who’s gonna watch for the Hammonds?” LeRoy demanded.

“I am,” Mae said fiercely. “Now get going! All of you!”

They transferred Christine into the Cadillac as Mae gave her orders. But before starting off, Christine had a request of Shannon. “Be sure to call Erin and Delores. Tell them…” She didn’t finish the sentence.

“They’re at Megan Cantfield’s, or they will be soon.”

“I’ll find them. You just take care.”

Jodie started the more powerful engine and the car leaped forward.

The miles melted away as Harriet sat in the backseat with Christine, doing her best to keep her comfortable and offering encouragement. It seemed to take forever to get to Del None. Once or twice toward the end Jodie

wasn’t sure if they’d make it in time, and she gave special thanks for Harriet’s Calming presence.

The hospital was a small one-story structure set back off the town’s’main street. It was able to handle minor to serious emergencies, but for anything requiting specialized or prolonged intensive care, patients were transferred to hospitals in larger cities.

Jodie pulled the Cadillac into the emergency entrance, and Christine was whisked away quickly by the waiting attendants. Harriet went with them, leaving Jo-die to follow after she’d parked the car.

Away from prying eyes Jodie finally gave in to her anxieties. One tension-filled situation had been piling on another, and it was too much. She started to shake and tears rolled down her cheeks. Rio, Tate, the Ham-mon ds her place among the Parkers, her unexpected responsibility for a mother and child’s well-being.

Moments later she dried her cheeks. One situation at least had already been solved. Or was in the process of being solved. Christine was now safely at the hospital about to have her baby.

Jodie hurried inside, only to find she had to stay in the waiting room. Harriet was the only family member allowed to be with Christine until Morgan arrived.

“Is she having the baby yet?” Jodie demanded of the nurse.

“We’ll let you know.”

Jodie took a chair and restlessly flipped through a dog-eared magazine. Minutes later Harriet hurried in. “Jodie, after all that rushing, it seems little Elisabeth isn’t as anxious to arrive in the big bad world as we

thought. It looks like Morgan and Erin are going have time to get here, after all. Isn’t that wonderful? ” ” Yes, wonderful,” J4e echoed.

“I’m going back in. I just had to come out and tell you. cause I knew you’d be wondering.” She glanced around the austere room. “Not exactly a cozy place, is it?”

“It’s fine,” Jodie said.

Harriet squeezed her hand. “Why don’t you go get a cup of coffee or something? Nothing’s going to happen for the next half hour—at least, that’s what the nurse says. “

“Tell Christine I love her.”

Harriet beamed. “I will.”

Jodie thumbed through the magazine some more, then-tossed it aside. Maybe coffee would be good.

OnlY, the small cafeteria the hospital boasted was closed and the remaining option was machine coffee.

Jodie grimaced and went outside. When she’d parked the car she’d seen a cafe a short distance down the street. She was sure she could get a cup to go and bring it back to the waiting room.

She made her way to the cafe, received her order and was on her way back when a pickup truck that had just passed screeched to a halt, made a violent U-turn and raced back. Jodie froze as the occupants jumped out and rushed toward her.

“It’s her! I told you it was her! Can’t miss that red hair!” a rough voice cried.

Someone grabbed her arm, making her spill the coffee. The hot liquid scalded her fingers and she gave a small squeak of pain.

Other hands grabbed her, as we! i, trying to pull her off her feet.

Her survival skills kicked in. She twisted and turned, and when that didn’t do any good, she threw the remaining hot coffee into one of the men’s faces. By now she’d recognized them—the Hammonds!

Her action was met with a howl of outrage, and this encouraged Jodie to continue resisting. “Catch hold of her!”

“Get— Don’t let her”

“Stop it, bitch! All we want to do is talk to ya. Not…”

Another car sped toward them, one with flashing lights and a wailing siren. Curses were snarled and the fingers on her arms tightened. Then she was let go, but not before someone gave her a hard shove that sent her sprawling to the ground.

She banged her knee and her hip painfully, then rolled over just as the Hammonds leaped back into their truck and took off down the street.

The front of the patrol car dipped as the brakes caught. The driver was out in a second. Tate! :

He was on his knees beside her as she struggled to sit up. “Don’t move. Does anything hurt?”

Jodie was sputtering, her temper temporarily getting the better of her. “It was them! Did you see? All I was doing was walking along and”

“Jodie! Don’t try to stand up. You might be hurt more than you think.”

“I’m not hurt, just dented,” she snapped as she got to her feet. Her knee and hip stung and throbbed, and the fingers on her left hand were tender.

“Come on, give me your arm. Put it around my shoulders. The hospital’s jhst”

“I don’t want to’ go to,he hospital,” Jodie said. “You’re limping.”

“I’m not going,” Jodie said. “Christine’s having her baby there!”

Curious eyes peered at them from the occasional car that passed by. A few people stood in the doorway of the cafe, the siren and flashing lights drawing their attention.

Jodie knew she only needed time to collect herself. No bones were broken, or she wouldn’t be able to hold her weight, but after everything, this was just about the last straw.

“C’mon,” Tate said. “We need to check out that knee. Not the hospital,” he added quickly when she held back.

He switched off the patrol car’s emergency signals, then drove them to a small house not far away.

The interior of the house had as little to offer as the exterior. It looked like a place someone used part-time. There was very little reflection of personality, except that, for the most part, it was neat and clean.

“Is this your place?” Jodie asked.

“Mi casa es su casa,” he said with a wry smile, picking up a discarded newspaper and an empty soft-drink can.

My house is your house, a Spanish courtesy. But it had been said in such a way that Jodie felt uncomfortable. As if Tate expected her to judge him poorly because of a perceived gap in their social standing.

“It’s … nice,” Jodie said.

“It’s somewhere to sleep,” Tate replied, removing his hat and setting it on a table by the front door. “Sit down. Can you pull up that pant leg?”

Jodie hitched up the blue denim of her jeans, noticing as she did the bright spots of blood. She didn’t tell him that her hip felt worse than her knee. She didn’t want him demanding to inspect it.

He made a sound deep in his throat and walked into what she guessed was the bathroom. She heard a medicine chest open and close, just before he returned with cotton balls, antiseptic and a large Band-Aid.

Without further words he knelt at her side and attended to her injury, gently cleansing it and covering it.

Jodie couldn’t look away. Not from the closely clipped brown hair that still held the imprint of his hat, not from his hands that touched her with seeming indifference, when before they’d ignited her body to such wonderful. She turned her head, grimacing as she rejected the disturbing thought. She didn’t need to add to her troubles!

“Sorry,” he apologized gruffly.

She smiled grimly. He thought he’d hurt her. “No, it’s not” “Anywhere else?” he asked. Jodie shook her head.

He stood up, as if relieved to have finished the job. “I know you want to get back to the hospital, but ! need just a minute or two of your time.”

Jodie gazed up at him, torn between desire and tears. Because of the way he was distancing himself? Because of the way he had always held himself aloof?

She did? “t understand—either why he did it or why it was important to her that he stop.

She saw his jaw grind a realized he’d asked her question, one she had yet to respond to.

“I asked if you’re willing to press charges against the Hammonds. I’ve just been waiting for something to bring ‘em in on. What they did to you qualifies as assault and battery, possibly even attempted kidnapping.”

Jodie shook her head. “No. I don’t want to do that.”

“They scared the daylights out of you, didn’t they?

/

And they knocked you down. “

“I still don’t want to do it. It’ll only make everything worse. Aunt Mae will go ballistic if she learns I’ve been hurt. She and Rafe could go after them. I don’t want to cause any more trouble than I already have.”

Tears again threatened as she struggled to her feet. But she didn’t want to cry in front of him. She was Jodie Parker. Jodie . Parker. t Listen to her! As if she was somehow better than anyone else because of her last name! That wasn’t like her! She never Tate grabbed her hand to keep her from stumbling on her first step—her left hand, with the burned fngers.

She gave an instinctive mew of pain. “What?” he demanded sharply. “It’s nothing.”

He turned her hand over and examined it. When he saw the redness and the light blistering, he demanded, “How did this happen?”

“Hot coffee. I threw the rest in Tom’s face.”

A frown and a smile jostled with each other, and the smile won. “The hell you say!”

She nodded. “I did. Right before you drove up.”

“Maybe I should have left you to it, then. You might’ve whupped ‘em all.”

Jodie’s smile, was wobbly. “I might’ve.”

He smoothed an escaped tear away with his thumb. “It’s not really very funny, though, is it?”

She shook her head again, unable to speak through a too-tight throat. He was being kind and thoughtful and concerned.

“That’s why I think you should press charges. These people are loose cannons. And until we get the final word ol{ Rio’s alibi, they’ll be better off in jail. It’Il be safer for them, for you, for your whole family—for everyone.” ‘

They remained close. Him holding her hand, her looking up.

Their gazes locked for a long time, and slowly he bent to kiss her.

Then someone rang the doorbell.

“TATE! I WAS JUST on my way to the station when I saw your car out front and I wondered”

Emma Connelly’s words halted the moment she stepped into the house and saw Jodie. She looked from Jodie to Tate and back again, disbelievingly at first, then with her cheeks flushing crimson,

For the first time in years Tate was annoyed with his mother. Or rather, with her timing. Five more minutes one more minute, and they might’ve . He couldn’t remain annoyed with his mother for long, though, in view of her obvious embarrassment.

“Jodie had a little accident, Mom,” he explained. “She, ah, I was helping her.”

Jodie’s pant leg, still hitched up, revealed the wide Band-Aid. She, too, appeared ill at ease in the situation.

“Tate’s been very kind, Mrs. Connelly.”

“What happened?” Emma asked.

Tate felt Jodie’s quick look. He kneTM she didn’t want to advertise the altercation. He also knew his mother’s propensity for gossip. She’d never say a word about anything that happened on the job, but events outside it were fair game. Unless he asked for her silence, which, in this case, would only bring on more questions. “She fell,” he said simply.

His mother raised a skeptical eyebrow, but didn’t pursue it. “Are you hurt bad?” she asked Jodie.

Jodie shook her head and bent to roll down her pant leg. As she straightened, she said, “I should get back to the hospital, Tam.” Then to Emma, “Christine Hughes is having her baby. We had to rush her into town, but now it looks as if it’s going to take some time. Still, I’d like to be there.”

Tate looked at his mother. “Did you need something special?” he asked.

“I just saw your car, that’s all. And I know you usuallym” She broke off, gave her head a little shake, then turned to Jodie. “Christine Hughes is expecting a little girl, isn’t she?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jodie replied.

They parted company moments later, Jodie having limped back out to the patrol car, while his mother returned to her car.

Jodie didn’t miss the long look Emma gave them as she pulled away. “She’s not convinced,” she said evenly.

“No,” he agreed.

“Will it cause problems?”

“No.”

He wondered if she was thinking of the interrupted kiss, like he was. And if she, like him, wanted the moment back. He was aware of every movement she made, of the little adjustment she gave when she bent her knee too far and felt pain, of the way she cradled her left hand.

Black anger burned through him when he thought of the Hammonds’ assault. In his mind’s eye he could see

the scene as he had then, tailing the pickup from distance, seeing it turn around, seeing the men converge on an unsuspecting Joltie. Then being delayed in traffic . and having to watch as she was knocked to the ground.

No matter what Jodie said, he was going to have them picked up. He wanted another little talk with them. Maybe he could yet instill the fear of God.

He turned into the hospital parking iota nd pulled the patrol car as close as he could to the front entrance.

“I didn’t think you’d want to go in through the emergency room. A doctor might see you and think you’re an accident victim.”

She turned her lovely yellow-green eyes on him and his heart skipped a beat. “Tate,” she said sincerely, “I didn’t thank you for scaring those terrible men away, for ministering to my wounds, for” — her lips curved into a’dry smile “—not giving me away to your mother.”

He shrugged. “Would you like me to go inside with you?”

She motioned to Harriet and LeRoy’s car and the two Parker Ranch pickups parked nearby. “No. Everyone’s here now. It’d just draw attention.”

She sighed lightly, then reached for the door handle. But before she could open it, he said, “Jodie?”

She looked back at him, and Tate couldn’t help it. He leaned over and completed the kiss they’d begun earlier. Kissed her hard and with feeling.