The Circle Eight: Tobias (7 page)

Mr. Donovan rubbed his chin, which had a few days’ growth of salt-and-pepper colored whiskers. It rasped in the quiet of the room. “They ain’t on the ranch. At least nobody’s seen them.”
 

“Fucking bastards.” James spoke what was on their minds, but that didn’t stop Mr. Donovan from frowning at him in disapproval.
 

“Miss Graham is a lady, Gibson.”
 

“Sorry, Rebecca.” James punched the doorframe. “I couldn’t chase them and let my brother die. I chose to save him.”
 

Rebecca dipped a rag in the water and cleaned Tobias’s face. As quickly as she wiped it away, more blood seeped down. She finally spotted a gash at the top of his forehead. Any wounds on the face or head tended to bleed profusely. She pressed the rag to the gash.
 

“James, hold this here while I get a needle to stitch him up. I can’t treat the rest of the damage until we can stop this from bleeding.” She watched James’s expression slide from angry to discomfort, but he stepped up and held the rag for her.
 

“I want to find them.” James spoke to Donovan as Rebecca retrieved her supplies from her medical bag. A quick glance at Will confirmed he was still unconscious, his body healing from his own injuries.
 

The Gibsons were having a run of bad luck at Donovan’s ranch. She hoped the injuries weren’t related, but her instincts told her they were likely connected. Particularly if it was the same three men who were present for both injuries.
 

“So do I. They got a lot to answer for. Beating up a drunk ain’t got no honor.” Donovan spoke of Tobias as the world saw him but it still bothered Rebecca. Judging by James’s reaction, it bothered him too.
 

James narrowed his gaze. “He’s my brother. Not a drunk.”
 

“I meant no disrespect, but I could smell the drink on him when he got here. I smell it on him now.” Donovan gestured to Tobias’s prone body. “It ain’t a crime to like liquor.”
 

“Don’t you judge my brother. He—”
 

“That’s enough squabbling.” Rebecca didn’t look up from her task. The act of pushing a needle through Tobias’s skin was hard enough without having two men arguing over her head. “Either help or get out.” She was too used to managing her brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews to put up with the childish behavior from James and Mr. Donovan.
 

“I, uh, will go get more water.” The rancher took the basin and quit the room.
 

James’s uneven breathing told her he was still itching for a fight, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. He had to think of his brothers and not his cockeyed need for revenge.
 

She wiped her brow with her sleeve, the sweat rolled down her cheeks and neck with each needle pierce. Tobias moaned low and deep, still unconscious but in pain. No matter if he smelled of whiskey or if he’d thrown the first punch. He was beaten by three men who might have killed him.
 

Her throat tightened and tears burned the backs of her eyes. She couldn’t cry. There wasn’t time for it. Perhaps she should have given him a chance to speak before she ran from the room earlier. He needed help, that was obvious, but she chose to provide succor to the vengeful young girl who crept around in the recesses of her heart.
 

She had no reason to hate him. He’d offered her no promises, nor did she give any in return. Rebecca knew what she was doing when she gave into her base needs five years ago. At the age of seventeen, with married siblings, she was well schooled in what a man and woman did together. Eva, her sisters and sisters-in-law made sure she had all the information she needed to make a choice for herself.
 

Her choice had been to give herself to this beautiful man who lay before her, his life’s blood staining the sheet, the floor and her hands. A sob rose up her throat and she choked it back with effort. She should have gone after him instead of accepting silence. Life was full of should have, could have, and would have moments.
 

She made a silent promise to Tobias if he lived—
when
he lived through this—she would tell him everything that was in her heart. Confess the thoughts and hopes she still harbored. Life changed from moment to
moment. She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life without the opportunity to tell Tobias she’d loved him since the first moment she saw him.
 

Nothing should be left unsaid again. She’d learned a hard lesson in almost losing Tobias for a second time.
 

“They need you.” She tied off the catgut and snipped the ends. “Now more than ever. I know Tobias is the eldest, but you have to be there for both of them right now.”
 

James shook his head. “No, they need
you
right now. I can’t do anything but shoot the bastards that hurt them both.”
 

“You’re wrong. Even if they are unconscious, they know you’re here. You can help me take care of them, talk to them.” Rebecca knew of the healing properties of family firsthand.
 

“I ain’t any good in a sickroom. Never have been. I don’t have a healing touch like you, and besides, I got a job. Donovan ain’t gonna pay me to stand around.” James handed her the rag. “I can’t be here.”
 

Rebecca didn’t mask her disappointment. “I don’t agree with you.”
 

“You don’t have to.”
 

“If you’re not going to be here for your brothers, can you send word to the Circle Eight and let them know I’ll be here longer than I thought?” Rebecca wasn’t up to writing a note although she normally would have.
 

“Donovan will have to let me ride over there myself. If you’re taking care of my family, I can make sure yours ain’t gonna worry about you.” He turned to leave the room and stopped short when a man wearing a silver star stood in the doorway. “Deputy Ellis. ’Bout time the law showed up.”
 

The lawman was a short but square man with a thick mustache and a permanent scowl etched between his dark eyes. “I got here in due time. I’m looking for your brother, Tobias Gibson.”
 

Something like dread tickled the back of Rebecca’s neck. She kept her gaze on Tobias and worked to clean and stitch the rest of the cuts. Her attention however was on James’s conversation with the deputy.
 

“Why are you looking for Tobias?” James’s voice had dipped low.
 

“I’ve got three men in town who say he attacked them without cause. They’re all beaten and bloodied. Johnston’s got a busted arm too. Travers and Bekins about shit themselves. Said they was scared by how crazy he was. Went after ’em like a mad man, he did.” The deputy spoke as though he was talking about his crop of beans not a man’s life.
 

Rebecca didn’t consider herself to be an angry person and she didn’t have the temper some of her sisters did. Yet the lawman spoke as though Tobias had been the victor in a fight of three against one. As if he wasn’t lying there bleeding and unconscious. She looked up when James spoke again.
 

“He ain’t done nothing but defend himself,” he growled.
 

“It’s my job to take him in. The law decides if he’s guilty, not you.” The deputy tried to move past James.
 

“Don’t you fucking touch my brother.” James pushed the deputy’s shoulder. “He’s in there bleeding and unconscious.”
 

“Then he won’t put up a fight, will he?”
 

Rebecca’s heart slammed against her ribs as the men faced off. She didn’t need another injured man in her care. It would be hard enough to take care of two, much less four. She had to diffuse the situation before something else happened. Her nerves could not endure another Gibson brother in her care.
 

“I’ve had enough of this.” She barked at them. “Both of you need to shut up. I have two patients to tend to and I’m not going to allow you to affect their healing or my care of them. So just
shut up
.”
 

They blinked at her, nonplussed by her bossiness. She had too much experience wrangling young’uns, and men were, after all, just oversized boys. Rebecca had brothers too. The male creature was a frustrating beast.
 

“Ma’am, I got a legal right to—”
 

“You have the right to shut up and let me tend to my patient. In case you hadn’t noticed, he is injured, bleeding and unconscious.” She pointed at the door with one blood smeared finger. “Get out.”
 

Rebecca didn’t wait to see if they obeyed, but she heard shuffling feet and the door shutting. She let out a breath and focused on Tobias. To her surprise, his eyes were open.
 

“That’s my girl.” His scratchy voice faded and he passed out again.
 

She stared at him, shaken by three simple words. Was she his girl? Or was it the ramblings of an injured man who couldn’t remember where he was?
 

She shook her head as if she could forget the words. Her only choice was to patch him up as best she could. It was the right thing to do.
 

Tobias swum through a haze of pain and blackness, pushing his way up over a seemingly endless path. He gulped for air, but couldn’t manage to
pull any into his lungs. His head screamed as though a hammer slammed into it over and over again. He tried to open his eyes but only one of them moved.
 

Light roared through the slit in his eyelid, piercing his skull until he groaned and shut the lid again. “Fuck.”
 

He tried to remember where he was or why he felt like he’d been stomped by a horse. Images flashed through his brain, jumbled bits of riding a horse, drinking whiskey, his brothers, and hell, Rebecca Graham too.
 

“Are you truly awake or just cussing in your sleep?”
 

Her voice had the melodic tones he remembered in his dreams. He tried to raise his hand to shade his eye, but his shoulder protested the movement. Loudly.
 

“What the hell happened?” His words sounded right to his brain, but his ears told him he hadn’t managed to speak at all.
 

“I’m sorry, Tobias. I know you’re in pain.” She brushed hair from his forehead, and a sweet ache began in his chest. Her touch was tender, something he’d had very little of in his life. “After you wake up, I can give you something to help with it.”
 

He tried to make his mouth work again but the words got tangled up. His tongue was thick and didn’t want to move right.
 

She brushed his forehead again. “What were you doing fighting with three men? I know you’re tough, but that was plumb stupid.”
 

Tobias wanted to take offense, but he couldn’t. Damn it. What did she mean three men?
 

“James was stomping around mad because he can’t find them. I think he believes they were the ones who hurt Will.”
 

That rang his bell. A memory danced at the edge of his mind. What had he heard and done? He was furious he couldn’t make his brain work.
 

“Then Deputy Ellis tried to arrest you.” She clucked her tongue and a warm cloth ran down his face with a touch as gentle as a butterfly wing. “I thought James was going to knock him out but then I told them to shut up and get out.” She laughed under her breath. “I think they about pissed themselves.”
 

Tobias laughed inside. She was such a sassy girl beneath the serious exterior. He liked that about her. She hid that part of her from most people. He’d seen it when she was at Pops’s cabin with the little ones. They followed her around like puppies, hanging on her every word. Not that he blamed them. He wanted to follow her around too.
 

“You were bleeding quite badly. Somebody stomped on your shoulder too.” She tsked at him. “I stitched you up and now I have two patients. Two Gibsons. Certainly didn’t expect that yesterday morning when I woke up.”
 

Neither did he. Hell, he hadn’t seen his brothers for over six months. Will came to see him more than James, but the winter had been long. The boys had stayed at Donovan’s and neither of them had ridden home to see him. Perhaps because it wasn’t their home anymore. It wasn’t anyone’s home. The cabin had become an empty shell made of wood and nails. Nothing more.
 

It was like him in a way. He was empty too.
 

Until he was around Rebecca. She reminded him of who he could be. She was a good person who healed people for God’s sake. What did he do? Get his ass beat by three men for a reason he couldn’t remember because his goddamn head was banging like a church bell.
 

“You broke my heart, Tobias.”
 

He stopped breathing. Hell, his entire body paused. She didn’t know he could hear her.
 

“I was angry for a long time. I didn’t tell my brothers but my sisters knew. They helped me when I cried.”
 

Shit, he made her cry. Damn, damn, damn.
 

“I thought you were the man of my dreams.” She chuffed a laugh. “I was naïve and stupid.”
 

No, he was stupid. As stupid and selfish as the day was long.
 

“Then I realized it wasn’t your doing. It was mine. I’m not that same girl, Tobias.” She sighed and her breath tickled across his skin. “I don’t think you’re the same man either.”
 

No, he wasn’t. He was an ass.
 

“But you’re still a good man, as rough as you are. Bad men don’t come riding to their brother’s rescue in a moment’s notice.”
 

He managed to get his eyelid open again. Rebecca was facing away from him, her hair a frizzy halo around her face, half in a braid, half out. Her blue-green eyes were ringed with dark circles. A smear of blood decorated her left cheek.