The Littlest Cowboy (24 page)

Without stopping, Garrett reached for the sheet of paper Chelsea had left on her pillow. Then he sank onto the edge of the bed, still rubbing that little back and wondering now why the action was as soothing to him as it seemed to be for Bubba. He leaned back against the headboard, reading her callous goodbye. A note that said nothing. Not one damn thing he needed to hear. Like how she felt about what had happened between them. Like why she’d so willingly given him something as precious as her virginity, and why she hadn’t told him, and whether she had ever really felt a damned thing for him at all.

A soft sigh from Bubba, and Garrett looked at the sleeping child.

Must have felt something for you, Garrett. She left Bubba with you. That’s two priceless gifts in under a day.

He scowled, swinging his head back to the note. He was indulging in wishful thinking. She didn’t feel a thing for him. Or for Bubba. If she had, she’d have stuck around and fought for them.

That’s right, she would. Chelsea Brennan isn’t the kind of woman to give anything up without a fight.

Which kind of added to the theory that she didn’t give a rat’s–

His head snapped around when he heard tires rolling over the well-worn driveway. Headlights moved across the window, and Garrett was halfway down the stairs before he gave himself a chance to wonder if it was really her. Dammit, he hadn’t ought to be sitting around feeling sorry for himself. He ought to be worried. He’d let her out of his sight. Out there alone, she’d be a walking target for Vincent de Lorean and his squadron of goons. Thank God she’d changed her mind and come back. Thank God.

Garrett skidded to a stop in the kitchen. The face peering through the window at him was not Chelsea’s. Lash. And damned if his normally full load of calm didn’t look a brick or two shy.

Fighting to keep the disappointment from showing on his face, Garrett opened the door. “What the hell brings you clear out here this time of night?”

Lash licked his lips. “Trouble, Garrett. And I’m sore afraid it’s trouble with a capital C.”

“A capital….” Garrett’s brows came down fast. “Chelsea?”

Lash nodded slowly. “Do me a favor and listen to the whole thing before you break my face, okay, big fella?”

Light footsteps on the stairs. A soft voice. “Garrett, you down here? I thought I heard–”

“What whole thing?” Garrett asked, ignoring Jessi.

“That for the past few months, I’ve been–technically speaking, at least–employed by Vincent de Lorean. But it isn’t what it–”

Garrett’s big fist connected soundly with most of the front portion of Lash’s face. Bone crunched. Blood spurted. Jessi screamed. Lash sort of bounced off the door behind him into Garrett’s chest, then slumped to the floor.

Stampeding feet crashed down the stairs at Jessi’s scream. Wes bounded to her side, his bowie in his hand and fire in his onyx eyes, while Elliot stood at the bottom of the stairs looking around and blinking in confusion.

Jessi lunged into the kitchen and fell to her knees beside the incapacitated Lash, though with all that blood, Garrett wondered if she even knew who he was. She was crying and swearing, using words Garrett didn’t know she even knew. And most of them were aimed at him. She stomped away, but he knew she’d be back.

Lash didn’t so much as wiggle.

“You kill him?” Wes asked, looking down at the mess at Garrett’s feet as he slid the bowie back into his boot.

“Not yet.”

Wes frowned hard and poked Lash in the ribs with the toe of one boot. No response. He looked up at Garrett again. “You sure?”

“I’m sure. Look, he’s breathin.’”

Wes stared for a minute. “How can you tell with all that blood?”

“I can tell.”

“Get the hell away from him, the both of you!” Jessi shouted, shoving through them and dropping down beside Lash again. You’d have thought he was one of her brothers the way she was acting. She started dabbing the blood away from his nose and lips with a wet cloth. She’d brought bandages and various ointments back with her, too. Looked like she intended to doctor him up thoroughly.

Garrett glanced at the inert man once more, shook his head and stepped toward the table and out of Jessi’s way.

Wes joined him, fixing a pot of coffee to brew as Garrett sat down. “So what happened to your infamous, endless, unshakable temper, big brother?”

“I lost it.”

Wes set the carafe under the basket and flipped the On button. “Why?”

“He said he’d been working for de Lorean.”

Wes nodded, sending a glance toward the stranger when he moaned softly. “You suspected that all along, though. Shouldn’t have come as such a surprise.”

“Chelsea’s missing, Wes. She just took off tonight. Left a note. I got no idea where the hell she is–”

“So you took it out on Lash, huh?”

Garrett watched as Jessi cleaned the blood away, revealing a split lip and a nose that was probably broken, judging from the odd angle of it.

“I shouldn’t have hit him that hard.”

‘“Cause he didn’t deserve it?”

“Hell, no. ‘Cause I have a feeling he might know where Chelsea is. Now I can’t even ask him until he comes around.”

“Oh.” Wes pulled the half-filled pot out from under the drip and shoved a cup under there to catch the still-brewing coffee while he filled two others. Then he yanked the third cup away and shoved the pot back underneath, all without spilling a drop. “We gotta get one of those new ones that stops dripping when you move the pot,” he muttered, handing Garrett a cup. He took a seat and joined Garrett in watching their little sister work her veterinary wonders on a horse’s backside.

“You think she’s sweet on him, Wes?” Garrett asked.

“Who, Jessi? Nah. No way in hell.” Wes watched her hand stroke Lash’s hair away from his forehead. “Besides, if he ever laid a finger on her.–”

“Yeah,” Garrett agreed, rubbing his slightly sore knuckles absently. “Me, too.”

Elliot stood in the doorway, looking from Jessi and Lash to Garrett and Wes, and shaking his head.

“You mind going back up and guarding little Bubba?” Garrett asked him. “I don’t like him being alone, under the circumstances.”

Elliot swallowed audibly and nodded toward the man on the floor. “What about him?”

“I want to talk to him. Soon as he comes around.”

“You…uh….” Elliot shifted his feet. “You aren’t gonna hit him again, are you?”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t hit him again, Elliot,” Wes assured his younger brother.

“Hell, Wes, your temper is ten times worse than Garrett’s!”

“Yeah, but it isn’t my ladylove who’s run off. So I’m not as likely to lose it with Lash.”

Elliot looked around slowly, taking it all in. Finally, he nodded and turned to head upstairs to the baby’s room.

C
helsea drove out of town, pulled the car off the road and opened the map that was still in her glove compartment—the one she’d bought at that convenience store before she’d come to this dusty little Tex-Mex town. It seemed like a lifetime ago now.

Still, with a little help from the overhead light, she was able to make out the town called Ellis–which looked like a crossroads right on the border, less than twenty miles away, using her fingers to measure by. She took a moment to check out her rental car, making sure there was still plenty of gas and double-checking the water level in the radiator. Everything was fine, just as she’d left it the night she’d arrived on the Texas Brand. No one had touched the car except to move it out of the middle of the driveway.

She started the car again, heading directly along the route she’d already plotted out in her mind. She was going to find this Vincent de Lorean. And she was going to kill him.

L
ash was lying on the couch, Jessi hovering over him like Florence Nightingale or something, when he opened his eyes. He met Garrett’s, and they narrowed dangerously.

“I’ll get you back for that, Brand. You gorilla.”

Garrett only shrugged. “Tell me something, Lash. You the one who spooked those cattle after all? Hm? Was it de Lorean who gave the order to burn down the stable or was that on your own initiative?”

“You’re dumber than you look if you think I came all the way out here to tell a damned giant that I burned down his stable.”

“I told you so, Garrett,” Jessi snapped, closing her hands around one of Lash’s. Lash looked at her and frowned as if he was seeing in her eyes something he hadn’t noticed before. The look of discovery and surprise on his face made Garrett even more uneasy than he already was.

Wes reached over and gently tugged Jessi’s hands away. “Go on upstairs and check on Elliot and Bubba, hon.”

“But I–”

“Go.”

Jessi stood reluctantly and eyed her two brothers. “If you hurt him–”

“We won’t lay a finger on him. Promise,” Wes said.

She glared at Garrett until he nodded agreement. Then she sent a tender gaze down at Lash. “If you need me, just call.”

“I…uh….” He sent wary glances at the two other men and squirmed a little. “Thanks.”

As soon as she was gone, Wes knelt beside the couch. “Just for the record, Lash, regardless of the outcome of this conversation, I don’t ever wanna see any part of your person make contact with any part of my little sister ever again. If I do, the part in question is gonna get cut off. Got it?”

Lash swallowed hard, but nodded. “She’s a kid. I got no interest in kids.”

“Exceptin’ for Bubba, right?”

Lash shot a defiant glare at Garrett. “If you’d let me finish what I started to say before, you’d have your answers by now. I was working for de Lorean so I could gather enough evidence against him to bring him down.”

Garrett’s mouth suddenly went dry. “You’re a cop?”

“No. I’m an ex-fire fighter from Chicago, just like I told you.”

“Then why–”

“Why doesn’t matter. It’s my private business and I have no intention of discussing it with the likes of you. Now do you want to hear what I have to tell you or not?”

Garrett’s knees bent, and he fell into a chair. Wes stood to one side, shaking his head slowly.

“De Lorean was getting suspicious of me. I still didn’t have enough on him. But I knew he was after Chelsea and the baby, so I stuck around. Kept trying to feed him false leads and throw him off track. I knew from the beginning where she was. I was the one assigned to tail her from the morgue. But I told de Lorean I’d lost her.”

“You….” Garrett whispered. “It was you who called me that night.”

Lash nodded. “De Lorean found out where she was just as I’d figured he would, with or without my help. Chelsea called her apartment manager and left an address where she could have her mail forwarded. That was one of the bases de Lorean had covered. He had the address within a few hours after Chelsea hung up. I called to warn you as soon as I realized it. Well, since the jerk was already suspicious of me, it seemed there was no more I could do on that end, short of maybe getting myself shot once between the eyes. So I headed out here. Thought I could help protect her and the kid from that bastard.”

“The stampede?”

Lash shook his head. “When I arrived in town, I spotted a vehicle belonging to one of de Lorean’s goons heading from this direction. So I made a beeline out here and came up with the first excuse I could think of to ride out and catch up to you and Chelsea.”

“And you saved our butts.”

“I’m sure you’d have done the same for me,” Lash said, lightly touching his broken nose.

“And the fire?”

“When I saw the trucks heading out here, I knew damn well….” He shrugged. “I followed to try and help. Hell, it was half-instinctive. It’s what I did for a good portion of my life.”

Garrett shook his head in disbelief.

‘‘No need to thank me,” Lash said.

Garrett looked him square in the eye. “What do you know about Chelsea?”

“She came to see me tonight. Seems I got careless that day in the stampede. I dropped….” He lifted himself into a sitting position with a grunt and shoved a hand into his blood-smattered T-shirt’s pocket. Pulling out a slip of paper, he handed it to Garrett. “This. She found it and must’ve thought I was really one of the bad guys. What I can’t figure is why she didn’t tell you in the beginning.”

“She didn’t even know de Lorean’s name until yesterday,” Garrett muttered, cussing himself for keeping it from her.

Lash nodded. “Anyway, she told me to get out of town tonight. Told me if I set foot near you or the baby again, she’d tell you I was working for de Lorean and let you toss me in jail…or worse.” He pressed a finger to his split lip, drew it away and checked it for fresh blood.

Garrett nodded. “Before she left us, she wanted to be sure you didn’t pose a threat.”

“She’s gone, then?” Lash asked.

“Yeah. Said she wanted to start over someplace fresh. Said she thought little Bubba would be better off here with us.”

“She lied through her teeth, Brand. She’s gone after de Lorean.”

Garrett’s head snapped up. “What the hell makes you think she’d do that?”

Lash rolled his eyes. “Wake up, big fella. One, she knows where he lives.” He ticked the points off on his fingers as he went on. “Two, she threatened me to be sure you and the baby would be safe, so it stands to reason she’d want to protect you all from him, as well. Three, she was heading that way when she left. And four, she was brandishing a handgun the size of a damn cannon. I seriously doubt she brought it along because it went so nicely with her shoes.”