The Return of Brody McBride (38 page)

Brody punched him in the side again. The man grunted with the impact. He clamped his left hand around the guy’s right wrist and bashed it against the ground. Once, twice, and on the third blow, the guy released the knife. It thumped and landed a foot away.

Rearing up onto his knees, straddling the man, Brody punched him in the face. The man reached up, tried to grab Brody’s shirt to hold him off, but Brody wouldn’t be stopped. He shoved the guy’s arm aside and punched him in the face again. And again. His head snapped to the side, his face swollen and bloody, Brody hit him again.

“Brody!” Rain yelled.

He didn’t stop. He landed another blow. “Brody! Stop!” she tried again, but he’d gone to another place and didn’t respond to her calls.

Rain tried to get up, but her legs were like rubber. Her head spun, her eyesight went blurry, her chin fell to her chest and she saw the blood running down her white top.

The man grunted again, his feet sliding in the gravel.

“Brody. Help me!” Rain screamed.

Silence. Brody stilled, two hands fisted in the guy’s shirt, holding him partially off the ground. He shoved him away. He rushed to her side. Her head fell back, sending her onto the ground, her head thumped into the gravel. A shaft of splitting pain arced through her brain.

“Rain!”

Brody slid to a stop on his knees beside her. He took a second to scan her face and body to see where she was hurt the worst. The blood on her head, face, and chest terrified him. With trembling hands, he cupped her face and leaned over her.

“Rain, baby, open your eyes. Please, honey.”

“Brody.” His name came out on an exhaled whisper.

“Yes, honey.”

“Get the girls,” she ordered. “Get them out of here.”

“I’m not leaving you.” He ripped her bloodstained shirt to reveal the deep gash in her chest, just above her breast. Seeping blood, he pressed the heel of his hand over the wound to stop the bleeding. It gushed through his fingers.

“
Rrrrr. Aaaaah.
” The sound of agony that came from her shattered his heart.

Roxy stirred behind him, whimpering and crying. Every once in a while, she let loose with a string of cuss words and obscenities.

“You hear the sirens, Rain. Help is coming.”

Her eyes fluttered open, pain clouded the depths. “Take care of the girls. They’re scared. Go to them, Brody.”

“You’re bleeding.”

“I’m fine. It’s just a scra-atch,” she slurred.

“Bullshit.”

“You’re bleeding, too,” she pointed out.

“I didn’t get to you in time.”

“I’m still breathing. You got to me in time.”

“I should have . . .”

“Go see the girls. I can hear them crying. Please, Brody. They need you.”

“You need me, too.”

She reached up and traced her fingers over his cheek. Tears he hadn’t realized he shed wet her fingertips. “I’m fine. Just a broken hand. My head hurts.”

“You broke your hand?”

“Roxy’s got a hard head.”

He couldn’t help himself, he laughed. “Please tell me you’re going to be okay.”

“I am. Now please go to the girls.”

Brody leaned in and kissed her softly on the mouth. When he let up the pressure on her chest, the wound didn’t bleed. He gently picked up her broken right hand and laid it on her stomach. Swollen and bruised badly, her knuckles raw and bleeding, she’d need a cast. She grimaced in pain, gritted her teeth, and clamped down her jaw when he touched it.

“I’ll be right back.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Brody ran to the truck. Dawn and Autumn stared at him through the window. He had to point at the lock to get them to open the door. They fell into his arms and held him tight. Their little bodies shook as they bawled.

“Is Mommy . . .” Dawn began, but couldn’t finish the words as she cried harder.

“Mommy is just fine. She’s a little hurt, but she’ll be okay.”

“You promise.”

“Yes, baby girl.”

Three sheriff’s cruisers and an ambulance came to a jarring halt just past the crashed vehicles. Officers swarmed the area, taking Roxy’s boyfriend into custody just as he came awake, sputtering obscenities and demanding they arrest Brody for assault.

An officer shoved Roxy up against the side of the wrecked Camero. A paramedic looked at her broken nose and handed her a wad of gauze to staunch the bleeding.

“Hey,” he called to the other paramedic about to help Roxy’s boyfriend. “She needs your help. She’s been stabbed in the chest and broke her hand.” He indicated Rain, lying on her back in the gravel, an officer kneeling beside her who looked very familiar.

“Sweetheart, what happened here?” Brody’s cousin, Dylan, asked Rain as Brody approached with Dawn and Autumn in his arms.

“Dylan? What the hell are you doing here?”

“I guess Owen and Rain didn’t tell you I came home. I’m the new sheriff.” Dylan glanced at the scene around them. “I see nothing much has changed.”

“Bullshit. I didn’t start this fight.”

“Owen filled me in about what happened with Rain and Roxy years ago when I came back to town.”

“Good, then you’re up to speed and know that Roxy has no rights to Autumn. She kidnapped her from the house and tried to take her. Rain”—he nodded to her on the ground—“stopped them from leaving. I don’t know the guy’s name, but he got out of the car and tried to kill Rain with that knife.” Another officer held up the long bone-handled blade. “I knocked him off her, and we got into a scuffle.”

“He slice open your shoulder?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah. Rain needs to get to the hospital. She banged her head during the car crash and broke her hand on Roxy’s face.”

“Mommy,” Autumn’s tremulous voice called out.

“I’m okay, baby,” Rain called back as the paramedic placed a bandage over the wound on her chest and staunched the blood again, making Rain clench her teeth to stifle the moan of pain.

“I’m sorry, man, Mom and Dad never told me about the way your father died, or the girls,” Dylan said.

“They don’t exactly keep in touch with me and Owen,” Brody said, knowing his aunt and uncle looked at him and Owen as the black sheep of the family. Their father’s drinking caused a rift between the two brothers. Brody and Owen barely saw Dylan when they were kids. Still, they were family.

“Well, I’m glad to see you finally came home.”

“Me, too.”

“Owen should have called me and let me help you,” Dylan admonished.

“I wouldn’t have wanted to get you involved and jeopardize your job with all this business of buying children and payoffs for signatures on legal documents.”

Dylan shrugged that away. “We’re family. No matter what, I’ve got your back.”

“In that case, lock those two up and throw away the key.”

“I’ll contact Owen and we’ll sort out this mess.”

Brody had no doubt about that as they lifted Rain on a gurney into the back of the ambulance. Roxy sat inside on the bench, glaring at him. An officer ushered her boyfriend to a police car and stuffed him in the backseat.

Dylan took them in his car to the hospital. Brody called Eli from the backseat, while Dylan spoke to Owen on his cell up front.

Let Dylan and Owen sort things out with Roxy. He needed to be with Rain.

Chapter Thirty-One

R
AIN WOKE UP
disoriented. The bright morning sun shining in her eyes, her tongue thick and dry. Brody sat beside her, his image shifted hazily, doubling, then returning to his normal, handsome form. He looked haggard, his face pale, dark circles marring the underside of his eyes. His cheek rested against his fist, his elbow propped on the arm of a chair as he watched her. When it registered she was looking back, he leaned forward and laid his hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, honey.”

“Hey yourself. Where are Dawn and Autumn?”

“Outside in the hall with Pop. I didn’t want them to wake you up.”

“What happened? Everything’s a little fuzzy.”

“You have a mild concussion. They set your arm in a cast. You broke three bones in your hand. I need to teach you how to throw a proper punch.”

“I did okay.” She defended herself. “Did you see Roxy’s face?”

That got her a smile. Not a big one, but the corners of his mouth went up.

“Yeah. She was screaming in the ER while they reset her nose and taped her up. She’s got two black eyes to go with it and a nasty bruise on her jaw.”

“Did you see Autumn stomp on her foot?” Rain didn’t hold back the smile.

“She got her good.” Brody let his pride show in his voice. “Her mama taught her well.”

His fingertips slid from her shoulder over her chest to the bandage taped to her skin.

“They put in eight stitches.” His voice grew husky with emotion.

“How many did you get?”

“None. The cut wasn’t so bad. It’ll heal. They cleaned it and put a bandage over it. It’ll leave a scar, but hey, you love my scars.”

That made her smile. “I love you,” she corrected.

“I love you, too.” He dropped his head and shook it. “I almost lost you yesterday.”

“You saved me yesterday,” she disagreed. “Thank you, Brody, for rescuing me.”

“I was almost too late.”

“Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades,” she teased.

“Don’t remind me.” He combed his fingers through his already disheveled hair and stared at her. “I got lost again. They took Autumn, and I fell into a nightmare. Dawn was screaming for me to get Autumn back, but I didn’t hear her until it was too late.”

His head fell forward and rested on the bed beside her. She buried her fingers in his hair.

“Brody, it’s not your fault.”

“I called the psychiatrist last night. We had a long talk. He thinks now that this is settled, I’ll be better able to cope without all this stress in my life. We’ll have regular appointments three days a week until I can cope better.

“When you screamed for help and I saw you lying there . . .”

“I yelled for you because I was afraid you’d kill that guy, and they’d take you away from me.”

“I lost it when I saw him with that knife, trying to kill you.”

“What happened with the police and Dylan?”

“Roxy’s boyfriend has been charged with aggravated assault, a felony. He’ll go to jail. As for the kidnapping, it’s a gray area the prosecutor is trying to sort out. Roxy is the biological mother. We don’t have any papers specifying any kind of custody arrangements. Owen is working a deal. He’ll try to get Roxy to sign the papers relinquishing her rights to have all charges dropped against her and the boyfriend for taking Autumn. Technically, Autumn was living with me, her father, so Roxy didn’t really have a right to take her without my permission or knowledge. At least, that’s the case Owen is building.

“We have something else on our side. Don’t go ballistic.”

“What?” she asked, concerned.

“They charged Roxy with child abuse. She hit Dawn.”

“What?” Rain exploded and tried to sit up. Brody held her down. “Is she okay?”

“She’s fine. Roxy slapped her, left a bruise on her face. She also shoved her pretty hard and made her fall and scrape up her knees.”

“Oh God, Brody. Bring her in here.”

“In a minute. They’re both fine. Owen and Pop have stayed with them every minute.”

The door opened and Owen walked in smiling, wearing a suit, and carrying his briefcase.

“Hi, beautiful. How are you feeling?”

“Great if you tell me Roxy is behind bars.”

“She’s being released as we speak. Sorry.”

“Explain,” Brody demanded.

The smile on his face spoke volumes. Things had finally gone their way.

“She signed the papers. Autumn is yours. She also agreed to sell the bar to you, Brody. I’ve agreed to settle her debts, pay for the liquor license renewal, and give her a cash settlement on your behalf.”

“How much?” Rain asked.

“After the payments for the bar, she’ll get one hundred thousand. It’s what Brody agreed to pay her if she signed the papers and left town for good. Just to get the point across, I’ve taken out a restraining order. She’s not to go within one hundred yards of any of you, including Dawn.

“She’ll be gone tomorrow. Robert, the boyfriend, will remain behind bars. He’s got an arrest warrant in Nevada for possession with intent to sell. He’ll be prosecuted and serve time for both charges as well as the new charges for assaulting you.”

“So, it’s over,” Rain said, unable to believe they’d finally gotten Roxy out of their lives.

“Not quite.” Owen opened his briefcase and pulled out a folder. “You need to sign these. I’ll file them with the courts at the same time I file the papers Roxy signed.”

“What are these?” Rain asked.

“The adoption papers. It’ll take a few months to finalize, but once it goes through, Autumn will be your daughter legally.” Owen handed her a pen to sign the papers marked by little red arrow tabs.

Rain locked eyes with Brody, her broken hand poised over the papers, ready to sign. He brushed his fingers over her hair and leaned down and kissed her forehead.

“She’s your daughter, honey. Sign the papers.”

Rain reached up and touched her fingertips to his chest over his heart. The cast prevented her from laying her palm flat. “She’s our daughter.”

Rain signed the papers. Finished. Over. Finally, they could be a family.

“You know, my daughters have a different last name than me.”

She hoped Brody would take the hint and hurry up about asking her to marry him. Impatient to be his wife, she pushed. “Do you have a wedding license application in there, too, Owen?” she asked with a hopeful lilt to her voice.

“I didn’t ask you yet,” Brody teased. “But I will.” Her eyes danced as he grinned at her. Yes, he would ask, and when he did he’d get it absolutely, perfectly right.

Look out, there are more McBride men to come!

Next up: bad boy turned lawyer, Owen McBride.

FALLING FOR OWEN

Book Two: The McBrides

Coming April 2014

From Avon Impulse

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