Whirlwind Reunion (17 page)

“I plan to keep you that way.” He turned her in his arms and covered her mouth with his.

Annalise sank into the kiss and her heart began to pound so hard she could hear it in her head. It kept pounding. Finally, she realized the pounding was coming from the door.

She pulled away. “I have to answer that.”

“We could hide back here. No one would know.”

She kissed him lightly and started for the front door. “Someone might need help.”

He followed, muttering that this better be important or else. They should've headed upstairs when they had the chance.

“It's Davis Lee.” She unlocked and opened the door, surprised to see the lawman so early.

Matt grinned at his friend. “Thanks to the doctor here, we may have figured out why the hoof prints left behind after the rustlers hit are so strange.”

“I'm afraid my news isn't as pleasant.” His somber blue gaze went from Annalise to Matt. “Just got a wire that the Landis brothers broke out of the Abilene jail.”

Beside her, Matt went as stiff as a wagon axle. “All of them?”

“Yes, the other five.”

“So, in addition to Reuben and Pat being on the loose, now the others are, too.”

“I'm heading up a posse. The SOBs were last seen going west, toward Whirlwind. Doesn't mean they're coming here, but I think we should be prepared. I told Marshal Clinton that we would start from
halfway between here and Abilene and fan out in all directions.”

“Which men are staying behind?”

“Quentin, Charlie, Pete Carter, Tony Santos and Penn Wavers. Jericho just left with Catherine for a trip back East.”

“Andrew, Miguel and Creed can serve as extra eyes and ears.” All three boys knew how to handle a gun. “They all shoot pretty well, too.”

“We're heading out in ten minutes,” Davis Lee said.

“I'll be there.”

The sheriff looked at Annalise. “We don't know if the Landis brothers will come here, but Josie and the baby are going to stay at the Fontaine with Lydia and Naomi.”

“All right.”

After their friend said goodbye, Matt turned to Annalise. “Please stay at the hotel as well. I know you don't want to, but it would ease my mind.” She hesitated.

“Please.”

The concern in his eyes and the softness of his voice had her nodding. “Okay.”

“Thank you.” The relief on his face was so strong that Annalise reached for his hand.

He brushed his lips across her knuckles then pulled her to him. For a long moment, he just held her. She laid her hand on his chest, feeling the steady thump of his heart.

“When will you go to the hotel?” he asked.

“Tonight, before dark.”

“All right. One of us will send word when we can.”

“Promise you'll be careful.”

“You bet.” Cupping her face in his hands, he gave
her a slow kiss, as though he were storing it away in his memory. And then he was gone.

She watched his long-legged strides eat up the distance across Main Street between here and the jail where Jake and Bram Ross and Riley were gathered in the bright morning sunlight.

The men mounted up. Half of them headed west, the other half went east past Annalise. With any luck, the posses would find the Landis brothers and no one would be hurt.

As Matt galloped by, he winked at her. She waved, thankful he had his friends to watch his back. She was glad he hadn't wanted to let anything come between them either. Thank goodness they had patched things up.

As she watched Matt ride off, Annalise knew things between them would be okay.

 

Late the next evening, Matt sat around a campfire with his brother, Riley, and Jake and Bram Ross. Annalise was on his mind. He was glad they had set things right between them and relieved she had agreed to stay at the hotel. Knowing she was with other people at night kept him from worrying too much.

He'd rather be there protecting her himself, but this was where he was needed.

After a supper of beans and biscuits, the men passed around a fresh pot of coffee. The night was clear, the sky an inky black dotted with diamond-bright stars. He and the others had met up with Marshal Clinton about five miles outside Abilene. He and the three men with him shared that the Landis brothers were definitely traveling west and one of them had been shot and wounded.

Matt's party had turned back toward Whirlwind,
tracked the outlaws past Triple B land as well as Riley's. The trail turned slightly north and he figured the outlaws were headed for the Panhandle.

They had ridden until dark again today then stopped for the night. It occurred to Matt that because of the jail break he hadn't told Davis Lee or Russ what he and Annalise had discovered about those hoof prints.

He explained to the others how Annalise had made the impression of the cattle tracks after the rustlers' last visit to the Triple B. All of the men who had lost cattle had been confused as to why the thieves weren't leaving any human tracks.

Matt described the uniformity of the hoof prints on the cheesecloth impression. “Yesterday, Annalise showed me the imprint of a nailhead in the dead center of the hoof.”

“What're you sayin'?” Riley asked, tossing his straw cowboy hat onto the bedroll beneath him.

“The rustlers are nailing real cow hooves to the soles of their boots or shoes.”

Exclamations sounded around the small fire.

Riley tossed a twig to the side. “Well, those tracks make sense now.”

Davis Lee shook his head. “That's a trick I haven't heard before.”

Bram stretched out on his bedroll, using his saddle as a pillow. “Sounds like you and Annalise came to terms.”

“Yes.” And Matt was damn glad. She hadn't won him over with her argument about the risky surgery she recommended for his pa, but he knew things would work out.

“What does the doc say about your pa's leg?” Davis Lee rested one arm on a bent knee.

Russ shared a look with Matt before answering, “She thinks he has a tumor low on his spine and it's grown. She thinks cutting him open is the way to go.”

“As opposed to what?” Jake spoke for the first time, unfolding his bedroll next to his brother's.

Matt stared down into his coffee. “Giving him morphine to ease the pain.”

Davis Lee looked across the fire. “For how long?”

“As long as he has the pain.”

“Doesn't sound likely he'll ever get rid of it.”

The quiet man was right, Matt admitted.

Riley looked up from checking his gun. “How does your pa do on the medicine?”

“Fine.”

“He's not himself,” Russ said at the same time.

Matt shot him a sharp look.

His brother shook his head. “When I saw him a couple of days ago, his axle was dragging and his reflexes were slower than a hobbled horse.”

“I haven't witnessed that.”

“Maybe you haven't noticed because you've been around him the whole time he's been taking that medicine. The other day was the first time I have.”

Hell. Was his brother right?

“It's like he's sleepwalking, aware but not all that alert,” Russ continued. “That's how Lydia described it.”

And it was the truth, Matt realized with a jolt. He imagined his father living like that the rest of his life and the thought made his stomach knot up.

Annalise made a good point about the morphine not being a long-term solution, but Matt wasn't sure surgery was the answer either.

He looked at his brother. “You think Annalise is right about operating?”

“The thought of it scares the hell out of me.”

“Me, too.”

“But she might be right.”

Matt wasn't quite ready to go that far.

“Lydia and I talked to her for a while about it.” Eyes dark with worry, Russ set his tin coffee cup on the ground beside him. “Annalise showed us some pictures in a couple of her fancy surgery books.”

“And?”

“It still scares me, but she sure seems to know what she's talking about.”

“Is that enough? She said herself she can't guarantee something won't go wrong.”

“I don't know, but I don't like seeing Pa the way he is on that medicine.”

Matt felt that way, too. “Annalise thinks he only chose the morphine because the talk of surgery upset me and Cora.”

“She might be right about that, too.” His brother looked grim in the flickering orange firelight.

“When we get back, I'll talk to her again. Ask her to show me the pictures she showed to you and Lydia.” Russ nodded.

“It's a hard decision,” Davis Lee said from the other side of the fire. “I'm glad I don't have to make it.”

But he had, Matt realized as the other men murmured in agreement. Davis Lee had dealt with something equally as difficult.

“You and Josie had to make a decision like that, didn't you?” Matt asked. “I mean, a decision that hard. About trying to have another baby.”

“Yes, and if we hadn't taken the risk one more time, we wouldn't have Tannis.”

Matt looked through the curl of smoke at Jake. The man had lost his first wife and child.

“What about you, Jake? What do you think about having a baby with Emma?”

“We argued about it, especially after Dr. Butler said he thought it would be all right.” Jake chewed the inside of his cheek. “No matter how quiet my wife is, if she gets something in her head then it's gonna happen. I guess I'm all right with it, but I'm glad she isn't in the family way yet.”

Matt glanced at Davis Lee. “Would you take the chance again?”

“I really don't know. Josie had to do a lot of talking to convince me, but I'm not sorry we decided to try. I'll never be sorry,” his friend said quietly. “Maybe you should figure out if you can live with your pa
not
having the surgery.”

He exchanged a look with his brother. Russ's observation of their father's sluggish condition while under the influence of the morphine rattled Matt. At first, all he had focused on was getting rid of J.T.'s pain and keeping it to a minimum. Now he could see that the morphine wasn't best for the long term. He didn't know what was best and he wasn't sure Annalise knew either.

I
t had been two days since Annalise had seen Matt. There had been no word from any of the men who were hunting the Landis brothers, but she wasn't worried yet.

Today was the day J.T. had wanted to have surgery. With Russ and Matt away, Annalise assumed he would now rather wait until his sons returned. She learned differently when Henry Goforth, one of the Triple B's most seasoned ranch hands, showed up at her clinic about mid-morning.

He'd been sent by J.T. to find out why Dr. Fine hadn't arrived at the ranch for his surgery. Surprised at the unexpected summons, it took her an hour to gather her surgical set, medical bag and her volume of John Erichsen's
The Science and Art of Surgery.

Driving her buggy, she followed Henry and his bay out to the ranch. He would escort her back to Whirlwind when the time came.

She wished J.T. would wait for his sons' return. For
one thing, it would give her a chance to talk to Matt again about the operation.

Once they reached the edge of Triple B land, Annalise steered the horse and buggy off the road and into the prairie grass. Unless there had been a drastic change in J.T.'s condition, she hoped to talk him out of doing the operation today. His sons should be there when it happened.

But within minutes of arriving at the ranch, she learned that J.T. was adamant about proceeding. Annalise stood in the Baldwins' large front room, exchanging a look over the patient's head with his wife.

“I'm not of a mind to wait,” he said. “There's still pain in my back, but my leg is numb. That can't be a good sign.”

It wasn't, Annalise admitted silently. “Are you sure you don't want to wait for Russ and Matt to return?”

“Who knows how long that'll be,” the older man groused.

Cora walked around to stand in front of him. “You don't think you can wait?”

“I'm ready to get this done, honey.” Lines of pain carved J.T.'s weathered features and his blue eyes were shadowed by discomfort.

Annalise observed that his speech wasn't slurred nor were his features lax. Which meant he hadn't taken any morphine today. Before she could ask why not, he locked his jaw and looked at her defiantly. “That medicine makes me feel like I'm not even in my own body.”

Cora turned to Annalise. “I hate seeing him in this much pain, but the surgery makes me nervous.”

“The only way to get past that is to just do the operation,” J.T. insisted. “But, honey, if you want me to wait, I will.”

Annalise could tell it had cost him to say that.

The older woman touched his hand. “No, let's go ahead.”

Her voice sounded sure, but there was uncertainty in her hazel eyes.

“Are you sure?” J.T. searched his wife's face.

“Yes.” She kissed him hard and fast, saying fiercely, “You do everything Annalise tells you before and after, do you understand?”

“Yes, ma'am.” The quick grin he flashed reminded Annalise of his youngest son.

“All right, then,” she agreed. “The best place to do this is in a bed where you'll be comfortable resting for a few days.”

“We can use our bed.” He wheeled past them to the lone bedroom on the first floor.

Annalise and Cora managed to get him into the bed and on his stomach. Though she would've preferred to wait for Matt and Russ, this would be fine. When the boys arrived home, their father would already be feeling better.

Annalise glanced at the small bedside table she would use for her instruments then at the inhaler she would use to give anaesthetic. Cora had agreed to assist and she would need room to move.

The woman watched as Annalise laid out the blades from the surgical set.

Then she took her Junker's inhaler and filled the reservoir with chloroform. Using a hand-bellows, Cora would pump air through a tube into the chloroform and a second tube would carry the mixture of air and anaesthetic to the patient as a gas. Annalise would administer the drug.

J.T. winked at Cora. “Everything will be fine, honey.”

“It better be. I haven't forgotten that you promised to fix me a swing on the porch.”

When the patient was settled comfortably, Annalise placed a rubber mask over his nose and mouth then Cora began a careful and slow pumping with the hand-bellows. In short order, he was unconscious and Annalise got to work.

Though there were butterflies in her stomach, her hands were steady. She had only assisted with this surgery, never performed it herself, but she had studied it extensively and the textbook was here if she needed it.

Hoping she didn't look as nervous as she felt, she cut into J.T.'s lower back and easily located the tumor. As she had cautioned both J.T. and Cora, the operation took a couple of hours and she worked meticulously, painstakingly, explaining the procedure as she went.

When she was certain she had gotten all of the growth, she stitched him up then bandaged him.

She looked at Cora. “I removed the whole tumor and didn't find anything else to cause concern.”

“Oh, that's good news.” The woman hugged her tightly and Annalise returned the embrace.

“You can sit with him until he wakes up, if you'd like. It will probably be an hour or so.”

Cora eagerly agreed and pulled up a chair beside the bed, taking her husband's hand.

But, after an hour, J.T. hadn't stirred. Cora gave Annalise an anxious look.

“Maybe it's just taking him longer to come to,” Annalise said quietly. “Because of his size, we had to use a lot of chloroform.”

Cora nodded, but after another hour when J.T. still
hadn't regained consciousness, Annalise decided to try and wake him. He didn't respond. His eyelids didn't flutter. His pulse didn't change.

Dread snaked through her.

She had carefully monitored the amount of chloroform they'd administered, but J.T. wasn't waking up.

From her place beside the bed, Cora looked up. “There's something wrong, isn't there? What is it?”

“He's not waking up from the anaesthetic as quickly as I'd like.” Annalise patted the other woman's arm. “He'll come around. It's just taking him a while.”

But two hours later, he still hadn't. She hadn't seen chloroform affect anyone this way before. All she knew to do was continue to monitor his pulse and condition.

Cora's features were pinched with worry. “What now?”

“All we can do is wait. I'll stay until he wakes up.”

Cora brought another chair into the room and positioned it at the head of the bed for Annalise.

The hours dragged by. Night fell. Annalise continued to reassure her friend. She truly believed J.T. would wake up. But at midnight, when there was still no change, she was hit with full-fledged panic. She had to tell Cora.

She shifted in her chair.

Immediately, Cora straightened, her face full of trepidation.

“I believe he's in a coma,” Annalise said gently.

The older woman's eyes filled with tears. “Does that mean he's going to stay that way?”

Annalise refused to consider the possibility. “No. I believe he'll come to.”

She was praying with everything in her that he did and she hoped it was before seventy-two hours had passed.
To her knowledge, no one had ever been known to wake up at all after that amount of time.

“What if—” Cora's voice cracked. She didn't ask the question, but it hung there between them anyway.

What if he doesn't wake up?

 

The Landis brothers were at the front of Matt's mind when he and Russ passed their last barn and rode into the yard just before noon. They'd spent two and a half days chasing those bastards and hadn't caught them. The trail had gone cold on the far side of the Eight of Hearts Ranch. It was as though the outlaws had just disappeared into a hole.

Matt and the others had made the return trip slowly, searching for any sign they might have missed. There was nothing. Matt was still of the opinion that Reuben and Pat Landis were the ones who had ambushed him. It wouldn't surprise him if they turned out to be the rustlers, too. Hell, the whole family had done plenty of thieving—cows and horses—before being thrown in jail this go-round.

Matt was hot and sweaty and seething with frustration. He was also hungry. His breakfast of coffee and biscuits seemed a long time ago. As did the last time he'd seen Annalise. He'd missed her, more than he'd thought he would for the short time he'd been gone.

Though he was anxious to see her, he wanted to check on Pa first, then eat and clean up before he went to Whirlwind. Russ's observation about the morphine-induced lethargy had been playing in Matt's mind since that night around the fire. His brother wanted to check on Pa, too, which was why he had stopped here on his way to Whirlwind.

They rode straight into the barn and dismounted. As
he unsaddled Dove, he spotted Annalise's buggy against the back wall. He smiled. She must've gotten word from the wire Davis Lee had sent, letting everyone know no one was injured and they would all be home today.

Russ brushed down his paint gelding, tilting his head toward the buggy. “Looks like your lady doctor is here.”

“Now we can both ask her whatever we want about the surgery.”

“Yeah.”

Matt finished with Dove and sent the mare out the back door of the barn into the pasture beyond, then he and his brother started for the house.

They stepped up on the wraparound porch, their boots hitting the pine floorboards with a solid thump. The front doorway was tall and wide enough for any one of the Baldwins to step inside without ducking or having to turn to the side. That had come in handy when Pa had ended up in the wheelchair.

Matt opened the heavy wooden door to see Cora hurrying toward them. The pale weariness of her face immediately had him on alert.

Russ, too, Matt realized as his brother moved toward their stepmother, looking apprehensive. “Cora?”

It was Pa. He knew it. Jerking off his hat, he took three steps, gaze skipping past the rock fireplace then the dining table to the left. Annalise stood in the doorway of the downstairs bedroom.

A sick feeling gripped him. “What's happened?”

“Is it Pa?” Russ curved one arm solicitously around Cora's shoulders.

The women exchanged a look that tangled the knot in Matt's gut even tighter. He strode around the kitchen
table with Russ right behind him. He tossed his hat onto the table. Annalise stepped back as he reached the doorway and stopped dead.

Pa lay on his stomach, head turned toward them, eyes closed, face lax. A white sheet covered him from the waist down.

Even after being confined to the wheelchair, J.T. Baldwin never took time away from any ranch chores to lie abed. Cold dread slicked down Matt's spine. “What's happened?”

“He had the surgery,” Cora said.

Those words were enough to cut his breath. “What? Why? Why would he do that?”

“Especially while we were gone.” Russ frowned.

Matt braced his hands on his hips. “
When
did he decide to do it?”

“A day or so before you left with the posse.”

“
Before
we left?” Matt asked.

His stepmother nodded.

He noted the shimmer of nerves in her eyes that said she wasn't as calm as she sounded.

His gaze cut to Annalise.

She looked from him to his brother and back. “J.T. sent me a note a couple of days ago saying he wanted me to do the operation. When the two of you joined the posse to hunt the Landis brothers, I thought he would want to wait until you returned, but he didn't.”

“So you went ahead and did it,” he said in a cold flat voice.

Russ moved into the room and stepped around Matt. “I thought surely he would've heard us and woken up by now.”

A sudden tension cut through the room like a knife.

Cora cleared her throat. “He hasn't woken up.”

“What do you mean?” Russ looked grim. “He hasn't woken up since you did the surgery?”

“Yes,” Annalise answered quietly.

“How long has he been like this?” Matt demanded.

“A little over forty-eight hours.”

The bottom of his stomach fell out and he cursed viciously. “Tell us what's going on. Right now.”

“I tried to talk him into waiting, but he wouldn't,” she began. “He didn't wake up when I thought he would. It made me wonder if the anaesthetic might be affecting him negatively.”

“What did you give him? Ether?”

“Chloroform.”

A faint sweet scent hovered in the room. Matt stared over her shoulder at his father. “Did you give him too much?”

“I don't believe so. I was very careful.”

“Then why isn't he coming to?”

“We're not sure,” Cora said.

Matt stared straight at Annalise, a black fury rising inside him. “
You
know why.”

“Yes.” The dark circles under her eyes testified to hours of worry and a loss of sleep. “He's in a coma.”

Coma.
The word slammed into him like a bullet. When his brother took a step back, Matt knew it had affected him the same way.

“That means he'll never wake up,” Russ said hoarsely.

“No,” Annalise assured him quickly, firmly. “It does
not
mean that.”

She met Matt's gaze without flinching, which somehow infuriated him even more.

Rage slid like needles under his skin as he fought to control a viciousness he'd never felt.

She had known about this before he'd left and she
hadn't said a word. Not one damn word. Why? Had she been waiting for him to be out of the way? Staring into her clear, earnest eyes, he didn't want to believe it.

A moan came from the big man in the bed.

Everyone spun toward him, but after a long moment when there was nothing more from him, a heaviness descended over the room.