Kidnapped By The Cowboy (C Bar C Ranch Book 2) Read online

  “Just leave him alone, Mr. Brosius, will you?” she persisted. “Leave him alone.”

  “Boomer. Take her into the house,” TJ ordered.

  But Boomer didn’t move. “I’m not leavin’ just yet.”

  “How could you, TJ?” Callie Mae demanded with an appalled quiver in her voice.

  His gaze slammed into hers; his eyes glittered hard and cold. “You were always quick to think the worst of me, Callie Mae.”

  “Didn’t Danny’s death mean anything to you? Was it so easy to forget how he died?” Her composure cracked. Furious hurt burst out and flowed free. “How can you not think of what your disgusting penchant for racing and its vices cost me and my family?”

  “There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t think of it.” His fists clenched, as if it was all he could do to keep from grabbing her. “It cost me plenty, too, Callie Mae.” The words rumbled from him. “Damn you for thinking it hadn’t.”

  Her lip curled. She’d been damned by him, all right. For the rest of her life. “What did it cost you? A few months in jail? A little tarnish to your reputation?”

  “More than that.” He fairly shook from the avowal. “More.”

  A sudden rush of tears stung her eyes, and she blinked them away. Seeing him brought everything back and left her hurting and vulnerable all over again.

  She’d made a foolish mistake coming out here. She’d allowed her pride to slip, and now, now she’d made a spectacle of herself in front of him. And his mother. Kullen and Boomer Preston and—

  She halted her pitying thoughts and drew herself up.

  “I don’t believe you. Do you hear me, TJ?” she asked. “I don’t believe you.”

  A chilling calm seemed to come over him. “Too bad you don’t, Callie Mae, because it’s not over yet. You’re going to realize that, if it’s the last thing I do.”

  “Oh, it’s over, TJ.” Kullen’s handsome mouth twisted in a smirk. “Because you’ll always be a child-murderer, won’t you? Nothing will ever change that.”

  For a moment, no one spoke, no one moved, from the harsh reminder of the price TJ would forever pay.

  Only Kullen seemed unaffected. “You’ll never work for the C Bar C again. In fact, you’ll never work for anyone around here. You’re ruined as a cowboy.”

  The words swarmed through Callie Mae like a plague, leaving her stomach churning and her head dizzy but her mind clinging to the mantra she’d needed to survive the grief.

  He deserved it, he deserved it, he deserved it.

  No matter what she thought, he didn’t deserve it.

  TJ steeled himself against the look on Callie Mae’s face. She didn’t know how everything had gone horribly wrong that night. No one did. But the decision he’d made had plummeted his life into a hell he couldn’t have imagined.

  But it was going to get better. Once he had his revenge.

  With Blue Whistler’s help.

  “What’s the matter, TJ?” Kullen taunted. “Don’t have anything to say for yourself?”

  His vengeful thoughts reshaped to focus on the man in front of him. “You’ve said it all, haven’t you?”

  TJ gritted his teeth to keep from saying more. He’d learned the hard way there were times when a man had to fight to defend himself. Other times, like now, when he shouldn’t.

  “Get me away from him, Kullen.” Chin quivering, Callie Mae spun toward her carriage.

  TJ wasn’t sure what got to him first—the tears she tried so hard to keep from spilling, or that she hated him so much that she couldn’t bear to be within spitting distance of him.

  Neither mattered except that there was so damned much he needed to say to her.

  “Callie Mae, wait!” he said.

  He took a long stride toward her, but Kullen moved right in front of him. Stopping him.

  “You don’t think she’ll let you lay your murdering hands on her, do you?” he purred.

  Every muscle in TJ’s body quivered with the need to shut the man’s mouth up for good. “Go to hell.”

  “I’d rather see you burn there first,” Kullen said, amused.

  “You’d best get out of here, Kullen.” Boomer’s voice bellowed. “Or you’ll be fighting two of us.”

  “Oh, God. Please, no trouble,” Maggie begged, looking frantic. “Just leave with her, will you?”

  Callie Mae’s glance jumped from one to the other. “Take me home, Kullen. Now.”

  TJ planted a hand on the man’s shoulder to thrust him aside. He couldn’t let her leave until she’d heard him out. “He conspired against Danny, Callie Mae. He’s responsible for everything that happened that night.”

  She sucked in an appalled breath, and her mouth opened, but if she said something, the sudden fist into TJ’s gut kept him from hearing.

  Pain exploded. TJ doubled over; the force of Kullen’s hit sent him sprawling backward. His body rammed into Lodi, still holding Blue on his lead rope. Both of them slammed into the horse’s belly.

  Maggie screamed. Boomer yelled.

  Blue whinnied in alarm. He reared, flailing his long legs, and instant fear shot through TJ.

  The stallion had to be kept calm. An injury to those valuable legs this close to the Fort Worth race would be devastating. And the wild look in his eyes, as if he sensed impending violence and was terrified by it…

  “Lodi, get him out of here.”

  At TJ’s terse command, the jockey grappled for the lead rope. “Right away, TJ.”

  “Not so fast,” Kullen said.

  A hammer clicked.

  Lodi froze.

  Slowly, TJ turned, his instincts warning that things had just gone from bad to worse.

  “Kullen. What are you doing?” Callie Mae demanded.

  “Put that damn gun down,” Boomer bellowed.

  The afternoon sun glinted on the brass frame of a Colt derringer Kullen leveled at TJ’s chest. “He’ll listen to you now, Callie Mae. Go ahead. Tell him you want your land back.”

  TJ didn’t care about any land, hers or anyone else’s. He only knew she had to believe him before it was too late.

  And time was ticking.

  “He’s not the man you think he is, Callie Mae,” TJ said, hearing the desperation in his own voice. “For Danny’s sake, you have to trust me.”

  “Kullen, what does he mean?” she demanded.

  Kullen ignored her. He waved the derringer at Lodi. “Lodi, hand Blue’s rope over to Emmett.”

  No one noticed the groomer had left the corral and stood nearby, watching, waiting.

  No one except Kullen.

  Lodi jerked back at the command. “Why?”

  “Because I told you so.”

  Lodi shot a confused glance at TJ.

  Who shot a glance at Boomer.

  Who shot him a glance back that said I’ll take care of it.

  TJ’s muscles coiled, one by one. “Give Emmett the rope, Lodi.”

  Blue nickered, low in his throat, as if he could smell the tension in the air.

  “If you’re sure, TJ,” Lodi said, still hesitant.

  “I am.”

  Emmett stepped closer and snatched the rope from the jockey. Boomer made his move and pushed the groomer roughly aside.

  But before Boomer could grab hold of the hemp, a shot cracked through the air. He grunted and spun. Blood spurted onto his jacket sleeve, and he toppled to the ground with a thud.

  TJ roared and lunged for the rope himself, but Emmett moved a heartbeat faster and slapped a heavy hand against Blue’s flank.

  The stallion reared with a terrified, ear-shattering shriek. TJ had all he could do to evade those powerful, flailing legs, and grab for the rope at the same time.

  He missed.

  “Hee-yah! Hee-yah!” Emmett yelled.

  Before TJ could even think it could happen, Blue bolted, mind-numbingly fast.

  Time stood still. But the stallion kept moving, running with the speed that made him so spectacular, and in that one, horrible moment,
TJ knew he’d lost everything.

  If he didn’t get Blue back again.

  Enraged, he whirled toward Kullen. “You scheming son of a bitch!”

  Kullen lifted the derringer and aimed the barrel at TJ’s chest, but TJ hurtled toward him like a brainless locomotive, uncaring if he was shot or killed, because without Blue, he had nothing. Nothing. The hammer fell back—and Callie Mae screamed.

  “No-o, Kullen!”

  She threw herself against him, and the derringer flew from his grip. TJ dove and scooped up the weapon, then rolled to his back with his finger sure on the trigger—all in one snarling motion.

  Kullen scrambled for footing; suddenly, a switchblade appeared in his hand, and he came at TJ with the blade held high. But no matter how sweet putting a bullet into the bastard’s heart would be, death was too good for him.

  He was entitled to some suffering, too.

  Deliberately, TJ lowered the barrel. And fired. The bullet found Kullen’s thigh and shattered bone. The knife dropped, and he went down screaming.

  “Oh, my God!” Her face colorless, Callie Mae stood riveted, her eyes wide on the bloodied leg.

  TJ bolted to his feet and leapt toward her, hooking his arm roughly around her shoulders.

  “You’re coming with me,” he growled, pressing the derringer to her temple. She had to know he meant business. That she had to come with him so he could make her believe. She had to know the truth.

  “Lodi. Don’t just stand there with your jaw hangin’ open. Get a couple of horses saddled. Move it!” Boomer had enough wind left in him to yell orders. “TJ! Hurry! You got to get Blue!”

  “I’m going.” He twisted, dragging Callie Mae with him, and found his mother bent over the wounded horseman, tears streaming down her cheeks. Emmett was nowhere in sight. “Stay with Boomer, Maggie. Get him to a doctor.”

  “Oh, God, TJ.” By the looks of her, she was on the verge of hysteria, her bosom heaving as she fought the demons she was never without. “I—I can’t do this without you.”

  “You’ve got to take care of him. He needs you. There’s no one else.” TJ threw a frantic glance in the direction he’d last seen Blue, but there was no sign of his prized stallion. Nausea rolled through him. “Lodi will help.”

  The jockey trotted toward them with a pair of horses in tow. “Here you go, TJ.”

  Callie Mae made a sound of protest. “Let me go, damn you.”

  “Not a chance, darlin’. I’m not letting you out of my sight. Not until you listen to what I have to say.” Keeping a good hold on her, he stuffed the derringer inside the waistband of his Levi’s.

  Her fingers clawed at his arm. “You can’t make me go with you.”

  “The hell I can’t.” He took the reins Lodi thrust at him. “Climb in the saddle, or I’ll throw you in it.”

  She tugged and pulled. “I’ll escape you first chance I get.”

  His teeth gritted. She was high-handed and stubborn enough to do it. Under the circumstances, he couldn’t blame her. But he was losing valuable time arguing with her, and he gripped her chin hard to keep her attention.

  “Listen to me. You want the truth about what happened to Danny?” he demanded.

  Her eyes flashed. “I already know it.”

  “No. You don’t. But I’m going to find it. And you’re going to help me. But first, we have to get Blue. We have to get Blue.” Of their own accord, his fingers softened against her chin. If he’d had the time to get down on his knees to beg her to understand, to convince her how much he needed her, needed her help, too, then he would.

  “But Kullen—”

  “He was part of it, Callie Mae,” TJ said roughly. “Didn’t what happened just now prove it?”

  “No. You’re wrong.” But she appeared stricken at the possibility. “He would never—”

  “Yes, he would.” TJ took advantage of her hurt and confusion and shoved the reins into her hands. Amazingly, she took them. “If Danny had to die, at least let him rest in the truth.”

  A faint shimmer of tears formed, a crumbling of her resistance.

  “Lodi and my mother will see to Kullen,” TJ persisted. Not that the bastard deserved the help, but TJ refrained from saying so. “And don’t go fretting he needs you, because he doesn’t. He’s not the man you think he is. Everything that happened just now, he had coming.”

  She jerked an uneasy glance toward Kullen, whimpering like a baby in the dirt. She seemed to steel herself against the sight of him.

  Then, as if she recalled she was a Lockett, that she carried the power of their blood in her veins, she stood a little taller and turned a little tougher.

  “I’ll go with you, TJ, but I swear, if you’re up to no good, I’ll have you swinging from the gallows for this.”

  TJ drew in a breath of relief.

  For now, it was enough.

  He stepped back while she mounted up, then he did the same.

  Together, they rode hard into the wilds of Texas to find Blue.

  Chapter Four

  By the time dusk showed signs of settling on the horizon, Callie Mae knew she’d made a big mistake.

  Taking off with TJ Grier, of all people. Riding as if her tail was on fire, to chase a horse who had fled to only God knew where.

  What had she been thinking?

  She should have taken the time to sort the matter through and consider the consequences of all that had happened back at Preston Farm. The claims TJ had made. Kullen’s actions, especially.

  But everything had happened chillingly fast. Too fast to comprehend. She never expected Kullen to draw a gun, and then a knife…

  He would’ve killed TJ.

  The certainty troubled her. She didn’t know why he hated TJ so much, enough to shoot him in cold blood. The things he said about TJ’s continued involvement in horse racing, well, in spite of everything, they weren’t worth killing him over.

  Kullen had a heap of explaining to do. Maybe he was only acting in her best interests, prepared to fight for Tres Pinos. Or maybe he was trying to defend her against anything TJ might have done. Or defend himself.

  Whatever his reasons for pulling that gun, she had to find out what they were. Which meant she shouldn’t have left with TJ. She was Kullen’s intended, and he was badly injured, in need of a surgeon. She should be at his side and caring for him, instead of being all the way out here, in the middle of the desolate Texas Panhandle, looking for a horse they had no chance of finding.

  “Pull up, Callie Mae.”

  She bristled at TJ’s low command. She had to end this wild-goose chase before they went any farther. She’d all but lost her bearings anyway, and she had no desire to head back toward Amarillo in the dark.

  Gladly, she reined in. “This is ridiculous, TJ. You’re not going to find him.”

  “Your opinion. Not mine.” The grim clench of his jaw revealed that his mind was wrapped on his horse. He ran a slow eye over the land before them. An unforgiving land, rough with mesquite and pinon and looking more imposing than ever in the gathering dusk.

  “It could take weeks,” she said.

  “Not if I can help it.”

  “Or months.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I’m going to keep looking.” His hard glance swiveled toward her. “And so are you.”

  He wore the brim of his Stetson low over his forehead, throwing the rugged, angular planes of his face into shadow. Ruthlessness shimmered from him. A brutal kind of determination that sent an unexpected thrum through her blood.

  Her fingers tightened on the reins. She refused to let him affect her. “Do you really believe you can tell me what I am and am not going to do?”

  His expression darkened with the warning that he’d have no tolerance for any resistance she was inclined to make. “You’re the reason I’m out here, Callie Mae. I’d still have my horse if you hadn’t ridden out to Boomer’s, flaunting your high-and-mighty Lockett airs and making demands I have no intention of meeting.”

  “My fa
ult?” Aghast, she stared at him. “I do not have airs, damn you. I simply rode out to discuss a business matter. And you’ve no right to say it was my fault that—”

  She halted. He’d backed her into a corner. If she hadn’t been so determined to negotiate with him for Tres Pinos Valley, chaos wouldn’t have erupted and they wouldn’t be out here now, pursuing a racehorse that meant nothing to her, but clearly meant the world to TJ.

  But she couldn’t have known Kullen would’ve acted like he did. Not for a single moment in her lifetime.

  He conspired against Danny, Callie Mae. He’s responsible for everything that happened that night.

  TJ’s terse claim thundered back into her mind and left her shaken and confused all over again. TJ had pulled the trigger and felled her brother; he’d admitted it again and again. How could he say Kullen was involved?

  He’s not the man you think he is.

  “You owe it to me to help figure out why things happened the way they did at Boomer’s,” TJ said, as if he knew the way of her thoughts. “And it’s a fair guess, when we do, we’re going to see they had something to do with Danny.”

  The words to argue lodged in her throat. She didn’t want to consider there might be a thread of truth in his words or that Kullen’s actions proved something dark and elusive happened the night Danny died.

  It was far easier to hang on to her resentment at being forced into this pursuit. She’d find her own way to learn if secrets shrouded her brother’s death. She didn’t need TJ to help her do it.

  Callie Mae straightened in the saddle. “You’re wrong in thinking I owe you anything, TJ. Even if there was a remote chance you’re right about Kullen, the fact remains, you shot him and left him behind to fend for himself.”

  TJ grunted. “Shooting was too good for him.”

  She gritted her teeth against his lack of remorse. “He needs me. I must see to his welfare.”

  “Let Maggie and Lodi tend to him.”

  Her frustration grew. “I can’t just run off with you, TJ. My parents are in California, and I have responsibilities at the C Bar C. The outfit will worry if I’m not there.”

  “We’ll send word to ’em.” He squinted an eye and returned his scrutiny to the endless terrain stretching in front of them. “You seem to have forgotten it was Kullen who drew his gun first, Callie Mae. He had every intention of killing me—and Boomer, too. What happened to him back there, he deserved.”