Son of a Gun
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“We have company,” Damien said, interrupting chatter that was so noisy no one had heard them come in through the mudroom and walk to the kitchen door.
Heads raised and immediately all pairs of eyes focused on Emma and Belle. Belle began to wiggle and fuss, sputtering cries that were likely the prelude to full-fledged bawling.
The two men pushed back from the table and stood in true Texas cowboy gentleman fashion. An attractive middle-age woman at the head of the table looked up. Her piercing gaze met with Emma’s, and Emma’s whisper of reprieve took a nosedive.
This was not a woman who’d be a pushover for Emma’s lies. Nor would she welcome trouble into the midst of her family.
“This is Emma Smith,” Damien said. “She drove up from Victoria to visit her aunt. Somehow she took a wrong turn and ended up on the logging road that runs parallel to Beaver Creek.”
“What were you driving, a tank?” one of the men questioned. “The holes in that road would swallow a normal vehicle.”
“Apparently one of them did,” Damien explained. “The car is now likely sinking like quicksand.”
Emma breathed easier. The explanation sounded far more feasible coming from Damien. She’d always been a rotten liar.
“Thankfully, I wandered into your pasture hoping to find help, and Damien came along,” Emma said.
The woman who’d eyed her warily at first smiled as she stood and walked toward Emma. “We wondered where Damien had gotten off to. But when Tague checked and found his horse missing from the barn, we figured he’d gone out for one last check on the cattle.”
“Lucky for me and Belle that he did.”
“I’m Carolina Lambert, Damien’s mother.”
So he wasn’t a simple cowboy. He was a Lambert. Obviously wealthy and likely powerful, yet he’d easily passed for your everyday wrangler. Already she loved Texas.
Carolina stood, walked over and leaned in for a closer look at the squirming infant, whose face was turning redder by the second.
“Oh, poor little sweetheart. You must be cold. We’ll take care of that.” Carolina looked up. “She’s adorable.”
“Thank you.”
Damien made quick introductions of the rest of the people at the table as Belle tuned up. The two men were his brothers, Durk and Tague. Both were tanned and muscular and shared Damien’s good looks. Tague sported a ready smile. Durk eyed her suspiciously, his handshake firm.
Damien’s grandma Pearl was silver-haired, petite and wrinkled but with a mischievous sparkle in her violet eyes. His aunt Sybil looked to be in her sixties. She wore heavy makeup and her neck and wrists were weighted down with chunky silver and turquoise jewelry. A black wig topped her head like a hat. Emma hoped hers was not nearly so conspicuous.
“You’re the best-looking stray Damien’s ever come home with,” Tague said. “Of course, your closest competition was a mangy yellow dog with a bad drool.”
“Glad I beat that out.” She managed a smile.
“Have a seat,” Grandma Pearl said. “You need some soup to warm you up. A little sherry wouldn’t hurt, either.”
“Mother thinks sherry is the cure for everything,” Sybil said. “I’ll get you some soup.”
“Maybe we should give Emma a chance to catch her breath and warm up before we start pushing food on her,” Carolina said.
Belle began to wail.
“Why don’t you let me take her for you,” Carolina said. “You must be exhausted.”
“She’s hungry,” Emma said. “I really need to feed her.”
“Of course. And I’m sure you’d appreciate some privacy,” Carolina said. “Come with me to the family room. There’s a rocker near the fireplace.”
Emma took a deep breath, preparing herself for the next lie. Nothing about this was going to be easy, but it was still a million times better than freezing to death or being violated by Julio.
“I know how irresponsible this sounds, but I was so upset when I walked away from the truck that I left Belle’s bottles of formula behind.”
Durk’s eyebrows arched. “I thought you said you were driving a car.”
“It’s an SUV,” she said, as if that explained it. “Anyway, it’s imperative that I go into town and get bottles and formula for her.”
“No use to go into town for that,” Carolina said. “My neighbor Karen has a son about the same size as your Belle. She’s over frequently since we’re both on the library committee and planning a new extension. I keep bottles and formula here for her. Disposable diapers, as well.”
“She uses Similac,” Sybil said. “What kind of formula do you use with Belle?”
“Similac.”
“Now, that’s luck,” Sybil said.
Grandma Pearl clicked her tongue against her false teeth. “Luck has nothing to do with it. The Lord works in mysterious ways.”
“Indeed he does,” Carolina agreed.
“I’ll go stoke the fire,” Tague said.
Carolina walked over to the counter. “I’ll get a bottle ready.”
“I don’t want to interrupt your dinner,” Emma said. “Just point me to the formula and I’ll take care of feeding Belle.”
“Nonsense,” Carolina said. “I’ve finished my soup. And dessert and coffee can wait until you’re ready to join us. I’ll get the bottle. You just take Belle to the fire so the both of you can get warm.”
“Thanks so much,” Emma said. “And thankfully we’re warmer already. My teeth have totally stopped chattering.”
“Did you say you have false teeth?” Pearl asked.
“No,” Emma said. “My real ones were chattering from the cold.”
“Mother, are you wearing your hearing aids?” Sybil asked.
Pearl smiled. “I might have left them on my dressing table.”
“Do I just follow the directions on the can of formula?” Carolina asked.
“Yes. And you can’t imagine how I appreciate this.”
Unexpected tears began to well at the back of her eyes. Simple acts of kindness and words of faith had become foreign to her. Now they were warming her heart and making her feel guilty at the same time.
Grandma Pearl left the table and joined them at the counter. “Don’t you think you should call your aunt?”
“I will once I’ve fed Belle. She’s not actually expecting me until tomorrow, but when the weather forecast said snow in Dallas tonight, I decided to come up a day early. I’d planned to make it before dark, but the Friday afternoon traffic was much worse than I’d expected.”
“Is that blood on your arm?” Sybil asked.
Emma had tried to position the rebozo so that no one would notice the blood, but there was no hiding the fact now.
“I scratched my arm while climbing through the fence,” she said. “I’m sure it’s nothing to be concerned about.”
“It looks like you lost a lot of blood to me,” Sybil said. “You better let someone take a look at it.”
“It’s okay, really.”
“It needs to be checked,” Damien said, the authority in his voice leaving little room for argument.
“Okay,” she agreed. “As soon as I finish feeding Belle.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t wait that long,” Carolina said. “You may still be losing blood. Sybil and I can handle feeding Belle or at least get started at it while Damien checks your injury. There’s a fully stocked first-aid kit in the hall bathroom.”
“Tague, how about taking care of King for me?” Damien asked. “I left her just outside the back door.”
“No problem. I’ll tuck her in for the night.”
Reluctantly, Emma unwound Belle from the folds of cloth so that she could hand the baby to Carolina. Placing Belle in Carolina’s hands made her uneasy, though Carolina surely knew more about tending to a baby’s needs than Emma did.
What she knew about babies could be composed in a tweet.
A tweet. It had been months since she’d even thought about that social form of communication. Caudillo had made sure she hadn’t had access to the internet, a phone or anything else that could have connected her to the outside world.
He, on the other hand, came and went freely on his yacht and small plane as if he were your ordinary multibillionaire CEO.
When Emma looked up, her nerves tightened to coiled steel. The look in Damien’s eyes said he had more on his mind than first aid.
He hadn’t given her away, but he was not fooled by her performance. She’d be lucky if he didn’t call the sheriff and have her picked up before he bandaged her arm.
Chapter Three
Emma followed Damien down the hallway to the sounds of Carolina crooning to Belle behind them.
She glanced around the room. Heavy wooden bookshelves lined two walls, and bulbs of blooming paper-white narcissus rested on a wide window ledge. The drapes were open, revealing a glimpse of falling snow.
Emma suspected it was Carolina’s taste that spilled so gracefully over the decor—soft, earthy colors, intricate moldings, paintings of hunting dogs on the walls. Silver-framed family pictures were scattered like valuable trinkets among the books.
Damien motioned her to an overstuffed armchair in a muted plaid that sat near the window next to a beautifully crafted antique end table. She rearranged the throw pillows and settled into the chair, certain her web of lies was going to spin out of control at any minute.
“There’s no use for you to bother with this,” she said. “If you’ll point me to the bathroom and give me a Band-Aid and a tube of antiseptic, I can take care of it myself.”
“Remove the shawl.”
Damien’s tone suggested he was used to being in control, or perhaps he was just tired of playing rescuer. She yanked impatiently at the wrap, tightening instead of loosening the knot that had secured Belle.
“Let me help you with that,” Damien said, his tone not quite as brusque as before. Before she could protest, he leaned in close and his hands brushed hers as he took hold of the looped fabric.
His touch ripped along her nerves, partly the automatic cringe she’d developed to the nearness of Caudillo. But there was also a heady factor involved that she couldn’t explain, perhaps an instinctive reaction of a desperate woman to her rescuer.
“You’re as tangled as a calf in a downed mesquite tree,” Damien quipped.
“I’m sorry. Just cut it. It’s going straight to the trash anyway.”
“Good idea.” He walked to a mahogany desk on the other side of the room and took a pair of scissors from the top drawer. “You might have bled a lot more if you hadn’t had the shawl putting pressure against the cut.”
“I’m surprised it bled as much as it did,” she said. “I’m sure the cut isn’t bad or I’d be in a lot more pain.”
“If that’s the case, I’ll just clean the injury, apply some antiseptic, bandage the tear and you’ll be back in business. But I’m guessing it’s going to need stitches.”
Stitches were not an option. She couldn’t deal with all the questions the E.R. personnel would ask. Besides, she no longer had health insurance, and even if she had, she couldn’t give them her real name.
The money she’d stolen from Caudillo wouldn’t last long if she started paying for visits to the E.R.
“Stitches at this time of night would require a trip to an emergency room,” she argued. “You said yourself it’s not safe to drive the roads.”
“I’m not planning to drive to an E.R. Doc Benson lives on an adjoining spread. We can get there by a four-wheeler if we have to.”
“I’m sure the doctor doesn’t work from his living room.”
“He usually works from my barn, but he’ll likely make an exception in your case.”
“From your barn?”
“Yep. He’s an equine vet, best one in the county. Sewing a few stitches in you would be easy work. I’m guessing you don’t have the kick of a pissed-off quarter horse.”
The vet would no doubt provide better medical care than she’d have gotten with Caudillo. She’d contracted some type of viral infection in September that had sent her fever soaring so high she’d become delusional. Even then he hadn’t taken her to a doctor.
Fortunately, the sickness ran its course and she recovered with no lasting effects except a stronger determination than ever to escape the monster.
Damien cut through the fabric and the shawl finally fell loose—all except the last layers of cotton that were soaked with blood. Finally, even that was removed and she got her first look at the injury.
The wound gaped open, revealing exposed tissue. She swallowed hard, fighting off a wave of nausea.
“You definitely need stitches,” Damien said. “But I’ve never seen a tear from barbed wire that was this clean-cut. It looks more like it was done with a surgeon’s scalpel or at least a very sharp knife.” Suspicion edged his voice.
“My one small glimmer of luck,” Emma said. “A clean cut will make it easier to stitch and heal.”
She tried to sound confident, although she was shaking inside. Julio could have easily killed her and Belle in that truck or in the woods if he’d caught up with her. Now that she was thinking more clearly, she found it almost impossible to believe she’d escaped him or Caudillo.
She was a living miracle, and she planned to do whatever it took to keep on living. If that meant lying to Damien, so be it. If it meant spitting in the face of the devil himself, she’d do that, too.
Damien leaned in closer. “How did you really wind up in my pasture tonight?”
“I explained all of that. I was searching for help.”
“Look at me, Emma.”
She forced herself to meet his steely gaze.
“Tell me the truth. Did someone do this to you?”
“No one attacked me,” she said.
“You don’t have to be afraid to tell the truth.”
Maybe not in Damien’s world. “I’ve told you the truth.”
“Okay,” he acknowledged, although it was clear he wasn’t buying it. “I’ll give Doc Benson a call. It may be a while before he can see you, so we should go ahead and clean and bandage the wound. Have you had a tetanus booster lately?”
“Last March.”
“Was that because of an injury?”
“No. I was traveling out of the country. …” Another slip. There was nothing to do but finish the statement. “I was just going on vacation, but my doctor checked my records and recommended the booster.”
“Where did you go?”
“Italy,” she lied. Too bad she hadn’t gone there like she’d originally planned instead of letting her friend Dorothy talk her into island-hopping in the Caribbean.
“Okay, let’s go to the bathroom and get this cleaned up.”
Once in the bathroom, Damien excused himself for a minute to make a quick call to his vet friend. She stared out the window, thinking how changed the world looked when coated with snow. That’s what she needed—a way to white out the ugliness she’d endured these past months, a chance to go on with her life.
Damien returned quickly and slipped his hands into a pair of latex gloves.
“Good news. You don’t have to get out in the cold again. Benson’s coming here. In the meantime, he said to flush the wound with a saline solution and wash it with Betadine.”
“Do you have that on hand?”
“Yep. And he said to be careful with the arm and eat some of Mother’s soup. You need the nourishment.
“Oh, and Mother said to tell you that she’d bring you a sweat suit if you want to wash up and change into something dry and comfortable before you eat. The clothes are hers, so they’ll be a little large.”
“That would be great.”
She sat perfectly still as he washed the blood and the grime of the day from the area around the cut. She contemplated the strange turn of events. An hour ago, she’d been freezing cold and cloaked in fear and dread. Now she was being catered to and tended as if she were a princess who’d been dropped into a cowboy castle—even if the prince didn’t totally believe her.
A few days of this and her belief in the goodness of man might make a comeback. But she didn’t have a few days. She’d have to leave first thing in the morning, before Damien discovered that there was no car in a ditch anywhere near where he’d found her.
In the meantime, she might as well enjoy her freedom and the comfort the Lamberts provided. Even if all she had to offer in return was lies.
* * *
DAMIEN HAD KNOWN BLAKE Benson since they were in fifth grade and Blake’s father had bought the small spread that backed up to theirs. They’d been best friends all through school, even shared a condo the first two years they were at Texas A&M University.
They’d hunted together, fished together, drunk together and had a few major disagreements—mostly over politics or love. In college, they had tended to fall for the same females.
That was no longer a concern, since Blake was happily married and the father of three. Damien had practically given up hope of finding a woman he wanted to roll in the hay with until they were too old for rolling or pitching hay.
Other than his brothers, there wasn’t a man on earth Damien trusted more than Blake. Now that Emma was stitched and back in the kitchen with Carolina, Damien was eager to hear what Blake had to say about her and her injury. But first, the necessary small talk.
“How’s the family?” Damien asked as he walked Blake to his black pickup truck.
“Sylvia’s great. She’s deliriously excited about the prospect of helping the twins build their first snowman.”
“And the baby?”
“Jenna’s a handful. She’s teething, and little miss prima donna is making sure we all know that she doesn’t like discomfort.”
“Isn’t she a little young to get teeth?”
“She’s six months. Scooting around at the speed of light and with an attitude.”
“And has her dad wrapped around her finger.”
“You know it. So tell me about Emma Smith.”
“You know as much as I do,” Damien admitted.
“A sexy phantom who appeared in your pasture on a snowy night? That’s the stuff of fantasies.”
“If you leave out the part about having a baby and the suspicious tale of a ditched car and tearing her arm on the barbed wire.”
“I have to admit that I’ve never seen that exact kind of injury from getting caught on a barb.”
“I thought the same thing,” Damien said. “I questioned her about it, but she didn’t budge.”
“What do you think happened?” Blake asked.
“My guess is that she had a fight with a violent husband or boyfriend who kicked her out of the car.”
“That would have to be a mean son of a bitch to toss a woman and a baby out on a night like this,” Blake said.
“Or someone so high on booze or drugs that he didn’t realize the seriousness of his actions.”
“Emma seems too classy to hang out with trash like that,” Blake said. “Good manners, better grammar than me, a lady all the way. Mysterious and damn good-looking.”
“You noticed.”
“I’m married, not dead.”
“I’m not dead, either, but I’m not buying her story.” He was intrigued by Emma, though, and not sure why. In his book, lying was one of the biggest turnoffs around—unless she had a very good reason. Like fear of the man who had sliced his brand into her arm.
“One thing for sure, Carolina is taken with that baby,” Blake said. “She even called Sylvia and asked her to send over some of Jenna’s outgrown baby clothes. Sylvia had me bring a boxful with me.”
“You know Mother. She can’t resist a good charity case—or a baby.”
Blake opened the truck door and tossed his black satchel to the passenger seat. “I don’t look for Emma to have any trouble with the arm, but she should probably get it checked out tomorrow just in case. She might even appreciate a people doc.”
“I’ll take her into urgent care out on the highway once the roads clear up.”
“And keep me posted on the continuing saga of Cowboy Rescues Mysterious Woman and Child.”
“You mean, like whether or not there really is a car in a ditch on a road Emma should have never been on?”
“That, and what it’s like sleeping with a beautiful stranger.”
“You are into fantasies tonight.”
“Snow makes me a romantic, which is why I’m heading straight home to my own gorgeous wife.”
Damien stood in the falling snow as Blake drove away, his mind cluttered with the strange turn the evening had taken. The birth certificate that created troubling doubts. A rescue in the snow.
The first could hopefully be cleared up with a conversation when things settled down and he had some time alone with his mother. As for the mystery surrounding Emma Smith, that wasn’t really his concern.
He’d brought her and her baby to the house. They were warm and safe. That should be the end of his involvement.
So why couldn’t he shake her and her problems from his mind?
* * *
CAROLINA OPENED THE DOOR and ushered Emma into the first-floor guest suite. It was in the west wing of the sprawling house, away from the living area and the noise that entailed, and with a terrific view of the swimming pool and its surrounding gardens.
The suite had been two small rooms when she’d married Hugh, and the pool had been an ugly concrete hole in the ground with no redeeming features. Still, the house and everything about the Bent Pine Ranch had seemed incredibly luxurious to Carolina.
Emma paused in the doorway, a sleeping Belle cradled in her arms. “This is where you want me to spend the night?”
“Is something wrong, dear?”
“No. I’m awed. This is like something from a home-decorating magazine—only far more inviting.”
“I like to make my guests comfortable,” Carolina said, pleased that Emma appreciated the efforts she’d put into creating the hideaway.
“I’m afraid I’m more an intruder than a guest,” Emma said.
“Nonsense. You were unexpected, but you and Belle brightened a cold, snowy night. I shudder to think what might have happened if Damien hadn’t gone out one last time and run into you. It was meant to be.”
Carolina crossed the room and touched the back of the antique cradle that had been handed down through three generations of Lamberts. “I hope Belle likes her accommodations.”
Emma stared at the cradle, obviously noticing it for the first time. She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, and Carolina could see the moisture glistening in her soft violet eyes.
“I’ve never seen anything like that. It’s fit for a princess.”
“My husband’s grandfather made it for his children, and every Lambert offspring since has slept in it. It’s had to be repaired and refinished a time or two over the years, but it’s held up amazingly well. I thought it would be perfect for Belle.”
“You surely didn’t get it out of storage just for one night?”
“No. I have a room upstairs where I keep some of the family heirlooms on display. Hugh’s grandfather was a master craftsman, and some of the toys he made his children are not only inventive but amazing. There’s a giant rocking horse that almost looks like a real pony. Damien spent hours on it long before he was able to ride a real horse on his own.”
“I’d love to see it.”
“I’ll give you the full tour tomorrow morning. Now you probably need some rest. Your private bath is through this door,” Carolina said, opening the door to reveal the curtained claw-foot tub and the dressing table.
“The cabinet is stocked with staples, but if you need anything else, just let me know. And I hung your freshly laundered clothes in the closet and put Belle’s dress in the chest along with the extra outfits Sylvia sent over and a supply of diapers.”
“You think of everything.”
“I’m a stickler for details. It’s the curse that causes me to sit on far too many committees. Oh, and feel free to use the phone. I know you’ll want to connect with your aunt in the morning. There’s a phone book in the bedside table if you need it.”
“Thanks. In case I do get in touch with my aunt and she wants to pick me up, how would I tell her to get to the ranch?”
“She can ask anyone in the area where Bent Pine Ranch is. They’ll be able to give her directions. Or…” Carolina opened the top drawer of an antique chest and took out a box of stationery engraved with the Bent Pine brand and a small-scale map showing directions to the ranch from I-35 and I-45. The ranch fell about halfway between the two interstate highways. “The address is on this stationery, along with easy-to-follow directions.”