She drove to the hospital on the edge of town, trying to remain calm. But the moment she pushed in through the emergency entrance, she saw people scurrying around and felt her skin turn clammy. Spotting a young blond-haired, green-eyed woman in soiled Western attire, she stepped to her.
“Were you with the McCallahan Ranch cattle drive?” she asked.
The woman nodded.
“Can you tell me who was brought into the hospital?”
Just then the sheriff walked out of one of the ER rooms. He headed straight for her.
“Thought I might find you here, Patty.” Sheriff Bessler was looking at her as if all of this was her fault.
She bristled under his gaze, but held her temper. There was only one thing she wanted to know. “Is T.D....?”
“I don’t know any more than you do at this point except that your boyfriend had no business up there and now I’ve got two gunshot victims.” He pushed past her. “Go home, Patty,” he said over his shoulder. “If your boy is alive, he’s going to jail.”
“What about Jinx?” she asked, making the big man stop in his tracks and turn back to her.
“No thanks to T.D. she’s going to be fine,” the sheriff said, his face set in stone. “She was treated and released. If you see T.D., Patty, you call me or I’ll slap you with assisting and abetting a wanted man. You don’t think I will? Try me.” With that he turned and walked away.
Patty couldn’t believe the injustice. Jinx was fine. But T.D. was wounded somewhere up on that mountain? She turned around and saw the young woman wrangler. “Please, you were up there with them. Can you tell me if T.D. is okay?” she asked, hating the panic in her voice.
ELLA CONSIDERED THE woman the sheriff had called Patty. From what she’d gathered, this was T. D. Sharp’s girlfriend. Right now all she could think about was Brick and Angus. Brick was up in surgery. She had no idea where Angus was or if he was still alive.
But she couldn’t ignore the pain in the woman’s voice. “I don’t know. I heard he was wounded. That’s all I can tell you.” Patty started to turn away. “What I do know is that because of T.D., my cousin is fighting for his life and his brother could be, as well, up on that mountain. He’d gone after your boyfriend.”
“But T.D. was alive?”
Ella heard no compassion in the woman’s voice for the people T.D. had hurt and had to turn away, her sympathy for the woman waning. She walked back down the hall to wait, too worried about both of her cousins to deal with T.D.’s lover.
She told herself that both Brick and Angus were strong. They were fighters. Which meant that Angus wouldn’t give up until he found T.D. and finished this. Her heart ached at the thought. T.D. could kill him up there on the mountain and they might never find him.
While she tried to concentrate on thinking positive, she was exhausted. Her senses seemed dulled down to nothing but static. Worry made her heart ache. She told herself they would both be fine, but she didn’t feel it in her soul and that terrified her.
Dropping into a chair in the hallway outside the ER rooms, she closed her eyes and prayed. She thought of Brick in surgery. In the helicopter, he’d come to long enough to tell her what had happened on the mountain—how Royce had shot him after Brick had captured him and bound his wrists. Either he or Cash had had a second gun that he’d missed.
The EMTs tried to get Brick not to talk, but he seemed determined to get the words out. “I killed him. I didn’t even hesitate after he shot me. I just pulled the trigger.” Brick had closed his eyes. “I killed him.”
“Only in self-defense,” she’d assured him.
She’d heard the anguish in his words as he repeated them. “I killed a man.”
And then the alarms had gone off and the EMTs were fighting to save Brick’s life as the helicopter set down next to the hospital and he was rushed to surgery.
She said another prayer for him, terrified that she would lose both of her cousins. Please, let them be all right. Ella needed both men in her life. She couldn’t do without either of them. And she didn’t even want to imagine what Dana would do if she lost her boys.
Chapter Eighteen
Back home, Jinx felt as if she was going crazy with worry about Angus and Brick and now Max. Earlier when the doctor finally came back in her room before releasing her, she’d said, “I know you said I have a mild concussion so that could be the problem, but I swear I haven’t seen Max since I was brought in.”
Dr. Kirkland had nodded solemnly, making her heart drop. “I’ve admitted him. Now, don’t get excited,” he’d said quickly before she could panic. “He was having some chest pain. Nothing to worry about, but I wanted to keep him overnight for observation. I want to do the same with you.”
“I want to see him,” she’d said and started to get up off the gurney, but he’d laid a hand on her arm and shaken his head.
“Max is resting. Seeing your concern will only agitate him. I’ve assured him that you are fine. Now I’ve assured you that he is fine. Both of you just need rest. You’ve been through a lot. You can see Max tomorrow. Now please stop fighting me.”
She’d lain back but was too restless to stay there. Sitting up again, she’d said, “Please let me go home. I’m going crazy here. And you know I’ll sneak up and check on Max if I’m forced to stay here overnight.”
Dr. Kirkland had chuckled and given her a look of disbelief. But he’d known her long enough—since the night he delivered her—that he knew her well. “I’d like you to stay, but your concussion is very mild. I
