* * *
IT WAS MORNING before Keely woke up again. The combination of all the drugs and the emotional upheaval of her mother’s death had knocked her out for the night. She blinked sleepily, her mind clear and untroubled until she remembered quite suddenly what she’d seen on television the night before. It was like a rock on her heart. Tears stung her eyes, all over again.
“I’m so sorry, Keely,” Winnie said gently, from her vigil in the chair beside the bed. “About your mother.”
Keely glanced at her. She sighed. “I knew I’d lose her someday,” she said, “and we were almost enemies for so long. But we were just getting to know each other again, and we were becoming friends…” She bit her lip, hard. “It’s been a rotten week,” she said after a minute.
“Yes, it has.” She hesitated. “I wish you could have told me about your shoulder,” she said. “I feel that I’ve failed you, because you couldn’t trust me enough to tell me.”
Keely grimaced. “I was afraid you’d tell Boone,” she said softly. “Not that it would have mattered. He hated me…”
“No, he didn’t,” came the immediate reply. “You have no idea what’s been going on, while you were out of it.”
“He showed me a photograph of some woman with my head on another body, in a compromising situation with Clark,” Keely said heavily. “I knew it was a fake, but Boone didn’t. He was furious. I was going to sink my pride and show him…and he thought I was trying to seduce him!” Her eyes smoldered. “I should have hit him with something! Then he tells me to get out of the house, and stalks off before I can say I haven’t got a way home. When I get out of this bed,” she added, building up steam as she spoke, “I’m going to turn him every which way but loose! That man has some lumps coming!”
Winnie had to fight a smile. Keely was such a gentle person, but she was really angry. “I’ll help you thump him,” she promised. “But he didn’t know, Keely. And you don’t know how he reacted when he found out, either.”
“What do you mean?”
“When he saw you in the emergency room, he came out raving that he’d been conned by Misty’s father’s detective. He left and the next thing we knew, Hayes Carson was here, telling us he’d just had to bail Boone out of jail in San Antonio.”
“What?” Keely exclaimed.
“He beat up the detective who faked that photograph.” Winnie chuckled. “He was arrested and Hayes had to bail him out and bring him home.”
“Will they prosecute him?” Keely asked, her anger forgotten in concern for Boone’s future. “He isn’t going to have to go to jail, is he?” she asked fearfully.
“Not likely. The detective, Misty and her father all ran for the border, and nobody’s around to press charges,” Winnie said smugly. “It so happens that they’re involved with the Fuentes’s outfit, can you believe it? Boone was only seeing Misty to feed Hayes Carson information on her contacts. He was furious at Hayes for making him do it.” She grinned. “I told you he wouldn’t forgive her that easily after what she did to him.”
“Boone got arrested.” Keely said it, disbelievingly. “He never puts a foot wrong.”
“He did this time. But there were extenuating circumstances. He was rather tipsy at the time.”
“He was drinking?”
“From what we hear,” Winnie agreed. She laughed. “My spotless big brother, drunk and beating up detectives.” She shook her head. “What is the world coming to?” She grinned at Keely. “Apparently he thinks a little more of you than he let on, I’d say.”
Keely was afraid to hope for much, especially after Boone had seen her wrecked shoulder. But his actions indicated more feeling for Keely than he’d expressed verbally. There was hope, she thought. He had scars, too. Perhaps he’d had worse experiences than she had, with people of the opposite sex who didn’t understand or care about his scars.
* * *
BY THE TIME Boone came back to the hospital, Winnie and Clark had gone home for supper and to get a room ready for Keely when she was discharged. Coltrain had said she’d be ready to go the next day if she continued improving.
Keely didn’t want to go home with them if Boone only offered out of guilt. But she didn’t want to go to her home, either, with Ella’s death so fresh on her mind. Nobody had told her where Ella died, but Keely suspected that it was at the house.
She had an unexpected visitor while she was worrying her choices to death in her mind. Ella’s best friend, Carly, came in, dressed in black, red-eyed from crying.
“Did they tell you?” she asked gently, because she didn’t want to upset Keely.
“Yes,” Keely said huskily. “We were doing so well together…” Her voice broke.
Carly bent over the bed, and hugged her gently. “I’ve been out of town. There was a missed call on my cell phone, but when I tried to call Ella back, there was no answer. I got worried when I couldn’t get you, either, so I cut my trip short and came home.” She grimaced. “What a homecoming! Ella dead, and you in the hospital in serious condition. Are you going to be all right?”
“Yes,” Keely said. “But I understand that the snake died.”
It took a minute for Carly to get the dry humor. She smiled. “Poor snake.”
“I expect his relatives are all sad.” She dabbed at her eyes with the sheet. “I haven’t had time to make any arrangements about the funeral.”
“Do you want me to do that?” Carly asked solemnly. “Ella gave me a copy of her will and instructions for her funeral two years ago. I never really thought they’d be needed, but I humored her.”
“Could you call Lunsford’s and make the arrangements?” Keely asked gently. “She
