Mindset (19 page)

Cade came awake all at once.  He looked around the dark room for the woman he’d fallen asleep with in his arms, only to find that she wasn’t there.  He felt her absence all the way to his heart and knew he’d have a hard time falling back to sleep, despite the fact that she’d about worn him out tonight. 
What a woman!
  He got out of the bed to pull his pants on, thinking he’d step outside for a breath of fresh air and maybe look up to the house to see if her light was on. 
You’re such a sap, Maguire.  You’ve really got it bad
.

He walked outside and looked towards the house.  For a minute, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him as he saw two shadows walking toward the house.  The shadow in front started to turn around, and in the moonlight, he caught a glimpse of Callie’s face.  Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as he watched the second shadow bring down some kind of heavy club looking object and make contact with the side of Callie’s head.  He yelled out her name as he watched her crumple to the ground.  His heart stopped as he jumped off his porch and ran for all he was worth to get to her as the person still in shadow raised his head from the limp body he’d been planning on carrying away with him.  Hearing Cade’s roar as he came at him, the attacker turned and ran away before Cade could reach him.  Cade wanted to chase after him, but the sight of Callie lying on the ground stopped him short as he dropped to her side and gently lifted her up into his arms.

He carried her to the front door and managed to open it and walk inside.  He gently placed her on the couch and turned on the light on the end table.  “John!  Get down here, Callie’s hurt!”

As he vaguely registered movement and sounds on the second story, he gently smoothed Callie’s hair off her pale face with his fingers.  “Callie, can you hear me?  Wake up, baby, open your eyes for me.”  His hand was shaking as he turned her head to the side to look at the bruise that was already forming on her temple.  He probed gently at the raised bump and felt a sticky moisture on his fingers and knew it was her blood.

John and Eva came running down the stairs.  “What happened here, Cade?  What’s wrong with Callie?”

“Someone attacked her in the front yard.  Some guy hit her in the head with something, I don’t know what.”

“Who would do such a thing?  Did you get a look at him?”

“No, John, I didn’t.  It was too dark.  I had just come outside when I saw him hit her.  It looked like he might have been planning on taking her with him, but I yelled her name, and he took off running.  I might have caught him, but all I could think about was getting to Callie, and he got away.”

Callie moved her head slightly and moaned.  “Callie, can you hear me?  Be still, baby, take it easy.  I’m right here.”

Callie’s eyes fluttered open, and she tried to focus.  “Cade?  What happened?”

“Someone hit you, sweetheart.  Are you ok?”

“Hit me?  Who hit me?  And what the hell did he hit me with, a freight train?  She took in her surroundings slowly.  “Hi, Granddad.  What are you doing up?  Eva?  Jeez, why is everyone awake when it’s still dark outside?”

“Cade woke us up after he brought you inside, honey.  Did you see the man who hit you, Callie?”

Callie closed her eyes again and tried to think.  “No sir.  I heard a sound, and I started to turn around, thinking it was Cade.  But before I could turn around all the way, something hit me really hard, and the lights went out.  Who would do such a thing?”

“I can’t figure it out either.  In all the years we’ve lived here, we’ve never had any kind of trouble with break-ins or anything like that.  Hell, half the time I don’t even lock the doors.  You think he might’ve been after one of the vehicles?”

“You’d think if he’d wanted to steal one of the cars, he’d have hidden until she got into the house.  Something about this isn’t right, John.”

“I know what you mean, son.  But I just can’t figure it.”

Eva broke her silence.  “I know you think I’m crazy, but I think he could have been sent by James and Richard.  There’s no telling what they’re capable of.  I wouldn’t put this past them.”

“Eva, I know they can be violent, and I wouldn’t put the act past them, but I can’t believe they’d come all the way to Texas from New York just to get back at us for leaving them.”

“I can believe it.  When I left James in the past, he came after me, even hiring a private investigator to find me.  If he did it then, what makes you think he wouldn’t do it now?”

“Well even if he did go to the trouble of hiring a private investigator to track us down, I can’t believe he would knock me in the head.  For what purpose?  Was he planning on dragging me unconscious all the way back to New York?  That sounds like a stretch to me.”

Eva paused for thought, trying to make sense of the situation.  “Callie, maybe they didn’t send someone to come bring us back.  Maybe they sent someone…..to hurt us.”

“Do you really think they would, Eva?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them, Callie.  I admit, it’s hard to picture Richard doing something like this, but then again, I didn’t think he would ever hit you, either.  He’d never shown that side to me.  James, though, is another matter entirely.  I have no trouble whatsoever picturing him hiring a thug to do his dirty work.  I can even see him doing it himself.”

“I didn’t get a good luck at the guy, but I saw enough to know he wasn’t Richard or James.  Too bulky and not tall enough.”

Callie tried to sit up, but Cade gently pressed down on her shoulder.  “Just stay right there, baby.  Let’s clean you up.  Eva, can you go get a wet washcloth?  Maybe we should take you to emergency and have you checked out.  You’ve got quite a bump there, and it seems to be getting bigger by the minute.  John, you think we should take her to a doctor?”  He reached for her hand as he watched her worriedly.

“No way am I going to the emergency room, Cade.  I’ll be fine.  I am fine.  I just have a huge headache, that’s all.”

John weighed in.  “I’d be more worried if there was an indention rather than a goose egg.  It’ll be tender for awhile, but I don’t think she has a concussion.  She can focus alright.  I think she’ll be ok.  I do want to put a call into the sheriff, though, and report this.”

“Thank you, Granddad.  Besides, you know I’m too hard-headed for this to keep me down.”

Both men smiled down at her.  Eva came back in the room carrying a warm, wet washcloth in a bowl of water.  “Let’s get you cleaned up, girlfriend.”

“I’ll do it.”  Cade reached for the bowl and wrung out the cloth, placing it gently against her head.

“Ow, ow, ow.”

“Sorry, sweetheart, I’ll try to be gentle.  Let’s just hold it there a minute to break up the dried blood.  I’ll be real careful.”  He traced her eyebrows with his fingertip.

Eva smiled at the tenderness Cade showed.  “John, while you call the sheriff, I’ll make some coffee.  I have a feeling it’s going to be awhile before anyone gets back to bed.”  Both Eva and John left the room.

Callie opened her eyes again and looked up at Cade.  She covered the hand holding the washcloth to her temple with her own.  “Don’t look so worried.  I’m okay.”

Cade cupped her cheek.  “God damn it, Callie, I’ve never been so scared in my life.  I should’ve gone after the bastard, but all I could think about was getting to you.  Don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“Well jeez, Cade, I’ll sure try not to.  Although, all this extra attention’s got me thinking that I kind of like it when you take care of me and spoil me like this.”  She smiled up at him.

He returned her smile and laced his fingers through hers.  “I thought you said you could take care of yourself.”

“Oh I can, believe me.  But there’s something nice about having your undivided attention and being coddled like this.  I could get used to it.”

“You do that, baby.  I’m not going anywhere.”

****

It was sunrise before the sheriff left.  Cade insisted on carrying Callie up to her room even though she swore she was perfectly capable of walking.  Eva followed them up and helped her change out of her dress and tucked her into bed.  Although both women were tired, they couldn’t go to sleep until they’d indulged in some girl talk, and Callie filled her in on how her date went with Cade, sparing very few details.

Cade joined John at the kitchen table after pouring himself another cup of coffee.  He broke the silence first.

“What do you think happened out there tonight, John?  Do you think Eva could be right?  Do you think it’s possible that the Wesley’s are behind this?”

“I don’t rightly know what to think, son.  On the one hand, it’s hard to believe that anyone could be so vindictive as to travel cross country to dish out some kind of revenge, but on the other hand, for the life of me, I can’t figure out who would want to hurt Callie, can you?”

“I’ve been wracking my brains since I carried her in, and swear to God, I can’t think of any reason for this to happen.  But, like you, it’s hard to believe the New Yorkers are behind it.  One thing’s for sure, though, I don’t think either of the women should go out anywhere alone for awhile.  I don’t want to take any chances of a repeat of what went down tonight.”

“I think you’re right, Cade.  And I think we better call Jake and Josh and bring them into this.  Between the four of us, we can make sure nothing else happens to the girls.”  Cade nodded his agreement as John stood up and reached for the phone.

Chapter15

Cade was in the driver’s seat of Callie’s jeep with her riding shotgun and Eva in the back seat as they drove to Trish’s parents’ house to pick her up and go meet Josh and his friend to look at real estate possibilities for the Literacy Center.  Cade had barely pulled into the driveway when Trish bounded out the front door and made her way to the jeep.

“Hey girls, Cade.  Perfect timing.  The kids just went down for a nap.”

Cade backed out of the driveway, and shifted gears into drive.  Callie reached over for his hand, took it off the gear shift, and placed in on her thigh, covering his hand with her own.  He squeezed her leg and kept driving.  Trish looked at Callie’s leg, lifted her eyebrows in question and looked to Eva.  Eva smiled and nodded her head.  Trish smiled back.

Cade pulled into the parking lot of a large building overgrown with weeds.  Josh and his friend were waiting for them.  Everyone got out of the jeep and walked towards the waiting men.  Cade waited for Callie and reached down to lace his fingers through hers.

Josh looked at their joined hands, took off his sunglasses and raised an eyebrow at Cade.  “Get used to it, asshole.”

Josh smiled and answered, “About damn time.”

“Am I the last one to see this coming?”

“Yes,” Callie and her brother answered at the same time.  Cade just shook his head and rolled his eyes.

Josh made the necessary introductions and told the ladies that this was the first of three possible places they were going to look at that day.  Eva had a clipboard and started writing down the address of the place they were at and looked up at Josh.