Promise Them (The Callahan Series Book 6) (29 page)

“She’s dead,” Jimmy growled. “Dead! And there is no company any more.”

“I’m sorry, Jimmy,” Nell said, her voice all soft and maternal as she moved toward him.

“Stay where you are!”

Beau pushed Nell behind him, turned his head, and whistled low. Taro heard and moved toward them.

“Stop the damned horse,” Jimmy threatened.

Taro stopped when he reached Beau. Jimmy moved around so he could keep Beau and Nell covered.

“Jimmy,” Nell said. “You’re a young man. You don’t want to ruin your life like this. So far, nothing bad has happened. Why don’t you just leave?”

“You’re kidding.”

“That’s a sound idea, Jimmy. Tell me though, why get a job with the Callahans? Why not get one with me?” Beau’s left hand inched to his saddlebag. He had to hurry. Jimmy was out of control.

“Thought that might look too suspicious. Besides, you didn’t need help. Callahan did.”

His gun came up.

Nellie stepped up and threw a rock. It landed at Jimmy’s feet. He laughed, and stepped forward when she threw another.

“Stop,” Beau hissed. “You’re making him angrier.”

Jimmy leveled the gun. “That does it, you old goats. You’re goners.”

Beau saw the gun pointed at Nell and reacted. He yanked a flare from the saddlebag and fired as he stepped in front of Nell at the same time Jimmy’s gun exploded.

Beau heard Nell scream. Then he heard nothing.

****

By the time Donovan, followed by Mark, found them, Nellie was leaning over Beau. She’d taken off her blouse and was using it to staunch the blood. “He hasn’t moved,” she cried out when she saw them.

“Are you all right?” Donovan asked, his voice low and worried.

“I’m fine. Please. Help Beau. I can’t stop the bleeding.”

“Mark,” Donovan said. “Get out of here. When you have reception call Dugan back and tell him to send an ambulance. And hurry.”

Mark spurred Snowman out of the formation.

Donovan checked to see Nellie doing what could be done for Beau and went to Jimmy. “What’s going on here, Jimmy?”

“He shot Beau,” Nellie said, her voice so shaky she didn’t know if she could be understood.
Beau can’t die.
She pressed on his shoulder as hard as she could. She
had
to stop the bleeding.

“He blinded me,” Jimmy moaned. “The bastard blinded me.”

“He’s the rustler,” Nellie cried out.

Donovan went to Stormy, took a length of rope off the saddle, and went back to Jimmy.

“I’m blind. Get me to the hospital,” Jimmy cried. “Damn man shot me with a flare!”

Without an ounce of sympathy, Donovan tied Jimmy up and went to help Nellie. “I’ll let Dugan take care of him,” he said as he knelt beside his mom. “It looks as if the bleeding has stopped. Don’t let up on the pressure.”

“He can’t die, Don. He saved my life. If it weren’t for him…” She couldn’t stop the tears.

“Here, let me,” he said and, taking her place, pressed hard against the wound.

Nellie sank back on her haunches and let the tears fall. “Beau took a bullet for me,” she said again, grabbing Donovan’s arm. “He won’t die, will he?”

“Not if we get him to the hospital.”

“Where is the ambulance?” she cried. Her brain had stopped working. She couldn’t think of what her life would be without the man lying at her feet so pale and unmoving. “Is it too late? I didn’t take his pulse.”

They heard the sirens at the same time. Donovan took his eyes off Beau long enough to look at her. “You need a shirt,” he said.

“I’m fine. Who hasn’t seen a woman in a bathing suit before?”

“You’re only half-covered.”

She stood when Mark led Dugan and two deputies toward them.

“Where’s the ambulance?” Nellie asked, so nervous she could barely talk.

“Right behind us,” Dugan said, taking in the situation with one long look. Motioning to his deputies, they took Jimmy by the arms and led him out of the rock formation.

“I’m blind! I need a doctor!” he cried out.

“Get him to the hospital,” Dugan told his deputy. “Mark, wait at the entrance and lead the EMT’s back here.”

Mark took off again.

“Call your deputies, tell them to stop a diesel truck and trailer rig. It left here about fifteen minutes ago,” Nellie told them. “It’s the rustlers. Jimmy’s the leader.”

“You heard her,” Dugan yelled to a deputy who ran out of the formation and to his cruiser.

“What’s the story?” Dugan asked.

“I’ll tell you everything when Beau is in a hospital and his eyes are open. Until then, you’ll have to wait.”

Nellie leaned over Beau, kissed his forehead. “Wake up, Beau. You can’t die on me now.”

Donovan and Dugan exchanged glances, but said nothing.

Nellie saw the exchange but didn’t care. For once in her life, she didn’t care what her family thought, she only wanted Beau on his feet again, that smile on his face, his blue eyes shining with love.

True to Dugan’s word, more sirens were heard in the distance. It wasn’t long until Mark was leading two EMT’s with a stretcher into the labyrinth.

“I want him to wake up!” Nellie said. No one responded. The silence made her all the more agitated. She followed beside the stretcher holding Beau’s hand. When they reached the ambulance, she said, “I’m going with him.”

“You need some clothes,” Donovan reminded her.

“If my appearance bothers you, stop at the house and get me something you think appropriate,” she snapped. “Right now, I’m going with Beau, and we’re not stopping for anything.”

The ambulance door slammed shut. As they bumped across the pasture, Beau moaned.

Nellie had never heard such a wonderful sound. “Beau,” she said as an EMT, whose shirt read Shirley, took his vitals. “Are you awake?”

He mumbled something she couldn’t understand.

She leaned closer, whispered in his ear, “I love you, Beau. Don’t you dare die on me.”

He mumbled something else she couldn’t understand.

They were finally on the road, the ride smoother. “Can’t you go faster?” she asked Shirley.

“We’re going fast enough,” she said. “Your friend is stable now.”

“Will he be all right?”

Shirley pocketed her stethoscope. “Looks like he has a bullet in his shoulder, and he’s lost quite a bit of blood. He should be fine once the bullet is removed.”

The comforting words should have been a relief, but Nellie was frozen with fear. Would she lose this man so soon after realizing how much he meant to her?

She’d been afraid when Jimmy stepped out of the shadows with a gun, but not like this. Now she was terrified.

The driver asked, “Are we going to the local hospital or San Antonio?”

“Local,” Shirley said. “He needs a doctor to evaluate him right away.”

“Right-O.”

It wasn’t long before they pulled under the portico at the local hospital.

They were waiting for them, so Beau was wheeled immediately into a room. Nellie followed them in, but Shirley took her arm and pulled her out. “They need room to work.”

“I have to be with him,” she said, shivering in the cold air.

“You need something on your arms,” Shirley told her.

“I’m fine. But I …”

Shirley walked over to a closet to bring her a light blanket. Nellie put it around her shoulders. “Thanks.”

“I know you want to be with him, but right now he’s in better hands. They’ll tell you what’s going on shortly.”

“They’d better,” she muttered.

Dugan came to stand beside her and handed her one of her shirts. She put aside the blanket and put on the shirt without thinking. Her heart and mind were with Beau. He lay on a cold table with a bullet in his shoulder. It should be her in there. She started to tremble. Dugan wrapped his arms around her. “You’d better sit down, Mom.”

“I’m waiting right here until somebody tells me how he is.”

Dugan didn’t argue. He simply went to find a chair and made her sit.

She wasn’t there five minutes when the door flew open and they were rushing Beau down the hall. She jumped up to follow. “What’s going on? Where are you going?”

One of the nurses stopped to tell them, “Surgery. The sooner the better.”

Nellie stumbled. Dugan held her upright. “You’re going to sit, Mom, if I have to force you.”

Donovan came striding over to take her other arm. She saw Phyl, her face contorted with worry. She saw Mark almost in tears. But the person she wanted to see the most was disappearing behind the surgical room doors.

“Has someone called Rey and Dani?” she asked, her mind numb with shock. “They should be here.

“They’re on their way,” Phyl said.

Dani came in first and went straight to Nellie. “What happened?”

Nellie grabbed the young girl and told her the story, then wrapped her in her arms when Dani burst into tears. By the time Dani calmed down, Rey was there, so Nellie told them what Jimmy had done.

Neither could believe it. “Dad never said anything about a Jack Dorsey,” Dani said. “This is the first time I’ve even heard the name.”

“Same here,” Rey said, his voice not his own.

“Which means your dad did what he thought best at the time and put it out of his head,” Nellie said.

Dugan pulled out his cell phone and called his deputy before he came to sit with the family. “They stopped the truck. It was on the way to San Antonio.”

She looked around. The family was here for the duration. A small portion of her anxiety lifted. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and prayed. When she opened them, she turned to Donovan. “Would you call Father Mike?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“I do.”

He went to do as asked.

“Is Dad going to be all right?” Dani asked.

“I pray so,” Nellie responded. He had to be.

“How could Jimmy do this?” Rey asked. “He seemed like a regular guy.”

“He was consumed with hate,” Nellie said. “I’m amazed he kept it hidden so long.”

It didn’t take long for Father Mike to join them. They had three prayer sessions before someone came out of surgery to talk to them.

“He’s going to be fine,” Doc Pullman said.

“When can we see him?” Nellie asked. She wouldn’t believe the doctor until she saw Beau for herself.

“He’s in recovery. We’ll come and get you when he wakes up.”

Dugan and Donovan each took an arm and guided her back to her chair.

“I’m not an invalid,” she said. But there was no sting to her words. They only wanted to help.

It was another hour before someone came out again. “He wants to see Nell,” the nurse said.

“Dani—Rey, you go in first. I’ll go when you come out.”

“He wants to see you,” Dani said.

“He knows I’m here, he doesn’t know you are…now go.”

And they did. “We won’t be long.”

Nellie couldn’t be still. She sat down between her two sons one minute and was on her feet the next. When Dani and Rey came out of the room, she all but ran past them and into Beau’s room.

He was propped up in bed, his eyes shut. But there was more color to his face. Best of all, he was alive. She went weak at the thought of how close she’d come to losing him.

“Hi,” she whispered, taking his hand in hers.

He opened his eyes, smiled weakly. “Hi, yourself.”

“How do you feel?”

“Like a truck hit me.”

“A bullet hit you. Why did you step in front of me like that? You could have been killed.”

“I didn’t want you hurt, Nell.” His voice was weak and raspy.

“Can you have water?”

“Ice.”

She gave him some, rubbed it over his lips, put it in his mouth.

“Was I dreaming? Did I hear you say ‘I love you’?”

She chuckled. “You weren’t dreaming.”

He pulled her as close as he could, then touched her lips with his. “Wait until I get well,” he growled.

“Do I hear a promise in there somewhere?”

“You bet you do.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The next month passed in a flurry of activity. Nellie couldn’t believe all that was going on at the diner. Molly’s had been painted and re-furbished until it gleamed. Best of all, Dani was ready for the grand opening of the new dining area.

Nellie couldn’t have been more proud of Dani if she were her own daughter. Tonight, she was having a preview with a few invited guests. All of whom were ordered to give her an honest appraisal afterward.

The new girl Dani had hired, Jeanie Newcastle, stood at the door to escort the guests to a table.

“I’m excited and nervous,” Nellie whispered to Beau.

“I know what you mean. This is a huge undertaking.” He looked around. “Do you know who is on the guest list?”

Nellie chuckled. “Donovan and Phyl, Dugan and Kate, Nolan Murdock, Rey and Marissa, Emma and the two of us. I think that’s all. Doesn’t the place look wonderful?” she said as they stepped into the dining room. Flowers from Emma’s yard sat in bud vases in the center of each table, which were covered with snow-white tablecloths. Sconces on the walls shone with muted lighting, giving the space a romantic air.

“I’m impressed,” Beau whispered in Nellie’s ear.

She looked at him and smiled. “Aren’t you proud of your daughter?”

“Bursting.” He grinned. “Where did the artwork come from?”

Nellie chuckled. “Dani’s new friend, Marissa Armstrong. There she is.”

They turned to watch as the young lady came in the door. She hesitated, as if uncertain she should be there. Nellie hurried over. “I’ll introduce you to those you don’t know,” she told the pretty dark-haired girl.

“Thank you,” Marissa said in her soft voice.

“This is Rey, Beau’s son,” Nellie said. “Marissa teaches art at the high school.” She glanced around. “Dani couldn’t resist hanging a few of her paintings.”

“I’ll finish introducing her, Nellie.” He took Marissa’s arm.

Nellie watched with amusement as the two dark-headed young people walked around the room.

Though there were a dozen tables, the guests occupied only one. Rey managed to sit next to Marissa.

When Dani walked in, they stood and gave her a round of applause.

Dani had a look of panic on her face. Who could blame her?

“I knew Dani could do this. She may be cranky, but she’s smart,” Emma announced.