Trusting Them (14 page)

“Ah, baby girl.” He fell to his knees next to her and reached out to touch her cheek.

“I’m okay, Brock. You saved me,” she whispered.

“Not before I let the bastard hurt you again. I’m sorry, baby. I let you down.” Brock felt the prickle of tears behind his eyes.

Her poor face was already swollen from the blows, and her left eye was nearly swollen shut. Her lips and nose were bleeding, but she smiled anyway. She reached out for his hand. He took it and let her hold on while they cleaned her face.

“Anyone want to tell me what in the hell is going on here?” Sheriff Samuel Clarke demanded.

Brady winced and looked at Brock. Brock just shrugged. It was going to be a long night. Both of them wanted to be somewhere warmer for this story. They also wanted their woman back in their home.

“Sheriff, I’ll tell you everything if we can just get Jeni here back to the house where it’s warm. She’s been sick already, and now she’s hurt, too.” Brady gestured towards where the house would be.

“She need to go to the hospital?” Sheriff Clarke asked the deputy cleaning her face.

“She sounds like she might have pneumonia from the way she’s wheezing.”

“Let’s get her there, then, and we can finish this conversation there.” He gave a pointed look at Brock and Brady.

“We’ll follow you there. She goes with us though,” Brock said as he pulled Jeni into his arms.

He picked her up and carried her to the truck. Brady climbed into the passenger side and let Brock transfer Jeni to his lap. Brock ran around to the other side and climbed in to start the engine. They had a long, rough drive ahead of them. He would have been happier taking her to the house, but she needed to see the doctor.

Brady grabbed a blanket from the backseat and wrapped it around them. Brock watched as his brother smoothed the hair away from her face. He winced. It had to hurt. He felt like a failure. She’d sacrificed herself to save his brother. He hadn’t been able to protect her like he should have.

“Stop thinking so hard over there, brother,” Brady said.

“She might have gotten killed. I promised her I wouldn’t let him hurt her again, and I did.”

“
We
promised her, and we both failed. It won’t happen again though. I won’t underestimate anyone again, that’s for damn sure.” Brady laid a gentle kiss on Jeni’s forehead.

“I’m alive, Brock. I really didn’t think I would be a little while ago.” Jeni’s voice was distorted from the swelling.

She leaned over and grabbed Brock’s leg with her hand. He let go of the steering wheel briefly to squeeze her hand then replaced it on the wheel. He wouldn’t risk having a wreck with her in the truck. She’s been through enough. He would make sure she got the best medical care they had, even flying her to Billings if needed. He wouldn’t leave anything to chance again.

It took nearly two hours to make the drive into town through the snow- and ice-covered roads. Twice they had ended up driving at a crawl. The string of trucks pulled into the town’s little hospital around midnight. Brock dared them to treat Glenn before they treated Jeni. No one challenged him.

He made it a point to have a talk to Glenn while they were in with Jeni and Brady. He leaned over the bed where the man was handcuffed by his good hand to the stretcher rail.

“You’re going to jail for this,” he told the man. “But, you will get out one day and when you do, you better head in the opposite direction of wherever Jeni lives. You hear me?”

Glenn’s eyes grew big when he felt the knife poking him in the groin. Brock dug a little deeper with the knife. The man didn’t say anything, he just nodded his head.

“Good. I’m planning on her living here with us, but if she decides to live somewhere else, I’m going to have someone always watching her. You ever show your face in the same town as she lives, I will make you sorry you were ever born.” Brock gave the man one more jab with the knife and then put it away and walked off after nodding to the deputy guarding Glenn.

Brock waited with Brady as they placed three stitches in his arm where the bullet had grazed him. They still hadn’t seen Jeni. She was being taken care of in one of the only fully enclosed rooms in the town’s little emergency room.

“How are we going to convince her to stay with us, Brock?” Brady asked after a while.

“I don’t know. It’s not like we can offer her anything. We live in the middle of nowhere, and there are two of us. She might not want to live like that.”

“I can’t let her go, Brock. She has to stay.”

“Brady, we can’t force her. If we did, we wouldn’t be any better than her ex-husband.”

“I know you’re right, but…” Brady just shook his head and stared off out the window.

“Give her a chance to get well. She’s been sick or hurt ever since we’ve known her. Then, once she has had time to recover, we can try and convince her to stay with us. That’s the best we can do,” Brock said.

Chapter Ten

Her face hurt again. It seemed every time she got into trouble with Glenn it was her face he went after first. This time, though, he hadn’t been able to finish what he started. The bastard was in jail, and she was free of him. The novelty of the situation hadn’t yet worn off. Brady had shot the hand that Glenn used on her. He wouldn’t be able to use it for much of anything anymore. She couldn’t help but grin at the idea.

Two days. She’d been in the hospital for two days for pneumonia. She felt so much better than she had but they refused to let her go for another twenty-four hours. Brady and Brock had been with her nearly the entire time. She missed them when they were gone. Like now, they had gone back to the ranch to shower and change clothes. She tried to convince them to stay for the night and get some good rest, but they refused to leave her alone at night. Secretly, she liked that, knowing they cared about her.

What was she going to do though? When it was time for her to leave the hospital, she had nowhere to go. With Glenn out of the picture, she could go back home and start over, but that didn’t really appeal to her now. The guys kept telling her she belonged with them, but did they really mean that or were they just saying that to make her feel good?

She had been nothing but trouble for them since they met her. Surely, now that she was free and clear of Glenn, they would expect her to move on. The thought of leaving them hurt. She had grown to care about them a lot. Maybe even a little too much. The thought of not seeing them again started an ache in her heart that only got worse the more she thought about it. Surely there was some way she could remain close to them. Maybe she could find a job and live here in town.

How pathetic did that sound? She was searching for ways to stay close to them when they might even now be hoping she’d leave soon. When had they become so important to her? Jeni wasn’t sure, but she knew she needed to decide what to do soon.

“Hey, you’re still awake,” Brady said as he walked into the room.

He carried a small package wrapped up in brown paper and string. Jeni couldn’t help eyeing the plain-looking gift. He lifted his eyebrows and held it out to her.

“It’s not much, just thought you could use a smile.”

“Thanks, you really shouldn’t have gotten me anything.”

“It isn’t anything really,” they both said in union.

Giggling, Jeni untied the string and opened the package. Inside lay a pair of extra thick socks. She smiled and grabbed both their hands before swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and throwing them at Brady.

“I need them on now,” she demanded.

Brock laughed and, taking the socks from the package, rolled them on her feet. Brady replaced her feet under the covers and threw away the paper and string.

“I love them. Thank you both so much.”

“So, they said you could go home tomorrow afternoon.” Brady sat on the edge of the bed.

“Yeah, um, they said my stuff is at your place. Is that okay with you guys?”

“Of course it is. You’re welcome to stay with us as long as you want to,” Brock added.

“I don’t want to be a burden. I mean, all I’ve done is cause you two trouble.”

“We want you to come and stay, Jeni,” Brady finally spit out.

“I don’t know how long it will be for. I have to decide what I’m going to do with my life now that I actually have one to live.”

Jeni listened hard to detect any insincerity in their voices when they offered her a place to stay, but she couldn’t find any. They truly seemed to want her to come and stay for awhile. The problem was would she ever want to go again if she did stay with them. She had already admitted to herself that it would be easy to fall in love with the two of them. They had been so good to her.

“Don’t worry about anything for right now. As soon as they let you go, we’ll take you home with us and you can heal and relax and think about what you want to do. You have all the time you need.” Brock straddled a chair and laid his arms across the back of it.

“Is there anything you want or need from your things to be ready to leave tomorrow? I can go get it and bring it back tomorrow afternoon,” Brady offered.

“Thanks, but the clothes you brought will be fine for me to go home in. Thanks for the coat. I needed a new one. The one I was wearing wasn’t very thick, was it?”

“Not at all,” Brady agreed.

“Get some sleep, baby girl,” Brock said. “We’ll be right here if you need us.”

Jeni smiled and wiggled around until she got comfortable, then closed her eyes to go to sleep.

* * * *

“Hey! I told you I can walk,” Jeni shrieked.

Brady held her in his arms all the way to the porch before he let her slide slowly to the ground. She thumped him on the back and walked past him to the kitchen door.

“I didn’t want you to get your pants wet in the snow, baby,” Brady said.

“Both of you need to cool it.” Brock carried the suitcase through the kitchen and into the living room. He dropped it by the couch.

Jeni smiled at him and gave him a hug. She was so glad to be there. It felt like home to her. But it wasn’t her home, it was theirs, she reminded herself. She couldn’t forget that she was a guest there.

“Are you tired? I can fix up the couch and you can take a quick nap if you want to,” Brady offered.

“I’m not tired at all. I want to go see the horses. I never got to see them when I was here before.”

“Brady, why don’t you go show her the horses? I need to check on some things now that we are back.” Brock smiled at her.

“Come on, back in the coat with you.” Brady helped her put the coat on and then steered her towards the back door again. “We need to get a hat for you. I’ll see about that the next time we go into town.”

“If it touches my body, I get to help pick it out,” she said good-naturedly.

“Anything you put on will look great on you,” Brady offered.

“Enough with the compliments already. You’re going to give me a complex or something.”

Brady laughed and pulled her closer to him as they stepped into the stables. The smell of hay and fresh manure filled her nose. She wrinkled it, but smiled. It smelled like home to her. In fact, everything about the ranch smelled and felt like home. She didn’t want to leave here at all. She wanted to stay.

“What are you thinking about?” Brady asked. “You look so serious all of a sudden.”

“Oh, nothing,” she hedged. “I really like it here. You’ve got a wonderful home.”

“Thanks. It’s your home too.” He hurried on. “For as long as you like.”