Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63469 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 317(@200wpm)___ 254(@250wpm)___ 212(@300wpm)
“We had to give you some fluids and glucose to get your blood sugar up,” she said sternly, her voice full of authority for one so young, giving me the judgmental brow. “Why were you dehydrated, and why aren’t you eating?”
So I explained about the cattle drive and then lied and said I normally did eat but hadn’t been just for the day, but how I should have, what with being in the saddle the whole time.
“Yes, you should have. Now, I’m sending a meal up, and you better eat everything on that tray, ya hear?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Good boy,” she said with a smile before telling Stef that she’d find the doctor and that yes, I could have some water. Not a lot, but some. I was not to overdo.
Once she was gone and Stef poured ice water into the little plastic tumbler for me, I asked him the obvious. “Who in the hell were those people, Stef?”
“The guy in the long-sleeved shirt, his name is David Lawrence, and he’s one of my former students from the college.”
I waited for him to go on, sipping my water.
He cleared his throat. “The girl is Kree Walton, and they wanted to…”
“Oh, I know what they wanted to do. They wanted to kidnap Wyatt and hold him for ransom.”
He nodded.
“So what, this David just called you up out of the blue?”
“Yeah, he said he needed a reference letter, and… God, Glenn, it’s just…” He inhaled sharply. “He was one of my teaching assistants, you know? Why would I ever have cause to doubt him?”
“No, you don’t blame yourself for that, Stef. None of that’s on you.”
“I feel really stupid.”
“For wanting to help out an old student?”
His eyes searched my face. “You could have been killed.”
“So could you,” I volleyed, not bringing up the fact that Wyatt had been in danger as well. “But we’re all fine, so let’s not fuss on it no more.”
His smile was beautiful. “Yes, Glenn.”
I tipped my head as I looked at him. “You realize the security out there at the ranch is about to go through an overhaul, don’t ya?”
He just grimaced.
The door opened then, and a male nurse brought in my dinner of hospital food, complete with hot tea, apple juice, and milk. I thanked him, and as I started in, could not help smiling over at Stef as he flopped into the chair and told me that Fort Knox would have nothing on the Red Diamond once Rand was done.
“He’s going to overhaul the house as well. The open concept is coming.”
The house had been built pre-central heat and air, and since Rand had never converted it, there was a fireplace in every room but the kitchen and dining room downstairs and the master upstairs. It was a sweet house full of quaint charm that Stef balked at updating, keeping Rand’s plans for an open-flow renovation on ice. So at the moment, it was still a box inside with smaller rooms and lots of walls to hide behind.
“Your sense of tradition helped me out just a bit ago,” I reminded him, “but it’s time for a change now, you reckon?”
He nodded.
“And yeah, the house needs to be updated, but the security changes are a long time coming as well.”
He grunted.
“You and Wyatt are the two most precious things in the world to Rand. How could you expect anything less?”
“I guess if you think about it that way,” he said softly, looking at me hopefully, “then it’s sweet, all the changes he plans on making.”
“Sure,” I agreed, with a grin. “I doubt it’ll feel like a prison at all.”
“Oh God.”
“Maybe tell him to go easy on the barbed wire and motion sensors and automatic lights, huh?”
Apparently, I wasn’t as funny as I thought I was.
When I woke up next, Stef was gone, or I thought he was until he walked back into the room.
“Why are you still here?” I asked instead of anything nicer.
“I wasn’t. I left and came back because I was worried.”
Well, shit. What was I supposed to say to that?
“Your default is asshole, isn’t it, Glenn?”
“No,” I said defensively but then thought about it. “Maybe.”
He snorted.
“So listen, I got a hold of Rand on the sat phone and explained what happened, and Zach knows too.”
“What about Mac?”
“Mac?”
“Can I borrow your phone and call him?”
He shook his head. “They’re concentrating now on bringing in the cattle as fast as they can. Just…focus on you.”
“I really need to speak to Mac,” I insisted.
“Well, you can’t talk to anybody right now, because again…cattle.”
“Fine.” I sighed, letting it go, and then noticed that he was whistling under his breath. “Oh God, what’d you do?”
“Pardon me?”
“Don’t fuck with me. What’d you do?”
He cleared his throat. “Hypothetically,” he said, and grinned at me, “I might have called over to the Bronc and told whoever answered that you were stabbed but were in stable condition at the hospital in Hillman.”