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“Why?” His challenge was quiet but firm. “What would you accomplish?”
“It isn’t a question of accomplishing anything, Logan. It’s my place to be there, especially now that Dad is gone. It’s simply something that is expected of me,” Cat explained, a flash of determination in her eyes.
“Maybe it is,” Logan conceded. “But given your present differences with Jessy, we both know that if you go there now, you would end up quarreling with Jessy before the night was over. And it wouldn’t be the time or the place for that.”
She knew he was right, and it made her furious. “All right, then, you go,” she snapped in ill temper. “It certainly won’t look right if neither one of us shows up, especially when they learn we were notified of her passing. And you can bet word will get around that I knew and didn’t care enough to show up. I won’t have people saying that about me. Maybe they will understand that I had to stay here with Quint—although I’m sure they will have something to say about that, too.”
Logan chuckled softly and drew her rigid body into his arms. “No wonder Jessy clammed up on you today. Sometimes silence is the best way to handle a spitfire when she’s on a tear.”
“Sometimes I just can’t help it,” Cat stated, her voice tight with impatience. “I worked hard to earn the respect of everybody on the Triple C. I hate the thought they might think less of me for not being there tonight.”
“Personally I don’t give a damn what they think. As far as I’m concerned, our son is more important than their good opinions.”
The tension flowed out of her. Smiling, she relaxed against his chest. “That is the absolute truth. Thank you for reminding me.”
She tipped her head back and Logan obligingly bent his down to kiss the softness of her curved lips. The warmth of his kiss reminded her that the only home she would ever truly care about was right here in his arms.
“Still want me to go?” he teased and nuzzled the corner of her mouth.
“Not really,” Cat admitted. “But I still think one of us should be there. I mean, it is Sally. I’ve known her my entire life.”
This time Logan didn’t argue.
With his mind blank of conscious thought, Laredo stared at the ranch road ahead of him. The pickup’s headlight
beams revealed its approaching dips and swells before he reached them. The overhead sign that marked the Triple C’s east entrance made a black slash against the night sky.
Slowing the truck to make the turn onto the highway, Laredo automatically scanned the highway and immediately spotted the flashing blue-and-white lights to the north. The vehicle’s boxy silhouette made it instantly recognizable as an ambulance. Laredo braked the pickup to a stop at the intersection and waited for the ambulance to pass. Instead it slowed and made the swing into the ranch entrance.
Surprise held him motionless for a split second. He hesitated a moment longer, then made a tire-spinning U-turn and took off after it. There were a dozen possible explanations for an ambulance to be summoned at this hour of the night, everything from an illness of one of the workers to an accident on one of the ranch roads. But there was always the possibility Chase’s would-be killer had shifted his focus to Jessy, and Laredo knew he wouldn’t have any peace of mind until he assured himself that Jessy was all right.
It was a long forty miles back to the Triple C headquarters. When he pulled into the ranch yard behind the ambulance, lights blazed from the first-floor windows of The Homestead. Three vehicles were parked in front of it, vehicles that weren’t there when Laredo left over an hour ago.
The ambulance pulled up to the veranda steps and stopped. Laredo parked his pickup next to the house, partially hidden in the shadows and out of the way.
Wasting no time, he piled out of the cab and headed straight for the veranda. By the time he reached the steps, the paramedics were letting themselves in the front door.
Laredo followed them inside, his own tension mounting at their lack of haste. Quick to note that all the activity seemed to be centered in the living room, he headed in that direction, unconsciously scenting the air for that distinctively tinny odor of blood.
Before he reached the living room, he was stopped in the wide hall by a short, squatly built man somewhere in his sixties. “Are you with the ambulance?” he asked with wary skepticism.
“No, I—” Laredo caught a glimpse of Jessy in the living room, alive and unhurt. He felt an instant loosening of his muscles. “I was checking to make sure Jessy was okay. What happened?”
But the man didn’t immediately answer. “Who are you?”
His attitude was one of aloof distrust toward a man he regarded as an outsider. Before Laredo could answer, Jessy noticed him and quickly excused herself, leaving an older woman to talk to the paramedics.
“It’s all right, Dad,” she said to the man planted in Laredo’s path. “I know him. It’s the new man I hired to work the feedlot, Laredo Smith.” Her glance bounced off Laredo. “I don’t believe you’ve met my father, Stumpy Niles.”
“Mr. Niles.” Laredo nodded in acknowledgement, but no hand was thrust forward for him to shake. His only response was a brief bob of the head and a level stare that seemed to demand an explanation. “I passed the ambulance and saw it was headed this way,” Laredo began, forced to watch his words. “Naturally I started wondering what the problem was.”
Jessy came to his rescue. “It was good of you to stop in case you could be of help.”
“I don’t mean to be nosy, but what happened?” Laredo worded the question for her father’s benefit.
“It’s our housekeeper, Sally Brogan. I went out for a short walk before turning in.” This time Jessy looked him square in the eye, providing him with the excuse she had used to cover her absence from the house. “When I came back, I found her. She must have had a heart attack. I called Amy Trumbo right away. She’s a nurse,” she added in quick explanation. “We tried, but—we couldn’t revive her.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, and meant it.
