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Laura watched the emotional meeting, only vaguely conscious of Boone’s arm possessively along her shoulders. For a long minute the two men embraced, heads bowed into each other, each hugging the other tightly. Laura had always been aware of the special bond that existed between the two, but it had never been more evident than now.
When they separated, Quint’s cheeks were wet with tears, but Laura found nothing unmanly about the sight of them.
“It should have been me, son.” The husky tremor in her grandfather’s voice had Laura blinking back tears of her own.
Quint shook his head. “You’re wrong if you think it wouldn’t hurt as much to lose you.”
The front door opened, but Laura paid little attention to it. People had been stopping by for most of the day, ranch hands and neighbors alike. Then something triggered an awareness within her. Perhaps it was something familiar in the tread of those footsteps that pulled her glance to the doorway, but she knew it would be Sebastian even before he walked in.
His eyes cut a path straight to her, and something quickened within her at the contact. Almost with irritation, she felt Boone’s fingers tighten their grip on her upper arm.
Her grandfather was the first to openly recognize Sebastian. “There you are, Sebastian. I don’t believe you’ve met my eldest grandson, Quint Echohawk.”
With that smooth grace of his, Sebastian stepped forward. “I regret I haven’t had the pleasure.”
“This is Sebastian Dunshill from England, Quint,” he said, finishing the introduction.
Quint smiled as they shook hands. “Trey’s talked about you.”
Sebastian responded with a droll slant to his mouth. “Yes, your cousin has been most intelligent in his efforts to teach me the cowboy way—without much success, I’m afraid.”
“Mrs. Mitchell and the children,” Laura began, unable to suppress her curiosity any longer.
“They are tucked away in a safe place,” Sebastian assured her. “And I stopped in town to inform the police where they could be found when it becomes necessary.”
“I take it Mitchell hasn’t been caught yet,” Quint guessed, his features hardening a little.
“Not to my knowledge,” Sebastian answered. “Roadblocks have been established on all the major arteries around Blue Moon, and helicopters are making a sweep of the side roads. I expect it’s only a matter of time before he will be apprehended.”
“With any luck, he’s drunk all the beer he took,” Trey said. “and they’ll find him passed out on some back road.”
“There’s no point standing around here speculating about it,” Chase stated. “It’s time we headed for the Circle Six. I don’t have to tell you, Quint, how anxious your mother is to have you home. She’s going to need to lean on you a lot these next few days.”
Quint nodded. “I know.”
They started for the door together, one young and one old, but each requiring the balancing support of a cane.
“Are you going over to your aunt’s?” Boone asked.
“For a while,” Laura replied.
“The
n I’ll come with you.”
“If you want.” She was cool to him, but it was the way she felt.
He remained smotheringly close to her as they passed Sebastian and followed the others into the hall. Laura was tempted to say something, but this was neither the time nor the place to make a scene.
In the entryway she stopped to collect her purse from the side table. “I’ll drive the Suburban, Trey. That cast on Quint’s leg will make it too crowded for all of us to ride together.”
Trey never had a chance to answer her as the front door burst open and Mitchell lurched into the house, all wild-eyed and holding a gun. Half-drunk, he reeled to a stop when he saw them. The barrel of the gun made an arcing sweep of all of them.
“Where are they?” he demanded, then spotted Boone and advanced toward him. “You took ’em, didn’t you? I’ll give you two seconds t’tell me what you did with m’wife an’ kids!”
“You’re crazy.” Boone’s gaze jumped from the gun to Mitchell’s angry face and back again.
“What d’ya expect when someone steals a man’s wife an’ kids from him?” the man raged. “Damn right it’ll make ya’ crazy—crazy enough to use this”—he brandished the gun—“if you don’t tell me where they are.”
