Chapter 11
BEAU
I stood beside Colt, Molly, Trig, and Ellie as we watched the ambulance pull away and head to the hospital. Lainey was riding in the back beside her father, who hadn’t regained consciousness.
Molly tugged off her rubber gloves and wadded them in her fist.
Colt was on his cell, pacing in a circle. Cam was in the back of the trailer tending to Junior. Trig had Ellie tucked beneath his arm.
I ran a hand over my hair. My father had been a deadbeat, nothing more than an alcoholic, abusive sperm donor.
Fortunately–depending on how one saw the situation–he was dissatisfied and too pinned down with a new baby and wife and walked out on us.
There was no doubt my mother had it tough, working and raising me all alone.
But if I ever ran across the bastard, I wanted to buy him a beer and thank him for fucking off and leaving us.
We were better off without him. Mom proved that when, years later, she found Hank and married a good one.
A solid, protective, caring man. Just like Mr. Wilder.
“Right. Yes.” Colt ended his call and turned to us. The crowd that had circled dissipated, thankfully. “The others are riding with Ma to the hospital.”
“I can’t believe Junior would kick Pops like that,” Trig said, tipping his hat back. “He’s always been so–”
“Junior’s been drugged,” Cam said, coming down the metal ramp.
Everyone stilled and stared. “What?” Trig asked, finally.
Cam nodded. He was a vet and ran a clinic in town. “No question. Suddenly aggressive. Sweating. Agitated.” He held up a filled blood vial. “I’ll take this in and test it. Not sure if it’ll do any good though.”
“Why?” Colt asked, using his cop voice.
“Because often times multiple drugs are mixed together so it can’t be exactly identified what an animal was doped with.”
“Will Junior be okay?” Ellie asked, tucking her dark hair behind her ear.
Cam looked to her. “I think so. The only positive in all this was that it kept Lainey from racing. Because of the drugs, Junior probably wouldn’t have recognized pain.”
“That’s good, right?” Molly asked. She was a people doctor, not an animal one.
Cam shook his head. “No. Junior would push himself too hard, even on such a short race and that could have killed him.”
Ellie gasped.
I saw red thinking of my girl on top of a dying horse. A horse sprinted through a barrel race. It wasn’t fucking dressage. Going that fast and Junior collapsing… it might’ve killed Lainey, too.
“What about the other horses? The other competitors?” I asked.
Cam looked toward the arena. The crowd noise was muted this far away but it sounded like everyone was having fun. “Probably too late. I’m sure the event’s finished by now. I can circle around and check though.”
“Why would someone drug Lainey’s horse?” Ellie looked up at Trig.
He stroked a hand down her hair. “Didn’t want her to compete.”
“Or wanted her hurt,” Colt added.
“I’m going to the hospital,” I said, heading back toward the arena and where my truck was parked. And to Lainey.
“You’ve gotta compete,” Trig called.
I stopped, turned.
“Fuck that. My girl was gonna get on the back of a drugged horse. I’m going to her.”
Trig shook his head. “Pops would want you to compete. Lainey, I’m sure, does too.”
I came back and stood in front of my best friend. “You want me to compete… now?”
“Stay on eight seconds, win the purse, then go take care of your girl.”
Colt nodded. “He’s right. Wilders don’t give in to bullies. And buy our sister a nice big diamond ring.”
I huffed at the stupidity of that statement. “Yeah, a big diamond’s just what Lainey would want.”
Colt scratched the back of his neck and Trig only grinned. Diamond ring aside, I didn’t miss what he was saying, that I was part of the Wilder family now and that I’d better get a ring on their sister’s finger pronto. “You’re serious.”
“Go. Lainey’s safe. Win a big belt buckle. I’m tired of you being jealous of mine,” Trig said.
I grunted, then adjusted my hat, not thrilled with the idea of being separated from my girl. “Fine,” I muttered. “Eight seconds and I’m outta here.”
Colt slapped me on the shoulder as I went by. “Don’t worry, I’m gonna find the fucker who did this.”
Maybe it was a good thing I had a bull’s back to climb onto. I had some anger issues I needed to handle before I saw Lainey again.
Ninety anxious, angry minutes of waiting for the event to start and then my turn, and a championship win later, I entered the ER and scanned the waiting room.
The Wilders weren’t hard to spot, especially since there was only one other person in the waiting area, who was quietly reading a book.
Mrs. Wilder sat with my girl right beside her.
They were holding hands. Flanking them like a bunch of football linebacker cowboys, keeping them safe from both sides, were her brothers.
Zeb, Shep, Hayes, Buck, and Bray, with Katie on his lap.
They looked up at my arrival and Lainey flew out of her seat and into my arms. I’d remember for the rest of my life the relieved and happy look on her face when she saw me. She was with her family, who were close as hell, yet she left them to launch herself at me.
Me.
I hugged her close, savored the soft feel of her in my arms, the only place I knew she was truly safe. I kissed the top of her head.
“How did it go?” she asked.
“I won.” Winning was great, but it wasn’t important, not in the grand scheme of things.
I was marrying Lainey, prize money or not.
So I moved on to what was crucial. Her father.
“Any news?” I whispered, tipping her chin up so I could look my girl in the eyes.
Saw her fear and her pain and hopefully take some of it away.
“They’re doing tests.”
I nodded. Unless Trig, Cam, or Colt texted, no one sitting here knew that Junior had been drugged.
That Mr. Wilder may have been hurt by something–or someone–besides a horse.
I wasn’t going to tell them. It wasn’t my place and I also didn’t have any updates.
I wasn’t dropping a bomb like that without answers to back it up.
“The Wilder family?” a doctor called.
Mrs. Wilder’s head whipped up and she quickly stood. The brothers rose in sync with her. She took Buck’s hand as the doctor approached.
She was a woman in her fifties wearing blue scrubs, a white doctor’s coat and a stethoscope around her neck. She wasn’t frowning, so I took it as a good sign.
“Nora,” Mrs. Wilder said. Of course, she knew the doctor personally.
The woman seemed to have a backbone of steel, the strength of it tested by having eight boys–and one wild daughter. But her husband had been hurt and I had a feeling some of her strength came from him.
“He’s got swelling on the brain,” the doc said.
“Oh, God,” Mrs. Wilder whispered and Buck wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“We’ve put him in a medically induced coma to give his body time to bring the swelling down. While it sounds serious, we have no reason to believe there are any underlying issues. You know Charlie, if we didn’t knock him out, he wouldn’t stay in bed long enough to heal.”
That made Mrs. Wilder smile, even if it wobbled.
“The damage is from a nice bump on the back of his head.” The doctor touched a spot behind her right ear. “One that matched the one you had on the front just last week.”
Mrs. Wilder touched her forehead where she’d been hit with a can of beans, of all things, from Bray’s crazy stalker.
“We don’t offer a punch card, you know,” Nora–I didn’t know her last name–said, eyeing all of the brothers. The boys grinned a little sheepishly.
“No heart attack, stroke concerns, or anything. He’s got a disposition of an ornery mule when conscious, so that’s not surprising.
It appears he was also stepped on by the horse, on his thigh,” she continued.
“A huge bruise will be there for a while, but nothing is broken. All things considered, he’s stable.
He’ll be headed to the ICU in a bit and we’ll keep him sedated for at least twenty-four hours, but he’ll be back to running the roost soon enough. ”
“You mean Ma will let him think he does,” Lainey countered.
Buck pulled his mom into a hug.
“Let’s get you back to see him,” the doc said.
Buck let his mother go and Nora tucked her arm through Mrs. Wilder’s and led her toward the closed doors that separated the ER from the waiting area. She tapped her badge and the doors swung open. She looked back. “All of you, for a short time. Come on.”
In one big group, we followed the doctor into one of the ER rooms. One wall was all glass with a sliding door, which was opened. An ugly pale blue curtain was pulled to offer some privacy. The scent of antibacterial soap clung to the air. Other than the sound of beeping machines, it was quiet.
There, hooked up to all kinds of wires, tubes, and machines was Mr. Wilder.
His Stetson rested on a chair beside him.
Mrs. Wilder went right to his side, leaned down and gave his cheek a kiss.
The brothers fanned out around the bed. Lainey stayed with me, content in my arms, at the foot of it.
I kissed the top of her head. I could only imagine how she felt seeing her father laid low like this and I hoped to hell Colt would figure out what the fuck happened.