Chapter 14
Clark stoppedhis truck on top of the rise that allowed him to look down on The Broken Wheel Ranch and took in the sight before him. He loved how he felt that it transported him back in time. After sitting there for about five minutes, he started down the hill, and instead of going to the barn, he took a left at the fork and slowly drove down that road and looked at all the cabins. He turned around at the end, and would have to ask the others who lived where. He knew where Naomi’s cabin was, but that was only because he”d dropped her off the night before. He also noted that all six cabins had a ramp attached to the side, along with a set of steps. He liked that, and gave a silent salute to his sister.
On the way back to the barn, he stopped at the first two-story cabin, parked before it, climbed out, and walked up the steps. He turned and looked out at the view. Nodding, he entered, and took the next thirty minutes exploring the entire building. He did the same to the next one. For some reason, he liked that one better than the first. He didn’t know why, but he felt more at home in that one than even in his childhood home. Maybe he would move into this one, but he would have to go shopping for small appliances and food if he did.
After exploring both cabins, he crawled back in his truck and headed to the barn. He parked where he had the day before, got out, and walked over to the fence. He chuckled when he saw his best friend playing ball with a horse. Because it was Reid, he assumed he played with Katie. He watched for several minutes, then looked up and saw Naomi in the doorway. He walked over to her and grinned, then frowned at her expression.
“What are you doing here?” she asked angrily.
“Ah, I’m here to see how Broken works.”
“That’s fine, but I’m mad at you.”
“Why?”
“Where’s my pizza?”
“Excuse me?” He frowned, then opened his eyes wide in shock. “Holy shit!” He took off at a dead run to his truck, and returned in less than two minutes with their take out from the day before. He grinned when she grabbed it, took a slice from the box, and bit into it.
“God, that’s good. I love cold pizza, but I forgot to pack my lunch this morning.”
“Why?”
She looked over both shoulders, then at him, and motioned him down to her. When his ear was inches away, she whispered. “I fell in the shower again.”
“Are you okay?” He squatted down so he was at her level to look at her face, checking it for bruises.
“Yeah, it wasn’t bad enough for me to pass out, but I did fall.”
“Do you know why? Did you contact Doctor Hillard?”
“No, and sort of. I sent an e-mail describing what happened.”
“Good, at least you have a record of it. Do you have time to give me a tour?”
“Yes, but put that back in your truck.” She pointed to the bag he’d taken from her, but she still held onto one slice of pizza. He returned it and came back. “Can you push me while I eat?”
“Yes. Will that spoil your supper?”
“Not really, I’m here until six, so we won’t be eating until closer to seven.”
“Got it. Where to?” He followed directions and they spend the next three hours walking the barn, and Naomi introduced him to all the horses, and explained which one had attached themselves to which person.
“Peaches here is in love with Perry. Adele is in love with Peaches because Peaches saved Perry’s life after he was shot.”
“WHAT!”Clark screamed, and lowered his voice when the horse backed away from them. “Perry was shot?”
“Yep,” the man they were discussing said from behind him.
Clark turned and saw the man there, and they spent the next ten minutes discussing what happened. When Naomi wheeled away, he looked at her with a frown.
“I have to finish up in the office, clock out, then I’m ready to leave.”
Clark continued talking with Perry, and they slowly made their way to the front of the barn. He turned and looked at the arena, and shook his head.
“What?”
“I would love to ride a horse around that.”
“How long has it been since your rode?”
Clark looked at him and grinned so hard almost all his teeth showed. “The last animal I rode were those camels.”
“Damn, that’s a long time. Maybe because you’re the boss, you can ride now.”
“What’s that mean?”
“We weren’t allowed to ride a horse until we’d mucked out the stalls, and did other grunt work around here. I don’t know how it works for you.”
“It shouldn’t work any differently,” Clark said, and shook his head at his friend. “I haven’t been over here because Erin made me read all the files on the history of this ranch, going all the way back to the eighteen thirties when our ancestors left Philadelphia to come this way, years before the gold rush out in California.”
“Is that why you came up with that code name for that mission?”
“Yeah, I had just talked to Erin and my folks. I was missing home, and thought about my several times removed grandmother when I came up with the name.”
“Well, maybe it was a sign.”
“What do you mean?” Clark nodded when Denver and Lloyd joined them.
“She was probably looking out for you, for us,” Denver said.
“Why do you say that?”
“We should have been killed on that mission, LT,” Lloyd said. “Come on, we took out our target, but then had a hell of a time getting back. We went through Jeeps, dirt bikes, camels, and anything else that would move us forward faster. Each and every time something happened to one of them. Other than being severely dehydrated and malnourished when we arrived back on base, Reid was the only one hurt. Your grandmother was definitely looking out for us.”
“Yeah,” Reid said as he joined them. Clark had seen him lead a horse into the barn, and he’d smiled when the horse kept trying to get the ball away from him. “Where did you come up with the code name Broken Wheel?”
“From the Broken Wheel outside our gates. That’s where Grandma Erin and Grandpa Harem’s wagon broke down. After a couple of days, she woke up one morning to find him and two of their horses gone, along with all his belongings. He did leave two horses, her things, most of the food, and practically all the money. According to her journals, she did what we would call today ‘pulling up her big girl panties’, and through sheer grit and determination, she started this ranch.”
“Really?” Naomi asked in shock as she joined them. “Her husband didn’t help?”
“No, he abandoned her, never to be heard from again. No one knows what happened to him. Oh, and when Harem left Erin, she was pregnant with their second child. Lester was two when he took off.”
“Damn, now I can see what inspired Erin to do what she did. Not only at Erin’s Way, but also with Broken, and the on-line business.” She shook her head in wonder, then looked at the men. “I’m out of here, can you close the barn for the night?”
“I got it,” Denver said, and looked at Clark with a raised brow.
“He’s with me, we’re going to have supper together, then go over some paperwork.”
“Cool,” everyone said, and several of them went back into the barn, while others headed toward their vehicles. Clark went to his, and stopped as Naomi went to hers. He waited until she was in, then put the boards back. It was supposed to start raining during the night, and he didn’t want them to get ruined. He passed her vehicle and nodded, as he watched her put her chair away.
“I’ll follow you.”
“Okay, give me a couple of seconds to get in the driveway, I like to back in.”
“I noticed that yesterday, I’ll wait. See you there,” he said, and walked toward his truck. He even waited until she left the barnyard, then slowly followed her. Ten minutes later, he stood in her doorway with a shit-eating grin on his face, and the cold pizza in his hands. His grin widened when Naomi turned and saw him standing there.
“Good man, come on in.”
“Shoes off or on?”
“Whatever, but wipe them if there’s mud or horseshit on them. I hate rolling through it and tracking it through the entire house.”
“Good to know,” Clark said as he bent down and unlaced his combat boots and toed them off. He sighed in relief when he didn’t see any of his toes sticking out of his socks. He looked up, and went to the refrigerator to put the pizza inside, then stepped to the side. “What do you want me to do?”
“Can you set the table?” She pointed to the cupboards near him. As he got what they needed, she was on the other side of the sink getting the roast from the pan.
“Do you need help?”
“Nope, I put a rack in, so all I have to do is lift it.” She did and it impressed him that the vegetables come up with the meat. After putting the entire thing on a platter, she turned and dumped the juice into a pan. In a flurry of activity, she had gravy made. “I don’t have any rolls, but I do have bread and butter, if you’d like some?”
“Please.” He had been so used to filling up on carbs while in the service that it was going to be a hard habit to break. However, now that the reading was almost done, then maybe he could start working to burn the calories he took in every day. Sitting on his ass reading all day wasn’t conducive to keeping his very toned body. Five minutes later, she told him where the spare chairs were, and after he retrieved one, they settled in to eat. He noticed she didn’t say any words, but she lowered her head for a few silent moments before she took any food. He watched her and took in her beauty.
Halfway through his first plate of the delicious dinner, he looked at her with a smirk.
“What?”
“I liked that you told the men we were going to go over some paperwork.”
“We are, I didn’t lie.”
“I know, but the way you said it, it implied that we were going over Broken’s paperwork.”
“Well, if you want to get fancy, you could say the paperwork we’re going to read broke me, but then I put myself back together and came here.” She smiled at him, then sighed heavily. “Actually, I think working here at Broken put me back together. It was the newness of starting this ranch that grounded me and allowed me to heal.”
“Good, I’m glad something good came out of it.”
They continued to eat in silence, and while Naomi took seconds of the vegetables, Clark took seconds of everything. When they were done eating, Clark jumped up and helped her clean up after the meal, and before long, they were at the table staring at the file folder she had brought to the table.
“What should we do first?”
“What do you mean? We read the file.”
“Yes, but I found this,” she said as she opened the cover and pointed to a small clear plastic pocket where a thumb drive lay.
“Is this from the cameras Clem said he put in Princess’s stall?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t we watch it and then we can read everything?”
“Okay, I hate to ask, but could you go into the living room and grab my laptop off the coffee table?”
“Sure,” Clark jumped to his feet and went to get the computer. He looked around and liked what he saw. He realized there weren’t any rugs on the hardwood floors, and there wasn’t anything extra lying around. He figured it was because of her chair. Back at the table, he passed the computer to her. As she set it up, he moved his chair closer to her so they could watch whatever was on it together.
She looked at him a few minutes later. “Ready?”
“Yes.” Together, they both reached up and pressed play. Neither of them said a word until they watched it to the end.
The two of them sat there in stunned silence, and as Naomi went to stop it, she jerked her hand back when Patrick Clemmons’s face appeared on the screen. He took the next minute to explain what the next part of the video was, and Naomi looked at Clark in shock. Clem had described that the next three clips were of her races for the rodeo event where she had been injured. They watched and it was a split screen showing her and Princess running on the bottom, and her time at the top. This time, when the clip ended, Naomi reached up and shut it off. She sat there in stunned silence. It took her several minutes to wrap her head around what she had seen, then she turned to Clark.
“What did you see?”
“You on a very, very fast horse. I’ll be the first to admit that I never got into the rodeo business. Hell, I’ve never even been to one, but you were right, and if those times were correct, Princess was sluggish on that last race. If what that lady cop said about Xylazine, I’m betting your horse had a heart attack when you pushed her out of the gate to run.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking too, but did you see where Princess might have been injected?”
“Let’s watch it again.” They ended up watching it three more times before they were satisfied with the results. Without saying a word to each other, Naomi opened the file and pulled the first set of papers out, while Clark fixed them both a cup of hot chocolate, they didn’t want any coffee that late at night. Two hours later, they sat back and stared at one another.
“Holy shit,” Clark whispered as he stirred his now cold chocolate and finished the entire cup.
“How can you drink that cold?” Naomi wrinkled her nose at him.
“Think of it like chocolate milk. You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve eaten or drunk over the years just to stay alive.”
“What does camel taste like?”
“Chicken?” he laughed his answer, then shook his head. “It’s hard to describe, it’s like a combination of beef and venison. We were so desperate for some real food that we didn’t really care what it tasted like.”
“What do you mean real food?”
“We had plenty of MREs on us, those are meals ready to eat that the military issues us when we are out on a mission. We all make sure we’re stocked before we leave, but most of the time we didn’t have any water, so we ate them dry.”
“You can do that?”
“They don’t recommend it, but we did it in order to stay alive.”
“Oh.” She shook her head and studied him intently. Instead of following that line of conversation, she leaned forward, propped her elbow on the table, and put her head in it, rubbing her forehead. On a heavy exhale, she shook her head at him. “What’s our next step?”
“Do you still want the others to know about this?” He had picked up the life insurance policy her father had taken out on her.
“Yes, I would like all the people that were at the main house for Thanksgiving dinner to know. Since I’ve been here, they’ve become my family, and I don’t want to leave any of them in the dark. I think if they all know, then together, we can come up with a plan to keep me safe.” She shook her head sadly. “I don’t want to keep anything from Erin if it means that someone might be after me and they find me here. I can’t and won’t put the ranch in jeopardy.”
“I agree, and we have a copy of Clem’s face. Do you have a picture of your father?”
“No, I will see if I can’t get a still from the video and have it printed off. It might be grainy, but it will be better than nothing.”
“Or,” Clark said as he snapped his fingers, pulled his phone, then turned on the video again. When he got to the frame where her father stood next to her, he paused it and snapped a photo using his phone. He looked at it, then turned to phone to her.
“Good, they can do the same thing you did, or you can send them a copy. There’s just one bad thing we don’t know.”
“What’s that?”
“Who is this loan shark and what does he look like? Is he the boss, or does he report to someone else higher up the food chain? Who was the woman with Benson? Do we have to worry about her popping up out of the blue down the road?”
“Shit, you’re right. Maybe Jake can come up with an answer for that. When do you want to tell the others?”
“How about I invite everyone here for a Sunday dinner? We can eat, then tell them. I know your sister is going to go ape shit if she thinks someone’s after one of her own.”
“Yeah, I’ve learned since coming home that my sister has become extremely fierce and protective of her people. I like that quality in her. I’m not saying she was a flake growing up, but she was like I was.”
“How so?”
“We had responsibilities, but it wasn’t like the ranch depended on us doing our jobs. Mom and Dad were in charge of everything back then, and not like Erin is now. She’s even taken on more responsibility than our parents had with Broken and the on-line business. I hope I explained that right.”
“You did, and I understand.” She sighed as she studied the frame on the computer with her father in it. She shook her head sadly. “How could I come from someone so evil?”
“He might have been your sperm donor, but I would contribute the woman you are today to your grandparents.”
“Yeah, me too.” They sat there in silence, until Clark gathered the papers and put them back in the folder. He looked at her and shook his head. “If you don’t mind, tomorrow I’ll contact Jake and tell him that we’re going to have a meeting on Sunday. Do you want to invite him?”
“You can, but if he can’t make it, that’s fine. Could you ask him to look into who the loan shark might be? I know this might be a long shot, but who is that woman?”
“I will, maybe he can get us some information by then. I only have one question, maybe two before I leave.”
“What’s that?”
“One, what is your father’s name? I don’t think it was mentioned.”
“Benson.”
“Ah, that’s right.”
“What’s your second question?”
Clark looked around her house before he looked at her with one raised brow and a smirk. “Are there enough chairs for the others to sit?”
Naomi giggled before she explained. “Yes, this table has three leaves that we can put in, and the extra chairs are in the back room. I don’t like to have a lot of extra things around because I don’t want to knock anything over that I can’t pick up.”
“Gotcha. Well, I’m going to leave you and head back home.” He paused and looked off into the distance before he brought his gaze back to her. “I’m thinking of moving into one of the bigger cabins.”
“What’s wrong with the main house?”
“I don’t know. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great being home, but it doesn’t feel like home anymore. It feels more like Erin and Reid’s home. I don’t want to be a third wheel.”
“I totally understand where you’re coming from. I can’t do a lot of heavy lifting, but if you need help, let me know.”
“I only have my seabag really, but if you want to go shopping with me for small appliances and maybe groceries, I’ll take you up on the offer.”
“Should I be out in public?”
“I don’t see why not, at least once we get a plan in place, then we can confer with Jake and maybe he can have men follow us if we tell him where we’ll be.” He looked at her with a steady expression. “We have the element of surprise on our side, which goes a long, long way. They don’t know what we know, and that should work in our favor if this comes to a head.”
“That I can wrap my head around. Don’t forget, Dr. Hillard will be calling soon with the test results and will want me to come in to see her.”
“Shit, that’s right.” Clark scrubbed his face, then looked at her. “We’ll figure this out. You have five Navy SEALs on your six, and I don’t know what the other ladies served in, but they’ll have your back too.”
“Marines, Army, National Guard, and Air Force.”
“Oh, wow, okay. One of these days, I’d love to hear their stories.”
“One of these days.” She nodded and watched as he put his boots on. The sexiest thing she saw was that he didn’t tie them up. She didn’t know why, but that was a big turn on to her, it was like he couldn’t get his shoes off fast enough, so he left them untied.
“Will you be at Broken tomorrow?”
“In the afternoon if that’s okay.” He looked up from dressing his feet with a grin. “Erin won’t let me come out to play until I’ve read everything.”
Naomi threw her head back and laughed. Not only at his words, but also at his expression. “You’re a nut.”
“Yep. See you tomorrow.” He had his hand on the doorknob, but walked over to her, lifted her chin, and kissed her quickly on the mouth, then he was gone, closing the door gently behind him. Naomi sat there with a sappy smile on her face. She really liked Clark, and once they found out who might be after her, she hoped they could have a relationship outside the suspense of not only the trouble she faced, but also about what was going on with her legs. She quickly put the papers away in a safe place, then got ready for bed. It was a long time before she fell asleep, worrying about what was to come in the near future. She only hoped she would be able to survive whatever was coming her way.