Chapter 21
CASSIDY
“Try and get some rest you two,” my mom gently said as we shuffled into my house. It was nearly nightfall an entire day later, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted more—sleep, or a shower to rid me of the hospital smell. My head still ached with a dull thud behind my eyes, and sleep honestly sounded easier than standing up for a shower.
Maybe a bath of all things right now wouldn’t be such a bad idea…
“Cassidy?” Briar’s gentle voice pierced through the fuzzy haze that seemed to be a constant companion of mine. This was also the first moment we’d been alone since the accident, and I wasn’t exactly sure what to say to her. My head hurt too much to really give much thought to everything swirling around us.
No longer was this a matter of keeping her safe from a man she stole a horse from. No longer was this a simple quest to find evidence that Wayde had killed her cattle and possibly staged her father’s accident. No, this had just become a whole lot more convoluted if her dad was who I thought he was.
“I’m gonna go lay down for a bit,” I muttered, closing my eyes and placing a hand against my head.
“You kept me from anything more than these few cuts and bruises. That concussion doesn’t exactly seem like a mild one… Are you sure you shouldn’t have stayed in the hospital a little longer?” she asked hesitantly.
“I’ll be fine,” I grumbled, a little harsher than intended, but her loud voice was sparking a ringing in my ears that I wanted to go away.
“Okay,” she whispered, even quieter than before.
Somehow, I managed to stumble into my bedroom and close the door softly enough that it didn’t set my eardrums alight. There was no need to pull the curtains closed on my large window to the right as the night sky was blank tonight. The typical silver bloom of the stars twinkling was absent along with the moon, hidden behind clouds that blurred my sight as much as this concussion did.
Fumbling across the slick, dark-brown hardwood, I found my cedar dresser and pulled open the middle drawer. Digging out some shorts, I stripped, pulled on the clean pair of boxers, and stumbled over to my nice, four-poster bed. Navy silk sheets waited beneath a plush duvet with a matching cover to my blankets. Thick pillows were propped up against the walnut headboard.
Like an old television without a channel on, fuzzy speckles played behind my eyelids as I waited for sleep to come. The crisp coolness of my clean sheets did little to invite the evading monster in.
It was quiet, almost too quiet. Normally, I could hear a creak from Briar doing something in her room, or turning the shower on as quietly as she could. There was usually some evidence that I wasn’t alone in my own house, and I guess I hadn’t realized how much comfort I’d found in that until this moment.
I felt very alone. Regardless of the pictures and paintings hanging on my walls, regardless of the full body-length golden mirror in the corner, regardless of the familiarity of my own bedroom, things felt unusually lonely.
No matter what my head felt like, laying here, waiting for rest that apparently was not to come seemed fruitless. Flipping onto my side, I glanced at the clock blinking a dull orange. That wasn’t possible, was it? Apparently, I’d already been laying here for over two hours.
Two hours of nothing and yet everything. All of the worry kept my head pounding and my mind reeling.
The pounding increased, echoing as if not just in my head but also the room.
Wait…
Sitting upright, I heard it. Again. Not a heavy pounding but a light knocking of knuckles against wood.
Slipping out of the sheets, my bare feet padded across the chilly floor, and I cracked open my bedroom door. Light from the hallway pierced through the new fissure, and a shadowed figure met my gaze.
Briar stood quiet and still with her arms dangling limply by her sides. A crinkled, oversized white T-shirt that had seen better days hung from her shoulders hiding most of her little shorts she called pajamas.
Slipping my eyes back up to hers, everything melted inside me. Full of fright, her stare was wide and wet with tears that begged to be released down her cheeks. She sucked her bottom lip in between her teeth as her entire body shuddered.
Without hesitation, I stepped forward and wrapped one arm around her waist while slipping the other one behind her thighs. As I hoisted her from the ground, she slung her legs around my torso and threw herself at me, clinging to me as if I was the last thing keeping her in this life.
Turning around without a word, I kicked my door closed and, ignoring the dull hammering in my head, marched right over to my bed. Sitting down on the edge of the mattress, she kept herself wound tightly around me, burying her face against my neck, and my skin quickly turned wet.
“I’ve got you, Goldie,” I whispered, running a hand up and down her back. She shivered at my touch, and I tightened my hold on her.
“What if Wayde sent him?” she muttered against my neck.
I shook my head. “The driver was drunk. It was entirely an accident. There’s no way Wayde knows you’re here, or even remotely where you are. Rooney said he was careful when loading your cattle, and I know he’s a bit of a recluse, so he wouldn’t have had much contact with this Wayde guy anyway.”
Briar sniffled, pulling away from me an inch. “I got a text while we were getting checked over by the paramedics, Cassidy,” she whispered. My skin crawled as if there were a thousand spiders beneath the surface.
“What’d it say?” I hesitantly asked.
She ran a hand beneath her nose. “‘I’m coming for what’s mine.’”
Inhaling a deep breath, more to give myself a moment of calm than anything else, I lied. “It’s just a coincidence. The driver who hit us was drunk, so there was no way he was aware enough to make sure it was specifically us he hit,” I explained, which seemed somewhat true. But only somewhat. Her comfort, making sure she wasn’t scared, was more important right now than admitting that those words had me suspicious like she was.
Leaning away from me, she sniffed again. I quickly swiped the stains from her cheeks with my thumbs. Everything roared confusingly hot as she remained in my lap, straddling me. I wanted this intimacy with her, but her actions behind this were befuddling to say the least.
Her shoulders slowly sagged, tension rolling away from her figure, which remained wrapped so closely against my body. A small sigh left her lips, giving me a small indication that whatever I was doing seemed to be helping soothe her.
Keeping my hands on her face, my fingers slid across the strange, silky thing her hair was wrapped up in—hair I desperately wanted to see and feel again. “What the heck are you wearing?” I blurted out, my brows knitting together. The unintentional shift in conversation seemed much needed as she giggled and gently flopped to the side, landing on a couple of my pillows.
“It’s my bonnet, dummy. You know, to protect my hair while I sleep?” she replied.
My gaze slid across the one really girly thing she’d worn other than her outfit to the rodeo last night. “So, what’s the point of all those different hair products in the shower? There’s at least twelve containers with descriptions on them that make zero sense to me.”
She giggled again and pulled my covers up to her chin, making herself right at home in my bed. “Depends on what day it is and how bad my hair got messed up during work. Is it a deep conditioning day? Hair mask day? Full wash day?”
“I should probably stop making potions with them, then, ’cause that sounds expensive,” I teased and gently laid down beside her. When I propped my head up on my hand, she rolled sideways and narrowed her gaze.
“How old are you?” she teased.
“You already know that answer.”
A gentle smile spread across her lips, but she didn’t say anything. Here she was, curled up in my bed, finding comfort with me. Eventually this would fade, the fear and nausea that she must be experiencing would be replaced with reality, but for the time being, she was the comfort and solace that I wanted, and it seemed that’s what I was for her as well.
“You can stay as long as you need, Goldie,” I whispered and reached forward, gently brushing her cheek. As if a live wire had connected with my skin, a current rippled along my forearm, landing deep within my stomach.
“I’ll go back to not liking you later,” she replied, her voice quivering and soft.
“That’s fine.”
“Thank you, by the way,” Briar added as I joined her under the sheets.
“For what?” I reached forward and pulled her into my body. She should’ve protested; I had expected at least some tension from my touch, but there was none to be had. Instead, she cradled her arms against my bare chest and closed her eyes.
“Protecting me.” Her warm breath danced like a feather against my skin, flushing me hot with butterflies and drowning out the dull ache humming in my head.
For her—always.
What a delicate soul this fiery woman was. Wound tightly in the chains of innocent desire and fear that kept her running from the river of death following her, her life was more convoluted than a normal person’s life should’ve been.
I didn’t answer as light snores eventually met my ears, her thin figure shifting even tighter into me.
Finally, as her body heat blended with mine, my eyes drooped heavily. Sleep was knocking at the door, ready to take me away from all of the uncertainty and confusion that this life held.
Blissful ignorance in a dreamworld that would include Briar was awaiting me, edging nearer and nearer as the distant sounds of wood settling quieted and the animals outside my home mewling faded away. All that was left was Briar’s heavy breathing.
Her chest rose and fell rhythmically against my body. With each gentle movement my own soul intertwined tighter with her fate, closer toward whatever Russian Roulette game we were playing.
There really was a high possibility that the drunk driver wasn’t as accidental as the police had made it seem, especially considering the timing of Wayde’s text. This also led me to the possible conclusion that he knew where Briar was and where she had been this entire time. There wasn’t any evidence to back it up, but something in my gut told me not to underestimate this guy.
Knuckles rapping aggressively on my side door snapped my eyes open just before I found peace.
Briar groaned and shifted within my arms, then she fell still as the pounding grew.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I grumbled quietly, annoyed that someone would interrupt my snuggling with Briar.
As carefully as possible, I slid my arms out from around her and padded silently out of the bedroom. The fervency of the knocking increased substantially as I crossed my kitchen floor and finally threw open the door to my house.
“Dad?” My brows furrowed as I blinked away the dizziness from my rapid movement. “What are you doing here?”
My father, breathing heavily, leaned against the doorframe and wiped some sweat from his forehead. “Everyone’s headed to the hospital. Tenley went into labor, but there’s been some complications,” he explained, gasping for air.
“What? Is she… Is the baby…?” I couldn’t form the words as my father shook his head.
“We don’t know, son,” he muttered and ran his fingers through his disheveled, dark hair.
“Let me go wake Briar and—”
“No,” he said with an urgency in his voice.
Stepping back, I caught myself on the edge of the bench beside the door and steadied my swaying body. “N-No? I should be there for Weston. I need—”
“No, Cassidy. He needs you here. I know it’s a lot to ask because of the concussion, but you’ve gotta step back up as his foreman and make sure chores are taken care of while he’s at the hospital.” My father’s voice was stern, yet it cracked on the word foreman.
I stared at my dad as confusion flooded my body. “Cash can handle it,” I mumbled quietly.
My dad glanced over my shoulder as gentle bare feet sounded against the floorboards behind me. “He’s headed to the hospital already, Cassidy,” my father answered slowly.
What was he saying? What was going on? This was my brother who might lose both his wife and baby, yet I was supposed to just stay here?
“Then Drake or—”
“No, Cassidy. No more arguments. Now, chores. I’ll call with any updates,” my father commanded, and then he turned and hustled toward the Razor idling by my house. I tracked him as he squealed away from my house, no doubt heading toward his own truck to take him and my mom to the hospital. Though I wondered if she might already be there, along with Tenley’s mom and Remington, his wife, Pearl, everyone. Probably even Rooney since he’d been attached to Rosemary from the moment he arrived here.
Everyone except for me.
“Is everything alright?” a gentle voice asked behind me.
I didn’t turn to face Briar, ashamed of my reaction to the news. It was definitely a selfish feeling because my father was right, chores needed to be done, and it was my job to take over whenever Weston was gone. But family was supposed to come first. Meaning Weston’s situation with Tenley was supposed to be top priority, even over work. That was how it had always been. Even Cash was going to the hospital instead of staying here like I was relegated to.
Was this really Weston’s decision? Honestly, with the fact that Tenley and his baby were in trouble, I doubted anything else was on his mind. So, no. It probably wasn’t. And I shouldn’t be upset that my father had most likely made this decision for him. Someone needed to take care of the ranch while everyone else was gone.
Besides, my own truck was totaled, out of commission, although I could take a work truck. But that wouldn’t be fair to Weston. He was my boss; if he’d asked me to stay, then that was what I would do. No more pity party even if I wanted to be at that hospital more than stuck here waiting for someone to think about calling me with an update. It was immature of me to be upset and angry that I’d been left behind. There was probably a lot more going on in this situation than what was conveyed by my dad’s quick words.
There had to be.
“Cassidy?” Briar hesitantly asked again, and warm fingers brushed against my bare arm.
I clenched my jaw, taking a deep breath, and let her touch fill me with whatever little strength that I might still possess.
“I’ve got some work to do,” I answered and turned around.
Her sleep-filled eyes widened, concern tightening her soft features. “What? But your concussion? You’re supposed to take it easy and rest, not go out and work.”
“Weston is at the hospital with everyone else, so it’s just me and a few hands still here. It won’t take long, most of the herd is up in summer pasture anyway, remember?” I gently pushed past her and plodded back to my room, ignoring the swirling world around me and the headache that was pounding behind my eyes.
“Why is he at the hospital?” she asked, following along.
“Tenley’s in labor, and there have apparently been some complications. My dad didn’t say much else,” I mumbled, pushing open my door.
“Shouldn’t you be going with your dad then?”
I spun around and stopped walking. Closing my eyes, the room tilted from the sudden movement, and nausea curdled in my stomach. “What help would…” I paused, swallowing stiffly to settle the churning, and glanced at her through slitted lids. “What help would I be there, pacing in the waiting room with everyone else?”
Her shock morphed into a tenderness I’d not seen on her before. “But you’d rather be there,” she whispered.
Yes.
“I’m needed here, Goldie,” I answered and slowly turned back around. She didn’t respond, most likely knowing that there was a lie behind my statement. She didn’t follow me as I grabbed the first pair of sweatpants that were stuffed into my drawer, but I could feel her eyes track me to my closet where I tugged a button-up down from a hanger.
“Yes, I’d rather be there,” I finally confessed as I slipped past her and out into the hallway. “But there’s work to be done here. I was asked to stay.” And I closed the bathroom door behind me.
Such a petty thing to be upset about, considering that there really wasn’t any help I could provide at the hospital. But that was where my entire family was right now, where my brother was. A brother to whom I owed my life, one who might lose his family in one fell swoop. And here I was, waiting.
Waiting for an update on Tenley, on her baby, and on Briar’s feelings.
Everything in me wanted to curse and scream, but I merely splashed some water on my face and dressed for chores.