“Something is wrong with you, Jess. You’re behaving strangely. You have been ever since we had lunch together at the café.”
The urge to kiss her, to take her in his arms and cradle her head against his chest gripped him like a fierce, relentless hand. But he couldn’t give in to the longing just yet. Daylight was fading and they still had a job to do.
Smiling wanly, he said, “I’ve never tried to hide the fact that I like to touch you, Tori. What’s so strange about me doing it now?”
She cocked her head to one side as she carefully studied his face. “I’m not talking about that. God knows we’ve always had trouble keeping our hands off of each other. You just seem different—like you don’t hate me anymore.”
The smile disappeared and his face grew serious as he lifted a hand to her cheek. As the tips of his fingers traced patterns over her smooth skin, he said, “I’ve never hated you, Victoria. I’ve been angry with you. And disappointed. But I could never hate you.”
His touch was driving her crazy, but it was his words that managed to shake the ground beneath her. Would she be crazy to let herself believe his feelings were softening toward her? Hope spurted through her, yet she quickly dashed it down. She’d learned the hard way that Jess could be hot as fire one minute and cold as ice the next. This was probably just one of his warm streaks, she told herself. By the time they got back to the ranch, he’d more than likely be reminding her that nothing could ever be between them.
The dismal thought clouded her eyes as she continued to look up at him. “Jess, you—”
“Enough about me,” he suddenly interrupted, then snatching ahold of her hand, he tugged her away from the spot where they were standing. “Come on. We’re burning daylight. Let’s tether our horses and have a look around.”
They led Chito and Dixie to a couple of nearby juniper bushes. Once the horses were securely tied, Jess motioned for her to follow him.
About twenty yards away from the spot where they’d left their mounts, Jess guided her to a lone pine tree growing at a slant from the edge of the wide wash. At the base of the trunk were slabs of rock which formed a smooth, rather large V-shape in the gravel bed.
Jess pointed to the deep indention. “This is where your men found the body. It had washed up against the pine trunk and I suppose the rocks kept it from moving on down the arroyo.”
Victoria felt sick as she imagined the man’s remains lying in such a desolate spot, vulnerable to wild animals and the elements. “Then you don’t know that this is exactly where the crime was committed,” she stated the obvious. “It could have washed to this spot.”
Jess nodded. “Redwing is trying to match up the local weather reports to the coroner’s time of death to see how many heavy rains have occurred since that time. I can think of only one.”
Victoria looked hopelessly around them. “Then it’s a cinch you didn’t find a bullet casing in the area. It probably washed on down into the San Juan and over onto the Apache reservation!”
“We haven’t found any yet. Something that small probably settled in with the gravel. Let’s walk up stream and see if we can find anything. For all we know the weapon could have been left around here close.”
They began to hike over the boulder-strewn bed of the arroyo and Victoria asked skeptically, “Jess, what kind of killer would be so stupid to leave the murder weapon behind?”
He grunted with amusement. “Most criminals are very stupid, Victoria. That’s why they get caught.”
She glanced hopefully over at him. “Do you think you’ll catch this one?”
His gray eyes narrowed with determination. “Some cases like this are never solved. But I’m not about to let the book be closed on this one until we have the person or persons who did this thing. And I’m certain Sheriff Perez will be just as resolute.”
Her breathing was becoming ragged as their climb steepened. “I hope you’re right, Jess. If it’s not solved, this thing will be a blight on the ranch and my family.”
“You’re certain none of your family or T Bar K hands are involved, aren’t you?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Very certain.”
With a worrisome frown creasing his forehead, he paused to look at her. “And what will you do if they are?”
Squaring her shoulders, she said, “If that time ever comes, I’ll just have to deal with it somehow.”
For the next hour she and Jess combed the bed of the gulch, looking under loose stones and around vegetation for anything that might have been left behind by a human, but unfortunately they had no luck. Eventually, Jess decided they should get their horses and ride up out of the arroyo.
Since the walls of the natural canyon were so steep, the two of them were forced to search for a spot where the horses could get a better foothold. The going was more than rough and Victoria came close to slipping off the back of the saddle when Dixie made a huge, final lunge to reach the top.
“Whew! I’m glad that’s over with,” she exclaimed.
From a few feet away, Jess admired the picture she made on the spotted mare. Her clothes were dirty and her hair had loosened from its clasp to tangle about her shoulders. Pink color stained her cheeks and sweat was trickling from her temples. Those who knew her as their family physician wouldn’t recognize her, he thought.
But then a lot of the townsfolk probably didn’t know that Tucker had taught his daughter to ride and work cattle with the best of the men. Because of her upbringing, Victoria had never been a shrinking violet and Jess had to admit he’d always loved her toughness and determination. In truth, he loved everything about her. He’d never stopped. And he figured it was past time to tell her so.
“Getting tired?” he asked.
She slipped the Stetson from her head and wiped a hand against her damp forehead. “A little. Are you ready to head back to the ranch or do you want to search some more?”
His expression went serious as he pulled Chito to a halt. “Let’s get down for a minute. I want to talk to you.”
This time Victoria didn’t wait for him to help her off the mare. Instead she quickly slid to the ground. With the reins in her hands, she started toward Jess. At the same time, her toe connected with the root of a juniper tree and she stumbled slightly. In the act of righting herself, her gaze automatically swept the ground around her boots.
“Oh look, Jess! Here’s a piece of leather.”
Bending down, she picked up the flat strings of leather that were attached together on one end. Each string was about three-eighths of an inch wide and eighteen or more inches long. She held them up for Jess to see.
Spotting her find, he left Chito and hurried over to her. “Where were these?” he asked with interest.
“Right here,” she said, pointing to the ground at her feet. “Where do you think they come from?”
“They’re the strings off of someone’s saddle. They’re used to tie on your bedroll.” He gestured to a pair just like them on the back of Victoria’s saddle. “See?”
“Hmm. Do you think they might be significant to the case?”
“Hard to say,” he answered thoughtfully. “Some of the T Bar K men could have lost them when they were back here hunting Ross’s stallion.”
Her lips pursed to a grim line. “They might have lost saddle strings, but they found a dead man.”
Jess stuffed the pieces of leather in his back jeans pocket. “Forget that for right now,” he said. “I have something else to talk to you about.”
Surprise flickered over her face as his hands came down on her shoulders. “It’s going to be getting dusky soon,” she pointed out. “Don’t you want to wait until we get back to the ranch?”
He shook his head. “No. I’ve waited too long for this already. I don’t want to wait any longer.”
“Okay—” she paused as the sound of a rock falling into the arroyo caught her attention. Glancing around his shoulder, she noticed Chito had wandered away and was nipping at a clump of grass growing on the very lip of the canyon.
“Jess! Your horse!”
Whirling around, he cursed as he saw Chito’s dangerous position. “Damn horse! He’s going to kill himself!”
Oblivious to the miniature landslide his hooves were creating down the side of the gorge, Chito continued grazing at the sparse tufts of grass. Careful not to spook him, Jess walked over to the horse.
“Be careful, Jess,” Victoria called out to him. “Don’t get too close to the edge.”
He flashed her a smile as he reached for Chito’s reins. “I’m glad—”
The rest of his words were shattered as a shot cracked over the mesa, exploding the quietness around them. Victoria watched in wild confusion as Chito bolted away in a frightened gallop. Jess grabbed at a spot on his shoulder and then, to her utter horror, teetered over backward into the ravine.
“Jess! Oh my God, Jess!”
Not stopping to wonder if the shooter was ready to take aim at her, too, she looped Dixie’s reins over a nearby pine tree limb and raced toward the spot where Jess had gone over.
“Oh no! No!” she gasped as she spotted him lying lifeless at the bottom of the arroyo. He couldn’t be dead! He just couldn’t!
Her heart racing with fear, she glanced wildly around her. She had to get to him! But from this angle, the walls of the small canyon were so steep she didn’t know if she could make the drop on foot.
For several moments, Victoria ran back and forth along the lip of the wash to hunt for a better foot trail. But there was none to be found, so she sat down on the ledge, swung her legs over and began the descent by scooting on her bottom.
Halfway down, she heard the sound of a horse’s hooves pounding the ground in a run and nearby brush popping. She prayed that Dixie hadn’t spooked and started for home. With Chito already gone, she needed some way to ride out of here to get help.
Another thought struck her and she glanced eerily around her and listened for any more sounds out of the ordinary. That could have been the sniper galloping away, she thought frantically. Or maybe the maniac was still around, waiting until she reached Jess before he decided to shoot again.
She mentally slapped herself. She couldn’t worry about that now; she had to be brave. All that mattered was that Jess was alive and that she get to him.
The next few minutes Victoria slipped and clawed her way over rocks, roots and damp earth until the ground leveled out. Once she could stand, she stumbled and ran the last few feet to where Jess was lying on his side.
A hand of fear gripped her heart, as she kneeled over him and rapidly searched for a pulse in his neck. Agonizing moments passed before she finally picked up a faint thump-thump beneath her fingertips. The relief that rushed through her was so great, she actually moaned.
His heartbeat was weak, but, thank God, it was there.
“Jess! It’s Victoria! Wake up and talk to me!”
When he didn’t respond, she quickly turned her attention to his outward condition. Aside from being covered with dirt and mud, a large spot of red was pooling on the shoulder of his denim shirt. Blood was also trickling down from his hairline and onto his forehead. A lesser abrasion ran along one cheekbone and part of his jaw.
Seeing him like this made the woman in her want to scream and cry. This was the man she loved! But the doctor in her tempered her panic and told her she had to keep her head and help him as best she could.
As gently as possible, she tore open his shirt to inspect his shoulder. Thankfully, the bullet had missed his vital parts and had ripped through a portion of thick muscle and tendon. Although he was leaking quite a bit of blood, she breathed a sigh of relief that no major artery had been torn.
With swift, efficient movements, Victoria removed her shirt and tore off the bottom half to make a compress. For long minutes she applied pressure until she was satisfied the flow of blood was stemmed. After she bound his shoulder with a makeshift bandage, she turned her attention to the wound on his head. Of the two injuries, she feared this one was the worst.
The gunshot to his shoulder was not enough to make him lose consciousness. Apparently during the fall, he’d whacked his head on a rock or something solid. She could only hope the damage wasn’t any more than a minor concussion.
“Oh Jess,” she whispered as she fought back a flood of tears. “My darling Jess. Just hang on. I can’t lose you. Not now. Not ever!”
Tearing another strip of fabric from her shirt, she cleaned the wound on his head and the abrasions on his face as best she could, then sat back on the ground beside him and tried to do some logical thinking.
She had to get him out of here and to medical help. But how? Even if she could get him astride Dixie, he couldn’t sit up and make a forty-minute ride back to the ranch!
The only choice she had was to ride out for help and hope that while she was gone the sniper didn’t decide to come back for a final, fatal shot.
If only she had a cell phone!
The thought jerked her gaze back to Jess’s lifeless form. While he’d been staying on the T Bar K, she’d seen him taking a small, flip-cased phone from his shirt pocket. Could he be carrying the phone on him now? More importantly, had the communication piece survived his fall?
She made a dive at his chest and nearly shouted with elation when she unbuttoned one of the pockets on his denim shirt and pulled out the small cell phone.
Holding her breath, she pressed the power button.
Nothing happened.
Furiously, she whacked the instrument against her palm and tried again.
To her amazement, the phone lit up and tears of relief flowed down her cheeks as she punched in the number for emergency help.
Once she’d relayed the problem and directions of how to find them, Victoria asked the man to connect her to the sheriff’s office on the slim chance that Deputy Redwing would be there.
God was obviously with her because the deputy came on the line immediately.
“And you say Jess was shot?” he asked after Victoria had relayed her story to him.
The seriousness in his voice only underscored the fear inside Victoria. Her shaking hands nearly dropped the telephone as she cried, “Yes! The bullet hit his shoulder and knocked him over the ledge!”
“Did you see who did the shooting?”
“No. I think the shot came from a southeasterly direction, but I can’t be sure. It all happened so suddenly. The loud explosion, Chito bolting and Jess falling. My eyes were on him—I didn’t see anybody anywhere. And afterward, I was more worried about getting down here to Jess.”
“What about now?” Daniel asked sternly. “Can you see anything? Hear anything?”
She looked around her and listened intently. Dusk was falling rapidly and in the far distance she could hear a pack of coyotes yipping and howling. She’d never felt so alone or helpless in her life. “No. It’s practically dark now. I can’t see much. And the only thing I can hear is the wind whistling through the pines and a pack of coyotes.”
Silent moments passed and Victoria knew the deputy was taking the time to assess the situation in his mind.
“Is Jess carrying his weapon?” he asked.
Victoria glanced at the holster still fastened around Jess’s hips. Somehow the .45 had made the ride down into the gulch with him.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Do you know how to use it?” the deputy asked.
Even though he couldn’t see her, Victoria nodded. “Yes. Jess taught me. A long time ago,” she said around the lump in her throat.
“Good. Then get the revolver and keep it in your hands until we get there.”
“I will,” she promised. “Just please hurry! I’m so afraid for Jess.”
Minutes later a rescue helicopter circled once, then twice and finally came to land on a flat shelf of ground above the arroyo. Immediately, a team of paramedics armed with portable equipment started down the steep wall of the wash.
When the four of them reached the spot where she sat close to Jess’s side, one of the men said, “We’ll take it from here, Miss.”
“He needs—”
“We’re trained paramedics, Miss. You’ll be helping him more by getting out of the way and letting us do our jobs.”
Before she could tell them she was a doctor, they were lifting Jess away from her and laying him out on a stretcher.
“Be careful! He has a concussion!” she warned as she pushed her stiff form to her feet.
The paramedics ignored her and she groaned with frustration.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they let you fly back to the hospital with him.”
Victoria whirled toward the deep male voice and found Deputy Redwing standing directly behind her. With a great sigh, she wearily pushed a hand through her disheveled hair.
“Thank you,” she said gratefully, then motioned toward the ground several feet above their heads. “Did you notice if my mare is still up there?”
Glad to give her that much good news, he smiled. “She’s still tied to the pine. I’ll take care of her for you.”
“Just take her saddle off and slap her on the rump,” Victoria told him. “She’ll go back home on her own.”
“What about the saddle?”
“Just leave the saddle there under the pine. Some of the hands will come after it later.”
As soon as the words were out, she swayed on her feet and the deputy grabbed her arm to steady her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
Finding an inner strength she didn’t know she possessed, Victoria pulled herself together and nodded at the lawman. “I’ll be fine. It’s Jess that I’m worried about.”
Deputy Redwing glanced over to where the paramedics were attaching an IV drip to Jess’s arm. “How is he?”
Struggling to keep from breaking down in sobs, she swallowed hard and wiped a hand over her face. “He hasn’t regained consciousness since the fall.”
Concern plowed furrows in the deputy’s forehead. “Why is that? Has he gone into shock?”
As her gaze went back to Jess and the paramedics, she was swamped with helplessness and deep anger. How could someone be so evil as to want to kill Jess?
“No. I don’t think so,” she answered Redwing’s question. “At least, not yet. And now that medications have been started, I don’t believe shock will be a problem. It’s the trauma to his head. Apparently he whammed it pretty hard.”
Releasing his hold on her arm, he said, “He’ll wake up, Ms. Ketchum. Jess’s head is the hardest part about him.”
She tried to smile at his words of encouragement, but her lips felt frozen. Maybe she was going into shock herself. The idea of losing Jess was certainly more than she could bear right now.
“I pray that you’re right, Deputy Redwing.”
He patted her shoulder. “Do you think you can climb out of here? They’ll be loading Jess in the helicopter soon.”
She pulled on her hat and straightened the remnants of her tattered blouse. “Yes, I’ll make it. Just don’t let them leave without me.”
“Has there been any change?”
Victoria glanced up from her vigil at Jess’s bedside to see that Ross had entered the hospital room. Last night her brother had been waiting at the emergency room to meet them, but later after they’d gotten Jess settled and stabilized, he’d gone back to the ranch to catch some sleep. She was glad he was back. She’d never felt so lost or alone in her whole life.
“Not that I can tell,” she said wearily. “I’m still waiting to hear if Doctor Wallis plans to run another brain scan. The last one didn’t show any evidence of damage to his brain. But…” her voice trailed away on a worried note.
Ross came to stand next to his sister, who was sitting in the same plastic chair she’d been in since Jess had been brought into the room.
“The doctor hasn’t been around this morning?” he asked.
She grimaced as she glanced from her brother to the faint gray light filtering through the slatted blinds on the window. It was almost daylight. Hours had passed since Jess’s lifeless body had been carried out of the arroyo, and though his vital signs were stable, he hadn’t lifted one eyelid or made any sound. His continued state of unconsciousness frightened her through and through.
“No. Doctors have a habit of disappearing when you need them the most.”
Ross smiled at her dry humor. “I’m sure that’s what most of your patients say.” He looked down at her weary face. “Speaking of patients, what about your clinic? You can’t go in today. You’re dead on your feet.”
“Even if I were rested, I wouldn’t leave Jess. Dr. Martinez will fill in for me.”
Her brother leveled a stern look on her. “What you need to be doing is going home to the ranch and going to bed. You’ve been here all night, Victoria. You’ve got to get some rest.”
Shaking her head, she rose to her feet and walked over to the room’s single picture window and turned open the blinds. Staring out at the gray parking lot of the hospital, she said, “I can’t leave. Not until I know he’s going to be all right.”
Ross was about to respond to her argument when the door swished open and a young nurse walked into the room.
“Looks like our patient is still sleeping,” she said.
Victoria arched a brow at the name tag pinned to the woman’s scrub top. “He’s not sleeping, Tanya. He’s unconscious.”
The nurse glanced at her sharply before she placed a metal clipboard on the nightstand. For the next few minutes the room was quiet as she monitored the drip on Jess’s IV, then checked his vital signs and recorded them in the medical chart.
When she started toward the door without a word, Victoria stepped in her path. “Let me see that, please.”
The nurse looked incredulous. “What?”
Victoria stretched out her hand. “Jess’s chart. Let me see it.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s against regulations—”
“Hang the regulations! I’m a doctor. An M.D. right here in Aztec!” Victoria practically shouted.
Wide-eyed, the nurse shook her head. “But—but you’re not Mr. Hastings’s attending physician,” she argued.
Victoria was suddenly furious. “I’ve been waiting here for hours to hear if the neurologist is going to run another scan on Jess’s brain. Now you come in here and behave as though his vital signs are supposed to be a secret! Give me—”
The young nurse pressed the clipboard securely against her chest. “Are you a relative of Mr. Hastings?”
“No.”
“Then if you’re not his physician and you’re not a relative, you really don’t have a right—”
“Look, I’m Mr. Hastings’s—” Victoria paused and her face suddenly flamed as she realized the only word for it was lover. And in Jess’s opinion, she wasn’t even that much. She was just a sex partner. No more. No less.
Ross quickly moved across the room and stepped between the two women. “Uh, sorry, nurse. My sister is very upset. You see, she’s in love with Mr. Hastings. She’s concerned about his welfare.”
Hearing her feelings for Jess expressed out loud acted like a slap to her runaway nerves. She quickly apologized to the nurse, then walked over to the window where she wearily pressed a hand against her burning eyes. Behind her she could hear Ross doing his best to mollify the indignant nurse.
Once the door swished closed behind the young woman, Ross turned to his sister. “Victoria, what in hell is wrong with you? You know better—”
Her emotions tied in knots, Victoria whirled on him. “Yes, I know better! But you don’t understand what this has been like for me, Ross. Someone tried to kill Jess! Right on our own property!” Her troubled gaze focused on Jess’s silent form. “And now I don’t know if Jess is going to live or die. I might not ever hear his voice again. He might—”
“Stop it!” Ross ordered as he pulled her against his broad chest and patted her back. “You’ve got to get a grip on yourself, sis. If you keep going at this rate, you’re going to have a mental breakdown.”
Victoria shuddered as she tried to get control of her scattered nerves. “Oh Ross, this whole thing with the murder is so unbelievable. And then to see Jess shot before my very eyes!”
“Damn it, Victoria, why did you two go out there anyway?”
Rearing her head back, she gazed up at her brother’s frustrated face. “To try to find something—anything that might help him track the killer.”
“Someone must have followed you,” he said grimly.
She shivered at the thought. “We weren’t aware that anyone was around,” she told him. “We’d been out there for a long time, searching up and down the arroyo. We’d decided to go up top and while we were up there Jess said—”
She broke off as she suddenly remembered the way he’d looked before the shot rang out. He’d been smiling at her. Really smiling.
“Jess said what?” Ross urged her to go on.
Shaking her head, she swallowed at the lump of tears burning her throat. “That he wanted to talk to me about something. So we got off our horses and that’s when the shooting happened. Now I might not ever know what he was going to say!”
Ross soberly studied his sister’s face. “Not too long ago you swore to me that you’d gotten over Jess Hastings. But I was right when I told the nurse you were in love with him. Wasn’t I?”
She nodded sadly. “For a long time I tried to convince myself I was over Jess. But he came back and the moment I saw him it was like nothing had ever changed,” she whispered hoarsely.
Ross’s expression was both sorrowful and perplexed. “I can’t imagine what it must feel like to love someone that much.”
“Oh Ross, I have money and a successful medical practice. But none of it means anything without Jess. He’s all I’ve ever needed or wanted in life.”
Regret spilled through her and stained her heart with bleakness. Why hadn’t she told Jess all that, she asked herself. Why had she held back and tried to pretend she wasn’t dying inside without him? Now it might be too late.
Ross patted her cheek. “For what it’s worth, Jess is a tough SOB. If anybody can pull out of this, he can.”
Victoria’s gaze went over to the object of their discussion and she was suddenly shocked to see Jess staring straight at the two of them.
“As soon as I get out of this bed, Ketchum, I’ll give you a taste of just how tough.”