10

Justin and Heath slipped into the woods to pick up their man. Angie watched with Sadie standing at her side until raised voices sounded from Cole’s room.

Angie gave Sadie an alarmed look, and the two of them rushed toward their patient.

“If you make one more move . . . !” Mel shouted.

“I’ve had it with being in this bed.”

“And I’ve had it with trying to convince a stubborn ox to act like a sensible adult man.”

“You can’t come into my house and insult me.”

“Sure I can. I’ve been doing it for years.”

“I want you out of this house right now.”

“If you move again, I’ll throw a lasso over you and hog-tie you to that bed!”

Angie whispered to Sadie as they hurried along, “She talks to the children like that, though usually not at the top of her lungs.”

“Sister Margaret did mention she’s not a natural teacher,” Sadie whispered back.

“You’re all treating me like I’m a child,” Cole shouted angrily.

“No,” Mel snapped, “we’re treating you like you’re a badly injured man who needs to give himself time to heal. Anyone with a shred of brains would know that and stop acting like a child.”

“She’s never actually roped one of the children,” Angie said. She paused before adding, “That I know of.”

“I’m healed up enough to help protect this ranch.”

“You make one wrong move and tear open that bullet wound and you’ll be fighting for your life again. And even if you don’t kill yourself, you still won’t be of any help.”

Angie approached the door with Sadie only a step behind.

Mel sat on the edge of the bed with both hands pinning Cole’s shoulders down as he struggled to get up. Which couldn’t be good for him.

“If you think I’m so fragile, stop being rough with me.” He wrenched sideways, gave a loud and—Angie thought—rather phony moan of pain, then grabbed Mel by the waist and tossed her back.

She dove forward but missed him as he rolled to his feet. She landed flat on her face on the bed. Without pause she crawled on her hands and knees toward Cole on the far side. He grabbed a chair as if he planned to use it to drive her back. Maybe add a whip.

“What is going on here?” Sadie roared over the chaos.

Cole froze, the chair lifted up, its legs pointed at Mel.

Mel’s head turned hard. She missed bracing her hand on the bed and fell headfirst to the floor. She landed with a hard thud at Cole’s feet.

Looking down, Cole asked, “Are you all right?” He set the chair aside, careful not to set it on Mel. It looked to Angie like he was grateful to put the heavy thing down.

Mel dragged herself up so that her head popped up over the mattress. She’d had her brown hair in a braid when she arrived, but now long curls bounced wildly over her eyes and hung halfway down her back. She shoved the curls back from her face and, when they fell right back, blew at them with a tired puff of her lips. “Your brother is the worst patient who ever lived.”

“Your old friend Melanie—”

“It’s Mel!” This was a correction Angie had already heard several times. Nobody but nobody called Mel Blake, Melanie. Angie had no idea why the woman was so adamant about it.

Cole smirked as he looked down at her. “You are the worst nurse who ever lived.”

Sadie blinked. Angie wondered what she’d do, whose side she’d take, but then Sadie started laughing. The laughter grew and then Cole broke into laughter, too.

Mel rolled her eyes heavenward, then turned to glare at Cole.

He looked down and laughed harder. “You’re a bigger mess than I am, and I’ve been shot.”

Mel chuckled at the comparison.

Angie smiled, but privately she thought they’d both lost their minds. “Cole,” she said calmly, “I respect your wish to help, but could you please just rest a few more days? While I think you’re close to being up and around, don’t forget you were fighting for your life up until only two days ago. We were so terribly worried about you. If you can’t stay in bed and rest for yourself, could you do it for us?”

Cole’s laughter died. He looked impatient enough to gnaw a hole in the wall to escape his confinement. That gave Angie an idea. “Justin and Heath brought in a notebook you should see. There’s a lot of tiny, cramped handwriting at the beginning of it. Could you go through it, see what it says? You could do it lying down, and it really would be a great help. It’s a job that has to be done.”

Sadie came up beside Angie. “She’s right, we need to read it. And there’s the other papers Heath brought. Justin read through them, and they seemed to be nothing but notes about money, but someone needs to go through all of it carefully. You understand money, and you’ve got keen enough eyesight to decipher the handwriting.”

Eyes narrowed, Cole said, “You think I’m going to sit around and read notes and do busy work while someone’s trying to kill my family?”

“Let me get it. I think when you see the last page you’ll decide it’s a lot more than busy work.” Sadie hurried from the room.

Angie wondered just how she’d gotten into the middle of this family crisis. She hadn’t meant to. But she’d been needed, even with all the Bodens here, to take a turn sitting with Cole so he was never alone. She hoped she’d acquitted herself well with her questionable nursing skills. He hadn’t died on her watch, so she thought she could claim it a success. She ought to go back to the orphanage while everyone was still breathing.

Sadie came back at a run and nearly skidded to a stop, the little notebook in hand. “Please, Cole, will you get back in bed?”

Angie had seen Sadie spitting mad, and she’d seen her worried sick, exhausted from the long hours at Cole’s bedside, and she’d seen her sweet and gentle with her new husband. But through it all, Sadie had always been straightforward. She said what she meant so that those around her knew exactly how she felt. When Angie thought of the years she’d spent keeping every thought and emotion hidden from her husband, a man who knew how to spot a weakness and use it against her, it was as refreshing as rain in the desert.

But right now Sadie looked sly, even sneaky. She waved the book at Cole and said, “I’m not going to show you what’s in here unless you agree to rest.”

Even her sneakiness was right out front, which probably meant it wasn’t sneaky at all. She was blackmailing her big brother.

“What is it about that notebook that has you so up in arms?” He still stood on the far side of the bed.

“Under the covers, big brother, or I walk out of here with this, and you know you’re too weak to catch me. You’d better believe me when I say you’re going to want to read it. Among other things, it’s got Pa’s name in it with a line drawn through it, then in tiny print the word missed. There’s something in here about you and me, too.”

Cole came around the bed, and Sadie ran out of the room. Cole reached for his side and winced in pain, and then with his face dark like a coming thundercloud, his eyes flashing with impatience, he shouted, “All right, I’m getting in bed.”

“Angie,” Sadie called, her voice coming from a distance, “let me know when he’s all tucked in like a good little boy.”

That started Cole glowering, his fists clenched.

Angie said quietly, “The note about Sadie worried Justin enough he tried to get them to leave the ranch, but Heath and Sadie won’t abandon you when the trouble is so close.”

Cole quit fuming as furrows of concern appeared on his brow. He nodded at Angie. She wasn’t sure why Cole was fighting with Mel and why he seemed to clash with Justin until she was afraid—even with Cole laid up—the two brothers might come to blows. It wasn’t unusual for him to snarl at Sadie, and she snipped at him right back. And he seemed to delight in insulting Heath, but usually that just made Heath smile.

When she dealt with him, he seemed like a perfectly reasonable man. Very intelligent. Polite almost to a fault. She could tell he had city manners, and she knew he’d gone back east to college and lived in Boston for a time.

Why didn’t they all just talk to him in rational ways? It worked just fine for her.

He climbed into bed and pulled his covers up. Mel smoothed them, and he glared at her until she stopped.

She grinned and said, “I need to head for town. The children need me.”

Mel headed out just as Angie raised her voice, “He’s resting now, Sadie.” More quietly to Cole she said, “I’m afraid Sadie is in terrible danger.”

The change in Cole’s expression was deadly.

“You have to rest right now and regain your strength. With Dantalion dead, those who are after your family may need time to reorganize. But there’s no doubt in Justin’s mind that they will attack again. So use this time to heal. Please.”

Sadie returned with her book and went straight to Cole. She handed it to him, then sat down on his bed and flipped it to the back. “Let’s start here.”

Angie saw his eyes focus, then narrow.

Rosita chose that moment to come in, and Sadie said, “Rosita, look at this.”

Angie left to get dinner. She already knew that notebook was a portent of menace coming straight at the Bodens. She wished Justin and Heath would come back. And she wished this time she wouldn’t fill the kitchen with smoke.