Chapter Eight

Duncan shoved his hat back and tried to grin, not wanting to make Kyle feel bad about leaving. He understood Kyle need to go home and figure shit out on his own. Knowing it didn’t mean Duncan was happy about it.

“I programmed your number into my phone. I’ll call you when I get home, let you know I made it okay.” Kyle’s smile was sad around the edges.

Reaching out, he laid his hand on Kyle’s shoulder and squeezed. “Don’t wait until you get home.”

“I won’t.” Kyle gave him a quick hug before bending to pick up his bag.

“Be careful. I’ll talk to you soon.”

He stepped back and watched Kyle walk into the bus station. He would have liked to wait with Kyle until the bus arrived, but he needed to be at the arena. One of his sponsors had scheduled a meet-n-greet before the final go-around. There wasn’t any way Duncan could get out of it, not when it was his biggest sponsor. He waved once when he spied Kyle looking over his shoulder.

“Shit, this is going to be a fucking wonderful day,” he mumbled as he made his way back to his truck.

After arriving at the arena, he went into one of the rooms where fans gathered. He smiled and posed for pictures with people, chatting like they were his best friends as he signed autographs. Several of the other riders sponsored by the same company were there, doing the same thing. They looked as thrilled to be there as he was.

Finally, the room cleared out, and he made his way to the rooms set aside for the riders to change and get ready for the event.

“Fuck, Hornsby, that’s a hell of a bruise.” One of the riders nodded at the large purple bruise bisecting his chest. “Your bull nailed you a good one.”

“Yeah, but shouldn’t hamper my riding.” He shrugged into a shirt and started buttoning it. His phone rang and he glanced at the number while he tucked the tails of his shirt in.

“Restricted” came up on the display screen. He was going to let it go to voicemail, but then thought what if it was about Pops. He snagged the phone off the bench next to him and answered.

“Hornsby.”

“Mr. Hornsby, this is County Hospital. We have a Mr. Kyle MacDonald here in emergency.” A female voice came over the phone.

“Kyle? What happened?” He wedged his phone between his cheek and shoulder while he shoved his junk back into his equipment bag.

“He was attacked and beaten. When we asked about an emergency contact, he gave us your name. Would you be able to come down to the hospital?” The nurse sounded very calm.

“I’ll be right there.”

“I’ll tell Mr. MacDonald you’re on your way.”

He hung up and slapped his hat on his head before slinging his bag over his shoulder. Barreling out of the room, he almost ran Mason down on his way to the event officials.

“Where’s the fire?” Mason followed him.

“Just got a call from the hospital. Kyle’s been admitted. The nurse said he’d been attacked.” He flagged Asher LeFevre, one of the tour officials, down. “Hey, Asher, I have to pull out of the competition.”

“Why? You’re not hurt that bad.” Asher scanned him from head to foot, looking for any indication Duncan was hurt worse than he thought.

“No, but I have an emergency and I can’t stick around.” Duncan shifted from foot to foot, needing to head out, but respecting Asher enough not to run off.

“Fine. I’ll take care of it. Call me when you can to let me know if you need anything.” Asher slapped his shoulder and gave him a shove toward the door. “Get the hell out of here.”

“Thanks.”

He raced to the entrance where he found Mason waiting for him.

“Give me your keys. I’ll drive you.” Mason held out his hand, wiggling his fingers for the keys.

“Shouldn’t you be in there, handling the animals?” he asked, even while he threw the ring at Mason. He tossed his bag in the back of the cab after Mason unlocked the truck.

“Abe’s taking care of my part for me. It’ll be okay.”

“What could’ve happened, Mason? When I left him, he was fine, just waiting for the bus to show up at the station.” He slammed his fist against the dash in front of him. “I should’ve stayed until he got on the damn bus.”

Mason grabbed his hand before Duncan could hit the dash again. “Whoa. We don’t know how it happened, Duncan. And you can’t be sure you being there would’ve stopped it.”

He sat on his hands, shaking with rage and fear. Not knowing how badly Kyle was hurt drove him crazy. It was a good thing Mason was driving because Duncan would have broken every speed law getting to the hospital.

His friend dropped him at the entrance, and he ran in, heading for the admitting desk. The nurse sitting there glanced up when he skidded to a halt in front of it.

“May I help you?”

“Yes, my name is Duncan Hornsby. I’m here for Kyle MacDonald.”

“Certainly. I’ll let his nurse know you’re here.” She reached for the phone and paged someone.

He held his hat and creased the brim in his hands as he waited.

“Mr. Hornsby?”

Whirling around, he spotted a petite nurse heading his way. He met her in the middle of the emergency room.

“Yes.”

“If you’ll come with me, sir, I’ll take you back to your friend.”

“Thank you.”

As much as he wanted to push past the nurse and run to Kyle, he controlled his impulses and followed meekly behind her. They stopped outside a curtained-off room. He hesitated, and the nurse smiled.

“There are a lot of bruises, so he looks rough, but he’ll be okay,” the nurse said softly.

“Thank you.”

Straightening his shoulders, he took a deep breath and pushed through the curtain. His first thought was that the nurse had landed on the side of understatement. Rough didn’t begin to describe how Kyle looked. The whole right side of Kyle’s face was swollen and turning black and purple. Bruises covered every part of Kyle’s skin Duncan could see.

“Kyle?” He rushed to the side of the bed, wanting to touch his lover, but not knowing where to put his hand that wouldn’t hurt Kyle.

Peering through half-closed eyes, Kyle spied him and tried to smile, but his lip, split again, started to bleed.

“Be careful.” Duncan grabbed a tissue out of the box on the stand next to the bed. He pressed it gently to Kyle’s lip.

Kyle winced and covered Duncan’s hand with his. “Aren’t you supposed to be riding?”

“The hospital called me. I wasn’t going to leave you in here without me.” He leaned down and brushed a quick kiss over Kyle’s forehead. “What happened?”

“Rusty,” Kyle spat out, anger burning in his eyes.

“Your brother beat you up?” Rage started to build in him. What kind of man would do this to his brother? He tossed his hat onto the chair brim up.

“Why?”

“Normally, I’d say Rusty doesn’t need a reason to be vicious, but he was acting on orders from my father.” Kyle’s eyes filled with tears as he met Duncan’s gaze.

“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry.” He laid a hand lightly on Kyle’s shoulder, frustrated he couldn’t hug him. “I don’t know what to do. I wish I could hold you, but I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Just having you here is good for now. Once they let me check out, I have to figure out how I’m getting home.” Kyle closed his eyes and sighed.

Duncan yanked one of the chairs closer and sat, holding onto Kyle’s hand. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll drive you home.”

“You have one more event before the break. You shouldn’t miss it on my account.”

“I wasn’t planning on competing in that one. I usually follow the bulls home, but I’ll send them back to the ranch with my guys and take you home. I’ll let Pops know I’ll be a little late in getting to the ranch.”

Kyle swallowed hard. Duncan couldn’t guess what emotions the kid fought. He sat as close to the bed as he could without actually sitting on it.

“I’m not leaving until you’re ready to go, Kyle. Mason can get my stuff and make sure the truck’s in the parking lot for me.”

The nurse pushed through the curtain. “Mr. MacDonald, the doctor will be in to see you in a few minutes. He’s gotten the x-rays back.”

“Ma’am, do you know when Kyle will be ready to leave?” Duncan stood, ready to take Kyle away.

“You can ask the doctor when he gets here. Oh, your friend Mason said to call him when you need your truck back. He said he’d make sure your stuff from your hotel was in it as well.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Kyle nodded at her.

The doctor entered, and Duncan stepped to the side while the man explained what he found in the x-rays.

“Actually, from the severity of your bruises, Mr. MacDonald, I’d have thought you’d have more internal damage, but you were fortunate in that aspect. You’ll still feel like shit while your injuries heal. Do you have someone you can stay with tonight? I don’t want you alone.”

“He’ll be with me, Doc.” Duncan spoke up.

The older doctor glanced over at him and nodded. “Good. You didn’t have a head injury, so we don’t have to worry about that. I’d just like someone there in case something presents that we didn’t see on the x-rays or anything.”

“Yes, sir.”

The doctor tugged open the curtain and called for a nurse before leaving. “Make sure Mr. MacDonald has some scrubs or something to wear when he leaves. I’m afraid your clothes were a total loss. Blood and dirt, plus some rips.”

“What about my bag?” Kyle pushed his body up to sit up straighter in bed.

“The only thing you had with you besides the clothes you wore was a cell phone. Had you put your bag on the bus before the attack? Oh, and would you like copies of your records for the police?”

Kyle shook his head, and Duncan frowned, knowing what Kyle was about to say.

“I’m not pressing charges. I just want to get out of this town and go home.”

“But, sir, you shouldn’t let whoever did this to you get away with it,” the nurse protested.

“I know who did it and, trust me, he won’t be getting away with it, but I don’t want to go through the hassle of talking to the cops.”

Kyle’s smile was painful to look at and a little lop-sided, but it charmed her.

“I guess you know what you’re doing, Mr. MacDonald.” She shook her head and left the room.

“Are you sure about not punishing Rusty?” Duncan hesitated asking because he didn’t want Kyle to think he was questioning him, though that was exactly what he was doing.

“Yes.” Kyle fiddled with the sheets covering him. “He’s always tried so hard to prove himself to my father, who ordered him to do it, I’m pretty sure. It doesn’t matter to me. I just want to leave it all behind.”

“That’s what we’ll do then.”

Duncan took one of Kyle’s hands and lifted it to his mouth, kissing the scraped knuckles. Mason peeked in around the curtain.

“Hey there.”

“Come in, Mason. We’re just waiting for some clothes before Kyle can leave.” He waved his friend in.

Mason handed him the keys. “Your truck’s in the parking lot and your stuff’s in it. I checked you out of the hotel, so you can leave whenever you need to.”

“Thanks, Mason. I’m sorry you had to go to all this trouble for me.” Kyle offered Mason his hand to shake.

Duncan watched his friend shake Kyle’s hand. Maybe Mason could help with teaching Rusty a lesson. The nurse returned with a set of scrubs for Kyle, which was Duncan’s perfect chance to talk to Mason alone.

“Why don’t we step out while Kyle gets dressed? Unless you need some help?” He looked at Kyle.

“Go on. I’ll be all right, if I take it slow.”

“Good.”

He dragged Mason out and down the hall a little ways away from Kyle’s room. Mason stared at him in confusion.

“I assume you have a reason for dragging me out here and not helping your boyfriend get dressed.”

Duncan rubbed his palms on his jeans. “Rusty did this to him.”

“His own brother beat the shit out of him? That’s fucked up, man.”

“I know, but he won’t press charges against Rusty. Says there’s no point in punishing him when he’s just doing it because of MacDonald.”

“That’s true, though I do think Rusty has a vicious streak all his own, even without the alcohol. He picked on Abe until I came along and convinced him it wasn’t a good idea.” Mason’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s what you want me to do with Rusty. Put a little fear of God in him.”

“I can’t do it. I’ll be taking Kyle back to Texas before I head home for the break.” Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. “I don’t want Rusty to think he can get away with beating up his brother and stealing from him, though why he’d want Kyle’s bag is beyond me.”

“Because it had money in it. He knows where I hide my cash and he obviously needed it.”

They turned to see Kyle standing in the opening of the curtains around his bed. One of his arms was wrapped tight round his stomach, and anger surged through Duncan again at the thought Kyle’s brother did that to him.

“I’m sorry about all this, Kyle.” Mason’s sincerity showed in his voice.

“So am I, but hey, it’s over with now. I don’t plan on letting my father or brother get a chance to do this to me again.” Kyle sent a weak smile Duncan’s way. “Can we get out of here?”

“Sure.” He shook Mason’s hand. “I’ll call you later tonight or sometime tomorrow.”

“Good. Have a safe trip, guys.”

They took their time walking out to the truck since Kyle refused the wheelchair the nurse wanted him to take. Duncan helped Kyle into the passenger seat and got him buckled in. After climbing in behind the wheel, he started the truck and turned to meet Kyle’s gaze.

“I’m going to stop at the drug store on the way out of town to get those painkillers the doctor prescribed. While I’m in the store, call your mother and let her know what happened. Tell her you’re on your way home, but it’ll take a little longer. I’m not going to drive straight through. We’ll find a place to stop for the night, and I’ll get you home tomorrow.”

Stretching over the center console, Kyle gripped Duncan’s hand where it rested on the steering wheel. “Thank you, Duncan, for everything you’ve done. It’s a lot to ask when we’ve just started our relationship. You probably never thought it would be this messed up.”

Duncan raised Kyle’s hand to his face, pressing the man’s palm to his cheek. “I’m glad to help you out. Even if we weren’t sleeping together, I’d do anything to get you home. You deserve more than you’ve gotten so far. I have to admit, Kyle, I’m not happy with your mother at all. Why would she allow this to continue when she knew what your father and brother were capable of?”

Kyle inclined his head slightly, curling his fingers against Duncan’s skin. “That’s the first thing I’m going to ask her when I see her.”

“Good. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Duncan stayed true to his word, stopping at the drug store for Kyle’s medicine.