Authors: Kat Wells
“Please don’t pull away from me. You are beautiful. Don’t forget that.” He ran his thumb over the scar again, and then rained kisses on both sides of her face, lingering over the scar as if wishing he could heal it and her.
He made her feel whole, she realized. Would she stay whole if he left, or would he take a part of her with him?
His hands slid over her body, caressing her with the gentle touch of a master. Luisa wondered at the rage that had once filled him. It seemed to have been replaced by a kinder, gentler feeling. Were his emotions still tangled? Had he forgiven himself for Conall’s death? If he felt compelled to return to LA, would he forgive himself for leaving her, or would that create new guilt?
Sorrow threatened to overwhelm her senses, and the breath in her body thickened and clung to her lungs. When Drake dipped his head to her breast, Luisa gave in to the moment, claiming it as her own.
#
Over mid-morning bacon and eggs, something dawned on Luisa. She smiled to herself, guessing what Drake’s response might be.
“I know a bit about your work. How about you learn about mine?”
He looked leery. “Writing?” He sounded hopeful.
Luisa chuckled. “Of course not. Horses.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” He shook his head so hard it was a wonder it didn’t fall off. “I ride motorcycles. I can control bikes. Horses control me. They just do what they darn well want to.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Scared?”
“No it’s just ....” He stopped and she could tell he knew what was coming.
“Dare ya. Bet you can’t ride one of my horses.”
She saw a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.
“Oh, I get it. You think I’d put you on a horse like Royal Knight.”
He shrugged silently and lifted one brow.
“I wouldn’t do that to either of you. I have an old quarter horse that I use for the occasional student, and to chase cattle in the brush. He’s a retired ranch horse and anyone can ride him.”
“I don’t know, Luisa. I haven’t been on any horse except ones that follow along in a line at Griffith Park Stables or the Grand Canyon.”
“What is a cop best at?”
He looked blank.
“Attitude. It’s all in the attitude, like a small lady cop taking out a great big bruiser. He has to believe she can physically do it. A horse has to know who’s boss.”
Luisa stacked their dishes in the sink as she spoke. “Come on, I won’t let him hurt you. Don’t you want to see what the ranch looks like? We can take a ride, and I’ll show you a bit of it.”
“All right, Dale. I’ll saddle up and we’ll ride,” he said in a sad imitation of a western drawl.
“Meaning ...?”
“Oh for Pete’s sake, you have to get late night television. That was Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.” Drake raised his hands in surrender. “What do I do?” he asked, apparently resigned to his fate.
She glanced at his tennis shoes. “You have boots with you, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
“Go get ‘em and meet me in the barn in twenty minutes.”
He rose slowly to his feet.
Drake took thirty, but finally dragged his body to the barn, looking skeptically at the horse standing beside the one Luisa sat on. The spare horse was built like a tank and looked just about that friendly.
“You want me to get on that?” he asked pointing at the huge brown horse.
“That’s right. This is Charlie. Charlie, Drake.” She leaned over and pretended to whisper, cupping the horse’s ear in her hand. “He’s afraid, so be gentle.” She laughed when Drake made an obscene gesture at her. “Come around to his left side and climb on.”
“I know that much,” Drake grumbled. “Give me a minute here. Need to psych myself up.” He took a deep breath and squared his shoulders.
You’d think he was going into battle
. “We’re just taking a leisurely walk across part of the property. I won’t do anything you don’t want to.”
“Sounds like you’re talking to a virgin.”
She grinned at him and he gave in, matching her smile with one of his. “Fine. Come here ... Charlie.”
Once mounted, Drake actually looked comfortable on the well worn saddle. His hand maintained a death grip on the saddle horn, though.
Luisa reached over and pried his fingers from around the horn and gently set his hand on his thigh. “There. You’ll be much more relaxed that way. Don’t hang on or it’ll throw you off balance.”
“Right. No brake.”
She chuckled and led them off around the barn and toward the river. “The reins are the brake. You do remember how to do this, don’t you?”
“Sure,” he grumbled.
When they reached the water, she turned left and slowly walked south toward Mexico beneath centuries-old cottonwoods. Drake followed behind her on the narrow trail.
Occasionally, she heard him suck in a breath, and she could only assume Charlie had moved in an unexpected way or twitched at a fly. Overhead, the brilliant red of vermilion flycatchers caught her eye.
She looked over her shoulder at Drake and found him watching the ground as though it could leap up and get him. “Drake, look up. Don’t watch the ground. How you doin’?”
“Not bad actually, but I have a feeling my ass won’t ever feel the same. Could you have found a wider horse?”
Luisa chuckled. “You’ll survive. I thought cops were supposed to stay in good shape.”
“Good shape doesn’t include being able to straddle a house.”
“Point taken. Look up or you’ll miss the beauty. Look in the canopy of the trees.”
Luisa followed his gaze and saw the wonder drift across his face at the brightly colored birds visible in the branches. The path widened, and she let his horse catch up to hers.
“Like it?”
“Not bad. What are they?”
“There’s a variety up there. I’ll be glad to show you one of my books.”
“You know, that’s how I found this place.”
“You never told me how you came to be here,” she said.
“You never asked.”
Luisa laughed. “I was too busy being mad at you for being here. So tell me. What do the birds have to do with it?”
“Conall’s parents used to come here for bird watching at least once a season. They apparently rented the bunkhouse I’m in now. They told my boss about the place because they were worried about me not moving on and thought getting away from LA might help.” He pulled Charlie to a stop and turned to her. “You must have known them. I never thought of that.”
“Who were they?” she asked quietly, already fearing she knew. Not many came to the ranch for birding.
“Laughlin’s their name.”
She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh no, poor Liz and Rod. How awful for them. They mentioned their sons, but I didn’t know their names, so I never made the connection. They talked about a natural son and an adopted one. They were very proud of both. You must be the other boy. But if they adopted you, why don’t you refer to your own parents? You always call them Conall’s parents.”
“That’s me. I knew them for years as his folks. I guess I never got used to calling them mine even as good as they were to me.” He shrugged. “Anyway I’m sorry. I don’t know why it didn’t dawn on me sooner. I guess I was so wrapped up in my own emotions, it just didn’t occur to me that you knew them.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll write them a note,” she said on a sigh, and then nudged her horse ahead. “Drake, do you mind me asking how you came to be with them?”
“No. It’s okay. My mom and dad went out one night when I was just a kid. Dad had too much to drink and on the way back, they had a wreck.”
“Oh no.” She feared she knew what was coming.
“Mom died at the scene. Dad was given probation for involuntary manslaughter.” He shook his head. “Dad was an alcoholic like me. Or I’m like him. Whatever. He couldn’t live with it and committed suicide.”
“Oh my God, I’m sorry. That is so sad, and so much for a little boy to live with.”
“It wasn’t easy, but two good things came out of it, anyhow. Well, three now that I think about it.”
“What?”
“Conall was my best friend, and his folks couldn’t stand to see me go into the system, so they took me in. They gave me as much of a normal life as they could. I didn’t make it easy on them, either.”
“How so?”
“I ran away.”
“Oh, no. Not you, too.”
“Yeah, but I wasn’t gone as long as you. I was only on the streets for a few days.”
“So what’s number two?”
“The cop that found me was great. He understood how scared I was, and he became sort of a mentor to me. He helped me adjust to all of it.”
“And that’s why you grew up to be a cop.”
“That’s right. And Conall followed me,” he said quietly.
“And three?”
“Conall brought me to you.”
She didn’t know what to say to that one, so stayed quiet instead. She reached out and took his hand so they could hold each other as the horses walked down the trail.
They rode in silence for a while before she dropped his hand and reined in her horse. “Rooster, hold.” She said it very quietly, but Rooster heard her and froze in his tracks. Luisa put her fingers to her lips. Drake’s gaze followed her nod to a half dozen small deer drinking from a pool of water. She saw his smile and knew he liked the scene as much as she.
When the deer moved away, Luisa led them onto a trail looping back toward the house. She could see Drake had been pleased with what he saw, inspired maybe. But Luisa wondered if what he considered a vacation adventure could become a lifestyle. Riding the ranch always reminded her of how much she loved it, and how strong was the pull that would never let her leave it. She suspected Drake’s pull to the city and to the children he’d help raise was just as strong.
His voice brought her out of her reverie. “Luisa, can I ask you a tough one?”
“Fair’s fair.”
“What happened to you while you were out there alone?”
She took a deep breath and blew it out to steady the fear that leapt into her mind. “Well ... I don’t know if I can talk about it to you, Drake.” She shuddered, memories flashing across the plane of her mind.
“That’s okay. You don’t have to answer.”
“I want to. I’m just not sure how.” Luisa stopped her horse and turned to face him. She wanted to see his reaction to her story.
“Just laying the truth out there is always easiest,” Drake said quietly. “Didn’t you tell me once, perhaps just starting will help?” He reached over and took her hand.
She nodded. “Okay, straight shot. I’d been a runaway for about three weeks when a ... um ....” she ran her other hand down her thigh wiping off sweat. “Oh boy.” She drew a deep breath. “A child predator found me,” she said it so quietly it was barely audible.
“Oh God, Luisa.” He squeezed her hand, comforting.
“I was too small to ... ah ... fight him. He kept me in a derelict building for a week or so before I could get away. He ... did ... um ... unspeakable things to me that I ....” She shook her head to clear the pictures trying to crowd in. “... I couldn’t begin to understand. I’d been protected and loved. I couldn’t fathom his hatred.”
“I’m so sorry. No child should ever experience that. It’s no wonder you prefer staying here.”
“It’s partly that, but more the phobia of going outside. After the time in LA, I came back to school here and the boys thought of me as damaged goods. I don’t know if they sensed something about me, or if it was the scar on my face.”
She saw the anger flicker in his eyes before he banked it.
“They wanted me to do things, like that man had. When I fought back, they got rough.” She smiled then. “Dad put an end to that when I came home from school with a torn shirt.”
It was his turn to reach out to her. He picked up her hand and touched the back of it to his lips.
“I didn’t want any other children to ever experience that pain, or to think they were alone. So, I started to write my angel stories.”
“Did you always want to write or did this kind of spark it?”
“It was part of it. Dad planted the love of reading in me when I was small, and coupled with that was the driving need to share experiences with children that I hoped would be uplifting.”
He smiled now. “I’d say you succeeded there. Conall’s kids love your stories.”
“Thanks. That means a lot to me. Come on let’s go on in. There are always chores to do around here.” She smiled and nudged her horse into an easy jog toward home. Drake followed close beside.
Luisa heard Rooster growling and barking somewhere near the barn.
“What’s up with him?”
“I’m not sure, but something’s wrong. Hang on and follow me if you can. Otherwise get in as fast as you can.”
She kicked her horse into a gallop and raced over the trail, ducking under branches and leaping over downed logs.
“Hey! Wait for me! Luisa!”
She heard Drake, but couldn’t stop. Something was terribly wrong at home.