Gambling On a Heart (37 page)

When Mary looked back at Tracy, her rotund face was red with anger. “He lied to me. I wondered why he seemed–I don’t know–nervous, and Bobby looked at him funny, like he didn’t believe his ears. Of course, that could have been because he looked like someone beat the shit out of him.”

“Logan should’ve knocked off his head.”

“Logan? What does...”

Tracy shook her head. “A story for another day.” She didn’t intend to dredge up the reason for the brawl at the Longhorn. She’d spent the past hour crying over Zack Cartwright. When she’d dried her last tear, she’d decided to go over to the CW and tell Zack exactly what had happened, and either he’d forgive her or not. But she was done chasing him. However, when she called to ask Mary if she’d mind keeping Bobby all night, she’d told Tracy Jake had come and taken him home.

The thought of Zack’s lack of trust in her and Jake’s interference had her temper catching fire, and she paced across the living room. “I never called Jake. I decided not to let Bobby go to him this week. Jake was taken in for questioning yesterday for stealing Zack’s horses. Zack and my cousin Wyatt barged into the courtroom during the hearing. It was like something out of an old movie.”

Mary smiled. “With two of the sexiest lawmen around, I’m sure it did look like a movie.” Then she lost the grin. “So, Zack thinks Jake’s involved with all the rustlin’ goin’ on?”

“Zack did think that, but Jake has an alibi. Some bimbo from Waco, though if you listen to Jake tell it, I’m the one who has no morals. I intend to give Jake Parker a piece of my mind.” She adjusted her purse strap on her shoulder and headed for the front door.

At the entry, Mary touched Tracy’s arm. “I’m sorry, Tracy. I had no idea about Jake. I just assumed you and Zack decided to spend the night together... If I’d really thought about it, I would’ve known you’d never call Jake.”

Tracy stepped forward and hugged the much shorter and rounder woman. “Don’t worry about it. I didn’t tell you about Jake, so you had no way of knowing.” She stepped out of Mary’s embrace and opened the door. “I’ll call you to have you come bail me out of jail after I kill the idiot.”

Mary laughed. “Naw, we’ll dump the body in Gambler’s Lake. Remember that Dixie Chicks song? Instead of Earl, we’ll be singing about Jake.”

They shared a laugh and another hug before Tracy left to head straight across town to her ex-husband’s.

Flashing red and blue lights of police cars and bright spotlights had her heart racing the moment she turned down Blackwell Drive. The sheriff department Tahoe parked across the street forced her to stop. Ben Timmons approached as she scrambled out of the Taurus. Sudden fear frosted up the blood which anger had set to boiling only seconds before.

The deputy held a flashlight on her face, blinding her until she shut her eyes and turned her head with a hand blocking the beam. “Ben, get that damned thing out of my face.”

“Sorry, Tracy. What are you doin’ here?” The deputy turned off the light.

She looked back at him, blinking the spots from her eyes. “I’m here to get my son from Jake. What are y’all doing here?” She looked past the deputy. Several Tahoes and unmarked SUVs crowded the street. Her former mother-in-law sat in a chair on the porch of her house across the street from Jake’s trailer and appeared distraught as she wrung her hands and shook her head. Wyatt McPherson, Dawn Madison, and Herb Milroy were standing before her and obviously asking questions. She swung her gaze over to the trailer across the street. Zack paced the gravel drive in front of the garage doors of Jake’s service shop. His hands were splayed on either side of his waist, elbows pointed out. She recognized the signs of agitation easily. Still dressed in the same clothes he’d worn to the Longhorn, he had his gun tucked into a shoulder holster and a badge clipped to his belt. He turned and the bright spotlights highlighted the harsh lines of his face.

When she saw Jake’s pickup still parked off to the side and that the windows of the trailer were dark, she turned back to Timmons.

“Where’s Jake? Where’s my son?” Panic painted her words with a higher than normal note.

The man’s pockmarked face blanched at her growing hysteria. “Neither one of them are here, ma’am. We’re waitin’ on the search warrant. Judge Delaney was in Dallas–”

Not waiting for the rest of the explanation, she ran across the yards of Jake’s neighbor and that of the trailer to the front door. After ripping open the screen door, she banged on the dented aluminum door, calling Bobby’s name.

“Tracy, what’s wrong?” Zack asked from her side. “What’s this about Bobby?”

She stared at him and laid a hand over the pain in her chest. She couldn’t get enough air no matter how fast she tried to breathe. She let the screen door bang closed and took a step toward him. “Jake took Bobby from Mary’s tonight! Where is he? Where’s my baby?”

He laid a hand on her arm. “Jake has Bobby?”

“Yes! Dammit, where are they?” She bent over when a sharp pain ripped through her chest, and she couldn’t breathe. Gasping, she wrapped her arms around herself. “I have to...”

“Tracy, calm down. You’re hyperventilating.” Zack took her by the arms and guided her to sit on the step of the stoop. He sat down beside her and pressed his hand on her back. “Now, bend over your knees and take slow breaths.”

“Can’t.”

“Shhh. Yes, you can.” He rubbed soothingly over her back. “Take a breath. That’s it. Let it out slowly. Now another.” His voice was soft, gentle, and she found herself complying.

After a few slow breaths, the pain in her chest eased and she sat up.

“Now, what’s this about Bobby?” He continued to rub her back. He turned to face her and his thigh pressed against hers. With his free hand, he reached up and used the pad of his thumb to wipe away the tears on her cheeks.

She peered into his blue eyes and instantly felt more at ease. He pulled a clean white handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her. Much calmer now, she wiped her nose, then cleared her throat, but her heart was still painfully stuck. “Jake took Bobby from Mary’s before I got there. They aren’t here, are they?”

“No.” He narrowed his eyes and his jaw twitched. “We received evidence tonight implicating Jake, Brent and Johnny Blackwell and a bunch of other people in the cattle thefts. Since we can’t find Brent’s truck anywhere, we’re assuming they got away in it. You’re sure Bobby’s with Jake?”

“Yes!” She struggled to stand, panic seizing her again.

He held her in place. “I just had to make sure. How long ago?”

“Sometime within the last hour. Zack, I’m scared. What if Jake hurts him? He’s my world.” A new wash of tears gushed from her eyes, and she bit her bottom lip.

“Shhh.” He hugged her close to his side and murmured, “Bobby’ll be fine, baby. We’ll get him back.” He held her away slightly to peer into her face. “I’m going to call the FBI and get an Amber Alert out. Do you have a recent photo of him?” She nodded and immediately retrieved her wallet from her purse. After he took the wallet-sized school picture from her, he stood and brushed his work-roughened thumb over her cheek again. “You stay here. I’ll be right back, baby. After I get everything settled here, I’ll take you home.”

She nodded absently and stared up at him, not at all sure how to interpret his touch or the pet name. She didn’t get a chance to puzzle it through for too long before he leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. She blinked a couple of times in surprise as he took off at a jog toward two deputies watching from the street.

* * * *

Bobby peered out of the back seat of Uncle Brent’s truck and watched as the long miles of dark road passed by. He’d gone to sleep not long after his dad picked him up from Miz Mary’s. He and Andy had just fallen asleep after playing video games in the family room. Dad had woken him, and Bobby hadn’t considered anything strange was going on until he woke up a few moments ago.

This wasn’t the way home.

His uncle spoke over the low country music from the radio. “How far do you think we need to go before we can stop?”

“I’m not stoppin’ until we need gas. If you have to piss, you have two choices–either go in that empty soda bottle or aim it out the window.”

“I’m good. I was just wonderin’ that’s all.”

Why wouldn’t his dad stop?

“How are we gonna get over the border?” Brent asked.

His dad laughed, and he shook his head in the dim dashboard light. “You really are stupid. We can’t come from the same gene pool. How the hell do Mexicans cross the border? It can work both ways.”

Mexicans? Border?
Were they going to Mexico? His mom would never have let his dad take him that far away. Or would she? Now that she and Zack were together, maybe she didn’t want him around anymore. Did Zack not want him around and talked his mom into his dad taking him?

The memory of the day at the CW with Zack and Mandy came to mind.

His heart raced when Zack helped him up into the saddle for the first time and gave him the reins. “Hold on to these. Not too tight, and don’t yank on them. The bit will hurt the mouth of the horse and will confuse him. He’ll follow me as we walk around the corral. We’ll start out slow to get you used to the feel of the horse moving under you. Okay?”

Bobby nodded, and they were off. He was riding a horse! After a few times around the fence, Zack showed him how to use the slight movements of the reins to steer the old dappled gray gelding, Grasshopper.

“Don’t kick him either. That will make him run,” Mandy warned from her perch on top of the white rail fence.

“I want him to go faster.” Bobby laughed from the saddle.

He expected Zack to tell him no, but instead, he said, “Okay. Touch his sides with your heels. Not hard, just a soft touch. He’ll respond.”

Bobby touched the horse’s sides, and Grasshopper went from an easy walk to a jog. Zack kept up with the horse, but Bobby didn’t need his help. With a whoop, Bobby hung on to both the reins and the saddle horn. He leaned forward and kept his head down like he’d seen the cowboys on Oak Springs Ranch do.

The warm breeze felt good on his face, and he’d never been freer than he was that morning while in the saddle.

“I want to run!”

Jogging beside Grasshopper, Zack caught hold of the horse’s rein, looped at his neck, and the horse stopped. “You have to learn a lot more and be more secure in the saddle before that can happen. Besides, Grasshopper is too old for doing much more than a fast trot.”

“Okay. I don’t want to hurt him.”

“But we could take him for a short ride in the pasture. He’d like that.”

Bobby nodded and smiled. Zack saddled his big Palomino, Wild Aces, and helped Mandy with her sorrel mare, Holly. They mounted up, then headed out into the pasture behind the big barn.

Zack told him all sorts of things about horses and answered his questions about rodeo, including how he’d gotten Wild Aces.

“I got him my last year of rodeoing. While I was away with the Marines, he stayed at my in-laws’ ranch in Wyoming.”

“He’s really old,” Mandy chimed in.

“Not really. Not as old as Grasshopper. He’ll be thirty-two on his next birthday.”

“Wow!” Bobby looked down at the gray mane. He held the reins, which lay on the edge of his saddle on either side of the saddle horn.

“I remember old Jock Blackwell had a horse that was about thirty-five before it died. It was an old rodeo horse.”

“My great-uncle Jock rode in the rodeo before he took over the oil business with my great-granddad Jason Ferguson.”

Zack smiled over at him. “Yep, and your great-grandfather Ferguson was a champion cutting horse rider, and your real great-grandma trained his horses. That’s how they met.”

“Really? I didn’t know that. I always thought he was just an oilman.”

“Before he took over the Ferguson’s share of the oil business with your uncle Jock, he was a cowboy. My dad says he never knew a better horseman than Jason Ferguson. Your mom is a good rider, too. It’s in your blood.” He nodded toward Grasshopper. “You’re good on him. You aren’t afraid at all.”

“No.” Bobby looked out over the waving grass and the big, red, wrinkly cows grazing in the pasture. “But Dad said horses are dangerous. That’s why he hates them and never wanted me to learn to ride.”

Zack took a breath so deep that Bobby heard when he let it out, over the distance separating their horses. “Your dad just never understood horses. They sense fear and distrust and he had both. I thought his feelings for them got better, but it never happened. Then–” Zack paused and Bobby looked over at him.