Page 131 of Cowboy Heat

Too bad for her that Beau Montgomery’s instinct to protect me was quicker.

CHAPTERFORTY

Beau

The hospital room is small,and the doctor is in a foul mood because he’s going through a divorce and his wife is already dating a man named Roger, of all things, but I’m not upset about any of it. Not the stitches across my back from taking a carbon steel, fixed blade combat knife into it to shield Kissy from Alice Dean’s last bit of anger, not the fact that I’ve been here for an entire night, and not at all that for the fact that during the past night, I’ve been peppered with constant gossip from the eldest Lawson woman every time she’s popped in to bring me something new for saving her granddaughter. Which, has been many, many times.

It’s only a miracle that when Lee walks in, he’s missed her drive-by affection.

Lee Montgomery is all black hair, muscles, and brawn, and a nose that’s been broken twice. He looks like a man ready to break you in half. I know him better.

It’s the second time I’ve seen him in the past twenty-four hours, and both times he’s been all concern and smiles. Right now, he’s erring more on the smiling side of things. The first time I saw him, he’d been sneaking around with Detective Wayland, guns in hand and ready for an opening to help take Alice Dean down. His distraction shot followed by Detective Wayland’s kill shot against Alice, helped save the day and, when that day was done saving, he’d stayed around to help secure everyone. Then it was all attention on me and the knife Alice had plunged into my back. If it hadn’t been for all of the adults trying to keep Micah from seeing the wound, I bet he would have been a lot more vocal about it.

Instead, he’d had to fake cool while waiting for the ambulance.

He’d stayed behind with the detective as the ranch swarmed with law enforcement from Armant parish and Trenton. Maybe some other officials too. I wasn’t quite sure. For the first time in my life, I felt like my job had truly been done.

I saved the girl and her boy.

It wasn’t my job to save everyone else.

Now Lee was seeing me for the first time since I’d gone off in the ambulance with Kissy and Micah. He knew more than I did about what was happening.

He also knew about Ryan.

But I wasn’t going to bring him up just yet.

Right now? Right now, I was just happy to see my brother.

The feeling was mutual.

Lee reaches down and over me in an embrace I’m trying my damnedest to return around my injuries. Then he sits down heavy in the chair next to my hospital bed.

The chair Kissy has been occupying off and on since we arrived.

I feel a warmth in me at that. A different warmth spreads across my chest for Lee.

He went from answering a phone call asking for information about Guidry to busting ass to get to Robin’s Tree to help and save all of us.

I couldn’t ask for a better brother.

He’s all grin now.

“You know, if you really wanted us to come down and see the place, there are easier ways to do it,” he says. “I mean, I know Macy coming out would take little more than a miracle, and we all know how Jesse can’t leave Dawn alone for too long or she’ll burn the world, but me? Well, next time just say there’ll be beer.”

“Noted,” I say.

I laugh and wince.

He stops smiling and motions to the luckiest stab wound I could have gotten, according to Doc Lawson. The things I don’t want to talk about yet come quicker than I thought they would. Then again, it’s hard to ignore one elephant in the room. Never mind a few dozen.

We start with Alice.

“According to Ally, no one inLa Lumiereknew Alice Dean was anything but a happy housewife. They’ve searched her place high and dry, and other than her own words, couldn’t find anything to confirm what she told y’all. It looks like her mama passed last year, and there was never any paternity test done. Ally’s not even sure that Connor Dylan knew he had a kid. But there is her husband. Maybe they can piece together some answers since he also had no idea his wife was so gun-happy. As of my talk with Ally five minutes ago, Alice Dean seems to have been a very good ghost before she ever stopped living.”

I nod to that. After Doc Lawson had taken Micah for a bit, Kissy told me everything that had happened since she woke up in bed with me. We’d learned together from Wyatt that Jon was in surgery and that he had survived it. Kissy had gone to see the man an hour ago. He’d been as dumbstruck as the rest of town. It was only after she threatened to kill Micah and him if he didn’t do what she said that he was clued in.

“You know, he could have escapedLa Lumierewhen Alice pretended to free Kissy?” I asked. “Instead he broke into a neighbor’s house, took their shotgun, and tried to stop her from taking them.”