Page 32 of Killer on the Homestead (Bent County Protectors #2)

Duncan hadn’t wanted to let Rosalie go, but the paramedics had jogged onto the scene—stretchers and bags in tow. They’d loaded up Terry first, which had ticked him off, but one of the paramedics checked out Rosalie, right there with her sitting against the tree.

She’d argued with the woman, but the paramedic had been adamant.

She’d have to ride in the ambulance to the hospital.

Duncan had been somewhat relieved at how bitterly Rosalie had been against it.

She had to be feeling at least a little like herself to mount that argument, no matter how terrible she looked.

He wasn’t allowed to ride with her, which was infuriating, but he also didn’t want Detective Beckett or even Detective Delaney-Carson explaining everything to his parents. It needed to be someone who would understand what a betrayal this would be to everything his parents held dear.

For thirty-plus years they had trusted Terry. That was an entire lifetime of believing someone was your friend. Someone you could trust and believe in. To have Terry be a murderer…

He sighed as he took the stairs to his parents’ house.

Rosalie had told him to go handle this. He hadn’t even needed to explain—she’d understood.

Since the paramedic had assured him that she’d need stitches, maybe go through a concussion protocol, but she would be okay, he’d let them wheel her away.

He’d given his statement to Detective Beckett. Gotten the clear to return to his truck and go break the news to his parents.

So here he was. Handling it. Audra would meet Rosalie at the hospital, and it wasn’t like they’d let him in the room while they patched her up. He’d head out there later. Once he was sure his parents were okay.

He tapped on the door, then let himself in. Mom and Dad were in the kitchen, and as he approached, Mom stood from the table. She crossed to him, wrapped her arms around him and squeezed.

Dad stood next to the table looking pale and frail but determined to take it. They knew it was Terry now, but they didn’t know the why of it.

“Just lay it all out,” Mom said, pulling back, but gripping his hand.

He gave Mom’s hand a squeeze then led her back to the table. He sat down and laid it all out to them. Terry hiding in Rosalie’s truck at the hospital. Rosalie wrecking her truck to get away.

Terry having his own land, a stockpile of weapons. Duncan even shared his theory about the missing cattle. He didn’t want to explain Terry’s reasoning, but he had to.

“Saw me first?” Mom laughed bitterly. “I never gave Terry Boothe the time of day.” She leaned into Dad, more troubled than Duncan wanted to accept.

“All these years…” Dad trailed off, and never finished that sentence.

“The police are still collecting all the information,” Duncan said.

“Terry made it sound like he’s been resentful and planning this since his parents sold their ranch to Grandma and Grandpa, but the evidence doesn’t support it.

Maybe he always felt that bitterness, but he didn’t start acting on it until a few years ago. ”

He’d hoped that might ease some of the hurt written all over his parents’ faces, but it didn’t. But they gripped each other’s hands, leaned on each other.

They asked a few more questions, but mostly it would just take…time, Duncan supposed. And it would probably never fully heal that wound, but they’d survive. They had each other. They had him.

And despite Terry’s attempt to take out Owen again in his hospital room, the kid was fighting. If he made it, he’d be able to testify against Terry over what Terry had done to him.

Nothing erased what Terry did, particularly to Hunter, but there would be justice. Duncan would use all of his resources to make sure of it.

Mom reached her free hand across the table to put it over his. “How’s Rosalie?”

“They’re patching her up. Audra was going to text me when they’re done.”

“You should be at the hospital. You don’t need to worry about us.”

Duncan looked from his mother to his father. He worried about them, and there was no stopping it. This was devastating. But there was nothing Duncan could do to fix that, and that sat on his chest like a heavy weight.

Dad stood, cleared his throat. “I’m going to need to go tell the ranch hands before the rumors go wild.”

“I can—”

Dad shook his head. “This is my responsibility, Duncan. You stay with your mother.” He strode out of the room.

Duncan looked at Mom, who was watching Dad with worry in her eyes. But she closed them, inhaled and exhaled carefully.

“He’ll be all right. It’ll be all right. It’ll just take some time to…smooth out. You should go see Rosalie. And while you’re gone, I’ll make her a cake. Some cookies. A feast.”

Duncan laughed in spite of himself. It felt almost normal. Bad things happened, and Mom swooped into action and comforted with food. It felt good and right.

He figured he could leave her and she and Dad would just be fine. After all, they had each other. Always had.

Still, he pulled her into a hug, and he squeezed her tight, wanting to transfer some kind of certainty that everything from here on out would be okay. For a moment, she even let him.

Then she pulled back, patted his cheek. “We’ll all be all right. No one gets through life without some hard times. Love is what gets us through.”

Because the sheen of tears in her eyes twisted painfully in his heart, he tried to lighten the mood. “Is that a not-so-subtle hint, Mother?”

She smiled at him. “I love you, Duncan. And I’m very proud of the man you are, who’d rush into help and save others, even though it’s not your job.”

“Everything good I am is because of you and Dad. Everything.”

A tear slipped over onto her cheek, so he pulled her into another hug. Yeah, life was hard. But no matter the hard, he always had them, and they had each other all these years.

They’d all be just fine.

Rosalie felt nauseous . They’d stitched her up, done annoying tests on her cognitive situation, then yapped at her incessantly about concussions.

They were keeping her overnight, just to be sure she hadn’t done more damage than they could see at the moment. Which was annoying as all get out.

Almost as annoying as Audra flittering around the room trying to make it comfortable . Rosalie was glad when someone else came into the room, even if that someone else was Copeland Beckett.

“She’s resting,” Audra said primly, scowling at the detective.

To Copeland’s credit, he almost looked sheepishly at Audra. “No more questions. Just an apology.”

“An apology?” Rosalie said. “Come on in.”

Copeland’s mouth quirked as he moved closer to Rosalie’s bed, clearly ignoring Audra’s scowl.

“I could have told you we’d narrowed in on Terry Boothe,” he said, almost sounding contrite. “That might have avoided today’s events.”

“ Should have told me. Would have avoided.” Except she wasn’t so sure about that. Everyone had been working for answers, and sometimes there was just no one right way to find them. They’d worked together, and just happened to coalesce on the same point without enough time to avoid Terry’s violence.

“I don’t owe you details on an ongoing investigation,” Copeland said irritably. “It’s not my fault we were coming to the same conclusions at the same time.”

Rosalie grinned at him, immensely cheered at his bad attitude. “I thought this was an apology.”

Copeland grumbled something under his breath. “I am sorry you got caught up in this. But you handled yourself.” He jerked his chin toward the bandage on her head. “You and your baseball player.”

“Yeah, he saved the day. So did I. You…?”

“Arrived in the nick of time and arrested the guy? You’re welcome.”

She laughed, then winced a little when a dull pain sliced through her forehead. “All’s well that ends well. Apology accepted. I plan to lord it over you every time we have to work together.”

“I expect nothing else.” He gave an uncharacteristic awkward wave, nodded at Audra, then strode for the door.

But the thing was, just as she’d told Duncan, she and Copeland were a little too much alike to get along. And too much alike not to understand each other.

“You’re right. We all did what we could. No guilt, okay?”

He stopped at the door, looked back at her with an unreadable expression on his face. “I’m incapable of feeling guilt,” he replied.

Of course that was a lie. He wouldn’t have come here, apologized, without guilt . But she let him leave with that parting shot. Looked at her sister, who had a thoughtful expression on her face.

“You know, I’m fine. You don’t have to be here.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Rosalie,” Audra said, her own brand of irritable. She pulled a chair next to the bed. “I think it’s time to have a talk.”

“Can it wait? I’m tired.” And she was. Tired and feeling gross . She wanted tonight over with so she could go home tomorrow.

She refused to think about Duncan in this moment. Having to break the news to his parents, not just that Terry was a murderer, but that he had all that resentment for the Kirks all this time.

It made her heart clench, and she didn’t want to deal with it.

“I’ll let you sleep in just a minute. But for now, you’re stuck in this bed and Duncan saved your life, so you’re going to have to finally listen to what I’ve been trying to tell you for days now.”

Rosalie shifted uncomfortably. “Come on, Audra. I’m in pain,” she said, hoping to appeal to her sister’s usually soft heart.

But Audra’s expression was firm, and that was the thing about Audra. She had a lot of soft spots, but once she decided something, it was decided.

“Well, this is going to be painful, so it’s the perfect time. I can’t have you taking another step of your life thinking that because you loved Dad, you can’t trust your feelings. There’s nothing wrong with your instincts.”

“Hell, Audra, can we—”

But Audra plowed right over her protests.

“It was me. Every thoughtful present he ever gave you, every phone call he made on your birthday if he wasn’t home.

Mom too. The both of them were selfish and self-obsessed.

And I hated that for me , so I set about to do something about it for you .

I made them give you, or faked them giving you, everything I wanted. ”

Rosalie could only stare at her sister, stunned into complete silence. She knew her sister was just that kind of selfless. But it had never occurred to her…

“Audra. Why…?” She shook her head, trying to blink back the tears. She couldn’t.

“I love you. I wanted better for you. If I’d known that meant you thought you had some sort of warped radar when it came to people, I wouldn’t have. I thought I was doing the right thing.”

Rosalie couldn’t breathe for a minute. It was so awful. So…painful. Because if Audra had done all that, it meant… No one had ever done that for her. The thoughtfulness. The showing of care.

“You have always done the right thing,” Rosalie rasped out.

Audra sniffled, blinking back tears. No doubt refusing to let them fall.

“I hope that’s true, but the only way you prove that to me is to realize Duncan is perfect for you.

Natalie and I wouldn’t have conspired to toss you two together at every opportunity if we didn’t think so.

And I shouldn’t have to tell you that, because he saved your life . ”

“I saved his too,” Rosalie said somewhat petulantly, because her heart felt big and bruised.

“Rosalie.”

“You…” Rosalie couldn’t decide if it was the head injury that felt like her brain was scrambled, or just these revelations.

The invitations. The Tupperware. She had been soundly and thoroughly tricked into being in Duncan’s orbit.

She wanted to be offended, but a knock sounded on the hospital-room door and after a moment, Duncan stepped inside.

So tall and handsome and good . He had saved her life, even if she’d had the presence of mind to save his after. He’d done it first.

And all her life, Audra had been saving her heart. Stepping in to make her feel loved because their parents were incapable.

It felt…small and childish to keep thinking that all the ways Duncan was perfect for her, even if he wasn’t perfect, wasn’t good enough because of some internal, messed up thing on her end.

It would be betraying everything Audra had done for her.

“I guess I’ll forgive you,” she murmured to Audra.

“I should hope so. You owe me a hot, rich guy in return.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” And she would. One way or another, she was going to find her sister exactly this. And better, she was going to be everything Audra had been to her growing up. She was going to step up in all the ways she hadn’t for the people she loved.

She looked at Duncan as Audra got up, said a few words to him, then left them alone in the room.

He approached her bed. “Heya, Red.”

“Heya, Ace.” She wasn’t going to blubber all over him. She wasn’t . But it took some effort to blink back the tears. Especially when he bent over, tenderly brushed some hair out of her face, then gently pressed his mouth to hers. Just as easy as that.

And it was easy with him. It always had been. All the things that made him who he was just seemed to fit . Even though he’d saved her, he hadn’t made her feel like…she’d somehow lost. He’d made it feel like a team effort.

Because it was and they were.

“Did you know your mother and my sister plotted to throw us together?” she asked, her voice tight.

His mouth curved. “I didn’t know about Audra, but I had some suspicions about my mother. That a problem?”

She managed to shake her head, even though it hurt. “No. No problems here.”

“Good,” he replied, then kissed her again. Like this was just who they were now. Together. A team. A unit.

Because they were, and maybe that was a little scary, but it was mostly pretty amazing.