Born To Be Wild (18 page)

“Not yet, sweet-cheeks, but I’m gonna.” He rubbed a beard-scruffy cheek with the barrel of his revolver. “If he’s still alive.”

As if talking about her great-grandfather made him appear out of thin air, Lucy swore she saw him lurking behind a tree in back of the man who intended to kill them both. She blinked, but the apparition didn’t disappear. Someone
had
been following them! It was Gramps, all right! And he was signaling her, putting a finger over his lips, for her to keep quiet.

Lucy’s stomach cramped, and she wanted in the worst way to throw up, but she had to keep the would-be killer’s attention on her. “You know you can’t get away with this, right?”

“What makes you think I can’t?”

“My parents are smart.” She saw Gramps make his move toward them. “They’ll know what happened, believe me.” From the corner of her eye, she could see him edging closer, blackened tree branch in hand. “You hurt me or Gramps, and my Daddy will come for you, Bobby Soto. He’ll make you pay.”

“Your daddy isn’t as tough as you think he is.”

“He’ll kill you!”

“We’ll see who kills who.” He aimed the gun at her.

And Gramps struck out with the tree branch, but when it connected with the man’s head, it crumbled into black ash.
Oh, no!

The next thing Lucy knew, Bobby spun around, and a shot rang out.

Both men stood frozen for a moment.

Then her great-grandfather dropped to his knees.

“Gramps!
You shot him!
” she screamed at the creep before running to her great-grandfather as he collapsed on his back. Blood was welling all over his chest, reminding her of Annie on the school bus. “Don’t die, Gramps!” She pressed her hands against the blood and tried to stop it, sobbing as if her heart would break, because she knew it would if she couldn’t stop the blood like with Annie. “You can’t die, too!”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, Lucy, honey,” Gramps whispered, and touched her cheek. “When I close my eyes, you run away like the wind.” Then, in a strained voice, he said, “It’s time Hector and I meet again and fix things between us.”

“No, please!” she sobbed, his warm blood oozing over her fingers.

“I’m coming, Hector. Get ready for me.”

“No! No!
Noooo!”
Lucy pressed harder.

Gramps gave her a last look filled with love, then his eyes fluttered closed.

…

Micah was urging his mount to go faster. They had to catch up to Lucy and Bobby. Isabel was calling out directions she got from the GPS.

Then a gunshot echoed through the air. The sound nearly made his heart stop.

“Oh, my God, no!” Isabel cried. “Hurry!”

Micah signaled the horse to speed up and they raced over a hill to see Lucy kneeling on the ground, crying her eyes out, both of her hands pressed into his grandfather’s bloody chest.

Bobby raised his gun and pointed it right at her back.

“
No!
”

Micah felt Isabel fly into a flurry of activity behind him. “Bobby, you bastard!” she screamed.

Startled, Bobby glanced up at them, but he had to squint against the sun. He quickly turned his attention and his gun back on Lucy.

Isabel’s arm swept past Micah’s shoulder, and a second later Bobby jerked and yelped. The gun dropped out of his hand, and he looked down at the knife sticking out of his side.

“Isabel, you
bitch
!”

Micah stopped the horse practically on top of Bobby as the bastard pulled the knife free with a fresh spurt of blood.

“Mom! Daddy!” Lucy sobbed as Micah felt Isabel push herself off the back of the horse. “He killed Gramps!”

His heart crushed, Micah dismounted, flying straight for Bobby even before his feet hit the ground. Seeing-red angry, he landed on the other man, knocking him flat on his back.

Bobby cut him with the knife.

Though Micah’s left arm stung as blood drenched his shirt, he crashed his right fist square into Bobby’s face. Blood spurted from the bastard’s broken nose.

Bobby tried to do the same to him, but Micah turned his head in time and took the punch on a cheek. The two men rolled, fists flying, but Micah was aware that Bobby was angling the knife for a deadly strike. Micah rolled the other man onto his back, and, before Bobby could manage to attack, Micah raised himself enough so he could see where Isabel had cut the bastard. He drove a knee straight into the gaping wound in Bobby’s side.

Bobby screamed and his body bucked, and the knife fell from his fingers.

Micah got off him, turned the man on his stomach, and shoved a booted foot onto the back of his neck. Hard. “Don’t move, Bobby, or you won’t live to join your brother at State. I’ll break your damn worthless neck!”

Without removing his boot, he picked up both the knife and the gun, then looked to the desperate scenario before him on the ground. Covered in blood, Lucy’s hands were still pressed into Gramps’s chest. Isabel had her fingers on his throat, checking for a heartbeat.

“He’s alive! Oh, Lucy, you saved him! I feel a pulse!” She placed her cheek near his mouth. “Yes! He’s still breathing!”

Micah threw the weapons on the ground near Isabel. He could hardly move his wounded arm, which now felt like it was on fire, and he needed to get to his phone. “I’ll call for help.”

He fumbled for it, but help rode in before he could make the call. Two mounted rangers had been out searching for them and had heard the shot from Bobby’s gun.

One of the men lifted Lucy from Gramps. “I’ll do that, sweetheart. I promise I’ll take care of him for you.”

The other ranger called the paramedics. He gave Bobby an intent look that he then turned on Micah. “I take it that one shot the old man?”

“He did. Took my daughter, too.”

The ranger pulled out plastic zip-ties and bound Bobby’s wrists together behind his back.

“Hey, I’m the victim here!” Bobby blubbered.

The ranger glanced back to where his colleague had rolled his jacket and was pressing it to Gramps’s wound to stop the bleeding. “Yeah, right.” He turned to Micah. “Go see to your family. If this weasel doesn’t shut up, I’ll just step on his neck harder.”

Micah clapped him on the shoulder and ran to Lucy and Isabel, gathering them as close as he could with one good arm.

Exactly where they both belonged.

Chapter Eighteen

“You’re lucky that you all came out of this alive,” Detective Ochoa told Isabel and Micah after they all retreated to the hospital cafeteria, where for the first time in days, Isabel faced food with some enthusiasm.

An emergency room doctor had already patched up Micah’s arm and had injected antibiotics. Though he’d recommended Micah get horizontal for a while, naturally he’d refused.

“You should have kept me informed,” Ochoa added.

“We didn’t have any proof of anything until we found Lucy’s sweatshirt a few hours ago,” Isabel said.

Micah added, “Once we figured out what was going on, we were concerned about what might happen if Perez saw badges and guns. He might have really gone off the wall and taken his madness out on our daughter.”

Ochoa gave him a disbelieving look. “Yeah, his having jumped off a cliff, he’s so much better off.”

Isabel and Micah exchanged looks of regret. Perez was upstairs in traction with several broken bones and a concussion, but he, too, would live. Yes, he was better off than if he’d been killed by some SWAT team, Isabel thought. There was still hope for him.

Ochoa went on. “And then your grandfather was almost killed by Bobby Soto.”

“Caleb especially is lucky,” she said, clutching her cup of coffee.

She would never forget seeing her daughter trying to stop the bleeding from the gunshot wound. Thankfully, it had looked worse than it was—the bullet had gone straight through his side without hitting an organ.

Micah shifted in his chair and Isabel saw him grimace in pain. He was keeping his bandaged arm close to his side. He said, “We had no idea that Bobby would go off half-cocked on Gramps.”

Since Ochoa had already taken Caleb’s statement, now they all knew the old man had been tied up in the back of Bobby’s SUV for more than a day.

Isabel wanted to see Bobby Soto behind bars for what he’d done to Caleb and to Micah, as well as to Lucy.

“Detective Ochoa, I hope you lock up Bobby and throw away the key,” she said in a burst of anger, then collected herself. “But what about Mr. Perez? He should be held accountable, too…but I’m not sure prison is the right place for him.”

The detective looked somber. “That’s not up to me, but my guess is that once he’s healed from the fall, Jorge Perez will be headed for a psychiatric unit where he’ll get the proper treatment. The state doesn’t bring anyone to trial unless they think they can win the case. And if the parents don’t want to prosecute—” he indicated the two of them “—and if even the victim has pity for him…” He shrugged.

“Lucy was terrified, but she understands what happened to Mr. Perez.” Isabel knew she partially identified with the man. “She’s felt broken inside since the bus accident. Now we know it’s because she tried to save Annie Perez, but no one could have saved her.” Isabel felt guilty for not being able to help Lucy deal with the trauma better. “She believes that Mr. Perez is broken, too, and she wants to see him get well.”

Ochoa nodded. “You’ve got a real smart and brave kid.”

“Lucy takes after her mother,” Micah said, his expression proud.

Isabel’s eyes stung with tears she refused to let fall. She’d shed enough tears for a lifetime in the last seventy-two hours. Now there were things she could smile about, like the look she recognized in Micah’s eyes.

Love.

With the promise of a follow-up call the next day, Detective Ochoa left the hospital. Isabel was alone with Micah, at last.

“Let’s go check on Lucy and Gramps,” he suggested.

“Of course.”

Though she didn’t let on, she was disappointed Micah didn’t want to talk to her alone. So much had happened between them the past few days. She was getting used to him being there all the time. But once she and Lucy went home…

What then?

Having been checked over and cleared by a doctor, Lucy had cleaned up and was in her grandfather’s room now, holding vigil over him.

Once they were in Caleb’s hospital room, Isabel went straight to her daughter and gave her another big hug. She couldn’t hug Lucy enough after what her little girl had been through. But while Lucy tolerated—maybe even enjoyed—Isabel’s arms around her for a moment, she got itchy and slithered from the embrace.

“What about Mr. Perez?” Lucy asked.

“The doctors expect him to recover just fine,” Micah told her.

Her expression intent, Lucy turned to Isabel. “I need to see him, Mom. He doesn’t have anyone else.” Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. “I couldn’t save Annie, but maybe I can help Mr. Perez.”

Knowing that Lucy needed Mr. Perez to heal, Isabel thought it was possible they could help fix each other. That her daughter wanted to help after all she’d been through made her chest tighten with pride. “Lucy, as soon as the doctors say it’s okay for Mr. Perez to have visitors, I promise I’ll take you to see him.”

“Thanks, Mom.” Lucy brushed the back of her hand over her eyes.

“But we have to make sure Mr. Perez doesn’t get confused again. You can’t call him Papa or let him call you Annie. You have to keep reminding him that you’re Lucy Falcon.”

Lucy nodded solemnly. “I know.”

A smile trembled on Isabel’s lips. Her little girl was growing up, and she really was smart and brave.

Micah said, “If the two of you were living at the ranch, and Lucy was going to a school in Soledad instead of in Santa Fe, I would breathe a lot easier.”

“I really have missed Falcon Ranch,” Isabel admitted.

Those intense violet eyes met hers and held her in thrall. “I meant Wild Ranch.”

Her lips parted in surprise. “Oh. But—“

“We wouldn’t have to live in the main ranch house,” he quickly added. “There are two other houses on the spread.”

Isabel’s pulse picked up, but she feared getting ahead of herself. Was he saying what she thought he was saying?

“Jonah isn’t going to agree to that,” a gruff voice said from the bed.

They all swung toward it.

“Gramps, you’re awake!” Micah said.

“What do you expect, boy? With all that blathering going on in here, it’s impossible to get any sleep.”

“We’ll step out into the hall,” Isabel offered, happy to hear the old man sounding like himself.

“Don’t you dare. The conversation was just getting interesting.”

Lucy sat down on the edge of his bed. Her expression serious, she said, “You saved me, Gramps.”

Caleb patted her hand and then squeezed it. “And I understand you wouldn’t let me bleed out, so we’re even.”

Lucy threw herself against him. He hugged her close and kissed the top of her head. A lump lodged in Isabel’s throat until Lucy wiggled away from the embrace.

Caleb turned his attention back to the adults. “Now, as I was saying, Jonah doesn’t have to agree, because the ranch is still mine.”

“That doesn’t mean Jonah would make it easy on us,” Isabel said.

“Hopefully he’s had a change of heart.” Micah cleared his throat. “But if not…no one tells me what to do anymore. Dad is close to retiring, and Seth doesn’t really want to work the ranch. So if Dad objects, I’ll just remind him of all that and tell him that if he makes life on the ranch too unpleasant, he can run it himself. I
will
make a life for us elsewhere.”

“Like where?” she asked, hardly believing they were having this conversation. Was he really serious? Hoping he was, she could hardly breathe as she asked, “You mean in Santa Fe? With me?”

“Hell, yeah, with you! Not in Santa Fe, though. I’m a cattleman through and through, Isabel. I don’t know anything else. But I want my family with me, the way you should have been all along. What about you?”

Isabel’s pulse was racing and she was having trouble corralling her thoughts. He had to say it. No matter how much she wanted it, she wasn’t making any assumptions this time. “What exactly are you asking me, Micah?”

He took her hand and held it between his two strong hands. Hands she knew weren’t afraid of hard work—or of loving tenderness. “I’m saying I want us to be a proper family at last. I want you to marry me. That is…if you think you can trust me, Isabel Falcon.”

How could she not trust him after all that had happened? Twelve years ago, they’d both handled things badly enough that she’d doubted him the past three days, even though he’d supported her in every way. Twelve years ago, they’d been too young and too hotheaded to make good decisions. But everything was different now. They were different. Mature, responsible adults. Despite her reservations, Isabel had seen how valiantly Micah had come through for her and Lucy. And after all these years, they both still loved each other.

Micah cleared his throat. “Isabel?”

He was waiting for an answer. Joy flooded her, curving her lips into a big, happy smile. “Yes! Oh, yes, I’ll marry you, Micah Wild.”

She stepped into his waiting arms, and he kissed her. A sweet, promise-filled kiss.

“About damn time,” Caleb groused. But there was a grin on his face as he watched them.

“Yes, I’ll marry you, Micah.” Isabel pulled away and turned to Lucy. “If our daughter doesn’t object to moving onto Wild Ranch.”

“Just one thing,” Lucy said. “Do I get my own horse?”

They all laughed.

“You can have
two
horses if you want,” Caleb said. “A Wild horse and a Falcon horse. Hector will like that.”

“And Poppi will have to adapt,” Isabel added.

Taking her in his arms, Micah said, “Maybe we’re the first step in ending the feud between our families.”

Isabel couldn’t agree more as Micah kissed her again.

One of those sweet, slow kisses that stopped her world. Her head went light and her heart opened wide, because she knew she would savor a lifetime of those kisses with the only man she’d ever loved.