“Deadly, even. I might actually die, and it would be on your conscience,” he whispered.
Carey pressed her to him, entranced by the way their bodies fit together perfectly. Even in the close quarters of his sleeping bag, he felt like he couldn’t bring her close enough, wanting to pull her even closer somehow.
He kissed her for what seemed like hours, Amy running her hands over the muscled ridges in his arms and his chest, exploring him in the darkness. She wondered at the heated softness of the skin beneath his t-shirt, tracing the pronounced muscles in his back with her delicate fingertips. She finally worked her way up to place her hands on his neck, joining them behind him and twirling locks of his luxurious hair between her fingers.
The sound of a rock being kicked across a patch of dirt nearby made Amy and Carey freeze, him putting one fingertip to her mouth as he listened. Carey looked up to see the beam of a flashlight shining across the ground in wide arcs, sweeping over the forms of sleeping cowboys. He pulled the edge of his sleeping bag up over Amy’s head, suppressing a giggle when she used the cover of darkness to place the ends of her fingers on his ribs, knowing he couldn’t say or do anything to stop her.
“Carey?” Bernard called out quietly, looking over the sleeping ranchers for him.
“Yeah, Dad?” he called out in a voice heavy with false sleepiness. Bernard turned toward Carey’s voice and approached him, stepping around different bodies in his path.
“I need you to get up and come meet me in the RV.”
“What’s wrong?” Carey asked, forgetting his romantic antics for a minute and sounding concerned. He kept the cover over Amy, but was troubled by the sound of his dad’s worried voice.
“We’ll talk when you make it inside. Hurry.” Bernard switched off his flashlight, freeing Amy to come up for air. He turned and went back to his truck without waiting for Carey to get dressed and follow him.
“Is everything okay?” Amy whispered against Carey’s neck, letting her lips pause there as he answered. Carey hugged her close, but shook his head.
“I’m not sure. He doesn’t usually do that, and he sure sounds worried. I’m sorry, but I’d better go see what he needs.” Carey unzipped his sleeping bag and helped Amy out, then followed her, shaking out his boots and sliding them over his sock feet. He kissed her passionately one last time, then took off at a light run to the well-lit truck.
“What’s up, Dad?” Carey asked, pulling the door to the RV shut after watching to make sure Amy made it safely back to where she was supposed to be sleeping.
“There’s been trouble back at the house,” the older man said darkly, anger on his face. He held the satellite phone tightly in his hand, listening for his younger son to come back on.
“What kind of trouble?” Carey demanded, immediately concerned. Only a handful of the staff had stayed behind, mostly women and older ones at that, people who had no interest in riding all day and sleeping on the ground every night. Plus, Anders had stayed behind, as usual, to help oversee the business end of things, which was good considering his health problems and his allergies, very real concerns that had plagued him since his difficult birth.
“They think Crazy Mack came out there. He started shooting up the house, screaming like…well…a crazy man.”
“Are you kidding? He shot at them? Is everyone okay?” he stormed, beginning to pace back and forth within the small space of the RV. “Who’s out there now?”
Anders’ tiny voice came through the speaker. “Sheriff Matthews came out, but Mack took off when he saw the helicopter. No one’s really hurt, but Meg had to go into town to the doctor. She cut her hand trying to clean up some of the glass but she’ll back in the morning, just had to get a few stitches. It looks like he shot out about eight or nine of the windows, and I haven’t been outside to see if he did any damage to the other buildings or if he shot any of the animals that are still around here.”
“Don’t go out there, Anders!” Bernard yelled. “Stay in the house, and keep everyone else inside, at least until Matthews has a chance to find this lunatic!”
“Okay, Dad,” Anders replied. He could be heard through the connection talking to some people in the background before coming back to address them. “The sheriff is going to leave someone here tonight, but the deputy will have to go back to town in the morning.”
“Don’t worry, son, we’ll have someone home by late tomorrow night, maybe the next morning. You guys try to get some sleep and have everyone sleep in the main house. Don’t let any of the staff go back out to their quarters until this is all cleared up.”
Bernard signed off and switched off the phone before turning to Carey. “Son, I need you to head back home.”
“Really? Why?” he asked, confused for a moment before realizing for the hundredth time that he was the oldest now. “Oh, right. Sure, I’ll get my stuff and leave right now.”
“No, you need some sleep before you can head out. Take my bed in there. I want you to be well rested because you’ll most likely have to drive straight through. I’ll sleep out here on the bench seat.” Carey nodded, then went into the bedroom at the far end of the RV and did as he was told, so worried about his younger brother and the staff back home that he had to force himself to close his eyes and get some much needed rest.
He was awakened by someone shaking him softly, calling his name over and over. Carey opened his eyes to see his father’s face above him, a pitch-black sky still visible outside the windows. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and pulled his t-shirt on over his head, getting out of bed and finishing getting dressed before stepping over to the coffee maker on the small kitchen counter.
“Take the truck,” Bernard said. “and call me along the way. I’ll let you know what Anders has reported. Do you need to take Dwayne with you?”
“Well, it’d be nice to have another driver and to have some more muscle on the ranch when we get there, but I’m afraid you can’t spare him. No, you’ll need him for the rest of the drive, especially without Casey or me. I’ll just have to go on through.”
“Promise me you’ll pull over and nap if you get tired, Carey,” his dad pleaded sternly. “Nothing will be resolved if you don’t make it there in one piece, and I sure don’t want anything to happen to you out on the road.”
“I’ll be fine. I promise I’ll be careful,” he assured him, but he was too keyed up with worry to guarantee he’d be that cautious. Knowing that Mack hadn’t been found meant he was more than likely still hiding out somewhere on the ranch, and there was no telling what he’d be stupid enough to try once darkness fell again.
Carey stepped out of the RV and immediately spotted Amy, rolling up her sleeping bag by the remains of last night’s campfire. He felt a pull in his gut at the thought of not seeing her for the rest of the ride, and of just leaving things hanging with this stranger he’d only just met. He walked up to her, completely undone by her bright smile, only to feel crushed when her face fell, sensing that something was wrong by the look on his face.
“I have to leave,” Carey began. “I’m sorry. I hope you have a great rest of your trip, and a safe trip back home.” He started to turn to leave, but she put a hand on his arm to stop him.
“Carey, is something wrong? Why are you leaving?” she asked calmly, not so much for her own benefit but because she could see something was really troubling him.
“Um, it’s just some problems back at the ranch. My younger brother is there and there’s been a…an incident. Kind of an emergency. I’m driving back now, and hope I get there without having to stop anywhere. Again, I really am sorry we didn’t get to spend more time together. I would really have liked to get to know you better.” He turned and walked toward the truck, turning back once sadly to see Amy still standing, watching him go.
“Carey,