Brody walked into the kitchen a few minutes later to find Lou kneeling before Sarah, both of the child’s small hands clutched in her own larger ones. He heard her remind Sarah, “Now you be a good girl and listen to what Jeb and Sadie say. Stay out of trouble and mind your manners. Don’t get dirty every time you go outside. Try to stay clean for once.”
Tears hovered over Lou’s dark lashes like a dam ready to overflow. She blinked them back. Sarah said, “I promise to stay clean. I’ll say please and thank you and be a good listener.” She threw her arms around Lou’s neck and squeezed tightly. Lou squeezed back until the child yelped. “You’re hurting me, Mommy,” she grunted.
Lou loosened her hold and placed her on the floor. “Sorry,” she mumbled.
Sadie came to stand in front of Lou and said, “I’ll take care of her, but I’m still worried about you.”
“It’s okay,” Lou whispered to her loud enough Brody could overhear, “I have a plan. It’s all worked out. I just have to pay them what they think I owe them and we’ll be done with this.” She shrugged. “No big deal, really. As long as Sarah is safe, it will be just fine. Promise.” She kissed Sadie on the cheek and moved to embrace Jeb.
Sadie walked to stand in front of Brody. He grunted. “Why does she get lovely words of devotion and you look at me like I’m the cat that ate the canary.”
“Because I happen to know you, Brody, probably better than you know yourself. If my memory serves me correctly, you have never had to go out of your way to find trouble.” She leaned in and whispered, “Take care of her, please.”
“Why do you think I’m here?” he whispered back, a smile on his face.
John hugged them both as well and yanked Sarah’s ponytail. “I’ll miss you, Squirt.”
“I’ll miss you, too, John.” He squatted so she could climb on his back and he carried her out to the truck. Lou walked alongside them and buckled Sarah into her booster seat.
She stepped back and waved as the truck roared to life. Sarah turned around and waved all the way down the drive.
Lou placed her fingers over her mouth, trying to stifle the choking feeling that came with tears. Then she felt John’s strong arm around her shoulders as he pulled her into his chest. She pushed back at him with her hands. “No. No,” she said with confidence despite the tears that rolled down her face. “I can handle this.” She took a deep breath through her nose.
“Glad to hear it,” John said. “How about if you comfort me, instead?” She gratefully moved into his brotherly embrace, his strong arms around her shoulders, her arms clutching his waist.
Brody coughed loudly and dramatically from where he stood on the porch. They both looked up. “So, which one of you is going to make breakfast?”
Chapter Eighteen
John decided to forego the Lucky Charms and left to hit the local diner for a real meal while Lou and Brody talked over their bowls of marshmallow cereal and coffee.
“What are you going to do today?” Brody asked casually, his mouth full of cereal.
“I don’t have any plans. I have a book I want to start and I was thinking of taking a nap. I haven’t been sleeping well.” She rubbed her neck and flexed her muscles in an attempt to relieve the tension. She covered a yawn behind her hand as she placed her bowl in the sink. “But first I want to go out and see the new foal. Wester’s Fancy Lady finally delivered last night. We were starting to think that baby would never come.” She started walking toward the door.
Brody took another bite of cereal and laid down his paper. “Why don’t you wait a minute and I’ll walk with you?”
Lou took a deep breath. “I knew this was coming.” She pointed her finger at him. “Let’s get one thing clear. I do not need a babysitter.”
Brody smiled and raised his hands in mock surrender. “I just wanted to go and see the new foal, Lou. Not stay stuck up under you all day.” He waved his spoon at her and grinned. “Although that does sound like even more fun than seeing the foal.”
Lou groaned. “No pun intended, I’m sure,” she muttered. “I’m just going to the barn. Alone. I’ll be right back.”
“If you say so.” He motioned for her to continue.
Lou walked out the door and felt the cool morning breeze caress her face. Fall was approaching so the mornings were not stiflingly hot like summer mornings. The days still were just as warm so Lou was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt.
She walked into the barn and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the change of lighting. Each stall had a turn-out pen so the mares and foals could enjoy some time outside. Many of them nickered to her as she walked by their stalls.
Lou patted her shirt pocket. “No peppermint today, guys. Sorry.” She stopped by the barn fridge and picked up two thick, orange carrots and approached the stall of the new mom and foal. She quietly looked over the stall door and smiled when she saw Lady standing up, the babe suckling from her breast. The colt was steady on his feet and appeared to be pretty sturdy. Lou dared not walk into the stall with a colt so young, because she was unsure of how the mare would react. Instead, she reached over the top of the stall and offered Lady a carrot, crooning softly to her all the while. The horse greedily ate it with no signs of stress that could have been caused by Lou’s approach. She let Lou smooth her hand over the top of her head, comfortable and relaxed. Then she suddenly changed. Her ears were pinned back close against her head and she moved so she stood between the stall door and the baby.
“What’s the matter, girl?” Lou asked cautiously.
“Looks like her senses are keener than yours,” a masculine voice said from behind her.
Lou spun around quickly and jumped when she saw Wes, the former farm hand who helped to put up the hay, standing behind her in the barn. Lou walked backward until her back hit the wall. She jumped.
“What are you doing here?” she asked calmly.
He held a cigar in his hand and raised it to his lips. “I came to see you,” he said after expelling a puff of smoke.
“You can’t smoke in h…here,” Lou stammered.
“Looks like I can do just about what I want,” he replied, raising the cigar to his lips again.
“You’re going to set the whole place on fire. There’s too much hay in here for sparks,” Lou protested as he flicked his ashes on the cobblestone-lined walk that ran down the center aisle of the barn. She stomped them soundly.
“Set the place on fire. Now there’s a great idea,” he replied as he ground the cigar out with the bottom of his shoe. He sighed sarcastically. “But not today.”
“What do you want?” Lou asked with more bravado than she actually felt. “How much?”
“All of it. I want all of it.” He spread his hands wide. “My boss is not willing to bargain. He will accept no less than $50,000 in cash and that other little item.”
“That other little item is not here. You tried to get that last night and failed. So, it’s in a safe place.”
“What are you talking about?” He stiffened.
“You tried to steal my daughter but you failed.”
Lou heard footsteps outside the building at the same time Wes did, if his reaction was any indication, along with the soft whistle of a man. Wes quickly disappeared into the shadows of the barn and slipped out the back door just as Brody walked in through the other end.
Lou leaned over the stall door again, pretending to be talking to the mare.
“How’s she doing?” he asked casually as he walked up behind her, placing his hands on her shoulders.
“They both look great. See.” Lou managed to keep the tremor out of her voice. “Healthy as a horse.” She rubbed her neck again, her brow scrunched.
“Do you have a headache?” Brody asked quietly, gently rubbing her shoulders.
“Boy, do I ever,” Lou moaned.
“Well, come on. I’ll get you something for it. You could probably talk me into a neck rub, too, if you ask me nicely.”
“Aw, shucks. I have to ask
you nicely?” She covered his hand with hers and turned to walk to the house. He slipped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
“Hey,” Brody said. “What’s that smell?”
“What’s it smell like?” Lou asked.
Brody sniffed again. “Cherries?”
“Oh. Must be those new mints John buys. I just gave a couple to Lady.”
“Oh, that must be it,” Brody replied.
****
Wes snuck out the backdoor of the barn, careful to keep to the shadows as he skirted the two hay barns. The path around the barns led to the trail through the woods that would take him back to his car. As soon as he was out of earshot, he pulled out his phone and dialed.
“Jerry’s towing,” a silky voice answered.
“Let me talk to the boss,” he said, his voice quivering slightly.
“What do you want?” the voice snapped in his ear.
“I just paid a little visit to Mary Lou. Did you send someone to try and take her daughter?” His breath rushed out as his pace quickened at the very thought.
“You weren’t getting anywhere, so I sent Gary,” the voice snapped again.
“Gary? But he’s one hateful son of a bitch, boss.” He took a deep breath. “You told him to steal the girl?”
“We needed a bargaining chip.”
“She’s just a kid, boss,” Wes replied.
“He almost had her. Then Lou’s boyfriend came out of nowhere and broke two of Gary’s teeth and his jaw.”
The man must have been running on pure adrenaline to get one over on Gary. “Then what happened?”
“Someone called the cops, so he had to get out of there.”
“He didn’t hurt her?” Wes asked.
“I don’t give a damn if he hurt her or not,” the boss said gruffly. “Why do you care so much?”
“You just should have told me your plan. That’s all.” Wes stammered, suddenly at a loss for words.
“I want results,” the boss bellowed into the phone. “I don’t care who gets them or how it’s done.”
He heard a click on the other end and the call ended.
Wes ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Shit.”
Chapter Nineteen
Brody walked back to the house with Lou, his arm around her shoulders. He sat down in the long porch swing and patted his lap. “Put your head here and I’ll rub your neck.”
Lou wrung her neck muscles again with her hand, hearing her pulse beat a steady rhythm in her ears. “I’m okay. I’ll just go and lay down.”
She walked past him to the stairs and into the house, heading straight for the stairs. She walked into her room and kicked her shoes off, falling heavily onto the bed and tucking the pillow beneath her head. Brody walked into the room just moments later.
“Hurts that bad, huh?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah,” she moaned.
He walked to her side and lifted the covers. “Sit up and take this.” He held out two pills in his hand and a glass of water.
“What is it?” she asked cautiously.
“Just some Extra Strength Tylenol. Unless you want something stronger?” he asked.
“No. This will be fine.” She popped the pills into her mouth and washed them down with water.
“Lay on your stomach,” he said, pointing to the bed.
“Brody, I don’t think…” she started.
“Just shut up and do it,” he threw back over his shoulder as he walked into the bathroom. He came back carrying a bottle of lotion from her medicine cabinet. He squirted a good-sized amount into his hands and rubbed them together, warming the lotion. She moaned when he laid his warm hands on the skin of her neck and started to knead the stiff muscles.
“What happened to make you so tense?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t know,” she muttered against her pillow. “Just a combination of last night, today, and the past couple of weeks, I guess.” She gasped as he found a particularly sensitive area by her collarbone. He concentrated on that area until it relaxed and then moved his hands beneath the neck of her T-shirt.
“This isn’t going to work. Sit up for a second.” He patted her bottom and she rose slowly. He grasped the end of her shirt and lifted it slowly over head, exposing her lacy white bra beneath.
“I don’t think…” she started to say.
“You don’t have to think.” He stopped her. “It’s just a massage. Sexy as you look in that bra, even I would not try to take advantage of you when you’re hurting.” He pointed to the bed again. “Lay back down.”
She did, moaning as his hands ran over the muscles of her back. He gently attacked each muscle, working until he felt it relax.
“Do you tell Sarah stories as she goes to sleep?”
“Yeah. Sometimes. Why?” she asked against her pillow.
“I’m going to tell you one, now. While I have a captive audience,” he replied.
“You can do anything you want as long as you keep doing that,” she said, gasping as he found a sensitive spot by her shoulder blade.
Brody started. “Once, in a different place and time, there was a little girl named Lou. Lou lived with her mother, who was too wrapped up in her own addictions to properly care for Little Lou. Lou’s mother had no education and no family to help her, so she did what she could to take care of her daughter to the best of her ability. Despite this fact, Lou still felt misplaced and unloved because they moved from place to place, never having one true home to call their own. Lou did the best she could, getting good grades and working part-time jobs to buy groceries and gas.
“She hated the men her mother brought home from the clubs and the way they would leer at her. But they never stayed very long. Then, when the rent was past-due and the lights turned off because no one paid the electric bill, they would move again.
“Then, when Lou was nineteen, her life changed. Someone gave her a baby.”
Lou rolled over and looked at him. “Her mother gave her a baby,” she supplied. “Lou’s mother asked to be driven to the clinic for the abortion she had scheduled. Lou refused. Lou begged and begged for her to keep the baby. She wanted a little sister, you see. She made a deal with her mother. If she would just carry the baby to term, Lou would raise the baby and be responsible for her care. Lou threatened and stomped and told her mother she would leave if the baby was aborted. Lou’s mother needed the income Lou brought home to pay the rent.”
Lou’s tone changed to one of sorrow, but she continued. “Little did I realize at the time that my mother would be forced to quit her job when she started to show. She was a stripper after all, and men just didn’t want to see a pregnant stripper.”
Brody nodded thoughtfully, urging her to continue.
“My part-time job couldn’t pay all the bills. We were sitting there with no lights, no food, and no dignity. Then, one day, my mother came home with groceries. The rent had been paid and the lights were back on. She had bought new clothes for both of us and she’d had her hair and nails done. I had no idea what she did to get the money but I noticed she had a new, haunted, look in her eyes. She was constantly looking over her shoulder. We moved again to a tiny little trailer out in the middle of nowhere.
“She went through the pregnancy and was healthy. She even stopped smoking and drinking. She was clearer than she had ever been.” Lou smiled. “Then Sarah was born. I was there in the delivery room and was amazed when they placed her in my mother’s arms. I was even more surprised when she passed her to me and said, ‘I hope you’re ready for this, ‘cause she’s yours.’ From that moment on, she was. I woke up at night to feed her and to take care of her.”
Lou shivered just a bit as she continued. “Then one night, these men came to the trailer and started beating on the windows and doors, trying to get in. My mother looked defeated. She threw Sarah in a bag and told me to run like hell which I did.” Lou’s eyes met his. “You know the rest. John and Jeb found us, and we have been here ever since.”
> Lou lay on her back, her head on her pillow and her forearm over her eyes. She used her arm to wipe the tears away and looked up at Brody.
“How’s your headache?” he asked softly.
“Better, actually.” She sighed and rolled over, facing away from him. “I’m going to take a nap, though.”
She felt him slide in behind her and pull her close to him. She snuggled closer and put her head on his arm, his chin resting on the top of her head. His legs twined with hers.