The Lone Rancher - By Carol Finch Page 0,58

glanced back at the dead man. He wasn’t going anywhere so he could wait until she had tended to Quin.

Leading Cactus back to the borrowed horse, Adrianna mounted up and kept a watchful eye on Quin, who faded in and out of consciousness during the ride. When they reached the house, she shouted for help. Bea, Butler and Elda appeared on the porch. Three sets of eyes rounded in concern when they spotted Quin.

As expected, Butler’s disapproving gaze zeroed in on her. “You’d better be all right,” he huffed. “And do not pull a prank like that again! I thought you had passed that hoyden stage a decade ago. Your father would not approve.”

“He didn’t approve of anything unladylike that I did,” she countered, then directed everyone’s attention to Quin. “Someone pounded Cahill over the head twice and took the money.” She bounded from the saddle, then rushed over to Quin. “Help me get him upstairs.” She glanced hastily at Bea. “Bring your needle and thread. I think he’s going to need stitches.”

“Where am I?” Quin mumbled when the foursome jostled him off the horse.

“In hell, Cahill,” Adrianna told him. “I’m in charge now. You cannot rise from bed without my permission.”

“Damn, my worst nightmare,” he groaned.

Adrianna wasn’t sure but she thought she saw the smallest hint of a smile pass his ashen lips before he collapsed again.

Quin awoke to find himself tucked in the oversize bed in the master suite. His stomach pitched and rolled like a ship at the mercy of a storm-ravaged sea. His head pounded in rhythm with his pulse. His eyes blurred when he kept them open too long at a time. It hurt to think but he tried to remember what had happened after someone clobbered him the previous night. Unfortunately, bits and pieces of the incident kept flitting through his mind, then shattering like glass.

What he recalled clearly was that Boston had defied his orders and followed him. “The damn fool woman,” he grumbled crankily.

“I do hope you aren’t referring to me, Cahill,” came Boston’s familiar voice from somewhere behind him. “The only damn fool in this room is you. And you have three stitches on your scalp to prove it.”

The moment Quin levered himself up on his elbows to settle into a half-inclined position nausea pelted him. Boston was there in a flash to assist him. He sighed heavily as he leaned against the pillow she propped behind his tender head.

“Elda brought up some broth and crackers,” she informed him. “You are going to eat them.”

“I’m not hun—”

She crammed a spoonful of tasty broth in his open mouth, then said, “Do as you’re told. Dr. Lewis will be here soon. We’ll see what he has to say about your condition.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “You are a mean, bossy tyrant, Boston,” he complained, but his voice held no censure.

“Thank you, Cahill. I love you, too.”

That’d be the day, he predicted. He’d made Boston irate the first time they met because he’d opened his big mouth and spouted off about how she was out of her element in Texas and she should go home. Then they had engaged in a feud to annoy each other and someone had used their conflict as an explanation for rustled cattle and destructive fires. Now she was a witness to murder and she could find herself in jeopardy.

He frowned, bemused. “How many riders did you say you heard racing away from Phantom Springs?”

“Three.” She shoved a cracker in his mouth to ease his nausea. Surprisingly it helped. “They left one at a time,” she continued. “That was after someone fired a single shot.”

Quin munched on the cracker pensively. “I didn’t hear the shot so I must have been unconscious when it happened.”

“I thought you shot someone or someone shot you. It was very disconcerting.”

He sent her a discreet glance, wondering if she liked him well enough to worry about him. “Careful, Boston, you keep saying things like that and I’ll start thinking you care.”

She shrugged nonchalantly and stuffed a spoonful of broth in his mouth again. “I’m returning a favor. You allowed me and my family to stay at your house after the fire.” She bent to graze her lush lips over his and he felt better immediately…until she added, “Now hush up and eat. I have better things to do besides mollycoddle you, Cahill.”

“Boston?” he said when she rose from the edge of the bed.

“Yes?”

“Um, thank you…” He wasn’t accustomed to having to depend on