Long, Tall Texans_ Boone (Long, Tall Texans #35) - Diana Palmer Page 0,71
him. “I work as a veterinarian technician and I make minimum wage. Mama—” Her voice broke. She composed herself. “Mama had some money in a savings account, but it’s in her name and it’s tied up in probate. I won’t be able to get it for weeks.” She didn’t know if that was true, but it sounded convincing.
He cursed sharply. “There must be something you can sell!”
“She already sold it all,” she said bitterly.
He muttered again, incoherent. “Then those friends of yours, the Sinclairs—they’ve got money. Ask them for it!”
“I won’t.”
“Your life is on the line, Keely!” he raged. “It’s not a game! Jock’s already said that he’s got nothing to lose. He’ll kill you if you don’t help us.”
She felt very old. Her mother was dead, she’d almost died herself. Boone knew her darkest secret and would surely not want her anymore, even if he was compassionate and understanding about her injury. He was scarred himself. But Keely saw no future for herself.
“I don’t care,” she said passively. “Let Jock do his worst. He might be doing me a favor,” she said with black humor. “God knows, I’m never going to have a husband or a family, the way I look.”
“I’m…sorry,” he said slowly. “I’m very sorry, for what happened. I was so shocked that I couldn’t even do anything. I feel bad about that. And I didn’t think about how the scars might affect your life.”
“Pity,” she said, and felt hatred seethe through her. “Until that moment, I thought you cared about me.”
“I do care, in my way,” he said. “My parents were ice-cold with each other and with me. They never went out of their way to do one charitable thing for anyone else. I learned that you take care of number one.”
“So did Mama,” she replied. “Neither of you was fit to raise a child.”
“Tell me about it.” He laughed hollowly. “Once you came, our lives changed forever. She was too unstable emotionally to cope with a baby.” He sounded bitter. “You spent a lot of time with Carly.”
A light flashed in her mind as she recalled Carly’s face. It was far more familiar to her than Ella’s. No wonder the other woman had been so protective of her.
“But that’s all in the past, and I’ve got bigger problems now. You have to try to get me some money. Jock says he won’t wait much longer.”
“Tell him to come see me. I can borrow a shotgun,” she mused.
“It’s not funny!”
“If you were in my position, it might be.”
“Ask your friends if they’ll help out. Even two thousand might be enough,” her father persisted. “Take this number down, Keely. You can reach me here.”
She grabbed a pencil and pad from inside the drawer by her bed. “Okay.”
He gave her the number. “Do your best, honey,” he pleaded. “You lived against all the odds. I don’t want you to die over a handful of money.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she said heavily, and hung up. It wasn’t until then she realized that she was shaking.
* * *
WHEN BOONE CAME back, he found Keely quiet and preoccupied, staring into space.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, because he knew at once that something was. He could feel it.
She frowned. “How do you know something is?”
He moved to the bed and dropped down lazily into the armchair by her bed. “I read minds. Come on. Tell me.”
She sank back into the pillows wearily. “My father called. Jock’s running from the drug lords and he wants money to get out of the country. He told my father that if I don’t get it up for him somehow, he’ll kill me. The drug dealers will probably send him back to wherever he came from in a shoe box.”
He took off his hat and dropped it on the floor by his chair. He ran a big, lean hand through his black hair. “I’ll turn Bailey loose on him, and when he gets through, Jock will fit in the shoe box. Or parts of him will.”
“Is Bailey all right?” she asked.
He smiled. “Doing great, thanks to you.” His smile faded. “I still can’t believe I listened to that self-centered little cheater when you told me what was wrong with Bailey. I wish I could go back and live those few minutes over.”
“It turned out all right.”
He nodded. “Only because you had the guts to do what you knew was right. You’ve got grit, Keely.”
“I’m just stubborn,” she replied. “What am I going to do? I don’t