Texas Tall - Janet Dailey Page 0,33

a closed vehicle like this one?

Drained by cold and fatigue, she yawned. What she wouldn’t give right now for a warm bed—with or without Drew Middleton in it. Drew wouldn’t have had much luck tonight. All she’d want to do was sleep.

Tori’s eyelids were drooping. Her head sagged, then jerked up again. She mustn’t sleep. She needed to stay alert, to move, to stay warm. But she was so tired, too tired to keep herself from drifting. She slumped over the steering wheel.

Find me . . . Please find me, Will . . .

She jerked awake with a startled gasp. Something—or someone—was banging hard on the outside of the truck. Ice shattered as the heavy hammer broke through, splintering the safety glass on the side window. Through the fog in her mind, a voice, hoarse with strain, shouted her name. Will’s voice.

Seconds later, he’d freed the door and yanked it open. In the glare of headlights, he looked like a wild man, red-eyed and unshaven, his woolen cap askew on his head, his coat crusted with ice. As she stirred and sat up, he lowered his arms and, for a moment, simply stared at her.

“What the hell, Tori?” he said.

Tori didn’t even try to respond. She tried to climb down from the driver’s seat, but her cramped legs buckled beneath her. She fell out of the truck into his arms. He was cold, his bare hands icy, his stubbled chin rough against her forehead. His arms held her painfully tight, their strength almost crushing her.

“Fool woman!” he muttered. “Come on!”

Scooping her up, he carried her to his pickup, which was parked on the asphalt road with its lights on. The engine was idling. She could feel the heater’s blessed warmth as he shoved her onto the seat. “Erin’s suitcase . . .” she muttered. “My purse. Get them.”

Slamming the door, he vanished down the slope, into the dark. In a moment he was back, climbing into the driver’s seat and tossing her things, along with the hammer, into the space behind. From somewhere, he pulled out a moth-eaten blanket and thrust it toward her. It was dusty and smelled like the dog, but it was warm. Tori laid it over her legs as he geared down. The truck roared up the road. Within a quarter mile was a farm gate with a wide, level area to turn around. Only when they were headed back toward the ranch did he speak again.

“Damn it, Tori, you could’ve died out there! You missed the turnoff to the ranch lane by a couple of miles. What were you thinking?”

“I couldn’t see. I was lost.”

“At least you could’ve let somebody know you were on your way—even Erin or Bernice.”

“It was late.”

“Then maybe you should’ve waited till morning. Three hundred head of cattle to worry about, and I spend half the night chasing all over creation after one mule-headed woman! Do you know how long it took me to find you?”

“Stop browbeating me, Will. We aren’t married anymore.”

“Then why didn’t you call your fancy new boyfriend to come and find you?”

“Right about now, I’m asking myself the same question.” Tori glanced sideways at his angry profile, square jaw set, strong hands clamped on the steering wheel. Will would always be Will—stubborn, hard-charging, and determined to be right. He was the most maddening man she’d ever known. Yet, when she’d found herself in danger, he was the one she’d called.

He drove in brooding silence now, turning the truck up the long gravel lane to the house. Sad, Tori thought, how things can change. Fourteen years ago, when she became Will’s bride, she thought she’d found heaven on earth. What a naïve child she’d been. She hadn’t stood a chance against Bull’s domination, Will’s duty to the ranch, and, finally, his senseless jealousy over an older man’s attentions—a man she could barely abide. That jealousy had struck the final blow to their crumbling marriage.

But all those things were in the past. Now it was only their daughter who kept them tied into some semblance of a family.

“How’s Erin?” she asked as he pulled up to the house.

“Fine. She was asleep when I left.”

“I saw Stella Rawlins tonight, in the Blue Coyote,” Tori said. “The way she looked at me—it gave me the shivers. I realized then that Erin needed to be here with you, out of harm’s way.”

He reached behind the seat to get Erin’s suitcase and hand Tori her purse. “I don’t want you messing with the