19
What are you going to do?
Midmorning on Sunday—twenty-four hours after Molly's abduction—Cord couldn't stop staring at the text message from Iris.
Friday and the worries about the No Name's mortgage seemed like a lifetime ago. Just because Molly was hospitalized didn't mean his problems were going to go away.
Morning sunlight streamed through the blinds. Earlier, a nurse had removed about half the machines that had been attached to Molly. Cord hadn't seen a doctor since the middle of the night, but he figured that meant Molly was improving.
Her tears last night had unmanned him.
He knew the road ahead of her was going to be rocky. And he wanted to do everything within his power to ease it for her. Before all of the insanity with Toby had happened, Cord had asked her to go to Houston with him.
Now, he didn't see how that would be possible.
The No Name was the only place untouched by Toby. Molly had said she felt safe there. As if she could see for miles.
How could he ask her to leave the ranch when it might be the only place that could give her comfort?
He couldn't.
He didn't even know when she was going to be released. And with the extent of her injuries, she'd need lots of rest. He'd probably have to sit on her to keep her from trying to go back to work on those stupid tractors.
And that was all he wanted to think about. Molly and getting her healthy again. Well again. Happy again.
But he had a looming deadline. He also had no completed tractors, no funds in his bank account, and only one way he could think of to get the infusion of cash it was going to take to bring the mortgage current and escape foreclosure.
Ifhe could swallow his pride.
He let his eyes rove over Molly's still form. Her lashes were a dark smudge against pale cheeks. Every rise and fall of her breath was a blessing.
She was worth it.
He quietly slipped into the hall, pulling his cell phone from his hip pocket.
He wasn't even sure he'd be able to get through to West. If he was out on a mission, he wouldn't have phone access.
Cord dialed the number anyway.
West answered on the second ring. "What's the matter?"
Cord pinched the bridge of his nose. He deserved that greeting.
They both knew the only reason he'd call was if something was wrong.
"I'm in a bind." It almost killed him to say the words out loud. "I came to Sutter's Hollow to settle Mackie's estate. But things are..." He hesitated. West had always had a different relationship with Mackie than Cord. Cord had taken as much of her wrath as he could, protecting West. West still didn’t understand—probably never would—the kind of woman she’d truly been. And Cord didn't want to speak ill of the dead, even if she deserved it.
"Just say it," West said.
"There's a mortgage on the ranch that's four months overdue. My signature is on the dotted line. I don't remember signing it, but it's in my name, and..." He swallowed hard. "Molly had this wild idea she could refurbish those junk tractors."
"This the same Molly who answered the house phone a couple weeks back?"
"Yeah. She’s..." Cord let his head fall back against the wall. "She's everything."
There was a pause on the other end of the phone. Static crackled, and, for a moment, Cord wondered if he’d lost the connection with his brother.
"She got to you," West said.
