I came out this morning to check in with Maddox, give him the deal we could offer, and see how things were going when Tyler got the call on the radio from Della. A goddamn rattlesnake had bitten her. I knew exactly where the lookout on this ranch was. I might not have been out here as much as my cousin, but I’d been here all the same.
Maddox and I both took off for the Polaris ATV and got in. He was gonna need a hand with getting the horse back to the barn. No way he could do it alone. I’m sure one of the hands would have helped, but I’m here, so why the hell not?
The moment we caught up with Della, I wanted to toss her over my knee and spank her sweet ass red for what she was doing. The last thing she needed was for the venom to speed through her veins faster than it already was. Didn’t matter she tied a tourniquet around her leg.
On the way out here, Tyler radioed that he had called it in, and the ambulance was on the way. It’d meet us when we got back with her.
Before Maddox brings the ATV to a skidding halt, I jump out the side of it, rush the short distance between us, only to catch her as the horse slows. If I were a praying man, I’d thank God for us getting to her before she fell off the back of the damn beast.
Maddox went to the horse while I carried his sister back to the two-seater ATV.
“You get Della back to the house. I’ll take Rex. He doesn’t like other people to ride him other than Della, me, and Tyler.”
“Got her,” I grunt, setting her in the seat before running around the front to hop in, hitting the gas on the damn thing.
It probably should be the other way around, but I wasn’t complaining. Maddox can take the horse. I’ll deal with her. She’s far more important.
Since seeing her at Rodeo Roundup, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. After I left and headed to the clubhouse, I thought about taking one of the saddle bunnies to my room and forgetting about it. Only I couldn’t get her out of my head.
“Stay awake, sweetheart,” I tell her, tugging her to me, keeping her tight against my side.
“Don’t call me sweetheart,” she grumbles and weakly tries to push away. I don’t miss the exhaustion in her. I saw it in her face, mixed with the pain she’s got to be feeling.
“Need you to stay awake for me,” I tell her, pushing my foot to the floor. I need to get her ass back to the barn as soon as I can. She was at least smart enough to tighten the lead around her leg to hopefully slow the damn venom. Only her not staying calm and riding doesn’t help.
“Doesn’t matter,” she mutters.
“What doesn’t matter?”
“Nothing.”
I don’t know what she’s talking about, but it doesn’t sit well with me. My gut’s telling me there’s more to it than nothing. A hell of a lot more.
I don’t get what it is about this woman that’s got her filling my head since seeing her again. Could it be the fact she refused to let me walk her to her car?
That can’t be it. I’ve never allowed a woman at any time of my life to screw with my head as she’s done in less than twenty-four hours.
Instead of probing for more from her, I keep my mouth shut and steer the ATV toward the barn, seeing the flashing ambulance lights.
Thank fuck for that.
Della needed medical attention, and she needed it fast.
Saddle Ridge has a pretty good-sized Fire and Rescue team for being a small town. Considering the fact we’re mostly land and shit happens, it’s a damn good thing. Della isn’t the first to get bitten by a snake, and she won’t be the last. We have everything from rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and copperheads, to the measly black snake that isn’t venomous. Things like this happen, and it wouldn’t do anyone any good if the town only had one ambulance and a shit crew.
Moments pass by in a commotion as Della is placed on a stretcher, put in the back of the ambulance, and whisked away. Maddox comes rushing through the barn, eyes on the back doors of the bus as it rushes down the lane.
“Don’t know what’s going on with you and your sister, but when I told her she needed to stay awake, she said it didn’t matter,” I tell him, not bullshitting around, though I’m not sure why I said it. I just knew what he’d shared with me. I get his points, but what I saw in her was different, like she was hurting and not just physically. Not just because she lost her granddaddy.
“I need to follow,” he grumbles, shaking his head. “I tried to talk to her when she got home last night. She ignored me and refused to take the time to talk then. Maybe now she’ll have to listen.”
“Maybe you should wait until she gets back here before you two do any talking,” I suggest.
Maddox seems to take my words and weigh them before nodding and letting out a heavy sigh. “Yeah, that might be good. Think you can go and look after her for me? I don’t want her to be up there by herself.”
Me?
Fuck. I figured he’d send one of the other guys after her. Not me.
