“I won’t ever leave you.”
I fall asleep with her in my arms and the feeling that nothing is ever going to change between us.
CHAPTER 15
ANDI
Pain explodesthrough my body as the contraction hits hard. My head swims from where she hit me. But none of this scares me as much as the long, deep neigh of the horse that pounds his hooves next to me.
No one knows I’m trapped in here. I was in our room, and Callum went to the sheriff’s station to talk to the detectives. We woke up this morning to a demand from them. Beau heard I was with Callum and said he wanted to talk to him. My mother and Jon, who showed up this morning, told Callum I could stay with them. I didn’t need Butcher since I wasn’t planning to go anywhere until it was time to leave for the rodeo tonight.
Callum didn’t want to leave, but my mother pressured him to go find out what Beau had to say so we could get this over with sooner. She was already mad at Callum and me for getting married without them. I didn’t want them to be a part of it. My mother doesn’t think we need to get married yet. She even said she shouldn’t have married my father as soon as she did either. I know she’s trying, but she still has an agenda, and my little family is only a part of it.
I remember getting a phone call from one of the assistants to the head of the rodeo association, asking if I could come down tothe arena for some preliminary takes and pictures. They’d been advised of my pregnancy, but it wasn’t announced yet and wasn’t going to be. Fans would see me pregnant, but they weren’t going to get an official interview about it. I signed a contract that stated they couldn’t ask me personal questions. They could ask about the accident, Raine, and if I was coming back to racing, but nothing else. I don’t want to share every part of my life with them anymore. It was something I never felt comfortable with, but my grandma and mom said it was good PR for the ranch.
The horse neighs again, then rears up, and this time it slams its hooves into the dirt near my body. I roll up onto my butt, but my head swims and nausea crashes over me. The bronc is agitated. I’m unwelcome in his space. I’ve survived one accident with a horse. Can I survive another?
I try to remember how I ended up here. My head hurts, and another contraction washes over me.
“It’s okay, baby boy. Just stay put. Daddy won’t give up until he finds us.”
“Bullshit,” a bitter voice says, and I turn. The movement intensifies the pain in my head, clouding my vision and making me see double. Something about the voice is familiar. “You just couldn’t leave. You always had to be the best. Even after you left, the circuit talked about you. ‘Andi, the sweetheart of barrel racing, is going to be so missed. That accident was horrible, but at least she survived.’”
My vision clears, and that’s when I see her in the shadows. Starla. I don’t understand, but I don’t interrupt her tirade. If I had my phone, I’d record it, but that was the first thing she took from me.
My memories surface. As soon as I was directed to the back, where the horses are corralled, something felt off, and sure enough, I was hit from behind. But the person didn’t expect me to turn, and I put my arm up just in time. I screamed in painas she hit the arm that was reconstructed after the accident with pins and plates. She hit me again, but that time I saw her and her crazy eyes.
“You couldn’t die. I cut every strap, but you couldn’t just fucking die. Beau told me I was crazy and that hurting you was a bad idea. He didn’t want to help me, but he inevitably did. I didn’t mean for Raine to get hurt. I was going to buy her after you retired or died from the accident, but now I can’t. She had to step on that strap, and the buckle punctured her frog.”
Starla slams the riding bat handle against the post, and the horse charges at her this time. I roll away, just barely missing his hooves. I try to keep my nerves steady, hoping the horse will calm. Ty taught me so many techniques, but most of them you have to be standing for, and I can’t stand right now.
I double over with another contraction. They’re about ten minutes apart. The horse huffs at her and moves back across the small pen we’re in. It’s not a big round one. It’s enough for him to move around a bit, but we’re still cramped in the tight spot.
“Starla, I’m gone. I don’t ever plan on returning. You’ve won already. You beat me.”
“No, I didn’t. I wouldn’t have beat you. I barely had enough points to overcome you. My father said if you had made it to the third barrel, I would have lost to you. He never figured out it was me who caused your accident,” she screams, and the horse huffs again.
Other horses and cattle are getting ramped up from her energy too.
“Starla, please let me go. My child doesn’t deserve this. It’s between you and me, not it.” I don’t identify it’s a boy, just in case that sets her off too.
“I don’t care about your baby. For all I know, it will get into racing and will beat me too. I can’t be beat by another Forbes. I talked them into bringing you back so I could get to you. Iwatched you that night with that man. How did you get him? I saw him in the restaurant too.”
The odds that she was in the Roadhouse the same night I was makes me wonder how long she had been following me.
“Why did you come to Eastport?” I ask, my curiosity winning out.
She screams, and more horses start shuffling around. “They’d announced that if you came back and only were running at eighty percent, you’d still beat the current group of racers. I couldn’t get away from you. No matter how much I tried, you were still a shadow. I watched that biker pick you up, and then I stuck around, watching him fuck you outdoors. Don’t you have any scruples?”
“I love Callum. He’s my husband.” This time I share only to try to prove to her I’m not coming back. “I’m going to stay away, and unless one of my kids begs me, I won’t let them race. I’ve been in the circuit long enough. I don’t want my children to go through what I did. Please just let us go.” The contraction hits harder, and I feel a gush of fluids. My water just broke.
Saying a soft prayer, I ask my daddy to protect us right now. I can almost hear his voice telling me to stay calm and that he loves me. Tears roll down my face as I fear everyone is going to be too late.
Starla starts walking around the small pen, hitting the riding bat against the bars before she reaches in and hits the horse. He rears up on his hind legs.
Cowboy
Walkinginto the sheriff’s station, I’m greeted by the investigators. “Sorry, man. We heard about yesterday. He demanded to speak to you. Said if you wanted to protect your wife, you’d come.” The detective shakes my hand.
