Redneck Romeo (Rough Riders 15)

“Your nuts ain’t ever gonna be anywhere near my wife’s hands, McKay.”

He laughed. “I know your kink doesn’t extend to sharing.”

“Damn straight.” Boden zipped up his parka and slipped on his gloves. “You need anything, buzz us. If we don’t answer right away—”

“I’ll assume you’re tied up. Or rather, you’re tying Bree up.”

As soon as Boden left, Dalton started coffee. Then he stripped off his long johns and took a cold shower. That ensured he’d be fully awake.

The main room of the three-room cabin had warmed up by the time he’d dressed. After downing two cups of coffee, Dalton stood by the window in the kitchen and called Brandt.

His oldest brother answered on the fourth ring. “’Bout damn time, Dalton. Where the hell have you been that you can’t return a phone call?”

No doubt Brandt thought he was f**king off someplace. Little did he know how tiring it was leading a ten-day hunting party into the mountains. But Dalton no longer explained his life choices to anyone. “What’s goin’ on? I had twenty-four missed calls in the last twelve hours.” No one knew Sierra had his number. His brothers would be pissed if they knew Dalton kept in better contact with Sierra than with them.

“Dad had a stroke.”

Silence. Finally Dalton asked, “Is he okay?”

“He’s alive, if that’s what you mean. He’s havin’ difficulties talkin’. They’re not sure if it’s permanent. They’re not too sure of anything at this point. So we—me’n Tell—are asking you to come home.”

Dalton closed his eyes. He didn’t want to play nursemaid to the man who’d made his life hell. Especially not after the last conversation they’d had, which was the biggest reason Dalton had left Sundance for good—not that he’d told his brothers or anyone else about what’d gone down. “I don’t know if I can.”

“Can’t? Or won’t?” Brandt demanded.

“Why do you want me there?”

“Hey, bro. Brandt put you on speaker phone,” Tell said. “Look, we need you to help us make some decisions about Dad’s care.”

Dalton let his forehead rest against the frosted windowpane.

“We haven’t seen you in over three years. It sucks that something like this had to happen for you to even consider comin’ home. But we do need you here.”

He pictured his brothers, Tell leaning against the window in the cab of Brandt’s truck, his restless fingers tapping on his leg. Brandt seated behind the steering wheel, his posture stiff, arms crossed over his chest.

“When did this happen?” Dalton asked.

“Brandt got a call from the hospital in Spearfish yesterday morning. They wouldn’t let us see him until late afternoon. Soon as we had some information, we tried calling you.” Tell paused. “You ain’t gotten any better at returning calls.”

“But I did return it. Not fast enough for you?” he asked sharply. Jesus. Within two minutes of talking to his brothers he’d reverted to the defensive guy he’d left behind. He exhaled slowly. “Sorry. Cell service here is spotty.”

“Where are you?”

Don’t feel guilty they don’t know. “Alder, Montana. We’re in the midst of a blizzard so it might be a couple days before I can make it out of the mountains.”

Silence.

“Has the doctor given you a time frame on how long he’ll be in the hospital?”

“No,” Brandt said. “But when Dad is discharged, it’ll be to the rehab wing in a nursing home.”

That oughta make Casper even more the patient from hell. “Sounds like it won’t matter then if I’m not there for a couple of days. I’ll let you know when I’m on my way.”

“Sure. Will you be staying with one of us?” Tell asked.

“Nah. I’ve got it covered. Thanks though.”

Neither of his brothers asked where he’d be bunking down, although he sensed they wanted to.

“Okay, then. I guess we’ll see you when we see you.”

“Yep. Later.” Dalton hung up.

He stared out the window for the longest time, even though he couldn’t see shit through the swirling snow.

But this storm wasn’t anything compared to the one he faced in Sundance.

The blizzard lasted two days. On the morning of the third day Dalton packed up his stuff, closed up his cabin and headed down the mountain.

Once he had a clear cell signal, he gave Brandt a heads up he was on his way. Brandt said they’d moved Casper to the rehab wing and to meet them there.

Then he placed a call to Sierra.

She answered with, “I swear every time I call you and I don’t hear back I live in mortal fear that you’ve disconnected from the world completely and you’re out in the forest running naked with woodchucks and shit.”

“Not hardly. I returned the calls in order of importance.”

“So you’ve talked to your brothers?”

“Yeah. I’m on my way to Wyoming right now.”

“They giving you grief about…well, everything?”

“They both knew it wouldn’t take much for me to refuse to come back.” He flipped on the defroster. “How’d you find out about Casper’s stroke?”

“Keely. I knew your brothers would get a hold of you first, so my call isn’t about your father.”

“Then why did you call?” Dalton heard her take a deep breath and he went on full alert.

In a rush, Sierra said, “You’ve got to promise me that you won’t get mad at me for what I’m about to tell you.”

“No conversation ever ends well that starts that way.”

“True, but I want you to remember I was only following your parameters. And I kinda hoped someone else would tell you about this, so I didn’t have to. But then, you’d have to actually talk to someone who lives there, and we both know that’s a rarity, so I guess it falls to me.”

“You been drinkin’? ’Cause you ain’t making a lick of sense. Quit dancing around the subject, college girl, and spill it.”

“Rory is back in Sundance and working for Wyoming Natural Resource Council.”

Everything switched into slow motion. Dalton couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. He had to pull onto the shoulder so he didn’t wreck his truck.

“Dalton?”