Operation Cowboy Daddy

“Congrats, man,” Sawyer said. “I’ll get you a cigar with a bright blue band around it tomorrow.” He turned and went back into his room.

“Amy? Wow, did you know she was pregnant when the two of you stopped seeing each other?” Clay asked.

“No, I didn’t have a clue. I haven’t seen or heard from her in a year. She moved to Oklahoma City while we were dating...” Tony broke off and continued to stare down at the little boy with his shock of black hair and chubby cheeks.

“Are you sure he’s really yours?” Clay asked.

Tony gazed at his blond-haired fellow cowboy. “At this moment I’m not sure of anything.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Right now I guess I’m going to get him out of the chilly night air and then I’ll see what tomorrow brings.” Tony bent down and picked up the car seat while Clay grabbed the suitcase and together they went into Tony’s room.

Tony set the baby seat on the bed and Clay placed the suitcase on the floor. “Are you going to be all right with this for now?” Clay asked.

“I suppose I have to be,” Tony replied, his heart beating an unsteady rhythm. Heck, he had no idea if he was going to be all right. He didn’t know anything about babies.

“Let me know if you need anything.” Clay left the room and closed the door behind him.

Tony remained standing next to his bed and stared at the sleeping child. Tony had never wanted to be a husband and he’d certainly never wanted to be a father and Amy had known that when they’d dated. He’d made that very clear to her.

She’d looked so terrified. What was going on in her life that had prompted her to drop off her child with a man she hadn’t seen in over a year? Was he really Tony’s son? And why had she said to protect him from evil?

At that moment the little boy’s eyes fluttered open. His features screwed up and he began to cry.

* * *

He had to find the bitch.

Ash Moreland tightened his grip on his steering wheel as he turned down another Oklahoma City street, seeking Amy’s car. He had to find her and make sure she didn’t talk, that she didn’t tell anyone what she had seen.

If she’d just stayed in the bedroom like he’d told her to, then she wouldn’t have seen him slit Barker’s throat. After that, she’d gone to the bedroom and throughout the rest of the evening she’d acted like everything was okay. But Ash had known she was shaken up and sure enough at just after midnight she’d crept out of bed.

He’d stayed in bed and listened to her as she’d gone into the baby’s room, and minutes later he’d heard the closing of the front door. He could have stopped her at any moment, but he was curious. In all honesty he’d been amused by her pathetic move to leave him.

He’d followed her the almost sixty miles to Bitterroot and had watched her hand his baby over to another man. That, in and of itself, was an unforgivable betrayal.

She’d left Bitterroot and then driven back to Oklahoma City. He’d been tracking her for the past couple of hours, wondering what she was going to do, where she might go. If she’d gone anywhere near a police station, she would have never made it inside alive.

She had no friends and she had no money. Ash had seen to that during the last year that the two of them had been together. She belonged to him, just like the lucrative drug business he ran and just like the house where they lived, which was filled with fine and expensive items. Amy was his possession and Ash would decide when it was time to get rid of a possession.

He’d had her car taillights in his sights until about fifteen minutes ago, when she’d managed to give him the slip. He drove the dark streets slowly, his initial amusement long gone and rage rising with each moment that passed.

If he didn’t find her tonight, then he’d assign half a dozen of his men to hunt her down. Sooner or later she was going to run out of gas and out of options.

Sooner or later she’d probably come crawling back to him, begging him to forgive her for running away, sniveling to him for a fix that would make her well.

He’d hunt her down tonight and then tomorrow he’d go get his baby, the son who was his flesh, his blood, and who would one day take over Ash’s kingdom.

* * *

It was the longest night Tony had ever known and in his past he’d had many long nights. It wasn’t the company of Joey in his room that kept him from sleep, although certainly the tiny boy made his presence known several times.

The suitcase was filled with bottles and formula, disposable diapers and clothes. Twice in the night Tony had given Joey bottles and changed diapers, thankful that the baby had then seemed perfectly satisfied and had fallen back asleep.

Unfortunately sleep hadn’t come to Tony. He’d lain in bed with Joey between him and the wall and listened to the little boy breathe as thoughts had whirled in his head.

Was the boy really his? He supposed it was possible. He and Amy had certainly enjoyed an intense physical relationship, but she had assured him she was on birth control and he’d taken extra protection.

He didn’t even know how old the baby was, or if Amy had been seeing Tony exclusively at the time they’d been dating each other. When he’d broken things off with her, he’d certainly suspected there was somebody else in her life.

Why hadn’t she told him she was pregnant? If the little boy was his, then why hadn’t she come to him and told him? She knew where he lived. She knew where he worked. Where had she been for the last year and what had she been doing?

And what was Tony going to do until Amy returned? He wasn’t cut out for being a father. He didn’t know anything about babies other than they were hungry little pooping beasts. Hopefully, she intended to show up here before another night fell.

Those were only a few of the questions that kept him staring at the ceiling until dawn broke and Joey awakened. He gave him a bottle, changed his diaper and clothes and then placed him in his car seat to travel to the cowboy dining room, where Tony could grab some breakfast and figure out what in the heck he was going to do with Joey until Amy returned.

At least he’d managed to make it through the night and the baby didn’t seem any worse for it, he thought as he circled around the row of rooms to the large dining and rec room in the back of the building.

Sawyer was the first person who saw him walk in. The lanky cowboy’s brown eyes widened. “Jeez, Tony, I thought I had a beer-induced delusion last night, but it was real. You really have a kid.”

“I have possession of one, but I’m not sure he’s really mine,” Tony replied.

The other men in the dining room gathered around and once again Tony told everyone about Amy’s unexpected middle-of-the-night stork delivery.

“How are you going to work and take care of a baby?” Brody Booth asked.

“And what in the heck do you know about taking care of a baby?” Jerod Steen stared at Joey as if he was a species of animal the dark-haired, dark-eyed man had never seen before.

“What are you going to do if Amy never comes back?” Flint McCay asked.

All of the worries that had kept Tony up all night crashed into him again. What on earth was he going to do? “I don’t have answers to any of those questions. I’ve just got to have some time to figure things out.”

Mac McBride leaned down and grinned at Joey. “Aren’t you the cutest little buckaroo we’ve ever had in this dining room?” he said in the musical voice that, along with his guitar, often entertained the men in the evenings.

Little Joey, who had remained silent and somber until that moment, suddenly laughed. The infectious giggling filled up the entire room and all of the men stared at him in awe.

Tony steeled his heart. There was no way he was going to get attached to Joey. He refused to be moved by Joey’s smiles and antics. All he had to do was figure out exactly what he was going to do with the baby until Amy returned.

* * *

“Big changes coming,” Halena announced.

Mary Redwing turned around from the scrambled eggs she’d been preparing to eye her grandmother curiously. “And you know this how?”

“I dream-walked last night in my sleep.” Bright morning sunshine poured in through the windows to sparkle on Halena Redwing’s long, thick silver braids. She was clad in a pair of red-and-black polka-dotted sleep pants and a ruffled bright pink blouse.

“And where did you go?” Mary’s heart filled with love as she gazed at the woman who had raised her, a woman who at eighty-six years old now shared Mary’s home. Halena had always been eccentric but had grown even more so with each year that passed.