One Night with a Red-Hot Rancher: Tough to Tame / Carrying the Rancher's Heir / One Dance with the Cowboy

“Well, no, he didn’t. Odd, isn’t it?”

“They sent him to Africa to do a story,” Keely added. “What sort of story? A news story?”

Cappie blinked. “You know, I never asked him. I only knew he was leaving the country. Then I got a call from him, saying he was in the hospital with some injuries and he’d be home when he could get here. He wouldn’t even let me visit him. An ambulance brought him to our rented house in San Antonio.”

Keely didn’t say what she was thinking. But she almost had to bite her tongue.

Cappie stared at her. “That’s a very strange story, even if I’m the one telling it,” she said slowly.

“Maybe it’s the truth,” Keely said comfortingly. “After all, it’s very often stranger than fiction.”

“I guess so.” She let it drop. But she did intend to talk it over with Kell that night.

When she got home, there was a big SUV parked in the driveway. She frowned at it as she went up the steps and into the house. The door was unlocked.

She heard laughter coming from Kell’s room.

“I’m home!” she called.

“Come on in here,” Kell called back. “I’ve got company.”

She took off her coat and moved into the bedroom. Kell’s visitor was very tall and lean, with faint silvering at the temples of his black hair. He had green eyes and a somber face, and one of his hands seemed to be burned. He moved it unobtrusively into his pocket when he saw her eyes drawn to it.

“This is an old friend of mine,” Kell said. “My sister, Cappie. This is Cy Parks. He owns a ranch in Jacobsville.”

Cappie held out her hand, smiling, and shook the one offered. “Nice to meet you.”

“Same here. You’ll have to bring Kell over to the ranch to see us,” he added. “I have a terrific wife and two little boys. I’d love for you to meet them.”

“You, with a wife and kids,” Kell said, shaking his head. “I’d never have imagined it in my wildest dreams.”

“Oh, it comes to all of us, sooner or later,” Cy replied lazily. He pursed his lips. “So you work for Bentley Rydel, do you?”

She nodded.

“Does he really carry a pitchfork, or is that just malicious gossip?” Cy added, tongue in cheek.

She flushed. “Kell…!” she muttered at her brother.

He held up both hands and laughed. “I didn’t tell him what you said. Honest.”

“He didn’t,” Cy agreed. “Actually Bentley makes a lot of calls at my place during calving season. He’s our vet. Good man.”

“Yes, he is,” Cappie said. “He brought me home after a drunk ran into my car.”

Cy’s expression darkened. “I heard about that. Tough break.”

“Well, the man’s insurance company is going to fix our car,” Cappie added with a laugh. “It seems they were worried that we might sue.”

“We would have,” Kell said, and he wasn’t smiling. “You could have been killed.”

“I just got bruised a little,” she said, smiling. “Nice of you to worry, though.”

Kell grinned. “It’s a hobby of mine.”

“You need to get out more,” Cy told the man in the bed. “I know you’ve got pain issues, but staying cooped up in here is just going to make things worse. Believe me, I know.”

Kell’s eyes darkened. “I guess you’re right. But I do have something to do. I’m working on a novel. One about Africa.”

Cy Parks’s face grew hard. “That place has made its mark on several of us,” he said enigmatically.

“It’s still making marks on other men,” Kell said.

“The Latin American drug cartels are moving in there as well,” Cy replied. “Hell of a thing, as if Africa didn’t have enough internal problems as it is.”

“As long as power-hungry tyrants can amass fortunes by oppressing other men, it won’t lower the casualty rates for any combatants working there,” Kell muttered.

“Combatants?” Cappie asked curiously.

“Two groups of people are fighting for supremacy,” Kell told her.

“One good, one evil,” she guessed.

“No. As far as African internal politics go, both sides have positive arguments. The outsiders are the ones causing the big problems. Their type of diplomacy is most often practiced with rapid-firing automatic weapons and various incendiary devices.”

“And IEDs,” Cy added.

Cappie blinked. “Excuse me?”

“Improvised explosive devices,” Kell translated.

“Were you in the military, too, Mr. Parks?” Cappie asked.

Cy hesitated. “Sort of. Look at the time,” he remarked, glancing at his watch. “Lisa wants me to go with her to pick out a new playpen for our youngest son,” he added with a grin. “Our toddler more or less trashed the first one.”

“Strong kid,” Kell noted.

“Yes. Bullheaded, too.”

“I wonder where he gets that from,” Kell wondered aloud, with twinkling eyes.

“I am not bullheaded,” Cy said complacently. “I simply have a resistance to stupid ideas.”

“Same difference.”

Cy made a face. “I’ll come back and check on you later in the week. If you need anything…”

Kell smiled. “Thanks, Cy.”