Scowling, he gazed around the room. “Come on, Katie. I need a fix. You know how it is. Just give me fifty bucks and we’ll call it even.”
“I don’t have fifty bucks,” she said. “And even if I did, I couldn’t give it to you. How do you think I’m going to support this baby?”
“Looks like you’re doing fine to me. From what I hear, you’ve got Sugar Daddy Mike taking care of you. That son of a bitch is richer than Midas.”
“Who told you Mike’s taking care of me?” she cried.
“Some woman named Mary pulled me aside at the Honky Tonk tonight. She’s not very happy with you, by the way. She doesn’t like that you’ve set your sights on her man.”
“I haven’t—” Katie caught herself before the denial could even pass her lips, and raised her hands in a helpless gesture. “You know what, Andy? I’ve got enough problems without you and Mary. I want you to leave.”
“Then give me fifty bucks. Or a couple of twenties, at least. Something to get me by.”
Katie covered her face and tried to take deep breaths. Her backache seemed to be getting worse. It was difficult to remain standing, but she didn’t want Andy to know she wasn’t feeling well, didn’t want him to have any more advantage over her. “I’m broke, Andy. I don’t have the money to give you. Now get out of here.”
“That’s a lie!” he shouted. “Look at you. Look at all this computer stuff. Computers aren’t cheap.”
Panic chilled Katie’s blood as Andy singled out her computer. Her future rested on that machine. Quickly inserting herself between him and the desk, she pointed at the door. “Go, before I call the cops.”
He shoved her aside. “I’m going, but that’s going with me.”
“No!” A pain stabbed through Katie’s abdomen as she moved, but she wasn’t about to let him take the one thing she depended on. She was just starting to recover from the past two years, just starting to glimpse the life she could build with her new job….
“Get out of my way!” he snapped, yanking the cord from the wall.
She grabbed him by the shirt. “I won’t let you do this!”
He easily shook her off. “This ought to be worth fifty bucks.”
When he headed out with her CPU, she hurried after him. But he kicked her desk chair aside, knocking it over and tripping her at the same time.
Katie twisted to protect the baby as she fell, but she went down hard. She felt her water break, soaking her pants and puddling on the floor as yet another pain gripped her stomach. This one was so strong she didn’t realize Andy was gone—until the pain eased and she became conscious of a cold rain blowing in from the open doorway.
Curling up, she fought sudden terror, along with a new stab of pain.
She waited for the pain to subside, but it didn’t, and she knew she had to move. If she didn’t do something, she was going to lose the baby. She was only thirty-two weeks, and two hours away from a neonatal unit.
Thunder cracked in the distance as she dragged herself over to the bed and tugged the phone to the floor. A moment later, a dial tone hummed in her ear, but she was panting for breath and wasn’t sure who to call. There wasn’t any ambulance service in Dundee. Mike, Rebecca and Josh were gone. She didn’t know the phone numbers for any of the cowboys staying in the other cabins. She didn’t even know them by more than first names. And her family was absolutely last on her list.
She’d call the police, she decided. They’d send a squad car. But she felt too vulnerable to have Orton arrive at her door. And deep down, there was only one person she wanted: Booker.
THE PHONE RANG, startling Booker. He jumped out of bed, thinking it might be Jon. He was eager to talk to him whether it was the middle of the night or not. But when he picked up, no one spoke.
“Who is it?” he said, his voice an impatient bark.
There was no reply. He almost hung up. But then he heard a weak, reedy voice call his name and apprehension rolled down his spine. It was Katie. Something was wrong.
“Booker?”
“What is it?” he said, his heart thumping.
“I need…help.”
He was pretty sure she was crying. “Where are you?”
“My cabin.”
“Where’s Mike? He’s much closer.”
“Gone.”
“Are you hurt? Is it the baby?”
“Will you come?” she gasped.
He was pulling on his jeans as they spoke. “I’m on my way.”
BOOKER’S HEART jackhammered against his chest as he tore through Dundee going over seventy. Without another soul around, there wasn’t much chance of causing an accident. And he didn’t give a damn if all three members of Dundee’s police force tried to pull him over en masse. They could chase him if they wanted to. He wasn’t stopping until he reached Katie.
The weather forced him to slow down when he started into the mountains on the other side of town. But he didn’t curse the wind or the rain; he knew he probably had the storm to thank for the fact that he heard no sirens behind him and would therefore have less trouble doing whatever needed to be done.
He arrived at High Hill Ranch in record time and came to a sudden halt in front of Katie’s cabin. The driveway had ended five hundred yards earlier, but he didn’t care about that, either.
Her door stood open. The sight of it made his throat constrict. What’d happened? Was she hurt? How badly?
Hopping out, he left his truck idling and ran inside. He didn’t see her at first, but there was an overturned chair on the floor. When he called her, she moaned, and he found her lying on the other side of the bed, rolled up in some blankets she’d managed to pull down. Her eyes were closed, and she was shivering violently.
“Katie?” Kneeling beside her, he smoothed the hair off her forehead. “It’s Booker.”
Her eyelashes lifted, and he read pain in her eyes. “The baby,” she said. “The baby’s coming.”
Booker took a deep breath and jammed a hand through his hair. He’d been afraid of this. He had to get her to a doctor.
“Let’s go.” Wrapping her in the blanket, he gathered her in his arms as gently as possible and carried her out to his truck.
The rain ran down his neck and beneath his jacket as he deposited her in the passenger seat. Chilled by the blustering wind and his fear of what was to come, he hurried to the other side and climbed in. “You’ll be fine,” he told her, trying to turn the truck around without jolting her too badly.