Lauren looked from one of them to another. “Rudy?” she asked with a trembling lip. A tear escaped her lid and trailed down her pale cheek.
“He’s not near as nice an invalid as you are,” Gloria said cheerfully. “He doesn’t sleep all the time like you. Instead, he whines and complains and tries to sneak out of bed.”
“He’s alive?” Lauren was confused. Had she dreamed the incidents in the cave? Her head ached abominably.
Jared answered her quietly, smoothing back tendrils of hair from her cheek. “Yes, he’s alive. It would take more than a wound in the shoulder to kill him.”
“But I saw him die.” She began crying in earnest as memory of all that had happened came flooding back.
Jared gathered her into his arms and shushed her. “It’s all right, now, Lauren. It’s all over. Don’t cry. We’re all safe. Shhhhh.”
She rested against his strong chest, letting his strength flow into her. Then a terrifying thought occurred to her. The baby! She pushed herself away from him and looked into his eyes. “My baby? Is it all right?”
Jared looked puzzled and then smiled a gentle, patient smile. “Darling, you’ve been delirious for days and had some very confused dreams. That must have been one of them.”
“No it wasn’t.” Gloria watched this tender scene with tear-blurred eyes. “Dr. Graham told me she was pregnant after he examined her. I… I thought you had enough to worry about, Jared, so I didn’t tell you. Lauren, your baby is fine.”
Jared stared at his sister-in-law stupidly before turning once again to Lauren. “You’re going to have a baby? A baby?” he asked incredulously. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Lauren’s lip began to quiver with emotion again and tears rolled down her cheeks as she remembered the last few weeks before that fateful night. Even now she could hear Jared’s harsh voice and see his cold face as he denounced her in front of Olivia and the Vandivers.
When he saw the hurt so blatantly apparent on her face, he had a hard time keeping tears out of his own eyes. He cupped her face between his hands and whispered, “Why, indeed?” He wiped away her tears with his thumbs and looked deeply into the gray pools so full of disillusionment. “Can you ever forgive me for the hell I’ve put you through? Can you, Lauren?” His voice cracked with distress. His plea was desperate. Gloria didn’t wait to hear any more. She crept out of the room and shut the door on the two who had so much to discuss.
* * *
Jared came out of the room about an hour later. He glanced over his shoulder at the bed one more time, assuring himself that Lauren was still there though he had just left her side. She was no longer in danger, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
He found Gloria in the bedroom with her husband, trying to keep him in bed one more day. Rudy’s shoulder was swathed in bandages, but it seemed to be mending properly. They looked up expectantly when Jared entered.
“She’s sleeping again, but peacefully,” he answered the question he read in their eyes. “God, but I’m tired.” He collapsed into the nearest chair and buried his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms.
“She’s been through a lot, Jared. We still don’t know what happened to her before we got there. She’s the only one who can tie up the loose ends, but we can’t press her on it. It will take time for her mental injuries to heal.” Rudy knew his brother had suffered since they had brought Lauren out of the cave.
* * *
Rudy had regained consciousness just in time to see Kurt Vandiver pitch forward after the rifle blast. Pandemonium broke loose. Jared leapt across the cave to Lauren’s side, bending over her and shouting her name with a strangled cry. Thorn came in as stoic as ever. As had been arranged, he was waiting just beyond the room in the tunnel leading to the outside. It was his idea that the brothers go in looking like identical reproductions of each other. His Indian blood put a lot of stock in the psychological breakdown of one’s enemy. Anything that would be unnerving to one’s opponent was considered a weapon. He was to wait outside and make sure Kurt died if anything happened to Rudy or Jared. He understood and didn’t question Jared’s need to seek his own vengeance.
Thorn had come into the cave and assessed the situation quickly. He bent over Rudy and gave him a perfunctory examination. Fortunately it was a superficial wound. He hid the fact that an inch lower and the bullet could have punctured his friend’s lung. Then he stood and walked to the bodies of Wat and June Duncan, giving them no more than a glance. As he knelt beside Crazy Jack and ascertained that the hermit was still alive, Thorn immediately began giving him first aid, because his wound was more serious than Rudy’s.
* * *
Jared sighed and closed his eyes as he began to speak. “I filled her in on what happened. About how we left the cave with her and me on Charger and Cr… Jack riding with Thorn. She didn’t think it was near as funny as I did that you fainted and nearly fell off your horse when we crossed the river.”
A grin split his tired features and Rudy scowled at him. “Yeah, well, just let me get well and we’ll see how funny you think it was.” Rudy knew his brother was only teasing him, and they looked at each other with mutual love.
“Lauren’s worried because Thorn didn’t take out the bullet in Jack’s chest,” Jared continued. “But I told her it was too deep, too close to vital organs.”
“I think he’ll be all right,” Gloria said. “Especially since Thorn’s taking care of the wound.”
“That’s what I told Lauren,” Jared said. “She’s glad we left him with Elena.” Elena had taken the old man under her wing as would a loving mother. With black eyes flashing and braids dancing as she tossed her head, she said, “He’ll never go back to live in that old cave. I promise that on my daughter’s grave!” Lauren had laughed when Jared told her about Elena’s pledge.
He didn’t tell her about the misery he had suffered. When they
had brought her battered body back to Keypoint, he had been beside himself.
Her torn clothing and the blood splattered on her torso and face could only hint at the horrors she had been through. She had shown no outward signs of injury, but kept vomiting even in her unconscious state. Dr. Graham was dispatched, but it wasn’t until noon that he finally arrived. He had diagnosed a concussion and showed them the lump on her scalp underneath her dark hair. He had also discovered that the lady was pregnant, but confided this information only to Gloria after taking one look at Jared’s haunted face. Besides, the news about his mother would also be devastating to this young man. He feared for Jared’s sanity.
But Jared surprised them all and received the news of his mother’s death with grim resignation. The shock of seeing Lauren near death so absorbed him that it cushioned all other blows.