Читать книгу The Texan's Promise - Jolene Navarro - Страница 14

A gentle touch brought Quinn back to the arena. Thunder rumbled, sounding farther away than earlier.

Concern had Belle’s forehead creased. “Is everything okay?”

He lowered his voice so his girls wouldn’t hear. “There’s a fire at my house.”

Belle’s startled gasp caught everyone’s attention. She waved off their questioning glances. “It’s okay.” Her grip on his arm tightened. She leaned closer. “Do you need to go?” she asked in a hushed voice. “Everyone’s fine, right?”

He nodded. “My mother-in-law and son are with the sheriff. I don’t know anything other than that. I need to make sure they’re safe.” He glanced at his girls.

“They can still go with me. I’ll have Xavier follow us out, and I’ll call you as soon as we get there.” She held out her hand. “Give me your phone and I’ll put my number in your contacts. I won’t say anything to them. Is there anything else I can do?”

“Find me a place to live?” he half joked. His kids were homeless in the middle of a storm.

Sorry, Kari. His wife had been gone for almost five years now, but it seemed that every time he turned around, he was finding new ways to disappoint her. He jabbed his fists deep into his jacket pockets, fighting the need to rush out of here, but there was nothing he could do. He gritted his teeth. The girls needed to be in a safe place, too.

“That rental was hard enough to find.” He watched her fingers type her number into his phone. They were strong hands, capable. But gentle when she was soothing a scared horse or a terrified man.

“I might be able to help you with that. We have a few bunkhouses and cabins on the ranch. We’re on the Diamondback Ranch.”

His breath seized somewhere between his lungs and his throat. She couldn’t have said what he thought she said.

“We are a bit out of town, but as you’ve pointed out, there aren’t many options in Port Del Mar.”

Right. It would be ironic if he ended up living there. Should he tell her that was the reason he was in town? He hadn’t gathered all the facts yet, but the Diamondback Ranch had one of the longest privately owned beaches on the Texas side of the Gulf Coast. And it wasn’t developed yet. He was here to ensure it never would be.

Jazz joined them, cutting off anything he might say. “What’s going on?”

“There’s been an emergency at Quinn’s house. I’m taking the girls to the ranch.” Her gaze sought his. “Right?”

He nodded.

“What kind of emergency?” Jazz asked. “Is it medical? Should you go with him?”

He broke eye contact with Belle and looked at Jazz in confusion.

The petite woman pointed to Belle. “She’s one of our county’s backup EMTs and an official Red Cross volunteer. She’s not on call tonight, but she’s the perfect person to have on-site. Xavier and I can drive the girls and horses to the ranch.”

Belle’s hand tightened on his bicep again. The contact shouldn’t have comforted him. “Will that work? I can go with you.”

“Yeah. I need to be there. She says they’re fine, but—”

“I get it.”

Quinn pulled out his keys to unlock his Land Rover and was surprised to see his hands shaking. He had lost the stupid key fob a few months ago. He should have taken the time to replace it.

Belle had gone to get something out of her truck and was now talking to her girls. Raising her head, she made eye contact with him. The keys fell out of his grip. Picking them up, he tried unlocking his door again.

She hugged her daughters, then joined him. Her steady hand gently covered his trembling one. “I’ll drive. It’ll be safer.” Then she opened the driver’s door and climbed in behind the wheel.

“I can—”

“I know you can. But your focus is on your family right now. Mine would be, too. Let me focus on the road and get us there safely.”

He gave her his address, then rushed to the passenger side. As soon as he was in, she was moving. “EMT. Red Cross. Animal rescue. When you said you could take care of yourself, you were being modest. It seems you can take care of everyone.”

With a shrug, she kept her eyes on the wet roads. “Running a ranch and raising two girls alone in a small rural community kind of forces one to be self-sufficient. There’s always someone who needs help. It feels good to provide it.”

The wipers cut back and forth, but the rain was coming down so hard they couldn’t keep up. He wanted to ask her about the beach that ran along her ranch, but he wasn’t ready to explain why he was in town. Locals had been known to react badly when they found out he was trying to stop development. But he also didn’t want to get information without her knowing who he was. That wouldn’t be fair.

She cared so much for her community. Maybe she cared about the land, too.

He didn’t want this to turn into a small-town conflict.

“Maybe it’s not that bad, and you can stay in the house,” she said.

One could hope. “She said it was only in the back.”

Turning the steering wheel hand over hand, she drove down his street. Flashing lights from first-response vehicles lit the night. Smoke billowed over the neighborhood. The bright colors of the three-story coastal homes were muted in the stormy night.

She moved in behind a fire truck, but before she came to a complete stop, he was out of the SUV.

Everything inside him went still. As usual, his mother-in-law was the queen of understatement. It was not a small fire. Half of the house was gone. Nothing but a blackened shell stood where the girls’ rooms had been. The front of the house looked untouched. But even he could see it was a total loss. The support beams had to be compromised.

Gina and Jonah had been in there when the fire started. His muscles locked.

Firefighters and police were everywhere. He scanned the area for his mother-in-law. She had Jonah. He needed to see them. Hold them.

“Mr. Sinclair?” A tall officer in a tan cowboy hat approached. “I’m Sheriff Cantu. Your son and mother are over here.”

He didn’t bother to correct the man. Gina often introduced herself as his mother. They were in the sheriff’s SUV. Jonah was cocooned in a blanket, his cheek resting against his grandmother’s chest. Tears streaked his face.

Opening the door, he wrapped his son in his arms and pressed him close. Their hearts matched up. “Shhh. It’s okay. I’ve got you, little man.”

“Daddy, a big bang hit our house and woke me up. It’s on fire. Buck is inside.”

He laid his lips against the top of his son’s silky black hair. The faint smell of smoke replaced the usual clean scent of his apple shampoo. “We’ll get you a new Buck.” The floppy toy pony had been with Jonah since his birth.

Kari had bought it for him. Quinn closed his eyes tight against the grief. “You and Baba are safe. That’s all that matters.” The stoic expression was barely covering the distress in his mother-in-law’s face. “How are you, Baba?” He had fallen into the habit of calling her by the grandmother title.

The rain stopped hitting him. Glancing up, he saw a huge rainbow umbrella. Behind it was Belle. The blue and red lights flashed across her face.

The sheriff moved closer to her. “Hey, Belle. I thought Miguel was on Red Cross duty tonight.”

“He is. But the father and his two girls were with me at the arena. Please, let Miguel know I’ve got them covered. They’ll be at the ranch if anyone needs to talk to them.”

“Sure thing. We almost lost the whole street, but the rain helped control the fire.” He nodded to Quinn. “Sorry about your loss.” Then he moved toward the fire truck.

Belle leaned into the SUV and held her free hand out to Gina. “Hello, I’m Izabella De La Rosa. I’m with the Red Cross, and I have a warm, dry place for y’all to stay tonight.”

Gina took the offered hand. “Thank you. I’m Gina Yamazaki.” She looked at Quinn. “The girls?”

“They’re with Belle’s daughters. We’ll be following them,” he reassured her.

“We should go now. They won’t let you close to the house tonight. My kids are about the same size as yours, so we’ll have everything you need. My brother and cousins keep a change of clothes at the ranch.” Carefully holding the huge umbrella over them, she guided them to his Land Rover. The rain soaked her clothing. He wanted to hand Jonah to Gina and make sure Belle was under cover, too, but he doubted she would appreciate his offer.

As they made their way back to his car, he kept his gaze away from the house they had moved into less than a month ago. His goal was to get to know the people of the community and the land. Right now, he wanted his family in one safe place where he could see them and hold them.

With everyone secured, they drove out of town.

“I smell like smoke,” Gina said from the back, next to a now sleeping Jonah. Turning in his seat, Quinn reached over and placed a hand on her knee. Order and control were her happy places. She twisted her wedding ring as she stared out the window.

Belle made brief eye contact. “It’s been a trying night. Once you get settled in the cabin, you can take a nice, warm shower. Jazz is more your size, Gina. She has some extra clothes at the ranch that will fit you. The cabins are one room with a loft. There’s a double in the room with two bunk beds upstairs, and the sofa folds out into a bed. There’s only one bathroom, but it’s big. We’ll get the kitchen stocked for you. You’ll be able to stay as long as you need.”

“How much longer until we’re there?”

“We’re about twenty minutes out of town. Another fifteen, and we’ll be there. It’s the Diamondback Ranch.”

Her eyes went big. “Diamondback? Is that the—”

“It’s your family’s ranch?” He didn’t want Gina to say too much yet. Not until he could figure out what direction they were going to go. There was a lot of shoreline to explore, and her ranch was a part of it. How much of a part?

She took some time answering. He wasn’t sure if it was the weather she was driving through or the question.

“Yes. Frank De La Rosa ran it for the last twenty-five years, but he passed away recently. It’s complicated. He was my uncle—my mother’s brother—but raised my brother and me along with his kids. If you had any dealings with him, I’ll apologize so we can move on.”

Quinn studied the woman driving. This was not going to go well. “We did know of Frank. I had spoken with him on the phone several times.” He had not been a pleasant man and had been putting roadblocks up.

Belle kept her focus on the road. The rain and winds had settled a bit, but it was still rough going. Why would he have had business with her uncle? Did they owe him money, and he was here to collect? Or was it worse? With her uncle, there was no telling.

Her stomach roiled. Everything was still unsettled with the ranch. They were at risk of losing it.

With her uncle’s death and her mother and cousin missing, the estate was a mess. Her mother owned part of it, but they hadn’t been able to find her. It had been over twenty years since she’d abandoned Belle and Elijah, and there’d been little contact since. For all they knew, the woman was dead.

Don’t borrow trouble where there is none. She took a deep breath to settle the nausea before it got out of control.

“Jazz said you’d been in town for almost a month. What brings you to Port Del Mar?” What she really wanted to know was the reason he had spoken with Frank.

“Business. I work in Houston with agencies that deal with marine conservation. Port Del Mar is small, but it’s a rich environment for many of our endangered species and fragile communities.”

Okay, that didn’t sound like it had anything bad to do with her uncle.

“So how long will you be staying?” She glanced at his son. “Cassie and Lucy didn’t say anything about seeing your kids in school. It’s a very small school, but we’re able to attract top-notch educators due to our lifestyle. People love the opportunity to live on the coast.”

“Each assignment is different. This one looks to be six months or so. Due to my work, it’s easier to homeschool.”

“Oh. There’s also a very active homeschool group. You probably already know that.”

“Yeah. They’ve been very welcoming.” He turned and checked on his son and mother-in-law again. He reached out and touched the older woman’s hand. She gripped it, but neither said a word.

The fact that he was so close to his mother-in-law said a lot about the man. It had to be death and not divorce that had separated him from his wife.

Thunder rattled the night, and Belle fixed her gaze on the road ahead. At least he wasn’t here because of some dark deal with her uncle. The last thing she needed right now was more complications with the ranch. She was barely hanging on as it was.

Quickly lifting a prayer of thanksgiving, she stopped the negative thoughts before they became a spiral of doom. There was so much to be grateful for. Her girls were healthy and happy. Their father wouldn’t be a threat any longer. He had built a life in another state.

More important, Xavier was home and Elijah was sober and reunited with his wife and daughter. The people she loved were safe and close in her orbit.

“You’ll be able to stay in the cabin as long as you need. It’s not as big as the house you rented, but long-term rentals are impossible to find. If it won’t work for you, there are more options across the bridge. It’s not that far of a drive.”

“I like to stay in the community where I’m doing the work. Plus, we’re water people. The closer to the water we are, the happier we are. Most of my childhood summers were spent in South Padre. Plus, my kids are used to being close to the ocean.”

Gina leaned forward. “My husband started the Yamazaki Marine Foundation in Houston. Then my daughter took over when we lost him. Now Quinn runs it. The ocean has always been a family mission.”

Lightning danced across the sky, but it was in the distance now. The rumbling of the thunder subdued as she turned into the ranch. A trumpet blared into the car, and Quinn pulled his phone out of his pocket.

“That’ll get your attention,” she laughed, after her racing heart settled.

“It’s the girls.” He lifted the phone to his ear. “Everything okay?”

He waited a bit. “Yes, we’re staying on the ranch. Baba and Jonah are fine, but there was a fire at the house. It’s going to be okay. We’re at the ranch entryway. I’ll explain everything when we get there. It should be soon.”

“Less than five minutes,” Belle told him.

He smiled and nodded at her. “Okay. Yes. Baba and Jonah are fine. I’ll let her know. I love you more. See you in a minute.” With a heavy sigh, he lowered the phone. “Mr. De La Rosa said to meet him at Cabin Two.”

She frowned. “Mr. De La Rosa?” He knew her uncle was dead. “Oh, Xavier?” She laughed. “I’ve never heard him referred to as ‘Mr.’”

“He owns the ranch now, right?”

“His father was Frank, so he and Damian have more rights to the ranch than I do. My grandfather gave seventy-five percent to his son and twenty-five percent to his daughter, my mother.” She tightened her lips. Why was she offering him information?

“But you run it?”

From the corner of her eye, she saw the intensity of his eyes as he studied her. “I manage the ranch. The daily running. We’re trying to locate my mother so that we can...” She wanted to slam her head against the steering wheel. She didn’t talk family business with anyone. If she did, she’d have to explain why they were trying to get their mother taken off all family holdings. She didn’t want to say that she couldn’t trust the woman who gave birth to her. It was humiliating. “And Gabby. She’s Frank’s youngest. She was sent to live with a great-aunt after her mother, Frank’s wife, died. We’ve lost touch with her.”

He didn’t need to know that her brothers had sent her away at the age of nine to protect her from her own father.

She had worked hard to change the reputation of the De La Rosa family. Her daughters, niece and nephews were not going to grow up as laughingstock of the county like her and the boys.

She was proud of all her brother and cousins had overcome, and she was going to make sure the ranch stayed in the family and flourished.

That was a full-time job. The last time she’d allowed good looks and a charming smile to distract her with dreams of another life, it hadn’t ended well. Her hand lightly touched the mark along the side of her temple.

Unfortunately, she had the scars to prove it.

Just because he was nice to his mother-in-law and obviously loved his kids didn’t change the fact that she wasn’t interested. She wasn’t.