His dad laughed, and he shook his head in the dim dashboard light. "You really are stupid. We can't come from the same gene pool. How the h.e.l.l do Mexicans cross the border? It can work both ways."

Mexicans? Border? Were they going to Mexico? His mom would never have let his dad take him that far away. Or would she? Now that she and Zack were together, maybe she didn't want him around anymore. Did Zack not want him around and talked his mom into his dad taking him?

The memory of the day at the CW with Zack and Mandy came to mind.

His heart raced when Zack helped him up into the saddle for the first time and gave him the reins. "Hold on to these. Not too tight, and don't yank on them. The bit will hurt the mouth of the horse and will confuse him. He'll follow me as we walk around the corral. We'll start out slow to get you used to the feel of the horse moving under you. Okay?"

Bobby nodded, and they were off. He was riding a horse! After a few times around the fence, Zack showed him how to use the slight movements of the reins to steer the old dappled gray gelding, Gra.s.shopper.

"Don't kick him either. That will make him run," Mandy warned from her perch on top of the white rail fence.

"I want him to go faster." Bobby laughed from the saddle.

He expected Zack to tell him no, but instead, he said, "Okay. Touch his sides with your heels. Not hard, just a soft touch. He'll respond."

Bobby touched the horse's sides, and Gra.s.shopper went from an easy walk to a jog. Zack kept up with the horse, but Bobby didn't need his help. With a whoop, Bobby hung on to both the reins and the saddle horn. He leaned forward and kept his head down like he'd seen the cowboys on Oak Springs Ranch do.

The warm breeze felt good on his face, and he'd never been freer than he was that morning while in the saddle.

"I want to run!"

Jogging beside Gra.s.shopper, Zack caught hold of the horse's rein, looped at his neck, and the horse stopped. "You have to learn a lot more and be more secure in the saddle before that can happen. Besides, Gra.s.shopper is too old for doing much more than a fast trot."

"Okay. I don't want to hurt him."

"But we could take him for a short ride in the pasture. He'd like that."

Bobby nodded and smiled. Zack saddled his big Palomino, Wild Aces, and helped Mandy with her sorrel mare, Holly. They mounted up, then headed out into the pasture behind the big barn.

Zack told him all sorts of things about horses and answered his questions about rodeo, including how he'd gotten Wild Aces.

"I got him my last year of rodeoing. While I was away with the Marines, he stayed at my in-laws' ranch in Wyoming."

"He's really old," Mandy chimed in.

"Not really. Not as old as Gra.s.shopper. He'll be thirty-two on his next birthday."

"Wow!" Bobby looked down at the gray mane. He held the reins, which lay on the edge of his saddle on either side of the saddle horn.

"I remember old Jock Blackwell had a horse that was about thirty-five before it died. It was an old rodeo horse."

"My great-uncle Jock rode in the rodeo before he took over the oil business with my great-granddad Jason Ferguson."

Zack smiled over at him. "Yep, and your great-grandfather Ferguson was a champion cutting horse rider, and your real great-grandma trained his horses. That's how they met."

"Really? I didn't know that. I always thought he was just an oilman."

"Before he took over the Ferguson's share of the oil business with your uncle Jock, he was a cowboy. My dad says he never knew a better horseman than Jason Ferguson. Your mom is a good rider, too. It's in your blood." He nodded toward Gra.s.shopper. "You're good on him. You aren't afraid at all."

"No." Bobby looked out over the waving gra.s.s and the big, red, wrinkly cows grazing in the pasture. "But Dad said horses are dangerous. That's why he hates them and never wanted me to learn to ride."

Zack took a breath so deep that Bobby heard when he let it out, over the distance separating their horses. "Your dad just never understood horses. They sense fear and distrust and he had both. I thought his feelings for them got better, but it never happened. Then" Zack paused and Bobby looked over at him.

"What?"

Zack met his gaze. "He got hurt and blamed me for it. I should've known he still disliked horses. But he insisted on riding one of the more spirited horses instead of his usual mount, Gra.s.shopper."

Bobby looked down at the horse's neck again. Gra.s.shopper was gentle and had let Bobby pet him for a long time before Zack had shown Bobby how to saddle him. The horse had stood still and never even moved his tail when Zack helped Bobby mount onto his back. How could anyone not like the old dapple gray?

They'd ridden for a long time through the pasture. He'd been to ranches all his life, but he'd never been able to go back into the depths of the open land. Cattle and horses ate the gra.s.s, but there were also rabbits, squirrels, prairie dogs, and a small herd of deer eating not far from a bunch of trees.

But, it was the sense of belonging that struck Bobby. Zack told him about the land. About the history of the Cartwrights, which included Bobby's own familiesthe Blackwells and the Fergusons. Zack made him feel at home when they got back to the house. He'd made them ham sandwiches and baked beans, and let Bobby and Mandy help make the potato salad they'd eaten for supper. Afterward, they played Monopoly out on the deck until Mom came over after she closed her shop and she joined the game. He'd never had so much fun.

But never once did Zack make him feel unwelcome.

So why would Zack and his mom suddenly decide they didn't want him?

"f.u.c.k. There's a cop behind us." Dad's sharp words startled him.

Brent turned and looked out the back of the truck, and Bobby quickly closed his eyes. Maybe it would be better if he pretended to be a sleep.

"Do you think they're checking the license plate?"

"Probably. Austin is up ahead. I'll get off the beltway and go through the city, then get back on I-35. Hopefully, that'll throw 'em off the trail."

"Maybe we should get off the interstate and take the back roads."

Bobby opened his eyes enough to see his dad glance at Brent and reach over to whack him on the side of the head with the back of his fingers.

"Ouch." Brent rubbed the place Dad had hit him.

Dad snorted. "I think you do have a brain rattling around up there after all, because that's actually a d.a.m.ned good idea."

"Then why the f.u.c.k did you hit me?"

"Because I don't want you to forget who's in charge here."

They were quiet for a while. Bobby stared out the window at Austin's city lights speeding by as the truck turned off the interstate and onto a main street, then headed down side streets, weaving through the city. He'd only been to the Texas state capitol once, last year for a school field trip.

He closed his eyes to go back to sleep as the radio filled the quiet darkness with a constant stream of old country music. A lady was singing about standing by her man when a buzzing broke into the song.

After a few beeps, an announcer guy said, "This is an Amber Alert for missing eleven-year-old boy, Robert Allan Parker, who goes by Bobby. Last seen at a friend's home late Friday night in Colton, Texas. Suspected abductors are the boy's father, thirty-three-year-old Jacob Parker and twenty-eight-year-old Brent Parker, both of Colton. Driving a late model tan Chevrolet Silverado..." The announcer went on with giving the license plate number and what Bobby, his dad, and Brent looked like. "The abductors are to be considered armed and dangerous." Bobby sat up, forgetting he was pretending to be asleep, and stared at the colored lights of the dash. Dad and Uncle Brent were dangerous? "They are the main suspects in a rash of cattle and horse thefts" The announcement suddenly died as his dad turned off the radio, and Bobby stared at his father.

"f.u.c.k! That's what that cop was checking out. Cartwright figured out the license plate switch." Dad slapped the steering wheel. "d.a.m.n you, Brent. He got the info from when he stopped you for speeding."

"But how did he find the number for the truck in your garage? That's the number the alert gave."

"That's my point! You really are an idiot. He called that old biddy great-aunt of his and got the information. It's Ethel Cartwright's truck. We'll hookup with a back road to get to US-90 east of San Antonio. They won't be expecting that."

"Dad?" His mother and Zack hadn't told Dad to take him. He stole him. "What's goin' on? Did you steal Uncle Dylan's cows and Zack's horses?"

Dad looked back at him with a dark scowl. "Shut the h.e.l.l up and stay down!"

Bobby leaned back in the seat again and drew up his legs to wrap his arms around his knees. He wasn't supposed to cry, Dad would be mad if he did, but he couldn't keep the tears from slipping down his cheeksor one recurring thought from his mind.

Mommy, I'm scared.

Chapter 18.

"Come on. Let me get you home."

Tracy looked from her clasped hands to Zack as he got into his Tahoe. She'd sat in the pa.s.senger seat for the past hour stiff as a rail and with tears in her eyes while he'd searched Jake's house and garage after the warrant came through. He'd hated leaving her there alone, but he had no choice. If that b.a.s.t.a.r.d had Bobby, he had to find Jake before he took the boy out of the country.

He'd been about to leave when he noticed the license plates on the old Ford Ranger sitting in the garage. Something wasn't right. The plates were too new to belong on the twenty-year-old vehicle. On a hunch, he ran the tagsthey belonged to a Chevy Silverado registered to Brent Parker, with a traffic citation for speeding still pending.

Jake had switched the plates. Finding the number for the Ranger was easy enough. He'd simply check the registration in the glove box. The truck belonged to his great-aunt Ethel.

Before he turned the key in the ignition, he reached over and stroked at the stream of tears running down her cheek. A blade twisted in his gut when he thought about how he'd feel if someone ever took Mandy from him. "Baby, we'll get him back. The Amber Alert has sounded and every cop in Texasin the whole countrywill be looking for him. I know Jake won't hurt his own boy."

He hoped she believed his last statement more than he did.

She sniffed and wiped her nose on a soggy tissue. "I'm scared. If I lose Bobby, it'll mean I've lost everything. He's the only good thing ever to come out of the charade that was mine and Jake's marriage."

He glanced at her as he pulled away from the curb in front of Jake's trailer. What did she mean by charade? He remembered the evening at the bar when Jake approached and manipulated the situation until he believed the lie.

He got hurt and blamed me for it. Zack's words to Bobby while they'd gone riding whispered through his mind. After that summer, his and Jake's friendship was strained at best. They continued to do things together, but when Zack and Tracy started dating, he and Jake did less and less together. Then the week before the rodeo in Houston, Jake started coming around again. He wanted to know how serious Zack was about Tracy.

"I'm gonna ask her to marry me," he told Jake one day as Zack worked in the barn. "I'm hoping to win the money so I can afford the ring I picked out."

"I thought Tracy was goin' to college."

"She is, and I'm going to ride rodeo for a little while. Go professional. But that doesn't mean we can't be married or engaged while she goes to school. Maybe even get a place together. Our parents won't be thrilled, but, hey, it's our life."

Jake smiled and shrugged. "I guess. She means that much to you?"

Zack stopped mucking the stall and leaned on the pitchfork. "More than you'd ever know."

A couple of days later, he left for the rodeo, and when he came home, two weeks later, he'd found Jake and Tracy going at it like two dogs in heat in her barn. He shoved the pain the memory brought to the recesses of his mind as another floated in from the first Pee Wee football game he and Tracy had watched together.

"Jake saw you as having it all. He's only ever taken care of number one. Trust me, I know."

Her abject gaze met his, and in it, he realized a horrible truth.

"Jake manipulated you into thinking II didn't love you. How?" he choked out.

Tracy couldn't hide her surprise. "Yes," she whispered, her voice so hoa.r.s.e he almost couldn't hear it. "Hehe told me you were cheating on me with Dawn Madison and that..." Her voice broke and she sniffed. "That he loved me and would never hurt me."

He let out the breath he'd been holding and turned the key.

They were nearly at the town limits when he asked, "How could you believe him?"

She sniffed again, and he glanced at her. "He swept me off my feet at first. I won't lie to you, I liked Jakenot romanticallybut as a friend. I guess I wanted to get back at you. I loved youI still do... How could you really be interested in someone like me?"

Tracy's voice cracked on the last word, breaking Zack's heart.

She wiped her nose on the tissue again. "I don't understand it any better now than I did back then. Dawn is beautiful. I believed Jake's lies that you were only playing with me."

He gripped the steering wheel so tightly his hands ached. He pulled to the edge of the street and closed his eyes. Bitter hatred burned through him, but he pushed back the urge to vent his rage. Tracy didn't need his anger; she needed his love and support.

He unclamped his jaw. "You don't have any idea just how beautiful you are, do you?" Wishing the console wasn't in the way, he twisted toward her. He released his hold on the wheel to caress her face. With only the greenish glow of the dash illuminating the interior of the SUV, her face was in shadow, but he couldn't miss her eyes widen with surprise and pain that went much deeper than her son being kidnapped. His voice husky, he said, "I love you, Tracy. I think I fell in love with you the very first day you sat beside me in homeroom in sixth grade."

"I was cross-eyed and bucktoothed. All k.n.o.bby legs and spaghetti arms. You mocked me with the nickname Olive Oyl."

He winced and lowered his chin to his chest, regretting one of the stupidest things he'd ever said. He remembered Logan's tirade the morning they fixed fences together and felt as disgusting as a fresh pile of cow s.h.i.t.

His thumb continued to caress her soft cheek. When he met her solemn eyes, he saw into her soul, and what he saw twisted his gut. How could he have hurt her so badly? How could he have missed it?

"Oh, G.o.d, Tracy, I'm sorry." He swallowed and fought the sudden burn in his sinuses. "I didn't fall in love with your looks. Not at first. I fell in love with your kindnessyour heart and soul. No matter who made fun of you, you never held any ill will against themincluding me." His voice broke and he had to swallow again.

He'd been lucky enough to be loved by two fantastic women, and he'd destroyed them both. Lisa's death might be laid at his feet come Judgment Day, but long before her, he'd helped destroy Tracy's fragile self-esteem. How could he blame her for jumping at Jake's golden words? Lord knew he'd never offered them.

"Remember in seventh grade when I forgot my history book and we were having a big test the next day?"

She jerked her head in a shaky nod.

"I called Jake first, but he didn't have his either. He could've cared less about school, but I knew Mom and Dad wouldn't let me ride rodeo if I let my grades slip. So out of desperation, I called you. I never expected you to have your granddad drive you all the way over from Oak Springs to my parents' house. But you did, even though only days before I had you in tears by calling you that stupid name." He sniffed back the shame and the ache in his heart at the pain his cruelty had caused her.

He shifted more in the seat, cupping the side of her face in his hand. "I hated World History, but you made it come alive when you started telling me about all the places you visited while your father was stationed in Germany. Rome, Greece, England, France. Places I'd never seen. You helped me, not only pa.s.s that test, but I learned to like history by seeing things through your eyes."

Her eyes grew wide and her mouth slightly opened.

He laughed, but it came out more like a croak. "You're a better person than I'll ever be. If it had been me, I would've told myself to go jump off a bridge and would've laughed when I failed the test. Instead, you helped me. You became my friend."

"Zack..."

He leaned over the console and brushed his lips over hers. Above them, he whispered, "Even Popeye thinks Olive Oyl is beautiful, and I hope you give me a chance to show you just how beautiful you are to meinside and out."

"You forgive me?" The words were as shaky as a blade of gra.s.s in a twister.

"Yeah. I do." He slid his hand along her nape. They leaned in at the same time, and he kissed her. She wrapped her arms round his neck as he wrapped her up. He cursed the console between them and Jake Parker for a mult.i.tude of sins, least of them being kidnapping her son.

When the gentle kiss ended, she pulled away, biting her lower lip. Her eyes locked on his. "I love you, Zack. I never stopped loving you. I would never have married Jake, if I hadn't..."