Page 42 of The Soldier and the Cowboy

“Don’t look in that box,” she finally said.

He froze and turned his head to look at the box. Realization began to dawn on him, and he struggled to get up, to return to the box. Bailey tried to hold him down.

“Cal, look at me. Don’t. Don’t look in that box. We’ll call Sully. Please, please, please…” He was too strong for her. She fought him, but he shook her easily aside and, with a shaking hand, peeled open the top of the box and peered inside. And then he screamed, a primal, horrible scream ripped from somewhere deep. Bailey put her hands over her ears, blocking the sound, but it was too late. She could never unhear it, just as he could never unsee what he had seen in the box.

He stumbled a few feet away to a rose bush and heaved a few times, then stumbled a few more steps and sank to his knees. Bailey sprang up, knelt beside him, and tried to gather him to her, but in his shock he pushed her away and tried to get back to the box.

“No,” she said, shaking him by his shoulders. When that failed to work, she slapped him across the face, hard. He jumped and stared at her. “Do not look at it again,” she commanded, her fingers digging into his shoulders.

He nodded dumbly and sat staring blankly at the horizon. Meanwhile Bailey reached for his phone and dialed Sully.

“I need you immediately. Take the plane.” She hung up without explanation and called Jinx.

“I need you at the house. Now.”

She could hear Jinx’s boots scrambling on gravel as he sprinted from the barn, no easy task for a man of his age, but he made it in record time.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked, taking in the scene before him, Cal sitting on the ground like a zombie, Bailey attempting to hold him like a child, a large box blocking the path. Like a beacon, the box drew him, but Bailey stood.

“No,” she yelled with so much force he stopped short. “Come here. Do not look in the box.”

He gave the box a wide berth, sidestepping it as he made his way to them. He knelt beside Cal. He had known him since birth and never seen him this way. He rested his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “What’s wrong with him? Is he snakebit?”

“He’s had a bad shock.” Her glance fell to the box and quickly away. “Help me get him inside.”

They levered Cal to his feet, no easy task as he was much taller than both of them. With effort, they half carried him down the hall to his room and laid him in his bed. He seemedto rally slightly and clutched at Bailey’s hands as if terrified she was going to leave.

“I’m right here,” she soothed. “You’re all right, Jinx and I are here. We won’t leave you.” She sat by him in the large bed, smoothing her hand over his sweaty hair. His face was clammy, colorless. She wondered if he would need medical attention for his shock, but Sully would help her decide when he arrived.

“Bailey what’s in the box?” Jinx whispered.

Bailey didn’t want to say, didn’t want to risk setting Cal off again. A pad of paper and pen rested beside the bed. She reached for it and wrote one word.

Isabel.

“Oh, mercy,” Jinx said. His knees buckled and he groped for the wall behind him. She watched him to make sure he wouldn’t faint or have a heart attack. With effort, he took a few deep breaths and seemed to pull himself together, at least a bit. “I should go keep watch until Sully arrives,” he said at last, quietly.

She nodded and returned her attention to Cal, still gently smoothing her hand over his head. She peered closer at his pupils. They were large and he was still somewhere far away, not yet able to return to himself and be present.

Sully’s plane arrived a little while later. She heard his loud exclamation from the lawn, and then he was beside them, almost as shaken and pale as Cal had been.

“How’s…?” he began, but his voice broke and he couldn’t get any further.

“I kind of wonder if he needs to go to the ER.” She turned her attention back to Cal. He wouldn’t want to, she knew. He would hate to be in public now, to have everyone looking at him, talking about him, pitying him. Tears came to her eyes. She mashed her face to her elbow, pushing them back andthatwas what finally brought Cal around.

“Bailey,” he croaked, his hand smoothing along hers.

She sniffled and pressed her palm to his cheek. “Do you want to go to the hospital?”

He shook his head almost violently.

“Will you take a sedative?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Jinx,” she called because she could hear him in the living room.

“I heard,” he replied. His mother had been sick for a while and had every conceivable medicine at her disposal. It was illegal and possibly unethical to use her medicine for everyone and everything else, but that was essentially what happened after she passed. Her personal pharmacy had turned into a dispensary for anything and everything on the ranch.

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