Page 78 of Wyoming Bodyguard
His brother’s no-nonsense response loosened some of the knots in his stomach. “You really think so?”
“You’ll find out soon. Here comes Lily.”
All his nerves settled in the base of his throat and made it hard to breathe.
The door swung open, and Lily offered a tight smile. “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Not wanting there to be any doubt of his intentions, he linked his hand with Lily’s and walked into the room.
Mr. Tremont lay in his bed. The tubes were out of his throat, but an IV still pumped fluids into his veins. The top of the mattress was inclined to help elevate his torso. His wrinkles were more pronounced than before and his hair mussed, but there was no mistaking the spark of interest in his narrowed eyes.
“Good to see you awake, Mr. Tremont.” Madden nodded in greeting.
“Good to be awake.” The older man hacked out a cough then held out a finger toward the plastic cup of water on his side table.
Lily grabbed the cup and lifted the straw to her father’s lips.
He took a long sip then leaned back on his pillow with a sigh. “Thank you, sweetheart.” He shifted to stare at Madden. “My daughter’s filled me in on a few things. The most important being how you protected her. You saved her life. I’m grateful.”
The curt words were nicer than anything Mr. Tremont had ever said to him, but that’s not what he wanted. Madden wanted his blessing—or at least a commitment to not disapprove—of their relationship. “I’d give my life for her, sir. I love her with my whole heart.”
Mr. Tremont worked his jaw back and forth. A few seconds of excruciating silence lingered in the room. “I love her, too. She’s my world. I hate that my actions put her in danger. I got involved with some bad people to try and save my ranch. When I couldn’t pay them, I made more bad decisions that put both our lives in danger. I’ll never be able to express how sorry I am.”
Lily smoothed a palm over her dad’s arm. “We all make mistakes. What matters is you’re alive.”
“Madden, thank you for keeping Lily safe. She’s going to need you over the next weeks and months as I continue to pay for my crimes.”
“Dad, we don’t have to talk about that now,” Lily said, sniffing back tears. “Your only job is to focus on getting healthy.”
Mr. Tremont patted her hand. “I just want to get everything out in the open while I can. I need to make sure you’re taken care off when I’m not around.”
Madden slipped an arm around her waist and held Mr. Tremont’s stare. “Your daughter is strong. Stronger than me. She doesn’t need me to take care of her, but I’ll stand beside her as long as she’ll let me. I can promise you that.”
“Then I can rest easy.” He closed his eyes. “Lily, tell the deputies I’m ready to talk to them. It’s time.”
“I’ll be back later, Daddy.” Lily kissed his forehead then led the way back out to the hallway where she wiped tears from her cheeks. “Damn that man. I can’t believe he ever thought working with a drug dealer was the answer to saving the ranch. No wonder he never let me look at the finances or took any of my suggestions to bring in more revenue. He was busy peddling drugs around town.”
“If he was using the drug money to keep the ranch afloat, why did he steal cattle?” He hated making Lily retell the transgressions her father had just admitted to, but curiosity got the better of him.
“Daniel dipped into the profits and Jason Simon was hell-bent on making him pay. Dad got the idea to rustle cattle. He and Daniel worked together to steal from ranchers to make enough money to keep their debtors at bay, but when things got worse, Jason Simon decided to take matters into his own hands. He went after Dad before he could find a different way out of his mess. I guess Mr. Williamson connected the dots when things went south.”
Not knowing what to say, he pulled her into his arms and held her tight. “He has a big heart. He just didn’t make the best decisions.”
She melted against him. “And he’ll pay the price. But at least he’s alive. The rest, we’ll figure out as it comes.” She pulled back and stared at him with rounded eyes. “Did you mean what you said? About standing beside me? Even after finding out what my dad has done?”
“Are you kidding me? Love isn’t contingent on anything, especially the deeds of our fathers. And thank God for that or you and I would never stand a chance. Pop’s been crucified for years, and your dad did a stupid thing to save his ranch. They both had their reasons. But we aren’t our parents. We get to make our lives exactly what we want, and for my life, all I want is to be yours.”
She grinned through her tears. “And all I want is to be yours.”
Dax came around the corner and shook his head. “My God, could you two be any more adorable? Enough of this sappy crap, please. Can we head home? I’ve got stuff to do.”
“How is it possible I can’t remember a time you weren’t interrupting me and Lily?” Madden asked.
“Just lucky, I guess. Come on. Let’s go.” Dax didn’t wait for a response but started for the exit.
Lily giggled and tugged Madden’s hand to fall in step beside her. “Better catch our ride. I’ll get ahold of the sheriff’s department on the way back to the ranch. Let Dad rest for a little bit before he’s forced to go over everything again.”
