Page 6 of Legacy of Danger
"What do you mean?" Vaughn asked.
"He isn't doing well, okay? That's all you deserve to know right about now."
He opened his mouth again, but Garrison cut him off with a slice of his hand through the air. "Later. We'll catch up once I make sure that Shelby and Eric are okay."
Because someone had to take care of themwent unsaid.Because my oldest brother fell down on his job.
Vaughn clamped his mouth shut. "Got it." He strode through the hospital doors. It was a still night, cold and harsh.
Colder, now that he was away from his sister and brother.
The separation shouldn't have been palpable, but their connection as Taggarts, as family, as individuals who shared a strange secret, all pulled at Vaughn like a tightening rubber band, painful and stretched to its limit.
When would it break?
* * *
The dirt road to the main buildings of the family ranch took far too long to travel, and the distance was more than he could measure in miles.
Early dawn glowed on the cloudless, cold horizon. The weather had cleared out, leaving a biting chill. Sparse snow failed to soften the wild rangeland Vaughn had called home for his entire life.
Until last year.
Until the biggest mistake he'd made in his life.
Unless you counted returning home, which might turn out to be an even bigger mistake.
His heart thundered in his chest. What had Garrison meant about Dad not doing well? Shelby hadn't mentioned anything in her tense, whispered message.
His gut churned. That might have been the last time anyone heard his sister's voice.
Christ.
As Vaughn guided the loaner car over a rise in the bumpy road, the wan light gave the ranch buildings a grim, flat appearance, like quiet ghosts rising out of the wild Wyoming land.
He blinked and rubbed his eyes.
The big barn was missing. In its place stood a skeleton of new lumber.
Off to the other side of the big ranch house and out buildings, cattle lowed in a small field. Wasn't it too early to bring them close to the house? There was still forage available on the grazing land. Too early for calving. What was going on?
Where were the three yapping dogs that usually ran amok–their family pets and working ranch dogs?
As the sky lightened right before the sun broke over the horizon, he caught a shadow of movement off in the trees beyond the field a few hundred yards from the house. A wince against the inevitable headache, a prickle on the back of his head, and his ability activated, senses on high alert. He didn't need to clench his fists to open his mind this time.
His power yanked his head around toward the tree line. He peered into the gray forest.
Nothing there. The ache in his temples receded.
Had he imagined it? Was he tired and hallucinating?
Since when had any of the Taggarts' abilities been wrong? Even when he and his siblings didn't want their powers to be right, no such luck.
He parked the sedan next to Kerr's old truck near the kitchen, where a window glowed with warm, yellow light. Waves of memories crashed over him: his mother and father fixing meals as they stood at the counter together, the cheery red-and-white tile floor, the loud chatter across the table while he ate with his three younger siblings. One time, there had been a food fight, followed by a terrifying walk to the barn that all the kids took with their father. The anticipation of doom was enough to set Vaughn and his sister and brothers back on the right path.
What about the hours of games, hiding in all the nooks and crannies of the ranch buildings? Or laughing their heads off at the worst tackle football games ever. Vaughn always won.
Despite the memories, nothing felt right. This wasn't a homecoming.
