Page 12 of Montana Mystery

Grunting with pain, he pushed himself higher up the bed. “Those people need to mind their own business,” he snarled. “They have nothing to do with this, and I don’t want them anywhere near you or me.”

“Brandon—”

“No. They need to stay out of this. I mean it.”

That was far from the impression I’d gotten when they’d sat down and spoken to me. But the sounds screeching from Brandon’s machines as he started to panic didn’t make it worth the argument. “Okay. But I still want to know who you owe money to, and how much.”

My brother slumped back down and was silent for a long time, looking away from me. So long that I wondered if the outburst was too much and he’d fallen asleep again. But finally, he looked back at me. “The Riders.”

“I don’t know who they are.”

“Good.”

“How’s our patient?” Dr. Godin’s entry startled me and I backed away from the bed. I tried to gather myself.

“He’s awake.”

“Certainly seems that way,” the doctor said with a laugh. “How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve been put through a meat grinder,” Brandon grunted through clenched teeth.

Dr. Godin nodded and wrote something on the chart. “We’ll get you some pain killers here quickly.” Then he looked at me. “Would you mind giving us a minute?”

I paused. I was family. Why would he ask me to leave? My mind went to these mysterious Riders. Would they have a doctor on call to kill? Shaking my head, I stepped back.

If this doctor wanted Brandon dead, he’d had the opportunity before I’d ever arrived at the hospital. I needed to breathe. “Of course.”

I stepped out of the room and covered my face with my hands. Way to go, Kate. He nearly dies and you yell at him within seconds of him waking up. Guilt followed the anger. I was full of both.

“Kate?”

What? That voice made my hair stand on end, and not in a bad way. But it also didn’t belong here.

Noah Scott was standing in the waiting room, looking straight at me. I couldn’t help but take in the way that he stood, easy, confident, with a leather jacket that showed off his form. Even seeing him right here, it took me a moment to process that he was here. At the hospital. Not at the ranch.

“Noah. What are you doing here?”

A faint smile disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. “I didn’t get your number before you left, so I had no way to update you. I figured with your brother’s condition, you’d likely be here.”

He’d driven all the way here just to tell me what he’d found? My stomach did a tiny flip that I did my best to ignore. “Did you find anything?”

Noah slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans and closed the distance between us. He shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. I talked to Charlie—the sheriff—and he doesn’t know anyone who would do this. At least up in our neck of the woods. We’ve been hearing rumors for a little while about a dog-fighting ring, which could explain why Brandon has bite marks. But I don’t have any proof.”

“Thank you for checking.” I didn’t know what to do here. Honestly, I’d been sure they’d look into it and then leave it alone. Not come all the way down here just to tell me they’d found nothing.

Everyone I’d met at Resting Warrior was nice, but I still wasn’t used to military guys giving a shit about anyone but their unit. Their “brothers.” And the ones I’d met both before and after Brandon’s deployment were arrogant, loud, and careless.

Noah was anything but. He was gentle, kind, and handsome. Handsome was frankly an insult for how good-looking this man was. I liked him. And in another world where all of this wasn’t going on, I might be bold enough to ask him if he wanted to get coffee.

But this wasn’t a different world, and my brother was still lying beaten in the hospital. This wasn’t the time or the place for me to be having less-than-platonic thoughts about anyone.

Brandon couldn’t be right about the ranch, right? Everything I’d seen, heard, and felt while I’d been there spoke of how much those people cared- for each other and those they helped. Even when they didn’t have a reason to. But Brandon’s visceral reaction to them was still clinging to me, and I couldn’t quite shake it.

What did it say about me that I was attracted to a man who could be hiding something like that? What did it say about me that I still felt like I could trust him? Trusting Noah felt as easy as breathing. But then again, I’d trusted Brandon when he’d said that he was doing okay. Look where that had gotten us.

I realized too late that we’d been standing in silence for far too long. Clearing my throat, I straightened. “Thank you for looking into it. It’s become clear now that this has nothing to do with Resting Warrior Ranch. Thank you for your concern.”

Noah hesitated, and his body swayed forward like he was going to take another step toward me, and then he stopped.

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