Cowboy, Stay with Me

Chapter Eight: Dangerous

When Lucy managed to call home, they put her on speakerphone so that her grandparents, her father, and her stepmother, along with her two siblings, could hear her.

It was overwhelming to hear them all talking at once and Lucy was too drunk to speak lucidly to even one person right then.

"Are you okay?!"

"Where did you run off to with Jake?"

"What happened?!"

"Is Jake okay?"

"Where are you now?"

"Are you calling from Sean's phone? What happened to yours? Is he with you now?"

"What's happening?!"

"Sean said something about the fugitive being spotted in your location and then he just hung up! We've all been dying to know what's happening!"

"Guys!" Lucy finally shouted into the phone, winning silence from them. "One at a time!"

"Sorry!" She heard someone whisper loudly.

Lucy drew a deep breath. "I'm okay, I'm in Sean's truck. I lost my phone. Now there's a whole SWAT team or something surrounding Jake's farm."

"Oh my days, the Miller farm?!"

"Did you see the fugitive then?"

"What happened?!"

"I-I-" Lucy squeezed her eyes shut, reliving the horrific images from only moments prior. She couldn't do is, she couldn't talk to them right then. "Sorry, I gotta go. I'll tell ya'll everything soon. Sean's coming back now."

"What?! No, stay on the line!"

"Lucy!"

"What's going on?!"

Lucy simply hung up at that point.

Dropping the phone onto the driver's seat, her hands now violently trembling, she gave in to her full-blown panic attack.

Sean hadn't been on his way back to her, that had been a lie. She simply needed a moment to compose herself; basically dissolve into a hysterical mess.

Sean didn't return for quite some time and when he did, he found her ducked over with her head between her knees, trying and failing not to hyperventilate.

###

Cursing to himself, Sean tenderly stroked her hair down the back of her head.

"Lucy? Hey. It's me. Lucy?"

She whirled on him, lashing out when he startled her with his touch. She hadn't even heard him opening the door.

He caught her and gently clamped her arms to her sides so she couldn't hurt herself.

"Hey, it's alright, take it easy. It's me. I've got you. You're safe, honey. Ssshhhh, you're in shock, it's okay, just breathe."

Lucy eventually exhausted herself and went limp in his powerful grip.

He tucked her back into the passenger seat of his truck, strapping her in as she passed out, from the adrenaline crash, and also from being so ridiculously drunk.

###

Lucy blearily opened her eyes, blinking as she looked around.

She was in the cab of a big truck and all was warm and dark.

Her breath began to hitch as she struggled to sit up straighter.

An amused male chuckle got her attention; she'd know that chuckle anywhere.

"There you are, soldier." He said, reaching over and rubbing her leg in what he meant to be a comforting fashion.

Beginning to scowl, she brushed his hand off her. "What happened? Did you catch that madman?!"

"Oh yeah, we caught him." Sean responded grimly. "He's back in custody and is on his way to Tulsa right now. Trust me, he won't be getting out of jail anytime soon."

"Oh, thank God." Lucy rubbed at her temples.

With a wry smile, he handed her a thermos full of water. The cowboy's modern canteen.

She took it with a grunt of gratitude, then drank long and deeply. She was more thirsty than she'd realized. "That poor stable hand, though!" She said when she was done drinking, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. "Fenton didn't deserve that. He was always a bit of a drunk, and I never thought he treated Mary-Lou as well as he should have, but he didn't deserve that...that senseless violence..."

Sean slowed down to make the turn onto the bumpy country lane that led to Sunrose Creek Ranch. "Fenton just had a bad case of the wrong place, wrong time."

He glanced over at her and he didn't care for the way that she was staring out the windshield at the dark prairie landscape, a blank expression on her face.

"Hey, I'm sorry you had to see that." He told her softly. Reaching across the seat, he gently clasped her hand in his. "I'm just really glad that you're okay."

The way that his voice got all gruff and thick with the strenuous weight of his emotions was not lost on Lucy.

She knew that losing her would really tear him up inside, but right then she had to be more concerned with her own emotional well-being.

Once she got past the shock of what had happened back in the barn, she realized that a whole different danger had befallen her.

Sean had saved her. She had been driven literally straight into his arms.

Now her poor, vulnerable heart was all the more susceptible to his charms. All the more vulnerable to being hurt by him again.

She couldn't allow herself to lean on him, not even for a moment. She couldn't let him steal away her heart only to break it all over again. She had just been hurt too much in her life.

So she had to stay strong against him.

As much as she didn't want to, Lucy pulled her hand out of his.

He released her easily, of course, he would never push her physical boundaries. But it hurt; Sean was a little surprised by how much it hurt.

He surreptitiously watched her as she turned her head away from him to stare out the window.

He did what she wanted and pretended he didn't know that big fat tears were rolling down her face.

~ ~ ~

Lucy is in danger indeed, wouldn't you say? Heehee!

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HRH