age, judging by appearances. How could the bastard shoot her when there was an innocent little baby involved?
Cade muttered a curse. The last thing he wanted was to become embroiled in someone’s domestic problems. The woman had left him no choice. He’d become involved the moment she’d climbed into the back of his pickup truck and sought refuge.
He’d lose hours turning the truck around and taking her back to Darwin Crossing. Besides, it was a trip she might or might not survive, given her condition. When he thought of the jolting ride she must have endured back here under the hot tarp, he winced. No wonder she was unconscious.
The blood had stopped flowing, but she definitely needed medical attention. Only, the nearest doctor was almost an hour away. No doubt her jerk husband had discovered the doctor’s location as well. He’d probably be there waiting for her to show up.
The baby began to wail in earnest. A movement in the truck drew his gaze back to the woman. Even unconscious, she reached blindly for her child. Something inside Cade loosened at that sign of protective love.
A small bottle lay beside her. She’d obviously been trying to feed the tyke before she passed out. He frowned over the fact that she wasn’t nursing, but maybe she couldn’t. It probably wasn’t safe for her to do so with that bastard coming after her.
He reached for the bottle and stuck the nipple in the little guy’s mouth. Greedily, the baby began to suckle. Dark-blue eyes opened and gazed up at him with such trust that Cade knew he was lost. A child needed its mother. He knew that better than most.
And in this case, the mother needed a protector. Looking at the tiny infant he knew he’d just been elected. There was no way he was driving them back into harm’s way until he knew what the situation really was.
Since she was breathing okay on her own, and not bleeding anymore, he decided to deal with the infant first. The crying had been more than he could stand. He wanted to make absolutely sure the baby wasn’t hurt.
His medical skills were limited, but any good rancher knew enough first aid to deal with emergencies. What Cade didn’t know was what to do with a human infant. Give him a cow or a horse or even some poor kitten—no problem. But God help him, he’d never even contemplated changing a diaper before. Yet the kid was soaked. It couldn’t be good for the little guy. Holding the baby and bottle awkwardly in one hand, he reached for a large, soft bag that had become jammed between the cab of the truck and some sort of baby carrier.
The yellow-and-green bag hadn’t been there when he first began loading the truck so he guessed it was hers. There were blood smears on it, as well. No doubt he’d need both the contents of the bag and the carrier that doubled as a seat.
The dark, dusty interior of the unpainted building was less than welcoming. Cade frowned. It was a line shack, for crying out loud. There was one window and one door. This was a place where a couple of men could throw down their gear and sack out on the bunk beds, protected from inclement weather. He took mental inventory. It housed a cookstove, a few dishes, some implements, the bunk beds, a wobbly table and four chairs. There was a lean-to out back with a couple of stalls for horses and some oil lanterns for light. And thankfully, a pump to provide water. Beyond that, there were no amenities.
Well, it was what it was. The shack would do until he could determine how badly she was hurt.
Awkwardly, he set down the carrier and placed the baby inside. The minute he removed the nipple, the infant screwed up its face and began to wail.
“Okay, look. Just hold on for a minute. I’ve got to see to your mother. You can finish eating in a second.”
The baby was in no mood to be placated by mere words. He was hungry and he was letting Cade know it. He howled at the top of his tiny lungs.
“Certainly can’t be anything seriously wrong with you if you can scream like that.” Cade wasted a few minutes grabbing his kit from the front seat of the truck and spreading his sleeping bag over the lumpy mattress. Then he returned to the truck for the woman.
She moaned softly when he lifted her, but those sweepingly thick dark eyelashes only fluttered against her pale cheeks without raising. She was incredibly slender. Why, she didn’t weigh much at all.
Long, pale hair spilled like ribbons of satin against his toughened skin. He tried to pretend that he didn’t notice how good she smelled or how pretty she was. Her graceful neck draped limply over his arm. Like her kid, she was a tiny bit of a thing. Small boned, delicately shaped, she had an upturned little nose and soft, nicely shaped lips.
And a bullet hole in her shoulder.
Cade toughened his heart and his thoughts. He carried her inside and laid her down on his open sleeping bag. She was pretty, but young. Much too young for an old man like him. In fact, too young for the jerk claiming to be her husband. No wedding ring, either, he noticed. In fact, no rings at all.
Since carrying her inside hadn’t started the bleeding up again nor roused her, Cade turned his attention back to the screaming infant. He was afraid the little guy would hurt himself crying that hard.
The baby quieted instantly as soon as the nipple returned to his mouth. Cade let him drink for several minutes before pulling the bottle back. He had to get the supplies inside before it got dark. Junior was not happy.
“Okay, fella, hold your horses. I’ll be right back.”
He off-loaded the food supplies first. Then he dug out the first-aid kit and a couple of jugs of fresh water, removed the spare blankets and added the two new shirts he’d bought himself today. The young woman would need something to put on once he cut off her fancy shirt, and these were all he had to offer beyond the change of clothing in his bedroll.
The baby had really worked himself into a state by the time Cade hauled all the stuff inside. He dropped his hat on a chair and turned back to the infant.
“Shh. Hush. It’s okay. The feed bags can wait. I’ll get them later.” He withdrew another bottle from the contents of the bag and stuck the nipple back in the baby’s mouth with one hand and tried to unwrap the kid with the other hand.
“We’ve got to get you out of this wet stuff. You stink worse than the outhouse, kid. You’ll get a rash or something sitting around in it like this.”
What the heck was he doing playing nanny to some baby? He didn’t know anything about kids. Especially one as small as this. He’d probably hurt him with his big clumsy hands. Look how tiny his fingers were! How could something this small make so much noise?
“You’re awfully loud, you know that, tiger?” The baby ignored his commentary to suck down the formula.
“Man, you were thirsty. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. It must have been hot as Hades under that tarp. But you’re going to get a stomachache drinking like that.”
In the end, he waited for the baby to finish the bottle. The kid instantly began to whimper again wanting more.
“Hang on. I’ll see what I can do as soon as I get you changed, okay?”
Obviously it was not okay based on the noise and the way the baby began to flail his arms and legs. Cade stripped away the wet garments. A gauze pad covered his stomach. For a second, his heart stopped. Had the infant been hurt as well? He peeled back the pad carefully and discovered the stump of the umbilical cord.
Cade swore. “Sorry, kid. But that looks nasty.” There was dried blood around the withering navel. Was it supposed to look like that? Should he be doing something for it?
“Why couldn’t you have been a kitten?”
First, he’d better get the wet diaper off. Paying close attention to the way the diaper fastened, he removed it.
“You’re a she!”
Why that surprised him, he couldn’t have said, but the infant quieted at his exclamation. She stared up at him with wide, trusting eyes.
“Oh, yeah, you’re