Breaking the Rules (1st in Breaking Series)

Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Brody groaned and cursed the pounding in his head and the dryness in his mouth. He was lying on a hard wooden floor inside a sealed wagon. The walls and roof of the wagon were solid wood instead of canvas, making any idea of escape vanish from his mind.

The wagon was lurching and bouncing and each movement sent waves of pain throughout his body. He could hear the sounds of hooves on either side as well as some behind it. The wagon was clearly surrounded on all sides.

"Elizabeth..." he croaked out through his raspy, dry throat. His sat up quickly, ignoring the pain and dizziness he felt and looked around the dark interior. He saw her lying on her stomach on the wooden floor. Her eyes were closed and she had a lump above her temple and dried blood on her face.

"God, let her be okay." he whispered and he crawled across the bouncing wagon. He gently smoothed some blond strands of loose hair from her face, "Elizabeth, wake up."

Brody let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding when she groaned and shifted. She didn't awaken but at least now he knew she was responsive.

The pain in his arm reminded him that he'd been shot. He looked down at the blood covering his shirt and rolled his sleeve up. The wound was far enough to the side of his arm that it had missed the bones and any major arteries or veins. It was little more than a flesh wound despite being a through and through, and the bleeding had already slowed to nothing more than a slow oozing.

Brody reached in his pocket, unsurprised to find that his gun belt and revolver were gone. He was sure the kidnappers had taken it, thinking that that would make him helpless.

He smiled at their ignorance.

Brody pulled his bandana from his pocket and, using his uninjured arm and his teeth, he tied it around his wounded arm.

He turned his attention back to Elizabeth and gave her a shake, "Wake up, Elizabeth. It's time to get up now." He had no idea how long they'd been unconscious without food and water. Judging by how dry and cracked his lips were it had been a day or longer. "Elizabeth, wake up." he said more sternly as he shoved her harder.

She moaned and her eyelids fluttered open, "Brody, you're alive!" she exclaimed and before he knew what she was going to do, she had jumped up to her knees and was throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him tight. Shock was the first thing he felt. How long had it been since he'd been hugged? His mother had hugged him that summer morning nine years ago just before the union soldiers had come through and......

He shook his head to clear those thoughts and instead focused on the warm, soft body pressed so closely to his. Elizabeth was beautiful. She was strong. She was independent and she was stubborn. But there was something else in her. A vulnerability that she would probably deny but that was plain for him to see. She needed someone to protect her. Her father didn't have her best interests at heart, Anita wasn't on her side and Brody didn't trust Braxton as far as he could throw the oak tree of a man. He had seen Braxton and Anita having secret rendezvous under the oak tree. It was also clear to Brody that Grant only wanted Elizabeth for one thing and that was the ranch.

Brody didn't know the four men that had kidnapped them but he knew it had to have something to do with the chaos that had been going on at home. Either Grant or Braxton had sent these men for Elizabeth and the only logical man was Braxton. Grant wanted to marry her so he wouldn't want her gone but what did Braxton stand to gain by her disappearance? Brody thought back to Elizabeth saying that her father had made plans to leave the ranch to someone else if Elizabeth didn't marry Grant and he had a sinking feeling that he knew just who that someone was. And he had an even worse feeling that Anita had helped that someone lead Elizabeth into this trap.