Read The Circle Eight: Tobias for Free Online Page A

couldn’t offer him anything except her medical opinion. Anything else was beyond her ken right then. She needed to monitor her patient and do everything she could to help him. Another time, she might let herself be a woman, but not now. Maybe not ever.  
     
     
    Tobias found her sleeping in the chair beside Will’s bed. He stood over her and simply stared. She had spent hours doctoring Will, putting tiny little stitches into his wounds, setting the bone in his leg, wrapping his ribs and making sure every small wound was seen to. He had watched her until he could barely see straight. He didn’t know how she did it.  
    She’d been hunched over, working tirelessly without food or drink. Now she had fallen asleep in the chair, her neck at an awkward angle, dark smudges beneath her eyes. Her light brown hair hung in hanks around her head, the braid loosened. Her arms were crossed, pushing her ample breasts up. He pulled his gaze away from her tits; the lessons Pops had ground into him were still good for something. He wasn’t a gentleman but he knew ogling unconscious women wasn’t right.  
    He sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to disturb Will. The younger Gibson was alive, but Tobias couldn’t help but remember Rebecca telling him Will might not wake. His face was swollen and bruised, his breathing shallow but steady. His leg was straight, but a broken limb took a ranch hand off the job, maybe permanently.  
    Will supported himself just fine working for Donovan. Sometimes he even came by with a basket of food to see Tobias. Hell, the boy had been trying to take care of Tobias. His heart was so damn big, almost too large for the world.  
    He touched Will’s hand but dared not disturb him. Rebecca said he had bruised ribs but they were probably not cracked. It seemed Will’s head and leg had taken the brunt of the falling tree. First it broke his leg, and then he apparently slammed into the ground and unfortunately placed rocks. Will was lucky in some respects. The tree could have landed on his head and smashed it like a pumpkin.  
    Tobias had to hold back a snort of crazy laughter. He was exhausted, hungover and trembling with the need to find the whiskey in his saddlebags. His tack was in the barn, thanks to the hands at Donovan’s ranch. No one would think twice if he went out there for a sip. Just a little one. Rebecca was asleep and so was Will. Hell, it was the middle of the night. Most everyone was likely asleep. Except for fools like Tobias.  
    He got to his feet and before he could stop himself, he ran a finger down Rebecca’s cheek. Her skin was as soft as he remembered, not the softest on her body, but pretty damn close. He wasn’t a poet but he could find some words to talk about her skin. She was near perfect.  
    “What are you doing?” James’s harsh whisper startled Tobias.  
    He didn’t look at his younger brother. “None of your fucking business.”  
    “It is my business. I brought her here for Will. For Will , not you .” James’s voice shook with anger. “Don’t you touch her ever again.”  
    Tobias changed his mind about the sip of whiskey. After he kicked James’s ass he would drink the whole goddamn bottle. “Outside. Now.”  
    He pushed passed a vibrating James and didn’t wait to see if his brother followed. There was no question he would.  
    By the time they made it outside, Tobias was full of righteous anger. James had been pushing at him for years. It was time it stopped.  
    “You ain’t my father or my conscious, so stop judging me.” Tobias poked one finger into James’s chest. He was surprised to see how big his younger brother was, bigger than Tobias, who had let his body fall into disrepair just like his home. All of it for whiskey, for oblivion.  
    “You’re a fucking drunk.” James clenched his fists. “You treat everything like shit and you don’t deserve to even speak to an angel like Miss Graham.”  
    Tobias couldn’t quite form words