by Lisa Jackson
“What? How can water samples—” Shaking her head as if to clear it, she focused sharp hazel eyes on him. “If you expect me to believe that you were trying to prove that Caleb Johnson is a crook, you’ve got another guess coming! You’re his partner,” she reminded him, her voice rising. “You owe him a ton of money as well as your entire business!”
Chase was standing over her, looking down at her with judicious blue eyes. His nostrils were flared, his chiseled mouth tight. “Go ahead and believe what you want to, lady, but I’m going to get to the bottom of this feud between you and Johnson with or without your help.”
“Be my guest,” she threw back at him, “as long as it’s not on my property!”
He looked like he wanted to kill her. The frustration and anger in his look bore deep into her soul. Dani’s heart froze and her lips parted in surprise when he grabbed her, jerked her body against his and forced his head downward so that his lips crushed hers and stole the breath from her lungs.
Struggling, she managed to pull one of her hands free and she swung it upward, intending to land it full force on his cheek. But he was faster than she would have guessed and he grabbed her wrist, pinned her hand behind her and continued kissing her, forcing his tongue through her teeth, moving his body sensually against hers until, to her mortification, she felt her body responding. Her breasts peaked, her heartbeat accelerated and she felt like dying a thousand deaths.
When he lifted his head from hers, he slowly released her, dropping her hands. How he was coming to loathe himself. “Oh, God, Dani,” he whispered, pushing the hair out of his eyes with shaking fingers. “I’m sorry.”
She swallowed and let out a shuddering sigh. “So am I.”
“You are, without exception, the most beautiful, intriguing and frustrating woman I’ve ever met.”
“And you’re the most arrogant, self-serving bastard I know,” she said, holding the back of her hand against her swollen lips.
He stepped toward her, but she held up a trembling palm, “Just leave,” she whispered. “Go away. Get away from me! Why don’t you find the next train to Boise and jump on it! I can handle Caleb Johnson by myself!”
“Can you?”
“Yes!”
His jaw thrust forward, his eyes glinting a silver-blue, Chase reached down, jerked on his waders, picked up his creel and strode along the bank.
Dani watched him leave, positioning herself outside of the thicket so that she could follow his movements as he walked through the trees and into the sunshine, across the field and through the parted strands of barbed wire. Tears stood in her large eyes and she wondered why she couldn’t find the strength to hate him.
Chapter Five
Early in the afternoon, wearing a proud smile and waterlogged jeans, Cody returned with two small trout in his possession. Runt scampered up the two steps of the porch and flopped in the shade to pant near Dani’s chair.
She was sitting in her favorite rocker, mending some of his clothes and hoping that a few pairs of the pants would still fit him for the coming school year.
“Congratulations,” she said when Cody proudly displayed his catch. “Looks like we have fish for dinner.”
Cody made a face. “I hate fish.”
“Then you should have thrown them back,” she said, smothering a laugh.
Sitting down on the top step, he glanced up at her. “What were you doin’ at the creek with that guy?” he asked.
Taken by surprise, Dani looked up from her mending and then slowly set the torn shirt aside. “You were there?”
“Yeah. Well, no, not really. I was just comin’ back and I’d planned on fishin’ in the hole below the fork in the creek. You know, by the cottonwood trees.”
Dani nodded, hoping that her cheeks weren’t as warm as they felt. She’d never thought about Cody surprising her and Chase. But then, she hadn’t expected to find Chase in the creek . . . on her side of the fence.
“I saw that Chase What’s-his-face—”
“McEnroe,” Dani supplied, meeting her son’s curious stare.
“Yeah. I saw him walking back to Johnson’s property. He looked madder than a wet hen. You were standing down there.” He gestured toward the cottonwood stand, “And you were watching him leave and looking real sad.”
Dani folded her hands on her laps. “So you saw that, did ya?”
Cody nodded. “Was he bothering you?”
“A little,” she hedged. “I caught him trying to take water samples,” she explained. “We had a rather unfriendly. . . discussion.”
“You mean a fight.”
“I mean a battle royal.”
“What does he want with our water?”
“Beats me,” Dani admitted, wondering for the thousandth time exactly why Chase was so anxious to get water from her side of the fence. And what did it have to do with “evidence?” Damn Chase McEnroe; he held all the cards. And he knew it. “I suppose he wants the water because Caleb probably told him to get it.”
“And he got mad when you told him to leave.”
The understatement of the century. “Very.”
“I thought you told him not to come back here.” Cody began playing in the dust with a stick and avoided Dani’s eyes.
“I did.”
“Well?”
“I don’t know why he keeps comin’ back,” she admitted, gazing across the dry fields. “I guess maybe it’s just part of his job.”
“Or maybe he likes you.” Cody glanced over his shoulder again, pinning his mother with his dark brown eyes.
“Why would you say that?” Dani asked, worried that she and Cody were about to argue again.
“Because you always do. When some girl gives me trouble at school, you always say it’s because she likes me.”
Dani laughed and wiped the sweat from her forehead. “I do, don’t I? And you never believe me.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
“That’s a big concession coming from you.”
Cody’s solemn face split with a smile. “I figure you’ve got to be right part of the time—”
“Get out of here,” she teased, her eyes sparkling. Standing, he winked at his mom. “How about a Coke?”
She eyed him and nodded. “You go get cleaned up and I’ll get us each one. Then I think you’d better brush up on your schoolwork.”
“Why?”
She stood, wrapped both arms around the post supporting the roof and stared across the creek. “Summer’s almost over, Cody,” she said reluctantly, her fingers scratching the peeling paint from the post. Soon Chase and all the problems he brought into her life would be gone. And those problems would be replaced with new ones from Caleb Johnson. “Go on. Scoot,” she said to her son.
“Aw, Mom—” He let out an exaggerated sigh. “I’ll start tomorrow night. Okay?”
“Is that a promise?”
Cody nodded but bit at his lower lip.
“I m going to hold you to it.”
“I know, I know,” he mumbled as he slipped through the creaking screen door and hurried up the stairs.
A few minutes later Dani heard the sound of water running in the pipes. She folded her mending and glanced down the hill to Johnson’s side of the fence. All the equipment was still in position, but no one was in sight. They’d probably all gone up to the house for lunch.
“And good riddance,” she murmured, but the ache in her heart wouldn’t subside.
* * *
Water was still dripping from Cody’s dark hair when he bounded down the stairs half an hour later. He grinned at his mother when he saw the two glasses of Coke on the table.
“I saved you from a fate worse than death,” Dani remarked, shooting him an indulgent look. She was standing at the stove and frying Cody’s trout. Both small fish sizzled as they browned in the pan.
“How’s that?” he asked.
“We’re eating the fish you caught for lunch.”
“Wait a minute—”
Caref
ul not to spill the grease, Dani scooped the fish from the pan and set them on a platter lined with paper towels. “That way you don’t have to have them for dinner tonight.”
“Mom—” he began to protest, but she placed the platter on the table between her plate and his.
“Eat, son, and I promise not to give you any lectures on starving children in the rest of the world,” Dani said as she sat at the table, took a fish and wedge of lemon and began squeezing lemon juice on the tender white meat.
With a grimace, Cody speared the remaining fish and placed it onto his place as he sat down. Drinking plenty of Coke between each bite, he mumbled and grumbled to himself.
“Great trout,” Dani teased, her eyes sparkling.
“Don’t rub it in.” But Cody returned her smile. “Have you got the mail today?”
Dani nodded.
“Was there, uh, anything for me?” he asked, staring down at his plate.
Dani forced a smile she didn’t feel and the piece of trout she was chewing stuck in her throat. “Not today.”
“Oh.” Her son slowly speared another piece of fish and Dani’s heart twisted.
The phone rang and Cody raced to get it. After a short conversation, he hung up and returned to the table. “That was Shane. He wants me to spend the night.”
“Tonight?”
“Uh-huh. I told him it was okay. It is, isn’t it?”
Dani shrugged. “Sure. But next time maybe you’d better ask first, don’t ya think?”
“I guess so. He said I could come over about four.”
“Good. I’ve got to run into town for some groceries anyway. I’ll drop you off then. Okay?”
“Great!” With that, Cody was up the stairs, packing a change of clothes and his treasures into his bag. Dani watched him take off with a trace of sadness. He was growing up so fast and slipping away from her.
With a philosophical frown, she got up and cleared the table. Little boys grow up and if their mothers are smart, they let them, she told herself. Wondering why it had to hurt so much, she set the pans on the counter and turned on the hot water. As the sink filled, Dani glanced through the steam and out the window. Work had picked up on the Johnson place again. Men were digging and heavy machinery was placing logs and boulders in strategic positions along the creek.
Two men she didn’t recognize were planting saplings along the bank, but nowhere did she see Chase. No big loss, she told herself, but felt that same dull pain in her heart. “You’re a fool,” she muttered. “A first-class fool.” Then she attacked the dishes as if her life depended upon it.
* * *
Chase didn’t stop fuming all the way to Johnson’s house. He’d spent the last four hours with the manager of an independent chemical laboratory and his blood was boiling. As he’d suspected, the drum that Ben had found in the creek had held dioxin. There were still traces of the herbicide in the empty can. Although more tests were to be run and eventually the county agriculture agent would have to be notified, Chase was convinced that someone had intentionally put the drum of dioxin in the creek to poison the water. But why? To kill the fish? Ruin the plant life? Get rid of the illegal toxin? Not likely.
No doubt, Caleb Johnson would know.
Though he ached to have it out with Caleb, for the time being Chase had to sit tight. Or as tight as his temper would let him.
Parking his Jeep near the barn, he cut the engine and hopped out of the cab. Trying to control his anger, he strode through the front door of Caleb’s home. Aside from Caleb’s housekeeper, who was humming and rattling around in the kitchen, the house seemed to be deserted.
Chase hesitated only a second before walking into Caleb’s study, pulling out the files and finding the documents he wanted. His jaw working in agitation, he read the appraisal reports, geographic studies, mortgage information and every other scrap of paper dealing with Dani’s farm. When he’d finished with the file he replaced it and the anger in his blood had heated all over again.
“You miserable son of a bitch,” he muttered as he slammed the file drawer shut and walked down the short hallway to the back of the house and the kitchen where Jenna was working and humming to herself.
“Hasn’t Johnson shown up?” Chase asked the elderly woman as he grabbed a bottle of beer from the refrigerator.
“He came in ’bout twelve-thirty,” Jenna replied as she continued rolling out pie dough.
Chase could barely control himself. “He didn’t bother showing up at the creek.”
“Oh, no, he’s too busy working with some new quarter horses.”
“At the stables?”
Jenna shook her gray head and wiped her hands on her flour-dusted apron. “I’m not sure. He took off for the stables but he said something about taking the horses over to the track.”
Chase started for the door but paused and took a long swallow of his beer. “You’ve known him for a long time, haven’t you?”
“Since we were kids,” Jenna replied.
Leaning against the door, Chase looked directly at the plump woman with the unlined face and pink cheeks. Jenna Peterson was the only person on the whole damned Johnson spread that Chase felt he could trust. “And would you say he’s trustworthy?”
She seemed surprised and turned quickly from the marble counter. “Oh, yes,” she said. “When he was younger, while we were in school, he was straight as an arrow, don’t you know?” She smiled as she stared out the kitchen window. “But that was years ago.”
“What about now?”
“Still the same man . . . but—”
“But?”
“Oh, well, nothin’ really. He’s different, of course. But we all grew up. After school, I lost track of him, got married myself and had the kids. I didn’t think much about Caleb, only what I heard from the town gossip mill. It wasn’t much. But several years later, after his folks had passed away, I heard that he was marrying some girl from another town.”
Chase’s eyes grew sharp. “I didn’t know he had a wife.”
“Oh, he didn’t. Seems this woman wouldn’t marry him for some reason or another; no one really knows for sure. He came back here and threw himself into this farm, hell-bent on expanding it and making it the best in the state. Worked at it for years.”
“So why the resort? Why is it so important to him?”
Jenna glanced at him with kind blue eyes. “You have to remember that Caleb hasn’t got a family. No sons or grandsons to carry on his name. He needs something to be remembered by.”
“So that’s the purpose—immortality?”
“Maybe a little. Besides, a man has to do something to keep busy. Just ’cause you reach a certain age is no reason to curl up and die.”
“I suppose not,” Chase thought aloud, taking a long swallow of beer. “But, tell me, do you think that he would do anything . . . underhanded to get the resort going?”
“Illegal, you mean?”
Chase didn’t answer.
“I doubt it.”
“Not even bend a few rules?”
Jenna’s countenance became stern. “You don’t like him much, do you?”
Chase’s brows drew together thoughtfully. “I don’t think it’s so much a question of liking the man; I’m just not sure I can trust him.”
Jenna sighed and shook her head as she placed the top crust over the sugared apples in the pie pan. “All I know is that he’s been a fair employer. And—” she paused in her work to look Chase straight in the eye “—you’re special to him.”
“I don’t think so—”
Jenna waved off his thoughts. “I’ve seen him with a lot of men. He treats you different.”
“Different? How?”
Jenna thought for a moment, trying to find just the right words. “Like you was kin,” she finally said, nodding as if in agreement with her thoughts. “That’s it. He treats you like he would a son, if he had one.”
Chase experienced a strange tightening in his gut and he forced a smile. “Fortunately
, I already had a father. He died a few years back, but I certainly don’t need Johnson to fill his shoes.”
“I don’t think Caleb would want to try.”
“And I don’t think Caleb thinks of me as anything but a business partner,” Chase said, taking another swallow of his beer and sauntering out the back door.
Flies and wasps were trapped in the hot back porch. They buzzed in frustration against the old screens as Chase passed through. He stopped to adjust the brim of his Stetson and walked out into the late afternoon sun.
Caleb was leaning over the top rail of a fence, staring out at the dry pasture where his herd of horses was grazing on the sun-parched grass.
Chase felt the anger ticking inside him like a time bomb. How much of Dani’s story was true—that Caleb had done everything he could to run her off her land? And how much was just her imagination running wild? Did Caleb know about the drum of dioxin poisoning the water? Just how far would the old man go to achieve his ends? Stomach tight from reining in his anger, his jaw clenching rigidly, Chase approached the older man.
“We sure could use some more of that rain we got the other night,” Caleb observed, spotting Chase.
Rain. The other night. Dani. “Weather service predicts another shower in the next couple of days.”
“Good.”
“How was the trip?”
“’Bout what I expected.”
Chase put his foot on the bottom rail of the fence and tried to appear congenial. An actor he wasn’t, but he could remain calm if he had to. And right now, he had to. Dani’s future was on the line. If he believed her. Things just weren’t black and white anymore and gray never had been Chase’s favorite color. “Sounds good,” he remarked.
“Could’ve been better.”
“Or worse.”
“I s’pose.” Caleb swatted at a fly and swore under his breath. “Damn things. Used to be able to get rid of them.”
“But not anymore?”
Caleb grimaced. “It’s a helluva lot tougher now.”
“So what do you use to keep the insects and the foliage in control around here?” Chase asked, his eyes skimming the fields to watch the scampering foals kicking up their heels around their sedate dams. The mares stood in pairs, head to buttocks, flicking at flies with their tails and ears.
