by Eden Butler
“Uh…good morning?” Aubrey said behind us and we both turned, Sam standing straight, letting that slick, professional smile cross his face. Chance stood next to her, his hand on her waist, as always, but he didn’t smile.
“Ah, good morning,” Sam said to them, walking away from me. “The cook will have breakfast in just about fifteen minutes. This way.” He motioned to the dining room across the lobby, motioning for my friend and his wife to follow.
But Chance kept his distance, his gaze shifting between Aubrey as she walked in the direction Sam pointed, and to me, still standing near the front entrance. When I shifted my chin, the smallest shake I knew he’d catch, Chance finally moved, stepping after his wife and into the room outfitted with several small tables and chairs, all set for breakfast.
When Sam’s attention slipped between me and Chance, I turned, heading straight for the front porch. Halfway down the steps Sam was at the door, his voice sharp, laced with a warning I knew he couldn’t back up. “Careful, Mescal. I’m not some scared shitless kid anymore. You stay away from Piper and this place, or I’ll make five years in Stillwater seem like summer camp.”
If I didn’t know better, there was a little bit of worry hiding behind all that pissed off bluster that asshole held in his eyes. But, my head pounded too much to think on Sam Travis and the shit he thought he could do to me.
To my left, a throat cleared, and I turned, frowning when I spotted Slim holding a drill in his hand and the jacket I’d seen him lugging around the day we finished up the trim. I gestured to the drill in his hand, and Slim glanced down. “I forgot my shit the other day after you fell. Had to help my Uncle with some stuff yesterday so I’m just getting back into Midland. Hoped those landscapers hadn’t jacked my shit. They shifty-looking.”
Jerking my chin at him, I met Slim at his truck, shooting a look over my shoulder when the man kept watching the Victorian. “That was old school drama,” I told him.
“Nah, man.” He stuffed his drill on the seat of his truck, leaning against the closed door. “That shit was a threat if I ever heard one.”
“Yeah, maybe, but I can’t worry about that asshole or his threat.” Two of the housekeepers came up the side entrance and into the front, the younger of the two smiling at Slim as she passed. “My concern is elsewhere.”
“It’s not my business…”
“But you’re gonna give me your opinion anyway?” I said, looking back at him. “Hell, man, didn’t you learn anything on the inside?”
“The memory is fading, and you said you wanted me watching your back.”
“Yeah, I did.” I moved around the front of the truck, leaning against it to stand next to Slim.
“That Travis asshole, from what I can make out, he’s the one the most pissed off that you’re back.”
“Is he now?” When I shot my eyebrows up, Slim shrugged, not bothering to explain what led him to that conclusion. I lifted my eyebrows, a silent request for him to continue.
“You hooked me up about the job and I appreciate that.”
“I just told my brother-in-law you needed a better situation,” I said, scratching my chin.
“Yeah, well Alex called me last night and offered me double what Webster was paying. The way I see it? I owe you. Saying that, there’s something I need to show you.” He looked around the driveway, toward the house nodding for me to follow him in the direction of the back of the property.
“Like I said, I try to keep to myself, mind my own business, but you and Miss Warren, you’re good people.” We cleared the garden shed and passed several landscapers as they packed away their tools. When he spoke again, Slim’s voice was low, his posture stiff. “I don’t like seeing bad shit come down on good people. Besides, I remember what it was like when I first got out.” He turned, motioning toward the cottages several hundred feet off the garden trail that weaved around a large gazebo.
The cottages were empty and I followed Slim as he leaned against the smallest building, nodding again for me to follow him. “You mentioned your case and the robbery and how shit didn’t add up. And living here, folks talk. I heard a lot about you.”
“Warnings?” I said, shooting a look over my shoulder as he led me inside the small building.
Unlike the other cottages, this small building was empty, had not been outfitted with a kitchenette or washroom and there was no bedroom or lounge to speak of. But Slim shifted two large tarps, disrupting several crates with duffle bags stuffed behind stacks of dishes I’d seen the cooks handing to the serving staff to store in the pantry.
“Warnings,” Slim said, squatting down to open one of the duffles, holding it toward me so I could see inside. “I snoop sometimes because I want to know what I’m into, you feel me?” He nodded to the wrapped contents and the stacks of hundreds nestled underneath them before he stuffed the duffle back into the crate and we both hurried out of the cottage.
There was no way Piper knew about this. It was shitty and sneaky, something low enough to have Sam’s fingerprints all over it. That comment was about to leave my mouth, but Slim cleared his throat just as we moved away from the cottages and came to the gazebo. I followed him, leaning my elbows on the railing as one of the familiar-looking landscapers headed toward us.
“So, me, I don’t listen to gossips,” Slim continued, watching the landscaper as he walked toward the cottages. “What I do listen to is the stuff people don’t say.”
I pushed away from the gazebo, motioning toward the trail and Slim followed me. “And what don’t they say about me?”
“The truth, or at least, the whole truth.” He tilted his head, watching the B&B like there was a bomb about to go off inside it. “That Travis fella, folk talk about him, too, especially about how he’s been running after Miss Warren for years and how nobody was happier when you got that bid than he was.”
I tried not to think about the smug grin on Sam’s face as the arresting officer, Erin Davies—his girlfriend, testified at my trial. “Nobody’s complained more about my conviction getting overturned either.”
“I figured.”
“Why we talking about all this anyway?”
“Because I think I can help you.”
“No,” I said, waving him off. “You’re trying to keep your nose clean, and shit is hard enough for you in this place to begin with.” I looked over my shoulder, thinking about that duffle and the drugs inside it, realizing that shit was only going to get harder.
“It ain’t like that, don’t worry.” Slim stretched an arm over his head, reaching for his cell from his pocket just as we reached his truck, immediately working his thumb across the screen. “I got a hookup and can give you an update on Sam in a couple days. Just trust me.”
I laughed, rubbing my swollen eyes. “You know, man, you might be one of the few people I do.”
Piper came by the ranch late. Always after the day workers had settled the boarders and mucked out the corrals. But she kept on top of the owners, and made sure the supplies were stocked for the next day.
When the moon was high and the place was quiet, she’d come to see her girl, taking her out into the paddocks when no one was around.
She never saw me watching her.
She didn’t tonight either.
The Appaloosa was a pretty horse, and Piper rode like she was part of it. The trot was soft, easy. They moved together like waves and winds. It broke something loose inside me to see this, so much that everything went right out of my head—like warnings of what Sam was getting up to at her business. She made me a little helpless and a lot senseless. I moved from Evie and Alex’s porch to the paddock, keeping my hat over my eyes as she rode, my attention on her movements.
We might have stayed out there all night, with her oblivious to me and me unable to keep from watching her, but Piper seemed to feel my gaze and slowed, bringing the horse to the center of the paddock.
She dismounted, patting the creature’s neck, leading her around to cool off, her attention on the hors
e with an occasional glance in my direction until she finally offered, “You gonna watch me all night?”
I wouldn’t commit to a thing, not even an answer. Piper’s smile could light up the darkest night and it only got bigger and sweeter the closer she came.
“Thanks,” she said.
I frowned—the expression question enough for her to understand.
“For my flowers this morning. You remembered what I like.” When I kept quiet, Piper’s smile got bigger, not deterred by my silence. Seeming a little encouraged by it. But I wouldn’t say much. It would leave me open to an invitation I was sure I couldn’t turn down.
She was to the barn opening when she stopped, holding the reins in her hands before she threw a look over her shoulder, calling me with the cut of her eyes as clearly as if she’d shouted my name.
Hell.
She was at the horse’s corral, the cinch already loosened, and I stood on the other side of the animal, my approach easy, reaching for the saddle as she grabbed the bridle. I examined the animal’s back for sores as Piper watched us both.
We rubbed her down together, brushing her coat, our hands touching and each time they did, she caught my full attention, each blink she gave me long, slow, damn patient.
She had her horse relaxed and settled, her back at me when she finally spoke, giving me a nice view of her round, sweet ass as she reached forward grabbing the horse’s blanket. “So, this plan you have to clear your name,” she started, covering her girl’s back, “does that require you keeping quiet when I’m around?”
The question barely registered. My mind had gone a little fuzzy—it typically did when Piper was around, and the quiet seemed to get to her. She looked over her shoulder, her sweet smile vacant before she turned toward me.
“Or does that mean you’ll keep away from me altogether?’
That one couldn’t go unanswered and I relaxed into my lean on the fence, shaking my head before she stood in front of me, her gaze shooting over my face. Warning bells went off in my head right along with the flashes of memory of Piper’s angry, confused face as Sam’s cop girlfriend shoved me into the back of her cruiser.
But Piper looked up at me, those big doe eyes soft, telling me stories I’d heard before from her. I’d always liked the endings.
“Ed…” she tried, moving a step closer, stretching a hand toward my chest, freezing when I caught her by the wrist.
“Five years because you didn’t believe me.” I tightened my grip on her wrist, but that didn’t keep her back.
Those big eyes narrowed, heated as she tightened the muscles around her mouth. “You stole from me…”
I jerked her forward, holding her face between my hands. “Didn’t.”
Her expression should have worried me. Instead, it turned me on. “I should hate you.”
“Same.”
“But you don’t.”
Another head shake and I gripped her around the waist, wanting her closer. “And neither do you.”
Piper sucked in a breath and I caught how glassy her eyes looked in the moonlight peeking in through the window at my back before she dipped her head. “You broke my heart…”
“Well…” I pulled her against my chest, resting my chin on the back of her head. “You broke mine, too.”
I was content to stand there, letting her tuck underneath me, letting the faint moisture from her tears soak into my shirt. It was all damn confusing. Impossible, but I couldn’t help how good it felt to hold her, to simply stand there with her and just be still.
Then, Piper’s body relaxed, her face rubbing along my chest, to my neck, her mouth meeting bare skin and I inhaled, letting the sensations of her perfume, her touch move over me.
The low rumble of a noise vibrated in the back of my throat when I felt the outline of her mouth on my neck and the warm, wet slip of her tongue over my skin.
“Piper…” I tried, but the sound was more moan than warning.
We both ignored it.
“I just want to taste you…a little bit, Ed,” she said, scraping her teeth along my pulse. “Like I used to…”
There was nothing left in me that could keep her back. No restraint. No composure. Only raw need, vicious ache. For this woman.
“Eddie…”
I didn’t let her ask again.
She yelped when I pulled her up, turning her so that she rested against the tabletop just outside the corral, bringing her legs around my waist completely.
“Stop talking.”
Piper took the kiss I gave her with no complaint, arching back when I pulled her neck between my lips, when I grabbed her with one arm to the edge of the table to feel how warm she was rubbing against me. Those nails against my back, tugging me closer got deeper, inched toward aching when I brushed her hair from her shoulder and pushed the collar from her neck, popping the first button from her shirt to lean down, kissing between her full breasts.
“Ed…I want…” She didn’t have to ask. I remembered this. Remembered what she liked and cupped her, rubbing a thumb over her nipple, sucking on it through her shirt, wanting so badly to strip her bare, lay her on this table and taste every inch of her.
She moved against me, pushing into my mouth as I teased her, rubbing her fingers over my hard cock, playing with the zipper and when she managed to loosen the button, brushing her hand against the tip, the suction on her nipple got tighter, my attention firmer as I pushed her closer, rubbing into her hand.
“In…inside,” she said, pulled away, wiggling off the table and I followed her, stopping twice to pin her against the barn wall when the sight of her perfect, round ass in front of me was too much to take.
“Give me your mouth. I’m an impatient man.” Piper let me pick her up, carrying her from the barn with her legs around me and my mouth on hers, devising all the ways I’d have her once I made it back to my cabin.
“Hurry,” she told me, those full lips back on my neck, sucking, teasing and I could not walk fast enough, my heart racing, fingers shaking and then… our cells went off at the same time.
“Shit…” I put Piper down halfway to my cabin as she tugged the cell from her back pocket.
“It’s Evie,” she said, her face going pale, as though my sister had some sort of radar and knew exactly what we were about to do.
“Alex…” I shook my cell at her, stepping back, head shaking when I tried to walk and couldn’t do it without wincing in pain. Piper grinned at me, glancing down at my junk before she turned, walking back toward the paddock.
“Hey, Evie…” I heard, grunting at the humor in her tone.
“Alex?” I answered when my cell rang again.
“Ed, hey man. You got a minute? There’s a couple of things I wanna go over about this week’s jobs. Won’t take but a half hour or so.”
“Yeah,” I said, sighing as I spotted Piper moving into the barn office. It was a lost cause for the night. I turned, making it the rest of the way to my cabin. “What can I do for you?”
Ed
The development four miles outside of downtown Midland was nothing more than rows of framed houses and a skeleton patchwork of walkways leading to what would be a neighborhood park. It was simple, but massive and a gave me a good idea about just how well my brother-in-law had done for himself since I was locked away in Stillwater.
“Mr. Mescal?” Lou Winters, Alex’s project manager said.
“It’s Ed. Seriously, dude…”
“Sorry.” He lifted a dark hand at me, a flippant apology as he motioned across the field that stretched beyond the first row of houses we’d stopped the company truck at to discuss the day’s agenda. “We’ve got a few sub crews starting in the sheetrock in that first street and then the plumbers are coming in Section A where the slabs are dry.”
“Sounds good.” I had no idea how it sounded, but Winters seemed to know what he was doing. Lou was a California born Samoan guy of about fifty, and if Alex was to be believed, had once been runner up in the World’s Stronges
t Man competition. With a neck and chest that thick and legs that long, I wouldn’t doubt it.
I was there to make sure Alex’s shit ran smooth and that meant everyone showed up, the small projects that wouldn’t take Lou’s attention off this development got completed. That might mean heading back to Piper’s B&B for whatever she needed done, and to finally have a conversation with her about what Slim had showed me in the cottage, but after what had almost gone down at the ranch, I was pressing my luck. It was past time for her to know the truth, but I damn sure didn’t need to tell her when Sam was around.
“Thanks, man. I’m sure you can keep everything going. Just let me know if you run into any problems.” The framers for the house we’d parked in front of pulled up, waving to us and I jerked my chin in return. “I’ve got a few errands in town, but I’ll have my cell on me.” I waved Lou off and the man moved toward his truck with his hardhat tucked under his arm.
I grabbed my cell for the fourth time in less than an hour, wondering why Slim hadn’t texted, kicking myself for having any hope his friend would have dug up anything after just a couple of days.
The unopen message in my box caught my attention and I tapped on it, my heart kicking into overdrive when I spotted the purple nightshade petals across a pillowcase and over a nearly naked pair of familiar breasts with the words “Going with the silent treatment? You sure?” under the picture.
“Mother fuc—”
“Ed?” I heard, stuffing the phone into my pocket. It wasn’t until the tall man was a good three feet from me that I finally recognized his face. He was older, had grown into his round features, but he looked more like his older brother now than he had five years ago.
“Holy shit, Keene?”
“Yeah, man. How the hell are you?” Keene and his brother, Maddox, had been on my crew before I got sent to Stillwater. It was Maddox that gave it to me straight and looked out for me more than anyone back then.
“Never thought I’d see you again,” he said, holding out his hand for me to shake. “When’d you get out?”
