by B. J Daniels
“You’re a lot like your father,” Martin said.
“I’m going to take that as a compliment.” Although it was clear that was definitely not the way he meant it.
She knew she wasn’t up to facing her father right now. She felt too upset with him and feared he hadn’t told her the truth about anything. Starting her SUV, she drove over to Thomas Franklin’s office. It was on a side street near a residential area. Thomas had been her father’s lawyer from as far back as she could remember. His name was still on the building, so she was hoping she might catch him as she pushed open the door and stepped inside.
The receptionist wasn’t a day under eighty. A tiny woman with two spots of red rouge on her cheeks, she led Blaze back to Thomas’s office. The elderly man behind the desk was gray and weathered, but his gaze was bright and alert.
“I wondered when I’d be seeing you,” he said and motioned her into a chair as he told his secretary to pull Montgomery McClintock’s file.
Blaze settled into the chair, glad she wasn’t going to have to put up a fight here, as well.
“Would you like something to drink?” the attorney asked.
“No, thank you. I’m fine.”
Thomas made small talk until the secretary brought in the file and left, closing the door behind her. Opening the file, he said, “I could read this to you and bore you to tears.” He looked up. “What exactly is it you want to know?”
“I know he’s made provisions for me to run the ranch. Martin Shores told me that. I’m assuming that you know Allie Anson is pregnant with his child.” Thomas nodded. “He’s made provisions for the child and Allie, as well.” Another nod. “Is he planning to be with them?”
The attorney seemed surprised by the question. “If you’re asking me whether or not he will go to prison—”
“I think he’s planning to skip the country with Allie.”
Thomas leaned back, studying her openly. “His will covers a lot. But as far as his plans for himself and his future...”
Blaze wondered what she’d hoped to accomplish here. She didn’t know her father’s mind any more than she had earlier and said as much.
“If I had to guess, I’d say your father was covering his bets no matter what happens,” Thomas said and closed the folder.
Blaze thanked him and left. She couldn’t wait to get back to the ranch. It was the one place now where she could get away for a while. But as she started toward her pickup, she saw Deputy LJ Fraser leaning against it. He had a toothpick sticking out one side of his grin.
From past experience, she knew from the look on his face that this wouldn’t go well.
* * *
ALLIE LISTENED TO her landline ring again and again. She stared at the wall phone in the kitchen. It was the same one that had been there for years, according to Frank. She tried to drown out the ring, the same way she tried to drown out Frank’s voice in the back of her mind. Years of listening to him say “Well, it was good enough for my mother” still rang in her ears.
When she couldn’t take it any longer, she picked up the receiver, already knowing what she would hear. Heavy breathing before Hutch Durham’s angry voice warning her that he was coming for her and she would pay, pay in ways she couldn’t even imagine.
She slammed down the phone only to have it start ringing again. This time she answered but didn’t listen. She disconnected and then took it off the hook. The receiver dangled from its cord, banging against the kitchen wall for a moment before it settled. Pulling out her cell phone, she called the phone company and asked that they send someone out to disconnect the landline.
“We have your order right here,” a woman told her. “You’re on our list.”
“I’m getting crank calls. I really need the line disconnected.” She hated that she sounded close to tears.
“Have you reported them?”
“Yes, but nothing’s been done about it.” The phone began to beep, sounding the alarm that it was off the hook.
“I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, you can just unplug it.”
She had tried to disconnect the phone from the kitchen wall. Unfortunately, every time the kitchen had been painted over the years, the phone had gotten permanently sealed to the Sheetrock.
Allie hugged herself as she thanked the woman and disconnected. She didn’t want the landline. But at the same time, she feared if Hutch couldn’t call, he’d come back out to the ranch. She glanced toward the back door. Now she kept the doors locked even in daylight.
But she wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take.
“Pay Hutch off,” Montgomery had advised her. “And if he comes out to the ranch again, call the sheriff.”
She’d already called Bud and been told that there was nothing he could do unless she wanted to have him arrested for trespassing. She knew that would only make things worse since it probably wouldn’t keep him in a jail for a night.
She hadn’t wanted to worry Montgomery. He had enough to worry about as it was. “I’ll take care of it,” she’d assured him. That day she’d bought herself a baseball bat to keep by the back door. She had a shotgun by the front door and a loaded pistol in her purse. She didn’t know what more she could do.
She could hear the incessant beeping of the phone telling her it was off the hook. Stepping to the back door, she picked up the baseball bat and swung it hard at the base of the phone.
The side of the case shattered, but the beeping didn’t stop. She swung again. A large chunk of the plastic flew off. Another swing, another piece of plastic crumbled, this one connected to the cord. The receiver skidded across the floor, coming to rest in the doorway.
The beeping stopped. She stared at the receiver and began to laugh. All she’d had to do was unplug the receiver from the wall phone. It, too, had been painted over for so many years, she hadn’t realized she could have pulled the plug a long time ago. Her laughter turned to tears as she leaned on the bat like a cane. She wondered if Frank was watching all of this from hell. That buoyed her.
Lifting the bat again, she sent the remaining piece of phone flying from the wall. “That was for your mother,” she said as she replaced the bat by the back door and began to clean up the kitchen.
* * *
“IS THERE A PROBLEM, Deputy?” Blaze asked. The last thing she needed right now was a confrontation with her old high school boyfriend.
“I don’t like the way you parked,” LJ said, clearly looking for a fight.
Having known him so well, she could have predicted this simply by his grin. “Why, I’m so sorry, Officer. Let me move it.” She started to step toward the driver’s-side door, but he blocked her way.
“Not so fast. I’m going to have to write you a ticket.”
“Write away,” she said taking a step back. “Shall I go shopping while you do that? Or call my attorney?” She started to pull out her cell phone, but LJ knocked it out of her hand. It hit the ground and slid a few yards away.
She’d had about all she was going to take of him as he closed the distance between them. He grabbed her arm, looking around to make sure no one was watching. Because it was so close to the residential area, there wasn’t anyone on the sidewalk.
“You think you can come back here and start giving my fiancée advice on me?” he demanded, getting into her face. “I guess you’ve forgotten what happens when you make me mad.”
“No more than Tawny has forgotten what it’s like being engaged to an immature bully,” she said, returning his glare even as he tightened his hold on her arm enough to make her eyes water from the pain. “You going to beat me up on the street, Deputy? Because before you knocked my phone to the ground, I called the sheriff. I have your father on speed dial.”
LJ’s grip loosened as he looked from her to her phone lying in the skiff of snow covering the ground. He shoved her, slamming her again
st the pickup, as he started to reach for her cell phone.
But Jake got there first. He seemed to appear out of nowhere, catching them both by surprise. Jake snatched up the phone from the snow, handed it to her as he got in the deputy’s face. “You ever lay a finger on her again and she will be the last woman you touch.”
LJ started to say something about how he was an officer of the law, but Jake was ushering Blaze into the passenger side of her pickup. He pushed past LJ to climb behind the wheel. As if in a daze, she handed him her keys wordlessly.
As Jake pulled away, leaving the deputy muttering to himself and shooting daggers at them, she finally found her voice. “Where did you come from?”
Jake glanced over at her, looking surprised. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you since we got here. Sorry I didn’t get to you sooner. Did he hurt you?”
She rubbed her arm. “No,” she lied, half-afraid of what Jake might do to the deputy. She didn’t need him in jail in addition to her father. “I thought you have a poker game.”
“I do. Were you headed home?” She nodded. “Good, I’d appreciate it if you would stay there while I’m at the game. It could run late. If you change your mind, give me a call. Does your cell phone still work?”
She checked it. “The phone’s fine.”
He pulled up beside his pickup parked along the main drag and, shutting off the engine, looked over at her again. “How about you? Are you all right?”
“Fine. I could have handled him, you know.”
Jake smiled. “I know.”
“But thanks.” She returned his smile.
“Anytime.”
* * *
JAKE TOOK IN the other poker players seated at the table. He’d felt the tension in the air the moment he’d walked in. The first red flag was seeing that Herb Perkins wasn’t at the table. But Hutch Durham was, along with Deputy LJ Fraser and three men he’d never met before.
Kirk, Bubba and Lou were big boys who looked as if they’d all played football, and not that many years ago. What they didn’t play well was poker. Jake caught on right away when they appeared to not mind losing. He played along, taking their money with relish—including Hutch’s and especially LJ’s, even though he knew it would cost him in the end.
He wasn’t stupid. He knew what was coming. As the afternoon wore on into night, Durham cashed in almost broke. When he left, the atmosphere quickly changed.
After several others ran out of money, including LJ and the man called Bubba, Jake picked up his winnings. He made a show of taking all the bills, rolling them into a ball and putting them into the right-hand side of his coat pocket. He could feel all eyes on him as he got up and went into the bathroom.
Once he closed the door and locked it, he looked around for what he needed. He found a discarded cardboard tissue holder, tore it down to size and then wrapped the small bills around it, covering it with a larger one, before sticking it back into his jacket pocket.
The rest of his winnings he hid in his boots before he flushed and came back out. He’d known they would jump him the moment they all stepped outside. What he hadn’t expected was to see the deputy waiting patiently out in the cold.
He realized with a laugh that he should have, though, given their earlier confrontation. Of course LJ would demand satisfaction especially after losing all his money tonight.
Jake put the hurt on several of them, but as tough and trained as he was, he couldn’t take on four men, especially when three of them were much younger.
They kicked the crap out of him. When Herb Perkins appeared at the back door, having come to lock up, they took the money from his coat pocket and ran, leaving him lying in the falling snow bleeding as they took off down the alley.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?” Blaze cried when she saw Jake. She’d seen him drive up and had stepped out to watch him get out of his pickup. She’d had a bad feeling all night. Once she’d seen him holding his side as he limped toward her, she knew that her premonition had come true. “You’re hurt!”
“I’m fine. Just a little dustup after the poker game.”
“Dustup?” She drew him into the living room and into the light. Tears rushed to her eyes when she saw how badly he’d been beaten.
“Four guys jumped me.” He shrugged but she saw him grimace in pain. He put a hand over his ribs. “They were a little rough, but I got in a few licks. A couple of them will be limping for a while. Your old boyfriend’s nose won’t ever be straight again.” He laughed but she could tell it hurt him to do so. “He should have a black eye tomorrow.”
“I’m taking you to the emergency room.”
“No, you’re not. I’ve had worse, trust me. I’m fine.”
“Jake—”
“Please. I was hoping you wouldn’t see me like this. Why aren’t you watching one of your holiday movies?”
“I was worried about you and with good reason. Here, if you won’t let me take you to the hospital, then sit down. I’ll get the first-aid kit.” She returned a few minutes later to see that he had leaned back against the chair where she’d left him. To her surprise, he was grinning.
She shook her head in both disgust and a reluctant respect for the man. “I’m guessing that you won a lot of money tonight.”
His grin broadened, making his cut lip bleed. “I did. I fleeced them all.”
“To what end?” she demanded as she began to clean up his wounds. “You had to know they were going to do this—and take back all the money you’d won.” He nodded, still grinning. “What?”
“Pull off my boots, will you?”
She quit what she was doing to pull off one boot, then the other. As she did, money fluttered out onto the floor. She looked at it and then at him, shaking her head in wonder. “Why are you missing a sock?”
“I made a show of putting the roll of bills into my coat pocket, then I stopped at the bathroom before I left the building. I rolled the small ones around an empty cardboard toilet paper holder. Then I pulled off a boot, took off my sock and put all the change into it and tied it in a knot before hiding the large bills in my boots.” He chuckled. “I suspected they would jump me. I’d been expecting three young cowboys wanting to kick my butt and rob me. Four made it a little too challenging.”
She went back to cleaning his wounds. “You almost sound as if you enjoyed it.”
“Sometimes you have to take your enjoyment where you find it.”
Blaze met his gaze and let out a snort. “Seriously, you could have been killed.”
He grabbed her hand, his fingers sliding up her wrist. His thumb made a circular motion against the tender skin there. She felt a current race along her veins even before he met her gaze and held it. “I wasn’t.”
She couldn’t bear the thought that next time... “I don’t want you looking into Frank Anson’s death anymore. Next time—”
“You’re worried about me?” He sounded surprised and amused.
She pulled her hand away and felt a sense of loss with him no longer touching her. “That’s the best I can do,” she said as she started to put the first-aid kit away. He grabbed her hand again to stop her.
“Admit it. You care about me. Come on, Blaze. It’s just you and me here. Be honest.”
She studied him for a long moment. “I don’t like seeing you hurt.”
“Is that all?”
“Jake—”
He looked down at her hand in his. “Why is it so hard for you to admit how you feel about me? I’ve told you repeatedly that I love you.”
“You and I...” She didn’t know how to finish. The passion had always been there. If anything it was stronger than she remembered it. “We’re like oil and water. It would never work. I’m too headstrong and you’re too...” She shook her head and started to pull away again, but he was on his feet, reaching out to draw h
er back.
“There’s something we need to get straight,” he said, his big hands cupping her shoulders. “I love how independent you are and I’m fine with letting you take the lead on just about everything. But,” he said as he drew her closer and lowered his voice. The timbre of it echoed in the hollow of her chest, making goose bumps ripple across her skin. “Don’t think for a minute that I won’t rein you in to save your life. I might seem too easygoing to you, but, Blaze, I’m still a man. There are still times when I will run the show.” He moved a hand to the back of her neck and pulled her to him, dropping his mouth to hers.
She put up a struggle but only long enough to assuage her pride. He backed her against the wall and, reaching down, lifted her skirt to trail his fingerprints up her thigh to her panties. She let out a gasp as he reached under the warm silk to touch her most intimate spot, making her shudder as her knees went weak.
She threw her head back to give him access to her throat as he nibbled his way down to the rise of her breasts, thumbing one button after another to reach an aching nipple. As his fingers moved under her skirt, he dropped his mouth to the hardened tip of her breast and sucked hard. She let out a cry of pure pleasure and pressed herself against him, desperately needing the release he promised.
Feeling him grimace in pain as she jarred his injured ribs, she was reminded that he was badly beaten. “Can you do this?” she asked.
He chuckled as he released her hard nipple from his mouth and raised his head. “I could make love to you on my deathbed. Never doubt that.” He let go of her and stepped back. “My injuries aren’t why we aren’t making love tonight,” he said as he walked back over to where he’d left his boots and began to pull them on.
