by Lucy Kelly
“It was really bothering me. I couldn’t understand how anyone could act so dishonorably, especially to you. I’m happy to find out I didn’t cheat on you. As to the other stuff, you said the computer sent out a distress call. We’ll just have to wait to see who shows up. I have a great excuse for not calling in with my memory gone. I don’t see any reason why we can’t get married on Monday as planned,” he said. As far as he was concerned, it was all settled.
“Does that mean you forgive me for lying to you? I didn’t behave very honorably. I would understand if you wanted to leave,” she said.
“Your grandfather left you in an untenable situation. The betrayal of this man, Jake, damaged your faith. I can understand your attempt to save your ranch. You could have told me the truth after the wedding. You told me today. You are an honorable woman, Marla Jones,” he said.
“I’m sorry for falling apart like that. I guess I’ve been more stressed out than I thought.” She stood in front of him and took a deep breath and then another one. “Yes, I will marry you on Monday. Whew, I can’t believe I’ve been so lucky to have you fall into my life, literally.”
“The luck has been all mine. Now, how about some dinner? I need to build up my strength so I can make love to you all night,” he said, pleased to see her answering smile. “I know I said I’d help you cook dinner. However, I’d like to take Rusty and do a tour around the property. Those two men most likely won’t come back, especially not so soon. Just to be safe, since we’ve been gone for a large chunk of the day and people know we’ve been gone, I want to check everything over. I also want to take another look at the invisible craft in the hay barn. Or at least touch it a little. Maybe it will help me with my memory.”
Marla felt another wave of guilt. “I’m so sorry. I keep saying that, but I really am sorry. I haven’t done anything to help you get your memory back, and you’ve done so much for me. I’m too short and too fat. You really could have any woman you wanted. You even signed the pre-nup. I am an awful, horrible person.”
Karlo had walked toward the door. Now he turned back to her. She had taken a seat at the table in the kitchen. She looked so dejected, slumped over in the chair.
“Marla, I don’t like to speak badly of your grandfather. He and your grandmother raised a wonderful and beautiful woman of ability and strength. You must have been so scared about losing the ranch. You’ve worked so hard, doing all the work alone for so long. Even after a betrayal by one who should have been your greatest comfort, you didn’t let it crush you. Then when a stranger dropped into your life, asking for sanctuary, instead of calling the police you took me in. How can you not understand how special you are?” he asked as he knelt in front of her.
He picked up her hand with one of his own and turned her face to his own with the other. “Lastly, you are the perfect size and the perfect shape for me. Didn’t I show you only a short time ago? Do you need me to give you another example of my lust for you? My plan to make love to you all night wasn’t a joke. I really do plan to keep my promise,” he told her with a wide grin and a wink, raising and lowering his eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion. They had watched a movie, and the actor had done that and she had laughed. He wanted her to laugh now.
Leaning forward, he began kissing her, overpowering her. He had something to prove. She needed to believe and trust in the passion he had for her. When he felt her response, he pulled back a little. He took her hand and placed it between his legs.
“Feel what you do to me? All I need is to be near you and this happens. I adore all of your soft curves, so womanly, so sexy. Earlier, I only was able to explore you a little. Very soon now, I’ll be able to explore them all. I plan to memorize each and every part of you. I want to be able to notice every small change your body makes when it swells with my child.”
Marla’s eyes went round and she gasped. He wanted to have children with her?
“You don’t believe me. You wouldn’t look so surprised if you trusted what I was saying. I guess I’ll have to prove it to you. It’s a good thing we’re getting married on Monday. As your husband, I’ll have plenty of opportunities.”
He leaned forward and gave her another soul deep kiss.
Marla was reaching for his pants when her stomach growled. Then Karlo’s stomach made an answering noise and she giggled.
“I guess I should make dinner,” she said with a small smile pulling her hand away from his crotch.
“I’ll go out and walk my rounds. We’ll finish this later. Don’t plan on getting much sleep tonight,” he said, getting up.
Marla waited until he left. Then she counted to ten. She stood, whooped, and did a little happy dance around the room.
Chapter Seven
Karlo whistled for Rusty and the two of them left the house. The evening was breezy and he hoped it would help cool his blood. As he walked away from the house, he thought he heard a sound but when it didn’t repeat he kept walking.
He wanted to head straight to the hay barn. He made himself head to the machine shed. Along with her tractor, she kept an ATV. Using it, he could tour the entire ranch in less than an hour. He would swing by the hay barn after his sweep.
Forty-five minutes later, he’d done a circuit of the perimeter fence. He made note of one area where the fence had been damaged on the far side of the pasture. It’s possible they had damaged it during the fight with the fire. He made a mental note to take a closer look in the morning. In the meantime, he would double check on the animals and then head to the hay barn.
After putting the ATV in the machine shed, he and Rusty walked over to the corral. The alpacas had been bedded down when they had come home several hours ago. Now, though, they had left the shed and he couldn’t see them. Going through the gate, he approached the shed. There was something on the ground in the shed. Stepping closer, he saw it was a dead alpaca. The brown of the wool was mottled with the dark stain of spilled blood.
He heard rustling behind the shed. His head snapped up and all of his senses went on alert. Moving slowly, he crept around the side of the three-sided shed. Carefully looking around the back edge, he found the remaining alpacas. They had formed a tight formation using the fence and the shed as protection. He could see the baby alpaca or cria in the middle with the adult alpacas facing outward ready to defend.
Obviously, the presence of the dead alpaca was keeping the others tense and alert. Remaining in this state for extended periods would create unhealthy stress levels. He needed to move the body and get Marla to help calm the animals.
First, he closed the gates to the pasture. Neither was damaged, it was proof of more sabotage. He needed to open the gate to the ranch. He had to be careful removing the body. He didn’t want to deal with the other animals getting loose, and he could tell they weren’t happy staying in the corral right now. He wondered why they hadn’t run into the pasture. He answered his own question when he thought of the tight formation he saw. They wouldn’t be able to defend themselves so well in the large pasture. He was no longer concerned with the alpacas getting loose.
Running to the tool shed, he got a wheelbarrow, a rake, and a shovel, along with a sack of sawdust. After lifting the body into the wheelbarrow, he used the rake and shovel to remove any blood soaked straw and dirt. Last, he put down a layer of sawdust over the area. Finally, he left the corral with the body moving it downwind, so hopefully the animals would start to relax.
He briefly considered burying the body, then changed his mind. Jim Tucker might need to take a look at it.
By this time he’d been gone for more than an hour. Marla would be wondering where he was. He had never gotten a chance to look in the hay barn. It no longer seemed important. Catching whoever was trying to hurt Marla had to have all of his focus. He’d been doing fine without his memory for days. A distress signal had been sent. He decided not to split his focus. Marla was more important.
As he headed across the yard to the house, he thought about how to tell her she’d lost one of her
precious alpacas. He knew they meant more to her than a way to make money. Karlo entered through the mudroom and was instantly alert. The lights in the house were off and he could only see flickers of light coming from the kitchen. Fire!
“Marla!” he shouted, rushing into the room.
Marla jumped at the shout. Turning, she bobbled the pan she was holding, barely keeping it from falling to the floor. She put it down on the table.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Karlo looked at the table. Marla had put a cloth down and set the table with the plates she said had been her grandmother’s. There were also flowers. Gentle music was playing.
“I was worried when I saw the lights were out and noticed the flickers of the candle flames,” he said.
“Why would you assume something was wrong?” she asked, coming toward him. That’s when he noticed she was wearing a dress. He’d never seen her in a dress. She was beautiful.
“Karlo, you ran in here as if I were being attacked or something. Tell me what’s wrong?” she asked as she walked over to where he stood.
“Our saboteurs came back. They made a hole in the pasture fence and opened the gates to the corral from the pasture. One of the alpacas is dead. I think it’s the one you called Brownie. When I came in and saw the lights were out…”
“Brownie is dead?” Marla interrupted.
She walked away from him to stare out the window. She took some deep breaths.
When she turned, Karlo expected tears and they were there, in her eyes. She hadn’t allowed them to fall. Instead, he could see she had herself under control as she firmed and lifted her chin.
“I’m done with these assholes. Whatever we have to do, they are going down. I really mean it, Karlo. I’m up to here with this shit,” she said, holding her hand up to her head.
“I’m going to find out who’s doing this, Marla. I will stop them,” he vowed.
“Yes, and we’re not going to let these jerks give me—give us, one more second of pain. I’ll call the cops. Take a fast shower, dinner’s getting cold. I went to a lot of trouble to make us a nice romantic meal. They’re not going to ruin that too,” she said emphatically.
Karlo took a close look at her face. He could see she was still having trouble holding back the tears. If he took her in his arms, she wouldn’t be able to hold them back, and it was obviously important to her not to cry. He gave her a nod and moved toward the bedroom. He smiled and kept his expression blank. As soon as he was through the door, he allowed his anger to show.
The face he saw in the mirror when he entered in the bathroom was dark and scary. The ones responsible would be running in the opposite direction if they had seen it. Karlo was sure they would be seeing it soon. As he took off his clothes, he took some deep breaths the way Marla had done. He needed to calm done, both for her, and so he could think clearly.
He had a flash of memory. Someone, a woman, telling him to put all doors on lockdown. He tried to hold on to the memory, but it was gone. He let it go and went back to getting undressed. He had a special dinner to go to. He had just stepped in to the shower when Marla appeared at the bathroom door.
She blushed and then held out the phone. “Deputy Sheriff Tucker has some questions for you,” she said.
Karlo stepped back out of the shower. He didn’t bother with a towel. He’d be getting back under the water in a minute. Besides, he thought it was cute the way Marla got embarrassed about his nudity, especially after their lovemaking that afternoon. He took the phone and turned away, giving Marla a view of his backside.
“Sheriff Jim Tucker?”
“Hey, Karlo, Marla says one of her alpacas has been killed? Can you tell me what happened, what you found?” he asked.
This was going to take more than a moment. Karlo reached in and turned off the water as he started to go over everything that had happened.
Marla went back to the kitchen. She knew Karlo would be a few minutes. She decided to go out to the corral and check on her animals. When she reached the corral, they had moved from their protective formation and were walking around. She could tell they were still stressed. She started talking to them in a low, crooning voice. She saw their ears turn toward the sound, even as they remained alert. She kept speaking and after a minute, one of the females came over to the fence.
She talked to the alpacas for another ten minutes or so. When she saw that they were once again sitting, preparing to sleep, she left to go back to the house. When she entered the kitchen, Karlo was in the kitchen.
“I was about to start looking for you. I should have figured you’d want to check on your babies,” he said.
“They’re all doing fine now. Brownie’s baby and the other cria are old enough to be eating hay and grain. Otherwise, I’d have to start bottle-feeding Patches. I’ll keep an eye on him and make sure he’s okay. First thing in the morning, I’m going to contact some Komondor breeders. I should have done it when I got my first animals. It’s my fault Brownie’s dead.”
“You aren’t the one who opened the gates. Now let’s have our dinner, and you can tell me what a Komondor is,” said Karlo.
“I know I said I wasn’t going to let these creeps ruin anything else. But our dinner is already ruined. Everything is probably stone cold by now,” she said.
“Come on, Marla, we’re both hungry. I still plan to make love to you for what’s left of the night, so we’ll need our strength,” he coaxed.
He was determined to take care of Marla and give her whatever she needed. Right now, she needed to forget her troubles for a while.
Chapter Eight
Friday had been a stressful day. It had started out fine, and then there was the fire, bumping into her ex, dealing with the pre-nup, confessing her lies, fabulous sex, and the death of one of her alpacas, dinner, drama, and finally more fabulous sex. Anyone who said sex wasn’t stressful for a woman in this situation, well…they were obviously male.
They had been lying in bed, cuddling after another bout of loving, when the final stressor of the day hit. Her cell phone dinged to remind her she had an email. When she looked, there was an email from her lawyer. He had sent her a list of things she would need when they went for their marriage license on Monday, and also to let them know the time of their appointment with the judge to perform the ceremony.
What freaked her out was the list of requirements for the license. “Oh, God! We can’t get married,” Marla said, sitting up in the bed.
“What’s the matter? Why can’t we get married?” Karlo asked.
“We have to show photo identification to get married. Why didn’t I think of that? If you don’t have any ID, we can’t get married,” she said in a soft, resigned voice.
“So it’s something with my name and a picture of me on it? I have something like that. It was in my small bag you gave me. I didn’t need it for anything so I left it,” he said.
“What? Go get it. If it’s a real ID, it will have your address on it! We could find out about you. Got get it right now. Don’t you want to remember?” she asked him.
Karlo got out of bed. Heedless of his nudity, he walked to the closet and pulled his duffle down from the top shelf. He’d removed all the clothing, putting it away in the bureau. The only thing left inside was a thin card case. He took it out and after returning the duffle to the closet, he walked back to the bed. By the time he got there, Marla was grinning. He handed the card case to her.
“You never answered my question,” she said, opening the case. But before he could say a word, she’d opened the case and saw the two items inside. The second item she left alone. She picked up the ID.
“Aha! Now I know when your birthday is. You’re a Gemini and you’re…thirty-three years old. Your birthday’s in only a few weeks, so we’ll have to have a cake. According to this, you live in Wisconsin. We can send a letter to your address and see if someone answers. Or we can call the police in Wisconsin and have them drive out to your address, see if anyone is there.”
She handed the ID to Karlo and picked up the other card that had fallen face down. She’d never seen one before, yet she didn’t have any trouble recognizing it for what it was, an American Express Centurion Black card. On top of everything else, it really was too much.
“You’re rich! You’re filthy stinkin’ rich!” she shouted.
Karlo looked at her in puzzlement. “I don’t understand, is that bad?”
“No, it’s not bad. It just makes things a lot more complicated, that’s all. Come on, let’s go to sleep. Tomorrow we’ll send a letter to your home address, and on Monday, we’ll get married.”
She had said the right thing. Karlo didn’t make any additional attempts to discuss why wealth made things complicated. Instead, since they were awake, he convinced Marla he wasn’t tired enough to sleep. In fact, he set out to prove how very awake he felt, in all areas.
Marla and Karlo spent the weekend dealing with the authorities, making reports, and finding a breeder/trainer of Komondors. Oh, and they had lots and lots of sex, too.
Sunday night, Marla insisted on sleeping alone because they were getting married the next day. Karlo didn’t understand, he just went along with it because Marla wanted it. He did make sure to kiss her to the melting point before leaving her at the bottom of the stairs.
“Dream of me,” he said as he turned her around and gave her a little push. He was absurdly pleased that she was unable to speak and barely able to walk up the stairs. As he left the room, he sighed, because now he had his own hard problem to deal with.
The next morning after seeing to the animals, they left the ranch to drive into Boulder to get married. Her attorney had made an appointment with the judge to perform the ceremony for four o’clock in the afternoon. They had plenty of time to drive in, get their license, and then have lunch, maybe even do some shopping before they got married.
As they drove to Boulder, Marla thought about everything that had happened. Karlo had helped Marla through it all. He’d been her rock. She was still amazed he wanted to marry her. She knew Karlo had strong feelings for her. What she didn’t know is if what he felt was love or something else. He had a strong protective streak and she was in trouble. She was the only woman he knew, the only person he knew.
