Tempting Fate

by Stacy Finz

  “He’s got practice.”

  “Okay.” He dialed Em just as Cody came up to the door.

  “Hi, Mr. Matthews.”

  “Hey, Cody. I’m checking with Emily to see about giving you a ride home.” He held up his hand. “Em, I’m at the school, and Cody’s here. You want me to run him home for you?”

  “It’s out of your way.”

  “So? I’ve got nothing else to do.”

  “Then yes. It would really help me out, because I’m running late.”

  “No problem.” He hung up and motioned for both kids to get in the car.

  “Where’s Kristy?” Harper asked.

  “She had to work, honey.” It wasn’t a complete lie. The last thing he wanted was for Harper to think they were fighting because of her. “You buckled in, Cody?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He pulled out and took the back road to McCreedy Ranch. It was a pretty drive, and he enjoyed listening to Harper and Cody talk about school and their friends. He’d missed out on a significant part of her life, and to have her back, to hear her chatter about her day…well, he didn’t want to miss a minute more.

  “Hey, Cody, you interested in joining us tomorrow? We’re planning to check out Glory Junction, maybe grab sandwiches at that bakery everyone talks about and spend an hour or two skating.” A couple of the resorts had outdoor rinks.

  Drew watched in his rearview mirror as Cody checked something on his phone.

  “I think I can rearrange my schedule,” he said, and Drew had to stifle a laugh. The boy had charm. Both of Clay’s sons were good kids; they adored Harper and looked out for her. “Thanks for inviting me, Mr. Matthews.”

  “Hey, Cody, you can just call me Drew.”

  “Okay.”

  When they got to the top of Emily’s driveway, two big dogs came out to greet them. Cody opened the door and shooed them away. In the beginning, when they’d first brought Harper to the ranch, she’d been cautious of the animals. Now, she got out of the car, scratched one of the dog’s heads, and ran up the front porch stairs.

  “I’ll be right back,” she called.

  “Thanks for the ride.” Cody took off after her, his backpack flapping up and down.

  A few seconds later Clay came out and waved. “You want to come in, have a cup of coffee or a soda? Emily ran to the store.”

  Drew got out of the car. He didn’t want to be antisocial, but he was anxious to spend what was left of the day with Harper. “Thanks for the invite, but I’m fine.” He gazed up at the clear blue sky. “Beautiful day.”

  “Yep, we’ve been enjoying mild weather for a change.” Clay came down from the porch and joined Drew on the driveway. “Thanks for bringing Cody home.”

  “My pleasure.” Other than the kids, they didn’t have a lot to talk about. Drew didn’t know anything about ranching or livestock, and he assumed Clay wasn’t all that interested in Internet law. “Emily told me about the possibility of a motorcycle park going in near the ranch. If you’re looking for an attorney, I might be able to recommend someone.”

  Clay nodded. “I appreciate it. Flynn Barlow, another neighbor who will be affected, is a lawyer, and I think he’s talking to someone about representing us. In the meantime, we’re appealing to the city, hoping they’ll block it.”

  From everything Drew had heard from Emily, Clay McCreedy held a lot of influence in Nugget. His family was one of the original founders, and his cattle ranch was one of the largest in Northern California. Drew’s money was on Clay and his neighbors coming out on top.

  Harper came out. She’d changed out of her school clothes into exercise pants, a sweater, and sneakers and was toting a small suitcase.

  “Honey, you already have stuff at my house.” Harper was a bit of clotheshorse, changing outfits a few times a day. Her closet at the Sierra Heights house was just about full.

  “I know, but I don’t have anything at your house to wear skating.”

  Clay smothered a smile and ruffled Harper’s hair. “You have a good time.”

  “Tell Cody we’ll pick him up at ten,” Drew said, and loaded Harper’s case in the trunk.

  When they hit the main road he said, “I talked to your mom today, and we both agreed you could take care of Raylene’s horse.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Seriously. But only if you keep up your schoolwork and don’t let it interfere with your after-school programs.”

  “I will and it won’t, I promise. Can we go to the barn and see Gunner? Please?”

  “Sure. But let’s stop home first, drop off your stuff and get a snack. What do you think of having dinner out?”

  “Can we go to the Bun Boy?”

  “Great minds think alike.” He draped his arm around Harper’s shoulder. “Kristy’ll be jealous.”

  But when they got home her BMW was parked in the driveway. Something told him her surprise visit wasn’t going to be good.

  Chapter 18

  “Do you know how crazy this is?” Gabe wanted to throttle Raylene until she came to her senses. “Let the police handle this.”

  “It’s my land, and I’m not letting anyone get my gold.” She filled her thermos with coffee.

  “Is there another one?” He started searching through Annie’s cupboards for a second thermos. It looked like he was doing surveillance tonight. “And we’re taking my SUV; it’s more comfortable.”

  “Who said anything about you going?”

  He stopped rummaging through the cabinets and threw her some shade. “Don’t be one of those people.”

  “What people are you referring to?”

  “The kind who try to act all badass when they’re clearly out of their league.” No thermos, but he found a travel mug. He took the coffeepot from her and filled the tumbler. “Give me ten minutes to get supplies.” Including his Sig and NVGs. He planned to see the bad guys before the bad guys saw them.

  He spun her around. “Stay put, you hear?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re bossier than anyone I know.”

  And she was the biggest pain in the ass. This was supposed to be his friggin’ vacation. He drove to L&G instead of walking, to save time. He collected his trusty Stingray to track cell phones in the area and a Range-R radar device in case he wound up chasing the dirtbags. Using radio waves, the detector could pinpoint even the slightest motion inside a building from fifty feet away. Gabe gathered up a few other necessities and hightailed it back to the house, fearful that Raylene would leave without him and blow any chance of going in quietly and staying out of sight. No, she’d be more like a bull in a china shop, as his mother liked to say. And these people had the potential to be dangerous, especially if they were connected to that homicide in Utah. The whole thing was a mystery, and he wasn’t about to let Raylene go charging in like Wonder Woman.

  He found her waiting on the porch with enough gear to go camping for a week. “What the hell is that?” He pointed at two quilts she’d obviously heisted from the house as she tossed them in his back seat.

  “In case we get cold.”

  He laughed. “Did you bring your horsey jammies, too?”

  She got in the front seat and socked him in the arm. “Just for that, I’m not sharing.” Raylene held up a small ice chest.

  “What’s in there?” He tried to lift the lid, but she slapped his hand away.

  “Food, and it’s all for me.”

  “We’ll see about that. Buckle up, buttercup.” He stepped on the gas and took a shortcut to Raylene’s property.

  “What are you doing? This isn’t the way we go.”

  “It’s the way I go, because we’re parking over at Rosser Ranch. Up on that knoll right behind your land. There’s a water tower there, and I figure we can take cover behind it and still have a clear vantage point if anyone comes back to Rancho Raylene ton
ight.”

  “Flynn will run us off his property with a shotgun if he finds out.”

  “He’ll run you off, not me. He likes me. I’m not trying to depreciate his property values with a motocross track.” He flashed her a tight grin.

  “I’m not building a motocross track. I’m selling my land to folks who made me an honest offer. He’s a big-deal lawyer. He can fight it, or he can buy the property himself. Here’s an idea: if it’s such a problem for Lucky, Clay, and Flynn, why don’t they go in together and buy it from me?”

  “Maybe they don’t want to be jacked up like that.”

  “Look, my father got a variance for the land a long time ago that would let it be used for something other than agriculture. They should’ve raised a fuss then, or raised the funds to buy the land. What am I supposed to do, let them determine who can and who can’t buy my property?”

  He shrugged, because she made a valid point, yet he sympathized with the neighbors. Having a motorcycle track in your backyard would suck.

  He pulled off the road and cut across a field, bouncing every time his tires hit a rut. Good thing for all-wheel drive. Raylene didn’t seemed phased by it, and he figured she’d probably taken similar routes to look after her father’s cattle.

  “Kind of reminds me of the terrain in the Hindu Kush,” he said, remembering the years he spent near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

  “Was it hellish?”

  “Not a lot of creature comforts.” He didn’t really know how to answer that question. It was war. He lost friends, saw people get blown up, and watched a lot of brothers go home forever changed. But he was proud of what they’d accomplished and how he’d served his country.

  “Do you miss it?”

  The truth was he was still doing a lot of the same kinds of missions as a contractor. They were just more under the radar. But he missed the camaraderie of the teams. He still had Logan, though. His brother from another mother. “Nah, all the red tape was a drag. And the money is better in contract work.”

  “Do you ever think of doing something less dangerous?”

  “What’s up, Ray, you worried about me?” He slid her a sideways glance.

  “Definitely about Logan. You?” She shrugged. “So what happened with the pregnant girlfriend after she lost the baby?”

  “Nothing I want to talk about. Let’s talk about you instead. You find someone to take care of your horse?”

  “I sure did. Harper’s on.”

  “Nice. I guess you’ll be leaving soon.” Finally, his babysitting duties would come to an end. Somehow, he couldn’t work up the relief he knew he should be feeling. Raylene was a royal pain in the butt, but she kept things interesting. Sleeping with her had been wrong on a dozen levels, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to do it again.

  “As soon as I find the gold.”

  “Then you must be staying for good.”

  She jabbed him with her finger. “Why do you think our trespasser dug at the top of the property?”

  “Beats the hell out of me. You think he’s onto something?” he asked, half mocking. The other half of him had wondered the same thing. From his reading of the map, such as it was, the gold had been buried at the other end.

  “It’s funny, because my plan this morning was to try my luck exactly where the trench was dug.”

  “Are you sure the map never got out?”

  “How do you mean? Like publicized in an article or something?”

  “Or Ray maybe gave it to other people. Any chance your ex is somehow involved in that trench?”

  “I doubt it,” she said. “He knew about Levi’s Gold but, like you, he thought the story was bogus. Otherwise he wouldn’t have given up his rights to the property.”

  Gabe wasn’t a hundred percent convinced. From everything he’d heard about Butch, the man was the picture of self-entitlement. If he thought there were any riches to be found, he’d want to get there first—before Raylene sold the land.

  Gabe pulled up behind the water tower, found a few trees for camouflage, and parked his vehicle there. If he climbed up on the tower he could see clear to Nevada. Below sat Raylene’s two hundred-acre parcel with a bird’s-eye view of the trench. Gabe suspected the digger would be back to finish the job.

  “I’d forgotten about this spot.” Raylene handed him the travel mug and poured herself a cup of coffee from her thermos. “I used to play here sometimes and pretend the tower was a fort. Ray caught me climbing up the tank once, and said if he ever saw me doing it again he’d tan my hide.”

  There was a ladder, but the top of the tank was a good distance from the ground. A little kid could do some serious damage, or even die, falling from that kind of height.

  “I’m going to climb up and have a look,” he said, and jumped down from the driver’s seat to scope out the area.

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea in the dark.” Raylene got out, too, hugging her arms around herself to ward off the cold.

  He winked. “I operate best in the dark.” Just to prove it, he climbed the ladder like a monkey. With the night-vision goggles, he could see as far as the McCreedy ranch, including a few cattle grazing in the distance. But no suspicious gold diggers lurking around. He stayed up long enough to get a lay of the land, then took the ladder down.

  “Well?” Raylene asked.

  “Nothing yet. Get back in the truck before you turn into an icicle.” She’d at least dressed warmly, with a bulky sweater under her ski jacket. Those signature tight jeans, hugging that outstanding ass of hers. And the boots, which practically glowed in the dark. “Turquoise isn’t a color I would’ve picked for a stakeout.”

  Her eyes fell to her feet. “I guess I should’ve gone with the black ones, but these go better with the jacket.”

  “Yeah, I hate when my camo clashes with my footwear.”

  She laughed. “Are you ever serious?”

  Only when he had to be. He opened the passenger side door and motioned for her to get in, then went to the base of the tower, crouched down, and scanned Raylene’s land from that angle.

  “It’s still early,” he said as he climbed into the SUV and removed his NVGs. “I suspect if anyone returns it’ll be past midnight. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Rhys or Jake was here doing exactly the same thing as us.”

  “Wouldn’t they have told us?”

  “Nope.”

  She grabbed one of the blankets and wrapped it around her.

  “Cold? I’d turn on the heat, but I don’t want the sound of the engine to scare anyone away.”

  “It’s okay.” She reached behind her. “You want the other one?”

  “I’m good.” Being in such close proximity to Raylene was as good as a bonfire. She warmed his blood. He tried to remind himself that touching her flame meant third-degree burns. “You might want to catch some sleep; we’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

  “It’s only nine.”

  “In surveillance situations, you sleep whenever you can. Go ahead, I’ll take the first watch.”

  “I’m not tired.”

  He didn’t argue with her. Realistically, he was going to be the one to do this. No way was he letting her climb up on the water tank in the pitch black.

  He leaned his chair back. “Then tell me a story.”

  “I’ve told you enough stories. You tell me one.”

  “PG or X?” The fact was he had sex on the mind, which was a first on a stakeout.

  “About your life,” she said.

  “Then definitely X.”

  Even in the dark, he could see her roll her eyes. “Besides your Jersey girl, you ever have a serious girlfriend?”

  “Nope. Was sort of busy fighting a couple of wars. Why you so interested in my love life?”

  “I don’t know, it’s something to talk about.” She
was quiet for a while, then said, “I think you’d make a good boyfriend.”

  “You asking me to go steady, Ray?”

  “Hell no. See this?” With her finger she drew an imaginary circle around her face. “Man-free zone.”

  He laughed. “Didn’t seem like that a few nights ago.”

  “That was just meaningless sex.”

  “Ah, you trying to hurt my feelings?” He said it sarcastically, but her words had hurt his male pride. Meaningless was even worse than ho-hum, which he definitely wasn’t. A slew of frog hogs could vouch for that.

  “Oh, come on. It didn’t mean anything to you either. But when it does…I mean with someone else…you’ll be the loyal, doting type.”

  He wasn’t going to correct her about their night together, but it had meant more than she thought. Quite frankly, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. About her. “What makes you so sure that I’m such a prize?”

  “This, for one thing.” She wagged her hand at him and the outside. “Sitting up all night, waiting to nab a trespasser…this is above and beyond. I know it’s for Logan, but it shows the extent of your dependability.”

  “Or maybe it just shows that I love doing shit like this, otherwise I wouldn’t have made it my profession. But keep going…tell me how great I am.” His lips ticked up.

  “You try to act like everything’s a big joke, but at the heart of it you’re a really good person. I’m sorry Jersey Girl lost your baby. You would’ve made a good dad, even if you were too young to start a family.”

  He didn’t say anything and let the statement sink in. “She lost the baby because she took sleeping pills—an entire vial. Her sister found her unconscious and called 9-1-1, but by the time the ambulance got her to the hospital, she was dead.” He didn’t talk about it. Not then, not later, not ever until now, because he wasn’t a good boyfriend. Not even close. “She didn’t want to have the baby, but I pressured her to go through with it. I didn’t even love her…jeez, we were barely eighteen. Who knows what love is at that age? We grew up together, came from the same neighborhood, same Italian families. Back then, I thought it was enough to get married and raise our baby together. But she knew better. She knew I was dooming her to a life of unhappiness.”