Timing

by Mary Calmes

  I smiled up at him as he tangled his hand in my hair. “The help?”

  “Yep.” He chuckled before giving my ass a hard slap and strolling out of the room. I was left with Candace staring at me with huge eyes and a dumbfounded Tristan beside her.

  “Sorry, he’s kind of a jerk.”

  Candace pointed after him. “Rand’s gay?”

  Technically Rand was bi, but I didn’t have time to answer her before the door swung open again and the man in question returned. I was grabbed hard from behind, arms wrapping around my waist tightly. I smiled crazily as he pressed against my back before rubbing his chin on my shoulder.

  “You smell so good,” he said gruffly, his face pressed against the side of my neck, nuzzling, his hands slipping under my shirt, clutching at my bare skin.

  It was hard to concentrate with him so close to me. I got that almost queasy feeling in my stomach.

  “Rand?” Candace said.

  My head rolled back on my shoulders as my jeans tightened uncomfortably. His effect on me was instant. He burned me up.

  “Hi,” Rand said cheerfully as he pressed a hand against my stomach. “He’s mine, did he tell you?”

  I recovered enough to look up, tried to smile even as Rand pressed his groin into my ass. The movement sent an electric shock through my entire body. I realized then that we should have just stayed in bed all day. This thing, whatever it was between us, was still too new for us to be capable of socializing. We needed to be alone because I was on sensory overload.

  “You’re his boyfriend?” Tristan asked, giving me a look.

  “Yeah.” I smiled lazily, loving the feel of his hands on me. “It’s new.”

  “I had no idea that… does Dad know?”

  “Sure,” I said cheerfully.

  “Yeah, he knows.” Rand laughed, kissing my ear before letting me go. “Everyone knows this man belongs to me,” he finished before walking back out of the kitchen.

  “Oh my God,” Candace breathed out. “I feel so stupid.”

  “Don’t,” I told her. “He’s hot as hell—if I were you, I’d want a little of that myself.”

  Her smile was huge as she grabbed my hand. “You’re very charming, and now that I know I have no possible chance with your boyfriend—can I help you?”

  “That’d be great.” I grinned at her.

  We both looked over at Tristan. He said nothing before he left the room.

  “So,” I teased her, “tell me all about yourself.”

  I had more fun talking to Candace than I had her brother. When we called everyone in to dinner, having set up the food like a buffet, they were all appreciative. I took plates out to Chris and Paul, who had relieved Everett and Dustin, and told them to call over to the bunkhouse to see if anyone else wanted to eat. When I was back in the kitchen, Rand appeared at my side. Turning to look at him, I realized for the hundredth time how beautiful his eyes were.

  “What?” he asked me after a minute of silence.

  “Nothing,” I said, smiling at him. “I think I need to go back to bed.”

  “Okay.” He grinned at me even as his eyes clouded.

  “What’s wrong?”

  He looked suddenly like he wanted to be anywhere but with me.

  “Rand?”

  Deep sigh from him. “This ain’t gonna work.”

  “What won’t?”

  “This. I can’t play at this because I want it so bad.”

  Without warning, my choice was upon me.

  He took a breath and dived in. “You can’t make it so being here without you will be bad for me. I can’t take that; I can’t feel like that in my own home. Jenny wasn’t able to do that, to make me hate the ranch, because I never felt like she fit here. Every day after we were married, she was miserable standing in this kitchen, talking to the men, even riding beside me… she wanted to run away, and instead she ended up marrying her jailer.”

  He had actually done the digging I had thought he’d missed.

  “Jenny hated how we were together because she didn’t want anything to do with me. She needed everything to be bad so she would have a reason to go. She didn’t want to enjoy being in bed with me because she never wanted to stay. She hated ranch life, but her family an’ friends all thought it was in her blood. I saw that after we were married, knew she wanted to be gone, so I made it easy for her and let her blame it on me.”

  No doubt about it, Rand Holloway was a very good man.

  “But now I see how it was supposed to be.”

  I swallowed down the emotions welling up inside me, realizing that suddenly, without warning, I was in the middle of a life-making or life-breaking decision.

  “You, Stef… you make me love my home more,” he whispered, his voice going out on him, “because whether you know it or not… you love it here.”

  I could only stare at him.

  “You’re so beautiful, Stef… and cold and hard and fiercely independent… it’s scary how careful you are not to need anybody.”

  He was right, I was very careful with my heart.

  “But this mornin’ when you first opened your eyes and looked at me, just for a second before you remembered that you’re supposed to be on your guard with me… the trust that was there… Jesus, Stef. Your eyes were so soft and the way you look at me, the way you always do, like I’m a gift… how could I not be in? How could I not want you right here with me?”

  He was going to kill me.

  “I love you Stef,” he exhaled, “and it’s killin’ me.”

  I had no idea what to do.

  “After just one day of your smell on my sheets, of your hair in my face, of you biting my bottom lip when you don’t want the kiss to end… I don’t want to live without it.”

  “Rand—”

  “Just…. I love touching your skin. I love how rough I can be with you in bed and how gentle you are with me, and I love how you feel inside when we—”

  “Okay,” I cut him off, having trouble breathing.

  “What? You know that you were made for me.”

  He was right: together, in bed, we were amazing.

  “So I need you to stay. Will you stay?”

  This thing with us was a minute old, and I had no idea if it was real or just a lifetime of crazy, mixed-up desire.

  “I know I said I would settle for you comin’ back after a week, but I don’t think I can.” His voice cracked, deserted him.

  I turned to face him, and he put his hands on my shoulders.

  “Think hard now,” he said before he bent and kissed my forehead.

  Seconds later, I watched him walk out the door.

  IF I thought about Rand, I would lose my mind, so I went upstairs to check my e-mail and see if I had a response from anyone about Knox. There was nothing. When my phone rang, I answered it without looking.

  “Stef.”

  “Holy shit,” I breathed out. It was unbelievable that my boss was just somehow on the phone. “Where the hell are you?”

  “I need to see you—talk to you. I’m in trouble.”

  “In trouble for what?”

  “I’d rather not say on the phone.”

  “I’m sorry, is this a party line? Are you worried about your phone being tapped or—”

  “No, I just—”

  “Just fire me already, because this is bullshit. Donna said she hasn’t heard from you in a week.”

  “You talked to Donna?”

  “Well, yeah. I mean, if I can’t get ahold of my boss, then I need to call my boss’s boss to try an’ get some goddamn answers! What the fuck is going on?”

  He didn’t answer for so long I was tempted to check and see if he was still there.

  “I’m in trouble.”

  “Yeah, I figured, because in four years of working for you, this is the first time I ever couldn’t get ahold of you.”

  “Shit.”

  I changed tactics. “Please tell me what’s going on.”

  He cleared his throat. “
Just come see me.”

  “Fine. Where are you?”

  He explained about the motel where he was and how he needed to talk to me and that if he didn’t, he was sure he was going to completely lose it. The strained, broken sound of the man’s voice, normally so filled with absolute confidence and conviction, scared me to death.

  “It’s okay,” I soothed him, grabbing a hoodie, pulling it on, and zipping it up. Everything seemed to be taking forever. I felt like I was moving underwater. “It’ll be all right. Whatever’s wrong, we’ll figure it out, okay?”

  He sucked in a breath. “Okay.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  I knew Rand would never understand me going to see my boss alone, so I left him a quick note and went out the back door, around the side of the house. Because everyone was eating and talking, there was no one on the porch. I got to my rental car, put the car in neutral, and rolled it a quarter of the way down the long drive. When I was sure I was far enough away from the house that I couldn’t be followed, I started the engine but left the lights off. I navigated by the moon to the highway, and almost the second I turned off of Rand’s property, my phone rang.

  “Why can’t I hear your phone ring from somewhere in my house?” Rand asked me, his voice cold and hard.

  “My boss called, and he needs to see me.”

  “Fine, come back and get me.”

  “That’s not a good idea.”

  “I think it is.”

  “I need to see him alone, Rand.”

  “I can’t believe you’d sneak off the ranch, and even worse—”

  “I can’t believe I did either,” I said, the weight of what I’d done suddenly hitting me. “Holy shit, since when and in what realm of the imagination am I scared of you?”

  “Stef—”

  “Fuck me.” I caught my breath. “I honestly care about what you think of me…. I didn’t want you to be mad.”

  “Stef—”

  “Shit… I think I love you.”

  The coughing was instant and loud. “You what?”

  “You heard me. Goddammit, when did that happen?”

  He was still coughing, sounding more and more like he was choking. “Stef… tell me.”

  “This is bullshit, I refuse to do this over the phone—it’s a cop-out because it’s easier, since I don’t have to look at you. I wanna tell you to your face.”

  “Tell me what?”

  “That I love you, asshole, have you not been listening?”

  The laughter was warm and made it hard for me to breathe. “Jesus, Stef, don’t sound happy about it or nothin’.”

  Just saying the words out loud settled things for me. It was like I had blurted out the vault of my heart. “I don’t wanna give up my life, Rand, I still wanna be me.”

  “No one says you gotta give up any part of bein’ you. Why would I want that?”

  “I won’t work on that ranch.”

  “All right.”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay.”

  “Okay then, tell me where you’re meetin’ your boss,” he demanded.

  So I did.

  THE MOTEL was small with rooms to rent by the hour, and that was strange for me, as my boss always did five stars or nothing. What in the world was going on? The man who answered the door when I knocked looked nothing like the man I knew. It was like he was in disguise, covered in stubble and wearing jeans and flannel. I was absolutely floored.

  “What the hell?” I asked him as he yanked me into the room, roughly shoving me sideways so he could lock the door. As I turned to face him, it was only then I saw the gun. “Seriously, Knox, what the fuck?”

  His smile was fast and finally reminded me of whom I was looking at. “Remember how I always tell you that you’re so loyal that you would take a bullet for me?”

  I was suddenly freezing.

  “Well, today we both get to test my theory,” he said, looking past me at the same time I heard someone behind me. Then there was only black.

  Chapter 10

  I HATE the smell of gasoline. Some people like it; I’ve never been a fan. When I tried to lift my hand to cover my nose, I found that I couldn’t move at all. Opening my eyes, I realized that I was pinned to the floor by a man twice my size. The wide-open sightless eyes made me cry out, and, shoving out from under him, I scrambled back against the wall.

  “Scared?”

  Looking up, I saw my boss with an empty gas can in one hand and the same gun he had earlier in the other.

  “That’s Cole Gypsum, if you care. He was my partner in this little adventure. I would have blamed it all on him without you, but I realized that it would have made no sense to people and so they would have searched for the logic. Looking for a connection would have led to me. But with you here, the connection’s made, so… no need to do any digging.”

  His pupils were huge, dilated—he didn’t look well. It was like the man I knew was gone, having left a walking, talking shell in his place.

  “What did you do?”

  “I needed the money.”

  “What money?”

  “Were you always this stupid? I never thought of you as stupid.”

  I clicked through what I knew before I looked around and saw where I was: in Mrs. Freeman’s living room. “Oh shit, Knox.”

  “It made so much sense. I mean, these people are the salt of the earth, right? Every cowboy movie I ever saw… you never sell the ranch to city slickers. We’re the bad guys, they’re the good guys, so no way they sell.”

  “But they did—at least some of them did.”

  “Yes.” He let out a deep breath. “They all decided to sell.”

  “Except Mrs. Freeman.”

  He smiled at me. “She was the last holdout. She was my angel… as long as she didn’t sell, no one would need the money, and if no one needed it—”

  “Then no one would realize that it was gone.”

  “Precisely.”

  It was quite a revelation. The money to pay the people who had decided to sell their ranches had been stolen by my boss. Knox Bishop had embezzled over five million dollars from his company, my company, and no one had any clue.

  “How did you do it?”

  “It’s just a question of moving funds around until people lose track.”

  “They will find it, Knox.”

  “No one’s looking for it, Stef. There’s no reason to. No one is selling their ranches.”

  “But when they find out that Mrs. Freeman died, they’re going to want the money back.”

  “Yes. And this is where you and my dead partner come in.”

  Shit. “When did you take it?”

  “I took it a year ago, when we started this venture. The money was there, this surplus given to us by Armor South, and no one was watching it.”

  “Someone was.”

  “Yeah, me,” he said cheerfully. “It was my project; I was supposed to get the buyers to sell and pay them out so Armor South could build their Green Light megastore.”

  “What did you do with all that money?”

  He was pacing now. “I have debts and expenses and a life that you have no idea about, Stef. You just… you have no idea.” There was a wistful quality in his voice.

  “Why kill Mrs. Freeman?”

  “I had to,” he admitted. “You told me yourself on the phone last night—or the night before, I don’t remember—but you said that she was going to sell. It’s actually the reason I sent you. I knew if she would sell to anyone it would be you. I tested her, and I was right. Everyone loves you, Stef, I knew she wouldn’t be able to resist you.”

  “But—”

  “Or maybe she could.” He smirked. “That was the point, right? She would either hold out and I’d be safe, or she’d cave and I’d come out here and kill you both and make it look like you embezzled the money and killed poor old Mrs. Freeman to save your own ass.”

  It was terrifying, the power of money
. I had known Knox Bishop for four years, since I had started at Chaney Putnam, and I had never even seen a glimmer of the evil that lurked just below the surface. The man had been a friend to me; we had pulled countless all-nighters brainstorming together, and when he was in a skiing accident, I had visited practically every day. We had so many memories between us, sometimes just a shared look could bring on raucous laughter. I would miss him.

  “Stef?”

  I tipped my head at the gun in his hand. “So you’re just gonna shoot me?”

  “Yes,” he said at the same time I saw the butane lighter. “And then I’m going to set fire to this house with you and Cole in it.”

  I shivered hard.

  “For the record, Stef, I never wanted to hurt you. I prayed that Mrs. Freeman wouldn’t sell, and so you know… Cole killed Mrs. Freeman, not me.”

  What was I supposed to say?

  “He’s also the one who tried to run you off the road.”

  “Why kill Cole?” I stalled him, watching him play with the lighter, flip it open and closed over and over.

  “Cole wanted more than we said at first.” He sighed heavily. “He gambled a lot.”

  I looked up at the man hovering close to me. “Why can’t you just run away and disappear, Knox? I mean, all the money that you took… you’ve gotta be able to live off of that for the rest of your life, right?”

  “I told you already,” he said sadly. “It’s all gone.”

  “It can’t all be gone.”

  “Enough of it is. I need my job, and with you gone, I can start over, make a clean start like none of this ever happened.”

  I got slowly, carefully, to my feet. “I don’t think you really want to hurt me.”

  “No, I don’t,” he said flatly, leveling the gun at me. “But I have no one else. Cole’s dead, and it has to be you two in it together.”

  I felt like I was underwater as he flipped the lighter on and casually tossed it into the corner. In an instant, one side of the living room went up in flames. The fire spread to the curtains, the bookcases, and the beautiful antique rocking chair. It made me sad to think of Mrs. Freeman’s home burning to the ground, her whole life, her photographs, her children’s baby books, recipes, handwritten notes…. It was all going to be ashes, and her children would have nothing but their memories.