Cowboy to the Core

by Joanna Wayne

  “Yet he owns a ranch.”

  “He inherited it from his grandfather. He’s the only grandson, and both his parents and his uncle are dead. His aunt Merlee had been running the place while he was away, but it got too much for her, and she’d sold off the livestock before he took over.”

  “But I heard you mention to the girls that there are horses here.”

  “Merlee kept some horses, but none of the cattle. Originally Cutter had planned to find work in Houston. He couldn’t hit upon anything to match the challenges he was used to—that is until he met Linney.”

  “So they’ve only recently married.”

  “Practically on their honeymoon. She was in deep trouble when he met up with her again. He barely saved her from being killed by a dirty cop. But that’s a story for another night.”

  “So Cutter decided to start the Double M Investigation and Protection Service.”

  “Right,” Marcus said. “To specialize in cases traditional law enforcement can’t or isn’t handling. He already owned the ranch, and his aunt couldn’t wait to turn it over to him so it was a natural headquarters. And Linney loves the ranching life. She’s already built up an impressive herd of beef cattle. So it’s kind of a win-win situation for Cutter.”

  “But not for you?”

  “It’s working. It’s just not my ranch.”

  “Were you ever married?”

  “Yep, and that’s definitely a story for another night.”

  She ate another couple of bites, then excused herself, picked up the plate with her half-eaten sandwich and carried it to the sink.

  Marcus refilled their glasses. “We could take these to the front porch and catch the midnight serenade by the tree frogs and crickets.”

  Marcus and her alone in the moonlight. Tempting, but she doubted it was a good idea. Soothed by the wine and the crickets, she might open up and say too much. As it was, she could drive home tomorrow and hopefully put all this behind her without openly acknowledging her psychic abilities.

  Marcus reached over and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I know I’ve said this a couple of times already, but you can trust me, Dani. I’m here to help, but my hands are tied when I don’t know what’s really going on.”

  She stared at her feet, avoiding looking into his penetrating eyes at all costs. “I’ve told you all I know.”

  “I don’t think you have.”

  “Don’t try to make more of this than there is, Marcus. I got caught up in a bad situation, but it’s over, at least my part of it is. It’s in the hands of the police now.”

  He trailed a finger down her arm and took her left hand in his. “I’d love to believe that.”

  “Then do. I really am tired. But thanks for everything, and I’ll write you a check in the morning for all your trouble.”

  “I don’t want a check. I want to help.”

  Help and get dragged into her vision-haunted life where she never knew whose problems might claim her next. “Good night, Marcus.” She was almost to the hallway door when the room began to spin and a frigid chill sank clear to her bones.

  Her heart seemed to swell and then shrink until it floated somewhere between the walls of her chest. Excruciating stabs of pain shot through her, but it was the fear that paralyzed her. Dani swayed and reached for something to hold on to.

  Two arms wrapped around her, and the haze slowly began to clear. When Dani snapped out of the trance, she tried to pull away from Marcus. He held her so tightly that she couldn’t escape.

  “Talk to me, Dani. Tell me what’s going on with you. Tell me what happened just now.” Anguish tore at his voice.

  Oh, no. Why was this happening to her now?

  But this time Dani was too frightened to lie to Marcus or to herself. She had to trust someone with the secret that was tearing her apart. “It’s the woman. He’s still going to kill her.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do.”

  “Not good enough.”

  She hadn’t thought that it would be. “Okay, Marcus. Let’s go to the porch, and I’ll try to explain. You should probably bring the rest of the wine.”

  Chapter Six

  Moonlight filtered through the trees, adding a slivery glow to the night, a striking contrast to the tumult ripping around inside Dani. The latest vision had been vague with no clear images to define it. The fear had been all too vivid and unmistakable.

  “I’ll tell you everything, Marcus, but first I have to call the hospital and check on Ella Somerville. I need to know if she’s alive and safe.”

  “I’ll get the number for you,” he said, leading her to a wooden porch swing. It creaked as she sat, and the noise grated along her nerves. It would take all the strength she could muster to see her through this.

  Marcus connected with the nurse’s desk for the ICU, then handed her the phone.

  “I’m calling to check on the condition of one of your patients who was brought in tonight,” she said. “Ella Somerville.”

  “Are you a family member?”

  “Yes,” she lied, afraid the truth would keep her from getting information.

  “Her condition is listed as critical but stable.”

  “Is anyone with her?”

  “Her boyfriend was here for a while. I believe he’s gone now. The doctor wants her to have complete quiet for the next twelve hours. She’s heavily sedated, and her vital signs are being continuously monitored. That’s all I can tell you at this point. You can call back in the morning for an update.”

  There had been no sign of a boyfriend when the ambulance had carried Ella away. Either the deputies or someone working the dinner party must have gotten in touch with him.

  Dani took a deep breath and released it slowly. Her heart settled into a steady beat. The vision had made the danger seem imminent, but apparently Ella was safe for now.

  Marcus dropped to the swing beside her, scooting close enough that she felt the brush of his thighs against hers. “Tell me what happened in the kitchen just now, Dani. The truth this time.”

  “You’d be better off to just drive me back to the B and B right now and forget you were ever foolish enough to hand me your card.”

  “Walking out on trouble’s not my style.” He snaked an arm across the back of the swing, letting his hand rest on her shoulder. Even in the midst of this hell, his touch stirred a hint of desire in her. If he felt the same chemistry, he’d forget it soon enough when she confessed her haunted secrets.

  She swallowed and gripped the chain on the swing so hard that it cut into her palm. “You’ll have to promise not to tell anyone what I’m about to tell you. That includes Cutter.”

  “Are you involved in something illegal or treacherous to America?”

  “No. Absolutely not. It’s nothing like that.”

  “Then I’ll respect client privilege. Whatever you tell me in confidence will stay just between the two of us.”

  “Are you sure? This can never leak out, not even to the police, Marcus. It has potential to ruin my career and affect my daughter’s happiness for the rest of her life.”

  “You’re scaring me a bit, here. But whatever is going on with you, we’ll deal with it together, in secret—with one exception.”

  “There can be no exceptions, Marcus.”

  “I can’t keep a secret if it comes to the point that it risks your life.”

  “If it comes to that, then I guess the secret won’t matter. But that’s the only exception.”

  “Deal.”

  She was probably going to live to regret this, but she’d have to take Marcus at his word. She gathered all her resolve.

  “I have abilities that the ordinary person doesn’t have. I sense things about people, sort of like a sixth sense. Sometimes I see visions of things that either have already happened or will happen in the future unless something or someone intercedes to stop them.”

  Marcus removed his arm from around her neck and shifted so that he was facing her.
His eyes were piercing, but confusion drew his mouth into tight, twisted lines. “Are you telling me that you’re a psychic?”

  “A psychic, a clairvoyant, a medium, whatever you want to call it.”

  “Then your nightmare was really some kind of paranormal prediction?”

  “Exactly.”

  “And what about when you fainted?”

  “I fell into a trance. The same as I did in your kitchen just now.”

  “How often does that happen?”

  “There’s no set pattern. Sometimes I go months without any type of extrasensory sensations. Other times, I get a run of psychic activity.”

  “The way you are now?”

  “Yes, except this is far more intense than what I’m used to. I’ve never fainted while in a trance before today. Normally if someone’s with me, they just think I’m daydreaming or that my mind’s somewhere else—which it is.”

  “Is intensity the only difference this time?”

  “No. The violence is new for me, as is having strangers involved. Those aren’t unusual psychic phenomena in and of themselves, but they are new for me.”

  She was saying far more than she’d intended to, but talking about it after so many years of denial felt strangely cathartic. Marcus’s reaction helped, too. He seemed to take what she was saying as a statement of fact, seemed more intrigued than judgmental.

  “I know I’m asking a lot of questions here,” Marcus said, “but this is all Greek to me. I’m just trying to wrap my mind around it.”

  “Go ahead. I’ve said this much. There’s no reason for me to hold back now.”

  “In that case, what kinds of things would you normally see in a trance?”

  “Problems or illnesses involving my friends.”

  “For instance?”

  She tried to think of one that was fairly typical. “Last year the mother of one my coworkers, a lady named Janice, was planning to marry a man she’d connected with on an Internet dating service. When I met the man at a dinner party at Janice’s house, I picked up disturbing vibes. That night I had a series of short visions in which I saw him with several other women, all widowed and financially well off, as was Janice’s mother.”

  “How did you handle that without admitting to the visions?”

  “With a white lie. I told Janice I’d seen a TV special where a charming, intelligent man courted widows he’d met over the Internet and bilked them out of their savings. I encouraged her to have her mother’s boyfriend investigated. Luckily, she took my advice.”

  Marcus leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “You’re the first psychic I’ve ever met.”

  The truth was out. After years of keeping her bizarre abilities secret, Dani had finally confessed to possessing them. To a perfect stranger, no less.

  Marcus left the swing and paced the porch for a few minutes before finally perching on the railing a few feet away from her. “How about starting with the nightmare and telling me everything you’ve seen or felt since then so that I have clear picture of what we’re dealing with?”

  She did, ending with the vague trance in his kitchen where all she could make out was that Ella was not only in pain but deathly afraid.

  “I don’t understand why I’ve been linked with Ella Somerville in such intense fashion,” Dani said, “but I know I’m supposed to help her. I just don’t know how.”

  “You helped her tonight, probably even kept her from being killed.”

  “But she may still be in danger, so I can’t walk away from her. I know you didn’t buy into this, Marcus. If you think I’m a basket case or just don’t want to get involved with a psychic, you can walk away from me and the situation in the morning.”

  He met her gaze head-on. “Let’s get a couple of things straight here. First, I don’t think you’re a basket case. I think you’re a strong, gutsy woman. Second, I’m not walking anywhere without you. Once I start something, I never give up until the mission is completed. Now, just tell me one more thing.”

  “Make it easy.”

  “You said that you didn’t see the victim clearly in the original nightmare, but in the trance this morning in the shop, was it Ella you saw, or was it you?”

  “I was afraid it was me at the time, but I was wrong. It had to have been Ella. The trance predicted her stabbing.” She couldn’t go through this again tonight. “I’m exhausted. I’d really like to go to bed now.” Hopefully not to dream.

  He stood, took her hand and tugged her to her feet. “I think we should go to the wedding tomorrow, Dani. You and the girls, just like you’d planned. Only I’ll go with you.”

  “I’ve had quite enough of the Renaissance festival, and I don’t see how attending the wedding will help Ella.”

  “I might learn something there that I can’t learn from the police report or a background check on Ella Somerville.”

  It was clear he wasn’t going to just let go of this. And if he thought she was a kook, he was hiding it well. “I’ll think about it, Marcus.”

  “Good enough.” He walked with her to her bedroom door, stopping when they reached it and propping a hand against the frame. “I’ll be right across the hall if you need me for anything, anything at all.”

  His voice had grown husky. She swallowed hard, suddenly all too aware of how close he was standing. The air between them crackled with tension and sparks of desire.

  He leaned nearer, and his lips brushed hers. A feathered touch that was over all too quickly.

  Her pulse skyrocketed as she slipped inside the door and closed it behind her. It could hardly count as a kiss at all, any more than the brushing of their lips earlier could. But this time it resonated through her whole body.

  She’d witnessed an attempted murder and trusted a stranger with the most closely held secret of her life. Yet here she was awed by the mere touch of Marcus’s lips on hers.

  That might well be the strangest and most frightening event of the day.

  BETHANY SUE CLAIMED the attention she deserved in an exquisite ivory satin and lace strapless gown that narrowed at the waist before swirling into a flouncing froth of a skirt and a lace-trimmed train. The style was more timeless than Elizabethan, but the rest of the attendants and the groom had strictly adhered to the Renaissance dictates.

  Arnie was positively dashing in black pants that gathered around the top of knee-high black leather boots. His shirt was the exact creamy tint as Bethany’s gown with full sleeves and a soft fabric that draped loosely over his broad shoulders. The enameled and jeweled sword at his side was the crowning touch of authenticity. No lord of the court could have looked more swashbuckling.

  The ceremony went off without a hitch on a glorious Texas autumn day. In spite of her earlier worries, Dani managed to stay somewhat on key during the two songs Bethany had chosen for the ceremony.

  The knot had now been officially tied, and the groom had quite nobly kissed the bride. Celeste and Katie were flitting around the attendees, relishing the attention they were getting in their fairy costumes and accidentally bumping guests with their unruly silver wings.

  Dani let down her guard a bit for the first time since she’d arrived at the festival a little over twenty-four hours ago. Still, she was ready to get back in her car and head toward Austin. She’d decided that keeping Ella safe called for more expertise than she possessed. She had a great idea for how to deal with that.

  She wasn’t eager to leave Marcus behind, but once she was back at work, she’d put him and the uncanny sensual urges he ignited to rest—or at least to a comfortable spot at the back of her mind.

  She turned at a tap to her shoulder, expecting it to be Marcus and thankful that her heart hadn’t flipped at his nearness.

  “Can I talk to you a minute, somewhere quieter?”

  She found herself staring into the troubled eyes of a woman whose facial features were completely hidden by a purple feathered mask. Dani grew instantly wary. “What do you want to talk about?”

  “Ella
Somerville.”

  Dani’s anxiety level heightened tenfold. “What about her?”

  The woman looked around nervously before turning back to Dani. “The man who stabbed her is going to kill Ella unless someone stops him.”

  “Have you told this to the sheriff?”

  “I can’t.”

  No need to ask why. The woman was afraid to even be seen talking to Dani. The mask and her hurried, whispered voice made that obvious. Dani spotted Marcus a few feet away, deep in conversation with Arnie’s best man. He’d ordered her not to leave the immediate area without him.

  She didn’t take orders well. Nor was she taking any chances like she had last night when she’d left the partiers and chased after Ella. “We can talk over there, behind that hedge,” she said, pointing to one of the manicured bushes that bordered the outdoor wedding chapel.

  The woman nodded and followed her. They were out of sight of most of the guests but still only steps away from Marcus. Dani wasted no time on formalities. “Do you know who attacked Ella?”

  “No.”

  “Then what makes you think she’s in danger?”

  “I just know that she is.”

  Could this be another psychic? Dani doubted it. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “You’re her sister. Don’t you want to help her?”

  “I’m not kin to Ella. I don’t even know her.”

  “But…”

  “I know. We look alike. It’s purely coincidental. Yesterday was the first time I’d ever seen Ella.”

  The woman glanced at her watch, one with jeweled dragons for hands. “I’ve got to go. Just talk to the police, and make sure they know Ella’s still in danger.”

  “At least tell me your name.”

  “Dani.” It was Marcus’s voice, tinged with anxiety.

  She stepped from behind the hedge. “Over here.” When she turned back to the woman, she’d vanished.

  Marcus walked over and stood beside her. “You look upset? Is something wrong?”