by Cara Carnes
“Right. That man is stripping you with his eyes every few seconds, and I’ve never seen you let someone touch you the way he does. He dragged you against him and you didn’t even argue.” Dani shook her head as she scooped ice into a couple glasses. “Keep your shit focused and get the answers you need so you can move the fuck on. The Marville Dogs are nervous, so you’re clear from them. For now.”
Kamren nodded. Dani was right. She needed to keep focused. Intimate relationships were a waste of time. She’d tried before, but she wasn’t good girlfriend material. The only man who’d ever come close was Tanner, but he hadn’t understood her need to remain in Marville. Then her dad had died, and things spiraled downhill from there.
It was a really small world. Realizing the search grid was within the same area where Tanner’s operation was had startled her quite a bit. She supposed it made sense in a way. She’d always been drawn to the more rugged lands, woods, forests. Deserts. She’d briefly dated him back when she’d thought a normal life might be a possibility. For a few months it had been. She’d been up there, exploring and living life.
Then dad had called her home, said he needed help.
Then he got murdered.
“You ready?” Dallas slid a possessive hand on her hip. She tensed beneath the touch but nodded.
The sooner this was over, the better.
“What’d she say?” Dallas asked as he pulled the Camaro onto the highway and made the turn toward Kamren’s farm.
Kamren kept her gaze locked on the landscape outside. Tension crackled between them, an uneasy one he hadn’t expected. She recoiled from his touch when he reached across the cab.
“I know she said something to you, Kamren. Whatever it is, there’s more to the story.” Dallas forced the words out despite the shame burning in him. “There’s more.”
“You fucked Hailey while she was still with Dylan.” She crossed her arms. “I’m not sure what could be said to justify that.”
He’d said the same thing to himself a thousand times. He bit back the argument lodged in his throat. “You’re right. It shouldn’t have happened. I pray it hadn’t every night.”
“He’s with Mary and happy now, and you two are still close. So that’s good.” She bit her lip. “It’s not like this thing we’re doing is real anyway, Dallas. It’s not my business.”
“No, I guess it’s not.” He slammed his hand against the steering wheel.
The drive to the farmhouse was quiet, tense. He let her go up the rickety steps first, making note of which ones he’d fix in the morning once the lumber he’d ordered from Nomad arrived. She threw her weight against the door to get it open.
He’d order a door tomorrow.
Hannigan’s Hardware and Lumberyard was going to get rich at this rate.
The living room was about what he’d expected. Pictures of Rachelle, Cliff, and their mom and dad were strewn about the living room. One or two of Kamren were peppered among them. A threadbare knitted throw sat atop the back of a worn-out sofa.
A lone light bulb hung from a frayed wire. Kamren flicked on a lamp beside the sofa and motioned toward the kitchen.
“Help yourself to whatever is in the fridge, but it’s probably not much. I’ll shop tomorrow if there’s time,” she said. “Bathroom’s down the hall and to the left. Cliff’s bedroom is a nuclear fallout zone, so I’d steer clear. Take Rachelle’s bed. If we have extra sheets, they’ll be in the bathroom closet.”
She headed toward the room to the right. Dallas intercepted her path.
“I’m tired and not in the mood to talk. Whatever it is can wait.” She studied his eyes a moment and chewed her lower lip. “Goodnight, Dallas.”
“I’m heading out to Huntsville early in the morning. I’ll have them pick me up here so you have the Camaro to drive if you want. Try and stay here or at The Arsenal. You’ll be covered either way.”
“I don’t need a sitter, Dallas.”
“No, but you’re getting one anyway.”
“I’m not your problem,” she said.
Arms crossed, she was poised for a fight he was damn tempted to give her. He closed the distance between them and cornered her. He licked his lips as her gaze landed there. “For the record, sweetheart, I’d be okay with making this thing real.”
She swallowed. Her tongue flicked across her lower lip as she shifted against the wall. He bracketed his hands beside her head. Hopefully the action would keep him from dragging her against him, maybe hauling her into the bed in the next room. “I’m not your kind of woman.”
“I’m thinking you have no idea what kind of woman would be my kind.”
“Hailey,” she said.
“No fucking clue,” he spat angrily.
“Mary,” she whispered.
Shock stilled his gentle lean into her. “What?”
“At the rescue, I saw what you said to Jesse, before I fell asleep. I saw what you said.”
“You saw what I said,” he said. Shock forced him to repeat the words as his mind recalled what all they’d discussed. “Mary’s a hell of a woman, so yeah. If she weren’t hooked up with Dylan, she’d definitely be my type of woman. Smart, beautiful, and stronger than hell.”
“Right.” She shoved against him. “Maybe you should look for your own woman instead of trying to steal your brother’s all the time. I’m surprised he hasn’t kicked your ass.”
Something in him shut down. For a moment he’d considered sharing the truth about Hailey with her, but no way that’d happen. “If you think I’m the kind of man to go after my brother’s woman, you don’t deserve to hear the truth. Wallow in your rumor mill bullshit.”
He shoved off the wall and turned away. “I’ll be gone in the morning for Huntsville. I’ll see if Addy can come out with you if you want to stay out here. We’ll be back at The Arsenal tomorrow night.”
“What do you mean about rumor mill bullshit?”
“I’m done with this conversation, Kamren. You went in there to check on your girl and she fed you gossip. You swallowed it down and puked it all over me without even it might not be true.”
“You admitted it!”
Dallas’s jaw twitched. He had. He couldn’t deny the fact that he’d fucked Hailey, even if he had no memory of it and certainly never wanted to. If he were a woman it’d be date rape, but he wasn’t about to spill all that to her if she was so quick to listen to gossip. He hadn’t even fully accepted what had happened with Hailey. This was definitely not a conversation he wanted tonight, or anytime soon.
“Whatever.” Kamren went into the other room and slammed the door shut. The entire wall shook from the force.
Dallas made a note of the supplies needed to fix the door and replace the caved-in drywall he hadn’t noticed earlier. Someone had punched holes in the wall nearer the door. What the hell had gone down at this house?
12
“Ouch!”
Kamren startled awake at the shouted word and grabbed her handgun. A flashlight rolled toward the bed. Two bodies loomed in the window. Pale moonlight splayed into the room and accented a blonde head of hair. The head bobbed when she picked up the flashlight and aimed it. Gun up, she waited as Bree’s eyes widened.
“Uh-oh.” Bree reached up and clicked a Bluetooth-looking thing in her ear. “Erm, I might need to work on my breaking and entering. I kind of broke, but she woke up before I entered. Sorry.”
“Move your ass out of my way. I’m straddling the window, and it’s not fun.” Another blonde tumbled into the room.
Kamren clicked the safety back on her gun and threw a T-shirt on over her spaghetti-strapped nightshirt. She looked over at the door, a bit surprised Dallas hadn’t already rushed in.
Her gut clenched.
Riley stood. “Girl, we have got to talk.”
“You broke into my house.”
“Yeah, because, I repeat, we have got to talk.”
“You can’t just break into my house. I almost shot you.” She held up the gun.
/> “Oh, well, I guess we didn’t predict that one,” Bree said. “Though honestly, I should have. Woops.”
Kamren stood up and headed to the door. She peeked outside. Dallas was sprawled on the floor, gun drawn. Rhea waved from the sofa. “Sorry, he sort of fell before I could position him. He’s totally fine though.”
“Start talking,” Kamren clipped. She moved to Dallas’s side and felt for a pulse. Strong and steady. Good. She rolled him over and settled a pillow under his head.
“See, I told you this was a good idea. If she was really mad at him, she wouldn’t roll him over and make him comfortable,” Bree said.
“Okay, here’s the thing. My brother there has some issues, issues I can’t tell you about because it’s not my business to spread.” Riley heaved a sigh. “But these two lame-brains convinced me we had to stage an intervention because your girl shot her mouth off tonight. They heard about it from Mary and Vi, neither of which are aware we commandeered a drone and snuck out like teenagers. So, consider yourself intervened or whatever.”
Kamren rubbed the sleep from her eyes and glared at the confusing women. “Wait. Mary and Vi? How would they know what Dani said to me?”
“We have drones in the Sip and Spin,” Rhea answered.
“Why do you give a damn? You don’t even like me.” She directed the statement at Riley.
“My brothers do. And I’m starting to see there are some disconnects between what I’ve been told and the truth. I mean, you’re hunting down your dad’s killer.” The blonde’s gaze watered. “That’s not a crazy, irresponsible woman who doesn’t give a damn about family.”
Fuck. She was starting to see through Rachelle’s webs. The last thing she wanted was to unspin her sister’s good life. “Go home, Riley. Take these two with you. We don’t have anything to talk about. It doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” Bree argued.
“I told you this wasn’t a good idea. We’ve told her Dallas has issues he needs to share and not to believe what she hears. That’s good enough.” Riley turned and headed toward the door.
“Seriously?” Rhea asked. “You didn’t say anything!”
“Fine. I’m still on the fence about whether you’re a good person or not, but either way, you’re loads better than Hailey Suthers.” Riley crossed her arms and sighed again. She tapped her booted foot and flicked her gaze to the floor. “What went down with Hailey wasn’t his fault, okay? The bitch played him hard, the kind of hard a man can’t remember and doesn’t ever talk about with anyone.”
Kamren sat and let the statement rattle around in her mind. What did that even mean?
“Oh for cripes sake this is ridiculous. Look,” Bree sat on the floor. “Hailey drugged him. He woke up in her bed with no memory of getting there, okay? Our girl Mary gave her a verbal beatdown in front of the entire town. It’s not like Kamren couldn’t hear it from anyone at this point.”
“Hailey drugged him?” Shock recoiled the words. They boomeranged in her brain a couple more times.
Headlights bounced through the living room as a vehicle lurched to a stop outside. Kamren motioned the three women back as she unlocked the safety on her gun and threw the door open. Gage Sanderson eyed the gun and raised his eyebrows.
“Told you she’d be packing,” Addy commented. The redhead shoved her way inside. “Okay, outside. In the truck, all three of you.”
“But, Addy,” Bree whined.
“Outside.” Her voice rose. “Now.”
“You aren’t the boss of me,” Riley shot back.
“You’re right. The bosses of you are my six bosses, and you’re damn lucky none of them figured out where you three idiots went. There’ll be hell to pay soon enough when Dallas wakes up. Do you really want to be here when that happens?” Addy crossed her arms. “And your boss is a bit scarier than my bosses. Wouldn’t you say?”
Kamren looked at Bree, confused. Riley had a boss?
“Jud. He’s her mentor to be a private investigator,” Bree whispered, not so quietly.
Yikes. Kamren wouldn’t cross any of the men out at The Arsenal, but Jud was definitely at the top of the list. Riley looked down at her passed-out brother and bolted for the door.
Gage chuckled and motioned toward Dallas. “You want help with him?”
“Nah, he’ll wake up soon, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, then. I think he deserves to stay down there.”
Gage glanced back at the truck where Addy had shoved the three burglar wanna-bes in. “They shouldn’t have come, but they were worried you’d believe whatever you heard about Hailey.”
“So what they said was true? She drugged him?”
Gage’s jaw twitched. His eyes flashed fury. Though he remained steadfastly silent, she got the message loud and clear. She shut and locked the door and sat on the sofa.
Curled up under the throw her mom had made, she waited. She owed him an apology. She’d believed rumors and shut him down when he’d tried to give her the truth, even if it hadn’t been her business. She’d done to him what he’d done to her back when he’d assumed she was into drugs. She squeezed her eyes shut as guilt gnawed her insides. She’d just rest her eyes a bit. When he woke, she’d apologize.
She’d woken up alone in the house. A scrawled note was set beneath a set of keys.
At The Arsenal. Vehicle’s yours to use - D
Huh. So much for the big conversation she’d hoped to have in the morning. Had he already headed to Huntsville? She showered, dressed and got to work. By the time she had the animals fed and handled, she’d come up with a tentative plan for the day. If Aaron Patterson was foreclosing on properties and Henry Mills was grabbing them up and conveniently getting rich soon after, it stood to reason there’d be drilling involved. All she needed was a list of properties.
She could probably get it from Vi or Mary, but she remembered the map Cord had pulled up easily enough. Location one was the old Gonzales farm. Nestled on the farthest area of the Marville loop, it was a decent-sized spread without much in the way of hunting leases, which meant she’d never had much reason to be out there.
Neither had Dad.
Location two had been one of her dad’s past jobs, one he’d lost when old man Canales died and his son took over. Patterson had foreclosed less than a year later, mainly because Paul Canales was a moron completely incapable of managing anything, especially the family ranch. She headed that direction.
Marville ranchland was comprised mostly of mesquite and hackberry trees and black brush interspersed with copious amounts of cactus, rattlers, lizards, and coyotes. And cattle and deer. Lots and lots of deer, which was the only reason most ranches hadn’t gone belly-up decades ago.
She parked the truck along the high fence line of the Canales’s land and headed toward the old entry gate her dad used to use. Vines and brush grew around the unused entrance, but Kamren swung herself up and climbed over easily enough. Backpack and rifle in tow, she headed toward the old water tank Dad used to take them to. The family picnic.
Back then things had been simpler. Dad’d had plentiful work and Mom…well, she had been better. Calmer.
Kamren stifled the unwanted memory and studied the ground for recent activity, anything to show someone had been around since the bank foreclosed. The ranch house was a mile and half up the road. She headed that way since she had to start somewhere.
Shadows shifted on the ground to her left. She whirled. Aimed.
Dallas stood there with his hands up. “Going somewhere?”
“What are you doing here? You were at The Arsenal.”
“Left that note a couple hours ago, sweetheart. I went for supplies, food. Breakfast. I got wrangled into helping with a few things.” He walked up and grabbed her gun with lightning fast precision. He slung the rifle over his shoulder with the strap. “I went back to your place to feed you breakfast before I headed out to Huntsville and found you gone.”
Wowza. That had been a seriously hot move.
Her body had vibrated with a heated awareness as he approached. She stood her ground, all too aware of the way his tongue flicked out and traced his lower lip. She repeated the motion, thinking he probably tasted pretty good.
“The girls wanted to force a conversation I’m not ready for. I need you to respect that choice.”
The girls. He’d figured out what’d happened last night. Guilt gnawed at her insides.
“It’s not my business,” she replied. “But I am sorry I didn’t hear you out. I shouldn’t have believed what I heard. That’s no better than what you did with me at first.”
“You’re right, and you’re wrong.” He grasped her face with a hand. “We both know it’ll be your business if we explore this attraction, sweetheart.”
Wow. Okay, so he felt it, too. Now what? She looked around lamely. She’d never been good at holding a guy’s interest for too long. Men had problems hooking up with a woman who shot and tracked better than them. She’d choose field dressing a deer over donning a dress for a fancy night out on the town.
Dallas forced her gaze up to his. “You’re a hell of a woman, Kamren. I want to explore this attraction, but it’s gonna have to be slow. We’ve got a lot on the burners right now. I’m looking for my kid. The Arsenal’s still neck-deep in problems from Mary and Vi’s mess. With your thing added, we’ve got to focus.”
“Mary and Vi’s mess?”
“Not my story, sweetheart. If the girls want you to know, they’ll share. Though, there’s a higher likelihood my sister will fill you in before anyone else gets a chance.” Dallas flashed a smile and leaned forward. “We’ll discuss this later, sweetheart, after I get back from Huntsville.”
“You’re still going.” She didn’t want him wading into Marville Dog crap, even if he’d once had a friendship with Dom. He was a good man that didn’t deserve to be dirtied with Marville troubles.
“You’re too good for me,” she blurted. “I’m not a Mary, or a Vi or any of them. We can’t explore this thing between us.”
A growl rumbled from him as he closed the distance between them. Shock emitted a gasp from her when she slammed against his hard body. A firm hand grasped her head, and the other held her at the waist as his mouth swept against hers. The kiss was rugged, demanding, and everything she’d imagined.
