“No, it’s just I’d rather talk to you in person, if it’s okay?”
“Okay, do you remember how to get here?”
“Yes, I’ll see you in a little while. Oh, and Dusty, if you talk to Mikayla before I get there, please don’t tell her about this.”
“What is going on?”
“You’ll understand once we talk. I’m just asking you to trust me for now. Can you do that?”
“I have no choice. Now I’m dying to know what you need to say so badly, you’ll come out here in the middle of the night.”
“Like I said, this is important. See you shortly.”
The conversation ended, and even as she turned around and headed toward the Warren ranch, Kandi was still battling the part of her that knew Mikayla would consider what she was about to do a betrayal.
But she never turned the car toward home, and she never called to cancel the meeting with Dusty. She just continued on, hoping when this was all over and the blackmailer had been dealt with, Mikayla would see it in her heart to forgive her.
Chapter 18
It was the darkest hour of the night, and like a wolf stalking its prey, he moved through the circus camp in complete silence. Most of these people had been with his father since he was a young boy. Most of them were just good, honest, hardworking people who preferred an unusual lifestyle. In fact, he considered many of them family. But like every entourage there was always the occasional lost soul who would manage to attach himself to the group.
Those people were toxic not only to those around them, but to themselves, as well. They were self-destructive and came to the dangerous lifestyle hoping to end their own.
Unlike the patrons who sat in the bleachers and enjoyed the risky escapades with childlike glee, Dusty knew there were a thousand different ways the circus could kill. He’d met more than his fair share of those lost souls and remembered the ones his father had employed over the years, of which only a couple remained.
Dusty had a fair idea of who he was looking for, but he had to be certain. A few minutes later, he knocked on his father’s trailer door and it swung open.
“Thought I heard someone out here,” Kyle said with a cigar hanging off his lip.
Dusty knew he’d made almost no noise, which said a lot for his father’s excellent hearing. Hearing that had been honed to perfection from years of living in harm’s way.
“Surprised you’re up this time of the night,” Dusty said as he entered the trailer and glanced around. “And alone, as well.”
Kyle shrugged. “Getting to be an old man, son. And Viagra can only do so much for a relationship. Most women feel I’m just not the great catch I use to be.” He moved past Dusty and sat in a nearby wood chair. “But you didn’t come all the way down here from the big house just to talk about my love life, did you?”
Dusty shook his head. “I need to ask you about a couple of people.”
“Ask me what?”
“Well.” Dusty pulled another nearby wood chair across from his father and sat down. “Louis—how is he?”
Kyle’s eyes narrowed on his son’s face. “Clean and sober for almost fifteen years now, if that’s what you mean. Why are you asking?”
“You sure he hasn’t maybe fallen off the wagon?”
“Considering I’m his ride back and forth to his AA meetings, I can safely say Louis is off the sauce. What’s this about, son?”
“Just wondering.”
Kyle tilted his head to the side. “Don’t tell me you’re still sore about what he did to that old car of yours?”
Dusty hadn’t forgotten about the incident the same way a person never forgot a broken heart. But like any other old ache it had been pushed to the back of his mind.
When he was seventeen, they were camping just outside a little town in northern Minnesota late summer. Dusty had been saving his money for years waiting for the right opportunity to buy his very first car, and he found it sitting in the front yard of a nearby farm. He used his savings to buy the beat-up Subaru for five hundred bucks. The car made horrible coughing noises, and by all accounts was butt ugly. But to Dusty it was a thing of beauty.
Until his father talked Dusty into letting Louis and Sam take it into town to pick up supplies. According to Sam, the ride into town had been trouble free, but while in town Louis had bought enough alcohol to replenish two liquor cabinets.
Sam thought little of it; everybody knew Louis liked his Scotch, and whiskey, and tequila and anything else he could get his hands on, but for the most part he drank on his time.
On the ride back, Sam fell asleep only to be awakened by Louis’s scream as he ran them off the road and into a tree. When the whole story came out it was revealed Louis had gotten an early start on his drinking and by halfway through the road trip he was thoroughly drunk.
When Dusty heard about it, he’d been furious and attacked Louis. Kyle and three others had to pull him off the bigger man, and everyone had assumed his rage had been due to the fact his car was totaled in the crash. In truth, that part did hurt, but what hurt worse was Sam ended up paralyzed from the waist down and the incident was never reported to the police. Like Gypsies, carnies administered their own justice.
Louis was tossed out of the group for almost a year until he returned and announced he’d gotten clean and wanted to come home. Dusty had never gone along with the decision to take him back, but at the time, no one had cared about his opinion anyway.
“No,” Dusty said with a slow head shake, “I’m not still sore about the car thing. Hey, how is Rick?” he asked, moving on to his next suspect.
Kyle shrugged. “Okay, I guess, why are you asking about these men?”
Dusty had caught his father’s stiff movement, and wasn’t about to just let it drop. “What do you mean, okay, you guess?’”
“I don’t see much of him anymore.”
That was noteworthy, Dusty thought. Kyle and Rick had once been bosom buddies, having started out in the carnival business together.
“Is he still training the horses?”
Kyle sat back in his wood chair and folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not answering another damn question until you tell me what this is all about.”
Dusty considered how much to tell his father, and then decided if he wanted his help he would have to tell him at least as much as he’d been told by Kandi.
“Someone here in this group is trying to blackmail Mikayla.”
“What?” Kyle shot up out of his chair. “Who? Just tell me who and I’ll kill him myself!”
Dusty stood, as well. “Calm down before you hurt yourself.” He pushed his father's shoulders down until he was back in the chair.
“Blackmail her how?”
Dusty was not sure how Mikayla would feel knowing he’d shared such personal information, even with his father. “They found out something about her past, something she is not proud of, and now they are threatening to use it against her unless she gives him twenty-five thousand dollars.
Kyle’s eyes narrowed. “Damn.”
Dusty looked up. “What?”
Kyle sighed. “It’s Rick.”
“How do you know?”
“He’s hard up for money and this is just his style.” Kyle stood and turned away from Dusty. “I’m sorry, son. I didn’t mean to bring you any trouble.”
“If it is Rick, I can take care of this kind of trouble. I just need to be sure.”
Kyle turned back to Dusty, and to Dusty’s eyes it looked like his father had aged ten years in those few moments. “As you know, Rick has a gambling problem.”
Dusty nodded. “Yeah, that’s why he was top of my list.”
“The last time we were in Miami he pissed off some very powerful people with long memories. They want either their money with interest or blood. Almost from the moment we arrived and he got a look at the ranch and saw how well you were doing, he’s been pushing me to ask you for money for him.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”<
br />
“It never occurred to me he would go this far.” He shook his head. “I should’ve seen it coming. I’m sorry, son.”
“Stop apologizing,” Dusty said, his mind already distracted by this new information. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Where is he right now?”
“Should be in his trailer, but who knows.”
“I’ll find him.” Dusty paused at the door and looked back at his father. He knew he should just leave it alone, but curiosity had gotten the better of him. “Hey, you never asked me what Rick found out about Mikayla.”
Kyle looked into his son’s eyes. “None of my business.”
Dusty stood for several seconds, feeling like he should say something more, but not knowing what. Finally, he said, “Thanks.”
Kyle frowned. “What are you thanking me for? Mikayla is a good woman, and you’ve worked so hard to get where you are, and by coming here I’ve managed to put all that in jeopardy.”
Dusty had a thousand things to say in answer, but the conversation would have to wait for another day. Right now, he had to find Rick and deal with him before he got a chance to contact Mikayla again.
“We’ll talk later,” he said before leaving the trailer and closing the door behind him. He crossed the camp until he came to Rick’s trailer and knocked on the door.
He started to call out his name, but feared if Rick knew it was him he would never open the door. He knocked again and still no answer.
Dusty was contemplating kicking in the door when he heard a car pulling in behind the trailer. He pressed his back against the trailer wall and waited.
After a couple of minutes, he saw the shadow of a stumbling man coming around the side of the trailer. He was fumbling with his keys and didn’t see Dusty until he opened the trailer door and the lamplight spilled across his stoic form.
The expression on Rick’s face was all the proof he needed. Dusty came up behind the man and pushed him into the trailer, slamming the door shut behind him.
Rick swung around with the intense fear of a trapped rabbit. Fear so obvious, the man was trembling.
“Sit your punk ass down.” Dusty pushed him again so that he fell back on the couch.
Rick scrambled to sit up on the couch, and began to take in the situation. He forced a smile. “Dusty, man, what’s going on? What’s this about?”
“You know damn well what this is about!” He pulled up a folding chair and straddled it backward. He leaned forward. “Did you really think you would get away with it?”
“Get away with what?”
Dusty’s eyes narrowed. “If you even try to deny it, I promise, when I get finished with you, your friends from Miami won’t even recognize you.”
Rick swallowed hard, his mind racing to find somewhere else to place the blame. Anyone would do well to keep Dusty off him. Surviving the night was his priority; he would worry about Leo’s goons tomorrow.
“Dusty, I swear it wasn’t my idea! I didn’t even know the girl used to be a stripper! They told me to do that!”
“They who?”
“The men you were just talking about, they made me do it!”
Dusty just smiled. “Seriously?” He tilted his head to the side. “That’s the lie you want to go with? Really?”
“It’s no lie.” Rick frowned, seeming confused by the smile.
Dusty shook his head. Then without warning he was standing and throwing the folding chair to the side. In two steps, he’d crossed the distance between them and had Rick by the collar of his shirt, lifting him from the couch.
“Dusty—no! Please, man, please! You don’t want to do this! Please! I’m begging you, man!”
Dusty lifted his fist to send Rick into next week but paused when he realized the man was crying. Not a moaning, simpering whining kind of cry. But a full-on tears flowing like a river crying!
Dusty was so taken aback he dropped the man and Rick fell into a heap of weeping flesh at his feet.
Dusty shook his head at the spectacle. “You’re about as pathetic as it gets, Rick.” He turned and started to leave the trailer, but paused at the door. He turned to Rick, who was just beginning to realize he’d been left in one piece. “Understand something, Rick. I love this woman. I’m willing to do anything for this woman. Am I making myself clear to you?”
Rick nodded as if still confused by his sudden good fortune.
“If you so much as cough in her direction again, I will hurt you.” He leaned toward the other man, and Rick sat back. “I—will—hurt—you.”
Staring into the other man’s eyes, Dusty was convinced he understood how close he’d come to danger. “Oh, and I want you off my property before daybreak or I’ll have you arrested for trespassing.”
As he walked out of the trailer camp and headed back up to his house, Dusty’s mind was spinning. He glanced up at the star-filled sky. He’d always thought one of the best things about living out away from the city was being able to see so many of the stars at night. He’d thought about taking Mikayla out to one of the hidden spots only he knew about and making love to her under the stars, and then again as the sun came over the horizon.
There was so much he wanted to do with her, so many of his dreams he wanted to share with her. Places he wanted to see with her, things he wanted to experience with her.
But from what Kandi had told him, all that may be in jeopardy because she did not want to face her past. What Kandi had told him tonight explained so much. It was as if she’d brought him the final few missing pieces of a puzzle he’d been struggling to put together.
The mistrust of anyone, including him. The brief glimpses of pain he would see in her eyes when she thought he wasn’t looking. The defensive wall she’d built around herself. Where it all came from, where it all started. He smiled to himself, thinking of the mangy mutt he’d come to love. Even Angel’s presence in her life now made perfect sense.
From what Kandi had said, Mikayla would not thank her for sharing so much with him. But he was grateful to Kandi, more grateful than she would ever know.
Now that he had all the puzzle pieces he could concentrate on finding a way forward. Because contrary to whatever she believed, he was not about to let her just walk out of his life. Not now, not ever. He’d waited so long for her to show up, and now that she had he was sure that together they could conquer whatever obstacles stood in their way.
He was confident Rick would no longer pose a danger. The man might be stupid and greedy, but he wasn’t suicidal. Of course, he could almost hear Mikayla’s argument. What if there was another Rick somewhere, waiting to destroy all she’d worked for? He agreed with Kandi, it would be best if she spoke to the public and presented her story her way, rather than leave it to someone else whose motivation was to scandalize her name for money. But in the end, it would have to be her decision.
He dug in his pocket and toyed with his cell phone. He decided calling her was not the best idea. She would most likely ignore his calls.
As he reached his house, he walked in the back door, picked up his keys and headed right out the front. No, he decided, a phone call would not suffice. Mikayla had spent years building a fortress around her heart, and everyone knew there was only one way to bring down a fortress. You had to lay siege.
Chapter 19
Loud banging noises woke Mikayla. She sprang out of bed and began looking around for something she could use as a weapon.
After a few seconds her brain registered the banging was coming from the outside, not the inside of her house. Someone was banging on the front door. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. Who would be banging on her door at five in the morning? Her eyes widened, wondering if the blackmailer had decided to go a different route to collect his reward.
“Mikayla! Open up!” Dusty banged on the door.
The sound of the familiar, husky voice lessened her confusion.
“Mikayla, I know you’re in there! Let me in!”
She hurried to the front door and looked out the pe
ephole to see a furious Dusty standing there. What is he doing here?
“Mikayla! I’ve been awake all night, I’m tired. Now let me in!”
“Go away!
“Open the door! Mikayla…I know about the letter and the pictures.” There was no response for so long Dusty started to worry. “Mikayla?”
He heard movement from inside the house and waited, hoping she would open the door, but instead he heard a soft voice.
“You know?”
“Yes. Please, sweetheart, let me in.”
“Kandi told you?”
“It doesn’t matter. Do you hear me? None of it matters. Please open the door, I need to see you.”
The door cracked open and her face appeared. “I never wanted you to know about my past.”
“It doesn’t matter.” He tried to reach for her, but she pushed the door closed to a slit of space.
“It matters to me. I thought I’d left all that behind me. I thought that part of my life was over. And here it is all over again.”
“I love you. And you love me. That’s what matters—not some ancient history that doesn’t have anything to do with who you are anymore.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand more than you know, sweetheart. More than you know.”
Mikayla leaned her forehead against the door and slid it shut. “Goodbye, Dusty. Don’t come back,” she said from the other side.
“Mikayla—I know who’s responsible.” The statement was met with silence. “Did you hear me? I know who is behind this blackmail and I promise you, baby, he’s going to pay.”
The door slid open a fraction. “Who?” The single whispered word almost broke his heart. Dusty could hear both the fear and bewilderment in the statement.
“His name is Rick Morgan. He’s a horse trainer in my father’s troupe.” He tried to slide his hand between the door, but it was not open far enough. “In fact, we saw him the other day when we were visiting my dad.”
“The guy you waved at?”
“Yeah, that’s him. Sweetheart, open the door.”
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