She didn’t want this to end. “If you close your eyes, you can almost pretend it’s still night.”
“And the birds? How do you explain them?”
“Some birds sing at sunset.”
“I like how you think.” He pulled her close and kissed her.
She let him take her, soaking in the taste of his lips and the heat of his bare skin. She’d wanted him for a long time, it seemed. The moment she first met him, if she was honest with herself. But never did she imagine she would feel this kind of bond between them in such a short time.
From the first time they’d locked gazes, she’d known he was sexually attracted to her. It was plain in the way he looked at her. The way his eyes lingered on hers. The way he noticed every move she made. She liked that he found her hot. But it just wasn’t enough. Not coming from him.
She’d wanted everything.
Now as they kissed, she couldn’t stop the kindling hope snapping to life deep in her chest. If Efraim could open himself to her as he had last night, if he could listen to her and trust her when she explained her family to him, maybe he could also accept everything she was.
It was a wild hope, she knew. She’d never found a man with that kind of capacity before. But of all the men she’d ever known, Efraim was the most extraordinary in every way.
Maybe she was setting herself up for a fall, feeling these things after they’d been together such a short time, but she couldn’t stop. She didn’t want to stop.
The telephone’s ring jangled through the room.
Efraim gave her one last deep kiss. He groaned as he pulled away. “I don’t know who this is, but it had better be good.”
He pushed himself up to sitting, grabbed the receiver and brought it to his ear. “Yes?”
Callie could hear the buzz of a male voice on the other end of the line, but she couldn’t identify the caller or hear what he was saying. She glanced at the clock on the bedstand. Eleven o’clock. The reality of what kind of storm was waiting back at the ranch ran through her like a splash of ice water.
She threw back the covers.
Efraim held out a hand, as if to stop her.
She shook her head. Pantomiming, she crooked her left wrist and pointed, as if she were still wearing the watch ruined in the creek.
Efraim let out a sigh and released her. “This afternoon? Yes,” he said into the phone.
She climbed out of bed. She could feel Efraim’s gaze on her, skimming her body. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see his body, as well, revived and ready for her. She wanted nothing more than to fold herself into bed beside him. She knew when he hung up the phone, he would accept her back into his arms.
But as much as she wanted their time together to go on forever, she couldn’t do it. If she wanted the dream, Efraim as part of her world as well as being part of his, she needed to get back to the ranch. She needed to lay the groundwork with her family. The challenges facing them had only just begun.
“All right. I’ll be here.” Efraim hung up the phone.
Callie had located her own jeans and T-shirt, now fully dried after their dip in the creek. She wished she had something else to wear. The creek water tinge made this morning’s jasmine-scented shower fantasy they’d lived only a few hours ago seem like just that—a fantasy. “Who was that?”
“The sheriff. He wants to question me.”
Suddenly feeling self-conscious, she grabbed the clothes and slipped into the bathroom to dress. She left the door partially open, not wanting to shut Efraim out. “Maybe he knows something about Fahad’s computer. Or maybe he found Kateb’s when he searched the room.”
“Do you think he’d tell me if he did?”
“Probably not. But you never know.”
“You’re going back to your father’s ranch?”
Callie knew he meant the question to sound casual, but she picked up the tension behind his words. “I’m sure they guessed that I stayed here with you. I have to talk to them. Make them understand how I feel.”
“I don’t like the idea of you leaving.”
She frowned. After their conversation last night, she hadn’t expected this from Efraim. She thought he’d moved beyond suspicion where her family was concerned.
She finished dressing and peeked her head out of the bathroom. “They’re my family. I trust them.”
“I know. That’s not what I’m worried about.”
She tilted her head, waiting for him to go on.
“I don’t believe in coincidences. Tanya sought out Fahad and Kateb to get to me.”
The pieces shuffled into place in Callie’s mind. “And you think she sought out Russ for a similar reason?”
“How many people know you work for the Office of Foreign Affairs?”
She didn’t have to think hard about that one. “Quite a few. Dumont is pretty proud of the success stories of its citizens.”
“So anyone who cared to know?”
She nodded.
“Add that the timing of your trip home coinciding exactly with our trip here…”
“And Tanya chose Russ to get to me.” She’d been worried that leaving the truck at the diner would lead the mob back to Russ and the Seven M. But Efraim was right. Tanya hadn’t dated Russ by accident. They’d already targeted her family.
“Russ’s truck. Can someone give me a ride to pick it up?” She tapped her pocket to make sure the truck keys were still there.
They weren’t.
“My keys. They must have fallen out of my pocket.”
“Not exactly.” Efraim pushed out of bed and crossed the room naked. He looked just as wonderful as he had in the shower last night. Powerful and lithe. Maybe even better because in the brighter light she could see every detail of his body.
Except the bruise on his side. It looked horrible, red settling into a dark purple.
She reached for his side. “Does that feel as bad as it looks?”
He stopped next to her, close enough to touch. “I was hoping you were looking at something other than my bruises.” One side of his lips crooked up in a smile.
She couldn’t help it. At the suggestion, her eyes moved over the rest of him, taking in all the other details. Warmth shimmered low in her belly. She tried to ignore the feeling. And the fact that he was standing so close, she could take him in her hand right now. “I really have to go.”
“You’re sure?” He took a step closer.
She couldn’t fight back a smile. “Yes, I’m sure. But later…”
“I’ll hold you to that.” He moved past her, opened the hall door and stuck an arm outside. After picking up something from the hall outside, he closed the door and held up a set of keys on a Wyoming key chain dangling from his fingers. “I had some of my men pick up the truck. It’s in the front parking area.”
“Thank you.” He really was amazing. She gave him a kiss, folding against warm skin and firm muscle. When she ended the kiss, her whole body was flushed. “I…um…I have to go.”
He gave her a smile. The expression faded as quickly as it came and a frown of concern took its place. “You’ll be careful?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll come back?” He slipped his arms around her.
“I smell like creek again. The clothes.”
He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her again, deeper. Then he drew in a long sniff. “You smell delicious to me.”
“Liar.”
“If the creek smell bothers you so much, we can take another shower. But I have to tell you, if it was my choice, we’d skip the shower this time and go back to bed.”
She smiled. “This smell really doesn’t bother you?”
“Nothing about you bothers me. Not one thing. I’ll take it all.”
Warmth flooded her. She kissed him one more time. She might not be able to stay, but he’d given her what she needed anyway. And with each kiss, she felt as if she could face a world of challenges and make each one turn out all right.
EFRAIM HATED that Callie had to leave, but he understood. It wasn’t just about warning her family; she also had to sort things out with them. Things about him. So when she promised to come back as soon as she could, he reluctantly let her go, took a quick shower to smooth his hair, shaved and wolfed down a room-service breakfast. He had plenty of time left before Sheriff Wolf arrived.
Despite staying in bed until nearly afternoon, they hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep. Still, compared to the fatigue of the night before, he felt sharp and refreshed and ready to take on all he must.
He suspected he had Callie to thank for that.
After dressing, he booted up his laptop and started going through the files. He wished he had Fahad’s computer instead of leaving it to the sheriff. If the recordings had been downloaded to the machine, they would leave a trail, even if they were erased. Nothing could ever be completely deleted from a computer. And even if he couldn’t fully recover the recordings, he’d know if Kateb was telling the truth.
There had to be something he missed.
Last night he hadn’t been able to get into Fahad’s secure files. Efraim knew what was in them. Security specifications. Passwords. Many of them Efraim’s own information that Fahad might need to access in a pinch. If he’d had time in Fahad’s room, he could have found the combination to his hotel safe among the encrypted files. He was sure the sheriff had emptied the safe, but with a little more time and a dose of luck, he might be able to find out what Fahad did with the audio surveillance recordings of Tanya. He doubted they had disappeared into thin air.
Especially if Fahad thought he could use them to convince Efraim of Callie’s duplicity.
But he would hide them. Keep them secret until the moment he thought he could sway Efraim. Then he would present much the same argument Kateb had last night. Only Fahad would then trot out the goods to back it up. The recordings had to be here somewhere.
Or perhaps not.
And idea shot through Efraim’s mind. That was it. Why hadn’t he seen it before?
His fingers flew across the keys. It was so clear to him now. So simple. He couldn’t find the recordings in the material he downloaded from Fahad’s computer because the audio files weren’t there. Fahad had parked them somewhere on the internet. A place where he could retrieve them when he needed. And a place Kateb didn’t know about.
Fahad wanted to discredit Callie, but he also wanted the credit for recording Tanya. Kateb was right. Before Fahad went to Efraim, he intended to edit the recordings to cover his own transgressions. But he also wanted at least some of the credit for eavesdropping on the Russian mob.
Sibling rivalry at work.
Efraim’s mind raced as fast as his fingers. He scanned the files of passwords, looking for anything that might pertain to a file-sharing site or some other place where Fahad could upload audio files, park them and then download them again without being traced.
There it was.
It was a file-sharing website called Cloud Nine. A collection of music files and short video clips and everything else under the sun. Fahad would only have a password to a site like this for one reason. The recordings of Tanya had to be there.
A few seconds and Efraim was on the site. Finding Fahad’s password had been easy. Finding what he’d uploaded to a site packed full of files from all over the world was a lot more challenging.
At least he had an idea of when his cousin had parked the file. Narrowing the search to the hours before he’d left for the badlands the previous morning, he sorted through file after file.
Late morning moved into afternoon, and still he hadn’t found anything. He kept slogging, watching the clock out of the corner of his eye. Any second Sheriff Wolf would be here, and Efraim would have to cut his search short. He tried to scan the files faster. He couldn’t stop now.
When he finally found something, he was more confused than elated.
It wasn’t an audio file, but a small message written in Arabic. A simple message.
Witness to car explosion. Might be able to locate A.K. Will resolve.
Efraim’s blood buzzed. He read the message again and again and came up with the same thing each time.
A.K. Amir Khalid.
It couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? Details swirled through his mind. Fahad couldn’t have written this message, could he? Perhaps Efraim had gotten that part wrong. Perhaps Fahad had gone to the site to upload the audio and found this message instead. And if that was the case, who had posted it? Efraim couldn’t say. But knowing Fahad, he’d guess that his cousin hadn’t come out to the badlands merely to protect him. He’d also come to tell him what he’d found.
A witness. Someone who might know how to find Amir.
And whatever else Fahad knew about this witness had died with him.
Chapter Fifteen
Callie arrived at the ranch just as her dad and Brent were getting ready to head out. She eyed her dad’s old pickup. Here she’d thought Russ’s was dirty. She should be grateful she hadn’t had to drive Efraim around in her dad’s. More dust-colored than blue, the pickup was so filthy that it could blend into the rock formations in Rattlesnake Badlands. The interior was crammed with gear and a jumble of fast-food wrappers. The truck’s bed held bolt after bolt of wire.
“Came home to help us string fence, Callie?” Brent called as he loaded one last bolt of wire.
Callie actually liked stringing fence almost as much as she liked working cattle. It was always a nice break to get her hands dirty with physical work after dealing with the delicate negotiations and the figurative dirt of Washington. It was also reassuring to hear the old teasing lilt to Brent’s voice, even though he must know she spent the night with Efraim.
She gave her brother a smile. “I’ll have to take a rain check, Brent.”
“You sure? Dad thinks just he and I are going to finish the south pasture and lend Helen a hand with the fence she has running along the badlands.”
“Helen is going to accept his help?”
Brent chuckled. “I know. I think Dad is fooling himself. I’m betting we get there and she insists on doing it all herself, same as always.”
Callie couldn’t help but laugh. Helen was a good woman, and she and Dad seemed to be good for each other. But both were so obstinately self-sufficient at times that she wondered if either would ever risk admitting needing the other in any way.
“How am I fooling myself this time?”
Callie turned to see her dad walking from the direction of the house. He looked tired, as if something was weighing on his mind. Callie had a guess as to what that might be. “Hi, Dad.”
“Hi, baby.” He strode straight for her and took her in a grizzly bear hug.
She squeezed him back, tears blurring her vision. She hadn’t fully realized how worried she’d been that her dad was angry with her about last night. The evidence that he and Brent both seemed to love her, even if they weren’t crazy about Efraim, made everything a lot easier.
She looked up at her dad. “About last night, Dad…”
He held up a hand. “You’re a big girl, Callie. We forget that sometimes, especially Brent and I. But your personal life is your own. You have to do what makes you happy. And as long as you remain happy, we’ll try our damnedest to adjust.”
She glanced at Brent, and he gave her a nod.
She wasn’t sure where this new attitude had come from, but she was glad for it. “I appreciate this more than you know.”
Her dad smiled. “Your mom would approve, I’m sure. If she were around, she probably would have forced our minds open a little wider before now.”
“I really do care about him, Dad. And he cares about me.”
“I know, honey.”
Brent grunted. “But if he does anything out of line, you let us know. Promise, Callie?”
Callie had to laugh. “Big brother to the last.”
“Damn straight.”
Callie’s dad gave her one last hug, then strode for the truck.
“Joe’s taking Lori for her ultrasound.”
In all the trauma of the past days, Callie had forgotten her sister-in-law’s schedule. The last time she’d talked to Joe, he’d been out of his mind excited about seeing ultrasound pictures of the baby he and his wife were expecting. He wanted a boy to go with the adorable little girl they already had. “And Russ and Tim?”
Her dad paused, half in the truck, half out. Again, his face seemed creased with worry. “Tim is not feeling good. Russ is working around here today so he can keep an eye on him.” He slid fully behind the wheel. He and Brent closed their doors and with a wave, they started down the utility road leading to the south pasture.
Callie let out a breath. That had gone better than she could have possibly imagined. She eyed the house. She needed to go in and check on Timmy, but she didn’t want to wake him if he was asleep. She’d check with Russ first.
Of course, she had more reason than that to talk to Russ.
She found him mucking horse stalls in the barn. She stopped outside the stall he was cleaning, and he looked up from his work. Leaning his hands on top of the manure fork, he gave her a dry look. “How generous of you to bring my truck back.”
She knew she should have rented her own car. She hadn’t because her dad had promised she could use one of theirs. No, not just promised. Insisted. Apparently he hadn’t fully checked with Russ.
Or maybe the thought of Efraim sitting in the passenger seat had soured Russ on the idea of lending it. “Actually I was wondering if I could still borrow it.”
“Sure. Whatever.” He scooped a pile of manure into the wheelbarrow. When she didn’t move, he paused and eyed her again. “What?”
“How is Tim doing?”
He looked away. “Fine, I guess.”
“Has the sheriff talked to him yet?”
“No. Guess he’s too busy.”
“Murder will do that.”
Russ shook his head.
Seized by the Sheik Page 14
