by Joanna Wayne
“How’s Joey?” he asked, once Collette was off the phone.
“Collette says he keeps asking when we’ll be home, but I talked to him, and he seems fine. A little anxious, but fine.”
“Then what do you say to stopping for a quick bite? It’s two hours past my lunch time.”
“I could eat,” she said. “But I’m not dressed for the occasion, and I’m definitely not putting that velvet monstrosity back on.”
“Not likely anyone would recognize either one of us, now that we’re nowhere near Alyssa Coleman, but I was thinking we’d just find a fast-food drive-through. There are several listed for the next exit, and there’s a rest stop a couple of miles down the freeway. We can just pull off the road and eat there.”
“I could go for a burger and fries.”
Sean pulled into the exit lane. Ten minutes later they were parked beneath a couple of spreading oaks. He lowered the windows and breathed in a huge gulp of fresh air. The wind had died down since morning, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was a perfect hill country December day.
Except that Eve still had a dangerous escaped convict who wanted her dead. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t need his protection. He’d never have met her. He wouldn’t be sitting here now, thinking how much he’d like to kiss her until the hunger inside him melted away.
“Why did you come back to Mustang Run, Sean?”
“I’d quit my job. Dylan had been after me to visit the ranch, so I started driving in this direction. The next thing I knew, I was here and you were coming at me with a knife.”
And the desire she’d awakened in him that night was about to push him over the edge of reason now.
“Did you live with your grandparents after your mother died?”
“I lived with my uncle Bill. He was a confirmed old bachelor who taught high school history. He didn’t talk much, read too much and hated Troy for killing his baby sister.”
“Was he good to you?”
“He wasn’t mean. I felt alone a lot. But he paid for me to have horseback riding lessons, and as soon as I was old enough, I started working at a riding stable near our house. I spent as much time there as possible. That might have something to do with my interacting better with horses than with people.”
“You do just fine with some people,” Eve assured him, “especially with Joey.”
“He’s a good kid.”
“I know, but I can’t help but worry about him. He never talks about his father’s death anymore, and he’s gotten much better. But I hate to even imagine what it would do to him to face that kind of violence again.”
“I didn’t realize his father had died a violent death.”
“Brock was killed in a freakish drive-by shooting two years ago. We’d never had anything like that in our neighborhood before, and we haven’t had one since. The police decided it was random, or possibly a case of mistaken identity.”
Eve wrapped her arms around her chest, shrinking inside herself. He ached to hold her, but the timing didn’t seem right.
“That must have been incredibly hard on you and Joey.”
She nodded her head. “Joey was with him. Miraculously, he wasn’t hit.”
“He saw his father killed?”
“At close range. Blood from the gunshot wound dripped all over his shoes.”
Poor kid.” But it explained why Joey clung so to his mother and why he was shy and fearful around strangers. And why she was so fiercely protective of him. Sean had needed reassurance like that when his mother died and he’d been much older than Joey.
“You must miss Brock very much,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“I hate that Brock was killed and that Joey lost his father, but the sad truth is that Brock and I were getting a divorce. He was leaving me for an aerobics instructor at the gym where he worked out.”
The man had to be crazy to even think of leaving Eve.
“A philandering husband murdered in a quiet, upscale neighborhood,” Eve continued. “As you can imagine, it caused quite a stir. For a few days, I think I was even considered a suspect in the murder, so I know how devastating that can be.”
Eve shifted to face Sean. “It must have been a million times worse for your father. He was convicted of killing a woman he worshipped.” If Troy was innocent, Sean thought.
“I left my position with the prison system after Brock was killed, so that I could be with Joey full-time. He needed me at home, and I’d already decided to find a new job. I didn’t think I’d ever feel comfortable again at the Huntsville facility, after Orson’s attack.”
The facts bucked around in Sean’s mind. “How long was it before the attack that your husband was killed?”
“Two weeks to the day.”
“And no one ever questioned whether or not Orson was behind Brock’s murder?”
“Orson was in prison. There was no way he could have killed him.”
“That doesn’t eliminate the possibility that he had someone else do it for him, perhaps someone he’d met in prison.”
Eve wadded her napkin, crushing it in her hands. “If that’s true, then even back then Orson had just methodically and determinedly set out to destroy me.”
Sean could not let that happen. And he simply couldn’t fight his need for her another second.
He leaned across the seat, tugged her towards him and kissed her. Her lips parted as she kissed him back, over and over, until passion swallowed up everything but the two of them and the animal-like need roaring inside him.
But then Eve pulled away, and he felt bereft.
“We should get back to the ranch,” she murmured.
“Right.” He could make it that long, but how would he ever make it through the night without pillaging those sweet lips again?
He’d never wanted a woman more. And that frightened him.
SEAN SLOWED, AND A WAVE OF adrenaline shot through him as he spotted the strange car in the driveway in front of the ranch house. Troy was standing on the front porch next to an attractive woman who looked to be about his age, only much better preserved.
“Looks like Troy has company,” Eve said. “I never considered that when I asked him and Collette to watch Joey. I guess I should have.”
Sean didn’t bother hiding his anger. “He knows how important it is that no one knows you’re here.”
“Maybe he didn’t know she was coming.”
Sean’s irritation wasn’t appeased, though he realized the sick rolling inside him wasn’t just about Troy’s lack of consideration for Eve.
This was his mother’s house. The porch where Troy had sat with her on warm summer nights. Sean’s mother, that Eve had claimed Troy worshipped.
He’d been out of prison mere months. It sure hadn’t taken him long to find a replacement.
The woman was vaguely familiar, but Sean couldn’t place her. She met him at the steps, all smiles as if she couldn’t wait to see him.
“Sean Ledger. It’s about time you came back to the ranch. I bet you don’t even remember me.”
“Can’t say that I do.”
“Ruthanne Foley. I was your mother’s best friend.”
And suddenly Sean remembered exactly who she was.
Chapter Eleven
Ruthanne had been in and out of their house all the time when Sean was a kid. Her husband had come over a lot, too. Sean hadn’t liked him. He talked loud and was always telling Sean and his brothers they should go out side and play, like it was his house instead of theirs.
He’d liked Ruthanne until the night he saw her with his dad out at the horse barn when neither of them knew Sean was watching. She’d tried to kiss his dad, but then his dad had seen Sean and pushed her away.
Sean had never told anyone what he saw that night, not even his brothers. But he’d hated it when Ruthanne came around after that.
For all Sean knew, it could have been as innocent on Troy’s part as when Sasha Cahill had tried to jump his bones, but the old resentment rattle
d him all the same.
“Ruthanne heard I was sick and dropped by to bring a casserole dish,” Troy said. “She’s just leaving.”
“News travels fast,” Sean said.
“I ran into a nurse friend who works the E.R.,” Ruthanne said. “She told me the ambulance had bought Troy in with a heart attack the other night. I tried to call him, but he never answers the phone.”
“Doctor’s orders,” Troy quipped. “I need my rest.”
Troy was still holding the casserole dish, so, evidently, he’d met Ruthanne on the porch and not invited her inside. If they’d arrived a few minutes later, he and Eve could have avoided her altogether.
Ruthanne smoothed the front of her snugly fitted sweater and turned to Eve. “You must be a friend of Sean’s.”
“She is,” Troy lied. “This is Ellen. She lives in Houston.”
A nice recovery, Sean had to admit. Having anyone see Eve at the ranch was worrisome. He and Eve followed their hellos with a quick goodbye and left Troy and Ruthanne standing on the porch. They closed the door firmly behind them and Eve went off in search of Joey and Collette.
He followed to make sure she found them. When she joined them in the protected garden where Collette was on her knees helping Joey build a stone bridge for his cars, he returned to the kitchen. Troy was standing at the kitchen counter, closing the top on a bottle of pills. Troy swallowed a white tablet and chased it with a glass of water.
“I’m sorry Ruthanne ran into Eve like that, but I had nothing to do with her coming over. She just showed up. But no harm was done. She has no idea who Eve is.”
“Did she see Joey?”
“No. Collette took him to the back of the house when we saw the car drive up.”
Sean wanted to say more, but it was his own frustration pushing him. Troy couldn’t have very well just run off Ruthanne with a rifle.
Sean went to the counter for a cup of coffee.
“I’m limited to a cup a day,” Troy said, “but Collette made a fresh pot after lunch. It should still be drinkable.”
Sean took a sip. “It’s fine.”
“How did the meeting with Bastion’s sister go?”
“It netted her a gain of five thousand dollars.”
Sean filled him in on the details and even mentioned the possibility that Orson might have had Brock Worthington killed.
Troy scratched his chin. “You’re right. That sounds just like something he’d do. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”
“We don’t have proof,” Sean said, “but the timing sure makes it appear suspicious.” He carried his coffee to the table. The entire top was covered in computer printouts, yellowed newspaper and scribbled notes.
He found a spot just big enough for his cup. “What’s this?”
Troy joined him at the table. “I’ve been collecting information on crimes committed in Mustang Run and neighboring towns within a year either way of the time your mother was murdered.”
It was quite an impressive collection. “Did you gather all this by yourself?”
“Most of it, but Abel Drake’s put me on some leads. He has a friend who was a Ranger back then, Trent Fontaine. Trent came up with some information I would have never found.”
“Like what?”
“An alleged rape in the northern part of the county one month before your mother was shot and killed. The woman claimed she came home and found a man inside her house rifling through her cabinets. He raped her, but left out the back door when her husband drove up. She called the authorities but was too embarrassed to press charges, so there was never any formal record of the crime.”
“Were there others like that?”
“A rape and murder in a neighboring county that was never solved.”
“What about forensic evidence?”
“Apparently there was nothing that could identify the killer. But back then CSI teams weren’t what they are now, especially in rural areas. No one ever checked fibers or hairs or any of the other evidence they rely so heavily on now.”
Sean scanned a couple of the newspaper articles. “You’ve done some pretty thorough digging. Who did you say hooked you up with the ranger?”
“Abel Drake. He’s an old friend, used to live in these parts, but he has a ranch just east of Dallas now.”
Sean spent the next hour going over the information spread across the table. The work represented a lot of time and effort. It was the kind of thing you’d expect from a man who was actually looking for his wife’s killer.
OTHER THAN AT DINNER, Sean had seen little of Eve since they returned from San Antonio. She’d spent most of her time with Joey, who’d at least temporarily reverted to clinging and dogging her every step.
Sean understood Joey’s deep-rooted anxiety better since he’d heard that the boy was there when his dad had died. He’d seen the blood up close and personal, the way Sean had when his mother had been murdered. Joey had been younger, likely understood less, but Joey’s father had been alive and walking down the street with him one minute and dead the next.
There was too much violence in this country, too many kids who lived with nightmarish images forever seared into their minds.
Sean had buried much of his pain and fear deep inside him. Oddly, he became better at dealing with his own issues when he began to work with horses full-time. Horses responded to body language rather than words, to experiences instead of lectures. They made slow but steady progress, as long as the environment was conducive, trust was there and their basic needs were met.
Seems it was the same for people, even kids. It was pretty basic when you thought about it.
Except when you were dealing with men like Orson Bastion. Men without conscience or guilt, who killed without remorse whenever it suited them.
And Sean had no doubt that the kind of evil Orson possessed had started early in his life. Just because they had no record of it didn’t mean it hadn’t occurred.
Troy Ledger was not an evil man. So, if he had killed Sean’s mother all those years ago, it would have taken some incredibly strong motivation or temporary insanity. But Troy hadn’t claimed temporary insanity. He’d claimed innocence. And now he was, at the very least, going through the motions of looking for his wife’s killer.
Sean’s hodgepodge of thoughts collided with his equally jumbled emotions. The quietness of the house only added to the mix. His father had retired for the night. Eve was still back in her bedroom, though it was well past Joey’s bedtime.
He was starting to think Eve was merely avoiding him. She’d thrown herself wholeheartedly into this afternoon’s kiss. He was pretty sure it had left her reeling the way it had him. But she’d had time to think about it since then. She might just be smart enough to figure out that adding fiery passion to a deadly situation wasn’t all that smart.
“Sean.”
He turned at the sound of Eve’s voice, though he’d been so lost in his thoughts he hadn’t heard her approach. She was standing in the doorway, wearing the pale blue robe that always fired his imagination about the body beneath it. Desire rocked through him and his body hardened into a painful, throbbing need that devoured his control.
He walked over, took one end of the dangling belt between his fingers and tugged. The robe fell open revealing nothing but naked flesh.
Eve slipped her arms around his neck. “I got tired of waiting for you to come to bed.”
Chapter Twelve
Sean’s blood ran fire-hot through his veins as he picked up Eve and carried her to his room. Her arms and legs wrapped around him. Her fingers curled in his hair. But it was her kisses that drove him wild. Deep, wet, greedy, as if she couldn’t get enough of him.
He let her slide down his body until her feet touched the floor. The pressure against his hard need triggered a thousand new emotions, all of them wild and tempestuous. He throbbed with a need so earthy and unfettered that he could barely turn the lock on the door.
Once he did, it was déjà vu, a repe
at of night one. A sensual, frantic tangle of legs, arms and bodies. Only, this time Eve was the aggressor and there was no knife. No hesitation. No restraint.
She backed him against the wall, ripped open his shirt and smothered his bare chest with kisses. He tugged the robe from her shoulders and let it puddle at their feet. Kicking it out of the way, he fit his hands beneath her firm little buttocks, lifting and fitting her against him.
She pulled away just enough to slide her hands between them and unsnap his jeans. Lowering the zipper with one frantic jerk, she traced a searing trail down the length of his erection with her fingertips.
He should slow down, but he couldn’t, especially not now, not with Eve’s hands and mouth exploring him and finding every spot that drove him mad.
He slid his hands between her legs. She was already slick with desire. Blood rushed to his head. He’d never been this hot for a woman, never been this dizzy with desire. Never been so damned out of control.
He wrapped his hands around his need, trying desperately to hold back. “I have protection in my wallet.”
“I haven’t been with another man in years,” she said. “After Brock, I got a clean bill of health. And there’s no chance of pregnancy this week.”
“It’s been sixteen months for me. Two clean checkups since then.”
Sean exhaled in relief and then was hit again by passion so intense he could barely stand. He lifted Eve and fit her over the throbbing length of his organ. She moaned as he thrust inside her.
And then there was no holding back. They exploded together in a frenzy of release that seemed to rock the whole room.
“I should have—”
Eve silenced him with a finger against his lips. “No shoulda-wouldas. That was exactly what I needed. The only question is how long before we can do it again.”
If she kept curling around him as she was doing now, the wait would be incredibly short. This time, when he picked her up he carried her to his bed.
EVE CUDDLED IN SEAN’S ARMS, feeling as if she’d been painted inside and out with a sweet, golden brush of pleasure. The past week had been a nightmare. Tonight’s sensual frenzy had provided the perfect release for the multitude of emotions that had run roughshod over her ever since she left Dallas for Willow Creek Ranch.
