Darrin had looked down at himself, in his checkered shirt, old boots and blue jeans.
“Can you see me walking down the street there?” he’d drawled, slowly, with his crooked grin. “Hell, no. Those folks wouldn’t know what to do with me.”
Putting an arm around her waist, Matt led Ariel into the office, his home away from home.
Inside there were desks in the center of the room, facing each other so you could talk to your neighbor if you wanted. The outer walls were lined with offices but unlike Marathon, the effect wasn’t sterile. The artwork on the walls depicted the desert scenery and there were plants everywhere.
“That one’s mine,” Matt said, allowing her a peek inside his office. “I don’t actually spend much time here. I’m usually out in the field.”
It showed, there was an air of vacancy about it. It was very neat but then, so was his home.
“Darrin?” Matt called.
A deep, resonant voice answered from one of the back offices, sounding surprised and pleased.
“Here. That you, Matt?”
“It’s me, all right.”
A tall, lean and rangy man stepped out of the office as Matt led her back. He had a face weathered by time and sun, dark brown hair and piercing pale blue eyes. It didn’t take much to see there was a lot of respect between the two men. Ariel could see it in the way their eyes met, evenly and squarely.
“Darrin, I’d like you to meet Ariel O’Donnell. I think she might have saved my life. She’s also been helping me with Bill’s situation.” Matt looked at Ariel. “Ariel, this is my father, Darrin Morrison.”
In all the ways that mattered, Darrin had been his dad.
“That Ariel?” Darrin asked.
Matt grinned. “Yep.”
Holding out a hand, Ariel said, with a smile, “So, you’re the one responsible?”
“Responsible?” Darrin asked but he smiled back as he took the offered hand for a shake.
She had a good handshake, firm, not limp.
This then was the Ariel who so enchanted Matt.
Darrin studied her.
Those crystal blue eyes were pretty but also steady. A blush of pink across her forehead, nose and cheeks was from too much sun on that delicate alabaster skin. There was strength of character there, though. She was a good-looking woman, healthy, too, in more ways than one. He looked at Matt, who he loved as much as if he’d been his own son and sometimes wished was. Close enough. There was a light in his eyes Darrin had never seen before.
“For helping to make him the man he is,” Ariel said.
Matt tightened his arm around her.
That was true, if it hadn’t been for Darrin things would have been a lot different. He’d been a bit of a wild child with his mother working all the time, trying to make a living for them. Darrin had worked hard and patiently to take him in hand. Matt hadn’t always made it easy for him and he knew it.
“I believe that’s one of the nicest compliments that I’ve ever been given, although I don’t know that I can take all the credit.”
With a glowing smile, Ariel said, “No, some of it he comes by naturally.”
Darrin looked from one to the other. They couldn’t have known each other long but the beginning of something strong was there and he was glad to see it. Matt had always seemed to go from one girl to another. None of them had made him happy. Now he was, contented and well satisfied.
“Saved your life?” he said, with a little pang of worry, “It seems you left a few things out the last time we talked. Come on into my office, have a seat. I think you have a story to tell me.”
Looking around Ariel could clearly see that this was Darrin’s space. The chairs were good and solid They told it. Or started to until Darrin held up his hand.
Darrin held up his hand. “Hold up. How’d you get cold-cocked, Matt? And why didn’t you tell me about this when you were here last?”
It seemed there were a few things Matt had failed to mention, probably so he wouldn’t worry.
Shaking his head, Matt answered, with a rueful grin, “It never came up. I got careless. Stupid. I underestimated them but I also didn’t expect that violent a response from the security at a financial management company. Maybe rent-a-cops, not ex-military.”
He looked at Matt and then looked at Ariel. “And you did what?”
Grinning, Matt said, “She took a two-by-four to them. She has a nice, solid swing.”
“For a man you didn’t know?”
Ariel grinned, a little abashed. “Three against one weren’t good odds, it didn’t seem right. The good guys don’t generally gang up on someone. I couldn’t stand by and let them do that and there wasn’t anyone else.”
She was such a little thing. That had been a gutsy move, gutsy as hell. He shook his head.
“Okay, go on.”
When they finished, Darrin sighed and looked at him. “You sure about this, Matt?”
He nodded. “It’s what it looks like. Another Enron, Madoff or Stanford.”
“Yeah but the Enron boys didn’t go around killing people.”
Ariel said, “Yes, they got the walk of shame, instead. Everyone knows their faces, their names and what they’ve done. Some people would go a long way to avoid that kind of humiliation.”
“Point there, Ariel,” Darrin said. “So, you two are going to try at Marathon again here?”
“One is chance, twice is coincidence, three times…,” Matt replied.
Darrin gave him a look. “Be careful that the stick you’re poking underneath that rock isn’t stirring up a hornet’s nest, Matt. If you do, you’d best be prepared.”
“I think we may already have done that, Darrin. I wanted to give you a heads up.”
“Okay, I got that. How much longer do you think this is going to go on?”
With a shrug, Matt said, “A couple of days, maybe. We’ll have to wait and see what we get from the Marathon office here. Once I’m sure, we’ll go to the Attorney General, call in the SEC and see what happens.”
“I’ll set that up. Good job, son,” Darrin said. “It looks like you’ve done right by Bill.”
The memory of the loss of his old friend still hurt. “I’m trying, Darrin.”
“And you’ve done damn well.”
“Come on out to the ranch tomorrow night for dinner,” Matt said. He wanted Darrin and Ariel to get to know each other.
With a tip of his head, Darrin said, “I’ll do that.”
They stopped to buy proper boots and a hat for Ariel so she could ride again in the morning. She was extraordinarily pleased at the idea of having her own cowboy boots, her excitement and pleasure making Matt laugh. Her face colored but she grinned. Then they headed back to the ranch for a quiet night together.
It was odd but this had always been something of a dream for him. Curled up in bed, they watched TV with Ariel’s head on his shoulder. Lightly, delicately, she ran her fingertips over his chest, simply for the satisfaction of touching him. Matt tightened his arm around her with a sigh of pleasure. She smiled, her fingers drifting over his ribs and Matt twitched. Grinning, she did it again and he squirmed.
“You’re ticklish,” she said, delighted, laughing.
He grabbed her wrist, he lifted it away and restrained a smile. “You will stop doing that.”
Looking up at him with the light of merry challenge in her eyes and she grinned. “Well, no, I probably won’t. Are you ticklish on both sides?”
He felt fingers stroke his ribs delicately on the other side.
“Oh, that’s too much,” he said, twisting to pin her to the bed. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Catching both her wrists above her head in one hand – easy to do since her wrists were so small – Matt looked down into her laughing blue eyes. “Now the question is, are you?”
“Uh oh,” she said, her blue eyes sparkling, trying to wriggle away from him.
He drifted fingers over her ribs and she squirmed, laughing.
/> “Oh, no, no, no, Matt,” she said, “I give up.”
He grinned, “Too late now. Let’s find out exactly where you are ticklish.”
Ariel wriggled as he searched. She gasped as his fingers drifted above the inside her hip, dancing up her ribs. A wrist slipped free and she tried to escape, laughing, before he pounced on her again. He trailed his tongue over her ribs, flicking lightly, holding her hips as she wriggled. His mouth closed over the spot inside her hip and she groaned. Like an otter she twisted, trying to escape him, laughing.
Matt was laughing too but he was also getting hard.
She scrambled toward the headboard and he caught her there among the pillows, grabbing one ankle to reel her back in.
Pressing his mouth into the back of her knee, he nuzzled it, suckled and Ariel went limp as heat burst inside her. She gasped as all the strength went out of her.
Matt drew her up into his arms.
They would have one more day of peace, Matt thought, curling his hand into those thick curls to cradle her head and he explored her throat with his lips.
One more day. With luck, after Monday, he could pass all of it on to the Attorney General’s office and the SEC. He knew now why Bill had died, he would have the who soon. Once the dam burst, though, the searches were conducted and the plea-bargaining began, the chances of finding out who had ordered it increased. Some would roll. So would a few heads.
Chapter Nineteen
Sunday morning dawned peaceful and serene. Another clear and sunny day. What it would be like most days if they weren’t in the middle of the cactus patch of Marathon and Genesis. They rode out in the early morning light with a picnic breakfast in a basket. With Ariel sitting between Matt’s legs and his back against a rock, they ate breakfast as they watched the sun come up.
They were unsaddling the horses in the stables and brushing them down when they heard the noise. A steady throbbing. It was a familiar sound but unusual out here.
Frowning, Matt looked at Ariel as the sound got louder and closer. He put his brush down.
Staying in the shadows, they both went to the door.
A helicopter circled, spraying up sand and dust. It settled down for a landing in his back field. A nice, big, cushy Bell Ranger. Marathon Corp. was emblazoned on the side of it.
It was a good thing the horses were already in their stalls. They shifted nervously at the sound.
“Stay here,” Matt told Ariel. “Stay out of sight.”
All he had here in the barn was a rifle. He didn’t want the conversation to start out that way, but he also didn’t want to face their visitors unarmed.
She nodded, worriedly. “Be careful, Matt.”
“I will.”
Walking unhurriedly, as if helicopters landed in his back yard all the time, he went into the house. From the gun cabinet in the bedroom, he took a Walther PPK and a flat holster that would hook onto his belt in the small of his back. If he needed it, he would have it.
He hoped he wouldn’t need it.
The chopper was down, the blades slowly turning. The pilot hustled to open the door to allow another man to climb out.
Three piece suit, slick-soled dress shoes, an expensive haircut hiding thinning hair.
“Mr. Morrison?” the suit called, doubtfully, looking Matt up and down as he himself walked unsteadily toward him across the sandy soil in his fancy shoes. He was already sweating in the heat.
Matt thought with amusement the man might not be too impressed by what he saw. He hadn’t put on his best jeans for the ride and the simple white t-shirt Ariel had admired that morning when he pulled it on wasn’t that fancy. He was wearing his oldest and most comfortably worn boots and an old hat. Ariel had liked the look a lot. So much so she’d borrowed one of his t-shirts. It looked damned good on her, too, tucked into a pair of jeans.
“Yes?”
“I’m Carter Hancock, Vice President for Development at Marathon Corp.,” the man said. “Can we go inside and talk for a few moments?”
Looking at him and the two men now getting out of the helicopter behind him, Matt shook his head.
“No, we can talk right here. I’m careful who I invite into my home. Say what you came here to say.”
Carter Hancock didn’t like it, especially as the day was heating up but he didn’t argue.
“Mr. Morrison, I’ve been informed that there is an issue between you and Marathon Corp. We’d like to ask what it would take to make it go away?”
What it would take? For a moment Matt could only stare, and then his temper flared.
Money. That was the way that these people thought. A man like Bill was only worth so many dollars and cents.
“Get out, Mr. Hancock,” he said. “Get off my property and go back to Marathon.”
“Mr. Morrison, we’re prepared to offer quite a lot of money to make this happen. Well beyond the life insurance and 401K Mrs. Pankhurst and the children will have to live on.”
Matt shook his head in disgust. “At least get his name right. It’s Parkhurst, you jackass. As for the money? Eight, ten years from now, what am I supposed to tell his boys that their father’s life was worth? I don’t think so. Now, get off my property.”
“Hundreds of thousands of dollars, Mr. Morrison, some for yourself as well,” Hancock said.
The two men who’d exited the helicopter were splitting up, trying to flank him.
“Get out, Mr. Hancock,” Matt said.
A little farther apart and he’d have to do something about those two.
From the shadows of the barn they clearly heard the sound of bolt action as a bullet was chambered.
The surprise on Hancock’s face was comical.
It seemed Ariel had found the rifle he kept there for when the coyotes came too close.
“A million, Mr. Morrison,” Hancock said, “each.”
Narrowing his eyes, he sighed and looked at the man. “Here’s what I’ll take. Both Marathon and Genesis have their books audited by the SEC, the Consumer Protection Bureau and an independent auditor this week. You give me the name of the man who ordered Bill Parkhurst dead, the evidence to prove it and then give the money to his widow, Penny.”
Hancock shook his head slowly and sadly. “I’m afraid we can’t do that, Mr. Morrison.”
That was far enough apart for the other two. Matt pulled his gun and put a bullet before the foot of one. He regularly practiced shooting at that distance.
Another gun cracked and another bullet plowed into the dirt just ahead of the feet of the other man.
It seemed Ariel was a pretty good shot. She was just full of surprises.
Jumping in surprise, Hancock yelped, too.
“You and your friends, get off my property, now,” Matt said. “I mean it.”
Hancock scrambled backwards.
Walking steadily and carefully backwards himself, he twitched his gun at the merry wanderers to encourage them to move as well. They kept their hands high while walking back to the helicopter.
He waited until the chopper was actually in the air and moving away before he went back to the stable.
From the sunlight into the dim he couldn’t see very well but there was no sign of Ariel that he could see.
The rifle was racked back in its usual place.
“Ariel?” he said.
She stepped into the beam of light where sun streamed in through the window. It gleamed on her ivory skin. All she had on was his thin cotton t-shirt, her white panties, her new hat and boots. Her hair was tucked up under the hat. The t-shirt was wet. It was so thin he could see her nipples poking against the material. She hooked her thumbs in her panties.
Ariel looked at him, smiling, her damp skin luminous, beads of water sparkled on it and her eyes glowed in the brilliant light. The sunlight on the wet, clinging t-shirt illuminated every curve.
“I thought you might need to relax. Want to go for a ride, Matt?” she asked, softly.
Matt went hard instantly, rock hard. His jeans wer
e far too tight. His mouth practically watered at the sight of her.
He walked toward her slowly as she lifted her chin. Her mouth was soft.
Reaching out, he pitched her hat into a corner. Her rich dark hair gleamed in the sunlight as it tumbled down over her shoulders. Reaching out, he brushed his fingers over the damp cloth. Her nipples hardened to taut peaks. He was so hard. He closed his hand over one round globe tightly as he reached up to take hold of a handful of her hair, pulling her head back to crush her mouth beneath his. He drove his tongue between her lips, plunged it deep into her mouth. She sucked on it, her tongue twining around his.
With his hand clenched in her hair he turned her head to press his mouth against her throat and suck the dampness away as she shivered. Goosebumps danced over her skin. He ran his mouth down across her chest to that full round globe he squeezed so tightly. Her back arched and her muscles grew taut to drive her breast even harder against his hand. His mouth closed on the wet cloth, on the hard point there, to suck the moisture away.
He didn’t think he could get any harder.
He peeled the damp t-shirt from her skin before knotting his hand in her hair again.
Matt crushed his mouth against her breast, savaging it, his teeth on her. He found the little bud between her thighs with his fingers and teased, played with it. Her body jerked and she called his name, trembling, shaking. He didn’t let up until she cried out again, her knees going weak. He drove his fingers up into the hot depths of her as she drove her hips against him.
Ariel unhooked his belt, popped the button, feeling the length of him strain against the zipper. Then it was down and he was free. He moaned as she took him in her hand. She was nearly mindless with pleasure and need, lost in the feel of his mouth on her breast and the touch of his hand. She wanted him badly.
“Matt, oh Matt, I love you,” she said and his mouth closed on her, suckling hard as his fingers twitched.
“Not yet, love,” he said, against her breast and teased that little point between her thighs again until she trembled uncontrollably. “I love you, Ariel, God, I love you. I love that I can do this to you.”
Lucky Charm Page 27
