by Jenny Penn
It was a comfortable, impromptu date that had the ease of a couple who had been together a long time. Working side by side all day in the bakery had broken down the awkward uncertainty that normally marred the getting-to-know-each-other phase and, instead, they talked easily.
That relaxed vibe followed them through Sunday, when Konor showed up once again to help out at the bakery. He even came up with a melted cheese, apple, and bacon sandwich that sold out during their brunch rush. On Monday, he added a pesto dressing to their turkey sandwich that earned more than a few compliments from the customers who tried it. That was, all but one customer.
Alex sat glowering in his seat as he watched both her and Konor. From beneath the dark arch of his brow, his brilliant gaze glittered with an intensity she hadn’t seen since the day he’d learned about Hugh and Heather’s one-night mistake. Of course, Alex hadn’t exactly wasted any time before moving on with Paula. At least she hadn’t flaunted Hugh in Alex’s face the way he had Paula, but Heather was flaunting now.
While she knew it was probably wrong of her, she couldn’t help but relish the moment, enjoying every deepening crease in Alex’s scowl. By Tuesday, he was barely capable of speaking a civilized word. Instead, he snarled and growled, exuding a dark aura that kept almost everybody at bay. It was unfortunate, but Heather didn’t get to savor the moment because by Wednesday, she was the one wearing the frown.
The day dawned bright and cheery, giving no indication to the storms gathering in the horizon. The sun shined brightly, the birds chirped merrily, and Heather all but skipped her way to work. Konor wasn’t there to greet her that morning, and Heather didn’t expect him any later in the day. He’d warned her that he’d be busy for the next three days at the fire station.
Patton, on the other hand, had apparently been busy for the past three days. She cruised into the bakery on Chase Davis’s arm, her eyes glowing with an eagerness that had Heather’s mood hardening with a sense of dread.
Patton was happy. Too happy.
That meant this was going to be bad. Very bad.
It didn’t need to be public as well. Catching Patton’s eye as she paused with Chase by Alex’s table, Heather nodded toward the kitchen doors, starting that way when Patton returned the gesture. They met at the kitchen door, but neither woman spoke until the loud roar of the dining room had dimmed to a soft murmur, muffled by the heavy swing doors that locked sound out and heat in.
Feeling the sweat begin to almost immediately bead along her forehead, Heather waved Patton over toward the ovens. “Come on and you can tell me what you learned while I pull the cookies out of the oven.”
“Cookies?” Patton perked up at that, hurrying ahead of Heather to peer into the already-baked racks. “What kind?”
“Chocolate chip with pecan chunks.” Heather checked the timer on the batch currently baking and saw that it still had a minute to go. That was all the time Patton needed to snatch a cookie. Heather eyed the large bulge in Patton’s cheek and couldn’t help but smirk.
“Those are a dollar twenty-five. Don’t think I won’t charge you.”
“Oh, come on, now,” Patton pouted as best she could with a mouth full of cookie. “What I found out is worth a lot more than a couple of cookies.”
Heather heaved a sigh as fate finally caught up with her. She’d figured it would be bad. It always was. Still, she hesitated to ask for details, wanting to live for at least a few more seconds in her happy bubble. There was no escaping it, though. Now that she knew that there was something to know Heather had to know it.
She just had to brace herself first.
“Okay. Give it to me.”
“You sure?” Patton asked, hesitating as she cast a quick look over at the Howie, who was hard at work checking the chicken in the fryer. “You sure this is the right place to have this conversation?”
“Don’t worry about him. He can’t hear us.” Even if he could, Heather trusted Howie to keep his mouth shut. He wasn’t a gossip, which was one of the reasons she employed him. “Now tell me what you found out.”
“Okay,” Patton caved, but kept an eye on Howie and tone low as she stepped in close to whisper. “Check this out, apparently every summer the Cattlemen pick one lucky lady to battle over and this year—it’s you. You’re the rabbit at the dog race, honey, and you’re about to be run down.”
Chapter 11
She was the rabbit?
Heather had never been to a dog race but she knew well enough that she didn’t want to be a rabbit at one. Neither did she want to be battled over, whatever the hell that meant.
“That’s right.” Patton nodded at her own revelation, expanding on it with a relish that only intensified the panic building within Heather. “Almost every Cattleman out there wants to be the first to get you not only into bed but into every other position they can think of. Do you know what that means?”
Yeah. Konor didn’t really want her. It was just the challenge.
“You have all the power. Just think about it,” Patton whispered. There was a reverence to her tone that matched the sparkle in her eyes. “There is almost nothing these men won’t do to win, which means there is almost nothing you can’t get them to do.”
Heather blinked, amazed at Patton’s reasoning. Her whole world was crumbling, and Patton wanted her to go play stupid games with stupid men who had some stupid bet going over who could land her first. Well, Heather had news for the Cattlemen. They were all going to be losers this summer.
“Your cookies smell like they’re burning.”
“Damn it.” Heather started, becoming aware of the strong scent beginning to fill the kitchen.
Throwing the oven doors open, she quickly began to pull the sheets of cookies out, transferring the long trays to the cooling racks while Patton hovered nearby. By the time Heather had finished unloading the last baking sheet and slammed the oven doors closed there were two cookies missing off the top rack, but she was too distracted to nag Patton, who had retreated back toward the doors with her stolen bounty.
“Okay. Let’s start from the beginning.” Heather slapped down her oven mitts on a work table and turned to confront Patton. “There is a contest—”
“They called it the Cattleman’s Challenge,” Patton clarified around a bite of cookie. “Isn’t that sexy sounding?”
“No. It’s not,” Heather snapped, her patience completely worn thin. “It’s demeaning, and knowing that all these guys are trying to get with me just to win some kind of bet—”
“Actually, the winner earns points,” Patton corrected her, going into more detail than Heather wanted or needed to hear. “I think they call them Buckles, but either way, the more points a Cattleman earns the higher his rank in the club. The higher their rank the more…amenities they can avail themselves to.”
“Amenities,” Heather repeated, knowing that Patton meant women. “So after Konor woos me and then fucks me, he earns the right to fuck other women. Is that it?”
That had Patton’s smile dipping into a frown. “Well, when you put it like that—”
“And how else would you put it?” Heather demanded to know.
“It’s an opportunity,” Patton stated with a seriousness that left Heather gaping at her as she explained her irritatingly logical position. “Challenge or no challenge, those other women will still always be available but right now Konor’s focused on only one woman. It’s up to you to keep it that way.”
“I…that’s…no!” Heather shook her head, giving up any attempt to reason through her response. She didn’t need to be reasonable. Not about this. “I’m not interested in playing any stupid games.”
“Oh, I get it.” Understanding finally lit up Patton’s eyes. It was almost immediate followed by pity, an emotion that echoed in her tone. “You really like Konor, don’t you?”
Yes, she did. While she would never admit it now, Heather had actually been falling for the big ass. The sad part was, she’d known better. After all, he was Alex’s best fr
iend.
“Pretty damn stupid of me, isn’t it?” Heather muttered, feeling the weight of her regret begin to deflate her anger.
“I don’t think you’re—”
“Just tell me something,” Heather cut in, not interested in being patronized. “How do you know all this?”
There was nothing reassuring about Patton’s smile. “Don’t worry about that. I have my sources, and my sources have access.”
Flipping open her oversized purse, Patton rummaged through it to pull out a small flash drive and hand it over to Heather. “Here. I didn’t get a chance to finish printing everything up, but it’s all saved on this drive.”
“What is all saved on the drive?” Heather asked, accepting the small drive from Patton with a frown.
“Files.”
“Files? What files?”
“You mean ‘whose’.” Patton smile grew two inches wider while a set double dimples blossomed in her cheeks. “Everybody’s files…except for Chase, Slade, and Devin’s.”
Heather blinked, not certain what the hell Patton was talking about but instinctively knowing it wasn’t good. She could all but sense the path to damnation lurking before her, and Heather knew better than to take that first step.
“Okay. I don’t know what you’re talking about, and—” Heather rushed forward loudly when it appeared Patton was about to interrupt “—I don’t care. I’ve got a bakery full of men who seem to think that I’m the special on the menu and I just want to know—did Konor or Alex set me up to be the…the prize of this stupid challenge.”
“Konor did. Alex didn’t know anything about it,” Patton stated with strange certainty before nodding at the flash drive. “And you need to hold onto that.”
“Why?”
“Because it has every Cattleman’s file stored on it. I’m not talking about just Konor and Alex or even all those men out there. I’m talking about judges and prosecutors and national figures you never even knew belonged to that club.”
Patton savored that revelation. Appearing to almost get a thrill out of the words themselves, she eased forward as her tone dropped into a seductive murmur that Satan himself had probably taught her.
“And those files contain everything from their preferences in women to position to activities. You want to know what senator likes to be the meat in a double-D sandwich? Do you even want to know what that means?”
“No.” Heather really didn’t. “And I don’t intend to get involved in any blackmail scheme, so you can just take this back.”
“Blackmail?” Patton reared back as if Heather had slapped her instead of just thrust the drive back at her. “As if. I’m not talking about making money on this information. I’m talking about the fact that the women of this town need a little help when it comes to managing the men of this town, and given you are the mother of us all—”
“What?” More shocked than outraged, Heather didn’t know if she’d just been insulted or complimented. Patton wasn’t pausing to explain.
“Just hold onto it,” Patton insisted. “Do it as a favor to me because we both know you’re going to confront Konor about the Challenge and eventually he’ll want to know who ratted him out and, sooner or later, I’ll be found out. Then Chase, Slade and Devin will get involved and if they find that drive…then they’ll be honestly pissed.”
“I won’t rat you out, Patton,” Heather assured her. No matter how crazy or dangerous Patton might be, betrayal wasn’t even a consideration.
“But I want you to,” Patton responded with measured patience as if Heather was the nut-ball in the room. “How can I be punished if my sins are not discovered? Come on, now Heather, I did you a favor. Aren’t you going to do me one?”
“Fine.” Heather sighed, giving in since it really didn’t make a difference to her.
“Good…and, maybe, you could teach me to cook?”
“Cook?”
“Yeah, you see, Chase, Slade, and Devin used to have this…maid,” Patton infused more than enough disgust into her tone to assure Heather of what they’d really had, “And, of course, she had to go and now we got this older lady coming in, but I know what Chase thinks.
“He thinks I should be the one cooking, but he’s all smug because he knows I can’t do it, so I want to learn to cook to prove that I can cook but just don’t want to, which should irritate the crap out of him and he’s kind of fun when he’s annoyed.”
Heather blinked, wondering if Patton actually heard the words coming out of her own mouth and how crazy they sounded.
* * * *
Alex watched the kitchen door’s with a brooding intensity as he waited for Heather to return. Every second that passed, his mood only darkened, which was impressive given how strained his temper had been lately. Konor hadn’t helped. Instead, he had all but flaunted his growing relationship with Heather in Alex’s face. There was no denying that Konor was well on his way to sweeping Heather off her feet.
Alex couldn’t let that happen.
He knew it was a rotten, horrible thing to do, but he had to stop Konor. It had to be done, and there was only one sure fire way to assure that Konor stood as little chance with Heather as Alex. She had to learn the truth…but GD was right about one thing—once Heather realized that this was all a game, everybody’s chances would be ruined.
It also meant that everybody would be pissed and looking for the mole. It wouldn’t be long before they looked past Patton to find out just who had clued her into all the details of the Challenge. While Alex had covered his tracks well enough to assure that nobody would ever be able to prove anything, he knew they’d all be looking at him nonetheless.
He was about to become very unpopular in the near future, but he didn’t care. All that mattered to Alex right then was how Heather would take the news. She was going to be hurt. He knew it, but told himself that she deserved to know the truth even if it did hurt.
That didn’t make him feel any better right then.
“You look like you’re about to shit bricks,” Chase Davis commented. He’d been droning on about the barn fire, making all the same threats his brother had the day before and had only finally seemed to realize that Alex wasn’t listening. “You haven’t heard a word I said, have you?”
“Nope.”
“You are sitting there obsessing over Heather, aren’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Chase groaned in disgust as he shook his head at Alex. “Just fuck her already. Get it out of your system so you can get back to doing your job and find this damn arsonist.”
Alex was half-tempted to tell Chase the truth right then and there, but managed to hold back, even though he was getting awfully tired of the Davis brothers implying he didn’t know how to do his damn job. Hell, he knew enough to know when he was being lied to, and Alex wasn’t going to put an innocent man in jail just to appease the Davis brothers.
He didn’t even care if that innocent man was martyring himself to protect a child. Protecting kids was Alex’s job, and he did a damn good one, despite whatever anybody else might think.
“I am doing my job, and I’m going to do it right. I’m not going to be rushed into making a mistake.” Alex paused to pin Chase with a pointed look. “No matter how hard you or your brothers hit me, though next time, somebody will be going to jail.”
Chase snorted at that. “I ain’t gonna’ hit you, Alex, but if you expect our help with the election coming up next year, then you’ll make sure our concerns are handled.”
“Trust me. They will be.” And they would be once Alex figured out what to do about the brewing disaster.
“Fine.” Chase appeared to finally accept Alex’s assurance, but that didn’t mean his mood improved. “Now, we need to talk about this Heather situation.”
“Situation?” Alex repeated, not liking the sound of that at all. “I don’t know what—”
“Don’t bother with the denials,” Chase cut him off. “Everybody knows you got it bad. Just as
everybody knows you’re too afraid to do anything about it.”
“And I care about what everybody knows…why?” Because Alex was pretty certain he didn’t.
“Because I care,” Chase stated, as if that made any kind of sense. “So now I’m giving the orders. Got me?”
“Okay.” Alex knew better than to argue just as Chase knew Alex wouldn’t be doing anything he didn’t want to. “Shoot.”
“Fuck the woman,” Chase stated bluntly. “I mean that literally. Fuck her, in every position possible until you have either gotten it out of your system or addicted her to the dick. Then, at least, you’ll have her under control.”
With those words of wisdom delivered, Chase rose out of his seat just Patton shoved through the kitchen doors. Chase studied her for a moment with a smile lingering at the edges of his lips. He cast one final glance at Alex and offered one more pearl of manly insight.
“And really, what do you have to lose? If you’re going to be driven crazy by a woman, you might as well be compensated for the trouble.”
“Are you talking about me?” Patton swept toward the table with a sparkle in her eyes that Alex knew had nothing to do with him or their plan.
“I’m just singing your praises, darlin’.” Chase gave Patton his award-winning grin as he wrapped an arm around her waist and began steering her toward the door. “So, you take care of your business?”
Alex didn’t catch Patton’s answer, but he knew what it was the second Heather stepped back into view. The smile she’d been wearing earlier was gone, and the glow that had enlivened her features had dimmed. She didn’t pause to laugh or flirt as she moved amongst the tables, but walked with a weight that assured Alex his mission had been accomplished.
Heather was miserable.
* * * *
Heather caught Alex’s gaze and knew instantly just who Patton’s source really was. The truth was there in the grim set of his features and the glittering depths of his eyes. Alex tracked her movements with the lethal dedication of a predator stalking its prey. She was damn sick and tired of being hunted, and she sure as hell was done being made into Alex’s prize.
