Something about this didn’t make sense, though.
“Reese could have told me what happened,” he said, talking more to himself than to Jimena, trying to work it out in his head. “She was a victim here…”
He looked up, his gaze connecting with Jimena’s. “Reese went after Spenser when she got out of the hospital?” he asked.
“We both did. He stole Reese’s grandfather’s watch, and Reese wanted to get it back.”
Logan had no doubts about that. After all, Reese had broken into his own loft to retrieve it. But he never would have assaulted her as Spenser had done.
“We were going to threaten to beat him up if he didn’t give her the watch. By then, Reese was my friend, and I wasn’t going to let that dickweed get away with what he’d done.”
Logan agreed. If he’d been around, he would have done the same thing. In fact, he still wanted to do the same thing. And worse. Logan wanted to hurt the guy the way he’d hurt Reese.
Jimena tipped her head to the envelope again. “The rest of the details are in there.”
“Accurate details?” he asked.
“We didn’t lie to the cops. Guess whose idea that was?”
He didn’t have to guess. It was Reese’s. “Is Spenser completely out of the picture now?” And if he wasn’t, Logan wanted to know where the guy was.
“He’s out. Way out. Only because he’s dead.”
Good. Logan wasn’t in the habit of wishing ill will on people, but he did in this case. In this case, dead wasn’t even enough.
“Just know this,” Jimena went on. “It took Reese a long time to be with another man. A long time. And you know what she called her night with you in San Antonio? Nice and good,” she answered before he could decide if he wanted to know. “Nice and good might not sound like much to you, but it’s the best thing she’s ever said about any guy.”
That didn’t make everything he was feeling any easier.
“If you hurt her, as a minimum I’ll brew cat shit in your coffee,” Jimena added. And she walked out, leaving Logan to curse again.
He quit arguing with himself and tore open the envelope. It wasn’t the actual police report but rather a summary from the private investigator. There it was—the details Jimena had just given—and more.
It was the more that got Logan’s attention.
Hell.
Spenser O’Malley was dead, all right. He’d died the night that Reese and Jimena had gone to threaten him to give Reese back the watch. And Spenser had given it back in his true asshole kind of way. He’d tossed it on the ground, breaking the crystal watch face. Before Reese or Jimena could even lay a hand on him—or in Jimena’s case, a bat—Spenser had run away.
Right into the street.
Where he’d been killed by the Houston-bound, 8:00 p.m. bus.
* * *
REESE HAD TO get out of the building. She needed to get moving again. If she didn’t, she was going to think about what Logan was reading in that report. And right about now, he had probably already read it, and he was cursing himself for ever getting involved with her.
Her breath caught in her throat. Her heartbeat started to race. And the memories came. Memories that she didn’t want to discuss with Cassie.
“Cassie, I have to go,” Reese called out to the woman while she was still throwing up in the ladies’ room. “Something important’s come up.”
Reese hurried out before Cassie could stop her.
Since she felt all clammy and sick, she headed in the direction of her apartment. Of course, it was a people minefield along the way, and it seemed as if everyone in town was suddenly out for a stroll. Reese had to smile again. Had to pretend nothing was wrong all the while she was falling apart inside.
How could she have let this happen?
And she wasn’t just thinking about Spenser now but Logan. How could she have let herself fall this way? She wasn’t a faller. Spenser had taught her that lesson, but here she was with her heart aching and the sick feeling that she had lost something that she could never get back.
By the time she made it to the Bluebonnet Inn, her face was hurting from the smiles and the too-tight muscles. Reese hurried up the stairs, hoping she wouldn’t encounter anyone else along the way. And she didn’t. Not until she reached her apartment.
Logan was sitting there on the floor with his back resting against her front door. It was such a relaxed pose, for a split second she thought it was Lucky. But it was Logan, all right.
“I called around,” he said. “Various people saw you walking so I decided to head here and wait for you.”
He stood slowly, met her eye to eye. He knew. She could tell. He’d read the secret that had put her stomach in knots.
Since Reese didn’t want to air her dirty laundry in the hall, she unlocked the door, and Logan followed her inside. He didn’t say anything until he shut the door behind him.
“Jimena said if I hurt you that she’d put cat shit in my coffee,” he said. “Anything you can do to make sure that doesn’t happen?”
That certainly wasn’t the conversation starter she’d expected, but Reese nodded, anyway. “It’s just an empty threat.”
Logan lifted his shoulder as if he might not believe that. “We have a lot of cat shit she could use, and she’s convinced I’m going to hurt you.”
He came closer, and each step seemed to cause her heart to skip beats. However, there was no anger in his eyes, in his tone, not in any part of his body. It stayed that way when Logan slipped his arm around her and kissed her.
Oh, my.
It was a nice kiss, one that untightened those stomach knots and eased away some of the tension in her shoulders. It would have been so easy just to melt into that kiss, maybe melt into some sex, too, but Reese knew that kisses and sex were a temporary fix. And it would only postpone the conversation they had to have.
“Didn’t you read the report?” she asked.
He nodded, tried to kiss her again, but she stopped him.
Oh, she got it. “These are pity kisses, aren’t they?”
His forehead bunched up. “I don’t pity-kiss, have pity sex or really anything else that has to do with pity.”
That was probably true, but it didn’t explain why he was trying to kiss her again when he should be telling her they were all wrong for each other. So, Reese was the one to say it.
“I could mess up everything for you and your family.”
Logan gave a fake yawn. “Old news. We’re rich. It’s hard to mess up really big trust funds.”
“You’re making light of this?” she snapped.
“No.” And he suddenly got very serious. “I’m just trying to make you understand I’m sorry for what happened to you.”
“Aha! I knew it. Pity.”
“No. Sympathy and understanding.”
“Pity,” she grumbled. Reese groaned. “Why don’t you ask me why I was stupid enough to get involved with a man like Spenser?”
“You were seventeen. All of us are pretty much stupid at that age.”
“I’m betting you weren’t.”
“Then you’d be betting wrong. At seventeen, I was doing dumb things like switching places with Lucky so he’d take English tests for me. In exchange, I’d go on dates with very sexually aggressive girls who thought they were getting Lucky. Literally.”
He was still trying to make her feel better, but it wasn’t working. Nothing could. “The only reason I wasn’t charged with manslaughter was because there were witnesses who said neither Jimena nor I forced Spenser into the street. But the bottom line is that I’m responsible for a man’s death.”
“How do you figure that?” he challenged.
“Spenser ran out of the alley because he was scared of me.”
Logan sh
ook his head. “I’m thinking that had more to do with Jimena’s bat and a scary threat she probably made to go right along with it.”
“No. It was me. Spenser could see in my face that I wasn’t going to take any more of his punches. He knew I would fight back, and since he was basically a coward, he ran.”
“And he ran into a bus, which I think is some kind of cosmic justice.”
It sounded, well, forgivable the way Logan put it, and it wasn’t. He pulled her to him again. Kissed her light and soft.
“What happened to you sucked,” he said. “You didn’t deserve it, but you were ready and willing to get out of a bad situation. And you did. You went to culinary school, got jobs. You made a life for yourself, and you did all of that without the benefit of a trust fund or a family who would walk through fire for you.”
Reese dismissed all of that because of what’d happened to Spencer. But to say that to Logan meant she’d just have to keep reopening this wound she didn’t want opened. It was a wound that hurt less when it wasn’t discussed. And when no one else knew about it. Reese could keep it covered with thick imaginary bandages.
Since she thought they both could use some levity, Reese gave it a try. “You really had sex with Lucky’s girlfriends?”
“It’s how I lost my virginity. That wasn’t a proud moment for me. I was ashamed. Very ashamed.”
He was smiling so the levity worked. Or maybe he was just reliving that ashamed sexual experience.
“Are you being nice to me so I’ll tell Jimena to cancel the cat-shit coffee plans?” she asked.
“In part. In part, too, because I want you in my bed later.”
Oh, that got her toes curling. Probably her eyelashes, too, since Logan added a kiss to it. “How much later?”
“Tonight, maybe? I’ve got meetings stacked up for the next few hours. In fact, I’m running late for one now.”
She stepped away from him. “Go. Don’t be late.” Reese didn’t want to do any more damage to his business.
“He can wait. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I’m fine.” It wasn’t a lie exactly. She was as fine as she could ever be considering she would always be broken. And that’s why she had to tell Logan this now. “I still plan on leaving soon.”
He took one short breath. “I figured as much. But I still want to make sure you’re okay.”
“I am, really.”
Logan stared at her as if trying to figure out if that was true. “All right. I’ll see you later, then.” He moved to leave, but his phone buzzed. “Probably Jimena.” But he shook his head when he looked at the screen. “It’s the police chief.”
Reese automatically moved closer to the phone because this could be about her mother.
“Please tell me you arrested Vickie,” Logan greeted.
“No. Haven’t found her yet, but we have a problem. By any chance have you spoken to Chucky in the past couple of hours?”
“No,” Logan answered, and Reese shook her head, too.
“That’s what I figured. Well, Chucky just called here, and he said he’s no longer cooperating, that he’s withdrawing his complaint. Sorry, Logan, but that means I can’t arrest Reese’s mother, after all.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
LOGAN FOUND A spot out of the path of the other guests. He went to the corner of the sunroom so he could sip his drink and hoped it looked as if he were having fun. After all, this was his twin brother’s engagement party, and fun and celebration should be at the top of his to-do list. For the next couple of hours, anyway. But it was hard to think of fun and celebration when Reese was so miserable.
She was trying to hide that misery, of course, and for most of the guests, she was succeeding. Reese was all smiles and friendly conversation as she chatted about the food all laid out on the table. Some of the stuff Logan recognized—various finger foods—but Reese had also included some fancier things, too, like pâté-wrapped brie cheese. All served with champagne, of course, and nonalcoholic sparkling cider for Mia and Mackenzie.
For Claire and Cassie, too.
Everything was picture-perfect. Which in his mind was different from ordinary perfect. It just meant everything looked the way it should. People smiling, having fun. Even Helene was working the room and pretending to be happy that she was there. Logan was pretending as well, but he was certain he failed big-time when he saw Lucky making his way toward him.
Lucky handed him a fresh glass of champagne. “As my late business partner used to say, you look lower than a fat penguin’s balls. I’m guessing all that lowness has something to do with one of them.” Lucky tipped his head to Reese and then Helene.
“Reese,” Logan readily admitted.
For just a second, Logan had considered lying, but it was hard to get away with lying to an identical twin. Probably something to do with sharing the same quarters and food source for the first nine months of their lives.
Lucky made a sound of agreement. “Is Reese still planning on leaving?”
“She says she is.” And since leaving was exactly what she’d done all her adult life, Logan had no doubt she would do it now.
“And you can’t change her mind? You must be losing your touch.”
The little dig was mandatory between brothers. Logan suspected it was to mask the emotional core of this conversation. If it got too much more emotional, one of them would have to curse or add some crude reference regarding dicks since a ball reference had already been used.
“I tried to convince her that it didn’t matter about her juvie record or what had happened in her past, but I don’t think I got through.” Hell, Logan knew he hadn’t. “Of course, it didn’t help that Chucky reneged on his deal and that now Vickie is free to do what she wants.”
“Yeah, that sucks donkey dicks.”
The fact that Lucky had gone to the D-word so soon meant he was feeling a lot of this dark-hearted crap that Logan was feeling. And it was something he didn’t want to feel.
“Has the police chief arrested Chucky yet for trying to extort money from Helene?” Lucky asked.
“He would arrest him if he could find him. Vickie and Chucky are nowhere to be found.”
That wouldn’t last. Those two smelled money the way sharks smelled blood, and they would be drawn right back to the McCord bank accounts.
Logan watched as Helene reached the table where Reese was standing. He couldn’t hear what they said to each other, but it was all smiles. And brief. The briefness brought on an even more genuine smile from Reese.
“I don’t want to hurt her,” Logan went on, and that didn’t have anything to do with Jimena’s cat-shit threat.
“Reese?” Lucky asked.
Logan frowned. “Of course.”
“Just checking. Come on. Take a walk with me. I want to show you the new rodeo bull I bought.”
It didn’t seem like a good time for that, what with the party in full swing, but Lucky led him outside, anyway.
“A lot of changes going on,” Lucky said once they were in the backyard. “I’ve already talked to Riley and Anna about this, but I wanted to get your opinion about Cassie, me and the girls staying on here at the house permanently.”
Logan was sure he looked surprised. “I thought that was already a done deal. Why, were you thinking of moving elsewhere?”
“No, we all love it here, but I wanted to make sure it was okay with you. It’s your home, after all.”
True. Home, in name only. Logan rarely stayed there anymore. He’d moved to his town loft because it was easier for work purposes, but he’d also done that because after Lucky, Riley and Anna moved away, it just hadn’t felt much like home. It was starting to feel more like it now, but his loft wasn’t that far from the ranch. Plus, the house was huge so he would always have his suite there. Wel
l, unless Cassie and Lucky had a houseful of kids, that is.
“Riley’s okay with it, too,” Lucky went on. They continued walking toward the barn and that attached corral. “Claire and he are planning an addition to their house, though, so they can have a playroom for Ethan and a nursery.”
So many changes, and while Logan didn’t feel left out exactly, he was the oldest. Okay, he did feel a little left out, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t happy for his siblings.
“Anna gave it her blessing, as well,” Lucky said. “If she decides to move back after finishing law school and getting married, she said she wanted to build a house by the springs, anyway.”
Logan knew the exact spot. In fact, his kid sister had talked about having a house there since she was in first grade.
“I think it’s all great,” Logan assured him. “The ranch and the house will be a great place to raise the girls and a baby.”
Lucky stopped for a second, laughed. “A baby. Now, that’s something I’ll bet you never thought you’d say when it came to me.”
Logan would have liked to say he’d expected it, but it hadn’t been anywhere on his radar. Until Cassie came back in his life, Lucky’s longest track record with a woman was less than the same amount of time Reese stayed in one place.
Not very long at all.
“Fatherhood will suit you,” Logan assured him. “Riley, too. I can’t wait to have more nieces or nephews.” He already thought of Claire’s son, Ethan, as family. Also thought the same way about Mia and Mackenzie.
Logan spotted the bull when they reached the corral. It was a beauty and would no doubt earn them a pretty penny once it was trained. That was yet something else Lucky had added to the ranch—the rodeo bull training program. It was as successful as the cutting horse operation that Riley had started.
All the pieces were falling into place.
“Dad would have loved this,” Logan said.
It was something he hadn’t intended to say, though. It’d just slipped out, and while it was true, it was also a downer because it was a reminder that their folks weren’t here to share any of it.
Blame It on the Cowboy Page 23
