by Joanna Wayne
“How?” Reno insisted. “By hypnotizing him?”
“I don’t know how yet. I’m working on that, but it makes more sense than Cornell shooting some guy who was walking away. He wasn’t one to look for trouble. He’d done a good job all his life of avoiding it.”
“Like you said, until Angela Pointer came on the scene. Hot exotic dancer wanting him to protect her from big, bad Walt. Women can screw with your psyche. Like the way Cornell’s mom is screwing with yours.”
“I’m not getting screwed. Neither is my psyche. But I still say there’s a knot in this rope the way it’s hanging now. Cornell is a very unlikely murderer. Georgio is our chief suspect behind a string of murders.”
“Show me the proof, Travis. You know I’d like nothing better than to put Georgio behind bars, but all we have to even link him to the smuggling at this point is Angela’s statement. You know as well as I do that the prosecutor would tear her story to shreds in court. Not to mention that her version also includes the chapter where Cornell kills Walt.”
“I haven’t taken an official statement from her yet, nor read her her rights.”
“Eventually, one of us has to.”
“I know.”
“To semi change the subject, how is Faith holding up?”
“Better than I expected, though I haven’t seen much of her for the past two days. She’s been at the trauma center, hoping for a memory breakthrough for Cornell. I’ve been working sixteen hours a day on this case.”
“Maybe you should both take some time off.”
Not a bad idea, and Faith was at the Dry Gulch Ranch this afternoon.
Travis dropped his feet back to the floor. “It’s officially my day off and I’ve been on the job since six this morning. I think I’ll take your advice and call it quits.”
Reno grinned. “Don’t blame you. Nothing like afternoon delight.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
And unfortunately, he had no expectations of finding out today. But if he hurried he might get home in time to go horseback riding with Faith. She had to be tired of staying inside the house and under guard anytime she was at the ranch.
More reason to find evidence to prove Georgio was responsible for Walt’s murder. Putting him behind bars might be the only way to keep Faith safe.
* * *
THEY STOPPED AT the edge of the river, though it seemed far more like a creek to Faith. Travis took her reins and helped her dismount. She walked over, took off her shoes and waded into the water. The icy temperature made her catch her breath.
Or maybe it was just being with Travis that had that effect on her. In barely a week, he’d changed her life. He’d found her son. He’d brought her to Dry Gulch to keep her safe. He’d been there every time she’d needed him.
The sound of his voice made her pulse quicken. His touch stole her breath. His kiss had completely undone her.
Faith knew it was too soon to be sure the relationship would last, but nothing had ever seemed so right.
Travis let the horses drink and then knotted their reins to the low-hanging branches of an oak tree. He bent down and picked up a fishing pole that had been left lying in the grass.
“This must be R.J.’s. The hook and cork are ready to go. All it needs is bait.”
“He catches minnows in that net over by the tree trunk for that,” she answered.
“Have you been fishing with him?”
“Today. One of the guards rode out with us.”
“Catch anything?” Travis asked.
“Snagged a soft-drink can.”
“That would have been tasty.”
“I went wading. The water is nice.” She stepped farther into the water that lapped the bank. “Take off your shoes and socks and join me.”
“I’d rather watch.”
Faith bent over and splashed water in his direction.
“I like R.J.,” she said. “I know the two of you have issues, but he admits he’s made lots of mistakes in his life. He’s so excited to have Adam and Leif living at the Dry Gulch. He hasn’t given up hope on the rest of you, either.”
“Not going to happen, at least not with me.”
“I don’t see why not. You look, talk and ride like a cowboy. I could live here.”
“In that case I bequeath my part of the ranch to you.”
“I accept.”
She waded back to the bank and dropped to a grassy spot in the shade of a gnarly oak. She stretched out on her back and made a pillow of her hands.
Travis kept his distance, though he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He was mesmerized by Faith, from the perky rise of her breasts beneath the cotton shirt to the way her hair swirled around her narrow shoulders.
If he lay down beside her, he’d never be able to fight the unbridled desire ripping though him. If he didn’t go to her, he was going to go crazy with wanting her.
He walked over and stretched out alongside, propping himself up with his elbow so he could look into the depths of her dark eyes.
This time he didn’t wait for her to initiate the kiss.
Chapter Seventeen
Travis’s lips touched Faith’s, softly at first, their breaths mingling in a delicious blend of salty sweetness. Desire erupted in her blood, shooting her senses to dizzying heights.
The musky smell of him, the exciting taste of him, the intoxicating feel of his body pressing into hers... She closed her eyes and gave in to the thrill of him.
The kiss deepened until his lips had a ravenous hold on hers. His fingers slipped beneath her shirt and splayed across her bare back. His right leg worked its way between her thighs. Her body arched toward his, aching for more.
When his lips left hers, they seared a path down her neck. She turned and began to fumble with the buttons on his shirt, loosening them one by one until his gorgeous, golden chest was bare.
Travis returned the favor, kissing his way down her chest and abdomen until her shirt fell open. His thumbs slipped beneath her bra, finding and massaging her nipples until they were pebbled and erect.
She pressed against him and felt the hard length of his need pushing to escape his jeans. He reached down and unzipped them.
“I can stop if you say the word, Faith. It will half kill me, but I can stop if you want me to.”
“No,” she whispered, her voice hoarse with a driving need that wouldn’t let go. “Nothing will change because we make love, but I need this. I need you. I need you so very much.”
He kissed her again, but this time there was no holding back. He wiggled out of his jeans and then helped her out of hers. His hand found the inside of her thighs and his fingertips reached into her most intimate area, stroking the wet desire that had pooled there.
Then he lifted himself on top of her and thrust deep inside her.
She squealed in pleasure and then whispered his name with a moan.
His breath came in quick gulps. The thrusting grew faster and deeper and then he exploded inside her, taking her with him over the crest.
The sun beat down on their naked bodies as they lay in each other’s arms, melting in the afterglow.
Nothing had changed on the outside. All the problems that had been there before were still present. Her fears for Cornell hadn’t lessened.
But something had changed inside Faith. No matter what the future held for her and Travis, the moment had been golden and she would never be sorry for having lived it.
Love, however fragile and tentative it might prove to be, had found a place in her heart, and her world would never be the same.
* * *
“ARE YOU SURE you’re calling me from a phone that can’t be traced?”
“You know I wouldn’t make a mistake about something that important.”
“I never thought you’d shoot Cornell and leave him alive, either, but you did.”
“It wasn’t as if I didn’t check. I was certain he was dead. The second bullet hit him in the back of the head. He went down. His eyes were rolled back in his head. I couldn’t find a pulse.”
“But someone did.”
“And I’m doing all I can to make up for my mistake. I had someone hack into Cornell’s online medical records. He’s brain damaged. Even if he can talk, nothing he says will ever hold up in court.”
“That doesn’t make up for your mistake.”
“I did some things right and you know it. We never would have found Cornell before the law did if I hadn’t spread the word to all the ranchers in the county that I was looking for one of my wranglers who took off with an expensive saddle. Otherwise Billy Lewes would have called the police, not me, when he found that strange jacket in his horse barn.”
Georgio couldn’t deny that. But even if Cornell was as good as dead, Faith Ashburn wasn’t, and she was as unrelenting as a Texas drought. She’d never give up on finding the man who had lured her son into a life of crime that almost cost him his life.
She’d fight the murder charge until she had the full truth.
“Did you get the information I asked for?”
“I did. Faith Ashburn is staying at the Dry Gulch Ranch with Travis and his dying father.”
“And?”
“The old man rides his horse to his favorite fishing hole every morning after breakfast, occasionally alone, but usually accompanied by one of the wranglers.”
Even as Georgio listened to the details Alex spouted, a plan formed in his mind.
He’d take care of Faith and then lie low for a few months, perhaps take a trip to Europe and let his new drug czar run his clubs.
Too bad Faith had to die. They could have had some fun together if she hadn’t gone running to Travis.
On second thought, it wasn’t too late to have some fun with her. The old guy might even get his jollies from watching them get it on.
* * *
FAITH WALKED TO the kitchen for morning coffee with a sweet ache between her thighs and a spring to her step that hadn’t been there yesterday. She and Travis had shared the bed in the first-floor guest room last night.
They’d made love again—and again. They might have made it a third time except that Travis was called out on a homicide at the crack of dawn. It would be difficult to get used to hours like that. Not that she could afford to sleep this late every morning. It was after eight.
The coffeepot was nearly full, obviously not the first brew of the day. She filled a mug and went looking for R.J. Instead she found Angela in the front-porch swing.
“You slept late,” the young woman said. “Five more minutes and I was going to knock on your door and see if you were okay.”
“I was just tired, I guess. Where is everybody?”
“Joni’s at work. R.J.’s gone fishing.”
“This early?”
“He said it was going to rain later.”
“There’s not a cloud in the sky.”
“I mentioned that. He told me his arthritis was a better predictor of the weather than clouds were.”
“Then I better carry an umbrella to the hospital with me this afternoon.”
“Where’s Detective Travis?”
“On his way back to the ranch.”
“Did he work all night again?”
“No, just from daylight on. Apparently, homicide detectives don’t keep regular office hours. He’s coming home to clean up, pick me up, deliver me to the hospital and then go back to work.”
“I wish I had somewhere to go today. I love the ranch, but it gets boring. Do you think Detective Travis would mind if I tagged along with Joni tomorrow? She said it was okay with her.”
“You’d best ask him that.”
Faith’s cell phone was ringing when she got back to the bedroom. She grabbed it from the dresser. “Hello?”
All she picked up was static. “Hello. Who is this?”
“Dizzy... Can’t... Horse.”
She could make out only half the words. “Is this R.J.?”
“Hurry.”
The connection went dead. She kicked off her slippers and tossed her robe to the bed. In seconds, she’d pulled on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and boots. She went tearing back to the porch.
“R.J. just called. I think he’s disoriented. I’m going to find him.”
“Not without me.”
She turned to see Ray, the friendliest of the guards Travis had hired, standing at the foot of the steps.
“Okay, but we have to hurry.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” Angela asked.
“No. You stay here in case Travis shows up and wonders where I am.”
“Carl’s checking the immediate premises,” Ray said. “Holler if you need him.”
Faith took off running toward the horse barn, with Ray right behind her. They saddled up two of the horses, mounted them and pushed the strong animals to a gallop.
Faith didn’t slow down until she reached the spot where Travis had found the fishing pole yesterday.
A shot rang out. A cry of pain came from behind her. She pulled on the reins, bringing her horse to a stop. When she turned around, Ray was sliding off his saddle, blood soaking his chest.
Behind him, she saw R.J. tied and gagged and strapped to the trunk of a towering pine tree.
Georgio stood next to him smiling, gun in hand and pointed at her head.
“So nice to see you again, my dear. Here, let me help you off your mount.”
She ignored his offered hand and dismounted on her own. “How did you get here?”
“By horseback, same as you. I just took a shortcut across a neighbor’s pasture. I gave up on you calling me back, so I had no choice but to come to you. So here we are, together again, and with your omnipresent detective nowhere in sight.”
Another rider appeared from behind a cluster of short, stubby cedars. He rode over to Ray, dismounted and tied the unmoving guard’s hands and feet behind him.
“You want me dead, Georgio,” Faith said. “Fine. Shoot me, but let Ray and R.J. go.”
“Haven’t you heard? I hate leaving witnesses around to clutter up a crime scene. But I won’t kill them yet. They should stay around for the party.”
“Is that why you killed Walt? Because you didn’t want him to testify against you?”
“No, I killed Walt because he was a stupid jerk who didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.”
“But you did kill him?”
“You surely don’t think that prissy son of yours shot him.”
“How did you convince Cornell that he was a murderer?”
“I hadn’t planned to. It was serendipity. I walked out the back door of the club to see what the ruckus was about and found Cornell in the alley writhing, his eyes rolled back in his head. Having one of those seizures you kept talking about. And there was Walt, walking away, the perfect target.”
“So you killed Walt, smeared his blood on Cornell and planted the murder weapon on him.”
“Yes, and the beauty of it was that Cornell saw me as a hero. I got rid of the body for him and saved him from a death sentence. It took him months to figure out he was moving more than horses across the border. He was the perfect smuggler. He passed for innocent because he believed he was innocent.
“But enough about him. Let’s get back to you. Take off your shirt first and then the bra. I love it when a woman’s breasts fall free.”
She slipped her hands beneath her T-shirt and slowly peeled it over her head. She couldn’t die like this. She had to find a way to save herself and R.J. and Ray.
�
�Now the bra,” Georgio said.
He was going to rape her while the others were forced to watch. Rape her here, near the same spot where she’d made love to Travis.
She couldn’t stop him, but she wouldn’t help him.
“The bra,” he repeated. “Take if off and throw it to me.”
“Go to hell, Georgio Trosclair. I’d rather have sex with a snake than have you touch me.” She straightened her spine and spit in his direction.
She was going to die at his hands. Finally, she knew her son was innocent of murder and smuggling charges, though it was too late to help him.
But Travis would discover the truth. Somehow, she knew that he would. She was glad they’d made love. Her only regret was that she hadn’t told him how much she loved him.
Now she never would.
Chapter Eighteen
Angela met Travis as he started up the walk.
“Something’s happened to R.J.”
“Did you call for an ambulance?”
“No. He wasn’t here. He said he was going fishing, and then he called Faith for help.”
“Had he fallen?”
“I don’t know. She just said he was disoriented, and she and Ray jumped on horses and went to find him.”
“So Ray did go with her?”
“Yes, but I thought they’d be back by now.”
“Okay, settle down, Angela. You know R.J. gets disoriented at times. Adam and Leif have told him not to go riding by himself. He does it anyway.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“I’ll call Faith and see what’s going on.”
“I tried that. She doesn’t answer. Neither does Ray or R.J.”
Apprehension set in. Travis punched in Faith’s number as he walked to the kitchen and poured himself a mug of coffee. No answer.
And then he saw R.J.’s phone, plugged into the charger, half-hidden by the toaster. R.J. had not called Faith.
Travis shot out the back door and raced to the horse barn. No time to waste on saddling, so he stopped at the corral, jumped on the back of a palomino and pushed it to the limit.
