by LENA DIAZ,
“I didn’t realize you’d want me to wait. I saw Wilkerson outside and wanted to see if he knew anything that would help O’Leary and my team with the case.”
“Did he? Know anything?”
“He wasn’t exactly cooperative. Until we figure out how all of these incidents are connected with Palmer, everyone is a suspect.”
She put her hands on her hips. “Everyone’s a suspect? You think Arlene, Wilkerson, Billy—don’t deny it, I saw the suspicion in your eyes when you met him—heck, even the plumber is probably in on it. Oh, and Ken Taylor, my stable hand and temporary security guy. I’m sure you grilled him with questions inside the stable. Am I right?”
He didn’t bother to deny it. Of course he’d questioned Taylor. And he’d question more of her ranch hands when he saw them. Right now, according to his talk with Taylor, most of them had left for the day and the rest would be gone by sundown. Which meant he’d just have to interview all of them tomorrow.
She must have seen the truth in his eyes. Her shoulders slumped as if in defeat.
“Colby, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. But you can’t just go around thinking every single person I come into contact with is involved in Palmer’s schemes.” She waved her hand toward her property. “I employ a lot of people. I don’t want them to quit because they feel like I don’t trust them. Promise me that tomorrow you won’t interrogate everyone when they show up for work. I have a business to run. And I can’t do that if you scare everyone off.”
“You’re way too nice for your own safety, you know that?”
She blinked. “I’m too nice?”
He sighed, then put his hands around her waist and lifted her up to sit on the top rail.
She squeaked in surprise and grabbed his arms to steady herself. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to make sure you listen and that you’re taking this seriously.”
Her gaze lowered to his lips and she swallowed. “Um. Okay. I’m listening.”
He almost groaned out loud. Touching her, putting his hands on the sexy curve of her waist, even through her jacket, had set him on fire all over again. Now he was having trouble remembering what he wanted to tell her.
“Colby? You were saying?”
The husky tenor of her voice told him she was remembering their last kiss, just like he was.
He cleared his throat, and tried to focus, on anything but her mouth. “I’m saying that until Palmer and his men are caught, you need to be on your guard. You can’t assume everyone is nice and doesn’t want to hurt you.”
“So I’m supposed to treat everyone with suspicion and be mean?”
“I don’t think you could be mean if you tried. I’ll settle for being suspicious and cautious, at least until we gather all the facts and figure out the truth.”
“The truth. Do you even have a theory?”
“Working on it. Everything that’s happened seems to have had a financial impact on your business. Maybe that’s the goal. One thing’s for sure. If Palmer just wanted to kill you, he could have done that with a rifle half a mile away while you walked your property.”
She shivered and looked around. “Should we even be outside?”
“No one has tried to harm you here so far. I don’t expect they will. Like I said, if that was the endgame, there was nothing to stop them.” He glanced up at the darkening sky. “It’s getting late. We should head back.”
“I’ve got a golf cart at the stables that’ll save us a long walk to the house.”
They climbed the fence and headed across the hill.
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
“I could eat. Do you have another vehicle around here that we can drive into town? I’ll buy you dinner at the restaurant of your choice.”
“No need. Billy brought fresh groceries for us after I called him from Mountain City. He even stopped at one of my favorite barbecue places in town, Bradford’s, and put two man-size dinners in the refrigerator to make sure we were taken care of.”
“What a great guy.”
Her eyes narrowed in warning.
He grinned. “Do you have sweet tea?”
“No, but I can make some.”
“Barbecue and sweet tea. I just might be in heaven.”
His phone buzzed in his pocket. After a quick glance at the screen, he answered. “Dillon, what’s up?” He listened with growing unease. When Dillon finally finished, Colby said, “Okay. Thanks. I’ll let her know.” He ended the call and shoved his phone into his pocket. “There’ve been a few developments in the case. The first is that the search party found the bodies in the mountain.”
“Wait, I thought they already found the man you stabbed.”
“They did. Now they found Palmer’s other two thugs. Both were shot. In the back. My guess is Palmer was eliminating loose ends.”
“Oh, no.”
“That wasn’t all that Dillon had to share. Your ranch hand who was arrested earlier is singing like a bird.”
“Arlene? She admitted to something more than busting the pipe?”
“A whole lot more.”
“Wait, how would Dillon know what she said? Sheriff O’Leary’s deputy is the one who arrested her.”
“Based on what she told them, your sheriff wanted to consult with the sheriff of Johnson County, so he called and ended up talking to Dillon. Arlene confessed to being behind everything that’s been going wrong on your ranch.”
Piper pressed a hand to her throat. “That can’t be. She’s only nineteen or twenty years old, tops. She’s been saving up to go to college in the fall. She’s a good kid. I can’t see her doing all that.”
“I bet you couldn’t see her taking a baseball bat to that pipe either, but there’s a photo showing exactly that.”
“I know, I know. Still, it doesn’t seem real. Did she say why she did those things? Was she mad at me for something?”
“She was being blackmailed.”
“I don’t like where this is going.”
“A couple of months ago she was waiting tables at a restaurant in town to save for college, like you said. She does want to start school in the fall, that part’s true. What she didn’t tell you is that she picked a few pockets on the side to help her save up for tuition faster. One of the customers in the restaurant saw her do it and snapped a picture. He used it to coerce her into applying for a job at your ranch.”
“Which she did.”
They started walking toward the stables again.
“She agreed to do one thing for her blackmailer, thinking that would be the end of it. But he took pictures of her doing that first thing and used that to threaten to anonymously turn her in to the police. From then on, she was stuck doing his bidding. He gave her a list of things to do and said she had to do at least two per week.”
Piper nervously tapped a hand against her thigh as she walked. “Sounds about right. Did she say who was blackmailing her?”
“He never told her his name.”
“Of course not. That would be way too easy, wouldn’t it?” She sighed heavily.
“That’s not the end of it. The sheriff showed her copies of all the sketches that Dillon faxed him earlier this morning. She positively identified her blackmailer. Guess who it was?”
She crossed her arms. “That’s a no-brainer. Palmer.”
“Nope. It was Jedidiah.”
Chapter Sixteen
Piper shut the dishwasher and leaned back against the counter. “Jedidiah. I still can’t believe he’s a part of this. He let us go. And brought Gladiator back. Why would he do that if he’s working with Palmer?”
Colby leaned against the counter opposite her. “Ever heard of Occam’s razor?”
“It’s the same thing as KISS—Keep It Simple, Stupid—right?”
His mouth crooked int
o a sexy grin. “Pretty much. The more complicated a theory becomes, the more assumptions you have to make for it to all come together, the less likely you are to be right. It all comes down to human nature. Vast conspiracies are too hard to maintain and fall apart easily. So the simpler explanation is generally the right one.”
“In this case, what does that mean?”
“It means that Palmer and Jedidiah were probably working together initially, and now they’ve turned against each other. Palmer wanted you and me dead up in that mountain. He assigned his thugs to kill us. Jedidiah may have planned to kill us when he found us, but once he learned that Palmer was involved, he let us go. That leads me to believe they had a falling-out.”
She nodded. “Makes sense. But I preferred the idea of Jedidiah being a nice person deep inside and that he let us go because you saved Mindy.”
“You only see good in people, don’t you?”
“Not at all. I’m not as naive as you seem to think I am. I just look at life through a more optimistic lens than you.”
“Fair enough.”
“How do you think they met?”
“Jedidiah and Palmer?”
She nodded.
“Most likely prison. We know Jedidiah did time. It makes sense he’d meet someone like Palmer behind bars. They’re both career criminal types. But all of Jedidiah’s sentences in Tennessee have been in local jails, not prison. So Blake’s expanding the search to surrounding states. Once we figure out where he did hard time, if he did, we’ll see who he hung with and if any of them meet Palmer’s description. Plus, they both would have had to have been released two or more months ago like we theorized earlier.”
“I don’t remember hearing all of this when we were at the Johnson County sheriff’s office.”
“I had several long phone conversations with Dillon and Blake while you were snoozing on the trip up here.”
At the reminder of the drive up, and her experiment, she cleared her throat. “Makes sense.” She checked the digital clock above the stove. “Well, it’s not too late by usual standards, just past eight thirty. But nothing about the past few days has been usual in any way for either of us. I’m going to call it a night. You’re welcome to stay up as late as you want of course, but I’ll go ahead and show you the guest room.” She frowned and looked around. “Oh, shoot. The overnight bag you got in Johnson County is still in the truck isn’t it? And Billy took the truck.”
He straightened away from the counter. “I grabbed it before Billy left and stowed it in the stables. But I forgot to pick it up when I came back from Wilkerson’s house. I’ll go get it when I’m ready for bed. Mind if I use the golf cart later? I’m not quite ready to call it a night. Too keyed up.”
“Of course, no problem. You don’t have to ask.” She crossed to him and opened the drawer next to his left hip and gestured to the keys inside. “I imagine you can use your mad detective skills to figure out which one is the right key.”
He leaned over, his face inches from hers. “Hmm. I’m guessing it’s on the key chain that’s in the shape of a golf cart?”
“Give the man a medal.”
She grinned, then her gaze fell to his lips, so close, so wonderful, so...hot. Instead of stepping back, as she should have, she stepped forward. Instead of him moving away, he moved closer. And then they were in each other’s arms, like two magnets drawn together, helpless to resist the attraction between them.
Neither of them held anything back, as if they were both acknowledging that this was the last time they’d ever have this opportunity. That if they were ever going to assuage the molten craving that flowed between them, tonight was the night.
Tomorrow Colby would leave the ranch and work with the local sheriff and his fellow Destiny PD detectives to resolve the case. After that he’d go back to his life hundreds of miles away. But right now, this moment, he was with her. And for better or worse, no matter how crazy it seemed, she wasn’t going to waste a single second of it.
They were gasping for air when Colby finally broke their hot, wild kiss. His hands were deep in her hair, his forehead against hers, chest heaving. Piper wasn’t in any better condition. What had been a comfortably heated house moments ago was now stiflingly hot. She wanted to get naked. She wanted Colby naked. Her fingers clutched at his shirt, testing the buttons.
“This is crazy,” he whispered. “Back in the truck, we told each other that—”
“Forget the truck.”
“Piper—”
“Kiss me.”
He groaned and covered her mouth with his in a ravenous display of passion and hunger that had her moaning deep in her throat. He scooped her into his arms, chest to chest, one hand supporting her bottom, the other cradling the back of her head as he lovingly devoured her.
She couldn’t get enough of his kisses. But she wanted more. So much more. Her fingers found his buttons again and didn’t stop until every one of them was undone. She splayed her hands across his naked chest. He jerked against her, breaking the kiss and then fastening his mouth against her neck. His hot tongue tasted her. His lips sucked against the sensitive skin. She cried out his name and his whole body tensed against hers.
“Condom,” he rasped by her ear. “Please tell me you have a condom somewhere.”
She laughed at his eagerness and slid her hands down, down, down between them. When she found him, she almost wept with the beauty and joy of the feel of him in her hands.
He shifted, giving her better access. “Don’t tease me,” he whispered against her neck. “I’ll die. I swear I will.”
She gave him one long stroke, reveling in the way he jerked against her and sucked in a breath.
“Piper.”
“Down the hall. My bedroom’s the last door on the left.”
He turned with her in his arms and ran down the hall.
She stroked him again, down his considerable length, squeezing hard. He let out a curse and stumbled, almost dropping her.
“Do that again,” he growled, “and I’ll take you right here in this hall.”
“Promises, promises,” she teased.
He laughed and grabbed her wandering hand, then stumbled into her room.
“Where?”
“Should be in the nightstand, over there.” She waved toward the left side of the bed.
“Should be?” He sounded like he wanted to weep as he hefted her in one arm and yanked the drawer open with the other. “Score.” He grabbed the box, then coughed at the dust that swirled off it.
Her face flamed with heat. “It’s been a while, okay?”
He grinned. “You were waiting for me, right?”
She pulled back and stared deep into his eyes. “I think I’ve been waiting for you all my life.”
He swallowed hard and squeezed his eyes shut as if in pain.
“Stop thinking, Colby. Stop feeling guilty about a future neither of us can have. We have tonight. Don’t waste it.”
His eyes opened and he gently framed her face. “Piper, I—”
She pressed her lips to his, ruthlessly using his desire for her as her weapon. He shuddered in surrender, and then he was kissing her back with wild abandonment.
They both undressed in a frenzy, clothes flying across the bed, floating to the floor. She yanked the covers down, heard the sound of foil ripping. She quickly adjusted the pillows and turned around. He was there in front of her in all his glory, like a hungry panther ready to devour her. And, oh, how she wanted to be devoured by this man. But instead of pressing her back onto the mattress, he grew serious again and framed her face in his hands.
“Piper, sweetheart, I don’t want you to regret this. I want you, more than you could possibly imagine. And I care about you, very much. But we both have different dreams, come from different worlds. I don’t see how it could work long-term between us. I’d want you
with me. Having you hundreds of miles away would kill me. If you want to stop, right now, I’ll—”
She pressed her fingers against his mouth. “Colby, I’m a grown woman, not a fragile flower. Believe it or not, I can make love to you and still survive the next morning when you go off to your job and forget about me.”
He frowned and pulled her hand from his mouth. “I didn’t say I’d forget you.”
“Well, you’re not exactly saying ‘I love you’ either. But neither am I.” This time she reached up and framed his face in her hands. “Colby, I care about you, too, or I wouldn’t be doing this. I want you. I know what the future does—or doesn’t—hold, and I still want you.”
The uncertainty in his eyes almost made her melt onto the floor. What a sweet, wonderful man he was to be so worried about her feelings.
Could she really make love to Colby Vale and go on with her life tomorrow as if nothing had happened? Honestly? Probably not. She had a feeling there’d be an empty spot in her heart for the rest of her life. But it would be far emptier if she didn’t love him when she could. She would bitterly regret never getting to hold him. If that meant she was half in love with him already, so be it. She’d deal with that later. But right now, all she wanted was to be held by this amazing man in front of her.
“Colby? Don’t you want me?” She splayed her hands across his chest, delighting in how his muscles jerked when she touched him. If this was war, she’d fight with everything she had. She’d be downright ruthless. “I want you,” she whispered.
That’s when her panther pounced.
She was flat on her back and he was on top of her, doing things to her body she’d never even dared to dream about before. He played her like a musical instrument, drawing her up, creating beauty unlike anything she’d ever experienced. He was the master and she was his most willing student.
He saw to her pleasure long before he worried about his own. And before the last tremors of her release had swept through her, he finally fitted himself to her and surged forward.
