“I am honored,” he answered, equally lightly. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t take every penny they have.”
The three cowboys erupted in talk at his words, promising with delight that they’d separate him from everything he owned, including his skivvies. Jesse’s heart felt like a lump of lead in his chest. Clearly, Joe, Dusty and Levi had accepted him and now considered him one of them. He was deceiving them, too. They wouldn’t have asked him to play poker if they knew who he really was. And why he was on the Red Rock Ranch.
“Am I going to need to drive into Cameron and make a withdrawal from my bank account?” he asked, leaning his chair back.
Levi studied him for a moment, then a grin split his face. “Nah,” he cackled. “We trust you. Your credit is good with us.”
Jesse let the chair crash down to the floor. “Then let the games begin,” he said, glancing over at Shea.
She gave him a half smile. “Have a good time. And don’t let these three con you.”
“I can handle myself,” he said.
Her gaze lingered on him for a moment. “I’ll see you in the morning, Jesse.”
He saw regret and frustration in the blue depths of her eyes, and for a moment felt an answering surge of desire. He still wanted her, damn it. Even though he knew he shouldn’t, his body still hadn’t gotten the message.
Thank goodness for the poker invitation. It was the easy way out of an awkward situation, a situation he didn’t even want to think about. “Bright and early,” he answered easily.
By this time tomorrow, he doubted he’d have to worry about invitations to Shea’s bed. By this time tomorrow, Shea might well be sitting in a jail cell.
He crushed the protests of his heart without a second thought. This was his job. It was why he’d come to the Red Rock Ranch in the first place. He should be happy, he told himself. He’d always believed that justice was more important than anything. Now he had a chance to prove it.
Shea watched Jesse leave with Joe, Dusty and Levi. As soon as the door banged shut behind them, she missed him. She wanted him close to her. And she wasn’t going to enjoy sleeping alone tonight, either. She’d gotten used to Jesse sleeping beside her, holding her through the night, waking her with a kiss in the morning.
But it was good that the men had asked him to play poker with them, she told herself. It meant that they had accepted Jesse, that they thought of him as one of them. It was one more thin strand in a web that she hoped would bind Jesse to the Red Rock.
Maria appeared out of the kitchen. “Have you contacted any of the families yet?”
“I’ve gotten hold of three of them, and we’ve made arrangements already. I’m going to call the other three now. With any luck, all these children should be in their new homes in a couple of days.”
Maria’s face relaxed. “That is good. I have a bad feeling about this group, cara. Something is going to go wrong.”
Shea tried to ignore the frisson of fear that skittered down her spine at Maria’s words. There were far too many things that could go wrong. “Don’t be silly, Maria. What could go wrong? We’ve done this enough times that by now it’s routine.”
“You’ve never done it with a stranger on the ranch,” Maria said grimly.
“Don’t worry about Jesse. Even the men have accepted him.”
Maria’s mouth thinned. “Never underestimate people, cara. That’s when you have problems.”
“I’m not underestimating Jesse,” Shea protested.
Maria’s eyes bored into hers. “And don’t think that because he shares your bed, you can lead him around by the nose. That one doesn’t allow anyone to lead him.”
Shea felt her face heating. “What are you talking about?”
The housekeeper sniffed and turned back to the kitchen. “You think I don’t know everything that goes on in my house? I thought you were smarter than that, missy.”
Shea watched Maria leave, a reluctant smile on her lips. She should have known better than to think she was fooling the housekeeper. Maria didn’t miss much. And it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that she was crazy about Jesse, she admitted.
She had to forget about Jesse, she told herself firmly. At least for tonight. She had work to do, and Jesse was busy playing cards with the men. Trying to put him out of her mind, she headed into her office to make more phone calls.
Shea was already at the dining room table, sipping on a cup of coffee, when Jesse walked into the house the next morning. Her heart leapt when she saw him, and she was certain there was an answering flare of heat in his eyes. Then he shuttered his face.
“Good morning,” she murmured.
He grunted in return, and she raised her eyebrows.
“Late night?”
Finally, reluctantly, he smiled. “Why didn’t you tell me those three were cardsharps?”
Shea swallowed the bubble of laughter that wanted to escape. “I couldn’t spoil the fun for the boys. And I figured you’d give them a run for their money.”
“I sent them running to the bank to deposit their winnings. That’s about all the running I made them do.”
She studied him, her heart lighter than it had been since the day before. “You didn’t let them win, did you?”
“Hell, no!” He looked shocked at the suggestion. “Why would you think that?”
“You’ve gone out of your way to make them feel good since you’ve gotten here.”
“That’s different. This was a card game. This was a matter of honor.” He scowled at her. “They won, fair and square.”
She couldn’t hold the laughter in any longer. “Maybe not exactly fair and square. They’ve been playing poker every night for years. They’re not exactly the innocent old men you thought they were.”
He scowled again. “You might have warned me.”
She studied him, the smile still on her lips. Her heart turned over in her chest. “I have a feeling you didn’t need a warning at all. I have a feeling you knew exactly what you were getting into.”
His eyes softened, involuntarily, she thought, and he immediately turned to the buffet that stood against the wall and poured himself a cup of coffee. “You think I would go into a poker game, knowing I was going to lose? What kind of idiot do you think I am?”
“You’re not an idiot at all, and I think that’s exactly what you did.” Her smile deepened, and warmth flowed through her veins. “Thank you, Jesse. Thank you for letting Joe and Dusty and Levi feel good about themselves.”
His coffee cup clattered onto the table. “I’m no hero, Shea.” His voice was grim. “Don’t get all rosy-eyed about me, because you’re going to be disappointed.”
“You could never disappoint me,” she said. “I know what kind of person you are.”
“You don’t know squat about me.”
She leaned back in her chair and took another sip of coffee, watching him over the rim of the cup. “I learn more about you every day.”
“What’s going to happen when you learn things about me that you’d rather not know?” He leaned forward to challenge her, the hardness back in his eyes.
“I can’t imagine anything about you that I wouldn’t want to know.”
He slammed his chair away from the table and went to look out the window. “You’re too naive, Shea You take too much on trust. You need to harden yourself.”
“Are you telling me that I need to harden myself against you?” Her heart began to pound, but she watched him steadily.
“Yes, damn it! You’ve been too trusting from the beginning.”
“You’ve never given me any reason not to trust you.” He took a deep breath and slowly turned around. “What if I do?”
Panic fluttered inside her, but she pushed it away. “Are you trying to tell me something, Jesse?”
He watched her for a long moment, then he shrugged and shuttered his eyes. She couldn’t read his expression. “I just don’t want to build up unrealistic expectations.”
Shea
stood up. “Maybe we need to talk about those expectations. But this isn’t the time. We both have work to do today.” She hesitated. “Do you want to have that picnic tonight? The one we talked about the evening we went into Cameron?”
“Sure.” His gaze bored into her with an unsettling intensity. “Where did you want to go?”
“There’s a spot on the border of our land and the Hilbert’s place that would be great for a picnic.” She grinned at him. “And it has the added advantage of letting me spy on the Hilbert ranch and see what our new neighbor has been doing there.”
The hard edge was back in his eyes. “That’s at the opposite edge of the ranch from that little lake we saw the other day, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” A trickle of fear chased down her back. “Did you want to go to the lake?”
He held her gaze for a long moment. “What if I said yes?”
“Then we’d go to the lake,” she said lightly. Dear God, don’t let him choose the lake.
Finally he shrugged. “It doesn’t matter to me. We’ll go wherever you want to go.”
“Great.” She forced a smile on her face. “I’ll see you around lunchtime, then.”
Instead of leaving the room, he sat back in the chair. “What are you doing this morning?”
“I have some bookkeeping to take care of. Then I’ll see what else needs to be done.” She couldn’t meet his eyes. Jesse would know she was lying.
“I’ll see you later, then.” His chair scraped against the floor, and he was gone. She didn’t let out her breath until the front door eased shut. Then she closed her eyes and thanked God that he hadn’t asked her any more questions.
An hour later she reined in her horse as she approached the cabin. There was no sign of life inside, and she breathed a little easier. Miguel was keeping the children out of sight, just as she’d asked him to.
When he’d appeared at the door of the house yesterday afternoon, handing her the papers with the information about the children’s relatives, she’d been surprised to see him so soon. She hadn’t expected him back for another couple of weeks. But he’d agreed to keep the children quiet and inside, and her heart clenched when she thought about how easy it would be. She knew from past experience that the children in the cabin would be frightened and quiet, both from the trip and from their experiences in San Rafael. They wouldn’t go out of their way to make any disturbances.
Tying Bluebell’s reins to a tree, she knocked on the cabin door, then waited for Miguel to answer. She slipped inside to see several children freeze, staring at her.
After talking for a moment to Miguel, she sat down on the floor close to several of the children and began speaking to them in Spanish. It took a while, but slowly all but one of them relaxed and began to smile at her. They didn’t speak, but she had learned not to expect them to talk to her, not at first. As long as they responded to her, they would eventually speak to her.
All but one boy. He stood in the distance, watching her carefully, his face devoid of any expression. After a while, she turned to Miguel.
“Who is that?”
The older man shrugged. “He hardly speaks. He wouldn’t even give us his name. The other children call him Rafael, because all he would say was he needed to leave San Rafael. So I call him that, too.” He shrugged again. “He gave us a paper with a name and phone number on it, and I could see for myself that he was in danger. So he came with us. But more than that, I do not know.”
Shea moved closer to the boy Miguel had called Rafael. “We’ll find your family, Rafael,” she said, her voice low. “We’ll make sure you’re safe here. You don’t have to worry anymore.”
The boy didn’t answer, but there was a tiny flicker in his eyes. Shea prayed that it was hope. She smiled at him and turned back to Miguel. “I’ve talked to all the others, but I haven’t been able to reach his relatives yet. I’ll keep working on it, though. And Maria will bring the rest of the food up later.”
“That one, she has a sharp tongue,” he grumbled. “But she knows how to cook.”
Shea smiled at all the children again, then began speaking to Miguel again, asking about the details of the trip.
Jesse backed away from the window, anger raging through him and a sick feeling gathering in his stomach. He hadn’t wanted to believe that she’d do something so wrong, hadn’t wanted to believe all the signs. But now he had the proof he needed. He’d heard her himself, asking about the details of the trip. He didn’t know a lot of Spanish, but he knew enough.
Enough to know he had the evidence he needed against Shea McAllister.
Chapter 13
Jesse hurried away from the cabin to the horse he’d left tied to a tree. Anger and pain swirled through him, tangling together and swelling until there was room for nothing else in his mind. Betrayal was a sharp knife, slicing cleanly through him to pierce his soul.
As he distanced himself from the cabin, and Shea, he forced the pain from his heart and tried to remember the exact words he’d heard from the cabin. There was no mistake. He’d heard enough of the details to know that a border crossing had been involved. And it had been illegal.
His heart clenched painfully in his chest as he remembered the sound of Shea’s low voice coming through the window. He’d almost begun to believe that he was in love with her. He’d tried to ignore the evidence, tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but there was no doubt about what he’d just heard. Their informant had been right. Shea was smuggling people into the country from San Rafael, and probably getting paid very well for it.
There would be plenty of people who would pay to get out of the war-torn South American country, he thought grimly. Criminals who had escaped capture in the chaos that was San Rafael, or members of the rebel army who saw that the tide was turning against them, would be especially desperate to get out of the country. Shea would have no trouble finding people willing to pay whatever she asked.
Ignoring the pain in his chest, forcing the image of Shea out of his mind, he planned what he had to do. He couldn’t think about Shea now, couldn’t think about the woman he’d held in his arms at night. He couldn’t think about the magic that had spun its web between them, the magic that had bound them together so tightly.
Because it was all a lie. His heart contracted again as he forced himself to face the brutal truth. Everything he’d believed about Shea was wrong. Her innocence, her sweetness, the goodness that shone out of her eyes like a beacon, was nothing more than a mask she wore.
The woman ought to be on stage, he thought bitterly. Because if she could fool him, she could fool anyone. He’d been played for a sucker before, but never with his willing cooperation. He’d always been able to see through the slickest of facades, the craftiest of scams.
But he hadn’t been able to see through Shea McAllister.
He should have called for another agent the minute his hormones had made their presence known, he told himself harshly. There was a reason agents were instructed not to get involved with a suspect. And now he, who had always prided himself on being a professional, had almost gotten caught in the biggest scam of them all.
Almost, but not quite. Ignoring the doubt in his heart, ignoring the pain that wanted to overwhelm him, he tuned out his feelings and focused only on the facts. And when he confronted Shea, he’d condemn her with the facts. He wouldn’t allow his aching heart and his wounded pride into the discussion. Because they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
He turned into the barn and unsaddled his horse, working methodically as he rubbed the animal down. Demon nickered softly as he walked past the box stall, and he couldn’t bear looking at the large black horse. It reminded him too much of Shea.
Before heading to the house, he detoured to his cabin. Rummaging in the bottom of his duffel bag, he found his shoulder holster and strapped it on. Its familiar weight nestled below his left arm, reminding him that he had a job to do. From now on, Shea wasn’t his lover. Shea was the woman he had come here to
stop.
But he hesitated before slipping his gun into the holster. He wouldn’t need a gun to arrest Shea. She might be a criminal, but she wasn’t a violent criminal. He stared at the gun for a long time, unable to imagine pointing it at Shea and pulling the trigger. Finally, he laid it back into the drawer where he’d hidden it. He would need it later, when he arrested the men in the cabin, but he wouldn’t need it when he talked to Shea.
He stepped out of his cabin into the sunshine of a warm spring day. No one else was around. The rest of the men were out doing chores, and Shea would still be up at the cabin. The scenery was still magnificent, the air carried the perfume of pine and sage, and the only sounds were the far-off trills of birds and the distant calls of cattle. The Red Rock was still a beautiful, peaceful place.
He was about to shatter that peace forever.
It didn’t matter, he told himself as he opened the door to the house. It had been Shea’s choice to destroy that peace. It had been her choice to commit a crime. And now she was going to have to pay the price.
He settled himself at the dining room table to wait for her.
Shea walked through the kitchen door half an hour later and smiled at Maria. “How’s everything going?”
“You tell me,” she answered in a quiet voice.
“We’re doing fine. I told Miguel you’d be up later with the groceries.”
Maria stared at her, dark eyes somber. “Jesse is in the dining room.”
“What’s he doing here?” She drew her eyebrows together, puzzled. “I thought he and the rest of the men would be busy all morning.”
“Maybe you should ask him.”
“I will.”
Pushing through the door into the dining room, she spotted him sitting at the table. “Hey, Jesse. What’s going on?”
He looked at her, his face expressionless. “I was just going to ask you the same thing.”
A tiny lump of apprehension lodged in her chest. “What do you mean?”
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