Noah was just about to join in the fun when Trace, one of the hands, came barreling into the house, yelling at the top of his lungs. “Come quick! The hunting lodge is on fire!”
CHAPTER NINE
Pandemonium broke out. Noah and Isaac raced outside. Cady went running after Joseph. He was in the barn with one of the horses who was about to give birth. Jessie called Jacob who said he would start in, if she would head back to sit with Bowie. Fire truck sirens wailed their mournful cry and through it all, Skye was at a loss. She went to stand outside, looking at the pillar of smoke which was rising above the trees.
This couldn’t be an accident. An icy realization crept through her veins.
This was all her fault.
The McCoy boys had hurried. They had slung open their truck doors and joined the firemen in their fight. But it was too late. Everyone, Tebow personnel included, had fought hard, but the hunting cabin was too far gone by the time they got there. One of the hands had seen the smoke and called it in, but by that time the old structure had been fully engulfed in flames. They all stood around and watched the smoke rise from the smoldering debris. “Mama would be devastated.” Isaac wiped soot from his face.
Jacob pulled up and got out. “What in God’s name happened?”
“We don’t know yet.” Joseph took his hat off and wiped the sweat from his brow. “I’m just grateful Skye wasn’t here.”
Noah was weak, just imagining the possibility. What if she hadn’t come home with him? “What could have caused the fire? Faulty wiring?”
The Fire Chief motioned to them. Isaac and Jacob went to him and they began walking through the ruins.
“I guess we’ll find out in a minute.” Noah felt a vibration in his pocket. He was getting a text. Pulling his phone from his pocket, he glanced at the screen. It was from Wally, the mechanic at the garage where they’d taken Skye’s truck.
“Can you believe all of this?” Joseph crossed his arms. “One might begin to think we’re cursed.”
“Arson.” Isaac announced as he walked up. “Someone poured gasoline over everything and lit it on fire. What the fuck is going on?”
“Why in the world would someone do this?” Jacob asked in amazement.
Noah folded the phone. “Listen to this. It gets crazier. Skye’s truck was sabotaged. I think someone’s trying to kill her.”
***
Skye felt sick. She’d been so busy falling in love with Noah that she’d put Arthur Langley’s threats out of her mind. Even after the ‘accidents’, it hadn’t dawned on her. Not until her presence had caused Noah and his family a great loss. “I can explain.”
Noah stared at her. He’d come back to the house, literally tore up from worry. He didn’t know whether to grab her up and run with her or tie to her his bed and never leave her side. “You get involved in a hit and run. Your car is sabotaged. And now the house where you’ve been staying burns to the ground. I’d as sure as hell like an explanation. What’s going on? I need some straight answers.”
He looked so angry and upset. Skye felt cold. “This is my fault.” She hugged herself. Keeping the truth from him had been so hard. Confession was supposed to be good for the soul. But it was still hard.
“What do you mean?” Noah yelled. “How could this possibly be your fault?” He wasn’t angry. He was scared. For her.
She held her hands out as if seeking mercy. “I’m so sorry. I’m in a mess. I didn’t take him seriously. He’s an old man.”
“Who? What are you talking about? Sit down and tell me everything.” Noah took her by the hand and tried to pull her to the bed. When he’d come in from the fire, he’d led her to his suite, not giving her time to protest.
Skye could tell he’d come to the conclusion that she was hiding something and he was right. She resisted, needing to put some distance between them. Guilt was eating her alive. “Please, just stand over there until I finish. I don’t know how to tell you all of this. I’ve been dreading it since day one.”
Noah felt like his soul was battered. All he wanted to do was hold her and pretend none of this was happening. “Talk to me, Princess. There’s nothing in God’s name you can’t tell me.”
Skye wanted to throw herself in his arms. She could see the love in his eyes. Not even a blind man could miss it. But after he heard what she had to say, there was no way he could feel the same. It just wasn’t possible. “Arthur Langley. He blames me. He’s going to make me pay, he said so.”
What she was saying didn’t make sense. Someone was threatening her? What about? Noah racked his brain. “Arthur Langley.” The name was familiar. “He’s an Oklahoma man. Langley Oil.” Noah was at the end of the rope. “If you’re in trouble, Skye...tell me.”
Skye was trembling. He could see it from where he stood.
“I can’t believe he burned your dad’s hunting lodge down. I know how important it was to you. He built it for your mother. Lance said so. He took something precious from you. I’m so sorry.” Tears were streaming down her cheeks in a shimmering stream.
Noah counted to ten. She didn’t understand. Ignoring her protests, he went to her. Taking her by the shoulders, he pulled her close. She struggled, but he didn’t let go, holding her small body tight enough against him that she couldn’t get away. “Are you fucking serious? A wood and mortar structure is gone. What if you had been there? What if you had died? THEN the idiot would have taken something precious from me.” He shouted. “Do you understand?”
“Yes.” Skye still couldn’t look at him.
“Why is this man trying to hurt you?” His voice was desperate. His tone beseeching.
“Please,” Skye begged. “There are things you just don’t know. I don’t want you to have to be involved.”
Noah was amazed. Didn’t she understand? “Hell, baby! I am already involved. I’m in love with you!”
Skye touched his beautiful face. “I don’t want you to be hurt.”
Noah swallowed hard. “If something happened to you, I’d be hurt. If you left me, I’d be hurt.” He kissed her palm. “Don’t you get it? I want to marry you or didn’t you understand my not so subtle message with those piles of pebbles.”
“Yes.” She smiled at him sadly. The truth can be a double-edged sword. “I understood. And the answer is simple. I want to be with you, very much. I love you. But I can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”
“What the hell do you mean, Skye?” Noah knelt at her feet, holding her hands in his. “You’re cutting my heart out here.”
Skye fell to her knees to look him in the eye. She didn’t deserve him. “You don’t know what I’ve done. I killed a man. I’ve been to prison.”
She said the words. Flatly. And they just laid there in the silence of the room.
It was over.
She got up and turned to go.
“Don’t you dare try to leave me.” He got up, staring at her, then began pacing. “What man?”
What was he thinking? She wished she could tell. “Arthur Langley’s brother, Charles. I confronted the man who I felt was responsible for killing my father. It was stupid, I admit that.” She wrung her hands, then picked her hair up, nervously twisting it into a pony tail. “I went on his property to accuse him instead of going to the authorities. It was a huge mistake.”
“What happened?” Noah felt like somebody was twisting his heart. He didn’t know if he could stand to hear the rest. His Skye had been through hell and he hadn’t been there to help her.
“He attacked me. He choked me and I fought back.” Her eyes got a faraway look like she was seeing something a great distance away. “He tried to rape me. Langley told me he was going to kill me. We struggled and I cut him with a knife my father always insisted I carry.” She turned to stare out the window, unable to look at Noah anymore. “After I was raped by the
men after the ball game, Elijah gave me a knife and taught me how to use it. I thought I could hurt Charles enough that he would let me go. But he pulled a gun. He was going to kill me and I stabbed him.”
“My God, baby.” Noah choked out the words. “You were just defending yourself…”
She continued talking, not hearing his words. “There was an eyewitness who saw him holding the gun on me, a man who’d barged into the office. I didn’t know him, I could barely describe him. But he didn’t come forward. The Langley’s got to him. When the police took me away, they went through all the official steps. I was taken and photographed. The bruises on my neck were visible. My ripped clothes were taken as evidence. But Charles was rich and I had nothing and no one. I didn’t know even know where Lance was. The evidence disappeared. I went on trial for murder. It was a joke. None of the evidence to support my cIaims made it to the courtroom. I was found guilty and sentenced to thirty years.”
Noah was completely still. Silent.
Skye listened for him to say something—anything. But he didn’t. Now, he would understand why they couldn’t be together.
“I was stunned, paralyzed.” She rubbed her arms, trying to break the chill that seemed to be draining her energy. “Life in prison is indescribable. You have no rights. I was a piece of meat, a number. Injustice is a daily, horrific, rampant disease. The only thing I could do to keep my sanity in that place was to fight.” She laughed—a harsh laugh. “I stayed in trouble—a lot.”
Noah started speaking in a rush of emotion. “But you were innocent. How did you get out? I don’t understand.” He walked up behind her. But she moved away.
“There was a guard who took a liking to me.” She heard Noah growl. “A female guard.” She added. “Rexine felt sorry for me. She believed my story. She got me in contact with a lawyer who helped me, who listened to me and was able to find people in the police department who weren’t under the Langley’s thumb. She uncovered the evidence which had been hidden. Mrs. Gardner helped me find Lance and together they got me a new trial.”
“Why didn’t we know about this? We would have helped Lance.”
Skye laughed, sadly. “I begged him not to tell you. In the months he’d been coming to see me, talking on the phone and texting...I learned all about you. I was so lonely to belong somewhere that I consumed every little bit of news about all of you that I could. Lance has such great respect for all of you. And I grew to have that same respect. I didn’t want any of you to ever know the truth. I didn’t want you to hold it against Lance.”
“That’s ridiculous…”
Skye talked over him, afraid to hear what he had to say. She offered the only consolation she could. “My sentence was reduced to time served for justifiable homicide.”
Silence.
The trauma of confessing it all to Noah was overwhelming. She clenched her fists, turned to him and cried. “Well, say something!”
“Are you finally willing to let me finish a sentence?” He looked as tense as she felt.
“Yes! Tell me you understand why we can’t be together.” A sob rose in her throat. She wanted to run and keep on running. “You are a McCoy and I’m—”
Her statement seemed to flip a switch in Noah. He moved across the room in a predatory rush, grabbing her hand and pulling her flush against him. “Mine! I’ll tell you what you are. You’re mine!” He consumed her in his embrace, holding her so tight she couldn’t inhale air. “You are so little, so precious, so sweet.” He kissed the side of her face a hundred times. Picking her hands up, he looked at them. “Look at these hands.” He sheltered them between his own. “How could anyone want to hurt someone like you?”
She had no answers. She was Skye Blue. Half-breed. For a few precious moments, she relaxed against him. Then her reality galvanized her into taking action. “I need to get out of here. Arthur intends to kill me. I don’t want him to hurt anyone else.”
Noah’s arms became steel around her waist. “He’ll have to go through me first.”
She pushed against his hard body. “No, the best thing for me to do is to go away.”
He gripped her chin, making her look at him. “This is my battle now, Skye. The only place you’re going to be is by my side. Don’t you understand that I would die for you?”
She buried her face in his chest, but didn’t answer.
“Who we are is not defined by things which happen to us, Princess. Some things are beyond our control.” As he talked to her, he saw his own life in a different light. “You aren’t the only one with a secret.”
“A secret?” She raised a tear-stained face to look at him.
He touched her cheek with the back of his fingers. “Do you want to hear my shame? I’m a bastard.”
“No, you’re not, you’re wonderful. You’ve treated me like gold.”
“No, I mean literally.” Noah framed her face. “Sebastian McCoy was my father, but he wasn’t married to my mother. He just brought me in one day and handed me to his wife.”
“What?” She was shocked, hurting for him.
“I just found out a few days ago, accidentally. That’s what sent me skidding up to your house and demanding to go on your Vision Quest with you.”
“Your family loves you.” Skye shook her head, trying to digest what he was saying. “The circumstances of your birth aren’t important. You are a McCoy. You belong.”
“Don’t you see?” Noah smiled sadly. “I’ve worn my pride like a suit of armor and instead of protecting me, it’s robbed me of my ability to feel. I couldn’t move. I’ve held my family to an impossible standard that I couldn’t even live up to. I judged them. And now I find that I’m the one who was given mercy. I was taken in and made a part, without question and without judgment. I’m the one who doesn’t belong.”
Skye grasped his shirt. “You belong. You are as much a part of this family as Aron or Nathan or Jacob—any of them. They love you. They all love you.”
“I don’t deny that.” Noah covered her hands with his own. “And they haven’t changed. They love me just the same. But I’ve changed. One day I’ll have a family of my own, and what will I tell them?”
Skye bent her head, seeing the utter hopelessness of her situation. “You’ll tell them they’re McCoys.”
They stood together, holding on to one another.
“And I’ll tell them their mother is the bravest woman I know.”
A piercing pain speared through Skye. She had to get the rest of it out. “Noah, I can’t give you children. That scar you saw wasn’t from an appendix operation.”
He put a finger under her chin, trying to meet her gaze. “What happened?” He had an idea he didn’t want to hear this. “Were you sick?”
This was almost the worst part. Telling him this was harder than telling him she had a record. “I was given a forced hysterectomy in prison.”
“Forced?” Noah couldn’t fathom such a thing.
“The guards hated me so much, because I stood up to them.”
Noah couldn’t imagine what she suffered. She was so tiny, so small. “Fuck!” He wanted to hit something—anything.
“The warden knew the guards had it in for me and he figured I’d be raped, it was just a matter of time. And he didn’t want any more babies being born.”
Noah finally just did what he wanted to do. He picked her up and carried her to the bed and stretched out, holding her. “Stop. I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. Your value in my eyes is immeasurable. I can’t say I don’t care, because I do. I deplore the fact that you’ve been hurt. I hate that you’ve been wrongly accused and suffered at the hands of monsters and idiots. The idea that they stole your ability to have a child just tears my heart out by the roots.” He pulled her tighter to him. “But it doesn’t make me love you any less. There are many children who need
a home, Princess. Look at me, I was brought into a loving family. Who’s to say what I would have been or who I would have been if Sebastian hadn’t loved me enough to make me part of this family? If we decide we want a child, we’ll find one. If we don’t, there are going to be a lot of little McCoys running around here. I don’t think we’ll be lonely. What matters is me and you. Us. Everything will be all right if you’ll just love me. And whether you like it or not I’m putting you up on that pedestal. Because that’s where you belong.
This time when they made love, it was slow and sweet. Tender and aching. An affirmation of his devotion and her acceptance. He left not one part of her body or her soul untouched. Noah worshiped Skye. Lying on his back, he pulled her over on top of him, her back to his front. He had soothed her, pleased her, pleasured her, sliding her down on him, entering her and filling up her body with his strength and with his love. And when they came, they came together. Noah would have it no other way.
***
Noah took all the steps he could to keep Skye safe. He called Kane and explained the situation to him. The sheriff said he would immediately start an investigation and send out an APB to bring the oil man in for questioning. Taking no chances, Noah phoned Vance and asked him to send an extra crew of investigators to Kerrville to help out. Noah wanted this over—now. He’d even called the authorities in Oklahoma and alerted them that Arthur Langley was dangerous. But most important he’d summoned Lance.
As he waited for the foreman to arrive, Noah took stock. Jacob was at the hospital. Isaac was at Hardbodies and Joseph was keeping the ranch going as best he could. Lord, it’d be a wonder if they made a profit this year with all the ups and downs they’d had. But he didn’t care. That wasn’t what he was worried about. They could always make money. Family was more important. He wanted their family to survive all of this chaos.
Skye Blue (Hell Yeah!) Page 19
