by Tina Leonard
Glaring, Cody stepped back in the room. In the space he left in front of the door, Curvy and Pick came in.
“Figured sumpin’ more had to be going on in here than on the bench,” Curvy said. “It’s too hot for folks to be out right now.” He squinted at Cody. “Saw your niece at the bus station. She going on a trip?”
“What?” Fear shot into Cody’s stomach like a thrown rock.
“I said, we saw Mary go into the bus station. Is she—?”
“Damn it!” Cody hurried out the door.
“Hang on, I’ll go with you,” Sloan said, jumping up to follow. “You boys answer the phone,” he called back to Curvy and Pick.
The two elderly men looked at each other. Curvy slid into Sloan’s seat. Pick took the one Cody had vacated.
“I told ya,” Pick stated.
“You did.” Curvy nodded agreeably.
“That bus pulled out already,” Pick said.
“Yep. Don’t matter. Cody and Sloan’ll run it down.” He rummaged around in the sheriff’s desk. “Look at the size of this hunting knife,” he murmured. Out of curiosity, he picked at the bottom drawer lock, which he’d never seen open. “It sure is a heavy knife. Wonder who he confiscated it from—well, would you look at that?” The lock popped and he slid the drawer open easily. “I always thought picking drawer locks was something they did in movies to make you scared of what might pop out.” Curvy reached into the bottom drawer and felt around. “Nothing in here. Wait a minute.”
His fingers grasped cold metal. He held up a picture frame. “Would you look at that?” he asked Pick, though he didn’t have to because Pick was craning to see.
It was a wedding photo of a young Sloan and a woman. They were both smiling as if they’d found paradise. He didn’t have the grim lines of worry on his face that he carried now, and she was a delightfully perky blonde with straight teeth and breasts that caught Curvy’s attention. “Didn’t know Sloan was a breast man.”
“Reckon I didn’t, either.”
“I don’t know her.” Curvy scratched his head.
“I didn’t know he’d been married.” Pick sat back in his chair and pulled out his matchbook to use on his teeth.
“She’s a cute little thing.”
Pick shrugged. “Probably ugly as green goat cheese now.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Dunno. He didn’t stay married to her. She must notta been worth much.”
Curvy frowned, sliding the picture back into the drawer and locking it. He put the hunting knife back where he’d found it. “He never told us.”
“Even the sheriff’s allowed to have a secret,” Pick reminded him. “We have plenty of our own. Besides, one bad marriage is enough. Wouldn’t want to talk about it, and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to do it again.”
“That’s a fine excuse for Sloan, but it leaves Cody in the cold. He’s just too stubborn to let anyone into his life in the first place.”
“He woulda let Annie.” Pick met Curvy’s eyes. There was no need to say more about that.
Curvy chose another subject. “Wonder if they’ve caught Mary by now?”
“I don’t know.” Pick rolled his eyes. “I sure feel sorry for the driver of that bus.”
“I know. Cody’s probably going to ride up on it like all hell’s a-popping.”
“He should stick to ranching.”
“Damn right. ’Cause he’s striking out with that spicy redhead and his niece.”
They laughed themselves into hiccups on that one.
“Dig around in the sheriff’s desk some more,” Pick instructed. “We might as well entertain ourselves until they get back.”
Anger and panic brewed inside Cody. Pain he’d never felt before pierced his chest as he came up on the end-of-the-line bus stop. “Hope I made it.”
“Hope you did, too.” Sloan jumped out of the passenger side and strode after Cody.
They’d asked at the Desperado bus station for information. Yes, a girl, who’d told them she was nineteen, had bought a bus ticket two hours ago. One way nonstop to Austin. Fear had taken on new meaning for Cody as he’d torn off in his truck after the bus.
Every moment he kept hoping his phone would ring to tell him Mary was somewhere else. That this had all been a mistake.
He was seriously becoming afraid that, in order to keep an eye on his niece while her folks were gone, he’d have to let Sloan lock her up in the jail.
“I’m looking for my niece,” he said to the man at the Austin ticket counter. “She’s tallish, young, has black hair.”
“I see a lot of people,” the ticket agent replied, disinterested. “Don’t know that I saw anyone by that description.”
Sloan stepped up to the desk. “Maybe the bus line would be interested if I told them the child we’re looking for is thirteen? And shouldn’t have been sold a ticket in the first place?” His badge glinted on his chest.
“I’d like to help you, I really would,” the man said hurriedly. “But I swear, I see a lot of people—is that her?” He pointed toward the middle of the station.
A young girl with long black hair went inside the ladies’ room.
“Thanks,” Cody said. He strode to wait outside the door, with Sloan behind him.
Ten minutes later he was tapping his boot. “What in the devil is she doing in there?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not going in.” Sloan shook his head. “Not even for you.”
A second later, Cody straightened as the young girl came out. She was dressed in a short, flowery skirt, and little white sandals. Her hair was piled up on her head. With a happy cry, she ran into the arms of a boy dressed in a military uniform.
Cody’s jaw dropped. “We’ve been standing out here waiting on the wrong kid.”
“She doesn’t look much like a kid to me,” Sloan said with a grin. “They’re married.”
The terminal emptied out. There were no other buses being loaded. Cody and Sloan looked at each other.
“She didn’t buy a ticket under her name. She couldn’t have had a whole lot of money on her,” Cody said, more to himself than to Sloan. “You don’t suppose—”
“Pick and Curvy sent us on a wild-goose chase?” Sloan stared at him. “No way. Serious charges are involved for lying to an officer of the law. I can think of several ways of torturing them. For one, I’d fine them for loitering and take away their bench.”
“Still, it doesn’t make sense.” Cody’s heart sank. “I hate to make this call, but now I have to.” He dialed Annie’s number.
“It’s Cody,” he said, when she answered. “I hate to say this, but I have no idea where Mary is.”
“I thought she was getting her hair dyed.”
She had been. But Cody knew very well she’d slipped away from the shop because she’d knocked at Stormy’s door while he’d been in there. He couldn’t tell Annie that.
“We missed connections somewhere.”
“Call over to Stormy’s,” she suggested.
“I’m in Austin.” He was glad of the excuse. “Maybe you’d better.” He didn’t want to call Stormy today.
“Austin! Why are you in Austin?”
He sighed heavily. “Pick and Curvy thought they’d seen her in the bus station. It wasn’t her, though. Now I’m two hours away from Desperado, so you’ll have to hunt her up. I’m sorry, Annie.”
“This is absolutely preposterous!” Annie’s voice turned agitated. “I’ll call your mother and put her on the look-out, and Stormy.”
She hung up. Cody turned his phone off.
“She isn’t very happy with me,” he told Sloan.
“Didn’t reckon so.”
They walked toward Cody’s truck. “Can’t figure that young’un out,” he confided.
“She’s having a tough time.” Sloan slammed the passenger side door as he got in.
“I’m having a tough time.” He started the engine, his hand hovering over the keys. “I’m more convinced than eve
r that I wasn’t meant to have children. Being an uncle is hard enough.”
He felt the sympathy in Sloan’s gaze, but it really didn’t help much. Wherever the heck Mary was, he had lost her.
With a silent prayer that she was all right, he headed toward Desperado.
Two hours later, Stormy sat quietly with Carmen Aguillar and Annie, and a downtrodden Mary. Annie had called, asking her to come to the Aguillar house. She had gone to the ranch, believing the movie would be discussed.
To her great chagrin, she had discovered that Mary had left her hotel and wandered around Desperado for a few hours. Cody had run off on a wild-goose chase from which he had not yet returned. Annie was frantic, and when she’d found Mary, all hell had broken loose.
Annie’s proposition to Stormy upon her arrival startled her. The three women had a long talk, with Mary crying a lot. They had come to an agreement.
Stormy had hoped Annie would tell Cody about her idea before he got home. That way he’d be forewarned as to the way his sister-in-law felt. Unfortunately, Annie had waited until he walked in to tell him what was on her mind.
That moment was now. Stormy’s hands trembled as she heard his boots in the foyer. When he saw her, he instantly halted.
“What’s going on?” he demanded.
The question might have been taken as a greeting of sorts, except that he was looking directly at her. His expression was not one of pleased surprise. She forced herself to look away from him. Why did he have to make her heart beat faster?
“We will go outside for a while.” Carmen got to her feet. “Come on, Mary, honey.”
Mary followed her grandmother outside, with a shamefaced look at her uncle.
“What’s going on is that something went very wrong this afternoon,” Annie stated once they’d left. “I realize Mary is a handful, but I would think, between you and Carmen, she would at least be somewhat under control.” She took a deep breath. “Cody, I’m really starting to worry about Zach and me continuing with our honeymoon plans this weekend.”
“We’ll be able to handle it.” He was nowhere near as confident as he sounded. The little scamp had just burned up a tank of his gas and his patience. “We must have had a miscommunication of sorts today. That’s all.”
“How does a miscommunication get you to Austin, and my daughter sitting in a bus station?”
“She really was in the station?” He couldn’t believe he’d missed her.
“Yes. She said she wandered around and thought for a while, and then got hot. So she went to sit in the bus terminal. At which point, I’m assuming, you were well on your way to Austin.”
He slid a look at Stormy. She was staring at her hands, obviously embarrassed. He couldn’t figure out why she was here, unless Annie had called her in on the search. “I don’t know what had Mary so upset.”
Stormy slid a silver ring back and forth on her finger, refusing to look at him.
“I don’t know what had her so upset, either. She won’t tell me,” Annie said. “What I do know is that I can’t leave for a honeymoon with the situation as it is. I would cancel it right here and now, except that we’ve already paid for the plane fare and the vacation package to Bermuda.”
“No! Ma and I can hold the fort down.” If I have to tie my niece to the saddle in front of me. “You deserve some time alone with Zach, Annie. Your life’s fixing to be turned upside down by that baby.”
She took a deep breath. “I really want to take this trip. I hope you understand when I tell you that, although I love you and trust you and your mother both, I do think Mary is acting out of loneliness and displacement. I want her to have someone she can talk to. Look up to. Someone else to keep an eye on her.”
Cody waited for the punch line. Maybe Annie wanted them to hire a nanny for a week. That might work—if the nanny came with the ability to mind-read.
“Your mother and I have discussed this and we are in complete agreement. Quite generously, we feel, Stormy has agreed to spend the last week of her stay in Desperado here.”
“Here?” he repeated, wondering what was different about that. She’d always been there.
“In this house. With Mary. Sort of as a companion. This is very kind of Stormy, because I know she’s a busy woman. I feel quite fortunate. I know you’ll be relieved as well.”
Stormy wouldn’t look at him. Cody felt buzzing in his ears. Relieved? Hell, no. He wasn’t relieved. That woman had him jumping out of windows. She was a menace.
She’d given him her virginity. It had destroyed his peace of mind.
She would be staying in his house.
It just might kill him.
Chapter Eleven
Stormy watched the skin stretch tight across Cody’s cheekbones. He wasn’t happy to hear Annie’s news. She herself wondered if staying here was a good idea. The idea of accepting the invitation had drawn her immediately. She loved this house, the sense of warmth and love its strong walls contained. She’d lived in the back of vans and slept on beanbags through most of her childhood and teen years while her parents stayed on the road. Shag carpet, swinging beads and peace sign posters had been the mementoes of her constantly changing life.
She wanted this. Her eyes swept the room, taking in the tidy living room. The spray of flowers on the table. The aroma of cookies wafting in from the kitchen. Just for the rest of this short week, she could be part of a real home.
Cody glared at her as if everything he’d heard was her fault. She blushed and looked out through a lace-curtained window, then forced herself to meet his angry glare.
If the truth were to be known, she wouldn’t mind having a little more of him, either.
“Why does she have to be the magic bullet?” he demanded, jabbing a finger Stormy’s way.
Annie shrugged. “Mary is doing her best to emulate Stormy. The hair dye incident proves that Stormy has influence over my child. I think she’s good for Mary.” She gave Cody a narrow look. “Can you think of someone better?”
He made an obvious effort to think of someone, but as he shot a resentful glance her way, Stormy knew he couldn’t think of a soul. Great. He can’t think of anybody better, but he wants me here like he wants saddle sores. She wondered now why women slept with men, if marriage wasn’t in the offing. Oh, yeah. It had felt great. Heavenly. But the wonderful, body-melting sensations weren’t worth the dislike in Cody’s eyes. Making love with him had put them on the edges of an ever-widening chasm. His rejection hurt her in places she’d never dreamed she could be hurt.
“I can’t think of anyone. But, Annie, we barely know Stormy.” His face colored instantly. “I mean, to bring her into our family life, I—”
He caught Stormy’s eyes with his gaze. Her heart dropped as her eyelashes swept down to cover her dismay. He knew her. And he was desperate not to have her around.
“Well, Cody.” Annie sighed, sinking into a chair. “Maybe this isn’t the best idea after all. I wasn’t aware you’d have such doubts about it. Perhaps I’m being selfish. I know I am.” She rolled her shoulders. Stormy felt sorry that Annie was feeling the tension in the room; it was like crackling electrical wires. “It’s always been my dream to go to Bermuda. I’ve worked hard to get my salsa business going, and on the plans for the restaurant. Now is the only chance Zach and I will get to have time alone together, because after the baby’s born, things’ll get busier. With this latest stunt of Mary’s, your mother is worried about being at home with her so much during the day when you’re out doing chores.” She sighed heavily. “But perhaps this isn’t the best solution.”
“It’s fine,” Cody suddenly growled. “It’s only until the weekend. We can last that long.”
He glared at Stormy as if to say that every waking moment would be torture, but he would make this sacrifice for Annie. Stormy stood, staring down his unwelcoming expression. “I’ll see you in a few days. Annie, I’m sure we’ll talk before you leave.”
She refused to say goodbye to Cody, that big, feeling-
sorry-for-himself oaf. All he cared about was how much she was going to put him out. He didn’t care about the inconvenience to her schedule, or even his niece’s distress. All he wanted was to jump from square to square like a checkerboard piece and avoid her. Fine. She could find plenty to do with Mary that didn’t involve being on this property all day. At night, she would barricade herself in her room with a book. Their paths need never cross.
She marched from the room, her head held high—and her heart breaking.
Annie put her hands on her hips. Her eyes flashed blue fire. “Cody Aguillar, I have never heard you be so rude in my entire life. What is your problem?”
“I don’t have one.” He threw himself into a chair. “I just happen to think that woman is the source of a lot of the problems we’ve been having with Mary.”
“How do you figure that?” Her eyes narrowed on him.
He shook his head. “We wouldn’t have had the orange-hair incident and the ride into Austin if Stormy had never blown into Desperado.” And into my life, like gale-force winds.
“It’s not going to work,” she said softly. “You can’t put the blame on Stormy. We had problems before, Cody, and they’re not her fault. It’s easier, I know, to feel that way. God knows, I’ve wished a hundred, a thousand times, that Carlos hadn’t gotten on that tractor that day. I’m sorry you had an argument with your brother.” Her voice dropped lower as her eyes pleaded with him.
She laid her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry Carlos went off in a moment of anger. I know it’s something that has haunted you ever since.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorrier that he died. I wish with all of my heart that Mary had not seen her father that way.”
Cody drew her into his arms, holding this woman who was his sister in so many ways.
“But I wish more that you could forget,” Annie whispered against his chest. “Maybe not forget. But at least move on. You can’t hold yourself away from everyone just because…just because you’re afraid to care deeply again.”
He bit the inside of his jaw as he clenched it. His heart felt like heavy stone in his chest. He understood what Annie was saying. It was something he knew deep in his heart. But he couldn’t get past the guilt and the fear that ate at him most of the time. Today, his heart had nearly shrunk to the size of a piece of gravel as he’d chased Mary to Austin. Something had gone wrong in his relationship with his niece, the child who Cody had sworn on his brother’s grave to take care of as if she were his own. But Mary was suffering her own hell and it was all coming back to haunt them. Closing his eyes wearily, he knew he was part of the problem. He couldn’t be strict with her at all, the way she needed sometimes. The fear of losing her, too, was great inside him. Annie was right. He was part of the problems Mary was having.
