License to Love Series:Trilogy (Contemporary Western Cowboy Romance)

by Rose, Amelia

  In all these years, she hadn’t changed.

  Shad watched her stalk away before turning and heading back to the house. When he opened the door from the garage, the smell of bacon rose up to greet him.

  As he rounded the corner to the kitchen, he inhaled deeply and smiled as he watched Clara. She was wearing nothing but one of his old t-shirts and a pair of underwear, and she was humming under her breath. He wasn’t sure he had ever seen something so lovely in his kitchen. “Every morning should begin with a half naked woman cooking,” he said.

  She startled when he spoke and jumped, the spatula falling out of her hand and onto the floor. For a moment, neither of them moved as they looked at the lonely red spatula on the tile. Shad wanted to reach out and comfort her, but he stayed where he was.

  She’s still frightened, still ready to bolt at a moment’s notice, he told himself. He’d thought last night would have eased some of her tension, but she was still very tightly wound.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t hear you come in.” She turned off the burner, grabbed the spatula from the floor, and moved to the sink.

  “I forgot to warn you that the well ran on electricity as well. I hope you didn’t need water.”

  “Yeah, I figured that out last night when I was in the shower and the water stopped running.” She laughed.

  “A guy came out from the electric co-op to check things out, so hopefully we’ll have power back by tonight. Until then, I guess I can be grateful that we have a gas stove, huh?”

  “Electricity we can live without, but if we don’t get water in a day or so, we’re going to start smelling funny.” This time her smile was broader, and she looked like she was starting to feel comfortable in her skin again.

  “Oh, well, I guess it’s a good thing Randy hooked up the generator earlier this morning,” he said, pulling her close and kissing her. “Your lips taste like orange juice, and your hair smells like bacon. If it stays like that, I’m going to insist you not shower.” He pushed up the hem of the shirt she was wearing and ran his hands over her stomach, then down over her thighs, slipping under her panties until his bare hands were cupping her butt.

  “Or we could shower together in the dark,” she breathed as he pushed her underwear down her legs and lifted her up on the countertop. Seconds later they were both undressed, and he pulled her to the edge of the counter and down onto his shaft in one smooth movement. She gasped as he entered her, taking her breast into his mouth at the same time. He moved her up and down, pushing and pulling her on and off his member, teasing her by pulling out before slowly re-entering her as she tensed and convulsed around him.

  “We’ll save the shower for later,” he whispered, as he thrust deeply into her one final time, driving them both to orgasm.

  *

  “I’m so hungry the cold bacon even tastes good,” Clara told him as she snagged a piece from the stove.

  “Yeah, we kind of forgot about eating breakfast,” He said, laughing.

  “As I remember, that was your fault.” Her joking voice trailed behind her as she moved down the hall. “I’m going to go and get dressed.”

  Shad was putting his boots back on when the phone rang.

  “Hello,” he answered, suppressing his urge to laugh at the fact that somehow Clara’s underwear had ended up on the counter next to the phone.

  “Shad, it’s Woody. I just wanted to let Clara know I should have the truck up and running by tomorrow.”

  Suddenly, the panties didn’t seem as funny. Clara’s truck would be running again. Would she want to leave? Did he want to ask her to stay?

  “Did you hear me?” Woody asked, after a moment of silence. Shad could hear the hesitation in his voice.

  “Oh, sorry. Sure, I’ll let her know it should be good to go tomorrow.”

  “Okay, I’ll drop it by when I’m done.”

  “Good deal, we’ll see you then,” Shad told him before hanging up. He struggled to repress his anxiety as he finished getting ready. There were still things he needed to get done today, and so deciding what he was going to do about the future would have to wait for now. A few days ago this wasn’t a problem because he had known what his future held. But a few days ago he hadn’t met Clara.

  A minute later, Clara walked back into the room, fully dressed. “Could you try to find a time frame when the power will be back on? I really would like to get cleaned up at some point.”

  Shad smiled as he walked to the door, but it felt like a mask. “Sure thing,” he told her, closing the door behind him. It was a good thing he was getting out of the house. He needed to go somewhere to clear his head. He would tell her about the truck being ready later. Right now it was a conversation he didn’t want to have.

  *

  After cleaning up the kitchen, Clara headed back to the office. There were still a few more things she wanted to get done before she left, and with the blinds open, enough light would shine in for her to be able to see what she was doing.

  For the first time since she’d been forced to go on the run, she found herself wondering what she would do when she was mobile again.

  You can’t stay, she told herself, but she knew it was no use. Her inner voice sounded hollow, flat, like it wasn’t even trying to put up a fight. She felt comfortable here. There was something about this place that might convince her to grow roots, to stay and lie low.

  “If I could find whoever was doing this, I wouldn’t have to run anymore,” she said out loud to the empty room.

  “That could be arranged,” a voice answered from the doorway. Clara jumped and spun around.

  The man was not what she expected. He was tall and lanky, and he was wearing an electric company shirt with two crossed pieces of lightning and the words “Rural Farmer’s Electrical Co-op” embroidered on the pocket.

  “I’m sorry? Who are you? I wasn’t told anyone from the electric company would be in the house.” Trying to keep her voice calm, she quickly moved behind the desk, putting it between her and the man. If this was the mysterious stalker, she didn’t want to let him know how much he had scared her.

  “Oh, I think you know who I am. I’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to introduce myself, but you just keep running away. That makes you a very naughty girl.” He wagged a finger back and forth as if he were scolding a dog.

  Clara wanted to bolt, but she knew that would do no good. He had her boxed in, and she was on the verge of a panic attack. She took a deep breath, pushing down the fear. She glanced at the windows but immediately turned that idea down because all of them had mesh guards and he would easily reach her before she escaped.

  But she knew Shad was somewhere out there, and if she could just get to him, she would be safe.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before. Have we met?”

  In response, he slammed his hand against the doorframe hard enough to shake the pictures hanging on the wall. “Don’t play dumb with me, Clara. I know you better than that.” He took a step forward as he spoke, moving out of the shadow so she could finally see his features better. Underneath the hat he had shaggy black hair, and his nose and chin were pinched in such a way that it reminded her of a mouse. His eyes were dark lumps of coal glaring out at her with such anger she could practically feel her skin burning. Her hands moved across the surface of the desk, hoping to find a stapler, a letter opener, anything that might serve as a weapon.

  She knew if he captured her, there would be no salvation from that rage.

  “So, it is true, you are a real live person. I was beginning to think you only existed in cyberspace,” she conceded, giving up all pretense of not knowing who he was. When he stepped forward again, she noticed an old fire extinguisher mounted to the wall just behind the door. If she could find a way around him, she could use it to defend herself.

  “Ha! That was the intention,” he said as he leaned forward and took another step. The office was of a good-size and boxes lined the path between them. He pushed one to the side with hi
s muddy sneaker and took another step. His stare lingered. “You never once noticed me at the law office, never once said thank you when I got you more pens or emptied your trash without you even asking. You probably just thought of me as the lackey. Poor Chuck Sanders, that’s what everyone thought, but I showed you.”

  That gave her a start, and she forced herself to look him in the eye. She didn’t recognize him as one of the cleaning staff or as anyone else she would have worked with, and the name wasn’t ringing any bells. “Why me?” she asked, suddenly determined to know why he had been haunting her.

  “Well, I would have said because you were such a good girl, the picture of beauty and innocence. I had to know if you could be broken.” His smile turned sour. His voice had an edge to it now. “But that was before I caught the show earlier in the kitchen. Now, I just want my own fair cut of the action.” His tongue reached out and flicked across the corner of his mouth.

  That little reaction so disgusted and scared her that when he took another step, she vaulted around the desk toward the fire extinguisher hanging on the wall.

  He moved as if he anticipated her thoughts and lunged for her, but she dodged his hands just as she collided with the wall. Grabbing the extinguisher and holding it tightly against her chest, she ran out of the room with him directly behind her.

  She ran down the first series of hallways, turning left at the fork towards the built-in apartments. She had spent the last couple of hours moving through the building in the dark, and she had a much better idea of the layout than she had last night.

  Ducking into one of the small side rooms, she tried to calm down and remove the pin from the extinguisher. She could hear him running up and down the different hallways, trying to find out which way she had gone.

  For a moment, her pounding heart was the only sound that flooded her ears. She leaned into the darkness, straining to see any sign of him. She didn’t want to make her move towards the barn only to run straight into his trap. She heard him stumble over something in the darkness. Then a flashlight clicked on, the beam bouncing down at the far end of the hall.

  Knowing that now was her chance, she made a break for it, running out and down the hall in the dark. At first she had been positive that he was going to chase after her, but he let her run, his voice following her as she moved.

  “You go ahead and run. If you get away from me, you’ll never know where to find your precious cowboy.” She knew she wasn’t imagining the laughter in his voice.

  Oh Shad, what have I gotten you into? she asked herself, her hand inches away from the door that would lead to the back exit and freedom.

  *

  Shad stirred on the floor of the barn, finding Trixie licking the blood from his face as he regained consciousness. After a moment or two the fog started to clear and he remembered that he had been walking across the yard when everything had gone black. When he opened his eyes, he winced a little at the pain in his head. A few seconds later his vision cleared and he could see light filtering through the darkness in small beams.

  He tried to move but found it difficult. He realized he was in one of the empty stalls and his hands, feet, and mouth were all secured with duck tape. When Trixie realized he was awake, she started nudging him, biting at the tape around his hands but instead of coming off, the wet tape seemed to bind up even more. He managed to inch across the floor on his back just enough to get his feet around to the wall of the stall. He started kicking on the wood, trying to let someone know that he was trapped.

  Trixie started barking too, baying and running around in circles before going back through the stall door and out into the yard to call for help. After a moment he paused and waited to see if anyone was coming, but he couldn’t hear anything. Looking around the stall he noticed a feed bucket was hanging on a long nail. He rolled over to it, straw and dirt sticking to the sweat on his face and getting in his eyes, blurring his vision.

  Since he couldn’t see, he swung his legs up blindly until he heard them connect with the bucket, and it clattered to the ground. He managed to see enough to swing his feet up one more time and connect with the nail.

  On the second try, the wide section of tape caught, and he pushed down with all his force until he heard it begin to give. Once he heard it rip, he took a deep breath and pushed his feet down in one hard swoop. The tape gave way and came off, and he momentarily lost his balance and swung forward as his feet moved down, rolling forward until his head bumped hard against the support.

  A trickle of blood ran down his forehead. He knew from the sting that there were probably splinters lodged in his scalp, but he didn’t care. All he could think about was getting to Clara. He got to his feet and backed up to the same nail, using it to cut away at the bands that held his hands together. His wrists were so tightly bound that the nail cut his skin as he sawed, but he just tightened his jaw and pushed even harder. He braced himself with his feet slightly apart so he wouldn’t fall again. A moment later it had loosened enough so that he was able to wiggle his hands loose and pull the tape from his mouth.

  As soon as it was loose, he turned and headed back to the house at a full sprint.

  Clara, I’m coming, he thought, determined to get to her as he ran the short distance down the sloping hill towards the equipment barn. He started to change direction and move towards the front of the house, but when he heard noises and saw Trixie run into the garage near the combine, he followed.

  He slowed his pace just long enough for his eyes to acclimatize to the darkness as he maneuvered around the equipment with ease, slipping back and forth across the garage. He heard voices up ahead, one of them Clara’s, but it sounded like they were on the other side of the large space near the door to the house. He started to call out but stopped himself. If the guy who had attacked him was with her, he didn’t want to let him know he was coming. Instead he pushed on as fast as he could, determined to get to her.

  *

  Clara stood in the hall, her hand one push away from freedom. She could run, but her running could leave Shad in danger. Truthfully she had grown weary of running. The past few days here had opened her eyes to what a real life could mean. Not just going out with friends and a steady job like she had had in Colorado, but a home, a place where she belonged.

  She tightened her grip on the fire extinguisher and held her ground.

  “Are you there, Clara? Did you hear what I said?” he taunted.

  Opening the door to show him where she was, she leaned out and set the extinguisher down on the ground, out of his sight. She wasn’t willing to get rid of all of her options just yet.

  “Where is Shad?” she asked, leaving the door open so that light shone down the hall a few feet. “How do I know he will be okay if I agree to go with you?”

  “You don’t. You just have to trust me,” he said, his leering face suddenly emerging out of the dark hall. Upon seeing him, she flinched without meaning to. His smile deepened and the shadows cut into the crevices, haunting her.

  “After what you did to me, after the false felonies, the drained bank accounts, the ruined friendships and lost apartment, why should I trust you about anything?” she asked, her fingertips settling over the top of the extinguisher as he moved closer.

  “I did all those things to show you how weak you were without me, to make you realize that you needed me. But instead, you ran.” He spat out the words as he took another two steps, closing the gap.

  She reached behind her as she moved away from the door, swinging the fire extinguisher up and over her head. At that second she no longer felt afraid. What would happen, would happen, but she was reclaiming the small piece of her soul this man had taken from her.

  “You ruined my life!” she yelled as she wielded the extinguisher like a club.

  He saw what she was doing a moment too late and put up his arm to block it. The extinguisher hit with a sickening thud and the sound of bones cracking. He didn’t stop, his rage seeming to be pushing him through the pain as he grabbed
her by the arm with his other hand, tearing at her shirt, ripping it open. Stumping out of the door, he pushed her against the tractor a few paces from the door.

  She opened her mouth to scream, but he shoved his damaged arm into it to keep her quiet. He leveraged his weight against her, pushing the wind out of her. The hard metal at her back and his body against her, made her feel as if she was being crushed.

  He looked down at her skin through the hole he had made, and the crazed look in his eyes deepened. She saw the shadows move behind him, and her eyes widened as Shad appeared welding a wrench in his upraised hand. Chuck must have seen her reaction or heard a noise because he turned around just as the wrench swung down and connected with his head. He fell to the ground, motionless.

  Clara looked down at him and felt the energy go out of her. She started to collapse, but Shad reached forward and grabbed her, hauling her up into his arms. She leaned her head into his chest and sobbed. He looked down at her, concern spread across his features.

  “It’s over. It’s finally over,” she whispered up at him.

  “Shhh, you’re safe now. I have you,” he answered.

  *

  Clara watched from the front door as Melinda, her Deputy, and the two EMT workers loaded Chuck into the ambulance. He had come to fairly quickly but the sight of all one hundred and fifty pounds of Trixie had kept him on the floor. Before he could figure out his next move, Melinda had burst in, gun drawn.

  Slamming the back door on the ambulance shut, Melinda spoke briefly to her Deputy, then moved to join Clara and Shad on the porch.

  “It looks like you did the hard work for me,” she said, winking at them.

  “How did you know there was a problem?” Shad asked. “I hadn’t even had time to call you.”

  “No, but the co-op called, said they had some irregularities concerning the farm in their computers. They said that it showed the farm had been serviced, but Jim hadn’t sent anyone out.” She looked at the departing ambulance with disgust, as if she could see Chuck through the metal. “I knew then that there was a big problem, and I headed straight over.”