by B. J Daniels
* * *
AFTER DARBY LEFT, Mariah turned to look back at her bed and the backpack lying on it. Earlier everything had seemed clear to her, what had to be done after last night. She couldn’t stay here any longer.
She’d always had two choices. Leave without the bracelet. Or confront Darby. So what had the holdup been? She could have asked that first day for her bracelet. But she hadn’t for whatever reasons had seemed logical—back then. Now, everything had changed. She cared about Darby. Which meant she couldn’t stay here any longer.
She stared at the bed and groaned. She knew why she was dragging her feet. She didn’t want to leave. She was content here, even happy sometimes. Today, horseback riding with him. Last night—
Mariah shook her head. She’d been here too long. It was getting more dangerous. For all she knew, her past was hot on her trail. It should have been easy to leave since running away was what she did. But she’d come to know Darby. Just as she knew now that if she asked him for her bracelet back, he would give it to her.
He probably wouldn’t even ask for an explanation. But she felt she owed him one. The thought of telling him about herself and her past made her shudder. She couldn’t bear looking into those beautiful gray eyes and seeing...revulsion.
What difference would one more night make? Before yesterday she would have said that her luck had run out. But the robber hadn’t killed her. Nor had she let him take her pendant.
Yesterday she could have been killed. The thought was never far from her mind. She would have been killed if she hadn’t brought the bat up as quickly as she had. If she hadn’t knocked the gun out of the robber’s hand.
What had her packing earlier was the realization that she was too close to the mark. She’d always liked to take her time with a mark, get to know his routine, get to know his likes and dislikes, get close enough that she knew what he was going to do next.
By then, though, she often didn’t want to finish the job. She saw the mark’s vulnerabilities—something she was supposed to exploit—but no longer wanted to follow through. It had gotten her in trouble a lot with her uncle since he was the one who’d taught her how to survive after her grandmother had died.
Before that, her fortune-teller grandmother had taken care of her. Once she was gone, Mariah had been forced to fend for herself—with the tools her uncle had forced on her. Later, she was glad that he had since she’d certainly needed them to survive. For her, there had been only one way out—something far worse—so she’d done what she had to.
Now as she stared at the backpack on the bed, she felt sad and afraid. She desperately needed to leave. It wasn’t just that she could almost feel the past breathing down her neck. She’d gotten too close to Darby, too involved in these people’s lives, too comfortable here.
With a sigh, she moved to the bed, picked up the backpack and dumped out its contents. She had told Darby she would work today. Her word at least was still good.
But tonight...
She dug through the items on the bed until she found the knife. She had to end this so there was no chance of her ever coming back, or she would never leave. Tonight she would move on.
* * *
“YOUR FATHER HAS had a series of mini strokes,” the doctor said, addressing the group gathered in the waiting room.
“Is he all right?” Flint asked.
“He’s conscious. We can’t be sure how much damage was done.”
“When will you know?” Hawk asked.
“After we run more tests. For now, he’s resting comfortably.”
At the sound of yelling down the hall, the doctor turned and headed in that direction.
Flint and the rest of the Cahills followed the physician to their father’s room.
Ely was sitting up in bed arguing with the nurse. “Good, glad to see my family is here. Tell this fool woman that I’m fine and to get my damned clothes.”
“He seems to be his old self,” Flint told the doctor. “Let me handle this,” he said to the nurse. “I apologize for my father.”
“Don’t be apologizin’ for me. All I did was ask her fer my clothes,” Ely said.
“This might go better if Dad and I are alone,” Flint said, turning to his siblings and his sister’s fiancé, Trask Beaumont.
“If you need us, we’ll be down the hall,” Lillie said.
He waited until they’d cleared out of the room along with the nurse and doctor, before he closed the door and moved to his father’s bed.
“If this is some kind of intervention...”
“Dad, you had series of small strokes.”
His father frowned. “Who told you that?”
“The doctor. You were unconscious when I brought you to the hospital. What is the last thing you remember?”
Ely lay back against his pillows. Worry knitted his thick brows together. “I was feelin’ real tired as I come out of the mountains. I went to my cabin.”
“You don’t remember taking your Jeep into town?”
Ely often drank too much after coming out of the mountains. But he’d always been smart enough not to take a chance driving when his cabin wasn’t that much of a walk into town.
“Do you remember where you were going?” he asked.
His father shook his head. “I don’t ’member goin’ anywhere.” Ely met his gaze. “Doctor said it was a stroke?”
“A series of small ones.”
“But I’m all right now?”
“You appear to be, but they want to run some more tests.” Flint saw that his father was ready to argue and quickly cut him off. “You have to let them run the tests. I’ll pull your driver’s license if you don’t.”
Ely scowled at him but didn’t put up a fight.
“Dad, the doctor wants you to rest now. I’m sure they will run the tests first thing in the morning and then we’ll get you out of here.”
Ely looked around the room like a lion waking up in a cage. “I’ll stay, but only ’cuz you’re not givin’ me a choice. But come this time tomorrow—”
“You’ll be out of here, I promise.” Flint knew he shouldn’t be making such a promise, but he also knew his father. Ely would be hard-pressed to stay here twenty-four hours.
Under the resignation, he saw fear. He could imagine what it would be like for a man like his father to lose his independence. He hoped to hell that day was still a ways off.
But for some time, he’d been telling his siblings that they needed to talk about their father. The day would come when he couldn’t go into the mountains. And then what? Ely Cahill was cantankerous enough now when he got to do whatever he wanted. Try to tie him down and he would be unbearable.
* * *
WHEN MARIAH REACHED the saloon, Billie Dee was just leaving.
“I forgot something at the store. Kendall’s here and it’s slow.” the cook said. “Help yourself to some of my chili,” she added with a wink.
“Thanks.”
Billie Dee waved as she took off in her loud car, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.
Mariah stepped inside, stopping at the back door to just glance around. She could hear the jukebox playing and the sound of glassware being moved around in the bar. She hesitated. She thought she knew Darby pretty well. She’d been trained to read people. That was the basis of every con.
Now she stood looking around, trying to think like Darby. Where would he hide the bracelet? Not upstairs. He’d expect her to look there. No. Not in the kitchen or bar where someone might discover it and ask questions. Same with the ranch where his brothers lived.
She turned around and looked out at the stand of pines behind the place. His pickup was a possibility, though not here right now. He’d want to keep the bracelet close by. But the pickup was another obvious choice.
Stepping
outside she noticed footsteps in the dirt. They led into the evergreen forest behind the saloon. She smiled, reminded of a story she’d heard Lillie tell about a secret hiding place she and Trask had used to pass notes when they were young. A hole in a pine tree.
She followed the footprints, feeling like someone in a fairy tale following bread crumbs. It got tougher to see the tracks once she reached the pines. The forest floor was laden with dried pine needles.
Mariah looked around for a good hiding place for the bracelet. Somewhere that no one would think to look. She kept going, not even sure what she was looking for. She hadn’t seen a tree with a hole in it and realized she might be wrong. But there could be something back here. A treehouse? An old shed?
She’d only gone a little farther when she saw it. A large old tree with a knothole in the side of it. Stepping to the tree, she tried to see into the darkness of the hole. Never know what else might be in there, she told herself. It looked deep.
At the sound of an approaching car engine, she couldn’t wait any longer. She reached in. At first all she felt were pine needles. The hole went way back in, but it appeared to be empty. Could she be wrong about Darby?
She realized the hole also went down into the tree. Reaching down, she felt something. Cloth? She frowned. Something wrapped in the cloth?
The moment she lifted it, she knew it was her bracelet. Her heart soared. She hurriedly unwrapped the cloth to look at her prized piece of jewelry. Just the sight of it brought back wonderful memories of her grandmother.
She desperately wanted to put it on her wrist as she heard a patron drive up and park. It would be so easy to just take her bracelet and leave. What did she care about working the saloon tonight? If she left, it wasn’t like she would ever see Darby again. Nor would it be the first time she’d broken her word to a man.
As she stared down at the bracelet, her heart began to ache. “Don’t do it,” she whispered to herself. “Please, you can’t stay here, so why not just take it and leave now?” She closed her eyes for a moment as she heard Kendall in the kitchen at the back of the saloon.
With a sigh, she rewrapped the bracelet and put it back in the hole in the tree. She would come back for it later tonight. Before Darby knew the bracelet was gone, she’d be gone, as well. Better to leave without a goodbye. There was nothing keeping her here now, she told herself.
As she headed for the saloon, she should have been happy. She would soon have her bracelet back. She would have outfoxed her mark. She would have done what she’d set out to do—and she’d have money from her job to get her down the road.
“Don’t look back,” she said to herself as she walked into the kitchen to find Kendall rummaging around in one of the lockers.
The blonde jumped as she slammed the locker door. “I didn’t see your bike parked outside.”
“It’s on the other side of the building,” Mariah said, noticing how nervous the woman was.
“I didn’t know anyone was here.”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”
“After those two men tried to rob the place, I guess I am jumpy,” Kendall said.
“We all are,” Mariah agreed. But it wasn’t robbers who had her nervous. “I just heard someone drive up. I can handle it if you need to do something out here. Billie Dee should be back from the store in a few minutes.”
Kendall nodded distractedly and looked toward the lockers. Mariah followed her gaze. The blonde hadn’t quite gotten the door closed on the locker. With a start, she realized that the locker Kendall had been rummaging wasn’t her own. It was Lillie’s.
CHAPTER TEN
DARBY STAYED AT the hospital until Ely fell asleep. On the drive back to the saloon, he realized he didn’t even know if Mariah had worked—or if she’d left for good. She’d definitely been packing when he’d stopped by her cabin.
His heart felt heavy in his chest as he pulled into his usual parking spot next to the bar. The bar was closed. Kendall’s car was gone. So was Billie Dee’s, not that he was surprised. She never stayed until the bar closed anyway.
As he got out and walked around to the back, he wasn’t expecting to see Mariah’s motorcycle. When he’d driven by her cabin on his way home, he’d seen that the lights were out, no motorcycle out front. He’d told himself she could still be at the saloon and had hated the hope he’d felt that it might be true.
He’d been so sure she had finished packing and hit the road. So when he saw her sitting at the kitchen table drinking a Mexican Coke out of the bottle, his heart did a little dip-dee-do, even though he warned it not to. Mariah looked up as he stopped in the doorway. He felt weak from all the emotions seeing her sitting there evoked in him.
“How is your father?” she asked, looking genuinely concerned.
“They’re running tests but the doctor thinks he had a series of small strokes. It looks like he’ll be all right. At least for a while.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said as she got to her feet. “You look exhausted.” She stepped toward him as if anxious to tell him something.
Darby told himself that he couldn’t do this. Not now. He’d been through too much since he’d met her. He held up his hand as if to ward off whatever she was about to say.
He looked into her beautiful face and felt something snap inside him. He’d played her game for weeks now, but he couldn’t do it anymore. He couldn’t take it anymore.
Just as he had at the Chokecherry Festival, he reached for her. Only this time, his fingers found purchase. His hands cupped her shoulders. He backed her against the nearest wall. She flattened her palms against his chest as if to push, but didn’t.
He locked eyes with her as he took her hands from his chest, holding them above her head to cage her against the kitchen wall. Her eyes widened, but not in alarm. He could see that she was breathing as hard as he was.
“We have to stop this before it gets out of hand,” he said, his voice rough with emotion.
“Stop?” she whispered.
“Stop this game we’re playing.”
“Is that what you want?” Her voice broke.
“You know what I want.” He kissed her softly. She emitted a sigh, her fingers tightening over his as he pressed his body against hers.
He kissed her harder, unleashing the passion and desire he’d kept corralled since the day he first saw her. He wanted this woman—like nothing he’d ever yearned for—even fearing she was someone he could never have.
Her lips parted and he groaned as he plunged his tongue inside her, desperate to possess even a part of her. She was danger. Mystery. Excitement. Someone he should keep at a distance. This woman could do more than break his heart.
* * *
MARIAH HAD NEVER felt such fire. It raced along her veins, sending sparks of desire to her center. She felt the sudden heat between her legs and groaned against his mouth as his body pressed even harder against her own.
Never had she felt so weak from a kiss. But then she’d never been kissed like this. She wanted to lay herself bare to him. Surrender to this cowboy. Nothing else mattered. No matter the consequences—and they would be disastrous—but right now, she didn’t care. She thought she would die if he stopped.
He pulled back from her lips to trail kisses down her throat. She arched against him, closing her eyes as his touch sent goose bumps skittering over her bare flesh. She bit her lip to keep from begging him not to stop as he dipped under the V-neck of her T-shirt to kiss the top of one breast.
She felt her nipple harden and press against the thin fabric of her bra. Having never felt this kind of desire, she told herself she couldn’t take any more. She needed the release she knew he could give her.
Darby let go of her hands to grab the hem of her T-shirt. He jerked it off over her head, tossing it aside.
She met his eyes, n
o longer able to hold her tongue. “Please.”
His fingers looped through the straps of her bra, pulling them off her shoulders and down until her bare breasts were exposed in the golden kitchen lights. She heard him let out a moan as he dropped his mouth to one aching nipple.
She cupped his face in her hands, drawing him to the other nipple as he flicked his tongue over the taut nub, then sucked. Her legs were so weak, she wasn’t sure they would continue to hold her.
His hand moved down her flat stomach to the top of her jeans. She closed her eyes as his fingers slipped beneath the waist of her jeans, the waist of her panties.
“Please,” she cried out again, her fingers digging into his shoulders as he sucked at one breast then the other while his fingers slipped between her legs.
He stopped. Her eyes widened in alarm as he looked at her. Surely he wasn’t going to stop. Not now. “Please.”
His fingers began to move again. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. She’d never felt anything like this before as his fingers began to glide over her expertly. She felt as if she would die if he stopped what he was doing again and yet her brain was screaming for her to stop him. She couldn’t do this.
Suddenly her body began to jerk as she felt wave after wave of release. She threw back her head and cried out as he continued to touch her until her legs collapsed under her and they both slid down to the floor.
She was breathing hard, her body still trembling, the last of the wonderful waves slowing until she felt nothing but sweet exhaustion. She saw him through a fog of desire and shame. To her horror, she began to cry.
Darby drew her to him, holding her as she cried against his warm, strong chest. “Mariah,” he whispered into her hair. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
She lifted her head, shocked how much this cowboy had come to mean to her. Her gaze met his and she felt her heart break. What she had just done was bad enough, but if she had made love with him... And yet even now, that was what she yearned to do—knowing that it would have meant a death warrant for both of them.
