by Gigi Moore
He knew he was being a sight magnanimous with the designation, but he couldn’t think of another term for his employers and Desiree’s family. They certainly weren’t enemies.
What would they think, however, if they knew about Carson’s past, what he had done?
They probably wouldn’t take it half as bad as the pack had. After all, they were humans governed by laws nowhere near as exacting as pack law. Sam had seen murderers get off scot-free on technicalities in the human world. There were no such technicalities in pack law. If one shifter killed another, that shifter forfeited his life, no ifs, ands, or buts. Not to mention pack law superseded all other.
Carson may not have meant to kill Duane, but his intent did not matter to the pack. Only the alpha had the right to commute Carson’s sentence, and Remy had been in the midst of considering just this when Mama and Kara had broken Carson out of the pack’s stronghold.
What would Remy do to save face after the breakout?
“Remy Bastien, this is one of the ranch’s night wranglers, Sam Quarry. Sam, this is Remy Bastien, a new client of Carpenter-Reynolds.”
“Come now, Desiree. Don’t be modest. My and my group’s financial well-being is in your capable hands. I’m your client.” Remy smiled and stepped forward with one hand outstretched toward Sam. “Good to meet you, Sam…Quarry, was it?”
Sam hesitated as long as it took him to decide that he had no other choice. He’d come this far, after all, and it looked as if Remy wanted to play things close to the vest, act like he didn’t know Sam from Adam’s housecat. “Good to meet you…Remy Bastien.”
Remy’s shake was firm as he gave Sam’s hand a slight squeeze, maintaining eye contact.
Sam met his gaze, refusing to avert his own, and after a long moment, Remy released his hand and smiled as if in approval.
He folded his arms across what Sam knew to be a hard-muscled chest and rocked back on his heels as he gave Sam a speculative look. “So, you’re a night wrangler. What exactly does that title comprise?”
“It’s just another name for cowboy. We basically handle the animals around the ranch. Especially the horses. We just do most of our work at night.”
“Hmm, that’s interesting. Jax mentioned the Old West town here on the ranch and the exhibitions that are conducted there. Would you have anything to do with those?”
Sam nodded. “We’ve participated a time or two.”
“When you say ‘we,’ that would be…?”
Damn it, had he walked into that or what? “My brother and I.”
“Jax seems to be very fond of this particular area of the ranch. Tamara say’s it’s his pride and joy. I think I’ll have to take a tour to get the full effect of it.”
“It’s entertaining and really popular with the kids.”
“I can imagine it would be.” Remy gave him that speculative look again. “I noticed you have a rather different accent from the other cowboys I’ve met here so far. You’re not from around here, are you?”
“Remy, don’t be coy. He’s got the same accent as you.”
Sam watched Desiree’s eyes widen at the revelation, as if she just then realized the truth of what she had said.
“Ah, I thought I recognized a kindred spirit.” Remy chuckled. “Cajun, is it?”
“Born and bred,” Sam said.
“The ranch has been fortunate enough to secure the services of Sam and Carson’s mother as the head cook. Helena’s culinary influences have made it to the main house, too. You’ll probably enjoy her jambalaya if Maria and I have done her recipe any justice.”
Remy patted his stomach. “I’m looking forward to dinner even more now, I’m sure.”
Sam smiled, hoping that Desiree wasn’t picking up on his discomfort or the rancorous undercurrent flowing between him and Remy. He knew he hoped in vain, though. Desiree was an intelligent woman, and even now he saw her looking from him to Remy and back again with a questioning expression shining out of her whiskey eyes.
His prick jerked in his jeans at that familiar look and Sam silently cursed his little friend. This was not the time or the place for him to make an appearance.
Sam gritted his teeth just as Desiree reached out a hand to rest on his arm. “I’m sure Maria already invited you, so you are staying for dinner, aren’t you?”
“Please, Sam. I’d love to hear more about your work here. Cowboys have always fascinated me, and a ranch, if not necessarily this one, could be a good investment for my group.”
Desiree turned to him with an arched brow. “You never mentioned you were interested in ranching.”
“I’m not averse to investing in one, strictly as a business venture of course. At most I’d be a silent partner in any operation. But we could discuss that all in more detail at dinner. I’m sure your brothers-in-law and their father would be able to fill me in more thoroughly on a ranch’s viability while you let me know whether the industry would be a wise expenditure.”
“I can already speak for Jeremiah and his sons when I say The Double R is definitely not on the market. It’s strictly family owned, and the Reynolds intend to keep it that way.”
“I respect that sort of nepotism. It’s how I run my own businesses.”
Family owned as in pack owned, Sam thought.
“Of course,” Desiree said and turned an appealing glance on Sam. “Sam? You will join us, won’t you?”
Did she want him for moral support of some kind? Sam wasn’t sure from the look on her face, but he knew he couldn’t deny her, especially when her invite seemed so sincere. He doubted he could deny this woman anything, not even if his life depended on it.
* * * *
“Where’s Sam?” Carson dropped his Western saddle on the floor beside the back door as he entered the house through the kitchen.
Mama turned from her place at the stove, where she was stirring something in a pot—it smelled like a hearty helping of his and Sam’s favorite jambalaya.
Even after having an evening meal at the cookhouse with the rest of the staff and guests, Carson and Sam always came home hungry and needing to refuel before their duty on the night shift. Mama made sure they got something in them that would stick to their ribs and keep them going. Not to mention they burned a lot of calories when they shifted and did their running out in the woods.
“Good evening to you, too, and how was your day?”
Carson chuckled, went behind his mother before she could turn, and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek. “Hi, Mama. How was your day?”
“About the same as usual. And yours?”
“About the same.” Carson leaned over his mother’s shoulder to take a whiff of the food cooking in the pot. “Mmm-hmm.”
“Should keep you boys going for the rest of the night.”
“It should.” Carson nodded. “Where’s Sam?”
“My guess is still up at the main house dropping off that basket.”
Carson glanced up at the sunburst clock on the wall across the room. “This late?”
“I’m thinking he got caught up and invited to dinner. You know how they are up at the main house. Maria’s just like me. She won’t let anyone leave without eating something.”
Silently, Carson went to the sink, turned on the hot and cold water, and washed his hands with some of the dish soap from the bottle on the counter. He dried his hands on a nearby dish towel before taking a seat at the kitchen table.
“You’re worried.” It was a statement, plain and simple, and Carson saw his mother’s concern as she turned down the heat beneath and put a top on the simmering pot before turning to him. She wiped her hands on the apron she wore, made her way over to the seat opposite him, and put a hand over his on the table’s cherrywood surface.
“I don’t think Sam knows what he’s doing.”
“He’s following his heart.”
“That’s the problem.”
“I know you like her, too.”
Carson stared at his mother but said nothing.
“I’m not running anymore, and neither should you boys. It’s about time we all settled down and started living again.”
“Is this a recent decision?”
“It’s a decision that had to be made sooner or later.”
Carson turned his hand over so that he could grip his mother’s in a firm, reassuring hold. He knew the burden his mother carried, the blame she placed on herself for not being able to protect them better from Remy. He knew because he carried the same burden. He wanted to tell her she should let it go, it wasn’t her fault he was a hothead and put the whole family on Remy’s radar. His decisions weren’t her burdens to bear. He got his stubbornness from her, though, so knew trying to tell her this would be a waste of time.
They sat holding each other’s gazes for a long, silent moment. The instant was broken when Sam burst into the house, breathless and flushed. He looked like he had run from the main house and the main house was miles and miles away instead of down the road a piece.
“Remy’s here.”
Both Carson and Mama stood.
Carson looked at his mother and asked, “Did you know about this?”
“This is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“What do we do?” Sam asked.
“We’re not running,” Mama said, and Carson and Sam gaped at her.
“I know what you said before Sam got here, but this puts a whole new spin on things.”
“How so? It just puts what I said to the test.”
“What are you two yammering about? Did you hear what I said?”
“We heard you, bebe.”
Sam pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and flopped into the seat, and Carson sat in the chair beside him.
Mama stood behind both of them with a hand on their shoulders, massaging deeply. “I’m tired of running. I want to stand my ground. We need to,” she whispered.
Sam tilted back his head to glance at her and nodded.
“Are you two both crazy?’
“You’re the one who said he needs to pay for what he did to Daddy.”
“Nothing’s changed. I can’t prove it any more now than I could back then. No one will listen to me.”
“We’re listening,” Mama said.
Carson looked at her as she took the seat opposite him and his brother. “You believe me?”
“I’ve always believed you, chile. I just didn’t know what to do about it. And then when your trouble happened, the only thing I could think of to do was get you out of there and run. Remy is a powerful alpha. The pack looks up to him, believes in him implicitly.”
“There’s no reason to think that’s changed.”
Mama shook her head. “Not true. We may have more allies than we think.”
Carson peered at his mother, wondered what she had up her sleeve. Did she know something about the pack that they didn’t? More precisely, did she know someone?
“If this doesn’t work out the way I think it can, we still don’t have to run. Even if we don’t prove what he did to your father…” Her voice faltered here and Carson reached out a hand to squeeze hers. “I like it here. I like the people. It’s the first place where I’ve felt like I’ve come home. And I haven’t felt that way since I met your father. I want to stay.”
Sam emphatically nodded.
Things would be different if it was just his brother’s starved libido and romantic notions he had to manage, but that’s not all he was dealing with. He was handling his mama’s and his own desires to stay. “What am I going to do with you two?”
“Support us and stay,” Sam said.
Carson sighed, feeling double-teamed as he raked a hand through his hair. He stared at Sam long and hard. “Tell me what happened at the house.”
“I went by to drop the basket off, and while Desiree and I were talking in the kitchen, Remy came in from the dining room. It seems he’s one of her clients, and she’d invited him over to discuss his financials.”
“That means he’s probably been in Colorado for a little while.”
“And probably living in the area, no doubt,” Mama said.
“What’s his angle?” Sam murmured almost to himself.
Carson stared at him, seeing the worried, possessive look on his face. He knew exactly what was going through his brother’s mind, because the same thing was going through his. He wondered how close Remy and Desiree were, and if they weren’t, would the alpha drag her into their drama?
After a while, Carson exchanged a grave look with his mother and Sam and finally nodded as they did. “We’re staying.”
* * * *
Remy finally left, and Desiree finally exhaled.
She didn’t know what it was about the man, but he seemed to suck all the air out of the room with his powerful presence. She couldn’t relax around him, which was good, since she shouldn’t let down her guard with him. He was her client, and their relationship was a business one.
Her relationship with Remy was unlike her relationship with the Quarry brothers. She still, however, hadn’t been able to put a name to what she shared with Carson and Sam. She did know that they, too, sucked all the air out of a room with their presence, but in a different way. With them, she couldn’t breathe because she was holding her breath waiting to see if or when they would make a move on her. She couldn’t breathe because she wanted them to make a move, and it scared her.
Desiree needed something to do to get her mind off of the dinner and Sam’s arrival and abrupt departure. She wandered into the kitchen and joined Maria, offering to help the housekeeper with the cleanup after dinner. The older woman, however, tried to run her out, flailing her dish towel and assuring Desiree she could handle things.
Desiree laughingly ducked and caught the towel on a downward swing, holding firmly.
“You should use your time more wisely and handle your business, as you young folk say.”
“And what business is that?
“Finding out what is the matter with that young man of yours.”
“Sam?”
Maria nodded and Desiree sighed in frustration. What was this, a conspiracy with Maia and Maria heading the plotters? “He’s not my young man, Maria.”
“Tell that to your nipples.”
Desiree gasped and released the towel to fold her arms over the impertinent nipples in question. “Maria!”
The housekeeper shrugged. “I just speak the truth, and I do not remember them making an appearance when that other man was here.”
“You mean Remy?”
“I do not like him. There is something…not nice about him.”
Desiree was usually a good judge of character herself, and she did get a funny vibe from the man, but then she got the same vibe from a lot of businessmen she dealt with on a daily basis, especially the lawyers. The lot of them tended to be cold and calculating, some even cutthroat, but she accepted these as a necessary evil, a part of doing business. This acceptance should have been her first warning sign. Maybe her judgment was off. Maybe she was making allowances for the men with whom she worked. She tolerated their behavior because it was business. If she were dealing with these same men on a personal level, however, she knew she wouldn’t cut them the same slack, at least not anymore.
Maybe that was what Maria meant regarding Remy. She was, after all, used to dealing with cowboys, a lot of men who didn’t come any more down-to-earth and sincere. Maybe it came from them dealing with animals and nature all day. They didn’t have to pretend, hide their feelings or their motives. They could just be themselves, whereas the men in Carpenter-Reynolds’ circle were always on, preening, posturing, and competing.
Some might see this as being a jerk or, as Maria put it, not being nice. Desiree just saw it as par for the course.
She had to admit, however, she envied the cowboys and their way more. She hadn’t felt like she had been or even could be herself again, not in a long time, not since…
He had been a businessman, too, dressed in expensive, tailored clothes and
exhibiting impeccable manners—like Remy.
Desiree shook herself and took a deep breath, forcefully staying in the moment and not allowing memories to drag her back to a time when she had felt weak and worthless.
Maria put a hand on her arm. “You should go see about him. He looked about as upset and unhappy when he left here as you do now.”
Desiree cleared her throat before speaking, for she knew her voice would come out in a ragged rasp if she didn’t. She didn’t want Maria to be more on alert than she already seemed. “Maybe I will take a walk and try to burn off some of those jambalaya and pralines calories.”
“You go do that. I will hold down the fort.”
Desiree headed through the living room toward the spiral staircase and headed upstairs to her bedroom to finally get out of the business attire she’d been in most of the day. She looked through her drawers and closets, finally deciding on something simple, at least as simple as she was capable of. She threw on a cream Western shirt, a pair of black jeans, and her cowboy boots.
Looking in the mirror, she decided the tight bun did not go with the rustic gear, so she took out the pins and let her hair fall down around her shoulders. She brushed the copper-brown waves until they shone beneath the light of the room. At the last minute she freshened up her perfume, applying a spritz behind each ear of the vanilla scent she preferred.
Desiree stood from her vanity, headed for the door, and took a deep breath as she grabbed the doorknob.
What was she doing? It wasn’t too late to turn back. She hadn’t gone anywhere yet. She hadn’t made a date, and no one was expecting her. She could stay in and watch TV or catch up on some work without standing up or disappointing anyone, except herself, of course.
Desiree took another deep breath and pulled the door open just in time to see her sister grasp her chest and gasp on the threshold.
“You scared the crap out of me!”
“Up to no good again, no doubt,” Desiree drawled and pulled the door further to allow her sister entry.
