Shrugging, Talon said, “Fine by me. I’ll tell Kai to not go back there until you’ve talked to the sheriff’s department about Harper.”
Gil rose. “She needs to be protected from that bastard,” he growled, and left.
Cass gave Talon an amused look. “Did I miss something here? Or did your SEAL nose catch it, too?”
“What?” Talon asked.
Cass sat back in the chair, rocking it on its two hind legs, hands resting on his thick thighs. “I might be wrong about this, but I sure think there’s something simmering between Kai and Gil. Did you pick up on it?”
“No,” he muttered, rubbing his face. “I’m so damned busy trying to coordinate everything else, I’m probably missing a lot.”
Cass smiled a little. “She’s a pretty lady. I’m surprised she’s single.”
Talon shook his head. “She was married to a Delta Force operator for three years until he got killed in a firefight.”
Brows drawing down, Cass said, “Yeah, she told me earlier about it. Probably why she’s still single.”
“Well,” Talon said, standing, “I wonder if Gil knew her husband. Maybe there’s a connection there you’re picking up on.”
Cass grinned a little as he rose. “What I felt was definitely interest on Gil’s part toward her. He’s like a nighthawk around her.”
Talon shook his head. “A nighthawk is the wrangler who protects the herd during the night from all kinds of danger. Gil is protective of Kai. You have eyes in the back of your head, Cass. You always did.”
Giving him a wicked look, Cass slid the chair up to the table. “Yes, and I can count how many times we saved your sorry ass out on an op, too, because of it.”
A sour grin edged Talon’s mouth. “Can’t deny it, bro. I’m going to spend some time with my mother and then I’m hitting the sack.”
“Yeah,” Cass grumped good-naturedly. “All I have to look forward to is swimming in red and black numbers in my office for a couple of hours now.”
Talon looked over his shoulder. “Better be more black than red,” he warned him.
“Doin’ my best, boss,” Cass teased. “We’re slowly eking toward the healthy side of the business ledger. Rebuilding an empire takes time.”
CHAPTER SIX
TALON HOLT SAT with Gil in his office at the main ranch house. Both were grim. Talon said, “Look, we know that Chuck Harper is being watched by the FBI and ATF for drug running. So far, no one has caught him at it.” Pushing his fingers through his dark hair, he added, “Deputy Sheriff Cade Garner is someone I trust, Gil. You haven’t been here long enough to know that, but if he suggests that someone escort Kai over to the Ace Trucking machine shop, we need to do it.”
“You won’t get any argument out of me,” Gil said, feeling relief start to trickle through him. He would talk to Garner soon. Until then, Gil had made a decision that someone would always be with Kai over at Harper’s machine shop. He had her back. “It’s going to be a balancing act. Needs at the ranch versus needs of machinery being available so we can use it. Right now, I need a horse trailer. And we don’t have one that’s safe enough to use.” He saw his boss sit back in his chair, nodding. “You need to tell me what repair should be first.”
“On another issue, we need to buy a horse for Kai,” Talon said. “Slade McPherson, Griff’s twin brother, owns an endurance-racing horse ranch on the other side of Jackson Hole. Cass has allotted us fifteen hundred dollars for the animal. Can you take Kai over after setting an appointment up with Slade? Let her see what’s available and then you need to get him to agree to our money limit.”
Gil had never met Slade McPherson, but he knew his twin, Griff, who he respected and admired. The man had an MBA, along with horse sense and hard work combined. He was bringing the Bar H back to life. “I’ll see what I can do.” He knew the worth of the horses he had bred and trained.
“Then,” Talon said, talking more to himself as he looked up at the copper ceiling that had been imprinted with hundred-year-old patterns from the past, “get Kai to look over all the equipment. Have her make up a complete repair list. Tell her the double-wide horse trailer has to supersede the tractor for now. If push comes to shove, we can always ask Slade to deliver the horse here and he will. But we need that trailer as bad as we need the tractor.”
“And who do you want to go with her to Ace Trucking?” Gil wanted it to be him. He saw his boss’s expression pinch.
“Whoever is available at the time. Hell, it will be Cass, you or me. Any way you cut it, she’s got a black ops guy at her side. I don’t think Harper will try anything.”
“You want us to pack a weapon?”
Talon nodded. “We all have a license to carry a concealed weapon. I don’t trust Harper. At all. But I sure as hell like the prices he’s giving Kai. If we don’t use his services, that means we’re wasting a day driving to and from, plus, if Kai can’t finish everything off at another machine shop in Idaho Falls, we have to pay for her food and hotel bill. And we’re paying one-third more in costs. It mounts up in a hurry.”
Gil understood Talon’s position. He knew from his own father always battling the accounting ledger that keeping a ranch in the black was the toughest thing to do in the world. And right now, the Triple H was in the red. Cass had a good, solid plan for the ranch, but it was slow going. Rome wasn’t built in a day, he reminded himself. So Talon was going to be damned conservative, and Gil didn’t blame his boss for wanting to use a nearby facility and save money while he was at it. He just didn’t want to put Kai at risk. But neither did Talon. Gil could see he was morally wrestling with the situation. In one way he knew he was putting Kai in a potentially dangerous situation. On the other hand, all three of them were well-trained operators and would be packing a weapon in case shit happened.
“Do you think Harper would try anything while she was in his facility?” Gil wondered.
“No, I don’t. And that’s the only reason I’m willing to even consider this idea. Harper is known to be very low-key. He doesn’t want trouble. There’s been enough of it of late and Cade thinks that he knows the FBI is following him. He employs only Latino workers. Cade thinks most of them are illegals. But the other agencies that usually swoop down and find them are pulling back. The FBI is trying to insert someone into the trucking company, but they know Harper is watching closely.”
“Sounds like a standoff of sort,” Gil agreed.
“If you can ask Kai to focus on that horse trailer and tell her why, I’d appreciate it.”
Gil rose. “I will.”
*
THE LATE-MORNING sun felt good coming into the back of the green barn where Kai was working. She was dusty from taking a broom and putting a bandanna around the lower half her face to start sweeping off the thick dust on every piece of machinery. There were clouds of dust hanging in the air, sparkling as it hit the shafts of sunlight piercing through the barn.
She lifted her head and saw Gil coming up the gravel slope. For a moment her heart pounded. The fear of having to confront him and then fight back her desire for him always left her exhausted afterward. His face was set and shadowed, the sun at his back. He was so damned good-looking to her. He always had been.
Going to meet him at the front of the barn where there was less dust in the air, she pulled the handkerchief off her face, broom in one hand. Kai longed for some kind of truce between them. But how could there be? Gil had not told her why he’d left her. Not said one peep. He had apologized, she reminded herself, when they’d had it out in the barn the day after her hiring. And he’d looked so damned sad, as if he were going to cry or something, but he always tried to hide it from her. She’d been brimming over with anger, and having gotten it off her chest now Kai wanted a truce, maybe.
“How’s it going?” Gil asked as he drew up to her, keeping a good six feet between them.
Wrinkling her nose, Kai said, “I couldn’t stand how dirty everything was.” She internally tensed, unsure why Gil was here. T
here was no reason that she could think of. And she didn’t want another argument with him. Searching his blue eyes, she saw worry in them, not anger or defensiveness.
“If we had more hands, I could get someone in here to do it for you. Like it should be.”
Her stomach began to unknot. For the first time, this was the Gil Hanford she knew from her past. He’d put his hands on his hips, shifting his weight to one leg more than the other. His face was relaxed looking, too. Some more of her sagged in quiet relief. “It’s okay. I’m good at cleaning up situations.” She managed a sliver of a smile.
“You are very good at everything you do.”
Praise riffled across her. She almost asked Gil if he’d gotten a decent night’s sleep, remembering the tense discussion at the dinner table last night. “Thanks, it’s nice to hear it.”
“Talon’s happy with you, and that’s all that counts.”
Gil wasn’t happy she was here, but she bit back the words. To say that would be to stir the tension that flowed between them. “What do you need?”
“Talon wants to get you a horse. Slade McPherson has some for sale on the other side of town at his ranch. I was wondering if you were at a place where you could stop for a couple of hours?”
A horse! Her heart sang. Kai felt giddy. “Sure. That would be a lot of fun to go look at horses.” She saw a slight curve of one corner of Gil’s mouth, his blue eyes lighter. Was he happy? It felt like it. Far better than being at odds with him.
“Let me go get cleaned up? I look like a dust bunny.”
Gil gave her a slow inspection from head to toe. “Yeah, a little. Go ahead. I’ll meet you out front in the company truck in twenty minutes?.”
Heat soared through Kai and she felt her breasts tighten beneath his heated gaze. That look wasn’t impersonal. Her mouth went dry. God, was it possible he wanted her? Man to woman? The realization was like a bolt striking her and Kai inwardly floundered. Her heart was doing a happy dance. Her memory sourly reminded her of the hurt he’d caused her. “Sure,” she murmured, setting the broom inside the barn. “Twenty minutes.”
*
KAI WAS UNEASY riding with Gil so close to her in the cab of the truck. They had a good twenty miles together. She sat with her hands in her lap, tense. Gil seemed relaxed in comparison. The scenery was rich and green, the valley blooming to life after eight months of hard, cold winter. She enjoyed the patchwork quilt of small farms on the left. To her right rose a rocky hill and cliff.
“Does Slade have quarter horses?” she wondered, wanting to break the silence.
“No. He’s got endurance horses. Talon was telling me Slade has a sunbonnet paint mustang stallion called Thor. His stud has won every endurance event in North America. Jordana McPherson rode Thor to victory two years ago. Slade got gored in the thigh by one of his ornery bulls and couldn’t ride him in the event, so she did and won.”
“Is she an endurance champion like Slade?”
“No. She’s an ER physician.” Gil slowed the truck down as they began to enter the traffic going into Jackson Hole. “They met about a year earlier. She’d come from back east and loved endurance riding. Bought a nice endurance horse from him and I guess they fell in love.”
“That’s nice,” Kai said softly. “I like to see people who are happy in relationships.”
“Well,” Gil said, “we have one and a half at the Triple H.”
Kai tilted her head and gave him a look. “One and a half? What are you talking about?”
Opening his hand for a moment on the steering wheel, Gil said, “Talon and Cat are happily married. Granted, they’re newlyweds. And then you have Sandy and Cass.”
“You think they like one another?” She saw him slant a partly amused glance in her direction before returning his attention to the traffic in front of them.
“Cass was married once, from what he told me one time. His wife died of breast cancer about seven years ago. They had no children.”
Frowning, Kai whispered, “Oh, God, that’s awful. He always seems so upbeat and happy.”
Snorting, Gil muttered, “He’s a friggin’ Special Forces guy. They’re all like that. The meet-and-greet boys.”
“Still,” Kai said stubbornly, forcing herself not to look at Gil, “he’s suffered a lot.”
“No question.”
“But, you think Cass likes Sandy?”
“Oh, I think it’s mutual. Everyone else does, too.”
“They both deserve some happiness.”
“Yes.”
Compressing her lips, Kai tried not to feel good about talking in a normal tone of voice to Gil. She still had a lot of anger inside her. And he’d never given her an explanation of why he’d deserted her like he did. “Then these horses that Slade has… Are they all mustangs?”
“No, he breeds Arabian blood with mustang blood. I guess it’s pretty successful conformation because Talon was telling me Slade has box office business and can barely keep any horses up for sale. He’s even selling to Europe and to the Middle East, now.”
“That’s amazing. I know nothing about endurance riding. All I know is getting on and off a horse to fix fences.”
Gil grinned a little. “That’s it in a nutshell. Talon was saying he has a nice half mustang, half Arabian mare he thinks might suit you.” Shrugging, he added, “But it’s up to you, Kai. You’re the one who has to ride the horse. If you don’t like her, Talon has a couple of other places we can go to look to buy you one.”
Excitement wound through Kai. “I like the fact she’s a mare.”
“I don’t.”
“You wouldn’t. You’re not a woman. Growing up, I always fought my dad on this very point. I insisted on having a mare to ride, not a gelding.”
“Mares are cranky, hard to manage and get the geldings stirred up when they’re in heat,” Gil muttered.
She laughed outright, unable to help herself. “Gee, does that mean once a month you’re going to view me like that, too?” She saw Gil give her a sour grin.
“Not exactly.”
“Your argument is lame to me,” Kai said, still smiling. She lost herself for a moment in his eyes. There was warmth and heat in them—for her. It was unmistakable. She couldn’t let this happen again. Her smile faded. “It doesn’t bother me that she’s a mare. I’m more interested in her conformation and her legs.” And then Kai saw a gleam come to his eyes, but Gil didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. She knew he was a leg man, pure and simple. Well, amend that: ass and legs. But there wasn’t any part of her he hadn’t lavished and worshipped.
Wishing she could forget those heavenly days that suddenly plunged her into hell, Kai felt longing. It was so deep within her that it caught her off guard. Longing? For Gil Hanford? She had to be crazy!
*
IN NO TIME, they were at the small horse ranch. There was a single-story ranch house, a nice pipe oval corral between it and a three-story barn. Excitement started to bubble within Kai as she eased out of the truck and shut the door. In the arena was a very tall man, square face, and short, dark brown hair beneath a black Stetson he wore.
“That’s Slade,” Gil told Kai. He saw her nod. The unexpected and shared laughter between them had caught him completely off guard. It reminded him sharply of the time he’d spent with Kai. They couldn’t get enough of each other. They’d had hungry sex, fallen into one another’s arms afterward, exhausted, and then they’d slept for a while. Hungry upon awakening, they’d eat and then they’d start all over again.
Gil couldn’t understand how starved they were for each other. It was mutual. It had been unbelievably good and satisfying. Kai was so sweet and funny when they’d awaken. She had a wonderful sense of humor and she would tease him until he’d start to laugh. Gil had never laughed so much in his life. Kai had handed him a lifeline when he was going down for the count. She had pulled him up, helped him stand again, recapture a sense of himself without all the heavy grief over Rob’s loss that had been eating him up alive.
Every time they’d made love, a little more of that monster weight had dissolved. Kai had healed him.
As he cut his stride for her sake, a few feet between them, Gil risked a glance down at her. She wore her green baseball cap and her sunglasses were perched up on top of the bill shading her gray eyes. Her mouth was softened at the corners and he felt himself going hard. Kissing Kai’s mouth had been the most right thing he’d ever done. The way she kissed…
Groaning internally, Gil had to stop thinking about the past, about Kai, about what they had. Yet, when he saw that diamond-like sparkle in her eyes as they approached the closed gate to the arena, he ached to have Kai look at him with that same desire once again.
Gil halted beside Kai. In the center of the arena Slade had a beautiful young mare, a pinto with white and chestnut markings all across her compact, strong body. He heard Kai make a soft sound in her throat as she curled her fingers around one of the pipes, watching the horse move at a slow canter in a wide circle around Slade. The mare had a long tail, caramel and cream, flowing like a flag across her rump. Her mane was a combination of dark sienna, caramel and cream, and was equally long. Gil could see the dished face on the mare and as she came cantering around toward where they stood, he grinned.
“She’s got two blue eyes,” he told Kai. “Beautiful.”
Kai gasped. “She does! Oh, my God! She’s gorgeous!” Kai twisted a look up at Gil. “Is she the mare that Slade wants to sell to us?”
Nodding, Gil hitched a hand up in hello to Slade. “I think so.”
Slade gave a low, one word command of “whoa,” and the mare sank her hind legs down beneath her and slid to an immediate stop. Her fine, thin ears twitched between Slade and them as they quietly entered the arena. Kai was enraptured by the pretty paint mare standing and languidly swishing her tail. She looked toward Kai, ears forward, her blue eyes large and alert. Gil grinned to himself. Yeah, these two were made for one another.
His gaze moved appreciatively and knowingly over the mare’s conformation. Mustangs had Arabian blood in them already, and she was small, maybe 14.3 hands but for Kai’s height and weight, the paint mare would be a good fit for her.
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