Rob found his pants and jerked them on before he got up and went after her.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he told her as she staggered to her feet and turned as if to run for the door. He held out the rumpled sheet and turned away as she wrapped it around her trembling body.
“What did you do to me?” she demanded, her voice shaken. “Where am I?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I can’t remember. Do you?”
She grabbed some of her clothes from the floor and clutched them to her chest. She kept darting looks at him until she finally asked, “You’re one of the Boone brothers – Caleb?”
“No, I’m Robert. Rob.” That she didn’t know his name only made things seem worse. “What can you remember?”
She pulled the sheet around her and averted her gaze. “I was at Crystal Valley Reception Center. They had a baby shower there for your brother’s wife, Becca. I went into the restroom and then . . . .” She stopped and touched her temple. “Nothing. I can’t remember anything.” Her frightened gray eyes met his. “What about you?”
“I was at my brother’s bachelor party, but I don’t remember leaving the roadhouse.” Rob saw how she was trembling and felt sick. “Please, sit down. I won’t touch you again, I promise.”
“Which roadhouse were you at?” she asked tightly.
“The Cue Ball.” Rob frowned. “But that can’t be – it’s at least thirty miles outside town.”
“You mean we couldn’t have met and . . . decided to do this.” She lowered herself into the chair as if she were afraid it would break her. “Even if we had met last night, I never . . . .” she stared at the bed, her expression bewildered and shocked. “Robert, I’m not this kind of woman.”
“Yeah, I figured that.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and tried to think of how to ask the next question. He decided coming straight out with it was better than tiptoeing around it. “Ms. French, did we have sex?”
“Under the circumstances I think you should call me Malory.” She glanced down at her lap. “And without getting into specifics, yes, I think we were intimate.”
He muffled a curse and held his pounding head in his hands.
“Robert.” When he looked up at her, she said, “Could one of your brothers have done this? Some sort of practical joke that went too far?”
“No.” He felt that certainty in his bones. “They have too much respect for women, and too much love for me.”
“I’m sorry, I had to ask.” She came over to sit beside him, and looked around the room. “This doesn’t feel like a joke anyway. It’s too vicious.”
He remembered drinking one beer, maybe two. “Maybe I got drunk and wandered in here while you were sleeping.”
“I’d never stay in a place like this,” she told him flatly. “I’d sleep in my car first.” Her expression changed. “Date-rape drugs. Robert, they can cause people to lose their inhibitions – and their memories. Someone must have drugged us and brought us here.”
“Well, then after I beat the tar out of them, they’re going to jail.” He reached for the phone.
“What are you going to tell the police? That we woke up naked together in a motel room?” She took the receiver from him and replaced it. “They’ll congratulate you and smirk at me. By tonight everyone in Crystal Valley will be talking about it.”
“We have to find out who did this to us,” he told her firmly. “They drugged us, kidnapped us – and what I did to you while I was out of my head–”
“Was not your fault,” she said firmly. “You’re as much a victim as I am. But we can’t let this get out. I’ll lose my job, Robert.”
He hated knowing she was right. “What do you want me to do, Malory?”
“For now, we agree to forget this. Go our separate ways.” She rubbed her temple. “And I buy some extra-strength aspirin.”
“I won’t forget it, but I’ll keep my mouth shut.” Rob went to look out through a small gap in the curtains. “My pickup truck is parked outside.” He checked his pocket and found his keys. “Get dressed, and I’ll drive you home.”
“I’d rather call a taxi.” She tried to smile. “So no one sees us leaving together. Would you mind?”
“No,” Rob lied, and then took the cheap notepad from the nightstand and wrote his number on it. “Just promise you’ll call me if you need anything.”
She nodded, but Rob could tell that was a lie too.
#
“The book club cancelled again, Malory,” Susan Bartle said as she pulled up the overdue list on the checkout counter computer. “They can’t agree on a title for June. I suggested the latest shade of grey, but the coordinator acted like she didn’t know what I meant.”
“Since she’s the Baptist minister’s wife, she probably wasn’t acting.” Malory peered at Susan’s monitor. “Call Tommy Dexter’s mother when you get a chance. Tell her he’s got the entire set of Harry Potters overdue now, and I want them back. Or I will come over and search his room again.”
“Sure thing, boss.” Susan made a note, and then gave her a shrewd look. “Are you feeling bad? You haven’t been yourself today.”
“I went to a baby shower last night and, ah, stayed too late.” She flinched as she realized something she’d forgotten and checked her watch. “Do you mind if I go to lunch early, Sue? I need to pick up something from the drugstore.”
“No problem.” Her assistant turned to the older woman who dropped a stack of mysteries on the check-out counter. “Oh, you’re going to love this Anne Frasier series, Mrs. King. It’s so elegantly spooky.”
Malory went into her office, retrieved her purse and walked from the library to the nearest pharmacy. Once inside nearly everyone she saw smiled or greeted her, and her heart sank. She couldn’t buy what she needed in town; everyone would talk. She’d have to drive to the city.
Walking slowly to the soda fountain in the back of the store, she ordered a coffee and sat in a corner booth. Taking out her phone and the notepaper, she dialed Robert Boone’s number.
He answered on the first ring. “Malory. Are you okay?”
“I don’t know.” She drew in a trembling breath. “I need to tell you something. I didn’t think of it yesterday, but it’s important. Last year I had a bad break-up, so I thought I’d take some time for myself. I haven’t been seeing anyone since then, so I haven’t had to worry about certain matters.”
“You mean, you’re not using any birth control,” he guessed.
“That’s right.” She waited until the waitress who brought her coffee left before she asked, “Robert, I’m right in the middle of my cycle. Do you remember using anything last night?”
“I didn’t have any condoms with me,” he said, “and I didn’t find any in the room. How soon will you know?”
“With a home test, in about a week.” She put too much cream in her coffee, and set down the little pitcher to avoid throwing it across the store. “What are we going to do?”
“Stick together,” he told her, his voice deep and sure. “Whatever comes of this, you won’t have to face it alone. I’ll be right there at your side, no matter what.”
She took a sip of her milky coffee to ease her tight throat. “Thank you, and I’m so sorry. I never thought . . . who could have done this to us?”
“A damned coward.” His tone softened. “I want to see you, Malory. Can we meet this afternoon? Maybe have a cup of coffee and talk?”
A surge of unexpected happiness bloomed in her chest. “I’ll be at the library until five,” she told him. “Would you mind if we talk in my office?”
“I’ll stop by,” he said. “Honey, it’s going to be all right. I promise.”
Malory finished her coffee and bought some toiletries she didn’t really need before heading back to the library. Just talking to Robert had made her feel more clear-headed. Knowing he would not abandon her reinforced her resolve, too. She would not give into despair or terror. He would keep her strong.
“A pack
age came in for you while you were out,” Susan told Malory when she returned to the library. “I put it in on your desk.”
Malory went into her office and picked up the oversize brown envelope. It had her name and the words “Personal and Confidential” typed on the front, but no return address. Slowly she opened it and drew out a stack of glossy photos.
The first showed her naked body beside Robert’s. They were kissing, and he had his big hands on her breasts. The second showed him with one hand between her legs. In the third her legs were spread wider, and his fingers were penetrating her.
Malory flipped through the rest of the photos, her teeth biting down on her bottom lip as they became more and more explicit. Robert’s mouth on her sex, hers on his. Robert on top of her. Another of her on top of him, leaning forward, showing their joined sexes clearly. She tasted blood in her mouth when she saw the next, close-up shot of his penis pushing into her.
Malory sank down into her chair and slowly put the photos back into the envelope. When her phone rang, she almost screamed.
“Malory French,” she said when she answered it.
“Looks like you had a fine old time with that cowboy, Miz French,” an oily voice said. “Now if you don’t want everyone else in town to see those pretty pictures of you two, I’m going to need some cash.”
Chapter Three
“We rotate supply runs,” Rob told Jeb Mathis, the newest wrangler at Ghost Lake Ranch, as he parked his pickup outside the farm equipment dealer. “What’s needed or ready for pick-up goes on the big board in the main house. Always check it before you head out.”
A tall, lanky horseman who rarely spoke outside the stables, Jeb simply nodded.
Rob sent him in to collect the parts they’d ordered for the baler before he walked down to the public library at the corner. He hadn’t been inside the little brick building since his high school days, and as soon as he walked in, he noticed how much it had changed. Everything looked brighter and more colorful, and the children’s section appeared twice as large.
“Help you?” a pretty brunette behind the counter asked.
Rob took off his Stetson. “Yes, ma’am. Is Ms. French here?”
“Yes, she’s back in her office.” The woman pointed at the hallway behind the counter. “Last door on the right.”
Rob thanked her and headed down the hall, stopping outside the door and tapping on it before looking inside. “Malory? It’s me.” What he saw made him step inside and lock the door behind him.
Malory sat on the floor with her back against the wall. Blood gleamed on her lower lip, and she stared at him through eyes dark with pain.
“Hey.” She patted the floor beside her. “Come and sit with me.”
Rob eased down beside her and took her cold hand in his. “What’s going on, honey?”
She picked up the envelope in her lap and wordlessly handed it to him.
Rob took out the photos inside and looked through them. He was so enraged by the time he finished, he thought he’d feel steam billowing out of his ears. “Who took them?”
“He didn’t give me his name. He wants two hundred thousand dollars in cash by the end of the week.” She rested her head against the wall. “Or he’s going to make a lot of copies and, in his words, paper the town with them.”
“Now we call the police.” Rob heard her make a strange sound. “Malory, we can’t keep this a secret anymore.”
“I can sell my grandparents’ farm,” she told him, her voice dull with defeat. “There’s a rancher who’s been trying to buy it from me for years. That and what I have in my savings will cover it.”
“You are not giving this asshole a dime,” Rob said.
She glanced at him as if she didn’t understand the language he was speaking. “Do you remember me from high school? Don’t lie.”
He grimaced. “A little. You were one of the farm girls.”
“That’s a nice way to say bumpkin.” She smiled a little. “My grandmother kept me on the farm as long as she could, teaching me herself. The county made her put me in public school when I was thirteen. She was so old-fashioned she never allowed me to wear anything but dresses she made herself – with pinafores over them. That’s what she always wore.”
Rob didn’t know what to say. He did remember now how Malory had dressed, and all the torment she’d taken from the other kids because of it.
“I didn’t blame the kids at school for making fun of me, you know,” she said, as if she knew what he was thinking. “With everyone else wearing jeans and T-shirts, I must have looked pretty hilarious. Malory the Milk Maid.”
Rob laced his fingers through hers. “Honey, don’t.”
She drew a photo out of the envelope and showed it to him. “What do you think they’ll call me when they see me like this? Maid No More? Malory Gone Wild? Or maybe just something simple. Like Whore.” She choked on the word and shoved the photos away.
Rob knew what was about to happen and grabbed the trash can by her desk. As he placed it in front of her, he put an arm around her middle to support her and pulled her hair back. From there he held her until she finished emptying her stomach.
When she fell back, she gulped in a deep breath. “Just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do. I’m sorry.”
“Come on.” Rob tucked the envelope in his jacket and lifted her onto her feet. “I’m taking you home.”
#
Rob hustled her out of the library so fast Malory barely had to time to tell Susan she’d been ill and was leaving early. He then handed his truck keys off to one of the hands from his ranch and drove her car to her apartment.
“You don’t have do this,” she murmured, feeling exhausted.
He glanced sideways at her. “This time I do. For me and you, honey.”
Once he got her inside, Rob made her sit down and put her feet up, and then disappeared into her kitchen. Just as she thought she might curl into a ball and sob her eyes out he returned with a pot of tea and a plate of crackers.
“It’s good for shock,” he told her, adding two spoons of sugar to her mug. “The crackers will settle your stomach.”
“Why are you doing all this?” she asked him as she sipped the hot, sweet brew. “You should be yelling at me. This was my fault. The guy wanted to come after me.” She thought of something and stared at him. “Robert, do you have a girlfriend? Please say no.”
His expression turned serious. “Never thought I’d be so happy to say that I don’t. Truth is, I’ve never had a girlfriend.”
She nearly choked on the cracker she was nibbling. “Then what, a boyfriend?”
“No, ma’am. I like the ladies just fine,” he assured her with a grin. “But I don’t date. Trust me, the women of Montana are safer that way.”
Suddenly she recalled the stories about one particular Boone brother from high school. “You’re the one who took Ruby Stephens to the Prom and had to deliver her baby.”
“Yep.” He sat down beside her on the couch. “You remember what they called me?”
“Bad Luck Boone.” She sighed. “Looks like your losing streak remains unbroken, sir.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.” He gave her a slow smile. “We’re here having tea together. The building’s not burning down. Your bones are intact. You still have all your own teeth, too.”
She sniffed. “I feel a little cheated, actually. Sally scored a nose job, and some really nice dental implants. All I’ve gotten so far is tea, crackers, and blackmail porn.”
It seemed horrible to laugh with him over his bad luck with girls and their awful predicament, but Malory did, until tears filled her eyes.
“You know what? You need a good, long soak.” He pulled her up from the couch. “Come on, I’ll run a hot bath for you.”
Malory should have felt horribly self-conscious about undressing in her bedroom while Rob went to work in the adjoining bathroom, but she didn’t. When she pulled on her robe and went in to join him, he tested the wate
r and then nodded to her.
“Now I’m going to be right out in the living room,” he told her. “You call me if you need anything.” He paused on the threshold. “Is it all right if I use your phone?”
“Sure.” She watched him go, and then looked around her. Rob had lit all the little candles she kept around her tub and added a generous amount of bath salts to the water. She shrugged out of her robe and slipped into the bath tub, sighing as the wet heat sank into her tense muscles.
Malory spent an hour soaking in the tub before she decided to rinse off and dress. When she went out to thank Rob, she found him looking through the lurid photos from the envelope.
“You can have them if you like them that much,” she said, feeling a little hurt.
“Did you look our faces in these pictures?” He handed her one. “I don’t think we’re even awake, honey.”
Malory forced herself to look at the explicit photo, and then saw what he meant. “Our eyes are closed, and our muscles are slack, but if we were unconscious you wouldn’t be able to, uh, do that to me.”
“I would if he’d dosed me with another drug,” he told her. “The one that makes a man stand at attention, so to speak.”
“You mean, when the drug made your – and then he took it and – oh, God.” She almost felt like throwing up again. “Robert, I don’t know what to say.”
He opened his arms. “Come here, honey.”
Moving into his embrace felt like being made whole again after being torn apart. Malory pressed her cheek against his shoulder and linked her hands behind his back. “If they ever invent a time-travel machine, I need to take the first trip. All I need is a two day hop back to make this right.”
“I’d rather you go a bit further, to when I was ready to ask a girl on a date for the first time,” he said softly. “Tell me to ask you instead of Miranda Logan.”
“Why, so you can break my leg?” she tried to joke.
“So I could start out with the right girl, instead of the wrong one.” He tipped up her chin. “You know if that had happened, if I’d met you first, I think by now we’d be married. Maybe even have a couple of kids.”
MILITARY ROMANCE: The War Within Himself (Alpha Bad Boy Marine Army Seal) (Contemporary Military Suspense & Thriller Romance) Page 137
