by Joanna Wayne
“It’s so much more than enough. What about protection?”
“Oh, cripes, Tyler. What a time to think of that.”
“Are you on the pill?”
“Yes, but only because of some hormonal problems. I haven’t been with a man in forever. But I have had a physical lately.”
“Same here. The army has taken care of both of late. Kept me so busy fighting, there’s no time or opportunity for sex. Checked me for everything contagious known to man.”
“I love the army.” Julie slid down his body, letting her belly ride the length of him before she cradled the tip of his erection in her hands. All that pulsing, burning need throbbing in her hand was for her. Her head began to spin. She was crazed with the ecstasy, hungry for all of him.
“Don’t wait, Tyler. Make love with me here in the water. Not for yesterday or tomorrow, but for now. For us.”
“Oh, Julie, how could I ever turn that down?”
He lifted her again and then lowered her onto his throbbing shaft. She felt him inside her, hot and wet and needing her the way she needed him.
His breathing came in short, quick gasps. His chest heaved and his pulsing rhythm rocked her until her body trembled with the intensity of her climax.
He held her until they both were spent. Then he relaxed his arms and let her ride down his weakened body to the rocky bottom of the pool.
She flipped to her back and floated away from him and into a thousand fanciful dreams that would never come true. But today was real. The memories would live inside her forever, a buffer for the heartbreak to come when Tyler left her for good.
SLEEP REFUSED TO COME THAT night and Julie lay awake until well past midnight, tossing in the guest room bed and thinking how nice it would be to go knock on Tyler’s door and crawl into bed with him. She imagined his body curled around hers. He’d kiss the area between her shoulder blades while he caressed her breasts.
She’d snuggle all the closer, and even their toes would kiss between the cool sheets.
Only Tyler had shown no sign of wanting her in his bed. Making love with him had been perfect. She had no doubt that it had been as electrifying for him as it had been for her.
But when they’d come back to the house, Dylan and Sean had been waiting. The three brothers had stayed on the porch and talked until almost dark.
Julie had gone out once to offer them a beer and caught enough of the conversation to know that the discussion was about the future and whether or not Tyler would return to the ranch when he finished his current tour of duty.
After Dylan and Sean had left, Tyler had withdrawn into himself. The kitchen had been thick with tension at supper and even before she and Troy had finished their soup and salads, Tyler had excused himself saying he wanted to catch the weather report on the local TV channel.
The only hint that he even remembered the lovemaking they’d shared had been the secretive and almost casual kiss he’d given her when he’d said good-night.
If her heart felt as if it were starting to shatter, she had no one to blame but herself. She knew from the start this relationship had nowhere to go. She just hadn’t expected it to deteriorate so fast.
But at least Tyler had been honest with her. He was here for another week. He never suggested their relationship would last longer than that.
Julie, on the other hand, had been dishonest from the beginning. She’d lied to Tyler or at least omitted a few basic truths. She’d lied to Troy. It was possible she’d even lied to herself about who she was and why she was so driven to find Muriel’s killer.
At ten minutes before two a.m., Julie gave up on falling asleep. She climbed out of bed and padded barefoot to the sliding glass door. Pushing back the opaque curtain, she peered into the garden.
Moonlight shimmered and danced in the spraying fountain near the antique bench, inviting, yet slightly eerie. Julie eased the door open but couldn’t totally avoid the squeak of the metal sliding across metal.
“Are you having trouble sleeping, too?”
She jumped at the voice, her heart slamming against her chest.
Troy stepped from behind a large pot of wisteria.
“I didn’t realize you were out here,” she said.
“It’s where I come when I can’t sleep. Helene created this garden. It was her refuge from the shenanigans of the five rambunctious boys who filled the house.”
“I can see why. It’s so peaceful.”
“I know it sounds strange,” Troy said, “but when I’m here all alone, I sometimes feel her presence so strongly that I talk to her out loud.”
Troy stepped to the bench and wrapped his fingers around the back of it as if it might dissolve into the night if he didn’t hold it down.
“Do you want to talk about Helene?”
Troy didn’t answer. He just stood there, gripping the back of the bench and staring across the garden as if he were waiting for his dead wife to join him.
“I loved her from the day I first laid eyes on her,” Troy said. “She was Glenn McGuire’s girlfriend, but when he brought her home from college for the weekend, I didn’t care that Glenn was my best friend. All I knew was that I had to find a way to make Helene mine.”
“She must have fallen for you, as well.”
“Yes, that was the beauty of it. We both felt it at the same time. We both knew we were meant to be together.”
“You were very lucky.”
He nodded. “And even luckier when the boys came along. I know Helene wanted a girl, but she never showed one glimmer of disappointment. She was as excited with Dakota as she was with Wyatt.”
“It’s too bad her parents never accepted the marriage.”
“It is. Helene tried to tell them that what we shared was a million times more satisfying than the things their money could buy. Her words fell on deaf ears. All they could see was that she didn’t have the kind of luxurious lifestyle they could have provided her.”
Julie felt his anguish, but still she couldn’t turn off her reporter mind-set with its invasive curiosity. “They say you never really fought to prove your innocence during the trial. Why was that?”
Troy worried the jagged scar that punctuated the right side of his face. “I died inside when I discovered Helene’s bloodied body.” His voice lowered as if the loss still had the power to suck away his strength.
“I went to a place so dark, I couldn’t find my way. I let Helene down when she needed me most to be strong for our sons. I will never forgive myself for that. But I can’t undo the past. I just have to go on as best I can.”
Any doubts that Julie had about Troy’s innocence faded into oblivion. It was as if the pain in his voice erupted from his soul. No one could fake the kind of raw, heartrending emotion she was witnessing now.
“All your sons will forgive you in time.”
“Perhaps. Tyler doesn’t seem so inclined. I reach out to him, but there’s no forgiveness there. He’s closed off, cold somewhere deep inside.”
“He’s bitter about the past,” Julie admitted. “But he’s not cold inside.” Anything but. He’d proven that when they’d made love. “He keeps too much walled off inside him, but that doesn’t mean he won’t come around in time. He wouldn’t have come home at all if he wasn’t seeking something from you and his brothers.”
“That’s what Eve told me on the phone this afternoon. I hope you’re both right.”
“I hope so, too, for both your sakes.”
Troy smiled and raked his fingers through his slightly graying hair. “You should have seen Tyler as a kid. He was the most outgoing of all. He jumped into life like it was a roller-coaster ride and he didn’t want to miss a single thrill.”
The way he’d jumped into their lovemaking today.
But then he’d drawn back inside himself. Tough as nails. Afraid of nothing except letting down his emotional guard.
Julie knew that and still she couldn’t keep from falling for him.
“The one thing I can do for H
elene and my sons is to find her killer,” Troy said. “I can’t give our sons back their childhood, but I will avenge their mother’s murder. I won’t rest until I’ve done that, not if it takes me the rest of my life.”
Julie walked over and stood next to him, letting her fingers link with his on the cold hard metal. “I believe you, Troy. You must have loved Helene very, very much.”
Troy pulled away and dabbed at the moisture in his eye with the back of his sleeve. “I still love her. That’s the thing about true love. Your life may change in a million ways. You may even lose that person to death. But that love remains forever.”
Days ago Julie might have argued that fact. But that was before she met Tyler, before they’d made love. For the first time in her life, she could see how love might last forever.
Julie lingered in the garden even after Troy had said good-night and returned to his room. Even then Helene’s presence felt as real as the scent of jasmine and as moving as the gentle breeze.
JULIE SPENT MOST OF THURSDAY shut up in the guest room or sequestered in the courtyard garden trying to merge Troy’s notes, her notes and the police file. It was more confusing than trying to solve a crossword puzzle in a foreign language.
It didn’t help that since making love to Tyler, he was perpetually on her mind. It only made it worse that she’d barely seen him since then and they’d had no time alone. She wasn’t even certain that he still planned to take her to the festival dance tonight.
Sean and Dylan had kept him busy with activities around the ranch all day. Julie had intentionally stayed out of the way as much as she could. After all, she was the intruder here—and she had work to do. Mostly, she didn’t want Tyler or his brothers to see how she reacted to even the slightest touch or smidgen of attention from Tyler.
She ached to feel his arms around her again, was dying to taste his kisses. She’d fantasized making love to him in every picturesque spot on this scenic ranch.
But the next move would be up to him.
Julie stretched and struggled to get her thoughts back on target. Now that she’d completely ruled out Troy as Helene’s killer, the serial killer theory seemed even more plausible. The murders could have been random with no previous connection between the perpetrator and the victim. She’d researched and talked to enough cops to know those were the hardest cases to solve, especially when the killer left no distinct signature.
Julie had spent almost an hour on the phone this morning with her trusted police contact, Mac Rainer, in New Orleans. Mac also voiced the opinion that pictures of the victims could be a madman’s souvenir of his crime.
He warned her of the danger she was facing if the picture and threat left on her windshield had been left there by a serial killer.
But if the acts of violence were random, that would also rule out Zeke Hartwell and Able Drake as suspects. Julie wasn’t ready to go with either of those exclusions yet.
So she’d had done a little tracking on her own, using tactics she’d picked up while working at the newspaper and from private investigation source books.
The last permanent address she could find on Zeke was in Abilene, Texas, and that had been over a year ago. Troy had that information in his records.
Able Drake had been easy to track down. He owned a huge and prosperous ranch south of Dallas. He’d become one of those Texas legends: bad boy turned rich, turned good and now was one of the wealthiest men in Texas. Even Guy Cameron’s portfolio paled in comparison.
Muriel would have met Able during the bad-boy stage when he might have been capable of any atrocity. But Able wasn’t responsible for the picture left on Julie’s car, not unless he’d paid someone to do it for him. He was out of the country, spending a few months on his yacht sailing around Greece.
The police files were practically useless. There was a dearth of information. There had never been a firm suspect and no arrests were ever made in the Frost case.
According to a report written by Caleb Grayson, the cause of death had been the shots fired into Muriel’s head. But the medical examiner’s report itself was missing from the file.
Julie had put in a call to Sheriff Grayson to ask about that omission, but he hadn’t returned her call. She doubted that he would, which meant if she wanted the ME report, she’d have to track the sheriff down or see if the office of the ME would release the information directly to her.
Dropping the folder to the desk, she opened the top drawer and took out the picture of Muriel in her red broomstick skirt and white peasant blouse. She looked positively regal with her hair piled into an upsweep. And the long, red skirt fit her slim hips to perfection.
Julie set the picture on the desk and pulled the ponytail holder from her hair, letting her blond locks fall free. She bent over, shook out her hair and then gathered it into a loose ball on top of her head.
The reflection smiling back at her looked amazingly like the image in the photo.
But who was the suitor in the picture with Muriel? Who had she ripped from the photo and why?
And could he somehow be the man behind her murder?
Julie held the skirt to her waist and waltzed about the room as murder and conspiracy theories danced in her head.
All of a sudden she knew why she’d bought that peasant blouse and what she’d wear to the dance tonight. And she would attend the event even if she had to do so alone.
She would go as Muriel Frost.
Julie stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the shower. She’d have to start the transformation now if she was going to be ready in time for the dance.
She stood beneath the spray as the rivulets of water careened into all the sensual crevices where Tyler’s fingers had touched her. She ran her hand down her belly and let it slide between her own legs. Her body vibrated with a crazed need for Tyler to make love with her again.
Memories might be all she was left with when Tyler returned to active duty, but she craved more than memories now.
DYLAN HANDED OUT COLD bottles of beer all around. Tyler took one and leaned against the front porch banister, trying to concentrate on what Dylan was saying.
While Dylan and Sean were talking ranching, Tyler was thinking about Julie and how to keep her safe.
The most obvious solution was the easiest. She could drop the Frost investigation. There were thousands of cold cases out there that wouldn’t put her life in danger. No doubt, some were even more fascinating than the Frost case. In fact, the most interesting thing it had going for it was the unfortunate niece who witnessed the atrocious crime.
“You can see there’s plenty of room for you in the ranching business,” Dylan said. “If we buy the McGillis property and add it to what we’ve already got, we can maintain impressive herds of longhorns and Angus. And I’ve talked to McGillis. He’s willing to deal.”
The pressure started building between Tyler’s temples. “I don’t know that I’m ready for this.”
“Is it the Hill Country you don’t want to return to or ranching?” Dylan asked, clearly puzzled that Tyler wasn’t jumping at the chance to move back home and go into business with him.
“Or is it Dad?” Sean asked.
No use not to level with his brothers. Tyler took a long swig of beer and tried to pull his thoughts together. “I’m not as sure of Troy’s innocence as you guys seem to be.”
“Dad’s obsessed with finding Mom’s killer,” Sean said. “What other proof do you need?”
“All my life I was told he had murdered Mother. By Aunt Sibley, Grandma, Grandpa. I had no reason to doubt them. And Troy was convicted by a jury.”
“I was right there where you are at one time,” Dylan admitted. “But when you get to know Dad, you know he couldn’t have done it. Collette was convinced of his innocence even before I was.”
“I’m sorry, guys. I just don’t see myself fitting into this whole united-family scheme of things.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” Sean said. “You have every right to l
ive your life the way you want, even if that means reenlisting. Some people are meant to be soldiers. I’d hate to think what shape the world would be in now if we didn’t have brave warriors.”
“It’s not even that,” Tyler said. “I’m not sure I want to stay in the army. And I like the ranching life. I like the wide-open spaces, like seeing the new calves and colts come into the world. I’d love to be here to help with roundup and to go to auction.”
The words spilled out now that he’d started leveling with them. He could learn to love it here if things were different between him and Troy. “I’m just not ready to commit to coming home for good.”
“Maybe you’re just too worried about Julie to deal with all of this,” Dylan said.
Tyler watched his expression to see if there was any malice in the statement. He saw none.
“I said things when she first arrived I shouldn’t have,” Dylan said. “I can see how you feel about her and I know you’re determined to keep her safe. I get it. I felt that same way about Collette, not too many months ago.”
“Why don’t you give Wyatt a call,” Sean suggested. “What’s the use of having a big brother who’s an infamous Atlanta homicide detective if you can’t yell for help when you need to?”
“Good point,” Dylan said. “I can’t believe we haven’t thought of that sooner.”
“Because we were too busy trying to find a way to get Tyler back to the ranch,” Sean said. “I’ve got Wyatt’s number in my phone. I’ll ring him for you.”
“I’m not sure how he’ll help,” Tyler said.
“Just lay the facts on the line. He has an uncanny ability to see the big picture in police matters.”
Wyatt’s phone was ringing when Sean passed his cell phone to Tyler.
“Hit me.”
“Wyatt.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s me, Tyler.” No response. “Tyler Ledger. Your brother.”
“Well, it’s about damn time you got around to calling me. Things can’t be that exciting at the ranch that you don’t have time to even say hello to me.”
“Don’t count on that.”
