Missing the Stars: Chandler County

by Melissa Sinclair

  “No!” The last thing she wanted to do was go sit in a house with the drool-worthy man in front of her and twiddle her thumbs waiting for his equally hot brother to come home. Not when the woman was in a serious sexual drought. She cleared her throat and started over. “No, I mean, I would like to go for a ride. It sounds like fun.”

  That was, if your definition of fun is sitting on top of a horse that was hundreds of pounds of solid muscle while being distracted by kissing someone for the first time in too long, and if you liked the idea of simulating a motion on top of a horse that might make you think of other leisure activities behind closed doors. She liked the distraction of riding a horse, but she knew it was not good to ride one when distracted. It was definitely a bad idea when in a heightened state of arousal. Of course, it was harmless to picture him naked, wasn’t it? Her imagination started to yell, yippee!

  “For some reason, I feel like you’re holding back on something. I feel like you don’t really want to go for a ride. Normally, I would offer one more time to let you politely back out, but I don’t think you would change your mind, even if you wanted to.”

  “First, you’re wrong; I really do want to go for a ride. I just have a guilt complex going on in my head. Secondly, I can change my mind. I’m not as rigid as you think.”

  He took a step toward her and traced a finger across her lips, smiling smugly when she visibly shivered from the contact.

  “No, not rigid. Stubborn. But definitely not rigid.” He tugged on her hair and leaned forward, and damn it, she leaned toward him. He chuckled, pulled away and turned to clip a lead on the horse. “This, here, is Royal Flush, according to her nameplate there. She is an old maid and should be nothing but cordial on our ride, and don’t worry, I’ll take it easy on you since you’ve indicated you’ve never ridden a horse before and it takes some getting used to.”

  She wanted to smack him across his smug face. She knew he was being nothing but kind, but she couldn’t help but consider his words to be condescending. The problem was, she didn’t understand why he had that effect on her. She wanted to chalk it up to being horny, but he wasn’t the first good-looking guy she’d come across during her dry spell, and he certainly wouldn’t be the last. Unless…unless what? Unless she let him scratch the itch she was feeling in her nether regions. Down, girl! she told her inner tramp. But her inner tramp shut her inner good girl down. She moved restlessly and walked a few feet away from the stall, hoping that it would give her a moment to calm her libido, but it wasn’t working. All she wanted to do was tear off both their clothes and roll around on the hay in one of the empty stalls. Man, what they could do in that stall. Again, she shivered. Shamelessly. It was the adrenaline that had been coursing through her ever since she’d figured out she was compromised. That and nothing more.

  Cole came out of the stall leading the horse and strolled toward her. Was it just her or was his swagger even more pronounced? Damn it, he definitely was loving the effect he was having on her. Two could play this game. When he walked past her, she had to scoot back to allow him room, but she didn’t scoot far enough back. Which meant his body brushed against hers. The low rumble in his throat was a clear sign he was also feeling the grip of attraction. With a cocky grin on her face, she followed him outside with Royal Flush.

  “Here you go,” he said, holding the lead out to her.

  “What do you mean, here you go?” She was completely dumbfounded by the odd exchange. Hadn't they been flirting?

  “Hold Royal Flush while I go pick out a horse for me to ride.” When she didn’t move to take the lead, he laughed and grabbed her hand, placing the rope into her hand. “She won’t bite. I’ll be right back. Get to know her a bit.”

  Before she could respond, he was gone, and she was left holding the bag, or rather, the horse. Her body was tense from the pent-up sexual tension. She looked at the horse as she tossed her head as if to say she understood. She began to rub her hand down the beautiful creature’s neck. Royal Flush snorted her approval and stomped her hoof on the ground.

  “Oh, you like that, don’t you, girl? Can I let you in on a little secret?” She whispered to the horse so as not to be overheard if Cole came outside. “I’m actually pretty good with your gorgeous kin. I was messing with Cole. He's a bit too alpha male and needs a bit of a smackdown.”

  Royal Flush tossed her head again and whinnied. It was as if she were telling Jessie she approved of her strategy. Inhaling deeply, she took a step toward the ebony horse and continued to rub between her ears. The horse snorted and tossed her head back and forth. When Jessie paused for a moment, surveying the area, Royal Flush moved her head toward her and nudged it against Jessie’s belly. At first, Jessie didn’t know what she was doing, but slowly the realization that Royal Flush wanted her to continue to rub her head dawned on her.

  “Sorry, I admit, I’m a bit easily distracted. Actually, you’re kind of distracting me from what I need to be doing.” Jessie smiled like a loon as she rubbed the old mare between the ears some more. Suddenly all the tension slipped from her shoulders as if merely petting the horse was a balm to all her worries and fears, and she was so grateful, she found herself burying her face in the horse’s mane.

  “I see you two are getting along well.” Cole’s deep baritone voice startled her for a second—she didn’t like that she had let her guard down and allowed him to sneak up on her. Of course, she had snuck up on him earlier as well. Much easier than she should have been able to, considering his credentials. What bothered her almost as much was how she didn’t like that he’d seen her acting vulnerably with the horse or how carelessly she was behaving outside. She had no way to know if they had tracked her to Bourbonville.

  “I guess so.” She cleared her throat and turned to smile at him, but instead, her gaze focused on the majestic creature he’d brought outside. Where Royal Flush was beautiful, the animal tethered to the rope in Cole’s hand was…flawless. “My word, he’s...wow.”

  “He’s gorgeous, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah, he’s amazing. What’s his name?” She was about to reach out to pet the horse like she had done to Royal Flush, when Cole put his palm out.

  “This is King. He’s a little flighty compared to Royal Flush. I don’t want to ruin the moment you just had with her by scaring you all over again.”

  “If he’s—flighty, as you say, why did you choose him?” she asked and giggled when she felt Royal Flush nudge her in the back. The little lady didn’t like Jessie ignoring her.

  “He’s a challenge,” Cole said with a shrug. “I haven’t ridden in a very long time, and I want to see if it is indeed like riding a bike.”

  “Still—I mean, maybe you should start off with a horse more like Royal Flush.”

  The look he shot her was hilarious—a cross between incredulity and humor.

  “No way. I don’t know when I’ll get to ride again. I want to make it count. Anyway, even if it’s been a while, I’ve never met a horse I couldn’t ride.” He walked over to the fence and tethered the lead rope to the post, then came back to her side. “I’ll give you a leg up, let you get used to the saddle for a bit, lead you around for a minute and then I’ll mount King over there, and we’ll go for a ride. Sound like a plan?”

  “Sure, but I think I can probably get up there without any help.”

  “Suit yourself.” The smirk that crossed his face irritated her, and she turned abruptly, her hair nearly hitting him in the face. What an infernal man, she thought.

  With ease, she slipped her foot in the stirrup and swung her leg up and over. Once on top of the horse, she smiled down at Cole who was looking up at her properly impressed.

  “What? Was that supposed to be hard or something?”

  He cleared his throat before he spoke.

  “Um, something tells me this isn’t your first time in a saddle.”

  “Hmm, you’re just figuring that out, huh?” Royal Flush snorted and tossed her head. Jessie wanted to hug her and would have giv
en her a fist bump if she had fists. Girl power, she thought. She clicked with her tongue, and the horse moved forward. “Why don’t we skip the tutorial. You’re right, it is just like getting on a bike.” She winked at him, and while she should have felt childish, she didn’t. It was good to have some fun.

  He hoisted himself up onto the skittish thoroughbred, and she allowed him a moment to quiet the animal, who clearly wanted to be able to run without hesitation.

  “Shall we?” he asked. “King here seems to want to get moving.”

  “He wants to show you what he can do.”

  “That he does.” Cole was smiling. “I want to ride around the property and, unfortunately, it has been a long time since I’ve ridden on this land and I’m not sure what terrain we’ll encounter outside of the actual training area. Maybe I’ll let him stretch his legs later. This time we’re going to take it easy.” King stomped the ground. Seems he didn’t like the idea of taking it easy.

  “Fair enough.”

  Cole urged the horse forward at a solid but careful pace and the ladies followed. They followed a trail wide enough to ride side by side and entered the canopy of the woods surrounding the farm. Instantly she found herself mesmerized by the beauty of it all. The lush green trees were the perfect cover from the hot sun.

  “Wow. This is amazing.” She beamed down at the man leading King around and was struck dumb at the expression on his face as his eyes locked on hers, and the three words that came out of his mouth.

  “You’re telling me.”

  He wasn’t looking at the vegetation, though; he was looking at her. She blushed and then averted her eyes. It felt good to be on a saddle in the woods with him.

  “I can’t get over how gorgeous this is.” The smile nearly split her face; she was so mesmerized by her surroundings.

  “It really is gorgeous. I almost forgot how much I missed it.”

  “Why did you stay away from all this?” she asked quietly.

  “After my parents died, I just couldn’t stay here. I was planning on leaving anyway. The days turned into weeks and then it was years. Coop was relentless about getting me to come back. I refused. He always came out to where I was at that particular time in my life. I’ve been in Darkness Falls for a few years now.”

  “Why Darkness Falls?”

  “I don’t know. Originally, I was just there to visit a college friend.”

  “I thought you didn’t go to college? That you left town after your parents died.”

  “I went for one year—the year before they died—then I decided it wasn’t what I wanted at that point in my life. The week before they died, I had talked to them about dropping out. I was surprised they were in full support, even though they were a little disappointed. They didn’t even try to hide it from me. We were too close, the four of us, to hide things from each other.” He lapsed into silence.

  “Oh.” She went quiet for a moment. “That doesn’t answer why Darkness Falls?”

  “I discovered I needed a place to settle. I was called out on a job and realized it would be great to have a place for myself and my team to come home to. Then my friend asked me to help him out with something, and I realized if I wanted a home base it seemed like as good a place as the next. I got to be close to great people. People who I would do anything for.”

  “Like family.” It was a statement, not a question. Yet, he answered anyway.

  “Yeah. I guess they are. Although it wasn’t until last year that I realized it.”

  “What happened last year?”

  “The case I was helping my friend with, it went a little south before it got cleared up. I lost a man during the job, and my friend’s family helped me through it and kind of adopted me afterward. As if they knew I needed them to shore up for a bit. Ethan, my friend, says his wife, Quinn, told his pseudo mom she adopts lost puppies.”

  “Pseudo mom, puppies?”

  “Jack and Evie aren’t Ethan’s parents, they’re his partner’s, who happens to be his good friend, parents. His wife meant Evie adopts people like me, people who were drifting around, solid in their careers, but with no family to anchor them.”

  “They sound pretty special.”

  “They are. Everyone should have someone like Jack and Evie in their corner. They consider Ethan and Quinn their children and they feel the same way about me.”

  “The case worked out though?”

  “It did. The human trafficking ring was taken down, and I helped Quinn locate her biological parents. Now she’s thankful to get to know them and have them in her life, as well as Jack and Evie.”

  They lapsed into silence. Clearing her mind and allowing herself to focus on the situation was her main objective in agreeing to go for the ride, and as if they had an unspoken agreement, they both rode in complete silence.

  The longer they rode, the more confident she was that while JD was involved in the disappearance of Race the Stars, it wasn’t for the reasons one would naturally assume. The more she thought about it, the more she was certain he had hidden the horse to protect the animal. She wasn’t sure where, but she felt if she thought about it she would be able to figure it out. If JD wanted her to know, he would leave her a way to figure it out. It would be so much easier if she could just ping his phone. Maybe she should ask Cole to do that if he hadn’t tried already. She figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask him.

  “Have you tried to ping JD’s phone?”

  “I called Harrison Black, one of my employees, and asked him to ping the phone. As of our last communication, nothing had popped up. It probably means he has the phone off.”

  “Probably to conserve battery power. It’s what I would do if I were in a place with bad reception.”

  “It’s what I would do as well. I told him to keep checking; eventually, he’ll turn it back on.”

  “If he has it with him.”

  “I think he does. Otherwise we would have been able to ping it.”

  “Not if the battery was low and the phone powered off. That could also explain the lack of use.”

  “Another option.” He said it hesitantly.

  “I’m not a fool. I know what I’m up against here.”

  “I realize that, but it would help if I knew what you were up against.”

  “Right now, I can’t tell you. I just can’t.”

  “I get it; you don’t know me from Adam. But you need to rely on someone. And fast.”

  They lapsed into silence again. Jessie lost herself in the terrain and breathed deeply, inhaling the intoxicating smell of nature. But she didn’t let herself be distracted so much that she forgot to take in her surroundings. As they rode through the woods, her eyes were not only taking in the beauty but assessing everything. Looking for any branch that might be out of place or any part of the trail that might be trampled. She strained her eyes looking for blood or signs of a struggle and saw nothing. As she did so, she concluded Cole was right about trusting him before it was too late. She knew it. He knew she knew it, but still, she said nothing. She needed to clear her head and would decide how to handle this soon. Jessie was aware she might be making a mistake, but she would deal with that later. Anyway, there wasn’t anything she could tell him now that would change anything, and she didn’t think it would be an advantage as much as a distraction.

  “How does a horse like King, and Royal Flush, for that matter, end up being abandoned?”

  “Coop has more than abandoned horses here.”

  “Yes. I know some are boarded. But my instincts tell me these two were not.”

  “Some people like the idea of being a big racehorse owner, then they realize it’s a lot of work and expensive. Then they bail. Or they bail when the horse doesn’t perform well or if the horse becomes too old to perform. There are a myriad of reasons.”

  “That doesn’t seem right. To work so hard only to be abandoned.”

  “It doesn’t. That's why Coop started rescuing them. Most of the horses here are rescued, so you’re probably right ab
out these two. Only a handful are local owners boarding their horses.” He paused and looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then continued hesitantly, “I can’t believe I mistook your hesitation for fear of horses. You’re pretty impressive in the saddle. Is there anything you are scared of?”

  “Failing my family.” When she spoke, it was nearly a whisper.

  “Aren’t we all?”

  They were more alike than she’d given him credit for.

  “I don’t really care for spiders either.” She said, trying to lighten the mood. “Okay, so that’s a lie. I actually don’t fear anything else. Ironically, JD taking risks scares me more than anything else.”

  “More than taking risks yourself?”

  “I don’t take unnecessary risks. All my risks are calculated.” It was true. Everything she did was thought through a hundred times before she acted. Until El Diablo. Once El Diablo became part of her life she had become the queen of risk-taking. At first, it had been a bit exhilarating, to shed her previous persona. But as the risks became more dangerous and the threats to her family became a reality, she quickly got over the thrill and just wanted to get out alive. The end game for her was all about surviving to see her family again.

  “You sound like someone I know.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “Me.” She was a little surprised by his response and didn’t say anything until he continued talking. “Except that’s just the line I tell myself to pull the wool over my eyes when it comes to the dangers I encounter.”

  “Sounds familiar. I’m pretty good at that game.” Which was a one hundred percent honest statement, in an otherwise cloudy situation where much of what she said was blurring the lines between truth and lies. To the point where she had a lovely shade of gray she was working with at the moment. She was definitely working outside normal procedure. “But I do stand by the decisions I’ve made in my life.”