by Sara Orwig
He couldn’t keep from glancing at her repeatedly. She seemed oblivious to his glances, and he wondered what was running through her mind.
“What are you thinking?” he asked finally, his voice a notch deeper because his thoughts were erotic.
“About Dorian having an alibi, yet so much points to him. And I’m thinking about being followed tonight. Whoever bombed your house, if the person was sending a warning—why follow us? If it was Dorian after the computer disk—why follow us? Unless whoever it is really intended to harm us and failed with the bomb,” she added.
“We’re safe. Don’t worry about it, and no one is following us now.”
“No, but if they know who you are and who I am, then they know exactly where we’re going right now.”
“I’m watching and I’m armed.”
“Somehow that doesn’t reassure me. I don’t want to get into a shootout.”
“We won’t. Whoever this is, he or she doesn’t work that way. So far, with the exception of Eric Chambers, there’s been no direct confrontation.”
“I’d call bombing your house about as direct a confrontation as you can get.”
“Let me worry about the danger. I was hoping you had other things on your mind.” He stroked her nape lightly while he watched the road.
“What things?”
“Us. Making love,” he answered in a husky voice.
She leaned close to him to flick her tongue out and kiss his ear. “We did that, mister, not much over a couple of hours ago.”
“Merry,” he groaned, “this is the longest ride home I’ve ever had.”
She laughed softly and ran her fingers up his thigh. “You keep your attention on the road.”
In the early hours of the morning Merry snuggled against Jason, who held her close. He lay on his side, his head propped on his hand as he studied her. She had a sheet pulled high under her arms, but her shoulders were bare, her hair a riot of silky auburn locks cascading over her pale skin. Jason ran his finger lightly along her hip, covered by the sheet.
He was in love, and he thought again about their conversation.
How’ll you know he’s the right person if you haven’t gone with him some first?”
I’ll know.
Just like that? Like lightning striking or what?
I’ll know the way anyone knows when she or he is in love.
He had told her he had been in love, but it wasn’t like this. This love was the real thing. He understood her now when she said she had never been truly, deeply in love. It shocked him to find himself head over heels in love. He had guarded against it, but had he really been preventing falling in love, or had it simply been that Merry had not yet come into his life?
Now the urge was growing stronger by the hour to get some kind of commitment from her. He didn’t want her to go back to Dallas.
And even though she hadn’t declared her love, she must feel it because she had given herself completely to him and only to him. He kissed her shoulder, then nuzzled her neck, wanting her fiercely again, as if they hadn’t made love through most of the night. He pushed the sheet down to fondle her breast, lowering his head to take her nipple in his mouth and kiss her. When she stirred and moaned, he raised his head to look at her. Her eyes slowly opened and she smiled at him, wrapping one arm around his neck.
“I love you, Merry.”
“You’re nice, Jason.”
He caught her chin in his hand. “I’m really in love with you.”
She smiled at him, a mysterious, feminine smile that left him unable to discern what she truly felt. “I’m glad.”
“I don’t think you believe me.”
“Of course I do, to a degree,” she said, twisting to turn onto her back to wrap both arms around his neck and pull him down to her. “I’ll show you, Jason.”
It was noon the next day before he kissed her goodbye.
“I have appointments all afternoon, and at four, I’m meeting with Sebastian, Rob, Will and Keith to tell them what we found in Dorian’s computer files and about my fire.”
“Be careful in town.”
“I will, and you stay on the ranch and don’t disappear.” He kissed her hard and long and then released her. “I have to break some bad news to my friends about our suspicions. See you tonight.”
She watched him stride away and thought about his declarations of love and reminded herself not to be taken in by them. Once again, she told herself that she needed to pack and go home, back to her regular life instead of this life that had turned into a dream.
Nine
Late in the day, Jason sat in the meeting room at the Texas Cattleman’s Club. The air-conditioned room was cool and quiet. Iced tea and cold beer had been served. Will and Sebastian had come from work and had shed their suit coats and ties and rolled up shirtsleeves. Leaning back in one of the comfortable leather chairs, Keith was in chinos and a green knit shirt while Rob was in jeans and a blue Western shirt like Jason.
Jason looked around the circle of solemn faces.
“Thanks for coming. I want to bring all of you up to date. I asked you to keep this meeting confidential,” Jason said. “We’ve cut Dorian out of the meeting.”
“Is there a good reason?” Sebastian asked with concern in his gray eyes, and Jason suspected Sebastian still wanted to believe the best about his half brother even though it was growing more difficult all the time.
“I think there is,” Jason answered. “Merry and I got into Wescott Oil—”
“You’re the burglars?” Will asked incredulously.
“Where and how is Merry?” Rob asked.
“She’s fine and she’s out at my ranch,” Jason replied evenly.
“Well, she’s not escaping now,” Will observed with amusement. “Is there some reason for this?”
“Hey, maybe I’m going to be the last bachelor left standing,” Keith said, staring at Jason. “I might win that bet after all,” he said.
“You can’t beat our resident playboy,” Rob remarked, watching Jason closely even though he was grinning. Rob tilted his head. “That’s right, isn’t it?”
Thoughts flitted through Jason’s mind as he hesitated before answering, a mistake, because instantly all of them were teasing and asking questions.
“Our playboy bites the dust,” Rob said. “The wildcat gets her man.”
“The wildcat lassos the cowboy, hog-ties and drags him to the altar,” Keith said.
“She won’t have to drag me,” Jason replied, and whoops of laughter and disbelief burst from his friends. He grinned and waited for them to settle.
“You’re going to be the last bachelor,” Rob said to Keith.
“Well, not quite so fast,” Jason cautioned. “The lady hasn’t said yes. I haven’t asked her yet.”
“Oh! Sorry, Keith,” Sebastian said, “The truth comes out. I can’t see our playboy popping the question.”
This brought more teasing which Jason put up with patiently.
“Okay, y’all,” he said finally. “Enough’s enough. We didn’t meet to discuss my love life—”
“Which would fill two or three volumes,” Rob interjected.
Jason waved his hand. “I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, Keith, you’re not exactly the last bachelor, although I hope to change that soon.”
“Will wonders never cease?” Will said.
“You better get to planning that ball and thinking about your charity, Keith. Looks like we’ve got our man,” Sebastian said.
“For just a minute let’s discuss why I called y’all here and why I asked you to keep this meeting quiet,” Jason said.
“I think we were talking about the burglary at Wescott, which I now find out was done by you and your lady love,” Will said.
“Yes,” Jason admitted.
“I knew about their plan,” Sebastian admitted. “I didn’t tell you, Will, because I thought that the fewer people in on the plan, the better. And this way, when you got the news, your reactions
were normal and sincere.”
“Merry got into Dorian’s computer files—”
“Dammit, I thought we had those so secure no one could get into them,” Will snapped. “We had to open Eric Chambers’s files for the police.”
“Well, she got into them in about five minutes,” Jason informed him dryly, and Keith laughed.
“That’s embarrassing because we sold Wescott some of its software and set up the programs. The wildcat’s not so crazy after all,” Keith added.
“Anyway, we were interrupted because Dorian came to the office. Merry copied some files and got enough to indicate that Dorian kept an electronic journal. There’s a reference that made it sound as though he was blackmailing Eric Chambers.”
“Let me interrupt,” Keith said. “Rob and I have copies. I can give you one, Sebastian, and then you can pass it to Will. All right?”
“Sure.”
“The next thing…” Jason continued. “A statement went out on the news that the fire at my place may have been caused by a gas leak. There was no gas leak. I gave that to the press. The fire chief said that they were investigating what caused the fire, which was the truth on his part. He just didn’t elaborate. But we knew that night that the explosion was caused by a bomb.”
“Why you?” Sebastian asked. Before Jason could answer, Sebastian answered his own question, “Was it because Meredith Silver is at your place?”
“We don’t know, but one possibility is that it was done to wipe out my computer and any disks that were copied at Wescott Oil the other night.”
“That would have to be Dorian,” Keith said.
“He’s got that damned alibi for the murder,” Rob reminded them. “Laura Edwards swears he was sitting in the Royal Diner the whole time that Eric Chambers was murdered.”
“Yes, but Laura Edwards seems very much in love with Dorian,” Will remarked dryly. “There’s always the possibility that he has pulled the wool over her eyes, and she’s covering for him.”
“A lot points to Dorian,” Jason reminded them grimly. “And we have a mole in our group, so, more than likely it’s one of us.”
“Damn,” said Sebastian. “If it’s Dorian, I brought him into our group.”
“If it’s Dorian,” Jason said, “then he’s caused you a world of grief when you were trying to be a brother to him. We’re all going to be sorry about that.”
A grim silence fell over the group. “So where do we go from here?” Will asked.
“I think we need to set a trap of some kind for Dorian,” Rob suggested. “If Dorian’s the murderer, he’s done too much and gone too far. Whoever is behind all this has killed Eric Chambers, tried to frame Sebastian, bombed Jason’s house—”
“If it’s Dorian, there’s a possibility he has taken money from Meredith Silver’s sister. She doesn’t have proof though.”
“Dammit again,” Sebastian said. “I brought him into our group, moved him into my business, my circle of friends. I did everything for him. Why would he do this? What’s his motive? If something happens to me, he won’t inherit what I have. He’ll be worse off with me gone than if I’m alive. I can’t see what motive he has, and he has a sound alibi.”
Another silence followed and Jason tried to keep his thoughts from drifting to Merry.
“Okay, back to where we go from here,” Will said. “I agree with Rob that we need to set a trap. Let’s think about what we can do, because we have to be careful. He’s aware we suspect someone in our group, so that narrows suspicion to him instantly. He may get desperate, and if he’s the guilty party, he’s already murdered once, so he has nothing to lose if he does it again.”
“Sorry, but I have to go. I have an appointment,” Will announced, standing.
“Everybody think about what we can do to set a trap,” Jason suggested. “We’ll meet again—a week from now, same time, all right?”
All heads nodded and Jason stood.
“And Keith,” Will said, grinning, “you consider what charity you want. I think our playboy is losing his title.”
“I might be,” Jason admitted, thinking about Merry and how long it would take him to get to the ranch.
“I hope you’re not so in love that you can’t watch your back,” Rob cautioned, moving beside him as they left the club.
“I’ll be careful. I have guys guarding the ranch. Even though he may have just been after the computer and disks, I’m having an alarm system installed for the grounds around the house.”
“Maybe, but you don’t know. She’s annoyed him no end. And we need to find out for sure if it’s Dorian. If we’re chasing the wrong person, we’re wasting time and putting everyone in more jeopardy.”
Rob paused to face Jason. “We talked about setting a trap for Dorian. There is something that we might do that wouldn’t involve a lot of risk. It might be just one more bit of proof. You could get Merry to confront him here in Royal.”
“Oh, no! I’m not jeopardizing her—”
“Look, this wouldn’t be as dangerous as what the two of you did breaking into Wescott Oil. That could have got you shot.”
“Not in Royal. I don’t want her in danger.” Wind caught locks of Jason’s hair as gazed at his friend.
“She’s in danger just living at your ranch. Do you want to catch this guy or not? She isn’t afraid to go after him.”
“All right,” Jason relented reluctantly. He knew Merry wasn’t afraid, and she would want to do whatever she could to help trap Dorian. “What’s your idea?”
“With Sebastian’s help, because he works with Dorian and knows where he is from eight to five, we could arrange a seemingly casual meeting during the day between Merry and Dorian. They could encounter each other with people around and in daylight. I’ve got a mini-recorder that she can drop into her pocket and pick up every word he says. I don’t need to tell you about those devices.”
“I hate to have her anywhere near the creep. It’ll just be one more goad to a man who may be desperate now.”
“We need some proof. If he would own up to knowing her and her sister, that would be one more arrow pointing to guilt on his part. It wouldn’t tie him to the murder, but it would show that he’s been lying to us.”
Jason mulled the plan over. He wanted to refuse, yet he knew Merry would agree to doing it without hesitating one second.
Rob continued, “If they met in broad daylight on the streets here in town, I don’t think he would do anything. I could be in a car not far away. I wouldn’t let her out of my sight and I wouldn’t suggest it if I thought it would put her in any danger.”
“You don’t need to bother watching her because I will.”
“If you want both of us to watch, even better.”
Jason nodded. “I don’t want to take any risks, and if she doesn’t want to do it, that’s it.”
“Good,” Rob said while satisfaction lit his eyes. “I know what her answer will be. You weren’t there when she stormed into the club. The lady is determined, and she didn’t act as if she would be scared of Old Ned himself.”
“She might not be,” Jason agreed with a sigh, “but that doesn’t mean I want her at risk.”
“I swear I’ll watch her and keep her safe.”
“Both of us will. I’ll ask her about it tonight.”
“I’ll call Sebastian. Tell Merry thanks.”
“You’re so damned sure of yourself.”
“Nope. I’m sure of her. I think she’s a good match for you, my friend. She’ll keep you hopping.”
“She already does. I think Dorian’s the one, but then, I never have liked the guy. If it’s him, he knifed Sebastian in the back after all Sebastian did for him.”
“Yeah, but if he won’t inherit, then why did he kill?”
Jason shrugged and headed for his pickup. “That’s what we have to figure out. See you.”
“Hey, Jason, wait up,” Keith called and jogged across the lot to catch up with Jason.
“Does Meredith need work
?” he asked.
“She’s a freelance programmer.”
“She must be damned good at what she does. I could use someone like her in my business. I’d like to talk to her about a job.”
“Get in line and give her a call. You know my number.”
“Get in line?”
“Rob wants her to do something for him. Go ahead, call her.”
“I will. Thanks.”
“I’ll tell her that you’ll call.”
“Great. See you later.” Keith turned to go to his car and Jason slid into his pickup, forgetting about Keith instantly as his thoughts turned to Merry.
He didn’t want her to confront Dorian ever, but he would leave the decision to her because Rob’s plan didn’t sound like it would put Merry in jeopardy.
As Jason drove along Main, he thought about her. He wanted to get her a ring. He wanted to buy her everything, wanted to give her the world. He was in love, and it was scary and marvelous and amazing. When could they marry?
This was May, and if he could have his way, they’d get married next week, but Merry had a big family and he did, too, so he suspected a wedding would be a major event. Could he get her to stay at his ranch until then? He wanted her with him constantly. He was more amazed at himself than his friends were. He had never, ever expected to be in love, never known he could feel like this about a woman. He was dazzled, unable to concentrate on anything else very long before she filled his thoughts. He loved her and he wanted to marry her—the sooner the better.
Jason drove to a jewelry store, and an hour an a half later he drove out of town with a ring in his pocket, roses beside him and a bubbling eagerness to see her again.
As he raced home, Jason glanced out the window and realized he had passed the road to his house. He groaned, swung in a U-turn and headed home.
“Woman, you better marry me before I lose it completely,” he grumbled, knowing now it would be ten minutes longer before he would see her.
Merry lolled in a tub of sudsy water while she contemplated her future. She had to make decisions, because, since arriving in Royal, Texas, her life had changed completely. She needed to move out of Jason’s house, get back to work and go on with her life.
