by Renee Rose
It made me think I could get past my messed up life. I wanted to ignore Dax. Everything about him. I knew how to get myself out of the mess, but I had to be in Colorado to do it. I had to get the shipment of ketamine from my office and take it to the police along with the texts from Dax. I had to share them with Mr. Claymore. Face the consequences.
But I couldn’t avoid Dax. Or his calls. Fuck. I wanted to take my phone and flush it down the toilet. Hell, shove it into the manure pile on the far side of the stable. I just wanted it over. But Dax didn’t know that, and I had to suck it up. Had to hold on for a little while longer.
“H-hello?”
“I’m sitting here having some dinner with a new friend,” he said. His voice was surprisingly… light.
“Hi, sweetpea.” I sucked in a sharp breath at hearing Pops on the other end, my heart flying to my throat. “A friend of yours stopped by to eat. Unlike you, he likes gravy on his dinner. Even on his green beans and pot roast.”
My hands turned ice cold. I wanted to puke and faint at the same time.
Dax was with Pops. In our house.
I stood, paced. He knew where we lived. Had probably just knocked on the door, and Pops had let him in. Everyone liked Dax. Hell, everyone fell for his acting. Even my grandfather.
“Are you okay?” I asked, trying to sound calm.
He didn’t sound upset or hurt. “Fine, sweetpea. We’re going to watch some shows. Says he’s going to stay with me while you’re gone. Isn’t that nice?”
Pops wouldn’t have let a stranger stay in the house if he had all his faculties. This was a weak moment for him, and Dax was taking advantage.
“Can I talk to Dax again?” I asked, not wanting Pops to hand the phone off, wanting to keep talking to him, so I knew he was all right.
“Yeah?” Dax asked.
“You hurt him in any way, I’ll—”
“You’ll what? All I want is the package, sweetpea. Now.”
“I’m in Montana,” I countered.
“You have until tomorrow morning.”
I stalled in my pacing. Tomorrow morning? “I can’t get there by then!”
“Yes, you can. Move it, sweetheart. We’ll be waiting.”
He hung up.
I stared at my cell. None of that conversation had been recorded. It wasn’t a text, so there was no proof of what he said. Of how he’d threatened me. The fact that Dax was in my house.
I had to go. I had to do as he said. My intentions to tell the police would have to wait. I had to give Dax what he wanted because he was with Pops. Adrenaline pumped through my veins. I couldn’t stand still. Couldn’t think straight. I had to go.
I had to go now. I had to get to my grandfather.
Shit. Seraphina.
Holy shit. Levi. Thankfully, he’d texted earlier and said he had to work a traffic accident and would be late, deciding to spend the night at Clint’s parents’ house in town. I wasn’t thankful about the traffic accident, God. At least he wouldn’t be here to stop me because I wasn’t sure if I could leave if he did.
My heart literally broke in two with the idea of leaving him. Leaving without explanation, without saying goodbye. He wanted me to stay, and yet here I was, fleeing after dark without saying goodbye.
There was no alternative. It was better this way. He wanted me, the me he knew, not the me I’d been hiding. He couldn’t know what I’d become. It was better to just leave, to have him think I bailed.
I couldn’t lie to him. Not any more than I already had. If I had to look him in the eye now, I doubted I’d be able to come up with something that would justify an abrupt and hasty late-night departure.
Once he knew the truth, it would be over anyway. I had been prepared to face the consequences with the cops. With Mr. Claymore. But with Levi?
That cut sliced the deepest.
But I had to get to Pops. He was what mattered.
Fuck. Levi mattered. Too much. That was the problem here. If Levi was just a fling as we’d planned, I wouldn’t have cared. He wouldn’t have either to find me gone. But he was more. So much more.
I grabbed my bag, shoved all my things into it and ran for the stable. It took an hour to connect the trailer to the truck and get Seraphina settled within. Thankfully, Clint and Johnny were long gone for the night, and no one had come out of the main house.
Another few minutes, and I was on the road.
I was thankful it was late. No one could see me leaving. No one had stopped me. No one would know until morning. By then, I’d be back in Colorado, and Pops would be safe.
And Dax? I had a ten-hour drive to figure out what I was going to do with him. I just had to pry my thoughts away from Levi, who was getting further away with every dark, deserted mile that passed.
Levi, who had changed everything for me. It had been so much more than what I’d told Keely I’d do. He was more than a dick to punch my V-card. I’d learned to trust with him. To let go and enjoy my body. To enjoy another’s body. To give and receive. To share.
To love.
After last night and what Levi had suggested, I’d had my own crazy thoughts—about staying in Montana. Or continuing some kind of long-distance relationship.
But I’d known it was crazy.
And Levi would never, ever continue a relationship with me once he learned what I’d done. What I was still doing. The mess I’d made of my life.
No, I had no choice but to leave him behind. I sniffed and wiped a tear running down my face with the back of my hand.
At least the memories would be intact.
23
LEVI
* * *
“Rough night?”
I spun on my heel to see Clint and Willow walking my way from the stable. Clint carried a box under his arm.
I ran my hand over my face, yanked off my hat. “Jackknifed semi on the interstate. No one was hurt, but it was a clusterfuck.”
I’d crashed hard at Janet and Tom’s place in town. Things had finally been cleared, and I’d gotten to bed after two, yet I still woke with the sun. I’d tossed and turned all night, perhaps because I’d gotten used to having Charlie in my bed. Waking up without her hadn’t been fun and something I wasn’t looking forward to doing again.
“Well, there’s somewhat of a cluster here, too,” he said. Willow nodded.
I frowned. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful, nothing like the wild scene on the highway. I liked early mornings on the ranch. Everything was quiet, calm. Fresh, as if the day was full of possibilities.
Clint came close enough to hand me the box. It was a typical shipping package, the top slit open. I peeked inside, nudged the filler aside. “Looks like vials of medicine. What’s the issue?”
He tipped his chin toward the delivery. “That’s ketamine. Used for horse tranquilizing. No big deal, especially around here.”
“But I’m sure you know, on the streets, it’s used for everything from mild sedative to a downer to date rape drug,” Willow said.
The fucking things I learned as sheriff. “Yeah.” I didn’t like where this was going.
Clint nodded. “A vet might carry these. But two, maybe three vials.”
I stuck my hand in the box, moved around the bubble wrap some more. “There’s got to be fifty vials or more.”
“Exactly.”
I sighed, tired as hell and ready for some coffee. And Charlie time. I didn’t know what the big deal was or why he was telling me about it. “So send some of it back.”
“We didn’t order it. It’s a controlled substance. Only a veterinarian can order it.”
I pursed my lips, trying not to yell at him for getting on with what exactly the cluster fuck was. “I’m fucking tired. Spill it, will you?”
“The package is addressed to Charlie,” Willow said.
I flipped one side of the lid closed, saw her name and care of Wolf Ranch. Snippets of conversation I’d overheard of hers on the phone yesterday filtered back to me. I’d had no idea who she’d be
en talking to. It was one thing to overhear her chatting with someone about her sex life and how she’d wanted me involved in it. Another to snoop on a work call, which it clearly had been. But I’d heard the word ketamine.
But no. I couldn’t believe Charlie would be mishandling drugs. She was so responsible. Fastidious. I was sure she even had a document that listed every purchase.
“Clint came to get me when he saw this package,” Willow said with a mournful expression. “I’m sorry, Levi, but something’s definitely not right here.” She was former DEA. She would know. Still, I couldn’t believe it.
“So let’s ask her about it.” I glanced to the bunkhouse, then thumbed over my shoulder. “If you missed her in the stable, maybe she’s inside. I hope she made a big pot of coffee.”
Willow shook her head. “She’s not here.”
“Fine, then when she gets back. I need to either get an IV of caffeine or hit the sack for a few more hours.” I turned toward the bunkhouse and my bed, wishing Charlie wasn’t in town or off with the other women or whatever she was doing, so she could get under the covers with me.
“She’s gone.”
I froze, turned around, set my hands on my hips.
“Say what?”
“Gone.”
“Gone,” I repeated, my world going up in smoke.
“Her stuff’s gone. Truck’s gone. Trailer’s gone. Seraphina’s gone.”
“Gone? You’ve gotta be fucking with me. I texted with her last night around eight.” The words fell out over stiff lips. Clint didn’t play around like Johnny did. Not about something like this. He knew I’d throat punch him.
He shrugged, ran a hand over his neck, his tell that he was frustrated. “She’s gone. Snuck out. I only figured it out when I couldn’t find Seraphina. I first thought maybe she’d taken her for a ride or something. It’s a pretty morning, and she’d enjoyed it when Johnny and I had showed her around. But no.”
“Gone?” I said once more. What the fuck?
He held up a hand. “Look, I know you two were close.”
Were? How about are. I stared at him. He knew close was a diplomatic word for fucking.
He pointed to the box I’d forgotten I was even holding. “That order… the itemized list tucked inside matches the quantity. She ordered a shit ton of Vitamin K.”
“It’s Vitamin K on the streets. You’re using the slang term as if that’s what she does—peddles the shit.”
He arched a brow. “What do you know of her?”
“What do I know?” I knew she was a workaholic. She was close with her grandfather. I knew she had sensitive nipples. I knew she was ticklish on the backside of her knees. I knew she had a little mole on the inside of her right thigh I liked to kiss before I got to her pussy. It was like the north star leading me home.
He pointed at the box. “This was delivered for her, and now she’s gone. Disappeared, gone.”
“You think something happened to her?” I freaked a little at the possibility. I glanced around as if she might be in a ditch nearby needing me to save her.
“She took everything,” he told me. “If she was injured or something happened with Seraphina, she would have told us that shit. No one sneaks off in the middle of the night because things are okay. Something’s up with her, and I think it has to do with that.” He pointed at the box.
“She’s not a drug dealer.” Now I was pissed at their accusations, but the box didn’t lie. What did she want to do with this much ketamine? Why have it shipped here? Seraphina didn’t need all that shit, and if she did need some, we could get it from the vet in town.
Why the secret? Why sneak away?
I pulled out my phone, texted her.
Me: Where are you, doll?
I waited thirty seconds. A minute. Nothing.
“I called Claymore to see if they showed up,” he told me. “Nothing. He seemed surprised she’d even left, which means her trip hadn’t been planned or expected.”
“It’s a long fucking drive,” I said. “Maybe she’s just not there yet.” I couldn’t imagine her driving through the night. While the roads were fairly flat between here and Colorado, there was a shit ton of wildlife. I knew the stats about cars vs. animals all too well.
“Look, I know you guys had a fling, but she’s got you by the balls. She’s into some shit, and you need to let her go. That box is bad news.”
I shoved it into his chest—which was tamer than what I wanted to do to him—and walked into the bunkhouse, slammed the door shut. Taking the stairs two at a time, I pushed open her bedroom door. It was empty. I stalked across the hall to my room. She was neat as a fucking pin, but I thought maybe she’d left a thing or two on the floor. Nothing. The bathroom was picked clean of anything feminine. Not even a pink razor in the shower.
Clint was right. She was gone. I stalked down the stairs.
I paced, kicked a chair, tossed my hat onto the couch.
Why the fuck did she leave? Why wasn’t she answering my text? I immediately went to the worst, that she was in a ditch somewhere and couldn’t respond, but no. She’d intentionally left. And done so while I wasn’t here. That thought alone was like a strike below the belt. She’d known I would be in town. I’d texted her and told her. Was that why she left so she wouldn’t have to face me?
And the ketamine? I tried to remember what I’d overheard yesterday morning.
That’s more ketamine than we need or that I wanted… As long as it doesn’t expire, it should still be good.
Goddammit. Now that I reviewed that conversation, it sounded like she’d ordered ketamine to be delivered in Colorado, too. What the fuck? Who the hell had she been talking to?
And then there was the way she’d gone quiet after I talked to the aspiring drug dealer at the fair. The questions she asked about what sentence he’d face.
Sometimes people get themselves into things without fully understanding the consequences.
I picked up the chair I’d kicked and smashed it against the wall. It splintered into all kinds of satisfying pieces.
“Whoa,” Rob said as he came in, his voice low, hands out in front of him. Like I was a horse that needed calming.
I whirled and glared at him. My vision had strangely narrowed and sharpened. My focus was razor sharp. My hearing honed in on his heartbeat.
Rob flicked his brows. “Heard Charlie left,” he said mildly.
My stomach tumbled like towels in a dryer. My brain did the same thing.
I gave the wall a thud with the soft part of my fist although punching a hole through it would be more satisfying. “Did you hear about the ketamine?”
He nodded.
I wasn’t sure if Clint and Willow were tattletales or saviors because I didn’t feel like explaining the horse tranquilizer shit to Rob. I didn’t even understand it myself.
“Sounds like she got herself in trouble,” he commented. While I took it as an accusation, he was only stating fact.
“Charlie’s not a fucking drug dealer,” I snarled, too defensively. But she couldn’t be. I was sure of it. She was too good for that. I knew her. Didn’t I?
“No, but a drug dealer needs a supplier.”
I clenched my hands into fists. “You met her. We all did. Hell, have you ever met anyone else who has ironed jeans? Or wears makeup and jewelry to breed a horse? Tell me why the fuck she would be anyone’s fucking supplier.”
Shaking his head, he dropped his hands to his hips. Sighed. “People do it for different reasons.”
I thought about her grandfather. What she’d said about needing to keep her well-paying job to afford a caretaker for him. But she still wouldn’t sell drugs to see that happen. No way.
I was so angry I saw red. I saw every ridge of the plaster on the far wall. My wolf snarled, ready to go after Rob. He didn’t like a word Rob was insinuating, even if Clint had started it.
He tipped his chin. “Want to take that gun off your hip?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Why? Are you
going to tell me something else that will want to make me shoot you?”
He scoffed lightly. “Like that would kill me.”
Only because he was my alpha and his command held a physical compulsion, I unhooked my utility belt and dropped it on the back of the couch. They’d been put back in place when Willow and Marina insisted Shadow and the puppies be moved to the laundry room at the main house.
“Here’s what we do know,” he told me. “She had a big order of ketamine delivered here. A place where it could go unnoticed. Now she’s gone. Left before the breeding was done.”
“Yeah, I got all that,” I snapped, not eager to listen to a thing he said.
I took a step toward him, slapped my hand down on the counter. “You’re so fucking calm. Don’t you care?”
“Do you?” he asked.
“Stop being such a fucking asshole.”
He gave a slight shrug. “She was a fling, you said. Two weeks. Why should it bother you if she’s mixed up in something with ketamine. She did you a favor leaving as she did. She’s a drug pusher. You’re the county sheriff. This way you don’t even have to say goodbye. Or arrest her.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. He was pissing me off. My wolf stood up and howled.
“No hooks to pull out and escape from,” he added.
My wolf snapped.
“Don’t speak of her that way,” I snarled.
I leaned forward a little, ready to stalk over to him and wipe that calm look off his face.
“Why not?” He shrugged, as if he was talking about the weather, not Charlie. “So you had a little fun. She’s got secrets. Big ones. She’s not your mate.”
Yeah, we had fun. I thought of how she’d laughed when I’d tossed her over my shoulder and carried her upstairs. The way she’d looked up at me from beneath her sooty lashes as she sucked my dick down into her throat. How she’d looked handcuffed to my bed, my hands holding onto her lush hips. The kindness she showed with Shadow. The way she stroked Seraphina.
“She’s mine,” I snarled, breathing hard.
He shook his head. “She’s not your mate. She’s gone. Back to Colorado. You were a quick fuck to her.”
