by Lexi Blake
Bill’s shoulder came up negligently. “I’ve always found Rye Harper to be a tolerant man. He and Mr. Talbot helped install our new security. And, Callie, you and your friends are welcome. I begrudge no one. Please stay. I promise that the sheriff and I will find a way to get along.”
“Damn straight,” Nate said under his breath. “Let me make it easier. I apologize if I made you think I wouldn’t help you. This community is a part of Bliss. I might be a bastard, but I do my job. If something happens here, I’ll be right beside you, Mr. Hartman. Not only because it’s my job, but because you’re obviously important to Callie. I love Callie. I’ll try to be less judgmental.” He stood beside her, his hand on the small of her back.
A knowing smile crossed Bill’s face. “As I said, you’re welcome. I would love to have a better relationship with law enforcement.” He stood and clapped his hands together. “Now, I believe our daily horseshoe contest is beginning. I shall leave the three of you to work out who gets the best room.” His eyes narrowed.
“Uh, Callie does.” Zane stood awkwardly.
Bill pointed at the big guy and gave him a wink. “That is the proper answer, son.” He picked up the keys sitting on his desk and passed them around. “Callie is in a suite. The two of you have single rooms. Please remember, we are clothing optional except in the pool. No clothes allowed in the pool or the hot tub. Towels are available throughout the resort. Use one when sitting on the furniture. Have a nice stay.”
Bill strode out of his office after handing Callie the keys. A silence descended, and she awkwardly stared at the small pieces of metal in her hand. There were three of them. She’d started the morning fairly sure they wouldn’t need separate rooms.
God, she was going to be so lonely tonight.
Zane strode up, and his hand was on her nape again. “I’ll stay with you tonight.”
The very arrogance of the statement put her on edge. She thrust a key at him. “No, you won’t. You have your own room.”
He grinned down at her. She felt his satisfaction at her defiance. “Yeah, I will. You’re the one who wouldn’t let me leave, babe. I was ready to die to make sure you were safe. Look, I’ve thought about what you said. I can’t stop thinking about it. You were right. I was looking for something easy because that’s what I’ve done all my life. But I love you. I won’t leave you again, not until they carry me away in a body bag. I’m sorry for what I said before. This is the truth. I love you. You can’t get rid of me. You want me to fight? I’ll fight. Besides, you trashed my bike. You owe me.”
Sweet words, but how could she believe him? The next time something threatened them, he would be right back to trying to leave. “I do not owe you a thing, Zane Hollister. I made myself clear back at the office. We’re through.”
He shrugged, and there was a light in his eyes that had been absent ever since he’d read that note back in Nate’s office. “I don’t accept your refusal. And I’m not taking this key. I’ll sleep in your bed, or I’ll sleep in your doorway. If you think I’ll get a minute’s rest with doors closed between us, you’re wrong. Lock me out. Slam the door in my face. I won’t leave you. You made your decision, Callie. You made it when you trashed my bike. You’ll never get rid of me now.”
She wanted so much to throw herself into his arms and sob out the tension of the day, but his previous words came back. Which Zane should she believe? The one who said he loved her, or the one who said she didn’t matter? She took a step back. It was far past time to protect her own heart.
She thrust the key at him. “It’s your room. Sleep in it or not. I don’t care.” She turned to Nate and handed a key to him as well. “Here’s yours. Hopefully all of this will be over in a week or two and we can get on with our lives.”
Nate’s hand shot out, forming a manacle around her wrist. “You won’t get rid of me so easily, either. I told you I loved you. I won’t be dismissed.”
Nate was an entirely different problem. “You don’t love me. I’m convenient, and you think I’ll be easily moldable. But I’ll never fit into the niche you want to put me in. I’ll be the hick you brought with you and I’ll drag you down. You would resent me after a while.”
He shook his head. “Don’t tell me how I feel.”
She was surrounded by them. Nate crowded her front, and Zane was at her back. They didn’t respect her personal space. They were up against her, not attempting to hide the fact that they were aroused. She felt them. Nate against her stomach. Zane’s erection pressed against the small of her back. It should have made her want to run. But she just wanted to drown in them, in their love, their care. It was false. It was a chimera waiting to rip her heart out.
She pushed them aside and made for the door. The keys dropped to the floor because neither would take them from her. She was left with one. The key to her room. “I’ll see you when it’s time to go back into town for the meeting.”
She practically ran down the hall.
* * * *
Zane watched as Callie slammed the door behind her. Damn it. He’d screwed up on every level possible. He’d meant to keep her safe, and all he’d managed to do was break her heart. His every instinct told him to chase her down, get her under him. She wouldn’t listen to a word he said, but maybe he could show her how he felt. Or maybe he should try to work everything out with Nate and present a united front. Maybe the problem was they were out of synch and Callie needed them both.
“I hope you’re happy.” Nate’s frown covered most of his face. His nose was still a nice shade of red and pronouncedly swollen.
“Why would I be happy? You’re the one who fucked up. You’re the reason we’ll sleep alone tonight.” As much as he wanted peace between them, he wasn’t about to take the blame for this debacle. He wasn’t the one who had made Callie feel self-conscious. He’d just made her pissed. That he could deal with. Callie thinking she was less than she was made him mad, and that was Nate’s fault.
He wasn’t sleeping alone tonight. He’d meant every word he’d said. She’d made her choice. She hadn’t let him walk. She would deal with the consequences, and one of those consequences was putting up with him in bed. He thought back to that moment when he realized how far Callie had gone to keep him here. He’d yelled at the time and moaned over the temporary loss of his bike, but damn she looked pretty when she got mad. What had it taken for gentle Callie to do that to his bike? She’d done a number on it, and to way more than the electrical system. He’d stood there and it had struck him for the first real time that she loved him. She loved him passionately and truly if she’d done that. Only the thought that he’d hurt her had kept him from tossing her over Nate’s desk and having his way with her again. Her brown eyes had dulled, and he hadn’t seen them flare back to life yet. He had some serious damage control to do, and he couldn’t do it by sleeping in another room. He glanced down at the key on the floor but made no move to pick it up. “I was trying to save her, Nate. What’s your excuse?”
Nate reached down and palmed both keys. “I have no idea what you mean. I’m not trying to hurt Callie. I told her I loved her and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. How could that hurt her?”
Now who was being obtuse? Zane sank back into the couch. “You don’t get her. You walk around insulting everything she loves and then wonder why she thinks you’ll regret marrying her. And where exactly do I fit into this white-picket-fenced McMansion dream of yours? Am I supposed to slither off and let you keep the girl?”
Nate sat down beside him and a tired sigh escaped his lungs. “I wasn’t trying to force you out. I think we can make this work, all three of us. I want that. But I want a career, too. You have to see that we can’t stay here. There’s no future in Bliss.”
God, that was Nate’s father talking. If only he could hear himself, he might see it. Nate’s father had pounded ambition into him. He hadn’t been happy when his son had gone into the DEA, but Nate had been ruthless in pursuing advancement. It had been as though he needed to pr
ove to his father that he could rule the world, but in his own way.
Of course, now Nate’s father was a shell of a man because ambition was all Peter Wright had. When his money dried up, so had his life. Nate hadn’t learned the lesson. Zane had no intention of living that way. There was more to life than money, more than power. He’d started to learn that the day he’d come to this town.
There was love. There was friendship. There was bliss to be had if only he reached out to grab it.
“Maybe there’s no future for you, but me? I don’t know. I like it here.” Maybe he shouldn’t make such a big decision based on one day of following Callie around, but it was the way he operated. He made decisions based on his gut, and his gut told him that Bliss was a good place to be. His told him Bliss could be his home.
Nate’s gaze pinned him. “Where are you planning on working? Or are you going to let Callie support you?”
That was something he’d been thinking about ever since last night. Bliss was rural. It relied on tourists, but there were enough people to support a few businesses year round. From what he could tell, there were tourists coming in and out all year. They came in the summer for the beauty of the high plains and the mountains. They came in the winter to ski. What did every tourist need? A drink.
“I’m going to open a bar, one where Callie doesn’t get nearly murdered.” He’d seen a place near the diner that might work. He’d tended bar in college. Surely he could figure the rest out. Now, money was another issue, but he’d cross that bridge if he lived long enough to actually get to it. “You didn’t answer my question. Where do I fit into your perfect suburban paradise? You think I can pretend to be your roommate? Am I supposed to be some pathetic ass who lives at his friends’ place when he’s forty? Do I ever get to hold her hand in public or might that ruin your career path?”
Nate’s face went white, and he had a sudden feeling that was exactly what Nate had planned. He meant to stroll off with the girl, and Zane could come and go, as long as he did it quietly. Maybe their fight wasn’t over yet. His left fist tightened.
“What exactly would we do about kids?” He would poke all the holes he could in Nate’s plan. “Callie wants a family. Are you the only one who gets to have babies with her? I get shut out? And what do we tell them? ‘Uncle Zane is afraid of thunderstorms, that’s why he’s in bed with Mommy.’”
“Damn it, Zane. I don’t know.” Nate fell back against the sofa, and looked at him with weary eyes. “I haven’t figured it out. I only know that I can’t move up the ladder here. I haven’t even started to think about kids.”
He should because Callie would want them. “We have to think about them. You want her to give up her whole life and everything she’s known for a place that will judge her, and probably harshly. I know you think I’m naïve. I know you think she is, too, but don’t make this whole leaving-Bliss-because-there’s-no-money-here about us. That’s on you. You’re the one who can’t be happy without money and a job where someone kisses your ass.”
“That’s not what this is about,” Nate insisted.
“If you can say that, then you’re not being honest with yourself.”
Nate sighed, the sound a weary thing. “Can we shelve this for now? As far as Callie’s concerned, we can go jump in a lake. She’s not wondering how our permanent threesome is going to work.”
There was a short knock on the door before Bill Hartman entered, followed by two men he’d hoped to never see again. Special Agents Ben Leander and Marcus Worthington strode behind the director of the community. They were dressed in what he liked to think of as upwardly mobile asshole wear. Suits, ties, expensive shoes, and sunglasses they often wore whether or not they needed them. They were friends with Nate, or more importantly, they had been friends with Nate’s father’s contacts. Nate was one of them, an agent who could have a stellar career. Zane was not. Zane, as far as they were concerned, was just a fuck-up who’d blown his cover. It didn’t matter that he’d done nothing wrong. It didn’t matter that he’d simply walked in one day and Ellis knew. No one believed that he hadn’t screwed up. Not even Nate.
Ben Leander slid the shades off, and there was no mistaking the contempt in his baby blues as he looked around. “Wright? I almost didn’t recognize you in that costume. It looks like Halloween around here.” He briefly inclined his perfectly coiffed head toward Zane. “Hollister. I should have known you would be hanging around.”
Bill seemed strangely comfortable being the only man in the room with his dick hanging out. Zane respected that about him. “Please feel free to use the office as long as you need to, gentlemen. If I can be of any assistance, I’ll be out on the lawn.” He closed the door quietly behind him.
Worthington shook his head. The sunglasses came off, and he smoothly slid them into his pocket. His eyes narrowed on the closed door. “Why the hell was that guy naked? Is this some kind of a joke? I thought we were here for serious reasons. Wright, what kind of place is this?”
“Hell, as far as I can see,” Leander replied, giving the office a once-over. It was obvious to Zane that Leander didn’t care for the homey surroundings.
“Welcome to rural Colorado, city slickers,” Zane said, throwing Max’s earlier words out. It felt good. Finally a place where he fit in and these jerks stood out like sore thumbs. He couldn’t believe Nate had called these guys in. Nate sure hadn’t thought outside the box on this one. “Shouldn’t the two of you be kissing someone’s dress shoes in El Paso?”
Leander rolled his eyes and then pointedly ignored him. It wasn’t the first time. Zane wasn’t stupid. These two put up with him because they thought Nate was going places.
“The director wanted us on this as quickly as possible. So Ellis is causing trouble?” Leander asked.
Nate reached in his pocket and pulled out the note from earlier. He passed it to the tall, dark-haired agent. “He had some men jump Zane last night. Then earlier today, this note was delivered to the station house. Apparently there’s a bounty on his head.”
“I didn’t think it was Hollister’s head he was interested in,” Worthington murmured. His lips curled slightly in distaste. Zane was pretty sure the agent was offended by the scars on his face.
Nate went a pale white. “Damn, you know that already? I didn’t put that in the report.”
Worthington raised a single aristocratic brow as he looked the note over. “You didn’t have to put it in. I have my ear to the ground. Do we have the person who dropped the note off in custody?”
Nate paled, and it was easy to see he was embarrassed. “She dropped it off with my deputy. He didn’t realize he should detain her.”
“You should train him better,” Leander said. “Well, I suppose we can check the CCTV cameras. We need an ID on her.”
“They don’t have cameras,” Nate replied and there it was again.
Zane wasn’t ashamed. “It’s a small town. Not a lot of need, if you know what I mean. People are good to each other here.”
Worthington snorted, an inelegant sound. “Sure they are. Well, at least someone was smart enough to call us in. I’ve already started the investigation. We have a whole network of informants and it didn’t take long to get a snitch talking. Ellis still has men in Texas willing to work for him. I was surprised they managed to track you down, though. Hollister fell off the grid. He isn’t even pulling a paycheck. The Barbarians must be serious about him. The word on the street is that Ellis is offering a lot of cash for him.”
“Where is he getting the money?” Zane asked the question with an exasperated sigh. “The man’s in jail. We shut down his operations. I know he still has followers, but where is he getting the kind of cash he needs to put a hit out on me?”
Leander shrugged. “You didn’t find all the cash. According to the forensic accountants, there’s still millions missing. We can’t figure out where he put it. It has to be in accounts somewhere, but there’s no paper trail. We’ve taken apart every computer associated with the Barbarian
s and can’t find the account numbers. He must have them memorized. We aren’t allowed to torture him, so we’ll probably never know. He kept everything hidden, even from his own lieutenants.”
“Son of a bitch,” Nate growled in obvious frustration. He seemed to shake it off and a professional expression took over his face. “Thank you for coming out. I’ve documented everything I know in the report I sent you. I want this guy taken down. I want to prove he’s running his gang from prison and get him shut in solitary for the rest of his freaking life.”
“That’s not going to be easy.” Worthington stared down at Nate. “We’re going back to the motel to call the Denver office, and then we’ll be at the meeting tonight. I hear there’s some kind of town hall. That should be fun. We just wanted to check and make sure you found…suitable arrangements.” A smirk lit the agent’s face. Zane wondered if he’d still smirk if he broke his nose. “Obviously no one will look for you here.”
Leander snickered. “Yeah, Wright, all you have to do is shoot anyone wearing pants, and you’ll be fine. It should make the job easy.”
Nate stood and sighed. “It’s a good, defensible position, okay? I’m doing the best I can with a bad situation. Back off. I have enough to deal with.”
“No shit,” Leander replied pointedly, looking at Zane. “Everyone knows what you have to put up with, man.”
Nate shook their hands. Zane stayed right where he was. No way was he kissing anyone’s butt.
Callie was his focus now. If it wasn’t the same for Nate, then they would part ways. Zane didn’t like the thought of it. It left him unsettled. He’d watched Nate’s back for years, depended on him for his very existence while they were undercover. They were closer than brothers.
And Zane would let him go if the choice was between Nate and Callie. A strange quiver hit his gut.
Callie was his future.
Nate was talking quietly to the agents while Zane had a sudden vision of building something here. He would have his bar, and he would have Callie. They could have a family. It wouldn’t be some grand mansion and lush life, but it would be theirs. The only thing marring that vision was the thought of Nate being so far away.