Matchmaking with a Mission

by B. J Daniels

  She’d always been shy with men. She’d only known two others intimately, one her high school sweetheart, the other a man she’d dated through most of college.

  Neither had made her feel like this. But both of them had been “safe,” men she’d known a long time. Nate Dempsey was neither. She didn’t know him. Nor could she explain why he frightened her more than she wanted to admit. Just as she couldn’t explain why she wanted him so fiercely.

  As she began to unbutton his jeans, he reached behind her and unhooked her bra. She groaned as he freed her breasts and took one hard nipple in his mouth. Her body tingled at his touch, goose bumps rippling over her bare skin.

  He worked off her panties as she did the same with his jeans and shorts, and then they were both naked on the grassy creek bank, the breeze whispering in the trees over them, new leaves flickering, the light playing on their bodies as they made love. Once with a fever, then slowly, as if they might never get another chance.

  “DO YOU WANT TO TELL me about it?” she asked as they lay spent on the creek bank. He’d left her only long enough to hang their clothing on a limb to dry in the sun. The horses grazed nearby to the murmur of the creek.

  “No,” Nate said and softened his words with a rueful smile. “It happened a long time ago.”

  She chewed thoughtfully, then asked where he’d learned to ride a horse.

  He was thankful she hadn’t pushed, as well as grateful that she’d brought up a pleasant memory. He told her about the ranch where he’d grown up in Paradise Valley along the Yellowstone River by Livingston.

  “My adoptive family raised cattle and horses—quarter horses,” he told her. “My adoptive father taught me how to ride. I fell in love with it immediately and I’ve had a horse ever since.”

  “What was your mother like?” she asked, not looking at him as she twisted a few strands of green grass in her fingers.

  He knew what she was asking. “My birth mother couldn’t care for me. She was alone, and her choice in boyfriends left something to be desired.” While avoiding the whole truth, he didn’t lie to her. He couldn’t. Not now. “I never knew my father. All I had of him was his name. I kept his name. Dempsey. It was all I had of my father. My adoptive parents understood. My birth mother had a lot of boyfriends, but she never remarried, even when she had my little brother years later. My adoptive mother was the most loving, generous woman I’ve ever known. She loved to bake. There were always cookies and pies and homemade ice cream. My adoptive parents more than made up for anything that had happened to me before they took me into their family.”

  “You must have made them proud,” she said, finally meeting his gaze.

  “I hope so.” He glanced away, unable to shake the feeling that she knew. Not just why he was in Whitehorse but what he’d come here to do. “McKenna, don’t move into the house. Not yet.”

  “Is that what this was about?” she demanded, sitting up abruptly.

  “No, making love to you has nothing to do with—”

  “Save your breath. I know it’s never been about me. It’s always been about whatever has you on this property.”

  “You’re wrong. You have to understand it’s about that man who came by—”

  She was on her feet. “I thought you said he was gone.”

  “He’ll be back.”

  “And you know that how? No, don’t,” she said, holding up her hands before he could speak. “I’m moving in. I don’t need you to stay and protect me, if that’s what you’re worried about. I know that’s not why you’re here.”

  “Wait. I—”

  “We should get back,” she said, walking over to retrieve her clothing from the tree.

  He rose, knowing that anything he said would be wrong. Too many people had told her that buying Harper House was a mistake. But it was her own doubts, he thought, that had her back up. She was determined to stick this out come hell or high water.

  If he told her the truth—that the man who called himself Hal Turner was, he believed, in fact Roy Vaughn and a killer—then she would go to her future brother-in-law, the sheriff. And that would scare Vaughn away.

  Nate couldn’t let that happen. Once Roy Vaughn was dead…

  But he knew it would be too late for him and McKenna. All the lies would come to the surface. And all the truths.

  He avoided her gaze, wondering if he could feel any more guilty. He should never have let this happen.

  As he dressed, his back to her, he cursed himself for forgetting what was at stake. And, more to the point, the danger.

  Vaughn would be back. He could be watching them right now. If he thought for a moment that Nate cared for this woman…

  Nate knew he’d have to fix this. In his attempt to keep McKenna safe, he’d only made matters worse.

  He turned to look at her. She’d dressed and was now pulling on her boots, her eyes cast down. Did she regret what they’d done? How could she not?

  What if she knew that while they’d been making love Lucky had been digging on the hillside behind her house for a body? And that this whole ride wasn’t thoughtful but deceitful—just like Nate Dempsey himself.

  Even if he told her how he felt about her…

  He shoved that thought away. Any way he looked at it, this was going to have a bad end.

  McKenna said nothing on the ride back to the house. Nor did Nate. What was there to say, anyway?

  “If it’s all right with you and Blue, I’ll go ahead and keep my horse here, too,” McKenna said as they unsaddled their horses. If anything, her words were a little cool. She acted as if she knew the score. They’d both gotten carried away. It had been consensual. No harm done. He should be grateful she was taking it so well. Instead he felt like hell and it was all he could do not to tell her how wrong she was.

  “It was a nice break from working on the house,” she said. “Thank you again.”

  He watched her turn and walk toward the house, head up, shoulders squared and back ramrod-straight. He cursed himself for hurting her.

  “My pleasure,” he whispered to himself as he watched her walk away. How much longer could he take being this close to her? He wanted her as desperately as he had back in the hills beside the creek. But then, he would always want this woman, he thought as she disappeared inside Harper House.

  What he had to concentrate on was keeping her alive.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Nate had left shortly after their return from their horseback ride, and her sisters had arrived with a horse trailer full of her furniture.

  Between painting and overseeing the placement of her things, the rest of the day passed in a haze. But not for one moment was Nate Dempsey far from her thoughts.

  A mistake, her sister Eve would have told her. And there were moments McKenna would have agreed. But she couldn’t regret making love with him. Nate had opened up to her. Had she glimpsed the man she believed in her heart him to be?

  He was such a mystery to her, and not for a moment was she foolish enough to think he wasn’t hiding something from her. Holding back. She thought of the scars on his back. He’d implied that they had been the result of one of his birth mother’s boyfriends. Not that it mattered who’d done it.

  She thought about the boys who’d lived here at Harper House. Had they been just as cruelly treated?

  “Are you all right?” Eve asked at her elbow.

  McKenna came out of her thoughts with a start. “Fine.”

  “You seem a little flushed.”

  “I told you—I went on a horseback ride this morning. I guess I got too much sun.”

  Eve didn’t look convinced. “Where is your hired man?”

  “Nate? He’s not my hired man.”

  Her sister was eyeing her intently. “Just be careful, okay? I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  McKenna started to deny that was a possibility but decided to save her breath. She nodded and felt tears burn her eyes. “Might be too late for that.”

  “I DIDN’T FIN
D A THING,” Lucky said when Nate finally caught up with him late in the afternoon at the cabin he was staying in on Nelson Reservoir, outside of town. “I’m telling you there’s nothing out there to find.”

  Nate walked over to the window to stare out at the water. He’d been upset since his horseback ride with McKenna. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. Or worrying about her safety.

  He’d hoped that Lucky would find something. That he could quit sneaking around. Quit lying.

  “Nate, come on, what if he left just like Roy said he did?”

  “Johnny would have come back for me. He wouldn’t have left me there,” Nate said. He had to believe that. “He was my brother.”

  “Maybe for some reason he couldn’t come back for you before the state showed up.”

  “He would have found me somehow over the years.”

  “Not if he couldn’t face you. Not if—”

  Nate turned to look at him.

  “Not if he ran out on you,” Lucky finished. “Look, I know you don’t want to hear this, but Johnny’s body isn’t out there. I dug in the area where you thought you saw Roy Vaughn bury someone that night. There’s no body there.”

  “Then Vaughn got to it first.”

  “How is that possible? You were here within hours of hearing about Ellis Harper’s death. You see any place where someone had been digging?”

  Nate said nothing. Lucky was right. He couldn’t explain what had happened to Johnny’s body—just that he knew he was dead, that Johnny hadn’t run away, that he had been buried late that night behind Harper House.

  “I gotta tell you, I think you’re wrong about Roy coming back, too,” Lucky said. “After all this time, he’s forgotten about the past. Hell, he could be dead.”

  “He’s alive. A man calling himself Hal Turner turned up at Harper House.”

  “Hal Turner?”

  “This man fits Roy’s description—big, mean-looking.”

  Lucky laughed. “It’s been more than twenty years. You’re telling me that you can tell from that description that he’s Roy? The last time you saw Roy Vaughn, he was twelve.”

  “I’m telling you it’s Vaughn. It has to be Vaughn.”

  Lucky shook his head. “If it’s Vaughn and he’s so hell-bent on revenge, then why are Frank Merkel and Rosemarie Blackmore still kickin’? And why aren’t you dead? You’ve been making yourself a fine target ever since you hit town.”

  “You remember Vaughn. He liked to play games with our heads. He scared McKenna Bailey by showing up there twice, once pretending he was looking for a job, the second time by pushing her down as she was leaving the house.”

  Lucky blinked. “Giving her a push? Does that sound like Roy to you? He would just as soon cut her throat. Buddy, I think you’re losing it here.”

  Nate hated to think how close Lucky was to the truth. “It has to end here. I’m not giving up on finding Johnny’s body.” Or taking down Roy Vaughn once and for all.

  “Okay,” he said, holding up his hands. “Then I’m with you.”

  “No, you’ve done enough. I don’t want you involved. I never wanted you involved. Vaughn doesn’t have anything against you.” He started for the door, then stopped to look back at Lucky. “Let me handle this.”

  Lucky shook his head. “I don’t know how you can do it, being out there. All the time I was digging behind the house I was looking over my shoulder—and it wasn’t Roy Vaughn I was feeling behind me. It was all those memories, man.”

  “You know why I have to stay out there.”

  “Yeah? I’m telling you, you aren’t going to find Johnny buried behind Harper House. He’s tipping margaritas down in Florida with some hot woman in a bikini.”

  Nate wished that was the case. He could forgive Johnny for leaving. For running for his life. He wished with all his heart that’s exactly what Johnny had done.

  “It doesn’t have to be this way. We can leave. Roy isn’t coming back. None of them are coming back. It’s over, don’t you see? Even if you’re right and Johnny is dead, nothing will bring him back. Roy ain’t worth going to prison for the rest of your life.”

  Nate had no intention of going to prison. Vaughn would disappear. Just as Johnny had. “It won’t be over for me until I find Johnny and his killer.”

  Lucky shook his head. “That’s why I’m here.”

  “Thanks, but I’d feel better if you weren’t around.”

  “No such luck, buddy. If you’re determined to go through with this, then I am, too.”

  AFTER EVERYONE LEFT, McKenna finished unpacking a few more boxes. She knew she was just stalling, hoping to see Nate.

  There was nothing stopping her from staying in the house tonight. She wouldn’t need Nate Dempsey to protect her. When had she suddenly needed a man to protect her anyway?

  When you bought this house.

  It wasn’t the house, she repeated silently to herself.

  No, it’s the house’s past.

  She could always sell the place and buy something else. She could send Nate packing.

  But she knew she wouldn’t do either.

  “Why do you have to be so stubborn?” she asked aloud, her voice echoing in the room.

  She wondered if her fight for this house was now more about stubbornness than the house itself.

  And Nate Dempsey?

  She knew how that would end. Heck, it probably already had. A man like him, one who’d built such a wall around himself, he would run as fast as he could after this. If his horse trailer wasn’t still parked out back and his horse still in the pasture, she would have assumed he was already long gone.

  At the sound of a vehicle, she went to the window. A truck slowed and turned in, the headlights sweeping across the house. She ducked back until the lights passed the window before she looked out. Nate. Her heart took off at a gallop even as she tried to rein it in. Don’t go falling for this man.

  She watched him drive by, not slowing even though he had to see the lights on in the house and her pickup parked outside. She waited until she heard the truck engine die, knowing he wouldn’t come to the house.

  He didn’t.

  Disgusted with herself for even thinking that he would, she turned off the light and headed for her pickup, knowing she wouldn’t get a wink of sleep here tonight. She’d deal with all this tomorrow. She wasn’t in the habit of wanting unavailable men. She wasn’t even in the habit of dating. She hadn’t met anyone who interested her enough to date more than once for a long time now.

  As for wantonly wanting a man as she had this morning on the bank of the creek…well, this was new territory and she felt completely inept at it.

  It wasn’t until she reached the truck that she realized something was wrong.

  The yard light was out. Darkness and silence bathed the property, the nearby cottonwoods black against the sky. One tree cast a long, inky shadow over the pickup.

  McKenna glanced toward the house as she fumbled her keys from her pocket. The night felt too quiet. Definitely too dark. This house far too isolated, even with her knowing that Nate was just down by the creek. It seemed too far away right now. A distance neither of them was willing to cross.

  She started to open the pickup’s door when her ankles were grabbed by someone hiding under her pickup. As her feet were jerked out from under her, she fell backward so fast she didn’t have time to break her fall. Her back slammed into the ground, the air knocked from her. Before she could move, she heard him come clambering out from under the truck.

  Instinctively she kicked at him as she fought to breathe, to scream, as she crab-walked furiously backward in an attempt to escape. But there was no getting away, no making a sound before his big hands grappled her to the ground and locked on her throat.

  He bent over her, so close she could smell him and make out the coarse features of the man who called himself Hal Turner.

  “Stupid bitch,” he said as he tightened his grip on her throat. “You should have cleared out wh
en you had a chance.”

  NATE TOLD HIMSELF that going up to the house would be the worst thing he could do. The moment he saw McKenna he’d want her in his arms. He’d made that mistake earlier today. A man head over heels with a woman made mistakes.

  He needed his mind on Roy Vaughn because he was betting that Roy’s was on him. Worse, Nate worried that he’d already blown it. By morning McKenna Bailey would want him off her property. He was surprised she hadn’t come out tonight to evict him.

  Maybe she was pretending that what happened between them hadn’t mattered. That she did this sort of thing all the time. But he knew better. She wasn’t that kind of woman. She must be as upset about their lovemaking as he was. He just prayed it wasn’t the worst mistake she would ever make. Because Vaughn had already been using her to get to Nate. If Vaughn thought that Nate cared anything about her…

  He glanced toward the house before crawling into his tent. The lights were out. She’d probably left. He hadn’t heard her drive away. Maybe she’d left as soon as he’d come in. Or maybe she was staying the night here.

  Angry with himself, he lay on his back on his sleeping bag and listened to the night. Listened for the man who’d haunted his nightmares for years. He’d been so sure he would find Johnny’s body. But then what? Without DNA tests, how could he even prove it was Johnny? And as for proof that Vaughn had killed him…

  He swore. Why kid himself? He hadn’t come here looking for justice. He’d planned to kill Vaughn in cold blood. He wanted revenge. Retribution. To hell with justice.

  He also wanted to give his brother a proper burial. If he ever found his body.

  Vaughn would know that he wasn’t up here looking for evidence to convict Johnny’s killer. He’d know that Nate was gunning for him. Is that why he hadn’t shown?

  Nate wasn’t leaving here until Johnny’s killer was dead. It surprised him that Lucky had tried to talk him into leaving without finishing this. Lucky wouldn’t have been here if he hadn’t known Nate, known exactly why he was here and what it would take to make him leave without what he’d come for.