LOVE in a Small Town

by Janet Eaves

  “I looked everywhere!” she said. The hurt and anger were there, but softly delivered.

  “They were in a floorboard in my bedroom. It was the room you shared with him, wasn’t it?”

  Winnie nodded. “Where are they?”

  “You don’t want to see them.”

  A sigh or whimper escaped. He wasn’t sure which.

  “Yes. I do.”

  Tom pulled them from his pant pocket and handed them to her, but didn’t release them. “I need you to promise me you won’t destroy them.”

  She stared into his eyes for so long he thought he was going to have to pull them back. Finally she nodded. Taking a breath as big as the chance he was taking, he released them.

  Winnie turned them over and flipped one after the other, much as he had the first time he’d seen them. She handed them back. “I know Miss Betty. Who is the other girl?”

  Prouder of her by the minute, Tom tucked the pictures away. “Jack’s first wife. She was eighteen when she was reportedly an accident victim. I now think Butler killed her, and Betty. I think he would have eventually killed you. I’m having their bodies exhumed.”

  Winnie turned and walked to her bed, lowering herself on its edge. “And you want to exhume Jack’s body. Why?”

  Tom entered the room a few feet. “I need his DNA. It could be under the fingernails of either or both of his first wives. And I need to know his cause of death.”

  Winnie stared at him then tilted her head. “You think I killed him?”

  Tom didn’t know what to say. He was a sworn officer of the courts. An agent of a vital and necessary division of the government. And a patriot to the bone. But he knew he’d walk away from all of it if it meant handing Winnie over to more abuse. “Did you?”

  Tears filled her eyes and poured down her cheeks. “I wish to God I’d had the guts.”

  Tom moved forward and pulled her into his arms. Relief swept through him. Relief and desire for the gentle creature who had no idea how incredibly brave she really was. “It’s okay, baby. Everything is going to be okay.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Winnie sat on the couch as Polly and Tom discussed the pictures Polly held. She hadn’t felt the need to contribute anything to the conversation between the Sheriff and the ATF agent. Polly, with her permission, had filled Tom in on all the dirty details of her life with Jack Butler, and Tom had informed them both of the reason for his own investigation.

  Jack Butler had committed treason against the United States of America if the information Tom had was true–and she certainly had no reason to doubt him. Jack had, with the help of others–at least one person in Legend, and several other people outside of Tennessee–raised and sold tobacco on the black-market, and sold drugs–everything from homegrown marijuana to methamphetamines probably cooked somewhere on the farm or nearby. The black-market tobacco explained why the crops grown in the field never made it to the barn. Had it been there to cure, and be processed, neighbors might have questioned why it never made it to the local tobacco auction warehouse.

  It was all too much to absorb.

  “I need to continue the investigation I came to do, but I don’t see any reason to make Jack’s crime against his wives known. At least the ones against Winnie. It would serve no purpose to expose her like that. The others can’t be hurt anymore, but I’d like to keep this all under wraps until I can confirm my suspicions. It could take months.”

  Tom looked from the sheriff to her for a moment then he turned back to the sheriff who hadn’t said anything. “Butler’s dead. The other women are, too. All it would do is humiliate and embarrass Winnie.”

  Polly nodded, thoughtfully. “I agree. Let it go for now. What can I do to help you with the investigation?”

  Tom exhaled, relieved the sheriff hadn’t insisted on making Winnie’s private horror public. “I need for things to go on as they have. I think it’s possible that Butler’s side-kick, Randy Rudd, may be involved. I need everything we’ve discussed today to stay in this room until I can check Rudd out.” He pinned Winnie with his eyes. “I need to get him closer to me, which means I need to have you to allow me to befriend him at the house.”

  Heart pounding against her chest, Winnie nodded. “I’ll do whatever you need.”

  “I can’t believe you would involve a civilian. One who has already been hurt by these people,” Polly said, tucking the photos away.

  Tom frowned. “Don’t worry, Sheriff. I won’t let him or anyone else touch a hair on her head.”

  Winnie saw the sheriff out then returned to the parlor. Tom stood with his back to the fireplace again, his feet apart, again, only this time he watched her with gentle curiosity. “Do you hate me?”

  The question took her by surprise. “No.”

  “You have every right to grill me.”

  Winnie settled herself on the sofa and curled her legs under her. “Is there more I don’t know?”

  Tom shrugged. “Not really. You just haven’t said much about finding out that I work for the ATF.”

  Winnie mimicked his shrug. “What is there to say? You have a job. You did your job. I was nothing to you but a, what did you call me? A person of interest?”

  “You’re more to me than that, Winnie. I didn’t want you to be, but you are.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. “I am? You didn’t?”

  Tom approached her slowly. “You are. I’m pretty much crazy about you. I just couldn’t reconcile that with the possibility that you were a part of Butler’s criminal activity.”

  Winnie watched as he lowered himself to his knees before her. “I’m pretty crazy about you, too. I just couldn’t believe I’d ever consider letting another man touch me again.”

  “I want to touch you. I want to show you how incredibly good a man’s touch can make you feel. But I have time. Everything will be on your terms.”

  Winnie had thought she was free the day Jack Butler died, but now she knew it had been an illusion. Tom’s generous nature, his honor, his heart, was truly setting her free for the first time in her life. She lifted her hand to cup his jaw. “Then kiss me, Tom. Show me. Make me believe.”

  ****

  Tom rose and gently pulled her to her feet. He moved slowly, reverently, making the anticipation of his movements mean as much as the movements themselves. Winnie waited, having no desire to rush him, or herself. She had complete faith that he was going to fulfill every youthful fantasy she’d harbored about making love.

  The first touch of his long fingers against her jaw had her eyelids falling. She waited for his lips to meet hers in what she knew would be a gentle kiss, but seconds passed without him taking her mouth. She opened her eyes, finding his lips mere inches from her own, his eyes studying hers.

  “Watch. I want you to know it’s me you’re kissing.”

  Winnie felt her lips lift in a smile. “I know who it is that I’m kissing, Tom Green.”

  He grinned, the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Good.”

  She kept her eyes open only long enough for him to push the kiss beyond innocent. He kept it gentle, but deepened the kiss with each passing second. His arms held her firmly against him, but she didn’t feel trapped. His fingers kneaded the material across her back, making her aware the shirt was suddenly too hot.

  Tom lifted his head and stared into her eyes. “Are you sure?”

  Winnie nodded, free from fear. “Completely.”

  Smiling, he pulled her back to him in a secure hug. He lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “Where?”

  Winnie considered the possibilities as she pulled back so she could look into his handsome face. “Here.”

  Amusement lit Tom’s eyes. “Then where?”

  Winnie laughed. “The kitchen.”

  Before she could say more Tom lifted her arms and pulled her shirt over her head. She began unbuttoning his shirt as he reached for the rear clasp of her bra. She glanced up at him, suddenly losing her nerve. “Tom?”

  He
must have seen it in her eyes because he pulled her to him and held her close. “What is it, baby?”

  She hated to even mention him, now, when he should have been completely buried from her mind. But she had to know. “How can you want me, knowing what he did?”

  The arms around her tightened, making her think she’d made him mad. But he surprised her by loosening his hold and lifting her chin so he could look into her eyes. “When I look at you, you are all I see.

  “You are so beautiful. You are so brave. You make me laugh at life again. You, my sweet, are the only woman I would entrust with my heart.”

  Humbled, Winnie tilted up on her toes and kissed him. “Thank you. I trust you. I want you. I just don’t want anything else to come between us, and this moment.”

  Tom took her lips again, a deep drugging kiss that promised what was to come. “Nothing, Winnie. You, me. And nothing else. This moment, and all the moments to come.”

  Satisfied, she pushed open his shirt and was startled by the puckering scar over his heart, marring his incredibly muscular chest. She touched it gently. “Who was she?”

  Tom threw back his head and laughed. “Damn, woman, I love you.”

  Epilogue

  With the full moon visible outside the lodge’s long row of windows facing the lake, Winnie twirled around the dance floor, wondering how she’d gotten so blessed. It was such a relief to have Randy Rudd tucked into Federal prison and Jack’s illegally gotten gains out of her house. The investigation had come to a head shortly after Tom resumed the investigation with her help. They had dangled the millions of dollars Jack horded before Randy and he’d taken the bait–adding grand larceny to his long list of crimes.

  His arrest and the subsequent search of his home proved a goldmine of evidence. He had been cooking the methamphetamines in a trailer behind his house, and was drying the marijuana plants from the rafters of a small barn on his property. His trash provided a valuable source of documentation, proving he travelled regularly to meet with the people in Chicago who were even now being arrested and run through the court system. The photographic equipment was there as well, and more pictures, pictures proving Jack and Randy had shared a sick obsession with hurting, then photographing women. What Jack hadn’t known was that Randy had poisoned him, something the man plead guilty to so he wouldn’t get the needle. In the end, the amount of evidence in Legend, in conjunction with what the Chicago investigation revealed, should and probably would land Randy Rudd a starting role as some beefy guy’s prison-bitch for the rest of his life.

  It was no less than he deserved.

  She’d been given the go ahead to sell the farm and keep the proceeds since she’s hadn’t had anything to do with Jack Butler’s crimes. True, she wouldn’t have nearly as much money as if she’d kept the millions to herself, but she could sleep at night with a clear conscience, and the proceeds from the sale of the farm as well as the crops ready to be harvested in the field would set her up nicely for years to come even if she was completely on her own. Something she had no intention of being, whether Tom returned to Chicago or took Polly Stevens up on her offer of a job within the Sheriff’s Department in Legend.

  Winnie scanned the ballroom, putting all thoughts of the men and their crimes away. She never needed to think about them again. She had a sweet life now. One that she would hold tight to. Her friends were all around her, laughing, dancing, drinking and eating. Their host and hostess, Brad and Suzie Matthews, seemed right at home as they roamed the lodge’s large ballroom, a room that was usually used as overflow for the regular dining room, which was nearly as large.

  Lights twinkled all around them in the dimly lit room. A string band played soft, sweeping music that made couples think of romance. Winnie was no different. She glanced up at the man she was falling head over heels in love with. “You know, that room we have upstairs is wondering where we are.”

  Tom chuckled and pulled her closer. “Woman, you are insatiable. A man needs a moment to recover.”

  Winnie laughed. “Since when do you need a moment?”

  Tom ground his erection against her, proving her point. “What will our hosts think? We just got down here fifteen minutes ago.”

  Winnie glanced across the room to find Brad and Suzie Matthews. They were huddled together with Jim and Lilly Hood, Martin and Midnight McClain, Graham and Jane Winchester, and Catcher and Sheriff Polly Stevens. The men were all facing each other, deep in discussion. The women all watched her and Tom with wide smiles and various gestures–some of them rather naughty–of encouragement.

  She laughed and turned her attention back to the man holding her so close. “I don’t think they’ll mind at all.”

  Tom released her body, grabbed her hand, and practically dragged her from the ballroom, up the stairs, and took the old-fashioned cage lift up to their floor. Once inside their room, he took her lips, picking up the pace of their lovemaking as he’d never done before.

  Winnie caught on quickly, delighted he’d finally decided to stop treating her like a China doll. Not that she’d had anything to complain about over the past month, since the man made an art of making her orgasm. But this was fun, too.

  She met him kiss for kiss, as they nearly tore each other’s clothes off. Kisses turned to nibbles, then love bites as sleek black dress and rented black tux and stark white shirt hit the floor. Winnie pushed Tom backwards onto the bed, then climbed on top, spearing herself in one quick motion. Tom nearly screamed out his pleasure, and began bucking, enjoyment flashed from fiercely intense eyes as he held onto her hips as if he was afraid he’d lose her if he let go.

  She rode him hard, her body a piston, her heart ready to explode. The sensation started as it always did, as a subtle warning, building to a vibrating, earth shattering eruption that made her want to laugh and scream at the same time. She held on as Tom found that spot he always found. The one that magnified that explosion within her until she could no longer contain it silently. The sound that rolled from her throat should have brought the house down on them, or brought the police at the very least.

  But the music from the ballroom had surely drowned her out, and since she’d spent the past month becoming so close to the women a couple of floors below, the sheriff was fully aware of her reaction to Tom’s lovemaking.

  Tom turned her over, his glistening body now the one seeking release. He found it seconds later, breathless, wheezing, his heart pounding against hers as if it would jump from his chest. He collapsed, nuzzling her. “I swear woman, you are going to kill me.”

  Winnie laughed. “Not a chance, sweetheart. I plan on having you around for years to come.” She giggled. “And years to cum.”

  THE END

  MURDER ON THE MOUNTAIN

  A Ladies of Legend Romantic Suspense Novel

  By Maddie James

  Kate Carpenter thinks her Tennessee State trooper husband is dead. ATF Agent Michael Lehman knows he is not.

  When Michael goes undercover into Kate’s elementary classroom for a few weeks, posed as a school drug cop, his mission is to find out what Kate knows about her husband’s supposed death, and to determine if she has any involvement in hiding away the AWOL trooper turned drug runner.

  His mission is to get answers. Get into her life. And not into her panties. But somehow things go haywire….

  TROOPER BRUTALLY MURDERED ON LEGEND MOUNTAIN

  The Knoxville News Sentinel, Associated Press

  Legend, TN: A Tennessee State Police Trooper was killed in the line of duty Thursday morning, in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains outside of Legend, Tennessee. Legend is approximately one hour east of Knoxville.

  Trooper Robert T. Carpenter, a four-year veteran of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, responded to a distress call from a motorist around two a.m. while working his routine shift. The female caller indicated to dispatch that her car had stalled on a secluded mountain road and that she required assistance.

  Records show Carpenter radioed his arrival at the strande
d motorist’s vehicle at 2:18 a.m.

  Approximately one hour later, a passing motorist discovered Carpenter’s burning body lying beside his cruiser, lights flashing, the driver’s side door open, and the engine running. Carpenter died at the scene.

  A native of Florida, Trooper Carpenter relocated to Tennessee five years ago, and was currently residing in the community of Legend, Tennessee, with his wife of one year.

  An investigation is in process.

  Prologue

  Two years later…

  They were the longest, sexiest legs Michael Lehmann thought he had ever seen.

  Although her frame was small, with narrow hips and a wasp-like waist, her legs, as they say, went all the way up. The woman wore a pair of low-slung black trousers that hugged tight to her hips and thighs, showing off some of her best assets. A white knit sweater clung to every curve of her upper body—and the curves were ample. Although she wasn’t an overly tall woman, the illusion of tall and thin was accentuated by her outfit. The finishing touch a pair of black boots sporting heels that looked a little too high to be “teacher-ish.”

  But the thing that snapped Michael’s libido to attention embarrassingly quick, was the mane of blond hair streaked with auburn highlights, coupled with emerald eyes set like perfect jewels against the backdrop of black and white.

  Deep emerald eyes.

  Yes. He knew that. He had stared into them a whole lot lately—well, into the photo in her file. He’d studied this case, and Kate Carpenter, for weeks. He glanced to that manila file folder, now laying open across the passenger side of his cruiser—said picture staring back up at him—and frowned.

  Not the open-and-shut case they’d once thought. No. That feeling was stuck in his gut. This all went much deeper.

  Dammit.

  As he sat parked next to the Legend Elementary school playground, his gaze lifted and he returned to examine every inch of Kate’s body while she crossed the school-yard. His breathing deepened as he took in the sexy hitch in her step, every subtle expression on her face. He scowled. Another place, another time—perhaps if he’d spotted her in a bar, or at the mall—he’d have approached her and made small talk, perhaps asked for her number. Pursued her. Admitting his attraction to her, even to himself, during a case was against his own personal moral code.