“Tell me what else you can cook,” he said after he’d finished eating and she’d cleared away their dishes.
“I do a mean fried chicken and homemade mac and cheese. I also love to cook anything Italian or Mexican.”
“She’s not only incredibly beautiful, but she also fries chicken...definitely a woman after my own heart,” he replied with a lazy grin that pooled a well of heat in the pit of her stomach.
“He can not only ride a horse and keep a ranch running smoothly, but he also brings puzzles for me and my son...definitely a man after my heart,” she replied.
He leaned back, the amusement gone from his eyes as he stared at her intently. “Too bad there isn’t any music. I’d love to hold you in my arms and dance close to you right now.”
Her mouth went dry. “Who needs music?”
His eyes blazed hot and he left his chair and moved around the table to pull her up from hers. “May I have this dance?”
“Absolutely,” she replied.
They took two steps away from the table and then he placed his arms around her waist and pulled her tight against him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and released a sigh into the base of his throat as their bodies melded together.
They were supposed to be dancing, but neither of them even pretended to move their feet. Instead they remained perfectly still. She felt as if the only thing that moved at all was her heart, which raced with a rapid beat.
“Trisha,” he finally said softly.
She raised her head to look at him and immediately his mouth captured hers. Her fingers curled in the crisp hair at the nape of his neck as she parted her lips.
As he deepened the kiss, everything else fell away. The little table and the rack that held spare café T-shirts disappeared. The table with the plastic cloth vanished. There was nothing but her and Dusty and this moment.
His hands moved slowly from her back to her butt and as he pulled her even closer into him, he gently thrust his hips against hers.
He was aroused, but then so was she. She thrust back, his hardness creating a friction point that shot electricity through her veins.
His hands moved up her back beneath her blouse. Pinpricks of heat fired off everywhere his slightly callused fingertips touched her bare skin. She fought to contain the moan of pleasure that leaped to her lips.
“Trisha,” he whispered as his mouth left hers and instead moved down her throat. “You make me half-crazy.”
And it was definitely mutual. She wanted to rip off her blouse, shrug off her bra and allow him to touch every inch of her bare flesh. She wanted to tear off his shirt so that their bodies could know each other more intimately.
His lips once again claimed hers and their tongues swirled together in a heady dance that left her weak and gasping. He suddenly dropped his arms and moved back from her.
He raked a hand through his hair and stared at her with an intensity that felt as though he was still touching her physically. “We’ve got to stop now. I want you, Trisha. I want to make love to you, but not in the back room of the café.”
She nodded. He stepped close to her once again, but instead of pulling her back into his arms, he stroked his fingers down the side of her face. “I don’t only want the time to be right between us, but I also want the place to be right, and this just isn’t right.”
“I agree,” she replied and drew in a tremulous breath in an effort to slow the rapid beat of her heart. With shaky legs she walked over to the table and picked up her water glass, hoping that the cold liquid would cool her off.
“I don’t think a drink of water will help me. What I really need is an hour-long icy shower right about now,” he said with a rueful smile. “Maybe it’s best if we call it a night. I’ll help you put things back in order and then I’ll follow you to the motel.”
“You know you don’t have to do that,” she replied.
“And skip out on the chance to give you one last kiss? No way.”
Twenty minutes later she was in her car with Dusty’s truck right behind her. The night had been a wonderful success and as incredible as it seemed, she realized that she was on the verge of falling in love with the dimpled cowboy.
If somebody had told her that she could feel this way about a man so quickly, she would have denied it was possible. But the heart apparently knew no clock or sense of time.
She parked her car in front of her unit and Dusty was at her door before she could gather her things to get out. She had not only her purse but also an aluminum pan containing the leftover food for Cooper and Juanita to enjoy the next day and the gift that he had brought for her and her son.
“Hand me the food and the puzzles and I’ll carry them for you,” he said.
She gave him the items and then grabbed her purse and got out of the car. They’d only taken two steps toward her door when she stopped.
No...not again.
Propped against her door was a large box of candy and a white piece of paper. “Trisha, take the food and I’ll check it out.” Dusty’s voice seemed to come from very far away.
Fighting against the familiar frantic fear, she took the container and present from him and watched as he walked to the door and bent down to retrieve the note and the candy.
“Trisha, it’s nothing to be afraid of,” he said as he returned to her side. “It’s just another mystery gift.”
“Open the note.” Her voice sounded distant and strained even to her own ears.
“YOU’RE MINE.”
The words on the paper seemed to scream at her.
You belong to me and nobody else is ever going to have you.
You’re mine and I’m all that you’ll ever need in your life.
The deep, horrifyingly familiar voice thundered in her brain as she stared down at the note.
“It’s just my luck—you get candy and I get a rattlesnake in my bed.”
His words penetrated the veil of terror and she stared at him with a new horror. His features were bathed in the motel’s neon lights. He looked perfectly calm as his skin turned yellow and then red.
She definitely wasn’t calm. “A rattlesnake in your bed?” She stumbled two steps back from him. “When...when did that happen?”
“Monday night.”
“Why...why didn’t you tell me about it before now?” The fear still torched through her.
He cocked his head to one side. “Why would I tell you about it? It didn’t have anything to do with you.”
“But it does. I know it does. I have to go... We need to leave town.”
He bent down and set the box of candy and the note on the ground. “Trisha, calm down. I told you before that I won’t let anything happen to you or to Cooper.”
A sharp bark of hysterical laugher escaped her. “I’m not worried about me. He’s here, Dusty.” Her laughter turned into a choking sob. “He’s someplace close and he’s already killed. He’s going to come after you, Dusty, and he won’t stop until you’re dead.”
CHAPTER 7
“Trisha, what in the hell are you talking about?” Dusty asked. Her features were so pale in the moonlight she looked like a ghost.
He didn’t wait for a reply. Instead he took the container of food and the wrapped gift from her and knocked softly on the motel room door. Juanita answered and he thrust the items at her. “Can you stay for another thirty minutes or so?” he asked.
“Is everything all right?” she asked worriedly.
“Everything is just fine. We thought we were ready to call it an evening, but there are a few things we still need to discuss. We’ll be back soon.”
“Take your time,” Juanita replied.
Whatever was going on, he knew Trisha wouldn’t talk about it in the motel room with Cooper present, and he didn’t want to stand in the
middle of the parking lot to have an important conversation.
What on earth was she talking about? Who in the hell did she think would kill him? All he knew for sure was that he wasn’t going to end this night without some concrete answers from her.
He took her by the elbow and led her to his pickup. “Get in,” he commanded her as he opened the passenger door.
She moved like a robot and once she was in the truck, he hurried around to the driver’s side. He didn’t speak as he started the engine and left the motel parking lot with a spray of gravel.
Silently, he drove out of town and didn’t stop until they were on a deserted country road. He pulled to the side of the road, killed his engine and then unfastened his seat belt and turned to look at her.
Her face was still unusually pale in the moonlight that filtered in through the truck windows, but her eyes burned with a white-hot fear he couldn’t even begin to understand.
“Talk to me, Trisha. Tell me what’s happening. Is this about the stalking thing you told me about before? Who is he? Who has you so afraid?” The questions fired out of him.
She blinked rapidly and her eyes misted with tears. “His name is Frank D’Marco and he’s Cooper’s father.” The words seemed to rip from the very depths of her soul.
Cooper’s father? What in the hell? “But I thought you told me that he was dead, that he was killed in a motorcycle accident.”
She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself as if fighting off a chill. “I lied, Dusty. I wanted to believe that he was dead.” She opened her eyes and looked at him. “But he was never in an accident. Now I think he’s here in Bitterroot. You’re mine... That’s what he used to tell me over and over again. He’s dangerous, Dusty.” Her lips trembled and a tear slipped onto her cheek.
“You said he’s killed before. Who?” Dusty’s head reeled with this new information, but he wasn’t sure how seriously to take any of this. Obviously this was so much bigger than the stalking incident she’d mentioned before.
“I believe he killed my best friend—and my mother.” She covered her face with her hands and began to weep in earnest.
Dusty didn’t try to stop her tears. He simply reached over and placed a hand on her knee and squeezed in an effort to show his quiet support.
He still didn’t have the answers he needed, but he recognized real grief when he saw it and his chest tightened with her obvious pain and heartrending tears.
She cried for several long minutes and then sat up straighter in the seat. She swiped at her face and then dropped her hands to her lap where her fingers twisted together in obvious anxiety.
Dusty moved his hand from her knee and pulled one of her hands into his own. Cold. Her fingers were icy cold as they curled around his. “Start at the beginning and tell me everything,” he said gently. “Don’t leave anything out. I need to understand everything.”
She squeezed his hand as if it were a lifeline in a sea of terror and drew in a deep, shuddery breath. “I was twenty-two years old when I met him at the restaurant he owned with his father and two brothers in Chicago. That’s where I lived...in Chicago. He was handsome and charming and we started dating.” She shook her head and frowned. “There were so many red flags, but I was young and naive and ultimately so incredibly stupid.”
“So, the two of you started dating,” he repeated to move the conversation forward.
She nodded. “It quickly got fairly intense. Within three months we were spending most of our free time together and when we weren’t together he was either calling or texting me almost nonstop. He was my first serious relationship and I thought all of his attention was sweet, but my best friend, Courtney, worried that he was too possessive and controlling. Courtney didn’t like Frank and he didn’t like her. Six months after Frank and I started dating Courtney was killed in a drive-by shooting in front of her apartment building.” She closed her eyes as if battling against another wave of tears.
Dusty didn’t even attempt to process what she was telling him. He needed to hear everything before he could properly assess the entire situation.
She turned her head to stare out the passenger window. “The whole crime was confusing because Courtney didn’t live in a high-risk neighborhood where drive-by shootings ever happened. The police also couldn’t come up with a motive or a suspect in the crime. As far as I know it’s still an open cold case.”
“And after that?” Dusty asked softly. He squeezed her hand once again to encourage her to continue.
“And after that Frank was super supportive and our relationship continued. But when he started pressing me to move in with him, I refused. Even though I thought I was in love with him, I liked having my own space. When I got pregnant with Cooper, I still wasn’t ready to live with Frank. I just wasn’t ready to make that kind of commitment.”
She pulled her hand from his and instead worried it through her hair. “The first three months of my pregnancy weren’t easy ones. I had terrible morning sickness and my mother came to stay with me. Although Frank didn’t say anything, I could tell that he resented her presence. Like Courtney, Mom had serious concerns about Frank. She was even afraid that he was so jealous that he would eventually come to resent the baby and might possibly hurt him. And then when I was eight months pregnant, she was killed in a home invasion burglary. I completely lost it. I was in a total fog until I went into labor with Cooper.”
She paused a moment and drew in a deep breath and continued, “Frank was at work and it was as if that first labor pain suddenly cleared my head. I knew in my gut, in the very depths of my soul that Frank had killed both Courtney and my mother and I knew that I had to do whatever I could to get as far away from him as possible.”
It was as if a dam had burst inside her and the words couldn’t get out of her mouth fast enough. “I packed up all of my personal belongings and everything I’d received as a gift for the baby and then drove myself to the hospital. Cooper was born ten hours later and two days after that, when we were released from the hospital, I got into my car and left Chicago.”
Dusty stared at her in amazement. “You couldn’t have been healed up from the birth by then.”
“I wasn’t, but it’s amazing what you can do when you’re afraid, especially when you’re afraid not only for yourself but for your child. I drove for five hours and then checked into a crummy motel where I thought nobody would find me. Cooper and I stayed there two weeks and then I drove some more and checked into another motel...and another.”
“What did you do for money? How did you survive?” Dusty’s amazement turned to a wealth of admiration as he realized the incredible inner strength she possessed. She’d endured the murders of two people close to her and had run to assure her own survival and that of her son.
“I had some savings that we lived on for the first couple of months and then I finally contacted my mother’s lawyer. I knew that I was her sole beneficiary and he had a check ready to mail to me. It wasn’t a lot, but Cooper and I lived on that money until I got the job here at the café.” Grief once again splashed on her cheeks in the form of new tears.
“And what about Frank? Did you ever hear from him again?”
She shook her head and once again swiped the tears away with one hand. “No, at least not until now.” She released a shuddery sigh. “I thought enough time had passed. I thought it was finally safe for me to start to build something normal, but I should have known better.”
Defeat shone from her eyes. “You have to take me back now, Dusty. It’s time to run. Cooper and I have to leave here.”
“No, you don’t have to run,” he countered. “Trisha, we still don’t know if those mystery gifts are from Frank or from somebody else in town. What we need right now is more information. We need to contact Dillon and see what he can find out about Frank. For all we know, the man might be dead or in prison.”
“But what about the rattlesnake in your bed?”
“Ah, that critter could have gotten in a dozen different ways. It’s not the first time a snake has slithered into one of the bunkhouse rooms,” he said dismissively.
Her lips quivered once again. “Dusty, I’m so afraid.”
“And we’re going to fix that.” His brain whirled in an effort to fix things, even if only for the moment. “I don’t want you staying at that motel anymore.” He turned in his seat, rebuckled his seat belt and started the truck. “We’re going to pack your bags tonight and get you and Cooper out of there.”
He didn’t want her to spend another night where whatever people might be in the other motel rooms were transient. He didn’t want her to stay where more gifts could be left for her.
He didn’t want her to spend another minute with the fear that shimmered in the depths of her eyes. She needed to feel safe.
“But where are we going to go?” she asked.
“You can stay at the ranch with Cassie.” He knew without question that Cassie would take in a mother and a child who needed help. “You’ll be safe there. You won’t only have me watching over you and Cooper but all the other cowboys on the ranch, as well.”
“Are you sure? I mean, I’ve served Cassie at the café, but we don’t really know each other that well.” A cautious hope had momentarily stolen the fear that had laced her tone of voice.
“I’m positive it will be fine,” he assured her. “We’ll get you moved tonight and then we’ll talk to Dillon tomorrow. Give it some time before you up and run, Trisha. Let us find some answers that could give you and Cooper a chance—that will give you and me a chance.”
“I want that, Dusty, but if I feel like danger is here, if we find out it is Frank, then I’ll have no other choice except to leave Bitterroot and find someplace safe.”
Once they were back at the motel, Dusty remained in his truck as Trisha went inside and Juanita came out. He rolled down his window as she stopped by the side of his truck.
“I don’t know exactly what’s happening, but she told me she’ll call me when things get settled. I just hope you have their best interest at heart, Dusty Crawford.”
Harlequin Romantic Suspense March 2016 Box Set Page 9