Damn. No lead there.
But if she thought she could just disappear from his life—and take his heart with her—she had another thing coming. He'd find her, if it was the last thing he did in this life.
Ally closed the stall door behind her and heard the mare she'd just left whickering behind her, impatient for the sweet mash she was just about to give her. She rubbed the sweat off her forehead and onto the t-shirt that covered her arm, not wanting to touch her dirty hands to her face, although she knew that was a lost cause. It was just inevitable that she started out each day clean as a whistle but ended it covered in muck and mud.
Good thing she wasn't paying the water bill on the small house she was living in on the Circle L Ranch. She chuckled. It could barely be called a house. Her bedroom in her parents' house—while she was growing up—was probably bigger than the entire thing. It was about six hundred feet square, with a tiny galley kitchen, a bathroom and a living/dining/bedroom combination. But it suited her just fine. She didn't need or want anything fancy. She just wanted to work with the horses.
That was essentially what she'd said to J.D. Landers when she'd applied to work on his ranch.
He'd called her on her lack of experience in taking care of them. They'd boarded hers, of course; there wasn't room at home or at the lake for a horse, but she'd managed to convince him that she knew what to do—and she did, reassuring him and earning points at the same time—by telling him that she would never have endangered a horse by saying she knew how to care for them when she didn't.
She'd liked J.D. from the start. His operation wasn't nearly as big as some she'd applied to, but he had the small house to offer rent free, even though he wasn't paying quite as well as the big guys. And he loved horses at least as much as she did. They were his bread and butter, although he did run a small herd of cattle, mostly as supplemental income.
He'd told her she was on probation for three months, told her what he expected her to do that first day, and then let her at it. He wasn't one to hang around and micromanage. He had too much crap to get done himself.
She'd gotten that stuff done and much more on top of it. She did such a good job that he took her off probation after her first week and gave her more valuable horses to take care of.
Like the ones she was grooming and feeding now. One down, seven to go.
She entered Sundance's stall with a peppermint in hand, knowing that was the price of passage. He was a big palomino stallion with an unusually sweet disposition, though. And he had a distinct preference for women, so J.D. had been only too happy to have her caring for him. He'd gotten enough bruises from the brute.
Except for the sounds of horses contentedly munching the hay she'd given them all first to keep them occupied, it was wonderfully quiet in the barn, and although most hated it, she just loved the earthy smell of barns, and she always had.
"Ally?"
It was so quiet that she barely heard it, but then she couldn't have missed it, either. That was the voice that haunted her nightmares every night and her daydreams every day. She froze, and Sundance began to fret and dance about at her sudden tension, which wasn't a good thing.
"Ally?" again, this time louder and getting closer.
There was nothing for it; there was no place to go. He'd found her, and she was well and truly trapped in a place she'd thought—hoped—would be safe from him. All she'd wanted in this world was to be as far away from him and the awful things that had happened—her failure in two important areas of her life—business and, well, pleasure or relationships or whatever the hell it was that they'd had.
But she should have known he wouldn't give up looking for her until he'd found her.
The third time he said her name, he was right there, looking at her through the door of the stall in all of her horse shit covered glory. "Allegra." He instilled a wealth of emotion into just that one word, staring at her like a wolf stares at a limping rabbit.
Chapter 9
And Sundance, of course, just had to get his two cents in, taking an immediate dislike to this big new man standing so close to him. Ally was just another obstacle to bump into and, inevitably, step on, of course.
"Son of a bitch!" Ally screamed. "Move over, you glorified hunk of meat!" She reached around and grabbed his halter, using it to guide him away from her, where she'd be safe from having sixteen hundred pounds of beast take out her other foot. She made it out the stall door, limping badly, but she didn't let that hinder her in the least. She got right up into Enzo's face and screamed, "Are you dense? Couldn't you see that he was agitated—and he fucking stepped on me—because of you? Are you that oblivious?"
Enzo didn't pay any mind to what she was saying. He simply bent down and gathered her up into his arms to get her off her foot, stalking over to where she could sit on a bench, all while she was screaming at the top of her lungs, "Put me the fuck down! Down, down! Put me down!"
Enzo didn't know what to make of the situation. He'd never had much of an affinity for animals, but he'd never felt the lack in the least until today.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
Ally was trying to pull her boot off before her foot swelled so much she couldn't get it off without cutting it.
"Ally!" It was his turn to yell. "Are you all right?" He wasn't used to her ignoring him.
She glared up at him but didn't say a word. She took her sock off, and there was already a bruise forming, although she didn't think anything was broken. She reached around the corner and put on her sneakers, lacing the right one very loosely, then stood.
She'd forgotten just how big he was and had to guard against her personality automatically shifting into the submission she had come to know around him.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"I came to find you."
Ally's eyebrows went up. "I wasn't lost, dickhead."
"You were to me."
The bald truth of his words—and the feelings he conveyed with them—tugged at heartstrings she'd hoped had hardened with time, but apparently, they hadn't.
"That's not my problem."
"No, it wasn't. It was mine. I'd like to take you some place where we can talk—"
"No," she interrupted as she hobbled over to give Sundance his ration of mash. The rest of them were just going to have to go the night without being groomed. She'd have to spend extra time on them tomorrow morning, but that was fine. After him, she gave Shadow her ration, then on down the line, with Enzo trailing after her like a lost puppy.
Finally, she seemed to be done, turned out the lights and simply walked away from him.
But Enzo wasn't about to let her do that; he reached down to grab her arm just above her elbow, using her own momentum against her and pressing her back against the wall of the barn, trapping her there with his body.
He'd never forgotten one second of the sheer bliss it brought him just to be near her, and that had bloomed again as soon as he'd seen her.
"Ally, please. Just talk to me. I-I need to explain."
"No." She was amazed at how much she really wanted to hear what he had to say, but then she remembered how betrayed she'd felt when she found out he'd been spying on her, and denying him became a lot easier.
He wouldn't hurt her for the world, but he couldn't keep himself from bending down to try to kiss her, and although her lips were just as soft and welcoming as ever, she immediately began to protest, loudly, and beat against his shoulders as if he was trying to rape her.
That was when he heard the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking, an alarmingly short distance away, and the unmistakable sound of yet another Alpha male, who was standing directly behind him. "You let her alone."
Enzo didn't move. He didn't even raise his hands in the air like most people would when a gun was pointed at them.
"Move away from her, I said, or I'll have no problem blowing a hole in your head the size of Texas."
"If you do, you risk hurting her, too,
and I doubt you'll do that, Captain Landers," Enzo replied with complete calm.
Ally rolled her eyes and sighed.
"How do you know my name, stranger?" J.D. asked, not having lowered his gun an inch.
"It's just what he does," Ally muttered only half under her breath. "He tracks and spies on and gathers information on everyone and everything for his own," she almost said 'nefarious', but she squelched it, "purposes."
"Do you know this man, Ally?"
"Yes, J.D., unfortunately, I do. His name is Enzo Matroni." It was only fair that J.D. know the name of the man he was threatening, since that man obviously knew him.
She could barely see around Enzo, but she had a good idea why J.D. was pausing. He didn't really want to know the answer to the question he felt he had to ask. "Did he hurt you? Has he hurt you in the past?" he asked. His tone was at least as calm and cool as Enzo's. Maybe more so.
Ally was horrified to realize that tears were rapidly gathering behind lids that she had to suddenly close against them. She would have sworn that she was all cried out about this, but she was wrong. The mere sight of him and she became just so much like Jell-O. She wrapped her arms around herself and answered shakily, "Not in the way you're thinking. Not—not physically." The last word was barely a whisper.
"Well, I'm not putting this gun down until Mr. Matroni here puts some distance between you two."
Ally felt and heard rather than saw Enzo sigh heavily. He wasn't used to being defeated, but he took two steps away from her and turned around to face the man who was holding a gun pointed at his head as steadily and surely as if he was holding a baby.
And Enzo simply stood there, not flinching, not even paying much attention to the gun at all. His eyes had turned to settle on Ally, as if he couldn't get enough of her.
"Ally, your foot—what happened?" J.D. asked, his eyes darting to her.
Ally barely noticed her foot any more. It had nothing on the pain that she was experiencing elsewhere in her body at Enzo's nearness.
"Son of a bitch!" Enzo knelt in front of where her foot had swollen to the point that it was practically busting out of the sneaker she was wearing, and, for the second time in less than twenty minutes, she found herself in his arms.
And J.D. found himself in a bit of a conundrum, because he could hardly order the big guy to put her down when that was going to cause her more pain.
They ended up at the emergency room in the closest town. J.D. had holstered his weapon and driven them there like a bat out of hell, overriding Enzo's suggestion that he drive because he knew the roads better.
Ally ended up on the exam table with two men facing off against each other practically over her. Her foot was quickly x-rayed and determined to be broken.
"You do whatever is best for her, Doc," Enzo said. "Don't worry about the cost at all. I'll take care of it."
That, of course, put J.D.'s back up, even though he and Ally were nothing but friends. "I'm her employer—"
Enzo leaned in, over Ally. "And you give her healthcare—right?"
J.D. flushed. "That doesn't mean that I can't—or won't—cover her costs."
"You don't give your employees healthcare, either, Enzo, and you make a ton more than J.D. does."
It cut him to the core that she would defend him, someone she barely knew, and Enzo did something he'd rarely done in his life. He shut up. She was right, but he was hardly going to own up to it in front of a man he considered to be a rival.
"And besides, neither of you is going to pay my goddamn hospital bill, thank you very much," she announced during the rare moments of silence.
Neither of the men acknowledged what she'd said.
She ended up back at her little cottage with the two of them pacing around her like caged lions. She didn't have a bedroom door, and she didn't even think she had any furniture that would support either of them.
"I'm sorry, J.D.," she said when he put her gently down on her bed.
"Nothing for you to be sorry about, hon. Accidents happen."
"Yeah, but who are you going to get to help you with the horses?"
"I'll find someone." It had taken him six months to find her. He needed someone with experience and someone who didn't mind working for the pittance he could afford to pay him or her.
Enzo stepped outside for a moment, then came back. "I got you someone who will take Ally's place until she's healed up."
J.D. looked amazed at first, then suspicious. "Who?"
"Someone I know has a daughter who is very into horses, doesn't get to ride much because he can't afford it, but she's been working at a stable near her house to earn that privilege occasionally, so she knows how to take care of them."
"What's her name?"
Enzo gave him all of the pertinent information so that he could call the girl, and J.D. excused himself to go do so, but before he left, he gave Ally a serious look. "Are you going to be all right here with him?"
"You should be asking him if he's going to be safe here with me, instead."
J.D.'s eyebrow went up at that. "Okay, well, I don't think I really want to know. As long as I know you're going to be safe, Ally."
"Thank you for everything, J.D." she said on a sigh. The meds the doctor had given her were making her sleepy.
"Can I get you anything?" Enzo stood at the end of her tiny bed and asked, although it sounded like a plea. He wasn't the kind of man who could just stand around. He needed something to do.
"I'd love something to eat."
"Coming up."
He made her soup and a peanut butter sandwich, which was all he could do in a short amount of time, but she was asleep when he brought the tray to her.
Enzo put it all aside and sat down—gingerly—on her well-worn couch, clicked on the TV and began to watch whatever game was being broadcast down here in Hicksville.
The doctor had said that she needed to stay off her foot for six to eight weeks, and he was there for every bit of it—every doctor's visit, every trip to the pharmacy, every hobble to the bathroom. She had to hand it to him. At first, she'd seriously considered calling the police to get them to remove him, but she knew from personal experience that an innocent trip to the station house for someone like him could end up costing years of his life, and as mad as she was at him, she couldn't do that to him.
And, to her dismay, he and J.D. had laid down arms and become fast friends, over her. J.D. still had to run the ranch, so he couldn't watch over her like Enzo did. Enzo simply moved in and slept on the new couch he'd had delivered as soon as possible that was much longer, much sturdier and had a pull-out bed. He'd tapped into her network, commandeered her phone line since she was asleep a lot of the time, especially at first, and appointed himself her chief nursemaid, which, when she let herself think about it, was a bit of a riot, but he threw himself into taking care of her the way he threw himself into any other project he cared about.
She healed rapidly, though, and was out of the cast in five weeks rather than six to eight, although the doctor told her she still needed to take it easy for at least another week, which, of course, Enzo had heard, since he accompanied her to all of her doctor's visits.
He and J.D. refused to allow her to go back to work.
J.D. looked a bit flushed and said, "As a matter of fact, Ally, I have some bad news for you."
She wasn't at all sure she could survive more bad news. She'd had quite enough of it in her life lately.
"I'm afraid that Dawn—the girl who Enzo got to replace you—is going to be staying on, and I can't afford to keep the two of you."
Ally sighed and cleared her throat, willing herself not to cry in front of either of them. "When do you want me out of here?" she asked, sounding as defeated as she felt.
"You take your time. No hurry at all."
Enzo had to step out. He couldn't bear the look on her face.
J.D., however, surprised the crap out of her by coming to sit on the side of her bed and taking her hand. "You know that big
lug loves you, don't you?"
Ally scowled. Lovely. Advice from the lovelorn. She extracted her hand from his.
"I know that you're mad at him, but he wasn't trying to hurt you. He was using that information to keep track of that—was it Frank—guy who wanted to hurt you."
He'd as much as told her that, himself, not that she was inclined to believe either one of them.
"You should go home with him. Let him make amends. He's been here for you every second. I bet he's done that for you before in your life. You two have known each other for a while." He took a breath, then caught her eye and asked, "Do you really think he was trying to be underhanded in gathering that information?"
J.D. was aware of Enzo's occupation, although he had let it be known that he didn't approve. Ally hadn't told him that she, too, had been the head of a crime family, if a much, much smaller one.
He could have been trying to take over her family—which he did eventually, anyway. She supposed that he had ample opportunity to use the information he'd gathered against her, but he never had. But even if he hadn't meant to harm her with his spying, she didn't like the sheer invasion of her privacy.
"Think about it, please," he said, getting up just as Enzo came back in, looking determined.
"All right, Ally, enough is enough," Enzo said then.
He reached down and lifted her out of bed, stalking out through the door with her in his arms. "Where are you taking me?" she asked indignantly. "Put me down!"
He tucked her into the back of a limousine that she would have sworn wasn't there ten minutes ago and told the driver to go.
"But my things—"
"I'll buy you new ones."
"No, you won't!" she yelled back at him, sitting stiffly on his lap, royally pissed at him on several fronts now.
But that was until he melted his lips onto hers. It had been so long! Her body had already forgiven him, and those familiar cravings came to the forefront, where they had always been with him. But she wouldn't. She couldn't give in to him.
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