by Tina Leonard
“Okay.” He rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the tension Carter’s maneuvers were causing. “Get your stuff. We’ll move you into my house tonight.”
“What are you talking about?” Pop was totally shocked.
“I say if Carter wants to own this house, then let him. He couldn’t sell this rat trap if he wanted to. The house is only fit to be pushed over. He may get a little money from the sale of the property, but not much, with that bingo parlor over there and the crime rate in this part of town. Carter’s counting on you having no place else to go, so he can extract more blood from you. But, Pop, I’m telling you that you have a better place to go, and to hell with Carter.”
“You would do that for me?” The gratitude on Pop’s weathered face made Zach feel miserable. He would have done so much more for his father over the years, if only he would have let him.
“Won’t be any skin off my nose. The house is so big we don’t have to run into each other for days if we don’t want to,” he said brusquely.
“Well, hell…what about your wife? Can’t imagine she’ll want an old sot like me hanging around.” Pop’s white eyebrows lifted inquiringly, as if he couldn’t believe the offer—as if Zach had suddenly lost his mind.
“There isn’t going to be a wife,” Zach said, his voice low yet determined. “LouAnn isn’t the right woman for me. It’ll just be me and you, Pop.”
Now tears did leak from Pop’s eyes. “I don’t know what to say. I didn’t expect this.” He wiped at his nose with a dirty sleeve. “Are you certain, Zach?”
Zach stood with a sigh. “I’m positive this is the only way to keep Carter from trying to bleed you dry, Pop. Get your things. I’ll borrow a truck tomorrow and we can come get the bigger items you want to keep.”
“I won’t be needing to come back, Zach. Just a minute.”
Pop left the room, shuffling down the hall. Zach looked around the room, knowing in his heart he was doing the only possible thing to keep Carter from manipulating his father. And if Pop had been shocked into soberness by the thought of losing his house and being kicked out into the street, maybe eventually he’d be ready for further treatment for his problem.
Pop made his way back into the room, carrying a cardboard box with some clothes in it and a smaller box stacked on top. Zach didn’t ask what was in the box, but he assumed they were mementoes. Taking the whole sorry mess from Pop’s hands, he pushed the door open with his foot. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Pop said firmly. Then he glanced back down the hall, as if he was listening to something. Pop’s stillness was unsettling, with the darkness surrounding them and the noise from across the way. Zach watched his father without saying a word, unsure what he was thinking. But it was obvious some last emotion was hanging him up.
Slowly, Pop turned back around. “Did I ever tell you that you were born in this house?”
Astounded, Zach shook his head. “I didn’t know that.”
Pop nodded. “We were too poor for a hospital. A church lady came over and helped your mother.” He stared back down the hall, his eyes wide open, looking. “She had a tough time of it. But she was brave…so brave. I was afraid. Her shrieks scared me to death. There was so much blood. But I couldn’t take her to the community hospital, because she…because I hadn’t married her. She wasn’t legal, and I was afraid…it was 1966. The law and attitudes were different then. I didn’t know—”
Zach shifted the boxes to one side. Gently, he took his father by the arm. “Come on, Pop. Let’s go home.”
It didn’t take much to get Pop settled into one of the guest bedrooms. The old man and the boxes had gone quietly, gratefully into the freshly painted room. There was a connecting bathroom, so Pop nearly had his own apartment, except for whatever he needed from the kitchen. When he could slow down a little, Zach planned on having a television put in Pop’s room. Then he’d have everything he needed to feel settled in.
Zach walked into his own room, not tired despite the late hour. What he was feeling was keyed-up apprehension pouring through his veins. His answering machine had been blank, though he’d expected a venomous reply from LouAnn to his message that there wouldn’t be a wedding. Feeling numb, Zach crossed to the mahogany bureau and reached into his pockets. Slowly, he placed the earrings down on the shiny wood. Then he pulled out the snake jaw Cody had given him, looking at the skeleton for a moment before putting it beside the glittering jewels. A sudden, distressing thought paralyzed him as he realized where Carter’s other shoe might be dropping from.
In the beginning, Carter had claimed he’d never met Annie. Never been to her farm. Couldn’t make any progress buying her land over the phone. So he’d lied, talking Zach into going out there. Yet Carter had tangled with Annie and knew he would never get what he wanted.
But Carter was now the sole owner of the deed to the land south of Annie’s. And now that Zach had fired him, Carter would be a dangerous neighbor for Annie to have.
Though she didn’t feel rested, Annie had gotten up at six this morning, having chores to attend to around the farm. Through the rest of the early hours, the day warmed up steadily, with every sign of being one of the hottest days on record for this summer so far.
Deciding that a cranberry loaf and iced tea would be a refreshing snack in the afternoon, Annie went inside and prepared it, her mind only half on her work. When she finished that, she turned her thoughts to fixing lunch. Cody and Mary came into the kitchen to say hello, and Annie was relieved to finally be able to put her mind on something other than Zach.
“Mmm. Smells great. Am I invited to lunch?” Cody asked, sitting down.
“Sure,” Annie replied, slapping some potatoes down in front of him. “Start peeling.”
A knock at the door kept her from hearing his reply. A man she didn’t know was standing on the porch.
“Are you Annie Aguillar?”
“I am.”
“I need you to sign this, please,” he instructed, handing her a pad.
She did, then accepted the package from the courier with a hesitant smile. “Thank you,” she murmured, closing the door and walking back into the kitchen, where Cody sat at the plank table eating the cranberry bread she’d just baked. Mary had run down the hall to check on her grandfather and Gert.
“This is certainly the week for surprises,” Annie commented. “This package was sent all the way from Austin by courier.”
Cody grinned. “Wonder who would make such an expensive gesture?”
“I have no idea,” Annie said. Her heart was racing.
Though she was still angry with Zach over paying her taxes, the feminine side of her was irrationally delighted and flattered by this sign of interest. Maybe she’d been wrong about his motive for paying off her taxes.
“Well, open it,” Cody commanded gruffly. “Let’s see what Slick’s up to this time.”
“Maybe I won’t show you,” Annie teased.
“Maybe, hell. Maybe I’ll just have a look-see myself.” He made a pretend swipe to grab the package.
“All right,” she said, laughing. “What does that man have up his sleeve this time?” Tearing open the envelope, Annie pulled out a handwritten note on cream paper. The sloping, delicate letters read, Thought you might be interested in these.
“Hmm,” Annie said, laying the letter aside. Cody swiftly snatched it up, but she didn’t notice. Underneath the note were a couple of pictures of Zach in the arms of a stunning, naked woman.
Date-stamped the day he’d made love to Annie.
Shaking, Annie sat down at the table. She was too frozen to think, too shocked to cry. “Apparently, Zach had more up his sleeve than I imagined.”
Chapter Twenty
Silently, deeply embarrassed, Annie handed the pictures to Cody. He whistled low and long. “She’s a hot piece, isn’t she?”
Annie wrapped her arms around herself, mortified at the realization that the man whose hands had brought her such joy and wonder had touched this big-breasted, i
vory-skinned woman the same day. “I guess that’s his fiancée. She certainly looks the way I’d envisioned her.”
Cody glanced up from the pictures, concern etched in furrows across his forehead. “Annie Aguillar, don’t you start making comparisons and finding yourself short. You’ve got more going for you than this Playboy bunny any day.”
“Except Zach,” she said unhappily. At Cody’s questioning glance, Annie explained, “He told me they’d broken off their engagement. I assumed he was free.”
Her shamed expression told Cody the rest. “Ah,” was all he said.
“Obviously, they’re still very much together,” she finished. Unable to meet Cody’s sympathetic gaze, Annie looked down at her hands. “The humiliating part is that Zach paid off my tax bill while he was in Desperado.”
“Playing Santa Claus that day, was he? And now you feel bought.”
Annie winced. “I suppose I do.”
Cody put the pictures down and reached across the table to take Annie’s hand in his. “Annie, Zach didn’t bring that carousel to Desperado himself to try to get you in the sack. He brought it to appease his conscience where Mary is concerned, because he truly cares about that child. And he paid off your taxes because he’s got more money than he knows what to do with. And he cares about you. My theory is he couldn’t stand to see you hurting. Any more than I could.” Cody grinned comfortingly. “His visit and these pictures are not connected events, Annie. I’m sure Zach very much wanted to develop a deeper relationship with you, or he wouldn’t have come down.”
“He wasn’t free like he claimed,” Annie said bitterly.
Cody picked up the pictures again, analyzing them. “I don’t know about that. My hunch is that Zach’s very free, and Blondie here isn’t too happy about it. That’s why she sent you these.”
“They’re together. He took her clothes off—”
“Ah, but wait,” Cody said, holding up a hand. “You must read the body language involved. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then look what Zach is saying.” He pointed at the couple. “Look at his neck. He’s got his head cocked back, like he’s gotten too close to poisonous fumes. Now, if he wanted this floozie, he’d have been nuzzling on her neck, or somewhere.”
Annie considered Cody’s words. Zach certainly hadn’t had his head turned away from her body. He’d buried himself eagerly in her breasts, the curve between her neck and shoulder, beneath her hair—warm shivers fluttered over Annie as she remembered Zach’s hunger for her.
“I suppose you could have a point,” she said, still unwilling to be convinced. The sight of the voluptuous woman nude and so near the man Annie wanted made her stomach clench painfully.
“Let me show you something else.” Cody stood, gesturing at Annie. “Come here a sec.”
She got up and walked to Cody’s side of the table, stopping in front of him. He laid the picture beside them, where they could both see it. “Now. Note the position of Zach’s hands.”
“I do,” Annie murmured. “They’re on her body.”
“Yes, but the position is critical. See how his hands are forward, thumbs down on her hips, as if he’s…I don’t know. Either trying to push her away, or hold her up. For all we know, she’s drunk and incapable of standing.”
“You’re not making me feel any better.”
“You’re not paying attention,” Cody said with a grin. “Stop looking at the sky and pay attention to the details. If he wanted to be with this woman, Zach’s hands would be like this,” he said, placing his big hands on her waist, “fingers down, thumbs up, pulling her closer to him. Like so. Get the difference?”
Annie pulled in her breath sharply as Cody pulled her tight against him. A sudden memory of Zach holding her just this way, his hands sneaking into her panties to cup her bottom, engulfed her.
“Uncle Cody, what are you doing with my mommy?” Mary asked.
“I’d like to know the same thing,” Travis chimed in. Gert and Travis stood in the kitchen entry with Mary in front of them, holding a stuffed animal to her. Annie and Cody grimaced at each other, and she surreptitiously slid the telling pictures under the plate of cranberry loaf.
The nut brown of Cody’s skin had turned a bit ruddy around the facial area, Annie noticed. Mary’s question had thrown him.
The stillness in the room was taut as wire. “I’m just trying to see what’s in your mommy’s eye, ladybug,” Cody said gently, glancing down at the child who’d come closer to inspect them.
“My eye?” Annie asked.
“Her eye?” Travis repeated. “Why’re your hands on her rump, then? She learning to see with her legs?”
More color washed into Cody’s neck, just above the collar of his denim work shirt. Annie’s smile widened into a grin.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Travis, come back to your room. You’re stirring the pot,” Gert complained, dragging him with her down the hall.
“If Uncle Cody has fixed your eye, Mommy, can I have a drink of water?” Mary asked.
“My eye’s fine, sugar,” Annie said, slipping away to get her daughter a drink.
“Thank you,” Mary said, taking the cup. She drained it, then clutched her stuffed animal more tightly. “I’m going to watch TV.”
“I’ll call you in a little bit for lunch,” Annie said.
“Okay, Mommy.” Mary darted out of the room.
“Well, wasn’t that exciting?” Cody said dryly.
“Not as exciting as these.” Sitting back down at the table with the pictures, Annie riffled through them one last time. “I want to think you’re right, Cody,” she said. “What do you think I should do?”
He took his customary seat across the table, as if the embarrassing encounter hadn’t happened. “About Zach paying your taxes, or the surprise delivery?”
“Either.” She waited for a suggestion.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure old Slick’s figured out what he’s doing himself.” Cody went back to eating another huge piece of cranberry loaf, his expression thoughtful. “I wonder if she’s told him about the pictures?”
“What difference would it make?” Annie was curious.
“Maybe none. But if this little courtesy on his fiancée’s part was designed to run you off, then she’s running scared. But scared enough to do more than make you cry, I wonder?”
“You’re worrying me. What are you talking about?”
He pulled his hand along his braid, then scratched his head. “I presume the fire was intended to put Zach’s ass in a sling.”
“I know you do. Evidently, you convinced the sheriff, because he doesn’t even talk about the fire and Zach in one breath anymore.”
“So, did Zach have a guess as to who was out to get him?”
Annie rubbed a finger lightly over the image of Zach’s face in the picture. “Carter Haskins. An employee at Zach’s company, who happens to be disgusting and dishonest.”
“Okay. So, we have the fire, a possible suspect who has motive—though we don’t know what it is—and blue-movie pictures of Zach and his socialite fiancée, yet another noose designed solely for Zach’s neck.”
Annie narrowed her gaze, staring at Cody. “How do all these events line up?”
“We’d have to ask Zach for that answer. I wonder if there’s any way the fiancée and Zach’s friend could be in cahoots. What’s Zach done that might piss either one of them off real bad?”
She shifted on the bench, shaking her head. “I can’t call him up and say, ‘Zach, what gopher hole did you step in’?”
“I guess not. But I could.”
“What makes you think he’d discuss any personal details of his life with you?” Annie asked.
Cody reached over and thumped her finger gently. She quit tracing Zach’s image immediately. “Zach and I understand each other,” he informed her with a smile.
“Well, that’s more than I can claim,” Annie replied, not smiling.
“Honestly. First of all, Zach trusts me. I could say
, ‘Hey, what’s the meaning behind these pictures?’ with all the big-brother bluster I can manage, and likely, he’ll tell me. Second, I have the protective instinct surging through me right now. I don’t like anybody trying to hurt you, Annie, especially not some silly blonde twit. Zach trusts that I’m going to take a chunk out of his hide if I get disappointed in him.”
“I must have missed some bonding between you two,” she commented wryly.
Cody grinned. “You must have. But you’ve been real busy lately.”
Annie sighed and got to her feet. “I think I should just leave Zach alone for a while, until some of the static clears from the air. After all, it’s not like we had agreed upon any relationship between us,” she said quietly. “I don’t really have the right to question him.”
“Oh, Annie, bull. You have every right to call him up and ring his ears about this little gift his lady had hand-delivered to you.”
“That’s true. But then I’d have to ask him about the taxes. And to tell you the truth, Cody, I think I’d just rather wait. Give Zach some time to decide what he wants to do, what he wants from me. If you’re right, and he’s got all these different problems, all he needs right now is a…” She couldn’t bring herself to say extra burden.
“Nagging woman.”
She smiled. “Right.”
“You may have a point,” Cody said, getting up from the table too. “Hate to run off the only man that’s come calling for you in a long time,” he teased.
“Oh, thanks. You spend half an hour building me up, then tear me back down right before you leave.” The words were complaining, but Annie was laughing.
“I’ve got to keep your feet on the ground, Annie Aguillar. See you later,” he said. “Bye, Mary,” he shouted down the hall. “Bye, Travis, Gert!”
Annie watched from a window as Cody got into the hearse, waving good-bye. Instantly, she let her hand fall to her side, because he never looked back. Though he’d been joking and smiling in the kitchen with her, his expression now was determined, hard. His eyes lacked the laughter they’d had a moment ago. Underneath the black cowboy hat Cody had slipped on, he looked dark and fierce.