“I’ll take another beer as long as you’re up there.” That was...Matt. The rodeo champ.
“You still riding the circuit?” Tucker asked, handing Matt his beer before heading back to his own folding chair.
Matt didn’t answer straightaway. “Yeah,” he said. “I’ve got things here in Blackfoot Falls that are taking precedence at the moment, but I’m still riding.”
“You’d better be,” Annie said. “We’ve been talking about having a charity rodeo for Safe Haven. Trouble is housing out-of-towners. There’s an old boardinghouse that’s going to be fixed up, but we’ll probably have to hold the rodeo closer to Kalispell if we do it in the next year.”
“It’s not a bad drive.” Tucker sat, consciously slowed himself down while unwrapping his next course. His hunger was easing, not gone.
“Too much beer drinking at rodeos to have people driving afterward,” Annie said.
Having a conversation made observing her easy. Although the way he was getting caught up in the view was a problem. “True,” he said. “But a rodeo is a good idea.”
“From what I saw on your website, your ranch is riding out the drought well,” Jesse said.
All Tucker’s plans to keep Annie engaged, to keep himself separate from the group, vanished in a discussion about cattle and the weather, which then segued into ranching innovations. By the time the eating and drinking had come to its natural conclusion, he felt every hour he’d been awake, and every ache he’d earned from his goat wrestling.
None of them would let him help pack up the impromptu picnic, but he was allowed back into the stable to check out the newborn. Already standing on wobbly legs, the still-damp foal was a sight to see.
Next to him, Annie sighed softly as they stood in the neighboring stall, keeping as quiet as possible. She had to lean into him so he could hear, and the contact against his arm wasn’t helping things. “We should go,” she whispered. Her warm breath skimming the side of his neck sent a jolt of awareness straight to his groin.
He nodded, made his tread as light as possible on his way out, Annie walking alongside him. For some reason the others were still there, all standing near the pickup. His knee-jerk reaction was disappointment. Dammit. Wanting to be alone with her was fine, even wise if he wanted to get information, but not when it was personal.
“What’s wrong?” Annie asked, as soon as they’d reached the others.
“That,” Rachel said, nodding at Tucker.
Caught in the middle of a yawn, he snapped his mouth closed. “I’m fine.”
“You might be right, but we don’t want to take any chances. Safe Haven needs your money.” Rachel grinned, but she wasn’t lying. “Our place is close by. We have a spare room you can bunk in for the night. Then you can go back to the hotel first thing to change and whatever.”
“I assure you, I’ve lived in isolated places my entire life, and I purposely had only one beer. I can drive.”
Jesse shook his head. “You’ll pass more deer, cattle and coyotes than cars on the way, but that’s not the problem. You’re tired from flying and driving. Why take the chance when we’ve got room?”
“Besides,” Rachel said, “you should get a look at the Sundance before you leave. You’ll be surprised.”
“At?”
“All the beautiful women who are staying with us,” Jesse said, and grunted when Shea elbowed him.
“Excuse me?” Tucker looked to Annie, who smiled, at least for a few seconds.
“They’ve turned it into a dude ranch,” Annie said, and then he recalled the website where he’d seen her photo. She’d been at the Sundance ranch when it was taken.
“Wait a minute.” Jesse was obviously annoyed. “That’s not true. Our main concern is raising cattle.”
Shea and Rachel exchanged glances, then stared at their feet to hide smiles. Clearly the dude ranch operation was a touchy issue, and as a cattleman himself, he understood. But that didn’t concern him. What did interest him was the opportunity to find out more about Annie from these people. And Shea...perhaps he should know more about her.
“Sorry,” Annie said. “It’s a working spread, but the dude ranch part is helping to transform the area. More guests, more tourists, more cash flow. And more opportunities to spread the word about Safe Haven. It’s all good.”
Rachel laughed. “Trust Annie to squeeze in Safe Haven.”
He didn’t think about it for too long. He would have preferred having his things with him, but the chance to gather information, and frankly, to get to bed sooner, was too strong an incentive to say no. “All right. Thank you, I’ll take you up on that.”
“Thank God,” Annie said, sincerity softening her voice. Her lips lifted in a tired but sweet smile. “I’d never have gotten to sleep if I was worrying about you driving all that way.”
That he instantly thought of staying right where he was, bunking down on the blanket in the empty stall, made him shake his head. He needed a good night’s rest. Desperately.
* * *
IT WAS ONLY WITH TREMENDOUS will that Annie brushed her teeth before heading upstairs to bed. She’d watched as Tucker had followed Jesse’s truck down the road to the Sundance, then she’d done a final check on the horses.
The short walk to the cabin had felt more like a mile, and she’d made herself prepare the morning’s coffee before she hit the bathroom. Now she had to climb stairs, but then she’d be horizontal and nothing would come between her and sleep.
An hour later, she was seriously contemplating bashing her head against the wall because her brain would not stop.
At first, it had been okay thinking about Tucker and wondering yet again if he’d flirted with her. She’d debated taking care of her suddenly awakened body, which was something she hadn’t done in so long, she wondered if she remembered how.
It was only after those thoughts that she was reminded why she’d stopped. Being in exile, being a fugitive, eliminated all possibility of having any kind of anything with any man. For an indeterminate period of time, up to and including forever.
It had taken her a solid six months of denial to get to the stage where she didn’t think about sex anymore. No, okay, longer than that, but she hadn’t caved since. Though she’d had close enough calls that she’d become very judicious with her reading material, and careful with her time around other people.
Some thought she was shy. No problem, shy worked, because most everyone kept their distance. At first, she’d thought the McAllister men were going to be a problem, but her fear was so great, it overwhelmed her sex drive by quite a bit.
She’d become celibate in every sense of the word, and then Tucker Brennan.
It wasn’t fair. He was only going to be in town a couple of days. She’d never see him again, but if she kept thinking about him, remembering the touch on her bare back, the quickening of her pulse every time she saw him staring...
Bodies weren’t meant to be turned off like empty refrigerators. She was only twenty-nine, but she knew without a doubt that somewhere inside her there was a clock ticking away. Exhaustion had always been her best defense, but here she was after a brutally tiring day, and he’d broken through over a year’s worth of defenses with a few touches and a good smile.
Her life, her entire life, was dedicated elsewhere. She’d done her best to never think about what she’d left behind, what she was missing. She worked until her body couldn’t take it anymore. Then she did it again.
Tonight was an object lesson. Letting herself get caught up in the real world would do her no good. Tucker Brennan was a potential check. Financing. That’s all. She’d better drum that into her foolish mind, because there’d be hell to pay if she didn’t.
The sad thing was that she’d have to pull back from Shea, as well. It had been an experiment, a test to see if she could open her life up a little.
The answer was a resounding no.
7
THE STRANGE ALARM JERKED Tucker out of sleep so hard he felt as if h
e had whiplash. And damn, he didn’t even have a razor or a change of clothes with him. It seemed foolish to shower when he had to put on the same shirt to go to Kalispell before he could return to Safe Haven, but yesterday clung to him with the scent of straw and stubborn goat.
So he showered and dressed. He would have killed for a cup of coffee, but he wanted to check in with George first.
Luckily, the private investigator was already up despite the early hour.
“I don’t have that much to report,” George said. “I’ve started working on the account number, which isn’t an easy thing to trace, my friend, but we’ll get there. As far as the driver’s license goes, the ID number doesn’t match the name or address. So it’s a fake, but from the picture it looks like a decent one. I don’t know that it’ll bring us much more information. I did send the photo you took to some people I know, but don’t get your hopes up.”
Tucker had figured as much and tried to tamp down his impatience. He was more interested in the possibility he’d raised yesterday. “What about the coercion angle? Any evidence she was pressured into taking the money?”
George hesitated long enough for Tucker to tense. “Nothing’s changed,” George said finally. “Not since I checked a year ago. Leanna had no known criminal associates or unsavory friends or family problems. If she took the money under duress, I haven’t seen any evidence. Doesn’t mean I won’t be looking. We did have a different agenda back then, and I might have bypassed something crucial.”
“All right.” Tucker rubbed his eyes. “You have anything on the men in her life?”
“There were a few in college, nothing too serious. When she worked at Keystone as a fundraising assistant, she was with a man named Alex Phillips. They were a couple for three years. He moved to D.C. and is now a lobbyist for a New York telecom consortium. He’s married and has a son. No arrests, no ties to any scandals.”
“Okay,” Tucker said. “And Shea Monroe?”
“That’s still tough. She’s worked on highly classified projects, and if I tug too hard on any of those strings we could be inviting more problems than we want. I did find out that she’s still under contract for something big, but I have no idea what.”
“Do what you can with that. And maybe start looking at Annie’s family more closely. It could be one of them in trouble, I don’t know.”
“Look, Tucker...” Shit, George was using his fatherly voice. “We never thought we’d get this far, right? I mean, worse comes to worst, we let the authorities know, they come in, do their own digging. Running like that makes her look awfully guilty.”
Tucker’s breath caught at the cavalier words. “We already decided that finding her isn’t enough to clear Christian. I need to dig more and understand what happened, before the D.A.’s office gets wind of this. My instincts are telling me we’re missing a big piece. I’m not even going to mention anything to Christian, not until I know more. So, do your best, huh?”
“You know I will, Tucker.”
“I appreciate it.”
His next call would have to wait until after coffee, because Darren wouldn’t be in yet. Irene wouldn’t be awake, either. Though Tucker wasn’t sure he wanted to speak to her at the moment, anyway. She still didn’t know his trip out of town was a fact-finding mission to help Christian, and Tucker aimed to keep it that way for the time being.
Now, it was going to be coffee or death. Personally, he voted for coffee, and he knew the day was going to be a good one because the scent of a rich dark roast greeted him halfway down the big staircase.
He’d known he wasn’t the first one up, but he had hoped that he’d recognize someone in the kitchen.
Instead, there were a lot of young women. Pretty young women at that. They were bustling about with an older Hispanic woman, making what looked like enough breakfast to feed an army.
“Well, hello there.”
It seemed early for a greeting like that, especially coming from an attractive brunette whose jeans were so tight he wouldn’t recommend she do much sitting. “Morning.”
“Who are you, and when did you get in?”
Another stare, this from a woman with a spatula in one hand and a smile that reminded him of this year’s Miss Texas posters. “Rachel didn’t tell us there were any men coming to stay.”
“That’s because he’s not here for a vacation.” At Shea’s no-nonsense voice, Tucker turned. She entered the kitchen frowning at the spatula girl. “Rachel asked me to tell you that you’re all leaving for Glacier National Park in an hour, whether you’ve eaten or not.”
Tucker could tell the other girls were intimidated by Shea. He doubted they had reason, although she’d been a big surprise. The woman who’d written emails about the financial viability of Safe Haven—who’d outlined their immediate plans for fundraising campaigns and upgrades to the facility—had come across as a smooth communicator, one who had the kind of social skills that went along with certain high levels of government contracts.
What he’d found instead wasn’t so easy to classify. There was a bluntness about her that wasn’t rude, just...raw. He wondered if she could be manipulated, say, by a woman in hiding waiting to make a last big score before darting over the Canadian border.
The bad thing was, the very traits that drew him to Annie were what made her role in the theft all the more believable. Hell, even knowing what he knew, Tucker had been drawn in and wanted to at least give her a chance.
“Morning, Tucker,” Shea said. “Coffee?”
“Please.”
“I assume I should put it in a to-go cup?”
“I have a few minutes.” He smiled at her unguarded sigh. “I thought maybe we could talk.”
With a resigned expression and a glance at the guests, she took out a large insulated mug, poured, then handed it to him. “Let’s go into the other room.”
He nodded and followed her past the dining area into a parlor with an expansive view of the Sundance and the snowcapped Rockies in the background. She leaned against a wooden post, which would have fooled him into thinking she was comfortable if he hadn’t seen how she avoided his eyes.
“If you had any questions about Safe Haven, about the financials or the fundraising, I mean,” she said, “I can probably help you. Because Annie’s very private.”
“Really?”
Shea toyed with her cup, slightly lifting one shoulder. “Most of us don’t know much about Annie except for her work ethic and her commitment to saving every animal she can. The things that matter.”
“She works extremely hard. I could see that yesterday.”
“She’s driven, you know?” Shea met his eyes, her caution fading. Perhaps acknowledging Annie’s dedication had earned him an ally. “Or maybe she just prefers the company of animals. I get that. Mostly I do, too.”
Tucker smiled at her candor. “There are days, a lot of them, when I’d have to agree.”
“Well, as long as you know that she’s worked miracles with virtually no assets. I can only imagine what she could do with proper funding.”
“I assure you, I’ll give Safe Haven every consideration. So far, I like what I’ve seen. Is there anything else you can tell me that would help sway the vote?”
She blinked, then narrowed her gaze. “Like what?”
So much for bringing her over to his team. “I don’t know.” He paused to think. “In your opinion, what’s Safe Haven’s biggest selling point?”
“Annie.”
Exactly the answer he wanted. “Well, there’s a problem with that,” he said, letting his words settle, then studying Shea’s worried frown. “We don’t know if Annie will be here long. She could leave tomorrow and then who’d run Safe Haven?”
Shea relaxed. “Annie’s not going anywhere.”
“She might get homesick,” he said, and Shea shook her head with a sadness she quickly masked. “Or find someone and get married. Have kids.”
“No,” Shea murmured quietly, her gaze downcast. “She won’t.
”
He almost felt guilty for the pain he’d seen flash in her eyes. But he hadn’t caused it, not directly. Annie had. He’d bet his Range Rover she’d confided in Shea. Maybe he’d just found Annie’s Achilles’ heel. Which was perfect because Shea was a lousy liar.
This was good news. So why did he feel like crap?
“Thanks for the coffee,” he said, holding up the mug. “I’m going to gather my things and take off for my hotel. I want to be back at Safe Haven early. Please tell Rachel and the others I appreciate the hospitality.”
“No problem.” Shea finally looked at him with a small smile, and he didn’t doubt she was glad he was leaving.
The ride to Kalispell was a straight shot, and soon enough he’d put on clean jeans and a fresh shirt, and was reading over his files as he went through a quick room service breakfast.
Now that he’d met Annie, the material he’d gathered had taken on new shades of meaning. From her days in high school to her equestrian victories on horses that belonged to other people, he could see so much of the woman he’d spent time with. The data on her family didn’t suggest anything unsavory, but he still felt that was where George should focus. Because God knew, families could be tricky.
He finished reading every document in his extensive files, knowing he should have left already. But he needed to do this now, before he saw her again.
His gut was telling him there was something big missing in the picture of Leanna Warner and her disappearance. The idea that someone behind the scenes had forced her to run had taken hold in him, and he was ninety-nine percent certain he was reading that correctly.
All the things that made no sense about her—how hard she was working, why she kept herself distant and alone, even her failure to ensure Christian looked guilty to the feds—came together if she’d been coerced.
Annie Sheridan was hiding, all right, but not from justice. He’d wager a hell of a lot on that hunch. Christian had to know more. Maybe something he didn’t even realize was important.
If he wasn’t afraid Christian would tell their mother, he’d call Christian right away. But his brother was still too angry to be trusted. Or maybe that was Tucker. Lord knew he didn’t blame Christian, but his brother was filled with a very old rage. Tucker wasn’t stupid, he knew Christian had been playing Irene, using guilt to get money, then ignoring her until he needed more. But he’d chosen to stay out of it for his mother’s sake.
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