“You don’t know how many times I thought about dragging you into Skylar’s barn tonight.” Clay’s breathing was harsh as he spoke, his breath warm against her back. “I wanted to take you into the stall and have my way with you.”
“Yes.” Rylie reached between her thighs and fingered herself. “So good. You feel perfect.”
Clay brought one of his hands down and put it over hers, pressing her own fingers tighter into her folds. “I like it when you touch yourself.”
All the sensations were too much. The cool air on her naked body, the feel of Clay’s jeans and shirt scraping her backside, the way he was thrusting deep into her depths.
Rylie vibrated, the orgasm starting at her scalp and working down her body in a hot flush. This time when she climaxed, she screamed as loud as she could and she barely heard Clay’s groan as he came.
It felt like every bit of desire for this man came tearing from her lips, hurtling into the night and echoing throughout the valley spread out below.
Chapter 13
“Sorry, boss, but I think it’s as bad as it looks.”
Quinn had a hang-dog expression on his movie-star face as Clay stared at FBI printouts of banking activity and the contents confiscated from Levi Thorn’s safety deposit box. Another ten thousand, cold cash. Deed to the Thorn Ranch. And a ledger, stored in plastic and completely print-free, as if somebody kept it with the intention of leaving no identifying evidence.
He’d opened the ledger to find Vehicle Identification Numbers numbers, dates, and cash sale prices.
Not a good way to spend a Monday afternoon.
Clay cleared his throat, wishing the numbers in the ledger would vanish, but knowing he couldn’t get that lucky. “The VIN numbers match?”
“Yes, sir.” Quinn sounded miserable, but also a little excited. “All the stolen trucks. And the cash deposits add up, too, to close to what he’s deposited and stashed.”
Damn, damn, damn. Clay felt sick deep in his gut. He didn’t want this to be true. Levi had come across so honest and earnest, a good brother, and a good man. Plus, Levi had a good explanation for the night he was seen running Guerrero’s men off his property.
Now this.
Pretty much irrefutable evidence.
Clay closed his eyes. Opened them. Glanced at the phone. He needed to act, and he knew it.
I should call Rylie first.
The thought was automatic. That was the man talking, though. The man who loved his woman and hated beyond words having to hurt her—but the lawman inside him knew better than to do something that stupid.
Clay couldn’t call Rylie. She’d send Levi running, and then he’d have one hell of a mess, even bigger than the one he was facing.
Don’t want to do this.
He stood.
“Get Blalock,” he told Quinn. “Put him with Garrison. You ride with me.”
***
Come Monday afternoon, Rylie was feeling like one of those lovesick airheads who she’d thought were such idiots to lose their hearts over a man. While she straightened up the ranch house, she’d actually been humming. She couldn’t stop thinking about Clay. The way it felt to be wrapped tight in his arms. His smell, his taste. The way he kissed her. Made love to her.
Sunday evening, he’d brought her back to her ranch after they’d spent the entire day in his home. Touching, feeling, sharing. She’d come close to telling him that she loved him, but somehow she couldn’t get the words to come out. A part of her was still afraid that what they had would vanish. That it was about as tangible as smoke, and that it would just drift away on the first good wind that swept through.
Yet she knew she could trust him completely—with her life and her heart.
Rylie smiled as she undressed and kicked off her moccasins in her bedroom closet, thinking about how exciting it had been to be with Clay while overlooking the distant city lights. She yanked on a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt, socks, and then boots, preparing to go work in the barn with Sassafras.
On her way out, she grabbed her sheepskin-lined jacket off the coat rack by the door, slipped it on, and then headed outside. Overnight, the sky had turned dark with clouds that threatened rain, and the nippy air chilled her cheeks.
Levi was in the barn, getting his tack together to take Shadow Warrior out, probably trying to gentle him enough for the Somerville boy to ride him.
Yeah. Good luck with that.
Sassafras stuck her head over her stall door and whickered at Rylie for attention. Rylie rubbed Sass’s nose while she studied Levi. “When are you going to tell me about what you’ve been doing with David Somerville? Not to mention Chloe.”
Levi shrugged as he took a halter down off the wall and hooked it over a sawhorse by the stall. “Not much to tell. You heard it all at the reception.”
“Yeah. Right.” Rylie rolled her eyes. “So, the Somervilles are the reason you’ve been sneaking off every afternoon. And you’re just too macho to admit that you’re doing something nice and working with this kid, restoring and modifying the old Karchner place, and helping them out.”
His blue eyes met hers, and the corner of his mouth turned up in a little smile. “He’s a neat kid.”
She propped both hands on her hips and grinned. “And you’ve got the hots for his mom.”
With another smile, Levi grabbed the saddle blanket off a different sawhorse and put his hand on the door to Shadow Warrior’s stall. “Yeah.”
“Levi Thorn.” Clay’s voice came loud and clear from the door of the barn slicing through their conversation.
Rylie felt a flush of pleasure as she turned toward him, but the chill in his eyes chased away the warmth. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
Clay’s sheriff’s star glittered copper in the dim light of the barn as he strode to where she and Levi stood. Deputy Quinn’s expression was unreadable behind his mirrored sunglasses as he followed close behind Clay, and out in the drive, Rylie saw another car with Blalock and Garrison standing beside it.
“I’m real sorry I have to do this.” Clay’s gaze flicked from Rylie to Levi. “Levi Thorn, you’re under arrest for suspicion of seventeen counts of grand theft auto.”
Even as Clay spoke, Quinn held the handcuffs and eased behind Levi. Rylie’s ears rang, and a ball of acid rolled in her stomach.
“Hold on.” Levi dropped the horse blanket and raised his hands in front of him as though holding the men back. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“We’ve got a lot of evidence.” Clay’s face was stony, his eyes remote and focused only on Levi. “I don’t have a choice about this. We’ve got the contents of your safety deposit box.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Rylie clenched her fists at her sides. “There’s no way that Levi has had anything to do with those trucks getting stolen. Our trucks got stolen, too, remember?”
“Where’s he been every night?” Clay’s green eyes were cool as they met hers. “Where do you think he got the money for that water heater? And what about a total of twenty grand in his account across the last month, and another ten in his safety deposit box?”
“Thirty grand?” Rylie repeated, unable to believe she’d heard right.
Levi shook his head. “There’s only ten left. And I can explain all of it. I’ve got receipts.”
Her gaze swung on Levi as she tried to process what he’d just said. “Thirty. Thousand. Dollars.” She blinked at him. “Where the hell did you get that kind of money?”
“Like I said, I can explain the money.” He turned his attention back to Clay. “There’s just the ten left, from my box, right? Is that what’s got you so upset?”
“You’re gonna have to come on down and work it out at the county jail.” Clay sighed and nodded to Quinn.
The deputy began reciting Levi’s Miranda rights as he jerked Levi’s arms behind his back then cuffed him. While Quinn patted Levi down, his voice droned on like so much background noise.
Rylie could only stare, bar
ely hearing the words as the deputy told Levi he had the right to remain silent. Had the right to an attorney. How everything he said could be held against him in a court of law.
“I’m innocent,” she heard Levi say to her over the roar in her ears as her eyes met his. “It’s no problem. We’ll get this straightened out.”
“I’ll—I’ll call a lawyer.” She raked her hand through her hair, watching Deputy Quinn escort her brother from the barn. She wanted to scream. Wanted to cry. Wanted to turn to Clay, the man she’d thought she’d loved. The man she thought had loved her.
“I’m sorry, honey.” Clay’s voice was low, breaking into her frenzy. “I didn’t want to have to do this.”
“You bastard.” She cut her gaze from the barn door to Clay’s face. “You used me. You screwed me just so that you could get information on Levi.”
His frown deepened. “That’s not true and you know it, Rylie.” He sighed and started to reach for her, as if he wanted to comfort her, then dropped his hand at his side. “I’ve got to go now. We’ll talk later.”
“Like hell we will.” She raised her chin, her vision practically red from her fury. “This is all the talking I’m going to do.”
With everything she had, she slammed her fist into his gut. Her blow caught him by surprise, but he only gritted his teeth as his hand shot out and caught her by the wrist. “You and I, we’re not done. I’ll be back tonight when I can.”
“Screw you.” She jerked her hand and he let it go. “And not literally. Ever again. You and I are through in every possible way. Just stay the hell away from me, Sheriff’
She turned and marched out of the barn and toward the house.
Deputy Quinn was waiting beside the sheriff’s department’s SUV, but even with his dark glasses on she was sure he was watching her. She saw Levi through the back window of the vehicle, looking straight ahead, his jaw set.
Her knuckles throbbed as she hurried up the stairs, and she felt the heat of Clay’s gaze on her back. She hoped his gut hurt as much as her hand did. Should have gone for his balls instead.
Rylie flung open the screen door and shoved open the door to the house, then slammed it behind her. After locking the door, she ripped off her jacket and slung it across the room, wishing she had something big and heavy to throw at Clay Wayland’s head.
The bastard. The bastard!
When Rylie had calmed down enough that she could talk without screaming, she called Skylar to see if her friend could refer her to a good attorney. Skylar was as shocked as Rylie at Levi’s arrest, and promised to do what she could to help him.
“We all know there’s no way he had anything to do with the thefts,” Skylar said after giving Rylie the number of her attorney. “Levi’s a good guy.”
After calling Janet Jimenez, the attorney, and arranging for the woman to go to the county jail to meet with Levi, Rylie hung up and paced the floor of her kitchen, tugging at her earlobe so hard it was a wonder she didn’t tear her damn earring out. Her boot steps thunked across the linoleum as she tried to force from her mind thoughts of various methods she could use to kill a certain county sheriff, in a rather painful fashion, and still make it look like an accident.
Rylie sighed and shoved her hair out of her face with both hands. I need to give it a rest. Planning all the ways she could string Clay up for using her and breaking her heart wasn’t real constructive right now. But it sure felt good.
Instead, she needed to concentrate on trying to figure out what to do next, and how to help Levi. Where in the world had he come up with ten thousand dollars? Never mind thirty. Why hadn’t he told her?
She braced her hands on the kitchen sink and stared out the window. The late-afternoon sun was setting low over the mountains. Not too much longer and it would be dark.
Then it dawned on her. However Levi had gotten that cash, it had to have something to do with Chloe Somerville. That’s where he’d been going every day. He’d as good as admitted it in the barn.
Energized by actually doing something toward helping her brother, Rylie snatched up her jacket from where she’d thrown it, grabbed her truck key from the hook in the kitchen, bolted out the door, and jogged down the steps.
She and Chloe Somerville were gonna have a talk.
After she climbed in and started up the old workhorse of a junk truck, she gunned the engine and headed as fast as she safely could to the old Karchner place. It had been years since Rylie had been there. Her fingers tapped an impatient rhythm against the steering wheel and her thoughts wandered while she drove the beat- up truck the two miles north.
She used to ride Sassafras over to visit Mrs. Karchner, an elderly woman who always had a plate of cookies and a good story to tell about the old days. Not to mention the woman could play a mean game of Scrabble. Rylie had never seen much of Old Man Karchner. Even though he’d been in his late seventies back then, he’d always been out working in his garden, and he never did have anything to say the times she did run across him. One of those strong, silent types, she supposed.
When Mrs. Karchner passed away, Rylie had been devastated. She still missed the old woman. Her stomach clenched as she remembered the woman’s lilac perfume and the home’s comforting smells of fresh-baked cookies and hot apple pie. Mrs. Karchner had been more like a mom to Rylie than any of the number of wives her father had brought through her own home. And her “real” mother ... well, it’d been years since Rylie had seen her. She didn’t even know if the woman was alive any longer.
Chloe Somerville was in the front yard when Rylie drove up. The woman had on a pair of work gloves, and she was pruning one of the weeping willow trees in the front yard, right near a brand-spanking-new landscaped wooden wheelchair ramp. Out near the barn in the backyard, Rylie saw David in his wheelchair playing with a golden retriever.
When Rylie climbed out of the truck, Chloe tossed the pruning shears onto the dead grass at her feet. She shucked off her gloves, leaving them with the garden tool before walking up to Rylie. A smile lit Chloe’s face until she got a good look at Rylie’s expression.
“Levi?” Chloe’s hand went to her heart as if trying to calm it. “Did something happen to him? Is he all right?”
Rylie shoved her hands in her front pockets. “He’s been arrested.”
“What?” Shock registered on the woman’s face, her palm going from her chest to her mouth. “Why?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Rylie explained what Clay had said when he’d arrested Levi. “It sounds like the biggest thing they’ve got is a shitload of money deposited into his account right around the time the truck thefts started, and coinciding with the recent hits. They found ten grand in his safety deposit box, too.”
Chloe took a deep breath and pushed her black hair off her forehead with one hand. “That ten thousand is perfectly legal. It’s a lump sum grant payment.” She gestured toward the barn where David was laughing and doing wheelies in his wheelchair. “A private organization provided the grant for my son to have extensive therapy to help him rehabilitate after his spinal-cord injury, and I signed a contract with your brother to work with David. I gave him the money up front because I know he’ll do the hours, and I knew it would help you out at the ranch.”
Rylie tilted her head. “You hired my brother?”
“He’s been my son’s companion for a couple of months now, taking him on horseback rides every afternoon.” The woman gave a quick smile. “Levi plans to start a full-time therapeutic horseback program for kids with CP and spinal-cord injuries. He’s also looking into a license for home modifications—that’s where the other money came from. I paid it to him to buy supplies to remodel the house, and for his time and work.”
“And every evening...” Rylie let her voice trail off as she studied Chloe.
A flush stole over Chloe face. “When I get David settled down for the night, Levi and I do spend time together.” She gestured with one hand toward Douglas. “Sometimes my mother comes down from Bis
bee to watch David while Levi and I go out.”
Okay, after she did away with Clay, Rylie was going to kill her big brother. Nothing like keeping his entire life secret from his little sister. The jerk.
At Rylie’s frown, Chloe’s face fell. “You don’t approve, do you,” she said. A statement, not a question.
“It’s not that.” Rylie shook her head. “I just don’t understand why he kept this all secret from me.”
“Levi has a hard time opening up.” Chloe sighed and gave a wry smile. “He’s a hard man to get anything out of, but once we reached a certain point in our relationship, we both began sharing our dreams. It seemed to scare him a lot. I don’t think he planned to be serious about anybody. Ever.”
Rylie felt like she’d been kicked in the gut.
That sounded familiar.
And, she was Levi’s sister, yet she’d never taken the time to find out if he had any dreams beyond trying to make the ranch productive. She sighed. “All right. So Levi has a secret life he didn’t bother to tell me about. But I guess I didn’t ask, either, except to badger him when I got curious. Not exactly the way to get a man— especially a stubborn big brother—to spill his secrets.”
Chloe pursed her lips, and then shook her head. “I’d better go call Mom to see if she can watch David.” She scooped up the gloves and pruning shears. “I’ve got all the grant paperwork for the ten thousand, and the contract and payment agreements, and receipts for all the money I’ve ever given him. I even have the plans for the riding program. I’ll take it all down to the county jail. And I’ve got to tell them that he’s been with me until late, just about every single night, even on the nights of the thefts.”
Rylie quirked a brow. “Sounds like the two of you had some fun.”
Chloe gave Rylie a smile. “We found whatever time and whatever place we could, to be alone.”
“I understand,” Rylie said, and her belly clenched at the thought of Clay. Or, at least I did until the man I thought I loved turned out to be an opportunistic jackass. “I’ve got something to check out, too. Something that might help Levi in case everything you’re taking to Mr. High-and-Mighty Sheriff Wayland doesn’t do the trick. Tell Levi to call me later—and if they don’t let him go after they see your papers, you leave me a message.”
Clay: Armed and Dangerous Page 14