The Black Sheep and the Princess

by Donna Kauffman

  “Do you think Shelby will pick up where your mother left off, in terms of trying to leverage you even after the agreement is signed? You’re giving him a lot of power.”

  “I don’t see why he’d care what I do once he has what he wants. Yes, it was his father’s, but he was personally involved with it only because it positioned him at Louisa’s right elbow. He has no use for it now. Honestly, I think the only thing he really hates is that he has to trade it away to me, rather than sell it to me. But that’s Shelby for you. As long as I end up with the camp and a way to get it up and running, frankly, I don’t much care about the rest.”

  “So why isn’t he signing off? Something tells me that a guy like Shelby is going to make sure his schedule is clear when it comes to securing his multimillion-dollar inheritance. No call, nothing?”

  She shook her head. “I haven’t tried yet today. I was still pretty upset when I got home last night, and then—”

  “I show up.” He smiled.

  She managed a smile in return. “I know I’ve been dealing with some problems at the camp. I—I hadn’t really connected it to Shelby, or anything else really, because there was no reason to.”

  “But?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “Now I don’t know. I feel like I’m being paranoid, but—” She broke off, didn’t continue.

  “But what? Trust your instincts.”

  “Well, the stuff going on at camp…now you’ve got me wondering if maybe there’s something more going on with that and the reluctance of the townspeople to help me. It seems so ridiculous to me. I mean, they don’t even know me and, if anything, when the camp was up and running before, it helped Ralston economically. So all I can figure is that there is something pending out there that could help them even more. What else would make them so resentful?”

  “You mean the rumored resort development deal?”

  “Do you know anything else about that?”

  “Not yet.” He paused, then said, “I know you’re taking in a lot here, but I really want you to think about the possibility that Shelby not signing yesterday might be tied up with that, too.”

  She sighed wearily, but she didn’t argue. “I tried to push Stan in that direction a little this morning.”

  Mac sat up a little straighter. “And? What did you say?”

  “I asked him if he’d spoken to Shelby, and he had no idea what I was talking about. But I’m telling you, the whole conversation was weird. I kept thinking it was because you planted those seeds in my mind and I was just imagining things, but I really think something is going on with the townsfolk. Or some of them anyway.”

  “Why? What did he say?”

  “It was more what he didn’t say. He just sort of spouted the party line and pretended to be helpful and interested, but the entire time I couldn’t shake the feeling he was lying to me. About what, I don’t know. Or hiding something. I had to go track him down; he wasn’t even in the office to meet me. He acted like he knew nothing about me, and I know that’s not true.” She shrugged. “It’s just not adding up, but I can’t give you anything specific.”

  “Never ignore gut instincts. They might not be dead accurate, but they’re usually grounded in something.” Sort of like his instincts about Kate being someone special. He’d gotten all hung up on the superficial stuff way back when and let it dull those burgeoning instincts. Now? Now he was just all hung up. “Something’s going on, and my money is on there being a better than average chance that Stan, possibly his father, Timberline, and Shelby could all be a part of it.”

  He popped his seat belt off, opened the door and climbed out.

  “Wait! You’re going to just drop that little bomb on me, then go off shopping?”

  He bent back down and looked into the cab. “No. I’m dropping that little bomb, and you’re coming shopping with me.” He smiled. “It was your idea.”

  She stared at him, shoulders set, jaw momentarily mutinous, then relented and popped her seat belt buckle. “Fine. But you start picking out cartoon clothing and I’m not holding back my opinions.”

  He closed the door and looked at her over the cab roof as she got out. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  She made a noise that clearly stated she found him completely insufferable. He could be, so there was no point attempting to change her mind. But before the day was over, she’d also find out he was doggedly determined about getting the job done.

  “We need to do more research on Timberline, and I need to get a hold of Shelby, so I don’t want to take too long here,” she said, setting off across the parking lot with long, determined strides. “I still have to get in Gilby’s face, too, about the most recent round of graffiti, but I’m thinking now maybe that should wait until we know more. I don’t know if we should snoop around town any more at this point. We need to find a way to dig a little, but discreetly. Maybe I could head back into the city and—”

  Mac just smiled and pulled his satellite phone from the clip on his belt. He punched a number in, waited a second, then said, “Things are getting interesting. I’m going to need to update that list a little.”

  Finn just hummed his little I-told-you-so hum.

  Mac knew he deserved nothing less. “I’ll have a shipping address for you by tonight, but in the meantime, I need a few more reports run.” He reeled off some of the same names Kate had just mentioned. “Anything you can find connecting them together wins you the bonus prize.”

  “Do I get to pick?” Finn shot back. “Because I was doing some research today on another little project and stumbled across this unbelievably sweet little deal on a new toy we really need to have. It’ll make some of our current jobs much easier and allow us to expand our—”

  Mac grinned as he clicked the phone off cutting his partner off mid-drool. Finn definitely used his vast asset base to do good deeds, but that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy an interesting perk or two. Or three. They were always business-related investments, but only Finn could find a way to turn something like, oh, say, buying a small island into a business investment. God only knew what he was eyeballing now. Lately he’d gotten rather…creative.

  Mac looked at a worried Kate and thought, if Finn could dig up some information that would help him take away the fear in those baby blues of hers, he’d personally see to it that Finn had whatever toy he wanted.

  He shot Kate a wide smile meant to reassure and distract. Not necessarily in that order. “Discreet enough for you?” He crooked an elbow and held it out to her. “Come on, let’s spend some more of Finn’s money.”

  “Mac—”

  He brightened at her automatic use of his nickname. “See? You’re already getting with the program.” He took her hand and tucked it through his arm, clamping down a little so she couldn’t pull it back. He tugged her a few steps across the parking lot before she gave up and fell into step beside him. “Trust me, Kate,” he said, more serious than he’d intended. “You’re not fighting this alone. Whatever we dig up, you’ve got Trinity behind you all the way.”

  She shook her head. “I still can’t believe you used that as your company name.”

  “Hey, at least we left the ‘unholy’ part off the letterhead.”

  He got a wry smile for that. “Something tells me your clients figure out that part all on their own. Probably within five seconds of meeting any one of the three of you.” She tried to tug her hand free.

  He kept it easily pinned to his side. “True. But no complaints so far.”

  “I bet.”

  He grinned. “We get the job done.”

  She shot him a sideways glance, lips quirking slightly. “Like I said…” She tugged harder this time, and he let her hand go.

  “How did I suddenly get to be the bad guy again?”

  “Bad boy is more like it,” she said as she walked in front of him.

  He took her elbow and gently swung her back around to face him. “I thought we cleared this up back in the truck.”

  “We did
. You’re an unrepentant womanizer, and you have a strong work ethic, so I bargained your integrity against your libido, and won. Now you’re already reneging on the deal.”

  “How?” he asked, honestly perplexed. “I’m playing by the rules. Your rules.”

  She sent a pointed look to where his hands were bracing both of her elbows.

  “That’s different,” he said immediately. When she just looked at him, he smiled, but lifted his hands away, palms up. “Fine. But, for future reference, if I’m going to put my hands on you in a rule-breaking way, I’m not going to waste time with your elbows, okay?”

  Her skin pinked and her eyes darkened, and Mac was reminded why he shouldn’t play with her particular brand of fire. She only had to stand there and stare him down and he was suddenly in trouble. “All I was trying to say was that unlike your mother and Shelby and who knows who else in your life, there are no strings attached to my help.” He grinned. “I’m your proverbial fairy godmother.”

  A laugh snorted out of her, catching them both off guard.

  “Fairy godfather?” he amended.

  She laughed outright. “Stop.”

  And he thought, I could so fall for you. Which shouldn’t have come as such a complete shock to him. But it was a fact that a whole lot more than his hormones were getting engaged here.

  He struck off across the parking lot. “Come on, we’ll get Bagel his fancy-schmancy doggie food—although you do realize you’re unmanning the poor guy. Just give him regular old dog chow—then you can help me pick out some mountain man stuff. After that, I need to find a place to rent a post office box. I’ll buy you lunch and we’ll go over everything, set up a game plan you can live with. We should have something from Finn by then. I’ll even drive home—back to camp.”

  Home. It wasn’t a word that sprang to his lips, even casually. Maybe especially then.

  “We’ll see,” was all she said, and matched his long-legged stride across the lot.

  Chapter 8

  “You shop like a man.”

  Kate walked around to the driver’s side of the truck. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

  Donovan followed her around and reached past her for the door handle. “Take a break, General Patton. I’ll drive.”

  She beat him to the door handle and shot him a look, debating the relative merits of fighting that particular battle. She was bone tired, still a little freaked out despite his attempts to lighten things up during their little impromptu shopping spree, and she’d just spent a mind-numbing forty-five minutes in a noisy mall speed shopping with Neanderthal Man so she could get them out of there and back to the more important business of finding out what the hell was going on.

  She lifted her hand from the handle. “Fine.” She dropped her key ring into the waiting palm of his hand, ignoring his look of surprise.

  He tossed his shopping bags in the back and quickly climbed in as she walked around to the other side and got in.

  “I asked at the information desk while you were trying on that God-awful green and black plaid shirt, and they said there’re no postal box rental places anywhere around here. I’m not even sure they knew what I was talking about. But I’m fairly certain they’re right. Most folks here wouldn’t have the need of a separate box. Why can’t you just use the Winnimocca address?”

  “Security. Don’t worry, I’ve got another idea.” He pulled out on the main road and continued heading in the opposite direction of the camp.

  “Shouldn’t we start heading back? Did you check to see if Finn called?”

  “Yes, dear. Five minutes ago when we left the mall, right around the last time you asked.” He didn’t turn the truck around.

  “And to think I was nice and let you drive. Where are we going?”

  “You’re beat, I’m starved, and we could use a little refueling. So could your truck from the look of the gauge.”

  “It’s broken. I go by the mile counter.” She leaned over to get a look, instantly regretting the move when she got a whiff of, well, Donovan. He smelled all woodsy and good and—she looked at him. “What?”

  “You sniffed me.”

  “I did not.” She straightened back to her side of the truck and tried not to look mortified.

  “Cologne Girl ambushed me going into Melton’s department store.” He glanced at her, gray eyes twinkling. “Do you like it?”

  She turned her attention resolutely forward. Couldn’t incriminate herself—or worse, encourage him further—if she kept her mouth shut.

  He drove for another minute, then shot a grin her way that she couldn’t miss even in her peripheral vision. Donovan had the kind of smile you felt.

  “That good, huh? Maybe I should go back and—”

  Her hand shot out when he changed lanes and looked as if he were going to pull a U-turn. “No. Food is the only thing I want to be sniffing right now.”

  He let her keep her dignity. For three seconds. “Liar.”

  She ignored him and his tangible grin. “How long do you think it will take Finn to get back to you? And what, exactly, are you having sent up here? Why not just ship it directly to the camp? Who’d know?”

  “We just paraded ourselves all over Ralston. Word will spread that you’re not living alone out at the camp.”

  “Does anyone know you’re back? Has anyone recognized you?”

  He shook his head. “No, and I didn’t recognize anyone either, but it won’t take long to figure out.”

  “Does it really matter?”

  He shrugged. “Don’t know yet. But it might not be bad for them to realize you’re not fending for yourself out there. And if they figure out it’s me keeping you company, that might actually work in our favor.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Who’d ever suspect drunk Donny Mac’s son had amounted to anything?”

  Kate massaged her temples, but the beginnings of a tension headache persisted. “I really want to believe you’re wrong about all of this. I want to believe that I’ll get a hold of Shelby. He’ll sign the papers. I can start hiring work crews and they’ll see I mean business. And who knows, maybe just having the laborers around will deter whoever is spray painting messages all over the property. Problems solved.”

  That was the plan she should be preparing for. All this wild speculation about developers wanting to take over her property and the townsfolk wanting her out, or Shelby maybe working some kind of side deal intending to screw her over, was pure fantasy. He was selfish, greedy, and petulant, but she didn’t want to believe he’d go this far.

  “I’m not going to tell you that’s an impossible scenario. I don’t know enough yet. But highly improbable? I’m afraid so.”

  “So you think Shelby is somehow linked to the townsfolk, the developers, and the graffiti? Why would he risk losing the entire Sutherland inheritance?” When Donovan didn’t say anything, she folded her arms. “What?”

  He glanced at her, then back to the road. “I didn’t say anything.”

  “If you know something else, just say it.”

  “I don’t. But it’s not a bad thing to talk out alternatives. You never know what correlation we might draw, or put together some other lead we might have missed. Speculation isn’t a bad thing. Even if it’s wrong.”

  She wanted to be mad at him, even though she realized it was just an excuse to focus her feelings of helplessness on something tangible. Or someone. Instead, she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, forcing herself to relax back against the seat. Getting worked up wasn’t going to help matters any. Besides, she’d already gotten worked up quite enough for one morning, thank you. Her gaze slid sideways across the seat, to where Donovan’s hand rested on the gear shift. His jean-clad legs just beyond in the same line of sight.

  His hands were broad, flat, with wide, scarred fingers. And there was nothing scrawny about those thighs of his either. She swallowed another urge to sigh; only this time she was afraid it would sound more wistful than weary. He’d put h
is hands on her, his mouth on her…Her heart kicked up just thinking about what had happened in this very cab on the way here. Yes, she was tired, and scared and worried about getting her dream realized…but that wasn’t the reason her pulse was racing and her palms grew damp.

  No, the reason for that was driving her old pickup like he’d been born to it…and driving her to distraction while he was at it.

  The truck bounced hard as he turned off the main road onto a dirt and gravel route. “Where in the heck—?”

  He held up his hand. “Trust me.”

  “I’m already getting tired of that one. Just tell me. I’m not feeble-minded or fragile.”

  He glanced at her. “Never said you were.”

  “So, then…?”

  “I need to pin down an alternate delivery address.”

  “Out here?”

  “Hope so.” They bumped and bounced over the rutted road, making her grab the dash and the armrest to keep from cracking her head against the roof. She already knew better than to ask him anything else. She’d find out soon enough anyway.

  A few teeth-jarring minutes later, he pulled off into an overgrown field. A weather-beaten barn held court amongst the shoulder-high weeds.

  He parked and got out. She sighed and followed him. “I don’t think this thing has a mailing address.”

  “Nope.” He stopped and stared at the barn, hands on his hips. “Makes one hell of a nice mailbox, though. Can’t beat the price either.”

  He started walking toward it, beating aside the grass as he went. “Watch out for snakes.”

  “If you’re expecting me to leap and squeal, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. You might have wanted to change out of those running shoes, though. Snake teeth’ll go right through that open mesh weave. Perfectly nice, brand-new boots back in the truck.”

  The grass and weeds were so tall they kept the sun from penetrating all the way down, and the ground beneath their feet was more muck and mire than packed dirt.

  “I’ll manage.”

  “Men.”

  He chuckled, and she found herself smiling.