Brenda Jackson The Westmoreland Collection: ZaneCanyonStern

by Brenda Jackson

  “Why would she lie about it? She was engaged to marry Grant.”

  “Maybe that’s a question for you to figure out since Bonita isn’t around any longer to provide answers.”

  His remark was a stark reminder that Bonita had been killed last year in an early-morning pileup on Interstate 70, an accident that had killed ten people.

  “I’m not going to waste time discussing our dramatic past,” Canyon interrupted her thoughts to say. “What I am going to discuss is my son...a son I didn’t know I had, dammit. And if you want to go sleep in a hotel room tonight without all the facts about who’s trying to scare you enough to follow you home and then do this,” he said, gesturing to the mess in her kitchen, “then go right ahead. But my son won’t be going with you.”

  “Who the hell do you think you are telling me where my son won’t be going?” she asked, taking a step closer and getting in his face.

  “His father. And I think once you put your misplaced hatred for me aside, you’ll agree that both of you going to Westmoreland Country would be the best thing. Would you feel safe living here?”

  She tempered her anger somewhat as she took in his words. “I said I would go to a hotel.”

  “And what if the person finds out where you’re staying? You still don’t know why you’re being targeted. Hell, you don’t even know if it’s a man or a woman. I’d think you would care about Beau’s life even if you want to take chances with your own.”

  Keisha nibbled her bottom lip. Was Canyon deliberately trying to put the fear of God in her? She drew in a deep breath and glanced around. All it took was one look at her kitchen and the memory of the condition of the other rooms in her house. Canyon was right. Until she found out who’d done this and who had been following her earlier that day, she needed to do everything she could to keep Beau safe. And he would be safe with Canyon.

  But what about her? She knew Canyon would never hurt her physically, but what about emotionally? It seemed he was still proclaiming his innocence as if she was supposed to believe him. She knew what she’d seen that night.

  Keisha remembered Bonita’s tearful admission that she and Canyon hadn’t meant to sleep together. It had just happened. Bonita had gone to Keisha’s place looking for her friend after a tiff she’d had with Grant, only to discover that Keisha hadn’t yet returned from her out-of-town trip.

  Bonita had been upset and to calm her down Canyon had given her something to drink, which he’d shared with her. They’d both drunk themselves silly and the next thing Bonita knew they were having sex on the floor in the living room. Canyon had taken a shower afterward and had asked Bonita to wait for him in bed.

  And that was when Keisha had returned unexpectedly to find Bonita naked in bed and Canyon walking out of the bathroom wearing a towel around his middle.

  Oh, he had pretended to be just as shocked as she’d been to see a naked Bonita, but Keisha hadn’t bought his story then and she wasn’t buying it now. There had been two empty wineglasses and Bonita’s clothes had been thrown on the floor all over the place, corroborating Bonita’s story.

  But what if there was a smidgen of truth in what he’d said just now? What if the scene had been cunningly crafted by Bonita?

  “It’s getting late, Keisha, and we need to leave here,” Canyon said, interrupting her thoughts.

  Keisha held his gaze. Could she and Canyon spend a single day under the same roof and be civil to each other? Tomorrow was Saturday, and she had scheduled appointments to take Beau to the barbershop, do laundry, buy groceries and get her car washed. Now she would need the entire weekend to arrange the cleanup of her place. Right now she felt violated, and her main concern was keeping her son safe.

  “One night,” she heard herself saying. “I’ll agree to stay one night.” Then she thought about all that needed to be done here. “Maybe two.”

  Canyon frowned in exasperation. “Fine, do your two nights, but the invitation is open for as long as you need it. There’s some nutcase out there and until Pete and that detective figure out what he has against you then I intend to keep you and Beau safe.”

  She bit her tongue to keep from telling him that neither she nor Beau needed him because that would be a lie. At this moment, with so much uncertainty in her life, for the next day...or two...she and Beau did need him.

  Four

  “Make yourself at home.”

  Keisha stepped over the threshold of Canyon’s house and thought he had to be kidding. This wasn’t a home, this was a friggin’ castle.

  It had been dark when they’d arrived but she had seen the lighted marker that denoted Westmoreland Country. And she had seen another marker that said Canyon’s Bluff. Because it had been dark, she’d barely made out the massive structure until the car’s headlights had shined on it. She’d sat in the car for a full minute, amazed.

  He had been in the process of having the plans drawn up for the house when she’d left town. She had heard the story about how, after his parents’ deaths, he and his brothers—upon reaching the age of twenty-five—inherited one hundred acres of land each...all except for Dillon. Since Dillon was the oldest, he had inherited the family home and the three hundred acres it sat on.

  Canyon and several of his brothers had been perfectly content living in the main house with Dillon until Dillon had married. That was when all the brothers had decided to build their own places. Canyon hadn’t been in any hurry at first. When he’d moved from Dillon’s home, he and his brother Stern moved in with their brother Jason, who’d had plenty of room. Eventually, Canyon had moved in with her.

  “So what do you think, Keisha?”

  She glanced over at him. He was holding a sleeping Beau in his arms while standing in the middle of what she figured was his living room, although it was three times the size of hers. “Can I ask you something, Canyon?”

  “What?”

  “Why would a single man need such a large place?”

  When he smiled she felt a stirring in her belly. “At the time, I didn’t think of needs, just wants. Four of my brothers and I were building our homes practically at the same time, and we all wanted something different and unique. You think this place is big, you ought to see Micah’s Manor, Derringer’s Dungeon, Riley’s Station, Stern’s Stronghold and Zane’s Hideout.”

  She couldn’t help grinning. “I gather all of your places have unique names.”

  “Yes. It was Bailey’s idea.”

  “I think the names are cute,” she said, reaching for Beau.

  “Whatever,” he said, handing their dozing son to her.

  “Those were some pretty nice neighbors to take care of him like they did.”

  Keisha agreed. “Yes, and I appreciate them.” Janice and Everett Miles were super. Not only had they fed Beau, but they’d given him a bath and put him in a pair of the twins’ pajamas. Now she held her sleeping child in her arms as she looked around a house that was too large for one person. And it was decorated for a king...and a queen. The furniture was expensive and the decor perfect.

  “You must have paid a lot in decorating costs,” she said.

  Canyon, who was moving around turning on lights, looked over his shoulder at her and chuckled. “I wish I could say my cousin Gemma came cheap but she didn’t. She made plenty of money off her brothers and cousins and wasn’t guilty about doing so.”

  “She did a great job.”

  “We got what we paid for. And if you ask me, we even paid for what we didn’t get. I think she deliberately overcharged us because she figured she could get away with it.”

  Canyon’s gruffness wasn’t fooling Keisha one bit since she heard the fondness in his voice. That was one thing she’d always admired about him and his family—their closeness. He had told her all about his family, and it had been her choice not to get to know them better. While Canyon had
been great company, and the sex had been off the charts, she hadn’t thought their relationship would last. Initially, she’d thought their physical relationship was all she’d wanted or needed.

  But Canyon had had a way of growing on her, and it had seemed she had started growing on him, as well. Within six months, she had invited him to move in with her. While living together they’d gotten along fabulously and things had been going really well...until the night he’d betrayed her.

  “My guest rooms are furnished but with no kiddie beds,” he said, interrupting her thoughts.

  “No problem, he can sleep with me.”

  Canyon nodded. “Okay. Right this way.”

  There were two spiral staircases. He moved up one and she followed, thinking his house looked even more impressive when seen from the stairs. High ceilings, crown moldings, colorful walls, hardwood and tile floors as well as intricate lighting. Everything served the purpose of complimenting the grace and style of the house. Definitely not anything a man would have had a hand in.

  “Unfortunately, my place isn’t childproof either.”

  She didn’t say anything. It didn’t matter since she and Beau wouldn’t be staying here that long anyway. When they reached the next floor he moved into a hallway that seemed to branch out in three directions. Even this area was beautifully decorated and a huge light fixture hung from the ceiling.

  He moved down a corridor containing three bedrooms. Opening the door to one of the rooms, he stood back for her to enter. This guest room, she thought, was simply stunning. There was no other word for it.

  “This is the blue room,” he said.

  She could see why. The walls were painted sky-blue with white billowy curtains around the windows. Plaid blue-and-white coverings were on the king-size bed. A white leather love seat was on one side of the room and two beautiful white ceramic lamps sat on nightstands on either side of the bed.

  “It’s pretty,” she said.

  “Thanks.”

  She walked across the white marble tile to the bed, pushed back the covers and placed Beau in the center. She glanced down at their son who looked so peaceful while sleeping. Little did he know that his mother’s world had just gone topsy-turvy.

  “I used to do that.”

  She nearly jumped. She hadn’t known Canyon had followed her over to the bed. “What?”

  “Sleep curled up with my face resting on my hands.”

  She smiled. “And he makes those sounds in his sleep like you used to do.”

  She watched Canyon’s brow rise. His eyes, normally so dark and intense, seemed even more so in the bedroom’s low light. “What sounds?”

  Those sounds you used to make that turned me on whenever I woke up to hear them, she thought. Not a snore—more of a groan, as if you were having some hell of a dream.

  “So, what sounds?” he asked again.

  “Not important,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. This was not how she’d planned to kick off her busy weekend. With everything she’d had planned to do Saturday and Sunday, tonight she’d hoped to curl up on her sofa with a bowl of popcorn and a movie after putting Beau to bed. Instead she was here, at the home of the one man she didn’t want to deal with again.

  Yes, she’d run into him occasionally since returning to Denver. Her law firm represented several of his company’s clients, and she would admit that the first time they’d sat across from each other as opposing council in a legal proceeding had been difficult.

  All she could think about that day, and the ones that followed, had been his betrayal. So when he’d approached her, asking if she would join him for dinner so they could talk through their issues, she had turned him down. After that it had seemed that the more she turned him down the more persistent he got. And to think he’d assumed he could follow her home to force a conversation with her!

  But now she would admit she was glad he had been there when she’d walked into the house and found her home in shambles. His take-charge attitude had helped when she’d become too emotional to think straight.

  “Do you think he will fall out of the bed?”

  Keisha chuckled softly. “No. He’s out for the night. And he’s not a wanderer so don’t worry about him tumbling down the stairs during the night either.”

  “Good, because if you’re up for it, we need to go downstairs and talk.”

  She appreciated that he was giving her the option to say no. But she knew they needed to talk, and she wanted to get it over with. “Okay,” she said, turning around.

  He was standing too close, and as she looked up into his face lust shot through her. She wasn’t surprised. Canyon had that effect on women. It had been that way for her the day they’d met in the courthouse lunchroom. And it had been that way a month later when she’d attended a meeting regarding a land dispute with his company. Every time Canyon glanced across the table at her she felt her insides sizzle.

  “I’ll need to use the ladies’ room first,” she said, rubbing her hands down the sides of her skirt.

  “Every bedroom has a private bath. I’ll see you downstairs in a few.” He then turned and walked out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him.

  She let out a deep breath when she heard his footsteps move down the stairs. When she’d made the decision not to tell Canyon about Beau she had been pretty comfortable with it. But she had a feeling that when Canyon finished with her she was going to wish she had decided differently.

  * * *

  Canyon stood at the window in his living room and looked out. It was dark, but he didn’t need to see to know what was out there: the one hundred acres he had inherited.

  From the time he’d been a kid, he’d known he wanted to claim this spot, the one with a perfect view of Whisper Creek Canyon. He didn’t have to be on Gemma’s Lake—the one named after his grandmother—or any of the other lakes and streams in Westmoreland Country. Nor did he have to be close to the valleys and meadows. This was where he wanted to be.

  He recalled those times when he would go hunting with his father, uncle, brothers and cousins. They would ride their horses here on this land and then camp out near the canyon. When everyone would fall asleep he would stay awake, wide-eyed while he stared up at the stars. He was convinced only special stars shone on this spot. And they were his stars. Over the years, whenever he was bothered by anything, all he had to do was stare up at them to find the answers he needed.

  It was here where he had escaped almost twenty years ago after finding out that his parents and uncle and aunt had died in a plane crash. And it was here where he’d come while in college when he’d made the decision to change his major from medicine to law.

  He’d thought he had wanted to follow in his brother Micah’s footsteps and become a doctor, but after two years of medical school he’d known he had made a mistake. He’d been torn about what to do.

  Dillon had sensed something was bothering him that week when he’d come home for spring break. And it had been Dillon who’d suggested Canyon take time away from school and come home to seek the answers he needed. So Canyon had taken a semester off.

  For those four months, he had crashed with his brother Riley and had spent his days either helping Ramsey with the sheep or Zane, Derringer and Jason with the horses. Then, on the weekends, he’d camped out here, on this land.

  When it was time for the next semester to start, he’d made his decision to switch from medical school to law school with his family’s blessings. Although his family got mad at each other sometimes, whenever it came to major issues they stuck together and supported each other.

  He took another deep breath as he recalled another decision he had made here on this spot under the stars. It had been the decision to ask Keisha to marry him. One evening while she was out of town on business, he had come here. He’d already decided to build a house o
n this land and had been gathering ideas for what kind of home he wanted to build and exactly where he wanted the structure to face. Then, out of the clear blue sky, a voice inside his head had said, Keisha will be the woman to live here with you.

  He really hadn’t been shocked or surprised by that revelation since he’d never had issues about falling in love like some of his cousins and brothers had. He didn’t have a fear of losing someone the same way he’d lost his folks. His only reason for taking his time about getting serious with a woman was that he enjoyed being single and hadn’t been ready to settle down. He’d figured that one day he would meet that special person, fall in love and marry. He was fine with that idea. He just hadn’t figured it would happen so soon.

  He had taken a horse and ridden down into the canyon, camping out that night on this land. He’d looked up at the stars and within minutes he’d known.

  He could hardly wait for Keisha to return. He hadn’t been expecting her for another two days. But she’d come home early, found Bonita in her bed and assumed the worst. And Bonita had intentionally led her to believe a lie.

  That angered him more than anything else about the situation because the woman had never done anything to rectify the situation. Keisha had been her friend but Bonita had lied to her. Canyon never knew what the woman’s true motive had been.

  Canyon’s thoughts returned to the present when he heard the sound of Keisha coming down the stairs. He turned around and moved toward her, pausing briefly to pick up the wineglass off the table where he’d placed it moments ago. “Here, I think you need this,” he said, handing the glass of wine to her.

  She accepted it and took a sip. He could tell from the smile on her face that she appreciated the taste. “This is good. Where did you get it?”

  “My cousin Spencer and his wife own a vineyard in California’s wine country. Russell Vineyard has been in Chardonnay’s family for years and—”