by Unknown
Bright sunlight streamed in through the threadbare drapes to display the room at its poorest. Not that she thought it had a best, no way in hell. She stepped to the tiny closet, eyed the unhinged door propped against the wall and battled the urge to scream.
She turned to face Jace, her smile wide and plastered on with steely determination. Determined to make the best of a bad situation, she moved down the narrow hall to the next bedroom.
This room was even worse than the one she’d claimed for her own. The bed was a rusted, iron rail with a single lumpy mattress on top of even rustier box springs. A faded bedspread, baby-shit yellow, hung lopsided on it. God, she didn’t even want to see what the bathroom looked like.
Jace lifted a weary hand and brushed off the sweat beading his forehead. She thought he looked like a man about ready to upchuck his lunch if he had to stand here and look at the pukey bedspread one second longer. Served him right!
“Uh,” he began and lifted his shoulders in a helpless shrug.
She watched his lips move, but no words came out. Then he turned sharply on his heel and was gone, mumbling something about having the rest of their things brought to them.
As soon as Jace was out of hearing, Taylor spun around to face her. “Are you crazy? We can’t live in this shack. I thought you said you’re married to this guy?”
She blinked at his sudden attack, so much for his support. “We have no choice. And yes, I’m married to him, but I told him I want a divorce. He wasn’t thrilled at the idea. I also told him I didn’t want any special treatment. He’s giving me what I asked for and a little extra. That’s one thing I learned about Jace in the short time I was with him in Reno. She shrugged. “He wants me to move into the main house so he’s making it hard on me.”
“For Christ’s sake, Kaycee, why the hell would you want to live in this two-bit shack? Move into the main house. I can live here and make it just fine.”
“No. I can take whatever he dishes out.”
Taylor snorted. “Yeah, well I think he’s going to add fringe benefits. I don’t think this cowboy treats his other employees this badly. Let’s go back to Reno. I hate it here.”
She twisted her hands. “You don’t understand. We can’t go back. There’s nothing there for us anymore. This is it.”
“Yes, I do understand. The man wants you. And, by God, you’re afraid! You can’t hide from life, sis. It has a way of reaching out and biting you on the ass.”
“And what have you been doing?” she snapped.
“You’re right. I’ve been hiding, but I’m not fool enough to tweak the tail of a sleeping tiger while I’m doing it. He wants you. I’m not so certain he’ll let the fact I’m here stand in his way.”
She blinked back tears. “You’re right.”
“Sis, you know we can’t stay here. We have to leave.”
“Then what, Taylor? Where do we go from here?”
“As long as it’s somewhere far away from the heartless bastard, I don’t care! I don’t like him. He sure as sweet hell doesn’t like me. If you’re so afraid of him, why in hell did you marry him?”
“I’m not afraid of Jace. And I was drunk when I married him. Okay?”
Taylor’s dazzling blue eyes widened with shock. “Drunk?” He snorted. “Right. I’ve never ever seen you taste beer. You expect me to believe you got drunk and married a stranger? Bull shit!”
“It wasn’t beer. It was a couple of tequilas…three…four. I forget how many.”
“Tequila? Are you mad? Did he rape you while you were drunk?”
“No! If anyone was raped…then I raped Jace.”
“Whoa, time out.” Taylor made a 'T' of his hands. “That’s more information than I want.”
“Then stop asking questions. What’s between me and—”
“Not if he beats on you,” he interrupted. “If the man so much as lays a finger on you, he’ll answer to me.”
Kaycee bit her lip. “I’ll explain about that some other time.”
Just not now.
She didn’t think Taylor was ready to face up to the threats involved with someone like Smitt Davis. She damn sure didn’t have the energy. She was exhausted. All she wanted to do was tumble into the God-forsaken bed and sleep for twenty-four hours.
“There’s nothing to explain. I saw the black eye and the bruises. That’s pretty self-explanatory.”
“Let’s just drop it for now. I have other things to do and think about.” She knew her brother meant well, but she didn’t feel like having a lengthy discussion about anything.
She wasn’t ready to confide in him.
She leaned her hips against the dining table and pondered what to do next. Unpack and settle in. Home sweet home. She yelped as a leg wobbled and both she and the table crashed to the floor in a tangled heap. Her gaze leaped to Taylor. A wealth of amusement twinkled in his eyes.
“Home sweet home,” he drawled.
She laughed. “You read my mind,” she accused and burst into tears.
No, there was just no way Jace intended to do her any favors. And damn it, she couldn’t even claim she hadn’t asked for it.
Once again, the man gave her exactly what she’d requested. In triplicate!
Chapter Sixteen
Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed. Women somehow deteriorate during the night.
~Cowgirl Quotes
Dancing Star Ranch
December 1, Monday 4:00 p.m.
Jace clenched his teeth and muttered beneath his breath as he shaved. Fury and frustration lined his face along with the shaving cream. He was furious with himself and with his wife. Nothing new about that or her refusal to meet him last night, just as she had every night since her arrival.
Hell, he could hardly blame her after placing her and her brother in such deplorable housing. He’d love nothing more than to move them both into the main house—he wanted Kaycee here, in the house, in his bed, where she belonged—but the little witch had dug in her boot heels and told him with the sweetest smile on her face to shove his offer somewhere dark and deep.
And there was Jillian, driving him insane with her constant nagging about money and her numerous attempts to crawl into his bed. Swear to God, if he found her lounging naked in his bed one more time, he was going to throttle her.
His nerves were stretched as tight as a new barbed wire fence. He worried about what would happen if Kaycee ever discovered Jillian in his bed. She’d believe the worse. Why wouldn’t she? She’d really shit if she knew Jillian had hopped in the shower with him the day she and Taylor arrived.
Jillian and her attempts to give him a blowjob were enough to make a man explode all right and not sexually.
Then there was Dianna.
His sister hovered around like a mama hen guarding her only chick. It was pure bad luck she’d entered his bedroom earlier just as he came out of his bathroom wearing only a towel.
She froze in her tracks, her gaze darting from him and back to where Jillian lay there in his bed, obviously naked beneath the sheets. The bed was rumpled, Jillian’s hair tousled and her lips swollen. He knew it looked as if he’d just left her arms. It looked bad, and knew he looked guilty as hell. Before he could say a word in his defense, Dianna whirled and left the room.
Jillian laughed, flung back the sheet and crawled out of bed. “She’d really be upset if she knew you and I recently showered together.”
He gritted his teeth. “We didn’t shower together, Jillian. You broke into my bathroom. The door was locked. You were hardly invited to join me there.”
She pursed her lips in what she thought was an inviting moue and ignored his reply. “Details, darling, you had a big problem. I merely wanted to help you take care of it. As I recall, you didn’t exactly turn me away. You can’t deny sex between us has always felt good.”Jillian sauntered toward him, a sleek cat. She rubbed her hands over her breasts, pinched her nipples into rigid peaks and smiled. “Hmm, I can feel your mouth on my nipples, your tongu
e tasting me.”
He clenched his jaw. “Yeah, I can deny it.”
“Darling, you’re only fooling yourself. Your eyes say you’re guilty as hell. I wonder what the little bride would say if I told her on the very day of her arrival, we were in the shower together, and I gave you a blowjob, one that brought you to your knees moaning in orgasmic pleasure.”
“Goddamn it, Jillian!”
“I think I’ll tell her how hard you were and how fast you went off in my mouth. It didn’t take me but a second to pleasure you. Rather, it only took you a second and you were a goner. I think I might have to tell your bride what it takes to get you off so quickly.”
He clenched his fists at his sides. In another minute, he’d have his fingers wrapped around her lying neck. She stopped in front of him and rubbed her breasts against his bare chest. “Remember how good we were together, darling?” She lifted his hand to her breasts. “Don’t you miss me just a little?”
“We were never good together, Jillian. I don’t miss you at all. Get out of my bedroom.” He dropped his hand to his side.
“Yes, I think I need to compare notes with sweet Kaycee.” She fiddled with the knot in his towel.
He clamped his fingers around her wrist. “Don’t go there, Jillian. I’m warning you. You hurt my wife, I’ll kill you.”
She flung back her head and laughed. “Before or after you fuck me? You have a hard-on, darling, one the size of Texas. Let me take care of it for you.”
“Get out!”
She arched a brow and traced a fingertip up and down the length of his cock. “You sure you don’t want me to take care of this? Mmm, I can just taste you on my tongue.” She licked her lips. “I’m dying to feel you inside me again, Jace. Like that day in the shower when you came inside me. Remember? You fucked me twice, came in me twice. I can still feel your hot stream jetting inside me.”
“I didn’t screw you, Jillian.”
She smiled. “You sure ‘bout that? I remember differently. What do you remember?”
“I said, get out!” He frog-marched her across the bedroom and out to the hall. Jace slammed the door on her laughter and pressed his forehead against it. His body shook. His chest heaved with his heavy breaths. God, he was in such deep shit. He turned toward the bathroom intent on taking another shower. He could take a hundred showers, but he’d never get the taint of Jillian’s touch off his skin. If Jillian hurt Kaycee in any way he’d wring her damn neck.
Jace tossed the razor down and washed the shaving cream from his face. He knew very well Kaycee and Jillian had had a couple of confrontations. He didn’t know why or what was said, because neither of them saw fit to confide in him, but he had a feeling things were bad between Jillian and his wife. He had no idea what to do about either of them. An explosion was pending though and he had a feeling everything was going to be blown to smithereens around his head.
There was no forcing Jillian to leave. His locked doors were useless against the scheming bitch. He needed his wife in the house, but that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. Jace headed out the front door, but turned back to the living room when the phone rang. He snatched up the phone on the second ring. “Dancing Star.”
Damn it, he didn’t want to talk to anyone. He wanted to seek out his wife, get her somewhere alone and kiss the hell out of her. He wanted to get in her pants and fuck her until neither of them could move. Frustration gnawed at him. He’d waited for her about as long as he was going to wait for her.
“J.D., thank God, I caught you.”
“What?” he snapped. He didn’t have time for Duel’s antics right now.
“Don’t hang up. Something’s happened here you need to know about.”
“Yeah?” Irritation threaded his voice as he waited for Duel to get to the point of his call.
“Well, the good news is the preacher who married you and Kaycee brought your marriage license here yesterday and left it with me. I would put it in the mail to you, but my office was broken into late last night and the marriage license has disappeared.”
“What?” Jace swore virulently, ignoring Duel’s pause on the other end of the line.
“That was the good news?”
Duel gave a deep sigh. “Yes. The bad news is he was found dead this morning in an alley.”
Jace felt the breath drain from his body. “Dead? The preacher was found dead?”
“Yes,” Duel snapped. “He was gutted, J.D.”
“Fuck!”
“Smitt Davis has disappeared off the face of the earth or at least off the face of Reno. I’m afraid he might be on his way there.”
“What did the cops say?”
“They haven’t a clue.”
“Then why do you think Smitt is involved?”
“I don’t believe in coincidences. Do you?”
“No,” Jace replied.
“The police said it looked like the preacher took quite a beating before he was sliced open. It’s going down as a robbery gone wrong.”
“But you think Smitt killed the preacher?”
“Yes. Marriages are a matter of public record. It would be easy enough for him to get the information, and it would be just like him to steal your marriage license. He’s crazy, J.D. Just be on guard. Will you?”
“Yes, of course, but anyone could have killed the man. We don’t even know if Smitt is a killer. The only thing we know for certain is he enjoys terrorizing women.”
“I know that, J.D., but you remember as well as I do how he used to torture small animals. You recall the kitten he set on fire and dropped down the old well on his grandparent’s farm?”
“Yeah. I remember, but that doesn’t make him a murderer.”
“Doing things like that in childhood can escalate. It’s one step up from there to rape and murder or becoming a serial killer.”
“That’s a big leap from a boy torturing animals to becoming a serial killer.”
“I can’t think of anyone else who might want your marriage license. Stay on guard. Okay? There’s something else a bit odd also.”
Jace sighed. He knew in his gut his brother had nothing good to report. He waited for the ax to fall.
“Smitt somehow ended up with the deed to Sweet Water. Immediately after Sam Spencer’s death, he produced a deed with everything signed over to him. Cold-hearted bastard put Kaycee and her brother out on the streets. I don’t know how they survived. Apparently Sam Spencer was into heavy gambling and owed Smitt a ton of money. There was a bucket full of IOUs. Rumor has it that Smitt was trying to force Kaycee to pay the debts one way or another.”
“The slimy, little weasel.”
“Yeah. But what really worries me, J.D., is there’s some doubt that Spencer’s death was a suicide. The cops suspected foul play, but the evidence was too thin to prove it. The detectives caught Kaycee and Smitt locked in a lover’s embrace over Sam’s body. They questioned Kaycee, accused her of murdering her father for the ranch. They arrested her, booked her for murder, but had to release her for lack of evidence. The investigation went cold, but their number one suspect is still Kaycee.”
“Why do they think it wasn’t a suicide?”
Duel sighed into the phone. “There was no gunpowder residue on Spencer’s trigger finger. The cops know he didn’t commit suicide. They just don’t know for sure who murdered him.”
“Was there gunpowder residue on Kaycee’s hands?”
“Yes, but she claimed she picked up the gun afterwards.” He paused a moment, then continued, “You should know that Kaycee’s abrupt departure from Reno has forced the detectives to re-open the case and place her back at the top of their list of suspects. They believe she’s running from them.”
“There’s no way she killed her father,” Jace snapped.
“You and I know that, but the detectives might come after her, J.D. I just wanted you to be prepared.”
“Fuck-fuck-fuck!” Jace slammed the phone in its cradle and raked fingers through his wet hair. What next,
Jillian telling Kaycee she gave him a blowjob in the shower or Kaycee actually discovering Jillian in his bed and both of them naked? What a mess!
* * * *
Kaycee pitched another shovel full of horse dung and piles of urine soaked straw into the wheelbarrow and released a shaky breath. The muscles between her shoulder blades screamed in agony. Blisters of every imaginable size dotted the palms of her hands. With every smooth glide of the shovel handle, a few more erupted and new ones popped up to take their place.
Tears of exhaustion pricked the backs of her eyes. She stubbornly set her teeth.
I can do this. I will not complain. I will not die from hunger just because I’ve missed a few meals.
She snorted. There was very little food in the house, but she’d starve before she asked Jace for a dime to buy groceries. Payday was just around the corner. She’d wait to stock up on supplies.
Taylor’s appetite was poor at best, so he hadn’t complained about the lack of food. Her stomach definitely complained. It thoroughly protested the hollowness assaulting it. The rumbling increased with each passing hour. She groaned and supported herself with the shovel handle while she took a breather. She could cheerfully fall asleep propped against the thing. Up before dawn every morning, no time for breakfast, no time for coffee, she didn’t stop for lunch. She was usually too exhausted for supper by the time she completed the evening chores.
Her bones ached with weariness. Lately, it seemed she was tired all the time, and she never slept enough. Now she was plagued with nausea and vomiting in the early morning when she first awoke.
Ironically, Taylor seemed to thrive with his new job position. He was downright cheerful at times. She’d even caught him whistling a couple of times and couldn’t help but wonder why he was so damn happy. He and Jace weren’t on friendly terms, but they managed to be civil to each other. Go figure.
She’d met two of the trainers, Bryson Campbell and Tuggle Green. She watched the way they handled the horses and approved of both men’s care of the beautiful animals. Not that her approval meant squat. It didn’t. But it made her feel better knowing the trainers were good at their jobs.