Love on the Free Side

by Mariah Ankenman

  She let out a weary sigh. “Actually, I wouldn’t. Believe me, Sheriff, I’ve heard my fair share of strange. But no, I can’t think of anyone.”

  Hoping to lighten her mood, Tony gave her a playful squeeze. “Not even laundry lady?”

  She glared up at him. “No. I apologized to Gladys and paid for her next two loads. She brought me cookies next washday. We’re peachy.”

  There was his kind, feisty girl.

  She turned her gaze back to Ryder. “I honestly have no idea who would want to do something like…this.” She gestured to the graffiti-covered house.

  That wasn’t entirely true.

  Knowing it would piss her off, but valuing her safety above her opinion of him at the moment, he asked, “What about your ex?”

  Just as he suspected, her head whipped back around, eyes glaring daggers at him.

  “Ex?” The sheriff leaned in, pencil poised on his notepad.

  “It’s nothing,” she insisted.

  Nothing my ass. “A guy doesn’t travel hundreds of miles to confront his ex-girlfriend about nothing, Jamie.”

  “Would you mind your own business?” she hissed through clenched teeth.

  Reaching up with his free hand, he gently stroked her cheek. “You are my business.”

  Her eyes softened at his words. For one, sweet moment the world disappeared, and only the two of them stood there, gazing into each other’s eyes, lost in a sea of memories and moments.

  “You have an ex in town?” The sheriff’s question broke the spell.

  Jamie nodded, focusing back on Ryder. “Yes. Brian Donavon. He showed up in town today. I had no idea he was here, but I don’t think he did this. He wanted to talk about…um, getting back together.” She glanced at him before swinging her gaze back, a blush rising on her cheeks. “But I told him no.”

  “Does Brian have a temper?”

  Yeah, but I doubt the chicken could back it up. Since the question wasn’t directed to him, he kept his opinions to himself.

  “As much as anyone I guess, but he didn’t do this. There’d be no time. We literally just left him in town. He wouldn’t have had the time to come out here and do all this damage even if he sped the whole way.”

  Mierda! He hadn’t thought about that. It would have been so convenient if Brian had been behind this attack. The guy had motive, and Tony was itching to kick the punk’s ass, but Jamie was right. The timeline didn’t match up.

  Unless…he did this before he confronted her at the diner.

  But why? This attack screamed an act of rage and anger. Brian hadn’t been angry until after Jamie rejected him.

  Or had he?

  Hell if he knew. Whatever happened between Jamie and her ex, he had no clue. The guy could have been pissed beforehand and tagged her place knowing she’d reject him anyway. A little preemptive revenge.

  Didn’t matter if Brian did it or not; the guy hurt Jamie. That made him worthy of a beating in Tony’s book.

  You’d be in that book, too, buddy.

  Mierda, he hated the truth sometimes.

  “Okay, so can you think of anyone else in town who might have a problem with you? Someone upset you bought the old Dunn place? Any of the other horse ranches worried about potential competition from your new business?”

  Jamie shook her head. “No. Everyone has been very supportive, and since my ranch is a therapy ranch and not directed to the tourist crowd, I’m not really competing with anyone.”

  “How about your old boss? Was he upset when you left?”

  “Doctor Bell? He was sad to see me go, sure, but he wasn’t mad or anything. Besides, he’s in…” The color in her face paled slightly.

  Lifting her chin with a finger, Tony gazed into her worried eyes. “What is it, bonita?”

  “Rick, Doctor Bell, he’s not in the office.” Her conflicted gaze traveled back and forth between him and Ryder. “I called his office the other day, and his assistant told me he’s at a conference.”

  “Where?” The sheriff’s brow furrowed.

  “I don’t know, but he goes to a lot of conferences. All the time. And really, I don’t think Rick would be upset enough at my leaving to come all the way out to Peak Town just to write some nasty words on my house.”

  She seriously underestimated her worth to people. He wasn’t saying he’d do something this cruel, but if she left him, he’d damn sure follow and try to win her back. As a lover or employer, didn’t matter, Jamie was a keeper. He could kick his own ass for it taking him this long to figure that out, but now that he had, he never planned to let her go again.

  “It is an unlikely theory, but I’m going to chase down all the leads.” Ryder handed over his notebook and pencil. “I’d like you to write down all the contact information you have for your former boss and ex-boyfriend. I’ll check the guys out and let you know if I find anything. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to call if anything else happens. Anything. You got that, Jamie?”

  “Yes, Sheriff.” She sighed, handing back the pad once she’d finished writing.

  “Good.” Ryder glanced at Tony, passing him a keep her safe glance.

  No worries on that front. Jamie’s safety was now his number one priority.

  The sheriff and his deputy soon packed up and left.

  Jamie turned to survey the crudely spray-painted words littering the front wall of the ranch house. “At least whoever the heck did this had the common decency to do it before I painted, right?”

  She gave a half-hearted chuckle, but he didn’t join in. Nothing about this situation sounded funny.

  “I’m staying with you until this asshole is caught.”

  “What?”

  He glanced down into her surprised faced. “Until this guy is locked up, I’m staying at the ranch house. With you.”

  “Tony that’s…very sweet, but not necessary. I’m sure it was just some punk kid messing around or something.”

  “Some punk kid wrote ‘stupid whore’ across your front porch for fun?”

  She cringed at his crude words, but he refused to hold back. She needed to open her eyes and see the very present danger in front of her. He knew stupid teenage mentality; this was no prank. Whoever did this had a wealth of anger inside. Enough to hurt her? They’d never know because he wasn’t about to let that happen.

  “Okay, but even if it wasn’t a kid. There’s no reason for you to stay here. I have locks on all the doors and windows, a shotgun in my office. I’ll be fine. Besides, you need to help your uncle. Isn’t that why you came back home in the first place?”

  “All he needs are rides to the hospital. I can do that and still sleep here at night.”

  She dug her upper teeth into her bottom lip, worrying the sweet bit of flesh he’d enjoyed just last night. Knowing if he insisted on staying for her safety she’d just protest, he went with another tactic.

  “Think about this.” He pulled her in until she rested flush against his body. Rolling his hips against her, he let her feel the effect she had on him. Her eyes widened, glazing over with lust. “If I sleep here every night, we’ll have more time to…enjoy ourselves.”

  “Well, when you put it that way.” A smile curved her lips, and she rose up on tiptoes to place a soft kiss on his.

  With a growl of triumph, he deepened the kiss, parting her lips with his tongue to taste the sweet nectar of her mouth. She met his hunger with equal enthusiasm. Happy to see her fear gone for the moment, he pulled away, gripping her hand to tug her along as he hurried into the house.

  Jamie should never be afraid, and if he had anything to do with it, she’d never be unhappy another day in her life.

  Chapter 24

  After a stressful evening—followed by a pleasure-filled night where she was very grateful for Tony’s pharmacy store stop for more, um, supplies—Jamie’s emotions pulled her in a thousand different directions. Sitting in an oversized reading chair in the living room, she rubbed a hand over the ache starting in her head. This morning, after cooking
her another delicious breakfast, Tony offered to go to the hardware store and grab some paint to cover the hateful words scrawled across the front of her home. The old ranch house was sorely in need of a new coat of paint anyway.

  At least the jerkwad had the decency to deface the place before I handled that chore.

  She still had no clue who could have done this. If she were still in the city, it would be easy to blame it on delinquent kids or a gang initiation of some kind. Peak Town didn’t have gangs, and the only rowdy thing kids in this town did was sneak their parents’ beer and head out to the woods to get stupid drunk. At least, that’s what she heard from the gossip in the high school hallway. She’d never been the kind of kid to do that.

  Straight arrow Jamie, sweet as apple pie.

  A phrase she’d heard far too often as a kid. It never bothered her. Life always seemed too important to waste it on doing stupid things. Her parents worked hard so she could have a good home, food on the table, education. Taking those things for granted seemed cruel. Working hard, applying herself, proving she was worth their sacrifice seemed much more important than being cool. And if she got called a goody-two-shoes, so what? What was wrong with being good and sweet?

  Her gaze fell on Tony’s shirt, strewn across the coffee table where it fell after she ripped it off him last night and flung it away. There certainly hadn’t been anything good or sweet about what she’d done last night. A needy spark of awareness hit low in her belly as she remembered how she’d dragged him upstairs and had her way with him.

  Twice.

  The man was so sexy it should be illegal. The things he did to her…there were no words. She ached in places she didn’t even know existed. Who knew there were more than two erogenous zones on the body?

  Tony knew.

  Boy, howdy, does he!

  She still couldn’t believe some of the things he’d done to her, and what she’d done to him. Her cheeks heated just thinking about it.

  “Take that ‘Most Likely To Never Change.’ ”

  A stupid senior award her classmates gave her. She’d also gotten Most Likely To Succeed, but the former stuck with her all these years.

  She could change, go wild, be a little crazy. Look at her now, having a sex only affair. Nice girls didn’t do that.

  “I’m bad to the bone.” Okay, she was pretty sure bad girls didn’t say that.

  Pushing last night and her new sexually uninhibited liaison aside, she focused on the problem at hand. Who the heck could be angry enough with her to damage her property? The obvious answer was also the one she didn’t want to consider.

  Brian.

  Ugh! Though the timeline didn’t quite fit, she had to admit the guy had been harassing her for a while now. Texts, phone calls, voicemails, and then showing up in person…it looked bad. Deep down, she didn’t truly believe Brian to be behind all this, but she had to ask. Sheriff Ryder would be calling him in for questioning no doubt, but she knew her ex. She’d be able to tell if he was lying to her or not.

  Yeah, ’cause I totally caught on to the whole affair with his TA thing.

  Maybe she wouldn’t be able to spot his lies, but she needed to talk to him. Confrontation wasn’t really her thing, but Brian would never leave her alone until she spelled it out for him. That was how he got her to go out with him in the first place, months of relentless asking. Now, she had to wonder if she ever really wanted to date the guy or if his persistence simply wore her down?

  Bucking up, she pulled out her phone and placed a video call. She needed to see his face to determine if he was lying, but she didn’t relish being in the actual same breathing area with him.

  After two short rings the call connected. Blackness appeared on her smartphone before it gave way to a clear picture of Brian sitting in what she knew to be one of the small rooms of Peak Town’s only motel.

  “Jamie.”

  His face split into a charming smile that had no effect on her. Not anymore.

  “How are you? It’s good to hear from you. Did you think about what I said yesterday?”

  Typical Brian. Going a million miles a minutes without letting a person get a word in edgewise.

  “Did you spray paint crude messages on my house?” Best to get right to the point.

  “What?”

  His brow furrowed. He looked confused, but he’d played a good game lying to her before. Rising from her chair, she walked out to the front porch. Anger mounting, she let the screen door slam behind her, relishing the small jump from Brian at the loud noise.

  “This,” she said, touching the phone screen to flip the camera. She panned, letting her ex get the full view of what had been done to her home. What he had done, perhaps?

  “Holy shit, Jamie!”

  Turning the camera back to her, she took in his horrified expression. The guy actually looked a little green.

  “You didn’t do this?”

  “Hell no.” His mouth curled with disgust. “I don’t even know where you live in this backwater town. The only reason I found you at the diner was because I’d been asking about you, and some chick at the grocery store said she saw you heading there.”

  Peak Town gossip. She let out a frustrated sigh. No one could keep anything to themselves in this place.

  “I thought you said this town is nice? Safe.”

  “It is.” Usually. No town came without its crime, but this…this was out of the ordinary.

  “Why the hell would you think I did something like that to your house?”

  His gaze narrowed in offense. No surprise there. Brian took offense when someone thought he bought his shoes at a discount store. He happily informed all that would listen just how expensive his wardrobe was. Status was everything to her ex.

  “I don’t know. The sheriff was asking if anyone had a grudge against me, and I—”

  “I don’t have a grudge, Jamie. I think I made that pretty clear when I told you I wanted to get back together.” The anger on his face faded into remorse. A false remorse, she could see that now. “I miss you, babe.”

  Yeah right.

  He missed the prestige of having her as his girlfriend. The doctor of psychology and the English Lit professor, on paper they were dynamite together. In real life…not so much.

  “Look, Brian, we’re over. I don’t have any residual anger against you, but I don’t want to get back together.”

  “I’m sorry about…what happened. It was a one-time thing. A slip up. It won’t happen again.”

  She stared at the screen, seeing the lie for what it was even over the shaky Wi-Fi signal. “Even if you hadn’t slept with someone else…we just weren’t a good match. It would have ended eventually.”

  Blue eyes she once thought engaging darkened.

  “How can you say that? We never even had sex. We weren’t a good match because we never got to connect. I know you have some issue with sex, but you can’t hold out on a guy like that. It’s no wonder I had to get it somewhere else. You wouldn’t give it up.”

  And there he went deflecting. Classic Brian. When in fault, blame someone else.

  “We’re over. I know things didn’t end the way you wanted and you don’t feel as though you received proper closure, but I can’t do anything about that. This is your issue, and you have to deal with it on your own. I have nothing more to say on the matter.”

  “Don’t Psych 101 bullshit me, Jamie.” Any semblance of charm vanished from his demeanor. “Fine. Have it your way. We’re done.” He waved a hand over his face, panning down his body with the camera. “Say goodbye to this babe. It’s the best thing you’ll never have because you’re an ice queen. I bet you’d freeze a guy’s dick off if it got within six inches of you.”

  “Nice to see you’re handling this so maturely.” Disgusted with him—and the thought she’d ever dated this scumbag—Jamie ended the call on Brian’s red face shouting out profanities.

  “Dated a real winner there, bonita.”

  A shriek escaped her, and she whirl
ed around to see Tony standing on the porch steps a few feet behind her. When had he arrived? She hadn’t even heard his truck pull up. Yet, there it sat in the driveway. Blame it on Brian. Hard to hear a vehicle pull up when someone shouted nasty words at you.

  “You scared me.” Glancing down to the phone in her hand and back up again, she bit her lip. “When did you get back?”

  One broad shoulder lifted. “A few minutes ago.”

  A few minutes? Did that mean he heard her conversation? Did he hear her ex call her an ice queen and the part about freezing guys’ genitals?

  Tony leaned back against the stair railing. “So, you never slept with Captain Douchebag?”

  Shoot! He had heard. How embarrassing.

  Tilting her chin up, she covered her humiliation with umbrage. “No. Not that it’s any of your business.” Turning on her heels, she headed back into the house.

  The sharp clack of boots told her Tony followed. Once inside, she had no idea where to go. All she wanted to do was get away from him, away from the shame filling her that he kept seeing her at her worst. Dang it, this wasn’t who she wanted to be. This scared, harassed, troubled woman was not her. Coming back home to start her therapy ranch was supposed to be her grand start. Why did everything keep falling apart?

  And why did Tony have to be here to witness her failing?

  “Jamie.”

  “I don’t want to talk right now.” She headed for her office. Work needed to be done. Yes, work always helped when things spiraled out of her control.

  The soft touch of his warm hand on her arm stopped her.

  “Well, I do.”

  Turning to face him, she saw the concern in those deep brown eyes.

  “What did he mean about your issue with sex?”

  Oh man, she really didn’t want to talk about this. Not with Tony; not with anyone. And she didn’t have an issue. She thought she made that pretty clear last night…and the night before.

  “He’s just mad because we were never…intimate. I don’t have any issues. Unless…” She choked back the lump of insecurity rising in her throat. “You don’t like what I did—”