“I’m away a lot on business,” Chase replied.
“Well, don’t be such a stranger. Stop by the office sometime and we’ll swap war stories about chasing the bad guys.” He grinned and held out his hand.
“Sure.” Chase shook his hand, off balance at the friendly treatment. He hadn’t expected acceptance from anyone who’d been a friend of Mike Harper’s, although he didn’t recall Steve being part of the high school crowd who’d shunned him after Mike’s death.
“Throw the water on him and wake him up, Jim.” Steve waved the younger deputy closer. “I don’t plan to carry him back to the station.”
Raine stepped hastily back and Chase moved next to her, out of the way of splashing water. The deputy emptied the pitcher of cold water on Lonnie’s head and he came awake with a roar, sitting up and shaking his head, spraying bystanders.
“Are you ready to get out of here?” Chase murmured, his lips against her ear to be heard above the noise and confusion as customers scrambled away from Lonnie.
“Definitely.” She pointed behind him. “Let’s go out the back way, through the restaurant.”
Raine waved goodbye to Sam and led Chase to the dim hallway beyond.
“Where are we?” he asked, following her.
“This passage connects the restaurant and the Saloon.”
They entered the empty, quiet restaurant. Only security lights cast a soft glow along the back wall.
Raine stopped and looked up at him. “Thanks for what you did back there.”
“No problem.” He cupped her chin in his hand, tilting her face upward to search her eyes. “I meant what I told him. If he comes near you again, I want to know about it.”
“You’re the first person I’ll call.”
“Good.” His fingers stroked across her cheek, then released her.
“My car’s across the street,” Raine told him as they stepped out onto the sidewalk. “Do you want to come to my place? I guarantee it’s quieter there.”
“If I come to your house, I’m staying for breakfast. Are you ready for that?”
“Yes.” Raine answered without hesitation, knowing her decision was the right one.
His eyes flared with something dark and hot. “I’m parked near your car. I’ll follow you.”
Anticipation and excitement warred with Raine’s instinctive need to set ground rules. She thought about it during the drive home, Chase’s headlights steady in her rearview mirror.
“I think we need to talk about this,” she said, sidestepping him when he would have pulled her into his arms the moment the door closed behind them.
“You want to talk?” Surprise laced his voice.
“There are a few things I want to make clear.” She took his hand and led him down the dark hallway to her bedroom.
“All right.” Amusement replaced surprise; he trailed his lips over her fingers before turning her hand over and pressing a hot, open mouthed kiss against her palm.
“I don’t want you to think I sleep around.”
“Why would I think that?”
“Well, in case you do…I want to make it clear, I don’t sleep around. I don’t have time, for one thing. I’m busy with the restaurant and it takes a lot of my time, plus there’s the motel. And if Trey’s not here, then I have to manage the Saloon, too.”
“Okay.”
“That is why I need time to think about this…and us.”
“Right.”
“Because I don’t do casual sex.”
“Uh-huh.” He unbuttoned her blouse, the backs of his fingers brushing down the valley between her breasts to her midriff.
“I’m serious.” He reached the sensitive skin just above her navel and she sucked in her breath, her skin quivering beneath the stroking of his warm fingers.
“Are you trying to tell me you’re a virgin?”
“What? No! Of course not. I’ve had sex before.” Her cheeks burned.
“When?”
“When what?”
“When was the last time you had sex?” he asked patiently, tugging her blouse free from her skirt.
“I don’t remember,” she confessed.
He stopped, her blouse off her shoulders and halfway down her arms. “You don’t remember?” he repeated. “Because it was so long ago? Or because it was so forgettable?”
“Probably both.” Raine lifted her head and looked into his eyes. “I told you I don’t sleep around.”
“Yeah,” he said softly. “You did.” His gaze holding hers, he released her blouse. It slid down her arms, catching briefly on her wrists before slipping to the floor. He smoothed his palms up her arms to cup her shoulders, then slowly tugged her pink satin bra straps lower until they slipped off her shoulders. He bent his head and kissed her neck, just below her ear.
His warm mouth sent heat curling in her belly and lower.
“Neither do I.” He said the words against the base of her throat where her pulse pounded.
“Hmm?” She couldn’t think with the thudding of her heartbeat loud in her ears.
“I don’t sleep around.”
She gazed at him through half-lowered lashes. “You don’t?”
“I’m not a virgin.” A slow smile curved his mouth, “But I don’t do casual sex, haven’t since I was a teenager.”
“Oh.” She tried to think about what he was telling her, what the words might mean. “How long has it been?”
“Long enough.” He bent closer, his heated gaze holding hers while he slowly, thoroughly, licked her lower lip. “Are we done talking?” His voice was a low, raspy growl.
She could barely think, let alone form words. She slid her arms around his neck and kissed him. That kiss held all the pent-up longing and desire that had been simmering between them for weeks.
She murmured when he eased away from her to tug her bra free and drop it on the floor. She tugged at the hem of his shirt and he pulled it off over his head, tossing it behind him as she pressed eagerly against him, sleek skin and lush curves naked against his. He groaned and took her mouth, his hands closing over her bottom to lift her higher while his mouth ravished hers.
He caught a handful of her skirt and tugged it up, the material pooling around his wrist until his hand met bare thigh.
“How does this come off,” he muttered, searching for a zipper.
“Just pull.”
He tugged, she wriggled, and the skirt slid past her waist and hips to the floor. With one swift motion, he stripped her pink lace undies down her legs to join her skirt before he picked her up and laid her on the bed. Without releasing her, he settled on top of her, mouths fused, his hands stroking the bare, satiny skin of her thighs and the inward curve of her waist. Heat bloomed feverishly everywhere he touched.
She murmured, frantic to have him closer, and slid her palms over his back, down to the waist of his jeans. Frustrated with the denim, she pushed at his chest and he lifted.
“What?” he muttered, one hand cupping her breast, fingers smoothing over the stiff peaks and making her shudder.
“Your jeans…take them off.” She fumbled with the metal snap and managed to free it, but the second snap eluded her.
Without a word, he left the bed and toed off his boots. He stripped off his jeans and shorts in one movement, paused to take a packet from his pocket and returned, blanketing her once more.
Raine gasped at the feel of hot, aroused male, naked against her own bare body. She was beyond thinking, driven by the need to have him finish what they’d started. She wrapped her arms around him, drawing him closer.
“Please,” she breathed.
He lifted away from her, sheathed himself, and she caught her breath when he nudged, heavy and insistent, against her. She shuddered and gasped when he pushed home and went still, hot and pulsing inside her.
“Don’t move,” he grated, the muscles in his arms shaking with the effort. “Give me a minute.”
But Raine was beyond comprehending. She lifted against him an
d he swore softly before setting a rhythm that quickly drove them both over the edge.
“I’m sorry,” Raine murmured when she could breathe again.
She lay sprawled across his chest. One of his big hands stroked idly across her bottom while the other was tangled in her hair.
“For what?” he asked, tugging her hair until she looked up at him.
“You asked me not to move. I couldn’t stay still.”
The lazy smile that lifted the corners of his mouth was filled with satisfaction. “That’s all right. You can make it up to me.”
“Really? How?”
“Next time you can’t move at all until I tell you to.”
“Hmm. That sounds like torture—and fun.”
“Could be,” he acknowledged. “Let’s test it.”
He rolled her beneath him and took her mouth with his.
Hours later, Raine lay in his arms, moonlight slanting through the window and across the bed.
“Tell me what happened the night Mike died, Chase.” She tilted her head back to look up at him, her hair spilling across his bare shoulder. His muscles tensed and she smoothed her palm over his chest. “I know you don’t talk about it and I promise I’ll never ask again, but I need to know.”
“It won’t change anything,” he warned her. “We can’t go back and rewrite history.”
“I know,” she murmured. “But we lost more than Mike that night. Trey and I lost you, too. I want to understand as much as possible about what happened.”
Chase threaded his fingers through her hair and kissed her.
“There wasn’t a moon that night,” he began. “I’d dropped my date at her place after a movie and was on my way home just before midnight. About five miles from the Kerrigan ranch, my headlights picked up a man, staggering along the edge of the road. I thought he might be hurt and I pulled up behind him and stopped, left the engine running and got out. He started to turn around, lost his balance and fell face-first into the ditch. I didn’t know it was Lonnie until I got him out. He was dead drunk. Said his girlfriend pushed him out of the car because he was drunk and then drove off and left him. I was tempted to leave him there but it was late and pitch-dark—I was afraid he’d do something stupid, like walk down the middle of the road and get run over. So I managed to shove him inside the passenger side of the pickup.”
He paused, his fingers tightening in Raine’s hair.
“It was a mistake. Before I could walk around the truck and get in on the driver’s side, Lonnie slid beneath the wheel and put it in gear. He drove forward several feet and stopped just long enough for me to reach the door, then he drove off again laughing like an idiot.
“The second time he did it, I jumped in the bed of the truck, thinking I could reach him through the cab’s open rear sliding window. But he started weaving across the road, trying to throw me out of the back of the truck and keep me from grabbing the keys out of the ignition. I had my head, shoulders and one arm through the window and inside the cab when we topped a hill and saw oncoming headlights.
“I yelled at Lonnie to stop but it was too late. He swerved sideways but the truck clipped the other car and we left the road. I remember sailing out of the back of the truck and hitting the ground a couple of times but then everything went black. When I woke up, I was in the hospital in Wolf Creek. The cops told me I was found behind the wheel of my wrecked truck.”
“But how could that be?” Raine asked, riveted by the brief recital and Chase’s unemotional voice. “How did you get behind the wheel?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it. I know what happened before we hit Mike. I have no recollection between the impact and waking up in the hospital. Someone had to have moved Lonnie out from behind the wheel and put me in the truck. There’s only one person I know who could have done it.”
“Harlan,” Raine breathed.
“That’s my guess.”
“But was he there?”
“I’m convinced he was, but I can’t prove it.”
“No wonder you hate the Kerrigans,” Raine said softly.
“They aren’t my favorite people,” he admitted. He pulled her closer, stroking a hand over the curve of her bare hip. “Are we finished with the subject? Because I can think of a lot of things I’d rather be doing with you than talking about old history.”
“We’re finished.” For now, she thought.
Raine lost track of the number of times they made love before they fell asleep, exhausted and limbs entangled, just as the eastern sky began to lighten with rosy dawn.
They slept in, and Raine didn’t get to work until nearly noon the following day. Charlotte lifted her eyebrows but Raine merely smiled sunnily and sidestepped her friend’s questions. She was at her desk, going over the prior day’s bookkeeping for the restaurant when someone pushed wide the half-open door.
“Chase.” She was delighted to see him, in fact, she’d been daydreaming about him since she’d arrived at the office. The hot memories weren’t conducive to finishing paperwork.
He stepped into the office, his face grim and her welcoming smile faded. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I just came from the sheriff’s office. Some kids out target shooting in a rancher’s gravel pit found Trey’s SUV.”
Raine’s heart pounded with dread. “Is he…”
“He wasn’t with the vehicle.”
The room teetered and Chase slipped out of focus, his outline blurring for a moment. “I want to see it.”
“I’ll drive you.”
As she stood, her knees buckled and she swayed, catching herself with a hand on the edge of the desk. Chase reached her in three long strides. He wrapped his arms around her, tucking her against him while one big hand cradled the back of her head.
Raine shuddered, her arms circling him and her hands gripping the back of his shirt. “Oh, Chase…” she got out, her voice trembling.
“It’s okay, honey.” His deep voice calmed her. “This doesn’t mean he’s not alive.”
She burrowed against the solid strength of his body. His heat warmed the coldness that filled her and the shivers that shook her slowly ceased.
At last, Raine released his shirt and tipped her head back to look up at him. He cupped her cheek, smoothing his thumb over the damp tracks of tears to dry them.
“The sheriff hasn’t moved the vehicle yet. Are you sure you want to go out there? We can wait until it’s towed in.”
“No, I want to see the place where it was found. Is the site near the highway?”
He nodded. “About sixty miles east of here and a little north.”
“East and north?” She frowned in confusion. “But Billings is straight south of Wolf Creek. Why would Trey have been driving in the opposite direction?”
“That’s one of the things we need to find out.”
“All right.” She stepped back and drew a deep breath. “I’m ready.”
His gaze searched her face. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he settled a supportive, possessive hand on her waist and they left the office.
In less than an hour, Chase eased his black SUV off the highway and through an open ranch gate. A Sheriff’s Department patrol car was parked just inside and the deputy on guard waved them on. They bumped over an ungraded dirt road that wound around a hill, climbing upward until they topped the rise. Below them was a scooped-out area the size of a small football stadium with rock and gravel piled haphazardly along one side. Halfway across the open area, two sheriff’s vehicles, a red pickup and a tow truck were parked next to a dirty silver SUV.
A dust cloud spiraled skyward behind their wheels as Chase drove down the winding track and across the gravel pit over to the cluster of vehicles.
The four men standing next to the tow truck turned to look when Chase parked behind them. One of them was a uniformed sheriff’s deputy and he left the group to approach Chase and Raine as they got out.
“Afternoon, folks. Are you Raine Harper and Chase McCloud?
”
“That’s right. You must be Deputy Skinner?” Chase asked.
“Yes. My sergeant told me to hold the vehicle here until you two arrived and had a chance to look at it.” He jerked his thumb toward the dusty SUV. “Not much to see, I’m afraid. I understand the owner is listed as missing so the lab boys will go over it more thoroughly when we tow it in, but there aren’t any obvious signs of foul play.”
“Is it unlocked?” Chase asked.
The deputy nodded. “We found the keys on the gravel heap over there.” He pointed to a huge mound of rough gravel a few yards away. “I’m guessing whoever abandoned the SUV drove it here, tossed away the keys, then got in a second car and left.”
“Sounds reasonable. We’ll take a look at the vehicle now, if that’s all right.”
“Sure. As soon as you’re done, I’ll tell the tow truck driver he can hook up and move it.”
“We shouldn’t be too long.” Chase let Raine step ahead of him.
Raine felt his solid presence, one pace behind her, as she walked toward the SUV. She was grateful he’d let her go first, giving her time.
He stopped when they were several feet from the SUV and waited, hands tucked into his jeans pockets while he watched her.
While walking around the SUV she noticed that the back right taillight was broken and the bumper dented below, as if the driver had backed into something. Dried mud coated the tires and the wheel wells.
The driver’s door was ajar and she climbed inside. The interior was cluttered with empty fast-food cartons, candy wrappers and used soda cans.
“Don’t touch anything. We wouldn’t want to destroy fingerprints for the lab,” Chase said quietly. “Are you getting any vibes?”
Deep in reflection, Raine startled, her heart beating wildly faster. She pressed her palm to her chest and drew a calming breath. “No.” She gestured at the dirty interior. “Trey would have a fit if he saw this—he keeps his vehicle scrupulously clean.”
Leaning in, Chase peered at the passenger seat and carpeted floor, littered with trash. “They were slobs.”
He made the statement with such matter-of-fact conviction that Raine smiled. “I’ve been in your car and given its pristine condition, I’m guessing you and Trey are of the same opinion about keeping your vehicles spotless.”
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