Gray Wolf Security: Wyoming

by Glenna Sinclair

  Sutherland wasn’t completely confident, but something about the way Grainger North was looking at her tonight told her that this thing wasn’t completely one sided. Whatever was happening between them, it was mutual.

  “Let’s see how it plays out before we start panicking.”

  Sutherland turned to go into the house, but she caught sight of Shelby, her foreman, riding toward the house on the back of a horse, moving at a good gallop. She stepped off the porch, already wondering what the hell could have gone wrong now. It seemed like all of Shelby’s visits to the house lately were only to bring bad news.

  “Come to join the party, Shelby?” she asked.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said, sweeping his hat off the top of his head in a show of respect. “We have an issue in the south field.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The stream has been dammed up on Mr. Archer’s side of the fence.”

  Sutherland spun on her heel to see if Bodhi was still standing where she’d left him, but he was long gone. She sighed, shaking her head as she turned back to Shelby.

  “Swing me up. Let’s go look.”

  Shelby pulled her up onto the horse behind him and they rode out to the pasture. Hank must have seen them pass the party because he joined them after a moment. The three of them approached the fence and studied the pooling water on the far side that blocked off one of the main water supplies for the grazing cows.

  “We have rights to this water,” Sutherland said, after cursing a lovely string of curses under her breath. “Hank…?”

  He immediately climbed over the fence and kicked at the rocks that had been carefully placed in just the right place to create the dam. Clearly man made.

  “What is wrong with that man?” Sutherland asked to no one in particular.

  Was he simply trying to distract her by picking tonight of all nights to show up at her place? Or was there something more sinister going on here?

  Just her luck that the first man she was even the littlest bit attracted to since her husband’s death and he had to be a manipulative fool.

  Damn!

  Chapter 12

  Grainger

  I woke with the sun out of habit even though the room was still so dark it might have been midnight still. I rolled onto my side and found myself staring at the naked back of my bed companion. For a brief moment it all came rushing back to me, the party and the first kiss, all the kisses that followed and then the unexpected confession. I still ached in some very uncomfortable places that even a cold shower probably wouldn’t fix. But I didn’t have any regrets. That had to be a first.

  I leaned over and kissed her shoulder, wondering what she’d do if I woke her the same way I eased her into sleep the night before. But then I decided to let her sleep. The woman probably hadn’t slept in in years. She deserved a break.

  I carefully climbed out of bed, trying not to disturb her. She made a soft noise as I took the final step toward the door, but she was softly snoring again before I closed it behind me. A stop in the bathroom and a clean shirt from my bedroom, and I was in the kitchen searching through the fridge for something to eat when there came a knock on the front door. I assumed it was Marko, wondering when Eve was coming to relieve him. It was already after eight. He should have been home in bed by now.

  It wasn’t, however. It was Angel with Eve’s mother.

  “How’d the party go?” she asked as she guided Rachel to the couch and pushed the button on the remote to turn on her game shows.

  “It was entertaining. That Sutherland throws a heck of a party.”

  “She does. I’m sorry we had to miss it.”

  “Me, too. But I’m sure you’ll hear all the highlights later.”

  “Oh, yeah. That’s one of the nice things--and one of the worst things--about a small town: everyone knows everything and they’re always ready to talk about it.”

  “I suppose that’s true.” I looked down at Rachel. She had a blank look on her face as she watched the opening credits of The Match Game. “How’d she do, last night?”

  “She was okay. She got a little upset at bedtime. She didn’t want to sleep in my guest room. She thought my youngest was Eve and kept insisting on giving her a bath. But, other than that, she was good.”

  I nodded, wondering how frightening it would be to always find yourself in a new place. That used to be one of my biggest fears: new situations. You kind of have to get over that in the Navy, so I learned to deal with it. But I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to do that every single moment of every single day. It would be incredibly overwhelming to say the least.

  “I should get to work. Is Eve still in bed?”

  “Yeah. We were up late.”

  Angel nodded. “I’ll relieve Marko, then. There aren’t that many rooms that need cleaning today. Sara should be able to handle them.”

  “Thanks, Angel.”

  “Anytime.”

  I escorted her to the door and the headed back to the kitchen.

  “You hungry, Rachel?”

  She didn’t answer. I hadn’t expected her to.

  I gathered the makings for a cheese and ham omelet—my one specialty—and set to work, thinking Eve might appreciate a little breakfast in bed. Rachel wandered into the room, walking almost aimlessly around the room, touching this and that as she went.

  “You have a good night?”

  She shrugged. “It’s like living in a fog. I don’t always remember things clearly.”

  I glanced at her and then did something of a double take. Her eyes were clearer than they normally were, more focused than I’d seen them.

  “Do you remember who I am?”

  “Not really. But you act like you belong here, so I guess you do.”

  “I’m Eve’s husband.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “Evie got married?”

  “She did.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Grainger. Grainger North.”

  “That sounds like a soldier’s name.”

  I chuckled a little as I whisked the eggs together. “Then I guess it’s appropriate that I was a Navy SEAL until four months ago.”

  “How’d you meet my Evie?”

  I glanced at her, thinking it wouldn’t hurt to be honest with her. She wouldn’t remember it in an hour or so.

  “Sutherland Knight sent me over. I work for her.”

  “You’re a ranch hand?”

  “When I’m not working security, I suppose.”

  “Cool.” She was quiet for a moment, still touching things as she moved around the room. It took me a moment, but I realized she must be touching things that were new to her, things Eve had changed over the last five years or so. She must have sensed my gaze because she stopped, turning to study me. “Evie needs security? Is she in trouble?”

  “No, not really. She just needed someone to help scare away a couple of goons.”

  She frowned, but she didn’t ask anything more on the subject. Instead, she walked over to this tall, plastic thing on the wall and tested its locked facade.

  “You don’t happen to know where she keeps the key to this, do you?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t even know what that is.”

  “It’s a pill safe. It holds all my medications.”

  “Are you due for something now?”

  “No. She’s very proficient. She sent just the right number of pills with me to Angel’s.”

  “Well, she’ll be awake soon if you need something else.”

  I poured the egg mixture into the hot pan and watched the edges bubble as they cooked on the hot surface. I could hear Rachel say something, but I didn’t quite catch the words.

  “What was that?” I asked once the sizzle settled into a dull roar.

  “I was just saying that I’m not due for a regular dose of medicine. I was just hoping to take an overdose, end everyone’s misery.”

  I looked sharply at her, convinced I must have heard her wrong. She said it so
nonchalantly, like suicide was a conversation you had over sizzling eggs.

  “You want to commit suicide?”

  “She’s not going to put me in a home, I can see that now. And I don’t particularly want to live this way. Eventually I will no longer have these lucid moments and I’ll be completely lost to the fog. That’s not a way to live.”

  “But killing yourself—”

  “Tell me it’s wrong after you’ve lived with this disease for a few months.”

  She was right, I knew that. I couldn’t make that choice without walking in her shoes a few miles. But I knew the impact it would have on Eve and that wasn’t fair.

  “Eve would be devastated.”

  “Yes. But she’d also be free to leave this place, to go to college and do all the things she so desperately wanted to do before I was diagnosed. The things I begged her to do.”

  “You begged her?”

  “When they first told us what my future would be like, I begged her to put me in a facility. I told her that my insurance would pay for it, told her to sell the motel and take the money to go to college. I told her I didn’t want her putting her own life on hold for me. But she wouldn’t hear of it. At first, she’d say, not until it gets worse. But it’s gotten worse. It’s still getting worse.” She gestured around the room. “I don’t even recognize half the stuff in here. That tells me it’s been months, maybe even years since I was last this lucid.”

  “But that’s no reason to die.”

  “It is. Because I will turn back into that drooling, angry woman again any second and I don’t want to be that person anymore! Don’t you get it?”

  The sad thing was, I did get it. I got it better than anyone could imagine.

  “I have a brother,” I said softly, sliding the tip of my spatula under the cooked eggs, moving the pan so that the liquid on top would roll underneath it. “He’s two years younger than me. He adored me when we were small, followed me around everywhere I went.” I smiled a little at the memory of his bright face smiling with delight when I would give permission for him to go along to some party a friend was throwing in high school. He was so proud to hang out with me and the rest of the football team. “I pretended that I didn’t want him around, but I really liked it. Who wouldn’t like having someone who worshipped them as a god around?”

  “What happened to him?”

  I glanced at Rachel. She was one smart lady.

  “I thought two beers wouldn’t impair my judgment, that I could drive home even though the roads were a little icy. I broke my ankle. It healed in six weeks. He hit his head when the truck fell onto its side. Traumatic brain injury, they called it. Total personality change. Learning problems. He couldn’t walk, couldn’t dress himself, couldn’t talk. He grunted. Lashed out. He beat my mother bad enough once that she was in the hospital for a week. They had to put him in one of those facilities…”

  I shuddered. It wasn’t a subject I liked to talk about.

  “Then you know I’m better off taking an overdose of those pills.”

  I shook my head. “Is it really about you now?”

  She was quiet for a long moment. “Do you think your parents like seeing their child in that place? How many times have you said to yourself that your brother would be better off if he’d died in that accident?”

  She was right. I had that thought so many times it was almost a mantra by the time I joined the Navy. And I could see that same thought moving through my father’s mind. But my mom?

  And Eve?

  “She loves you. She believes keeping you here has slowed the progression of your disease.”

  “She might be right. But it won’t slow it forever.”

  “I couldn’t tell her this, couldn’t expect her to understand.”

  “No. That’s why I’m asking you for your help. She wouldn’t forgive me. She wouldn’t see that I was only trying to help us both. She would only see the selfishness of the act, and that’s okay. I can live with that.”

  “Or die.”

  “I can be satisfied by that.” She came to me and laid her hand on my shoulder. “All you’d have to do is leave the key where I could find it. That’s all.”

  “And will you remember this conversation in a few minutes? Will you know what the key is for?”

  “I think a part of me will.”

  I studied her face, her eyes that were similar, but not as brilliant, as Eve’s.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “That’s all I ask.”

  She picked up a piece of ham and slipped it into her mouth before taking a seat at the ancient table. She was quiet as I finished the omelet, sliding it onto a plate to take to Eve.

  “Are you sure you’re not hungry?”

  Rachel started to hum under her breath. I called her name but she didn’t answer. When she looked toward me, I could see the vacancy in her eyes. She was gone again.

  Frightening how quickly it happened.

  Chapter 13

  Eve

  We were falling into something like a routine, and I was liking it more than I wanted to. I kept telling myself that Grainger would be going back to MidKnight soon enough, and that he’d probably not think twice about me once he did. But for now, I liked watching him root around in the supply closet, looking for tools to help him fix the toilets, the bed frames, the roof... whatever needed work around this place. And everything needed work around this place.

  He winked at me as he came out of the closet, kicking the door closed with the heel of his boot.

  “Don’t worry about lunch,” he said. “I’ll run to the Dairy Queen and pick up some chicken fingers.”

  “Hmm, breakfast in bed and lunch? If you’re not careful, I begin to get used to this royal treatment.”

  “That’s the plan.”

  He headed for the door, planning on tackling a loose tread on the steps leading up to the second floor. Before he could leave, though, the door opened and two men in dark suits walked in. Even though I had an idea who they were, they reminded me so much of funeral directors that I half expected them to announce someone in town had died.

  “Ms. Spraberry?” the first man asked, already slipping a business card out of his inner jacket pocket.

  “Can I help you?”

  “I’m Willis Fontaine. I’m from Mountain Top Real Estate.”

  I nodded. I’d already guessed that much.

  “I’ve talked to four of your representatives, and I’ve had the same response to all of them. So why don’t you just turn around and leave.”

  The man smiled, a smile that I was sure was supposed to be charming, but it wasn’t; It was creepy.

  “We’re aware of your previous refusals to our very generous offers. We’re not here to make another offer. We’re here to inform you that we plan on buying your loan from the local bank. Should you default for any reason, we will foreclose on your business and you will lose everything. Unless, of course,” he said the last part slowly, dragging it out like he was so proud of what came next that he wanted to make sure I didn’t miss it. “You decide to take our latest offer before that can happen.”

  He set the card on the countertop in front of me. Written on the plain, white back was a figure. A figure that was half what I still owed on the mortgage I’d taken out against the motel.

  “That’s ridiculous,” I said, flicking the card with my fingernail and watching it dance off the countertop. “That doesn’t even cover the loan.”

  “Oh, we’d be happy to forgive the remainder of the loan.”

  “So, if I chose to take your deal, I walk away with nothing?”

  “It’s better than having your credit ruined with a foreclosed mortgage.”

  “In your opinion.”

  Grainger came around the counter and moved up behind me, slipping a supportive arm around my waist.

  “Don’t let them get under your skin,” he said softly against my ear.

  “I think you should probably leave,” Grainger said to th
e men. “You’ve made your offer. We know where we stand. There’s no reason for you to be here any longer.”

  The man’s eyes narrowed as he regarded Grainger. “And you are?”

  “Her husband.”

  It was almost comical, the look that washed over the man’s face at that announcement. There was a little bit of panic there, like the fact that I had a husband changed this situation in some way. I couldn’t imagine how, but this man seemed to think it did. Maybe that would play in my favor. God knew nothing else had so far.

  “We’ll be sending you a notice in the mail, Ms. Spraberry. Please contact my office when you’ve made your decision.”

  “You’ll be the first to know.”

  The man glanced at Grainger for a long moment before he turned and gestured for his companion to follow him.

  “What was that all about?” I wondered aloud.

  Grainger went back around the counter and picked up the card, whistling under his breath at the figure written there.

  “They think highly of themselves, don’t they?”

  “They’re trying to make me regret not accepting their earlier offers. I’ve spent more money on lawyer retainer fees than that.”

  “Can you pay the outstanding balance on the loan?”

  I laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. “No.”

  “What about the payments?”

  “I’m already three months behind.”

  I expected to see pity or disappointment in Grainger’s eyes at that news. All I saw was fear. Fear for me. And that touched something that I’d thought I’d guarded far too well to be touched there ever again.

  “Grainger—”

  “We’ll find a way out of this.”

  “It’s not we. It’s me.”

  He reached for my hand, but I pulled away.

  “Once they buy that note, my mom and me will be out on the street. They’ll close this place down and bulldoze it by the end of the week. It’ll be like it was never here.”

  “And what’ll happen to you?”

  I shrugged. “I’ll go stay with friends for a while. My mom... I guess I’ll have to put her in that place in Denver. She has disability. That’ll pay for most of it. And I’ll get a job, making I’ll go back to managing the Dairy Queen like I did my senior year of high school.”