by Norah Wilson
More beautiful than she’d been in the visions, the woman projected raw sex appeal as she led a sorrel mare across the paddock. The mare was saddled, Lauren noted. She also noted that a stranger, a young man who probably wasn’t much older than Seth, followed close behind the woman, wearing the look of a deer caught in the headlights.
“Christ, Marlena, go back to bed. It’s too early for this.”
Far from shrinking from Cal’s tone, Marlena just laughed. “Don’t worry, Cal, honey. I haven’t come to play with you.”
Her voice was husky, a good match for that killer body.
“I’m relieved to hear it. I offered you shelter, not entertainment.”
At his words, Lauren swiveled to look at Cal. If he was tense, he didn’t betray it, except perhaps for a little stiffness between the shoulder blades.
“The least a husband could do, I would think.”
Husband? Cal was married? To the victim in her vision?
“Ex-husband.”
“Whatever.” Marlena shrugged, as though her exact status was of no import. “But I don’t expect you to entertain me, sugar. I’m quite capable of finding my own diversions.”
“Don’t I know it.”
This time his clipped words seemed to find their mark. For a fleeting moment, she looked hurt. Then she was smiling that knowing smile again. “Brady here is going to keep me company.”
Cal cast a glance in the young man’s direction. “That a fact?”
“Yes sir.” Brady blushed but held Cal’s gaze. “I registered with Delia for the next ten days. Paid the fee and everything.”
Cal turned to Marlena, glowering. “I thought we agreed to keep your presence here under wraps from the locals.”
“What? You mean Brady?” she asked innocently. “I bumped into him at the general store when I stopped for gas and invited him to come visit me.”
“It ain’t called hiding if you tell the whole world where you are, Marlena,” Cal gritted. “The more people who know you’re here, the easier it’ll be for…certain parties to find you.”
Lauren thought she saw fear flash through the other woman’s eyes, but it was gone so quickly she couldn’t be certain.
“Brady won’t tell anyone.” She turned sultry eyes on the young man. “Will you, darlin’?”
“Of course not,” Brady said.
“Right. And Brady’s mother won’t tell anyone either, I suppose?”
“She doesn’t know, sir,” he rushed to say. “I sort of told her I was going to Calgary for a couple of weeks. Job hunting.”
Lauren cringed. Clearly the boy lived with his mother, and clearly he knew she wouldn’t approve of his spending his money or his time to be Marlena’s boy toy.
“Fine.” Cal shrugged. “Your funeral.” Turning his back on Marlena, he pinned Lauren with a fierce look. “You coming or staying?”
Dear Lord, she didn’t want to go anywhere with this volatile triangle of people, let alone into the bush overnight. In just these few short minutes, the emotion roiling among the three had caused a hard knot of anxiety to form in Lauren’s stomach. Which was precisely why she couldn’t stay behind. If she were looking for a motive for murder, she’d found one. An ancient one.
Not that she really believed Cal was a threat to Marlena. By now she’d had more than enough interaction with him to effectively rule him out. According to Hal, she would have visual stimuli lodged in her unconscious from the visions. She totally believed that. After all, she’d been barely five years old when she’d seen the DiGiacinto girl’s mother on TV and her reaction had been off the charts. She knew in her bones that if she’d seen even the subtlest echoes in Cal, she would have reacted to it.
But this young man, Brady, she hadn’t had a chance to study…
“Lauren?” Cal prompted tersely.
Lauren took a deep breath. “I’m coming.”
CHAPTER THREE
Beneath Lauren, Buck swayed gently, and the drone of insects filled the air. Brady and Marlena rode a few dozen yards ahead of her, and Lauren could hear Cal following behind her. Above them, the sky was a cloudless blue dome. The kind of sky that if you stared at it long enough, you might forget the laws of gravity that kept you from spinning off into that blueness.
Eventually the hot meadow scents gave way to secret wood smells as they moved through a copse of trees. Then, with a creak of leather and the gentle huffing of his mount, Cal pulled abreast. So much for peacefulness.
“How’s your backside holding out?”
Lauren grimaced. “A little numb.”
“Well, you’ll get to rest it before too long. Dinner’ll be waiting for us on the other side of this little stand of trees.”
They rode in silence. Lauren tried to recapture some serenity of mind, but she was too conscious of the man beside her. His hands on the reins looked hard and capable, and the sleeves of his shirt were rolled up to reveal tanned forearms. Very nice forearms, with a shimmer of blond hairs. Did those blond hairs match the rest of his body hair, or were those on his arms merely bleached from the sun? Her stomach clutched at the thought.
“So what changed your mind?”
She blinked. “Sorry?”
“About coming out after all.”
Lauren glanced over at him, but he was gazing straight ahead. “Well, I’m not the only customer anymore, am I? It’s not like I was dragging you out here for my sole entertainment.”
He snorted. “You mean Marlena? She’s no customer. And she’d have been happy enough to ride out alone with Brady.”
“Really?” She feigned surprise.
The look he sent her was skeptical. “Yes, really. As I’m sure you picked up, Marlena is my ex-wife. She knows these trails well enough to ride ’em alone. And you probably also gathered that she plans to screw young Brady cross-eyed.”
“Cal!”
“You mean you missed that little nuance? I’d have thought you’d pick up on that stuff, considering your line of work.”
Her line of work? Oh God, yes, the erotica writing. “It’s none of my business.”
“And none of mine for that matter, but if you’re going to be here any length of time, Marlena’s…adventures…are bound to be in your face, like it or not.” His mouth was a stern line. “My ex-wife’s sense of discretion is not very highly developed.”
“I’m sorry.” Was that what his marriage had been like? Had he suffered the humiliation of a wandering wife?
Because she couldn’t help herself, she asked, “Did she…I mean, is that why…?”
Cal stopped, and Lauren reined in her own mount. His face was hard, his eyes flinty. “Is that why I divorced her, you mean? Because of her faithlessness?”
“Yes.”
His mouth was a grim slash. “Yeah, that’d be why.”
Now that they’d stopped, she could see the stiffness in him. Out of nowhere, she felt the urge to touch his face, soothe away the lines of tension. She fisted her hands on the reins instead.
“Marlena’s a spoiled child when it comes to men. They’re like surprise packages she can’t keep from unwrapping.”
“I’m sorry,” she repeated.
“So was Marlena, or so she said, but it didn’t stop her. There was always a next time. She wasn’t really sorry until I packed her bags and drove her to the bus station.”
Lauren studied his bleak profile. So he’d suffered the humiliation of being cuckolded not once, but multiple times. She wouldn’t have thought him the type to be so…forbearing.
He must have loved her very much.
Or not at all.
“Why’d you let her come back?”
He shrugged. “She’s got trouble, needs a place to stay.”
“And she felt she’d be safe with you?”
He shot her a glance. “Safe as a woman like Marlena can be. Safer than in Calgary, with a loan shark on her trail.”
God, could that be how Marlena was going to die? At the hands of a loan shark’s thug? Then
she realized Cal was still talking and forced her attention back to his words.
“Seems like she breezed through her divorce settlement a trifle faster than expected.”
“I see,” she said, but her mind was whirling with questions.
He laughed. “No you don’t. You’re wondering why in hell I’d tolerate her under my roof after everything that happened. And you’d be right to question my sanity.”
Okay, maybe she had been wondering that. “So why did you let her stay?”
“I don’t rightly know.” He shrugged, that eloquent lift of his shoulders she was becoming so familiar with. “I guess ’cause I used to love her once. And she hasn’t had it as easy as it might seem.”
His words arrowed right under her defenses. “I guess I can appreciate that.”
“Well then.” He lifted his hat and mopped his brow with the sleeve of his shirt, then replaced the hat. “What say we pick it up? I’m starved.”
Just like that, the subject was closed. She’d been lucky to get that much out of him, but there was so much more she wanted to know. The problem was, did she want to know it for the investigation or did she want to know it because she wanted to know him?
“Yeah, let’s go,” she said, urging Buck forward.
Cal cursed silently as he trailed the small procession. Whiskey and women. He didn’t know which was worse. They could both loosen a man’s tongue and make a fool out of him. He’d certainly made a fool of himself with Lauren. Looking into those blue eyes, he’d told her the whole sordid story of his lousy marriage. For the life of him, he still didn’t know why.
Not for sympathy, that’s for damn sure. It had taken a long time before people stopped looking at him with that infuriating, mute pity. He never wanted to see it again.
So why had he spilled his guts?
Because you want to know her, he answered himself. Because you want her to know you.
“Jesus,” he breathed. For a moment, the idea scared him spitless. The woman was making him think things he hadn’t thought about in a long, long time.
Better to just think about sex. That was safer. No opening up required. No having the skin peeled off your heart while it was still beating.
Then again, what did he know about women like Lauren anyway? Yes, she was attracted to him. Yes, she’d flirted with him a little. But that didn’t mean she was prepared to fall in bed with him. His experience thus far in life had been gleaned from rodeo groupies. All they’d cared about—besides how long he could last on a twisting ton of malevolent animal—was how long he could last between the sheets. Mind you, that had been enough for him. Hell, he’d gone and married a rodeo Annie, hadn’t he?
Brady’s shout brought Cal’s head up. He scanned the terrain ahead as it sloped to the valley floor, spotting the problem immediately. Marlena was hurtling down the ridge, pushing her mount recklessly. Exultant laughter rose up to goad him.
“Dammit, Marlena!” At his command, Sienna sprang forward. Lauren’s face was a blur as he raced past her. Likewise Brady’s. Reaching the steepest part of the slope, he eased up, letting Sienna pick her path. The mare, God love her, hardly slowed.
He caught Marlena a minute later. Snatching the sorrel’s reins, he brought both horses to a dust-churning halt. He was so mad, his sides heaved almost as deeply as the horses’. Marlena glowed with excitement, but her mount’s eyes rolled.
Seeing red, Cal gripped one of her wrists. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What’s it look like I was doing?”
“It looked like you were trying to kill yourself. Which is fine by me, as long as you don’t drag one of my horses into it.”
“Cool down, Cal. I was just having some fun.”
“Find something else to amuse you!” Jesus, she was a piece of work. He dropped her wrist before the desire to squeeze it way, way too hard got the better of him.
Scowling, Marlena rubbed her wrist. “What’s your problem? These mustangs are as sure-footed as goats, and you know it.”
“Yeah, and I’d like to keep ’em that way. That was just plain stupid.” Behind him, he heard Brady and Lauren ride up. “You will not endanger one of my horses again. Got it?”
She glowered back at him. There was a time when all that temper would have turned him on. Now it left him stone cold. “I mean it, Marlena. Push that mare again, and you’ll walk home.”
“You wouldn’t do that!”
“So help me God, I’d like to do a lot worse, so don’t push me.” He turned to Brady. “Take the lead, son.” With a hard look at Marlena, he added, “And try to keep your date under control.”
“Sorry, Cal,” Brady muttered before urging his mount forward with alacrity.
After a last baleful look, Marlena fell in behind Brady. Lauren, however, made no move. She just sat there in the saddle, looking at him.
“You coming?” he growled.
Her answer was to urge Buck after Marlena. Taking a deep breath, he took up the rear again. This could be a long trip.
To Lauren’s relief, the rest of the ride was quiet. They reached the log cabin by late afternoon. Nestled at the base of a scrub-dotted slope, the structure looked like it had been there forever. In fact, according to Cal, it was some seventy years old. Its age certainly showed, but it had been carefully tended.
Marlena made herself at home immediately, dragging ready-made sandwiches and cold salads out of the refrigerator. The four of them sat at the kitchen table and tucked into the food. As Lauren worked on her sandwich, it struck her that it was little wonder Marlena seemed so at home. She and Cal had probably laughed here, fought here, made love here. Her stomach clenched, and she put the sandwich down.
She stole a look at Cal. His face was shuttered. What was going on behind that cool expression? He glanced up then, catching her studying him.
“I see you left room for dessert,” he said, eyeing her partially eaten sandwich. “Can I offer you some of Delia’s apple pie?”
Lauren’s appetite had fled. Not even the prospect of Delia’s pastry could resuscitate it. “No, thanks, but did I see a shower in the bathroom? I wouldn’t mind washing the trail dust off.”
“Sure, help yourself.”
“What about me?” Marlena protested.
“Guests first.” Cal didn’t even glance sideways at Marlena.
Lauren wasted no time heading for the bathroom.
“Hey, save some hot water for me and Brady,” Marlena called.
Lauren winced as she closed the door. Marlena and Brady showering together. That should go over well with Cal.
She showered in record time. The old showerhead emitted a bare trickle, but it was hot. It sluiced away the dust, but couldn’t touch her tension. Dressing quickly, she returned to the kitchen only to find it deserted. For an instant, dread rose up, closing her throat. Marlena. Had she gone out?
She laid a hand on her chest to hold down the panic while her mind raced. The time of day was certainly right. In her vision, the sinking sun had provided an obscenely beautiful backdrop for the murder, turning the foothills into a smoky bruise on the delicate pink horizon. Had she found the victim only to lose her? She knew nothing about this Brady guy. Nothing! Well, other than that he was local, was prepared to pay for the privilege of being with Marlena, and generally had the right body type, height, and gait to be the killer. How could she have been so stupid?
Lauren was on the point of rushing out into the dusk when a sound arrested her. Marlena’s laugh, seductive and clear, from the front bedroom. Limp with relief, Lauren sank down at the kitchen table and sent a quick thank-you skyward.
The next moment she heard a masculine growl and a crashing sound, followed by a feminine squeal. Flushing, Lauren leapt up and fled to the porch, the screen door banging shut behind her.
“At it already, are they?”
She jumped at Cal’s voice, which came from the vicinity of her feet. She looked down to see him sitting on the steps.
“Never mind. I can hear for myself.” He stood. “How about a walk? If we climb that ridge, sunset’ll make it worthwhile.”
She weighed her options.
One, she could go back inside and try not to think about the fact that Marlena might be sowing the seeds for her own demise.
Two, she could shake Cal off and leave him to brood alone to the accompaniment of the noisy lovers.
Or three, she could walk with him, try to distract him, maybe even defuse the rage he must be feeling. Divorced or not, with that history, he had to be pissed.
“Sure, I’d love a walk,” she heard herself say.
Wordlessly they set off. When after a few minutes Cal still hadn’t spoken, Lauren took the lead.
“Tell me about these foothills.”
He obliged readily enough, naming the peaks that rose in the distance. He told her how the meadow looked in spring and how the now dry streambed could swell in a flash flood. To her relief, he wasn’t the tangle of angry emotion she’d expected.
On the other hand, he had a very good poker face, she thought, as they reached the top of the ridge and stopped. The streambed wound away from them far below, and the sun was a fiery ball dipping toward the horizon. “It’s beautiful,” she said.
“Hmmm.”
She glanced at him then. Expecting to see his poker face, her heart took a bounding leap. There was nothing inscrutable about his expression just now. He was looking at her hungrily.
Suddenly he was too close, too immediate, too tempting.
“Lauren, I think I have to kiss you. Now’s the time to dodge if you don’t want me to.”
His husky words electrified her. She should protest, would protest, but the seconds ticked by. In that short span, her imagination slipped its leash. Already she imagined what his lips would feel like, how they’d taste. When his hard hand cupped her face, an involuntary shiver raced up her spine, but she made no objection. Then his lips were on hers.
It wasn’t what she expected. Instead of hot demand, there was testing, tasting. He shaped her lips with his, tilting his head this way and that, as though searching for the best angle. Her heart pounding, she conceded they were all good. But she wanted more. Abandoning any pretense that she didn’t want this, hadn’t thought about it since the first moment she’d laid eyes on him, she caught his head and really kissed him.