The Wedding Gift (Colorado Billionaires Book 7)

by Regina Duke

  Sunny joined them for lunch. She brought hot soup and homemade sandwiches, and a checkered table cloth that she threw over the end of the counter. They ate standing up, but it was still a treat.

  “This is delicious,” said Clayton. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

  “Well, you’re helping out the Shanes in a big way, so I’m glad to do it.”

  After their late lunch, he went to the Cattleman’s florist, then headed for the Feed and Grain. He knew he was a wee bit early to pick up Kenzie, but he was looking forward to a nice reaction when she saw the red roses he’d picked out. They were in a green vase, supported by a box provided by the florist, but even so he’d driven five miles an hour from his parking space to the front of the Feed and Grain. He could see her inside at the cash register, gathering her things. A smile crept up from deep inside and threatened to strain his cheek muscles.

  After talking to his father, he had realized that his feelings for Kenzie were real. He had fallen smack in love, and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. It totally ruined his oh-so-clever plan to arrange a marriage and fool his father. How could the old man know what he’d been thinking? That didn’t matter now, because he would not allow Kenzie and his feelings for her to be tainted by deception, not even to gain a fortune.

  Kenzie exited the store and moved so quickly he had no time to get out and hold her door. She slid into the car, her mind somewhere else.

  “Bad day?” asked Clayton.

  “Hmm? No, actually, it was a really nice one. At work.” She sniffed the air. “Do I smell roses?”

  Clayton was grinning from ear to ear. “I got you a little surprise.” He reached behind the passenger seat and lifted the vase to the front.

  Kenzie’s eyes widened and her mouth formed a silent, “Oh!”

  “Surprise!” said Clayton.

  Kenzie’s features softened. “These are beautiful,” she murmured. “For me?”

  Clayton nodded.

  “Isn’t this backward? I mean, you’re the one doing me all the favors. I should be buying gifts for you.”

  “You’re giving me an excuse to drive my father’s best Mercedes. No other thanks are needed.”

  She gave him a mischievous look. “So, you did take your father’s car, after all.”

  “Guilty as charged.” Clayton wondered if he should risk yet another personal request. Well, if a dozen roses didn’t soften the request, nothing would. So he cleared his throat. “Kenzie, I was wondering if you’d like my phone number so you can reach me if you need a ride for something other than work.”

  She looked pleased. Clayton silently congratulated himself.

  Someone knocked on the glass of the Feed and Grain door. It was Taylor. She was motioning for Kenzie to come back inside.

  Kenzie looked torn. She pulled her phone out of her purse. “Here, do you mind adding your info to my contacts? I need to run in and see what Taylor wants.” She tossed her phone in Clayton’s lap as she got out of the car.

  Clayton fondled her phone. “I guess that’s a yes,” he mumbled. He opened her contacts list and added his name and cell phone info. Then he entered his street address. And his room number at the Cattleman’s. Kenzie was still inside. He found her cell number and added it to his own phone. He was about to slip it back into her purse when it announced the arrival of a text message with what sounded like the horns of Sherwood Forest.

  He knew he should ignore the text. After all, it was none of his business. Yet. How much leeway could he count on after a dozen roses and the consent to add his phone number to her contacts?

  Curiosity got the better of him, and he thumbed the text open. It was from Todd, and all in caps.

  “WHERE IS MY CAR YOU THIEVING WITCH? IF I DIE, MY BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS. DON’T MAKE ME COME FIND YOU. YOU KNOW WHAT I’LL DO.”

  Clayton’s brow furrowed. When the car door opened, he nearly dropped the phone. Kenzie slid in and pulled the door shut, careful not to tip over the vase of roses.

  She said, “I forgot to give her the key to the register.” She glanced apologetically in his direction. When she saw the phone in his hand with the text on the screen, her features darkened. “What are you doing?” She grabbed the phone out of his hand.

  Clayton was embarrassed. “I’m sorry. I added my contact info, and while I was doing that, this text came in.” He kneaded the leather steering wheel cover. “Am I forgiven?”

  Kenzie’s mood seemed to change dramatically upon reading the text.

  Clayton waited for her to say something, but when the silence stretched to several seconds he asked tentatively, “Is that the car you borrowed to get to Eagle’s Toe?”

  She nodded. She blanked the screen and dropped the phone in her purse. Then she put her head in her hands and made a sound like an angry cat.

  Clayton gave her another few seconds, then prompted, “Should I be running for the hills?”

  Kenzie sat up, her face drained of color. She sagged in her seat. “I really hate that guy,” she said. “I tried not to ever admit that to myself, because my folks raised me not to hate anyone.” She turned to face Clayton. “Will you do me a favor?”

  “Of course.”

  “Can we take a detour on the way to my house? I need to check on something.”

  “I’m at your service,” said Clayton, trying to inject a note of levity. “Do you need to see my White Knight license before we go?”

  Kenzie sighed heavily, and Clayton thought her eyes might leak at any moment. She said, “Don’t be so nice to me, Clayton Masters. You don’t know what I’ve done.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Kenzie said very little as Clayton drove. She gave him a heads up about this turn or that turn until they took a right off the highway onto Old Quarry Road. She could feel it every time he glanced her way because his eyes were shooting questions at her. As he coaxed the Mercedes off the blacktop and onto the gravel, she decided he deserved some kind of explanation.

  “All those texts from Todd….” She paused. “He keeps threatening me about his car, but I don’t understand why the police haven’t knocked on my door yet. I mean, wouldn’t you report someone for stealing your car if you were mad enough to make all those threats?”

  “Does he know where your parents live?”

  “He has a vague idea. I’m sure I mentioned Eagle’s Toe a couple of times during the past year. But he doesn’t have their street address. I never felt comfortable discussing my family with him.”

  “You had good instincts,” said Clayton. “But if you don’t mind me saying so, anyone who threatens to kill himself over a missing car…well, that can mean only one thing.”

  “And what might that be?” asked Kenzie. “That he’s a nut case? I finally figured that part out on my own.”

  Clayton shook his head. “Not just that. It suggests to me that it’s about more than the car.”

  Kenzie’s brow furrowed. “Like what?”

  “Let’s find out.”

  Dark clouds were rolling in, heavy with rain, and the air smelled of ozone and the promise of a thunderstorm. She might be doing her chores in the rain tonight. She chewed on a thumbnail until Clayton stopped the car. They were a good fifty feet from the edge of the quarry. He was obviously not taking his father’s car anywhere near the brink.

  Kenzie opened her car door. “We have to go right up to the edge,” she said.

  Clayton followed her silently, an arm’s length away.

  Kenzie wondered if he was worried she might shove him over, or maybe he was preparing to grab her if she tried to jump. For half a second, that thought seemed like a good idea. She could end it all and wouldn’t have to face anything else.

  But she dismissed it immediately. Her parents needed her, and if Todd was so desperate that he was texting about blood on her hands if he didn’t get his Mustang back, he just might be in bigger trouble than she was, and no way did she want to miss that.

  She stepped carefully as she n
eared the edge, very aware that Clayton had held back a few feet. The slope wasn’t exactly ninety degrees, but it was steep enough that nothing had slowed the car on its way down except that one ledge that had tipped it upside down. She planted her feet firmly and craned her neck to peer into the shadows at the bottom of the quarry.

  Yep, it was still there. No night watchman had discovered this particular wreck, and no sheriff had marked it off with yellow tape. She relaxed a bit and returned to Clayton. “Here’s what it looked like after I shoved it over,” she said, pulling her phone out of her pocket and showing him the picture of the wreck. “This one is how it looked before.”

  “Wow,” said Clayton. “Remind me not to loan you the Mercedes.”

  Kenzie snorted. “Don’t worry. I only trash the cars of men I hate.” Her words were vindictive, but her tone was sad. “I was planning to send him a picture of the wreck, but I chickened out. And then he started sending me all those texts. He does sound pretty desperate, doesn’t he?”

  Clayton nodded. He took her hand. “Do you mind? I really hate heights.” He inched toward the edge.

  “I’ll be your counterweight,” she said.

  Clayton leaned to study the wreckage. After five seconds, he had to pull back. “I don’t see anything down there other than the car. Come on,” he said, tugging her gently toward the Mercedes. “This gravel road runs around the lip of the quarry. Let’s follow it a ways and see if there’s a way down.”

  Kenzie let him lead her to the car and open her door for her. “What do you think we’ll find?” she asked.

  “I have no idea. Scratch that. I do have an idea, but there’s no sense speculating until we take a look.” He got behind the wheel and flicked the headlights on. The clouds made it darker than usual for four-thirty.

  “Don’t get too close to the edge,” said Kenzie.

  “My thought exactly,” he replied.

  They drove slowly for nearly a mile, seeing nothing but gravel and grasses and the two barely visible ruts that made up the little road. At last, Clayton said, “That’s what I was hoping to find.”

  Kenzie saw that the road veered off to the side and seemed to drop into the quarry. A metal gate blocked the entry. A coil of heavy chain fastened one end of it to a wooden post. It looked like there might once have been a line of posts stretching away from the gate in either direction, but all that was left was some strands of barbed wire that leaned into the gap. She frowned.

  “That road doesn’t look wide enough for the Mercedes,” she said. “I know there’s a main gate somewhere across from the spot I pushed the car over.”

  “Why didn’t you use it?” asked Clayton.

  “Duh,” she teased. “Because it’s padlocked shut and sits even with the bottom of the pit. No cliff to shove the car over. But then again, I don’t want us to end up at the bottom of the quarry like the Mustang. Your father would call the cops for sure.”

  Clayton flashed a grin. “When did you meet my old man?” he teased. He nodded toward the gate. “If we move that chain and post, it will be obvious that someone went down there looking for something. There’s a flashlight in the glove box. Grab that, and let’s see if we can navigate this wagon trail to the bottom on foot.”

  Kenzie fetched the flashlight. “This is really decent of you,” she said. “You’re going way beyond the dozen-roses mark. I’m going to owe you big time for this.”

  Clayton smiled. “That was my plan all along,” he joked. “Nothing brings a man and woman closer faster than trespassing.”

  Kenzie laughed, a high-pitched sound.

  Clayton took her hand. “Don’t worry,” he said. “The way this town talks about your family, you could probably come in here with a bulldozer and no one would say a word.”

  Kenzie followed as he slipped under the metal bar of the gate. She liked the feel of her hand in his. It reminded her of a summer by the river when she was thirteen. On the other side was a boys’ camp, or maybe there were girls there, too. She couldn’t remember any faces but one, that of a shy athletic boy who stood on a rock at the river’s edge and peered at her through binoculars. She’d come every afternoon at the same time and looked back at him. On the fourth day, she’d borrowed her father’s binoculars, the ones he used for deer hunting, and when she reached the usual spot, she lifted them to her eyes and was startled at how close he seemed. It was as if she could reach out and touch him. Then he lowered his, giving her a chance to see his face. She remembered every freckle. His cheeks were still hairless, but there was promise in his jawline. The sight of him took her breath away and made her heart pound.

  That was what she was feeling now with her hand clasping Clayton’s. A very pleasant tingle of electricity flowed up her arm and into various parts of her anatomy. She pretended the exercise was to blame.

  The road deteriorated quickly from two ruts to one. The switchbacks made it clear that this part of the trail had never been intended for four-wheeled vehicles. By the time they reached the bottom, Kenzie was forced to hang back and follow in Clayton’s footsteps, but he never let go of her hand.

  * * *

  Clayton hoped he was doing the right thing. Had he fallen in love with a crazy woman? How much strength and resolve had it taken her to shove that car over a cliff? In contrast, he didn’t even want to confront his own father about matters as simple as the details of his mother’s trust. Maybe he should be more like Kenzie.

  And what if they found a body in the trunk of that car? Was he going to continue to trust and admire her?

  Yes.

  The answer came so fast, his head spun. Not a good thing on a path that had narrowed to one lane, like a downhill trail at the Grand Canyon. His fear of heights was genuine, and he hadn’t expected this hike to require clinging to the wall of the quarry. But he had her hand in his, and it was worth risking life and limb for that accomplishment.

  Even so, he was relieved when they reached the bottom of the quarry. He looked around to orient himself. He’d thought he could look across the flat bottom and spot the red Mustang, but there were a surprising number of hefty slag piles dotted about. They weren’t that noticeable from up on the edge, but they were tall enough that they obstructed the view at ground level.

  He pointed across the quarry. “What do you think? That direction?”

  Kenzie stood silently, gazing up at the trail they had just come down. Then she let her eye follow the rim. It stood out dark against the paler wall. After a few seconds, she pointed a few degrees to the right of Clayton’s angle. As explanation, she offered, “I figure the Mercedes is—” She zigzagged a finger back up the trail. “—right about there. We drove a mile, more or less, and that would put our starting point right about there. Drop a line, head for it.”

  Clayton was impressed. “No kidding? I always suspected women were smarter than me. I just expected they would be kind enough to hide that fact.”

  Kenzie laughed softly.

  The unexpected sound was music to Clayton’s ears. He grinned.

  Kenzie confessed. “Also, when I was up there last Saturday, I was staring into the setting sun, so I was on the east side of the quarry. I’m just pointing to a spot opposite where the setting sun would be, if it weren’t behind the clouds. Don’t worry. I grew up here. I know the area. Let’s go before we lose the rest of the light.”

  Clayton aimed the flashlight in the direction she pointed. “After you?”

  Kenzie smiled shyly. She wiggled her fingers inside his hand. “I sort of like walking side by side.”

  Clayton puffed up a bit and struck off toward the point where he hoped they would find the car. It didn’t take nearly as long as navigating the switchback to the bottom.

  Kenzie clutched his hand. “There it is.”

  Clayton’s brows rose. “You pushed that over the cliff?”

  “It was in neutral.”

  Clayton murmured, “Wow. Remind me not to lend you the Mercedes.”

  Kenzie gave him a friendly s
hove. “The Mercedes is safe. You haven’t ruined my life or stolen from me to pay for car parts.” She walked around the wreck.

  “It’s a mess,” said Clayton. “I take it, this used to belong to Todd?”

  “Still does, if you’re talking registration. I used it to drive home, then realized it was the only thing he really loved, and I was overcome with a burning desire for revenge.” She spoke evenly, as if reading off a menu. Like someone who had grown numb inside.

  “Well, this could easily be why he’s screaming at you on the phone about his car.” Clayton cringed inwardly at the crushed front end and the flattened roof.

  “No,” said Kenzie. “It has to be more than that. He’s telling me his life is in danger. No one cares about the car but him, as far as I know. So why should anyone threaten him over the Mustang?”

  “Then maybe it’s something else. Something inside the car. You checked the trunk?”

  “I opened the trunk to retrieve my suitcase, but I wouldn’t classify that as checking it.”

  “Nice distinction,” said Clayton with a smile. He noted that one of the car’s hubcaps had popped loose on impact and lay a few feet away. “Is there a crow bar in there? Maybe he hid something in the hub caps.”

  “Be careful,” said Kenzie. “It doesn’t look all that stable.”

  Clayton’s pulse sped up a bit when he realized that she was worried about him getting hurt. He squared his shoulders. “I’ll see if I can open the trunk.” The car had landed on its roof, and most of the other damage had been done to the front end which had collided with the outcrop of rock on the way down. He handed her the flashlight. “Hold it steady for me. I’m going to pop the trunk.” He expected resistance but the trunk lid opened easily and thumped against the ground. Nothing. He squatted down to take a closer look and was pleased when Kenzie joined him, aiming the flashlight at the interior. One corner of a carpet square had jostled loose.

  “What is that for?” asked Kenzie.

  “It covers the tire well for the spare. Something must be holding the tire in place. Usually there are some tools stored with it. Here. I’ll show you.” He reached for the edge of the carpet and yanked it free. There was no tire or tools, but the space was jam-packed with something.