Sloan thought the moonlit night was perfect for a horseback ride. He flicked back his cuff and hit the light button on his watch. Ten-fifteen.
Five horses and riders picked their way across loose gravel. The air felt humid, an unusual occurrence in the Catskills where the nights usually cooled even in the dead of summer. He let his glance stray over Jacie, who rode in front of him. When she glanced at him, she looked sultry, her eyes lidded, as if she had a secret. He found he wanted to peel her secrets away one by one.
Their group of riders included Jacie, Donny, Michelle and Renee. The women had changed into swimming suits and wore jeans over them, but he wore a pair of old swimming shorts under his jeans and had left his short-sleeved shirt unsnapped. It felt too airless to do otherwise.
When they reached the small pool, the water appeared silvered in the moonlight, the surface smooth and undisturbed.
Curiously, he watched Jacie as she flashed her wide grin and then threw her leg over her horse and slid to the ground.
"I'll beat you all into the pool!" she cried. In a mad dash she kicked off her sneakers and wriggled out of her jeans, the sight of her hips wriggling making sweat bead on his forehead. She hit the water mere seconds before Michelle and Renee did the same. The sounds of their laughter floated on the air as he dismounted from his horse. Captivated, he stood and watched them play in the water. Donny still sat on his horse and when Sloan glanced at him he saw the teen watching Michelle like a lovesick kid. He wondered if his face wore the same expression when he looked at Jacie. He told himself he wasn't lovesick, just...just curious.
She was fascinating, fun to be with, but that's as far as it went.
"I suppose you think we're crazy, you guys!" Jacie called out.
"What else?" he drawled.
She floated closer to the edge where he stood and threw him a grin. "You wouldn't think so if you were in here cooling off." Threateningly, she reached out and grabbed his boot.
"Are you ready for the consequences of your actions?" he asked, curious to see how far she would go. He felt her tug again on his boot and shifted his feet, feeling the give of the moss beneath his weight as he went down on his haunches.
"Are you?" she asked mockingly, her voice for his ears alone. In the next instant, she pulled herself from the water and literally launched herself at him. He put out his hands to catch her and lost his balance. He fell onto his back, his palms sliding along her slippery wet flesh as she followed him down with a muffled squeal, landing between his legs. The warmth of her breath was in his face, then the heated touch of her lips touched his mouth. It happened fast and then she began to slide away, but he captured her and pulled her back to him, feeling the wet skin of her belly contact with his. He groaned and settled his mouth more firmly on hers, enticing her lips to open to him. She melted into him, and then he let her go and she slid back into the pool. She splashed as she swam away. It had all happened in the span of seconds.
Ω
Jacie pulled herself from the water and lay exhausted on a flat rock. She admired the feathery clouds that drifted in front of the moon. "This must be heaven," she murmured. Heaven, and she was here with Sloan. Thinking of her impulsiveness in kissing him, she felt warmth creep over her, and it had nothing to do with the night. She supposed the others might have seen her do that, but she couldn't summon the energy to care. It had felt right and Sloan hadn't seemed to mind her impulsiveness.
Lazily, she turned her head as someone came to sit beside her.
"Stay still," Sloan said as she began to get up. "You look comfortable right there." His fingers slid along her arm.
"I am," she said dreamily. "I could lie here all night. Why didn't you go swimming? The water's just right." Impulsively, she added, "You should relax more."
He looked at her, one brow up. "So you said before. I will admit I get caught up in work."
"What do you do to relax?"
He seemed to hesitate a moment. "I like to garden."
She smiled. "Really? That’s one thing I’ve never had the space or time for. I love the flowers all over the ranch. They’re so bright and welcoming."
"Thanks. I admit it’s my green thumb."
"You did all the flowers? I’m impressed."
"I’ll have to show you my place. I’m still working on the landscaping and the flower beds." His smile seemed intimate. A shiver raced across her water-cool skin, almost as if he had touched her again.
"I would love to see your cabin. It's been a really fun night," she added. "The barbecue, the ride and swim. I don't know when I've had a better time."
"This is pretty simple stuff. I'm sure you must've had more excitement in all your globetrotting." She could make out his profile as he stared at the others in the pool.
"My type of globetrotting as you call it, if you’re around long enough to know the time zone, you're usually so tired from working you don't feel like socializing."
"Yet you've done it with your family?"
"About eight years, give or take a month." She shrugged. "It was a job."
"The risk...cheating death, you loved it." It wasn't a question, more a conclusion. She sensed a stiffness in him now. Restlessly, she sat up. "At times...many times, I loved my job, but I don’t look at it as cheating death." She put her hands out, then let them fall to her sides. "Don't you love your job, as back breaking as it can be?"
"There's no comparison."
"In a way there is. You could get hurt working with the horses or the cows. Even with machinery there could be accidents."
"It's not the same." Abruptly, he rose to his feet.
She moved to stand with her fists on her hips.
"You are so hung up on my occupation. What is your problem?"
"Your life is your own. I guess I'll never understand how you don’t think twice about jumping out of a plane."
She balked at the hard tone. "Skydiving is a skilled science. Every jump is calculated, the risks considered. Look at you...working with animals is unpredictable. There's so many variables to consider," she said in exasperation. "If I make a mistake on a jump, I know where to look, there's only one variable to consider, myself. Animals can spook, or have a bad day, and you get the brunt of it."
"If there's danger in my work, it's because it finds me, not because I court it." Abruptly, he walked away.
"That's not fair!" Perplexed, she wondered what had just occurred. His face was set, his back rigid.
Vaguely, she noticed the others were leaving the water. There was a hushed silence on the group, almost as if she had somehow touched on a sore subject everyone else knew about.
She bent to retrieve her jeans.
She mounted her horse. Sloan had ridden several yards up the path to wait. When everyone was ready she hung back to the end of the line. Her horse knew the way, she didn't even have to think as the animal automatically fell into step behind the others.
Michelle nudged her horse over to her. "You couldn't have known," she said in a hushed tone.
She looked at her with surprise. "Known what?"
"Sloan's mother was a loose cannon."
"He mentioned something about it once."
"She breezed through life and did as she pleased, regardless of anyone else. My mom always said it was like she thought she'd live forever. She and her friends used to race their cars on the back roads at night. One time she had an accident and almost got killed. Sloan's father found her in time and got her to the hospital. She pulled out of it that time, but I don’t think it stopped her."
"God." Jacie felt pain for Sloan, the little boy he had been. "How did she die?"
"She developed a blood disorder from an infection."
Jacie felt her stomach turn. "But her life is nothing like mine."
Michelle shrugged. "I don't know...maybe Sloan is equating you in some way with his mother’s lifestyle."
All the way back to the barn she mulled over what she had learned. After the horses were taken care of, she caught u
p with Sloan.
"I have one thing to say to you!" she declared.
He looked at her intently. "And that would be?"
"I’m a responsible person from a loving, stable family background. I’ve had a job since I was fifteen. Don’t go comparing me to someone else." She stomped away. At least she had gotten that off her chest, for all the good it would do her. Sloan seemed to have a problem with the very occupation she was trying so hard to resume.
Ω
Sloan felt as if he had been ridden hard and put away wet as he sank into his favorite chair. He rubbed at the ache in the back of his neck and wondered why the devil he had thought avoiding Jacie and working his butt into the ground the last two days would solve anything.
He felt rotten, no getting around it. He was finally ready to admit she was getting to him, and she probably could give two hoots about him. He wanted her and to hell with her lifestyle that was so different from his. He needed to know if she would be interested in a relationship. That’s what he had figured out in the last two days since her last jump, which luckily had gone off without a hitch.
Since her arrival he’d never felt so confused in his life. Her fun-loving nature drew him, yet at the same time it troubled him. He slumped into the chair, knowing he needed a shave and a shower. His mirror testified to the fact that he wasn't looking his best.
Growing up, he had loved his beautiful, fun-filled mother dearly, as only a young boy could. He remembered, too, the dark times. As a child of eight, he had seen the pain his father tried to hide, seen the evidence of sleepless nights, the worry over his mother who would sometimes be gone for days. She always made up for it when she returned, lavishing attention and love on them, but somehow it hadn't made up for the time in between.
Scrubbing his hands over his face, he reached forward and slid a plastic DVD case across the oak chest that served as his coffee table. He stared at the video inside the case, experiencing again a sense of urgency. That same feeling had gripped him earlier when he had driven into town.
He had gone to see Tim Wells to talk to him about the test results on the horse. A foreign substance had been found in Dandy’s blood. It could only have gotten there by injection. Tim had already notified the sheriff’s office and sent them a report of the findings.
His second stop had been the video store. Escape from Angel Falls. He placed the DVD in the player. After the credits the scene cut to a mountain of reddish rock which seemed to shoot straight up into the sky, a waterfall of frothy white plummeting a tremendous way to the base. He knew Jacie's stunt involved a freefall from the top of the falls. He fast-forwarded almost the end of the movie and Jacie's jump. The scene showed the top of the towering precipice. He watched her leap from the ledge, seeming to fly out into the air and his stomach did a sickening plummet. He backed it up, watched the descent over and over. The jump was shot from different angles, above and below.
When her parachute finally opened, it seemed to his untrained eye almost too late. The closing shot showed her dangling in a tree by the lines of her parachute.
Swallowing hard, he stared up at the ceiling. A paralyzing numbness held him immobile, knots twisting his gut.
A knock sounded on his front door. "It's open!" he called. Footsteps crossed his foyer. Sloan turned and saw his father. He jumped to his feet. "Hi Dad."
"Hello Sloan," Everett Wright said. "I haven’t seen you all day so I thought I’d see what you were up to. Mind if I help myself to a beer?"
"Go ahead."
His father walked into the kitchen and then came into the living room and tossed him a can. "I thought I'd come over since it's been a while since we talked. James filled me in on what's been going on since the last time I was here. What’s happening with this woman Jacie Turner?"
"What do you mean?" he asked guardedly.
"The business with the horse."
"I got the results from the vet today." He stared at the television screen through half-closed eyes. Popping the top on his beer, he took a gulp. "It's not good. The tests turned up traces of fluphenazine enanthate, a potent behavior modifier. Once injected, adverse reactions can occur, sometimes up to twenty-four hours later. I'm trying to piece together who had access to the horse during that time period."
"That explains the bizarre behavior. What about the syringe?"
"Same chemical."
His father's face reflected his shock. "I can't believe anyone we know would harm this young woman. Are you sure this isn't aimed at the ranch?"
"I've thought of that, but I don't think so. This is just one incident on top of others concerning Jacie. I've gone around and around with this. Whoever's responsible has to be familiar with horses and injections. Who would gain by doing such a thing?"
"Maybe someone is stalking this young woman."
"That’s a possibility. What's really strange is Jacie only decided to go on that overnight at the last minute and she's the only one who's been riding Dandy. Just about everyone here knew that."
"Sloan, you're talking attempted murder―"
He clenched his jaw. "I know what I'm saying Dad. I've talked to Jacie, and so have the police, and to tell you the truth we haven't come up with a motive. The only ones who would stand to profit if she died are her family, which is out of the question. There might be money involved. Apparently, the film's insurance company settled a sum on her after the accident. From what I gather her family has kept pretty close tabs on her since then. It bugs the hell out of me to think someone's on the ranch sneaking around."
"What are you going to do?" Everett asked.
"Keep an eye on her and hope the police come up with something or I can catch somebody out."
Everett reached for the DVD case. Escape from Angel Falls. Is this the movie Jacie was in?"
He nodded. "I was trying to see if I could get any ideas watching it. She does her skydiving jump at the end, and that's when she got hurt. I'll play it again, if you want to see it."
"Go ahead."
When the movie was over, his father gave him a speculative look. "Wow, that is some lady. I’ve seen the jumps she does with the guests, but they seem tame in comparison. She made that jump look real."
"It was all too real," Sloan said, still feeling his tense reaction to watching the movie. "That producer must be some kind of inhuman jerk to use that footage after she was almost killed."
"Is Jacie someone special, son?"
Sloan looked into blue eyes so like his own. He simply nodded.
"I have met Jacie," his father said with a smile, "though only briefly. She reminds me of your mother."
Sloan felt his throat go dry.
"You probably don’t remember much, but your mother was a woman who embraced life, Sloan," his father said. "Those years with her were ones I’d never give up. You don't find many women like that. She loved with a passion I've missed since the day she died."
"But if you could turn back the clock and live through the uncertainty, not knowing what she would do next, would you do it all again?"
His father gave him a surprised glance. "Of course I would, son. I loved her."
He felt his father's answer seep into him. It sounded so simple, but he felt it wasn't.
"What's the matter, Sloan?"
"I guess I'm surprised to hear you say that. You never really talked about Mom after she died."
"That's because it hurt so much to know that light was gone."
"I might have been only a kid, but I remember what it was like."
"I remember the good times, when your mother was with us, and the amount of love that woman could hold. She had boundless energy. She could drag you out of the lowest mood. Don't get me wrong, I love Myra, and we've had a good life together, but your mother was unlike any woman I've ever known."
Feeling suddenly lighter, Sloan grabbed his hat from the table.
"Where are you off to now, son?"
"I've got cows to pen."
"It's getting late. Why don't you
call it a day and do them tomorrow."
He pulled his hat low over his forehead. "Nope, I told my buyer the cows would be ready first thing in the morning. I'm gonna round them up and make good on that promise."
"How about if your old man comes with you? Between the two of us we'll have it done in half the time."
As they walked out the door together, he gave his father a mocking glance. "Are you sure you remember how to round up cows?"
"I know it's been awhile, but I think I can handle a few ornery steers," his father said, chucking him in the arm.
He grinned and threw his arm around his father's shoulder. He suddenly didn’t feel so glum anymore. Maybe there could be a chance for him and Jacie.
§ Chapter Ten §
Later that afternoon Jacie walked through a dense growth of pine and came upon a small clearing. A woman sat in the tall grass with an easel in front of her. She turned as Jacie's boots snapped pine needles underfoot. It was Myra Wright.
"Hi." Jacie halted. "I didn't see you. I don't mean to intrude."
"Don't be silly, stay." Myra put out a hand, multiple bracelets jangling on one slim arm. "The sun has gone down and it was that last minute of sun I was trying to catch. I'm through for the day."
Jacie glanced at the canvas admiringly. Myra had done a credible job of depicting the fading brilliance of the day across the mountains. Looking at the picture, she could feel the silence and vastness.
Myra retrieved brushes and paint tubes and she knelt to help her.
"Actually, I'm glad you're here, Jacie. I could use help carrying the easel." The older woman rubbed her hands. "When I hold the brush for very long, my arthritis bothers me."
"I'd be glad to help."
When everything was stowed in a pack, Jacie slung the pack over one arm and picked up the lightweight easel. "Can you carry the canvas? I don't want to smudge it."
"Yes. My car is over there." The older woman indicated an area behind a thick growth of trees.
"You drove?" she said with surprise.
"It's just a narrow track, but Sloan keeps it graded so my car doesn't have any trouble. He knows I love to paint while I'm here."
Heartstealer (Women of Character3 Page 14