Killing Casanova

by Traci McDonald

  “Black … embroidery thread.”

  Cassie smiled widely. “You’re catching on.”

  She trailed her fingers from his hair to the line of his jaw, and the rough texture of his five o’clock shadow scraped against her fingertips. She touched his jaw, his neck, his chin, and finally ran her fingers over the curve of his mouth. “The country farm where I first learned to ride horses also had a huge sow that had piglets every spring. When piglets are born they have a soft layer of hair that covers their bodies. After three or four days it turns as rough as steel wool, but for those few days it feels like this.”

  Jake’s hand was covering hers now, pressing it against his cheek and catching her breath in her throat.

  “This feels like a baby pig to you?” he murmured, his mouth brushing her palm. “I can do better than that.”

  Cassie felt his fingers wind into her hair and trail teasingly down the back of her neck.

  “The first time you ride a wild mustang, she is jittery, full of energy, ready to run.” Jake pulled Cassie flush against his body, and she felt the pound of his heart as he whispered in her ear. “There is no time to think, or plan. You must wind your fingers through her mane, and take her. Like the wild thing she is.”

  His last words were hot against her lips, and she closed her eyes to feel his mouth on hers. The firmness of a peach mixed with the taste of cool water lit like sparks on her tongue. The feeling of the redwoods enveloped her, and she knew she would dream of him tonight.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Jake!” Cassie finally gasped. “Slow down. I need to think, and I can’t do that clearly when you’re kissing me.”

  Jake felt Cassie pulling away from him and reclaimed her mouth before she could go. He held her against him, his heart pounding with hers like the thunder of horses’ hooves racing through his soul. He was alive again, alive in ways he had not felt for so long he had nearly forgotten the sensation. She pulled away again, and he buried his face into her long hair. She smelled of sunshine and alfalfa, and for an instant he saw her without his eyes. She was the touch of the wind against his sunburned neck. She was the taste of chocolate, seasoned beef, and melted cheese. She was the night sky, too vast and deep to understand.

  “I thought thinking was what we were avoiding,” he teased.

  “Maybe that’s the problem.”

  Jake leaned away from her body to look into her fathomless eyes. “This is the first time in a long time I could do that without thinking. It was always a game before, how far to bring them in, how much to hold back, the perfect moment to let go. I have nothing left to hold back, Cassie. I’m not playing, and I don’t want to let you go.”

  “I want to trust you Jake, and I have. But the sun will still rise in the morning, and I need to know if I can face it with more than my name on Casanova’s list of conquests. If you wanted to prove that I could be had like all the others, then consider me conquered. It doesn’t need to go any further than this; I can live with this.”

  Jake felt as if the print of her hand were burning across his face. Had she been using him? Was this her way of getting back at Dylan? Anger stirred inside him and he gritted his teeth before he could say something he would regret.

  The expression on her face hid nothing though, and the tears brimming her eyes could not lie. He understood then, her vulnerability, she only had words, touches and feelings to rely on. Her heart didn’t know how to see truth in someone’s eyes or deceit in the expression of a face. He owed her more than just kisses and promises. He owed her unshakeable trust. She had given it to him, more than if she had offered him her body, she had let him in to her circle of trust and after Dylan had damaged it, she could not afford another breech.

  “You’re right,” he said, trailing a line of kisses from her lips to her ear. “Not about putting you on Casanova’s list, but about slowing down. You need to know that I’m not just here tonight, but every night for however long you want me.”

  “Those are easy words while we are still here like this, Jake. Tomorrow we have some serious problems and questions that have to be answered.”

  Jake didn’t want to think about any of that. The sudden infiltration of reality between them was bringing up her walls as well as his. Trying to focus on what she wanted, Jake sighed and leaned back into the cushions. “Let’s answer some of those questions tonight. Maybe if I can make the world go away again, you’ll come back to me the way you were before.”

  “How’s that?” Cassie whispered.

  “Lost in what works instead of fixing what doesn’t.”

  “It’s the survivor in me, Jake. I die if I focus on what feels good, but doesn’t work.”

  “This,” he enunciated, pulling her to rest against him, “feels good and it works.”

  “What about the rest?”

  Jake ran his fingers through his hair as Cassie reached up and touched his face.

  “You look worried,” she said.

  “Not worried, just thinking. If I go home now, I’ll be back tomorrow after or maybe before I take care of the northwest alfalfa field. We can figure out how to get that recording to the arson investigator. It might be an illegal recording, but at least it will give them a direction to go. I’m going to go let my folks know what is going on, too, so they can watch out at the farm for Carter, and I can be here doing the same.”

  “Jake, you just can’t hang around here and guard me. Miriam will know there’s a problem, Cody will come apart, and the entire program will suffer.”

  She had her head laid against his shoulder and her breath was grazing the base of his throat. “Would you be willing to come stay at my place with my mom and my sister? We can bring Jackpot over, too, and you should be safe enough at Caswell Farms and at work in between.”

  “Whoa, slow down. I don’t need to move anywhere. If I am working and it’s safe, then living here is exactly the same. I have managed on my own for most of my life, Jake, and now you want me to hide and cower behind your mom’s skirts? I’m not doing that.”

  Jake grinned at her, and he could have sworn she could see the look on his face. Somehow in the midst of reconfiguring her life and her refusals to cooperate, she had moved to the center of the room and was now glaring at him.

  “Cassie,” he said cautiously, “the only way Carter will leave you out of this is if I confront him with that recorder. I don’t know how long it will take me to find him and work this out. In the meantime, I would feel better if you were … under supervision.”

  “And who exactly do you have in mind for this job? I know for a fact it is not amongst Casanova’s skill set.”

  “No, but it is in mine,” he said taking her in his arms again. “I won’t give you false promises about how you’ll never be alone again, but I need you to take me seriously. I will call Carter in the morning and tell him to meet me about the recording. Tonight, though, you should come with me.”

  Murmuring assurances against her lips, Jake felt her melt into his kisses. The rush of emotion he felt in her arms cleared his thoughts, and Jake used his other senses to explore the sensation. Closing his eyes, he listened to the sound of their broken breaths, tasted the sweetness of her mouth, and touched the curve of her body against his. Tangling his fingers through her hair, he sank back down onto her love seat once more.

  The night sprawled silent beyond their embrace, until Jake’s lesser instincts finally broke to the surface as Cassie stroked his jaw and spoke. “I’m not moving in with you.”

  “Not even if it makes it easier for us to do more of this?”

  “Not even then, Jake. As much as I’d like a good reason to keep you with me all the time. Your house comes with chaperones.”

  Jake opened his eyes to look at her. She was teasing him away from his guard dog duties, and this argument was actually working.

  “Fine. Can I borrow a pillow at least? This couch thing of yours is going to be hard enough to try and sleep on.”

  The pillow was found, but un
necessary. Neither he nor Cassie did much sleeping that night. Dawn slipped her amber fingers through the blinds before Jake could persuade Cassie that she couldn’t be left alone that night, and Cassie convinced him that she didn’t want to be. Sleep simply wasn’t on either of their agendas.

  When Cassie unwound herself from Jake’s arms to take a shower, he paced impatiently, made a few phone calls, and then went to the barn with her before leaving.

  • • •

  “Be careful, Jake. Once Carter knows you have that recording, he’ll be coming for you.”

  “That won’t happen for a while. I called his place, and he wasn’t there. Jana said you’ve got a client this morning, and Troy is working with you for the rest of the day so he won’t come here. If I find him, I’ll call you in case he’s gunning for me. If I don’t get back here before 2 P.M., call Sheriff Harris and tell him I’m on the northwest field in my dad’s truck. Play that message for him and send him to look for me.”

  “Jake, just call him from here,” Cassie said grabbing his arms and clinging to him. “Don’t leave and give him the chance to do something like burn you out of the stables again.”

  “I’ve got to handle the water on that field or we will lose the whole crop. Carter doesn’t know I’m looking for him yet, and when he finds out I will be back here.”

  “Then why give me a backup plan if you don’t come back?”

  Her voice had dropped to a whisper, and Jake lifted her chin and kissed her. “So you will know where I am if you want to ditch out on work today and come roll in the alfalfa with me.”

  “You don’t really think that makes me feel better, do you?”

  “I can see that it does,” he teased, “not to mention that now you’re tempted to take me up on the offer.”

  “Make no mistake about it, Jake Caswell. If you don’t come back here, I will hunt you down.”

  Jake took her in his arms again, lingering in the warmth of the sun against their bodies. He took one last taste of her with him before she thrust her voice recorder into his hands. “Make sure you let Carter know I have that backed up on my computer, and it won’t do any good for him to destroy it.”

  “That is the last thing we want him to know, unless we are going to spend all our nights like last night.”

  “Yeah, I can see how you wouldn’t want to agree to that.”

  “You can’t see anything, and I’m still not telling him there’s another copy.”

  Jake kissed her again, then climbed into the cab of the truck.

  Spitting gravel down the road behind him, Jake drove for the alfalfa field. The closer he drew to the chore the more his instincts felt heavy. Will Carter take her, too? He wondered as her form disappeared in the rearview mirror.

  Jake parked the truck near the wire gate that closed off the field. No one would come and steal alfalfa, but the watering system was another thing all together. He moved quickly, unhooking the pvc pipes from the larger pipe.

  Rolling the wagon wheels that transported the system, Jake reset the spigots and moved back to the gate to hook up the pipes. Once the water was flowing and Jake could see that the placement was right, he relocked the gate and climbed back into the truck. None of his calls were any more fruitful than they had been this morning, and Jake tossed the phone into the glove box and put the recorder in his jeans pocket.

  One of the sprayers was stuck pointing north, and Jake watched it for a moment to see if it would resume its pattern. When it didn’t, Jake shook his thoughts loose from Cassie and Carter and made his way through the alfalfa to the sprinkler.

  The morning light was blinding off the steel sprinklers, which might have been why Jake had not seen the truck pull up beside his. The persistent and monotonous sound of the sprinkling system disguised its approach as well, so Jake was unaware of the truck’s occupants before he came face to face with them.

  “Jake,” Carter growled in his face. “Imagine my surprise when my Uncle Ed called and told me you accused me of pranking your little blind friend. Imagine how upset that makes me. It is a good thing I showed up at The Rocking J early enough this morning to see you kissing her good-bye.”

  “Cassie has nothing to do with this. You could have gotten her killed last night over that recording. Stay away from her, Carter. She is no threat to you.”

  “Oh, I know that Jake. She’s just entertainment. We had bad timing this morning, that’s all. She won’t be any fun, and me and Diego showed up too late to play with you. Luckily for Cassie, I also saw her give the recorder to you so there was no reason to bother her for it.”

  “Carter, I’m not interested in involving anyone else in this mess.” Jake glanced over Carter’s shoulder at the large Mexican ranch hand glowering from the road. “Let’s just work this out, the two of us. Forget about Cassie and Diego, and tell me what you want.” Carter cocked back his fist, and Jake ducked away from the unprovoked attack. “I told you before; fighting with me will only make your chances with the women worse.”

  With no warning, Carter launched himself toward where Jake stood, and the two of them rolled in a jumble of feet and fists toward the tree lined edge of the road. They came to their feet at the same time, but Carter overbalanced and Jake managed to throw him off before crouching on the balls of his feet, his fists balled in front of his face. Carter slid in the gravel, then rose slowly spitting dirt and blood from a split lip, fury burning in his eyes. “This can’t be settled between us, Jake. Your Cassie recorded me talking about that fire.”

  As Carter danced closer, Jake saw Diego moving toward him from the side. He couldn’t see clearly, but the big man looked as if he held a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire in one hand. Jake took the recorder out of his pocket and offered it to Carter, keeping a fair distance from both approaching men. “Here’s your confession, Carter. No one has heard it, and there’re no copies. Take it, leave Cassie alone, and you and I can finish this like men.”

  Carter slapped the handheld recorder from where Jake held it out to him, and crushed it beneath the heel of his boot. “Finish this? It will never be finished until one of us is dead. It was my turn that night on the mountain, but you had to play the hero. Now it’s your turn and Casanova can’t save you.”

  Carter spit blood into the gravel again, plunging forward to grab Jake’s torso. Twisting to avoid the direct hit, Jake saw in his peripheral the flash of metal from beside him. He took the body blow Carter gave him, collapsing to the ground beneath the man’s weight to avoid the swing of the bat in Diego’s hand.

  Jake hit the road on his back, using his legs to pitch Carter over his head toward Diego. The momentum of Carter’s body carried them both toward the river. Jake rolled over backward and came to his feet again, facing both Carter and Diego.

  The two fuming assailants crowded in on Jake as he wiped blood from off his eyebrow. Jake’s senses were taut; his muscles strained in expectancy, but not for the last sight that met his eyes.

  Silver light glinted and a blur of movement erupted across Jake’s mind as the thick wooden bat strung with wire and bent nails ripped the air between them. Jake reflexively turned his face to the side and braced himself for impact. Jake didn’t feel the tearing flesh or spurting blood; he felt only the caress of willow branches on his cheek as he fell, and darkness engulfed him.

  • • •

  A whisper drifted through the willow branches and roused his heavy eyelids to flutter. Jake forced open his eyes and tried to clear his mind. It could not have been the trees swishing above him and the lilted lullaby of the creek beside him that stirred questions in his head. Harsher sounds finally breaking through his foggy thoughts confirmed his suspicion that he had heard something else. A smatter of sprinklers hissing in the distance, sparked more awareness, but he sought for what had tugged on his mind.

  Still reaching for the absent sound, Jake’s instincts sharpened and he immediately became aware that he was supposed to be moving the watering system on the alfalfa field every hour. Hi
s mind was bogged down in a muddy cloud of swirling confusion as he tried to focus. His thoughts would not collect but seemed to run in all directions as if being flung by the powerful sprinklers, too far away to grasp.

  In the distorted darkness, Jake’s mind did allow him the brief image of his father’s dark, disapproving scowl. Even in his sleepy haze, Jake could feel the man’s glare at his carelessness with the new alfalfa.

  As he attempted to rise from the moist creek bank to attend the field, he was instantly doused in a blinding flash of white hot pain behind his eyes. With a groan, that seemed to reverberate in his brain like thunder to his pounding skull, Jake rolled onto his stomach, pressing his hands into the damp earth, before pushing up to his hands and knees. A wave of nausea stole breath from his lungs as the creek and bank tilted and the overhanging branches of the willow seemed to be reaching down to force him back against the dirt.

  Jake sank onto his chest and moaned again as he lay his throbbing head onto the shore of the bubbling stream. His vision swam in a whirlpool of colors until he focused on the crimson stain beneath his throbbing jaw. Pooling in a puddle beside his cheek, blood ran deep into the broken soil, and Jake flinched as its meaning caught hold in his heart. The soft sound of that crying wind met his pulsating ears once more, and Jake closed his eyes against awareness.

  “Jake!” the wind screamed this time. “Jake, if you can hear me, make some noise.” The voice was frantic, broken syllables caught between high pressure sprays of water and the unbearable pain in his head. It was too far away, he thought with another silent moan, as the sound was chased by the brisk wind above the branches of the trees.

  The hot August wind brushed across his dry lips as Jake rolled onto his back, knowing somewhere in his pounding brain he needed to call out to the drifting voice. The parched condition of his throat did not elicit sound, and the attempt screamed glassy shards of pain throughout his aching skull.