Forever Falcon Ridge (The McLendon Family Saga Book 7)

by D. L. Roan

  So had she. There was one detail, however, they’d probably regret.

  “I can’t believe we did that on your brother’s desk, though.” The thought of seeing Levi again made her cringe.

  Clay laughed as he pulled her out the door. “That was actually the icing on the cake.”

  The ride to the Bulzeye wasn’t as tense as the ride home from Sterling City, but there’d still been an awkward, unfinished feeling hanging between them. When they walked through the doors, the beat of the music lightened the mood and she decided to put it aside for the night. They had two days before she left for home and she didn’t want to ruin a single moment.

  The inside of the Bulzeye looked larger than the ramshackle desert watering hole it appeared to be from the outside. Dark, but for the lights of at least fifty neon beer signs, the smell of cigarette and cigar smoke lingered in the air, though the haze that would normally accompany it appeared to be trapped in a room in the back where she could see groups of men and women sitting around a few poker tables.

  “You came!” Nann weaved her way toward them through the decent sized crowd, a pint of beer in each hand. She stopped at a table a few feet away and deposited the pints, then floated to Dani with her arms held wide. “I’m so glad you made it!” she shouted over the music as she hugged her, and then Clay.

  “What’s with all the boots?” Dani asked, pointing to the ceiling where hundreds of pairs of worn boots hung from the rafters.

  “If ya can’t walk outta here under your own steam, you lose your boots,” Nann explained with a cocky grin.

  “Won’t be gettin’ mine tonight,” Clay said with a laugh.

  “Looks like your live mic night is a hit!” Dani eyed the band in the far corner, playing a familiar cover song.

  “They’re great!” Nann said. “Now, if I can just book your brothers…”

  Dani laughed. Con and Car had played their fair share of dive bars.

  “Where’s Pop?” Clay asked, and Nann pointed over to the bar. “He’s nursing a whiskey with Carl Gibbons, and keeping an eye on the pool tables. They’ve got some kind of score to settle.”

  Clay nodded. “I know exactly what that score is, and he’ll never win.”

  “Fill me in later?” Nann said, jerking her thumb toward the bar.

  Dani and Clay waved her off so she could go wait on her customers. “I really like her,” Dani said.

  “I really like that dress.” Clay tugged her toward the dance floor. “Have I told you that yet?”

  Several dances later, Clay snagged an open table and she plopped down on the chair in a breathless heap, her face hurting from laughing so hard. Clay was a fantastic dancer, even when the band played one of her brothers’ songs, he knew all the steps almost better than she did.

  Clay glanced at something over her shoulder and his smile faded, his eyes narrowing. Dani turned to see what he was looking at and saw a familiar face.

  “Isn’t she the one who brought Nann to the house my first day here? What was her name?”

  “Shannon,” Clay growled. He started to push from his chair, then stopped, sinking back down just before Shannon appeared at their table.

  “Hi, Clay.” Shannon turned to Dani. “Nice to see you again,” She said, glancing nervously between her and Clay. “Can I get you somethin’ to drink?”

  “You need to tell Nann to throw those asses out on their holes before I rip them a new one,” Clay said with a snarl.

  Shannon looked back at the rowdy cowboys and gave him a dismissive wave. “I can handle them, and they’re tipping good, so I’ll deal.”

  Dani glanced between Shannon and Clay, getting the feeling there was something she was missing.

  “Shannon!” Nann called out from the busy bar, then rang a loud bell that echoed through the saloon over the loud music.

  “Order’s up,” she said nodding toward the bar. “I’ll grab you a couple cold ones and be right back.”

  Clay watched her go, and Dani watched Clay. When he turned around, he caught her gaze and smiled ruefully.

  “How do you two know each other?” Dani asked.

  Clay shrugged, but before he could answer, another waitress sidled up behind him, draping her arm over his shoulder in a casual way that set Dani’s teeth to grinding. “Hi darlin’,” the tall, buxom brunette drawled with a saccharin smile, never taking her gaze off Dani. “Where’d you pick this one up? You trollin’ Toys ‘R’ Us now?”

  Dani narrowed her eyes, her head snapping back. What the hell?

  A dead, cold look swirled in Clay’s eyes, his lip curling in disgust as he lifted the woman’s arm off him. “Dani, this is Jacqueline. Jacqueline,” he motioned between himself and Dani, “this is none of your goddamn business.”

  Jacqueline’s eyes widened and her mouth hung open in feigned surprise. “Better watch that scowl, darlin’.” She pointed at Dani. “The new car smell wears off pretty damn quick with this one. You’ll need that baby face if you plan to keep him for long.”

  “That’s it.” Clay took Dani’s hand and pulled her to her feet. Jacqueline cackled, then scurried off into the crowd. “Let’s go say hi to Pop, then get out of here.”

  “Who was that?”

  “A jealous bitch who’s just stirrin’ up trouble because I’m the only cowboy within a fifty-mile radius who has no interest in what she’s sellin’.”

  Dani looked through the crowd and locked onto Jaqueline. Long legs, big boobs, tan and toned, she was pretty, in a beaver trap kind of way. “You’ve never slept with her?”

  Clay rolled his eyes, then pointed to the guy who’d been harassing Shannon. “I wouldn’t fuck her with his dick.”

  Dani snorted.

  “Come on.” Clay tugged her to the other side of the bar, toward the pool tables.

  They said hello to Virgil, and even played a doubles round of pool against him and his friend. After their second beer, Dani excused herself to the ladies’ room. “I’ll be right back.”

  Sitting on the other side of the table, Clay tipped his beer to her and mouthed the words then we’ll go. She nodded and made her way toward the neon ‘restroom’ sign blinking in the back. She was washing her hands when the door opened and Jacqueline sauntered in.

  Dani’s stomach twisted into a knot as the woman paused by the door, then shuffled to the sink beside her. She could feel the woman’s gaze on her through the mirror, but she refused to engage. Just because Jaqueline was a bitch, didn’t mean she had to be one.

  “He’s gonna dump you, ya know that, right?”

  Dani glanced up and caught her gaze for a split second, then turned to tear off a paper towel to dry her hands.

  “Shannon’s his baby’s momma. He’ll take her back eventually. They always do.”

  Dani froze, tendrils of frigid ice snaking around her spine, but then she remembered what Clay had said about her. She snatched the paper towel from the dispenser and turned to face the nasty bitch.

  “Clay doesn’t have any kids.” Dani tossed the paper towel in the trashcan behind the woman, making the three-point shot with ease. “Get a life,” she spat on her way to the door, but the woman grabbed her arm.

  “He didn’t tell you? How classic.” Jacqueline fished her phone from her back pocket. Dani tried to jerk her arm free, but the woman tightened her already bruising grip as she flipped through her phone and pulled up a picture. “Meet Paxton Sterling.”

  Dani glanced at the picture the woman held in front of her, every cell in her body rebelling against what she saw. A smiling little boy of about five or six, sandy brown hair, and eyes the exact color of Clay’s. It was easy to compare, since he was sitting on Clay’s shoulders. Even as she tried to tell herself it wasn’t true, there was no denying those dimples.

  Clay has a son.

  A real life, flesh and blood son he’d never once mentioned.

  Cold numbness crept into her limbs as Jacqueline pocketed her phone, saying something Dani couldn’t hear through the buzzing in
her ears before the bitch turned and left.

  The two beers Dani’d had rushed to the top of her throat and she leaned over the sink, heaving out what felt like her entire soul before she could catch a breath. Hundreds of thoughts raced through her mind at once. Why? Why would he lie to her about this? How could he not tell her he had a son? Unless Jaqueline was right. Unless she truly meant nothing to him. Why tell her anything? She’d be gone in a few days. He’d fucked her—oh God! I let him fuck me! Without a condom!

  The thought propelled Dani to the door, but she had no idea where she was going. She couldn’t go back to Clay. Oh shit! He was standing outside the restroom, waiting on her.

  Staring into nothingness, sheer will drove her forward, past Clay, her body on autopilot as she headed toward the door, but she turned when she saw Nann.

  “Dani, wait up!” Clay called out behind her. “You walked right past me. You ready to—what’s wrong?” He stepped in front of her and she stepped around him. “Beautiful, what’s the matter? Did something happen in the bathroom?”

  “Don’t call me that.” She shouldered past him again. Her phone vibrated in her pocket, but she ignored it, focused on getting to the only person in the state of Texas she trusted to get her to an airport. A crowd of patrons surrounded Nann as she approached and Dani jerked to a stop, realizing she couldn’t ask the woman to leave, not in the middle of her big night.

  She bypassed Nann and headed toward the pool tables. Clay’s dad obviously knew Clay’s little secret, but at this point she had no choice. At least Virgil hadn’t outright lied to her. Or fucked her.

  “Excuse me, Virgil?” The words felt like sandpaper in her throat, her fingers numb as she tapped Virgil on the shoulder. “Can you please take me to an airport?”

  Virgil’s brows furrowed and he cast a questioning glance at Clay.

  Her phone vibrated again and she pulled it from her pocket.

  “What the hell, Dani? What’s wrong with you?” Clay turned her around to face him, but she jerked her arm free from his grasp.

  “Hello?” She answered her phone, not even bothering to look at the caller ID.

  “Dani? Are you okay?”

  The sound of Papa Daniel’s voice was like a bolt of lightning, burning away every other thought and emotion except stark, cold fear. “Um, yeah. Is something wrong with Uncle Cade?”

  The band started playing and Dani cringed, straining to hear what he was saying. “Hold on a second.” She pushed her way through the rowdy crowd, sidestepping several pairs of grabby hands until she was spit out through the front doors into the dirt parking lot. “Okay I can hear you now.”

  “It’s Uncle Cade, honey.”

  The crack in Daniel’s voice was her undoing. “Is he…did he…?” She couldn’t even say the words!

  “He’s in the hospital, and the doctors are saying it doesn’t look good.”

  The neon sign on top of the building blurred with the tears that flooded her eyes. Her last breath stuck in her throat like a white-hot branding iron, then finally came out as a broken sob. Arms banded around her waist, holding her on her feet as she forced herself to speak through the pain. “How long?” she asked.

  “Honey, they don’t know.” It was her mom’s voice on the phone this time, a sound that instantly drew another sob from the pit of her stomach. “Uncle Cade collapsed after dinner, and we still don’t know what happened. His blood pressure is dangerously low and they can’t figure out why. I didn’t want to call you until we knew something more, but Papa Daniel insisted.”

  “No, it’s okay, Mom.” Her lungs relaxed for a moment and she took her first deep breath, but the flood of tears kept falling. “He promised me he’d call if anything happened.”

  “You’re going to be okay, honey. Just get here as soon as you can, okay? And be careful.”

  Dani nodded jerkily. “I’m on my way,” she sobbed into the phone. “Don’t let him die before I get there. Mom, please.”

  “We’re all fighting for him,” Gabby assured her.

  Another sob broke free as she said goodbye to her mom, then clicked over to the internet to try to find a flight home.

  “Dani, what happened? Is it your uncle?”

  Only then did she realize Clay was holding her. She twisted from his arms and backed away. “Don’t touch me,” she said, never looking up from her phone, but unable to read the screen to know what she was typing. “I have to go home.” Angry at more than just the tears she couldn’t seem to stop, she punched at the buttons on the screen but nothing was working. “I can’t even see it!”

  Clay pulled out his phone and then offered it to her a few seconds later. “There’s a flight leaving out of Midland tomorrow morning at eight, with a layover in…,” he looked at the screen, “St. Louis. It’ll be two o’clock in the afternoon before you get to Billings. I can have you home by the time it leaves Midland if we leave now.”

  Dani shook her head. She couldn’t let him fly her home. “There has to be something sooner!”

  “That’s the first flight out,” Clay argued. “Look, whatever happened in there, we’ll figure it out, but I need to file a flight plan and have the plane refueled if you want me to take you.”

  Dani stared at the phone in her hand.

  “Dani?” Clay took her head in his hands and made her look at him. “Tell me which way you want to go. I’ll do whatever you want.”

  More ridiculous tears flowed down her cheeks as she stared into his eyes. Eyes that had looked into her soul and lied.

  No. She cleared her throat and forced a new breath of air into her lungs. None of that mattered now. The only thing that mattered was getting to Uncle Cade. “Okay,” she choked out. If Clay flying her home was the fastest way to get there, then so be it.

  “Okay? You want me to take you?”

  She nodded, wiping the betraying tears from her eyes. Clay let her go and swiped at his phone a few times, then took her hand and led her to his truck. When they turned onto the road headed to the ranch, she shook her head. “The airport is the other way.”

  “We’re swinging by the ranch and get your stuff.”

  “No, leave it.”

  “Dani, we have time,” Clay assured her. “It will take that long for the flight plan to get approved anyway.” He reached over and took her hand. She was too numb to protest. “I’ll get you there. I promise.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Violent flashes of lightning pulsed through the cloud tops and lit up the night sky in front of them. Clay checked his instruments and made a few adjustments, but the wind shear was getting worse. The storm that had passed over the ranch earlier that day had stalled out in the north and reports weren’t looking good.

  He glanced over at Dani, asleep in the passenger seat, or at least she was pretending to be. She hadn’t spoken a word since they’d taken off, and she’d refused to wear her headset, so asking any questions was a no-go.

  The look he’d seen in her eyes when she’d walked out of the restroom had scared the shit out of him. He’d seen her angry. He’d seen her spitting mad, but this was different. She’d looked broken, as if something had ripped out her heart. He’d been ready to tear the place apart to get to the bottom of it, but then she’d gotten the call about her uncle. He’d be dammed if he was going to let it go, but first he had to get her home, and the way it was looking, that might be a much more difficult task than he’d anticipated.

  His radio crackled to life and the air traffic controller’s voice echoed through his headset. Clay answered the status update with a grimace. The storm was getting worse. As if to prove it, the plane jolted and skipped through a rough patch of turbulence, jarring Dani awake. He gripped the yolk and held it steady, but it was clear they couldn’t continue. Without any other options, he requested permission to land and the controller radioed back with his instructions.

  After verifying his coordinates, he handed Dani her headset and motioned for her to put it on. When she looked away, he push
ed them into her hand. “Put them on!” he demanded. She reluctantly complied, but stared indifferently out into the storm when he spoke. “We have to land!” She bolted upright in her seat in protest, shaking her head. “The storm is too bad. I can’t fly above it and we don’t have enough fuel to fly around it.”

  She fumbled with the mic until it was in front of her mouth. “We can’t!” she insisted.

  “I have no choice, Dani. We have to set down and wait it out.”

  Tears sprang to her eyes and damn if he didn’t feel like the biggest failure. “I should have taken the eight o’clock flight,” she said, her voice wavering with her efforts not to cry.

  “We’ll still make it in time,” he tried to assure her, reaching out to take her hand, but she jerked it away. “Dani, we need to talk about what happened. What did I do?”

  She shook her head, then removed the headset, laying it in her lap before she turned her head away, her shoulders shuddering with her sob.

  Clay pounded his fist against the door, biting back a string of curses. Fucking hell! He wanted to grab her up and shake her. One second they were playing pool and having fun. He’d been looking forward to taking her home and making love to her all night, maybe even asking her to marry him, after he cleared up the mess he’d made of telling her he loved her. Now he was suddenly a steaming pile of horse shit not worthy of even an explanation? He couldn’t think of a single thing he’d done to deserve this.

  Once clear of the turbulence, he set the plane down at the designated airfield and taxied to the hangars. The landing had gone smoother than he’d hoped, given the lack of visibility from the pouring rain.

  The second he cut the engine, Dani turned on her cellphone and called her mom. He listened as he texted a local cab company for a pick up. Luckily, they were able to land in a metropolitan airport with hotels close by. At least they wouldn’t be waiting out the storm in the cockpit.

  “I don’t know,” Dani said to whoever she was talking to, then turned to him and asked, “Where are we?”