Zack jerked to a stop and took a step forward. Only years of discipline and Wyatt and Dawn’s warning looks stopped him from punching the smirk off Jake’s face.
With his hands fisted tightly, Zack turned away and stared at the wall.
“Do you know where your brother Brent was on Friday night?” Dawn asked.
“Nope. I’m not his keeper. But isn’t he next door? Why not ask him.”
“Okay, folks, I think my client has answered all the questions he needs to. He can’t be the person you’re looking for.” Preston Tilley scraped his chair against the floor as he stood. He’d remained rather quiet throughout the four hours of redundant questioning, which surprised Zack. Then again, Tilley was a divorce lawyer, not a criminal attorney.
With the warning for Jake not to leave the county, Wyatt and Dawn allowed him and Tilley to go. Zack turned and let out a breath. “He’s lying through his teeth.”
“Brent told me and Kennedy the same thing when we questioned him. I’ll check out their alibis.” Dawn headed for the door with Wyatt watching the gentle sway of her backside as she left.
Zack poured them both a cup of coffee from the stained, old Mr. Coffee in the corner. “So, what’s going on between you and Dawn?”
“Nothing.” Wyatt sat down in the chair Jake had vacated and sipped his cup.
“Uh-huh.” Zack sat across from him. “How come I believe you even less than I do Parker?”
Wyatt ran a hand through his reddish-brown hair. “She drives me crazy.”
With a laugh, Zack set his mug down. “No kidding. What’s really going on?”
Wyatt took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. “When we were partners on the Dallas PD, we crossed a line that should never be crossed by a female and a male partner. Especially when that partner was a friend for almost thirty years,” he added more to himself then to Zack.
“Let me guess, she wanted more than you were willing to give?”
Wyatt shook his head. “The other way around.” He stood and picked up his mug. “It’s all water under the bridge.”
“Until it floods my department. I’ve never seen Dawn so uptight in my life, and she’s been my friend since we shared the same bath water in her grandmother’s kitchen sink. She may have been your friend, but she’s always been like a sister to me. And I don’t like seeing her like this.”
“I’ve tried to talk to her.” Wyatt drank more coffee and turned toward the large framed map of Texas on the wall. “I’m not the one who ended it. She did. What else is there to say?”
Then Wyatt faced Zack again. “Enough about me and Deputy Dawn Madison. What the hell is going on between you and my cousin?”
Zack took a gulp of coffee and shrugged. He wanted to say nothing was going on, but that wasn’t exactly true. He’d promised Tracy he’d treat her like a girlfriend. “Tracy and I are dating.”
“That so?” Wyatt grinned and sat down again. “I seem to remember you swore you’d never speak to her again.”
“True. But then Dylan came back from the war, and I couldn’t let him continue to beat himself up over something outside of his control.” He stared into his coffee mug at the black brew. “I needed Tracy’s help since he’s her brother and he was living with her.” He shrugged and drained the cup. “Who knows if anything will come of us dating?”
He couldn’t let anything come of it. He owed that to Lisa. She was dead because he couldn’t love her more than he’d loved a memory.
“Tracy’s a good woman, Zack. I know she hurt you, but I think you’d be wise to give her a second chance.” He shook his head. “I know her life with that idiot Parker sure as hell wasn’t a bed of roses. I’ll never understand what she saw in him, because he treated her like shit. Tracy’s too good-natured for her own good.”
What was with everyone? His friends and family were free with their opinions on his love life lately. He was about to tell Wyatt that whatever went on between him and Tracy was none of his damn business, when Wyatt’s cell phone began playing Toby Keith’s Beer for My Horses.
Wyatt set his cup onto the table and pulled the phone from his belt. A moment passed before he spoke, and as he listened, his forehead furrowed. “It’s okay, Ma, I’m finished for now. What’s going on?” It didn’t take Zack too long to realize the news wasn’t good. Wyatt’s tanned face lost most of its color and his voice was rough. “Yeah, Ma, I’ll be right over. Have you called Audrey?” He paused to listen. “No, I’ll stop by the CW, then come over. Love you, too. See you soon.”
Zack waited for Wyatt to slip the iPhone into the holder on his belt. The stricken look on his face told Zack something terrible happened in his family.
Wyatt swallowed and looked at him. “That was my mother. She and Dad just got a call from an Army chaplain.”
Zack was instantly on alert. Wyatt’s younger sister, who recently deployed to Afghanistan, was a registered nurse and Army major. “Rachel?”
Wyatt nodded. “Yeah. Ma didn’t know much, except Rachel was injured today and is being airlifted to Germany. I have to go. I need to stop by Lance and Audrey’s place to tell them.” He paused at the door but didn’t look at Zack. “I hope my twin sister can forgive herself if our little sister dies over there.”
As Wyatt left, Zack leaned back in his chair and silently sent a prayer to heaven for a fellow soldier and one of his friends.
Chapter 15
“Zack.” Tracy opened her door a little after one AM, instantly wishing she wasn’t wearing the rattiest t-shirt she owned as a nightshirt. “I wasn’t expecting you until morning.”
He walked across the porch as if his shoes were made of concrete, and stepped into the entry, removing his hat. “Is Mandy sleeping?”
Tracy glanced up the stairs. “Yeah. I was headed upstairs myself when I saw your headlights in the driveway.” He nodded and looked around. She got the impression he was trying not to look at her. She clasped her hands together in front of the old University of Texas t-shirt. “Want something to drink? I usually drink tea at night, but I can make coffee. You look like you could use some.”
He met her gaze, and the ghosts haunting his eyes took her aback. “That would be good. How long has Mandy been asleep?”
Shrugging, Tracy led him down the dimly lit hall to the kitchen. “Oh, since about nine. She and Bobby played in the pool after supper and that tired them both out.”
Her laptop and American History text lay on the counter where she’d left them after finishing her paper that was due tomorrow. He touched the book cover. “So, the classes going okay?”
“Yeah. I’m getting back into the groove and already decided I’m going to try going full time next semester.” She went about making coffee while Zack sat at the island bar. His gaze caressed her every move, heating her skin. “It will be tough, but I also would like to get into med school before I’m forty.”
“I have faith in you.”
She looked at him and smiled, her heart swelling. “I’m glad.”
“Bobby in bed, too?”
As the coffee brewed, she leaned against the sink. “Yeah.”
His brow lowered as he studied her for a moment. “Where’d you get that shirt? It obviously isn’t new.”
Surely, he didn’t remember it, did he? “Where do you think?”
He shook his head and laughed, but it was choppy and short-lived. “That’s not the shirt I gave you for your eighteenth birthday, is it?”
Tracy turned and poured two mugs of coffee. After dumping four heaping spoonfuls of sugar into his and milk into hers, she headed for the island. With his brow furrowed and his kissable mouth twisting in puzzlement, he looked more handsome than any man had a right to. She took the stool next to him. “Yes, it is.” Before he could comment, she asked, “How did the questioning go?”
For a moment, Zack stared at her, then shook his head and picked up the steaming mug. “As I expected. Brent and Jake denied everything. Dawn checked out their alibis tonight. Jake’s app
ears to be watertight. He was in Waco last Friday with a girlfriend.” Zack glanced at her, as if he were waiting for a reaction.
Tracy didn’t even blink at the news. “How about Brent?”
“Colleen Stryker provided him with a story, too.”
“Johnny Blackwell’s mother?”
“Yep.” Zack sipped from his cup. “Brent was with Johnny Blackwell and his son Matt all night playing poker at Colleen’s place.”
“Damn, I was hoping they were the culprits. If for no other reason, just to have the rustling stopped. Good people are being hurt badly by this.”
“I know.” Zack looked into his mug, his brow low over dull eyes.
Tracy lightly rubbed his shoulder and leaned forward for a better look of his face. “What’s wrong? Somehow, I don’t think it’s only the case bothering you.”
He met her gaze. “Wyatt got a call this afternoon.”
She pulled back. “My cousin?”
He nodded. “Rachel was wounded today and airlifted to Germany. I don’t know much more than that, but I know from personal experience only the seriously wounded get sent out that quick.”
The breath whooshed out of her and her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh God, no. She came home just this past May. We went honky-tonk hopping one night, and she told me she was hoping this would be her last deployment.” She jumped off the stool, spun away from him and paced the tile floor. Her heart ached with the news of her cousin. Rachel McPherson had been one of her closest girlfriends after she moved to Texas. “Dear Lord, how many more people, who shouldn’t even be over there, will get hurt?”
“What do you mean?”
Halting in mid pace, she stared at him. Unable to stop the tears, she let them slide down her cheeks. “You, Dylan, and now Rachel. She only joined the Army because Lance decided he wanted her sister instead of her. Dylan was over there because Leon forged Granddad’s will and stole Oak Springs Ranch out from under him. And you...” She stepped closer and took a shaky breath. “You were only there because of–of what happened between us.”
* * * *
Zack’s gut twisted when she covered her face. He got off the stool and pulled her to him. “Shhh...”
He held her tightly against him as she sobbed into his neck. Her arms wound tightly around his waist, and he buried his nose into her hair at her temple. She was too tall for him to rest his chin on top of her head as he’d always done when he’d held Lisa. The thought of his dead wife brought him up short. He tried to ease out of the embrace, but Tracy clung to him tighter than before.
“I was so afraid, Zack, when I heard about you getting shot.”
She looked up at him with rivulets of tears running down her cheeks. Pain and fear reflected in the depths of her eyes and his heart twisted. Had she cared so much about him?
“Then the news came that you were in a coma and the docs weren’t at all sure if you’d live. I prayed every day, every minute, that God would let you be okay.” Her lips twitched as if she was trying to smile, but never quite worked up the effort. “I even made deals with Him.”
She shook her head and laid it on his shoulder. As she trembled in his arms, she held on to him so fiercely the shudders ricocheted through his own body.
“I know if–if things had been different, you wouldn’t have joined the Marines. I’ll never forgive myself for you enduring all that you did while over there. It was my fault, and I would have given up anything and everything...” She hiccoughed on a sob. “I knew you could never be mine again, but the world would be a much darker place without you in it.”
Her confession and raw emotions rattled him. He rubbed her back and sucked in a breath, catching the light scent of flowers and honey. Tracy had always smelled this way. Her unique fragrance had haunted his dreams while he slept on the hard desert sand a half a world away.
“Aw, baby, I joined up because it was the right thing to do. As cliched as it sounds, I joined out of love for my country, not for any other reason.” He was surprised at how right that answer was. He couldn’t blame Tracy’s betrayal or Lisa’s hatred of the rodeo any more.
Tracy looked up at him again with shimmery eyes. He stroked her wet cheeks, drying her tears with his thumbs. How many times had Lisa cried for him? But never had her tears ripped him apart as much as Tracy’s did now. “It may not have been the Marines, but I would’ve joined something after Nine-eleven.”
“Zack...I...”
Her voice trailed off, and she held him captive in her gaze. When she leaned in, he met her lips. He responded to her and caressed her upper lip with his tongue. She opened her mouth under his and they drank each other in. He needed her, wanted her.
She yanked his uniform shirt out of his pants and unbuttoned it, all the while kissing him with desperate passion. Her hands slid between them and up his chest. When her soft fingers found the sensitive buds of his nipples, he hissed and eased out of the kiss.
With a smile, she simply took his hand and led him upstairs to the master bedroom. He didn’t protest the invitation, despite her son and his daughter sleeping down the hall.
As she locked the door, he shrugged out of the shirt and took stock of the dim room. Only a small lamp was lit on the dresser between the windows. His impression of the room was a mismatch, an indication that she hadn’t done much redecorating after her step-uncle vacated the house. The walls and carpeting were masculine shades of tan and blue, while the bed was piled high with lacy white pillows and feminine floral linens.
Her turning to him to caress down his chest to stop on his belt had him forgetting everything but her. He’d taken off his service belt and locked it in the truck, which reminded him of the last time they’d been together and his feverish trip to the drugstore. “Are you sure about this? I don’t have any condoms on me.”
She swallowed and glanced away. “I bought a box the other day after you were here to pick up Mandy. If you hadn’t been so tired, I would’ve dragged you upstairs then. The only thing that stopped me from doing so anyway was the fact I didn’t have condoms.” Her cheeks pinked slightly, and she shrugged as she slid the zipper down and pushed the pants and briefs over his hips. “But now I do.” Her wicked smile was completely at odds with the soft blush. “And I intend to use ’em.”
“Good, because I’m up for the challenge.” He leaned in and captured her lips again.
His pants tangled around his boots, and she pushed on his shoulders until he sat on the bed. She stood before him as he caressed her smooth, silky legs from her knees to her hips, lifting the hem of the old t-shirt to reveal plain blue cotton panties. No woman had ever fired his blood as she did, and though he hated to admit it, that was the real reason he hadn’t sought someone else out after he’d recovered from his grief after Lisa died. The guilt he’d never get over.
He pulled the shirt over her head and dropped it to the floor. All thought evaporated from his overheating mind like rain on the hot pavement of Highway 6 in mid August. His mouth went dry and his groin ached with need. Cool air kissed her skin, tightening her nipples into hard raspberries ready for devouring. He pulled her to him and flicked his tongue over one of the points, while he plucked at the other with his fingers. With his other hand, he stroked up and down her spine.
She moaned, and he watched her long lashes veil darkened pewter eyes. He teased until she pulled back and knelt before him. After undoing the lacings of his work boots, she pulled them off, then tugged off his socks, and removed his pants. She slid between his legs, her fingertips scorching him on their slow trek up his legs to his groin. Anticipation kicked his heart into high gear, as she closed her warm, smooth hand around his erection and gently stoked. He held his breath when she leaned in to place a kiss on the tip, then she slid her lips along the length. The feathery touch was blissfully excruciating.
She looked up at him. “Remember the very first time I did this?”
His breath hissed out between clenched teeth, and his hands tangled in her hair when she took him
completely into her hot, soft mouth. Fighting for control, he gasped for air and rasped, “Yeah. You told me...it was my...Christmas present.” His head lolled, and he struggled with wanting her to continue and wanting her to stop. “Tracy...damn... It’s too much. Stop, baby.”
She caressed his sac as she sucked him. Watching her was almost as hot as what she was doing to him.
“Tracy...I’m...” He groaned and was lost. Tightening the grasp on her hair, he held on and growled a curse as light exploded through him.
At last, he slowly opened his eyes and met her gaze. She wiped her mouth and the cum off his belly with her discarded shirt. When she stood, slowly pushed her panties over her hips, and stepped out of them, she amazed him by how sexy she was without ever trying to be. She placed her hands on his shoulders and peered deeply into his eyes. A fire burned deep in her gaze, but also an emotion he didn’t want to analyze blazed in the depths of her gray eyes.
“This time it was for coming back to me.”
He wanted to argue that he hadn’t come back to her, but she applied pressure to his shoulders. He lay back with his head on her pile of pillows and with her in his arms. When she straddled him, he huskily said, “It might be a while. I’m not eighteen anymore.”
She leaned over him, her breath hot on his ear as she purred. “We have all night, Zack.”
She kissed him, thrusting her tongue against his. A shudder quaked through her body when she pressed and ground herself into his spent cock. He moaned because she felt so good, hot, and soft–and wet.
He broke the kiss and shifted her over him until she was over his face. “Better hang on. You’re in for one hell of a wild ride.”
She put her hands on the headboard and let out a long breathy moan when he took her into his mouth. The first orgasm came fast. The second was slower and more powerful. She bucked on him with each shudder. He looked up to her face. She bit her lip to keep the squeal from escaping. He nibbled on the inside of her thigh. Then he ran his tongue over her clit again before circling it. When he stroked up her belly to her engorged nipples and plucked them between his fingers and thumbs, she shuddered.
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