by Jillian Neal
Meridian cringed and spoke between her teeth. “I am so sorry.”
Jack straightened his tie. “I’m sorry, sir. We were helping birth a foal out on Holder Ranch this morning. Time got away from me. Please,” he unlocked his office door, “come on in.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
To avoid another incident like the one with the mayor, they’d negotiated a few changes to how their relationship would work at least while they were at work. Sex at the office could only occur if neither one of them was on the phone when the foreplay began, and Jack would go in at his normal time while Meridian did her ranch chores in the mornings.
The stability and routine they’d quickly fostered made Jack genuinely happy. The November winds darted through his dress shirt as he unlocked the courthouse early one Friday morning. Another great thing about being in love with a cowgirl was that even with her chores she was still willing and ready to allow him to indulge her in morning sex before they got their days started.
Grinning as he recalled that morning’s session, Jack had managed to push his father’s asinine offer on the ranch to the furthest recesses of his mind. Meridian had been right. No one took on the Holders and won, and Jack would fight beside them to make certain that was always the way it worked.
He settled at his desk and allowed himself a few minutes to recall Meridian’s small curves pressed to the leather inlay. He swallowed down the onslaught of lust that filled his mouth.
Shaking himself, he reviewed the monthly court docket that had been slipped under his door. That failed to hold his attention. He missed Meridian. He hadn’t spent a night in his own home since they’d returned from Kentucky, so he debated going by his house and packing more clothes to kill some time before she arrived at the office.
Telling himself he was behaving like a lovesick school boy, he ordered himself to get some work done. He tried and failed to read a contract from the Bureau of Land Management to Holder County involving a potential geothermal resource bid that the mayor wanted his legal input on. That proved about as thrilling as watching grass grow, so he moved on to the drunk and disorderly arrest from the night before.
That, at least, was somewhat humorous. He heard the rest of the staff arriving, with Mitch’s teasing laughter and the slide of office chairs from the rest of the prosecutors. The glug of the water cooler and flip of the coffee maker switch made him smile. The sounds of the courthouse waking up always got his blood going.
His cell phone lit with Meridian’s name. Grinning, he answered immediately. “Hey there.”
“Hey,”—she sounded excited—“the last mustang foaled and I have afterbirth all over me. I’ll be there as soon as I can, but I need a shower.”
Jack cringed. “No problem. Take your time. I don’t think we have any appointments until after lunch.”
“Actually, there’s a warrant request on my desk that needs to go back over to the police station. I need more information on the prior criminal. Can you seal it up for me and get Mitch to take it back to the station now? I want it back today.”
“Sure.”
“My request envelopes are in my filing cabinet.”
“No problem. I’ll take care of it. Is the foal okay?”
“Yeah, but it’s a colt, so we’ll have to move him to another ranch in a few years.”
That was part of how the state kept the mustang population somewhat under control. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, I know. It just makes me sad when we have to separate them. You should see me when we wean calves. I’m a disaster. I cry every single time.” She paused for a split second. “Never tell anyone I said that out loud.”
Jack grinned at that. “For what it’s worth, I think the fact that you love every animal on that ranch is what makes you such a kickass cowgirl.”
“Thanks.” He could hear the smile in her tone. “I promise I’ll be in as soon as I get cleaned up.”
“No rush. Hey, cowgirl…”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
He loved her delighted laugh almost as much as he loved her. “I love you too,” she vowed. “See you soon.”
He made his way to her office and located the warrant request quickly. Glancing at her denial, he agreed with her assessment. They needed more information.
Before he could unlock her filing cabinet, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished it out and stared down at the text from her.
A stunning image of her about to step into the shower while blowing him a kiss. Even the shower cap was sexy as hell. He could only see the mischievous smirk on her face and the top of her cleavage.
He responded, Move that camera a little lower, honey. She was going to kill him, and he wasn’t even going to mind.
He wanted more, always more of her. He was insatiable, but she didn’t seem to mind. Forcing himself to think of something besides her in the shower, he unlocked her cabinet and found her envelopes.
His eyes fell to the file in the very back. She had tempted him after all. He closed her office door and turned the lock before retrieving the pictures from the folder. Accepting the fact that he was torturing himself, since he would be hard up for the entire work day, he decided it was worth it. Maybe he could talk her into another tryst in his office when everyone else was at lunch.
Easing the photographs from the folder, he helped himself to her desk chair and began going through them one by one. This wasn’t the first time he’d done this, but this time was without the wash of guilt that had threatened to drown him before. This time he could relish, appreciate, and worship. Now he knew how to care for her when she needed his hands to tend her delicate preferences and his dick to ravage her when that’s what she required.
His mouth went dry and his member swelled its approval as he stared at a black and white shot of her by gauzy curtains at a window. She wore nothing but a white lace thong. He swallowed down the desperate, dangerous desire to bring himself relief.
He now knew every shadow, owned every hollow. Every sweet, tender curve held his mark. He felt the sharp cut of her eyes and was healed by the lush bow of her lips. God, how had he avoided falling in love with her for so long? Or perhaps he hadn’t. Perhaps he’d just become a masterful liar to himself.
Flipping to the next picture, he shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Meridian in black lace trappings that he longed to free her from. He slowly appreciated each and every picture.
Until a lightning bolt of panic jerked him from his lusty stupor. He’d seen each picture years ago. He’d memorized them. Hell, they’d occupied every wet dream and every shower session with his hand. Where was the shot of her wearing nothing at all? She’d been on her knees on a bed. It had been his favorite. He’d thought of it daily.
Carefully going back through them in case some had stuck together, he began to vibrate with abject panic. The photograph wasn’t there. He tried to tell himself perhaps she’d taken it home, but his brain refused that solution. Why would she take one photo home and leave the rest in the office? If they were intended for him, wouldn’t she leave them where they most often saw each other?
He put the remaining photos in an old envelope he found in her desk drawer and secured them in his interior jacket pocket. The filing cabinet didn’t appear to have been forced. Did someone make a copy of one of their keys? An expert lock pick maybe? A hundred gut-wrenching scenarios played out in his head. Every single person in the entire courthouse lined up on his suspect list.
He would protect her. He was not only a damn good attorney, he was a decent detective as well. Remembering his purpose for being in her office in the first place, he sealed the warrant denial in the correct yellow envelope and marched to Mitch’s desk. “Deliver this to Chief Riggins. We need more information before we issue this warrant.”
“Will do.” Mitch eyed him cautiously. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Jack lied while he sized up Mitch. He neither seemed willing nor capable of breaking into Meridi
an’s filing cabinet, but in this case he was guilty until proven innocent. “Are you certain you didn’t see anything odd in Meridian’s office when you let me know about the door being open while we were gone?”
“There was nothing that I noticed. Why? Did you find something out of place?”
“No. I just wanted to make certain.”
Mitch shrugged. “I figured our resident tomcat was on the prowl again. I’ll get this down to the station. I might stop for some coffee on the way back. Can I get you anything?”
“No. Thanks, though.”
“Oh, I almost forgot, there’s some hoity-toity lawyer waiting on you in your office. Something about the Marsden case. I assumed he’s here to let you know it’s been dropped. Don’t know why he couldn’t have just phoned, but he seems like one of those people who likes to show up places just to irritate.”
“I’ll get to him in a minute.”
Jack made a cursory glance of the office surrounding him. Some of the prosecutor’s doors were closed but most were open. Some had been here since before Jack’s arrival, but he’d personally hired the rest. They all seemed to love Meridian or, at the very least, respect the hell out of her.
None of this made any sense. He needed to think. The answer had to be right in front of him, and he was somehow missing it.
Dragging himself to his desk, he set to dispense with the lawyer in his office quickly. He needed to at least have a viable suspect before Meridian got to work.
“Can I help you?” he demanded rather tersely.
The man stood and lifted his hat to Jack. “I’m Steve Elsten, from Elsten, Elsten, and Nash outta Tulsa. I’m here representing Ralph Marsden against Holder Land and Cattle Corp.” The implication that Jack should roll out the red carpet for a founding partner in some big city law firm made him want to vomit.
“I am not that easy to impress,” Jack assured him. “What do you need?”
“We received your demand that we drop the case for lack of evidence.”
“And?” Fury continued to mount in Jack’s chest.
“And it seemed to me that you must not have seen the latest report from the Bureau inspector.”
“I did see the last report. That’s why I sent the demand. Your client has no grounds to file the suit. There is no evidence that the mustangs housed on Holder Ranch aren’t being cared for or that they have caused any damage to your client’s property. If you press on, we’ll pursue full charges for the frivolous lawsuit.”
Elsten laughed. He genuinely laughed, and Jack longed to sink his fist into his face. When Steve pulled a file from his briefcase, Jack jerked it from his hands. He flipped it open, and all of the heated blood that had filled his head drained slowly to his feet.
“This isn’t the copy of the report the Holders received from the Bureau of Land Management. One of them is obviously fake. Since your client is the one that stands to profit from this ridiculous claim, I’m going to assume your copy was falsified.”
“That’s the copy my client brought to me when he hired me. That’s the one we’re taking to court. I just wanted to come out here and see this ranch and the idiot who thinks he’s going to court against me.” He slapped Jack on the shoulder and pointed to the diplomas hung behind Jack’s desk. “You made my day.”
With that, he turned and waltzed out of the office. It took him approximately four seconds to look up Elsten, Elsten, and Nash in the legal database. Jack’s mouth dropped open at their hourly rate. How the hell was Marsden affording a lawyer like that? And why would someone like that take on a case like this?
It took Jack two seconds too long to put the final piece of the puzzle into place. Someone else was obviously now paying Marsden’s legal fees. Someone with more money than either sense or morals or both combined. The assessment on the mustangs at Holder Ranch could be redone. The falsified document wasn’t Jack’s primary concern. It was the knowledge that his father would stop at nothing to make the Holders’ lives miserable until Jack finally walked away.
He scribbled a note to Meridian and booked himself on the next one-way flight from Tulsa to Louisville. This ended now. He’d play his final ace to save her.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Meridian quickly grabbed her keys, phone, and lipstick, and then set about searching for her handbag to store all her items. She grabbed her leather jacket as she passed the recliner in the living room where she’d flung it the evening before. She hoped Jack didn’t mind that she wasn’t all that neat because she had no plans to change.
“I made coffee,” her mother announced from the kitchen.
Meridian clutched her chest. “I didn’t know you were here,” she gasped.
When her breathing returned to something near normal, she gave her mother a sorrowful smile. “I wish I could stay, but I’m already late.”
“Just one cup. I hear you’re in good with your boss so he won’t mind. I haven’t seen you without Jack even once since you got home. I miss you.”
That did it. Meridian set the jacket and her belongings back in the chair. “Okay, but just one cup, then I have to go.”
Her mother made quick work of pouring two cups of coffee and loading them with cream and sugar. They settled on Meridian’s sofa.
“Yum. Why is it always so much better when you make it for me?” Meridian asked her mother.
Leigh grinned. “Coffee that someone else made is always better, but I like to think it’s just because I’m so sweet.”
Laughing at that, Meridian shook her head. “I’ve missed you too, Mama. I’ll do a better job about balancing my time.”
Her mother waved her off. “It’s fine. I understand what it’s like to fall in love and do a little life rearranging.”
“It’s odd to me that I didn’t mind the rearranging at all. That’s weird, right?”
“Not at all,” Leigh assured her. “That’s how you know it’s real.” She moved a few strewn magazines, the TV remotes, and one of Jack’s undershirts off of the coffee table to make room for her mug. Shaking her head, she sighed. “Is Jack as messy as you are?”
“We’re not messy; we’re busy,” Meridian corrected.
“Um hmm, busy getting messy.”
“Mama!”
Leigh laughed as she set to organizing all of the wayward things that had accumulated on the table in front of the couch. “What is all this?” She lifted the stack of papers Meridian had printed on the Dentons.
“Oh, that was me obsessing about what I was getting myself into before we left for Kentucky. Jack kept telling me how awful his family was. I didn’t really believe him, so I set out to prove him wrong. I printed out everything I could find on them. Plus, I wanted to be prepared before I met them.”
Leigh started sifting through the papers. She shook her head at each one. “Goodness at the people his family knows.”
“Well, they’re one of the wealthiest whiskey baron families around.”
“I imagine it would be hard to know if all of these people want to be around you or around your money.”
“His family is only interested in people for their money or for what they can do to help the Dentons get more of it. I’m sure their friends are the same.”
“Then those aren’t really friends. Look here,”—Leigh lifted one of the papers deep in the stack—“his mama and daddy at the Capitol with our illustrious senator and his wife.”
Meridian almost dropped her mug. She set it shakily on the table. “What?”
Leigh handed her the photo, and Meridian was certain she was going to vomit. “Oh my god.” There was more than one photo of them all standing together smiling. Leigh handed over another photograph. This one had a picture of Senator McCoy in the highly recognizable entryway of the Dentons’ estate house.
“Honey, what is it?”
“Oh my god,” was all Meridian was capable of saying.
“I need you to elaborate on that.”
“Mama, this is…oh my god. Senator McCoy is who got Jac
k the job here.”
“So?”
“He doesn’t know. He trusts Senator McCoy’s family. He thinks…oh my god.”
“Meridian, you are scaring me,” her mother fussed.
“I have to talk to Jack. Right now.” She grabbed her things and raced out of her home, leaving her mother and the coffee.
Her truck tires skidded along the dry, gravel road. A cloud of dust chased her to the gates of the ranch. She debated exactly how to proceed. Did she just show Jack the pictures? That seemed awful. Should she do more research? That didn’t seem like it would make this any easier for Jack to take. The very short list of people that he trusted continued to crush her chest. How many things could you take away from a man who’d already been so badly scarred by his own family? She had to think before she went to him. She refused to add more to his battered soul. She had to protect him.
Pulling herself together as she climbed out of her truck, she tried to think of some way to hide from Jack while she figured out exactly how deep this relationship went. He hadn’t been lying when he’d explained that he paid close attention to her.
Most of the time she loved that, but right then, she needed him not to.
Praying he’d be in his office with the door closed, she stepped off the elevator and into a cluster of prosecutors, aides, and paralegals surrounding Mitch’s desk whispering.
“What is going on?” Meridian demanded.
Mitch stepped away from the crowd. “We were hoping you could tell us that. Jack raced out of here an hour ago. He said he was going back to Louisville. That’s all he said. Like that’s…it.”
“He didn’t say why?”
“Not a word. We were hoping you had some idea. He left right after the new lawyer on the Marsden case showed up with the paperwork.”
Baffled as to why Jack would willingly go back to Louisville, Meridian also didn’t like the idea of appearing uninformed. “Okay, I will go figure out what is going on with Jack. Will you all please get back to work?”
She let herself into Jack’s office and prayed that Finn’s cell number would be listed as Jack’s contact on his employment records. She needed some answers.