by Ciana Stone
What the hell difference does it make. It’s not like Cord knows her and even if he did, he doesn’t go for redheads.
With a slight yelp at the hair she tore while snatching the elastic band free, she reached into the shower and turned on the water. That’s when her phone rang. She ignored the shower and snatched up her cell phone without even bothering to look at the caller ID. “Hello?”
“Morgan? Sam here. Just checking in to make sure you still want me to head over to Dallas tomorrow for that bull.”
It wasn’t the call she’d hoped for, but hearing Sam’s voice brought her attention back to something normal and that was welcome. “Definitely. Use the ranch’s Amex or write them a check, whatever they want. And you’re sure you don’t mind making the trip?
“Not at all. Sally’s going to ride with me.”
That sparked an idea. “Then why don’t you leave today and spend the night in a good hotel along the way and treat yourself to a nice dinner? Tomorrow, you can work the deal, enjoy a night in Dallas and then leave early the following morning. That’ll give you and Sally a little break.”
“We can’t do that.”
“Sure you can. It’s on me. Use the ranch card. Boss’s orders. Tell Luther he’s in charge ‘till you get back and hit the road.”
“Well, when you put it like that, what the heck.”
“That’s the attitude,” Morgan smiled. “Be safe, Sam and have a good time. See you when you get back.”
“You bet’cha and thanks.”
“It’s the least I can do. See you soon.”
As she turned to put the phone on the vanity, she caught sight of her reflection. “Ugh.” Without further delay she stepped into the steaming spray. The conversation with Sam had helped to restore a degree of normalcy and that made her feel better.
Now if Cord would just call.
Chapter Three
Cotton Creek, Texas
Mark Samuels stood and stretched as he removed the headset. It was time to call in. With one final stretch, he picked up his cell phone. “Let me speak with Smith,” he said as soon as the call was answered, then smothered a yawn. “Samuels, here.”
He moved around the van, trying to work a kink out of his back. His head still hurt and the ice he’d put on his eye hadn’t helped much.
“Craig here,” a voice came on the line.
“Craig, it’s Samuels, let me speak with Smith.” Mark opened the door that separated the back of the van from the driving compartment and pulled down the visor to look at himself in the mirror.
Damn. His eye was swollen, and the color had changed to an ugly muddle of purple and green.
“Hey Smitty!” Craig called out. “It’s Sewer Rat Samuels.
Shit. That sewer rat tag was starting to take hole in the department. Samuels wished they’d all just forget about it. Hell, he wished he could forget about it. He resented Cord Alexander for making him look bad. It would be the Alexanders’ fault if Mark got passed over for promotion. First, Alexander made him look bad by running off and leaving him in the sewer and then Mrs. Alexander had to punch him out and make him look like a fool. He wished he’d never heard of them.
“Hey,” Smith came on the line. “What you got?”
“Nothing much. She talked to her ranch foreman and that’s about it. I think she’s taking a shower.”
“Too bad you don’t have visual.”
Mark wasn’t in the mood, so he cut the conversation short. “Listen, it looks like she’s going to be there for the rest of the day, so there’s probably not going to be anything happening around here. As soon as the next shift arrives, I’m going to head for the hotel. A hot shower and hot meal are the only things I want to see.”
“Right. Just make sure the logs are filled in and the files uploaded.”
“Ten four on that.”
“Oh, and Samuels?
“Yeah?”
“If you see a woman wielding a tree branch…” Smith’s voice started to break up and Mark could hear laughter in the background.
“Yeah, what?” he asked sourly.
“Duck!” Smith finished with an explosion of laughter behind him that almost drowned out his goodbye.
Without so much as a word, Mark ended the call.
*****
Morgan pulled on an old T-shirt of Cord’s and headed for the kitchen. Her stomach was starting to complain, which was no surprise. She hadn’t eaten all day. A search of the refrigerator didn’t turn up anything appealing, so she decided to have a cup of tea while she decided what to fix. After putting the kettle on, she wandered into the family room and turned on the television, just to have some noise.
The house was way too quiet, and she felt Cord’s absence like an ache in her chest. She surfed the channels for a few minutes but didn’t find anything of interest. As she started to sit on the couch, she noticed the thumb-drive she’d tossed onto the coffee table earlier. She picked it up and turned it over to look at the handwritten label. “Cord A?” she puzzled. “Why in the world would it have his name on it?”
A creepy feeling stole over her. What if they’re videoing us in our own home? The idea that she was being watched didn’t sit well at all. She put the thumb-drive on the coffee table and started searching the house for anything that might cover a hidden lens.
Shit. Now those assholes have me paranoid about being in my own damn home.
The whistle of the tea kettle halted her investigation. Morgan fixed a big mug of tea and returned to the family room. She picked up the thumb-drive and plugged it into one of the USB ports on the television. Then she took a seat on the couch, picked up the remote and accessed the drive.
When she hit play the screen was fuzzy black and white like an old television show. Just as she picked up her mug the scene coalesced into a sharp image showing two people on a bed, engaged in sex.
“What the hell?” She stood up too fast and spilled tea down the front of her shirt. “Shit!” She set the dripping mug on a magazine on the table, all the while keeping her eyes glued to the television.
Her heart nearly stopped when the man’s face was revealed. “Cord?”
Lying beneath the shapely form of a woman with red hair, Cord’s handsome face looked up at the woman with passion written clearly on it.
Morgan’s legs went weak and she sat down, watching in horrified fascination.
It was a dimly lit room and there wasn’t much visible except the bed and the people on it. Cord lay on his back. His lips were slightly parted, and his chest rose and fell rapidly. His hands supported the woman’s behind and Morgan could see the way his fingers dug into the woman’s flesh as he lifted her up and then pulled her down strongly. The muscles in his arms and chest bunched and released with the motions and his pelvis arched up each time he pulled her down.
The woman perched above him with her hands roaming her own body. Her head was arched back, the long auburn hair brushing against her back as the movements of the coupling rocked her up and down. Their breathing started to become audible.
That brought a pang of anguish that burned so strong, Morgan squinted her eyes closed. When she opened them again, she saw that the couple had changed positions. Now Cord was on top and stroking away. The woman met his thrusts with her own. On and on they went until suddenly the woman screamed Cord’s name, wrapped her legs around him and pulled him down on her.
The screen went blank and for the space of a few seconds there was only the image of that last moment burned into Morgan’s brain and the sound of her own heart, beating hard.
Then the screen lit, and a new image appeared. The woman was sitting on the bed, nude and alone. She smiled widely at the camera. “I hope you enjoyed our little home movie, Morgan. We sure enjoyed making it, as you can probably tell. I just wanted to let you know that by the time you see this, Cord and I will be together. Just like we planned. I guess you could say the better woman won.”
Morgan sat in shocked silence as the screen went blank. She
couldn’t believe what she’d just seen. How could he have been with someone else? Shit! It hit her like a brick to the head. That was the woman she’d had the run-in with. The bitch that poisoned Ghost.
The undeniable, heartbreaking truth rushed at her. The woman hadn’t lied. Cord was having an affair. The words the woman used to taunt her came back. “Cord and I are lovers, have been for years. He doesn’t love you.”
The message she’d left for Morgan at the end of the tape crowded in, all the words and images mixing and getting louder until it felt like a storm was raging in her mind. “Shut up!” She jumped up, trying to drown out the voices in her head. “Shut up, shut up, shut up.”
Nothing would stop her from remembering the words, or what she’d seen. She couldn’t escape it, couldn’t block it from her mind. She paced the room in erratic strides until at last she reached the point she had to escape, or it would consume her.
She knew no way to fight. She fell to her knees, panting for breath with her heart hammering. Her hands clenched into fists, nails digging bloody crescents into her palms as she howled. Once she started, she couldn’t stop. Not until her strength gave out and she fell, exhausted to the floor.
Morgan curled her body into a tight ball as she lay on the soft carpet. Tears streaked her face as sobs wracked her body. Finally, her mind reached its limits and shut down. She gratefully reached for the black void that rushed at her, hoping to disappear into it and never emerge.
She didn’t know how long she’d been out when a repeated noise penetrated her mind, waking her from the dark sanctuary. She sat up groggily and looked around, trying to place the source of the noise. When she finally was conscious enough to recognize the persistent ring of the phone, she scrambled to answer.
*****
Cord stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. Despite his initial intention to shower first, he’d ended up getting a call before he’d even undressed. A client had an issue. He’d been able to solve it using his tablet, but it’d taken a few hours. By that time, he was hungry enough to chew nails, but he quickly jumped in the shower to get clean.
He now stood in front of the bathroom mirror. He wiped away the fog and stared at his reflection, ashamed that inside him, loyalty was waging a battle with temptation. Seeing Cassie had wakened feelings he hadn’t experienced in a long time. His brief affair with her had been as intense as it was short-lived, but it was something he’d never be able to forget.
What did that say about him? He thought about Morgan and all the times over the course of their life that men had made passes at her and how she always politely but firmly turned them down.
Cord had never paid it much attention until after the affair with Cassie ended. Then he started to notice how men reacted to Morgan. He realized that she could be unfaithful any time she chose. Yet, she remained loyal to him.
He shook his head and lifted the towel to dry his hair. He loved Morgan more than anyone in the world and didn’t want to lose her. Why then, did thoughts of Cassie continue to dance through his mind? Cord combed his hair and walked into the bedroom, planning to dress and head down to the restaurant.
Yet he found himself lying back on the bed, staring at the ceiling as his conscience warred with his libido.
Cotton Creek, Texas
Morgan replayed the video over and over, freezing the individual frames and searching for some clue where it’d been taken. A hotel room maybe, but it was almost impossible to determine since the camera had been zoomed in on the center of the bed. She finally gave up on finding clues from the footage, and turned the television set off.
Aimlessly, she wandered into the kitchen and tidied up what little mess there was, just her tea mug and a glass in the sink. She looked down at her tea–stained shirt, just then realizing it was soiled.
Morgan stripped off the soiled shirt as she walked into the bedroom, tossed it on the floor and flopped down on the bed to stare at the ceiling. The images and sounds from the video rushed through her mind. Feeling pressure mount inside her head she rolled over and buried her face in a pillow.
"Get out of my head!” She shouted as the images rolled unceasingly by.
All at once, she threw the pillow to the side and sat. Could that woman be working with the government? She was obviously in the woods for a reason and it was clear with Mark Samuels being there that they were being spied on.
If the woman was working for the government, then perhaps the video was a fake. A voice inside Morgan’s head told her that the idea was nothing more than empty hope, but she refused to listen. There was no limit to what could be done with video. Perhaps the recording was a fake.
Holding onto that hope, she started trying to figure out a way to find out who the woman really was and what she was up to. Minutes rolled by before an idea popped into her head. Of course. Agent Samuels! Now she knew where to begin her search for answers
Chapter Four
Odessa, Texas
Cord couldn’t get Cassie out of his mind as he made his way into the hotel bar. He could get a sandwich and a beer there. He’d purposely avoided the restaurant and lounge because of her. He’d reasoned that if he didn’t see her, he wouldn’t think of her. So far that hadn’t worked.
The past few days had been more of a strain than he wanted to admit. To make sure that his theory was sound about the satellite footprints, he checked and rechecked the system programs line by line, testing each one to make sure there was no hidden glitch. Now he was convinced. Someone had figured out a way to maneuver around the satellites. Only one person other than himself could have accomplished that. Juan. The thought made him sick.
Not only did he have Juan to worry about, but Morgan as well. They still hadn’t spoken, nor had she set up Juan’s computer for him. It wasn’t like Morgan to forget something like that. He called her office several times but each time it went straight to voice mail. Every time he called the house, he got a busy signal.
Murphy's Law, he mused. Whatever can go wrong, will.
He sat down at a table, ordered a beer and glanced around the almost empty restaurant. Cord took a sip from the ice–cold beer as soon as the waiter placed it before him then placed his dinner order. "A club sandwich and fries, please."
The waiter left him alone. He took a long drink from his frosty mug and leaned back in his chair. When someone tapped him on the shoulder, he jumped in surprise
"Cord? Oh my god, is that really you?"
The soft sultry voice brought a flush of heat to his skin as recognition registered. He turned and rose. "Cassie?”.
Cassie wrapped herself around him and greeted him like a long-lost lover. She delivered a long lingering kiss to his at first unresponsive lips, holding fast to him until at length he returned the kiss. The growing thickness between their closely pressed bodies prompted him to push back and hold her firmly by the arms. What the hell was wrong with him? That shouldn’t have happened.
"Well, let me get a look at–what the hell happened to you?” He fell short of his intended flattery when he got a look at her face.
"Oh, I was kind of in an accident. But it looks much worse than it actually is."
"Are you sure you're okay?” She looked like she'd been in a barfight.
"I'm a little sore. But−" she added very suggestively with a flirtatious smile. “It won’t stop me.”
"Please, sit.” As it occurred to him that she might not be alone, he looked around. "Are you with someone?"
She didn’t answer but did sit in the chair next to his. Cord took a seat and motioned to the waiter. "May I buy you a drink? Vodka on the rocks, wasn't it?"
She smiled and touched his arm lightly. "Oh, how sweet, you remembered."
Her green liquid eyes and soft voice had the desired effect. His grin widened as his ego slurped up the unexpected boost. He settled back in his chair and looked at Cassie as she sat quiet and a little withdrawn beside him.
A long silence started to make him feel very ill a
t ease. Then unease changed to concern as tears welled up in her eyes. She quickly looked down at her folded hands on the table. Cord wasn’t sure what to do. Just as he opened his mouth to ask what was wrong, she burst into a fit of weeping.
Cassie dug through her purse to extract a tissue, pressed it to her swollen cheeks and dabbed at her tear–filled eyes. The combination of wetness and wiping smeared her artful makeup, uncovering parts of the bruises on her face.
"Oh, Cord!" She wailed and hid her face behind the tissue. "It's been so awful!"
Cord thanked the waiter as he returned with Cassie's drink, and felt a mild embarrassment at the look the waiter dealt him. The man obviously thought Cord was the reason for the tears.
As soon as the waiter turned away, Cassie reached over and put her hand on Cord's arm. "I hate that son of a bitch!” The weeping had abruptly turned to a tone of outrage.
Cord sat stunned, not knowing what to say or do. She reached for her drink and drained it. “Another?” he asked.
She nodded and as Cord signaled to the waiter for another drink, she searched his face for a clue, trying to decide which angle to play. Since there was concern in his expression, she decided to stay with the pity act.
Cassie took a small compact from her purse and looked at her reflection in the mirror. "I just can't believe he would do this to me.” She sobbed and touched her battered face gingerly as she looked up from the mirror to Cord’s eyes.
She could see the pity on his face. She prolonged the moment, adding in a small broken tone. "I've been so good to Victor, how could he do this?” Then she covered her face, urging forth another barrage of tears.
Cord patted her hand gently and murmured softly. "It'll be okay, Cassie. Just let it out. I'm so sorry."
She dabbed at her eyes then looked at Cord as she picked up her fresh drink and tossed it back. He continued to hold her hand and motioned to the waiter for yet another round. Broken with intermittent sobs, she told her sad tale.