He knew about Lacey? A shimmer of something bordering on evil crawled through her spine. She swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat. “I know good business, Mr. Mason. Don’t worry your pretty little head about me.”
The slight angered him, she could tell. Or maybe the tick in his left eye came from the fact that she didn’t turn tail and run the minute he’d threatened her. And a threat is exactly what he’d given her. A threat against her and a threat against Lacey. Her pulse ticked the long seconds away like drops of water filling an empty barrel. It seemed an eternity before Mason shoved his hat on his head and rose to his feet.
A sinister grin replaced the twitch in his eye. He strode away without another word.
Her eyes narrowed at the sudden retreat, until Kendra climbed the bleachers and reclaimed her seat.
“What did he want?” Kendra leveled a steady glare at Mason’s back.
“Do you think he’s dangerous, Kendra? I mean, yeah, he’s not very nice to cows, and his irresponsibility cost Kennedy Bastian his life, but do you think he is dangerous enough that he would have hurt Kennedy or anyone else directly? On purpose?”
Kendra spun her head in Michelle’s direction, fire heating the green of her eyes until they shone like emeralds. “Did he threaten you?” With fists clenched and a pulse visible in her temple, Kendra regained her feet.
“Kendra, wait!” Michelle gripped Kendra’s arm and pulled her gently back to the bench. The steel cords of muscle beneath her fingers told her only Kendra’s decision to wait stopped her from chasing Mason. If she’d wanted to go after him, Michelle’s grip wouldn’t be able to stop her.
“If he threatened you, I’ll kill him.”
The brooding cowboi was back. The woman who lived in another time, who hated microwaves and cell phones. The woman who would just as soon hang a rustler from the nearest tall tree as call the cops. Michelle shivered at the sincerity in Kendra’s eyes. “Yes. He threatened me, but,” she hurried to add, “I’m fine. It’s just that he knew things, Kendra. He knew my name, first of all, and he knew I came here because Lacey asked me to. He knew Lacey is a server in Vegas. I’m worried more for her than myself right now. And you and I both know that you’re not going to shoot him at twenty paces, so relax.”
Kendra’s eyes narrowed into cagey slits and suddenly, Michelle wasn’t so sure. Michelle pulled her cell phone from her bag and handed it to Kendra. “Call Lacey. Tell her to come home.”
A rough laugh rose above the din of the auction. Kendra turned her head toward the sound and grimaced when her gaze fell on Harold Mason again. Michelle found Lacey’s number in her contacts and touched the screen to begin the call. Then she placed the phone in Kendra’s palm. She looked at it with a scowl and reluctantly placed it to her ear.
“If he comes near you again, I swear to God I’ll take him out,” she whispered to Michelle.
Michelle knew she meant it.
Every single word.
Kendra had only managed to buy four new mounts. She’d lost the last two she’d bid on not because of a lack of funds, but because she wasn’t about to pay more than they were worth and the bid winners got robbed. She loaded the last of them into the back of her new horse trailer and locked the tailgate. Michelle stood to the side of the truck, which now sported a set of four new tires, and spoke quietly on her cell phone. None of the tires were dangerously worn, but one blowout was enough.
While they’d made the trip to buy horses, Kendra did have something even more important to show for it. She had new information about the man she was dealing with in Harold Mason. The cowboy who had all-but attacked Mason had been full of details about how the man operated.
The cowboy’s name was Kevin Cooper and he’d owned a ranch in Panguitch, Utah. His father had left it to him when he’d retired, and his grandfather and great-grandfather had both worked that same land. The eldest of the Coopers had cleared the land that family homestead sat on with his own hands. The story was familiar. It was her own.
Three years ago, Harold Mason had become the owner of that ranch in a court battle that had gone on for two years. According to Cooper, Mason had hired hot-shot, five-hundred-dollar-per-hour attorneys and bribed judges who all relied on Mason’s word over his. He’d hired his own attorney, but it had done little good, in the end. Mason had produced documents, some shady and some outright forged, that made it appear as though Cooper had agreed to sell the land and the house to Mason, and then changed his mind after the deal was done.
The oddest thing about it, and what had Cooper so vehemently angry over the whole thing, even two years later and several hundred thousand dollar richer, is that Mason hadn’t done anything with the land. He hadn’t broken it up into residential lots. He hadn’t sold it for a profit. He had sold off the livestock for pennies on the dollar and both the land, and the family home, sat abandoned and disintegrating for lack of use and love.
Everything deserved to be loved. Even land and old houses. And citified public relations experts and ranchers.
Kendra’s gut clenched when Michelle tossed her hair over her shoulder and tucked several loose strands behind her ear. Head tilted, she noticed Kendra watching her and smiled. Something made her blush and she ducked her head before turning away and finishing her conversation.
If anything happened to her, Kendra would never forgive herself. How had she become such an important part of her entire being in just a few days? Kendra’s eyes narrowed as she studied Michelle’s back. She must be losing her mind, that’s all. She shoved away the inclination to name the feelings moving over her with the force of a hundred wild Mustangs.
In a month, maybe less, she’d be finished here and heading back to Las Vegas. Back to her glitzy world of rhinestones and lights. And Kendra would be here, fighting to save her family’s life’s work. Alone.
Like she’d been doing her entire life.
She’d never minded it before. She’d made her decision and stuck by it with pride and conviction. That’s who she was. Her rewards were simple. Casey and Brent had grown into good men. Brad would, too. Sooner than she’d like, if she were going to be completely honest. Lacey was as head strong as she was, insisting that she fend for herself and refusing to accept Kendra’s offers to pay her tuition. She’d only hoped her parents would be happy with what she’d done.
Then this woman came barreling into her life like a summer storm. She took her breath away each time Kendra looked at her, made her body as hot as a brush fire. Even now, she wanted Michelle. More than anything she’d ever wanted anyone in her very lonely life. What would she feel like wrapped around her? Her smooth skin naked against hers? Kendra’s body responded to the thoughts with an insistent throbbing. She closed her eyes against the sweet pain of it.
Yeah. She wanted her, alright.
But what would happen when she left? She’d be alone again. For the first time in her life, that thought bothered her.
“Ready to go?”
Kendra snapped her attention back to the moment. “Yeah.”
Once Kendra merged into the heavy, evening traffic, she asked, “Who were you talking to back there?”
“My office. Just checking in.”
Kendra nodded. “Did you get enough pictures?”
“Yeah. Tons. Thanks for bringing me along. And for the mall, too. I found a great dress. I know you were bored out of your mind. You didn’t have to stay.”
Yes, she did.
The thought of leaving Michelle alone for even one second wounded her. Especially after the encounter with Mason this afternoon, and those assholes in the morning.
Lacey, too. Of course, Kendra’s younger sister had fought her, at first. Kendra had expected no less. But ultimately, she’d promised to pack up and wait for Casey to come get her. Casey had reluctantly agreed to move back to the ranch for the time being.
It had been a long time since the Heartland Ranch had seen the whole family under one roof. She only wished it was for
a happier reason.
A sense of longing mixed with reluctance. Foreboding settled over her like a heavy fog.
Mason had officially declared war as far as Kendra was concerned. She glanced at Michelle as she settled in for the long drive home. She could design her site, make her phone calls and send her letters to all the bureaucrats she wanted. Who knows, it might even help...
Kendra, in the meantime, would circle the wagons and wait only so long. Then she’d be forced to act. She didn’t doubt for one second that Mason was capable of a hell of a lot more than stealing or slaughtering her livestock.
No way in hell would Kendra allow that man to harm her family.
Or the woman who had so easily invaded her heart.
Running into Kendra Williams and her new comrade at the auction had been more than a surprise. Apparently, the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, regardless of how well those plans are laid out and paid for handsomely.
Kendra Williams was bruised and battered, but very much alive.
When the auction concluded, he climbed into his truck and retrieved a cheap, pre-paid cell phone from a compartment under the passenger seat. He dialed the first number saved in the recent calls list and waited for the obnoxious ring-back tone to stop.
“Hello?” Charlie Lassiter answered almost immediately.
“You want to tell me why I just had a conversation with the Loving woman at the county auction?”
“Um...”
“And do you want to tell me why she was sitting next to Kendra Williams?”
“Well, see, what happened was-“
“I don’t want your goddamn excuses. I want the job done right the first time. You and your boys be at my office at nine tonight, and you better bring my money.”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Mason. We’ll be there. If there’s anything we can do to make it up-“
“You can do your job.”
Mason disconnected the call and shoved the burn phone into his pocket. He really shouldn’t have expected anything less. That’s what came from hiring lowlifes to conduct real business. Unfortunately, his resources were limited and he’d made a fatal mistake. He’d underestimated Kendra Williams’ luck.
And her determination. It didn’t surprise him that she wasn’t selling out for cash. She had money, even if he wasn’t supposed to know how much. He doubted it would make much difference. He hadn’t realized how much the ranch meant to her. Of course, that was just icing on the cake, when it came right down to it. Taking something from her that meant nothing wouldn’t have quite the sweet taste of victory that he was looking for, now would it?
Putting out an order to have her killed had been a move of desperation on his part. A mistake he wouldn’t repeat. That order wouldn’t go out again until she knew he would have the ranch when it was all said and done. That would be sweet icing, indeed.
Chapter Eight
Flowers covered every available surface of the Bastian’s living room. Michelle carried a gorgeous, etched-glass vase filled with fresh lilies and struggled to find a place to display them. Kennedy Bastian’s family and friends milled about in small groups, talking among themselves in hushed voices. Every so often, someone laughed with a painful tinge, but more often, someone cried. The new widow sat on a crushed velvet sectional beneath the front windows, her fourteen-month-old son curled in her lap, sleeping. Michelle had offered to take the boy upstairs, but understandably, the young mother hadn’t wanted to let him go.
The afternoon wore on until Kendra, her brothers, except for Casey who had gone to Las Vegas to bring Lacey home, and Michelle were the only guests left in the small house. She felt, more than before, that she intruded on their grief. After all, she’d never even met Kennedy.
“You okay?” Brent leaned against the wall next to her, where she stood by the door to the kitchen.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine. You look tired.”
She offered him a smile, hoping it hid her agreement. She was tired. Unable to sleep last night, she’d stayed awake until four in the morning and nearly finished the website. She stifled a yawn. “I’m fine. Really,” she stated, covering her mouth and yawning the words.
“I’ll get Kennie. I think it’s about time to head home.”
Kendra.
Just the mention of her name made Michelle’s stomach dance with nervous knots. A flush heated her cheeks and she looked at her feet. She hoped Brent hadn’t noticed.
“I don’t care what it takes, Kendra. I want that bastard put away!” Kyle Bastian’s voice cracked through the dull air, lighting it with determined and obvious pain.
Michelle pushed herself off the wall and followed Brent into the kitchen. Kendra held Kyle against the pantry door with one strong arm across her friend’s chest. In her free hand, she held a shotgun by the barrel, pointed at the ceiling. She had obviously just disarmed him, somehow, and was holding the gun out of his reach.
“I know how you feel, Kyle. God damn it, I do. And we’ll get him. But I’m not letting you go off half-cocked. We need proof. And we’ll get it. You do this and you’re the one who’s going to spend the rest of his life locked up. Is that what you want? Is that what Ken would have wanted?”
Kendra’s voice sounded hollow, as if she didn’t believe a word of what she’d just said. She tried to do the right thing when Michelle knew how badly she wanted to go for Mason herself. A hundred years ago, Kendra and Kyle would be riding for Mason right this minute. Guns blazing. Honor held high like a standard.
But this wasn’t the Old West. The new west insisted on civility and due process. Well, maybe not civility, but there were laws that had to be followed. Even her fierce cowgirl had admitted that much.
“Let him go, Kennie,” Margaret Bastian whispered. The sight of the tears streaming down the old woman’s face made Michelle’s eyes sting with tears of her own.
Kendra complied and Kyle seemed to lose all of his strength. He fell into Kendra’s arms, weak and barely able to stand. Kendra held him, stroking the back of his head while she passed the shotgun to her brother. Where some might have felt uncomfortable, Kendra seemed to offer her own strength to her friend. She bore their weights as if she’d been born to the task.
Kyle released a sob and buried his face in Kendra’s chest. “He was my boy.”
Kendra glanced over to Michelle as if she’d just realized she stood there. Unshed tears made her eyes sparkle. When they finally escaped, they trailed down her cheeks like rivers of silver sorrow.
“We’ll get him, Kyle. You have my word.”
Kendra felt like she’d just been dragged behind her truck. She could handle hours in the saddle, brand a hundred head and work until her fingers bled raw from rope burns, but today had wiped her out. She opened the front door and ushered Michelle ahead of her over the threshold. Brad and Lenise settled in the den to watch a movie. They’d wanted to stay in town and go to the theater, but Kendra wasn’t comfortable with that; not right now. Brent had decided to stay in town, a decision she didn’t much care for, but had no control over. This left the house almost hollow. Too quiet for her taste.
She closed the door. The click of the latch sounded louder than it should have.
Michelle turned around and stepped up to her, wrapping her arms around Kendra’s waist. She leaned her head on Kendra’s chest for a second before raising her chin and looking directly into her eyes. “You’re tired, Ms. Williams.”
Kendra’s throat felt dryer than a desert in a drought. She could only nod.
“Are you hungry?”
“No.” She cleared her throat. “No, thanks. I had plenty of funeral potatoes and ham at the luncheon.”
Kendra still wasn’t used to the easy way Michelle moved against her; like she belonged there. And she knew it. Her hands settled on her back and Kendra held her. She’d wanted to do this all day, but a funeral didn’t seem like the right place to announce to the
community that Kendra Williams finally had someone special, and that someone was a girl. A woman.
So, she’d kept her distance. But she’d ached to hold Michelle all day. Michelle belonged in her arms. Even Kendra knew that much.
“Do you want to lie down?”
Michelle’s question shocked her a little and her entire body responded. An image of the two of them – writhing naked on her bed – flashed in her mind. Somehow, she didn’t think that’s what Michelle had meant. The thought brought a half-smile to her lips.
Michelle eyed her with more than a little suspicion and a small grin of her own. “What’s so funny?”
Kendra shook her head. “Nothing. No, I don’t want to lie down.”
Sure, I do...
“We could put together a couple of the web pages. The template is finished. We just need to write the text and we’re done.”
Kendra frowned. When she finished the site, would Michelle go back to Vegas? She should get her out of here as quickly as possible, but the thought made a rock form in her gut. “How long will that take?”
“A couple of weeks, I guess.”
“Is that all?”
Michelle moved into the dining room and sat in front of her laptop computer. She moved the mouse-thing and the screen jumped to full-color life. “A few days ago, you couldn’t wait to get rid of me.”
Kendra joined her in the dining room where she took a seat at the table, as well. With her elbows resting on the surface, Kendra ran a hand through her hair. She was suddenly aware of them... her hands. She didn’t know what to do with them. She only knew that the sound of Michelle’s voice, with that teasing note, sent warm rivers of heat and passion all the way up her legs. “I’ve reconsidered.”
“Have you, now?” Michelle flirted with her. Kendra found that she liked the way her voice moved over her like a caress; as physical a manifestation as if she’d touched her.
Kendra stood, circling Michelle’s chair. She placed her hands on Michelle’s shoulders – it was a good place for them – and kneaded the soft muscles. “Yes. I have. I guess you’re growing on me.”
Loving the Heartland Page 12