Loving the Heartland

by Marjorie Jones

  Michelle knelt in front of her and stroked Lacey’s back with the flat of one hand. “Lacey, I want you to listen to me. You aren’t beautiful because of how you look. You’re beautiful because of who you are. And that hasn’t changed. A few years ago, you were a dirty little girl curled up on the stoop of my apartment building. Lost. Full of piss, vinegar and pride. Practically homeless because you refused to come back here and face that fact that you’d made a mistake. Now, look at you! You’re almost finished with college, for crying out loud. And you’ve done it all on your own. You have a family who loves you, and friends who adore you. And we don’t love and adore you because of your face. It’s because you have all of the strengths we wish we had. That’s why we love you.”

  Kendra’s mouth went dry as a boll of cotton caught in a dust storm. She could barely breathe. Michelle had just explained exactly why Kendra loved her. Because she possessed all of the strength and determination she wished she’d had all of these years. That’s why she worried so much less since she’d arrived. That’s why, when she entered a room, power surged through her with the force of a tidal wave. She’d always thought that power came from Michelle, but she’d been wrong. It was her own power; strength she’d had all of these years but never recognized. It had taken a woman’s love for her to find the goodness within herself. Her own worth.

  When Lacey stopped crying, she crawled back into the bed. Within a few moments, she slept peacefully.

  Kendra looked at Michelle, so close that Kendra could feel the swell of her breast against her arm. Her heart crashed. She might be worth a lot of things, but she’d never deserve Michelle.

  

  “We found him.” Brent’s digitized image beamed from the computer screen.

  Kendra leaned against the wall. A rush of air left her lungs. “And?”

  “We haven’t talked to him yet. Casey tracked him down to a little motel and we followed him most of the day. He spent a few hours at some digital studio place just off the strip.”

  “Laserix?”

  “Yeah, that’s the place. How’d you know that?”

  “Would you believe me if I told you that Harold Mason owns it?”

  “And why wouldn’t he? Damn, that boy has a greasy little finger in everything, right? We’re going to pay our boy a visit tonight and I have a feeling he’ll be more than willing to ride back to Utah with us.”

  Kendra told Brent about the car accident and Lacey’s condition. “We just brought her home this afternoon.”

  Kendra left out any mention of her arrest for attacking Mason.

  “We’re going to pick up shit-for-brains and should be home sometime around midnight or one.”

  “Be careful. I have no idea where Mason’s people are. For all I know, he’s been watching us all along and you are being tailed.”

  “Christ, Sis. It’s like some bad spy movie.” He rubbed his two-day beard and scratched his chin.

  “I know. But it’s very real.” Kendra related the mysterious phone call from the Lieutenant Governor. “Take it seriously,” she concluded.

  “We are. And Case is fairly certain we were followed when we left the ranch. You should have seen that crazy-bitch brother of ours cruise through the Virgin Gorge at about a hundred miles per hour. Christ!”

  “Yeah, I don’t want to hear about that. Really. Feel free not to share everything.”

  “I’m just saying that if they were following us, we definitely lost them in the gorge and they haven’t been able to tail us here. We parked Lacey’s car in long-term at McCarrin and rented a new one.

  “Good thinking. Leave her car there and drive the rental back.”

  “That’s the plan. Lacey is going to be pissed.” Brent released a short Chuckle.

  Kendra doubted that. For the past few hours, she couldn’t be certain that Lacey felt anything at all. When she woke from her nap, she seemed to have crawled completely inside of herself. It made her want to strangle Mason with her bare hands all over again. As if she had no control, her hands formed into fists in her lap.

  “Hey, Sis; the commando kid is ready to rock and roll. I’ll call you when we’ve picked up our guy and with any luck, we’ll be home in about twenty-four hours.”

  “Brent?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Be careful. Casey is used to this stuff. Do exactly as he says.”

  “I’m not stupid, Kennie. I’m leaving all the superhero crap to little brother.”

  Kendra waited until Brent had stood up and turned off his computer before she closed the screen on Michelle’s laptop and set it on the counter. She turned to make her way into the living room where Michelle was sitting with Lacey, watching television. It startled her when she found Michelle leaning instead against the doorjamb, watching her.

  She stared at Kendra like she’d grown horns and opened her mouth to speak. Nothing came out for more than a few seconds.

  Damn.

  “What was that all about?”

  Kendra hated the slight tremor in her voice. Michelle was anything but stupid. Kendra could lie. She could keep up with her story about Brent and Casey meeting with a new transportation company. The look on Michelle’s face told her she wouldn’t buy it. Not in a million years. “That was Brent.”

  “I know that was Brent. Where is he?”

  “They’re in Vegas, like I said.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Kendra shoved her hands into her pockets. “They found the man who has been hired to do most of Mason’s dirty work.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like he started the stampede that killed Ken. Like he tore up our equipment. And killed Apache.”

  “What are they doing in Vegas, besides looking for this guy?”

  Kendra stepped toward Michelle. She pulled her hands free and reached for Michelle’s hands. She’d folded her arms over her breasts like a suit of armor.

  “No,” she hissed, backing away a step. “You tell me what they’re doing.”

  “How much do you know about what Casey did in the Navy?”

  “He was in operations.”

  “Yeah. Black operations, maybe? Don’t freak out, but Casey and Brent are going to talk this guy into coming back here and spilling his guts.”

  “They’re going to talk him into it.” Michelle’s voice was flat, almost sarcastic, as though she didn’t believe a single word she’d just said.

  “Convince him it’s in his best interest.”

  “Which probably won’t involve talking.” An accusation.

  “Probably not.”

  Michelle blanched. “I can’t believe this is happening. This is crazy. Things like this do not happen in real life, for God’s sake. Your brothers are going to kidnap someone? What are they going to do, throw him in the trunk of their car, bring him home and hide him in the goddamn barn?”

  “If we have to, yes.”

  Michelle had always been so strong. Confident that her world was the only one that existed. Kendra had hoped for too long that Michelle was right about the kind of world they lived in, but that attitude had cost her family too much already.

  “Listen to me, Michelle,” Kendra whispered. Michelle’s head raised and she looked her dead in the eye. The moist droplets in the corners of her eyes tore at Kendra’s gut, but she continued. “I trusted you. You have worked your ass off for me and my family. You did everything you could to handle this in a professional and effective way. But we’re not dealing with a normal situation, here. This isn’t some hostile takeover of a failing corporation. This is a man with one purpose in life; to make me and my family suffer as much as possible in some kind of revenge plot straight out of a Hollywood movie. He’s crazy, Michelle. He won’t stop until he hurts me as much as he thinks I hurt him. He will stop at nothing and he doesn’t care who gets in his way. You should know that by now.”

  This time, when Kendra reached for Michelle, Michelle allowed Kendra to take her into her arms. She kissed the top of Michelle’s head and
inhaled the rich honeysuckle scent of her hair. “I’m asking you to trust me now. Can you do that? Please?”

  Michelle stood ramrod straight for more than a moment. Kendra didn’t breathe. She couldn’t.

  She couldn’t be certain her heart beat.

  Until Michelle nodded against her chest and allowed herself to meld into Kendra like they were two sides of the same body.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Cooling water caressed Michelle’s breasts as she laid back against Kendra’s chest. “We should probably get out of the water before we turn into prunes.”

  Instead of an answer, she received a nibble on her earlobe, followed by the warm whisper of breath. Small bumps formed on her arms and her nipples hardened into peaks. She could easily spend the rest of the night in the oversized, claw-foot tub.

  Kendra finally replied, “I don’t want to get out yet. Unless, of course, we can go back to bed.”

  “Again? Already? My, my, aren’t you just the Casanova?”

  “Hey, I’m always ready.”

  Michelle’s stomach clenched. She spun in Kendra’s arms until her body pressed against hers. Then she captured Kendra’s bottom lip between her teeth before sliding her tongue over it to lessen the sting. Kendra groaned in response and deepened the kiss immediately.

  A moment later she pulled away and in one fluid movement, lifted Michelle’s dripping body. Her eyes clouded with green mist, as if she saw something that no one else could see. She looked into Michelle’s eyes for a moment, then turned her gaze over her face, her lips, and then back to her eyes. “Get out of the tub.”

  Michelle didn’t resist. Instead, she climbed from the tub and waited for Kendra to follow. She did; in all of her naked splendor. No matter how many times Michelle saw Kendra’s body, she found herself amazed at the perfection. Tight muscles. Narrow waist and curved, flared hips. Long legs.

  When clothed, Kendra was rough and tough. She swaggered instead of walked. She had a natural posture that was proud and lean, whether hunched against the wind as she sat strong in her saddle, or bracing the incredible weight of a piece of farm machinery, stacks of lumber, or bales of hay. There was no questioning her masculine side, the traits that made her so good at what she did on the Heartland.

  But there was the other side of her; the feminine, beautiful, ghostly side of herself that she never let anyone see. When she stripped off the mostly-male clothing she preferred, she was all woman; with curves and needs and shallows and depths that Michelle felt honored to witness.

  Kendra stepped from the tub and wrapped Michelle in a large, cotton towel. She didn’t need it. Kendra’s arms alone could warm her on the coolest night. If she were lost in a blizzard, she would need only Kendra to survive.

  She walked Michelle into the bedroom. In tandem step, they moved together. Her front pressed against Michelle’s back, the tips of her breasts in sharp relief on the tender flesh. Kendra’s head bent against her neck where she placed tiny bites in that soft spot, right behind Michelle’s ear. Her body shivered with promises of more.

  Michelle tilted her head, granting Kendra greater access. She could go on like this for hours. A smile spread her lips and her eyes began to drift closed.

  Her muscles froze in her arms and she dug her nails into Kendra’s arms. Kendra gasped. “Hey, now. You’re getting a little rough, aren’t you?” Kendra examined Michelle’s fingernails and tsked, aloud. “You might want to trim those...”

  “Kendra?”

  “Yeah?” she mumbled a reply as she buried her lips into Michelle’s neck again.

  Michelle unwound herself from Kendra’s embrace and took a single step toward the window. “No, Kendra. Seriously, look. What is that?” She pointed out the window.

  Kendra followed her and moved the shade out of the way. The whole room seemed to tremble as orange light glowed brightly from the other side of the hill.

  “That... is a fire.”

  

  “Where are the damn keys!” Kendra tore through the house, her heart racing somewhere near the back of her throat.

  Kendra dashed through the living room and into the foyer. Lacey stood on the bottom step with one hand gripped around the railing. Even so, she swayed on her feet and her skin glowed with a sheen of sweat.

  Kendra growled. “Go back to bed, Lacey.”

  “I heard you. You said Brad’s house is on fire?” Her voice cracked either from pain or concern.

  Kendra fumed at the fact her confident, do-or-die sister had been reduced to a shell of her former self. Damn Harold Mason. Damn him for everything he’d done to Kendra’s family.

  Kendra took a step toward her sister and raised one hand to stroke her uninjured cheek. Lacey pulled away from her and hid the healing stitches on her right cheek with her hair.

  Kendra wanted to break something. Anything. Her eyes narrowed. She wanted to break Harold Mason. Clean in half.

  But right now, she didn’t have time to spend with Lacey, no matter how much she needed someone to help her feel better. “I want you to go back to bed.”

  Lacey nodded and turned on the step. She hated seeing her so defeated. A part of her wanted Lacey to fight back, to argue with her about just how weak she really was. The other part was thankful that she acquiesced; Kendra didn’t want to have to worry about her right now, too.

  She had to get to Brad and Lenise.

  “I called the fire department. They’re sending help. There’s no answer at Brad’s. Neither one of them is picking up their cell phone.”

  Kendra swallowed. “Find the keys and follow me. I’m taking Preakness.”

  Kendra saddled her horse in a matter of seconds. She didn’t bother to secure the latigo, but held the saddle on Preakness’ back by pulling the strap with one hand and holding the reins in the other.

  The night air chilled her as it cut into her cheeks. Preakness lurched as if he knew something wasn’t quite right, that the spontaneous run over uneven ground held an element of danger.

  By the time Kendra reached the house, flames shot through the roof. Bright orange fingers clawed from the windows to the roof. The freshly painted clap boards glowed orange and red before they swelled and bubbled in the intense heat. Kendra leaped from the saddle, letting it fall to the ground as she raced toward the front door with one arm raised to protect her face from the scorching heat.

  Damn. It was too hot. She couldn’t get any closer to the inferno. She looked up to the flames that danced high into the dark sky. Smoke billowed from the roof and windows, illuminated for a moment by the flames, and then disappeared into the black void.

  Kendra had never felt so powerless. Where were Brad and Lenise? Dear God, were they still inside?”

  She pushed forward. Her heart thumped against her ribs. The steady beat of flames seemed to match her pulse. The closer she came to the house, the odder the sounds that met her. Crackling fire, the high pitched whine of a house in its final throes of agony. There would be no saving it. She only hoped that her brother and his young wife had managed to get out.

  A sudden movement to her left drew her attention. Kendra spun to the figure, hurried over the several feet separating her from it, and fell to her knees. Brad lay in a heap, his face blackened, but not burned. His hands fisted over his chest.

  “Brad? Brad, can you hear me?”

  Brad sobbed. “No!”

  “Brad, listen to me. Where’s Lenise?” Somehow, Kendra knew the answer before she’d even asked the question.

  “No! They killed her! They killed her!”

  “What?”

  “I couldn’t reach her, Kennie.” Brad curled into a ball and pounded the dry earth with the side of his fist. “I just couldn’t get to her,” he wailed.

  “Brad, is she still inside?”

  “I tried, Kendra. I tried...”

  Kendra jumped to her feet and ran toward the front door. It stood open, sagging on one hinge. Fire lapped at the doorway in a seductive dance, warning her away. Kendra ign
ored the threat and pushed through the smoke. Once inside, her lungs filled with toxic, heavy air. Worse than the smoke, the heat seared through her. She coughed and held one forearm over her face.

  The world inside the inferno was surreal. She couldn’t see anything through the smoke, but she could hear the fire sizzling around her. Mere seconds after racing into the midst of hell, she backed out through the door.

  Too late. She was too late. “Lenise!” she screamed from the front yard. Maybe she huddled by a window... maybe she could jump. She called for her again.

  She ran both hands through her hair and formed fists at the back of her head. She could barely hear her own voice. If Lenise were alive, she certainly couldn’t hear her.

  A car slid to a stop at the edge of the yard. She turned and found Michelle staring at the flames; at the old homestead completely engulfed. Her mouth hung open and her brow furrowed in deep lines. “Where are they?” she asked, her voice catching on the words.

  Where are they...

  “Brad’s over there,” she answered, her own voice scratchy and damaged by the smoke.

  Kendra led Michelle to where Brad lay in a tiny ball. When she reached the spot where she’d left her brother, he was gone. Every muscle in her body tensed. “Brad! No!”

  Brad climbed the front steps as if he were in a trance. He moved through the front door, one slow step at a time. The heat didn’t seem to affect him. The smoke billowed around him like some ancient cloak. Kendra threw herself toward the house and reached Brad just as the ceiling cracked and gave way. Pieces of burning plaster fell to the floor. One of them caught Brad on the shoulder and knocked him to his knees.

  Kendra grabbed him from behind and dragged him toward the front door. After a couple of steps, Brad came out of whatever spell has consumed him. He fought like some kind of psychopath, kicking and twisting. “Let me go, Kendra. Just let me burn up with her. No! Let me go!”

  Kendra never let go for a second. She tightened her arms around Brad’s chest and pulled him to safety. Cool air met her back and she fell to her backside on the hard earth. Brad slumped against her like he’d used to when he was a little boy. Kendra’s arms trembled with the force of Brad’s sobs.