Surrender: A Bitter Creek Novel

by Joan Johnston

  When he finally tracked her down at the hardware store in town, Leah had been so suspicious of his motives—rightfully, as it turned out—that it took all his persuasion—and a small lie—to get her to go out with him.

  “I was wondering if you’d help me out with a problem I’m having.”

  Her eyes had narrowed suspiciously. “What sort of problem?”

  There was no problem. So he made one up. “Uh. It’s about this girl I was dating. She broke up with me, and I can’t figure out why.”

  Her lip curled cynically. “She must be blind. Or stupid.”

  He’d been shocked by her response, which suggested she liked his looks and maybe even him as a person. He shot her a coaxing smile and said, “Obviously, she’s not as perceptive as you.”

  Leah snorted derisively. It was the sound a cowhand might make to another cowhand. There was nothing feminine about it. It dismissed the possibility that she thought he was anyone worth knowing.

  He appreciated the fact that she hadn’t gone all girly on him and said, “I hoped you’d be willing to hear me out, about the relationship, I mean, and let me know what you think I should have done differently.”

  Her gaze lowered to her feet and remained there for a few moments. He was almost rocked backward when her eyes finally locked with his. Those fierce, sun-lit orbs, which reminded him of a lioness on the hunt, challenged him to tell the truth. He suddenly felt guilty for the hoax he was perpetrating on her. He almost ended the bet right there.

  Except, there was something else in her eyes. It was a feeling he had that she could see inside him to what he was thinking, what he was feeling. The experience was strange enough to keep him silent.

  “Why don’t you ask your brothers for advice?”

  “They’re no help with something like this. I need a female perspective.”

  “I haven’t dated much, but I have three sisters with a lot of experience. Maybe you should speak to one of them.”

  He was surprised to hear her admit she hadn’t dated, even though he knew it to be true. He was even more surprised that she’d offered to set him up with one of her sisters. “I have a suggestion. I don’t know if you’ll go for it, but here it is. Go out on a date with me. You can judge for yourself where you think I might have gone wrong.”

  “Why me?”

  “I can count on you to tell me the brutal truth.”

  Her lips pursed and then flattened. “All right. I’ll go on a ‘pretend’ date with you.”

  Leah had been a babe in the woods, falling for a line like he’d handed her. To this day, Aiden was ashamed of his underhanded tactics in getting her out on that first date. But he wasn’t sorry he’d done it. Otherwise, he would have deprived himself of everything good that had followed.

  Leah had greeted him with wary eyes at the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson, where they’d arranged to meet for their “pretend” date, and watched him with mistrust the rest of the night. The bar just outside Jackson, which had been around since the 1940s, catered to local workers, so they were less likely to run into someone they knew. The music was so loud, talking was difficult.

  By the end of the evening, Aiden was ready to forget the whole thing, but he knew Brian would never let him hear the end of it. He walked Leah through the parking lot to her pickup, then put a hand on her elbow to turn her to face him.

  “Well, what do you think? If this were a real date, would you go out with me again?”

  “No.”

  Even though Aiden had no intention of going on another date with Leah, her rejection stung. “Why not?”

  “You couldn’t have had a good time tonight. We only danced the two-step twice. You passed on every waltz, when you could have used the opportunity to hold me in your arms. You drank one beer. I don’t know if you just don’t like beer, or whether you were afraid I’d take advantage of you if you got drunk.”

  He laughed at the absurdity of her suggestion.

  She held up a hand to keep him from explaining or making excuses and continued, “You didn’t ask me anything about myself. Nor did you offer any information about yourself that would lead me to believe you’re interested in the two of us getting to know each other any better.”

  He found her scathing honesty refreshing enough to meet it with equal frankness. “Everything you’ve said is true enough. But I think there’s something about this”—he gestured between the two of them—“that’s worth exploring.” It dawned on him that he meant it. There was something about her that he found intriguing, but he knew little more about her now than he had before the evening had begun. “So. Do you want to give it another try?”

  She took a long time considering his suggestion. Instead of speaking, she rose on tiptoe and slid one arm around his neck, teasing her fingertips through the too-long hair on his nape, raising gooseflesh. Then she pressed her lips softly against his, her tongue dipping inside his mouth for a thrilling instant, spinning his insides as though he were on a Tilt-A-Whirl.

  When she was done, Leah looked into his eyes and whispered, “Yes. This is worth exploring.”

  He felt as though he’d been poleaxed. He was dizzy, and his heart was pounding like it wanted out of his chest. Nothing even remotely like it had ever happened to him. Aiden fought the confusing feelings, because they frightened him. For a moment, he considered changing his mind. Then he realized that, if he did, he would have to give Brian a reason for giving up.

  Flynns never quit. Which meant he had to see Leah again. He would just be more careful next time. He would make sure that he was the one in charge of any kissing they did. And he would find out everything about her. Once she was no longer a mystery to him, he would be able to walk away without a qualm.

  He should have known it wouldn’t be that simple. Nothing was ever easy between Grayhawks and Flynns. Considering the way their relationship had started out, it was doomed from the start. Aiden never should have expected—or hoped—for anything else.

  They met in secret for every date, because Leah was worried about what King—or Angus, for that matter—would do if he ever found out. Aiden couldn’t disagree with her, because their fathers’ hatred for each other was as virulent as ever. But the more fences she put in his way to keep them apart, the more determined he was to move over them, around them, or just knock them down.

  Aiden wasn’t sure when or how he’d fallen in love with her. It just happened. One day she was this fascinating creature who figuratively held a palm against his chest to keep him at arm’s distance. The next she was this amazing woman he couldn’t hold close enough to his heart.

  Leah had put off having sex, arguing they needed more time to know each other first. It had dawned on him that, despite everything, she still didn’t trust him. He debated admitting that he’d started dating her because of a bet with Brian. He would explain how his feelings had changed and grown into something genuine and true. But he was afraid she would use the bet as an excuse to walk away and never see him again.

  That would break him apart.

  Four months ago, when her sisters were all out of town, Aiden had surprised Leah with a trip to Vegas. He’d never seen her so carefree, so…happy. Until that weekend, he’d never seen her drink anything stronger than beer, and when he’d offered her champagne to celebrate, she’d liked it so much, she drank it like fruit punch. He’d done his share of celebrating as well.

  As the evening wore on, her smile seemed broader to him and her laughter more jubilant. Getting married at the Golden Bells Wedding Chapel in the middle of the night seemed like a wonderful idea. As the gloriously happy bride and groom, they finally consummated their relationship.

  Leah had been surprisingly remorseful the next morning.

  “If it’s because your sisters weren’t at the wedding—”

  “It’s not that.”

  “Or because I d
idn’t have a ring—”

  “Or that, either.”

  “Then what? Was the sex not what you expected?”

  She blushed a fiery red. “It was…You know what it was.”

  She’d been a virgin. He’d been half drunk and in a hurry. It hadn’t been good.

  Aiden had silently vowed to do better—to think more about her than himself—the next time. But Leah was already up and dressed and ready to leave by the time he woke up. He hadn’t tried to coax her back into bed, which he didn’t realize until much later was a terrible mistake. He simply got up and got dressed, all the while listening to the reasons why they shouldn’t have done what they’d done.

  “Where will we live, Aiden?”

  “At the Lucky 7, of course.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Getting married was a bad idea.”

  “Then what have we been doing for the past five months? Do you love me, Leah?”

  She refused to answer him. Refused to say what he’d already said to her more than once—without a like response. He thought he saw love in her eyes, but what she said was, “I can’t live with you, Aiden. I need to be home for my sisters.”

  His face grew hot with anger. “Your sisters are grown women. They can take care of themselves.”

  “I’m the only mother they have,” she argued. “Until they have homes of their own, I’m responsible for them. Besides, I could never live under the same roof as your father.”

  “I have a whole wing of the house to myself.”

  “But there’s one kitchen, right? And one dining room?”

  “Fine. We’ll build a house of our own.”

  “Where?”

  “My father has plenty of land where—”

  “So does mine. In fact, Kingdom Come will be mine one day.”

  “I need to live at the main house, so I can take care of ranch business.”

  “So do I.”

  Frustrated, he said, “I want to stop sneaking around, Leah. I want to wake up with you in the morning. Think about coming to live with me. Please.”

  “We should have left things the way they were. We never should have gotten married.”

  “Don’t say that. I love you. I want to spend my life with you.”

  She looked at him with the saddest eyes he’d ever seen. But she didn’t say the words he longed to hear. Or even promise to think about coming to live with him. It was a problem without an easy solution, but one he was determined to solve.

  They left Vegas that same day, with everything still unsettled, and returned home—where he’d made a fatal mistake. He’d sought out Brian, who was having lunch on the patio of the Sweetwater Restaurant, across the street from the Jackson Hole fire station where he was on duty, wanting to share the happy—if stunning—news that he and Leah had gotten married.

  He’d been surprised at the sneer on Brian’s face. “You won your bet, fair and square,” his brother said. “I’ll give you the keys to the Harley when my shift ends.”

  “I thought you’d be glad for me.”

  “What bet?” Leah interjected.

  Aiden turned to find Leah standing right behind him. Apparently, she’d been sitting at a table by herself on the opposite side of the patio and had come over to speak to him.

  “He didn’t tell you?” Brian said.

  “Tell me what?” Leah said.

  Aiden felt a chill run down his spine when he met Leah’s gaze. She looked like a whipped cur that expects nothing better than unkindness, or even cruelty, at the hands of others.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  He never took his eyes off her as he said, “Keep your mouth shut, Brian.”

  “Aiden bet me he could get any girl he wanted to fall in love with him,” Brian said. “Even someone as full of piss and vinegar as you.”

  The blood leached from Leah’s face so completely Aiden thought she might faint.

  She stared at him with eyes so wounded he felt like throwing up. She opened her mouth to speak, then clamped it tight to still the wobble in her chin. In a voice like a rusty gate she asked, “Is that true?”

  “Yes, but—”

  He would never forget the look in her eyes as long as he lived. He had never seen such wrenching pain, or felt such pain himself. She tore her gaze from his as she whirled and ran.

  Aiden snatched Brian out of his chair by his shirt front and smashed him in the jaw, sending him stumbling backward over the bench onto the ground. Aiden shook his throbbing hand as he railed, “What the hell were you thinking? Why would you hurt her like that?”

  “You’re a fool if you think love is forever, Aiden,” he yelled back. “I did you a favor. See how fast she took off? Better she does it now than later.”

  Aiden shook his head in disgust and dismay. He didn’t recognize the man sprawled in front of him. This wasn’t the brother he knew. Brian’s divorce had changed him—for the worse. “I don’t know what your wife did to make you such a bitter sonofabitch, but figure it out and get over it. You better hope Leah forgives me, because if she doesn’t…” He left the sentence unfinished. He didn’t like the feelings roiling inside him. Anger and frustration. Fear and hate. He leaped the short fence that separated the patio from the sidewalk and raced after Leah.

  She hadn’t forgiven him, despite all his pleas since that awful day. But she hadn’t gotten an annulment during the past four months. Or a divorce. At least, not yet.

  He wasn’t particularly encouraged by her delay in cutting the cord that bound them, because within a week of Brian’s revelation, her life had been turned upside down.

  Without any warning, the “Black Sheep” of the family, Matthew Grayhawk, who’d disappeared without a word twenty years ago, arrived at Kingdom Come with his nineteen-year-old daughter, Pippa, and six-year-old son, Nathan.

  King had lured Matt back to Wyoming from Australia by promising him that, if he stayed at Kingdom Come for a full year, the ranch would be his. Matt’s arrival had thrown the lives of the Brats into terrible turmoil, because Matt had made it clear that, when the year was up, he expected all of them—including Leah—to be long gone.

  Aiden remembered how Leah had told him Kingdom Come would be hers one day. He tried to imagine how she must be feeling, now that her father had disinherited her, and her stepbrother was threatening to throw her out on her ass. But she wasn’t speaking to him, so he could only guess how fuming mad she must be.

  On the other hand, he saw in her situation an opportunity for the two of them. If Kingdom Come was lost to Leah, maybe she would agree to come live with him.

  That is, if she ever forgave him.

  Aiden was familiar with the trails Leah rode on horseback every morning, because it was one of the ways they’d managed their meetings when they’d been secretly dating. Recently, he’d intercepted her at a place where she couldn’t see him soon enough to avoid him, and couldn’t easily escape once she did lay eyes on him.

  He’d angled his mount across the trail and asked, “What are you going to do about Matt’s ultimatum?”

  “Fight. Matt’s not getting this ranch. Not if I have anything to say about it.”

  “You don’t have anything to say about it,” he pointed out. “The way I heard it, King has given Matt the authority to treat the ranch as though he already owns it.”

  “A lot can happen in a year. By the time I’m through with him, Matt will head back to Australia with his tail between his legs.”

  “You don’t know Matt.”

  “And you do?”

  “He lived with us for a while when he was a teenager, when he had that falling out with King that eventually sent him running off to Australia. Matt’s not going anywhere. That man is grit personified.”

  “We’ll see.”

  He lean
ed over to kiss her, but she turned her head away. “Is this the way it’s going to be? I’m not even allowed to touch you?”

  “I don’t trust you,” she shot back. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust you again.”

  She’d spurred her horse so its shoulder knocked into his mount, forcing it backward, and ridden away.

  The first time she’d spoken willingly to him since that day was to ask for a ride to Yellowstone. Based on what, and how little, she’d said during the trip, it seemed her heart hadn’t softened toward him.

  Aiden loved his brother. But he hadn’t confided in him or shared much of anything personal with him since their fight. Because Brian’s wife had gotten his house in the divorce and Brian hadn’t yet bought another place, they both still lived under the same roof. But for all intents and purposes, he’d cut his brother out of his life.

  Brian couldn’t die, because Aiden hadn’t yet forgiven him for destroying his relationship with Leah. The mere possibility of never seeing his brother again made his stomach churn. Aiden knew Brian had suffered from his continued cold shoulder, but he’d nursed his grievance and let things hang.

  Now it might be too late.

  “I’ve got to get us some sandwiches, Aiden,” Leah said. “Everyone’s hungry.”

  He stepped aside. She couldn’t avoid him forever. And she couldn’t get out of this marriage without him signing papers of some kind. Which he had no intention of doing. Ever.

  LEAH FOUGHT TEARS as she walked away. She would not cry. Between Matt’s return from Australia claiming the ranch that she’d expected to be her home for the rest of her life, Angus’s most recent efforts to financially ruin her father, and her disastrous marriage to Aiden, her life was in chaos. Taylor’s disappearance threatened to make the load of troubles she was carrying unbearable.

  Leah pulled her cellphone from her pocket, but there was no service. She wondered how Vick was faring back at the ranch. She’d fallen apart when she learned Taylor was missing. The twins had bickered and brawled all their lives, but Vick would be lost without the sunshine to her shadow. Leah tried to stay optimistic that Taylor and Brian would be found alive and well, but it was ominous that nothing had been heard from either of them, considering the state-of-the-art communication equipment Brian had carried.