COWBOY ROMANCE: Justin (Western Contemporary Alpha Male Bride Romance) (The Steele Brothers Book 1) (169 page)

Chapter Five

              After spending two nights with Rob in her bed, Malory felt guilty for not telling him about meeting with the realtor at her grandparents’ farm.  But he had been so adamant about not paying the blackmailer that she knew he’d try to stop the sale.

She didn’t care about the farm or the money, not anymore.  Rob was all she needed in her life.

The realtor, a plump smiling blonde who wore a bright pink suit, greeted her with a hug.  “I’m so glad you’re moving ahead with this, Ms. French.  Farmland needs to be worked, you know, and Mr. Ames will take good care of the property.”

Malory nodded and tried not to look miserable as she followed the realtor into the little farm house where she had grown up.  Harold Ames and his sister were sitting at the old kitchen table and looking over a property map. 

Both of them stood to shake her hand, but Malory kept the contact brief.  She didn’t like the way Harold Ames’s eyes crawled over her every time they met.  His sister had a sneering smile that gave her the creeps, too.

“We’re real happy you decided to sell to us, Ms. French,” Harold told her.  “I’ve brought a check for you, too, so we can close right now.”

The realtor’s smile slipped a little.  “Ah, Mr. Ames, we do need to do some paperwork before we can close.  There’s the title search, and an inspection of the property—“

“We’ll take it as is,” Harold said.  “I don’t want this little lady to go and change her mind on us.  Let’s git her done.”

Malory stared at him as his words echoed in her mind, and dragged her back through time.  She’d heard him say that, right to her face.  For an instant she had a flash of Harold bending over her and tugging at her clothes as he said almost the exact same words.

Come on, Shawna.  Those pills won’t keep ‘em out forever.  Let’s git her done.

Feeling shaken and turned to stone all at once, Malory turned to the realtor.  “Would you excuse us, please?  I need to have a word in private with the Ames.”

The realtor looked uncertain, but nodded and left them.

“What’s the problem now?” Ames demanded. 

“You drugged me and Robert Boone, and put us in that hotel room,” Malory said without any emotion.  “You stripped us, posed us and took pictures of us.  Then you sent them to me and demanded money you knew I didn’t have.”

Harold Ames’s mouth flattened.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, lady.”

“Sounds crazy to me,” his sister put in, but she looked worried now.

Malory focused on Shawna.  “Do you know how long you can go to jail for what you did to us?  The rest of your life.  And you did it just to get your hands on this farm and bankrupt me?”

The older woman turned to her brother.  “You said she’d never remember.”

“Shut up, Shawna.”  Harold spat on the floor.  “I could have killed you and that cowboy,” he told Malory.  “I still could.  Or maybe I’ll just tape up those pictures inside your precious little library.  Think the kiddies will like seeing you sucking on that big dick of his?”

Rob came out of the kitchen with a stack of photos.  “You mean, these pictures I found at your house?”  He tossed them in the fireplace.  “I don’t think they’ll hang too well, Harold.”

The rancher looked smug.  “I can make more.”

Chris Boone walked in from the hall carrying a baseball bat and a computer hard drive.  He placed the drive on the floor and hit it with the bat, making Shawna screech.  He straightened and surveyed the pieces.  “Did you remember to make backups of your digital files, Ames?  ‘Cause your hard drive is history.”

“Yeah I did,” the rancher grated.  “I got ‘em in a safe place, too.  You’ll never get to them.”

Rob came to Malory and put his arm around her waist.  “Well, honey, I guess we’ll just have to get married.”

She saw the look in his eyes and played along.  “Okay.”

“No,” Harold told her.  “You’re going to give me this farm, and keep your mouth shut, or everyone will see those pictures.  No one will believe we drugged you and posed you.”

Chris turned his head and shouted, “That enough?”

A moment later police officers flooded into the farmhouse to arrest Harold and Shawna and march them out of the house.

“Nice little ruse,” the realtor said as she came in and pulled off her blonde wig to reveal a neat cap of gingery curls.  She smiled at Malory.  “Hi, I’m Detective Woods.  I’ll need you to come down to the station to file charges against these two.  Today, please.”  She nodded to Rob and Chris before scooping up the paperwork on the table and walking out.

Chris came over and kissed Malory on the cheek.  “He’ll explain everything.  Welcome to the family.”  He glanced around as he pulled a wire out of his shirt.  “This is a great place.  Save it for your kids.”

Once Rob’s brother left, Malory turned to her lover.  “You knew Ames was the blackmailer, and you didn’t tell me?”

“For this to work we had to make him think he’d won,” Rob said.  “Detective Woods thought you’d be more convincing if you didn’t know.  I planned to come in and confront him as soon as he tried to get you to sign and con him into confessing.  We didn’t count on you working it out in the middle of everything.”

              “Con him?”  She glanced at the fireplace and the smashed hard drive.  “Everything was fake?”

              He nodded.  “The police got a search warrant to execute while Ames and his sister were here.  They’re confiscating the real photos and hard drive as we speak.  Detective Woods needs them for the prosecutor, but she promised to handle them as sensitive, confidential evidence.”

              “That’s not a guarantee that they’ll be protected, you know,” Malory said.  “And if Ames every gets his hands on those backups—”

“You mean, these backups?”  He took some jump drives out of his pocket.  “He was keeping them in his truck’s glove box.  Too cheap to get a safety deposit box at the bank.”  He went over and tossed them into the fireplace.

Malory came to stand beside him, and wrinkled her nose at the smell of burning plastic.  “I love you.  I’m still mad at you for not telling me, but I love you.”

He kissed her temple.  “I love you, too, honey.  Now stop frowning like that.”

Malory rested her cheek against his shoulder.  “It’s just . . . Rob, what are we going to do if I’m pregnant?”

“We face it together, just like I said.  And if you’re not, maybe I can talk you into keep trying until you are.”  He put his arm around her waist.  “So, are you sure you really want to stick with me and brave all my bad luck?”

              “That’s something I didn’t tell you, Robert,” she said, smiling a little.  “My name, Malory, comes from an old French word meaning unfortunate.”

              He stared down at her.  “You mean—”

              “Yep.”  She beamed up at him.  “I’m your bad luck now.”

Love in Ghost Lake Ranch

Book 7

(Can be read as a standalone book)

By: Amber Duval

Enchanted by the Cowboy

Chapter One

“All right, honey,” Ethan Boone said to his fiancée, Jessa Cooper.  “You have to do this without a hitch, in sixty seconds, or I can’t marry you.”

Everyone in the restaurant’s big ranch-themed dining hall fell silent.  Even the young waitresses, who had dressed up like cowgirls, gave each other uncertain looks.

“Dad, did you hear that?”  The pretty strawberry blonde grinned as she touched the napkin that Ethan had used to blindfold her.  “You might not have to pay for this wedding after all.”

“Works for me,” her father said cheerfully.  “I’ll use the money to take your mother to Palm Springs.  Maybe splurge on a new set of clubs.”

“Not if I beat you over the head with one of the old ones,” Jessa’s mother warned him.

Everyone who had come to the wedding rehearsal dinner laughed out loud, and hugged or kissed their wives or girlfriends.  Everyone except Caleb, who was the last unattached Boone brother.  Most of the time he didn’t mind going stag – the thought of settling down with one woman made his belly knot – but tonight with everyone except him paired up, he felt a bit left out.

“Ready, darling?” Ethan asked, and when Jessa nodded, he started the stop watch in his hand.  “Go.”

“Well, there’s you, Ethan, the love of my life, and William, who I plan never, ever to annoy.  Christopher, who can never be missed, and Jonah, who can never be found.  Thomas, who is making us a lovely new bedroom set in his new carpentry shop, and Robert, who might be making us an aunt and uncle around Christmas.  And . . . hmmm.”  She frowned.  “I counted you, and I remembered Liam’s full name . . . now who did I forget?”

Caleb almost called out before Liam gave him the stink eye. 

“Ten seconds, darling,” Ethan said.

“I can’t think of it, I mean, it’s right on the tip of my tongue.”  Jessa sighed.  “Lord.  If I can’t name all your brothers, then I guess I’ll just have to marry someone else.”  Her mouth curved.  “Hey, Caleb?  You busy this weekend?”

The room erupted into laughter.

“Not a chance,” Ethan told her and clicked the stop watch.  “You got ‘em all, sweetheart, with two seconds to spare.  So you definitely do
not
have to marry my baby brother.”

Caleb tried not to scowl while the rest of his brothers hooted and applauded.  Sometimes it just burned his ass, how Ethan and the others talked about him.  Being the youngest Boone might have made him the baby back when they were kids, but he was a man now, wasn’t he?  A tough, hard-working cowboy with the fastest rope and surest hands in Crystal Valley, in fact.  So why did everyone talk about him – and regularly treat him – like he was still in diapers?

“Hey.”  Chris, the largest of the Boone boys, gave him an elbow nudge.  “You still riding in the team roping event at the rodeo tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”  Caleb perked up a little.  “Me and Jeb partnered up.  We’re thinking about using Dancer in the first round.  He’s been pretty steady in practice.”

“Hastings said that they invited some teams from the pro circuit to compete,” Chris said.  “So I was thinking you might want to sit this one out.”

“What are you talking about, bro?”  Caleb stared at his brother.  “I can out-rope every man in the county.  Besides, I’ve been waiting for this rodeo all spring.”

“It’s the only event where they let women compete against men, remember?”  When Caleb didn’t say anything, Chris leaned close and said in a lower voice, “You want to risk having your ass handed to you in front of everyone in town?  By a couple of ladies?”

“Sure, why not?”  Caleb pushed himself out of his chair.  “Be a nice change from you and the rest of the boys patting it.”  Before Chris could reply, he strode out of the private room and headed for the parking lot.

As Caleb came around a corner a tall, redheaded waitress walking in the opposite direction collided with him. 

“Hey, oh, damn.”  He caught her before she fell backward and steadied her.  “I’m so sorry, honey.  Must have forgot to take off my blinders tonight.  You okay?”

              “I’m fine, Cowboy.  Nice catch.”  She gripped his arms as she looked up at him with brown eyes so light they seemed to glow from within with sunlight. 

              Caleb had never held such a tall woman in his arms; she stood only an inch shorter than him.  She also had a long, slender body like a professional dancer, but he guessed the waitressing kept her strong and slim.  She worked hard, too; he could feel the calluses on her palms and fingers.  Her straight garnet-red hair had been cut short into a clever wedge shape that flattered her angular features, and showed off her beautiful throat and delicate shoulders.

“You with the wedding party in there?” she asked.

Feeling a bit dazed, Caleb nodded.  “My brother Ethan’s the groom.  I haven’t seen you waiting tables here before tonight.  You new in town?”

              Two dimples appeared in her cheeks.  “Yeah, I am.”  She glanced over his shoulder.  “Listen, I’m all done here.  You know a place around here where a gal can get a beer, maybe shoot a friendly game of pool?”

              “Sure.”  Caleb grinned.  “I’m heading there now.  Want a ride?  My name’s Caleb Boone, by the way.”

              “Harper Mason.”  She tucked her arm through his.  “Let’s go.”

#

              The tavern where Caleb Boone took her was barely more than a bar and three pool tables, but Harper felt right at home.  She’d spent most of her childhood in little watering holes just like it, sipping a soda and listening to her father and his friends swap tall tales.  Dad had seen to it that she could ride before she could walk, and rope before she could read.  He’d never held her back from competing, either, even after all his old back injury had finally put him in a wheelchair.

As she watched Caleb fetching two beers from the bartender she felt guilt needle her again.  She hadn’t lied to him, but she shouldn’t have let him assume she was a waitress.  On the other hand it felt good to spend a couple hours not being Harper Mason, the hottest female rodeo star on the Northwestern circuit.

Caleb returned to her side and handed her a dark bottle as he surveyed the balls she’d racked on pool table.  “You want to break, Red?”

She took a sip of the ice-cold beer.  No one had called her Red since her Dad had passed, and she loved hearing it again.  “You want a chance to win, Handsome?”

His mouth curved.  “What are we playing for, cash or other?”

“Well, I’m not exactly a rich woman.”  She stepped up to him to feel the heat of him, and look into his pretty gray eyes.  “What falls under other?”

“We got a little game we play called You Say, I Do,” he told her, his voice soft and low.  “You win, you get to say anything, and I have to do it.  Or vice-versa.”

He smelled so good it was distracting her.  “Anything?”

“As long as it don’t break the law, and the loser is willing, yeah.”  His teeth flashed in his lightning smile.  “Anything.”

“All right.”  She handed him a cue.  “But I don’t cotton to that gentlemanly ladies-first nonsense.  So you break.”

“Gotta love those equal rights.”  Caleb handed her his beer and chalked the cue’s tip.  “Here we go.”

Harper watched his excellent first shot, and the two that followed.  On the fourth he tried a difficult bank shot, probably to show off a little, and missed.

“Aw, that’s a shame.”  Harper handed over their beers and went to the wall rack to select a lighter cue.  “How long you been shooting pool, Cal?”

He mirrored her on the other side of the table.  “Since I could sneak in here and a few other places without getting carded.  I guess about ten years.  How about you?”

Harper bent over to line up her shot.  “Since I was tall enough to hold a cue and see over the edge.”  She glanced up at him.  “My dad had a table in the basement.”

“So I’m about to be hustled?”

Without even looking at the table, she took her shot and sank two balls.  “Yeah, I think you are, Cowboy.”