How to Rope a McCoy (Hell Yeah!) (37 page)

“I’m
so sorry.” Cato knew she was repeating herself, but she didn’t know how else to
comfort him.

“Listen,
Cato, about what I said back there…”

“Don’t
worry about it.” She didn’t want to have this conversation now, there was too
much other stuff going on.

Cato
stared at the window as Heath maneuvered the one-way streets of downtown
Austin. Soon they were whipping into the parking garage of an office building.
“Stay here.”

“No,
I’m coming with you,” she announced as she exited and ran after him. “I don’t
understand what you expect to accomplish.”

He
didn’t stop to explain and if he said anything, she wasn’t aware of it.
Throwing open the ornate glass doors to
Arness
Oil,
Heath barreled in. Cato followed him to the elevator as he punched in the top
floor. “Have you been here before?”

“Unfortunately.”

On
the ride up, she tried to reason with him. “Don’t do anything to get arrested,
please?”

Heath’s
face softened. “I don’t plan on killing him.”

When
they exited, they found themselves in an opulent setting. No expense had been
spared. It was so unlike Heath’s conservative, climate-conscious headquarters.
He barely acknowledged the receptionist. “You can’t go in there,” she
protested.

Heath
ignored her, flinging open the double doors.

Cato
was close behind.

Only
Arness
wasn’t in the room. Cato saw a beautiful woman
standing there, as if waiting for them. “Security informed me that you’d barged
in, Heath.”

“Amy,”
Heath said, as if stunned. “What are you doing here?”

“The
man I’m going to marry owns the company. Why wouldn’t I be here?” She crossed
her arms over her breasts. “The question is, why are you here? And who is
this?”

Cato
shivered as Amy’s snake-like gaze settled on her.

“You
know why I’m here.
Arness
just vandalized and
destroyed Highland’s refinery!”

“Oh,
no!” Amy feigned dismay. “That will cost us so much to fix when we take over.”
Then she put her hand on her hip and sneered. “Caesar isn’t even in the
country, so you can’t pin this on him. And why would we destroy something that
will soon belong to us?”

Heath
cursed and advanced on Amy. “Heath, no!” Cato cried and took him by the arm.
“Let’s go.”

Amy
threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, I know who you are! You’re the deaf-mute
Caesar was telling me about.” She addressed Heath. “Only he didn’t tell me she
actually tries to converse. How can you stand to listen to her speak? Doesn’t
being with her embarrass you?” Amy laughed again. “Oh, that’s right. You have a
hard time getting women these days, don’t you? After all, I left you standing
at the altar.”

Cato
was stunned, she’d never met anyone so horrible.

Heath’s
eyes narrowed as he looked at his former fiancée. “She embarrasses me? Yea, her
voice sounds funny and she talks too loud…”

That’s
all Cato saw before she closed her eyes, heart breaking. She didn’t know the
first three words out of his mouth had been a question,
she embarrasses me?
or
that he continued on to add “…but I find her
absolutely adorable. She’s perfect for me.”

She
felt like she’d been slung back in time. She embarrassed him? No wonder he
rarely took her around people he knew.

Heath
wasn’t through. “You tell
Arness
that he’s going to
pay for this. I’m going to see to it that he’s arrested. He’ll never take
Highlands Oil away from my family. I’ll fight him tooth and nail!”

With
a sneer, Amy came toward him, getting right in his face. “I would think you’d
have enough trouble on your hands what with trying to keep your murdering
brother out of jail. And isn’t Jaxson a one-legged cripple now? Seems like the
McCoys
have fallen from grace. You’re going to lose
everything you have, Heath. Caesar and I won’t stop until we’ve drained you
dry. He told me how your grandfather stole from his family. I love him, he’s
twice the man you ever were. At least he satisfies me in bed!”

“Why
you…” Heath clenched a fist, but he refrained. He’d never struck a woman before
and he wouldn’t start with this viper. “We haven’t fallen from grace. My family
is above reproach and I am so much better off without you that I thank God
every day that I didn’t make the mistake of marrying you!”

“Soon
you’ll be penniless and we don’t give to charities. Leave!” She pointed toward
the door. “And take that stammering idiot with you!”

Cato
fled. She didn’t wait for Heath, she didn’t wait for the elevator. She found
the stairs and ran.

Storming
out, Heath looked for Cato. She was nowhere to be found. Heading down to the
first floor, he saw her pulling her suitcase out of the back of his truck.
“I’ll take you home.”

Cato
couldn’t say much, she didn’t want to cry. “No, you have so much on your plate.
Go take care of things. I’ll take a cab home.”

Heath
went to her. “No, I’m responsible for you. I’ll take you home.”

Cato
stepped away from him. “No, you aren’t responsible for me. Our time is up, it’s
been four weeks.” She’d been fooling herself to think they were headed for more
than a sexual fling, he’d made that crystal clear when he talked to Jimmy. And
now she found out her voice embarrassed him. She choked back a laugh. “Thanks
for the good times. The sex was great.” Taking off the bracelet, she handed it
to him. “And I won’t need this to remember you by, there are just some things
that are better forgotten.”      

“What
the hell are you talking about?” His head hurt, his heart hurt and he was just
about at the end of his rope. Everything together was almost more than he could
handle. He couldn’t believe it. Cato was rejecting him. “Why?” Was it the
money? She didn’t want him if he wasn’t going to be King Midas? God, she’d
certainly fooled him.

Cato
couldn’t believe he was asking why. “You know why,” she choked out. Twice,
twice he’d said things to crush her soul. Not to be blasphemous, but she
figured if she stuck around long enough, he’d do it a third time before the
cock crowed in the morning.

“Yea,
fine,” Heath agreed. “I know why.” Women! Why in the hell he’d ever thought
this one was different was a mystery to him. “Fine. Go.”

“Goodbye,
Heath.” She said the words she never thought she’d say—and this time she
thought they fit.

He
stood back and watched her hail a cab. He didn’t try to stop her. For him, it
was déjà vu. Once more, he’d been left standing
alone.        

*  *  *

Cato
cried all the way home, then she cried when she got there. All she could think
of was Heath. If she checked her phone once, she checked it a hundred times.
But he wasn’t going to call. God! How did things get so messed up? She shut her
eyes and recalled what he’d told Jimmy. What they had shared meant nothing to
him. It had all been about sex.

Dashing
the tears from her face with both hands, she tried to collect her thoughts.
Maybe coffee would help. So she padded to the kitchen and fixed a cup. When
she’d poured one, she picked up her phone and stared at it, willing him to
call. When, as if by magic, the indicator light lit up, Cato gasped. But it
wasn’t Heath, it was Zane. She turned on face time, hoping he wouldn’t be able
to tell she’d been crying. “Hello.”

“Hey,
how are you?” His expression gave nothing away.

“I’m
good.” Which was a lie.

“I
won’t beat around the bush, Cato. You’ve helped us and I’m counting on you to
help us again. I need you to testify in the morning.”

“About
what?”

“About
what you found on the thumb drive and in the email. I can’t use that unless you
tell the court how you found it.”

“That
will mean my job.”

“Maybe
not, I’m calling Redford too. I sincerely doubt he’ll be your boss much
longer.”

Cato’s
stomach rolled over. She didn’t want to face Heath, but she knew this was too
important. “All right, of course, I’ll be there.”

“You
won’t take the stand until the afternoon, so be there by one and Adam can go
over a few things with you.”

“I’m
still reviewing the files.”

“Great,”
Zane said. “If you find anything else, let me know.”

Then
a thought struck her like a sword knifing through her gut. “Zane, when I speak
on the stand. Are you sure people will be able to understand me?” She’d tried
to reason this out in her mind. There was her job in Louisiana and everyone
she’d met, there was her job here in Texas—so far no one had come out and
complained about her speech. No one except her mother and Heath and Amy, of
course. But what if everyone was just being nice? What if they all laughed at
her behind her back?  

 
Zane looked confused. “Of course, I’ll word the questions so you’ll be able to
give straight, simple answers.”

“That’s
not what I meant.” She pointed to her mouth. “Is my speech clear enough?”

“Yes.”
He still appeared perplexed. “You sound fine to me.”

“Okay.”
She didn’t want to make a big deal about it. “I’ll see you
then.”   

After
they’d hung up, she freshened her coffee and left the kitchen. Knowing she
would see Heath again in a few hours did funny things to her head. This would
be hard, and she didn’t just mean speaking in front of him. It was time to face
the truth. As much as it hurt to admit, this wasn’t Heath’s fault at all, it
was hers. They’d had an agreement, an understanding between two consenting
adults. He had kept the agreement, she had been the one to fall in love.

Honestly,
Cato didn’t know what hurt worse—to find out he didn’t care for her or the fact
that her voice annoyed him. Shades of her mother came back to haunt her. She’d
forbid Cato to speak for the very same reason Heath had voiced. Putting her
hands over her ears, she tried to drown out the silence. If she could, she’d
never speak again. But if a person did everything to please someone else,
eventually they’d just cease to be. Cato remembered one night at the dinner
table, she and her mother had sat without communicating. No sound, no speech,
no signing—nothing. Until her mother had banged the table and screamed at Cato
that she’d been breathing too loud.

Breathing
too loud!

Sniffling,
she went to her room and sat down at the computer. She’d promised Heath that
she’d look through this stuff one more time and she would. But while she stared
at the screen, she relived every minute she’d spent loving Heath, every kiss,
every touch. Every word.

With
a scream of frustration, she picked up her coffee cup and hurled it against the
wall.   

Meanwhile,
at Highlands…Heath stared out the window and relived every minute he’d spent
loving Cato, every kiss, every touch. Fuck! She’d rejected him. She’d rejected
him!

When
he’d needed her the most, she’d turned her back on him and left. It wasn’t
something he’d been ready to admit to anyone, but he needed her.

Pacing
back and forth, he tried to sort through his feelings. It seemed his whole life
was falling apart in front of him. He glanced at the clock. In about two hours
the room would be full. He’d called a family meeting. They had to get their
shit together. Tomorrow, Philip Decatur McCoy would go on trial for murder.

His
little brother. A brother he’d promised heaven he would protect.

Sitting
down on the couch, he took off his ever-present black Stetson and laid it on
the couch beside him. How had it all gone so wrong? What a fine brother he was,
while he’d been feeling sorry for himself because Amy had walked away from him,
while he’d been chasing skirts, setting rules and feeling sorry for himself,
his brothers had been facing life-changing battles.

If
he thought it would do any good, he’d pray.

“Fuck,”
he snarled, slamming his hat back on his head. Maybe if he went for a ride,
he’d feel better. Going out the front to avoid the girls who were in the
kitchen, Heath set out for the barn. He saddled up his horse and set out.
Slapping Tempest across the hindquarters, he allowed the big stallion to jump
the fence and take across the pasture at a gallop. Giving the horse his head,
he shut his eyes and let the wind hit him in the face.

Trying
to force the worry from his brain, he rode farther and faster. Finally he came
to the river. Pulling on the reins, he slid from the big animal, dropping the
reins. Tempest wouldn’t leave. With quick movements, he tore his clothes off
and dove into the water, swimming against the current. He needed to expend
energy.

Heath
swam until he couldn’t, then he walked from the water and let the sun dry the
moisture from his body. Not too far from here, he’d played in the water with
Cato. He’d started four of the most incredible weeks of his life—that ended in
absolute disaster.

“Why?”
he bellowed.

No
one answered.

Jerking
on his clothes, he remounted Tempest and went back to face the music.

Within
an hour, Highlands was full. His father and Olivia arrived. She was being
annoyingly optimistic and his father wasn’t saying much. Jaxson arrived alone,
wearing his prosthesis but he was so awkward with the crutch that it was
obvious he hadn’t used it enough to get used to it. There were lines of tension
and pain on his face. He’d aged five years.

Tennessee
was quiet. Heath had heard him speaking to Molly on the phone. As soon as this
trial was over, he was having a long talk with the boy. As soon as the thought
jumped the synapses in his brain, Heath wondered at the sorry qualifications he
possessed. Who was he to try and tell his brother anything about women?

Nada.

Ryder
and Pepper were mysteries he didn’t know how to start to solve. Even with all
the shit the family had been going through, he realized they were in the midst
of some type of male/female rigmarole. With Pepper, he suspected she was
infatuated with that singer, Judah James. If he hurt his baby sister, the boy
would be hitting high notes for the rest of his life. And Ryder? He had no idea
what was going on with her. She played her cards close to her chest. Heath had
a feeling the next year would give him ulcers.