Luke: Armed and Dangerous (14 page)

“Have a seat, Mr. Rider.” Guerrero gestured to the chair Luke still seemed to be considering
as a weapon. “I trust you’ll enjoy something on our menu.”

“Our menu?” Luke’s question came out low, through his teeth.

Trinity tried to catch Luke’s eye as blood rushed in her ears. “He bought the restaurant.”

Luke’s posture stayed hair-trigger tense, but he finally looked away from Guerrero.
“I’m not that hungry. Want to get some air, sugar?” He smacked a bill on the table
that was more than enough to cover her diet soda and cheese sticks.

“Sure.” She got up so fast she jostled her water glass and had to snatch her laptop
and the folder full of footprint pictures off the table. She barely got them stuffed
in her laptop bag before Luke had her by the elbow, steering her toward Zappati’s
front door. He took the laptop bag and carried it in his free hand.

“I hope you will come back soon, Ms. MacKenna,” Guerrero called after her, but Trinity
didn’t even turn around to tell him no thanks.

When she and Luke hit the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, the cool December air
chilled her skin in a wake-up, calm-down sort of way. He gripped her hand and started
walking down G Avenue where most of the businesses were. She could barely remember
when the town was more alive and not so... dirty.

“I warned you about that man.” Luke’s low, angry voice didn’t help Trinity’s heart
stop hammering, but she had her wits back enough to slow them down and pull free of
Luke’s grip. “I know your sister did, too.”

“I didn’t ask him to come snooping around my table.” She stopped in front of a store
with cheap dresses displayed in the window with circular racks lined up behind the
display. “I was working. I didn’t even see him standing there staring at what I was
doing until it was too late.” She rubbed her fingers over her eyes, willing her heart
rate to slow back to normal. “Zack’s probably gonna be pissed Guerrero got a look
at those pictures.”

“You mind?” Luke gripped her laptop bag like it wasn’t really a question, he was just
trying to be polite.

“Uh, sure,” Trinity said as she studied Luke.

He reached into her bag, took the folder with the water stains, examined its contents,
and frowned. In a too-quiet voice, he asked, “What does this have to do with designing
computer games?”

“Patterns. Tracking.” Trinity finally got a whole breath and took back the folder,
stuffing it into her bag with her laptop. “We make all kinds of games, including mystery
and detective scenarios. Space battles, car chases, Old West shootouts—you name it,
and I’ve helped design most of the programs, or supervised their creations.”

“And Zack asked you to use your software to analyze footprint patterns.” Luke sounded
six kinds of pissed off about that, and for a minute, he reminded Trinity of Skylar.

“I volunteered, but I haven’t found much his own people couldn’t tell him, except—”
She broke off, not sure she should be talking about any of this, then deciding for
the moment, she really didn’t care. “I think the origin of these prints—most of them
at least— might be the Bar F.”

Luke’s blue eyes flicked to the folder in her bag as he started carrying the bag for
her again. “Bull Fenning’s place.”

Trinity heard the skeptical tone and nodded. “Doesn’t make sense, I know, if it’s
UDAs. Not unless they got lost and walked east-west instead of south-north.”

She looked up and sucked in another breath, because Luke was studying her so intensely
she could feel his stare down to her toes.

“You should tell Hunter all this as soon as you see him. He’ll want to look into it.”
Luke’s slow drawl touched her as surely as his hands would, the minute she got him
alone. “There’s a lot I don’t know about you, sugar.”

“Likewise.” She leaned against the stone wall of the Gadsden Hotel which had been
built back in the early nineteen hundreds. She refused to look away from Luke. “How
about we start with the basics? I like Mustangs better than Jaguars.”

The corners of his mouth twitched. His shoulders relaxed, and some of the rage he’d
been carrying since he showed up in Zappati’s seemed to leave him. “Do you like your
stallions wild?”

God, he was so sexy, she could ride him right here, right now. “I don’t know,” Trinity
murmured. “Never tried to ride one that bucked. Skylar wouldn’t let me.”

Luke offered her his hand, and they started walking again, this time more slowly,
allowing Trinity to enjoy the sun and the cool air.

“Did your sister raise you?” Luke’s question came out sounding more normal, like he’d
let go of the thought of killing Guerrero, at least for the moment.

“Yeah.” Trinity squeezed his fingers. “It was just us.”

Luke kept his gaze forward, and Trinity watched his eyes scan the street and everyone
approaching them, like he was intent on looking out for her. “I hate that you were
so alone. I had a big family—still have a big family. There’s comfort in that.”

“Big family?” Trinity hadn’t expected that from a man who seemed like such a loner.
“Where are they?”

Luke hesitated, then seem to make a decision. “Texas. But I had an aunt from around
Douglas, so I know Douglas, Bisbee, and Tombstone pretty well from all my visits growing
up.”

She liked how it felt, walking with him, holding his hand, like they were courting
the old-fashioned way, only without the chaperone. “How’d you start working on ranches?”

“I did a lot of that as a kid, too. Good money, and I seemed to have a talent with
horses.” His expression got a little tense again, but the pressure of his hand on
hers never changed.

Trinity had a sense that she wasn’t getting Luke’s whole story, but then, he wasn’t
getting all of hers yet, either. That was okay for now.

He stopped them on a corner, and turned her to face him, taking her other hand. His
eyes had gone gentle now, and when he looked at her, Trinity thought she could stare
into them forever. “Tell me about it. What was it growing up that hurt you so badly?”

Her mouth came open, and her breath caught in her chest. Luke didn’t force her to
stand there, or push her. He gently pulled her forward, letting go of one of her hands,
until they were walking again. Slow and easy, like he planned for them to walk up
and down every street in the whole town, if that’s what it took.

A few steps later, her fingers laced firmly in Luke’s, Trinity found herself spilling
out how their mother had passed on from cancer, and their father had walked away from
them. She told him about her weight problems, and her torment in school, and all Skylar
had done for her, and how badly she’d treated her sister.

“I just left her. I left her with everything.” Trinity stopped them at a streetlight,
and pictured in her mind the ranchland spreading out, a yellow grass carpet dotted
with brown mesquite bushes. Then the Chiricahua Mountains guarding the end of the
Flying

M’s ranchlands. After a pause she added, “I abandoned Skylar to find myself, but I
never stopped feeling guilty about it.”

Luke gazed at her without judgment, open, understanding— and ran his thumb along her
cheek. “You’re back now, Trinity. That counts for a lot.”

Her chest got so tight, she didn’t know if she was dying or coming back to life again.
When she spoke, her voice barely made it to a whisper.

“I can’t stay here, Luke. Not even for Skylar.”

Not even for you.

His blue eyes clouded, but his touch stayed steady and gentle. “Why not?”

“Because—because I’m scared my past will catch up to me.” Trinity turned her cheek
into his palm, and he pulled her against his chest and held her, then kissed the top
of her head.

“You got skeletons in your closet, sugar? Ones you haven’t told me about?”

“Skeletons.” Trinity laughed into his T-shirt, drinking in his masculine scent of
aftershave and soap, and that faint hint of malt beer. Fresh, and rich. All cowboy.
All man. “More like blubber. All those bad memories of being Madeline, being the girl
everyone pitied and laughed at.”

“That’s outside stuff.” Luke pulled back from her and rested one hand on her chest.
“I know it hurt like hell, but it’s got no bearing on what’s in here now. Childhood’s
over. I can promise you, you’re all woman now.”

The way he said that, the way Luke looked at her, Trinity could almost believe him.
Almost.

“I can’t stay in Douglas,” she said again, maybe to convince herself instead of him.

“You can do anything you set your mind to, sugar. That’s one thing about you that’s
obvious, even if you don’t see it yet.”

She expected him to keep going, to tell her that he wanted her to stay, or that she
should stay, for Skylar, for him—but he didn’t. He didn’t ask anything of her, but
he fought for her in a way Trinity didn’t expect.

He kissed her, slow and easy, like they weren’t standing in the middle of town, in
the middle of the day. Like she was the only woman in Douglas, in the West, in the
world, as far as he was concerned.

Damn, he tasted so good, and his arms around her—had she ever felt anything so perfect?

He pulled back from her again, and this time when he looked at her, she saw heat in
the depths of his blue eyes that made her catch her breath.

Heat her body instantly answered, getting warm in every possible location.

“Come on.” He released her before he caught hold of her fingers again and turned them
toward the crosswalk. He pointed to a tiny building at the end of the street. “I know
a couple of good hole-in- the-wall restaurants. That one serves the best damned barbecue
I’ve ever had.” His sexy drawl deepened as he smiled at her. “Considering I’m from
Texas, that’s saying a hell of a lot.”

“Mmmm.” Trinity grinned. “Now that’s something they can’t serve in Europe like they
do here. A good old-fashioned platter of Western barbecue.”

She kept a tight hold on Luke’s hand, trying not to think too hard about her fantasy
of breaking a table while he made love to her. Oh, what the hell.

She let herself think about it.

Wonder if this barbecue place has checkered tablecloths...

Trinity had hoped her lunch with Luke would end in barn- burning lovemaking, but he’d
gotten a call at the end of the meal. He’d taken off to help with some emergency at
another ranch where his friend Rios worked. She hadn’t seen him the rest of the day,
and by the time she was back at the ranch, Skylar and Zack had returned.

Trinity gave Zack what she had on the tracking program and she explained that the
prints probably originated from the Bar F. Then she told him Guerrero had come up
from behind her and had seen the same information on her computer screen. She also
admitted she’d told Luke all about it. Zack had maintained a calm expression and didn’t
seem pissed, but Skylar did.

Trinity had ducked out of the house for some privacy in the barn before Skylar could
chew Zack out for putting Trinity at risk, or doing something that might make her
leave again. She couldn’t take hearing that, not today, not after the jumble of emotions
Luke had stirred on their walk.

When she reached the shadowed interior of the barn, Trinity paused for a moment to
allow her eyes to become accustomed to the dark. The old-fashioned alarm bell still
hung from its yoke where it always had been, right at the barn’s entrance.

That thing would wake the dead, her dad had always said, before he left. It was cast
iron and kind of looked like a church bell, only smaller. And much louder, according
to her sister.

Maybe if she took the frayed rope and rang it as hard as she could, the clapper slapping
against each side of the cast iron, it would bang some clarity into her own mind and
heart.

Scents of alfalfa hay and sweet oats washed over her, along with odors of horse and
liniment. Every smell was unique and brought back individual memories from all the
years she’d grown up here.

When she’d come into the barn yesterday to practice her kickboxing in the storage
room, and to see her old mare Dancer, she’d been surrounded by countless memories
from her childhood. She’d worked up a good sweat while kickboxing, practicing her
kicks, punches, and jabs, enjoying being back at the ranch. That feeling of being
home had wrapped around her like a warm blanket, making her feel relaxed and secure,
just like her walk in Douglas with Luke.

But England had been home for three years, and somewhere else was about to be home—San
Francisco, or maybe Dallas—even New York City. Trinity knew she could go anywhere.
She didn’t want the Flying M to feel so comfortable.

Trinity wandered toward the ranch office that was close to the barn entrance and her
thoughts turned to Luke.

Would he come home tonight?

Maybe he was too busy, or maybe he was having second thoughts about pursuing her.

Wow.
Just the thought of that man pursuing her never failed to give her a little shiver
down the small of her back. Somehow she didn’t think he was the type to give up when
he’d found something he wanted. And wow, he wanted her.

Trinity smiled at the Christmas wreath hanging on the door of the barn office as she
let herself in. Skylar certainly got into the holiday spirit all over the ranch. The
heavy oak door silently closed behind Trinity on well-oiled hinges as she headed to
the huge desk.

That desk had been around since the days of the Old West, when her great-great grandpa
MacKenna had claimed this stretch of land for the Flying M. The surface of the desk
was glossy from years of use and smelled of lemon oil that her sister probably used
to keep it in such beautiful condition.

The room was paneled in rich oak, and the leather couch and chair were all in a deep
oxblood brown. It was much like it had always been, but she could see Skylar’s touch
in the gingham curtains at the room’s only window, and in the small Christmas tree
on the table between the couch and overstuffed chair. Family photos were in here,
too, and it touched Trinity to see that her sister had pictures of all of them close
to her when she worked.