Mindset (6 page)

“Are you finished?  Because if you are, I’d like to have my say now.  You know what started that whole scene with Richard that ended up with me on the floor?”  Ignoring his wince, she continued.  “He thought I would let him do my thinking for me.  I’m going to tell you what I told him, Cade.  I’m a big girl.  I’ve been making my own decisions, my own choices for a long time now, and I’m not about to hand that over to anyone else, least of all a man.  I know my own mind, Cade.  Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking you can choose for me, because I won’t let you.  Whether or not I can have any man I want remains to be seen, but I know this much.  The man that I want is you.  When I tried to tell you that before, you sent me away to find someone else, someone you thought was more suitable for me, who fit into your idea of what was best for me.  We all know how that turned out, don’t we?”

“Let me bottom line this for you, Cade.  I want you.  No, it’s more than that.  I have feelings for you, and they go beyond lust, although I’ve got a healthy dose of that for you, too.  I’ve dated a lot of men over the years.  The reason I’ve dated so many is because I could never find one that measured up to half the man you are, so I never kept them around for very long.  I agreed to marry Richard for a short time, because I was hurting.  I’ve wanted to be with you for a long time, and when you told me to go find somebody else, I thought it was because you didn’t return my feelings.  I don’t know where you got the idea that you’re not ‘in my league’ or ‘good enough’ for me, but that’s not your decision to make, it’s mine.  And I say you’re in a league all your own, and I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you.  So you just think about that.”

With that, she turned around and walked inside, leaving him to do just that.

Chapter 5

It was after midnight when Eva decided to get out of bed and make her way to the kitchen to collect on the dinner Callie put away for her.  What a mess her life was!  How had things gotten so out of hand?  How could she have let this happen?  How could she have been so stupid?  No.  She was not stupid.  She had to stop believing all the hateful things James had told her over the last two and half years. 

I am a smart woman who has a lot of things going for her.  I just need to figure out what I want to do with my life and come up with a plan.  I don’t have a clue what I’m going to do.  Be positive! 

As she continued to ponder what the future might hold, she was deep in thought when she heard a deep voice behind her say, “Hey.”

She jumped up from the table, knocking the plate to the floor where it shattered into jagged pieces, just like her life.  She backed up as far as she could go, only stopping when her back came up against the wall on the opposite side of the room, and grabbed one of the knives from the set on the counter.  “I’m not going back there.  I don’t know how you found me so fast, but I’m telling you right now, I won’t go with you.  I’m not going back to James, and you can’t make me.”

“Uh listen.  I didn’t mean to scare you, and I’m really sorry.  I thought you were someone else, my sister.  My brother left a message that she was hurt, and I came back early to check on her.  My name’s Josh Dubeck.”  He held out his hand.

“You’re Josh?  Callie’s brother?  The lawyer?”  He nodded slowly and lowered his hand, staying very still, trying to be as non-threatening as possible.  She looked deeply into the spring green eyes fringed heavily with dark, thick eyelashes.  That, combined with the full mouth, high cheekbones, and clef chin, broke through her panic and convinced her that he was telling her the truth.

“Look, I’m really sorry I scared you.  From the back, I swear you looked just like my sister.  I thought you were Callie.  Uh, you think you might put that butcher knife down?  I’m not going to hurt you, I swear, Miss ….”

She seemed to almost dissolve and might have fallen if she hadn’t been leaning back against the wall.  She lowered her head and looked down at the knife still held tightly in her hand.   She shook her head slowly, seemed to gather her strength, and walked slowly to the butcher block on the counter and slid the knife home.  After a few moments, she turned around, even though she thought she would die from the humiliation she felt.    

Eva squared her shoulders and held out a still shaking hand to the darkly good looking man in front of her.  “Hi Josh.  I’m Eva Sandoval, and I’m Callie’s friend.”

Josh looked into her troubled eyes before she looked quickly away, and he was instantly lost in their rich, dark chocolate depths.  Beautiful.  He slowly held out his hand and clasped hers in a warm, gentle grip.  He’d never seen anyone lovelier.  Combined with the heart-shaped face, full, high cheekbones, dusty brown skin tone, and full, sensuous lips, she was the most exotic looking woman he’d ever seen. 

“Hi Eva.  Nice to meet you.”

She looked back into his eyes and tried to smile.  “Yeah, right.  Oh crap.  I sure made a mess, didn’t I?  Kind of like my life lately.  I better clean this up.”  She pulled away, and he reluctantly released her hand.

“Here, let me help you with that.  It was really my fault, anyway.  I’m really sorry I came in and scared you like that.  Like I said, I thought you were Callie.”

“You’re being kind.  Besides, it doesn’t take much to scare me these days.  Maybe one of these days I can learn to be brave like your sister.”

“You could’ve fooled me.  You didn’t look too scared a minute ago.  In fact, you looked pretty darn formidable to me!”  He looked up at her, and she smiled briefly at him, and he thought he’d do just about anything in the world to see her smile again.  They continued to quietly clean up, then each went their own way, her back upstairs to her bedroom, and Josh to bum a bed at Cade’s place in the bunkhouse.

****

New York

“I can’t believe how fucking stupid you are, Richard.  For God’s sake, how many times have I told you, timing is everything?  You should never have hit her until after the marriage, you idiot, when you had legal access to her bank accounts.”

“As I’ve stated before, James, I was merely setting things up, just as you did before you married Eve.  As I recall, you’d arranged for her money to be moved before the wedding.”

“Yes, yes, I know.  What you don’t seem to be able to grasp, dear brother, is that your Callie is quite the bird of a different feather than my wife.  I tried to tell you that when you first showed some interest in her.  She’s made of sterner stuff, my man, not nearly as pliable.  You should have shown more patience and waited until after things were legal to start training her to be the wife you wanted.  Even I waited until after I had all the legalities settled.”

“Right.  I believe it was your wedding night before your training started, correct?”

“See that’s your problem, Richard.  You don’t think ahead.  The training started from the first time I saw Eve, in fact even before we met when I determined that she didn’t have much family left, just her poor, Mexican mother.  No education, no old money or connections like we have.  It always amazes me how quickly you can strip someone of their self esteem.  It’s funny, really, and relatively easy.  Eve was well established in the fashion industry when we met.  You’d think a beautiful woman like her would believe in herself more, have more of a backbone.  But no, it took less than a year to train her just the way I wanted her.  It just takes the right combination of…persuasive reinforcement, and before you know it, you have a beautiful new accessory at your disposal, ready to do your bidding and impress all the people you want to impress.”

“Apparently, it’s escaped your notice, James, that your lovely accessory is no longer easily accessible.  So much for well-trained. 

“It’s only a matter of time before I find dear Eve.  Texas is a big state, but, believe me when I tell you, there’s not a place on earth my beautiful wife can hide from me for very long.  I told her the last time she tried to leave what would happen if she ever tried again, and you know I never bluff, and I never lose.  Yes, it’s just a matter of time before I teach that bitch her final lesson, and that cunt Callie, too.  As a matter of fact, I’m already working on closing in on them as we speak.  Foolish, foolish women for thinking they could get away from us. 

Chapter 6

Callie awoke to the smell of bacon.  She stretched lazily and sat up in bed with a secret smile on her face.  So, Cade wasn’t so immune to her charms after all.  Who knew?  She hugged herself and got out of bed and slipped on some old jeans, a denim shirt, and her old cowboy boots.  She had a feeling it was going to be a beautiful day. 
A great day for riding horseback, as a matter of fact.
  She got a sneaky, sly smile on her face and headed downstairs.  Time to put phase one of the master plan she’d constructed last night into place.

Although it took her awhile to fall asleep last night – she had a hard time stopping herself from closing her eyes and reliving that steamy kiss over and over – when she finally fell asleep, it was with a new determination to not only figure out what she wanted to do with her life, but to ensure that Cade was a big part of it.  Silly man.  He should know by now that she wasn’t one to take no for an answer.  Like Granddad said last night, she could do anything she set her mind to, and her mind was set on Cade.  Yep, it was just a matter of time until he came around to seeing things her way.  She went down the hall to check on Eva and found the room empty and the bed made. 
I wonder where she is…

It didn’t take long to find her friend; she just followed her nose to the kitchen.  Eva was in the robe she’d lent her the night before and was taking out some biscuits – homemade biscuits no less – from the oven while her grandfather was setting the table. 

“Something sure smells good.”

“Callie, why haven’t you brought Eva to visit before now?  Lord, just look at the spread she’s put out this morning.  Bacon, eggs, fried potatoes, and homemade biscuits.  I haven’t had this kind of feast since your grandmother was alive.”

Callie looked over at Eva, and she smiled shyly.  “I thought I better start earning my keep around here.”  She looked up when she heard the front door slam closed and watched as two extremely handsome men entered the room.

“Josh!  When did you get in?”  Callie ran over and threw her arms around her brother.

He hugged her hard, then pulled away and looked into her eyes.  “Damn, Callie.  Cade wasn’t exaggerating.  You look like hell baby sister.  I need names, details, so we can take some legal measures to make sure the SOB doesn’t get away with it.”

“Finally, the voice of reason.  Not the ‘look like hell’ part; can’t say I much appreciated that remark, but at least you’re not talking about sending anyone to the hospital.  I knew I could count on you to be reasonable.  I thought you were out of town.”

“I got in late last night and had a couple of messages about you being hurt, so I thought I’d better come see for myself what was going on.  I camped out in the bunkhouse last night and grabbed Cade early this morning to fill me in on the details.”

“Was it morning when you came banging on my door?  It was still dark outside, so I couldn’t tell, asshole.”  Josh threw him the finger.   “I still say we ought to take a quick trip to New York and introduce ourselves to this guy,” Cade grumbled. 

            “And it’s not that I wouldn’t love to
introduce ourselves
to this guy personally, but from what Cade tells me, he’s from old money.  I’m thinking that nothing hurts people like that worse than pulling skeletons out the closet and into the public eye, and by the time we get through with him, he’ll be wishing he’d never met you, much less laid his hands on you.  Besides, in case he ever tries to hurt someone else, there’ll be a record of previous assault.”