Take Her to HeVan (Nephilim Book 6) (6 page)

“I’m glad you’re getting so much enjoyment out of this,” he said as he pulled her to her feet.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that…the look on your face,” she said before she went into another round of laughter.

After a few minutes she got herself under control. She bent her hands and used her wrists to wipe her eyes.

The spitting incident broke the ice between them and the morning chores went much faster after that. The two of them talked back and forth, Karlo asking questions and Marla more than happy to share her knowledge with someone who was really interested in her ideas.

“If you have fifty acres, why do you have so few alpaca?” Karlo asked her.

They had returned to the house for lunch. Karlo was sitting at the kitchen table as Marla washed her hands at the sink.

“I’ve always had animals growing up. I belonged to FFA, that’s Future Farmers of America and 4-H, which stands for Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. Both are organizations for developing youth. I’ve raised pigs, cows, and sheep. I liked the sheep because I didn’t have to sell it for meat. For my whole life, I’ve known this land would someday come to me. Raising animals for food has never really interested me. The sheep were close, but they’re not just used for wool. After researching various textiles, I decided on alpaca. With alpaca, the best traits are inherited, which means the animals with the best genetic history are expensive. Eventually, I want to be a breeder so I’m building my herd slowly.”

She walked over to the fridge and pulled out the lettuce and several other vegetables. Then she went back and pulled out other items.

“Wash your hands, then you can chop up the salad ingredients while I heat up the soup and make the sandwiches,” she added.

Karlo, who had once again become entranced by the shape of her ass as she bent over digging things out of the fridge, didn’t immediately answer her. He replayed her words in his head.

“Oh, yeah, sure, no problem, just tell me what to do and I’ll do it,” he said, moving to the sink.

After she’d gotten him started, she continued with her story.

“I got my first alpaca just before my grandmother died. She was as excited as I was to start using the fiber. She taught me how to knit and weave. I added one animal each year and each year I paid to put the mature females to stud. I thought my grandfather understood what I was doing, he asked questions about the business. I thought he could accept this as a workable future. In the last two years of his life my grandfather sold off all his stock, he raised cattle. There were a lot of medical bills for both my grandmother and him. So he didn’t leave me much money. The ranch is free and clear though.

“Because of the will, I had to stop building the herd. Until I know I’m going to be staying here, I can’t really build up my stock,” she explained while working on the soup and sandwiches.

The kitchen seemed much smaller sharing the counter space with Karlo. Marla didn’t mind though. They were getting along really well and, for the moment, she didn’t want to do anything to jinx it. In a couple of days they were going to be signing the pre-nup and then driving to the courthouse to get married.

She stole another glance at Karlo before turning her attention back to the stove. She could hardly believe she was actually going through with this. Was she really so desperate to keep the ranch? If she didn’t marry, she’d still get the money from the sale. It wouldn’t be home though. Even though he was dead, she really wanted to prove to her grandfather that she was just as much of a rancher as all those other Joneses.

She had been devastated when the will had been read, and then she’d gotten angry. She was just stubborn enough to do whatever it took to win. If that meant marrying a complete stranger, then so be it. His totally hot looks made her bitter reality a much easier pill to swallow. She found herself wishing she knew for sure if there were an afterlife, she wanted her grandfather to see the results of his manipulations.

She took a deep breath. She was stirring the soup so fast it was about to spill over the sides of the pan. A little residual anger
—m
uch? Well, she was entitled.

Karlo could see Marla was only paying partial attention to what she was doing. She was obviously thinking hard about something. He took advantage of her preoccupation to look at her. Her head was heart-high on his chest. She wore her yellow hair cut close to her head. It made her eyes look huge in her face. She had womanly curves and soft skin. He had a hard time keeping his hands from touching her. He wanted to map each and every dip and valley, curve and hollow of her landscape. He remembered the wedding had been postponed. She hadn’t said when the new date was. He hoped it was soon. He didn’t know how long he could wait before he sank into her moist heat.

Mr. Edwards called in the morning on Friday; he had the pre-nup ready. Marla made an appointment for them to come by before he closed his office for the day. Hanging up the phone, Marla went to find Karlo. Karlo had been at the ranch for four days and he already fit in as if he’d always been there.

Looking over at the pasture, she saw him leaning against the fence. He had spent several hours each day observing the alpaca, moving around the pasture with them and getting them familiar with his presence and his touch. She appreciated him taking the extra time to learn everything he could. She also noticed he was still stiff from the crash, especially in his shoulders and back. He kept saying he felt fine, only over and over she watched him rolling his shoulders, as if there were an ache he couldn’t relieve. She felt so guilty about deceiving such an obviously nice guy, she decided to offer him a back rub later that evening.

Turning away from the window, she decided to make a nice lunch. They had been having sandwiches and other easy-to-fix meals for the past few days. The alpacas didn’t take much work, but there was always knitting and weaving to do. She also needed to start thinking about bringing in the hay and she couldn’t until they did something about his…whatever it was, in her hay barn. She’d think about that later. Right now, it was time to cook.

A man of Karlo’s size needed something more substantial, so she pulled out the hamburger and started making a meatloaf. Meatloaf was messy and also therapeutic, like making bread. Instead of pounding on dough, she hand-mixed the meat, breadcrumbs, egg, and Worcestershire sauce together. To go with it, she also grabbed some green beans and some spinach from the vegetable bin, which she would steam and then sauté with onion and homemade teriyaki sauce. Putting the fixings on the counter, she went into the pantry to get a few potatoes. She debated for a moment between baked and mashed, and decided on mashed since the meatloaf needed the oven.

Looking out the window as she peeled the potatoes, she could see Karlo walking across the pasture toward the far hay field. She let herself admire his ass for a couple of moments and then got back to work.

Karlo strode across the field. It was time for another circuit of the property. He tried to do a complete security sweep four to six times each day. Because he was only one person, he worked hard to vary his timing and direction so his actions couldn’t be predicted. He had at least an hour before he had to be back for lunch. Even though he didn’t know what he was doing, he usually helped Marla with the cooking. He took directions well, and it gave him an excuse to spend more time with her. Today, Marla had kicked him out of the house, she said she wanted to surprise him so he was taking advantage of the time to get in an extra patrol of the property.

The moon had been bright enough for him to make a few patrols during the last two nights as well as during the days. Karlo quickly made friends with Rusty, Marla’s dog, so he wouldn’t bark and wake up Marla when he went out or came in. Karlo recognized the word dog but for some reason Rusty didn’t look like what he thought a dog should look like. He was too small and his fur was too long. He didn’t ask Marla about it because he didn’t want her to worry about him. He was determined to be the best husband she could ask for.

That meant he needed to find out who or what was behind the small breakdowns, broken fences, and other problems on the ranch. He liked the feel of the sun on his skin and wondered why it felt both familiar and wrong at the same time. He pushed those fleeting memories away and concentrated on his surroundings. He knew if he tried to capture one of the images that flashed across his mind, he’d only end up more confused and with a big headache.

The eastern edge of the ranch was bordered by forested hills Marla had said was Federal land. He believed the intruders were using the trees for cover to get onto the property without being seen. He’d found some footprints but no sightings of people—yet. At the same time, he felt his patrols were helping because in the past four days, there had been no new problems with the animals or ranch. Tiring out his body with exercise also helped keep his constant arousal under control. Of course it only took a few minutes in Marla’s company for him to get hard again, no matter how tired he was.

The night before, Marla had taught him an activity called board games. They had played something called Monopoly. When she explained that all the properties actually existed in someplace called Atlantic City, he believed they were buying the actual properties. She wasn’t able to explain why the playing pieces were the shapes they were. He chose the shape she called a flat iron, which was strange because he flashed on the words KowLer star-fighter when he saw it. Luckily, he realized his error before he mentioned that belief to Marla. Many things she felt he should know, even with his memory loss.

After playing Monopoly, Marla had brought out a pile of stiff paper with various symbols on them she called cards. They had stayed up very late talking, laughing, and playing with the cards. Not wanting the night to end, they had fallen asleep on the couch. He still remembered the feel of having her in his arms. The wedding couldn’t come soon enough. He needed to have his arms around her again, preferably when they were both naked.

His heated and carnal thoughts were interrupted when he spotted some footprints. He started to follow them. Karlo was not aware of the change in his demeanor as he moved through the trees. He moved silently as he tracked what he could easily tell were two men. His memory might be faulty but his warrior skills were ingrained in his bones.

As he came to the end of the trees, he could see two men at the edge of Marla’s hay field. They were throwing some type of liquid onto the tall grass.

“Hurry up, we need to git outta here,” said one of the men.

“Do ya gots the matches?” asked the second man.

“You’re not going to need any matches,” growled Karlo as he stepped out from the trees. Unfortunately, the first man had already pulled out a lighter. Trying to buy them some time, he lit it and set the flame to the nearest blade of gasoline-soaked hay.

Karlo was running toward the two men. One came toward him to attack as the other set the field on fire. Karlo made short work of the man who came at him swinging a large can. All of his skills and muscle memory came to the fore and he knocked the first man to the ground. He didn’t stop because he saw the second man lighting the hay field on fire. There was a whoosh just before Karlo reached the second man.

The heat of the sudden fire caused both men to spring back. Karlo had to make a choice
—
stop the men or stop the fire. One glance at the flames and Karlo could see that they’d doused well the hay with the stinky fluid. There was no way he could halt the fire with his bare hands. He would need machinery to stop it.

He made a quick decision; he couldn’t save the field. Capturing the men would mean Marla would have justice. Karlo grabbed the man who had set the field alight. What he hadn’t counted on was the second man getting back up again. He was getting the first man under control when he was struck over the head.

“He’s seen us, Sonny,” said the second man.

“Yeah, help me with ‘im. He’s a big un,” said Sonny.

The two men tried to lift Karlo and found him to be really heavy. They threw him onto the flames and ran away into the woods.

Luckily, the alfalfa had been soaked with an accelerant, the grasses at the edge of the field burned fast and were nearly burnt. The weight of his body smothered most of the flames, and he wasn’t completely unconscious. When he felt the heat of the fire on his out flung hand, the pain dumped enough adrenaline into his bloodstream to get him up onto his feet.

His head swam as he stood. Looking around, he could see the field was burning. The fire had created its own wind and with the hay ready to be harvested, it had plenty of fuel. He needed to get back to the ranch. Marla would have the equipment needed to cut off the fire before it reached the pasture where her alpaca were.

At first he ran, the adrenaline still rushing through his bloodstream. He burst through the trees.

“Marla! Fire!” he shouted.

He looked toward the smaller second barn, when he heard the sound of an engine. Marla appeared driving her small tractor. She revved it up and tore out of the barn at high speed heading to the field.

“Grab some shovels and follow me!” she shouted back.

The only chance they had to keep the fire from spreading was to dig up a swath of earth to create a wide area of dirt where the fire hopefully couldn’t jump. The field that was burning was adjacent to the pasture where the animals were. Marla ran the tractor along the edge of the pasture fence. With the pasture cropped low on one side, there was less chance of the fire jumping the break she was making.