Taste of Passion (Madaris Novels) (37 page)

Mackenzie smiled over at Tori Warren. Tori and Sir Drake had arrived in Reno on the same flight as she, and like the rest of the Madarises and their friends, had managed to get rooms at the same hotel. In fact their hotel room was right next door to hers.

“I can feel the excitement,” she responded. “Luke should be coming out in the next segment.”

“Let me know when he does so I can put my hands
over my eyes,” Syneda, who was sitting a couple of seats down, leaned forward and said to her with a smile.

Mackenzie couldn’t help but laugh, knowing how Syneda felt. But she had a feeling that her fearless husband-to-be would be just fine. During their phone conversation he had assured her that he was ready and felt confident in his abilities for tonight.

“The next bull rider up is Luke Madaris,” the announcer blasted out over the speakers. “This will be Luke’s first competition since tangling with a loose bull in Oklahoma and we’re glad Luke is back with us and ready to try and regain his title for this event. Let’s give him a big round of applause.”

From the sound that radiated from the stadium it was easy to see that Luke had become a favorite among the seasoned riders and fans. The arena nearly shook from the noise, and excitement had spread when everyone began applauding and throwing out cheers. Mackenzie pulled in a deep breath, overtaken by a rush of adrenaline driven by all the excitement. She couldn’t help but be proud of Luke and what he’d accomplished.

Once the noise had finally died down the announcer then added, “And to even the score, the bull Luke will be riding tonight is Scar Face, that same bull that tried doing Luke in a couple of months ago in Oklahoma City. Scar Face is the one bull Luke hasn’t been able to tame but he intends to change things tonight. And as most of you know there is no love lost between Luke and Scar Face.”

Mackenzie swallowed deeply as her rush of adrenaline changed direction and panic nearly engulfed her. She couldn’t help but recall what a mean-looking and ferocious bull Scar Face was and how upon rushing out of the gate that night he had immediately gone after Luke.

She held her breath while watching Luke ease his legs over the huge brindle’s back. Moments later Luke gave a nod indicating that he was ready. No sooner had that nod been given than the gate swung open wide and bull and rider flew out.

Scar Face was in rare form, but so was Luke. Mackenzie saw the smile on his face and she realized that even with all the danger involved in what he was doing, Luke was actually enjoying himself. That was evident in the way his face would light up each and every time the bull lurched and tried with all its might to buck Luke from his back. It was as if the raging bull had gone mad, but Luke held on as if he anticipated the bull’s every bucking move. It was clearly a defining moment for man versus beast.

The crowd’s roar exploded in Mackenzie’s ears. She nervously sat on the edge of her seat wondering how long it would last. How long could Luke hang on? And as if her question had been heard, the buzzer sounded, and when it was safe to do so, Luke jumped clear of the angry bull.

While the announcer was belting out Luke’s score over the speakers, proclaiming there was no way he hadn’t broken the current record-holder’s score. Instead of waiting for the judges to post his score, Luke glanced up in the stands in her direction, to the area where he knew she would be sitting.

Their eyes met and a huge smile touched his lips. It took her a second to realize he was racing across the arena toward her.

“What on earth is Luke doing?” she heard Blade ask.

“Not hard to figure out,” was Slade’s amused response.

Before she could catch her next breath, Luke had jumped over the rail, sprinted up a couple of seats, and landed right in front of her. “Now for that kiss, sweetheart.”

He pulled her into his arms and at that moment she forgot everything. Including the fact that everyone in the packed stadium was watching. Watching and hollering their approval.

When Luke finally released her mouth, leaving her in a somewhat dazed state, he smiled again before sprinting back the way he’d come and then disappearing behind the chutes.

“Wow! That was some kiss,” Tori said, smiling over at
her. And from the looks on the faces of the other women in the Madaris family, who were staring at her, Mac had a feeling they agreed.

But then she inwardly concurred that it had been some kiss as well.

Alex looked up from the computer when Christy walked into the room. Less than an hour ago, he had left her in bed naked after they’d shared hours and hours of lovemaking. Even now he could recall how before leaving the room he had glanced back to see how the glow from the lamp flowed over her, highlighting her features, especially the redness of her hair. She was and would always be the most beautiful of women to him.

Their eyes held as she slowly crossed the room to him and he eased away from his desk to accommodate her when she gracefully curled her body into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He automatically lowered his head.

His lips brushed hers. Once. Twice. And then he parted her lips with his tongue to go deeper and inwardly reminded himself there was no hurry. The baby was still sleeping and, hopefully, would sleep through the night. This was the time he enjoyed with his wife. Mommy and Daddy time. And Christy had a way of making it so special.

Moments later, he pulled back. “I think,” he murmured in a husky voice close to her moist lips, “that you’ve become an addiction.”

She smiled as her arms closed tighter around his neck. “For you. Always. I won’t deny I
want
to get in your blood.”

He shifted position in order to ease her closer. “Trust me, sweetheart, you’re already there.”

His gaze left her face to glance at his computer. “Now, if I could already be there with this thing involving Mac.”

“You still think you’re overlooking something?”

“Yes.”

She slowly nodded. “All right then. Tell me about it. It might help to have another ear.”

“Okay.” He then told her everything, the incident involving the mailbox, the ransacking of Mac’s office, and the poisoning of Jake’s cows. He also told her how the Coroni and Whitedyer situation had panned out with the finding of the body on land now owned by Whitedyer.

“And you’re saying that Whitedyer and Coroni are claiming they’re innocent of doing those things to Mac?”

“Yes, and when you think about it, neither had a motive to do so. Farley wanted to go up against Mac in the courtroom so he had no reason to scare her off, and then Coroni’s group would not have done anything to scare her off because they needed her to finalize the settlements they were aiming to get.”

Christy nodded. “In that case, there has to be another person involved, one not connected to either of those two.”

She tilted her head and studied Alex’s features and smiled. “But you’ve considered that already, haven’t you?”

He returned her smiled. “Yes. But who would want to harass her? I checked out her old boyfriend, the one both Detective Adams and Ashton told me about. His name is Lawrence Dixon. I found it odd that almost five years after their breakup he was still calling her; especially considering how he dumped her to marry a woman from a wealthy family.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment and then added, “But he appears to be clean, although his mobile phone records—which I was able to obtain a copy of last week—indicate he did call Mac on occasion. The last time was six months ago.”

Christy frowned. “Why would he bother calling Mac?”

“According to Detective Adams, when he went back and questioned Mac about it, she said Dixon only called when he wanted to gloat about a case he’d won and wouldn’t say anything about his wife. Their conversations were always brief and impersonal.”

“Umm, but . . .”

Alex lifted a brow. “But what?”

“But what if his wife didn’t know that and found out
about the calls he’d made to Mac? A jealous woman is known to do some pretty crazy things.”

Alex nodded. “I thought of that as well. But the Dixons were vacationing out of the country at the time of those incidents and—”

He stopped talking and suddenly frowned. “Wait a minute. That might be it. The one thing that I didn’t consider.”

“What?”

“A jealous woman.” He drew in a deep breath. “We may have been looking at this all wrong.”

With the confused look that appeared on Christy’s face, he went on to explain. “During this whole time we’ve assumed that the person behind those mischievous attacks on Mac was trying to get her attention. What if the target wasn’t really Mac but Luke, because of all the interest he’s been showing Mac lately?”

Christy’s eyes widened as she eased out of Alex’s lap and turned to him. “Luke?”

“Yes. Think about it for a second. You recall what Luke told us about that woman last year, the one who was beginning to get so possessive of him? I was even there with Clayton one day when Luke inquired what could be done if she continued to get out of hand.”

Christy nodded. “I remember, but that was last year.”

“Yes, but it’s worth checking out anyway. Her father owns a huge ranch on the outskirts of Oklahoma City so she was close by. The ranch has a large number of employees and it wouldn’t be hard for her to get one or two of them to do her dirty work.” He picked up the phone.

“Who are you calling?”

“Ashton. He’s attending the rodeo tonight. I’m going to tell him what I think and suggest that he present that possibility to Luke after the rodeo to see what he thinks.”

Mackenzie strolled into the corridor that led from the ladies’ room as she headed back toward the stairs to her seat. Luke had won all of the events he had competed in
so far and would be facing last year’s winner in the finals to achieve his goal of regaining his title.

“Excuse me, Ms. Standfield.”

Mackenzie turned toward the man who had stepped out of the shadows. Another cowboy dressed in a bull-rider’s garb. Mackenzie glanced up at him. “Yes?”

“Luke wants to see you. He’s over near the north chute and asked that I bring you to him.”

Mackenzie frowned. When she and Luke had talked earlier today, she had adamantly told him she would not be coming to the chute area. He needed his full concentration on regaining that title. He had taken her by surprise when he had sprinted across the arena to steal a kiss from her, but with the season title on the line the last thing he needed to think about was a little hanky-panky.

She placed her hand on her hips, throwing her hair over her shoulder and chuckled lightly, saying, “Sorry. Please go back and tell Luke that he knows our agreement and I’ll join him after the rodeo and not one minute sooner.”

Surprise flitted across the man’s face, and then Mackenzie’s blood suddenly chilled at the cold look that appeared in his eyes. She quickly moved to step around him but he caught hold of her wrist in a tight grip. “I hate to tell you but you’re coming with me anyway, and I wouldn’t make a sound of protest if I were you,” he said in a low voice. “I won’t hesitate to use this if I have to.”

Mackenzie glanced down and saw the small gun he held in his hand. She then looked back up into his face and held his gaze. Stark fear ran up her spine. “I don’t understand. Who are you and what do you want?”

“Your questions will be answered soon enough. Let’s go.”

She felt her heart thud deep in her chest. “To where?”

“You’ll know when we get there. And remember, don’t give anything away. I’ll use this thing if I have to.”

Ashton’s phone was answered on the first ring. “Alex?”

“Yes, it’s me,” was Alex’s response. He could hear a lot of noise in the background. “Enjoying the rodeo?”

“Yes. Luke made the finals,” Ashton said, trying to talk over the noise. “The last event of the night is when he tries out for the championship. There’s no doubt in my mind he’ll take home this season’s title. What’s up?”

As quickly as he could over all the noise in the background, Alex told Ashton his latest theory.

There was a pause and then Ashton said, “Umm, that is a possibility, although I can’t see a woman doing all those things alone. She would have had help.”