Untamed (13 page)

Chapter Six

It was dark by the time Ellie got home. She grabbed an armload of bags from the truck and made for the front door of the house. She fumbled with her key to unlock the door and balance the bags.

After putting away the food, she headed straight for the shower. Twenty minutes later, she returned to the kitchen to start fixing dinner. She washed some new potatoes, chopped some onion and carrots. She piled all the vegetables and a potroast into a disposable roasting pan.

Fresh green beans went in a pot to cook and she put on water for tea. As soon as it came to a boil, she plunked in a couple of family sized tea bags and turned off the burner. She’d fix some biscuits when it got closer to dinnertime but for now, everything was done. There was nothing left to do but wait.

Ellie wandered to the spare bedroom, turned on the overhead light and stood in the middle of the room, slowing turning to look at the paintings that lined all four walls. The light from the rickety ceiling fixture cast a yellowed harsh and uneven light. She let her eyes move from one image to the next.

Suddenly her eyes spotted something—something she had not noticed before. There was a discolored line running through almost every image, barely discernable. She moved closer. Had it not been for the light she would not have noticed. But it was there. Not in the same place or the same shape, but every painting had a line that moved and curved through it.

Why had he done that?

The more she looked the more she realized that if she changed the order of the paintings, some of the lines would meet. Eager to see what the result would be, she started moving paintings around like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. She was so caught up in it that she jumped at the sound of her phone ringing.

Ellie ran to the kitchen and snatched up her phone from the counter. It was Cam. “Hello?”

“Hey there. You ‘bout ready for that dinner company?”

“I sure am.”

“Then open the door sugar cause I’m standing on your doorstep.”

Ellie hurried to the door and pulled it open. Cam stood there with a six-pack in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other.

“For you.” He handed her the flowers.

“Really? Thank you. That was so sweet. Oh, I’m sorry. Come on in. I’ll see if I have something to put these in and you can put the beer in the fridge. Dinner should be ready any… oh shit, I forgot to make the biscuits!”

She hurried into the kitchen and started opening cabinets, looking for something to put the flowers in. The only thing she found was an old-style kettle with no top. She ran water into it, added the flowers, and set it in the center of the table.

“Okay, biscuits.” She said over her shoulder. “I hope you don’t mind but they’re store-bought. Frozen. I’ve eaten them before and they’re pretty good.”

“Fine by me.”

She gave him a smile, plopped the frozen circles of dough on a disposable baking pan and slid them in the oven on the rack beneath the pot roast.

“Want a beer?” Cam asked. “Damn, I forgot, sorry.”

“It’s okay. I made some tea.”

“I thought you hated the water.”

“They had Carolina Mountain Water at the store.”

“Seriously. You bought water from the Carolinas?”

“Well duh.” She said and pulled out the plastic water jug she’d used to store the tea. “The stuff y’all call water here is nasty.”

“That’s why we have an R/O system on the water for the house.”

“Yeah well apparently my father saw no need for such luxuries as you can tell.”

“You have a point. So did you finish going through all his things?”

“Oh! While the bread cooks let me show you something.”

He followed her to the spare bedroom and winced when she turned on the overhead light in the room. “I know,” she said. “It’s horrible but it shows something I didn’t see before. Just look.”

Cam looked at the wall on the opposite end of the room. His eyes moved from left to right, then down and back to the left. As they started another trek to the right, he suddenly jerked his head back to the left. “Hey, wait! Is that… it looks like a line,” He moved to one of the paintings. “See, right here. You can barely see it but it starts here in the upper left corner and moves down at a forty-five degree angle then out horizontal to almost three quarters of the painting and then it heads straight down.”

He turned and she smiled at him. “Yes. It’s on all of them. It didn’t show up in natural light but does in this light.”

“So what is it?” He looked back at the paintings. “Hey, there’s another. And wait, there’s one there, too.”

“It’s on all of them,” she said.

“But why?”

Ellie gnawed her bottom lip for a moment. She didn’t want to sound crazy.

“Ellie?”

“I think…I don’t know. It’s like a puzzle.”

“A puzzle? Of what?”

“I don’t know. But I need to figure it out.”

They spent the next fifteen minutes rearranging paintings. The timer on her phone sounded. “Oh the bread is ready. Come on, let’s eat.”

After serving plates and taking seats at the table, they continued the conversation. “So if it is a puzzle what’s the answer? A white horse and connected lines.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s a clue to….”

“A puzzle with clues to who knows what? That doesn’t make sense.”

“You’re probably right. But something else happened.”

“What?”

She told him about the phone call, the flat tire, and the note on her truck.

“Show me.”

Ellie fetched the note and handed it to him. Cam read it and she could see the anger on his face. “This is a threat, Ellie. A direct threat. You’re not safe here.”

“What could be so important here that someone would threaten me, Cam? His paintings?”

“Or the puzzle they form.”

Shock rippled through her. “But how could anyone know about it?”

“I don’t know, but until we find out you’re not staying here. I want you to get your things. You’re coming to the ranch.”

“I can’t just leave.”

“Yes, you can.”

“But the paintings. The puzzle. I have to figure out—“

“And we will. But not here. We’ll take them to the ranch. They’ll be safe there. And so will you.”

“You’re scaring me, Cam.”

“You should be scared. Now, do me a favor and pack whatever you need. I’ll back my truck up to the front door and we’ll load all of the paintings in it.”

She didn’t know what to say, and the look on his face said he wasn’t going to take any argument. She stood and took her plate to the counter, scraped it off in the trashcan then placed it in the sink.

“We can’t go,” she said as she looked through the window over the sink.

“Why not?”

“It’s raining. I can’t let the paintings get ruined.”

“Then I’ll stay here. I have my handgun and a shotgun in the truck. I’ll go get them.”

“Cam, wait!” She rounded the table as he headed for the front door. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I know I don’t but I’m doing it.”

“Why?”

His answer was to take her into his arms and hold her tight. Ellie never thought that an embrace could be more meaningful than a kiss but this one was. She felt safe in his arms, safe in a way she hadn’t known she craved. It was like the feeling you have as a child when you have a nightmare and your parent comes to hold you close and keep the demons at bay. It was like…like coming home.

In that instant, it hit her. She was falling for Cam Marsh. Again. Hard.

“I’m going to protect you from the snakes, Ellie.”

She nodded, keeping her face pressed against his chest. At length he released her. “I’m going to get my guns. Make sure all of the windows are locked and drapes are pulled, okay?”

“Okay.”

She hurried around the house, pulling the drapes closed over the windows that had them and making sure everything was locked. Cam came in, a shotgun in one hand and his handgun in a holster clipped to his belt.

“Cam…”

“It’s okay. Come here.”

Ellie ran to him, wrapping her arms around him as he pulled her close. “It’ll be okay, honey. I’m here and I’m not going anywhere. Chances are no one will try anything with me here, but in the morning we’re taking the note to the department.”

She nodded.

“It will be okay. I promise.”

Ellie pulled back far enough to look up at him. “Why would someone want this place bad enough to try and scare me away? Look around. It’s…it’s just an old house. The only thing of value is…well, maybe the land and I guess the paintings, but is that worth—“

“The paintings!” Cam pulled her along as he headed for the room where the paintings were stored.

“What?” She asked as he turned on the light.

“It’s the paintings. Look, you’ve already started connecting it, Ellie. These lines, they connect all the paintings. Just like a puzzle. So we need to finish the puzzle.

“There’s not enough room. There are still— what, twenty-five paintings I didn’t have room to hang.”

“Then we move them to the living room. It’s bigger.”

“I’ll get the hammer and nails. You start taking them down.”

Ellie ran for the kitchen where she stored her toolbox. Cam walked through with an armload of paintings a moment after she took the box from the cabinet beneath the sink.

It took them an hour to get all of the paintings hung on the wall. Ellie turned on the overhead light. “The lines don’t show.”

“They have to. They did in the other room.”

“Maybe it’s the bulb.”

They raced to the bedroom where Cam removed the shade from the fixture. The bulb was one of those people buy as a so-called “bug” light. Cam removed it and switched the bulb in the fixture in the living area with the bug light.

The lines once again showed up. They started rearranging the paintings. Hours passed. Finally, Ellie sat down on the floor. “There are pieces missing. There…” She pointed to the wall with the front door. “Between those two on the third row down. And there…” She pointed toward the opposite wall. “Near the floor.”

“You gave one to Lily. We can get it in the morning. Did you give away any others?”

She shook her head. “No. That’s all there were.”

“Okay, but we have the most of it and the bigger question is what does it mean?”

He took a seat on the floor beside her. Ellie looked around the room. “I wish I knew. God, I’m tired. I don’t want to think about this anymore. I just want to… to…”

She turned toward Cam. “I want to go to bed.”

“You want to…“

God did she ever, but she wasn’t about to initiate that. She wanted to have sex with Cam Marsh in the worst way, but not when she was scared and upset.

“Sleep. I want to sleep. I want to feel safe for one night and sleep.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Really?”

“Absolutely. I told you, honey. I’ll protect you.”

“From the snakes, I know.” She smiled at him.

“And anything else that scares or threatens you.” He stood and held out his hand. “Come on. Let’s get some sleep.”

She took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.  Together they made their way down the hall to the bedroom. Cam sat down on the bed, pulled off his boots and socks then stood, removed his handgun, and placed it on the nightstand. He then reached for the buckle of his belt but stopped.

Ellie was in the process of turning back the covers on the bed. “I don’t expect you to sleep in your clothes, Cam.”

He smiled and undressed down to boxer briefs. Ellie busied herself getting a long t-shirt out of the rickety bureau, trying not to stare. But that was impossible. Cam was fine with a capital F. More than fine. He was gorgeous.

And he was sitting on the bed in his boxers, watching her. Ellie felt a stab of insecurity. How in the hell was she going to change clothes with him sitting there watching? It wasn’t like she’d never been naked in front of a man, but she hadn’t had a man in her life in a while so she was a little rusty.

“Problem?” he asked.

She stood there, clutching her t-shirt and feeling like a total fool. “I— uh— I have to use the bathroom.”

With that, she fled to the bathroom, closed the door behind her, and leaned back against it. She’d imagined Cam without his clothes too many times to count and could honestly say that this was one of those rare cases in which the fantasy did not live up to the reality.

She was quite certain she didn’t want him to see her naked, and underneath her shirt and shorts there was nothing since she had not yet done laundry. Ellie quickly stripped and pulled on the oversized t-shirt. She wished she had clean underwear but that’s what she got for letting the laundry go.

Get over it. It’s not like he’s trying to get in your pants anyway. You’re just going to sleep. That’s it. Just sleep.