Hellfire, Texas (Hellfire #1) (3 page)

B
ecket drove around
behind the house and parked close to the back porch. He wasn’t sure who would be at the ranch house.

“I really think this is a bad idea,” Kinsey said. “You have a big family. The more people who know where I am, the more likely the information will get leaked.”

“You can trust my family. If I tell them to keep mum about you being here, I guarantee they will.”

“What are Rider, Chance, and Nash doing these days?”

Becket dropped down from his pickup and rounded to her side, opening the door before answering. “As I mentioned, Rider’s into cars. He bought an auto repair shop in Hellfire. He works long hours, so he rarely comes out to the ranch, preferring to stay at his apartment over the shop. When he doesn’t have his head under a hood, he’s pretty handy at day trading. But if you ask him, he’ll tell you he prefers working with his hands, restoring vintage cars and motorcycles.”

“He always did like tinkering with the equipment.” Kinsey grinned. “Your father would get so mad when he’d come looking for his chainsaw, tractor, or riding lawn mower. Rider usually had them torn into pieces. He always managed to put them back together, though.”

“And they ran better.” Becket grabbed her around the waist and swung her to the ground.

Kinsey’s face blanched and she swayed, bracing a hand on his chest.

Becket slipped an arm around her and held Kinsey against him. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” She gave him a wan smile. “Just a little dizzy. What is Chance up to?”

“He’s one of the few full-time firefighters and EMTs at the Hellfire Fire Department.”

She glanced up at him. “They have a full-time staff now? Wasn’t it all volunteer?”

“The town’s population has grown. People are moving out of the cities, wanting a simpler life away from the rat race.”

“Yeah, but that much?”

“You’d be surprised. In the last year, we’ve added a new grocery store, a small shopping center, a florist, and two new restaurants.” He chuckled and raised an eyebrow. “We even have a massage parlor.”

“Hellfire’s really moving up in the world to afford a full-time fire department.”

“We couldn’t afford a huge full-time staff, so we make do with volunteers, especially when fighting grass fires and structural fires in out of the way places.”

“Like the Coyote Creek Ranch.”

“Exactly.”

“And you’re a volunteer? Or are you full-time, along with full-time ranching and part-time architecture?”

He shook his head. “A volunteer. I have my hands full enough with the ranch and my firm.”

“Then why volunteer?”

“Partly for the training, but mostly to help others. If a fire spreads out of control, the destruction could make it to the ranch. Rather help nip the blaze in the bud before it gets too big to contain.”

Her gaze swept over him, lingering on his chest. “I take it you were training today.”

“What was your first clue?”

“Hmmm.” She held up her hands, smudged black from touching him. “I’d say the fine layer of soot was a dead giveaway.”

“You got it right.” He took her hand and led her toward the house. “We were practicing barn fires.”

Her hand squeezed his. “Sounds hot. And dangerous.”

“It was.”

“What about your sister, Lily? Does she still live at home?”

“She does. She’s a kindergarten teacher in Hellfire. During the summer, she hires out as an au pair and travels around the world with rich families, watching their kids.”

“Where’d she go this summer?”

“She hasn’t gone yet. Lily is in Dallas today, purchasing clothes and supplies for her trip to Guatemala to babysit for a rich Spanish banana farmer, who wants her to teach his children English while he and his wife visit relatives in Madrid.”

“Which leaves Senor Sanchez and his wife, Margarita.” Kinsey climbed the steps to the porch. “Margarita made the best
tamales
.”

“She’s still here, and she still makes great
tamales
.” Becket opened the back door and held it for Kinsey. “If we’re lucky, we’ll be served
sopapillas
when they return from San Antonio. Margarita always had a soft spot for you.”

Kinsey’s eyes clouded with tears as she stepped across the threshold into the huge kitchen. “I remember spending so many hours in here, eating lunch and helping her make cookies. I’m sure your parents got tired of feeding me.”

“My parents love kids. Hell, they had five of us. What was one more? They probably thought you were one of us.”

“I miss my folks.”

The sadness in her eyes cut straight through Becket’s heart. “I’m sorry for your loss. The good news is that when my father heard their land went up for sale, he bought it. But, they haven’t had time to do anything with the house or its contents. The place probably looks the same as the last time you visited. With an inch of fine Texas dust.”

“I didn’t know that. That entire time right after their accident was a blur. Dillon never visited my family with me, but he
did
take me to the funeral and insisted on me giving him power of attorney to handle their estate. He told me the money from the sale of my parent’s place went into paying off the mortgage, and other debts they’d incurred. There wasn’t much left. He said he put the remainder in a joint checking account, but he never gave me access.” Tears slipped down her cheeks, and she brushed them away. “I never had a chance to go through my parents’ things.”

Becket touched her arm. “We can go see the house while you’re here, if you like.”

Squaring her shoulders, Kinsey nodded. “I’d like that.” She glanced around the kitchen, drawing in a deep breath. “Smells like chocolate chip cookies.” Again, her eyes filled.

“I’m sure Margarita left some in the cookie jar. You’re welcome to them.”

She gave him a watery smile. “Thank you for taking me in. I don’t know what else I would have done.”

Becket pulled her into his arms. “Don’t worry. Dillon won’t find you here. And if he does, he’ll have to go through me, my brothers, my sister, Pedro, and Margarita to get to you.”

Kinsey laughed, her voice shaky. “And if you and your brothers aren’t scary enough, I saw Lily really mad when she was only ten years old. She scared me back then.”

The smile on Kinsey’s face was the one Becket remembered from when she’d been a leggy fifteen-year-old: happy, carefree, and full of hopes and dreams for the future. It killed him that Kinsey’s boyfriend had physically and mentally abused her into this insecure, frightened woman with bruises and scratches all over her body. “Lily doesn’t put up with crap,” Becket said. “I have a feeling she’d call bullshit on Dillon for what he did. I’ll bet we have to hold her back from going after the bastard.” Like Becket wanted to do. But to do that, he’d have to act against her wishes and reveal where Kinsey was hiding.

Becket couldn’t let the bastard get away with what he’d done. “I’m calling Nash.”

Kinsey touched his arm. “Please, don’t. If he’s still living here, he’ll be home soon enough. We can talk to him then.”

“I want him to keep an eye out for Dillon. If he shows up in town, I want to know immediately.”

“Dillon won’t be here that soon. My parents have been dead for a while. Hopefully, he won’t think I have anything to come back here for.”

“Why
did
you come back?” Becket held up a hand. “Not that I want you to leave already, but you don’t have blood relatives here.”

“I don’t know.” She lifted a shoulder. “I just kind-of headed out of Dallas. I had nowhere else to go. I wasn’t even sure what I’d do next. I ended up here.” She twisted the hem of her T-shirt. “I don’t have any money. I would have run out of gas soon, anyway, and as far as I’m concerned, I’m glad the car burned. A fire might be the best way of hiding it, short of pushing the wreck into a ravine.”

Not hardly
. “Unfortunately, someone is bound to put together the make and model with the one Dillon will report stolen.”

Kinsey inhaled deeply and let it out. “I’ll be gone by then.”

He tensed. “How? You just said you have no money. Hell, if your clothes were in that car, they’re gone, too.”

She laughed, the sound cold, flat, and without mirth. “I got away with only the clothes on my back. I didn’t dare take the time to pack anything. I brought the only thing I cared about.” Kinsey removed a wrinkled photo from the back pocket of her jeans and held it out.

Becket took the tattered, faded photograph. “A photo of your parents. I would think you would have inherited all of their photos.”

“Dillon claimed the will said everything was to be sold. I don’t remember much from the weeks following the funeral. I think he was glad when they died. Then I was all alone in the world. He didn’t have to be nice anymore. I didn’t have anyone who gave a damn about me, and he knew it.”

Becket didn’t have anything to say that could take away the hurt and pain in Kinsey’s eyes. Instead, he opened his arms.

Kinsey leaned into him, burying her face against his dirty, soot-stained, smelly shirt.

She didn’t seem to mind. Her arms slipped around his waist and she hugged him, clinging to him as though she might be torn away if she loosened her hold. After a while, even Becket couldn’t stand his own smoky smell. “Look, let’s get cleaned up and make a plan of attack for when the others get home. We have to be ready to field their questions, because I know they’ll have some. I’ll call Rider and have him come to the ranch for dinner tonight, as well. Since he lives in town, he might have a better vantage point, should Dillon show up.”

“I don’t want to be a bother.”

“Too late for that.” He kissed her forehead, the touch making his lips tingle. This was the teen who had followed him around like a loyal puppy. Only, she wasn’t a teen anymore. She was a beautiful young woman with all the right curves and long, silky hair a man liked to sink his hands into and tug until she tilted her chin to accept a real kiss.

A groan started up Becket’s throat, and he swallowed hard to keep it from being voiced.

“Is something wrong?” Kinsey blinked up at him.

“No. I’m just thinking. Lily is a lot taller, but she might have some clothes you could borrow.”

“I can wait until she returns from Dallas to ask her.”

“She might decide to stay in Dallas. I’m sure she won’t mind.” He took her hand, strode through the kitchen, and into the front foyer of the century-old two-story ranch house. “Come on, you can have Rider’s room since he’s not using it.”

Becket led her up the stairs and across the upper landing, stopping to open a door. “Make yourself at home. I’ll bring you some clothes.” The room was large, with mahogany furniture and a tasteful navy, cream, and brown comforter spread across the queen-size bed.

He moved down the hallway to another door. “I’m in the room next to you, if you need anything, and the bathroom is across the hallway from me.” He pushed open the door to a modest bathroom with two vanity sinks and a separate room for the shower and toilet. “Towels, shampoo, and soap are in the cabinet.”

“You should go first.”

“There’s a shower in the master suite I can use. I’ll lay Lily’s clothes on the vanity in here. Give me a few minutes’ head start. I don’t want to touch anything until I scrub off the black.” He grinned, white teeth standing out in his soot-covered face.

Kinsey ducked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, leaving it unlocked. She loaded her arms with a towel, washcloth, shampoo, and soap and entered the inner bathroom to find a tub-shower combination. Since she guessed Becket would take longer to wash the soot off his body, Kinsey filled the tub and dropped a fragrant bath oil bead she’d found in the cabinet into the water. Locking the inner door, she slipped out of her smoky dirty jeans, shirt, bra, and panties. A lump formed in her throat. The pathetic pile of clothes was all the worldly goods she possessed.

How would she start over if she didn’t have money, clothes to interview in, or a vehicle to get her to and from a job? She couldn’t rely on the Graysons forever. Her stay at the Coyote Creek Ranch could only be temporary.

Maybe she could go to San Antonio or Houston, and find a women’s shelter willing to take her in. Of course, first she’d have to get to there. Hitchhiking was dangerous, but her only choice with no money for food or transportation.

All the possibilities tumbled through her thoughts, making her body tense and her belly knot with the magnitude of what she’d done. No matter what, she vowed not to go back to Dillon. Her body and mind couldn’t take any more of his abuse.

Forcing the trauma of the last twenty-four hours out of her system, she settled into the warmth of the tub, allowing the water and the heavenly scent to soothe her ravaged soul. She leaned back and relaxed, letting the warm water loosen her muscles.

Her mind drifted to Becket. He was every bit as handsome as he’d been when she was a kid. Even more so. His shoulders had broadened, and his face had weathered with the sun and age. Those blue eyes were the same, and his crisp blond hair had grown longer.

His wife had been a fool, leaving him for another man.

Kinsey had to admit, she still carried a spark of her teenage crush inside. But having just left a really bad relationship, she was in no shape to start a new one.

A wash of dread threatened to spoil her soak in the tub.

Dillon wouldn’t let her go easily. He’d find a way to make her look unhinged, claim that she cried wolf about abuse. He had the money and the connections to make discredit her. Kinsey’s hand sluiced through the water, landing on her bruised rib. She winced, her resolve strengthening.

She refused to go back. Dillon might love her in his twisted, sick way, but she wasn’t strong enough to fend off his blows. One day, he might swing a little too hard and kill her. Whatever love she’d had for him had died over the past year. She was glad she hadn’t married the man, or had children with him. Her heart pinched. Kinsey couldn’t imagine a child brought up in such an abusive environment. Now that she was away from him, she could see all the damage he’d done. It would be a long time before she trusted another man claiming to love her.