Luke (Armed and Dangerous Book 2) (17 page)

“You don’t have any place to go for Christmas?” Trinity asked after she tossed a card onto the discard pile. Her green eyes were wide, as though she felt concerned that he’d be alone over the holidays.

He smiled as his gaze met hers. Wouldn’t hurt to tell a bit of the truth. “If I don’t show up Christmas Day for some of my mama’s roasted turkey, cornbread stuffing, and her special pecan pie, she’ll never forgive me.”

“And I’ll bet you’d never disappoint her,” Trinity said softly, looked to the cards in her hand. “You have a big family—I remember you telling me that. How many brothers and sisters?”

“Two of each.” He grinned at the thought of them. “And between all of them, damn near a dozen nieces and nephews. Miss them like hell.”

Her eyebrows raised in surprise. “I can’t imagine what that’s like.” She gestured toward her sister with one of her cards. “For so long it’s just been the two of us, except for Zack horning in now and again.”

“Hey,” Zack grumbled. “I don’t horn.”

Rylie snickered, and Zack acted like he was about throw his cards at her.

“Not talking about horns. TMI.” Skylar nodded to Luke. “It’s your turn, Rider.”

He studied his cards. Two pair, not too bad. “I’ll hold.”

“Come on, Texas.” Trinity’s eyes played off his face. “I already know you’re bluffing.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?”

“Your drawl.” Her eyes focused on Luke. “It gets worse when you’re holding back on something.”

Well, shit.

“Is something going on between you two that we ought to know about?” Rylie interrupted in her usual direct manner. “It’s your play, Trinity.”

Luke smiled as Trinity’s cheeks flushed again and she studied her cards.

“I’ll hold. I think.” She frowned and looked at them again. “Yes, I’ll hold.”

Before Trinity had the chance to bug Luke about bluffing again, Luke asked Zack something about Satan, that spoiled-rotten bull of Skylar’s.

As the night progressed, and more beer and wine had been consumed, the whole evening took on a surreal feel to Trinity. No one seemed to notice the times that Luke would deliberately brush her breast with his hand, or lean close to whisper in her ear.

Then Luke slipped one hand under the table and caressed her thigh.

She froze, her gaze locked on her cards. Afraid to move and afraid to make a sound, like someone at the table might notice that Luke’s hand was creeping up the inside of her thigh under her dress. Even though everyone seemed wrapped up in the poker game, or tipsy from the alcohol, how could they not notice that Luke only had one hand on the tabletop?

Yet she couldn’t get herself to make him stop.

While play continued, the chatter around the table was nothing more than a loud buzzing noise to Trinity’s ears. She stared at her cards, not seeing them at all as Luke’s finger reached the center of her panties. If anyone had asked her at that moment what she had in her hand, she wouldn’t have been able to name the cards. No matter that she was staring right at them.

Luke slid his fingers inside the elastic, and touched the soft curls underneath.

She almost closed her eyes. Oh, jeez. She had to make him stop.

Mindlessly she tried to play the poker game as his finger entered her wetness and stroked. If it wasn’t for Luke whispering suggestions throughout each hand, she would have lost everything within moments.

She could smell his flesh, could smell her own arousal. Could everyone else smell it, too?

The sensations in her abdomen grew stronger and tighter, and she knew she was close to climax. “You can’t scream,” Luke whispered in her ear. “You’re gonna have to hold it in, sugar.”

Trinity bit down hard on her lower lip as the orgasm took hold of her body and shook it like a mesquite tree in a summer storm. She braced her hand on her forehead and looked down, shielding her face from everyone at the table as her body trembled, and Luke’s finger drew the climax out even longer.

“You all right, Trinity?” Skylar asked through Trinity’s alcohol and orgasm haze.

Luke slipped his hand out of Trinity’s panties and she fought to control her breathing, to let her heart rate slow to a normal pace.

“Too much wine,” Trinity mumbled and rubbed her temples with her thumb and forefinger. “I think I’m done for.”

Luke chuckled and murmured so that only she could hear, “Like I’ve already told you, sugar, we haven’t even started yet. You just let me know when you’re ready.”

Trinity tossed and turned in her bed, slipping in and out of a misty dream world.

The poker game went on and on, like it was never going to end.

And then she was on her back on the table, her dress hiked up around her waist and Luke sliding deep inside her.

Everyone continued playing around them, tossing their now rainbow- colored poker chips onto Trinity’s bare belly. Even as Luke took her, she realized the poker chips on her belly were actually condoms. Lots and lots of condoms across her stomach and scattered across the table, but Luke hadn’t put one on.

He kept driving into her, the game around them never stopping. Skylar and Rylie repeated something that sounded like poison, poison, while Zack and Levi responded with fire, fire.

All Trinity knew was that she needed to come so bad she couldn’t stand it. But the tension in her abdomen only intensified until she thought she’d lose her mind...

And then she was alone.

Utterly and completely alone. Standing somewhere dark and cold, like a cave, and she was entirely naked.

Where was Luke? Without him she felt incomplete, lonely even.

Trinity didn’t know what had happened, or where she was, but something in her gut suddenly told her that Skylar was in danger.

She had to find her sister. Had to help her.

And then Trinity was out in the open. She ran across the dream desert... she dodged through tumbleweeds and mesquite bushes, hurrying toward the barn. Yes, that was it. She had to get to the barn. She had to hurry—

Trinity’s eyes flew open and she stared up at the white canopy above her bed. Her heart raced like she’d really been running and she couldn’t catch her breath.

Her limbs trembled as she sat up in bed and braced her back against the headboard with her arms on her knees. That horrible feeling that something was wrong wouldn’t go away. She’d never been superstitious. Never been one to believe in dreams or intuition, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she should get up and go check on things. Why, she didn’t know, but she just had to do it.

A sense of urgency took over. She hurried out of bed, pulled her nightgown over her head and tossed it onto a chair. After she yanked on her sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt, she stuffed her feet into her Nikes. She grabbed her jacket as she headed down the hall and toward the front door.

Someone had left on the Christmas lights, and they helped her make her way without stumbling. Blue stirred in the kitchen and Trinity heard the dog’s nails click against the tile as he followed her into the living room.

“You sense it too, don’t you, boy?” Trinity murmured as she neared the window.

Blue’s ears pricked forward as he jumped up and rested his front paws on the windowsill and looked out into the night with Trinity.

Everything was still. Nothing moved.

And then Blue growled.

Trinity was about to look at him when she thought she saw a flicker at the far end of the barn, where the storage room was, and her skin chilled. There it was. Stronger now. Like a flashlight... but different.

Her heart pounded and she started to yell for Zack and Skylar, that there was an intruder, when she realized what the flicker was.

Fire.

Blue growled and then barked, loud and sharp, and Trinity shouted at the top of her lungs, “Fire in the barn! Fire in the barn!”

She ran toward their bedroom door, still yelling, but as she reached it Zack came crashing out, pulling on his boots, his pants undone and shirtless.

“Fire in the barn,” Trinity repeated frantically. She turned and ran for the front door, yanking it open and barreling into the night, screaming, “Fire! Fire!”

Blue barked at her heels and Trinity didn’t stop yelling as she ran toward the barn. So many animals. She had to help get them out!

The acrid odor of smoke met her as she neared the barn. She coughed and choked as she tried to shout some more.
The bell!
Trinity dove for the ancient bell and grabbed the rope hanging down from it and pulled.

It started clanging, loud and clear in the night. Above the noise she could already hear the shouts of men and saw them running toward the barn.

Smoke poured from the barn and the horses screamed their fright from inside. She’d seen the fire at the opposite end of the barn, and so far no flames from the barn door.

Trinity released the bell’s rope and dived for the lights, flooding the barn with a yellow glow that blinded her for a second. She yanked off her jacket and tied the arms around her head so that her nose and mouth were covered, but she could still see. Dodging inside the barn, she ran toward Dancer’s stall.

Men shouted behind her, and Trinity thought she heard someone calling her name, but she didn’t care about anything except getting those animals out.

Smoke burned her eyes as she reached Dancer. The mare was wild-eyed and frantically pawing at the stall door. Trinity climbed up the side of the gate, took the jacket from her face, and covered Dancer’s eyes with it before releasing the bolt lock, speaking to the mare in low, steady tones and calming her down.

As she led Dancer out of the barn, the smell of smoke nearly overwhelmed her. She heard shouts, saw men rushing back and forth, and knew they were fighting the fire. Everything seemed to be a blur, a horrific kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, smells, and sensations.

When she finally made it out of the barn with Dancer, Trinity led the horse to the closest corral. The teenaged ranch hand Luke had been teaching helped her open the gate and put the mare safely inside. Clenching her jacket in her hands, Trinity rushed back to the barn, set to go in again.

Someone grabbed her from behind and whirled her around. “What the hell are you doing?” Luke’s face was streaked with smoke and his furious glare focused on her.

“I’m getting the animals out!” She tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her go.

“It’s too damned dangerous in there.” Luke gripped her arm and started dragging her toward the far end of the barn. “That smoke could kill you,” he said as he brought her to where the men were fighting the fire with hoses and buckets and fire extinguishers. A sigh of relief rushed through her when she realized the fire was almost out.

“Get a bucket and help from this end,” he said in a tone she’d never heard from him before. “If you try to go into that barn again before I say it’s safe, I’ll tie you to the fence post.”

With that he strode back to where the men were still throwing buckets of water on the fire from the stock tanks, and spraying it down with the hose. Trinity’s first instinct was to be furious with him for his high-handedness, but then she realized what it was she’d heard in his tone and seen in his eyes.

He’d been scared for her. Afraid something had happened, or that something would happen to her. Scared in a deep, real way that unsettled him.

It unsettled her, too.

The man really did care about her, didn’t he?

Trinity watched Luke work to finish putting out the fire, and her thoughts kept focusing on one sentence.

I really think I’m ready.

Over and over again,
she said it to herself.

I’m ready. Luke. When all this craziness settles down, when we have a chance to get our thoughts and minds and bodies together—

I’m ready.

If she’d thought it was all a blur before, it seemed even more so, later. By the time the fire was completely out and all the animals treated and returned to their stalls, dawn was breaking. Trinity was so tired that she could hardly see straight. Her muscles ached, her eyes and throat burned, and she felt like she’d sleep for a week.

While the men had fought the fire and made sure all the animals were safe and tended, Skylar had called the sheriff’s office. Clay Wayland had arrived by the time the fire was out, and spent time going over the scene with Zack, Levi, Luke, and any ranch hand still able to walk and help.

Once they’d taken a good look around, Clay felt pretty certain the fire had been deliberately set. After Zack and Trinity put Skylar to bed, Zack, Levi, Clay, and Luke talked a lot about the postcard Skylar had found, and whether or not it was related.

Noah Ralston showed up after that, and the five men hashed out possibilities long past the point Trinity could understand, or even listen. Sure seemed like Luke knew a lot more about crime investigations than most ranch foremen would probably know.

Trinity tried to stay awake long enough to ask if anybody had found footprints for her to analyze, but she figured she was getting delirious. She could hardly keep her eyes open, and she didn’t protest when Luke insisted she get back to the house, take a shower, and then get to bed.

He didn’t say another word about her running into the barn like she had. Instead he escorted her into the house, kissed the top of her head, and then left her staring out the living room window and watching him walk away.

“But I’m ready,” she mumbled after him as he went back to Clay, Zack, Levi, and Noah—and other men were showing up, too. Foremen from other ranches. Like Rios. Trinity recognized him as one of Luke’s friends. Brad Taylor was there, and even Wade Larson.

If Guerrero had pulled this stunt—and for the life of her, Trinity couldn’t figure out why he’d do such a stupid thing—the drug lord had stirred up a hornet’s nest.

As Trinity dragged herself into the shower, she thought about Guerrero, and how he wouldn’t even be expecting trouble until all the hornets came buzzing in to sting him to death.

On Saturday, Luke stood behind Trinity at the firing range as she aimed the handgun at the target. “That’s it, sugar,” he murmured, even though she couldn’t hear him through the protective ear coverings she wore. “You’re doing fine.”