Pretty Reckless (Entangled Ignite) (20 page)

While I was trying to think how best to tackle him on that issue, Nathan hooked an arm around my neck. “Are you okay?” he asked when I ducked out from under his arm, slid a few feet away, and squared to face him.

“No,” I told him. “We need to talk. Do you mind if we call it a night?”

He stepped closer, angling into the light from the barn to get a better view of my face. “You do look sort of sick.”

I faked a smile. “I’d just like to go now, please.”

“If that’s what you need, then let’s go. I’ll just get our coats.” He hurried through weathered, wind-beaten barn doors.

When he returned, we headed for his truck. Gunner’s Yukon was already gone when we arrived. I assumed he was delivering Luke to lockup, but didn’t want to think too much about it. At that moment, I wasn’t sure I cared whether or not either of them made it to the jail in one piece.

I hauled myself into Nathan’s truck. “Do you mind swinging by your place so I can get my pickup?”

“No problem,” Nathan replied. “Just don’t take all night. I’ve got an early appointment tomorrow.”

“I can manage that.”

He turned over the engine, and we took off.

I was moody the entire drive. Funny how it’d only taken me a week to screw myself over. I knew Gunner would be trouble, but shame on me for leading Nathan on—and for not having the balls to stand up to him when he vented his anger toward Gunner at me. Still, all I wanted to do was sweep the whole incident under the rug, let Nathan call foul, and let me walk away. But as we drove up the drive to Bovine Health Services, I could sense it would be a cold day in hell before Nathan would forgive my indiscretions. And that was the issue that would keep me awake at night and the issue that scared the living daylights out of me.

Nathan parked the truck, opened the driver-side door, and stepped out under dimly lit night sky. I followed suit and rounded the front fender, coming face-to-face with the man who might have been involved in the murders of three people as well as my dog, the one I was fixing to erase from my life for good. Standing here in the dark, nervous and cold, alone with a man I was just coming to see could be highly irrational when things didn’t go exactly the way he planned…well, I knew what I had to do, but I was having reservations about calling it quits.

I looked him in the eyes. “I can’t keep doing this Nathan. You and me, this thing we call a relationship…” I began to slip off my engagement ring, trying to keep my voice even and not give away the darker aspects of my thoughts. “I gave my heart to a reckless cowboy years ago. I thought that part of my life was over, but it’s not. If I stay with you, I’ll only be hurting us both.” I cupped the diamond in my hand and pushed my fist at Nathan’s crossed arms. “I don’t want to hurt you, Nathan, especially not like that.”

He smiled calmly. “You’ll be back.” He leaned into me, and could I feel his hot, sweaty breath rake over me. The touch of his mouth brushed my neck, bringing a chill to my spine. “Keep the ring, babe. Consider it a token of the affection I had for you and Hank. Besides”—he took a step back—“I have the feeling once Gunner taps your tail again, he’ll move on like always.”

And then he was gone. And all I was left with was a slapping screen door and the icy realization that Luke might not just be yanking my chain.

Nathan might really be the murderer we were looking for.

Chapter Sixteen

I shut the wipers off and let my pickup idle in the rain outside the Pistol Rock Motor Lodge. I’d gone by the station first to see if Gunner was there, but the Yukon was nowhere to be seen. Only Elroy and Luke, his single prisoner, had been there. And Luke had clammed up tight and wasn’t talking to me other than to tell me to go fuck myself if I was going to let some shitfaced Texas Ranger do him in when he was just trying to be a good citizen.

I’d thought about pointing out that if Luke had come clean from the start regarding his personal whereabouts and what he thought he’d seen the night Pacey Monroe and Bosley Conrad’s cows died, then he wouldn’t be sleeping on the jail cot for the night.

Truthfully, it had surprised the hell out of me, seeing Gunner arrest him for obstruction. The fact that Luke remained in jail when his father could probably have called Dobbs and gotten him freed surprised me even more. That’s the way the good ol’ boy network worked: money talked, children walked.

I eyed Gunner’s vehicle now, parked in its slot outside his room, and the lights were on inside. I exhaled, allowing myself the luxury to breathe again, then glanced at the glove box where I’d stuffed the ring Nathan had told me to keep. The feel of his breath on my neck when he’d mentioned Hank still gave me the willies. Realizing that he’d shown up to take care of me right after the truck from which my dog’s body had been dumped roared away…that sent a chill down my spine.

I did not want to be alone tonight.

Rain spilled down my face as I scooted out of the truck. I flipped my drenched hair out of my eyes and bent to slip off my heels. Straightening, I told the nagging voice in the back of my mind to shut up, that this was only about me being afraid to stay alone while Nathan dealt with our break up and I dealt with the uneasy thought of what he might be capable of, and made my way across the lot, sloshing through the puddles to room six.

Gunner answered the door at the very moment I stepped back to wait for him and water rushed off the overhang, drenching me. Nodding, he took in my sodden appearance.

“Wondered when you’d show,” he drawled.

“What do you know about Nathan and Pacey and Skinny and Hank that you haven’t told me yet?” I said boldly, shoving past him into the room.

“You didn’t ask about Bosley,” he countered, stepping aside to let me in.

I dropped my heels near the door and headed for his bathroom. Under the right circumstances, I liked to be wet and sweaty and nailed down by Gunner in the throes of sex. This very motel room had seen that action between us more than once. But that was years and history ago, and all I felt right now was totally soaked and awkward.

“Let me dry off, and I’ll be right back,” I muttered and shut the bathroom door on him.

“Sure,” Gunner called after me. “You get out of my bathroom, I’ll be here. We can talk.”

Then I heard him mutter under his breath, “Or something.”

The thought gave me even more gooseflesh than I already sported after getting chilled by the rain.

Quickly, I stripped and dried off. He’d left one of his T-shirts hanging on the back of the door, so I grabbed it and slid it on. It fell to my knees and made me look like something the cat dragged in, but maybe that was a good thing under the circumstances. Running a hand through my hair in an attempt to detangle it after toweling it dry, I opened the door to the room where Gunner had deflowered me.

He stood on the other side of the room near the windows, scowling, looking like he was debating whether to feed me to the wolves or kiss me. My body, traitor that it was, found this enticing—I could feel my nipples tightening to pinpoints against the shapeless cotton shirt. I, who preferred sex to confrontation of any sort—witness my willingness to have Nathan on top of me—licked my lips and eyed the bed.

Gunner’s glower deepened.

Swallowing, I darted my gaze at the mini-fridge. “Do you have anything to drink?”

“A drink.” Gunner huffed and moved away from the window. “What the hell. I could use a cold one.” He went to the fridge and squatted, stretching the tight Wranglers around his firm ass as he opened the door. “Will beer do?” He pulled out two Bud Lights and rose.

“I’m not complicated,” I replied.

Gunner snorted. “Right,” he said. “Almost as uncomplicated as a wounded cougar in a corner.” He cracked open both beers and handed me one. “Spit it out, Laney. What do you want?”

I took a harsh swallow of beer, sucking up courage. “That stuff Luke said about Nathan,” I said finally, “it’s true, isn’t it? You knew it before he confirmed it.”

His lips twisted in a kind of shrug. “I suspected.”

He set his beer on the nightstand and stretched out on the bed to lean back against the headboard. Heat flushed my cheeks as I watched his T-shirt hike up his stomach to reveal a portion of his ripped six pack and the dark curls that peaked out from the low-slung waistline of the jeans I hadn’t realized were unsnapped and half unzipped.

“Like what you see?” he asked. When I gulped but didn’t look up, he made a two-fingered motion from his fly to his face. “You’re engaged,” he reminded me. “Eyes, up here.”

Guiltily, my gaze jumped to his face. Shit. Caught. Embarrassed, I scanned the room for somewhere else to rest my eyes. The desk chair caught my attention, so I hauled it out and sat, self-consciously pulling that now damned inadequate T-shirt down over my knees. Why had I come here again? “Why did you arrest Luke for obstruction when you know either Mitch will just bail him out in the morning, or Dobbs will let him go the minute he gets wind of it?”

He lifted and dropped a shoulder. “Dobbs doesn’t have jurisdiction over my prisoners. If he turns Luke loose, I can hook him up for obstruction, too.”

“But—”

He shook his head and held up a finger for me to let him finish. “Look, Laney, Luke is a key witness in at least one murder investigation and probably more. We know Dobbs is dirty, but we need proof. Your fiancé—”

“He’s not my fiancé,” I said quickly, ripping that bandage off my wounds and wiggling my ring finger at him, “I ended it before I came here.” And wasn’t that just the stupidest admission I’d ever made to him.

He looked at me, eyes darkening. Then he took a deep breath and roused himself from wherever his thoughts had taken him. “Okay, so, Dobbs is dirty”—he ticked his fingers one by one—“Bosley was deep in financial difficulties and so is Nathan, if Luke can be believed. I’m still not sure how Pacey comes into this, but—again, if Luke can be believed—Nathan and Bosley were seen arguing the night before Pacey and Arrowhead Range’s cows died. We also know that the Wagners were after the Arrowhead Range land, and they got their hands on it almost the minute Bosley died.”

I nodded, trying to keep up, even though the whole thing made my head hurt with the plot convolutions. Add to that the distraction of staring at Gunner as he lay jacked up on the bed, and my brain was gone.

Gunner tapped his fifth or sixth finger—I’d lost count. “Skinny was known to cook meth and deal other drugs on a modest scale, and ketamine is being bought and sold throughout the area. As a vet, Nathan has access to as much ketamine as he can use. Skinny was killed in Dobbs’s jail cell on Dobbs’s watch.”

He looked at me and took another deep breath. “We know the cows were killed by someone mixing poison parsley into their water supply. Bosley is the likely culprit if he was looking for an insurance payout, but what if he hired Nathan to do it in exchange for a portion of the insurance and Pacey found out?”

“But…” I started and subsided. I’d been about to say that I thought Nathan was out of town the night Pacey died, but he hadn’t left for his Houston meeting until after. He could have been anywhere that night for all I knew. Still, the idea seemed insubstantial to me. “Are you saying you think Nathan is somehow involved with both the ketamine trafficking and Bosley’s dead cows as well as Pacey’s death?” I shook my head. “And you think Dobbs murdered Skinny and…” I squinted. “And that he’s also responsible for the drive-by that killed Bosley, which would mean that he…what? Took a payoff from Mitch Wagner to…” I looked for the word. “…facilitate Wagner’s acquisition of Bosley’s farm?”

Gunner grinned at the question, and I rolled my eyes. Wow, look at me! Big legal words comin’ out of my butt.

“That’s where I’m sorta headed.” He gave me an appreciative once over that made me realize I’d slumped back in the chair as we talked, and his T-shirt was now riding high up my thighs and exposing the crotch of my almost non-existent panties. “But I can’t think with you distracting me like this.” He watched me slouch forward as I hauled the shirt back over my knees and slid his way down the bed toward me. “So,” he said, reaching the foot and leaning over his knees toward me, “no more you and Nathan?”

My breath caught and I shook my head. “No,” I said hoarsely, “no more Nathan.”

He reached out and roughly cupped my face. “Good,” he said, pulling my mouth inches from his, “that’s really good, because I’m still in love with you, Laney Briggs. I have been since I was twelve and saw you in that red dress with brown pigtails sitting all alone in the school lunch room.”

Then he kissed me, and for the first time since he’d left, I came undone.

…

It was still dark by the time Gunner and I finally came up for air.

Thunder and lightning rolled against the single pane window, a fitting tribute to our relationship. A silent hum puttered from the window box unit as the dim lighting faded across our naked bodies. Gunner was spooned in behind me, an arm slung across my chest, his ragged breathing warm against my back. He was gently kissing my shoulder, trailing his warm lips down my arm, and stroking a finger up and down my limp thigh.

“I’d almost forgotten how amazing your bare skin felt underneath mine,” Gunner said as he kissed my neck.

Tugging on the sheets, I rolled over to face him. He smiled and ran his hand through my sex-rumpled hair.

“I should get going,” I said, inching to the edge of the bed. I sat up and leaned over in search of my panties.

He propped himself up on his elbows. “Work?” he guessed.

“That crime spree we’ve been having won’t solve itself.” I snapped the covers back and found my panties, then scooted off the bed, slipping them on. The black T-shirt I’d borrowed from him last night was scrunched up on the floor; I caught it up and shrugged it over my head.

Gunner sighed and sat up, banging his head back into the headboard. “I suppose.”

I picked up his boxers. “Do you mind?” I asked.

He shook his head while I pulled them on. I collected my now dry dress and picked up my heels as Gunner eased out of the bed and stepped into his jeans, then he pulled me into him and kissed me hard, urgent, and demanding. I kissed him back in a distracted sort of way—what the
hell
had I done, sleeping with Gunner Wilson again, but
damn
had it felt good—and then eased reluctantly out of his arms.

“Work,” I reminded both of us and scooped up my keys on my way to the door. Everything would work itself out, I told myself—now if only I believed it. I pushed open the door, stepped out into the rain, but stopped and turned when Gunner followed me.

“Be careful,” he called. “I’ll be in to deal with Luke in a bit.”

Nodding, I waved and left, gaze on him where he slumped in the motel room doorway, watching me through the rain. Then I peeled out of the lot to head for home, and he was gone.