The Cougar's Wish (Desert Guards) (18 page)

“He wouldn’t happen to be doing anything to assist in me getting canned, would he?”

The deputy snorted. “Nah, he just knows how things go sometimes in those big departments. He used to work in one down in Houston.”

“Cool. I’ll keep that in mind.” Steven tucked the card into his pocket and turned his baseball cap around in time for Belle to see him bob his eyebrows. “Gotta get moving. See you around?”

“Hope so,” Carlson said.

Steven jogged to the truck, and Deputy Dipshit turned to Belle.

Damn it.
When that guy started talking off the clock, he was impossible to be rid of, and according to her nagging inner cat, she needed to be in that truck.

“So ...” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Is Alex around?”

“Maybe. Why?”

“Just wonderin’. I figured I’d say hi.”

“She’s in the house.”

He crooked a thumb toward it. “Think she’d mind?”

Belle shrugged and followed him when he headed toward the door.

Both Lily and Alex jumped with fright in seeing him there, but they recovered quickly enough and went back to playing Mario Kart.

“Hey, ladies,” he said.

“Whatcha doing here?” Alex asked.

“Came by to give Belle something. Figured I’d say hi.”

Belle walked into the kitchen and put on better shoes. Like hell if she was going to sit at home and twiddle her thumbs while the folks from the kids’ table played with the hellmouth. After all, it was
her
ghostly hitchhiker who’d caused them to plan a mission into the thing in the first place. Certainly they didn’t think she was going to let them cut her out of all the action.

Also, she didn’t want Steven anywhere near that thing.

That was
stupid
of him.

“Freakin’ martyr,” she muttered.

“Where are you going?” Lily asked when Belle grabbed her keys.

“To the ranch. I just need to ...” Belle cut her gaze to the deputy, but he’d found himself a seat on the arm of the sofa and had his gaze locked on the television screen. She swallowed. “I need to ...”
Follow my mate into a hole.
“Check on something real quick.”

“A horse this time of night?”

Belle nodded. “A horse. Sure.”

Lily gave her game controller to the deputy. “I’ll ride with you.”

“No, you don’t have to do that. It’s okay.”

“Yeah, I do. It’s late. My office isn’t opening tomorrow because the building is getting fumigated, so I can afford to go to bed late tonight. You shouldn’t be driving around on your own out in the wilderness at this hour. Cougar or not, you’re still a chick.”

Belle laughed. “Last I checked, you were a chick, too, and you don’t have claws like me.”

“Well, I’m sure if your father had had a sister, Daddy would have barked up her tree. Alas”—Lily shrugged—“I’m just human. Forgive me for it, will you?”

Belle sighed and looked at Alex and the deputy again. He might have known in general what sorts of weirdos were around town, but he didn’t know all the specifics, and Belle wanted to keep him out of her business as much as possible. To do that, she couldn’t go getting into a debate with Lily about why she shouldn’t ride along for what was supposed to be a simple ranch chore.

Letting her shoulders droop, Belle passed her keys to her other hand. “All right, cousin. Let’s go look at a horse.”

“I’ll get my shoes.”

“We’ll be back in ... a while, I guess,” Belle said to Alex.

Alex nodded and muttered “
Damn it
,” at the screen.

Once the door was closed and Belle was out on the walkway and heading to the punch buggy, Lily said, “So, what are we
really
going to do?”

“Check on a horse.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s bullshit.”

Belle groaned and shoved the key into the driver’s door lock. “If you knew I wasn’t being completely honest, why’d you come along?” She unlocked the passenger door, and Lily pulled it open.

“Because if there’s something happening at the ranch, I want to know about it. Maybe I don’t have a say in what’s happening there, but I do care about it being in the family. And I’m curious about all the nonranch stuff, too.”

“What nonranch stuff?” Belle put on her seatbelt and got the engine started.

“You know, how folks are living. How Foye Woodworks is doing and how your brothers’ mates are settling in. The bunch has grown fast. I feel out of the loop.”

“Sorry. I think you’re the only relative who isn’t named Foye who cares.” Belle turned a U and got the car moving in the direction of the ranch.

“Daddy cares.”

“Does he?”

“Sure. He felt bad when Aunt Glenda had to take on all that debt to keep it going, but he couldn’t really contribute anything. He was going through some rough stuff at the time.”

“Yeah, I remember. Vaguely. I was super young at the tail end of it.”

“I’m glad someone’s making it thrive.”

“Mom wants to retire before my brothers give her a bunch of grandkids to keep her busy,” Belle said softly.

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Yeah.”

“So what’s going to come of the ranch?”

Belle shrugged and picked up a little speed as the road opened up. “I think about it a lot. I think about staying and taking over for her.”

“You could. You
should
.”

“I wish I could, but who the hell is going to take me seriously?”

“Is that your biggest worry?”

“It’s a pretty big worry, but of course there are others. The guys live there. It’s going to be pretty much impossible to keep them from telling me how to live my life if we’re all living right there in the same little housing cluster.”

“Why do you have to be?”

“Huh?”

“Really, why do you have to be? The ranch is large enough that you don’t have live right there in that square where Aunt Glenda and your brothers are. Hell, you could park a trailer out on the old Foye homestead and still be able to access the livestock pretty easily. It’s got some flat parts, right?”

“That’s a bit of a haul.”

“But you get my point. If you want to do it, figure out a way. Not everything needs to be cut and dried. Some things need creative maneuvering.”

“Gods, you sound like Steven now.”

“He told you to move back to the ranch?”

“No, he told me that if I wanted something, that I should throw my weight around and get it.”

“You don’t agree with him?”

“To an extent. I just don’t think I can have everything.”

“I don’t want you to leave, Belle. I’m sure if Aunt Glenda had any idea you were considering it, she’d cry herself into some kind of shock from electrolyte imbalance. But I do understand what it feels like to be stifled. I mean, look at how clingy Dad is. I think he’s got the entire town bugged and knows of every step I make before I even finish making it.”

“What’s the solution to this?” Belle turned on her bright lights in time to steer around a particularly large mass of tumbleweed.

“I dunno. Maybe we could figure it out together. Hell, if I thought it’d help, I’d tell you I’d move with you to the ranch, and that way if you end up halfway off the grid, you wouldn’t be alone, exactly.”

“You’d do that?”

Lily nodded in Belle’s periphery. “Yeah. Now that I’ve said it aloud, I like the idea. I probably won’t be much help for a while as far as ranch stuff goes, but if you and Aunt Glenda are patient with me, I’m sure I can pick up whatever needs to be done.”

“You’re serious?”

“Yeah. I am.”

“Huh.” Belle steered in silence for a while, pondering the situation as she cruised around curves and navigated past miles and miles of arid range. “There’s just one problem with your plan,” she said as they neared the ranch.

“What?”

“I’ve got to take a mate soon. I’m not going to be able to keep putting it off. The heat I’m in right now is not so bad compared to what it’s going to be the next time, and the next time, it’s going to take me completely off guard and I’m not going to be able to function for a few weeks.”

“So ... you’re saying any roommate situation would be a temporary one.”

“Yes.”

“Have anyone in mind?”

Tell her
, Belle’s inner cat said.

“The cat picked him,” Belle said softly. “And I guess he’s ... suitable enough.”

“Who?”

“Steven.”

“Why do you sound so disappointed? I haven’t spent much time with him, but he seems likable.”

“I wouldn’t say I
like
him. That’s too simple a word for what this animal inside of me makes me feel. Everything is way too damn complicated. The thing is, my biological encoding is to drive him nuts as much as I can, and half the time, I’m being mean to him just because that’s what we
do
. We Cougar women put our men through their paces to make sure they can hack it, because they don’t always stick—especially the ones who aren’t cats. I worry he’s not going to stick. Nobody wants to be treated like that.”

“Can you see having a future with him?”

“I haven’t allowed myself to think too much about the future beyond getting out of here, truth be told.” Belle killed her lights as she turned onto the ranch road. Navigating by moonlight wasn’t the safest way to get around, but she didn’t want to alert her mother or Mason that she was on the property. For that matter, she didn’t want anyone else to know she’d followed Steven there yet, either.

“My inner cat can see it, though,” she said after parking her car near the barn. “But it’s simple with her. She’s only worried about fertility and whether or not he could provide. I don’t know what that’s supposed to look like.”

“What do you want it to look like?”

“The hell if I know. I haven’t had anything resembling a normal relationship since high school. I’m a Cougar. My love life is the equivalent of speed dating or walking through the meat section of the grocery store and sniffing each piece of steak to find the one that smells the freshest, while throwing away all the rest. Who am I to say what normal is?”

Lily wrapped her fingers around the door handle and stared down at her lap. “I think in the end,” she said solemnly, “the only thing that matters is if you care for each other. Relationships aren’t supposed to look like just one thing. People need different things, and as long as the parties in the relationship are willing to accommodate each other, we shouldn’t get too hung up on whether or not the arrangement looks traditional. I think the best place to start is to check in with yourself—exclusive of your cat—and decide if he’s someone you could see having as a friend. If so ...”

“We could see where it goes.”

“Yeah.”

“But he’s already
going
. Back to North Carolina.”

“Oh.” Lily knit her eyebrows.

“Yeah. See? Suddenly the mate-kidnapping thing male Cougars do holds a lot of appeal.”

 If Belle had just a couple of weeks to try things out with him, maybe she could figure out if it was just his particular cocktail of hormones that made him so alluring, or if she really just
liked
the guy.

Of course, there was the small matter of him acting as if her being twenty made her a naive nitwit in need of constant coddling. She wasn’t that.

She’d have to prove it to him. The same shit she hated having to do time and time again with her brothers, she was going to have to do with him. She didn’t see where she had a choice, though, if she wanted to keep him.

She was pretty sure she did.

“Is that ...” Steven squinted at the distant fence and the pair of bright white T-shirts moving closer.

Kneeling beside him, Claude turned, too, and grunted. “Think so. Ask a Cougar, though. Their eyesight would be far better than mine.”

“For fuck’s sake, what’s she doing out here?”

“Did you tell her to stay home?”

“Of course I did.”

“Well, there you have it. Whenever I tell my wife to do things, she tends to do the exact opposite, so I guess I’m not particularly surprised by the behaviors of headstrong women.”

Claude pushed his dagger’s blade into the ground ten yards from the hellmouth and stood, wiping his hands on his ripped jeans.

Steven stood, too, and folded his arms over his chest as the newcomer duo approached. He wasn’t going to say shit. He wasn’t going to be what everyone else was to her, so he wasn’t going to tell her what she should or shouldn’t have been doing. In a matter of days, she’d be out of his hair, and he didn’t want to get attached if he wasn’t going to be around.

Belle put her hands on her hips and met Sean head-on when he stormed over to her.

“Are you
insane
?” he asked.

“Given my genetics, I’d say yes. Probably a little.”

“You don’t need to be here.”

“Neither do you.”

“I’m here because Steven’s my friend and he’s Hannah’s brother. Hannah’s here, too. See?” He gestured at Hannah, who wasn’t paying them any attention at all, actually. She was in a huddle with Ellery and Gail and looked over at the mention of her name.

“Huh?” Her eyes went wide, and then her brow furrowed. “
Belle
. Why are you here?”

Claude sighed. “It doesn’t matter if she’s here or not here.”

“Like hell it doesn’t,” Steven muttered.

“What’s going to happen to her with all of us standing out here?” Claude whispered.

“I’m going to worry about things beyond my control. Can’t help it. That’s how I’m wired. If I’m going in there”—Steven pointed to the shimmering blue-green glow of the portal—“then I can’t see what’s happening out here.”

“You don’t trust me? And Hannah?”

“You expecting me to be logical and rational right now? I have a hard enough time with Hannah being here.”

“Hannah can take care of herself.”

“I know that. That doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

The same statement held true for the angry redhead, but he figured that went without saying. At least to Claude. He’d likely already guessed that Steven wasn’t just sniffing around that particular Foye because he had to.

“Look, we don’t have a lot of time to do this. The portal is more stable at night, and I want you out of there before dawn approaches or someone else is going to have to go in and chase you out. What time does your watch have?”