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But Clay knew his suspicions ran much deeper. Deeper than he wanted to admit.
He watched her swallow, her gaze sliding away from his.
“I’m afraid I had other things on my mind two years ago,” she said. She looked at him again, nothing showing in her face or her eyes now, as if she’d dropped a curtain over her emotions. He recalled the last time he’d seen her do that. Had she been trying to hide something then, too? The thought unnerved him.
But he had her now and he wasn’t going to let go until he got the truth out of her. About everything.
Josie watched him glance toward the tack room.
“What do you suppose Raymond was doing in your tack?” he asked.
She didn’t answer. She figured Clay had his own theories about that. She was shocked that Raymond had been here at all, let alone Clay.
“Suppose we take a look?” he said, indicating she could go first.
She thought about putting up an argument. Clay had no authority here. Nor did she take orders from him anymore—not that she ever had, without an argument. But she didn’t want him forcing the issue by insisting they call the cops or wake up the ranch owner. The fewer people who knew about Clay Jackson and her past, the better. And she had a feeling that the thief hadn’t found what he was looking for, anyway.
The tack room had been ransacked, all the tack and saddles pulled down in a heap in the middle of the floor.
“What would Raymond have wanted in here?” Clay said. “Have any ideas?”
Oh, she had lots of ideas, but none she wanted to share with him. She remembered the Lincoln Continental he’d been watching from the café in town. Was it Raymond’s? But what would have brought Raymond to Three Forks? “Maybe he was looking for something to steal. You did say he was an alleged thief.”
Clay smiled at her attempt at alleged humor. “Kind of a long drive to steal tack.”
Had Clay really followed Raymond Degas all the way from Texas? All the way to the stables where she just happened to work? Quite a coincidence, if you believed in them. She had a feeling Clay didn’t.
“Anything seem to be missing?” His tone made it clear he doubted it.
“We must have scared him away before he had a chance to steal something,” she said, torn between despair and anger as he tried to provoke her.
“Convenient.” He was eyeing her as if waiting for her to give him some answer.
Damn you, Jackson, she thought. I don’t owe you any explanations. Well, at least not any she was willing to make. Including why she’d left Texas the way she had two years ago.
“Convenient that you just happened to scare him away when I reached the stables,” he said, not willing to let it go. “And what a coincidence that Raymond Degas broke into the stable where you work.”
She’d known that was coming.
“On top of that, you just happen to trip me and keep me from catching him,” Clay finished, and crossed his arms, waiting, challenging her.
How much did this really have to do with the robbery? Clay hadn’t wanted her, but he hadn’t wanted anyone else to have her, either. She felt all that old resentment rising like steam off a geyser.
She thought of Ivy and blew out a long, heated breath. “You believe what you want. You always have.”
She turned away and started out of the tack room. She’d clean up the mess tomorrow. “If it was even Raymond,” she added.
He moved in front of her, reminding her how fast he was on his feet as he blocked the door, blocked her exit. “It was Raymond.” His voice was deep and soft and sent a chill through her as she was reminded of another time and place that Clay Jackson had been this close.
“Raymond led me all the way from Texas straight as a shot to you,” Clay said, leaning closer, trapping her. “Come on, Josie. We both know what Raymond’s looking for.”
He was so close she could feel his breath against her cheek, smell his too-familiar male scent. Everything about him seemed to radiate a low-frequency electricity. She felt a buzz when she was around him and always had. But it seemed stronger somehow. More so than she remembered it.
“He’s looking for the jewels.”
She swallowed but said nothing, her nerves raw with the nearness of him. His body seemed to fill the tack room, making it as hot and sultry as a Texas summer night.
“That’s right, you don’t know anything about the robbery,” he said, his tone clearly calling her a liar. “A rare collection of rubies, diamonds and emeralds, all irreplaceable. Intact, the jewelry would be impossible to fence. Too distinctive. Too easy to track. So what would the thieves do?”
How would she know? Why would she care? She knew nothing about getting rid of stolen property. And why did Clay Jackson think she did?
She shook her head, slowly, infinitesimally, afraid to move too much for fear of touching him. Or worse, him touching her.
He smiled. A halogen smile against the dark stubble of a day’s growth of beard. He leaned so close it reminded her of the last time she’d seen him two years ago. He’d kissed her beside her barn in Texas. She didn’t need the reminder. Not now. Not anymore.
She held her breath. But he didn’t kiss her, although she did wonder if he, too, had been reminded of that kiss. Had purposely made her remember.
“It’s hard to believe a petty small-time criminal like Raymond could pull off such a score, isn’t it?” he said. “Even with the help of someone like Odell Burton.”
She’d known Clay would get to Odell eventually. “I heard he was dead.”
“Yeah, but he’d have needed an accomplice.”
“Raymond.”
He shook his head slowly, his smile gone. “I’m talking about someone smart. Someone who knew about the security plans and knew how to get them. Talk to me, Josie,” he whispered. “Tell me what really happened that night.”
Something in his voice, a slight break that could have been born of passion or pain, made her wonder which night he was referring to. She looked into his eyes and felt that old familiar rush. Like standing on the edge of a cliff. A combination of danger and exhilaration. Fear and longing. Her pulse pounded in her ears. Her heart drummed, the beat accelerating.
“Josie? Are you all right?”
They both turned at the sound of the voice behind them past the open tack room doorway. Mildred stood in the light, her expression worried. In her arms, she held a sleepy-eyed Ivy.
“Ivy woke and was frightened,” Mildred said. “We came down to look for you—”
Clay stepped from the doorway and Josie rushed past him to take Ivy in her arms.
“Ma-ma,” Ivy said, and snuggled against her.
Josie heard Clay’s quick intake of breath as he came out of the tack room. She cradled her daughter to her, bracing herself as she turned and let her gaze rise to his.
He stared at her, then Ivy, his dark eyes wide with shock for the second time tonight. “I knew it,” he whispered. “I damn well knew it.”
“I understand you’ve already met my daughter Ivy,” Josie said, bracing herself for the inevitable.
He dragged his gaze from Ivy’s face to her own. His expression darkened, like a storm rolling in.
“I always wondered why you left Texas in such a hurry,” he said, his words striking her like stones. “I guess I know now. At least one of the reasons. Did Odell know he had a daughter? Or is that just another of your well-kept secrets?”
Chapter Three
Josie with a baby! The same little girl he’d seen in town with the elderly baby-sitter he’d mistaken for a grandmother. Hadn’t the toddler reminded him so much of Josie that he hadn’t been able to resist taking a closer look?
But the little girl hadn’t had Josie’s incredible blue eyes. Now he realized that was because the baby had taken after her father. Odell.
He should have known. This at least explained part of Josie’s hurried departure from Texas. No wonder she hadn’t told her family.
He stared at Ivy for a long moment, surprised by the emotions that rushed him. She looked so much like her mother. In fact, she was the spitting image of Josie—except for the eyes.
This could have been my child.
The thought came out of left field, blindsiding him.
Josie hugged Ivy protectively to her, telling herself she shouldn’t have been surprised. She should have known he’d see Odell in her daughter. Should have known he’d question if Odell had known she was pregnant. Still, she felt sick inside. What would he do now?
Or was that the least of her worries?
She looked into his angry face, trying hard to understand what it was about her that made him so angry with her. “Odell knew I was pregnant.”
That seemed to surprise him. “You told him?”
“He guessed,” she admitted.
Clay frowned. “That must have been what the two of you were arguing about that day by your barn. I’m sure Odell wanted nothing to do with a baby.”
She looked down at her daughter. Ivy had fallen asleep again, her tiny cherub cheek warm and pink against Josie’s shoulder, the dimpled arms locked around her neck. Odell had been furious about her pregnancy. She shivered at the memory of his threat.
When she looked up again, Clay’s gaze seemed to soften. “So you struck out on your own. Just the two of you.”
Was that grudging admiration she heard in his voice?
“What did you use for money, Josie? I know you didn’t take much with you when you left.”
So much for admiration. She knew what he was implying. “I worked.”
“Pregnant?”
“I did what I had to do,” she said stubbornly, unwilling to admit how she’d really managed alone, broke and pregnant. Unwilling because she was ashamed of what she’d done. And it really wasn’t any of his business.
“You know I’m going to find out the truth.”
“My life doesn’t have anything to do with you.” Even as she said it, she knew that wasn’t true. Clay was definitely one of the reasons she’d left Texas.
“We should get the baby to bed,” Mildred interrupted.
They both looked over at her. Clay seemed to have forgotten she was standing there, she’d been so quiet. And Josie had been distracted. Clay did that to her.
“Yes, you should get your baby to bed,” Clay said. “But you and I aren’t finished, Josie. Not by a long shot.”
She feared that was true as she slipped past him and headed back up the hill to her cabin with Mildred beside her.
“Who is that man?” Mildred asked when they were out of earshot.
“A neighbor of my family’s in Texas. I used to work for him.”
Mildred said nothing, but Josie knew the older woman realized there was a lot more to it.
“He’s the man I saw at the grocery store,” Mildred said. “What does he want?” She sounded worried.
“He’s here investigating a robbery.”
“He’s a policeman?” Mildred asked, sounding surprised but also relieved.
“No, he’s a former deputy sheriff, but he’s here unofficially.” She could tell Mildred feared that he meant her or Ivy harm. “Don’t worry. He’ll catch his crook and be gone soon.”
They walked in silence to the cabin, each lost in her own thoughts.
“You know, I might go on home, if you think you’ll be all right tonight,” Mildred said when they’d reached the cabin. “With all the excitement, I’m wide awake.”
Josie understood perfectly. Mildred said she cleaned when she was upset. Something told Josie that Mildred’s house was in for a scrubbin’. “We’ll be fine.”
Mildred bid her good-night after making certain that Josie had her pepper spray handy.
Josie watched her leave, worrying that Clay’s departure wouldn’t be that simple. Nothing with Clay had ever been simple. And she now had Raymond Degas to worry about as well.
AS CLAY LEFT THE STABLES, he heard the high-pitched whinny of a horse. He looked toward the pasture and spotted a stallion standing in the moonlight watching him. The image gave him a start, the horse reminded him so much of Diablo. But while Diablo had been black as midnight, this horse was a blood bay. Like Diablo, though, it stood at least seventeen hands high and had that spirited, wild look in its eyes.
The stallion watched him warily, then took off as if touched with an electric prod, disappearing into the darkness, leaving Clay with one lasting impression. That horse was dangerous. Just like Diablo had been.
But he knew that wasn’t why he’d gotten rid of Diablo. Even after the horse had almost killed him, he’d sold him because Diablo reminded him too much of Josie and an unforgettable dream he’d had about both of them.
Once at his truck, he drove up the road, parking out of sight of Josie’s cabin. Then, taking his bed-roll, he cut through the pines until he could see the cabin without being seen. He tossed down the bag and plopped down on it.
Raymond Degas would be back. Not tonight, probably. But sometime. Clay was betting that Raymond hadn’t found what he’d been looking for. And when he returned, Clay intended to be here.
When the lights blinked out in Josie’s cabin, he tried to get some sleep, but he couldn’t quit thinking about her.
Seeing her again had shaken him, much more than he wanted to admit. She was more beautiful than even he remembered. And the baby—
Odell’s child, he reminded himself.
He tried to think about the jewels and his quest for them, rather than Josie. But it was impossible.
He’d often wondered if Josie had somehow been involved in the robbery. Raymond leading him right to her left little doubt that his suspicions about her had been warranted. It gave him no satisfaction, though.
But if she’d been in on the jewel heist, then why was Raymond rummaging around in the stables in the dark instead of just asking Josie for what he wanted?
Clay swore. Unless Josie had double-crossed Odell and Raymond and taken the jewels.
That seemed pretty far-fetched, considering the woman was pregnant at the time. But with Josie O’Malley he wouldn’t rule out anything.
He even blamed her for the dream that had plagued him for the past two years. A dream he now thought of as That Damned Dream.
He’d started having the dream after being bucked off Diablo not once—but twice in twenty-four hours. The dream was always the same: Josie O’Malley riding through a creek toward him on the large black horse, the Texas hill country behind her, the horse’s hooves throwing up water droplets that hung in the moonlight. Josie coming out of the darkness of the live oaks and into the moonlight, wearing a yellow dress, her shoulders bare, the wet cotton clinging to her skin. She was buck-naked beneath the dress! Her nipples dark and hard, pressing against the soaked fabric as she dismounted and came to him where he’d fallen from the horse, her blue eyes filled with a longing that matched his own.
Definitely a fantasy dream. It disturbed him that he’d had it at all. He’d never thought of Josie like…that. Nor did he want to.
On top of that, the dream mocked him with the incredible impossibility of it. Josie had been riding the horse that had thrown him and then run off—Diablo, his wild green-broke stallion, and she was way too inexperienced to ride a horse like that, let alone one as unpredictable as Diablo.
He’d awoken the next morning, horseless, with a knot the size of Texas on his head, a terrible headache and no memory of what had happened. But with the ground under him instead of a horse, he had a pretty good idea what had taken place.
It had been a fool thing, trying to ride Diablo. Especially in the mood he’d been in. He’d caught Odell Burton in his barn with Josie, gotten into a fight with him and made Josie mad. Although he’d won the fight, he still had the scar where Odell’s ring had cut him.
In a foul mood by that time, he’d gotten half drunk and decided to ride Diablo. Not his best decision.
The next morning when he limped back to the ranch, he’d seen Josie—again with Odell, but he’d had the good sense to stay clear of them both.
That’s when he started having That Damned Dream. The last thing he’d needed was Josie O’Malley in his dreams. Having her around his ranch was trouble enough without conjuring up the feel, smell and taste of her the moment he closed his eyes.
On top of that, she didn’t get over being mad at him from what he could tell. He and Josie had argued enough over how to break horses.
Six weeks later, the jewels were stolen from the Williams Gallery in town where the collection was to go on display. He’d acted as a consultant on the security plans. In fact, he had a copy of the plans in his locked desk drawer at the ranch.
That’s when the first inkling of suspicion about Josie started. When Brandon Williams, the jewel collector, called to ask if Clay still had his copy. Williams felt the only way the thieves could have pulled off the heist was with the plans.
When Clay had gone to his desk, he’d found the plans—but someone had been in the locked drawer. They’d used a key, because the lock hadn’t been tampered with—and he had the only key.
He’d assured Brandon Williams that his plans were there, keeping his suspicions to himself. Temporarily.
With Odell Burton and Raymond Degas wanted for questioning in the heist, Clay wondered if one of them could have somehow gotten his keys. That seemed impossible. But Odell was always hanging around Josie.
He’d saddled up and ridden over to the O’Malley ranch. Josie was by the barn. Clay wasn’t surprised when Odell came out of the barn, looking angry.
He rode toward them, unable to hear their words, but he could see that they were obviously arguing. Odell had grabbed Josie’s arm, and she seemed to be trying to fight him off.
Odell spotted him as he rode up and took off before Clay’s boot soles hit the dust beside Josie.
“Don’t” was all Josie said when she saw him. She was crying and upset.
Without thinking, he’d pulled her into his arms and kissed her. A crazy impulse. He hadn’t known it at the time, but it would be the last time he’d see her until today. It had been one amazing goodbye kiss.
After it was over, she’d pulled back, confusion in her gaze. Her eyes had filled with tears. “What do you want from me, Jackson?”
When he didn’t answer, she spun on her heel and left him standing with his reins in his hand.
He’d watched her go, fighting the urge to go after her. What did he want from her? He’d told himself he didn’t know. Getting involved with Josie O’Malley was definitely out of the question. So he’d swung up into the saddle and ridden off, kicking himself for kissing her.
The next day he’d discovered that she’d packed up and left Texas, lock, stock and barrel. At the time, he’d blamed himself. For kissing her. For being jealous and possessive when he had no right. For being angry with her for making him want her. Because by then, he’d realized that he did want her. Like he’d never wanted any woman before. He just wasn’t fool enough to confuse that with love and all that went with it.
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