Blame It on the Cowboy (22 page)

“Accurate details?” he asked.

“We didn't lie to the cops. Guess whose idea that was?”

He didn't have to guess. It was Reese's. “Is Spenser completely out of the picture now?” And if he wasn't, Logan wanted to know where the guy was.

“He's out. Way out. Only because he's dead.”

Good. Logan wasn't in the habit of wishing ill will on people, but he did in this case. In this case, dead wasn't even enough.

“Just know this,” Jimena went on. “It took Reese a long time to be with another man. A
long
time. And you know what she called her night with you in San Antonio? Nice and good,” she answered before he could decide if he wanted to know. “
Nice and good
might not sound like much to you, but it's the best thing she's ever said about any guy.”

That didn't make everything he was feeling any easier.

“If you hurt her, as a minimum I'll brew cat shit in your coffee,” Jimena added. And she walked out, leaving Logan to curse again.

He quit arguing with himself and tore open the envelope. It wasn't the actual police report but rather a summary from the private investigator. There it was—the details Jimena had just given—and more.

It was the
more
that got Logan's attention.

Hell.

Spenser O'Malley was dead, all right. He'd died the night that Reese and Jimena had gone to threaten him to give Reese back the watch. And Spenser had given it back in his true asshole kind of way. He'd tossed it on the ground, breaking the crystal watch face. Before Reese or Jimena could even lay a hand on him—or in Jimena's case, a bat—Spenser had run away.

Right into the street.

Where he'd been killed by the Houston-bound, 8:00 p.m. bus.

* * *

R
EESE
HAD
TO
get out of the building. She needed to get moving again. If she didn't, she was going to think about what Logan was reading in that report. And right about now, he had probably already read it, and he was cursing himself for ever getting involved with her.

Her breath caught in her throat. Her heartbeat started to race. And the memories came. Memories that she didn't want to discuss with Cassie.

“Cassie, I have to go,” Reese called out to the woman while she was still throwing up in the ladies' room. “Something important's come up.”

Reese hurried out before Cassie could stop her.

Since she felt all clammy and sick, she headed in the direction of her apartment. Of course, it was a people minefield along the way, and it seemed as if everyone in town was suddenly out for a stroll. Reese had to smile again. Had to pretend nothing was wrong all the while she was falling apart inside.

How could she have let this happen?

And she wasn't just thinking about Spenser now but Logan. How could she have let herself fall this way? She wasn't a faller. Spenser had taught her that lesson, but here she was with her heart aching and the sick feeling that she had lost something that she could never get back.

By the time she made it to the Bluebonnet Inn, her face was hurting from the smiles and the too-tight muscles. Reese hurried up the stairs, hoping she wouldn't encounter anyone else along the way. And she didn't. Not until she reached her apartment.

Logan was sitting there on the floor with his back resting against her front door. It was such a relaxed pose, for a split second she thought it was Lucky. But it was Logan, all right.

“I called around,” he said. “Various people saw you walking so I decided to head here and wait for you.”

He stood slowly, met her eye to eye. He knew. She could tell. He'd read the secret that had put her stomach in knots.

Since Reese didn't want to air her dirty laundry in the hall, she unlocked the door, and Logan followed her inside. He didn't say anything until he shut the door behind him.

“Jimena said if I hurt you that she'd put cat shit in my coffee,” he said. “Anything you can do to make sure that doesn't happen?”

That certainly wasn't the conversation starter she'd expected, but Reese nodded, anyway. “It's just an empty threat.”

Logan lifted his shoulder as if he might not believe that. “We have a lot of cat shit she could use, and she's convinced I'm going to hurt you.”

He came closer, and each step seemed to cause her heart to skip beats. However, there was no anger in his eyes, in his tone, not in any part of his body. It stayed that way when Logan slipped his arm around her and kissed her.

Oh, my.

It was a nice kiss, one that untightened those stomach knots and eased away some of the tension in her shoulders. It would have been so easy just to melt into that kiss, maybe melt into some sex, too, but Reese knew that kisses and sex were a temporary fix. And it would only postpone the conversation they had to have.

“Didn't you read the report?” she asked.

He nodded, tried to kiss her again, but she stopped him.

Oh, she got it. “These are pity kisses, aren't they?”

His forehead bunched up. “I don't pity-kiss, have pity sex or really anything else that has to do with pity.”

That was probably true, but it didn't explain why he was trying to kiss her again when he should be telling her they were all wrong for each other. So, Reese was the one to say it.

“I could mess up everything for you and your family.”

Logan gave a fake yawn. “Old news. We're rich. It's hard to mess up really big trust funds.”

“You're making light of this?” she snapped.

“No.” And he suddenly got very serious. “I'm just trying to make you understand I'm sorry for what happened to you.”

“Aha! I knew it. Pity.”

“No. Sympathy and understanding.”

“Pity,” she grumbled. Reese groaned. “Why don't you ask me why I was stupid enough to get involved with a man like Spenser?”

“You were seventeen. All of us are pretty much stupid at that age.”

“I'm betting you weren't.”

“Then you'd be betting wrong. At seventeen, I was doing dumb things like switching places with Lucky so he'd take English tests for me. In exchange, I'd go on dates with very sexually aggressive girls who thought they were getting Lucky. Literally.”

He was still trying to make her feel better, but it wasn't working. Nothing could. “The only reason I wasn't charged with manslaughter was because there were witnesses who said neither Jimena nor I forced Spenser into the street. But the bottom line is that I'm responsible for a man's death.”

“How do you figure that?” he challenged.

“Spenser ran out of the alley because he was scared of me.”

Logan shook his head. “I'm thinking that had more to do with Jimena's bat and a scary threat she probably made to go right along with it.”

“No. It was me. Spenser could see in my face that I wasn't going to take any more of his punches. He knew I would fight back, and since he was basically a coward, he ran.”

“And he ran into a bus, which I think is some kind of cosmic justice.”

It sounded, well, forgivable the way Logan put it, and it wasn't. He pulled her to him again. Kissed her light and soft.

“What happened to you sucked,” he said. “You didn't deserve it, but you were ready and willing to get out of a bad situation. And you did. You went to culinary school, got jobs. You made a life for yourself, and you did all of that without the benefit of a trust fund or a family who would walk through fire for you.”

Reese dismissed all of that because of what'd happened to Spencer. But to say that to Logan meant she'd just have to keep reopening this wound she didn't want opened. It was a wound that hurt less when it wasn't discussed. And when no one else knew about it. Reese could keep it covered with thick imaginary bandages.

Since she thought they both could use some levity, Reese gave it a try. “You really had sex with Lucky's girlfriends?”

“It's how I lost my virginity. That wasn't a proud moment for me. I was ashamed. Very ashamed.”

He was smiling so the levity worked. Or maybe he was just reliving that
ashamed
sexual experience.

“Are you being nice to me so I'll tell Jimena to cancel the cat-shit coffee plans?” she asked.

“In part. In part, too, because I want you in my bed later.”

Oh, that got her toes curling. Probably her eyelashes, too, since Logan added a kiss to it. “How much later?”

“Tonight, maybe? I've got meetings stacked up for the next few hours. In fact, I'm running late for one now.”

She stepped away from him. “Go. Don't be late.” Reese didn't want to do any more damage to his business.

“He can wait. I just want to make sure you're okay.”

“I'm fine.” It wasn't a lie exactly. She was as fine as she could ever be considering she would always be broken. And that's why she had to tell Logan this now. “I still plan on leaving soon.”

He took one short breath. “I figured as much. But I still want to make sure you're okay.”

“I am, really.”

Logan stared at her as if trying to figure out if that was true. “All right. I'll see you later, then.” He moved to leave, but his phone buzzed. “Probably Jimena.” But he shook his head when he looked at the screen. “It's the police chief.”

Reese automatically moved closer to the phone because this could be about her mother.

“Please tell me you arrested Vickie,” Logan greeted.

“No. Haven't found her yet, but we have a problem. By any chance have you spoken to Chucky in the past couple of hours?”

“No,” Logan answered, and Reese shook her head, too.

“That's what I figured. Well, Chucky just called here, and he said he's no longer cooperating, that he's withdrawing his complaint. Sorry, Logan, but that means I can't arrest Reese's mother, after all.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

L
OGAN
FOUND
A
spot out of the path of the other guests. He went to the corner of the sunroom so he could sip his drink and hoped it looked as if he were having fun. After all, this was his twin brother's engagement party, and fun and celebration should be at the top of his to-do list. For the next couple of hours, anyway. But it was hard to think of fun and celebration when Reese was so miserable.

She was trying to hide that misery, of course, and for most of the guests, she was succeeding. Reese was all smiles and friendly conversation as she chatted about the food all laid out on the table. Some of the stuff Logan recognized—various finger foods—but Reese had also included some fancier things, too, like pâté-wrapped brie cheese. All served with champagne, of course, and nonalcoholic sparkling cider for Mia and Mackenzie.

For Claire and Cassie, too.

Everything was picture-perfect. Which in his mind was different from ordinary perfect. It just meant everything looked the way it should. People smiling, having fun. Even Helene was working the room and pretending to be happy that she was there. Logan was pretending as well, but he was certain he failed big-time when he saw Lucky making his way toward him.

Lucky handed him a fresh glass of champagne. “As my late business partner used to say, you look lower than a fat penguin's balls. I'm guessing all that lowness has something to do with one of them.” Lucky tipped his head to Reese and then Helene.

“Reese,” Logan readily admitted.

For just a second, Logan had considered lying, but it was hard to get away with lying to an identical twin. Probably something to do with sharing the same quarters and food source for the first nine months of their lives.

Lucky made a sound of agreement. “Is Reese still planning on leaving?”

“She says she is.” And since leaving was exactly what she'd done all her adult life, Logan had no doubt she would do it now.

“And you can't change her mind? You must be losing your touch.”

The little dig was mandatory between brothers. Logan suspected it was to mask the emotional core of this conversation. If it got too much more emotional, one of them would have to curse or add some crude reference regarding dicks since a ball reference had already been used.

“I tried to convince her that it didn't matter about her juvie record or what had happened in her past, but I don't think I got through.” Hell, Logan knew he hadn't. “Of course, it didn't help that Chucky reneged on his deal and that now Vickie is free to do what she wants.”

“Yeah, that sucks donkey dicks.”

The fact that Lucky had gone to the D-word so soon meant he was feeling a lot of this dark-hearted crap that Logan was feeling. And it was something he didn't want to feel.

“Has the police chief arrested Chucky yet for trying to extort money from Helene?” Lucky asked.

“He would arrest him if he could find him. Vickie and Chucky are nowhere to be found.”

That wouldn't last. Those two smelled money the way sharks smelled blood, and they would be drawn right back to the McCord bank accounts.

Logan watched as Helene reached the table where Reese was standing. He couldn't hear what they said to each other, but it was all smiles. And brief. The briefness brought on an even more genuine smile from Reese.

“I don't want to hurt her,” Logan went on, and that didn't have anything to do with Jimena's cat-shit threat.

“Reese?” Lucky asked.

Logan frowned. “Of course.”

“Just checking. Come on. Take a walk with me. I want to show you the new rodeo bull I bought.”

It didn't seem like a good time for that, what with the party in full swing, but Lucky led him outside, anyway.

“A lot of changes going on,” Lucky said once they were in the backyard. “I've already talked to Riley and Anna about this, but I wanted to get your opinion about Cassie, me and the girls staying on here at the house permanently.”

Logan was sure he looked surprised. “I thought that was already a done deal. Why, were you thinking of moving elsewhere?”

“No, we all love it here, but I wanted to make sure it was okay with you. It's your home, after all.”

True. Home, in name only. Logan rarely stayed there anymore. He'd moved to his town loft because it was easier for work purposes, but he'd also done that because after Lucky, Riley and Anna moved away, it just hadn't felt much like home. It was starting to feel more like it now, but his loft wasn't that far from the ranch. Plus, the house was huge so he would always have his suite there. Well, unless Cassie and Lucky had a houseful of kids, that is.

“Riley's okay with it, too,” Lucky went on. They continued walking toward the barn and that attached corral. “Claire and he are planning an addition to their house, though, so they can have a playroom for Ethan and a nursery.”

So many changes, and while Logan didn't feel left out exactly, he was the oldest. Okay, he did feel a little left out, but that didn't mean he wasn't happy for his siblings.

“Anna gave it her blessing, as well,” Lucky said. “If she decides to move back after finishing law school and getting married, she said she wanted to build a house by the springs, anyway.”

Logan knew the exact spot. In fact, his kid sister had talked about having a house there since she was in first grade.

“I think it's all great,” Logan assured him. “The ranch and the house will be a great place to raise the girls and a baby.”

Lucky stopped for a second, laughed. “
A baby.
Now, that's something I'll bet you never thought you'd say when it came to me.”

Logan would have liked to say he'd expected it, but it hadn't been anywhere on his radar. Until Cassie came back in his life, Lucky's longest track record with a woman was less than the same amount of time Reese stayed in one place.

Not very long at all.

“Fatherhood will suit you,” Logan assured him. “Riley, too. I can't wait to have more nieces or nephews.” He already thought of Claire's son, Ethan, as family. Also thought the same way about Mia and Mackenzie.

Logan spotted the bull when they reached the corral. It was a beauty and would no doubt earn them a pretty penny once it was trained. That was yet something else Lucky had added to the ranch—the rodeo bull training program. It was as successful as the cutting horse operation that Riley had started.

All the pieces were falling into place.

“Dad would have loved this,” Logan said.

It was something he hadn't intended to say, though. It'd just slipped out, and while it was true, it was also a downer because it was a reminder that their folks weren't here to share any of it.

“They're here,” Lucky whispered, seeming to know exactly what Logan had been thinking. He blinked hard as if blinking back tears and then shook it off. “No fat penguin balls today. I'm getting married.” He pointed to the trees in the backyard. “Right there.” He checked his watch. “In an hour or so.”

All in all, it was the perfect way to elope.

“Why don't we go back in?” Lucky suggested. “I can tell some off-color jokes to get some of the crowd heading out. Of course, it might cause others to stay.”

“You should make some dick jokes,” Logan advised.

“Absolutely. Balls and dicks. My preferred way of going off-color.”

They'd reached the porch when the sunroom door opened, and Helene stepped out. She didn't seem surprised to see them. Just the opposite. Of course, with all the windows in the sunroom, she had perhaps been watching them.

“Any chance we can talk?” she asked Logan.

This wasn't the time or the place, but then that applied to all times and places when it came to Helene. It was probably best to talk to her in a public place, though, than have her come to his office. Which she would. It was clear she had something to get off her chest. Probably something to do with the Vickie-Chucky mess.

Lucky waited until Logan gave him the nod before he gave Helene a warning glance and then went inside. Logan appreciated the warning; it was good for his twin to have his back, but it wasn't necessary. Logan no longer felt the punch of emotion, either good or bad, when he looked at Helene.

“Thank you for seeing me,” Helene said. “I wanted to let you know that I'll be filing charges against Chucky, after all, since he didn't go through with our bargain. Of course, he'll probably just disappear.”

Probably. And that was the best-case scenario in this—that the man would disappear and take Vickie with him.

“I don't like all the gossip it'll create,” Helene went on. “I was just starting to restore my reputation, and here it'll come out that I told Chucky where Reese was.”

“Are you trying to back out of filing charges against Chucky?”

Her hesitation let him know that she was. “I'll do it. For you. I know you're still upset with me, and this might help mend the rift between us.”

“No, I'm not upset, not anymore. I wish you only the best.”

And he meant it. Even more, Helene knew he meant it. But as for that rift, well, Logan figured her idea of rift-mending meant getting back together. That wasn't going to happen.

Unlike him, there was plenty of emotion on her face. He saw the hurt and knew there was nothing that could be done about it. Nothing that he could do, anyway.

“Can we talk about what happened that night?” she asked.

He lifted an eyebrow. “Are we going to discuss clown noses?”

“No. God, no.” She shuddered. “All of that was just a fantasy. I couldn't bring myself to ask you to dress up like a clown.”

“Then that should have been your cue to break up with me. Because if your boyfriend can't fulfill your fantasies, then he shouldn't be your boyfriend.”

Helene nodded, paused, nibbled on her bottom lip. “And now you have someone else in your life to fulfill your fantasies.”

“No clown stuff, though,” he said to add a light touch. It didn't lighten anything, though, because it basically confirmed to Helene that Reese and he were indeed into some fantasy-fulfilling. Of course, right now the sex was enough of a fantasy.

“You don't feel it's too soon?” she asked.

“For what?” he asked right back.

Helene lifted her shoulder as if the answer were obvious. “To be involved with someone. I mean, I can't even think of being with anyone else yet. After all, we were together for eight years.”

She seemed to be implying that this was some kind of rebound relationship between Reese and him. Was that what it was? Helene was right about it being soon, only four months now since the clown incident, but Logan wasn't at all certain that it was
too soon
.

But that did get him thinking.

If it was too soon, then Reese would be the one to get hurt. Maybe that's why she still seemed so hell-bent on leaving. And the problem with that? Logan couldn't even guarantee her that she wouldn't get a broken heart from this.

“No word about Chucky or Vickie?” Helene asked.

It took Logan a second to switch gears and remember that he was still having a conversation with Helene. “Nothing. You?”

“Nothing,” she repeated, then paused. “Have you seen Greg?”

Logan shook his head and caught a glimpse of Reese walking past one of the windows. She didn't exactly look out at them, but he figured she'd seen them talking.

“I haven't seen Greg, either,” Helene went on, “but I heard you hired Reese's friend to replace him. I suppose she has a lot of office experience?”

“None whatsoever.”

Added to that, Jimena had a smart mouth, vile threats and dressed like a call girl. Still, she could handle Crazy Cat, and other than the threats, she hadn't done too much to get on his bad side.

“I see,” Helene said, which was probably code for
I can't believe this shit. You hire someone with no experience. You sleep with a fry cook, one with a police record. And you haven't been flossing regularly.

Logan decided to skip the code and go with a direct question. “Did you give Elrond one of your porcelain boob bookends?”

Clearly, she hadn't been expecting that question. “Wh-what?”

“Porcelain boob bookend,” he repeated even though Logan doubted repetition was necessary in this case. “Because he had a boob identical to the one you gave me, and he also had a clown suit. I just figured that wasn't a coincidence.”

Her mouth tightened a moment. “I didn't sleep with him. Not after Greg decided he'd fulfill the fantasy for me.”

There it was again. Fantasies. And clown suits. No doubt lies, too. Logan was almost positive she wasn't telling the truth about being with Elrond.

“I didn't sleep with him,” Helene repeated, and this time she had a bite to her tone. “I'm not a whore.”

Logan shrugged. “Even if you'd had sex with both of them, it wouldn't have made you a whore. Just a liar and a cheater.” There was no bitterness in his voice, but she probably would have preferred it if there had been. Because it would have meant he was still emotionally invested in her.

“There you are,” Jimena said, opening the back door. “Cassie and I were talking about litter boxes and cat, um, droppings, and then I looked up and saw you out here, with Helene.”

Logan scowled at her. “No threat necessary. Helene and I were just having a friendly chat, but we're done now.”

“Good, because the party's wrapping up, and I thought you'd want to say goodbye to the guests especially since three of them are business associates. One of which you have a meeting with in two days.”

That was code, too, for
get your ass inside before you hurt Reese's feelings.

Helene quickly picked up on the code because she got moving. Jimena would have followed her, but Logan stopped her by stepping in front of her.