Blame It on the Cowboy (25 page)

Because Reese wasn't sure how much the woman knew about Vickie's theft, she just stayed quiet and let Helene take the lead. And Helene jumped right in.

“For the record, I didn't cheat on Logan because I was dissatisfied with the sex,” Helene blurted out. “I wasn't satisfied with
me
. Strict upbringing, always following Daddy's rules. Everything I've done in my life was for someone else.” She shrugged. “Well, except for having sex with a clown. I did that for me.”

“All right,” Reese said because she didn't know what else to say. It seemed creepy talking about sex with Logan's ex. Actually, it seemed creepy talking about clown sex, period.

“I hate that I hurt Logan,” Helene went on. “If I could go back and undo it, believe me, I would.”

Reese did believe her. Those minutes of pleasure—if that was the right word—had cost her a good man. Of course, it had likely been more than mere minutes since Helene had been with both Greg and Elrond.

Helene stayed quiet a second while the Starkley twins walked past them. The twins noticed, though, and judging from the lingering looks they gave Helene and Reese, it would soon be all over town that she and Logan's ex were having a discussion. In the gossip mill, that would turn into a heated discussion. By the end of the day, it would be a catfight on Main Street.

“I'm just going to come out and say this,” Helene continued after dragging in her breath. However, she didn't just come out and say whatever was on her mind. She took so many breaths that she sounded asthmatic. “I want to offer you the chance of a lifetime.”

That got Reese's attention, though—as the daughter of con artists, she was always skeptical of chance-of-a-lifetime offers. Usually they were meant to screw the offeree while benefiting the offerer.

“I want to set you up in your own restaurant or bakery,” Helene went on. “Your choice. I'll front all the money, build it to any specs you want. I'll even pay your employees until you start to turn a profit.”

Reese stopped in her tracks so she could look at the woman to see if she was serious. She was. And because Reese was the daughter of con artists, she followed this through to the most obvious question of all—what was in this for Helene?

And the answer to that was Logan.

“That's very generous of you.” Reese started walking again because she figured this conversation wasn't going to last much longer. “And the only condition…wait, there are two conditions. One is that the restaurant and or bakery can't be anywhere near Spring Hill. The second condition you want is for me to agree to never see Logan again.”

Judging from the way Helene suddenly got very interested in studying the cracks on the sidewalk, Reese was spot-on. “It's a really good offer. It could set you up for life.”

“Yes, it could set me up to be the kind of woman who accepts bribes,” Reese argued. “Not exactly what I'm going for in life.”

Helene stayed quiet a moment. “So, your answer is no?”

“No times a gazillion.”

“I see.” More of those quiet moments while she looked at anything and anybody but Reese. “I guess this means you're in love with Logan, then.”

Reese opened her mouth to answer another “no times a gazillion,” but she suddenly found herself studying sidewalk cracks, too. She couldn't be in love with Logan.

Could she?

But then she remembered this chat had zilch to do with love. It was about Helene trying to control a situation she'd lost control of months ago.

“It means I'm not for sale,” Reese settled for saying. “When and if I leave Spring Hill, it will be my decision and under my own terms.”

Oh, mercy. She'd actually used the
if
word when it came to leaving. In the past, there'd definitely been no ifs involved. And Reese could thank Logan for that.

“Well, I had to try, didn't I?” Helene said.

Now Reese used her “No.” And then she added some more. “Do you really think you can win Logan back by getting me out of the picture?”

Helene shrugged. “I suppose you're right. I could just wait this out since I believe this is a rebound relationship for Logan.”

The rebound comment felt like a sucker punch, but since it might be doused in truth, Reese stayed quiet. Helene didn't.

“But waiting's not exactly my style, you know?” Helene added.

Reese had to shake her head. She didn't know. Helene had dated Logan for eight years. That was a long time, and it had no doubt included plenty of waiting to see when they were going to the next level.

“Does that mean you're giving up?” Reese asked her, but figured she wouldn't get a straight answer. That's why it surprised her when she did.

“Yes,” Helene said. “I think I need to do something drastic with my life to make some changes. I have a bucket list. I think it's time for me to start checking things off. I've always wanted to have a one-night stand. A no-names-allowed kind of thing.”

Reese nearly choked on her own breath, and at first she thought this was Helene's way of getting in a dig at her, but the woman didn't give any indication that she'd just summarized Reese's life four months ago.

They finally reached the Bluebonnet Inn, and so that Helene wouldn't follow her in, Reese stopped and turned to her. “I wish you the best.”

Helene blinked as if surprised by that. “Logan said pretty much the same thing. I thought he was lying.
Hoped
he was lying, because saying that meant he no longer had feelings for me,” she amended.

The look on Helene's face implied she'd said too much. She checked the time on her phone. “I have to run.” She turned as if to do that, but then stopped, as well. “You won't mention our chat to Logan, will you?”

“No.” Reese didn't have to think about it. Logan didn't need to know that his ex had tried to pay her off.

Helene made a sound as if she didn't quite buy that, but she headed off, anyway. Reese didn't waste any time going into the Bluebonnet Inn and up to her room. She didn't want anyone seeing her watch Helene make her exit because the gossip would spread about that, too. By the time the story was done, Reese would have been rushing to call Logan to tell him about the encounter.

Reese would call Logan but not about that.

There was still the whole issue of clown sex pictures and how they might be used. The whole question was if Reese would really wait two weeks for the watch to be repaired. And the biggie question…

That whole L-word thought she'd had about Logan.

With that question staring her smack-dab in the face, Reese opened the door to her room and came smack-dab in the face with someone else.

“Reese,” her mother purred. “I've been waiting for you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

L
OGAN
SMELLED
HIS
coffee before he sipped it. No cat shit, or if it was in there, it hadn't altered the taste. However, he was concerned that he'd done something to put that pissed-off look on Jimena's face.

“Did another seller cancel business with us?” he asked her.

Jimena shook her head. “No, but you do have a visitor. I told her you were really busy, but she insisted on seeing you. She would have just charged back here, but I'm bigger than she is and threatened to put her in a headlock. That's okay to say that, right?”

“Depends on the visitor. Is it Vickie?”

“Helene.”

Logan thought about it a second and decided the headlock threat was still all right. If he could live with the cat-shit threat hanging over his head, then Helene could manage this.

“What does she want?” Logan asked.

Jimena rolled her eyes. “To talk to you privately. And yes, she emphasized the
privately
part.”

If this had something to do with the clown-sex photos, then it was possible Helene didn't know they'd been stolen from Jimena's computer. Or maybe she did know and that's why she'd insisted on a private conversation.

“Show Helene in but also call Reese for me and see if she can come over for lunch.” Logan had been swamped all morning with meetings and paperwork, but he really did need to talk to her about these blackmail attempts.

“I'll make sure she comes.” Jimena turned to leave, but Logan thought of something else.

He took out the blue boxed ring from his desk. The ring that was supposed to be Helene's. “Could you take this over to the jewelry store and return it?”

“Sure. Is this what I think it is?”

“It is, and yes, I should have returned it months ago, but I kept forgetting. Just ask for Jeff.”

“I've met him. Reese and I were there earlier. She's finally getting her grandfather's watch fixed.” Jimena leaned in closer as if telling a secret. “Jeff said it'd take two weeks for the repair. Two weeks,” she emphasized, and waggled her fingers at him. She had on polka-dotted nail polish. “A smart man would use those two weeks to sweet-talk Reese into staying even longer.”

Yes, a smart man would, and Logan would try, but with Vickie breathing down their necks, Reese might just run and then sneak back later to get the watch.

“Logan?” Helene called out from the hall. “I really need to see you.”

Jimena's eyes narrowed. “I told her to stay put. Can I headlock her now?”

While the petty part of him might have found that satisfying, there was no need. “Just do that errand for me. I'll answer the phones while you're out.” That was something Helene probably wouldn't appreciate, but she'd appreciate a headlock even less.

Jimena glared her way out as Helene slunk her way in, and Helene closed the door behind Jimena as soon as she could.

“You know I can recommend some qualified office help,” Helene started.

“No need.” Best to get right down to business. “What can I do for you?”

Considering that Helene had been so darn anxious to get in to see him, she still took her time answering. “I came by to say goodbye. I'm leaving town for a while. Hoping to regroup my life.”

He nodded. “Good luck with that.” The phone rang, and Logan held up his hand in a “wait a sec” gesture and answered it. Delbert.

“Logan, we have to talk,” Delbert blurted out.

“Apparently, there's a queue for that. Is this about that personal matter?”

“It is. I gave that woman money to keep quiet, and she wants more.”

“Of course she does.” Logan didn't want to mention names because even though Helene appeared to be studying some new artwork, she also appeared to be listening in. “There's only one way to fix this. You know what you have to do. Come clean.” And with that, Logan hung up and moved on to the second cog in this blackmail wheel.

“Do you want to talk about those photos that Vickie has?” Logan asked.

Helene seemed to release the breath she'd been holding. “You know about those.” She sighed, sank down in the chair across from his desk. “She's blackmailing me.”

“Of course,” Logan repeated. Now he sighed. “There's only one way to fix this—come clean.”

She glanced at the phone, probably putting the pieces together. Helene likely didn't know that it was Delbert who'd called, but now she had an inkling that someone else was in the same leaky boat that she was.

“That's hard to do.” Her voice was whispery, the sound of a woman of the verge of tears. “I could hurt you and your business.”

He lifted his eyebrow. “If anything, people will just feel sorry for me. I hate pity business more than pity sex, but I won't be the one hurt in this.”

She conceded that with a soft sound of agreement. “So, how would I go about coming clean?”

Logan had a few suggestions. Helene wasn't going to like them, though. “You could just tell one of the town's bigger gossips that there are sex photos. Or print an apology in the newspaper along with enough details to defuse future threats from Vickie. Or you could record Vickie blackmailing you and use it to have her arrested.”

The last one, though, wouldn't stop the threat because Vickie would just continue the blackmail when she got out of jail.

Helene nodded. Stood. Whether she would do any of those things, he didn't know. But this was a case of not his bull, not his bullshit. Logan already had enough of his own he had to shovel.

“Oh,” Helene added. “I tried to bribe Reese into leaving town. I figured I should tell you before Reese does.”

“She won't tell me,” Logan assured her.

“Of course she will.” Said like gospel coming from a woman who clearly didn't know squat about Reese.

The phone rang again so Logan motioned for Helene to close the door on her way out. He figured it was Delbert again, calling to whine about the mess of his own making. But it was a different whiner.

Chucky.

“Have you seen Vickie?” the man greeted.

“No. Why? What's going on now?”

“She's gone bat-shit crazy, that's what.” Chucky was talking so fast that his words ran together. “She hired some thug to bust my nut, and the only way I got out of it was to pay the guy off.”

“Maybe that was her plan along—to have you pay the guy so she could split the profit with him?” Logan suggested.

Judging from the long pause, then the profanity, Chucky hadn't considered that. “Vickie,” he growled, and he made the woman's name sound like profanity, too.

“Look, I don't know what you expect me to do—”

“I want to leave the country and start a new life,” Chucky readily answered. “I got dreams of owning a beach house in Hawaii.”

Logan wasn't sure if he should point out that Hawaii was part of the country. “And you expect me to help you with that?”

“Yes, I do,” Chucky verified. “I told you about Vickie taking stuff from Jimena's computer. Well, I took stuff from it, too. Pictures. And I know a lot of other stuff that could ruin you.”

Hell. Not another round of this. “Are you blackmailing me?”

Chucky hesitated. “No, of course not.” Yeah, he was blackmailing him. “Wouldn't want to say anything in case you're recording this. Let's just say I expect you to help me make my dreams come true because you're a generous person.”

“I'm not generous,” Logan reminded him. “And neither is Jimena. Do you remember that she can make things difficult between you and your wife?”

“Let her try. My wife will come back to me when I'm richer than you. I'll meet you at your office first thing in the morning to discuss this. I'll see you at 8:00 a.m. sharp. Be there and be prepared to make my Hawaii-house dream come true.”

Logan would rather eat Hawaii than pay off this turd.

The moment Chucky ended the call, Logan took out his phone and pressed Reese's number. If Vickie was hiring thugs—even conning ones—to threaten Chucky, she could do the same to Reese, and Logan needed to warn her.

Her phone rang but then went straight to voice mail. Logan left her a message to call him ASAP and then got busy thinking up a plan. He had to do something to put an end to Chucky's and Vickie's threats once and for all.

* * *

“H
OW
DID
YOU
get in here?” Reese asked her mother once she got her mouth working. She cursed the jolt of surprise and knew she had let down her guard. Not a good thing to do around Vickie.

“The door was unlocked so I decided to come in and wait for you.”

That might be true. Reese had left in a hurry with Jimena so it was possible she'd forgotten to lock up. Just as possible, though, that her mother had picked the lock. Vickie was good at that.

“Well, you can just un-wait,” Reese told her. “Because I have nothing to say to you.” However, she did have something to do. Reese started checking around the room to make sure her mother hadn't stolen anything.

“I have something to say to you,” Vickie answered. “I'm tired of being messed over by life. By you. By everybody.”

Reese didn't bother to give her a flat look for the “by you” comment. She just kept checking to make sure everything was there. Things were okay in the kitchen so she went to the small closet.

“You might have heard,” Vickie went on, “that I happened to come across some interesting photos and information.”

“I heard.” Since she didn't have much stuff, it didn't take Reese long to go through the closet, but that's when she saw that her backpack was unzipped. She laid it on the bed so she could go through it.

“You're pretending not to be interested, but I know you want to know what I have.”

“Sex pictures that you stole from Jimena's computer.” She rummaged through her things and found the chef's knives. It was the only thing that mattered to her now that the watch was at the jeweler's. For the first time, Reese was actually glad it hadn't been in the room for her mother to find.

“And do you know what I can do with those sex pictures?” Vickie asked like a greedy dog over a coveted bone.

Now Reese gave her the flat look. “Blackmail people.” She used her Captain Obvious voice.

“Yes,” Vickie answered as if it hadn't been so obvious, after all. Clearly, she wanted to play a game here, but Reese wasn't in a playing mood. “I have sex pictures I can use to blackmail that uppity bitch Helene. More sex pictures to blackmail that trashy bitch Jimena. More sex pictures to blackmail that hound dog Delbert.”

Reese continued her flat look. “Is that all?”

Vickie's eyes narrowed. No, this game wasn't going her way, but then Reese saw something she didn't want to see. A gleam in those beady-rat eyes. Her mother had something else.

“I have something else,” Vickie verified a split second later. “I got copies of the old newspaper articles about Spenser O'Malley. How do you think your hot cowboy will react when he sees those?”

“Hot cowboy?” someone said from the doorway.

Logan.

Reese wasn't sure she wanted him here for this conversation, but her mother smiled, thinking she was about to drop a bombshell.

“You don't know what Reese did,” Vickie said.

“Yes, I do. I read the entire report on Spenser O'Malley. I personally think he got what he deserved, and Reese was in no way to blame for that.”

If her mother's eyes narrowed any more, she'd look as if she had straight lines where her eye sockets should be. “Well, the town might not be so forgiving,” Vickie spat out.

That was true, but then Reese had never stayed around a town long enough to know how they reacted to news like that.

“Plus, there's Jimena,” Vickie went on. “I can mess things up between her and her cowboy lover boy. I can show him those sex pictures of Jimena with another man.”

“Please.” And Reese didn't say it as a plea, either. “Jimena will probably show Jason the pictures herself. She uses them as foreplay.” That was possibly true, anyway.

More eye narrowing from Vickie. Reese wished she had some superglue to squirt on them so they'd stay shut that way.

“Fine. But you're not going to blow off the rest of what I've got.” When Vickie opened her eyes again, she didn't look at Reese but rather Logan. “I've heard plenty of stories about the night your folks were killed. Word is you blame yourself.”

Everything inside Reese went still, and she thought she might permanently shut her mother's eyes without the use of superglue. A couple of punches might do it.

“You stay away from Logan,” Reese warned her. Then she instantly regretted it. Because her mother smiled again, and Reese knew she'd given her exactly what she wanted.

A way for her to manipulate Reese.

“Those stories are old news,” Logan explained.

“Yes.” Vickie could have won a smugness award with the tone slathered on that one-word response. “But it's another thing to see those stories in print. Think of how painful it would be for your family to read them. Oh, did I mention that I'd be going to the newspaper with all of this?”

Reese wanted to believe the newspaper wouldn't touch it, but they actually had a gossip section under the general label of “What's Going on, Y'all?”

“So, basically you're trying to hurt Logan, Delbert, Helene, Jimena and me?” Reese asked. She didn't have to ask why. “How much?”

Still smiling, her mother stood. “I'm still considering that, but I thought you could talk to all parties involved, and you could find out what they'd like to do to make me go away.”

“If I bargain with you,” Logan said, “will you give me dirt to put Chucky away? I only want to deal with one of you.”