Authors: Kristen Ashley
Two down, one to go.
Looking around even though I didn’t want to, I noticed I was right all those years ago. The square in summer had perfectly tended, dazzling green turf and healthy, abundant, colorful flowers burst forth from the urns. However, I did not guess there would be huge, vibrant planters with trailing greenery hanging from the streetlamps.
That was a nice touch.
We walked up the courthouse steps, in and followed the sign to the police section. Then we walked up to the front desk.
“We’d like to speak to an officer named Lenny,” Lash announced.
“You mean Cap?” the man behind the desk asked, his eyes shifting through all of us, alert.
Seemed like Lenny moved up too.
Good for him.
“Likely,” Lash answered.
“What’s this got to do with?” the officer asked.
“We would like to report threats made to my lady friend by Buddy Sharp,” Lash answered, tipping his head to me.
The guy stared at him. Then he grinned.
Not a Buddy Sharp fan.
No surprise.
He grabbed the phone.
Five minutes later, down a hall I saw Officer…no,
Captain
Lenny coming at me. Surprisingly, he didn’t try to hide his surprise at seeing me.
“Ivey,” he greeted, his eyes moving through Lash and Brutus then back to me. “It’s been a long time.
“Captain,” I replied. “Please meet my partner, Lash Caldiwell.” I motioned to Lash who shook Lenny’s hand. “And this is Brutus,” I motioned to Brutus who jerked up his chin and kept his place behind me and just to my side, close to my back. Lenny read this correctly and didn’t go for a handshake.
Then his eyes came back to me.
“Heard about what happened to you in Vegas, Ivey,” he said softly.
I had no doubt.
“Ms. Larue is here to make a statement,” Lash put in and Lenny looked at him then back to me.
Then he stated, “Think the situation was covered by Gray.”
I felt Lash tense beside me then he requested, “Perhaps you’ll explain.”
Lenny sighed then looked at me. “I believe you informed Gray that Buddy paid you a visit.”
“I did,” I confirmed.
“Well, after you did that, Gray paid Buddy a visit. It was public, it was heated and there’s not a lotta people in three counties that don’t know Buddy’s an assclown but now there’s not a lotta people in
seven
counties who don’t know that seein’ as Gray was pissed and when Gray gets pissed it’s serious and he don’t care who’s around. Gray managed to keep his hands off Buddy which is good. He’s got enough problems without his ass bein’ in the tank. But his message was pretty clear.”
Lash took my hand but even though that felt nice, nothing could stop my heart from beating as hard as it was beating.
Lenny kept speaking.
“Anyway, Ivey, incident occurred in Vegas. That is way outta my jurisdiction. Nothin’ I can do.”
“I understand that, Lenny, but what he said to me, something is happening. Not only did he threaten me and I’d like that down in an official capacity somewhere, it was clear he had some machinations he was instigating or had already started against Gray. If my statement is on record somewhere, wherever that may be, something happens to me or Gray, then the breadcrumb trail has already been laid,” I told him.
Lenny was alert always but at my story he got more alert.
“He make threats against Gray as well as you?”
“Not directly.” I shook my head. “No. That isn’t true. To me, directly, to Gray, indirectly.”
Lenny rolled his tongue along his lower teeth behind his lips, his eyes working.
Then he stepped back, extended his arm down the hall and stated, “Let me introduce you to one of our officers who’ll take your statement.”
My heart eased.
Lash started moving me, Brutus behind but as I got abreast of Lenny, I stopped, they stopped with me and I caught Lenny’s eyes.
“Thank you, Lenny,” I whispered.
“My job, Ivey,” he said quietly.
He’d said that to me before and I remembered it like it happened yesterday. The memory hurt like a mother but I didn’t let it show, nodded then walked down the hall with my two best friends.
* * * * *
We were sitting at a fabulous restaurant in the middle of nowhere with expensive steak dinners sitting in front of us. They weren’t VFW delicious but they were nothing to sneeze at.
Leave it to Lash to sniff out elegance and extravagance in the mountain plains in Colorado. Not only the restaurant but the hotel spa, also in the middle of nowhere, where we were spending a couple of getaway days.
I was smiling at Lash who’d just said something Lash-like to make me smile; I’d grabbed my wineglass and was lifting it to my curved lips when Brutus spoke and Lash and I looked at him.
“Right, just gonna take this moment to say, not sure I get this, you two, what you’re doin’, dumpin’ a wad on this fuckin’ guy who broke Ivey’s heart.” He looked at me and his voice dropped soft. “What I do know, you doin’ this but I already knew it before, is that heart is made of pure gold, baby. That guy is fuckin’ whacked for losin’ hold ‘a you. What you did today, I would never do but I’m proud ‘a you that you had the strength to do it.”
My heart swelled, tears filled my eyes and I whispered, “Thank you, baby.”
“You’re welcome, baby,” Freddie whispered back.
Lash found my thigh under the table and squeezed it.
I breathed deep, got a lock on it and looked between the two of them.
Then I smiled.
Nothin’ Better Than You
Nine thirty the next morning…
I was returning from having breakfast with Lash, walking down the hall toward our room.
I’d lost Lash for the day. Gym, Jacuzzi, sauna, shower, haircut at the house salon, professional shave and manicure. Just his time at the gym would be over an hour. He had a popular club in Vegas that took a lot of his time but he liked to work on his body and he didn’t often have the time to get a good workout in. Rarely a sauna. Never a professional shave and manicure.
It was cool that after taking his time to deal with my business he was going to get something he liked out of it.
I’d also lost Brutus for the day. Even though he worked at his body too and Lash was footing the bill, Brutus’s activities didn’t involve long gym visits and salon services. They involved a smooth, mocha-skinned beauty who worked hotel reception that he eyed up, nailed down and with whom he was currently behind closed doors with a Do Not Disturb sign. Today was her day off so they had lots of time.
Brutus got his own treat.
As for me, I was at a loss for what to do. My life
did
include regular spa treatments. We had a pool at home I used often. I spent a lot of time shopping because I liked it and could afford it and my life was generally stress-free. That was, when the people of Mustang weren’t paying me threatening visits or firing at the defenses I built around my heart with bazookas.
I was looking forward to getting back to that.
But for the next couple of days, I wasn’t sure what to do.
Yes, there I was.
Me.
Except for drifting through the club fake flirting with men, my life was a vacation.
Fancy that.
I decided I’d order up room service, slip into something comfortable, call up a bunch of movies and spend my time lazing in bed with a movie marathon.
I didn’t do that at home and I thought that would be awesome.
I slid my keycard in, the light went green, I pushed down the handle and slid the card out. Then I pushed open the door.
Then something warm and hard was at my back pushing at me and the door.
I started to cry out, twisting around, my shoulder slamming into something solid, my head jerking back and I saw him.
Gray.
The cry strangled itself in my throat and I didn’t struggle as Gray pushed us in until we cleared the door then he stopped, facing me, shutting the door behind him and standing in front of it.
I took three quick strides into the room and whirled.
Shit. He looked good.
No.
He looked fucking
great.
Time had been kind and I shouldn’t have been surprised, I knew it would be. The way he was made, there was no other way it could be. But I also saw photos of his Dad at his house. His father never lost it either.
It wasn’t like it had been thirty years. Gray was just thirty-three.
But he wore it well just as he’d wear fifty-three, sixty-three and, if he was lucky, eighty-three.
“How did you find me?” I asked, tearing my gaze from all that was him to look into his blue eyes.
“Dollface, you came to Mustang and made a splash. It was impossible
not
to find you.”
It happened and he kept speaking but he saw it and when he was done talking his brows shot together.
My body had jerked like it took a blow.
And this was on his first word.
Dollface.
“Ivey?” he called, his voice softer, a thread of concern drifting through it.
I pulled my shit together and straightened my shoulders.
“Get out.”
The concern vanished and his face got hard again.
“Oh no, we’re gonna talk.”
“You and I don’t have anything to talk about,” I informed him.
“Twenty-four hours ago, you’re right. We didn’t. Then you strutted your ass through two counties laying a thick trail of your man’s money and gettin’ in everyone’s face about it, especially mine, so now we do.”
“It’s done, there’s nothing you can do about it so just leave and move on,” I advised.
“You’re right again, Ivey. It’s done and there’s nothin’ I can do about it but that don’t mean I got nothin’ to say about it. I’m gonna say what I gotta say and you’re gonna listen.”
Really?
Why couldn’t these people just leave me alone?
“Is this necessary?” I snapped.
“Yeah, to me, yeah. You, Ivey,
you
waltz into Mustang and bail my shit out usin’ another guy’s money? What the fuck?”
“Gray –”
“That was not cool,” he cut me off, his voice starting to go rough with building fury. “Shovin’ your man and his money in my face, Ivey. That…was not…
cool
.”
“It wasn’t his money, Gray, it was mine,” I shot back, Gray leaned back and the surprise showed on his face. I took that and went with it. “So you can stop being macho man rancher cowboy pissed off that another man sorted your shit. Now you can start being macho man rancher cowboy pissed off that a woman sorted your shit. But, for God’s sake, do it somewhere else.”
“It was his money,” Gray pressed, the surprise moving out of his face, the fury back in.
“It wasn’t, Gray,” I pressed back.
“It was, Ivey, you live with him, you fuck him, he uses you and your hair and your ass and your legs to make the money he pays you so it’s his money. Christ, all these years, you never learned. It just got worse.”
Melted steel shot through my veins encasing my spine and as it did I lost my mind.
“How dare you?” I hissed.
“Pretty easy,” Gray clipped back.
“You have no idea how it is between Lash and me.”
He leaned in, expression, posture and, when he spoke, his tone telling me his anger was escalating right along with mine.
“Darlin’, you forget,
I saw you.
You swayed your tight ass right in my face. I paid three hundred dollars for the seat at that show as did a hundred other men around that stage. You can talk for a year and you will never convince me that the man you fuck gave you all that money. He’s using you just like your brother. Except unlike your brother he gets to fuck you a different way and you’re so goddamned stupid,
you let him.
”
“You don’t know how it is,” I snapped.
“I know exactly how it is,” he bit back.
“No you don’t, Gray. Lash is gay.”
I was so furious at the way he was speaking to me, what he was saying, it just slid out.
And a miracle didn’t happen a nanosecond afterward where my words evaporated before they hit Gray’s ears. I knew it by the shock that settled on his face.
And I had to instigate damage control, pronto.
“You can’t tell anyone,” I whispered.
Gray stared at me and didn’t say a word.
Frantic, I rushed to him and repeated, “You can’t tell anyone. No one knows. No one but me. You can’t tell anyone.”
Gray looked down at me, still speechless and I lifted a hand, curled it into his tee and leaned into him.
“Gray, you have to promise me, not a single word. He trusts me. I’m the only one in this world he trusts. I know everything about him, he knows everything about me. The only reason he gave me that gift was that he trusted me to keep it safe.” I leaned deeper, rolling up on my toes. “Please, please, Gray. He’s my best friend in this world and he trusts me. You have to promise me you won’t breathe a word to anyone about what I just said.”
Gray’s eyes moved over my face and when they did they took their time but he still said nothing.
“Please,” I whispered, feeling the tears shimmering in my eyes, hearing the desperation in that one word and Gray’s hand came up, fingers curling around mine at his shirt, holding it tight and warm.
“Ivey, who am I gonna tell?” he whispered back.
“No one, please, promise me,” I begged and his fingers squeezed mine.
“I promise, darlin’.”
I stared in his eyes searching for any sign he was lying to me and when I saw none I sucked in breath.
Then I realized I was leaning breasts to his chest, my hand curled in his shirt with his hand holding mine so I yanked my hand free and took two steps back.
Gray watched me do this and he kept watching me even as I stopped. His face held no fury. No residual shock.
But he was still studying me, eyes alert, something working at the back of them.
I heard a phone ring, it was coming from Gray’s ass but he ignored it and I did too.
I pulled in another calming breath, let it go and with it got my shit together.
So, being together, calmly I told him, “I don’t understand what made me do it but I did it and it’s done. If it wounds your pride, I’m sure you’ll get over it. But Mrs. Cody was kind to me, eventually, in her way and I didn’t like that she would not be in a clean place where she liked being. And Mustang was kind to me in its way and I didn’t like that it was losing its legacy. So I had the means to do it and I did it. Please accept that, move on and I will too.”