To Tempt a Cowgirl (27 page)

“Or what?” Kyle asked quietly. He shoved his jaw sideways as he regarded Gabe, then with a curt nod, turned and headed for his SUV.

Gabe stood where he was until Kyle turned the vehicle around and roared down the driveway, turning to go toward town rather than Dani’s.

Well, at least there was that, though Gabe didn’t doubt for one second that Kyle was going to continue to stir the pot. Who would have thought that breakfast out with his assistant would create such a shit storm?

Gabe went back inside, tried to work, but couldn’t settle. Instead he paced. Dani was busy with horses and clients. Kelly would be there by now...and if he raced over to head off a possible move by Kyle, it would only make him look as if he had something to hide. Which he didn’t.

He had no doubt that if he could, though, Kyle would twist things around, but he was equally certain that Dani wasn’t going to believe anything her ex-brother-in-law told her without first looking into matters. The best way to deal with this was to simply go over this afternoon as usual, tell her everything and hope for the best.

* * *

D
ANI HAD JUST
stripped down to get into the shower when her phone rang. She debated, then cranked off the water and crossed the hall to her bedroom to scoop the phone up off the dresser.

Allie.

“Hey, what’s up?” she asked, walking back into the bathroom.

“Kyle called.”

“Yeah?” Dani asked in a cautious voice. “What’s he want now? My new furniture?”

“What do you know about this Gabe guy?”

There was a note in her sister’s voice that put Dani on full alert. “Why?”

“Kyle thinks that he’s there to buy the ranch. That he’s been there the entire time to buy the ranch. That he’s been hanging out, biding his time, manipulating things so that you trusted him before he made the sales pitch.”

Dani went cold inside.

“Since when does Kyle know jack?” she asked.

“Yeah. I know, but this time he sounds like he’s actually concerned. I mean...I can’t think of any way that telling us helps him.”

“He’s Kyle. There’s a way.” Which was exactly what Dani had to believe. The guy who’d smashed her standpipes was mad at Gabe for some perceived slight and was getting his revenge.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know.” Dani sat on the edge of the tub, staring at the floor tiles between her feet. “You sound like you honestly believe him.”

“I guess that Gabe had a visitor recently.”

“His assistant. Yes.”

“And apparently that assistant also works for the Widmeyers—or did when they were hammering out the Timberline deal.”

“Maybe she changed jobs,” Dani said. That wasn’t unheard of, although having her work for first the Widmeyers and then someone who also happened to be spending time in Eagle Valley—that was kind of pushing the coincidence boundaries.

“Her last name is Widmeyer. Kyle stopped her last year for speeding.”

Dani’s stomach felt like a rock, but she battled on. “He’s sure it’s the same woman.”

“I guess she’s pretty distinctive.”

Which was exactly what Dani had heard from Gina. “Damn,” she muttered. Gabe never mentioned a connection with the Widmeyers, even when they’d discussed Timberline. He’d had every opportunity and hadn’t.

He was going to give Molly to his best friend’s wife. What if that best friend was a Widmeyer?

“I talked to Mel, Dani. She thinks it’s totally possible that Widmeyer plans to make another resort in this valley. She says that the Staley property combined with ours would be a prime locale, and get this—the Staley property was purchased through an LLC registered in Nevada, so no one knows who the true owner is. It could well be Widmeyer Enterprises.”

“Speculation.”

“I agree, Dan. That’s all it is, but what if this guy has been working you? You need to think about this—especially, if, well...”

“Right.” Dani lifted her chin, thinking she was already beyond the
if-well
stage. “I’ll talk to him tonight. I’ll ask him if what Kyle says is true.”

“What if he lies to you? I mean, liars tend to do that.”

“I guess I’ll have to see what my gut says.”

And right now her gut was screaming, “No fair!” She finds a guy she really connects with and...this? It couldn’t be true.

But what if it was?

* * *

T
ROUBLE.
T
HAT WAS
what her gut said an hour later when Gabe parked the truck in its place near the barn and started for the house. There was an aura of tension around him that, if anything, became more pronounced when he walked into the house.

“Hey,” she said, not moving toward him as she would have done if Allie hadn’t called.

He studied her for a long moment and her stomach tightened to the point that she thought she might be sick.

Give him a chance.

Fine. She’d do that, but everything in her shouted that something was so very wrong.

“Hi.” He held up the bag he carried. “The steaks.”

Food was about the last thing she wanted to think about, but Dani went through the motions, for the moment anyway. “Let’s lay them out to season.”

She turned and walked toward the kitchen and he followed, as did the dark cloud that seemed to surround them.

“Kyle called Allie,” she said as she took the bag from him.

“I figured.”

She turned then to face him. His expression was tight. Grim. “What’s going on, Gabe? Who do you work for?”

He wasn’t stupid enough to try to touch her. She’d give him that. “I work for myself.”

“Are you contracted by the Widmeyers by any chance?”

“We’re friends.”

“Ah,” she said as if he’d commented on the weather, while her insides were beginning to churn. “I guess it’s not too hard to guess who your ‘friend’ is who’ll pay a decent price for the ranch.”

“It’s Stewart Widmeyer.”

Okay. One point taken care of.

“Did you come here expressly to buy the Lightning Creek?” she asked quietly.

“I did.”

“You son of a bitch.”

“Wait—”

“No. I won’t wait,” Dani said, taking a couple of paces toward him, her hands clenched into fists by her side. “You came here to manipulate me—us—into selling our ranch.”

“I came here to get the lay of the land, to see if it was possible to buy the ranch. I didn’t come here to manipulate you into selling it.”

“Then why do I feel manipulated? Why do I feel like I’ve been used?” She practically spit the words at him.

“I haven’t used you.”

“Bull. Shit. You set out to get close to me from day one. You bought a freaking horse even though you didn’t ride.” She put her hand to her head and shoved her hair back. “You bought a horse to get to know me and you don’t call that manipulation.” Her eyes went wide. “It was no accident that you were at Lacy’s pen, was it?”

Gabe’s lips were pressed tightly together, the line of his mouth nearly white as he shook his head.

“You son of a bitch,” she repeated. Dani bit her lip and turned away, having a sudden, almost uncontrollable urge to throw something, anything, and see it smash against the wall. Or better yet, against Gabe’s head.

“It wasn’t like that.”

“Oh, yeah?” she asked coldly. “Then how was it?” She folded her arms over her chest and waited for him to try to put a spin on it, as Chad had tried to put a spin on his activities.

“First of all, I was going to tell you everything tonight.”

“How convenient. You’re forgiven,” she said acidly.

“Dani...”

Now she was the one pressing her lips together, trying so damned hard to keep it together until she got this bastard out of her house. At least she wasn’t crying. Yet.

Tears of anger, she told herself, resisting the urge to brush the back of her hand under her eyes. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “You bought a horse under false pretenses. You hired me to train said horse under false pretenses—all so you could get your grimy hands on my ranch.”

“All right. The horse part wasn’t totally aboveboard, but the rest of it was.”

“If it was, then why didn’t you tell me the truth when you brought up your friend who wanted to buy the ranch? Why didn’t you say, ‘My friend Mr. Widmeyer wants to buy your ranch because it adjoins this other property and then he can—’” she waved her hands in the air “—do whatever it is he wants to do?”

“Because I couldn’t risk people knowing that. If that happened, the land prices would skyrocket and we’d have one hell of a time getting the acreage we needed at an acceptable price. Jeffries would have made certain that happened.”

Dani didn’t know who Jefferies was and she didn’t care. “But if you strung me along, you could get the land quietly and for an acceptable price.” She curled her lip up and asked, “How do you look at yourself in the mirror?”

“Dani...I didn’t want this to play out this way.”

“Oh. How did you want it to play out? In the way where you banged me a few more times, then disappeared back to wherever it is you live?”

“I didn’t plan on falling in love with you.”

For a moment she simply stared at him, too damned angry to find the words she needed. “You fell in love with me.”

“Yeah.” He shoved his hands into his back pockets in an uncomfortable gesture.

“You don’t treat people you love the way you treated me.”

“I was going to tell you. I was going to lay out everything. Ask you to understand that I started off the wrong way, but ended up...ended up caring more for you than I’ve ever cared for anyone else.”

“If this is the person you are—the kind that slides into situations and looks for ways to take advantage so that you can achieve your goal—well, you can just go to hell.”

He shifted his weight again, his troubled gaze still drilling into her. “There’s more.”

“How can there be more?” she asked him incredulously.

“Stewart arranged to have Jolie’s internship extended.”

Dani’s mouth fell open, then she snapped it shut again. “And did you arrange for Kelly to go to volleyball camp, too?”

He shook his head.

“Leave.” Dani pointed to the door, needing to get him out of there, because if he stayed much longer the angry tears were going to flow and she didn’t need that particular humiliation on top of everything else. “And take that horse with you.” Having Molly around was only going to remind her of what this guy had done to her.

Two liars in a row. How could she be so stupid? “Go.”

The word dropped out of her mouth like a stone. Gabe drew in a breath, then turned and walked out of the kitchen. A few seconds later the front door opened and closed. Dani turned to lean on the countertop, her forehead pressed against the old cabinets as she pulled in a choked breath. She let it out again, and then the tears starting hitting her hands and the counter beneath them like raindrops.

Son of a bitch.

Taken again.

* * *

G
ABE TOOK
D
ANI
at her word, borrowing a halter from the tack room and using it to lead Molly back to his place. He’d send the halter back. Somehow. Right now he needed to figure out what he was going to tell Stewart and Neal. Not only that he’d lost the deal, but that it was also highly probable that word would soon be out about what they had planned, and once again Jeffries would win.

As he walked through the clear evening, following the deer trail across the fields to the Staley house, Molly walking placidly behind him, he tried to come up with alternative plans—for both the Widmeyer deal and Dani. Especially Dani.

Was there any chance that once she’d had time to cool off that they could talk?

It sure as hell hadn’t looked that way when he’d left her kitchen.

He was in deep shit and he couldn’t see any way out of it. His only choice was to plow through it and see if he could salvage anything—on either front.

Maybe there were other suitable properties they could find in the area—if Dani didn’t instantly tell the world about what he’d done. She might not. She might not want the world to know that the guy she’d been dating had been, in her eyes, stringing her along. That Brody pride.

If she didn’t tell, then Kyle would.

He was well and truly screwed. What killed him was that if Kyle hadn’t recognized Serena, then all would have been well. He could have secured the ranch, continued his relationship with Dani, told her the truth...or most of it. He didn’t see where he would have ever told her about arranging that first meeting at Lacy’s stall, but everything else.

Stewart was going to be livid, but that wasn’t ruining him nearly as much as recalling the look of utter betrayal Dani had worn after she’d demanded the truth of him.

When he got home, he put Molly in the pasture next to the house, removing the halter as Dani had taught him. Once she realized she was free, that she wasn’t going back to the Lightning Creek to be with her buddies, she raised her head and let out a long series of whinnies, her ears perked forward to hear any distant answers.

Nothing.

Which was how it was probably going to be with him and Dani.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

D
ANI COULD HAVE
called a sister. It wasn’t as if she didn’t have a lot to choose from, but instead she paced the house—the house now filled with furniture she’d bought while with Gabe the Liar, which was getting in the way of her stalking path.

How could she have been so manipulated and not seen what was happening? How could she have accepted that he was buying a horse for his best friend’s wife? And paying to have it trained? People didn’t do things like that. She was an idiot.

Although who would have thought that someone would go to such lengths to get to know someone? And Jolie’s internship! What kind of power did Gabe have?

Widmeyer power. The power of money.

Well, they were not buying her. Now it was a matter of principle. She’d been made a fool of twice, once by Chad and again by Gabe, and she wasn’t going to do either of them any favors.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

And what really killed her was that she’d liked him—pretend Gabe had been a good guy. Funny, sexy, caring, intelligent. She had no idea what real Gabe—if that was indeed his name—was like and she wasn’t going to find out.
Fool me once, and all that crap...