White Heat (26 page)

Joe laughed, then got serious when Jake didn’t crack a smile. “But you hate camping.”

“Yeah.” He also hated that his father, a man who hadn’t bothered with Jake in life, had in death tried to tie him to a place that meant nothing except a reminder of a relationship he’d never had. “So how about I just go back to work instead?”

“You know what the doctor said.”

He’d said it wasn’t looking good for Jake to get his shoulder back to fit condition, at least not fit enough for the heavy demands firefighting would put on it. Jake didn’t want to think about that. His cell phone rang so he didn’t have to, and since he had his hands on the weights, Joe answered it for him.

His friend listened for a moment, then lifted a brow. “No, I don’t think Firefighter Rawlins is interested in doing a spread for
Playgirl—How
much?” His gaze flew to meet Jake’s while he let out a whistle, but slowly shook his head. “Sorry. That’s…shocking, but no.” He disconnected, then shot Jake a speculative look. “I had no idea they paid so much.”

Jake didn’t respond because it was taking all his energy to lift weights. Actually, he wasn’t lifting so much as budging.

Budging while his muscles trembled like a newborn baby and sweat broke out on his brow. And then suddenly a microphone was shoved in his face by a man wearing a
Tribune
badge.

“Jake Rawlins, what will you do if your victim wins his case? Will you be forced to quit?”

Shocked, Jake blinked up at him. Forced to quit the job that was everything to him? For saving a kid’s life?

“Have you admitted guilt?” the reporter asked.

Fury filled him so fast his head spun, but Joe’s hand settled on his chest, holding him down. “Ignore him,” Joe warned quietly, then stood and hauled the reporter up to his toes. “We’re busy here.”

The reporter, feet swinging above the ground, paled. “Y-yes, I see that.”

“Then why are you still here?”

When the reporter had high-tailed it out the door, Jake lay back, one thing suddenly crystal clear. He did need out. He’d go to the only place he could think of, and the last place anyone would look for him. The last place he wanted to be.

The Blue Flame.

T
he rocky wooded canyons stretched to the sharp azure sky, unmarred by so much as a single cloud. Spring had been generous so far, and manzanita, mesquite, and Arizona oak grew in bountiful supply. In the center of all this glory a little piglet pumped its short legs, squealing as it ran from a second little piglet, right across the newly seeded area of the front lawn. A third little piglet chased its tail in circles in the flower bed in front of the big house. Piglet number four sat on its own, happily eating the garden hose.

Piglets five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten were creating mayhem in the hen pen. Hens screamed and squawked, racing around as if their heads had been cut off, with the pigs in merry pursuit.

Callie Anne Hayes opened the front door of the big house, stepped onto the wraparound porch, and beheld all this in disbelief.

One day away from a highly anticipated spring season of the Blue Flame Guest Ranch, a season she’d carefully orchestrated to be flawless…just one day. Clearly, things had been going too smoothly. Hen feathers flew through the air. Dust and dirt rose in a cloud, and above it all came the incredible sound of pigs in heaven and hens in hell.

Amazingly enough, Shep slept on at the bottom of the stairs, oblivious. Callie nudged the old shepherd’s hindquarters, but he just kept snoring.

Callie sighed, and eyeing pigs chasing hens chasing pigs, lifted the walkie-talkie at her hip. “The piglets are on the loose and destroying everything in sight. The latch must have broken. Help pronto, please.”

She got nothing back. “Tucker? Stone? Eddie? Marge? A little help?”

Still, no one answered, but at least she knew why. This was her crew’s last day off. Tomorrow they had a large group of Japanese businessmen coming in, and directly on their heels, a group of Tucson librarians, and then some professional football cheerleaders on break from the various teams they cheered for. After that, a reunion for a group of nine sisters, and then some frat boys. In fact, for the foreseeable future, the Blue Flame was nicely booked.

Knowing that, everyone had made their last day their own, and if she knew her crew, they’d all escaped at the crack of dawn that morning so she couldn’t find something to keep them busy.

Which left her on little piggy detail. She headed down the stairs. The two little guys on the grass first, she decided. They had to be caught before they destroyed the new, tender shoots. She chased them around a large Arizona oak, where the two piglets ran smack into each other, and then sat stunned. Scooping one under each arm, she marched them back to their pen. Brushing herself off, she went to shut the gate, figuring she’d duct tape it for now if she had to, but the latch wasn’t broken at all.

Whoever had fed them their slop this morning must have gotten lazy. “Damn it, Tucker.” He was one of her youngest employees but the twenty-year-old was usually much more vigilant than this.

Bracing herself, she turned around to go about the next capture, assisted now by Goose, an oversized, bossy female Pilgrim goose they kept around as a sort of mascot who ran the grassy area and front walk like a drill sergeant. Together they corralled the pigs while Shep slept on, and thirty minutes later there was only one stubborn little piglet left to nab. He was currently running from her as fast as his short little legs would carry him, his curlicue tail swinging around madly as he squealed loud enough to wake the dead.

She chased him around the large front yard, gritting her teeth as he led her back over the baby grass, followed by a honking Goose, who hated it when anyone happened onto “her” grass. Around the trees again, and then toward the water pump and hose at the side of the house, which one of the little pigs had already destroyed. Callie pictured a new account in her expenses this month labeled
Ridiculous Costs
and cringed.

To complicate matters, someone had left the hose on, and by the looks of things, water had been leaking all night, turning the entire area to mud.

The little piglet stopped to enjoy the sloppy mess, joyfully rubbing its snout in it. When it saw Callie coming, it prepared to run.

And to think she’d thought today had had perfection written all over it, the beginning of spring, a new time for the ranch, where she’d hopefully prove that the Blue Flame was worth every second of stress it caused the current owner—that is if Jake Rawlins ever even gave this place a second of his thoughts, period. She’d bet her last dollar he didn’t, which really ate at her because she’d give her left arm to own the Blue Flame.

But that was a worry for another day. Not today. Today was to be her calm before the storm, and if it hadn’t been for the out-of-control pigs, she wouldn’t have been able to take her eyes off her surroundings. God, she loved this place, where people could come to relax on a ranch setting, or join in and work it alongside her ranch crew.

The Blue Flame had been the first real home she’d ever had, and it held her heart, her soul, her very inner spirit. She scanned the three hundred and sixty degree vista around her. At an altitude of five thousand feet, the hundred square miles of national forest around her had been unchanged for centuries, probably longer. The Dragoon and Chiricahua Mountains, the Sulphur Springs Valley, the stories of Cochise, of his Chiricahua Apache braves, the legends of Geronimo, the feast of the Buffalo Soldiers…so much history right here.

In fact, the big house behind her had its own history. Once upon a time it’d been a country farmhouse for an early settler and his Indian wife, but now it was where their guests stayed in quaint rooms and shared meals together. The place reflected the air of the Old West, meaning rugged, which was more by necessity than design. It was actually in desperate need of renovation, but they hid that behind all the warm, friendly service they offered.

The house sat on a slight hill, overlooking the rest of the ranch. The large wooden deck housed their hot tub, all cleaned and ready for use. Each bedroom was neat and clean as well, and decorated with individual furnishings, all in poor farmhouse chic. The heart of the house was the living room, where ranch hands and guests alike all gathered. There was a large brick hearth there for long winter evenings, and the place looked hopefully inviting despite the fact they hadn’t replaced the scarred hardwood flooring last year because profits hadn’t allowed for it.

But this year would be different. As ranch manager, Callie had spent long nights working on their website. She’d scrimped in every way possible to spend more money on advertising, and as a result they were getting more bookings every week.

A surge of excitement went through her, as it did every time she thought about the Blue Flame slowly turning itself around from the dump it’d been two years ago; and she knew she’d had a big hand in that.

She moved up on the wayward piglet. “Stay right there,” Callie said softly, coming up on him, hands out. “Just stay right there…” She dove for him, at the exact moment the cell phone at her hip rang.

With a squeal, the pig ran off, and Callie landed in the mud, arms empty. Lifting her head, she wiped her face off on her sleeve and reached back for the phone. “Hello?”

“Hello, Callie. I’d like to book a room.”

Sprawled on her stomach, filthy now, Callie went absolutely still. That voice. She hadn’t heard it in a good long while, but she hadn’t forgotten it.

It belonged to Jake Rawlins, the one man who had the ability to destroy her perfect life, to have her at his mercy with five short words—
“I’m selling the Blue Flame.”
He was the only man who could drive her crazy, and the last man to have seen her naked.

She’d rather chase fifty more piglets than talk to him. “You need a room? Why?”

“Why?” He gave off a soft laugh that both grated and thrilled. “Because I thought I’d come stay for a while. Get some pampering.”

Pampering. No one knew better than she that Jake had an overabundance of charm and charisma, and thought nothing of using said charm and charisma to get a woman in his bed.…Only a man like Jake would think of coming to a dude ranch to be pampered.

God, she hated to think back to that night of Richard’s funeral service. Grief-stricken at the loss of her boss, her mentor, the man who’d once saved her life, she’d contacted his son. She had picked Jake up at the airport, driven him to the church, taken him back to the Blue Flame.

His first time there.

She’d mistaken his low, husky voice for anguish, his quiet, confident movements for ease in his surroundings, and over a bottle of aged whiskey, had thought she’d found a soul mate to grieve with.

She’d really like to blame what had happened next on her sorrow and the whiskey, or on Jake and his amazing voice, his talented mouth, and even more talented fingers. But the truth was, she’d
wanted
to be held that night, to be taken out of herself, to forget.

She’d done exactly that, until she’d realized that what grief she felt, she felt alone, as the only thing Jake had in him for his father was resentment and anger.

Unfortunately she’d been naked and in his arms by then. Kicking him out of her bed had given her great satisfaction…until she was alone again.

She and Jake hadn’t talked much since, except to discuss the monthly financials she sent. At least he hadn’t uttered those five dreaded words yet. She tried to keep her extremely negative thoughts to herself rather than remind him that he’d like nothing more than to sell this place.

He’d been back to the ranch just twice since Richard’s death. Each time had been with a different bimbo—er, woman—at his side and a disinterested smile on his lips as he watched their guests get excited over milking cows and feeding pigs.

Neither time had he indulged in any of the activities available, at least nothing that involved the great outdoors. No, his recreation of choice had been staying in bed with his guest and ringing for room service—which they didn’t have.

At least he’d called ahead each time as he was doing now, warning her. She supposed she should be grateful for that consideration. “I’m sorry,” she said into her phone. Mud dripped off her nose. “We’re booked.”

“I didn’t tell you when I’m arriving.”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re solid for the month. A group of businessmen is checking in, and we have three more groups booked back to back after they leave.”

“I’m sure we can find a spare room,” he said easily.

We. That meaning her and the mouse in her pocket, she supposed. “For when?”

“Tonight.”

She gripped the cell phone. Mud squished through her fingers. “So soon?”

“Yep.” Was that a laugh in his voice? “Why don’t you go ahead and finish terrorizing that poor pig first. I’ll wait.”

Pulling the phone away from her ear, she stared at it, heart hammering in her ears. Another drop of mud dripped from her nose to the receiver.

“I’d offer to help,” he said. “But I’m not interested in a mud bath as a part of my pampering.”

Lifting her head, she searched her immediate vicinity. Big house at her right, series of small one-room cabins on her left, where the staff lived. One large barn and stables straight ahead, a smaller hay barn beside it, and behind them the open corrals and fields of the ranch. Beyond that, the Dragoon Mountains, where she’d led countless expeditions to abandoned mining camps and old Apache lookout points along mountain precipices and ridges that rolled along as far as the eye could see.

Twisting around, she looked behind her. The new grass, the driveway…and the black truck that hadn’t been there before her pig hunt. Leaning against the driver’s side stood a man she recognized all too well, despite only seeing him three times in her life.

He looked the same; he always did, which was to say knee-knockingly good. He was just over six feet, with dark hair on the wrong side of his last haircut, thick and unruly to the top of his collar. There was a few days’ growth on his lean jaw, and mirrored sunglasses on eyes she knew to be a steely, unsettling shade of gray like his father’s had been. He wore a dark blue T-shirt with some emblem she couldn’t read over his left pec, probably his firefighter’s patch, and nicely fitted Levi’s faded in all the stress points. He had running shoes on his feet, not boots, and inwardly she sneered at the thought of him walking in those toward her, in the mud.

Seeming quite unconcerned, his long legs were casually crossed, his broad shoulders relaxed for a man who’d just shown up where he wasn’t wanted and knew it.

Or maybe he didn’t know it.

In any case, he held his cell phone to his ear, and when he saw her looking at him, he smiled with that mouth that had once nearly made her orgasm from just a kiss, and waved the phone at her.

Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself upright. He looked good and wicked to the bone, which unfortunately she’d learned was a terrible weakness on her part. She had no idea how it was possible to both hate and lust after someone at the same time, but with Jake, she’d always managed it.

Mud dripped off her red tank top, the one she’d put on that morning with a smile and anticipation of the spring ahead. Her fresh, dark blue jeans were now brown. She shoved the phone back onto her belt and put her filthy hands on her equally filthy hips.

To add insult to injury, the last little piglet ran right up to his pen and stood still, waiting to be let in. “I’m feeling hungry for bacon,” she hissed at it, then straightened and looked at Jake.

He slid his cell phone into his pocket and shoved his sunglasses to the top of his head, eyeing her with those eyes that made her want to squirm.

She held her breath and waited to hear him say,
“I’m selling the Blue Flame.”

Instead, he smiled a smile of pure sin.

And slowly, slowly, she let out her held breath, trying to remain unmoved. Maybe he really was just here for a visit, just like those other two times since Richard’s funeral. Maybe just like then, he’d stay holed up in his room with whatever woman he had with him, appearing only to eat, looking rumpled and sated and far too sexy for his own good.