Allie rose and met Zeph’s gaze across the pasture. She took a shaky step, then began a staggering run and met him halfway. His arms locked around her. She buried her face against him and dragged in a deep, shuddering breath.
“Hey,” he murmured in her ear. “I’m the one with the shakes,” he said even though he couldn’t tell which one of them it was. Both, he guessed.
“Oh, God, oh God,” she said, her voice choked. “I thought we were dead. How did you know?”
His arms tightened around her. “You told me once that he followed Josten like that. I couldn’t think of anything else to do.”
“Weren’t you scared?”
“Aw shucks,” Zeph began. His voice shook, and he cleared his throat. “I couldn’t let him hurt you.”
“You can protest all you want,” she whispered. “But you saved my life. He would have killed me. And you, too.”
“I know. I’ve never been more afraid in my life. Colombian drug lords with guns aren’t a patch on that big red monster.” He rested his cheek against her hair and tried not to think about what might have happened. Allie warm and soft—and alive—in his arms filled the whole world. He’d have been willing to stay like that, locked against Allie, for a long, long time—forever? The thought shook him, but a long moo of protest from the downed cow broke the mood before he could work it out.
“I almost forgot about her,” Allie said shakily. “Let’s see if we can get her up and get out of here.”
“Good idea. I’ll go get the ropes—”
“We’ll go get the ropes.” Allie linked her arm through his.
With Allie pulling on a judiciously placed rope and him pushing from behind, the cow made it to her feet. Allie gave her a slap on the rump and she headed for a patch of tall grass.
“Good job,” Zeph said.
“I wonder why Tim didn’t do it himself,” Allie mused. “He didn’t have to call me out for something this simple.”
“I’ll bet he calls you a lot more often than he really needs to. And I’ll bet he doesn’t usually leave when you get here, either.”
Allie stared at him. “Huh. You’re right. I’d never noticed. The only times he’s left have been when you’re along.” She looked faintly sick. “You don’t think he…”
Amusement coursed through Zeph. One of Allie’s charms was her apparent ignorance of her own appeal. None of the self-conscious posturing of the women he knew at home. “Of course he does.” He jumped at the sound of horn clashing against wood and swung around to look toward the corral. “Damned animal is trying to break the fence. Let’s get out of here.”
He looped an arm around her waist and half carried her out of the pasture and into the barn yard. When he turned to shut the gate behind them, he saw the bull working at the latch on the corral gate. “Will you look at that? Damn that thing anyway.” The bull worked the tip of one horn under the latch. “I’ll be go to hell, as Monty would say. He’s going to open it. Correction. He did open it.”
“No wonder Tim can’t keep him locked up.”
“Can he open every gate on the place?” There was a scary thought.
“I don’t know and don’t care. Let’s get out of here.”
****
Allie pulled the truck into her parking place behind the clinic building, shut off the engine, and leaned her head on the steering wheel. “I’m still shaking.”
“With good reason,” Zeph said. “I think your dislike of cattle is understandable. I don’t like them much either.”
She tried to laugh, but it stuck in her throat. “I can’t believe what you did,” she said, not surprised that her voice shook. “You’re a hero. A real, live, bona fide hero.”
“Allie.” His voice grated hoarsely and he reached across the seat to pull her into his arms. “I thought you were—”
With a shiver of remembered fear, she wrapped her arms around him and put her head on his shoulder. “Dead? I did, too. I thought you’d left me.” She swallowed a sob that tried to work its way free. “And then when you came back, I thought—I was sure—he’d charge and—” Kill you. She burrowed against him, shivering with remembered horror.
Zeph’s warm breath stirred the fine hair behind her ear and she shivered again. This time it wasn’t fear. “Don’t think,” he said and his mouth covered hers.
Stars shot through her vision and electricity zinged down to her toes. The heat that filled her went beyond desire. Hot, greedy need, the desperate necessity of him, clawed at her.
“Allie,” he groaned.
Her hands shook as she fumbled for his shirt buttons, and his heart pounded against her breast, beating a rapid syncopation with hers.
His hands streaked under her jacket, ripped her shirt open, fastened on her breasts.
She let her head fall back and he nuzzled her neck. “Now. I need you now,” she whispered and pressed him.
He shuddered and thrust against her and she yanked open his belt. “Allie,” he choked. “Right here?”
“Right here,” she whispered. “Now.” In a blur, she pulled off her boots and he yanked down her jeans. She fumbled his fly open and ran her fingers over his hard length.
He lifted her to straddle him and thrust into her, shaking, almost savage, and she welcomed the fierceness that matched hers. Words fled. Nothing existed except Zeph, hard and throbbing, plunging and slapping flesh, the center of her universe.
She closed her eyes and brightness pinwheeled behind her eyelids. Fire lit her blood, shooting her higher and higher until everything exploded in a blue-white dazzle that left her limp and clinging to Zeph as the only stable point in the sea of sensation.
“Gee-zus,” he croaked some time later.
“I can’t believe we did that.” Allie didn’t move. She couldn’t move.
“I can. Facing death does that to people. I guess it’s an affirmation of life or something.” His shaky voice belied the flippant words and his arms cradled her close. He rubbed his cheek against her hair.
It felt like tenderness. She wanted to stay like this forever. “We probably should move,” she said reluctantly.
“Probably. Are you expecting anyone?”
“No. I need to make another stable call, though.”
“Want me to come?”
Yes. “You wouldn’t like it,” she said with a grin.
He raised an eyebrow.
“It’s another bull. The rancher needs a semen sample.”
His quick look said he thought she was joking.
“Not joking.”
“You’re going somewhere to jerk off a bull? How the hell do you do that? And why can’t this rancher do it himself?”
“You really don’t want to know. And it takes two people.”
“I’m coming along.” He made it a flat statement that brooked no argument, and her heart swelled. She knew about post-stress sex, the need for validation of life after a potentially lethal event, but this had to mean he cared. Maybe she dared hope. She untangled herself and climbed out of the truck, leaning against it to pull her jeans and boots on.
Zeph followed, taking her hand when she’d dressed and leading her to the corral.
The mare trotted over to him and he rubbed her head. “I figure I need to name this horse,” he said. “You got any ideas?”
She shook her head. “She’s certainly lucky, but that’s a hackneyed name. She deserves something better.”
“I guess she doesn’t get one of those fancy names, like Mentrine was throwing around. Too bad. We could call her something like Wentworth Acres Queen Shining Darling.”
Allie laughed. “Just an everyday name, Zeph. She’s not a purebred anything. That’s why Mentrine sold her.”
“Too bad.” He climbed through the fence and stood close to her. “What about Promise? I guess I promised her a better life when I bought her.”
“That’s good. I like it.”
Promise. Allie looked up at Zeph. His soft expression when he looked at the mare lifted her heart. If he could make a promise like that to a horse, surely, surely she dared hope.
Didn’t she?
****
That afternoon, Zeph walked into the sheriff’s station hoping like hell Wentworth couldn’t tell what he’d been doing with Wentworth’s daughter. At least saving her from the bull ought to wipe out some of the hard feelings about previous endangerments.
He slammed the doors on all memories of the bull and the aftermath and settled into an uncomfortable metal chair across the dented metal table from Wentworth. “Damned shame we can’t do this in your nice comfortable office,” he grumbled. “Monty’s interrogation room leaves something to be desired.”
“We have to make the copies here. Might as well work here,” Lincoln said. “I’ve spent all morning at the copy machine. Just what were you doing?”
Heat burned up Zeph’s cheekbones and he looked away before Lincoln noticed. “Making love to your daughter” wouldn’t exactly fly. “Putting Allie in deadly danger again” would be worse. “Went with Allie on one of her calls. How about I read entries from these ledgers and see if they match your records?”
“Fine.” Lincoln booted up his laptop. “It’s going to be damned tedious no matter how we do it.”
“Appreciate the help. Frank could put his staff on it, but I want results on this while I’m still in town.”
“And that means you and me,” Lincoln said with a sigh. He set a legal pad and pen on the table. “We’d better get started. I suppose there’s no easy way through this. We’ll need to cross check entry by entry. It’s going to take days.”
Days before he had to leave Allie. Days before he tried to convince her to come with him. Zeph forced a grin. “Just one more exciting job in the world of the private detective.”
Monty came in with coffee.
“I thought you were on our side,” Zeph said. “Now you’re trying to poison us.”
“Best we’ve got, boy. I’ve been drinking this stuff for thirty years. Hasn’t hurt me yet.”
Zeph tasted the coffee and shuddered. “It’ll keep us awake or kill us. Thanks.” He set the cup aside, picked up the first page, and began reading.
An hour later, Lincoln looked at Zeph over the top of his half-glasses. “I’ve never seen a crook who made it so easy to catch him.”
“Not one of the great brains of the Western world, that’s for sure. I guess he never expected anyone else to see this set of books. If he had, he’d at least have hidden the crooked transactions in a bunch of legit ones. But everything he put in those ledgers is off.”
“There’s only one problem,” Lincoln said slowly.
“Yeah, I see it too. He never mentions who might be working with him. No names, no initials, no nothing.” Zeph slapped the papers down. “Damn.”
“We can get through the rest of this faster now that we know.”
“Might as well.”
Finally Zeph slapped down the last paper. “That’s it. Plenty of evidence here that Blanton’s a double-dyed crook. Nothing says Rodriguez was involved.”
“No. I searched the office carefully when we were there for the current accounts.”
“Nothing points to another player.”
Lincoln busied himself shutting down the laptop. “No. Very disappointing.”
Monty poked his head in the room. “You about done in here?”
Zeph’s phone rang, and he stepped out of the room to answer, leaving Monty and Lincoln to talk. “Hey, Dave. What have you got for me?”
“Not much. Looks like someone tried to wipe prints off the pages, but there were a few left. They all belong to one Derek Blanton, currently incarcerated as a criminally insane murderer. That any help?”
“Yeah, that confirms what I thought. Thanks again, Dave.” He closed the phone and went slowly back to Lincoln and Monty. “We need to search Rodriguez’s place.”
Monty laughed. “We can do that after dinner. Got a judge right here to sign the warrant.”
****
Allie coaxed Harley Hammersmith’s nervous gelding into Harley’s new, deluxe trailer and shut the tailgate. “There you are, Harley. He’s good to go.”
“Thanks, Allie. Sure is nice having a vet right here in Stone’s Crossing.” Harley vaulted into the matching truck and eased his precious cargo down the driveway.
With a sigh of relief, Allie rotated her shoulders and turned toward the clinic. That took care of the last of her afternoon patients. Time for a shower and then she’d head to her dad’s. And Zeph. She couldn’t wait to see Zeph.
His mare nickered a request for company as Allie walked past the corral, and Allie smiled as she strolled over to the fence. “I think you’re getting spoiled, Promise.” She fished a carrot out of her pocket and offered it.
The mare took it gently. Allie rubbed her nose and rambled on in a soft voice. “Wonder if I’ll ever get any promises from him? I think I will, baby. He couldn’t leave, not after this morning. And he won’t want to leave you, will he?”
When the mare finished the carrot and wandered off to check her feed box, Allie turned away and went back to the house for a shower. Her father would tease her unmercifully if she got all fancied up in a dress, but she could wear her tightest jeans and the shirt with lace. Something about Zeph made her want to do all the girly things...maybe even mascara.
When she let herself through the front door, only silence greeted her. “Dad?” she called.
Zeph’s mother came out of the kitchen. “Oh, Allie. Your father and Zeph haven’t come home yet. And Martha’s at the store. We’ve been having a wonderful time trading recipes.”