A Promise Worth Remembering (Promises Collection) (4 page)

She sucked in a breath and held that pressure inside her chest like a hug. Didn’t Tucker realize she’d already given him everything she had to give? That she had nothing left, and even if she did, she wouldn’t. He didn’t deserve it. He’d left her—

He leaned forward, closing the distance. “You can trust me. I’ll help you both.”

Copper needed help. She had few options. But more than anything, she wanted to trust Tucker again…at least with Copper.

“Come on. Don’t be scared. I’ll never hurt you again.” Chest high, the clear water foiled around Tucker’s body like air over a fast car.

Trust played hide and seek with her heart. Nothing had changed except the revealing of his intentions for her land. And that wasn’t enough to reveal her feelings. Feelings for Tucker that he’d driven into her soul like a victory flag on a decimated battlefield.

Take a risk…

The rustle of leaves, the rush of the river, even the robins that darted from branch to branch,
chirp, chirp,
chirping
, held their breath—for all that she heard was a great big pause. The sound between wind bursts. Silence, as if the world waited for her to decide. To change her mind. To again trust Tucker Pierce with her heart.

As she battled the silence, his gaze burned into her like the sun through a looking glass onto
parchment, smoldering and on the verge of igniting something as uncontrollable as a wild fire built on fear.

Fear of the future and getting hurt, of allowing herself to fall for the only man she’d truly ever loved. Only to lose him all over again. That fear kept her grounded in the past. She didn’t want to live for the day—a
carpe diem
attitude Jesse had heeded. She wanted a future. Faith in something grand. Something more than she’d ever had. Did she dare put her faith in Tucker to see his promise kept?

He curled his fingers and gently persuaded her forward just as the world breathed.

Taking a crazy leap of faith, she latched on.

Along a dusty trail that paralleled the Cosumnes River, Bailey, with Tucker on her right and Copper following, walked a quarter of the way to Crooked Bridge. She’d crossed the row of
Trespassers Shot on Sight
signs, slipped through the wall of Alders, and past a thick blooming blackberry bramble when she spotted an unfamiliar truck. Parked, two men stood to one side of the vehicle tarped with carcasses strapped to the roof. They loaded their rifles.

Her palms rolled into fists. She’d seen both men before, however, in town—trappers and hunters who were known to carry the proper depredation permit to kill mountain lions that attacked livestock. But these two were far too blasé about killing animals for profit.

She jerked to a halt just as Tucker shoved her behind him, his hand sliding off her arm in slow progression like he needed to feel her there, behind the shadow of his shield. She’d been thankful he’d loaned her his shirt, which covered her to mid-thigh. He still wore an undershirt, the sleeveless kind that left little to the imagination of how much Tucker’s body had matured.

Copper crouched at her feet, splitting his shoulder wound wide open, so, again the pink flesh turned crimson. His tail whisked from side to side and he growled.

She could only imagine the weapons the men carried were ready to rip through any living beast they sought to add to their collection.

To get a better look, she leaned forward and followed Tucker’s glare to the taller man. Dirt stains crusted his khakis at his knees, red dirt that lined the sanctuary side of the river, instead of the pale and more sandy soil on the Pierce’s. And boots, not pointed at the ends like Tucker’s, but rounded and heeled like those that marred the mud along her fence line. These men, whether they’d cut the fence or not, had ventured to her side of the river. Blood pounded in her ears. “Killers.”

At her whisper, Tucker blinked slowly, acknowledging he’d heard. Quickly, his fingers landed on the action of his rifle. His chest expanded. “You’re on private lands.”

The taller of the two men, the one with the shaved head, removed his dark glasses to reveal cruel eyes. He dug into his pocket and waved a white piece of paper. “I’ve got a permit and a contract to kill any threat on this land.”

“Not from me, you don’t.”

“And you are?” His lips curled in a sneer.

“Tucker Pierce. New owner.”

“Like I said, I have a contract to”—the guy dropped his beady stare to Copper—“take down any dangerous cat on this property. From the paw prints I tracked intermingled with the black tail deer, seems like this cat, like any other, is a definite threat to the hunting range’s quotas guaranteed by Mr. Pierce.”

Her shoulders knotted to match her fists. By quotas, Pierce Senior’s range tailored to sports hunters who were promised the chance to shoot a trophy buck during hunting season on the private range. She peered around Tucker’s squared shoulders to see his face.

His jaw pumped the muscle into a thick wedge and his profile showed his lashes had pinched tight. He lifted his gun to eye level.

Both men staggered backward.

“Right now, I don’t see a feline threat. I see trespassers that have encroached onto private lands. And signs that say
Trespassers Shot on Sight
. You don’t want to press me—into calling the Sheriff.”

The
thump, thump, thump
inside her chest nearly drowned out her thoughts. But one she clung to—Tucker made her feel safe. Safer than she’d ever felt.

“You don’t need to contact the law,” the spokesman for the duo said. “But look at the cat. He’s ready to attack at any moment. A predator like that could decimate the deer population. So let’s say we talk about a new arrangement. Or about refunding the association fee.”

The range charged an enormous fee, ranging in the hundreds of thousands for each private member. Another way Old Man Pierce had exploited the natural habitat and the trophy game roaming the Pierce’s property, fed by the surrounding Federal Bureau of Land Management wilderness.

Tucker’s grip on his gun held steady. “Contract is void, gentlemen. Now, get off my property.”

“What about a refund?”

“You’ll get what’s coming to you. I never break my promises.”

Tucker’s smooth and steady voice made her shudder from the roots of her scalp down to the tips of her toenails and every cell in between. She’d always loved that strength in him. Back when, his sureness of their future had helped her overcome her mother’s betrayal. But did he remember the promise he’d made to her?

She shuffled close to Tucker until his heat practically leapt off his body and darted into her very core, wiping away her chill. Had her bareness caused him to feel something for her he’d needed to cover up?

The men exchanged glances, an unspoken understanding, and then they slipped back into their truck and headed toward Crooked Bridge that led to Highway 89.

To find her breath again, she leaned her forehead against Tucker’s back. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

He turned, slipped his arms around her shoulders and held her.

Now, she really couldn’t breathe.

His masculine scent combined with something spicy and deliciously heavy. The scent rushed up her nose and her throat hitched. Then her tummy did that hiccup thing right before tears threaten. She took a cleansing breath and pushed back. She didn’t want him to feel obligated to protect her when she needed to assure him she could stand on her own. “I’m fine. We need to get Copper back to the ranch.”

“My SUV’s only a little farther, but time enough to talk.”

As they walked, all the rustling leaves in the trees seemed to settle inside her tummy. “About what?”

“Pride’s a cruel thing, Bailey. But…” He looked at her and his brows arched. His steady gait slowed. “You’re more important than pride. You need to know the truth, no matter how ashamed I am about what I kept secret.”

Even if she couldn’t count on him being there for her tomorrow, at least she was here for him right now. Reality with Tucker gave her a tingle like when she’d rescued another tiger. Listening had saved him a little. She smiled. “Go on.”

“My leaving had nothing to do with you. I need you to believe that. Yet, everything to do with you. And my father. Protecting you from him.” He stopped. Then his body grew ramrod straight and his voice lowered. “Do you remember the bruises on my arms, my split cheek I blamed on a swimming accident?”

Her memory flashed to the concealed bruises she’d questioned him about, marks he’d blamed on his own clumsiness. She’d never seen any guy more in control of his body, but when she’d pressed him, he’d waved away her concerns. “I remembering me asking and you telling me they were from swim practice. But they weren’t from the pool, were they?”

“No. My father put them there.”

Copper shifted restlessly. He skirted around them as if he’d tasted the rise in her irritation toward Tucker’s father. “It’s okay, Copper.” She glanced toward Tucker. “Let’s keep walking.” After a few steps, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?”

“Pride. Shame. And your uncle playing keeper of the gate.” He took hold of her hand, his rough palm encasing hers.

By his touch, the swirl of his thumb on top of her hand, he let her know he was letting her into
his
past and needed her touch for his comfort. Or maybe she needed his touch. She’d had her fair share of dances with those first two. “So Uncle Mark intercepted your call?”

“Calls. And he caught me sneaking onto the property…twice. He threatened me with trespassing. After what you’d gone through with your mom, I didn’t want to make more trouble.”

Feeling like a door had slammed shut and startled some sense into her, she wrenched her hand free. “You mean after waiting six months to make contact, I wasn’t worth the trouble.”

“I didn’t have a choice, Bailey.” He stared down at his boot that drew circles in the sand.

Still, she envisioned him playing frat boy for an entire semester before he’d remembered his girlfriend back home. She flashed both palms to halt his forward motion. “I don’t care. Whatever you have to say will never be enough.”

With both hands, he raked his cocoa-colored hair, parting it in four even furrows. He gave her his side profile. “Well, I’m going to tell you. You don’t want to talk to me after,” he hesitated, then added. “Fine.”

Mouth drawn into a firm line, she folded her arms and waited.

He pivoted to face her, his boot tips squaring with his buff shoulders. “The only way to have a future is to make peace with the past.”

“If you’re implying I haven’t, let me assure you I made my peace ten years ago.”

He pointed upstream and shook a finger. “Our rock. I saw you there yesterday. And the day before. And the day before. Standing, just standing on
our
rock.”

Her mouth dropped open, but Tucker kept on talking. She couldn’t block his voice from reaching her water-filled ears.
Our rock
. She didn’t want him to know she still pined for him. Couldn’t risk getting what little love she had inside her stolen again.

“…waiting a year after Jesse’s passing to see you, to talk to you just about killed
me
. But I had to give you time. Time to heal. And I knew you’d be safe with your uncle, but then he died. Well, I worried about my father. Knew I had to come home. To protect you once and for all, and to stand up to him. Then I saw you on our rock, like I said. Gazing—”

“At your ghost,” she snapped. Her eyes welled with the entire river, so Tucker’s biting expression blurred. “Why, Tucker, why did you leave me when I trusted you? Were your fingers bound, were your lips taped, so you couldn’t give me a single sign that you weren’t dead?”

He glared, eyes narrowed to slits.

The expression pulled her gaze toward him like a magnet she couldn’t wiggle free.

Finally, he hiked up his pant leg, past the boot top, and higher, to the rippled flesh that engulfed his leg past the knee. Burned flesh. Scars so deep they flowed over his skin like white water over boulders.

Her hand flew to her mouth and Copper snorted. Suddenly, she couldn’t look Tucker in the eyes. Pain surged in her chest but she forced herself to look at what he’d endured. “I don’t understand. What happened?”

“I want to take you home, Bailey.”

Her breath raced from her lungs until her throat went dry, but not from fear of the river. She wanted to climb inside that fast car that was Tucker Pierce and never look back. To rescue him. “Then the only way out was to save yourself. And that meant leaving me.”

“Believe me when I say leaving you in the dark, both literally and figuratively, wasn’t what I planned. But you were—”

“A child.”

Her terse word bit the air and Tucker flinched.

“I was going to say innocent. And I wanted to keep you that way.”

“But I’m not immune to abuse. You could have told me. You know that’s why my uncle had custody of me.”

She glanced to the river side of the path. Only fifteen, what could she have really done to protect him against his father? Now she could barely hold her ground against the man. What hurt most was that Tucker hadn’t trusted her enough with his secret. “I could have helped you, somehow, gone with you to the Sheriff’s Department. Your swim coach. The fire station. That’s what I’d had to do. Anyone in authority could have—”