At Wolf Ranch (22 page)

“Your uncle must have made her stop coming around. If she and your mother were close, she might have asked questions about why you girls were with him and not her. Your mother wouldn’t have left you girls to this woman without at least talking to her about it first.”

“That’s my guess, but that’s not all. The terms of the will are completely different. Lela and I never had to get our MBA, or work at the company. They left it all to us, to do with as we pleased.” A tear rolled down her cheek. “The will states that if Lela and I wanted to pursue other interests, like art or veterinary school, we could sell the company, or keep it and hire managers to run it.”

“You wanted to be a vet?”

“I was fourteen and in love with the horses my father bought me.”

“What dad doesn’t want to buy his princesses ponies?”

“My father spoiled us every chance he got. My mother too. They’d each scold the other for doing something for us. Then they’d smile at each other like in the grand scheme of things it didn’t really matter.” She ran her fingertips over the papers.

“When you were babies, the MBA and running the company seemed a good idea. Then, you grew up and your parents wanted you to find your own path and do what you loved.”

“I miss them so much.”

“I know you do, sweetheart. They’ve given you everything you need to finish this and do what they wanted for you.”

“What’s that?”

“Live the life that makes you happy. Whatever kind of life that is.”

“Everything could have been so different if that bastard hadn’t meddled in our lives.”

She leaned back and scanned the contents of the vault. “I finally have all the proof I need to take my uncle down. It’s time to contact Sam.”

Gabe’s silence spoke volumes. Once she called Sam, everything would change. She’d go back to New York and do what she had to do.

“Come on, let’s close this up and get back to the house. We’ll call Sam in the morning.”

Ella wanted to call Sam immediately. Still, she nodded and silently agreed to wait until the morning. They’d have tonight together, just the two of them, before everything got even more complicated and her life intruded on his again.

Gabe closed the vault and all the open workbench drawers. The locks clicked back into place. The evidence remained inside. Safe, until they handed it over to Sam. Gabe took her hand and led her back through the house to the side door leading out to the patio.

“Where the hell did you leave your phone?” A deep voice echoed through the kitchen. Someone must have come in through the garage side door just after they left. The men her uncle had sent to find her. Her heart slammed into her ribs, then raced, sending an adrenaline rush through her veins.

Gabe opened the patio door and shoved her through.

“Probably in the bathroom.” The second voice sounded closer as the men moved through the house.

“Go get it. I wish this fucking house wasn’t so damn cold. I’m going out on the patio to stand in the sun for a smoke.”

Gabe pulled her close. “Get to the horses. Ride for the trees. Hide. Now.”

“Come with me.”

Gabe gave her a steely look that said,
No way
. “I’ll get rid of them. Go. Quick. Before they see you.” He gave her a quick kiss and shoved her bottom to get her moving.

She scrambled around the side of the patio and out of view from the windows that lined this side of the house.

Gabe didn’t waste time and snuck back through the living room and around a huge pillar and came up silently behind Phillip’s man. He snatched the gun from the guy’s waistband holster and pressed the steel between his shoulder blades. “Don’t say a fucking word.”

The guy was smart enough to keep quiet. Gabe grabbed him by the neck and dragged him backward toward the bathroom off the stairs. The second guy came around the corner, his lost phone in hand, and halted dead in his tracks.

“If you want your friend to live,” Gabe said in a low, even voice, “take your gun out nice and easy, drop it to the floor, and kick it my way.”

The guy complied with a murderous look. “Who the fuck are you?”

“The owner. You’re trespassing. Not to mention breaking and entering.”

“Phillip Wolf sent us. He owns this place, not you.”

“Wrong. He sold me the property. I don’t know what you’re doing here, but you need to get the hell off my land.”

“We’re looking for Ella Wolf.”

“As you can see”—Gabe swept his gaze over the empty rooms—“she’s not here.”

“You seen her?”

“The only people sneaking around this place are you two.”

“Come on, man, you’re not going to pull that trigger.”

“ ’Round these parts, we shoot strangers first and ask questions later.” The deadly serious note in his voice got their attention. “Now, get the fuck out of my house.” Gabe shoved the guy he held the gun on toward the front door. The other guy scampered after him. Gabe snagged the other gun off the floor and kept the ends of his barrels trained on both men. He walked them to the black Escalade out front. Probably the same one he saw at Finney’s trailer home.

“How the hell did you even know we were here?”

“Called the alarm company to put the service in my name. They told me about the alarm going off when you two yahoos broke the garage window. If Phillip Wolf sent you here, why didn’t he give you a key or the alarm code?”

The two men stared at each other, clearly at a loss for an answer. They’d simply taken the easy route and broke in instead of going through the hassle of contacting Phillip over such mundane details as keys and codes.

“Right. Maybe I should call the sheriff. Let him check you two out. Make sure you’re legit,” Gabe suggested.

“Look, man, take it easy.” One threw up his hands in protest. “The woman isn’t here. We’re leaving. Just give us back the guns. We don’t want trouble.”

“You’ve already got it. Get in the car and drive away. Don’t come back, and we won’t have a problem. Got it?”

The men tore out like the devil hunted them. He waited for them to turn the bend out of his sight. Still, he waited a couple of minutes more to see if they were stupid enough to come back.

His heart pounded. Had Ella remained out of sight? That encounter was too close for comfort. He dreaded what came next. Facing off with Phillip would be far more dangerous than going up against his goons.

Satisfied the men had left without further incident, he went back through the house, locked everything up, and set the alarm. He ran around the back to his horse, stuffed the guns in his saddle bags, and got up in the saddle. He turned and headed back down the hill toward the tree line, following Ella’s horse’s tracks.

Just outside the trees, he whistled for her to come out. “All’s clear, sweetheart.”

Smart woman that she was, she came out fifteen feet down, closer to the wide valley they came up earlier. A much easier spot from which to ride hard and get away.

“I can’t stay here anymore. I’ve put you in danger.”

“You’re in danger every second that bastard isn’t behind bars.”

“Yes, and now I’ve brought that danger to your door.” She leaned forward as if the weight of all she had to do now settled on her shoulders. “It’s time, Gabe.”

Chapter 26

G
abe knelt beside Ella sitting at the kitchen table hours after they returned home. He ran his hands up her thighs to her hips and grabbed hold to get her attention. “Come to bed, Ella.”

“I’m so tired.”

“Let it be. At least for tonight.”

“I don’t want to leave.”

The burden of having to fix everything weighed on her when all she wanted to do was grieve for her family. He hoped a part of her wanted to stay because of him.

“I want you to stay.”

To prove how much he meant that statement, he pulled her sister’s letter that she’d been staring at for the last hour from her hands and set it on the table. He reached up, cupped the back of her neck, and drew her to him for a soft kiss that coaxed her to set her sorrows aside and find some happiness in his arms. If that was all he could offer her right now, he’d give her everything.

Her lips were soft against his. He stood, pulling her up with him, their mouths still pressed together, and he sank deeper into the kiss and her.

God, how he needed her. He dipped his hands low over her hips, bringing her up to wrap her legs around his waist. Her arms encircled his head, and he buried his face in her neck and kissed and nipped, hungry for her in a way he didn’t want to evaluate too closely.

With his long strides and determination to get her into his bed, he had her in their room in seconds, but the short walk didn’t distract him from kissing her, or rubbing his hands over her bottom, dipping deep, to tease her soft folds.

His legs hit the bed, and he bent forward, letting her fall on her back onto the mattress and rumpled sheets. She bounced and smiled up at him.

“I like seeing you in my clothes,” he said, staring down at her in his Led Zeppelin T-shirt and Texas A&M sweatpants. Her favorite outfit to lounge around the house while she washed her clothes. “But I prefer you out of them.”

He put actions to words, peeling the sweatpants down her legs. Since the first time they made love, and he discovered she didn’t wear any panties, because she didn’t have any but the original pair she arrived in, it had become a torture to see her each and every day, knowing she was bare under her clothes.

She pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it over the side of the bed. His eyes devoured every inch of her soft, creamy skin.

“Love me, Gabe.”

He wanted to tell her how much he already did, but showed her instead. He leaned over and planted soft kisses down the center of her chest and over her belly. Her fingers slid through his hair and she sighed softly into the night. He detoured from her stomach and planted a kiss on her hip. He slid his hands up her thighs and back down, grabbing her knees and spreading her legs wide, opening her to him. He laid a trail of kisses up the inside of her thigh and buried his face in her heat, sweeping his tongue deep into her core. Her fingers clenched in his hair and she moaned. The taste of her shot through him in a blaze, making his cock jerk and the need to be inside her intensify, but he wanted to please her, make her forget everything but him and the way he made her feel when they were together. He wanted her to know how much she meant to him. How much he couldn’t live without her. What he couldn’t bring himself to say with words, because he couldn’t find any that expressed the depth of what he felt, he showed her with his body.

He nibbled and sucked, then swept his thumb over her clit in soft up and down sweeps, creating just the right amount of friction to bring her to the brink. He didn’t let her fall. He wanted to be inside her when she came. His own release rode him hard, but he fought it back, wanting to prolong her pleasure as long as possible. His lips pressed to the inside of her thigh again, and he thrust two fingers into her slick sheath. Her hips rolled against his hand, and he worked his fingers in and out of her. He kissed his way up her stomach to her breast and took her rosy nipple into his mouth and sucked hard as he thrust his fingers deep. Her hand slid over his head and down his neck to his shoulder. She grabbed it tight, and he did it again.

Desperate to have her, he gripped her hips and shifted her higher on the bed. Her hands never left his bare chest, sliding over his muscles even as he reached for a condom on the side table. He grabbed it, but somehow she pushed him onto his back and ended up on top of him. She straddled his hips, planted her hands on both sides of his head, and bent to kiss him. She pressed up and stared down at him, a seductive smile on her face.

“My turn.”

He didn’t know what she had in mind, but he sure as hell liked looking at her. Her brown hair hung just past her shoulders. Her breasts were full and tipped up with her rosy nipples, hard and begging for his mouth. His gaze dipped lower, over her flat belly, to the barely there strip that led straight to heaven. He wanted to bury himself deep, but lost all thought when she leaned down, kissed his neck, and her hand wrapped around his balls. She slid her hand up his aching cock and squeezed, sweeping her thumb over the thick head, her fingers working up and down it.

She pulled his boxer briefs down, freeing his swollen flesh. Her breast brushed against it as his boxer briefs swept down his legs, and he kicked them away.

Her hands swept up his thighs, and he wanted her to straddle him again, so he could bury himself inside her. He wanted to watch her ride him hard and fast.

She had other ideas.

Her hair brushed against his stomach, tickling him and making his muscles taut. Her tongue swept over the head of his cock, licking away the bead of liquid a second before she took him into her mouth, sliding down and back up, her tongue gliding along the length of him. At that moment, he lost all thought and gave himself over to the sweet torture.

So close, he called to her, “El . . .” But her name died on his lips when her hand wrapped around the bottom of his dick and her mouth came down on him, and she bobbed up and down, using her hand and mouth to drive him insane with pleasure.

“I’m so damn close. I want to be inside of you.”

She reached up his chest and snatched the open condom from his hand. The sexiest damn thing he ever saw was her licking her lips and sheathing him. He reached for her, dragging her up his body and pulling her head down for a deep kiss. He reached between them, found her hot, wet center, and sank his finger deep. She found as much pleasure in loving him as he’d found in pleasing her.

Desperate. Out of his mind. He held her hips and brought her down hard on top of him. She rolled her hips to accommodate him and they found the easy rhythm they always found when they came together like this.

She rode him hard and fast and he held on as long as he could, reaching up to stroke his hands over her breasts, squeezing her tight nipples between his fingers. She arched into his hands, offering up the bounty to his touch.

On the edge, he reared up, wrapped his arm around her waist, and rolled her under him. She landed on her back, her arms coming up to encircle his shoulders. Her fingers dug into his back, nails biting into his skin when he thrust into her hard and deep. He grinded his hips to hers, pulled out, and sank back in to do it again. Her hips moved with him, against him, away from him. They matched each other in every way. He gave himself over to her and felt the way she gave herself over to him.

Her fingers raked down his sides and her hands settled on his hips. She pulled him close, and he rocked against her hips, riding her hard, and creating a sweet friction against her clit just the way he’d learned she liked it. Her body tightened around him. He pulled out and thrust deep again, sending her over the edge on a ragged sigh, her body holding his in a tight fist that convulsed and drew from him an orgasm so intense he closed his eyes, tossed back his head, and let himself go with a satisfied groan.

Gabe fell on top of her and pressed her into the mattress. She didn’t mind his weight. In fact, she needed it. Ella wrapped her arms around his back and hugged him close, knowing exactly how he felt and why. He’d just shown her how much he loved her, but he knew she had to go and wanted to give her a reason to stay.

He must realize how much she wanted the same thing. Hadn’t she shown him?

“Gabe.”

“I don’t want to talk about your family and what you need to do. Not now. Not tonight.”

He rolled to his back, separating himself from the intimacy they’d shared but moments ago. He didn’t let her go entirely and kept his big hand splayed over her thigh. She rolled toward him. He shifted and pulled her close to his chest in the crook of his arm.

“Gabe . . .”

“Not now. Just be with me. Here. Nothing else between us.”

She kissed her way up his chest, neck, and jaw to his lips, sliding her naked body against his. She kissed him and felt the simmering heat she always felt between them pulse. She pressed her hand against his strong jaw and made him look at her. “I am here. With you. Where I always want to be.”

His arms banded around her in a fierce hug. He rolled to his side and they lay face-to-face, his forehead pressed to hers. He kissed her again. Soft, warm, sweet, and enticing, but not the start of something, just a show of love and affection and connection.

“I don’t want to let you go.”

“Then hold on.”