Grayson Brothers Series Boxed Set (4 books in 1) (45 page)

Duke stepped forward, handcuffs jangling in his hand. “Blackmail is illegal, Richard. Let’s take a walk to my office and talk about your future.”

Richard’s shoulders sagged. He turned to Catherine. “I did all of this for you.”

“I never once encouraged you or your misplaced affection, Richard. Everything you’ve done was criminal and self-serving,” she said. “If you want my respect you’ll have to earn it by repairing the damage you’ve caused.”

“You can start by apologizing to my wife,” Kyle said. He turned to Duke and waived off the handcuffs. “If we charge Richard with blackmail people are going to dig until they learn the truth about all of this. The only way to protect Catherine and Amelia is to keep this quiet, Duke.”

After a brief pause, Duke nodded his agreement. “What do you suggest?”

Surprise crossed Richard’s face and he looked at Kyle. “You’re not pressing charges?”

Kyle shook his head, sickened to his core by Richard’s character. “As of this moment you have the opportunity to become the man your father raised you to be. If you don’t return the money you stole from Tom, I will find you and make you wish Duke had hauled your sorry ass off to jail. That’s a promise, Richard.”

With that, Kyle made his apology to Catherine, and then headed home to his heartbroken wife.

* * *

Amelia rushed to the lumberyard and saw Jeb and her mother sitting outside the bunkhouse talking.

Unable to greet them through her tears, she hurried into the office and swept her father’s jacket off the file cabinet. She buried her face in the old, worn flannel, desperate for the comfort of her father’s arms, but settling for an armful of fabric with the faded smell of soap and hair tonic and all the wonderful scents of the outdoors she’d always associated with her father.

Seconds later, her mother and Jeb entered the office with stricken expressions. “What’s happened?” her mother asked, rushing to the desk where Amelia sat sobbing.

“I just wanted to make Papa proud, Mama, and all I did was let him down.” Between her tears, Amelia confessed everything: her lost virginity, her father’s blackmail, and Kyle’s affair with Catherine. She talked about her father’s collapse and how she’d blamed Kyle when it was really Richard who had upset her father so badly. Finally, she buried her face in her hands and confessed that she loved Kyle so much it was tearing her in half, but she could never go back to him because she’d forced him to marry her when he cared for another woman.

Jeb quietly stepped outside, but her mother sat on the edge of the desk and stroked Amelia’s back as if she were still a little girl. “If Kyle wanted Catherine, he would have married her,” she said.

“He asked her, Mama! Catherine declined.”

“Then she didn’t love him. Honey, we all have a past. Kyle and Catherine were probably friends because they didn’t have any reason not to be.”

“They were far more than friends
.
”

“Well, as long as it’s in their past it shouldn’t threaten your marriage to Kyle.” Her mother tipped her head to look into Amelia’s wet face. “How do you think Kyle is feeling right now after learning about Richard?”

The quietly spoken question caught Amelia off guard and she sat back in the chair. Kyle’s heart probably felt as raw as hers did. He’d lost a man he thought was his friend. He was surely feeling betrayed and hurt that Richard’s friendship wasn’t sincere, and that Amelia hadn’t told him about her relationship with Richard.

At the thought of Kyle’s heartache tears streamed from Amelia’s eyes. She gave up trying to wipe them away. “I didn’t know one mistake could ruin so many lives.”

Her mother reached into her sleeve and pulled out a handkerchief as she’d done a thousand times or more while Amelia was growing up. “It was Richard’s manipulation that ruined lives, honey, not your mistake. Giving yourself to a boy you love because you believe you’ll marry him shouldn’t destroy the lives of several people. Not that I’m endorsing intimacy before marriage, but I was close with your father before we married and it turned out fine.”

Amelia gripped the handkerchief and her father’s jacket in her damp fingers. “I should never have told Papa about Richard. If he hadn’t known, he wouldn’t have tried to make Richard marry me and Richard wouldn’t have blackmailed him. Then none of this would have happened.”

“Honey, a father is supposed to protect his daughter. I would have far less respect for your father if he hadn’t gone after Richard. As deeply as I sympathize with you right now, it’s a relief knowing your father spent his time at the lumberyard because of financial concerns. I wondered at times if there might be another woman. My heart aches considerably less knowing the truth.”

“I wish I could say the same.” Amelia wiped her face and blew her nose. “What am I going to do, Mama?”

Her mother sighed and patted Amelia’s shoulder. “Go home and talk to your husband.”

“He won’t talk, Mama. He never does.”

Kyle entered the depot warehouse where Marcus, his youngest crew member, was sitting in dim lantern light to read a book. “Why are you sitting beside this hot monstrosity?” Kyle asked, glaring at the huge black stove. He would die in this heat, but he couldn’t stay home and witness the devastation in Amelia’s eyes. She wasn’t ready to talk, and he had no words to soothe her heartache.

Marcus glanced up in surprise and lowered his book to his lap. “There’s a hole in the ash pan. Doesn’t look too big, but I’ve been keeping an eye on it. I’ll fix it tomorrow.” Marcus looked at his watch. “You’re about seven hours early, aren’t you?”

“It’s your lucky evening.”

Marcus grinned. “It will be if my wife can get the baby to bed early enough.”

Kyle forced himself to smile, but he felt like knocking Marcus’s pretty teeth out of his head. The kid had been married a year and hadn’t stopped grinning since his wedding day. Kyle jerked his chin toward the door. “Get out of here.”

Marcus slapped his book closed and jumped to his feet. “Thanks, boss!”

“Don’t tell me about it in the morning or I’ll kill you.”

The door cut off Marcus’s laughter.

Despite the heat inside, the sudden quiet suited Kyle’s dark mood. The hum of the stove and smell of drying wood was more inviting than the loud tavern he’d considered escaping to.

It was definitely preferable to seeing Amelia in pain, or remembering the gut-wrenching shock he’d felt when he discovered that Richard was the man Amelia had loved.

Richard hadn’t even appreciated what Amelia had sacrificed for him. Kyle paced the warehouse, wondering if he’d ever really known Richard. Maybe when they were boys, before Kyle’s father died, but after that, he and Richard had merely passed in and out of each other’s lives. Kyle definitely didn’t know the cad who’d confessed to blackmailing Tom.

Remembering the devastated expression on Amelia’s face when Richard said he’d used her as a diversion from Catherine, made Kyle want to break Richard’s ribs and blacken his eyes.

How could Richard have been so cruel?

Kyle sighed knowing his own words and actions had inflicted the most pain on Amelia. He should have found a way to tell her that he’d proposed to Catherine, and explain why he’d done it.

Why must he always struggle for words? All he’d wanted was to explain how sorry he was, how deeply he regretted hurting her. Why was that so difficult for him?

Frustrated, he kicked the black belly of the stove. Thunder rolled through the building and soot spilled from the pipe. Wood tumbled inside the stove and a loud pop shook the cast-iron box.

Cursing, he bent over to look underneath the stove to see if any glowing coals had slipped out. The wood floor was clear, but he was still too tense to sit down so he paced the width of the warehouse until his shin and shoulders ached. After an hour, he was exhausted, sick to his stomach, and falling asleep on his feet. With a hard sigh, he grabbed the chair, dragged it toward the back of the warehouse, and sat down.

All he could think about was Amelia’s beautiful face wet with tears. Kyle scrubbed his palms over his forehead, wishing he could forget the heartbroken look in her eyes, but it kept circling in his mind. Just like the thought of her lying with Richard.

Kyle slouched in his chair and propped his feet on a stack of beams. He understood now that Amelia hadn’t told him about Richard because she hadn’t wanted to risk breaking their friendship. She hadn’t intended to deceive him. Amelia was too sincere for deceit. She’d endured Richard’s presence in their home to please Kyle.

Everything she did was for someone else. Kyle closed his eyes and leaned his head back, remembering the way she’d sat on the floor with Cinnamon and Ginger the night he brought them home for her. They’d made her laugh through her pain, and Kyle had watched her draw comfort from those two rambunctious fur balls, knowing it should have been his own arms that consoled her.

As thoughts and regrets tumbled through his mind, his breathing slowed and he drifted in memories, hearing the splash of the falls, feeling Amelia’s soft skin against his as they made love. As if he were right there behind the falls, Kyle watched the way her hair swung around her shoulders as she lunged forward and fell on top of him. But as the night deepened, her image grew elusive and slipped from his grasp, and finally, he lost her altogether in the blackness.

The thunder of pounding feet and panicked shouts jolted him from sleep. Kyle bolted up in his chair. Smoke billowed around him and his throat felt clogged with burning smoke that stole his ability to breathe.

“Kyle! Where are you?” Boyd yelled from the front of the building.

“Back—” Kyle choked and staggered to his feet. A hard cough wrenched his chest and gut and doubled him over until tears streamed down his face. He dragged an arm across his eyes and peered through the smoke, but couldn’t see more than three feet in front of him. The building was on fire. The stove! He’d kicked the stove like an idiot! And he’d never checked the stove pipe.

“Kyle! Answer me!”

He crouched to his knees and gulped a breath, but his hoarse squawk couldn’t be heard more than a few feet away. The loud crackling of burning wood filled the air then a heavy shudder shook the building.

“It’s coming down! Get out!” Boyd shouted.

“Give me your ax. I’m going around back.”

That was Duke’s voice. Kyle buried his face in his shirt and crawled toward the door. The heat drove him back before he’d gone three feet. Suddenly, he understood very clearly that he was trapped and he was going to die.

The building had no back door and no windows to escape through. Though the plank walls were old, he doubted he could kick through the wood, but it was his only hope of getting out alive.

On hands and knees, he felt his way along the wall toward the back of the building where the smoke wasn’t as dense. Trying to gauge the condition of the wood through watery eyes was impossible. Kyle pushed against the slats with his elbow until he felt a board spring. Knowing his time would run out before he could locate a weaker spot, he stopped searching and lay on his back. He kicked the plank with both feet. Pain ripped through his tender shin, but he kept hammering the springy piece of pine. The board bowed beneath his fierce blows, but it wouldn’t crack.

“Come on!” Kyle coughed and kicked harder as a spray of hot cinders burned his skin. The wall splintered several feet above him.

He heard the distant shout of Amelia’s voice calling to him and he knew he didn’t want to die. He needed to apologize to her, to explain what she meant to him.

He raised his numb feet for another blow, but the tip of an ax smashed through the planks.

“Duke!” Kyle called through his raspy throat then realized that Duke would never hear him above the roaring fire and shouting men. The only way to let them know they were hacking the wall in the right place was to signal by moving the boards, so Kyle used his remaining strength to kick the planks.

More wood splintered as another ax gouged the building then several hands yanked planks free and pried the nails from the frame with metal pry bars. Kyle watched it all through a haze of smoke, his only conscious thought being to keep his feet moving and keep himself from igniting. He was barely conscious when Duke stopped swinging his ax and Boyd and Radford dragged him through the hole in the wall.

He gulped in cool air and coughed until he gagged. His nose ran and his eyes streamed, but he was free of the fire that was eating his building and burning up his profits.

“Kyle!” Amelia collapsed beside him. She reached out to touch him, but hesitated as if she might hurt him. “Are you all right. Are you hurt?” Tears streaked down her face and her mouth pursed.

He lifted his head and looked at her through streaming eyes. Soot was smeared across her face and one side of her gown was badly singed. Behind her, both mill crews were rushing across the yard at the depot, beating out hot sparks that settled on his pallets of lumber, keeping his mill building safe while trying to contain the fire to his warehouse, which would become a total loss.

Amelia touched his chest. “Can you talk? Do you know what happened?”

Caught in a hazy web of pain, Kyle backhanded his eyes and dragged his sleeve beneath his nose. He tried to sit up, but gasped in pain and fell back in the grass. Fire burned through his shoulders and both palms as if he’d been branded. His head ached and his legs and feet throbbed.

Amelia doused her palms in a bucket of water that Boyd had set beside them when checking on Kyle before he ran back to battle the flames. She gently pressed the cool liquid to Kyle’s face. Her own was covered in tears. “Please be all right. Please don’t close your eyes, Kyle.”

“How—” He coughed, gagged, and inhaled the damp air into his raw throat. “How can you... even care?” he asked, panting hard, feeling as he were going to throw up.

Her brow furrowed and she touched his hot, tight face. “How can I... Oh, Kyle, how can you ask that?”

Even through his muddled senses, Kyle could see the raw pain in her eyes, but before he could croak out an apology, he turned his head and threw up in the damp grass. He struggled to fill his lungs with fresh air while his two crews put out the fire. His thoughts tangled and he couldn’t keep track of the time or what was happening around him. Someone laid wool horse blankets over him, someone else fed him gallons of water then the glowing sky slowly turned black.