Hanchart Land (17 page)

Long minutes later, when they'd recovered enough to step apart, he amazed her by taking the soap in his bands and bathing her. His gaze trapped hers while his long, work roughened fingers cleansed and caressed her most sensitive flesh with gentle care.

Her breathing became ragged and her legs threatened to collapse, so she shoved his hands aside and returned the favor. Her soap-slick hands caressed the rippling muscles of his chest and followed the swirling hair on his belly down to the juncture of his thighs. A low moan escaped him as her touch brought him to rigid arousal. The water grew cool, but they were aflame again.

Luke's patience snapped first. He shut off the shower, wrapped her in a big towel and carried her to bed. Then he took a deep breath, reined his passion, and began arousing her in every way he knew. The next few hours were spent in a sensual haze as his hands, mouth and body explored all the feminine territory he hadn't had time to pleasure the night before.

They slept a few hours, and then awakened before dawn to make love again. This time when he joined their bodies, she cried out the secret she could no longer deny.

"I love you!"

Luke reacted swiftly and fiercely, grasping her head between his hands and glaring at her with dark, turbulent eyes. "No," he growled in sudden anger. "No lies between us. What you love is the way I make you feel. What we have is lust. I don't want lies about love."

His words lanced her heart with agony, and tears welled in her eyes. They seemed to intensify his anger, but she couldn't stop them. He ground his mouth against hers and swallowed her tiny sob. She arched her hips beneath him and returned his angry kiss. If he didn't want her love, she could at least give him all the physical loving he needed until time brought some semblance of trust.

This time when they found sexual satisfaction, some of the sweetness was gone. His anger destroyed any chance of an intimate aftermath to their loving. Luke rolled away from her, and Susan felt devastated. All she could think to do was grab the sheet and cover herself protectively.

She'd never told any man she loved him, had never loved anyone the way she did Luke. She understood his reluctance to believe her, but it still hurt to have him throw the declaration of love back in her face. The pain was sharp, the wound deep.

After a few minutes, their breathing had regulated and they regained some control. It was obvious neither of them would sleep again. The sky was brightening as Susan mulled over what she needed to say. She wanted his trust, so she needed to be completely honest. It was the only way,

"I think it's time I explained why I married Shane," she said, shattering the weighty silence of the room with her husky admission.

She felt the immediate, renewed tension in his body. His gaze sought hers, but she couldn't maintain the contact. Her gaze wandered to the window, and she clutched the sheet like a lifeline.

"I told Linda that Shane and I had a business agreement. That he needed to prove to John he could settle down, and I needed a home for Butch and me."

"She believed that?"

Susan shook her head slightly. "I don't know what she believed, but John verified the fact that he was ready to disinherit Shane if he didn't settle down. It gave Linda food for thought."

"But it's not the truth." His tone was flat.

"No," she confessed, and then mustered all her courage. "It’s not the whole truth. Shane blackmailed me into marrying him." The rest came out in a rush, as she blurted the ugly details.  "He had proof that Butch was one of the vandals who did so much damage in town, terrorized your horses and caused the stallion to fracture his leg. He said he'd take it to the sheriff and make sure Butch got prison time if I didn't marry him and help pacify his granddad."

There was a wealth of contempt in Luke's next question. "So you let Shane get away with blackmail?"

Susan sat up and turned toward him, pulling the sheet around her. Her expression beseeched him to understand.

"How could I not? Butch was eighteen and would have been tried as an adult. There were thousands of dollars worth of damage, and no way to repay it. You know Shane wouldn't have hesitated to follow through with his threats. He didn't have a compassionate bone in his body!"

Their gazes remained locked as he questioned her. "And you couldn't let Butch accept responsibility for his own actions?"

Susan paled, her lashes dropping as she fought tears. "I know now that it was the wrong thing to do; wrong for Butch, wrong for everybody. By trying to protect him, I destroyed what little self-esteem he had left. He hated us both for the mess we made."

Her voice quivered as she fought the black memories and dealt with the suffocating pressure of regret. In the long months while her mother lay in a coma, she’d promised her over and over again that she would take care of Butch. That she’d protect him with her life. Her intentions had been good, but her misguided attempts to help her brother had nearly destroyed both of them.

 Luke shifted in bed, and for a moment she thought he would take her in his arms. Instead, he rose and headed for the bathroom. She drew in a deep breath, fought for control and then opened her eyes in time to see him reenter the room. He'd pulled on his jeans and found her bathrobe.

"Put this on and come downstairs with me."

Her glistening eyes searched his, but found no trace of emotion. She accepted the robe and slipped out of bed. When she had it wrapped around her and secured, they headed downstairs.

The house was quiet and lit only by the dim light of dawn. It would be a while before anyone else awoke. Rosa didn't work on Sundays, and the others would sleep late. He led her to his office, closed the door behind them and switched on the overhead light. He motioned for her to take a seat. Then he went to the wall safe, unlocked the combination and removed a videocassette tape.

Susan gasped and cried out. Panic spurred her to action and she went flying across the room. "No! He swore on his deathbed!" she insisted, nearly frantic. "He said there weren't any other copies, and I burned the original myself!"

She tried to snatch the video from Luke, but he held it out of reach and restrained her with one arm around her waist. His tone was grim.

"Apparently Shane wasn't the only one with a copy. Rod Matthews had one, too. He sent it to me after I fired him."

Another harsh gasp escaped her and nausea rolled in her stomach. Her eyes were wide with shock as she realized her mistake in trusting anything Shane said. He'd wanted a final guarantee she'd never be accepted as Luke's wife.

"You've watched it?" she managed in a raw tone.

"At first, I figured it was some sort of X-rated film of you and Shane," he explained, his jaw clenching. "I planned to destroy it until you told me about the rape. Then I decided I'd better see what else Shane and Rod had been up to."

She pulled away from him and turned her back. Wrapping both her arms around her waist, she tried to still the violent churning in her stomach. The thought of Luke viewing the film hurt her unbearably. He shared her passionate love of horses, and the damning evidence on tape left no doubt to the abuse his livestock had suffered. It was a vivid, horrifying testimony to her brother’s guilt.

No wonder Luke had rejected her declaration of love. He'd seen the crimes her brother had committed. She was too ashamed to even look at him. He was probably wishing he'd known about the tape before marrying her. Now it was too late to salvage the situation. Everything she’d done to protect her brother and her family’s good name had been for nothing.

Damn Shane for lying! Damn him to hell for one more cruel, degrading trick. Explaining a crime spree to Luke would have been hard, but possible. Having him see it first hand was altogether different. She'd only seen the video once, and it had made her physically ill.

If he'd had doubts about her social acceptability or her parenting skills, the tape would increase those doubts a hundred fold. He'd be appalled by her brother's actions as well as hers. Not only had she succumbed to Shane’s blackmail, but she’d broken the law herself by withholding evidence in a criminal investigation.

The television clicked on and she heard Luke slip the tape into the VCR. Whirling, frantic, she made a lunge toward the TV

"No!" she cried, trying to shove him out of her way. She fumbled with the buttons, but was able to push the pause before he pulled her away from the set.

"Let it play," he insisted tersely.

He held her firmly with one arm around her shoulders as he pushed the play button. The picture was dark because of a late night, moonless sky, but a video camera caught part of the action. The first sounds were those of glass being shattered in store front windows and parked cars.

"No!" whispered Susan as they watched familiar landmarks in the small town of Monroe being trashed by a car full of grown men. Windows were smashed, property destroyed with vicious abandon. 

Drunken jokes and laughter filled in the time while the car made its way out of town toward Hanchart property. Then there was the sound of wood splintering as fences met with destruction. But the worst was the panicked screams of innocent horses as they were chased around the pasture and terrorized.

Susan clasped her hands over her ears and buried her face in Luke's chest. A sob tore at her throat and he shifted to halt the video. She gasped, eyes widening as she felt the shudder that coursed over his body. An equally strong shudder racked her body and more nausea threatened.

"You know Shane planned the whole thing," Luke insisted. "He knew exactly what he was doing, what would infuriate me the most and shame you the most."

"Butch didn't know it was a setup."

"He was so stoned he didn't remember anything," he insisted. "The video was probably as much a shock to him as it was you."

She was shaking her head back and forth in denial. The lengths Shane had gone to with his deception were inconceivable to her. She pulled from his grip and turned toward the TV set.

"Watch it with me," he told her, rewinding and then replaying the worst scenes.

She took a deep breath and glued her gaze to the screen. Luke turned the volume up and her heart sank, but then she tried to distance herself from it like she would a fiction movie. Had Butch been the only one in a drunken stupor?

As she watched more carefully, the horror continued. The camera picked up the random acts of violence as the car full of men continued on a crime spree. They destroyed anything that happened to be in their path.

She tensed even more as she envisioned what came next. The sounds tore at her heart. They were those of Luke's prize horses, as the vandals' ruthlessness tormented them. Susan slapped her hands over her ears to block out the equine screams of fear and the sick, drunken laughter of the men in the car. It made bile rise in her throat.

"You need to pay close attention," he said, pulling her hands from her ears. "Take a good look at Butch."

For one long moment, there was a close-up of her brother's face. He was seated in the passenger side of the front seat while the man in the back seat holding the camera zoomed in on him.

Luke stopped the video, rewound it and replayed that particular section again. Susan clasped a hand over her mouth to trap a sob as tears blinded her for an instant. The sight of her brother's boyish features made her sick with grief and a longing so intense it hurt. Regardless of the situation, she drank in the sight of him.

"Take a good look at him, Susan," Luke demanded quietly. "He's almost comatose. My guess is Shane made sure he was drunk out of his mind before they went on this little spree. Butch wasn't an active participant, just a pawn in Shane's ugly little game. My cousin hated me more than you’ll ever know."

She swiped the tears from her eyes and tried to be objective. He was right. She saw more clearly now. Butch's eyes were glazed and the seat belt seemed the only thing keeping him upright.

"He swore he didn't remember any of it," she whispered in her brother's defense. "He was as shocked as I was when Shane showed us the video. Now I understand why."

There was no doubt about Butch's guilt in having been drunk out of his mind, yet he hadn't needed to suffer all the shame and humiliation Shane's scheme had caused. He was just another victim duped by Shane’s deviousness.

What had she done to her baby brother? Compounded Shane's crime by marrying him and adding to Butch's feelings of guilt and remorse? So much so that he couldn't bear to go on living? What a fool she'd been! And what a miserable, worthless guardian. Butch’s big sister had let him down in so many ways.

"Rod suggested Shane was the director and cameraman on this project," said Luke as he shut off the television and returned the video to the safe.

Butch's face was the only one clearly visible on the video. Two other men wore hats and their faces were kept in the shadows. The fourth man was never seen.

"I'd say the man in the dark hat is Matthews. If I'd watched this sooner, I'd have had him thrown in jail instead of just firing him."

Susan eased herself into a big leather chair and watched him pace around the room. Her thoughts and emotions were in total chaos. Her temperature kept swinging from the heat of humiliation to the chill of cold calculation. Mentally flaying herself for so many mistakes in judgment didn't lift the burden of guilt.

"Why?" Luke demanded, finally getting to the brunt of the matter. His steely gaze leveled on her after he settled on the edge of his desk.

Arms crossed over his chest, he continued to question her. "Why didn't you come to me with this? Why didn't you trust me more than Shane?"

Her eyes widened in shock. There was no way she could have gone to him at the time. She'd been too ashamed and guilt-ridden over what had happened to his livestock. One horse had broken a leg and been put down. Others had been injured. He'd been absolutely furious, and with good reason. There had been talk of little else in the community for weeks. The resulting investigation had left her in constant fear that Butch would be arrested. She'd had knowledge and evidence of the crimes, but had withheld it from the sheriff.