Her Cowboy Avenger (9 page)

“You think this Jack Landry believes you’re guilty, too, and that’s why he’s putting you off?”

“Probably. Most people figure my arrest is only a matter of time.” Elena shot him a wry look. “Glen pointed out I could probably use the money for my upcoming defense, should I need it. He even offered to advance me the money from the sale.”

“Nice of him,” Matt noted drily. “Sounds like he wants the ranch pretty bad. He wanted to buy it when Bobby was alive?”

“Yeah. He made a very generous offer, too.”

“Hmm. You ever wonder just how badly he wants it?”

“What do you mean?”

He looked at her with the utmost seriousness. “Badly enough to kill for it?”

Elena simply shook her head. “Hardly. Glen has his own spread. The Weston ranch is smaller than Glen’s and isn’t even adjacent so it’s not as though he could combine them. Bobby’s brother, Junior, was Glen’s godson, and he and Bobby were about as close. He’s just a family friend trying to do a good deed for a family he was close to for years and cared about deeply. The offer really is just a gesture of pity, something Bobby knew full well, which is another reason he refused to sell.”

“Are you sure about that? There couldn’t be some other reason he wants the ranch?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. That doesn’t mean there isn’t one, something you don’t know about. Something that could be a motive. Are you really considering his offer?”

“I’d be a fool not to. It’s a much better one than I’m likely to get from anyone else, certainly more than I’d get on the open market.”

“And that doesn’t make you suspicious?”

“I suppose it should.” Elena exhaled sharply. He was right. As she’d told him, her first instinct was to believe no one had a motive to kill Bobby, yet clearly someone had, so she must be missing something. Could Glen really want the ranch so badly that he was willing to kill Bobby to get it for some reason she wasn’t aware of yet? “And here I thought no one had any motives.”

“Maybe you just needed a fresh set of eyes, somebody who doesn’t know these people to look at them with a different perspective.”

Someone who was inclined not to trust easily?
Knowing what she did about his life history, she supposed this came naturally to him, not trusting people. The idea made her sad, but at the moment maybe that quality was exactly what she needed in her life.

“I guess it’s a good thing you’re here, then,” she said softly. Even to her own ears the words sounded far more weighted with meaning and full of feeling than she’d intended.

His eyes went dark with some unreadable emotion, his expression enigmatic.

“Maybe it is,” he agreed.

Chapter Seven

She ran as hard and fast as her body could manage, her lungs heaving, her legs pumping wildly, the pavement hard beneath her feet. And still it wasn’t fast enough. She pushed her body harder, fear and adrenaline and pure desperation pounding through her veins. She had to get there sooner.

She had to get to him.

And then there he was, leaning against the truck he’d parked in the shadows at the edge of Main Street, barely out of reach of the nearest streetlight. It was their spot, the one where he’d met her that first night and all those nights after. It was as private a spot as the town had to offer, the rest of the street quiet and deserted at this time of night. She didn’t have time to feel relief or take a breath. At the sight of him, she picked up a fresh burst of speed she wouldn’t have thought herself capable of and ran even faster, hurtling toward him in the dark.

She saw the moment he spotted her, pushing himself away from the truck and moving forward to meet her, clearly as unable to wait for her as she was for him. The moonlight lit his face. It almost didn’t seem necessary with the happiness radiating from his expression, the smile beaming on his lips. She immediately smiled, too, joy bursting within her. And when she launched herself at him, he was there to catch her, his arms wide and strong and open, closing around her and holding her tight.

“Elena,” he breathed against her hair, the sound of his voice sending warmth rolling through her like a soft caress.

“Matt.” There was so much more she wanted to say, but that single word—his name—was all she could manage to get out past the lump in her throat. And suddenly she realized she was crying, hot tears burning her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered gently.

“I was just so scared I’d never see you again.” Never look at his beautiful face. Never hear his voice. Never touch him. Never feel his arms around her.

He said nothing, only tightened his hold and held her even closer. It was answer enough that he’d felt the same way.

Finally, needing to see him, needing to say all those words she had inside, she pulled back to peer up into his face. “I’m so sorry. It’s not right. It’s not fair.”

One corner of his mouth curved wryly. “Hey, can’t say you didn’t warn me. Your dad did go crazy.”

Yes, he had, she thought, fresh anger surging inside her. There’d been times over the past several months when Matt had questioned whether it was really necessary for them to be so secretive. She herself had sometimes felt foolish about it. She was an adult, should probably be past the age when she should care about her father’s reaction to her love life. Except Ed’s response when he’d learned about them had proven just how right she’d been to be worried.

He’d acted like a complete lunatic, ranting and raving to anyone who’d listen—whether they wanted to or not. He’d made a fool of himself, but he’d also accomplished exactly what he’d wanted—gotten Matt fired, ensured there was no longer a place for him in Western Bluff, so he’d have no choice but to move on.

She shuddered, fear striking directly at her heart.

“At least I know you weren’t trying to hide me because you were ashamed of me or something,” Matt said. The words were dry, laconic, but she knew him well enough to know the genuine fear he must have felt deep down, even if he’d never admit it consciously, even to himself. He’d been hurt too deeply, rejected too much by those who should have loved him the most, not to guard himself against the possibility of it happening again.

“Never,” she said firmly, fiercely, meaning it as much as anything she’d ever said in her life. How could she ever be ashamed of him? He was the best man she’d ever known. It seemed impossible that they’d only known each other for three months. She couldn’t imagine living without him.

Which brought them to this.

A sudden chill rolled through her. “So what happens now?” she made herself ask.

“I have to go,” he said quietly.

She lowered her head and nodded faintly. Of course. She knew it was true. She just hadn’t wanted to think about what it meant for them. She would be leaving soon enough herself, but she would be going back to school. And he... “Where will you go?”

“I don’t know. Wherever I can get a job. It might take some time, but I saved up enough this summer to get by for a while until I find something. Hopefully it won’t take too long.”

A hesitant note entered his final words, betraying his uncertainty. Of course, he had to do whatever he could to find work. And the longer it took, the greater the likelihood the search would take him farther and farther away.

Far from here. Far from her.

His hands suddenly tightened on her arms.

“Come with me.”

She raised her head, her heart racing, pounding, threatening to burst through her chest.

“Where?”

“Wherever I go,” he said immediately. “I don’t know where I’m heading. But I need you with me.” He swallowed, and the flash of vulnerability on his masculine face made her heart twist painfully.

“I love you.”

It wasn’t the first time he’d told her that but it might as well have been from the rush of giddiness that soared through her, filling her with so much sheer happiness it didn’t seem possible her body, her heart, her soul could contain it. And in that moment, she would have agreed to anything he said. Of course she would go with him. She would follow him to the ends of the earth and they would be together. Because he
loved
her. And she loved him. And that was all that mattered. Nothing else possibly could.

Nothing.

Except it did.

Like an insidious whisper, the thought slid through her, a chill washing over her and extinguishing her joy as the full implications of his words settled in.

The image of him on the open road, traveling, looking for work, rose again in her mind. But this time she saw herself there with him. The uncertainty. The fear of not knowing what would happen or how they’d pay the bills, where the next paycheck would come from.

It was a life she knew too well. That was what it was like growing up with her father, the uncertainty, the precariousness. She couldn’t live like that anymore. That was why she’d always been determined to get out of this town, to go to college.

College, where she was supposed to return in just a few weeks.

College, which she’d been working toward her whole life, which offered the promise of stability and certainty she’d craved and desperately wanted—needed—for so long.

How could she give up that bright future, all her hopes and dreams, to follow him into the dark unknown?

As fear gripped her insides, clenching her stomach, closing off her breath, she knew the answer without a doubt.

She couldn’t.

But he loves me.

Yes, she thought, peering up into his dark eyes. She didn’t doubt that. But she felt none of that love. She only felt fear.

He was still looking down at her, his face aglow, as though certain what she would say, as certain as she’d been only moments ago.

And she realized it had only been a few moments since he’d made the offer. She felt so cold inside it was hard to believe she’d ever been happy and warm, let alone mere moments ago.

Still he waited for her answer, not yet realizing anything was wrong.

There was only one answer she could give.

“I can’t.”

He blinked, no other reaction on his face, as though the words hadn’t had any impact.

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t go with you.”

He finally frowned, eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “Why not?”

“I have to go back to school. It’s my future. It’s everything I’ve been working toward for years.” She almost winced. The words were all true, but they sounded so hollow spoken aloud compared to how they had in her head.

“You can have a future with me.”

Again the words inspired a rush of emotion, of pure longing, at the possibilities they offered.

But then she remembered the costs. “Doing what? Going from town to town? Getting work on a ranch, too?”

“You’ve been waiting tables,” he pointed out.

“For the summer! I don’t want to do it forever. I want something more than that. I need to go to school.” Suddenly inspiration struck, fresh hope flaring inside her. “You can come back to Austin with me when I go back to school.” The idea was so perfect she could barely contain her excitement at hearing it voiced aloud.

His frown merely deepened. “And do what? Hang around while you go to school?”

“You can get a job.”

“Doing what? Ranch work is all I’ve ever done. It’s all I know. And I don’t want to live in the city. I could never be happy in a place like that.”

“Even if I’m there?”

His voice softened the slightest bit, but his expression was unyielding. “Even then.”

“How do you know if you haven’t tried?”

“I know,” he said firmly. “How do you know you won’t be happy on a ranch with me?”

“It’s just not the life I want.”

His expression hardened. “Or maybe I’m not what you want.”

“You are!” she said without hesitation.

“Well, if you loved me, you would come with me.”

“If
you
loved
me
, you would come with me.”

“I can’t,” he said dully.

“Well, I can’t, either.”

He stared at her, and though he hadn’t moved a muscle and his expression didn’t change she could feel him slipping away from her. She almost reached out to grab on to him and hold him to her.

Before she could, he took another, inexorable step back. “Then I guess there’s nothing left to say.”

She wanted to argue. There was obviously so much to say. But as she stared into his eyes, panic gripping her throat, she knew there was nothing she could do. Nothing but to take it back and say she’d go with him. It was the only thing that could possibly dim the raw fury in his eyes.

But it wasn’t the anger that made her heart squeeze and her lungs feel like they were being pummeled. It was what she saw beneath it. The hurt, the sheer agony. And she knew she’d wounded him, just as she knew why. At least why it had to seem that way from his point of view.

But he was wrong. He had to see this was different. This wasn’t like his mother, or his father or any of the other people in his life who’d rejected him and hadn’t wanted him. That wasn’t what she was doing.

Before she could begin to summon the words to deny it, he turned and walked away.

She watched him storm to his truck, his boots kicking up dirt with each angry step. The whole time she waited for him to stop and turn back, expecting it, knowing it would happen. It couldn’t end like this. He couldn’t just leave her. It wasn’t possible.