Sun Kissed (29 page)

“How do you know the police are—?”

“Your dad. He called to give me hell. Well, not really. He was actually pretty understanding after I explained that I was obligated by law to report the poisonings. But he was pretty pissed when we first started talking.”

“Daddy always gets pissed when anything threatens me. I hope you didn’t take him too seriously.”

She thought about grabbing him by the front of his shirt, dragging him farther into the house, and kissing him. It was madness. For starters, she wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothes under the robe, and there were still all the dos and don’ts of her faith to worry about. But it wasn’t every day a man said he loved her, either, and she was positive she hadn’t imagined it.

His gaze moved slowly over her face. Then it dropped lower. When he met her gaze again, he said, “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever clapped eyes on. Have I ever mentioned that?”

And then, as if she’d willed him to do it, he stepped into her kitchen and shut the door. She could tell by his expression that he meant to kiss her. Her heart started to pound. Her knees started to shake. She was finally going to find out how it would feel to have his mouth touch hers.

He cupped her face between his big hands, moving his thumbs lightly over her cheekbones in a feathery caress. When she looked into his eyes, her breath caught in her throat. His face drew closer, and then closer yet, until his features blurred and she could feel his breath on her lips. He smelled of coffee and mints, horses and male muski
ness, and fresh night air. With gentle fingers, he loosened her hair and gathered it into his hands.

Just as their lips touched—just as she curled her hands over his shoulders to enjoy the feel of him—an ear-shattering wail filled the room, the sound so loud and unexpected, they leaped apart.

“What the
hell
?”

She’d been so focused on the kiss that it took her a moment to realize what had happened. “The alarm,” she cried. “I totally
forgot
!” There was only a gap of a minute and a half before the siren went off after an entry door had been opened. She ran across the room to the panel, but when she got there, she couldn’t remember the new code. “The numbers, what are the numbers?”

She felt his chest graze her back, felt the heat of him radiating through the terry cloth. He reached over her shoulder, punched in the new code, and then hit number one to shut off the siren. “Blue Blazes’s weight, remember? Thirteen hundred plus.”

The sudden silence seemed almost as loud as the wailing. Samantha went limp with relief, leaning against him for a second. Then she turned and pressed her back to the wall. “I’m not very good at remembering numbers.”

“I’m excellent at it,” he said huskily, “so I guess we’re a perfect match.”

He braced his hands on each side of her, leaned closer, and asked, “Where were we?”

“I think you were about to kiss me.”

“I think you’re right,” he whispered, and then covered her mouth with his to finish the job.

The phone rang. He jerked away again, his eyes
stormy. “
Damn!
I can’t believe this.” He glanced toward the ceiling. “Give me a break, God!”

Samantha couldn’t believe this was happening, either. “It’s probably the alarm company. Or maybe my dad. It could be one of my brothers, too. They’re all on my emergency list.”

“Wonderful.” He rested his forehead against hers, the blue of his eyes eclipsing her vision. She felt his chest jerk and heard the low rumble of his laughter. “According to my calculations, we only have five more calls to go.”

Just then a loud pounding came at the door. “Samantha!” Jerome yelled. “Are you all right?”

Then they heard Nona say, “Step back, sir. We’re going in.”

Samantha wondered if she’d been born under an unlucky star. She was twenty-nine years old, and for the first time in her life her body had been throbbing with physical desire. Now it seemed as if half the population of Crystal Falls was either phoning or knocking on her door.

“Well, hell.” Tucker quickly straightened. “Don’t kick the door down! Everything’s all right. We just forgot to disarm the system.”

Straightening her robe, Samantha scurried over to the door and drew it open. Backed by three security guards, Jerome stood on her welcome mat, looking like a thundercloud that was about to let loose on all creation. “What the Sam Hill is going on over here?”

“Nothing.”
The phone still rang persistently. Samantha started to answer it, but Tucker forestalled her by saying, “I’ll get it.”

He strode across the kitchen to lift the portable unit
from its base. “Hello, Tucker here.” A moment of silence. “No, she’s all right, Frank. I just dropped by to talk with her, and she forgot to disarm the system after opening the door.” Another silence. “I appreciate that. We’ll handle everything else. Yeah. Good night.”

Samantha turned a questioning gaze on him as he ended the call.

“Your father says he’ll call all your brothers to tell them it’s okay. But he’s worried you won’t remember your password. If you can’t, he says to call him.”

“Of course I remember my password. Does he think I’m an idiot?” Samantha turned back to assure Jerome and Nona that everything was fine. “I’m sorry, Jerome. I was about to go to bed, and Tucker stopped by to—” She broke off and licked her bottom lip. “He, um, had some thing to tell me. Anyway, I forgot about the alarm being set when I opened the door.”

Nona smiled. “I hoped it was something like that.”

“You scared the living hell out of me,” Jerome in formed her.

“I’m sorry.” Samantha looked at Nona. “I’m
really
so sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten everyone.”

“Well, all right then.” Jerome squinted to see past her. Then he glanced at her robe. His jaw tightened. “If you’re sure you’re okay, I’ll go back to bed.”

“I’m perfectly okay.”

After closing the door, Samantha leaned weakly against it. Meeting Tucker’s gaze, she confessed, “I
am
an idiot. I don’t remember my password.”

“You don’t?”

“In the year we’ve had the system we’ve never tripped the alarm, so I’ve had no occasion to use it.”

“Well, that’s simple to fix.” He grabbed the phone again and dialed her dad’s number by memory, which she thought was pretty amazing. Seconds later he arched his eyebrows again and gave her a wondering look as he ended the call. “Your password is ‘Just Ducky’?”

It came to her then. “Yes. That’s it.”

He returned the phone to its base. “That’s a strange password. How did you come up with it?”

“When things are fine, don’t you ever say everything is just ducky?”

“No.”

“Hmm. It made sense to me at the time.”

Before he could respond, the phone rang again. He didn’t immediately answer. Instead he smiled slightly, rubbed beside his nose, and said, “I have this really weird feeling.”

“What kind of feeling?”

“That it wasn’t meant—Oh, never mind, it’s a stupid thought.”

He answered the phone, spoke with the woman manning the phones at the security company, and then gave her the password. After listening for a moment, he proffered the phone to Samantha. “She wants to talk to you. I think she’s afraid I have a gun to your head.”

“A gun to my head?”

“Yeah. You really need another password to let them know if something like that ever happens.”

“I can’t remember the password I already have.” She took the phone and spent a full two minutes assuring the
woman at the other end of the line that she wasn’t in life-threatening peril.

When the alarm debacle was finally over, she sank down on a chair at the table, so exhausted that her bones felt as if they’d turned to water. Tucker sat across from her. There was a gentle, indulgent smile in his eyes even though his expression was serious.

“I love you,” he said, his voice gone gravelly and thick. “Did I happen to mention that?”

“Why?” she couldn’t resist asking.

The smile finally reached his mouth, a glamorous smile that dazzled her, making her forget how tired she was. “Because you make me laugh,” he replied. “Because you’re kind and gentle and caring.” He sighed and pushed his fingers through his hair. “You don’t really want to hear all this sappy stuff, do you?”

“Yes.”

He chuckled and rocked back on the chair. “The first time I ever clapped eyes on you, I was a goner. You were—” He broke off to think about it, then grinned and said, “
Extraordinary
. No bigger than a minute, but going toe-to-toe with a mean drunk twice your size. In addition to being brave, you’re beautiful, smart, and loyal. I love everything about you.”

“I wasn’t mad at you about the report.”

“I’m getting that.”

“All you did was tell the truth. How could I be upset about that?”

He sat forward, the front legs of the chair thumping the floor. “Sometimes the truth is damning. I thought you might feel that I betrayed you.”

Just the opposite was true. If he’d falsified any of the information on the report, she never would have been able to trust him again. “I admire your honesty, Tucker. I always have. I guess it’s a phobia of mine, but I can’t abide lying, not in any form or for any reason. I’ve been lied to way too many times.”

He held her gaze. “I’ll never do that to you, and that’s a promise.”

She believed him, and the realization almost brought tears to her eyes.

He rubbed a hand over his face and blinked, then rested his folded arms on the table. “I’m sorry I had such miserable timing tonight. I wasn’t expecting all hell to break loose like it did.”

“It wasn’t your fault.” Her heart fluttered into her throat. “Would you like to try again?”

“I’d like nothing better, but I’ve got this feeling we were interrupted for a reason. I think the Big Guy in the sky is telling me in a very
loud
way that there are more important matters that require our attention.”

At that precise moment, she could think of few things more important than finishing that kiss. “Like what?”

“Like discussing the mess you’re in.”

Samantha didn’t want to think about that. “I’m sure it’s all going to come right in the end. In time, the police will dig deeper and realize I had nothing to do with the deaths of my horses.”

“No,” he said softly, “I’m afraid they won’t, not if Steve Fisher has his way.”

“What do you mean?”

“The bastard isn’t just bent on harming your horses, sweetheart. He’s going after you as well.”

Samantha couldn’t see why he believed Steve was coming after her. “I’m sorry; I’m not following.”

“That day on the courthouse steps, when he promised to make you sorry for cheating him out of what he felt was rightfully his, he didn’t intend to merely take the horses away from you. He meant to make you pay in far worse ways, with years and
years
of your life.”

“In prison?” she asked thinly, even though she already knew the answer.

“Exactly.”

An awful coldness moved through Samantha. Until that moment she hadn’t analyzed Steve’s motives. She’d believed he meant only to break her heart by harming the creatures she loved so much. “Oh, my God.”

“Sweetheart, you’ve got to trust me.” His blue eyes locked on hers, their expression imploring. “After all that Steve has done, I know trusting me or anyone else outside your family isn’t easy for you. But, damn it, you have to try. Will you do that for me—just for a while? I may be your only ace in the hole.”

Samantha already trusted him. It had happened bit by bit as she’d come to know him, but it was a done deal now. She trusted in his word. She admired his ethics. She respected his heartfelt concern for the animals he treated and his sterling professional standards. In short, she’d come to believe in him in a way she’d never thought might be possible.

“Oh, Tucker, I do trust you, honestly I do, but how on earth do you think you can help me?”

“How long does it take for an oral dose of morphine to affect a horse?”

“I…” Samantha searched her store of knowledge. “I don’t know.”

“I
do.
After a horse ingests a large amount of arsenic, how long does it take for the poison to take effect?”

Her response was the same. “I don’t know.”

“Neither do the cops, but I do. In fact, I know
exactly
what the window of time is. Was Steve in town shortly before or during that window of time? And where was he the day Blue Blazes went nuts from an opiate overdose?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

“Neither do I. But, damn it, we’re going to find out. The son of a bitch is doing his damnedest to frame you. Everything I put into that report today implicates
you.
Who stands to gain financially by the deaths of those horses?
You.
Who had the most opportunities to poison them?
You.
Who has been around horses all her life and knew what morphine would do to Blue?
You.
Who had motive?
You.
He’s trying to crucify you. If he has his way, you’ll be put behind bars for a very long time. Do you know the penalty for cruelty to animals in this state?”