Ugly Ducklings Finish First (19 page)

“Payton, wait! Don’t go, please let me—”

As she reached for the door handle he interrupted himself with a pained grunt, coinciding with a thunk-like sound of something heavy hitting the floor. She whipped around to see he was once again trying to walk on his casted, mutilated foot, and the pain on his face was so vicious it spurred her into action.

“Stop that, you idiot!” She sprang forward just as he fell to his knees with an agonized groan. She crashed down with him, supporting his weight as he collapsed against her. “What are you thinking? You could wind up permanently crippled or even dead if you keep trying to walk on that foot. Don’t you understand what bad shape you’re in?”

“I don’t care.” His breathing was uneven, and his ashen face twisted with sheer anguish as he wrapped his arms tightly around her as if she were the only thing left in the world. “You’re the one who doesn’t understand. If I lose you now, I won’t have any kind of life worth living.”

“Wiley.” Raw pain twisted her heart until she couldn’t breathe, while his words chipped away at the icy barrier she’d tried to surround herself with. “You really are going into shock. You don’t know what you’re saying. Now, if you can get up without putting any weight on your leg—”

“Don’t you get that I would walk a thousand miles on this leg to get to you? That in my own lame-ass, reactionary way, I was trying to protect you from the shit storm that was hitting my life?” Whether by accident or design, he collapsed onto her completely, and they tumbled to the bare floor with a discordant symphony of painful groans. “Payton, I made you think I didn’t love you, because I
do
. Love you, I mean. I love you so much I can’t even think straight.”

“I don’t believe this.” Just when she thought things couldn’t get any worse, she managed to get herself stuck under the man who’d emotionally savaged her while he was babbling in shock. She swallowed hard against a sudden knot of useless tears and tried to shimmy out from under him. No dice. She might as well try to get out from under an anvil. “Wiley, let me go.”

“I can’t.” He rested his clammy face into the curve of her neck and breathed in her scent as if he believed it had life-saving properties. “I
won’t
. Not until you’ve heard everything I have to say. And even then I won’t let you go.”

Oh, what she would have given to tell him to go take a flying leap. But aside from the fact that she didn’t have much of a choice in the matter, part of her—the needy, pathetic part—couldn’t help but be curious. “Fine. Say what you have to say, Coyote, but I warn you straight up—you’d better make it good.”

“Great. No pressure.” When she made an unsympathetic sound, he loosed something that could have been a either a pained breath or a weak laugh. “It began, innocently enough, with a courtesy investigation into the Xavier foreclosure, a foreclosure that was orchestrated by Prentice Fields. I’m hopeful, by the way, that the Xavier foreclosure will be rescinded by the State Banking Commission once I present my evidence against Fields.”

“Prentice Fields, a goofy little blowhard turned mastermind criminal.” Despite her determination to not listen to a word he had to say, Payton couldn’t help but feel a jolt of happiness for Carlos Xavier and his family. “I can’t wrap my mind around it. What would his motivation be for wanting to sink old Carlos?”

“And the Bimmels,” he added, surprising her. “The foreclosed properties border each other, right? As far as I can tell, Fields kept his ear to the ground, looking for interested buyers with deep pockets and targeted whatever property those buyers wanted, using fair means or foul to get it. In this case, foul.”

“But why? He wouldn’t gain financially on those foreclosed properties. The bank owned those properties, not Prentice Fields.”

“Apparently his plan was to buy up the foreclosed properties at bargain basement prices from the bank, then turn around and sell them for huge profits to whoever wanted the land.”

“Wouldn’t someone notice he was doing this?”

“Officially his name isn’t on any documentation. Fields bought the properties through a dummy real estate company by the name of Sundown Realty.”

“I’ve heard that name before.” Squeezing her eyes shut, she groped around for the elusive memory. “Wait. Chandler mentioned it at the block party, didn’t he? He told us Sundown Realty bought the Xavier property.”

She felt him nod. “The day of my wreck, I spent most of that morning trying to track down who was behind Sundown Realty, since I had learned from Mrs. Bimmel Sundown was the company that sold her husband the same piece of land which was the eventual downfall of Carlos Xavier. Just yesterday I finally got an email confirming that other than being nothing more than a title on a piece of paper, Sundown ultimately leads back to Prentice Fields. Fields set up both the Bimmels and Carlos to fail so he could then swoop in as Sundown Realty, buy their properties and sell it off at a profit. And it would all be legal, except for the so-called contract that I’ve confirmed Fields gave to both Jerome Bimmel and Carlos Xavier. If you’ll recall, that contract guaranteed their exorbitant ARM loans would be null and void if that tract of land turned out to be a dud, which of course it was.”

Her heart suddenly stilled. “That contract, the one Clarissa Bimmel came up with. It wasn’t in your office, was it?”

“No, and it wasn’t in my computer that was stolen while I was in the hospital. It was with me when Fields tried to kill me out on the freeway, but it’s still intact since I had it in my case. I’m certain I can prove Fields was abusing his power over at Farmer’s Bank for personal gain, and get both properties back to their rightful owners.”

She couldn’t help but release a relieved sigh. “I take it your meeting with Mrs. Bimmel was a profitable one, then?”

“Oh, yeah. Not only did she have a copy of the bogus contract with Fields’ name right on it, she also had the closing contract for the parcel of land that Fields, under the guise of Sundown Realty, had sold to her husband. That was too much of a coincidence for me, so I called Carlos, and for once he actually talked to me. By that time I wasn’t at all surprised when he confirmed he’d bought that exact same barren parcel of land from Sundown.”

“Careless of old Prentice.”

“Overconfident of old Prentice,” he corrected. “He believed he could pull the wool over the eyes of a bunch of small-town hicks. He was wrong.”

She nodded. “So you won.”

“It sure as hell doesn’t feel like I won.” He lifted his head just enough so he could look into her eyes. “Not if I’ve lost you.”

She stiffened muscle by muscle until she resembled a statue, and she looked away from that penetrating gaze. “You never had me.”

“You said you loved me. I’m hoping you still do.”

“No.” Her eyes were burning with a wetness she didn’t want him to see, and she gave another shot at squirming away from him. “Let’s just leave things the way they are, all right? I’ve learned the hard way that’s the best thing to do in situations like these. I just wish I’d known that when I made the mistake of going to that stupid reunion. I should have been smart enough to leave well enough alone. I’m smart enough now.”

“Then I guess I’m not.” Wiley caressed the hair off her brow. “I love you, Payton.”

“Stop saying that.” It wasn’t true, it would never be true. He was the Coyote.

“I can’t stop it, Payton. I don’t know how.” With her head turned away, he seemed to take it as an invitation to slide his lips along the line of her jaw to her ear, and the nip of his teeth and teasing play of his tongue on her lobe made her toes curl. “It’s the truth. And I think you love me.”

“No.” But it was as weak as he was making her feel and damn it, it was all his fault. “I
won’t
love you. I know what love can do. I’ve seen it tear good people apart and make them crazy. It made my parents crazy, it’s made
me
crazy. I
hate
love.”

“I know what you mean.” He seemed intent on carpet-bombing her skin with slow, leisurely kisses to where her neck connected with her shoulder. “When I realized you could have been in the car with me, I went off the deep end thinking about how we’d just gone public with our relationship and everyone in town knew what you meant to me. I sweated it out in that stupid hospital room whenever you weren’t with me. Then when you’d show up, I’d be angry with you for being anywhere near me. I decided I had to get you away somewhere safe before whoever was targeting me realized you were the most important thing in my life.”

Since when had she become the most important thing in his life? That was news to her. “I’m not following you. Why would you think I’d be in danger? I had nothing to do with the investigation into the foreclosures.”

“But the entire town knew you had everything to do with
me
.”

She tried to follow his reasoning, but it was difficult when she could feel the hungry suck of his mouth against her neck. “So...you thought Fields would use me as leverage to stop you from looking into the Xavier foreclosure?”

“At that point, all I knew was that
somebody
was after me, and I didn’t want you to be a target. After my second meeting with Mrs. Bimmel, I thought my stalker might be Prentice Fields but I had no proof. My main goal was to make sure he didn’t focus on you. If he had, I would have dropped the Xavier investigation and done whatever else he would have wanted, as long as it meant keeping you safe.”

If her heart did any more pausing, she’d insist on getting a pacemaker. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Believe that I’ve been in love with you from the moment I saw you across the gym at our reunion.” He said it not in the soft tones of a wooing lover but almost like an accusation, as if she’d committed a crime he didn’t know how to forgive. “I think a part of me has always loved you, even when we were kids. God knows I’ve never been able to forget you, and I can’t stand the thought of life without you.”

She was dreaming, she had to be. “So speaks the man who threw me out of his life.”

“Payton, I can’t believe I have to say this to you, but use your damn brain.” He ignored her outraged intake of breath as he raised his head enough to glare down at her. “At the time of the crash I didn’t have a clear picture of what was going on, except that my life was suddenly full of danger. Though I suspected Prentice, I didn’t know for sure if it was him or if he had partners lurking around somewhere just waiting to get a shot at any weaknesses I might have.
You
are my greatest weakness.”

She glared right back, refusing to believe it. “You had no proof I would be targeted.”

“There’s no way I’d risk putting you in danger. If anything had happened to you, I would have died inside. That’s why I acted the way I did. I had to have a realistic breakup with you to get you out of the line of fire, but I never intended it to be permanent.”

Desperately she tried to cling to the pain he had inflicted, too gun-shy to believe in something she wanted so very much. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...”

“I’m not trying to fool you, Payton. Please believe me.”

Her mouth flattened, hardening her heart to the pleading note in his voice. “I can’t. Not when there’s such an obvious hole your story.”

“It’s not a story, it’s the truth, damn it.” Then he sighed and dropped his head onto her shoulder for a moment, as if he were losing the strength to hold it up. “What hole are you talking about?”

“Why didn’t you just tell me all of this in the first place?”

“If I had told you I was in danger, I was certain you never would have left my side.”

“Of course I wouldn’t have left.”

“Exactly.” He nodded as if she’d said something profound and raised his head once more to search her eyes. “That’s why I made the decision of capitalizing on the image you have of me still being the Coyote. It was the only way I could think of to get you out of harm’s way.”

“And I’m just supposed to blindly accept you’re not the Coyote anymore?” Payton gave his shoulder an ungracious thump. “Point to one credible reason why I should believe that part of you is gone for good.”

“You want a reason?” he said, his grip more viselike than loverlike. “Fine. I’ll give you a reason. I want to marry you, though God knows why. You’ve never trusted me completely. And you’ve always been too damned smart for your own good, always thinking you know what everyone else is going to do or think or say.”

“What?” Weakness filled her limbs as light filled her head, beating back the darkness that had shrouded her world. “Wait. What?”

“You’re too damn smart for your own good,” he repeated, furious. “You always have been. I knew I was taking one hell of a risk, pushing you away like I did, because you have a nasty habit of thinking things to death—”

“No, no,” she cut in with an impatient shake of her head. “Not that. The marry thing. Did I hear you correctly? I don’t think I heard you correctly. Why would you say such a thing? The thought of marriage shouldn’t appear in your mindset.”

At the uncharacteristically flustered tone, Wiley relaxed a fraction. “You know, I think I love you best when you’re off-balance.”

“Wiley—”

“You heard me just fine, sweetheart.” His gaze softened, and he touched her face as though she were something precious. “I want to marry you more than I want to live another day. I want you to want to marry me.”

“But I thought you could never be serious enough to think about permanently settling down.”

Unless...

Everything he’d said was true. That he had been trying to protect her, not throw her away. That maybe, just maybe, he had left the careless player behind for all time.

Can I trust you
,
Wiley?
Really?

“You and I need to get something straight once and for all, lady.” He was scowling down at her with such ferocity it was hard to imagine he had any love for her. Yet strangely the desperation behind it calmed the chaos in her mind like nothing else. “I am no longer that idiotic hormone with legs who was voted most likely to get slapped with a paternity suit. I grew up a long time ago. What do I have to do to convince you of that?”