Wyoming Tough (13 page)

“Cane hired him to investigate it for us,” Mallory said stiffly. “And I don't think Morie took it,” he added without meeting her eyes. “It was stolen after she left the ranch.”

“How kind of you to move me off the suspect list,” she said. “A few weeks late, of course.” She was looking at Gelly, who was pale and unsteady on her feet. “Perhaps in the future, you'll be more careful about whom you set up for a burglary charge, Ms. Bruner. This one seems to have backfired on you.”

“I didn't set anybody up,” Gelly muttered. She pressed close to Mallory. “Could we leave? I won't be harassed like this!”

“You didn't mind harassing me, as I recall,” Morie replied. “Or that poor cowboy who was fired for a missing drill that conveniently turned up in his suitcase.”

“We need to go!” Gelly said. She was sounding hysterical.

“If you have any part in the charges against my daughter, Miss Bruner,” King continued, staring straight at Gelly, “I will have my attorneys nail you to a wall. That's a promise. If you have one skeleton in your closet, I promise you'll see it on the evening news!”

Gelly let go of Mallory's arm and literally ran for the front door.

“As for you,” King told Mallory Kirk, “in the history of this ranch, I have never had anyone escorted off the property. But if you and your ‘friend' aren't gone within the hour, I swear to God I'll have the local sheriff escort you personally to the airport!”

Mallory sighed heavily. He looked at Morie, so beautiful in her gown, with her face taut and her eyes hard. She clung to that damned handsome kid, her fiancé, and looked as if it would make her happy never to see Mallory Kirk again as long as she lived. And he was dying for her. He'd missed her, wanted her, blamed himself for her condition. He'd imagined her ragged and poor, in a shelter
somewhere because she couldn't find another job. And here she turned up in a mansion, surrounded by wealth, pampered by her father, the richest cattleman in Texas!

He'd been taken in by Gelly, lock, stock and barrel. Morie hated him. Her father hated him. He'd never live this down. He'd been stupid and judgmental, and he was getting just what he deserved. Morie had wanted to love him. He'd slapped her down. Now she was engaged to some other man, set to marry and start a family. Mallory would go back to Wyoming alone to reflect on his idiocy and face the future all by himself.

He stuck his big hands in his slacks pockets. “Well, if I had hemlock, I guess I'd drink it about now,” he mused.

Danny muffled a laugh. Nobody else was amused. King looked murderous. Morie was impassive, on the surface at least.

In the middle of the confrontation, Shelby arrived. She lifted her eyebrows at the tableau. “My goodness, are we hosting a murder?” she mused.

Mallory looked at her with sudden recognition. “I know your face,” he said gently.

She smiled. “I was a professional model when I married King,” she said, sliding her hand through King's arm.

“Your mother was Maria Kane, the actress,” Mallory continued. She nodded.

“I've been watching her old movies on late-night television,” he commented. He glanced at Morie. “Now I know why you looked so familiar to us.”

“She favors my mother,” Shelby replied. “Mr…?”

“Kirk. Mallory Kirk.”

The smile immediately left Shelby's elfin face. Her dark eyes began to glitter.

Mallory sighed. “No need for further introductions.” He nodded and glanced down at Morie. “For the record, nobody thought you took the damned egg. You had no opportunity. As for the charge I made, I apologize. I've been blind, deaf, dumb and stupid, as my brothers have reminded me every hour on the hour since you left. I guess it took a kick in the head to convince me.” He shrugged. “I don't need a road map to see which direction I need to look for a thief.” His face set in hard lines. “I'm genuinely sorry,” he told the Brannts. “She was one of the hardest-working hires I've ever had. Never complained. Never fussed. Never asked for concessions or special treatment and took risks that I'd never have let her take if I'd known about them.”

Morie didn't speak. She was too sick at heart. It was too late. Much too late.

“What risks?” King asked coldly.

“For one, a confrontation with an escaped convicted killer who's a friend of my brother Tank,” he replied.

“He isn't guilty,” Morie said defensively. “I'm sure of it.”

“And I'm sure that he is,” Mallory replied. “Tank's fond of him and he won't listen to reason.” He glanced wryly at King, who was still smoldering. “Family character trait, I'm afraid. But the fact is, Joe Bascomb has an atrocious temper and he once beat a mule almost to death. Any man who'll treat livestock like that will treat a man like that.”

“Nobody treats animals that way here,” King said.

“Or on my place,” Mallory agreed.

“You should let him stay,” Danny told King.

King smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. “He won't like it here.”

Mallory glanced at Morie's stiff little face and he felt a cold, hollow place inside him. “You might have just told me who you were in the first place.”

“I wanted to learn ranch work and he—” she nodded toward her father “—wouldn't let me near it.”

“You were raised to be a lady,” King said curtly. “Not a cowhand.”

“You had no business lifting heavy limbs off fences!” Mallory agreed hotly.

“Don't yell at my daughter,” King said angrily.

“Your daughter was an idiot,” Mallory shot back. “She could have ruined her health. I thought she was what she claimed to be, a poor girl down on her luck who needed a job desperately!”

“I did need a job,” Morie said defensively. “I got sick and tired of men wanting me for what my father had instead of what I was!”

Mallory glared at Daryl.

Daryl grinned at him. “Wrong number,” he said defensively. “My folks are on the Fortune 500 list, and I have my own very successful businesses. I don't need to marry money.”

“He had the same problem,” Morie replied. “That's why we're marrying each other.”

“Not true,” Daryl replied.

She gaped at him. “Not true?”

“She's marrying me because I can do the tango,” Daryl said easily, and smiled down at her.

She shifted restlessly. “Well, yes. Most men can't dance.” She looked pointedly at her father.

“Your mother didn't marry me for my dancing skills,” King pointed out.

“Good thing,” Shelby agreed, and she seemed to unbend just a little. She looked past Mallory. “I believe your friend is motioning to you.”

He turned. Gelly was making frantic motions toward the door.

“She's just afraid that she'll be arrested before you can get her to an airplane,” Morie said with a pleasant smile. The smile faded. “And that might be the truth.”

Mallory felt like an insect under a magnifying glass. He knew he wasn't going to change minds or win hearts here, not in this atmosphere. He'd have to go back home and do what he could to undo the damage. Morie was going to marry that handsome yahoo, was she? Not if he could help it.

“Don't you marry him,” he told her firmly, nodding toward Daryl.

“Well, you can't tango,” she said sourly.

“How do you know?” he replied.

“He isn't staying long enough to demonstrate any dancing skills,” King said impatiently.

“I'm going.” Mallory turned away. But he hesitated. “We all make mistakes. It's why they put erasers on pencils.”

“Some of us make bigger mistakes than others,” Morie replied. “I'll concede that I shouldn't have applied for work without telling you the truth. But you should have given me the benefit of the doubt,” she added coldly.

“Under the circumstances, that didn't seem possible.”

“Not with your girlfriend planting evidence right and left,” Morie replied curtly.

“Not my girlfriend,” Mallory said quietly. “Not anymore.” He looked right into Morie's eyes as he said it, and her whole body tingled.

“I'm getting married,” Morie informed him with a tight smile. “So don't look at me to replace her.”

“Fat chance,” Mallory said with a glance at a glowering Kingston Brannt. “I'll be damned if I'll marry into any family he belongs to.”

“That goes double for my daughter!” King snapped.

Mallory looked at Shelby and shook his head. “You must be one gutsy lady.”

“Because I married him?” Shelby managed a smile. “He's not so bad, once you get to know him.”

“Which you won't,” King muttered. “Aren't you leaving?”

“I guess I am,” Mallory agreed. He glanced at Morie again with faint pride and obvious regret. “You wouldn't like to hear my side of it?”

“Sure,” she replied. “Just like you wanted to hear my side of it.”

He glanced from one family member to another, turned and walked slowly away. Gelly grabbed his arm at the front door and started talking before they even got halfway out it. But Mallory wasn't listening.

 

“W
ELL
, I
CAN SEE WHY YOU HAD
to leave Wyoming,” Shelby said after the guests had gone home and they were sitting on Morie's bed.

“He's a pain,” Morie agreed. “But did you see the look on Gelly's face when she realized who I was?” she mused. “It did my heart good.”

“She's probably realized how much trouble she's going to be in, as well,” Shelby replied. She studied her daughter's face. “You really love that man, don't you?”

Morie closed up like a sensitive plant at sundown. “I thought I did,” she replied. “But if he could take someone else's word for my character, he doesn't know me. He doesn't want to know me. He's happy living as a bachelor with his brothers.”

“I wonder.”

“I lived in dreams,” Morie said, fingering the expensive comforter. “I thought he was getting to know me and enjoying it, as I was. I thought he wanted me. All the time, he was just playing.”

“Why would he do that?” Shelby wondered aloud. “He doesn't seem a frivolous man.”

Morie blinked. “He isn't.”

“Perhaps he's been hunted for his wealth, too.”

“He's still being hunted for it, or didn't you notice Gelly?” Morie laughed.

“A woman with an eye to the main chance, and quite cold-blooded, if you ask me,” Shelby agreed.

“Even his brothers suspected she was setting me up, but Mallory wouldn't listen. He's bull-headed to a fault!”

“Just like your father, dear.”

“I guess so.”

“You shouldn't marry Daryl when you're still in love with another man,” Shelby said abruptly. “It's not fair to either of them.”

Morie didn't answer. She was remembering the shock on Mallory's face when he saw her in the beautiful gown, holding Daryl's hand. It had been sweet vengeance. But it was a long step from that to forgiveness.

“How could I ever trust him again?” Morie wondered aloud. “Who's to say that he wouldn't do the same thing twice?”

Shelby kissed her cheek. “Love requires trust. Now I'm going to bed. We'll talk some more tomorrow, okay? I'm very tired.”

“I know you are. Everything went perfectly. Well, except for Mallory walking in and spoiling the evening.”

“He held his own against your father, you know,” Shelby murmured drily. “That's not easy. Most other men are terrified of him. Mallory wasn't.”

Morie had noticed that. It made her proud. But she wasn't going to say it.

“Sleep well,” she told her mother, and hugged her tight.

Shelby kissed her dark hair. “You, too, my darling. Good night.”

“Y
OU CAN'T BELIEVE THEM
!”
Gelly exclaimed, almost hysterically. “She's rich, so she can accuse me of things and I can't defend myself!”

He glanced at Gelly in the seat of the corporate jet beside him. “Weren't you just on the other end of that argument?”

She glowered at him. “She stole the egg. I know she did. You saw it in her bag!”

“I did, didn't I?” He was still kicking himself mentally for believing Morie guilty in the first place.

“I did not plant it there. I swear!”

“They've hired a private detective. So have my brothers. The same detective—how's that for a coincidence?” he murmured.

She shifted in her seat. This was getting too close for comfort. She couldn't endure a thorough background check. “I'll sue for invasion of privacy!”

“Gelly, the detective is investigating the theft of
a priceless jeweled egg,” he reminded her. “How does that involve your privacy?”

She cleared her throat. “I'm sorry.” She forced a smile. “I wasn't thinking clearly. I'm very upset. Her father is obnoxious!”

“He loves her. He's very protective. I'd be that way about my own kids.”

She snuggled up to him. “Wouldn't you like to have a family? I would. We could get married right away.”

“We could. But we aren't going to.”

“But you like me, don't you?”

He looked down into eyes like cash registers, as cold as ice, and realized that he'd never seen Gelly as she really was until now. It had taken a near tragedy to open his eyes to her real nature.

“You really want to be rich, don't you?”

She gaped at him. “Who doesn't?”

“There are things more important than money.”

She laughed coldly. “Of course there are, if you've got it.”

“I want to hear more about that friend of yours, Cardman,” he said suddenly.

She looked around restlessly. “He's just someone I know. He's down on his luck.”

“Would it be because of the lawsuits?”

She cleared her throat. “I think I'll try to have a little nap,” she said with a practiced smile. “I've had a very upsetting evening. You don't mind?”

“I don't mind.”

She curled up in her seat and pillowed her head on her arm. Mallory got up and went to sit in the front seat, where he had access to a laptop. He opened it and started doing some digging of his own.

 

W
HEN HE GOT HOME
, his brothers were both in the living room, having coffee and watching the news before bedtime.

They stared at him curiously. “You're back early,” Tank said. “I thought the plan was to fly back in tomorrow.”

“There was an unexpected surprise.”

They both raised eyebrows.

Mallory stuck both hands in the pockets of his dress slacks and glared at them. “Kingston Brannt has a daughter.”

“Oh?” Cane mused with a wicked smile.

“Does he, now?” Tank added. “And you noticed her?”

“It was hard not to,” Mallory snapped. “She worked for us for several weeks.”

There were shocked faces all around.

“Morie?” Cane asked. “She's the daughter of that Brannt?”

“Told you the name wasn't a coincidence, didn't I?” Tank mused. “She had quality and breeding.”

“What the hell was she doing working for wages?” Cane wanted to know.

“She got tired of men wanting to marry her for her money,” Mallory said tersely.

“I can understand that,” Tank agreed.

“So she found a man who was loaded and now she's engaged to him,” Mallory continued in a dull tone. “He's a pretty boy. His father's in the Fortune 500. No gold digging there. And her father likes
him.
”

It was the emphasis on the last word that caught their attention.

“King doesn't like you, I'm assuming,” Cane mused.

“Fat chance. I accused his daughter of theft and fired her,” Mallory said heavily. He took off his jacket, loosened his tie and dropped down into his recliner. “I must have been blind, to think she'd steal from us.”

“You had Gelly helping you think it,” Cane said sourly.

“Gelly was half-hysterical when we left,” Mallory confided. “Morie's father hired a private detective.” He glanced at Cane. “The same one you hired, Dane Lassiter. When he mentioned that, Gelly almost fainted. And there's something else. That friend of hers, Cardman, who wanted to buy our scrubland, he's in the oil business. He does the fracturing process with injection wells to extract
oil. He's being sued in several states for sloppy work that resulted in groundwater contamination.”

“I seem to recall that you were in favor of selling him that land,” Tank commented to Mallory.

“Go ahead, rub it in. I've been a complete idiot,” Mallory grumbled. “No need to feel shy about commenting.”

“Anybody can be fooled by a woman,” Cane said sourly.

“Except me,” Tank said with a grin.

Nobody said anything. It wasn't true. He used to have a fail-safe radar when it came to women. In fact, he'd been the first to suspect that Gelly wasn't what she seemed to be. But his own track record was blemished since his last failed romance.

“What about Morie?” Cane asked.

“What about her?” Mallory returned belligerently.

“Don't try to fool us…we're your family,” Tank replied. “It was obvious that you felt something for her, even if you were fighting it tooth and nail.”

Mallory's dark eyes grew narrow. “Maybe I did. But I'm not marrying into any family that belongs to King Brannt!”

“Ooooh,” Tank murmured drily. “Venomous.”

“Absolutely,” Cane agreed.

“He's bullheaded, uncompromising, acid-
tongued, confrontational, bad-tempered and he has the parlor manners of a rabid moose!”

“So you liked him, then,” Cane replied, nodding and smiling.

“I've never seen a rabid moose,” Tank commented.

“I'll fly you to Texas. You can see for yourself,” Mallory muttered.

“To give the man credit, it would be offensive to have his only daughter charged with theft. And from what I've heard, nobody has a temper the equal of King Brannt's.”

“I gather that you didn't get to meet Cort at the party?” Cane mused.

Mallory frowned. “Who's Cort?”

“Her older brother. If you think King's got a temper, you ain't seen nothing yet,” Cane drawled. “A cattleman made a nasty remark about his conservation practices that he didn't like and he put the man through an antique screen in a restaurant. Police came, arrests were made. Cort just laughed. The cattleman was selling supposedly purebred cattle with bloodlines that were, shall we say, not of the purest. Cort exposed him at the hearing. The charges were dropped, very quickly, and the cattleman did a disappearing act. I hear they're still looking for him.”

“Any cattleman worth his salt can spot a good bull by conformation alone,” Tank scoffed.

“Yes, well, the cattleman was selling his stock to a newcomer from back east who'd just bought a ranch and was buying bulls for his new herd,” he replied. “He was furious when he found out what he'd lost.”

“God help us,” Tank exclaimed. “So the perp skipped and left his pigeon holding the bag. Tragic.”

“Perp? You still talk like a lawman,” Cane remarked.

Tank shrugged. It was painful to remember how he'd been shot up during the border incident. But it was getting easier to live with.

“Sorry,” Cane said gently. “I wasn't trying to bring back bad memories. I forget sometimes.”

Tank smiled. “Me, too. No problem.”

Mallory was listening, but not commenting. He was seeing Morie in her beautiful gown, her black hair upswept, her creamy shoulders on view. He was seeing that handsome yahoo holding her waist and feeling the anger rise in him at the sight. She'd been his, if he'd wanted her. He'd kissed her, held her, touched her. She was innocent. Was she still? Or had she gone rushing into that playboy's bed, full of grief and anguish at Mallory's rejection and distrust?

“Damned pretty boy,” Mallory muttered to himself.

“Excuse me?” Cane replied.

“Morie's fiancé,” he said coldly.

“I'm sure that she only likes him because he's handsome,” Tank said with a wry glance at his brother.

“You can talk,” Mallory said irritably. “Both of you got the looks in the family. I favor our grandfather, God help me. He looked like his face caught fire and somebody put it out with an ax.”

They both practically rolled on the floor laughing.

“Well, we're still stuck with lawsuits drifting in,” Mallory said heavily. “Brannt's going to sue us for defamation of character.”

“He won't,” Cane replied easily. “Morie won't let him. She's got a heart.”

“A big one,” Tank agreed. “She's as innocent as Joe Bascomb.”

Cane was silent. Mallory stared at him pointedly. “You're loyal to your friends. It's one of your finest traits. But Joe beat his father's mule senseless and almost killed it. Have you forgotten that?”

“Joe said it was his dad,” Tank replied tautly.

“There were witnesses, Tank,” Mallory said gently. “His mother was taken to the emergency room around the same time with a fractured arm. The talk was that she tried to stop Joe from beating the mule and he hit her with the tire iron.”

“She said she fell,” Tank replied doggedly.

“You don't want to hear these things, but you
already know that Joe got out of the army on a mental,” Cane reminded him. “He attacked two men in his barracks for making fun of him because he couldn't spell. Put one of them in the hospital.”

“That might all be true, but he could still be innocent of deliberately causing the death of the man who was beating Laura Teasley.”

“I know,” Cane said. “But there's a pattern of violent behavior going back a long way. It came out at the trial. Besides that, Laura testified that Joe already had a grudge against the victim for a blacksmithing job he did and wasn't paid for.”

“We were talking about the Brannts,” Tank said, changing the subject abruptly. “And we still have the problem of who took that egg.”

“The only people who had access to this room were Mavie—and we know she didn't do it—and us. And Gelly,” Cane added quietly.

“That's not quite true, is it, Tank?” Mallory asked suddenly, and with a pointed stare.

Tank glared at him. “Joe was only in here once, just before he was arrested,” he said.

“Tank, he came on the place without even being noticed when he approached Morie at the line cabin,” Mallory reminded him. “He's a woodsman. He can get into and out of anything. He's a locksmith, in addition to being a blacksmith. He can open locks.”

“Isn't it enough that he's being accused of a murder he didn't commit? Do we have to start accusing him of theft, as well?” Tank exclaimed, exasperated. He got up. “I'm going to bed. Arguing gets us nowhere.”

“Me, too,” Cane agreed. He got to his feet. “Dane Lassiter has one of his best detectives up here poking around. He'll dig up something. I'm sure of it.”

“Most of it will probably concern Gelly, I'm afraid,” Tank said with a worried look at Mallory. “I hope you aren't more involved with her than you seem to be.”

“I'm not,” Mallory said heavily. “She was just somebody to take around places.”

“You'd better hope she doesn't come up with a better accusation than the ones she made against Morie and our former cowhand,” Cane told him.

“Like what?” Mallory asked, stunned.

“Maybe she'll turn up pregnant,” Cane said.

Mallory's dark eyes twinkled. “Not by me,” he said. “I'm not that careless.”

“She could lie.”

“Bloodwork would exonerate me,” Mallory said easily. “I was never intimate with her in the first place.”

“Good thing,” Tank said.

“Yes,” Cane agreed.

Mallory didn't mention that there had been a
close call once, just once, after Morie left and he was depressed enough to need comforting. But he hadn't crossed the line with Gelly. So even if she made the charge, he'd be able to refute it. He did worry, though, that she might try to trap him. She wanted money and now she was desperate. He wondered if she might have taken that priceless egg. She did have the opportunity and the motive. It would have to wait for the private detective to iron it out, he supposed.

He went up to bed, his mind still full of Morie's real identity and the picture that he'd carry forever in his heart, of her in that white gown, looking as elegant as a princess and quite at home among the wealthiest cattlemen in the world.

 

A
FEW DAYS LATER, AT ALL
, dark man with long black hair and pale gray eyes, wearing a suit, knocked at the front door.

Mavie let him in and called Mallory, who was the only brother in the house at the moment.

“Ty Harding.” The man introduced himself and shook hands with Mallory. “I work for Dane Lassiter, out of Houston.”

“Come in,” Mallory invited. “Mavie, coffee?”

“Coming right up,” she said, casting a last, smiling glance at the handsome newcomer. Not only was he handsome, he had the physique of
a movie star, tall and muscular without being overtly so.

Harding sat down across from Mallory. “I've finished the investigation.”

“Then you know who took the egg?” Mallory asked at once.

He nodded grimly. “It was sold to a fence in Denver through a third party for ten thousand dollars.”

Mallory gaped at him. “It's worth ten times that!”

“Yes, we know. The fence has been arrested and the egg was confiscated from its new owner. He's pretty upset. He paid a quarter of a million for it. Luckily, the fence hadn't had time to distribute more than a third of the money.”