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“Let me take that for you,” he said gruffly, reaching out for it.
Kai scowled. “I got it.” She glared up at him.
Gently, Gil eased his hands around it. “Let me help you, Kai.”
Her heart twisted and Kai didn’t want him touching her, so she released the box to him. Why was she still so drawn to him? Why? It frustrated the hell out of her. “They’re parts. I need to take them to the green barn.”
“Okay,” Gil said, turning and beginning the walk around the ranch house. “Were you able to get the John Deere parts you needed?”
Kai fell into step with him, keeping plenty of room between them. “No. But I met a really nice guy, Chuck Harper.” Instantly, she saw Gil’s face go hard, and his gaze snapped to hers. He halted abruptly, staring down at her.
“Harper?” he snarled.
Shaken, Kai said, “Well...yes. Why?” She saw blackness in Gil’s eyes and it bothered the hell out of her. “I called Talon Holt about this hours ago,” she began defensively, her chin jutting out. “He gave me permission to use Ace Trucking’s repair facility to make the parts I needed for the tractor. Why?”
Gil compressed his lips, staring at her. “Stay away from the bastard. You hear me?”
The snarl in his voice tore through her. Confused, she muttered, “What are you talking about? The guy was nice. He offered me his facility so I could make the parts I needed for the tractor. Talon approved the payment and I wrote him a check afterward. Why are you looking at me like that?” Her heart rate ramped up and she could feel the sudden tension gathering around Gil. He was acting as if he was about ready to go into a firefight. She’d seen and felt that same kind of energy around Sam anytime he was threatened. Why the hell was Gil threatened by Chuck Harper? Or was he angry at her? Jealous? Either way, Kai felt her stomach knot. Her hands curved against her Levi’s as she stared him down.
Cursing softly, Gil said, “Let’s get these parts to the barn. I’ll fill you in there.”
Kai almost had to run to keep up with his long, swift stride. In no time, Gil had placed the cardboard box on the table where she had her toolbox. He turned, pushing up his Stetson.
“Harper is a bastard,” he growled at her. “Did Talon know who you were dealing with?”
Struck by the ferocity of his words and the way his body had tensed, Kai muttered, “Yes, I told him. Why the hell are you acting like this, Gil? I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“Dammit, I’m not angry at you, Kai.” He took a swipe at his jaw, looking out the barn door as if he was trying to put the right words together. “Where did you meet Harper?”
Scowling, she told him. The look in Gil’s eyes was glittering and she could feel his sudden, almost overwhelming protectiveness cascading around her. She remembered that sense of safety and protection in his arms. He was an operator, and he protected his own. Just as Sam had once protected her. In as few words as possible, she told Gil where she’d met Harper and their subsequent conversation.
“He’s not to be trusted. I don’t care how damned nice he was to you, Kai.”
She stared at him, mouth dropping open. “What is this, Gil? I just saved this ranch a lot of money by arranging to use his facilities to fix that tractor.” She saw him scowl, his game face in place. Kai hated that unreadable expression. She had hated it on Sam, too. Black ops men were screwed up so damned badly in her opinion precisely because they sat on their emotions to do their jobs. And Gil was looking like that right now.
“Harper is a bastard in the finest sense of the word,” he gritted out.
She snorted. “I know a bastard when I see one, Gil.”
The muscles in his jaw ticked. “You’re new to this area, Kai. You don’t know the lay of the land yet. If you don’t trust my assessment of Harper, just go to Gwen Garner at the quilt shop in town. She’ll give you a fair readout on him.”
A little unnerved because she saw something in Gil’s eyes that set her on warning. Was he jealous of Harper? That couldn’t be! Searching his eyes, there was worry in them. For her? Why? Gil didn’t even like her! She was a burr under his saddle by being here. So what was his angle at getting all huffy, protective and upset that Harper had done something decent for the ranch? “When I get time,” she said, turning and walking out of the barn. Let him stew in his own juices. Kai was confused by the raw care burning in his eyes for a second in the barn. There was no way Gil cared for her. No way in hell!
As she quickly walked down the gravel slope, Kai couldn’t contain her emotions. She knew that look in Gil’s eyes. She’d seen it the night before he left her and walked away. The sense of protection had surrounded her as she lay in his arms and he had gently moved several tendrils of her damp hair away from her brow. Kai hadn’t known she could fall so hard for anyone as she did Gil. It had never happened before or after him.
One kiss!
Just that one haunting, searing kiss as his mouth took hers with desperation had turned her world upside down and her life inside out. Her knees had weakened and he’d literally swept her into his arms, holding her tightly against him, ravishing her mouth, his other hand holding the back of her head as he plundered her lips, her heart and her soul. It was as if a lifetime of need and hunger had been built into his one life-changing kiss with her. Kai got in that instant how much he had desired her over the years and, even more poignant, how much he needed her right then. The feeling that washed over her was if he didn’t kiss her right now, he’d die. It was that intense. That soul-rocking. Without thinking, Kai touched her lips with her fingertips, that branding kiss always with her. No man had ever kissed her like Gil Hanford had.
Anguish rose in Kai, tearing at her heart, turning it into bloody ribbons that made her want to gasp because the hurt, the fact that he’d left her, was still too much for her to deal with. She slowed her walk, wrapped in the misery and rejection by him. Kai thought she’d suffered when Sam died. But, in truth, what Gil had done to her was far worse. His kiss had been like a telepathic transmission to every possible level of herself. As he had taken her into his arms, capturing her against his tall, strong body, the scent of sweat and dust stinging her nostrils, she’d felt a man in such utter distress and sheer need of her alone. And her heart had opened fully to him, trusting him with herself. She had given. And he had taken.
End of story.
It hurt to breathe for a moment as Kai pushed herself to walk toward the ranch house. It was almost dinnertime. She needed to take a shower and change into some clean clothes beforehand. Unable to shake off that shield that surrounded her, Gil’s protectiveness, she made a noise in her throat, disgusted with herself. How her stupid, blind heart could react to his look of concern for her made her angry and confused.
* * *
GIL TRIED TO ignore that Kai wore a pale pink blouse and loose white trousers to dinner. Her hair had been recently washed, the gold strands gleaming among the burgundy beneath the light above the table. He heard people talking, some laughing, but none of it really registered. His heart ached so damned bad he didn’t know what to do to stop it. Maybe kiss her. Yeah, he wanted to kiss the hell out of Kai.
He covertly watched as she nibbled disinterestedly at the homemade lasagna Cass had made for them tonight. The scent of garlic and butter on the French bread complemented the meal. Her mouth was one of the most delicious parts of her body and Gil could feel his lower body stirring in memory. She had kissed him so passionately, giving her heart, her trust, to him without question. His brows drew down. Four years later he was seeing the results of how his life had screwed both of them over. Kai was more beautiful, more mature, than before. And she hated him.
From Gil’s perspective it was obvious Cat and Kai were going to become close friends. They smiled and laughed often as they chatted. Sandy was looking a bit better, he supposed, because Cass was like a harpy eagle getting her to eat protein, and the nutrition was working. Sandy’s dark hair was usually thin and hanging around her nape, but tonight it was pretty. He wondered if Cat had fixed her hair. Sandy was a beautiful woman and he secretly envied Cass because Gil knew the man was attracted to her. But Sandy seemed to be unaware. Or maybe she was ignoring Cass? Like Kai ignored him?
After dinner, the table cleared, Talon asked Gil, Kai and Cass to remain. Cat brought over fresh cups of coffee for everyone and then retired to the living room with Sandy to watch the news on television.
Talon brought over the notes Kai had made and laid them out in front of himself. He glanced across the table at her. “This is pretty remarkable, Kai. You’ve cut the repair bill in half on the tractor.”
Kai felt heat in her cheeks. “Thanks, Talon.”
Gil growled, “It might save us money, but I don’t like Kai being around the likes of Harper.”
Talon nodded. “Yeah, this isn’t the best of all worlds,” he agreed. Giving Kai a look of concern, he said, “Did Harper bother you while you were over at his place?”
“No. He introduced me to his repair boss, José, and I never saw him again.”
“I don’t like it,” Gil muttered, giving Talon a hard look.
Kai shook her head. “What is everyone talking over my head about?” She gave Talon a frustrated look.
Cass, who sat next to her, said, “Harper is a woman chaser, Kai. He’s got a seriously bad reputation in town.”
“He didn’t come on to me. He overheard me talking to Joe at the John Deere place.” Kai saw Gil give her a look of disbelief, but he kept his mouth shut, his large, callused hands clasped tightly on the table.
Talon moved his fingers through his short hair. He stared at the bill. “She’s saved us a helluva lot of money. And every penny counts.”
“Not at her expense, it doesn’t,” Gil growled in warning, looking each man in the eyes.
Kai’s skin ruffled beneath his growl. He sounded like a pissed-off grizzly. She refused to look at him, again feeling that intense sense of protection suddenly blanketing her. It almost felt as if he was staking or claiming her! Thinking she was imagining things, she said quietly, “Look, I’m twenty-nine years old. I can take care of myself. We need that machinery shop that Harper’s got. He said I could come back at any time if I wanted to rebuild something. He’d charge me a fair-market price.” She gave Talon a pleading look. “I only got two pieces of machinery fully vetted today. There’s eight more pieces of equipment out there. And I think you can tell from how much repair has to be done to bring that tractor and baler back to life we need what Harper is offering us. I think it was nice of him to do it.”
Talon frowned.
Cass moved uncomfortably around in the chair, his gaze moving to Gil.
Gil’s mouth flattened, his knuckles whitening as he looked at Talon, waiting for an answer.
Studying the list, Talon rubbed his brow as if he had a headache coming on. He studied Kai. “Okay, judging from what you saw and did today, do you think the other pieces of equipment need as much rebuilding?”
“I haven’t really done any kind of inspection to honestly answer that, Talon.” Kai opened her hands. “But just seeing these two, the amount of rust, the amount of metalwork and welding it will take to replace badly rusted areas, yes, I think it’s going to be a pretty good estimate of what’s to come.”
“And you work with metal?”
“Of course,” Kai said. “If we had to replace a fender or some metal skin that took a bullet hole in an Apache, it was up to us to fix it. I’m good at welding, Talon. I’m qualified in specialty metals. I can do all this for you. But I need a good machine shop to do it in. And Harper runs a clean place and he’s got all the latest equipment to make my job easy and fast.”
Talon glanced at Gil. “Is Harper the only game in town?”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“And the next closest machine shop would be Idaho Falls, Idaho. That’s a six-hour round-trip and that doesn’t account for the time Kai would have to spend at a machine shop,” Talon said.
“I know for a fact what he charged us today is about one-third less than what a regular machine shop would charge us,” Kai pointed out.
“Cass?” Talon held up the paper toward him. “Have you seen this yet?”
“No,” he said, taking the papers and quickly parsing the numbers. His brows moved up. “Well,” he murmured, looking at Talon, “Kai is right—these numbers are lower than normal.”
“Because Harper wants something in return from you, Kai,” Gil ground out.
All heads turned toward him.
There was no mistaking Gil’s words or his barely closeted anger. Kai shook her head. “I think all of you are going overboard,” she stated flatly. “Harper did not accost me this afternoon. I worked with José. I never saw him again.” She saw Gil grit his teeth. The man was jealous as hell.
Cass sat there scribbling some numbers on the back of one of her notebook pages. “Boss? If we assume each piece of equipment is going to need this kind of do-over, then we’ll easily save one-half of what was going to be spent on those repairs. That’s a considerable sum when you look at the totals here.”
Kai couldn’t stand being near Gil anymore. He felt like a nuclear power engine that was about ready to explode. “Look, Talon, when you guys figure out what you want to do, let me know? I’m tired and I’m going to bed. Good night...”
* * *
GIL WATCHED KAI walk away, the soft sway of her hips reminding him starkly of far too much from their past. He swung his head toward Talon. “You cannot let her do this. You know Harper is into the sex-trafficking trade and drugs. There are two women he was dating and both are gone. Disappeared without a trace. Do you want to guess where they probably ended up? In some Eastern European slave trader’s hideaway to be sold to the highest bidder.”
Talon held up his hand. “Look, I’m aware of the gossip about Harper. No one’s proved anything, Gil. At least—” he sighed “—not yet.”
“What if one of us went with her?” Cass asked, giving the two men an inquiring look.
Talon’s mouth quirked. “Like any of us have time to babysit her for fear Harper will steal and sell her?”
“Look,” Cass said reasonably, opening his hands, “why not go talk to law enforcement? The sheriff’s office is in town. Talon? You could swing by—”
“I’ll do it,” Gil muttered. “No one is handling this except me.” He gave Talon a look of warning.
Shrugging, Talon said, “Fine by me. I’ll tell Kai to not go back there until you’ve talked to the sheriff’s department about Harper.”
Gil rose. “She needs to be protected from that bastard,” he growled, and left.
Cass gave Talon an amused look. “Did I miss something here? Or did your SEAL nose catch it, too?”
“What?” Talon asked.
Cass sat back in the chair, rocking it on its two hind legs, hands resting on his thick thighs. “I might be wrong about this, but I sure think there’s something simmering between Kai and Gil. Did you pick up on it?”
“No,” he muttered, rubbing his face. “I’m so damned busy trying to coordinate everything else, I’m probably missing a lot.”
Cass smiled a little. “She’s a pretty lady. I’m surprised she’s single.”
Talon shook his head. “She was married to a Delta Force operator for three years until he got killed in a firefight.”
Brows drawing down, Cass said, “Yeah, she told me earlier about it. Probably why she’s still single.”
“Well,” Talon said, standing, “I wonder if Gil knew her husband. Maybe there’s a connection there you’re picking up on.”
Cass grinned a little as he rose. “What I felt was definitely interest on Gil’s part toward her. He’s like a nighthawk around her.”
Talon shook his head. “A nighthawk is the wrangler who protects the herd during the night from all kinds of danger. Gil is protective of Kai. You have eyes in the back of your head, Cass. You always did.”
Giving him a wicked look, Cass slid the chair up to the table. “Yes, and I can count how many times we saved your sorry ass out on an op, too, because of it.”
A sour grin edged Talon’s mouth. “Can’t deny it, bro. I’m going to spend some time with my mother and then I’m hitting the sack.”
“Yeah,” Cass grumped good-naturedly. “All I have to look forward to is swimming in red and black numbers in my office for a couple of hours now.”
Talon looked over his shoulder. “Better be more black than red,” he warned him.
“Doin’ my best, boss,” Cass teased. “We’re slowly eking toward the healthy side of the business ledger. Rebuilding an empire takes time.”
CHAPTER SIX (#ulink_260d05a5-cc11-53d7-a2b9-a879354192ee)
TALON HOLT SAT with Gil in his office at the main ranch house. Both were grim. Talon said, “Look, we know that Chuck Harper is being watched by the FBI and ATF for drug running. So far, no one has caught him at it.” Pushing his fingers through his dark hair, he added, “Deputy Sheriff Cade Garner is someone I trust, Gil. You haven’t been here long enough to know that, but if he suggests that someone escort Kai over to the Ace Trucking machine shop, we need to do it.”
“You won’t get any argument out of me,” Gil said, feeling relief start to trickle through him. He would talk to Garner soon. Until then, Gil had made a decision that someone would always be with Kai over at Harper’s machine shop. He had her back. “It’s going to be a balancing act. Needs at the ranch versus needs of machinery being available so we can use it. Right now, I need a horse trailer. And we don’t have one that’s safe enough to use.” He saw his boss sit back in his chair, nodding. “You need to tell me what repair should be first.”
“On another issue, we need to buy a horse for Kai,” Talon said. “Slade McPherson, Griff’s twin brother, owns an endurance-racing horse ranch on the other side of Jackson Hole. Cass has allotted us fifteen hundred dollars for the animal. Can you take Kai over after setting an appointment up with Slade? Let her see what’s available and then you need to get him to agree to our money limit.”
Gil had never met Slade McPherson, but he knew his twin, Griff, who he respected and admired. The man had an MBA, along with horse sense and hard work combined. He was bringing the Bar H back to life. “I’ll see what I can do.” He knew the worth of the horses he had bred and trained.
“Then,” Talon said, talking more to himself as he looked up at the copper ceiling that had been imprinted with hundred-year-old patterns from the past, “get Kai to look over all the equipment. Have her make up a complete repair list. Tell her the double-wide horse trailer has to supersede the tractor for now. If push comes to shove, we can always ask Slade to deliver the horse here and he will. But we need that trailer as bad as we need the tractor.”
“And who do you want to go with her to Ace Trucking?” Gil wanted it to be him. He saw his boss’s expression pinch.
“Whoever is available at the time. Hell, it will be Cass, you or me. Any way you cut it, she’s got a black ops guy at her side. I don’t think Harper will try anything.”
“You want us to pack a weapon?”
Talon nodded. “We all have a license to carry a concealed weapon. I don’t trust Harper. At all. But I sure as hell like the prices he’s giving Kai. If we don’t use his services, that means we’re wasting a day driving to and from, plus, if Kai can’t finish everything off at another machine shop in Idaho Falls, we have to pay for her food and hotel bill. And we’re paying one-third more in costs. It mounts up in a hurry.”
Gil understood Talon’s position. He knew from his own father always battling the accounting ledger that keeping a ranch in the black was the toughest thing to do in the world. And right now, the Triple H was in the red. Cass had a good, solid plan for the ranch, but it was slow going. Rome wasn’t built in a day, he reminded himself. So Talon was going to be damned conservative, and Gil didn’t blame his boss for wanting to use a nearby facility and save money while he was at it. He just didn’t want to put Kai at risk. But neither did Talon. Gil could see he was morally wrestling with the situation. In one way he knew he was putting Kai in a potentially dangerous situation. On the other hand, all three of them were well-trained operators and would be packing a weapon in case shit happened.
“Do you think Harper would try anything while she was in his facility?” Gil wondered.
“No, I don’t. And that’s the only reason I’m willing to even consider this idea. Harper is known to be very low-key. He doesn’t want trouble. There’s been enough of it of late and Cade thinks that he knows the FBI is following him. He employs only Latino workers. Cade thinks most of them are illegals. But the other agencies that usually swoop down and find them are pulling back. The FBI is trying to insert someone into the trucking company, but they know Harper is watching closely.”
