Chapter Nineteen
Cassie prayed that whoever was at the door would disappear. She needed more time with Jase. Time to figure out a real plan, one that didn’t involve him shutting her out for God knew how long. She wasn’t down with that plan.
And she needed time to process all the things he’d said to her—things no man had ever uttered in her presence. She wanted to savor them and explore her own deepening feelings.
But the universe had different ideas.
Her heart sank when Jase finally swung open the door. Clint’s gaze swept over her rumpled clothes, puffy eyes, and sex-tousled hair. And he didn’t look happy. What a surprise.
“More bodies,” Clint said.
Something dark crossed Jase’s face. “Tell me,” he said, beckoning his brother in.
“Nonhuman at least.” Clint strode across the threshold like he owned the damn place. “A few dead cows in the east pasture,” he finished, scowling her way.
So, um, this was her fault somehow? That’s what the look said. And she was in no mood. Her man had just told her he loved her and that she couldn’t be with him. So yeah, Clint needed to watch what he said or she might unload on both of them.
“Those symbols he carves into them…fuck. I don’t know what the hell they mean, but it isn’t good, man. It means he’s watching. He’s seeing all this.” Clint made a stirring motion with his finger, and she glared harder. She might be stirring up shit, but this thing had been brewing for a long time. And from the looks of it, all hell was about to bubble over into Jase’s pristine living room. “He’s here, Jase, but why haven’t I seen him? Where’s he hiding?”
Clint was becoming agitated, and she was again reminded of the nickname she’d given him. Welcome to the party, Big Scary Cowboy.
“Why are you here?” Jase asked his brother.
Clint grimaced like it hurt to talk suddenly. “I’ve lost enough to this bullshit already. Almost lost you.” He shook his head solemnly. “I’m done. It’s time to mend fences, make them strong, keep out motherfuckers who don’t belong.”
“What do you want to do?” Jase asked quietly.
Clint’s eyes settled on hers, searching, measuring. Seemed the coyote had snatched someone’s tongue. Well, she had questions of her own, and she wasn’t going anywhere without them. “He killed your father,” she said. “Do you think he killed Culberson…Neely?”
“More than likely,” Jase answered when Clint didn’t. “When Culberson died, it sounded like a freak accident. Men drown in their ponds. Not often, but it happens. When Neely died ten days or so later? Same manner?” Jase shook his head. “Too much of a coincidence. Then Slick started interviewing the neighbors, let on that the victims hadn’t just drowned, they’d been drowned. Guess that’s when Willoughby took off.”
“Which was right around the time you torched the house,” Clint said.
“Yeah, I burned it down,” Jase said. “Saw red when I walked in and found it set up.”
Clint made an irritated sound. “Our little problems aside, that place had historical value. It—”
Jase cut him off. “That’s beside the point now. Bottom line is Oscar’s looking to expand, and I think he’s running into resistance from the neighbors.”
Clint nodded. “Before he took off, Willoughby said he was approached by a man looking to do some business on his property. When he found out what kind of business, he wasn’t interested. Same thing must’ve happened with Culberson and Neely.”
“So he removed them from the picture,” she said. Her stomach roiled, and she turned to Clint. “Did you know he was buying the Neely place?”
“What?”
“It’s true,” Jase said, glancing at Clint, who’d gone full-on BSC.
“His alias is Coy Martin,” she said. “Ever heard of him?”
“Coy Martin?” Clint snickered. “Real fucking original.”
“What has Oscar said to you over the past month?” Cassie asked. “He didn’t mention buying land? Expanding? Didn’t recruit you to convince the neighbors to comply?”
“Is that what you think?”
She shook her head. “I have no idea what to think right now other than you’ve been working with him.” And that was the God’s honest truth. Her mind was a jumbled mess, and she wished they could get to the bottom of Clint’s visit so she could sort her shit with Jase.
“Working with him?” Clint surged forward. “Working with him? Let me tell you about my work. I’ve been working to keep your man—my brother—alive.”
Jase met him with a speed Cassie hadn’t thought him capable of healed. “What are you talking about?” he demanded.
“You think our neighbors are the first people Oscar’s threatened? He threatened your life when you were just a kid! He’s been doing it ever since.”
The brothers faced off, nose to nose, just like they had that night in Jase’s camper. This time anger didn’t drive the confrontation, desperation did. And it looked like Jase had more issues to sort through than hers.
“What are you saying?”
“Do I need to spell it out?” Clint snapped.
“Yeah, I’m going to need you to do that.”
Clint spoke slowly. “Oscar threatened to kill you if Dad didn’t comply.”
“Then why’s Dad the one dead?”
“Because he sacrificed himself. And a lot of good it did him. Oscar reiterated the threat to you before Dad was even in the ground.”
“Why did he come to you?” Jase asked.
“Because he hates snakes,” Clint said. “And you’ve got a big-ass viper on your back. He’s superstitious or something, I don’t know—”
“How does he know that?”
“You think he doesn’t know everything about you?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t lose you, too,” Clint said. “It was easier this way.”
“It’s never easier alone.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t have a band of fucking brothers or whatever.”
Jase held his brother’s stare for a few hard seconds then turned to her. His expression never changed. He didn’t soften for her at all. “I need to know how Oscar operates.”
He wasn’t asking the question of her, but she knew it concerned her. Thus their little chat earlier.
“He leaves a new phone every so often,” Clint said. “Texts me shit, like the date he expects to need the house, where he’s gonna drop the money. We don’t talk. I stay as far away from the bastard as I can.”
Something was still niggling her. “What does any of this have to do with oil and gas leases?” she asked.
Clint looked at her like she was stupid. “I didn’t want anybody stumbling on anything that would get them in trouble.”
So Clint had a heart. He’d already proven it several times, but Cassie now felt her own opening to him. Just a crack. That didn’t change the fact that she still had a few questions. “All three neighbors were holdouts, too,” she said. “That is, until Reid came along. You agreed to a lease with him.”
“I didn’t agree.”
“You said he’s a man you can work with.”
“He’s a sleazeball. I figured I could keep him in my back pocket. If I decided to do the lease? Maybe I could work something out with him, buy his silence, so to speak, work around Oscar’s schedule. I don’t know, just knew Reid was shady, and that was good for me. Other than that, I don’t know what the leases have to do with anything. Maybe Oscar was putting pressure on the neighbors to make sure no one else had access to their property.”
“Why not just go to the police?” she asked. Jase and Clint snickered in unison. “Yeah, I get it. I mean higher up. Texas Rangers. Federal. Jase, you have to have connections.”
“The man killed our father,” Clint said, grinding his teeth.
“And?” she replied. “You want Oscar’s filthy blood on your hands?”
She’d thrown down the gauntlet, but it had to be thrown. This had to end. Jase and Clint locked eyes, and Cassie’s heart pounded into the dread silence. She knew what ranchers did when faced with a coyote problem. She also knew Jase was a trained sniper. Oh God. They couldn’t…they wouldn’t….
Would they?
Jase shook his head. “Maybe she’s right, Clint. We’ve been playing this game way too long. Like I told you before, something has to change. I think—” He went completely still. “What the hell is that?”
“What?” she asked, confused.
Clint went for the front door. “Glass breaking.”
Okay, either her hearing sucked or the Lucas boys had an owl for a mother.
“Daphne.”
She heard that loud and clear. Thanks, Clint.
“It’s just her.” Clint wrenched the door open and pounded down the wooden steps.
And wasn’t this just the deranged cherry on top of the messiest mess ever? She wasn’t sure she could face the woman right now, but she sure wasn’t going to let Jase do it by himself.
“Oh, hell no,” she said when she reached the front deck, a step behind Jase.
Shattered glass covered the driveway next to her rental truck. The driver’s side window had been completely smashed. And Daphne…
She stood on the lawn, halfway between the truck and a beat-to-hell blue Mustang, which was parked at the curb. Actually, it was kind of parked on the curb. But that wasn’t the only thing off.
Daphne wore a pair of cutoffs and a bordering-on-sheer black T-shirt. Sexy, right? Except for the seething rage contorting her beautiful face. Seething. Hands fisted, shoulders hunched, and hard breaths hissed through perfect, clenched teeth. There was spittle flying, too. Fortunately, Cassie wasn’t close enough to get sprayed.
“Jesus,” she whispered. Her stomach writhed and twisted from Jase’s recent revelations about the woman who’d come for him. Or her. God only knew.
“You’re sleeping with both of them now?” Daphne screamed up at her.
Because she’d been alone in a house with two men? Maybe in 1864 that would have been scandalous, but the only thing scandalous at present was Daphne screaming her accusations on Jase’s front lawn.
The man himself stood at Cassie’s side on the deck. “You need to go,” he called down. “Now.”
Um, yeah. Try again, buddy, this bitch isn’t moving.
“I’m not leaving until you tell her about us!” Daphne screamed, louder than before. Luckily, most of the neighboring houses only held occupants on weekends.
“Tell her!”
Jase took a step forward and Cassie let him go with reluctance, not sure she wanted to hear a damn thing more about the two of them, delusional or not. But Jase didn’t just go; he started hopping down the steps. Cassie was halfway to his side when Clint left her truck, anger and concern marring his handsome face as he headed their way.
“There is no us.” Jase planted one foot and then the other on the lawn, and Cassie winced watching it, knowing she’d put him through more physical exertion than was necessary earlier. “When are you going to get that?”
“No us?” Daphne laughed, and her shirt rode up, revealing a very taut midriff. Then she fixed her emerald eyes on Cassie. “Did you ask him? About the last time we were together?”
Was she really doing this in Jase’s front yard?
“Daphne.” Jase bellowed, taking another step toward her. Clint shot an arm out to restrain his brother and whispered something in his ear.
Daphne looked past Jase, her smirk directed at Cassie even though she spoke to the man they both wanted. “Last time I was in town.” Daphne placed her hands on her slim hips. “It’s been about two months ago now. That’s a long time for us to go, isn’t it?”
Founded or not, jealousy reared its vicious head. And that sickening twist deep in her belly? It formed a tight, heavy knot, stealing her breath and screwing her gut into nausea.
“Daphne, please,” Jase said. He’d been hard-nosed with her, despite her condition. But something different happened now, and he…softened. “I’m not telling you again.”
If the woman perceived any change in Jase’s tone it wasn’t evident. “Tell her! Tell Miss Priss over there that you like it dirty. Tell her how hard you come for me!”
Jase knocked his brother’s arm out of his way, and his expression gentled further as he approached Daphne.
“Can she fuck you like I can, baby?” the woman purred.
“You don’t have to go there.” Jase’s voice was so low Cassie had to strain to hear him.
Daphne’s eyes were glassy, she was swaying back and forth, and her next words sounded younger, higher-pitched and whiny. “Whatever she can do, I can do too.”
“There’s a lot you can do, Daphne.” God, what was he doing? Saying? She could only hear about every other word.
“I can,” she insisted. “I can try. I didn’t know what I had, and now it’s been stolen—”
“We can get you some help with that, Daphne. Like last time, remember?”
Cassie wished he’d stop repeating her name like that, so soft and gentle, even as he laid out some hard truths. She suspected why he did it, but it was exactly the way he’d spoken to her when he said he loved her and would leave her.
“I don’t need help,” Daphne spat.
“Cody needs you.”
“Cody…” Daphne’s face went blank. Blank. She fell to her knees and stared hard at the grass, unblinking. “Jase…”
Cassie wanted to tear her disbelieving gaze from the scene before her. She’d never forget it, as much as she wanted to, but she couldn’t look away when Jase bent to his good knee beside a very, very sick Daphne. “We’re going to call Slick now. He’ll come get you.”
“Yeah, call Slick. He’ll come. He likes to take care of me. You’ll always take care of me, too, won’t you?” Daphne’s voice was whisper-light and heartbreakingly sweet. And her eyes…Cassie had never seen an adult look so innocent. Chills shot down her spine. It was just like the last time she’d seen Daphne change. But this…this took the cake—took it and smashed it, turning Daphne’s beauty into something insidious beyond imagining.
Clint knelt in the grass beside Jase. “What did you take?”
“Ye-ah,” she sing-songed.
Oh God.
“Call him,” Jase said.
Hell, call Oscar, too. It didn’t matter who was coming. This was never going to end. Things like this never did, not well.
Clint patted Daphne on the shoulder then stood and drew his phone from his pocket. Daphne looked up at Jase, just like a toddler might look up at the Easter Bunny, full of wonder. “He’s going to kill you.” She giggled.
Cassie gripped the stair rail to keep from folding at the waist.
“He’s going to kill you,” she said in a high, sweet voice. “Her, too, if I ask him.”
More giggling.
Jase looked helpless as his body rocked forward and his knee hit the grass. He grimaced, fisting a clump of turf between his fingers, and tried to straighten. Whatever this was or wasn’t between him and Daphne, it affected Jase in a way that made her blink, unsure she was truly seeing this. Daphne was in love with Jase, had betrayed him with Oscar, and he…he swept an arm around her shoulder. He cradled her and let her hold him up. He smoothed her hair and murmured things Cassie didn’t want to hear.
What she felt now wasn’t jealousy; it was something much, much darker.
No.
No way…
This was insane.
She scrambled up the stairs and into the house. Her roiling stomach and shaking legs told her she’d never make it upstairs. Instead, she wheeled for the downstairs bathroom, slammed the door shut, and collapsed.
She wrapped her arms around her stomach and bent forward, head on the floor. She cried silently, her body shaking but eliciting no sound.
She was losing her mind. It happened. Why else was she curled on Jase’s bathroom rug, shaking? And why did part of her suddenly want to run outside and hug Daphne, too?
“Cassie…baby…” As Jase whispered in her ear, she realized she stood on her own two feet, Jase’s arms clasped tight around her trembling body.
He must have followed her. He’d pulled her up and hugged her tight, just like he’d done—
No. No.
“You know I can’t carry you up those stairs,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t try.”
“Your leg,” she whispered.
“So you’re gonna walk?”
She nodded, sure now she was simply having some kind of episode. Enough mental stress can do that to a person, right? Gaping shark mouths and oyster reefs with razor-sharp teeth, beautiful, wicked faeries and one-eyed coyotes. It was the stuff of nightmares. And Jase, the hero, well, he just wanted to make it better for everyone. Yes, Jase would take care of her, just like he took care of Daphne. He was good at that. He was made for that shit. Convinced that in short order she’d awake to her old apartment in Houston, or better yet, her childhood bedroom in Nacogdoches, she followed Jase out of the bathroom.
The front door flew open. Jase straightened and turned, a human blockade against—
The brick slammed into Cassie’s shoulder. Oh—a sharp edge grazed her jaw, and she spun backward, hitting the floor—fuck.
Somewhere over Jase’s shoulder, Clint roared amidst the sounds of a scuffle. She heard everything, but she couldn’t feel anything, including her legs. Weak and weightless, she gathered them beneath her, belatedly noticing the blood dripping into the hardwood. She’d just been hit with a brick and all she felt was numb. And yet…
She’d been knocked out of dream world.
“Let me go!” Daphne screamed. “I’ll kill her myself!”
Yeah, this shit was really happening.
“You don’t have to,” she heard Jase say. His hand, his help…they were nowhere in sight.
Clint straddled a thrashing Daphne atop the rug in the foyer. “What did she do to you?” he bellowed, holding tight to her arms, which he’d pinned to the ground on either side of her head.
“She stole him!” Daphne screamed, whipping her head back and forth.
“I’m sorry,” Clint panted, tilting his eyes to his brother. “She seemed…resigned. I walked to my truck to call Slick. Next thing I know, she’s running up the deck, carrying a landscaping brick. Went through the front door before I could stop her.”
Jase glanced at Cassie before bending over Daphne. “You know I almost killed a man for throwing a brick once. I’ve learned to control my emotions since then.” He searched for something in her face Cassie couldn’t see. “You’ve got to try, Daphne.”
Mascara ran down the woman’s face. “Do it. Hit me back. At least then I’ll feel something from you. Do it. Make me feel something, you bastard!”
Jase just shook his head, and Cassie clamped a shaking hand over her bleeding jaw as Daphne pleaded, over and over before dissolving into racking sobs and then whimpers.
What a mess.
“Throw her in her car until Slick gets here, Clint.” Jase looked down at Daphne again. “You know as well as I do he’s going clean this up for you. You’re damn lucky Slick’s your blood or you’d be going to jail, but then so would I. And as fun as that sounds, I don’t have the time to deal with the extra helping of bullshit right now.”
Cassie’s inner crazy lady, the one she knew was there now, threw her head back, laughing, and with startling clarity, she realized everyone had a touch of madness, their behaviors unexplainable, contradictory, immature. Her, Jase, Clint. All of them were crazy. The whole county was crazy, which made it not crazy that Daphne was related to the law. Why else would Slick leave his precinct for this? And if Mr. Deputy was willing to go off the grid to clean up a Daphne disaster, how far would he go to clean up something involving, say, a Mexican drug cartel? Slick was crazy, too. No wonder he’d made such a point of showing up at her motel, warning her away from the Lucas property. And no wonder Jase handled his own shit.
Mess? This wasn’t a mess. It was a fucking disaster.
“She won’t get back in,” Clint said, hefting Daphne over his shoulder and standing, all in one motion.
The door slammed behind them, and Jase returned. His eyes roamed Cassie’s scraped shoulder and bleeding jaw. “What did I tell you?”
Which damn time?
I need you home.
It’s not forever.
I’m in love with you, Cassie.
I want to give you everything, lay the world at your feet.
You’re not supposed to be afraid of anything.
Jase leaned down, his face inches from hers. “Why are you still here?”
Her jaw trembled, and tears flooded her eyes. She heard him through the haze of hurt but couldn’t respond. Why are you still here? It blended in with the rest, a steady contradiction eating away at her mind. Fingers swiped her wet face, and she wrenched her head away. “Look at me, Cassie.”
She couldn’t.
“Fine. Now you know.”
“What?” she asked, trying to keep her bleeding jaw from staining his floor.
“Obviously Daphne and I have some unfinished business.”
“You’re going to use that?” she asked in utter disbelief. It was obviously a bullshit way of kicking her to the curb once again. It still hurt.
“I’m going to use whatever it takes,” he said. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m—”
“Not the only one I love involved in this.”
Unless he was talking about Clint, she was calling BS again and laughed out loud this time. “You can’t be serious, not after what you said to me, not after—”
“Men say whatever they need to get what they want. Don’t you know that by now?”
The bastard. He was lying and it was low, but it hit some mark, maybe the one he’d been looking for. She’d been cheated on too many times, and even the hint of it from Jase came close to destroying her.
“There’s got to be a better way to do this,” she said.
He reached his hand toward her face, where fresh tears coursed down her cheeks and stung her scraped flesh, but he stopped suddenly and swiped a hand through his hair. “So let’s do this then. I have twenty thousand dollars in the safe in my room. That’s what? A few months’ pay for you. You don’t need to be here anymore. And I won’t miss it.” Or you, he wanted her to believe.
“You can’t be serious.”
He shrugged, looking at the cut on her face instead of at her. “You were worth it.”
“So now I’m a whore?”
“First thing I thought when I saw you. Why not now?”
“Oh, so we are role-playing. Okay, so you’re the cheating boyfriend, and I’ll be the dumb girl who’s had every clue dropped in her lap but still won’t get the hint. Because that’s better than admitting you’re scared and need help. You could have it from me, from law enforcement… God, Jase, you’re military. Wait, I’m breaking character. See if this is better for you…” She held her hand up as if she needed a moment to compose her features.
Jase circled her wrist and yanked her to him. “That’s cute and all, but did you ever stop to think maybe this isn’t about you? That maybe I need to get some things straight with my brother? With Daphne? How many ways do I have to say I don’t need you here? You’re just complicating things.”
“You said you loved me.” It felt like clawing at sand.
“Is that when you put someone else before yourself no matter how much it hurts? When you’re willing to give your life so they can have one?” He stared down at her for so long, her body decided to make some more tears, and she knew she had to pull away on her own, to run down the steps and go, away from this madness. He was right. He didn’t need her.
Her mother did.
Jase’s forehead met hers. “Maybe I don’t know what love is then.” His heart beat wildly against hers, and she heard the raw edge in his breath and had to draw her lips in to keep the hiccup down. “Just take the money.”
Fuck you, Jase.
She smashed her lips to his, seeking whatever he’d give before it all just faded. He threaded his hands through her hair and pulled her roughly against him. The kiss hurt in every way imaginable. They savaged each other so violently she tasted blood. Whether his or hers she couldn’t say, but it stayed with her.
It stayed with her for miles and miles, until she finally pulled over somewhere outside Houston to wipe him off her lips and tend to her face in a truck-stop bathroom. She’d wanted him to see the marks on her body as she’d packed, to know they were nothing compared to what she’d endure for him.
He hadn’t cared.
Staring at the haggard reflection trembling back at her in the mirror, Cassie felt the cold, hard weight of what she’d done. She’d left her job, her man, her mother’s future and her own, stopping only long enough to ditch the busted rental and pick up her car, which had been ready for two days. Thanks for calling, Randy.
She wavered at the sink, suspended, no longer in full flight-mode yet not far enough away.
Some eighty miles to the southeast, Marian lay heavy at her back. Hesitation pulled at her gut. But it was an empty, hollow feeling, like a black curtain had descended over the county line, the welcome mat rolled up and thrown into the dark river. The only light shined ahead now, over miles she wanted to make before dark. She sucked up whatever that was hanging out of her nose and washed her hands one last time.
“You can do this lone warrior or whatever bullshit but it won’t bring you peace,” she told him as he stood on the deck, watching her scoop glass out of her driver seat. She stopped and turned. “One thing I’ve learned about love? The hard stuff? You do it together.” And she’d be back in the pines by six if she made good time. She had someone else, too. Someone who wanted her there.
“Maybe I never loved you then,” he said. “Cause this? This is a piece of cake.”
She yanked a brown paper towel out of the dispenser.
Piece of cake. Huh. Maybe they had some Little fucking Debbies in the store outside.
It was going to take a hell of a lot more than that to fill the void.
But it was a start.