Travis

Christine’s laugh rang across the bar and slammed into me at the door. My steps faltered briefly when I saw the sheriff holding her hand and pressing a kiss to her palm.

“DC, I heard you went to the dark side,” I said from the end of the bar, stemming the prick of jealousy.

Recognition took a few seconds. Then my old friend was crossing the distance between them. “And I heard you went to the hot side.” DC clapped me on the shoulder. “Welcome home, man.”

“I was just at your office,” I said in a voice meant only for DC to hear. “Got something I need to show you but…” My eyes slid toward Christine as she approached.

DC caught the signal and gave a sharp nod. “I was just about to order some lunch. Why don’t you join me?”

“What can I get you two?” Christine slid a menu in front of DC with a smile. She slapped one in front of me with a little more force.

Startled, I shifted my eyes in her direction. Anyone else might have missed it, the hint of some indefinable emotion in her eyes; anger or fear or sadness? Or doubt? She covered well, but her eyes mirrored something troubling inside. Not even her perfect makeup covered the deep shadows beneath her eyes, which looked like they hadn’t known any more sleep the previous night than I had. My conversation with the sheriff would have to wait.

Glancing over at DC, I answered, “How about a table for three and your company for lunch?”

Christine stiffened and I thought she might refuse. Finally she shrugged and set another place. She didn’t talk much through the meal and I found myself giving responses of one or two words to my old friend, as I tried to pin down the emotions that occasionally played across Christine’s face.

We were midway through the meal when DC received a call from his office.

“That’s just great!” He slid his cell phone back into his pocket. “Someone went and started a fire at Lantree’s Lumber.” Standing, he took the last bite of his hamburger. “I gotta go.”

When he reached for his wallet, Christine waved him off. “You know your money’s no good in here. Now go save the world!”

I watched her with a narrowed gaze. That was her first honest laugh since I’d arrived. And it didn’t last long.

“You’re paying the sheriff off with free meals?”

Guileless blue eyes began to twinkle again. “Of course!”

She was coming back, I thought, but wasn’t quite there yet. Reaching over the table, I took one of her hands in mine. “Hey, you,” I said softly. “I missed you last night. It took me less than a mile to wish I’d stayed.”

Again a flicker of trouble floated back into her eyes, but it was gone too quickly for me to discern what it was. She said nothing, merely sighed and averted her face.

The door opened behind her and Christine jerked, nearly knocking her drink from the table.

“Sorry I’m late,” Sissy apologized. She breezed through to the kitchen without waiting for a response.

“Okay, what’s up? You’re jumpy.” My eyes swept over the body she had wrapped beneath layers of baggy clothing. “I don’t know what you’re wearing, but it’s not you. And your eyes… sweetheart…” I leaned forward to kiss her gently, trying not to read too much into her obvious flinch. “Is it —are you having second thoughts about seeing me?”

Christine’s breath caught. “No! That is —I —it’s not—” A tear spilled over.

I felt like a jerk for making her cry. “Bluebell, I’m trying to understand what’s going on, but you aren’t making much sense here.”

“Last night, right after you left, I was going to take a bath. The water was running and I was getting undressed when I heard a knock on the door.” She gulped in a breath.

“Who was at the door?” I brought her hand to my lips, keeping my gaze focused on her face.

“I thought it was you but it—” Another deep breath.

Her fingers were cold as I stroked them with my thumb. “Whoever it was, you’re safe now.”

“I opened the door with some smart comment about you missing me and spending the night and—” She swallowed convulsively. “Bull was there.”

Ice enveloped me and I tensed, ready to commit an act of violence. “Did he touch you?” Anger and alarm fused to form a band of steel, squeezing my chest, compressing my lungs, making it impossible to breathe, while I waited for her to answer.

A shudder rocked her body, but she shook her head. “No, but he wanted to very badly. I saw it in his eyes.” She clutched the edges of her sweater, tugging them closed. “I could feel it. When he looked at me, it felt like he was already touching me.”

I leveled a stare at the table to my left, unable to watch her while I struggled to control the rage searing its way through my psyche. My free hand clenched. Each ragged breath I drew was like inhaling flames. I should have been there. I shouldn’t have left her alone.

I caught her gaze again. “Has this happened before?”

“No.” A resigned sigh accompanied the toneless word. “He comes in here sometimes. We’ve met around town. I hired his son to do landscape work this spring. But Bull’s never come by my apartment, and mostly he’s just… pathetic.” She pulled away and ground the tears from her cheeks with the heels of her hands. “He’s never caused any problems until…” She swallowed hard.

“Until I came back.”

When she raised her face again, sparks of anger mixed with apprehension. “Travis, is there something I should know?”

What my massive efforts to check my temper couldn’t do, her question accomplished. The rage bubbling under the surface couldn’t hold on as compassion nudged it aside. She did deserve to know the truth. Shit.

“Yeah. There is.” I stood, maneuvered around the table, and drew her to her feet. With gentle hands, I cupped her cheeks, raised her face so I could look at her, wiping away the last of her tears with my thumbs. Recognizing the war between anger and hope being waged in her eyes, I groaned and pulled her against me. She held herself rigid, but I refused to loosen my grasp, and finally she relaxed into the embrace.

Burying my face in her hair, I breathed deeply, filling himself with her scent, before pulling back to meet her eyes again. “Christine, listen to me. You expected it to be someone you trusted at your door. You had no reason to think otherwise. If it had been Grant, or DC —anyone but Bull, you probably would have had a good laugh about it. Bull and me—” I huffed out a breath. How do I explain the unexplainable? “Our history is —it’s complicated, and it’s not pleasant. And I’m sorry… so sorry that it’s touching you.”

“I’m sorry, too, Travis,” she whispered, her eyes clouded by what could only be doubt. “I feel like I should just trust you —that I shouldn’t need to know—” She took a step back and I let her go. “If you don’t want to tell me about you and Bull, it’s okay.”

“Christine, listen. Just don’t —underestimate Bull MacKay.” I looped a strand of hair behind her ear, leaving my hand against her neck. “He’s not pathetic, he’s dangerous. He gets off on hurting people. And obviously associating with me has painted a huge target on your back.”

She shuddered. “I just never saw that side of him before.”

“It’s there,” I assured her. “It’s been there.” I leaned in for one more quick kiss. “Don’t go anywhere, and make sure you aren’t here alone. When I get back, we’ll talk.” The second I released her, my body cried out against her absence.

Eyes wide with fresh alarm, she reached for him. “Where are you going?”

“I have some ranch business I can’t get out of,” I answered, tapping the back of her hand before I moved off. “I came in to report the downed cow and arrange for removal. After that I’m all yours.”

“You’re not —you won’t—?”

I tipped Christine’s face upward. “I won’t lie to you, Bluebell. I want to hurt Bull MacKay right now.” For even thinking about touching you. “But I won’t go looking for him.”

I made no promise, though, of what the outcome would be should Bull find him.