CHAPTER 9
A month to the day from their wedding, the extra room over the garage was finished, and it was none too soon. There had been far too many times when Casey had seen Ryder’s brown, bare body, and Ryder had spent way too many nights alone on a floor when he had a wife who slept alone in their bed. After thirty days of marriage, they were no longer strangers, but the strangeness of their situation was about to make them enemies.
* * *
“Just put the bed over here,” Casey said, pointing at the wall opposite the sliding glass doors. “And the dresser here, the easy chair there…. No, there I think, nearer the corner lamp. Yes, that’s perfect.”
A small, birdlike woman wearing a stiff blue uniform and high-top tennis shoes scurried into the room with an armload of Ryder’s clothes, bypassing the deliverymen from the furniture store.
Her graying blond hair was pulled up in a ponytail reminiscent of the sixties. Her eyebrows were thick and black with a permanent arch, compliments of a number seven jet eyebrow pencil. The look was topped off with sky blue eyeshadow and frosted pink lipstick. Bea Bonnaducci’s appearance hadn’t changed since 1961, the year she’d graduated high school. The way Bea had it figured, if it had worked for her then, it should work for her now.
“Where would you be wantin’ me to put the mister’s things?” she asked.
“Put that stuff in the dresser and hang those in the closet. At last he has plenty of space.”
Bea did as Casey directed and then scooted out of the room for a second load, leaving her to deal with the last of the furniture being carried in.
And in the midst of it all, Ryder strode into the bedroom, his nostrils flaring with indignation. He glared at the men who were setting the last pieces of the furniture in place, and when they left, he exploded.
“Damn it to hell, Casey! You waited until Dora sent me on some wild-goose chase and then you set Bea to digging in my stuff. I know you want me out of your hair, but you could have waited for me to get back.”
Stunned, Casey stood mute beneath his attack, unable to find a single thing to say that would calm the fire in Ryder’s eyes. She watched as he paced from one side of the room to the other. When he stepped inside the brand-new bathroom, he gave it no more than ten seconds of consideration before coming back out again.
“I thought you would be glad to have your own space,” she finally said.
He spun, his posture stiff, looking for a fight that just wasn’t there. “I didn’t say I wasn’t,” he muttered. “What I said was…” He sighed, then thrust his hand through his hair in a gesture of frustration. “Oh hell, forget what I said.” He stomped out of the room as suddenly as he’d appeared.
Casey plopped down on the side of the bed and knew she was going to cry. It wasn’t so much the fact that he had yelled at her. It was the disappointment that did her in. He’d done so much for her over the past four weeks. All she had wanted to do was return the favor.
She doubled her fists in her lap, staring intently at a pattern on the carpet and telling herself that if she concentrated enough, the tears wouldn’t come. In the midst of memorizing the number of paisley swirls in a square, a teardrop rolled down her cheek and into her lap. She drew a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. It didn’t stop the pain or the tears. They rolled in silent succession.
Ryder walked back into the room carrying the last of his clothes that were on hangers and jammed them onto the rod.
“I sent Bea back to the house,” he said, and then the bottom fell out of his world. Casey was crying, and it was all his fault.
“Oh, hell, Casey, please don’t cry.”
“I am not crying,” she said, and hiccuped on a sob.
He stood, frozen to the spot by the pain in her voice and wondered when it had happened. When had she gotten under his skin? And there was no mistaking the fact that she was there. Why else did he feel as if he were about to explode?
“I am a total bastard.”
It wasn’t what she’d expected him to say. She looked up. He groaned beneath his breath. Those big green eyes, the ones he’d come to know so well, were swimming in tears.
“I am the lowest form of a heel.”
She sniffed and he dug a handkerchief out of his pocket and laid it in her hands.
“I do not deserve to see another day.”
She blew her nose and then handed the handkerchief back. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” she said. “I suspect you were just being a man.”
He stuffed the handkerchief, snot, tears, and all into his pocket and tried not to be offended by what she said. “Exactly what does that mean?”
Casey shrugged. “Tilly says when men don’t want to show their emotions, they either curse or yell. You did both, which leads me to believe you were severely upset in a way I did not expect.”
He frowned. Damn, but that woman knew way too much about men for his peace of mind. “At any rate, I am truly sorry. I’m sorry I yelled. I’m sorry I cursed. I will try not to let it happen again.”
She tried to glare. When angry, he was a force to behold, but when penitent, there was something about him that made her want to throw her arms around him and…
Her face turned red as she jumped up from the bed. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she said, and stomped from the room.
Ryder groaned and followed her into the living room. She was fiddling with a stack of magazines. It made him nervous. He had a hunch she wasn’t through yanking his chain, and when she spoke, he knew he’d been right.
“Ryder?”
If he was smart, he’d walk out right now before she dug in her heels, but where Casey was concerned, he wasn’t smart, he was caught, and had been since that day in the bar down in the flatlands.
“What?”
“I don’t understand. Why did you get so angry?”
“I wasn’t really…”
“Truth.”
He sighed. Damn. Delaney Ruban had done a real good job on her. When she got a notion, she stuck to it with fierce intensity, and it wasn’t in him to lie.
“I don’t know. I walked in the apartment. Bea was going through my stuff. Too much was changing too fast.” His voice lowered and Casey had to concentrate to hear what he said. “I guess I’m uncomfortable with change.”
“But nothing has changed,” she said.
“No, Casey, you’re wrong. We’re married.” He held up his hand. “And before you tie yourself into a little knot, I know it’s not a real marriage, but dammit, I was just getting used to, to…things.”
He took a deep breath. What he was about to say was going to reveal more than he wanted, but she’d asked for the truth, and truth she was going to get.
“Even if we don’t share anything but a name, there is a certain rhythm to our relationship that I was learning to accept.” Then he thrust a hand through his hair and lifted his chin. She didn’t have to like this, but it had to be said. “Dammit, I guess I wasn’t ready to lose what little of you that I had.”
Casey knew she was standing on solid ground, but for the life of her she couldn’t feel it. Something inside of her kept getting lighter and lighter and she wondered if she was going to pass out…or fly.
“I didn’t throw you away, Ryder. I only bought you a bed.”
He took the magazines out of her hands and tossed them on the table, then pulled her into his arms. His chin rested at the crown of her head. His arms locked easily across her shoulders, holding her in place.
“I’m sorry I made you cry. I like my room. I promise to like the bed.”
Casey closed her eyes and tried not to think of trying it out together just to test it for bounce. “And I’m sorry I keep bulldozing my way through your life.”
His fingers itched to take down her hair, lay her across that bed and show her what bulldozing was all about. Instead, he counted to ten, pasted a smile on his face, and kissed the top of her head before letting her go.
“I suppose we should celebrate tonight,” he said.
“Celebrate how?”
“You know, a room-warming. Maybe I should take you back to Smoky Joe’s for some more barbecue.” He grinned. “It’s Saturday. That means it’s alligator night, remember?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Well, then, maybe we could make it a christen-the-bed party, so to speak.”
Casey’s voice rose an octave. “Christen the bed?”
“Yeah, I always heard it was bad luck to sleep in a bed without breaking it in.”
“Breaking?” She winced. She’d never heard herself squeak before.
“Yeah, come here, honey. I’ll show you.”
He dragged her across the room before she could argue and all the while she was moving she kept telling herself to do something—say something—anything except follow him across the room! But she didn’t. She went where she was led as if she didn’t have a brain in her head. When he leaned over the bed and picked up a pillow, adrenaline shot through her body like a bullet out of a gun.
Oh God, oh God, this is happening. It’s really happening.
And then the pillow hit her square in the face.
She staggered, tasting fabric and feathers and reeling from shock. “Why on earth did you—?”
He sidestepped her and the question with a grin on his face and swung again. The blow landed on her backside, sending her sprawling facedown on the mattress. She grabbed the other pillow out of reflex, but it was instinct that made her swing and roll at the same time, crowing with delight as it caught Ryder up by the side of his head.
“That’s nothing,” he warned. “You’re no match for me.” He began to circle the foot of the bed.
“I’ll make you eat those words,” Casey cried, and leaped up on the mattress, using it as a bridge to get to the other side and away from Ryder’s intent.
She was turning around as he drew back his arm and let fly.
The pillow shot through the air like a padded cannonball and stifled the jeer she’d been about to make. Within seconds, she found herself eating more feathers. But there was an upside to his latest attack. She now had both pillows.
“Aha!” she shouted, waving a pillow in each hand. The glee on his face made her nervous. When he started toward her, she began to retreat.
“Aha? What the hell is aha? I’ve never been hit with an aha before. Do they hurt?”
Casey panicked, threw both pillows at once and then ran. “No fair,” she screamed.
He caught her in a flying tackle in the middle of the bed, at once mashing her face into the mattress and himself onto her. The weight of him was so great that breathing was almost impossible, and then just when she thought her lungs would burst, she found herself flat on her back and gasping for air. When she could talk and breathe at the same time, she looked up. Ryder was sitting on her legs with his arms above his head in a triumphant gesture.
“I hereby declare this bed has been thoroughly christened.”
Casey doubled up her fist and thumped him in the middle of his belly.
“You cheated,” she said, and tried to hit him again.
“Easy,” he warned, and caught her fist before it could do any more damage. “Justice men never cheat. We just rearrange the odds.”
Casey tried to stay mad, but the grin wouldn’t stay off her face. “That’s priceless.”
“What’s priceless?” he asked.
“Rearranging the odds. Delaney Ruban would have loved you.”
Ryder’s expression stilled. He couldn’t quit looking at the woman beneath him. At the joy in her eyes. The smile on her face. Her hand on his leg.
He touched her. First her hair, then her face. And when she bit her lower lip and looked away, he heard himself asking, “What about his granddaughter? How does she feel?”
Casey felt as if all the breath had been knocked from her lungs. She was all too aware of his weight on her legs, his hand on her face, the need in his eyes.
“I…”
“Never mind,” he whispered, and braced himself above her with an arm on either side of her face. “I think I’d rather find out for myself.”
She knew what the shape of his mouth felt like. They’d kissed before. Once, and just before dawn, in Judge Harris’s front parlor on the day of the wedding. She thought she was prepared for what was about to happen. She couldn’t have been more wrong. The man she’d kissed before had been a stranger. This time it was different. She’d seen this man wearing nothing but a towel—walked into his embrace on the day of her wreck—slept in his arms—laughed with him—cried with him—fought with him. She closed her eyes and tensed as his breath swept her cheek.
The gentle brush of mouth-to-mouth contact was familiar, even comfortable, and all of that changed when Casey’s arms automatically wrapped around his neck. Ryder groaned and then rolled, taking her with him until she was the one on top and he was pinned beneath. She heard him whisper her name. Felt his hands in her hair—down her back—cupping her hips. Urgency sparked between them as their lips met again, then again, and then again.
* * *
Her pulse was racing, his body was betraying him. It was all there—from the wild glitter in his eyes, to the need coiling deep in her belly. She lowered her forehead until it was touching the space just above his heart. In spite of the heat between them she started to shake.
Ryder groaned. They’d gone too fast. But, dear Lord, who could have known they would go up in flames? They’d blindsided each other with nothing more than a kiss. He was almost afraid to guess at what might happen if they ever made love.
“Easy, Casey. Easy, honey,” he said softly, rubbing his hands up and down her back in a slow, soothing motion. “That just got out of hand. I didn’t mean to scare you, okay?”
She rolled off him and got as far as the side of the bed before covering her face with her hands. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God.”
Ryder silently cursed himself for starting something they hadn’t been ready to finish. But he’d gotten his answer. Delaney Ruban’s granddaughter might not love him, but she wasn’t immune to him either. There was something there. He just wasn’t sure what it was. He rolled over on his side and reached out, touching her back with the palm of his hand.
“Casey, look at me.”
When she flinched, he got up with a curse and walked out of the room.
She couldn’t think, couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. All she could do was remember his weight pressing her down and never wanting the connection to stop. Of feeling his mouth cover hers, of mingling breaths and racing hearts and resenting the clothing that separated her skin from his.
The phone rang, and the timing couldn’t have been worse. Moments later, Ryder walked back in the room and tossed the portable phone near her leg.
“It’s for you.”
Casey looked up, but he was already gone. She picked up the phone with shaking hands and cleared her throat.
“Hello?”
“Mrs. Justice, this is Charles Byner, down at the bank. I just need your authorization to clear a check. It’s quite a large sum above what’s in the account and I need your approval to authorize the draw.”
Casey swept a hand through her hair, trying to come to terms with reality. “I’m sorry,” she said, trying to focus. “What did you say?”
“No problem,” he said. “I’m really sorry to bother you at home, but Mr. Ruban had specific orders with regards to these particular accounts and since you’re now the one in charge, I need authorization from you to clear the check, although it is more than a thousand dollars over the balance.”
Casey sat up straight, her mind immediately jumping gears as she realized what he meant.
“Which account? Miles’s or Erica’s?”
The clerk lowered his voice. “It’s the one in Mr. Dunn’s name. The check is for twenty-six hundred dollars. That’s about eleven hundred dollars above the balance.”
Casey stood. “What is the balance, exactly?”
His voice lowered even more. “Let me just pull that up on the screen. Yes… here it is. The balance as of today is exactly $1,400.17.”
Casey gritted her teeth. “And was the usual amount of five thousand dollars deposited into that account at the first of this month?”
“Ummm, yes, ma’am, it was.”
By now, Casey was livid. Delaney had set a precedent years ago that was about to come to a screeching halt. “Honor the check, Mr. Byner. I’ll have enough money transferred into the account to cover it, but I’ll be at the bank first thing Monday morning to make some new arrangements.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the clerk said, and hung up.
Casey disconnected, then immediately rang the bank back through another department and dealt with the transfer in a no-nonsense voice. When she was finished; she headed for the house phone on the kitchen wall.
“Tilly, is Miles at home?”
“He’s in the pool,” Tilly answered.
“Would you please ask him to meet me in the library? There’s something we need to discuss.”
She hung up to find Ryder watching her.
“You okay?”
Casey’s nerves were just beginning to settle. She hadn’t expected it, but knowing that in spite of what had just happened between them, Ryder was still able to ask about her welfare, made her feel safe.
“No,” Casey said. “But I will be.”
“Need any backup?”
“Are you offering?”
The smile on his face was slight. “Are you asking?”
“It might get ugly,” she said.
He dropped the clothes he was carrying onto the back of a chair.
“Honey girl, the last few months of my life haven’t been anything but.”
Surprised by the revelation, she would have given a lot to continue this conversation. Ryder was closemouthed with regards to anything about his past, and hearing him admit even this much was a definite surprise. But the confrontation with Miles was long overdue, and this latest stunt was, for Casey, the last straw.
“Then come if you want. For better or worse, you are part of this family.”
“Unless I think it matters, you won’t even know I’m around.”
She nodded and started down the stairs, and it wasn’t until they’d entered the house and were on their way to the library that she had fully accepted the impact of Ryder’s presence in her life. The problems within her world were no longer just hers. They were theirs.
She entered the room wearing an expression the board members of Ruban Enterprises would have recognized. It was her no-holds-barred-don’t-mess-with-me look. Ryder had disappeared somewhere between the library and the hall, yet she sensed he wouldn’t be far away. Unlike Miles, he wasn’t the kind of man who went back on his word.
And Miles wasn’t far behind. She could hear the splat of bare feet on marble flooring as he made his way in from the pool. The careless smile on his face was no more than she expected as he sauntered into the library with a beach towel draped across his neck and water dripping onto the floor.
“I’m here. What’s up?” he asked.
Casey schooled herself to a calm she didn’t feel. “I just had a call from the bank.”
If she hadn’t known him so well, she might have missed the nervous flicker in his eyes.
He strolled over to the bar and poured himself a drink, even taking a sip before asking, “And what does that have to do with me?”
“Everything. It seems you wrote a check you couldn’t cover.”
He shrugged. “Oh, that. Delaney never used to mind when—”
“Delaney is dead, remember?”
Miles blinked. It was his only reaction to the cold, even tone of his half sister’s voice.
“And in the grand scheme of things, exactly what does that mean?” he drawled.
“It means your glory days are over, Miles. I don’t know what the hell you’re doing with your money. I don’t even want to know. What I will tell you is that your world is slightly out of sync, and as your loving sister, I intend to do all that I can to bring it back in order.”
He set the glass down with a thump. “What are you getting at?”
“It’s more a case of what are you trying to pull? Any unemployed, thirty-year-old man should not be spending in excess of five thousand dollars a month. Therefore, I am going to do you a favor. As of Monday, you will report to Princeton Hamilton in the legal department of Ruban Enterprises. You have a law degree. You’re going to put it to work.”
Miles froze. An angry flush began to spread from his neck, upward. “You bitch! You can’t run my life.”
Casey shrugged. “You’re right. But I’m running Ruban Enterprises, aren’t I? I covered this hot check, but I won’t do it again. Also, there will be no more instant deposits into your account, because as of the end of this month, it will be closed. No more free rides, Miles.”
Miles was so angry he couldn’t form a complete sentence. His hands were shaking as he yanked the towel from around his neck and started toward her.
The urge to run was overwhelming, but Casey stood her ground as he shoved his way into her space and thrust a finger up against her nose.
“Don’t let your power go to your head, sister dear. Someone might just have to knock you off that pedestal for your own damned good.”
The anger on Miles’s face was impossible to ignore and the knowledge that their relationship had come to this made her sick to her stomach. It hurt to know she was still the outcast when it came to family love. She reached out to him.
“I’m not trying to play God, Miles. You’re my brother. I care for you very much, but don’t you see? You’re wasting the best years of your life,.”
He slapped her hand away and then grabbed her by the arm, yanking her sharply until she came close to crying aloud.
“You’re going to be sorry for this,” he said softly. “You’re going to be very, very sorry.”
He turned and walked out of the room, leaving Casey reeling from the venom in his voice. But his triumphant exit ended four steps outside the library door. Ryder had him by the arm and shoved up against the wall before he had time to call out for help. Miles had seen plenty of angry men in his life, but he’d never been afraid until now.
Ryder slammed his hand in the middle of Miles’s chest, pinning him in place. “You son of a bitch. If I ever hear you talk to your sister again like that, you’ll wish you’d never been born.”
“It’s none of your business,” Miles said, and felt shame that his voice was shaking.
“That’s where you’re wrong. Whether any of you like it or not, she’s my wife. What happens to her is my business. And I’m telling you now, so you’ll be forewarned, if anything ever happens to Casey, I’m coming after you first.”
So great was his fear that if Ryder hadn’t been holding him up; Miles would have been on the floor.
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“Exactly what I said,” Ryder replied softly. “You better hope to God she doesn’t have any enemies, because from this day forward, I hold you responsible for her welfare.”
Miles’s eyes bulged. “I would never wish Casey any real harm. I was just mad, that’s all. Hell’s fire, man, she’s my sister.”
“Then start acting like her brother.”
Miles went limp as all the anger slid out of his heart. Truth hurt. “Let me go.”
Ryder didn’t move—didn’t speak—and didn’t turn him loose.
Miles saw himself mirrored in Ryder’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw.
“I didn’t mean what I said to her. And I suppose in a way she’s right.”
Ryder turned him loose, but refused to move back. “Remember what I said. She hurts—you bleed.”
Miles took off down the hall as if the devil were at his heels. By the time he got back to the pool, he’d convinced himself that putting his education to work was not only going to happen, but that it could have its benefits.
Ryder watched Miles until he was out of the house, and then stepped inside the library. Casey was at the window, staring out onto the lawn overlooking the back of the estate.
“Casey?”
She spun, and Ryder wished he’d given in to the urge and punched Miles right in the face before they’d had their little talk. She looked so hurt. So lost. So alone.
“I heard some of what you said to Miles.”
Ryder could tell there was something serious on her mind. He waited for her to continue.
“I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I am forever grateful for your presence in my life.”
He wanted to hold her. He settled for a brief smile instead. “Oh, I don’t know about that,” he drawled. “I’d come near saying that I’m the lucky one. Besides, we Justice men don’t take kindly to anyone messing with our women.”
Casey swallowed a sigh. If only she was his woman in the ways that counted. “So, are you telling me that there’s more than one of you that’s been turned loose on the world out there?”
The smile slid off his face and she knew she’d said the wrong thing. “I’m not who matters,” he said shortly. “I don’t think Miles will give you any more trouble, but if he does, you know where I’ll be.”
He walked out and she had the strangest sensation that he’d just walked out of her life, rather than out of the room. In fact, the thought was so strong that she actually followed him through the house, then stood in the doorway and watched until he entered their apartment.
What did I say? What was it that turned him off and sent him running?
But there were no answers for Casey, at least not today.
However, when the mailman drove away from the Justice ranch outside of Dallas, he gave Royal Justice a clue to solving a mystery that had been worrying him and his brother, Roman, for months.
* * *
“Daddy, Daddy, I bwought you da mail.”
Ignoring the trail of letters and papers she was stringing as she ran, Royal Justice swung his three-year-old daughter, Madeline, up in his arms and kissed her soundly.
“You sure did, honey. You’re getting to be such a big girl.”
“Gwinny helped,” Maddie said, pointing at the baby-sitter who was coming behind at a fast clip, picking up the pieces that Maddie had lost.
“Good for Gwinny,” Royal said. Gwinneth Anderson grinned, handed Royal Justice the rest of his mail, and took Maddie by the hand. “Come on, Scooter, it’s time to feed the pups.”
Maddie bolted, leaving Royal with a handful of letters and a smile on his face. He dropped into the nearest chair and began going through the mail with a practiced eye, discarding the junk and setting aside the bills to be paid. Every now and then one would be addressed to his brother, Ryder, and that one was tossed into a box with an accumulating stack that threatened to overflow. It was all he knew to do. It was Roman who’d saved Ryder’s business from ruin.
Roman had taken over the charter service without batting an eye, claiming he could run his private investigation service and Ryder’s charter business in the same location. He hired two pilots, an accountant, and then dug in for the long haul, convinced that Ryder would be back when he was ready.
Privately, Royal was a lot less optimistic, but that was just the difference in their personalities, not a lesser belief in the brother who was missing. He loved Ryder as much as Roman did and worried daily about his whereabouts, sometimes even wondering if he was still alive. It had been so long and they hadn’t had a word.
He was down to the next-to-the-last letter in the lot, and he started to toss it in Ryder’s box when he looked at the return address. MasterCard. No big deal. Everyone has credit cards.
And then he realized what he was looking at and took a deep breath as he tore into the flap. When he pulled out the itemized bill, he started to shake. Someone had used Ryder’s card! Over the period of three weeks, someone had charged several hundred dollars’ worth of men’s clothing in Ryder’s name.
Royal was as scared as he’d ever been in his life. Either Ryder was alive and well and buying up a storm, or someone was using his card. The implications of how anyone might come by Ryder’s belongings was more than he could handle alone. He bolted up from the chair and headed for the phone. Moments later, a familiar voice growled in his ear.
“This is Justice Air and The Justice Way. State your business and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”
Royal groaned. That damned answering machine. When it beeped, he started talking.
“Roman, this is Royal. I just got a letter from—”
“It’s me,” Roman said.
“Well, hell,” Royal said. “Why didn’t you pick up the first time?”
“Wasn’t in the mood to chitchat,” he said shortly.
Royal cursed beneath his breath. That was so typically Roman. “The mail just came.”
Roman snorted indelicately. “Don’t tell me. You just won the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes.”
“Oh, shut the hell up,” Royal muttered. “I’m serious.”
“And I’m busy,” Roman said. “Unless my favorite niece has done something utterly charming that I need to know about, I don’t have time to—”
“Someone charged nearly a thousand dollars on Ryder’s MasterCard. The bill came today.”
Sarcasm was noticeably missing as Roman snapped, “Give me the dates. The store codes, anything that—no, wait! I’ve got a better idea. Fax me a copy of the bill.”
“Oh, hell,” Royal said. “You know I’m not good at making that damned thing work.”
“Then get Maddie to help. She knows how,” Roman said. “And do it now. If Ryder’s alive, I’ll find out soon enough. If someone is using his ID, they’re going to wish they’d never been born.”
“It’s on its way,” Royal said, and hung up the phone.
He turned, staring at the fax machine on the desk near the window, facing the fact that while he knew just about everything there was to know about ranching, the age of computers had him hanging in air. It was humiliating to know that a three-year-old could do what he had yet to accomplish, but this concerned Ryder, and it was no time to get macho about a damned old machine.
He headed for the back door at a fast clip. “Hey, Maddie,” he yelled. “Come help me fax something to Uncle Roman.”