Courting the Enemy

Chapter Ten

With Karen curved securely against him, Grady was having a hard time thinking straight, but he forced himself to concentrate on that severed barbed wire. It was about the only thing sufficiently fascinating to distract him from the warmth of her body curled next to his.

First chance he got, he was going to track down Tate McDonald and then get his private investigator doing checks on all of the neighboring property owners. One of them was holding a grudge against Karen, or against him. Since he’d never even met McDonald and barely knew the Fletchers or the Oldhams, it seemed likely the dispute was with Karen. Either way, it needed to be settled before things got ugly.

Karen sighed softly, her breath stealing across his bare chest and ruining his concentration. He thought he’d been rather clever at distracting her from all of her questions earlier, even if the outcome had been less than what he’d anticipated. He could wait until she was ready to make love, even if it was getting more and more difficult.

She moaned and snuggled more tightly against him. The sheet slipped away, revealing way too much of an alluring breast, a taut dusky nipple. His breath caught in his throat as he struggled yet again against temptation. He was more sinner than saint, and this was too much.

Gently he shook her awake, tugging the sheet back into place as her eyes blinked open, registering first surprise, then sleepy delight, then worry as she realized she had fallen asleep in his arms. The reactions pretty much summed up their relationship, a curious mix that had kept Grady off guard for weeks now. He’d tried staying away twice now, but it hadn’t worked. He’d concluded he was going to have to see this through to whatever ending it was headed for.

“I must have fallen asleep,” she said, gathering the sheet more securely around her. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. There is nowhere I’d rather be.”

“Really?” she asked skeptically. “You seemed to be in an awfully big hurry earlier. Don’t think I’ve forgotten that.”

He sighed. “I was hoping you had.”

“Not that the distraction wasn’t fascinating,” she said, “but I have a very good memory.”

“Apparently,” he agreed, thinking of more than her interest in his earlier activities. She also had a very long memory when it came to her late husband’s prejudices.

“So?” she prodded.

He regarded her with feigned innocence. “So?”

She nudged him sharply in the ribs with her elbow. “Don’t play dumb, Grady. I want to know what had you so distracted over dinner. What happened when you were with Hank and Dooley? Did it have something to do with the fence?” Sudden understanding spread across her face. “Was it deliberately cut?”

The woman was too smart for her own good and Grady wasn’t about to lie to her. “Yes,” he said tersely.

“But who…?”

He noticed that she didn’t immediately jump to the conclusion that he might be responsible. That was progress, he supposed.

“We’re going to find out,” he told her. “As soon as I get home, I’m going to start making calls.”

“Which explains why you were so anxious to get out of here earlier,” she concluded.

“Exactly.”

“Make the calls from here,” she said. “I want to know what you find out.”

He nodded and reached for his jeans. When he was dressed, he glanced back at her tousled hair and the rumpled sheets. It looked as if much more had gone on in that bed, he thought with regret. Apparently Karen could read him even better than he’d realized. Her expression faltered.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

He bent down and kissed her thoroughly. “You don’t ever have to be sorry for not doing something you’re not ready for. I can wait.”

Her gaze searched his. “Can you?”

“For you? Absolutely.”

She returned his gaze, her expression earnest, her brow puckered. “I can’t promise I will ever be ready.”

“You will be,” he said with total confidence. He believed that as he hadn’t believed in anything else in a very long time.

Karen took her time before following Grady downstairs. She needed to think about what had happened…and what hadn’t. She also wanted to absorb Grady’s easygoing acceptance of all of it. The lack of pressure-the willing restraint-had been a surprise. She’d always believed him to be a man who simply took what he wanted. In fact, hadn’t she counted on it earlier, expecting him to ride roughshod over her doubts, leaving her no choice but to make love?

But, then, there had been a lot of things she’d thought about Grady that she was discovering to be untrue. He was kind and thoughtful and unfailingly decent, at least in his treatment of her. She was beginning to doubt that he had ever been the thief and scoundrel Caleb had accused him of being.

More surprising than Grady’s behavior in the past few hours was her own. She had nearly made love with a man she’d been taught to distrust. More significant, she couldn’t seem to make herself regret it. In fact, if she was feeling any regrets at all, it was that she had faltered along the way and still didn’t know what sort of magic she might have found in Grady’s arms.

She moaned and covered her face. What was happening to her? How had she let this happen? How had she allowed it to go so far? And why didn’t she feel the least bit guilty about any of it?

Because she had no answers-and was fairly certain she wouldn’t like any of them, anyway-she hopped out of bed, took a quick shower, then joined Grady downstairs just as he hung up the phone. His expression was grim.

“What?” she said at once. “Have you found something?”

“Only that Tate McDonald is a very wealthy absentee owner, that your other neighbors are in debt, but no more so than any other small rancher, and that if anyone has a vested interest in ruining you, it’s me.” He shrugged. “That’s the consensus, anyway.”

“Well, we both know that’s not true,” she said.

He gazed into her eyes. “Do you know that?” he asked, his expression intent.

Karen nodded slowly, her gaze never shifting from his. “I do,” she assured him, startled to find that she meant it.

Satisfaction spread slowly across his face. He touched her cheek. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. You’ve more than proved yourself to me.” She reached for the pot of still-warm coffee and poured two cups. “Now we just have to determine who’s out to destroy me and ruin your reputation at the same time.”

He grinned. “Simple as that, huh?”

“I didn’t say it was going to be easy,” she said, getting a notebook and pen from a drawer by the refrigerator. “We just have to be systematic and logical.”

“In that case, I need that pie you promised me,” Grady declared. “I can only be logical on a full stomach.”

When she started to stand, he waved her back to her chair. “I can do it. Do you want some?”

“Of course.”

He cut two big slices, retrieved the ice cream from the freezer and added huge dollops on the pie. She grinned at the size of the portions.

“Obviously you’re planning on a long night,” she commented.

“A very long night,” he agreed.

One they wouldn’t be spending together in bed, she thought with more than a little twinge of regret. Oh, well, the die had been cast earlier in the evening, anyway, and it was for the best. They’d both decided that. At least for now.

She took a bite of pie, savoring the burst of apple and cinnamon and sugar on her tongue, then picked up her pen. “Let’s start with this McDonald person, since he’s a stranger. What have you found out about him?”

“Just what I told you, that he has a lot of money and he’s dabbling in ranching.”

“You’ve never had any dealings with him?” she asked.

“None at all.”

“Then we can assume for the moment that there are no grudges.”

“How about you? Have you had any run-ins with him?” Grady asked.

“Never met him.”

“Okay, then, how about the Fletchers? They’ve been the Hansons’ neighbors for years. Have they always gotten along?”

“Always,” Karen said, but her expression turned thoughtful. “Of course, there might have been a problem when Caleb decided to marry me. I think Maggie Fletcher had her eye on him, and her father really wanted the match.”

Grady nodded. “Jealousy. That’s always a good motive for revenge, but Maggie doesn’t strike me as the type of woman to go around poisoning cattle or cutting fences. How about you? What do you think of her?”

Karen considered the woman who’d made no secret of her infatuation with Caleb. Tall and slender, with a no-nonsense manner, Maggie had always been polite, if distant, with Karen. There had never been any question of them becoming close friends. Even if Caleb hadn’t stood squarely between them, their personalities were unsuited. Maggie wore a perpetually dour expression, made worse by the realization that she would never have the man she loved.

“I feel sorry for her,” Karen said. “I think she really did care for Caleb. I know she was distraught at the funeral.”

“Would she have tried to ruin him for not marrying her?”

“No,” Karen said slowly. “She might go after me, but never Caleb. I was the one she blamed for destroying her chances with him.”

Grady’s expression turned thoughtful. “Then she could be seeking revenge on you now,” he suggested.

“But why? Caleb’s gone. What does she have to gain?”

“She might still be hoping for some sense of satisfaction that she was right all along, that you were wrong for Caleb and that she would have been the better choice,” Grady said.

“I suppose,” Karen said, but it didn’t ring true.

“But that wouldn’t explain the earlier incidents. Remember, those happened before Caleb died.”

“What about Maggie’s father? Would he have wanted to get even with Caleb for spoiling his plan for uniting the two families?”

“Possibly,” Karen admitted, though she had a difficult time imagining either of the Fletchers deliberately trying to sabotage her cattle. “Let’s think about the Oldhams for a minute. There was a feud between them and the Hansons a zillion years ago. Something about water rights, I think.”

“Is it still going on?”

She shook her head. “It was settled ages ago. They have access to the creek that flows through our property. Caleb’s grandfather wrote up the agreement himself.”

“But if they had this land, the issue could never come up again, right?”

“True.”

“I’ll visit them tomorrow,” Grady said. “Maybe they don’t want to take a chance that you might renege on the agreement.”

“If you go, I’m coming with you,” Karen insisted. “This is my ranch that’s being targeted.”

“Fine. We’ll go right after we get the chores done in the morning.”

Once again, Grady’s assumption that the chores were his to share took her aback. At the same time, it gave her a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach to know that she was no longer facing everything-not the daily grind, not the battle to keep the ranch afloat-alone.

Grady rubbed a hand across his face. “It’s late. I’d better get out of here.”

Karen considered offering to let him stay in the guest room, the room they had almost shared earlier, but thought better of it. Her resolve where Grady was concerned was weak enough. It wasn’t fair to keep putting him in the position of having to hold back whenever their hormones got the better of them. She couldn’t let him stay here until she was ready to let him share her bed.

“It’s a long drive,” she said eventually. “How about another cup of coffee before you head out?”

He shook his head. “I’ll be fine, and the sooner I go, the more rest I’ll get, and the sooner I can get back here in the morning.”

She walked him to the door. He reached out and cupped the back of her head, then bent to kiss her gently on the forehead. “We’re going to get to the bottom of this. I promise you.”

But then what? she wondered when he had left. Was he only helping her to solve the puzzle, to tie up loose ends, so that the land would be free and clear of problems when he got his hands on it? That was possible, she told herself. Even likely. And yet, somehow she could no longer make herself believe it.

If discovering that she had feelings for Grady had surprised her, if the depth of her desire for him had startled her, then the discovery that she trusted him was the most shocking thing of all. Feelings-lust-had nothing to do with common sense or logic. They were matters of the heart.

But trust, especially when it involved an old enemy, required more. It meant that both her heart and her head had examined the facts and found Grady Blackhawk trustworthy.

But what if you’re wrong? a tiny voice in her head demanded. What if Grady is simply sneakier and more clever than you ever imagined?

Then she would pay a terrible price in guilt and self-recriminations, she concluded. But it was her decision to make, not the Hansons’, not even Caleb’s.

And the bottom line was that she had learned to trust her instincts where Grady was concerned. He might want her ranch, but he was not the one out to hurt her.

Someone was, though, and she intended to find out who.

Though the prospect was very distasteful to her, Karen called Caleb’s parents in Arizona first thing in the morning. They knew more about the old feud between the Oldhams and the Hansons than she did. They also knew more about the high hopes Maggie Fletcher had had where Caleb was concerned.

When Caleb’s father answered the phone, she couldn’t hide her relief. He would give her straight, thoughtful answers, not a diatribe against Grady, which was all she could have expected from Mrs. Hanson.

“This is old news, but I assume you’ve got a reason for asking about it,” Carl Hanson said.

“There’s been another incident,” Karen told him. “The fence along the highway was deliberately cut this week.”

“That’s a pretty obvious place for a person who wanted to do any real damage, don’t you think? You were bound to spot the problem.”

That hadn’t occurred to Karen before, but he was right. Anyone hoping to cause a serious loss of her herd would have cut the fence in some place less likely to be discovered until it was too late.

“What do you think that means? Was it just a warning?”

“Or maybe some kids up to mischief,” he suggested.

“If this was the only thing, maybe,” she said thoughtfully. “But coupled with the incidents in the past, I don’t think so.”

“Could have been it was meant to throw suspicion on Grady, so they wanted you to find it right off,” he said.

“That makes sense,” she agreed. “But who would gain anything by that? Has anyone else ever expressed interest in buying the ranch? Are the Oldhams in any position to buy it to protect the water rights?”

“Not unless they’ve had a sudden windfall,” he said. “Besides, that agreement worked out years ago is airtight. They don’t have anything to worry about.”

“What about Maggie Fletcher?” Karen asked reluctantly.

Caleb’s father sighed. “Ah, yes, Maggie. Now there’s a sad situation. Her father was expecting her to pair up with Caleb. He wanted to see the two ranches joined. I don’t know which of them was more disappointed when Caleb chose you. I know her father blamed her, told her she wasn’t woman enough to catch Caleb. I always thought the way he treated her was downright cruel.”

“Would she hate me enough to try to ruin the ranch?”

“She wouldn’t, but that father of hers is another story. I wouldn’t put anything past Jack Fletcher. I told Caleb to keep an eye on him when those last incidents took place, but you know my son. He didn’t want to believe it. More likely, he just wanted to believe Grady was behind it.”

This wasn’t the first time that Karen had gotten the feeling that the animosity between Caleb and Grady ran deeper than one man’s desire to own land belonging to the other.

“Was there more going on between Caleb and Grady than I know about?” she asked.

Mr. Hanson hesitated. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“The feelings and bitterness seemed to run awfully deep, at least on Caleb’s part. Was it just about the ranch?”

“The ranch is the only thing I know about,” Caleb’s father insisted, but something in his voice suggested he was holding back.

That false note lingered in her head long after she’d hung up the phone. When Grady arrived, she poured him a cup of coffee before he could protest, then gestured toward a chair.

“I need to get to the bottom of something,” she said as he regarded her warily.

“Okay.”

“How well did you and Caleb know each other?”

“We didn’t,” Grady said tersely.

“Oh, come on. You must have. I know you contacted him more than once about buying the ranch.”

“That doesn’t mean I knew him, just that I had my lawyer make repeated inquiries.”

She regarded him skeptically. “You never even met?”

“Never.”

“But he hated you,” she said. “Hate that deep doesn’t come from some intellectual dispute over a piece of land.”

“Some people are passionate about what’s theirs,” Grady countered.

She studied him intently. “There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there? You’re as tight-lipped about this as Carl Hanson.”

He regarded her with surprise but not dismay. “You asked him about this?”

“Just this morning. He wouldn’t answer me, either.”

“No, I imagine he wouldn’t,” Grady said, his expression wry.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Can’t you drop this? It’s not important. If Caleb had wanted you to know, he would have shared it with you. The same with Carl.”

“Well, you’re here and they’re not,” she said with a hint of exasperation. “Tell me, Grady. Why did my husband have it in for you? Why was he so determined that you not get this land?”

“That’s easy,” he said, though he didn’t meet her gaze. “Because it was his and he was possessive.”

“You’re talking about the land, but it went beyond that. I can see it in your eyes.”

“You’re imagining things.”

Karen lost patience. “Dammit, Grady, tell me. Was it about a woman? Did you and Caleb fight over some woman?”

Grady sighed heavily. “Not the way you mean,” he said finally. “And it wasn’t me.”

“You’re talking in riddles,” she accused.

His lips curved slightly at that. “Apparently it’s a family trait. My grandfather does that, too, when he doesn’t want to answer a question.”

“Well, I intend to keep coming back to this one until you give me a straight answer,” she said. “So why not get it over with?”

“Okay,” he said with obvious reluctance. “This was about my father and Anna Hanson.”

Stunned, Karen stared at him. “Caleb’s mother?”

He nodded.

“But how? When? Before she married Carl?”

“No, unfortunately, it was much later. They almost ran off together.”

Karen couldn’t seem to take it in. “Anna Hanson almost abandoned her family to run away with your father?”

“They would have left, if my father hadn’t been killed in an accident on his way to get her. He was late because he had stopped to try to explain to me why he wouldn’t be home. She blamed me for his death. It’s irrational, I know, but she couldn’t blame herself.”

“My God,” Karen whispered. “And Caleb knew?”

Grady nodded. “He knew. He’d seen them together, and he found her bags packed on the night of the accident.”

“What about Carl?”

“He knew as well, but he acted as if nothing had happened. For the sake of his pride, I suppose, he pretended that Anna had never had any intention of going anywhere with my father. He and Anna just went along with their marriage.”

Karen thought about her husband, about the occasional dark looks he had cast at his mother, about the tension that sometimes flared between him and his father. He’d never been able to bring himself to blame either of them for the choices they had made back then, and Charlie Blackhawk was dead, so he had blamed Grady, instead. All of that anger and hurt had been directed at the only person who’d been as innocent of blame as Caleb himself had been.

“What about your mother?” Karen asked Grady. “How did she take all of this?”

His expression turned grim. “She wasn’t as good at pretending. She turned to alcohol. I don’t think she had a sober minute for ten years before it finally caught up with her and she died.”

“How old were you when she died?”

“Nineteen.”

“Which means you were only nine when all of this happened?”

He nodded.

“And Caleb was thirteen?”

“An age when a boy is all caught up in his own raging hormones and doesn’t want to think about his parents as sexual beings. He certainly doesn’t want to think of his mother wanting to be with a man other than his father in that way.”

“But to blame you,” Karen said. “How could he?”

“It wasn’t logical, unless you believe the sins of the fathers live on in their sons, though I doubt any of that was on Caleb’s mind. I was just an easy target for all that pent-up rage he couldn’t express to the people involved.”

Pent-up rage, Karen thought, wondering if that had ultimately been the stress that had damaged Caleb’s heart. Was it possible that even years later, he had quite literally died of a broken heart?

As saddened as she was by that, she couldn’t help being glad that the secret was finally out. It helped her to see everything in a new light. It helped to know that Caleb’s judgment of Grady had been so terribly misdirected. Wasn’t that what Stella had hinted at so many weeks ago? Obviously she had known the whole story.

Perhaps if Caleb had ever gotten to know the man he considered an enemy, he would have seen that Grady was as much a victim as Caleb himself had been. And the fierce competitiveness and anger that only Caleb had felt might not have contributed to his death.