From the look on Trask’s rugged features, Tory could tell that he didn’t believe her excuses any more than she did. He walked over to her and placed his hands upon her shoulders, drawing her close, holding her as he started walking back to the Blazer. “I’d like to believe all those pitiful reasons, too,” he admitted.
“But you can’t.”
“Nope.” He opened the door of the Blazer for her, helped her inside and climbed into the driver’s seat. “No, Tory,” he said, his voice cold. “Someone’s trying to keep us apart, by scaring us with dead cattle and rifle shots.”
“And that means there must be some truth to the letter,” she finished for him.
“Exactly.” He smiled a little remembering Tory’s confession of love, started the Blazer, circled around the parking lot and started driving down the rutted lane back to the Lazy W.
CHAPTER SEVEN
“SO WHERE IS everyone?” Trask asked as he parked the truck near the barn.
“I don’t know,” Tory admitted uneasily. She got out of the Blazer and started walking toward the back of the dark house. The only illumination came from a pale moon and the security lamps surrounding the buildings of the ranch.
Trask was on Tory’s heels, his footsteps quickening so that he could catch up with her. “What about your brother, where is he?”
If only I knew. “He and Rex were working on the broken combine this afternoon,” she thought aloud, trying to understand why the ranch was deserted. “They probably went into town for a part, got held up and decided to stay for dinner…”
“Or he was up on the ridge with a rifle?” Trask suggested.
Tory turned quickly and couldn’t disguise the flush of anger on her cheeks. “Don’t start in about Keith, okay? He would never do anything that might jeopardize my life.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“As sure as I am about anything.” Tory turned toward the house, dashed up the steps to the porch and unlocked the back door. She had trouble keeping her fingers steady as she worked with the lock. What was it Keith had said just yesterday? His words came back to her in chilling clarity.
“I would have met McFadden with a rifle in my hands…the next time McFadden trespasses, I’ll be ready for him.”
Tory’s stomach knotted with dread and disgust. Trask had her thoughts so twisted that now she was doubting her own brother; the boy she had helped rear since their mother’s death. Ignoring the hideous doubts crowding her mind, she flipped on the light and walked into the kitchen.
“What about the foreman?”
“Rex?”
“Yeah.”
Tory almost laughed at the absurdity of Trask’s insinuation. “You’ve got to be kidding! I’ve known Rex since I was a little girl—he’d do anything for the ranch. It’s been his life. Dad hired him when Rex was down and out, when no other rancher in this state would touch him. Besides, neither Rex nor Keith knew where I was this afternoon.”
Trask leaned against the cupboards, supporting his weight with his hands while Tory made a pot of coffee. Deep furrows etched his brow. “Why wouldn’t anyone hire Rex?”
“You want to see all of the skeletons in the closet, don’t you?”
“Only if it helps me understand what’s going on.”
“Well, forget it. Rex was in trouble once, when he was younger—before I was born. Dad hired him.”
“What kind of trouble?” Trask persisted.
Tory frowned as she tried to remember. “I don’t really know. Dad never talked about it. But once, when I was about eleven and I was supposed to be studying, I overheard Dad talking to Rex. It was something to do with Rex’s past. It had to do with his ex-wife, I can’t remember her name, it was something like Marlene or…Marianne, maybe. Something like that. Anyway, there was some sort of trouble between them, talk of him drinking and becoming abusive. She left Rex and no one would hire him.”
“Except your dad.”
“Right. And Rex has been with the Lazy W ever since.”
“Without any trouble.”
“Right.”