“Good.” He kissed her softly on the forehead. “I’ve got to go. I’ll be back in a couple of days.”
“Where are you going?”
“I wish I knew,” he admitted. “I’ll start by visiting John Davis in Bend and showing him all these clippings. Maybe he can come up with something; a new angle. I’ll be back…soon.”
“I’m counting on it, senator,” she whispered before he gathered her into his arms and kissed her with all of the passion that had fired his blood since the first time he had seen her. His tongue caressed and mated with hers and she leaned against him, her knees becoming soft. Once again she was caught up in the storm of emotions that raged within her each time she was near him, and when he finally released her, she felt empty inside.
Tory stood on the back porch and watched him leave. When his Blazer was out of sight, she tried to think of anything but Trask and his reasons for returning to the Lazy W.
Pouring hot coffee into her cup, she walked into the den and sat at the desk, intending to concentrate on preparing a financial statement to take to the bank later in the week.
But the numbers were meaningless and her mind wandered. She found her thoughts returning to the conversation she had overheard between her father and Linn Benton five years ago…in this very study.
* * *
THE SUMMER NIGHT had been breathlessly hot and humid. Tory had come downstairs for a glass of lemonade when she heard the muted whispers behind the closed doors to the study. Her father’s den had never been off limits, but that night, the night that Linn Benton had stormed into the house, everything changed and the pieces of the argument that drifted to her ears caught her attention and made her hesitate on the lowest step.
“Don’t be so goddamned sanctimonious,” the judge had said in his high-pitched wheezing tone. “You’re in this up to your neck, Wilson.”
Tory slipped down the final step and stood frozen in the entry hall, eavesdropping on a conversation she wished later that she had never overheard.
“I should never have gotten involved with you,” her father replied brusquely.
“Too late for second thoughts now.”
“If it weren’t for the kids…” Her father’s voice had drifted off and her heart grew cold. Calvin was entangled with Linn Benton because of her brother and her. Her father was doing something he didn’t believe in just to support his children! She reached for the door, but the self-satisfied laughter of Linn Benton made her withdraw her hand. Tory realized that it would be better if she waited until she could speak to her father alone before confronting him.
The rest of the angry conversation was muted and she only heard parts of it, just enough to know that whatever the two men were arguing about wasn’t aboveboard. She silently worried in the outer hall before going upstairs and pacing the floorboards of her room.
When she heard the judge’s car roar down the drive, she raced down the stairs, intent on confronting her father and begging him to abandon whatever it was that involved Linn Benton.
But Calvin was no longer in the study. The door to the den was open, and thick cigar smoke still lingered in the air. Two half-empty glasses of whisky sat neglected on the desk.
“Dad?” she called, starting for the kitchen and glancing out the window just in time to see her father reining his favorite gelding out of the stables and kicking the horse into a full gallop in the moonlight. Head bent against a mounting summer wind, Calvin Wilson raced through the pastures toward the mountains and Devil’s Ridge.
Tory ran to the front door, jerked it open and let the hot dusty wind inside. “Dad!” she called again, this time screaming at the top of her lungs from the front porch. Either Calvin didn’t hear her voice over the sound of his horse’s racing hoofbeats and the whistling wind, or he chose to ignore her.
Tory was just about to follow him when Trask arrived. She was already leading a mare from the stables as his truck approached. Tory’s nerves shattered with fear for her father’s life and she quickly explained about the strange conversation she had overheard to the man she loved and trusted with all of her heart. Trask muttered an angry oath and his eyes blazed with angry lightning.
His jaw set with furious resolve and with only a few abrupt commands telling her to stay on the ranch and wait for his call, Trask wheeled his jeep around and followed Calvin through the open fields. Like a fool she had trusted him and obeyed, keeping her lonely vigil through the night, pacing in the den, praying that the phone would ring and end her fears.
Early the next morning, when Trask finally returned, she learned the horrible truth: Jason McFadden had been found dead—the result of a monstrous plot conceived by Linn Benton, George Henderson, and, according to Trask, her own father. Tory was numb with disbelief when she learned that Calvin Wilson had been charged with murder.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NEARLY TWO QUIET weeks had passed when Trask found himself staring into the self-satisfied smile of the private investigator. Trask was sitting in one of the soft leather chairs near the desk, but his body had gone rigid.
“You found out what?” Trask demanded, staring at the private investigator in disbelief.
“Just what I told you,” John Davis replied, settling back in his chair and casually lighting a cigarette. Behind him, through the second-story window of his office, was a bird’s-eye view of the bustling downtown area of the city of Bend.
“Damn!” Trask’s fist coiled and he slapped it into his other palm. His dark brows drew together.
“I thought you wanted the truth.”
“I did. I did.” Trask sounded as if he were trying to convince himself. “It’s just that… Hell, I don’t know.” His thoughts were jumbled and confused. The past couple of weeks had eased by in a regular routine. Fortunately there had been no more threatening letters, dead calves or violence. He had spent most of his time with Tory on the Lazy W. The days had been pleasant; the nights filled with passionate exhilaration. And now this unexpected news from John Davis was about to change all that. The damned thing was that it was exactly what he had been asking for.
“You’re sure about this,” Trask said, already knowing the answer as he stared at the damning report in John’s hands.