Page 70 of The Last Dance You Saved
“You go first,” I told her.
“When I first contacted your family, it wasn’t about weddings and dude ranches.” She inhaled a shaky breath, but she didn’t stop. Once Sadie decided something, she went at it with everything, and that was how she treated this. As she slowly unwound the story about her great-grandmother, and the stolen Harrington jewels, and why Adam had asked her to keep it all quiet, the constriction in my throat grew to my chest and my heart, frustration boiling once more, but not at her.
“I swear, we didn’t know they were real until recently. At first, I was going to use them as a down payment for a performing arts center I want to build in Willow Creek, but then I realized I couldn’t create a legacy on something that seemed a bit hinky. So, I started researching…and that led me here.”
I could tell she was nervous, because she was talking fast and furious.
“You want to build a theater?” I asked, almost more stunned by that than the other things she’d revealed.
“Not just a theater. A center with spaces for art and music lessons as well as a stage. It might be silly. But I just really wanted to find a way to make our community better and maybe draw more visitors to the area.” Her words were strong, but there was worry behind them, as if she was reaching for something too big. But all I could think was how much I admired her goals and how Spence and my dad would have liked her, would have liked her ideas about community and paying things forward.
When I’d stayed silent for too long, she shifted, looking away and trying to pull herself from my hold. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was embarrassed by what she wanted or worried I was upset about the jewels, but I didn’t let her go. I tightened my grip and held on.
“Wanting to do something for your community is never silly.”
She stilled. “Are you angry about the jewels? You’ve barely started to trust me. I don’t want this to get in the way of that.”
“You’re not responsible for what happened back then any more than I’m responsible for my great-grandfather winning the ranch in a hand of poker. The only person I’m upset with right now is Adam.”
Relief coasted over her face, and I couldn’t stop myself from stroking her cheek. The wild animal in me longed to forever have a hand on her, to never stop molding our skin together.
“Did you find anything in the ranch accounts?” she asked.
I shook my head. The cursory look I’d been able to give it after helping Steele with the cameras hadn’t shown me anything. The expenses were high, but then again, the cost of running a business like the ranch required heavy expenditures. In the past, the diamond mines that had turned into granite mines had been enough to offset the expenses and leave a hefty profit, but those endeavors had stopped mid-century. In the last decade, Spence had slowly depleted nearly a century’s worth of savings.
As much as I detested admitting it, Puzohadbrought the ranch additional revenue. Boarding horses and renting slots at the dock were easy ways to make money off practically nothing. The cell tower was an eyesore, but it brought in a steady annual income just like Fallon had said. Even the wedding business Lauren had started brought in a small net income. But none of it was enough to keep the ranch afloat for more than another year or two.
But if Adam had done something underhanded to speed the ranch’s demise, I hadn’t caught it at first glance. In the morning, I’d hand over the chores and the protection of the women in my life to Steele and our team while I peeled back more layers of the numbers. I’d still worry about Sadie and Fallon, even with a team who was more qualified than I ever would be protecting them. But none of my men would let anger or past wounds interfere with the job of keeping them safe.
While I’d already failed to do just that with both of them.
“Puzo had you followed,” I told her through gritted teeth.
Her mouth dropped open. “What?”
I explained how we’d seen Nero Lancaster leaving The Fortress at the same time as her and what we’d learned about him working for Puzo. “It was why I thought you were more involved than you are. I thought Nero was your muscle.”
She forced herself up and away, sitting crisscross next to me with the sheet pulled up around her breasts. “Why would he have me followed? I didn’t tell him about the jewels, and he basically dismissed me when we were at The Fortress.”
“It might simply have been because of the way I reacted when I saw the two of you together.” Putting her at the center of Puzo’s scope was one more thing I regretted. “I should have told you as soon as I realized it.”
As if hearing the remorse in my voice, she leaned in and stroked the scars Puzo’s men had left on my chest. “It’s not like you had my phone number. We hadn’t planned on our one night turning into anything more, Slick.”
She was right and wrong. That may have been our intention, but if Fallon hadn’t shown up and we’d tangled ourselves together on Sunday as we’d planned, I knew now that it wouldn’t have been enough. I would have wanted to see her again. I would have wanted more. Even without having seen her selflessness and generosity this week, that spell she’d woven around me the minute she’d walked into my club would have branded me.
“You seemed disgusted when you saw me with him in the café. I thought you hated me,” she said softly. While there was no anger in the look she gave me, not even a trace of frustration that I might have put her in danger, I had plenty for both of us.
“What really irritated me,” I said, “was the fact that I didn’t hate you at all. That I wanted to drag you back to the penthouse and finish what we’d started. I couldn’t understand it.” I gripped the sheet she was still holding up and yanked it down so I could see her sweet curves. “Now, I hate that I wasted minutes we could have been together almost as much as the asshole who put these marks on you.” I brushed gently along her scars, a loving caress.
A little breathy gasp left her mouth—one I wanted to claim all over again.
“I’ve never felt this way, Rafe,” she said, brows furrowing. “I’m confused and scared on the one hand, and clearheaded and sure on the other.”
I knew exactly what she meant. The certainty she was mine was an absolute truth. She’d stormed into my life right when I’d needed her. But even knowing I loved her, I wasn’t sure how I could keep her. The future was cast in a foggy haze like an early spring morning mist settling over the fields. So, instead of trying to find my way through the unknown, I did what I could with this moment. I dragged her back to me, kissed her forehead, and said, “I know exactly what you mean, Tennessee. But we don’t have to figure it out tonight. We’ve talked enough for now.”
And I spent the next few hours showing her what I couldn’t yet say, proving to her the only truth that mattered at the moment was the way we blended together.
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