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Tempestuous Taurus Page 13
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“No. They were out. I’m going through more of these boxes that Randall brought out of the storeroom, trying to figure out what he was looking for, but I’m not having much luck. I also searched for irregularities in the financial records. No luck there either.”
“So, everything okay with the horses? No more attacks?”
“Thank goodness everything has been running smoothly. I have to get the finances going—the donations. It helped a lot that you fixed the website, but it looks like I’ll have to do some advertising. I see they did some online promotions in the past.”
“I’ll bring dinner if you invite me over.”
Tara chuckled. “I’ll make dinner this time.”
Jared arrived a little after six with a six-pack of beer and a brown paper packet. “Gun oil,” he said as he slid the beers into the refrigerator.
Tara was busy chopping vegetables and making a salad. Every muscle in his body ached to feel her against him again.
“I said I would clean all the guns. I’ll do it out on the rec center patio.”
Jared laid newspaper on the table and fetched the weapons. He started to strip the revolver first. The two dogs came and pushed their noses under his hands. He stroked them for a short time until they moved away and lay down under the table. He worked in silence, his thoughts grinding around the man who had tried to run over Tara. Had he deliberately tried to kill her? Or was it a scare tactic? Like the shot he—it could only be him—had fired? Could Cassie have been in the truck—so close? He knew Tara had to be right about the message on the phone. She would never get Cassie’s voice wrong, not even after all these years.
The kitchen door opened and Tara leaned her head out. “How long are you gonna be?”
He stood up. “I think I’m done. It would take too much time to do them all, but these ones are oiled and ready for action.”
He put the weapons away and went to wash his hands. “I’m gonna take a shower in the rec room bathrooms, okay?”
“You can shower in the house if you want,” Tara said.
“No. I won’t be long.”
“Something smells good,” he said a few minutes later as he took a beer out of the fridge.
“It’s boxed lasagna,” Tara said. “I’d like to say I made it, but I didn’t. I make a mean salad though.”
Tara served out the lasagna and handed a big bowl of salad to Jared. He’d been wanting to apologize but wasn’t sure how. “Hey, I’m sorry I left in such a hurry last time we had dinner,” he said. “I—sometimes I get pissed.”
Tara chuckled. “I kind of know that, Jared. You’ve always had a temper and always been moody.”
He felt himself go red and cleared his throat. “Okay, now that’s over. Tell me about Cassie’s phone message.” He tapped salt and pepper onto his salad. “I know you wanted to tell me about it and I was in the bar.”
“I can’t believe the message got erased. But it was her. She asked for help and there’s nothing I can do.” A tear slid down her face and she dabbed at her eyes with a paper napkin.
Jared reached over and placed his hand over hers. “Can the cops trace the number?” He rubbed his thumb over her hand and squeezed it. “I know how much she means to you—and I wish there was something I could do. But it’s more important now that we—or the cops—anyone finds the killer,” Jared said. He moved his hand back and continued eating.
“Of course,” Tara said. “If only we knew how.”
“So let’s say we find them both and he goes to prison and Cassie is home and safe—what then?”
“Then I’ll hire a manager, and maybe I’ll go home. Or maybe Cassie will take over the business and stay in the house.”
Jared gritted his teeth. What was wrong with him and Hardship and the Center? What was in Arizona that was better? He opened his mouth to ask her, but closed it again and shook his head. If Cassie really did come home, he couldn’t see Tara taking off and leaving her. She said maybe, so there was a possibility she would change her mind. In fact, knowing her as he did, he almost thought she was baiting him.
After they had finished eating, he watched Tara in the kitchen while she loaded the dishwasher. “You should go sit,” she said. “I can take care of this.”
“Yes, ma’am. When she turned around, he was in front of her, in a boxer’s stance, his hands in fists up in front of his face. He danced from one foot to the other, snaked out a hand, and patted her cheek.
“Jared, stop it.”
This had been one of his favorite games whenever he wanted to annoy her and get her attention.
He danced, patted her on her cheek again, and at the same time jabbed his left hand into her ribs and tickled them.
She laughed. “Stop it!”
“Come on, let’s see what you’ve got. Stop it doesn’t do anything for me.”
Tara put her hands up, fists closed, and jumped softly from one foot to the other, matching his boxer’s shuffle. She tried to punch him in his face but he blocked her, jumped away, and tickled her in her ribs. “Jared! You’re so annoying.”
RJ barked and Jared glanced away momentarily. Big mistake. Tara hit him fairly on the nose with a straight right.
“Jesus, Tara. You didn’t have to hit me that hard!” He put his hand up to his nose and it came away bloody. “You made my nose bleed. Why did you do that?”
“Oh, shit, I’m so sorry.” She handed him a square off the roll of paper towel. “You’d better go clean it up.” Was that a smirk on her face?
He went to the guest bathroom and splashed cold water onto his nose until the bleeding stopped. He’d forgotten about that straight right of hers. He grinned at himself in the mirror. He was probably going to get a shiner, and how in hell’s name would he explain it? “A girl punched me?”
When he emerged, Tara was sitting on the sofa. She laughed. “I got you, I got you! That’ll teach you for being so irritating.”
Jared chortled. “You pack quite a punch—for a girl.”
“A girl, huh? I’m not sorry I hit you now.” Jared jabbed her ribs and tickled her with both hands. “You want something to laugh about—I’ll give it to you.”
Tara tried to slide away. She laughed so hard tears came out of her eyes. She hadn’t laughed like that for years. “Truce,” she said. “Come on, that’s enough.” He allowed her to stand up. She headed for the kitchen.
Jared touched his nose softly. It hurt. That’ll teach me for messing around.
Tara came back with fresh beers and handed one to him. “Let’s go sit on the porch.”
He followed her out and waited for her to settle herself on the swing seat.
“Don’t you want to sit?” she said, patting the seat beside her.
He slid onto it, and irritation jabbed at him. What did he have to do to get her to stay and make a life here with him? They sat in silence for a while, the tension between them forming an invisible barrier.
The smell of her perfume—of her—intoxicated him. He couldn’t deny himself any longer. He slid an arm around her shoulder, and his heart pounded as he took her chin in his hand and turned her face toward him.
Her eyes shone, and her face glowed in the moonlight. He lowered his mouth onto hers. She opened her lips and allowed his tongue to slip inside its sweet warmth. Her fingers slid through his hair and she dragged him into her. They kissed for a long time. She tasted of wild honey. They broke away, both breathing hard. “I love you, Tara,” he said. “I’ve always loved you.”
She stood up without a word and held out her hand.
Chapter 34
Cassie had kept to herself, but one of the other girls, Ocean, had helped her get through those first bewildering and terrifying weeks. She was older—almost thirty—and she’d been on the streets since she was kidnapped at a truck stop
when she was fifteen. She had short, shiny black hair and wore bright makeup and red lipstick. The other girls would mock the way Cassie always rocked back and forth, which was something she couldn’t help, but Ocean stood up fiercely for her. Ocean had always been opinionated and sometimes argued with Bucky, and Cassie had always supported her, but one day, she didn’t come home, and Cassie knew something had gone very wrong.
Ocean wouldn’t have run away. “Ocean ain’t never comin’ back,” Bucky had responded when Cassie asked. “I had to kill the uppity whore,” he had said with a shrug. The room swayed and Cassie’s legs wouldn’t hold her. She fell in a crumpled and broken heap on the floor and sobbed, and pulled at her hair. “No, no, no. Why?”
Ocean’s body was never found, and her death triggered fresh thoughts of escape in Cassie. She’d been working the streets for almost seven years, and the future looked bleak. She had two choices—stay as she was and risk ending up the same way as Ocean, or run.
Bucky always patrolled the area his girls were working on Western Blvd. He drove around and around and it seemed he had eyes everywhere. It was late—almost three forty in the morning. She had waited, shaking all over and hardly able to breathe, until his Cadillac had rounded a corner and disappeared behind a building.
She glanced at the other two girls nearby. I have to do it now. She threw the ridiculously high heel shoes off and took off running into the darkness of an unlit alley. She ran into the next alley and the next until her lungs burned and she couldn’t go any further. She collapsed onto a pile of black garbage bags beside a dumpster, gasping for breath. Her stomach had been cramping with fear for hours and the smell of the garbage caused waves of nausea that hit her like a train. She retched and dry heaved until her chest hurt.
She’d been lying in her own vomit in the gutter in the dark alley when Bucky caught up with her. She’d heard his hurried footsteps. Fear squeezed her throat and she couldn’t swallow.
He grabbed her arm, wrenched her up onto her feet, and punched her in the mouth. The pain didn’t bother her anymore. She was used to it. “Go ahead,” she slurred through swollen lips. She tasted blood. “Finish me off. I don’t want to live anymore.”
“Come on, bitch. You go take a shower, clean up, and get to work.” He dragged her, half-walking, half-stumbling back toward the apartment. “What the fuck?” Those were the last words she heard Bucky say.
Something hard struck him on the back of his head with a loud thwack, and he let go of her, jerked, and sank to the pavement. It seemed like it happened in slow motion. His head hit the concrete and bounced once. She could see blood spurting out of it in the dull light of the street lamp on the corner. She slumped to the ground beside him and stared at him. Her head throbbed and her body hurt all over.
“Come here, my lovely,” a voice said, and she looked up. It was hard to make out his features in the half-darkness, but he smelled of soap and aftershave. Something she hadn’t smelled for a long time. He held a hand out to her and she hesitated. She was so dirty and she stank of vomit. “Come on, it’s okay now. It’ll be okay.”
“But I’m—I can’t go. He’ll kill me.”
“He can’t kill you. He’s already dead.”
“What?” She looked at his crumpled body in the dull light. It wasn’t moving. She reached out a trembling hand and felt for a pulse in his neck. Nothing. She touched the wound on his head and her hand came away bloody. She sniffed it. Blood had that metallic stink to it. Bucky was dead. But she had to have a fix soon.
The man was still standing there. “Come, Cassie. Let’s go.” He held out his hand.
She jerked her head back to look up at him. “How—how do you know my name?”
“I’ve been around here for a while.”
He didn’t look like the kind of john who hung out in that neighborhood. He’d never picked her up, and the girls would talk about someone in fancy clothes like him if they’d seen him.
“You’re not gonna make me carry you, are you, Cassie?”
“N—No.” She scrambled to her feet and touched her mouth with her hand. It hurt. More blood. He held out his hand and she took it. It was warm and comforting. “Where are you taking me?”
“My car’s right around the corner.”
He told her to get into the back seat and lie down, and he covered her with a blanket. She felt something like a pinprick in her neck and everything went dark.
Chapter 35
Tara led Jared upstairs, her breaths coming quick and short. Her whole body tingled with delicious anticipation as she closed the bedroom door and turned to look into his eyes.
She saw lust and desire, a reflection of her own need. He pulled his shirt off over his head and unbuckled his belt, his gaze never leaving hers.
She tore her T-shirt off, unhooked her bra, and threw it on the floor. His hands slid over her, kneading and caressing her breasts. She gasped as his thumbs ran over her hardened nipples. He bent and kissed them one at a time, and sucked on her nipples, sending ripples of pleasure all the way to her core.
He dropped his pants and boxers on the floor and kicked them away. Then he ran his hands down her stomach to her jeans. She moaned, stared at his erection, and placed a hand over it. “God, it’s beautiful,” she said.
He tore at her jeans, threw his shoes and socks across the room, and pulled her into him and holding her hard against him so she could feel his coarse chest hair rubbing her nipples and his erection thrusting against her thighs.
They sank down onto the bed and he kissed her with wild and frantic passion as they lay skin against skin, his fingers exploring her wetness, taking her to new heights of pleasure.
She didn’t want to wait. “Fuck me, Jared. Now.”
He slid over her and entered her hard and fast.
“I can’t wait.”
He stopped moving. “Make it last,” he whispered. “Wait for me.”
“I don’t know if I can.” She could hear the tremor in her voice as he moved faster and faster inside her.
She was still riding the waves of pleasure as he found his own release.
They lay there sweating and panting for a few minutes. Jared slid off and out of her and planted a kiss on her forehead. “I love you, Tara-Grace. Always.”
She kissed him on his mouth and slid her tongue in to meet his. “I love you, too, Jared. I’ve always loved you. There’s never been anyone else. I’m so sorry I said those hateful things to you after the sentencing.”
“You had good reason, but you don’t know how much it means to me that you believe I’m innocent.” A tear glistened in his eye.
“Let’s not think about that now.” She slid over him. “Right now, I want to start making up for the lost time.”
Chapter 36
Tara was awake when he came out of the bathroom, showered and dressed.
“That’s probably the only time your hair is ever combed,” she said. “Pity you have a shiner. Given to you by a girl.”
He laughed. “Yeah. I don’t know what I’m gonna tell people.”
He sat on the bed and kissed her long and deep.
“I want you again,” she breathed against his neck. She smelled of sex—the whole room smelled of it, and it stirred up Jared’s desire yet again.
“I want you, too, baby. I think I should keep you here all day tied to the bed and use you as a sex slave.” He stroked her cheek. “I used your toothpaste and a finger.”
“Except I wouldn’t be a slave.” She slid her hand over his pants and stroked the hard length in his shorts. “You’re making me want you even more.”
The home phone rang. Tara stood up. “I have to get that. It could be Detective Moore.” She grabbed a robe off the hook behind the door and hustled downstairs.
Jared heard her scream and he ran.
The phone lay on the floor beside Tara. She sat on the floor, hunched over, her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them, her head buried, sobbing. Jared picked up the phone. Nothing but a dial tone. He slid down onto the floor and sat beside her, and took her in his arms.
“Who was it?”
She cried louder. “Cassie. It was Cassie.” She gripped his collar and shook him. “What am I supposed to do? She asked me to help her and then she was gone.”
“Are you sure it was her?”
“Y—y—yes. She said, ‘Help me,’ and the phone died.”
“Fuck. I don’t know what to tell you. The detectives may be able to trace the call.”
“I asked them to do that from the last call.”
“I don’t know what else we can do. You haven’t found anything in those files you were going through in the office, have you?”
“What? What am I supposed to find?”
“I don’t know, but don’t give up.”
“I think Randall was doing something. But he couldn’t have kidnapped Cassie. She was gone long ago and he was here. But he knew something. That’s why he had those files out.” Tara scrambled to her feet, and Jared followed.
He held her by her shoulders. “I love you, Tara. You can’t go away. Going back to Phoenix is not gonna solve anything. We’ll find the killer and we’ll find Cassie. And I will help you.”
“I have to find her, and then—”
“Look at this place. It’s beautiful and it’s yours. Don’t I mean anything to you? What we did all night. I thought we were making love, but you—please tell me it wasn’t just sex for you.”
“No, Jared, it was more than ‘just sex’. It was amazing and you’re amazing, but . . . It’s not that simple. You know that as well as I do.”
“You said you love me. If you really loved me, surely you would want to be with me forever. That’s how love usually works.”