Sinful Pleasures (12 page)

Jude looked at the phone. “As a matter of fact, I did have a call today. I wouldn’t exactly classify it as threatening. I’ve had much worse things said to me, but the man told me something bad would happen if I didn’t leave town. He called me by name. My full name.”

Officer Trujillo looked up from the note pad again, searching Jude’s face. “He told you something bad would happen if you didn’t leave town? I think that constitutes a threat. Think carefully. Did he say something bad would happen if you didn’t leave town, or if you didn’t close the shop? Did the voice sound familiar?”

“He definitely said if I didn’t leave town.” Jude could remember the conversation nearly word for word. “His voice sounded funny, sort of breathless. He may have been using a voice distorter, but, no, it wasn’t familiar.”

At that moment, the door opened, and Officer Trujillo’s partner stepped inside. He took a long look at the parlor, stepping over to the adjacent room holding the videos. “I’m going to take a look around.”

“I’ve already checked it out.”
Trujillo
smirked at him, obviously wanting to say something further, but she composed her face into a neutral expression. “You can take a look around if you want. I might have missed something.”

As he headed up the stairs,
Trujillo
studied Jude to gauge her reaction. “That’s my partner, Officer Michael Sutton. You don’t mind him making another round, do you?”

“Of course not. Can I make a pot of coffee for you and Officer Sutton?” Jude looked back at the petite cop. She had a feeling Officer Sandra Trujillo took her job dead serious, but she wasn’t a hard case, and she seemed to have a sense of humor.

“No, if there’s nothing else you can tell us, we’ll be going just as soon as my partner gets finished checking out the premises.”

Jude’s eyes flicked up to the security camera. Officer Sutton had stepped into the toy room and apparently found an item that caught his attention. Jude tried not to smile, focusing her eyes back on Officer Trujillo.

The woman didn’t miss a thing. She whirled around to look at the security monitor mounted high on the wall behind her. A huge grin lit up her face, and she couldn’t help but laugh.

“You just never know where a perp might hide.”

Jude laughed, wondering if Officer Sutton had any idea he was being watched. Maybe he didn’t care. Something in
Trujillo
’s face gave her away as she continued to watch Sutton examine the toys. They were having an affair. Jude would bet money on it. It was against police department regulations for two officers emotionally involved to be partnered together, but the evidence plainly showed on Sandra Trujillo’s face. She loved Michael Sutton.

Taking her eyes from the screen,
Trujillo
turned back to face Jude, and the grin faded from her lips. “Do you have someplace safe to spend the night? You might not want to go home if you live alone. At least not without taking precautions to ward off another attack, in case the man knows where you live.”

No sooner were the words out of her mouth than the front door burst open. Both
Trujillo
and Jude jumped nervously as the heavy door crashed against the wall.

“What the hell happened?”
Dallas
asked. He was still in his fireman gear, and Jude thought he looked sexy as hell. He strode over to where she sat, lifting her chin so he could study her face. “Where did you get hit?”

Jude pointed to a throbbing spot on the back of her head, and
Dallas
examined the lump with gentle fingers. “I’m going to kill the son of a bitch that did this.”

“Careful,”
Trujillo
warned, “you’re in the presence of a police officer.”

Dallas
looked over at the woman as if seeing her for the first time. He took his hands away from Jude’s head. “Did you call the paramedics?”

“She said she didn’t need them.”
Trujillo
jotted down another quick note before returning her attention to
Dallas
. “I was telling Ms. Wheeler she probably shouldn’t spend the night alone. Her attacker didn’t take anything of value, and she received a threatening phone call earlier in the day. The caller knew her name. I don’t think this was a robbery attempt. I would classify it as a direct personal attack.”

“She’s going to spend the night with us,” Morgan said from the doorway.

Officer Trujillo looked a bit taken aback at the statement, but she managed to quickly hide her surprise. Standing up, she shut the notebook and slipped it back into her shirt pocket. “Looks like you’re in good hands, Ms. Wheeler.”

Jude stood up, too. “Please, call me Jude. If you find out anything, will you call me?”

Trujillo
gave a slight grimace before answering. “We’ll keep you posted on the investigation, but we don’t have much to go on, Jude. The truth is we may never find who did this. Random acts of violence are nearly impossible to solve unless the perp makes another move. We hope that won’t happen in your case, but you need to be careful at all times. This man may be some sort of fanatic. I have to tell you, extremists are the worst to deal with because they truly believe what they are doing is justified, no matter what the outcome of their actions is. He might very well be willing to risk his own life to get to you and make his point. You can’t afford to let your guard down.”

 
When Officers Trujillo and Sutton left,
Dallas
locked the door behind them. Crossing the room, he bundled Jude into his arms and held her against his chest, holding her tightly and dropping careful kisses on the top of her forehead.

“He won’t get a chance to hurt you again,”
Dallas
whispered. “Morgan and I will be here if he comes back.”

Chapter Nine

Dallas
took three beers out of the fridge, handing one to Morgan and one to Jude. “You scared the hell out of us, honey. Is there anything you can think of that you forgot to tell the police?”

“No.” Jude watched the two men move around comfortably in the kitchen as they prepared a salad, spaghetti, and thick slices of garlic bread. Both were dressed in jeans, dark T-shirts, and cowboy boots. They had taken their hats off in the living room, hanging them on a rack next to the door.

“Do you have a headache?” Morgan asked, cutting up carrots and tomatoes for the salad.

“Stop worrying, guys. I’m fine. Really.” Jude smiled at them to prove she meant it.

They remained silent for a minute, working on the meal with the concentration of bachelors who learned to cook in order to survive. When
Dallas
measured the last ingredient into the spaghetti sauce, he turned to look at Jude.

“Would you like to go for a ride after dinner? It will be good exercise for the horses.”

“I’d love to go for a ride.” What she had seen of the ranch so far was gorgeous. Jude knew from previous conversations that Morgan’s place connected to the west end of
Dallas
’s property and they shared the fence line, running cattle on both ranches. It had been one large spread before
Dallas
bought it and sold Morgan half of the land for the price he’d paid for it.

“Do you always hang out here?” Jude couldn’t help but be curious. The two of them seemed equally at home in the kitchen, which meant Morgan spent a lot of time preparing meals in this house.

For a moment, a pained look crossed Morgan’s face, but he answered truthfully. “We usually hang out here. I prefer it to going home after what happened at the ranch.”

Jude shot a look at
Dallas
, expecting an explanation, but he turned his back, obviously waiting for Morgan to tell the story himself.

When neither man spoke up, Jude reached out to touch Morgan’s arm. “Will you tell me what happened?”

He didn’t speak as he prepared the salad, and Jude thought he might not answer her at all, but at last, he sat down across from her, reaching over the table to take both of her hands in his.

“My wife got killed in a riding accident.”

“Wife?” Jude gasped out the word before she thought. He nodded, meeting her stare with such pain in his eyes that Jude blinked back tears of her own. “I’m so sorry, Morgan. I had no idea.”

“It was my fault.” He squeezed Jude’s fingers and dropped his gaze to focus on their hands, entwining his fingers through hers. “I shouldn’t have bought that horse, but she loved it. We saw him while we were on a vacation in
Kentucky
horse country, and she had to have it. That damn horse had more spirit than I’ve ever seen. He wasn’t mean. He could have been trained if I’d had the time.” He raised his eyes to stare at Jude again. “She was stubborn. I told her that horse wasn’t ready to ride, but Maria had a mind of her own. She always thought she knew what was best. She waited until I left for work and decided to take him for a ride. The horse shied at a something. Maria hit her head on a boulder when the horse threw her off. She never regained consciousness.”

“And that’s why you want me to obey everything you tell me to do?”

Morgan looked back at her with an open face, not trying to hide what he felt. “I don’t want to lose another woman I love.”

Jude got out of her seat to go sit on his lap. She put her arms around his neck, clinging to him tightly. “You won’t lose me, Morgan. I’ll stay with you and Dallas for as long as you can put up with me.” She wanted to make him smile, but he clutched her tighter, burying his face in her hair.

“I’m going to find whoever hurt you today, and he’s going to be sorry.”

“I don’t want you and Dallas to do something stupid.” Jude put her hand against Morgan’s cheek, feeling the stubble of his beard. “I’ll be careful. Let the police handle it.”

He started to answer, but
Dallas
threw a dishtowel at Morgan’s head.

“Do I smell bread burning? You’re supposed to be watching the bread.”

Morgan jumped up, nearly dumping Jude off his lap and onto the floor in the process. He opened the toaster oven, squinting his eyes and waving his hand against the heat and fumes.

“Only the edges are a little singed,” he said guiltily. “We can scrape the burnt part off.”

Dallas
rolled his eyes and then winked at Jude on the sly to let her know he was kidding. “Give me a break,”
Dallas
complained. “You can’t even toast bread. That’s why your sorry ass hangs out here. You’d starve without me cooking for you.”

Jude sat back in her chair, listening to the good-natured bantering. The two men gave each other a hard time in the way only long-term best friends, or brothers, can get by with. Sipping on her beer, Jude thought she could get used to being a part of their world.

* * * *

Jude reached out to take the reins of a golden-colored mare that
Dallas
led forward. “What’s her name?” she asked, handing the horse a slice of apple.

“Tranquility.”

“Hello, Tranquility,” Jude whispered to the horse, offering her another bite of the Red Delicious.

 
With a snort, Tranquility took the treat out of Jude’s hand, munching loudly as she swished her tail back and forth.
 

“See what little fillies do with their tails when they’re happy?”
Dallas
pushed his hat back and grinned. He couldn’t wait to see Jude wearing the horse tail toy. It made his cock stand to attention just thinking about it.

She laughed. “I knew you’d buy that plug the minute I unwrapped it.”

“That’s why you were so jittery when we found you in the toy room. You
were
having naughty thoughts about the toys.”
Dallas
chuckled as he lifted her up into the saddle. “I saved it special for you, babe. When you’re ready, you can wear it for us. Maybe for a special occasion.”

Morgan leaned over in the saddle to give Jude a kiss. “We’ve got so many things planned for you, darlin’, and you’re going to love ’em all.”

“Of course I will.” Jude’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “How could I not love them with you two stallions teaching me everything you know about kinky sex?”

Dallas
groaned. “Too easy, way too easy.”

“What makes you think it’s kinky?” Morgan wanted to know. He sounded serious, but
Dallas
could see the dimples in his friend’s cheeks giving away the grin he tried to conceal by turning his face away from Jude. He pretended to be checking out the new addition to the barn and stables until he could look at her with a straight face.

Jude raised her eyebrows high in disbelief. “Well, you don’t think it’s conventional sex we’ve been having, do you?”

Morgan gave a laugh that vibrated from somewhere deep in his chest. “All depends on your definition of conventional, I guess.”

Jude snorted at that. “There’s nothing remotely conventional about you two.” She leaned over to pat Tranquility’s neck. “Let’s ride while we still have daylight.”

Dallas
made a kissing sound, and his horse, a black gelding, trotted obediently out of the corral heading toward the rolling hills carpeted with wildflowers. Bluebonnets covered the ground as far as the eye could see. Mixed in with the brilliant blue flowers were stark white cactus flowers and a small yellow ground covering. Occasionally, a burst of scarlet red would peek through the carpet of blue to add brilliant contrast.

Jude looked up at
Dallas
as he rode beside her. “This is so lovely. I’m not sure I could leave this view every day. I think if I had these flowers to look at, I might play hooky a lot.”

“I never get tired of seeing it,”
Dallas
admitted. “Every spring it’s like paradise here in these hills.”