Walker Pride (24 page)

“I was mad. And I did drive by. You weren’t home.”

“Would you have stopped?”

Eric shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Susan fell against him, resting her head on his chest as he pulled her close. “It’s too late to say let’s start slow.”

She felt the rumble in his chest as he chuckled. “You’re right.”

“Besides, it sounds like your step-mother has us married.”

A low hum resonated now. “Mother. I think it’s far past time I just consider her my mother.”

Susan stepped back and looked up into his dark eyes. “That’s quite a comment.”

“In this past week the losses and gains seem to be keeping me in check.” He ran his hand over her hair. “I need to know why you were at Elias’s house.”

“I can’t tell you. Not because I don’t want to. I can’t legally tell you.”

Eric nodded. “I’m going to assume Lydia is throwing a surprise tea party. I’m going to just go with that to settle my nerves.”

She smiled up at him. “That would be good.”

“You can’t trust him,” he said.

“Maybe not. But I really like her and I don’t think she’s part of anything going on with you.”

“Don’t get hurt, Susan.”

“I already have been.”

“Not anymore. I promise.”

There was no logic behind the promise or her belief in it, but she did believe. Love made a woman do crazy things. This might have been the craziest.

~*~

Somehow Eric had talked his cousin out of a fury she’d worked up for him. He didn’t figure it would be warranted as a compliment to tell her she had her father’s anger, so he kept that to himself.

He also figured Susan had heard every word that had been sworn to him while she was upstairs putting her bedroom back together.

They’d both had the right to let him have it. His own temper had cost him a few things over his life, but he wasn’t ready to lose Susan over it.

He’d talked her into staying the night with him. They were going to call Lydia and see if she’d put them in touch with Tyson. It was time to find out what was going on and who was doing it. Tyson had led him to believe they were a team now working with each other and not against. If it got him another black eye, it was worth the chance.

Susan called Lydia as they drove out to his house. “Eric said he’d talked to him earlier. We were just hoping, maybe, he’d come talk to us again.” She nodded her head and wrote down a phone number in a small book she’d pulled out of her purse. “I really appreciate it. Oh, really? I’d enjoy that. Thanks,” she said just before she hung up.

“What was that about?”

“She hasn’t seen him. But here’s his phone number and…”

“No, the last part of the conversation?”

Susan smiled wide. “She invited me to her book club.”

“To cater again?”

“No, to join them.”

The smile she wore became infectious and reminded him of the bruise Tyson gave him on the cheek. It was worth it. He reached across the cab of the truck and took her hand.

“Whatever happens from here on out, I promise to talk it out with you first.”

She pushed up her sunglasses and narrowed her gaze at him. “I’d appreciate that.”

“I meant it when I said I loved you.”

“And I meant it in return.”

“We’re headed in the right direction I guess.”

“Looks like it.”

Twenty minutes later they pulled up in front of Eric’s house and parked next to Tyson’s truck. Parked on the other side of it was another truck with a pink camo crown on the back window.

Eric turned off the engine and they both stepped out as Tyson and Lydia walked around the front of his truck.

“I guess sisters get things done,” Eric tipped his hat to Lydia.

“It sounded urgent enough I hunted him down. Thought I’d come out too. Maybe I can help you guys find out who’s messing with everything,” Lydia offered.

“I was out here visiting your mom.
Our
mom.” Tyson scratched his head. “My mom told me everything once she calmed down.”

“I know it’s not easy for you.”

“I can see why grandpa wants to move her though. I mean maybe we can get her a new headstone. Your cemetery plots are worn down.”

Eric tucked his hands in his pockets to keep from wanting to use them. “That cemetery is very well taken care of.”

“Her stone is in three pieces and a few others have been knocked over. It looks like no one has been up there in years.”

That wasn’t sitting well with him. Eric shook his head as he grit his teeth. “I was up there two days ago and everything was just right.”

“Then they’re getting closer. Whoever it is we’re looking for. They’re moving in to run us off. They’re hitting us where it hurts.”

“Ain’t going to happen.

“Damn, straight,” Tyson agreed.

Tyson had been right. The cemetery had been hit and Eric felt violently ill. His mother’s headstone had been the worst hit.

“They know this is important,” Eric said as he picked up a piece of the stone. “I don’t think your grandfather is behind this. I think something else is going on.”

“He wouldn’t condone this,” Lydia said. “He’s a ruthless business man, but he’s not…malicious.”

A week ago Eric would have argued that, but today, standing over his mother’s grave with his
brother
, he just didn’t believe it anymore.

“Elias has to talk to us. Why did he want this land? And if he’s not set to destroy it who is?”

Lydia tapped her foot and tightened her lips. “I shouldn’t do this, but…” She looked at Susan then back at Eric. “He’s having a party on your mother’s birthday to celebrate her sixtieth birthday.”

Eric exchanged glances with Susan. It was obvious she only knew her part and not what it was for.

“He always celebrates her birthday, privately,” she told Eric. “But this year it’s bigger. It’s a formal dinner party with people who didn’t know your mother. People who didn’t know our father,” she said.

“Why?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He asked me to work with Susan and set it up.”

Eric looked at Susan whose eyes had gone wide. “Is that all?”

She looked at Lydia and still said nothing.

Lydia rested her hand on Susan’s arm. “We asked her to sign a confidentiality statement and she did. I can see we made the right choice in caterers. She isn’t even talking now. But that is what she was doing at the house.” She looked at Susan. “I won’t tell him that the agreement was broken in any way.”

“I need to cancel the contract. I can’t do this now. Not when it’s a conflict of interest like this. I love Eric. I can’t hurt him by going through with it.”

Lydia nodded in understanding.

Tyson held up a finger. “Wait. You’re planning the party,” he said to Lydia. “Susan is already embedded. I have a funny feeling that the guest list includes maybe business associates that I don’t know. Maybe it includes someone who is messing with our land.”

“You’re thinking he should have his party and we should gather information,” Eric offered.

“Exactly. Lydia and I can work on getting the guest list and figuring out who everyone is. Susan will be working the room during their lunch. We can certainly keep tabs on what’s going on.”

Eric turned to Susan. “What about Bethany? She’s serving?”

Susan looked to Lydia who gave her a nod. “I was asked to not use her as a server.”

“My grandfather’s request,” Lydia answered.

“Because she’s Byron’s daughter,” Eric said smoothly as he fit the connection together. “I’ll bet my uncle is on that guest list.”

“Do you think he’s involved?” Susan asked.

“No, I really don’t. I don’t think he’s smart enough or savvy enough. I think he’s being played. And I think Elias is being played too.”

It felt right to sleep in Eric’s arms again and Susan was grateful. However, as she laid there, Eric breathing heavily with his chest against her back, she wondered what he would be like when there wasn’t so much drama.

There was no reason for her not to think he’d be as calm as he was the day she’d met him. Taking life at his own pace and not answering to anyone but himself.

She closed her eyes. She remembered falling in love with her ex-husband. She was young and easily persuaded. The whole world revolved around him and she’d have done anything to marry him as soon as she could—and she had.

In the back of her mind would always be the question of when it began to go so wrong. Just the thought of him now made her skin go cold.

Their relationship had turned one day. No explanations. Suddenly everything she did or thought was wrong. He spent more time away from her. She knew it wasn’t another woman, it was his lifestyle. A man like him needed the outdoors more than he needed the woman in their cozy house. However, he’d returned more lean and tanned from any of his adventures, but his mood would be foul. She had finally decided it was because he didn’t want to come home to her. The night his fist hit her jaw was the last night she ever saw him.

What would stop Eric from becoming a beast?

He was beaten and bruised because his temper had gotten in the way. Would it happen again?

She just wouldn’t rush into anything else with him. Of course she was sleeping in his bed, again, after only a week of knowing him. But she just couldn’t help it. She was absolutely in love with him.

Eric snuggled in closer and she let herself relax against him. She let herself drift away to the sound of his breathing until she heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps as they moved past the bedroom window.

She sat up with a start and that woke Eric.

“What’s wrong?”

“Someone’s outside,” she said.

He moved quickly to his feet and pulled on his pants. Susan scrambled for her clothes and stopped when she heard the unmistakable sound of her car starting.

“They’re stealing my car!”

Eric pulled his shotgun out from under the bed and headed out of the house with Susan following close behind, pulling on her clothes.

Susan’s car sped away down the road. Eric swung open the door on his truck and then slammed it again. “They freaking sliced my tires!”

He kicked the flat rubber.

“I’ll call the police,” Susan hurried back into the house as Eric walked the perimeter.

Ten minutes later Eric walked in, shotgun still in his hand.

Susan buttoned up her shirt. “Police are on their way.”

“I’ve had enough of this. What the hell do they want? This is just freaking land!” He set his gun on the couch and ran his hands over his hair.

She wished she understood the situation more. How could someone kill off animals and destroy property? Why would someone want to drive them away?

It was three in the morning, but they certainly weren’t going back to bed. Susan decided to make a pot of coffee and have it ready when the police arrived. As it brewed she went to the bathroom and tied up her hair, then texted Bethany to let her know what was going on. It worried her that if they were messing with Eric’s life they’d begin to focus on her as well. She didn’t want to mention that to him, but it was in her head.

The one problem with living so far out of town, it took longer for the police to arrive. It had been nearly forty-five minutes since she’d called before a police car pulled up.

Eric opened the door as the man walked up the front steps.

“Hey, Douglas. How’d you get this crappy shift?” Eric asked as the man took his hat off and stepped through the front door.

“Luck of the draw I guess. So what’s going on?”

“Come in and have some coffee. We have a long list.”

“We?” Douglas asked as Susan walked around the wall from the kitchen. “Oh, look at that. You have a woman here.”

“Don’t act so surprised,” Eric said as he shut the door. “This is Susan Hayes.”

“Ma’am,” Douglas said with a nod. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” she said. “Can I offer you a cup of coffee?”

“I’d like that.”

The men followed her into the kitchen.

“I was sorry to hear about your grandfather,” Douglas said as he sat down at the table with Eric. “He was a good man.”

“He was.”

Susan set the coffee carafe on the table and retrieved three cups. “Do you need milk?”

Douglas shook his head. “Black is fine.”

She nodded and sat down next to Eric.

“So you two have known each other awhile?” she asked as she poured the coffee.

Douglas picked up his cup and took a sip. “Yeah. I grew up with Dane. Eric was like everyone’s big brother.”

“That makes me sound old.”

“I said you were like everyone’s brother, not their father. But okay. You acted old enough,” he said on a chuckle. “So, down to business. Your car was stolen?”