Читать книгу Lone Star Blues - Delores Fossen, Delores Fossen - Страница 10

CHAPTER THREE

“DO YOU REMEMBER when you got that tat in Singapore?” Theo asked her.

With a question like that, Jordan knew where this phone conversation was heading. It was going to be a mini life lesson. One that she wouldn’t want to hear but Theo would tell her about anyway.

The tat had indeed been a huge mistake. It’d not only gotten infected and ruined the rest of their vacation, but the inker had also botched it big-time. The Chinese symbol was supposed to be for “military” but instead looked like a stick figure with an enormous engorged penis. Worse, the penis pointed in the direction of her butt, making it look like a sordid sexual invitation to anyone who got a glimpse of it.

“Well, I think this is an even worse mistake than the tat,” Theo concluded. “It’s not a good idea for you to make this trip.”

And therein was the mini life lesson Jordan had been expecting while she drove from the San Antonio Airport to Wrangler’s Creek. Theo was right, though. It wasn’t a good idea. But it wasn’t as if she had options. No. Dylan and Adele had seen to that.

“I can be there in Wrangler’s Ridge in a day or two. I’m sure I can get leave, and I can help you deal with this situation,” Theo added. He’d already made that particular offer twice. It had preceded the tat reminder.

“Wrangler’s Creek,” she automatically corrected. “And really, there’s no reason for you to fly all this way.” Especially since Theo was stationed in Germany. Also, he’d eaten up a lot of his leave to be with her during her so-called recovery.

“Yes, there’s a reason for me to be there. A damn good one. You,” he argued. “You don’t know what you’ll be facing there. Adele can be so...unpredictable.”

Theo knew that firsthand, as well. He’d met Adele a few years back when they’d all ended up in San Antonio while Jordan was on leave. Adele had gotten mixed up with a group protesting a cause that Jordan couldn’t even recall. Things had gotten out of hand, rocks had been thrown, windows of an office building had been damaged. The only reason her cousin hadn’t been arrested then was because Theo had stepped in to talk the cops out of hauling her off to jail.

Theo had this whole rescue/hero thing down pat.

“Do the people there in Wrangler’s Creek even know you’re coming?” Theo asked a moment later.

Once she’d arrived at the San Antonio Airport, Jordan had texted Dylan to inform him that she was on the way, but she hadn’t checked her messages since then. She didn’t want to give him the chance to tell her not to come.

“It’ll all be fine,” Jordan assured her, though at best that was wishful thinking. Or possibly a whopping big lie.

Theo must have picked up on her doubt because he made a sound that he wasn’t quite buying it, either. “I hate that you have to go through this alone.”

Jordan knew Theo had her best interest at heart, but there was nothing that would stop her from making the drive so she could see Adele’s son and confront Dylan. She certainly wasn’t going to wait a day or two, either. She had waited long enough with the layover in Atlanta and the flight itself to San Antonio. And she’d seethed every minute of the delay. First for Adele not telling her that she’d had a child and second for Dylan screwing around with someone in her own family.

The man had no boundaries.

Of course, Jordan could say the same thing about Adele, but Dylan was six years older than Adele. He should have known better and kept his jeans zipped when she was around. Of course, from the bits and pieces she’d heard over the years, Dylan frequently unzipped.

But Dylan and Adele’s son wasn’t the only concern. There was the issue of Adele’s arrest.

Jordan had yet to find out the charges because she hadn’t wanted to call Dylan to ask him the specifics. A conversation like that was best face-to-face, but whatever Adele had done, Jordan needed to start working on getting her out of jail. That meant hiring a lawyer if she didn’t already have one.

“Are you still there?” Theo asked.

That’s when Jordan realized she hadn’t responded to the last thing that Theo had said. She was too busy bashing Dylan and Adele in her head.

“Yes, I’m here,” Jordan answered. “I just have a lot on my mind. And I’m trying to focus on the traffic.”

That last part for sure was a big fat whopper. Because there was no traffic to speak of. However, she wanted to get this call finished so she could gear up for the battle ahead.

“I won’t keep you on the line then because I don’t want you to get in an accident,” Theo said, and he paused again. “Look, I know the timing for this is all wrong, but have you given any more thought to what we talked about last week?”

Obviously, he was keeping her on the line despite his worry about an accident. But yes, she had thought about it, along with the swarm of information and memories. The swarm moved so fast sometimes that it was hard to catch onto only one piece. Well, except for the bad stuff. The bad memories had a way of lingering longer than the rest.

“You know how I feel about you,” Theo went on, “and after what happened, it’s made me realize that life’s too short not to hold on to the things we have. God, Jordan, I could have lost you.”

By things, he meant love. Theo loved her. Jordan had no doubts about that. He’d risked his life to rescue her, and he would do it again if necessary. Since her rescue, he’d made it clear that he wanted marriage. Jordan wanted that, too.

But she didn’t love him.

“I’m still thinking about it,” she settled for saying. She hated blowing him off like that. He deserved better. But right now, her emotional energy was spent. Any energy she could muster would be to work out this mess with Adele and Dylan.

Now it was Theo who hesitated. “Just promise me that while you’re there, you’ll keep taking your meds.”

Yes, that. Jordan was sorry she’d told Theo that the doctors at the base in Ramstein had prescribed her anxiety meds. And she’d taken them, too, while she was there for medical evaluation and debriefing. She’d also taken some on the flight because being in closed-in places made her feel on the verge of a panic attack.

But Jordan wasn’t sure about continuing the drugs.

They made her feel out of it, as if she weren’t quite herself. No need to have pills do that since she already felt that way.

“I brought my meds with me,” she said, and hoped that Theo wouldn’t say anything more about it.

He did.

“I just don’t want the flashbacks to hit out of the blue and pull you down,” he went on. “The meds will help you stay ahead of things.”

In this case, things meant the fear that kept coming back. It washed over her in waves, and yes, it did hit out of the blue.

Often.

And sometimes, it was so bad that she thought the panic might finally win and that she would have a full-blown attack. However, she doubted any dose of meds was going to make her forget that she’d been at the mercy of men, soldiers, who at any moment could have killed her and the rest of the crew.

“I need to go,” Jordan told him. “I’m in Wrangler’s Creek, and I’ll be at the Granger ranch soon. I’ll call you when I know more about Adele and Corbin.”

Just saying the boy’s name brought on a new kind of wave. A jumble of emotions. More anger at Adele for keeping him a secret. Concern for what would happen to him now that Adele was in jail. But there was also love. Despite the circumstances, Corbin was her flesh and blood, and even though she’d yet to lay eyes on him, she loved the little boy.

Jordan ended the call with Theo and took the turn down Main Street. A definite blast from the past. She’d been raised in Wrangler’s Creek, but it’d never especially felt like a place she wanted to be. The only times she’d been at peace here had been while she was with Dylan.

And that hadn’t lasted, either.

The restlessness had come. The feeling of inadequacy that most people from the other side of the tracks probably felt. She hadn’t been grounded here like Dylan. She still wasn’t.

After their marriage had ended, she’d had no trouble going. She had moved, leaving Adele and her mother behind. By then, her dad had been long gone. After Adele had finished high school, she’d also left—that’d been only a couple of months before Jordan’s mom had been killed in a car accident. After she’d died, there had been no reason for Jordan to come back.

Not until now.

Her chest tightened when she reached the gate to the Heavenly Acres, Dylan’s family’s ranch. The name was one of those ironies of life because so few heavenly things had actually happened there. Dylan’s family wasn’t exactly the heaven-inducing sort. For that matter, neither was Dylan unless it was a veiled reference to his sexual abilities. Those abilities were one of the big reasons he’d convinced her to marry him. They had temporarily glossed over problems that couldn’t have stayed glossed over for long.

The gate was open, no doubt left that way for her since it was normally closed, but that didn’t mean the Grangers were welcoming her. Not a chance. Jordan figured she’d managed to rile every single one of them when she’d ended things with Dylan. She would no doubt rile them further today when she confronted Dylan.

Other than a new house by the creek, the ranch looked pretty much as it had way back when. There were acres of pastures and pristine white fences. Plenty of livestock, too. All the things to let her know that the Grangers were still as wealthy as they always had been.

The tightness in her chest went up a huge notch when she pulled into the driveway of the massive house—yet another sign of wealth.

Despite having been married to Dylan, Jordan had never spent a single night in the place. Dylan and she had lived in the little guesthouse at the back of the property. It hadn’t been nearly as grand as the family “estate,” but it had given them the privacy that they’d thought would somehow help them succeed at something that had been doomed right from the very start.

Jordan pushed that all aside now. Pushed away her tat/mistake conversation with Theo, too, as she pulled to a stop in the driveway. She glanced in the mirror to see if she looked as nervous and worried as she felt.

She did.

If she’d been in a police lineup, she would have been an immediate suspect for multiple felonies because the nerves were showing all over her face. Her eyes were even a little twitchy. She’d ditched the perverted Easter bunny hoodie and hat. Now she did the same to the sunglasses, and she felt instantly naked.

Exposed.

Which really wasn’t a good thing to feel around Dylan. He had a way of undressing her with that bedroom smile. Or at least once it’d been bedroom-y. As upset as she was about all of this, it was highly likely she was immune to Dylan and anything he dished out.

When she stepped out of her rental car, she got another reminder. Of the scalding Texas heat. It was May, not yet summer, but even though the sun was about to set, the temps were still in the midnineties. Of course, it’d been hot on the deployment, but there’d been no thick humidity or pollen.

Before Jordan had even made it a step, the front door opened, and she tried to steel herself up to see Dylan. But what she saw was actually a friendly face.

Her old high school pal, Karlee O’Malley.

With a big smile and her arms outstretched, Karlee ran to her and pulled Jordan into a hug. “It’s so good to see you. Wish it were under better circumstances,” she added in a whisper.

Yes, Jordan wished that as well, but the truth was she wouldn’t be here at the Granger ranch if it hadn’t been for those circumstances.

Karlee eased back from the hug, sliding her hand around Jordan’s waist to get her moving toward the house. “I hope we’ll have time to catch up...after you’ve chatted with Dylan and met Corbin, that is.” She paused a heartbeat. “How are you?”

Jordan knew that question encompassed more than just Adele’s bombshell. Karlee had no doubt heard about the other thing. “I’m okay.”

Karlee lifted her eyebrow.

“Not okay with Dylan,” Jordan corrected. “I guess he doesn’t have the same man-rules as most guys about having sex with someone in your ex’s family.”

Karlee didn’t argue with that or jump into some Dylan bashing. She just led Jordan into the house. Still no sign of Dylan, but Lucian was there, talking to someone on the phone. However, when he spotted Jordan, he stopped and issued a terse “I’ll have to call you back” before he ended the call and stared at her.

“Jordan,” Lucian greeted. It wasn’t anywhere on the friendly scale, but unless Lucian had changed a lot, it was downright warm and fuzzy for him. “It’s been a while.” Again, warm and fuzzy.

And that made Jordan silently curse.

He was treating her with kid gloves, and while she didn’t especially want a confrontation with the head of the Granger empire, she didn’t want him to look at her in that “poor, pitiful you” kind of way.

“Where are Dylan and Corbin?” she asked, and she didn’t bother to make her tone polite. Even with her bark, it didn’t cause Lucian’s “soft” expression to change.

Lucian hiked his thumb toward the back of the house. “They’re in the sunroom. This way.” Apparently, he thought her captivity had robbed her of memories about the layout of the house because he started ahead of her, showing her the way.

“Are things about to get ugly?” Karlee asked, following them. “Because if they are, I can take Corbin outside to play.”

It was a kind offer, and Jordan hoped she didn’t have to take Karlee up on it. Still, Jordan wasn’t sure if she’d be able to keep her temper in check when she confronted Dylan. She didn’t want to yell in front of Corbin because it might frighten the little boy. It turned out, though, that her first response wasn’t to rant and rave. It was to try to hang on to her breath.

Because the air vanished when she saw Dylan.

Crap. She wasn’t immune to him after all.

He was indeed in the sunroom, and when Jordan stepped in, he looked at her, their eyes automatically connecting. For just a split second, the past fourteen years vanished. So did much of her dignity and common sense, and Jordan felt like a teenager again.

One who was kicked in the butt by the old lust.

And she silently cursed it. Really? After what he’d done, her body still wanted him?

Apparently so.

That probably had a lot to do with the fact that Dylan was still a lust-inducing cowboy with his rumpled dark brown hair and lazy smile. A smile he gave her until he remembered there wasn’t anything to smile about. Or at least there wasn’t until the little boy peeked out from behind Dylan’s leg.

Mercy, that face. Pure cuteness framed by curly hair. She had already known that she loved this child, but she had way underestimated the intensity of that love. All the anger inside her just vanished.

Corbin had a toy horse clutched in each hand, and judging from the other toys scattered around the sunroom, Dylan had managed to bring in plenty of stuff to keep a toddler entertained.

“It’s okay,” Dylan said to the boy. It was a tone that Jordan had thought she would never hear him use.

Because he sounded like a father.

That was a pretty fast transition, considering that Dylan had only known about Corbin for less than eight hours. And Corbin seemed to have adjusted, as well. At least he wasn’t crying. Unlike her. Jordan felt the tears in her eyes and quickly blinked them back.

Dylan scooped up Corbin and walked toward her, his attention not on her, thank goodness. Jordan didn’t want him to see the hint of those tears. Lucian was already looking at her as if she were a damaged box of goods, and Jordan didn’t want to see that in Dylan’s eyes, too.

“How is he?” Jordan managed to ask after she cleared her throat.

“He’s doing great,” Dylan answered, smiled, and Corbin gave him a smile right back.

On the surface, that was a good thing, Jordan reminded herself, but there were plenty of things not so good about this situation. “Any health problems?” She groaned because she sounded like a nurse and not the concerned relative that she was.

“Corbin has asthma,” Dylan explained. “But we have his meds.”

Asthma. She tried not to react to that, but it was hard. “Adele had that when she was a kid.” And she’d had a couple of attacks that were so bad that she’d landed in the hospital. Hopefully Corbin wouldn’t have to go through that.

Even though Dylan and she needed to talk, Jordan went closer, touching Corbin’s arm with just her fingertip. “Who dat?” he asked Dylan.

“Jordan,” she answered. And she wished she could put the aunt label in front of that. It sounded better than mere cousin, and it certainly didn’t stand up to the label that Dylan had.

Daddy.

But that didn’t erase the history that Jordan had with Adele. They’d been together for years, but she was betting Adele’s relationship with Dylan hadn’t lasted long at all. Probably a single night.

“Should I take Corbin so you two can talk?” Karlee offered.

Neither Jordan nor Dylan jumped to say yes, but Jordan finally had to nod. Dylan nodded, too, but he hesitated even longer than she did.

“Maybe you can go ahead and give him some dinner?” Dylan asked Karlee.

“Ice tream?” Corbin said, his whole face lighting up.

“For dessert,” Dylan assured him, jostling his hand through Corbin’s hair. “But you got to eat the real food first. Sorry.”

Corbin gave a little shrug that was almost identical to the one that Dylan gave him. It was a cute moment. One that made Jordan feel as if she’d just got caught in a downpour while wearing her Sunday best. She didn’t want it to pop into her head, but the thought came anyway. Fifteen years ago, this was the life she’d planned.

Dylan and a baby.

Now, here she was, thirty-four years old, and she didn’t have either of those things. Not that she wanted Dylan. Not as a husband and father anyway. She couldn’t stop the involuntary lust reaction, but her head knew that she was a lot better off without him.

Jordan had to keep repeating that to herself.

Corbin gave them a wave as Karlee ushered him out of the room, and Jordan waited until he was out of earshot before she snapped toward Dylan. “What happened to Adele?” she demanded. “And why are you Corbin’s father?”

Jordan really wished she’d figured out a better way to phrase that second question, and she hoped Dylan didn’t give her a smart-mouthed lesson about the birds and bees. But no lesson. He looked, well, uncomfortable. That was a good start, but Jordan wanted a lot more than a squirming look from him.

“Adele’s been charged with being in possession of stolen goods,” Dylan explained. “Lots of stolen goods. Specifically, forty-eight cases of SpaghettiOs and another thirty crates of Ding Dongs.”

Jordan was sure that she blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me right,” Dylan assured her, his expression flat now. “Adele arranged to receive stolen food. Apparently, she did it for a homeless shelter that’d lost its funding.”

She stood there, stunned, for several moments. All right. Stolen goods—even those taken for a noble cause—would definitely lead to an arrest. But the charge didn’t sound serious enough to force Adele to hand over custody of her son.

“Adele can get probation—” Jordan started, but Dylan interrupted.

“No. She won’t. I haven’t personally spoken with Adele,” Dylan went on, “but from what I’ve been able to find out from her lawyer, she’s getting some kind of plea deal to give the cops the names of others involved in the theft ring.”

“A theft ring?” Jordan howled. “She talked other people into helping her with this lunacy?”

“It looks that way. Some of them stole cases of flip-flops and raincoats.” He paused. “I can’t make sense of it, either. I mean, if you’re going to steal stuff for a homeless shelter, why take these things?”

Jordan didn’t have to think about it for long. “The food items are Adele’s favorites. Along with tacos.”

“Those were stolen, too,” Dylan added. “The boxed makings for them anyway.” He huffed. “And the flip-flops and raincoats?”

Jordan had to shake her head. Even she couldn’t fit that into Adele’s crazy logic. “So, we’re talking a lot of goods worth...what...hundreds of dollars?”

“Thousands,” he corrected. “Even with the plea deal, though, it’ll be a longer than average jail sentence because this isn’t her first offense.”

Oh God. When this conversation had started, Jordan thought the worst she would hear was that Adele was a misguided activist who was going to end up with hours of community service—something Adele would have probably enjoyed doing. Apparently not, though.

Jordan located the nearest chair and sank down onto it.

“Are you okay?” Dylan asked at the same moment that Lucian said, “I’ll get you some water.”

Jordan waved Lucian off. Water wasn’t going to help this. Heck, straight shots of liquor wouldn’t, either.

“You didn’t know about Adele’s prior arrests?” Dylan threw out there, but he didn’t wait for her to answer. “And yes, that’s plural. Four years ago she was arrested for trying to break into a jail and then for assaulting a guard when she kicked him in the nuts.”

Jordan had given more blank stares during this conversation than she had in years. “Adele tried to break into a jail? Why?”

Dylan shrugged. “One of her activist friends had been arrested, but Adele thought he’d been wrongfully accused. Anyway, she’s still on probation for that and for some other things, and that’s why she won’t get parole for this latest stunt.”

God, she’d been living under a massive rock when it came to Adele. Jordan had thought that because she hadn’t heard from her cousin that all was well. Or rather, well-ish. Things were never truly right when it came to Adele. But she hadn’t expected something this big. This wrong.

Dylan sat in the chair across from her though she didn’t think it was because he was unsteady on his feet. Like her. No. But he was giving her the same kind of “you’re broken” look that Lucian was.

Since Jordan didn’t want to admit there was apparently so much about Adele that she was clueless about, she just moved on to the next question. “You didn’t know Corbin was your son?”

Dylan immediately shook his head. “I haven’t seen Adele in over three years.”

You didn’t need any math skills to work that out. He’d last seen her when Corbin was conceived. Which made Jordan wonder—why hadn’t Adele told him? Heck, why hadn’t Adele told her?

Lucian walked closer and stood behind his brother. “Dylan doesn’t recall being with Adele.”

Jordan knew where this was going. “You were drunk.”

Heck, Adele likely had been, too. That didn’t make things easier though for Jordan to swallow, but she was well aware that Dylan had trouble remembering things when he drank.

Because it had happened the night they’d eloped.

After an incredible night of newlywed sex, Dylan had woken up, not remembering that he’d married her. Things had gone downhill from there. Unfortunately, even “downhill” had involved more incredible sex.

“I would have thought you’d learned your lesson,” Jordan mumbled.

“You’d think, especially since I’ve blacked out three times now,” Dylan mumbled back. “But in Adele’s case, it wasn’t booze. I had a bad reaction to some prescription cold meds. I remember seeing Adele that night, but that’s about it.”

So, once with her and another time with Adele, but Jordan didn’t want to know about the third.

“Because Dylan can’t remember—that’s why I want him and Corbin to take a DNA test,” Lucian said.

Dylan huffed. The kind of huff that came when an argument happened that the person already thought had been settled. “I don’t think Adele would lie about something like this.”

Yep, they’d already argued, and as much as Jordan hated to admit it, she could see Lucian’s side of this. Plenty of Granger money was at stake, maybe millions, and all because of drunken sex. Or in this case, medicated sex.

Lucian looked at Jordan as if she might take his side. She wouldn’t. That’s because she was about to bring up her own argument, and judging from what she’d witnessed between Dylan and Corbin, Dylan wasn’t going to like it.

She stood, dragging in a deep breath so she could start. But before she could get a word out, a little dog came trotting into the room. It had a piece of paper in its mouth. The dog went straight to Dylan and deposited it at his feet.

“Shit,” Dylan said.

“Hell,” Lucian said.

And both of them grabbed at it. The dog was quicker, though. As if this were a fine game the Yorkie was enjoying, he snapped up the paper and scurried to the other side of the room.

“Don’t let him eat it,” Dylan warned his brother. “He’s been shitting elastic all day from those red panties. I don’t want him shitting paper, too.”

Since that seemed unhealthy for the dog, Jordan went to help. Dylan, Lucian and she cornered the critter by a pair of wicker chairs, but just as Dylan was reaching for him, the dog ran through Dylan’s legs. That brought on more cursing, and they hurried after him.

“Booger!” Dylan snapped. “Drop that.”

With a name like Booger, Jordan doubted this was Dylan’s dog. No, this looked more like something his mother, Regina, would have.

Booger jetted around the room, somehow managing to keep hold of the tattered paper he was carrying. Jordan got lucky when he charged in her direction, and she managed to latch onto the paper. And that’s when Jordan saw what it was.

The Dylan Granger Sex Bingo Game.

She got only a glimpse of one of the boxes—get a stomach licking from Dylan—before Dylan snatched it away from her. He didn’t even look at it before he mumbled some profanity, crumbled it up and stuck it in his back pocket. Jordan hadn’t needed proof that her ex had gotten on with his life, but that was it.

“Any winners?” she asked, but Jordan waved that off.

Of course there were winners. Dylan was a hot, rich, charming cowboy. The red panties that the dog had partially eaten had likely belonged to one of the players of the game. However, there was something that Dylan couldn’t charm his way through.

Fatherhood.

Corbin needed stability. Someone who could help him manage his asthma in case Adele ended up in jail for a while. She figured after Dylan gave this some thought, that he’d actually be relieved by what she was about to say.

“I know that Adele signed over temporary custody to you.” Jordan looked Dylan straight in the eyes. “But she only did it because she thought I wouldn’t be in the picture. Well, I can be. And that’s why I’m here. Because I should be the one to have custody of Corbin.”