planning to visit his girlfriend after work. Said she was free or something. But all of a sudden, he goes, like, nuts. Shoves the paperwork in my hands and tells me to have Mrs. Reed lock up when I’m done.”
A girlfriend? Jake’s mouth tightened, remembering Whipple’s arm around Kallie in the bar and his gloating expression when Jake said he’d be out of town.
And his fury when Jake returned to town.
A serial killer in the area. Whipple had dated Mimi too-had been obsessed with her. Jake spun on his heel and strode out of the store, knowing he’d jumped to unfounded conclusions. Whipple didn’t have the guts to murder anyone.
So why didn’t that loosen the knot in his chest?
As the evening sunlight slanted through the barn door and Mufasa sprawled in the clean straw, Kallie started cleaning stalls. Yeah, she was pooped, but the mindless work of mucking out felt good. Felt orderly as everything else in her life fell apart. She’d lost her not-quite-a-boyfriend. A murderer ran loose in the area.
A murderer. How strange. She tried to remember if anyone from Bear Flat had died on the trails, and an icy thought slid into her mind. Jake’s girlfriend had committed suicide…by jumping off a cliff. They didn’t know why. What if something else had occurred?
Would it make any difference to Jake?
She shook her head and flattened the hope. He was too much like Virgil, taking personal responsibility to whole new heights. Even if someone had murdered his Mimi, Jake would decide that was his fault too. For whatever reason. Kallie might as well face the fact that the man couldn’t-wouldn’t-move past his old girlfriend.
She slid down into the fresh straw, leaned back against a post, and cuddled the cat in her lap. “I’m tired,” she whispered.
Mufasa’s ears flickered.
“And I hurt.” Everywhere. Her chest, like someone had wound rubber bands around it. Her stomach muscles, the muscles at the juncture of her thighs, her inner thigh muscles. Well, she knew why her lower half hurt, and she wasn’t going to think about any of the reasons why, like the last time when he’d put his arm under her knee, pulling her leg up so he could get deeper and-
Damn him anyway. Her eyes prickled, and the lump weighing down her stomach grew heavier. She laid her cheek on Mufasa’s furry head and gave an unhappy sigh. She’d given up on having a family love her, but was she asking too much to have a guy want her? Even if he didn’t love her? Other women managed it…
She didn’t find an answer-she never had.
Instead she stroked the cat and thought about Jake’s reaction in the tent and how he’d so carefully avoided entanglements since his girlfriend. “Mufasa, I can’t fight this one. Even if I hadn’t blurted out…that…he’d still have dumped me sooner or later.”
She’d gone into the affair with her eyes wide open-no one could say Jake had lied to her-but her feelings had changed. Jake had made it clear that he didn’t want her love, and she wouldn’t- couldn’t-play up-and-down games with her emotions. She rubbed her chest. How many times could she survive being turned away by people she loved?
The sound of a vehicle’s wheels on the gravel brought her head up. Jake? As Kallie’s breath caught, Mufasa flowed out of her lap to stand in the doorway and peek out. Kallie pushed to her feet, heart pounding, and paused.
A furry head butted her leg in agreement.
She stepped out of the barn and saw a car, not a pickup. A man got out, and she recognized the sandy brown hair and stocky frame.
“Hey, David,” she said unenthusiastically. “What brings you up the mountain? You making deliveries now?”
Without speaking, he walked over to her. His brown eyes looked…odd. “Kallie. I came to you when I saw…” His face darkened. “I closed the store early to come out here.”
He never closed early. “Why?”
“I had a chat with Jake this morning.”
Jake? Her back stiffened, and she resorted to the tone Aunt Penny employed with rude salespeople. “Excuse me?”
“You’re not with him anymore, are you?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Oh but it is.” He gripped her shoulder with one hand, and gave her a shake. His mouth worked for a second like a landed trout’s. “The bastard isn’t right for you. You’re too fine for him. No”-he shook her again-“it’s us. We’re meant to be together. You belong with me.”
Was the man out of his flipping mind? “Listen, David, I’m flattered that you-”
“You can move in with me,” he interrupted her, his words now tumbling out almost too fast to follow. “You shouldn’t be living here with a bunch of men anyway, even if they are your cousins and”-the way his expression changed so quickly, from pleasure to anger, set her nerves to twanging-“I don’t like that partnership with the Hunts at all.”
“You’re moving a little fast for me. We only dated twice.” She tried to ease away, but he didn’t let go.
“That’s okay. We’ll get to know each other real well.” Again that shift, as if his emotions controlled him.
The flush in his face and the way his gaze lingered on her breasts sent alarm through her, and her skin chilled despite the evening’s heat. Enough was enough. She didn’t want to have to punch him, so she shoved his hand off her shoulder and took a step back. “I like you, David”-
“It’s because of that bastard Hunt. Because he hurt you.”
“He left town, you know.” He reached for her, and she retreated again. “Yeah, got groceries for at least a week. He went fishing. Without you. He-”
As his words slashed at her, she stumbled back another step. The pain knotted her throat closed until the only words she could force out were: “Go
“Kallie, you need to stay away from Hunt. He hurt Mimi’s heart too. My pretty, pretty Mimi.”
Even as fear trickled up her spine, he grabbed her arm.
Chapter Eleven
By the time Jake hit the turnoff, his fingers had dented the steering wheel cover. He turned the truck onto the Masterson road without slowing, and gravel splatted across the foliage. Another car
