“Sheriff Carson could have said no,” Keely replied.
“You don’t say no to Macreedy’s father,” Kilraven retorted.
“At least he’s learning all the back roads,” Winnie said philosophically.
Kilraven grinned at her. The look lasted just a second too long to be conventional, and Winnie’s delicate skin took on a pretty flush.
“Where’s my rifle?” came a bellow from the parking lot. “Somebody stole my rifle!”
Kilraven glanced out the window. The young fellow who owned the red SUV was running down the street with a rifle, in the general direction that the escaped deer had gone. The gun’s owner was jumping up and down in his rage and yelling threats after the deer hunter.
“I’d better go save the deer hunter,” Kilraven remarked.
“I hope he has an understanding insurance agent,” Keely mused.
“And a good lawyer. Stealing rifles is a felony.” Kilraven nodded at them and went striding out the door.
“Well!” Keely teased softly. “And you don’t think he likes you?”
Winnie’s expression was so joyful that Keely envied her.
CHAPTER NINE
KEELY HAD LAUGHED at the predicament Hayes Carson was in with his cousin Macreedy, but it was impossible for her to talk about him or think about him without remembering her mother’s pained confession about Hayes’s brother, Robert.
She was feeling guilty about that when Clark phoned her.
“I’m sorry,” she said as soon as she recognized his voice.
“You are?” He hesitated. “Oh. I guess you mean about Nellie. Boone knew all along, Keely,” he added heavily. “I thought I was pulling the wool over his eyes. I always underestimate him. He’d hired his girlfriend’s father’s detective agency to investigate Nellie. I can’t say I’m really surprised at what he found out. Well, I’m surprised that she was married and…fooling around with me, I mean.”
“Boone is very intelligent,” she said noncommittally.
“Yes, and he knows how to make people talk.”
She grimaced. “I didn’t mean to…”
“No! Not you. Me! He asked me what the hell I thought I was doing, leaving you at a dance alone all evening. He was furious.”
“But I was all right.”
“He knows that your father and his partner in crime might make a grab for you, Keely. I knew it, or should have known it, and I put you at risk. Boone said anything could have happened. I’m really sorry, Keely. I was so crazy about Nellie that she was all I thought about. You’re my friend. I should have been looking out for you.”
It made her warm inside that Boone was worried for her safety. “It’s okay, Clark,” she said. “Honest, it is.”
“He gets hot about you,” he continued. “I’d almost say he’s possessive of you, but that’s ridiculous. He is fond of you, in his way, I think.” He paused. “There was some talk about the two of you at the dance. You went outside together…”
“To talk about you,” she countered. “He wanted to know where you were and what you were doing. He’s very insistent.”
There was a relieved sigh. “Yes, he is.” He paused again. “Keely, you don’t want to ever get mixed up with him,” he said, in a stumbling sort of way that made her heart fill with disappointment. “Something happened to him overseas. He hated women for years after that she-cat dropped him when he was wounded. God knows why he’s letting her lead him down the same path again. Maybe he wants revenge. He doesn’t like women at all. He just uses them. Sort of like me,” he added miserably.
Keely didn’t know what to say, how to answer him. “He’s not a bad person.”
“I didn’t say he was, just that he’s hateful toward women. He’s keeping Misty on a tight rein, and he doesn’t watch his words when he talks to her. It’s almost like he’s keeping her around for some mysterious reason, but he doesn’t really want to have anything to do with her. He couldn’t care less if he’s late for a date, or if he doesn’t even show up. She spends most of their time together complaining about the way he treats her, and about you.”
“Me?” she exclaimed. “But why? Boone doesn’t give a hill of beans about me!”
“I don’t really know. She’s jealous of you.”
“That’s one for the books,” she mumbled. “She’s beautiful and rich. I’m plain and poor. I’m no competition at all.”
“I could dispute that,” Clark replied gently. “You have some wonderful qualities.”
“I’m no beauty.”
“Neither is she.”
Keely laughed softly. “Of course she is.”
“She’s not a beauty inside,” he said doggedly. “You are.”
“Thanks, Clark. You’re nice.”
“Nice.” He laughed. “Well, at least we’re still friends. Aren’t we?”
“Yes.”
“Then you can go riding with me from time to time. At the ranch. When Boone isn’t around,” he added with a wicked chuckle.
“We both know you’re not afraid of Boone,” she chided.
“Not much, anyway.”
“What did you tell Nellie, about not seeing her anymore?”
There was a long pause.
Her heart sank. “Clark, you’re not still seeing her?”
There was a longer pause.
“Her husband might hurt you. Really hurt you,” she warned.
He sighed. “You don’t understand. It’s complicated.”
“I guess I don’t,” she replied. “Be careful. Okay?”
“I’ll be careful. I know I have to break it off. But we had something special—on my side, at least. It takes a little time to adjust.”
“You watch your back,” she replied.
“I’ll do that. See you.”
“See you.”
She hung up, but she was worried. Clark was playing with fire. If she and Boone were really friends, she’d tell him. But Boone hadn’t called or come near her since the dance, when he’d kissed her so sweetly. She’d dreamed about him, ached to see him, but she hadn’t had so much as a glimpse of him. Perhaps he’d just been leading her on, she thought sadly, to get information about Clark and Nellie. There was a miserable thought, and it kept her unhappy the rest of the day.
* * *
SHE AND HER mother were getting along better than they ever had, although Keely lived in terror that her father, or worse, Jock, might just show up at the door. Ella had talked to
