Free Slow Heat in Heaven by Sandra Brown Page B

certainly as she knew that there was something sexual going on. But then, if rumor was correct, everything that Cash Boudreaux had done since he was about thirteen years old had been sexually motivated.
    She wasn't flattered. She wasn't afraid. If he'd wanted to assault her, he'd had plenty of opportunities in the past twenty-four hours to do so. Mostly, she was offended. Obviously he had lumped her into the ranks of women who were flattered by his indiscriminate attention.
    If she were being entirely honest, however, she had to admit that the prospect of experiencing something sexual with Cash Boudreaux had a certain allure. He was disreputable and dangerous, aggravating and arrogant. He was rude and disrespectful and treated women abominably. Perhaps that was his attraction, what made him desirable.
    Geographically they'd grown up in the same place, but the realms of their upbringings were worlds apart. They had nothing in common except these sexual undercurrents, which were invisible but as real as the shimmering heat waves that radiated out of the ground, She was a woman. Cash Boudreaux was indisputably a man.
    She raised her head and gave him a direct look, as if by doing that she could nullify the subliminal sparks. "Did you follow me here?"
    "No. I just happened by. Thought I'd check on things."
    "Check on things? I'm sure Ken is capable of handling things while Daddy is ill."
    "Ken isn't capable of finding his ass with both hands."
    "Mr. Boudreaux—"
    'To keep everybody from discovering that, he shut the place down."
    Her protests died on her tongue. "What! What do you mean he shut the place down?"
    "I mean he told all the employees on the payroll that they were laid off until further notice. He told the independent loggers to find other markets for their timber. He said that Crandall Logging was temporarily out of operation. Then he locked the door and left. Don't you think that amounts to shutting the place down?"
    Schyler fell back a step. She gazed about the office with dismay, realizing now why it had an abandoned look. It bore the empty sadness of a house that hadn't been occupied in awhile. "Why would Ken do that?"
    "I just told you why."
    "I'm serious."
    "So am I." Cash flicked his cigarette out the door behind him. It made a red arc before dying in the dust of the deserted yard. "The day after they took Cotton to the hospital, your brother-in-law paid everybody off and hightailed it outta here."
    "Does Cotton know about it?"
    "I doubt it."
    "So do I." She gnawed the inside of her cheek, trying to figure out what could have motivated Ken to shut down. Cotton had had to ride out economic crunches before, but he had never laid off employess. "That must have put scores of men out of work."
    "Goddamn right it did."
    Schyler pulled her fingers through her hair. "I'm sure Ken had his reasons. They just aren't apparent."
    "Well, let me tell you what is apparent, Miss Schyler."
    He stopped slouching in the doorway and advanced into the room. "About half the families in the parish are running out of groceries. Prospects aren't looking too good that they'll have money to buy more any time soon. While your brother-in-law is languishing around the country club swimming pool, swizzling glass after glass of Lynchburg, Tennessee's finest, kids are doing without breakfast, dinner, and supper."
    Ken left the house every morning and returned every afternoon. Schyler had assumed he was at work during those hours. It galled her to think that he was living off the profits Cotton had put a lifetime into earning. But perhaps she was being unfair by jumping to conclusions. Ken had begun working for Crandall Logging when he married Tricia. When his parents were killed, he had sold everything in New Orleans, severed all connections there, and moved to Heaven. He had several years of his life invested in this business. There must be a logical explanation for his shutting down operation.
    "Come up with any good excuses for him yet?"
    "I