Free A Little Texas by Liz Talley Page B

go?”
    “Yeah. I couldn’t remember how to get around this mausoleum, so I waited on you.” Finally, her eyes met his. They were no longer distant. They were determined. “So let’s go. I got myself into this, and there’s only one direction I can head now.”
    Rick moved down the hallway toward the staircase, but then stopped. “You don’t have to agree to his terms, Kate. I can get you a ticket back to Vegas. You can go home and forget about everything. It might be for the best.”
    He didn’t want her to go, and that surprised him. But in her interest, she should head for Vegas.
    She stopped in the middle of the hall. “You think he’ll let me do that? I poked the hornets’ nest, Rick. He’s not going to let me slink away with my tail tucked. Plus, I don’t work that way. He wants me around? Fine. I’ll be around. But he can’t control me. No one can. I play by my own rules, so that man back there may regret the hell out of wanting me here.”
    He couldn’t help it. He smiled.
    “What?” she asked.
    He loved her eyes, which was weird, because they looked so much like Ryan’s and Justus’s. But they were different. He could get lost in hers. Sometimes he hated the romance in his soul. Lost in a woman’s eyes? What a bunch of crap. “Nothing. I just…nothing.”
    She cocked her head, making her look like an inquisitive little mouse. But she didn’t push it. She spread her small hands apart, palms up. “Okay, then. Let’s go.”
    He led her down the stairs and out of the house, pausing only to shout a farewell to his grandmother who sat in front of the TV, immersed in a Mexican soap opera. Vera was nowhere in sight. He was glad. Justus needed to tell his wife about Kate coming to stay.
    He stepped out into the blustery day, swamped with the need for separation from the Mitchells. He needed to cut the string that bound him to Justus. He watched Kate cross the drive and knew she’d taken hold of one of those invisible threads and pulled him in even closer.
    And he’d gone willingly.





CHAPTER SEVEN
    R ICK DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING as they drove away. Kate was relieved because her emotions were tied into one giant knot that had parked itself in her stomach. It felt like a bowling ball. But she didn’t want to acknowledge it. She wanted to pretend the scene in Justus’s office meant nothing to her.
    The window was open and the cool air tousled her short hair and caused goose bumps to rise on her arms. She pulled the three-quarter sleeves of her sweaterdress lower.
    “Roll up the window,” Rick said as he turned onto the county highway that would take them toward Phoenix and eventually Longview.
    “No, it feels good. Kinda cleansing.” She stared at the barren landscape, watching cows munching on clumps of clover that dotted the pastures. “Thanks for coming back.”
    Such simple words of gratitude were hard for her. She didn’t like accepting the kindness of others, especially virtual strangers. But he deserved that much. He’d stood beside her as she faced her father for the first time in years, and he hadn’t been obliged to do so. In fact, he shouldn’t have. He’d picked the wrong side, considering his history with her father. But having him there had softened the trap that had closed around her.
    Justus. She didn’t miss the irony in his given name. He was a man who meted his own brand of justice. Was being trapped with him for two weeks fair? Was this nature’s joke on her for waking the monster of her past?
    She sighed. Rick glanced at her before focusing on the highway. He left her alone with her thoughts.
    Facing her father had been more difficult than she’d thought it would be. Seeing the man crippled, a shell of his former self, had been tough, had made her feel quite small for the act she was perpetuating against him. Like she was a bad person.
    Then he’d turned the tables. Made her boiling mad. And she hadn’t felt so very sorry for him after all. She’d felt