Chapter 4CassieLink
Chapter 4
Cassie
“Wow, Cassie, Hollywood really is treating you right!” Lincoln whistles on the way to the rental car. “I should drive.”
I hold the keys over my head. “Absolutely not. And stop calling me that!”
“Come on.” He almost sounds whiny and clears his throat. “You’re too old to be Cassie now? Or too fancy?” He points to the metallic gray Lexus in the empty parking lot.
I shrug because telling him the actual reason I no longer like the nickname is too embarrassing.
“Fine, Hollywood.” He gives me a wink and puts out his hand for the keys. “I should still drive. I know where it is.”
“Definitely don’t call me that. And I know where McCray Farms is. Nice try, though.” I unlock the doors and slide into the driver’s side. “Buckle up, buttercup.”
We both freeze.
Robert Love had two sayings in life: ‘Only way to solve it is by solving’ and ‘Buckle up, buttercup.’ I had managed to go almost a year without hearing either one of them, and now, in the span of an hour, both have come out of my own mouth.
My whole body catches on fire with the pain of losing him all over again. I can’t move or think or breathe.
“How do you know where Sonny McCray’s farm is?” Lincoln asks with a hint of mischief in his voice.
My head snaps around and I glare at him, then catch the heat rising up his collar as well. It takes a second to realize he’s changing the subject. Offering me a reprieve.
I release my breath and start the car. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I feel his smile rather than see it. “Cassandra Marie Love,” he says slowly as if I’m in trouble.
“What?” I turn to him and blink with faux innocence.
He shakes his head. “Kids these days.”
“I’m not a kid.” It comes out with much more force than intended.
“No, I suppose you’re not.” Something in his tone makes me look back over at him. He quickly turns away, but I catch it, that glint in his eye as he realizes a woman sits beside him now.
“Still,” he adds as we pull onto the road, “a nice girl like yourself had no business out there. Who took you out there?”
“I’m never telling.”
That’s between me and Vinnie Martinez… and the cows.
“So, how is Hollywood treating you? For real?”
Another subject change. I wonder if he’s as uncomfortable with this topic as I am. Whatever the reason, I welcome it.
“You know I’m in New York, right?”
“Yeah, but you film in Hollywood, don’t you?”
“Some.”
Not as much as I’d like.
I stare out at the road ahead, hoping he doesn’t ask for more information. I’m not ready to admit how far I’ve fallen in this past year, how so many of my bridges burned while I was still standing on them.
It’s so weird being back here. Everything looks the same. Montana never changes. It’s what I hated about this place when I ran off to New York. Now, watching the same barns and the same dirt roads pass me by, I find comfort in the sturdiness of it. My life has been a whirlwind of chaos for the past four years. This last year, in particular, the noise has all been in my head. A constant, unyielding buzz that clouds my every thought.
But now, with swaths of empty fields on either side of me, it’s calm.
“I bet I could be an actor,” he states in his confident I-can-do-anything voice.
Mostly calm.
“You think you got what it takes?”
“Yeah, why not? I got the chops for it.” He flashes me his best leading-man smolder, and that familiar knot in my stomach twists.
I groan at him. “Nobody calls it that anymore.”
He laughs back at me. “I saw this cop show once. The leading guy on there, can’t think of his name, but he couldn’t keep up with his young costar. She acted in circles around him. I could do better than that, for sure.” A strange feeling tugs at my heart, thinking of him watching my show.
“You know good and well his name is Xavier Flint.”
“Is it?” He shrugs. “I stopped watching when that cute young detective got killed off. She carried that show.”
The twisted knot in my stomach warms.
Gary told me getting killed off The Force was a blessing in disguise. I’m still waiting for the disguise to come off.
“What kind of name is Xavier Flint anyway? Sounds made up.”
I lean in conspiratorially and whisper, “His real name is Leslie Beaufort.”
Lincoln’s mouth drops open. “That’s so much better than I suspected.”
“Don’t tell anyone. I mean it! Pretty sure I signed an NDA about that.”
He makes a zipped lip motion as we pull up to the property.
“Not here. We gotta go around back where the fence keeps breaking.” Lincoln motions toward the other side of the pasture.
“There’s no road back there.”
“Didn’t seem to bother you last time you were here.”
“Yeah, but…” I catch myself before saying Vinnie’s name. “This isn’t a truck.”
“That’s why I said I should drive. Here, let me.” He nudges me over and gets out of the car to come around to my side.
“No!” I yell through the closed window. “No way!”
“It’s either this or you walk all the way across on those pretty little manicured toes of yours.”
I furrow my brow. He has a point. These sandals will not survive a trek through a pasture. “Don’t look at my toes!”
“Don’t flatter yourself. That red polish is so bright, I’m worried you’ll startle the cows.” He taps the window and holds out his hand.
I push the door open hard, knocking him back. “I didn’t get the extra insurance, so be careful.”
“Doesn’t SAG cover insurance?”
“Not for cars,” I say, rolling my eyes as I stomp around the car and climb into the passenger side. This is such a bad idea.
Lincoln peels out of the driveway and drives my nice rental car into the field.
“I said be careful!”
“This is the path!”
“There’s no path here!”
The car slips and swerves in the mud. “Forgot how much it rained last weekend.”
“Lin—coln...” I drag his name out in full warning.
He slams on the brakes and jumps out of the car. “Stay there!” He yells the command over his shoulder as he takes off into the tall grass.
I don’t know why I get out. Maybe it’s out of spite for his toes comment. Or my refusal to sit in the car and let him have all the fun.
Though nothing about this is going to be fun.
I chase Lincoln into the tree line. As I go, bushes and brambles reach out to stop me. The fabric on my collar rips, and a flash of annoyance courses through me.
I find him standing behind a giant oak, holding a lasso and grinning from ear to ear.
My mouth drops open.
“Knew you wouldn’t be able to resist.” He twirls the lasso and winks. “Come on.”
I obey, trying and failing to only step in his bootprints.
Was he wearing boots this whole time?
That’s an interesting development. The Lincoln I remember wouldn’t be caught dead in cowboy boots.
“How often does this bull get out?”
“Often enough.”
We walk for what seems like an hour before finally spotting the bull grazing by a stream. “He’s huge,” I say between ragged breaths.
“Why do you think the fence keeps breaking?”
“Now wha?—”
I don’t get the whole word out before Lincoln charges the bull. But he doesn’t go straight for it. He runs to the left and yells, which makes the bull run in the opposite direction. Right into the loop of the lasso as it sails through the air.
The bull thrashes and snorts as Lincoln tightens the lasso and walks up slowly to pat it on the rump. “Told you we gotta stop meeting like this, Benny.”
At the sound of his voice, Benny the bull calms. He seems to resign himself to his fate and starts walking toward me.
Lincoln, filthy and sweaty, gives me his best cowboy smile. “Easiest $500 ever.”
I’m disappointed in myself for how hot I find him right now.
I look away, down at my disgusting shoes and the mud cakes on my lower pantlegs, and groan. It has the desired effect of calming my hormones.
As he passes me, Lincoln pats Benny on the side and says, “Your cut will be in your feed bucket tomorrow.” Then he glances in my direction, and all the complicated feelings come rushing back. “Think you can handle the ride?”
I swallow.
Then, follow his gaze toward the car and beyond, back through the field.
I straighten my back and try to look confident. “Been here a million times, remember?”
Watching the grin drop from his face is priceless. I am not about to admit it to Lincoln, but being back on a case filled me with an adrenaline I’d missed. If I were completely out of my mind, I would describe my afternoon as fun in a crazy way.
At the car, I see a long scratch across the door and front end. I bite my lip and grumble, “Should’ve gotten the insurance.”
I climb in and fix the mirrors, waiting for Lincoln and the bull to lead the way, and notice a rip across the collar of my blouse.
Then I glare out the window at his stupidly handsome face and want to scream.
Link
When I return to the fancy car, Cassie’s in the passenger seat. I walk a little taller because I won. And because she’s watching. I’ve never cared about her looking at me before, but now… Now, her eyes burn holes through me.
I resist the urge to shake it off or stare back.
A player’s gonna play play play play play.
I close my eyes to get that song out of my head before it’s there all day. The last thing I need is to start humming that with Cassie Love in my—her—car.
I open the door and am immediately struck by her perfume’s sweet, flowery scent.
This is what you need to shake off, Link!
Cassie Love is off-limits.
“I see you came to your senses.” I flash her a smile and start the car.
She only huffs and makes a show of ignoring me. That’s fine. I could use the break. And these leather seats! My butt has never been so cushy. It’s the least she could do after I had to walk all the way back to the barn with Benny.
A new, genuine smile spreads across my face as I check the rearview mirror to back up, which I chalk up to the physical exercise. Endorphins. Gotta love ‘em! Then, a screen on the dash lights up, showing me a bunch of grass and gravel. “Welcome to the future, kid.”
We both cringe, but I’m sure for different reasons. I can’t believe I just called her ‘kid,’ though it’s probably for the best. Seems I need the reminder. She’s Robby’s kid .
Once we’re done bumping over the ruts and gravel, I try to strike up a conversation. “Don’t know about you, but I could go for a huge steak right about now.” Then, I brace for the backlash. This used to be our little joke. I’d tell her I have a hankerin’ for some meat, and she’d tell me I was a caveman and should go vegan.
But now… nothing.
So I try again. “By the looks of that shirt, I might as well sign Sonny’s whole check over to you.”
Cassie looks down and touches the hole in her fluffy collar. Then her hand travels around the entire thing, feeling hole after hole.
“We’d have to wrangle three bulls to pay for this shirt!” Her tone is cold at first, but she breaks and throws her head back in a hearty laugh.
She’s beautiful.
I keep my eyes glued on the road.
She’s Robby’s daughter , I tell myself again, hoping this time the logic will take hold.
Not my fault she’s so gorgeous.
“What took you so long?”
“What?”
Did I say that out loud? Link! You idiot!
“Taking the bull back. You were in there a while.”
“Oh,” I say, breathing a sigh of relief. “Sonny and I went to school together. We were just catching up.”
“Was Laura Ingalls your teacher?”
“Ha ha.” I make a donkey laughing noise at her. “Least I wasn’t an iPad kid.”
“Neither was I!”
I look over at her, doing the math. She was already in her teens when Robby and I went into partnership, but I’m sure she’s the right age.
Cassie must clock the confusion on my face. “I was an iPod kid. Only thing I had left from Mom.” From the uncomfortable way she swallows the last word, I can tell she hasn’t mentioned the woman who broke her and Robby in a long time.
How someone could leave a man like him and a daughter like Cassie was beyond me. But in my line of work, you realize people are never what they seem.
“No difference,” I say, hoping to recapture our brevity, but the moment has passed.
When she doesn’t respond, I let her have her silence. I can’t imagine what it’s like being back here all of a sudden. And under these circumstances.
The only problem is that with that silence comes my thoughts, like what I was really talking to Sonny McCray about.
“Where’s Brandon?” I asked, looking at the other empty stall. “Didn’t see him. Need me to go back out? Only cost you double!” Brandon was the other bull residing in Sonny’s barn and was as much trouble as Benny.
“Man, I don’t know,” Sonny said, ignoring my joke. “He’s been gone a week now. I didn’t call you ‘cause I don’t think he got loose. The fence was still up. And I found this…” He walked me over to the stable door and ran his finger along two distinct gouge marks on the frame. “Pry bar, I reckon.”
“And all they took was Brandon?” It didn’t make sense. They could have cleaned him out.
“Don’t make no sense. I know.” Sonny threw his hands up. “Can you keep an eye out? Or an ear? However you do your thing.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “Of course. I’ll see what I can find out. But isn’t there a warden or something for this sort of thing?”
Sonny spit on the hay ground. “Don’t trust that guy as far as I can throw him.” Then he dug in his pocket for a crumpled $100 bill and laid it in my hand. “An investment in settling this the old-fashioned way.”
I’ve been paid under the table countless times in my years and for deals way more sinister than that. But for some reason, this $100 in my pocket feels like a bad omen. Why would someone just steal a bull and nothing else?
When we get back to the office, Cassie doesn’t say a word. She just gets out of the car, takes the keys, then gets back in and drives off. I have no idea if I’ll see her again, and I don’t like how that thought is a like knife to my chest.
“Where’s she off to?” Quinn asks, coming to let me in the door. We’ve kept it locked since my friendly visit from Phin’s goons.
“Dunno,” I say with a shrug. I thought things were going well in the car until she accidentally brought up her mom and shut down.
“Well, I heard back from Davis. The bounty’s void.”
The side of my fist slams the brick wall. All I can see is red… and the stack of unpaid bills Cassie yelled at me about. This extra $100 in my pocket won’t even make a dent. “Now what?”
“Now you go snag Junior again on the right warrant.”
“He’s onto me now. It’ll never work. The kid’s smarter than his old man.”
“Then I guess you gotta get creative.”
I follow Quinn into the building and slam my office door behind me. I need the silence to think. And I really could use the distraction from all these thoughts of Cassie Love infiltrating my head.