Chapter Eighteen
The moment Goldie turned to face him, Max could see how upset she was. He fought a desperate urge to pull her to him, hold her in his arms and tell her that everything was going to be all right. Unfortunately, he wasn’t at all sure of that.
He also wasn’t sure he was the man she wanted to comfort her. From the look in her eyes, he definitely wasn’t the one.
“Penny and the others have left,” Goldie said. “You’re too late. I don’t think they’ll be back. At least not for a while.”
“There is no law against them protesting,” Max said. “They just need to get a permit.”
“I’ll tell them that if I see them again.” She started to turn away.
“Goldie.” She stopped but didn’t turn back around.
He’d seen her come out of the hotel. Any fool could see how upset she was.
He had a pretty good idea what might have happened with Donovan.
“I can’t seem to say the right thing to you,” he said quietly, her back to him.
“But give me a chance to say what I should have said a long time ago. I was wrong. I’ve been miserable without you. ”
She turned slowly to face him again and he quickly continued even though he felt as if he was too late. He looked at the one woman he’d loved almost from the day they’d met as teenagers. The only woman he would ever love.
“Goldie,” he said, his voice cracking. He hadn’t wanted to do this here.
He saw her look around the empty street for a moment before her gaze returned to him.
He could see how badly she wanted to get away from him, so he blurted it out.
“I love you. I always have. I’ve been a stubborn fool.
I’ve treated you terribly. I’m so sorry. ”
She blinked as if not trusting that she was hearing these words come out of his mouth.
“I want you back, Goldie. You’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted.” The words tumbled out as if they’d been stacking up for months. “There hasn’t been a day, an hour, a minute when I haven’t missed you. All these months, I’ve wanted to come to you and beg you to forgive me and take me back.”
Tears filled her eyes as she whispered, “Why didn’t you, Max?”
He shook his head mournfully. “You know me. I thought I was doing the right thing by letting you go. Then my stubborn pride wouldn’t let me admit that I’d made the worst mistake of my life.” He saw suspicion in her eyes.
“So, what’s changed?”
“I… I can’t go on like this. Goldie, please, I don’t want to live without you.”
“And you just came to that conclusion and couldn’t wait another moment to tell me,” she said, studying him as if he was a bug she was about to step on. “This has nothing to do with Donovan?”
He hesitated. “Okay, I’m jealous, all right?”
Her chuckle held no humor. “So, this is about Donovan.”
“I’ll admit that seeing him with you has been killing me. I realized I’d never considered how I’d feel if you left town or found someone else and made a life with them that should have been ours.” He shook his head. “I want things back like they were.”
She looked at her feet, then up at him. “Back like they were,” she repeated. “That’s not going to happen. I want more than that.”
“With Donovan Cole,” he said with a shake of his head.
“Why not?”
“He’s involved in whatever is going on over at the café, I’m sure of it.”
She raised a brow. “Then arrest him.”
Max groaned. “I have to catch the bunch of them in the act. Look, I don’t blame you for not believing anything I tell you.
But believe this. I didn’t want to ruin your life.
I felt, given my past and what might come up in my future, you were better off without me.
A part of me still does, but I can’t let you—”
She shook her head and met his gaze with one that sent a chill through him. “That’s just it, Max. You’re no longer a part of my life so you have no say in what I do or don’t do.” She sighed. “Or what I’ve done.”
He closed his eyes for a moment. “I don’t care about what’s been going on between you and Donovan.”
“That’s good because you lost the right to care about anything in my life.
” Goldie looked as if she might burst into tears.
Clearly, she’d been crying earlier. “I did it all, selling the café, Donovan, all because of you.” She met his gaze and nodded sadly.
He could see anger fighting to hide the hurt.
“I hired him to make you jealous. Of course you’ve figured that out.
You must think I’m pathetic, doing all this to give you one more chance to change your mind. ”
“No, I admire you for not being afraid to go after what you want,” he said quickly. “You’re the bravest, strongest woman I’ve ever known. And you were right. What you did made me realize what a fool I’ve been. I’m so sorry for everything I’ve put you through.”
“I’m glad you think my desperate attempts were worth it. I wish I felt the same way. I’ve lost my café and my self-respect only to realize that you can’t give me what I want.”
Max’s throat closed on anything he might have said for a moment, the ache in his chest excruciating.
He couldn’t blame her for being so disappointed in him.
“I thought I was protecting you. But the truth is I was protecting myself. Cordell says I got our mother’s stubborn outlook on life.
He’s right. Like her, I don’t believe I deserve to be happy.
” He shook his head. “I’m so sorry. Having to face the pain of my past, I couldn’t believe anyone could love me, even you, Goldie. ”
“You’re wrong about that.”
He stepped closer, lowering his voice although there was no one around. “I love you. I’ve loved you since the first time I met you.”
“I know,” she said quietly.
“All that you’ve done to force me to admit that…” He met her gaze. “I never wanted you to lose your café. How, after everything, can you still love me?”
Goldie shook her head. “I’ve asked myself that same question. I do still love you, Max. But I want more than you’ve been able to give me. I’m no longer willing to hang around waiting for you.”
“I know. I promise—”
She touched a finger to his lips and shook her head. “Don’t make me any promises you can’t keep. You were right. They’re all involved with Mandeville—Donovan too.”
He felt his eyes widen in surprise at the change of subject, even more surprise at her words. Donovan. It felt as if he couldn’t breathe at the thought of her with that man. Or any man. “Now that you know, you can’t—”
Her cell phone rang. “It’s Donovan.”
“Goldie—”
Her phone rang again. “I have to take this.” She stepped away, her back to him. He couldn’t hear the conversation, only the tone of her voice, which hurt enough. No matter what she’d said, she’d gotten close to this dangerous man.
When she disconnected and turned to look at him, he said, “You can’t trust him.” She didn’t have to reply. He could see the answer in her face. He tried to swallow around the lump in his throat.
Her next words were spoken quickly and quietly, but they shook the earth under him.
“You’re right about Mandeville.” She glanced down the street at the sound of a revved engine.
A moment later, Donovan’s red sports car came into view.
“They’re all in on it, whatever it is. That should make you happy. ”
“How do you know that?”
She looked away for a moment. “Come by late tonight.” Her gaze met his. “You know how to get in, and I’ll give you what I have. Don’t follow me.” With that, she walked away from him as Donovan pulled up in front of the hotel and she hurried off to meet him.
As badly as he wanted to go after her, he couldn’t. He was too shocked by what she’d said, even if she hadn’t made it clear that she didn’t want him to follow her.
He was right about Mandeville. She said she’d give him what she had. Evidence? They were all in on it together? Including Donovan, the man waiting for her?
He watched her climb into the passenger side of the sports car next to Donovan and ride away, desperate to go after her, stop her, get her away from that man who was involved with the crime boss.
Goldie had found out something about the bunch of them, and even as angry and disappointed as she was with him, she was willing to help him.
He felt his first ray of hope that he might be able to save her and this town. He was still the sheriff. His instincts had been right. But the one thing she hadn’t said was that there was hope for the two of them. His heart ached at the thought that he’d already lost her.
Whatever she had to give him tonight, she was still staying close to Donovan. Because she had feelings for him? Or because she was trying to get more information out of him?
Either way, she was risking her life and Max couldn’t bear it. He’d let her down and brought all this on them and the town. He had to get her out of this mess before it was too late.
DONOVAN HAD SEEN the exchange between Goldie and the sheriff as he’d driven down the street toward the hotel. While he couldn’t hear what was being said, he had a pretty good idea that Max was trying to get her back. Wasn’t that what Goldie wanted more than anything?
Still, it seemed strange that Max would profess his love on the main drag of Dry Gulch. He must really be desperate.
“Are you all right?” he asked as she settled into the seat and snapped her seat belt. He saw her nervously touch her right-hand jean pocket as if to check to see if something she’d put in there was still inside. Apparently, it was.
“Can we go for a ride?” she asked, looking over at him for the first time since climbing in.
He hesitated, seeing how upset she was, but it was more than that. She looked shaken, and it was from more than what hadn’t happened earlier in his hotel room. “He wants you back, doesn’t he?” he asked as he shifted the car into Reverse and backed out.
“I don’t want to talk about Max.” She looked away, out her side of the car.
Donovan felt a stir inside him. He thought of her naked in his bed, but even then, she hadn’t really been with him. He suspected the sheriff would always be in her heart, leaving little room for another man. Yet he felt a new rift from whatever had just happened between them.
As he drove out of town, he wanted to take Goldie and keep going. Malcolm wouldn’t come after them both, would he? Not unless the crime boss had a role for Goldie to play in whatever he was planning in Dry Gulch.
The thought shook him as he glanced over at her and felt a chill. He’d believed that all Malcolm wanted was for him to keep the sheriff distracted. But what if he was wrong? Surely Goldie wasn’t part of it, was she?
MALCOLM HAD NO PROOF, but he knew. Maybe something he’d seen—an expression, a slip of the tongue, not even anything he could remember.
But he was certain the man his daughter had been seeing was his second-in-command, Luca Havers.
Had either of them really thought he would allow this to go any further?
Not a chance in hell—even if she was carrying his child.
Luca Havers was too old for Lolly. But it wasn’t the man’s age that made him all wrong for the crime boss’s daughter.
Malcolm knew things about Luca, things that made him well equipped for the kind of work he did for the family, but they were why he would never be his son-in-law.
He wondered how well his daughter knew this man.
It would be just like headstrong Lolly to fall for a man like Luca.
He hadn’t known who his daughter was seeing before she’d brought home Donovan Cole to throw him off track, but he’d still worried.
Lolly was like her mother. She couldn’t pick a decent man if her life depended on it. And now she was pregnant.
Maybe what worried him the most was that Luca Havers wasn’t the marrying kind. That was probably the attraction. Lolly always wanted something she’d been told she couldn’t have.
But why would Luca have an affair with his daughter, knowing how dangerous it would be? The man couldn’t possibly think that Malcolm would allow it. Luca also knew what his boss was capable of. At the very least the man had to know that he’d be furious and put an end to it quickly.
So why risk his life for a woman? Unless…
Could Luca have fallen for Lolly? Malcolm’s daughter was beautiful and rich and spoiled rotten.
Two out of three wasn’t bad, but he knew Luca.
He was the kind of man who would be attracted to the wild side of Lolly only because he would want the challenge of caging her once he had her, and that was something Lolly would never stand for—and neither would Malcolm.
He rubbed his jaw for a long moment, thinking about his second-in-command and hoping he was wrong about him.
Luca was ambitious. Maybe he saw a way to move up by using Lolly.
Just the thought had Malcolm’s stomach roiling.
He reminded himself that it had been Luca who’d told him about the bank being next door to the café.
He’d sent Malcolm the photo. It was also Luca who’d told him about how small rural banks gave large loans to farmers and ranchers once or twice a year, bringing in an armored car full of cash.
Malcolm shook his head. Luca wouldn’t set him up for a fall, he told himself.
The man was too smart for that, wasn’t he?
Maybe not, he realized. If he was right, Luca had been seeing Lolly behind his back and had impregnated her.
Which meant more than the fact that he could no longer trust the man.
Malcolm had to assume that Luca was making his move on the business.
It crossed his mind that Lolly and Luca could be more than lovers. They could be in league together, working to overthrow Malcolm’s reign. Had Lolly been born a man, he would have expected nothing less from her. Maybe he’d underestimated his daughter, who liked to be in control.
It was why he’d sent Lolly to Dry Gulch with the message for Donovan.
Luca would be arriving there at any time.
With the clock ticking on the large haul he’d been planning, Malcolm hated that Lolly had put them both in this precarious position.
If true, his daughter had made not just her worst-yet choice in men, but one that could put her on the wrong side of the family business—not to mention a man like Luca Havers.
Either betrayal could get her killed.