Chapter 4
FOUR
CORD
New Promises and Dust Devils
Damn, but Lanie Parker’s cute. Even when she’s caught me on the back foot on all the things I shouldn’t be doing because Winnie’s told me often enough to stop, but I’m here anyway. And now, I have a second—no, a third—reason not to haul my ass to my truck and head back north.
Because somewhere between when she drove onto my property and this morning, the wolf girl I haven’t been able to stop thinking about embedded herself solidly into my mind.
She’s different from the type of buckle bunny I usually go for around this time of year, especially with the Valiant Peak Invitational coming up.
But the craving she’s lit inside my veins isn’t something I can ignore.
If I didn’t drive three hours on a flimsy excuse that my sister sees straight through, Lanie’s sassy nature alone gives me the best reason to stay. “I’m that transparent, huh?” Because damn if that mouth of hers doesn’t do it for me.
“It’s gotta be obvious. My head isn’t working so well right now.” Lanie leans forward. She braces her forearms on her knees as her hair tumbles further over her shoulder, and she lets out a soft groan.
I note the shadows beneath her eyes for the first time.
Not that I have a reason to be looking anywhere other than her ass since that’s what I got my first eyeful of when I walked straight into Winnie’s townhouse.
It rankles that the place was unlocked for anyone to wander in, but I push the security risk aside for now as a different set of alarm bells ring in my head.
Lanie mentioned a migraine earlier. I can’t help myself; I reach out and cup her jaw, checking her over as Winnie has taught me to do, searching for the pinpoint pupils, the wince when she watches me or turns away from light, but she doesn’t display any of the symptoms I know to look for.
Pretty blue eyes the color of Big Sky Country track the movement, dusky pink lips parting as she stares at me.
Why the hell do I care so much about this woman who drove into my life days ago?
It might be fast as fuck, but my hands won’t let me quit. I swallow hard and pretend to continue the rest of my examination, my lips tingling at her proximity. “Are you okay?”
She blazes at me like she did the day she first turned up at Coyote Falls.
I turn her head gently side to side. Her pupils aren’t dilated.
Maybe Winnie can look at her, but I know she’ll already have an eye on Lanie.
My sister is nothing if not conscientious.
Besides, neither woman will appreciate me prying into their lives any more than I already am.
“I’m fine.” Lanie shakes her head, her brow dipping as pain etches across her gaze.
My touch on her jaw eases, but I’m not ready to let her go just yet, knowing I’m easing my way into her boundaries as it is. “You’re not going to pass out on me, are you?” I brush my knuckles over her cheek, aching to gather her in my arms, but we’re not there yet.
It’s been a hell of a week since this woman left Coyote Falls, but the house has been silent without her in it.
Her breath catches, her opaline eyes never breaking their hold on mine. “No,” she whispers.
Lanie doesn’t move at first. Then my chest tightens as her hand lifts to wrap around my wrist, her thumb stroking over my pulse point once more.
Maybe I’m not the only one struggling with the deluge of emotional everything when it comes to the connection between us.
Or maybe I’m full of shit. “I’m okay. I have a lot of research to sort out, and it’s taking more screen time than I expected.
” Her grimace tugs at heartstrings I thought long retracted.
“Light is one of my triggers. Your sister has your tendencies, you know. She won’t let me pay her rent, either. ”
“Won’t she.” Mood killer. Lanie’s pinpointed the one thing my sister and I fight over constantly. My hands drop, grazing her knee.
She inhales sharply.
Despite my resolution a moment before, I ache to slide my fingers along her calf to earn another reaction. “I wanted to—”
Movement in my periphery gives me a half-second warning.
Whatever this thing is with Lanie, it’s new, and just us.
I’m not ready to share that with my sister yet.
Winnie has a tendency to meddle and I… want to keep Lanie to myself for a while longer.
I stretch my arms across the back of the sofa as Winnie traipses into the room, already talking.
“I’ve been called in to work. We’re short on shift after the last batch of recruits quit en masse. Something about an ingrained culture on-site and blah de blah. What’s happening?” She halts in the middle of the room, looking first at Lanie, then me.
“I was just telling your brother how much you’re alike,” Lanie says with an impish grin that sends my blood deluging south.
Keep that sass up. I disguise a laugh as a cough behind my fist, knowing Winnie will rise to the bait.
“Nah, he’s adopted.” Winnie eyes us, her nose twitching. “I’ve got to get ready. Play nice, kids.”
I shake his head as she disappears into her bedroom.
The thought of spending time with Lanie is heady…
and terrifying. How fast is she getting under my skin?
How fast can I fuck this up? The memory of my parents walking away from me years ago swamps me.
Or maybe it was me from them. Every time I relive the memory, it changes a fraction until I can’t quite work out what’s reality.
“No one wants money from you, Son.”
“I’m not offering it.” Just the hope that we’ll be a whole family again. That’s it. All I want.
But apparently, that hope’s too much for a pair of egos our size.
Pale blue eyes the same color as mine glare back at me. I’m still unsure who’s angered worse, myself or Dad. He seems to take my business success as a personal insult. Either I did too well or he didn’t do well enough. It doesn’t matter. I bear the brunt of his anger.
“Richard.” Mom’s soft voice is overshadowed by the growing cataclysm neither of us is willing to prevent.
In the end I’m not sure who turns away first. When I start walking, I don’t stop.
Not when I climb into my truck. Not when Mom calls my name again, or Dad’s.
Not when I start the engine and drive away without looking back.
The warmth along my side drags me from my thoughts.
Lanie’s thigh rests against mine. My heart thumps in my chest as I focus on Winnie’s townhouse instead of my past, but I’m not sure it’s enough.
Three things I can see. The old therapy mandate kicks in as I sweep my gaze about the room.
The clothes tossed haphazardly across the backs of mismatched furniture, evidence of my niece scattered all over the small living space. It’s messy as fuck, and I love it.
Except for the fact that I can’t spot a single item that’s out of place, anything that might belong to Lanie.
Like she’s kept her things in her room so she doesn’t intrude on Winnie’s life.
I instantly hate that. A vision of her clothes draped over the furniture in my room, her things cluttering my perfectly neat and organized en suite fills my mind for a brief moment.
The fantasy fades fast as rage overtakes the sweeter emotion, brewing in my chest, brought on by the memory I can’t shake.
Fail.
“I have some things to organize in town.” The lie falls out all too easily as I shift away from Lanie. Coolness glides along my side in the absence of her, like a void. My words shatter the peaceful air, my tone harsh.
Nice, Rand. I sit with the girl I’ve obsessed about like a schoolboy dating his first senior crush, and this is what I have to say?
Lanie’s mouth moves. I focus on her, watch her dusky lips form words I don’t want to hear, her wild-cherry-red hair cascading around her. Dammit, she is getting to me. I can’t shake the fading vision of her things in my bedroom, the evidence of her filling Coyote Falls’ stunning, lifeless rooms.
“—there’s a hamlet, maybe half an hour from Coyote Falls. They had a touristy wolf thing going on.”
Her grimace tells me everything I need to know about Jenkins’s bullshit setup in Valiant Peak. I catch her drift, clenching my fists before I break my own damn rules a second time in as many minutes. “The dire wolf hunt?” I press my lips together.
“Do you know anything about it?” Lanie leans into me, her hair tumbling over my knee in a sheath I want to wrap around my fists and wind in until she’s too close to pull away.
Focus, Rand.
I clear my throat. “A few locals are getting trigger-happy over a ghost story that’s a hundred years old.
It stirs them up on occasion. Sometimes the influx of tourists and enthusiasts brings money into the town, but not as much as they like.
” Or want. I snort my derision at the superstition.
“They resurrect it when things get tight. It does more damage than good, but it never lasts long, thank Christ.”
“So it’s a tourist trap.” Her pretty lips purse.
“Pretty much. Some of them are fairly gung ho about it. We have a few fanatics.” I watch for her reaction, my gut twisting with hope. “Are you worried about the impact on the local wolf packs?”
Lanie nibbles her lip. “A bit. I’ve seen populations halve out of fear. People are their worst enemy. There’s plenty of gray wolves around your area.” Her eyes widen like she wants to say more, but then her gaze drops as she looks away.
Tell me your secrets.
That I want to know more about her scares me as much as her secrets seem to scare her. My usual hookups are just that—transactions that last a few nights at most, with no emotions left over at the end. But with Lanie…
I frown, reaching for her to tip her face back to me, but Winnie rumbles about in the house, her footsteps nearing.
As much as I appreciate her introduction to her friend, I don’t want my sister in my life choices at this moment.
I keep my hands to myself, forcing my mind to stay with the conversation.
“The wolves are harmless enough, to be fair. I rarely lose stock, unless it’s a bad winter.” We haven’t had one of those in years, thankfully.
Lanie holds my gaze. “I thought I might go back to Valiant Peak and find out what’s going on.”
“Do you want a guide?” The words are out of my mouth before I can retract them. Not that I have any intention of taking the offer back.
I brush my fingertips over her shoulder, giving in to the need to touch her that obliterates everything else.
A shiver wracks her fine frame at the contact.
Her lips part, fingers flexing on her thighs.
Touching her is fast becoming an addiction, one I don’t want to break.
Something about her shatters the walls I’ve spent years erecting between myself and the world.
“Winnie said you’re fairly withdrawn out there,” she says, hesitant.
“She’s not wrong,” I bite out, waiting for her to shy away and curse the truth that only Winnie can tell so damn bluntly.
Lanie doesn’t react anything like I expect. “I’d love company.” She looks down at her hands where they twist into a knot.
“Good. Tomorrow?” The words come out too fast.
An image of Lanie stretched across my bed, half covered by a white sheet, her luxurious red hair spread over my pillows, fills my mind. Fuck me, this girl is trouble.
And damn if I don’t like it.
“Okay.” The word slips from her like it didn’t have her permission to leave her pretty lips.
Maybe we’re both running with this, but… I like that our interactions are the unplanned sort. Something else new to me. My lips tug upward in a smile I’m not ready for, and I smooth my expression before she notices.
“I’ll meet you in town around eleven?” That should give her plenty of time to get to Valiant Peak without rushing if mornings don’t suit her, or if the headache comes back. I hold out my hand. “Have you got a phone?”
“Uh…” She fumbles in her back pocket and pulls out the most ancient device I’ve ever seen, considering I’m a self-confessed technophobe.
I take it from her.
“What are you doing?”
I call my phone and save my number in her contacts, and then I hand it back and save hers in mine. “This way I can’t lose you.”
She laughs. “Stalker.”
“On my best days.” I stand. She rises with me, her fingers grazing my arm. I hold back every damn urge to wrap my arms around her, lower my mouth to hers, and find out what she tastes like if she kisses me back.
Tomorrow. The restraints can come off then.
“Thank you, Cord.”
“No problem. I’ll see you soon.” I hold her bright gaze for a long moment more.
Winnie breaks the spell, pulling on her jacket as she rushes through the house, collecting things.
“Do you need a lift?” I call.
“Nah, I’m good.” She trots back through the living area, shoving her boots on with one hand. “I’ll see you later tonight,” she yells.
Lanie laughs. “Just like her daughter.”
“You got that right.”
Her pink lips curve in a shy smile that sends a blow straight to my chest. I drink Lanie in one last time before I turn and head out the door.
She closes it after me, but I wait until the lock clicks before heading down the short flight of steps toward my Mercedes AMG G63, the custom red six-wheeler that’s out of place among the other cars parked in front of the neat row of identical townhouses.
I offered to find Winnie a house in town, somewhere closer to work but with a bit more space. She turned me down flat.
Lanie is right. Winnie will never accept help, not mine or anyone else’s.
I respect that. As a single mom, she wants to be independent.
I just hate seeing my sister struggle to make ends meet.
At least she lets me get away with gifting a few small things to Sally for school.
Tech, instruments, bits she can’t otherwise afford.
But Winnie’s roommate… Lanie’s a mystery I can’t wait to unravel.
I don’t hold back on my grin as I climb into my truck.