CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A WHITE SHERIFF'S SUV SAT IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE THE FOLLOWING morning when Jenny walked out of the guest room into the living room. Cain was nowhere to be seen.

Had something else happened at the hotel? Cold dread washed through her. She shouldn't have left. She had a duty to her employees; she had responsibilities.

She went in search of Cain and ended up in the kitchen, found Maria Delgado cleaning up the breakfast dishes.

"I'm sorry, I must have overslept," she said. "I didn't mean to miss breakfast."

"You are a guest. You can sleep as late as you like. I will fix you something to eat."

"There's a police vehicle outside. I need to find Cain."

"Deputy Landry is here. They are out in the stable. What about your breakfast?"

"Thanks, but I don't have time." A sheriff's deputy, not the police. The news didn't lessen her worry. Jenny rushed out the back door and ran toward the barn. Cain and a man in a beige uniform were just walking out from inside. Jenny hurried toward them.

"Is there a problem at the hotel?" she blurted out, interrupting the men's conversation.

"Not that I know of," Cain said. "Deputy Landry, this is Jenny Spencer. She owns the Copper Star in Jerome."

"Ms. Spencer." He touched the brim of his flat-brimmed, beige hat.

"It's nice to meet you." She glanced anxiously at Cain, hoping for more information.

"Deputy Landry is here to give me an update on the theft of my stallion. Sun King was stolen several weeks ago. Apparently, there's still no sign of him."

Jenny frowned, wondering why Cain had never mentioned it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"It's not a problem," Cain said. "We were just finishing up."

"As you know, several valuable horses in Yavapai County were also stolen," the deputy said to Cain. "None worth the half-million dollars your stallion would bring. But the good news is, one of them has been found."

"I heard that. The mare showed up at an auction in Tucson. Owner's son happened to be there. Just blind luck, it would seem." There was a touch of disdain in Cain's voice that made the deputy's jaw tighten.

"We're still working on finding the others."

"I'm sure you are," Cain drawled, and Jenny figured she must be getting to know him because she could hear the sarcasm in his voice.

The men talked a moment more, then Deputy Landry headed for his white patrol SUV and drove off down the lane toward the highway.

"You never told me someone stole your horse." His half-million-dollar horse. Thinking about it, Jenny felt oddly hurt. She'd thought they were friends. It was stupid. A man like Cain Barrett had more than enough friends already. He certainly didn't need any more.

"It happened a couple of weeks ago," Cain said. "Sun King's a champion cutting horse. We train them here. Take a walk with me, and I'll show you some of the others."

She went with him, but somehow the excitement of seeing the ranch had dimmed a little. He hadn't tried to seduce her, but he had made his intentions clear. She was nothing special, just another of his women.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

"Do you ride?" Cain asked.

"I used to, but not in a long time. I had friends in Cottonwood who owned horses."

"Best way to see the ranch." He glanced down at her feet to see what she was wearing.

Smiling, she pulled up the leg of her jeans to show him the pair of worn brown cowboy boots she had put on that morning. "I figured if I was going to visit a ranch . . ."

As she glanced around at the high desert mountains and the blue sky overhead, suddenly his intentions didn't matter. It was a beautiful day. She might as well make the most of it.

Cain smiled his approval. "I can probably find you a hat in the barn. Let's go."

While he saddled a big red, thick-necked roan for himself, one of the hands, a blond young man named Billy, saddled a pretty palomino mare for her. Cain grabbed a dusty straw cowboy hat off a row of hooks on the barn wall and tugged it low on his forehead. He plucked a smaller, slightly battered hat off another hook and tossed it in her direction.

Jenny snatched it out of the air and put it on, glad she had pulled her long, curly hair into a low ponytail at the nape of her neck. The hat was a little too big, but it would do.

Cain swung into the saddle, sitting the big roan the way he did everything else, with ease and confidence.

Billy led the palomino over to the mounting block. "You're all set," he said.

When she was younger, she could swing up onto the saddle without using the stirrup, but that was a long time ago, and she didn't want to make a fool of herself. Jenny mounted and rode out of the barn behind Cain.

"You raise cattle?" Jenny asked, spotting a herd of black cows in the distance as they traveled a road behind the house toward the hills.

"Black Angus. A hundred cow/calf units, just to keep things interesting. The horses are our main focus. We have twenty-four registered quarter horses—twenty-five before we lost King. Some of them appear to have great potential as cutting horses. Denver Garrison is our trainer. He's working a quarter horse gelding right over there."

Cain pointed toward a tall, lanky cowboy riding a bay horse working a group of black cows. The horse's dancing front feet dodged right and left, skillfully keeping the cattle clustered together, man and horse working in perfect unison.

"Do you ride cutting horses, too?" Jenny asked.

Cain laughed. "I've made a few attempts, usually ended up landing on my ass in the dirt. I leave that job to the professionals."

It clearly took a skilled rider to stay aboard. Jenny figured Cain had probably made a good decision.

"We were just getting ready to breed Sun King to Kitty Cat," he said as she rode beside him. "She's a four-year-old mare out of a champion cutter named Smart Cat. King's offspring have won over a million-two in competition, and Smart Cat is in the same league."

"Do you think you'll get King back?"

"I'm not used to losing something that belongs to me." He flashed her a look she couldn't read. "I've got good people working to find him, so there's a chance they'll come up with something."

Cain raised his hat, raked back his thick brown hair, resettled the hat, and tugged the brim back down on his forehead. "I just hope wherever he is, King's being well taken care of."

Jenny felt a little pinch in her chest. No matter what he thought of her, Cain was a good man. She knew he worried about his people. Apparently, that concern extended to his animals, as well.

"Before we go, is there any chance you could get hold of Chief Nolan, find out what's happening with Leslie Owens and the investigation?"

"I'll give it a try." He pulled out his cell and punched a number in his contacts. The big roan shifted and snorted beneath him, but Cain kept the horse under control.

Nolan must have picked up.

"Cain Barrett, Chief. Any news on the murder at the Copper Star?"

Jenny couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but Cain was nodding. "When will the crime scene be released?" He flicked her a glance. "I'm sure Jenny will be glad to hear it. Thanks, Chief, I appreciate the update."

He turned in the saddle as the call came to an end. "Leslie Owens is stable but still in a coma. The doctors say that's good, gives her head time to heal. The murder victim, Brian Santana, has a criminal record. Nothing major, just a couple of unpaid parking tickets, possession of a controlled substance when he was eighteen, and a DUI about ten years ago." His gaze found hers. "At least we know he was no boy scout."

"Fairly minor crimes. Doesn't sound like a man who would assault someone."

"Hard to tell what's going on in a person's head."

"True."

"The crime scene won't be released until tomorrow."

Surrounded by the blue skies over the ranch, Jenny breathed in the fresh desert air and felt the sun on her shoulders. "At least I don't have to feel guilty for being here and not there."

"There's nothing you can do at the moment. You might as well enjoy yourself." He nudged his horse forward, and Jenny fell in beside him. Maria had packed a lunch, which was in Cain's saddlebags.

They ate at the bottom of a canyon, where a narrow stream sustained a few tall cottonwood trees. A light breeze blew some of the leaves into the stream to drift away with the current. It was a spectacular way to spend the day.

They were almost back to the stables when Cain pulled the roan to a stop, turned in his saddle, and pointed to a horse in one of the lush green pastures. "That's Kitty Cat." A beautiful sorrel with a gleaming copper mane and tail galloped across the pasture.

"She's gorgeous."

"So is King. They would have been a helluva match."

It was late afternoon by the time they rode back into the barn, the temperature cooling enough that she needed to wear her jacket. Her legs were shaking when she tried to dismount. She felt Cain's big hands wrap around her waist. Turning, he set her easily on the ground.

"Thanks," she said. "I'm out of practice."

"It takes a little time for your muscles to get used to it."

Billy unsaddled the horses, and Cain led Jenny through the back door into the kitchen. One of the hands, an older man with dark, weathered skin, was busily chopping vegetables on a wooden block on the massive center island.

"That's Sanchez. He's not as good a cook as Maria, but he isn't bad."

Sanchez grinned.

"So Sanchez is cooking for us tonight?"

"For the hands. Maria had to drive her mother to Prescott for a doctor's appointment. I've seen you eat, so I know you aren't a vegetarian. I took out a couple of steaks. It's still warm enough to barbeque. I thought we'd eat later."

So she would be alone with Cain again tonight. She should ask him to drive her back to Jerome. She needed to make sure everything was okay at the Copper Star. She needed to check on her employees, make sure they were dealing all right with the tragedy that had happened upstairs.

She shouldn't let herself get more deeply involved with Cain. But instead she lingered, watching the sunset while he grilled, then joining him for a delicious steak dinner.

Afterward, he led her out of the kitchen, watching her with those perceptive dark eyes. "If you want to go back, all you have to do is ask."

Did she really want to leave? She thought of his kiss. She wanted to feel the heat again. She wanted more than that. It had been years since she'd been attracted to a man. The few men she had been with, including her ex-husband, had all been disappointments.

Today had been one of the best days of her life. Jenny didn't want it to end. She wanted to stay, wanted to spend the night with Cain. She wanted to know if he could make her feel the fire she had always dreamed of and never really known.

"I don't want to go back," she said softly.

His dark eyes heated, turning the rings around his pupils gold. Cain walked over to the wet bar against the living room wall and poured some whiskey into the bottom of a heavy crystal rocks glass, filled another for himself, and carried them back.

He handed her one of the glasses, and Jenny took a sip, hoping Cain wouldn't notice the tremor in her hand.

"If you stay," he said, "I won't stop this time."

She looked up at him. "I'm staying. And I don't want you to stop."