“I beg your pardon?”
He reined Red Devil in a circle and started toward the homestead.She was forced to grab hold of his waist to keep from falling off.Even worse, the movement of the horse, balanced as she was up against Ry’s crotch, awakened some potent memories she would rather forget.
He held her gently with one arm around her waist, his chin hovering just above the crown of her head.“You see, Freddy, I came to Arizona feeling like a failure.Maybe I’d done well in the paper world of stocks and bonds, but I had no confidence I could make it in the nitty-gritty of real life.Deep down I was afraid that if I’d been faced with those punks who killed Linda, I might not have known what to do.It sounds corny, but my manhood had never been tested.”
Ry was a lot harder to hate up close like this.She found herself hugging him tighter, and then she had to remember to relax her arms and back away as much as possible in this confining position.
“I think that’s part of what buying this ranch was all about,” he continued.“I wanted to come out here and test myself.”
That statement helped renew her fury.“So we were a proving ground for you?How nice.Now you can turn the True Love into a suburban housing development because it’s served your purpose.”
He tightened his grip around her waist.“We need to talk about that.”
“I’m not much in the mood for talking.I think I’d rather cut your heart out.”
He sighed.“You may get your chance at that, too.But I—” He paused and pulled back on Red Devil’s reins.“My God.”
“What?”Glancing up, she saw him staring over Red Devil’s head.She swiveled to follow the direction of his gaze, and her breath became trapped in her lungs.
Where the little homestead had once stood as a silent tribute to Clara and Thaddeus Singleton, nothing remained but a pile of rubble.Only the concrete slab had survived in one piece.A lump rising in her throat, Freddy held on to Ry as she wiggled her way out of the saddle and down to the ground.Slowly, she approached the trampled ruins as tears made tracks through the dust caking her face.
She leaned over, picked up a piece of an adobe brick and held the fragment tight in her fist as she imagined Thaddeus building the wooden forms for the adobe, hauling the sand, mixing the straw and the mud.Brick by brick he’d forged his place in the wilderness, built it for his beloved Clara.Freddy searched the debris for the lintel and found it smashed beyond repair.The heart with an arrow through it was in two pieces.
She picked them up and tried to fit them together, putting a splinter through her finger for her efforts.She’d always meant to have the site stabilized, meant to erect some barrier around it.Now it was too late.The home Thaddeus had built, the home Clara had risked her life fighting for, was gone.
“I’m sorry.”Ry put an arm around her shoulders.
She wrenched away and whirled to face him.“How dare you say you’re sorry?You want to bulldoze the whole place someday!”
Agony was etched on his face.“No, I don’t.”
“Really?”She saw him through a red film of rage.“Then where were you planning to put the subdivision?What about the golf course?Now I know why you were so interested in the water supply and landscaping.You, you rapist!”
He stepped forward and grabbed her.“Listen to me!”
“No!”She tried to twist away and the two pieces of wood fell from her grasp.
“Yes!I meant to do those things when I came here.I admit it!But I’ve changed, Freddy.You’ve changed me.Just now, I risked my life to save yours.And I succeeded.”He gave her a little shake.“I succeeded!Do you understand how that makes me feel?”
“No,” she said tightly.
His touch gentled.“For the first time in my life, I feel like a man.You gave me that.You and the True Love.”He released her.“I don’t want it to disappear any more than you do.”
She stepped away from him, away from the seductive pull of his touch.“Then let Eb Whitlock buy it.”
His eyes narrowed.“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Something’s going on around here.I’m not convinced all the so-called accidents are accidents.”
Even in the heat, she felt a chill run over her.“You think somebody’s sabotaging the ranch?”
“Maybe.And Whitlock’s one of my candidates.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!That thing with the petroleum drums was a case of bad memory.”
“It could have been, but he seemed pretty focused to me.And then there’s the question of Duane.”
