03 Cutler Brides (5 page)

God, she hoped no one could hear her. She’d be mortified if someone figured out she’d gotten a spanking!

“Honey, please,” she begged. “That really...owwwww!... stings!”

“Good,” he told her in between spanks. “That way you won’t be tempted to go where you’re not supposed to the next time you’re out riding. When I give you a warning to stay out of a certain place, I’m doing it for your own good. I want to make sure you remember that.”

Shayna bit back another yelp as his hand connected with her ass again. It felt like her poor bottom was on fire! “I promised I wouldn’t go up there again,” she complained.

Madoc’s hand came down again. “Then a couple of more smacks will make sure of that.”

A couple of more turned out to be twenty or so, though Shayna couldn’t be sure because she didn’t keep count. But somewhere in the middle, an unusual, but familiar sound caught her attention. Was that yelping she heard? She strained her ears, stifling her own yelps as she tried to hear over the spanking Madoc was giving her. But before she could figure out what she was hearing, her husband put her back on his feet and pulled her down to sit on his lap.

Shayna gasped as her freshly-spanked asscheeks came into contact with the rough material of his jeans.

Madoc gently brushed her hair back from her face. “I’m serious about not going up there, Shayna,” he said softly. “These strip-mining companies have been known to run people off their property with guns and I don’t want you getting hurt. Promise me you won’t go up there again. Shayna, are you listening to me?”

She dragged her gaze away from the door to look at him. “What? Yes, of course.”

But Shayna hadn’t been listening. Instead, she’d been trying to figure out what those sounds were that she heard coming from down the hall. If she didn’t know better, she’d think Riley was getting a spanking, too!

Madoc gently slipped his fingers beneath her chin. “Shayna, promise me you won’t go up there again.”

“I won’t,” she said softly. “Promise.”

That seemed to satisfy her husband because he pulled her close for a kiss. Even though Shayna hooked her arms around his neck and returned his kiss, she still couldn’t help but wonder what was going on in the next room.

Shayna and Madoc were already in the kitchen making lunch by the time Riley and Cade came downstairs a little while later. Since Arlene and John were out for the day, it was just the four of them for lunch and Riley hoped that neither Shayna nor Madoc noticed she was sitting a bit gingerly.

Riley had known from the expression on her husband’s face that she would be getting a spanking when they got back to the ranch, but she’d still been a little surprised when Cade had taken her upstairs to their bedroom the minute they had finished cooling down the horses.

“But honey,” she’d protested. “Your brother and Shayna are in the next room.”

Cade, however, hadn’t been dissuaded. “Then you’ll have to keep your protests to a minimum, won’t you?”

Five minutes later, Riley was over his knee getting her bottom reddened. She had really tried to do as Cade had suggested and keep her protests to a minimum, but she couldn’t help letting out the occasional squeal. She only hoped Shayna and Madoc hadn’t heard. God, that would be so embarrassing!

After lunch, the two girls decided to go into town to check out some of the shops they hadn’t gone into the day before. As Riley pulled out of the driveway and onto the road, she glanced at Shayna.

“Madoc wasn’t too angry with you for going up there, was he?” she asked. Though her brother-in-law hadn’t seemed upset at lunch, Madoc had looked furious when they’d gotten back to the barn earlier.

Beside her, Shayna shook her head. “No, he was just worried about me,” she said. “How about Cade?

Was he very mad?”

Riley turned her gaze back to the road, afraid the other girl would see her blush. “A little bit. But he was more concerned than anything.”

They rode in silence for a little while before Riley spoke again.

“Contrary to what our husbands think, I know what we saw floating in the stream, Shayna. It was a body,” she said.

Shayna shrugged. “I agree with you, but what can we do about it?”

Riley thought a moment. “Maybe we should go see the sheriff,” she finally said. “He might be skeptical, but at least he’d be obligated to check it out.”

Shayna chewed on her lower lip, but said nothing. Riley supposed it did seem odd to go talk to the sheriff since both of their husbands were in law enforcement, but what could they do when neither Cade nor Madoc believed them? She was just about to point out as much to Shayna when the other girl nodded her head in agreement.

The sheriff’s office was easy enough to find since it was across the street from the general store. Finding a parking space, Riley and Shayna walked across the street and went inside. At their entrance, the girl seated at the front desk looked up from her computer. She was pretty with long, dark hair and big, brown eyes. The nameplate on her desk read Rosalinda

Sanchez.

She gave them a smile. “Can I help you?”

Riley returned the girl’s smile. “We were hoping we could talk to the sheriff,” she said.

“Are you here to report a crime?” the girl asked.

Riley glanced at Shayna before answering. “Maybe,” she said.

That earned her and Shayna a curious look from the girl behind the desk. “If you’ll have a seat, I’ll tell him you’d like to speak with him,” she said, gesturing to the wooden bench opposite her desk.

Riley and Shayna did as the girl asked, but no sooner had they sat down than the sheriff came out of his office. Neither fat nor thin, he was somewhere in between, with graying hair, a weathered face, and a thick mustache.

“Rosalinda says you wanted to see me,” he said, gesturing to the dark-haired girl at the desk. “What can I do for you ladies?”

Riley related what she and Shayna had seen up at the stream that morning, including the fact that they had taken Cade and Madoc up there, but had found nothing.

The sheriff regarded them with amusement. “I see,” he said. “I’ve always thought those Cutler boys were pretty sharp. If they don’t think there’s anything going on, then they’re probably right.

Maybe you two ladies should reconsider what you think you saw.”

Riley frowned at him. “But we really did see a body.”

“Now look, young lady,” he said. “We take things like that very seriously around here.

If there was a dead body, that means someone would be missing, and since no one reported anyone missing, I really doubt that you saw a body in the river.” He held up his hand when Riley started to argue. “Now, I’m not saying that you didn’t see something, but things floating in the water can take on all kinds of shapes. It could even have been a dead cow. They bloat up and can look really strange.”

Shayna made a face at that. “So, you’re not even going to look into it?”

He gave them a placating smile. “That area belongs to Big Sky Mining. I know the head of security up there. If it’ll help ease your mind any, I’ll give him a call and have him check it out.”

Riley frowned again. “But...”

“Now, ladies, I’m very busy, so I’m going to have to ask you to move along,” he said soothingly. “I’ll let you know what I find out. How does that sound?”

Riley opened her mouth to protest, but found herself and Shayna being ushered out the front door and onto the sidewalk before she could get the words out. Annoyed, Riley was about to say something tart, but forced herself to hold her tongue. If they pushed the sheriff, he might not look into their story at all.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t vent to Shayna after the sheriff had gotten into his SUV

and driven off, though. In fact, she was just about to do so when a female voice interrupted her.

“Excuse me.”

Riley and Shayna both turned to see a petite, dark-haired girl hurrying up to them. Riley recognized her as the girl from the sheriff’s office, Rosalinda Sanchez.

“Could I talk to you for a minute?” she asked.

Riley exchanged a look with Shayna and both girls nodded. “Of course,” Riley said.

Rosalinda tucked her hair behind her ear. “I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with the sheriff, and while he may not believe you, I do.”

“You do?” Riley asked in surprise.

The girl nodded. “Whatever you think you saw, you’re probably right. Something has been going on up at the Big Sky Mining Corporation for a long time now, but no one will believe it. I know for a fact that over the past several months, quite a few of the people who work for them have disappeared.”

Shayna frowned. “But if that’s true, then why hasn’t the sheriff done anything?”

Rosalinda’s mouth tightened. “Because a lot of the people working for him are illegals and no one ever reports them missing,” she said grimly. “But I have no doubt that Bill Bingham, the head of security for Big Sky Mining, is behind it. He’d have to be, to keep this covered up so well.”

“The guy the sheriff said he was going to talk to?” Riley asked.

The Mexican girl nodded, but before she could say more, a sheriff’s vehicle pulled into the parking space nearby, distracting Rosalinda. She gave Riley and Shayna an apologetic smile.

“I’ve gotta go,” she said.

With that, she turned and walked over to the vehicle. Riley had thought it was the sheriff returning, but when the man got out of the truck, she saw he was much younger, probably closer to Cade’s age. He was handsome, with dark brown hair and a charming smile, which he flashed at the Mexican girl.

As Rosalinda and the deputy made their way into the sheriff’s station, Riley turned to Shayna. “What do you think?” she asked. “Want to check out this Big Sky Mining Corporation and see what Bill Bingham has to say?”

Shayna hesitated for a moment. “Don’t you think that’s a little risky? This Bingham guy could be dangerous.”

“We’re not going to do anything foolish,” Riley said. “I just want to see if this guy comes across as suspicious. If he does, then we can tell Cade and Madoc.”

Then again, Riley thought as they drove out to the Big Sky Mining offices, if she did have to tell Cade, he was going to be really mad. She had promised to drop this, but the spanking she would get would be worth it if it turned out there really was something illegal going on.

The Big Sky Mining offices were made up of several small buildings. Not knowing which one Bill Bingham’s office was in, Riley and Shayna decided try the main office first. As it happened, the head of security had his office there. It took some doing to get past the receptionist at the front desk, but eventually, the woman brought them back to Bill Bingham’s office.

A big, barrel-chested man, Bill Bingham eyed both girls with interest as they entered his office. “So, what can I do for you?” he asked after Riley and Shayna were seated in front of his desk.

Riley and Shayna had decided that rather than come up with a phony story, it would be best to simply tell Big Sky Mining’s head of security exactly what they’d seen that morning. At first, Bill Bingham looked stunned when they mentioned seeing a dead body floating in the river, but then his expression darkened.

“I don’t know exactly what you two ladies saw floating in the river, but I can assure you it wasn’t a dead body,” he said firmly. “My men do regular sweeps of the area and they would surely have seen something like that. It was probably just a log or something like that.” Pushing back his chair, he got to his feet. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting to get to.”

Riley’s brow furrowed. “Mr. Bingham, with all due respect, I think you might want to have your men take another look. My sister-in-law and I could go with them and show them exactly where we saw the body.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Riley saw Shayna shoot her a look of disbelief, but she ignored the other girl, determinedly keeping her gaze trained on Bill Bingham.

Gray eyes narrowed at her. “You’ve already trespassed on private property once today, Mrs. Cutler. If you do so again, I’ll be forced to call in the sheriff. Do I make myself clear?”

Riley felt a shiver run down her back. “Yes.”

“Good,” he said. “Then if you’ll excuse me.”

Bill Bingham had already come around the desk and opened the door, giving Riley and Shayna no choice but to leave. Once in the car, though, she couldn’t wait to get Shayna’s take on the man and what he’d said.

“I think Rosalinda Sanchez is right. Bill Bingham is definitely hiding something,” she said, glancing at Shayna. “Don’t you think?”

Beside her, Shayna nodded. “Yeah, I do. But that doesn’t mean Madoc and Cade are going to think so. Or the sheriff, either.” She sighed. “I don’t really think there’s anything more we can do to convince them, Riley.”

While Riley knew the other girl was right, it still bothered her that they hadn’t been able to get anything out of Bill Bingham. She had been hoping Big Sky Mining’s head of security would say something a little more incriminating.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Shayna added as Riley turned into the Cutler’s driveway.

“Let’s not mention our little outing to our husbands. I don’t think they’d be too understanding if they found out we not only went to see the sheriff, but the head of security for the mining company, too.”

Riley wholeheartedly agreed with the other girl about that and quickly promised she wouldn’t say anything.

It turned out that she nor Shayna needed to say anything, however, because John Cutler brought the subject up during dinner that evening, much to both girls’ chagrin.

“I ran into Sheriff O’Keefe when we were in town today,” he said conversationally as he reached for a dinner roll. “He said that you girls had claimed you’d seen a dead body floating in the river on the north end of the ranch. How come none of you mentioned anything about it?”

Beside her, Riley saw Cade glance at her sharply. Across the table from them, Madoc was giving Shayna the same look. So much for their husbands not finding out what they’d been up to, Riley thought.

“Because there was no dead body,” Cade said firmly.

“Yes, there was,” Riley insisted. “Shayna and I both saw it.” She looked at the other girl. “Isn’t that right, Shayna?”

Shayna nodded. “It really did look like a body.”

Madoc scowled. “Well there was no body when we rode up there with you later.”

“We told the girls it was probably just their minds playing tricks,” Cade said, giving Riley a pointed look. “It could have been anything in that stream.”

Riley opened her mouth to argue, but John was already agreeing with his son, saying that had happened to him on more than one occasion. That led to several of his old Marshal stories, none of which Riley really paid attention to. She was furious that no one would take what she and Shayna were saying seriously.

After the dinner table had been cleared, Madoc excused himself and his wife, saying that since it was such a nice evening, they were going to take a walk. Shayna looked less than thrilled with that idea, which made Riley think her poor sister-in-law was going to be getting a stern lecture in addition to some exercise.

“A walk sounds like a good idea,” Cade said after the other couple had left. “Why don’t we take one, too, honey?”

Riley blinked in surprise. A walk under the moonlit sky with her handsome husband would be very romantic if it weren’t for the fact that it was probably going to culminate in her being put over his knee.

“I really should help your mother in the kitchen,” she said.

“Nonsense,” Arlene said. “The table’s already cleared, so all I need to do is load the dishwasher. You two kids go have fun.”

Reluctantly, Riley put her hand in Cade’s and allowed him to lead her outside. Normally, she would have been eager to get a spanking, Riley thought as they walked toward the barn, but after getting one last night and then another that morning on top of all the horseback riding, her bottom was a little tender.

When they walked into the barn a few minutes later however, Riley was both surprised and relieved to hear Shayna’s voice. Cade couldn’t spank her with his brother and sister-in-law there.

“But honey, I...” Shayna was saying to Madoc, her voice trailing off when she noticed Riley and Cade standing there.

As Riley noted the other couple’s pose – Madoc standing with his arms crossed over his chest and Shayna looking up at him from beneath lowered lashes – the most ridiculous thought popped into her head. If she didn’t know better, she’d say that Shayna was in for a spanking.