Ladd Fortune (30 page)

“
Help you? By telling you
about my gold?”

“
It’s Felicity’s,” Annie
corrected bluntly.

“
Mine and Felicity’s!”
Delaney shouted.

“
Ladies, please,” Nick
interceded, one hand clipped to the stirring Jeremiah.

About to retort, Annie closed her
mouth. She turned to Malcolm. “Listen, Lacy acts first, thinks
second.”

“
That she does,” he agreed,
tracking her fleeing figure. Lacy was running through the meadow in
a direct line for the wooded trail.

“
She’s always been that way.
She just doesn’t think in normal terms. But if I had to be
honest...” Shame trickled into Annie’s blue eyes and Malcolm felt
the pinch. “I’d say she was trying to do the right thing. The right
thing by me and my
daughter
,” Annie corrected, brazenly
baiting Delaney with the comment. To Malcolm, she said, “Lacy
thought that if I knew about the gold, it would help motivate me to
fight for Casey’s rights. As though I wasn’t fighting hard enough
already,” she complained under her breath. “But Lacy doesn’t act on
facts. She acts on emotion. She was trying help.” Annie’s
expression softened. “It’s what she does, I think. She just tries
to help.”

“
Ah,
hell
,” Malcolm muttered. He cast a
glance toward Nick, touched upon Jeremiah as he roused himself from
the ground and asked, “Can you take care of this mess? I’ve got a
mess of my own to clean up.”

Nick nodded and Malcolm took
off after Lacy, a mix of anger and want swirling in his
heart.
Lacy was only trying to
help
. It’s what she did. A large part of
Malcolm believed that to be true, but another part of him couldn’t
get past the lie. It was betrayal.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Lacy ran and ran and ran, the tall
meadow grass scraping at her legs as she pushed forward. She had to
get out of here. She had to get away from Malcolm and Nick and
Annie—all of them! She should never have come back to Tennessee.
She should have stayed in Atlanta and made good with what she had.
She had a boyfriend. She had a job. But she wasn’t happy. She
wanted to be with her family. She wanted to be loved. Tears spurted
from her eyes and she ran faster. Harder.

She wanted to be in love!
She’d almost found herself a perfect man and then she ruined it.
Ruined it. Smeared it into the mud. Lacy saw the look in Malcolm’s
eyes. She heard his words.
I can trust you,
right
?
You don’t
want me to get into trouble, do you
?

He hated her. Malcolm hated her because
she’d lied to him about the gold.

She should have settled for her
manager. He had a steady job, made good money. He would have made a
fine husband, taken care of her. But Lacy didn’t love him. He was
old and boring. He wasn’t interested in fun, or kids, and he was
about as spontaneous as a sponge. He was no good for her. Slowing
to a jolty walk, she struggled against the pounding in her chest.
She dropped hands to knees, her leg muscles pumped from the
extended sprint. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that Malcolm
wasn’t coming for her. The knife to her heart was quick and deep.
Another wave of tears pricked. There was no need to hurry. No one
wanted her.

Lacy stood, inhaling against the
rapid-fire of her pulse, ignoring the yellow and purple blooms
dotting the grass with clusters of cheery color, the bright
sunshine of a clear blue day, the hills plumped with green,
mountains that reached to the sky. The beauty made her sad. She was
alone, with no one to enjoy the scenery, the gorgeous weather. Up
ahead, the forest would offer her shade, solitude. She could lose
herself in the woods, erase her memory with the crash of water, the
thunder of sound. The chilly water would refresh her, cleanse her
soul, give her new direction. Time alone would clear her mind and
help her think.

Breathing easier as the adrenaline wore
off, Lacy plodded toward the trail. She’d spend the day at Zack’s
Falls and figure out what to do next. She halted, heaved a weighty
sigh. Who was she kidding? There was no next step.

“
Lacy!”

Limbs froze. Her pulse took off at a
gallop.

“
Hold up!” Malcolm yelled
from a distance.

If she had an ounce of strength left,
she would have bolted like a deer. But between her fatigue and the
fresh shot of shock, Lacy couldn’t move an inch. She wiped the
tears from her cheeks. She looped her hair behind an ear, took a
deep breath, threw her shoulders back and turned. She’d have to
face him sooner or later. Stand up and face her sins like a woman.
Wasn’t the first time.

Every step closer he took twisted knots
of anxiety through her heart. Malcolm was jogging, slowing his pace
as he neared. “Lacy.” Winded, his voice held a certain
urgency.

“
Malcolm,” she said, forcing
herself to sound strong, impenetrable. She’d faced her mistakes
before and she could face them again—although trying to do right by
her sister didn’t feel like a mistake. It felt good.

“
Are you okay?”

“
Yes,” she replied, but her
bravado cracked at the compassion in his eyes. Malcolm looked
genuinely concerned.

“
I’m sorry. Back there”—he
hiked a thumb over his shoulder—“I lost it.”

Lacy wished he was sorry for hating her
instead of for hitting Jeremiah. “I understand. You were
angry.”

“
I was. Very.” He dropped
his head forward.

Lacy wanted to burst into tears. It was
true. He hated her.

Malcolm blew out a heavy breath, raised
his head and looked directly into her eyes. Hurt swam in his eyes.
Lacy’s heart squeezed at his tortured gaze. He looked beaten. And
she had swung the hammer.

“
Why did you say anything
about the gold, Lacy? You promised you wouldn’t.”

You lied
is what she heard. Loud and clear. Stung by the accusation,
Lacy objected in a shaky voice, “But I didn’t lie, Malcolm.” His
gaze turned dark and she added hurriedly, “Not really—I had my
fingers crossed when I agreed.” Confusion funneled into his gentle
features and Lacy stepped back. “If you cross your fingers,
Malcolm, it’s not a lie,” she insisted, and though she sounded
foolish—even to herself—it was true. Sort of. In her heart,
anyway.

The blue of Malcolm’s eyes hardened to
an impenetrable crystal. A wall rose behind them as he closed
himself off from her. Beset with guilt, she stomped her boot and
confessed, “Okay, I lied—is that what you want to hear? I lied,
dang it! I wanted to help Annie and Casey. I wanted them to know
there was gold, that they had to fight for it, that they couldn’t
let that mean old Delaney keep it for herself!” Lacy knew she was
rambling, but she couldn’t stop. Malcolm had to know. He had to
know why she did what she did, and if he still hated her, then so
be it. But she was going to tell him everything. “Casey is
Jeremiah’s daughter. She’s entitled to her share of this property,
same as Felicity. And just because someone doesn’t like her daddy,
or her momma,” Lacy continued, fueled by anger, “that doesn’t make
it right to cut her out—”

Malcolm grabbed her face and kissed
her.

Lacy squealed. The sudden move rocked
her. She tried to think, tried to move, tried to—

Malcolm’s mouth sank into hers and Lacy
couldn’t do a thing. He pried her lips apart and kissed her with a
near violent greed. Her insides shivered as he probed, plunged. The
kiss lengthened, grew needy, stirring swells of emotion within her.
Powerful hunger wound deep and low in her belly, curled up and
around her heart like a soft caress. Malcolm felt so good, so warm.
He was solid. Strong. When he eased away, her heart lurched, yet
his hands remained steady in their hold. Reaching up, she cupped
her hands over his and searched his pale gaze for meaning,
direction. “Malcolm?”

“
No more crossed fingers.
Ever.”

Lacy’s heart sung. Malcolm
didn’t hate her! He still cared. She still mattered. Relief washed
through her. Slipping into a sheepish grin she replied, “No
more.
Ever
.”

Malcolm wrapped his arms around her and
pulled her near. He kissed her, hugged her—so hard, that Lacy
feared the breath would burst from her lungs. Gasping, she pushed
away. “Malcolm, I can’t breathe!”

Lessening his grip, he grew serious.
The fine black line of his lashes underscored the mellowing of his
gaze. “I love you, Lacy. I knew it the second I saw you in the
backseat of that car. If anything happened to you, I would have
been devastated.”

Lacy hated to laugh when he was pouring
his heart out to her, but she couldn’t help it.

He nodded, a mischievous gleam flaring
in his gaze. “You think that’s funny?”

“
You
love
me. I thought you hated
me.”

“
I did.” Lacy stuck out her
lower lip, hurt by his admission. “Until I realized why you did
what you did.”

She relaxed in his arms, adoring the
way it felt to be held by him. “You understand? Honest, you do?”
Lacy wanted to be on the same side as Malcolm. She wanted them to
be a team. But Annie was her sister, and she didn’t care what
anyone said. It was true what people claimed, that blood was
thicker than water. It connected you, bound you. It held you
together as best it could. Of course family members had to do their
share and not spill so much of it between them, but they were
human. They made mistakes. Lacy reckoned both she and Annie had
made their share and all they could do was move forward.

“
I only wanted to help
Annie,” Lacy said, “but I want to help you too, Malcolm. I helped
you with Jeremiah, remember?”

He smiled. “I do.”

“
But Annie’s my sister. You
understand I have to be with her first, right? Over you, she comes
first.”

He nodded. “She’s the one who made me
realize that fact.”

Lacy balked. “Annie?”

“
Annie. She said you were
only trying to help her. That helping is what you do.”

A cuddly joy enveloped Lacy’s heart,
snug as a child’s fuzzy blanket. “She did? She said all
that?”

“
She did.”

Lacy beamed. She felt bright as the
afternoon sun. Glancing overhead at the blue sky, the temperature
warming her skin, she suddenly ached for adventure. “Wanna go to
Zack’s Falls with me?”

Malcolm laughed. He hugged her tight.
“More than you know!”

As Malcolm and Lacy lay side-by-side on
an expanse of rock, a branch overhead shaded their bodies from the
brunt of the heat. The thunderous crash of water invigorated him,
misted the air with its cool spray. They hadn’t skinny-dipped.
They’d swum, but did so fully clothed. The wooded trail to their
side was too unpredictable. First it had been Jeremiah and his
cohort, who knew who might run past next time? Exposing Lacy’s
naked body to strangers wasn’t a chance he was willing to take. He
wanted that view all for himself. Restless, Malcolm rolled over
Lacy’s body, ignoring the dusty stone particles sticking to his
back. He stared into her eyes, eyes that held a smile, a hint of
mischief, and of course her tease that never quit.

“
Have you warmed up, yet?”
he asked.

“
If I have, does that mean
you won’t stay near to keep me warm?”

“
I’ll stay near as long as
you want me to,” he replied, leaning down for a kiss. Lacy
responded, as did his loins. He melted into her, desire surging.
Lacy kissed him with a fluidity of motion that made him feel like
they were the only two people on the planet. He cradled her head
with his hand and delved his tongue inside her mouth. Moist and
succulent, she was like candy, like juicy steak, like a drug, an
aphrodisiac of the highest degree. Desire slid through him,
detonating nerve endings in a surge of want. Malcolm lost himself
in the sensation, in images of her body from their swim, the sky
blue tank sticking to her soaking wet skin. Gliding a hand down her
waist, her thigh, he thought she was beautiful, sexy, perfection in
the female form. Hardening, Malcolm pulled away from her. “You have
no idea what you do to me,” he said huskily.

“
It’s all good,
right?”

Malcolm smiled at her impish response.
“It’s all good. Everything you do is good.”

She giggled.

The girlish reaction made him wonder
yet again how she managed to stay so naïve, so fresh in her
outlook. It was an odd outcome for a woman with her past. Brushing
the short tendrils of black hair from her forehead, her cheeks, he
marveled in her creamy skin, pink from the sun and their swim in
the brisk pool of water beneath the falls. “Tell me about
Lacy.”

“
About me?” she asked, as if
startled by the question.

“
I want to know everything
about you.”

She dipped her chin and peered up at
him. “I’m not that exciting.”

Malcolm laughed, trailing a finger down
the length of her arm. “Oh, I completely disagree. You are most
interesting, Ms. Owens.” She smiled, but something in her changed.
Her gaze lost its carefree tease, her smile lost a bit of its
luster. “I want to know how you spent your days, your nights in
Atlanta. When you weren’t working, that is. What did you do for
fun?”