Millionaire in a Stetson (11 page)

“Wait, Reed,” said Seth, staring at Niki with undisguised curiosity.

“Wait for what?” Reed challenged. “For another lie? I don’t think so.” He turned on his heel and stomped from the room.

Katrina looked distressed and confused. But she quickly followed her husband.

Niki clenched her jaw, determined not to cry. She gripped the arm of the sofa, preparing to rise, hoping her legs would hold her. She wished she could walk straight out the front door. But her purse was upstairs in one of the bedrooms. She needed that at the very least.

She stood. She wasn’t sure how she’d get the rest of her things from the Terrells’ ranch, but she’d have to work that out later. Right now, getting herself out of here was as much as she could manage.

“What are you doing?” Seth demanded as she took a step toward the formal staircase.

“I am so sorry,” she managed, her voice cracking ever so slightly with the effort. “I need my things.”

“Where are you going?”

“Upstairs.” She didn’t know what she’d do if he threw her directly out the front door.

“Sit down,” he told her.

She hesitated.

“I don’t care how angry Reed gets. This is my house, and you’re welcome here.”

Her knees wobbled. “But…” She gazed into Seth’s face. “I don’t understand.”

His voice went soft, his expression turning patient. “And neither do I. And that’s why you’re going to explain it to me.”

Niki had no idea what to say. “You’re not angry?”

“I don’t know. I don’t yet know what you did.” He gestured to the sofa behind her. “Why don’t you sit down and tell me?”

Her glance went reflexively to the archway where Reed and then Katrina had disappeared.

“Don’t worry about them,” said Seth.

“I’m very worried about them.”

It didn’t matter how much more she explained to Seth. The damage was done. Reed wasn’t going to get over this. He was never going to forgive her for lying.

“Sit,” Seth told her gently.

She did so.

Seth took the other end of the sofa.

She waited for a question, but he seemed to be waiting for an answer.

She cracked first. “My name is Niki Gerard,” she began a little shakily. “My mother was Gabriella Gerard. She did just die, and I found out about Wilton and Reed and Caleb from her papers, exactly as I said. But it was in D.C., not Boston. And I came here.” A soft sob escaped from her throat, and it took her a minute to recover. “I came here because I was afraid to stay in D.C.”

The words began to pour out of Niki, her mother’s affairs, the danger of the secrets the men had apparently revealed, judges, politicians, millionaires. She told him about the missing diary and her growing fear for her own safety.

“When I first met Reed and Caleb,” she said, “they were strangers. I knew people were after me, people with the resources to comb the world if they wanted. I didn’t dare use my passport, my driver’s license, my credit cards. I couldn’t board a plane or rent a car or get a hotel room. I couldn’t tell anyone,
anyone,
who I was.”

Her throat was aching, and her voice fell away.

“Why now?” asked Seth.

“Why now?” came a second voice overtop.

Niki glanced up to find Katrina standing in the archway.

“Why tell us now?” she repeated.

“I felt guilty,” said Niki. “I’ve felt guilty for a very long time. But when the truck washed away tonight, and I thought I might die, I knew you had to know. You have the right to know what I’ve done, who I am.”

“Who’s after you?” came Reed’s deep voice, and he emerged from the shadows.

He still looked angry, every six-feet-four, muscle-bound inch of him.

Niki had to force herself to speak. “I don’t know. I couldn’t find the diary and my mother didn’t speak about her private matters. I don’t know even know what the secrets were. If I could find the diary, at least I could narrow it down.”

“You’ve searched your mother’s house? All the obvious places?” asked Seth.

Niki nodded.

“Could someone have stolen it?”

“I don’t know,” Niki answered Seth. “Gabriella was very clever, and she was very careful. I can’t imagine she would have made that easy for anyone.”

“Why aren’t you looking for it?” asked Reed.

“I was. I did. I looked every place I could think of. But then I started to get paranoid. I imagined people were following me.”

She gave a pained laugh. With time and distance, she had to wonder if it had been only her imagination.

Katrina moved forward. “You did the right thing.”

“She lied to all of us,” Reed put in.

Katrina turned sharply to her husband. “To protect herself. Reed, if I didn’t know you so well, I’d be afraid of you myself. You can’t have expected her to bare her soul the minute she found you.”

“Baring her soul and being honest are two different things.”

“She’s your sister, Reed.”

Reed gave a derisive snort.

“It’s your responsibility to protect her.”

“If you won’t,” Seth put in staunchly, “I certainly will.”

Niki’s chest caved in with an ache, and a tear escaped from her eye. She barely knew Seth, and he was standing up for her.

“As far as I’m concerned—” Seth gazed at her “—she’s my sister-in-law. And I know Travis will see it the same way. You kick her to the curb, and we’ll—”

“Who’s kicking anyone to the curb?” Reed shouted.

Niki gasped in a breath that sounded like a sob.

“See what you’ve done?” Katrina demanded, crossing to Niki and putting an arm around her shoulder.

“What
I’ve
done? So, I’m the bad guy?”

“Yes, you’re the bad guy. You’re the one who’s yelling.”

“I’m not yelling, Katrina.” Reed moderated his voice. “I am not yelling. Jeez, can’t a guy argue with his younger sister?”

Niki raised a shaky hand to her mouth, tears flowing down her cheeks.

“Oh, man.” Reed moved toward her. “Come here, Nellie. I mean Niki.”

He folded her into his strong embrace. He’d hugged her before, but something was different this time. His arms held her tight to his broad chest, lifting her right off the ground.

“I love you,” he told her gruffly. “Don’t be afraid of me. You’re my family, and I’ll never hurt you.”

She managed a nod.

“But don’t lie to me anymore.”

She shook her head.

“We’ll figure this out. Between us and the Jacobs, you’ve got four brothers now, and you’re safe here.”

Niki thought her heart would burst. They didn’t hate her. They weren’t going to kick her out into the storm.

“I love you, too,” she whispered to Reed.

“That’s the spirit.”

“I don’t think we should tell anyone,” said Katrina.

“Katrina’s right,” Seth put in. “People are still out there looking for her.”

“We need to find the diary,” said Reed.

“She’s safe for now. That’s enough,” Seth argued.

“Only for now though,” said Reed.

“What do
you
want us to do?” Seth asked Niki.

Niki stepped away from Reed, slowly bringing herself back under control. Her chest was still tight, but it was from happiness and relief instead of dread. “I want to hide here in Lyndon Valley and forget Niki Gerard ever existed.”

Katrina smiled and reached out to hold her hand.

Reed spoke up. “You could change your name to Nellie Terrell.”

“They keep records of that,” said Seth. He considered for a moment. “The best thing to do right now is nothing.”

“That doesn’t solve anything,” said Reed. “It only postpones it.”

“I’ve been postponing it for three months,” Niki pointed out. She could do it a while longer.

“You start mentioning Niki Gerard,” said Seth. “And all of a sudden Lyndon Valley pops up on somebody’s radar.”

Reed clenched his jaw in obvious frustration.

“We do nothing,” Katrina decreed.

“I’m telling Caleb,” said Reed.

“Should I do that?” Niki felt honor bound to volunteer.

Reed smiled. “No,” he told her. “I should do that. Caleb’s temper is an acquired taste. Trust me, you’ll be happier out of range.”

Niki’s stomach clenched all over again.

“Don’t scare her like that,” Katrina warned.

“You think she should tell him herself?” Reed challenged.

Katrina’s expression faltered. “Okay. You do it.” Then she smiled at Niki. “It’ll be fine.”

Niki tried to convince herself it was true.

* * *

Having made up his mind to romance the information out of Niki, and after telling his uncle of the plan in order to keep Charles off his back awhile longer, Sawyer approached Niki. She was sitting with Katrina in the third row of bleachers, cheering for Travis who was halfway through his eight seconds on the back of Terminator Too, rumored to be the rangiest bull at the event. The crowd roared its appreciation as Travis hung on tight, his back arched, legs straight, hat flying to the ground while the bull sprang from the deep dirt, swerving right then switchbacking left.

The horn sounded, and the crowd went wild, whoops and cheers coming up from every quarter.

Niki hugged Katrina, grinning from ear to ear. Her laugh was relaxed, her entire posture completely different than last night. To be fair, they’d been battling against a natural disaster last night. But it still seemed like more than that.

As he approached the pair, he couldn’t take his eyes off Niki. Her cheeks were flushed. Her eyes were shining. And her fresh, windblown look made her even more beautiful than when she’d been dressed to the nines.

He reminded himself of his thought processes last night. Romancing her was a perfectly reasonable course of action. Nobody had to get hurt. Men and women dated all the time. They started new relationships. Those relationships ended. People moved on from there. It wasn’t the end of the world.

If he played his cards right, he could get the information he needed from Niki, gently break it off and get out of her life forever, maybe tell her he’d decided to move back to Montana. She’d be none the wiser, never knowing who he was or that he’d manipulated her for his own ends.

He’d work hard to make sure that was the outcome.

“Nice ride,” he commented to the women, sparing a glance for Travis who’d been plucked off the bull by a cowboy on horseback and lowered to the ground.

Travis punched his fist in the air in celebration, while the rodeo clowns and cowboys corralled Terminator Too.

“I bet he wins,” said Katrina excitedly, holding up crossed fingers. “Oh, there’s Reed. See you later.” She stood and skipped down the bleachers to the ground, rushing toward her husband who had just taken first place in the steer wrestling competition.

Sawyer swung up to the third row, setting himself down next to Niki and propping his boot on the rough, bench seat in front.

“Hey,” he offered by way of an easy greeting.

“Eight-point-nine!” cried the announcer. “Travis Jacobs ends the day with a phenomenal eight-point-nine score on the back of Terminator Too.”

“Woo hoo!” Travis yelled from the rodeo ring, while the crowd cheered him on.

Niki clapped long and loud.

“How’re you doing?” Sawyer asked Niki.

“I’m fine. Good show.” But she kept her gaze squarely forward, watching Travis.

Sawyer fought a spurt of jealousy. Travis winning the most macho event of the day wasn’t at all helpful to his cause. Now that Sawyer had decided romance was his best avenue, he was going to have to get noticed amongst her crowd of admirers.

“Ever been to a rodeo before?” he asked.

“First one. You?”

“In Montana,” he replied, neglecting to mention that he’d only been to three of them. He now saw the error in his plan. He was out of his comfort zone, not in a position to show himself in the best light.

“Do you compete?” she asked.

He shook his head, wishing the admission didn’t make him feel inadequate. It was a new experience, feeling as though he wasn’t accomplished enough to get the girl.

“Too busy fighting in the navy, I guess.”

When he saw the expression on her face, he could have kicked himself. His words had sounded defensive. So, he didn’t ride bucking bulls? Who cared? There were other measures of success in life and, by any benchmark, he’d achieved quite a few of them.

Travis suddenly appeared, stepping up on the fence in front of them.

“Hey, pretty lady,” he called to Niki.

He took two more rails, then vaulted over the top, landing on the dirt in front of her.

“Well done,” she called, rising from her seat to hop down to meet him.

He pulled her into a hug, and swung her around. It was all Sawyer could do not to yank her out of his arms.

She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Thank goodness it wasn’t on the mouth.

“How much did you win?” she asked.

“Two-thousand. You want to help me spend it?”

“Katrina told me you were using the money to buy new boots.”

“It’s a tradition,” he admitted. “Catch you later?”

“You bet.”

With a final grin for Niki and a wave to Sawyer, Travis walked off.

It belatedly occurred to Sawyer that he should have offered his congratulations to Travis. But he’d been too busy controlling his jealousy. He doubted he could have shaken the man’s hand while Travis was holding Niki.

He moved to her side. “Tradition?”

She gave a pretty shrug. “Apparently, rodeo winnings are spent on custom-designed boots.”

“Ought to be some pretty nice boots,” Sawyer mused.

Niki stuck out a running shoe. “I could get into two-thousand-dollar boots.”

“Yeah?” His mind went off on a dangerous tangent, picturing something high and leather, with a spike heel and a mini skirt.

She put a hand on his arm to balance herself. “A little something from Saks.”

He’d buy the woman anything she wanted, from Saks Fifth Avenue or anywhere else on the planet.

“You want to grab something to eat?” he asked gruffly.

“Don’t you have to head back to your ranch?”

“Not right away. I was planning to have dinner first.”

Her hand left his arm, and she craned her neck, looking around the grounds. “I wonder what Katrina and Reed are planning to do.”