Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) (23 page)

“Sorry you’re on your own.” Getting up he left
Parry standing alone in an empty room.

“Oh, that’s really funny, thanks!” Parry yelled
to the empty room.

As he climbed the stairs, he thought about
Parry’s comment. Maybe they did have a future. Not focusing on what Alex had
alleged, he believed Ty did care for her; probably more then she could
comprehend. Steven would stick around for a couple of days playing out his
hunch.
Besides, it might give rent a cop the incentive he doesn’t know he
needs to understand he’s not the only cowboy interested in her
, he thought,
heading toward his room.

Ty was still trying to come down from the
aggravation of not being able to break Steven’s face. He had just dispatched
Parry to the main house, taking him off graveyard duty for the duration. He
would be taking his place. He hoped with Parry around, Alex and Steven would
find the lack of privacy tormenting. The thought of the two of them alone was
burning a hole in his gut. He kept picturing them locked together intimately.
He suspected that her innocence would not stop that womanizer from pushing her
into his bed.

“Might help if you got things off your chest
since we’re both going to be stuck out here all night, Boss?” Ridge’s voice
came through the com link that was in his ear.

“Stay out of it. If I want to talk about it,
I’ll let you know,” he growled into his mike.

He tried to massage the stiff muscles in his
shoulder as he stretched out on the hard ground, concealed in the underbrush.
Watching the north pasture, where the most cattle had been stolen, Ty scanned
the area using his night goggles, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He
had a job to do. He was here to protect the cattle, not Max’s granddaughter
from a gigolo.

“Did you see the guy? Really see the guy?” he
cross-examined. He was failing to make him understand what he was trying get
across.

“Yeah, I saw the guy. Lay off will you, before
I come over there and rearrange your face. Or worse, fire you,” he said
irritably into his mike, knowing Ridge was watching the east side of the
property.

“Boss, the guy’s a dead ringer for you, even
Parry saw it. He’s a younger version of you,” he came back over the mike.

As he focused on what Ridge was implying, it
suddenly hit him that he was right! He was amazed that he had missed the
resemblance before. Was that why Alex was attracted to Steven? Was Alex
projecting her feelings for him onto Steven? It opened his mind to the
possibility that she cared for him more than he believed. Maybe she hadn’t
gotten over him as she had claimed. He had hurt her brutally before, so she
would naturally be leery that he would wound her again. It explained why she
didn’t want him getting too close.
Is Alex apprehensive that I will discover
how she really feels about me?

Ty didn’t know if he was relieved or not. If
Alex did care for him, why had she allowed Steven to take up residence down the
hall from her? Was she trying to make him jealous? Not wanting to accept that
she was capable of being that calculating, he entertained the idea that maybe
she and Steven truly cared for one another. He knew that even if his
assumptions were correct, he still didn’t have the right to interfere in her
life. Being surrounded by unlimited wealth all of her life left him out in the
cold. He could never offer her that kind of existence.
My account is short a
million or two compared to the never ending bank account that dream boy
probably has
.

“If I need your help, I’ll ask for it Ridge,”
he stated sternly. He saw no further reason to discuss the issue; he wasn’t
ready to examine his feelings too closely.

“Just thought you should know, Boss.”

“Thanks.”

Ty had work to do and thinking about Alex was
dangerous. He had to keep his mind focused on the rustlers. It was a waste of
time trying to figure out how he could repair the damage he had caused between
them. He shouldn’t have gone off the deep end when Steven arrived. He knew they
were back to square one, with Alex not trusting him.

It had been a long and cold night with nothing
happening. As Ty, Ridge, and Tennessee entered the house they could smell
breakfast cooking. Glancing around the kitchen, Ty saw that Martha was cooking
while Parry sat at the table having a cup of coffee.

“Sam, Alex, and Pretty Boy all went into town.
They said they were going to do some shopping for supplies,” Parry said,
setting down his coffee cup.

He watched his boss absorb the fact that Alex
was out, and was thankful he had never pissed the boss off as badly as Steven had.
Judging by the green fire burning in his bosses eyes, Steven was road kill.

“Finish laying out the security system and get
it up and running asap. The sooner it’s completed the sooner we’re out of
here.” Ty said gruffly before leaving the room.

Ridge and Parry looked at each other and
shrugged their shoulders as they started to eat their breakfast. Tennessee just
shook his head and winked suggestively at Martha, who blushed like a
schoolgirl.

The next few days seemed to follow the same
pattern with Ty missing Alex at every turn. She was always busy or out with
Steven. The rustlers still hadn’t made a move by Ty’s third night on graveyard
and Parry was crashing in the main house again tonight. It should have been
Ty’s night for a break but he wanted to be close to the action. He had a hunch
the rustlers would hit tonight.

Ty had a malfunction with his com link just
before one that morning, so he returned to the house to grab a spare. When he
entered, the lights were low and everything was still and silent. He sensed
everyone was asleep. Moving up the stairs two at a time to the landing he
strode toward his room purposefully. Grabbing the spare radio out of his room,
he turned and headed back downstairs.

He paused at Alex’s door, and not seeing a
light on, knew she was asleep. Seeing the door ajar, he reached out to pull it
closed, but froze as he heard his name. Alex, her voice laced with pain, was
calling to him. Pushing open the door, not bothering to turn on the overhead
light, he rushed toward her bed, needing to make sure she wasn’t in danger. He
caught sight of her tossing and turning on the bed, the covers thrown to one
side as she cried out in her sleep; caught in whatever terror her mind was
playing out. He was stunned to find her pleading for him. He grabbed her by the
shoulders, gently shaking her out of her sleep.

“Alex, honey, come on. Wake up,” he said
softly, pulling her into his arms trying to talk her out of the nightmare.

“Ty, what…?” Alex woke with a start, lost in a
nightmare moments before, where Ty had been hurt and she was unable to reach
him. When she finally found him, he had flinched away from her touch, not
wanting her comfort and despising her for her deception about Fire. Trying to
bring her heart rate to normal and pull herself out of her dream, it finally
registered that she was in the darkness of her room with Ty holding her.

“What are you doing in here?” she asked
groggily.

She brushed the hair out of her face, pulling
out of his arms to lie back down against the pillows and get a better look at
him.

“You were dreaming. I heard you call out in
your sleep. I thought you might be in trouble, so I came in to make sure you
were alright,” he said softly.

Rising from the bed, he turned to straighten
her blankets. Placing them back over her, he gently slid them up to tuck them
under her chin before he sat down on the edge of the bed to examine her face.
He could see with the help of the almost full moon that was streaming through
the large window.

Her hair was spilling out all around her elfin
face, spread like dark flames across the pillow. The nightmare had faded from
her eyes and a dreamy look of contentment replaced the turmoil. She lay there,
stretched out in the moonlight, without her glasses. She literally took his
breath away lying there so soft and warm.

“Go back to sleep little one, we’ll talk in the
morning,” he said huskily.

As he bent towards her and kissed her lips, he
felt her reach out to him as he started to pull back. She spread her hands in
his hair trying to hold him to her. Still not fully awake, he knew she would
hate herself in the morning for responding so trustingly to him. But at this
moment, she was all he craved, all he needed. He moved to deepen the kiss,
pulling her closer to him. He had missed her over the last couple of days. He
cursed his own weakness even as he stretched out on her bed. Her scent
enveloped him; smelling of wild flowers and reminding him of that long ago
summer. All he could feel was Alex laying in his arms. He couldn’t resist
hoping that this moment would sustain the hunger he felt but could not act on.

He slowly began to realize Ridge was yelling
something in his ear.

“Ty come in! Ty! Man, answer me! They’re
hitting the north pasture. Ty come in!” he screamed in his ear.

Jerking back from her and looking into her
passion glazed eyes, Ty forced himself to pull away, although the temptation
was nearly impossible to resist. Ty stood up trying to clear his mind.

“Ridge I hear you. ETA in ten. Don’t do
anything foolish; wait until I can get there. Call the sheriff, we may need
back up,” he said into his mike. He watched Alex as she was slowly becoming
more coherent.

He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “We’ll talk
in the morning Tidbit. Go back to sleep.” Standing, he slid to the door. He
quickly pulled it closed behind him, not wanting to risk turning back. He knew
if he did he would give into the impulse to join her in her bed. He kept moving
out to his rig, the temptation to return to her and let Ridge handle the
rustlers burning in his gut.

Alex sat up slowly, absorbing that the rustlers
were hitting the ranch. Sweeping back the covers, she switched on the bedside
lamp and raced to the closet. Not stopping to consider what she was doing, she
pulled on a pair of leather pants, a black turtleneck, and her hiking boots.
Grabbing her black leather bomber jacket, she ran for Parry’s room.

Not bothering to knock, Alex barged into his
room. Turning on the overhead light, Alex glanced around the room. Spying the
nightstand, she marched toward it and grabbed Parry’s radio and the night
goggles that Ty had told her about on their picnic.

“What the hell?” Parry said groggily. He sat
up, startled, his hair going in every which direction. He squinted at the glare
from the bright light as he looked for the cause of his sleep being
interrupted.

At least he wore sweats to bed,
Alex thought.

As Parry came to, he groggily wondered if the
house was under attack, but it was worse. He spotted Alex.

“What are you doing?” He couldn’t help but
notice her tight leather pants, which left very little to the imagination, and
was flabbergasted. Her appearance reminded him of someone, but he couldn’t put
his finger on it? Maybe he was hallucinating and this was all a crazy fantasy.
Make that a nightmare because the boss was going to kill him when he found out
he was dreaming about his girl. Or, his eyes were playing tricks on him and he
was still half-asleep. Glancing at the clock and seeing it read two in the
morning the thought did have merit.

“I’m borrowing your gear. Go back to sleep,”
Alex said, turning to leave as fast as she had come in.

“Alex, you can’t take those! Boss will fire
me!” he said in hasty protest. He couldn’t believe she was actually stealing
his gear. Dream or no dream it meant his job.

“If he sacks you, I’ll hire you. I always need
tech guys,” she said offhandedly.

She reached back to close his door and turn the
light off.

“Really?” he asked, stopping her before she
closed it completely.

“Yeah, go back to sleep,” she said reassuringly
and closed the door softly so she wouldn’t wake up the rest of the house.

Heading for the barn, she switched on the
radio, intentionally leaving the mike off. The earpiece reminded her of the
gear she used on stage when performing live. When she reached the barn she
headed for the office located in the back. Unlocking the door she turned on the
light and slid around the desk to get to the gun cabinet. She threw open the
glass doors and pulled out a 30.6 rifle, pocketing the shells in her jacket.
Emma had made sure the girls were completely capable of efficiently handling
any gun. Having grown up on a ranch with coyotes and snakes, she learned early
on never to be without one. Closing the glass cabinet, she ran with the rifle
to Stardust’s stall.

She had bought Stardust from her sister Jesse
the year she had released her first album. Needing to conquer her fear of
horses, Stardust had been her therapy. He was the most magnificent stallion
Alex had ever seen and she had fallen in love with him the moment she’d laid
eyes on him. Jesse said Stardust was perfect for Alex and she had been right.
Stardust didn’t like everyone; he was docile with her and other females, but
was easily spooked around men.