Stone Cold Charade (A Stone Family Novel) (5 page)

He was not amused. Alex’s dry humor and the
way she used it to keep people from getting closer than she wanted them to be
always made his blood heat. She always tried to run from confrontations but hid
behind humor when something unavoidable arose, like now.

He stared openly at her. Alex was
exactly as he remembered. Nothing had changed. She still downplayed her looks,
intentionally. She hated being compared to her mother and sisters. She never
flirted openly with men or tried to play up her looks as most women did at her
age. If anything, she wore unattractive clothes to get people, especially men,
to ignore her so she could melt into the woodwork. Ty had always thought of her
as a scared kid, afraid to let the world see the real her. He had a soft spot
for her and always had. She had been the only bright spot in working for her
grandfather on the ranch.

“Where’s your sister?” Ty asked
inspecting her as if he were seeing a bug that had dared to crawl out from
under the rug at his feet.

Offended at his tone and snide
expression, she went on the defensive, “Well let’s get the preliminaries out of
the way, shall we? How are you Ty? I’m fine, by the way, thanks for asking.
Been meaning to call, but you know how it is, life and all that?” Smiling
coldly, she strolled further into the room and sat down on the couch. It sat
directly in front of the fireplace, and she was very aware that only a coffee
table separated her from him.

Turning her face up towards him, she
remarked, “Now that we’re all caught up on the pleasantries...” Her voice sounded
sticky sweet to her ears as she finished speaking. Just as fast, she changed
it, the scorn she felt lacing every syllable as she answered his question not
hiding her contempt for him or rudeness, “I don’t know where Sam is. She left
to drive into Houston an hour ago --lucky her.”

Her tone and words were not lost on him.
“Why am I not surprised? Did your grandfather speak to her?” He instantly
suspected Max was behind Alex being at the ranch at the same time that he was.
How convenient? Max had set him up!

“Did he inform her I was showing up to
go over the security with her?” he snapped before taking off his hat and
running an angry hand through his thick hair in frustration.
There’s no way
the old goat is getting away with this one.

So, Ty was the man her grandfather had
sent.
No wonder Sam had left in such a hurry, as if the plague was about to
hit,
she thought wryly. Ty had always intimidated people, especially Sam;
she never could understand his dark, dry humor.
Why did grandfather send
him?
Alex thought, confused.
He worked as a simple cowhand back in
Wilkinson. How did Ty end up working for a security firm?

“My grandfather informed her someone was
coming,” she said aloud. “And she asked me to step in for her. She needed help
because she already had another meeting arranged before Max called,” she said
reluctantly. His angry glare sent her heart pounding. She didn’t look away but
tried to calm her racing heart as it beat noisily in her chest, hoping he
couldn’t hear it.

Ty could see that she was just as
unhappy with the arrangement of having to work with him as he was. She was
perched so stiffly on the couch you would think there was a tiger loose in the
room. The exit behind her was foremost in her mind. He smiled, silently
wondering if, in her thinking, he was the tiger waiting for the right moment to
pounce. Ty suspected she hadn’t known she would be seeing him when she had
agreed to take her sister’s place. If she had, he knew enough about her to
guess she would have run for cover.

His company was hired by Max to handle
the security personnel and surveillance equipment for the ranch, and if he
thought Alex being here would somehow cause him to fail, he was mistaken. He
needed the money too much.

“Why would Max send you?” Alex inquired,
studying his hard-planed face. Ty, forced to grow up too quickly with no one
giving him anything for free, had worked nonstop for what he got. The
conviction and pride that he always carried like a second skin still surrounded
him like armor. It was evident in the way he carried himself that he continued
to strive to be better than he was, as if he were trying to prove something to
himself or someone else. So why work for her grandfather? He had hated having
to work for Max, believing the only reason Max employed him was due to pity
over his mother’s health.

“I own a private security firm that
works on large ranches, usually in Texas, California, Oregon, Wyoming, and
Colorado, but wherever the money takes me. We deal with cattle ranches mostly,”
as he finished, he could see the surprise that showed on her face from hearing
he owned his own security company.

Deciding to ignore it, Ty glanced around
the room, spying the piano in the corner and wondered if Alex still played. She
had always been a fanatic about her music, continually getting lost in the
tones she could ring out of the keys. People were an afterthought to her in
those moments.

Max had sent him here on a wild goose
chase; he could feel it in his gut. But why? As much as Ty felt like stretching
out on the overstuffed sofa with a beer to watch the game on the big screen
over the fireplace, he actually wanted to commit a homicide. Visions of
strangling Max with his bare hands danced through his head. Whatever scheme Max
was hatching involved Alex. He did not want to be anywhere near her and the
memories she evoked. The past was just that, the past. He needed to remember
that hard fact.

Unable to stop herself, Alex asked, “Why
are you doing security work? I remember you saying you were going to go to
college to get a law degree. And, I thought you hated working for my
grandfather?” even as she asked the question, she knew it was a mistake. She
was in dangerous waters asking about his life now. Plus, it didn’t help
pointing out that he was once again working for her grandfather. The two were
like oil and water, and that was on Christmas Day, when good will to all men
was mandatory.

Ty’s eyes narrowed before darkening
ominously and he stated, “Life never turns out as we think it will, does it?”
Not expecting an answer, he continued, “I couldn’t afford college, so I joined
the military instead. I got out a couple of years ago. Let’s just say I learned
a lot about security while I was there. After my tour was up, I had the money
to go back to school, so I got my degree in business and criminal
investigation. This is a job, nothing more. Your grandfather’s money is just as
good as anyone else’s.”

So Ty was like every other person; it
all came down to money. She shouldn’t be surprised. Although she’d overheard
him admit as much before, at party years ago, it still stung. Her family was
just a paycheck to him.

Even knowing where his loyalties lay, it
didn’t stop her from wondering if he was married now. Did he have a family? Ty
had always hated the idea of marriage. His father, an alcoholic, had walked out
on his mother when he was just a kid; right after his sister had been born.
Maybe all the years of going without made him feel the need for some kind of
security by way of material gain. She knew Ty’s belief in commitment and
marriage was warped. Not wanting to subject his own kids to a life of
uncertainties, which to him marriage was, he swore never to marry. Ty only
relied on himself, no one else. She learned that for herself the hard way.

Wanting this meeting over as quickly as
possible, she got up from the sofa and glided towards him. “What do you need
from Sam to get started on the security?” Noting that he was scrutinizing the
way she moved, she dropped her shoulders, purposely trying to mask her form.
The last thing she needed was Ty guessing who she was. That part of her life
was private, and Ty wasn’t invited. Very few people knew she was Fire, and she
intended to keep it that way.

Ty watched Alex’s movements closely as
she approached from halfway across the room, and noticed her slip into an
awkward stride. She was trying to appear less agile, he realized. It was as if
she didn’t want him to know how graceful she could be. He drew his brows
together wondering why she was trying to avert his attention from her body. In
the past, he had always known what Alex had thought and felt. She had never
hidden anything from him when she was a kid. But he knew instinctively she was
hiding something from him now.

“Do you have the plans and blueprints
for the buildings on the ranch and survey layouts? I can go over them and look
for points of entry to the ranch.” Without answering, Alex swept from the room
with Ty following close on her heels. She led the way to Sam’s office, and once
inside went to the filing cabinet and removed the necessary papers that he
requested. Standing on the other side of the desk, with his arms crossed and a
stern look in his eyes, he stared at her so intensely that her hands shook as
she handed him the thick files.

Reaching out, he took the files, making
sure not to touch her. As he began to go over the schematics, he was glad his
team would be arriving in the next day or two to help. Taking into account all
variable accesses to the ranch, this was going to be a pain of an assignment, more
than one man could handle. The security cameras that needed to be installed
would require at least two of his men.

“Will that do?” she questioned running
her sweaty palms down her jeans and looking anywhere but at him. She stood in
the same office earlier, but now with Ty in it, it seemed to have shrunk. Her
heart sped up. She was uneasy knowing that he could still make her nervous and
unsure of herself after all these years. She was starting to wonder what was
happening to her, she had been around men more handsome then Ty since she had
seen him last. She even dated a few. She was over the silly crush she had had
on him years ago. It was in the past, she reassured herself.

Feeling the tension she was radiating,
Ty realized he was making her jumpy. Maybe she was not as unaffected by him as
she pretended. He couldn’t seem to stop himself from wondering how many lovers
she had taken since he had last seen her. Alex was a woman now, an experienced
one. Knowing the idea of being her first lover was a thing of the past, he felt
a pang at the thought.

Ty knew for a fact that she had never
been married. It would have made national headlines considering who her
grandfather was. She dated. He had seen pictures in the paper of her with
different men at various charity events over the years. She was no
inexperienced teenager in the first throngs of a crush, but a woman.

Now her age changed the rules. It had
been Alex’s innocence that had saved her from the games she wanted to play when
they were younger, and made him keep his distance. The thought of a shotgun
wedding always seemed be like a splash of ice water to his libido. However, it
hadn’t stopped him from dreaming late at night about being her first and
teaching her what being a woman was. When he let her walk away, he knew he was
forfeiting that right. Now he was contemplating the possibility of taking up
where they had left off. The thought of the two of them being lovers at this
moment in time was not out of the question. He feigned interest in the blue
prints and smiled as Alex nervously fidgeted with her hands.

“These will work for now.” He raised his
head to look at her as he clarified, “I want to go out with the foreman
tomorrow to go over where the fences were broken into and where a possible
break in might happen again. I need to make sure no more cattle are stolen. If
I know where the rustlers may strike again, I can prevent it.”

He wasn’t really sure that she would
understand what he was getting at, that he was going to be a long-term fixture
on the ranch. He knew she didn’t want him here. He could read it in the way she
was freezing him out. Whether she liked it or not, he would be staying on the
ranch until he could get the security up and running and catch the thieves. He
was going to be a permanent figure on the ranch for the duration.

Smiling, he elaborated, “Sorry to disappoint
you sweetheart, but I’ll probably need to be here for a while.” He watched her
closely, trying to judge her reaction to the news.

“How long do you think it will take?”
she asked, not displaying how the news affected her. She needed to get away
from Ty before he noticed how being this close to him was affecting her. Her
apprehension was clear in the constant shuffling of her feet, which she
couldn’t seem to stop. This was supposed to be her vacation. Having to deal
with Ty after all these years was not what she would consider a vacation, but a
nightmare.
There went my no pressure, stress free month!

“That depends on how quickly I can
apprehend the rustlers. I get paid to do this. Don’t fret. I know what I'm
doing,” he mocked. “I’ll be bringing in some of my own men. I’ll have them
sleep in the bunk house with the other cowhands,” he muttered, glancing back at
the files. He knew he was just a low-ranking employee and not worthy of the
mighty Stone Family’s high opinion. He was here to do a job, nothing more. He
learned a long time ago where his place was concerning this family.

Before she could stop herself, putting
it down to nerves, Alex blurted, “We have plenty of room in the main house for
your men and your family,” kicking herself mentally as soon as she spoke. Just
the thought of welcoming Ty’s wife, and possibly children, to stay at the main
house made her sick inside. There was no choice. She would have to cut her
vacation short. She’d have to duck out quietly if he took her up on the offer.