The Cowboy's Claim (6 page)

“I could use a refill on my iced tea,” Nick said.

She looked at his half-empty glass. “Of course, I’ll be right back.” Moments later she returned to the table, with his iced tea glass filled to near overflowing, and then went back to dealing with her other customers.

Nick and Adam lingered, ordering coffee and Mary’s famous apple pie for dessert. Courtney served them once again and then tried to keep her gaze away from Nick as she busied herself taking care of other people’s dining needs.

She smiled at one of her favorite customers, Thomas Manning. Thomas had arrived in Grady Gulch about a year ago. He was in his late thirties, quiet and well spoken and usually had a book in his hand. She took Thomas’s order and left the table.

She couldn’t wait for this rush hour to be over so she could get Garrett back home and get on with the rest of her weekend. All she wanted to do for the remainder of the evening and all day tomorrow was spend time with her favorite little boy.

Still, she couldn’t help but notice several people stopping by the booth to visit with Nick and Adam. On their best day the two were both charmers, easy to talk to and drawing people to them.

The dinner rush seemed to last forever, but finally people began to filter out. She glanced over at Nick and saw that Mary was visiting with the two men.

As the pretty blonde walked away from their table to visit with another dinner guest, Nick’s gaze caught hers and in the depths of his eyes was a burning anger.

He knows.

The words thundered in her head, for a moment stealing all other sound, as if she’d gone momentarily deaf. She broke eye contact with him and walked on shaky legs toward the kitchen.

He knows Garrett is his.
She wasn’t sure who might have told him Garrett’s age, but with that information there would be little doubt in his mind that the boy belonged to him. She’d make him doubt, she thought desperately. As long as he didn’t see Garrett, he couldn’t be sure.

“Problems?” Rusty asked as he stepped away from the grill. More than once Rusty had served as bouncer for customers who got out of line. He not only had broad shoulders and arms the size of tree trunks, but his face was enough to intimidate anyone.

He might scare somebody who didn’t know him, but Courtney had seen the soft side he rarely displayed, his utter devotion to Mary and her son, Matt, and all the women who worked here.

“No problems,” she quickly assured him as she tried to still the rapid rhythm of her heartbeat. “I just needed a minute away from the crowd.”

What was she going to do? A frantic energy swelled up inside her as she considered her options. She could lie to him and tell him that a week after he’d left town she’d slept with somebody else. There would be no way he could disprove her words, and she wouldn’t have to give him a specific name.

The only way he’d know the truth for sure was if he actually saw that little cleft in Garrett’s chin. It couldn’t have come from anyone else in the entire town but Nick Benson.

For the first time since she’d left her hometown of Evanston, she thought of going back. Would her parents have finally forgiven her for not being the daughter they’d wanted? Would they accept her and her child into their home to get back on her feet after having kicked her out when they’d discovered her pregnancy?

Surely two years would have brought some forgiveness. Even as she thought of the idea, she dismissed it. She hadn’t heard from either of her parents since they’d thrown her out of their home. Even the birth of her son hadn’t broken the deafening silence of disapproval that had lingered over the past fifteen months.

Besides, she couldn’t go back to living beneath their roof, where she’d always felt inadequate, where she’d never embraced their need for material things and social acceptance, and where they’d never accepted the woman she had grown up to be.

With a sigh she left the kitchen once again, noting with a quick, darting glance that Nick and Adam remained in their booth. She’d already given them their tab so there was nothing else they should need from her.

She focused on the remaining diners in her section and slowly began to relax as she once again met Nick’s gaze and didn’t see any of the fiery anger she thought she’d seen earlier.

Maybe she’d only imagined the flames of rage there. Maybe it had simply been her slightly guilty conscience at work. She picked up the glass of iced tea she’d nursed all through her shift from a small table close to the restrooms.

She took a sip of her tepid tea and for a moment she thought of the two waitresses who would never work here again, women who had been murdered in their beds.

Everyone had hoped that Candy’s murder had either been committed by her boyfriend or perhaps a drifter passing through town. The latest murder seemed to blow the drifter theory out of the water. She set her glass down and fought against a shiver that threatened to walk up her spine as she realized the odds were good that the killer was a local. She might have even served him a meal.

She shook her head to dispel thoughts of murder and smoothed a hand down the T-shirt that marked her as a Cowboy Café waitress. Hopefully it was just a strange coincidence that both of the murder victims had worked here.

It was just before seven when Mary walked over to her. “You can go home now. Thanks for filling in at the last minute. This flu bug that’s going around seems to be getting people down.”

Courtney nodded, but she wondered if the two waitresses who had called in sick had really been sick or had been afraid to come in after the latest murder of one of their own.

She’d heard through the grapevine that Shirley’s funeral was set for next Wednesday, and as far as Courtney knew everyone from the Cowboy Café planned to attend. Mary had already said she intended to close down the café for several hours that day.

“I’ll see you Monday at noon,” Courtney said as she handed Mary her order pan and pen. “Good night.”

She’d almost made it to the door when a firm hand wrapped around her arm and stopped her. “We need to talk.” Nick’s voice simmered with barely controlled emotions just behind her.

She slowly turned to face him and realized she hadn’t imagined that moment earlier when his eyes had flamed with anger. Now they were a cold, icy blue, and she knew if she didn’t think fast on her feet, he’d know the secret she’d planned on taking to the grave.

Chapter 4

N
ick held tight to her arm, not wanting to release her until he could bend her to his will, force her to tell him what he wanted to know.

“I told you before, we have nothing to talk about,” she replied, her face taking on an unhealthy paleness.

“Oh, I think we do,” he said, his voice deceptively soft and calm. “I think we have a lot to discuss.”

She glanced around frantically and jerked her arm from his grasp. “I can’t imagine what you’re talking about. I’m tired. I just finished up a busy dinner shift. Leave me alone, Nick.”

He watched as she stormed out the door, and he sensed his brother moving to stand just behind him. “Problems?” Adam asked.

“Maybe, maybe not,” Nick said as the two left the café. “Drop me off at the motel.”

“At the motel? Why? You want to tell me what’s going on?” Adam asked as Nick tossed him the keys to the truck.

“I think Courtney and I have a little unfinished business.” Was it possible? Adam had told him he thought Courtney’s baby was about ten months old, but Mary had mentioned she couldn’t believe that Courtney’s son was already fifteen months old. Was she mistaken?

Fifteen months? Was it possible the child was his? They’d always been so careful about birth control, except that last night when he’d come to her consumed with grief.

There had been no thought of birth control that night. There had been no thought in his mind except his need for Courtney’s arms around him, his need for her to swallow him, to engulf him so as to somehow take away at least a little bit of his pain.

“Unfinished business? I didn’t know you had any starting business with her,” Adam said as he got in behind the wheel. He didn’t start the engine but rather turned and looked at Nick in the passenger seat. “Again, you want to tell me what’s going on? And this time, be a little more specific.”

“At least start the engine so we can get some air-conditioning going,” Nick replied. He drew a deep sigh and stared out the window, his brain whirling with suppositions. Was it possible she’d gotten pregnant that night?

If that was the case then why hadn’t she called him? Why hadn’t she let him know immediately? That was a question that had haunted him even before now.

In the time that he’d been gone he’d never changed his cell phone number, and even though he’d decided not to contact her, to let her go, he’d been surprised and more than a little hurt that she’d never attempted to call him.

Now there was a part of him that was infuriated that she hadn’t called to tell him she was pregnant with his child. Slow down, he told himself. He couldn’t be sure about the facts. He couldn’t be sure that the child was his.

As the interior of the truck began to cool, Nick turned to look at his brother. “Before Cherry’s death, Courtney and I were sort of seeing each other.”

Adam frowned. “Sort of seeing each other? You mean like dating?”

Nick gave a curt nod of his head.

“Why didn’t I know about it? I never heard anything about you and Courtney Chambers.”

“That’s the way we wanted it. We kept our relationship a secret. Her parents would have freaked out if they had known she was dating a no-count rancher like me.” A small burn set off in the pit of his stomach. Had the truth been that she’d been ashamed of their relationship and had only used the disapproval of her parents as an excuse?

“So, what’s the unfinished business?”

“Courtney’s baby.”

Adam raised a dark eyebrow. “What about the baby?”

“Didn’t you hear Mary mention that Courtney’s boy was fifteen months old?”

“Fifteen months...” Adam’s voice trailed off as he did the mental math. “The kid is yours?”

“I can’t be positive.” Nick’s gut churned. “But, I intend to find out. Just take me to the motel, and I’ll find my own way home from there.”

Adam left the café parking lot and shook his head ruefully. “You and Courtney, it’s hard to wrap my mind around it. You just don’t seem like her type.”

“I wasn’t. We were just having fun together for a while.” The words felt like a lie as they left Nick’s lips. “We had no contact after I skipped town.”

“What are you going to do if the boy is yours?” Adam asked.

A child.

A son.

“I’m not sure.” Nick’s head whirled at the thought of the child, but he couldn’t find any real emotional purchase. He was numbed by the very idea. At the moment the thought of him having a son was merely a theory, and until that theory was proven he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it.

Adam pulled up in front of the motel. “It doesn’t look like she’s here.”

Nick opened the passenger door to step out. “She’ll be here.” Sooner or later she had to come home, and he wasn’t about to leave here without answers.

“You want to call me when you’re finished here and I’ll come back for you?” Adam asked. Nick frowned as he saw his brother lick his lips and look in the direction of The Corral.

“Adam, go home and I’ll call you when it’s time to pick me back up.”

For a long moment Adam stared at him, then with a weary sigh of resignation, he nodded. “Okay, I’ll go home and wait for you.”

“I’ll call you for a ride home,” Nick agreed. Nick got out of the truck, and as he watched Adam drive away he admitted to himself that he had momentarily worried that Adam would leave here and drive directly to The Corral for a few drinks. The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for Adam drinking and driving.

He moved to the side of the motel and stood beneath a stand of trees, half-hidden by the deepening shadows of the night.

If she saw him waiting for her she might just turn right around and drive away as quickly as she could.

He figured she’d gone to pick up the boy from wherever he went when she worked. The boy. He didn’t even know his name. But, he still didn’t know if he even had a right to know his name.

He’d known in some part of his grieving heart when he’d left here that he’d hurt her, but he’d thought it was best for both of them. She’d been ashamed of him. He’d convinced himself that she’d needed her parents’ approval more than she’d ever needed him.

He’d been stunned when he’d realized he was her first lover. But, there was no reason to believe since that time that he’d been her only lover.

He tensed as he saw her car pull in and park in front of her unit. He didn’t immediately approach her but instead remained where he was and watched as she got out of the car and then opened the back door to retrieve the baby.

She hurried inside as if afraid somebody might see her, as if somehow afraid that
he
would see her. He’d certainly seen enough to know that the baby wasn’t some wee little thing she carried in one arm. He’d been a little chunk who had to be older than a year.

Timing was everything. He needed to know the timing of her pregnancy. And the time to find that out was right now. He didn’t want to go another minute without knowing the truth.

Drawing a deep breath, still more than a little bit numb at the possibility of what he might discover, he approached her door and knocked firmly.

A curtain shifted slightly and then dropped back in place at the window. “Go away,” her voice said through the closed door.

“I’m here now, Courtney, and I’m not going away,” he replied.

“I’ll call Sheriff Evans,” she replied.

“I have a feeling with two murders on his hands you’ll have a hard time getting his attention.”

His comment was met with silence, and for several long moments he thought she intended to ignore him. But he wasn’t going to be ignored tonight.

Just as he was getting ready to knock on the door once again, she opened it and slid outside into the hot night air, pulling the door halfway closed as she had the last time he’d shown up here.