“Sophie? What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Your truck. May I please borrow your truck?”
“Sure.” Frowning, Jesse pushed her hand down deep inside her jeans pocket and pulled out a key fob with several keys. Selecting one, she handed it to Sophie and pointed. “It’s the green Dodge over there. Is there anything I can do?”
“No. This is good enough. I’ll arrange to have it back to you as fast as I possibly can.” With that she ran for the green pickup. What a total and complete fool she had been.
As she pulled out of the parking lot, she saw Clay running around the corner of the building toward her and she floored it, almost spinning out of control. The last thing she needed or wanted were a bunch of excuses from Clay. I didn’t know she would be here. It didn’t mean anything. The hell it didn’t. It meant everything. This wasn’t some surprise birthday party full of strippers and gags. It was real. And the sooner she got away from here, the better.
How she made it to the small cottage, she would never know. It was pure luck that she didn’t rear-end someone or get broadsided. If there were red lights, she never saw them. Stop signs didn’t exist. All she had was one single thought: How could he do this to her? Over the years she’d thought a lot of things both good and bad about him. His past had made him hard, moody and arrogant, but never cruel. At least never to her. Their time together flashed through her mind. The bond they’d formed when he’d struggled to overcome his injuries. The camaraderie in the new office. Watching the new foals. Long horseback rides in the wild country where she always felt safe with Clay near her. More recently, the romantic interludes where she had melted into his strong, powerful arms. The feeling he’d given her that she was the only woman in the world for him. The realization that they had created a new life. Had it all been a ruse? Had it all been a dream? Surely he wouldn’t have gone to the trouble just to take her to his bed, especially when he could have practically any woman he wanted and with a lot less effort.
Once she’d arrived at the cottage, she lost no time throwing things into a suitcase. What she didn’t take with her today she could always send for.
She grabbed her cell and punched the number for her landlord, Whit Daltry.
“Whit? This is Sophie.”
“Hey there. How’s it going?”
“Actually, not so good.” It took a few minutes to explain about her father’s illness, having to stop periodically and restrain her emotions.
“I’ve got to go home. I can arrange for you to receive the remaining rent. I think there are about four months left on the lease.”
“Forget it, Sophie. Don’t give it another thought. You do what you have to do. Family comes first.”
His words brought the tears to her eyes once again. He really was such a nice man. It was too bad Clay couldn’t be more like him.
“Good luck to you, Sophie. Look, I’m going to hold the cottage for a couple of months in case things work out and you want to come back.”
“I won’t be coming back, Whit. But thanks for the offer.”
“Not my business, but does Clay know?”
“Yeah. I just told him.”
And he told me. Loud and clear.
The look on Sophie’s face when she’d stepped into his office was something that would haunt Clay for the rest of his life. He pushed Carla Maxwell off his lap and stood up, not really caring if she made it to her feet or fell on the floor. She actually had the audacity to look shocked that he had pushed out of her arms.
He was furious. If anything had ever been a setup, this was it. It was too perfectly timed to be anything else.
“What in the hell are you doing here?”
“Excuse me? I don’t know what you mean,” she said in an angry tone as she straightened her dress.
“You know exactly what I mean. My only question is who put you up to it.”
“Nobody put me up to anything! I received your email and I thought... You made it clear you wanted us to get back together,” she snapped. “I assume you’ve changed your mind.”
“I never sent you any email.”
When Clay continued to glare, she walked to a chair next to the office door and pulled her cell phone out of her purse. After searching for a few seconds, she held out the phone to Clay.
True to her word, there was an email to Carla sent from his account. Only Clay didn’t know anything about this. Months ago Clay would have taken the temptation but the thought of Sophie carrying his child had awakened feelings of protectiveness and possessiveness. He wanted nothing to do with another woman.
But how was this possible? The answer came to him immediately. Someone had hacked into his system. He couldn’t help but speculate what else they’d done. And could this somehow be related to the attack on Everest?
His cell phone began to ring. When he gazed at the display, he saw it was Whit Daltry.
“Yeah,” he answered, turning away from a still-sulking Carla. “How’s it going?”
“Clay, this isn’t any of my business, but are you aware Sophie has left?”
“I know she left here.”
“She’s gone. She called me to arrange to pay out the last months of her lease. Of course, I told her not to worry about it. She was packed and on her way to the airport.”
“What?”
“She said she’d told you. I decided to call and butt in just in case she hadn’t, seeing how close the two of you are. Is there anything I can do?”
“No, but thanks anyway. Oh, and, Whit? Someone hacked my phone. I think they might have Sophie’s, too.”
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“That it’s the same SOB who has systemically targeted people here in Royal? Yeah, it has Maverick’s fingerprints all over it.”
“I’ll call a meeting for tomorrow at the TCC. We need to know if anything has gone on with anybody else and share your latest info.”
“I’ll try and make it. Just send me the time.”
“Will do.”
When the call ended, Clay again turned to face Carla.
“My apologies to you,” he said, his hands on his hips. “Apparently someone hacked my phone and thought they would have some fun at our expense. I didn’t send that email to you.”
“Well, isn’t this just my luck.” She walked toward the door, giving Clay a wink as she passed. “If you ever change your mind, you know how to reach me.”
Clay ran his fingers through his dark hair. Sophie was gone. He should go after her. Every cell in his body was on high alert to do just that. But he could talk himself blue in the face and he wouldn’t be able to convince her to come back. Maybe he would have had a chance—if he hadn’t screwed it up when she’d first told him about the baby. But her two simple words, I’m pregnant, had struck him dumb. He had always been so careful. Even back in the day when he’d landed in bed with a hot lady, drunk on his ass after a rodeo celebration in some bar, he’d always remembered to use protection. It had become as automatic as breathing.
Clay couldn’t specifically remember if he’d used condoms that first night he’d taken Sophie to his bed. But then, actually getting to make love to the prim and proper Ms. Sophie had had him in so many knots, and he hadn’t been able to get enough of her. Usually he was good for one, maybe two times in a night. With Sophie, his hunger had been insatiable and he’d taken her over and over and over. Apparently, at least one of those times he’d failed to grab a condom, which resulted in the pregnancy.
Clearly he had made a mistake. Now the question was, what to do about it? Maybe Whit was wrong. Maybe she hadn’t left as yet. In a dead run, he jumped into his pickup truck and spun gravel as he headed to the cottage. He didn’t have a clue what to say. He would have to wing it. Groveling would definitely be on the list. Just let him be in time to catch her before she disappeared from his life forever.
Sophie was in the process of placing suitcases into Jesse May’s pickup when Clay rounded the corner and pulled up behind her. Her face, she knew, was still red from the tears she’d shed over Clay. But it was his problem. Someday he would regret it but that was on him to discover.
“Sophie,” Clay said as he approached her. “Where are you going?”
She refused to look at him. Why waste her breath answering stupid questions?
“Just please go away and leave me alone. You’ve done quite enough.”
“Sophie, I did not want that woman in my office. She is ancient history. Carla received an email from my account asking her to come to my office. I didn’t send it. I wouldn’t know how to contact her, so I couldn’t have sent it. And if I was going to see her again, it wouldn’t be in the office.”
“Your office is in your house. Very convenient.”
Sophie finished stowing her luggage and walked to the driver’s side door.
“So that’s it? You’re going to believe some woman I haven’t seen in ten years over me.” It sounded like a statement rather than a question.
“It wasn’t what I heard—it was what I saw.” She turned to face him. “Explain how a woman you didn’t invite to your office and didn’t want to see again managed to straddle your lap and kiss you all over your face. How did that transpire, Clay?”