The Last Outlaw(20)

“I don’t know. Her last letter sounded kind of…I’m not sure…despondent, maybe. Could be my imagination. Just wondering if something happened we don’t know about, or if something has changed.”

“It didn’t seem that way in her letters to Treena,” Peter told Jeff. “I’ll ask her about it. You take care, and let’s go to lunch when I’m in the city.”

“I’d love that. And I’ll let you know when I hear how Jake is doing.”

“You do that. I’ll talk to you soon.” Peter hung up the earpiece to the phone and just stared absently at the opposite wall for a few quiet seconds.

“Looks like the magnificent Jake Harkner has struck again,” Treena told him, interrupting his thoughts.

Peter blinked and finally met her gaze. “You have to stop calling him that. You know he gets embarrassed by that description.”

Treena laughed lightly. “I wish I’d been there when they got that letter from us and when they read that part. I couldn’t help it.” She set the paper on Peter’s desk. “And that horse he gave me as a gift when we visited them is so magnificent!” Treena sat down across from him, sobering. “You’re worried about Randy, aren’t you?”

Peter rubbed at the back of his neck. “Have you noticed anything different about her letters? Any clue something might be wrong?”

Treena thought a moment. “Not really. Why?”

Peter sighed and leaned back in his chair again. “Jeff thought he caught something in her last letter. I’m thinking maybe we should go back to the J&L this summer. You loved it there.”

“Yes, I did, but I have other plans. That’s why I came in here—to talk to you about going to Paris. I’d like to visit my mother and sisters. Mother is getting on in age, and I feel I should go. I think a cruise on the ocean would do us good.”

Peter shook his head. “I can’t be gone for that long. I have too many clients and too many cases coming up in court. I have to stay here.”

“Well, it’s important that you take some kind of break, Peter. You work much too hard.”

They exchanged a look that told her everything.

“You want to go to the J&L,” Treena said gently. “You’re worried about Randy, after this latest incident.”

“A little.” Peter rubbed at his eyes. “I’m sorry, Treena. There are just times when I feel like she might need me.”

“Jake Harkner is her life. He runs right in her blood, Peter. I love watching them together. It’s like every time he breathes in, she breathes out his own breath.”

Jeff stared at the newspaper article. “Yeah.”

Treena pushed back a tendril of her black hair. She would need to get it properly curled up for the lawyers’ banquet they were attending this evening in the city. “Peter, we have an understanding. I know you love me, and you are a good, kind man. I know you also love another woman, one you can’t have. If it makes you feel better, go out to the J&L this summer. I’ll feel better knowing you’re having a good rest while I go to Paris. I know the relationship you share with Jake and Randy. If you think either one of them might need you, as a friend, or for your services, then go to them. I’m a big girl.”

Peter smiled. “Come here.”

Treena rose and walked around his desk, taking him up on his offer to sit on his lap. He took hold of her hands. “You are a wondrous woman, Treena Brown. Thank you for loving me like you do. You’ve filled a deep void in my life. I do love you—very much.”

Treena leaned in and they kissed deeply. She smoothed back his still-thick hair, studied his blue eyes. “I hope you find that everything is okay when you get to the J&L. I’m sure Jake and Randy will both be glad to see you again.”

Peter pulled her to him and kissed her again. “There’s that darker side to him, Treena—that part of him that still can’t quite get over his childhood. He can be one ruthless sonofabitch, and it’s when Randy or anyone else in his family is threatened that it comes roaring out of him. I just wonder what this particular situation was like, for both of them.”

Treena touched his face. “You don’t mind if I go to Paris?”

Peter smiled and took hold of her wrist, kissing her palm. “I don’t mind, as long as you don’t mind if I take a couple of weeks on the J&L. It’s so beautiful there, and I like being with Jake’s family.”

“You’d better wire them first.”

Peter shrugged. “I think I’ll surprise them this time. It might be better for Randy. I have a feeling she does too much preparation and fussing when she knows company is coming.”