The Whisperers: A Three Book Box Set Page 15

  “Giving her another reason to hate your family,” Teddy commented.

  “But a damn lame excuse for revenge,” Jesse remarked. “Especially after this long.”

  “I agree,” Mik said. “And there’s another piece of the puzzle we need to consider.”

  “Another?” Jed asked.

  Mik quickly told him about the coin and what had happened with her, Teddy, Alex, and Jake. “I know it sounds crazy but I think that coin is connected. First, it makes no sense at all that my parents—my adoptive parents wouldn’t have given it to me sooner if it really was something from my biological parents.”

  “Unless it was like the note said,” Teddy pointed out.

  “No. Come on, Teddy. You know they weren’t insecure about me or afraid of losing me to someone who gave me up. And…” She cut a look at Jesse. “I asked Jesse to have the letter and the envelope examined.”

  “For what?” Alex asked.

  “Dating,” Jesse, answered. “The ink and the paper show that the letter had to have been written recently, probably within the last year.”

  “But it was mom’s handwriting!” Teddy insisted.

  “Handwriting can be forged,” Mik, pointed out. “And with what the tests showed on the ink and paper, it points to the coin being part of all this…shit.”

  “But what?” Alex asked.

  No one had an answer. Jed thought about what he’d learned and what he’d just heard. Sure as shit, the Mannings were gunning for them all. That much was clear even without proof. But the why of it was a mystery.

  And even more of a mystery was why they’d dragged Mik and her sisters into it. Did they want to destroy them as well?

  “Okay, I think I’ve had enough for one day,” he said. “At this point we have suspicions but that’s about it. Unless we can get proof, there’s nothing we can do about the Mannings. And we’ve got bigger problems. If we can’t come up with the money to pay off the owners who lost horses, cover our losses from the cattle that had to be put down and get back some of the business we lost, we’re going to go down. So anyone with an idea speak up because I don’t know about the rest of you, but losing this place is something I don’t want to face.”

  His little speech met with silence. Finally Mik stood. “Jed’s right. First thing we have to do is come up with money. I could maybe get a couple of thousand for my truck and trailer and I have maybe two thousand in the bank. It’s not much, but it’s a start.”

  Jesse and Jake quickly listed how much cash they could lay their hands on and Jed added in what the ranch accounts were. When all was said and done, they had a total of about eighteen thousand.

  “How much more do you need?” Mik asked.

  “About three times that much.”

  She gnawed her lip for a moment. “Hey! I have an idea. This might sound nuts, but what if Jesse and I entered the nationals? The purse isn’t anything to sneeze at if we win.”

  Jesse’s eyes lit along with his smile. “I’ve got enough points to qualify. How ‘bout you?”

  Mik shrugged. “Haven’t competed much this year but I might be able to swing it.”

  “But when is the national?” Teddy asked.

  “Three months.”

  “We’ll be toes up before then,” Jed commented.

  “But there’s at least five events before then,” Mik said. “And if we use what we have for travel and entry fees, we could clean house.”

  “Providing you win,” Alex pointed out.

  “Well duh!” Jesse scoffed. “I think it’s a good idea. No one’s touched Mik’s best all year and I’ve got a good shot at the buckle this year.”

  “And if we can bring in a purse for the five qualifiers, we’re a shoe in for the nationals in Vegas.”

  “And that’s big money,” Jesse pointed out.

  “If it pays so big then why are you are so broke?” Alex asked.

  Jesse flushed a deep red and started gathering up papers from the coffee table. Jed knew that Jesse didn’t like to talk about what he’d been doing with his money the last few years and it was a secret Jed had sworn to keep.

  “What’s the big mystery?” Alex pressed. “Are you a gambling addict or something?”

  “Hey, Jesse’s not an addict!” Jake jumped in to defend his brother.

  Mik surprised Jed by speaking up. “I know.”

  Jesse’s eyes cut to her and she reached over and put her hand on his arm. “Jesse donated eighty percent of his winnings the last three years to charity. Children’s homes. Kids who have alcoholic or drug addict parents and end up on the street. Thanks to him, a lot of children are out of bad situations and in homes where they’re getting regular meals, an education and are safe and loved.”

  Alex’s head whipped around toward Jesse. “Eighty percent?”

  He nodded and looked away. “Seemed like the thing to do. Kids don’t deserve to grow up that way.”

  Jed felt his chest swell with pride. Jesse came across as a good-time guy, a rodeo gypsy without a care in the world or a serious thought in his head. But the truth was he was a man with a heart as big as the state and memories of what it was like to grow up with a parent who abused alcohol.

  He’d used his success to help other kids in that kind of situation, and had put a lot of his winnings into the ranch to help his family. Jed hoped that Mik’s sisters now saw that there was a whole lot more to Jesse than met the eye.

  “Well… I’m impressed,” Alex said.

  “You should be,” Mik gave a slight tug on Alex’s hair.

  Jesse looked around the table at everyone. “Anyone up for a road trip?”

  “Hell, yeah!” Jake was the first to agree.

  Jed considered it for a moment. Give me ‘till morning and I’ll let you know.”

  “What’s to think about?” Jake asked. “It’s a good plan and you know Jesse and Mik will kick ass.”

  “It’s not that,” Jed replied. “I just need to do something before I decide.”

  Jake opened his mouth as if to argue then shut it and shrugged. “Fine. Not like we need to hit the road now anyway.”

  “Right.” Jed said. “Now we need to hit the sack. I’m tired and want some time with Mik so…”

  “So get the hell out,” Jesse finished the sentence and stood. “You gals need a ride home or you want to crash at the main house?”

  Alex and Teddy looked at one another. Alex shrugged and Teddy smiled. “Thanks. I think we’ll take you up on it. Come on, let’s give Jed and Mik some privacy.”

  Once they’d left, Jed sank onto the couch where Mik had curled up. “I’m sorry for the way I treated you, Mik.”

  “We’ve already walked that path, Jed. You don’t have to apologize or explain.”

  “I needed to say it. Just like I need to say this. I appreciate you offering to compete and donate the winnings to save the ranch but I can’t let you do that.”

  “Yes you can!”

  “No, honey, I can’t. Not unless your names on the deed alongside mine and my brothers.”

  “You want to give me part of the ranch?”

  “No, darlin’, I want to give you me. Marry me, Mik.”

  At that moment, Mik felt like a character from a romance novel. Her heart leapt in her chest and something tingly and electric took hold of her body. She’d never dreamed she’d hear those words come from Jed’s lips.

  “Are you serious? Jed, you don’t have to marry me for me to want to help. I don’t care about the winnings but I do care about this ranch and the people on it.”

  “I know, darlin’, I know. And this has nothing to do with that. This is for me, Mik. I want you to be my wife, to share my name, my home, and my life. I love you.”

  “Oh, Jed.” She fought tears and the sudden lump in her throat. “You’re gonna make me cry.”

  “I kinda hoped it would make you happy, honey.”

  “It does. More than I can say.”

  “So? Will you marry me?”

  “
You just try and stop me,” she said with a grin and launched herself into his arms. “I’m staking a claim.”

  “I love you, Mikayla Morgan.”

  “And I love you, Jed Nash.”

  “I’m gonna try and be a good husband, honey.”

  “I know. I’ll try and be a good wife. But …”

  “But what?”

  “Well, there is that off chance that I’ll act up now and again, do something stupid that’ll rile you up.”

  “Hmmm, you got a point. Well, if that happens I guess I’ll just have to resort to a good old-fashioned spanking.”

  “You do keep promising that, Jed.”

  He grinned as he stood and pulled her to her feet. “I guess it’s time I started making good on those promises. You been bad lately, Mik?”

  “Not lately, but I’m about to be.”

  Jed laughed and lowered his lips to hers. Mik met his kiss eagerly. They might be in a world of hurt, in danger of losing the ranch and with a mystery that could threaten them all, but that didn’t seem to matter right now. What did matter was that they had each other.

  And for her that was the biggest win of all.

  THE WHISPERERS

  Book Two

  Making a Stand

  Chapter One

  “It’s poetry,” Mik said.

  “Poetry isn’t visual,” Alex argued.

  “Then art,” Mik said.

  “Huh uh.” Teddy shook her head. “Foreplay.”

  The three of them sat on the fence rail. Mik leaned forward to look around Alex who sat between her and Teddy. “Foreplay?”

  “Well, yeah,” Teddy said without taking her eyes off the men approaching on horseback. “I mean just look at them. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see any of them on a horse?”

  “Sex,” Mik said with a grin. “Definitely sex.”

  “Yes,” Teddy agreed dreamily. “Hot, sweaty, back-scratching, heel-drumming, scream your throat raw sex.”

  “For God’s sake!” Alex slid off the fence and turned her back on the sight of the riders. “Is that all you two can think about?”

  Mik chuckled and hopped off the fence. “You’d be singing a different tune if you’d had some of what men like that have to offer.”

  Alex rolled her eyes then her mouth formed into an “o” and her attention turned to Teddy. “Theodora Morgan! Have you had sex with Jake?”

  Teddy grinned and climbed off the fence. “No. But I’ve been giving it some serious thought.”

  “You two are hopeless,” Alex complained.

  “You’re just jealous,” Mik said, her eyes still on the riders.

  “Am not.”

  “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

  “Did you wake up a ten-year-old?”

  Mik grinned at her sister. “You can’t tell me you can look at Jesse and not want to jump him. Hell, I’d like to jump him.”

  “I’m sure Jed would be happy to hear that.”

  “You know what I mean. Jesse’s five kinds of fine.”

  “They all are,” Teddy commented.

  “Ain’t that the truth?” Mik responded with a chuckle as the three riders reined their mounts to a halt in front of the women.

  “Well?” Mik asked, looking up at Jed.

  “So far no more signs that any of the remaining cattle are infected.”

  “What a relief!”

  They’d had more than their share of trouble lately on the Rocky River Ranch. From poisoned water supplies to a sudden infestation of mad cow disease. It was threatening to not only put them out of business but also cost them the ranch.

  Jed dismounted and pulled Mik against his side. “Something I need to talk to you about. Walk with me to the stable?”

  “You got it. Alex? Teddy? You gonna hang around?”

  “Since we haven’t gotten around to discussing your wedding plans—which is what you asked us here for, I might add—I guess so,” Alex answered, pointedly ignoring Jesse as he reined to a halt beside her. “How long are you going to be?”

  Mik cut her eyes up at Jed and he shrugged. “An hour?”

  Alex blew out her breath. “Fine. I’ll wait on you at the house. Maybe I can talk Miss Ellen out of a piece of that pound cake she was baking this morning.”

  Jed and Mik headed in the direction of the stable. Jesse dismounted, cut a look at Alex’s back as she marched away and then handed the reins to Jake. “I need to get to work. You mind?”

  “No problem.” Jake looked at Teddy. “Want to hang out while I cool these fellas down and get them settled?”

  “Sure.” She accepted the reins to Jesse’s horse, Whitefoot, and fell into step beside Jake as Jesse headed for the house.

  “Everything okay?” She could feel worry rolling off Jake in waves.

  “You doing that witchy thing and reading my mind?”

  Teddy bumped her shoulder against him and responded to his tease. “Something like that. So what’s bothering you?”

  Jake slowed his pace. “Jed got a letter yesterday. He just told us this morning. Apparently, someone dug up an old deed from the early 1900s when our great, great —don’t know how many greats — grandfather borrowed money against the ranch. The person he owed died before the note was paid and Dalton Manning found it and bought the note from the man’s ancestors. He called in the note and it’s gonna take everything Mik and Jesse have won and more to pay him off.”

  “Which means nothing left to keep things running or settle up with the people who were boarding horses here and lost them when the water was poisoned.”

  The look Jake gave her tugged way too hard at her heart. He might make light of things at times but the ranch was his life. If they couldn’t get it back up and running they’d go down and that would break all the Nash men, including Jake.

  “There has to be something we can do.”

  Jake stopped at the door of the barn. “Like what? We’re down to fifty head of cattle we can’t sell thanks to that damn sickness, all but five of our boarders have moved their horses somewhere else and all we have left is our mounts and the three horses Mik and I are training and they’re nowhere near ready.”

  “Well … well maybe Jesse and Mik can win at these next three rodeos and they’ll make nationals and win and … and everything will be okay.”

  “That’s a whole lotta maybes,” Jake replied as he turned to lead the way into the barn. “And anything can happen that’ll knock one of them out of the running.”

  Teddy fell into step behind him. She wished she knew something to say to comfort him, or had an answer to the financial woes but the truth was she was barely making ends meet.

  Her shop had not exactly taken off. It had become clear that Monroe was not a city particularly open to the type of things her shop carried. In fact, most of the people who’d come in had commented on being surprised to find a “new age” or even worse a “witch” shop opening up.

  Teddy had been lucky to make the rent on the shop and her house last month. Were it not for Mik and Alex she’d have gone hungry. There just wasn’t enough coming in.

  Maybe it had been a mistake for her to open the shop.

  “Teddy?”

  She jerked to attention, unaware Jake had been speaking to her. “I said you want me to take care of Whitefoot?”

  “Oh, no, no, I can do it.”

  “You okay?”

  Embarrassed to have been caught up in her own woes when there was so much going on in Jake’s life, she quickly shook her head and led Whitefoot into a stall. “Fine. Just worried about all that’s going on.”

  “You sure that’s all?” He asked a bit louder from the next stall.

  “Yeah. Positive.”

  There was no more conversation after that as they went about the task of tending to the horses. Jake finished before she did and walked to the door of Whitefoot’s stall.

  “What?” she asked as she noticed him watching.

  “Just appreciating the view.”
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  Teddy laughed and passed it off. “Yeah, right.”

  “Yeah right,” he said and stepped inside the stall with her. “First time I saw you all I could think was fairy princess, all delicate and graceful and too damn beautiful to be real. Never for a second imagined you as a woman to do this.”

  “I did grow up on a farm, you know.”

  “Yeah, I know. You just don’t look like a farm girl.”

  Teddy smiled. “Well what exactly does a farm girl look like?”

  Jake’s eyes squinted and his lips pursed up a little. “Well … like Mik.”

  Teddy couldn’t help but laugh. “Honey, that’s wardrobe, not looks. Mik could look like something out of a glamour magazine if she chose. She’s just not a girlie girl.”

  “Like you?” He sidled over to her and ran one hand over her mane of blond tumbling curls.

  “Oh no, you did not just say that to me,” she teased in mock anger.

  Jake’s eyes registered a moment of concern before he realized she was kidding. “Well, you are … kinda. I mean you always got on those flimsy, wafty skirts and these tops that have all the little beads and wispy things…” His hand moved from her hair to the neckline of her blouse where tiny tendrils of fabric formed a fall of color and movement over her breasts.

  Teddy didn’t need to be empathic to know he was becoming aroused. She could see it on his face and hear it in his voice. She not only recognized it, she felt it. His touch had the power to excite her like nothing she’d ever experienced before.

  “Don’t use that on me,” she warned, uncomfortable at the level of arousal she was feeling.

  “Use what, honey?”

  “That – that whisperer thing.”

  “I don’t know what you’re –“

  “Mik told me. All of you have it – you can … you can project.”

  “Project?”

  “Yes. Make people feel what you want them to feel. Like desire.”

  Jake’s eyes registered surprise and because of her empathic skills she realized that the surprise was not that she knew but that what he was capable of was more than mere charm and good luck.

  “Jake Nash, you didn’t know? How could you not know?”

  “I … I … Teddy, this is weird. Look, I know I’ve got a way with women. We all do. It just comes natural. And yeah, we got that thing with animals. Jed the most, but I and Jesse got our fair share. But I swear to god, I’ve never – projected? I’ve never projected something onto a woman.”