The Callahan's: Secret Sins Part 24

He nodded. "It was Dave Stone."

"The f.u.c.king realtor?" Archer questioned in disbelief. "What the h.e.l.l does he have to do with this? Besides, he moved just last week. Went to stay with his daughter in California."

Ryan shook his head. "He's being detained in California. The story that he was moving was put in place by the FBI. Evidently he was besotted with Crowe's mother before she married David Callahan. He saw it as some sort of f.u.c.king twisted revenge to kill the Callahans when his illegitimate daughter, Jennifer Whitt, was killed by the Slasher."

Archer wiped his hands over his face wearily before facing the two men again. "How do we know he wasn't the partner?"

"Because his whereabouts can be placed at the time of each girl's murder," Ryan informed him. "Once we've identified the Slashers, then we'll have the charges against him made public and have him brought back to Corbin County for trial."

"What proof do you have that Sorenson could be involved in this?" Archer asked him then.

"What proof do you have?" Ryan countered.

Archer's lips thinned. "Twelve years ago, my father learned he disappeared for at least twelve hours during the time each girl was missing, except Jaymi Kramer, Cami's sister, but we've always known Thomas Jones went after her on his own. Before the witnesses who saw Wayne leaving town could be deposed, they died suspiciously."

"Keeping a tail on Sorenson is how I've managed to find each girl that's been killed since." John sighed wearily. "Tracking Sorenson. He's slick though. I've never caught him with the girls or near the areas they were found, but I know he was out when they went missing."

"Katy Winslow?" Archer asked sharply.

"We believe Katy was in the wrong place at the wrong time." Ryan breathed out roughly. "The castings and pictures we took of the tire treads where she was found indicate two vehicles were there with her at the time. She caught them meeting, and they couldn't let her go after that."

"One of the castings is to a very rare tire," John revealed then. "We're having it run now, though nothing's. .h.i.t yet. We're also checking the area for any property any of the four men might own close enough to use as their kill spot. We're getting closer, Archer, but he's making some d.a.m.ned stupid moves lately. We're worried he's escalating to the point that he could strike against Anna again, and the next time he might actually manage to kill her."

"Why Anna?" Archer snapped then. "What makes her so important that he's kept her out of Corbin County since she was a child?"

Ryan frowned. Holding the file loosely with one hand, he scratched his cheek with the other in confusion.

"This is new information for us," he revealed. "We were going under the a.s.sumption she had been targeted because of Crowe."

Quickly, Archer filled the two men in on the story the "Barons" had given him.

As he spoke, and then answered the few questions the two men posed, he admitted to himself there had to be something far deeper going on.

"I'll see what I can find out about her." Ryan spoke as he nodded slowly. "There's something she knows, or possibly something she saw as a child, that threatens him."

"Amelia Sorenson's her best friend," Archer pointed out. "Maybe that's why he put off killing her."

"She wasn't when Anna was younger," Ryan argued. "But you're right about her being a threat if he's kept her away from the County this long."

"And he's breaking pattern," John injected. "Becoming erratic. She's enough of a threat that he can't afford to wait much longer."

"We'll get moving on this," Ryan promised, lifting the file. "Can I keep this?"

Archer shrugged. "I have another hidden in another location. Just in case."

Ryan's lips curved in approval. "I like that about you, Archer. You always have a backup plan."

"A plan isn't going to do me any d.a.m.n good if he manages to hit Anna again. Nor will it do the two of you any good," Archer warned them both as he uncrossed his arms and straightened from his position against the desk. "Because I'll kill, gentlemen. I promise you that. If she dies, there won't be any stopping me."

"Just make sure you help me keep those d.a.m.ned nephews of mine on a leash after I talk to them," Ryan sighed, heading for the study door. "And if anything happens to your woman, Archer, I can't say I would blame you." He paused at the door before opening it, turning back to Archer as the deputy moved in behind him. "I couldn't blame you at all."

CHAPTER 15.

Three days later, Anna lay silently in the bed she still shared with Archer and stared up at the ceiling as dawn began to peek through the narrow openings of the curtains.

It was supposed to be a little cool today. It would be a perfect day to go outside, weed the flower beds Archer seemed to have neglected lately, or perhaps even go back to work.

Brute Force had given her a two-week leave of absence-paid, Mikhail Resnova had a.s.sured her-to allow her to heal from the bullet that had been lodged in her thigh.

It had stopped just below the skin. It hadn't touched bone or a vein. And despite the potential explosive power of the ammunition, it hadn't gone off. All it had done was ensure she was laid up for a few days.

No one had asked for a two-weeks leave though. A few days would have suited her just fine.

She was ready to go back to work now.

That stupid doctor had demanded weeks though. Two weeks of nothing but rest.

She would go stark raving mad.

Turning her head, she looked at the clock next to the bed on her side before pursing her lips thoughtfully.

"Are you going to work today?" she asked Archer, keeping her voice low in case he was asleep as he lay beside her quietly. "If you are, you better get up or you're going to be late.

"Not today." He surprised her. "I thought we'd take a drive out to Rafer's ranch, where Resnova and his men are overlooking the protection and security of Rafe and Logan's fiancees."

Now didn't that sound ominous?

"Do you think you're going to convince me to stay there?" she asked suspiciously.

Archer turned his head to her at that point, his golden brown eyes narrowed on her as she met his gaze.

"Ivan's come up with some new information." Lifting his upper body, he grabbed the pillow under his head, fluffed it, then pushed it against the headboard before reclining against it. "He called after I came in last night and requested the meeting. I thought you might enjoy visiting with Cami and Skye for a few hours while I'm there. No ulterior motives, no evil designs."

He rubbed at the scattering of curls on his chest as he smothered a yawn and glanced toward the weak sunlight spearing through the edges of the curtains. "Dress warm," he tacked on. "Rafer's ranch isn't much lower than Crowe Mountain, and Crowe's already started getting snow there."

Sitting up, Anna pulled the blankets over her gown-covered b.r.e.a.s.t.s as she bent her knees and rested her arms across them.

"Snow already?" She sighed, thinking how much colder the evenings would become.

"A little." Leaning back, eyes closing drowsily, he acted as though she weren't even there as he asked her, "You want to shower first, or you want me to?"

What had happened to showering together?

"I'll go ahead." She shrugged, moving slowly from the bed as she stifled the bite of painful emotions that tightened her throat.

What had happened?

It was obvious he didn't want her anymore. But Anna knew that without asking. Three days and two nights. He hadn't touched her even once. He hadn't even kissed her.

She hadn't been ready to leave. She hadn't been prepared to lose him this quickly.

But even more, Anna hadn't been ready for the breaking of her heart.

Stifling a groan, Archer watched as Anna limped painfully into the bathroom. Her slender hips moved seductively, if jerkily, beneath the gown, her rounded thighs a shadow of temptation beneath the white spandex and nylon that hugged her upper body, then swept around her thighs and legs in yards upon yards of silky material.

She wasn't wearing panties. As she'd lain sleeping, the blankets thrown from her body, he'd glimpsed the dark shadow of the curls at the very top of the small mound between her thighs.

Teeth clenched, his jaw bunched, Archer reached beneath the blankets and wrapped his fingers around the head of his c.o.c.k.

He'd been forced to jack off the last two nights. The wound at her outer thigh, though not extremely long or deep, was clearly still painful if the way she walked was an indication.

Tightening his fist around the engorged head of his d.i.c.k, it was all he could do to keep from masturbating to hold back the hunger eating him the f.u.c.k alive.

G.o.d, he wanted her.

Eyes drifting closed, he could see her lying back in his bed, those beautiful pearly thighs wide open, knees bent to allow her heels to dig into the bed and lift to his voracious lips as he ate the satiny, bare folds. Her juices would lie thick and lush and so sweet that the thought of it filled him with a s.e.xual hunger he wondered if he could restrain much longer.

Three days and two nights. Sixty hours of pure, unimagined h.e.l.l lying next to her, holding her against him because he couldn't sleep without her warmth against his body.

Not that he'd done much sleeping. All he could think about was the taste of her hot little p.u.s.s.y and the tight, clenching hold of it around his shuttling c.o.c.k.

G.o.d, it wasn't as though he hadn't f.u.c.ked her the night before the attack. And the morning of the attack. If he could have, he would have f.u.c.ked her pretty, pouting lips the minute he'd closed the door on the world outside the afternoon she'd been shot.

Now she was hurt, in pain, and all he could think about was paddling her pretty rounded a.s.s, then f.u.c.king it with a need that threatened to overtake him.

Almost uncontrollably his fisted fingers stroked down the thick, hard shaft as it flexed with furious hunger at the thought of f.u.c.king her so intimately. Of having that tighter than tight little entrance furl open around his penetrating c.o.c.k. He ached to clench his fingers in the rounded globes of her a.s.s, to part the curves and watch his possession of her.

He'd watch the impalement, he decided. He'd spread the cheeks of her a.s.s apart and watch as his heavily lubricated d.i.c.k worked its way inside her.

Once buried to his b.a.l.l.s inside her a.n.u.s, there would be no stopping him. Her sensual submission would be like an aphrodisiac, powering his arousal.

"Archer, have you-"

His eyes jerked open, his head turning to stare at her in frustrated shock as she stood, still and silent, in the bathroom doorway.

The accusation in her gaze was almost more than he could stand.

"I'm sorry." She backed up, reentered the bathroom, her face pale, her green eyes moist with tears. "I'm really sorry."

The door slammed closed, then locked behind her a second later. And there Archer laid, his d.i.c.k still clenched between his fingers, the sheet covering him now slick and wet with his seed where he'd spilled his release the second he saw her.

So much for self-control.

One look at her- It had taken just the sight of her in that s.e.xy gown to steal his will and send his release spurting onto the sheets.

And if the look on her face was any indication, she felt nothing less than betrayed.

"f.u.c.k!" Rising from the bed, Archer flipped the blankets from his body, rose from the bed, and stalked from the bedroom to the guest room shower.

He wasn't going to survive this.

It had been only three days since he'd had her. Three miserably, painfully aroused days, and he didn't know how much more he could stand.

And he had a feeling one more night of it might make him insane.

He didn't have to actually f.u.c.k her, he thought to himself. He could bring her to her release with his lips and tongue- The doctor had made the "no exertion" thing clear. h.e.l.l, if he got her off, those sweet little thighs were going to grip his head, tighten, and the st.i.tches the plastic surgeon had placed so carefully could stretch or tear, leaving a scar she might eventually hate him for.

He knew women in some things. A scar could completely change her entire perception of herself. h.e.l.l, she might never wear a bikini again. And he knew for d.a.m.ned sure just how good she looked in a bikini.

Stepping beneath the icy spray of the shower, he wondered if a man could actually die from arousal.

The ranch the Callahans had set up as a base of operations, and for Ivan Resnova to oversee the safety and security of Rafer and Logan Callahan's fiancees, was the same ranch the Callahan cousins had been raised on after their parents' deaths.

Previously, the Triple R, or Ramsey Ranch, had belonged to Clyde Ramsey, Rafer's great-uncle on his mother's side. Had it not been for Clyde, Anna knew, the three boys would have ended up in foster homes, and only G.o.d knew what would have happened to them.

Even so, their lives had been hard enough as Clyde fought to deflect the often cruel barbs that had come not just from kids their own age, but also adults. Add that to the twenty-year court battle to keep the inheritances their mothers had left them, and it had made some years pure h.e.l.l for the cousins.

Despite the Barons' attempts, or that shadowed he who had attempted to destroy them for most of their lives, and the cruelties of the fine, upstanding, G.o.d-fearing citizens of Corbin County, the Callahan cousins had still managed to turn out pretty decent.

They were hard, though Rafer and Logan had softened considerably since falling in love and becoming engaged. Crowe was still considered hard core, cynical and too rough around the edges. He sometimes still gave the impression that he was just looking for a fight, a means to expend the violence that three decades had built inside him.

He was a man ready to explode, and Anna had heard that comment from more than one person in the County. Most people were wary around him, and had been for some time.

As Archer turned his big black four-by-four pickup onto the ranch road, Anna narrowed her eyes and gazed at the wide valley and rising mountains. She had to admit, if what she had heard before returning to Corbin County was true, the Ramsey and former Callahan Ranch would be perfect for the rumored plans they had for it.

Gossip was running rampant on her grandfather's ranch that the Callahans were combining the Ramsey Ranch property with the property their Callahan grandparents had owned, and were turning it into a year-round spa and resort that would also cater to scheduled wilderness-survival parties.

The cousins were partners in two related businesses that were migrating to Sweetrock, then also setting up year-round offices at the resort they were planning.

Off Road Excursions, a camping and mountain adventure store, had just filed a legal agreement with the Callahans at the courthouse last month, giving the business limited use of both properties for a period of three years, which many said substantiated the rumor.

There was also talk that Brute Force, the security company Anna had been hired to work at in Sweetrock, had signed an agreement-though this one private-for use of the land for small, private survival-training parties, but also for the guerilla warfaretype games designed to train security agents in the best possible protection of their clients.

The cousins would be crazy not to do so and take advantage of the rising tourism traffic into Colorado, but especially into Aspen and Sweetrock itself.

The mountains were a magnet for adventurers and families alike. Camping, fishing, hunting, skiing, and exclusive mountain vacation cabins were all rumored to be part of the business the Callahans were setting up.

"Is it true Crowe and his cousins are really going to set up the resort everyone's talking about?" She turned to Archer, asking the question as curiosity ate at her.