The Cowboys Ride Again Read online

  “Are you going to pay him to leave?”

  “It’s tempting, but Nat needs to do this, not you or me.”

  “What if she can’t?”

  “Then I pay him, plus promise we’ll lay low and not cause him any bad press. Hell, maybe we’ll take an extended Hawaiian vacation until the election is over.”

  “Whoa. Now we’re talking.” Trace sobered. “Except I’m not comfortable with you footing my bills.”

  “I’m not. You’ve been working your ass off here.”

  “I’ve never been a mooch.”

  “And you still aren’t. You’re paying your way. Don’t worry.”

  “I’m not. Not too much. It’s Natalie I’m worried about.”

  “Me too.”

  “What if we lose her, Levi? What then?”

  “I don’t have a fucking clue.” Levi closed his eyes against the imagined pain and emptiness of his life without Natalie in it.

  * * * *

  Trace had never seen anything like it. Despite the undisguised animosity between Levi and the senator, as soon as the words “significant campaign donation” entered the conversation, the senator warmed considerably toward Levi, at least on the surface.

  Trace’s non-existent bankroll earned him the same status as non-voting constituents. In other words, not good for anything. Which made Levi’s manipulation of the senator even more entertaining. He smiled with smugness as his buddy’s dangling of the money carrot worked like a charm. The good senator and staff decided to stay another night or two to discuss financial options. Not that the senator fooled either man for a minute. He’d take whatever Levi offered, then hustle his daughter out of there.

  Being an observer, Trace sat back and watched the interactions between the people in the room. Natalie’s relationship with her father especially fascinated him. The self-righteous ass reduced this independent, sassy woman to a little girl, pathetically eager to please. Her eagerness to win her father’s approval sickened Trace. He’d lost those inclinations toward his dad before he’d entered puberty, yet he understood her need for her father’s love. Trace would have given anything to have even one parent who loved him like a parent should.

  Meanwhile, her powerful, smooth-talking father knew exactly which buttons to push to make her fall into line. Even as he kissed Levi’s ass, he played on his daughter’s guilt and sense of loyalty.

  As Trace studied the master at work, his amusement turned to alarm, then fear, as it occurred to him that he and Levi might lose the battle. Natalie’s resistance wore down little by little. Nothing he or Levi said made a difference when Daddy controlled the reins. The man weaved his control around his daughter like a moth spinning a deadly cocoon. Trace breathed a sigh of relief when Nat claimed a headache and traipsed off to bed. Was she escaping her father’s clutches or issuing an unspoken statement for her men to stay out of her room tonight or both?

  “So, Levi, if you’d like to spend some time with Heath, he could work out an amount agreeable to both parties.” The senator forced the conversation back to money as soon as Natalie was out of earshot. Heath’s gaze never left the senator in the most disgusting display of hero worship Trace had ever seen. Sylvia, too, hung on his every word. It drove a guy to dry heaves just watching them. As he studied them more closely, the interaction between the senator and his two staffers didn’t seem quite right. Something was off.

  “Could I get you another drink?” Levi dodged the direct suggestion by avoiding it. He stood and filled their glasses, not waiting for a response.

  “Now, son, you wouldn’t be trying to get an old man drunk, would you?”

  “No, sir. I’ve nothing to be gained by that.”

  “Smart boy.”

  Levi’s jaw worked at the “boy” reference, but he kept his mouth shut. “How about a friendly game of poker?”

  Trace doubted it’d be anything but friendly. The two men squared up like stallions fighting for herd supremacy.

  It was going to be a long fucking night.

  * * * *

  “Honey, I’m concerned about you.” The senator cornered Natalie the next morning and cut off her escape route. She’d gone into the laundry room to start a new load of clothes, sensed a shadow, and looked up to see her father blocking the only entrance to the room.

  “Dad, I’m fine. Please, just leave us. Don’t do anything to hurt Levi and Trace.”

  “I won’t if my little girl regains her senses, leaves this ranch, and campaigns with me. I have a lead on a catering business in D.C. for you. You’ll love D.C.”

  “I’d hate it. I’m not much of a city girl. You know that.”

  “Natalie, as a senator, I can’t have rumors floating around about you and your two lovers. The press would crucify us both. As a father, I will not condone what the three of you are doing here.”

  “And what exactly is that?” Natalie’s throat closed up, causing her to choke on the last word or two. If she wasn’t such a coward, she’d tell him how much she adored both men and to butt out of her life. Yet, his threats toward Trace and Levi were real. Her father could and would make their lives hell.

  “Do I have to spell it out for you?”

  “No.” She lowered her head, ashamed and conflicted. Everything she’d been taught between right and wrong was at odds with her relationship with these two men.

  “Do you understand the sins you’re committing? My first concern is for your soul.”

  “My soul is just fine. What about your willingness to take a sinner’s money?”

  “It’s only fitting I use his money to do good in this world. The source doesn’t matter.”

  That sounded like a double standard to her, but then her father’s life burst at the seams with double standards. “Please don’t do anything to them.”

  “I won’t. If you leave with me and encourage Levi to donate. You must promise to never contact either of them again. With their history, I’m guessing they’d be quite popular in prison, if you know what I mean.”

  Natalie shuddered at the thought of either man locked behind bars. “But they haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “In my book, they’ve exploited an innocent. There’s not a man alive who doesn’t have skeletons in his closet waiting to be exposed. I just need to dig up a few bones.”

  “And what about your closet? Do you have any bones?”

  “Are you threatening me, little girl?”

  She didn’t respond.

  “Natalie, we’re leaving tomorrow afternoon. Make sure you convince those two it’s your decision. I don’t want them sniffing around in an attempt to drag you back here. Their future depends on your ability to act.”

  Natalie nodded. Her stomach twisted into a French braid, as dread beat a drum in her heart.

  Chapter 9

  Natalie tracked Trace and Levi down in the barn. Following her father’s orders, she’d waited until Levi signed a big fat check for the senator’s reelection campaign.

  Levi groomed a black gelding while Trace repaired a stall door. They both stopped what they were doing when she entered. The look on her face was enough to freeze them in their tracks.

  “Natalie?” Levi approached her, his voice tentative. He held his arms out to her. She backed off and raised her hands to keep him away. He halted and Trace flanked him on his right.

  “I need to talk to both of you.”

  “Why do I get the distinct feeling you aren’t asking us what we’d like for dinner?”

  “Because I’m not.”

  “Don’t do it, darlin’.” Trace’s dark eyes pleaded with hers.

  “I want to…” She shook her head and fought back the tears. They couldn’t see her pain, couldn’t know how hard this was. She needed to cut them off completely so they didn’t follow her. Her mind flashed to a scene with the two of them in prison being beaten to a pulp or worse by a gang of inmates. She couldn’t do that to them. They were better off without her.

  “You want to what?” Levi’s
eyes narrowed to ice gray slits.

  “I’m leaving with Daddy.”

  “Like hell you are.” Levi moved to block the doorway, hands on hips, legs braced apart.

  “Fuck that.” Trace’s jaw tensed. His hands gripped the hammer.

  “He’s made me an offer. It’s a dream come true, too good to pass up.” She froze her expression into one of indifference and looked each of them directly in the eyes.

  “What kind of offer?”

  “Daddy’s offered to set me up in a catering business in D.C. With his connections, I’ll be in high demand.”

  “You can’t leave me, Nat. I love you. I’ve always loved you.” Levi dropped all barriers and exposed emotion so raw she staggered back from the sheer emotional force. Her heart washed up on shore and gasped with its last dying breath. She almost jumped back into the water to save herself. But she couldn’t because saving herself meant destroying the two men she loved.

  “I love you, too, but I’m not what you need. I tried. It just isn’t me. I’m ashamed of what we’ve done, the three of us, together. That’s no way to live.”

  “You’re ashamed?”

  Trace shook his head in shock. “No, you can’t do this. It’s all wrong.”

  “What’s wrong is me in a polyamorous affair. I can’t do it anymore. It goes against everything I believe.”

  “Your father’s influenced your thinking.”

  “Perhaps, in a way he has, but only by helping me regain my sanity. His presence gave me the opportunity to slow down, sit back, and examine what I was doing.”

  “Do you really think you can turn back now? Knowing what you know? Feeling how you feel? Will one single man ever be able to satisfy you like we could? Like we did?” Anger tinged Levi’s voice, hardened his jaw.

  “I’ll have to take that chance.”

  “Honey, think it over. Don’t make any rash decisions. This is not just about sex. The three of us have this deep connection. It only comes along once in a lifetime.”

  If he only knew she’d thought about it all night long, obsessed over it, examined it from every angle, and couldn’t see any way out, not as long as her father held all the trump cards. She pressed her lips together and stiffly turned to the door.

  “Natalie.” Trace croaked out her name and stopped her in her tracks. Against her better judgment, she turned around.

  “What?”

  “I’ve never loved a woman before in my life, but you—”

  She held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t say it, Trace.” Shaking her head, she ran from the room.

  * * * *

  As the days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months, Levi and Trace dived into working on the ranch, repairing outbuildings, attending cattle auctions to build the herd, and anything else that needed done. They went out on weekends to the nearest town and tried to forget about Natalie, but neither one could.

  “That waitress at the Roadside Café wants in your pants,” Trace noted one evening as they both nursed their drinks in the neighborhood bar and watched a baseball game on the flat-screen hanging on the wall in the corner of the room.

  Levi shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, well, I’m keeping my pants zipped. What about you? That hot number in the corner has been eyeing you all night.”

  “Not interested either.”

  “We’re a couple lovesick bastards.” Levi sighed.

  “Pathetic, isn’t it?”

  “Beyond pathetic. You should date. Get out. Get over it and get on with your life. She’s not coming back.”

  “I could say the same for you.”

  “I will. Give me time. I’m keepin’ myself company.”

  “Yeah, me, too, but I’m gonna end up with carpal tunnel.”

  Levi threw back his head and laughed, the first real laugh he’d had in months. Sobering, he signaled the bartender for another round. “I saw her on TV last night with the senator on the campaign trail. Her mother on his right, Natalie on his left.”

  “Yeah, I saw it, too. Only she could dress that conservatively and look so damn sexy. My cock was begging for that pussy to give it some cream.”

  Levi put his head in his hands and sighed. “This bullshit needs to end.”

  Blowing out a breath, Trace nodded. “You’re right. Time for the boys to quit moping and become men again.”

  * * * *

  Natalie couldn’t sleep. She’d made the huge mistake of watching an old football championship game on her hotel room TV. Levi, in all his hot, muscular football glory strutted his stuff on the field. Oh, how she loved those tight football pants and the shoulder pads that exaggerated those already broad shoulders.

  She hated her new life, hated the pompous men in it, the catty, vicious women bent on gaining her father’s favor, the arm-pumping lobbyists, all of it. A different city every night until she didn’t know what town they were in.

  Her mother feigned headaches and retired early almost every evening to the hotel room she didn’t share with her husband. Most likely, she drank herself into a stupor.

  Natalie lived in mortal fear she’d marry well like her mother and be trapped in a loveless marriage with nothing for company but a bottle of whiskey and a bellman or two or three. She couldn’t prove her mother cheated on her father. It just made sense considering the animosity between the two.

  She bolted upright in bed when something crashed in her father’s room next door. She’d traded suites earlier in the evening with her mother, who preferred Natalie’s suite on an upper floor.

  Her heart pounding, she listened and heard more banging. Fear gripped her. What if someone had broken into his room and was assaulting him? Regardless of how she felt about him, she couldn’t let something happen to him.

  Yet, if she called 911, and he was practicing his golf swing, he’d be furious at the adverse publicity such a call might create.

  Slipping on a bathrobe, she tried the adjoining door to her father’s suite. Surprisingly, it opened. Her mother or father must have used it earlier. She listened for sounds from a TV or conversation. All she heard were thumps. Her fear fizzled like a spent sparkler. Her father wasn’t in danger.

  Frowning, she stood in the doorway. The main room was empty. Were those moans and thumps coming from a TV? She swallowed, sick with dread and resentment. The old man was having an affair. She bet it was with that she-bitch publicist, Sylvia.

  Warily, she walked inside and listened. The sounds of sex emanated from the bedroom. She stole across the living room. The bedroom door stood ajar. Anger and disgust ripped through her. Her self-righteous father had no right to judge her when he was screwing around on her mother. Resentment from years of being controlled and manipulated by this man came flooding back. Her mind played back all his lectures on morality, the guilt of never being perfect enough to please him, the repression of needing to be pure and innocent.

  She fished her cell phone out of her pocket and queued up the video recording mode. She held it up, ready to record the action. Two could play at his dirty little games. She wasn’t her father’s daughter for nothing.

  Edging the door open, she held the phone up and hit record. What she saw almost made her drop the phone.

  The three naked people on the bed never noticed her as they grunted, groaned, thrust, and panted. Her father was on top, pounding into Heath’s ass from behind. Sylvia crawled underneath the two men and played with their balls. Her conservative, self-righteous father in a threesome with a man and a woman? Unbelievable.

  Sickened, Natalie stepped back from the doorway. She clutched the phone in her shaking hand and recorded the action.

  The lying, unfaithful bastard had no right to tell her what to do. He’d torn her from the two people she loved most in the world with his threats. Well, no more. This video put Natalie in control. Having witnessed enough, she crept from the room and closed the door.

  The next morning, she waited for her father and his staff to join her in the dining room. Her mother’s usual hangover preven
ted her from joining them, which worked out perfectly.

  The three sat down, looking way too refreshed. A stab of jealousy cut through Natalie. She’d walked the straight and narrow for months to please her father and make him look good. Meanwhile, he preached his conservative rhetoric during the day while banging his staff every night.

  The hypocrisy of it all struck her harder than lightning striking a power station. She’d given up a relationship with the two most loving men she’d ever known for a father who did the very thing he’d chastised her for doing.

  Well, Daddy. Payback is a bitch.

  Heath smiled his fake smile at her as he sat down and placed his cloth napkin on his lap. He smoothed out the wrinkles with one hand. Her father signaled for a Bloody Mary and checked his schedule on his PDA. Sylvia examined Natalie’s choice of apparel and made a feeble attempt to disguise her disapproval. Natalie didn’t care. The dutiful daughter had left the building last night when she’d peeked in that bedroom.

  This Natalie wouldn’t be so dumb or easily manipulated. She waited for the right moment to spring her news on them.

  Holding up her phone, she dropped the bomb. “Daddy, I caught this situation on video last night. I’m sure you’ll find it of interest in your campaign.”

  Her father reached for her phone, eager to see the dirt she’d dished up. Natalie held her breath and watched his expressions change faster than most politicians changed their stories. An entire kaleidoscope of emotions flashed across his face. First, expectation, then confusion, shock, and anger.

  “Where the hell did you get this? This is bullshit. Someone’s doctored the video.” He passed it to Heath, who played it. Sylvia craned her neck to get a peek.

  Heath looked up, his face a mask of cold anger. A vein throbbed in his neck. “Are your asshole boyfriends behind this?” He turned to her father. “I told you we needed to get them out of the picture, but you wouldn’t listen.”

  Sylvia said nothing. Her face had turned pasty white. She lifted one perfectly manicured finger to her mouth and chewed her nail.

  “It’s not doctored, Daddy. I know.” She met his angry gaze and didn’t waver, didn’t back down.