Fevered Hearts (10 page)

Shoving away the thought, he hitched himself into bed beside Ward. Very carefully, he fitted his body against his long-ago lover’s. God, when had he last done this? Purposely wrapped Ward up in his arms? Put his mouth against his shoulder and given in to sleep?

As he slipped an arm around Ward, laying it gently atop Ivy’s upper arm, Ward craned his neck to look over his shoulder at Liam.

The carved planes of Ward’s back flexed against Liam’s chest. And Liam’s hips were flush against the man’s hard ass. His cock did no more than twitch once or twice. Fuck, how good would it feel to get a hard-on right now? To rub his shaft against Ward’s ass invitingly?

“You’re cold,” Ward murmured.

“Mmm.” Liam dropped his mouth to Ward’s throat and nuzzled. The sharpness of his unshaven neck felt exquisite against Liam’s skin. Having Ward around had opened Liam up to loving again, and it was amazing. Until recently, Liam hadn’t realized how detached he’d grown, how locked in his own world he’d been. Poor Ivy had suffered, but Liam planned to make up for it tenfold.

Ward reached back and gripped Liam’s hip, drawing him farther against his ass. “Do I want to know what you were doing?”

“No.”

Ward let his head drop back to the pillow. Ivy snuggled closer to him and brought a hand up to cover Liam’s.

“This is right, isn’t it?” Liam whispered.

“I hope so. I don’t want to hurt her. You, on the other hand…”

Liam fell still. Was he joking or did he still harbor resentment against Liam for leaving?

“I’d love to pound into that neglected ass of yours and make you hurt.” Ward’s hot words were so low, Liam wouldn’t have caught them if he hadn’t felt them through their bodies.

An ache took up residence in his gut. Damn, he wanted Ward with every fiber of his being. “I’ve never stopped wanting that,” he breathed against Ward’s neck.

“Think you could handle it? Think you could get off?”

Liam shook his head minutely. “I dunno.”

Ward squeezed Liam’s hip again. “We’ll take our time, work you up until you’re gagging for it.”

“And then?” Liam’s heart skipped a beat at the thought of being filled completely by his lover once more.

“Then you’d better fucking watch out, because I will peg you at every opportunity.” This stronger, harder side of Ward might have been unearthed after Liam walked out on him. Then again, maybe Ward had just kept it concealed until it was necessary to use it.

Liam had never needed someone so much. With Ivy he’d been weak. He’d allow Ward to take control until he was able to pick up the slack. What then? Would this new Ward fade into the background, allowing Liam to head the relationship once more?

He couldn’t help but feel a power struggle was taking place, whether they spoke about it or not.

Ward relaxed in his hold, and his breathing grew deep and even once more. When his hand grew slack on Liam’s hip, he took Ward’s wide wrist and guided his hand to Ivy’s hip. Ward’s long, tanned fingers curled around her body as if they were always meant to be there.

Liam watched the sun climb the sky. For now they were all safe. Soon the day would begin and bring what perils?

When Ivy was ready for work, she kissed him and Ward goodbye then headed for the garage. Liam held his breath, praying she wasn’t on to his deception.

A moment later, she returned, flushed with annoyance. She slammed the keys down on the entryway table. “Damn car won’t start.”

“What?” Liam spun to look at her. He fought to keep his features still, to keep them from giving him away.

“It won’t start?” Ward echoed, slanting a look at Liam.

“No, and I don’t have time for you grease monkeys to look it over now. I have to be in court in a few.” Her voice faltered.

“I’ll take you. Come on, sweetheart.”

Relief etched across her beautiful face. “Thanks. Love you, Liam. See you after work.”

“If anything seems odd today, Ivy, you call me. Got it?”

She froze, lips open and the strangest look on her face. Was she only channeling his worry or had something happened to her?

“Everything okay at work?” Liam asked.

“Of course.”

He nodded. “Just keep an eye out. I hear there’s some crime in town.”

“Oh? You’d think I’d hear that working in the courthouse.”

He shrugged and exchanged a look with Ward.

Ward followed her to the door. Before he vanished through it, he glanced back at Liam. “I’ll bring her home safe too.”

Firming his lips, Liam nodded. Of course he would. Liam trusted him to take care of her now, to take the wheel when Liam was unable.

Soon after, Liam’s father arrived to take him to work. As Liam hauled himself into the SUV, his dad eyed him. “Was that Bose I just passed with Ivy in the truck?”

“Yeah. Her car wouldn’t start, and Ward was taking her to work for me.”

“Good of him to help out.”

In more ways than you’d care to know.

“What’s on the agenda today?” His dad whipped onto the back road and laid into the gas pedal as if he held a grudge against it.

“Going over that contract.”

“Yeah, it’s a great opportunity. If we don’t sign today, we’re idiots.”

“We’ll sign.”

His father bobbed his head. “Good to hear.”

They hit the main highway and waited for a fully-loaded log truck to go by before pulling out behind it. The truck ahead of them climbed the grade easily, and Liam’s dad didn’t have to lay off the gas pedal. “You still holding that safety meeting this afternoon?”

“Yeah, noon sharp. I put out the word to all the crew members last night.”

His dad gave him a narrow look. “Who the hell are these people, anyway? Never in all my years in this business have I encountered this problem.”

“I know. It’s bullshit.”

“Didn’t know there were tree-huggers in our neck of the woods.”

“They’re all over, and it’s only right for us to honor contracts that state that we must replant. But they’re taking this too far.” Liam chewed the inside of his lip, biting off the scathing curses he wanted to unleash about the people threatening his men, his livelihood, his loved ones.

His father fell silent as he careened around bends and barreled up hills. As they neared the office, Liam steeled himself to find more fliers or even graffiti painted across the front of the small wooden building and machinery.

His father choked. Heart squeezing hard, Liam stared at him. His dad’s face was mottled red, a vein pulsing in his temple. With a jerk, Liam put his hands on him, grasping his thick Carhartt shirt.

“Dad!” Was he having a heart attack?

“Look.” His father pointed to the grouping of equipment to the right of the property.

“Jesus!” The air was sucked from Liam as he saw the destruction. Adrenaline tore through him, and as a result of the therapy he’d received the previous day, he was able to move his legs a few inches. But it was hopelessly disappointing, because he wanted to jump out of the truck and tear off across the yard.

“Get my chair.”

As if in a daze, his dad got out. A few crashes and bangs later, the wheelchair waited beside Liam’s door. In one quick movement, he was seated and taking off for the smashed equipment.

During the night, someone had managed to hotwire the backhoe. The enormous arm was uplifted, the bucket folded, and it had been used to crumple the tractor. Three other small tractors and loaders stood around the massive backhoe, like chicks around a mother.

Except they were all broken, irreparably crushed.

His father caught the handles of the wheelchair and shoved him faster. “Those bastards! Half a million in damages right here.”

“Who knows what they’ve done to the backhoe too,” Liam said grimly. “I’m sure they didn’t leave it untouched.”

“Goddammit, this is one of our own. A logger. Only a man who’s worked in the field would know how to operate that.”

They reached the equipment. The steel was bent at odd angles, the windshields smashed.

Liam scrubbed a hand over his face. “Dad, you okay?”

“Hell, yes. You think I’d have a heart attack over something like this? No, if that were going to happen, it would have when I found out about your accident.”

A hot breath rushed from Liam. Tears burned his eyes. Suddenly, he realized none of this mattered, not really. Life was more important. And if these sons of bitches laid a hand on any of his people—on Ivy or Ward—Liam couldn’t be responsible for his actions.

He gripped his dad’s hand. “Go in and call the police, Dad. I’m going to make a few calls of my own.”

His father’s eyes, so similar to his, were bright with fury. “You’d better be calling the sporting goods store for a crate of rifles. We’re going to post some guards around this property. Let the bastards pull something like this again.”

Spinning on his heels, he strode off toward the office, shoulders bunched, back stiff.

In a flash, Liam had his finger on the number three, speed-dialing Ward. He pushed the phone to his ear so hard, it bit into the flesh. “Ward.”

“Yeah, I got her to work fine. I was just about to call you, you impatient ass—”

“They were here, Ward. Lots of property damage.”

“What? Fuck! How? When?”

“During the night, apparently. All the equipment in the yard trashed, ruined beyond repair.”

“The cameras—”

“I can see the wires on one cut from here, man. They fucking knew we’d put them up.” Liam heard a low thump. Ward’s fist?

His friend panted with anger. Liam could nearly see his nostrils flared, jaw set, eyes snapping.

Suddenly, his cock jerked and a hot feeling flooded him. He swallowed against rising need. Hell, what if he finally got an erection, right in the middle of this crisis? Seemed like something that would happen—wrong place, wrong time, wrong everything.

“What are you doing about it? Are you sure the place is secure now, Liam?”

At that, Liam’s hackles rose. He sent a glance around the property. A line of trees hemmed in the grounds on the left, and three acres of uncut virgin timber stood to the north. The office, parking lot, and an upper parking lot where a few loggers’ vehicles sat were all clear. No damage had been done to the loggers’ trucks and cars, as they’d obviously shown up at dawn to carpool to the worksite.

Thank God they’d arrived well before the vandals had completed their task.

“You okay, man?” Ward’s rough voice jarred him. He glanced around him again.

“Yeah, no one else is here. Just me and Dad. He went into the office to call the police.”

“Little good it will do.”

“Right. They don’t seem that concerned, do they? Well, maybe this is more serious than threats to harm, since tractors are pretty fuckin’ prized around here.”

“I’m coming over.”

Liam spun his chair around and started back across the dewed ground, following the tracks his wheels had created. “I’ve got it covered. You go ahead and take care of your guys. Get that patch you’re logging off to the mill.”

There was a beat of hesitation. “You sure? I can be there in ten.”

“Nah, we’re okay. Just make sure you’re using the utmost caution up there.” If something happened to Ward, Liam would never forgive himself. Part of his soul would be ripped out.

“Will do.”

“And pick up Ivy at five-thirty.”

“On the dot.” A smile filled his voice. “And Liam?”

“Yeah?” What was the asshole up to?

“For the record, your lady arrived at work a little more disheveled than when she left.”

Need clawed at Liam’s insides. This time, his cock all but stood up and waved with excitement. He looked down to see it hadn’t hardened, but he felt it throbbing, begging to take part in the action.

“Jesus,” he grated out.

“Yeah, we had a pull-over moment before we even left the back road from your house. And Liam, I’ll tell you this. I can still smell her on my fingers.” He gave a long sniff.

Liam shut his eyes on the images playing through his head, trapping them inside.

“I have a little memento from her too, right here in my coat pocket.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Liam’s voice was gritty.

“Her panties. White pink lace, all wadded up, still damp from her orgasm. See you tonight.” With that, Ward ended the call, leaving Liam sitting in the middle of the Mattson Hardwoods yard surrounded by destruction.

But with half an erection.

Chapter Seven

For the fourth time, Ward stopped cutting wood to check his phone when it vibrated. Each time, he expected word from Liam, but the number was blocked.

“Fuckin’ telemarketer,” he grunted, pocketing the unit. It rode inside his quilted flannel jacket alongside Ivy’s sweet panties. That little souvenir of their session might never be returned to her. Ward liked having them with him too much.

This morning he’d felt a thrill at the sight of the hickey he’d left above her collarbone too. She’d hidden it with a leaf green blouse with a prim collar, but he knew it was there. His cock knew it too.

Hell, he was hard just thinking of their night together. Making love to her gave him a joy he’d known little in his life. Only with Liam had he experienced such a bone-melting want. Then there was the small matter of his heart.

“Juls is gonna kill me,” he muttered, jerking the chainsaw toward the waiting tree. His sister had texted him half a dozen times today, asking where he was spending his nights and if he could start taking their father to his chemo sessions so she didn’t miss so much work.

Now wasn’t the time for him to miss work either. He and Liam were on the cusp of uniting with a half-million dollar deal on the table, and now the companies were being threatened. The lives of his men—and Ivy’s—were at risk.

And Ward had never been happier.

It seemed sick to know such joy when his father was suffering, his sister overworked and so much else going on.
Find happiness where I can.

He ripped through a thirty-inch maple in seconds. This morning he’d awakened beside Liam and with Ivy folded against his chest. If he never had another night with them, he’d hold that dear for a lifetime.

Liam had been more attentive to his wife, helping her to get ready for work by handing her some small diamond earrings. Then he’d playfully squeezed her ass before letting her out the bedroom door.

Ward had no clue how it had happened, but coming between the husband and wife had strengthened their marriage.

Again, his cell vibrated. He cut the saw and lowered it to the ground, one hand digging in his pocket again. His fingers brushed the lace panties and pressures mounted in his groin.

Again no number showed on his caller ID.

“Bose.”

No answer, just some quiet clicking. Was that a typewriter? He stuffed his finger in his other ear to muffle the drone of the log truck engine and the distant saw of the faller.

“Who the hell is this?” he asked at last.

More clicking then some shuffling noises like papers on a desk.

“I don’t have time for this bullshit.”

“Better make time. You’re going to be hearing a lot from me in the future.” The voice was low, disguised.

Ward whirled around and gripped the phone harder. “Is this more threats, you son of a bitch?”

A chuckle. “Better check your office, asshole.”

A click sounded in Ward’s ear, the call ended.

“Fuck.” He took off running toward his truck, dialing Liam. The instant he answered, Ward started yelling.

“Liam, you’re closer. Get to the Bose office
now
. They’re there!”

“What? Shit, man, my dad just left; I’m without a ride.”

“Goddammit,” Ward ground out, frustration prickling his every nerve ending. He hurled himself behind the wheel of his pickup, twisted the key in the ignition and slammed it into gear. “I’m going. Just sit tight and keep your phone in hand.”

“Screw that. You’re staying on the line with me.” The worry in Liam’s voice wasn’t lost on Ward. Part of him asked why Liam hadn’t shown him these emotions when they were together out west. Then again, if Liam hadn’t left, he wouldn’t have met Ivy, which meant Ward wouldn’t have either.

“Okay,” he said raggedly. The adrenaline coursing through his body peaked out. His muscles locked but he had nowhere to expend the energy. He squeezed the wheel until his knuckles cracked.

“What the hell happened, man? Talk to me,” Liam urged.

“A call. Well, several calls during the morning. Each time, the number isn’t listed. After not answering the first few times I picked up, a man finally said I’d better check my office.”

“Jesus.”

“And that I’d be hearing from him a lot in the future.” Ward tore off his hard hat and tossed it violently to the floor on the passenger’s side. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”

“Calm down, man. We’ll get these bastards. They aren’t going to best us. Just take your time and get to the office. Do you want me to get the police up there now?”

He mulled over the thought. His first instinct was to handle this on his own—the police had been, at best, bored by their reports about the threats. And Liam had told him the force wasn’t all that excited about finding the people who had destroyed the Mattson equipment.

He checked the clock on his dash. Only two minutes had passed since that call, and Ward was twenty minutes from the office. He laid into the gas, and the truck shot forward, spraying gravel and dust behind him.

“No police. Not yet.” Just then, his phone beeped to let him know he was getting another call. Heart racing that it may be the unknown caller again, he said, “Hold on.”

When he switched over, Juls’ voice filled his ear. “Ward, where are you?”

“On Gooseneck Ridge. Why? Juls, I don’t have time—”

“It’s Dad. When I brought him in for treatment this morning, he had a fever. They’ve just admitted him. He has an infection.”

His heart plummeted, rolling end over end and adding to the sucking cyclone of the morning. “Crap. Juls, be straight. How bad is it?”

“Bad enough that I’m asking you to come to the hospital.”

“I’ve got a situation going on here—”

“Dammit, Ward, this is your father! You’ve got men in the field, cutting and hauling. Isn’t that enough?”

Not at the moment, no. They couldn’t stop those who were determined from burning the Bose office down or worse—going after Liam when he was alone and unable to defend himself.

At least Ivy was safely shut away in a courtroom.

“Juls—”

Her voice was flat. “This might be the last chance you have to make things right with our father, Ward. One more chance. Don’t let it slip away. Tell him you’re sorry for going off the way you did and never contacting him. He’ll forgive you, I know it.”

A knot of emotion lodged in Ward’s throat. “All right, I’ll be there. But first, I have to swing by the office and make sure everything’s okay.”

“Just get your ass over here,” Juls said and rang off.

Ward listened to the dead silence for a moment before switching back to Liam. “Call or text your wife and make sure she’s all right—that she’s not getting calls too,” he told Liam. “I’ve got another crisis to take care of right now. After I check out the office, you won’t be able to reach me for a bit.”

“Be careful, man. I don’t want to lose you again.”

Ward couldn’t speak. How he wanted to tell Liam he loved him, that they’d get through this craziness together, but the things he’d learned in the last few minutes dammed up his mouth.

Overwhelmed, he only said, “I’ll talk to you soon.”

The lush greenery passed the truck in a blur as Ward rushed to the office. The hills and valleys fought against his old truck engine, which sputtered several times and slowed though Ward locked the gas pedal to the floor.

Great. All he needed now was for the truck to crap out too.

He smacked the steering wheel. “Don’t do this to me!” What he’d intended to come out as a mutter resounded as a roar. His office—his dad. Liam and Ivy. Juls pissed off, thinking he didn’t care…all of it heaped on Ward until he felt his shoulders bow under the strain.

By the time he whipped the truck into the Bose Timber Company parking lot, he was trembling with the need to strike someone.

Right now, he wanted to find a vandal on his grounds. He ached to lay into the fuckers, get them on the turf and pound the hell out of them.

The late morning sun slanted across the front of the building. The small office looked untouched, slumbering. The windows were intact, the blinds pulled down. The door was still fitted in the jamb, not bashed in. Almost all of their company equipment was spread between two sites right now, so there was little to damage.

Ward hurried to the front door, brass key extended. He ground it into the lock and shoved through the door. Dust motes swirled hectically in the rush of air, but not a single paper on his desk had been disturbed. Nothing burned to ash. The computer not stolen.

“What the…?” He turned a one-eighty, taking it all in and breathing the faint trace of pipe tobacco—the scent of his father ingrained in the wood of the office he’d built with his own two hands.

Suddenly, the situation slammed Ward full-force. A groan whooshed from him. Had the caller lured him away from the logging site in order to cause harm to those crewmen?

“Hell!” He yanked the door shut with such force, the glass windows shivered. As he stormed back to his truck, he got on the phone with his crane operator. The man could stop all operation and get the men to Liam’s office for that meeting ASAP. That meant they’d be out of the woods, away from falling trees, and off equipment that might have been tampered with and was now unsafe.

Able to breathe a little more easily that his teams were knocking off for the day, he turned his beat-up truck down the road toward the hospital.

They were spread too thin. Ward was only capable of doing the legwork, and Liam was behind the helm but it wasn’t enough. They needed good managers—they needed security.

Thinking up several ways to keep their companies earning while protecting their own kept Ward from dwelling on what he’d say to his father. Juls was right—whether or not this was his dad’s last day on earth, Ward needed to make amends.

Sure, his father had said some bad things about Ward’s character when he’d moved out. But it had amounted to hurt. His dad had planned for Ward to work alongside him, to one day take over the family business. Extreme disappointment had fueled his words, and Ward had been just young enough to let the barbs stick into his skin. He no longer felt as he once had and had long ago forgiven his dad, but for some reason, he hadn’t told him. Instead, he’d allowed the distance to stretch between them.

I hope it’s not too late.

At the hospital, he was assaulted by the sterile smells and the sickly blue-green walls of the corridors. Even the elevators were too silent, filled with somber staff members. Ward leaned against the back wall and thought of Ivy.

How vibrant she’d been this morning in his arms. He clung to the memory of her frantic kisses and Liam’s warm voice on the phone.

The elevator stopped and Ward disembarked. He turned right and followed the signs to the ICU. A nurse waited at the front desk and he identified himself.

“Go on back. Isolation room seven.”

Nodding and walking stiffly, he made his way through the double doors that led to the glass-walled room holding his father. Before he even reached for the door handle, he braced himself for the hiss of breathing machines and beep of other life-sustaining equipment.

Juls stood at the entrance. Ward met her gaze. In a flash, he read the grief on her tear-ravaged cheeks. Her eyes swam.

He yanked her into his embrace and buried his nose against her soft hair. She held on to him and for a moment, Ward was boosted by their familial love. He could face the man in the bed.

Without looking at Juls again for fear he’d start crying, Ward released her and moved to stand beside his father.

He’d seen his dad since coming back to Pennsylvania, of course. They’d spoken and shared meals. But Ward hadn’t really been there for the old man the way he should have been. Juls was right to be angry with him.

Ward covered his father’s frail hand, bruised from nurses drawing blood. “Hey, Dad.”

Was that his voice that sounded so choked? He’d long ago gone through puberty, but his tone tripped through several notes.

His dad’s eyes were big and haunted, dark with the medication they’d used to drug him. He wasn’t able to speak through the hoses breathing for him.

Very carefully, Ward curled a hand around the back of his father’s neck and kissed the top of his bald head. Years ago, he’d had a thick head full of dark hair just like Ward’s, but the chemo had wiped it off like a crew of loggers setting upon a forest.

When Ward pulled away, he watched a tear track down his father’s face. That single droplet loosed the words Ward had long stored in his soul. And for an hour, he talked.

About Christmases with both their parents when he and Juls were small. About how much it meant that his father had coached his Little League. When he’d first taught Ward to use a saw, and again when he’d sent him out with a crew at the age of fifteen, expecting him to act like a man.

Life lessons and events that had shaped Ward into who he was.

When his father drifted off to sleep, Juls and Ward talked quietly. When Ward finally checked the wall clock, he found the hands pointing out that it was almost time to pick up Ivy.

His father still slept, appearing peaceful. Ward stood from the molded plastic chair beside his sister’s.

“Where are you going?”

“I have to pick up a friend.”

“Who?” Confusion creased her dark brows.

“Ivy Mattson.”

Her jaw dropped. She launched to her feet and gripped Ward’s arm, getting right into his face. “What the hell are you doing with her, Ward? She’s married.”

“Her car isn’t running, and Liam asked me to take her to and from work today.”

Juls’ eyes narrowed. “No. There’s more going on. What about you leaving with her at the knitting group Friday night?”

“Yeah, that was something else.” He tried to keep his cool, but Juls’ penetrating stare was too filled with the disapproval their father was well-known for. Ward had thought to never see that look again, not after the past hour.

The walls of the room felt as if they moved in, enclosing the three of them in a white-walled hell.

He shook off Juls’ hand. “I have to go pick up Ivy and take her home. I’ll come back—”

“Damn right you will. Where have you been sleeping, Ward? You didn’t come home last night.”