Payback (5 page)

“Fine, Cade…we’re adding another truck this year.”

“Glad to see that your business is growing.”

Devil nodded with a huge grin on his face.  The older man was obviously pleased that he and his sons were doing so well.  “So where’s this Porsche?”

“Halfway down the drive over the embankment. There’s some front-end damage, maybe some damaged to the engine. I’m not sure.”

“I didn’t know you had a Porsche.”

“I don’t. It belongs to a visitor who ended up in the hospital.”

Devil pulled his head back and shot Caden a look. “Who’s going to be responsible for the tow and repairs?”

“I’ll make sure you get paid if she doesn’t pay.”

Devil seemed pleased with that
, so he shook Caden’s hand and took off.

“I thought you wanted nothing to do with her?” Jason asked.

“I can’t leave a Porsche down there. And besides, she’s going to need her car to go back to L.A.”

Jason shrugged and followed Caden out to the barn.

At lunch, the landline rang. It was Jeannette. “Caden, your friend left the hospital against doctor’s orders an hour ago.”

“Why?”

“How would I know?”

“Where did she go?”

“I don’t know, but she was seen hitchhiking in her bloody clothes out on 93.”

“She didn’t say where she was going?”

“No. I just thought you might like to know.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

He said his good-byes and hung up, turning to Jason who was fixing soup for lunch.  “Marie left the hospital and is out on 93 hitchhiking.”

“
What?”
Jason was dumbfounded.

There was a noise on the grave
l outside. Both men ran outside, reaching Marie just as the truck she came in drove off.

How she could be standing was a mystery to Jason.  He wanted to offer her an arm but could see that Caden wasn’t happy.

“Whoa!  You can’t stay here.  Call that guy in the truck back!” Caden insisted, without a hello.

She sighed, stumbling a little as she walked forward.  Holding up a hand
, she began, “I just want to get my things and to find someone to tow my car, and then I’ll be out of your way.”

Jason stepped forward and grabbed her elbow.  “You need a warm jacket. You’re freezing.”

“I know.  Do you have my things?” she asked, looking straight at Caden.

He gestured with his head, “Inside. Follow me.” He wanted to walk behind her so he could study her, but he didn’t want to let her know he
had any interest in her. They walked into the kitchen, which sported a large breakfast bar with several stools. The kitchen, which was on the far west of the main floor, opened up into the dining area and living room making a large great room, complete with a beautiful, ceiling-high stone fireplace.

Marie was grateful to be inside out of the cold.  Her eyes followed the lines of
the furniture around the room. There was no mistaking it for Caden’s taste which was clean and simple.  He went into the front foyer and disappeared, coming back with her suitcase and computer backpack.

“Here.”

“Thanks. And thanks for taking me to the hospital instead of shooting me.”

There was a slight blush to Caden’s cheeks.
“It was stupid of me to shoot over you.  I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“How are you feeling?” Jason dared ask. He snuck a look over at Caden
, who was shooting him daggers.

“A little bit of a headache, but I’ll be fine.” Marie grabbed her bags and walked out to the deck.  She took a look at the huge meadow covered with a thick layer of snow and wondered what it looked like in spring. 

“Ms. Morrigan!” Jason yelled.

She turned and raised her eyebrows in response as she walked back into the warm room.

“Your car isn’t down there anymore.  It was towed away a few hours ago.”

Marie walked back into the living and straight over to Caden. “You had my car towed?”

“Yes, it needs to be fixed. It’s at Samuels and Sons, but it won’t be done anytime soon. We don’t have a lot of Porsche parts in northern, rural Montana.”

“Is it in Whitef
ish?”

“Eureka,” Caden said.

She nodded and then started back outside.

“Let me give you a ride somewhere,” Jason offered.

She shrugged. “I don’t really know where I’m going.  I just know I don’t want to get shot.”

“Let her go,” Caden said with a voice that warned Jason he was skating on thin ice.

Jason was tired of this. “Where? She has no car. Look at her clothes! She’ll freeze to death out there.”

Marie
looked down, studying her scuffed designer boots. “I have no one to come and get me.  Could I borrow twenty bucks so I can call a cab?” she asked Caden.

“No cab is going to come out here for twenty bucks. Just use a credit card, they all take them.”

Marie tried to look up but couldn’t meet his eyes. “I’m broke, empty-pocket-broke. My credit cards are maxed out. I left the hospital before they served breakfast just so it wouldn’t get charged to my account. I can’t afford to pay my hospital bill, buy warm clothes, let alone pay for a taxi.”

“Well, you still have your car insurance, right?” he asked.

Marie shifted on her feet. “No, I had to let it lapse.”

“Jesus Christ, Marie. You went through all your money?”

She whipped her head up and crossed her arms over her chest in anger. “I used what was left after I lost my house in the recession to live on for the last two years while I wrote my book.”

“So, I’m going to get stuck with your car bill?”

“What do you mean?”

“I had to sign for the repairs.”

“I’ll pay you back.”

“How?”

“Give me the money to get back to Los Angeles and I’ll try to sell my book.”

“What makes you think someone will buy it?  Why didn’t your former publishers buy it?”

That got a rise out of her. She zinged him with her eyes. “They’re still afraid of you, afraid you might swing your weight around if they take a chance on me. Your production company is a powerhouse.”

He snickered. “I’m not doing you any favors.”

“Then I guess I’ll work it off.”

“You bet your sweet ass you will.” He walked towards the house.

Marie tossed a look at Jason, questioning whether they should follow or not. Jason shrugged and stepped in behind Caden. Inside the kitchen there was a whiteboard hanging on the wall filled with the costs of the different types of beef by the pound.  He frantically erased it with an air of determination.

Up at the top
, he simply wrote:
Marie’s Payback.
To the side, he wrote, “Car Repairs—$8,000.”

“Eight thousand?” Marie gasped.

Caden snapped back, “
At least eight thousand!
Probably more.  Porsches are expensive to repair and even more expensive when you live in the boonies.”

“Christ,” she mumbled. “What do you have in mind?  How am I supposed to work this off?”

“You’ll be my housekeeper, cook, and ranch hand…just about anything I ask you to do. I’ll pay you fifteen dollars an hour.”

“
Fifteen?
That’s nothing!”

Jason cleared his throat and said sheepishly, “It’s a reasonable wage here in Montana.”

Marie rolled her eyes and sighed.

“How is she going to do any work outside in those clothes?” Jason asked
, as he took off his jacket in the warm house. Jason’s easygoing smile had disappeared and it was clear that he did not share Caden’s newfound zeal for forced labor.

“I guess we’re going shopping tomorrow.  I’ll just add it to her bill.”

“Where is she going to sleep?” Jason asked.

“In the tack house.”

Jason gasped. “Oh, come on, Caden, she can’t sleep out there!”

Marie, sensing that she was
really being punished for her past transgressions, held up a hand. “Jason, it’s okay.  I don’t want to sleep in his house anyway.”

“Yeah, too much of a temptation for her,” Caden announced with some disdain. “Don’t worry, you’re the last thing I’d want in my bed.”

It stung, but Marie didn’t let him see. “Where’s this tack house?”

“It’s not really a tack house, we just call it that. It’s a small room upstairs at the end of the barn.  Come on, I’ll show you.”

Chapter 5

Feeling My Way

They crossed the yard and approached the red barn
, which Marie could see had been painted sometime in the not-so-distant past.  At the end of the barn was a set of stairs that led to a door with a window in the upper half.  As she climbed the stairs, Marie scanned the horizon. It suddenly hit her how beautiful the ranch was—the meadow filled with fine powdery snow, the tracks of deer that led into the endless forest of pine trees and, of course, the breathtaking Rocky Mountains.  The peaks reached into the sky like tall cathedral spires of white and purple. 

“My God
, this is beautiful. How many acres does he own?” she asked.

“Eight thousand and twenty.”

“Holy shit!  How many head of cattle?”

“It’s down because we went to market a few months ago, but approximately two hundred and ninety-four.  During the summer we have more, about a hundred and fifty more.”

“What about horses?”

“He only has four horses.
His horse ranch is somewhere in Los Angeles.”

“Topanga Canyon,” she responded. “Does he ever go down there?”

Jason eyed her as he reached the landing, wondering why she was asking.  “Not very often.  He has a manager who lives on the property. He’s only been back to Los Angeles twice in the last six years that I’ve known him.  He said that there were toxic people there and that he drank the Kool-aid once—he didn’t need a second dose.”

“That would be me.”

“I kinda suspected that.” Jason opened the door and flipped a light switch to an overhead light that was nothing but an exposed forty-watt bulb.  “Not very bright in here. Maybe I can get you a higher wattage light bulb. There’s a little lamp on the nightstand.”

She looked around the room and realized why Jason had been so protective of her. “Oh
, my God.  I’m going to sleep here?”

Jason
grimaced and nodded.

In the corner there was a foldaway guest bed with a ratty looking ticking cover. Next to it was a small nightstand and
an even smaller bedside lamp.  At the other end of the room was a worn out chair that had stuffing showing through the arms of the plaid upholstery. There was a small chest of drawers that was missing one. Across from the chair was a sink and a hole where there had obviously been a small, apartment-sized refrigerator.

“Someone lives here?” she asked.

He laughed. “During calving season, someone spends the night to make sure that the cows are okay when they give birth. The summer help rotates nights. I’m afraid that smell is all “cowboy” after long days in the yards.”

He was right, there was a strong smell of sweat, cow dung
, and farm in the room. “Oh, boy. I suspect that smell is permanently ingrained into the wood.  That reminds me, uh, there’s no insulation in the walls.” The walls had no drywall, just exposed framing.  “It’s freezing in here.” She looked in the drawers. “There are no blankets! And where’s the bathroom?”

“There is no bathroom per se. You’ll have to shower in the house, but there is a toilet down in the barn. Come on, I’ll show you, but I hope you have a strong stomach. It’s not pretty.”

They walked down the stairs and in through a side door to the barn. Immediately inside was another door. Marie opened it and almost gagged.  It was worse than a gas station bathroom.  “Oh, God,” she groaned. There was only a toilet, which looked as if it hadn’t been replaced in forty years and a tiny sink with a roll of paper towels.  In the corner was a six-pack of toilet paper.

“Keeping it clean hasn’t been a big priority.  We
all use it when we’re out here, and, frankly, we tend to pee in the woods, so you can imagine its primary purpose.”

“Maybe I can room with my friend in Whitefish.”

“It’s a long way to and from Whitefish, and you don’t have a car.”

“That’s true.”

“Let’s go back to the tack room. It’s even colder in here.” They went back upstairs.  “I could give you a hand cleaning up.”

She shook her head. “Don’t bother.  I could use the diversion.”

There were footsteps on the stairs outside, and then the door flew open. His cowboy hat now back in the house, Marie could see Caden’s handsome face and large eyes, only now they were a cold blue, not the happy, loving blue from when they met years ago.

“Here.” Caden pushed a set of sheets into her arms
, along with a couple of wool blankets. “And you can use this to keep you warm.”

It was a small
, portable heater, something a secretary would plug in under her desk to keep her legs warm in an air-conditioned office.  She doubted it was going to help much, but maybe if it was close enough to the bed, it might keep her from freezing.

“Thank you,” Marie said.

The sound of her voice, the kindness in it despite the crap she was being dealt, was too much. Caden couldn’t look at her. He hadn’t been in the room for several years and it was more ramshackled than he remembered.  It definitely needed a lot of work and a fumigation. It was freezing, and a piercing cold draft was whistling through the room from the poorly sealed, lonely window which had no blinds. Caden finally looked up at her and the memory of Los Angeles hit him, including the pain of what she put him through. It helped steel him against her charms.

“I expect my dinner on the table at six
, unless I say otherwise, and breakfast at six-thirty.  Lunch is flexible because I won’t always know when I’m coming in, so just have something like a sandwich or something we can throw in the microwave made for us.  Sometimes you’ll be making lunch for Jason and me, sometimes for more workers. I’ll let you know that morning. You will not be eating with me in my home. You can eat before or after I do, but I don’t want you at my table while I’m eating—”

“Caden! That’s just rude,” Jason exclaimed.

“No, he’s right. It’s best if we have as little time together as possible,” Marie explained.

“When you’re done cleaning, cooking and doing the laundry, I expect you to be helping us out on the ranch. Just ask Jason or me what chores need to be done.”

She cocked her head, bewildered, and exclaimed, “I don’t know anything about cattle!”

“It doesn’t matter. We’ll give you grunt work or show you how to do it,” Caden said, his face expressionless.

“So when do I start?”

“I want dinner on the table in an hour.”

“No! She’s been in a serious accident and has head injuries.  She’s going to take it easy today and tomorrow and start Sunday,” Jason insisted.

Marie nodded.  Her head was pounding and she could feel her whole body giving out. “I do think I
need to rest a—” her eyes rolled in her head as she fell back.

“Marie!” Jason yelled as he grabbed her arm.

She screamed out from the sharp pain splintering through her from where Jason had grabbed her. Marie’s left arm came up to knock his hand off of her.

Caden put an arm under hers and helped her back to the bed, gently lowering her to it. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m dizzy and my upper arm hurts like hell.  Sorry, Jason, I didn’t mean to snap.”

“Let’s see what’s going on.” Jason stepped forward to help her take her jacket off, noting how lightweight it was.

When the jacket was lying on the bed, both men winced. Marie’s clothes were soaked with blood from the accident.  Jason immediately took off his own jacket and then his sweater, exposing his long-sleeved shirt underneath. “Here, take that bloody shirt off and put this on. It’s cleaner and warmer.”

“Here? In front of you?”

Jason laughed. “I’ve seen bras before, but we’ll be happy to turn around, if you’re shy.”

“Don’t bother.
There’s nothing to see,” Caden sniped.

Jason shot Caden a look to shut him up. Marie ignored the quip and undid her shirt, pulling it down off her shoulder.

Both men audibly winced.

“Good God, Marie,” Caden’s voice went hoarse.

Marie followed their eyesight and saw that her entire shoulder and arm, along with her chest, were an angry black and blue.  She slipped the other side down and saw the same bruising, but not to the same degree.

“Are you in pain?” Caden asked.

She nodded. “But my head hurts worse than anything.”

“We need to get you back to the hospital. You may have a blood clot,” Caden said.

“I can’t afford it.”

Caden shook his head with frustration.  “You can’t afford not to.  You could die.”

Tears came to her eyes as she finished removing the shirt, forgetting that the only bras she had brought were those in her wardrobe that might be seen by Caden, had he chosen to forgive her.  The red satin demi-cup bra was laced in black and very sexy. Both Jason and Caden’s eyes dropped to the pert breasts that nestled perfectly in the lacy cups.

Marie cleared her throat.  “Gentlemen, my eyes are up here.” She then hurried and slipped the sweater over
, only to poke her head through the neck to see two men blushing. “You’re right. This headache is getting worse. We better go back.”

On the way back to Whitefish, Marie, sitting in the back of the Super-cab F150, leaned forward, her
head in her hands, tears of pain streaming down her cheeks.

“Caden, I’mmm not feeling sooo gooood.”

“She’s slurring her words.  That can’t be good,” Jason remarked.

Caden nodded and gave the gas a little nudge, praying that they didn’t hit black ice. When they arrived, Marie’s eyes had rolled back
again and she was unable to communicate.

“Marie!” Caden tried to sound in control, but inside he could feel his stomach churning.  He hated her…had spent the last six years pushing the love out with his hate
, and yet he was mad with worry.  Marie didn’t respond to his voice.

This time they didn’t leave. Taking up posts next to the vending machines, the men waited until the doctor came out to see them.

“I shouldn’t be giving you any information since you’re not related, but I don’t think there’s any harm in letting you know that she didn’t have any brain edema or blood clots, so it doesn’t appear to be hemorrhaging.  However, when we did the MRI, it was clear that she was in the middle of a massive migraine. Do you know if she gets migraines?”

Caden didn’t want to acknowledge how intimate they had been, but there was no reason to withhold the information. “On occasion.”

“Well, considering her previous pain and damage from the accident, it probably triggered it.  We’ve given her some medication for the headaches.”

“Did you see her bruising?” Jason asked.

The doctor nodded. “Yes. There’s not much that can be done for that and the cracked ribs.  The air bag did that. She’ll recover, but she does need to take it easy for the next few days.”

“She doesn’t have money for any hospital stays,” Caden volunteered.

The doctor frowned and then sighed with resignation. “Okay, she can leave, but she has to have someone take care of her for the next few days.”

Caden turned to Jason and
sneered. “This is going on her bill.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow. “Is there a problem?”

Jason shook his head. “No, Doctor, it’s fine.”

Once Marie was released, she was wheeled out the door of the hospital but then managed to walk to the truck with only the aid of the two men.  Jason had Chris pick him up at the hospital
, rather than drive all the way back to Trego and then back to Caden’s again.

“Chris has the day off; she can drive me up in the morning. We have to put the salt licks out and start delousing the cattle
, so I’ll be up early,” he told Caden as he looked in the back at Marie who was fast asleep. “Are you sure you can handle this on your own?”

Furrowing his brow,
Caden snorted, “What do you mean? She weighs less than my boots.  I can carry her.”

“I did
n’t mean physically—mentally.  You promise to take care of her?”

“I promise not to let her die of her migraine.”

Jason chose to ignore the sarcasm in Caden’s voice.  It had been a long, eventful day. All he wanted was to get some dinner and go to bed.  “Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”