Taste of Passion (Madaris Novels) (36 page)

Laverne chuckled. “I might be up in age but when it comes to my grands and great-grands, I can see very well. Luke had a thing for you. You had a thing for him. I’m glad to see the two of you got together. Now I can turn my attention elsewhere.”

Mackenzie didn’t want to even imagine in whose direction the woman would be looking next.

“Why do I get the feeling that you’ve been avoiding me, Luke?”

Luke sighed deeply. In his peripheral vision he saw Nadine Turner. Impulse told him not to acknowledge her presence and just ignore her, but he was too much of a gentleman to do so. He glanced up, pushed his Stetson back on his head, and leaned against the gate. “Nadine. I thought we had an understanding that we
would
in fact avoid each other whenever we could.”

Somehow the woman managed to look surprised. “Aw, come on, Luke, stop pretending that you don’t want me when I know you do.”

He could only shake his head. “Sorry, you’re wrong. I don’t want you.”

A pout appeared at the corner of her lips. “You did at one time.”

“Anything between us was strictly physical.” Luke was annoyed that he had to spell things out to her once again, and he couldn’t help wondering why she refused to believe him. He wondered what happened to her new boyfriend Cam had told him about.

“Well, since I know you’re not into long-term affairs, I have no problem with sharing nothing more than a physical relationship with you again.”

“I have a problem with it and I’m sure my fiancée would have a problem with it as well.”

He saw her stiffen as the meaning of his words registered. “Fiancée?” she all but stammered.

“Yes.”

“Who is she?” she asked in a contemptuous sneer.

“You don’t know her.”

“How dare you lie to me! You said you’d never marry.”

Luke inhaled deeply. The woman, as usual, was getting on his last nerve. If nothing else she had the ability to bring out total weariness in a man. “I changed my mind,” he said simply.

From the fire that flashed in her eyes he could tell his answer hadn’t been good enough for her. “No! I’m the one you should marry. Me and no one else,” she all but snarled. “And you will regret the day that you cheated on me for her.” She then turned and angrily walked off.

Luke could only stand there, stare and shake his head, not believing the conversation he and Nadine had just had. Her behavior was getting even more irrational and he had put up with it long enough. Something had to be done about this obsession of hers. Her father, Preston Turner, was a likable guy, although he had allowed his daughter to grow up to be a selfish, self-centered woman.

More than once Luke had considered approaching the older man about Nadine’s behavior, but he had not done so in hopes that Nadine would finally see reason. Since it seemed that wouldn’t be happening he definitely needed to have a conversation with Preston when he saw him again.

Satisfaction gripped Mackenzie after hanging up her phone Monday morning. She had barely been in her office an hour before she’d received a call from Alex letting her know the courts had approved the FBI’s request to excavate a portion of the land Whitedyer had purchased
from Mr. Coroni. Papers would be delivered to Farley that morning.

Mackenzie would give anything to be a fly on the wall when Farley received the papers.

“Mr. Farley, there are a couple of gentlemen here to see you.”

Farley lifted his gaze from the documents spread on his desk. He had gotten behind in a lot of paperwork while handling that issue with the Coroni land. Although costly, the settlement had come too easily. He had been looking forward to squaring off in the courtroom with Mackenzie Standfield. There had been something about her he hadn’t liked from the first. She had been too sure of herself, too confident. That type of woman was a total turnoff for him. Most women had brains or beauty, Standfield had both, and more than anything he had wanted to break her.

“Mr. Farley.”

He frowned. “And just who are these men?” he asked, getting annoyed. Camille hadn’t reported to work for the past couple of days and calls to her home hadn’t gotten a response. He wondered what the hell was going on with her. Whatever it was, she definitely owed him an explanation since the woman pitching in for her was doing a lousy job as far as he was concerned.

“One of the men is Detective Adams and the other is Larry Griffin from the FBI.”

“What!” He immediately rubbed the back of his neck in an effort to ease the tension he suddenly felt knotted there.

“I said that—”

“I heard what you said. Send them in.” He immediately stood and went around his desk. His heart hammered against his rib cage, but he forced the anxiety to pass and remained calm. Why would the FBI be here? Everything was going as planned, although they’d paid out more for Coroni’s land than they had intended. The
old man had turned into a money-sucking vulture before their eyes. But still, Coroni was happy, the city of Oklahoma was happy, and they were happy, so why was Adams showing up now and with the FBI in tow? Farley didn’t like it one damn bit.

Before any more thoughts could occur his office door opened and Adams and another man walked in. He could tell from the smirk he saw on Adams’s face as well as the man’s cocky walk that whatever reason they were there was not good news.

“Detective Adams,” he said with more than slight irritation in his voice after introductions to Larry Griffin were made. “Although I sympathize with Ms. Standfield’s misfortunes, I must again reiterate that Whitedyer had nothing to do with it. And really, was it that serious that you had to involve the FBI?”

“That’s not why we’re here, Mr. Farley, although your claim of innocence is wearing thin in light of new developments.”

Farley frowned. “What new developments?”

Adams took a step back so Griffin could step forward. “You might want to contact your boss,” Larry Griffin said, smiling, as he handed Farley a sealed document. “This is a court order to excavate a certain section of the land Whitedyer recently purchased from Roger Coroni.”

The color almost drained from Farley’s face. “And for what reason?” he asked in a subdued tone, trying to project a dispassionate expression.

“We have reason to believe the body of a man we’ve been looking for is buried there.”

Farley shook his head and tried to stay in control. “And just whose body is supposed to be buried there? Had we known anything about that we would not have pursued the purchase of the land so diligently from Coroni and—”

“Can it, Farley,” Adams said, rolling his eyes. “Save the drama for the courtroom; I’m sure you’ll have the opportunity to give the performance you’ve been lusting for. And to answer your question, we have reason to believe
that the body of former Cunningham employee Aaron Gerhard is somewhere on that land.” He then glanced around. “And where is Ms. Yeager today? We need to ask her some questions.”

Farley leaned back against his desk to stare at Miller. His expression was no longer unruffled. “Why would you want to discuss anything with her?”

“To make sure that she doesn’t know anything about Gerhard’s disappearance, since it appears she’s kept constant contact with Mr. Coroni’s personal attorney, Lamar Perkins, during the entire Coroni-Whitedyer negotiations.”

Farley shook his head. “Sorry, but you have your information wrong,” he said, smiling, with certainty in his voice.

“Sorry, but I’m afraid our information is right. It’s our understanding that she and Perkins are close, personal friends.” A smile touched Griffin’s lips. “But then, she was your close, personal friend as well, wasn’t she? Now where is Ms. Yeager?”

Farley looked down at the document he held in his hand before lifting his gaze back to Adams and Griffin. “I don’t know where she is at the moment.”

“We’ll find her,” Griffin said with the same certainty in his voice as Farley had had earlier. “And by the way, excavation starts Wednesday.”

“I’ll file a petition to have it stopped before it begins,” Farley threatened.

Griffin chuckled. “Yes, you can try to do that but the order was given the stamp of approval by the governor himself. Good day, Farley.”

The agent, along with Adams, then turned and walked out of the office.

Late Thursday evening Mackenzie received a call from Alex. “It’s all over, Mac. I just got a call from Griffin who said that the remains of Aaron Gerhard were found on Coroni’s land.”

Mackenzie shook her head, saddened by the news. Although she knew it brought needed closure for Gerhard’s
family, she regretted how the man’s life had ended. “So what’s next?” she asked.

“Everything will hit the papers and television tomorrow and the FBI will reveal everything, including Whitedyer’s eagerness to purchase the land from Coroni to keep the murder covered up. It’s my guess that someone with power over at Cunningham decided to get rid of Gerhard when he discovered the two companies had joined forces and were selling illegal electronic supplies to some terrorist group holed up in an area near Pakistan. Everyone was brought in for questioning, even Coroni, Perkins, and Yeager, to make sure they didn’t know why Whitedyer wanted the land so badly. So chances are Mr. Coroni won’t be leaving town for a while, at least until there’s absolute certainty that he wasn’t aware of the real reason Whitedyer wanted his land.”

Alex chuckled. “And your city leaders are embarrassed to say the least. In essence, Whitedyer cunningly used them to make sure they got that land from Coroni. And from what Griffin said, things got pretty interesting when Camille Yeager had to face both her lovers. Farley was livid when he found out just how far Yeager’s betrayal went.”

Mackenzie shook her head. It seemed everyone’s penchant for greed had backfired. The people who had really lost were those who’d truly believed that job opportunities would come with Whitedyer’s purchase of the Coroni land. “Thanks for keeping me informed, Alex.”

“Hey, no problem. Because of what went down with you, I began to investigate further and it was only then that the FBI were able to link the two companies. And Griffin wanted me to let you know that both sides, Coroni and Whitedyer, are still maintaining that they had nothing to do with those incidents involving you.”

Mackenzie rolled her eyes. “Well, considering everything, I’m sure you understand that I’m not quick to believe them. I don’t know which side is responsible but we do know those things did in fact happen so someone was behind them.”

Later that night when she prepared for bed Mackenzie tried putting everything dealing with Whitedyer and Coroni out of her mind and shifted her concentration to Luke. She was excited about seeing him this weekend and like a number of his relatives she would be arriving in Reno early Saturday to see him compete in the rodeo that night. There was no doubt in her mind that he would be victorious in getting his title back, and then the two of them would have even more reason to celebrate.

“Hey, man, wake up. I just got a call. The boss is pretty damn upset and wants to meet with us in the morning. From the way it sounds, it’s time for us to take things further.”

“How much further?”

“Let’s just say that by the time it’s all over, Ms. Standfield is going to regret the day that she got on the boss’s bad side.”

Alex couldn’t sleep and that didn’t bode well. He hated not finishing a puzzle because of missing pieces and he felt there was something in the Whitedyer case that was still out there. Something he was clearly overlooking. What?

He eased from the bed, careful not to wake Christy. He smiled thinking she definitely needed her sleep. Making his way to his office, he eased down in the chair behind his desk and turned on his computer. He was determined to find the missing link. No one wanted to claim responsibility for the mischievous incidents involving Mackenzie, not even when Whitedyer had tried shifting the blame from themselves to Cunningham Electronics to avoid a murder conviction.

An hour or so later, Alex still hadn’t been able to figure anything out, but he refused to give up. He shut down the computer determined to check out a few more things tomorrow. That missing puzzle piece was still out there and he intended to find it.

Mackenzie glanced around the arena, trying not to recall what had happened the last time she’d been at a rodeo to watch Luke compete. It was the last night of the Professional rodeo Championship and just like that night in Oklahoma, the stadium was packed. The only difference was that she wasn’t the only person in attendance tonight rooting for Luke. Some of his family members were on hand to cheer him to victory. Everyone knew that this competition, to regain his title, was an important one to Luke.

She had talked to him earlier on her cell phone when she had arrived in Reno that morning, and he had tried talking her into coming down to the arena to give him a good-luck kiss. She had laughingly refused, reminding him of what had happened the last time she’d done that. So she had yet to see him and would do so for the first time when he flew out of the chute.

“It’s been years since I’ve been to a rodeo,” the woman sitting beside her leaned over closer to say.