The Rancher--A snowbound Western romance Read online

  But she couldn’t back down on her mission. She would have answers about Zach’s death.

  “Yes.” Her stomach clenched at the memory of sneaking onto the Dowdon campus that winter to question Zach’s friends. “I spoke to you and to Gage Striker fourteen years ago, but both of you were clearly upset. Gage was openly hostile. You seemed...detached.”

  “That girl couldn’t have been you.” Miles’s jaw flexed, his broad shoulders tensing as he straightened in his chair. “I would have remembered the name.”

  Defensiveness flared at the hard look in his blue eyes.

  “I was born Kara Marsh, but it was too common for Instagram, so I made up Chiara Campagna when I launched my career.” Perhaps it made her sound like she’d hidden something from him, but her brand had taken off years ago, and she no longer thought of herself as Kara. Her family certainly hadn’t cared, taking more of an interest in her now that she was famous with a big bank account than they ever had when she was under their roof saving her babysitting money to pay for her own clothes. “I use the name everywhere for consistency’s sake. While I don’t try to conceal my identity, I also don’t promote it.”

  “Yet you kissed me. Spent the night.”

  Her gaze lingered on the black Henley he was wearing with a pair of dark brown cargo pants, the fitted shirt calling to mind the feel of his body under her hands.

  “That wasn’t supposed to happen,” she admitted, guilt pinching harder at the accusation in his voice. “What took place between us was completely unexpected.”

  The defense sounded weak even to her ears. But he’d been there. He had to know how the passion had come out of nowhere, a force of nature.

  The furrow in his brow deepened. “So you’ll admit you were in my study last night, looking up Zach’s name on my computer.”

  A chill crept through her. “You knew?” She bristled at the realization. “Yet you kissed me. Invited me to spend the night.”

  She parroted his words, reminding him he’d played a role in their charged encounter.

  “You didn’t clear the search history. A page of files with Zach’s name on them was still open.” He didn’t address the fact that he’d slept with her anyway.

  Because it hadn’t mattered to him? Because she didn’t matter? She stuffed down the hurt she had no business feeling, shoving aside the memories of how good things had been between them. She’d known even then that it couldn’t last. She’d told herself as much when Miles had wrested a promise from her that he could have a date afterward. He wouldn’t hold her to that now.

  Steeling herself, she returned to her agenda. Her real priority.

  “Then you know I’m desperate for answers.” Regret burned right through all the steeliness. “I’m sorry I invaded your privacy. That was a mistake. But I’ve been digging for clues about Zach’s death for fourteen years. Now that the media spotlight has turned to the Mesa Falls owners thanks to your connection to Alonzo Salazar, I saw a chance to finally learn the truth.”

  “By using your invitation into my home to spy on me,” he clarified.

  “Why wasn’t Zach’s death in the papers? Why didn’t the school acknowledge it?” She’d searched for years. His death notice had been a line item weeks after the fact, with nothing about the person he’d been or how he’d died.

  “You say you were friends with him, but I only have your word on that.” Miles watched her suspiciously. Judging her? She wondered what had happened to the man she’d been with the night before. The lover who’d been so generous. This cold stranger bore him no resemblance. “How do I know this isn’t another attempt by the media to unearth a story?”

  “Who else even knows about him but me?” she asked, affronted. Indignant. “There was never a public outcry about his death. No demand for answers from the media. Maybe because he was just some foster kid that—”

  Her throat was suddenly burning and so were her eyes, the old emotions coming back to surprise her with their force while Miles studied her from across the breakfast table. With an effort, she regained control of herself and backed her chair away from the table.

  “I’d better go,” she murmured, embarrassed for the ill-timed display of feelings. But damn it, Zach had deserved a better send-off. She’d never even known where to attend a service for him, because as far as she’d known, there hadn’t been one.

  That broke her heart.

  Miles rose with her, covering her hand briefly with his.

  “It was a simple question. I meant no offense.” He shifted his hand away, but the warmth remained where his fingers had been. “We’ve safeguarded our friend’s memory for a long time, and I won’t relax my protection of him now. Not for anyone.”

  She tilted her chin at him, trying her damnedest to see some hint of warmth in that chilly facade.

  “What memory?” she pressed. “He vanished without a trace. Without an opportunity for his friends to mourn him.”

  “His friends did mourn him. They still do.” His expression was fierce. “We won’t allow his name to be drawn into the public spectacle that Alonzo Salazar brought to the ranch because of that damned tell-all book.”

  “I would never do that to Zach.” She hugged her arms around herself, recalling too late that she wore Miles’s clothes. Her fingers rested on the cotton of his sweats. The scent of him. As if she wasn’t feeling vulnerable already. “As for his friends mourning him, you weren’t the only ones. There were a lot of other people who cared about Zach. People who never got to say goodbye.”

  For a long minute, they regarded each other warily in the quiet room, the scents of their forgotten breakfast still savory even though no food could possibly tempt her. Her stomach was in knots.

  But even now, in the aftermath of the unhappy exchange, awareness of him lingered. Warmth prickled along her skin as they stood facing each other in silent challenge, reminding her of the heat that had propelled her into his arms the night before.

  The chime of her cell phone intruded on the charged moment, a welcome distraction from whatever it was that kept pulling her toward a man who was determined to keep his secrets. He was as quick to seize on the reprieve from their exchange as she was. He turned toward the table to begin clearing away their half-finished meal.

  She retrieved the device from where it lay on the table, checking the text while she carried her coffee cup to the sink. The message was from her assistant, Jules.

  All your platforms hacked. On phone with IG now. Sent help notices to the rest. Some joker who didn’t like a post? I’m on it, but knew you’d want heads-up.

  She didn’t realize she’d gone still until she heard Miles asking, “What’s wrong?”

  Her brain couldn’t quite compute what was wrong. The timing of the attack on all her platforms at once seemed strange. Suddenly feeling a little shaky, she dropped into the closest seat, a bar stool at the island.

  “Someone hijacked my social media accounts,” she whispered, stunned and not buying that it was the work of a disgruntled commenter. “All of the platforms at once, which seems really unusual.”

  “Does that happen often?” Miles jammed the food in the huge refrigerator, working quickly to clean up.

  “It’s never happened before.” She gulped back a sick feeling, tapping the tab for Instagram on her phone to see for herself. “I have friends who have had one platform hijacked here or there, but not all at once.”

  Miles dumped the remaining dishes in the sink and toweled off his hands before tossing the dishcloth aside. He rejoined her, gripping the back of her chair. “That feels like someone has an ax to grind.”

  The warmth of his nearness was a distraction she couldn’t afford. She scooted forward in her seat.

  “Someone with enough tech savvy to take over all my properties at once.” She checked one profile after another, finding the photos changed, but still of her.

>   Less flattering images. Older images. But they weren’t anything to be embarrassed about. She’d had friends whose profiles were hacked and replaced with digitally altered pictures that were highly compromising.

  “Any idea who’d do something like that?” Miles asked, the concern in his voice replacing some of the animosity that had been there before. “Any enemies?”

  “I can’t think of anyone.” She’d had her fair share of trolls on her account, but they tended to stir up trouble with other commenters as opposed to targeting her.

  Her phone chimed again. She swiped the screen in a hurry, hopeful Jules had resolved the problem. But the text in her inbox was from a private number. Maybe one of the social media platforms’ customer service used that kind of anonymous messaging?

  She clicked open the text.

  Today’s takeover is a warning. Stay out of Zach’s business or your accounts will be seriously compromised.

  Her grip on the phone tightened. She blinked twice as the threat chilled her inside and out.

  “Are you okay?” Miles touched her shoulder, the warmth of his fingers anchoring her as fear trickled through her.

  “I’ve got to go.” Shaky with the newfound realization that someone was keeping close tabs on her, she wondered who else could possibly know she was investigating Zach’s death besides Miles.

  She slid off the bar stool to her feet, needing to get back to her laptop and her assistant to figure out the extent of her cybersecurity problem. This felt like someone was watching her. Or tracking her online activity.

  “You’re pale as the snow.” Miles steadied her by the elbow when she wobbled unsteadily. “What’s going on?”

  She didn’t want to share what she’d just read with him when he mistrusted her. When she mistrusted him. But his touch overrode everything else, anchoring her in spite of the hollow feeling inside.

  “Look.” She handed him her phone, unable to articulate all the facets of the new worries wriggling to life. “I just received this.” Pausing until he’d had time to absorb the news, she continued, “Who else even knows about Zach, let alone what I came here for?”

  His jaw flexed as he stared at the screen, stubble giving his face a texture she remembered well from when he’d kissed her during the night. She fisted her hands in the pockets of the sweatpants to keep herself from doing something foolish, like running an exploratory finger along his chin.

  “I didn’t think anyone else remembered him outside of my partners and me.” He laid her phone on the kitchen island behind her. “As for who else knows why you came here, I can’t answer that, as I only found out moments ago.”

  She hesitated. “You saw my attempt to check your computer last night. So you knew then that I had an interest. Did you share that information with anyone?”

  A scowl darkened his expression.

  “I texted Gage Striker about an hour into the party to ask how well he knew you, since I thought you’d been going through my files.”

  She shouldn’t be surprised that Miles had as much reason to suspect her of hiding something as she’d had to suspect him. She’d recognized that they’d been circling one another warily the previous night before the heat between them burned everything else away. If anything, maybe it soothed her grated nerves just a little to know he hadn’t been any more able to resist the temptation than she had.

  “And Gage could have told any one of your other partners. They, in turn, could have confided in friends or significant others.” Reaching back to the counter, she retrieved the cell and shoved it in the pocket of Miles’s sweats. “So word could have spread to quite a few people by this morning.”

  “In theory,” he acknowledged, though his voice held a begrudging tone. “But Gage didn’t even put in an appearance at the party. So he wouldn’t have been around anyone else to share the news, and I’m guessing he had something big going on in his personal life that kept him from attending.”

  “Maybe he needed to hire someone to hack all my accounts.” She couldn’t rule it out, despite Miles’s scoff. Anger ramped up inside her along with a hint of mistrust. “But for now, I need to return to my hotel and do everything I can to protect my brand.”

  “Wait.” He stepped in front of her. Not too close, but definitely in her path.

  Her pulse quickened at his nearness. Her gaze dipped to the way the fitted shirt with the Rivera Ranch logo skimmed his broad shoulders and arms. Her mouth dried up.

  Maybe he felt the same jolt that she did, because he looked away from her, spearing a hand through his hair.

  “Let me drive you back,” he told her finally. “Someone might be watching you. And until you know what you’re dealing with, you should take extra precautions for your safety.”

  The thought of spending more time alone with this man was too tempting. Which was why she absolutely had to decline. Things were confused enough between them already.

  “I’ll be fine. My assistant will send a car and extra security.” She withdrew her phone again—a good enough excuse to take her eyes off him—and sent the request. “I just need to get my dress and I’ll be on my way.”

  Still Miles didn’t move.

  “Where are you staying?” he pressed. “You can’t ghost me. You owe me a date.”

  “I think we both know that’s not a good idea in light of how much things have gone awry between us.” She couldn’t believe he’d even brought it up. But perhaps he only wanted to use that time with her as a way to keep tabs on her while she sought the information he was determined to keep private.

  “I still want to see you.” He didn’t explain why. “Where will you be?”

  “I’ve been in a local hotel, but today I’ve got a flight to Tahoe to spend time with Astrid. I haven’t seen her since she had the baby.”

  Jonah and Astrid had a house on the lake near a casino resort owned by Desmond Pierce, another Mesa Falls partner. Spending time with Astrid would be a way to keep an eye on two of the ranch owners while removing herself from the temptation that Miles presented just by being in the same town.

  Even now, looking into Miles’s blue eyes, she couldn’t help recalling the ways he’d kissed and touched her. Made her fly apart in his arms.

  For now, she needed to regroup. Protect her business until she figured out her next move in the search for answers about Zach.

  “I don’t suppose it’s a coincidence that half of the Mesa Falls partners live around Tahoe,” Miles observed drily. “Maybe I should go with you. No doubt we’ll be convening soon to figure out who could be threatening you. Zach’s legacy is important to us.”

  She shrugged, averting her eyes because she knew they’d betray her desire for him. “You can look into it your way. I’ll keep looking into it mine. But I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to spend more time alone together after what happened last night.”

  Just talking about it sent a small, pleasurable shiver up her spine. She had to hold herself very still to hide it. The least movement from him and she would cave to temptation.

  “I disagree. And if we both want answers, maybe we should be working together instead of apart.” His voice gentled, taking on that low rasp that had slid right past her defenses last night. “You wouldn’t have checked my computer files if you didn’t think I had information that could help you. Why not go straight to the source?”

  For a moment, the idea of spending another day with him—another night—rolled over her like a seductive wave. But then she forced herself to shake it off.

  “If you wanted to share information with me, you could tell me now.” She put it out there like a dare, knowing he wouldn’t spill any secrets.

  He and his friends had never revealed anything about Zach. Not then. And not now. Because Miles was silent. Watchful. Wary.

  Her phone chimed again, and she didn’t need to check it to know her ride was out fr
ont.

  “In that case, I’d better be going.” She turned on her heel. “Maybe I’ll see you in Tahoe.”

  “Chiara.” He called her name before she reached the stairs leading back to the bedroom suite.

  Gripping the wood rail in a white-knuckled grip, she looked over her shoulder at him.

  “Be careful. We don’t know who you’re dealing with, but it could be someone dangerous.”

  The reminder brought the anxiety from earlier churning back. She tightened her hold on the rail to keep from swaying.

  “I’ll be careful,” she conceded before stiffening her spine with resolve. “But I’m not backing down.”

  Five

  Miles began making phone calls as soon as Chiara left. He poured himself a drink and paced circles around the indoor pool, leaving voice messages for Gage and Jonah. Then he tapped the contact button for Desmond Pierce, his friend who owned the casino resort on Lake Tahoe.

  For fourteen years, the friends who’d been with Zach Eldridge when he died had kept the circumstances a secret. At first, they’d done so because they were in shock and grieving. Later, they’d remained silent to protect his memory, as a way to honor him in death even though they’d been unable to save him.

  But if someone outside the six friends who owned Mesa Falls knew about Zach—about the circumstances that had pushed him over the edge that fateful day—then his secrets weren’t safe any longer. They needed to figure out their next steps.

  A voice on the other end of the phone pulled him from his thoughts, and he paused his pacing around the pool to listen.

  “Hey, Miles,” Desmond answered smoothly, the slot machine chirps and muted conversation of the casino floor sounding in the background. “What’s up?”

  “Problems.” As succinctly as possible, he summarized the situation with Chiara and the threat against her if she kept looking for answers about Zach’s death.

  When Miles was done, Desmond let out a low whistle. The sounds of the casino in the background had faded, meaning he must have sought privacy for the conversation.