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Cat stiffened, blocking the swift rise of memories. She had locked the door to the past; she had no desire to open it.
“I didn’t figure on you coming over here tonight, Cat,” Culley said. “I was just sitting here talking to Logan. I guess you haven’t had a chance to meet—”
She cut him off. “I know who Mr. Echohawk is.”
“Hello, Cat.” He pushed the coffee cup away and leaned back in his chair with negligent ease, tipping his head back in a way that forcibly reminded her of Quint.
“What are you doing here?” Cat demanded, nerves taut.
“I had some business to discuss with your uncle.”
In her mind, there was only one kind of business a law officer could have. “What do you want with him? Uncle Culley hasn’t done anything wrong.” She was instantly furious and on the defensive. “I know people around here may have said some things about him, but they aren’t true. He’s never hurt anybody—”
“I don’t think you understand,” Logan interrupted smoothly.
The strain on her nerves was too much. She broke under it, her control shattering, unleashing a temper she had long held in check. “No, you don’t understand! I want you to leave my uncle alone. If you have any questions for him, you can talk to his lawyer. But you stay away for him!”
“Cat, you’ve got this wrong.” Culley frowned at her.
“It’s okay, Culley,” Logan told him, casually rising to his feet. “We’ll iron out the details another time. Thanks for the coffee.”
His calmness infuriated Cat even more. She trembled with anger and a dozen other emotions she refused to acknowledge. He walked from the room at an unhurried pace, his wide shoulders briefly filling the doorway.
“What the hell was that all about?” Culley wanted to know.
The door hinge creaked. He was leaving. But he planned to come back. He had indicated as much in his parting remark to Culley. She couldn’t let that happen. She was too afraid of the questions he might ask—and the answers he might get. Answers that could turn her world upside down.
She caught up with him halfway to his truck. He swept her with one cool, swift glance and continued without a check in his stride. “If you’ve come to apologize, consider it accepted.” The golden glow of the setting sun washed over his profile, deepening the bronze cast of his skin and accenting all its bold angles.
“I didn’t come to apologize,” Cat informed him, the heat still in her voice. “I came to tell you I meant what I said inside. Don’t you come around here again and bother my uncle. You stay away from him and you stay away from my family.”
His steps slowed. “Is that a threat?”
“Take it any way you want. Just stay away from them.”
He came to a stop, angling his body toward her, his eyes coolly critical. “I was told the Calders are arrogant and high-handed, quick to use their weight to crush any opposition.”
“Not quick to use it, but ready to,” Cat replied, a defiant tilt to her chin.
He moved perceptibly closer. “I’ll tell you this once—and only once—don’t try it with me.” The coldness in his gray eyes told her as clearly as his words that he wasn’t the kind of a man to back down. A little shiver of gladness danced through her, which she quickly checked. “Do we understand each other?”
“Perfectly. As long as you stay away from me and my family, we’ll get along fine.”
“Believe me,” he said in an equally caustic voice, “beyond acquiring grazing rights from your uncle, I have no interest in your family or you.”
“Grazing rights?” Cat blinked in surprise.
“It so happens that is what O’Rourke and I were discussing when you arrived.”
“But…what would you want with the grazing rights on Shamrock?”
“The same thing any other rancher would want.”
“But you’re—”
“—a deputy sheriff,” he supplied the title. “Currently I’m also serving as acting sheriff while Blackmore is recovering from surgery. It’s a job with a steady income. Nowadays, small ranches aren’t all that profitable.”
Somewhere along the line, the anger had left him, but the growling need that replaced it was just as strong. Almost reluctantly he watched the play of expressions over her face, his glance drawn to her lips, the memory of their taste and texture returning to tempt him all over again.
