A perfect day for a ride.


* * *

When he led out the horses, Cam saw that Haley still sat on a large rock by the barn, just where he'd left her. The haunted look hadn't faded from her face.

"Just us," he said easily to her, forcing a calm he didn't feel. If he wasn't calm, there was no way he could get her that way. And that was exactly how he wanted her-relaxed and compliant. She wouldn't talk otherwise.

She stood and ran her hands down the thighs of her jeans. Her eyes had gone wide at seeing the horses. "They're… big."

"Yeah," he said, laughing a little. "Which is why they carry us, not the other way around." He reached for one of her busy, nervous hands. "This big guy here, he's mine. His name is Sal. The lady is Mrs. Twisted. She's Nellie's, which explains the name." He placed her hand on the horse's neck, holding it when she would have flinched away. "She's the sweetest, tamest horse we have, unless Jason's around."

"She doesn't like him?"

He could tell she didn't want to get on any horse, much less a temperamental one. "She's just jealous. You've seen Jason and Nellie."

"Yeah."

He wondered at the flash of emotion he saw. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn it was envy. Did she, like him, both admire and wish for what Nellie and Jason had?

"So I just hop on?" she asked.

"Need a hand?" He imagined touching her, helping her up. His hands would brush over her hips, her thighs…

"I can do it," she said quickly, moving past him.

He watched as she pulled herself up with an ease that spoke more of her physical strength than experience. He'd noticed that for a tiny thing, she was tough as nails. And had a tight little body to go with that toughness-one that happened to drive him crazy every time he looked at it.

He got on Sal and they started for the hills. Haley sat naturally in the saddle, which didn't surprise him. She wouldn't like to be less than good at anything. She didn't smile, or even look at him, but then, he hadn't expected her to. Nervousness vibrated from her, and he knew she was thoroughly braced for his barrage of questions.

She'd have to wait.

He had no intention of grilling her. That would get him nowhere with the stubborn woman riding next to him. No, it would take much more finesse to get what he wanted. Though, in truth, he wasn't sure what he wanted from her. The rest of the facts, certainly.

But even that didn't matter so much as banishing the fear from her eyes. The woman was a bundle of contradictions. Seemingly aloof, but really just shy. Her domestic "front" was merely a facade for a slick professionalism and a need to succeed at everything she tried. Bravado covered up her almost-desperate need for approval and affection.

Haley pulled Mrs. Twisted to a halt and lifted a shoulder. They'd come to the top of the first hill. "Which way?"

Her dark hair blew against her pale, serious face. He wanted to see her laugh with abandonment, talk with ease. "You pick."

Without another word, she chose the path that would take them past the rolling hills and into the wooded area at the base of the craggy, jutting mountains. The only sound came from their horses' hooves pounding the dirt.

"It's beautiful here," Haley said, speaking for the first time in long minutes. She ducked beneath the low branch of an aspen. "I hear water running."

"There's a creek. There're also some cliffs a mile or so ahead. Jas, Zach and I camped there overnight once."

"You must have played here a lot as a boy."

He brought Sal alongside Mrs. Twisted. "No. I grew up in Denver, I only bought the Circle C several years ago."

"Oh. I thought- Never mind."

She'd turned away, embarrassed, and shifted in her saddle. "You'd thought what?" he pressed. "It's okay to ask me, Haley. Contrary to some people I know, my life's an open book."

She flashed him that haughty, annoyed look, but said nothing, not even when he lifted his brow and silently dared her.

They came out of the woods into a clearing. The creek ran noisily through, rushing past rocks and boulders. "This is my favorite spot. I came here a lot when I first bought the house." He glanced at her. "I bought it after Lorraine died. I wanted to change my life-style. Completely. I dumped the suits, quit the job." He looked around at the beautiful woods he considered his. "I had no intention of really running the ranch, I just wanted to… disappear, I guess."

He saw a flash of surprise light her face. "I can understand that," she said softly.

"I thought maybe you would."

She dismounted and so did he. The horses turned to the spots of green at their hooves, looking for something to graze on.

Cam walked to the water's edge. "Jason came with me. He'd had some trouble with college, then on a job. He was as desperately unhappy as I was. But within a week of being here, that changed. He's got a knack for working the place. It's really amazing. And then he met Nellie. Things have been good for him."

She came up beside him, the wind teasing color into her pale cheeks. "And Zach?"

"Zach came later. He'd been working as a cop. Saw a lot of junk, and it burned him out. Then he went to work on another ranch, so it was only natural he'd come here. He and Jason make this place work, not me."

"But you love it, too."

He watched a squirrel dash across a branch, chattering busily. "I do." He looked at her and decided to take the plunge. "You want to start at the beginning or at what happened in the library?"

Turning her face away, she sank to the ground as if her legs wouldn't support her. Her nervous fingers played in the dirt. She was silent for so long he didn't think she'd answer, but she surprised him. "I used to work with her. The geologist who died."

"Did you steal the uranium?"

Abruptly, she stood and stalked toward the horses.

Catching up with her, he whirled her around, spurred by that temper he so rarely felt, and by his fear that Haley could still prove to be no different from Lorraine. A horrifying thought, since he figured he was already halfway in love with her. "Answer me."

"I didn't steal anything! And if you think I could, then I was wrong about you." She shook herself free. "I'm not going to tell you anything. I don't have to."

Like a knife in his heart, he thought. And when the hell had he forgotten his promise to walk away? "No," he agreed, dropping his hands from her. "You're right. You certainly don't have to. I guess I'd just hoped you'd want to. Forget it. You know what? This was dumb. Let's go back."

He expected her to stomp off, or to at least stare at him in stoic silence as usual. The last thing he expected was for her to touch his arm and meet his angry gaze steadily.

"No, wait. I'm sorry, Cam. I'm so on edge." She closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them, they were damp. "There were five of us in South America. We were a team, working specifically on earth movement. Our office was blown up, one week after we made a particularly critical discovery. The reports are saying that the discovery was uranium, but I never heard anything about that when I was there. If they found it, they kept it a secret. But we did discover something else that day, something just as unbelievable."

"Okay." He crossed his arms and stared at her, hardening his heart to the appeal in her blue eyes. "More."

"Alda was the last to die. Every one of them is now dead except me." She drew a ragged breath. "I'm next."

She was next. God. He couldn't begin to imagine what it would feel like to lose her. Yet she looked like she expected him to push her away. "I'm sorry."

She was sorry. He yanked her close, closing his eyes when he felt her nuzzle her face into his neck. He wrapped her in his arms and wondered how he could feel so much. "Haley-"

"Please. Just this. I'm about to explode from the tension."

He could feel it in her trembling form. "Okay, darlin', okay."

She clutched him. "I don't want to fight. Not with you."

He wrapped his arms tightly around her, feeling the vise that had gripped his chest loosen slightly. "We're not fighting, it's all right."

She snuggled against him for a bit. "It's a good thing, Cam," she said with ironic wit, "that you walked away from me."

He let out a little laugh. "Yeah. I sure showed you, didn't I?"

She was quiet for another moment. "I'm too screwed up for anything more than this. You know that."

"No."

"Friends, Cam. That's all this is." She sounded panicked. "You promised."

God, had he really ever agreed to anything so asinine?

"Hold me," she whispered, her eyes closed, her arms around his neck.

He did, even knowing his heart was in big trouble.


* * *

Cam found Zach in the study. He slapped the article he'd had faxed down on his brother's desk. "Got it."

Zach pushed aside the large lawbook he'd been studying. "And?"

"The uranium was indeed stolen. No suspects other than Haley."

"And we're so absolutely certain it isn't her."

"Absolutely," Cam said in a steady voice, ready to do battle.

"And her boss?"

"Lloyd Branson. Reported dead in the bombing, but according to the USGS, with which I just got off the phone, there's no body."

Zach frowned and picked up the faxed sheets. "They didn't just tell you that."

Cam grinned devilishly and affected a British accent. "Of course not. As Lloyd's youngest nephew, I deserved to know. I have memorial arrangements to make, you know."

Zach shook his head in amazement. "Does Haley know?"

"That I called? No." Cam sat on the edge of the large oak desk he'd made last year. "She's terrified. For us. It's what has kept her silent. She'd flip if she knew we'd started investigating on our own."