Page 19 of Wrangled and Tangled (Raven Peak Ranch #1)

K enzie wasn’t joking. Staci chewed me up and spit me out. I swear her face went ten shades of red during her rant. I tried following everything she said, but some things got lost. Like the fact the police have taped my trailer off, and I’m not allowed to go anywhere near it.

Where the hell am I supposed to sleep? Eddie comes running out of his trailer, having gotten here before me, and I’m relieved beyond measure.

“Thank God!” He shouts, wrapping his arms around me, squeezing like I’ve been gone for weeks. “I told the other guys that I’d bunk down with them, and you can sleep in my trailer.”

Shaking my head, I decline.

“Oh no, he’s going to call that mechanic he’s so obsessed with and stay with him,” Staci reports while clicking on her phone, without even a glance my way.

“I’m not callin’ a man, who hates my guts–because of you, by the way–and asking him for a favor.” I’m shocked she would even think Spencer would agree to let me stay after the conversation we had this morning.

“Oh, but you are because you, my friend, need an alibi from now on. An airtight one, too. So,” she looks up long enough to step up to my chest and look me directly in the eye, “you’re going to call him.

Beg, plead, coerce, I don’t care. Just do whatever you have to, to get your ass in his house where he can vouch for your whereabouts from now on. ”

“He’ll never go for it,” I sigh, throwing my hands up, pulling my phone out of my pocket, and burst into laughter. “You’re pretty damn smart, Staci, but you didn’t think about the most important thing.” I wave my phone around to signify my victory, “I don’t have his num–”

She winks, a smug smile twists her face as she flips her phone around and shows me the screen. Right there in black and white is a phone number, and above it, Spencer Tritt .

“How did you…”

With a laugh, she nods to my phone, “I have my ways. Go ahead, work your magic.”

Eddie doubles over in laughter, and Kenzie hides her smile behind her hand. Her eyes are squinted, and she’s trying her damndest to look away.

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath, willing my heart to stop pounding behind my ribs. I only feel like this when I’m in the arena, never when I call anyone. But Spencer isn’t anyone , and I’m starting to wonder if maybe there’s something wrong with me.

Should I feel this way after knowing him for one week? I mean, we only really talked last night, but I don’t know him. For all I know he could be the reason Levi’s dead body is sitting in the morgue.

“This could go wrong in a lot of ways, Staci,” I warn after punching in the numbers, hovering over the call button.

“Do you think he killed Levi?” She asks, point blank with zero emotion, looking back down at her phone.

My gut says no, that Spencer knew nothing about Levi’s habits until I told him last night. But Levi is–was, dating his sister. That could be motive enough to want to get rid of him, but even the thought feels like a reach, one that makes me look like a fool.

No. Spencer didn’t kill Levi, he wouldn’t hurt his sister like that. That much I know for certain.

Pressing the button on the screen to call him, we wait. Just when I think the call is going to go to voicemail, his deep voice resonates through the speakers. “Hello?”

Internal panic has me stuttering over my words, “He-Hey, Spencer. It’s Heath.”

“How did you get this number, Heath?” He sounds not at all surprised that I’m calling as if he expected it. Turning away from the group, I smile and walk closer to the edge of the fence surrounding the rodeo, now cordoned off with police tape.

“My publicist is very good at her job,” I chuckle. “Listen, I know you kind of hate me right now, but I have a huge ask, and I’d be really grateful if you’d hear me out.”

He makes a sound that may or may not mean to go ahead and ask, so taking the opportunity, I blabber on.

“The police have my trailer taped off, so I obviously can’t stay there.

The rodeo is cancelled, and not allowed to move on from Goldspur Ridge, and my publicist is insistent on the fact that I need a place to stay where I can have a witness to my whereabouts, and of course, her first thought–”

“Was me.” His interruption makes my cheeks heat, and my fingers tingle. “You wanna stay with me?”

“I–well, I. Yes. Yes, I’m askin’ if I can stay with you… again. I’ll sleep on the couch, I promise I won’t try anythin’, and I won’t talk to you about what happened this mornin’.”

His heavy sigh is punctuated with a click as if he were telling a horse to move. “One night, and we’re not sleepin’ together.”

Shock threatens to knock me on my ass, he’s agreeing to let me stay.

In his house.

He really didn’t seem like the amenable type, but I guess I made an impression.

“One night,” I agree, even though I don’t know for certain if the police will be done with my trailer by then.

It’s late, well past midnight, by the time I roll my truck up next to Spencer’s ol’ red beauty. He’s sitting on the swing I eyed the last time I was here. I want to join him so badly, but I know right now’s not the time.

I don’t want him changing his mind and turning me away again. Though, I can’t help the tug in my heart that keeps pulling me into his orbit. Pulling my bag from the front seat and hopping out of the cab, I prepare myself for his walled-off demeanor.

As I press the button on the keys to lock the truck, I walk up to the steps feeling his eyes on me the whole time. “Thank you again for this,” I begin, tucking my lips into my mouth and letting them roll out. “I know you and I don’t know each oth–”

“I’ve been thinkin’ about this whole thing,” he says, cutting me off–again–and dropping his hands between his open knees.

“You were with me until the early mornin’, and Levi was with Lucy until mid-mornin’.

Then you came by the garage around what, lunch?

How could you have time to murder Levi, stage his body, and get to the diner around the same time I did? ”

“I swear on my life, I didn’t,” taking a step toward him, I drop my bag by the door and take the rocker next to the swing. I’m not about to push my luck with him by sitting beside him.

“Never thought you did, Cowboy.”

Looking up, he meets my stare, and I see it there, the honesty which I’ve come to realize–in the short moments we’ve been together–is his pride. He’s not the type to lie for someone’s benefit. At least, that’s the impression I’ve gotten.

Especially since he kicked me out so fast once he heard I was engaged. I’m not upset about it, though. After seeing him with his daughter, I can understand his trepidation.

My daddy’s an actual daddy .

“Listen, I know you have your girl…so if this is oversteppin’...” I go quiet, hoping he’ll tell me to shut up.

“She’s at her Mawmaw’s, and this is only for one night, Cowboy. Don’t go gettin’ any ideas, got it?”

I nod.

“Words, Heath, Remember?” He growls.

“Yup. Got it. No ideas.” I can’t hold back the twinkle in my eye, though, and I’m pretty sure he sees it.

“Why do I feel like your thoughts aren’t on the fact that Levi’s dead and you’ve been questioned for his murder?” His deep timbre pulls me back into the moment.

“It’s really hard to get good sex off the brain when it’s been less than twenty-four hours,” I admit with a shrug.