Lucky couldn’t place the second voice. She leaned out of the room to peer down the hall but could see only a portion of Mike’s long legs as he sat at the kitchen table. Whoever was with him seemed to be across from him, beyond her view.
“I don’t care how bad he looks,” Mike said. “They stripped Lucky down in freezing weather and tied her into the back of their truck. When I think about it, I regret that I didn’t break a few more bones. Jon got off too easy.”
“Careful,” the other person responded. “Violence isn’t going to get us anywhere. Does Lucky have any damage to show for what happened last night?”
“Damage?” Mike echoed.
“Bumps and bruises, that sort of thing?”
“I’m sure she’s got a few bumps and bruises from rolling around in the back of their truck. But that’s not the point, Orton. She could’ve caught pneumonia out there. Or worse.”
Mike had called his visitor Orton. Lucky tried to place the name and finally realized that this had to be Officer Orton. She’d met him once before, when he’d visited her high school class on some antidrug campaign. Did his presence at the ranch mean that Smalley and Jon had gone to the police?
“They claim they weren’t going to take it far enough for anyone to get hurt, and you don’t have proof that they would have.”
“You can’t kidnap a woman from her house, strip her and tie her into the bed of your truck, just for kicks!”
Orton’s voice was so low, Lucky had to listen carefully to catch his next words. “They say they didn’t kidnap her. They say she came with them willingly and that it was her idea to tie her up.”
“What?”
“Apparently, she’s into that bondage stuff. Stranger things have happened.”
“That’s bullshit!” Mike slammed his fist on the table. A moment later, he wasn’t sitting down anymore; he was pacing back and forth.
“Come on, Mike. You know what her mother was like, what her own reputation says about her. Everyone does.”
Closing her eyes, Lucky leaned her forehead against the wall. It always came back to Red. But that wasn’t the worst of it; by being here and involving Mike, Lucky was dragging him down with her.
“I can’t believe Jon and Smalley are really going to claim that.” Mike’s voice again. “Don’t they care about their wives?”
“Jon’s not married anymore.”
“And Smalley’s wife is so cowed he could say or do anything and she’d put up with it,” Mike added in obvious disgust.
“Lucky’s an attractive woman. Smalley and Jon went out for a little fun, and she jumped on the bandwagon. It’s certainly believable.”
Mike cursed several times. Lucky opened her eyes to see Orton come into view and reach out a placating hand. “Calm down, you’re overreacting.”
“I’m not overreacting. Smalley’s lying. Lucky would never do that.”
“How do you know?”
There was a big pause.
“Mike?”
He whipped around, wearing a determined expression, from what she could see. “Because the only person she’s ever slept with is me.”
Lucky smothered a gasp. Down the hall, this announcement met with an unnatural silence.
Finally, Orton seemed to rally from his shock. “Mike, I don’t have to tell you Lucky isn’t too popular in these parts. Are you sure you want to feud with the Smalls, just because you’re all sleeping with the same woman?”
“We’re not sleeping with the same woman. I’m telling you, Lucky didn’t go with them willingly.”
When he spoke again, Orton didn’t sound convinced, but his tone suggested he didn’t want to argue. “Well, I know this much. Your families are two of the oldest, most respected in the area. There’s never been a problem between you before, and I don’t see the point in causing one now.”
“I’m not causing this problem, Orton.”
“From what your mother’s told my wife about Lucky, I think your parents would rather not know you’ve had any contact with her. Your folks went through a lot of grief over Morris. Let them be done with Red and her kids. Don’t dredge up the past.”
“I can’t change what happened last night.”
“You can call Smalley and apologize. Put this thing to rest before it blows up in your face.”
“Like hell. Smalley had better be damn sure he stays away from Lucky in future.”
“If he presses charges, you could be in trouble,” Orton warned. “And he says he’s pressing charges. Jon’s a witness.”
“Let ’em try. Lucky and I will press charges, too.”
Lucky nearly groaned out loud. Lucky and I? He was linking them together.
“I’m telling you this is going to turn into a mess, Mike. Do you really want to go that far?”
“I’ll go as far as I have to. I won’t let them twist last night into something it’s not.”
Lucky bit her lip. She wanted Mike to drop it. She was leaving town and she wasn’t ever coming back. It didn’t really matter whether the people of Dundee believed she’d had some sort of kinky sexual escapade with the insufferable Smalls, as long as they still thought well of Mike. But now that he’d told Orton about them, it was bound to get back to his family and cause even more trouble.
“You could’ve called me,” Orton said. “You didn’t have to punch Smalley.”
When Mike responded, he sounded tired but resigned. “Yeah, I did.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
WHEN OFFICER ORTON LEFT, Mike turned to find Lucky standing at the entrance to the kitchen.
“We had a visitor this morning,” he said.
“I heard.”
He leaned against the counter and shoved his hands in his pockets, wondering how she handled the outrage. He’d been intimately involved in her life for only a short time, and the injustice she faced in Dundee was already driving him mad. To think he used to believe the same thing everyone else did…“So what’s your take?”
“I wouldn’t sleep with Smalley and his brother if they were the last men on earth.”
That much he knew. And he’d be damned if he’d stand back, as Orton obviously wanted him to do, and let Smalley and Jon blame Lucky.
“Smalley’s taking a pretty big chance,” he said.
“How’s that?”