UlteriorMotives by Chandra Ryan Read Free Book Online Page B

night before? You mend fences
yet?”
    That got his attention. He gaped at her for a second before
he shook his head and returned his focus to the device. “How did you hear about
that?”
    “Small town. Gossip spreads.”
    “Guess it does.” The device pinged again and he marked the
site on the screen. “Yeah, Clint and me are good.”
    “What about us?” She’d never really been a
beat-around-the-bushes kind of girl. She wasn’t going to start today. “I know
we’ve had our issues. Are we good too?”
    “We’re good.” His words were as stiff as his body. It wasn’t
a promising sign.
    She looked around at the open expanse of sky and then sighed
shakily. “If that’s so, why the fight with Clint and why are you still giving
Jake’s customers an earful?”
    He snorted and then kicked at a rock. “We’re good. It’s that
dandy you brought home I’ve got a problem with. He’s trouble.”
    “He’s city, but he’s not trouble.”
    “The night he shows up there’s a fire. That sounds like
trouble to me.”
    “You got it wrong. Jasper Lee is a good man.” The need to
defend Jasper swept through her with speed and intensity. “He rushed into that
burning barn to save Blackie.” Not to mention coming back to check on her.
    “He’s not who he says he is.”
    Her heart stopped. “What does that mean?”
    “It means you’re not the only one hearing things. He’s not
here to marry you. He’s here to take the ranch away.” He gave her a scathing
look. “When he does you’re going to look like a fool in front of the entire
town. Clint seems to think you know what you’re doing though. That’s what we
were fighting about.”
    Her stomach knotted tight enough that she thought she was
going to be sick. People knew Jasper was there to investigate the ranch? How
had they found out? Jasper had told her they kept these investigations a
secret. And he hadn’t had time to tell anyone. She needed to get back to the
house. She had to talk to him. “I’m glad you two made up. If you find anything,
let me know right away.” She took a couple steps then faced him again. “And
come back by the barn in about an hour. The sheriff wants to question everyone.
Make sure no detail about the fire is lost.”
    “Will do.” His attention was already on the scanner again.
    She made a mental note to find out which scanner he had and
download the data later. For now, she had to get back to the house and talk to
Jasper. She walked as quickly as she dared over the rough terrain but it still
took forever before she got anywhere.
    It didn’t help that the closer she got to the house, the
more on edge she felt. She’d never been a paranoid person but she would swear
someone was watching her. The hair on the nape of her neck bristled and she
couldn’t stop glancing around at her surroundings. By the time the house came
into view she was so relieved to see the comforting structure that she didn’t
notice the snapping of twigs as she took her next step. She didn’t know what’d
happened until the ground gave out under her. She tried to jump backward but it
was too late. Her stomach tingled under the weightless sensation of falling and
then blinding pain filled her head as she hit something hard on the wall of the
hole. Everything went black.

 
Chapter Four
     
    Jasper paced the length of Kat’s room as the doctor ran his
battery of scans on her. So far the man hadn’t found anything seriously wrong
with Kat but there had to be some reason she hadn’t woken up.
    “Would you please sit down already? You’re making me
nervous.”
    He wanted to tell the good doctor exactly where he could put
the damn chair but he refrained. He couldn’t blame the doctor for Kat’s
condition and he certainly couldn’t blame the man for his issues at work.
Still, today had been one of the worst days of his life and he had no idea how
to fix everything that’d gone wrong.
    Sinking into the chair, he pulled out his digital reader