“I can teach you.”
She looked up into his soft, black eyes and felt herself melting inside. “You can?”
He nodded. His eyes slid down her body. “Why do you wear a housecoat that covers you up like an elderly woman?”
“I’ve never been around men when I was dressed for bed,” she replied. She shifted uncomfortably. “When I had the nightmare, that was the first time anybody except Sari or Mandy ever saw me in bed.”
He was eyeing her closely. She was good, he thought. She played the innocent with a real flair. But she was Randall’s girl, and Randall didn’t date girls who didn’t put out. So she was just like Angie, only even better at acting the part.
“I should go on up,” Merrie said, not liking the way he looked at her.
He tore his gaze away from her and looked back at the portrait on the easel. “I meant what I said about your talent,” he said quietly. “You should be exhibiting.”
She smiled. “I might, later on. I could never dare do it when Daddy was alive. He hated the very idea of us doing anything that drew attention to him. He was...a very private person.”
“Sounds like he was a lunatic,” Ren said flatly, “and he should have been sitting in a jail cell. What the hell is wrong with the community you live in? Don’t people care about what happens to their neighbors? Hell, I punched a guy two years ago for hitting on my wrangler’s twelve-year-old daughter. I fired him to boot. It wasn’t my problem, but I made it my problem. We take care of our own in small communities. At least, here in Wyoming we do.”
She drew in a long, slow breath. “You don’t know how it was,” she said finally. “Daddy had friends in the mob. He could use them for all sorts of terrible things. People were afraid of him. Even people in positions of power. Not so much now, of course. We’re a hotbed of retired mercenaries and former military, and Eb Scott runs an internationally known counterterrorism school a few miles down the road from our house. He loaned us two of his guys when someone tried to kill Sari.”
He made a sound deep in his throat. “Someone tried to kill Sari?”
“Morris. He was one of Daddy’s guys who’d do anything for money. This woman’s son hired him to kill my sister.”
He was shocked. “Why would he want to kill your sister?”
She frowned. “Didn’t Randall tell you why he asked me to stay here, on the ranch?” she asked worriedly.
“He said you were being stalked by a rejected admirer,” he said, and his eyes told her that he found that almost unbelievable. She was pretty, but she wasn’t a beauty.
Merrie sighed. “My father...killed a woman. She turned him in to the FBI because he was involved in money laundering. Her son was, is, unbalanced. He loved his mother very much. She left him a lot of money, money that the Feds couldn’t touch. He thought Daddy must love us both terribly because he was so overprotective, so he put out contracts on both of us.”
Ren just gaped at her. Obviously he hadn’t been told anything.
“Morris had worked for Daddy for a long time and he knew us. When he shot at Sari, he missed. The second time he did it, Paul, Sari’s husband now, recognized the tire track pattern of the car where the shells were found. It was a car from our garage. So Morris was arrested and we thought that was the end of it.”
His face was hard. “Go on.”
She grimaced. “But Paul found out that Morris was only hired for Sari. For me, he went to Brooklyn and hired someone well-known in mob circles for success as a cleaner. The woman’s son thought I was the youngest, so I was more precious to Daddy than Sari was. Paul said the man had been in the business for almost two decades, and he had an impeccable reputation for killing people. He’s after me now.”
Ren sat back in the chair, just staring at her with troubled black eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Merrie said. “I thought Randall had told you the truth. I shouldn’t be here. You’re all in danger. I should go...”
“No.”
She was shocked by his simple reply.
“I have state-of-the-art security here,” he continued. “We have eyes all over the ranch, at every single gate. We have recognition software to filter everyone who comes on the place. We have infrared cameras everywhere.” He drew in a breath. “My bulls are worth millions. I don’t take chances with their safety. But it also means you’ll be safe here. Damn my brother for hiding the truth!” he cursed. “I wouldn’t have sent you home.”
She bit her lower lip, hard. She fought tears. “Thanks. It isn’t that we don’t have protection at home, we do. Plus two of Eb Scott’s guys moved into the house and Sari defied Daddy and told him they weren’t leaving. He left in a huff, but he was arrested soon after and had to make bail.” She shook her head, smiling sadly. “He planned on marrying off Sari to a Middle Eastern prince. So that he’d have millions for his defense attorneys. His ill-gotten gains were confiscated by the Feds, you see.”