Taming Clay Read online

  Chapter Two

  “Clay, are you here?” Laine shouted.

  “He’s out at the pens,” Isobell called from the kitchen.

  “Did he show you around? Never mind. Of course he didn’t. Let’s drop these suitcases in your room and I’ll give you the tour,” Laine said then started across the living room, leading her to the bedroom Clay had indicated earlier.

  “I assume this is where he’ll put you. It’s where he usually puts them. His room is upstairs. There are three more bedrooms up there. One more down here on the other side of your office. Office is right next door and there’s a door from this room into there,” he said as he set the suitcases on the bed.

  “Yeah, he pointed to it on his way out and said this is where I’d be. This is a beautiful house. Did his father build it?” Hailey asked as she set the extra boots on the floor at the end of the bed and dropped the hat beside the suitcases.

  Laine motioned for her to follow him as he started to the door that led into the office. “No. Clay built this one. This is your office,” he said as he opened the door then led her inside. She gazed around the room. It was spacious with a large desk, filing cabinets, a credenza, computer, printer…all the things she would need.

  “It’s nice. Much nicer than the one we had. It was a little room in the stables,” she said as she followed him out the door to the living room. She loved the way the room felt. One large room from the front of the house to the back, the design was open and spacious. The front walls on each side of the door were taken up by two of those large windows. On the side of her bedroom, there was a balcony directly above her door. Her room was at the front, then the office, a bathroom, and another bedroom. The massive staircase went up that side of the room to the balcony above and she could see four doors on that side up there as well. From there the balcony went around the back of the house with a door set right in the middle. Laine followed her gaze and pointed out which ones were the bedrooms and where Clay’s room was located. It was the one at the back.

  She let her gaze drop down to the first floor. A large window sat directly in the center of the back wall with two bookshelves on each side of it and two multi-paned doors leading to what she could tell was a large covered porch in the back. There were several bookcases around the large room and several groupings of chairs. A large leather-covered bar sat in one corner with mirror-backed glass shelves that were well stocked. But the massive stone fireplace was the dominant feature in the room. There were several brass sculptures that lined the mantle and one picture of two little boys that she assumed were his nephews. The loveseat that faced the fireplace was flanked by two small tables and two chairs that faced each other. It was cozy. She couldn’t help but wonder if anybody ever used them.

  “Seldom,” Laine said.

  She turned to look at him in surprise then chuckled. “Are you reading my mind?”

  “Little bit. You were wondering if anybody ever sat there. Not very often. Of course you know that room,” he said as he turned and pointed to Clay’s office.

  “Dining room and kitchen are this way,” he said as he led her back to the front of the house then into and through a formal dining room to the kitchen.

  “Oh, I love this,” she whispered as they walked in then flashed just a quick smile at Isobell as she scanned the room. The kitchen was huge with a breakfast nook at the front, a large center island with stools all the way around it. The appliances were shiny silver with black trim and the refrigerator was the largest one she’d ever seen.

  “This is where you’ll find the coffee,” Laine said then laughed when she grinned at him.

  “Welcome, Ms. Lambert,” Isobell said.

  Hailey turned back to her with a wide smile. “Thank you. It’s Hailey. What are the rules? Am I allowed in here?” she said with a little grin.

  Isobell laughed and nodded. “You are. I’m not territorial. Feel free anytime. I cook breakfast and supper. Clay seldom eats lunch so it usually went to waste. Coffee’s in this cabinet. Cups and other dishes in this one. You’ll find anything you need in here. And I’m here most of the day doing one thing or another. Just yell if you need anything.”

  Hailey watched her as she spoke. She had just the faintest Mexican accent. So little that she was pretty sure she wasn’t raised there. Much different than the heavily-accented Mexican-American population around where she had grown up. She judged her to be around her age and had the most beautifully translucent olive-colored skin she’d ever seen. And the long, silky ebony colored hair didn’t detract from the image that had immediately conjured up two words in her mind as soon as she answered the door when she had first arrived there. Mexican Princess.

  “Thanks, I will.”

  Laine pointed to the back of the room. “Storage room, pantry, utility room. There’s a door from the utility room to the outside and another here at the front. And that’s pretty much it,” he said as he turned and led her back through the dining room to the living room again.

  “Thanks. So this is not where Clay grew up?” she asked.

  Laine shook his head and stopped as he scanned the living room. “It’s where he grew up, but not the house he grew up in. When the old man died, the first thing Clay did was dig a pit out back there. Carried the old man’s desk back there and pushed it off in that pit, then set it on fire and watched it burn.”

  Hailey thought about that for a few seconds but it puzzled her. “Why?”

  Laine shrugged his shoulders slightly and said, “Symbolic, I guess. If it had been safe, my guess is he would have torched the whole damn house and watched it burn. But that’s not safe around these parts. So he burned his desk. That’s where he spent most of his time anyway. Next day he brought a bulldozer out here and demolished the whole house. Started over. If there’s one thing left in this house from when the old man was alive, I don’t know about it.”

  There was something very sad about that. She hadn’t been happy living with her father, but she didn’t hate him enough to want to destroy everything he’d ever touched.

  “Where did he stay when this was being built?”

  “Same place he stayed since he was sixteen years old. The bunkhouse. It was before my time, but the way I heard it was that he and the old man got in a knock-down drag out one night. When it was over, Clay got his stuff and went to the bunkhouse. He never spent another night under the same roof with him again.”

  “If you don’t have enough work to do, I can goddamned sure find some,” Clay snapped.

  Hailey jumped but Laine just let the tiniest grin tug at his lips as he winked at her slyly before he turned to face him.

  “I bet you can. Anything wrong at the pens?”

  “Boys brought in a yearling. Got himself bogged down in one of the creeks. He looks okay, but they’ll watch him. He’s got a cut on his front leg. If it gets worse we’ll call the vet out here. Did you get your stuff put away?” he asked as he shifted his eyes to Hailey’s.

  “No, she didn’t. I gave her the tour and we were just finishin’ up,” Laine answered for her.

  “Uh-huh. Talkin’ about shit you ain’t got no business talkin’ about was what I heard. Go ahead and put your things away. I’ll be in the office,” he said then strode past them without waiting for her to answer.

  Laine shook his head slightly with just a little smile as he glanced at Hailey. The smile broadened when he found her eyes lit with amusement and cleared his throat.

  “I better get to work. I’ll catch up with you later. Good luck,” he said then chuckled slightly.

  “Thanks. See you,” she said then went to the room and quickly stowed everything she had brought with her then went straight to his office. The door was open so she didn’t knock, but walked straight in and stopped in front of his desk.

  “I’m ready. Tell me what you need first,” she said.

  Clay looked up at her then motioned to the chair.

  “Have a seat. Knowing Laine’s penchant to talk, I’m sure he filled
you in about Pepper,” he said lowly but it sounded more like a question so she nodded.

  “He did. We’ll straighten it out, Clay.”

  He sighed wearily and ran a hand down his face as he looked back at the papers in front of him. “I hope so. It’s a mess. She wrote checks that she didn’t record so I have no idea what’s been paid and what hasn’t. There are bills here for things that I don’t have one goddamned clue what they’re for. And some of the ones I do know what they’re for don’t look right. The first thing we need is to figure out what’s been paid and what hasn’t. That’s the most urgent thing. And anything late has to get paid right away.”

  “Certainly. Show me what you’ve got,” she said as she rose and walked to the end of his desk.

  He pointed to the stacks of papers on his desk. “This stack is the bills that I think got paid but I’m not sure. This one is ones that came in the last couple of days so I know they haven’t been paid. And this tiny stack is the ones that I actually either have canceled checks for or that I’ve called and verified that the account is up-to-date. And this big one is the ones that I’m pretty sure she didn’t pay, but again I can’t be sure. Unfortunately, the electricity, phone, and bill from the place we buy most of the ranch supplies from are all in that stack.”

  Hailey nodded and said, “Okay. Why don’t I start on that one? Do you have Internet access?”

  “Yeah, why?” Clay said as he frowned up at her.

  “A lot of companies have Internet access to their accounts. Some of these I can probably check online, others I’ll call. I doubt that I can get through all of them today, but I can make a dent in them.”

  “Don’t get used to it, and don’t expect it to happen again, but if you can straighten this out, I will personally cook you the best Double-C Bar steak money can buy,” he said flatly.

  Hailey’s eyebrows went up just a notch and she leveled a gaze at him until he looked up at her. “I’ll take you up on that. Here, give those to me and I’ll take them in them in my office and get started. Is there a password on the computer?”

  “No. I’ll pay these that just came in. I’d offer to help you with those, but it sounds like I’d be in your way,” Clay said quietly.

  “I’m sure I’ll have questions, but I’ll find you when I do.”

  “I’ll be around,” he said quickly, reverting back to the flat tone as he slid the large stack of papers across the desk for her to take.

  “I’m starting a pot of coffee. Do you drink it?” she asked as she started for the door.

  “Yeah. I’ll get some later. Tell Isobell. She’ll start it for you.”

  “I’m sure her job doesn’t include waiting on me. I can start it and then start to work while it’s brewing,” she said and went through the door without waiting for a reply.

  Hmmm. Maybe he’s not all bark. He did seem to soften just a little…briefly.

  Clay kept his gaze on the empty doorway for several minutes then turned his chair to look out the window. He had immediately felt at ease with her when she walked in the door. How many people had ever come out there to interview dressed like they belonged on a ranch? He thought she was the first. At the same time, it irritated him that he had settled on that idea in one brief second, especially when she looked so young. He would have sworn she wasn’t a day over eighteen if that old. Certainly not the twenty-four that she was. Even after he had learned her real age, that irritation had stayed with him. Not that she hadn’t blinked at his harsh tone, not even that she hadn’t been intimidated in the least. No, the irritation was for the first real stirrings of interest he’d felt in a very long time. He’d never met a woman who had such a quiet confidence about her. And her looks damn sure didn’t hurt either. Beautiful, built, and born to be on a ranch. There was something that just floated around her that said she belonged in just this kind of setting. And that combination made her so damned sexy that he had actually gotten aroused sitting across the desk from her. And that pissed him off. He needed a business manager, not a playmate.

  He shook his head to clear his thoughts and turned back to the bills that needed to be paid. At least he could do that.

  Hailey blinked when she found a fresh pot of coffee already brewed then turned when she saw Isobell come through the outside door with a little laugh.

  “I assumed if Laine made a point of telling you where the coffee was that you’d be in here after some soon so I thought I’d go ahead and start a pot.”

  “Thank you. That’s my one real vice. I do take the occasional drink. Smoke when others around me are smoking. I even let one of our hands goad me into trying chewing tobacco once. But coffee is the one thing I just cannot do without,” she said as she pulled two cups out of the cabinet then frowned and turned back to Isobell.

  “Does he have a special cup? One that he prefers?”

  Isobell’s eyebrows shot up and then she nodded slightly. “Yes. The white one. Next shelf up.”

  Hailey nodded and put back one of the ones she’d just taken out then took the one Isobell had mentioned off the next shelf and started to pour.

  “How long have you been here?”

  “About four years now. My Mama worked for Mr. Cardell as long as I can remember. After he died, Clay kept her on. When she passed, I asked for the job and he let me have it.”

  “What was Mr. Cardell like? Was he like Clay?” she asked as she set the pot back on the burner then stuck the stack of papers under one arm and picked up both cups.

  Isobell shook her head. “Nothing like him. I’m sure you already know a little about Clay. But Mr. Cardell was cold. That’s the only way I can describe him. He was polite to a fault, soft-spoken to outsiders. But cold as an ice cube. I don’t remember ever seeing any outward show of affection to anybody.”

  Hailey had started for the door but stopped and turned back. “Not even to Clay?” she asked quietly.

  “Especially not to Clay.”

  Hailey shook her head and turned away again. “That’s not right. It’s just not right,” she said almost to herself as she went through the door.

  She walked back to Clay’s office and in the door. She saw his head lift and the slight surprise that flickered across his face but she didn’t say anything about it.

  “Isobell already had a pot ready. I’ll be in my office,” she said as she set the cup on the desk then went back through the door.

  Clay stared after her for a few seconds before he let his gaze drift down to the cup then back to the door again.

  “Huh,” he grunted then reached for the cup and took a sip before he went back to work.

  As soon as she reached the office she let the smile show but then quickly pulled it back down before she walked behind the desk and faced the open doorway. She laid the bills on the desk, set her cup down, then sat down in the chair and re-adjusted it for her height. Pepper must have been short. She moved the mouse and waited for the screen to display as she took a sip of coffee then sighed.

  “Oh, that’s good,” she muttered as the screen flashed on and she started perusing the files. When she found the management software she grinned. It was the same one they had used at home. She opened it and started going through the recent transactions with a frown immediately crossing her brow. The last entry was four weeks earlier. She shook her head and blew out a long breath. She had a lot of work to do. She started to sort through the bills then thought of something else she wanted to see first and quickly went to the browser history. If the girl wasn’t working, what was she doing on the computer?

  “Ah. Chat rooms. YouTube. eBay. Several online jewelry and clothing sites. You were a busy little girl alright. Let’s just see what you were talking about?” she said lowly as she searched for the chat room logs that she knew would be on the computer somewhere. When she finally found them, she opened the first one and took another sip as she started reading. She’d taken one sip and was about to take another but it stopped about halfway to her lips and she sat it back down slowly. She l
et her eyes continue to scan the lines of text and swore softly.

  “You little bitch. You fucking little bitch.”

  Bet you I will.

  No way. You will not get Clay Cardell in bed. And why would you want to? He’s such a bastard.

  Have you looked at him? Come on. Do you really think he hired me for my skills? You know I’ve never done anything like this. A man like him, don’t you think he would have checked? He knows that. He hired me because he wants the same thing I do.

  You’re dreaming. How are you getting away with this anyway? You’ve never paid a bill in your life. How are you managing his?

  Who said I was? I figure I can get laid at least once before he catches on. Then I’m out of here. Who the fuck cares then?

  You know what? I always thought you were just careless with other people’s feelings but you didn’t really understand that the things you did or said might matter to other people. I was wrong. You’re messing with a man’s life here, Pepper. You’re not careless. You’re a heartless bitch.