Stud in Texas (Rugged and Risque 4)

It returned to her now. He’d zipped up, made some sound threats about what he’d do to her if she told a soul about what had happened that evening and had then stormed out, leaving her lying on the studio floor.

But not for long. She’d hauled herself up and had rushed out of the room, something in the back of her head telling her to stop and check the recorder.

Now she climbed out of her SUV, opened the backdoor, and slid her hand under the seat until she found the folio, wedged tightly against in a corner. She hurried down the sidewalk, bursting into the sheriff’s office.

“Sky,” Ryan said as he jumped to his feet. “Something wrong?”

“No. Yes. No.” Her hands flapped in the air as adrenaline pumped through her. “I’m okay.”

“What is it, then?” the sheriff asked as he came out of his office.

She said, “I know why Mac burned down my trailer. He was looking for something.”

Ryan’s brow jerked up.

Sky explained, “He wanted a fake contract and a CD. The contract because it proves he set up a phony recording session to swindle money from me. The CD because…” Her breath caught. “Well.” She wrung her hands.

The sheriff covered them with his to still her. Calm her. “Sky, why the CD?”

Ah Jesus. She had to do this again?

She closed her eyes, prayed for extra strength, then opened her eyes and said, “Because we were still recording my track when he told his accomplice we were breaking for the evening, saying we’d finish up on our own. When we were alone, that’s when Mac said he needed the money. We got into a big argument about it. I had the contract with me and I all but shoved it in his face, saying I never signed on for funding the CD. I realized he was trying to rip me off and that the recording label must be an illegitimate one. I told you all what happened next. He attacked me.”

A low hiss of breath blew through her parted lips. She feared Sam was right—this would never go away. She had to keep talking about it, over and over.

But Ryan and the sheriff knew the details of the evening, so she cut to the chase and said, “I can’t explain why I grabbed the CD from the recorder, other than I guess I was thinking it was my material and since the contract was a sham, I wasn’t going to leave the CD behind. I’d forgotten about this, but now I distinctly remember having to shut off the equipment. Which means that everything he said and did to me in the studio ought to be on that CD.”

She dropped the folio on Ryan’s desk, unzipped it and whipped out the disk. “I’ve had it all along…I just didn’t recall it until now.”

The sheriff nodded. “If you’re right, Sky, this will do nicely for the proof we need to bust him.”

“He thought you had the contract and the CD in your trailer, so he burned it down?” Ryan ventured.

“Easiest way to destroy them. And if the firemen hadn’t been so diligent with searching Luckenbach, they likely wouldn’t have found the containers of gasoline. It wouldn’t be arson and he could breathe a sigh of relief, thinking all the evidence was gone.”

Yeah, that desire to kick him between the legs just burned stronger and brighter.

She pushed it aside and said, “Since my Escalade wasn’t out front at the time he set my trailer on fire, he could have broken in and stolen my gun. I’d say chances are good he’s armed. But he would have had no idea when I’d be returning, so torching the place was a lot quicker than searching it.”

This was all conjecture, she knew, but it seemed to be the best theory she had to go on.

Continuing, she said, “For all I know, he just did it to piss me off. He knew all along I wasn’t going to the police. Mac knows how I feel about the press getting hold of my personal business. I didn’t call 911 after he’d…raped…me.” There. She’d said the word. “And so I’m willing to bet he thinks he can get away with whatever he wants where I’m concerned. That I’m going to keep it to myself.”

“His fingerprints weren’t on the gasoline containers the firefighters found,” Ryan said. “So he must’ve been wearing gloves. But there were footprints all over your dirt yard. Much too big to be yours. There’s evidence there.”

“Yet he’s still probably working under the assumption that all of this is my word against his,” she concluded.

“Not if the CD has the last portion of that night in the studio on it,” the sheriff said.

Sky swallowed a lump of emotion. And pride.

“You’re going to have to listen to it, Sheriff. Without me. If it’s not all you need to arrest him, then I’ll find some way to get a confession out of him.”

“Oh no,” the sheriff shook his head. “I want you to stay away from him, Sky. No phoning, no texting and sure as hell no seeing him in person.”

“But I can easily arrange for us to meet in Luckenbach. I can convince him I’m going to give him the money and—”

“Absolutely not.” The sheriff pinned her with a hard look. “Get that idea right out of your head, Skylar Travis.”