The Bourbon Thief(28)

“What do you think?” she asked.

Levi felt the tiniest little pang of sympathy. He squashed it under the heel of his boot.

Still, he left her in the stall, walked out to the woodshed and returned with another bale of straw.

“Thank you,” Tamara said. He watched her pull a knife out of her boot. Not a little pocketknife. A serrated four-inch blade, a nasty little knife. She cut the cords with it, slid it back in her boot and went to work spreading the bedding.

“When did you start carrying a knife with you?” Levi asked.

“After Granddaddy died. Maybe I’ll stab Momma to death with it someday.”

Levi laughed. “Nice to know your mother’s an equal opportunity bitch, then. And here I thought it was just me she loved treating like shit.”

“Not just you.”

“That’s a big knife, kid. You could hurt yourself with it.”

“The world’s a dangerous place,” she said.

“Then move.”

She gave a little smile. “You always were good with the wisecracks, Sam Spade,” she said.

“You’re not too bad yourself, Pam Pitchfork.”

Levi opened the stall door again and took the pitchfork from her hand. It was the closest he’d been to her since that day, and he could smell light perfume on her skin, something like baby powder and vanilla. She looked older than the last time he’d seen her. She looked good. Pretty white shirt with blue trim, bare arms, tight jeans and long brick red hair in a loose braid over her shoulder. She was even prettier close-up, like that was the best way she should be looked at, face-to-face, eye-to-eye. She had a good straight nose and lips full enough to give him bad ideas of his own.

When she was sixteen, she’d been too pretty for her own good.

Now she was too pretty for his own good.

“Tamara, what the hell are you doing here?”

“I’ve been looking for you ever since Momma fired you.”

“How’d you find me?”

“It wasn’t easy. Momma would have killed me if she knew what I was up to. Every time I spent the night at a friend’s house, I’d borrow their phone and call a stable or two. I knew you’d work with horses, but I called every number in the Yellow Pages and couldn’t find you. I’m not allowed at Red Thread by myself, but last week was Granddaddy’s secretary’s retirement party and I used that as an excuse to get into Granddaddy’s office. Nothing had been touched. I found your mother’s old pay stubs and her employee file. There wasn’t much in it, but there was a phone number. I called it and someone named Gloria answered. I told her you used to work for us and you’d left some stuff that I wanted to return. She told me where you worked.”

“My aunt Glory. My mother’s sister. I’ll tell her to keep her mouth shut in the future when people call looking for me.”

“I needed to talk to you, Levi.”

“And get me in trouble again? I’m lucky your mother didn’t call the cops on me for kissing her precious baby. Thanks to you, I make half the money I used to make working for your granddaddy. I have a nice loft to sleep in, though. You want to see it?” He pointed up to the stable loft, where he slept most nights. He couldn’t afford his own place anymore and at age thirty he wasn’t about to move in with his aunt and uncle, even though they’d offered.

“I’m sorry about that.”

“Sorry about kissing me?”

“Sorry about getting you fired. I never meant that to happen.”

“And now here you are apologizing to me like a grown-up. You have changed, haven’t you?”

“I had to grow up after Granddaddy died. But even before... I felt bad about getting you into trouble with Momma. I hope you accept my apology.”

“Accepted. Now you can go. You’re boring the hell out of me. I liked it better when you were a spoiled rotten brat.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Me, too.”

Levi exhaled heavily. A visit from Tamara Maddox was the last thing he needed this week. He’d almost gotten to where he could fall asleep at night without thinking about her and that kiss that lost him the best job of his life. Hating Virginia Maddox had been easy, kept him going. Hating Tamara had been harder, but he’d managed somehow. But never had he ever imagined that her mother would sell her horses to punish her. As cowed and quiet as she seemed now, he had to wonder if her mother punished her in worse ways than that.

“Can we go for a ride?” Tamara asked. “I want to talk to you about something. If you’re not busy. And I can pay for using one of the horses. I haven’t gotten to ride in a long time.”

“My boss is a cheapskate, but he won’t charge a Maddox for borrowing a horse for half an hour.”

“Is that a yes?” She grinned at him.

“Fine. Yes. I got nothing else to do. Might as well listen to your teenage bullshit for a few minutes.”

Tamara grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him on both cheeks.

“Ah, mon capitan. I knew you still loved me.”

“Where’d I put my pitchfork?”

Tamara ignored his threat and went from stall to stall looking for a horse to ride. She picked a sorrel mare with four white socks named Scarlett. Levi wasn’t about to ride his favorite stallion, Rhett—Tamara would read too much into that—so he saddled Ashley, the one gelding in the stables, instead.