"He must have. I know I didn't do it."

"And the OIG? What do they say?"

"They said they will put it through handwriting analysis, the whole thing, but they aren't looking at me really. They wanted to make me aware of what had been happening at HayesOil. Like I didn't know what my brother, and Gerald, were capable of. The OIG also suggested this may well unearth a whole area of shady shit Jeff had hidden. All the payments were signed off by me as director of Elementrix, and because the exploration contracts side of Hayes was mine, he could hide his involvement. I never had anything to do with budgets and accounts."

"What about audits? Wouldn't they pick up the anomaly? They would have told you."

Riley looked uncomfortable. "I didn't take the time to know what was happening, Jack. I never did. To anyone who looks, it's Riley Hayes who broke the law. It doesn't stop there though." He stopped and closed his eyes briefly, anything not to see Jack's disappointment or horror. "It's bigger than Jenkins. Two people involved in this case have died in suspicious circumstances. It looks as if whoever was forging my signature from HayesOil was involved in something far larger. They think it was Jeff. All evidence points to him and to Gerald."

"Suspicious deaths? Shit. What the hell was your family doing?"

"I'm sorry, Jack." Riley's voice was small and tired.

"So are they trying to pin this on you now? Do we need to get lawyers involved? I can get Josh here."

"They want me to help them is all. Something about wearing a wire and getting close to this Jenkins guy. I can't get this out of my head. What did Jeff do? What the hell am I in the middle of? Why would you even want to go through any more shit with my family? And jeez, what if you think it was me all along?"

Jack, to his credit, didn't interrupt once. If anything, the veil appeared to have been lifted from his eyes, and understanding dawned in their depths.

"This is what has been tying you in knots these last few weeks. You didn't think I'd believe you had nothing to do with this?"

"After the way we met, why not? After I blackmailed you?"

Jack raised his eyebrows at the words. "Riley—"

"No," Riley said tiredly, "I never really thought you would think it was me. I trusted you would know I didn't have any more secrets."

"So what do we do now?" Riley was never more thankful to hear the heavy emphasis on we.

"The OIG have pulled in the FBI."

"Jeez, it's letter hell." Jack snorted, but Riley didn't crack a smile.

"Apparently this whole thing is one huge conspiracy, and it goes a hell of a lot deeper than just some signed paperwork. They want me to approach Jenkins with an offer, give him some shit about how I need to recoup money from Jeff's mismanagement, and get Jenkins to meet me, while I wear a wire."

"When is this happening?"

"I don't know. They're feeding the bull to him now, setting up the whole line on contracts."

"And all you're doing is meeting him?"

"Wired."

"Wired. Okay. And you haven't told me this because…" Jack raised an eyebrow to punctuate the question. Riley looked at his husband, searching for evidence he was pissed or disappointed or any of a hundred different things that might mean Riley had fucked up again.

"I don't want anything to do with what Jeff did. I'm still feeling…" He couldn't find the right word. "Ashamed? Yeah, I feel ashamed at some of the shit he pulled," he said simply, and watched as Jack relaxed. That was definitely the right thing to have said, and who said he shouldn't just tell the truth. "I have to pretend like I'm not the person I am, and I'm no more than…" He couldn't finish the sentence, and instead, he shrugged.

"A criminal."

"If they don't get him and they decide to come after me… Fuck, Jack." Riley felt a million different kinds of hate and resentment building in him, and it all threatened to spill out. Jack held out a hand across the table, and Riley gripped it hard. "They don't have to have any evidence to undermine the new work I'm doing. And they could bring shit down on this family by dragging my name in the dirt."

"You didn't do anything. It's not your signature on those papers. You could step away from what they're asking you to do now, and they would have nothing."

"I can't do that to Hayley. I can't leave this hanging over us. They said, if I do what they ask of me, I wouldn't be named anywhere and the Hayes name would be kept out of it."

"Okay, so, you're just acting. Doing a good thing," Jack concluded, summing up the whole mess with an extra shrug and a yawn. Riley couldn't believe, after all his weeks of worrying, Jack was this laid back about the whole thing. "Come on. We'll sleep now, and then talk in the morning." Riley followed him out of the kitchen towards the back of the house. They paused outside Hayley's room, and he concentrated on the small lump under the quilt, but he couldn't make out which way her head faced and which were her feet. She slept just like he did; curled under the quilt and so deep in sleep it was like she would never wake up. He couldn't go in and kiss her goodnight because she was buried so deep. Jack tugged him from the doorway, and with a smile, he allowed himself to be led to the bedroom.

"Can we shut the door tonight?" Jack asked softly.

"Please."

C

HAPTER

15

The pony arrived two days before Hayley's birthday, and Jack spent a long time making sure Hayley was equipped with all the right "horsey things". Well, that's what Riley called them. He had actually glazed over when Jack stood and explained the bloodline for the smaller version of Taylors and Solo. He zoned out somewhere between temperament, pinto, skewbald and Tobiano.

"It's kind of brown and white," Riley teased. He loved it when Jack got all up in his face with horse facts and figures and never failed to find a place to rag on his husband.

"Sorrel, Riley. A sorrel and white."

"Is it a girl or boy?" Riley added innocently. Jack looked at him pointedly, and Riley smiled.

"It's a gelding." His husband looked so proud and excited about the pony he had found for Hayley, and Riley just about fell in love with the man all over again. Hayley was still sleeping, Donna was at Neil's, which meant it was just the two of them leaning on a fence watching Hayley's pretty pony investigate his surroundings. Riley turned with his back to the pony and leaned on the fencing with one foot up on a railing and considered his husband as he talked on and on about Taylors and the upcoming foaling. There was such passion in this cowboy, for his horse, for his ranch, and for life. He never did anything by half, and he had been so damn understanding about Hayley and the HayesOil mess.