by Helen Conrad
“That damn duck is trying to get me to follow it,” he told himself. “Or am I dreaming?”
“Quack!”
He took a deep breath. “Maybe I’m crazy,” he muttered to himself. “But I can’t ignore this. I’ve got to see what he wants.”
He pulled the car over, got out and began following the duck into the woods. It didn’t take long to figure out where the duck was going.
“Joe Bob’s, huh? What do you know?”
As the man’s house appeared in the clearing, he began to feel a little silly. How was he going to explain this to Joe Bob? “Hey, the duck made me do it.”
He approached the house. It looked dark. Joe Bob was probably sound asleep, but even so, just looking at the place gave him the creeps. And thinking about what the man did there was enough to turn your stomach.
Suddenly, the duck disappeared. He stopped, turning slowly, looking in every direction. No duck.
“Just leading me on, huh?” he said in disgust, turning to go back to his car. What the hell was he doing, anyway? He felt for his cell phone, thinking about giving Kate’s a call, but he didn’t have it on him. Oh well. He’d try calling her from the station. He started off.
And then he thought he heard something. He turned back and looked at the house again. Something caught his eye. Something bright blue was lying in the yard. It looked somehow familiar. He hesitated. He didn’t really want to go back. But that color blue… He took a few steps and realized where he’d seen it before. Kate’s jacket. Once he’d pinned that down, he bounded toward it, adrenaline surging in his system. Kate had been here. Either that, or the duck was now wearing her clothes.
There was no time to go back to his car to get his gun. He had to move fast. If Joe Bob had Kate….if he was hurting her… Blake was ready to use lethal force without a bit of hesitation. Suddenly he trusted himself implicitly. He could do this. He had to do this. And he didn’t bother knocking.
*********
Kate heard herself moaning as she slowly woke up. Her head felt like it was two sizes larger and pounding like a rubber mallet against a cymbal. The first thing that filled her mind was Susan.
She pulled herself up. She was still in the basement and the person was still on the cot. Slowly, painfully, she rose and went toward her, pulling back the ragged covers. Her heart rose and sank at the same time. It was Susan and she was still alive, but when she turned her face to her sister, her eyes were bleary and vacant. She didn’t seem to be able to focus or recognize anything.
“Oh Susan!”
She threw her arms around her sister and held her tightly. “Susan, we’re going to get you out of here,” she whispered. “Can you talk? Do you see me? Oh Susan! Please come to. Please try hard.”
Turning, she made her way painfully up the stairs and tried the door. It was locked. Going back down, she went right to her sister again and held her hand. It broke her heart to see her this way. That pale, pretty face looked ash white, eyes sunken in, bones pushing at her skin at painful angles. She was a wreck of a woman, a torn and twisted form of humanity.
“Come on, sweetie. You can do it,” she encouraged. “Wake up. We have to figure out how to get out of here.”
A loud noise came from upstairs and she cringed, raising her hands, thinking of the blow she’d taken to her head, but it didn’t seem to be threatening her directly this time. She listened. Someone was yelling. Then there was another crash and the sound of something hitting the floor. Suddenly, everything was quiet. Kate held her breath. What was it? She listened intently.
Someone tried the door, then kicked it open.
“Kate?”
“Oh, Blake!”
Kate felt all her strength flow away like a damn letting go and she went limp. In no time, Blake was there, holding her in his arms and kissing her face, her lips, her ears.
“Oh my God!” he cried. “Kate, I was so scared that you were hurt.”
“I am hurt,” she said shakily. “You just haven’t heard what happened yet.”
“Is that….” He looked at the cot. “Is that Susan?”
She nodded. “She seems to be completely drugged out. Oh Blake, I’m so glad you came. How did you know I was here?”
He grinned. “A little bird told me,” he said. “Come on. I’ve got Joe Bob tied securely upstairs. I’m going to call Sheriff Duffy and get this handled properly.” He held her close, burying his face in her hair. “And then I’m going to lecture you on the folly of doing things alone.”
“Okay,” she said with a sigh. “I think I’m up for a good lecture about now.”
“What I’m hoping is that you’re ready to surrender and take on a good partner,” he said gruffly, framing her face with his hands and looking lovingly down into her eyes. “If so, I’m available.”
A smile began to spread over her pretty face. “I’ll take that into consideration, Officer Spanner. As a matter of fact, I think I can guarantee that you’ll be first on my list.”
He kissed her hard, on the mouth. “I’m going to make sure I’m the only one,” he told her. “We’re going to make our own community. Okay?”
She nodded, feeling happier than she’d been in a long time. “Our own community. And our own family. Don’t forget that.”
*********
Kate spent the next day seeing one doctor after another, either for her own head trauma, or for Susan’s case. Her own injury wasn’t dangerous and barring any unforeseen reactions, she should be free of any lasting symptoms, or so they told her.
But Susan was another matter. Her long-term drug use and the way she’d been treated over the last few weeks might have long term implications. It was too soon to tell.
Still, Kate had the reassurance that Jason Rudehammer could give her, as his ties with the rehabilitation community were strong. He volunteered to help shepherd her through it all. Kate closed her eyes as she thought of his offer and murmured, “God bless him.”
“What do they think actually happened?” she asked Blake when he got back that evening. “Why did Joe Bob keep her in his basement like that?”
Blake shrugged. “From what we can gather, Joe Bob grabbed her in a crime of opportunity. He hadn’t planned it out or anything. But when she showed up at the house, he was cleaning animals in the sink, and she yelled at him, so he hit her, knocked her out, and dragged her home to his place. Then he decided she was better than the animals he kept in cages. More interesting. Prettier to watch. And she wanted drugs. So he got them for her.”
“Where?”
“As near as we can tell, it seems Allison, the veterinarian, helped him there. Though we’re not sure she knew what he wanted the drugs for. At least not until you started asking around about Susan. That spooked her.”
“How crazy.”
“No kidding. But there may be a more sinister reason behind his activities. You see, old Joe Bob has been helping older people on their last legs around here and getting them to sign their property over to him. It seems he was becoming the main landowner in the valley. Only Gladys didn’t sign. We’re not sure what happened there. Now there’s a move to dig her up and see what she really died of.”
“Ugh!”
Blake gave her a wise look. “I think you ought to change your view of your old aunt. She seems to have stood firm and made sure you and Susan got your inheritance despite a lot of pressure from Joe Bob.”
“What a creepy man.”
“Oh say. I found the locket.” He pulled it out of his pocket and dangled it in front of her.
“Oh, great.”
She took it and watched it flash as it swayed on the end of the chain, then showed him that she was wearing the ring that matched it. “Where was it?”
“In Joe Bob’s house.”
She frowned, thinking. “So the duck took it there?”
He shook his head. “Who knows? No one has seen hide nor hair of that duck ever since yesterday morning when he directly led me to you.”
/> “You’re sure that was what he was doing?”
“No doubt in my mind. He knew where you were and he wanted me to go there.”
“And you came to rescue me.” She smiled at him. “My big strong handsome protector,” she said. “I think I’ll keep you.”
He sank beside her and took her into his arms. “You better,” he said as he began to nuzzle her neck. “I really think the duck would want it that way.”
Her laugh gurgled low in her throat and she reached to return his embrace.
The End
Stealing Shane's Girl
Destiny Bay Romances
The Ranchers - Novella #1
Stealing Shane’s Girl
By
Helen Conrad
Chapter One
“Becky Harris? Are you kidding? She’s Shane’s girl.”
Tyler Carrington leaned his tall, muscular body back in his chair with an air of satisfaction, as though he’d settled that question and no more needed to be said. His clear blue eyes, so startling against his work-tanned skin, glinted a challenge to anyone who had a different opinion.
But Jared Carver and Mack Stanton, sitting across the café table, stared at him blankly, and Mack shrugged and said, “So?”
“Yeah,” Jared chimed in, tilting his sweat-stained Stetson down low over his squinty eyes. “We’re not asking you to marry her. We only want her kidnapped.”
The front legs of Tyler’s chair came back down to the ground with a thump and he leaned forward with a flinty frown on his handsomely chiseled face. “Don’t say that word. You want to get Sheriff Polk sniffing around here?”
Jared looked over his shoulder at the other occupants of the little restaurant. There was only old Mrs. Jefferds, feeding tiny bits of Quiche Lorraine to that little white fluff thing she called a dog and snuck in when Bert, the café owner wasn’t looking, and a couple who looked as though they’d pulled off the freeway to have a snack before continuing their journey either to LA or to San Francisco. It could be either, considering the whole Destiny Bay and Valley area was about half way between. He didn’t see Sheriff Polk anywhere, and he turned back to tell his buddy just that, only Mack had beat him to it and moved right on by.
“Look, we just need someone to keep her out of the way for awhile. And since you used to have a thing for her…”
“The hell I did!” Tyler’s outrage flashed out at his old friend bringing up that memory. No one was supposed to remember that. He’d done a pretty good job of pretending it had never happened and he wasn’t about to give up the effort now. “When exactly was that?” he demanded of his so-called friends, his eyes flashing fire.
“Didn’t you?” Mack frowned, thinking. “Before she started going with Shane? I thought back in high school…”
Tyler picked up his beer can and crushed it in his hand, but when he spoke, his voice was light again, as though he really didn’t give a damn and a slow, humorless smile curled the edges of his wide mouth. “You shouldn’t think, Mack. You don’t have much brain. You’ll wear it out and you’re bound to need it for something eventually.”
Mack was beginning to look annoyed. His shoulders were twitching and his left eye was too, as he said, “Listen, Carrington. It’s not like I ask you for favors every day. All I’m asking is that you take Becky somewhere for a few hours. That’s all.” He hesitated, then winked. “Among other things, that’ll give me a little time alone with Misty.”
“Misty.” Tyler’s frown grew a bit fiercer. He knew Misty. “You mean Becky’s little sister? Isn’t she a little young for you?”
Mack’s face took on a dreamy look. “Oh no. You haven’t seen her lately, have you? She’s all grown up, I can assure you of that.” He sucked in his breath. “Yeah, she’s all filled out and everything.”
Tyler gave him a look of unadulterated disgust. He felt disturbed at his friend’s words, something new he’d only been feeling very lately. Funny how having his own little sister Sandy turn fourteen had given him a new perspective on the man-woman thing. If their parents had still been alive, he might not have felt it so strongly. But now that he was her only protector, every other male was suddenly a dangerous commodity.
“If you gotta talk that way about a woman, talk about someone your age,” he ordered coldly.
“Who do you want me to talk about? Becky?” Mack gave him a “Yeah, right,” look. “Can’t do that without risking bodily injury. Everybody knows she’s Shane’s girl. Has been for years now.”
“Yeah. I think that was my point, wasn’t it?” But he grimaced, thinking of it.
Shane’s girl. Tyler wasn’t sure why those words still rankled…but they did. Shane Garlock was supposed to be his best friend. Everybody said so. He’d quit trying to correct that notion for some time now. Shane was the town idol—a local football hero who had actually made it to the National Football League and played on a big time team and everything.
Little boys had posters of him in their rooms and got together and talked about him in hushed voices. Grown men could remember all his best plays over four years of high school. They argued them out all over again every morning over biscuits and gravy at Bert’s Café. Whole busloads of townfolk had traveled to Los Angeles or the Bay area to see him play in college. Now everyone in town had a satellite dish so he could get Shane’s game every Sunday, no matter where it was or who he was playing. Shane Garlock was king in this town.
And Becky Harris was his queen. Or would be, once they were married.
“Say, when is Shane going to marry that pretty little girl, anyway?” That question had been thrown at Tyler just that very morning when he’d gone into Norm’s Feed and Seed to make an order for the next spring planting. Like a lot of people in town, Norm remembered Tyler as Shane’s best friend, and that picture just wouldn’t die away.
“I don’t know, Norm,” Tyler had answered. “I don’t see much of Shane these days.”
“I guess not, with him so busy playing football and all. Say, did you see that catch he made last Sunday? That was a beauty. Reminded me of that game against Dos Pueblos in his senior year….”
Myths and legends. The town loved their myths and legends and would resist to the limit any attempt to deflate them. So in their minds, Shane would always be running for a touchdown with Tyler blocking for him and Becky cheering him on in her red and white cheerleader outfit along the sidelines. That was the way this town liked it and the way it had to be.
Well, they could have their legends as far as he was concerned, just as long as they left him out of it.
He looked at the other two men sitting across from him and came back to the conversation at hand. Something about Mack wanting Becky out of the way so he could get close to Misty.
Tyler grimaced again, thinking of it. “Hey, if Misty won’t go out with you, I don’t see how me grabbing Becky and carting her off somewhere is going to make the girl change her mind. Sounds to me like she’s got plain good sense.”
Jared gave him a look of exasperation and tilted the hat back again. “See, Carrington, it’s because you don’t hardly ever come into town anymore you don’t know what’s going on. Ever since Becky Harris came back from living up in Washington State and opened that new interior decorating store she’s got, Misty has been under her thumb. Misty idolizes that woman.”
He glanced at Mack for confirmation. “I sometimes wonder if she isn’t filling her little sister’s pretty head full of that female power rigmarole…”
“Oh yeah, she’s a menace,” Mack cut in, agreeing with him. “She’s indoctrinating Misty and all the other women in this town is what she’s doing. She’s going to be setting up feminist meetings at the Lion’s Club hall next thing you know. “
Tyler pretended to yawn as he stretched his long body back in his chair. “Let her. Who cares?”
Mack growled at him. “Hell, you may not care. Everybody knows you swore off women after that Tina Rodriguez thing. But the rest of us would like to have a date now an
d then. And with somebody who isn’t lecturing you all the time about oppressive atmospheres and sexual stereotyping and the like.”
Tyler stared at the moth-eaten elk’s head that looked down over them all from its place of grandeur on the wall. The Tina Rodriguez “thing” was no big deal. He and Tina had gone together for almost a year. The fact that she had publicly broken up with him in the middle of the Destiny Annual Summer Chili Festival with the whole town watching and with little Tina yelling at the top of her lungs about what a jerk he was and how she wasn’t going to wait around forever for him to make up his mind as to whether he was going to marry her or not had nothing to do with anything. He’d gotten over that long ago. And Tina was now happily married to Carl Daines. Last he’d heard, she had a kid on the way.
And it wasn’t true that he’d sworn off women. It annoyed him to think of people saying that behind his back. He dated. Not often. But he did date. Lately he’d been going out with Janie Swenson now and then. She was a real beauty and he kept thinking she had potential—though he hadn’t called her in at least a month. In fact, he hardly ever thought of her. But she was a nice girl and she sure seemed to like him a lot.
But Becky Harris….that was another matter entirely.
Becky Harris. His eyes narrowed as he thought of her. He’d known her since kindergarten and she’d been a thorn in his side, it seemed, all his life. It was true what his buddies were saying. She had come back from Washington State even sharper than she’d been when she left. But what they didn’t seem to remember was, she’d always been fired up about something. And she always would be. And he’d spent a good part of his life making sure he didn’t get in the way of her latest project and he didn’t have any desire to change that policy now.
“If you’ve got problems with Becky Harris,” he said in a bored voice, “You better take care of them yourself.”
