Starting from Scratch

by Marie Ferrarella

  “Do you want to stay the night?” he repeated, his eyes holding her prisoner.

  Sex with this man would be exciting. Elisha knew that as certainly as she knew that the sun was going to be coming up again tomorrow. Very possibly it would be the singularly most exciting thing she would ever experience in her life.

  But she wasn’t a thrill seeker. She’d made peace with the fact that things like teeth-rattling, mind-boggling lovemaking was never going to happen to her.

  It would throw everything off in her life.

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  Ryan began to slip his hands underneath her sweater. A squeal of pleasure vibrated in her throat as she felt his fingers touch her skin. Every fiber of her being wanted to do this.

  It made breaking away even harder.

  She clamped her hands down on each of his, holding them in place. He looked at her quizzically.

  “But I’m not going to. I told Andrea I’d be home by eleven.”

  The puzzled look on Sutherland’s face didn’t recede. “Andrea?”

  Her mouth felt horribly dry, as if she’d been eating sand all day. “My niece. She’s babysitting my other niece, Beth. Henry’s daughters,” she added needlessly. “I made a deal and said I’d be home by eleven.”

  He let his hands fall to his sides. When it came to women, he’d never been one to push. If the sex wasn’t consensual, it didn’t happen.

  “You lied,” he told her quietly. “It’s almost midnight.”

  Her eyes widened. “Midnight?” How had that happened? “Oh, God, I’ve got to go.”

  Grabbing the jacket that had slid from her shoulders to the floor around the same time that her body composition had changed from solid to liquid, Elisha scooped up her purse and hurried out the front door to the vehicle she’d used to drive over here. Henry’s navy-blue sedan.

  Ryan didn’t stop her.

  He glanced at his watch again. Midnight. And the princess was running toward her coach. Too bad she hadn’t left a glass slipper behind.

  CHAPTER 31

  Elisha hurried into Henry’s house some fifteen minutes later. Added to the shaky feeling inside was the fact that she absolutely hated being late, hated breaking her word, and she’d just managed to do both.

  This being part of an active family unit, of worrying about more than just herself, was going to take getting used to, she thought even as she wondered if she would ever get the knack.

  “Andrea?” she called out as she locked the door behind her. Hanging her purse on one of the coat-tree hooks, she began shrugging out of her jacket. “I’m sorry. I know I said eleven, but I lost track of time and—”

  Turning around, she entered the living room and stopped dead. Instead of Andrea, Anne Nguyen was sitting on the sofa. A soft blue light was coming from the TV set as someone in a purple T-shirt whose hue matched her hair was telling a sympathetic Jay Leno that she really didn’t like signing autographs.

  All systems went on alert. “Anne?” Elisha crossed the threshold quickly, glancing around for some signs of telltale chaos. “Is something wrong?”

  “Not on my end.” The petite woman rose to her feet. Her dark eyes took quick inventory. “But you seem a little flustered. Everything okay?”

  No, everything was not okay. Her insides were utterly scrambled, as if she were some young woman in her late teens or early twenties instead of someone who’d resigned herself to being done with romance.

  But that was beside the point right now. She wasn’t the person she’d been a few months ago or even a few weeks ago. Her sphere had widened and she was responsible for more than just her own very mixed-up feelings. And that, not her emotional state of being, was what took precedence now.

  She glanced toward the stairs. “Where are Beth and Andrea?”

  Anne appeared very composed and at ease. Maybe everything was all right. “Beth’s upstairs in bed and Andrea’s at the party,” she answered serenely.

  “Party?” Elisha repeated. “What party?” She went over everything that had been said between her and her oldest niece. But there’d been no request to attend any party. There hadn’t even been anything mentioned about a party. She would have remembered.

  “The one she told me you said she could go to.” And then a look of dismay, coupled with embarrassment, washed over Anne’s porcelain-perfect features. “I’ve been taken, haven’t I?” Anne closed her eyes, shaking her head. “I just didn’t see it coming. Andrea’s always been such a good girl…”

  I don’t need this.

  Elisha dragged her hand through her hair, desperately trying to organize her thoughts. Pushing thoughts of Ryan away.

  “Not your fault. It’s mine. I guess Andrea and I still aren’t on the same wavelength yet. But I do know that I never told her she could go to any party.” Maybe the girl had said something before Elisha had left the house. She thought of waking Beth. But then, if Andrea hadn’t said anything, Beth might get agitated that her sister had suddenly taken off. She looked at Anne. “Do you have any idea where she went?”

  It was obvious that Anne was upbraiding herself as she shook her head.

  “No. She just said a party and assured me you were all right with it.” Then, because it seemed necessary to explain her lapse in judgment, the woman added, “She said that you had gotten a call and had to deal with one of your writers, so you’d asked her to ask me to sit with Beth. The story seemed plausible at the time.”

  “Right. Maybe I can get her under contract to write fiction for my house.”

  An oldies tune began to float through the air. It took her a second to realize that her cell phone, still in her purse, was ringing. She grabbed it from the coatrack and began to rummage around until she located the small silver oblong.

  Elisha cried, “Andrea?” before she even had the phone to her ear.

  There was a pregnant pause on the other end of the line. And then a deep male voice was rumbling words against her ear. “No. Sutherland. I thought you went home to Andrea.”

  Elisha blocked the impulse to snap the phone shut. That reaction was triggered merely by her colossal confusion, fueled by a host of other emotions that were rampaging through her, emotions she had no idea were still alive. She had even less of an idea what to do with them.

  This isn’t about you, remember?

  Elisha blew out a breath, shook her head no to Anne, who was looking at her with a hopeful expression, then said, “I did. But she’s not here.”

  Ryan had always been able to hear what wasn’t being said, could always sense when things weren’t the way they should be. “Do you know where she is?”

  “No.” The single word rang with distress, anger, frustration.

  And Ryan heard it all. “I’ll be right over.”

  The line went dead.

  Looking at it, Elisha slowly shut the cell phone and this time slipped it into her pocket. She hadn’t asked for Sutherland’s help, not in so many words. Not in any words, actually, but maybe secretly, she’d sent out a different message.

  Because she hadn’t a clue as to what to do next. Involving the police was far too drastic a measure and besides, she knew they wouldn’t come. Not for something like this. They’d tell her to sit and wait, not knowing that it wasn’t in her to sit and wait.

  She felt better, more in control though nothing had really changed. Except that, magically, she had her very own ex–Navy SEAL to rely on. People like Ryan Sutherland could locate a marshmallow puff in a snowdrift. A teenage girl should be a snap for him to find, right?

  Elisha looked at her neighbor’s concerned expression. She felt guilty that the poor woman had been pulled into this mess. Guiltier still that she had to impose on her further. But when Sutherland went to locate Andrea, there was no way she was going to stay behind.

  “Anne, I hate to ask, but could you stay with Beth a little longer? I’ve got someone coming over to help me find Andrea, and—”

  Anne cut her off. “No problem. Do you think your
friend can find Andrea?”

  Her friend. Wouldn’t Sutherland just light up if he’d heard that reference? Despite the fact that he’d burned off the tips of her shoes a little more than half an hour ago, she had a feeling they had a long way to go before the man would think of them as friends.

  “I think he could find the Holy Grail if he put his mind to it.” And she meant that.

  Sutherland was there before she had a chance to go upstairs and change into something more suited to searching for an errant teenager. Opening the door to admit him, she couldn’t help commenting, “You got here fast.”

  “All the lights were green,” he said.

  She had her doubts but didn’t press. It was oddly comforting, seeing him here. She didn’t bother asking him how he’d initially gotten the address. Despite the fact that he’d supposedly been out of black ops for over ten years now, she had a feeling the man was still privy to all kinds of information.

  Which was why she was so hopeful about his help in locating Andrea. Not that she thought the girl wasn’t coming back. There was every reason in the world to believe that she would. But she had an uneasy feeling about Andrea being out tonight that she just couldn’t ignore. Besides, this was an obvious defiance of her authority and she had to put a stop to that right now.

  Before she could introduce the author to her neighbor, Sutherland asked her for a photograph of Andrea. There was one on the mantel of the girl with her sister and she brought it over to him.

  Studying it, Sutherland nodded. “Does she have a cell phone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Give me her number,” he instructed.

  She shook her head, knowing what he intended to do. “I’ve already tried it.” She’d called while she was waiting for Sutherland to arrive. Three times. All with no results. “She’s not answering.”

  The clear water-blue eyes were expressionless as they looked at her. “I don’t want the number to talk to her.”

  “Then why—?” she began, then stopped. She wasn’t going to get anywhere by asking him questions. Quickly, she recited the number.

  With a nod, Sutherland turned away from her and the other woman in the room as he took out his own phone. His voice became a low murmur, like thunder rumbling a great distance away.

  Anne came up close to her, dropping her voice to a whisper as she watched the author’s back. “That’s Ryan Sutherland, isn’t it?”

  “That it is,” Elisha answered, never taking her eyes off the man’s back. She hadn’t realized how wide his shoulders were until just now. “He’s one of my authors.”

  Anne was clearly impressed. “I recognize him from the back of the book jacket. Jack loves his books,” she explained. “He’s even better looking in the flesh. Ryan, not my husband.” She laughed and it occurred to Elisha that her neighbor was just the slightest bit awestruck. “Most of the time, the picture looks a great deal better than the actual person.” She looked at Elisha. “He’s quite a hunk, really.”

  Elisha shrugged. “I hadn’t noticed.”

  Which was a lie, but that was something she wasn’t prepared to deal with at the moment. That came under a completely different heading and right now, she was focused on just one thing. Getting Andrea home and reading her the riot act.

  Impatient, she raised her voice. “Who are you calling?”

  At first, she didn’t think he heard her, but then he raised his hand and waved it at her dismissively, as if commanding her silence. He didn’t bother looking her way. He brooked no distractions.

  It wasn’t until several minutes later that he turned around. Closing his phone, he seemed to notice Anne for the first time. Elisha knew better. She was beginning to believe that nothing got by the man.

  His eyes now intent on Anne, he asked, “What time did Andrea leave here?”

  Anne didn’t even have to pause to think. “About nine.”

  He nodded, as if the information dovetailed with what he’d expected. His pale-blue eyes shifted over to Elisha. “The name Alex Taylor familiar to you?”

  Elisha came up empty. All she knew was that it wasn’t any of the people she had notified about Henry’s passing. “No. Why?”

  “That’s the last phone call your niece made before nine.” He pocketed his phone. “Let’s go, I have an address.”

  Of course he did. “How? And how did you find out what calls she made?” Wasn’t that kind of thing supposed to take a while, its path littered with a lot of legal paperwork?

  “It helps to have friends,” he said as he led the way out the door and to his car. He was driving a black Hummer. Now, there was a car that could blend in well, she thought.

  “Apparently,” she murmured, hurrying to keep up. He had already rounded the hood and was getting in on his side. She quickly got into the front passenger seat. “Why did you call me?” The question had suddenly occurred to her.

  Key in the ignition, he answered as if it was the most common thing in the world. “To see if you’d gotten home all right. You seemed pretty shaken when you left.”

  The protest came too quickly and was voiced too adamantly to be true. “Not shaken.”

  Ryan slanted a look at her before training his eyes on the rearview mirror. They left the driveway quickly. She doubted if the vehicle did anything slowly.

  “Stirred, then?”

  She pressed her lips together. There was no comeback for that. Besides, it was the truth. “Maybe.”

  Ryan’s mouth curved just the slightest bit. He’d take that as a yes.

  The notion was oddly pleasing.

  CHAPTER 32

  As it turned out, the house where the party was being held was only two developments over. It could have been in another world.

  Unlike her brother’s development, none of the houses here were duplicates of one another. These were the estate homes. Each had been built by a different designer and declared its sisterhood with the neighboring homes by virtue of its tennis courts and pool houses.

  Elisha knew these were not million-dollar homes. They were houses whose price tags ran in the multiples of millions.

  The idea tended to boggle the mind.

  Elisha sat as far on the edge of her seat as her seat belt would allow. After a while, financial figures ceased to lose their meaning. So did the need for hard work. She didn’t like thinking about Andrea being involved with kids who had never had to save to buy anything in their lives. Their sense of values was not the kind she knew Henry would have wanted for his daughter.

  I’m not up to this, Henry.

  But at least she had a commando at her side. Driving the closest thing to a civilized tank. She smiled ever so slightly.

  “Something funny?” Ryan asked.

  She had no idea that he’d even looked in her direction. Maybe he didn’t have to. Maybe Navy SEALs were given extra sets of eyes upon graduating from their training course alive.

  “Just my life,” she answered.

  There were no less than fifteen cars scattered about or parked in the wide, winding driveway. Many of the vehicles would have cost her a year’s salary, if not more.

  “This must be the place,” Elisha murmured. She’d been running on adrenaline when she’d discovered that Andrea had taken it upon herself to leave. Now that the moment of reckoning was almost here, she wasn’t sure what she was going to say.

  She was just going to have to wing it.

  Sutherland was out of the Hummer ahead of her, striding toward the front door as if this was another commando mission rather than just the act of reclaiming authority over one headstrong teenager. The look on his face was dark and forbidding. Made her glad she’d never been the enemy he’d faced down.

  Maybe she should have told him she’d take it from here, Elisha thought as she hurried out of the vehicle. Better still, maybe she should have asked him to stay with Beth and brought Anne instead. God knew, the woman had to be better suited for this kind of thing than G.I. Joe.

  Making up her mind, she called
out, “Listen, I’ll take it from here,” as she hurried to catch up to Sutherland.

  He glanced at her over his shoulder, his look unexpectedly tolerant. But he never broke stride and didn’t bother commenting on what he obviously took to be a suggestion rather than a course of action.

  Sutherland pressed his finger against the doorbell once, then twice. There was no response either time. The music coming from inside the house was just too loud.

  Frowning, Elisha shook her head. “His parents must be deaf.”

  Sutherland gave her a knowing look. “His parents must be gone.”

  He tried the doorknob, ready to do what he had to in order to get in. He didn’t need to do anything. The door was unlocked.

  “Well, that was convenient,” Elisha said. She scanned the place. With its marble floors, two-story vaulted ceiling and wide, spiral staircase, the house bore a cold resemblance to a museum. She shivered without realizing it. “Cold?” he asked, raising his voice.

  She shook her head. “This isn’t a house filled with love.”

  “Now you’re a clairvoyant?”

  “Just instinct,” she replied. She doubted he heard. Someone had turned up the music even higher. Whoever was at the party was going to wind up deaf by evening’s end, she thought. The noise was all but rattling her teeth.

  “How can they stand to have the music up so loud?” she shouted to Sutherland as they picked their way through the house, moving toward the source. The bones in her face were beginning to hurt.

  Sutherland seemed unaffected. Underscoring her theory that maybe the man was more bionic than real. “It’s just background noise,” was his answer.

  Background, foreground, the music was throbbing everywhere. If she wasn’t so intent on getting Andrea home, she knew that the throbbing sensation more than the actual music would have spoken to something very basic, very primitive within her.

  Something that unexpected kiss at Sutherland’s house had awoken.

  What if it was doing the same with Andrea? Panic coupled up with anger. She had to find the girl and get her out of here.