Following directions Caleb had given him, Brad veered onto the gravel road that led to the mine. It had obviously not been used much until the past few months. It was rutted, uneven and felt like an amusement-park ride as they bumped over it.
As he rounded a pile of boulders Caleb had given him as a landmark, he spotted the mine entrance cordoned off by yellow tape about a quarter mile down the road. No Trespassing signs were posted, and Caleb had told him the police did periodic drive-bys.
Brad slowed to get a good look around. Seconds later a shot rang out!
Brad braked fast, rocking them both against their seat belts.
“What was that?” Emily asked. “A backfire?”
Another shot broke the air and grazed the hood of their car. Brad no longer looked around for explanations. In a sputter of mud and a skidding U-turn, he headed for the way they’d come.
When he pulled over after the next bend, Emily asked, “What are you doing?”
“Sit tight,” he ordered. “Keep the windows closed. If you see anyone, if anyone approaches you, hightail it out of here.”
“And what are you going to be doing?”
“There’s a pickup parked near the mine entrance. I’m going to get the license number. No one shoots at me and gets away with it.”
“You’re crazy!” She grabbed his arm. “Don’t go back there. You could get hurt.”
He saw worry in her eyes for him again, and in spite of the situation it made him smile. “I’ll be back. Five minutes tops.”
“I am not sitting here alone. I’ve been stranded in a cabin in a snowstorm, rescued by helicopter, shaken up by a horse and now shot at. That’s enough for me. It should be enough for you.”
Cupping her chin in his hand, he kissed her hard. “I’ll be back.”
Then he left the keys in the ignition, locked the door and ran to the side of the road under the cover of firs.
As Emily sat waiting, she tapped her foot, peered in every direction and constantly looked over her shoulder. She should drive off and leave Brad stranded here, but she’d never do that. In fact, if she found out he was in trouble, she’d drive right into it.
Each minute ticked by slowly. She counted them until finally Brad was running toward the SUV and knocking on the window for her to let him in.
She leaned over and unlocked the door.
Climbing inside, he started up the SUV and drove them as far as Thunder Canyon Road. Then he pulled over again and took hold of his cell phone.
In the next few minutes, he called 911 and told the dispatcher what had happened, giving him the license number of the pickup truck. After also giving the authorities his name and cell number, he ended the call.
Glancing at Emily, he asked, “Are you okay?”
No, she wasn’t. Each one of his kisses affected her more than the last. Each touch of his hand, each one of his smiles, made her heart turn over. But she wouldn’t let him know that. She wouldn’t let him know she wanted her dream with him.
“I’m fine. But do you think we can stay out of trouble for the rest of this trip?”
At her tone, he laughed out loud. Then he undid his seat belt, leaned close to her and kissed her.
Brad’s kisses were never the same, and this one was no exception. After his lips brushed over and pressed to hers, she parted her lips. But he didn’t take advantage of that. Instead he nibbled at the corner of her lip, then ran his tongue over her upper lip, and she felt as if she’d melt into a puddle on the car floor.
Her moan must have told him that because she heard the low growl in his throat. She saw him prop his arm on the back of the seat to take some of his weight as he leaned in. She could feel his body heat and his desire as well as his hunger. It didn’t scare her; it made her want. She wanted Brad again in a way that was so elemental, she didn’t even understand it. She wanted Brad in a way that would fill up her life and fulfill her dreams. She wanted Brad…and she wanted more. Although she’d given him the impression she wanted to return to Chicago, she liked being here with him. She more than liked being here with him.
When his tongue finally slid into her mouth, she pressed against him with a yearning that had never been a part of her before this trip. She might have fantasized about Brad, but the reality was so much better than any fantasy. The reality was more than she’d ever imagined.
Her jacket was unzipped, and Brad’s hands slipped underneath it. She could have protested. She could have shifted away from him. But that was the last thing she wanted to do. Her minutes with him were precious. His touch was something she’d never forget. When his hand moved over her breast, she could recall vividly every moment of their time in the cabin. One afternoon had been so erotically sensual, she didn’t know if anything could top it. One night had been so safely protective, she never wanted to forget it, either.
Did Brad act like this with the models, actresses and account executives he dated? Was she only a diversion because they were away from the city?
Her questions changed the kiss even though she hadn’t voiced them.
He pulled away but didn’t take his gaze from hers. “What are you thinking?”
“You make me feel as if I’m the only woman in the world. Do you do that with all the women you date?”
Slowly he leaned away from her and shifted back into the driver’s seat. Staring straight ahead, he admitted, “You’ve gotten under my skin, Emily, and I don’t know what to do about it. Because I’m not what you need.”
“What do I need?” she murmured, almost afraid of his answer.
“You need a man who knows how to commit himself to one woman. You need a man who wants a gold band around his finger as much as you do. I spent my adult years doing everything I could do to stay disentangled from a woman’s life. You need a man who will become totally involved in yours.”
“You never want to get married? You never want children?”
When his gaze swung back to hers, she saw his answer. He made it definite when he responded, “It’s never been in my game plan.”
“You might already have a child,” she reminded him.
“That’s the thing, Emily. You can’t even believe me when I tell you I’m not the father of Suzette’s child. So I’m definitely not a man you want in your life.”
He was deciding what she needed and what would be best for her life. That hurt her, and her hurt turned to anger. “I think it’s more than that. I think I’m not the caliber of woman your father would approve of and that bothers you.”
His jaw clenched. “That has nothing to do with this.”
“I think it has everything to do with this. You’re the boss and I’m your secretary. You live in a high-rise condo, ride in limousines and travel wherever you want. I’m just a nobody from Chicago who’s never even been on a camping trip.”
“You’re mistaken.”
She kept silent because she knew she wasn’t.
A police SUV turned onto the access road, its lights flashing, and pulled up beside Brad.
Turning to Emily, Brad repeated, “You’re wrong.” Then he exited the SUV to tell the policeman what had happened.
Tears came to Emily’s eyes, and she simply didn’t know what to think anymore.
After Brad finished a brief but thorough conversation with the lawman, the officer drove toward the mine. Brad passed a backup police car zooming toward the mine and he wondered if Emily was ever going to talk to him again that afternoon. Whatever attraction they felt for each other was at an all-time high. As he headed toward Old Town, the life he’d led up to this point seemed to play in front of his eyes. He wouldn’t give Emily false hope that his opinion of commitment and marriage would ever change.
All that said, he wished she’d talk to him. He wished they could recapture their earlier camaraderie.
To try to start dialogue between them once more, he mentioned, “This best friend of Annie’s might shut the door in our faces.”
“You said her name’s Renée?” Emily r
esponded stiffly.
“Yes.”
Silence once more pervaded the car until Brad parked at the curb. As they walked up to the brick stoop, Emily kept her distance from him. No matter. His lips still burned from their kiss and his body hadn’t altogether recovered. At the door there was no bell, but Brad let the brass knocker thump twice.
A teenage girl answered the knock. For the most part her hair was brown, but there was a circle of red on the crown of her head that looked chemically induced.
She was tall and thin and her green eyes glanced from him to Emily quizzically. “My mom doesn’t have any more of those tin cups to sell,” she said, assuming that’s what they were there for.
“Tin cups?” Emily asked.
“Yeah, you know. With the prospector painted on the side. It’ll be another week until she has more done.”
Apparently Renée Bosgrow’s mother was making an item tourists liked to buy. “We’re not here for tin cups,” Brad said. “Are you Renée?”
Now the teenager’s eyes narrowed and she grew wary. “Who wants to know?”
He extended his hand to her. “I’m Brad Vaughn, and this is my assistant Emily Stanton. Tess Littlehawk asked me to find her daughter, and since you were her best friend, I need to talk to you.”
“I was her best friend before she took off. But I told you on the phone I don’t got nothin’ to say.”
“Even if you don’t, I’d like to speak to you for a few minutes.”
Renée took a step back. “Why?”
“Because I want to explain to you how it feels when someone you love goes missing.”
Her expression changed a bit, only a bit, but Brad saw it and took advantage of it. “Renée, Tess Littlehawk has a hole in her heart because a child she gave life to can’t be found. I don’t know why Annie left, and I don’t need to. I only know her mother needs to hear her voice. It’s been three years, and she has the right to know whether she’s alive or dead.”
“Dead? Annie can’t be dead.”
Emily’s quiet but steady voice asked gently, “Do you know that for sure?”
After a long pause, Renée shook her head. “No, I don’t. I don’t know where she is now.”
“But she told you where she was going when she left?” Brad guessed.
As the wind played with Renée’s hair, both the brown and red strands, she crossed her arms, plucking at the red sleeves of her sweater. “I promised not to tell anyone where she went. We were like sisters. I can’t break my word to her.”
“It’s been three long years,” he pressed. “You said you don’t know where she is now. She’s probably not anywhere near her destination of three years ago.”
The logic of that seemed to sink in. “Did Mrs. Littlehawk tell you why she ran?”
Tess had written pages for him, revealing all. “She told me Annie hated being a cleaning woman’s daughter and that she was dating boys Tess wasn’t comfortable with.”
“Comfortable with? She grounded her when she snuck out to see Ronnie.”
“She didn’t believe she should be dating yet,” Brad said, standing up for Tess.
“Annie was a looker. She had boys all around her. Dating isn’t something you suddenly decide you can do because you’re old enough.”
Brad realized that if he had a daughter that’s exactly what he would do. He’d keep her locked up until a boy finally met his approval. However, he wasn’t going to argue with Renée about when girls should date. “Tess was afraid she’d get in trouble.”
“You mean her mom was afraid she’d get pregnant.”
“Yes, I imagine she was afraid of that, but she was also afraid she’d get into a car with an older boy who had been drinking. Annie had done that and that’s why she was grounded.”
Staring down at the toes of her sneakers, Renée mumbled, “Annie wanted to be a model or an actress.”
Now they were getting somewhere. That usually meant a trip to California. “She went to Los Angeles?”
Renée’s eyes widened as if he’d just caught on to what made the world spin. “What makes you say that?”
“Give me a little credit. Isn’t Hollywood the land of dreams?”
Looking across the street to a row of houses that was similar to the one she lived in, Renée admitted, “She didn’t go to Hollywood.”
When it seemed she wouldn’t give them more information, Emily found a way to touch her on a different level. “Tess just wants to find out if she’s alive and well. Think about your mother. What if she didn’t know where to find you for three years.”
Renée suddenly said again, “She didn’t go to Hollywood.”
“Then where did she go?” Brad asked, realizing again how good Emily could be in investigative work.
Minutes seemed to tick by until Renée shuffled her sneakers on the stoop and jammed her hands into her jeans pockets. “She used the computer at school and went to this chat room that a modeling school in L.A. set up. She couldn’t afford the fees to go to the modeling school, but she got to be friends with another girl there—in the chat room. That’s when she started making plans.”
“Plans to go to L.A.?” he prodded.
“No. This girl—I think her name was Lena—lived in San Jose. Annie saved every penny she could for a year, and Ronnie took her to Bozeman. She bought a bus ticket to California.”
“You know this for certain?”
“Yeah. Ronnie told me after he got back that day. He said she was crying and laughing all at the same time and couldn’t wait to leave.”
“Is this Ronnie still in town?”
“No. His brother lives in Portland. He went up there to live with him after he graduated.”
“You don’t know this Lena’s last name?”
“No. I don’t even know if Lena is her real name. You know how chat rooms go.”
Unfortunately he did. He just hoped Lena was a girl who wanted to go to modeling school and not a predator preying on teenagers with dreams.
“Thank you, Renée. You’ve helped us a lot.”
“You’re probably right and Annie’s not still in San Jose.” That thought seemed to salve Renée’s conscience. With that, she shut the door.
“What do you think?” Emily asked, looking up at him now.
“I think she told us all she’s going to tell us. After three years, there’s a possibility Annie’s not in San Jose. But there’s also a fifty-fifty possibility that she is. I have a place to start.”
When a strand of Emily’s hair blew across her cheek, he couldn’t keep himself from brushing it away. His thumb on her cheek sent a jolt through him. “Emily, look. About what happened in the car—”
She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, Brad. I know where you stand. I won’t misunderstand anything that happens between us.”
In other words, she accepted their attraction to each other for what it was—chemistry.
Why didn’t that make him feel better?
Chapter Ten
That evening, Caleb wouldn’t take no for an answer and neither would Adele. The Montana Mustangs, a band they both enjoyed, were playing at the Hitching Post this one night only. They insisted Brad and Emily shouldn’t miss the event.
As Brad rounded the SUV and opened Emily’s door, she wondered why this felt like a date when it wasn’t. Caleb had decided to drive his own car, but she wished he hadn’t. Conversation would have been easier with the four of them.
“You just don’t see a sky like that in Chicago,” Brad said with appreciation as he helped her down from the SUV.
He was still holding her hand, and she didn’t let go of his as she looked up at the black velvet sky, the almost full moon and the thousand pinpoints of stars. “The sky might be the same in Chicago. We just forget to look at it.”
His gaze dropped to hers, and when he studied her lips, they both knew what he was thinking. Instead of kissing her, however, he slammed the SUV door, then he tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow as they
walked up the street and then took a step up onto the wooden promenade.
The Hitching Post sported a wild-west-style false front and looked like an old-time saloon. After Brad opened the heavy wood door, Emily could see that the floor was hardwood and at one end of the restaurant there was a long curving bar. Framed photos from the 1880s hung on the walls. The Montana Mustangs were set up near the bar and dance floor at the far end of the room.
After they hung their coats on a long rack, Brad leaned down to her ear and his breath whispered across her cheek. “Caleb said this used to be a saloon. It was renovated many years ago and turned into a restaurant, but you can see the history all around.”
Emily saw history all right. There was a painting above the cherrywood bar, and the woman looked almost nude! She was a voluptuous blonde with a wicked grin, wearing a gauzy fabric draped over her breasts so that she wasn’t entirely indecent. The effect definitely did not portray a proper lady.
A cash register stood at the end of the bar, and a matronly woman with silver-streaked hair worn in a top-knot sat on a stool there. Almost smack-dab in the middle of the dance floor stood a contraption Emily didn’t recognize.
“What’s that?” she asked Brad.
As he eyed it, he grinned. “That’s a mechanical bull.”
“What do you do with a mechanical bull?” she asked almost to herself.
Just then the band member on guitar stepped up to the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, our bull-riding competition is about to start before our first set.”
“There’s Caleb.” Brad’s hand went to the small of her back as he guided her toward a table near the wall.
Caleb was grinning from ear to ear. “What do you think, Brad? I may be too old to get my bones shaken up, but you aren’t. The prize is three hundred dollars.”
Placing a restraining hand on her husband’s arm, Adele shook her head. “Don’t let him goad you. That machine’s not much safer than the real thing.”
Cabin Fever Page 13
