The only thing to do was change into a T-shirt and jeans, turn on some music and give the whole place a good housecleaning. After a group like the one she’d had, there were always little papers and candy wrappers left on the floor.
Dana couldn’t have been cleaning five minutes before she heard the phone ring. Was it Jace? He knew she was up. No one else would call her in the middle of the night unless there some kind of emergency.
She dashed into her office where she’d left her cell phone.
Clicking the talk button, she said hello.
“Good morning.” The vibrancy of Jace’s deep voice permeated every particle of her body.
Her heart rate tripled. “Good morning.”
“I’m already missing you, so I’ve come up with a plan.”
“I’m all ears.” Heavens—she sounded like a love-sick teenager.
“If I don’t take a lunch hour today and I hurry, I can finish up by three. How would you like to meet me in the visitors’ parking lot of my apartment building at three-thirty. We’ll drive from there to the Terlingua Ranch to swim and have dinner. It’s a great place to kick back for an evening.”
“I’ve heard about it! There’s nothing I’d love more.”
“Good. I’ll follow you home afterward.”
“You don’t have to do that, Jace. You do too much driving as it is. I’m a big girl now.”
“So I’ve noticed.” His comment sent a wave of heat through her body. “Unfortunately, so has every other man in sight. That’s why you’re not going back to that isolated trailer alone tonight.”
When it came to protecting her, she’d lose any argument with him. It was one of the many reasons she was already so in love with him, she didn’t know herself anymore.
“What’s your address?”
“I’ve been living at the Big Bend Apartments.”
She groaned inwardly to think how much time they’d wasted because they hadn’t met before now. “I’ve passed them many times.”
“Now she tells me.” Jace was on the same wavelength. “Drive in the front entrance. I’ll be there waiting.”
“Take care, Jace.”
“I was about to say the same thing to you. See you at three-thirty.”
“GLEN? Is that you?”
“Yeah, Grandad. I’m home from work. What do you want for dinner?”
“Soup and sandwiches will be fine.”
Soup and sandwiches will be fine, Glen mocked the words as he headed for the kitchen.
Lewis said they couldn’t leave until next month, but Glen was ready to get out now and take Dana with them.
Ten minutes later he carried the tray of food to the front room. That’s when he saw a huge flower arrangement covered in cellophane sitting on the coffee table.
“Where’d the flowers come from?”
“A florist in Alpine tried to deliver them to Dana, but she wasn’t home so they brought them here. They’re not from you?”
“Nope. You told me to save my money.”
“Maybe her family sent them to her.”
Glen had seen the black Sentra parked at the observatory last night after the busload of people left. He figured the flowers were payment for services rendered.
“Maybe.”
“You keep doing a good job for Mr. Jorgenson and he’ll give you a raise. One day he’ll teach you all the tricks of running a grocery store. You can make a reasonable living doing that.”
Yeah. When hell freezes over.
“After I get cleaned up, I’ll take the flowers to Dana.”
Earlier that day, on his way back to the grocery store from lunch, Glen had seen her driving through town. He’d followed her until he was satisfied she was on her way down the mountain. This would be the time for him to make his move.
“Can I use the truck tonight? We’re planning to go bowling.”
“That means another trip to Alpine. You’re spending a lot of money on gas, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. Well, there’s not that much to do in Cloud Rim. Dana’s used to living in a big city like San Diego. You told me you have to court a woman for a while before you pop the question. I’m just taking your advice. Once we’re married and have a kid, she won’t want to go nowhere.”
Glen waited for the old man to finish his food. It took forever.
“Dana will make the prettiest bride this town has ever seen, aside from your grandmother, of course. Don’t wait too long to make her yours or someone else will snatch her away.”
“What makes you say that?”
“The man who drives the IPS truck stopped by here for a minute yesterday.”
Glen gritted his teeth. “I didn’t know that.”
“He wanted some help finding an address and hoped I might know. I always thought he was a nice fellow. Good-looking too. Found out he’s a widower.
“You know, when a man’s had a happy marriage, he’s likely to marry again. Especially if he’s delivering packages to someone like Dana. So you don’t want to let any grass grow, Glen. I’m looking forward to dandling your youngster on my knee.”
That’ll be the day.
When he’d cleaned up, he came back to the front room. The history channel was on TV. Glen reached for the flowers. “See you later, Grandad.”
“Remember your curfew.”
With you yapping at me, there’s no chance of forgetting it.
He stormed out the back door, letting the screen door slam. After he started up the truck, he drove by Dana’s trailer. Relieved her Toyota was missing, he took a little detour up to the observatory.
Nope. She wasn’t there either. Now was his opportunity to get inside her place.
Lewis could break into anything. They’d done a lot of jobs together and he’d taught Glen everything he knew. No new lock was going to keep him from switching films.
First he put the flowers on the ground next to the trailer, then he got some tools out of the back of the truck. In less than five minutes, he’d taken the lock apart.
Looking around to make sure all was quiet, he slipped inside to the bathroom. The smoke-alarm cover came off with ease, but when he reached for the camera, it wasn’t there.
Someone had found it.
Letting out a curse, he pounded the wall with his fist.
It had to be the bastard who was sleeping with her. That’s why the door had a new lock.
In less than a minute he shoved the cover back and got the hell out of the trailer. When he’d reassembled the lock, he put the flowers in the truck and took off for Alpine, laying rubber halfway down the street.
At Fort Davis he stopped at the service station to toss the flowers in one of the Dumpsters. By the time he reached the Gray Oak, the place had started to fill up. Glen ordered a beer and took it back to his favorite table in the corner.
Two guys he knew sauntered in. They joined him for a couple of games of pool. Halfway through the third round, a brown-haired man about six feet tall and wearing a black motorcycle jacket entered the Gray Oak and walked straight to the bar. It was Lewis.
Once he was served a beer, he started looking around. When his gaze rested on Glen, he slowly made his way over to the pool table to watch. Glen finished the round. The others left to get a beer.
Lewis set his empty glass on a nearby table and grabbed a cue to play. “I’ve seen that sick look on your ugly face before. This better not be about you know who.”
Glen averted his eyes.
“Spit it out!”
“A few hours ago I went to exchange the film in the minicamera in her smoke alarm, but it was missing. I don’t know if she was the one who found it.”
Lewis froze. “What’s that supposed to mean? Who else has been inside her trailer besides you?”
“The guy she’s sleeping with right now.”
“You mean the guy you thought was me?”
When Lewis’s face went all masklike, Glen quaked in his cowboy boots.
“No. That was another guy.”
“You mean to tell me that in the last week she’s been in the sack with two different guys?”
“Yeah. If one of them was smoking in the bathroom and set the alarm off, they could have decided to get rid of the battery and found the camera. I figure one of them realized he got lucky and kept it.”
“But you don’t know if that’s what happened.” Lewis’s eyes had narrowed to slits.
Glen hunched his shoulders.
“Did you make sure you wiped off the cover before you put it back?”
“Yeah.”
“Does she smoke?”
“Nope. Her place is cleaner than a hospital. Maybe she took the lid off to get rid of the bugs and found the camera.”
“Then she’s already contacted the police. Being that your grandfather is her landlord, you’ll be the first person they come after,” he said in fury. “What else haven’t you told me?”
Glen didn’t have enough saliva to swallow. “The lock’s been changed on the trailer door.”
“When?”
“Two days ago.”
“If she had the lock changed, it doesn’t matter who found the camera. She knows someone planted it in there. Since you haven’t been arrested yet, that means you’re being set up and they’re waiting for you to make your next mistake.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. The other day she warned me to stay away or I’d be sorry. She probably had the lock changed then.”
Lewis’s rage put the fear in him. “You’d better start praying the missing camera doesn’t have anything to do with the changed lock.”
“No one saw me do nothing. They can’t prove that camera’s mine.”
“What about the rolls of film?”
“You still have them. I want ’em back.”
“I’m talking about unused film, you idiot.”
“There isn’t any more.”
“Where are your tools?”
He scuffed his toe against the floor. “In the truck.”
“As soon as you walk out of here, wipe them off and toss them in the nearest garbage can.”
Glen remembered the knife under the seat. That was something Lewis didn’t need to know about. He guessed he’d better get rid of that too.
CHAPTER EIGHT
DANA HAD JUST EXPERIENCED the most wonderful day of her life swimming and sunbathing with Jace. Now that they’d come back to Cloud Rim, she was almost sick with excitement because this was the part she’d been waiting for. The time when they could be absolutely alone.
As she climbed out of her car, he pulled in behind her. For an instant his headlights illuminated her figure clad in shorts and a knit top. To her amusement, she heard a loud wolf whistle.
“You’d better run, little girl.”
Laughing with pure happiness, she dashed over to the trailer. He shut his car door.
“If you don’t hurry, you know what’s going to happen,” the devilish male voice followed her.
Dana let out a cry that was part scream, part laughter. She shoved the key in the lock, but she had trouble getting it to turn.
“Gotcha!” Two arms of steel closed around her. Another shriek of delight came out of her as she covered his hands with her own. The key ring dropped to the ground but neither of them noticed.
“You didn’t try very hard to get away.” He began kissing the side of her neck. “Could it be you want me as much as I want you?”
Her breath caught. “I’ll never tell.”
He turned her in his arms. With her back against the door, there was no place to run. When she looked into his eyes, they were focused on her mouth.
“You don’t have to. The kind of communication we’ve both been craving doesn’t need words. Ever since you drove in to the parking lot, I’ve ached to do this to you.”
She felt his desire like a living thing. When their mouths met this time, it was with primitive need.
A force beyond her control had taken over her body. It didn’t feel like her body. She felt a part of his. Oblivious of time and place, they moved and breathed as one flesh.
But no matter how much they gave, it wasn’t enough. This striving for more made Dana realize nothing would satisfy until there was a total merging of bodies and souls.
“This is no good,” Jace cried after wrenching his lips from hers. He still held her upper arms in his grasp. “I couldn’t even wait until we were inside your trailer.” His voice shook. “The second I touch you—”
The knowledge that he wanted her this much went a long way to repair the damage he’d done by breaking off their kiss. Heavens, feeling the way she did about him, she never wanted to be apart from him.
“Why are you apologizing?”
His chest heaved. “Because I meant to take this much slower with you. So help me, Dana, I don’t dare to be alone with you tonight. You’d better go in before I change my mind and beg you to come home with me.”
He sounded so intense, she had to take him seriously. But she failed at hiding her disappointment, because he said, “Don’t look at me like that.”
In a euphoric daze, Dana leaned over to pick up her keys. As before, the same problem happened—when she put the trailer key in the lock, it wouldn’t turn.
Jace put his hand over hers to help jostle it.
“When did this start happening?”
“Just tonight.”
He grimaced. “I’ll get my tools.”
Within seconds she stood holding his flashlight while he took her lock apart.
“Someone broke into your trailer,” he murmured.
A shudder racked her body. “I have a feeling it was Glen.”
“I’m assuming that’s who it was. Evidently he was in a hurry. The screws aren’t fastened tight, the way I did them.”
She watched him put the lock all back together again.
“In prison I was friends with an inmate who met a guy in a bar,” she told him. “She made the mistake of inviting him to her place, but soon had to tell him to leave. He left, but he kept coming back. Pretty soon he was stalking her. She moved to another apartment, then discovered he’d been in there while she was at work.”
Jace turned his head to look at her through shuttered eyes. “I won’t let that happen to you.”
This time she shivered because he sounded deadly serious.
“Now, slip your key in the lock and try it.”
Dana did as he asked. “It works perfectly.”
“Good. I’ll go inside first and have a look around before I put the tools away, then we’ll talk.”
Thankful for Jace, she waited while he turned on a few more lights. As soon as he came back out, she entered. How ironic that only minutes ago she’d been wondering how she was going to handle his leaving. But Glen’s invasion of her property had changed the tenor of their evening.
As she started to pull her towel and swimsuit from the bag, her cell phone rang. It could be her mom, or Heidi. She put everything on the counter and reached for the phone, but the caller ID said unavailable. A knot of dread formed in her stomach. If it was Glen…
“Hello?”
“Dana? It’s Cathy Mitchell.”
Relief swept over her. “Hi, Cathy!”
“I know it’s late to be calling, but I wanted to make sure you got your flowers.”
“You sent me flowers?” she asked as Jace’s well-honed body entered the front room. He looked so good to her, she had to struggle not to fling herself into his arms.
“Oh dear. That means you didn’t get them yet. I ordered them early this morning from Hansen’s Floral in Alpine. They promised delivery no later than three o’clock this afternoon. After the fabulous treat you gave everyone last night, it was the least we could do to express our gratitude. Darn it!”
Dana’s eyes fused with Jace’s. “I think I know what happened. I live in a trailer on the edge of another man’s property. His house is the only one within a mile of Cloud Rim. People often leave things for me with him.
“Ironicall
y, I was on my way to Alpine this afternoon. That’s how I missed the delivery. Please don’t worry. I’ll go over and get them. That was so thoughtful of you.”
“We’re the ones who are in your debt. Promise me you’ll call me tomorrow and tell me if you got them?”
“Of course! Thanks again, Cathy. Talk to you later.” They hung up. Jace moved toward her, resting his hand on the counter. “When Ralph asked Glen to bring the flowers over to you, he must have seen them as a godsend. Where do you keep your waste basket?”
Ill at the thought of Glen being anywhere near her trailer, let alone inside, she closed her eyes for a moment. “In the utility closet,” she said in an unsteady voice.
“Let’s see if he happened to put them in there.” He followed her into the kitchen.
She opened the closet door. “There’s no sign of them.”
“I’ll check your garbage receptacle outside.”
When he returned shaking his head, she said, “Maybe the flowers are still at Ralph’s.”
“If they are, then you can be certain you’ll have another visit at some point.”
“I don’t dare go over there to find out.”
“I’m glad you said that, because this has become a police matter.”
“I’ll phone them now.”
“You don’t need to. When I took the van into IPS, I had to fill out a report about the slashed tire. My boss called the police in Alpine. They came by and I told them my suspicions, not only about the tire, but the way he’s always hanging around your trailer. So the police are already quite interested in Glen Mason.
“Tomorrow I’ll phone them about your break-in and the missing flowers. The police will contact the delivery person and find out exactly what happened. If Ralph did receive them for you and asked Glen to bring them over, they’ll find that out too.”
“But, Jace, what if Glen isn’t the person who tampered with my lock? We don’t have any proof.”
His eyes glittered with a strange light. “True. That’s why I think it would be better not to upset Mr. Mason unnecessarily. Let the police run their investigation and see what happens.”
Dana lowered her head. “How sad for him. He’s such a nice man.”
“I know you’re frightened, but you don’t need to be, because one way or another I won’t leave you alone tonight. In the meantime, there might be a temporary solution.” He pulled a flyer out of his pocket. “Read this.”
Beneath A Texas Sky (Harlequin Super Romance) Page 11
