by B. J Daniels
The boss shook his head. “This isn’t the woman I asked you to bring to me.”
“What?” She felt Bobby squeeze her arm tighter as if he somehow blamed her for this.
The boss raised his voice, sending some of the dust molecules in the cabin airborne. “You got the wrong woman! That is not Geneva Davenport.”
Ryan looked over at her again. “I don’t understand.”
“Clearly,” the man said, and made a small motion with his hand.
“Find Geneva and don’t bother me again until you have the right woman,” the boss said, and headed for the door that opened onto a small porch on the lakeside of the cabin.
Ryan released his grip on JJ’s arm as he looked at her. “Wait, what do you want us to do with her?”
The boss stopped at the door and turned back. He seemed to study her for a moment. “You say you found her in Geneva’s house?” He nodded toward JJ. “Maybe you can explain how it is that they could make such a mistake?” he asked her, as if truly hoping for the answer.
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “I was at the wrong place at the wrong time?” Her mind was whirling. What did this man want with Geneva? If he was the head of the kidnapping operation, then wouldn’t he know about the plane crash? Her head ached from lack of sleep, from one terror after another and from this latest blow to her skull. She felt as if her brain was no longer tracking.
Not just that. These men looked like construction workers, with their canvas pants and work boots. She thought about the house being built on the lake below the cabin. Were they somehow connected to that?
“Do you even know Geneva Davenport?”
“Not really.”
“But you were in her house.”
“I was...house-sitting for her.”
He let out a laugh. “Well, that explains that. You do look a little like her. Did she tell you where she was going when she asked you to house-sit?”
One lie just followed another. “No,” JJ said, wide-eyed.
He seemed to think about that for a moment before he motioned to Ryan, the man who’d been driving the SUV. “Well, if she asked you to house-sit, she knows you, which means we might have to trade you.” He looked at the men. “Let’s hang on to her for a while until we get this all figured out.”
She started to tell the truth, that Geneva hadn’t asked her to house-sit, that she had no reason to make any kind of trade, but he didn’t give her a chance.
“There’s a root cellar under the floor over there. That should keep her until you find the real Geneva Davenport. Make sure when you do find her, that she has her checkbook with her. Put her down there and drag something heavy onto the trapdoor.”
JJ knew her face must have shown her horror. Her pulse was already pounding in her head, and her jaw hurt from where she’d been hit. “Don’t worry, I promise you won’t be there long.” He turned to his men again. “Then get out of here,” he ordered. “I don’t want to see either of you until you have the right woman in tow.”
She thought about fighting the two men still holding her, but she was running on fumes. Even if she could get away from the men, she knew she couldn’t get far before they caught up with her.
But the thought of being in the root cellar terrified her. She had this thing about spiders, let alone dark, airless spaces. She still couldn’t believe this was happening. Her day had started before sunrise with a plane crash in the mountains.
She could feel dusk descending over the cabin as Ryan held her arm tightly and Bobby knelt to open the trapdoor.
The moment he opened it, an awful smell rose from the damp earth below the cabin. JJ thought she would heave, but Ryan didn’t give her a chance. He pushed her forward. She pushed back with all her strength, which wasn’t enough. Her body stopped just inches from the hole in the ground.
Bobby grabbed her by the hair and dragged her forward over the gaping blackness. She screamed as she lost her balance, but her throat closed so no sound came out. Ryan grabbed her to keep her from falling headfirst into the root cellar.
“Don’t kill her,” he said to his partner, who clearly wasn’t listening. As Bobby let go of her hair, she windmilled her arms as she fought to regain her balance. If Ryan hadn’t grabbed one of her arms, she would never have found the ladder at the edge.
He forced her down the ladder into the cramped dark space and then closed the trapdoor over her, forcing her to duck.
She heard him drag something over the top of the door as she clung to the ladder, hunched over and trying to breathe through her mouth. She blinked but saw nothing. The blackness sent a whole new level of fear rocketing through her.
JJ knew she couldn’t stay like this, bent over, clinging to the ladder, yet she was afraid to step down the last rung for fear of what might be down there. She had to move, though, and as she did, her bare arm brushed a cobweb.
Frantically, she tried to get it off her skin only to have what felt like a spider run down her arm. This time she didn’t have any trouble screaming. But it made a hollow sound, one that she figured never got past the trapdoor above her head.
Fighting her growing panic, she tried to calm down, to think. There had to be a way out of this. The thought made her laugh, almost hysterically. She’d thought the same thing in the airplane when she’d taken Kyle’s gun, and look how that had turned out.
She didn’t know how much time had passed. She’d thought she’d heard the SUV drive away. Her head had filled with static as she tried to hold it together.
Then she heard a sound overheard. Footfalls. She took a step back. Something scurried away behind her, sending a chill up her back. She looked up and saw a tiny thread of light coming through a crack in the trapdoor. Another footfall, and then someone stepped on the crack, blotting out the light.
* * *
WHEN THORN HEARD someone exit the cabin from the front, he quickly moved out of sight around the side of the building. He could hear voices inside the cabin. The two men who’d taken JJ?
He debated rushing in, gun drawn, but knew that was too risky. He had no way of knowing if there were others in the cabin besides the two who had abducted her. All he could do was try to see inside.
Moving around the side of the building, he found a window, wiped at the glass and was able to see into an antiquated living room. As he started to scan the rest of the interior, he heard a boat start up on the lake below the cabin. He caught only a glimpse of the craft as it sped away, a dark-haired man at the helm.
His peripheral vision registered movement as two men hurried from the cabin and headed to the SUV. They didn’t have JJ with them. His heart pounded. What had they done with her? Had he hesitated too long?
The SUV’s engine started. He listened as the driver backed out the vehicle and roared up the road through the pines. He moved swiftly, terrified his hesitation had cost JJ her life. Rushing into the cabin, he stopped dead.
From where he stood, he could see the entire cabin. It was empty.
Where was JJ?
CHAPTER TEN
JJ HELD HER BREATH. Had the boss come back? Had he changed his mind about leaving her here? Or had he decided to get rid of her?
She tried to move away from the crack in the floor, as if there was anywhere to run, and collided with more cobwebs. Frantically she brushed at them, a cry escaping her lips. Above her, she heard a sound.
“JJ?”
She couldn’t believe it. “Thorn?” She fought not to cry, her relief so quick and overwhelming, followed by a stray thought. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. It was something her mother used to say.
“Thorn!” she cried at the top of her lungs, then she climbed up the ladder to beat on the bottom of the trapdoor with her fist. Dirt and other things she didn’t want to think about fell over her. She cringed but heard him moving whatever had been slid over the trap
door. And then he was opening it, letting in the light and the air and taking away the darkness.
He reached for her, grabbing her hand as she scrambled on shaking legs out of the root cellar and into his arms. He held her tight. “It’s all right. I’ve got you. It’s all right.”
They stood like that for a long time, him holding her, her trying to catch her breath and not cry. After a moment, she finally felt better and stepped from his arms, feeling guilty. This was the man she’d hit with a chair, she reminded herself and he’d just rescued her. Again.
On the heels of that thought came another. He needs you to help him find Geneva. You still have no idea who this man really is. Or what he really wants with Geneva. Or with you.
That thought was like a blast of icy water.
* * *
THORN FELT THE change in her, but he hadn’t wanted to let her go even as she stepped from his arms. Those men had put her in a hole. He wanted to chase them down and put them into the same hole and leave them there.
He’d heard the terror in her voice coming from under the floor, saw it etched on her face and felt it in her body as he’d pulled her out and into his arms. She’d looked so small, so vulnerable, as he’d held her. He’d wanted to sweep her up and carry her far away from all of this.
But he couldn’t. As he’d brushed cobwebs from her hair, he reminded himself that he didn’t know who this woman really was and how she’d gotten involved in all this.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said as he saw that her strength and determination had returned, along with her suspicion of him.
She looked up at him for a moment before shifting her gaze away. “Thank you for getting me out of there.”
He nodded. As he led her out of the cabin and up the road, he listened to make sure that the men weren’t coming back. He felt the steady still-angry beat of his pulse and heard only the breeze in the tops of the pines.
As they moved through the growing darkness, all around them the pines were black in the growing darkness. Through the trees he caught glimpses of the mountains, now purple against Montana’s midnight blue big sky.
They were almost back to the spot where he’d hidden his motorcycle, when JJ let go of his hand and stopped walking. “I need to know why you came after me.”
He turned to stare at her. “Seriously? You need to ask?”
“I guess I do.”
He shook his head. “How many times do I need to tell you that I’m one of the good guys?” he asked, not knowing what else he could say, let alone how he could convince her.
Then in frustration, he grabbed her and pulled her into him. His mouth dropped to hers and the next thing he knew, he was kissing her with a passion he’d forgotten he’d ever possessed.
* * *
THE KISS HAD taken her by surprise. That and her reaction to it. She’d parted her lips to say something as his mouth had dropped to hers. But any words were lost as he pulled her tighter into his arms and deepened the kiss, stealing her breath and her senses.
At the sound of an approaching vehicle, he let go of her abruptly. Off balance, it took her a moment before she could get her feet moving again. He grabbed her hand to steady her and led her through the pines to his motorcycle. Were the men coming back?
“Get on,” he said, his voice sounding hoarse as he climbed on the bike and motioned for her to join him.
Since her options were limited, she swung a leg over the bike behind him. Her arms wrapped around his waist as he started the motor and kicked it into gear. The bike jumped forward, forcing her to hang on tight as he gunned it.
Thorn took a curve fast on the narrow dirt road as he raced up the hill toward the highway as if he was still angry. Angry with her? Or angry with himself for kissing her? She felt numb, as if she’d been in shock since three men had abducted her from her sleep last night.
They reached the highway. Thorn had to stop to wait a moment for traffic.
“I’m sorry. I really appreciate you rescuing me back there,” she said.
He grunted in answer before hitting the throttle, and they were off, roaring down the highway through the growing darkness.
She felt her hair blow back, a golden wave behind her. She tightened her arms around Thorn’s waist and leaned her cheek against his back, reveling in the feel of speed and wind as the warm summer night rushed past. Touching the tip of her tongue to her lower lip, she thought of the confusing kiss. Confusing because it had been so unexpected. And because she had no idea what it meant.
Even more confusing had been her reaction to it. For a while, she’d lost herself in the kiss, in this cowboy’s arms.
Thorn whipped in and out of the traffic on the narrow winding road, headed north. She caught glimpses of Flathead Lake through the pines, the surface a silver gray in the darkness.
JJ knew she should be terrified at how dangerous this was. But with Thorn driving, she felt surprisingly safe. She leaned against his warm strong back and tightened her hold on him as the bike sped down the highway, the two of them feeling like one on the motorcycle.
She tried not to think about what had happened and what would happen now. Or about the men after her. Or about the cowboy who’d just kissed her. She had no idea what had possessed him. He’d made it clear he wanted to be rid of her when he’d thought she was Geneva Davenport.
So had anything really changed now that he knew at least some of the truth about her? She couldn’t let her guard down again until she knew what was in it for this cowboy. Clearly, he was doing everything he could to keep her alive. Because he needed her if he hoped to find Geneva. But then what?
She thought again of the kiss and hated that it had awakened something inside her. Something she didn’t want awakened at this time of her life any more than she wanted this cowboy to do the awakening. He’d kissed her because he wanted her to trust him. That’s all it had been.
But at this point, she didn’t trust anyone, maybe especially this cowboy who kept rescuing her—for what end? Did it even matter? She was in so much trouble, she’d never be able to dig herself out.
Closing her eyes, she let herself enjoy this moment of freedom. There was nothing she could do but be swept along through the growing night. She breathed in the summer evening, rich with the smell of water and pine trees and campfires on the beach, and realized that she felt young and alive for the first time in years.
It was as if she’d been untethered, freed from more than a dark, damp root cellar. She’d been abducted from her regimented, goal-oriented life and lost all control. She couldn’t see the future any more than she could see farther than what the motorcycle’s headlight illuminated ahead. Why not throw caution to the wind? Or maybe she no longer felt terrified because she’d used up all her terror sometime during the last almost twenty-four hours.
She closed her eyes and let the summer night blow past, knowing this might be as good as it got, especially if Thorn was taking her to the cops. Or worse, Franklin Davenport. Who would ever believe she wasn’t involved in all this?
Geneva Davenport, she thought. Once she contacted Geneva at the resort where JJ had booked her a suite for two weeks, this would be all cleared up.
Even as she thought it, she knew it wouldn’t be that easy. But it would definitely be a place to start since she was apparently the only one who knew where Geneva was.
Right now the woman was probably sitting by a pool in Palm Springs, sipping a drink adorned with an umbrella without a care in the world. Geneva didn’t even know she was in trouble and that a lot of dangerous men were looking for her.
Not yet anyway.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
THORN SLOWED THE motorcycle to turn into the out-of-the-way bar and grill somewhere near Columbia Falls. A neon beer sign blinked through the pines. Only a few pickups were parked out front. He pulled around back, out of sight of the highway, and cut the motor. In t
he quiet that followed, he could hear cars on the highway. But none of them braked and turned in as he felt JJ lift her cheek from his back and take her arms from around him.
He turned to watch her climb off the bike, her gaze on the weather-beaten siding on the run-down bar.
“A friend of mine just bought this place. Him and the bank,” Thorn said. “He hasn’t started fixing it up yet.” He glanced toward the short row of cabins even farther back in the pines. “Come on,” he said as he dismounted and started for the cabin that had the number three on it, only the three was hanging upside down by one nail. “It’s not as fancy as you’re used to,” he said as he pushed open the door.
She smiled at the inside joke. A closed-up scent wafted out as he reached in to snap on the light. It wasn’t as bad as he’d expected. Then again, he figured his friend had cleaned it up for him. The bed was made, and the cabin looked as if it had been recently scrubbed down.
He shoved her duffel bag at her. “Here, you left this behind at the house.” If he wanted to make her feel guilty, he had.
She looked like she might cry as she took it. “Thank you. And thank you for getting me out of there.” She shuddered and bit down on her lower lip.
He nodded, unable to imagine how scared she would have been down in that hole. As they stood there, he wondered if he should say something about the kiss. Maybe apologize, although he wasn’t sorry. “Toss your duffel on the bed and let’s go over to the bar. I don’t know about you, but I could use something to eat. It’s been a long day.”
JJ nodded, stepped in to drop her bag on the bed. He watched her dig out a brush. “Mind if I jump in the shower real quick?”
Why hadn’t he thought of that? “Sure. Sorry.”
“I’ll make it fast.” She headed for the bathroom. When she came back out only minutes later, he could see that she’d corralled her thick blond hair into a ponytail. She looked young, her cheeks flushed from the wild ride and the wind, her blue eyes bright as the summer sun. He felt an ache in his belly, wondering if he’d ever been that young even though he wasn’t that much older than her.
