by Linda Conrad
The flame off that heat damned near burned his fingers. Quickly withdrawing his hand, he brought it back to his side and cursed under his breath.
Man, this afternoon of conversation between the two of them might turn into the biggest trial of his life. He couldn’t touch her like that again. Any more skin-against-skin contact would drive his body beyond control.
While they trudged across the hot asphalt, she turned her head to look in every direction. Then as they climbed the outside staircase to their room, she nodded toward a couple of cowboys strolling across the lot toward a row of pickups.
“Have you noticed those two guys before?” she asked.
“Can’t really say. They could be every cowboy or truck driver we’ve run into all day.”
She stood aside as he unlocked the room. “I think I’ve seen them today. A couple of times. But maybe I’m just on edge and thinking that every man I see is watching me.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. Turning again, he spotted the two just as they climbed into a pickup and drove off. He memorized the make and model just in case.
Smiling to put her at ease, he let her into the room. “Wouldn’t doubt for a moment that every man we run into is watching you. You’re a beautiful woman. I’d do nothing but watch you, too, if I thought I could get away with it.”
That brought a smile to her lips and lit up her whole face. Whew! Enthralled by how beautiful she looked as she smiled, he almost tripped over his own feet. Now he’d have to think of lots of other ways of making her smile.
Their room wasn’t much, but he hoped they wouldn’t be there for long. A double bed. One chair. A shower stall and toilet. It would do.
Closing the blackout drapes, he shut out the hot afternoon sun. The airconditioner grumbled, groaned to life and blew cool air into the room.
After stacking their things in a corner, he waited for her to choose a spot to sit. She picked the chair. Probably just as well.
He smashed a lumpy pillow behind his back and made himself as comfortable as possible on the bed. “You need anything?”
“Not a thing. Except a ride out of here, I guess.”
“It’s coming.” He noted that her fingers strummed against her thighs. “Impatient, aren’t you? You sound like my big brother, all the time wishing for his life to run faster and faster. We’re safe here temporarily. Can’t we just sit quietly for an afternoon and get to know one another?”
She lifted her chin and looked down her nose at him. “I would bet your brother doesn’t have a murderer stalking him. That makes a big difference in how long I’m willing to wait.”
Drawing in another breath of air, she pursed her lips as if in thought before going on. “You’ve mentioned having a brother once before. Do you have many brothers and sisters?”
“Just the one older brother and a younger sister. They both have big families of their own now. But every time I see my brother, he still fidgets whenever he sits, and runs everywhere instead of walks. Having his own business and four kids hasn’t changed him a bit.”
“But you still see him. That’s nice.”
At last. An opening to get her talking about her past.
“So, do you have brothers and sisters?”
Her face grew dark, her eyes sad. “I had a foster brother named Raul. I cared about him more than I can say. I even became a Hotshot because that’s what he loved doing. He was killed fighting the great Rocky Mountain fire.”
She looked so forlorn he almost went to her. But he stopped himself in time. These few precious minutes had to be reserved for talking.
Still, he wasn’t at all happy about causing her pain, even remembered pain. This was no way to keep the smile on her face.
No wonder she seldom talked about her past.
But he must plow ahead. He had to know the rest. And just maybe she needed to talk about the rest. Get it out so she could move on and stop being ridiculously afraid of an entire state.
“You said Raul was your foster brother? Does that mean you’re a product of the ‘system’? What about your real parents? Where are they?”
“That’s a long and not very interesting story.”
“What else have you got to do?”
For a moment, her gaze darted around the room like a cornered animal that was desperate to run from a dangerous situation. Damn, he didn’t like doing things like this to her. It made him feel like scum. But that couldn’t be helped. He needed this information too badly.
So, he waited.
Finally she settled down and apparently gave up her reluctance to talk. “Since you did save my life, I guess I have to trust you. But if I tell you this, you must promise not to tell anybody. Not anyone. And not ever.”
“I promise.” How bad could this be?
His imagination had been running wild for days now. Had she been arrested in Texas once? Was she running from the law and that was why she didn’t want to call them for help?
“Okay,” she began hesitantly. “But first I need a glass of water.”
“I’ll get it.” He went into the bathroom and was pleased to find machine-wrapped plastic cups instead of glass. At least that would be a little more sanitary.
Good grief, he thought as he disposed of the paper. He’d obviously let himself become far too involved in this business of being a doctor when he couldn’t even get a drink of water without considering the germs.
Disgruntled but still determined, he filled the cup and gave it to her. As she thanked him, her mouth turned up at the corners in a half smile and his heart skipped a beat.
It seemed impossible to conceive of this beautiful woman being wanted by the law. That just couldn’t be true. Not his Nina Martinez.
She took a long, slow sip of water and then a deep breath. “Well, first off, I’ve been using an alias since I was a kid. My real name is not Nina Martinez.”
Chapter 5
Nina was tired of keeping secrets. Pushed to her limit and not able to use her body as usual to power through, she needed to confide in someone. And Josh—Josh made her want to trust someone.
He looked stunned by her admission that the name she’d been using had been made up. “What name were you given at birth?” He sat straight up and glared at her.
His reaction made her wonder if trusting him really would be her smartest move. But she’d already started this and needed to share with someone. No, not just with someone—with him.
“Um…I don’t know.” His expression turned serious, hard, so she tried again. “I mean, I know what my first name used to be—or at least what I was called as a baby. But I never learned my real last name.”
“I thought you were going to tell me the truth.”
It was her turn to sit up straight, but her move was meant more as a pleading gesture. “I am. I will. Wait until you hear the whole story as I know it before you form an opinion.”
“Just tell me straight off if you have a criminal background and are running from the law.”
“No. And yes.”
He grimaced and folded his arms over his chest.
She held her hand out, palm up, begging him to reserve judgment until she finished. “Listen to what I have to say. I’m not a criminal. But I don’t have any real memories of my early childhood. Nothing much before the age of six or seven. And what I do recall is fuzzy and not so good. The only thing I can tell you is what I’ve been told.”
“What are your first memories?”
“A woman named Yolanda was my housekeeper and nanny. She’s the first person I can really recall. Yolanda was good to me. But she only worked for my adoptive parents and didn’t have any control over what happened to me.”
“Okay. What was your adoptive name then?”
“The couple that adopted me called me Courtney. They lived near L.A. and their last name was Chandler. But Yolanda always called me niña when it was just us. That name means little girl in Spanish and it kinda stuck.”
Josh’s expression began changin
g from wary to curious. “So Courtney Chandler is what you went by in school?”
“I didn’t go to school. I had home tutors. My adoptive parents were always too afraid to send me to regular school.”
“Why afraid? You’re going to have to explain that.”
She wasn’t too sure she could ever explain the Chandlers or why they did what they did. But she supposed she’d gotten this far into the story and should try.
“The Chandlers told me I couldn’t go to school like other kids because I didn’t have the right papers. I’ve never had a birth certificate.”
Josh twisted up his mouth for a second. “Come on. You had to attend college to be accepted into the Hotshots. They wouldn’t have taken you without proof of birth.”
“That comes later in the story.” She felt herself grinning. “Patience, Dr. White. I’ll get to it.”
His eyes twinkled for a second, but he still didn’t smile at her. “Tell it your way, then. What reason did the Chandlers give you for not having a birth certificate or some other proof of who you are?”
She hated thinking about this part of her story. It always gave her the chills. But…no choice now.
“The story they told was that I was adopted illegally. You see, the Chandlers were filthy rich and had wanted a little girl so badly that they didn’t much care how they got one. Their lawyer found me through illegal channels, and saved me in the nick of time from a very bad situation.”
“That’s quite a story.” Josh took a deep breath. “Did anyone ever say what kind of situation it was?”
She couldn’t sit still anymore. Standing, she began pacing the short distance to the door. The urge to run was back and stronger than ever.
“The only thing I know for sure is that I originally came from Texas.” Vague memories, or maybe just dreams, of horses and men with cowboy hats had convinced her that much of the story must be true. “And the woman who turned me over to the lawyer for money swore to him that I had been abused as a baby by my birth family.”
“Who was the woman?”
“She claimed to be my aunt. My savior, she said.” Nina moved closer to where Josh still sat at the edge of the bed. “But the Chandlers told me their lawyer believed the woman was a drug addict and couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth.”
Heaving a loud sigh, Nina tried to steel herself for telling the rest. “Their family doctor confirmed that I did show signs of being beaten. Unset broken bones and old burn marks on my arms. That sort of thing. So no one was too eager to check out my supposed aunt’s story. They just wanted to keep me safe. And away from her and from Texas.”
“Have any of you ever tried to verify any of this?”
“Uh…” She clasped her hands in front of her to stem the sudden shakes. “No. The Chandlers always worried about the law finding me and taking me back to Texas. They’d been told that the FBI was looking for me and would put them in jail for the illegal adoption.”
Her whole childhood had been spent being petrified of discovery by her abusive family. Of being forced to go back to them. Of course, no one could force her to do anything now that she was an adult. But no sense stirring up muddy waters. She never wanted to see or hear from any of those people.
“Have you talked to the Chandlers about this recently?”
“I can’t. They died in a car accident when I was ten.”
“No way. Really?” Josh didn’t wait for confirmation but held out his hand. “Stop pacing. Come sit next to me while you finish the story. You’re starting to make me nervous.”
Nina only hesitated for a split second. Convinced Josh was completely trustworthy—she’d never felt so safe with anyone in her life—she moved closer. Besides, this might be as good an excuse as any for touching him again.
Climbing on the bed, she cuddled up close. He pulled her in to his chest and put an arm around her shoulders. Their position should feel intimate, sexy, but she was too tense to feel anything but comforted. Comfort, a friend, would have to do for the time being.
“There you go,” he said when she’d settled. “Now tell me the rest of your story. What happened after the Chandlers died?”
“Yolanda worried that the law might come and take me back to Texas. Plus, she was nearly hysterical about being sent back to Mexico herself and never seeing me again. She quickly packed us up and moved to a San Diego barrio where her son had been living with relatives. One of those relatives made both of us fake documents. I was finally given a birth certificate in the name of Nina Martinez.”
There. That was the bulk of the story. She’d been ashamed to tell some of it. Ashamed that she hadn’t been strong enough to confront her past before now.
Closing her eyes, she drew a deep, clean breath. Amazing how telling her story had made her feel a kind of lightness. It was as though sharing her past had been like sharing a heavy burden. She sure hoped Josh didn’t mind taking part of her load.
“There’s a lot more story to hear, I’ll bet.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “But you sound exhausted. You should rest. I’ve got you and we’re safe here. Why not take a short nap while we wait for the rental?”
“Maybe,” she murmured, already close to dropping off.
“Just one more question.” He urged her to snuggle closer. “You said you remembered a first name from your childhood. What was it?”
“A funny name.” Suddenly so tired she could barely talk, she managed to utter a few more words. “Cami. Isn’t that an odd one?”
Taking one more shallow breath, she finally released the rest of her tension and dropped into a deep, dreamless sleep.
*
Meanwhile in Chance County, Sheriff Lacie Chance stepped out of her cruiser and headed for the political fundraiser in the barnyard at her brother-in-law’s enormous main ranch house at the Bar-C. Before she’d gone very far through what seemed like a forty-acre pasture of trucks parked around Travis Chance’s place, her wonderful husband, Colt, met her with a cold soda in his hand and a sexy smile on his face.
He kissed her and Lacie immediately forgot about everything else but how much she loved her new married life.
After a long, warm kiss that left her breathless, Colt stepped back and handed her the soda. “You look exhausted. You’re working too hard. Or, maybe you need more help.”
“A few more kisses like that one and I might skip this fundraiser and forget about going back to work if you’ll take me home to bed.”
Grinning, he slipped his arm around her waist. “Sounds perfect. But I know you better than that. We’ve already had to shorten our honeymoon because you couldn’t take that much time away from the job.”
“I know and I’m still sorry. But I continue to have concerns about the wildfires burning in counties near to ours. State officials are calling them seventy percent contained in the next county over. And the wind has shifted away from Chance County. But you never know with wildfires.” She took a sip of soda and began strolling arm in arm with Colt, through the meadow toward the barnyard and the fundraising party.
“I wish we could find a professional fire chief to head up our volunteer fire department,” she told him wistfully. “Travis is willing to come up with the money to pay someone, but no one qualified wants to come to a place as isolated as Chance County, Texas.”
“Is that what’s been occupying all of your time?”
“No.” Lifting her chin to look up into the face of the dearest man she’d ever known, Lacie went on. “I’ve been investigating the murder of Deputy Jonas’s wife. And since the deputy is still on leave, taking care of things with his family, I’m also still short a man on the force.”
Colt slowed, tugged her close and whispered, “I’m not convinced that you shouldn’t be leaving this whole murder investigation to Sheriff Hunt. After all, the crime took place in his jurisdiction.”
Lacie stopped walking and lowered her voice, too, so no one could overhear. “Sheriff Hunt doesn’t seem to care a thing about the investigation. Whene
ver I ask, he says nothing has turned up at the crime scene. Well, no kidding. The whole place was scorched beyond recognition.”
“You think he could be doing more?”
“Sure. For one thing, I’m apparently the only one that’s been interviewing the neighbors. Rumors are rampant in that part of the county about Mrs. Jonas supposedly having an affair with some local big shot.”
She took another sip of soda and leaned in closer. “Secret affairs can be good motives for murder. Especially if the woman involved threatened to tell. I’m trying to get a lead on who the big shot might be.”
Colt slowly shook his head and the perpetual smile he wore disappeared. “His wife’s affair is gonna be bad news for your grieving deputy. But…uh…have you considered the possibility the big shot might’ve been Sheriff Hunt?”
“Have you seen Sheriff Hunt?”
That brought back Colt’s smile. “He’s here. Seems he’s a big buddy to our state senator. But I take it you consider him too old and…uh…too rotund to be a secret lover?”
“Definitely. I’m just hoping the murderer does not turn out to be one of Travis’s friends. He knows all the big-deal ranchers in the surrounding counties.”
Colt grimaced. “After running the Bar-C and most of Chance County for so many years, my brother knows everyone who is anyone in Texas. Any prominent person around here will turn out to be somebody he knows.”
Turning them back around toward the party, Colt continued walking. “Can I help you? Is there anything I can do? I hate to see you wearing yourself thin like this. Maybe you shouldn’t have come to this fundraiser. You don’t even know Richard Perez, our illustrious state senator.”
God, how she loved this man. “You’re sweet to offer help, but you have your hands full starting up the new county attorney’s office. Actually, I didn’t come to meet the candidate. I was hoping your brother Gage would agree to lend me a hand.”
