by Laurie Paige
The hours passed, but still he held her. They danced slow and fast tunes. They laughed. He bought her a kir royale and an Irish coffee for himself.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen you drink anything alcoholic,” she murmured.
“This is my only tipple,” he admitted. “It’s good for a cold winter’s night.”
“This is August in Texas.”
“Yeah, heat and humidity.”
She wrinkled her nose at him, playful and smiling. He wanted to lean across the table and gather her into his arms for a long, long kiss.
His eyes must have conveyed his thoughts for her breath caught, then escaped between her parted lips. Her eyes darkened to smoky emerald while his blood ran thick and hot and urgent in him.
Words rushed to his tongue. Foolish words. He held them inside with an effort. Words signified nothing. Like the promises they made, they weren’t meant for believing.
Her lips formed themselves into a silent message. I love you.
He shook his head while darkness ate at him.
I love you. Insistent. Stubborn. Proud.
Hope and despair warred for his soul. Forcing a smile, he lifted her hand to his lips. “It’s midnight, Cinderella. Let’s go home before you find out the prince is a frog.”
“My prince is a knight,” she murmured.
She spoke so softly, he hardly heard the words with his ears. It was his heart that was hearing things now.
He paid the check and led her outside. Once in the battered truck, he cranked up and turned toward the suburbs of town. She didn’t ask about their destination, but sat there silent and watchful until he turned in his drive.
“Your house?” she finally asked.
“Yes.”
The word came out gruff, defensive. He leaned across and opened her door, then climbed out. She was standing on the drive when he came around the truck.
At his door, she hesitated, her eyes on his, open and honest in her reactions. “Memories,” she reminded him.
“They’re already inside.” He tapped his chest.
Her lips trembled. A hundred emotions flashed in her eyes before she stepped into the house. He followed, knowing he would pay for this night. And the price would be high.
The streetlight cast a glow over the silent rooms. He took her hand and led the way to the bedroom. Damn the price. He would have this night and the memories.
Taking her face between his hands, he gazed into her eyes, which were filled with wonder. An ache hit him. She was the sun, casting her radiance into the darkness that lived within him. He kissed her. She opened for him and let him take her sweetness until his knees grew weak.
At last he took her to his bed. There, in the spill of moonlight across the sheet, he made love to her, giving her anything she wanted from him…his body…his heart…his desperate hope for the future.
“Love, love,” she murmured, filling him with her splendor until he almost believed it was all possible.
Clint Lockhart quietly closed the door to the pickup, an action far from what he actually felt. He went in the front door of the bar in the strip mall. After ordering a beer, then taking the bottle with him, he went down the back hall toward the men’s room. Instead of using it, he went on out the back door and into the night.
He moved through the dark with quick, angry strides, his feet sure on the track he had followed to meet the beauteous Sophia many times over the years. At first it had amused him to toy with the wife of his brother-in-law. But now, the situation had become more complicated than simple sex.
He knocked on the door of the end room at the Moonlight Motel. It opened at once. He stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
“Did anyone follow you?” Sophia asked, her beautifully made-up face showing signs of strain as the past few weeks weighed on her.
“No.”
“You’re sure?” She risked a peek out the dusty metal blinds. “It’s quiet tonight. I don’t like it.”
“It’s Thursday. What do you expect?”
“That’s right. No cowboys or ranchers out on the town.” She yanked the drapes over the blinds and made sure the centers met so that no one could look in.
“Why all the caution?” he asked sarcastically. “That stupid cowboy you hired has already messed up but good.”
She raised her carefully shaped eyebrows in question.
“The fool shot out the tire on the FBI agent’s truck.” Clint gave in to anger and kicked the rickety chair out of the way as he paced the length of the room.
“It was a warning—”
“It was a damn dumb idea. Whose was it—yours?” He spun and glared at Sophia, who gave him one of her wide-eyed innocent looks as she settled on the side of the bed. Her skirt slipped up her thigh.
She kicked her heels off and lay back on the floral bedspread, her breasts high and tight against her blouse. “Of course not, darling. He thought the FBI was getting too close. He wanted to warn Ryan about what would happen if he didn’t cooperate.”
Clint stuck his hands on his hips. “Yeah? Is that a fact? What about the plan to lay low until the FBI agent packed up his toys and went home? You think he’s going to clear out with somebody shooting at him? He had Vanessa in the truck with him at the time. Ryan is fit to be tied.”
She shrugged. “Let him stew. It’ll make him more willing to pay up when we contact him again.”
Clint cursed in frustration. “You don’t get it. Overplay our hand, and we’ll all end up in the slammer.”
Smiling, she ran her hand down her side. “Are we going to argue all night?” Her eyes issued a blatant invitation.
He stopped and stared down at her lithe form curled sexily on the bed. She rubbed the inside of his leg with one delicate foot.
“All right,” he said, “here’s what we do. We make our move on Monday. Ryan can get the money out of the bank that afternoon and deliver it at dusk. That cowboy and his friend had better handle this right. Tell ’em to get gassed up and stock up an extra couple of five-gallon cans for the getaway. They’ll need food and water to hole up in the desert for two weeks. After that, we wait two months before meeting and splitting the ransom.”
“What about the FBI?”
“You think he’s going to leave now? Fat chance. We’ll have to work around him…or through him if he gets in the way.” His laughter was brief and harsh. “He won’t. He’s fallen for the daughter of the house.”
Sophia rose and ran her hands over his lean, tough torso. “Mmm, I love the feel of a hard, strong body.”
He grabbed a handful of blond hair and hauled her head back. “You understand what you’re supposed to do?”
Anger flashed in her eyes, then was gone. She nodded. He let her go.
“I’ve waited a long time for this,” he muttered. “Nothing is going to stand in my way, not the FBI, not the sheriff…” He smiled down at her. “Not even you, honey.”
She pouted at him. “We’re on the same side. We both want Ryan Fortune to pay. He will. Lots. He’s vulnerable where his precious offspring are concerned. He’ll pay to get his grandson back. I wish I could see him now.”
Clint laughed and threw himself down on the bed beside her. “Miserable bastard. Between the kidnapping and the divorce, we got him by the short hairs. He’ll do exactly what we tell him…or else.”
She laughed as she leaned over him. Her lips were warm and sweet. He forgot his anger.
Eleven
Vanessa woke and reached across the bed. It was empty. She yawned and opened her eyes to the new day, then glanced at the window of her room. From the brightness outside, she judged the sun to have been up for some time.
She and Dev had spent Friday, Saturday, and most of yesterday at his house in San Antonio. They had gone for long walks, had cooked all their own meals and shared every moment with each other, savoring each one.
As if it might be the last.
She had seen that in his eyes. Pulling her knees to her chest,
she sighed contentedly. They now had the memory of one wonderful weekend to carry inside them the rest of their lives. A sweet, warm memory of perfect happiness.
Today was Monday. Time to get back to reality. Dev was probably meeting with her father. Rising, she showered, then dressed in tan jeans with a green and tan striped blouse. She slipped a green stretchy band over her head to hold her hair out of her face.
After selecting a muffin and orange juice from the sideboard in the breakfast room, she hurried to the office.
“Come in,” her father said when she knocked.
She was glad to see Lily inside when she entered. Dev stood at the window overlooking the inner courtyard, a mug of coffee in his hand. He nodded when she glanced his way.
“How are you?” she said warmly to the other female.
She felt a rush of emotion for her father and his fiancée, for all those years they had spent apart and the complications of the divorce that plagued them now. Lily surely became discouraged at times, but she was always calm and cheerful around the family.
“I’m fine,” Lily replied. “You look especially lovely this morning.” Her eyes twinkled, and her tone was affectionate and approving as she spoke.
“Thank you.” Warmth flooded Vanessa’s heart and reached her face. She tried to tamp the glow into submission, but it bubbled inside her like the spring that fed the fountain.
Lily’s smile widened. Vanessa felt as if they shared a wonderful secret.
Dev looked on, his eyes gathering her in until she felt his perusal as a caress. Unable to stay away from him another second, she crossed the room and kissed his cheek. He didn’t move a muscle, but the pupils of his eyes widened and a faint flush spread lightly over his face.
She refrained from laughing. He was never quite sure how to handle her love for him, and she wasn’t going to hide it just to spare his blushes.
“Please. Don’t let me interrupt,” she requested. She chose a seat close to her love and started on her breakfast.
“I was explaining,” her father said, bringing her into the conversation, “that the ransom money is available. The bank has agreed to furnish the bills in twenties, fifties, or hundreds, whatever the kidnappers want, given an hour’s notice.”
Dev snorted. “I hope the perps realize how large a package fifty million dollars is in twenty-dollar bills.”
“Two point five million individual bills,” Ryan said, his mouth thin with anger. “A half million, if they’ll take it in hundred dollar denominations.”
“It’ll take a couple of large duffel bags.” Dev refilled his mug.
“I’m going into town,” Ryan informed them. “Lily has some work to do. I have a lunch appointment with my son at one. I’ll probably stay in town tonight.”
“You’ll have your cell phone with you?” Dev asked.
“Yes. And I have your number if anything comes up.”
Her father came around the desk and stopped in front of them. To her surprise, he bent and took her face in his gentle clasp. As a child, she’d thought he had the biggest, strongest hands of anyone in the entire world.
Tears stung her eyes and nose when he kissed her on the forehead. “Take care,” he murmured, a world of love in his eyes. He ushered Lily out.
Silence filled the room. She managed a catchy little laugh. “Sometimes I forget how much I love my father.”
“And how much he loves you?”
She nodded and blinked the moisture from her eyes. Dev ran a finger along her eyelashes on one side. Her heart squeezed into a knot at the look in his eyes.
He hadn’t repeated the magical words of love to her, but in his eyes…oh, there was tenderness and caring and such terrible yearning. He fought showing his feelings, but love was reflected in his every touch, every glance, in his gentleness and his vast patience with her.
“How I wish I could show you my heart,” she whispered.
“Would it be the heart of a coquette?” he teased, now shielding his thoughts behind the curtain of restraint.
“Did you read that story?”
“A long time ago.”
“At the center of her heart was the image of the man she had loved all those years.” She touched his brow. “Just as you are the center of mine.”
The door opened at that moment. Matthew strode in. “I have to be at the hospital in an hour. I’m thinking of moving back to the house in town to be closer to my patients. What do you think?”
Vanessa sized up her brother. He was agitated, a faint flush of anger on his cheeks, his mouth crimped at the corners as if he held in a torrent of emotion. Another quarrel with Claudia?
“I don’t see a problem,” Dev told him. “We have all the phones covered in case of a call.”
Matthew hesitated, looked from one to the other, then nodded and walked out.
“He’s so desperately unhappy,” she murmured, worry eating at her as they listened to the sound of her brother’s footsteps recede, then the slam of the front door.
“It’s a hard situation for a parent.”
“For all of us.” She sighed and finished off the juice. “What are you going to do today?”
He shook his head. “We’ve followed every lead we have. Now we wait. The kidnappers will contact us soon. They’re growing impatient.”
She visibly jumped when the phone rang. Dev motioned for her to get it. “Hello?” Her voice trembled.
“Vanessa? This is Sophia. Is your father there?”
“No, he’s on his way to town. To see his attorney,” she added, then was ashamed of the barb. Sophia, she mouthed to Dev. He whipped out his cell phone and punched in a number.
Sophia paused. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything on the kidnapping?”
“No.”
“I know we haven’t been close, but I am sorry about this. It must be terrible on the family.”
“Yes, terrible,” she agreed, and wondered why her stepmother had really called.
“Is the FBI agent still in residence?”
Vanessa paused. “He’s here in the office. Do you wish to speak to him?”
“Uh, no. I just wondered if anything…well, I’m sure it would be on the news if anything had happened.”
“Keep her talking,” Dev murmured. He spoke into the cell phone in a low tense tone.
Surprised, Vanessa cleared her throat and asked, “How are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m fine. Well, I should go—”
“Has there been any action on the farm bill there in Austin? You are in Austin, aren’t you?”
“Uh, yes, at the Austin Arms, of course. I have a hair appointment. I must run. Give my best to your father.” She hung up.
Vanessa put her hand over the receiver and looked a question at Dev. He held up a finger, signaling for her to wait a minute.
“Okay,” he said into the phone, then looked at her. “Okay, hang up.”
She did so and watched him, perplexed.
“Where did she say she was?” he asked.
“In Austin.”
He shook his head. “She’s in San Antonio, but we couldn’t make the trace to the actual phone. We know what exchange she was using, though.”
“She has a room at the Palace Lights in San Antonio.”
He relayed that information via his phone. “Right. Okay, thanks for trying.” He hung up. “She wasn’t in that area, either.”
“She was fishing for information on my dad. She’s done that before, especially when she thinks Lily is with him. It’s odd. She’s unfaithful, but she goes into a rage if he sees another woman.”
“Perhaps she doesn’t like the competition,” Dev suggested.
She nodded absently. “I probably should work with the stallion before he forgets all Cruz and I have taught him.”
“Go ahead. I’ll stay here in case there’s a call.”
When she hesitated, Dev took her by the shoulders and pointed her toward the door.
“Get some fresh air,” he advised. H
e kissed her in the vicinity of her ear. “I’ve got papers to go over.”
She wondered about his other case but didn’t ask. If she asked, he would tell her, but he wouldn’t volunteer information. In time, he would come to trust her. For a second she wondered how much time she had…
He hooked a finger under her chin and kissed her on the lips. She clung to him for a minute, then left.
At the stables, she found Cruz in the office. He was on the phone with the supplier of minerals and vitamins for the horses. “No, no additives, no hormones. You know how the Double Crown feels about that.”
She smiled at the way all of them referred to the ranch as if it were a person.
“Wait a minute, I need a piece of paper.” Cruz glanced around the desk surface, which was cluttered with catalogs of every sort a rancher might need.
She spotted a notepad on the floor behind the desk, mostly hidden behind the thick wooden leg. Dropping to her knees, she reached under the old oak desk that had belonged to her grandfather, Kingston Fortune, and retrieved the pad. She tossed it to the desk, but Cruz had already written the information from the supplier on the margin of a catalog.
“Okay, I’ll get back to you,” he said, and hung up. “Why can’t suppliers deliver what they’re supposed to deliver on the day they promised to deliver it?” he growled.
Vanessa shrugged. “I’m going to work in the ring for a while with the black. Anything else we need to do?”
“No.”
She collected her tack and saddled up the stallion. He shook his head, ready for a run. “Not today,” she soothed. “It’s time you learned to curb that impatience and do the work asked of you.” She led him into the ring.
Within ten minutes, the stallion settled down and followed each command she gave with a willingness that pleased her. If only certain other males would be as willing…
She smiled at the thought of Dev obeying a bit and bridle. He’d put anyone straight who tried to rope him in. Still smiling she took the black out into the pasture for a good run before they ended the session.
Dev was still in the office when Rosita came in. “I have the mail,” she said.
