He nodded. “I remember.”
He should have known that Maggie wouldn’t forget about that. She had already proven to him that she was far too tenacious to allow the matter to drop no matter how busy she got. Or what the chief had said to both of them to get them to drop the investigation. It was obviously front and center on her mind.
“So when can we go?” she asked Jonah, her eagerness at war with the very tired look on her face.
“Tell you what,” Jonah suggested. “We get everyone organized and going at the next search site tomorrow, and then the two of us can take a trip over to the Corgan ranch.”
“To follow the map?” Maggie asked.
He knew better than to laugh at the eagerness he detected in her voice.
“To follow the map,” he told her. “Maybe between the two of us, we can find whatever it was that Adam was trying to direct your attention toward.” He thought back to the cryptic note she had shown him. The one her late ex-father-in-law had left her along with the map. “It would have been nice if he hadn’t resorted to riddles and just told you outright what it was he wanted you to find out there and just where you were going be able to find it.”
She agreed that would have made it so much easier, but at least they did have something to go on.
“Look, I’m surprised that James’s father even tried to reach out to me. I don’t think, in all the time that I was married to James, that his father and I had any sort of a conversation that lasted for more than a couple of minutes and was about anything that went deeper than just speculating about the weather.”
“And then he suddenly decides to put this on your shoulders?” He shook his head. It just didn’t make any sense. “That is definitely a mystery,” he agreed. Pointing toward the door right behind her, he ordered, “Go. Get to bed.”
Maggie laughed, taking no offense. Every bone in her body wanted to do as Jonah instructed. “You are going to make one hell of a father someday,” she told him.
He grinned at the thought. “I certainly hope so,” he freely admitted.
Exhausted though she was, his response caught her off guard. “You want kids?”
“Absolutely,” he said without any hesitation. “Two of each.” And then he reconsidered his answer. “No, make that four of each.”
“Four of each,” she repeated, overwhelmed by the thought of that many offspring. “You trying to lose your wife in the crowd?”
“No way. My parents had five of us and nobody ever got lost in that crowd,” Jonah told her in complete sincerity.
To each his own, Maggie thought. His family apparently had much better luck with kids. Hers, it seemed, hadn’t. Relations had broken down between her and her parents as well as between her and her sister. That had been a painful thing for her to endure. She didn’t know if she was up to rolling the dice on having kids and risking that sort of rejection, not again.
“Okay,” she declared as if that closed the subject they were discussing, however peripherally. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Right,” Jonah agreed genially. “You’d better go get some sleep before we wind up finding something else to talk about.”
She nodded, retreating and going into the bedroom. Maggie had a feeling that if she didn’t, Jonah would be proven right. The man was easy to talk to and they would continue to find things to talk about. If that happened, before they knew it, it would be morning.
Being groggy and going out to be part of the search and rescue team was nothing if not completely counterproductive. In that state, someone would probably wind up having to rescue them.
Squaring her shoulders, Maggie told him, “Good night.”
Jonah echoed the words back to her, the sound of his voice wrapping itself around Maggie, whispering a promise that was guaranteed to keep her warm until morning.
Maybe longer.
Chapter 8
Jonah, Maggie happily discovered, was a man of his word. The moment he had finished overseeing the coordination of the day’s rescue efforts and made sure that there were no new, unexpected emergencies festering in the wings, about to spring up, he turned toward her and said, “How do you feel about taking a ride out to Live Oak Ranch?”
Maggie had thought it was going to take him a lot longer before he said they could go. His question had caught her completely by surprise.
“Now?” she asked.
“Yes, unless you’d rather stay here and continue helping plow through all this dirt and rubble,” Jonah answered, gesturing around the chaotic area. They had made a great deal of headway, but they weren’t out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot.
“No, no,” she quickly assured him.
She knew that it was work that needed to be done and she was more than willing to help. But Maggie also had this deep sense of urgency that was all but twisting her insides into a knot, an urgency that made her feel she was on the brink of solving a puzzle that was bigger than she was given to believe.
“Now is good,” she told Jonah. Then she amended, “Now is perfect.”
“Then ‘now’ it is,” he responded, amused by her excitement as he led her over to his truck.
Trying to contain herself, Maggie climbed into the pickup truck. The moment she did, Jonah started the truck and they were on their way.
They traveled for over ten minutes and, at first, Maggie didn’t say anything because she thought that maybe she had somehow gotten turned around during the search and rescue excursion this morning. She wasn’t one of those people who was blessed with a powerful sense of direction that allowed her to find her way around even if she was moving in utter darkness.
But after another few minutes had gone by, Maggie became increasingly convinced that she wasn’t mistaken. Jonah was driving them back into town, the completely opposite direction from Live Oak Ranch.
This wasn’t making any sense to her. She shifted in the front seat to look at him.
“I thought you said we were going to Live Oak Ranch,” she said.
Jonah continued driving, keeping his eyes on the road. “We are.”
“No, we’re not,” she argued. “You’re driving back into Whisperwood,” she pointed out. Didn’t Jonah see that?
“I know,” he answered, his voice calm. “That’s where the horses are.”
“The horses?” she questioned, feeling increasingly lost. Had she missed something?
“Sure,” Jonah answered as if the reply was as plain as the nose on her face. “If we’re heading back to look around that tree you were clinging to when I happened by to rescue you,” he reminded her, still teasing her about the incident, “that’s some pretty rough terrain. We’ll make a lot better time getting there if we go on horseback.”
She blew out a breath. “Said the man who was practically born on the back of a horse.”
He laughed at the “voice-over” Maggie had just used to illustrate her objection to his idea. He wasn’t buying it. “This is Texas,” Jonah reminded her. “Everyone was born on the back of a horse.”
Obviously, he didn’t see the problem. “Not everyone,” she argued.
The road ahead was mercifully unobstructed so he could afford to look at her for a moment. Maggie had caught him completely by surprise. “You can’t ride a horse?”
She didn’t like the way that sounded. As if she was deficient in some way.
“I can get on a horse without falling off,” Maggie said defensively. Then she added, “Although it is kind of tricky.” She cleared her throat, looking straight ahead. “Most of the time I find another way to get from place to place—like using a four-wheel drive vehicle.”
“Horses are better when it comes to getting around on terrain that’s inhospitable.” In his opinion, that only made sense. And then a question occurred to him. “How did you manage to get up to that part of the ranch the day of the hurricane?�
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She shrugged. “I drove as far as I could and then when the going got really rough, I went the rest of the way on foot.” At the time, it hadn’t seemed like such a big deal.
Jonah’s brow furrowed as he thought over what she had just told him. He reviewed the scene in his mind when he’d gone out to search for her. “I didn’t see a car when I got there.”
Maggie frowned. “That’s because it was probably swept away in the flash flood,” she admitted ruefully. “I haven’t seen it since that day.” She turned her head toward him, the expression on her face daring him to lecture her.
Jonah thought it best to focus on the positive aspects. “Well, the threat of the flood is over and the waters have all been receding. If nothing unexpected happens, water levels should be back to normal within the week. Who knows?” he speculated. “Maybe your car’ll turn up.”
“Maybe,” Maggie echoed, although she really wasn’t holding out any hope that she was going to find it “washed up” somewhere. “But if it does show up, most likely it won’t be in any condition to be driven.” It would probably be far too waterlogged for that.
“And that is the reason why we’re going to go there on horseback,” he told her.
Which brought up more questions for her. “We’re going to be riding out on Cody?” she asked, remembering her rescue and how Jonah had brought her to his cabin with the two of them riding on his horse.
“I’m riding Cody,” he corrected. “You’ll be on Strawberry.” Before she could ask, he told her, “That’s one of the extra mounts the team brought with us. We use Strawberry and the others interchangeably when our own horses need to be switched out.”
“Strawberry?” Maggie repeated, the name giving her hope. “Is she gentle?”
“She has a good disposition,” Jonah assured her, adding, “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t put you on the back of a bucking bronco even if you told me you were an accomplished rider.”
That should have comforted her, Maggie thought, but it really didn’t. She saw the stable just ahead and instantly felt a knot forming in her stomach.
Pulling up the hand brake as he parked his truck, Jonah leaned in toward Maggie and told her confidently, “Don’t worry, you can do this.”
Maggie had never liked being thought of as inept, but she wasn’t the type to make a show of false bravado, either.
“Right. Easy for you to say,” she murmured, getting out.
“And easy for you to do,” he assured her, sensing that what Maggie needed was to have someone display unwavering confidence in her. He joined her outside the truck. “Cody and I will be right beside you.”
“Doing what?” Maggie asked. “Laughing?”
“I’m not planning on laughing,” Jonah told her so seriously that she believed him.
“Okay,” she answered haltingly as she followed Jonah into the stable. “I’ll try hard not to give you anything to laugh at.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he replied good-naturedly. “Tell you what, in the interest of time, I’ll skip teaching you the proper way to saddle a horse and just go ahead and saddle both horses for us—this time.”
She didn’t understand. That sounded rather ominous to her. “This time?” Maggie questioned.
“Yes,” he replied simply, taking his saddle and placing it on Cody. Maggie all but shrank against the stall’s walls. “The next time we go out, I’ll expect you to follow my directions—unless you already know how to properly saddle a horse?” He left his question up in the air, waiting for her to address it one way or another.
Lying would only get her into trouble. Besides, she had found that she didn’t like being on the receiving end of lies, so the idea of lying herself was rather off-putting to her.
Which meant that Maggie had no choice but to tell him the truth. “The few times I attempted to ride a horse, someone else saddled the horse for me.”
Jonah nodded. “I thought as much,” he said, but there was no note of superiority in his voice, no condescension, either. As far as he was concerned, Jonah was just telling her his assumptions on the matter.
Maggie moved to one side, allowing Jonah to have unobstructed access to the horse he’d told her she would be riding. This way, he could saddle the mare for her quickly.
Jonah’s movements were smooth, she observed, almost as if he didn’t even have to think about them. He just went ahead and did what needed to be done. He had probably been doing this all his life, Maggie mused.
Jonah saddled both horses in less time than it would have taken her to saddle just the one. But then, given what he did for a living, that only seemed natural.
Finished, Jonah held on to Strawberry’s reins as he turned toward Maggie.
“Okay,” he announced, “your horse is all ready to go.”
Maggie wasn’t aware of running the tip of her tongue along her very dry lips, but Jonah was. He could almost feel himself being drawn in as he watched her. Not only that, but he found himself fighting a very strong urge to sample those very same lips.
“That makes one of us,” she murmured moving a little closer.
“C’mon,” Jonah urged. “I’ll give you a boost up,” he offered. “Hold on to the reins.” He handed them over to her. Their hands brushed and it occurred to him that her fingertips were absolutely icy. She was really nervous about doing this, he realized. “Put one foot into the stirrup and then swing the other leg over the back of the horse,” he coached. “I’ll be right here.”
She followed instructions, almost freezing in midmotion. She felt his hand lightly making contact with her posterior, just enough to get her to complete the mount without an incident—or falling.
“Getting on the horse isn’t the problem,” she told him once she was finally seated in the saddle. “Staying on the horse, however, might be.”
He wanted to get moving, but not at the cost of having something happen to Maggie. She badly needed to build up her confidence.
“Then we’ll take it slow,” he promised her.
Watching Jonah swing effortlessly into his own saddle, Maggie couldn’t help thinking that he was the very picture of ease as he sat astride Cody.
“Keep a light—but firm—hold on the reins and press your knees against Strawberry’s thighs,” he instructed. “Remember,” he reminded her seriously, “you’re the one in charge.”
“In charge. Right,” Maggie laughed dryly at the idea. “I’m not sure that Strawberry’s aware that she got that memo.”
“Then make her aware of it. Don’t worry,” Jonah said as if he could read Maggie’s thoughts. “Strawberry expects to be directed around.”
Maggie sincerely had her doubts about that. “You sure about that?” she questioned. She wasn’t the type to impose her will on others, that included horses.
“I’m sure,” he answered. “But that doesn’t mean that she’s not going to try to test you.” He thought of another way for her to approach the problem. “Think of Strawberry as if she was a kid. Kids expect to be told what to do, but that doesn’t stop them from trying to test the boundary lines that have been drawn around them.”
The analogy amused Maggie. He might actually have something there. “Like I said, you’re going to make a good father someday.”
Holding her breath, Maggie tested what he’d told her to do and pressed her knees against the mare’s flanks. In response, the animal sped up a little.
“Hey, it worked,” Maggie cried in surprise.
“Told you.” Jonah grinned, pleased. “Just keep telling yourself that you’re the one in charge. If you believe it,” he stressed, “Strawberry will believe it.”
Maggie still had her doubts about that, but she was a little more willing to give it a try—especially with Jonah riding beside her. She had absolutely no doubts that if something were to go wrong, he would jump in and rescue her. After all, it was in
his nature. He had already done it once. Rescuing her from a runaway horse had to be a lot easier than finding and rescuing her from the ravages of a hurricane.
* * *
“You look more confident,” Jonah observed several minutes later as they made their way toward the tree that Adam Corgan had singled out on the map he had sent along with his posthumous note.
“That’s all your doing,” Maggie responded. She wasn’t about to accept any compliments that she felt she hadn’t really earned.
“No, it’s not,” he countered. “I could talk myself blue in the face, telling you what to do and how to do it. But you’re the one who took that advice and put it to use. So, the way I see it, the credit belongs strictly to you.” He gave her a penetrating look. “So just accept it.”
The smile that formed slowly on her lips made Maggie beam. The expression turned a beautiful woman into something even more. It made her into someone who could create an ache inside him.
Rousing himself, Jonah shifted his attention back to the reason why they were out here in the first place, searching for clues about someone who possibly didn’t even exist.
“You think this is a fool’s errand, don’t you?” she asked him, her question breaking into his thoughts.
Jonah framed his reply cautiously. “I’d say it’s too soon to tell.”
“But if you had to make a guess?” Maggie pressed.
“Before I did that,” he qualified, “I’d want the answer to other questions.” He saw her raise an eyebrow. “Like why now? Why send you on this scavenger hunt without even telling you what it is you’re looking for? Why is the only thing that the dearly departed did specify is that whatever you find—if you find it—will provide a ‘truth’ that will make his brother, a convicted six-time serial killer, ‘free’?” he asked. The missive in the note didn’t make any sense to him. “Is ‘free’ just meant in the poetic sense, or is there actually something there that would tell us that Elliott Corgan is really not guilty of all those murders? Those are the questions I want the answers to,” he told her.
Cowboy's Rescue (Colton 911 Book 1) Page 8
