“The Whitaker men were waiting for us, and opened fire immediately. Suddenly Johnny appeared out of nowhere, screaming for them to stop shooting so he could rescue his mother. He was out of uniform, and the feds didn’t recognize him—except for his strong family resemblance to the other Whitaker men.”
His words died in his throat, and his pulse pounded in his ears. He could hear again the screams and the rattle of gunfire, smell the acrid stench of cordite, see the blood and Johnny’s sightless eyes staring at the cloudless blue of the Carolina sky while Dylan held his hand as he died.
He stopped, unable to go on. The ticks of the clock thundered in the silence. Jennifer didn’t move.
After several minutes, Dylan continued. “Mrs. Whitaker and Johnny were both killed in the cross fire. Whitaker and his older sons were captured, tried and convicted. They’re all serving life terms in federal prison.”
He shook his head, overwhelmed with a sadness he would never lose. “If Johnny hadn’t lied to me about his family’s involvement—if I’d known the truth, maybe I could have worked out a plan that would have saved Mrs. Whitaker and spared Johnny.”
“It wasn’t your fault—”
“I was there when it happened, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.”
“Johnny made his choice, for whatever reason. Maybe he thought he was protecting his mother. Maybe he had a plan of his own he didn’t have time to carry out.”
He hung his head and bit back tears. “But I’ll never know for sure. All I know is that my best friend lied to me, and now he’s dead.”
He felt her move beside him, and in an instant she had settled on his lap with her arms around him, drawing him close in the warmth of her embrace. He yielded to her caress, buried his face in the hollow of her neck, absorbed her heat and used her supple body as a shield against the numbing coldness that enveloped him. The fragrance of honeysuckle scattered the vestiges of gun smoke and blood from his memory. His muscles relaxed. His breathing slowed.
He didn’t know how long they held each other. The clock struck the quarter, then the half hour, and still they didn’t move. Then, gently, she drew back, placed her hands on either side of his face and raised her lips to his. Her kiss at first was comforting, succor to his pain, blissful alleviation of the hollow ache in his soul.
She tasted of sweet herbs and honey, and her scent infused his senses. Her soothing warmth turned to heat, her tender touch to electricity. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer, savoring the taste of her, the weight of her in his arms. His heart thudded with excitement, and he could feel her heartbeats pounding beneath the softness of her breasts pressed against his chest.
Suffused with sudden desire, he slid his hands beneath her sweater and felt the heat of her bare skin against his palms, but his touch apparently broke the trance between them, and she pulled away.
The green of her eyes was smoky with desire, her lips reminded him of a bruised blossom and high color stained her cheeks, but he couldn’t read the expression on her face.
“Maybe I should apologize,” he offered, “but I won’t say I’m sorry.”
Unexpectedly, she threw back her head and laughed. “No need for an apology. Not unless that kiss was another bet with Tommy Bennett.”
“No way,” he said. “And no way was that kiss anything like our first one.”
She seemed agitated then, as if in stating there’d been two, he was implying there might be more. She jumped to her feet. “I’d better check on Sissy.”
He heard her rush into the bedroom, then heard the bathroom door close behind her. He probably shouldn’t have kissed her. Not like that. She’d only been showing sympathy, and he’d wanted more.
Dumb move.
But he’d learned a long time ago—and the hard way—that things already done could not be undone and had to be dealt with. With a sigh, he stacked the dirty dishes on the tray and carried them into the kitchen.
When she returned from the bathroom a short time later, hair combed, face scrubbed and fresh lipstick applied, he had almost finished the washing-up.
As if nothing unusual had transpired between them, she took a clean towel from a drawer, removed a soup bowl from the drain rack and began wiping it dry. “Sissy’s sound asleep.”
He nodded, dried his hands. “Guess I’d better shove off then.”
She hesitated, as if debating whether to ask him to stay. He hoped she would. He still hadn’t learned what caused the fear that flitted across her face when she was unaware he was watching.
Then, as if making up her mind, she nodded. “I’ll see you to the door.”
A few minutes later, he was cruising through Casey’s Cove on his way home. He wasn’t sorry he’d shared Johnny’s story with her, and he damned well wasn’t sorry he’d kissed her.
What he did regret was that he hadn’t kissed her again when he’d left, but her barriers had gone up once more, effectively closing off any advances on his part.
With a sigh, he turned into the driveway, parked in front of his dark and empty house and went inside to his lonely bed.
JENNIFER DIDN’T SLEEP that night. She lay awake, listening to the moaning wind and the clickety-clack of dry leaves scuttling across the roof, and wondering what to do next.
Her biggest dilemma was the mysterious stranger who had queried Raylene at the café. If the man had any inkling Jennifer was staying in Casey’s Cove, she wasn’t safe and needed to find a new hiding place immediately. A part of her urged her to get up, pack and flee as fast as she could.
But another part urged patience. The man might have believed Raylene and moved on, never to return to Casey’s Cove again. In that case, if she decided to stay put for a while, she was free to remain with Miss Bessie and Sissy, both of whom she’d grown fond of in the few short days she’d spent with them.
And she’d grown fond of Dylan Blackburn.
Too fond.
If she could have kicked herself lying down, she would have. She’d only meant to comfort him with her kiss, but it had turned into something much more than solace. She’d never responded with such intensity to any man, and it had taken all her self-restraint to break away. If she remained in Casey’s Cove, she’d see Dylan again. She’d kiss him again. Then he’d ask more questions that she couldn’t answer, and she would wish she hadn’t stayed.
As the sun crept over the mountain behind Miss Bessie’s mansion, Jennifer tossed in the massive Edwardian carved oak bed and socked her pillow. She should leave, but she wanted to stay, wanted a home, friends, family.
A life.
But her life was exactly what she might lose if she remained where the man on her trail could find her.
A high-pitched giggle at the foot of the bed snapped her out of her internal debate. Sissy McGinnis, barefooted and wearing a sunny yellow nightshirt, peered over the edge of the mattress, her blue eyes wide with laughter.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Jennifer greeted her.
“Hi.” The little girl turned suddenly shy.
“Are you hungry?”
Sissy nodded, and Jennifer reached down and swooped the child into her arms and under the covers. “How about breakfast at Raylene’s, and then I’ll read you the funny papers before time for Sunday school?”
“Can I have pancakes?”
Jennifer hugged the girl close. How could she leave Sissy now, when the child had just come to trust her? Sissy had already been traumatized by her mother’s hospitalization. Jennifer’s desertion would only add to that hurt.
“You can have all the pancakes you want,” she promised. “Now you stay here where it’s warm while I turn up the heat and run your bath.”
A couple of hours later, Jennifer, with Sissy beside her, sat in her favorite booth at Raylene’s, reading the Peanuts comic strip to the little girl.
Sissy laughed. “I like Snoopy. I wish I had a doggie.”
Raylene had already cleared their dishes. Now she slid the check toward Jennifer.
“Nice to see you laughing again, Sissy McGinnis. You having a good time?”
Sissy nodded. “I spended the night with Miss Jenny.”
Raylene grinned. “Looks like you got your appetite back, too. You ate three of Grover’s blueberry pancakes.”
“Be sure to thank him for me,” Jennifer said. “Not every little girl gets pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse.”
“You’re one of Grover’s favorites,” Raylene said, “and Sissy, too.”
“Raylene?”
“Need something else?”
Jennifer shook her head. “I was just wondering if you’d seen that tough-looking guy again, the one with the picture that looked like me?”
Raylene shook her head and gave Jennifer a probing look. “You sure you don’t know him?”
“Pretty sure. But will you let me know if he shows up again? Maybe I’ll track him down and make sure he’s no one I’m acquainted with.”
Jennifer didn’t like lying. Even worse, she didn’t like Raylene obviously knowing she was lying. But at least she’d asked the waitress to give her a head’s up in case the stranger showed up again in Casey’s Cove.
In case she decided to stay.
The peal of bells at the Baptist church, a white frame building on the promontory by the marina, broke through the morning quiet.
“Time for Sunday school, Sissy,” Jennifer said, glad for an excuse to end her discussion of the stranger. “Miss Bessie will be waiting for us.”
They attended Miss Bessie’s Sunday-school class for pre-school girls, and after church drove the old woman home and joined her for Sunday dinner. Later, Jennifer and Miss Bessie sat in rockers on the wide front porch overlooking the valley, while Sissy curled up for a nap in the porch swing.
“I understand you and Sissy spent the day with Dylan Blackburn yesterday,” Miss Bessie said.
Jennifer wasn’t surprised. Not much went on in Casey’s Cove that Miss Bessie didn’t know about. She filled her employer in on the details of her Saturday, omitting only Dylan’s story of his best friend’s death.
And the kiss she’d shared with Dylan.
“Must have done him a world of good,” Miss Bessie said with a firm shake of her white curls.
“What?” Jennifer, still thinking of Dylan’s kiss, blushed.
“You saw Dylan in church this morning?”
Jennifer nodded. He’d looked even more handsome than she remembered with the morning sun streaming through the tall Gothic window, burnishing his thick brown hair with a sheen of gold. They had nodded to each other and smiled when he entered, but she hadn’t talked with him.
“It’s the first time Dylan’s set foot in church since Johnny Whitaker’s funeral,” Miss Bessie said. “Ever since that poor boy died, Dylan’s cut himself off from people. Oh, he does his job. He’s too conscientious not to, but his heart hasn’t been in it. But this morning when I spoke with him after the service, he seemed almost like his old self.”
Jennifer had ducked out a side door after church, telling herself it was the quickest way to pick up Sissy in the nursery, but she’d really been avoiding running into Dylan. How could she decide whether to leave Casey’s Cove when she felt irresistibly drawn to a police officer, someone she should avoid like the plague?
Throughout Miss Bessie’s fried-chicken dinner, served by Estelle, the housekeeper, Jennifer had continued her internal debate. She had finally concluded her safest bet was to hit the road, and she was working up her courage to tell Miss Bessie she’d be moving on.
“My dear,” Miss Bessie continued, “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“For what?” Jennifer had been so lost in her own thoughts, she’d almost forgotten the elderly woman beside her.
“You’ve saved my life,” Miss Bessie said. “Until you arrived, I’d about given up. For the first time in my life, I was feeling old and worthless. But with your help, your youth and enthusiasm, I feel now like I’m good for another decade.”
“You’ll never be worthless to the people in this community, Miss Bessie, not with all you’ve done for them all your life.”
“But I had just about stopped doing,” Miss Bessie said with a wave of age-spotted hands. “But now, with you to help me, I can continue the work my father started here a hundred years ago.”
Jennifer swallowed hard. She couldn’t tell Miss Bessie she was leaving now, not after the woman’s impassioned speech of gratitude. “I enjoy working for you,” she admitted, knowing she spoke the truth.
“Good, because this coming week, with the Apple Festival approaching, I’m going to need more help than ever. First, you’ll need to supervise the construction of the booth where I sell my apple butter….”
Jennifer nodded dutifully to the long list of instructions, feeling torn between wanting to remain in the cove where she had been so readily accepted and wanting to flee the man who followed her. Maybe she could find someone else to help Miss Bessie, so she could make her getaway.
With a stretch and a yawn, Sissy woke from her nap and sat up in the swing. Jennifer glanced at her watch. “Ready to go see Aunt Millie, sunshine?”
Sissy nodded, and Jennifer gathered the child in her arms. “May I keep the car, Miss Bessie? I thought I’d take in a movie tonight.”
“Of course, dear. If I need anything, Estelle can drive me.”
Jennifer dropped Sissy off at her aunt’s, then continued down the highway toward Sylva. She grabbed a quick sandwich at a fast-food drive-through, then headed for the shopping complex where the theater was located. She was hoping a good movie would distract her from the back-and-forth argument going on in her head. She wasn’t any closer to making a decision, and the internal debate was wearing her out.
The movie, a romantic comedy, helped her relax—too much. Five minutes after the opening credits, she was sound asleep. She didn’t waken until the lights came on and the music soared when the movie ended.
Feeling groggy and disoriented, she hurried to her car. She was glad to see that the night was clear. Crossing the mountains with their narrow two-lane roads full of serpentine curves, switchbacks and narrow shoulders the only thing between the car and a steep drop was bad enough on a clear night. On a foggy night, the trip was close to suicide.
The traffic faded outside Sylva, and hers was the only car on the narrow road—
Until she crossed the gap where the road wound up the mountain toward Casey’s Cove.
Headlights appeared behind her, riding her bumper. She increased her speed as much as she could, but with most of the curves posting fifteen-mile-an-hour limits, she wasn’t willing to risk her life to satisfy the impatient driver behind her.
She couldn’t get her bearings very well in the darkness, but she was fairly certain there was no place for the car to pass her before she crested the mountain.
Doggedly maintaining her speed and adjusting her rearview mirror to keep the headlights from blinding her, she held the Mercedes on the road.
Suddenly, her car jolted. The driver behind her had tapped her bumper. She hit the accelerator only to slam on the brakes at the approach of a hairpin turn. The car behind her hit her again.
Thoroughly frightened, alone on the mountain road with no sign of other cars and only steep acres of forest on one side and dizzying cliffs on the other, she prayed the crazy driver behind her would wait until she could find a place to pull over and then pass and leave her alone.
She shifted into second gear and started up another incline. As she reached the peak of the hill, she could see the valley below, scattered with lights from farms and other buildings. Near the continental divide, the altitude was almost a mile high, and the drop from the road to the valley below at least half that distance.
Her palms sweated and slipped on the wheel. She dried one hand at a time on her jeans, then gripped the wheel, hoping the car behind wouldn’t shove her off the road and send her soaring into the valley below.
Suddenly the car pulled out from behind her and raced a
longside. Afraid to take her eyes off the treacherous road ahead, she didn’t look at it. With luck, it would pass her before another car rounded the curve and hit them head on. And when it did, she’d memorize the license plate and report the maniac to Dylan Blackburn.
The other car slowed slightly, throwing its headlights into her outside rearview mirror and almost blinding her. She heard its engine rev, and it was beside her again.
With a sudden twist of the wheel, the unknown driver rammed her front left fender with his car, knocking the Mercedes onto the gravel surface of the shoulder. Her tires spun on the loose rock, and she fought the wheel to get the car back on the asphalt.
Dear God, was he trying to kill her?
She thought immediately of Raylene’s stranger and feared he had found her. What better way to silence her than to kill her in a car crash?
With a vicious twist of the steering wheel, the vehicle beside her struck her again, forcing her off the road.
Before Jennifer could react, she felt the Mercedes go airborne. A scream ripped from her throat.
She was barely aware of the impact before her world went black.
Chapter Four
Dylan had just turned off the late news when his phone rang.
“Dylan,” Phyllis Dayton, the weekend dispatcher said. “Sorry to bother you on your night off, but we have a bad accident on the main highway. The boys could sure use your help.”
“On my way.” Dylan grabbed his keys and jacket and headed out the door, happy for a distraction from persistent thoughts of Jennifer Reid. He couldn’t understand why she affected him so strongly. Surely he wasn’t that enamored of a childhood dream. And he’d known plenty of other pretty women—but, he admitted grudgingly, none of them had touched his spirit the way Jennifer had. He wanted to spend more time with her, to kiss her again, more than that, to—
He wrenched his thoughts from the provocative woman and turned them toward the dispatcher’s call. He hoped no one had been injured in the wreck.
Stranger In His Arms Page 5
