by Brant, Kylie
She deliberated for only a frantic moment before turning onto the road in front of her house. No doubt he was up on the roof in the middle of the melee, and she definitely wasn’t going to take the time to join him up there and explain. She could call him from the hospital. Biting her lip, she prayed to God that she wouldn’t be too late.
She turned off onto a secondary road and began driving toward the Golden State Freeway. The freeway would help her avoid the traffic snarls that seemed to occur like clockwork. Worry gnawed at her as she drove. Her mother hadn’t suffered an attack in over two years. The intervening time had lulled Raine into a more complacent frame of mind. It had been easy to let herself believe that the worst was behind them and that Lorena Michaels would actually get better. Wiping her eyes, Raine glanced in her rearview mirror. A large blue car was following her closely, and she eased up on the gas a little, intending to let the driver by. The car sagged back.
She bit her lip, her attention returning to the road ahead of her, cursing the amount of time it would take her to reach the hospital and her mother. Her foot pressed down more firmly on the gas.
A bump against her rear fender jolted her from her worry then, and her gaze flew up, shocked. The car in back of her was on her tail again, and even as her hands tightened reflexively on the wheel, the car banged into her again. Despite her grasp on the wheel, her car pulled to the right.
“What’s the matter with you, are you crazy?” she shouted at the reflection in the rearview mirror. She righted the car and looked wildly about but there were no other vehicles in the vicinity. She sped up, hoping to outrun the lunatic in back of her. But the other car kept pace, then pulled alongside her. She sent wide eyes over to the car, and her view of the driver made the situation seem even more unreal. Her attention was jolted to her own car as the blue vehicle started edging toward her own. Instinctively, Raine lifted her foot from the gas and started to brake, but she wasn’t able to avoid the collision.
The car hit the side of hers with a screeching sound as metal ground against metal. The Lexus was far smaller than the other vehicle and lurched violently to the right. She pulled the wheel to the side frantically, barely able to stay on the road. She threw one more panic-stricken gaze at the other car before it hit her again. This time she slammed on the brakes as she felt her right wheels hit the sandy shoulder of the road. This pulled the car even harder to that side. Before she had a chance to react the blue car slammed into hers again. Raine pulled on the wheel, but the force of the impact sent the Lexus around in a dizzying circle before it flew into the ditch at the right of the road and crashed into a palm tree.
Seconds or minutes ticked by before Raine was aware of anything again. She raised her head groggily, suddenly realizing that it had been resting upon the air bag, which the accident had activated. Glass from the broken windshield littered the dash and the front seat. Shards dropped from her body as she sat up straighter, and she raised a shaky hand to her temple. Her shoulder harness hadn’t prevented her from hitting her head hard on the side window. Releasing the button for the seat belt with trembling fingers, she opened her car door and stumbled out, almost sprawling to the ground. She stood up on unsteady legs, swinging her gaze up and down the road frantically. The blue car had vanished.
She blinked, disoriented. The sunshine was still pouring down brightly, birds were still flying overhead. Everything seemed bizarrely normal in the world. But things weren’t normal at all. Just moments before she could have been . . .
She could have been killed.
Her teeth started to chatter despite the warm air, shock setting in, adding to the chill skating up her flesh. She was never sure how much time passed before she fumbled in her purse for her cell to call 911. Afterwards she leaned against the fender, her arms hugging herself tightly. She shuddered at the thought of explaining her actions to McCauley. Whoever had been in that old blue car had deliberately tried to push her off the road.
She wondered numbly if that was all the driver had set out to do.
The hospital doors swung open wildly as Mac pushed his way in. Stopping at the front desk, he asked a few terse questions of the nurse standing there, before she pointed to a waiting room behind him. He turned and his ice blue gaze swept the area swiftly before catching sight of Raine sitting in the corner with another nurse and a state trooper. As he strode over to them, a muscle jumped in his jaw. A livid bruise marred one side of her delicate profile and a good-size bump was above it. He pushed past the nurse and squatted in front of her. One finger tipped her chin up gently, then turned her face from side to side. His mouth was a hard, tight line. He dropped his hand and covered both of hers, which were clasped tightly in her lap.
“You look like hell, kid,” he told her.
She smiled tremulously. “I feel a lot better than I look. I think.” Actually, she hadn’t seen a mirror, but as she’d tried to convince the trooper, and the nurse in front of her, she felt fine. The terror of her ordeal was not the most pressing matter on her mind. “Please, Macauley, I have to find out about my mother. She’s here somewhere, they called me, and no one will help me . . . .” Her voice cracked. “I have to know how she is.”
Her confused explanation made little sense, but he responded to the lambent plea in her golden eyes. “It’s all right, everything’s fine,” he said soothingly. “Calm down and tell me what happened.”
“She insisted that I bring her here to St. Joseph’s right away,” the trooper interjected. “I figured from the looks of what was left of her car, that was a pretty good idea. But now that she’s here, she won’t let a doctor check her out.” He shook his head and lowered his voice, clearly believing that Raine was delusional. “She keeps insisting that her mother is here, and real sick. Then she gave us your outfit’s name, so I called your company. Maybe you can help her see reason.”
“I programmed my number in her cell.”
Raine looked surprised. “I didn’t realize that. I wasn’t thinking clearly. McCauley, my mother is here. “I got a phone call from Dr. Dietz, calling at my father’s request, asking me to meet him here for Mom. I didn’t have time to find you . . . .” Her voice faltered a little at the grim look on his face.
Mac fired a look at the nurse, who was standing silently by. “Did you check this out?”
“Yes, sir, I did,” she explained patiently. “No one by the name of Lorena Michaels has been admitted or treated in the emergency room.” Her voice was firm when she added, “And there is no Dr. Dietz on our staff.”
The nurse’s words lent an even more chilling interpretation of the recent events. Mac closed his eyes briefly, mentally cursing himself for ever leaving Raine alone, even in her own home. It was not, he thought savagely, opening his eyes and taking in her battered demeanor, a mistake he would ever make again.
“But there has to be a Dr. Dietz,” Raine explained wearily. She looked at Mac. “He called me.”
Mac gazed steadily at her, watching comprehension slowly dawn on her face, and with it, fear. His hands tightened around hers as she swayed a little in her seat.
“He called me,” she repeated in a whisper.
“Yeah, sweetheart,” he agreed in a savage tone. “He sure did.” The bastard had called her, had set her up. And then she’d had an accident that could have killed her. Her hands trembled a little in his, and he loosened his grip, for the first time aware of how tightly he was holding them. She looked as if she had taken another blow as awareness began to settle in. But then she raised her chin slightly and made a deliberate effort to compose her features.
A corner of his mouth went up. The lady had guts. That had never been more apparent than right now.
“You need to be seen by a physician, ma’am,” the nurse standing on the other side of Raine said kindly. “And then if everything is all right, your husband can take you home and pamper you shamelessly. How will that be?”
“He’s not my husband,” Raine corrected her. “He’s—”
“
Not taking you home until a doctor sees you,” Mac put in firmly.
“But—”
“While the doctor is tending to you, I’ll call your father,” he promised. “I’ll ask him how your mom has been. And I’ll need to let him know what’s happened.”
She was already shaking her head. “You’ll just upset him.”
“Raine.” His voice was firm. “He has to know.”
“And while he’s putting your mind at ease,” the nurse said, taking her by the elbow, “there’s an examining room with your name on it.”
Raine rose to her feet, but pulled her elbow from the nurse’s grasp. “No.” Her voice was strained. “I don’t want to go in there.”
“Now, ma’am.” The nurse used a soothing tone, as if speaking to a recalcitrant child. “The sooner you come in with me, the sooner your—this gentleman can take you home.”
Mac watched the scene silently, something about it bothering him. Raine’s face was tight and drawn, not surprising under the circumstances. But the earlier composure he’d seen her fight for had faded, and her features were chalk white, her mouth flat. He couldn’t shake off the feeling that something else was afoot here.
“Raine.” His voice was soft. “Do you want me to come in with you?”
Her gaze swung to his and clung for a second. Then she looked at the nurse and the trooper. Impatience was starting to show on the nurse’s plump face, and the trooper looked quizzical. She looked down then, visibly struggling for control.
“No.” She spoke with visible effort, but her voice was even. “I can do this.”
Mac looked at her closely, thinking her choice of words odd. But her jaw was firming again in determination. And without another word she allowed the nurse to escort her out of sight. Watching her leave, he had to fight the urge to follow. The trooper spoke then, snaring his attention.
“Well, I think she’ll be all right. Seems a bit shaken up, but that’s to be expected.” His voice was matter-of-fact. He’d obviously noticed nothing out of the ordinary. “From the sounds of it, it was a hit-and-run of some kind.”
Mac’s gaze sharpened. “Were there any witnesses to the accident?”
The man shook his head. “None that stuck around. Miss Michaels claims another driver bumped into her from behind, then ran her off the road.” He scratched his head. “Frankly, I wasn’t too sure if she was dazed from the accident, or what. The whole story sounded a little funny.”
Funny was the last adjective Mac would have used to describe any of the happenings of the day. One of his men had yelled for him on the roof when Raine’s car had taken off, but she’d been out of sight before he could follow her. There had been nothing to do but pace in the office, cursing the day he’d ever taken this job. When the call had come from the trooper, his anger had taken a back seat to his concern for Raine. Despite assurances from the officer that Raine seemed all right to him, Mac hadn’t been sure until he could see her for himself. And now that he’d seen her, he still wasn’t certain.
Oh, she was on her feet, that was a good sign. And other than that nasty bump on the side of her head, she didn’t seem to have sustained any permanent damage, as long as there were no internal injuries. But something wasn’t right here. He’d seen what it cost her to pull herself together and go with that nurse. Even as his mind was trying to puzzle it out, the trooper interrupted his thoughts.
“Miss Michaels said she only got one quick look at the person in the other car.”
That snared Mac’s attention, and fast. “She can identify him?” What a break that would be in this whole mess. The thought came and went that his involvement with Raine Michaels would then come to an end. And not a moment too soon.
But the man shook his head. “Not really. Seems like the driver was wearing one of those Halloween fright masks and a pair of gloves. Guess that’s not going to help us out at all in solving this.”
Mac stared hard at him. A mask and gloves spoke of a person who had planned this whole scene. Someone who had called Raine to deliberately lure her out of the house. It would have had to be someone who knew of Lorena Michaels’s poor health. Then the man had laid in wait to ambush her, to run her off the road.
A fiery knot of rage burned low in Mac’s belly. This was quite a leap from a few phone calls and letters. This scheme spoke of cunning and cold-blooded intent. Raine could have been seriously injured, even killed if she hadn’t been wearing her safety belt. Had that been the ambusher’s intention?
In short, succinct words he described for the trooper the harassment Raine had been suffering, then gave him the name of the detective investigating the case. The trooper promised to call the man with a full report. Then he excused himself and left.
The man’s exit left Mac with nothing to do but wait. And think. And his thoughts weren’t pretty. His palms itched. He wanted to get his hands around the throat of the person responsible.
He smiled a cold, deadly smile. He was going to find the bastard who was threatening Raine. And then he would make damn sure he paid.
Mac sent a concerned glance across the front seat of the truck, taking his attention off the road for an instant. “I take it you don’t like hospitals.”
“Not since . . .” She caught herself, and after a brief hesitation answered, “Not much, no. But I got through it.”
Again, her words struck him as odd. She sounded as if it had been entering the hospital, and not the accident itself, which had been the bigger strain that day. He returned his attention to the road and fell into a contemplative silence.
After a bit, Raine heaved a sigh and looked at him. So far he’d shown remarkable restraint, but she was expecting him to lambast her for her foolhardiness today, and the anticipation of the explosion was almost worse than the words themselves would be. “Go ahead and say it,” she muttered.
One eyebrow rose.
“You know you’re dying to. I shouldn’t have left the house alone. I walked right into a trap.”
Still he didn’t answer.
“Well?” she demanded.
“I’d say that about covers it.”
“I was afraid for Mother, and I wasn’t thinking as clearly as I could have,” she defended herself. “You were nowhere to be found, nor were any of your men nearby. I didn’t think I had time to track you down. There haven’t been any letters since before you came, and I thought—oh, hell,” she finished, sitting back and crossing her arms.
“You didn’t think,” he said flatly. “And not thinking almost got you killed. Chew on that for a while.”
She wrapped her arms around herself, goose bumps prickling the skin under her fingers. “I can’t think of anything else. I’m scared, Macauley. And I hate that,” she added fiercely. “I hate feeling this way.” Fear wasn’t the only emotion she was feeling. Anger was beginning to simmer inside her, and she welcomed it. “What will happen to my car?” she asked abruptly.
He made a left turn onto the road that led to her house. “I imagine it’s been towed by now,” he said. “You’ll probably hear something soon. Some estimates will have to be given, to see if it’s worth fixing or if it will have to be totaled out. I didn’t see the car, sol don’t know what it looked like.”
“It resembled a folded-up accordion,” she said shakily.
He gave her a look then that reminded her, without words, just how lucky she was to have walked away from it.
Pulling up in front of her house, he came around to her side and helped her down from the truck.
“I’m really all right,” she protested, as his hands settled on her waist.
“You may feel all right now, but I can guarantee that every muscle in your body will ache by tomorrow,” he predicted. “You go clean up. I’ll take care of supper tonight.”
She stopped in her tracks and stared at him. “Meal one, two, three or four?” she asked suspiciously.
“I’ll surprise you.”
No doubt he would. He’d been a constant source of surprises since
he’d come, uninvited, into her life. She’d interpreted the burst of awareness she’d felt as soon as he laid his hands on her waist without shock. Something happened to her whenever Macauley O’Neill touched her. And that, perhaps, was the biggest surprise of all.
Supper turned out to be meal number two, and Raine had to admit that the juicy hamburgers tasted delicious. They were again eating on the patio, and there was a glass of wine in front of her. She had refused it at first, but Mac had insisted.
“You need it,” he’d asserted flatly. “You had a hell of a shock today, and this will calm your nerves.”
It was easier to drink it than to argue with him. And after the first few times, she’d stopped protesting when he refilled her glass whenever she took a sip. Already a little of the tension from the day was seeping out of her limbs. She would have liked to go along with his plan, finish the meal and drink enough wine to complete the job of relaxation, but she wouldn’t allow herself to shirk reality.
“So what happens next?” she asked quietly.
He didn’t pretend to misunderstand her. “Next you give me your word that you’re going to do as you’re told, without question.” He held up a hand to forestall her response. “The stakes have been raised, Raine. Big-time. We’re not talking about a crank with a bad attitude toward artists. Someone is out to get you. And you’re going to have to face the fact that it could very well be someone you know.”
Her eyes got wide. “What makes you—”
“Think about what happened today,” he cut in sharply. “Somebody knew you well enough to masquerade as a doctor on the phone. He knew just what button to push—the illness of your mother—to get you to abandon caution and go tearing out of your home. That doesn’t speak of an anonymous weirdo, Raine. It tells me that you know this person, at least slightly. Who knows that I’ve been staying at the house?”
