He had just about finished reconnoitering, and finding that apparently nothing else had been touched, when he heard Rusty’s truck rattling up to the house. He checked out the window just to make sure.
The phone rang.
“Hello, son, how are you?”
“Dad!” Parker’s gut clenched. Talk about lousy timing. “Where are you?”
“Still in the Philippines making arrangements for the change-of-command ceremony and my official retirement.”
Thank God he wasn’t calling from somewhere in the States. Parker wasn’t sure he was ready to deal with his father just yet, not where the kids’ guardianship was concerned.
“Thought I’d check to see how you’re getting along with my grandchildren.”
“Fine, sir, just fine. They’re adjusting real well to the ranch.”
“Don’t let ‘em settle in too well, son. I’ve got big plans for the children. I’ve been investigating some prep schools for Kevin—”
“Dad, that’s a little premature. They haven’t even adjusted to not having parents yet. I don’t think we ought to be sending—”
“You let me take care of things, young man. After all, I’m the one who has been a parent before. I think I know what’s best, don’t you?”
Hell, no, but it wasn’t easy to tell the general anything. “We’ll talk about it later, sir.”
“All right. Tell the children stiff upper lip and I’ll see them in a couple of weeks. Then I’ll take them off your hands.”
Parker’s objection was cut off by the click of the phone.
He’d just speared his fingers through his hair in worried frustration when the damn phone rang again.
“Yeah,” he barked.
“Parker, it’s Louanne,” announced the agitated voice on the other end of the line. “Those characters I told you about who were asking questions in town—”
Parker’s sixth sense went back on alert. The ones who the panhandler had been doing his little job for? Men who thought there were emeralds stashed somewhere on his ranch?
“They’re on their way out to see you. They weren’t real happy about Jasper sending them off on a wild-goose chase.”
“They hurt him?”
“Scared him is all, I think.”
“Okay, I’ll take care of things from here.”
“Watch yourself, Parker. They’re mean ones. I can feel it in my bones.”
“I’ll be careful.”
Hanging up the phone, he also knew he had to take care for Nesrin and the kids. If Bill from Special Ops had gotten back to him, he’d have some idea of what he was dealing with. As it was, he was flying blind. There could be a dozen different legitimate reasons for someone to be after Nesrin, reasons that didn’t have anything to do with a curse. Or emeralds. There might even be justifiable cause for following up on Marge’s death.
But he wasn’t going to take any chances. Not when he’d just caught someone burglarizing his house, however ineptly. And not with guys who liked to use intimidation to shove folks around.
From the gun case he got his Baretta and tucked it into the back of his jeans, handy but out of sight beneath his shirt. For added protection, and possibly surprise, he slid a sheathed knife down into the side of his boot.
Outside, he found Nesrin telling Rusty and the boys about the intruder.
He interrupted. “Rusty, I want you and the boys to get back in the truck, and take Nesrin and the kids over to Louanne’s place.”
“Now?” Rusty asked.
Pete gave the house a quick look, as though the danger might be coming from there. “Thought Miz Nesrin said there weren’t nobody left inside.”
“There isn’t. But we’re about to have company. A couple of guys who like to ask questions.”
Nesrin gasped.
Buck hitched up his pants, ready for a fight. “One of us oughta stay here with you.”
“No, I’ll be fine. I want you to go the back way to Louanne’s,” Parker insisted. “And stay out of sight.” These three old duffers would be more hindrance than help in a fire fight.
“You got it, boss,” Rusty agreed.
“One more thing. You still know how to use that rifle?” With a jerk of his head, Parker indicated the hunting rifle mounted across the back window of Rusty’s truck.
“Sure do. I kin pick a gnat off’n the back of a deer at a hundred paces.”
Parker wasn’t all that confident, since he figured Rusty couldn’t see that far. Hopefully an intruder wouldn’t realize that if he was facing the business end of the rifle. “Is it loaded?”
“Will be, soon as I kin get to it.” Picking up on Parker’s urgency, Rusty climbed into the truck. His cohorts went to round up the children, who’d wandered off to inspect the horses in the corral.
The blood had drained from Nesrin’s face. “Is it...” She mouthed the word Rasheyd? as though she were afraid to speak his name aloud.
“I don’t know, Nesrin. I won’t know till they show up.” And he wasn’t going to say a word about emeralds. No need to get her upset. “You’ll be safe. Louanne and the boys will watch out for you.”
“You shouldn’t be here alone. He is very powerful—”
“I’m trained for this. If anyone else was here it’d be a distraction.”
“There are two of them,” she whispered, fear making her voice thready, “and you are only one.”
“But I’m tough, sweetheart. Trust me.”
Her chin trembled. “I’ll stay. I don’t want you to be—”
Parker didn’t have time to argue. So he did what he’d been wanting to do all day. Hell, what he’d been wanting to do since she first fell out of the back of his truck into his arms—quirky, beautiful and sexy as any woman he’d ever seen.
He kissed her.
Long and hot and hard. When she drew a quick breath, he took advantage of the opportunity, sliding his tongue into her open mouth. She tasted like the sweetness of honey, the heat of a summer day. And innocence. He felt starved for her flavor and drank it in.
After a startled moment, she made a little sound of pleasure and relaxed against him. With his big arms wrapped around her, she seemed no more than a wisp of a woman, but all female. Her breasts were small pressing against his chest, the gentle curve of her buttocks was the perfect place to rest his palm. He wanted to hold her like this for a long time, and keep on kissing her until they were both senseless with the fierce need that was already building in his veins.
But with uninvited guests about to arrive, she was a dangerous distraction. And he didn’t want to put her at risk.
“Go,” he ordered roughly, even as he pressed another soft kiss to her lips. “I’ll call Louanne when it’s all clear.”
In her dark eyes he saw dazed surprise, and behind that the heat of a hunger that nearly matched his own.
Taking her shoulders, he turned her toward the truck.
Wordlessly, as though suffering from shock, she climbed into the back with Pete and Buck; the children were up front.
Her eyes never left his as the truck drove away. Her expression was heated with unfulfilled sexual needs and haunted by confusion.
Not until the truck was out of sight over a rise did Parker exhale the breath he’d been holding. Never had he been quite so shaken by a kiss. She was some kind of woman. And before this was over, Parker vowed they would share more than a kiss. Caution be damned!
* * *
HE WAS STILL CONSIDERING the sensual possibilities five minutes later when he heard the sound of a car approaching from the highway. He waited on the porch, nice and easy, his weight evenly distributed on the balls of his feet. He didn’t want to telegraph his heightened state of readiness.
The two guys in dark suits got out of the car. With their toothy smiles and black slicked-back hair, they looked like salesmen trying to con him into buying a capped oil well in Kuwait.
“Major Dunlap?” the tall, slender one asked. He had a narrow, hooked nose and eyes as black
as his suit. A wispy mustache curved above thin lips.
“It’s mister now. I’m a civilian.”
“Yes, of course.” He extended his hand and Parker noted the swirl of a tattoo around his thumb. “I’m Mishal Ibrahim, and this is my associate, Tajir Gaddoumi.”
Parker felt a certain amount of relief that neither of them were named Rasheyd. And they both appeared to be very much men of the twentieth century. “Gentlemen.” After shaking hands with Ibrahim, he nodded to the second man. “What can I do for you?”
They produced some official-looking IDs and handed them over to Parker.
“We are from the Ministry of Antiquities,” Ibrahim said. “We understand you have recently received a shipment of several crates from the Middle East.”
“My sister’s personal effects.” Parker studied the IDs, not that it did him much good. He couldn’t read a word of Arabic. The government seals looked legitimate, though, and the photos were definitely of the two men standing in front of him. Trouble was, he wouldn’t know a forgery from the real thing. He supposed he ought to feel grateful these slick characters weren’t sent by his father to investigate his parental skills with the kids.
“Ah, yes, the death of your sister and her husband was a shameful tragedy. We have reason to believe, however, that certain items of historic importance to our country were inadvertently shipped along with your sister’s personal effects.”
“Really? What kinds of things?”
“As you might well imagine, we are not entirely at liberty to—”
“Look, buddy, as far as I know everything that was shipped here, my sister came by honestly. Now, if you’ve got a problem with that, I suggest you find yourself a judge. If you get a court order, I’ll let you browse through my sister’s things. I’ll even hand over anything that rightfully belongs to your country—assuming you can prove it in a court of law. Meanwhile—” he handed the IDs back to Ibrahim “—I don’t plan to extend western hospitality to anybody who tries to push my friends around. Or asks a punk kid to check out my security system. Got that?” He used his greater height and weight to do a little intimidating of his own.
The two men stepped back in unison, the silent partner of the two looking more edgy by the moment.
“As you wish, Mr. Dunlap. I had hoped we might reach an amicable arrangement, perhaps a small reward for your assistance in returning—”
“I’m not interested.”
“Yes, well...” The duo retreated toward their car. “Perhaps we will be able to find some other way to persuade you.”
“I doubt it.” Under no circumstances would he let those creeps go through Marge’s things. She might have picked up something at a thieves’ market that had some modicum of value, but he couldn’t imagine she’d gotten hold of an “antiquity” like these guys claimed.
As Parker watched the car drive off, he wondered what the Arabian equivalent of a three-dollar bill might be. He figured those two guys qualified.
They had, however, piqued his interest.
In the back of the barn where he’d stored most of Marge’s things, he went through the crates again. Carefully this time, trying not to let nostalgia gain a grip on his emotions. He didn’t want to think about how much his sister had meant to him; how much he hated knowing their connection, however tenuous, had been forever severed.
Tears thickened in his throat. “I miss you, Marge, and I swear to you I’ll do a better job of raising your kids than Dad did with us.”
Nothing in the odds and ends that she had collected looked like a valuable antiquity, any more than the beat-up old lamp that Nesrin kept on the mantel in the living room looked worth more than a couple of bucks at a garage sale. And there sure weren’t any emeralds that he could see.
He had the feeling his visitors had been tracking the wrong crates.
* * *
DISTRACTEDLY, NESRIN watched Kevin and Amy playing in Louanne’s big swimming pool. She felt as buoyant as the children in the water. Her lips still tingled, and her heart had not yet slowed to a regular beat. Parker was clearly the man responsible for her agitated state.
“Girl, you surely do look like you’re off on cloud nine.” Louanne set a tray with a pitcher of lemonade and glasses on the table beside the pool. “You worried about Parker?”
Instinctively Nesrin’s fingers touched her lips. “He said he would be fine.”
“Reckon he will be.” Louanne looked at her curiously. “You ‘n’ that boy gettin’ along these days?”
“Oh, yes.” Nesrin sighed. She stared off into the distance where the afternoon clouds were building against the mountain peaks. Dark, threatening clouds, so in contrast to her lighthearted mood.
“Let me take a guess. That man kiss you goodbye afore he sent you over here?”
Guilty heat crept up Nesrin’s neck. “Oh, yes, it was a very nice kiss.” Warm and wonderful, and very demanding. She had never expected to experience anything quite so exciting.
“I figured as much. Imagined it wouldn’t take long for a girl like you to tumble head over teakettle in love with a man like Parker. He’s some kinda hunk.”
“In love?” Nesrin turned abruptly to Louanne. The possibility of love was far too dangerous for her to contemplate. She was already troubled enough by the thought of where one kiss might lead. “I do not think so.”
“You surely do have all the symptoms, honey. Sorta glassy eyed and floating on air. I ought to know. Been there a few times myself.”
“You have?”
“Sure have. Buried three husbands, rest their souls, and loved everyone of ‘em to pieces. Wouldn’t mind finding number four, either, if I get the chance.” Louanne smiled wistfully. “It’s magic, pure and simple, when you fall in love.”
“I do not believe Parker believes in magic.” Nor, in this case, should she.
“Of course not, honey. Men never do until some good woman comes along and shows ‘em different.” She patted Nesrin’s hand in motherly fashion. “Love’s the most powerful magic of all.”
“Do you think so?” More powerful than Rasheyd’s curse? she wondered.
“Absolutely. Why, I’m a firm believer that love can do the darnedest things. Move mountains, if need be.”
“Among my people it would take a great wizard to have such power.”
Louanne laughed, a deep, full-bodied sound. “Shoot, nothing to it in these parts. Personally, I wouldn’t hang around with a man on any other terms.” She took a long drink of tea. “No, sirree. I’d never settle for less with a man than knock-your-socks-off love. Otherwise a woman would just plain shrivel up to nothing.”
Nesrin looked down at her feet. She didn’t wear socks, only a slender gold chain around one ankle. But if she did, she was sure her socks would have slipped from her feet when Parker had kissed her. The feeling had indeed been that powerful.
She wondered if it had been the same for Parker.
“If a woman loves a man,” she asked, “how can she get the man to love her in return?”
“Not much you kin do. It plain happens or it don’t. And if it don’t, it’s a misery, I’ll tell you that. You feel like you’re not much more than chopped liver.”
Chopped liver? Nesrin sighed, aware she was not always able to fully understand Louanne’s colorful descriptions. She desperately wished she was not falling in love with Parker. It would make it all the more difficult not to submit to him. And if the other choice was to feel like ground-up innards, she certainly did not want that.
But perhaps Louanne was right. The magic of love might be powerful enough to protect her from Rasheyd’s curse. But believing that might pose the ultimate risk, for if Louanne was wrong, the rest of eternity trapped in a lamp would be Nesrin’s destiny. Particularly if Parker did not love her in return.
She shuddered at the thought, even while she watched the children romping in the pool.
“Did you know Parker’s father wants to take the children away from him?” Nesrin asked her friend
.
“Shoot no, I didn’t know that. It’d purely be a shame to move those poor youngsters again, ’specially since they seem to be settling in real nice-like.”
“When I first heard, I was very angry. I even thought to cast a spell on the man, something like filling his belly with crawly green worms, but I was not sure Parker would be pleased.”
Louanne barked a laugh. “For such a sweet little thing, you surely do have a mean streak, honey. I reckon it’ll be enough if you just be there when Parker needs you. Chances are he can convince his old man not to interfere with things as they stand.”
“I hope that is true,” Nesrin agreed as the portable phone rang on the table beside them.
Louanne answered, and after a moment announced, “Parker says the coast is clear.”
“Is he all right?” Nesrin asked.
“Fit as a fiddle, he says. Guess we’ll have to round up those no-good hired hands of his to take you on home.”
“Aw, gee,” Kevin complained from the pool. “Can’t we stay here? I’m not done swimming yet.”
Amy echoed the same sentiments.
Nesrin hesitated. “I don’t know, children. Your uncle—”
“Oh, let ‘em stay,” Louanne insisted with an easy wave of her hand. “My grandkids live so far away they’re not making very good use of this pool. And I’ve got me a big pot full of fresh-made spaghetti sauce boiling on the stove. Bet these youngsters could give it a taste test before I seal some up in them jars.”
“Hey, yeah.” Kevin’s eyes grew wide in eager anticipation.
“In fact, let the youngsters stay the night. It gets pure lonely around here sometimes, and I bet you and Parker could use a little time off for yourselves.”
Kevin boosted himself out of the pool. “Louanne’s got a ton of video games. I saw them in the library. Man, I could spend the whole night messing with those.”
Amy had to use the ladder to get out of the pool. “Louanne told me she’d help me make cookies sometime. My mommy used to do that.”
Both youngsters stood dripping water onto the concrete. Their youthful blue eyes pleaded for Nesrin’s approval.
The Cowboy & The Belly Dancer (Heartbeat) Page 9
