Jake stood watching as Paige fumbled for words. She was pretty, more than pretty. She was beautiful, in fact, with classic features and a soft complexion, Jake found it difficult to pay attention to what she was saying, though it didn’t appear at first that she was saying much of anything at all. Babbling had never been impressive to him, but somehow in Paige it seemed cute. He shifted his weight and waited for her to explain the point of her unexpected visit. It was almost enjoyable, watching her struggle to get words out.
There was nothing enjoyable, however, once she managed to speak up. His expression changed immediately as he listened to the words pour out. Jake straightened up quickly, grabbed Paige by the arm and pulled her inside, closing the door with enough force that it made Paige a little fearful.
“What did you just say?” Jake demanded, continuing to hold her by the arm, making Paige wince a little with discomfort, until Jake realized he was hurting her and let go.
Paige took a deep breath and repeated the words she had spoken outside on the porch.
“I said I think you’re in danger. I overheard a man mention your name and it sounded…,” she searched for the right words. “It sounded threatening. I know I don’t know you, but I think you’re in danger. I just came here because I wanted to warn you.”
Jake stood back and looked at Paige with a puzzled expression, the only cover he could pull up for the actual worry that was starting to mount. How could she possibly know anything? After all, he had only seen her around town for a week or so. He waited quietly for her to continue and then listened carefully as she spoke.
“I was in The Cowboy Bar the other night,” Paige started off, “You know, the one near the town square with the neon…” She paused as Jake nodded and waved for her to go on.
“Well, anyway, I had a rough…I mean an unusual…I mean…a very strange day and had decided a drink sounded good.” Paige paused to take a breath. Jake fought off the passing thought that a drink was actually starting to sound good to him right now, his recent breakfast notwithstanding.
“And then what happened,” Jake pressed, growing impatient.
“I took a seat on one of those saddles. You know how they have saddles in there, instead of…” She stopped again, watching Jake’s expression grow weary. He didn’t even need to motion for her to continue this time.
“Anyway,” she hurried up, as much out of nervousness being near Jake as out of her need to get the story out, “I sat down next to a man who had his back toward me. He’d had quite a few drinks already and he didn’t seem to know I was there. He was rambling on a little and occasionally slamming his fist down on the counter, that sort of thing. No one seemed to pay that much attention to him. I assumed he was a local and that people were used to him being there.”
Jake moved back and took a seat, watching Paige intently as she continued.
Paige started pacing slowly in front of Jake’s chair, thinking through the conversation and motioning with her arms as she attempted to reconstruct it for Jake.
“He was telling the woman not to worry, that he had it all under control. He said your name, Jake. He said “Jake fell for the first one and he’ll fall for the second.” He also said you would lead them to it – whatever it is, that part he didn’t say – but that you wouldn’t get it. That’s what he told her.”
Jake shook his head and held both of his hands out flat in front of him, confused. “That’s what he told her? Told who?”
“The woman who was standing next to him,” Paige explained. “You know her, Maddie, the one who runs the Blue Sky Café.” She paused a minute. “He never said her name, but I recognized her. Oh, and she called him Frank.”
Jake stood up and walked across the room, avoiding Paige’s eyes. He continued into the kitchen, where Paige thought she heard the sound of a dull thud. When he returned, however, he looked calmer and casually took his seat again.
“Look,” he said slowly, a forced smile across his face, “I really do appreciate you trying to warn me about whatever it was they were talking about. But I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong person. I haven’t a clue what this is about.”
“But the man said, ‘Jake,’” Paige insisted. “I heard that clearly, even over the clanking of pool balls and beer bottles, even over the music in the background. He definitely said your name.”
Jake stood and nodded to her with a reassuring expression. “I’m sure he did, but this town isn’t as small as it used to be and Jake’s a pretty common name these days. I’m sorry for whoever it is who’s in trouble with them, but you’ve got the wrong guy.”
Frustrated and more than slightly exasperated, Paige shook her head and walked toward the front door. Jake jumped up and turned the doorknob before she could reach it, holding the door open in a gentlemanly fashion.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered, discouraged and embarrassed. It had been worth the try. Maybe he was right, after all. Maybe they were talking about a different Jake.
“I’m sorry, too,” Jake said with a kind expression on his face. “I know you were trying to help.” He studied her face a minute, waiting for her to depart. He refrained from adding what he was thinking, though - that he wasn’t at all sorry to have seen her again.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Jake paced back and forth, trying not to panic. He had played it off well enough in front of Paige. There had been nothing to make her think that her comments had hit a nerve, other than the mug he had clumsily knocked off the kitchen table in a short burst of anger. But that surely sounded like an accident. She hadn’t mentioned it when he returned to the main room. No, she wasn’t a problem.
Frank, however, was definitely a problem. For one thing, Jake had counted on him to be discreet. The last thing they needed was to have other treasure seekers coming out of the woodworks. This belonged to their families and they were the ones who deserved to find it. On the other hand, if Frank had intentions of tricking Jake and keeping the gold for himself, he had another thing coming. This didn’t worry Jake as much. He knew the old man was no match for him, not mentally or physically. He just had to be more careful. And he’d need to be less forthcoming with reports of progress than he had been up to now, since he suspected Frank was no longer to be trusted.
What troubled him the most was hearing that Maddie was somehow involved. Why would Frank have kept this a secret? All those mornings at the Blue Sky Café he had been served coffee by the seemingly innocent, well-meaning woman. Had she been behind the plan to recover the gold all along? Perhaps even before Frank asked him to come down to Jackson?
His mind raced through these new pieces of information, trying to formulate a plan. For whatever reason he had overlooked Frank’s inner motives before, he now had his eyes wide open. If Frank truly had plans to double cross him, he wasn’t about to let him get away with it.
He was going to need a way to hide information from Frank now, but without it seeming suspicious. If he could keep two searches going – one the actual track he was on and another, a false one, to report to Frank - that could work to throw him off. And considering Frank was unaware that Jake suspected he was up to something, Jake was at an advantage, something he owed to Paige.
Thinking of this brought Paige to mind. He’d noticed her even before the awkward run-in at the library. She’d been at the Blue Sky Café one morning, sitting in the far corner with her morning coffee, or one of those trendy coffee drinks that were so popular now. Writing in a journal of sorts, she hadn’t appeared to see him from across the room. But a pretty, new girl in town was hard to miss.
He’d looked away before she could notice and had made a point of not looking back again, even when he walked out the door. Women were always trouble of one kind or another. Even when she bumped into him at the library he’d resisted the urge to talk to her more, though the temptation to ask her out for coffee or perhaps even dinner had crossed his mind at the time.
Now that she was somehow connected to this whole situation, he was worried.
It might not be enough to just keep his distance. She was clearly the determined sort, not the type to give up on anything easily. He was going to have to keep an eye on her now, to make sure she didn’t cause problems with his plans. In addition, he realized he was starting to feel concerned for her safety, as well as his own. It didn’t sound like Frank and Maddie were aware she had overheard them talking, but if they found out she had, she could very well be in danger. He was going to have to figure a way to keep her out of the middle of all this. The only question was how.
He stepped out onto the front porch and looked up at the sky, watching the sun continue to rise. Everything had suddenly become complicated. Now he’d have to juggle different people’s motives. He’d also need to devise a decoy story, which was going to take careful thinking and planning. What was also clear was that he’d have to deal with Paige one way or another. This he contemplated the longest, leaning against a post at the edge of the porch and thinking over his options. In the end, he realized there was only one way to really keep an eye on her. He was going to have to be around her more. Against his will, a slow smile came to his face.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Frustrated from the conversation with Jake, Paige drove back to the cabin and parked the car, slamming the door a little too hard and letting the front door of the cabin bang a bit too harshly, as well. She had done her best to offer Jake help, but if he wasn’t going to take it, there was nothing she could do.
She built a fire and settled down in front of it, surrounding herself with notes and research. A hearty session of writing rarely failed to take her mind off a stressful situation. As the flames warmed the small cabin, she began to relax. After all, she hadn’t come to Jackson to get involved with all this. Nor was she here to save townspeople from other townspeople. If Jake was going to be stubborn about things, that really didn’t have to be her concern. A feeling of relief accompanied these thoughts. She could choose whether or not to be involved. The logical choice was to stay clear.
Pulling out her laptop, she worked in front of the fire, outlining a basic article. Hours flew by as Paige wove area history and culture together into chronological order. Relaxed from the process of writing undisturbed, she was more than a little startled to hear a knock on the door. Certain it was Dan, she set the laptop aside, rose to her feet and walked across the cabin to answer the door.
To her surprise, she found Jake standing on the porch. He appeared a little bashful, a look she begrudgingly had to admit was appealing. Unable to hide the fact that she was surprised to see him, she returned the slight smile and simply waited for him to speak.
“I was on my way into town and saw your car in the driveway here,” he said, crossing his arms across his chest and rocking back on his heels. “So I thought I ought to stop and thank you, however wrong you were, for trying to help me or warn me or whatever it was you were trying to do earlier.”
Feeling a chilly gust of wind blow in from the porch, Paige waved him inside, indicating her work area in front of the fire. He accepted the offer and stepped into the cabin, nodding with approval at its quaint, inviting atmosphere.
“I have a fireplace at the ranch, but I always seem to forget to use it,” he sighed. “Just not in the habit, I guess.” He leaned forward and rubbed his hands together, absorbing the warmth of the flames.
Paige smiled softly. “I love the fireplace here. It’s one of the reasons I took the cabin. I’d been staying at the Sweet Mountain Inn, but this was more remote and more conducive to writing.” She pointed to the floor, an unspoken suggestion to sit down, which they both did.
“I take it you’re a writer, then,” Jake asked, taking a seat on the floor.
“I do features about small towns for a newspaper back east. Local stories, that sort of thing,” Paige replied, “And sometimes a bit of investigative reporting.”
Jake laughed. “I see,” he said. “Then that explains a few things.”
“Such as?” Paige answered, hoping she was about to draw him into revealing some sort of information.
Again Jake laughed. “Such as why you would come up with crazy notions about mysterious local situations.” He watched as she rolled her eyes, looking half annoyed and half resigned to him holding back. Though she still firmly believed that her hunches were correct, she was willing to play along. If he wasn’t going to open up to her now, she couldn’t push it. When the time was right, she’d be able to break through his façade.
Noticing the fire was almost out, Paige stood up to put more wood on the glowing embers. As she moved, her hair swung casually across her shoulders, something Jake didn’t miss noticing.
“Wait, I have an idea,” he said quickly, causing her to stop before setting the wood in the fireplace. “I was just on my way into town to get a bite to eat. Why don’t you ride along with me? We could get something easy.” He watched for her reaction.
Paige found herself taken by surprise at this suggestion. Everything she had seen from Jake so far had indicated that he was a loner. It seemed odd that he was suddenly expressing an interest in having a meal together. At the same time, however, she had to admit to feeling a little flutter of excitement. She set the wood back in the stack to the side of the fireplace and used a poker to move the embers around into safe positions. She told Jake his suggestion sounded like a great idea.
Already growing familiar with Wyoming, she grabbed her heavy rain jacket from a hook by the door. There wasn’t any way to predict the weather from one hour to the next. Besides, it was already cool and, once the sun set, the temperature would drop rapidly. Taking a warm jacket was a good precaution.
The drive into town was relaxing, aside from an unspoken current that ran between them. With Jake at the wheel, Paige was able to see more of the landscape than she had been able to on her solo trips into town. The open land reached out across the valley with a serenity that ended in the splash of the mountain backdrop, a river of soft, brown grasses and wildflowers that turned dramatically into steep slabs of granite.
Talking seemed to come easily. Jake told stories of growing up in Cody, the land of Buffalo Bill. He had helped his father raise cattle and had attended local schools. He’d learned to ride horses at an early age and had even tried his hand at bronco riding. It was a life very different from hers and she found it fascinating.
Paige responded with descriptions of New York City, which Jake found almost impossible to imagine. Each story she told of crowded streets and skyscrapers, of taxis and the melting pot of different people, brought a look of amazement to his face. It was so different from anything he had known.
“Well, I guess you’d never feel alone in a place like that,” he ventured, trying to imagine the hectic pace of life that she had described.
“Actually, I think many people there feel very lonely,” she responded, to his surprise. “There’s an impersonal feeling to city life. There are so many people that it seems we all get lost in the crowd. I think I’ve felt more alone there than anywhere I’ve ever visited.” She stopped and thought about this, only realizing how true it was as she described it.
They found a parking space easily once they entered town. Jake locked the truck and the two walked along the wooden sidewalk, debating options for food. Finally deciding on a small Mexican restaurant, they were soon seated beside a wall covered with brightly painted hibiscus. A basket of chips quickly landed on the table, two cups of salsa alongside – one mild and one referred to by the server as “fire,” which Jake pushed to the far side of the table as he quickly shook his head at Paige in warning.
Without looking at a menu, Jake suggested fajitas for both of them, an idea Paige agreed to readily. Layering sautéed chicken, fresh chopped lettuce, grilled onions, peppers and guacamole into soft, warm flour tortillas, they continued to exchange stories about their very different lives, keeping the conversation casual.
Over coffee and flan, however, Paige pushed a little more about the conversation she had overheard between Frank and
Maddie the night before.
“Really,” Jake responded, almost too abruptly. “I think this investigative reporting has gotten a hold on your imagination.” Seeing Paige’s injured look, he continued on quickly in a softer tone. “What I mean is that it has to be hard to separate what is real from what isn’t. That must be one of the challenges of your type of work.”
On this Paige had to agree. On more than one occasion she had fallen into conflicting information and had to sort out the truth from distorted facts. However, she felt certain that this wasn’t one of those times. Jake was obviously not going to reveal anything to her readily, but at least he was making an effort to be friendly, which could work to her advantage. She’d have to be patient, but she had a hunch that she’d get him to cave in. In addition, though she hated to admit it, she felt drawn to him more and more.
Finishing up, Jake paid the bill and they started back towards the truck. But as Jake started to pull his keys out to open the door for her, he suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the doorway of a small shop. Surprised at the sudden movement, she looked at him for an explanation. Silently he held one finger up to his lips, while cupping his other hand over her mouth. Confused, but trusting that he knew what he was doing, Paige nodded, allowing him to lower his hands and pull her farther back into the shadows.
Huddling motionless inside the recessed doorway, Paige could now hear footsteps approaching. It sounded at first like those of one person, but as the sound came closer it became clear there were two people walking together. Hushed voices accompanied the sound of the feet on the sidewalk and both sounds were growing closer.
Paige cast a nervous glance at Jake’s face, just inches away from hers. She could feel his breath against her cheek and his arm holding her close to his side. He returned the look with an unspoken message that they needed to stay silent. She followed his advice, which turned out to be a wise decision. Even before the people came into view, she recognized the voices as those of Frank and Maddie.
Paige MacKenzie Mysteries Box Set Page 13
