Читать книгу The Texan's Contested Claim: The Texan's Contested Claim / The Greek Tycoon's Secret Heir - Katherine Garbera - Страница 10

Four

The plan Garrett devised for his and Ali’s escape included every mode of transportation, with the exception of air. He probably would’ve considered that, too, if he or Ali had known how to fly.

Their adventure started on land, with them sneaking down to the pier and climbing aboard the rowboat Ali kept on hand for her guests to use. With moonlight as their only illumination, they’d rowed across the lake and docked near the shoreline of the Hyatt Regency. From there, they’d grabbed a taxi for the airport, where Garrett had insisted Ali rent a vehicle, claiming if he rented it he would be leaving a paper trail that could easily be followed.

After loading their luggage into the rental, they’d left Austin, with Ali behind the wheel. She had thought he would insist on driving, had even suggested it, but he had reminded her she had rented the car and had listed herself as the sole driver, a legality Ali was willing to overlook in exchange for some much needed sleep. Apparently Garrett wasn’t.

Though she’d repeatedly asked him their final destination, the most she had been able to get out of him was that he’d arranged for them to stay in a friend’s hunting cabin.

“I feel like I’m playing connect the dots,” she said wearily, as she made the turn off the highway that carried them beneath an iron arch bearing the brand CCC. “Turn here, turn there. Go straight. At least tell me if we’re getting close.”

“We’re almost there. Keep driving until you see a small wooden arrow on the right that says ‘Hunting Cabins.’”

“Are you sure these people are expecting us?” she asked uneasily. “It’s four o’clock in the morning. I don’t want somebody shooting at me, thinking I’m a trespasser.”

“They know we’re coming.”

“Have you been here before?”

“Once.” He pointed ahead. “There’s the sign.”

Ali made the turn, slowing when her headlights illuminated a road that was little more than a path. “Now I know why you told me to request an SUV from the rental agency.”

“Pointless to hide, if you’re going to make yourself easily accessible.”

“I shouldn’t even be hiding,” she said petulantly. “I should be at home asleep in my bed.”

“If you were home, I guarantee you wouldn’t be sleeping. You’d be listening to your doorbell and phone ring off the wall. And if those guys hanging around outside have figured out a way to scale the rock wall that borders the street-side of your property, you might find yourself staring at a stranger’s face in your window—or worse, the lens of a camera. And when daylight arrives, you can bet at least one helicopter will be hovering over your house, taking aerial shots.” He waved a dismissive hand. “But once those pictures hit the papers, you wouldn’t have time to worry about the cameras any longer. You’d be too busy trying to stay alive.”

“Okay, okay,” she snapped. “I get your point.”

“Good. I really don’t want to have this conversation again.”

She saw a large shadow looming ahead and hit the bright lights. “Is that the cabin?” she asked.

“One of them.”

“How many are there?”

“Six, as I recall. They’ve left the cabin on the far end open for us.”

She’d driven past two, when he said, “It’s the next one”

“But you said there were six,” she said in confusion.

“At least that many. But there are only three on this particular road.”

She pulled to a stop, and glanced in the rearview mirror at the path they’d followed, barely visible in the red glow of her brake lights. “You call that a road?”

He climbed from the vehicle. “Accessibility,” he reminded her.

“Yeah, yeah,” she grumbled, as she trudged toward the rear of the SUV to help him with the bags. An eerie howl sounded in the distance and sent her scurrying to Garrett’s side. “Did you hear that?” she asked in a nervous whisper.

“Hear what?”

The howl sounded again. “That,” she said, with a shudder.

He pushed her tote against her chest, forcing her to take it. “Probably a coyote.”

“Probably?” With her gaze fixed on the darkness, she eased closer to his side. “You aren’t sure?”

He pulled out her suitcase and set it on the ground. “You’re the one from Texas. Don’t you know a coyote when you hear one?”

“Sorry,” she said dryly, “but we don’t have many coyotes roaming the streets of downtown Austin.”

He closed the rear hatch and the interior light blinked off, leaving them in inky darkness. He tried to turn, but with Ali on one side and her suitcase on the other, he was trapped.

“If you’ll give me some room,” he said in frustration, “I’ll lead the way to the cabin.”

She grabbed the handle of her suitcase and dragged it out of his path, but remained where she was. “No way, buster. You’re not leaving me to bring up the rear. The last person on the trail is always the one plucked off and never seen again.”

He heaved a sigh. “I’m sure there’s logic in there somewhere, but I’m too damn tired at the moment to reason it out.”

With Ali sticking to him like glue, he made his way to the cabin. Once inside, it didn’t take Ali long to figure out the cabin had only one bed, which she was quick to point out to Garrett.

“So we’ll share,” he replied. “It’s a king. It’s certainly big enough.”

“Both of us in the same bed?”

He shrugged off his jacket and tossed it to a chair. “If you have a problem sharing, you can sleep on the couch.”

She glanced through the doorway at the couch in the other room, thinking about the eerie howling she’d heard, as well as the lunatic who supposedly wanted Garrett dead. Deciding that sleeping on the couch held about as much appeal as being the last person on the trail, she snatched up pillows and began erecting a wall down the center of the bed.

“Line of demarcation,” she warned him.

Ali didn’t expect to sleep a wink. Not with the threat of an assassin on her mind and Garrett on the other side of the bed. To her surprise, within minutes of closing her eyes, she slipped into a deep sleep and didn’t stir until hours later, when sunlight flooding through the bedroom window pricked at her eyelids. In an effort to block the sun, she folded an arm over her head and snuggled deeper into the cocoon of bedding.

Her mind slowly registered a difference in the firmness of the wall of pillows at her back, as well as the heat it was producing. Praying the cause wasn’t what she feared, she cautiously pushed her buttocks against the wall and froze when she met the unmistakable shape and resistance of an erection.

“Don’t panic,” a sleepy voice said from behind her. “Men wake up like this all the time.”

She twisted around to find Garrett directly behind her. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?”

“Only if you considered it a threat.” He lifted a shoulder. “But if you prefer to claim ownership for producing it….”

“Claim ownership?” she repeated, then sputtered a laugh and rolled from the bed, pleased to discover he had a sense of humor. “As if.”

“Where are you going?” he called after her.

“To get dressed.”

“Don’t you want to finish what you started?”

She fluttered a hand, but kept walking. “No, thanks.”

After dressing, Ali went to the kitchen in search of food, and found Garrett sitting at the table in the breakfast nook, working at his laptop. “Have you eaten?” she asked, as she passed him on her way to the refrigerator.

“Nibbled.”

“Well, nibbling’s not going to cut it for me. I’m starving.” She opened the refrigerator and was surprised to find it fully stocked. “Wow. Your friends really know how to make a person feel welcome.”

“Mandy likes to play mother.”

She froze, her hand on a bowl of fruit. Mandy? Forcing the tension from her shoulders, she pulled out the bowl of fruit. “I, uh, assumed your friend was a male.”

“Mandy is Jase’s wife. They’re both friends.”

A pitifully brief explanation, but at least she now knew this Mandy person wasn’t a romantic interest of Garrett’s.

Not that she cared, she told herself.

She dropped down on the chair opposite him and plucked a grape from the bowl. “What are you doing?” she asked curiously.

“Checking my e-mail.”

“You can get Internet access in the boonies?” she asked doubtfully.

He tapped a finger against the side of his laptop. “Thanks to a wireless card from my cell phone provider. Anywhere I can receive cell phone reception, I can access the Internet.”

“Wow!” She popped the grape into her mouth, chewed. “So? Any word on the guy who’s threatened you?”

“No.”

“Have you checked to see if you’ve made the news?”

“No mention, yet.”

“Well, that’s good, isn’t it? It means we’re safe here, right?”

“For the time being.”

Grimacing, she fished a strawberry from the bowl. “You could’ve lied, you know,” she informed him, as she sank her teeth into the strawberry. “I could use some reassurance here.”

“I’m not going to lie just to ease your mind.” He closed the lid of his laptop and met her gaze. “But if it’ll make you feel better, the more time that passes without my whereabouts making the news, the more likely it is the person who’s threatening me will fall into the trap my security team has set for him.”

“You consider that reassuring?” With a woeful shake of her head, she rose. “If that’s the best you can do, I’m pulling a Scarlett O’Hara.”

“What’s a Scarlett O’Hara?”

“Putting off until tomorrow what I don’t want to think about today.”

“What does that resolve?”

“Nothing for you, maybe,” she told him as she moved to the den, “but it works wonders for me.” She stopped before the fireplace to look at the portrait hanging above it. “Who’re they?” she asked curiously.

“Jase’s parents.”

“They look nice,” she said.

“I wouldn’t know. I never met them.”

“Sometimes you can tell a person’s personality just by looking,” she said, studying the couple’s faces. “Look at her smile. It’s not just on her lips, it’s in her eyes. And him,” she said, pointing. “The way he’s holding his arm around her, his stance? He obviously adores her and is very protective of her.”

“That’s quite a lot to assume from a simple photograph.”

“Some things can’t be faked.” She ambled on, smoothing a hand over the supple leather of the sofa’s back, as she looked around. “This is a cool place. Rustic, yet comfy. Much nicer than what I’d expect a hunter’s cabin to look like.”

“This was Jase’s home.”

She glanced back to find Garrett had moved to stand in the doorway between the kitchen and den, and was watching her.

“Why’d he move?” she asked.

“It was Mandy’s idea. After they married, she wanted to live in the family home.”

“Family home?” Her imagination conjured a big rambling house full of kids and laughter. “I guess his brothers and sisters didn’t have a problem with that?”

He seemed to hesitate a moment, then shook his head. “Jase was the Calhouns’ only child. He inherited their entire estate after their deaths.”

“Wow,” she said and crossed to peer out the front window. “He inherited all this?”

“Yes.”

“How big is it?”

“I have no idea. Huge, I would imagine. I know he raises cattle and has a large pecan orchard business, plus he leases hunting rights and cabins to hunters during hunting season. I’d think all that would require a substantial number of acres.”

“Probably.” She turned to him. “Do you think he’d mind if I wandered around and took some pictures?”

“Of what?”

“Nature, silly,” she said, laughing. “There are some gorgeous old trees behind the cabin, and woods are usually full of all kinds of interesting vegetation.”

“I don’t think he’d mind, as long as you didn’t stray too far.”

“Cool!” She started for the bedroom to get her camera, then stopped, remembering the coyote she’d heard howling the night before. “Want to come along?” she asked hopefully.

He pushed away from the wall. “Why not? There’s nothing else to do.”

She beamed a smile. “Great. I’ll get my camera. Won’t take a second.”

When she returned, Garrett was standing before the gun case, studying its contents. Her blood chilled, as she watched him take out a handgun.

“Uh, what are you doing?” she asked uneasily.

He spun the cylinder, checking the chambers for bullets. “Never know what you might run into in the woods.”

“Do you think the guy who’s after you will come here?”

He shrugged. “Best to be prepared.”

She gulped, wishing she hadn’t asked. “Do you know how to shoot a gun?”

He tucked the pistol into the waist of his jeans. “I rescued Zelda.”

“Zelda? The video game?”

At his nod, she choked a laugh. “Just my luck. Of all the men in the world to get marooned with, I get stuck with a computer nerd who thinks he’s embodied with super powers.”

Garrett sat on a log, watching Ali stroll alongside the creek, snapping pictures.

In spite of the danger lurking somewhere beyond the boundaries of the ranch, he felt surprisingly relaxed, calm even. He’d been living with the threat of his would-be assassin long enough to know that his current mood wasn’t normal. He also knew Ali was responsible for the change. She had a way of dealing with adversity that reduced its importance, made the most dire situation seem almost comical.

Pulling a Scarlett O’Hara.

He shook his head in amusement. Leave it to Ali to come up with something like that. But as ridiculous as her method sounded, he couldn’t argue its success. Caught in a similar situation, another woman would be wringing her hands and wailing about her plight. Not Ali. In spite of the danger they might be in, she was seemingly having the time of her life, crawling over rocks and stumps, taking pictures of plants and bugs, and all because she refused to think about their problem.

Some might consider her method of dealing with adversity a form of denial, foolish and nonproductive. A week ago, Garrett would have thought the same damn thing. But after spending time with her and experiencing, if only by association, the benefits of her methodology, he was beginning to believe the whole world would be a better place if more people took Ali’s approach to life.

“Careful,” he called to her, as her foot slipped on a rock. “That water might not be deep, but I’ll bet it’s cold.”

“And icky,” she said, making a face, as she looked through the viewfinder. “Lots of moss and slime. Oh!” she squealed. “There’s a turtle.”

“In the water?”

“Hiding under a rock.” She lowered the camera and motioned for him to join her. “Come look.”

“Thanks, but I’ve seen a turtle before.”

“Not one this big. He’s huge!”

Heaving a sigh, Garrett pulled the pistol from his waistband and set it on the log, before crossing to her.

She lifted the camera strap over her head and dropped it over his. “You can see him better through the zoom lens,” she explained. “Hunker down here,” she said, pointing to the spot where she’d been standing. “He’s on the far side of the creek.”

Garrett squatted down and brought the camera before his face. “I don’t see anything.”

She stooped behind him to peer over his shoulder. “Move the camera a little bit to the left. A little more. Do you see it now?”

He lowered the camera in disgust. “I don’t see anything but rocks and muddy water.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she fussed, and reached over his shoulders to bring the camera before his face again. Placing her cheek next to his, to align their vision, she nudged the camera a fraction to the left. “There. Do you see him now?”

See what? Garrett wasn’t sure he hadn’t been struck blind. He’d heard of sensory overload before, but he had never personally experienced its debilitating powers. With Ali’s breasts hugging the back of his neck like a cushioned collar, her cheek chafing like silk against his, and her strawberry-scented breath teasing his nostrils, all he could think was, with a slight turn of his head, he could taste her strawberry-flavored lips. A quarter turn more, and he could bury his face in the pillowed softness of her breasts.

“Well, do you?” she asked impatiently. She glanced his way, and drew back with a start, when she found him looking at her and not the turtle. Her eyes rounded. “You’re feeling it, aren’t you?” she cried. “That sizzle of sensation?”

He considered lying, but it seemed pointless to continue to deny what must be obvious.

“Makes you want to test it, doesn’t it? See how far we can push it without getting burned.”

“Yeah,” she breathed, and wet her lips.

Without allowing himself time to think of consequences, he turned on the balls of his feet, caught her face between his hands and stood, bringing her mouth to his. He tasted the strawberries that had teased him moments before, found the lingering sweetness of grapes, before her lips parted beneath his on a sigh, inviting him to deepen the kiss. He did so gladly, exploring the secret crevices, teasing her tongue until it danced with his.

“Sizzling yet?” he murmured against her lips.

“Oh, yeah,” she breathed. “How about you?”

He slipped his hands inside her jacket and smoothed his hands up her ribs. “I’m not sure. Describe the sensation to me.”

Her breath caught as his thumbs bumped over the fullness of her breasts. “Can’t,” she said, releasing the breath on a shuddery sigh against his lips. “Brain’s fried.”

He was afraid his was, too. The curves his hands traced were soft and utterly feminine, her body’s response to his touch sensual and arousing. Desire stirred his loins, a none too subtle reminder of how long it had been since he’d been with a woman.