One Night

  “I know.” Kyle wasn’t entirely sure why he felt it was so necessary to see the matter to the end. Perhaps he was more like his father than he was willing to admit. He actually found the promise of danger and intrigue exciting.

  They could consider it a father-and-son bonding experience.

  “You know what they’re going to do, don’t you?” Carrie said, watching the dust disappear from the driveway. “They’re going to leave a trail a two-year-old could follow.” Sanders had admitted that Nelson might already have tracked him to the vicinity. Now the men would make damn sure the trail didn’t lead Nelson to the cabin. In order to do that, they had to make sure Nelson had another trail to follow: theirs.

  “I don’t think we need worry,” Lillian said, fingering the crystals that hung from a gold chain around her neck, but her voice lacked confidence.

  “One day of marriage, and my husband volunteers for the front lines.” Kyle had always possessed a knack for deflating her ego.

  “Don’t take it personally,” Lillian murmured, but Carrie noted that Kyle’s mother wasn’t any more eager to move off the porch than she was. It was as though the longer they stood there, the more they were reassured that the strength of their love would bring the men safely back.

  “I think I’ll bake bread,” Lillian announced all at once.

  Bake bread! It was the hottest part of the afternoon, and Carrie had no interest in stoking up the antique stove.

  “I’d better gather up the fishing equipment,” she said.

  “So Kyle did take you fishing?”

  “Oh, yes,” Carrie answered, but she didn’t have the heart to tell her mother-in-law they hadn’t so much as dipped a line in the water. Their intentions had been good, but there had been more entertaining ways to spend the morning.

  Carrie walked out onto the dock. Her reflection was mirrored in the still water, and a warm breeze rustled the leaves.

  Something moved, something larger than a branch.

  She caught the action from the corner of her eye. Whirling around abruptly, she looked behind her.

  There was nothing except elm trees and plenty of scrub. Her imagination was working overtime, she decided. With a sense of urgency, she quickly gathered up the fishing gear.

  Whistling, her gaze skirting the area, Carrie returned to the house. She couldn’t shake the feeling that someone or something was watching her. Of course it could all be in her head, but the creepy feeling wouldn’t go away.

  Lillian was busy inside the cabin. Flour, shortening, and sugar were arranged on the table next to a large ceramic bowl. “Have you ever tasted oatmeal molasses bread?” she asked absently. She wore half glasses that were delicately balanced at the end of her nose.

  “I can’t say I have,” Carrie said, putting Kyle’s fishing gear away.

  “You must think me a silly old woman to be fussing with bread at a time like this, but I bake when I need to calm my nerves. At one time I seriously considered opening up my own natural foods bakery, but I didn’t because I loved it so much.”

  “If you enjoy baking that much, why not do it for money?”

  Lillian reached for the flour bag. “I was afraid I’d grow to hate it.” She set the bag down and stared into the distance. Carrie noted that her mother-in-law’s hands were trembling. Lillian had been badly shaken by the encounter with Sanders.

  “Why don’t we sit down and have a cup of tea,” Carrie suggested.

  “That might be a good idea,” Lillian said, walking over to the rocking chair. “I guess seeing Moon—Max again taxed me more than I realized.” She eased her weight into the rocker. “I did hear him right, didn’t I? He’s never married.”

  “That’s what he said,” Carrie murmured, carrying a cup of hot tea over to Lillian.

  “Can you imagine us finding each other after all these years? It’s like a miracle.”

  “I think it must be,” Carrie agreed, taking a seat on a bench across from Lillian.

  “I don’t think I realized how much I loved him,” she continued in a whisper. “We knew each other for such a short while.”

  “But you had Max’s son,” Carrie said. “Raising Kyle, you couldn’t help but remember Moonrunner and the love you shared.”

  “I can’t believe he left me again.”

  “He’ll be back.” Carrie promised.

  “You must think me very foolish.”

  “I don’t,” Carrie was quick to assure her. “How can I think you foolish to be in love when I’m in love myself? I’m not sure I told you this, Lillian, but I’m crazy about Kyle.”

  Her mother-in-law’s smile was feeble. “I know. And he feels the same way about you. There’s been a change in him since he’s been with you. He’s much more tolerant of others, less judgmental. I’ve worried about him, you see.”

  The feeling of being watched returned, and Carrie hopped up from the bench.

  “Carrie, what is it?”

  She didn’t want to alarm Lillian and was unsure what she should say. Yet the feeling was growing stronger, and she was frightened.

  “I think there might be someone outside,” she said, in a squeaky, high-pitched voice.

  Lillian set aside her tea.

  “When I was on the dock, I thought I saw someone.”

  “Saw or felt?” Lillian asked in a whisper.

  Carrie closed her eyes in an effort to think. “Both.”

  “Then someone’s here. I felt it myself.”

  “You did?”

  “Not to worry,” Lillian said, reaching for her wooden spoon. “We’re perfectly capable of defending ourselves.”

  “We are?” Carrie’s voice was unnaturally high.

  “Of course. All we need do is outsmart him.”

  Carrie was instantly relieved. “Then you have a plan?”

  “Oh, no, I was going to improvise, unless you have a better way of luring him out of his hiding place.”

  “Not me.”

  “Then we’ll wait.”

  Carrie didn’t like the sound of this. She’d spent two miserable days anticipating Kyle’s return, and now he was off again, to fates unknown. Now her woman’s intuition told her there was someone outside the cabin. The likelihood of this person being foe, not friend, was strong.

  Lillian was busy moving about the cabin with the familiarity of someone who knew every nook and cranny. She located a rope that looked as if it had once been used for a clothesline. Scooting a kitchen chair into the middle of the room, she paused and looked around once more.

  “What’s that for?” Carrie asked.

  “First we’ll tie him up and then we’ll interrogate him.”

  “But—supposing there really is someone out there—he could be dangerous.”

  “You think we’re not?” Lillian wiped out a cast-iron frying pan and flourished it.

  “I’ve had some karate lessons,” Carrie said tentatively.

  “You see!” Lillian responded more positively than her son to this tidbit of information. “We’re set, then. All we need to do is find a way to lure him inside the cabin.”

  “How do you propose to do that?”

  Lillian rubbed her jaw in much the same way Carrie had seen Kyle do countless times. “We seem to have only one possibility.”

  “Which is?” Somehow Carrie had the feeling she wasn’t going to like this.

  “Tell him you know he’s out there and invite him inside to negotiate. If it’s a man, which I strongly suspect, he’s short on patience. He’s probably hot and tired and bored. My guess is he’d do just about anything to put an end to waiting.”

  “What if there’s more than one?”

  “Did you see one or two?”

  “One. I think. Lillian, this is too important to take a chance.”

  “My guess is there’s only one, and even if he knows I’m in here with you, he’ll think we’re a pair of helpless females.”

  That was exactly the way Carrie viewed them. “You honestly think this’ll work
?”

  “It’s better than sitting here wondering, isn’t it?”

  Carrie wasn’t sure.

  “Now, walk out there on that porch and talk your pretty little heart out. All you got to do is lead him to Mama.” Carrie wasn’t sure what Lillian had in mind, but she speculated it had something to do with that frying pan.

  Carrie was shaking so badly she had to stop and compose herself before stepping onto the porch. “Hello, out there,” she called, surprised at how calm she sounded. “I saw you earlier by the lake. I know you’re there.”

  Silence. Even the breeze seemed to still.

  “It would help matters a good deal if we put an end to this nonsense and talked, don’t you think? Naturally, you can stay out in the hot sun as long as you wish, but I just want you to know I’m ready to dicker when you are.”

  Having said that much, she turned around and walked back inside. She poured herself a tall cool glass of water, leaned against the doorjamb, and surveyed the area surrounding the cabin.

  To her amazement a lanky man stepped out from behind an oak tree a dozen or more yards away. Carrie caught sight of a handgun under his belt.

  Her smile wavered. “I’m pleased we can be reasonable about this,” she called out. “It makes far more sense.”

  When she found the courage, she looked at his face and her heart seemed to stop dead right then and there. This man had the coldest, darkest eyes she’d ever seen. His gaze seemed to cut straight through her.

  “Would you like a glass of water?” she called out as he neared the porch.

  “Please.”

  Please. Manners, this cold-blooded killer actually had manners! Moving away from the door, she went toward the hand pump. Carrie swore her knees all but buckled from under her when he stepped over the threshold.

  Lillian casually shifted away from the wall, and the minute their stalker was through the door she let him have it with the frying pan.

  Carrie watched as his eyes rolled back in his head and he staggered forward three steps. Thinking quickly, Carrie grabbed the chair and had it beneath him just as he started to fall. The full force of his weight came down hard on the seat of the wood chair.

  Lillian took the rope and quickly ran circles around him so many times Carrie wondered if the man would be able to breathe.

  “You know who this is, don’t you?” Carrie said excitedly. Her voice trembled as badly as her hands. “This is Nelson. It has to be. No one else would have eyes that evil.”

  “You’re wrong, my dear,” said a hard voice from behind her.

  Carrie and Lillian whirled around and came face to face with a second man. This one held a gun on them both. His eyes were blue and danced with wry amusement. It was his mouth that was evil, Carrie saw. It was smiling just then, cocky and confident.

  Carrie raised her hands. Lillian did as well.

  “I guess I should introduce myself,” he said with a twist of his lips. “I’m Nelson.”

  19

  “Sit down, ladies,” Nelson instructed, motioning with the gun toward the kitchen table.

  The chair scraped against the wood floor as Carrie pulled it away and literally stumbled onto the seat. Lillian reacted far more calmly, walking with dignity toward the kitchen.

  Carrie thought they’d been so clever, too. She should have known better. They weren’t government agents trained in terrorist techniques. A health food store owner and a deejay didn’t stand a chance against professional bad guys.

  “I see we interrupted your dinner preparations,” Nelson said, as though his lack of manners distressed him.

  “I was about to bake bread,” Lillian said conversationally, as if she often dealt with gun-wielding gangsters.

  “In this heat?” Nelson wiped the moisture from his face. Walking over to the semiconscious man teetering on the edge of the chair, he slapped his associate across the face. “You all right?”

  The man shook his head a couple of times as if to clear his head.

  “Lawton?” Nelson snapped.

  “I’m fine. Get me out of this, will you?”

  “Give me a minute,” Nelson said impatiently. “I thought you said these women weren’t going to be a problem.”

  Lawton sneered at them. “I didn’t expect to be hit over the head, either.”

  “I’m hungry,” Nelson said, walking toward the kitchen.

  Carrie looked to Lillian. “I think he expects us to fix him dinner.”

  “That’s exactly what I want. Now get to it. I haven’t had anything to eat all day.”

  Carrie hadn’t given much thought to being held captive by gangsters before, but if she had, she never would have believed they’d want her to cook for them. She and Lillian were in danger now, but it would be ten times worse once they tasted her cooking.

  “Go on,” Nelson said, gesturing for them to get started. “I’m half starved.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to order out?”

  “We got us a smartass, boss,” Lawton muttered, investigating the back of his head with his hand. “Hey, I’m bleeding.” He glared at Lillian and let loose with a string of curses, some of which Carrie had never heard. She doubted she’d find them listed in Webster’s either.

  Standing next to Lillian, Carrie tried to pretend she knew what she was doing. The men argued behind her. If she could get to the gun in the drawer, she might be able to hold off Nelson and his thug. Lillian seemed to read her thoughts because she caught Carrie’s eye and gave a small negative shake of her head.

  “What are we going to do?” Carrie whispered, not wanting to attract either man’s attention, which was unlikely since they were involved in a heated conversation.

  “I thought I’d whip up a couple of omelets,” Lillian said, as if they hadn’t care in the world. She reached for the carton of eggs and a bowl.

  “I wasn’t talking about the dinner menu,” Carrie said between gritted teeth. “I’m talking about Lawton and Nelson.”

  “Oh, them. Well, we don’t have much choice, do we? We’ll have to wait to be rescued.”

  “Don’t you think we should at least try to escape?” Carrie whispered. “We have the…you know what.”

  “Don’t even think about making a break for it,” Nelson said unexpectedly. “I’d hate to have to shoot a lady.” He motioned toward them with the gun. “But I have and I will again if need be,” he added, in a voice that caused Carrie’s blood to run cold.

  “No problem,” she said, raising her hands in a submissive gesture. It was just her luck to be captured by a man with an acute sense of hearing.

  “Good. Keep it that way.”

  Nelson couldn’t seem to stand in one place for long. He wandered restlessly about the cabin. While Lillian got the stove going and whipped up the omelets, Carrie cleared off the table and made herself look busy.

  “What are you going to do with us?” she asked. Lillian might take all this in her stride, but Carrie herself was having something of a problem.

  “I haven’t figured that out yet,” Nelson said. He found a toothpick in a drawer and began to clean his teeth with it. Lawton remained in the chair. Carrie guessed he was suffering with a well-deserved headache.

  “I can give you a couple of ideas, boss.”

  Nelson’s evil laugh echoed off the walls. “I bet you can.”

  “I’d like to string that skinny one from a tree.”

  For one crazy moment, Carrie hoped they were talking about her. Then she came to her senses.

  “I think I’ll let Fischer have the younger one. She looks like she’s a live wire, and you know he likes his women a little sassy. He enjoys breaking ’em of their bad habits.”

  “He wouldn’t like me,” Carrie said confidently.

  “If Fischer doesn’t want her, I’ll take her,” Lawton volunteered. “She owes me big-time.”

  “What the hell,” Nelson said, with a generous shrug of his shoulders, “you can both have her, and when you’re through I’ll give you the
older one. A man can learn a few things from a mature woman.”

  Unperturbed by the sick turn of the conversation, Lillian piled a generous portion of eggs onto plates and set them on the table with thick slices of vine-ripened tomatoes.

  “Better eat it while it’s hot,” she said, carrying the plates to the table.

  Carrie felt sick to her stomach. She didn’t need much of an imagination to figure out what Fischer and Lawton would do once they got their hands on her.

  Both men downed their meal as if it were a contest to see which one could finish first. Lawton paused, and asked, his mouth full of food, “You hear something, boss?”

  Carrie strained her ears but heard nothing. For a moment she’d actually thought there was a chance someone had come to their rescue. Not that it was likely to happen. Lillian and she would need to see to that themselves.

  “There’s nothing out there except the wind.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Lawton agreed after a moment, but he didn’t look appeased.

  “I’m always right,” Nelson said. “That’s why I’m the boss.”

  “Sure thing, boss.”

  Carrie finished washing the cooking utensils while the two men ate. Lillian silently offered her a slice of tomato, but she refused with a soft shake of her head. She didn’t know how her mother-in-law could think about food at a time like this. Lillian acted as if having a gun held on them was of little consequence. She made it seem like a game, but these men were criminals, capable of heinous acts.

  The men cleaned their plates and seemed to be looking around for more. “You got any bread and butter?” Lawton asked.

  Carrie carried the items to the table, keeping as much distance between the two men and herself as she could. Being close to them made her skin crawl.

  “How about some coffee?” Lillian asked next, as if they were honored guests.

  “Great,” Nelson said, sounding almost appreciative.

  Carrie delivered steaming mugs of coffee as well.

  “I’ve got one killer of a headache,” Lawton complained, glaring at Carrie. His look terrified her and she moved closer to Lillian.

  “Aspirin?” Lillian offered. She opened her purse and brought out a small tin. Pressing against one corner, she took out two capsules and handed them to the larger of the two men.