Caballo Security Box Set

by Camilla Blake

  I knew answering that question would get me into trouble. American women tended to be sensitive about labels, no matter how true they might be. Instead, I kept my mouth shut while I guided her back to her stool.

  “You bastard!” she cried, slapping my shoulder as she fell back into the stool. She aimed again but missed me completely the second time. “How dare you!”

  In trouble for something I didn’t even say. So much for my pleasant evening in some stranger’s bed!

  “Let’s go,” I said, grabbing Skylar’s arm and dragging her out of the bar.

  “Thanks for defending me back there.”

  “Yeah, well, you didn’t give me much choice, did you?”

  She pulled away, angry as she let herself into her car, jumping behind the wheel and revving the engine before I could even get the passenger-side door open. She drove too fast around a curve some blocks from the bar, forcing me to reach over and correct the angle of the tires on the asphalt. She brushed my hand away, but then pulled to the side of the road, throwing the transmission into park before resting her forehead on the steering wheel.

  “What was all that about back there?” I demanded. “We had an agreement when we got into this arrangement that we wouldn’t step on each other’s toes.”

  “Sorry to ruin your evening,” she mumbled, her head still resting on the wheel.

  “You haven’t ruined anything. Spit out what you so desperately wanted to say and I’ll walk back.”

  She glanced at me, the expression on her face almost murderous. “I’ve done a lot for you over the past two years, don’t you think?”

  I shrugged. “You saved me having to go back to Hereford.”

  “I lied to agents of my government. If anyone were to find out—especially Ox—it would turn my world upside down!”

  “Ox isn’t the whole world, Skylar. And I don’t think his disapproval would be all that bad if you explained the situation properly.”

  “You don’t know how he’d react. Neither of us does.”

  “No. But he likes you. I’m sure he’d get over it.”

  She turned her head again, pressing her forehead to the wheel. I touched her shoulder, trying to offer a little comfort, but she shrugged my hand away.

  “Somehow my great-gran found out about you. She told all her friends and they told all their friends and now she wants us to come visit. Both of us.”

  I frowned, imagining some scene from an American holiday film in which the entire family descends on the newlyweds, pinching cheeks and asking uncomfortable questions. Not my idea of a fun experience.

  “I need you to go with me.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “It’s just for three or four days.”

  “No.”

  “My great-grandmother is a very old woman. She has health issues and I haven’t seen her in nearly two years. And she’s excited at the idea of meeting the man I married.”

  “That’s not my problem. I’m not the one who let the news slip.” I glanced at her. “We agreed to keep this arrangement between us!”

  “I didn’t tell her.” Skylar sat up. “She called me at work, said she’d heard a rumor. She wouldn’t tell me who’d spilled the beans.”

  “Spilled the what?”

  She shook her head, her chin wobbling like it did right before she’d burst into tears. “She’s all I have left.”

  “You have your mother.”

  Skylar grunted. “My mother lives forty minutes from me and I’ve seen her once in four years. She doesn’t give a rat’s ass about me!”

  “Sky…”

  I reached for her hand but she again brushed me off, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks as she stared out the windshield. “I’ve never asked anything of you. I don’t charge you rent, I don’t ask for help with the utilities or the groceries. I don’t even ask you to clean up after yourself—though it would be great if you could rinse out the sink after you’ve brushed your teeth! I’ve done all I can to help you convince the INS that you deserve to stay here. The least you could do is spend a few days in Washington with me.”

  “Washington?”

  “Washington State. My great-gran has a home out there in this small town not far from Seattle.”

  I thought about it for a moment, realizing that Skylar had done a lot for me over the past two years. But the idea of spending a few days in the home of some old woman, pretending to be Skylar’s husband was just… it was weird. I’d done a lot of strange things in my job, but this would be so much more than any of that. This would be awkward and illogical and such a fraud that even my hypocrisy couldn’t stand for it.

  “I can’t, Skylar. I have to stick around here in case Ox needs me.”

  “We have this wonderful invention called the cell phone. He can call either of us if he needs us.”

  “You haven’t already told him—”

  “I’ve arranged the time off. Yes. And I suggested you might need some time, too.”

  “Skylar!”

  “I didn’t tell him we were going together.” She said it in such a tone that I could hear the scorn and anger in every syllable. “I just told him you’d been asking about the possibility. He said it wouldn’t be an issue. Hell, he was more upset at me leaving than you!”

  She pressed her fingers into her hair, tugging strands out of that messily made-up bun. When she looked at me again, the tears were gone, but her eyes were red and her eyeliner was smeared.

  “Please, Prescott! I’ve never asked anything of you before this and I won’t ever ask anything of you again!”

  She had a point. The woman knew how to make me feel guilty. I hadn’t paid rent and I hadn’t even asked how I might help out with the household expenses. I’d just assumed she was happy to keep the bills in her name. I guess I should have asked.

  “I’d like to know how she found out.”

  “Does it matter?”

  I shook my head, staring out the windshield for a moment myself, watching cars speed past us. Would it really be so bad to hang out with some ancient old woman for a couple of days?

  Yeah. But I did owe her one.

  “All right. I’ll go.”

  “Really?”

  I knew I was going to regret it, but I nodded. “Really.”

  Skylar squealed and threw her arms around my neck, hugging me in an awkward, sideways sort of thing for a long moment. Then she pulled back and straightened her cardigan almost as if she’d just realized she’d done something she shouldn’t have done. We sat there in a heavy sort of silence for a moment, then I opened the car door.

  “I’ll make the arrangements and let you know,” she said.

  I just waved and walked off, hoping to find a little more action back at the bar.

  Chapter 3

  Skylar

  “I’ll drive.” I grabbed the keys off the rental counter as Prescott signed the rental agreement. “I know where we’re going.”

  “I can read Google Maps as well as anyone,” Prescott responded, smiling at the clerk who blushed as their fingers brushed over the pen he handed her. That was the definition of who Prescott was: he could flirt with the rental-counter girl while arguing with me over who would drive.

  I ignored him in favor of grabbing my overnight bag and walking toward the exit, leaving him with the rest of the bags. Most of them were his anyway—three large suitcases filled with designer jeans, hand-sewn shirts, and hair products that cost more than the suitcases that held them—with just one belonging to me. You could tell the difference, too. Mine was older than the hills, held together with duct tape and luck. His were brand-new, hard plastic that still shimmered in the overhead lights.

  The car he’d arranged for wasn’t just a simple sedan. I don’t know why I was surprised. Prescott never did anything small. It was a Hummer, one of those massive military-style vehicles that’s more about looks than comfort. Talk about conspicuous! The whole world would see us coming while we were still miles away!

 
“You couldn’t just get an Accord?”

  “What’s an Accord?”

  “A Honda. A sedan.”

  He shook his head like he still didn’t understand what I was talking about. “Why get a small car when you can have something like this?”

  “The gas on something like this will cost half the budget I planned!”

  “Then we’ll just spend less on food, or whatever.”

  I glanced at him. “Are you suggesting I spend too much money on food?”

  “We don’t have to eat steak every night.”

  “But you don’t eat anything else!”

  “Sure, I do. You’ve just never bothered to ask me what else I’d like.”

  “I have asked! You’re usually too involved in your video games to answer.”

  Prescott slammed the back tailgate after putting the suitcases away and crossed his arms, his eyes moving slowly over me. He was so handsome—what with his dark hair and those smoldering eyes—that it was hard to be mad at him. But I was mad.

  “You spend so much time ignoring me that I guess I’ve just gotten tired of asking.”

  “I’m not ignoring you now.”

  “Now it’s too late.”

  I turned on my heel and snatched the door open, staring at the seat that seemed to be a mile above the ground. How was a person supposed to be graceful climbing into this thing? I stepped onto the little step that rolls out when the door opens. Unfortunately, the step was built for a normal-sized person, not a short woman like me. I still had half a mile to climb up.

  “Why did you have to get this thing?”

  Prescott came up behind me and stepped up onto the step, his body so close to me that it was like I’d been enveloped in this cloud of masculine smells and heat and comfort. I closed my eyes as he slipped his arms around my waist, taking what I could from this moment before it ended. But then he was lifting me up and I was flying through the air. I cried out, throwing my arms around his neck.

  “You have to let go if you want to get behind the wheel.”

  I opened my eyes and found myself facing him on that very narrow step. He was smiling, a twinkle in his eye that I remembered from all the fun flirting that had gone on before the wedding, before our relationship changed. It was that smile that got me into this mess in the first place.

  He brushed a piece of hair away from my face, his eyes caressing my cheek briefly. And then he lifted me again, setting me gently on the driver’s seat.

  “We should get going.”

  I nodded, grateful when he closed the door and gave me a moment to collect myself. My hands were shaking. I held the wheel tight for a long second, waiting for them to settle.

  “Where are we going?”

  I took a deep breath and pressed the button that started the car. It roared, the vibrations rushing through me. “My great-grandmother lives in a small town on this island. It’s really beautiful; the house sits so close to the water that you can open the windows at night and hear it slapping against the shore.”

  “Sounds nice.”

  I nodded. “It was a great place to visit as a kid. I mean, I grew up in a small town in Texas, too, but Washington is like a whole other world. It’s hard to explain, but it was always nice to come here.”

  “You’re close to your great-grandmother?”

  I nodded. “As close as I can be when I only got to see her a few times a year. I had to go to school and whatever, so I could only see her during school holidays. Sometimes for a whole month during the summer, but not always. My mom… she didn’t really care if I was home or not, but she hated my great-gran, so she refused to let me come up here as often as she could get away with it.”

  “That’s sad. My grandmother was always a part of the family. I guess it helped, though, that she lived just down the lane from us.”

  “My great-gran never approved of my father marrying my mother. She was convinced that my mother trapped him into marrying her by getting pregnant with me.”

  “Did she?”

  I shrugged. “Probably.”

  “How did your father feel about the whole thing?”

  I held tight to the steering wheel as I navigated our way out of the airport parking lot. I had wondered that a lot when I was a kid. I’d even asked my mother once and she’d told me in no uncertain terms that it was none of my business. That had made me think that my father wasn’t as easy with the whole situation as my mother liked me to believe.

  I brushed a few beads of sweat from my brow as we stopped at a stop light. Driving this thing was going to be quite interesting!

  “I think my father probably would have been uncomfortable being caught between the two women in his life. What man wouldn’t?”

  “Did you ever ask?”

  I glanced at Prescott, surprised he would forget something so basic about my personal history. “He died when I was five.”

  “Yeah, well—”

  “That’s not something a five-year-old thinks to ask. I barely have memories of my father, let alone of asking him things like that!”

  “Yes, of course. My apologies.”

  I glanced at Prescott. He was staring forward, watching traffic move across the intersection like it was the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen. He really didn’t want to be here, did he? I felt a little bad for forcing him into it, but I knew it was the only way I was going to get him here with me and I really didn’t want to come up here alone.

  I wasn’t even sure why I was here.

  I called my great-gran every Friday. Usually we talked in the late afternoon, after lunch and before her bridge game with her girlfriends. It wasn’t always a long conversation, just the two of us checking in, sharing little stories about our week. I’d always think of all these things I wanted to tell her during the week and I’d scribble them down on a piece of paper until I had so many pieces of paper scattered over my desk that it looked like some sort of disorganized storm hit. But this week… there was something different about Great-Gran. She was confused. She was lethargic. She was not the sharp, compassionate, interested woman I normally spoke to. It frightened me.

  I’d spoken with her home-care nurse, Nolan Schneider, but he didn’t seem to have noticed a change in her. That was odd because he was always the first person to call me whenever the slightest change took place in my great-gran’s behavior or health. That set off alarm bells.

  Great-Gran didn’t know I was married. No one knew I was married. I’d told Prescott that because I just… I didn’t want to come up here alone. As stupid as that might sound, it was as simple as that. I wanted his company. I wanted his support. And I would take it any way I could get it.

  The Hummer seemed to have a life of its own. When we merged onto the highway, it just took off, quickly rising in speed almost as if I had nothing to do with it. I had to keep sliding my foot off the accelerator to keep it under control. I was higher than most of the other cars on the road, able to see more than I ever would have in a little sedan. And the ride was so much more smooth than I’d expected.

  It was pretty cool, though I’d never admit that to Prescott.

  We left the city, the traffic thinning out around us. I found myself watching the scenery, thinking about past visits to this area. The first time I’d seen it I was about eight. Great-Gran had been sitting beside me, pointing out all the landmarks.

  That’s where your father learned to fish.

  That’s where your grandfather played golf.

  That’s where the family business began.

  I’d noted each landmark with a tingle of pride. I’d never felt a true connection to Spring Branch, the little town in Texas where I grew up. But this place… there was a true connection. I’d seriously thought of moving up here after high school, but then I’d started working for Ox and he needed me… But sometimes I wished I could be here and there all at the same time.

  Speaking of which, as we pulled off the highway onto the little two-lane road that led to Great-Gran’s, my ce
ll rang. I tugged it out of my pocket, not surprised to see Ox’s face smiling up at me.

  “We’ve been gone less than half a day. Why is he already calling?” Prescott wondered.

  I couldn’t concentrate on both the phone and the Hummer. I let the call go to voicemail, setting the phone in the cup holder as we negotiated a wide curve. A small diner—the only diner in town—appeared as the road straightened again, the parking lot half full at two o’clock in the afternoon. I pulled into a spot in the center of the lot, making the Hummer the focus of the whole darn thing, and picked up the phone.

  “It’ll only take a second.”

  “Great,” Prescott mumbled. “I guess I’ll give you some space.”

  He got out of the Hummer and walked away, his jeans moving nicely over his muscular legs as he headed into the diner. I waited till he was gone, not sure if I was waiting for privacy, or just enjoying the view. Maybe a little bit of both.

  “Where’s the file on the Juniper case?” Ox wanted to know.

  “In the file cabinet under J.”

  “Are you sure? I’ve looked twice.”

  “My file cabinet or yours?”

  “Yours.”

  “It’s in yours. Behind the file for the Juhaper case.”

  “We’ve been looking half the morning. I thought you kept all the open cases in your file cabinet.”

  “No. All those are in your cabinets. I keep closed cases in my cabinets.”

  “We really need to go over your filing system one of these days, Skylar.”

  I smiled. We had. Many times. He just forgot.

  “How’s it going up there in Washington? How’s your grandmother?”

  “I haven’t quite gotten there yet. But the town’s still here.”

  “You’ll keep in touch? Let me know how things are going?”

  “Yes, I will. I appreciate you giving me the time off.”

  “No problem. Things are always a little slow at the end of summer.” Ox sighed. “Here it is. Thank goodness.”

  “What do you need that file for, anyway? I thought it was wrapping up.”

  “It is. I just needed to verify some information.” There was a slight edge to Ox’s voice. “Just administrative stuff.”