by Sherry Lewis
“Do you have any idea where he’s gone?”
She shook her head sadly. “No, but I guess that’s one good thing about a small town. There’s only one road out of Serenity, only two directions he could have gone.”
“Well, that’ll make my job easier, then. Are you going to be okay?”
She managed a tremulous smile. “I’m fine. I’ll be better when you find my brother. I shouldn’t have been so angry with you, Max. It was the shock of finding out that got to me, I guess. If it had been another time or another way, maybe I’d have reacted better.”
“Yes, well. I’ve learned a few things this week, and one of them is that putting off a tough job only makes it harder to do.” He held her gaze and forced the next question. “Does this mean you’ve forgiven me?”
“Of course.” She started to reach for him but pulled her hand back before she touched him. “I’ve fallen in love with you, you know that. The girls think the sun rises and sets on you.” Her gaze faltered and her voice drifted away.
And Max’s heart felt as if it had turned to stone. “But?”
“But you’re leaving Serenity after you find Travis. I’m staying.”
“There are phones,” he reminded her. “And airplanes, cars, trains…E-mail. We could give it a try and see what might come of it.”
She still didn’t look at him. “Distance isn’t the only problem. I lost my husband because of the career he chose. I can’t get involved with another person who takes chances with his life on a daily basis. I can’t live with that kind of fear again. And it would be worse this time because now I know it can happen—and not just to someone else.”
Max pulled her into his arms and brushed her forehead with a kiss. “I know how frightened you are. But I love you, Reagan. I’ve never felt like this before. How can you expect me to turn my back and walk away from you?”
“And I love you,” she said softly. “I never imagined I could love with my whole heart again, but I do.”
He lowered his lips to hers and poured his heart and soul into the kiss, trying to convince her without words to at least give them a chance. She responded, hesitantly at first, then giving herself over to the moment and clinging to him so tightly, he knew there was at least some part of her that didn’t want to let him go.
“I love you,” he whispered when he could speak again. Needing her desperately, he cradled her against his aching heart. “There has to be some solution, and I’m determined to find it.”
She pulled away and looked up at him. “How? It would mean one or the other of us would have to change. Your career isn’t just what you do, it’s who you are.” She touched his cheek gently and traced the scowl lines around his mouth with one finger. “I can’t ask you to give that up, but I can’t live with it, either.”
“I didn’t say there was an easy solution. Just that there has to be one.”
“I wish I could be as certain as you are.”
“Just give me a chance. I’ll see if I can’t convince you.” He allowed himself one last kiss, then pressed her gently away. “After I find Travis.”
“You’ll be careful?”
“I’ll be more careful than I’ve ever been,” he vowed. “I’ve never had such a good reason to watch my back.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
MAX SPENT A FEW MINUTES gathering his things and loading the car. He changed into his steel-toed military-issue boots and padded himself with his bulletproof vest, just in case. He’d promised Reagan to bring Travis in safely, but he’d be a fool to think Travis would be equally careful with Max’s health. From here on out, he had to treat this like any other job, any other search, treat Travis like any other criminal.
He checked his ammunition, slipped his 9 mm into the specially made holster under his seat and his .25 caliber—the pistol Donovan laughingly referred to as his girlie gun—into the glove box. By the time he’d finished, he realized that he wouldn’t want Reagan or the girls anywhere near the car, and that realization sharpened the spines on the knot in his stomach.
This was no life for a family. He knew that. He’d spent hours in training to learn gun safety, and every year he had to pass the certification test again to keep his various licenses, but he wasn’t a gun enthusiast. He had a healthy respect for firearms, but he wouldn’t want children in the same house with them.
So how could he even consider a life with Reagan and her daughters?
With effort, he shoved the question to the back of his mind and forced himself to concentrate. Allowing personal problems to distract him during a chase was the kind of mistake that got people killed.
After locking the car and trunk, he picked up an area map from Phyllis in the motel office and told her he’d be away for a day or two, maybe longer. In spite of his determination to treat this like any other case, he didn’t check out of the room. Keeping it meant he’d be coming back, and he suspected that Reagan would need that reassurance as much as he did.
As he stepped outside again, he saw a familiar figure leaning against the trunk of his car. With his thick beard and long hair, leather vest and tattoos, Donovan looked as out of place in this town as Max had felt when he first arrived. Though he hadn’t consciously expected Donovan to show up, Max wasn’t surprised to see him.
Without breaking stride, he stuffed the map Phyllis had given him into his shirt pocket and crossed the parking lot. “Are you lost?”
“Might be.” Donovan crossed one booted foot over the other and looked him over slowly. “Where are you headed?”
“Carmichael gave me the slip again. This time with two-hundred in cash from his sister’s wallet and her debit card.”
Donovan pushed away from the car and stretched. “Guess we’d better get on the road, then.”
Max unlocked the car and looked at Donovan over the car’s top. “So, are you going to tell me what made you change your mind about coming?”
“Nope.” Donovan slid into his seat and shut the door.
Grinning, Max shook his head and joined his partner in the car. He shut the door and tugged the seat belt across his lap. “I had it covered, you know.”
“I know.” Donovan rolled down his window a crack and lit a cigarette. He gestured toward the office as Max pulled out of the parking lot. “Nice place.”
“I’ve been comfortable.”
“Nice town, too.”
“It’s not San Diego,” Max said with a grin. “Not even close.”
“No law that says San Diego’s the only place to live, is there?”
Max shook his head and braked for a stop sign. “Nope.”
Donovan blew out a cloud of smoke and regarded him thoughtfully. “I didn’t think so.”
IT HAD BEEN twenty-four hours since Reagan had discovered Travis missing. She was crazy with worry. The girls had gone to school again, under protest and after extracting a promise that Reagan would call them as soon as she heard anything. For the second day in a row, Reagan hadn’t been able to face work. She sat at her dining table with her head buried in her hands and listened to the clock ticking and Andie puttering in the kitchen.
Thank God for Andie, who’d also taken the day off in spite of Reagan’s protests. And for their supervisor who’d been understanding enough to let her. Reagan had thought she wanted to be alone until she saw her friend’s face. Then she realized how much she needed someone with her.
The kettle whistled and spoons clanked against mugs as Andie made tea. Reagan couldn’t seem to make her arms and legs work. Every nerve in her body felt as if it were on fire and her mind raced this way and that, hoping for the best but imagining the worst.
“Here you go.” Andie slid a cup in front of her. “This will help.”
“Thanks. But unless it’s going to knock me senseless, I doubt it will make me feel better. I’m so nervous, I’m not sure anything will help.”
“You’ll hear something soon.”
“I hope so. I’m going out of my mind.” Reagan stretched out her hand towa
rd the telephone, tempted to check the dial tone to make sure the line was working but afraid that Max would call that very second and get a busy signal. She’d phoned her dad briefly the night before to tell him Travis had bolted, but she hadn’t let herself use the phone since. “Why haven’t we heard from Max? It means that something bad’s happened, doesn’t it?”
“I think this is a case where no news is good news.” Andie urged her tea closer. “I’m sure they’re both fine. You’d have heard if they weren’t.”
Reagan clutched Andie’s hand. “I’m so glad you’re here. I’m not sure I could survive waiting alone.”
“You’d do the same thing for me.”
“You know I would. Let’s just hope I never have to.”
Andie smiled gently. “I’ll second that.”
“I wish I knew how long Travis was gone before we woke up yesterday. Maybe Max won’t be able to track him down.”
Andie scowled lightly. “Max does this for a living, remember?”
“Apparently, so does Travis.” Reagan took a steadying breath, but it didn’t help calm her. “How could he do something this stupid?”
“There’s no telling what goes through people’s heads.” Andie drizzled honey into her tea and took a sip. “Now, tell me, did you call the bank like I told you to yesterday?”
“Not yet.”
“Why not? There’s a limit on how much he can get in a single day, you know. If they deactivate your card, you should be able to protect the rest of your money.”
“I thought about doing that,” Reagan said, linking her hands together, then pulling them apart again. “I’m afraid that if I do, Travis will get desperate. At least if he has access to my money, he might not commit another robbery.”
“Yeah,” Andie said with a scowl, “but you might not have any money left.”
“I’d rather lose every cent than have Travis pull another robbery and end up dead.” Reagan lifted her cup, set it aside without tasting it and jerked to her feet. “I can’t stand sitting here. It’s driving me crazy.”
“Waiting is hell,” Andie agreed.
“I need to do something.”
“You want to mop the floor?”
“No. I’d be done in ten minutes. I need something that takes longer and doesn’t require me to think.”
“Laundry?”
“Laundry takes too long. There’s too much waiting time between loads.” Reagan paced out of the kitchen, searching for something to occupy her. In the living room, she saw the stack of magazines she’d been meaning to go through for months and let out a shout. “I’ve found it,” she called to Andie. “We can clip coupons. I have enough here to keep us busy for days.”
Andie came around the corner and took in the stack of magazines with a raised eyebrow. “Days? It looks like weeks to me.”
“Good intentions, not enough time.” Reagan handed her an armful and picked up an equal stack for herself. In the kitchen, she set her magazines on the table and went to the junk drawer for scissors. “If you find any good recipes, you might as well clip those, too.”
Andie nodded and started flipping pages. “So, to change the subject, what ever happened with those climbing lessons Jamie was asking you for?”
Reagan pushed her hair over her shoulder and sighed. “I’m not sure. One minute she was gung-ho about them and hardly speaking to me. The next, it was like she didn’t care anymore. I don’t know what happened, and I’ve been afraid to bring it up.” She set a coupon she’d clipped to one side and flipped another few pages. “If she’s forgotten, I don’t want to remind her.”
Andie laughed and added a coupon to the stack. “I knew she’d forget in time. Tommy’s that way. He gets a bug in his ear one day and nothing is more important. A few days later, he’s moved on to something else.”
“I hope Jamie doesn’t move on to something else. I shudder to think what she might come up with.”
“Why are you worried? Her next idea might be perfectly harmless. Like rattlesnake wrestling, or something.”
Reagan laughed. “You know her, don’t you?” She sobered again almost instantly. “I wish it was a phase she’d grow out of. Of course, I always thought Travis would outgrow his rebellious stage, and look at him now.”
Andie rested both arms on the table and looked her in the eye. “Jamie isn’t Travis. She isn’t Paul, either. Do her a favor and remember that.”
“I know she’s not.”
“Jamie’s just pushing to find out what her boundaries are, testing to find out who she is and what she likes. We all do that. Travis knows exactly where the boundaries are but he’s hell-bent on pushing past them to get back at somebody.”
“At me.”
Andie shrugged and went back to clipping. “Maybe. Maybe your dad. Maybe even your mom for leaving him. Did Travis ever go to counseling after your mom died?”
“For a while, but it was a horrible counseling center that the county ran for free.” Reagan hadn’t thought of that clinic in years and the memory made her shudder. “The counselors acted as if they were either bored or irritated with us for interrupting them. We both hated it.”
“And I’ll bet Travis never tried counseling again.”
“Not that I know of.” Reagan held her scissors over the page she was about to cut. “I’m sure he hasn’t. It was hard enough for me to get help after Paul died.” She scratched her forehead lightly. “And Daddy never did go. It was only because our Aunt Helen got tired of watching us all flounder that Travis and I went. She convinced Daddy to sign the paperwork, but that’s all he did. She drove us to every appointment.”
“Maybe that was one more thing that made Travis think your dad didn’t care about him.”
“I’m sure it was.” Reagan set her scissors aside and leaned back in her seat. “Just talking about it, I’m suddenly feeling anger I never knew I had left.” She rubbed her forehead again. “Travis needs help, doesn’t he?”
“I think so.”
“I’m doing the right thing.”
“Absolutely.”
“This is the only way he’s ever going to get help, isn’t it?”
“Probably.” The telephone rang and startled them both. Andie lunged for it before Reagan could move. “I’ll get it. That way I can get rid of whoever it is—unless it’s Max or your dad, of course.”
Reagan listened anxiously while Andie answered, and when Andie held out the phone to her, mouthing Max’s name, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. Her hand trembled so violently, she could hardly hold the phone. “Max? Where are you?”
“In Thayne.”
“That’s not even sixty miles away. Have you found him?”
“Not yet.”
Reagan’s heart plummeted. “Do you have any leads?”
“A couple.” Max waited while a truck rumbled past. “We found a clerk at the grocery store who remembers him buying food and supplies this morning.”
“We?”
“My partner showed up yesterday before I left town.”
“There’s someone else with you?”
“Don’t worry, Reagan. He’s a good man. He knows why it’s so important to bring Travis in without harm, and he won’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
“Okay.” She had to trust him. What options did she have?
“We got a feel for the kinds of food and supplies Travis was buying here, so we took a chance and checked with the sporting shops. It’s beginning to look like he’s headed into the mountains.”
Reagan’s gaze shot to the window and the white-capped mountains. They looked cold and distant and isolated, and she wondered how anyone could survive the cold and snow—especially someone pampered like Travis. “He could be anywhere up there,” she whispered. “He could get lost and nobody will ever find him.”
“I’ll find him,” Max said firmly. “I’ve had some mountain training. I’ll find his trail, and I’ll find him. I promise you that.”
Reagan closed her eyes against the
sudden sting of tears. “I’m trying to believe you.”
“I won’t come back down until I have Travis with me. I’ll call again as soon as I have news. Meanwhile, I want you to take care of yourself and the girls. No staying awake all night. No skipping meals.”
In spite of her aching heart, she laughed and sent a guilty glance toward the bowl of fruit. Other than a few sips of coffee and tea, she hadn’t put anything in her stomach all day. “What makes you think I’d do either?”
“Call it a wild guess.” He covered the mouthpiece against the noise of passing traffic. “I’d better go before it gets any later. Donovan and I want to use daylight as long as we can.” He paused again and lowered his voice. “I love you, Reagan. Try not to worry.”
Not worry? she thought as she replaced the receiver a few minutes later. How could she not worry? Travis had no experience in the mountains. Anything might happen to him. And anything could happen to Max as he tried to keep his promise to her. Reagan loved her brother, but she didn’t know what to expect from him. It hurt to realize that she couldn’t trust him.
She trusted Max not to hurt Travis, but she wasn’t at all convinced that the trust could go both ways.
MAX PULLED HIS FOOT out of three inches of clinging mud and tried to find a solid place to take his next step. Two days’ tracking Travis through the mountains, including several false trails, and he doubted they were an inch closer than they’d been when they started.
“Oh, this is fun.” Donovan’s sarcasm sounded from behind deep inside a patch of aspen where he’d probably found the same wet mud as Max had. “Tell me again why we’re out here?” He appeared between two trees, his boots and the lower few inches of his jeans thoroughly caked in mud. “That tiny bounty on Carmichael isn’t worth this.”
If it hadn’t been for Reagan, Max would’ve agreed. The snow had been getting steadily deeper and the air more frigid as they climbed. His breath formed soft white clouds in front of his face, his nose and ears ached from the cold, and his fingers were growing numb.
They’d followed Travis’s trail into the high mountain area by car until they found the van abandoned in front of the chains draped across the snow-blocked roads. They’d been on foot ever since. And after two long days uphill, the pack on his back felt as if it weighed a ton.