by Harper Allen
“Last night satisfied my curiosity, Gabe. You said it yourself—I see men like you doing work around my father’s estate, or as hired security at a function. My girlfriends and I’ve always thought it might be thrilling in a naughty way to spend a night with that type of man.” She forced a laugh. “You were a fantasy come true, and it was even kind of fun having to persuade you, but you’re right—the ground rules still stand. It would be embarrassing for both of us if you showed up on my doorstep in the mistaken belief that this had been anything more than it was.”
She tipped her head to one side. “This never happened, you won’t call me, and I don’t have to worry about running into you again. Promise?”
“Sure,” he said tonelessly. “But the next time you get curious, honey, consider calling an agency who sends the kind of man you’re looking for out on house calls. That way you won’t have to worry about any misunderstandings at all.”
The drive to Aspen had been conducted in near-total silence, Caro remembered now. Gabe had dropped her off in front of a five-star hotel, she’d checked into a suite, and after drawing herself a bath so hot that billows of perfumed steam rose from the tub, she’d immersed herself in a vain attempt to melt the core of ice that seemed to have formed inside her.
The ice hadn’t melted—not then, and not upon her return to Albuquerque, where she’d informed her father that she’d broken off her engagement to a man he’d seen as an eminently suitable prospective husband for her. It hadn’t melted over the following weeks during the rounds of parties she’d forced herself to attend. And then one day she’d frowned at the calendar, made a quick calculation, and had felt the first hairline fissure appear in the numbness she’d begun to think had become a permanent part of her.
A few days later she’d shakily dialed the number she’d obtained for Gabe. He was going to be a father. She was carrying his child. Surely opening the conversation with a bombshell like that would catch him off guard enough that he would listen to the rest of what she had to tell him—that he’d misinterpreted the dismay he’d seen on her face when he’d awoken that morning, that a lifetime of being Caroline Moore, daughter of a man who’d taught her from childhood that emotions were to be concealed, had caused her to clutch at her pride instead of revealing her true feelings.
“I would have poured it all out to him if he’d still been there to answer that phone call,” Caro said out loud, her hands gripping the SUV’s wheel and her gaze fixed on the empty desert landscape rushing by. But he hadn’t been. It had all been true on his part— Gabe Riggs was a loner who didn’t stick around long enough to have relationships. She was glad she had found out before the baby was born. No child needed a father who’d rather be somewhere else, instead of tied down to a woman he had no fond memories of and a baby he hadn’t planned on.
Which made her current quest all the more ironic, she thought tensely. Because right now the only man who could help her was the one man she’d assumed she would never see—
She hit the SUV’s brakes to avoid whizzing past the gas station she’d been told to watch for. It was no wonder she’d nearly missed the building, she thought as she maneuvered around a truck that had been abandoned beside what remained of a pair of gasoline pumps. The structure was close to being a ruin. No one had lived here for decades.
Jess’s information had to be wrong.
Caro brought the sports utility to a stop, tears of disappointment and fear pricking at the back of her eyes. Even as her vision blurred she blinked the tears back.
At one end of the ramshackle building a rusty nail protruded from a broken board. Slung from the nail was what she’d first taken as a rag but on second glance proved to be a shirt. It wasn’t faded enough to have been hanging there for years.
She opened the door, stepped out of the vehicle and walked to the side of the building.
He was standing beneath an oil drum that had obviously been rigged up as a primitive shower. Water was sprinkling down through holes punched into the bottom of the drum. He was lean muscle and whip-cord sinews and bronzed hide. He was completely naked.
Caro’s breath caught in her throat. She put her hand on the side of the building to steady herself.
Gabe looked over his shoulder and his gaze met hers. “Don’t come another step closer,” he said flatly.
She’d expected hostility from him, she acknowledged numbly. She hadn’t expected the piercing pain that demolished her already-shaky defences at this curt evidence that whatever Gabe Riggs might once have felt for her was dead and gone.
He reached up to the side of the oil drum and, before she understood what he was doing, he brought down a sawed-off shotgun, braced it one-handedly against his body and pulled the trigger. Out of the corner of her eye she saw splinters fly explosively from the side of the building as the heavy body of a greenish-colored snake gave one last, headless spasm a few feet away from where she stood frozen in her tracks. It was a moment before she could trust herself to speak.
“I—I think you just saved my life.” Her voice wasn’t entirely steady, but she hoped he would put the quaver in her tone down to what had just happened.
“Since that was a Mojave rattler, I think I did, too.”
As Gabe replaced the shotgun in a sling at the side of the oil drum, she saw a gleam of silver on his left wrist and recognized the bracelet he’d worn the night they’d met. With no self-consciousness at all, he ducked his head under the final trickle of water before stepping away from the patch of already-drying earth under his makeshift shower and picking up a pair of patched khakis. He put them on, raked wet hair out of his eyes and retrieved the shotgun, then walked past her.
“How did you find me?” As he spoke he kept walking, while shrugging his shoulders into his shirt.
“Through an old friend of yours, Jess Crawford. I met him once or twice at parties when I was dating Larry. I work for him now, as his social secretary.” She resisted the impulse to look away. “My situation’s changed since we last met, Gabe, but that’s not relevant. Jess needs your help. From what I gather, he and you go back a long way.”
“Fifteen years.” Gabe’s jaw tightened. “Did ol’ Jess feed you a line about the crazy times we had together with Tyler Adams and Virge Connor at the Double B Ranch, when we were sent there as juvenile delinquents to turn our lives around? Did he credit the fact that he’s now a software billionaire and a solid citizen to Del Hawkins, the ex-marine who runs the ranch and whipped us into shape?”
She stared at him, disconcerted. “Not in so many words, but yes. He told me that being sent to the Double B was the best thing that ever happened to him. He said all four of you felt that way.”
“Jess is a nice guy. His problem’s always been in believing that wanting something bad enough makes it come true.” Gabe shrugged. “If it’s a Double B band-of-brothers reunion Jess wants me to attend, tell him thanks but no thanks. And tell him to come himself the next time he needs a favor.”
He opened the SUV’s door. “Expensive vehicle, expensive-looking dress, and those strappy little sandals you’re wearing probably cost more than I used to make in a week before I quit Recoveries International. It doesn’t look to me as if your situation’s changed that much, even if you are filling in time by playing secretary for Jess. You’re still a snow princess. Better be on your way before that creamy skin starts to burn.”
She couldn’t afford to take offence at his tone, but a spark of desperate anger flared in her nonetheless.
“Maybe the changes in my life just don’t seem so significant in comparison to your situation.” She gazed steadily at him. “Why did you disappear, Gabe? Was it because you blamed yourself for Leo Roswell’s death?”
“Leo’s death was why I stopped being a hostage negotiator. I knew that if I hadn’t seen what Kanin was planning, the instincts I’d always relied on were gone.” His smile was brief. “As for why I dropped off the face of the earth, I don’t see how that’s any of your damn business, sweetheart.”<
br />
“Then I’d better stick to what is my business. I’m here because Jess once told me that if he was ever kidnapped, the only man he’d trust to negotiate his release would be you.”
The sunlight was so strong that Gabe’s eyes seemed a translucent amber, but just for a moment they deepened to black. She saw his jaw tighten as he took in what she hadn’t said.
“When and where?”
For the first time since she’d found him here in this nowhere spot Caro allowed her emotions to show. “Two days ago, just across the border in Mexico. His abductors snatched him while he was down there supervising construction of a new Crawford Solutions plant he’s having built.” She shook her head. “Oh, Gabe—Jess’s business partner Steve Dixon called in Kanin’s firm to handle negotiations for his release. I’m afraid something’s going to go wrong.”
“If Recoveries International’s been hired, even if I wanted to I wouldn’t be able to involve myself.” His tone was flat. “I wouldn’t have the authority to replace—”
“But that’s just it—I do,” she interrupted. “I told you I was Jess’s social secretary. That’s true, as far as it goes, but our relationship’s grown over the year and a half I’ve been working for him. A few weeks ago he asked me to marry him.”
He looked away. “Congratulations, but I don’t—”
“I said I needed time to think it over, but he still insisted on signing some document that gave me power of attorney over his affairs, which is why my choice of hostage negotiator will take precedence over Steve Dixon’s. I won’t lie to you, Gabe—I’ve decided I’m going to tell him I accept his proposal. But first I need your help to bring him home.”
His expression closed. “Jess deserves a negotiator who’ll give him a fighting chance to come out of this alive, not a burned-out case who could get him killed.”
“He deserves the man he asked for when he first suspected this day might come—” she retorted, “the man he has faith in. You’re that man, Gabe, whether you like it or not. Maybe you’ve been able to walk away from the rest of the world, but you can’t walk away from one of your oldest friends.”
“No?” His smile was humorless. “Just watch me, princess.”
She’d gambled and lost, Caro thought dully. But what had she expected? Gabriel Riggs had once called her a rich bitch, and the morning after they’d slept together she’d done everything she could to convince him that his assessment of her had been correct. She’d been insane to think that a plea for help from her would mean anything to him.
“You said Jess suspected this day might come.” About to turn away, he paused. “What made him think he was in danger of being kidnapped?”
“Nothing specific,” she said tonelessly. “Just the feeling once or twice that he was being followed. But when I suggested he hire a bodyguard, he told me he’d never wanted his wealth to curtail his life and he wasn’t going to start now. I guess that attitude made it easy for his kidnappers. The one who phoned to tell us they had Jess certainly seemed to think so.”
“You’re leaving something out.” His gaze sharpened. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He wanted the truth from her—the whole truth, Caro thought. He wanted more than she was prepared to give.
“The kidnapper who called said we’d better make sure nothing went wrong,” she said unevenly. “He said that not only was Jess’s life at stake, but that if they had to kill him they’d come after me and my baby daughter, Emily.”
She saw his eyes darken in shock and answered his question before he could ask it, knowing that her child’s whole world depended on convincing him.
“Emily is Larry’s baby, Gabe,” she lied, her gaze clear and unwavering on his. “I was already pregnant with her when I met you eighteen months ago, but before you try to tell me that as her father he’ll want to take sole responsibility for her safety, you should know that I’ve never told him what his relationship is to her—and I don’t intend to.”
She shook her head. “I told you my circumstances had changed. I’ve changed, too. I’ll do whatever I have to, to give my daughter a happy and secure life. Larry wasn’t fiancé material, and he’s not father material, either. Even if Jess hadn’t offered me a job and a place to live after my father disowned me, I still wouldn’t have approached Kanin for any kind of support in return for letting him play a part in Emmie’s life.”
“Your father disowned you?” He frowned. “Because you were pregnant, for God’s sake?”
“Because I was pregnant and I wouldn’t say who the father was. All I told him was that it wasn’t Larry. Father had been upset enough over the breakup of my engagement. If he’d known it was Larry’s child I was carrying, he would have bulldozed a marriage through, no matter what.”
She tried to smile. “William Moore always gets what he wants. As soon as he realized that this time he wasn’t going to, he told me he no longer considered me his daughter. When I ran into Jess a few weeks later, I’d just been fired from my third job in a row and I was at my wit’s end as to how I was going to survive. I’m not a princess anymore, Gabe, I’m a working single mom.”
“With a marriage proposal from a software billionaire.” There was nothing in Gabe’s voice but detachment. “When’s the handover scheduled for?”
“Sometime tonight. The Crawford Solutions jet will get us to Jess’s Mexican villa in under an hour, and we’re to be contacted there with the exact time and place. Steve Dixon’s flying down with me, although Larry and a contingent of his men are already at the villa.”
“Larry took a contingent of his men? How many is a contingent, exactly?”
Caro blinked. “I don’t know, ten or twelve. Why?”
“Because you don’t need an army to hand over a ransom, for God’s sake,” Gabe replied tersely. “You only need an army if you intend to stage a battle. Kanin’s going to pull some kind of cowboy stunt, dammit.”
“But—” She felt the blood drain from her face. “But that could get Jess killed,” she whispered, appalled. “And then his kidnappers will come after Emily, just as they threatened to.”
The desert heat and the blazing sun seemed suddenly replaced by a bone-numbing cold and a darkness so total it might have been deadest night. She couldn’t let anything happen to her daughter, Caro told herself in desperation—she wouldn’t let anything happen.
No matter what she had to offer him, she needed to convince Gabe to take control of the hostage negotiation. But what could she offer a man who’d turned his back on everything?
The same thing she’d offered Gabriel Riggs once before to persuade him to go against his better judgment, she thought shakily. Herself. Because even if he didn’t like her, even if his opinion of her character was that she was still a shallow, spoiled princess, he’d once wanted her so badly that for one night he hadn’t been able to get enough of her, just as she hadn’t been able to get enough of him.
For a moment she almost lost her nerve. Only the thought of what was at stake gave her the courage to go on.
“You once told me that when you looked at my mouth, you wondered what it would be like to have it on you. You told me you wanted to see my hair falling across my face as I called out your name. If you still want those things, Gabe, you can have them. You can have me. All you have to do is say you’ll take on this negotiation.”
“You’re offering yourself to me, princess?” The carved planes of his face hardened. “Any way I like, any time or place?”
She felt herself flush. “That’s the offer. Do you—”
She’d forgotten how fast Gabe Riggs could move when he wanted to. He was still holding the shotgun in his right hand, but the heavy cuff bracelet gleamed silver as he caught her two wrists together with his left, his grip tight.
“Still the lady of the manor, aren’t you. And I’m still the hired hand, as far as you’re concerned—the man you snap your fingers for when you’ve got a job, like standing at stud for you when you’re bored with your usual esco
rts, or like bringing back your husband-to-be.”
His face was so close to hers that she could see tiny flecks of gold light up the dark amber of his eyes. She shook her head swiftly, and saw the amber turn to obsidian.
“It’s not like that—”
“Damn straight it’s not like that, honey,” he said. “Yeah, there’s been a time or two in the past eighteen months when I’ve thought of how you looked and tasted and sounded while I was going out of my mind and loving it that night. Hell, why wouldn’t I remember? It’s not like there’s been another woman to replace those memories—not here in the middle of nowhere. But just because I’ve been living like a saint in the desert for a year and a half doesn’t mean all you have to do is lean back against your car, give me a little glimpse of those satin thighs of yours, and I’ll be so grateful for the chance to take you again that I’ll promise you anything.”
He released his grip on her wrists. Against the paleness of her skin the impression of his fingers remained.
“Let me tell you how it’s going to be, princess,” he said steadily. “I’m going to take on the job of getting Jess back safely, but for no other reason than that I’ve got a conscience. Not only could Kanin’s grandstanding jeopardize the life of one of my oldest friends—” his tone took on a sudden harshness “—but it could put a child in danger. That’s unacceptable.”
Relief rushed through her, so sharp and intense that it felt like pain. Tears prickled at the back of her eyes and spilled over onto her lashes. “You’ll take on the job? Oh, Gabe—”
“There’s one more thing that’s going to happen, honey,” he went on. “One of these days you’re going to come to me for the third time, except it won’t be to bolster your ego or take on a hostage negotiation. It’ll be because you remember, too.”
He brought a tanned hand to her chin and tilted it upward so that she couldn’t avoid his eyes. “I know you do, princess,” he said in an edged whisper. “No matter what you said the morning after, you loved it just as much as I did, didn’t you? So one day you’re going to show up on my doorstep, and whatever reason you give for being there, I’m going to know what you want…and even if it takes every last ounce of self-control I have, I’m going to turn you down.”