What headline did I want? What was I leaving behind? A fortune to my mom. Who didn't really want it. She was happy with her lifestyle, and claimed she didn't need much. Half a business that was barely off the ground to Ashley and Peter.
Being alone with myself wasn't as pleasant as it should have been. I found myself thinking less about plotting business successes and takeovers and more about people and the ethereal meaning of life. I was beginning to believe that old saying that no one on their deathbed ever wished they'd worked more. And "you can't take it with you" rang suddenly true, too, and way too imminent a possibility.
I had thought, like most people my age do, that I had plenty of time left. But now, faced with even the glimmer of death as a possibility, I reevaluated my life. Partly for lack of anything better to do. And partly because I was beginning to realize what a prize douche I was.
All I could think about was Ashley. All the missed opportunities. A little girl with her eyes. What? Thoughts of children! How the hell had that popped in there? I blamed the duchess and too much time with my godson.
No, I blamed reality. And the deep feeling inside me that Ashley was the one. I'd been fooling myself thinking I could get her out of my system. That my life would somehow be restricted and less worthwhile if I became a one-woman man for a lifetime and committed to her.
I thought about her singing Ruck out. About him leaving provisions to take care of her. About having given her memories and a love worth looking for again. About her visiting his grave. Mourning him and keeping his memory alive. I thought about Riggins and his legacy as duke. About Justin having Kayla and a little girl to live for and who would live after him, remembering him.
Comparing my life to theirs made mine seem shallow. I had no legacy. No wife or children to remember me after I was gone. I was beginning to think there was more to life than complete freedom to do what I wanted. That sharing my life with one person would complete me.
I'd been running from my feelings and afraid of rejection. The nerd I'd been was still alive and well in me. I constantly had to prove how attractive I was. Why did I feel compelled to collect the most eligible bachelor title year after year? What did it matter?
Ashley. She mattered.
I hadn't kissed her at midnight on New Year’s Eve. I hadn't told her I loved her. But I did. If I got out of here…when I got out of here…
I didn't want to live without her.
Yes, she was my perfect match. I'd known that for a long time. I just hadn't wanted to admit it. The question was—did I have the courage to tell her?
My eyes felt heavy. I tried to find a more comfortable position, and winced. I fought to stay conscious. I closed my eyes just for a second. The radio shut off and the heater stopped. My battery was dead. On so many levels.
Ashley
Austin pointed ahead as he drove. "The site the auto collision response team gave us is just around the corner."
With the fog burned off, it was a sunny, but cold, day. The road looked innocuous enough. Heavily travelled for the most part. Two wide lanes. Thirty-five miles per hour speed limit. Pretty typical. Yellow no-passing line in the middle. Gravel shoulder. Hill on one side. Drop-off to the lake on the other. No houses on either side of this short stretch. No guardrails. It was a suburban road, pure and simple.
We had both gone quiet for a moment. It might have been my imagination, but it seemed like Austin must have been thinking the same things I was.
Austin pointed again. "There's Justin's car. And the guys."
They had pulled over to the side on the shoulder. Austin pulled up behind them. We all got out at the same time.
The mood was serious, but not exactly grim. We waved to each other and nodded, but no one spoke for the moment. Somewhere near the lake, some kid was playing his music too loud. All eyes were on the bend in the road and the surrounding densely forested and foliaged landscape. We studied the road in silence.
It was readily apparent that there was no car stuck in a ditch on the uphill side of the road. As the police had reported, there were no skid marks. No broken glass. No tracks in the gravel at the side of the road.
There were some snapped tree branches and broken bushes. Which, under other circumstances, might have indicated a crash. But the freezing fog had downed branches all along this stretch of road. No one spot looked more like a crash had occurred there than any other. The distant music stopped.
The men were silent. I would have called it a strong silence. There was no desperation in it, just determination.
Finally, Cam spoke. "What do you guys think?"
"I can see why the police moved on to the next accident." Justin was studying the downhill side of the road. "They made a logical assumption. But, now that it's been hours and Lazer hasn't turned up anywhere and his car is still missing, I think we can explain the lack of evidence of an accident in other ways."
He pointed to the road and gravel of the shoulder. "This was all frozen this morning, packing the loose gravel like asphalt. If a car had skidded into it, it wouldn't necessarily have disturbed the shoulder."
Dylan nodded. "In the fog and the shade of the hill, it's not hard to imagine he could have hit a patch of black ice. Which explains a lack of skid marks. The ice could easily have melted and evaporated, leaving no trace."
The other men nodded.
"He was driving the Bentley," Justin said. "Which means he was speeding. Lazer never drives the speed limit when he can help it. When he takes the Bentley out, it means he's in the mood for speed. He can't drive thirty-five in that thing. You touch the gas and you go."
Jeremy nodded as he pulled a laptop out of the car. He opened the computer and began typing. "If Lazer came around the corner at sixty…" He looked around for confirmation from the other men.
"At least," Justin said. "Maybe seventy."
Jeremy nodded. "I'll put a range of speeds into the model." He typed some more. "Assuming he comes around the corner doing at least sixty, hits a patch of black ice, and loses control, given his speed and trajectory, he could fly off the road and hit the trees thirty or forty feet out, leaving no signs of an accident at street level here."
The other men nodded.
"Could he have made it as far as the lake?" Cam asked.
Jeremy studied his computer model and waggled his head from side to side as if trying to weigh the possibility.
My heart thudded in my chest so loudly that I was sure the men could hear it. If he'd landed in the lake…
"It's a remote possibility," Jeremy said. "We'll have to check it out."
"Okay, then," Cam said. "We're all agreed? We go into search-and-rescue mode and look for Lazer?"
The men nodded in unison.
"Okay, then," Cam said. "We know what to do. Justin, you have the drone?"
"It's in the trunk," Justin said.
I was impressed with the way the men had come prepared.
"Scan the lake first," Cam said. "Just to rule it out. Then we'll tackle the forest. You and I will stay on the road. I'll coordinate the search and help with the drone. You pilot."
Justin headed to his car to get the drone.
"Dylan and Jeremy, rescue supplies?"
Dylan nodded. "We have a search-and-rescue backpack for you, too, Austin." Dylan had two backpacks at his feet. He tossed one to Austin.
"Jeremy, Dylan, you two go up the road and start walking through from the south toward us. We'll guide you. If we find anything, we'll lead you in." Cam turned to Austin. "You okay on your own?"
Austin started to nod.
I stepped between him and Cam. "On his own? What do you expect me to do? Stand around and do nothing?"
Cam surveyed me. "You're dressed in three-inch-heeled fashion boots, expensive slacks, and a fancy coat, not for the woods. Do you have any other clothes on you?"
"I have a suitcase full of clothes in the trunk." I flashed him a defiant look.
Cam raised an eyebrow. "Hiking clothes?"
"
Of course not. But that wasn't the question. As for these clothes, I don't personally give a damn if they get ruined."
"You'll turn an ankle in those boots," Cam said without batting an eye. He was in full commander mode.
I rolled my eyes. "I've walked in heels since I was a preteen. I can handle myself. I know you've watched cop shows on TV with female detectives. Just like all them, or the stunt women who pose for them, heels don't slow me down."
Cam looked unconvinced. "How familiar are you with search-and-rescue techniques? I won't have you slowing Austin down. You can stay with Justin and me here—"
"The hell I will!" I put my hands on my hips.
The other men were trying not to snicker. Cam, former military nerd, was trying to look all badass at me.
"I'm going with Austin."
Cam shot Austin a sympathetic look, but his expression softened. "Ashley, I hate to bring this up, but what we find may not be…pleasant."
"No?" I said, appreciating he was trying to spare me. "That's a risk I'll take. You forget. I was married to a military man. I know what's what. I've seen unpleasant. In fact, I've experienced the worst." I pushed the memory of Ruck's battered body from my mind.
We stared each other down.
"All right," he said. "Have it your way. If Austin doesn't mind taking you?"
Austin, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, nodded solemnly. "Do I have any choice?" He gave me a quick sidelong look.
I stared him down and lifted my chin. "No."
"That's what I thought. Come on, partner," he said. "Let's go." He put on the backpack and glanced down the hillside. He began walking toward the trunk of the car. "I have a few things we'll need in the trunk in case we have to go into the woods."
I followed him.
He popped the trunk and pulled out a broadsword. My eyes went wide. "What's that for?"
"The forest is dense. I didn't have time to get my machete. This will have to do if we have to cut through any underbrush."
"Are you kidding?" I shook my head. "Is that real?"
"Of course it's real." He looked offended by the question.
"And sharp?"
He held his hands out palms up, like, of course.
"That's…ridiculous," I said. "Where did you get it? What are you doing with it? Just carrying it around in your car for fun?"
Austin grinned. "I bought it at a little sword shop at the recommendation of my instructor. I'm taking a swordplay class." He was completely serious. He shrugged. "You just never know when a cosplay prop will come in handy."
"Your prop is a real sword?"
As he buckled a scabbard with the sword around his waist, he looked at me like I'd asked a crazy question. "Yeah. What? You think I'm going to carry around a rubber sword like a little boy playing pirate?"
I blew out a breath. Live and learn. "No. Absolutely not." I shook my head. "Of course not."
He nodded approvingly, message sent.
I glanced up and saw Jeremy and Dylan already heading the opposite way down the road. Dylan had a large, thick rope coiled over his shoulder. I wondered if that was a prop, too. Both men had binoculars and were slowly scanning the downhill woods, looking for wreckage.
"Come on." Austin looked skeptically at my footwear and slid a pair of camouflaged military-grade binoculars around his neck.
He looked ridiculous. And kind of scary and hot at the same time. It wasn't every day you saw a man with a broadsword at his side.
"We don't want Dylan and Jeremy to outshine us," he said. "Jeremy has enough hero points to his credit as it is." He handed me a small pair of cheap black binoculars that he pulled from his glove compartment.
I took them reluctantly. "Did you get these out of a cereal box?"
He looked sheepish. "I didn't expect you to be coming along. Just be glad I have an extra pair. They're better than nothing."
I pulled the lens caps off and tried them out. "Not by much."
He shook his head. "I got them as a free gift for test-driving an ATV."
"I thought as much."
Chapter 5
Ashley
I took off after Austin, scanning the woods with my toy binoculars in time with him as Justin guided his expensive drone over the trees to the lake. Austin was fit and had long legs and strides. Keeping up with him wasn't easy. It wouldn't have been easy even in tennis shoes. We scanned the forest beneath the road.
What were we looking for? A crumpled car? A maimed man? A body? I shivered at the thought.
No, I told myself. A glint of hope. A glint of something, anything. Well, not anything. One too many sparkles off a discarded beer or pop can soon turned me jaded. Some people were such pigs.
I'd made so many amateur mistakes in this relationship, but losing hope wasn't one of them. Lazer was alive. He had to be alive and still himself. I kept telling myself that. I needed to hear whatever he'd flown to New York to tell me. I needed to hear him say he loved me. That had to be the message, right? Why the hell else would he have been in New York to fulfill my New Year's Eve kiss fantasy?
I wouldn't accept any other explanation. If he'd been there just to get me back in bed…
Who was I kidding? It would have done the trick. Around him, I lost all my resolve. But now I had to know what his intentions had been. If he died leaving me wondering, how could I take it?
If I had been working with a matchmaker, what advice would she give me?
My heart couldn't take another death, another winter.
Now that we were seriously on our mission, Austin lost his ridiculously charming mock-Scottish accent. Some woman out there would find it totally adorable and hot, I had no doubt about that.
A car drove by. A man in the passenger seat gave us a funny look. It wasn't every day you saw a man in jeans wearing a scabbard and broadsword and a woman in heels scanning the forest with a pair of binoculars. I just hoped he didn't report us as New Year’s revelers who were still under the influence. Austin looked warriorlike. And I just looked frantic. Lazer, where are you?
Justin's drone appeared over the trees, slowly making its way up the hill, scanning the forested area between the lake and us.
Austin paused and watched it, shading his eyes against the sun. The set of his shoulders relaxed. I hadn't been aware of how tense he'd been. He'd been hiding it well.
"He isn't in the lake, then," I said, voicing the fear that had been on both of our minds.
Austin's expression relaxed, too. "Yeah." He watched the drone. "Looks like Jeremy won't be needing his diving equipment. He'll be glad about that. The lake's cold this time of year."
Lazer
I heard a drone overhead, growing closer. Yeah, I knew the sound of a drone. This particular one had the same expensive purr as Justin's prize drone. He'd consulted me before buying it. We'd researched the market together. He and I had spent many happy hours flying that thing around. It was either Justin's or the authorities'. No one else had the cash for a military-grade drone like that,
They're looking for me. The guys are trying to find me.
I'd never had any doubt my friends would eventually come looking for me. In my mind it had never been a question of if they would come, but when. How long it would take someone to discover I was missing. Cavalry to the rescue!
I didn't care what had caused one or more of them to try to track me down and discover I was nowhere to be found. I was grateful for it.
Add another notch to Jeremy's hero belt. I smiled to myself. There was no one else to smile to.
My pulse raced into action. I was suddenly charged with an adrenaline rush. I looked around the car, trying to find something to signal with. I was cocooned in fir. Camouflaged by forest and foliage. Drones were good, but they weren't psychic. Neither were the guys.
I had complete confidence in them. Jeremy was an accidental hero with search-and-rescue training. Cam had a military background. And Dylan and Austin were loyal and smart and knew how to navigate outdoors. And Justin wa
s damn good at piloting that drone.
I carried an emergency road kit with flares with me at all times. Unfortunately, it was beneath the seat where I couldn't reach it. I was wearing a watch, and my window was broken out. If the sun had been at the right angle, I could have used the reflective effect of the watch to signal. Unfortunately, I was deep in shade.
I had no matches, which, given the business I was now in, was ironic in a punny sort of way. No lighter. I couldn't reach the high-powered flashlight in the glove box.
My brain must really have been muddled. It took me a minute to remember I had a tiny combination flashlight and laser pointer on my keychain. Which was in my pocket. For the first time ever, I cursed keyless ignitions.
It took some wrangling to reach into my pocket. I was in a lot of pain now. Every movement hurt like hell. Just one more…
I got it!
I broke into a cold sweat with the effort of tugging it out of my pocket. Stryker was going to have fun whipping me back into shape after this adventure was over.
The window was broken open and jagged. Under ordinary circumstances I wouldn't have stuck my arm out it. Not without using something to break the rest of the glass free or putting on a glove. But there was no time and I had nothing.
I stuck my hand out the window, turned the little red laser toward the sky, and began flashing the laser, hoping the drone would pick it up or the guys would see it. If they were looking for me, they'd be scouring the area with binoculars.
Ashley
Lottie texted. Bad news. This isn't going to help matters.
She sent me a link.
I paused and glanced away from the drone to take a look at the video she'd linked to. Lottie knew the situation. If she was texting me this…
I felt instantly almost physically sick. As if someone had kicked me in the stomach.
The video was obviously shot from a phone. It was a montage. Me, leaving the bar with Lazer the night we met. It was spliced with security footage from his condo in the city. First, the two of us all over each other, going into his apartment. It was pretty clear what our intentions were. Passion ran high that night. As it always did with Lazer.
Match Point: A Jet City Billionaire Romance (The Billionaire Matchmaker Series Book 5) Page 4