At last the horses were ready for their stalls and some dinner. Eliza knew exactly what to do, and when that impressed him, he grew even angrier with himself.
He walked toward the house, Eliza right beside him. He wondered if she did it on purpose. To see if he’d actually hit something. Damn her. She was tenacious and bold. Two qualities he avoided in women. He’d been controlled enough as a kid by his father.
A tan car parked on top of the hill on the road leading to the yurt made him stop. He couldn’t tell from here if it was a man or a woman inside.
“I saw that car when David and I first arrived,” Eliza said.
She’d seen it? “Where?”
“Right there, at the top of the hill. He followed us here.”
“The driver of the car was a man?”
“I’m not sure. The person was large enough to be, but the car was far away.”
Brandon looked toward the hill. It was far away. Too far to identify the driver.
“At least we know it wasn’t Jillian,” she said.
Jillian had been inside with him. Was someone following David? How far would they go to get what they were after? And was that why his brother was nowhere to be found? Was he running? Hiding?
“Wait here.” As soon as Brandon headed for his truck, the car moved, turning around and disappearing unhurriedly over the hill.
“That’s what he did last time.”
Foreboding thickened in him. Should he go after the car? By the time he caught up it would be too late. The driver had seen him head for the truck. He was racing away by now.
Brandon decided talking to David first would be best. If he ever found him. What if something serious had happened to him after he’d left with Jillian? She wasn’t very stable emotionally. Except David wouldn’t have rejected her. He was either staying away because he’d been followed or he suspected something was happening between Brandon and Eliza. Had he seen them this afternoon?
Brandon felt sick with the idea. He’d endured several waves of sickness over his weakness for Eliza. Sick anger. Again he’d kissed her. His brother’s wife.
Hell, he’d have done a lot more than that if his ranch hand hadn’t come back for him. Too much history plagued him. He had to find David. Fast.
Inside, Brandon found his housekeeper in the kitchen. A tall, plump sixty-one-year-old widow who was quiet and kept to herself most of the time. He liked that about her.
“Have you seen David?”
She straightened from the dishwasher. “No.”
“At all? Has he come back at all today?”
“I’ve been here since eight. No. He hasn’t.”
Something was wrong, more wrong than David sleeping around. Where was his brother? If he was having an affair, he wouldn’t have stayed with the woman this long. Trouble or not, he would have come back for his things at the very least.
He found Jillian’s number in his cell and called her. Leaving the kitchen, he almost ran into Eliza, whose eyes were round with matching worry. She must have heard him talking to the housekeeper.
“Brandon.” Jillian sounded surprised.
“Is David still with you?”
“How are you? Is something the matter?”
“I’m looking for David. The last time I saw him, he was with you.”
“He isn’t with me. He drove me to my car after we left the Cork. He was upset that I wouldn’t let him drive me home.”
Damn. Where the hell was his brother? Real, strong worry swarmed him. David was in trouble again, and this time it was serious. “Where did he go?”
“He didn’t tell me and I didn’t ask. I didn’t take him home, Brandon.”
It was important to her that he believed her. He didn’t doubt she hadn’t slept with David. Given her reaction to their breakup, why would she do anything to jeopardize getting him back?
He almost asked her what David had been about to tell her and interrogate her about why David had been so upper-handed with her but decided now wasn’t the time. He’d find David first.
“Will you please call me if you hear from him?”
“Of course. I promise I will.”
He disconnected, real apprehension racking his nerves. Not much ruffled him, but this sure did. Someone was following David. He was afraid. Exactly what Brandon had feared could be coming true. David was in over his head, and now even his brother couldn’t help him. That must be why he hadn’t confided in him. Brandon had tried to talk him into stopping. No more gambling.
If only he would have listened....
* * *
Aegina kept mentioning that he should invite his sister over for a barbecue. Ryker ignored her this time, too. He wouldn’t care if she never came back to Vengeance. He didn’t know why she bothered. She’d planned his birthday party as a way to smooth things over with him, but the damage was done. She left him here in Vengeance and didn’t lift a finger to help him with their mother.
Part of him argued their mother didn’t need taking care of, only a roof over her head. But the roof was in Vengeance. Their mom wouldn’t leave the town where she’d met and married their dad. It was all she had left of him.
It had been good seeing Eliza. He had to admit. She looked good. She seemed different now, too. Softer. Not as wild. And she still had it going for Brandon. He was surprised to see Brandon reciprocating. What a mess that would turn out to be. Eliza was married to his brother.
“Have you talked to Evan yet?” Aegina asked.
“No, why?”
She tucked her thick red hair behind her ear. “There’s a boy bullying him at school.”
“What’s he doing?”
“He won’t say. I was hoping he’d tell you.” Her green eyes were distant, as though talking to him was a chore.
“I’ll talk to him.” This was the most they’d spoken to each other in more than a week. Aegina was drifting apart from him, and he didn’t understand why. He’d asked her once and she’d given him a short answer that wasn’t an answer at all. He was starting to think their marriage was in trouble.
That’s all he needed. Add a failed marriage to his miserable life in this crappy town.
Ryker headed up the stairs and opened the first door in the hall. Evan sat on his red race-car bed, baseball glove on, catching a ball as he looked up.
“Got a minute, buddy?”
His son nodded. His green eyes that matched his were sad now.
Going to sit next to him, he caught the ball Evan tossed up again and rolled it in his hand. “Mom says somebody’s giving you a hard time at school.”
Evan averted his head without responding.
“Why don’t you tell me about it.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Tell me about it anyway.”
“It’s no big deal.”
“I can see that by that happy face you’re wearing.”
Evan laughed at that.
“What did you do?” he coaxed.
“I didn’t do anything!” Evan reported as Ryker had expected him to. “Bobby was picking on a girl, and I got between them. He wouldn’t leave her alone!”
“You defended a girl? That’s my boy.” He smiled proudly. “What was Bobby doing?”
“He always calls her peppercorn and she doesn’t like it. Her name is Judy Pepper. He makes her cry all the time.”
“Why does she get upset when he calls her peppercorn?”
“She yells back at him so he thinks she has a bad temper. But she doesn’t.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong. Why is he giving you a hard time?”
“He says I’m a girl. He always calls me a girl. In front of everybody!”
“What do you do when he calls you a girl?”
“Nothing. He’s a lot bigger than me.”
“Do you want me or your mom to talk to the principal?”
“No way!”
“Maybe you should just go punch him then.”
“He’s bigger than me.”
Ryker wasn’t sure how to handle this. He’d let it go for now. “If it keeps up, I’m going to have to call the principal. You know that, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Handle it yourself or I will, okay?”
“Yeah.” He sounded so down. But Ryker saw no other way.
After a bit, Evan looked up at him. “Are you and Mommy going to get a divorce?”
Did he know what a divorce was? “No. Why do you ask?”
“She always yells at you, and when you’re not around, she says you love your job more than her.”
Aegina didn’t think he loved her? Where had that come from? No doubt about it. He had to do something. If it wasn’t already too late.
Chapter 5
Exhausted from lack of sleep and worry, Eliza walked beside Brandon down Main Street the next morning. They’d searched most of last night for David. They hadn’t found the ranch truck. They’d asked for him at hotels and restaurants. It was as if he’d vanished, left town. Eliza almost hoped that was the case, although her gut kept warning her that it was far more serious than that.
Their last stop had been the police station. He hadn’t been arrested, and there had been no incidents reported the night before. It was too soon to report him missing.
Eliza no longer thought David had been with another woman all this time. Jillian might be telling the truth. He hadn’t gone home with her. He’d gone somewhere else. But where?
“Maybe he went gambling,” Brandon commented, his long strides gobbling up twice as much ground as hers.
Gambling? What was he thinking? “David gambles?” He was a professional sports journalist. He ran in the same elite circle as her. Until more recently, he didn’t have any hang-ups. He wasn’t addicted to anything. And he’d have to be to go gambling in the middle of the night.
Brandon turned to give her a funny look, like he wasn’t surprised she didn’t know but was testing her. “You didn’t know he gambled?”
“No.” He’d gambled in Vegas when they’d gotten married, but that was normal. This new side of him didn’t mesh. Or maybe it did. She hadn’t really known David all that well. Theirs wasn’t exactly a close marriage.
“He’s asked me to bail him out more than once,” Brandon said. “He’s asked me a lot since he married you.”
There was that hint of blame again. “Are you saying I drove him to his reckless ways?”
“Haven’t you noticed him gone a lot?”
“I thought he was out drinking.” He had, but he’d also been gambling. If he lost more than he won, she could see how he’d accumulate some bad debt. The worst kind of debt. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t pay his credit cards. He couldn’t pay gangsters. That explained his fear when they’d first arrived at Brandon’s ranch, the way he’d looked over his shoulder, the car at the top of the hill.
Brandon met her eyes, and they shared the gravity of David’s situation. She felt so helpless. What could they do? They’d done all they could until some sign of David, or David himself, showed up.
The waiting was killing her. David was missing, and she couldn’t control her desire for his brother.
Brandon put his hand on her lower back and guided her to the other side of the street at a crosswalk. The turreted entrance of a café faced the corner, its doors open.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“We have to eat something,” he said as they reached the café.
Her stomach was empty, and she was lethargic from lack of food. And worry about David. But she wasn’t sure she could eat.
He told the hostess there’d be two for breakfast and she followed him to a table. A woman with her husband and two kids watched them. One of the waitresses did, too, leaning over to another worker to say something. That one’s eyes rounded as she carried pitchers of tea and water into the kitchen.
Sitting across from Brandon, Eliza dismissed the unwanted attention and looked at him over a vase of dainty white carnations. “You said David went to you when he needed money.”
“He did. But not this time.”
“Why do you suppose he didn’t? And don’t say it was because of me.” She wasn’t going to put up with that anymore.
“Maybe he found someone else to turn to.”
Someone else to bail him out? Why would he do that? Because of her relationship with Brandon?
Eliza turned her head, only vaguely aware of the semibusy café’s polished wood floors and white crown molding. She had no relationship with Brandon. He’d made it clear he didn’t want one, years ago and even now. If she went running from love after that, then he was the reason.
Unless she and Brandon were both letting too much of their past influence what was happening with David.
“Maybe it wasn’t gambling that made him run,” she said to Brandon.
“What else could it be?”
“Maybe he thinks you can’t help him.” If he was in that much danger...
“I can help him. No matter what kind of trouble he’s in. He just didn’t feel like he could because he married you.”
“That wouldn’t have stopped him.” Even as she said it she wasn’t sure it was true. She and Brandon had dated in high school. If it had ended there, then she’d be more confident. Kissing him and feeling it all the way to her toes sort of negated any argument.
Still, she couldn’t give up the possibility that David was in deeper than either of them had estimated so far. “Have you been after him to stop gambling? You helped him financially, but have you ever urged him to stop?”
“Of course.”
And he hadn’t. A waitress came to their table, and Brandon ordered coffee and breakfast. Eliza waved her off with a shake of her head.
“She’ll have oatmeal.”
She targeted him with her eyes as the waitress left.
“It’s the best thing for an upset stomach. Nice and bland. And you have to eat something.”
Eliza saw the worker whose eyes had widened pointing toward them. The woman beside her started toward them. Her short, straight and graying hair was mannish, and her black-rimmed glasses magnified bright blue eyes. She wore a red apron like the other staff members, her apple frame stretching the material tight around her middle.
“Good morning, Brandon,” she greeted as she reached the table.
“Morning, Candace.”
Brandon knew her? He smiled up at the woman with a familiarity that proved he did. Eliza wouldn’t have thought he had any kind of popularity in town.
“It’s not often we see you here this time of day. Leaving the ranch to your manager today?”
“Trevor is the best worker I’ve ever hired.”
“You saved him by giving him that job. His divorce just about ruined him. That dragon he married took everything. Poison, that woman is.”
“He’s seeing a girl from town now.”
Eliza could only gape at Brandon. This was not the Brandon of her teenage years. He was socializing as though he enjoyed it.
“No.” Candace breathed her delight, eating up the gossip. “Who?”
“Ted’s oldest girl. Charlene.”
“Oh, she’s a pretty one. Saving herself for the right one, too.”
Brandon didn’t cover his wince.
“Had her heart broken by a real rake.” Candace nodded. “She and Trevor will be good together.”
Did two people have to get their hearts broken to be good for each other?
“He’s going to ask her to marry him this fall.”
Candace beamed. “I was hoping he’d come around. You’re a good man, Mr. Reed. Trevor wouldn’t be where he is right now without you.”
He chuckled while Eliza gaped at him some more. “You’re exaggerating, but thanks.” He registered Eliza’s fascination and he noticed her surprise. She could tell.
“I hear you’ve been looking for your brother.”
Eliza looked at Candace with Brandon. “Have you seen him?”
“Not since yesterd
ay morning.” To Brandon she said, “He was with a woman. A college girl named Naomi Peterson. She’s getting her master’s over at Darby.”
David had found another woman to spend his time with. Eliza had to take a few seconds to recover from the blow. Not just one woman, but two. When Jillian refused him, he’d gone out in the middle of the night and found another. He refused to be at the ranch with her and Brandon. At least she and Brandon didn’t have to go to the police. David was fine. Just fine.
“Where did you see him?” she asked Candace, concealing her anger.
Candace kept her eyes on Brandon as though nervous over Eliza’s reaction to what she was about to say. “They came in for breakfast. They were...you know...real cozy. And it was late morning, like about this time.”
“Did they leave together?” Brandon asked.
“They left the restaurant together. I don’t know where they went from here. I didn’t think to ask, either.” She glanced warily at Eliza.
Funny how Eliza didn’t care that David was with yet another woman. “Do you know where Naomi lives?”
“No, sorry.”
The woman was genuine enough. Eliza wasn’t going to calm her by explaining the state of her marriage, though.
On one of the televisions hanging from the walls of the café, a news program switched to Melinda Grayson’s kidnapping. The anchorwoman announced a video had been released from her captor, and the screen showed a brief clip of her pleading for her life.
All three of them stopped to watch.
Melinda was disheveled, hair a mess, bruised and scared.
“Please, let me go,” she sobbed one final time. And then whoever filmed her ended the clip. No demands had been made. It was as though her captor were taunting authorities. Maybe whoever it was got a thrill over doing so. Eliza felt ill imagining what horrors the woman was suffering. Minutes must seem like hours and days like months.
“That poor woman,” Candace said. “Did you hear she was kidnapped?”
“Who would film her that way?” Eliza asked.
A Rancher's Dangerous Affair Page 7