by Becki Willis
Travis gave her one of his rare smiles. She felt her heart melt, oozing slowly down her entire body and filling her with languid warmth. “Not at all, darlin’. Not at all.”
As the long hours of the day caught up with them, they soon fell asleep on the couch, tangled in one another’s arms. Sometime later, he transferred her to the bed, then lay atop the covers and continued to hold her, until the bright morning sun fell across both their faces and stirred their senses slowly awake to greet the new day.
Chapter Eleven
Even with most of her cosmetics broken or emptied, Kenzie managed to style her unruly curls into a semblance of order and put on a light dusting of makeup. She dug through her jumbled suitcase until she found an outfit that wasn’t too badly damaged; in fact, her jeans now sported trendy new slashes down each leg.
Travis was on the telephone when she came from the bathroom. He was back in usual form, his starched western shirt buttoned and neatly tucked into the waistband of his jeans as he barked instructions into his phone. Kenzie took pity on the person on the other end, obviously someone from the Evergreen hotel. She listened as he tried to reason with the man about the trashed hotel room. He finally played his trump card; with mention of the Texas Rangers, a spattering of legal jargon, and his trademark no-nonsense approach, he hung up the phone with a satisfied grunt.
“If they dare charge your credit card one penny over the going rate, I’ll charge ‘em with interfering with a police investigation.”
“Can you do that, out of state?” she asked dubiously.
Travis crooked an eyebrow. “The important thing is, he believes I can.”
Kenzie laughed aloud. “So I’ve heard you on the phone all morning. Who have you been talking to?”
“Mostly Hardin. Are you hungry?”
“Starved.”
“Good. I took the liberty of ordering room service.”
“How do you know what I like to eat?” Despite her flippant words, a pleased smile hovered on her lips.
“Didn’t, so I ordered everything on their breakfast menu.”
“Oh. Well, while we wait, I’m going to download my pictures from last night to the computer. I took some shots of the crowd, so maybe I caught the guy who was watching me.”
Ten minutes later, she was scouring through a dozen or so photos, searching for anyone who looked suspicious or who appeared in several shots.
“What about that guy there?” Travis asked, pointing to the back of a man’s head. “I think I saw him again in a couple of photos over. Scroll to your left… Yeah, right there. See the profile of that guy? I think it’s the same man.”
“Hmm. He looks vaguely familiar.” She tapped a few keys and brought him into better focus. “He’s wearing all dark clothing. But I can’t quite see his face…”
“I’m telling you, he’s good. He kept his face averted and in the shadows most of the time I was watching him. He slipped in and out of the crowd like a pro.”
Kenzie did not ask what kind of ‘pro’ he thought the man was. Her phone buzzed with a text message, the second one from Craven this morning.
Have you made it to the airport yet? Sorry you’re leaving our beautiful state. Sorrier still that I’m not there to see you off and to see your beautiful smile. Just leave the keys in the Hummer, it’s all taken care of. Call me.
She raised cautious eyes to Travis. She knew he had seen the other man’s name flash across the screen before she picked it up. Ignoring his frown, she said, “I’ve got to answer him sooner or later. What do I tell him about the Hummer?”
“Tell him you had problems getting it started and had to leave it at the complex.”
She shot off a message about leaving a charger in all day and draining the battery. She included a sincere apology about leaving the Hummer there, when he had been so kind to offer its use.
Anything for you, gorgeous. How will you get to the airport? Do I need to send a car?
“He wants to know if he needs to send another car.”
“On the government’s dime, I’m sure,” Travis muttered.
“How do you know? Maybe he’s paying for it out of his own pocket.” She could not help but defend him.
“Tell him I have it covered.” She thought there was a subtle double message in his lowly spoken words.
Instead, she wrote back with an ambiguous reply and a built-in salutation.
Thanks, anyway. All taken care of. Have a great day!
Seconds later, Craven sent a final text, just as someone knocked at the door. Travis made no secret of reading the message over her shoulder as he got up to answer.
Be safe. Let me know when you make it home. Miss your gorgeous smile, but I may be seeing it sooner than hoped. Convention in Austin next month! Call me, no matter how late. XX
“Laying it on a little thick, don’t you think?” Travis grunted.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her green eyes flashed as she watched him answer the door. Some of her ire faded as she noted the cautious way he looked first through the peephole, then opened the door fractionally with the latch in place, before admitting the waiter and his loaded cart. His prudence reminded her of the danger they were still in.
The cart was laden with a dozen breakfast choices. As Travis handed the waiter cash, he made his point without looking at Kenzie, “My own dime.” The waiter looked confused but nodded in agreement and made a hasty exit.
“Hope you’re hungry,” Travis said, surveying all the food.
“Luckily for you, I am. Wouldn’t want to waste your hard earned cash, after all.” She smiled sweetly as she reached for a plate and began filling it.
They returned to the computer screen, browsing more photos as they ate their breakfast from the couch.
“Hold it,” Kenzie said suddenly. “Go back. There. I know that guy.” There was a fairly clear shot of a man in a dark suit, snapped just before he slipped into the crowd.
“Seems a little over-dressed for an outdoor concert,” Travis noted. He zoomed in closer. “And is that a bulge I see under his jacket? A gun, maybe?”
“I know I know that guy,” Kenzie murmured thoughtfully. “But who — oh my gosh! I know who that is! He’s one of Craven’s bodyguards.”
“Why does an aide to a U.S. Senator need a bodyguard?” Travis asked sharply.
“I wondered the same thing. Maybe ‘bodyguard’ is not the right term, but he was definitely with security. He stood around the edges and everyone acted like he wasn’t there. He got to the cabins before we did, I assume to check out the security of the rooms.”
“Was Senator Lawrence there?”
“No,” she admitted. “Just Craven, who is Chief of Staff, and his Press Secretary Bernard Franks. The Senator only came for the day on Tuesday, but he met us in town.” A frown wrinkled her forehead. “Now that I think about it, he never even went to the cabins.”
Travis studied the photo. “He’s not government issue.”
“Excuse me?”
“This guy’s not standard Security for the government. He has the look of a private hire.”
“How do you-? Oh, never mind. And even though I don’t understand why the Senator thinks his staff needs private security, at least he’s not spending the taxpayers’ money. Let him waste his own money if he wants to.” She shrugged nonchalantly, until a sudden thought brought a pleased smile to her face. “Aw, how sweet. Craven even left me my own security detail, along with the Hummer. I knew he was a worry-wart.”
The scowl on Travis’s face was as dark as thunderclouds. “Sweet?” he scoffed. “The man leaves someone to spy on you, and you think it’s sweet?”
“Not spy, just make sure I was safe.”
“The same thing I was doing the past few months, but you didn’t seem to find that too ‘sweet’,” he reminded her bitterly.
“That was different.”
“How, exactly?”
“You were watching me because your boss told you to.”
; “So was this guy.”
“But- but that’s different! Craven was just worried about me, being alone in a strange place. He just wanted to make sure I was safe.”
Travis stared at her stonily. Several emotions flickered through his dark eyes, one of which looked a lot like jealousy, but his face remained stoic. “So we have two possibilities. One, Mr. Sweetie Pie arranged for someone to watch over you,” his voice all but dripped with disdain, but he continued with his theory, “while someone else, probably the mafia, trashed your hotel room, meaning you were being followed by two different people.”
“Three, if you count yourself,” she muttered with derision. She was developing quite an entourage. “And the other possibility?”
“You were only followed by Sweetie Pie’s man.”
“Which would mean he was the one to trash my room, which is totally preposterous!”
“You heard the guy make that call,” he said, his voice rough. “It sounded like more than just a welfare check.”
He had a valid point, but Kenzie refused to acknowledge it. “There has to be another explanation.”
“You’re telling me you would rather be followed by the mob than acknowledge that your new boyfriend isn’t as sweet as you believed?” he asked incredulously.
“He’s not my boyfriend!” she retorted.
“He obviously wants to be.”
“And I want to be a millionaire, but sadly enough, I’m not.”
“I’m beginning to think you need a scorecard. It must be hard, keeping up with all your men. The doctor, the lawman, the politician.” He bit out the stinging words.
“How dare you!” Kenzie jumped up from the sofa, her hand clenched at her sides. “I don’t like what you are insinuating. For your information, the doctor was a perfect gentleman and we had a perfectly lovely evening. At the end of which, he patted my hand and hasn’t spoken to me since.”
“You can’t say the same for the politician,” Travis challenged. He came slowly to his feet, using his accelerating height to intimidate her. “He didn’t settle for a pat on the hand.”
“How would you know?”
“The man didn’t get where he is by being a fool.” Somewhere in the spat words was a compliment. “And I saw his texts,” he growled. “They had an intimate quality.”
“Okay, so he kissed me,” Kenzie admitted grudgingly. She lifted her chin with defiance. “Outside my hotel room.”
“Just once?”
The lowly uttered question threw her off guard. “N-No.”
His next words could have been grated over stone and baked on hot coals, they were so deep and raw. “Did he kiss you like I kissed you?”
Kenzie swallowed hard. Her eyes were large and guileless, her words honest. “No one has ever kissed me the way you have.”
To her surprise, a smile lifted the corners of his sensuous lips. “We’re arguing again,” he said.
She did not see the humor. “As usual.”
“But this time,” Travis said, his arm snaking around her waist, “we won’t miss the best part.” Dipping his head, he murmured against her lips, “We get to make up.”
After a long and very thorough kiss, Kenzie forgot all about being angry. “You don’t play fair.” Her accusation held no venom. She laid her head against his chest, snuggling closer in his arms.
“You know what they say. All is fair in love and war.”
Loving the feel of his deep voice rumbling against her ear, she started to ask which situation applied in their case, but she did not want to start another argument. Or maybe she did. But there was still much to be done today, and they did not need the distraction of making up again, no matter how exhilarating it was. She untangled herself from his arms with a reluctant sigh and paced around the room.
“Okay, so let’s look at this rationally. First of all, why would Craven’s bodyguard be following me? And what could he possibly gain from trashing my hotel room? It doesn’t make sense.”
“It may have been a scare tactic. Maybe Mr. Sweetie Pie thought you’d come running into his arms.”
Kenzie rolled her eyes. “His name is Craven. And seeing as he was already back in Washington, I don’t think that was it.”
“What about the other people that were with the Senator? Any reason one of them might dislike you, want to frighten you? Or could be holding a grudge against you?”
“That would be a pretty drastic grudge, considering I barely know any of them. Franks was always on the phone, but what little we did speak was perfectly amicable. Another bodyguard came with the Senator, one other guy I barely spoke to, and the Senator’s personal assistant Valerie Nivens. She didn’t seem overly fond of me, so she mostly ignored me. I don’t think she would even dignify my existence with such a drastic measure.”
“What about the Senator?”
Kenzie pursued her lips in thought. “I’ve got to admit, I did get a strange vibe from the guy. He asked for me specifically, requesting I cover this story and take additional photos when he sits down to do an in-depth interview. Yet he seemed to be almost challenging me a couple of times. It was almost like he was being condescending, although that makes no sense, since he asked for me in the first place.” Dark hair danced around her shoulders as she shook her head in confusion. “I can’t think of any reason why Craven’s guy was following me, except to keep an eye out for me and to make certain I was safe. So that means someone else had to trash my room, and I’m guessing it was the mafia. I don’t like the thought, but it’s the only one that makes sense.”
“But why? And why now? If they think you have some sort of evidence, common sense says you would hide it in your home, not bring it along on vacation. I think it was merely a scare tactic.”
“Well, it worked,” she grunted. “It was a very effective reminder that they are still out there and still following me.” She stopped pacing and turned to face him. “So what now?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. What does your schedule look like for the next few days?”
She shrugged. “Work on these two projects; finalize the one on Sugar Rush, wait until I photograph the Senator to wrap up the other. Why?”
“I’m still on sick leave, which means I’m free until the middle of the month. That gives us both a few days to follow up on leads from your envelope.”
“What leads? Most of it is written in code.”
“I did an internet search on the name Ester Brook. Thirteen people popped up in Colorado.”
“We’re going to track them all down?” she asked skeptically.
“We would if need be. But I’m not sure that’s necessary.”
“Because…?”
“Because there was also an Ester Brook in Wyoming. But it’s not a person, it’s a place. If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a look at your letter again.”
Kenzie retrieved the letter and handed it to him. As he scanned it once again, she asked what he was talking about.
“There is a community named Esterbrook in the edge of the Medicine Bow National Forest. Not much left of the little mining town, but there is one rather infamous structure there.” He answered as his eyes roamed over the letter. “Yep, right here. ‘Remember how you always loved to go to church with her?’”
“Which is probably the strangest part of all, since I don’t recall ever going to church as a child.”
“Esterbrook’s one claim to fame is an old log church that overlooks the Laramie Mountains.”
Excitement sparked in Kenzie’s eyes, making them twinkle like emeralds. “What are we waiting on? I say we take a road trip.”
“I was hoping you would say that. We’re waiting on our new ride to arrive.”
“What’s wrong with the one we have?”
“I don’t want to take any chances. In case someone followed us here or saw what kind of truck we got into last night, I think it’s best we swap vehicles. The rental company is bringing us a different model. They should be here in another hour half.”
“Do you really think such extraordinary measures are necessary?” she asked quietly.
“Better safe than sorry. And I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.” The words were spoken in his matter-of-fact tone, but she saw the warm glimmer in his eyes.
“I’ll cancel my return flight.”
Chapter Twelve
Travis used extra precaution when swapping vehicles. He tipped a staff member to load their luggage into their new vehicle and pull it around to the back entrance of the hotel. While the red Chevy they arrived in drove out the front parking lot, they were slipping into a tan Ford pick-up and leaving out the back.
Kenzie settled in for the four-hour trip. Just days before, she had traveled a parallel road to the top of the state. Today’s path led them along the front range of the Rocky Mountains, where the terrain was mostly flat and scattered with hay meadows and cattle ranches.
They crossed over the Wyoming border and found traffic along the interstate at a standstill because of a major wreck ahead. They chose to take a detour that would add an hour to their trip but would at least keep them moving. Travis seemed nervous about the prospect of being stuck amid the other vehicles and Kenzie agreed that the best idea was to keep traveling.
“It’s pretty, but I miss the trees from back home,” Kenzie said, gazing out at the relatively flat terrain. Broken up with rocky hills and the occasional winding creek, the barren acres stretched for miles. No matter which direction she looked, there were mountains in the distance, somewhere beyond the flatness.
Finally they traveled through a pass with gentle slopes on one side of the truck, a wall of stone on the other. A few miles down the road, the hills got steeper, the terrain rockier. Her camera came out and she snapped pictures of the rugged slopes, dotted heavily with jagged rocks and sagebrush and herds of antelope. The snowy peaks of the Laramie Mountains beckoned as they drew closer.
They passed through a small city and followed the highway out, through rolling meadows and rocky hills, an idyllic setting for the horse ranches that echoed of the old west. The asphalt suddenly gave way to gravel, and the road grew winding and steep.