by Gayle Wilson
“That the new boyfriend?” he asked. He leaned his uninjured shoulder against the frame of the door.
“I’m not sure that’s the right word,” she said calmly.
“What is the right word?”
“For one thing he’s not a boy,” Jenny said. “But he is my friend. Right now that’s all he is. He’s been a good friend. Someone to depend on. Someone I’ve come to depend on.”
Chase nodded, thinking of how long it had been since he’d been in touch. “Unlike your brother-in-law, I guess.”
“I didn’t mean that. I always knew you’d come if I needed you, Chase. And I’ve always understood why it was so hard for you to come back.”
He gestured toward the phone beside her by moving his head in its direction. “That doesn’t make it any easier, Jenny.”
“I know that, too,” she said. “But Mac’s dead, and I’m still alive. There’s nothing I can do to change that, Chase. And nothing you can do. No matter how much we might wish we could.”
He nodded, remembering Samantha’s words this afternoon about wishing. “I’ve always wished Mandy could have known her daddy.” Maybe he couldn’t do anything about what Jenny was doing, but he could still make that other wish come true. He still could influence that decision, the decision he had claimed he would leave up to Samantha. He still had a chance to change the way Mandy’s life developed from here on out.
“Somebody I know?” he asked.
Jenny nodded, but she didn’t offer the information.
“You’re right,” he said softly. “It’s probably better if you don’t tell me. Night, Jenny.”
He turned and disappeared into the shadows of the rose-papered hallway.
“BECAUSE I DON’T believe you,” Samantha said furiously. “I should have known, damn it. I should have figured it out, long before now.”
“I had nothing to do with any of—”
“What if things hadn’t turned out the way you planned?” Samantha interrupted, so angry she was almost spitting out the words, not even bothering to listen to her father’s denials. His lying denials. “What if you’d gotten Mandy hurt?” she asked.
Only as she said it did she begin to realize exactly how dangerous the game her father had played might have been. “How could you do something like that, Sam? How could you play with people’s lives like that? Just to get your own way. Just to manipulate us all.”
“I told you I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Sam said stubbornly.
“You even said it to Mandy. She repeated it to me. What we need is a daddy. So you decided to make that happen, to get Chase back down here—”
“Now why the hell would I want Chase McCullar back in your life? Good riddance,” he said. “I thought that five years ago. I still think it. You don’t need McCullar.”
“Except, for some reason you’ve decided that’s not true. For some reason you’ve decided to play God with my life again. Controlling it, just like you’ve always tried to control me.
“I ain’t gonna take a chance on Mandy being hurt. Or you. You know better than that, baby. Thinking I had anything to do with all this is pure crazy, and you know it.”
“There was never any danger,” she said. “You sent somebody who can shoot out a tire from a mile away and put a bullet through a jug of water. But then he can’t hit me or Chase, despite the fact that we’re climbing hills without any cover? Maybe that was because he had orders not to hit us, and you made sure he was a good enough shot to do that”
“And I could control how that car’s gonna bounce? I send my only child off the side of a ravine ’cause I want to fix her up with a man I never have thought was good enough for her? Does that make sense to you? Why would I try to stop you from getting to Mandy, from getting her back? Use your head, Samantha. You’re smarter than this.”
It stopped the flow of invective for a second. She did know Sam would never hurt her. Or Mandy. Which meant…
“Just smarter than you, maybe. You set that up, too. Mandy wasn’t in any danger. Those were your men, your kidnappers. The whole thing gave you a chance to call in Chase and then to send us out into that godforsaken wilderness together. That was the whole point. To let Chase know.about Mandy. To get me and Chase back together.”
“You’re the one who decided on going with him down there. I had nothing to do with that. I even tried to talk you out of it.”
Therefore guaranteeing that I’d go, she thought, recognizing her own familiar pattern of behavior in dealing with her father. “You knew I wouldn’t have any other choice. Tell Chase about Mandy or go with him to make the payoff, to identify my daughter. You knew that’s how it would play out.”
“You think I planned to send you into that country? Without water?” Sam said. “Without transportation?”
“With Chase McCullar. The best man for the job,” she said sarcastically. “You knew he’d get us out safely. You knew it, damn you. You were counting on it.”
“You better remember a couple of things,” Sam said, anger beginning to creep into his voice, too. “One, I’m not a fool. And two, I also know that country. I know what it can do to a man, even a good man. What if McCullar had broke his leg in that wreck? You really think I’d’a planned on leaving the two of you out there in that situation? You think I’d hire men to put guns to my own grandbaby’s head? To my daughter’s?”
She didn’t. Deep in her heart, she knew that he wouldn’t do either of those things. Sam was ruthless and vindictive and hard as west Texas, but he loved Samantha and Mandy as he had loved her mother. However, she wasn’t ready to dismiss the possibility that Sam was involved. It was just like him. Just like the old bastard.
“I’m sure you had a plan for that contingency, too,” she said bitterly.
“Then why would I have him call you?” Sam asked. “You explain that to me, smart girl. If I set up the kidnapping, then why have that Mexican bastard tell you that the ambush had been set up in the States.”
He was right. That made no sense, and if she hadn’t been so furious with him, she would never have suggested it.
“Okay. Maybe he wasn’t your man. Maybe you just decided to take advantage of the kidnapping to get me and Chase together. To give us a little time to discover…” She hesitated over revealing to him what she had discovered about her feelings for Chase McCullar.
“Exactly what did you all discover out there?” Sam asked.
Shrewd, conniving old bastard, she thought again, hearing the mockery in his voice. She felt a surge of guilt because this was her father she was thinking that about. But that was what he was, damn it. Everybody knew it. That was what Sam Kincaid had always been.
“What comes next?” she asked instead of telling him what had occurred in the mountains. “You got something else planned for when Chase goes to deliver the rest of the money? I have to tell you that I’m not planning on going along this time.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Samantha. I had nothing to do with what went on before. I swear to you, I had nothing to do with that ambush.”
“I don’t want you pulling any more tricks, Sam. Whatever is between Chase and me is private. It’s our business and not yours.”
“You tell McCullar about the phone call, you hear me?” Sam said. “Maybe he can talk some sense into you. McCullar ain’t no fool. He’ll know I’d never do anything to put you or Mandy in danger. If somebody here did set up that ambush, McCullar better figure out who it was before he goes back. You tell him, you hear?”
Again Samantha found herself listening to the dial tone. This time she put the phone down with more force than she had before. Too much of what Sam said made sense. She didn’t trust her father as far as she could throw him when it came to meddling in her life, but he loved Mandy. And he loved her.
As he had reminded her, if the kidnapper had been hired by Sam, then why would he warn her? But if he hadn’t been, that still didn’t mean that the shooter hadn’t been Sam’s ma
n. There were plenty of people he could hire who had the kind of skill required for that job. The ambush had driven her and Chase into the mountains together and that still sounded to her like something that might have been on her father’s agenda.
Exactly what Sam had hoped for had happened, she admitted. She had realized that nothing had changed about the way she had always felt about Chase. She had realized that Mandy had a right to her father’s love. And she had realized that Chase McCullar still wanted her.
Shrewd manipulative old bastard, she thought again. Then she picked up the phone and dialed Jenny’s number. “IT’S FOR YOU,” JENNY said, her voice coming from outside his bedroom door.
Chase had heard the phone ring, maybe an hour after he’d gone to bed, but no one knew he was here, so he had decided it couldn’t be for him.
When Jenny had knocked on his door, he still hadn’t responded. He had just been lying in the dark, trying not to think about the conversation he’d overheard. He thought if he didn’t answer the knock, she would just go away. He sure as hell didn’t want to talk to anyone tonight
Somewhere inside he was afraid the person on the phone, the person who wanted to speak to him, might be the man she’d been talking to. Maybe wanting to tell him about their relationship, maybe wanting Chase’s permission to court his sister-in-law. He didn’t intend to listen to that request—not tonight, at least—so he had ignored the soft knock and Jenny’s call.
He was surprised when she opened the door. He could see her silhouetted against the light from the hall. “It’s Samantha,” she said, when he didn’t move.
Chase sat up. He had lain down on the bed still wearing his jeans, but he had slipped off Doc’s harness and his shirt
Jenny walked across the room and handed him the phone.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, speaking quickly into the receiver. He might not be too bright when it came to his dealings with Samantha Kincaid, but he was smart enough to know that she wouldn’t call him unless something had happened.
“I had a phone call from the kidnapper,” Samantha said.
“And?” he prodded when she didn’t go on.
“He said to tell you that the ambush originated up here.”
Chase thought about what that meant, and as he did, he realized Jenny was still standing in the doorway, waiting. He put his hand over the phone and whispered, “It’s all right Nothing’s wrong.”
She nodded, and only then did she turn and leave, pulling his bedroom door closed behind her and shutting off the light from the hall.
“Chase?” Samantha questioned the delay.
“Did he give you a name?”
“No name. Just that it was planned in the States and that you should know that before you carried the rest of the money down to him on Saturday.”
“Okay,” he said, still trying to decide the significance.
“I called Sam,” she said.
He supposed that was inevitable, given that it was Sam’s money he would be carrying and that she was Sam’s daughter, but he wished she hadn’t. The fewer people who knew anything, the fewer chances something could go wrong, but it was too late to change what had already been done.
“Sam said it wasn’t him,” Samantha said. “I still don’t know whether to believe him or—”
“You think your father had something to do with that ambush?”
“It just…sounded like something he might do. Trying to manipulate the two of us.”
“Why?” he asked.
She hesitated. “Because it put us back together,” she said softly.
“What makes you think Sam would want that?” Chase asked. “He sure as hell has never wanted us together before.”
“Maybe because there’s been no one else,” she said. There was a brief silence before she added, “And because he always wanted a grandson.”
Chase eased a breath, trying to keep the sound of it from carrying over the line. A grandson, he thought, the images moving uncontrollably through his head. Suddenly, in response to those images, there were other reactions, just as uncontrollable.
“Not my son,” he denied quietly.
“Then…not anybody else’s,” she said. “Sam’s smart enough to have figured that out”
He wondered if that could possibly mean what it had sounded like, and then he buried the incredible thought in the necessity of dealing with the issue here.
“Sam wouldn’t put you in danger,” he advised.
“That’s what he said.”
“But you didn’t believe him.”
“Eventually. After I’d calmed down and thought about it.”
“Which leaves us where?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I called you. The man who called said you needed to know before you brought the rest of the money.”
“Yeah,” Chase agreed. Damn straight he needed to know. He needed to figure out what was going on. To think about what Samantha had suggested about her father’s motives, despite his denial. Could Sam have had any part in what had gone on down in Mexico? If not, then who else in the States would have reason to organize that ambush? When the answer to that brushed through his consciousness, his logic rejected it. Rio might hate him enough, but his half brother was still in prison.
“Are you still going?” she asked.
“I don’t have a choice. I gave him my word. And Sam’s.”
“So what do we do?”
“Meet me at Sam’s tomorrow. Call and tell him you’re coming for lunch. I’ll show up about one-thirty.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“I need to hear Sam make that denial, to evaluate it, and then we need to talk to him about who else could possibly have known about the arrangements.”
“Okay,” she said. “What should I do about Mandy?”
“Bring her with you,” he suggested. It was practical, of course. There would be plenty of people at the Kincaid ranch who could look after the little girl while they talked to Sam.
Maybe Rosita would help her with that damn song, he thought, smiling in remembrance. But that wasn’t why he had made that suggestion. He realized he wanted to see her again. He could admit that to himself now, even if he didn’t tell her mother.
“All right.”
“And don’t say anything to anyone else about the call.”
“Okay,” she agreed.
“You’re pretty damned agreeable tonight,” he said, letting his voice relax into intimacy. He would worry about what the kidnapper had said later. Right now he just wanted to talk to her. To listen to her voice in the quiet, lavender-scented darkness that surrounded him.
“I worked out all my normal contrariness on Sam. Be glad I called him first.”
He should be glad she had called him at all, Chase knew, given the mistakes he had made in the past. “How’s Mandy?” he asked aloud.
“Mandy’s…just Mandy. The same as always. Happy as a clam and totally undisturbed by what happened. At least from every indication.”
“You’ve done a good job,” he said. “A good job raising her. Especially having to do it by yourself.”
There was a small silence, and he wondered if that had been the wrong thing to say, reminding her that he hadn’t been around all those years. He had meant it as a compliment—a sincere one—but maybe it had backfired. Stupid, he thought again, listening to the silence.
“She mentioned you in her prayers tonight,” Samantha said. He felt the hard pressure around his heart, a feeling that was happening often enough now to start being familiar. His daughter had prayed for him.
“You encourage that, sweetheart. I need all the prayers I can get.”
“It’s going to be all right, isn’t it, Chase? Nothing else is going to—”
“It’s going to be fine,” he promised. “I’m not going to let anything else happen to Mandy.”
“I wasn’t worried about Mandy,” she said.
Again something happened in his chest, making it hard to
breathe.
“You’re not worried about me, are you?” he asked softly, his tone deliberately belittling that concern.
“Ridiculous,” she said, matching his mockery. “I know how tough all you McCullar men are.”
He could tell from her voice that she had remembered even before she reached the end of the sentence.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, the terrible images that he lived with constantly, now in her voice.
“It’s okay,” he said. “I like you thinking that. Mac would have liked it.”
Again the silence stretched across the distance between them.
“You be careful,” she said finally. “I really don’t want anything to happen to you.”
He thought about that, about the promise it held. But he was afraid to respond to it.
“I’ll see you at Sam’s tomorrow afternoon. You and Mandy.”
“Sleep tight,” she said.
He held on to the phone for a long time after she had hung up, and for most of that time he wasn’t even thinking about what the kidnapper had told Samantha. Other things took precedence. Other things that were far more important than figuring out who had planned the ambush.
He’d get around to that. Somebody had endangered Samantha and his daughter, and he hadn’t forgotten it, hadn’t forgotten the need to do something about it. That was still his job, he knew, and he also knew with absolute certainty that he was the best man to do it.
Chapter Thirteen
“Told her she was crazy,” Sam said, looking up at Chase from under his thick white brows. He was sitting behind the rosewood desk, the three of them again in the room where they had discussed the trip into Mexico to pay the original ransom. The trip that had gone to hell in a handbasket.
“Who else knew the details?” Chase asked. He was leaning against the table along the wall. No suit this time. He was wearing a pair of Mac’s jeans instead. It hadn’t taken him long to get back into being more comfortable in the clothing he’d grown up in—far more appropriate for this area than what he had worn in California.
Samantha’s eyes shifted from her father’s face to his at the question.