A small pickup had pulled alongside the RV, backing up to the edge of the quasi-patio. A tall man got out, walked to the bed of the pickup and removed a large box. He took it to the door before coming back for another one. The door opened for him and he carried them both inside. Moments later he was gone and all was quiet again. I looked at the alarm clock that I had velcroed to my nightstand so it would stay in place when I was driving. It was 12:30 in the morning. I rolled over, hit the button on the remote to turn off the DVD player, and then I turned off the light and went to sleep. My long hike had exhausted my body, and my wandering thoughts about what was going on next door had taxed my brain, too.
I don’t know exactly what woke me: a full bladder, hearing myself snore as I often did after a day spent outdoors, or the wind rustling the branches overhead. But it was 4 A.M. and I was wide-awake again. I decided to read for a while, as I wasn’t quite ready for exercise of any kind. Thanks to my overlong hike, my calves were like iron knots and my inner thighs were telling me I should have “gotten off the horse” a lot sooner than I had. I was content to just sit back against the headboard with my Regency romance. It was beyond me why the rakish Duke couldn’t figure out that the woman behind the mask was the exact same girl he’d kissed two weeks ago—especially since she had the same amazing violet eyes and compelling scent that reminded him of jasmine. That, and the fact that she was setting his insides on fire with a kiss that tasted of wild raspberries, reminiscent of the other woman’s, should have been the second clue. Anyway, I was wide-awake when I heard the door open next door. Boy, the people next door kept strange hours, I thought.
I slid off the bed and went to the window in the main living area. It was dark in that room, so I could see out the window with no problem. I was off to the side, looking between the gap in the blind, when I saw the oddest thing. The young man I had seen yesterday, the really big one, was walking down the path with what could have been his twin. I squinted and tried to see their faces before they passed by the window and I thought I recognized the nose of the one who I had thought resembled a wrestler. Something about the way he walked looked familiar, even though apparently he had gained well over a hundred pounds since I’d seen him this afternoon.
As he passed my window I saw his face in profile and I knew without a doubt that the nose I was seeing was the very same one I’d seen earlier, the one that looked like it had been broken. Hurriedly, I tried to take both men in as they walked by, one with a practiced lumbering gait, the other as if just learning to walk with his new girth. Were they going to some sort of costume party as twins? Was that what this was all about? Were the people next door making clones of the people coming to see them? This was really strange. My curiosity was peaked. I couldn’t fathom what in the world could be going on in the RV next door to mine.
The words that girl had spoken the other day flashed through my mind as they had several times since I’d heard her say them—We’re going to get caught. I spun around and walked briskly to my room to get my phone. I couldn’t wait to tell Brick what I had stumbled on to and to get his opinion of what the heck was going on in this quiet little village on the rim of a crater in Oregon.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten just how early it was and his first words to me were mumbled curses that made me feel guilty as all get out.
“I’m so sorry Brick. I forgot the time. I’ll call you back later.”
“No, no. You got me up, might as well talk. Say something sexy.”
“Is there a demand for young, overweight porn stars that are twins?”
“What! That’s not sexy! Boy, you sure can kill the mood. What the heck are you talking about?”
I told him everything I could remember about everyone I had seen enter and leave the RV next door.
“Well if it weren’t for the words you overhead from the girl being tugged into the motorhome, I’d say you were imagining things.”
“I’m telling you exactly what I’ve seen and heard. Something weird is going on next door. And whatever it is, it’s not kosher. I wish I could be a fly on the wall over there so I could see what’s up.”
“Well you can’t, so just let it go. It’s probably nothing. I certainly don’t think you’ve run into a porn ring. I don’t think there’s a big market for overweight look-a-likes. The only porn I’ve seen with twins featured girls looking more like the Doublemint twins, wholesome and stunningly beautiful. Which reminds me Gorgeous, say something sexy. I sure do miss you.”
“How often do you watch porn?”
“Only when we confiscate it. I have to watch it to see what we’ve got.”
“Yeah. Uh huh. So, you want me to say something sexy, huh?”
“Yeah,” his voice had softened and he drawled the word out in anticipation.
“I’m naked and on my way to the shower.”
“The one in your RV I hope, not the public ones in the center of camp?”
“Of course not. I’m not that brash.”
“Good, because I’m beginning to think of you as my woman, and I don’t share.”
I felt a tingle travel through my body as his possessive words seeped into my brain. “Wow, that sent sparks through the line.”
“You want sparks? Wait until I see you again. I’m going to build a wildfire in you, and then I’m going to make sure you burn real slow. And when the fire’s almost out, I’m going to blow on the embers and heat you up again.”
“Mmmm. You say the headiest things. And just when might that be?”
“I’m leaving here to go to Montana to help search the woods for a felon, then I have to head back this way for a conference. In the meantime there’s another rally I have to check out, and two hikers I arrested last night need to be interrogated after their lawyers get here.”
“What did they do?”
“A teenager’s missing. They have her iPod, but they say they haven’t seen her.”
“Boy you do have an interesting job.”
“Yeah, so I don’t need my girlfriend looking for more work for me. Keep your nose clean and give your neighbors some space. That’s why people go RVing, to get away from nosy neighbors and to have some privacy off on their own.”
“I am not nosy! And you must admit it’s all pretty strange. Twice now, a second person has gone into that RV and come out looking exactly like the first.”
“Let me know when they look like the Doublemint twins, I’d fly in for that.”
“Yeah like I’d tell you about that. I’m not into sharing either.”
“Goodbye sweetheart. Have a nice shower. Alone.” I heard the line go dead and I smiled. Even though he was miles away, he still managed to tug on my heart.
Chapter Five
After showering I decided to try out my new Vespa. I had written down every word Brick’s friend had said about operating both the lift and the mini-scooter when I had purchased both before leaving Nevada. I thumbed through my notes, which I kept in a large file along with the instructions for everything else in my house. Boy, if you couldn’t read, you’d have a hard time RVing—there is so much to know!
I decided to wear jeans in case I took a tumble, and I put on a heavy denim shirt over a tank top since the day promised to be a warm one. Patches of snow still peeked out in places, but they didn’t fool me anymore, the afternoons got plenty warm. There was a little basket in front of the tiny handlebar and I stuffed it with my camera—wrapped in a towel—a water bottle, a sandwich, some fruit, and my wallet. I had learned how to travel light. Just a few months ago I would have lugged around a suitcase-sized Gucci or Fendi bag. My, how my lifestyle had changed. I thought of Jared. Had he given up trying to find me? I truly didn’t believe that to be the case, and that was unsettling. But I had to admit, I wasn’t being as diligent as I should have been about keeping an eye out for him. I felt safe in this little mountain campground. How could he possibly find me here? I mean this really was out of the way.
Driving around the winding road, I kept my ears t
uned to the sounds around me. I wanted to make sure I heard the engine noises of any vehicles coming my way over the high-pitched whine of the Vespa. Rim Drive slopes away on each side, sometimes quite dramatically, and with no shoulders and crumbling edges, I often found myself encroaching into the oncoming traffic’s right of way.After a few minutes, I was comfortable with the handling of the scooter and sped up a little. My hair, in a loose braid, flew out behind me and when I slowed down, I felt it slap against my back. This was fun. I was having a ball.
Back out on Rim Drive I took in one scenic overlook after another until I finally realized that at this rate it could take five or six hours to do the circuit before returning. So I found a nice boulder to sit on at an overlook known as The Watchman which gave me a view of Wizard Island, a volcanic island near the southern end where you can see the cone shaped depression at the top. I ate my turkey sandwich and nibbled on a pear, enjoying the amazing view. I was washing it all down with water when I felt a presence behind me. Nothing that alarmed me, just an awareness that someone was behind me, someone rather tall judging by the shadow cast over me. I assumed that whoever it was, was looking over my head to the view beyond. Water bottle still in my mouth, I turned to see who the interloper was. I was surprised when I saw a soldier staring not at the view, but at me.
I felt water dribble down my chin and I hastily removed the bottle and swiped at it. “Uh, hi,” I managed.
“Hello, had to take in this particular view.” He was looking right at me and I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant by that. It was the crater he was referring to, wasn’t it?
“Nice, huh?” I mean what else was I supposed to say?
“It is that.” He walked closer and the shadow elongated. Some detached part of my brain wondered if it was mathematically possible to figure out a man’s height by measuring the shadow he cast. Of course you’d have to know the angle of the sun, and how fast the train was going, and what time it left Chicago. Okay, it was just an idle thought, things your mind plays at when stressed.
“Mind if I join you?” he was indicating the boulder on the other side of mine.
“Sure, it’s a bit hard, but it’s all yours.”
“Thanks.”
As he climbed over and nimbly sat on the edge of the boulder, I took in his appearance. His hair was short, military short, probably not even half an inch long. He wore camouflage fatigues and shiny lace-up boots, and under it all I was betting he was lean and muscled. His hat was folded and tucked into his waistband, and he wore aviator-styled mirrored sunglasses. He was G.I. Joe in the new millennium. It was hard not to admire the full, smiling lips on his clean-shaven face, but something tuned me in to the fact that he was probably younger than he was trying to look. Maybe it was his smooth unlined features, the overdone cologne wafting over with the breeze, or the telltale splotches of flesh-toned acne medication on his neck.
“Is there a base around here?” I asked.
“Not one close. I’m on leave. Gotta report back in three months.”
“Why the uniform, surely it must be hot?”
He looked over at me and snickered agreement, “Yup, but it’s all I’ve got right now, my clothes are back at home, and there’s no point going there as no one’s home. Mom, Dad and my sister, Karen, are on vacation in Germany.”
“Ah,” I said, as if I understood, but I really didn’t.
“I just got in, came into San Diego and made my way here.”
“Is this home?”
“Nah, I’m from Georgia.”
“What did you do with your southern drawl?”
He smiled over at me, “Never had one, my dad was a lifer and I’ve lived all over.”
“Lifer?”
“Slang for career soldier.”
“Oh. So what brings you to Oregon?”
“Looking for my girl.” And as he said it I sensed pride. “I’m waiting to find out where I need to go; the Army will fly me there when I’m ready.”
“I’m sorry if I’m asking too many questions.”
“It’s quite all right. I don’t mind. I could stand someone to talk to actually.”
“Yeah, me too.” I realized instantly that I should not have let on that I was alone.
He just looked over at me. There was interest, but not the way I had originally thought. He was polite and friendly, but it wasn’t like he was flirting, not since he’d commented on the nice view. But I certainly could have mistaken that, maybe he had really meant the scenery.
“I’ve never met her.”
Her who? “I beg your pardon?”
“I’ve never met my girlfriend, least not in person. She’s like a pen pal, only more so, if’n you know what I mean.”
Yeah, I knew what he meant. I had one of those too. Brick and I were using e-mail to keep our budding romance alive. “How’d you meet?”
“They had this project at her school. They handed out soldier’s names and everyone got one. They were supposed to wish us a Happy Valentine’s Day and send a picture of something from their hometown for us to relate to. She sent me a picture of her with her arm around a snowman. I took one look at her smile and I was a goner. She was beautiful, with big-eyed innocence and she reminded me that there were places that weren’t 120 degrees under the shade of a HumVee. I was in Iraq at the time.”
“I guess it was nice to be reminded of home.”
“Yeah, and it was real nice knowing that there were pretty girls who cared about the guys over there.”
“No pretty girls in Iraq?”
“Are you kidding? No, none in Iraq. A few WACS caught my eye from time to time, but most of them were either spoken for, butch, or too free with their wares, the rest were clingy, looking to set up house.”
“Truly?”
“It’s a strange world over there. It changes you. Most of the women I met couldn’t wait to get home. A few were even on a mission to get pregnant so they could get shipped back. It’s really a man’s world over there. I hated seeing the women struggle so much just to survive.”
I was going to say something about his being sexist, but I kind of agreed with him. I thought war was a man’s game, and couldn’t understand why women would even want to be involved, but that was just me. “So you kept writing?”
“We weren’t supposed to. In fact Diana, that’s her name, wasn’t supposed to send anything personal. But yes, we started e-mailing. I even managed to call her on her friend’s cell phone a few times from a base phone. We got to know each other fairly well, and rather quickly. Aww hell, I might as well tell you, we fell in love.”
“Well, that’s wonderful!”
“Not exactly.”
I held my breath.
“She was sixteen at the time.”
“Oh my.”
“Oh my, is right.”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture that was worn around the edges and had a crease where he’d had to fold it to fit. “Tell me you’d have pegged her at sixteen.”
I took the picture from him and studied it. Smiling eyes looked out from under a pink ski cap and full lips, open in what was surely a delightful laugh, curved up. There was mischief in her stance and upon further scrutiny, I spied the snowball partially hidden in her hand. She was tall and slender in a white parka and ski pants, almost as tall as the snowman and no, she didn’t look sixteen.
“Eighteen, nineteen, somewhere in there I would have guessed,” I said.
“Yeah!” he said as if vindicated.
“So how old is she now?”
“Eighteen next week.”
“When did you find out how young she actually was?”
“When her dad found our e-mails, about six months ago.”
“Uh oh.”
“Mmmhmm. He wasn’t happy. She was told not to communicate with me anymore. I was told not to communicate with her. Her dad even had my C.O. dress me down.”
“C.O.?”
“Commanding Officer.”
“But
I gather she continued to e-mail?”
“Yeah, from the library, and her girlfriend’s house when she went off restriction.”
“What’s her father’s objection? You seem to be a pretty clean-cut, all-American kind of guy.”
He smiled over at me and shook his head, “If you had a daughter who was a high school senior would you want her involved with a twenty-three year old, nevertheless a military man of dubious character?”
“Dubious character?”
“I said some things in those e-mails I shouldn’t have.”
“How bad were they?”
“Let’s just say they might not have been proper had she been twenty-one.”
“Things of a sexual nature?”
“Itemized lists of places I wanted to visit.”
I simply tsked and shook my head.
“Well he did what he had to. Now, I have to do what I have to.”
“Which is?”
“I don’t know, probably kidnap her for a while so I can at least find out if the feelings we have for each other are genuine.”
I had to laugh—it was so absurd. But then I studied his face and saw he was serious. I raised both eyebrows in censure.
“Don’t look so shocked, I’m sure it’s what she’s expecting me to do.”
“You don’t know?”
Sheepishly, he shook his head. “We’ve been incommunicado for almost two months. She was caught instant messaging me on prom night. She went out to dinner with her friends and then on the way to the prom they dropped her off at the university library. She was supposed to meet them at eleven but got locked in instead. They locked up early while she was in the rest room. When she didn’t make curfew everything came out. The police chief was a friend of her dad’s and he had his techs find everything we had written. I got an e-mail directly from him that said if I attempted to contact her again, I would be picked up by the M.P.s.”
“M.P.s?”
“Military Police.”
“So you’re waiting until she’s eighteen?”
“Yes. She graduated last week and five days from now she turns eighteen.”
“And you’re just going to snatch her?”
Running Up the Score Page 3