“Autumn, I told you that you weren’t allowed to watch any more of those tabloid news shows or talk shows, either,” Mac said sternly.
“Everything else is a rerun,” whined Autumn.
“And you are not to move the TV from the living room. I want you to put it back,” Mac ordered, then paused. “You never did say where the other kids are, Autumn.”
“They’re gone,” Autumn said gloomily. “I don’t know where, they just left. Uncle Mac, what if one of those killers who got out of jail is on his way to kill his pen pal and sees Lily or Brick or Clay and—”
“That’s enough, Autumn,” Mac cut off her morbid speculations. “Don’t you have any idea where the kids are?”
“Not Lily or Brick, but Clay said he was going to ride that big black horse.”
“Blackjack?” Mac choked. “The stallion? God almighty, Autumn, you have to—”
“Uncle Mac, someone’s knocking at the door!” Autumn shrieked into the phone. “Knocking real loud and hard like a murderer!” She let out a bloodcurdling scream audible to everyone in the Jeep.
Tai dug his claws into Kara’s thighs and growled a warning.
“Is she all right?” Kara asked with concern.
“Autumn!” Mac shouted her name a few times before finally reclaiming his niece’s attention. The screaming ceased.
“He says he’s Webb Asher, Uncle Mac. He says he has Clay,” Autumn reported. “He says to open up the door. I’m not going to, though. I think it’s someone pretending to be him. A killer from jail who’s pretending to be Webb,” she concluded dramatically.
“Autumn Wilde, you open that door and put Webb on the line, right now!” Mac commanded.
A few terse moments later, Mac hung up the phone. “My ranch manager caught Clay in the stallion’s pen tossing cookies at Blackjack, trying to make friends so he could get a ride. This is a wild-tempered stallion who could’ve killed him with just one kick. If Webb hadn’t gone down there when he did...” Mac’s stomach lurched. “I’ve got to get back there immediately. Lily and Brick are God-knows-where, and I can’t leave the two little ones home alone. I told Webb to stay with them till I got back, but his tolerance for children doesn’t go far.”
Kara glanced at her watch. “How much longer till we’re in Bear Creek?”
“We’re not going into town. I’ll take another road that will bypass Bear Creek and get us to the ranch faster.”
Kara swallowed her disappointment. Under the circumstances, she could hardly demand that Mac Wilde take her to the Franklin’s house in town before going to his ranch to check on his recalcitrant nieces and nephews.
“I’ll call Uncle Will as soon as we get to the ranch and ask him to pick me up. Then you won’t have to leave the children again to drive me into town.”
Mac frowned. “Can’t you wait until tomorrow to see him? You’ve had a long trip, and there’s no need for the reverend to come out to the ranch after dark.”
“Wait till tomorrow?” Kara echoed. “That’s impossible. I—”
“Let me put this another way. Nobody is going anywhere tonight. We’ll talk about getting you into town to visit the Rev tomorrow.”
“I can’t stay at your ranch overnight!” Kara felt a bolt of panic flash through her.
“Honey, you can and you are. Okay, you’re having an attack of nerves, thinking about meeting the kids. Who wouldn’t? I understand completely. I didn’t spare you the truth, and they are an intimidating bunch. But let’s not forget the reason why you’re here in Montana—”
“Yes, let’s not!” Kara cut in. Paradoxically, the fear she was feeling instilled her with an uncharacteristic boldness. “I’m here to visit Reverend Will Franklin.”
“It’s time to drop the charade, Kara. Let’s be honest with each other and cut the game playing. You know you’re here to marry me and help me raise those kids.”
Two
Kara gaped at him, stunned into speechlessness. Mac’s words seemed to hover tangibly in the air between them. Once again, she felt the heat of intensified color turn her cheeks a scalding pink.
“If—if this is your idea of a joke, I don’t appreciate it.” Kara finally found her voice. She wished she sounded less anxious and more sternly forceful. She had never felt so off-balance in her careful quiet life. “Uncle Will bought my plane ticket and he—”
“No, he didn’t. I paid for that ticket. If the Rev told you otherwise, he was—well, lying.” Mac shrugged at her shocked look of outrage. “Hey, the man is only human, after all. ‘Let he who is without sin’ and all that...”
“Do you honestly expect me to believe that Uncle Will would invite me here, implying that he was paying for my ticket,” she emphasized the word, for Will hadn’t come right out and said that he’d bought it. “That he would be part of some plot to get me out here to m-marry you without ever mentioning you to me? That’s right, he never even mentioned your name, let alone this—this crazy notion you seem to have about—”
“It’s not the way I would’ve handled things myself,” Mac said, frowning his disapproval. “I thought the Rev would be up-front with you. After all, he was the one who came up with the idea in the first place.”
“He wouldn’t do such a thing!” Kara cried. “Not Uncle Will.”
“Listen, baby, Uncle Will dreamed up the whole thing. I didn’t even know you existed, until the Rev told me. He knew I was having trouble with the kids, and we both knew I needed a wife to help me with them. He suggested that you might be willing to come out here and marry me. When you accepted my ticket, I assumed you’d accepted the—uh—position.”
“Ohhh!” Kara covered her burning cheeks with her hands. “This can’t be true!”
“But you know it is.” Mac’s voice was firm.
“No!” Kara closed her eyes, fighting a crushing urge to burst into tears. “I came out here to visit my uncle—”
“He’s your stepfather,” Max said bluntly. “The Rev told me all about his marriage to your mother. I was surprised to hear it. I don’t think anybody in Bear Creek knows he was married before or has a grown stepdaughter.”
“Ex-stepdaughter,” Kara corrected tightly. “Ginny, his wife, made the ex very definite over the years. When I was still a little girl, she told me that I wasn’t allowed to call him Daddy anymore, that he had daughters of his own and I was not to think of myself as one of them.”
“Ouch.”
“Yes, it hurt. He told me to call him Uncle Will, instead. I did as he asked, but for a long time afterward I still thought of him as my dad. My real father died shortly after I was born, and Will was the only father I’d ever known.”
“So he placated his wife at your expense?”
“He had no choice,” Kara loyally defended her former stepfather. “A husband does what he has to do to make his wife happy.”
“Let me rephrase that for you—a wimp caves in and lets the woman have the upper hand,” Mac said scornfully. “And it’s always a big, big mistake.”
“One you’d never make, I’m sure,” Kara murmured, because she simply could not let his chauvinistic remark go unchallenged.
“That’s right,” Mac agreed proudly. It seemed he’d interpreted her challenge as a compliment. He shook his head, bemused. “None of this sounds like the Rev and Ginny I’ve known for the past fifteen years.”
“Uncle Will was heartbroken when my mother left him for another man. So was I.” Kara’s voice grew bleak, remembering that sad time. “Mom always claimed he married Ginny on the rebound and Ginny knew it. That’s why she resented Will’s relationship with me so much. I was a reminder that my mother, and not Ginny, was the great love of his life.”
“It’s hard to imagine the Rev in the role of romantic lead,” Mac said wryly. “And even harder to picture Ginny as a possessive shrew, nasty to little girls. She’s always been so helpful and upbeat.”
“I doubt that even the most helpful, upbeat woman likes to think of herself as second best when it
comes to love. Women always found my mother a threat because she was—and still is—a very beautiful woman.”
Kara felt Mac’s eyes upon her, assessing her. Doubtlessly trying to imagine how a very beautiful woman had managed to produce such an ordinary daughter. It was not the first time she’d been confronted with that particular puzzle.
“Unfortunately, I look nothing like my mother. From the pictures I’ve seen, I take after my dad’s side,” she felt compelled to explain. “Average in every way.”
“There is nothing wrong with the way you look,” Mac said gruffly.
Kara shifted uncomfortably and turned her attention to her cat, kneading his fur with gentle fingers. She had never discussed herself or her past so frankly with any man, and she suspected she’d sounded downtrodden and filled with self-pity. Which she was not! She felt a surge of anger at Mac Wilde for putting her into this unholy predicament.
Mac reacted to her silence. “Are you waiting for me to counter with a feature-by-feature rave of your face and figure?” He heaved an impatient sigh. “Look, I’ve never been one of those touchy-feely types who ooze syrupy compliments and pour on the charm. And I—”
“Obviously not,” Kara cut in tartly. “You seem extremely practical with no time or patience for anything dealing with emotion or sentiment. I guess that falls into the dreaded touchy-feely department? Well, has it occurred to you that there might be a direct correlation between your hardheadedness and your need to—to attempt to buy a wife?” She had never been so caustic or outspoken in her life, but somehow Mac brought it out in her.
Mac arched his brows. “At the risk of sounding redundant—ouch!”
He lifted his hand from the wheel to run one long finger along the length of her arm, from her shoulder to her fingertips. “The lady has claws, hmm? Just like her kitty.”
Kara shivered. Though well-protected under the heavy cotton of her sweater, her skin tingled along the path that he’d traced. “Don’t patronize me,” she growled.
“Whatever you say, sweetie.” He flashed a teasing grin.
A quivering spiral of tension coiled in her stomach. When he smiled like that, he was devastating. A fact he probably well knew, lectured a stern little voice in her head. Some cautious feminine instinct warned her that Mac Wilde was not averse to turning on the charm, should it serve his purpose.
Silence descended between them. Kara’s nerves felt stretched to the screaming point as she reviewed this decidedly bizarre situation. Mac Wilde had footed the bill for her journey and in return expected her to marry him and help him raise his four unruly nieces and nephews.
What a preposterous idea! Was he dreaming? Perhaps she’d fallen asleep on the plane and when she opened her eyes, the flight would be landing and Uncle Will would be waiting eagerly at the gate for her.
Mac, on the other hand, did not seem affected by any tension whatsoever. “This is one of my favorite songs,” he announced cheerfully. He turned up the volume and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel in time to the beat. “Merle Haggard. ‘That’s the Way Love Goes.’”
It did not go well, according to the lyrics. And Kara knew this absurd idea of his was just doomed to fail.
“I’ll repay you for the cost of my plane ticket, of course.” Kara gulped, wishing she could appear cool and controlled, but failing utterly. “I—I’m terribly sorry about the misunderstanding. This is all so embarrassing. No, it’s beyond embarrassing. It’s absolutely mortifying!”
“I don’t want to be reimbursed. I expect you to honor the terms of our agreement and marry me.”
“But we have no agreement!”
“I bought that ticket in good faith and assumed you’d accepted it and the terms offered in the same good faith.” Mac slid a glance at her.
He was surprised at how well he was able to read her already. She was confused and aghast, the better to fall for this legal spiel he was spinning. “Maybe you’re scamming me,” he accused. “Using my money for a free visit to Montana? Who can guess how much more cash you planned to wring out of me. Maybe the Rev is in cahoots with you. Find a sucker, promise him a—”
“How can you even think such a thing!” Kara cried, panic lacing her voice. “This is all just a—a terrible misunderstanding.”
“That’s what you said before. I’m not buying it, honey. I think you and the Rev tried to con me,” Mac said rather gleefully.
“We did no such thing!” Kara stared at him. That gleam in his dark eyes, that note of triumph in his voice suddenly alerted her to the possibility that Mac Wilde might be improvising. Masterfully. “You have no reason to suspect any conspiracy or wrongdoing. Or any proof, either,” she added succinctly.
“Don’t I? Then answer this question for me, Kara. If Ginny Franklin regards you as a thorn in her side, if she sees you as an unpleasant reminder of an era she is determined to forget, then why would she suddenly allow her husband to invite you to stay at their home and to pay for your ticket out here?”
Kara opened her mouth to speak, then abruptly closed it. She’d asked herself that same question when Uncle Will had first extended the invitation. But she had been so happy to be invited, she hadn’t probed any deeper. Had it been pure wishful thinking on her part, that she would at last be accepted into the Franklin family?
“You’ve never visited them out here before,” Mac went on. “The only times you’ve seen the Rev have been when he was traveling on church-related business, without Ginny and the girls. Am I correct?”
Kara gave a grudging nod.
“From the time you were a child, Ginny made it plain that she didn’t want you and your ex-stepfather to maintain your ties,” Mac continued. “The Rev told me himself that he wasn’t able to see you as much as you two would’ve liked. That was because of Ginny. Well, why should Ginny have a sudden change of heart at this late date? I happen to know that she’s not suffering from a terminal disease so she isn’t trying to set things right before she meets her Maker. The truth is, Ginny Franklin is not expecting you to stay at her house. If she even knows about your visit to Bear Creek, she’s been told that you will be with me at the Double R. As for that fantasy you concocted about the Rev buying your plane ticket—ha! Only over Ginny’s dead body.”
Kara swallowed hard. “You’re using the information I gave you against me.”
“All’s fair in love and war, baby.”
“Well, this isn’t either one. Stop this car!” Kara commanded impulsively. “I’m getting out.”
Mac laughed at that. “You plan to hitchhike back into Helena? With your luggage and that caterwauling cat?”
“Yes.”
He raised one dark brow. “Are you sure? The sun is going down and it gets pretty scary out here at night. Bears and cougars and wolves prowl along the highway. Your cat could end up being their appetizer while you serve as the main course.”
Kara tried to ignore the apprehensive chill that rippled through her. “You’re deliberately trying to scare me. I think I’m in greater danger from you than any animal predator out there. And if you don’t stop this car right now, I—I’ll jump out.”
Mac abruptly steered the Jeep off the highway, onto the wide shoulder of the road.
Kara trembled. It seemed he was about to grant her wish and let her out. A cold lump of fear settled in her stomach and expanded to fill her throat. How was she going to get back to Helena? This interstate was going in the wrong direction—she would have to hitch a ride or walk to the next exit and then make her way to the eastbound portion of the highway to hitch or walk back to the city. Tai emitted a miserable meow, and Kara stifled a sob of her own. What if there really were dangerous wild animals on the prowl out there?
“You’d better put the cat back in his carrier,” Mac advised.
Kara nodded dumbly. Tai did not go gracefully back into his hated carrier. She practically had to wrestle the cat into it, while he hissed and tried to claw her. Finally, after he was safely locked inside, Mac placed it on the
back seat.
Kara reached for the door handle. “I’ll get my luggage out and take Tai last,” she said stiffly.
“That won’t be necessary.” Mac moved as swiftly as one of those animal predators he’d warned her about.
Before she realized what was happening, he’d outmaneuvered the armrests and the seat belts which restrained them, and took both her hands in his. Their knees touched, their faces were very close.
“What are you doing?” Kara’s voice rose to a squeak. She tried to snatch her hands away but his grip was too firm for her to break.
“I’ll tell you what I’m not doing. I’m not abandoning you and your cat on the highway. I would never expose you to that sort of danger, Kara.”
Kara’s heart was thundering in her chest. She was in danger right here in the Jeep! She tried frantically to recall the self-defense tips she’d heard in that lecture she had attended last year with some women from work. It had been given by a police officer who’d designed a program to teach women street smarts and safety.
Now Officer Murray’s number one piece of advice came back to her and roared in her ears. “Don’t get into a car with anyone you don’t know.” Well, she’d already blown that one. Officer Murray would be chagrined at her stupidity.
“Relax,” Mac said softly. “I can feel you trembling. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Then let me go. Right now!” Was she supposed to plead for mercy or issue a command? Kara tried both, the plea followed by the order.
“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Kara.”
“Then why are you doing such a good job of scaring me? You let me think you’re dumping me out on the highway and then you g-grab me.”
“You demanded that I stop. You even threatened to jump out if I didn’t,” Mac reminded her. “I wasn’t about to call your bluff. Dealing with hysterical women has never been my strong suit,” he admitted wryly. “Just ask my ex-wife.”
She was immediately distracted. “You’ve been married?”
Wilde Bunch Page 3