Heart of Gold

by J. R. Ward

  Carter could only stare after him. As the implications of the double standard occurred to her, she felt a stinging regret. He was right. She had lied to him and, in retrospect, her reasons for the deception seemed hollow.

  The fall from self-righteous indignation was a hard one, she thought.

  As she rejoined the group hovering around the Range Rover, she was preoccupied with the mess she’d created.

  “So, you all are going to come to dinner, right?” Cort was asking.

  Carter stiffened.

  “I’ve already put in a request for pie,” Buddy said from next to the four-wheeler. He was tying down supplies with a bungee cord.

  “Wait ’til you try her cobbler. Ivan swears it’s the best,” Cort said, straddling the machine. “Ellie, do you want to come with me?”

  Even though the girl looked hesitant, she hopped on behind him. As the two went roaring down the drive, Ellie’s strawberry blond hair waved behind them in the summer breeze.

  “Young love,” her father murmured with a grin. “Almost as good as pie.”

  After slipping on backpacks, Carter and Buddy headed across the meadow.

  Traipsing through the long grass, Carter felt as though her life was unraveling and wondered how it was all going to come together again.

  If it was going to come together.

  “You’re awful quiet,” Buddy observed.

  She looked over at her friend. Thinking of what Lyst had said, she resolved to tell him about the man’s most recent appearance. “I think Ellie should sleep down at the house.”

  “So she can watch more horror flicks with Cort? I wanted her to learn something this summer but the history of slasher cinema wasn’t it.”

  “Lyst came back.”

  Buddy’s steady pace faltered. “When?”

  “Today.”

  Alarm flared in his face. “You saw him?”

  She nodded, keeping her expression calm.

  “Were you alone?”

  “Cort was with me.”

  “What did he want?”

  “I think Ellie should stay down at the house.” Carter’s soft words carried a wealth of meaning.

  Buddy stopped altogether. “What the hell happened?”

  “He was just poking around to see what we’ve come up with.”

  “So why do you want Ellie off the mountain?”

  Carter forced her voice to remain even. “I just think it would be safer that way.”

  Buddy’s eyes grew wide behind his glasses. “She should go back to Cambridge, shouldn’t she?”

  Carter nodded.

  “Then she leaves tonight.”

  When they resumed walking, their pace had quickened.

  21

  NICK WAS approaching the garage when Ivan emerged from the darkness. “I was just coming to see you. What the hell is going on up there?”

  “I got a little present for you inside.”

  “Oh?” Nick’s voice was grim.

  “Caught us a roadrunner.”

  “Is it Lyst?”

  “Don’t know the name but his backside was the one I chased off before.”

  Ivan led the way into the garage and over to a far corner where Conrad Lyst was tied to a lawn chair with a frayed water ski rope.

  “I’m going to sue you for false imprisonment—” the man began yelling.

  Nick crossed his arms over his chest and leaned casually against the hood of the Porsche. “Ivan, did you have to use the ski rope? I thought we agreed that trespassers were going to get the barbed wire.”

  “Must have slipped my mind.”

  Lyst’s face was glowing with anger. “I’m going to call the police and the newspapers and—”

  “Do what?” Nick interrupted. “Explain to the world why you’ve been running all over my property?”

  “I was savagely mauled by your…this…groundsman and tied up like a dog!”

  “Ivan, did you maul him?”

  “Nope.”

  “Too bad.” Nick turned back to Lyst. “Now, tell me, what were you doing on my mountain? Again?”

  “I was visiting a colleague.” With a subtle leer the man added, “At her invitation.”

  Nick ground his teeth. “Oh really? I wonder why she didn’t mention to me you were coming?”

  “That should be obvious. She enjoys my company on a…personal level. Immensely. Our meetings have been of a private nature.”

  Nick approached the tethered man and rested his hands on the arms of the chair. Leaning in close, he said, “I’m feeling generous today so I’m willing to make you a deal. You stay off my property and the hell away from her and I’ll consider letting you walk out of here without a neck brace.”

  “I can’t believe you’re threatening me, Farrell. Because you don’t need any more bad publicity, do you?”

  Nick glanced over at Ivan. “I offer the guy a good shake and he throws it back in my face.”

  “Not much for gratitude, is he?” Ivan said with a wide grin.

  “Either that or he’s stupid.” Nick’s gaze snapped back to Lyst. “Surely you couldn’t be that dumb. You couldn’t actually want to provoke me, could you?”

  “You can’t keep me away from her.”

  Nick’s eyes trained on the man’s jugular. “Want to try that again?”

  “You’re playing against type,” the man shot back. “You aren’t known for being possessive, at least if the tabloids get their facts right. I know she’s good on her back but—”

  Nick’s hand went around the man’s throat like a vise. “I’d be very careful about the next lie you tell.”

  Lyst choked out, “Let go of me.”

  “Why? I’m having a grand old time.” Nick’s eyes met Ivan’s. “Besides, weren’t you telling me the other day I needed more upper-body conditioning?”

  “That I was. Those sails can be heavy lifting. You need to be in shape.”

  “See?” Nick tightened his grip even more, watching the man’s eyes bulge. “You could become part of my regular workouts. We could keep you here in the corner. Hang you from the ceiling and use you as a punching bag.”

  “Go…to…hell…”

  “So, tell me, how does hypoxia feel? I imagine your vision’s beginning to get blurry and your extremities are going numb. Your lungs have got to feel like they’re on fire.”

  “Supposed to be just like drowning,” Ivan supplied helpfully.

  “Let go…” Lyst’s voice was a strained whisper.

  “I want you to stay the hell away from me and mine.”

  “Fine,” Lyst croaked.

  Nick released his hand and the man collapsed, gasping for breath.

  “Here’s the deal,” Nick told him forcefully. “If you go to the newspapers, if you come onto my property again, if you go anywhere near Carter, even after she leaves here, I will hunt you down and make your life more miserable than it already is. Got it?”

  Lyst’s head lolled around his shoulders but his eyes rose with challenge. “What if she wants to see me?”

  “I doubt that will be a problem.”

  “You can’t control her.”

  “Then you better pray she doesn’t want anything to do with you. It’ll greatly increase your chances of survival.” Nick turned to Ivan. “Get this piece of crap out of here.”

  “What?” Ellie exclaimed indignantly.

  She couldn’t possibly have heard her father right.

  “You’ve got to go,” Buddy repeated gently.

  “What are you talking about? No, I don’t!” The girl flushed.

  She just couldn’t leave, not when things with Cort were looking so promising. He’d even opened up the night before and told her about losing his parents. They were getting close, real close. Boyfriend and girlfriend close.

  Her father put a hand on her shoulder, his expression a mixture of concern and resolve that made her feel like she had a noose around her neck.

  “We’re almost done here.”

  �
�Almost,” she snapped. “So why do I have to leave?”

  “There’s a train that will take you to Albany and a bus will get you from there to Boston. I’ll call your mother to pick you up.”

  Ellie’s eyes narrowed and she searched his face. “You’re not telling me something.”

  Her father shrugged. “There’s nothing much left to do. If you go back now, you can still get into the summer program at Harvard.”

  “I’ve worked as hard as everyone else has and I deserve to finish the project. I want to stay here.” She glanced over at Cort.

  “You can always have visitors back home,” Buddy said softly.

  “I’m not going!”

  “I’m sorry…”

  “There’s nothing to apologize for. I’m staying.”

  Unexpectedly, her father’s voice dropped an octave and became something close to a growl. “Pack your bags or I’ll do it for you.”

  Ellie was speechless. He never sounded that authoritative unless there was something really wrong.

  She had a right to know whatever it was, she thought.

  But before she could say anything else, she caught Cort’s eye. He gave her a brief nod that seemed to say, Just agree and we’ll figure something out.

  “I can’t believe you’re being like this,” she grumbled. When she went into her tent to start packing, Cort followed her inside.

  It was gratifying to see the distress in his face as they sat down on her cot.

  “I don’t want to go,” she whispered. “What are we going to do?”

  “Can’t you talk him out of it?”

  Dispirited, she shook her head. “I’ve seen him like this once or twice before. He’s not going to budge. I wish we knew what started all this.”

  “I’ll tell you about it later. Can you call your mom? Maybe she could change his mind.”

  “No. She was upset I was going to be away for so long to begin with. She’ll be thrilled to get me home.”

  “Could Carter talk to him?”

  “Maybe. But I doubt if even she could change his mind.” Ellie stared into space, hoping that a solution would come out of the air.

  Cort took a deep breath and then blurted, “Okay, so we’re going to get out of here.”

  Ellie looked at him with surprise. “What are you saying?”

  “Let’s go away. Just the two of us.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “I sure am.”

  “Wait—That’s crazy.” She shook her head. “Where would we go? And they’re just going to find us anyway.”

  “So let them. At least we’ll have a couple of days to ourselves. I’m tired of being watched all the time, and they aren’t going to change. For once, let’s make them work for it. If they want us, they can come after us.”

  The growing confidence in Cort’s voice made the idea seem not so ridiculous.

  “But when? I’m supposed to leave tonight.”

  “Tell your father you want to stay for a final dinner. After we eat, we’ll say we want to go say good-bye. They’ll let us. We’ll sneak out of the house and head up the mountain. We can hook up with the old logging trail that’ll take us around the summit and down the other side. From there, we can go to my friends’ house. The Canton brothers know how to deal with this kind of stuff. They do crap like this all the time. They’ll help us out.”

  Fear and excitement made Ellie’s heart race. She’d never disobeyed her parents before but an adventure, with Cort, was too tempting to turn away from.

  “What if we get lost on the mountain?”

  “We won’t. I’ve been hiking this monster for years.”

  She thought for a moment. “But what about Ivan? He’ll be able to track us.”

  “I overheard him talking to Gertie. He’s going fishing tomorrow, which means he’ll be out after night crawlers tonight. They’ll have trouble finding him and that’ll give us some time.” Cort took her hands, holding them tight. His eyes had a soulful glow in them that made her light-headed. “I’ll take care of you. I promise.”

  His conviction was rock solid, and she was ready to believe in him completely. All those times he’d gotten his distant look and disappeared, all the wondering whether he liked her as much as she liked him, all the ambiguities seemed clear now. They would go off together, be together.

  “Okay. Let’s do it,” she said breathlessly.

  Just after sunset, she and Cort went down on the four-wheeler with two duffel bags full of her clothes. Before they left, Cort distracted the grown-ups while she hid a pack in the woods beyond the fringes of camp. Inside, she’d stashed money, some food, and clothes. After they made their getaway, they would swing through and retrieve it as well as her sleeping bag, which was still spread out on the floor of her tent.

  While she and Cort raced down the mountain, she held on to him really tight, thrilled by all the possibilities before them.

  “I can’t wait for tonight,” she said in his ear as they zoomed over the trail, speeding headlong into the gathering darkness.

  Dinner was served in the formal dining room despite the fact that everyone was in shorts. It was a tense, silent meal. Repeatedly, Carter could feel Nick’s eyes pierce through the still summer air in her direction. When he abruptly threw down his napkin and left the table without a word, she let out the breath she’d been holding.

  Buddy looked at his watch and then his daughter. “We need to leave soon.”

  “Will you let us say good-bye?” Ellie’s voice was clipped short.

  After he nodded, the two teenagers left. In their wake, Buddy pushed his plate away and sat back in his chair. “Not exactly a great example of family-style eating, was it.”

  “You want dessert?” Carter asked as she got up and went to the sideboard.

  “Yeah. I might as well self-medicate with cobbler. And don’t go light on the whipped cream.”

  She brought him a plateful and they sat quietly under the sparkling chandelier while Buddy devoured dessert. She fiddled with her cobbler until he ate it, too.

  “I better go get her,” he said when he was done.

  Carter stayed behind to clean up and she’d just finished taking the plates into the kitchen when Buddy came back in.

  “Has Ellie been through here?” he asked tensely.

  “No.”

  “I can’t find them.”

  “You try down by the boathouse?”

  Buddy’s face registered relief. “Maybe that’s where they are.”

  But when he returned wearing a look of alarm, Carter began to feel sick to her stomach.

  “Cars are here, boats are docked, and the four-wheeler’s in the garage,” he reported.

  “Would they go back to camp?”

  “I can’t think why.”

  “You take the four-wheeler up and check,” she said briskly. “I’ll tell Nick.”

  When Carter got to the study, the door was open a crack. She knocked and when there was no answer, she pushed the door open and went in.

  “Nick?”

  The room was empty. She was about to leave when something on his desk caught her eye. On top of the sea of white papers, there was a color photograph.

  Of her.

  Carter’s breath caught.

  It was a picture Cort had taken, back when they had found the second set of bones and right after she and Nick had gone on their sail. She had a wide-open grin on her face from laughing at one of Buddy’s calamities.

  “Looking for something?” Nick spoke sharply.

  Startled, she bolted upright. “Cort and Ellie are missing.”

  His expression didn’t change but she caught the tightening of his mouth. “For how long?”

  “Twenty minutes or so.”

  “You check the house?”

  She nodded. “Everywhere except for upstairs. Buddy’s gone up the mountain.”

  Nick shrugged. “Maybe they just went for a walk.”

  “She was leaving.”

  Nic
k’s brow came down over his eyes. “Leaving? To go where?”

  “Home.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t have time to explain. We’ve got to find them,” Carter said urgently.

  Worry surged through the harsh lines of his face. “You look down in the boathouse?”

  She nodded.

  “Then let’s check upstairs.”

  The two made quick work of the second story and came up empty. By that time, they could hear the sound of the four-wheeler coming back. They met Buddy at the front door.

  “She’s gone,” he said desperately. “And her sleeping bag is missing. They must be on the mountain.”

  Nick went to a phone. “Gertie? I need Ivan, now.”

  The pause that followed was too long to be good news.

  “All right. When you get him, tell him that the kids are missing. We need him on the mountain.” He hung up with a scowl. “Ivan’s out looking for bait. She’s going to try and find him.”

  Abruptly, Nick went to the kitchen and Buddy and Carter followed. They watched as he walked over to the sink, bent down, and pulled out the trash bin. When he emptied it on the floor and began searching through the garbage, they could only watch in confusion.

  “Thank God,” Nick said, holding up a resealed hypodermic needle and an empty glass vial.

  “What’s that?” Carter asked.

  “Cort’s a diabetic. He’s taken his shot tonight. We’ve got some time.”

  Carter felt like she’d been hit with ice water. “My God, I had no idea.”

  “He prefers to keep it quiet,” Nick said as he stood up. “His mother was one, too.”

  “How severe?”

  “Bad enough.” He walked over to a cabinet. After looking inside, he took a deep breath. “Good boy. He’s taken plenty of insulin with him.”

  When Nick turned around, he was visibly calmer.

  22

  “WE’LL START at the campsite.” Nick quickly kicked off his loafers and put on hiking boots. “You two take the back trail on the four-wheeler. I’ll run up the front.”

  He couldn’t get the laces tied up fast enough.

  As he got to his feet, he looked at Carter. In the midst of his fear, he was struck by the tender concern on her face. It shored up his strength, enabling him to focus.