“Look, Jenny, I appreciate and admire your loyalty to your friend, but please look at my side. All I ask is a chance,” he requested humbly.
She took a deep breath as she looked into his face and saw the silent pleading in the rugged features, an expression not known to such an inherently proud man. Maybe she should tell him. She knew he wouldn’t get any farther in his quest, and he finally just might give up the idea of using the author in his new book if he realized there wasn’t a chance of seeking the woman out. “Perhaps in the long run it would be better if you tried to contact her yourself, although it would be next to impossible for you to find her, since she doesn’t live in this state.”
Travis nodded impatiently, realizing he was finally getting what he wanted.
“Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve met her in the past,” Jenny went on a bit too casually.
He frowned. “I’ve met a lot of writers in my time, and not one has made a good enough impression to remain in my memory more than ten minutes. I would have remembered meeting the kind of person who’d have written something like this.”
“I’m not talking about someone who’s made their living at writing.”
Travis’s eyes narrowed. He could feel the anticipation; deep down in his bones he knew he was going to hear something he hadn’t anticipated.
Jenny looked straight into his eyes. “The author is Kali Hughes.”
Travis’s softly spoken profanity sounded more like a prayer. He’d expected to hear just about any other name but that one. He stood up and walked over to the oak credenza gracing one wall. It took some searching among magazines and bound photo albums, but he soon found what he was looking for. He opened the folder in front of him and scanned the contents. The folder was a few years old.
“Kali Hughes—five foot eight, tawny-colored hair, brown eyes, no distinguishing marks, thirty-one. Married to Blayne Savage; one daughter named Cheryl, aged two. She made the cover of eight magazines, Vogue three of those times,” he read out loud, then looked up. “They certainly didn’t like to give out too much personal information about her, did they? Must’ve been afraid they’d give away some deep, dark secret. She’d be what, thirty-three or thirty-four by now? Let’s see, she divorced her husband almost three years ago, and it ended up pretty messily, even by Hollywood standards. Then there was a child custody battle that was just as nasty. If I remember correctly, he accused her of taking drugs, which is nothing new in this town; having countless lovers; and engaging in perverted acts. Remembering his less than immaculate reputation, I wonder what he considered perverted. And wasn’t there an accusation that she deliberately aborted his baby because she didn’t want to take the time out from her career to have another child?” He shook his head. Every supermarket tabloid had had a field day, courtesy of Kali Hughes and her handsome actor-husband. At the time all he had thought about was the embittered woman he’d met on New Year’s Eve. The vulnerable Kali Hughes he had known was nothing like the cold-blooded woman Blayne Savage talked about during the divorce hearing. “Then she and the girl disappeared, and no one could find out where they went,” he recalled, then frowned. “No, something else happened.”
“Kali left town alone,” Jenny said, correcting him. “Blayne stopped by the preschool Cheryl went to, used his charm on the school director, and walked off with Cheryl. Last anyone heard is that he’s somewhere in Europe making ‘art’ films. If he tries to return to the States, he’ll be arrested for kidnapping. Kali was so distraught, she was on the verge of a mental breakdown. Her doctor kept her under heavy sedation for several days because he was afraid she might kill herself. She loved her daughter more than life itself, Travis; loved her so much that losing her almost killed her. To save herself, she finally left town to take stock and make a new life. If she has her way, she’ll never return to New York or L.A.”
Travis stared off into space. “You two were more than employer and employee, so she sent you the story,” he mused. “What’s she doing now?”
“Getting her life back together.”
Travis looked down at the publicity photograph before him. It may have been black-and-white, but it didn’t hide the sheer vitality of the real woman. The loose topknot with wispy tendrils at her ears gave a man the impression that he could undo some invisible hairpin and send the tresses falling down to frame her lovely face. With her slight smile and mysterious eyes, there was a truly elusive quality about the woman. She wasn’t beautiful in the traditional sense, but she had that special something the camera loved. All she had to do was smile, and the sun came out in all its brilliant glory. Once Travis had briefly known this remarkable woman, and he would give everything to know her again.
Funny, she’d always told the press she couldn’t imagine such happiness as she’d had with her husband and child, coupled with her career. But her husband hadn’t found the same kind of fame she had. He’d starred in three television series, but none ever lasted past mid-season. He just didn’t have that special spark that made an actor a star.
Travis doubted that anyone would ever know the truth behind the divorce. Kali left the house with her daughter and filed for divorce, but she refused to give any specifics, leaving it up to the press to speculate. It took all of her strength to battle her angry and spiteful husband in court.
But Blayne had enacted his own vengeance by suing for custody of their child. This started another dirty court battle where he brought in his own sleazy type of ammunition. Barely a week after Kali won the case, Blayne kidnapped Cheryl and left the country.
After the tragedy the bereaved woman went into seclusion, refusing to see anyone. Soon afterward, she sold the elaborate family home in the Hollywood hills and the luxurious penthouse apartment in New York, then dropped out of sight. Speculation continued for a time—that she had finally snapped and would be spending the rest of her days in a sanitarium, or that she now lived with a whiskey bottle for company, or even that the court battles were some kind of perverse publicity and she’d left the country to join her husband. But no one bothered to seek out the truth because it was unlikely to sell as many papers as speculation did.
“Damn,” he muttered, closing the folder and setting it back in the credenza. He swung around to face his assistant. “You said you suggested she write to relieve her fears. They were that bad?”
Jenny nodded. “She was alone too much, and I thought if she had something to occupy her time, she might be better off. Kali hired a team of private detectives to track down Cheryl and bring her back, but Blayne always seems to keep one step ahead of them. He moves on to another town or country and changes his name and hair color. How he manages it, no one knows. It’s as if it’s some kind of sick game to him. Meanwhile it’s tearing Kali up inside because she doesn’t know if Cheryl is all right. She’s offered him a small fortune to send Cheryl back to her, but he ignores her pleas. It’s as if he’s trying to punish her.”
Travis considered her words. It sounded like Kali Hughes’s marriage had been more hell than heaven. He had to give her credit for having done such an excellent job of hiding the truth. He was sure there was much more behind her claim of incompatibility than ever reached the court.
Closing his eyes, Travis remembered back to the last time he had seen her. Her mouth was swollen from his kisses, her eyes dark with desire, her voice husky with passion. All of it due to him. Maybe he should have said “No thanks” to her, because it ended up as a bitter joke on both of them. She’d wanted to hurt her husband for hurting her, and Travis ended up as the victim in her quest for revenge. Still, he couldn’t deny that it had ended up to be a sensual explosion that shocked them both—all because of a simple lass that promised to be so much more.
But he shouldn’t think about that now. She was gone, and no one knew where to find her. It was as if she had dropped off the face of the earth. Of course, he couldn’t blame her for getting out while the getting was good. Kali had gone through hell because of her divorce and her daughter
’s custody hearing. She had been smart enough to get away from her fast-paced life before it consumed her entirely.
“I still want to talk to her,” he said abruptly.
Jenny sighed. She wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t changed his mind, but she had hoped he might understand and drop the idea. “Travis, I honestly don’t know where Kali is. Her mail is sent to me through her attorney, and mine is sent the same way. Her letters give no indication even what state she’s living in. She could live outside the country and I wouldn’t know it.”
“Then I’ll talk to her attorney. I need to speak to her even more now. Please, Jenny.”
“She won’t talk to you, Travis. I doubt she wants anything to do with anyone from her former life, anyone who could be even the slightest reminder of her time here. Besides, in her letters she sounds happy where she is. She doesn’t deserve to be hurt anymore.”
That was the last thing he would do to her. “I just want to talk to her,” he insisted.
“Her attorney is Malcolm Rhodes, and his reputation as a hard-hearted bastard is well earned. He won’t give you the slightest hint as to her whereabouts.”
Travis smiled, a smile that told Jenny he had a plan up his sleeve; one that would get him exactly what he wanted.
“We’ll see.”
Chapter 2
Kali always enjoyed this time of year. The beginning of spring meant rebirth, which was what she was still undergoing in her own life. It was a time when baby animals started revealing their tiny faces in the woods as they followed their mothers and learned all the rules for survival in the wild. The trees and bushes were regaining their leaves and turning a beautiful green as the winter snows disappeared. Oh, it wasn’t so much that she hated the snow. Long days of living snowed in didn’t bother her a bit as long as she had plenty of wood for the fireplace and the bookcase was filled with reading material to peruse during the long winter evenings.
She had gotten up this morning feeling more cheerful than she had in a long time. It took no time at all to make her bed and hop in the shower before heading for the kitchen to fix her morning cup of coffee. She smiled at the birds singing outside her window; it felt so good to smile again. For a long time she hadn’t had anything to feel happy about. She carried her coffee mug with her as she returned to the bathroom to brush her hair and pull it back into a neat braid. She stared at her reflection in the mirror and saw a woman dressed in a sweater and jeans, no makeup on her face—a far cry from the successful fashion model of two years ago.
“Good morning, Kali, you’re doing just fine,” she said out loud. “You’re in control, and you have a beautiful day outside to celebrate.”
Talking to herself wasn’t a sign that she had lived alone too long. It was just her daily greeting to herself as a reminder that as long as she could speak positively to her reflection, she could still consider herself a part of the human race.
Kali thought over what she would do that day. She had driven into town the day before for supplies and her mail, pleased to find two letters from Jenny, forwarded through Malcolm’s office. She had hoped to receive another report from one of the private detectives she’d hired to find Cheryl but wasn’t lucky in that respect. Oh, well, maybe she was better off not reading any bad news for a while. She’d read Jenny’s letters the previous night, pleased to learn how much her friend had enjoyed her story and eager to hear the latest gossip. Kali had been surprised when Jenny took a job working for Travis Yates. It wasn’t that she was a snob about L.A.‘s caste system, but she couldn’t imagine her glamorous ex-assistant working around former Hells Angels and motorcycle jockeys, even though Travis was now better known for his photo books than for his previous work. There were other reasons why Kali didn’t like hearing about Travis; he brought back memories of a night she wanted to leave forgotten. Trouble was, as long as Jenny worked for the man, Kali doubted she would be able to forget his name. She was glad she no longer lived in L.A. and wouldn’t accidentally run into him when she least expected it. She couldn’t afford a repeat of that night three years ago.
In her letter Jenny had hinted that “Human Frailties” was the perfect kind of story to be published, but Kali wasn’t interested in seeing her name in print. She was just glad to get so much of her hurt and anger out of her system by writing about her marriage. Lately she had been wondering if she would ever marry again. One thing was sure: If she could ever trust another man, it wouldn’t be anyone from L.A. or New York. No, sir—next time she’d choose a down-home country boy. Of course, if she was smart, she just wouldn’t remarry, period.
In the end, Kali decided it was the perfect kind of morning to spend baking bread. When she’d first returned to Virginia, she had forgotten so many of the household tasks that had been a habit during her teen years. During her first bread-baking attempts the dough had either refused to rise or tasted as if she used too much salt. Now it tasted just as good as it used to. Funny, she used to work out daily in the large exercise room in the house in order to keep her weight down. Now she ate anything she wanted, yet was probably a good ten pounds thinner due to her walks and horseback rides in the woods.
Late that afternoon, after putting aside a fourth loaf of warm bread, Kali debated whether to go to the trouble of fixing a gourmet meal for dinner, as she did every so often, or just taking the easy way out and cooking an omelet. She planned on spending the evening reading, or watching one of the new videotapes Malcolm had sent her. Since many of his clients were in the film business, he received a lot of new films, but claiming that he barely had time to watch the news on television, he sent them on to Kali to enjoy. She had just come to the conclusion that she wasn’t in the mood to fix an elaborate meal when she heard the roaring sound of a motorcycle climbing the hill that led to her cabin.
Figuring the rider was using the road to make a turn, she thought nothing of it until she heard the loud engine silenced just outside her front door. Not sure if her visitor was friend—few of the locals came to visit, since they knew and respected her wish for solitude—or foe—she lived quite a distance from town, so she was vulnerable in many ways—she checked her shotgun to make sure it was loaded. Standing near the front window, she peered outside at the ominous-looking motorcycle in front of the cabin.
The heavy dust layered over the cycle told her it had undergone a lot of hard driving, and the blue-and-gold California license plate warned her that this visitor must be foe. She cursed under her breath, wondering if a reporter had somehow found out her whereabouts and was coming to look for the story. If that was the case, she had a special load of rock salt just for this occasion. She took the few minutes to study her unwanted visitor a bit more closely.
The man straddling the bike was tall and lean. The adjective dangerous also came to mind before she even saw his face. Her blood suddenly chilled as she realized his identity. He pulled off a black-and-silver helmet and shook his head, the black, wavy strands curling down around the collar of his leather jacket. Rugged angular features, a thick dark mustache dusted with silver, and an unshaven jaw seemed to jump right out at her, along with heavy-browed black eyes that she swore bored right through the thick walls and could see her standing by the window. She knew that face, all right. And he was the last person she wanted to see out here.
Kali turned away, shaken by the unexpected intrusion into her new life. How had he found out where she was? Her first thought was Jenny, but no, she didn’t know where Kali lived, and Kali had never given her the slightest hint. Malcolm? No, he understood and respected her need for privacy and wouldn’t tell the devil himself where she was. So how had he found out?
Her body burning with anger at this intrusion, she hefted the shotgun in her hands and headed for the door, yanking it open angrily.
I’m not ready for this! her heart cried. All I ever wanted was to be left alone.
Travis remained straddling his bike. He watched the slender woman carrying a shotgun in a manner that indicated to the casual observer t
hat she not only knew how to use it but would with the slightest provocation. One brow lifted in acknowledgment of her firepower.
“Hello, Kali.” His deep voice carried across the yard.
“You’re trespassing on private property,” she said roughly, refusing to call him by name. She saw no reason to be polite. He certainly hadn’t been invited.
“I drove almost three thousand miles to see you, Kali. Do you think I could at least have a glass of water before you empty that load in me?”
“There’s a stream three miles south of here. Try there. The water’s not too muddy this time of year.”
He couldn’t help grinning at her retort. He admired her feisty attitude. And, Lord, she was still beautiful, now even more than before. “What happened to the good old-fashioned Southern hospitality you Virginians are known for?” he said, taunting her.
“It died out a hundred and twenty years ago. But I will give you some advice. The nearest decent hotel is sixty miles away, and in order to reach it, you’re going to have to drive a narrow, winding mountain road. I suggest you get started now so you’ll arrive there before dark.” She tapped the gun barrel against her palm.
Travis looked up at the rapidly darkening sky. Judging by that and the wind gusting around him, he’d hazard a storm was closing in fast.
“I don’t appreciate uninvited guests,” Kali shouted above the wind, brushing her hair from her eyes. “So do us both a favor and get out of here.”
“What will you do if I don’t want to leave, call the cops?”
Kali’s face tightened. She thought of Red Gorman, the town sheriff. She knew that the overweight man, whose idea of relaxation was going fishing with a keg of beer for company, was no match for the man in front of her.
Travis watched her standing stiffly on the edge of the porch. There was no denying her anger at his intrusion. After all, it wasn’t as if they had been the best of friends—although once they’d been on their way to knowing each other very well. Looking at her set features, he doubted she would care to be reminded of that night. He had a pretty good idea she wouldn’t think twice about using that gun on him. He was going to have to indulge in some pretty fast talking if he wanted to stay in one piece. Luckily Mother Nature decided to help his cause. The threatening storm turned into fact, and the rain poured down heavily.
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