They wouldn’t beat her out on this one, though, because no one, not even H.G., knew where she was. She’d flown out of Houston on the red-eye, leaving a message on H.G.’s private line that she was scouting a prime location and could be reached on her BlackBerry. But it was still too early for her boss to have received that message.
For now, it was just her and the location that would save her job. Jobs like hers didn’t grow on trees these days, and if she lost this one, she’d lose the car and furniture she was still making payments on. Worse, she’d lose the feeling that she was bettering herself, climbing out of the muck of financial instability that had always been her parents’ way of life.
The Realtor’s e-mail had included a map, which Maggie had printed out. Strange pattern to the streets, but she could deal. Any kid knew the contours of a five-pointed star. Besides, she had the granite outcropping of Big Knob itself to guide her. It should be coming up on her right any minute.
The area was perfect for a big-box store. The property values were low, so she could easily stay within her spending limit and still get the land. Prior to flying out last night, she’d Googled Big Knob and taken inventory of the retailers there. Typical small-town fare—grocery, hardware store, diner, hair salon, barbershop, gas station. There was a local dairy and one church, nondenominational.
Some of the businesses, like the Knobby Nook Department Store, might not survive after SaveALot opened its doors, but the days of such small shops were numbered, anyway. They couldn’t carry the merchandise or match the prices of the bigger corporations.
Before leaving for the airport Maggie had also spent time researching the small towns around Big Knob. No MegaMarts within a hundred miles. A new SaveALOT would pull in business from all the towns within driving distance. The area was crying out for SaveALOT bargains and an influx of jobs. She was the girl who would bring it to them.
At the edge of town, where the two-lane road turned into Fourth Street, she saw the old rural mailbox on the right, just as Denise had mentioned in her e-mail. There was no FOR SALE sign because the property had simply been abandoned. Denise thought she’d found the owners and only needed to check a couple of things to make sure.
Although there was no traffic at this hour of the morning, Maggie put on her signal before turning onto the road that led to the property. She tried to avoid the potholes, but there were too many. Praying that the Escort’s shocks could take it, she drove slowly along a drive lined with leafless oak trees and a few sycamores.
The road ended in front of the creepiest old Victorian mansion she’d ever seen. Gray clouds filtered whatever rays might be coming from the rising sun. In the murky light she had no trouble imagining ghosts and goblins hiding behind the sagging shutters, not to mention rats and big, scary spiders scurrying along the dusty floors. Bulldozing this place would be a service to the town.
Leaning against the steering wheel, she imagined the property cleaned up, with the trees cleared and a shiny new SaveALot replacing the dilapidated house. Huge improvement. Paving the parking lot would mean taking out more trees, but some could be saved to provide shade for the cars. There would be lots of cars. What a bonanza for her company, for the town . . . and for her.
She climbed out of the car and raised her arms, partly to stretch but mostly in jubilation. This would work! Then she checked her watch. Still too early to contact Denise.
Her black heels weren’t designed for trudging around in the weeds, but she felt the urge to walk the property. She suspected that behind the house there would be a great view of Big Knob. SaveALot could put a hot dog stand back there, along with some picnic tables. Nice touch.
Belting her trench coat tighter, she grabbed her BlackBerry from the car so she could make a few notes. She walked around a sagging front gate that stood partway open and found a narrow path through the weeds. The path circled the house.
As she walked, little burrs stuck to her nylons. This walkabout was probably a dumb idea, but she had to do something with her excess energy, and she felt certain the view from the back would be worth the trip. The path seemed well worn, and she wondered why.
Maybe kids came out here at night on a dare. Or lovers used it as a rendezvous spot, although she couldn’t imagine being able to have an orgasm while that spooky house loomed over her. A light rain began to fall, but she was almost all the way around the house, so she shielded her glasses and kept going. Her hair would frizz, but she wasn’t here to win a beauty contest.
As she rounded the corner, she found a tire swing hanging from a tree in what used to be the backyard. On the other side of a rotting fence, what might have been a pasture was choked with weeds like everything else, and beyond that were the decaying remnants of a stable. At one time this must have been the most magnificent house in town.
It definitely commanded the best view. Rising on the far side of the property was the granite outcropping of Big Knob, looking craggy and phallic. Maybe the lovers who came out here concentrated on that big old rock instead of the house.
Maggie turned her back to the rain and made a note on her BlackBerry about extra security lights in the rear of the building. The SaveALot execs would have a cow if people continued to use the area behind the store for sex.
The rain started pelting her in earnest, and a cloud descended over Big Knob. Like a condom, Maggie thought with a little giggle. She had to get off this sexual kick. She was in Big Knob to close a deal, not get lucky. In fact, getting lucky was way down on her list of priorities these days.
Rain was running down her glasses, so she took them off and put them in her coat pocket. Time to get back to the shelter of the car before she ended up soaked. As she turned and started along the narrow path, she heard an approaching vehicle. It sounded more like a truck than a car, and sure enough, when she rounded the house again, her fuzzy vision revealed an old blue pickup parked behind her Escort.
She didn’t expect Denise to drive an old rattletrap truck, but Denise was the only person who knew she was coming. The person who stepped down from the truck didn’t move like a woman, though. Maggie grabbed her glasses from her pocket and put them on long enough to make sure that it wasn’t Denise.
Nope, definitely a man dressed in jeans and a brown leather jacket. He wore ugly black-framed glasses and his hair was a wreck, as if he’d tried to cut it himself in a drunken stupor.
Quickly she became aware that she was alone in a deserted location and this guy might have followed her onto the property for some sinister reason. Just because a town was small didn’t mean there were no vicious killers around. Look at In Cold Blood.
And here she was with no weapon and shoes that would be useless for running. He stood between her and the car, so she was trapped. She wondered how much damage a BlackBerry would do to an attacker.
‘‘Can I help you with something?’’ he called out.
‘‘Uh, no, thanks. I’m fine.’’ She took off her glasses because she could actually see better without them in the rain. He hadn’t done the same, so the rain on his glasses could work to her advantage.
‘‘This is private property, you know.’’
‘‘Do you own it?’’ If he did, she’d forgive him for scaring her to death.
‘‘No.’’
She gulped. If he didn’t own it, what reason could he have for being here other than to rape her and then cut her up into little pieces? She tried to think of all the ploys that she’d read on the Internet when faced with a situation like this.
He started toward her. ‘‘Not many people come out here.’’
Yikes. He was emphasizing how alone they were. ‘‘I’m meeting someone,’’ she said. ‘‘I expect them any minute. Any second.’’
‘‘Really?’’ He kept walking. ‘‘Somebody local?’’
‘‘Yes. Plus lots of people know I’m here. Tons of people.’’
He smiled. ‘‘This is a very small town. You’d have trouble rounding up a ton of people.’’
She
noted that he had a nice smile, but then so had Ted Bundy. Other than the smile, he didn’t have much else going for him. Plus he needed a shave. Not what you’d call an appealing character.
Maybe the direct approach would work. ‘‘If this is private property,’’ she said, ‘‘then why are you here?’’
‘‘I saw you turn in and followed you.’’ He smiled again. ‘‘You have really pretty hair.’’
She gasped and backed up a step. Anybody who would compliment her frizzed-out hair was seriously weird and quite possibly dangerous. ‘‘Okay, listen, whoever you are. I have an active case of genital herpes, and . . . and . . . I have my period right now . . . and . . . I’m coming down with stomach flu. If you have sex with me, I’ll hurl all over you. See if I don’t!’’
His mouth dropped open. ‘‘You think I’m here to rape you?’’
Her fear spiked into the stratosphere. ‘‘Oh, God, don’t kill me. Please don’t. I have some money in the car. Take it. Here, take my BlackBerry.’’ She held it out with a shaking hand. ‘‘My rings are faux stones, but you can have them if you want.’’
‘‘Hey, calm down.’’ He started to reach for her. ‘‘I didn’t—’’
‘‘Don’t touch me!’’ She leaped back. ‘‘I just remembered. I know karate!’’ She crouched and held her arms at right angles the way she’d seen Bruce Lee do it in the movies.
The guy put up his hands as if she had a gun pointed at him. ‘‘Look, I have no intention of raping or killing you. I didn’t mean to scare you, and I apologize.’’
She wasn’t about to buy his story just like that. ‘‘Then why did you follow me?’’
‘‘I was on my way home from . . . Anyway, I was driving by. I saw you turn down the lane into this property, and I wanted to know who you are and why you’re walking around it.’’
‘‘What are you, some volunteer security guard?’’ The rain let up and she fished her glasses out of her pocket and put them on.
‘‘I have . . . an interest in the property.’’
As her fear faded, a new suspicion took its place. ‘‘MegaMart sent you, didn’t they?’’ If they had, she was beyond humiliated after spouting all that stuff about herpes and having her period. That story would make the rounds of all the MegaMart watercoolers, sure as the world.
‘‘MegaMart?’’
He was either not sent by her archrival, or he was very, very good. She’d believe the latter until proven otherwise. ‘‘Don’t play dumb. I thought I’d covered my tracks, but obviously someone found out my travel plans and put it all together. They thought if they sent some ordinary local guy out to talk to me, I’d never suspect that he was a plant.’’
He stared at her. ‘‘I look ordinary to you?’’
‘‘Um, well, I didn’t mean it in a bad way. But yeah. Pretty much.’’
‘‘You don’t find me . . . sexy?’’
Her fears returned with a vengeance and she went into her fake karate crouch. ‘‘Stay back, bucko. I can break boards like they were matchsticks. I’ll snap you in two before you know what happened.’’
‘‘That wasn’t a come-on. I honestly am no danger to you.’’
‘‘So you say.’’
‘‘No, really. It’s just that usually women have a slightly . . . different reaction to me.’’
Slowly she straightened and took a deep breath. Okay, she had it now. He was the local Romeo, and in a small town, he might be the sexiest thing they had to offer, in which case she was in no danger of getting sidetracked on this trip.
Poor guy. She’d probably insulted him, but then again, if he was a paid spy for MegaMart, she shouldn’t care.
He took off his glasses. ‘‘Do I still look ordinary?’’
Men and their egos. But it wasn’t in her to be deliberately cruel. ‘‘You know, have you ever considered contacts? You have very nice eyes, and the glasses sort of cover them up.’’
He nodded and put the glasses back on. ‘‘Okay.’’
Then she had another unsettling thought. ‘‘Don’t tell me you were sent here to sweet-talk me out of closing this deal.’’
‘‘What deal?’’ He looked uneasy.
‘‘Of course you wouldn’t admit it. Listen, just because I don’t have a boyfriend right now doesn’t mean that I’m desperate for male attention. But I wouldn’t put it past MegaMart to try something sneaky like that.’’
‘‘I have nothing to do with MegaMart.’’
‘‘Maybe, maybe not. It doesn’t matter, though. I have the inside track on this one. Within the next six months there will be a SaveALot store right where we’re standing. MegaMart can eat my dust.’’ Or mud, in this case. The rain had turned the path under her feet into a squishy mess.
He looked as if he’d been hit by a cattle prod. ‘‘A SaveALot? You mean that big-box store?’’
‘‘The best of the big-box stores. And if you’ll excuse me, I have some people to see.’’ She fixed him with a determined glare, hoping he’d take the hint and move aside on the narrow path. Her nylons had gathered enough burrs and she’d rather not have to tromp through the thickest part of the weeds to get back to her car.
He didn’t budge. ‘‘You want this property so you can put a SaveALot on it?’’
So maybe he wasn’t from MegaMart. That level of disbelief would be really hard to fake. ‘‘Yes,’’ she said. ‘‘The location is perfect.’’
‘‘This can’t be happening.’’
‘‘Sometimes you just have to pinch yourself, don’t you? It will be an incredible boon for the area. If I close the deal quickly, before Thanksgiving, everyone in town will have something special to be grateful for.’’
‘‘A SaveALot.’’ He looked dazed, probably with happiness.
She thought of his battered old truck and his scruffy appearance. He probably needed work. ‘‘Unfortunately, I can’t offer you a job. That’s not my department. Once the deal is finalized, I’m sure a SaveALot personnel manager will visit the area and take applications. You could have the job nailed down by Christmas, although you wouldn’t report to work until the facility’s finished. Shouldn’t take too long, though.’’
He continued to stare at her as if unable to comprehend his good fortune.
She realized that if he didn’t clean up a little, he’d stand no chance of getting that job, either. ‘‘I hope you won’t take this the wrong way, but SaveALot tends to be on the conservative side when it comes to hiring. You might want to get a fresh haircut before you apply.’’
‘‘But I just . . .’’ He shoved his fingers into his hair, and his eyes widened. ‘‘I just got a haircut.’’
‘‘No kidding?’’
‘‘A week ago.’’
‘‘Well, I hate to tell you this, but it looks as if your barber might be ripping you off. Now, if you’ll please excuse me, I need to meet someone.’’
This time he did step aside, although she had to pass very close to him in order to avoid the weeds. Her shoes made sucking sounds in the mud, sounds that were almost sexual if your mind was drifting that way, and hers certainly wasn’t.
His might be, though, because she could swear he caught his breath as she brushed by him. She hardly considered herself a bombshell, but maybe she would be in a town this size.
‘‘What’s your name?’’ he called after her.
She could see no harm in telling him. Everyone in town would know her name eventually, anyway. ‘‘Maggie Grady.’’
‘‘That’s a nice name.’’
She turned, feeling sorry for him again. He was showing signs of being attracted to her. Talk about hopeless. ‘‘I’ll only be here a few days.’’
‘‘We have no hotels in Big Knob.’’
‘‘That’s okay. A motel will work.’’
‘‘No motels, either.’’
‘‘Oh.’’ She’d been in such a rush to get here that she hadn’t checked that out. ‘‘I’ll manage. I’m sure my real estate contact can help me
find someplace to stay.’’
‘‘Denise Woolrich?’’
‘‘Yes. Do you know her?’’ Of course he would. Everyone knew everybody in a small town.
‘‘I know her.’’ He didn’t look happy about it.
Maggie wondered if Denise was an old girlfriend who’d done him wrong. ‘‘I barely know the woman,’’ she said, ‘‘but she deserves a medal for contacting me yesterday afternoon. SaveALot will put Big Knob on the map.’’
Chapter 4
The minute Maggie’s little Escort pulled out of the drive, Sean ran over to his truck and peered in the side-view mirror. The mirror was cracked, but he could see himself well enough to notice that his hair had never looked worse. Maybe he’d slept on it wrong.
Pulling a comb out of his back pocket, he tried to make his hair behave, but no matter how he combed it, pieces stuck out in all directions. No wonder she’d said he looked ordinary with hair like this. He climbed in the truck and started the engine. A shower and a shave, and he’d be back to his old self.
He needed his old self right now, for two reasons. First of all, Maggie Grady was a threat to his plan of buying this place and reclaiming his family home. Second of all, and this was an amazing revelation, she was the first woman in the past couple of years who turned him on.
From the minute he’d seen her standing there in the rain, he’d wanted her. And not just slightly, either. His skin had flushed like it was August, spit had pooled in his mouth, and his penis had expanded to the point that walking hurt. He hadn’t had that kind of a reaction to a woman in ages.
If he could get her interested in him, he’d have a chance to talk her out of this SaveALot deal. There had to be other pieces of property in Southern Indiana that would make a good location for her company. He’d be happy to help her find them. He’d be happy to help her do any little thing she wanted, except buy this piece of property.
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