by B. J Daniels
Pete chuckled. “Which is probably why he booked a rental car for two days.”
Kitzie couldn’t believe their luck. Her instincts had been right. Harry Lester Brown was coming out of retirement for this? “He must be planning to come here. The hotel is isolated enough. If anyone saw him, they’d just think he was some old man stopping by to watch the commercial shoot on the last day.” She chuckled to herself. “The carnival will be up and running. Maybe he’ll take a ride. You realize, if we are right, we’ve got this one nailed.” She thought of her boss and his lack of faith in her. This would show him.
There was one loose end, though. They could put the video production company in the area of the burglaries in all but one of the cities. “To tie this up in a nice big bow, find out for me if there was a carnival in town on the missing date.”
“Will do, but I think we both already know the answer to that. So this is it,” Pete said, sounding as excited as she felt. “But where are the goods? You’re sure they’re not stashed in one of their cabins?”
“I don’t think so because they could have been seen packing it in. I doubt Gunderson would be that careless. But it must be close by.”
“I think I should come down there.”
“Not yet. I’m going to try to get close to one of them tonight. If he knows anything, I’ll get it out of him.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea? We don’t want to alert them. Also, it sounds dangerous.”
She wasn’t worried. She could handle LeRoy. It was Gunderson she had to stay one step ahead of. But at least with the fence flying in, this undercover operation was about over.
“I think it would be better if you stayed on Harry Lester Brown. But be careful. He might be old, but I’m betting he can still spot a tail.”
Kitzie disconnected, wanting to do a happy dance. She couldn’t help being excited and darned proud of herself. She’d been right. If she could bust this ring and take down Harry Lester Brown in the process...She wished Sawyer was around, so she could tell someone who would understand how big this was. The thought of Sawyer reminded her that he was on a date tonight with Ainsley Hamilton, who was wearing her special red dress. She smiled to herself, betting his...operation wasn’t going as smoothly.
* * *
SAWYER RETURNED TO the table, more relaxed than he’d been all night. He now knew who was following Ainsley. Tomorrow he would have a talk with Lance Roderick. It would probably take more than that to get the man to go away but with the new stalking laws...
Also, he suspected he would find proof in Lance’s cabin that would support the case against him. Stalkers usually collected souvenirs, such as photos, objects that the victim had owned or touched, newspaper articles that mentioned them.
He didn’t want to think about that tonight, though, as he looked across the table at his beautiful date. Ainsley looked radiant. He picked up his menu, feeling a little sad. This assignment would be over by tomorrow. He kind of hoped he would be here at least until the end of the commercial shoot.
“So, what looks good?” he asked as the waitress appeared at their table.
Ainsley smiled at him over the top of her menu. “Like I said, I’m a Montana girl. I’m going to have the rib eye.” She closed her menu and beamed at the waitress. “Make that rare.”
Sawyer laughed and closed his menu, as well. “Make it two.”
The rest of the evening passed so pleasantly that he hated it had to end. They talked about growing up on ranches, laughed at the crazy stuff they did and saw, and found that they liked a lot of the same things. Sawyer couldn’t remember a night he’d enjoyed more.
On the drive back, the Northern Lights put on a spectacular show. Streaks of blue-and-green flashes shot up from the edge of the earth against the midnight blue of the sky.
He stopped on a hill that overlooked a small valley. There was only one thing that could make this night more magical. Even before he turned off the ignition, Sawyer was already thinking about kissing Ainsley.
* * *
AINSLEY FELT AS if she was in a fairy tale sitting here in Sawyer’s pickup. She wanted to pinch herself. Maybe it was the red dress and the matching shoes. Or the wonderful meal. Or the light show nature was putting on.
Or maybe it was simply the man sitting next to her as they looked off into the fall night, but she felt like a princess. Maybe it was simply because it had been so long since she’d been on a date. Let alone one that was this perfect with such a handsome cowboy.
How else could she explain the way she was feeling?
She glanced over at Sawyer sitting next to her and felt her heart pound a little harder. There could be another explanation for the way she was feeling. Sawyer Nash could be her true hero, the cowboy she’d been waiting for to come galloping into her life all these years and sweep her up and ride away with her.
Crazy thinking. She was starting to sound like one of her sisters.
Embarrassed by the thought that a man could make her lose all sense, she started to look away when he reached for her. His large hand cupped the back of her neck as he drew her toward him. She looked into his gray eyes and lost another piece of her heart. He pulled her closer until they were a breath apart. Then slowly he dropped his mouth to hers.
Ainsley felt heat rush through her. His lips grazed hers. The anticipation was excruciating. His mouth took hers wantonly, sending desire rippling through her. The kiss was warm and sure and then altogether something else as he teased her lips open with the tip of his tongue. She let out a gasp as his tongue found the sensitive silken flesh of her mouth.
His reaction was to pull her closer, threading his fingers through her hair, as he deepened the kiss. The intimate taste of him sent a wave of pleasure through her. Fire ran along her veins as she arched against him, drinking him in with a need that shocked the old Ainsley Hamilton.
She wanted more. She wanted...him. “Please,” she breathed against his mouth.
His hand went to her breast. She felt her already-hard nipple press against his warm palm through the thin fabric of her bra and the red dress. He thumbed over the aching tip, and she groaned with pleasure. He made small circles around it, and she thought she would die if he stopped.
She looped her arms around his neck, losing herself in the kiss until she felt his free hand on her bare knee. The palm felt scalding to the touch as he pushed the sheer fabric of the dress aside to move slowly up her thigh.
Don’t stop. Please, don’t stop. I want you to be my first.
He stopped.
She released a cry of frustration that came out a groan. When she met his gaze, she realized she’d actually said the words out loud.
Sawyer pulled his hands away and drew back. He was breathing hard, the look in his eyes as filled with desire as her own. From the expression on his face, he hadn’t meant for things to go this far. He blinked as if bringing her into focus and let out a curse under his breath. “Ainsley, did you say—”
“Please.”
He was shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe it. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have...”
She wanted to scream, “I just haven’t met a man I wanted bad enough to...” But she didn’t bother trying to explain all the reasons she hadn’t. Opportunity. Desire. Or worse, some crazy, old-fashioned idea at the back of her mind that she wanted to wait for The One.
“We should go,” he said, sounding almost as in pain as she felt as he reached for the key in the ignition.
Ainsley straightened her dress and sat back in the bench seat. She ached for the sweet release of his touch, and at the same time, she chastised herself. It might be old-fashioned, but she wasn’t the kind of girl who went this far on a first date. Embarrassment added to the heat now flaring her cheeks. What was wrong with her? What he must think!
Sawyer put his window dow
n to let the cold night air rush in. She did the same as he started the pickup. The windows were fogged over. No wonder she felt as if she was back in high school at the local make-out spot. Except, she hadn’t been that girl. It was her sisters who got in trouble for going up on the hill with boys—not Goody Two-shoes Ainsley, who was at home waiting for them to get in before their father found out.
Because she’d done well in school, the only boys who’d asked her out were into computer programming, band and chess club. They never made a pass. She suspected boys were scared of her. At college, it was the same way. Miss Prim and Proper had stayed that way as if she had the word untouchable tattooed on her forehead. Until tonight.
With Sawyer, she felt alive. Sexy. Desirable. Ready. Right up until he stopped and drew back, as if he’d come to his senses at her words.
Ainsley suddenly felt like crying. Sawyer had opened up something inside her, a well of yearning, that she knew only he could satisfy. As he drove toward their cabins, she wished for the old Ainsley who’d lived for thirty-four years without really knowing what she was missing.
* * *
KITZIE COULD FEEL time running out. If Harry Lester Brown was on his way, then the sale was about to go down. She had to find out when and where. Unfortunately, the only way to tie Harry to the crime was to catch him in the act of receiving the stolen goods. Getting a conviction was tricky. The legal requirements were complex. That was why Harry had skated so many other times. It had to be proven that he knew the goods were stolen. Without serial numbers... She put on something sexy. Not quite as sexy as the red dress she’d sent Ainsley off in, but enough to tempt a man like LeRoy. She’d done this kind of work so many times that she didn’t give LeRoy another thought.
Instead, her mind was on Harry Lester Brown as she sat down to wait for LeRoy to come back from the bar in town.
Harry had succeeded as a fence all these years because he had the entrepreneurial personality. He had resourcefulness, charisma, ingenuity and a good grasp of market practices and the competition. It was a matter of weighing the risks by both the thieves and the fence against a fair price for stolen goods. Usually the fence got fifty percent of the value unless dealing with amateurs, and then he could take as much as ninety.
So how much was he thinking he could fleece out of these thieves? They’d pulled off the mall burglaries so skillfully that she didn’t think of them as amateurs. But often these kinds of thieves were anxious to get rid of the stolen merchandise before getting caught. They also often needed the money fast. From what she’d heard, at least a couple of them planned to skip the country.
It surprised Kitzie, though, that a well-known fence like Harry Lester Brown would be dealing with this bunch of thieves. He must have fallen on hard times, like Pete had said. Or...
She sat up abruptly and reached for her phone. “I need you to run some names for me.”
“What are we looking for?” Pete asked.
“A relationship between my four suspects and Harry Lester Brown.”
* * *
“I’M SORRY, I—”
“Please, don’t apologize again,” Ainsley said quickly. She was embarrassed enough. Why had she foolishly blurted that out? She didn’t need Sawyer saying he was sorry. Her breast still ached in memory of his touch, and she didn’t even want to think about where he had been heading with his other hand.
What hurt was that he’d stopped so abruptly.
He glanced over at her as he drove. “It’s just that I hadn’t meant for things to go that far.”
She waved off whatever he was struggling to say. “We both got carried away. It happens.” It had just never happened to her. She knew most women by the age of thirty-four had experience in this department. They’d either been married or had a live-in boyfriend.
Instead, she remembered sloppy French kisses and uncomfortable gropes by young men with bad breath or too much aftershave. Or cowboys with a mouth full of chew who had to spit before trying to kiss her. Was it any wonder she hadn’t felt attracted to any of them?
But sometimes she felt like a freak because she hadn’t. She’d only mentioned that she was a virgin to one man she’d dated for a short while last year. He’d treated her as if she’d grown two heads and quit calling. So, what had she been thinking, telling Sawyer? Of course, his reaction would be the same.
She’d once mentioned that she “hadn’t” a few years ago to her sister Bo. Bo had made it sound as if Ainsley’s “condition” was a car with a faulty radiator. “You really should get that taken care of,” she’d said.
Sawyer’s guilty expression did not make it easier now. She kept thinking about the way he’d drawn back as if her words had snapped him out of a dream. And the way he’d looked at her...
She swallowed the lump in her throat and turned away to stare out the side window. Maybe if she had gotten it “taken care of,” she wouldn’t be feeling like this now.
Fortunately, Sawyer was quiet the rest of the way. The moment he stopped the pickup, she was out the truck door.
“Ainsley, please. Let me walk you back to your cabin,” he called after her.
She shook her head, needing desperately to get to the privacy of her place. “I’m fine, really. Thank you for dinner.” And she was off, hobbling on the unfamiliar high heels to her cabin without looking back.
* * *
SAWYER WAS MENTALLY kicking himself all the way to his quarters when he spotted Kitzie. She had just slipped around a cabin he knew wasn’t hers. He thought about confronting her about the red dress and how she’d tried to ruin his date with Ainsley. Instead, he’d been the one to ruin the date, because he’d forgotten for a while there that he wasn’t here to date, let alone...
He was too upset with himself to get into it with Kitzie. Ainsley Hamilton was an assignment. Not officially, but in every other sense of the word. True, his plan to lure Lance Roderick out had worked. And dinner had been more enjoyable than any in recent history, but he should have left it at that. He shouldn’t have stopped on that hill to watch the Northern Lights. He shouldn’t have kissed her. Worse, he shouldn’t have felt what he felt. He hadn’t wanted to stop.
But once he had... Coming up for air, it hadn’t helped though to see Ainsley wearing that damned red dress. Not that he hadn’t desperately wanted to make love to her and still did. It wasn’t lust. He’d lusted after enough women to know the difference. This was...something different, and it scared the hell out of him because he’d never felt it before.
Cursing himself, he stomped toward his cabin. Tomorrow he would deal with Kitzie and see if Ainsley was still talking to him. Tonight...well, tonight, he doubted he would sleep a wink. What he needed was a cold shower. Then a strong drink.
But before he could get either, he spotted a man stumbling drunk and heading for the cabin Kitzie had just sneaked around. He recognized Bobby LeRoy. He must have been passed out in his car when Sawyer had driven up. The door of LeRoy’s car was standing open. There was no one else around, nor any lights on in the other cabins.
What the devil was Kitzie up to? He told himself that she knew what she was doing.
That’s when he saw the other man come out of the darkness as if he’d been waiting for LeRoy. Sawyer swore under his breath as he watched the man fall in behind LeRoy and head for the cabin where Kitzie had gone.
The last thing he wanted to do was get involved, and yet all his instincts told him she was headed for trouble and didn’t know it. She might have been expecting LeRoy, but she wasn’t prepared for the second man who, he realized, was carrying a baseball bat.
“Hey, LeRoy,” Sawyer called. Both men looked in his direction in surprise. Clearly neither had seen him in the darkness. Both had been intent on what they were doing.
LeRoy stumbled to a stop and squinted in his direction. The other one had stopped as well, hanging bac
k in the shadows. As Sawyer walked toward LeRoy, he got the impression the man didn’t realize he was being followed. The man with the baseball bat had frozen at the sound of Sawyer’s voice.
Even feet from him, Sawyer could smell the alcohol. LeRoy reeked like a brewery. He moved to a spot where LeRoy would have his back to his cabin. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other man slink back into the shadows and disappear.
He and LeRoy had never actually met. It took a few moments for LeRoy to place him. “Oh, it’s you.”
“You didn’t happen to see a woman, did you?”
LeRoy laughed. “I’ve seen a few. What did this one look like?”
He described Kitzie.
“Oh, that one,” LeRoy said and winked. “Nice.”
“I just wanted to see about getting something to eat. Isn’t she in charge of the food out here? I’m starved.”
“That’s all you want with her?” LeRoy guffawed. “I’d want a lot more than that.” Behind him, Kitzie slipped out from the back of LeRoy’s cabin and into the night, but not before sending Sawyer a withering look.
“Maybe I’ll just call it a night,” Sawyer said, slapping LeRoy on the shoulder and turning toward his cabin. “Have a good one.” As he walked away, he realized he didn’t need the cold shower anymore, but he sure could use the drink. He had a feeling that he’d just saved LeRoy from a beating—if not saved his life from the man with the bat.
But it was Ainsley he was thinking about as he neared his cabin. He’d certainly blown things with her. He was giving himself hell when he saw that someone had left a note on his cabin door.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SARAH COULDN’T SLEEP. She roamed the huge house, having sent the staff home for the night hours ago. Her mind raced, frightening her. She knew what she was thinking could get her killed. Or worse, get her daughters or husband killed.
Stopping in front of a mirror, she was shocked to see how much she’d aged. But then again, she still thought of herself as the age she’d been when the twins were born. There were still signs of that young woman in her face, enough to remind her of the woman she’d been. The woman who’d had six daughters with Buckmaster Hamilton.