by Regina Duke
She almost tumbled off when her foot landed on a stack of papers and they slid from under her. She caught her balance and calmed herself. At last she was tall enough to reach the light. It was a cheap domed fixture. She felt above her head for the screws holding the opaque dome to the frame.
“Lefty loosey,” she mumbled to herself, as she turned each of the three screws just enough to let the dome slip out in her hand. She examined it closely, but there was nothing inside it. Besides, even a tiny microphone would have been visible as a shadow. She’d have to get a little closer to see if something was stuck up inside the fixture. She puzzled over her situation for a moment, then decided she could stack the two reams of printer paper and stand on those. That would elevate her another four or five inches. Just enough to get a better look.
She used the toes of her hiking boots to push one ream into place and she cringed at the chunks of corral mud that scattered on the table. She bent carefully to place the second ream on top of the first. Then she stepped up onto the stacked packages and squinted up at the lightbulb. Was it possible to hide something under the bulb? She took hold of it and unscrewed it, her attention focused on the dark interior of the fixture.
Axel entered the cabin along with a gust of brisk April air. It caught the door and slammed it open against the wood box. “What are you doing?!”
Taylor shrieked and lost her footing.
Axel lunged to keep her from falling off the table. Taylor grabbed at the nearest handhold which turned out to be Axel’s hair.
“Ow!” He caught her around the waist as she fell sideways, and they both went down.
They froze. Axel couldn’t move because her derriere had landed on his bread basket, and Taylor was mortified at being caught in the act of snooping in the cabin.
When Axel could breathe again, he nudged her gently off and rolled onto his knees. “That’s the second time I’ve had to rescue you, girl. What in the world were you doing up on the table?”
Taylor stood and held up the light bulb. “I was checking to see if our fathers had somehow planted a listening device in your cabin.”
“Oh, that’s why you wanted to know if my cousins had been out here.” Axel cocked his head to one side. “You think our fathers would stoop to snooping on the progress of our friendship?”
Taylor felt a twinge of disappointment. “Oh, our friendship. Goodness knows, I lip-lock with everyone I call a friend. You should see the lipstick smears on my computer screen from kissing all my Facebook friends.” She tossed the lightbulb at him.
Axel caught the bulb and raised a dubious brow. “I was just being cautious,” he said. “I didn’t want to assume too much. Although I admit, considering the heat we were generating in the barn, I think we’ve escalated way beyond friendship.” He shook the bulb next to his ear. “It sounds okay. Might as well change it as long as it’s unscrewed.” He started opening cupboards, and after a few moments, he looked at her curiously. “I take it you already looked in here?”
Taylor blushed. “Yes. I told you, I was looking for something hidden.”
Axel humphed. “Self-sufficient. Like climbing on the table instead of waiting for me to return.” He opened a lower cupboard and found a package of bulbs. “Here we go. Let me do the honors, okay?” He stepped up on a chair and screwed in the new bulb. Then he let Taylor hand him the dome so he could screw that on as well.
“There. All done. Is that my tea?”
“Yes. I made tea. Just like I said I would.” She handed him his mug, still a bit hurt. She used the side of her hand to sweep little chunks of mud off the table into her other palm. “I should have waited for you. I apologize. I’m just used to handling things myself. So you don’t think they want to spy on us?”
“Actually,” whispered Axel, stepping closer, “I think you might be right. Except, in a manner we would never suspect.” He put a finger to his lips, picked up her jacket, and lifted her purse from the floor to the table.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Axel’s eyebrows rose in a silent question and Taylor nodded her assent. Slowly, he opened her bag, and silently, item by item, they emptied its contents.
Wallet, change purse, keys, phone, lip gloss, compact, comb, three packs of Juicy Fruit gum, a small LED flashlight, a tin of Tylenol, a thumb drive, a pink plastic case, and a photograph of Taylor sitting proudly on a magnificent horse.
Axel whispered, “Is that Jackson?”
Taylor nodded and smiled.
Axel cleared his throat. “Okay, let’s sit down and read over your notes,” he said in a normal voice, motioning for Taylor to have a seat. “This biography isn’t going to write itself.”
Taylor frowned in confusion, then caught on. “Oh. Right you are. Let’s get busy.”
They sat down and silently examined each of the objects from her purse, looking for anything out of the ordinary. When Axel picked up the plastic case and started to open it, Taylor grabbed it out of his hands and checked it herself, half hidden under the table.
Axel whispered, “What is that?”
“Something you’ll never need,” she whispered back, replacing it in her purse.
After several minutes, they had to agree that nothing looked suspicious. Axel shook his head in frustration. He ran his hands over the bag. The leather was creamy and soft, and he was sure it cost at least as much as the blouse he’d replaced. The zipper closure moved smoothly to and fro. As he zipped it closed one last time, his fingers lingered on what appeared to be a white plastic square with a hole in one corner fastened to the zipper pull with a loop of wire. His brows knit together as he examined it.
Taylor started to speak. “Oh, that? It’s—”
Axel pressed a finger to his lips and was pleased when Taylor fell silent. He pulled a piece of paper from the open ream on the table and handed her a pen. She scribbled a few words.
He read, It’s one of those chips that lets you find something you’ve lost.
That seemed sensible. Axel flipped the device over and over in his fingers. Odd. It had tiny pinholes in it. He took the pen and wrote, Have you ever used it?
Taylor wrote back, No. But Daddy thought it would be a good idea.
Their eyes met, and Taylor’s mouth dropped open.
Axel cautioned her again to be quiet. He wrote another line.
Test the program on your computer.
Taylor pulled the laptop out of its case and opened it up. A few seconds later, she found the app and activated it. She clicked on the “find” button. A small box appeared on the screen with the message, “No device detected.”
Axel closed his fist around the white square before speaking. “Son of a gun. He put a listening device on your purse.” He used his free hand to detach the wire loop from the zipper pull.
“But why? I already call him every night. Why would he need to listen in?”
“Because, silly girl, he doesn’t trust you to tell him everything. At least now we know how he found out about us shipping Jackson to Colorado.” He rubbed his chin. “Think back. Besides my father, what else have we talked about?”
“Well, it had to happen when my purse was around, so it was mostly what we talked about here. Nothing in the barn.”
“That’s a relief,” said Axel.
“Most of what you said about your dad was positive anyway. And if they’re working on some project together, he doesn’t really need that kind of information. Do you think he’s trying to pull a fast one on your father?”
Axel shook his head. “That’s not an easy thing to do. My old man is a business genius, and he’s got a very crafty head on his shoulders. I think they’re working on something together, but if it’s not getting the two of us together, what is it? And why would having a listening device on your purse help them with that?” He squeezed his fist tighter around the plastic square.
Taylor’s eyes widened. “Maybe it’s not a listening device. Maybe it’s a tracking device!”
“Why would he put a track
ing device on your purse?”
“When I was in college, some girlfriends and I decided to do Spring Break. We took off for Florida, just the four of us. No worries in the world. Had a great time that first night, partied until dawn. We danced and flirted with a bunch of guys. My roommate entered a wet tee-shirt contest. We had a ball.
“My friends got so wasted, they could barely walk back to the hotel. That’s why I don’t drink much. If I hadn’t stayed sober that night, who knows what might have happened? When we finally got to our room, there were three burly guys waiting for us. For me. They’d tracked me down on my father’s orders. They used the ‘safe’ word my parents had arranged for us as kids so I’d know they were legitimate. Then they basically said if I didn’t go with them quietly, they would take me home by force.”
Axel was stunned. “They got away with that? Didn’t you press charges?”
“No, of course not.” She looked horrified. “Against my father? They were working for him. He told me I’d made a horrible mistake by just taking off, and he never wanted me to do that again. One of his partners’ kids had been snatched and held for ransom on a vacation to Mexico. I was only in Florida, but it freaked him out. Humiliated me. None of the girls ever invited me along again. I never figured out how they tracked me. I had turned off my phone, and we used cash instead of credit cards.”
Axel wiggled the fist holding the plastic square. “I’ll bet you took your purse.”
Taylor sagged in her chair. “It was a different bag, but it had one of those tags on it.”
Axel grinned. “With technology what it is today, it could be both a tracking device and a listening device.” He thought for a moment. “I think I have an idea.” He got up and pulled open a drawer beside the sink, then the one under that. “Here it is.” He held up a five-by-eight-inch padded mailer and dropped the plastic square inside it. Then he sealed it up. “If it’s a listening device, he won’t hear much in there. And if it’s a tracking device, well, he’s going to track you to Las Vegas. That’s where my cousin Uly and his wife, Belle, are staying at the moment. They’re taking care of our godmother, Lulamae. She had a hip replaced.” He wrote the address out by memory. “We’ll drop it in the mail when I take you back into town. What time is it?”
“Almost one.”
“We’ve got lots of time before Jackson arrives. I’ve been trying to figure out what else our fathers are up to. And I think we should go have a talk with Lucy Baxter.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Taylor knew it was silly to want to stay and wait at the cabin when Jackson wouldn’t be delivered until four. Her latest cell phone update had told her the flying stable had just landed in Denver. They still had to transfer him to a horse trailer and drive him to Axel’s place. So she didn’t object to Axel’s plan to talk to Lucy. How could she refuse him anything after he’d arranged to bring her horse to Colorado? Besides, she was burning with curiosity to know what their fathers were up to.
Axel’s property had been part of the Lazy B, so they weren’t far away from Lucy’s ranch house as the crow flies, but driving there took them twenty minutes. Lucy was in front of the rambling house, and since it was still April, there were only a handful of guests scattered about the area. Most were hanging out by the corral, watching a little girl take a riding lesson.
Lucy greeted them before they even got out of the SUV. “Axel Garrison, as I live and breathe! What can I do for you today?” Her smile was as bright as the midday sun.
Axel and Taylor got out and they each shook Lucy’s hand. Axel said, “You remember Taylor?”
“Of course. And the way she took charge of Thunder? You betcha.”
Taylor was pleased. It was always fun to get a compliment for her riding skills. “Thanks, Lucy.”
Axel said, “Her warmblood, Jackson, is arriving later this afternoon. You’ll have a chance to meet him soon.”
Lucy’s eyes lit up and she canted a brow. “Moving your horse out to Colorado? Do I sense a budding romance?”
Taylor blushed hotly and looked away.
Lucy laughed sweetly. “I’ll shut up,” she said. “Didn’t mean to embarrass you. But you probably didn’t drive over here to tell me about your horse.” She looked questioningly from one to the other.
Axel rubbed his chin. “Actually, I was wondering if we could ask you a few questions about the property sale.”
“Y’all find a problem?” She looked worried.
“Not at all,” Axel reassured her. “You know I’m in love with the place. But when you originally showed me the property, you mentioned that a couple of unofficial offers had come in before I showed up and how they had you worried. Do you still have those around?”
“Sure do. Come on in, we’ll get some coffee.”
They followed her into the house.
Taylor said, “This is lovely! Look at that fireplace. So rustic and charming. Axel says the Lazy B is a dude ranch now. I imagine you must do a brisk business.”
“Mostly in the summer,” she said. “But yeah, I had to get inventive to save the place. Long story. Short version—a banker refused me a loan a couple of years ago, and I needed cash in a hurry. I never thought I’d enjoy being a western guest ranch, but…” She lowered her voice and leaned toward them. “…I’m starting to love it.”
They were in the kitchen now, where three cooks were hard at work. One was pulling a large tray of cookies out of the oven.
Taylor took a deep breath. “Oh, chocolate chip! My favorite,” she sighed.
“Then we’ll have a few,” said Lucy. She spoke to the rotund woman with the spatula in her hand. “We’ll have three coffees, too.” Then to Axel and Taylor, “Y’all sit down. I’ll go fetch them papers.”
Taylor looked around with an appreciative eye. “This kitchen means business,” she said. “It looks like Lucy is quite the entrepreneur.” She smiled at the cook who was setting mugs and a plate of warm cookies on the table. “How many guests to do you have at peak season?”
The woman’s ruddy cheeks lifted in a smile. She said, “We have five bedrooms in the house and we’ve added a cabin with four guest rooms, so that’s nine all together, and people often share, so we had anywhere from eighteen to twenty-four guests at a time last season. This year, we’re booking more and racing to finish another four-suite cabin before June first.”
Axel teased, “No wonder things have slowed down on my house construction. Everyone in the area is over here building cabins.”
Lucy arrived in time to hear his comment. She laughed. “Sorry about that, Axel.” She set three letters on the table. “These are what you were asking about.”
Taylor was surprised. “Letters? I thought we’d be looking at email printouts. Who sends letters these days?”
Lucy shrugged. “Seemed normal enough to me, but I’m old enough to remember when letters were the norm.” She sat down and doctored her coffee with sugar and cream. “Help yourself to cookies.”
“Thanks,” said Taylor. She lifted a warm cookie and inhaled its fragrance. “Heavenly.”
Lucy grinned.
Axel began examining the letters. “This one makes sense,” he said, showing Taylor the envelope. It had come from Thor Garrison and bore the return address of Thor Security. “My cousin was so mad at me for buying the place at the asking price. Look, Taylor. He’s telling Lucy she’ll never sell the property for that much money.”
Taylor nodded. “Looks like he was trying to manipulate the asking price without actually submitting an official low bid.” She bit into her cookie and moaned with pleasure.
“Here’s another,” said Axel, “and a third, but these are from people I never heard of.” He frowned at the signature on one of the letters. “I could swear that handwriting looks familiar.”
Taylor leaned toward him to examine the letter he was staring at. It had a return address from Pawling, New York. She swallowed a bite of cookie, then asked, “Didn’t you go to school in Pawling?”
&n
bsp; Axel frowned at the return address. “Yes.” He looked at the signature again. “For Pete’s sake! I could swear this is my father’s handwriting.”
Taylor examined the third letter. “One East 161st Street, The Bronx, New York.” She squeezed Axel’s arm. “This return address is totally bogus. That’s Yankee Stadium!”
Lucy looked puzzled. “What on Earth? Who would do that?”
Taylor examined the signature on the Yankee Stadium letter, then gawked. “The handwriting on this one looks familiar, too. I think our fathers have a lot of explaining to do.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Axel shook his head over the letters. “Lucy, it’s beginning to look like my father and Taylor’s father were joining forces with Thor to convince you to lower your price. And from what these letters say, I’m ashamed to admit they were practically trying to steal it.”
“The price I asked you for had already come down a hundred thousand from the original,” said Lucy. “Boy, was I ever glad to have you move to Eagle’s Toe.”
“It was a fair price,” said Axel. “And worth every penny. I plan to be there a long time. Once your cabins are completed, my new house should go up fairly quickly. I’m going for the log cabin look, so it’ll blend well with the trees and the bass lake. I hope to move into the first stage before next winter.”
Taylor perked up. “Who’s your designer?”
Axel looked left, then right, searching for an answer.
Taylor sighed. “Interior designer? Please don’t tell me you expect it to look like the cabin you’re in now.” There was a hint of playfulness to her tone.
Axel was embarrassed to admit it, but he hadn’t given a thought to the interior. “I may need some help in that area,” he confessed. Then he placed his hand over hers. “Any suggestions?”