“Nope.”
She glanced over at Dev.
“He’s telling the truth, Maddy.”
Madeline released a breath and looked back again at Taylor. “So, what do you want from me?”
“I guess I got it, already.” Taylor gazed sadly over at Kami. “Apparently, I turned my back on my people.” He glanced at Dev. “On my family…” His focus moved to Madeline’s face. “Then, I went out and got all I could from the money world, and I must’ve been really good at it to get such a glowing opinion as what you have of me.” He turned away.
“Wait!” Madeline called. “You did some good things, too.”
He halted and turned to look at her. “Like what?”
“Charities, fund raising and the like.”
“So, I was a real philanthropist, eh?”
“No.” She laughed. “I assume it was just to gather admiration from the right people.”
With a disappointed look, Taylor released a heavy breath. “Yeah, I was some kind of wonderful, right?” His tone was full of self-loathing.
“I was the same way,” she whispered.
He met her eyes.
With this quiet admission, Kami and Dev stared at her.
“I ran over everyone I could. I grabbed, and I reached.” She laughed with a cold sound. “My mother said I was so full of myself that there wasn’t room for anyone else.”
“So, what are you saying?” Taylor shrugged.
Madeline smiled brightly and looped her arm with Dev’s arm. “Maybe we can all change, and especially if we find our light and colors.”
His brows drew together.
Kami smiled at her.
Dev chuckled.
Taylor looked around at all of them with a puzzled glint in his eyes.
“If you need to use the helipad or any of the Sky Lodge staff, just tell Kami and it will be done.” Dev nodded his head at him.
Taylor looked surprised. “But I thought that you hated me or something?”
“You need to know about your heritage and here you can find that.” Dev locked eyes with him. “But you have to start with that other life first, to see where you were going before the so-called accident.”
Taylor stepped closer. “What do you mean, so-called?”
“I mean everything happens for a reason,” Dev answered as he moved Madeline to the horse and hefted her up on it. “Kamikowa?” he called out.
Kami stepped closer, lowered her head and knelt down to one knee.
Taylor’s astonished eyes dropped down at her acquiescence with bewilderment.
“Rise up, Kami,” Dev stated with a sigh.
Her head rose up.
“Please, look directly at me,” he urged.
She bit her lower lip and kept her eyes down.
“Kami!” he repeated.
With hesitation, she peered up at the leader of her people.
“You are assigned to go wherever he goes, and help him in any way that he...” His gaze drew over to Taylor. “…Needs.” His dark twinkling eyes sparkled with humor.
Her expression remained blank. As was the way of the People in all matters of the tribe’s tradition, she nodded and lowered her head.
Dev jumped up on the black horse. “Sometimes, there is more than one reason for an accident.” He glanced back at Madeline, and then grinned down at them. “Like some people just get their car stuck in a sand embankment, so that you will have to help them.” He chuckled as he maneuvered the horse off the walk and into a full trot.
Madeline stared to laugh uproariously and gave out a long, wild Indian call. Her long, auburn hair flew out behind them as they disappeared down the rocky path.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
RICK
Sky Cutter Road…Nowhere, Arizona
Rick bolted upright in the bed, his body covered in sweat while he gazed around at the room. Back in my trailer? He lowered his head. All of it was just another dream. The same hopeful, useless dreams of Phoebe. He switched on the bedside light. Just under the lamp on the table was Phoebe’s face on the cover of a magazine. He picked it up. This is the one where she took the photos of the Mayan ruins. Thumbing through the pages, he stopped at a picture. It was the same place with the ruins and the high archway. He focused on the photo of the Mayan Sun God.
‘In the land of Taiwanaku, it is called the Gateway to the Sun. This stone arch is noted as one of the doorways of the Gods...’
Puzzled, Rick raised his head. So what does it mean, and why was I there only to just glimpse her? He threw the magazine across the bed. “If I was even there at all! None of it was even fucking real!” He got up and went into the bathroom, turned the shower on and got in. “She’s dead and gone, and I still search for her?” releasing a long sigh, he put his head under the water flow. He heard something and shut the water off to listen.
“Hello?” A woman’s voice called.
His heart thumped in his chest as he ran through his bedroom dripping wet, and yanked the door open.
“Oh yes, hello there!” The well-dressed woman beamed at him. “You remember me, right? We met at the trading post.” She stuck her hand out while gawking at his bare body. “I’m Sophie, remember? I work with Madeline at the firm.” A wide smile broke out on her face as her gaze dropped lower.
“What the?” He gulped.
Sophie’s expression was full of teasing glee, as she released a cute sounding wolf whistle while gazing at his bare body up and down all over again.
He jumped back through the doorway and slammed the door shut.
“Okay then, I’ll wait out here for you.” She giggled.
Rick leaned his nude body up against the door. I really thought that on the other side of the door was someone from the other side? He was so frustrated by his own desperation. That’s enough of this twilight zone shit. He walked over to the dresser. “I’ll be right out, okay?” he called out and heard more amused giggling.
He quickly changed and went out to the living room.
Sophie sat on the couch with a magazine in her lap.
“So, what can I do for you?” Rick was busy clearing the beer bottles off the side table.
“Oh, Mr. Sayers, that is certainly a loaded question.” She winked up at him.
He looked startled for a second, and then laughed. “No, really, what I can I help you with?”
“The firm sent me, actually.”
“The firm?” He shrugged. “And what does that have to do with me?”
“Well, since Maddy disappeared, and then Taylor disappeared?” She smiled. “They sent me out to locate our most prominent stars.”
He went to the kitchen. “I don’t see how I can help?” He peered into his fridge. “Empty.” He turned to her with a smile.
SOPHIE
Certainly full of all kinds of delicious and so not empty! Sophie concluded as she openly admired his tall form as he stood at the fridge. She almost held her breath. My God, he is so gorgeous from head... She looked over his broad chest and on down to his long legs. To fabulous toes. She stepped toward him. “You are the last one who has seen either of them, and being Madeline’s dad?”
“I do know where she is.” He titled his head at her.
Sophie nodded her head and stepped even closer to him. Yeah, just as close as he’ll let me. “Can you take me?” Her voice held a seductive purr.
A smile edged at his lips. “It’s sort of…complicated.”
“What is?” Sophie laughed. “Where she is or what she’s doing?” She gave him another flirtatious wink.
“Both, actually.”
Sophie put her hands together. “I have always been fond of Maddy, you see?”
He continued to stare at her.
“And, she was helping me with something.”
“Something?” he asked as he stepped closer.
Unexpectedly, she could smell the fresh soap from his showered skin. Sophie nearly wrung her hands with the nervous tingle, which seemed to run through her body.
How can I get a man like this? I’m pretty, even for forty and I think I’m fairly sexy, but he just seems to look at me like I’m a nun or something.
“Sophie?” he called out and snapped his fingers in her face.
Bewildered at her own daydreaming, she batted her eyes. “Oh, sorry, um—to tell the whole truth, I volunteered to find her, as they were going to send someone else. She knows some key information on something.”
“If it’s business? Then, she won’t care anymore.” His tone was flat.
“Won’t care? You are talking about Madeline Sayers, right? Not care about the business of money-making?”
“She’s married now, and maybe her priorities have changed?”
“What?” Sophie blinked her eyes rapidly with surprise.
“Yeah, and I think she’s out of that biz now.”
At the news, she took a few stunned steps back and sat down in the kitchen chair. “Oh...”
With a gentle touch, he put a hand on her shoulder.
The warmth from his hand just sent shivers through her entire body.
“Is it so important?” he asked with a soft tone.
“Yes, it has to do with my mother and her property.” She released a disappointed breath.
Rick tilted his head. “So, it was a personal thing?”
“Very, and almost life and death,” she whispered.
As though he were deep in thought, he gazed out through the window at the desert’s horizon. “Well then, I’ll take you up there.”
“Up?”
He grinned at her and went back to the bedroom. “Have you ever ridden before?” he called back to her.
That smile he gave her seemed to spread tingles along her skin. Sophie stared at his receding ass with those deliciously tight buns, as her heart beat loud in her ears. Ridden? The word caused so many illicit images to run through her mind. She sat for a moment and reveled in the image of his gloriously strong looking hands pulling her down onto his wonderfully sexy body for a ride.
“Sophie?” he shouted.
Her head jerked up and her inner thighs beneath her skirt felt damp and flushed.
Rick seemed puzzled by her bewildered expression. “These may fit you.” He raised a pair of jeans up. “You’re almost the same size as Maddy.” His eyes twinkled at her. “Almost like…” His voice faded, as he peered closer at her expression.
With a befuddled feeling, she gulped as she reached for the jeans and tee shirt he held in his hands. “Uh—yeah, okay. I’ll go and...” Her voce faded too as his fingertips touched hers.
He let go of the clothes. “I’ll get the horse ready.”
She nodded at him, completely mute now.
He went out.
Oh, my God, this man silenced me? She laughed a little nervously. Silenced! No man has ever made me speechless. Me! The record holding chatterbox! Sophie shook her head with amazement and made her way to the bedroom.
After she got dressed, she went out and saw him tightening the straps onto a horse. God, what a man. I so wish her was mine.
Hualapai Mountains, above Nowhere
The horse struggled up over the rocky slope.
Sophie hung onto Rick for dear life as she rode behind him, her eyes were wide; it seemed to her like she’d held her breath for a long time. The Arizona sun beat down on them for the last hour.
She was drenched and burned at the same time, and leaned her flaming face into Rick’s shoulder. But it is so worth it! She almost smiled through all the discomfort. I just have to find a way to get this man’s attention. Her head drew up. What the fuck is the matter with me? I have had so many boyfriends and I never cared when they came or when they left. But, Rick? Her heart pounded in her chest as she laid her head back onto his shoulder. I would burn in this hell where he lives, forever to just be with him.
The horse struggled to get up the rocky path.
“Oh!” Sophie shouted with fear.
“It’s okay, he’s used to this,” Rick attempted to soothe her.
“Well, I’m not!” Sophie released a terrified breath.
The horse came up on level ground
“That’s better!” she yelled with relief.
“Yeah, a city dweller like you must not be used to this.” Rick laughed.
“I just want a cold shower and a cold glass of wine.” Sophie sighed loudly.
“Wait until you see the cave.” Rick maneuvered the horse through more scattered rocks. “I mean the stone penthouse.”
At his unusual name for a cave, Sophie peeked over his shoulder with avid curiosity. The horse halted and she saw this massive rock overhang with all that glorious shade and a glimmering pool of very cool looking water. Her shirt was stuck to her back and she felt like she was going to pass out from sunstroke.
Sophie looked around and wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her hands were all sweaty and her hair seemed to have become a limp dishrag wrapped around her head. Her shoulders drooped with fatigue as she waited for Rick to help her down.
RICK
During the same long hot horse ride, Rick’s troubled thoughts were very different from Sophie’s. He wondered about the lightning stone, the pool and about the possibility of the tribe getting angry with him for bringing in an outsider. He also felt such a deep disappointment at the irretrievable loss of Phoebe.
He knew he shouldn’t be doing this at all. He finally admitted to himself after two hours of riding, that he used Sophie as an excuse to come back to the pool. The desperation to be near where Phoebe’s stone was, had overridden his usual good sense.
Somehow, his grief over her death and the fact that they had missed a life together was propelling his actions now. He knew he would owe an apology to Dev for starters, and he may have really violated the trust he’d held for so long with the People.
Rick had come to some self-loathing conclusions as he finally maneuvered the horse over the last rise and Sophie’s body was definitely drooping behind him. Nope, bringing her here was a bad idea all the way around. He halted the horse and got down to the ground. Sophie really looked exhausted and he felt bad that he used her as well. He hefted her down and released a disgusted sigh. “I’ll see if they’re here.”
Sophie let out a groan as she tried to stretch her legs out.
Rick turned toward the Lightning Cave entrance just like the guides had done before, and he stood still by the horse while his eyes remained on the wide opening.
Excited, he thought he saw movement at the cave door. “Yeah, I see something!” He looked behind him to find Sophie gone. His eyes shot over to the pool.
Sophie was dropping her tee shirt down to the rock ledge and she dove in.
“No!” he shouted and ran over to it. “Sophie?” He peered down into the clear water.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
KAMI
Los Angeles, California
The helicopter landed on the rooftop. The blades whirred as they ducked their heads and made their way to the roof door. Taylor opened it for her and took a hold of her hand. They walked down a hallway, where he halted and pushed the elevator button. They both stepped in.
Kami was nervous. She didn’t know any of these people and she’d put on a smart business type suit to blend in. But really, who am I kidding? She felt out of place already, and they had not even met anyone yet. Why did Ananza send me?
Taylor squeezed her hand as the elevator door opened.
Is he nervous, too? She peeked sideways at him.
He looked calm and his face was expressionless.
No, he is cool and collected.
The elevator dinged and the door opened. There were people walking back and forth while phones rang here and there. Several people looked up and there was shock on their faces.
Taylor dropped her hand and moved forward as he looked around. He stood still as if waiting for someone to approach him.
“Mr. Scott!” a woman called out.
They turned to see a tall, blonde woman coming toward th
em.
“Oh, Mr. Scott!” she gushed. “We’ve all been so worried!” She looked at Kami and the baby blue in her eyes glinted. “We thought something may’ve happened to you.”
“Something most definitely did.” He looked all around.
“Well, you have a thousand messages, and Vince went nuts when you disappeared!” She laughed, turned away and walked down a hall
Taylor took Kami’s hand and drew her forward.
They stopped at an enormous door and the brass plaque on it read, Taylor Scott Head of Acquisitions.
Taylor halted and stared at it.
The blonde woman reached forward and opened the door.
It was an elegant room and had high tower type windows. A magnificent leather couch sat along one mauve painted wall. There were expensive paintings that sat above small Greek sculptures, which adorned glass shelves along each wall. To accent the powerful image of the entire room, an imposing stately mahogany desk sat below the high-rise windows.
Taylor stood motionless for a moment as though he were taking it all in. He took a few halting steps and moved to the center of the luxuriously appointed office.
“Are you okay?” The blonde woman drew a brow up.
He swung his eyes over. “Yes, of course.” That expressionless look was still on his face.
The gorgeous woman stepped up to Kami. “I am sorry for being rude. I’m Kelly, Mr. Scott’s assistant.” Her eyes remained like ice.
Kami took her offered hand and nodded her head.
Taylor cleared his throat. “Can you get all my messages together and whatever else I was working on, um…Kelly?”
Kelly titled her head a little. “Sure, okay.” She went out the door.
Taylor walked over to the window and gazed out at the Los Angeles skyline. “I wonder if I should tell any of them?”
Kami looped her hands behind her back and looked around at the plush office. “That depends, I suppose.”
“Depends? On what?”
“On whether you have to or not.”
He smiled. “I like the way you think.”
As was her custom while with this man, she averted his eyes. “Well, Kelly sure didn’t seem to like anything about me.”
Tame Me: A Filthy Billionaire Romance Page 19