Kate sat too stunned to say a word. Of all the things she might have expected Annie to tell her about Chase, his seducing her on a bet had not been one of them. And it certainly wasn't something she was ready to believe.
"Are you all right?" Annie asked. "I thought I should tell you before you got too involved."
Too late for that. Kate asked, "Are you certain you didn't misunderstand?"
"Sorry."
More to the point... "How do I know you aren't making this up?"
"Why would I?"
"Because you want Chase for yourself."
"Not any more, I don't," Annie assured her with a bitter laugh. "I gave getting him my best shot, but now I know I was fooling myself. And worse, I realize Chase Brody was never worth everything I did for him to begin with." Her gaze steady, she said, "If it weren't for my loyalty to the mustangs, I would be packing my bags right now."
It all made sense in a sick sort of way, Kate realized. Chase and Merle being the real item, while she'd been the joke. Kate's heart twisted painfully. How did she know it wasn't true? Even now, having gone over everything that happened between her and Chase the night before, she couldn't be sure of him. He'd said all kinds of things she'd wanted to hear but one. He hadn't actually said he loved her.
"You could be playing games with me," she said desperately. "So that I'll break up with Chase and you'll have a clear field... a chance to grab him on the rebound."
"I should have known better than to do you a favor." Her expression piqued, Annie pushed herself up from the table. "Get real, Kate."
Without another word, Annie flounced outside, letting the screen door slam behind her.
Leaving Kate with the world crashing down around her ears.
HIS MOOD BETTER THAN IT HAD BEEN in eons, Chase felt his heart race when he saw Kate's pickup bounce along the dirt road. About to get into the Bronco, he leaned against the door instead, grinning like a fool. He'd finally finished the damn grant request he'd been playing around with for weeks -- hopefully, they'd get the refuge some well-needed money. He'd worked on the papers like a madman.
Or a man inspired by love.
He waved as Kate pulled up. He shouldn't be so happy, not with the villain responsible for so much ill-will still on the loose, but she was enough to make any man smile. Not that she'd better try her wiles on any man but him, Chase thought.
Kate Farrell was his at last, and she'd better get used to that notion.
When she jumped out of her pickup, he immediately moved to kiss her, but Kate avoided his reach, sliding around him. "We need to talk, Chase. About us."
Immediately uneasy, he said, "We did that yesterday."
"We did a lot of things yesterday... some that I hope I don't have cause to regret."
He couldn't miss the edge in her tone or the way her green gaze had gone dark. Her body language told him that she was keeping a tight rein on whatever was eating at her.
His gut clenching, he asked, "Did something happen that I should know about?"
"More like the other way around. Something I should know about. Actually, a couple of somethings."
He was liking this conversation less and less. "What's going on, Kate?"
"Did you date Merle Zwick in high school?"
Not exactly what he'd expected her to ask. "Yeah," he said, relieved. "A few times. It didn't mean anything."
Her expression appalled, she demanded, "What you did to her... and your dating us both at the same time didn't mean anything?"
"At the same time? Where did you get that from?"
"And going after me... seducing me... that was because you couldn't resist me, right?"
His mouth went dry. She knew. Why the hell hadn't he told her last night like he meant to? He shouldn't have let her stop him. Then he could have reassured her. Now it sounded like someone had confused her with nonsense about Merle, as well.
"Look, Kate, first of all, I always liked you... "
"Liked." Her face crumpled. "It's true, then. I was nothing more to you than a bet."
Sweat gathered around Chase's neck. "There was a bet, yes, but --"
"But what?"
"But being with you... I fell in love!"
"Of course you did. That's why you left town without telling me."
"Exactly!" Chase felt sick inside as he watched fury coil her body tight. "Because I was scared. I couldn't handle the adult emotions." He tried another tact. "I never told the guys that I slept with you, Kate, honest. I didn't collect on the bet, and I wasn't going to." Even as he realized her arm was shooting out at him, he continued, "By the time we --"
His mouth was interrupted by her fist finding his jaw and snapping his head back. Damn, she had some punch! he thought ruefully.
"Bastard! I thought you were a coward, but you were worse!" Eyes filled with tears, she said, "You were a user and a liar. You're lying now," she insisted, "about Merle."
Gingerly, he touched his jaw. It hurt like hell, but at least it wasn't broken. "What does Merle have to do with anything?"
"What does she... she would have had your baby if she hadn't miscarried!"
"Baby?" Flabbergasted, Chase swore and tried to get hold of her, but again she thwarted him. "Kate, I don't know what lies someone has been telling you, but I didn't father any baby."
"Technically, no, because it didn't have a chance to be born."
"If Merle got herself pregnant, it wasn't by me!"
"You can look me in the eye and swear that you never slept with Merle?"
His gut clenched. Chase only wished he could. "I can swear that I never saw her seriously and certainly not when I was with you --"
Her tears cut through his words. Rivulets ran down her cheeks and her eyes were so flooded he knew she couldn't stop. Kate never cried in front of anyone. Never.
"That's all I needed to hear," she sobbed, turning away and flying into her vehicle.
Feeling more helpless than he had as a kid when his father was using his fists on him or on his mother, Chase didn't try to stop her. He didn't know what he could say to make things right between them. She had good reason to call him names. She would never believe that he loved her more than life itself.
Sick at heart, Chase watched the only good thing he'd ever had in his life speed away from him, certain that this time, she was lost to him forever.
KATE DROVE SO FAST THAT she had to clench her jaw to keep her teeth from clacking together when she bounced over the ruts in the gravel road. What a fool she'd been over Chase Brody. Even when faced with his lies, he couldn't be truthful with her. Angry with herself for letting him see her cry, she slashed at the trail of tears on her cheeks.
She didn't slow down until she was off refuge property.
Breathing deeply, she got hold of herself, but she couldn't put Chase out of mind. Like some broken record, their argument played over and over inside her head. She kept hearing him say that he hadn't fathered any child, that if Merle had gotten herself pregnant, it had been with someone else.
What if he was telling the truth?
How would she ever know?
Merle.
Of course, Merle would know.
Kate wondered if she dared approach the other woman about such a sensitive subject. How could she not? She had to be certain of whether or not Chase was telling the truth -- though even if another man had fathered the baby, that didn't excuse Chase for the other.
Seducing her on a bet sounded so sordid.
But Chase had said he'd never collected, had never meant to. He'd claimed he'd fallen in love with her... words she'd longed to hear the night before. If he'd been honest about the baby, she thought logically, then perhaps the rest of his explanation was true, as well.
Coming to an intersection, she didn't hesitate. She turned off the main road. Annie had said Merle was at home with the stomach flu. A minute later, Kate found the mailbox marked ZWICK and took the dirt road up a small rise. She parked her pickup, went to the trailer and knocked at t
he door.
No answer.
She looked around and realized Merle's pickup was gone. Undoubtedly feeling better having rested all day -- it was nearly dinner time -- the woman had left the premises.
Frustration made Kate slap the door with the flat of her hand.
It creaked open.
"Merle?"
Kate took a deep breath as she stared into the empty room. Her heart pounded as she realized what she was considering doing.
She respected privacy, had never before walked into someone's place without permission. But maybe something inside the trailer would tell her what she needed to know. Surely Merle would have some reminder...
Fighting her scruples, Kate stepped inside.
The common room was neat. No dirty dishes. No piles of mail or magazines. Everything in its place. Not that Merle had a lot.
Sweeping her gaze around the room, she noted the single bookshelf and kitchen cabinets. Not places a woman would be likely to store a souvenir of the past.
Reluctantly, she forced herself to the bedroom, which presented a very different side of Merle Zwick. For a plain-spoken woman who worked at a job usually reserved for men, she certainly did have her feminine, even sensual, nature. Satin bedspread. Heart-shaped pillows. Mirrored ceiling.
Shame stealing through her, Kate started to back out, intending to leave immediately, when an object on the nightstand caught her eye.
Hesitating only a second, she took the few steps necessary to pick up the object -- a heavy ring, the metal band wrapped with yarn. The kind of thing a high school girl might do so her boyfriend's ring would fit. She snapped on the lamp to take a better look at the high school graduation ring dated nineteen-seventy-eight -- the year she'd fallen in love with Chase. The year he and Merle had been seniors.
To Kate's everlasting relief, the initials were G-D rather than C-B. Not Chase's. She nearly cried with relief. It seemed he had been telling the truth about the baby issue.
As for the other...
Kate set down the ring and turned off the lamp, hoping Merle would never have to know of her invasion of privacy.
She felt the need to think things through alone before facing Chase again. And yet she didn't want to abandon the refuge and the investigation that was so important to its continued existence.
On the way back to her pickup, she thought of a way of killing two birds with one stone.
Chapter Twelve
"DO WE FLIP A COIN to see who gets you?" Hank the hunk asked as he and his buddies accompanied Thea Lockridge across the grounds, tennis rackets in hand.
"I prefer picking my own partner... in whatever sport I'm playing," Thea returned with a husky laugh. "I find things so much more satisfying that way."
"And I like a woman who takes charge," one of the other men mock-growled.
Kate waited until their voices trailed off, then left her hiding spot -- some bushes alongside the "Outfitters" building. Upon leaving Merle's, she'd driven directly to Lockridge Acres and had easily found the service road. The pickup was about a quarter of a mile back, hidden in a stand of trees. She'd walked the rest of the way.
About to commit her second crime of the day, she carefully looked around to make certain no one else was nearby to see her before trying the entry door. The knob turned easily. Unlocked, as she'd hoped. She slid inside.
The gun room was a different story, however. Braced by a pair of mounted heads on either side -- one elk, the other pronghorn antelope -- its door wouldn't budge. Even if she could break the glass inset and stick her arm through to the knob, broken glass would alert Thea to an intruder when she returned.
Peering into the darkened room through the narrow window, she could make out a gun cabinet stocked with rifles and a couple of smaller wooden cupboards. In hopes of locating another window or vent unit that might give her an alternate, private entry, she checked the next room. All she found on the joint wall were hanging tennis rackets and bags filled with golf clubs.
The main room itself was lodge-like, two small seating areas flanking a marble-trimmed fireplace. The only other significant piece of furniture was a burled wood desk on which balanced a large cut crystal vase of fresh flowers.
Kate searched the desk drawers, hoping to find a key.
No luck.
She was wondering if she could figure out how to use one of the pins from her hair to pick the lock -- they always did that sort of thing in movies -- when she heard male voices almost directly outside the entry door.
"I need to get something inside."
"I'll stay here and finish my smoke."
"Be right with you."
Heart hammering, Kate dropped to the floor and crawled under the desk, praying that the man wasn't planning on coming her way. Rolled into a ball, she practically held her breath so as not to give herself away, but his footsteps led to the other side of the room.
Relieved, she uncoiled slightly and ducked her head, peering out from under the desk. The man's boots approached the gun room door. He stopped and made a jingling noise. Since she could only see the lower part of the room, she couldn't tell what he was doing.
"Damnit!"
The grunted curse made her start and whomp her head on the lower edge of the desk. Above, the vase rocked. Kate nearly panicked, fearing he'd hear, fearing the weight of the flowers would carry the cut crystal over and break it. But the vase settled and the man went on with his business. He shuffled a few steps from the gun room entry, hesitated, then moved back. The scrape of metal on metal told her he was unlocking the door.
Thinking it might be helpful if she could see more of what was going on, she crawled out of her hiding place to peer around the desk.
Just then, the entry door opened and the second man yelled, "Hey, what's taking you so long?"
Kate flattened herself against the outside of the desk, trapped in full view if either man cared to look her way. Beads of sweat broke out over her body.
"Forgot my key," came the answer from the gun room. "I'm coming."
The door slammed and the lock clicked in place. A few seconds' pause and the man crossed to where his companion waited for him.
"I'm so hungry I could eat a rattler. Got any plans for dinner?"
"Hey, I'm open to some company. Where to?"
The entry door closed, leaving Kate alone with the pounding of her heart and a trickle of sweat rolling down her spine. She nearly collapsed with relief. Instinct told her to get the hell out while the going was good. But even in her fright, she hadn't missed the man's reference to his key to the gun room.
If he'd forgotten his, how had he gotten inside?
Flying to her feet, she considered the gun room entryway and wondered where the spare key to the door was hidden. The man had barely moved a couple of feet to the left. Her gaze shifted and met the glass stare of the elk. Her stomach tightening, she crossed the short space and reached up to move her hands over the dead animal's mounted head.
"Sorry," she whispered, not unaware of the irony of its being the repository of the death warrant for others of its species.
Behind one of the antlers, her fingers hit something hard and out of place. The key went flying to the floor with Kate scrambling after it. Seconds later she was inside the gun room, praying the storage cabinets would give her easier access than the door had.
The first cupboard opened without problem, but to her disappointment, held camouflage vests and hats, rappelling equipment and balaclavas. Puzzled, she picked up the head and face coverings with openings for the eyes, wondering if the hunters really felt it necessary to hide their identities from the animals they were about to kill. Though to her way of thinking they should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves, she was certain that was not the case.
A sudden loud noise directly outside the building froze her to the spot. Kate listened hard for a moment before deciding she wasn't being threatened with discovery.
Anxious to get the hell out of there and off Lockridge Acres, she ex
posed the contents of the second cupboard. Her gaze skipped over the shelves holding the smaller items and settled on the bottom where a half dozen padded bags were lined up. Grabbing one, she unzipped it and checked the contents to be sure.
Eureka!
With the bag over her shoulder, she left the room the way she'd found it, then replaced the key with a silent apology to its holder.
Her success would be better than any apology, and if Thea Lockridge turned out to be one of the perpetrators as expected, providing the means for her own capture was one irony that Kate would be able to appreciate.
THE WIND SOUGHED BETWEEN THE BUTTES at the foot of the incline, the strange, sad sound fitting Kate's midnight mood. Above, only the brightest of stars probed the gathering rain clouds, and the waning moon continually fought them to keep its place in the night sky. Sheet lightning ripped through the dark and danced in waves around her as if covering the sides of a bowl with her its center.
The wait had been interminable. She'd picked at her dinner until it had turned cold, after which she'd tried to sleep for a few hours only to have dreams of Chase. All in all, she was more frustrated than she was rested... not to mention disappointed that the man hadn't tried to find her, hadn't even called.
She fingered the medicine pouch Keelin had given her, remembered the magic that it had worked on both of them the night before. Or so she'd believed. Chase had told her his thoughts and dreams were filled with her. And he wasn't the type of man who gave up easily when he really wanted something.
So what was she supposed to think?
At least choosing to take action had given her purpose... as well as a good scare on her way to the refuge.
Despite the late hour, a vehicle had followed her straight out of town, and whether she'd slowed down or speeded up, the other driver had kept an even distance between them. When she'd turned off onto a side road that ran behind the refuge, however, the other vehicle had continued south.
Until that moment, she hadn't realized she'd been mentally holding her breath.
The McKenna Legacy Trilogy Page 57