Cowboy to the Rescue
Page 8
He glanced at her. “Do you live on acreage in San Antonio?”
She smiled wanly. “No. I live in an apartment, not far from the office where I work.”
“You like living in the city?”
“I’ve never thought about it. I’ve always lived there.”
“Your parents were city folks?”
Nodding, she said, “Dad’s parents owned a chain of successful nightclubs across Texas, and he was involved in that business for years. Mom came from an oil family. Besides the oil, her parents also owned a construction company, so both my parents never lacked for money. They could have purchased all sorts of country property, but that wasn’t their style.”
“So you weren’t interested in following in those family businesses?”
Shaking her head, she said, “By the time I became old enough to think about a career, my grandparents were dying off. My parents didn’t bother trying to pass their legacies on to their children. I suppose it was because neither was very interested in what they did or where their money came from. They weren’t like your parents, Lex. You’ve had a family legacy passed on to you from generation to generation. You have a solid foundation beneath your feet, and you appreciate that. It’s something for you to be proud of.”
His smile was gentle as he reached up and squeezed her shoulder, and for a moment, Christina feared her eyes were going to fill with tears.
“Well, someday you’ll have children of your own, and you can do things better for them.”
Would she have children? After her breakup with Mike, she’d practically given up on having a family. She’d been trying to convince herself that a career as an investigator was enough to keep her life full. Yet since she’d met Lex, thoughts of children, a home and a husband kept creeping into her dreams. Now, each time she walked into her apartment, it felt totally empty. Darn it. Why was she letting this man toy with her heart and all the plans she’d tried to make for herself?
“Uh, Christina? You’ve gone quiet. Have I said something wrong? You don’t want children?”
A bit embarrassed for letting him catch her daydreaming, she busied herself with slicing into a hunk of rare rib eye. “I’d love to have children. Someday. When I meet the right man.” She dared to glance up at him. “What about you? Do you ever plan to have children? You have so much to pass on to them.”
He looked out across the river, and for the first time since she’d met him, Christina spotted a crack of uncertainty in his armor. “I think about it sometimes. But I’m not sure I’d be good at being a parent.”
“I expect no one is sure—before they take on the job. But I can’t see why you’d question yourself. You’ve had great examples to follow.”
He grimaced. “Yeah, that’s just it. Dad was a great parent. I can’t think of a time he ever disappointed me. I’m not sure I could ever live up to his standard.” He released a heavy breath, then turned a faint smile on her. “Besides, you have to meet the right woman to want children.”
“And that’s never happened? You’ve never met a woman who’s made you think of having a family?”
A coy smile suddenly curved one side of his lips. “What would you say if I said I might be looking at her now?”
Christina’s heart was thumping so hard and fast, she was certain he could probably see the front of her shirt shaking. “I’d say a mosquito has probably bitten you and given you a fever,” she purposely teased.
The smile on his lips remained, but there was a soberness in his eyes that shook her right to the core of her being.
“I’ll take an aspirin and look at you again in the morning,” he murmured.
She was wondering how she could respond to that when the sound of a guitar being strummed drifted over them.
Glad for the distraction, she glanced over her shoulder and said, “It sounds like we’re going to have entertainment tonight.”
“That’s Eduardo. He’s the only one of the bunch brave enough to play and sing.” He rose from the log and reached down for her hand. “Come on. If you’re ready, we’ll go back and find a good seat for the concert.”
Back at the campground, the two of them topped their meal off with apple cobbler and cups of strong coffee, then took seats on the ground and used a wagon wheel for a backrest.
As night fell and the stars became visible in the wide Texas sky, Christina forgot about everything but Lex and sharing this part of his life, even if it was only for one night.
After a while, Lex’s lips bent near to her ear. “Do you know what Eduardo is singing now?” he asked.
The song was in Spanish, but since Christina knew the language fluently, she had no trouble following the lyrics. “He’s singing about a woman who ran away and left all her riches behind just to be with her lover—the gypsy Davey.”
It was an erotic tune, especially for a trail song, and hearing it only made Christina more aware of Lex’s strong arm next to hers, his long legs stretched out in front of him. And before she could stop herself, her head listed sideways and nestled comfortably on his strong shoulder.
Next to her ear, she heard him sigh, and the sound tumbled right through her heart.
By the time Sunday morning rolled around, Christina was still thinking about her night spent on the roundup. Lex had taken great pains to make her a comfortable bed an arm’s length away from his. She’d lain there in the dying firelight, gazing at his profile and thinking how exciting and full a life with him would be.
But morning had brought reality back with a jerk. After a hasty breakfast, Lex had saddled up Leo for a day’s work, and she’d driven the truck back to the ranch to begin her diligent sifting through Paul Saddler’s papers. Since that time, she’d only spoken with Lex briefly. At that time he’d assured her he’d be ready for the trip to Corpus.
This morning, as Christina waited for him to join her on the front porch, the temperature hovered near eighty degrees. Cool shorts and a halter top would have felt good, but she’d decided a simple cotton sheath splashed with flowers in pale yellow and lime green would be more appropriate.
Since they’d be spending most of the day on the coast, she’d wondered if Lex would forgo his boots and jeans and hat, but when he finally appeared, she saw that the only concession he’d made was a white polo shirt. Even so, he looked rakishly handsome as he took his place behind the wheel of his personal truck.
Christina wasn’t sure if the accelerated beat of her heart was due to his close presence or the fact that the two of them were headed out on an unpredictable journey.
“You haven’t forgotten anything, have you?” he asked as they passed under the huge entrance of the ranch yard.
She patted a small briefcase lying on the console between them. “Addresses and photos are all here. And I’ve already called ahead and scheduled the boat charter. They’ll take us out at eleven. Or me out, if you prefer to stay ashore.”
He glanced knowingly over at her. “I’m not about to let you go out alone on a boat with a group of strange men. Who knows what could happen.”
His remark surprised her. She’d never expected him to want to protect her. Her parents certainly had never sheltered her. And even Mike, a veteran police officer, had never been particularly protective of her. He’d always believed she was capable of taking care of herself. And she liked to believe she was. Still, it was sweetly old-fashioned to have Lex wanting to be her defender.
“If I understood it right,” she told him, “there’ll only be one man accompanying me on the boat.”
“Then I’m sure as hell going,” he said sharply. “You can’t trust anyone nowadays.”
“I’m glad you’re going,” she admitted, then gave him a playful smile. “But who’s going to be my bodyguard when I go back to work in San Antonio?”
Even though she’d been teasing, he didn’t look as though he was when he said, “Maybe you should just stay, instead.”
Chapter Six
An hour and a half later, the truck was climbin
g up the huge causeway spanning the ship channel on the north side of the city. To the left of them, the sun sparkled on Corpus Christi Bay and the docked World War II aircraft carrier, the USS Lexington, which now served as a museum. To their right, shipping barges chugged to and from loading docks, while directly in front of them, the skyline of the city carved niches from the green-blue ocean.
Lex exited onto Ocean Drive, and in a few short minutes, they were parked in front of a small, weathered building. The lapped siding looked like it had once been painted coral, but sand, wind and salt had since buffed it to a puny pink. Above the wooden screen door, a creaky sign read Ray’s Bait.
As they walked across the small parking lot graveled with crushed oyster shells, Lex glanced doubtfully over at her. “I hate to be a pessimist, Christina, but this seems like a long shot.”
“In my profession, long shots are things I often have to take. And when I sometimes win, the payoff is usually more than I ever expected.”
He grunted. “I’ve never been much of a gambler.”
“You put your fortune in livestock, which could fall over dead without warning or lose their value according to the whims of the market. I’d call that big-time gambling.”
“You might think so,” he said, with a vague smile. “It’s just a way of life for me.”
By now they’d reached the entrance to the building. Lex opened the screen door and allowed Christina to step through before he followed. Inside, the small interior was dim and smelled of fish, beer and burned coffee. To the immediate right, a long counter was equipped with a cash register and lined with jars of fishing lures and jigs. To the left, a separate room was outfitted with concrete tanks filled with bubbling water.
At the moment, a plump blond woman in her early twenties was dipping out tiny shad and placing the bait in a customer’s foam bucket.
Christina and Lex waited to one side until she’d finished the task and taken the other man’s money. Once he’d ambled out the door, Christina stepped up to the counter, while Lex hung back just behind her shoulder.
“Can I help y’all?” the young woman asked.
The young woman was chewing gum, and her long bangs were battling with her eyelashes for hanging space.
Clearing her throat, Christina said, “Uh, yes. We’re looking for Ray Pena. Is he around?”
The young woman’s brown eyes darted suspiciously from Christina to Lex and back again. “The owner? He’s not here today. He had to go down to Falfurrias. Somethin’ to do with his sister.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Is he in trouble?”
“Does trouble commonly follow Mr. Pena around?” Lex asked dryly.
The blonde shook her head. “No. But you two smell like cops to me. Sorta look like it, too.”
Christina quickly interjected, “We’re nothing of the sort. We’re simply looking for some information. Will Mr. Pena be back tomorrow?”
“Said he would. Guess you could try again in the mornin’.”
“We’ll do that,” Christina told her. “And thank you, Miss—”
“Sally. Sally Donner.”
Christina smiled and reached to shake the woman’s hand. “Thank you, Sally. It was nice meeting you.”
“Yeah. Sure.”
Christina and Lex walked outside, pausing several steps away from the open entrance to the bait house.
“What are we going to do now?” Lex asked. “I don’t have time to drive down here tomorrow morning. Matt is expecting me to go with him to auction tomorrow afternoon.”
She fished her sunglasses out of her purse and jammed them on her face. “If we stay here tonight and talk to Mr. Pena in the morning, you’ll still have time to make the trip with your cousin.”
Lex stared at her. “Stay here in Corpus tonight?”
“Do you have a better idea? Or would you rather drive down here again next week?”
He considered her questions for a moment, and then suddenly a grin spread across his face. “What the hell. I haven’t stayed on the beach in a long time. We can have red snapper for supper tonight or shrimp or whatever your heart desires.”
Relieved that he was being so compliant about it all, she felt her spirits lift. “What about shell searching? I love doing that.”
He curled his arm around her waist and urged her toward the truck. “Then we’ll find a whole load of them for you to take back to the ranch,” he promised.
On down the bay-side street, they found a little coffee shack with outside tables, where they drank coffee and shared a danish before driving to the charter-boat place. Business there was hopping, but the personnel quickly waited on them, and in a few minutes’ time, they were on board a twenty-foot cruiser with inboard motors and a covered deck.
The captain was Eric, a young man in his late twenties with jet-black hair and bronze skin. He was good-looking in a beachcomber sort of way, and in Lex’s opinion, he paid entirely too much attention to Christina. But then, Lex could hardly blame the man. She was like a wild rose with her red hair flying in the wind and her blue eyes sparkling brighter than the sea itself.
Since the night of the roundup, he’d hardly been able to think of anything but her. And though he knew he was getting far too attached to her, he couldn’t seem to do a damned thing to stop it. The more time he spent with her, the more he wanted.
“Can you tell us how far you think it is to the coordinates I gave you?” Christina asked Eric once they’d pulled away from the dock and headed out in the bay.
Eric answered with a pleasant smile. “Not exactly. Maybe ten, fifteen miles.”
“That far?” Lex asked from a spot beneath the canopy, where he was sitting next to Christina.
“I can’t be sure,” Eric answered. “But I’m guessing it will be that distance.”
The young captain turned his attention back to maneuvering the boat. Lex looked skeptically over at Christina. “I used to come here with Dad to fish, and I’m a bit familiar with the area. If we go that far, we’ll be close to the islands.”
“You’re talking about Mustang and Padre?”
He nodded. “But that wouldn’t make sense. If Dad fell off the boat while closer to the islands than to Corpus, then why would they bring him all the way back here for medical attention?”
For the first time since she’d met Lex, she saw suspicion flicker in his eyes, and she understood the next hour was going to be hard on him. Laying a hand over his, she said, “Let’s wait and see where we are when we get there.”
For the first half of the trip, the waters were full of all sorts of sailing vessels. Everything from small catamarans to commercial-sized shrimp boats to massive freighter ships could be seen bobbing atop the choppy water. But as they headed farther out to sea, only the larger vessels were visible, and they were few and far between.
Lex raised his voice to speak to the captain. “Eric, is this area normally fished?”
The young man glanced around at the open waters before looking over his shoulder at his passengers. “It depends on the time of the year and how the fish are running. Today is a slow day, but that’s probably because it’s Sunday morning.”
Lex’s attention turned to Christina, who’d been listening intently. “I suppose on a Saturday it wouldn’t have been odd for my dad and his friends to be fishing this area.”
Frowning, Christina nodded. “I’m still anxious to see where we’ll be when we reach the right coordinates.”
“So am I,” Lex grimly agreed.
As the boat plowed forward into gulf waters, the wind grew stiffer, making their ride extremely rough. With his arm around Christina’s shoulders, Lex kept her firmly by his side on the padded bench seat.
It was a relief when the captain finally eased off the throttle. “We’re almost on top of the spot. I’ll let down an anchor so you can have a better look around.”
Lex was expecting to see nothing more than water. Instead, it was a shock to see land lying in front of them and less than a minute or two away.
“That’s Mustang Island. Port Aransas is about five miles to the east of us.”
Lex felt as though someone had whacked the air from his lungs, and he found himself gripping Christina’s hand. “Five miles, Christina! Five miles from land. Why didn’t they go there instead of turning around and heading back to Corpus? It doesn’t make sense! Why didn’t the police question them about this?”
“They did. It’s in the report. But apparently, the police decided the men had been too shaken to make clearheaded choices.”
Lex couldn’t stop a frustrated groan from rumbling up from his chest. “That’s damned idiotic!”
“People do strange things when they’re in shock, Lex.” She turned her attention back to the captain. “Do you know if there are any medical services on the island? Or law officers?”
“Yeah, sure,” Eric answered. “It’s a state park. They have people around to take care of medical emergencies and other problems.”
Lex could see the questions running through Christina’s mind were the same as the ones running through his.
“Twelve years is a long time. Maybe the islands didn’t have any of those services back then,” he suggested. Yet even as he said the words, Lex knew it was a far-fetched notion. It was clear that Port Aransas and medical help would have been much closer for his father than the long trip back to Corpus.
“That’s something I definitely intend to research,” she told him.
After a couple more minutes, Christina informed Eric that they’d seen enough, and the young captain headed the cruiser back toward the mainland. If anything, the waters had gotten rougher during their excursion, forcing her to hold on tightly to Lex’s arm to keep her body from being tossed to the deck.
By the time they reached Corpus, a gray line of squall clouds had spread across the city. The two of them quickly climbed into Lex’s truck and were on the verge of leaving the charter-boat service when a deluge, complete with ragged streaks of lightning bolting all the way to the ground, hit the parking lot.