by Molly Liholm
Meg tried to concentrate on the men’s discussion, but she had a hard time holding steady between bouts of pain. Adam kept answering Reid’s questions and, while she wished he would have told her more of the facts of the case, she was glad to learn what she could. More importantly, it seemed like Reid was falling for Adam’s elaborate tale.
Reid repeated Adam’s story disdainfully. “You received an anonymous tip about illegal immigrants being processed through Sedona and that, along with a friendly letter from Abigail Milton, was enough to bring you here? I don’t think so.”
“The informant gave names.” Adam’s voice was angry. “For God’s sake, leave Meg alone. I did some checking, and while the identities looked real, further investigation revealed they could be forgeries. I still might not have hurried down to Sedona as quickly as I did, but I seemed to trigger a backdoor trap in the computer networks. I traced someone trying to enter my computer files to find out who I was. Plus I learned that Kelly had been here.”
“We did find out who you were,” Reid answered. “We hoped you wouldn’t pursue the matter any further, but when you landed in Phoenix, my men were supposed to scare you. Unfortunately, we’re better at high-tech crimes. I won’t make the same mistake again.”
“So now you know everything I know,” Adam stated.
Meg felt her arm suddenly wrenched behind her back and she couldn’t help the cry that escaped her lips. “Dammit,” she swore, as a haze of pain clouded her vision again.
“Stop,” Adam said again. “You’re right, Abigail Milton is the one who tipped me off about your activities. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her so I don’t know exactly what she knows. Abigail never gave me your name, she only gave me phony identities to investigate.”
“Let her go.” Reid nodded toward Josh, and Meg felt exquisite relief as the pressure on her arm stopped. She wanted to collapse on the floor and curl into a little ball, but pride and anger made her stiffen her spine and try to pay attention to what was going on between Reid and Adam.
Suddenly the room felt even more dangerous than before as Reid studied Adam. “I think you’re telling the truth. You don’t like to see a woman suffer.”
“No, I don’t.” His words were clipped, and Meg could hear another meaning behind them, but didn’t know what the two men were talking about. All she knew was that she could hardly breathe because of the tension.
Reid raised the gun that he’d kept by his side throughout the questioning. “In that case, Mr. Smith, if you’ve told me everything you know, then I don’t think we need the pleasure of your company anymore.”
“No!” Meg screamed, surprising everyone, including herself, by launching herself in front of Adam. Between Adam and the gun. She gulped. This scene always looked much better on television, when she was part of the audience admiring the spunky, doomed heroine’s courage. No, sometimes the heroine lived, she assured herself. At least she hoped so.
She felt Adam’s hand clamp on her shoulder as he spun her around to face him. “Idiot,” he snarled, and then pulled her behind him. For the first time Meg experienced his full strength and was impressed.
“Reid won’t shoot me,” she told his back. Adam was being very heroic, but also rather annoying in his assumption that he was the only one who could handle the situation.
“Don’t be so sure,” he responded, and turned back to Reid.
Reid shook his head, his lips curling in derision. “A fine pair of lovers, each protecting the other. Did you really just meet a few days ago?”
“Yes,” Meg answered, trying to break past Adam. He let her move to his side, but kept his arm firmly around her shoulder. “I know where Abby is.”
Adam stiffened beside her, but said nothing. She continued, trying to keep her brain a step or two ahead of her mouth. “I’m not sure how she found out what she did about your operations, but I do know that she’s read Adam’s column in the Times. And she dropped some hints about something odd going on. I wasn’t really paying any attention, because she was always talking about something. When she kept mentioning strangers, I thought she was talking about extraterrestrials—it’s her latest theory. She thinks the reason there are so many alien movies and alien TV shows is because our government has made contact and is trying to get the American people used to the idea of life on other worlds. Same thing with the Mars rock—the one with the possibility of life. Abby was sure that was the next step in the campaign. She considered it proof.” Meg smiled ruefully. “So I didn’t really pay a lot of attention. Not until now.”
“Good,” Reid said. “Possible. It sure sounds like Abby. She tried to tell me her alien theory herself just a couple of weeks ago. Now—” he raised his gun again “—I think it’s time to finish what I started.”
Adam stepped in front of Meg. “Wait,” she yelled from behind him. “Adam, for heaven’s sake, let me go.”
She felt ridiculous jumping up and down behind Adam, trying to get someone’s attention. There was no way she was going to let Adam be killed in front of her. She’d waited her whole life for him; she wasn’t about to lose him now. “I can call Abby and convince her to come back!”
Her statement silenced the room.
“Let her go,” Reid ordered Adam, who reluctantly let go of the wiggling Meg.
Reid considered Meg. “You’re willing to betray your friend for him?”
“I’ll do whatever it takes to save Adam’s life,” she answered honestly.
Reid looked at her for a moment and, seeing the truth in her eyes, he nodded. “All right. I want to find out if Abigail Milton is the source. You’ve just bought your boyfriend some time.” Reid paced the room quietly, thinking. At one time, Meg had actually thought this habit of his sexy. She wondered how she could ever have been so foolish. An honorable cowboy, indeed. She couldn’t have been more wrong. All of Reid’s laconic charm and slow courting of her had been a sham. She was glad she’d never fallen for it completely.
He was so different from Adam. Adam refused to admit he even liked her, in fact insisted he didn’t, that she was all wrong for him, but she knew better.
Adam’s behaviour showed how much more worthy he was than Reid. He didn’t want to incriminate Abby, but he had been horrified by Reid’s abuse of her. Adam was a man worthy of her love.
Now all she had to do was prove it to him. And keep them both alive.
Reid stopped pacing. “I’m going to leave you alone here for a few minutes.” He smiled sourly. “I have a few details to take care of explaining your sudden departure from our fair town. Luckily, the good folks of Sedona are used to people leaving unexpectedly, so your sudden disappearance won’t raise any questions. Especially since your former fiancé—” his lips curled “—has arrived to win you and take you away. Everyone will assume the pair of you have picked up again where you left off.” He turned to the shorter man. “Tom, you hide their Jeep.” He turned back to Adam, his lips curving upward in amusement. ”We knew the second the two of you had arrived, for we have sensors all around the ranch. I let you snoop around to make sure that you really were after our operation and not just being a regular nosy reporter.”
He focused on Meg, and she couldn’t help the shiver that crawled along her spine. “Then I want you to tell me how to find Abby. I want her here as fast as possible and to learn if that dizzy old broad really is the one who tipped you off. I still don’t see how she could have figured out what was going on, but...” He shook his head. “If I’ve learned anything living here, it’s that anything is possible in this crazy place.” Reid stroked Meg’s cheek with a callused finger. “If you’ve planned any kind of a trick, I’ll kill him.”
With that, he was out of the room, Tom following behind, and Meg heard the door being locked. Josh stepped out the balcony door, effectively guarding that escape route. Meg wished Adam would take her in his arms and comfort her, but one look at his stoney face and she knew that wasn’t about to happen.
She straightened her spine. No mat
ter what, she wasn’t going to let Reid hurt Adam. She was living her dream of adventure. It wouldn’t be much of a story to tell her grandchildren if she let the hero die.
11
AFTER REID HAD LEFT the study, Meg dared a look at Adam’s furious expression. She regretted lying to Adam about not knowing where Abby was. Well, to be precise, she didn’t know exactly where Abby was vacationing, but she could contact her.
“I’m sorry I got you involved in this, Meg.” Adam scowled, his face dark, and Meg realized that he was blaming himself. Didn’t he remember that she had insisted on being part of his investigation? Adam probably thought he should be able to control her behaviour—something he was going to have to learn he never could.
“I’m not sorry. I bullied my way into this—I knew what might happen. You have to believe me when I tell you that I am a responsible adult, fully capable of taking care of myself.” She drew a deep breath and met his piercing green eyes. “I wanted to tell you earlier, but it didn’t seem like the time and now, I don’t know what will happen....” When he didn’t say anything, but continued to look at her with those knowing eyes, she screwed up her courage. Somehow facing Reid was easier than facing Adam.
“It’s nothing bad,” she protested, and then faltered for a moment. “I love you.”
Adam seemed to pale, but he didn’t flinch or put his hands together in the sign of the cross to ward off evil spirits, so Meg took his overall reaction as positive.
“Meg, I—” The opening door stopped whatever excuses Adam would have offered, and Meg met her future executioners with some relief. She really didn’t want Adam to list all the reasons he couldn’t love her. Or at least not just at this moment. She needed some time to recover from having told him she loved him. She stopped and considered how she felt: lighter, happier. Being in love, even unrequited love, suited her.
The old Meg would never have believed this, but the new Meg was glad she’d told Adam. She’d never been willing to gamble on Max, but she was with Adam. She was no longer afraid of what she felt—she wanted to live completely, with passion and danger. Even if Adam never loved her, she would never regret telling him.
Reid and his two henchmen were back. Meg wondered once again how she could have found Reid attractive. He stopped in front of her. “No funny stuff. I want Abby.”
“Abby is on one of her retreats,” she explained, for what felt like the hundredth time.
“All part of her mystical, psychic healing and search for inner self,” Reid said scornfully. “With all the kooks in Sedona, I figured no one would ever clue in to something odd happening out here on the ranch. I guess I miscalculated. Just as Adam Smith miscalculated that I wouldn’t act quickly against him. A lot of money is at stake. Money I need to make the Liberty L secure for future generations.” His face hardened. “No more games. Where is she?”
“I don’t know.” When Reid slammed his fist against the desk, Meg continued hurriedly. “I don’t know where she is exactly, but she took my cellular phone in case of an emergency. I can call her.”
“Good. Do it.”
Meg stalled for time. She still didn’t have the faintest idea how she was going to warn Abby. “What do you want me to say? How do I ask her to cut short her retreat and return without alerting her suspicions?”
One corner of Reid’s mouth crooked in an awful smile. “Tell her her store burned down.”
That didn’t make any sense. “The fire was two nights ago. What if Abby calls someone else and finds out I’m lying?” Oops, too late the words were out of her mouth, when that was exactly the kind of clue she wanted Abby to notice. So much for her plan of trying to give Abby some kind of clever warning in her telephone call.
Reid’s voice was as smooth as silk. “Unfortunately, there was a second fire—” he looked at his watch “—about to start any second now. The Gateway will soon be a pile of ashes.”
“How despicable.” Meg felt sick. She couldn’t believe Reid would stoop so low; the store and building were Abby’s lifeblood. “Abby loves that store. I do, too.”
Reid handed her a portable phone and picked up an extension for himself. “Don’t try anything funny—I′ll be listening to your conversation. I know your fondness for mysteries and puzzles. You do anything stupid and I’ll make him suffer—” he pointed at Adam “—until he wishes he were dead.”
With trembling hands, Meg dialed the number of the phone she’d loaned to her friend, wondering whether she wanted Abby to answer it or not. She would be pulling the dear woman into danger, but Meg had no choice.
She counted rings. She could tell Abby to run and hide to save herself, and then she and Adam could fend for themselves. On the tenth ring, Abby answered. “Hello?”
Even in this terrible circumstance, Meg was glad to hear her friend’s voice. “Abby, it’s me.”
“Well of course it’s you. It’s your phone. I couldn’t figure out what that ringing in my knapsack was for the longest time. At first I thought my spirit guide, Althenia, had chosen a new method of communication, and I was beginning to channel when I remembered your phone.”
“Oh, Abby, I’ve missed you.”
“What’s wrong, Meg?”
Abby always picked up on Meg’s distress immediately. In so many ways Abby was the mother Meg had lost at such an early age. Meg had been able to tell Abby all about her misadventures with Max, and how worried she was that she would never find the one great love of her life. Abby had listened and agreed that Meg was right to want to change her life. To start out on her own personal quest.
Now Meg felt tears threaten. “Your store. The Gateway. There was a fire...oh, Abby, it’s all gone.” Meg’s voice broke.
The Gateway had been a good home to her. And it was Abby’s dream—a place she had created when she’d been given a second chance after her recovery from cancer. The Gateway literally symbolized Abby’s journey and new life.
“Darling, don’t cry. Life has taught me it’s always possible to rebuild.” It was so typical of Abby to comfort Meg, when it was her dream that had been destroyed.
Reid made a slashing motion and Meg hurried to deliver her message. “Your beautiful store, all gone. We need you to come home, Abby.”
“What did you say? It sounded like you said something happened to my store?”
“Exactly. Your store. Your store has been destroyed. Please...” Meg felt on the verge of tears. “We need you to come home.”
“I’ll leave at first light. It’s a hike of a couple of hours and then a long drive. I’ll try to be home tomorrow, but it will be late, maybe after midnight,” Abby promised with brisk efficiency, and ended the call in her usual manner with no goodbye.
As the connection broke, Meg realized the enormity of what she’d just done, putting her friend in danger. She shivered and saw Adam watching her. She no longer felt like the heroine of a movie; she was scared and worried. Please let it work out, she prayed silently.
She raised her chin and glared at Reid. “There, I did what you asked.”
“Yes, you must really love him.” Reid nodded at Adam. “I never would have imagined that you could be so passionate about a man. I rather liked your cool reserve, your New York City sophistication.” He walked to her and stood close, his blue eyes glittering. Meg refused to move away from him, even when he tipped up her chin with a hand, holding his face far too close to her own.
“It might have been rather fun to discover that passion in bed.”
“Take your hands off her,” Adam said in a quiet, deadly voice.
Reid stepped away and shrugged. His gaze locked with Adam’s steely one. Meg shivered. “Don’t worry, I’m not interested anymore,” Reid muttered. He paced the room and then finally turned back to them, Adam now standing protectively next to Meg. “I suppose I need the pair of you until Abby shows up and tells me who told her about us. Take them to the TV room,” he told Josh. “They can spend the day there. Double security—I don’t want them to escape. If they t
ry to get away, shoot.”
Meg and Adam were hustled off promptly. She looked back at Reid as she left the office, but he’d already turned on his computer. After threatening to kill people, did he just settle down to a regular day’s work?
In the TV room, another massive space that contained a large-screen TV, a wet bar, leather couches and a recliner, Adam turned on her, speaking between clenched teeth. “Abby had a damn cell phone. You could have called her the first night.” He took a step toward her and then turned away. “I swear, if Reid wasn’t going to kill us, I’d do the job for him. What the hell were you thinking?”
“The first night you were unconscious, as well as the second,” she said, knowing her answer was a mistake.
He slumped down in one of the large chairs and buried his face in his hands.
“Adam?”
When he didn’t answer, she knelt in front of him and gently placed her hands on his. He ignored her. “Adam, please.”
He threw her hands off him, rose and walked to the window. “You knew how to reach Abby at any point during the last five days and yet you never did.” He turned on her, his eyes blazing fiercely. “Why not?”
She faltered, then straightened her back. “Because I was afraid that once Abby gave you your answers you’d be gone.”
“You were afraid that I’d finish my investigation and leave you. Instead, you thought that an...affair was more important. Your feelings for me,” he scoffed. “Three kisses. You’re in love with me.”
The contempt in his words hit her like a slap in the face. Adam had a right to be angry with her, but not to ridicule her feelings. “I do love you,” she said quietly. “I’m sorry about how all of this has turned out, but I didn’t realize there was so much danger.”