Caught in the Crossfire

by Annette Broadrick

  Jared took a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to look at all of this from a father's perspective. Especially Lindsey's father's perspective. Finding a man in your single daughter's bed probably wouldn't sit well with any father, but Lindsey's father? Jared was lucky he hadn't been shot while he slept.

  In a calm voice, Jared said, "I understand perfectly, sir. If she was my daughter, I'd be feeling the same way."

  The senator seemed to relax slightly.

  "The problem here is that I consider Lindsey to be a friend. A good friend. She's one of the nicest women I know. There's no way in hell I would have cold-bloodedly seduced her."

  Joe narrowed his eyes. "Meaning?"

  "I think somebody set me up. For the life of me I can't figure out who would do such a thing, or why. I mean, most everyone in the county knows that I've been seeing her these past few weeks. I certainly haven't kept it a secret. But this is more than a prank. This was malicious and I'm going to find out who did it and what was behind it." He looked at both men. "You can count on that," he said and headed to the kitchen.

  * * *

  Lindsey leaned against the bathroom door, shaking so hard she could scarcely stand. She managed to reach her vanity chair and sank down in front of the mirror. Only then did she realize that tears silently slid down her face.

  She had never been so humiliated in her life—first, to wake up to discover Jared Crenshaw in bed with her and second, to have her father bring up the subject of marriage.

  She didn't know what to think. She thought she'd gotten to know Jared fairly well. She'd known since the night she'd met him that he found her physically attractive. He'd made no effort to hide his reaction to her whenever they kissed, which was often, but he'd been a perfect gentleman.

  Until he'd climbed into her bed!

  She shook her head wearily. Who would have dreamed that she would ever be in a position to say, "Guess who's been sleeping in my bed?" but she was neither Goldilocks nor one of the three bears, and this morning was certainly not part of some fairy tale.

  The only thing she knew for certain was that Jared had not made love to her. If he had, she would certainly remember it. In fact, she had trouble believing that he could have crawled into bed without waking her.

  She wasn't that sound a sleeper.

  Lindsey absently wrapped her hair into a knot on top of her head and then stepped into the shower.

  While she stood under the fine spray she thought about yesterday. About last night. She'd had a headache that bordered on being a migraine, in no small part due to the fact that she'd again quarreled with her father, threatening to move out this weekend if he said one more word about her moving to New York.

  She'd been so angry and frustrated with him that her blood pressure had probably gone off the scales. In her senior year she had seen a doctor about her recurring headaches. He'd given her a prescription for pain medication and suggested that her problem stemmed from stress. No argument there.

  Lindsey seldom took the pain pills because they practically knocked her out, but last night she hadn't cared so long as she could get some relief.

  Wasn't it a little strange that she should be drugged the night he chose to come to her bed?

  Worse than strange.

  Unfortunately, she didn't have any answers. What mattered to her at the moment was that her father was carrying on about marriage like some patriarch from a couple of hundred years ago.

  Somehow, she'd get through this embarrassing situation. She would attempt to speak with Jared and see what answers he could give her.

  Her father would quickly discover that he could not force her into marriage. Unmarried people slept together all the time. It was no big deal. They even had children together without feeling the need to marry. The fact that she'd never had an intimate relationship had nothing to do with him. The choice had been hers to make.

  Lindsey dried herself off, dressed and applied some makeup to hide the dark shadows beneath her eyes, part of the remnants of the headache. She left her hair down because a tender scalp was another part of the aftermath of a migraine.

  After one last look in the mirror, Lindsey walked out of the bathroom. What she needed now was some coffee.

  * * *

  Jared spotted a small bathroom off the hallway that led to the kitchen. He went inside and splashed water on his face, swearing under his breath when the pain in his head intensified every time he lowered it.

  He looked into the mirror and frowned. He looked like he'd been ridden hard and put away wet. He was gray beneath his tan and his blond hair stood out from his scalp in all directions. He rubbed his raspy jaw. It didn't help his appearance any that he definitely needed to shave.

  Jared reached into his back pocket and pulled out his comb, wet it and did his best to tame his hair. He could see little improvement in his overall appearance but at least he could now hold his eyes open without wincing from the light.

  The kitchen was empty when he walked in. He headed straight to the coffeepot and filled a large mug with the steaming liquid. While he waited for it to cool, Jared opened cabinet doors and drawers in hopes of finding a pain reliever.

  "May I help you find something?"

  He glanced around and saw Lindsey. Talk about an awkward moment. "I, uh, I was looking for some aspirin tablets." He watched her walk to one of the cabinets he hadn't opened, amazed that she seemed so untouched by the earlier furor.

  She reached inside the cabinet and handed him a bottle.

  "Thanks."

  Next she filled a glass with water and offered it to him, then poured herself a cup of coffee. He downed the pills and watched Lindsey. When she turned, she caught him staring at her.

  "Lindsey, I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I would never, not ever, do anything to harm you."

  "I guess I'd find that easier to believe if I hadn't found you in bed with me this morning," she replied conversationally. She sipped her coffee.

  He winced. "I know it looks bad, but I think too much of you to place you in such an embarrassing situation."

  "That's good to know. However, the fact remains that you were in my bed."

  "You keep saying that!"

  "Only because it's true. I don't know when you arrived. Even though I'd taken pain medicine for my migraine, I can't believe I didn't hear you."

  "Look," he said, feeling more than a little testy at the way this conversation was going, "I don't care what you or your dad think, I didn't come over here last night to seduce you."

  She looked at him skeptically. "Then what exactly are you doing here?"

  He clenched his teeth. "If I knew, I'd tell you, believe me."

  After a lengthy pause, she finally asked, "You really don't remember?"

  "No." After another long pause, he added, "I was hoping you could tell me what had happened. Guess it was convenient that you were taking stuff for pain."

  She looked at him sharply. "What, exactly, is that supposed to mean? Do you think I'd make something like that up?"

  "Well, it certainly gives you an out, doesn't it? You slept through the whole thing. You can't be expected to explain my presence, now can you?"

  She stared at him for the longest time as though he'd suddenly grown another head, maybe two. "I don't need to explain anything, Jared. After all, I didn't wake up in your bed."

  He looked at his watch. "Look, this is going nowhere. I apologize all over the place for ending up here last night. You're no more eager than I am to get married. I've enjoyed your company. Maybe after this blows over, we can continue to see each other until you move."

  "You really think this will be forgotten so easily?"

  "No. But when they see we have no intention of being pushed into anything, they'll back off."

  "Your father may," she said quietly. "Mine won't."

  Jared set his cup on the counter and walked over to her.

  "You know, Lindsey, if I had planned to make love to you, I would have found a more
private place than your bedroom."

  She shrugged. "Unless this was some kind of prank you decided to pull. At this point, why you came over makes no difference. Now I have to spend the rest of the day convincing my father not to go after you with a shotgun."

  Jared realized that he was wasting his time attempting to explain the inexplicable. He glanced at his watch. "I need to get home and, hopefully, get some sleep. I may need to borrow some of that pain medication you took last night, the way my head feels. I'll check in with you this evening, tomorrow at the latest, to see how you're doing."

  She began to shake her head before he finished speaking. "It would be better if you didn't call anymore, Jared. Once it's clear that we're no longer seeing each other, our fathers will be forced to accept that there's nothing serious going on between us."

  Jared was surprised to discover that her words bothered him. What was wrong with him, anyway? He'd always known there was nothing going on between them. Maybe he didn't like being dismissed so casually. Maybe his ego was bruised a little.

  "Whatever you want to do is okay with me," he finally said. "I just want to say that I've enjoyed getting to know you. We've had some fun times together."

  She nodded. "I know."

  "If I'm ever in New York, I'll be sure to look you up."

  The corners of her lips turned up. "You do that, cowboy."

  Jared's chest tightened. He really was going to miss her.

  "Goodbye, Texas," she said, a nickname she'd given him on their second date because he was so proud of the state in which he was born.

  He gave her a mock salute. "Goodbye, New York," he replied and left the kitchen.

  His dad and the senator were in deep conversation when Jared returned to the living room.

  "I'm going home," he said, walking toward the door without pausing. "I'll be over to see you later this afternoon, Dad."

  "Now wait just a minute, young man," he heard Senator Russell say as the door closed behind Jared. "Don't think you're going to get away with this kind of behavior with my daughter. You may be used to…" His voice faded away by the time Jared reached his truck.

  "What a mess," Jared muttered to himself. "What possessed me to show up here last night?"

  He shook his head in dismay and drove away from the Russell home.

  Two

  Jared walked into his house and headed into the kitchen to make coffee. He was too old for this. His body couldn't take the wear and tear of drinking too much. He'd actually never been much of a drinker. He certainly didn't miss alcohol when it wasn't available, such as in Saudi Arabia. So why had he blacked out?

  Damn it! He'd gone to town last night because he'd been too tired to make himself something to eat. What had possessed him to start drinking so heavily? Seeing his old classmates again? Shooting pool? Had they switched to tequila?

  He didn't have a clue.

  While the coffee was brewing, he went in and took a shower and put on clean clothes. He managed to eat a couple of pieces of dry toast with his coffee. As soon as he was through eating, Jared called Matt, determined to find out what had happened.

  As soon as Matt answered, Jared said, "Hey, Matt, this is Jared."

  "Jared! Boy, am I glad to hear from you. Are you feeling better today?"

  Cautiously, Jared said, "Why do you ask?"

  "Well, you started feeling bad so suddenly, I was worried. Was Ted able to get you home all right?"

  "Ted? Ted, who?"

  "Boy, you must still be out of it. Ted was one of the guys shooting pool with us last night. Don't you remember?"

  "I only remember being with you and Denny." When Matt didn't say anything Jared finally said, "Tell me what happened to me last night. It's important."

  "Are you saying you really don't remember?" Matt asked incredulously.

  "You have no idea how much I wish I did."

  "Well, let's see. Do you remember shooting pool?"

  "Now that I do remember," Jared said, rubbing his forehead. "If I remember correctly, at one time I was two up on you."

  "That's right. Remember saying that when we finished that game, you were going home because you were tired and wanted to get some sleep?"

  "Yeah…maybe…I'm not sure."

  "Before we finished the last game, one of the men at the bar came over to watch us play. I've seen him in there a time or two. Always in a suit. Said he was a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company and New Eden was part of his area."

  For the life of him, Jared couldn't conjure up an image of a man in a suit. "Then what happened?"

  "Well, after watching us a few minutes he challenged the winner. By that time you were really rolling, not missing a shot, so no one was surprised when you won that one."

  "Was I drinking a lot?"

  Matt laughed. "You? Of course not, which was why you were shooting so well. I gotta admit, me and Denny had started earlier in the afternoon, so we were way ahead of you. You probably had a couple of beers. Oh, yeah, I remember now. Ted bought us all a round of drinks. That one couldn't have been more than your third one. What's the matter, guy? Can't hold your liquor like you used to?"

  As Matt talked, Jared got some fragmented images. A guy in a suit, his collar open, his tie stuck halfway in his coat pocket. The problem was, he couldn't visualize the guy's face.

  "I guess not," he finally replied.

  "Anyway, the two of you began to play. A little later, you seemed to be having trouble focusing your eyes and you complained of feeling dizzy. You don't remember that?"

  "No, I don't," he replied slowly, thinking. Was it possible this Ted character put something in his drink? He closed his eyes. A sales rep, huh. Probably had access to all kinds of drugs.

  Was he being paranoid?

  "Matt, did I leave by myself?"

  "Hell, man, you could barely walk. You were slurring your words something pitiful and you moved like your legs were made of rubber."

  "So how did I get home?" he asked, curious to know if Matt knew where he'd spent the night.

  "Ted said he needed to be getting on down the road and offered to take you home. He said he knew exactly where the Crenshaw ranch was and it was on his way."

  "So I agreed to leave with a stranger?"

  "You weren't in any shape to agree to anything. Ted had to practically drag you out of there. So what happened after that? Did he rob you, steal the truck, leave you along the highway somewhere, what?"

  "None of the above. What about my truck?"

  "Yeah, that was a little puzzling, I gotta admit. When I left a little later, I looked around and your truck was gone. I began to wonder if you'd sobered up some once you got some fresh air in your lungs. I thought maybe you decided to drive yourself home. I don't mind telling you I was worried about you. I figured that, in the shape you were in, you'd be sleeping late this morning. I planned to wait until around noon to give you a call to make sure you were all right."

  "I'm getting there." He paused, not wanting to arouse Matt's suspicions about where he might have spent the night. "The next time you see Ted, thank him for me and have him give you his card. I definitely owe him a drink."

  Or something.

  "Sure thing, although I got the impression from something he said that he doesn't come through this way very often."

  Why doesn't that surprise me?

  "Well, I seem to be recovering just fine this morning. Guess that'll teach me to know my limit and not drink so much from now on. It was good to see you guys last night. Maybe I'll see you again one of these days."

  "Sounds good. Take care of yourself."

  "Believe me, I fully intend to."

  * * *

  Jared arrived at his parents' home a little after two. He'd gone back to bed, slept several hours and woke up feeling much better, well enough to make himself a hearty lunch.

  As soon as he stepped down from his pickup, his dad's hunting hounds—all of them eager to be the first to greet him—surrounded Jared in a joyous, baying chor
us. There seemed to be at least a dozen of them milling around him until they finally settled down enough for him to count four.

  Jared looked up and saw his dad watching him from the porch with his arm braced against one of the pillars. When their eyes met, Joe nodded, unsmiling. When Jared reached Joe's side, he said, "You know, Dad, I've been thinking and I'm puzzled about why you were brought into this mess. Don't you find that a little odd?"

  Joe turned and walked into the house. "I'll admit I was surprised that R.W. called me. But I'll tell you this right now—he's ready to fetch his shotgun and call a preacher before the day's over."

  Jared followed him into the house and looked around. "Where's Mom?"

  "She and Ashley are off doing something or other, which is just as well for now."

  "You didn't tell her why you were called out of bed at an ungodly hour this morning?"

  Joe looked at him. "She didn't ask and I didn't volunteer any information. I see no reason to discuss the matter until something has been worked out."

  "C'mon, Dad. There's nothing to work out. Yes, I definitely woke up in the wrong bed this morning. I've apologized to Lindsey. As far as I could tell she accepted my apology. She's twenty-five years old, Dad! What happened isn't any of the senator's business."

  He followed his dad through the house to the back porch. "What's his problem, anyway?"

  "Since I never had a daughter, I can only guess that he's being protective of her, wouldn't you say?"

  Jared stared out at the vista of rolling hills. "I can understand that, but don't you think he overreacted a tad? I mean, she hadn't been raped. As a matter of fact—to clear the record here—we've never been intimate, despite what you saw this morning."

  "It's a little hard for me to be sympathetic, given the circumstances. Russell is loaded for bear and he's going to make life extremely difficult for you—and the rest of the family—until you marry her."

  "Something strange is going on, Dad."

  "I would say more out of character, or at least different from who I thought you were until this morning."

  "Say whatever you like, Dad, it doesn't matter. What does matter, to me at least, is that I found out from Matt this morning that I left the Mustang Bar last night with some guy I don't know. Think about it. Have I ever done that before?"