Hitched! Read online

“You were—” Woody sucked in a disbelieving breath.

  “In fact,” she went on, “he’s the one who overpowered the hijackers, but he lied and another guy took the credit.” She gave a disgusted grunt. “He lies when the truth would serve him better.”

  “Maybe he has good reason to keep his name out of the newspapers,” Woody suggested, thinking fast. “You’re still with him?”

  “Yes, but he has no idea that I have any connection to Helen or any of that. And please don’t tell her what I’m doing, either. It would break her heart to think he can go on with his life without giving her a single thought.”

  “I won’t mention it.” Unless it suited his purpose. “Have you come up with anything?” Jeez, he hoped not.

  She sighed. “I’ve been through his wallet and briefcase and luggage, and there’s nothing. He hasn’t said anything helpful, either.”

  Good! “Take care, Ms. Rafferty,” Renwood said dutifully. “Taggart is a dangerous man playing a dangerous game.”

  “He’s shifty—I’ll give you that. But dangerous?” She didn’t sound as confident as she had earlier. “Don’t worry. I’ll be careful. Is there anything I should know? Anything I should be looking for, specifically?”

  “I’ve heard talk of a safe-deposit key.” He didn’t think Taggart had it, but who knew?

  Long silence, then she said, “Oh my God. A safe-deposit key?”

  “You know something about that?”

  “No, no, just thinking out loud.”

  “Oh. All right. In that case, merely keeping me posted as to his whereabouts would be beneficial.” Yeah, if Taggart got close to Overton before Woody got his money, knowing could be real beneficial. “I’d also urge you to avoid the police at all costs. They’re only interested in pinning the rap on your sister and Mr. Overton.”

  “That’s what Helen said.” She sighed. “I really wish I were better at this. I’ll never make a detective, but I’ll do my best.”

  “You wouldn’t want to tell me how you ingratiated yourself with him so quickly.”

  “Don’t even ask. Just watch out for my sister.”

  Woody’s telephone hadn’t even cooled before it rang again. Picking up, he heard the unmistakable tones of the man responsible for his current predicament.

  “Hey, Woody,” Bill Overton said with hearty good humor, “stop making all those strangling noises and say you’re glad to hear from me.”

  “Glad? Glad!” More strangling noises; Woody caught himself up short. “Where are you? When are you coming back?”

  “None of your business and never.”

  “Dammit, Bill, you left me in a serious bind.”

  “Which I intend to get you out of, old pal,” Bill said soothingly. “Just not quite yet.”

  Woody groaned. “The law is on your tail and they’re harassing me. Your secretary’s still in jail and—”

  “That’s why I called, about Helen. I want you to bail her out.”

  “With what? I’m on the verge of bankruptcy. Even if I had the money, I can think of a lot better uses for it.”

  “Take it easy.” Bill leaned heavily on his fabled charm. “Did you figure I’d leave you out on that limb all alone? Not a chance, pal. I’ll get the money to you somehow.”

  “How and how much? Don’t forget, you owe me more than you do your silly secretary.”

  “Can’t tell you how because I don’t know yet, but trust me. There’ll be a nice little bonus for you, too.”

  Somewhat mollified, Woody said, “Well, okay, but there better be. I don’t know why you’re bothering with her, though. At least when she’s in jail we can keep track of her.”

  “She’s got something of mine that I need back. Just bail her out when you get the money, and tell her I’ll be in touch.”

  Woody let out a hissing breath. “Once out of jail, the woman will be a loose cannon.”

  “Yeah, but she’s nuts about me. She’ll take orders. Just tell her I’m raising the money and she should sit tight. Anything else going on?”

  Woody’s tone became conspiratorial. “It might interest you to know Taggart’s…not on your trail, at least not at the moment. He’s gone home to Texas.”

  Bill let out a surprised whistle. “That’s good news. How did you—”

  “I have my contacts. Give my best to your wife.”

  Bill Overton hung up the telephone, his thoughts all over the place. It might behoove him to find out what Keever knew about Rand Taggart and how he knew it. Bill was sorry about fleecing Rand along with the rest of the suckers, but he didn’t feel guilty enough to regret it. His business had been headed down the tubes and he’d had no choice.

  Especially if he wanted to keep the affections of his beautiful blond showgirl wife, at whom he now glanced.

  Kristi saw him look at her and gave him a seductive smile. She was gorgeous in the tiny red bikini that barely covered the essential points of her voluptuous anatomy. Framed by gently waving palms and sparkling blue sky, she looked like what she was: high maintenance. She probably suspected he wasn’t as innocent in the Coconutty case as he maintained, but she never pressed him on the subject and went along with anything he said.

  He figured she was as crazy about him as his secretary was—and just as dumb. He liked that in a woman….

  “WHAT KEPT YOU?”

  Maxi started guiltily. She hadn’t known Rand waited right outside the bedroom door. Had he heard anything? “I needed to make a phone call,” she said defensively. “Is that all right with you?”

  “Of course. I was just waiting to have breakfast with you.”

  “Oh.” Now she felt guilty for snapping at him. “Okay. Rand—”

  “What?” He indicated that she should lead the way down the hall.

  “I think I’ve lost my safe-deposit key. You haven’t seen it, have you?”

  “No.” He gave her a curious glance. “That’s quite a coincidence.”

  “What is?”

  “I had a safe-deposit key in that briefcase that disappeared in Mexico.”

  “You—” she swallowed hard before adding “—did?”

  “It was no great loss. I’ve got another someplace.” He stopped outside the kitchen door, putting his hand on her arm. “Let’s go riding today.”

  “As in horseback?”

  “You got it.”

  “I don’t think so. You go and I’ll just curl up somewhere out of the way with a book.”

  “You can’t do that, Max.” Stepping close to her, he slid an arm around her waist. “We’re newlyweds, remember?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “But me no buts. We’re going riding. After breakfast, you can put on some jeans—you have jeans, don’t you?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “Okay, you can put ’em on while I saddle up.” He laughed into her anxious face. “It’ll be fun, Max, and it’ll make you a bunch of points with my dad. That’s why we’re here, remember?”

  “I remember.”

  His hand dug into her waist. “Good. Now, let’s go show my folks what happy newlyweds really look like.”

  “Within reason,” she said quickly, giving in too easily to the pressure of his arm because she was still stunned by his easy admission about the safe-deposit key, which she’d so blithely tossed away in her ignorance. “But only within reason.”

  SADDLING UP, Rand felt his spirits rise. He’d always liked this part of life in Texas: the horses, the ranch work, being out-of-doors. What he hadn’t liked was dealing with his father on a day-to-day basis. He loved his dad and he was fairly confident his dad loved him, but there was no understanding between them at all.

  After leading the little roan mare to the hitching rack, he tossed the reins over the wooden bars and turned to find Max walking toward him with what could only be called a reluctant gait. She’d put on jeans as he’d directed, along with white sneakers and a plain white shirt that hung loosely around her hips.

  He’d had a glimpse of those hips t
his morning when he’d caught her in the process of dressing. That tantalizing glimpse haunted him; it also made him wonder if he was going nuts, because it didn’t jibe with her usual appearance at all.

  She stopped in front of him and planted her hands on her hips. “This is not a good idea,” she announced.

  “It’s a great idea. Max, meet Lady.” He stroked the mare’s forelock, smoothing it over the headband.

  Max frowned. “She has big brown eyes,” she said accusingly.

  “She also has a big heart and she’s gentle.”

  “She’s too tall.”

  “Look at my horse.” He indicated the bay standing hipshot on the other side of the hitching rack. “He’s way bigger.”

  “Well…I suppose.” She reached out tentatively to lay her hand on the mare’s neck. “Do I really have to do this?”

  “You really do.” But not just to impress his father; she had to do it for herself, Rand thought. Poor kid had missed out on a lot, growing up in a city. “Hey, if you don’t like it, we won’t go far. I promise. But I think you will like it, and then you’ll have discovered something new.”

  “I don’t need anything new.” But her expression softened as she stroked the gleaming neck. “Okay, if I’ve got to, let’s get it over with.”

  “Then put your foot in the stirrup and…”

  THE FIRST TIME the horses broke into a trot, Maxi laughed so hard she nearly bounced off. Hanging on to the saddle horn with both hands, she threw back her head and shouted with delight, her heels flopping.

  Rand stayed alongside her on the trail leading through the trees, coaching her but not getting very far with it. She was having too good a time to pay much attention to the words of someone who rode like a centaur. Finally he reached over to catch the mare’s rein and pull her to a stop.

  “Hey!” Maxi tried to glare at him but knew she wasn’t doing too good a job with it. “Why’d you do that? I was on a roll!”

  “Yeah, but you were also about to end up in a pile on the ground. You wouldn’t like that so much.”

  “Probably not, since I couldn’t do it as well as your uncle Trey did.” Her grin was impish. “Really, how am I doing?”

  “Great,” he said, meaning it. “Have you changed your mind about horses, then?”

  She patted the mare’s sleek neck. “Maybe.”

  “Why so cautious?”

  “I hate to admit I was wrong.” She shoved her glasses, which had slid down her nose, back in place. “I’m sorry. I just don’t have much experience with animals. Like none.”

  “Horses I can understand. There’s not much room to put one up in the city. But no cats? No dogs?”

  She shook her head emphatically.

  “That’s tough.” He couldn’t imagine not knowing and liking animals. He’d always had dogs and cats around, even in Boston; in Texas, there’d also been horses and cattle. “Didn’t you ever want a pet?”

  “Of course I did.” She gave him an annoyed glance. “You have no idea how I grew up, Rand, you with your rich Boston grandpa and another rich grandpa in Texas and rich parents someplace in between.”

  “You’re right. I don’t.” He tossed the reins over the big red horse’s head and stepped out of the saddle. Then he put his hands on Maxi’s waist. “Let’s remedy that.”

  She covered his hands with hers. “What are you doing?”

  “Pulling you off that horse so we can sit over there beside Handbasket Creek while you tell me the story of your life.” Without further ado, he lifted her out of the saddle and set her on the ground in front of him.

  Her chin jutted out. “You won’t talk about you, so I won’t talk about me.” She turned away.

  “Don’t be like that.” He followed her toward the banks of the creek. “Everybody talks about me. You must already know everything except my blood type.”

  “A positive.” After selecting a large exposed tree root, she sat. Leafy shadows filtered down to make lacy patterns on her face. “But I don’t know anything important. I don’t know who your friends are, what you—”

  “Cut it out, Max. It’s your turn to do the talking.”

  She bit her lower lip. “I don’t like to whine….”

  “I’ve never known a woman who whined less than you do.” Rand braced a booted foot on the root and leaned against the tree. “Start talking. You said you have a sister?”

  “Yes.”

  “Older or younger?”

  “Older.”

  “Parents?”

  “Parents.” She said the word with distaste, then seemed gripped by indecision. After a moment, she said, “My mother raised me.”

  “No father?”

  “Obviously there was a sperm donor. But father? I haven’t seen him since I was about ten.” She shook her head. “My mom…drank a lot. She tried, but she couldn’t hold a job. She’d go on benders.” She grimaced. “I’m whining.”

  “You’re telling me something I need to know. Please….”

  SHE WONDERED if she could, but as the silence lengthened, a startling urge to share her story overcame her. She took a deep breath and looked into those clear blue-gray eyes. All she saw was encouragement.

  “It’s not an original story,” she said at last. “We lived in a series of cheap apartments on the South Side of Chicago. When there wasn’t money even for that, we lived out of the car or with my mother’s…friends. My sister and I went to school when we could. I liked it and was good at it. She didn’t and wasn’t.”

  “Sounds tough.”

  “Yeah, well, Mom did the best she could,” she said defensively. “We loved her and she loved us. She just couldn’t handle the booze. I was sixteen when she passed out in a Chicago alley in January and froze to death.”

  “Oh, God.” Squatting, he took her hands in his. “I wish I could make it better.”

  “You can’t, Rand,” she said calmly, although she didn’t feel calm, even now. “Hel—my sister was on her own by then. She’d been after me for a couple of years to live with her, but I couldn’t…I couldn’t leave my mother.”

  Her voice dropped lower. “Mama needed someone to take care of her and there was only me. We lived on welfare, mostly. She—” Max stopped talking abruptly. After a pause, she said, “Mama did what she had to do to get the money to support her habit. After she’d pass out, I used to pour the dregs of the bottle—there was never anything left but the dregs—I used to flush them down the toilet.” She gave a bitter little laugh. “When we had one.”

  “Ah, Max—”

  “You asked, Rand,” she reminded him sharply. “I used to take a shortcut to school through an alley, and one morning I found her there in the snow. She hadn’t come home the night before, but that wasn’t too unusual. I tried to wake her, although I think in my heart I knew she was dead. Then I tried to drag her inside, but…but—”

  She choked, unable to go on. Rand leaned forward to slide an arm around her quivering shoulder. Gently he kissed her temple.

  After a moment she lifted her head, eyes burning with tears she refused to shed. “My sister took me in following that, but it was tough. She was living with a guy who didn’t like having me around. When he walked out on her, I almost felt as if I were caring for my mother all over again. Still, without her I’d probably have gone into foster care or run away.”

  “Poor Max.”

  “Don’t pity me, Rand. I survived.” She lifted her chin, but her lips trembled. “I don’t talk about this because I don’t want pity.”

  “How about sympathy?”

  She sighed and her rigid shoulders slumped. “Okay, I guess I could handle a little sympathy. The point is, I don’t want anyone to think I’m looking for a free ride because I had it a little rough.”

  “A little rough?”

  “All right, a lot rough. That’s all behind me now. At least, it is mostly. I’m cheap because I never had any money.”

  “Thrifty. You’re thrifty.” His mouth quirked up at the corners.
“I could use a little of that.”

  “I’m suspicious. I’m always looking for hidden motives.”

  “Wary. You’re just a little wary. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “You don’t think so?” She shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “I’m also secretive and willing to do anything for my sister, who’s the only person in the world I love.”

  “Now, that is really sad.”

  Her eyes widened. “That I’m loyal?”

  “No, that there’s only one person in the world you love.”

  Moving slowly and deliberately, he took her glasses off her nose, folded them carefully and slipped them into her shirt pocket. Then he reached behind her head to slide off the silky scarf holding her hair back. Using both hands, he fluffed the strands around her shoulders.

  He rubbed a thumb across her sensitive lower lip. “Thanks for telling me that, Max,” he said. “I almost think you’re starting to trust me…a little.” Cupping his hand around the back of her neck beneath her hair, he drew her forward.

  She faced him again resolutely. “Can I trust you?”

  “Absolutely.” He kissed her temple, twining his fingers through hers. Then he lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles, keeping his gaze locked with hers. “You’ll think I’m crazy, but I’m grateful for the hijacking. Win, lose or draw, it changed my life.”

  Both their lives….

  ON THE OTHER SIDE of the cottonwood grove, Jesse pulled up his horse at the sight of his son and daughter-in-law deep in what looked like serious conversation. He probably ought to ride over and say something, but if they were into anything important…

  While he tried to make up his mind, Maxine slid her arms around Rand’s neck and they came together in a kiss that sent guilty voyeuristic shivers down Jesse’s back. The passion they shared could not be mistaken, and he turned his horse away, ashamed of himself, although he hadn’t intended to spy on them.

  Later he told Meg about the encounter, adding, “It makes me wonder if they really are a love match.” He saw her stormy expression and conceded, “I know, the timing’s too convenient. But if you’d seen them—”

  “I don’t believe this, Jesse,” Meg cut in. “He obviously married her in an attempt to get his hands on his inheritance. He deliberately chose a woman he’d have no trouble walking away from after it’s all over.”