10
C at perused the produce aisle of the grocery store with an eye for something exotic. Cantaloupe, kiwi, rutabaga, it all seemed pretty bland. Then her gaze locked with a mocking blue one, and her heart skidded to a stop. But the gaze wasn’t topped off by a head of bright blond hair; instead a black mane surrounded the face that grinned back at her.
“Hi, Jess,” Cat said, biting back the urge to ask about Jared. It had been four days since she’d seen him. She missed him more every second that passed.
“Hi,” Jess said, studying Cat’s cart. “You cook?”
“I even enjoy it,” Cat confessed.
“Eww!” Jess shuddered, clutching a six-pack of cola and a package of fig newtons to her chest. “How’s school going?”
“So far so good,” Cat answered. “The kids were a little rowdy on the first day, but they’ll settle in. With one exception, of course.”
“Of course.” Jess grinned. “So who’s the resident troublemaker?”
“Ty Pearson.” Cat sighed. “Know him?”
“Actually, yeah.” Jess frowned. “Very rough home life.”
“I suspected as much.” Cat chewed her lip.
“What are you going to do?” Jess asked.
“Love him as much as I can while he’s in my class.” Cat shrugged. “It’s my job to teach him that he’s valuable, and that school is his only way out of that so-called home.”
“You’ll do it.” Jess nodded.
“How can you be so sure?” Cat asked. “I’m not even sure myself.”
“Because I saw what you did for Jared,” Jess answered softly.
“What did I do for Jared?” Cat wheeled her cart through produce toward canned goods, trying to feign indifference.
“I don’t know exactly.” Jess laughed. “All I know is that my brother has never, in all my life, told me that he loved me. Not even when I got shot.”
Cat’s gaze flew to Jess’s in surprise.
“Oh, I always knew he did,” Jess continued. “But he never said it. I think he felt too vulnerable. Like if he acknowledged how he felt, then it all might be taken away. He told you that our mother died when we were young?”
“Yeah,” Cat whispered around the lump in her throat.
“Well, I guess he was always afraid that if he admitted that he cared, then Dad and I would be taken away, too.” Jess paused. “That’s just my theory, but it’s totally irrelevant now. Thanks to you.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Cat protested, her breath coming in shallow gasps.
“Yeah, right.” Jess tilted her head and studied Cat closely. “When my brother showed up with you, that first night on the ranch, he told me he loved me. If he hadn’t been hugging me, I’d have fallen down. I don’t know what’s happening between you and Jared or what will happen. All I know, is that you gave me a part of my brother I thought I’d never see. Thank you, Cat.”
“I didn’t. I couldn’t. It’s not what you think.” Cat shook her head.
Jess gently pried loose the can of tomato soup Cat unwittingly clutched in her hands.
“Thank you, Cat,” she repeated as she put the can in the cart, spun on her heel and left the grocery store.
Dazed, Cat followed in Jess’s wake with nothing more in her cart than a can of soup.
Cat spent the afternoon unpacking the last of her boxes with Lucy at her feet. Sally had cleared out some of her bookshelves and Cat was happily filling them up when she came upon a purple satin box, a bit larger than a shoe box, mixed in with her books.
The purple box! On the first day of their trip, Jared had said he found a purple box in the back of the van and had packed it in another box for safekeeping. Cat had completely forgotten about it.
She ran her hand over the smooth satin surface. She had never owned a box like this. She wondered if it was a present from Cameron and Julia. Cat flipped open the old-fashioned clasp and lifted the lid.
Winking at her in the late afternoon light from a bed of satin was the most breathtaking necklace Cat had ever seen. She slammed the lid down. This was not a gift for her. She opened the box again and lifted the necklace from its nest. It was cold and heavy and shimmered in the light as if it were alive. Three rows of small diamonds made up the choker and a large square ruby the size of Cat’s thumb sat in the middle.
“Lucy, we’re in big trouble,” she said. “Come on, let’s go see Jess.”
Cat stuffed the necklace back into the box and raced out to her SUV. She opened the passenger side door and waited for Lucy to jump up. Lucy didn’t budge.
“Come on, Lucy,” she said. “We’re going for a ride. Up! Hop up!”
Lucy growled at the interior of the car and still refused to move.
“Sweetie,” Cat said as she put the box on the floor of the car and wrapped her arms around the dog. “I don’t have time for this right now.”
With a groan, Cat hefted the dog into the passenger’s seat and clipped her in. She hurried around the front of the car. She climbed into the driver’s seat and fastened her seat belt. Lucy was still growling so Cat turned on the ignition and pushed the button to roll down her window.
“It’s all right, girl,” she said and patted the dog on the head. Lucy ignored her.
Cat frowned and put the SUV into Reverse. She was halfway down her driveway when a head popped up from behind her seat. Cat screamed and stomped on the brake pedal. It was Fly! Her arm shot across the seat to protect Lucy. Fly wasn’t so lucky and smashed his nose against the back of her seat.
A string of curses flew out of his mouth but Cat wasn’t listening. She tried to release Lucy’s collar and opened her door, planning to make a run for it.
“Don’t try it,” a voice instructed. Cat glanced around to see Mabel pop up on the seat next to Fly. She was holding a gun and it was pointed right at Cat. “It seems you’ve found our property.”
“I’m sure there’s been some mistake,” Cat said.
“Yeah, trying to steal our goods was a big mistake on your part,” Mabel agreed. “It took us a few days to get your name and address from the place you rented that moving van from, but as you can see persistence pays. Give it here.”
“Give what?” Cat asked, rendered stupid by the sight of the gun.
“The necklace,” Mabel waved the weapon impatiently. “Give me the necklace.”
Cat grabbed the box off the floor and handed it to Mabel.
Mabel kept the gun trained on Cat while she unfastened the lid and examined the necklace.
“Ah,” she purred. “You have no idea what I went through to get this.”
“I’m sure I don’t,” Cat said, her fingers flexing around the door handle. If she could just distract them maybe she could get away.
“Six months I spent scrubbing toilets, polishing glass and cleaning up little kids’ vomit in that stinking New England Heirloom Museum just so I could get my hands on this beauty.”
“It wasn’t all you, dumpling,” Fly protested. “I had to work security for six months, too.”
“Security?” Mabel scoffed. “All you boys did was drink coffee, eat donuts and watch daytime TV. No, I had to do the hard part, sugarplum. And don’t you forget it.”
“I got you the codes, didn’t I, dearest?” Fly asked. “You couldn’t have broken in without me.”
“All right, pudding,” Mabel said. “You helped a little. But I’m the one who cut the glass and managed to lift out the necklace without setting off the laser alarm. These fingers might be old, but they’re as steady as a twenty-year-old’s.”
“Just as pretty, too,” Fly said. “See. You young folk don’t pay us old folk no mind. You think we’re just washed-up old has-beens sitting around in our wrinkled skin waiting to die. Well, phooey! Me and the missus have the lightest fingers in the fifty states and we’ve got the Swiss bank account to prove it.”
“Oh, my God! You’re the jewel thieves we heard about on the radio. But I don’t understand,” Cat said. “How did that necklace end up in my boxes unless...”
“We put it there,” Fly said. “The heat was on us. The cops almost nailed us in Massachusetts. We had to keep switching vehicles to lose them, and we didn’t want to risk them catching us with the goods. It’s a lot easier to play the senile senior citizen with a stolen vehicle than it is with a necklace worth three million. We broke into your hotel room back in New Mexico to get it back but we couldn’t find it. Still, with that ‘AZ or Bust’ sign we decided to use you to transport our latest acquisition since we’re meeting our buyer in Arizona.”
“Come on, we’ve got a meeting to get to,” Mabel said with a wave of the gun.
“What about her?” Fly asked.
“She’s driving us,” Mabel said. “And we’re bringing her little dog, too. Put it in drive, kiddo.”
Cat blanched but did as she was told. How was she going to get out of this one? She tried to think but her brain was clenched with fear and her thoughts were nothing but white noise.
“And don’t try anything or you’ll be sorry,” Mabel said.
“What are we going to do with her?” Fly asked.
“I suppose we’ll have to shoot her,” Mabel said.
Cat felt her head spin and she had to swallow to keep her lunch down.
“I want to be the one to shoot her, sweet pea,” Fly said.
“No!” Mabel said and then softened her tone, “No, honeybunch, you know you’re a lousy shot.”
“I am not. I can hit the diamond on the ace of diamonds at fifty paces.”
“More like five paces.”
“There you go again,” Fly said. “Miss Hoity-Toity. You always think you’re so much better than me. My mother was right about you.”
“Don’t you drag that old battle-ax into this, you mama’s boy,” Mabel said. “That woman was nothing but mean to me from the first.”
“That’s because she knew you weren’t good enough for me.” Fly sniffed.
Cat glanced in the mirror to see them glaring at one another. It was now or never. She braked the car in the middle of the road. Both Fly and Mabel were knocked to the floor. Cat opened her door and hefted Lucy out with her.
“Run, Lucy!”
Cat only got three paces away when she heard a pitiful yip behind her. Cat turned to see Mabel standing outside the car, holding Lucy by her ears.
“Get back in the car or else,” Mabel said and waved the gun at her.
On knees that shook like loose change, Cat climbed back into the driver’s seat while Fly picked up Lucy and put her back in the passenger’s seat.
Mabel leaned forward and pinched Cat’s forearm with one of her age-spotted old hands. “No more stunts or else.”
Cat nodded. She bit her lip to keep from crying. She had to keep her wits about her. She had to pay attention and look for an opportunity to escape. It was her only chance.
“Turn here and park,” Mabel ordered. Cat turned the SUV into the entrance to the Copper Creek Buttes State Park. A group of ramadas and a water fountain were all that marked the desolate camping area. She had dropped off Fly, who was now following them in their latest RV, an Airstream trailer towed by a large pickup.
“Get out,” Mabel ordered. “Take the dog with you.”
Cat climbed out of the car, leading Lucy by her leash.
“Do you see our contact?” Mabel asked Fly as he joined them.
“Yeah, he’s sitting over there,” Fly said and pointed to the furthest ramada.
“Okay,” Mabel said. “We’re not going to kill you. But that’s only because we don’t want murder on our rap sheet. But it won’t be our fault if you get lost in the desert and die of exposure. Right, Fly?”
Cat felt her knees sag with relief.
“That’s right,” he agreed. He was wearing a pair of binoculars around his neck, looking like a regular birdwatcher.
“So, start walking,” Mabel said and waved the gun at Cat.
Anything was better than hanging around these two gun-toting old coots. Cat began to walk.
“Hold it,” Fly said. He grabbed Lucy’s leash out of Cat’s hands. “Just so you don’t get any ideas about not doing what we tell you. You keep walking or we shoot the mutt. Got it?”
“No—” Cat protested.
But Mabel cut her off, “Fly will watch you with his binoculars. If you turn around, and he sees you, I’ll shoot your dog. Understand?”
Cat felt her insides twist. Lucy whimpered and Cat felt the lump in her throat harden. If anything happened to Lucy, she would hunt down these two geriatrics and make them pay. Cat turned and began to walk in as straight a line as possible. How would she ever be able to find her way back? Then she remembered what Jared had told her. She knew the Bickersons were watching her so every few yards she carefully reached out and twisted the limb of a creosote bush, hoping that later she would be able to use the marker to find her way home.
Cat’s SUV was found at the base of the Copper Creek Buttes. There was no sign of foul play, but that did nothing to ease the terror that pounded through Jared like random cannon fire.
After questioning her neighbors, he discovered she’d been gone most of the day. She’d last been seen late in the afternoon, driving through town with an older couple. She’d taken Lucy with her. It was assumed she’d gone out for a drive with friends.
Assumed. The word sent waves of panic coursing through Jared’s body. Assumed missing. Assumed dead. He hated the word “assumed.” It was all his fault. He should have kept a closer eye on her.
The description of the older couple matched the Bickersons exactly. Jared remembered Cat’s insistence that Mabel and Fly were following them. He called Jess. She confirmed what he feared. The Bickersons were felons wanted in connection with the heist of the Divine choker from the New England Heirloom Museum. They were last seen in an RV headed west.
The crisis was not alleviated by Cameron Levery’s sudden appearance in town. On an unexpected business trip to Phoenix, he’d decided to surprise Cat with a quick visit.
“What do you mean my sister is missing?” he shouted. Having gone to her house and found her gone, Cameron had driven out to the ranch to visit Jared. It was then that Jess called to report that Cat’s car had been found.
“We think she went for a drive,” Jared said, not mentioning the Bickersons’ possible abduction. He didn’t think Cameron’s nerves could take it. “But she’s been gone all day, and no one knows exactly where she went.”
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Cam said, pacing the room like a nervous father on prom night. “This wasn’t part of the plan.”
“What plan?” Jared asked.
“My plan to fix you two up,” Cam said. “She was never supposed to be out of your sight. You were supposed to fall in love on the drive out and then you’d be together and I could stop worrying about the two of you. So, what’s wrong with my sister that you didn’t fall in love with her?”
“Who said I’m not?” Jared asked.
Cameron scrutinized his friend’s face. Jared didn’t need a mirror to know his jaw was clenched so tight that lines of worry were creasing his cheeks and brow. He knew he looked as scared and desperate as he felt and he knew Cameron could see it, too.
“All right.” Cam nodded. “Only a man in love could look as wrecked as you do. Let’s go find her.”
She felt as if she’d walked for hours. She’d promised herself she would walk until the sun set and then she would turn around and go back the way she came. There was no way Mabel and Fly would be able to see her in the dark, assuming they were still watching.
The sun was just beginning to set and it was getting cooler when she heard a rustling in the scrub behind her. Cat spun around, looking for anything that slithered or scurried in the desert brush. All was still. She tried not to panic, but the rustling noise started again and it was getting closer. Did coyotes attack people? What if it was a rattlesnake? What could she use for a weapon?
Cat searched the ground looking for a big stick or a rock. There was nothing save dry grass and dirt. There were no large trees to climb, no water holes to jump into. Nothing.
The noise grew louder and Cat strained to see what was coming out of the bush at her. Didn’t they have javelinas, wild pigs, out here? She turned and braced herself, ready to kick at anything that came within a yard of her.
The animal broke free of the bushes and launched itself at Cat. She had just a second to register the familiar yip, the soft black fur and open her arms. Lucy bowled her over right into the dirt.
“Oh, Lucy,” she said. “I was afraid I’d never see you again. Did you run away or did they let you go? I bet you made a break for it. That’s my good girl.”
Lucy licked the tears off her face and Cat hugged her close.
They were standing a hundred yards away from a large flat-topped boulder. Knowing that the Bickersons couldn’t possibly see them any longer, Cat hiked to the boulder. She climbed onto the rock and Lucy followed her. It was unlikely that anyone knew she was missing or would even know to look for her out here in the desert, but she figured her odds of being spotted were better if she was above the desert floor. Hugging Lucy close to her chest, Cat decided to wait out the dark night and to start back at first light.
There was no moon and the night was as black as tar, but Cat could discern the familiar forms around her. She sat cross-legged on the rock, her sleeping puppy nestled against her side. She’d had moments of sheer terror. Amazingly, it wasn’t death that frightened her, but rather the fear that she might never see Jared again. Suddenly, it didn’t seem to matter whether she was independent and self-sufficient or not. All that mattered was the man that filled her heart.
He was right. She was different with him. Why had it taken her so long to see that? With Jared, she never lost herself. With Jared, she never felt a need to subvert her needs to meet his. From the first day she’d met him, she’d been able to assert herself with him. He’d accepted it and loved her in spite of it. And he did love her. She knew that now.
Why hadn’t she seen it sooner? Why hadn’t she acknowledged all of the little ways she remained herself with him? He’d saved her life, yes, but she’d given him his. They were two halves of a whole. Yin and yang. Earth and sky. Sun and moon. And she was an idiot.
When the first pink fingers of dawn began to stretch across the sky, Cat opened her eyes. She was cold and her muscles ached. But, she reminded herself, they were alive. Curled up around the puppy with only a sweatshirt for cover, she rubbed Lucy’s cold fur until they were both warm. They would be all right. They had to be.
“Let’s go home,” she said and Lucy jumped off the rock, eager to be on their way.
The morning chill soon dissipated, and Cat shed her sweatshirt, tying it around her waist.
They stopped to rest at the base of a hill that Cat was certain looked familiar. The bent limb of a creosote marked it as a place she had been. A cactus wren watched them from the tip of a saguaro, while Cat kept her eyes on the ground. She didn’t want any surprises, like a rattlesnake, to leap up and catch her or Lucy unaware.
They walked on, following Cat’s trail of bent branches, for most of the morning, until finally, Cat noticed the roofs of the ramadas off in the distance.
“Oh, Lucy, baby, we’re almost home,” Cat cried and dashed forward and down the steep hill with the last ounce of energy her body had. As if sensing her urgency, Lucy bounded along on her heels.
At the sound of footsteps, slamming into the rocky hill above, Jared’s heart lurched into his throat. Please, he begged, please, let it be.
He saw her wild hair first. It was glinting in the sun in shades of copper and gold. She looked sunburnt and tired. There were scratches on her knees and a tear in her shirt.
Jared felt his throat close. She was all right. He told himself to breathe, but his lungs seemed to have forgotten how. She’d done it. She’d found her way home. A sweet rush of relief and thanks swept through him with an intensity that left him weak.
Her eyes were fixed on the ground. She still hadn’t seen him. When her lashes swept up, and those quick-changing irises saw him, she froze in her tracks.
They stood gazing at one another as if they’d been apart for years and not days. And then Jared’s arms were opening, and Cat was running to him. Their lips met in a kiss that bespoke fear and need and love.
When they parted, Cat was crying in great torrential sobs, the way she was wont to do. It sounded like music to Jared, and he laughed through the knot in his throat.
Lucy was not to be denied, and Jared reached down to scratch her head, never loosening his hold on Cat. Straightening back up, his lips swooped down on hers in a primal need. Cat drowned in his kiss, all the while frantically touching his hair, his face and his body as if to reassure herself that he was indeed real.
When they broke apart, her tears were gone, and a smile lit her features. “What are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you,” he said, his voice thready.
“The Bickersons...” she started.
But Jared finished, “Were picked up at the state line with a cool two point five million dollars in their possession. They told Jess that you were actually the one who stole the necklace. They were just working for you. What they didn’t know was that their contact was actually an undercover FBI agent. They’ve got them dead to rights. They’re going to be put away for a long time.”
“They forced me to walk. They were going to shoot Lucy if I didn’t,” Cat said. Jared uttered an oath.
It was then that Cat noticed the large group of pickup trucks and horse trailers parked just beyond the ramadas.
“Organizing the cavalry?” she asked.
“I called in a few favors,” he explained with a smile.
“I did it.” She gestured vaguely to the rocky cliffs behind them. “I found my own way.”
“I never doubted that you could,” he said.
“I know.” Cat cupped his beautiful face between her hands and peppered him with kisses. “I love you, Jared.”
“Enough to marry me?” he asked, feeling as if his heart would burst.
“Yes, oh yes,” she cried.
“That’s good,” Jared said. “Because your brother is here.”
“Cameron is here?” Cat gasped.
“Yep, right down there.” Jared pointed to his Jeep. “He set us up, you know.”
“What do you mean?” Cat asked.
“The trip cross-country,” Jared said. “He told me that he figured all along that we’d fall in love. In fact, that was his plan.”
“His plan?” Cat repeated, but didn’t bother to listen to any confirmation. Jared was left to follow in her dusty wake as she stomped down the hill toward her brother.
“Cat, I was so worried.” Cameron opened his arms wide with relief. Cat stepped in close but instead of hugging him she stomped on his instep.
“Yow!” Cameron howled and danced around on one foot. “What did you do that for?”
“What’s the big idea meddling in my personal life?” she asked. “You had no right setting Jared and I up like that. Do you have any idea the anguish you put him through? He was tormented about that stupid guy code that says a guy isn’t supposed to touch his friend’s sister.”
“What?” Cameron asked and looked at Jared who nodded. “That only applies until such time as the brother gives his consent. I sent you cross-country with my baby sister, you dunce. You needed more consent than that?”
Jared shrugged.
“And what about me?” Cat asked. “You knew I wanted to be on my own to prove my independence, but you just couldn’t let me be, could you? No, you had to send this big galoot with me.”
“It’s only because I care,” Cameron protested. “After the big dumb jerk hurt you so bad, I wanted you to have the best guy I know.”
“I know,” Cat said. This time when she stepped in close, Cameron ducked but she pulled him into a big hug instead. “He’s the best thing you’ve ever done for me. Thanks, big brother.”
Cameron eyed his sister warily, as if looking for another stomp to his instep. But she just kissed his cheek and squeezed him harder.
“You love him, too?” Cameron grinned from ear to ear. “I knew it. I knew if you two were alone together for a couple of days, you’d fall for each other. Jeez, I am good at this. Maybe I should start a new business. A sideline...Fix Ups by Cameron. Or no, better yet, A Match Made by Cameron. What do you think?”
But Cat and Jared weren’t listening. Jared took her hand and led her away from the others. He hadn’t quite gotten his fill of her yet. He doubted he ever would.
“I love you,” he said and scooped her up in a fierce bear hug.
“I never doubted that you did,” she whispered in his ear.
––––––––
I t really didn’t matter whether she believed him or not, Jared thought, for he intended to spend the next sixty to seventy years letting her know just how very much he loved her. And as his lips covered hers, Jared knew that now they’d found one another, neither of them would ever be lost again.