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“Sure. I’m fine.”
“Have you been eating right?” He frowned. “You always did skip meals. Maybe you’re not getting enough vitamins or—”
“Cade,” Kyra said gently, “why don’t you do us both a favor and stop thinking for me?”
Cade’s mouth twisted. “What is this? The new female battle cry?”
Kyra gave him a long look and then she sighed. “Get some sleep,” she said. “We’ll talk when you’re back among the living.”
Cade didn’t argue. His brain was barely functioning; he made it up the steps and into his room, and collapsed on the bed.
* * *
He awoke confused after a long, rambling dream that had involved a woman with a mane of copper curls. He’d chased her for hours across what had looked like the Texas flats, only to catch her, turn her in his arms—and discover that she wasn’t anyone he knew.
He sat up, flexed his shoulders and rubbed his hands across his face. He needed a shower and a shave and then—assuming he could find the energy—he’d go to the Landon offices, phone Zach and begin pulling together the materials he needed.
When he came downstairs, Kyra was waiting for him, along with a platter of bacon and eggs, a stack of toast and a pot of coffee.
“What?” he said, smiling. “No groaning sideboard? No obscene breakfast buffet?”
Kyra smiled, too. “I’m going to be making some changes.” she said. “Go on, eat. You’re looking at that food like a starving man.”
Cade laughed. “I must have had a meal sometime in the past twenty-four hours, but if I did, I sure as hell don’t remember it.”
When he was done, he sat back and sighed with pleasure. “That was terrific, Squirt. One more cup of coffee, and then I’m off.”
“To where?”
“To the office.”
‘For what?”
“I have to pull some papers from the files.”
“Why?”
Cade’s brows lifted. “Squirt,” he said patiently, “it’s business. You wouldn’t understand.”
Kyra’s lips tightened. “Try me.”
“Sis, look, I know you mean well, but—”
“But what? Is it too complicated for my pretty head?”
Cade threw down his napkin. “What the hell is going on here? I tell you right now, I’ve had a bellyful of this crap!”
“Well, so have I.” His sister glared at him. “Women don’t like to be treated like—like dolls.”
“And men don’t like to be despised for trying to show they care. If a man didn’t love a woman, he wouldn’t…”
Cade clamped his lips together. Then he shoved back his chair and got to his feet. “If Zach or Grant calls, tell them they can reach me at the office.”
Kyra nodded. “Yes, sir,” she said sweetly.
Cade stormed out the door.
* * *
It took almost a week for Cade to get all the information to Zach and for Zach to comb through it. But, at last, he telephoned.
“OK,” he said, “we’re almost there.”
“What do you mean, almost? I sent you everything in the files.”
“Yeah. Some interesting stuff, too. That woman who’s been running Gordon’s? She’s made some clever suggestions about restructuring the company’s debts. I’m impressed.”
I do know about finances and debt structures, and if you’d only given me a minute or two of your precious time…
“Never mind being impressed,” Cade said sharply. “Just give me a buyout price.”
“I will, but I’ll need some updated figures first.”
“Dammit, Zach, just come up with a number! Any number!”
“I don’t do business that way, Cade, and neither does any man in his right mind. Look, what’s the big deal? Call Dallas, talk to a secretary or a clerk—”
“I don’t have to talk to the Gordon woman?”
“No, of course not. Half a dozen quick questions, and that’s it.”
A muscle knotted in Cade’s jaw. “That’s it?”
“You got it, brother. Twenty-four hours later, you’ll own Gordon Oil.”
Twenty-four hours later, Cade thought as he hung up the phone, he could forget about Angelica Gordon forever.
He dreamed again that night, some hellish nightmare that had him racing down a dark corridor, banging open doors but never finding the one thing his hammering heart told him he must find…
…the one woman he must find…
“Angelica?” he said, as he shot bolt upright in bed.
After a moment, he shoved back the covers and got to his feet. It had snowed outside, the first snow of the season, and the land lay white and still in the moonlight. He stood at the window, looking at the night sky, wondering if there were any chance Angelica might be looking at the same moon and feeling what he felt, this awful emptiness where his heart should have been.
“Damn,” he whispered, and pounded his fist into his hand.
He didn’t love her. He had never loved her—and she sure as hell had never loved him. The only thing she loved was some hardheaded, selfish dream.
He pulled on a pair of jeans and an old sweatshirt. Barefoot, he made his way through the sleeping house to the kitchen. He hadn’t wanted a cup of hot chocolate in years, but tonight…
Moonlight illuminated the figure of his sister. Dressed in a long flannel nightgown, Kyra sat curled on the cushioned sill of the big bay window that overlooked the mountains.
“What are you doing up?” Cade said. “It’s late. And it’s cold down here. You should be wearing a robe, and…” He frowned and cleared his throat. “Kyra? Do I—ah, do I do that a lot? Am I, uh, do I tend to be overly protective?”
She smiled gently. “You mean, are you like Father?”
“What? No! Of course not. I’m nothing like the old man. Hell, I’d never—”
“Oh, you’re not anywhere near as dominating, and you’re certainly not selfish.” She put her hand on his. “But you do like to control.”
Cade pulled his hand away. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Maybe you think control and protection are the same, that you have to control somebody in order to take care of them and love them.”
“Great God almighty!” Cade slammed his hands onto his hips. “Don’t tell me I’ve
run into another believer in the joys of psychology!”
“Or maybe, down deep, you think you have to control someone to keep them from abandoning you.”
“What?”
“I wonder if it could have something to do with what happened the night of your twenty-first birthday?”
“What in hell are you talking about?”
“Oh, Cade.” Kyra’s voice was soft. “You know you’ve never forgotten. That girl who left you—Casey? Lacey?”
“Stacey,” Cade snapped, “and what would you know about it? You were just a baby.”
“I was fifteen,” Kyra said with a little smile. “Hardly a baby. I knew how hurt you were.”
Cade flushed. “I wasn’t hurt, I was ticked off. Hell, I was only a kid.”
“Come on, admit it. Losing her that way must have left a hole in your heart. Someday you’ll meet a woman…” His sister looked at him, her eyes wise beyond her years. “Or have you met her already?” she asked gently. “Is that what’s put the shadows in your eyes?”
Cade glared at her. “Thank you, Dr. Freud,” he snarled. “Your brilliant analysis has been more than helpful.”
He pivoted on his heel and marched from the room. Kyra watched him go, and then she sighed.
“You did ask,” she whispered, and turned her face to the window.
Zach had said Cade only needed to phone the Gordon office for the final information.
But in the morning, Cade boarded the earliest flight he could get for Dallas.
In the long run, it would be quicker, he told himself; he could get the stuff he needed straight from Emily without any possibility of a slipup, and if he called ahead, he could do it at a time when Angelica would be out of the office.
But somehow, he forgot to make the call before he left Denver. He forgot to make it when he reached the airport in Dallas, and it even slipped his mind to call from the cellular phone in his rental car.
Well, it didn’t matter. Seeing Angelica again wouldn’t bother him at all, he told himself as he pushed open the door to the Gordon office, and if Angelica didn’t like it, that was just too damned—
“Yes? May I help you, sir?”
