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Then he allowed himself to breathe, ears ringing from the horn blast, or maybe the cursing he was sure the conductor was now doing. Eyes on the road ahead, Ty noted the absence of dust and braked to whirl the entire car around. At the highway he glanced both ways. The only vehicle on the road was heading south, so that’s the way he went. It had to be the car Norma Rose was in. He became more convinced when it turned east on an unmarked road. The other car clicked on its lights then, most likely convinced it hadn’t been followed. Ty also recognized that it was a St. Paul police car.
Why hadn’t he warned her about Williams? The man had failed in kidnapping Dave, so had chosen the next best thing. The better thing. Roger would do anything to get his daughter back. So would Ty.
He eased off the gas to get his mind in order. His gun was in his truck and Bronco was nowhere to be seen in the rearview mirror. No doubt he’d been stopped by the train. Williams turned again, and Ty followed, but hung back. The next turn the other car made appeared to be a driveway. Ty took the Duesenberg through the shallow ditch on the driver’s side of the road and squeezed the car between two pine trees, where he parked. He climbed out and hurried up to what indeed proved to be a driveway.
A ramshackle house, leaning to one side with shutters hanging off the windows, glowed in the headlights as the squad car rolled to a stop. Williams climbed out, dragging Norma Rose beside him while a third person, who Ty presumed from her figure to be Janet Smith, got out of the passenger side and hurried ahead to open the door of the house.
Cursing for leaving his gun behind, Ty scrambled through the bushes growing along the driveway and then around to the side of the house. There were no broken or open windows and he couldn’t hear a thing, until the front door opened.
Staying out of the headlight beams, Ty eased to the edge of the house.
“She’ll be fine until morning,” Janet was saying. “You need to get back to the party before you’re missed.”
“You know where to park the squad car after dropping me off?” Williams asked.
“Yes. I’ll also make the call, let the big man know the bird is in the cage. You just make sure you put that ransom note someplace where it won’t be found until morning,” Janet said. “I was afraid we were being followed there for a little bit.”
“No one was following us,” Williams said. “I had one eye on the rearview mirror the whole time. There were no lights behind us except that train. Which was perfect timing. That’s why we took this little girl. No one would think to follow a squad car. And I know the perfect place for the ransom note. With Norma Rose out here, no one will go into her office until morning.”
“When they can’t find her,” Janet said with a laugh. “We can’t fail this time.”
They climbed in the car, and their laughter hung louder in the air than the car’s engine as Williams backed up and headed down the driveway.
Ty ran around the back of the house, just in case Williams noticed his car and came back. Throwing open the back door, he hissed, “Norma Rose!”
There was no answer, just thumping. Ty rushed toward the sound, stubbing his toes and tripping over furniture along the way. She was in the center of the main room, tied in a chair like an actress left by a villain in a silent movie.
“Are you all right?” he asked, while pulling the rag tied across her mouth over her head. “Hurt anywhere?”
“Yes and no,” she said. “Ted and Janet grabbed me at the resort.”
“I know. I followed.” He searched for the knots in the rope wrapped around her.
“Where were you?”
“In Chicago until a short time ago,” he answered, finally finding a knot.
“My feet are tied, too, and there’s a set of nippers on my wrists,” she said. “What were you doing in Chicago?”
“Damn it,” Ty whispered, now searching for a knot on her ankles. “It’s darker than sin in here. I was working.”
“Open the front door,” she suggested. “Let the moonlight in. This is Janet and Jeb’s old house. Where they lived before he was arrested.”
Ty found the knot, untied it and then he kissed her. Just a quick kiss, as she was still handcuffed, however, it soon turned into several short, sweet kisses when her lips met his with smooth perfection.
“Come on,” he said against her mouth. “Let’s get out of here.”
She stood, with his help. “The door’s straight ahead.”
“Are you all right?” he asked again. “Not hurt anywhere?”
“I’ll be fine once you get these nippers off my wrists.”
Ty found the door and opened it, amazed by how much light the moon provided. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. He pulled out his pocketknife and picked the lock.
Rubbing her wrists while he pocketed his knife and the cuffs, she asked, “Did you find the snitch?”
“I’ll tell you on the way,” he said.
“No.” She planted her feet stubbornly on the not-so-stable front porch. “Tell me now.” When he didn’t answer right away, she insisted, “I deserve to know. I was just kidnapped.”
He’d already told her father—already told himself—that she was the woman he loved and would love from this day forward, but he’d yet to tell her. He couldn’t. Not until a few other things were taken care of. “There is no snitch,” he said. “Williams was trying to keep any suspicion off himself. He and Janet are the ones who attempted to kidnap Dave, trying to drug him with rotten shine so he’d pass out and make it easy on them. When he became ill instead, they panicked.”
Even with the threat of Williams returning, Ty’s mind was wandering. He wanted to kiss her, hold her. Tell her how beautiful she was with the moonlight glistening in her hair, off her skin.
“So they kidnapped me this time.” Frowning, she asked, “Why?”
“There’s a mobster by the name of Ray Bodine. He wants a piece of your father’s action,” Ty explained. He felt relief at that explanation. It was time he told her. “Kidnapping a family member is his way of getting it—rather than asking for ransom money, he’ll ask for a partnership.”
“This Bodine, he’s the man you’ve been after since you arrived, isn’t he? The reason you came to Minnesota?”
Done withholding the truth from her any longer, he nodded. “Yes.” He took her hand. “Let’s get you back to the resort. My car is in the trees by the road.”
She shook her head. “If I go back, the only people to get arrested would be Ted and Janet, but—”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Ty growled. There was no way in hell he’d put her in that kind of danger.
“It’ll work,” she said. “You know it will.”
He did. That was the problem. Looking into those magnificent blue eyes of hers, something fluttered inside him. This was Norma Rose, and her intensity, her drive and take-charge attitude were only a few of the things he loved about her.
“It’ll work, Ty, they’ll never suspect, never see it coming.”
Hiding a grin and a good portion of his excitement—for this could work in more ways than one—he said, “On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“That I stay with you.”
She lifted a brow, glanced at the open doorway and then back at him. Her smile rattled his insides like nothing ever had before.
“Deal,” she said.
Chapter Seventeen
Norma Rose paced the floor, questioning if she was doing the right thing. She’d always known she’d do anything for the resort, for her father, but that wasn’t the reason she was doing this. Ty was, and from now on, he’d be her only reason for doing almost anything. Oh, and for herself, of course. Most definitely.
When she’d first heard his voice, calling to her, she’d thought she’d been dreaming, and then, not begging him to kiss her, really kiss her, long and hard, had taken all the will she’d ever dredged up. She’d done it, though, because that had to be the first step in convincing him she was serious. This old ramshackle house wasn’t the ideal location to tell him what she felt for him was love, but it would serve the purpose.
She’d opened the windows, but not the curtains, so no one would notice the candle she’d lit. It was old and shabby, but at least the cabin was clean. The chair still sat in the center of the room, with the ropes wrapped and loosely tied so she could slip them on if Ted or Janet returned.
Far off, she heard a car, and the fluttering inside her said it was Ty. They’d have tonight, alone, together, and she planned on taking advantage of that.
The whistle, one that sounded like a whip-poor-will, made her smile, and she whistled back, although hers wasn’t nearly as good as Ty’s.
“Did you find Bronco?” she asked, meeting him at the door.
“Yes. They were on the main highway, searching side roads.”
Her heart was thumping wildly and she tried to control it by concentrating on the conversation. “They?”
“Your father was with him.”
“You convinced him, didn’t you, that this will work?”
