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“That’s right. I guess that’s how he sees this, as an—” Gray frowned. “You know who I’m talking about?”
“Don’t look so surprised. Did you think you could come sniffing around the Song and not attract our interest? I had you checked out.”
“Were you worried about your hotel—or about Dawn?”
Keir looked at Gray, saw the tightly banked jealousy in his eyes, and laughed. “Take it easy. I was worried about Dawn but not for the reasons you think. Actually it was my mother who was worried about her and, believe me, that story’s even longer than yours. Let’s just say my interest in the lady is strictly fraternal.”
Gray thought it over, considered the openness in Keir’s expression and nodded. “A good thing for you that it is.”
Keir decided to let that pass. “So your uncle told you where Dawn was, and—”
“Jonas told me nothing, not even the truth about him maybe being her grandfather. He just said he wanted to settle an old debt and asked me to do the groundwork. I didn’t want to do it—I’m not one of my uncle’s fans—but it turned out I owed a debt, too, to him, so I agreed.”
Gray told Keir the story, from his first meeting with Harman to the last. “That’s when I underestimated him. I didn’t realize it but I must have tipped my hand and—O’Connell? Those rocks up ahead. Is that the formation we’re looking for?”
“Yes. Another ten miles, maybe less, and we’ll be there. If we’re right and Harman shows, I just hope—”
“Hope won’t do it,” Gray said coldly. “But I will.”
Keir looked at the man seated beside him. Gray seemed deceptively still. Once, hiking a canyon just a few miles from town, he’d spotted a mountain lion ready to spring on a mule deer. He remembered how the cat had concentrated all its energy, reflexes and mental acuity on that one moment, that one purpose and what it was about to do.
“You really do love her,” he murmured.
“Yes,” Gray said simply, “I do.”
“Baron?” Keir hesitated. “Look, if we’re right and Harman shows—”
“He’ll show, all right. I can feel it.”
So could Keir. What worried him wasn’t that Harman might not turn up, it was the icy determination of the man beside him.
“Yeah. Well, if he does… You let Dan and me deal with him. Okay?”
“Is that what you would do,” Gray said quietly, “if Kitteridge was after the woman who’d become your life?”
The men looked at each other. Keir nodded, not only in acceptance but in understanding. Gray smiled thinly. Then he turned away and stared out the window until, at last, the buildings and corrals of the Rocking Hor
se Ranch rose in the distance, shimmering in the heat of the thin desert air.
* * *
Mrs. Wilton was doing her best to smile. Dawn was doing her best to be civil.
“If you’d simply call ahead, Ms. Carter,” the owner of Rocking Horse Ranch said, the same as she had a little over a week ago during that other unannounced visit. “We do have a schedule. The boys appreciate holding to a routine.”
“I’m sure they do, Mrs. Wilton.” Dawn knotted her hands in her lap to keep them from shaking. She’d decided to treat her appearance here as nothing extraordinary, just another quick visit squeezed in during the work week. She didn’t want anyone to realize she was about to take her son and disappear. “As I said, I managed to free up some time at the last minute and I thought Tommy would like to go to dinner and then to a movie with me.”
“There’s a hot dog roast tonight, and cake and ice cream for Barry Salter’s birthday.”
“That sounds lovely,” Dawn said brightly, “but I really think Tommy will enjoy the special treat I’ve planned.”
“You’ll be back late,” Mrs. Wilton said, looking down her nose with disapproval.
“I’m afraid so. In fact…” Dawn smiled again, though it felt as if her lips were sticking to her teeth. “I might just keep Tommy overnight instead of bringing him back after the movie.”
Mrs. Wilton sighed. “You’ll be taking him home with you for the night, then?”
“Yes,” Dawn said blithely. How easy it was to lie, when lying was all that would save you. “I’ll have him back tomorrow morning, bright and early.”
