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“Don’t you remember? That was your big argument against ‘us’ way back when. You thought I was just a kid.”
“You were,” he said, grinding the Jeep’s gears and taking off down the twin ruts of the lane.
At the highway he didn’t turn toward Three Falls, but guided the old rig in the opposite direction.
“Where’re you taking me?” she asked.
He cast a seductive glance in her direction. “If I told you, I’d spoil the surprise.”
“What surprise?” she demanded, a ripple of delight darting up her spine. Unpredictable, mysterious and secretive, Colton was never dull. “You know, this is starting to look like a kidnapping.”
“I thought we’d already established the fact that you’re not a kid anymore. Besides, you came willingly.”
“I guess I can’t argue with that,” she thought aloud, her nerve endings tingling in anticipation as she leaned back in the seat and squinted through the windshield.
They were headed west, and cathedral-spired mountains, their craggy slopes snow-laden and sheer, pierced the dusky sky.
Cassie gnawed nervously on the inside of her lip. Where was Colton taking her? she wondered, and more important, why?
Chapter Eight
Colton drove through a neighboring town and into the mountains. “We’re going to Garner’s Ridge?” she asked, surprised. “A ghost town?”
Colton laughed, and the rich sound filled the interior of the Jeep. The road twisted upward, turning to gravel as it wound through the pines and brush. The Jeep bounced and shimmied. Eventually the gravel turned to dirt. A sheer granite wall rose on one side of the deserted road, while forested cliffs fell away on the other.
When Colton shifted, his fingers nearly brushed her knee. As the Jeep rocked, their shoulders touched fleetingly.
The road narrowed around a final bend, and he slowed the Jeep to a stop at the end of what once had been the main street. A row of dilapidated buildings with sagging roofs and listing walls lined the narrow alley.
“Not much, is it?”
Together they walked through the old mining town where, nearly a hundred years before, gold had been discovered. In the beginning miners had flooded the area but later moved on because the mother lode had never been found. The few settlers who had arrived had left within twenty years.
Colton stepped onto the ramshackle boardwalk and shouldered open a door, which groaned as the rusted hinges gave way. Mice scurried across ancient floorboards, and a huge hole in the roof allowed a view of the darkening sky.
“Why did you bring me here?” Cassie asked, cautiously peeking through what little glass remained in the broken windows.
“I thought we needed a chance to be alone.”
“You, me and the ghosts?”
Colton chuckled and grabbed her hand. “I thought we needed to put everything into perspective,” he admitted. “Sometimes too many other people and things get in the way.”
“Meaning Dad?”
“For one. Uncle John for another.”
“Not to mention Black Magic.”
“Right,” he said quietly, walking back through the front door of the old general store and down the uneven steps. Outside, he propped one shoulder against the rough bark of a huge pine tree.
Mist rose eerily from the forest floor, forming pale clouds near the buildings and giving the shadowy old town an aura of mystery. “You could almost believe real ghosts live in this town,” Colton murmured.
“And do you see any spirits?” Cassie stood next to him, her gaze following his. “Any ghosts from your past?”
“The only ghost I’ve had to deal with is you,” he admitted.
“Me?”
