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“You wanted the truth, didn’t you? Well, you’re going to get it.”
She watched as he shoved his chair back and walked to the window. Staring out, his rigid back to her, he said, “I missed coming home to you at night. I missed hearing you sing in the shower. I missed your lingerie draped in the bathroom, I missed your perfume on the pillows, the feel of your hair brushing my face at night, the way you kicked your shoes into the closet…. I missed…” He turned and stared at her, his expression pensive and tormented. “I missed you, Kaylie. All of you.”
Her throat tightened, and for a second she thought the tears burning behind her eyes might spill. He sounded so sincere and a part of her longed to believe him.
“So…you’ve taken advantage of this…situation. Is that what this is all about?” she whispered, her voice shaky, her hands clenched so tightly around her napkin her fingers ached.
The muscles in the back of his neck tensed. “No.” Without another word, he walked out the door and it slammed behind him with a bang.
Kaylie tried to eat but the food stuck in her throat. Her appetite was gone. Angrily shoving her plate aside, she attempted to think rationally, to tell herself not to fall under Zane’s spell again, but the simple truth was that she still cared about him—maybe loved him.
“You’re the worst kind of fool,” she muttered, blinking back tears. She ran up to her room, snagged a jacket from the closet and struggled into boots that were a little too tight. Clomping back downstairs, she headed out the front door and nearly ran over Franklin, who, upon spying her, growled.
“I hope your bark is worse than your bite,” she said, sidestepping the dog.
The morning air was crisp. Drops of dew glistened on the sun-bleached grass, and sunlight streamed through the trees, warming the ground in dappled patches. Craggy mountains towered over the forests, and a few stray clouds drifted lazily in the blue sky.
This place was a touch of heaven, she thought reluctantly, remembering Zane’s description last night as he hauled her up here. And it did seem heavenly compared to her hectic pace in the city and the job she’d left. “The job you were hijacked from,” she corrected herself. “Sick aunt, indeed!”
She stopped at the Jeep and checked to see if it was unlocked. But the shiny rig hadn’t moved since Zane had parked it and the cellular phone was nowhere in sight. Every door, including the tailgate, was secured. The windows were rolled up and even the hood was latched. “Wonderful,” she sighed, dusting her hands.
She headed around the corner of the house and down a gravel lane to several outbuildings. The first small building was locked, so she balanced on her tiptoes on a chunk of wood and brushed aside the dust that had collected on the windowpanes. Shading her eyes, she squinted into the darkened interior. This particular building was a storage shed of sorts. Bags of feed and drums of oil, wheelbarrows and rakes, chain saws and other tools were stacked against the walls. In her peripheral vision she saw movement—a shadow. She braced herself.
“Find what you’re looking for?” Zane asked, propping one booted foot against the bottom rail of a fence. Franklin had linked up with him again and flopped down in the shade cast by the barn.
“Here, maybe this will help.” He reached into his pocket, withdrew a key ring and tossed it to her.
Kaylie snatched the ring in midair. She couldn’t believe he’d give her his keys. Now, if she could make it to the Jeep….
As if reading her thoughts, he extracted a second ring. “These are to the equipment,” he said, jangling his keys in the air. Kaylie watched as sunlight glinted against the sharp piece of metal. “But those—” he motioned to the keys gripped tightly in her fingers “—will get you in and out of most of the buildings on the place. Just be sure to lock all the doors behind you.”
The man was absolutely infuriating! “Oh, yes, master,” she mocked. “And when I leave the room, I’ll bow at your feet.”
“That would be nice,” he drawled, with the hint of a smile.
“You’re insufferable and overbearing—and a bully to boot!”
Zane’s smile disappeared. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, striding across the gravel that separated them and grabbing hold of her wrist.
“Sounds good to me. This wasn’t my idea in the first place!”
“Then you won’t object?”
“Me? Object to anything you say? Never!”
“That’s more like it!”
Insufferable. That’s what he was! But she didn’t protest as he tugged on her arm. Though she had to half run to keep up with him, she let him pull her along the short lane to the
barn she’d spied earlier from the den. The exterior of the old building was weathered, the metal roof rusted in places, but the fenced paddocks still held a few head of white-faced cattle.
Zane shoved on a huge door of the barn, and it creaked open. They stepped inside. The interior was dark. It smelled of horses and new hay, dust and cobwebs.
“Over there,” he said, taking her arm and propelling her across the worn plank floor to the back of the barn where two horses, on the other side of the manger, stood, tails switching, bridled and saddled. “I thought we’d take a ride.”
Kaylie cocked a brow. “And what makes you think I won’t just take off?”
“On Dallas, here?” he asked, nodding toward a rangy bay gelding. “Not much chance. He knows when it’s feeding time and no matter where he is, he hightails it back here.”
