Dawn Stewardson (4 page)

Turning his attention to Billy and Hoops again, Sully discovered they were both eyeing him—and saw that they looked nervous. Then he realized they didn’t look as if they’d been clearing brush all day.

Nobody wore shorts to clear brush. And nobody looked that clean after hours of physical labor. So if they hadn’t been working…

His relief rapidly dissolved into anger. If the car meant they’d been hitching, they’d just had the last ride of their lives, because he’d ground them from here to eternity.

I
NSIDE THE CAR
, Lauren watched uneasily as Sully started down the stairs. When she’d first seen that old porch, the thought had crossed her mind that it looked like a very relaxing spot…complete with big Adirondack chairs and old half-barrels spilling over with flowering plants.

But standing on the porch didn’t seem to have made Sully the slightest bit relaxed. He was wearing a glare that could probably kill at forty paces.

Billy and Hoops had been referring to him as the chief eagle, and he might well be a bird of prey at the moment—one who’d spotted his victim and was closing in for the kill. And since he was heading straight for her car, she knew who was cast in the role of victim.

That thought started her heart beating a nervous tattoo. Now, when she was actually going to have to face him again, she wished she’d given this trip a little more consideration. What had seemed like a good idea in Manhattan was seeming like a really bad idea here in the Adirondacks.

She tried to calm herself by looking completely away from Sully and focusing on the older man and woman following him down from the porch. They had to be Grace and Otis Plavsic, and she was relieved to see that neither of them seemed even slightly threatening.

Otis was about sixty and almost bald, but he gave the impression of being both fit and easygoing. Grace, who was positively tiny, had gray hair curling around a friendly, youthful face. She looked like everybody’s favorite aunt.

Sully, though, Lauren thought as her eyes strayed back to him, didn’t look like anybody’s favorite anything. Not the way he was glaring.

The nearer he got to the car, the more tempted she was to throw it into reverse and get out of here—before he discovered who was behind the wheel. But if she did that, Billy and Hoops would have to do all the explaining, which would hardly be fair.

Taking a deep breath and smoothing the skirt of her dress, she told herself that if she didn’t stay long enough to have a tour of the place the boys would be awfully disappointed. Besides, after a four-hour drive it only made sense to finish what she’d started—whether Jack Sullivan liked it or not. It was his kids’ feelings she cared about, not his.

Sully took a final glance at the Mercedes’s windshield and decided he’d need X-ray vision to see through it, even from close range. Then he looked at Billy and Hoops—fixing them with a stare he’d perfected years ago, in prison.

“So?” he demanded. “What’s the deal here? This the guy you were working for today?”

“Not exactly,” Billy mumbled, suddenly fascinated by the toes of his sneakers.

“Then who is he…
exactly?
”

Hoops was wordlessly edging around the back of the car to the driver’s side. As he reached out and opened the door, Billy said, “Well…Sully…see, it’s not exactly a he.”

Hoops gave Sully an extremely anxious grin, then offered his hand to the driver. A delicate white hand took his black one.

And then Lauren Van Slyke emerged from the Mer cedes.

He simply stared at her for a minute, hoping he was hallucinating. He wasn’t, though. Honey-colored hair, cornflower blue eyes, the faint scent of that perfume wafting toward him—it was definitely her.

She was wearing a pale yellow dress today, when if she had any sense of the appropriate she’d be wearing something the color of storm clouds. Because she was one of the last people on earth he wanted within a hundred miles of Eagles Roost. But here she was, uninvited yet come to pay a call, anyway.

He wasn’t sure what had him more furious: the fact his kids had lied about what they were doing, that they’d obviously hitched all the way to Manhattan, that they’d brought
this
woman back with them, or that she’d come.

And why had Billy and Hoops gone to see her in the first place? They knew the Van Slyke Foundation provided their funding, but they didn’t know there was any problem. He hadn’t said a word about it, except to Grace and Otis.

Before he could figure out what was up, Lauren gave him a deviously innocent smile and extended her hand. “Mr. Sullivan…Sully. It’s so nice to see you again.”

He shook hands with her, but only because he was always lecturing his kids about manners. He didn’t say it was nice to see
her
again, though. He was also always lecturing them about telling the truth.

Turning her smile on Grace and Otis, she said, “You must be Mr. and Mrs. Plavsic. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Lauren Van Slyke.”

“Well…” Grace said, decidedly nonplussed. “Well…it’s a pleasure to meet you, too.” She glanced at Sully, raising her eyebrows to ask if he could have been mistaken about Lauren, silently suggesting she seemed like a perfectly lovely young woman.

In the meantime, Lauren had looked over at the other boys and was positively beaming at them. “And you three must be Freckles and Tony and Terry. Billy and Hoops told me all about you while we were driving.”

“Hello, Ms. Van Slyke,” Freckles stammered.

“Oh, I want all of you to call me Lauren. Billy and Hoops started off calling me Ms. Van Slyke, but I asked them to stop because they were making me feel a hundred years old.”

When Grace cleared her throat Sully glanced at her and realized her friendliness was on the verge of taking over. Before he could do anything to stop her, she said to Lauren, “After that long trip, you must be dying for a cold drink, so let’s go inside and get you one.”

“In a minute.” Sully reached for Lauren’s arm. “I’d like to speak to you alone,” he added, dragging her away from the car.

Since seven curious stares were following them, Sully kept on walking until he was sure he and Lauren were out of the others’ range of hearing.

“What are you doing here?” he finally demanded, stopping and letting go of her arm.

For a moment, she simply looked up at him as if he were a few trees short of a forest. Then she said, “I’d have thought that was perfectly obvious. Billy and Hoops showed up at my office, so I drove them home.”

“In other words, you rewarded them for breaking the rules.”

“I beg your pardon?” She drew herself up to her full-if-not-very-impressive height, and those big blue eyes began flashing warning signals.

He ignored them. He might be glad the boys were safely home, but for all he knew, bringing them here herself was part of some malevolent plan she’d hatched.

When common sense told him he was being paranoid, he ignored that, too. He hadn’t forgotten Lauren Van Slyke wasn’t a straight shooter, so the smartest thing to do was get rid of her. Fast. And that shouldn’t be tough. He’d simply get her so annoyed she’d be happy to leave.

“What I said,” he told her, although he knew she’d heard him the first time, “was that by driving Billy and Hoops home you rewarded them for breaking the rules. I’ll bet you even stopped on the way and fed them, didn’t you?”

“I hadn’t had any lunch,” she said defensively. “And I could hardly eat in front of them, so I bought them burgers.”

She looked so guilty she’d probably bought them fries, shakes, onion rings and pie, too.

“Terrific,” he muttered. “So they do something they know they shouldn’t and what happens? It gets them a ride in a fancy car and a free lunch.”

He eyed her closely for a second, deciding she was getting angrier. That did his heart good. Why should he be the only one with elevated blood pressure?

“Didn’t you wonder,” he pressed on, “what on earth they were doing in the city on their own? Weren’t you suspicious about how they’d gotten there? Didn’t it occur to you they’d probably broken some rules?”

“Of course it occurred to me,” she said in the Ice Princess voice he’d found so infuriating yesterday. “And I asked what the story was. But what do you think I should have done when they admitted they’d hitchhiked? Told them to hitchhike back?”

“No, you should have called me and let me know they were with you. I’m responsible for them. I’d have handled it from there.”

“Oh, really. Well, excuse me for not thinking of doing that,
Mr.
Sullivan. Excuse me a whole bunch for just doing what I thought was best. For spending hours driving in Friday afternoon traffic so that two boys, for whom
you
are responsible, would get home alive and well.”

“Now, just a minute here.”

“Don’t you
just a minute here
me,” Lauren snapped. Then she tried to rein in her anger. But she’d done the man a major favor and was he even a little grateful? Hah! Not a chance.

When the boys had been going on about how great their chief eagle was, she’d started wondering if it was possible she’d pegged him wrong. But she hadn’t. There wasn’t the slightest doubt that he was totally obnoxious. And an ungrateful jerk as well.

She glared up at him, counting to ten, while she wondered how Billy and Hoops could possibly respect him as much as they did. Then she counted to ten again, wondering how Grace and Otis could have worked for him for five years.

“Look,” she said when she’d regained at least partial control over her temper. “Billy and Hoops
asked
me to come back up here with them, because they were trying to help you. They’d gotten it into their heads that if they could convince me to have a look at Eagles Roost for myself, I might do something about your funding problem.”

The pulse in Sully’s temple began to throb. This woman had lied to him yesterday, when she’d denied ever talking to Otis about the program, and he’d just caught her at it again.

“I have trouble seeing how that’s true,” he told her coldly, “since I haven’t told them there’s a funding problem.”

“Oh?” She gave him such a superior look his blood pressure climbed a few more points. “Well, then Billy and Hoops must be junior mind readers, because they most definitely know. And as I said, they thought if I came up here and looked around it might help things.”

“But you knew it wouldn’t, so—”

“I knew it wouldn’t for
this
year. Maybe it will for next. But that wasn’t the main reason I came. I really just wanted to be sure those two didn’t end up hitching a ride with some homicidal maniac. So, now that they’re here in one piece—or two pieces, as the case may be—why don’t I just pass on the looking around and get going.” She gave Sully a final angry glare, then turned and began stomping back toward her car.

Fine!
he muttered silently. The sooner he saw that million-dollar Mercedes on its way, the happier he’d be.

He watched her for a moment, thinking about how the boys’ trip might have ended if she hadn’t driven them home, knowing he was being unreasonable.

He resisted for another few seconds. Then, half against his better judgment, he called, “Lauren?” and started after her.

She didn’t glance back and she didn’t slow down. Her high heels were digging into the dirt with each step, though, so she wasn’t exactly doing a five-minute mile. It took him only a few strides to catch up with her.

“Look,” he said, swinging around in front of her and blocking her path. “I’m sorry, okay? It was extremely good of you to drive them all this way.”

Her beautiful blue eyes were still angry, but there was something else in them, something that made him feel two feet tall. Maybe she wasn’t a straight shooter. Maybe she was a bit of a wing nut. And maybe she had thrown his program’s future into jeopardy. But she’d gone out of her way to bring his kids home safely, so he really shouldn’t have criticized her for it…especially not when there were so many other things he could justly criticize her for.

“All right, Sully,” she finally murmured. “Apology accepted.”

There wasn’t, he noted, even the trace of a smile to say she actually meant that.

“And,” she continued, “since I promised Billy and Hoops I’d have a look around, I guess I’d better. But I’ll make it brief. It must almost be your dinnertime.”

When she started for the car again, he followed along. Grace, Otis and all five boys were still standing right by it, watching and waiting.

Grace smiled at Lauren as she neared them, then glanced at Sully. “Are you done with her? Can I take her inside for that drink now?”

He nodded. “And if you wouldn’t mind, you could give her a little tour of the place. I think Otis and I should have a talk with Billy and Hoops,” he added. Then he glanced at the twins and Freckles. “You three go on in and catch the end of the ball game, but we’ll want to talk to you later.”

“Talk to
us?
” Terry said in a squeaky voice. Tony elbowed him, then all of them took off like frightened rabbits. It went a long way to confirming Sully’s suspicions that it wasn’t only Billy and Hoops who’d known he’d lost the funding. Or who’d been in on the plans for the trip to Manhattan.

He’d deal with the others later, though. Once he had the full story from his hitchhikers.

Beauty meets the beasts

W
HEN
L
AUREN HAD DRIVEN IN
,
her first glimpse of Eagles Roost Lodge had reminded her of a picture from one of those wall calendars that feature rustic scenes. Her initial impression had been a fleeting one, though, because once the picture had come alive with people she’d focused her attention on them.

But now that she and Grace were heading for the lodge and she could really look around, it was obvious Sully owned a little piece of paradise.

The clearing was surrounded by trees, trees and more trees, growing so densely she couldn’t see even a glimpse of Hidden Lake. The air rustling the leaves was fresh smelling and crystal clear, not hazy with pollution, and the birds were chirping and calling.

Nestled at the far end of the clearing, the buildings seemed so perfectly in tune with the setting that they must have been here for ages. The main lodge was a rambling old place constructed of hand-hewn logs—as was the cabin that stood off to the right and the huge garage on the left.

“Do you know the history of the place?” she asked Grace.

“More or less. It was built in the 1920s as the private retreat of a Wall Street tycoon. After he died, it became a commercial fishing lodge. Then Sully had the idea of turning it into a Foster Alternatives home and…well, you know the story from that point.”

She nodded, although she wished Grace had explained how Sully had come to inherit Eagles Roost. Now that she’d seen for herself what an incredible amount of property there was, she was even more curious about who’d left it to him.

“When we go inside,” Grace was saying, “you’ll think you’ve walked through a time warp. The original owner’s widow sold it complete with contents, and nothing much has been changed since. I keep telling Sully everything will soon qualify as antique.”

Lauren smiled. She might not be able to see what the boys liked so much about Sully, but it wasn’t hard to tell why they were fond of Grace.

“That’s where Otis and I live.” Grace pointed to the log cabin. “Why don’t I show you it first,” she suggested, abruptly changing course. “It used to be the caretaker’s cottage, so it’s not very big. But we like having a separate place. As much as I love the boys, I wouldn’t want to be under the same roof with them twenty-four hours a day the way Sully is.”

“No, it must be demanding.”

“
Very
demanding, even with only the five of them. Usually, we have six, which is twice as many as Otis and I raised and twenty times the problems. Sully thrives on always being right there for them, though. I don’t know how he does it.”

When Grace didn’t volunteer anything more, Lauren said, “It’s unusual…what he’s doing. Living out in the middle of nowhere and devoting his life to other people’s children.”

“Uh-huh. Sully’s an unusual man.”

They walked a few more steps, Lauren doing her best not to say another word about Jack Sullivan. She didn’t know why she was curious about him, but she didn’t like it. A moment later, though, she found herself saying, “Doesn’t he get lonely for adult company? Not that you and Otis aren’t adults but…you know what I mean.”

Grace nodded. “Yes, I know what you mean. And he does have friends his own age. But he doesn’t spend as much time with them as I think he should. And when it comes to women,” she added, giving Lauren a sidelong glance, “he just never gets serious about anyone. Every now and then he’ll start seeing someone, but it never lasts long.”

Following Grace into the cabin, Lauren decided that if Sully lived in the city he’d have women pounding on his door twenty-four hours a day. Because regardless of what she thought about his personality, she could hardly deny he was inordinately attractive. So even though he was a little rough around the edges…

No, it went far beyond
a little.
Jack Sullivan had more rough edges than a mile-high stack of sandpaper. Still, there was no getting away from the fact he had the kind of charisma that would make a lot of women drool.

Not that it made
her
drool. In fact, it made her downright uneasy.

After she and Grace had finished their quick tour of the cabin, they headed over to the main lodge. When they reached the front door, Lauren took a final glance at the great outdoors—deciding Billy and Hoops had misled her completely.

Eagles Roost was nothing at all like Central Park. This was such total wilderness she could easily imagine the bears and cougars and such that must live in those woods.

She quickly followed Grace inside. If she ever had to choose, she’d far rather take her chances with a mugger in Central Park than a bear in the Adirondacks.

“This, obviously,” Grace said, gesturing around the large main room, “is the original lounge.”

Lauren smiled over at Freckles and the twins—who each had one eye on the baseball game and one eye on her—then looked around. As Grace had told her, the interior of the lodge evoked the same sense of the twenties as the exterior. Only the television was from the wrong decade.

The chairs and couches, big heavy pieces covered in dark green leather, looked as if they’d been made to last forever. Faded oriental carpets covered most of the polished hardwood floor, and a stone fireplace stretched across half the far wall.

A collection of stuffed animal heads peered down from either side of the fireplace—a moose, a brown bear, a deer, and an assortment of others. They all had either very large antlers or very large teeth. A few days of having them watch her and they’d be making regular appearances in her nightmares.

“I know,” Grace said as if she were a mind reader. “They’re leftovers from the early years, too. And I guess they were okay when this was a fishing lodge, but I could live without them.”

“Did you ever suggest they go?”

“No. When Otis and I first arrived, it didn’t seem right to start telling Sully I thought he should do some redecorating. He’s content to leave things the way they were when he came, and after a while I became oblivious to them. But come and see the kitchen.”

It, too, was a huge room, with a table in the center that would easily seat ten or twelve. The enormous old range and ancient refrigerator looked like a matched pair; the modern freezer seemed completely out of place.

Dinner was apparently almost ready, and the smell of cooking was so heavenly Lauren had to consciously resist the urge to lick her lips. She hadn’t been thinking about food, but the smell made her realize she was absolutely starving.

She and the boys had stopped for lunch at a roadside diner—one with trucks parked outside, because Billy and Hoops had assured her that meant the food would be good. But her burger had been so greasy she’d eaten only a couple of bites, even though the boys had polished off two each, plus fries and onion rings.

“Just let me check the roast for a second,” Grace said, “then I’ll show you the rest of the place.” She opened the oven door to peer in, which made the smell of food stronger and even more inviting.

“You’ll stay for dinner, won’t you?” she asked, closing the door again. “It’s roast beef with all the trimmings, and you certainly can’t drive back to the city without eating.”

Lauren hesitated. The offer was very tempting. But she knew taking Grace up on it wouldn’t be wise. If she stayed, Sully would undoubtedly glare at her through the entire meal and give her indigestion.

“B
UT WE WAS
only tryin’ to help,” Billy pleaded again.

Sully nodded. “I heard you the first twelve times, Billy. I just hope both of you—” he glanced at Hoops “—heard what I was saying, too. I’ll come up with the money to keep this place going. That’s not your job. Your job is to make sure you never do anything like that again. You ever think of another scheme you figure might even bend the rules, I want you talking to Otis or me before you do anything. Got it?”

“Yeah,” they mumbled in unison.

“Good. Otis? You have anything more to say?”

He simply shook his head, so Sully looked at the boys again. “Okay, then I want you to hit your room and figure out what you think is a suitable punishment. After Lauren’s gone, I’ll come in and discuss it with you.”

“Listen, Sully,” Otis said as the boys took off for the lodge. “I—”

“Otis?” he interrupted. He already knew he’d come down pretty hard on them. “I was listening to them. I know they just wanted to help. But they could be lying in a ditch someplace.”

Otis shook his head. “That’s not what I was going to say. There’s something wrong here that I haven’t had a chance to tell you about and…”

As Otis’s words trailed off, Sully followed his gaze across the clearing and saw that Grace and Lauren were halfway to the Mercedes. He watched them for a moment. Well, actually, he watched Lauren, thinking it would be easier to keep on hating her if she looked like the old crone he’d originally expected her to be.

Of course, he wasn’t having any
real
trouble keeping on hating her. No, it was no trouble at all, he told himself firmly. And the sooner she was gone, the better he’d like it.

Then Grace called, “Sully?” and he glanced at her.

“I invited Lauren to stay for dinner, but she says she has to get going. Maybe if you asked her…?”

“Oh, I really can’t,” Lauren said, looking over toward the men. “I appreciate the invitation, but I don’t want to be too late getting back to the city.”

“Don’t let her leave yet,” Otis said quietly.

“Are you kidding?” Sully muttered. “It’s getting late. If she stayed for dinner, the next thing we knew Grace would be saying she shouldn’t drive all the way back tonight, and invite her to stay till morning.”

“But, Sully, I—”

“And I sure don’t want her here overnight,” he said, starting for the car. “So don’t you go pressing her to stay for dinner.”

“But, I’m just trying to—”

“I mean it, Otis.” There was no way he was risking the possibility of that woman being at Eagles Roost overnight. Maybe she hadn’t had any ulterior motives for coming here, but there was still the little matter of her having gone behind his back and calling Otis. And besides that… Well, he wasn’t even clear on all the
besides,
but if she was here when he woke up in the morning he’d probably find her trying to bathe Roxy in the kitchen sink or something.

“Well,” Lauren said, extending her hand to Sully when he reached her. “Grace showed me around. So next year, if you apply for funding again, I’ll be in a better position to help you out.”

He nodded, shook her hand and forced a “Thanks.” But there was no way he’d ever ask for her help again.

“I said goodbye to the boys,” she went on. “And to Grace. So I guess that just leaves you, Otis. It was nice meeting you. All of you,” she added, her glance encompassing the three of them. “I hope things work out.”

“They will,” Sully assured her curtly.

“Thank you again for bringing Billy and Hoops home,” Grace said, shooting Sully a dark glance.

“Yes. Thanks,” he muttered.

Lauren gave them a final smile, then climbed into her car. She closed the door and became invisible behind the dark glass.

He exhaled slowly, surprised that he didn’t feel like shouting hallelujahs. Another minute or two and the woman would be driving out of his life, which was exactly what he wanted. So why was he thinking he really should have insisted she stay for dinner?

“You weren’t very hospitable, Sully,” Grace whispered as the engine purred to life.

“She’s really very nice,” she added when he said nothing.

“Look, Sully,” Otis said, “you’ve got to listen to me before she takes off. That woman—”

“Sully?” Billy the Kid hollered from the porch.

Sully turned as Lauren began backing her car around.

“I told you,” he called, “to stay in your room.”

“Yeah, but I just thought of somethin’.”

“Sully!” Otis snapped. “In another three seconds it’ll be too late.”

As Sully looked at him, Lauren gave a short toot on her horn and started down the road, tiny clouds of dust rising behind her wheels.

“Sully, make her wait a minute,” Billy yelled, racing down off the porch and starting across the clearing at a dead run.

“I’m telling you, Sully,” Otis muttered. “You might be real sorry you didn’t listen to me.”

“Billy, what’s wrong?” Grace asked as he reached them.

“Sully,” he said, “I forgot before, but doesn’t Joe’s garage close at six?”

He nodded.

“Well it’s after six, and she’s outta gas.”

Sully stood staring at Billy, telling himself the boy was joking. He didn’t look as if he was, though.

“Really, Sully, she is. When we was comin’ home, a warnin’ light came on. Way before we even turned off the highway. And a little bell kept dingin’.”

“Well why didn’t you point out Joe’s when you got to North Head? You had to drive right past it.”

“We did point it out. And we told her it was the only gas station around, too. But she asked how far from town to here. And when we said only about five miles she said she still had a gallon or two, so she’d gas up on her way back to the highway. That she didn’t want us to be even later gettin’ home.”

“Sully?” Grace said. “You’ll have to go after her.”

He nodded, although he hardly needed Grace to point it out. This wasn’t New York City, where Lauren could hail a cab if she actually did run out of gas. But that probably hadn’t even occurred to her.

Lauren Van Slyke shouldn’t be let loose without a keeper, he decided. She was worse than any of his kids. Nobody in her right mind would merrily drive past the only gas station within thirty miles when she was almost out of gas.

“Can I go with you, Sully?” Billy asked.

“No. You can go on back inside,” he said, checking his pocket for his car keys.

“Now,” Otis muttered, “do you finally have time to listen to what I’ve been trying to tell you, Sully?”

“Can’t it wait until he gets back?” Grace said. “Lauren’s going to run out of gas and not know what to do.”