The Look-Alike Bride (Crimson Romance) (18 page)

Frances and Maureen laughed appreciatively.

Adam frowned. If he wasn’t mistaken, that little statement meant Leonie didn’t have much time for a life of her own. Furthermore, judging from the tone of her voice, she liked it that way.

Well, he’d just see about that. She was going to make time for him. Adam tuned out temporarily while he mentally arranged flight schedules between Dallas and Houston, and thought about long weekends spent in Leonie’s company.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Frances said. “My family complained because I was always staying late at the school for tutoring sessions. They were all spoiled, of course. Then, there were the nights the Math Club met . . . .”

“And the Junior Anachronism Society,” Maureen added in dry tones. “Fortunately, Jeremy has been so busy with the business, he hasn’t noticed all the weird costumes in the guest bedroom.”

“I thought you were making new curtains,” Jeremy said. “Are you telling me those were actually costumes?”

By the time Adam tuned back into the conversation, the others were deep in a discussion of the computer industry as applied to the public school systems. Leonie thought all the emphasis on computerized learning was ridiculous as the children were sedentary enough already, whereas Jeremy was firmly in favor of placing a laptop or tablet computer on every desk.

“Of course, he sells them,” Maureen said. “And there has to be some way of making sure children without access to computers at home learn something about them.”

“Even the poor kids have smart phones.” Leonie looked accusingly at the smart phone on Jeremy’s belt. “At the most, they need maybe one or two classes where they concentrate on the basic operations of a computer. Everything I read says more and more computing tasks are migrating to tablets and smart phones anyway. That means the kids know more than the teachers when it comes to tech.”

“Maybe the schools need to buy more computers because computer games are better babysitters than television,” Adam offered.

Across the table, Jeremy shook his head, laughing. Adam grinned back. He didn’t have to be a computer genius to know Leonie would jump on him over that one.

She did, blue eyes flashing, and raked him over the coals thoroughly for daring to use either a television or a computer as a babysitter. In her opinion, he needed to give maybe one or two talks on security analysis in some local schools and get a look at some of the results of electronic babysitters for himself.

He hadn’t enjoyed a family lunch that much in a long time, Adam reflected while watching Jeremy pay the bill. What was more, his family loved Leonie and showed their satisfaction by inviting her to the cabin that night for a family supper on the deck. They closed around her in the windowed foyer of the restaurant and said they would not take no for an answer.

Leonie, clearly torn, remained firm in declining the invitation. She claimed her boss had emailed her some research that needed completing before the following morning. If Adam hadn’t already told his relatives the truth about Leonie’s masquerade, they might have blown everything by refusing to let her off the hook.

Adam, surprised at his own desire to see her dining at his brother’s cabin that night, smoothed his hand over her shoulder, savoring her warmth and softness. “You’ve got to eat, angel. And it’s only a minute’s walk—”

“I’ll probably heat a can of soup so I won’t procrastinate any longer.”

She moved away from him slightly, with a frozen expression on her lovely face. He figured she had probably just realized how thoroughly she had given herself away, assuming anyone suspected she was not Zara.

“That doesn’t sound good at all, especially compared to my mother’s fresh fried bass,” Adam said.

She looked up at that. “Fresh bass? Who’s catching the fresh bass?”

“Jeremy, I hope.” He laughed, mesmerized by the gleaming blue of her eyes and the long, feathery lashes, and moved closer.

“He means Maureen,” Jeremy said. “She’s far better at fishing than I am.”

“You need to play hooky from your boss and come fishing with us,” Maureen said. “There’s nothing more relaxing and invigorating when you’re all worn out from work.”

“Then it’s settled,” Frances said. “All you young people can go catch the main dish for our supper while I putter around the kitchen and get all the side dishes ready.”

Adam laid his arm casually around Leonie’s shoulders. “You heard the boss. It’s your job to help provide sustenance for the family. And enjoy another day of your vacation. You can always tell your boss you weren’t in when the instructions arrived.”

“He already knows I received them,” Leonie said.

If he hadn’t been watching her so closely, he might have missed the sudden look of longing that passed swiftly across her expressive face. She liked his family and she wanted badly to join them for supper. But she was probably scared of giving herself away, or, more likely, of creating problems for Zara when Zara returned to retake her own identity.

Now that was a thought. Leonie had created her own place in his heart, and very likely in his family’s heart, too. No way in creation could Zara take the place that was Leonie’s.

He stared out the wide picture windows at the rolling green Ouachita mountains and wondered what Leonie would say if he proposed to her then and there.

That led to a swift consideration of how he would address his proposal. Did he call her Leonie, or should he call her Zara just to see what she would do?

Probably, she would faint if he called her Leonie. Or assume he was proposing to Zara if he called her Zara. Maybe she would even accept in Zara’s name, then skip out and leave him to the real Zara when she returned.

He decided to keep his mouth shut a little longer. One way or another, he intended to marry Leonie, but they needed to get Zara out of the way first.

He walked beside her out of the restaurant, still thinking on the matter while his relatives worked on Leonie about the afternoon’s entertainment and the fried fish supper they would eat, provided she did her share and contributed a fish or two.

Leonie looked wistful and said nothing until they reached the parking lot.

“I don’t see Butch,” she said and headed toward Adam’s Jeep, which he parked in a shady spot beneath two tall pine trees.

“He’s probably napping on the front seat.” Adam said.

“Is Butch the collie you found?” Maureen looked eagerly toward the Jeep. “I can’t wait to meet him. Adam says he’s very intelligent.”

“I didn’t find him. Butch found me.” Leonie hastened forward. “Butch? Where are you?”

Adam developed a bad feeling when Leonie reached his Jeep, scanned the inside swiftly and even bent to look under it.

“Adam, he isn’t here,” she said, looking frantic. “He’s never taken off before. Something’s happened.”

“Calm down, angel.” He reached her side and put his arm around her shoulders in a comforting gesture. “Chances are he saw a deer or something and followed it—”

“I hear him barking,” Leonie broke in. “Listen.”

The others reached them and Adam held up his hand for silence. Sure enough, he heard, in the forested area to the side, a series of barks and growls.

“Are you sure that’s Butch?” he asked.

Before the words were out of his mouth, Leonie broke from his light hold and raced toward the woods.

Adam ran after her. “Come back here, Leonie Daniel. You aren’t going in there by yourself.”

She never slowed down, and if she noticed his use of her real name, she gave no sign. She raced toward the shadowed pine forest.

Adam, followed by his entire family, ran after her.

Leonie leaped off the asphalt parking lot and onto the grass that bordered the cool pine forest. Beneath her feet she noted the cushioning effect of a thick mat of grass and pine needles and remembered to watch her footing, especially while wearing Zara’s delicate gold sandals.

She heard the revving of a car engine, then a screech of tires on gravel. A nondescript white car broke from a hidden stretch of graveled road, careened onto the asphalt and raced toward her. Loud barking came from within the car.

“Butch!” Leonie yelled.

She took a few running steps toward the car. When she reached it, the door swung open and Butch leaped out. Before she could react, a man sprang from the car, grabbed her and dragged her into the car, yelling, “Step on it!”

Shocked, she hung half out of the car for a moment with her feet scraping the ground as the vehicle bucked forward. Butch bounded toward her, barking wildly, as her abductor hauled her inside and slammed the door shut. The car took off in a squeal of gravel and grass. Leonie tumbled onto the floorboard facedown and stayed there because of a heavy foot pressing into her back and holding her in place.

Leonie couldn’t process events. She was being kidnapped, and neither Butch nor Adam could help her. Terror screamed along her nerve endings, even though she fought to control her breathing as she had learned throughout her years of competing.

This was like a track race, she told herself firmly. She needed to breathe slowly and strive for a relaxed awareness so she could seize her opportunities when they came.

Road noise whistled in her ears and the carpet of the floorboard scraped the tender skin of her right cheek. With a man’s heavy leg and arm pressing her down, she could hardly breathe, much less move, but she managed to beat back the terror and tried to think.

What would Zara do in a situation like this? She thought hard and creatively, but nothing occurred to her that didn’t involve foresight in the form of hiding a weapon somewhere on her body.

Surely, Adam had seen what happened. He would be right behind them.

But what if he had not seen her abducted? Or the abductors’ car had managed to elude pursuit?

Leonie realized she had better not count on being rescued. She would have to await her chance and do something on her own. And it would not be what Zara would do, because she had no clue what a trained agent would do.

The car never slowed down so far as she could tell, and they must have hit every jaw-rattling pothole in the highway as the car careened along. She had no idea even which way they were traveling. Moreover, the longer she lay on the floorboard in a twisted position, the more numb her arms and legs became. When the time came for action, she hoped she remained physically capable.

Moving very, very slowly, she managed to turn her head enough so she could peer up through the curtain of her own hair. The man holding her down was obscured by the hair, but she spotted the gun in his hand easily enough. He kept the barrel trained on her.

“Step on it, Bolt,” her captor hissed. “They’re getting too close.”

“This baby won’t go any faster,” the driver returned. “We don’t need a ticket on top of everything else.”

Leonie thrilled to the knowledge that Adam followed close behind them and wondered why the men cared about a speeding ticket at a time like this.

“The guy in the Jeep is gaining,” the man with his foot on her back said. “Let’s lose him on the turnoff up ahead.”

Leonie had no idea where the turnoff was or whether they traveled uphill or down. She didn’t know anything other than that she was in deep, deep trouble unless Adam in his Jeep managed to catch up to them. If he did, then she needed to escape so she could rejoin Adam. At least, she needed to give him a chance to avoid being shot.

At the moment, she saw only one way of doing that, and that was to imitate Butch. She gathered herself, tensing all her muscles then relaxing them the way she had once done when preparing for track or swimming races.

“You move and you’re dead,” the man said. “You’re our ticket out of here, baby.”

Leonie thought better of saying she wasn’t his baby. She made no sound and no movement.

“Stay still and don’t try anything. Speed it up, Bolt.”

Accordingly, she waited without making any signs of a struggle. Perhaps she could lull her kidnappers into believing she was too scared to make a move. Which she was, more or less.

What had Zara been up to that would make people so eager to get their hands on her? More to the point, what did they intend to do with Zara once they got her?

Leonie didn’t know, but as she lay there fighting off terror, she knew only that she did not like any of the answers that presented themselves to her racing mind.

• • •

Adam ran after the speeding car as it bounced over the ground toward the parking lot entrance. Butch, barking wildly, darted forward also. But before either of them could get anywhere close to Leonie, her legs disappeared into the careening car and the door slammed. The car sped toward the highway and turned in the direction of Hot Springs with a roar of its motor and a screech of tires.

“Let’s follow them.” Adam motioned to Butch and hoped the dog understood. “Come on.”

Adam opened the Jeep’s door and Butch leaped onto the front seat. He jumped in beside the dog and slammed the door.

“We’ll follow you. You might need some help.” Jeremy herded his mother and his wife toward his SUV and called, “I can see why you chose the security business. Lots of excitement. Nothing like this ever happens in computer sales.”

“It doesn’t usually happen in the security consulting business either.” Adam started the engine. “Stay behind me. They’re probably armed.”

He concentrated on his driving as he accelerated onto the highway in the direction the white car had taken. His anxiety rose as he drove, but if he went any faster, the Jeep might fly off the winding mountain road.

Butch whined and kept his long muzzle pointed forward, almost as if he knew Leonie was in the car they were chasing. Adam broke his grim concentration on the narrow, twisting highway ahead to look at him.

“Don’t worry, Butch. We’ll get her back. I don’t think—What the hell?”

They approached a fork in the highway ahead, where the major highway led into Hot Springs and the other turned into a heavily forested area. The white car chose the road through the forest, but before it could complete the turn off, another car, an older model navy-blue Buick, approached the intersection from the direction of the forest and positioned itself to block both lanes.