Wine and Roses (12 page)

“So what?” She shrugged. “Couldn’t it have just been a neighbor? Although there don’t seem to be many.” She’d only seen maybe three other houses once they’d gotten off the state road. “Or even a tourist.”

“Yeah, probably all it was.” He took a hold of both her hands resting on the table, turning them palm up he kissed each one. “But I’m taking no risks with you.”

He stood and pulled her up out of the chair to him. Leaning down, he captured her mouth. Instead of the all-consuming kisses she’d become accustomed to with him, this one felt tender gentle. More just the touching of lips. He pulled away from her. “As much as I want to do more, I promised you a trip down river.”

She didn’t give a rat’s ass about the river but if he wanted to take her down river, so be it.

“We’ll get a few more hours of sleep and then get up, and I’ll show you some of the most beautiful fishing spots in the world.”

The man acted true to his word. They’d only gotten less than three hours more sleep when he woke her. Yawning, she got up and dressed then headed for the kitchen to make them a little picnic basket. She’d spotted one in the pantry. While she prepared a couple of cold cut sandwiches for them, he walked through the kitchen carrying two angling rods. She paused to watch through the window as he headed for the dock, the dog on his heels. Gunner looked funny standing up trying to climb onto the boat. Simon came back inside and grabbed the dog crate.

“Are you going to take Gunner with us?”

“Sure, he seems eager to go.”

She smiled. “So I saw, but is he going to be okay in the boat?”

He shrugged. “We’ll find out. Plenty of folks round here take their dogs out on the river. But I’m bringing the crate along just in case. After we find a stop, I’ll let him run around. He’s pretty good about staying close and listening to my commands.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed. Probably a good thing given the animals around.”

She got a couple bottles of water, an extra one for the dog and grabbed two plastic containers from a cabinet. One she’d use to put water for the dog. In the other, she poured out some food for him. Everything went into the picnic basket. Simon came through the back door as she closed the lid.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yep.”

He grabbed the container with one hand and her hand with the other. “Then let’s go, those fish won’t wait.” His smile took up most of his face.

She couldn’t help but smile back at him in return. “Who are you, Simon?”

Slowly, the smile left his face. Oh, that question held so much meaning. She’d made love with this man a number of times over the last few days. Eboni knew they stayed in the house he grew up in, and he’d even admitted to her one night the room they slept in, made love in, had been his. Still, she knew so little about him, really not much more than when they’d first arrived. Yet she needed to know so much more about the man she’d gone and fallen in love with, even though she tried not to. Yeah, might as well try to stop a lightning strike from the sky.

“I’m the man who’s going to keep you safe,” he replied.

She nodded. Unable to ask him what she really wanted to know: for how long? What happens after Bennis was caught or left town? Then what happened to them? Eboni kept her mouth shut. Not ready to deal with questions she already knew the answers to. And that made her a little sad. So she plastered a smile on her face and opened the door allowing him to lead her down to the boat.

Chapter Fifteen

“You know I’ve never been fishing in my life.”

“So. Everyone is a virgin at something at one time or another.”

She grinned. “Are you claiming you popped my cherry?”

“Mmm,” he growled. “One of them.”

She laughed. Oh, how she loved this man. They’d had a wonderful time together, and he’d found them a nice little secluded spot so they could fish. She’d even caught a fish. Well two of them, he’d made her release them both. They were too small, but he caught two also, and they were going to have those for dinner. She liked fishing after all. The beauty of the river had her in awe. They only saw one other boat out and waved as the fisherman with a pole across his lap motored past. Simon explained his property wasn’t exactly on the Bitterroot River but sat more on a tributary to the river, which lay literally around the bend in the water, and they anchored for the rest of the morning on yet another tributary where the fish were plentiful. A secret spot, he called it. But when she’d asked him if he fished there as a kid, he shrugged and cast his line back into the water.

So while the day seemed a good one, a lot of fun, and filled with stunning scenery, it still held a hint of sadness for her. No matter what she did, she couldn’t get Simon to open up to her. All right, an affair was all he wanted. She got it. He set up the boundaries, and she had to respect them.

The sun hung low in the Montana sky as Simon pulled up to the dock, while an exhausted Gunner slept on in his crate. No one had more fun than the little dog. Eboni grinned at the memory of his trying to chase the fish in the water and running around on the bank barking and growling at them.

“After I hop out and tie this off, you can get out,” Simon said breaking into her thoughts. “Just grab Gunner’s crate for me and let him out.”

“Okay.”

At the sound of his master’s voice, the dog opened his eyes and his pink tongue hung out of his mouth. Eboni picked up the crate and got off the boat. Once Eboni stepped on land, she put the crate down and opened the door for the dog. “There ya go.” He took off outta there and headed straight for the flower garden and the butterflies perched there. Once they’d scattered, he darted after a few.

Eboni turned back to the boat and took out the picnic basket. “Go on up to the house,” Simon said. “Let me take care of this stuff, and I’ll be right there.”

“Okay.” She turned toward the house, and Gunner ran over to her so when she opened the door, the little dog ran inside first. Laughing, she followed and headed for the table in the center of the kitchen. Not until the dog growled did she realize she was not alone.

Slowly, she turned around to face a nightmare.

***

Bennis watched the couple get into the boat and grinned. “Well, well. This is easy.”

As soon as they were clear of the area, he made his way to the house. He tried the back door they’d come out from. Sure enough, the doorknob turned without any problem, and he’d bet no alarm system either. They were after all in the God forsaken hick country. Who needed an alarm? He smiled as he stepped into the kitchen. Nope, no alarm panel on the wall by the door, and nothing chimed as he’d entered. He spent a few minutes going through the empty house. And from the fishing gear they’d hauled onto the boat along with the basket, odds were good they’d be gone a while. His stomach growled, he’d had a late lunch but no dinner last night, going back into the kitchen he checked the refrigerator and…jackpot. Good stuff. He made a nice plate of food, heated it up in the microwave, and headed back to the living room. Making himself comfortable, he turned on the TV and ate.

When he yawned and his eyes began drifting shut, he laid out on the couch. He’d been up for the last few hours watching the place and deserved a nap. Len smiled. His last thought before slumber, the bitch and her bodyguard would never need to worry about resting again.

He woke up in time to see them pulling into the dock. He watched as Eboni walked toward the house alone. Standing on the other side of the door, he waited.

***

The air in Eboni’s lungs would suffocate her if she didn’t expel it. On a gasp, it rushed out allowing the blood to once again flow throughout her limbs and the air to energize her body. The image of the man with the gun took her back to the night she’d seen him pull the trigger and shot another human being in cold blood. She had no doubt he would do the same to her.

“Well, it’s about damn time we meet. Don’t ya think.” He shook his short-cropped blond hair. His ice blue-eyed gaze held no element of pleasure or mirth, just nothing. Absolutely no emotion resided there. Doll‘s eyes. Without an ounce of warmth or human compassion within them. These were the eyes of a ruthless killer. He took a couple of steps nearer with the gun still drawn. Some sense of self-preservation kicked in for Eboni, but everything moved in slow motion for her. Yet her senses seemed extra heightened. The sound of Gunner’s growl sounded sharper, and her brain processed information at lightning speeds. One thought upper most. Escape to Simon.

The knives were behind him, and no other weapon rested near at hand except…. Moving her hand behind her back, she grabbed the handle on the picnic basket and swung it around at his head yelling as she did it. He went down, and Gunner rushed at Bennis’s arm, grabbing onto it for all his worth. She bolted past him and out the back door. The door slammed behind her at the same time she heard the gun shot echo in the kitchen. She saw Simon running toward her and ran to him screaming like a banshee.

“Run!”

***

It had been a good day, and Simon took his time getting the gear out of the boat. He pulled out the table stored near the dock and set the legs, straightening them out on flat ground before placing the fish on it. He’d be able to clean the fish here away from the house, so the smell wouldn’t attract animals. Just enough daylight left for him to get it done quickly then he’d fry them up.

He’d bent to pick up the rods from the ground where he’d placed them when the sound of the mountains was pierced by the distinct boom of a gunshot. Rifle shots were not an unfamiliar occurrence in these mountains or to him, but that particular sound did not belong coming from his house.

Pulling his own gun out of the holster, he wore under his fishing vest he ran staying low, toward the house as Eboni came running out the back.

When she saw him, she screamed. “Run!”

Grabbing her hand, he took off with her into the dense forest away from the river as shots rang out behind them. The sun sunk below the horizon casting shadows among the trees, and Simon kept to them. Another shot seemed to fly past them but they were soon in the thick woods, and Simon took them deeper. They slowed down, and walked more slowly in an attempt to leave less of a trail for anyone following them. The dwindling sunlight would help but also hinder them.

***

“It’s going to be dark shortly. How are we going see in these woods?” Eboni asked leading the way to God knows where.

“Don’t worry. I know this place like I know the paths of my mind. And besides I do best in the dark.

She turned quickly to see him grinning at her, and sure enough, he’d taken off his dark glasses, and the darker it got the more his eyes seemed to glow. He held her waist and gently guided her to turn right. Soon she could hear the noise of the river before they rounded a cluster of trees and came out on its muddy banks. Eboni looked up and down but saw no sign of a watercraft or person. At least if the lunatic chasing them stumbled onto the river, they were somewhat hidden by some low hanging branches.

“It’s not too deep here, should come to your shoulders,” Simon said. “I think it’s best we cross to the other side. Not far from here is a fishing cabin where we can hide, and I can try to make a phone call.”

“Do you think he’s still chasing us?” she asked while taking deep breaths. Simon didn’t appear winded in the least.

“Not taking any chances. We’ll use that log right there to duck behind and help block our heads from view as we walk across. It’ll be dark soon but right now it will still be harder to spot us unless you were real close to the edge.” He kept turning around checking the water and looking back the way they’d just come.

“Okay, but Simon. Gunner’s back there…he saved my life.”

He swung his head to stare at her. “What happened?”

“Bennis…he was…he was there in the kitchen waiting for me. He had a gun. I grabbed the only thing I had, the picnic basket, and wacked him on the side of the head with it.” She brushed her hair off her face. “I must have caught him good and hard because he went down, and Gunner attacked him. He’d grabbed his arm, and I ran outta there. Gunner saved my life.”

He smiled. “I knew there was a reason I kept that dog.”

“But I’m worried. What if the bastard hurt him?”

“Don’t worry Gunner will be fine. He’s probably back in the house barking his head off, mad he’s not out here with us.”

Chapter Sixteen

“Fuck!”

Bennis shook the dead dog off his hand. He’d got the gun out of the hand the dog held in its jaws by the wrist and shot the little bugger. By the time he’d made it out the back door, the bitch and her damn bodyguard were running for the woods. He fired at them but his hand hurt like the devil, and he missed. They weren’t far ahead of him, and he took off after them but the blasted trees kept getting in his way. When he could no longer see them, he stopped and examined the area for evidence of their passing, going slower this time. Daylight seemed to fade fast. A good thing he had a flashlight. He’d find them, no choice. This shit had gone on long enough. He spotted a few broken twigs and moved in that direction.

***

So far so good they made it to the other side of the river when a bullet flew past his head and hit the tree in front of him. Simon held Eboni’s arm and took her down to the ground. She landed on her stomach with Simon on her legs. He rose up and spoke in a hoarse voice. “Move. But stay on the ground.”

Like a snake, she crawled along the ground doing her best not to think about any bugs on the leaves she moved over.

“Okay stop, I think we can get up here but stay low.”

Thank God. She got up, yet stayed bent over moving through the bush as best she could. Simon kept his hand on the back of her shorts silently guiding her. Her hands were out in front of her to move branches aside, trying to find the clearest path for them.