FOR THE CHILDREN Page 10

"Did he see you?"

  She heard the tension in his voice, and shook her head. "I was inside. I did get a look at him through the binoculars, though."

  "What did he look like?"

  She shrugged. "Like a cowboy, I guess. He had on a cowboy hat and jeans, with those leather things over the jeans. And there was a pack behind his saddle."

  "That doesn't prove anything, Abby." Damien sounded impatient.

  "I thought you said he was probably some cowboy who needed to spend the night out here. That's just what he looked like."

  "Where did he go?"

  "I have no idea. He disappeared behind the rocks, and I didn't see him again."

  "I'll call Shea later and ask her if anyone else is supposed to be up here."

  "What if it's one of her neighbors? She might not know."

  "I'll ask anyway. And I'll talk to her brother, the sheriff."

  "What would he be able to do?" A cold twist of fear curled to life inside her.

  "Keep his eyes open. He knows Cameron and the surrounding area. If there's anything out of the ordinary going on, he'll know about it."

  "I thought you didn't want anyone to know where we were."

  "Devlin and Shea already know that we're here. If I didn't trust them, we wouldn't have come here. I'm just going to tell Devlin more about why we're here."

  Damien stood at the window, looking out at the lake. His eyes swept the shoreline, slowly and methodically, like a hunter searching for his prey. After a moment he turned to her. "Can you point out exactly where he was, and which direction he went?"

  He looked like a stranger, cold and remote, even more distant than usual. Fear bubbled in Abby's throat as she watched him. The men looking for Maggie and Casey could look no more menacing than Damien did right now. But Damien was supposed to be different. He was supposed to be one of the good guys.

  "We'll get a better view from the porch." Abby turned and walked out the door, Damien right behind her. She could feel the heat and tension that poured off him.

  "Where exactly was he?" Damien lifted the binoculars to his eyes.

  "There's a rock that juts out into the water over there on the right side of the lake. He was standing on top of that. When he left, he rode off to the left, away from the house."

  Damien scanned the shore, his knuckles white on the binoculars. She could tell the moment he brought the rock into focus. He froze for a moment, then stepped closer to the railing, keeping his binoculars fixed on one spot.

  "Describe him for me again." His voice was impersonal and clipped.

  "Jeans, a blue work shirt and a cowboy hat. And those leather things on his legs." She shrugged her shoulders. "He looked like a cowboy."

  He took the binoculars away from his eyes long enough to ask, "Did you see his face?"

  Abby balled her hands inside the pockets of her shorts. Oh, God, she'd tried so hard. "Only a glimpse. The hat made a shadow, and the light was wrong."

  "Would you recognize him again?"

  "I don't know."

  Damien looked back at the rock, standing motionless while he stared at it. Tension seemed to flow from him in ever tightening waves, surrounding her, suffocating her with their intensity. When she opened her mouth to plead with him to stop, to tell her what he was thinking, he abruptly lowered the binoculars and turned to her again.

  "No one's there now. He's probably long gone, but I'm going to go over there and take a look."

  Abby had thought she couldn't be any more scared than she had been already. She'd been wrong. "What if someone's waiting there for you?" She stared at him, appalled.

  "I'll know before I get there. I won't be walking into an ambush." He turned to face her. "And you and the girls will be fine here alone."

  "I wasn't worried about us." Abby trailed after him, trying to think of a way to stop him. "You didn't say anything about rounding up the suspects yourself."

  He stopped and turned around. "What do you think this is all about, Abby? It's about catching whoever killed Joey Stefanetto. You're probably right. The man on the horse was the one who had the campfire this morning, and he's probably just a local cowboy. But I want to make sure. I can't afford to ignore anything. Because catching the man who killed Joey is the bottom line. The sooner I find out who was responsible and arrest them, the safer your nieces will be."

  And that was all she wanted, wasn't it? As she watched him check his gun, Abby told herself fiercely that it didn't matter what risks Damien took. All that mattered was Maggie and Casey's safety.

  Aloud she said, "Be careful. Promise me you won't do anything stupid."

  He paused and looked up from his gun, and for a moment Abby thought that the grimness on his face eased a little. "What's your definition of stupid?"

  "Doing something dangerous that could get you hurt. That's one definition of stupid," she said flatly.

  He gave her a smile that held no humor. "Don't worry, Abby. I won't do anything stupid."

  His gaze swept the cabin, then fixed on the door. "Stay inside and keep the doors locked. Don't let anyone in, no matter what they say to you." He took a deep breath and looked at the twins' bedroom, where he could hear the girls playing. "Even someone you know. The phone's on the counter, along with Devlin's phone number. If anything makes you nervous or suspicious, anything at all, call him."

  He headed for the door, and she heard herself saying, "Damien."

  Stopping, he turned around slowly. "What?"

  She stared at him helplessly for a moment, battling the panic that threatened. She told herself she was scared for Maggie and Casey, that it had nothing to do with Damien personally. Finally she said softly, "Be careful."

  Damien took a step toward her, then another. He moved like a man who was being pulled against his will, battling against a force too strong to resist. When he stood in front of her, he reached out and cupped her face in his palm, letting his roughened fingers caress her cheek for a moment.

  "Don't worry about me, Abby. I know what I'm doing. I'll be fine. I'm more worried about leaving you and the girls alone here in the cabin."

  She ached to turn her face into his hand, to seek the reassurance of his touch. Slowly, watching him, she brought her hand up to cover his. Letting her fingers twine with his for a fleeting moment, she said, "Don't get hurt, Damien. Too many people have been hurt already."

  His fingers answered the pressure of hers, then his hand fell away. "I'll be back soon, Abby. Stay in the cabin with the doors locked."

  As he turned to leave, he glanced in the twins' room. Abby saw his step falter, then he looked away and headed for the door. He walked out and let it close behind him without looking back.

  Abby realized her hand cupped her face in the same spot where Damien's hand had been. Letting it drop, she hurried over to lock the door behind him. She couldn't resist peering out the window, to try to watch him for as long as possible. But he had already disappeared.

  Abby watched the woods for a long time, hoping to see some hint of Damien. It was as if he'd merged with the plants, becoming invisible to her eyes and everyone else's. Finally she turned away to find Maggie and Casey watching her solemnly from the door of their room.

  "Where did Damien go?" Casey asked.

  "He went to see if you needed to make any more bear traps."

  "Really?" Maggie's eyes lit up.

  "Really, sweetheart." Abby gave her an extra hug, then stood up. "Now, why don't we get busy on those cookies so they'll be finished when Damien gets back?"

  Casey looked up at her, a grin filling her brown eyes. "We don't have to use them all for the bear trap, do we?"

  * * *

  Chapter 7

  «^»

  An hour and a half later Damien stood on the porch of the cabin and stared back at the lake, his eyes narrowed in speculation. A swirl of voices from inside the cabin interrupted his thoughts, and he heard Abby's even, calm voice blending with the eager chatter of the two girls. At the sound of her voice he forgot all a
bout the man on the horse and Joey Stefanetto. A fierce longing engulfed him to be a part of the group on the other side of the door, to have the right to sweep inside and bundle all three of them into his anus.

  His hand tightened on the doorknob as he told himself again why that wasn't possible. These three people were his job and nothing more. To make them more than that was to endanger their lives, and his sanity. The fragile equilibrium he'd constructed of his life would come crashing down, shattered beyond repair.

  Drawing a deep breath, he knocked on the door. The noise on the other side stopped abruptly, and the sudden silence told him he'd made a mistake. He knew with a gut-twisting certainty what he would see if he looked in a window. Abby would be drawing the two girls closer as she stared at the door, her eyes wide with fear, wondering who was on the other side.

  "It's me, Abby," he said, his voice rising on the mountain breeze.

  A moment later Abby pulled the door open and greeted him with a wan smile. "Thank goodness," she said, slightly breathless. "For a minute there I was a little startled."

  Her face told him otherwise. She had been scared silly, and now her hazel eyes mirrored her relief and joy at seeing him. She was only grateful it was him at the door instead of some thug, he told himself harshly. But a part of him wanted to believe her smile was because he was safe.

  "No one else would have knocked," he answered, angry with himself for frightening her, and even more angry at his own fantasies. Closing and locking the door carefully behind him, he forced his mouth to smile as he looked over at Maggie and Casey. "What have you two been doing while I was gone?"

  "We made cookies for the bear traps," Casey answered proudly, stepping out from behind her aunt. "Can we go put them in the woods now?"

  Anticipation sparkled in her eyes and in her happy grin, and Damien fought the tenderness and pain that welled up inside him. "We have to wait until it's almost dark, because that's when the bears come out. We wouldn't want the coyotes to get our cookies, would we?"

  "We made lots," Maggie piped up. "So if the coyotes ate some, we could put more in the woods later."

  "Wouldn't you rather eat the cookies yourselves?" Damien stood up and looked over at the racks of cooling cookies on the counter. "I know I would."

  "You can't have any until they're cool," Maggie said, her voice an imitation of her aunt's. "That's the rules."

  "I don't know, they look cool to me," he answered, looking over at Abby. "What do you think, Aunt Abby?"

  "I think you could each have one, if you eat it at the table." Abby's voice was so quiet he barely heard the tremor beneath her words. He watched as she poured Maggie and Casey a glass of milk. One of her hands lingered on each blond head for a moment, then she looked up at him.

  "There's something I'd like to show you on the porch," she said in a neutral voice. "The girls will be fine here for a few minutes."

  Silently he stepped out the door. Abby didn't make a sound when she joined him, but he was excruciatingly aware of her presence.

  "What happened?" she asked in a low voice from behind him.

  "Not a damn thing."

  "What do you mean?" She moved closer to him, and he could feel her gaze on his face. "What did you see?"

  "I didn't see a thing. There was no sign that anyone has been up here lately."

  "The man on the horse wasn't an apparition. And we both saw the smoke from the fire."

  "I did find the remains of a fire. It had been carefully buried." He paused, remembering how he'd had to search. "Too carefully."

  "What do you mean?"

  He heard the catch of fear in her voice and wanted to reassure her, but she deserved the truth. "Someone took great pains to make sure that fire was out and buried, to make sure that all traces of their campsite were gone."

  "That's just being safe. It's very dry up here." He wished he could agree with her. "Someone also smoothed branches over the dirt at the campsite to erase their footprints. That goes way beyond safety."

  "Maybe it was someone from another ranch who didn't want your friends to know he was trespassing."

  "Maybe." He shifted to look out over the lake. "I'm going to talk to Devlin today."

  "All right." Her voice was practically a whisper. "Do you think we should leave?"

  He'd thought about that already. "No. We don't know for sure that anyone's found us. Let's see what Devlin has to say."

  "Okay." She tried to smile at him, but he could see what an effort it was.

  "The girls want to go swimming, I think. Why don't we let them?"

  "All right." He watched as she struggled to hide her fear, then turned and opened the door. "Who wants to go swimming in here?"

  "We do! We do!" Damien turned around to see Maggie and Casey standing in the door to the cabin, the smears of chocolate on their faces proof of their enjoyment of the cookies.

  "You two look good enough to eat," Abby said. "Go clean your faces, then put on your bathing suits." Her voice gave no hint of her emotional turmoil. "We'll all go down to the lake and do a little swimming."

  She turned to him. "I assume you brought your bathing suit." He thought about the swim trunks that he'd packed just yesterday. Three years ago they'd been brand-new. They still were. He'd had to cut the tags off them before he put them in his suitcase. He'd bought them just before the last trip he'd planned with his family. Now he wanted to throw the trunks in the trash along with the tags, but something made him pack them instead. "Yes." He knew his voice was terse, but he didn't care.

  "Well, if you want to swim with us, you might as well get changed. Maggie and Casey wait for no man when it comes to swimming."

  She brushed past him and went into her room, closing the door gently behind her. Watching that closed door, listening to the giggles coming from the room, he finally forced himself to walk to his own room. Staring at the clothes in his suitcase for a long time, he finally reached in and pulled out the trunks. He held them in his clenched fist for a moment, staring at them with unseeing eyes, then he deliberately relaxed his hand and began to undress.

  * * *

  Abby stepped out of her bedroom, nervously smoothing her hands down the short beach cover-up she wore. The logistics of swimming hadn't occurred to her when Damien had suggested it. She hadn't thought about the fact that she would have to appear in front of Damien in a bathing suit.

  He made her feel self-conscious enough as it was. Wearing a bathing suit, she felt much too exposed and absurdly vulnerable. Even though her bright green one-piece suit was modest by anyone's standards, she had to stop herself from reaching around and tugging it down in the back.

  "We're ready. Aunt Abby!" Maggie and Casey came charging out of their room, wearing their bathing suits and heading for the bag that held their beach toys and towels. "Let's go. Last one in the water is a rotten egg."

  "We have to wait for Damien," she reminded them. "It would be rude to leave without him." And possibly dangerous, she acknowledged with a glance toward the lake.

  The door to his bedroom opened, and he walked into the kitchen. Abby's mouth went dry as she looked at him. The towel he had slung around his shoulders did nothing to hide his chest. Broad and solid, his muscles rippled under tanned skin. Wiry rather than bulky, he looked fit and hard, able to handle any challenge. The thatch of black hair on his chest arrowed down his belly in a tantalizing line that disappeared into the waistband of his swimming trunks.

  His legs were long and lean, and as she watched him she imagined them wrapped around her, drawing her closer to him. She felt her face flame as she watched him, but she was unable to look away. Damien was an imposing figure fully dressed, but now standing in front of her wearing only a swimsuit, he was overwhelming. Power and strength emanated from him in almost tangible waves.

  But his face was shuttered and remote, and he held himself stiffly erect, as if he were battling some inner demon. "Damien?" she asked tentatively, her embarrassment forgotten as she realized how unnatural his pose was.
"Is something wrong?"

  He looked over at her, and she saw a flash of agony in his eyes for a moment before he looked away. "I just haven't been swimming in a long time."

  "You have a pretty bathing suit, Damien," Casey said, admiring the multicolored trunks, and this time Abby couldn't miss the searing pain that crossed his face.

  "I'm glad you like it," he replied, forcing out the words. As he turned away, Abby had to stop herself from reaching for him. Damien wasn't a child that needed comfort and protection. He was an adult, and he'd made it clear that he didn't need anything from her besides access to her nieces.

  "We're burning daylight, troops," she said, forcing a cheerful note into her voice. "Let's go."

  The girls raced out the door, and Damien followed them immediately, staying only a few steps behind them. Abby pulled the door shut and walked more slowly, her gaze fixed on the complex man in front of her.

  Damien Kane was an enigma, a man shrouded in mystery. What had put that pain in his eyes? And more importantly why did she feel compelled to ease it?

  Because she was a sucker for anything wounded, she reminded herself with a sigh, whether it was a child, an animal or an attractive man. She had taken one look at Damien's haunted eyes, and her mothering instinct had kicked into high gear.

  Except that her feelings for Damien were anything but motherly, she admitted as she watched the play of muscles in his long legs. The attraction she felt for him was as powerful as it was disturbing and unwanted. Her life was perfect the way it was. She had her students during the school year, and her nieces any time she wanted to see them. After the disastrous experience with her former fiancé, she had no intention of getting involved again. Especially with a man who was uncomfortable around children.

  And apparently Damien felt the same way. He might not be able to hide his attraction to her, but he'd made it plain he intended to fight it as hard as he could. That was fine with her, because she planned on doing the same thing.

  By the time she reached the small strip of sand that bordered the lake, Maggie and Casey were already in the water, splashing each other and shrieking with joy. Damien stood at the edge of the water, scanning the shores of the lake with his unreadable gaze.