FOR THE CHILDREN Read online

  Abby stared at him for a moment longer, then turned to look at the twins in the back seat. "I'm responsible for their safety," she said quietly. "It's up to me to keep them safe. But I guess I need help now." She turned to look at him. "I'm going to have to mist you, Damien. I don't want to go away with you, but you and the men looking for Maggie and Casey haven't given me any choice."

  She looked back at the children, and he saw her force a smile onto her face. "How would you like to go on a vacation, girls?"

  "Yes!" Two pairs of shining eyes beamed at them, and Damien felt his heart twist again. Abby might think it was going to be hard to spend several days cooped up with him, but it was going to be nothing but torture for Damien. And being back in Cameron would only compound the agony.

  He had no choice. The twins needed protection, and he needed to know what they'd seen. And they all needed a safe place to stay. So he was going to have to learn to live with the pain.

  * * *

  Two hours later, driving on the interstate toward Utah, Abby turned around and saw that Maggie and Casey had fallen asleep curled into one another. Their dolls dangled from their hands, and Maggie had her white blanket bundled against her chest.

  Abby's heart expanded as she watched them sleep. Would they be safe in Utah? she wondered. Damien had promised that they would, that no one knew about his connection with the small town of Cameron. They would stay in his friend's cabin, and Maggie and Casey would eventually tell Damien what they'd seen.

  Damien, the stranger who was going to live with them. She sneaked a glance over at the FBI agent and found him staring out the windshield of the car as he drove. Besides an occasional searching glance in the rearview mirror, he focused on the task with complete concentration, blocking everything else out. After a moment she looked back at the road in front of her, disturbed by her insight Already she knew that a tightly reined intensity controlled everything Damien did.

  She wondered if he made love with the same passion. Her hands trembled in her lap as she flinched away from the thought. Where had it come from? The last thing she was interested in was getting involved with this FBI agent who was clearly uncomfortable around children.

  His long, lean body might be the stuff of a woman's fantasies, but he was a dangerous man. Dangerous to her, because he made her forget the lessons of the past. No, if she was interested in getting involved with a man, he was the last one she'd pick.

  To distract her thoughts, she said to him in a low voice, glancing back at the sleeping children, "What are you watching so carefully?"

  Without taking his eyes off the road, he said, "There's a dark green car about one hundred feet behind us. I'm keeping an eye on it."

  Abby's gaze shifted to the rearview mirror, searching for the car. She spotted it easily in the lane next to hers, several cars back. "There are a lot of cars behind us. What is it about that one that's so intriguing?"

  He shifted in his seat and turned to face her, a flash of impatience in his eyes. "I think it's following us."

  A whisper of fear trailed down her spine. "How can you tell something like that? There must be hundreds of cars on this expressway, all going the same way at the same speed."

  "I've stayed in the far right lane and I'm going slower than most of the traffic. The majority of the cars are going five to ten miles an hour faster than us, and they swing around and pass. But that car is going the same speed as we are, and it hasn't budged for the last half hour."

  The fear intensified, even as she told herself that Damien Kane was so used to trouble that he saw it everywhere. "Maybe they have kids in the car, too, and they're trying to be careful." She couldn't stop herself from glancing in the rearview mirror again.

  "There's only one man in the car. And he has a car phone that he's been using."

  "So do half the other people on the road," she retorted. "That doesn't mean anything."

  "We'll see."

  Abby drew a deep, shaky breath. "How could anyone have followed us? I thought no one knew we were leaving?"

  "No one did. That doesn't mean that someone wasn't watching your house. When they saw us put suitcases in the car, they would have known we were running. It would make sense to follow us."

  "A lot of people drive from Las Vegas to Utah. He's probably another tourist."

  He glanced over at her, and she saw his lips curve up in a faint, cynical smile. "If the guy behind us in the green car is just a tourist, then I'm the Easter Bunny." He looked back at the mirror again. "Don't worry. He won't find out where we're going."

  She sat stiffly, her hands clenched in her lap and her gaze drifting too often to the car's side mirror. The green car didn't get any closer, but it didn't drop back, either. It just stayed behind them, keeping a strict distance between them, as if the two vehicles were somehow attached and moving together. In spite of what she'd said to Damien, butterflies of anxiety fluttered in her stomach.

  Neither of them spoke for the next twenty miles. Every time Abby glanced in the mirror, she saw the green car behind them and fear crept higher in her throat. Damien drove silently. She saw his eyes flicker to the rearview mirror every few seconds.

  He glanced over at her then, and a moment later he surprised her by saying, "We should probably call each other by our first names. It will make your nieces feel more comfortable about having me around."

  His perception disturbed her, somewhere deep in her soul. The jaws of a trap hovered in the distance, ready to snap closed around her if she wasn't wary. She chose her words carefully. "You're probably right. If we're going to be staying in the same house, it doesn't make sense to be so formal."

  "You can tell your nieces the same thing when they wake up." He turned and looked out the window as he spoke.

  "They have names, you know," she said, trying to force a ripple into his still, silent composure.

  "I know." He didn't turn to look at her.

  He didn't speak again, and as he drove north, heading into southern Utah's beautiful red mountains, she found herself studying the car that trailed behind them. Was it really following them? Would it get off at the same exit as they did? And if it did, how on earth would they manage to lose him on the narrow, winding back roads of Utah?

  "Don't worry about it," Damien said suddenly.

  "Worry about what?"

  "The car behind us. I'm going to get off before our exit, and I'll be able to lose him."

  "Are you sure?" she demanded.

  "It's what I do, Abby." He shot her an amused look.

  "According to you, these people are professionals, too," she retorted, her fear chilling her. "Why would they let you lose them?"

  "They're not going to have a choice. They won't know we're anywhere near Cameron. Utah is a big state, and they'll probably assume we're hiding in a big city. We'll be well hidden."

  "Is this where I'm supposed to be grateful that we went with you?" she asked, hating the petulance in her voice but unable to control it.

  "This is where you're supposed to see that it was necessary." There was no censure in his voice, just a quiet finality.

  The tires hummed on the pavement, and the mountains blocked the sun for a moment. Damien's face was in the shadows, unreadable.

  "I'm sorry, Damien," she said quietly. His name rolled off her tongue too readily, dark and seductive, and she wanted to call it back. "I've been so concerned about Maggie and Casey that maybe I haven't been fair."

  "You don't have to apologize. I would probably have done the same thing in your position." His words were so low that she had to strain to hear them. "Just remember that I'm not your enemy here."

  "As long as you don't try to interfere with the girls, we won't have a problem."

  Damien leaned back in his seat and stared at the bleak beauty of the mountains they drove past. "Don't worry," he said shortly.

  Interfering with those two children was the last thing he intended to do. He would get the information he needed, make sure they were out of danger, an
d he would be gone so fast he'd leave a vapor trail behind him. He had no intention of getting entangled in their lives in any way.

  Or their aunt's life, either. He glanced over and saw her chestnut hair gleaming golden in the light pouring through the car window. The simple T-shirt and cutoff shorts she wore showed a lot of smooth, pale skin, and his hand tingled as he remembered how she'd felt the night before.

  No, Abby might be an attractive woman, but he intended to give her a very wide berth. The woman reeked of home, nurturing and nesting, all the things he'd vowed to avoid in his life. And seeing the way she was with her nieces, she probably wanted children of her own. She was everything he couldn't bear to be around.

  He swung the car abruptly toward an exit ramp and turned onto a two-lane road. The green car drove past the exit, slowing briefly then speeding up again. In a few minutes they were driving through the canyons, the road rising and then falling in front of them. There was no one behind them.

  "Maybe that car wasn't following us after all."

  He heard the hope in Abby's voice and hated to be the one to dash it. So he merely said, "No one's following us now."

  "How long before we get to Cameron?" she asked.

  Cameron. Damien looked at his hands, clamped on the steering wheel, and deliberately relaxed them. "It'll be a couple of hours. Long enough to make sure there's no one behind us."

  "Aunt Abby?"

  The tiny voice came from the back seat, and Damien involuntarily tensed again. He sat very still, waiting for Abby to respond to the girl.

  "What is it, honey?" Abby twisted around in her seat to flash one of the twins a bright smile.

  "Are we there yet?" the girl asked in a plaintive voice.

  "Not yet, but it won't be long," Abby assured her.

  "I'm hungry, Aunt Abby." That was a different voice, although it was equally cranky. So both of them must be awake. The big cat in the carrier next to them let out a low yowl, adding his voice to the chorus of complaints.

  Instinctively Damien scanned the road in front of them, an ingrained response from his days of traveling with a young child. Then he caught himself. Even if there were a place to stop, he wouldn't allow it. "They'll have to wait," he said to Abby in a gruff voice. "I don't want to stop now."

  Abby shook her head. "I know. I just want to get to the house as fast as we can."

  Damien heard a rustling sound from the back seat, then the second voice whined, "Casey took my blanket, Aunt Abby."

  "I did not. She dropped it on the floor."

  "She throwed it on the floor."

  "That's enough, girls," Abby said firmly. She turned to look at Damien, an apologetic look in her eyes. "I've got some books in that bag on the floor in back. Would you mind if I read to them for a while? It'll keep them quiet until we get to the house."

  "Of course not." He spoke quickly, hoping his voice didn't betray the panic he felt. Listening to her read to the two girls was a small thing, but it was too intimate. Memories crashed in on him, of all the times he'd read to his son, all the times he'd listened to his wife read. He would be forced to relive every second of the past three years, when he would have given anything to be able to read to his son one last time.

  She leaned closer to him as she turned to the twins in the back seat. The heat from her body curled around him, startling him with its softness. A whisper of her scent lingered in the air. He shifted away from her.

  The air in the car was suddenly too warm. He wondered if she'd leave her scent behind long after she was gone, if he'd smell her every time he got into his car. His body tightened as a white-hot flash of desire surged through him. Startled, he looked over at her and saw her stretched out across the seat, groping for something on the floor behind her.

  "I can get that for you," he said, reaching for the cloth bag she was trying to grab. They both leaned toward the bag at the same instant, and the inside of his arm brushed against her breasts.

  They both froze, and for just a moment he felt her nipples tighten against his arm. As she stared at him, her eyes dark green in the mottled light, he saw desire shimmering beneath the shock.

  Then he snatched his arm away and gripped the steering wheel, staring fixedly at the road in front of him. But the sound of her too rapid breathing suddenly filled the quiet car. And the skin on his upper arm burned with the memory of her touch.

  As the air quivered between them, Abby twisted on the seat and grabbed the bag from the floor. Pulling out a picture book, she opened it and began reading. Her voice, low and strained, rubbed against his nerves like sandpaper. Every husky note curled around him, digging its talons into his belly and burning all the way down to his groin. By the time her voice steadied and strengthened, it was too late. He wanted her with a fierceness he almost couldn't control.

  Concentrating on subduing the beast inside him, he drove grimly on toward the hell that would be his destination. Even one afternoon spent in the same house as Abby Markham and her two nieces would be more than he could bear. And he would be there for a hell of a lot longer than one afternoon.

  * * *

  Chapter 4

  «^»

  An hour and a half later Damien pulled off the two-lane highway onto a gravel road. The road curled around a cliff, then straightened once more and headed for a beautiful white house nestled at the base of the cliff.

  "Welcome to the Red Rock Ranch," he said as Abby stared out the window.

  "I thought we were going to the town of Cameron."

  "Cameron is on the other side of the ranch. It's about five miles farther down the road."

  The twins stirred in the back seat. After Abby read to them for what seemed like forever, they'd begun playing some game with their dolls. The sound of their voices, giggling in the back seat, had stirred painful memories, but he'd done his best to ignore them.

  He stopped outside the house and heard the girls snap to attention. "Is this where we're staying, Aunt Abby?" one of them asked.

  "No, honey. We're just stopping here for a moment." She turned to him. "Are they expecting us?" she asked in a low voice.

  "I called Shea this morning from the office. She said she'd be around."

  Shea walked out of the house as he spoke, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Her long, curly blond hair was pulled back into a ragged ponytail. Weariness was etched on her face, but it lit with a smile when she saw him.

  "Damien!" She hurried around the car to reach in and give him a kiss. "It's so good to see you."

  "You, too, Shea." He held her hand for a moment, studying her. Hard work had stamped the weariness on her face, but beneath the exhaustion she hummed with contentment. "How is everything going on the ranch?"

  Her smile turned rueful. "As well as we could expect. Dev and I knew things would be rocky for a while, but we're muddling by."

  "Shea, this is Abby Markham and her nieces, Maggie and Casey. Abby, this is Shea McAllister. She and her brother, Devlin, own the Red Rock Ranch."

  Abby's smile was cautious. "It's nice to meet you, Ms. McAllister."

  "Please, call me Shea." She studied Abby with sympathy. "Damien told me a little about your situation when he called. I'm delighted he thought of our cabin. There's no one around for miles, and no one but Dev and I and the boys who work here will know you're there." She flashed a quick smile. "I stocked the cabin with some groceries earlier. I'd invite you to stay for dinner, but I suspect Damien would say no."

  "You suspect correctly," he said, his voice grim. "Thanks for everything, Shea."

  "I'm glad I could help." She studied him, making him squirm. She might be only twenty-five, but Shea McAllister was wise beyond her years. Finally she said, "You might want to leave that car here and take Devlin's Bronco. You'll have trouble getting to the cabin with that city car."

  "I can't take your brother's truck," he protested.

  She grinned. "He'll thank you for airing it out. He never drives anything but that police car of his anymore."

  It too
k Damien only a moment to accept her offer. "Thanks, Shea. I hadn't thought about how we were going to get to the cabin."

  "There's a road, but it's pretty primitive. And if it rains, you'd never make it with that sedan. Let me help you transfer your stuff."

  Damien watched as Abby got Maggie and Casey out of the car and set the carrier holding Angus on the porch. A shaggy yellow dog came bounding over to sniff at the case. When Angus growled, the dog leaped high in the air, then edged backward.

  Maggie and Casey giggled, and Shea turned around and grinned at them. "Buster is a big baby, isn't he? Go ahead and pet him. He loves little girls."

  In a moment the dog was rolling on his back, and the twins were patting his chest. They looked up at Abby, their eyes shining. "Can we come back and play with Buster?"

  "We'll see," she said, looking at Damien. He turned away, but he suspected it was too late. Abby saw far too much.

  He'd known coming back to Cameron wouldn't be easy, but he hadn't been prepared for this particular ambush. Memories of his son playing with Buster exploded in his heart. Blindly grabbing the last suitcases, he set them on the porch and slammed the trunk.

  Minutes later they had moved the car seats and their luggage into Devlin's truck, and began the drive along a bumpy dirt road. The ranch house disappeared quickly, hidden by rock and pine trees. By the time they reached a small meadow, the road had become two deep ruts in the sparse grass.

  The cabin was tucked into a corner on one edge of the meadow, surrounded by pine and aspen trees. Damien remembered a small lake behind the cabin, hidden now by the trees. Under other circumstances he'd welcome the chance to spend time in such a beautiful, peaceful spot. Now all he felt was dread.

  He let the Bronco roll to a stop next to the cabin, and for a moment the only sound was the intense quiet of the mountains. Then one of the twins said, "Are we here?"