скачать книгу бесплатно
Olivia remained silent, desperately searching for an explanation.
The man gave her a little shake. “What is it? What are you running from?”
“My father.” The words burst out of her without preamble or thought.
Her captor’s blue eyes narrowed. “Your father?”
“I just can’t stand it any longer. I had to get away from him.”
The grip on her shoulders loosened somewhat. “Why? What’s the problem with him?”
“He…just…” Olivia swallowed hard, not certain what to say. She was a terrible liar. The few times she had tried, she had been found out instantly. But somehow she had to convince this man to let her go. She doubted that would happen if he found out she was Roger Franklin’s daughter. And if she had to go back now…
“What?” the stranger prompted.
Olivia’s heart knocked hard against her chest as she struggled for words. She had come too far to mess up. Getting out of the house in the early hours of the morning had been a minor miracle. She had escaped through a window she had left open in the library, falling hard on her right arm and almost crushing poor Puddin’. But when no lights came on nor alarms sounded, she realized the security system wasn’t fully engaged, possibly due to the party and the caterers who were still loading equipment and cleaning up near the kitchen entrance.
Aided by her knowledge of the outside security cameras and the schedule of the guards who patrolled the grounds each night, she had crept behind bushes on the perimeter of the yard and through the deepest of shadows to the stables.
Even then, she hadn’t a clear plan as to how she would get off the ranch. She was considering saddling a horse and riding out when she had noticed the horse breeder’s trailer. Remembering her father saying Royal Pleasure’s new owner would be leaving first thing in the morning, she had taken what seemed like her best chance and stowed away. She had been hoping to sneak out of the camper when he stopped for gasoline or to exercise Royal Pleasure.
Bringing Puddin’ had been a risk, and most likely a mistake. Yet leaving her only friend in the world had been impossible. Olivia couldn’t do it. And truly, the dog had been so quiet, so good. Until she simply had to go to the bathroom.
The horse breeder still regarded her with open hostility. “I don’t believe this nonsense about running from your father.”
“But it’s true,” Olivia protested, relieved that she didn’t have to lie. “I had to get away from him.”
“He works for Franklin?”
“Yes…in…in the stables,” she prevaricated. “As a trainer.”
“And he hurt you?” An emotion that could have been sympathy flickered across the man’s face.
“Yes, he hurt me.” At least that much wasn’t a lie, Olivia thought. Her father had hurt her.
“But why would you have to hide to get away?”
“My father would never willingly let me go.”
Looking even more suspicious, one of her captor’s hands slipped from her shoulder down her arm, the arm she had fallen on in her escape. Olivia winced and looked down. For the first time she noticed the purple bruise that started just below the hem of her sleeve.
The man saw it, too. Gently he pushed the sleeve up. The bruise stretched from near her elbow to her shoulder.
Muttering a curse, the man dropped her arm and stepped away. “Did your father do this to you?”
“He…he made me fall,” Olivia said. “He pushed you?”
She nodded.
The breeder peered at her again, clearly torn between believing and doubting her story. “How old are you?” he asked at last. “Over eighteen, I imagine.”
“Yes.”
“There’s no reason why you couldn’t just have left.”
“You don’t understand,” she explained, feeling desperate. “My father, he’s…nuts. I was so scared of him, so afraid.”
“You could have told someone. Told Jake or Mr. Franklin.”
She forced out a laugh. “You think a rich, important man like that would care about me?”
“Roger Franklin strikes me as a decent man. He’d care if one of his employees was beating his daughter.”
“Yeah, he’d fire my father, and I’d get blamed.”
“No, you would have gotten help.” The breeder shook his head. “There’s some other reason you’re running.” He took hold of her uninjured arm. “Come on back to the truck. We’re going to find a telephone and call the ranch.”
Olivia struggled to free herself, her eyes filling with tears. In her arms Puddin’ whined. She could not go back. The very fact that they had made it this far meant she had something of a head start.
“Please,” she begged. “Please believe me. I have to get away from my father. I can’t stand it any longer. Please.” Olivia didn’t want to break down completely, but hysteria rose inside her. She fought the sobs and started to tremble.
“Jeez.” The breeder’s forehead creased, and he thrust a hand through wavy, light-brown hair. “You really are scared to death, aren’t you?”
Olivia nodded while Puddin’ licked her trembling chin.
The man stared at her hard for a few moments more while she struggled to bring herself under control. He seemed like a kind person. Handsome in a strong, hard-planed sort of way. Clearly he sympathized with her somewhat, else he would have already hauled her back to the camper and locked her in.
Olivia focused on playing on that sympathy. “I’m so…sorry I hid in your camper. I’m not a thief. I just need a break. Please. Just drive away and leave us here. Please.”
Noah was tempted to do just that. Something told him this young woman wasn’t a thief. But something in her story didn’t strike him as quite right, either. The best thing he could do for himself was get in the truck and drive away.
And that’s exactly what he was going to do.
“You’ve got a deal, little lady. If anybody ever asks me, I’ll tell them I’ve never seen you before.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, toward the truck. “You got anything in the camper?”
“A small bag.”
He swung the door wide open and retrieved a small, and to his admittedly inexperienced eye, expensive-looking tote bag. He thought about searching it for stolen jewelry, but decided he didn’t want to know if she was hiding something. He just wanted to get back on the road.
He rooted in a cooler and found two bottled waters. Outside, he handed everything over to her. “Here you go.”
She swiped at the tears on her cheeks before taking the bag and the water. “Thank you so much. I’m sorry I’ve delayed you. You’ve really been so kind.”
Her choice of words didn’t strike Noah as those of a stable hand’s daughter. Determinedly, he slammed the door on his doubts. Giving her a little salute, he went around the trailer to make sure the door was secured. He closed and locked the camper door, as well, then climbed into the truck.
His stowaway had moved just ahead of him on the road, where she struggled to fit the water bottles into her bag while holding on to her dog. She looked small and awkward.
Noah’s conscience pinched him hard.
He leaned out the window. “You be careful.”
“I will,” she shouted back.
He waved. He even started the truck. But he didn’t move.
Ahead of him, she started walking. Her determined strides did nothing to disguise the downright tempting curves of her behind.
“Just let her go,” Noah told his reflection in the mirror.
And leave her and that useless dog alone on this stretch of highway?
“They’ll be just fine.”
If they don’t meet up with a rattlesnake.
“A snake would run the other way.”
But some pervert in a rusted-out pickup just might want a piece of her cute little butt.
Noah closed his eyes for a moment, trying not to think about that bruise on her arm or her tears when she said she’d been hurt by her father. God knew, he understood that kind of pain. He just wished his dear mother had not worked so hard to instill a sense of honor in him. Finally he let out a long breath, eased the truck into drive and leaned out the window, calling, “Hey, come here.”
She hurried up to the window. The hope mingling with fear on her face was more than he could stand.
“All right,” he muttered. “I’ve got this terrible feeling that I’m going to regret this, but here’s what we’re going to do. First, you get in the truck.”
She frowned, as if she didn’t understand him.
“Get in the truck, and at the next town you can catch a bus somewhere.” She gave him a blank look. “You do want to get on a bus or something, don’t you? There was some destination in mind when you set out on this little trip?”
Though she nodded, her expression gave her away.
“She has no idea where she’s going,” he muttered as she came around to the passenger side. “No clue. Just her and that damn dog, tearing off like Dorothy and Toto on the yellow brick road.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she gushed as she climbed in beside him. “I was willing to walk, but this will be so much quicker and easier.”
The dog jumped onto the seat, then leaped up and licked Noah’s cheek.
He groaned. The dog barked and tried for a second lick.
“Just keep the mutt under control,” Noah ordered.
She pulled the dog onto her lap. “Her name’s Puddin’.”
“And your name?”
She hesitated. Briefly. But long enough for Noah to figure she was lying. “Libby. Libby Kay.”
“I’m Noah,” he said, offering a handshake. The hand she placed in his was soft as silk, with nails finely manicured. Not exactly the hands of a working man’s daughter.
“And your last name?” she prompted.
“Gullible as hell,” Noah murmured as he pulled back onto the road. “Just call me gullible as hell.”
Chapter Two
“You need to eat.”
Noah’s comment penetrated Olivia’s nervous preoccupation with the other diners in the small restaurant where they had stopped for lunch.
“Eat,” he instructed, as he had done periodically since the waitress had placed the meat loaf-and-three-vegetable special in front of her.
Olivia knew she should be hungry enough to clean her plate, but who could think about food when at any moment a car of “suits” could drive up. She hadn’t wanted to stop at all, but Noah had insisted.
She shot a nervous glance outside, where Puddin’ waited in a truck cab cooled by a lowered window. Noah had also insisted the diner wouldn’t welcome a dog, even a small one. Olivia wanted to wait in the truck with her pet, but Noah would have none of that, either. She was discovering her driver/rescuer was one bossy individual.
“How y’all doin’?” The hippy, flirtatious waitress sidled up to their table, as she had done at least a half dozen times. Her black-lacquered eyelashes fluttered in Noah’s direction.
He grinned and held out his coffee cup. “Sure could use a refill.”
She obliged with a simper that set Olivia’s teeth on edge.
“You through, honey?” The waitress nodded at Olivia’s plate.
“She’s still working on it,” Noah replied in his irritatingly superior tone.
She set her fork down. “Actually, I am finished.”
Without asking, Noah ordered two pieces of coconut cream pie. Olivia protested. He offered her a quelling glance.
The waitress tittered and retreated, ample backside swaying in her pink gingham uniform.
Olivia sighed her frustration. “We really shouldn’t leave Puddin’ out there like this.”
“The dog is fine. I’m not in the business of cruelty to animals.”
“But still—”
“A person of limited means ought not to waste a free meal.”
“I can pay for my own food,” Olivia protested.
Noah looked skeptical as he lifted his mug. “Better save your money for later, when no one might be offering to feed you.” He savored a long sip of coffee. “Just out of curiosity, how much money do you have?”
“Enough,” was Olivia’s evasive reply. In the two hours since he had agreed to take her to a bus station, Noah had done his best to dig information out of her. Where was she going? Did she have relatives she could call? How was she going to support herself? Of course, Olivia had told him nothing. Besides resenting his authoritative, prying manner, she didn’t know the answer.
She had a vague notion about heading for Chicago. Just after college, she had spent part of one summer in a program at Chicago’s Art Institute. A “suit” had been enrolled in the class, as well, to watch over her at all times, but still she had managed to enjoy the experience. She had made some contacts that summer that her father might not think to check right away. Maybe one of those acquaintances could help her land a job. Teaching perhaps. Working with children. She planned to take whatever job she could find. She had a first-class education. Surely that would count for something.
It had better. She had exactly $448.92 in her pocket, money scrounged from various handbags in her closet. A pair of diamond stud earrings and an opal ring were also in her tote bag.
