The Rancher and the Runaway Bride and The Bluest Eyes in Texas Part 18

She hesitated, evaluating what he had said. "All right, I'll go with you. But we stop as soon as it's safe, and I call my father. Agreed?"

"Agreed." Of course, her idea of when it might be safe to stop and his probably differed. But Burr didn't think this was the time to bring that up.

The Jaguar was the kind of car Lindsey expected a man like Burr to own. Racy. Fast. Dark. Dangerous. She wondered if he had been given the car as part of his cover and realized she was having trouble making the leap from "bad guy" to "good guy" where he was concerned. Burr simply didn't look the part of guardian angel.

Burr opened the pa.s.senger door, shoved Lindsey in less carefully this time, and slammed it behind her. He slid over the hood and got in on the other side. The engine started with a roar that became a purr as he pulled out of the garage. He slipped from the city street onto I-35 and accelerated.

Lindsey blinked her eyes against the bright sunlight. The instant she realized Burr had gotten onto the interstate, her alarm returned. "Where are you going?"

"I told you, somewhere Hector can't find you."

Her eyes widened. "You never intended to let me make a phone call, did you?" She reached for the door handle.

"Don't even think about jumping out," he said. "You'd end up seriously injured or dead. Trust me."

"Trust you? First you hit me, then you fall on me like a beast in rut and manhandle me like I was some criminal, and now you're driving me G.o.d knows where and threatening me with dire consequences if I try to leave your august presence! Give me one good reason why I should trust you."

"I saved your life."

There was a moment of silence. "Well, there is that," she conceded ruefully.

"Look, I can't take you anywhere near the governor's mansion until I talk to my captain. Hector may have someone watching the place. I don't want to be seen returning you home. In fact, I've got to find someplace to hide us both."

"Why do you have to hide?" Her eyes went wide with a sudden horrible thought. "You weren't lying about being a Ranger, were you?"

His lips curled in a bitter smile. "No, I'm a Ranger, all right. But there's a slight problem n.o.body counted on."

"What's that?"

"Hector is liable to be a bit perturbed when he finds out I killed his brother."

"His brother?"

"Epifanio."

"Oh, no!"

Lindsey bit her lip worriedly as Burr exited west onto U.S. 290 heading toward Fredericksburg and the hill country. A long, poignant silence developed as she watched the miles fly by. Her glance slid to the man driving the Jaguar. Maybe she simply hadn't given him the right incentive to take her home.

"I'm sure my father would reward you generously-with a great deal of money-if you would just take me home."

"Do you think you're worth it?"

She arched an aristocratic brow. "What do you mean?"

"I know for a fact you were warned not to go out last night. Why did you?"

"That's none of your business."

"You made it my business when you got yourself kidnapped."

"I had promised to attend the ball. I had to go."

"So you were just doing what spoiled little rich girls do, is that it?"

"Spoiled-" Lindsey bit back her retort. She wasn't going to argue with a man wearing a ponytail and a diamond earring. "You know nothing about me."

"I know what I read in the papers."

Lindsey laughed. "I suspected you were a fool. Now I've got proof."

He glanced sharply at her.

"Anyone who believes what he reads in the papers-"

"Is a fool?" he interrupted. "But then, I've had a chance to judge you for myself now. At least one thing they said is true. You've got the bluest eyes I've ever seen. And from the looks of you, I'm inclined to believe there's some truth in the rest of what I've read."

"You mean, that I'm spoiled rotten, the 'very much indulged' daughter of a very powerful man?" Lindsey said, her voice rife with indignation as she quoted a recent society news article.

"If the panty hose fit..."

He took his eyes off the road long enough to give her a thorough perusal with eyes that held their share of disapproval and disdain.

Lindsey gave him a withering look of scorn. "Appearances can be deceiving."

He snorted. "You can say that again."

She noticed with some alarm that he had turned off the highway onto a winding dirt road that was shaded by live oaks. "Where are we going?"

"Someplace private where I can use the phone."

"Remember, I want to talk to my father."

He brought the Jaguar to a stop in front of a small wooden cabin with a roofed porch and a stone chimney. The cabin was unpainted, and the split wood had been aged by wind and weather. There was a picture window in front, with a door to one side of it.

"Get inside," he said.

Lindsey sat where she was.

"Go on," he said. "There's no one here but us."

Lindsey stayed where she was. "What is this place?"

Burr exited the car, slid over the hood and opened her door. "Are you coming out of there on your own, or am I going to have to drag you out?"

Lindsey dipped a bare foot out of the car. She winced when she encountered the small, sharp stones on the drive. Before she had taken two painful steps, Burr swept her up into his arms. She instinctively grabbed his shoulders. The muscles beneath the T-s.h.i.+rt were rock hard. Her eyes met his, questioning.

"You don't weigh as much as I thought you would."

She flushed at the insult buried in the compliment. She was five-ten in her stocking feet, and n.o.body had ever accused her of being skinny. Fortunately, he was easily six inches taller. He carried her up to the porch and set her down.

She didn't thank him. After all, it wasn't her fault she didn't have any shoes.

Burr opened the door and gave her a nudge inside.

Lindsey lifted her chin and, once she regained her balance, walked past him as regally as a queen. She thought she heard him grunt in disgust, but refused to give him the satisfaction of a response.

She looked around the cabin, which was sparingly furnished. There was an old leather couch and a rawhide-covered chair in front of the stone fireplace. The hardwood floor was polished to a high sheen, but there were no rugs of any kind on it. Nor were there curtains on any of the windows.

She could see the kitchen from the living room. It contained a small wooden table and two ladderback chairs. She suspected the other doorway led to the bedroom and bath. There wasn't room for much else.

She turned to face Burr with her hands folded in front of her. "Now what?"

"Now I have to make some calls."

Lindsey looked around for a phone, but didn't see one.

"Not here," he said. "I have to go into town."

"What am I supposed to do while you're gone?"

"Wait here for me."

Lindsey swallowed her outrage and managed to say in a reasonable voice, "Why can't I go with you?"

"I can't take the chance you'll draw attention with those blue eyes of yours. You'll be safer here."

"I can always wear sungla.s.ses," she snapped.

"I don't have a pair handy. Do you?"

Obviously she didn't.

"You'll be safer here," he said.

"Safer?" she asked in a sharp voice. "What if one of Hector's men finds me here? I'm totally defenseless!"

Burr snorted. "I wouldn't say that. You didn't do so badly at the hotel."

"You know what I mean," she said with asperity. "I know what Hector had planned for me. I heard you talking through the door." She paused and admitted, "I'm scared."

Burr's eyes narrowed. He seemed to debate a moment before he spoke. "You've got nothing to fear if you stay here."

Lindsey looked at him, really looked at him. At the long hair. The earring. The twice-broken nose. The snake tattoo. "I repeat, I don't see anything that leads me to believe I can trust you to have my best interests at heart."

"As someone recently told me, appearances can be deceiving."

"I won't stay here alone," she said. "The moment you're gone, I'll walk back to the road."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

He moved amazingly fast, catching her arms and dragging them behind her. He found rope in the kitchen and tied her hands. He wasn't precisely rough, but he yanked the clothesline cord tight around her wrists. He pushed her toward the open doorway that led to what turned out to be, as she had suspected, the bedroom.

He picked her up and dumped her on the bed before tying her ankles together. "You should do all right here until I come back."

"How long is that going to be?" She felt humiliated and indignant, and both of those emotions were apparent in her voice.

"Not long enough for you to work yourself free of those ropes," he said, as though reading her mind. "Just lie still and be good. I'll bring you back something to eat."

Lindsey suddenly realized she was famished. It had been almost twenty-four hours since her last meal. But she refused to be mollified by the bone he had thrown her. "My father will have your badge when he hears about how you've treated me. You'll be writing parking tickets for the rest of your life!"

"I'm sorry to have to do this," he said as he tied a pillowcase around her mouth. "I don't think there's anybody around to hear you if you scream, but I can't take the chance."

Then he was gone. She heard stones scattering as he left the driveway. She immediately tested her bonds, but they didn't give. She began looking around the room to see what she might use to cut herself free. Then it dawned on her that he hadn't tied her to the bed. There was nothing to keep her from just getting up and hopping away.

BURR WAS WORRIED. He wondered whether it might not have been smarter to take the governor's daughter home, after all. But he knew that wouldn't have solved anything. Hector would just make some attempt on some other member of the family. No, this had to be solved while Hector still thought someone on his side had the woman.

Burr was also angry with himself for not finding some other way to rescue "the bluest eyes in Texas" without having to kill Hector's brother. But he hadn't been given a choice. At least he had the girl-the woman, he corrected himself-to bargain with. And what a woman!

Lindsey Major was the kind of woman he had always dreamed about, whenever he let himself dream. She was tall, with lush curves and soft skin. He knew about the soft skin because he'd had to touch her to tie her up. And he knew about the curves because he had picked her up and held her in his arms.

Burr felt his body respond to the memory of how she had felt with her warm b.r.e.a.s.t.s nestled against his chest. He cursed under his breath. He might as well desire some image on a movie screen. He had about the same chance of intimacy with the governor's blue-eyed daughter.

He found a phone booth in the small town closest to the cabin. The town consisted of a gas station and a general store, which also contained a post office. People stopped here for gas or to get a soda on their way to hunt in the hill country, or on their way to go floating down the many streams in the area on an inflated inner tube. He hadn't come here once in the eighteen months he had worked for Hector, and he was pretty sure there was no way Hector could trace him here.

He called the governor's mansion, knowing that was where the captain would be. It took a while for someone to acknowledge who he was and to get the captain on the phone.

"I've been compromised," Burr said.

"d.a.m.n!" A pause and then, "Is she safe?"

"I've got her."

"Where?"

"At my cabin in the hill country."

"What happened?"

"I had to kill Hector's brother."

"Come on in, Burr. The game's up."

Burr shook his head, then realized Captain Rogers couldn't see him. "No, Captain. I haven't spent the past eighteen months undercover with these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds to have it all go down the drain now. I think I can still get Hector. But I need to do something with the governor's daughter. Is there someplace I can drop her off?"

There was a long pause, and Burr heard Captain Rogers discussing the situation with those around him.

"You there, Burr?"