B.J. Daniels - Into Dust

CHAPTER FOUR

CASSIDY LICKED GUACAMOLE off her fingertips as she studied the man sitting across from her. Jack had taken her to a small Mexican restaurant in a funky neighborhood that went well with the clothing he’d bought her. She felt downright Bohemian. Her stomach had been growling by the time the waitress slid a huge plate of enchiladas, chiles rellenos, and beans and rice in front of her.

Earlier, he’d left her at the hotel, but only long enough to get his vehicle. He’d returned with a ranch truck. At first she’d thought he’d stolen it.

“I live on a ranch outside of Houston,” he’d told her. “I have use of the vehicles.”

“So what do you know about this company, T.D. Enterprises Inc.?” she now asked between bites.

“I gather it’s an import/export business.”

“What does that mean?”

“They buy and sell based on surplus, bringing in what Americans want and sending out what other countries want from us.” He shrugged.

“Hmm,” she said thoughtfully. “What would someone in the import/export business want with me?”

He shook his head.

She took another bite. Accidentally catching her reflection in a mirror across the room, she was momentarily startled.

“What?” Jack asked, sounding worried as he glanced over his shoulder.

“I just can’t get over how I look. I’m shocked when I see my reflection, but not in a bad way. I think I look more...interesting.” She touched her short hair, wondering why she’d never cut it. She and her twin, Harper, had had the same exact hairstyle since they were kids—long straight blond hair. “I like the clothes, too. I should shop flea markets more often.”

He laughed at that. “You’d look good in anything, even rags.”

She smiled at the compliment. Jack, however, seemed embarrassed, as if afraid it hadn’t come out the way he’d meant it. As she studied him, she realized something. “You know everything about me, but I don’t know anything about you.”

“There isn’t much to tell.” He seemed to concentrate on the food on his plate, as if embarrassed to have the topic turned on him. “I’m an only child.”

“I can’t imagine how wonderful that would be,” she said, only half joking. “Don’t get me wrong, I love my sisters, but it’s hard being one of the youngest and having five sisters bossing you around.”

“It must have been fun growing up, though,” he said as if truly interested. “You grew up on a ranch?”

Nodding, she said, “It was fun. We rode horses, swam in the creek, camped up in the mountains. The Crazies, at least that’s what people call the Crazy Mountains, are right out our back door. But there were drawbacks, too. I’m sure you’ve read in the papers about my mother, who supposedly died when I was just a few months old. She returned over a year ago after being dead for twenty-two years.” Cassidy shook her head, realizing that he’d turned the conversation back on her. “I bet your family is completely normal, right?”

He nodded. “Boringly normal. I was raised on a ranch, where I tried to ride any animal that would hold still long enough.”

“You rodeoed?” she asked. He had the look of a bronc rider.

Jack seemed to relax as he grinned and nodded. “There wasn’t a bucking horse on the circuit that didn’t leave me in the dust. I realized finally that I wasn’t born to rodeo. About then my father bought a ranch and I began to run it. It was my twenty-first birthday present. Don’t look so impressed. It was a tax write-off for him.”

“Still, nice present,” she said. “So what do your parents do?”

“My father is a businessman. My mother was a homemaker.”

“Was?”

“She died. A car accident.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“I miss her.” He grew silent. “It’s been a few years.”

She could see that the years hadn’t lessened the pain. She picked at her food.

“My oldest sister, Ainsley, pretty much raised us girls,” she said into the silence that followed. “Dad was always involved in politics. When he became a senator, he was gone a lot.”

“But you had a stepmother?”

“Angelina, the ice queen.”

Jack laughed and she laughed with him. “I take it you didn’t get along?”

“She ignored us, we ignored her. The only time we had to deal with her was when we got into trouble.” She mugged a face. “Then we’d have to hear about how we were ruining our father’s career with our selfish behavior,” she said in a stern voice.

“What kind of trouble did you get into?” he asked.

“Kid stuff. You know, caught with some young neighbor boy in the barn or getting busted at a local underage kegger or taking one of the ranch vehicles without permission and ending up in a ditch on the way home. I remember once when she caught me trying to ride one of the wild horses.”

“Seriously? You tried to ride a bucking horse?”

“You did the same thing.”

He nodded. “But you’re...”

“Female? You noticed.” She grinned at him and realized she was flirting about the same time he did. Instantly, he turned back to his food.

Cassidy took a few bites of her meal. She’d been having fun a few minutes ago, enjoying Jack’s company. For a while she’d forgotten why they were here and what was at stake and it had felt good.

But somewhere beyond this Mexican restaurant with its Latin music and wonderful smells were men who might at this moment be looking for her. She pushed her plate away.

“So how do we get into the offices at T.D. Enterprises Inc.?” she asked.

* * *

JACK GREW SERIOUS AGAIN as well. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had this much fun on a date. But this wasn’t a date. He was Jack Durand, the son of a man who as far as he could tell had tried to abduct the daughter of the future president. If Cassidy even knew who he was or why he’d just happened to be around to help her...

He couldn’t let himself think about that. Or what would happen if his father was really behind this. Instead, he concentrated on her question. He couldn’t simply admit to using his key to get into the warehouse tonight. “I know someone who knows a guy who works out there who owes him a favor. He’s going to leave a key for me at the back entrance.”

“Wow, the guy must owe him a huge favor,” she said.

“Houston is a small town when you lived here all of your life,” he said and she nodded, but still seemed a little dubious. He sighed. “Also, I told him a little white lie about having worked there for a short period of time and that I needed to get my personnel file. I told him my boss was an ass and I was trying to get into a graduate program and I needed to make sure that personnel file didn’t turn up.”

“Is any of that true?”

“I had to think fast on my feet.”

She smiled. “Clearly, you’re good at that, otherwise who knows where I would be right now.”

He felt a healthy jab of guilt. She was looking at him as if he was some kind of hero. He told himself it would be easier just to come clean and tell her who he was. Who his father was. But first he had to be sure that what he’d seen at the cemetery was exactly what he thought it was.

He needed her to trust him a little longer and then he would tell her everything. He couldn’t do anything until he knew if his father was involved.

Jack watched her drawing circles in the condensation on her iced-tea glass. From her expression, she was either reliving what had happened earlier on the street or having second thoughts. Was she suspicious of him and his explanations?

“Are you worried about us getting caught, because if you are, Cassidy—”

“No, and maybe you should call me something other than my real name.”