Tall, Dark and Texan

Her answer, sounding shaky, alarmed him. “Uh, not really. I don’t have any idea who these men are or what they want, I just—”

“Don’t give me that,” the man holding her arm said. “We told you we’re looking for Rick Taylor. We happen to know the two of you are pretty thick, so don’t try to deny it. You’ve led us on a long chase, lady, so don’t play games with me, ’cause I’m not in the mood.”

Dan attempted to step closer, but one of the men blocked his way. He shoved him aside and grabbed the man holding Shannon, forcing him to let her go. “Leave her alone,” he said, doubling his fists. He was more than ready to lay him out.

Dan couldn’t remember the last time his anger had overcome him. Only now, there was an object to his anger, somebody with whom he could face-off.

Shannon screamed a warning of sorts at the same time Dan felt a blinding pain in the back of the head. He stumbled and fell to his hands and knees, which increased his ire. What the hell was going on? Who did these goons think they were, assaulting people?

He attempted to stand when he was hit on the head again. This time, he went down for the count.

Five (#ulink_14797aef-66b4-5a8d-9216-92f9876101ec)

The first thing Dan became aware of when he regained consciousness was a nauseating, rocking movement and the fact that his head felt as though it was on the verge of exploding.

The second thing he noticed was the sound of an engine droning somewhere nearby, and a soft, scented pillow for his head. From those pieces of information he managed to figure out that he was on a boat, going somewhere.

He tried to move his head and intense pain shot through him.

He groaned.

“Oh Dan, I’m so sorry to get you involved in this mess. Are you okay?”

Shannon. He would recognize that voice anywhere and at the moment it was only a few inches above him. He forced one eye open and saw her very worried face staring back at him.

She was crouched on the floor of the boat where he lay sprawled, holding his head against her breast.

What the hell had happened? Since she didn’t respond he decided he must have just thought the question. He licked his dry lips and forced his other eye to open. “Wha’s—” Was that his voice? He sounded drunk. He tried again. “Wha’ happened?”

“One of those men hit you on the head. Twice! They carried you between them to a car where another man was waiting. He looked surprised to see us and started asking them what was going on. He said something about just hiring out his boat and car to them and that he wasn’t going to be a part of any assault and kidnapping.

“While the man who seemed to be their leader talked to him in a low voice, the other two loaded you in the back of the car. By then I was determined to stay with you. I mean, they had no reason to hit you! They said they’d been looking for me. I don’t know what’s going on, but I didn’t want you disappearing on me.”

“How long have I been out?”

She thought about it for a moment and said, “It seems like forever, but I suppose it’s been about thirty minutes or so. Long enough for them to bring us to this boat, stow us down here and leave the marina. From the sounds I would guess we’re heading out into the Gulf.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” he murmured. Anything louder and his head protested. “We’ve been kidnapped?”

She smoothed his hair away from his forehead, her eyes filled with shadows. “I’m afraid so.”

He closed his eyes. The irony of the situation was almost more than he could take. How many times in a lifetime could a man expect to be kidnapped and live to tell about it? He’d been kidnapped when he first found out his ranch was being used to smuggle microprocessor chips out of the country. He wondered if he had a sign tattooed on his forehead signaling his availability to would-be captors.

“Who are they?” he asked after several minutes of silence.

“I have no idea. I’ve never seen them before. They may be from St. Louis, since they were asking me about Rick.”

“Who’s Rick?”

She sighed. “Rick Taylor. I went out with him a few times, then broke up with him. He became a real pest after that, and I finally decided that it wasn’t worth staying there and trying to deal with him when I was also getting fed up with some of the problems at work.” She stroked his cheek and jaw. “So I decided to return to Texas and look for work in the Austin area. I can’t believe that I’m still having problems because of Rick Taylor!”

Dan reached up and gingerly touched the back of his head. His fingers came away covered with blood. “You’re having problems?” he repeated.

He had to admit that lying against her like this made his pain lessen, somewhat, and he knew that he would forever think of her whenever he smelled that particular floral scent.

“So tell me about this guy Rick,” he said, hoping to concentrate on something other than the throbbing pain in his head.

“Well, he was very good-looking, charming, seemed to have lots of money. He always maintained that he worked in investments, but that was a little too vague for me. After I was with him a few times, I began to be really uncomfortable. He made me nervous. I didn’t like some of the people he hung around with.”

“I can certainly understand that, if these are a few of his friends.”

“I’ve never seen these men before.”

“They seem to think you know where Rick is, which sounds as if he might be missing.”

“I haven’t spoken to Rick in almost three months, so I have no idea where he might be. As far as I know, he’s still in St. Louis.”

“Something tells me he isn’t or they wouldn’t have come looking for you.” Dan attempted to sit up and a sharper pain shot through his head like a bullet. And to think that he’d been complaining of having a headache when he woke up this morning. He’d had no idea what pain could be like.

Well, this was just great. Here they were being carried out to sea for who knew what purpose, wearing nothing but their swimsuits. He noticed that she wore her cover-up jacket over her suit, but since it was sheer enough to see through, it wasn’t going to give her much protection.