Stolen Moments

“Daddy, I need to talk to you,” she said the moment the meal was finally over.

“Sure, sweetheart.” The phone rang. He frowned. “Oh, Levi, I forgot, Whitt and Robin and I are expecting a conference call,” he apologized. “Can it wait until later?”

Levi started to say “No.” Something inside her feared it couldn’t wait, but she told herself she was being silly.

“Sure. I’m going to give Natalie a ride home,” she said, touching her father’s broad shoulder, feeling a strength that reassured her. “I won’t be long.”

He smiled and covered her small hand with his large one as he gazed down at her. His eyes suddenly shimmered and, quite without warning, he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. “Trust me, Levi, everything’s going to be all right,” he whispered so softly she was afraid she hadn’t heard him right. “I love you. Remember that always.”

She clung to him, more afraid than ever. “Daddy—”

He pulled back. Whitt called from down the hall to say they were waiting for him. “I have to go.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “Drive carefully. No, drive skillfully,” he said over his shoulder as he strode down the hall.

Levi watched him go. Although James Marshall wore a prosthesis in place of the leg he’d lost in Vietnam, he seldom let it show in his gait. Only when he was tired or upset did he limp. He was limping now, she noted.

He stopped at the doorway to his den and turned to look back at her. “Great to see you again, Natalie. Sorry to hear your car broke down, though.”

Levi watched him disappear into the room and close the door behind him as she fought the ridiculous feeling that she might never see him again.

“Are you all right?” Natalie asked beside her. “You’ve been acting weird today.”

“I’m worried about Daddy,” Levi said, thinking that when she got back to the ranch, she’d check with the foreman about a cut fence before she spoke with her father. She desperately wanted to be wrong. Or at least, if not wrong, get some answers that would make her feel a little less frightened.

“Don’t worry, he’ll make a great president,” Natalie said.

“Yeah?” So why did she feel that might not happen? Was it a premonition? Or just wishful thinking? “What if I don’t want to be a president’s daughter?”

Natalie slipped her arm around her friend. “Just think of the men who’ll want to date you.”

They both laughed. It felt good. “You want to call a tow truck for your car before we leave?”

“On Thanksgiving? No way. I’ll get it towed tomorrow. Come on, I’ve been dying all day to tell you about this guy I met at work.”

They crossed the wide veranda, the afternoon mild and scented with the fragrances of fall in the Texas Hill Country.

* * *

THE MOMENT LEVI PULLED OUT of the ranch road and headed down the two-lane county road that led into San Antonio, she picked up two vehicles tailing behind her instead of the usual one. She watched for a moment in her rearview mirror. Had her father increased her private security?

Levi sped up, then slowed. Both cars stayed the same distance behind her. The increased security could just be a precaution as the time neared for the senator to announce his candidacy for president. Or it could validate all her fears.

“What is it?” Natalie asked, turning to look back.

“Just more big, strong men paid to protect me,” Levi said. “Can’t wait until I have Secret Service following me everywhere.”

“Oh, you’ll love all that attention.”

“Sure, wait until we double-date.” Her father had hired the full-time security guards for her over a year ago, right after he received a death threat at the ranch. While it had turned out to be nothing, he’d kept the security guards on as a precaution. “You hang around me and we’ll both be old maids.”

“Remember that one time?” Natalie said, laughing. “That really cute bodyguard your father hired?”

Levi only half listened as she checked her rearview mirror again to see that both vehicles were still behind her. She had to admit that normally she resented the intrusion in her life, but today the security guards reassured her. They made her feel everything really might be all right, because she knew others like them were guarding the ranch right now. Guarding her father.

“Can you believe my new car broke down?” Natalie bemoaned as they passed the Mustang convertible parked on the edge of the road. “It’s a good thing Robin came along when she did.”

“Your car just quit?”

Natalie shrugged. “I told you we should have taken auto mechanics in college.”

“Or at least date someone who knows how to fix cars,” Levi suggested. “So tell me about this guy you met.”

They talked and laughed on the way to Natalie’s house, the cool night air blowing in the windows. It wasn’t until later, long after Levi was on the county road headed back home, the day dying around her and an approaching thunderstorm darkening the sky, that she happened to glance into her rearview mirror.

Her foot came off the gas. She stared into the mirror, then turned to look out the back window.

There were no car lights behind her. No cars. Nothing but empty road. She was alone. Completely alone.

Panic curled tight fingers around Levi’s throat as she stared back at the growing darkness. She swallowed, telling herself there was no cause for concern. But the lie wouldn’t go down. She’d lost her security guards. Wasn’t that what she’d often wished for? Freedom? Anonymity? What she considered an ordinary life?

She stared at the empty gravel road behind her. Suddenly she had her freedom, but she knew instinctively, this was not what she wanted. Not today.

For a moment, she thought about turning around and going back to look for them. But the thunderstorm was right behind her, moving in fast.

She sped up, watching the road ahead as she picked up the car phone and hurriedly dialed the ranch. Her hand shook as she held the phone against her ear and checked the rearview mirror. Nothing but the storm, the empty back road and the growing darkness.

She’d known for years that there were people who might use her to get to her father, but until tonight she hadn’t realized just what that meant, the danger not only to herself but ultimately to her father. She was Senator James Marshall McCord’s daughter. His only offspring. The daughter of a possible future president. He’d done everything he could to protect her from publicity and keep her out of the public eye. But being a politician’s daughter had always come with a price, none higher than at this moment.

As she waited for the phone to ring, she tried to think of a half-dozen good reasons why the security men weren’t behind her. She couldn’t come up with even one. They’d been told never to leave her. Never. Under any circumstances. They wouldn’t disobey Senator James Marshall McCord. They’d all been handpicked by him personally. So where were they?

It took Levi a moment to realize the phone wasn’t ringing. She hurriedly dialed again, thinking she’d missed a number, but halfway through she heard the silence and knew the phone was dead. She shook it, then checked the battery. For a long moment, she stared, uncomprehending, into the empty hole where the battery should have been. Had it fallen out? How could that have happened?

Her fear escalating, she threw down the phone and locked all the car’s doors. Ahead, the solitary beams of her headlights cut through the dark late Texas afternoon, making her feel all the more vulnerable.

She pushed down on the gas pedal, gathering speed, gathering courage. She was safe. There was a logical explanation for this. A logical explanation for everything that had happened today. But she knew better. She was alone for the first time since her father’s death threat more than a year ago. All alone on an isolated back road, miles from the ranch, miles from town.

Fear mixed with anger. She didn’t want this. Any of it. Her father had put his life in danger and hers, as well. Tears of anger blurred her vision.

The car fishtailed around a corner and she slowed, but not much. She knew she was driving too fast. But she felt an urgency to get to the ranch as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the road ahead was even more narrow and full of curves as it wound through the hills, and the storm was gaining on her.

She careened around another corner and was forced to slow even more for the next one. Ahead she could see Natalie’s new car in the barrow ditch where she’d left it earlier.

If the Mustang hadn’t broken down, Levi would be at the ranch now. The thought raced past, making her heart race with it. Surely Natalie’s car trouble wasn’t part of some plot to—To what? To get her out on this road today?

She was telling herself she was just being overly suspicious when she looked in her rearview mirror again. Instead of the blank darkness, light shone a few miles behind her. One of her security guards?

Suddenly she could think of several scenarios to explain their temporary absence. Maybe one had broken down, like Natalie’s car. Just an odd coincidence. Nothing to panic over.

Or maybe there’d been an accident involving one or both of the cars. It didn’t matter. She was convinced that at least one of them was with her again. She let out a sigh of relief as she waited for the car to catch her.