Her Unlikely Family

He reached over her to close the door. “Wait just a moment.”

Josie, who’d been jerking him around all evening, was trying to make an awfully sudden exit. And now she acted as if she feared Lisa had run away again? Well, he would bet the last dollar in Throckmorton’s Bank that Lisa wasn’t in Georgia with her car.

“I want you to tell me the truth, and tell me right now,” he said.

“I have told you the truth. She’s most likely still here. Then again, I’m not positive.” She reached for the door handle. “Let me try to find her and talk her into meeting with you.”

“No. You’ve had your chance. Tell me where to look.”

“Come on, Mike, I promised her. You’re putting me in a tough position.”

“If you think you’re in a tough position now, wait until I have you arrested for kidnapping.”

Chapter Two

Think, Josie, think.

Mike looked so imposing in the dimly lit car. All angles and shadows. If she hadn’t heard from his niece that he was a law-abiding citizen, she would be pulling out her pepper spray right about now.

She forced a carefree laugh. “Kidnapping? Now you’re being ridiculous.”

“I’m dead serious. You’re keeping a minor away from her legal guardian.”

“Okay, I admit I was uncooperative at first. But she’d told me she was eighteen. And, for the record, I didn’t have anything to do with her sneaking out of the diner this evening.”

With his dark brows drawn together, he glared at her. “You could have told me as soon as you noticed her missing.”

“She’s not necessarily missing. She said something about having plans tonight. I imagine she’ll show up later either here or at my house.”

“She knows where you live? Let’s go check there.”

Josie tentatively touched his forearm, surprised at the warmth against her cold fingers. “I can’t betray her. I promised I’d protect her from you.”

“Protect?” He jerked his arm away. “What on earth did she tell you? That I beat her?”

Josie hesitated.

“Come on. I would never do a thing to hurt Lisa. I just want her safely at school.”

“Mike, she’ll come around eventually. But right now you need to do what’s best for Lisa.”

“I know what’s best for my own niece.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” Before he could argue, she said, “I need time to talk her into meeting with you. Promise me you won’t ambush her, or she may truly run again.”

He gripped the steering wheel so tightly it was a wonder it didn’t bend. He shook his head and exhaled. “Why are you doing this for a runaway teenager—a stranger?”

“Because I was in her shoes once.”

“You ran away?” he said as if surprised.

“Yep. Twice.”

“Did your parents find you?”

“They did the first time. The second time, I had just graduated from high school, so they didn’t do anything about it.”

As he digested her story, she relaxed against the seat and said, “I guess I should head home and wait. Lisa has about two hours before her midnight curfew.”

“Curfew? Is she living with you?”

Forget relaxing. She had almost let that piece of information slip. If she told him yes, he would be sitting on her doorstep around the clock. “She’s been staying somewhere safe. I keep tabs on her. That’s all I’m saying for now.”

He tried the bending-the-steering-wheel trick one more time. The man oozed tension.

Of course, she would, too, in the same situation.

“You know, I hate to sit and wait,” he said. “If you’re wrong about her whereabouts, she could be getting farther away by the minute.”

“There’s a possibility she’s at the nearby craft school. I’ll drive up there and make sure.”

He slowly turned his head and stared at Josie with his night-darkened blue eyes. “Why couldn’t you have said that as soon as you came out here?”

His intensity sent little sparks of awareness along her nerve endings. Which was absolutely crazy. His type usually made her want to shudder. “I had to make sure I could trust you,” she sputtered.

“Trust, Josie? I assure you, you can trust me.”

His inflection said exactly what he thought of her. He would understand her wariness, though, if only he knew how a rich, domineering man had let her down before.

Her conscience pricked her for being judgmental. Lord, help me not to compare Mike with my dad, not to judge him. But most of all, protect Lisa. And please, please, let her be at the craft school.

Josie continued to plead with God as she directed Mike to park at the entrance to the campus. He’d insisted on coming along. As she’d discovered, when Mike insisted, a person didn’t have much choice.

“Wait here. I’ll walk up and look in the gallery,” she said.

“It’s after ten. I would think it would be closed.”

“If I don’t find her in the gallery, I’ll see if I can find Brian’s truck.”

Mike thunked his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. “Brian?”

“The bread delivery guy. Bud said she left with him.”

With a not-at-all-happy laugh, he shook his head. “I’ll give you ten minutes. Then I’m driving up to take a look around.”

“Come on, Mike. If you chase her down now, nothing will have changed. She’ll just run again—if not tonight, then another day. Don’t blow it with impatience.”

He leaned closer, right in her face, and boy, did he smell good.