Runaway Vegas Bride / Vegas Two-Step: Runaway Vegas Bride / Vegas Two-Step

But she got him out the door, into his car and on the way to the restaurant. Jane leaned back in the soft leather seats of his sleek, roomy Mercedes, and tried to relax as he drove just a tad fast for her tastes, but seemingly in perfect control.

It was just dinner, she told herself.

His cell phone rang. He took it out of his pocket, glanced at the number, then clicked it off. “Sorry. Meant to do that before I picked you up.”

“It’s all right. Mine’s not turned off, either, now that I think about it.”

She fished it out of her purse, where it had been buried under everything and saw that she had three missed calls, including two from Ms. Steele while she’d been in the tub.

“Uh, oh. Was yours from Ms. Steele?”

Wyatt nodded. “But we’re not going to think about her tonight. Tonight is for us.”

“I know, but…she called me twice, which doesn’t really bother me, but Amy, the sweet aide who’s such a great cook, she called, too, and she never calls me.”

“Jane, if you want to call her, go ahead.”

“If I don’t call, I’ll spend all night wondering what’s wrong.” She hid the redial button and waited until Amy came on the line. “Amy, it’s Jane. Is everything all right?”

“Jane, I’m so glad it’s you. Do you…know where Kathleen is?”

“She’s not at the cottage?”

“As far as we can tell, she’s not anywhere at Remington Park. She missed her regular tennis lesson and we started looking for her. Then we figued out that Mr. Gray’s missing, too. They didn’t say anything to you about…taking off for a few days, did they?”

“No. What about Gladdy? She must know.”

“We’re looking for her right now, but I thought you might know what’s going on or that, if you didn’t, you’d want to know. We can’t find Kathleen.”

“We’ll be right there,” she told Amy. “Uh. I’m with Mr. Gray’s nephew, so you don’t have to call him. I’ll fill him in. See you in a few minutes.”

Wyatt groaned as she got off the phone. “Don’t tell me.”

“They can’t find Leo or my grandmother. They’re canvassing the whole place to find Gladdy right now, hoping she knows where they are.”

Jane groaned unhappily. She’d so been looking forward to an evening with Wyatt, even if the prospect did scare her a bit.

“Can we throw uncle Leo into a dungeon in chains when we find him?”

“I wouldn’t tell on you if you did.” Jane sighed. “So, where does he like to take his women?”

“All sorts of places, but he doesn’t drive anymore. It was a battle, but we finally got rid of his car. Does Kathleen still drive?”

Jane nodded. “Not often, but she does. She and Gladdy keep a car at Remington Park that they share. Gram and Leo could be anywhere by now.”

They got to her grandmother and Gladdy’s cottage to find it in an uproar of worried older women, a few security guards and Ms. Steele in full-battle mode, questioning a withering Amy, who looked as if she just wanted to hide.

At the sight of Wyatt, Ms. Steele made a face that actually scared Jane a bit. Amy came running over to her, whispering, “She wants to fire me, Jane, and I didn’t do anything wrong. I swear.”

Jane eased around to put her body between Amy and Ms. Steele. She’d protect Amy. So would Wyatt.

The administrator puffed up her chest and glared in their direction. “So, the two of you have no idea where Mr. Gray and Ms. Carlton might be?”

“No,” Wyatt said.

“Neither said anything to you about going away for a few days?” she grilled them.

“Nothing,” Wyatt insisted.

“What about Gladdy?” Jane tried. “Gram would never take off without telling Gladdy where she was going.”

“We still have people looking for her,” Amy said.

“Did you look in Gram’s room? Are any of her things missing?” Jane continued.

“I looked, but I really wasn’t sure if she’d taken some things or not. But her big suitcase is there,” Amy offered.

“There’s a smaller matching one, something made to fit under a seat on an airplane. What about that?”

“I didn’t see it.”

Jane headed for Gram’s room, Wyatt and Amy following her. At first glance, it looked as if everything was in place. Jane opened the top two drawers. They hadn’t been cleaned out, but Amy was right. It was impossible to tell if Gram had packed for, say…a few days.

She opened the closet, saw the big suitcase, pulled it out and unzipped it.

Empty.

“She keeps the smaller bag inside the big one, to save space,” Jane said.

She did a quick sweep of the room looking for the smaller bag anyway. Wyatt helped, shaking his head when he came up empty.

“So, she’s gone,” Jane said.

They searched the grounds and Gladdy’s room for another twenty minutes before Ms. Bea, one of the residents of the cottage, woke up from her nap and came out of her room to hear that Kathleen was missing.

“Oh, my goodness. I had no idea you were all looking for her,” Ms. Bea said. “She gave me a note to give you, Jane, as she was rushing out the door this afternoon.”

The lady pulled out a familiar envelope in light yellow—Gram’s signature stationery—and handed it to Jane.

Tearing it open, Jane read:

My Darling Jane,

Please don’t be upset. I know you think this is wrong, but I’m absolutely certain it’s right, and at our age, Leo and I simply don’t have time to waste. I hate that you won’t be there for the ceremony, but we’ll be back in a few days and have our own little family celebration then.

All my love,

Gram