Secret Hideaway by Carla Neggers

Author:Carla Neggers [Neggers, Carla]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: One Tree Press
Published: 2016-05-29T22:00:00+00:00

8

After Maggie left, Luke filled a water bottle at the kitchen sink. “I figure we can share,” he said, nodding to the back door. “Let’s go.”

They went in the opposite direction from yesterday, taking an offshoot of the narrow rock-pitted dirt road onto an even narrower rock-pitted dirt road. It wasn’t readily visible but it was on Luke’s map. One by one, Ellen knew, he would check the lakeside cabins and full-time residences. He’d told her he didn’t need her with him, but he wasn’t leaving her alone at Maggie’s borrowed cabin—and she wasn’t going back to Saratoga or on to Albany until she was satisfied he was on his way, too.

It wasn’t just anyone stalking Maggie. It was Hugh Parker, and it was Ellen’s fault.

She knew it in her gut.

She stumbled twice on rocks in the road, but Luke caught her each time. He never said a word. He just did it. It was as if he understood her sense of independence, her need to get through this experience with that independence intact, but she was also aware that without his aid, she could have really been hurt.

Of course, he hadn’t stumbled. Luke Jackson never stumbled, did he? That was why he was a Texas Ranger and a rising star in that elite law enforcement agency. But Ellen couldn’t find it in herself to resent him. All the barriers she’d put up against falling for him were crumbling.

“Do you ever trip on your own shoelaces?” she asked him as they came to a cabin half the size of Maggie’s cabin.

“My boots don’t have shoelaces.”

“It’s a metaphor.”

“I’m not much on metaphors. Just say what you mean.”

“I mean—” Ellen stopped herself. What did she mean? “Never mind. I’m still upset about Maggie, and I know it’s my fault her retreat got ruined.”

“She left because she wanted to leave not because she had to. She could have found a way to stay.”

“Like what, get a big dog?”

“Where there’s a will there’s a way.” He glanced at her, his eyes lost in the shadows under the rim of his hat. “That’s a saying not a metaphor, isn’t it?”

Ellen didn’t rise to his bait. Where there’s a will there’s a way, he’d told her last week, after she’d insisted their relationship would never work no matter how much they enjoyed each other’s company. Kicking back together after a long day at work, having a couple of beers and a few laughs, watching a movie. Making love. All fun, but not enough for a lasting relationship.

The cabin was shut up tight, shades pulled, no sign anyone had been there since it had been locked up for the winter. Luke stayed close to her when they resumed course down the narrow road.

She touched his elbow. “Luke…”

“I see it.”

A tiny run-down cabin was perched on a hillside, surrounded by dense woods. It was more of a shack, really. It wasn’t typical of the other places on the lake. Ragged towels hung on a rough-hewn rail. They were wet, dripping onto the worn floorboards of a partially rotted landing.

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