IN SEARCH OF DREAMS Page 7

  He glanced at the clock and knew something was wrong.

  "Kate!" Throwing back the covers, J.T. snatched up his jeans, but he had barely stepped into them when another blast ripped through the night.

  "Holy—" That was gunfire!

  Without bothering to fasten his jeans, J.T. yanked a sweater over his head, stepped into his boots and took off. "Kate! Kate! Dammit, Kate, where are you!"

  He raced down the hall to her room, but the door was standing wide open. He doubled back to the stairs and leaped down them three at a time. The shots had come from the back of the house, so he headed that way.

  In the kitchen he found the back door standing wide open, and his alarm level tripled.

  "Kate! Kate!"

  When he received no reply, J.T. raced outside, only to come to a stunned halt in the middle of the terrace.

  Mouth agape, he watched Kate, in her nightclothes and toting a shotgun, scramble over the three-foot retaining wall that surrounded the terrace to chase after two men in ski masks who were pounding, hell-for-leather, down the driveway and shouting every breath.

  "Run! Run for your life! The fool woman's got a gun!"

  Kate hit the ground on the other side of the wall and took off, her long nightgown and robe flapping around her ankles beneath the heavy coat, her unbound hair bouncing and swirling out behind her in the breeze like a pale banner.

  "Kate! Wait!" J.T. shouted, but she ignored him, and seconds later she rounded the back corner of the house in hot pursuit.

  Cursing under his breath, J.T. took off, too.

  He cleared the corner just as two more men cut across the front lawn to join the first pair in a foot race down the sloping road. They headed toward the shadowy shape of a pickup truck, parked a hundred yards beyond them at the first hairpin turn.

  Relief poured through J.T. when he spotted Kate standing at the end of the driveway. Then he saw her digging into her coat pocket and realized that she had only stopped to reload.

  "Ah, jeez!"

  Sprinting toward her, J.T. watched, horrified, as she shoved two shells into the gun, snapped the action shut and braced the stock against her right shoulder.

  "Kate! Don't!"

  The shotgun exploded with a muzzle flash and deafening roar. The men screamed and poured on more speed, nearly knocking one another down in their race to be first to the pickup.

  Kate staggered back under the gun's recoil, but the instant she recovered she gamely took aim again.

  "Kate, for Pete's sake!" J.T. reached her in time to knock the barrel end of the gun skyward just as she pulled the trigger on the second barrel.

  She staggered back two steps, but when she recovered she turned her fury on him. "What did you do that for?"

  "To keep you from killing somebody!" he yelled right back. "Have you lost your mind, woman?"

  "Oh, for Pete's sake. Nobody's going to get killed. I'm shooting rock salt. Anyway, they're out of shotgun range. Now get out of my way, city boy."

  She moved to step around him, already digging in her coat pocket for more shells, but J.T. hooked his arm around her waist from behind and held her back.

  "Whoa! Whoa! Where do you think you're going?"

  "Lemme go, you idiot! Can't you see they're getting away!"

  "So let them."

  She made a strangled sound and kicked and bucked, but when she couldn't break free she strained against his encircling arm and yelled at the retreating men, "Lily-livered cowards! Vandals! Don't think those ski masks are fooling me, either! Darn your sorry hide, Cletus Taylor! You, too, John! Brian! Ward! You come around here again, destroying my property and I'll fill your backsides with lead! You hear me?"

  Cletus? What the devil was Cletus doing sneaking around the Alpine Rose in the middle of the night? J.T. wondered.

  If the men heard her they weren't answering. They reached the pickup, and after a bit of pushing and shoving, one scrambled into the back and the others piled inside. An instant later the headlights came on and the engine roared to life. The driver gunned it, and they took off, tires spinning and gravel flying.

  The pickup careened down the twisting road at break-neck speed, but J.T. didn't relax his hold on Kate until it reached the bottom of the mountain. She was so angry she was vibrating. He wouldn't have put it past her to run after them all the way to town, taking potshots.

  When he finally released Kate she made a sound remarkably like a snarl and glared at the receding taillights of the truck until it disappeared down a side street in Gold Fever. Then she whirled on J.T.

  "And as for you!" She jabbed her forefinger into his chest hard enough to make him grunt. "Where do you get off interfering, huh? If you hadn't butted in and held me back, I would have peppered their behinds good. Those clumsy idiots were falling all over each other trying to get away. I could have gotten within range easi—"

  An appalled expression came over her face when her gaze flickered past him to the front of the house. "Oh, no!"

  Oblivious to J.T. now, she took off across the lawn toward the area where she had flushed out the second pair of men.

  "Now what?" J.T. rolled his eyes and started after her.

  The security lights that bathed the house in a soft glow all around also revealed what the men had been up to.

  "Oh. Ohhh! Those neanderthals dug up my rose beds!" Kate cried, staring at the gaping holes. "Just look at my prize Mr. Lincoln rosebush. They cut its roots. It'll probably die!"

  "Now, Kate, don't get upset. I'll help you put everything right tomorrow." J.T. tried to soothe her, but either she chose to ignore him or she was too enraged to hear.

  Whirling around, she stomped for the rear of the house, muttering every step of the way. "Sorry, no-good, sneaking bums. Come creeping up here in the middle of the night, digging up my flower beds, tearing up things. I'm going to kill that Cletus.

  "Oh! And would you just look at this mess!" she spat, coming to a halt beside the mutilated garden.

  The tubers and bulbs she'd recently planted were uprooted and scattered around, along with the soil that Cletus had dug up out of the holes. The four-foot-deep layer of straw she had used for insulation was scattered everywhere, and the chicken-wire covering lay several feet away, bent and twisted.

  Kate surveyed it all with her mouth folded into a tight line, her fury almost palpable.

  J.T. came to a halt beside her and frowned at the ruined garden. "What a mess."

  She drilled him with a pithy look. "Surely you're not surprised."

  "What's that supposed to mean? Hey!" he yelled, but his protest bounced off her back as she stalked toward the house.

  By the time he caught up with her, she was pacing the kitchen like a caged lion. The shotgun was propped in the corner by the hall door, and her coat lay over the back of a chair.

  "What the devil did you mean by that crack?" he demanded, slamming the back door behind him. "You act like I'm to blame for all this."

  Kate reached the other end of the kitchen, swung back and shot him a simmering look. "Well, you're the one who got them stirred up."

  "Got who stirred up? I don't know what you're talking about." But he had a strong hunch. It had started forming when she identified Cletus as one of the culprits.

  "Oh, please! Do you take me for a fool?"

  Pinching the bridge of his nose, J.T, squeezed his eyes shut and exhaled a heavy sigh. Finally he held out his hands, palms forward. "All right. Why don't we sit down and discuss this calmly?"

  "I don't want to sit down. I'm too angry."

  Fascinated, he watched her prowl around the room. God, she was magnificent. Vibrant and alive and sizzling with fire.

  A small, self-deprecating smile tugged at his mouth, and he shook his head ever so slightly. To think, when they met he had thought her too placid and reserved. Too delicate. What an idiot. This fragile-looking flower was an independent, gutsy woman with the heart of a lioness and the pride of a queen. As long as he lived he would never forget the sight of
her chasing after those men and blasting them with a shotgun that was nearly as big as she was.

  Even now those usually calm gray eyes were still shooting sparks. She fairly crackled with temper.

  Who would have thought that calm exterior masked a simmering passion, just waiting to erupt? It amazed him that some man hadn't snapped her up.

  He frowned. The mere thought of some nameless, faceless man laying claim to Kate set his teeth on edge. Just as well no one had succeeded, he thought with hard determination. In a flash of stunning clarity, J.T. suddenly knew, without the least shadow of doubt, that if any man was going to be the recipient of all that shimmering passion, it was damn well going to be him.

  And if Zach Mahoney had a problem with that, too bad. J.T. believed absolutely in fate. All of his life he had been certain that when he met his mate he would know it. He was surprised, though, that it had taken him so long to recognize her. He had been at the Alpine Rose for over a month already.

  But he knew now.

  She was so agitated she had yet to notice that the belt on her robe had come loose, creating a six-inch gap between the front edges. A smile tugged at J.T.'s mouth as his eyes skimmed over the ankle-length, pink flannel nightgown and creamy skin visible above the scooped neckline. The practical garment shouldn't have been sexy, but it was. He wondered if she wore anything under it, and for a moment allowed himself to imagine what it would be like to strip it off her, inch by inch.

  He shook his head to clear it of the erotic picture and zeroed in on her hair. It was the first time he'd seen it unbraided. The thick fall cascaded down her back, and when she turned abruptly to pace back to the other end of the kitchen, it swung out around her shoulders like a shiny golden cape. His fingers itched to dive into that luxurious mane and grab hold, to feel its silkiness slide against his skin.

  To keep himself from doing just that, J.T. turned the fire on under the teakettle. "Why don't I make us some hot chocolate?" he offered, pulling two mugs from the cabinet. "It'll help you relax." He emptied packets of hot chocolate mix into the mugs, then leaned his hips back against the countertop and continued watching her while he waited for the water to heat.

  "Okay. So, let's take this one step at a time. First of all, what happened here tonight?"

  Kate slanted him a sullen look, her chin lifting. "I heard a noise outside my bedroom window. When I looked out I saw two men, one digging up my garden and the other trying to break into the garage."

  "I see. So … you see two men wearing ski masks sneaking around in the middle of the night and you grab your shotgun and go after them? Good grief, woman! Are you nuts?"

  "I was protecting my home," she said in a defiant voice.

  "And what if they had been armed, too? For all you knew, they could have been dangerous psychos. Murderers or rapists."

  "There wasn't much danger of that. They had to be from town. And as soon as I fired off the first shot and sent them running for cover I recognized Cletus."

  "You can't be sure of that."

  "Please. I've known Cletus since I was six. Nobody else around here runs like that. It comes from lighting charges in the mines, I guess. Once I pegged him, it wasn't difficult to figure out who the others were. Cletus, John Dunlap, Ward Atkinson and Brian Hetch have been thick as thieves all their lives."

  "Still, taking matters into your own hands was a damned risky thing to do. You should've woken me."

  The baffled look on her face told him that option had not even occurred to her. It was deflating to realize that she didn't think of him as someone to whom she could turn in a crisis. Not yet, anyway, he thought. But you will, sweetheart. You will.

  "Why would I do that? You're a guest here, not a security guard."

  "Roommate," he stubbornly corrected, ignoring the way she rolled her eyes heavenward. "And if some jerks in ski masks are sneaking around here, I damned well want to know it. You should have called the sheriff and let him handle the situation."

  "Don't you think I've tried that? It doesn't do any good. Protecting me and my property isn't a high priority for Sheriff Huntsinger. Anyway, these men are his buddies. When he bothers to show up at all, he merely laughs and gives them a tongue-in-cheek lecture and shoos them home."

  "Wait a minute. This has happened before?"

  "Oh, yes. At least once every winter. That's why I had the security lights installed. When the tourists leave and the town shuts down, the men have too much time on their hands. They get to boozing down at the lodge and rehashing their cockamamie theories and inevitably someone gets the bright idea to search for the money."

  "The money?" J.T. tried to look baffled, but she wasn't buying it.

  "Oh, please. I'm not an idiot. Did you think I wouldn't know that as soon as you went into town you'd hear the things that are being said about my brother and me? I'm sure the moment the guys learned you were staying here they couldn't wait to fill you in on their version of what happened four years ago."

  J.T. started to pretend ignorance, but Kate's unwavering stare stopped him. "Okay, I'll admit I heard about the swindle your stepfather pulled."

  "And?"

  "And that the feeling among the people down in town is that you and your brother were in on the scam. That the police and the FBI just weren't able to prove it."

  "Idiots. The authorities couldn't prove anything because we didn't do anything! But we'll never convince the people in this town of that."

  She paced to the other end of the kitchen, then swung around. "I'm sure that someone also told you that most of the people in Gold Fever believe the money is hidden somewhere on this property."

  "Yeah. They mentioned that, too." The teakettle started to whistle, and J.T. picked it up and filled the two mugs. "Here you go." He placed the two mugs on the table. Kate reluctantly sat down, but she merely toyed with the mug handle and stared at the pale-brown liquid.

  She slanted J.T. a look. "And now I'm sure you're wondering, Did they do it? Are my host and her brother con artists and thieves who swindled their friends and neighbors?"

  "You're wrong. I wasn't thinking that at all."

  She narrowed her eyes and studied his expression. "But you believe them, don't you?"

  "Not necessarily. Look, I was just—"

  "You were just wondering if I had access to the money, right?" she finished for him in a voice as cold as ice.

  "Well … they did say that your brother sneaks into town periodically. The consensus seems to be that he knows the feds are still watching him so he's taking the money a little at a time so they won't get suspicious."

  "Zach does not sneak into town! He comes to visit me two or three times a year. We happen to be very close."

  "According to your neighbors he always arrives in the middle of the night at odd intervals. Never on holidays or weekends, when you would expect families to visit. And he holes up in this house the whole time he's here, never going into town, never speaking to anyone else."

  "Wouldn't you if your former friends and neighbors threatened to turn into a lynch mob whenever they saw you?"

  "Maybe. But you have to admit, it does give the appearance of guilt."

  In the space of a heartbeat she went from controlled anger to blazing fury. "Get out!" she demanded.

  * * *

  Chapter 6

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  "What?" J.T.'s head snapped back.

  "You heard me. I want you to pack your things and get out of my house. Now. And don't worry, I'll give you a refund. I don't want your money." Her voice was low and raspy, barely above a whisper yet vibrating with fury.

  "Now wait just a minute. What the hell is the matter with you?"

  The legs of her chair scraped the brick floor as she shot to her feet. "I may have to put up with accusations and slurs from the people of this town, but I won't share my home with someone who believes that I'm a thief and a swindler."

  Kate whirled around and stalked to the counter, presenting him with her back. "I knew letting you stay
was a mistake," she muttered to herself.

  Rarely did anything rile J.T. to the point of true anger, but being tossed out by this slender wisp of a woman that he intended to claim for his own did the trick. He stared at her rigid back and saw red.

  He bolted out of his chair and reached her in two long strides, grabbing her shoulders and spinning her around.

  "Let go of me."

  "Dammit, Kate, you're not throwing me out."

  "I don't want you here."

  "Too bad. I'm staying. Now listen to me. I haven't made any judgment about you. I was just repeating what I'd been told, that's all. Until I hear both sides I try never to form an opinion."

  "Oh, I see," she snapped. "The jury is still out, is it? If that's supposed to make me feel better, it doesn't."

  His own anger faded as quickly as it had flared. Lord, she was something. All fire and ice.

  Had he really thought she was cool and dispassionate? Beneath that calm surface was spirit enough for any man. More than most could handle. He stared into those turbulent gray eyes and felt desire—hot, sweaty, tear-up-the-sheets, raw desire—rip through him. He wanted this woman more than he'd ever wanted any woman in his life.

  Consumed with need, he couldn't think for a moment. His gaze zeroed in on that lush mouth, trembling now with the force of her emotions, and heat speared straight to his loins.

  His chest tightened, making it difficult to breathe. J.T.'s eyelids grew heavy. His hands tenderly squeezed her upper arms, and he leaned closer, his gaze fixed on her mouth as his head began a slow descent.

  Just in time, a small spark of sanity kicked in, and he jerked back. Easy, Conway. Easy. Now is not the time.

  Much as he wanted her, J.T. knew in his gut that he would have to ease his way into her life. Experience had made Kate wary of everyone. The last thing he wanted was to scare her off.

  He was relieved to see that she was still so angry she apparently hadn't noticed his near slip.

  J.T. gave her a lopsided smile. "You expect me to take you on faith, huh? Sorry, Kate, but we don't know each other well enough for that."