Borrowed Bride Page 4

  She stiffened behind him, resenting Connor even more for bringing back these particular tears, and on this of all days. Today was supposed to have been a new beginning, for her and for Toby, not the resurrection of the worst heartache of her life. The only bright spot in the whole ordeal was the knowledge that Connor was suffering, as well. She’d seen the subtle signs that he, too, still endured very raw emotions where Joel was concerned. Good, she thought with an icy stab of satisfaction, he deserved to suffer.

  Connor and Joel had been friends long before she’d met Joel in college. They had gone to the same elementary school and high school, playing football together and double-dating on weekends. She had heard all the stories of their wild exploits dozens of times. Stories about Joel, the studious, dependable doctor’s son, and Connor, the kid from the wrong side of everything with the massive chip on his shoulder. In college Joel had persuaded Connor to join the same fraternity as him, and it was there they met Adam. The three became close friends, but even within that friendship there was always a special bond between Joel and Connor.

  After she and Joel married, Gaby had done her best to tolerate Connor, and in turn, Joel had been patient with her lessthan-enthusiastic feelings for the man he thought of as a brother. She had even harbored a secret hope that Connor was an adolescent habit Joel would eventually outgrow. That didn’t happen. He’d been a frequent visitor at their home, and occasionally they all vacationed together. Vacation. Ha, Gaby thought, shuddering at the memory of some of the most frustrating, tension-filled weeks of her life. Eventually the three friends, Joel, Connor and Adam, became business partners, as well, pooling their savings to buy a struggling restaurant on the waterfront in Providence, renaming it the Black Wolf. Tavern—the name taken from Connor’s nickname—and surprising everyone by turning it into a thriving operation.

  It was generally agreed that Adam deserved most of the credit for the success of the Black Wolf. He managed the restaurant full-time, while Joel had continued with the accounting firm where he’d been a fast-rising star and handled the restaurant’s books on the side. And Connor...well, Connor just went along for the ride as usual. Technically he was a cop, a highly respected explosives expert assigned to the state police SWAT team, but even that hadn’t been high risk enough to satisfy the man’s insatiable craving for danger, Gaby recalled contemptuously. Motorcycles, mountain climbing, flying lessons, he incessantly sought out ways to risk his neck, and too often for her peace of mind—and Joel’s, as well.

  Joel and Connor. Connor and Joel. They were together as kids, together in business and they were together the day of the explosion inside the Black Wolf. Except that day Connor was the only one who made it out alive.

  Gaby pushed the thought away. During the past two years she’d relived that nightmare more times than she could count. Even on days when she was feeling her most resilient and in control, as if she might actually succeed at picking up the pieces and going on with her life, the memory of that awful day could bring her to her knees emotionally. And at the moment she was far from feeling either resilient or in control.

  Desperate for a distraction from her own thoughts, she turned her attention to the landscape around her. She’d completely forgotten her resolve to pay attention to details in case a chance to escape should present itself. Of course that possibility was appearing more remote with each passing mile. They seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but woods all around them. But at least they were no longer riding uphill, she thought, grateful for the chance to relax her grip for a while.

  They rounded a bend, and suddenly the woods on her left ended, revealing a clear lake dappled with late-afternoon shadows. Gaby felt a flicker of familiarity, almost a sense of déjà vu, before recognition hit her full force. She didn’t just feel as if she’d been there before, she realized. She had been there. They had spent a week here the summer before she became pregnant with Toby. There was a cabin across the lake that belonged to one of Connor’s pals on the force. She and Joel, along with Adam and the woman he was dating at the time... Laura... Lauren... Lenore, that was it. The four of them had come up together, and although his date had bailed out at the last minute, Connor had joined them for the last four days of their stay. Alone.

  Gaby felt her face heat at the memory of those long-ago days and then came a rush of anger.

  “You bastard,” she shouted in his ear, wanting to make sure he heard her over the noise of the engine and the wind.

  Connor jerked his head away, telling her she had been heard, all right. He slowed as the road narrowed and bent sharply, following it around to where she could now see the corner of the cabin. The only dwelling for miles around, it was exactly as she remembered it, built of dark, rough-hewn logs and shielded by trees, with a large wraparound deck designed to take full advantage of the view of the lake.

  Connor turned his head just enough to talk to her. “I take it you finally recognized where we’re going,” he shouted over the noise.

  “I recognize it, all right,” she replied stiffly. “Why on earth did you bring me here?”

  She felt him shrug, and he let up on the throttle enough to make shouting unnecessary. “I needed someplace to bring you. This was available... and out of the way. And safe.”

  They came to a stop on the crushed-stone driveway next to the cabin, and she wasted no time climbing off and putting some distance between them.

  “Safe?” she asked, unconsciously rubbing her legs. They felt numb from the long ride. “What do you mean, safe?”

  He hesitated. “I mean that I needed a place where no one would think to look for you, and where, if anyone does come looking, I can see them before they get here.”

  “You make it sound like we’re hiding out, for heaven’s sake.”

  He shrugged. “I guess that about sums it up.”

  “From whom?” she demanded.

  He unfastened the canvas knapsacks and carried one, along with his helmet and other gear, up the steps to the deck without replying.

  Gabrielle followed, stopping at the bottom of the steps. “From whom?” she asked again. “Answer me, damn you.”

  He turned, his expression one of grim resignation. “I’m not absolutely sure. Yet. But I’d say Adam is as good a bet as anyone.”

  “Adam? Are you joking? Or have you completely lost your mind?” She laughed shortly. “What am I saying? Of course you have. If you were sane, none of this would be happening.”

  Connor continued toward the door of the cabin. “Want to grab that other knapsack and bring it inside with you?” he called back to her.

  “No.” She folded her arms across her chest and glared at his back as he walked away. “No, I do not want to carry the other knapsack inside. I don’t even want to go inside. I don’t want to be here, especially not with you, and I refuse to do one more thing to cooperate or make your life easier. I plan to fight you every step of the way and make things miserable for you until you let me go. Do you hear me?” she asked, her voice reaching a crescendo.

  He had disappeared inside. Now he returned, crossing the deck with a familiar long-legged amble that suggested he was a man who didn’t hurry for anyone or anything. Even his walk was annoying, thought Gaby. His expression, as he reached for the final knapsack, had become blasé.

  “What were you saying?” he asked.

  “I said,” she replied through gritted teeth, “that I have no intention of sharing that cabin with you for one night, much less a week.”

  Connor sighed and reached to carefully place the canvas bag on the top step. “I see. I suppose I could just go along with that stupid idea...after pointing out, of course, that most women would consider spending a night out here alone a whole lot less appealing than sleeping under a roof with me.”

  She smiled sarcastically. “Bragging, Connor?”

  “I said under the same roof, not in the same bed,” he reminded her, unleashing a slow grin of his own. “But if you’re interested in something more...”


  “I’m not. Believe me.”

  “In that case, as I was saying, I could mention the fact that you never know what might crawl out of those woods after dark, or how cold and damp the nights can get this close to the lake, even in June.”

  Gaby shivered in spite of knowing that was exactly how he wanted her to react. “I happen to enjoy the night air,” she said defiantly.

  “Do you also enjoy cuddling up next to a raccoon?”

  “More than some creatures I can think of.”

  “Touché.”

  “Then it’s settled,” she said, already wondering what she had gotten herself into.

  “Not quite. I said I could mention all those things to you and then sit back and wait for you to put on your little rebellious-pioneer-woman act until you got tired or hungry or scared enough to admit you were wrong and come inside. But we’ve both already been through a lot today, and I’m not going to let you put us through that little charade, too. So for your sake as much as mine, I’m only going to say this once.” He took a step toward her, his indulgent smile vanishing. “You walk into that cabin on your own right now, or I swear I’ll haul you in there.”

  She met his gaze without blinking, and for one long, torturous moment Connor was convinced she was going to call his bluff and that he was going to have to grab her, toss her over his shoulder and carry her kicking and screaming into the cabin. Thoughts of how he would keep her there were even more troublesome. He’d included rope with the supplies he brought up earlier and he was prepared to use it if he had to. But God knew he didn’t want it to come to that.

  What he wanted was to sit down and calmly explain everything to Gabrielle and have her understand and tell him he had done the right thing in snatching her off those church steps. Hell, he wanted her to tell him he’d done the only thing he could have done, given what he knew. Maybe she would even be grateful to him for stopping her from making what might be a huge mistake and maybe, for just a second, she might even look at him with something other than contempt.

  He didn’t expect any of that, of course. Or deserve it, he reminded himself. That was just the way he wanted it to happen. Realistically speaking, he would be grateful if Gaby simply went into the house as he’d requested.

  It was a major relief when, after making him sweat for what seemed hours, she did precisely that. Lifting her chin and sweeping him with a look of silent indignation, she strode past him and up the stairs, going out of her way to kick the knapsack as she passed.

  Connor smiled ruefully and bent to catch it as it tumbled down the steps. Hopefully that would be the extent of her retaliation. Gaby had never struck him as a vengeful woman, and Lord knew she had cause to be. As he recalled, she was stubborn as hell, however. If he couldn’t get her to listen to reason and persuade her that what he was doing was in her and her son’s best interest, it was going to be a very long week.

  He watched as she walked to the back door of the cabin, taking note of the fact that she didn’t so much as glance toward the corner of the deck where there were a couple of lounge chairs and a barbecue grill, the old-fashioned kind that used charcoal instead of propane gas. Maybe she didn’t remember the last time they were here, he thought. Then again maybe she just didn’t want to remember. Connor didn’t glance in that direction, either, but he still remembered every second, every heartbeat of that long-ago afternoon.

  He followed Gaby inside, turning on the light in the kitchen. Off the kitchen was a bay-windowed alcove for dining and a large living room, all decorated in sturdy neutral-tone fabrics and furniture just battle scarred enough that you felt comfortable putting your feet up. The wall of the living room that faced the lake was almost entirely glass. Still, the towering fir and cedar trees surrounding the cabin shielded it from most of the sun and kept the interior always cool and restful.

  A spiral staircase led upstairs, where there were two loft bedrooms and the sort of opulently decadent bathroom one didn’t normally find in a log cabin. Besides being generous with its use, the cabin’s owner, his friend Charlie, was a man of exquisite taste and great imagination. An ice-cold beer, barbecued T-bone steak and sunken tub big enough for two were Charlie’s idea of heaven. Connor had to hand it to the man; if it wasn’t heaven, it was damn close.

  He picked up one of the knapsacks and tossed it to Gaby, who was standing stiffly beside the kitchen table. He tried hard not to notice how much of her legs were exposed as a result of his handiwork with her dress.

  She caught the knapsack and held it away from her, eyeing it suspiciously.

  “What’s this?” she asked.

  “Take a look.”

  She slowly unzipped it and looked inside. Glancing up at him with a frown, she asked, “Clothes?”

  He nodded. “I thought that sooner or later you might get tired of wearing your wedding dress and want something a little more practical. It’s just a couple of T-shirts and pairs of shorts, a sweatshirt, jeans. Oh, and underwear, of course.”

  She stared at him in what looked like disbelief. “How—?”

  “How did I know your size?” he broke in. “I used my imagination.”

  “No. How long have you been planning this?”

  “About twenty-four hours,” Connor replied, shrugging. “Ever since I got back home and found out you were planning to marry Adam.”

  She looked pale suddenly, and Connor thought he saw her hand shake as she lifted it to push her hair back from her face.

  “What is it?” he asked. “What’s the matter?”

  She laughed weakly. “What isn’t? I just can’t believe that you actually planned all this... right down to packing for me.” She made an impatient gesture with one hand. “Oh, I knew you had to have arranged for the van to be waiting there for us, but this—” she grimaced at the knapsack of clothes “—seems so... calculated. So...” She paused and swallowed hard. “So definite.” Looking back at Connor with a wistfulness that tore at something deep inside him, she asked, “This really isn’t a joke, is it?”

  He shook his head. “No. It isn’t.” .

  As he watched, she seemed to sag with... What? he wondered. Defeat? Acceptance? Too soon to tell.

  “Listen,” he said, gentling his tone, “why don’t you go upstairs and change and I’ll fix us something.”

  “No.” She shook her head emphatically. “I don’t want to change or eat or do anything else until you tell me what this is all about.”

  “I think maybe—”

  “Now, Connor.”

  “I’d forgotten how impatient and demanding you could be,” he muttered. “And do you have to keep calling me that?”

  “What?”

  “Connor.”

  “It’s still your name, isn’t it?” she asked sarcastically.

  It was his name, all right, but for as long as he could remember he hadn’t liked being called it, especially not by a woman.

  “I prefer Wolf,” he reminded her.

  Her lips curved in a satisfied smile. “Then yes, I do have to keep calling you Connor. Now, are you going to keep your promise or not?”

  “What promise are you talking about?” he asked, regarding her cautiously.

  “You promised when we got where we were going you’d explain everything. Well, we’re here, and I want to know what’s going on. Why the hell did you want to stop me from marrying Adam?” she asked, her voice rising sharply. “Why are you so damn determined to ruin my life?”

  “I’m not,” he said, feeling cornered. He’d wanted to wait for an opportune moment to explain things to her. He could see now that even if such a moment was feasible, she wasn’t going to wait for it to come around.

  “Really?” she drawled. “Well, for a man who’s not trying to ruin my life, so far you’ve made two very impressive attempts at it.”

  “Maybe this time I’m trying to save your life—did you ever consider that possibility?”

  “No. Not for a minute.”

  “It’s true.” He rais
ed his hand to ward off her exclamation of disbelief. “At least it might be true.”

  “And someday the sky might fall. That doesn’t mean I have to run out and invest in a cave.”

  “If my suspicions are right, the threat to your life could be a little more imminent than that. You could be in real danger, Gaby.” He hesitated before deciding he had to be totally honest with her to get her to understand. “And so could Toby.”

  “Toby?” Her chin came up, and her eyes first widened in surprise, then narrowed with an almost feral glint. Just like a mother lioness whose cub has been threatened, Connor thought, thinking that in spite of everything Toby Flanders was a mighty lucky kid. “What are you talking about?”

  “Sit down and I’ll tell you everything.”

  She obediently sank onto one of the mismatched chairs gathered around the massive oak pedestal table in the dining alcove. He moved to join her, detouring by the refrigerator for a beer. He’d borrowed Charlie’s truck and driven up with some supplies last night. He held a can aloft to offer her one, but Gaby shook her head.

  “Soda?” he asked. “Juice?”

  She shook her head again. “No. Thank you. I would like a glass of water, though.”

  He dropped a few ice cubes into a glass and filled it with water for her. This time he was certain her hand shook as she lifted it to take a sip.

  “Calm down,” he said quietly, sitting in the chair beside hers. “I promise you Toby isn’t in any danger right now.”

  “But you said...”

  “I said he could be...and I only said that much because I want you to understand how serious this is.”

  She nodded. “All right, just tell me.”

  “It has to do with the explosion,” he began by way of warning.

  “My God, not again.”

  She started to get up, but he stopped her by placing his hand firmly over hers on the table.

  “Sit down.” More gently he added, “Please. Let me finish.”

  “Go on.”

  Connor took a gulp of beer, searching for words. Except for the endless questioning immediately following the explosion, he hadn’t discussed what happened that day with anyone in nearly two years and he wasn’t ready to now.