“No way.”
“I’m warning you, if you don’t take me home, I’ll file charges against you for kidnapping!”
“Go right ahead,” he said with maddening calm. He cranked on the wheel to round another corner.
“You can’t do this!” she cried. What was he thinking?
“I’m doing it, aren’t I?”
“I mean it, Zane,” she said, her voice low and threatening. “Take me back to Carmel right now, or I’ll make your life miserable!”
“You already have,” he said through tightly clenched teeth. “The day you walked out on me.”
“I didn’t—”
“Like hell!” he roared, and from the back seat Franklin growled. Zane flicked her a menacing glance. “You didn’t give me—us—a chance.”
“We were married a year!” Even to her own ears, it sounded as brief as it had been.
“Not long enough!”
“This is madness!”
“Probably,” he responded with deceptive calm, wheeling around a final corner. The Jeep lurched to a stop in the middle of a clearing. “But, damn it, this time I’m not taking any chances with your life!”
Kaylie stared out the window at the massive log cabin. Even in the darkness, she could see that the house was huge, with a sloping roof, dormers and large windows reflecting the twin beams of the headlights. “Where are we?” she demanded.
“Heaven,” he replied.
She didn’t believe him. Her heart squeezed at the thought of being alone with him. How would she ever control the emotions that tore through her soul?
Oh, no, Kaylie thought, this giant log house wasn’t heaven. To her, it looked like pure hell!
Chapter Three
“This will never work,” Kaylie predicted as Zane cut the engine.
“It already has.” He walked out to the back of the vehicle, opened the hatchback, unrolled a trap and yanked out two suitcases. Franklin scrambled over the back seat and bounded onto the gravel road.
Thunderstruck, Kaylie didn’t move. His suitcases, for crying out loud! Her heart dropped to her knees. Zane had planned this kidnapping before they left Carmel. And she’d been played for a fool!
“Let’s go inside,” he said.
“You’re not serious. This is a colossal joke, right?” But she knew from the rigid thrust of his chin that he wasn’t joking.
To his credit, he did seem concerned. The lines around the edges of his mouth were harsh, and he actually looked disconcerted by her outrage. “Look,” he finally said, glaring down at her. “Are you planning to stay out here and freeze?”
“No, I’m going to wait for common sense to strike you so that you’ll drive me back home!”
“It’s gonna be a long wait.”
That did it. She hopped out of the Jeep. Her sandaled feet crunched in gravel as she marched up to him. “This is crazy, Zane, just plain crazy.”
“Maybe.” He strode up the plank steps, fumbled with a key in the dark and shoved hard on a heavy oak door.
“If you think I’m going in there with you, you’ve got another think coming!”
He ignored her outburst. A few seconds later, the house lights blazed cozily from paned windows. “Come on, Kaylie,” he called from deep in the interior. “You’re here now. You may as well make the best of it.”