Or would she?
Even here, Zane wasn’t completely at ease.
He walked outside to a shed where he kept his phone and, despite the late hour, dialed Brad Hastings. Something had to happen soon. He couldn’t keep Kaylie up here forever.
* * *
Kaylie didn’t waste any time. The situation was intolerable. She was getting in much too deep with Zane, and she’d have to leave him soon, or she’d never find the willpower. As for Lee Johnston, she’d take care of herself—hire a bodyguard if necessary.
A bodyguard like Zane?
Her heart turned over and she had to fight the strong pull of emotions.
Upstairs she tossed a pair of jeans, her running shoes, a sweater and jacket over the end of the bed. She drew the covers to her neck and waited, listening to the sounds of the old house: timbers creaking, wind rattling windowpanes, clock ticking in the hall.
Go to bed, Zane, she silently prayed.
An hour passed before she heard his footsteps on the stairs. He paused at the landing, and she wondered if he’d check on her. How would she explain her clothes? The fact that she was still awake?
Chewing on her lip, her heart pumping crazily, she heard his footsteps retreat and the door to his room open and close.
She let out her breath. Now she could get started. She gave him a half hour to get to sleep, then fifteen minutes more for good measure. At a quarter to one, she slid out of bed and dressed in the moonlight streaming through her window.
Tucking her shoes under her arm, she headed in stockinged feet through her door and into the hallway. Her footsteps didn’t make a sound, but her pulse was thundering in her brain.
Slowly she started downstairs, wincing on the third step when it creaked beneath her weight.
She waited, holding her breath, but Zane’s door didn’t bang open, so she hurried down the rest of the flight, picked her way through the living room to the kitchen, then dug in the pantry where she had discovered the old jacket and flashlight. Carefully she switched on the portable light and was rewarded with a steady, if pale, beam.
Good enough, she thought, unlatching the back door and slipping outside. She closed the door behind her, slid into her Reebok tennis shoes and, using only the faint light from a cloud-covered moon as her guide, made her way to the barn.
Inside, the horses snorted and pawed at the stalls. “Shh,” Kaylie whispered, flashing her light until she found His Majesty. “It’s all right.”
Dallas poked his silken nose over the stall door and Kaylie petted him fondly. “Not tonight,” she whispered, feeling a little like a traitor. “Tonight I need speed. I can’t take a chance that you-know-who will catch me.”
With surprising quickness, she bridled and saddled His Majesty, then led him from the barn. He danced and minced as the wind rushed through the trees, and Kaylie felt the first drop of rain fall from the sky. “Oh, great,” she murmured. She tried hard to disregard the fact that she wasn’t horsewoman enough for him if he were spooked.
His hoofbeats seemed to echo through the night as she unlatched the main gate and guided him through.
She had no idea where she was going, but intended to follow the long lane until daylight. Hopefully, by then, she’d find a crossroad or two and be able to lose Zane, because, if and when he caught up with her, all hell would break loose.
She didn’t pause to consider the consequences of his wrath now. Instead she swung into the saddle and shoved her heels into His Majesty’s sides. The horse picked up speed, trotting down the drive as the cold wind rushed against her face.
Kaylie squinted in the darkness, hoping beyond hope that His Majesty had some vague idea where civilization would lie, because she didn’t.
The sky was dark—no bright lights over the hillside guiding her. Nope, this time she’d have to let common sense and her mount’s instincts lead the way. And I need a little luck, she thought with an inward smile as she shone her flashlight toward the sky and caught the reflection of heavy cable. She’d follow the electricity and telephone wires. Eventually, she reasoned, the cables would lead to civilization.
The road was steep, the switchbacks hairpin curves, but His Majesty picked his way along the gravel without faltering. Kaylie, tense, forever listening to the sounds of the night, prayed that Zane would sleep in and not wake until after nine. By that time she’d be well on her way to San Francisco. Clucking her tongue, she encouraged the stallion to pick up his pace as rain beat down in a steady drizzle.
She’d ridden for nearly an hour before she came to the first road of any significance. Her shoulders had already begun to ache, and her fingers and cheeks were slick with rain. “Okay, boy, what do you think?” she asked, patting the chestnut’s sleek neck and frowning when she noticed the wires overhead were strung in both directions. One way would lead to a city, the other could lead to another isolated, and perhaps abandoned, house in the forest.
“Great,” she mumbled to her disinterested horse. “Just fine and dandy!” No doubt Zane would expect her to head west, for that was the most likely way to reach civilization. And, blast it, she didn’t have much choice as the mountains to the north and east were forbidding and there were no roads that led south.
“West it is,” she ground out, refusing to think about the cold water seeping through her collar and running down her neck. She urged His Majesty forward, her ears straining for the sound of an engine behind them. But all she heard was the sigh of the wind, the steady drip of rain and the rhythmic plop of the stallion’s hooves. Occasionally a rustle in the undergrowth would startle the horse as a hidden animal scurried through the woods flanking the gravel road. “Squirrels and raccoons and rabbits,” she told herself. “Nothing bigger or creepy. No bats or snakes or cougars….”
As the night wore on, Kaylie shone her flashlight whenever there was a crossroads, but otherwise followed the road by using the thick power cables as her guide.
Lightning struck in jagged flashes that illuminated the distant hills for a few sizzling moments. His Majesty shied and reared at the eerie light and the growl of thunder as it echoed over the hills.