Texas Ransom Read online

  “We don’t have to go tonight,” he’d told her. “We could just skip this shindig altogether and stay in.”

  She glanced at him in surprise, whatever emotion she’d felt a moment earlier replaced by a chiding scowl. “You’re not going to get out of it that easily. This is your big night and you’ll enjoy every minute of it even if it kills you.”

  Slipping out of the robe, she tossed it onto the bed, then clad only in a strapless bra and matching panties, she took out a red dress and held it up to her slender form as she stood at the full-length mirror.

  “New dress?”

  “I just got it today.”

  “Nice color.”

  “It’s a little too flashy for me,” she said, her gaze meeting Graham’s again, then darting away. “I let Ellie talk me into it,” she murmured. “Maybe I shouldn’t wear it.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t wear anything.” Graham came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “You know I’d much prefer to stay here and celebrate privately.”

  “I thought we’d just settled that.” She playfully tried to push him away, but as his lips moved from her ear to her neck, she shivered. She hung the red dress back in the closet, then turned, winding her arms around his neck. “We really should finish dressing.”

  “We will in a minute.” His fingers undid her bra and the lace dropped to the floor.

  “That’s your idea of dressing?”

  But it was only a half-hearted protest, and she said nothing else as he picked her up and carried her to the bed. Quickly shedding his tuxedo, he lay down beside her, drawing her on top of him as she gave a soft laugh. “We’re going to be so late.”

  “Ask me if I give a damn.”

  “You should. You’ve worked so hard for this night. I’m so proud of you. You have no idea—” She broke off, her eyes filling with sudden tears.

  “Hey, what’s this about?” He reached up and brushed away the moisture from her cheek.

  “I’m just so happy being with you. I know it sounds corny, but I never knew I could love someone as much as I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” He rolled her over and propped himself on one elbow as he gazed down at her, his hand lazily stroking a shoulder, a breast and eventually an inner thigh.

  She trembled as she curled a hand around the back of his neck and drew him toward her. “You do things to me, Graham.” Her voice was a husky whisper in the muted twilight of the bedroom. “Things I never even dreamed possible.”

  I’ve done some things, Graham. Things you don’t know anything about.

  GRAHAM STAYED in the fast lane as he headed west on 290. Once he was free of Houston traffic, he set the cruise control at eighty-five and started placing calls to anyone he could think of who might know of Kendall’s whereabouts.

  Other than Ellie, she didn’t have a lot of close friends. When they were first married, she’d sold real estate for a living and had a very busy social life. But she’d lost touch with many of her friends and clients when she left that job to work in an art gallery in Houston where they’d been living at the time.

  The cachet had soon worn off that position, too, and she’d drifted from one job to another until finally she’d given up any pretense of a career. She’d seemed content to occupy herself around the house, which was fine if that had made her happy. She didn’t need to work if she didn’t want to.

  But evidently her discontent had been growing for a long time without Graham ever noticing. After the separation, he’d had no idea of her move to Mexico until Michael called and told him about it. And even then Graham hadn’t been all that interested because he’d already relocated to L.A. where he’d been offered an incredible opportunity with one of the country’s most prestigious architectural firms.

  Now, as the powerful car ate up the miles between Houston and Austin, Graham berated himself for his past indifference and self-absorption. While he’d immersed himself in ambition, he hadn’t noticed or cared that his wife had been floundering.

  After the accident, they’d settled in Austin where Graham had opened his own firm. Kendall had thrown herself into decorating the house that he’d built on a hillside overlooking the city.

  Once that job was finished, he’d been afraid she would fall back into her old, restless ways, but instead she’d gone back to school and gotten a job with a local design firm. She’d surprised Graham—and perhaps even herself—with her dedication.

  She seemed to love everything about their life together, so what the hell was going on?

  I’ve done some things, Graham. Things you don’t know anything about…

  Her confession vibrated through him with every beat of his heart. His knuckles whitened where he clutched the steering wheel, and he was suddenly gripped with an urgency he couldn’t explain. All he knew was that he had to get home. If there were any answers, he would find them in the house the two of them had shared so intimately.

  SHIELDED BY five acres of wooded grounds and a wrought-iron security fence, the sprawling one-story ranch sat on the eastern slope of a hilly landscape.

  The house was both rustic and luxurious, and in the wrong hands, could easily have become ostentatious. But Kendall’s restraint had turned it into a comfortable retreat. Everything from the furniture to the drapes to the muted rugs on the hardwood floors had been chosen with an eye toward warmth and grace. As a result, Graham had always loved coming home. Not just to the house, but to the woman whose touch was everywhere.

  He wondered if she would be there waiting for him, and he couldn’t suppress a leap of hope as the wrought-iron gates swung open. He drove through, anxious to see the beckoning lights of home.

  Pulling around the circular drive, he parked in front and jumped out. He let himself inside and saw immediately that the alarm was still engaged and his heart sank.

  He called out to Kendall anyway as he tossed his keys into a hand-painted bowl she’d brought back from a trip to Italy the year before. “Are you home?”

  Walking through the airy foyer into the living room, he quickly scanned his surroundings, searching for some clue that she’d been there. He could see the courtyard through the French doors, and just beyond the stucco wall, the sparkle of the pool.

  “Kendall?”

  He went through the entire house, checking the kitchen, the study, the media room and finally the master suite. The bed was neatly made up, the carpet freshly vacuumed. Obviously, their housekeeper, Jacinda, had been there after they’d left the day before, but there was no sign in any of the rooms that Kendall had been home.

  Graham stepped back into the hallway. He started toward the living room, then changed his mind and went into his study where he quickly checked his desk drawer for their plane tickets and itinerary.

  Everything was just as he’d left it and he let out a breath of relief.

  What did you think? That she would take the tickets and leave without you?

  Graham didn’t know what to think. The whole night was one big mystery, and he was getting more frustrated and worried by the minute.

  He hurried out to the garage to check for her car. The silver Jag was still parked exactly where she’d left it and the metal was cool to his touch.

  Going back inside, he slowly walked down the hallway to their bedroom again. He had one more thing he needed to check out. He’d almost forgotten all about it.

  For Kendall’s birthday one year, he’d given her an antique music box. She kept it on the nightstand at her side of the bed. Graham had knocked it off one day and broken the wind-up stem. When he picked it up to examine the damage, he found a safety deposit box key taped to the bottom.

  Kendall had been out of town visiting a friend, and Graham had the music box repaired before she got home. He never told her about breaking it or about finding the key. But for the longest time, he couldn’t stop thinking about it. Sometimes he’d wake up in the middle of the night, the urge to check and see if the key was still there almost overpowering.

&n
bsp; He hadn’t needed a shrink to tell him what his problem was. The key symbolized his doubts. It was a physical link to Kendall’s secrets, to her past, and even after the reconciliation and the renewal of their vows, Graham still sometimes wondered if what they had was only an illusion.

  He drew a breath. The music box was still on the nightstand, exactly where she always kept it. He stared at it from the doorway, seized for a moment by a terrible feeling of what he was about to find out about his wife.

  Then he quickly crossed the room and picked up the box. The inlaid cherrywood was smooth and cool to his touch. A few notes of a minuet tinkled in the silence as he turned it over.

  The key was still taped to the bottom.

  Graham had no idea what might be in Kendall’s secret deposit box, and for months after he found the key, he’d been tormented by the possibilities. Now, for some strange reason, the sight of the key reassured him.

  Setting the box back on the nightstand, he turned and caught a glimpse of his haggard reflection in the dresser mirror. His hair was mussed, his eyes bloodshot and watery. He looked like death warmed over, as his grandmother liked to say.

  He jerked off his tie and unfastened the top button of his shirt, but he didn’t feel like taking the time to change. Instead, he retraced his steps down the hallway to the living room and stepped through the French doors into the courtyard. The night was very dark and silent, and he paused for a moment as a strange feeling of being watched came over him.

  Graham spun, his gaze scouring the room behind him. The lights were on and he could see most of the living room through the French doors. No one was there. He was letting his imagination get the better of him.

  Still, as he walked through the courtyard, circled the pool, then took the path down through the woods to the creek, he couldn’t shake the notion that he wasn’t alone.

  He’d had a summerhouse built near the water, and Kendall sometimes went down there to sit and listen to the stream trickle over the smooth stones. Maybe that was where she was now. Maybe it was her presence that he suddenly felt so strongly.

  But she wasn’t in the summerhouse. She wasn’t anywhere.

  Battling both fatigue and panic, Graham strode back up the stone pathway. He could hear the coyotes in the distance and a chill shot up his spine. Not out of any worry for his safety, but because the eerie sound seemed to echo his growing fear.

  He paused in the courtyard with another shiver. Someone was there. He could feel it.

  Turning slowly, he saw something move in the shadows. “Kendall?”

  The hair on the back of his neck prickled with warning. He stared at the spot for several seconds before he managed to convince himself that he’d seen nothing more than leaves fluttering in a stray breeze.

  His cell phone started ringing, and with one last glance over his shoulder, he went back inside. He checked the display before lifting the phone to his ear. It was his brother’s number.

  “Graham?” Ellie’s voice sounded anxious and worried. “Have you heard from Kendall?”

  “No, not yet.”

  “Are you at the hotel?”

  “No, I drove back to Austin. I’m home.”

  “You drove back to Austin? Why?”

  “Because I got a call from Kendall earlier and she asked me to meet her here.”

  “When did she call? After we talked?”

  He hesitated, still not certain why he didn’t want to come clean with Ellie. She and Kendall were friends and she had a right to know everything. Graham didn’t understand his reluctance, but some instinct held him back from disclosing his worst fears. Ellie was pregnant. She didn’t need to be dragged into this.

  Whatever this turned out to be.

  “I heard from her a little while ago,” he evaded.

  “Well, that’s good, right?”

  “I don’t know. Like I said, she asked me to meet her at home, but she’s not here.”

  “I don’t understand why she’d want to meet you there,” Ellie said. “It doesn’t make any sense. You were planning on spending the night in Houston. And besides, you drove here together. How would she get back to Austin without you?”

  “I don’t know. She didn’t give me time to ask that question.” Graham raked his fingers through his hair in frustration.

  “What do you mean?”

  “We were cut off.”

  “Cut off? You mean she hung up on you?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Graham…” Ellie’s voice trailed off as if she really didn’t want to mention what she was suddenly thinking. “I don’t know how to put this…”

  “Just say it.”

  “Did you two have a fight? Is that what this is all about?”

  “We didn’t have a fight. Everything was fine earlier when we left the hotel. Something must have happened at the reception.”

  Ellie hesitated again, this time with an audible sigh. “Graham…there’s something you need to know. What you just said about everything being fine…that’s not really true. When I told you earlier that she was quiet at lunch, I didn’t tell you everything.”

  Graham’s heart gave a painful twist. “What are you talking about?”

  “I promised her I wouldn’t say anything, but under the circumstances—”

  “For God’s sake, Ellie, tell me!”

  “She called me one day last week and asked for money. A loan.”

  “She what?” Graham felt as if he’d been punched in the chest. Suddenly, he had a difficult time breathing.

  “I know. It took me by surprise, too.”

  “Why would she do that?” He gazed out the window. His wife had gone to someone else for a loan. Why? They had plenty of money, more than enough to live on for the rest of their lives, and Kendall had full access to their accounts. Why would she ask Ellie for a loan?

  The only reason Graham could think of was that she’d needed money for some reason that she didn’t want him to know about.

  He thought about the key taped to the bottom of the music box. What else was his wife keeping from him?

  “How much did she ask for?”

  “A hundred thousand dollars.”

  Graham’s mouth dropped. “My God.”

  Ellie let out a long breath. “I hated not telling you, but I promised her I wouldn’t say anything. I asked her why she needed that kind of money, but she wouldn’t confide in me. She said the less I knew the better.”

  Graham didn’t even know what to say to that.

  “Are you sure the two of you didn’t have a fight? Maybe she just wanted to get away for a while,” Ellie said hopefully.

  “You don’t need a hundred thousand dollars to get away,” Graham said angrily. Not if you plan on coming back. “What did you tell her?”

  “The truth. I couldn’t get my hands on that kind of money even if I wanted to.”

  “And what did she say?”

  “Nothing. She understood. She said she’d try the bank.”

  Graham scrubbed a hand down his face. “Why on earth would she need that much money?”

  “I have no idea. But yesterday at lunch she was more than subdued, Graham. She was upset. I tried to get her to talk to me, but she said it was something she had to work out on her own. I’m afraid she’s in some kind of trouble.”

  “What kind of trouble?”

  “I don’t know. But talking to her yesterday was like….”

  “What?”

  Ellie’s voice quivered. “…it was like the old Kendall had come back.”

  He squeezed his eyes closed. This couldn’t be happening. How could he not have known that his own wife was in trouble? Why had he not sensed that something was wrong, that somehow things had changed between them?

  “Graham?”

  “I’m still here.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  The only thing he could do. “Find her.”

  “Will you let me know when you do?”

  He heard the
question, but he didn’t respond because his attention was suddenly caught by another movement outside.

  Someone was moving stealthily across the courtyard toward the French doors. Graham’s first thought was that Kendall had come home.

  “I have to go, Ellie. I’ll call you later.”

  He hung up the phone and started toward the doors, not remembering if he’d locked them when he came back in. Then he saw another shadow behind the first. And another. As they got closer to the house, Graham saw them in the light that spilled out from the living room. There were four of them. They wore dark clothing, ski masks and carried assault rifles.

  Graham was so stunned that he couldn’t move for a moment. Then his adrenaline kicked in and he spun, lunging for the foyer and the front door. He heard a loud crash and the sound of glass shattering behind him as someone kicked in the French doors.

  He glanced over his shoulder, and as he saw the armed men streaming into the room, he dove for cover.

  Chapter Four

  A blast from one of the rifles ripped through the wall behind Graham. The plaster exploded as every window in the house seemed to rattle.

  “Stay where you are, Mr. Hollister, or the next time my men won’t miss.”

  The voice was calm, almost pleasant. A strange counterpoint to the violence still echoing through the house.

  Slowly, Graham turned toward the stranger. His ears were ringing from the blast, his heart beating so hard his chest felt ready to explode. He was terrified, but he didn’t want them to see his fear. They had invaded his home for a reason. If he stayed calm and gave them what they wanted, maybe they’d leave.