A Cowboy in Disguise (20 page)

Then his boss had gotten into the elevator, said something about needing to test it, and instructed him to ride it down to the ground floor lobby when David sent it back up for him. Was that sweat he’d seen glistening on David’s forehead? When the elevator doors opened again, inside the elevator was the one person on earth he’d been dying to see.

“Scott,” Alex gasped.

Scott stepped inside and the doors shut a bit too quickly behind him. He jumped. “That’s not normal.”

“I know.” Alexandra violently punched the button to open the door.

“Trapped alone with me again, are you? Seems to be a trend.” Scott whispered.

She pushed each button one at a time with newfound enthusiasm, but none of them lit up. Suddenly the elevator lurched, carried them several flights higher, and then stopped with a jolt. She pulled open the little stainless steel panel to the emergency telephone and found a bunch of wires leading to nothing. Someone had obviously removed the phone so that they couldn’t even call out for help, and she had a good idea who the culprit was.

“Don’t worry,” Scott said. “David is well aware we’re stuck here. He’s a tricky one.”

David’s voice came over the speaker. “I want you two to communicate. You have thirty minutes to do nothing but talk, and I suggest you use them all. I’ll turn off the camera so you have some privacy.”

“David, there’s no need to
matchmake
. I think we have it figured out this time,” Alex said.

“What about the speaker?” Scott asked.

David sighed. “Sure. I’ll turn it off to. Thirty minutes, kids.” His voice cracked and the speaker went dead.

Scott sighed. “I think I have a lot to tell you. At least David thinks so.” Then he chuckled. “He forgot to take away our cell phones.”

“At any rate, I’m listening.” Alexandra’s pulse began to race again. She kicked off her shoes and sank down to the floor to await rescue. “I already know we won. Why did we win, Scott? I heard Mac and I know you wouldn’t go back to her. So, how?”

Scott sat down on the floor of the elevator beside her and handed her the roses.

“They’re gorgeous.” She smiled. “Give me the chocolates.”

“I never told you what Mac tried to do when we were involved. I was younger and stupider at the time, and she seemed to attract a lot of attention. I guess I figured there must be so much buzz around her for a reason and I wanted to find out what it was.”

“I don’t need to know everything,” Alex said.

“You do. Because I think we have a chance here, and I don’t want any skeletons falling out of the closet later on. Anyway, she didn’t even pay attention to me at first. She hung out with local politicians and businessmen with high enough titles. But all of the sudden, one day she called me and asked me out to dinner. I thought she was interested in my life—in me.

“Mac couldn’t seem to ask enough questions about my family and the ranch. My parents had been so happy together there. I wanted that same happiness with my own wife one day. I was thrilled that Mac would care about these things.”

Alexandra nodded. “But she didn’t?”

“Oh, she was interested in the ranch all right. Just not for the reasons I thought. I couldn’t have paid her enough to go ice-skating on the ditch, much less get within a hundred yards of a mud puddle or a cow.

“As it turned out, she was busy assessing our operations and looking for our fatal flaw. She was systematically picking out our financial weaknesses. Cattle disappeared by the dozen. Fences would be mysteriously cut down in the night. Our alfalfa fields turned brown and died out no matter what we did. We finally had some samples tested and knew for sure someone had sprayed a mix of chemicals on them, but we had no idea who could have done it. All the while I kept turning to and confiding in Mac, the woman I thought I loved, for comfort.

“After a few months of this, Dad was on the verge of putting the whole place up for sale and moving to Florida. That’s when the offer came in—completely out of the blue—from a retired banker in the area. The offer was so low we thought it was a joke at first. But, as we lost more and more money, Dad started to actually consider it.”

The tiny stress line appeared on Alexandra’s face. “You could have been ruined. How on earth did you guys save the ranch with all that happening?”

“By sheer accident. I drove into Helena one day, quite unplanned. I hadn’t even told Mac about my daytrip because I was considering shopping for an engagement ring, if you can believe that. Shopping, mind you, not buying yet.

“Anyway, as I was driving past a little roadside hotel, I saw the same man who had just made the pathetic offer on the ranch walking out of his room. It seemed a little off to me that a man of such wealth was hanging around a dirty hotel in the middle of the day. I pulled the car over to talk to him, and that’s when I looked through the open door and saw Mac sitting on the edge of the bed getting dressed.”

Alexandra’s hand flew to her mouth in horror. “She’d set the whole thing up.”

Scott nodded grimly. “She saw land and pictured dollar signs. Seems she wanted to build a resort there—like she did with those ski cabins in Colorado. I was just a means to an end.”

“So what happened?”

A twinkle came back into Scott’s eyes. “I pulled the car away from the hotel before they saw me, and we played it cool for a while. My father actually followed the retired banker around with a camera for a few days. He got some very interesting pictures, which he threatened to give to the man’s wife and every political committee he belonged to. Dad walked away with a check for all the damages to the ranch and then some that day.”

Alexandra smiled and placed her hand over Scott’s. “I’m sorry. If I’d known what Mac did, I don’t think I would ever have thought what I thought when you got that fax—not for a second. I still don’t understand how our presentation won, though. I don’t understand why you knowing her would be a benefit to our team, for that matter.”

“Because she wasn’t the only person I knew at Rio, Alex. There are a lot of good people there and I hoped they would cancel out her influence.”

“So how did we win, considering she was so bent on getting you back?”

“I was just getting to that,” Scott said. “I went in there and gave the presentation exactly as we’d rehearsed it, Alex. I didn’t change a thing. You should have seen her face. She was
livid
.”

Alexandra would have enjoyed the satisfaction of watching Mac’s reaction in person. “I can just imagine.”

Scott laughed. “I thought I’d blown it for sure. And then one of the review panel members got a call on his cell phone. I don’t know what happened after that—it was nuts. The entire panel excused itself and went back to the waiting room with Duncan.”

“That’s probably when things got drawn out and they told me and the other guys to leave,” Alexandra added.

“I think it was. They were in there at least an hour before they came out and asked me to leave as well. I passed the police in the hallway on my way out.”

“The police?” Alexandra was intrigued. “Really?”

“This is where David filled things in for me. He was the one who’d called that board member on his cell phone. Apparently, all those company names we brought back from Montana were dummy corporations.”

Alexandra knew what had to be coming next. “You don’t mean Mac Stevens was behind them all?”

Scott smiled as if he’d scored a long-overdue victory. “When Rio Safari became interested in a property, her dummy corporation would buy it up. Of course, she was in charge of all the real estate purchases for Rio. She would fake negotiations and basically write out an exorbitant check to herself from Rio funds.”

“Unbelievable,” Alexandra gasped.

“Just wait. It gets better,” he teased, holding her gaze until an unspoken meaning reached her.

“Duncan was in on it somehow. Probably getting some kind of under-the-table payoff,” she almost yelled. “And they both were caught.”

Scott beamed. “
Ain’t
it grand? Mac fired and jailed in one fell swoop.”

“And Duncan finally gets what’s coming to him,” Alexandra squealed. “Do you think they’ll look into his past? Into all the things he stole from me and my last company?”

“They already are,” Scott whispered.

Tears brimmed in Alexandra’s eyes. After so many years, justice had finally triumphed. “Tell me what happened when the police got there. I want details.”

He reached out and delicately wiped a tear away from Alexandra’s nose. “I waited in the hall to see what was going to happen. It was the most satisfying moment I’ve ever witnessed. They even put handcuffs on both of them. Mac kept saying things like ‘Do you know who I am?’ It was hysterical. I actually thought the front of her jacket was going to rip open when they pulled her hands behind her back. You know how tight her clothes always fit.”

“I can picture it now. What about Duncan and his stupid, ugly, stupid beard?”

“He kept saying something about you setting him up. Then Mac yelled at him to shut up because he was caught and ought to be smart enough to know it. Then he accused
her
of setting him up. He got really quiet and started picking lint off his tweed jacket and smoothing his beard until one of the officers clamped the cuffs on him.”

Alexandra closed her eyes and reveled in the scene he’d described for her. “I’m so sorry I ever doubted you,” she finally said. “I never should have. I almost did again, but I caught myself.”

Scott put his head in his hands. “Not the fabulously accurate Sarah again?”

“She heard you telling Mac you needed her that day I was out sick.”

Scott shook his head. “She heard me telling Mac how sleazy I thought that fax was. I was trying to get you back in place as the presenter.” He ran his thumb gently across her cheekbone, pulled her close and held her. “Do you realize this is the ‘after the presentation’ time we talked about?”

Alexandra gazed up into his eyes. “It is, isn’t it?”

“You know what else I realize?”

She shook her head. “What?”

“That I would have rather lost millions of dollars than lose you.”

His lips brushed hers. It had been too many days since he’d held her, kissed her. He wanted to tell her how much he’d come to love her, wanted to show her in every way he knew how.

Suddenly, they felt another jolt and to their disappointment, the elevator began to move. Before the doors opened, Alexandra gazed up at Scott with eyes just a little mistier than she’d meant to allow.

He looked down at her lovely face and whispered, “I’m in love with you, Alexandra Hunter.”

“I know,” she whispered back, and with a wicked grin, jumped out of the elevator.

“Oh, come on,” Scott called out as he chased after her. He shrugged at a very entertained David as Alexandra scooted out the door and headed across the lobby toward the parking lot.

Scott caught up with her just before the front doors and found her laughing in near hysteria. “I’m just so relieved,” she said.

Scott gathered her into his arms. “You’re such a pill. A man professes his undying love for a woman and gets nothing in return. Not a word?”

“Don’t worry, Falconer. I have the impression you usually get what you want.”

“I’m not so sure.”

Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered, “I love you.”

“Random question,” he whispered back. Then he quietly dropped to one knee and pulled a small velvet box from his pocket.

Epilogue

With snowflakes sticking to the windows and a roaring fire lighting up the room, Scott and Alexandra celebrated their wedding at the family ranch and immediately drove away to begin their honeymoon. The night seemed like the fulfillment of a long-awaited dream.

Alexandra gazed into Scott’s eyes with an anxious excitement that surprised her. She had long since given up the illusion of composure around him. The combination of rancher and businessman she had found in him assured her that her life with him would never be a dull one. Even the faintest brush of his hand sent shudders through her. She loved watching him work at the ranch—and she loved seeing him in a suit with his briefcase in hand. A woman couldn’t ask for a better husband, she thought.