A Fortune's Children's Christmas (21 page)

“Binoculars,” he retorted, never taking his eyes from the ridge. “I just caught the glint of sun off the lenses. The son of a bitch is up there now, watching
us, just daring us to catch him.” Glancing down at her, he said, “He really gets his kicks out of torturing you, doesn’t he?”

Hugging herself, her eyes flashed with angry resentment. “It’s the only thing he’s really good at. All I can say is, he’d better enjoy it. Because when I get through with him after this, I’m going to make him wish he’d never been born.”

And if she couldn’t do it, he could, Hunter thought angrily. Any man who would put his own child in danger to torment the mother of that child deserved whatever he got. “C’mon,” he growled as he turned back to his truck. “We’ve done all that we can do here for now.”

“But you can’t just leave Laura up there with that monster!” she cried, hurrying after him. “We have to do something!”

“We are. I’m going back to my place to get my snowmobile and supplies, and you’re going home to pack some warm clothes for Laura just in case she needs them when I find her. I’ll be by within the hour to pick them up.”

N
aomi had a backpack packed and was waiting on her front porch when Hunter returned to her house forty minutes later with his snowmobile strapped to a trailer hitched to his truck. He took one look at the size of the pack and arched a dark brow in amusement. “I’m not taking Laura to Disneyland, Naomi. I just need a snow suit or something for her in case Barker didn’t think of anyone but himself.”

Lifting the backpack, Naomi shrugged into it. “I’m going with you. And since I didn’t know how long we’ll be gone, I thought it would be better to be prepared. Let’s go.”

She took a quick step toward the porch steps, but that was as far as she got before he moved to cut her off. “Hold it right there, Kemosabie,” he growled. “What do you mean
you’re going with me?
”

“Just what I said. Do you have a problem with that?”

“You’re damn right I do! I work alone.”

His tone was flat and as unyielding as stone and rubbed Naomi the wrong way. “Not this time, you don’t,” she retorted, bristling. “In case you’ve forgotten, that’s
my
daughter up there in those mountains. And not you or any other man is making me stay
home like the good little mother as long as she’s in danger. So you can either take me with you or I’ll rent my own damn snowmobile and follow you, but either way, I’m going.”

Standing toe-to-toe with him, she just dared him to argue with her, and he didn’t disappoint her. “Dammit, woman, this isn’t a walk in the park! You saw how rugged Elk Canyon was—the mountains are ten times more treacherous than that. There’s no way in hell I’m taking a woman up there. It’s too dangerous.”

“Fine. Then it looks like I’ll have to take myself.”

Cursing, he growled, “What part of no didn’t you understand? I’ve got enough to do up there tracking Barker without having to watch over you, too. You’ll only slow me down.”

“Then I suggest you quit wasting time arguing with me and get a move on,” she said reasonably. “I’m just waiting for you.”

Grinding his teeth on an oath, Hunter glared down at her and didn’t know if he wanted to shake her or turn her over his knee. When she’d walked into his office earlier, he’d suspected she was the kind of woman a man wouldn’t be able to easily dismiss from his mind, and he hadn’t been wrong. The lady was trouble, and if circumstances had been different, he would have already sent her packing. All his energy was focused on getting Fortune Construction in the black by the end of the year, and nothing was interfering with that. Especially a woman. He just didn’t need the hassle.

That didn’t mean he would renege on his promise
to find Laura, however. He didn’t care how much work he had to do, there was no way in hell he was going to stand around with his hands in his pockets when a child was in trouble. He’d find her if he had to go over every damn inch of the mountains—but he didn’t have to drag her mother along to do it. She really would slow him down and no doubt talk him to death, and he wasn’t having it!

“Look,” he said, struggling for patience, “I can understand why you want to go along. If I had a daughter lost up there somewhere in those mountains, there’s no way in hell anyone could convince me to stay at home while someone else went looking for her. But I have experience in the mountains. You don’t.”

“That’s why I came to you,” she reminded him. “Lucas said you were the best.”

“At tracking, maybe,” he conceded. “But accidents happen. What if you get hurt and we haven’t found Laura yet? Have you thought of that? I’ll have to choose between getting you to medical help and finding your daughter, and you might not like the decision I make.”

“That’s not going to happen. I’ll be careful—”

“Experienced guides have fallen off the side of a mountain being careful. If something happens to you, Laura’s got no one to turn to except James. Is that what you want?”

“Of course not!”

“Then stay here and wait for me to bring her to you. I’ve got a cell phone—I can be in constant contact with you.”

For a minute he thought he had her convinced. She hesitated, weighing his words, and he was sure she was going to give in. But then she stiffened and dug in her heels and it was all he could do not to curse. “No,” she said flatly. “I’m going.”

She was as stubborn as a rock. Any other time, Hunter might have laughed at the idea of this slip of a woman standing up to him, but at that particular moment, he couldn’t find a damn thing funny about the situation. She was just bullheaded enough to rent a damn snowmobile and follow after him if he didn’t let her go with him, and then he’d spend half his time looking over his shoulder making sure she was all right. That would cost him even more time than if he just took her with him to begin with.

“All right,” he said in disgust. “Have it your way. As you pointed out, I can’t stop you from doing whatever you want to do. But if you’re going with me, we’re going to get some things straight right here and now, or I’m not stepping off this porch with you.”

More agreeable, now that she’d gotten her way, she motioned for him to continue. “Go ahead. Name your terms.”

“I’m in charge.”

Nodding, she said, “Fine. I already told you I don’t have a problem with that. You’re more experienced at this kind of thing than I am.”

Stunned, Hunter didn’t know how she got that one out with a straight face. She couldn’t be serious. She’d been questioning his every move almost from the moment she’d met him! “I’m not just talking about the
tracking,” he retorted. “The minute we head up into the trees in Elk Canyon, safety is our number one priority. The snow covers up all sorts of hidden dangers, so you don’t take a step without my say-so. You got that?”

“I’m not a child,” she said stiffly. “You don’t have to worry about me wandering off on my own.”

“I won’t have to worry about you at all if you do as I say,” he tossed back. “The whole point is to get both you and Laura out of there in one piece. As long as you do what I say, when I say, we shouldn’t have any problem. So what’s it going to be? Do I have your word?”

The answer should have been easy, Naomi knew. Yes. That was all he needed to hear. But he was asking for more than a guarantee that she would follow orders, no questions asked, and they both knew it. If she was going to accompany him, he had to know that she trusted him. And that was asking more of her than he could possibly know. Because the last man she had trusted was the same man who had dragged her daughter up into the mountains without a thought to her safety. How could she trust any man after that?

But Hunter Fortune wasn’t just any man, she silently acknowledged. If she knew nothing else about him, she knew that. He’d put his life on hold, just walked away from his business without a backward glance, to come to the rescue of a little girl he didn’t even know, and she didn’t know many people who would do that. Considering that, how could she
not
trust him?

“Yes,” she said quietly. “You have my word.”

She thought it would be easy. After all, how difficult could following orders be? He wouldn’t ask anything unreasonable of her. He was only looking out for her safety. As long as she did what he said, when he said, she wouldn’t get into any trouble. Or so she told herself, until they returned to Elk Canyon and the spot where James had left his car.

With sure, swift movements, Hunter unloaded his snowmobile from its trailer and strapped her backpack on the back along with his. Then he swung his leg over the machine as he took his position in the driver’s seat and motioned her to climb on behind him. “Make sure you hang on tight at all times,” he said as he pulled on gloves and goggles. “I’m not going to go very fast, but I don’t want you falling off if I have to make some sharp turns.”

In the process of pulling on her own gloves, Naomi went perfectly still, the thumping of her heart so loud that she’d have sworn Hunter could hear it in the sudden silence that engulfed the canyon. She’d known, of course, that they would be riding double, but she hadn’t given much thought to the fact that to do that, she would have to put her arms around his waist.

She hadn’t held a man in almost four years. Not since she’d made love with James and conceived Laura, only to learn later that he was a married man.

“Naomi? Is there a problem?”

Caught up in her thoughts, she blinked Hunter back into focus and found him frowning at her, his dark
eyes narrowed and searching—far too sharp for comfort. Flushing, she looked quickly away. “No. I was just…thinking.”

If he thought it odd that she’d picked now, of all times, to indulge in a daydream, he kept it to himself. “If you’re having second thoughts about going, it’s not too late to change your mind,” he said quietly. “You can take my truck and go back to your house to wait. I’ve got my cell phone. I’ll call you the second I find Laura.”

“No. It’s not that. I want to go,” she insisted, but still, she stood right where she was.

She wasn’t, she told herself, afraid of him. Or, for that matter, afraid that he was going to take advantage of the situation. Lucas Greywolf would’ve never recommended him if that had been the case. It was just that she hadn’t expected to get that close to him. He was an extremely good-looking man. Why, of all times, did she have to notice that
now,
when they were about to race off into the wilderness and would be alone together for God knew how long? Why, when she would have sworn that she wouldn’t have uttered a word of protest if every man on the planet flew back to Mars, was she suddenly aware of just how big, how hard, this particular one was? Even with the protective clothing they both had on, there was no way she would be able to put her arms around his waist without being aware of every lean inch of him.

You can’t have your cake and eat it, too,
a voice snapped impatiently in her head.
If you want to be there when Laura is found, quit acting like a ninny
and get on the damn snowmobile before the man thinks you’re afraid to touch him because you’re attracted to him.

That
got her attention. She’d never heard of anything so ridiculous in all her life. Of course she wasn’t attracted to him. And to prove it, she lifted her chin, stepped determinedly up to the snowmobile and swung her leg over the seat behind him.

There should have been plenty of room for two people. The gear strapped onto the back didn’t take up that much space, and she wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination a large woman. She should have been able to sit well back on her portion of the seat without even touching Hunter except to hold on to him at his waist. Then she sat down, and before she realized that the space left for her was smaller than it looked, she found herself plastered to his back.

“Oh! Wait!” she began, startled.

But it was already too late. Hunter turned the key in the ignition with a flick of his wrist, and the motor roared to life. With a low growl the snowmobile lurched forward and sent Naomi’s heart shooting into her throat. Gasping, she latched on to him, her fingers biting into his waist as she hung on for dear life.

She held him as if she was afraid he was going to give her cooties, Hunter thought. Wondering about the paradox that was Naomi Windsong, he revved the motor and sent the snowmobile racing into the cover of the trees. She was an unwed mother who’d had an affair with a married man, so she was hardly what he
would call innocent. Yet she touched him like she’d never held a man before. Was she afraid of him?

Heading up toward the spot where he’d found Barker’s tracks earlier in the day, he immediately rejected the idea. As desperate as she was to find her daughter, Hunter knew she never would have come with him—especially when she didn’t have to—if she’d been afraid of him. No, it was some other emotion that had her trying to hold him at arm’s length, and if he had to guess, he’d say it had something to do with Barker. Thanks to him, she probably hated all men, and Hunter couldn’t say he blamed her. The jackass had gone out of his way to teach her that she couldn’t trust her own instincts when it came to men, and that was a lesson a woman didn’t soon forget.

Still, she was as safe with him as if she’d been in church. He knew trouble when he saw it, and though there’d been a time in his life when he’d been a sucker for a woman looking for someone to charge to her rescue, those days were long gone. He had enough headaches of his own without taking on another one. If he was racing off into the wilds with the lady, it wasn’t because he was trying to make points with her. He just couldn’t stand the thought of a child being in danger.

He hit a bump in the snow then, and the sudden jarring of the snowmobile sent Naomi plowing into his back, hard. And in the split second before she hastily pulled back, her breasts were nestled snug against him. It was just a quick, tantalizing brush of a soft female body against his, something he shouldn’t even
have noticed, considering the thick layer of clothes they each had on. But in the time it took to suck in a sharp breath, Hunter was hot and hard and he didn’t even know how it happened. He just knew that they’d barely left civilization behind, and the lady was already giving him ideas, all without saying a single word. And all he could do was swear.