Christmas Confidential (23 page)

“There must be a better way to warm up.” Gage opened the first door he came to and turned on the light. “The kitchen. Do you think there’s coffee?”

“I’m sure there is. Shall I make us some?”

He disappeared into the kitchen but called out an answer. “I’ll do it. Give me a moment.”

She’d almost forgotten that Gage had been the cook in the family. Her childhood hadn’t exactly consisted of cooking lessons. Everyone in her family worked in the family business.

When she peeked into the kitchen, he’d already found the coffee and started the coffeemaker. “Smells good. Can we find something to cook so we can turn on the stove or the oven? It’s still freezing in here.”

“Hot coffee will help.” He reached for a couple of mugs. “But yeah, we can preheat the oven, too. Not sure what we’ll find to eat, though.”

“Brendan’s brothers always keep the place stocked. They use it themselves as a retreat and sometimes they rent it out.”

“Are you hungry?” He poured the coffee and handed her a steaming mug.

“Not at all.” Her stomach rolled when she thought of what lay ahead.

Once she’d managed to pass a couple of sips of the searing hot, black liquid past her lips and tongue, she felt stronger. “We need to figure out where to go from here.”

Without removing her coat, she sat at the small kitchen table, waiting while Gage turned on the oven. “I think we’re probably safe here while the storm rages,” she told him. “No one in their right mind would stay out in weather like this for long. Not even a dangerous Russian mob. But it could quit snowing at any moment. We need a plan.”

“I agree. Hold that thought.” He reached deep into his coat pocket. “Let me try the sat phone, see if I can get a signal.”

Would it really be as easy as just calling for help?

Staring at the phone in his hand, Gage shook his head. “Low battery. But all it will take is a few minutes plugged in and we’ll get through.” He found the cord and a wall plug.

“Who can you call?”

“The cops in L.A.,” he said while checking the power. “Or maybe I should try contacting my friend at the L.A. FBI office. He’d know best what law enforcement agency to call in. I’m afraid the Piñon Lake community has a small force and they’ll have their hands full with weather-related problems.”

“You’re right. The town has only one sheriff and two deputies. They’d be no match for the Russian mob. But L.A.’s at least three hours away. Shouldn’t we plan an escape just in case?”

Gage pulled out the other chair at the table, turned it around and straddled it. “If we had a good way out of here without being seen, we’d be taking it right now. Just stay calm. We’ll let the authorities come to the rescue. We should’ve called them in the first place.”

“And that’s my fault,” she groaned. “Like everything else. Why’d you have to follow me? I tried to tell you that separately we’d have a better chance.”

“I disagree. If I hadn’t followed, you might already be in the Russians’ hands. Or dead.”

Elana lowered her forehead to the table and heaved a heavy sigh. She wasn’t sure she could look at him for the next few minutes.

“I’m...
fairly
sure they won’t kill me,” she told him quietly. “If they’re like other gypsies, they just want their property back.”

“But you don’t know that for a fact.” Gage sounded frustrated. “And they’ve already been shooting at you. I’d say that means they don’t care much what kind of shape you’re in when they bring you home.”

“You may be right. But what I do know for a fact is now that they’ve taken notice of
you,
they will want to see you dead. Interference in gypsy business is not taken lightly.”

Gage remained silent for such a long time that she raised her head to study him.

“So, we’re back to the excuse that you have done all this...” He waved a hand between them. “Leaving me in Texas, changing your name and looks and then trying to leave me behind here, all in order to keep me safe?” He drew himself up in the chair and stared her down. “I don’t buy it. You know I can take care of myself. And I would’ve taken better care of you, too, if only I’d known what you were up against. But you chose to shut me out.”

“Gage, please. Can’t you just believe I’m telling the truth this one time? There are too many of them. And I was always sure you’d receive much harsher treatment from the Russians than I would. Really. I didn’t—don’t—want to see you hurt.”

He scraped his chair around and stood, looming over her. “I—” Cutting off his own words, he seemed to change his mind. “Hold it. It’s been long enough. Let me try the phone again.”

Picking it up, he dialed. “Got through,” he mumbled almost to himself.

While Gage talked to his FBI pal, Elana rummaged in the cabinets looking for something to eat that would be quick and easy. She still wasn’t hungry, but she figured they’d need sustenance if they were to fend off an attack by the Russians.

And she was sure an attack was imminent.

She found crackers, a can of tuna and a can of peaches. Not exactly breakfast food, but she’d have it on the table in moments.

By the time Gage clicked off his call and returned to the table, she’d set it with small plates and silverware. He barely seemed to notice.

“We should have help very soon,” he told her. “The FBI will marshal forces from both the L.A. and state police to come to our aid. My buddy checked with the weatherman and he says this storm is just about to blow over. The cops are readying a couple of their helicopters and they’ve already contacted the state patrol.”

He put away the phone and came toward the table. “From my description and from what you told me, the FBI is quite anxious to talk to these particular Russians. Seems they’ve been looking for a lead to them for a long time. The minute the weather breaks our rescuers will be on the way.”

“I hope they’re in time.” She’d said the optimistic words, but deep down she doubted that the two of them would still be here and in one piece by the time their rescuers arrived. “Sit and eat something. I want to finish our conversation before...help arrives.”

Pulling back the chair, he sat at the table with her. He picked up his fork and dug in to the peaches without a word.

“I need to...say something,” she began with a slight hesitation in her voice and in her mind. “But first, please believe that I love you, Gage. I have always loved you and I’ll never love anyone the same way. I suspect you no longer love me, and I deserve that. But you must believe me...”

Her voice failed and she had to sniff back a tear.

Before she could finish her sentence, he jumped in. “If you’ve always been so much in love with me, how come you found someone else so soon after you left?”

“What?” She’d absently picked up a cracker, but at that remark, she dropped it back to the plate as the blood rushed from her head. “I don’t understand. What are you saying? There’s never been anyone else.”

He stood and glared at her. “Bull. You couldn’t have been out of my sight for more than a few days when you fell into bed with someone else. Was it that Russian fiancé of yours? Is that why his father and your father are so determined to find you?”

Stunned, she felt like someone had pushed her off a cliff. She couldn’t catch her breath.

“Come on, Alicia or Elana or whoever you are, admit it. That’s the real reason they’re chasing you. You took his daughter, their grandchild, with you when you disappeared.”

A laugh erupted from her throat before she could call it back. But to her ears, the tone of that laugh sounded a lot more hysterical than amused. He couldn’t possibly believe what he’d just said.

A second glance at his hard-set mouth and narrowed eyes told her that he had indeed believed every word of the tale he’d just spun. She’d wondered why he hadn’t asked about her child yet. This was the reason. His mind had created a scenario that seemed more plausible than any other.

She started for him, wanting to soothe, to cradle him in her arms and make him understand. But he backed away from her touch.

He must really hate her, but he deserved the truth, no matter what happened after that. “Gage, my darling. Gay, the daughter I named after you, is your child. When I left, I had no idea I was pregnant. She was born almost nine months exactly from our last week together. There wasn’t anyone else. Not ever. You are her father.”

For a second she thought he hadn’t heard, but then his face turned as pale as hers had felt only moments before. “No. I don’t believe that.”

“It’s true. If it’s important to you, and if we make it out of here alive, feel free to have DNA tests done.”

Once again she took a step in his direction. She needed to touch him, to feel his warmth. But the look in his eyes was cold as ice.

“I want to meet her,” he growled, and the tone of his voice forced her backward.

“Of course you can. She’s a wonderful little girl. A bit on the independent side, but I suspect she gets that from you.”

“How could you do this?” He groaned and turned his back to her. “How could you not tell me before? That’s...that’s... I don’t know you at all. I guess I never really knew you.”

Elana wanted to die. The hatred in his words bit into her heart like a whip.

Her whole body shook. Her pulse pounded as though she’d run a mile. This was much worse than she’d ever imagined.

She tried to control her thoughts, her voice. What if one or both of them lived through this day somehow?

“Gage,” she began tentatively. “You need a way to reach her in case I don’t make it and you do. That phone call I made last night on your phone to Brendan—he and his wife have her. You’ll be able to find her by contacting him. They’re in hiding, but use that number.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll find her. Whether you make it or not. If she’s my daughter, she’ll be going home with me.”

Feeling as though he were squeezing her by the throat, Elana ran to him and grabbed him by the arm. “You can’t mean you’d take her away from me. You couldn’t be that cruel.”

He swung around to face her and tore his arm from her grip. “So, you can keep my daughter from me, but I don’t get the same privilege? Wanna bet? You are not exactly a stable mother, you know. No judge would ever let you keep her after everything you’ve done.”

“But...” Her legs gave out from under her and she sank to her knees. “Couldn’t we share her time? Make some arrangement like that?”

It was his turn to laugh as he stood over her, but then again, the sound was hollow. “I’m not even sure there is a child at this point. I don’t believe a word you’ve ever told me. And to insist you’ve done all this in the name of loving me is beyond ridiculous. You’re on your own from here out. After the storm is over, I intend to get to the truth. Without any interference from you.”

He narrowed his eyes and fisted his hands. “Stay away from me.”

She wondered if somehow she’d missed him physically reaching inside her body and ripping out her heart while it was still beating. Her chest couldn’t hurt any more if he had. But somehow she managed to get to her feet and stumble to the front door.

He followed her. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Do you care?” She intended to go to the main highway and try to find the Russians before they could get to him.

He was right. She was a terrible person. A chronic liar and a cheat. Her whole existence had been worthless. The one right thing she could still do in her life would be to protect him from harm. She could make a deal with the Russians and give herself up. Her father probably wouldn’t actually let them kill her. She could just go away with them, and both Gage and Gay would be safe. She hoped.

Gage reached up and slammed his hand against the front door so she couldn’t open it. “Don’t be a fool.”

“I’m staying away from you like you said.”

“There’s a snowstorm out there, and the gunmen chasing us could show up any moment. Wait for the cops.”

“You wait.”
Please.
“I’ll find the Russians and tell them you dropped me off and are long gone by now. They won’t kill me.”
Probably.

He took his arm away to reach for her shoulder, but she already had her hand on the doorknob. She twisted it and her body faster than he moved and was outside in a blink.

“Dang it, woman. Don’t be...”

The words died in his throat as he opened the door wide right behind her. Not only had it stopped snowing and the skies were clearing, but right then three big, black pickups pulled into the yard.

Oh, man, they’d been found already. Now what the devil would they have to do to survive?

Chapter 10

G
age didn’t waste any time and took no arguments. He grabbed Elana by the arm and dragged her back into the house before anyone could step out of the trucks.

“There’s a rear door to this place, right?” Never stopping, he swung his case up on the way through the living room and dug out his Glock.

Not that it would be of any use at a distance. But if—or when—things got more intense, he didn’t want to face the bad guys unarmed.

“Gage, wait.” Elana hung back.

“Not a chance. Get moving.”

As he unlocked the back door and stuck his head out to make sure no one was waiting, she said, “Let me talk to them. I’ll say you ran away. They should be happy just to get me back. Maybe they’ll forget about you.”

“That’s doubtful. They must’ve spotted me a moment ago, and I’ll bet they don’t want any loose ends. Besides, what are you planning on doing with your life if they do take you alive? Who would take care of your daughter? Or would you force her into the same life you had?”

“
Our
daughter. And I wanted you to raise her. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so important for you to live through this.”

He pulled her through the door and out into the cold. Moving quickly toward a stand of trees about thirty feet away, he growled at her over his shoulder. “One of the reasons?”

Tugging mightily against him, she tried digging in her heels but they slipped against the snow. “
I love you,
damn it. You must stay safe.”

He almost rolled his eyes, but there wasn’t time to call her a liar again. “Come on!”