Under the Boardwalk (3 page)

He glanced down at her, looking a bit sheepish. "I don't mean that the way it sounded. I love the kids. And I know they needed me these past years. But, well, it's not like being the Madrigal patriarch is my calling."

"Calling?"

"My calling in life. The thing I was meant to do. Everybody has something they were meant to do, I think."

"You sound like Windy. She says family history's her calling. She got that from you, I take it?"

Her skepticism must have come through in her voice.

"Don't you think people have things they were meant to do in life?" he asked.

Her raised eyebrows answered that question.

"Maybe you just haven't found your calling yet," he said. "Don't you have any dreams?"

Hallie shoved her scarred hands into the pockets of her jeans. She had learned what happened when you believed in fairy tales. "I think you take what life gives you. Dreams are for children."

They walked in silence for a while.

She wondered what he thought his 'calling' was. He seemed so connected to this place, so much like Windy's descriptions of him. Confident, funny, as much a part of this land as the trees surrounding them—he seemed to be just what he said he wasn't: the patriarch of the legendary Madrigal family and heir to all that entailed.

He walked on in silence, something in his expression keeping her from asking him about his own calling. In all the stories Windy had told of Kyle she'd never mentioned the restless energy that rippled off him like a wave. His little sister apparently hadn't noticed the edge of unhappiness in the man she worshipped as a hero and a father-figure. Maybe he wasn't always like this. Perhaps he was just having a bad day.

She'd had a few of those herself. And it was hardly her place to pry into his business.

She wondered if it was too late to give up her "carefree" summer and go back to waiting tables at Rudy's....

"Here. Let's go this way," said Kyle. They stood on a dirt road that bordered the berry fields, but Kyle was pointing to a small footpath that branched off to the right. "It's a little out of the way, but it's not so steep."

The footpath took them through a small stand of trees—windswept, twisted pines barely knee-high to the giant redwoods she'd seen earlier.

They came to a clearing in the pines.

A row of fruit trees stood on either side of the path, all covered in clouds of blossoms. Flowers had drifted off of the trees and littered the path and the brambles along its edge with a sprinkling of white petals.

"Oh," Hallie said. "It's like snow."

"They bloom later here under the shade of the big pines," he explained.

It was yet another bizarre moment in what had become a bizarre day.

"Shhh!" Kyle whispered suddenly from behind her. He pulled her body close to him.

"What the...? What're you doing?" Her voice seemed loud in the muffled woods. She wiggled against him and he immediately loosened his grasp.

Kyle pointed toward the path ahead, his other arm still resting lightly around her waist. He bent his head down to her. "It's okay. Shhh, don't move," he whispered in her ear.

She looked down the path where he had pointed. At first she didn't see anything. Then, after a moment, a misty, gray-white creature became visible in the fog. "Ohh," she whispered. She watched while a tiny white deer picked its way delicately through the brambles at the edge of the path.

"They're leucistic, not albino."

"Huh?" she said eloquently.

"It's a genetic anomaly," Kyle whispered. "White fur but not pink eyes like albinos. With their big, dark eyes they look sorta magical, don't you think?"

She nodded.

"Windy used to call them her unicorns when she was little. They had almost died out, but they're coming back now. We counted six fawns this spring." His breath felt warm on her ear.

The little deer stepped onto the path only a dozen yards away from them. They watched while it nibbled at the brambles. Cherry blossoms drifted off the trees, a few petals wafting like snowflakes around them.

"It's like an enchanted forest," Hallie whispered.

Kyle chuckled softly. "Don't break the spell."

Hallie felt overwhelmed by sensations. The ocean smell of the fog mingled with the musty scents of woods and earth. Kyle's arms felt warm around her waist and his breath gently ruffled her hair each time he exhaled.

The only sounds were the crackle of twigs as the deer moved, and Kyle and Hallie's breathing.

Hallie found herself leaning back in Kyle's arms, enjoying the way she felt nestled against his body. It was a strange feeling, being so close to a man she hardly knew, and yet feeling warm and secure in his arms. He was so much bigger than her, but somehow he didn't frighten her at all. She felt safe and relaxed.

They stood rock-still until the deer wandered off, disappearing back into the fog.

Hallie pulled away from Kyle. Her heart was pounding. She shook her head to clear the fuzziness, and lost her balance.

Kyle immediately grabbed her again, supporting her in his arms so she didn't fall.

"Hey, you're not getting dizzy, are you?" Kyle asked. "Do you need to sit down?"

He helped her sit down on the path, then knelt in front of her. She put her hands out on the petal-strewn path to brace herself.

She could almost believe that this gentle, warm-hearted man had conjured up the blossoms and the little "unicorn" just for this occasion. She felt a part of her that she'd thought had died, the part that believed in dreams and magic and wishes that came true, begin to stir to life inside of her.

"Are you sure you're okay?" His voice was a deep murmur, low and gentle as a caress. "I can carry you the rest of the way if you want." He reached up to pull a flower petal from her hair. When he touched her, the reconnection with him sent a shock through her and she froze. What was he doing to her? She'd never felt like this before.

Hallie came back down to earth with a thud. What was she thinking? There was no such thing as magic. The unicorn was just a mangy old deer. Windy's larger-than-life brother was no storybook hero, but just a mortal man with problems that were none of her business. And her head hurt, and she felt confused, and all of this was wrong, somehow.

She pulled away from him and he frowned. "Hallie?"

"I'm fine," she managed to say. "It's just... magical. The unicorns, I mean."

Kyle shrugged his shoulders. "Well, magic or no, it's time to get you home. I'll call Dr. Lil to have a look at you. And," he added with a mischievous grin, "I'll leave it to you to break the news about the Little Guy to Windy."

"Windy?" Hadn't she been talking to Windy? She put a hand up to her forehead. "Windy?" she repeated.

"Yeah, Windy. You know. About this high," he gestured. "Talks a mile a minute. Giggles incessantly. That Windy."

"Windy."

"Yeah. What's wrong, Hallie?"

She looked up at him. "Where's Windy?"

~*~

CHAPTER TWO

Windy's phone was ringing again. She listened as the "Call Me, Maybe" ringtone repeated itself, its volume muffled by her purse. It had been one of Zac's little jokes, changing her ringtone every time he got ahold of her phone. He thought he was so funny. As soon as she got out of here, she was changing his ringtone to the Hanson brothers. That'd show him. The phone stopped, then a minute later started ringing again.

"I should answer that call," she said.

The guy holding her purse in his lap just shook his head. Who was this crazy dude? She had no idea why he'd brought her to this stuffy little room, no idea why he was fidgeting with an old but lethal-looking Colt pistol and eyeing her with a thoughtful look.

"People will wonder where I'm at."

Again he shook his head.

So she shifted uncomfortably in her seat, trying to ease the aching from the zip-ties holding her to the creaky wooden chair, and looked around again, trying to figure out where she was. A basement, maybe. No windows, no sense of where she'd been taken by this guy. Four walls, a low ceiling, a door. Cement floor. Lots of cobwebs. Single bare lightbulb hanging in the middle of the room. Yup, it was the standard horror movie basement room.

"There's probably already a search party out looking for me." She heard the beep from the phone that told her somebody had left her another text message.

The guy started rifling through her purse. "Hey!" she said. "That's mine." Dumb comment, since he hadn't seemed too concerned about her personal space when he bashed her in the head and brought her here. She was at least comforted by the fact that he hadn't touched her after tying her up. Hopefully that meant he wasn't a psycho, just a... "jerk," she muttered.

He ignored that. Fished her iPhone out of her bag and checked it. "Another text message," he said.

"Well, duh," she said. He shot her a look and she decided to shut up.

Then something in the message seemed to surprise him, because his expression turned even more intimidating, and he looked up at her with a cold, calculating expression that chilled her more than a frosty morning on Madrigal mountain.

He set the gun down and started messing with the phone, typing something and apparently doing a lousy job of it from all the cussing he did under his breath. Then he stopped and glanced up at her. "Where's that place you went last week?"

"Have you been stalking me, dude? That's
so
not okay."

He picked up the gun to point it at her, and repeated himself, slowly: "Where. did. you. go. last. week."

She shook her head, trying to think. "Um, SJB? San Juan Bautista," she said when he looked blankly at her. "Checking out the mission records?"

"That's it." He started the typing routine again. "There." He smiled at her, a really creepy smile. "Now nobody's looking for you, princess."

There was a sound above them. She cocked her head to listen, and so did he. the door to the basement opening, maybe?

He put the phone back in her purse, then stood up. "We have company." He went out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

~*~

"Where's Windy?" Hallie repeated.

"She's fine," Dr. Lil said. The 60ish woman with spiky salt-and-pepper hair and wise dark eyes smiled reassuringly at her. "Just hold still so I can finish examining you."

Hallie leaned back in the overstuffed leather chair. Why was she so fuzzy? She felt like the last few hours had been a series of unconnected vignettes. The bus ride from Davis, meeting Windy, then waking suddenly in the car, walking through the fields with Kyle Madrigal, then a flurry of phone calls leading to this: sitting in a big leather chair in the Madrigal living room, with two cops watching her warily from across the room and Dr. Lil shining lights in her eyes and writing things down in a little notebook.

The doctor wrote something else. "I'm just old-fashioned," she said with a smile when she noticed Hallie watching her. "I intend to make it all the way to retirement without laying my hands on a computer keyboard."

"But where's Windy?"

"She's fine," said someone behind her.

Kyle came around to the front of the chair. "Got a text message. She's off on another research trip. Loaned you the car 'cause she got a ride to San Juan Bautista. She's bummed about the little guy, but is glad you're okay. So that solves that mystery."

Hallie looked down at the hands in her lap. "Okay...," she said tentatively. "But she was really excited about something."

"When isn't she?" He smiled gently at her. "Relax. There's no mystery. You've just had a heck of a day." He turned to Dr. Lil. "So, will she live?"

"I think so," Dr. Lil said with a smile. "But I'd like to run a few tests."

"Tests?" Hallie asked. "Am I okay, or not?" She hated how doctors always hedged their bets, refusing to give any straight answers.

Dr. Lil must have read something in her expression, because she said, "you'll be fine. There's nothing seriously wrong with you. But the memory lapse is always a concern. A CAT scan is definitely a good safety precaution."

"Retrograde amnesia?" Kyle said to the doctor.

"You always were my best student. Yup."

"Amnesia?" Hallie scoffed. "Come on." She put her arms straight out in front of her and said in a sing-song voice: "Where am I? Who am I?"

Kyle and Dr. Lil laughed.

"Not exactly," the doctor said. "Retrograde amnesia just means you don't remember a period of time before your injury. Nothing mysterious about that."

"You ought to try it from my end, doc."

"Okay. I stand corrected. Nothing mysterious about it medically. I'm sure it feels disorienting."

One of the cops said Kyle's name and he went over to talk to them.

Hallie couldn't quite buy the doctor's explanation. "I still think there's something I'm missing, Dr. Lil. I think this is all wrong, somehow."