“Give it to me now,” she replied.
“You don’t have any place to write it down,” he protested.
“I’ll remember it.”
Although dubious, he rattled off the number. When he was finished she nodded. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything or if she turns up here.”
“I’d appreciate it. I guess I’ll talk to you soon.” He stepped off the porch, and as she murmured a goodbye he headed for his pickup in the driveway.
When he got into the truck, he gazed at her once again. Lexie Forbes affected him like no other woman had in a very long time.
Despite the circumstances of their meeting he was surprised to realize what he’d felt for her was a momentary flare of desire.
He shook his head and started his truck, focusing his thoughts back on the missing Lauren. There was no question that mutual loneliness had forged their friendship over the last couple of months. She’d been new in town, hadn’t known anyone, and he’d been mired in grief for so long he’d become isolated from everyone else.
Lauren had been easy to talk to, pleasant to be around, but he’d told Lexie the truth when he’d said there had been nothing romantic between them.
There would never be romance in Nick’s life again. He’d had his one great love with tragic results. His heart would forever remain unavailable to any other woman on the face of the earth.
He headed down the road to the farmhouse that no longer felt like home, but was rather just a place to sleep and eat, a place to exist.
That’s all he’d been doing for a long time—existing and marking time. Lauren had definitely helped pass the time, especially the evening hours after dinner and before bedtime.
Still, as he thought of Lauren he was filled with a sense of dread, that somehow history was repeating itself. He couldn’t stop thinking that the last time a woman had disappeared for a couple of days she’d wound up dead in a motel room.
Chapter Two
The night had been endless.
Before going to bed Lexie had found a local phone book and called the hospital and the clinics in the area, but none of them would admit to having Lauren as a patient. Surely if she was in the hospital somebody would have called Lexie by now. Lexie was listed as Lauren’s emergency contact.
The only thing that made Lexie feel a little bit better was that she couldn’t find Lauren’s purse or her cell phone in the house. She could only assume Lauren had those items with her wherever she was.
Still, by the time morning had come Lexie’s eyes felt gritty from lack of sleep. She had tried to rest in the guest room, but had finally ended up on the sofa with Zeus on the floor next to her.
Every sound the house had made through the night, every creak and whisper shot her up with the hope that it might be Lauren returning home. At 5:00 a.m. she finally gave up any pretense of sleep and went into the spare bedroom that Lauren used as an office.
She powered up the computer on the desk. Knowing that Lauren used Zeus20 as a password, she checked the email to see if there was anything that might explain her sister’s absence.
Most of the correspondence was business related, emails from potential customers asking about her dogs and her training. Others were from past customers catching Lauren up on news of some of the dogs she’d trained.
She also checked the history to see where Lauren might have gone on the internet, but found nothing that might yield a clue as to what had happened to her.
She drained her coffee cup and then began a search of the desk. A stack of file folders in a plastic holder drew her attention and she pulled them out to see what they contained.
They were contracts signed by the people whose dogs Lauren was training. There was one signed by Nick, who had been bringing his dog for obedience training.
Her head filled with a vision of the man she’d met the night before. Hot body, sensual lips and a hint of compassion in his bedroom eyes—the man could definitely be an unwanted distraction if she allowed it.
She focused back on the folders, surprised to discover that one of them contained a contract for Lauren to provide the Topeka Police Department with two drug-sniffing dogs.
She leaned back in the desk chair as a surge of pride mingled with surprise. She’d known that Lauren had wanted to get into the training of working dogs, especially for law enforcement and handicapped people. From the signed contract, Lexie assumed that Lauren was truly on the way to making a name for herself, on her way to achieving her dreams.
It was almost seven when she finished in Lauren’s office and took a quick shower. She dressed in a pair of jeans and a neon pink blouse decorated with an abundance of sequins and then returned to the kitchen to pour herself another cup of coffee.
As soon as it was late enough she was heading into town. Her first stop was going to be the police station to file a missing persons report, and then she planned on talking to everyone and anyone to pin down the last time her sister had been seen.
The fear that had been inside her hadn’t dissipated, but rather thrummed like a sick energy inside her chest. Throughout the long night she’d tried calling Lauren’s cell phone over and over again but it had always gone directly to voice mail. Finally by that morning she’d gotten the message that Lauren’s voice mail was full.
Zeus walked over to her and laid his big head on her knee, gazing up at her as if asking her why his mommy wasn’t there. “I know, baby. I miss her, too.”
Zeus barked and raced away from her as a knock fell on the door. Lexie jumped out of her chair and grabbed her gun from her purse. She knew she was probably overreacting, but she had no idea what to expect, was definitely out of her comfort zone.
When she got to the front door she saw Nick standing on the porch. “What are you doing here?” she asked without preamble as she opened the screen door.
“I thought you could use a friendly face when you go into town this morning.” He stepped past her and into the foyer, then turned back to look at her expectantly.
She wouldn’t have thought it possible but the man was better looking in the light of day than he’d been the night before. Once again he wore a pair of jeans that looked custom-made for his long legs and narrow hips. His gray long-sleeved pullover clung to his broad shoulders and perfectly matched the hue of his eyes.
“That’s not necessary,” she said and tried to ignore the ridiculous flutter that went off in the pit of her stomach. This man and her reaction to him were the last things she needed right now. All she wanted, all she needed, was her sister.
“I know Sheriff Wendall. It would probably work to your benefit if I’m with you. And, if you want to ask questions of the people in Widow Creek you’ll find that they don’t take kindly to strangers.”
“Why is that?”
He looked at her in surprise. “I don’t know. I guess because we’re a small town and we’ve always looked after our own. Lexie, I
