Amanda felt her breath catch in her throat. A pickup was parked in the shadows of the Russian olives that grew wild along one wall of her house. If the driver’s intentions had been good, he wouldn’t have been hiding there. Sensing danger, she made a sudden change of plans.
“Hang on, Peanut. We’re not going home after all.” Amanda stepped on the gas pedal, shot past her house, and sped on down the road.
Chapter Two
Amanda’s car responded instantly, but the dirt road made high speed precarious, and the rear end of the vehicle fishtailed before Amanda brought it back under control. Fear slammed into her as she raced toward Bernice’s home. Phil, Bernice’s husband, would be there and so would Winston.
“Wow!” Hope squealed. “This is fun, Mommy!”
Despite the thick cloud of dust she left behind, she could see the pickup had shot out after them. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but there was no way she was going to let anyone catch up to her, not with Hope in the car.
Amanda followed the bend in the road, staying away from the edges where she knew the sand would be soft. She hoped the pickup would get bogged down, but the other driver stayed right with her. For the first time since she’d purchased her home, she regretted the distance between houses.
Suddenly, Ernestine, her nearest neighbor’s miniature goat, stepped out into the road.
“Hold on tight, sweetie!” Amanda pumped the brakes and turned the wheel sharply to the right, narrowly missing the animal.
Just then she saw a motorcycle ahead going her way. Amanda raced to catch it, recognizing the driver as Ricky Biddle, who lived about two miles farther down the road. He’d help her out. She honked the horn and saw Ricky turn his head, then start slowing down.
She came up behind Ricky, pulled over to the right and stopped, far more confident now that she wasn’t alone. As Ricky halted his motorcycle a short distance in front of her, the pickup pulled up alongside.
Amanda’s temper flared as she saw Tony step out of the pickup and walk around the front of the vehicle toward her. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Mr. Ramos!” Amanda got out, anger spiraling through her, robbing her of breath. “I should have expected something like this from you!”
Ricky, a sandy-haired young man in his late twenties, headed toward Amanda, removing his red motorcycle helmet as he walked. “Is this man bothering you?”
Towering over Ricky, Tony transfixed the younger man with an uncompromising stare. Ricky took a step back, realized what he was doing, then held his ground.
“It’s okay, son. The lady’s safe with me.”
“I’m sorry, Ricky. I made a mistake. I didn’t recognize Mr. Ramos for a moment. I can handle this.”
Ricky looked at Amanda. “Do you want me to go find a cop?”
“No, that’s not necessary,” Amanda said, noting Ricky hadn’t offered to stay. Not that she blamed him. Tony’s face was set and he looked about as friendly as a stone gargoyle. “I’ll explain later, okay?”
Ricky glanced at Tony, then at the ground. “Um, okay, Amanda. Call me later. Do you still have my number?”
“Sure. It’s right by my phone,” Amanda said. “Thanks for stopping.”
“I’ll be home the rest of the evening. I’ll stop by later to check on you.”
“No, please don’t bother,” Amanda said, hating what she’d started. Ricky was a nice guy, but she didn’t want him hovering around, which he had a tendency to do. “I’ll be talking to you soon, okay?”
As Ricky restarted his motorcycle and rode away, Amanda glanced to make sure Hope was still safely in her car seat, out of earshot, then glared at Tony. “You owe me an explanation. What were you doing by my house? I don’t recall giving you my address.”
Tony looked at her and smiled. “I took it upon myself to find it.”
“You’re a pain in the neck, Mr. Ramos.”
“Call me Tony. Once you calm down, you’ll see you have no reason to be angry. We do have some very important business to discuss, and this is away from your day-care center. You said you didn’t want me going there.”
He was being so reasonable—and so polite—she felt outclassed as she struggled to keep her temper in check. “I’ll meet you back at my place.”
“Mommy, aren’t we going to go play with Winston?”
“Not now, honey. Maybe later.” Amanda tried to get her pulse to slow down. He was so charming, it was hard not to trust him. Yet no matter how controlled and well mannered he seemed to be, his reputation told a different story. She had to be careful around this chameleon-like man.
She drove home slowly, postponing the inevitable confrontation. By the time she pulled into her driveway, Tony was already there. She had no idea how he’d found her address, but she had to make sure he didn’t feel free to stop by whenever he wanted, bringing his problems here to her home. He was a man with a cause she could respect, but she would not allow him to compromise her daughter’s safety.
“I have to talk to this gentleman, Peanut,” Amanda said, taking Hope inside. “Will you go to your room and play for a bit?”
“Can I take some cookies?”
“One.”
“Two?”
“Ah, you’re learning all about counting, are you?” she said, smiling. “Well, I suppose two, but that’s it.”
Amanda took Hope’s hand in hers. Glancing back at Tony, she gave him the look, a warning for him to keep quiet. To her surprise, it worked as well on him as it did on the kids at the day-care center.
“I’ll get my daughter settled, then you and I will talk,” she said in a glacial tone.
As Amanda poured a cup of milk and fished two cookies out of the jar in the kitchen, Tony walked up to Hope and crouched down beside her. “Hi. I’m Tony. What’s your name?”
Hope smiled. “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers, and I don’t think Mommy likes you,” she said.
“You’re absolutely right on both counts, Peanut, but I need to talk to this stranger myself. Now here are three mini chocolate chip cookies for you to take to your room.”
Hope’s eyes gleamed as she noted that the cookie count had suddenly been increased. “Yeah!” She took the cookies and followed her mother out of the room.
* * *
TONY GLANCED AROUND the living room while he waited for Amanda to return. The woman had Spartan tastes. Everything was meticulously clean, but there wasn’t much in the way of furniture. A simple wood-framed sofa with plain off-white cushions stood in the center of the room.
