Well, she was living the result. Someone else was teaching her classes. Someone else was guiding her graduate students. And Dr. Mann had made it look like a necessary action that had been taken as part of an important investigation.
Madeline squeezed her eyes shut, felt the heat rising in her cheeks. Even after two weeks she was so damned embarrassed.
She forced her eyes open again.
She needed to pack. She needed to figure out how to get to this ranch with no name. She had a full day ahead of her and no time to feel sorry for herself.
EVERY NOW AND THEN Ty found himself glancing into the rearview mirror and checking the traffic behind him on the freeway to see if he was being followed. Which was ridiculous, since he’d been on the interstate within five minutes of leaving the annoying Dr. Blaine in the lobby of the Nugget. There was no way she was on his tail, and even if she was, he had no idea what she was driving, so he couldn’t have spotted her, anyway.
I’m going to stay on the ranch…. His lips twisted. For a night maybe. Until reality set in. She didn’t look like the type who would embrace life off the grid. He’d made a tactical error, though, by letting his anger get the best of him, and walking away. He should have let her follow him to the ranch, see what the property was like, assure herself that there was a ranch—that he wasn’t embezzling funds or equipment or pretending to buy things he hadn’t.
But when she’d pretty much said he was either dishonest or stupid, with those Christmas carols playing in the background…well…he wasn’t at the top of his game. So what now? They were still business partners. He couldn’t exactly go back and find her. But he could call her. Apologize for being insulted by her unfounded insinuations. Try to do some damage control.
Hell. Whatever it took to get this issue settled. He fumbled for his phone as he drove, but when he dialed her number, there was no answer. He dropped the phone back on the seat beside him. Oh, well. He’d tried. Ty glanced in the mirror again, caught himself, cursed and focused on the road ahead.
The turnoff to Fallon was coming soon. Three more hours and he’d be home. Hell of a long drive to make, only to be pissed off. Now he had to consider what he was going to do when Madeline showed up, because, barring a blizzard—which to his disappointment wasn’t in the offing—he had no doubt she’d find her way to the ranch.
Skip had often spoken of his sister’s tenacity in a fond way. Ty was going to experience that tenacity up close and personal.
AFTER A FEW MINUTES on the internet, using the geographical coordinates from the legal documents, Madeline had both a map and the name of the road the ranch was on. Lone Sum Road. She stared at the screen, wondering if she was looking at a typo or if this was Western cleverness. Lone Sum. Lonesome?
Whatever.
She printed the map on her portable printer and then loaded her bags on the folding luggage dolly she never traveled without. Some of her associates teased her about the tubular steel device on wheels—but never when they were battling their own luggage.
Madeline’s larger suitcases were still in the car. She hadn’t bothered to bring them in, since she’d assumed she’d be following Ty Hopewell to the ranch. After making her suspicions known, she hadn’t expected him to be enthusiastic, but she hadn’t expected him to simply drive away, either.
Which left the question of whether he’d merely been insulted by her direct approach or did he have something to hide?
She’d soon find out.
As she traveled east, her cellular service popped in and out, mostly out, so she was surprised when she got a call. It was Connor, her research assistant and the only person, according to Skip, who was more of a tight ass than she was—which was why Madeline was glad she had him. If she forgot some detail, she was certain Connor would catch it.
“Where are you?”
Madeline took in the barren landscape. “Quite liter ally in the middle of nowhere. I’m driving to the ranch.
It’s more than four hours from Reno.”
“I tried to call three times.”
“Bad service here. You should see this place. Mountains and flat. That’s it. I’ve driven for more than thirty miles without seeing a house.” Madeline shifted the phone to her other ear. “What’s happening there?”
“Nothing on the professional front, but I went to visit your grandmother.”
“How is she?”
“Rambunctious.” Madeline felt a surge of relief.
Rambunctious meant no bronchial relapse. “There’s been complaints from the apartment next door. Loud music—”
“She’s losing her hearing.”
“Parties.”
“Give me a break.” Connor might be a detail guy, but he had a sense of humor.
“I tried to talk her into the iPod again, but no luck. She refuses to wear headphones.”
“Well, as long as she doesn’t get kicked out.” Grandma Eileen, also a professor of anthropology, lived in a retirement complex that catered to the academic set. She was seventy-two years old and very active. Madeline’s many cousins made sure she was never lonely, but it was Madeline and Skip that had a special bond with Eileen, who’d taken them in when their parents divorced and went to find themselves on different continents. Her grandmother was also the reason Madeline had been able to make peace with what had happened to her brother.
Grieve now or grieve later, Eileen had said, but she wanted Madeline to understand that she wasn’t going to escape the process. She hadn’t escaped, but after a year she had reached acceptance. The stage where she could remember Skip without sharp pain.
“Thanks for taking my visit,” Madeline said. Connor, who had next to no family of his own, considered him self one of the grandkids, so she knew it was no chore. “Are you sure there’s no news on the Jensen front?”
“Noth—” A sharp beep cut off Connor’s reply. No signal. Madeline snapped the phone shut.
An hour later she pulled into Winnemucca for gas. It was hard to believe she was still in the same state and that she’d passed through only two towns of any size since leaving Reno. The emptiness, the vastness of this land, was daunting. Not only that, it was damned cold and snowy. This was not the desert she’d envisioned from her brother’s enthusiasm about his new home. The mountains were pretty, much more rugged and barren than the ones she was used to, but other than that, what had Skip seen in this country?
Madeline adjusted her collar against the wind and screwed the gas cap on. According to the GPS, she had another hundred and eighty miles—and two more towns—to go before reaching her target destination.
She was nearing the town of Battle Mountain when it began to snow, and during the sixty mile drive to Elko what should have been an hour’s drive turned into an hour and a half.
Ty might have been angry when he’d told her to bring food, but Madeline took him at his word. As soon as she hit Elko, she stopped and bought a bag of groceries—mostly cereal and cookies. Carbohydrates fed the brain.
When
