hunter and not overseas.”
“Yeah, well, that’s past tense.” Hands shoved into his pants pockets, he paused to watch a bald eagle circling slowly high overhead. “The thing is, our dad—Josh’s biological father to put it accurately—died from a ruptured aneurysm just a couple of weeks before my current enlistment was up.”
“I’m sorry about your father.” She paused. “They sent you home for the funeral, I suppose.”
“That and to help Josh settle affairs. By the time that was done, I’d decided not to reenlist.”
“I see.” Haley nodded, and then almost as a part of the same action shook her head. “No, I don’t see. Didn’t you care for the army?”
“Sure, I liked it just fine. It was my career.”
“Then why...”
He walked on, changing the subject. Or seeming to. “I bet Josh never mentioned to you that after I quit the army, I joined the ranks of the bounty hunters.”
“Come to think of it,” she said catching up to him, “he never spoke at all about you after that one time.”
“No, he wouldn’t. Josh liked to boast of his big brother’s service record, but I think he thought there was something just a little disreputable about being a bounty hunter. But it suits me. I was trained in search and recovery, and I needed something temporary until I could decide what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”
“Fascinating, McKinley, except I don’t see what any of this has to do with you not thinking straight.”
“Hold on, we’re getting there.”
Chase stopped again on the trail, this time to discover a willow goldfinch flitting from holly bush to holly bush.
“Waiting,” Haley sang.
He turned his head to favor her with a grin. “I’m gonna bore you with some more history.”
“How much?”
“Probably more than you’re going to like, but it’s necessary.”
“Going back how far?”
“To when I was very young. I have no memory of my biological father. He walked out on us when I was a baby. The only father I knew was the man my mother married when I was about four. Brian Matthews was everything my biological father wasn’t. I got every kind of attention a kid could want from both him and my mother. That all threatened to change when I was eight years old. Are you cold? It’s a little chilly out here still.”
“I’m fine. Go on. What happened when you were eight?”
“Mom and Dad told me there was going to be a baby, that I was going to have a brother. I figured I wouldn’t have all the attention anymore. Or maybe any attention at all. I hated this kid before he was even born.”
“I detect that didn’t last.”
“I had very smart parents. They knew I was jealous, and they knew what to do about it. Not long after the baby came home from the hospital, they sat me down and placed him carefully in my lap. They said his name was Josh and that I was to be someone very important in his life. I would matter to him. Matter? I wanted to shove the little intruder right back at them.”
“And did you?”
“I would have, except before I could do that, this tiny thing looked up at me with...well, I don’t know that I could call it anything like trust. I don’t suppose the vision of a baby that young is developed enough to be capable of any sort of recognition of that kind.”
“Probably not.”
“Didn’t matter. He looked up at me, I looked back at him, and I was lost.”
“Magic?”
“Yeah, an instant connection. You understand it, huh?”
“I don’t know why I should. I’m an only child. No siblings.” But she did understand. She remembered the photograph he carried in his wallet of a teenage boy helping his young brother to ride a horse. “So, from then on?”
Chase nodded. “I looked out for him. Came to his rescue when he needed it.”
And you’re still doing that, she thought. No wonder you came home and stayed home.
Josh had mentioned that his mother had died of breast cancer some years ago. Now their father was gone, and the brothers were the only family left.
The whole thing was clear to her now. Chase was convinced his brother was missing and in trouble, and that had him wild with worry. He was willing to do anything to find him—including what could easily be defined as kidnapping an unarmed woman.
* * *
After checking out of the motel, they filled the SUV with gas and started back to Portland. Now that Haley had her cell phone back, she called a couple of her closest friends who might have been worried about her absence. She was ready to explain it as business, but they hadn’t known she was gone.
Chase was silent during these calls and silent for some minutes after. She couldn’t be unaware of his sidelong glances and the speculative look in his eyes.
“I seem to be the subject of your thoughts. You’re wondering something about me. Do I get to know what it is?”
“It’s just that I shared practically everything with you about my past except the crush on Miss Sheldon I had in the second grade. Heck, I still remember how I admired her breasts in a certain blouse she wore.”
Haley affected what she considered to be a genuine case of shock. “In the second grade!”
“What can I say? I guess I was a budding lech even back then. But Miss Sheldon did have an impressive bust. Anyway, to get back to the moment... It occurred to me I know nothing about your background.”
“What’s to know? It’s nothing as dramatic as yours. I already mentioned I’m an only child. Both my parents are retired high school teachers living now in Arizona where it’s dry. My father used to complain about the damp, raw climate in Portland. Living in Seattle, you know what that’s like.”
“Yep, going whole winters without seeing the sun.”
“Exactly. Dad is as happy now as a hound on the scent of a possum. You see, all very ordinary and boring.”
“Maybe, but I think there are depths to Haley Adams she’s not sharing.”
“She aims to fascinate, all right.”
In truth, Haley concluded, Chase McKinley was the one who currently fascinated. She still wondered about that scar near his eye. It would have been easy enough just to ask him about it, except she didn’t want him to think she was interested in him like that. Bad enough she couldn’t stop inhaling that heady, masculine scent of his and she liked the way he quirked one eyebrow whenever he was questioning the veracity of something.
They
