Read Online At Home in Stone Creek (Silhouette Special Edition) by Linda Lael Miller - Free Book Online Page A

“Okay—why?” she asked, in somebody else’s voice.
    â€œBecause I’ve got enemies. Most of them are in prison—or dead—but one has a red-hot grudge against me, a score to settle, and I don’t want you or anybody else in Stone Creek to get hurt. I should have thought things through before I came here, but the truth is, all I could focus on was being where you are.”
    The words made her ache. Ashley longed to take Jack’s hand, but she wouldn’t let herself do it. “What kind of grudge?”
    â€œI stole his daughter.”
    Ashley’s mouth dropped open. She closed it again.
    Jack gave a mirthless little smile. “Her name is Rachel. She’s seven years old. Her mother went through a rebellious period that just happened to coincide with a semester in a university in Venezuela. She fell in with a bad crowd, got involved with a fellow exchange student—an American named Chad Lombard, who was running drugs between classes. Her parents ran a background check on Lombard, didn’t like the results and flew down from Phoenix to take their daughter home. Ardith was pregnant—the folks wanted her to give the baby up and she refused. She was nineteen, sure she was in love with Lombard, waited for him to come and get her, put a wedding band on her finger. He didn’t. Eventually, she finished school, married well, had two more kids. The new husband wanted to adopt Rachel, and that meant Lombard had to sign off, so the family lawyers tracked him down and presented him with the papers and the offer of a hefty check. He went ballistic, said he wanted to raise Rachel himself, and generously offered to take Ardith back, too, if she’d leave the other two kids behind and divorce the man she’d married. Naturally, she didn’t want to go that route. Things were quiet for a while, and then one day Rachel disappeared from her backyard. Lombard called that night to say Phoenix P.D. was wasting its time looking for Rachel, since he had the child and they were already out of the country.”
    Although Ashley had never been a mother herself, it was all too easy to understand how frantic Ardith and the family must have been.
    â€œAnd they hired you to find Rachel and bring her home?”
    â€œYes,” Jack answered, after another long delay. The long speech had clearly taken a lot out of him, but theamazed admiration she felt must have been visible in her eyes, because he added, “But don’t get the idea that I’m some kind of hero. I was paid a quarter of a million dollars for bringing Rachel back home safely, and I didn’t hesitate to accept the money.”
    â€œI didn’t see any of this in the newspapers,” Ashley mused.
    â€œYou wouldn’t have,” Jack replied. He’d finished half of his breakfast, and although he had a little more color than before, he was still too pale. “It was vital to keep the story out of the press. Rachel’s life might have depended on it, and mine definitely did.”
    â€œWeren’t you scared?”
    â€œHell,” Jack answered, “I was terrified.”
    â€œYou should lie down,” she said softly.
    â€œI don’t think I can make it back up those stairs,” Jack said, and Ashley could see that it pained him to admit this.
    â€œYou’re just trying to avoid the wallpaper,” she joked, though she was dangerously close to tears. Carefully, she helped him to his feet. “There’s a bed in my sewing room. You can rest there until you feel stronger.”
    His face contorted, but he still managed a grin. “You’re strong for a woman,” he said.
    â€œI was raised on a ranch,” Ashley reminded him, ducking under his right shoulder and supporting him as she steered him across the kitchen to her sewing room. “I used to help load hay bales in our field during harvest, among other things.”
    Jack glanced down at her