A Gift For Baby. Raye Morgan
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was only human. But despite the reluctant admiration he couldn’t help but have for her looks, he had nothing but contempt for everything else about her. The virtuous act didn’t fool him for a moment. He’d been on a lot of these cases over the years, and it was his experience that these women were usually into things up to their delicately trimmed eyebrows, no matter how much innocence they pretended.
He hung back a bit, not wanting to draw attention his way. He’d decided not to get to know her from the start. Each job was unique. In some cases, the closer you got, the more you learned about the subject of the investigation. In others, it paid to stay back as an anonymous observer. That was the way he’d been playing it so far. Of course, it hadn’t paid off with much information as yet, had it? Still, his instincts told him to keep his distance. He would just as soon she didn’t notice him at all.
But he realized, with a wry twinge of humor, that he needn’t have bothered to worry in this instance. Hailey Kingston’s attention was focused fully on Larry Bartelli’s handsome face as he helped her with the packages she was picking up at the local dress shop.
“Thank you,” she told him as he stowed the parcels away in the boot of her foreign car. “I appreciate the help.”
“My pleasure,” Larry responded with a smile that he obviously hoped exuded raw seductive appeal. “Anytime you need me, you just call. I’m at your service.”
“How comforting,” she said after a pause. She reached into her purse. “Here, let me give you something for…”
“Oh, no, ma’am.” Larry waved away her offer. “I don’t need money. You can pay me back with just one of your pretty smiles. That’s all I need.”
She looked up at him and laughed softly. “If feminine smiles were really worth something, I have a feeling you’d be rich,” she told him.
“Oh, no, Miss Kingston,” he insisted earnestly. “Your smile is the only one that means anything to me.”
She laughed again, tucking her purse under her arm For just a moment, she glanced at Mitch, but he had his Stetson pushed down low over his eyes, and she didn’t seem to see anything there worth lingering over.
“You’re a lucky man, cowboy,” she said, regarding Larry again with her head cocked to the side. “To be happy with such a simple gesture.” She gave him a quick grin. “Especially since that’s all you’re ever going to get from me,” she noted dryly under her breath. As she spoke, her two bodyguards approached the car, one walking with an exaggerated swagger, the other with a scowl.
“Move along, boys,” the swaggerer barked at the two cowboys. “You know you’re not supposed to bother Miss Kingston.”
“No fraternization. That’s the rules,” the scowler added for good measure.
“It’s all right,” she said, turning to give them both a winning smile. “I asked for help. It’s my fault.”
The swaggerer looked aghast. “But we’re here to help you, Miss Kingston. That’s what they set up through the D. A.’s office. We’re always here.”
“Yes, I know.” Her dry tone belied her feelings on the matter, and for a split second, her gaze met Mitch’s and he saw the frustration in her eyes. But before he had time to connect with her look, she’d already turned and was sliding behind the wheel of her small car. Identical looks of panic crossed the faces of the two guards and they ran for their gray sedan. It was obvious they were afraid of losing her.
“She’s ditched them before, I’ll wager,” Mitch muttered to himself with a smile as they roared off, chasing her dust.
But Larry wasn’t listening. Sidling up to his friend, he clapped him on the back with a hearty pat. “Hey, she loves me,” he announced happily.
If Larry had been looking, he might have noticed that the twist to Mitch’s wide, hard mouth held more than a hint of sarcasm. “Is that right?”
“Yeah, can’t you tell? Didn’t you see the way she looked at me? She’s crazy about me.”
Mitch turned back toward the truck where they’d left it parked down the street a half block.
“Lucky you,” he said dismissively. “But in the meantime, we’ve got things to do. We’ve still got to stop in and see the vet about those vitamins for that pregnant mare.”
Larry fell into step beside him, his eyes sparkling from the encounter with Hailey. “She’s gorgeous, isn’t she? On a scale of one to ten, I’d give her a twenty. What do you think?”
Mitch was beginning to lose interest in the subject. “Personally, I’d give her a pass,” he said shortly.
“You know what’s wrong with you?” Larry babbled on happily. “You’ve got no romance in your soul.”
Mitch nodded, in complete agreement on that score, and proud of it. He glanced at Larry. “And you’ve got no brain in your head if you think the powers that be are going to let you get anywhere near that woman.”
Larry’s smile was still just as broad. “Don’t worry, pal. Love will find a way.”
Mitch grunted a noncommittal sound and turned back toward the truck.
“Hey, man,” Larry insisted, as though he felt he had to prove something to his companion. “I’ve got a knack with the girls, pal. They go for me in a big way.”
Mitch gave him a pitying look. “Yes, I can tell girls like you a lot.” He coughed carefully. “You might have a little more of a problem with real women, however,” he murmured.
“Huh?” Larry frowned. “What does that mean?”
Mitch shrugged. “Never mind. Let’s get out of here.” He pulled open the door of the truck, ready to climb behind the wheel, but Larry couldn’t let the subject go.
“Ah, you’re just jealous,” he ribbed as they got in and Mitch started the engine. “I know females. She’s dreaming about me right now.”
Maybe he was right, Mitch thought rather grumpily as they drove toward the office of the veterinarian. After all, he hadn’t seen much evidence that she was much more than the bubbleheaded type who would go for a lightweight like Larry. And if she was dreaming about him, she probably deserved the fate that lay in wait for her. He certainly would do nothing to intervene. He just wanted to get this job over with and go back to something with a little more substance than this boring stint of surveillance.
“You’re probably right,” he muttered to Larry, to quiet him down. “You’re probably right.”
But Larry was wrong. Hailey’s thoughts, as she drove toward the ranch, were a thousand miles away. They were centered somewhere outside of Denver at the moment.
“I could just keep driving,” she was whispering to herself. “I could just go and go until dark.” Looking in her rearview mirror, she could tell her bodyguards hadn’t caught up with her dust trail as yet. “I could take a side road and lose them in minutes. No one would ever catch me.”
But she laughed ruefully, knowing it was only a fantasy. She’d promised her father that she would stay put, and that was what she was going to have to do, no matter how agonizingly boring it became.
The first two weeks hadn’t been too bad. She’d spent a lot of time catching up on her reading and her sleeping and her sunbathing. But now time was dragging, lengthening before her eyes, and she desperately needed something new to do.
She’d come here reluctantly. “Daddy,” she’d insisted when her father had first brought it up. “I can handle myself. I’ve lived in the big city for too many years to be scared off because some sleazy mob guy is on my tail.”
“It’s more than that, sugar,” he’d told her, shaking his shaggy white head of hair. “Much more. If someone got hold of you, they could buy my