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He relaxed very slightly,her wonder what he’d expected "And…?" he asked

She knehat he was really asking Her dad vanished all the ti as an excuse to be alone--his favorite state--and everyone she’d approached in her worry had assured her that he was fine He’d always been fine "I can’t explain it," she said "I just have a really bad feeling And you’re the only one I knoho can track Please," she added, hating that it was Ada, I know it"

"Has soe that would make this trip different from his others?"

Fair question "Two days before he left, Deanna broke up with him," she said "I don’t know the details, but he was upset"

"He’s got other wori with Deanna had hit hiood old boy who’d never shown much in the way of es He loved women, too, and his fa them around, not like his animals "Yes, he has other women," she said, "but apparently Deanna was his favorite We had dinner together and he wasn’t hiear and the two dogs he’s fostering for you They got into his ATV, so I knoas planning on off-roading to wherever he was going And then he didn’t coht head shake and hastened to go on before he refused her like everyone else had "I know, nothing unusual But he’s rarely gone this long without at least checking in, and we’ve heard nothing Not a single radio or cell call, nothing" The words rushed out of her in a worried river, and eed to be cool and caler, to Kel, to her dad’s friends…everyone

But noith Ada herself to keep it together

Adaoes out all the ti so for years Is there anything besides the Deanna thing thatthere was a board , and he missed it Didn’t even call in to check on hoent"

Adam nodded They both knew Donald loved business, all of it He had great employees and wasn’t required for any day-to-day action, but he kept up on everything He’d turned sixty-five this year and still insisted on attending all the i the wildest of his horses, herding cattle, wining and dining too …

Until last year, Holly had run the business side of things frorown up in New York under the watchful eyes of her o, one of the h in his heyday Holly had reeot her beloved freedoot the same

But then he’d pressured her toany younger, and with Grif still overseas, he wanted her--his only other family--nearby

It had been a blatant manipulation of Holly’s emotions, but she’d come, anyway Maybe because her personal life had been in the toilet Maybe because the memory of the one suic for the last ti else," she told Ada for hi him like she says, he’d have answered"

If he could…

Adam’s dark eyes never wavered fro pull of the sanetism that had always been between them His state of undress didn’t help, he was sex on a stick--not that she intended to go there She didn’t Not ever again She’d been burned by hihteen-year-old could learn not to play with fire--no matter how attracted to it she still was

"I feel like so’s happened to hiht’s storm hits"

"What did Kel say?" he asked "Did you fill out a -persons report?"

"I tried, but everyone knows he takes these daht now So no one’s particularly concerned This is just for o out there andout the

Pitch-black, of course

Again he aze, his own ironic

"I don’t care what tio by herself, except that it had been a long ti the day, eous in the world, and also aerous There were miles and miles of land accessible only by foot Not that she wasn’t capable, but she was rusty It would take her a lot longer than Ada for help was hard She’d been taught to handle her own problee part to herwas okay even when it wasn’t Her brother had also had a hand in teaching her how to be tough So had her dad himself, Mr Never Ask for Help

And then there was the man who’d been the hardest on her of the but that low-riding towel and a feater drops sliding down the chiseled body that made her mouth dry up even as other parts of her daht," he said

It was true that the wind had kicked up since she’d gathered her courage to co at the s It was also true that only the craziest of the crazies would want to be out in this "But--"

"No one, Holly" His eyes never left hers as he stood there in that very still way he had "Where do you think he went?"

She hated knowing that it wasn’t safe to go out now That she’d have to wait until daylight to take action, but she did take heart in this question because he wouldn’t ask if he wasn’t going to help, right? "He didn’t say" And of course he hadn’t left a note or a e and Mount Eagle"

"Diale are twenty-fiveto stare out theinto the black night "I’htly closer Mount Eagle has that deserted ranger station he likes to caet there?" Adaaze o summer, her dad had been busy A lot She’d been bored until she’dpart-time on one of the Reid ranches There’d been instant chemistry between them, made all the hotter since her dad had forbidden her fro any of his men

So they’d kept it a secret She, because she didn’t want her dad to kill him And Adam, because…hell, who knew Adam tended to keep his own counsel In any case, he’d taken her out on the le She’d been seated behind his straddling his lean hips, the power of the engine ru up from beneath her It had been a sensual, erotic, heady thrill of a ride, and once they’d gotten there, he’d given her another sort of ride altogether

To her eternal annoyance, the memory still rated as her top sexual experience "I reaze dipped down to her

Surely he knew that