He's Got Her Goat (21 page)

“You’re right.” He’d come clean. “I was selfish and wanted to spend time with you in Dallas. I figured I could fix whatever mess Elaine made later. You’ve got to let me try.”

She let out a huff of air as she got to her feet, and Sterling was worried he’d lost her.

“This is my proposal.” Her voice sounded firm. “From here on out, we’ll be a team. Mostly because I don’t see anyone else volunteering for the position, but there are provisions. First, you can never lie to me. Not even about the small stuff. Is there anything you have to confess before we continue?”

“Nothing that comes to mind.” It was a bold-face lie, and he knew it. He wanted to confess that he was crazy about her, but he was not going to blow this relationship by taking it too fast. This was the kind of girl you took home to your family, that you raised a family with.

She seemed satisfied but wasn’t finished. “Second, I’m not like you. I see you making snap decisions and convincing others to go along like you did with Austin when we first met and what you taught me in Dallas. If we’re going to work together, I can’t have you pushing me into things before I’m ready. My no means no. You have to respect that.”

“I do. I mean, I will.” He stood and noticed the knees of his dress slacks were wet. As he brushed them off, he said, “Shall we shake on it? But if you don’t want to, I respect that.”

When he lifted his chin, she was smiling at him. “I can agree to that.”

As he took her hand, a rustling sound came from the meadow’s entrance.

Austin was panting as he burst through the opening, his open laptop cradled in his arms. “They’re here!” His whisper was as loud as most people’s full voice. “I ran when I heard the truck pull up because I didn’t want them to see me or guess what I did.”

Paige cocked her head. “What did you do?”

“I micro-dotted the boxes. Sterling saw me.” Austin pointed at him as though it was his fault.

Sterling had an idea. “How far do those dots transmit?”

“About two miles,” Austin said. “One of the first companies I prototyped had multiple facilities three miles apart. I could never get them to transmit that far on an independent ionic power source.”

In the distance, Sterling heard the rumble of a diesel engine and the grinding of gears. “Well, then we’d better be on our way.”

He headed toward the path, but she didn’t move. “What do you have planned, Sterling?”

Austin grinned. “He’s going to follow them, aren’t you?”

“
We
are,” Sterling said.

“No, I can’t leave Petunia.” Paige folded her arms.

Sterling peered over his shoulder at the grazing goat. “She doesn’t look like she’s going anywhere.”

“But she could.” Paige knelt by the nanny and ran her hand down her side. “I can’t put her in the barn. They’d find her, and I can’t call someone to help because I don’t want to involve anyone else.”

“Fine.” Sterling envisioned their window of opportunity shrinking. If they didn’t get going, there may not be another chance. “You stay with her. We’ll find your herd. Trust us.”

The two trotted off. Paige watched them until they were out of sight. “If only I could.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

S
TERLING LEAPT INTO HIS LEXUS
, and Austin took the passenger seat. They peeled out and sped down the road. Austin’s eyes were glued to his laptop. His directions were sudden with no room for error.

“Left,” he shouted as the turn came into view.

“Right, there.”

Sterling missed it, made a U turn, and sailed down the road. As they got into town, the directions became less distinct and less frequent. Austin seemed mesmerized by his computer screen as Sterling drove straight into the city. There must be some mistake.

After going around the same block three times, Sterling had to ask, “Have we totally lost them?”

“No, the signature for the boxes is right there in the center of these buildings.” They were passing two older high rises, graffiti covered with broken windows, when Austin cried out, “There!”

Screeching to a halt so fast that the car behind almost back-ended them, Sterling waved the vehicle on and put the car in reverse. An alley barely wide as a single lane was only recognizable by the flattened curb. Backing slowly in, Sterling wasn’t certain what he would find. The pavement opened to a central loading dock. There, parked against a raised platform, was a nondescript white van.

Austin seemed hopeful. “Isn’t this clever? Who would think of hiding goats in the city?”

“I don’t think the animals are here,” Sterling climbed out his door. “I’ll see what I can find out. Don’t leave the car.”

Austin sat lower in his seat. “Won’t argue with that.”

Vaulting onto the loading dock, Sterling headed for the only open doorway. He wasn’t certain what he’d do if he met up with someone, but letting his fist do the talking wasn’t out of the question. If Austin could do it, why couldn’t he?

Two men were arguing down a hall, so he chose that direction. Their voices drew nearer. Sterling ducked into a closet.

“Chuck had better nix the meat, or he’s in for it,” a deep voice said. Sterling wondered if they were referring to the goats but had no idea.

“He will. Bet he’ll have it done in an hour, tops,” a younger man reassured.

“I hate these all night security gigs. They’re the worst,” the other man said. “Good thing my shift is over at eleven. He better be back by then.”

Sterling remembered that one of Elaine’s companies was a security guard contractor that she had used for her construction sites.

Their voices were fading. “Well, Chuck’s got to run to check on the livestock first, but I think he’ll make it.” A light flicked on further ahead, and Sterling continued down the hall and peered around a doorway. He could see the edges of unloaded boxes, about a dozen of them.

The younger man spoke again. “I hope he brings two this time. One pizza for three people is crazy.”

The older man’s reply was drowned out by a car’s ignition. Not worrying about whether he was caught, Sterling sprinted back to the van but was too late. By the time he got there, the white van was gone. Vaulting off the four-foot platform, he jumped in his driver’s seat and threw the car in gear, as Austin frantically buckled his seatbelt. They raced down the tiny alleyway and onto the main road. The first light was red. Sterling slammed on the brakes and craned his head down each adjoining street. The van was gone.

“That way,” Austin said.

He pointed back the way they had come.

The kid was such an idiot. Sterling wanted to shake him. “The boxes are in the warehouse. You only tracked the boxes, but the goats are somewhere else. That’s where the van is going next.”

The intern resembled a bobble-head doll. “I know, but you need to make a U-ey.”

“You know nothing.” Sterling gritted his teeth. “Paige has lost everything. It’s all our fault. Don’t you get it?”

“I do.” Austin seemed unaffected by his anger. “While you were in the warehouse, I micro-dotted the truck.”

“You what?” Sterling gripped the steering wheel.

“See?” Austin held up his laser gun lookalike.

Sterling chuckled, whipped the car around and floored it.

IT HAD BEEN LESS THAN AN HOUR
since they left Paige and Petunia in the meadow, and Sterling found himself driving up the same street as the farmhouse again.

He was frustrated. “This can’t be right.”

“It is.” Austin’s attention never wavered from the flashing squares on his screen. “Right over there about two hundred feet.”

The driveway was directly past Paige’s. As they drove by, Sterling got a glimpse of a big white house with pillars in front but no cars or trucks. The house looked abandoned.

Sterling continued to the end of the road and headed back toward the farm. Austin closed his laptop. “We can take them. I punched you out.”

“Maybe,” Sterling rubbed his jaw thinking about it. “But there’s no reason to tell them we’re here, if they are really there at all.”

“They are.”

Austin almost had him convinced.

Chapter Twenty-Six

A
LARMED AT THE CRUNCH OF TIRES
on gravel, Paige pulled Petunia behind one of the tall pines to hide. As the motor was cut, she didn’t dare poke her head around the tree trunk for fear of being discovered. Petunia nudged at her thigh, wanting to return to the daffodils, but Paige held her collar tight. A plastic tag that had been stapled to the nylon strap bit into Paige’s hand. She let go of the collar, and Petunia bolted for the meadow.

Hearing heavy footsteps, Paige realized she had been discovered. This wasn’t the end. She’d do all in her power to stop these swindlers from profiting off her hard work. Raising her fists, she determined to teach them a lesson they’d never forget. Two men were approaching in street clothes. Paige didn’t know what to expect from Elaine’s lackeys, but she had thought they’d be burlier. It took her a second before her brain let her shift from demonizing the two to recognizing them.

“Sterling, Austin, what are you doing here?”

Sterling ran a hand through his hair. “We’re not sure.”

“I am.” Austin hurried to Paige’s side. “The goats are next door behind the white house.”

“Why do you think so?” Paige had been there only two days ago. There was no way the goats could be there.

Austin puffed out his chest. “Because my dot led us there.”

She turned to Sterling for a second opinion. His expression said it all. He put a hand on Austin’s shoulder. “I don’t know if the dot malfunctioned or if they found us out and left it there as a joke, but it doesn’t look good.”

“We’ve got to at least check it out.” Austin sounded like a whiny teenager.

Paige almost agreed with Sterling and then thought how Deputy Dunn had given her the benefit of the doubt when there was so little evidence. “Of course, we’ll check it out. Won’t we, Sterling?”

She placed a hand on Sterling’s arm to stop him from protesting further.

He saw the blood on her hand. Lifting it, he inspected the cut on her palm. “What happened?”

The concern in his eyes over the small wound was endearing. “It was nothing. I scraped myself on a tag or something put on Petunia’s collar.”

“On my tag,” Austin clarified. “I put one on all the goats. That is number 257.”

Petunia had wandered back near them, and Paige bent over and checked the tag. He was right.

Austin clapped his hands together once. “That proves it.”

“Proves what?” Sterling said.

Austin stood strong. “I loaded 257 on the truck myself, latched all the does in and recounted them. She was taken away on the truck with the others.”

Paige tried to wrap her head around what she was hearing. “You’re certain?”

He dropped his chin with such force, his hair fell into his eyes. “Yes.”

Sterling double checked the tag and peered at Austin before finally speaking. “So what you’re saying is this goat escaped after it was taken? From the new location where it was being held?”

“Exactly.”

“I suppose I owe you an apology.” Sterling put out his hand.

Paige could hardly believe what Austin was saying. “You really think my goats are next door? But why wouldn’t I be able to hear them?” Her feet had begun to move almost on their own accord. Hope rose in her heart as she ran across the small gulley on the other side of the barn. She didn’t care who saw her. She just wanted them back.