His Brothers Wife (2 page)

“Great. I hate storms.”

And Chad probably had no patience for her fear. He loved thunderstorms and thought it was great good fun to drag people out on the porch to watch the lightning with him.

“Why?” I asked to distract her. I opened the car door, holding her elbow as I helped her inside. Hell, her skin was so soft. I wanted to yank her into my arms right then. I squashed the feeling. This was my brother’s wife. I wasn’t kidnapping her to fuck her—much as I wanted to. No, I was putting her on a bus out of town and into a new life.

“Our house was hit by lightning when I was a child,” she told me. “It caught fire and almost burned down.”

“Hell, I’d hate storms too if that happened to me.” I closed her door and dashed around to my side of the car. She’d barely fastened her seatbelt when I started the engine and tore from the driveway.

“Whoa!” She pressed a hand to the dash as she laughed. “Are we late for something?”

“Nope.”

“Okay.” She peered at me, apparently catching my mood as her smile faded. She clenched the armrest as fat raindrops spattered the windshield and I took a corner on two wheels. We had to get the hell outta Dodge. And I’d have plenty of explaining to do when I got back.

“Channing, is there a reason we’re going so quickly?”

I shifted gears as we rounded another corner and turned onto the divided highway that led into town. “Yes.”

“And that reason would be…?”

I didn’t answer as I tried to come up with a good reply. I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel as we passed the turn-off into town and instead turned onto the interstate entrance ramp.

“Channing?” she asked urgently, her voice raising in fear.

I shifted gears again, my jaw tense. A tick pulsed just below my eye. Silently, I accelerated and flipped on the windshield wipers.

“Channing. What the hell are you doing?”

I looked over at her, determination thudding through me. “Kidnapping you.”

Chapter Two

“Have you lost your mind!” Bree screeched. “Do you know what he’ll do to me? Take me back to the house.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Channing, I don’t know what you’re thinking, but Chad is going to be pissed.”

“And then he’ll hit you,” I said, my tone flat.

“Why would you say that?” she asked slowly. She scooted closer to the door. I suppose with Chad, she knew what to expect. She probably decided I was insane.

The muscle near my eye kept jerking as I refocused on the road. “Chad hits you.”

It wasn’t a question.

“No.”

“Would you tell me if he did?”

“No.”

My knuckles turned white on the steering wheel. “Why were you crying earlier today?”

“What?” She seemed stunned that I knew she’d been sobbing. Her face had been stained with it when she’d appeared this morning.

“When you came to breakfast,” I pushed. “Why were you crying?”

“I wasn’t crying.”

“When you got there, you weren’t. But earlier you were.”

She was about to deny it but held her words when I glanced at her, the knowing on my face. The house wasn’t so solid that sound didn’t travel.

“How did you know?” she whispered.

“Besides your red-rimmed and swollen eyes?” I asked rhetorically. “You looked even more sad than usual. Every time I see you, you, you just look so sad. When you smile, it never reaches your eyes. I saw you on your wedding day, and you were happy. I know what that looks like.” And it’s beautiful. I sped up slightly before I dropped the bombshell, I was sure she had no clue about. “And I saw what he did to his other wife.”

“Other wife? What other wife?”

“I knew he didn’t tell you,” I grated through my gritted teeth.

“Chad doesn’t know I’m with you, does he?” she said suddenly, though it should have been a given since I’d mentioned “kidnapping”.

“Of course not. You know him. Do you honestly think he’d let you come with me? Alone?”

“Of course, he wouldn’t,” she replied, echoing my tone. “Oh hell! How could you do this to me? He’ll be ticked at you, but he’ll kill me. Do you understand that? He. Will. Kill. Me.”

“I won’t let him,” I growled. “It’s not what
I’m
doing to you. It’s what I’m stopping
him
from doing.”

“From doing what?” she asked.

“You said it. Murdering you. Just like he did his first wife.”

“Murder? What? Channing, that’s insane.”

“I wish.” This wasn’t going as well as I’d hoped. I had no proof that Chad had killed Melody and made it look like an accident—I just knew.

“Channing,” she said slowly. “Just pull over and let me out. I’ll find a phone and call for a ride.”

As if cued by some sadistic stage manager, a deluge pelted the windshield. Lightning sizzled to earth in the distance. She jumped with a small yelp, and her fingernails dug into my arm as she reached for me in her fear. She pulled her hand away just as quickly, realizing what she’d done.

“Let me out of the car.”

“Not until you listen to and understand what I have to say to you then I’m putting you on a bus outta here. You didn’t even know Chad had been married before. Don’t you want me to fill in a few blanks?”

“I don’t have any money and nowhere to go—nowhere he wouldn’t find me. I can’t even afford to get out of the marriage and disappear.”

I blew a short, irritated breath through my nose. “You can’t afford not to. Look, I’ll help you.”

Lush pine trees sped past the BMW’s windows, their images blurred to Monet replicas by the rain-smeared glass as I kept my foot on the gas. Determination drove me. She wouldn’t die.

The silence spread between us, an insidious virus of questions, until I was sure she didn’t intend to speak at all. Ever again.

Fine. I needed to concentrate on the road, anyway. The rain pounded the car so hard that the wipers couldn’t keep up. I slowed to a crawl unable to see much past the car’s bumper. To the right, an exit came into view and I took it.

“We have to find somewhere to stop,” I told her.

Though I slowed to a crawl on the new road, the storm continued to barrage the car. Beside me, she grew more and more nervous with each crash of thunder. The tension rolled off her, making me sorry for dragging her into the storm—sort of. I’d never be sorry for getting her away from Chad.

“I know lightning won’t hit the car,” she muttered. “But I don’t believe for a moment that this is the safest place to be.”

I wasn’t so sure of that either as the gale intensified, the screaming wind rocking the BMW with its force. The clouds had thickened, completely blotting out the setting sun and making it dark as night. The vehicle’s headlights did little to cut the gloom, and as trees canopied the road, civilization seemed a distant memory. As we crossed a small, rustic bridge, the road turned to dirt—or more accurately, gelatinous muck.

“Where are we?” she asked over the sound of the mud sucking at the tires.

My stomach flip-flopped as we inched forward into the nothingness. Some hero I was turning out to be.

“Officially?” I asked, my voice strained with tension. “I’d say the middle of nowhere.”

“Quit joking around!”

“Really, I have no idea where we are. Off-hand I’d say we’re on some unnamed, podunk road.”

“Fantastic,” she muttered.

The car slid sideways on the slick mud, and Briony stifled a scream behind her hand. My heart beat wildly in my throat as we skidded toward the ditch beside the road. I tried to hide it as I fought to maneuver us to safety. I’d keep her safe, and I wouldn’t freak out. Apparently, I sucked at this hero stuff.

“I think we ought to go back to the highway,” she suggested tentatively, as if I wouldn’t put much credence to her opinion. Chad wouldn’t have—he would have told her to shut up. I wasn’t that man, and I thought the highway was a damned good idea.

“At least,” she ventured on, “you’d have some idea where we’re at. And it’s paved.”

“Right,” I agreed. I executed a sloppy three point turn—impressive, considering the road condition—then headed back toward the interstate.

Neither of us spoke as the car crawled back the direction we’d come, and the only sound was that of the storm battering the car’s flimsy roof.

“Fuck!” I slammed on the brake. Though I’d been traveling at snail-pace, the car skidded to a halt.

“What is it?” she asked peering ahead. “Oh, hell…”

Up ahead, the rickety bridge had washed out, a deluge gushing over the banks, and we were trapped on the wrong side of the gully.

“What now?” she murmured.

“We turn again. This can’t be the only way to the highway.”

Turning proved to be more difficult this time, but five minutes later, the car again crawled down the slick road.

“You’re so different from Chad,” she murmured. “You’re so calm. He would have been freaking out and probably screaming.”

She didn’t need to say that Chad would have been screaming at
her.
“Uh, thank you,” I replied. I was glad to be different. “I drive in the rain a lot through crappy conditions. You know…hospital over an hour away, blah blah blah. Being a doctor, I don’t have much of a choice whether or not I brave the roads. Though, I do stay there if it’s really bad.”

Yes, talking would calm her. She seemed less tense as I spoke. Her breathing had slowed from frantic, near-hyperventilation to an even flow.

“Did you know it was going to storm?” she asked suddenly.

“I saw the storm rolling in over the lake. I didn’t think it would be this bad. Shit—!”

Briony stifled a shriek as I swerved to avoid a tree limb that had fallen across the road. The car slid toward the gully on the opposite side of the route, skidding out of control as if we’d hit a sheet of ice. The engine roared as we caught traction and shot forward, narrowly missing the pit as I manhandled the car back the right direction.

“We’ve got to find someplace to stop,” I said. “This isn’t slowing down and this road is a deathtrap.”

“There’s nothing here.”

“I’ll find something.” Though I had to admit, being alone with her in a secluded location was at both the top and bottom of my list of things to do. It would be torture—but hell, I wanted to touch her, to fuck her, and if she said yes, there would be no stopping me. I didn’t give a rat’s ass if she was Chad’s. He didn’t deserve her; he’d proved that the first time he’d struck her.

“So what did you plan to do after you kidnapped me?” Briony asked out of the blue. I suspected she chattered to divert her attention from our peril. Unfortunately, with these roads, I couldn’t afford distraction.

“Can we save this for later?” I asked through gritted teeth. I leaned forward in an attempt to better see where I was going. Again, I considered what a horrible hero I was turning out to be. I’d had a loose plan—apparently, not a very good one by any means. Within ten minutes of leaving the house, I’d put our lives in jeopardy, gotten lost in the middle of nowhere and stranded us on the far side of ravine opposite the highway.

Each blinding flash of lightning caused Bree to jump. Too bad it hadn’t taken her mind off my botched “rescue”.

“Does that mean you actually had a plan, and this isn’t spur of the moment?”

“Yes.”

“How long have you been thinking of this?”

“What?” I flipped on the defroster, unable to carry on with keeping us alive on the slick roads
and
process her questions.

“Did you plan this?”

“Yes,” I repeated.

“How long?”

I sighed. “This can’t wait? Fine. Formally?” I swiped my hand across the fogged windshield. “Since this morning.”

“This morning? That’s rather fly by night. Have you ever been institutionalized?”

I swung my head toward her. “
What?
”

Fuck this hero stuff. Maybe I should pull over and dump her ass on the side of the road.
And then the thought of her slipping in the mud led me to ideas of leaping after her and tackling her into the muck and rolling around until we were all coated and slippery—

Damn it! Driving with a hard-on in this crap wasn’t what I wanted to do.

“For instability? Insanity? Dementia? Do you have medication you’re supposed to be taking and haven’t been?”

“No,” I snapped.

“So you’re an undiagnosed crackpot. They’ll think I ran away—No, Chad will, maybe not everyone else. He’s gonna hurt me when he finds me.”

Though I focused on the road, I could see her bowed head as she fought the trembling that had come over her. This wasn’t about me and what I’d done. It was her fear.

I turned on the hazard lights and pulled to the edge if the flooded street.