Rest Thy Head (22 page)

He cupped her cheek in his palm. “It breaks my heart to do it, but that has nothing to do with us. I love you. Don’t you love me too?”

Ashley swiped at her eyes. “Yes, I love you. I fell in love with you the first moment I saw you, but it doesn’t matter. I love Peyton too, and I can’t stay as long as you believe she’s a thief. If I did, it would eventually destroy my family, and I won’t do that even for you.”

“Ashley…”

Ashley jumped off the bed. “Please leave. There’s no use in upsetting ourselves any more than we have to.”

“Ashley, don’t…”

Ashley bit her lip to hold back tears. “Goodbye.”

“But…”

“Goodbye, Patrick.”

She walked over to the window and turned her back to him.

“Ashley….”

Ashley ignored him. She heard the door close behind him and threw herself across the bed to cry. Just once, why couldn’t something in her life go right?

***

An hour after he tied her up, Drew finally stopped his horse. Peyton stared at the little cabin in front of her as though it were a maximum security prison. In fact, it was a simple rectangle made of weathered, silver boards with a decrepit-looking porch on the front of the structure. Her mother and Ashley would be scared to death when they couldn’t find her. Drew had better let her go in a hurry!
Oh, Jake, where are you?
I need you so much.

Drew dismounted and tied their horses to a stout tree before helping Peyton off of Reggie. “I’d untie you, Peyton, but I’m afraid you might try something silly, and I don’t feel like running back down that mountain. I don’t like horseback riding too much either.” He rubbed his backside and urged her forward. “Let’s go inside.”

With no choice open to her, Peyton went inside the cabin. One wall had a rusty sink, a drainboard, and a couple of cabinets but no stove. Where did Drew cook his food? In that old, iron pot hanging in the fireplace? It looked awfully black and dirty to be eaten out of. The only other furniture in the room was two straight, wooden chairs, a small table, and a bunk with two or three dusty-looking blankets.

“Have a seat,” Drew invited with a wave of his hand. “I’m sorry the chairs are so hard.”

Why not? There was no telling how long it would take to make him let her go. She sat down, took a deep breath, and tried to reason with him.

“How did you find me, Drew?”

“Remember Jason McCall, my fraternity brother? His dad is a lawyer who has a private investigator on his staff. I told them we’d had an argument, and I wanted to make up with you, so they put the PI on the case.”

Peyton scowled. “What in the name of goodness is wrong with you? Don’t you know kidnapping me will only make me angrier? You don’t win people back by taking them against their will.”

Drew’s mouth fell open. His eyes widened as he sat down beside her. “I didn’t kidnap you.”

“Oh? Then what would you call it?”

“I’d call it straightening out a misunderstanding.”

Peyton shot him a flat look meant to intimidate. “There is no misunderstanding. I know about you and Megan, and I know you told your dad she was a lot more fun than I am. We don’t have a future together, not now.”

Drew rolled his eyes at her. “Sure we do, even though you’ve caused me a lot of trouble.”

Peyton sighed and tiredly brushed her hair out of her eyes. This hadn’t been the best day in her life. “What trouble? You mean with your father?”

“No, but that did cause me major problems. I had to promise him I’d make it up with you before he’d even speak to me.”

“Then what trouble are you talking about?”

Drew looked like the cat that ate the canary. Why was he so pleased with himself? “I had to get you away from Rest Thy Head. That scarred freak was messing with your mind, making you question whether or not you loved me. I tried to scare you at first. Remember…”

“My car!” Peyton snapped. That rat!

“Yes, and also your book and that costume.” He laughed and nudged her with his elbow. “Pretty good, right?”

“How could you do a thing like that to me?” She frowned at him and wished she could knock that smirk right off his face. “Didn’t it bother you to frighten me? Didn’t I ever mean anything to you?”

That look of surprise was back on his face. “Of course you did, but I’d do anything to get back on Dad’s good side. He told me unless I married you he’d disinherit me. I had to do something to make you leave Rest Thy Head. If you stayed there any longer I was afraid you’d really fall for that freak Jake.” He shuddered. “He’s creepy looking.”

For the first time Peyton felt a trickle of real fear. Drew was calmly sitting beside her behaving as if kidnapping and intimidation were nothing out of the ordinary, and that wasn’t rational. “You put that jewelry in my bag too, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I did. It worked too. I couldn’t scare you off, but I did figure out a way to get you fired.” He looked at her with a curious expression in his eyes. “I didn’t like that brooch, did you?”

Peyton dropped her head onto her knees. Why didn’t she see from the beginning that Drew was unstable? Could she have spent so much time with him and not seen something was wrong? Maybe, but maybe he wasn’t unstable at all. Maybe he had kidnapped her because his parents had spoiled him. No one had ever said no to him, and when she did, he didn’t know how to handle it.

Oh, Jake.
Help me!

***

Jake knocked on Ashley’s door. “Ashley?”

Ashley opened the door, and when he saw her red eyes and nose, he knew she had been crying. He bit his lip and awkwardly patted her shoulder. He’d never struck a woman before, but he might make an exception in Mrs. Haynes’ case. “Have you seen Peyton? I knocked on her door, but nobody answered.”

“I saw her about an hour ago. She said she was packing.”

“Well, she didn’t come to her door.”

Ashley’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank you for believing in Peyton. I don’t know who put that jewelry in her bag, but I promise you she didn’t do it. When you find her, tell her Mother and I are ready to go.”

Ashley’s last words felt like a rusty knife twisting in his gut. “Sure. I’ll tell her.”

He darted back downstairs and knocked on Peyton’s door yet again, but nobody answered. Where had she gone to? It was important to him that she knew he still believed in her. The best course of action would be to hide in his office until she left, but he couldn’t do it. Surely, he could be forgiven for wanting one last goodbye.

Clattering down the rest of the stairs, he ran out the front door to search the grounds. He tried the pool area, but he didn’t see her so he jogged down to the barn where he found that Reggie’s stall was empty. Peyton must have gone on a last ride.

Last ride. His stomach knotted in protest. He didn’t want her to go. It was a pleasure to get up in the morning just because he knew she’d be there to help him with breakfast. She looked at him just as she would a normal man and acted as if he had no scars. How could he bear to let her walk out of his life?

His breath caught in his throat. He’d let her go because he had to. Every morning when he looked into the mirror he saw a freak who, at present, had no idea how he’d earn a living after he left Rest Thy Head. He wouldn’t saddle Peyton with a handicap like himself even if she did want him. Watching her struggle to explain his scars to her friends would kill him. Why should she be required to get used to the pitying stares he always received or cope with lack of income because he couldn’t find a job? You don’t do things like that to someone you love.

A flare of anger with Patrick flashed through him, anger mixed with sorrow. In one day he’d lost his brother, his home, and the woman he loved. He hadn’t thought anything could be worse than being burned, but he now knew he had been wrong. Lots of things were worse.

Shoulders drooping, he went back to the house. Maybe it would be easier if he didn’t see Peyton when she left.

***

By dinnertime Jake, Eleanor, and Ashley had fallen into a near panic. “Something’s wrong,” Ashley insisted as she bit off her third fingernail. “She should have been back hours ago.”

Jake sprang from the sofa. “I’ll check the barn one more time.” He dashed down to the barn, but he saw no sign of Peyton. Then again, he hadn’t really expected to. When he ran back to the inn, he met Eleanor and Ashley in the foyer. “No sign of her.”

Eleanor’s voice faltered as she finally voiced everyone’s fear. “Maybe her horse threw her. Maybe she’s lying out there hurt and…”

She broke off as Patrick came out of the living room. “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help overhearing. What’s wrong with Peyton?”

Ashley was the one who told him. “I think we should call the police,” she finished.

Jake nodded. “I agree. She wouldn’t stay out this late even if she hadn’t planned to drive home today.”

Without a word Patrick went to make the call. “I think I’ll check in her room again,” Jake said.

Ashley sighed. “There’s nothing there. I looked twice.”

“You might have missed something, and anything’s better than just sitting around waiting.”

He bolted up the stairs two at a time and used his key to enter Peyton’s room. He saw her bag near the door, but he didn’t see a note anywhere. He was about to go downstairs to wait for the police when something moved in the shadows in the far corner of the room.

“Peyton?”

He
saw
the air shimmer and swirl, and with something close to wonder he watched it coalesce into a lithe, feminine form wearing a pretty summer dress. His heart beat so fast he actually put his hand on his chest, but he held his ground anyway.

The apparition glided, there was no other word for it, toward the bed, and it
spoke
to him. “I would look under the bed if it were me.”

Frozen with apprehension Jake just stood there. He felt a little breeze and a piece of paper blew out from under the bed. “Read that,” the ghost ordered.

His fingers were trembling so badly he dropped it once, but he finally got hold of the thing and read it.
Peyton, We have to talk.
Meet me near the little trout stream at four.
Jake

“You didn’t write it, did you, Jake?”

Fear for Peyton stiffened his spine and eclipsed any fear he felt for himself. He spoke to the apparition as if it were a living person. “No, I didn’t write it. Do you know who did?”

“I believe a young man by the name of Drew wrote it.”

“Drew?” he barked. “The man she just broke up with?”

The ghost pointed toward the door. “Hurry, Jake. Hurry to the trout stream and track them. Peyton needs you.”

Jake didn’t wait any longer. He raced downstairs and shoved the note at Patrick. “She’s been kidnapped! I’m going after her! Show this note to the police when they get here.”

“Wait for…”

Jake didn’t listen. He tore out the door and ran for the barn. Should he take a horse or his truck? A horse. He couldn’t track them from a truck. He saddled Cinnamon in a minute flat and left the barn at a dead gallop. God only knew what that maniac might do to Peyton.

***

Sheriff Lamont, a big bear of a man who wore a cowboy hat with a snake skin band around the crown, arrived at Rest Thy Head twenty minutes later. He read the note and immediately declared that Peyton had been kidnapped. “Why would anyone want to kidnap Miss O’Malley,” he asked. “Is she wealthy? Are we expecting a ransom?”

Eleanor wrung her hands. “No, we don’t have a penny to our name.”

“Then who would want to hurt her?”

“I know!” Ashley exclaimed. “Mrs. Haynes must have decided to get revenge on Peyton.”

The sheriff’s eyes sharpened. “Tell me about Mrs. Haynes.”

Ashley told her story and ended by declaring Peyton’s innocence. “Jake didn’t believe she took anything, and she didn’t.”

Lamont shot a keen look at Patrick. “You didn’t believe Miss O’Malley, did you?”

Patrick stared at the floor as he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ashley, but I still think she took the jewelry. I doubt Mrs. Haynes has anything to do with this, though.”

“So do I,” Lamont answered, “but we’ll certainly check her out. Isn’t there anyone else you can think of?”

Eleanor answered this time. “Yes.” She twisted her hands in her lap. “My daughter left her fiancé at the altar, and I think it caused him some major embarrassment and trouble. Maybe you should check into his whereabouts.”

They all saw that the sheriff liked Drew for the kidnapper. “Give me a name and phone number, Mrs. O’Malley.”

The sheriff wrote them down and vanished into the office to talk. He came back with a worried expression on his face. “I spoke to Mr. Roberts, Drew’s father. He told me he hasn’t seen Drew in weeks. Drew told his father he and Peyton were spending the summer in a town called Waterbury, that they had made up and gotten married by a justice of the peace. The last time Mr. Roberts talked to him he said they’d be back home in a couple of weeks.”

Eleanor’s face turned a pasty white. She swayed toward Ashley who threw her arms around her mother.

A look of compassion came to rest on the sheriff’s face. “Mr. Roberts said Drew’s behavior has become increasingly irrational and that his son needs professional help.”

“Jake went after them,” Patrick broke in, his voice strained and higher than usual.

The sheriff clapped his hat on his head and moved toward the door as he spoke. “We’d better get a move on. If he finds Drew Roberts there’s no telling what might happen.”

The men left the Inn at a run while Eleanor and Ashley sat down in the living room to wait.

Chapter Sixteen

By the time Jake reached the trout stream, the water already lay in shadows. He threw himself from his horse and studied the tracks beside the stream. Two horses had recently passed this way. He saw one area where someone had obviously hidden in wait behind some bushes. The number of hoof prints told him that the horse hadn’t waited too long.

Jumping from rock to rock, he crossed the stream and saw two sets of tracks heading up the mountain. He mounted again and urged his horse forward. To an experienced tracker, and he was, this trail was easy to follow, but no one could track in the dark, and nightfall would soon overtake him.