The Runaway Pastor's Wife (31 page)

“It’ll have to wait.”

“But I’ve
been
waiting. We had an
appointment and you’re late as it is.”

Elliot turned to face him. “I believe I asked
for some privacy with my daughter, and I would appreciate it if you would
follow my very intelligent secretary and leave us alone.”

Duke huffed as he turned to go. “Can I expect to
hear from you when she’s gone?”

“Of course,” answered Elliot, slamming the door
behind his departed associate. “Now, sweetheart, what’s the matter? Come, have
a seat. You look upset.” He escorted her to the couch. She sat down, warming
her hands around the cup of coffee.

“Daddy, he’s still gone. No phone call, no note,
nothing. He’s just gone. Jane hasn’t heard from him either and I’m—”

“Now, just hold on,” he interrupted, sitting
beside her. “You know Michael. He gets a little restless now and then. He probably
took a trip out to
California
to see some of his buddies
or. . . who knows, maybe he’s trying to do some business behind
my back.” He laughed easily. “Michael is always trying to outfox me. Trying to
prove himself, I suppose. He’s probably on some ‘secret’ mission. He’ll show up
in a day or two. Don’t worry.”

Amelia stared at her father. “Daddy, I’m his
wife
!
Don’t you think he would tell me if he left on a business trip? Or
even . . . even if he was going to see some of his old friends,
don’t you think he’d at least tell me he was going?”

“I don’t know, would he?”

“Daddy!” she scolded.

“Well, you said it yourself—you’re his wife.
Don’t
you two ever talk? You’re still living in the same house, aren’t you?”

Tears filled her eyes as she stood. “Are you mocking
me? I came here to talk to you because I’m scared and angry and—how can you
talk to me this way?”

He stood up to comfort his daughter, but she
pulled away from him, crossing the room to look out the huge bank of windows.
He followed her. Massaging her shoulders, he spoke quietly. “Amelia, I didn’t
mean to upset you. I just think it’s time we began to take a long, hard look at
your marriage and make some sort of assessment. Michael has changed. You know
it and I know it. He’s not the hungry, eager-to-please son-in-law or husband
anymore. Somewhere along the line, I suppose he decided he’s done all this on
his own, made this company a success all by himself. Made himself an awful lot
of money. And maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t think he needs us anymore.”

Amelia dropped her head, giving in to the
comforting hands of her father. “But Daddy, I still love him. And the more he
seems to pull away, the more I need him. The more I want him.”

Elliot walked back to his desk. “I should have
known from the first time we met Michael Dean that he’d eventually hurt you. A
celebrity athlete like him? They’re all alike. They feed on all that attention,
then they can’t live without it. I thought he’d be content owning a successful
business. Apparently I was wrong.”

Amelia remained where she was, her back to her
father.

“And we have to be very frank here, sweetheart.
There’s always the possibility he’s seeing other women—”

“No!” she bellowed, spinning around. “He
wouldn’t do that. He loves me! I know he does. He’s just distracted right now.
That’s all. And you’ve got to help him, Daddy.” She paced the floor. “You have
to hire more people to take the pressure off of him. Get someone else to take
all these business trips. Get Duke to do it—he obviously has nothing better to
do. Make Duke run all over the country and give Michael time to be at home with
me. Time to come back—”

She broke. In the anguish of her tears, she sank
down onto the couch, burying her face in her hands. “Oh, Daddy, what am I going
to do? I can’t go on without him.”

He returned to her side and wrapped his arms
around her. “Nonsense. I won’t listen to that kind of talk. Do you hear me?”

“No, I’m serious. I can’t make it without him,”
she whispered. She looked up at her father, the tears streaming down her face. “I
can’t live without him, Daddy.”

Torn between the deep love he felt for his
brokenhearted daughter and the growing fury burning inside him toward the one
who caused her this pain, Elliot groped for the right words. Blinded by his own
masquerade, he wanted nothing more than to end her sorrow. For a brief moment,
he fantasized . . . there he was, consoling Amelia, much as he
was now. Standing above an expensive casket covered with a blanket of flowers
as it was lowered into the ground. He held her, the grieving young widow
dressed in black, as she watched her deceased husband laid to rest.

“Daddy, why are you smiling? How can you be
happy at a time like this?” Her irritation hung between them.

Elliot caught himself, quickly reverting to his
guise as the concerned father. “I’m not happy, sweetheart. Just thinking of
brighter days ahead for you. And I’m sure you’ll get through this just fine.”
He found his place behind his desk and continued. “Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll
find out where Michael is.”

“Do you really think you can find him?”

“Of course, I can, honey. Are you forgetting who
your daddy is? Just give me some time and I’ll track him down. For the
meantime, you stay busy. Get back to work on that benefit and don’t be running
in here every five minutes wearing me down about it. Understood?”

She flew into his arms. “Oh thank you, Daddy!”

“Enough!” Handing her the designer purse, he
guided her to the door. “Don’t be thanking me until I find him, all right? And
stop worrying about him. I told you before—I’ll take care of Michael. You just
wait and see.”

With a new assurance, she smiled and kissed his
cheek before leaving.

As the door closed, Elliot cursed. He walked
back to his desk and sat down, slamming his fist on the dark cherry desktop.

“So how many lies did you tell her this time?”
The door slammed behind Duke as he barged into the office.

“Shut up, Duke.”

“Elliot, we can’t let this thing drag on. Sooner
or later Amelia’s going to find out and she’s going to hate you—”

“I said shut up!” Elliot dug his hands deep into
his pockets and slowly walked over to the window. Standing precisely where
Amelia had stood moments before, he swore again under his breath. “If we
eliminate him now,” he began quietly, “we risk the chance that his mysterious
‘evidence’ will surface later. We’d be naturally linked to his disappearance or
murder and we’d both hang.”

Duke shifted in his chair, coughing.

“But if we wait much longer,” he continued, “we
risk him beating us and taking his so-called evidence to the authorities. And
still, we hang.”

“We find him now and force him to hand over the
evidence. We don’t take
any
risks,” Duke responded.

Elliot remained silent.

The ringing of Elliot’s phone broke the tension
in the room. He hesitated then moved to answer it. Noticing the flashing red
light on his private line, he stole an inquisitive look at Duke.

He picked up the receiver. “Yes? Yes, this is
Elliot Thomas. Who’s calling?”

Elliot sat down in his chair, turning it around
to leave Duke’s wondering expression behind him. He said little, only an
occasional “yes” or “no” or “I see.” After what seemed like an eternity, he
turned his chair back around.

And laughed out loud.

Placing the receiver back on its cradle, Elliot
released a long sigh of relief. “Duke, my boy, we have nothing to worry about.
No sir, nothing at all.”

Eagle’s Nest

Confident that Michael was resting as well as
could be expected, Annie ventured into Christine’s kitchen, attempting to
collect the provisions she would need. Shaking off her fear and aggravation,
she hobbled around the kitchen, opening the door to the oversized pantry. She
gathered whatever she could find that didn’t require cooking, collecting her
choices into a laundry basket which she placed on the kitchen counter.
Realizing she hadn’t eaten in hours, she opened a box of cinnamon toaster
pastries. She took a bite and headed to the great room to add more logs to the
fire.

Thankfully, Doc had restocked the pile of
chopped logs on the far side of the hearth. She awkwardly crafted another stack
of logs and girdled it with kindling to produce a comforting, blazing fire.

Snatching the box of pastries, she tottered back
to Michael’s room. She reached for a couple of blankets stacked on the pine
love chest at the foot of his bed and spread them gently over Michael’s still
form, careful not to disturb him.

Annie stopped, steeling another peek at her
unexpected guest. Resting her palm on his forehead, she was disappointed to
feel the relentless heat there. Repeating the ritual with the cool wash cloth,
she let the prayer drift from her lips.
Don’t let him die, God.

As if on cue, Michael began moaning, his head
jerking from side to side. 
“No . . . please . . . NO!”

She sat beside him on the bed. She watched in
silence as he thrashed about against some unseen enemy. Somewhere locked in
that nightmare was a threat that haunted her as well. She reached for his hand,
taking it between both of hers.

“Shhh, Michael, you’re all right,” she murmured.
“Take it easy. I’m right here beside you. No one’s going to hurt you now.” She
prayed he couldn’t hear the tremble in her voice. Gradually, he stopped the
unconscious struggle, appearing to respond to her soothing words. His
expression relaxed.

“I promise not to leave you,” she whispered. “I
promise.”

CHAPTER 20

Seminole,
Florida

“I don’t care what you say, Caroline! I have as
much right to be here as you do, so just stay out of my way! Annie is MY
DAUGHTER in case you’ve forgotten. And I won’t be treated like an outsider! Now
where is David?”

Darlene stormed past Caroline, who stood
flabbergasted beside the kitchen table. She had barely finished putting away
the dishes when the blonde tornado blew through the back door.

Darlene spun around and took off for the
staircase. “David! Come down here at once. I want to talk to you and I mean to
do it right now!” she yelled, planting her hand on the banister. “Oh, for
heaven’s sake, Caroline. Where is he?”

“Darlene, if you’ll just give him a minute, I’m
sure he’ll be right down.”

“Then what’s taking him so long?”

“He was trying to get some rest. Just calm
down.”

Her jaw dropped. “Well, isn’t that just
precious. His wife is missing and he’s taking a NAP? Well, he’s not anymore, if
I have anything to say about it! DAVID McGREGOR, you get yourself down here
this instant or I’m coming up! Do you hear me?”

“I heard you the first time, Darlene.” David
rubbed his eyes and started down the stairs.

“How in God’s name can you sleep at a time like
this? David, YOUR WIFE IS MISSING! My sweet Annie is MISSING! She could’ve been
kidnapped for all we know! She could be in terrible danger! And you just lie
around the house and SLEEP? What’s the matter with—”

“Darlene, calm down!” he shouted, removing her
knotted fists from his face. Both mothers stopped cold at the tone of his
voice.

 Darlene jerked her wrists free of his hold.
“How DARE you talk to me that way!”

David stared at her. He ran his hand through his
hair, then reached out to embrace her in apology only to be rebuked.

“Don’t come crawling to me for forgiveness! I
don’t want your righteous little acts of pity. You hung up on me and don’t
think I have forgotten it! I want to know where my daughter is and I want to
know RIGHT NOW!”

“Darlene, we don’t
know
where she is or
we would tell you!” Caroline pleaded.

Darlene scowled at her. “You stay out of this,
Caroline! You lied to me when I called you yesterday. Evidently it runs in the
family.” Her eyes shot back at David. “Either you give me some answers right
this minute, or I’m calling the police. And don’t think I won’t! I have friends
on the force, you know!”