To Catch a Man (In 30 Days or Less) (The BAD BOY BILLIONAIRES Series) (10 page)

Three or four days.  In Indie's
world that was a lifetime.  She was already down to the wire and then to lose
that many days?  Her heart sank.  So near to her goal and yet so far.  There
was nothing she could do but wait.

But Indie did not have to wait long
before excitement hit the compound.  The following day she was in the classroom
with the ninth graders when Kirk rushed up to the door.

“My truck won’t start.  Where’s the
driver?”  He was breathing hard as if he’d run all the way from his house.

“Fenyang is away on holiday.  He
went back to his township but Dominic should be around here somewhere.”  Then,
seeing desperation leap into his eyes, Indie got up from her chair and hurried
to him.  “What’s wrong?  Is it Jenna?”

“Yes, and the truck won’t start
and…and…I just have to find the driver.”  Kirk looked just about ready to pull
out his hair.

“Boys,” Indie yelled over her
shoulder, “I’ll be right back.”  She grabbed Kirk’s arm.  “Come on.  I’ll find Dominic. 
You go back and stay with Jenna.  Don’t leave her alone.”

Kirk ran off across the yard and
Indie headed straight for the kitchen.  There were not that many places on the
compound where a young man could hang out and the kitchen was a likely place to
start.

And there he was, resting in the back
while Cook and his assistants chopped carrots on the counter.

As soon as Indie explained the
situation Dominic dashed off to get his Jeep and then he was off to Kirk and
Jenna’s place.  Minutes later the van roared through the gate of the compound
to the cheers of the ninth grade boys who had sneaked out of their classroom.

After that exciting turn of events
nothing happened.  Three days passed and Stone did not return.  Then it was
four days and then five.  Meanwhile, the clock kept ticking toward her
deadline.

Six days into the wait Indie heard
the roar of the Jeep and it was Stone, finally back from his mission in
Johannesburg.  He’d called a couple of times during his absence but how could a
phone call from over a hundred miles away help her?

And then, when she went out into
the yard and saw him striding toward her, she knew that it hadn’t just been
about the marriage.  It had been about Stone.  She’d missed him terribly and
now, at the sight of him, she wanted to run into his arms.

But she couldn’t.  Instead, she
waited until he was standing right in front of her.  She looked up and to her
relief she could see in his eyes that he’d missed her, too.

That look in his eyes spoke volumes. 
It was a look well worth the wait.

******

It was three days later when they
got the call.  Jenna had delivered a seven-pound baby girl.

Indie could only laugh when she
heard the news.  “Can you imagine, they tore out of here a week ago, all
because of a false labor.  But I’m glad they didn’t come back.  Joburg was the
safest place for Jenna to be.”

“Particularly since she needed a
C-section,” Stone said, then he tilted his head toward Indie.  “What do you
think about you and me going to the city to meet this new member of the
family?”

“I think that’s the best thing
you’ve said to me since you got back.”  Indie knew she probably looked like an
idiot with the wide grin on her face but she didn’t really care.  She was dying
to get off the compound, and she wanted to see the new baby.  And to take a
trip to Johannesburg with Stone – what better way to spend some alone time with
him?  “When can we leave?  Now?” 

He shook his head.  “First thing in
the morning.  We can set out at sunrise and have the whole day ahead of us.”

She frowned.  She would lose a
whole day waiting for tomorrow to come.  “What about this afternoon?  After
lunch?”

He looked doubtful.  “None of the
drivers can take us this afternoon.  I would have to drive us in that case.”

Even better.  No driver to get in
the way of their conversation.

“No problem, though,” he
continued.  “I’ve traveled that route so many times I know it like the back of
my hand.”

She chuckled.  “You’d need to have
a very big hand to cover that terrain.  Just make sure you travel with a map. 
Better yet, get Cook to draw you one.  I know there are some sections probably
not on a regular map.”

He shook his head.  “So little
faith in me,” he tut-tutted.

Indie rolled her eyes.  “Just get
the map.”

They ended up leaving the compound
at a little past four o’clock.  She had underestimated the time it would take
to pack and be ready.  Still, although they were heading out over an hour later
than planned, for a journey of two and a half hours they’d be in Johannesburg
by the set of sun.

Stone threw the bags into the back
of the vehicle and Indie hopped into the passenger seat beside him.  He looked
over at her.  “Ready to roll?”

She put her hand to her brow, and
gave him a smart salute.  “Aye, aye, Cap’n.”

They set off along the dirt trail,
leaving a cloud of dust behind them.  Indie relaxed into the seat, a smile on
her lips.  She and Stone would get a chance to talk along the way and maybe she
would be able to convince him to spend a few days in Johannesburg.

She’d already lost so much time she
was hoping that a change in environment, a return to city life, would be the
catalyst that would push Stone over the edge toward a commitment.  Indie
sighed.  It was going to be hard, if not impossible.  How do you get a man to
ask you to marry him…without asking him to marry you?

Stone glanced over at her.  “You
all right?”

“Yes,” she said, giving him a
bright smile.  “Perfect.”

But she was far from it.  Now back
to her musings – how to get a man to ask you to marry him?  Outside of
hypnotizing him or blackmailing him, that is.  Or maybe she could just knock
him out and get a minister to marry them while he was still out cold.  She was
almost muttering in her distress. 
Come on, brain, think.  There’s got to be
something I can do.

Indie bit her lip and looked away
over the wide expanse of  brown savannah.  Stone was glancing over at her
again.  He must think she was going bananas.  And rightly so.  She was
certainly acting like it.

Trying for normalcy, she decided to
strike up a conversation.  “Do you know if they picked out a name yet?”  She
put up a hand to keep her hat from hopping off her head.  Stone had better get
to a smooth path soon or she’d be seasick.

“I have no idea.”  He looked
totally unconcerned.

“Hey, what if we come up with some
suggestions?  Wouldn’t it be great if they liked one of our names and used
it?”  She was half speaking half shouting so he could hear her over the rumble
of the engine.

Stone looked at her like she’d gone
crazy.  “What do I know about baby girl names?”

“Well, I have some.  What
about…Sierra?  Or…” she looked around at the flat grass land, “...Savannah?”

He snorted, seeming unimpressed.

She didn’t let that stop her from
thinking up some more.  “Hey, I got one.  What about Safari?”

He glanced over at her again but
this time he was shaking his head and his look was full of pity. 

“No,” she said earnestly, “I’m
serious.  It’s a Swahili word that means long journey.  And they journeyed all
the way here to work at the compound, didn’t they?”  She looked away. 
“Safari,” she said again, almost to herself.  “I like it.  I’m going to suggest
it to them.”

“Please don’t,” he groaned as he
steered the vehicle over the dirt path.

"Please, yes,” she said. 
“They’ll love it.”

After that they got to talking
about her name and how she came about having it.  Indiana, she explained, was
for the state in which she was born.  Although born of Canadian parents her
birth certificate showed that she was an American citizen.

Moon, she told him, was for the
time of year she was born, when the moon was full in the sky.  And Lane was her
absentee father’s name.

“Moon,” Stone repeated.  “Somehow I
thought it was a reflection of Native American heritage."

“Well, I’m part Mohawk on my
mother’s side,” she said, “so you sort of guessed right.” 

He grinned at her, obviously
pleased with himself.

Indie grinned back. 
Oh, don’t
be too pleased with yourself, fella.  I’m not done with you yet.
  “And what
about your name?”  she asked.  “How did you come to be called Gladstone
Hudson?  And do you have a middle name, by the way?”

That wiped the smile off his face
real fast.  His brows lowered and his mouth set in a hard line.

Indie burst out laughing.  “If you
could see your face.  You look like a three year old who's just been told he
has to go to bed.”

That made Stone cough and then he
chuckled and then he was laughing out loud just like she was.  The wide open
savannah echoed with the sounds of their mirth.

After the laughter died and she’d
caught her breath Indie wiped her eyes and looked at Stone.  “Seriously,
though, who gave you that name?  Your mom?”

Stone gave an exaggerated sigh and
shook his head.  “Gladstone Marcus Hudson the third.  It was my grandfather’s
name then my father’s and now it’s mine.  The curse of the Gladstones.”

She gave him a look of sympathy. 
“Please don’t inflict that kind of punishment on your son.”

He chuckled.  “The suffering ends
here.”

After that they fell silent for a
while and Indie sat back to enjoy the landscape and the view of brown mountains
in the distance.  Then she closed her eyes to enjoy the warmth of the evening
sun.  After a long while she yawned and opened her eyes again.  Better to stay
awake and keep Stone's company.  She glanced over and noticed that he was
frowning.  Then he began to mutter under his breath. 

She sat up immediately.  “Is
something wrong?’

For a while he didn’t answer but
just kept scowling and muttering until she knew something was definitely
wrong.  “Talk to me, Stone.  What is it?”

His scowl deepened then he gave a
quick shake of his head as if annoyed.  “I’m not…seeing the landmarks I should
be seeing by now.  There’s supposed to be a rock-”

“Are we lost?  Are you telling me
you don’t know where we are?”  Indie gripped the top of the passenger door. 
This was not good.

“Not lost, just…on the wrong track,
somehow.”  Stone did not look at her, just kept his eyes on the trail ahead.

Indie frowned.  “Come to think of
it, we should have hit the main road by now.  We’ve been on this road over an
hour.”  She looked around.  “And didn’t we pass that butte like half an hour
ago?”

Stone didn’t answer but the
muttering started again.

Indie jerked forward.  “Let’s check
the map.  That should help us figure out where we are.”  When Stone made no
move to hand it to her she spoke louder.  “The map, Stone.  In fact, both of
them.  Let me look at them while you drive.”

Still no answer.

That made her suspicious.  Then she
spoke again and her voice was calm and steady as if she had no concern in the
world.  “You don’t have the maps, do you?”

He shook his head as if to get rid
of some annoying gnats and kept his eyes on the road.

“Do you, Stone?”

“No, I don’t, all right?”  His
voice was an angry bark.  “I didn’t think I’d need them.”

“You didn’t think…” Her voice
trailed off as she stared across at him.  Then she continued with a scathing
rebuke.  “The operative words being, ‘I didn’t think’.  What the hell were you
thinking?”

“Just be quiet, will you?”  Came
his biting retort.  “I need to concentrate.”

“You need to concentrate,” Indiana
muttered.  “Concentrate on getting us lost is what you’re doing.  No map.  And
now we’re lost all the way out in this wild countryside.”  He shot her an angry
look and she shut up.  Pissing him off was not going to work.  Better to spend
her energy thinking of a way to get them out of this mess.  She did a quick
calming exercise, breathing in and breathing out three times and only then did
she speak again.  “How long ago did you realize you weren’t on the right
track?”

There was a delay of about ten
seconds then Stone responded.  “About twenty minutes ago.”

“About twenty min-”  Indie stared
at him in disbelief.  “But you didn’t say anything.”

“I thought I’d just drive some
more, see if a familiar landmark showed up.”

Indie wanted so badly to blast him
but she held her tongue.  He was a man, after all.  He couldn’t help it.  For
some reason unknown to humankind men could never be influenced to ask for directions. 
Or, in this case, to get a damn map. 
Okay, Indie, stay calm.  Blowing your
top is not going to help anybody.

She looked ahead at the sun sliding
toward the horizon.  “Okay, we have about forty to fifty minutes of daylight
left.  How are we on gas?”

“Good,” he said, visibly relaxing
now that she’d changed her tone.  “A little over half a tank.”

“Okay.”  She raised herself up and
leaned over to where her backpack lay on the back seat.  She dug around till
she found her notebook then pulled a pen from the outside pocket.  She looked
around ,surveying the terrain, then began to sketch.  “Immediately you had a
doubt you should have said something to me,” she said, not looking up. 
“There’s no shame in asking for help.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Stone said, his tone sarcastic. 
“Ask for help from a girl.  Everyone knows that women have no sense of
direction.”

“What?  Don’t let me slap you
upside your head.  And I would do it, too, if we weren’t in such a dangerous
position.  We’re on the African continent, in case you’d forgotten.  The land
of lions and hyenas.”  She glanced to the back of the Jeep.  “Speaking of
which, does this Jeep have a cover?”

He glanced at her then focused
again on the road.