I dont know that I can help you with your brother, Kansas.
I know. I understand that. But Im really coming into this area coldI dont know anything. If nothing else, Im hoping you could give me some leads or ideas.
Ill try. His forehead suddenly creased in a frown. For starters, was the house locked when you got here? How did you get in?
Kansas could have told him that shed climbed on two suitcases and broken in by jimmying a window latch with a crowbar. But somehow she didnt think Pax would be too quick to aid a helplessly impractical city slicker if she confessed such resourcefulnessor her willingness to commit breaking and entering without a single ethical qualm. The house was locked, which reassured me at first. I mean, it seemed to indicate that Case planned to be away. But then I got inside...
She ushered him around, trying to show him the house as it had first appeared from her own eyes. Her brother had barely had two cents to rub together. The place hed rented was a long way from deluxejust four rooms, all simply done in adobe and tile.
The red-tiled kitchen was no bigger than a walk-in closet, with aging appliances and a jutting counter that functioned as an eating table. I had to clean up here. Case had left dirty dishes piled in the sinkwhich wasnt untypical of himbut the food was just crusted on. When I opened the refrigerator, there was spoiled milk, lunch meat that had turned prehistoric... She shook her head. Maybe hed planned on going somewhere, but not for this long. Not for three weeks.
Case wasnt famous for planning ahead, Pax said pointedly.
I know hes a little...impulsive. But he left so many other things just hanging. She jogged ahead. Just off the kitchen was a utility room, where an aging washing machine and dryer were located. She showed Pax how clothes had been left in the washer, dried out but never transferred to the dryer. And then she zoomed past him toward the only bathroom in the place, where basic mens toiletries were still strewn around the sinktoothpaste, shaving cream, razor, deodorant. Everything he left is daily-life-necessity stuffnothing hed take for an evening, but positively things he would have packed if hed planned on being gone for three weeks.
I think youre rightthe clues add up to a trip he didnt plan. But that still doesnt mean that Case disappeared in some frightening or scary sense, Kansas. Hes just a kid, and few kids that age excel at responsible choices. He could easily have made a spur-of-the-moment decision to take off.
His voice reminded her of the nap side of velvet: soft, gentle, soothing. He probably calmed dozens of wounded critters with that sexy baritone, but it scraped against her feminine nerves like squeaky chalk. How was she ever going to get through to Pax if he persisted in being so logical?
Maybe if I show you the bedroom, she said in frustration, and then stopped so quickly in the middle of the hall that Pax almost ran into her. No. Forget the bedroom.
Why?
Because she had lingerie and clothes and her brand of girl stuff wildly strewn all through her brothers bedroom. Because she was oddly edgy around Pax without exposing an intimately unmade, rumpled bed to his dark eyes. Because, she said, there are just more important things to show you in the living room.
Okay, he said, as gently as if he were talking to a skittery mouse.
She felt skittery. It wasnt just this increasingly strange feeling she had around Pax, but the attack of anxiety raising again about her brother. Something had happened to Case. She knew it. And walking into the living room intensified that restless feeling of worry and panic tenfold.
She gestured toward the pots of dead plants on the tile floor by the sliding glass doors. You can see those plants wilted and died from lack of water...which, again, made me think that Case had never expected to be gone for so long. But those plants are so weird, besides...I mean, they look like ugly weeds, hardly some charming little philodendron or standard houseplant. And I cant imagine my brother taking the time to fuss with any plantshe never had a homemaker bone in his whole body. So that really struck me wrong, and then there was the letter
What letter?
She whisked around the worn tan couch and old, scarred bookcase. The living room was furnished with typical rental property decorbland beiges and brownsso ordinary that she had no way to explain to Pax why the room first scared her. He couldnt know her brother. Not the way she did.
Case had always been more into playing than deep thinkingyet there were books about mysticism and religions and heavyweight philosophy stashed all over the bookshelves and tables. A stained-glass pentagram hung from one window; a Tibetan prayer wheel was stuck on a shelf. Maybe the previous renter had left them, because Kansas couldnt believe Case even knew what those symbols meant. The prints and posters tacked on the walls were all surreal unearthly scenes, wild and dark, and absolutely nothing like her brothers taste. At least the brother she knew.
But the most disturbing thing for Kansas was the letter. At the far corner of the living room was a battered pine desk, where shed found the letter yesterdaya half-finished missive, to her, in Cases blunt scrawl and dated three weeks before. She picked up the white notebook paper, feeling such a huge well of anxiety that she could hardly swallow. Case would never have left a half-finished letter. And its to me. He mentions a girl, Serenaactually, he brought up her name beforebut I have no idea what her last name is. And most of the letter is about how he finally found a way to turn his life around, something he was serious about and committed to...but thats when it ends. I dont know what hes talking about.
She spun around to hand Pax the letter, expecting him to be right behind herbut he hadnt followed her across the room. Instead he was hunkered down by the sliding doors, sniffing and then fingering the leaves of those long-dead plants.
Do you know what those plants are? she asked him.
Yeah. I think so. Its a plant called datura. Common enough in the desert. Some call it jimsonweed.
Why on earth would he grow a weed? Kansas asked bewilderedly, and then sucked in a breath. Dont tell me its something like marijuana. Id never believe you. My brother has faultshe can be wild and irresponsible and he doesnt always think things throughbut at heart, he couldnt be more clean-cut. He was never the type to mess around with recreational drugs
Its not an illegal substance, Kansas. Nor is it a recreational drug.
Since that was exactly what she wantedand expectedto hear, Kansas should have felt reassured. Yet her heart suddenly seemed to be thudding louder than a base drum. Pax straightened, and then walked straight toward her and picked up the letter.
While he studied the letter, she studied him. Although Pax clearly wasnt a man to reveal emotion in his expressions, she sensed something had changed. Likely he had only made this visit because shed played out the role of a lady in distress, not because he really believed her brother was in trouble.
But there was something dead quiet about the way he read that letter. And when he finished, he glanced back at the plants.
But there was something dead quiet about the way he read that letter. And when he finished, he glanced back at the plants.
Whats wrong? she asked. You know something.
He hesitated. I dont know anything, I told you. When Case first dropped in town, I ran into him in a restaurant. He had no place to bunk down, no money in his pockets. It was no hardship for me to give him a hand. He stayed with me for a short stretch, and I gave him part-time work in my surgery until he had some cash ahead. Then he found this place, got a job at a store in town. He stopped by to talk sometimes, shoot the bull. Thats all, Kansas. I wasnt really in his confidence
You know something, she repeated, her gaze on his face. What? Something about those plants?
When he hesitated again, her instincts set off mental smoke alarms.
Pax, for cripes sake, youre scaring me half to death. If you have some idea where he is, what happened to him
Like I said, I dont know anything...look, why dont we just sit down for a minute. I didnt mean to shake you up. Ill explain what I know. Well just talk about this real calm, real quiet.
Okay, Kansas said. And on the catch of a breath, screamed at the top of her lungs.
* * *
Pax already had a few clues that Kansas was no more predictable than a loaded gun, but her sudden earsplitting scream came from absolutely nowhere. For such a sprite, she had a prize-winning set of lungs. And if the scream wasnt enough to stun him speechless, she suddenly threw herself straight into his arms.
He grabbed her. It wasnt a choice or thought, but just a basic, masculine physical response. The scream still ringing in his ears sounded petrified, and his instinctive reaction was to protect her. Hed have done the same thing for any other small, vulnerable creaturewoman, child, animal, would have made no difference.
But in the spin of those seconds, Pax recognized a telling difference. Heat suddenly charged through his veins. Whatever scent she was wearing hit his nostrils with muscle-tightening awarenessno sweet, safe, flowery perfumes for Kansas, but something just like her: spicy and sensual and disturbingly unignorable.
Shed slammed into him with the force of a catapultan awkward, miniature catapult. Her weight didnt throw him off-balance, but she did. Never mind her size. That small trembling body was still a womans body, with a heart heaving like thunder and breasts layered so explicitly against him that every masculine hormone came stinging, singing awake. She had her arms cuffed so tightly around his waist that he couldnt breathe. For that millisecond, he didnt want to.
He wasnt expecting the jolt of chemistry. Not to her. Not with her. Even accounting for a stretch of abstinence, hed never been remotely attracted to dynamite or trouble, and from his first glimpse, hed sensed Kansas was both. Understanding his incomprehensible response to her would have to come later, though.
Her hair was stiff with mousse and tickled his chin; her dang fool shoulder-length earrings tangled with his collarbut over the top of her head, he abruptly spotted the reason for her scream. An extremely hairy orange and black tarantula was scooching slowly across the floor.
His heartbeat immediately simmered down and he almost laughed. Not at her fear, but at her response to the avicularia. Kansas had already struck him as emotional and impulsive and pure female. Somehow he could have guessed that shed never waste time on a halfway gasp when a full-body sissy scream would do.
Kansas, he said gently, its just a spider.
You call that a spider? I call it a monsterbig enough to kill us both! How do you live in this horrible country? Ill never sleep for a week!
If you let me loose, Ill take care of it, he said soothingly.
If you think Im letting go of you, youre out of your mind! But having made that completely irrational statement, she reared back her head and shrieked again when she saw the tarantula.
By tomorrow, maybe, his ears might stop ringing. Im not saying you want to be bitten by one, but its not going to attack you. If you just calm down for two seconds
Calm down? I hate spiders and crawly things! Oh, God, oh, God. Im gonna have nightmares about this for a year!
Pax opened his mouth to try to reassure her againand abruptly and completely closed his mouth.
Kansas, still ranting, tore loose from his arms. Still raving about how petrified she was, she raced across the room and grabbed a folded newspaper. Still claiming to be an ace-pro wuss who couldnt handle, just couldnt handle, creepy-crawly critters, she scooped the tarantula onto the paper, whisked across the room to open the sliding doors and let the critter outside.
When she slammed the glass door closed, she leaned against it with a dramatic hand on her chest. I think Im gonna have a heart attack.
Pax scratched his chin. Hed thought she was going to have a heart attack, too. He would have quickly educated her about how painful a tarantula bite could beif shed given him the chance. He would also have taken care of the critter for herif she hadnt moved at the speed of light and done it herself.
For someone who made big noises about being a self-proclaimed coward and a gutless wimp, Kansas wasnt quite living up to her image.
Or maybe she just wasnt what she seemed.
Kansas suddenly peered up at him. You probably think Im a scatterbrained ditz.
That thought had crossed his mind. Actually its a pretty good idea to be scared of tarantulas...and the same goes for a few other desert critters who live around here. Most have a far more exaggerated reputation than they deserve, but a tarantula bite can hurt real good. Best to stay away from them.
Ill be happy to. She clawed a hand through her hair, which made a cowlick stick up in a spike. Im gonna have the willies all night unless I check every corner of the house for any more of those things.
Pax could have offered. It wasnt a lack of chivalry that kept him silent, but just plain dark humor. Kansas kept saying how terrified she was, but she certainly didnt seem to be counting on anyone to rescue her. A man might even come to the confounded conclusion that the lady was damn used to rescuing herself. He glanced again at the ethereal blouse, the fragile bones, the sky-soft blue eyes, the impractical baubly jewelry dangling and tangling all over the place...
Paxdo you want some wine or something? Before that tarantula scared the wits out of me, I thought you were going to tell me something about my brother.
Im not much on wine. He glanced at his watch. And its getting pretty late. Ive got a call on a rancher at six in the morning.
Immediately she looked guilty. I didnt mean to take so much of your time.
Hey, I volunteered. More to the point, Pax just wasnt sure what to say about her brother. Long before Kansas arrived, hed had some suspicions clawing in his mind about what Case might have gotten himself involved with. The things shed showed him around the place had worried him more.
But suspicions werent fact. And even if his worries were true, Pax still wasnt sure what or how to tell Kansas anything. No question, she had a lionesss fierce loyalty to her brother. That was a sweet quality, a damn fine quality that Pax only wished someone had felt toward him in his own life. But to let an emotional, impulsive sissy of a city baby loose in a situation way out of her kenhell, Kansas could land herself in a heap of trouble, if not downright danger.