Her little car careened onto the shoulder, pinging his bike and long, denim-clad legs with gravel, but she regained control. The beat-up sedan behind her raced past Tag in hot pursuit. Gravel sprayed his boots and his bike like bullets. Only he didnt get any hormonal bang from these punks.
Damn. He knew that junk heap. Rusty and Hank. Not kids. Two mean guys who were mad at the world in general and out for vengeance against him tonight. What if they took it out on her?
Hed lied to Jeffries. Those guys were bad news. As bad as the thugs whod almost killed him in the swamp. After hed fired them, theyd sprayed paint all over the cars in the parking lot out back of Frenchys restaurant. Painted the outer walls of the kitchen in purple graffiti.
Correction. His restaurant now.
He had a score to settle. A damsel as a trophy only upped the stakes.
Tag whipped his big bike onto the asphalt road, gunned it.
The cars raced north at double the speed limit, flying over the lighted bridge, veering left on screaming tires, onto Fulton Beach Road. The moonlit bay glittered to the east of them. The mansions on pilings that lined the canals loomed tall and dark to the west.
The quaint road along the beach, with its cottages, historic Fulton Mansion and motels, narrowed, roughened, but the girl and her pursuers kept driving like maniacs. Just as she got to the wharves and warehouses that lined the waterfront near his own restaurant, a black shadow raced from the water side into the road.
Her brake lights flashed.
Adrenaline pumped through Tags veins.
Had she hit whatever it waskilled it
Animals touched a soft spot, especially strays. He had a collection of mongrel dogs and cats that lived out back in the woods behind his house.
Her car spun off to the right, bounced over something on the shoulder, and rolled to a crooked stop in front of the alley that ran between two abandoned fish houses. A long shadowy tail disappeared into the tall reedy grasses of the marshy wetlands on the other side of the road.
The junk heap came to a stop right behind her car, ramming her.
The woman in skintight white stumbled out of her sports car.
Rusty and Hank fell on top of her.
Party time.
Tag ripped his bike off road, stopping so fast, he nearly rolled. His right boot hit white shell, and he skidded in a geyser of white dust.
Party time.
Not their party.
His.
Hed been spoiling for a fightand a woman.
Looks like he had his own personal wish fairy looking out for him up there in heaven.
Frenchy?
Stay with me, Frenchy.
A girls terrified scream went through Tag like a knife. He was off his bikerunning.
Two
Tonight should have been the happiest night of Claire Woodss life. Instead, tears of disillusionment stung her eyes. North had let her drive off. So, now here she was, forty miles from home, her blond hair whipping her face like a mop, and two unsavory goons honking on her tail.
She hit the accelerator. Nothing was turning out the way shed planned. She had so wanted her wedding to be a fairy tale, but as the big day approached Claire Woods, who everybody thought spoiled and pampered, was feeling bereft and hollow.
If only Melody, her quirky, irrepressible, unpredictable sister, hadnt come home to spoil everything!
It was just like Melody to helicopter off that freighter bound for China and fly hometonight! Just like her to stage that provocative dance for Norths benefit and steal Claires show and maybe her man.
Claire had wanted to shout, Im the bride! North loves me now! Not you! But, of course, shed only stood there with a frozen smile while Melody hummed and did her cute routine.
And North
Its not Norths fault!
He hadnt known Melody would pull one of her stunts. Who but Melody would fly in from China just to crash their party? From the second Melody had waltzed into the yacht club ballroom in those tight pants and shimmery blouse, looking like she owned the place, everybody had been electrified. Nobody could stop talking about that buffoon, Merle somebody, a fly-by-night P.I. their daddy had sent to find her six months ago. Melody had laughingly explained how shed lured Merle on board her China-bound freighter and then tricked him into walking the plank, so to speak.
Why did you come home? North had demanded of Melody. Why now?
II couldnt miss your wedding.
You sure missed the last one. Norths low voice was rapier-sharp.
If North truly loved Claire, he would be chasing Claire right now instead of the two hoods flashing their highbeams and honking behind her.
Instead, her fiancé and her sister were still at the party, probably making eyes at each other this very minute, while she was driving around alone.
No. No.
A vision of Melody humming softly, Melody, in those skintight black jeans and a white silk shirt, eyes aglow, her honey-gold hair streaming down her slim back took shape in Claires too-vivid imagination. Her sisters dance had been so enthusiastic, so spontaneous, and so original that everybody had stopped dancing and started clapping the moment she kicked off her shoes and threw them to North. Everyone except North whod gripped those sparkly high heels in a strangle-hold. Not that he hadnt watched her dance, his expression darkening when the other men had started clapping.
How much of her childhood had Claire spent curled up with a book or in her room alone with her dreams while bubbly Melody was out in the yard putting on a show that had all the neighborhood children, especially the boys, spellbound?
Applause and love and sheer sexiness came so easily to the uninhibited Melody.
All her life Claire had wanted to be first with somebody.
Dont think about Melody, Claire whispered to herself. Dont think about the pain in Norths eyes when hed watched her dance.
But I cant stop.
Claire had never outgrown the childish habit of talking to herself, especially when she was in her car alone or primping in front of her mirror.
Chase me then! shed laughingly challenged North a little while after Melodys dance.
The memory made her blush, made her eyes burn. What a brazen fool she was. When would she ever learn North was too cool and mature to play what he called her childish games?
Or was that really it? Did he love her, really love her as once he had loved
He had told her once, I can never love you as I loved Melody. But I believe what well have will be better and stronger than what I felt for her.
Claire was sick of driving around. More than a little scared, too, and not just of losing North. The jerks behind her were persistent. Her parents warnings played like tapes in the back of her mind.
A woman alone on the road is prey, Claire. This in a shrill tone from her bossy mother, Dee Dee.
When a man sees a woman alone, he takes it as an invitation. This from Sam, her all-knowing doctor father.
Maybe the old folks were smarter than shed thought. Her legs had been jelly ever since these two goons had almost sideswiped her, forcing her onto the shoulder a while ago.
The humid wind that battered her face and tangled her butter-colored hair stank with the pungent fragrance of a plankton-laced bay. When their car speeded up, attempting to pass her again, Claire shakily pushed a sticky strand of hair out of her eyes.
Her front wheels skidded. Her heart skittered.
Im not scared!
When the car in her rearview mirror rushed forward and she could no longer see it, she yanked her steering wheel to the left and cut them off. Honking, they eased off the accelerator and veered back into the right lane behind her. So did she. They slowed, and she relaxed enough to rehash the humiliating little scene at the country club with North and Melody, which was the reason she was in this mess.
North never wanted to discuss wedding details, maybe because his first wedding had ended in such disaster.
Well all be happier when you grow up! North had thundered distractedly a few minutes after Melodys dance had ended. Claire had been trying to discuss some of the difficulties with wedding costs. So, scale back. Compromise!
North could hold onto his cowboy cool a whole lot longer than most guys, so his uncustomary show of temper should have warned her.
But I cant. Its our wedding day. If your family would just
You know what your problem is? North had waved one of Melodys shoes at her. Youre spoiled, Claire.
Me? Spoiled? Youre the big multimillionaire rancher.
Men. At first she hadnt been able to believe that North, whose wealth was legendary, had joined forces with the wedding consultant, caterers, her parents, and his family to attack her. Why couldnt he understand how unsure she felt with Melody home and everybody else pulling her to pieces?
Darling, Mother keeps saying she just wants our wedding day to be fairy-tale perfect, shed whispered, something special well remember forever. Were doing this for youto make up for Claire stopped, staring at the sparkly shoes he still held because she couldnt say, my sister jilting you at the altar.
I wish you two would worry a little more about what comes after that dayour marriage.
Oh, thatThats the happily-ever-after part.
Damn it. North had shrugged wearily. Im beginning to wonder about that.
Finally, shed said what was really on her mind. Is this about Melody?
Hell, no. But hed reddened, and the sparkly shoes had glinted. Lifes not lived like the glossy pictures of those bridal and home magazines you and your mother pore over all the time. I wish to hell wed eloped.
Suddenly shed realized everyone, especially Melody, had begun watching them when North had raised his voice in annoyance. Claire had felt frightened and guilty when Norths gaze had drifted back to her blushing sister.
Im sorry, Claire had said. So sorry. I shouldnt have said anything. When hed scowled at her and then at the shoes and hadnt apologized, she hadnt known what to do. Suddenly shed realized she shouldnt have upset him with wedding details right after Melodys dance. Dance with me, darling, shed pleaded, realizing he hadnt said one word about how beautiful she was in her white sheath.
Again his black gaze had drifted to Melody. Im really not in the mood to put on a show!
But were supposed to be madly in love.
Claire, your sisters show is a hard act to follow. And now youve got me all worked up, too. I cant justYoure always pressuring me, chasing me
Cause you never chase me.
His black eyes left Melody and flicked over Claire with a strange look of pity that startled them both. When he pressed his handsome lips together and continued to regard her thoughtfully, she was terrified.
How will it look to everybody if we just stand around, not dancing, not talking? Claire pleaded. And holding my sisters shoes?
Frankly, I dont much give a damn.
Youd better be careful, Melody had quipped, gliding up to them. That sounds a lot like Rhett Butlers exit line.
A look had passed between Melody and North. Then Norths face had hardened and he slammed the shoes into her open palms. And youre just the girl to appreciate a good exit line.
Melody had gone as pale as death.
Claire had felt a burst of sympathy for North.
Would he ever get over her sister?
Of course, he would. He was. She had just been immature to push him.
Would he ever be over her sister?
People were turning to stare. Not knowing what to do, Claire had flown out of the club and gone to her car.
North would follow. He would leave the stuffy party where all anybody ever did was try to impress each other. He would chase her. He had to.
Nobody had been more upset than Dee Dee when Claires wacky, unconventional sister had broken Norths heart. Just as nobody had been more elated when hed found consolation first in Claires friendship, and then in her love.
Claire banged her hands on her steering wheel and listened to the band. Even out here the throbbing music was loud, almost loud enough to drown out the loneliness in her young aching heart, almost.
Go back inside.
No, any minute North will march out those polished mahogany doors with the shiny brass handles and prove his love for meto everyone.
But the doors didnt open, and the brass handles began to swim in a sea of hot tears. North stayed at the club.
And even though Claire had known deep down that she was, at least, partly in the wrongshe hadnt had the guts to go back inside, face Melody and meekly apologize to North.
Her mother, Dee Dee, whod all but engineered this marriage after Melody had jilted North, was, once again, planning the wedding of the year. Only Dee Dee was determined that Claires wedding would be so magnificent everybody would forget and forgive what Melody had done. But the financial burden of marrying great wealth for the second time was a strain on their upper-middle-class budget, a fact her father never let Dee Dee forget, which was why Claire had asked North to help.
Have a wedding your family can afford, hed said. After what Melody pulled, all that matters is a sacred ceremony.
Mother said the wedding had to be perfectperfect. Just the event to reestablish Dee Dee Woods as a Texas hostess to be reckoned with after having been made the laughing-stock of the town last year by Melody. The effort and pressure to impress the right people had her mother in bed with what she called heat headaches.
Bridal nerves. Maybe thats what had Claire so uptight and jittery latelyeven before Melodys return.
The moon lit a path from the horizon to the shoreline. Not that she noticed when the jerks behind her honked loudly.
Their bumper slammed into hers. A sickening chill of fear shivered up her spine.
She had driven forty miles on this fools errand to regain her pride. Halfway to Rockport where her parents had a condo on the bay, the punks had forced her onto the shoulder.
They honked flirtily again. Somehow she had to get back to North and apologize, really apologize. But first she had to shake these juvenile delinquents before she left Rockport.
When the hoods flashed their high beams, she stomped down on the accelerator of her sports car.
It was now or never.
As the cars raced, she began to practice her apology.
Oh, North, Im sorry. You were right and I was wrong. Youre my best friend. She would close her long lashes, let them drift open slowly. Of course, I love you just as I know you love me. Seeing MelodyThose shoesThat danceI just wanted you to chase meTo excite meTo thrill meTo act like a caveman for once.