LITMIR.BIZ

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enough, Lauren turned in, drove to a hangar operated by a charter company and parked. Blood boiling, Rafe stalked across the tarmac to intercept them.

      “Going somewhere?” he asked Gina.

      “You followed us?” she countered, her expression indignant.

      “Of course I did. It’s a good thing, too. Are you planning on skipping town?”

      “Oh, for heaven’s sakes,” Emma snapped. “There is nothing to prevent her from going anywhere, Mr. O’Donnell. Back off.”

      “I can’t do that.”

      “Then you’ll have to charter your own plane, because you’re not getting on board with us,” Lauren snapped.

      Rafe ignored them both and kept his gaze on Gina. “Why the sudden decision to run?”

      “I’m not running anywhere.”

      “Then why didn’t you mention this trip when we were talking?”

      “It didn’t come up. Besides, Lauren was still working out the details. I didn’t know if we were going.”

      “Going where?” he asked.

      She frowned at him, but she answered with barely concealed impatience. “I am going to Denver with my friends because Cassie’s mother is having surgery. We want to be there to support her. It’s not a big deal. We’ll be back in a day or so, as soon as we know that everything’s okay.”

      Rafe caught the unmistakable worry in her eyes, the hint of urgency in her voice. Because of his career, because of his mother’s short-term attention span with men, he was a cynical man. There weren’t a lot of people he trusted. Something told him he could trust Gina, at least about this.

      Finally he nodded and stepped out of her path. “Don’t make me regret this,” he warned.

      “I won’t,” she promised. Her lips curved into the beginnings of a smile. “Careful, Rafe. Someone might get the idea that you have a heart.”

      “They’d be wrong,” he said tightly, then watched her go. As she was about to take the final step into the plane, he called to her. She looked back. “I hope everything goes okay with Cassie’s mother.”

      She acknowledged his words with a wave, then disappeared inside the plane. Rafe walked slowly back into the hangar, then crossed to the office.

      Inside, he found a middle-aged woman chatting on the phone. She glanced up, murmured something to whoever was on the other end of the line, then smiled at Rafe.

      “What can I do for you?”

      “That charter you’ve got going out, did the pilot file a flight plan?”

      “He sure did. Plus, when Lauren called, she told me where they’re going.”

      “Which is?”

      Her gaze narrowed. “Are you with the media?”

      “No.”

      “Because I’m not doing or saying anything that’s going to get that woman’s picture splashed all over one of those supermarket tabloids. When she’s around here, she’s among friends. What she does and where she goes is nobody’s business.”

      “Believe it or not, I don’t give two hoots about where Lauren Winters goes, but I do care about her friend Gina. I need to know where that plane is headed.”

      Her eyes widened at his fierce tone. “Is Gina in some kind of trouble?”

      “That depends on where that flight is going.”

      “Denver,” she told him finally. “They’re going to Denver to be there for Cassie while her mom has her surgery.”

      Relief flooded through Rafe. Gina hadn’t lied to him. “Good,” he murmured. “That’s great.”

      The woman regarded him with a puzzled expression. “You think it’s great that Cassie’s mother is having surgery?”

      “No, of course not.” Any explanation he tried to give would be way too complicated and unnecessary. “Never mind. Thanks for the information.”

      “Sure thing.”

      Rafe felt lighter somehow as he drove back into town. For once in his life his trust hadn’t been misplaced.

      Of course, it remained to be seen if Gina actually showed up back in Winding River when this mission of mercy ended. Something told him that until she came back again, he was going to be doing a lot of pacing and worrying.

       7

      Rafe was not used to having time on his hands. He didn’t like being idle. Worse, he realized that he actually missed Gina, and not just because he couldn’t ask a few more sneaky questions in an attempt to learn something new about Rinaldi and the missing money. He also found it worrisome that her planned two-week trip was now creeping on into its third week with no sign of Gina in Winding River.

      “Still in town?” a gruff voice inquired just before Gina’s father slid into the booth opposite him at Stella’s. “I thought you’d be long gone by now, especially with Gina out of town for the last few days.”

      “Unfortunately, I haven’t finished my business here,” Rafe said. “Can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

      “Don’t mind if you do,” George Petrillo replied, signaling to Stella. “You never did say what your business here is, did you?”

      “No.”

      George’s gaze narrowed. “Is there some deep, dark secret to it?”

      “No, it’s just a confidential matter. I can’t discuss it.”

      “Okay, then, let me think. What kind of professions take their secrets so seriously? You don’t strike me as a psychiatrist. And given the way you were kissing my daughter, I doubt you’re a priest. How am I doing so far?”

      “Right on target,” Rafe conceded, impressed with the man’s deductive reasoning, if not the suspicion behind it.

      “Then I’d say that leaves the law. Are you an attorney, Mr. O’Donnell? And if you are, what business could you possibly have that concerns my daughter?”

      “I never said—”

      “Let’s get serious,” George said, leaning forward. “Your being here is no accident. You’re not a tourist. Your bumping into Gina way out here, when it just so happens that the two of you live in New York, is no coincidence. The way I figure it, you’re either stalking her or she’s in trouble. Which is it?”

      Rafe admired the man’s blunt assessment. He had a feeling that under other circumstances, they could get along very well. “I think you should discuss this with Gina, not me.”

      “The only person I’m going to be discussing anything with is the sheriff, if I don’t get a straight answer in the next ten seconds.”

      Rafe nodded, accepting the fatherly concern and the determination he saw on George Petrillo’s face. “Okay, then. I’ll tell you as much as I can. I came out here because of your daughter. I’m handling a case involving her business partner. I thought Gina might have some information.”

      “Does she?”

      “She says she doesn’t.”

      “Then go home, Mr. O’Donnell. If Gina says she doesn’t know anything, then she doesn’t know anything.”

      “I wish I could do that, Mr. Petrillo, but I can’t. Your daughter is my best link to Roberto Rinaldi. Sooner or later they’re bound to be in contact.”

      “And when they are, I’m sure she’ll let you know,” her father said.

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