Silent Fall

bigger deal to Erica."
    "Hey, she wasn’t some innocent girl. She’d been having an affair with Ravino, and I’m sure there were many more men in her life."
    "Even so, she might have had feelings for you."
    "Yeah, that’s why she came to Tahoe and drugged me."
    Catherine set down her cup and leaned forward in her chair, resting her arms on the table. "What exactly did she say to you? You must have had some idea what she wanted."
    "All she said was that she had to talk to me. Frankly I was adding the weeks up in my head and thinking she was about to drop a pregnancy bombshell on me. So when she insisted on going somewhere private, I agreed. That’s why I went with her into the woods. I didn’t want her to cause a scene at the wedding reception."
    "Was she pregnant?"
    "She never said she was, but we didn’t have a long conversation. She just kept walking, and I was feeling so sick I could barely stumble along, much less get any words out. She said something about it being my turn to pay up. The next thing I knew, I woke up on my back in the forest, and almost twelve hours had passed." He paused, thinking about his missing cuff link. "What else did you see when you went by Erica’s cabin?"
    "Glass on the ground. The front window was shattered. It appeared as if someone had broken in."
    "Or it was made to look that way. And my cuff link was found inside to set me up for something."
    "Her disappearance," Catherine finished.
    "Exactly, which means I have to find her fast." He drank the rest of his coffee, adding to the adrenaline rush going through his body. He needed to take action, regain control.
    "How are you going to find her?" Catherine asked. "Do you think she went home? She lives in San Francisco, right?"
    "Yes, but it’s doubtful she’d go home, not if she’s supposed to be missing."
    "What about her family? Where do they live?"
    He thought for a moment. "Bakersfield. But she told me that she hadn’t been home in years and was estranged from her parents, so I don’t think she’d go there."
    "Have you been able to remember anything else that she said to you when you went into the woods last night?"
    He’d been racking his brain on that subject ever since he’d woken up. "Erica said she had no choice. She was caught, and it was her only way out. Someone else is involved in whatever is going on. I need to go back to the lodge. I’ve got files on my laptop from the Ravino case. Maybe a name will jump out at me. That is, if my laptop is still in my room. I don’t seem to have my key." He paused, not liking the way Catherine looked at him. Her gaze was so intense, it made him more than a little uncomfortable. "What?" he demanded. "Why are you staring at me like that?"
    Instead of answering, she reached across the table and covered his hand with hers. He felt a jolt of electricity. Was it a psychic connection or something more basic, something sexual? His body was certainly revving up in anticipation. He told himself to get a grip. He was in the middle of a mess that could be traced back to his last one-night stand. He certainly didn’t need another.
    "Catherine."
    "Sh-sh." She closed her eyes.
    He thought he would feel relief away from her mesmerizing gaze, but her touch sent waves of heat through his body. His heartbeat quickened and his fingers unconsciously tightened around hers. He had the insane feeling that he could never let her go, that she was going to be very, very important to him. That feeling scared the shit out of him. He was a loner. He liked it that way. He enjoyed women, but he’d never wanted one of them to stay longer than a night or a weekend. And he wasn’t going to change now, not for her, not ever.
    Still, when Catherine opened her eyes he caught his breath in anticipation of what she would say.
    "We’re connected," she murmured.
    "That’s because you’re holding my hand." He tried to make a joke out of her statement, to lighten the tension.
    "It’s more than that." She frowned as if she weren’t happy about it either. "It’s deeper, much deeper. I just don’t know why."
    "That’s cryptic. Sounds like fortune-teller mumbo jumbo."
    She met his gaze head-on. "I know you’d like it to be. Where’s your tie, Dylan?"
    He started at the abrupt change in subject, then felt around his neck, realizing his tie was gone. "I must have lost it, or Erica took it off. Maybe it’s in her