Stranger in the Moonlight Read online

  At that last, Kim’s eyes widened and part of her wanted to say, Let me out of here! But she didn’t. She put her hands where he told her, braced her feet on the floor, then nodded. She was ready.

  With a grin, Travis put the car in low and took off. To her shock, he started out going fast and he didn’t slow down for anything. With lightning reflexes, he went around potholes, or straddled them precisely. When a fallen tree blocked the way, Travis went up onto the side of the road. The car banked left at what Kim was sure was a forty-five-degree angle, and he was heading straight for a giant oak. Kim wanted to scream. She wanted to warn him that they were about to crash, but she held her breath—and kept her eyes open.

  Travis swerved to the left and missed the tree by no more than an inch. It was so close that Kim’s intake of breath sounded like a mouse’s squeak.

  He never let up speed as he put the clutch to the floor and upshifted. When he hit a hillock made by years of overgrown weeds and a rotten tree trunk, all four wheels left the ground.

  As they sailed through the air, Kim thought it could be the end of her life. She glanced at Travis, the last person she’d ever see alive.

  He turned his head a bit, his dark eyes wildly alight—and he winked at her.

  If Kim hadn’t been terrified, she would have laughed.

  When the car hit the ground, her body jolted hard—but he kept going at what seemed to be warp speed.

  Travis took the car to the side again, riding on the bank, then twisting hard to the left, then to the right and back again.

  Finally, before them loomed the back of the huge building that used to be a brick factory. But Travis didn’t slow down. He went around, over, and across three more big holes.

  The solid wall of the brick building was straight ahead and Travis was flying toward it.

  When she saw a pile of dirt in their way, Kim again had to work not to scream.

  “Hold on, baby,” Travis said, then hit the hill at full speed. They went through the air and landed hard on the other side, but they were still heading toward the building.

  He turned the steering wheel so hard to the left that he looked like he was about to wrench his shoulders out of their sockets. The car skidded to a halt so close to the building Kim could have put down the window and touched it. But she didn’t move. She was frozen into place. Her body was rigid from what she’d just gone through.

  Travis turned off the engine. “Not bad. Not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.” He looked at her. “Kim, are you all right?”

  She stayed where she was, eyes straight ahead, her hands white as they gripped the handholds. She doubted if her legs were ever going to work again.

  Travis got out and went around to her side to open the door. The building was so close that the edge of the door nearly scraped. Nearly. There was about a half inch of clearance. His parking had been precisely perfect.

  When he opened the door, Kim’s hand stayed on it and her arm was so stiff he couldn’t get the door open all the way. Slowly, one by one, he pried her fingers up.

  When he finally got the door open, he leaned across her and loosened her other hand, then unbuckled her seat belt. But she was still rigid in the seat.

  Bending, he slid one arm behind her back, the other under her knees, and lifted her out of the car. He carried her to the shade of a tree, sat down on an empty wooden spool, and held her on his lap.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said as he put her head on his shoulder. “I thought—” At the moment he didn’t know what he’d been thinking. He’d been around too many women who wanted nothing but thrills. Yet again, he’d screwed up.

  Kim was beginning to thaw out. But her first thought was that she didn’t want Travis to put her down. She wanted to snuggle on his lap for as long as it took to get him to kiss her.

  “Should I take you to your brother?” he asked softly.

  She had no idea what he meant until she remembered that Reede was a doctor. “I’m fine,” she said.

  “You don’t seem fine.” He pulled her head from his shoulder and looked at her. Her skin was pale and her eyes were wide. She looked like a shock victim—but at the same time there was something else deeper in her eyes.

  He leaned back and studied her. “You enjoyed yourself, didn’t you?”

  “I’ve never done anything like that before,” she said. “It was . . .”

  She didn’t have to say any more. He could see it all in her face. The ride down the old road had made her feel alive. It’s how he’d felt that first day when he’d ridden her bicycle.

  Smiling, Travis stood her on the ground. “So how do we get inside this place?” He started walking away.

  Kim was still a bit dazed, her legs felt weak, and her mind was full of images of what had happened in the car. She could see the tree coming at them, then swerving just before they hit. Twice Travis had taken the car through the air, all four wheels off the ground.

  “Is there an alarm system?”

  She had to blink to focus on him. “What?”

  “Do you know if there’s an alarm system on the building?”

  “I have no idea.” As she walked toward him, she nearly fell once when her legs buckled, but she held her balance.

  “I’m going to look around,” he said. His eyes were twinkling, as though he knew something she didn’t. “Stay here and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  “Okay,” Kim said, “but if you need help, I’m here.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.” Smiling, Travis went around the side of the building. He’d seen how scared she was during the drive. It was the kind of thing he’d done a hundred times in his stunt work. He had to make the star look as though he could actually do things. But Kim hadn’t screamed, even though he’d seen that at times she’d been terrified. If at any time he’d felt out of control he would have stopped, but he hadn’t. He liked that she’d been brave. Most of all, he liked that she’d trusted him.

  Kim went back to the big wooden spool and sat down. “He seems to have learned how to do a lot of things since he rode my bike,” she said aloud.

  She was sitting there, looking at the old BMW, amazed that it wasn’t in flames of protest, when a door in the building opened. She expected to see Mr. Layton, but Travis stepped outside.

  “No alarm,” he said. “Come inside.”

  “How’d you get in?” she asked as she went to him.

  “He left a window open and I climbed in it. He needs better security.”

  Kim had only been in the old building once and that had been before the rebuilding had begun. Jecca said her dad had worked the men from New Jersey in shifts 24/7. Whatever he’d done, the transformation was stunning.

  They were in a big room with tall ceilings and all around them were boxes. From what was printed on the cartons they appeared to be full of equipment and tools.

  “Looks like he kept some trucking companies busy.” Travis’s frown was deep.

  “What’s that look for?”

  He hesitated.

  “We’re friends, remember? We share secrets.”

  He smiled at her. “That’s not easy for me to remember, but I’ll try. My mother . . . Well, when she ran away from my father, she also took some money from him.”

  “Six or seven figures?”

  “Multiple seven.”

  “Yeow!” Kim suddenly realized why Travis was frowning. “You think maybe Mr. Layton used your mother’s money for . . .” She waved her hand. “To buy all this?”

  “What hardware store owner do you know who could afford this much?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, but the truth was that Kim did know quite a bit about opening a business. Her little jewelry shop was a quarter the size of this room, and to get it she’d had to take out a mortgage, borrow from her father, and max out her credit cards. She’d only paid it all off a year ago. She’d celebrated by putting herself back into debt by buying a house that was a bit more than she could afford. At