Nightingale Way: An Eternity Springs Novel (3 page)

She chugged back a gulp of water as if it were whiskey. The real Jack had walked out on her four years ago and she hadn’t heard a word from him since. For all she knew, the real Jack Davenport could be dead. He could be living in Timbuktu. She’d never tried to find him after the divorce was final. She might be an investigator by profession, but Jack Davenport was one individual she left alone. Been there, done that, got the broken heart.

This man wasn’t Jack. He was an impostor. This man was Jack Davenport’s doppelgänger.

And you are certifiable. Get a grip, Blackburn. Now is no time to be writing fiction
.

She recognized his walk. She recognized his
scent
. She recognized his voice and his thick black hair and his strong jaw and the tiny little crook in his blade of a nose where he got hit with an elbow during a basketball game at her parents’ house. She recognized his striking blue eyes.

Jack Davenport is back
.

“No,” she said, and it came out in a little moan. As the cockpit door opened, she softly added, “Oh, heaven help me.”

“Sure, Celeste, put me down for as much as you need,” her ex-husband said into a cell phone as he stepped into the main cabin. “It’s a good cause.”

No matter how much she’d like to pretend otherwise, he
was
Jack Davenport. No one else on earth had eyes like his, the crisp blue like a gas flame that, once upon a time, had burned with passion for her. Now when they settled on her, they were cold as ice.

“Sure,” he said into the phone. “I will. Absolutely. All right. Good-bye, Celeste.”

By the time he ended the call, Cat had decided that going on offense was her best defense. “What is this all about, Jack? I don’t hear a word from you in over four years, and then you show up out of the blue one day, drug me, and abduct me? Why in the world would you do this?”

He looked hard. He looked formidable. He looked dangerous. She wasn’t afraid of him physically, but emotionally, he scared her to death.

He smiled mirthlessly. “Your mom and dad asked me to.”

Had she not been sitting down already, she would have fallen down. “Dad! You’ve talked to my dad?”

He nodded once.

Of course he had talked to her mother. But her dad? “When?”

Now he shrugged. “We talk from time to time.”

What?
“Since when?”

“You were with a guy named Alan the first time.”

Cat sucked in a sharp breath. She’d dated Alan two years ago. Jack had been talking to Dad for two years? And he’d never bothered to mention that little detail to Cat? “You took my cell phone out of Peanut’s carrier. I need it back, please.”

“Why?”

“I need to call my father.”

“Why?”

“He never said a word to me about your calls!”

“I asked him not to.”

“So? He’s
my
father. He should have told me!”

“I’m not giving you your phone.”

“Why not?”

For the first time in forever, she saw a genuine smile flash across his face. “You’ve been kidnapped. Kidnap victims don’t get to call their daddies.”

Oh, how I’ve missed that smile
. Dismissing that disturbing thought, Cat lifted her chin. “Sure they do. I watch TV. It’s proof of life for the ransom.”

“But I’m not asking for ransom. Besides, your father already has proof of life—me. I’m your proof of life, Catherine. I’m going to keep you alive—in spite of yourself.”

She winced with chagrin. “I didn’t—”

“Sure you did,” he interrupted. “You ruined the career of two politicians, three sports stars, and a freaking
America Sings
winner with your little exposé.”

It wasn’t little, she wanted to point out. It had been a twenty-thousand-word series.

“As if that wasn’t enough,” Jack continued, “two of the names you tied to the dogs are also connected to the mob. I’m surprised these guys started with arson. You’re lucky you weren’t taken out in a drive-by shooting the day the story came out.”

He put her on the defensive and she didn’t like it. “I took precautions.”

“Sure you did. I took out your ‘precaution’ with a couple of kicks. Where did you get that sorry excuse for a bodyguard anyway? Who recommended him?”

Cat figured he didn’t need to know that her hairdresser had recommended the agency, and that she had already decided she needed someone less … flirtatious.

She folded her arms and crossed her legs. “Look, I can understand why my parents might have been concerned, but why didn’t they just talk to me about it? Why bring you into it?”

Jack waited, obviously debating with himself. Half a
minute ticked by before he responded. “Because there is a slight chance this wasn’t about you. It’s remotely possible that this was a warning.”

A warning? About what? To whom? But as soon as the question formed, she knew the answer.
Melinda
. “A warning to my mother.”

“We have a situation. Your mother has been tugging on some threads in-house. People are feeling threatened.”

“What sort of threads?” she asked, though she knew he wouldn’t answer. Officially, her mother was what she called “a run-of-the-mill bureaucrat” at the CIA. She’d never hidden the fact of where she worked, but she’d always been quick to say that every organization needed an HR department and that somebody had to process benefit plan paperwork. Cat had always known there was more to Melinda Blackburn’s job than that. HR department personnel didn’t attend meetings at the White House or make extended trips overseas. Or, for that matter, recruit subordinates the likes of Jack Davenport. “Is my mother in danger?”

“She’s taking precautions. She’s seeing that your father is protected, too.”

“Good.” Cat was concerned about her father. He was a brilliant man who too often got lost in his thoughts and forgot his surroundings. If someone was targeting Melinda Blackburn’s family, Dad would have a bull’s-eye on his back, for sure. He needed protection. Skilled protection. “Why aren’t you watching over Dad?”

Again, Jack hesitated. “Actually, I volunteered for that job.”

Okay. Well. That certainly put her in her place, didn’t it? “But Dad asked you to look after me instead.”

“Yes.”

“And Melinda agreed to it?”

“She insisted on it.”

This boggled Cat’s mind. Her mother had never liked Cat’s relationship with Jack. She’d just about blown a gasket when they eloped, and she’d been the one with a divorce lawyer’s name at the ready the moment paperwork arrived from Jack.

“Since she knows your medical records, she even gave me the knockout drug to use on you,” he added. “She knew which one would be safest.”

“There is nothing like a mother’s love, is there?”

His gaze cut sharply to hers and for a long, awkward moment, a ghost hung between them. Cat quickly changed the subject. “I thought you had transferred to a different department and were stationed overseas.”

A brow arched above ice-blue eyes. “You checked up on me?”

“Absolutely not. Melinda mentioned you a time or two.”

His smirk suggested he didn’t believe her, but Cat was telling the truth. On two separate occasions, Melinda had made it known that Jack was no longer based in D.C. She’d said that she feared that Cat had still carried a torch for Jack, and she’d wanted to make sure her daughter knew that no reconciliation was in the cards.

The only thing Cat carried where her ex was concerned was a grudge. Melinda could have saved her breath. “Of course, I know better than to believe anything she says if it concerns her work. I figure it’s a fifty-fifty chance that you’re still her golden boy.”

“As opposed to her lapdog?” he asked, a winter’s chill in his voice.

She opened her mouth to apologize—it had been an uncharacteristically snotty remark—but she stopped herself. The man had drugged and abducted her, after all. Neither he nor her parents had bothered to present their case and request her cooperation before setting such high-handed plans in motion.

That’s because they all know you better than that. They know you wouldn’t have agreed to go to the grocery store with Jack Davenport, much less …
“Where are you taking me?”

“A place I own. It’s called Eagle’s Way.”

Eagle’s Way? Eagle was his code name. She wasn’t supposed to know it, but she’d overheard a phone call of her mother’s one time and the context made it clear that she’d been talking about Jack. “How long?”

“That’s impossible to know right now.”

“I need to be home on Sunday.” She nodded toward the dog who slept peacefully in her carrier belted into a seat opposite the aisle. “I am only sitting Peanut until her owner comes home after the Fourth of July holiday.”

“That’s not your dog? You got her from the pound.”

“You followed me to the shelter?”

“I followed you the entire morning. Bodyguard Ken was worthless.”

Bodyguard Ken?
“The dog belongs to a sick little girl named Megan who is going to a cancer camp in the Adirondacks. I promised her I’d watch Peanut like a hawk and that she’d be waiting for Megan when she gets home.”

Jack shut his eyes and mouthed a curse. “What day does the kid get home?”

“Sunday night.”

“All right. I’ll make sure the dog is waiting for her.”

“The dog and me?”

“The dog. I’ll make the decision about when you go back at the appropriate time.”

He’ll
make that decision? Cat had the urge to go six-year-old on him and stick out her tongue and say,
You’re not the boss of me
.

“We’re going off the map for a little while, Catherine,”
he continued. “You might as well sit back and enjoy it.”

Enjoy it? With you around? Yeah, right
. “Off the map? Where exactly are you taking me, Jack? Mars?”

Again, he showed her a real smile. “Not Mars, but it is a little bit out of this world, I’ll admit. We’re going to the mountains, Cat. Near a little town in Colorado called Eternity Springs.”

After an equipment malfunction kept them grounded overnight in Colorado Springs, Jack finally set his helicopter down at Eagle’s Way the following day.
Hallelujah
, he thought as he cut the engine. Thank God this trip was over. The last time he’d felt this much tension while piloting a bird, he’d been flying through the mountains of Pakistan with bullets chasing his ass.

He needed a dose of Eagle’s Way in the worst way. He owned houses all over the world in some gorgeous locales, but none of them soothed his soul quite like this Rocky Mountain hideaway. Today, his soul needed soothing more than ever. Dealing with Cat Blackburn was proving to be every bit as difficult as he had anticipated, and more.

He’d expected her to be a challenge. He’d been prepared for hot temper and frosty anger. He’d expected a slap in the face or a punch in the gut, and even the kick in the balls hadn’t completely caught him by surprise.

What he hadn’t anticipated was his response to her. He had thought that any sexual desire he’d felt for her was long gone, dead and buried like their marriage. In fact, he had counted on it. Instead, he’d flown halfway across the country with an extra stick in the cockpit.

He removed his headset. “Welcome to Eagle’s Way.”

“Who are those women?” Cat asked, referring to the two females standing near his pool as they flew over.

“Sarah Reese owns a bakery in town. Her daughter, Lori, is with her.”

Lori was also the college-aged daughter of Cameron Murphy, a distant cousin and relatively recent friend of Jack’s. He hadn’t met Lori yet, but Sarah had shown him pictures of the young woman. Looking forward to the opportunity to meet Cam’s daughter while putting some space between himself and his ex, Jack exited the helicopter with a smile on his face. His long legs ate up the ground between the helipad and the pool area where pretty little Sarah Reese waited.

She was no bigger than a minute with gorgeous violet eyes and dark hair cut short and sassy. Jack had taken her to dinner a few times and her good night kiss had packed a punch, but he’d figured out quickly that she was meant for Cam. Cam had recently returned to Eternity Springs, himself, and Jack was glad to see that Sarah and his cousin might be finding their way back to each other. His smiled widened even more at that thought.

“Hello, beautiful.” He gave Sarah a quick, friendly kiss. “I didn’t anticipate arriving home to such lovely scenery.”

Sarah accepted his compliment with a bit of a blush. “Please don’t arrest us for trespassing. Cam brought us up.”

“More scuba lessons?” he asked, even as he turned his attention to Lori. What a beautiful young woman. “You’re Lori. Lovely Lori. You have your father’s eyes and your mother’s smile. Welcome to Eagle’s Way, cousin.”

When he gave Lori a kiss, too, her complexion flushed to match her mother’s.

He saw Sarah’s curious gaze shift to a spot over his shoulder. Jack braced for a cutting remark or attack
from Cat, but he guessed wrong. She marched right by them, carrying her purse and the pet, without saying a word.

That loose-hipped, rolling walk of hers attracted Jack’s gaze like a magnet. He’d always liked watching her walk, especially when she wore a formfitting skirt and heels as she did now. Sex on stilts. He recalled the time—