Stolen Moments. B.J. Daniels

alone on an isolated back road, miles from the ranch, miles from town.

      Fear mixed with anger. She didn’t want this. Any of it. Her father had put his life in danger and hers, as well. Tears of anger blurred her vision.

      The car fishtailed around a corner and she slowed, but not much. She knew she was driving too fast. But she felt an urgency to get to the ranch as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the road ahead was even more narrow and full of curves as it wound through the hills, and the storm was gaining on her.

      She careened around another corner and was forced to slow even more for the next one. Ahead she could see Natalie’s new car in the barrow ditch where she’d left it earlier.

      If the Mustang hadn’t broken down, Levi would be at the ranch now. The thought raced past, making her heart race with it. Surely Natalie’s car trouble wasn’t part of some plot to—To what? To get her out on this road today?

      She was telling herself she was just being overly suspicious when she looked in her rearview mirror again. Instead of the blank darkness, light shone a few miles behind her. One of her security guards?

      Suddenly she could think of several scenarios to explain their temporary absence. Maybe one had broken down, like Natalie’s car. Just an odd coincidence. Nothing to panic over.

      Or maybe there’d been an accident involving one or both of the cars. It didn’t matter. She was convinced that at least one of them was with her again. She let out a sigh of relief as she waited for the car to catch her.

      But as the vehicle neared, she saw that it wasn’t a set of headlights but a solitary light speeding toward her. And the vehicle didn’t slow, nor did it drop in behind her. It kept coming, moving faster than she thought necessary or prudent.

      Ahead she could see a sharp curve in the road. Behind her, the single light grew larger and larger until it filled her car, blinding her.

      At the curve, she belatedly realized she was going too fast. She hit the brakes and the car began to slide around the corner. Behind her, the single headlight stayed on her. But as she came out of the curve, it moved up fast on her left and roared past.

      That was when she saw that it wasn’t a car at all but a motorcycle. A dark, hooded figure hunched over the bike as it disappeared over the next rise in a cloud of dust and dusky darkness.

      Shaken, Levi slowed the car and relaxed her hands on the wheel, keenly aware of the trembling in her fingers, in her legs. She tried to calm herself. She felt idiotic. She’d actually thought the biker had planned to force her off the road. Instead, the fool was probably just trying to outrun the storm.

      This wasn’t like her. She didn’t panic easily, didn’t let things spook her. But she was spooked.

      Behind her, the road was again empty but darker as the storm swept in. Ahead, the single headlight beam of the motorcycle shone in the distance then disappeared around a bend in the road.

      It comforted her a little just knowing she wasn’t alone on this back road. The ranch wasn’t far now. Another five miles to the turnoff. Then she’d be home. Safe.

      Rain began to fall, huge, sopping drops that pelted the windshield like pebbles. Lightning lit the sky for an instant, then thunderclouds obliterated everything like some ominous eclipse.

      She turned on the wipers, dropped down a hill and around a sharp curve. Her headlights picked up the stone abutments of the bridge over the creek and something else. Something in the middle of the road at the mouth of the narrow bridge. Something large and bright. The rain-streaked shine of polished chrome turned into a motorcycle. The motorcycle lay on its side in the middle of the road, the rider sprawled next to it, blocking the road.

      Levi laid into her brakes, the car skidding through the downpour toward the fallen bike and rider.

      The fool, she thought frantically. He’d been going way too fast for the conditions and the storm had still caught him.

      She stopped the car just feet from the rider. Her headlights pierced the falling rain to illuminate skid marks in the gravel and mud, the wrecked bike, the motionless rider.

      Levi didn’t remember rolling down her window as she brought the car to a standstill. But now rain swept in, accompanied by a low, mournful moan.

      In the headlights, she saw the rider lift one arm, then let it drop again. As the rider tried to get up, the hood fell back, exposing a head of long red hair and a distinctive female profile. Another moan shattered the stillness.

      Levi hesitated, but only for an instant. She realized that the woman could lie there for hours and no one else might come along on this road tonight, especially with it being Thanksgiving.

      After opening the car door, Levi got out, the rain drenching her to the skin through the thin cotton of her holiday dress as she started toward the downed biker.

      A boot heel crunched on the gravel behind her. Levi started to turn. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the outline of a large dark figure, but before she could react, strong arms enveloped her, lifting her off her feet. A massive hand muffled her screams as she was dragged backward through the rain.

      In the glare of the headlights, she watched the redhead get effortlessly to her feet and turn to look at her. For a fleeting instant, Levi thought she saw surprise in the woman’s expression. Then she felt something prick her skin. And everything went black.

       Chapter Two

      Levi swam in a sea of warm darkness, caught in its seductive hold. She didn’t know how long she’d been under as she began to swim toward the surface, sensing the light above her growing brighter.

      If only she could open her eyelids, but the effort was too much. Her limbs felt leaden and her mind groggy and jumbled with strange, terrifying images that danced in and out and seemed so real. She tried to grasp one, but it scudded away, a wisp no more tangible than smoke.

      Still shrouded in the ominous dreams, she finally managed to surface, opening her eyes a crack, afraid of what she’d find. She blinked, becoming aware of two things. She was in a small airplane—a private jet, by the plush interior and propellerless hum—and she was not alone.

      * * *

      FROM ACROSS THE AISLE, Seth Gantry watched her come out of the drug-induced sleep. The resemblance had been startling. He’d seen it the moment she stepped from her car into the glare of the headlights. Her hair, a tumble of dark burnished waves cascading around her shoulders. Her body, slim and long, softened by full curves.

      It had stopped him like a shotgun blast to his chest. Shanna. He’d stood, too stunned to move. For one breath-stealing moment, he’d believed it really was her standing there. Then she’d turned and he’d seen the woman’s face. And reality had come like a blow.

      But even now in the light of the plane’s interior, he could see similarities between the two women. The hair. The wide-set eyes fringed with dark lashes. The high cheekbones.

      But he could also see differences. The full, sensual mouth. The patrician features.

      And yet when she opened her eyes, he thought they would be blue. As blue as Texas bluebonnets. And as filled with that silent pleading as the last time he’d looked into them.

      The woman opened her eyes, blinked, then looked over at him. They weren’t blue at all, but a surprising pale violet. And all he saw in them was a drugged blankness.

      She wasn’t Shanna. Not that he’d really believed she was. Except for that split second of insanity. So why did just looking at her hurt so much?

      “Hello,” he said, his voice rough with emotions he thought he’d buried years ago. Obviously he hadn’t buried them deep enough. Disappointment sat on his chest, making each breath a hard-won victory.

      She blinked again, looking at him with an empty vagueness that confirmed the heavy-duty muscle relaxant had done its job.

      The