Missy Tippens - Her Unlikely Family

“Did you call the police?”

“A patrol car is on its way now.”

“Georgia, huh? What about credit-card activity?”

“None since the day she disappeared.”

Michael drummed his thumb on the steering wheel. “Okay. Thanks.”

“I’ll call as soon as we find her.”

Snapping the phone closed, he watched Josie. She had her legs crossed, foot jiggling. She spun her bracelets around her wrist. Either the woman couldn’t sit still or she was nervous.

None of this made sense. Was Josie lying? He had thought for sure he was on Lisa’s trail. He prayed he was right.

“So that call was about Lisa?” Josie asked.

“It was the P.I. I hired to locate her.”

“What did you find out?”

“He says Lisa may be in Georgia with a guy. Her car’s there, anyway.”

Josie sat up at attention, then frowned. “The creep took her car. So I assume he’s with someone else.”

“Took her car? Why didn’t she report the theft?”

“Lisa wanted to wait. She thinks he’ll bring it back.”

“Could he have come back for Lisa today?”

“Well, she was here at dinnertime. But she lit out once she saw you.”

He breathed in through his nose, trying to control the urge to yell. “You mean to tell me she was at the diner, and while you chatted and stalled, she snuck away again?”

“No, I—Do you think she could have gotten to that town in Georgia in the three hours since you got here?”

“I have no idea.”

She clicked her fingernails on the leather interior, then opened her door. “Let me run and get a phone directory, then make some calls.”

He reached over her to close the door. “Wait just a moment.”

Josie, who’d been jerking him around all evening, was trying to make an awfully sudden exit. And now she acted as if she feared Lisa had run away again? Well, he would bet the last dollar in Throckmorton’s Bank that Lisa wasn’t in Georgia with her car.

“I want you to tell me the truth, and tell me right now,” he said.

“I have told you the truth. She’s most likely still here. Then again, I’m not positive.” She reached for the door handle. “Let me try to find her and talk her into meeting with you.”

“No. You’ve had your chance. Tell me where to look.”

“Come on, Mike, I promised her. You’re putting me in a tough position.”

“If you think you’re in a tough position now, wait until I have you arrested for kidnapping.”

Think, Josie, think.

Mike looked so imposing in the dimly lit car. All angles and shadows. If she hadn’t heard from his niece that he was a law-abiding citizen, she would be pulling out her pepper spray right about now.

She forced a carefree laugh. “Kidnapping? Now you’re being ridiculous.”

“I’m dead serious. You’re keeping a minor away from her legal guardian.”

“Okay, I admit I was uncooperative at first. But she’d told me she was eighteen. And, for the record, I didn’t have anything to do with her sneaking out of the diner this evening.”

With his dark brows drawn together, he glared at her. “You could have told me as soon as you noticed her missing.”

“She’s not necessarily missing. She said something about having plans tonight. I imagine she’ll show up later either here or at my house.”

“She knows where you live? Let’s go check there.”

Josie tentatively touched his forearm, surprised at the warmth against her cold fingers. “I can’t betray her. I promised I’d protect her from you.”

“Protect?” He jerked his arm away. “What on earth did she tell you? That I beat her?”

Josie hesitated.

“Come on. I would never do a thing to hurt Lisa. I just want her safely at school.”

“Mike, she’ll come around eventually. But right now you need to do what’s best for Lisa.”

“I know what’s best for my own niece.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” Before he could argue, she said, “I need time to talk her into meeting with you. Promise me you won’t ambush her, or she may truly run again.”

He gripped the steering wheel so tightly it was a wonder it didn’t bend. He shook his head and exhaled. “Why are you doing this for a runaway teenager—a stranger?”

“Because I was in her shoes once.”

“You ran away?” he said as if surprised.

“Yep. Twice.”

“Did your parents find you?”

“They did the first time. The second time, I had just graduated from high school, so they didn’t do anything about it.”

As he digested her story, she relaxed against the seat and said, “I guess I should head home and wait. Lisa has about two hours before her midnight curfew.”

“Curfew? Is she living with you?”

Forget relaxing. She had almost let that piece of information slip. If she told him yes, he would be sitting on her doorstep around the clock. “She’s been staying somewhere safe. I keep tabs on her. That’s all I’m saying for now.”

He tried the bending-the-steering-wheel trick one more time. The man oozed tension.

Of course, she would, too, in the same situation.

“You know, I hate to sit and wait,” he said. “If you’re wrong about her whereabouts, she could be getting farther away by the minute.”

“There’s a possibility she’s at the nearby craft school. I’ll drive up there and make sure.”

He slowly turned his head and stared at Josie with his night-darkened blue eyes. “Why couldn’t you have said that as soon as you came out here?”

His intensity sent little sparks of awareness along her nerve endings. Which was absolutely crazy. His type usually made her want to shudder. “I had to make sure I could trust you,” she sputtered.

“Trust, Josie? I assure you, you can trust me.”

His inflection said exactly what he thought of her. He would understand her wariness, though, if only he knew how a rich, domineering man had let her down before.

Her conscience pricked her for being judgmental. Lord, help me not to compare Mike with my dad, not to judge him. But most of all, protect Lisa. And please, please, let her be at the craft school.

Josie continued to plead with God as she directed Mike to park at the entrance to the campus. He’d insisted on coming along. As she’d discovered, when Mike insisted, a person didn’t have much choice.

“Wait here. I’ll walk up and look in the gallery,” she said.

“It’s after ten. I would think it would be closed.”

“If I don’t find her in the gallery, I’ll see if I can find Brian’s truck.”

Mike thunked his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. “Brian?”

“The bread delivery guy. Bud said she left with him.”

With a not-at-all-happy laugh, he shook his head. “I’ll give you ten minutes. Then I’m driving up to take a look around.”

“Come on, Mike. If you chase her down now, nothing will have changed. She’ll just run again—if not tonight, then another day. Don’t blow it with impatience.”

He leaned closer, right in her face, and boy, did he smell good.

“You haven’t begun to see my impatience, Josie. Ten minutes. Not one minute longer.”

She moved closer until her nose almost touched his. “I’m not some peon crawling to you, begging for a loan.”

Without moving an inch away from her challenge, he said, “Ready, set…” Then, somehow, his watch beeped. “…Go.”

As much as she would love to argue with the maddening man, she resisted and slung the door open. She jumped out and started running up the drive. Forget your pride, Josie. Think of Lisa.

Huffing and puffing, she stopped at the main building, but it was dark. A trip around the building revealed music playing up the hill at one of the visiting artists’ cottages.

She followed the sound and about collapsed in relief when she heard Lisa’s voice. Now she had to somehow send Lisa home without giving away the fact that Mike was only two hundred yards away.

A brisk walk to the porch of one of the houses found Lisa, Brian and a group of students talking over the strains of jazz.

“Hi,” Josie said.

“Josie! What are you doing here?” Lisa’s gaze darted around, no doubt looking for Mike.

“I came to tell you to get on back to the house.”

“What about my uncle?”

“We’ll talk about him when you get there.”

“Curfew isn’t until twelve.”

“I just changed it to ten-thirty.”

“But it’s that time now.”

“Then I suggest you get going.”

“But, Josie—”

“As long as you’re under my roof, I expect you to play by my rules.” Please don’t let this backfire!

Lisa looked at her new friends and shrugged. “I guess I’ll see ya later. Thanks for telling me about the gallery opening. It was awesome.”

“Hey, anytime,” a young woman said. “I hope you’ll consider taking some classes.”

“Sure.” Lisa glanced at Josie guiltily. “When I’m old enough.” She took the hand of the tall, lanky kid next to her. “Come on, Brian.”

“Brian, I expect you to take her directly home,” Josie said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

As dignified as she could, Josie traipsed down the hill, then started into a full run as soon as she was out of sight. She met Mike’s headlights halfway up the drive and stepped in the middle of the road, putting up her hand to tell him to halt.

Once he stopped, she hurried to the passenger’s side and climbed in. “She’s here. Back up and go out the way we came in before she sees you, or she’s liable to tell Brian to head to the state line.”

Michael looked ahead up the road and thought for a moment about staying put, blocking the drive.

“If we’re lucky, they’ll take another minute or two to get to Brian’s truck.” Josie breathed heavily, her hair a wild curly mess falling out of confinement.

“How do I know you really saw her at all?”

She growled her irritation. “If my running all the way up there was for nothing, then I may just…” She growled again.

Josie might have a point. He didn’t want to risk scaring Lisa away. He’d have to believe the crazy woman beside him.

He backed the car up, then squealed out of the parking lot.

“Hey. Watch it,” she said. “You might get your Beemer dusty or something.”

He let off the gas. “I’m sorry. I don’t usually drive so carelessly.”

“I suspected as much.”

“It’s just so frustrating to get this close and not see her.”

“She’ll meet you tomorrow. I won’t take no for an answer.”

Josie didn’t seem to be jesting. “You’ll do that for me?”

“I’ll do it for Lisa. Whether she realizes it or not, she needs you.”

“Exactly. She needs my influence to get her reinstated in school where she has stability, where she has female role models.”

“I said she needs you—your love—not the substitute you’re trying to provide.”

Love. He almost laughed out loud. Hadn’t Gloria, as she’d returned his great grandmother’s engagement ring, told him he wasn’t even capable of loving? And what about his own sister? Patricia had certainly made her opinion of his love perfectly clear on the night she’d died.

Love? A stab of guilt knocked him deeper into his seat. What could he possibly offer Lisa besides a prestigious private school, a fine college education and a position at the bank?

“I’ll take you home,” he said. “I’m holding you to your word about tomorrow.”

“My car’s at the diner.”

“You know, I’m struggling with leaving this all in your hands. Do you promise you won’t help her escape tonight?”