Free Texas! Chase #2 by Sandra Brown

daughter.
    George had obviously taken Lucky's rejection of Susan as a personal affront. Or, Chase thought uncharitably, maybe he was simply disappointed that Lucky hadn't taken her off his hands. The girl was bad news, and for the time being, George was still stuck with her.
    Chase was stuck with a check he wanted badly to get rid of. Finding that Marcie wasn't at her real estate office didn't improve his disposition. "Where does she live?"
    "Can your business wait until tomorrow?"
    Esme asked. "Were you wanting to see Ms.
    Johns about listing your house or were you interested in seeing one? The weather isn't—"
    "This isn't about a house. My business with
    Ms. Johns is personal."
    The secretary's eyes were magnified even larger behind her lenses. "Oh, really?"
    "Really. What's her address?"
    She eyed him up and down. He obviously
    passed muster because she reached for a sheet of tasteful, gray stationery with Marcie's letterhead engraved across the top and wrote down an address. "The road is probably muddy," Esme said as she handed him the piece of paper.
    "It doesn't matter." The company pickup had navigated creek beds, rocky inclines, thick forests, and cow pastures to reach drilling sites. No terrain was too rough for it.
    He glanced at the address, but didn't recognize it, which was unusual since he'd grown up in Milton Point and had spent his youth cruising its streets. "Where is this?"
    Esme gave him rudimentary directions and he set out. His windshield wipers had to work double time to keep the rain and sleet clear.
    There were patches of ice on the bridges, and after skidding a couple of times, he cursed Marcie for living in the boondocks. His family lived outside the city limits, too, but at least he was familiar with that road.
    When he reached the turnoff, he almost missed it. The gravel road was narrow and marked only with a crude, hand-lettered sign.
    "Woodbine Lane," he muttered.
    The name was appropriate, because honeysuckle vines grew thickly along the ditches on either side of the road. They were burdened with a glaze of ice now, but in the spring and summer when they bloomed, they would perfume the air.
    The road was a cul-de-sac. There were no other houses on it. At the end of it stood an unpainted frame structure nestled in a forest of pine and various hardwoods. The entry was level with the ground, but the house sat on a bluff that dropped away drastically. The back of the house was suspended above the ground, supported on metal beams.
    He pulled the pickup to a halt and got out.
    His boots crunched over the icy spots on the path as he carefully picked his way toward the front door.
    Slipping and falling on ice wouldn't do his cracked ribs any good.
    The northwesterly wind was frigid; he flipped up the collar of his lambskin coat. When he reached the front door, he took off one glove and depressed the button of the doorbell. He heard it chime inside.
    In a moment Marcie pulled open the door.
    She seemed surprised to see him. "Chase?"
    "I thought the kook might have called you."
    "How did you know about the kook?"
    "Pardon?"
    Shaking her head in confusion, she stepped aside and motioned him in. "It's gotten worse."
    She commented on the weather as she closed the door against the gusts of cold wind. "How did you know where I live? Come in by the fire. Would you like some tea?"
    She led him into one of the most breathtaking rooms he'd ever seen. He hadn't known there was anything like its contemporary design in Milton Point. The ceiling was two stories high. One wall had a fireplace, in which a fire was burning brightly. Another wall, the one suspended above ground, was solid glass,
    from the hardwood floor to the ceiling twenty or more feet above it.
    An island bar separated the large living area from the kitchen. It was utilitarian; it was also designed for casual dining. A gallery encircled the second story on three sides with what he guessed were bedrooms opening off it.
    "There's another room behind