"I'm going to scout the area. I want to be familiar with every cove and tree."

He smiled. "That's what Galen said you'd do. He knows you better than I do."

"No, he doesn't."

He shook his head. "Maybe not in experience, but his instincts are very good. He knows you're obsessed."

"So do you, Dominic. We've been together for so long." She grimaced. "And why are we talking about Galen? You told me we didn't really know him."

"Things are changing." He turned and started for the house. "Chavez is on the other side of the country. It will take him a little while to regroup and send out his search dogs. We probably have some breathing space. Why don't you take a little time off and relax?"

It had taken them only five hours to get to this lovely, peaceful spot. If Chavez found out where they were, he'd be on them like a vulture. "I can't."

He glanced at her over his shoulder. "No, I can see you can't," he said sadly. "It's too bad."

"They're not in the hills," Gomez said. "But the man I sent to scout out the area reports that there's a small airport about eighty miles from here. He's questioning the personnel there now."

"If Galen reached an airport, then we've lost him. He's not going to let himself be traced." Chavez glanced with frustration at the pile of papers on the desk. No leads. Nothing.

"We'll continue to try," Gomez said.

"You're damn right you will," Chavez said. "There's no way I'm giving up. I still have a few cards to play."

He took out his phone and started to dial.

"Mama, look at me, I'm going to dive into the water!"

"I'm watching."

Barry jumped onto the tire Judd had tied to a branch of the oak tree close to the lake. Then Judd pulled the tire back several yards and let it go. The tire swung out over the water, and a whooping Barry jumped from the tire into the lake.

He surfaced, sputtering. "Did you see me?"

"I would have had to be blind not to see you," Elena shouted. "And deaf too."

"I'm going to do it again."

He swam to the edge of the lake and Dominic helped him onto the bank. "Watch me."

"Only a couple more times. It will be dark soon."

But it wasn't dark yet, and the setting sun gilded the water with beauty. Jesus, it was peaceful here. In spite of her tension, she had not been able to ignore the sheer blessed tranquillity of the surroundings during the last three days.

"Pretty." Galen dropped down beside her in the porch swing. "I like porch swings."

"You have a hammock on your porch at the ranch."

"Hammocks are for dozing. Porch swings are for socializing. I can imagine the two of us sitting here listening to the birds and the creak of the swing for the next fifty years or so."

"I can't."

"Because you're too tied up in knots to imagine anything." He reached out and took her hand. "Don't stiffen up. I just want to hold your hand. I'm not trying to lure you back into my bed." His thumb rubbed the pulse point at her inner wrist. "I'm not sure you wouldn't break into pieces if I made love to you."

"I'm not that weak."

"Heaven forbid I accuse you of that." He started to play idly with her fingers. "No weakness. You won't permit it."

"I can't permit it. I can't concentrate on anything but Chavez now." Her gaze shifted back to Barry in the water. "I was weak all those years ago. I was so afraid after he finished with me every day. I was tied up and helpless and I knew he'd be back the next day and it would start again. I wouldn't let myself cry, but I couldn't stop shaking. The only time I didn't feel weak was when we were fighting. But I knew if I let the fear come to the surface then, I'd die."

"We're all afraid sometimes."

"I can't afford to be now. I have Barry."

"And me," He lifted her wrist to his lips. "Don't forget me."

There was no danger of her doing that. He was always there, talking, moving, disturbing her. He was disturbing her now.

"Your heart's beating faster." He brushed his lips back and forth on her wrist. "I have to point out that sex is known to be a great relaxer."

"But I might break apart on you."

"I'd risk it."

"I can't risk it."

He looked at her. "If I kept on, you'd change your mind."

"Possibly. But I'd resent it."

"I know." He kissed her wrist and then placed it back on her lap. "What a dilemma for a sex-starved man. I suppose we'll just have to sit and swing and think about the next fifty years. Shh," he said as she started to speak. "I said think, not talk. Don't worry. You can't commit if you don't talk."

The creak of the swing was very soothing, and Galen's presence was restful too. He had turned off the sexual charge as if he'd flicked a switch. What an incredibly complicated man he was, she thought. Complicated and perceptive and with a seemingly limitless range of talents and potential. It was an amazing-

Galen's phone rang.

She tensed.

"Easy." He punched the answer button. "Galen."

Elena could feel his muscles tauten. "No way. Talk to me."

"Who is it?" she asked.

"Chavez."

She went cold. "He wants to talk to me?"

He nodded. "But we're not going to give him what he wants. You don't have to talk to him."

"Yes, I do. Give me the phone."

"I can deal with him."

"Give me the phone."

He hesitated and then handed it to her. "Two minutes and then you hang up."

She scarcely heard him. "I'm here, Chavez."

"I need to know where here is, Elena. You've been leading me on a chase."

He sounded so close, as if he was only yards, not hundreds of miles, away. He's not close, she told herself. He can't hurt me. He can't hurt Barry or Galen. "Go home, Chavez. You're not going to find us."

"Your voice is shaking, Elena. You're afraid, aren't you?"

"I'm not afraid of you."

"You're lying. I always knew when you were afraid. It always made the contests more interesting. Because you were fighting yourself as well as me. But the fear won out, didn't it? In the end I beat you."

"You didn't beat me."

"Of course I did."

"I pretended, you son of a bitch. And you were so conceited you were fooled."

A silence. "That's not the truth."

"Yes, it is. Can't you tell the truth when you hear it?".

"You puta."

"No, you wanted to break me and make me your whore, but I didn't let you. You lost, Chavez."

She could feel his anger vibrating through the phone. "If you're telling the truth, that only makes me want to find you all the more. We have unfinished business. I'm almost as eager to get my hands on you as I am to find my son. You remember what it felt like to have my hands on you?"

The ropes cutting into her wrists, his hands running over her body. Don't think about it. "I've forgotten. And you'll never get Barry."

"I'm going to change his name. I'll give him mine. Little Rico."

"No."

"Yes. After all, he's my child. I'll be the one who tells him what to do or not do."

Smother the fear and the anger. "Why did you want to talk to me? You don't actually think I'm going to tell you anything."