The Millionaire's Marriage Demand(12)

"I don't think so," he said.

As his eyes narrowed and his muscles tensed, Julie had a split-second to  react. Pivoting, she raced for the shelter of the woods. Brent wasn't  in good shape like Travis; she was almost certain she could outrun him.  She could hear him close behind her, too close, swearing in a steady  monotone that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. She leaped a  fallen trunk, slipped on a rock, regained her balance and dashed between  two trees. A snag tore at her arm; all she could hear was the drumming  of her heart in her ears, and Brent's harsh breathing.

Still too close. And she dared not look back.

Fear lending her wings, she took what looked like a pathway through the  trees straight up the slope, still trusting that she could outlast him.  Inwardly giving thanks that she'd attended her fitness club so  faithfully, she ran hard for several minutes. Then, her lungs heaving  for air, she dodged some shrubs, ducked under a couple of low branches  and scrambled up a sheer face of granite with an agility that, even in  the moment, amused her. She couldn't have done it in cold blood; she'd  never liked heights. Darting through some pines, their soft needles  giving her a better foothold, she ran on.                       
       
           



       

She didn't even see the hollow in the ground, burrow of some unknown  animal. One foot went down the hole, throwing her off balance. By  flinging herself sideways, Julie managed to avoid twisting her ankle.  But she landed hard, a broken branch ripping at her leg. With a gasp of  pain, she struggled to her feet and staggered on.

But there was no heavy breathing behind her. Had she, despite her fall, outrun Brent?

She threw a glance over her shoulder. Boughs gently waving in the  breeze, ferns and rusted needles on the forest floor, and no sign of her  pursuer. She was alone in the woods. More slowly, she went further into  the pines, then changed direction to throw Brent off in case he was  still following her. When she was certain she really was alone, Julie  sank down on a granite boulder, her eyes still darting this way and  that.

Her leg was bleeding very messily, she'd scraped her palm when she  landed, and her cheekbone was bruised and sore. But at least, she  thought, cheering up, she hadn't twisted or broken her ankle. All she  had to do was wait for a while, then creep back down to the shore. If  there was only one kayak left on the beach, then Brent was gone.

Taking her time, limping slightly, Julie put this plan into action  twenty minutes later. But when she finally emerged from the trees, she  saw to her dismay that both kayaks were gone.

Wrong beach. It must be.

It wasn't. She recognized the reef that she'd rounded to approach the beach. Brent had towed her kayak away.

She said every swearword that she knew, in every language she'd ever  been exposed to. While this made her feel better, it didn't produce a  second kayak. The tide had turned, the current streaming past the rocks.  She couldn't swim back to Manatuck, she'd be swept out to sea.

Great, she thought. Just great. Now what should she do?

Her mad dash through the trees had made her thirsty and given her an  appetite; but her water bottle and trail mix were tucked down beside the  seat of her kayak. Her only option was to swim back once the tidal rip  subsided. In three or four hours, she thought glumly.

How long before she was missed? Would Travis notice she was gone? Or  would he assume she'd already left on the launch without saying goodbye?  Which, after the way she'd run away from him last night, he'd be  entirely justified in doing.

Maybe he'd already left Manatuck himself.

One thing was sure. Brent wouldn't tell anyone where she was.





Travis, unusually for him, slept late that morning, so it was well past  nine when he went down for breakfast. He hesitated outside Julie's  bedroom door, tapped on the panels, and knew intuitively from the  silence that the room was empty. So she must be downstairs.

He ran down to the dining room, crowded with those guests who had spent  the night rather than be ferried out to their yachts at two in the  morning. Tables and chairs had been set out on the patio, overflowing  onto the lawn. Julie was nowhere to be seen. He cornered Charles by the  coffeepot. "Have you seen Julie?"

"No, come to think of it, I haven't." Charles chuckled. "I showed her a new spin on her serve, maybe she's practising."

Corinne hadn't seen her, either. She said coolly, "Brent left for the  mainland an hour ago with Oliver. Maybe she went with him."

His gut lurched. "Did she say goodbye to you?"

"No. But there's been such a crush of people …  oh, there are the Hallidays, I must speak to them. Excuse me, Travis."

Travis stared after her, fighting down a confusion of emotion. Would  Julie have left with Brent, without saying goodbye to her host and  hostess? He didn't think so; but then, what did he really know about  her?

The key question was whether she'd left with Brent. She'd promised to stay away from him; but was she trustworthy?

If she hadn't left with Brent, where was she?

He checked the tennis courts and the pool, without any luck. Then he  hurried down to the boathouse. Alongside a small powerboat, four kayaks  were moored. A pair of dark glasses was tucked under the bungee cords of  the red one. Julie's glasses. She'd been wearing them yesterday  afternoon.

A water bottle and a bag of nuts and raisins lay on the seat. His head  swiveled around as the door creaked open. But it was one of the  groundsmen, not Julie. He said urgently, "Did anyone go kayaking this  morning, Russell?"                       
       
           



       

"I saw Mr. Brent about an hour ago, towing a second kayak from Bear Island. I thought it was kinda funny at the time."

"Towing it-empty?"

"Yep. Just him. Then he took off in the launch with Oliver."

"By himself?"

Russell kept his face expressionless. "Him and a blond lady, sir."

That would be the blonde who'd been wrapped around Brent most of last  night. So Julie hadn't left with Brent. "Thanks, Russell," Travis said  and knew exactly what he was going to do.

Twenty minutes later, Travis was paddling around the northeast shoals of  Manatuck, Bear Island now in sight. Brent was smart enough to know that  he couldn't get away with violence. He wouldn't have hurt Julie and  left her on the island. Would he?

If he had, there'd be hell to pay, Travis thought grimly. There was a  cold lump of dread lodged in his gut; it was taking a huge effort to  prevent that dread from turning into outright terror. What had Brent  done to Julie? Why had he towed an empty kayak back to Manatuck? Julie  was no pushover, she wouldn't have sat by meekly and allowed his brother  to leave her stranded on an uninhabited island.

He'd gone far enough north for the tide to carry him toward the beach on  the island that he owned. Steering with all his strength, because he  was alone in a double kayak, he passed the reefs and saw the long  stretch of shale in front of him. Using rudder and paddle, he headed  straight for it, jamming the prow of the kayak up onto the rocks.  Swiftly he climbed out and hauled his craft out of reach of the tide.

Then he looked up. A woman was walking from the shade of the trees onto the sun-drenched shale. She was limping.

His first reaction was a relief so overpowering that he felt almost  dizzy. Julie was safe. Alive and well. It wasn't until now that he could  admit to himself how terrified he'd been of the alternative, despite  his inner conviction that Brent was too self-serving to do real harm.

His second reaction, predictably, was anger. He strode across the beach  toward her, his soft-soled sneakers crunching the shale. "Are you okay?"  he rapped.

Julie nodded. "I'm glad to see you," she said with a small smile.

He didn't smile back. "Did Brent leave you here?"

"Yes."

"If he laid as much as a finger on you, I'll have his hide for a floor mat."

"He didn't. I ran away," she said economically.

"Your leg's bleeding."

"I tripped and fell. Can we go back, Travis? I'm hungry, thirsty, and in dire need of a shower."

"We'll go back in a minute," he said, each word dropping like a stone.  "Will you kindly explain to me what you and Brent were doing out here in  the first place? You promised to stay away from him."

Her chin snapped up. "Are you insinuating I came out here with him?"

"The thought had occurred to me, yes."

"And why would I have done that?"

"You tell me."

"I came out here by myself to get some peace and quiet before breakfast.  Brent must have seen me and followed me. Although why I'm bothering to  explain this to you when you persist in thinking the worst of me, I have  no idea. Take me back to Manatuck, Travis-now. And spare me the  sermons, I don't need them."