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.It had frightened her more than them.She’d been the one who’d had to extinguish the flaming food.She watched the men file in.There was the tall blond, Cotton, then Slim, the lanky cowboy with the scarred hands.Burns? She had an acquaintance who’d burned himself with chemicals while working at a meth lab.He had scars like that.Then there was Roy, the quiet one and Nevada, the one who looked like an ex-con to her.Not his face, but something about the way he carried himself.And then there was Will.Will Jarvis.If J.T.wanted to know who had taken his stupid distributor cap he should look to Will.The man had passed her on the highway yesterday.She distrusted a man who wouldn’t help a damsel in distress.The men all seemed to brighten when they were able to recognize the food on the table.The men all took their places.All except for Luke Adams, the shy one.As J.T.joined the men at the table, she put the plate with pancakes next to him, took her chair and waited.J.T.filled his plate and passed the food.She wondered where Luke was, but was relieved to see the men filling their plates without McCall having to hold a gun to their heads.But the true test would be McCall.She stole a look at him, anxious for him to take a bite of the pancakes.Instead, he looked pointedly at her empty plate.She couldn’t possibly eat at this ridiculous hour of the morning, could she? With his gaze still on her, she took two small pancakes and a strip of bacon.Foregoing butter or syrup, she took a tiny bite of the pancake, feeling like a monarch’s official food taster.She blinked in surprise.She took another bite, a larger one, and then quickly finished off the pancake.It was delicious.She helped herself to a couple more and decided a little butter wouldn’t hurt her.She’d work off the calories before the day was over, she was sure of that.She drizzled some of the huckleberry syrup over the top of her short stack, amazed at just the thought that she’d made these.She took a bite, closed her eyes and let out a moan of delight.When was the last time she’d had pancakes, let alone butter and syrup on them? Breakfast in L.A.was usually a cup of coffee on the run.She would swear that she’d never had pancakes that tasted this good.She opened her eyes and realized that J.T.was staring at her, an amused expression on his face.She quickly wiped away her look of ecstasy then the buttery syrup from her lips with her tongue.She waited, her heart in her throat, annoyed at how much she wanted him to say he liked them.J.T.took a bite of his pancake, chewed, stopped, looked up at her in surprise.“Not bad.” He gave her a slight nod, then a smile.She looked down, trying to hide how pleased she was.J.T.LOOKED AROUND the table, worried.Over the years he’d had cowhands leave.Some missed girlfriends, others didn’t like the work.Some got into fights with one of the other cowhands and left.Some just couldn’t take all the quiet.None of those reasons seemed to fit Luke Adams, but J.T.knew he could be wrong.He hoped to hell he was wrong about a lot of things he suspected.“Luke didn’t say anything about leaving last night?” J.T.asked as he cut a bite of ham with his knife.He looked around the table, carefully avoiding looking at Reggie.All he got from the men were head shakes or shrugs in answer to his question.“He get into a fight or argument with anyone?”Head shakes, shrugs.“Luke left?” Reggie asked, sounding surprised.“So it seems,” he said.She glanced around the table, then asked Slim to pass her the pancakes.“No one heard him leave the tent?” J.T.asked.Apparently not.He let his gaze light on Reggie.She had her head down, seeming more interested in her pancakes then Luke’s departure.“You know where Luke might have gone, Ms.Holland?”Her head jerked up.She blinked.“How would I know?” She had a dab of syrup on her lower lip.“I thought you might have heard or seen him leave since you were up late?”She shook her head, her tongue coming out to lick away the syrup.She might have been the last person to see him, he wanted to say, but didn’t pursue it in front of the others.He’d been watching her with the cowhands and he hadn’t seen anything pass between them, not even a suspicious look.Luke’s disappearance seemed to indicate he’d been the person she’d met in the woods last night; the person who’d disabled the truck for her.If so, they were obviously in this together.Whatever this was.Was it possible she wanted him to make a jeans commercial that badly? It had to be something else.“Maybe he just got up early and went for a ride,” Reggie suggested.“Or maybe he went with Buck.”“Buck would have said something if he’d known Luke was leaving.Doesn’t it seem odd to you that Luke would take off without a word to anyone?” he asked her.Her eyes widened.She shrugged.“Everything here seems odd to me.”His gaze killed the splattering of laughter that erupted around the table from her comment.“Well, I don’t want anyone else leaving here without me knowing about it.” He looked to the men.“I want you to work closely, keeping the others in sight today.Also keep a look out for Luke in case he just wandered off.I don’t want anyone else getting lost.”J.T.saw Will Jarvis glance over at Slim.Slim was busy eating and didn’t seem to notice, but J.T.did.“Luke didn’t mention anything about leaving to you, did he Slim?”Slim looked up in obvious surprise.His Adam’s apple worked for a moment.“I might have heard someone get up last night, but whoever it was came back a little while later.”It seemed no one had heard Luke leave.The six men had all been sleeping in the same tent.He wondered how Luke had been able to leave, gear, horse and all, without anyone being the wiser.His gaze settled on Reggie.He also wondered what she and presumably Luke Adams might have had to discuss in the middle of the night in the woods.Maybe she was just thanking him for helping her.Because if Luke was the man she’d been whispering to in the dark, J.T.would lay odds Luke had also been the man to take the distributor cap.REGINA COULD FEEL McCall’s gaze on her.He thought she had something to do with Luke leaving? She’d never laid eyes on Luke Adams or any of the rest of them before yesterday.But she could see trying to convince McCall otherwise would be futile.What exactly was he accusing her of, anyway? He already thought she’d done something to the truck to keep it from running so she could stay the night.Now he thought she’d done something to Luke?She excused herself and got up to start the dishes.She had a pretty good idea that J.T.wasn’t going to have the men help her.She was right.As soon as they all finished their breakfasts, he told everyone to get saddled up.Chairs scraped and boots thumped across the floor to the door.She didn’t bother to turn as they all left.“I would suggest you stay in the cabin until Buck returns with a truck,” J.T.said behind her, startling her.She thought he’d left with the others.She nodded and kept washing the dishes.Stay in the cabin.He must be kidding.She had no intention of missing the chance to see him ride
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