Woman In Hiding, page 1
“How old are you?”
“Thirty.” Leslie had almost said her own age of twenty-eight.
“You don’t look it.”
“Is my age a problem?’
Pierce Gallagher shook his head. “I was merely making an observation. What I need is someone who’ll be with us at least until Cory starts first grade a year from now. Could you commit to that amount of time?”
“Yes.”
“There’s no man you left behind who expects you to return to New Jersey sooner than that?”
An icy shiver raced through her body. “I was engaged to be married, but it didn’t work out.”
The ranger was silent for what seemed like a long while.
“You’re certain it’s over?” he said at last.
If he only knew.
“If a trail is to be blazed, send a ranger, if an animal is floundering in the snow, send a ranger, if a bear is in a hotel, send a ranger, if a fire threatens a forest, send a ranger, and if someone needs to be saved, send a ranger.”
—Stephen Mather, first director, National Park Service
Dear Reader,
The above quote sums up my feelings about the rangers in my latest Harlequin Supperromance novel, Woman in Hiding.
Years ago one of the guys in my neighborhood became a U.S. Park Ranger. He worked in Grand Teton National Park before transferring to one of the national parks in Alaska, where he now resides. His experiences and exploits fascinated me, and I found myself wanting to write a story about these intrepid, rugged heroes guarding our national treasures.
Like a paramedic, the rangers respond to an alarm never knowing what they’re going to find. Each call is different, each situation unique. They have to be prepared for everything!
In this novel, Pierce Gallagher is the Chief Ranger of Grand Teton National Park. You can imagine that he’s a ranger’s ranger. The buck stops with him. He’s number one. The ultimate, real live hero who puts his life on the line every day. It’s no wonder Leslie Hopkins, my terrified heroine on the run for her life, loses her heart to him and his vulnerable six-year-old son, Cory.
Enjoy!
Rebecca Winters
Woman in Hiding
Rebecca Winters
This book is dedicated to Ralph—
a dear family friend and ranger’s ranger.
Books by Rebecca Winters
HARLEQUIN SUPERROMANCE
636—THE WRONG TWIN
650—A MAN FOR ALL TIME
697—NOT WITHOUT MY CHILD
737—STRANGERS WHEN WE MEET
756—LAURA’S BABY
783—UNTIL THERE WAS YOU
808—DEBORAH’S SON
840—IF HE COULD SEE ME NOW
875—THE FAMILY WAY
916—THE UNKNOWN SISTER
981—ACCIDENTALLY YOURS
1005—MY PRIVATE DETECTIVE
1034—BENEATH A TEXAS SKY
1065—SHE’S MY MOM
1112—ANOTHER MAN’S WIFE
1133—HOME TO COPPER MOUNTAIN
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
“LESLIE? IT’S DIANA! Let me in!”
Leslie Hopkins raced to the door of her New York City apartment and opened it. Her married sister slipped inside. After locking it, Leslie grabbed her and clung.
“If I hadn’t known you were coming any second, you wouldn’t have found me here.”
Diana looked at her in fresh alarm. “Why? What else has that demented ex-fiancé of yours done in the last twelve hours?”
“Take a look at what he left on the coffee table while I was at the pharmacy picking up the tint for my hair. He must have followed me there and knew he had time to break in.”
Her sister marched into the living room, then came to an abrupt halt. “Black roses? Ed’s not very original, is he.”
“It gets worse. You should see what’s in my bedroom.”
“Worse than your own underwear showing up in the pizza you thought I had ordered to be delivered to you last week?”
“Yes.”
She dashed down the hall to investigate. Leslie followed.
Two-dozen cut-up photographs of Leslie had been laid out on the quilt. He’d taped the portions with her head to the wall over her bed. A heart had been drawn around them in Leslie’s lipstick, the one she’d discovered missing from her purse ten days ago.
Diana blanched. “I take back what I said.”
“I don’t understand how he got in here! The locks were changed yesterday morning for the fourth time.”
“He probably forced a window open from the fire escape.”
“I checked them. They’re locked! There’s no place I’m safe. I’ve taken every piece of advice the police have given me, but nothing has helped.” She buried her face in her hands. “Ed knows every move I make.”
“Not after today he won’t!”
Leslie lifted a tear-ravaged face. “I don’t think the plan we talked about is going to work. He has some kind of supernatural radar.”
Diana took her by the shoulders and shook her. “No, he doesn’t! It just seems that way because he has focused all his attention on you.
“Remember what Detective Santini told you? Former-partner stalkers have their entire sense of self-worth caught up in the ‘she loves me’ syndrome. Any evidence to the contrary is seen as an inconvenience to overcome.”
“He’s like an evil child,” Leslie muttered.
“Exactly. Since he’s not getting any response from you, he’s acting out because even negative attention is better than none at all. Roger says Ed follows the typical profile, with his history of spousal abuse. That’s why we’re going to get you away from him permanently.”
“I don’t see how we can. He’s already been here this morning and is lurking in some hallway right now working on a plan to get inside and kill me.”
“It’s not going to happen, Leslie. Come on. I’ve brought everything you need to disappear where he’ll never find you. First, let’s get this rinse done, then I’ll cut your hair.”
Within an hour, Leslie’s long blond hair had been tinted light brown, and she wore it at chin length in a feather-cut like Diana’s.
They stood side by side in front of the mirror. Leslie was five foot eight, an inch taller than her sister.
Diana nodded with satisfaction. “We may not be twins, but the resemblance is strong enough for you to use my driver’s license and get away with it.”
She spoke the truth. With both of them hazel-eyed and slender, there were more similarities than differences.
Leslie hurried into the bedroom to put on the cotton top she planned to wear on the plane with her jeans. “Is Roger really okay about my impersonating you?”
“The logistics were all my husband’s idea, and he’s the attorney in the family. We both want you to get as far away from Ed as you can and make a new life for yourself. There’s no reason it won’t work. I’ll get a duplicate license.”
“But your credit card—”
“We’ve been over this before. I don’t need it.”
“I don’t know where I should go! No destination sounds right. I can’t make a decis—”
“Don’t worry,” Diana broke in. “Roger has made the arrangements.”
“As long as it’s light-years from here, I don’t care where it is.”
“A nonstop flight from Kennedy to Salt Lake City leaves in two-and-a-half hours. Your ticket’s prepaid. All you have to do is check in.”
Salt Lake? “I’ve never been there.” She would never have thought of it.
“Neither have I, but Roger insists it’s the perfect location. A flyover city. Not too big, the people are nice, the pace is slower. You’ll be able to find an anonymous office job that will leave you free to explore the canyons on the weekends. We know how much you love getting out in nature.”
Leslie couldn’t imagine ever feeling free enough to do that. She shook her head. “He’ll track me down, Diana. I know he will.”
“Listen to me. When he finally figures out you’re nowhere around, he won’t have a clue where you’ve gone.”
“He can always find me on the passenger list.”
“Not right away. First of all he’ll have to figure out how you left New York, and it’ll take him a while before he realizes you got away using my name. Even if he eventually gets that information and follows you to Salt Lake, he won’t know where to begin looking for you.”
Diana could say that now…
“You’re booked at the Scenic View motel, and you’ll have to take a taxi from the airport. Roger said not to use a rental car unless you have to. They’re too easy to trace.
“On the way to the motel, stop at the Fred Meyer store on Fourth South. They’re open until midnight. You can buy a suitcase and some clothes and toiletries there.”
Fred Meyer. “I’ll remember.” She tried to swallow but couldn’t. “This has to work!”
Her sister’s expression sobered. “I agree. Otherwise you’ll be in and out of court for years. New York may have passed heavier penalties for stalking, but Roger says nothing will stop someone like Ed who’s intent on ruining your every living moment. At least this way you have a fighting chance to get on with your life.”
Another shudder passed through Leslie’s body. She reached out to hug her sister. “What would I do without you and Roger? You’re the only reason I haven’t had a complete nervous breakdown.”
“This past month has been a nightmare, but it’s going to end the second you get on that plane.”
“You promise?”
“Would your big sister lie to you?”
“No,” Leslie whispered before reaching for her tote bag, which contained her laptop computer. She hadn’t dared pack anything from her apartment that she wouldn’t normally take or wear to work. If Ed discovered anything else missing the next time he broke in, like her camera, passport and suitcase, it would be a dead giveaway.
“I can’t bear to leave Josh and Amy.”
“It’ll be harder on them. We’ll explain you’re busy and won’t be able to come over for a while.” Like forever? “Without specifics, they won’t be able to give away information to anyone Ed might set up to call our house.”
“I don’t know how to repay you guys.”
“You already have by being such a loving sister and aunt. Is your answering machine on?”
“Yes.”
“Good. As long as that psycho is able to keep leaving messages, he’ll get his kicks out of believing you actually listen to them.”
“How did I ever fall for a man who’s so sick?”
“That’s easy. Besides being good-looking, he’s a smooth charmer who fooled everyone. Just remember—you weren’t his first victim.”
How could Leslie ever forget Maureen Strickland, a former off-Broadway actress who turned out to be Ed’s ex-wife, a wife he’d never bothered to tell Leslie about.
Maureen had heard through a friend that Ed was engaged to a photographic journalist who worked at the New York Chronicler, too. Afraid for Leslie, she’d approached her outside the newspaper office while Ed was in Florida on assignment.
She’d come to warn Leslie to get away from him before their wedding could take place. According to Maureen, Ed was a psychopath with a history of domestic violence on public record.
Even if Leslie had acted on the other woman’s warning that very day and had disappeared, she would still be living in fear he would eventually track her down.
“Don’t dwell on the past,” her sister urged. “Here’s the passport to your new life.”
She opened her purse and handed Leslie her driver’s license, a credit card and five thousand dollars in large bills. The money had come from Leslie’s savings account. By phone she’d asked her bank manager to transfer her balance.
“From now on, you are Diana Farrow. Are you ready?”
“I don’t know—this is like a terrible dream.” She put everything in her wallet and closed her tote bag. “The last thing I want to do is leave all of you, but the alternative is no longer tenable. If I don’t get away from here, I know I’ll end up…dead.”
“Don’t ever say that again!” Diana chastised her. “Remember—phone calls are out, too easy to trace. No matter how far-fetched, he might get hold of our phone bills. They would lead him straight to you.”
Leslie didn’t need to be reminded that Ed was a savvy newspaper reporter with resources and instincts that made him a terrifying adversary. Guilt and pain assailed her. “I’m so sorry he’s been harassing you and Roger. Heaven knows who else! Your lives are in danger, too.”
“Nonsense. It’s you he wants. Expect an e-mail from us after you get to your motel. That’ll be about 10:00 p.m. Salt Lake time.”
“I’ll be living for it.”
They stared at each other before Diana said, “Give me five minutes to do some reconnaissance work on my way out of the building. If I don’t come back, then you’ll know it’s safe to carry on with the plan. I love you. God bless.”
After another fierce embrace, her sister slipped out while Leslie stood there in a cold sweat. She kept an eye on her watch. When five minutes had passed and there was no sign of Diana, she grabbed her tote bag and left the apartment. There was a service elevator at the rear of the building. She hurried toward it, looking over her shoulder with every step.
The ride from the twentieth to the ground floor seemed to take forever. She jumped when the doors opened, expecting to find Ed standing there. Thankfully no one was around except a building security guard she’d never seen before. He sat on a chair reading a magazine.
His job was to prevent anyone from coming in without authorization, but Ed would know how to get past him. He had probably done so already by flashing his newspaper credentials and saying he was there on a big story.
Leslie walked straight to the door. She earned a nod from him, nothing else.
People and cars filled the alley outside. With her heart fluttering like a hummingbird’s, she scanned the scene. No sign of Ed, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t in the crowd somewhere.
“Help me, God.” She murmured the words over and over as she merged with the foot traffic. By the time she reached the corner of the next block she was able to hail a cab.
“Kennedy airport, as fast as possible, please.”
“Okay, lady.”
If Ed had spotted her, it was too late for him to prevent the driver from taking off. But he could grab the next cab and follow her.
She kept turning around. A few minutes later she said, “Can’t you go any faster?”
“I could, lady, but nothin’s worth losing my job over. Know what I mean?”
Once upon a time she did, but those days were over. She was a woman on the run now. If she was going to survive, she would have to live by her wits. When the detective had first told Leslie that, she hadn’t wanted to believe him.
Her hand reached for the wallet in her purse. “Not even an extra forty dollars would induce you to get creative?” She leaned forward and dropped the bills next to him.
After a sideward glance he said, “I’ll see what I can do.”
Leslie couldn’t fathom she was leaving New York, her job, her family. She adored her niece and nephew, tended them whenever the breaks in her work allowed.
During the six months she’d dated Ed Strickland, he hadn’t seemed to mind spending time with the children. However, after he’d given her a diamond, he’d wanted her all to himself.
She’d chalked up his possessiveness to prewedding frustration due to the newspaper assignments that kept them apart. She should have realized something was wrong. But she’d been oblivious until Maureen had enlightened her with tales of being prevented from going to work. He’d kept her a virtual prisoner in their own home.
Even after being divorced eight years, Ed’s ex-wife still had to keep moving around so he wouldn’t find her.
When Leslie had first met Maureen, she’d thought the nervous woman was a lunatic and had related the incident to Ed when he got back in town. To her shock he admitted he’d been married before but it represented a dark period in his former life he preferred to forget had ever happened. He denied any abuse.
Confused and shaken by what she considered a serious sin of omission, Leslie had broken down to her sister. Roger checked out the woman’s story. When it all came back true, the subsequent confrontation with Ed turned into a hellish situation.
Though she’d called off the wedding, he’d refused to believe they weren’t getting married. For the last month he’d done a good job of destroying her life. She cringed to think what he would do to Maureen if he ever caught up with her again.
The other woman had been so courageous to intervene before Leslie had taken his name and met with a terrible fate. Some day Leslie wanted to thank her. That is, if either of them lived that long…
WHILE DIANA WAITED for the doorman of Leslie’s apartment building to flag down a taxi for her, she heard a voice call her name. She looked over her shoulder. Through the busy noontime crowds she watched Ed Strickland work his way toward her.
His presence meant he’d seen Diana go in the building and had been waiting for her to come out again. Terrified as she was of him after the way he’d stalked their house in New Jersey in order to talk to her, she thanked God this plan had worked. Leslie had escaped without detection! By now she ought to be well on her way to the airport.
