Stone Cold Surrender - Brenda Jackson [9]
“When was the last time you saw Uncle Corey?” Stone decided to cut to the chase and ask. He knew that Durango kept up with their uncle’s comings and goings. If there was some woman on Corey’s mountain, Durango would know about it.
The grin suddenly disappeared from Durango’s face; not a good sign as far as Stone was concerned. “Funny you should ask,” Durango said frowning. “I haven’t seen him for a week and I know for a fact he has a woman up there on his mountain.”
That wasn’t what Stone wanted to hear. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure. I saw her myself when they were passing through. She’s a nice-looking woman, probably in her late forties and talks with one of those northern accents. They’ve been up on that mountain for almost a week now and Corey won’t answer the phone or return my calls. It makes me wonder what’s going on up there and how this woman got such special privileges. I couldn’t believe he broke his long-standing rule about a woman on his mountain.”
Stone leaned back against the railing. His mind was reeling and he needed to make sure he had heard everything Durango was telling him correctly. “You’re saying that Corey actually has a woman on his mountain?”
“Yes, and she’s not a long-lost relative, either, because I asked. Besides, it was obvious she wasn’t related by the way they were acting. He couldn’t wait to leave my place to head into the mountains and it doesn’t appear he’s bringing her down anytime soon.”
Stone rubbed a hand down his face. “And you’re sure you don’t know who she is?”
Durango’s frown deepened. “No, I don’t know who she is, Stone, other than the fact he was calling her Abby. But you better believe that this Abby woman has hooked him in good, and I mean real good.”
When the crowd standing directly behind Durango shifted, Stone noticed that Madison had finished her call and had walked up. From the expression on her face it was obvious that she had pretty much overheard most of what Durango had said.
Aw hell!
Durango noticed that Stone’s gaze was fixed on something behind him and turned around. He smiled when he looked into the face of the woman Stone had been checking out earlier. He grinned. No wonder his cousin was taken with the woman, she was definitely a looker. Too bad Stone had met her first, because she was definitely someone who would have interested him.
He started to speak and introduce himself, since it seemed Stone had suddenly lost his voice. But something made him pause. Durango had dealt with enough women to know when they weren’t happy about something and it was obvious this woman was angry, royally pissed off. And her words stopped him dead in his tracks.
“I believe the woman the two of you are discussing is my mother.”
It wasn’t hard to tell the two men were related, Madison thought, glancing up at them. Both were tall, extremely handsome and well built. Then there were the similarities in their facial features that also proved a family connection. They possessed the same close-cropped curly black hair, chestnut coloring, dark intense eyes and generous, well-defined mouths.
And both of them could wear a pair of jeans and a chambray shirt like nobody’s business.
Madison inwardly admitted that, had she met the other man before Stone, she probably would have felt the same attraction to him, the same pull. However, she thought there was a gentleness and tenderness in Stone’s eyes that she didn’t easily see in the other man’s.
She could tell her statement took the other man by surprise but when she glanced over at Stone, it was obvious that what she’d said hadn’t surprised him, which meant he had known or at least suspected the identity of her mother’s abductor all along.
She lifted a brow and leveled a pointed gaze at Stone. She had trusted him enough to discuss her mother with him openly, because she had needed someone to talk to, and talking to him had calmed her fears of flying and had also helped her to think