by B. J Daniels
The walk to the morgue wasn’t far, but it was off the main drag. The streets here lacked sidewalks, pavement and lighting. She walked along the edge of the packed dirt road, thinking about Paul Townsend. He was young and handsome and naive enough that he could have fallen for not just Rachel Collinwood but her alleged need to protect herself from her abusive husband. Paul could have thought he was saving her, being her hero, seeing the killing of Humphrey Collinwood as ridding the world of a monster.
Lost in thought, she didn’t hear the vehicle coming up behind her until the sound of the engine roared. Hitch only had enough time to glance over her shoulder to confirm what she already knew. The driver was bearing down on her.
Chapter Nineteen
Hitch wasn’t at the morgue. Nor was she in her room when he called the hotel. Ford thought about what the sheriff had said about him taking care of himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten more than a few bites of anything.
As he drove through Big Timber, he looked for a place to eat. There weren’t that many options this time of the night. He’d gone down a side street when he spotted red taillights disappearing in the distance. Closer, a person came stumbling out of a hedge along the road directly in front of him. He threw on his brakes. With a shock of recognition, he saw that it was Hitch and that she was injured.
* * *
BLINDED BY THE HEADLIGHTS, Hitch jerked away from the man who ran toward her, thinking it was the same one who’d tried to run her down.
“Hitch, it’s me.” She felt a wave of relief as she recognized Ford’s voice. She let him take her in his arms, because right now she wasn’t steady on her feet. The pickup that had tried to run her down had come too close. She’d felt the brush of the bumper against the side of her thigh. She didn’t think anything was broken from the contact or her dive into the hedge, but she hurt all over and was definitely shaken.
Whoever had been driving that truck hadn’t just been trying to scare her. If she hadn’t thrown herself into the hedge, the impact would have killed her.
“What happened?” He sounded scared. “That pickup that just went past? Did it hit you?”
“No. I’m all right.” But her legs seemed to give out under her because of the shock that came with the realization of how close a call it had been. “I just need to sit down for a minute.”
He caught her, scooping her up, her trembling in his arms as he carried her over to his truck. Reaching behind her, he opened the door and set her down on the seat. “I’ll take you to the hospital.”
“No hospital,” she said quickly. “I’m not hurt. Just shaken up.”
“Your cheek is bleeding.”
She leaned back, eyes closed, until the dizziness passed as she tried to catch her breath and calm down. When she opened her eyes, she saw that he’d already dug out a first-aid kit. She smiled up into his handsome face, wondering where he’d been her whole life.
“This is going to hurt,” he said as he wiped away the blood with an alcohol swab. She winced more from the cold liquid than the pain. “Sorry,” he said, his fingers so gentle that she felt her eyes smart. She wasn’t used to a man treating her as if she were made of glass. She was too independent, too strong, too determined. At least that was what most men she’d dated had said.
But not this man, she thought as she watched him open a sterile bandage and apply it to her cheek. “Thank you.” Her voice came out a hoarse whisper, almost choked with an emotion that surprised her. She told herself it was just her brush with death and his gentle kindness. But as he finished bandaging her cut and looked down into her eyes, she felt a jolt clear to her core. Then his fingers were cupping her uninjured cheek. His rough thumb pad slipped under her chin to lift it as he leaned down and kissed her. The impulsiveness of the kiss, the surprise of it, the tenderness of it all caught her completely off guard.
His lips brushed hers, urging them open. They didn’t put up much of a fight. As her lips parted, he cupped the back of her head, deepening the kiss. She grabbed a handful of his shirt, drawing him even closer as she lost herself in the startling passion of their combined kiss.
A groan rose from deep in his chest as he drew back a little to look into her eyes again. “I’m sorry. Here you are injured, and I...” His warm, strong fingers still holding the back of her head were buried in her hair. He seemed as shocked by the powerful kiss as she was.
Still bunching his shirt in her fists, she pulled him down for another kiss. He dropped his mouth to hers and deepened the kiss, this one even hotter than the first.
She loosened her hold on his shirt. His look mirrored hers. Wow. Everything about the kisses had been unexpected in so many ways.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a very long time,” he said, his voice sounding rough with emotion as he drew his hand from behind her head and straightened. “The timing, however—”
“Was perfect. I hadn’t realized how much I needed that.” She smiled at him and he smiled almost shyly back. “You don’t find me too scary, then?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that.” He chuckled as he tucked her into the seat and closed the passenger-side door. She watched him walk around to the driver’s side and slide behind the wheel.
“Any chance the truck driver just didn’t see you?” he asked.
“No. Whoever was driving that truck wanted me dead,” she said, leaning her head back against the seat and looking out into the darkness, thinking not about her near-death experience, but Ford and that kiss.
For a moment, he simply sat behind the wheel before he glanced over at her, drawing her attention back. “You feel better?” She could only nod. “You’re probably not hungry.”
“Starved,” she said. Her stomach rumbled at the thought, reminding her she hadn’t eaten all day.
He chuckled and started the engine. “Any chance you got the license plate on the rig that almost hit you?” he asked as he drove them to the local burger shop.
She thought of that glimpse she’d gotten before the headlights had blinded her. She could almost hear the roar of the engine as the driver bore down on her. “It happened too fast. Too dark to even make out a model of the pickup. All I really saw was the metal guard on the front. I think I would recognize it, if I saw it again.”
“I think I know that grille guard,” Ford said. “I didn’t mention it because most trucks around here have the guards on them because of all the deer on the highway at night. But the truck that ran me off the road had a huge shiny metal guard on the front, as well. I think we’re looking for the same man.”
“If I were a betting woman, I’d say he’s the same man Rachel Collinwood talked into helping her kill her husband.”
* * *
IT FELT IRONIC, Ford thought as he and Hitch finished their cheeseburgers, fries and chocolate milkshakes and he drove her back to the hotel where they were both staying. He’d come here for Rachel. He would leave here missing Hitch. In a few days’ time, he’d come to admire this strong, capable woman.
He scoffed, knowing it was more than that or he wouldn’t have kissed her. He felt a fire again in his belly that he’d thought had been extinguished. Desire. He’d actually forgotten what that felt like. But Hitch had fanned the flames and now he burned inside for her and the passion he’d felt kissing her.
All during the meal, Hitch had seemed her old self—except for the bandage on her cheek and a few scratches and probably bruises from her dive into the bushes. They’d talked about growing up in Montana—skirting away from the investigation. It had been one of the most pleasant meals he’d had in a long time.
When he’d walked her to her door at the hotel, there’d been a moment when they’d both seemed to hesitate.
“Good night,” he said and took a step back. As badly as he would have loved to be invited into her hotel room, he knew it was too soon. “I’m right down the hall, if you need me.”
/>
She’d nodded and smiled. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
His cell phone rang right after he’d stepped inside his hotel room. For a moment, he was hoping it was Hitch. She’d been just as surprised by what they’d shared. He’d seen it in her eyes, in the trembling of her lips. She wasn’t one to leap blindly. At least not when it came to men. He wasn’t sure how he knew that, just that he did.
Still, he tried to hide his disappointment. “Dad, I was going to call you. I’m coming home tomorrow.”
“Good. You sound...good.”
Ford had to smile. He and his father were both short on words in uncharted territory. He knew Jackson had been worried about him. Hell, Ford had been worried about himself.
“Coming over here has been good for me,” he told his father.
“Did you resolve anything with Rachel?” Jackson asked.
He chuckled. “Did I get closure? Yeah, I did. I feel better about a lot of things.” He envisioned Hitch for a moment.
“I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear that,” his father said. “It will be great to have you back.”
As he disconnected, he saw movement on the street below the window and looked out. Hitch? It was just like her to go back out to the Collinwood Ranch tonight to see if she could catch the man she suspected of being the accomplice visiting Rachel again.
He’d been so sure that her brush with death would keep her safe and in her room—at least for tonight. He should have known better. As he saw her climb into her SUV, he reached for his coat. She had no business going out there alone—especially after what had happened to her tonight.
But at the same time, he wasn’t at all surprised. She was one determined woman and he admired the hell out of her for that. Not that he was about to let her go alone.
* * *
AS HITCH STARTED to pull away, someone pounded on her window, startling her for a moment—until she saw Ford’s handsome face. “Couldn’t sleep again?” she asked.
“Felt like going for a ride. Looks like you had the same idea.”
She studied him for a moment before she smiled. “All right. Get in.”
He grinned as she unlocked the door and he climbed in.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Fine.”
“I thought you might have decided, after what happened to you, to stay in tonight,” Ford said.
She glanced over at him as she pulled out and headed down the street toward the highway that would take them north. “No, you didn’t or you wouldn’t be here.”
“Maybe I’d hoped you’d had enough for one day.”
Hitch kept her attention on the road as they fell into a companionable silence until she turned off into the Collinwood Ranch. On the side of the mountain in the pines where they’d sat before, she cut the lights, pulled to the edge so there were no trees blocking their view and cut the engine.
“He wouldn’t be fool enough to come back out here tonight,” Ford said.
She chuckled. “Wanna bet?”
“I have a new twenty that says if he’s the lover, he’ll stay away.”
Even in the dim starlight coming through the SUV’s windows, she could see his smile. She liked that smile. “My twenty says the lover will visit tonight.”
“Guess we’ll see.” He reached into his jacket pocket for his binoculars.
They sat quietly for a while. The pines stood in dark shadow next to the vehicle while the landscape beyond the mountaintop was cast in a silver glow from the magnitude of the stars out here so far from town. She heard an owl hoot from a nearby tree, and somewhere farther off a hawk answered.
She turned the key to let down her side window, needing the cool summer night’s air. Earlier at the hotel, she’d been so close to asking Ford into her hotel room. If she had, they wouldn’t be here now. They’d be wrapped up in each other’s arms. The thought sent a ball of heat straight to her center. And she knew the real reason she hadn’t invited him into her room earlier.
Most men she could take or leave. Ford wasn’t like that. She told herself she wasn’t ready for the kind of commitment even one night with him might take. She had to keep her mind on this case, but it was hard to do that with Ford just inches away and this spark between them like a live wire.
* * *
“DOES IT WORRY you that just a few days ago I was ready to drive over a cliff?” Ford said inside the dark SUV. He thought that would give any woman pause, even one like Hitch. He had to know because he didn’t want any secrets between them if they were going to become lovers. And he was pretty sure that they were.
“No, because you wouldn’t have done it,” she whispered, not looking at him.
He chuckled. “How can you be so sure?” he asked, turning toward her, studying the outline of her face in the darkness.
She turned to meet his gaze. “Because you didn’t want to go over that cliff.”
“I wish I believed that.”
“Doesn’t matter now anyway,” Hitch said. “You’re not in that state of mind anymore. You’re not that man.”
He smiled at her. “You know that how?”
She held his gaze. “I see it in your eyes. I also felt it in your kisses.” She turned back to her surveillance. “You want to live.”
Ford realized that she was right. He tried not to stare at her, even though he loved looking at her face, staring into her eyes. She had mesmerized him in a way that he thought could never happen to him again.
The pain of what he’d been through was still there and always would be. But Hitch had made him realize that he could go on. He might even be able to find happiness in this world he’d only seen as too broken to repair.
He cleared his throat, changing the subject. “Other than you losing twenty dollars, what if he doesn’t show tonight?”
“I haven’t lost yet. He can’t stay away from her and they both know that a phone call will show up on their bills.”
“You think it will go to trial?”
Hitch continued to study the ranch house for a long moment before she lowered her binoculars and answered. “If she suspects that could happen, she’ll run before she’s locked up.”
The answer surprised him. “But the bond she put up—”
“I suspect she already planned to lose that and the ranch. It isn’t the only money she has—you can bet on that. If she was smart, and she is, she would have planned this for some time and taken into account all possible outcomes. This wasn’t an impulsive act. Who knows how long she’s been hiding money for the day when she might need it? She could have been planning this for years. She thought of almost everything. What worries me now is what she plans to do with her accomplice.”
Ford shot her a look. “You think she’ll kill him.”
“She doesn’t have much choice. He keeps going off script. She can’t trust him. He’s too much of a liability. She’s already killed her husband. What’s one or two more murders,” Hitch said as the garage door at the ranch house suddenly rolled up and Rachel’s SUV rolled out.
“One or two more?” Ford said.
Hitch met his gaze. “If she thought you might change your story about what you heard on the phone call, well, you’d be in the same boat. That’s why the sooner you go back to Big Sky, the better off you’ll be.”
She started the patrol SUV’s motor and took off down the mountain without headlights to follow Rachel—wherever she was headed at this time of the night.
“And you owe me twenty dollars,” Hitch said as she raced after the disappearing taillights in the distance.
Chapter Twenty
Hitch had expected Rachel to turn toward town as soon as she drove off the dirt ranch road. To her surprise, the SUV turned right at the highway and headed in the direction of Harlowton.
“Where is she going?” Ford said, sounding as surp
rised as Hitch was.
“Wherever it is, she’s going there in a hurry.” By the time Hitch reached the end of the ranch road and turned onto the highway headed north, she could barely see Rachel’s taillights in the distance. “I think she’s trying to lose us.”
Turning on her headlights and tromping on the gas, she raced after her. While it had been Rachel’s SUV that had come out of the garage, Hitch hadn’t been able to see the driver. What if it wasn’t Rachel behind the wheel?
Clouds had moved in, cloaking the night. Ahead, she could make out the dim taillights. Rachel, or whoever, was driving fast as if she knew she was being followed. Hitch didn’t want to lose her, but she also didn’t want to come running up on her in the growing fog and careen into the back of her vehicle either. As the terrain became more hilly, she only got glimpses of the blurry red taillights ahead of her through the fog.
Hitch was going eighty-five when she came up a hill and saw brake lights off to the side of the road. She recognized the SUV. The driver had pulled off onto a wide spot.
As Hitch sped past, she glanced at the driver of the SUV. Rachel was behind the wheel. She caught a glimpse of the woman’s face and the smug smile plastered on it. As Hitch kept going, she watched in her rearview mirror as Rachel turned back toward the ranch.
Over the next hill, Hitch hit her brakes and did a highway patrol turn in the empty road before heading back to Big Timber. Ahead, she could see that Rachel was no longer speeding. Hitch followed her until she turned into her own ranch road.
“Was that what I think it was?” Ford said.
“She tricked me. Got me to follow her while whoever was visiting her got away,” Hitch said. She had to hand it to the woman. Rachel had been one step ahead of her from the beginning. The subterfuge only made Hitch more convinced that the woman was guilty of cold-blooded murder.
