by Kat Martin
“I was thinking I’d drive down this afternoon, but I need to call Meeks first, find out if he’ll see me sometime tomorrow.”
He nodded. “We can leave whenever you’re ready. We’ll spend the night at the Brown Palace. It’s one of my favorites. Lot of good restaurants in the area.” His smile returned. “I’ll buy you the best steak in Denver.”
Ellie started to suggest they simply stay at her place, but the Palace was a luxury she had never enjoyed. She imagined the evening ahead and what would happen when they got back to the hotel, thought of Kade’s lovemaking and the way he could make her feel, and desire curled through her.
“How can I turn down an offer like that?”
Kade flashed one of his sexy smiles. “A king-size bed at the Brown Palace definitely beats the desk in my study.”
A noise slipped from Ellie’s throat as she eyed the desk. “I . . . umm . . . I’ll go pack.” Determined to keep her mind on work, she turned and walked out of the office.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THINKING OF ELLIE AND THE NIGHT AHEAD, KADE HEADED UPSTAIRS to pack an overnight bag. He was going to Denver. He figured he would enjoy the trip, but he didn’t like the reason he had decided to go.
The idea of Ellie spending the night without him in Denver made him uneasy. He’d finally accepted that Heather had been cheating on her trips out of town. The notion of Ellie sleeping with another man sent a wash of fury into his blood.
He didn’t understand it. He wasn’t a jealous man.
Not until now.
But Ellie belonged to him—at least for a little while longer. As long as she was his, he wouldn’t tolerate another man’s hands on her. He wouldn’t play the fool a second time.
Kade strode into his bedroom and pulled down his leather overnight bag. He packed enough for a couple of days in case they needed to stay, grabbed his shaving kit, changed into his dark blue city jeans and a white western shirt, and grabbed his Stetson. He was zipping the bag when his cell phone rang.
He checked the screen but didn’t recognize the number. “Logan.”
“Mr. Logan, this is Earl Dunstan. Frank Keller’s cousin.”
“I know who you are. How did you get this number?”
“I got it from Charlie Flatt. I need to talk to you, Mr. Logan. I know who killed Frank. I know who hired him to come after you. Now the guy is trying to kill me, too.”
Kade frowned. “Why don’t you go to the sheriff?”
“I’m afraid he won’t be able to protect me. I need to get out of the country. I didn’t have anything to do with any of this. I didn’t even know Frank was causing trouble for you out at the ranch. He was just my cousin, so I gave him a place to stay. Now the guy who killed him wants to shut me up, too.”
“Who? Who are you talking about?”
“Meet me behind Flatt’s at midnight. Bring enough cash for me to buy a plane ticket and rent a place to stay till I can find a job. That’s all I want. I wouldn’t ask, but I got no choice.”
“Dammit, give me a name.”
“Flatt’s. Midnight.” Earl hung up the phone.
Kade left his suitcase on the bed and headed downstairs. Looked like his trip to Denver would have to be postponed.
He made his way to Ellie’s bedroom. He figured, her being a woman, packing for a night on the town would take at least an hour. He rapped twice and opened the door, found her seated at the antique Victorian writing desk, her laptop open in front of her. Her suitcase was packed and waiting on the bed.
She was ready to leave. Another wrong assumption about her.
“We got a problem,” Kade said.
Ellie rose. “What is it?”
“Earl Dunstan just phoned. He says the guy who killed Frank Keller is trying to murder him, too. Apparently Dunstan knows too much. He wants enough money to get out of the country in exchange for information. He’s meeting me at midnight.”
She walked toward him. “Why doesn’t he call the sheriff?”
“I got the impression whoever is hunting him has enough power to go around the sheriff to get to him. Or at least that’s what Earl believes.”
Ellie went over to the bedside table, pulled open the top drawer, and took out her Glock 19, the gun the sheriff had just returned.
“You’re going to need backup,” she said, dropping the mag to check the load, then shoving it back in and holstering the weapon. “I’m going with you.”
Kade didn’t argue. He’d learned that Eleanor Bowman was a strong, capable woman who knew how to handle herself. He knew he could rely on her. “I thought about handing this over to Sheriff Fischer, but if things went sideways, Dunstan might disappear.”
“Or Earl could be right about Frank’s killer and end up dead.”
Kade nodded. “We need to find the guy and shut him down.”
“Dunstan didn’t give you any idea who it was?”
“No. Earl’s desperate. He’s not talking until he finds a way to get himself somewhere safe.”
“I guess we’ll find out at midnight,” Ellie said.
“I sure as hell hope so.” Maybe they could solve at least one murder and end any threat to the ranch.
Maybe. But Kade wasn’t so sure.
* * *
It was black as pitch, no stars, a layer of low-hanging clouds blocking the moon. Ellie sat tensely as Kade drove the pickup through Coffee Springs, heading north toward Phippsburg. Ellie gripped the seat as Kade swerved to dodge a deer that stepped into the road. A few minutes later, an owl swooped down in front of the windshield but made a safe escape.
“I’d forgotten how many animals live out in this kind of country,” Ellie said, breaking into the silence. “It was one of the things I liked best about living on our ranch.”
“All kinds of varmints out here,” Kade said. “With any luck, Earl Dunstan will give us one of the human variety.”
“Maybe Earl knows why the man who hired Frank wanted to cause you trouble.”
Kade’s features tightened. “I plan to ask him.”
They drove through the darkness a while longer, until the big, barn-like structure of Flatt’s Ranch Supply appeared in the headlights off to the left. No cars in the lot, and the interior was completely dark behind the windows. Kade pulled around to the back and killed the engine, turned off his headlights, but left the parking lights on. No sign of anyone moving around.
Ellie checked the time on her cell phone. Three minutes to midnight. Kade turned off the dome light before he opened the door and stepped out of the truck. Ellie got out on her side of the pickup.
She could see a hay shed, bales stacked six high under the metal roof. As she and Kade approached, a small, rotund man in boots and a beat-up cowboy hat stepped out of the darkness and started toward them. In the glow of the parking lights, his face had a sickly yellow tint.
He was ten feet away when a rifle shot rang out, and Earl Dunstan went down.
Ellie pulled her Glock, Kade pulled his Colt, and both of them hit the ground. More shots rained down from a spot in a cluster of trees on the side of the hill, some of them pinging on the metal struts holding up the building. She and Kade split up and crawled to cover, Kade back behind the pickup, Ellie behind a stack of gray cement blocks.
Another shot rang out, drilling into the truck near where Kade crouched behind a front tire. Ellie fired two return shots, then started moving, darting behind the base of a big pine tree closer to Dunstan, who lay unmoving on the ground. While Kade laid down a barrage of gunfire, Ellie eased into the deep grass and crawled toward Earl.
A shot thumped into the dirt a few feet away from him, and Kade fired again in the direction the shots had come from. Ellie caught a glimpse of Kade running low, circling around to the shooter’s position in a copse of trees on the side of the hill.
Her heart was pounding with fear for him and worry for the man on the ground. When no more shots rang out, she crawled over to where Earl sprawled in the grass. She could hear his shallow breath
s as he gasped for air.
“Everything’s going to be okay, Earl. I’m Ellie. I’m with Kade. I’m calling for help.” Quickly she punched in 911. “A man’s been shot in Phippsburg behind Flatt’s Ranch Supply. Whoever shot him is still out there shooting at us.”
“What’s your name?” the female dispatcher asked.
Ellie tucked the phone between her neck and shoulder, opened Earl’s bloody jacket, then tore open his shirt. In the dim glow of the parking lights, she could see he’d been shot in the chest, and it was bad.
“I’m Eleanor Bowman. I’m here with Kade Logan. Both of us are legally armed. We need an ambulance. Please hurry.”
“They’re on their way. Stay on the line until they get there.”
Ellie dropped the phone into the grass beside her, peeled off her puffy jacket, and pressed it against Earl’s chest to slow the bleeding.
“Just take it easy, okay?”
“He . . . he did it. He . . . he shot me.”
“Who, Earl? Who shot you?” But Earl was already fading, his body jerking and his eyes losing focus.
“Frank said . . . said he knew him from . . . from the mine.”
The mine? “Who, Earl? What was his name?” She reached out and took hold of his hand. Earl’s fingers curled around hers, but they felt icy cold. “Tell me who shot you.”
Earl’s eyes slowly lifted to hers. In the faded yellow beam of the distant truck lights, his mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.
Ellie’s heart went out to this man who had gotten caught up in something far bigger than he could have imagined. “Just rest and take it easy, Earl, okay? The ambulance is on its way.” She smoothed a hand over the little man’s forehead and tightened her grip on his limp hand. “You’re going to be okay.”
The words seemed to comfort him. His features relaxed, and the tightness around his lips softened. Then a trickle of blood slid from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes slowly closed. Air whispered out of his lungs, but his chest never rose again.
Ellie’s heart squeezed. Earl Dunstan was just another victim, like Kade’s dead steers, like Alejandro, and Smoke. Like the sick cows, and the man who’d lost his leg at the Red Hawk Mine. Frank Keller had pulled his cousin into something sinister, and now he was dead. Both of them were.
Ellie wiped tears from her cheeks and looked up as Kade approached. “Earl’s dead.” She swallowed past the painful lump in her throat. “We didn’t get here in time.”
Kade’s jaw hardened, and he glanced off toward the trees. “Whoever it was made it back to his vehicle and took off into the hills. There are a couple of feeder roads that’ll take him to the main highway. No way to catch up with him.”
Ellie picked up her phone and rose from the grass next to Earl’s body. Without her jacket, she was shaking, but she didn’t think it was from the cold.
Kade pulled off his sheepskin coat and settled it around her shoulders. It smelled like him, like pine forests and horses.
Clutching his jacket around her, Ellie looked up at him. “Earl died before he could give me the shooter’s name, but he said something that could be important. Earl said Frank knew the man who murdered him from the mine.”
“The mine. Earl was talking about the guy who shot Frank?”
“That was the way it sounded. The guy who hired Frank, then murdered him and Earl.”
Kade’s brows drew together beneath his hat. “According to your friend, Zoe, Frank Keller worked in mines all over the world.”
“I know, but—”
Red and blue lights flashed in the distance as a pair of sheriff’s vehicles crested the rise and rolled toward them down the road.
“Let’s keep that information to ourselves for a while,” Kade said. “See where it leads before we muddle things up by bringing in the law.”
“Good idea.”
Ellie watched the SUVs closing in. “I wish we could just go home.”
Kade’s arm went around her, and he pulled her close. “So do I, darlin’. So do I.”
But they would have to wait for Sheriff Fischer to take their statements. They would have to convince the authorities that the bullet that killed Earl Dunstan hadn’t come from one of their guns.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
IT WAS ALMOST FOUR IN THE MORNING WHEN KADE LED ELLIE INTO the ranch house, nearly time for Maria to arrive and start breakfast.
“It’s been a long day,” Ellie said. “We both need to get some rest.” Wearily, she raked back her thick, dark auburn hair. “Maybe I should stay in my own room.”
Kade frowned, not liking the notion. “I’ll sleep a lot better if you’re beside me, but it’s up to you.”
Ellie’s gaze flicked to his, and her pretty lips curved. “I’ll probably sleep better, too.”
Kade felt a sweep of relief that surprised him. He was getting used to having Ellie in his bed. It was probably a bad idea. Sooner or later, she would be leaving.
If you’re dumb enough to let her go.
The thought came out of nowhere. Kade shoved it aside, and they headed upstairs to his room. Ellie’s clothes were covered in blood, so she went in to rinse off her jacket and take a quick shower. Kade didn’t join her, though he wanted to. As she had said, they both needed to get some sleep.
It was light outside when he awoke hours later with Ellie snuggled against him, her glorious, fire-touched hair spread over his chest. His erection stirred to life, but he didn’t wake her.
Last night had been difficult for both of them. Watching a man die was never easy, and it had been only days since they’d found Frank Keller’s bloody, lifeless body.
Kade left Ellie sleeping, showered, dressed, and went downstairs. Breakfast was long over, the kitchen cleaned up, Maria gone, the hands off at work. The big stainless coffeepot was on, as always, and a couple of left-over sack lunches sat on the counter for whoever might need them, but Kade wasn’t in the mood.
Instead he turned on the stove, grabbed a skillet, and started frying strips of bacon, enough for him and Ellie. He made some toast and was stirring a pan of scrambled eggs when the kitchen door swung open.
“Good morning,” she said, smiling as she walked into the kitchen. Without makeup, she looked clean and wholesome, young and vibrant. His possessive instincts arose, and arousal slid through him. There was just something about her.
“I’ve got breakfast ready. You’re just in time.”
Her smile widened. “That smells delicious, and I’m starving.” She reached over and snagged a piece of bacon. “I didn’t realize you could cook.”
He chuckled as he turned off the stove and dished up their plates. “Just one of my many talents.” At the moment, there was another talent he’d like to show her, but that would have to wait.
They sat down at the long oak table and dug in. “You never talk about your brothers,” she said out of the blue. “Gage and Edge, right? Gage is the middle brother. Edge is the youngest.”
“You being a detective, I guess you looked us up.”
“That’s right. Both your parents are gone. So why don’t you ever talk about them?”
Kade lifted his coffee mug but didn’t take a drink. “I don’t see them much anymore. Gage is always off on some adventure. Half the time he’s out of the country. Same with Edge. He’s Army Special Forces. Only thing he ever wanted to do.”
“Doesn’t sound like the three of you are very close.”
Regret filled him, and he set the coffee mug back down on the table. “We were when we were kids. After Mom died, we kind of drifted apart.”
“That’s too bad.” Ellie started eating again. Kade was glad she had dropped the subject.
He missed his brothers, wished they had parted on better terms. Kade had wanted them to stick around, help him run the ranch. Neither Gage nor Edge was interested. They had fought about it. It wasn’t until after they were gone that he realized they had made the right decision. They had their own lives to live, and ranching had never ap
pealed to them.
Kade was right where he belonged, and so were Gage and Edge. Still, he wished he could see them, make sure they understood he respected them for being strong enough to stand up to him and follow their dreams.
Ellie sipped her coffee. “I’ve been thinking about Earl Dunstan and what he said last night.”
He took a drink of coffee. “And?”
“According to Earl, the man who hired Frank and then killed him had something to do with the mine.”
“You think he was talking about the Red Hawk?”
“It’s the only mine Frank worked that has any connection to you.”
Kade shook his head. “I don’t know. We’ve talked to Will Turley. Will and I have known each other for years. No way he hired Frank to get back at me. Will and I never had a problem.”
“I didn’t pick up any bad vibes, either. What about the miners? Ever had any trouble with one of the men?”
“Aside from Will, I don’t know any of the guys who work there. And I have to think whoever hired Frank paid him plenty. Those miners don’t make that kind of money.”
“Why don’t you call Will, get him to give you the names of anyone and everyone who has any connection to the mine? Maybe one of the names will ring a bell.”
Kade nodded. “I’ll call him before we leave.”
Ellie’s gaze shot to his. “We’re still going to Denver?”
“You worried about the guy who shot Keller and Dunstan showing up while we’re gone?”
“I don’t know. But two men are dead, and if it’s you he’s after—”
“The ranch has first-class security twenty-four seven, and the hands are all on alert. If it’s me he’s after, he’ll have to go to Denver to find me.”
“Okay, then. Because I’ve still got a job to do. You hired me to find Heather’s killer. At the moment, finding out what happened to Barbara Meeks is the best chance we’ve got.”
* * *
Built in 1892, the Brown Palace Hotel in downtown Denver was a Colorado landmark. Nearly every president since 1905 had stayed in the luxurious hotel, with its eight-story, open atrium lit by a beautiful, multicolored, domed glass skylight.
