by Unknown
“We’re stuck,” Colin said after a moment, cutting the engine. “We’ll wait in the car.”
“I feel safer here than on the road,” Isabella replied.
“The lights are smashed, so I can’t turn them on for Boone.”
“He knows exactly where we are.”
In minutes her cell phone rang. When she answered, she turned to Colin.
“It’s Boone. He just wanted us to know that it’s him. He’s almost here.”
“Let’s go wait up on the road now. We’ll be safe if he’s close.” Colin tried to open his door, which was smashed. “I have to get out on your side.”
“I think we both have to climb out the window,” she said. “If the window opens. If it doesn’t, we’ll have to break it out.”
Colin climbed into the back and tried both doors. “Turn on the ignition and get the windows down.”
As soon as she did, he slithered out the back and dropped to his feet. He walked around to help her out.
He leaned into the car, picked her up beneath her arms and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he lifted her out and set her on the ground. For one brief moment they looked into each other’s eyes. Colin leaned in to retrieve her purse and his pistol. As they climbed a hill, Isabella could hear an approaching vehicle, its beams cutting a bright swath.
Boone slowed his pickup and pulled up alongside their car.
“You’re both all right?” he asked as he climbed out to meet them.
“We’re fine,” Colin answered.
“Thanks to Colin’s driving,” she added as they walked to Boone’s pickup. His hair was tangled and he was wearing a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.
“Tyler was following you and lost you when you turned off the state road. Will you stop ditching everyone? We’re the good guys and we’re trying to keep this from happening and catch the killer.”
“Sorry, Boone, but nothing will happen if you guys are ten feet behind me. I’m just sorry Isabella was with me. I tried to get her to call you to come pick her up.”
Boone shot her a dark look. “I know how likely that would have been.”
“She’s a chip off the old block,” Colin added. “She got my pistol and fired at him, so he knows he’s in for a fight.”
“Did your shots hit his car or him?” Boone asked.
Isabella shook her head. “I couldn’t tell. We were off the road and going down the hill. See?” She pointed to the place where they had left the road and Boone turned to look at smashed bushes, branches down, chunks knocked out of trees and ground torn up with dark tracks.
“Oh, hell!” He turned to Colin. “Dammit, stop shaking us off your tail!”
“You’ve got to let him try to get to me or this won’t do any good.”
“Yeah, but we want you alive, as much as we want to catch him.”
Colin shook his head. “We’ve got to do something different.”
“I know one thing—would you two refrain from going out dancing or dining until this is over!” Boone snapped. “It’s not like you’re dating!”
“Sure thing, Boone,” Colin answered lightly.
Isabella thought she detected amusement in his tone. She rode in the middle of the front bench seat in Boone’s pickup, ever aware of Colin’s muscular body pressed against her side.
He and Boone talked about the night and the possibilities. Each one called one of the other men and she listened as Boone told Mike to try to determine Brett Hamilton’s whereabouts while Colin asked Jonah to try to find out where Tyler and Peter had spent the evening and where they were now.
“I can’t imagine having to check on Brett or Peter,” Boone said, replacing the phone in his pocket, “but we better not overlook anyone.”
“I agree with you,” Colin said. “I’d rather think it’s Tyler than someone we’ve been friends with and known for years. That would really be grim.”
“Yeah, but we need to be sure. Unless it’s someone here that none of us know about,” Boone said.
“There’s always that possibility.”
“Do you think you’ll be safe at Isabella’s tonight?” Boone asked.
“Yes. I can’t imagine him coming after me again tonight. We’ll have the new alarm system in place. I think we’re fine.”
“Let’s get together with the guys in the morning. We’ve got to keep you in sight, yet let him make his play. You could’ve told Mike your route tonight and then he could’ve hung back farther.”
“I don’t think he would have been there in time to do anything if he had been a long ways behind us. Boone, I think I’m pretty much on my own in trying to catch him unless we just get real lucky or try to set something up.”
“If Mike had been there, he could have gone after the guy.”
“You know he would’ve stopped to see about us.”
Isabella sat listening, her nerves slowly calming after the night’s excitement. Yet another part of her wasn’t going to calm. Excitement from Colin’s steamy kisses still bubbled in her and would continue to do so. She wanted more kisses, wanted to be back in his arms. And his praise was just as exciting to her.
She had had a wonderful evening with him up until the attempt on his life.
She was lost in thoughts about his kisses and remembering dancing in his arms until they stopped at the back gate at her place. Both of them thanked Boone who insisted on following them inside.
She fed and watered the dogs while Boone and Colin prowled the house and yard, checking out everything before Boone finally climbed into his pickup and drove away. Colin closed and locked the door behind him and set alarms for the yard and house.
“Let’s go have some iced tea,” she suggested and Colin nodded.
He reached out and pulled her into his arms. “Come here, Isabella,” he said in a husky voice, and her heart thudded.
He pulled her into his embrace, wrapping his arms around her and looking at her intently. “You’re some woman! That was impressive tonight.”
She wound her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. “Because I didn’t go to pieces or faint with fright?”
“Damn straight because of that and a lot more. You were as cool as Boone would have been, turning and firing at the guy. That was one wild ride.”
“So you want to kiss me because I’m like my brother,” she teased, her pulse racing because she had broken through more of the barriers he kept around himself. She was excited, wound up and she knew it was purely because of his kisses and praise and not the danger they’d been in.
“Your brother is the last thing on my mind right now.” Colin leaned down to brush his mouth over hers and then to kiss her solidly.
She returned his kisses until his cell phone rang. Reluctantly, he moved away, swearing under his breath as he pulled out his phone.
The minute he began to talk she knew it was Boone again. She turned to go to the kitchen to get them something to drink. Colin trailed behind her and when she waved a cold bottle of beer at him, he nodded. She filled a glass with ice and poured her tea.
He pocketed his cell phone. “Boone hasn’t heard anything yet. He was just checking on us again.”
Taking the beer from her, Colin popped the top and followed Isabella to the kitchen table to sit facing her.
“You don’t think there will be another attempt on your life tonight?” she asked him.
“No, I don’t. If the enemy is one of the guys who came from D.C., he’ll get back to cover his tracks and have an alibi for his time tonight. Even if our guy isn’t one of them, his plans tonight were foiled and that has to shake him up.”
Colin took a long drink, set down his bottle and leaned on the table, putting himself closer to her to look her directly in the eyes. “I want you out of this, Isabella. I don’t want anything to happen again like tonight.”
“I got along fine and I wasn’t hurt except for a few bruises maybe from jostling around in the car,” she said, looking into his thickly lashed gray eyes and wanting t
o be in his arms again.
“We’re not going to argue. You’re out.”
“There are some things I do that you have no control over and no say so about,” she replied coolly, getting annoyed with his heavy-handed decision to run her life even if his intentions were admirable.
“Do you know how I would feel if something happened to you?”
“You’d feel terrible, so I’ll be careful and you’ll protect me and everything will be fine.”
“You’re out. I’m talking to the guys tomorrow and you can’t change this.”
She glared at him. “All right, we won’t go on any more dates. We’re not together a lot of the time and I’ll be fine.”
“If we hadn’t been lucky tonight, you could have been killed.”
“It wasn’t luck. You did what you should’ve to protect us and everything was all right.”
“Dammit. You know I can’t go live with one of the guys and put families and children in jeopardy. I need to find a hotel.”
“The guys won’t like it. They’ll ask me if I want you to move, and you know exactly what I’ll tell them. I’m not scared, Colin.”
“You should be!” he snapped, glaring at her.
“Let’s go back like we were and stop arguing. There’s nothing we can do tonight and we’re not going out together, except to Boone’s next Saturday to the barbecue, and that’s the same as staying here at my house. We’re not going out together—you know we’re safe here.” She gave him a big smile and he sighed and raked his fingers through his hair, which sprang back. She wished it were her fingers moving through his hair.
“We probably are safe here. So we don’t go out together.”
She nodded her head.
He sipped his beer and she watched him. When he lowered the bottle he gazed at her. “I couldn’t tell the make of the car, get a license, or anything. The car was black and driven by a man. What did you see?”
“He had on a ski mask.”
“I didn’t even see that much. Get anything else?”
“It was a big, black, four-door car. Colin, that car has to be dented badly where he hit us. I shot at him. The car should be riddled with bullet holes.”
“Mike said they have the authorities already searching for the car. My guess is we’ll either never find it or what we find will be stolen, impossible to trace and a worthless lead.”
“How well do you know the men who are here from Washington?”
“We’ve known two of them pretty damned well.” He gazed at her with a speculative look and flexed his shoulders. “We’ll be black and blue tomorrow.”
She rubbed her neck. “I twisted around and my shoulder is already sore. A hot shower ought to help.”
“Suggesting that for both of us?” he asked, arching his eyebrow.
“No, I’m not. I don’t know you that well,” she replied and he smiled. He picked up his beer and walked around the table, catching her hand in his.
“Come here where it’s more comfortable,” he said, leading her to the living area. He crossed the room to sit on the sofa. “Turn around and I’ll rub your back and neck and shoulder. Maybe it’ll help get the kinks out.”
She sat down close beside him and turned her back to him, setting her drink on the table. He began to gently knead her shoulders and she closed her eyes. “That’s wonderful.”
A ring shattered the quiet and Colin stretched out his arm to pick up the phone. “It’s Mike,” he said, looking at the Caller ID. He picked up the receiver to answer. “Hi, Mike. What did you learn?” he asked.
Chapter 10
I sabella moved around behind Colin and began to massage his shoulders, certain he was just as shaken from the bumpy car ride as she had been. He was solid with hard muscles and she tingled from the contact. As she kneaded his back, she could feel that he was tense.
He turned slightly to look at her, then turned back around.
She was still shaken by the attempt to kill Colin, knowing if the killer had succeeded, she would have been murdered right along with Colin and it would have looked like a wreck. Even though certain people would have known that it wasn’t an accident, they would have had no proof.
She knew Colin was going to want to set up a trap and to use himself as bait and she hated that, but she could see the need for it.
She kneaded his back, feeling the warmth through his shirt while she listened to his brief answers and comments. She could tell that he was unhappy with what he was hearing.
“Ten at your office. See you then,” Colin said and replaced the receiver, setting the phone back on the table and turning to look at her.
“They found the car,” he said. “It’s shot up, smashed along one side and abandoned. It was stolen, no plates, so that’s a dead end. He had a car stashed in the woods. After the attack on us, he drove a few miles, switched cars, cut across to the highway and was gone.”
His cell phone rang again and Colin answered. He motioned to her to turn around and, with one hand, he kneaded her back and shoulder and she closed her eyes. The massage was wonderful. Since it was Colin giving it to her, she tingled from his touch and she wished Boone and Mike would stop calling and interrupting them, yet she knew they had to get news to him.
His excitement over her quick actions belonged to the past hour. Now he was growing more solemn and determined to get away from her so she wouldn’t be in danger. But he would be in far more danger in a hotel and she didn’t want him to move. And she didn’t want to have to move in with Boone and Erin.
When he put down his phone again, he massaged her back with both hands. “That was Jonah. Peter had an alibi. Brett followed Tyler who was the car behind us when I pulled off on the county road.”
“We didn’t see any car behind the one following you.”
“Mike turned off, didn’t see anyone ahead of Tyler and decided we’d ditched Tyler and there was no point in following him. He turned around and went back to the highway because on that deserted road, he figured whoever he was following, would spot him.”
“You’re not getting much help from these guys.”
“They’re trying. It’s tricky business. But it makes it look a lot less like Tyler might be our man because he would have had to do a lot of tricky maneuvering to get back and ram us and have a car stashed. Peter was off duty so he was in the bar at the hotel going over some papers he’d brought with him. A waiter and a bartender both accounted for his time. Then he left to go to a movie and refreshment people vouched for him there.”
“What about the military man? Brett Hamilton?”
“Nope. Can’t be him,” Colin insisted.
The phone rang again and she sighed. “I guess you’re going to get calls all night,” she said. As he answered his phone, she stood, turned to brush a kiss on his cheek and left the room.
She went to her room to take the hot shower he had talked about, then she pulled on her nightgown and climbed into bed.
She didn’t know whether it was exhaustion from the events of the day and night, but she was asleep within twenty minutes.
Colin and Mike talked again and agreed to meet the following morning. They did not want to include Peter or Tyler, so it was decided that Mike would come to the ranch about security and he and Boone would meet with Colin at the guest house. They would just report to Jonah what was decided because they didn’t want it to look like a meeting of the four of them.
Colin agreed and finally broke the connection. Isabella was gone, but he wondered whether she would sleep. He was going to take a hot shower and put something on the cuts he had. He suspected tomorrow they would both be black and blue and he hated that she had been with him tonight.
At the same time, he was impressed beyond measure with her quick action. She was Boone’s sister for sure, with the same coolness and steely nerves as her brother.
He rubbed his neck and knew he should get her out of his thoughts. Instead of remembering Isabella, he needed to think about the killer and to try t
o remember every detail tonight.
He showered and was no more successful at thinking about the killer now than he had been before. Isabella filled his thoughts and he wanted to go see if she was awake and to see if she wanted to talk, but he knew he should stay away from her. Isabella was entangling herself in his heartstrings enough already. She was dangerous to him and he knew it. He had watched Boone break hearts ever since the day he’d first met the man and he didn’t want to get entangled now with Isabella, who was probably like her brother in that department, too.
He stretched out in bed and willed his mind back to those wild few minutes when the car had first come charging at them, but he hadn’t seen as much as Isabella had. He had been too busy concentrating on trying to keep from a head-on smash into the bridge or a tree to get a look at anything except a black car and bright headlights.
Two times he had foiled his foe. Tonight had been partially thanks to Isabella, because if she hadn’t been firing back at the guy, he would have had a better chance to finish the job of killing.
Even so, the man had to be frustrated, angry and even more desperate. Was it Peter or Troy? Or had the killer followed them to Texas from Washington, knowing that suspicion would be thrown on Tyler and Peter?
Both Tyler and Peter had had witnesses vouch for them. Yet both had done things where they could have gotten away from the place and then gone back to it and no one would have known.
The one sure thing he did know—from now on he needed to stay the hell away from Isabella.
The next week was uneventful except Isabella saw almost nothing of Colin. He worked out with her and then she didn’t see him while she had breakfast and left for work. When she returned home he was never around and she had no idea if he was somewhere else on the ranch or in town.
Saturday morning after their workout, he paused before going down the hall to his room. “I’ll see you tonight when we go to Boone’s for barbecue.”
She nodded and walked on to her room, but her pulse jumped. After her shower, when she went to the kitchen for breakfast, she was disappointed to find it empty. She crossed the room to pour orange juice and looked out the window to see Colin heading to Boone’s house and she wondered if he was spending most of his time with her brother. One thing she knew, he was avoiding her.
