“Stop them!”
The unarmed guard entered the lobby, still talking into the phone.
Damn. Having to pull Gemma along with him, he moved closer to the armed guard.
“I said stop!”
“Mr. McCall…” Patrick warned.
Ford slipped out his pistol as he drew closer to the armed guard, stopping just a few feet away.
“Give me the gun.” The guard held out one of his hands.
Hearing the guard who’d caught them in the hall move up behind him and Gemma, Ford held up his pistol. The armed guard tentatively moved closer, exactly as Ford hoped. He lunged, hitting the guard’s gun, deflecting his aim while he punched him hard enough to make him bow forward. Quickly maneuvering behind him, Ford hooked his arm around the man’s neck and pressed his pistol against his temple.
“Drop it,” he told the other guard.
After a bit of hesitation, the guard dropped his gun. Patrick sank down onto his chair. The two men standing next to him didn’t move.
“Gemma, go through the doors.”
Her fast breathing belied her courage. She walked slowly backward toward the door.
Ford backed up after her, using the guard as a hostage. At the door, he pushed the guard and used his foot to kick him back into the lobby.
Running through the door, he grabbed Gemma’s hand and ran with her to his SUV.
They scrambled in and he wheeled the Escalade around and gave it full power. Zigzagging through a neighborhood, he slowed long enough to use the computer attached to his dash to look up Michael Harris’s home address.
“Do you think we’ll find the laptop there?”
“If it’s not there, we’ll know that Bo has it.”
In his rearview mirror, he saw the security guard with the cell phone, holding it to his head and talking rapidly. He’d gotten Ford’s plate number. That didn’t matter. Bo already knew Ford had brought the laptop to Michael without telling him. They were now playing a very dangerous game. His biggest concern was for Gemma. Bo could fire him, or even send one of Samuel’s henchmen after him. Gemma would be caught in the crossfire. Or maybe she was caught anyway.
Jed’s killer had planted her bracelet next to his body to take the heat off himself. The laptop threatened exposure. And Bo was at the center of it all, doing Samuel’s bidding. But what did Samuel want from Gemma? Would he let the murder go unsolved? Welcome Gemma into his circle? Or would he drive her out of town, or worse, kill her?
Samuel would have to get past Ford first.
* * *
The front door of Michael’s house was locked, but the back door wasn’t. He slid it open and was relieved to see nothing disturbed. No one had been here. That meant Bo had the laptop.
Taking Gemma’s hand, he led her through the house to Michael’s office. He’d been here a few times before, whenever he had something he needed Michael to look at without Bo’s knowledge.
Inside the office, headlights from the street flashed through the window. Ford pulled Gemma out of the stream of light. She landed against him and he held her around her waist. Once again she looked up at him with her lips parted and her eyes inquisitive and hot.
“Woman, you’re killing me.”
She stepped back. “You keep touching me.”
Taking in her small form and round, perky breasts, he turned in frustration and went to the desk, booting the computer. Gemma put her hands on the back of the chair and watched over his head.
The computer was password protected. Gemma started opening a drawer to his right and he opened the one on the left. She found a small notebook and flipped through the pages.
She stopped and pushed her forefinger into his biceps, showing him a page.
The words For Ford were handwritten there. And then a word followed by four numbers. The password. There was something on this computer.
His heart picking up speed, he tore the page out and typed in the password, then searched through folders and files.
“Open his email,” Gemma said. “Maybe he emailed himself the video file.”
“Good thinking.” He didn’t think Michael would have done that, not after their conversation when he’d dropped off the laptop. But maybe he’d sent something else. Some kind of clue.
There was an email from his work account six deep in the inbox. A forwarded message.
“That’s from Lacy to Jed. That’s Jed’s email address.” Her voice held a tremor.
“Yeah.” He opened the email.
Gemma stood straighter, resting her hand on the back of the office chair to read the email. In it, Lacy warned Jed to leave town before he was killed. “Oh, my God.”
“How did she get his email address?”
A moment went by while she thought. “I showed her some emails he sent to me before he came to Cold Plains.”
“He sent you emails?”
“Yes, things like, ‘I miss you, come home,’ and ‘Why did you have to do this to us?’ Disturbing. Stalker emails. That’s why I showed them to Lacy. I wanted to see what she thought.”
“What did she say?”
“She agreed they were creepy and told me not to respond to any of them.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Why did she warn him to leave town? What reason would she have? Why care about a man who hurt her friend? Would a true Devotee do that? If she was beginning to see through Grayson’s deception, knew what happened to anyone who didn’t fit in…
Maybe she simply didn’t want to see anyone else getting hurt, or thought convincing Jed to leave town was a way to help Gemma.
Or…
“She might have known Jed would be murdered,” he said.
“She couldn’t have.”
“Does she know anyone close to Grayson? Someone who would have known Jed would be killed?”
“Alan,” Gemma breathed incredulously. “She said he worked at the community center, ‘doing things for Samuel.’ I couldn’t believe she was interested in him. He looked like a gangster.”
“‘Doing things for Samuel’?” Ford nodded. Was he doing things for Samuel by way of his henchmen? “She might have heard them talking. Or Alan told her. He could have been close enough to know the plans.” He might have been tasked with doing the killing, too.
He printed the email and then sent it to his personal account. After deleting every trace of the email from Michael’s inbox, sent and deleted folders, he got up from the office chair, stuffing the note with the password and the email into his pocket. “Let’s go.”
If Lacy had warned Jed, maybe there was hope for her yet. On the other hand, if she was beginning to see the truth about Grayson and his cult, she could be stepping onto dangerous ground. If Grayson found out what she’d done, or suspected her in any way…
Through the back door, Ford took Gemma’s hand. When hers tightened in his, he felt an instant response. How she managed to elicit so much heat with so little coaxing disconcerted him. Right now he had to stay alert.
Reaching the front of the house, he spotted a car parked across the street that hadn’t been there before. There were two men inside.
“That’s Alan,” Gemma said. “In the passenger seat.”
The two men started to get out. They hadn’t searched Michael’s house yet, but apparently would now.
“Let’s go another way.” Ford took her around the back, staying hidden by trees and thick vegetation in the neighboring front yard. Sneaking down the block, they made it to Ford’s Escalade.
He opened the passenger door. “Get in.”
Closing the door behind her, he went around to the driver’s side, hoping Lacy’s email wouldn’t be discovered. He’d deleted the files b
ut they could still be extracted.
“I need to go talk to Lacy,” Gemma said.
“I’ll go with you. I need to talk to her, too.”
“No, Ford. She won’t talk with you around. She must know how Bo feels about you. Samuel, too.”
“It’s too risky. Samuel will start to question your loyalty now.”
“Surely he expects me to try and prove my innocence. He just doesn’t want the identity of the killer to be exposed. He’s tasked Bo with ensuring that. If he sees that I’m still close to Lacy, he might leave me alone.”
“Lacy warned Jed, remember.”
“He doesn’t know that.”
Yet. “All right, but I’m going to be waiting nearby.”
* * *
The next day, Gemma put on her best Devotee face and headed for Cold Plains Coffee. Ford waited in the Escalade, blue eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses, elbow on the open window frame. Sexy. Gorgeous. Armed and carrying his badge.
Pushing the door open, Gemma spotted Lacy and hoped she was right about her friend, that she’d warned Jed because she knew what kind of man Samuel really was. That she was turning her back on his cult. That way, Gemma could keep her friend.
Lacy beamed a brilliant, happy smile when she saw Gemma and Gemma smiled back. Was it genuine? Was Lacy truly her friend or did she have another reason for warning Jed? A more sinister one?
“Gemma.” Lacy wove her way around workers and the counter, whisking past a short line of pinkies-up Cold Plains residents and gracefully wrapped her arm around Gemma. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
“You heard, huh?”
Lacy let her go. “Who hasn’t? Your bracelet was found at your ex’s crime scene. It was in the paper.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“Of course you didn’t, Gemma.”
Was she being sarcastic? If so, she was making light of a serious situation, a situation that could affect the rest of Gemma’s life. Gemma didn’t appreciate that.
“Someone stole my bracelet. I’m being set up.”
“Oh, nobody thinks you killed him anyway. You’ll be fine, you wait and see.”
Taken aback, Gemma wondered what had prompted Lacy to say that. How could she know what everybody thought? And who was ‘everybody’?
“Where’s Ford?” Lacy leaned around her to look through the front windows. “I heard he was living with you again.”
Seeing that Lacy had spotted him outside in his SUV, Gemma didn’t respond.
“Is he?” Lacy asked.
“For now.” Gemma told her about the recording, watching her for signs of reaction. Lacy listened without a change in her demeanor.
“The forensics technician working on Jed’s laptop was murdered and now the laptop is missing,” Gemma said.
Lacy’s mouth opened with her surprise. “Are you kidding?”
Was she sincere or had she known about Michael’s murder? Gemma supposed it was possible she didn’t. “I’ll be charged with Jed’s murder without that evidence.”
Now Lacy batted her hand. “You don’t have anything to worry about, Gemma. As long as you stay objective about Ford.”
And there it was. Lacy did know something, even if it wasn’t about the technician. “What do you mean?” What did Ford have to do with this?
“He’s just been making a lot of waves lately.”
“By helping me prove my innocence?” Unbelievable. Lacy was against Ford.
“You don’t need him.”
She sounded as though she were sure. “Why? Do you know who stole my bracelet?”
Lacy’s lips twitched uncertainly, then she glanced around the coffee shop. Didn’t she want anyone to hear?
“It’s okay, you can tell me,” Gemma said.
Lacy put her hand on Gemma’s back and guided her toward the exit. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Abruptly, Gemma stopped and turned to face her. Lacy lowered her hand.
“I know about the email you sent Jed,” Gemma said, quietly enough that no one would hear.
If that caught Lacy off guard, her friend did a great job of covering it. “Whatever are you talking about, Gemma?”
She was going to deny it? Who else would send the email? No one that Gemma knew. No one would take the risk. “I know you sent it.”
“Gemma, if you would just leave well enough alone…”
“Well enough? Is being a suspect to murder ‘well enough’?”
Lacy stared at Gemma for several seconds. “Ford…he’s staying with you and he’s…” She couldn’t seem to find the words.
“Helping me.”
“He’s causing trouble.”
Gemma blinked in befuddlement a few times. “You encouraged me to be with him before. You said he was exactly the kind of cop this town needs.”
“That was before I heard he went behind Bo’s back.”
“So now you’re going to turn yours on me?”
Lacy sighed with exasperation. “What do you expect me to do?”
“Be my friend.”
Lacy’s lips pursed ever so slightly and her eyes wore an admonishing frown. “As long as you’re with him, you’re not one of us, Gemma.”
“One of whom?” A Devotee?
“I like you, I really do. But I have to be careful now.”
Lacy had to be careful with Gemma, because Gemma was with Ford, a cop who played by the rules. Rules that Bo and Samuel wanted to break. The sting of her friend’s rejection pierced deep.
“If Ford is going rogue you could be in so much trouble, Gemma. You have no idea.”
Her warning was clue enough. “Did Alan tell you about the computer?” He must have.
Lacy’s head jerked backward as though she was suddenly aware of the slip. “No. You’re all everyone is talking about right now, that’s all.”
“Rumors?” That was the best she could do? Lacy was lying.
“Yes. Of course. How else would I know?”
“Right. How else? Why don’t you tell me that, Lacy? And while you’re at it, why don’t you tell me why you warned Jed that if he didn’t leave town, he might be killed?”
Lacy’s head jerked again, her nonchalance faltering once more. “Gemma, you’re talking nonsense. I have nothing to do with your dilemma.”
“My dilemma?” This was getting more and more inconceivable by the second. Lacy was denying everything. Staying true to Samuel, even though her action in sending the email suggested otherwise. “What do you know about the computer?”
Lacy scoffed. “Oh, Gemma, stop. It’s nothing.”
Nothing. Gemma was being framed for murder and it was nothing. “You just told me I could be in trouble.”
Lacy glanced around again.
“Afraid someone’s going to hear you?”
Growing angry, Lacy locked her gaze with Gemma’s.
Gemma didn’t back down. “Is Alan one of Samuel’s henchmen?”
Lacy’s anger intensified. “Take my advice, Gemma. Get away from Ford. He’s on his way down, but it’s not too late for you.”
“Is he?” And why was it not too late for her? Would Samuel look the other way if she became one of his followers? And would Samuel still feel the same if he discovered Gemma could be pregnant?
“He doesn’t fit in here. He’s against everything Samuel has built for this town.”
“Listen to what you’re saying. Do you really think the success of a town depends on one person? Samuel is over the top. He’s crazy.”
“I think it’s time you left.”
Was Lacy afraid or was she protecting her idyllic life by sidling under Samuel’s wing? “Did Alan kill Jed?”
“Leave.” Now Lacy pointed toward the doors.
“You’re the first friend I met here, Lacy. I care about you. And I’m worried you’re the one who’s in trouble.”
An eerie resignation seeped into Lacy’s eyes. “I know there’s no convincing you of the folly of staying with Ford, but I’m here to tell you that if you do—” her voice lowered to a whisper “—you’ll be cast out from this town. Or worse.” The last she all but hissed.
“Ford won’t let that happen. And we aren’t going anywhere.”
“You’re going to go up against Samuel?”
“If he’s setting me up for murder, yes.”
That eerie resignation deepened. “Then you and I can’t be friends anymore.”
Had Lacy chosen sides? She’d chosen Samuel? Heartache crushed Gemma. “If that’s how you really feel…”
Lacy held a steady face, breaking Gemma’s heart further. “Just go, Gemma.”
“All right.” Gemma turned, numb, and walked toward the door, suffocating beneath the stares of Cold Plains Coffee’s rich patrons.
Stopping at the door, she looked back. Lacy’s eyes narrowed and with a disgusted swat of her hand, she marched toward the back of the coffee shop.
Dismissed. As easy as that.
It didn’t seem possible. What about the email? What about their friendship? Hadn’t any of that meant anything?
CHAPTER 9
“Put yourself in her shoes, Gemma.”
Gemma looked up at Ford from where she sulked on her living-room sofa.
“She’s a Devotee. That means she’s inside Grayson’s most secretive circle. If she’s discovered things about him that are incriminating, he’ll kill her if she deviates at all.”
“Then we have to help her.”
He came to her and sat down, putting his arm around her. “We will, but it will have to be from a distance.”
She snuggled closer to him.
“We can’t put her in any danger.”
“Is that why she sent me away like that? Was she protecting me?”
“And herself. Maybe. She may also be genuinely loyal to Grayson.”
Perfect Wyoming Complete Collection: Special Agent's Perfect Cover ; Rancher's Perfect Baby Rescue ; A Daughter's Perfect Secret ; Lawman's Perfect Surrender ; The Perfect Outsider ; Mercenary's Perfect Mission Page 65
