Crossing Nevada

by Jeannie Watt

  He cared for her...

  Well, she’d be lying to herself if she pretended she didn’t care for him, too.

  Could it be possible that this could work out? That signing with the agency wasn’t the only break she was ever going to get in her life?

  That maybe Eddie would continue putting in his time in the car wash and she could happily settle in this valley, close to the man who was getting deeper under her skin every day?

  Was that too much to hope for?

  Maybe not.

  * * *

  THE SENSE OF promise was still there the next morning when Tess got out of bed, wondering what it would be like to wake up next to Zach, and continued through the morning almost until noon—when the phone rang and a few seconds after answering it, Detective Hiller brought Tess crashing back to earth.

  “William Abbott was attacked in his home last night.”

  A numbing sensation traveled up her spine. No. Not William. “Is he all right?”

  “The attack was interrupted by a neighbor before he was hurt too badly. He spent the night in the hospital as a precaution and was released this morning.”

  “I see.” The calm words sounded inane to her. Yes, I see. William Abbott was beaten because of me.

  “He contacted our office to let us know what happened and he wanted me to pass along the message that he hadn’t told the guy anything.”

  “The man who attacked him asked about me?”

  “Yes.”

  She had to stay calm. Think clearly. Get all the information she could. Later she could break down.

  “What’s being done to protect William?” she asked.

  “William is protecting himself. He’s arranging to visit a friend who lives out of the country.” She heard a rare touch of humor in Detective Hiller’s voice when he said, “He also told us to contact him when the assailant was caught, because he intends to sue.”

  Tess smiled grimly. Of course he did.

  “Did he give a description?”

  “It matches that of Jared Napier.”

  Tess’s heart stopped beating for a split second. “No. He’s in prison.” But even as the words came out of her mouth, she knew what the detective was going to say.

  “He was released two weeks ago. They had no reason to inform our office.”

  “I guess they have one now,” Tess said, pressing her hand against her eyes. Think. What are you going to do?

  “When I got the report, I checked all of Eddie’s known associates, since he’s—”

  “Working at the car wash and never misses a day,” Tess said bitterly. But the detective wasn’t going to say he’d been wrong when he’d told her to get on with her life, that Eddie wasn’t a threat. Technically he wasn’t—to her. At the time. But William probably had a different take on the matter.

  “That’s when I found out his son had been released from prison, pulled up his profile and the description fit.”

  “Then can’t you just pick him up?” Tess asked, a note of desperation working into her voice.

  “We had the authorities in San Jose do just that. He has a pretty solid alibi.”

  “Wonder how much he paid for it.”

  “There’s nothing we can do until we get more substantial evidence, and that isn’t likely. I want you to call if you have any concerns. Any concerns at all.”

  That was a change. Tess agreed, then after she’d hung up the phone, she slammed her palm against the wall. It wasn’t fair. Not freaking fair!

  She’d had what? Two weeks of feeling like she had a life.

  And what about the girls and Zach? What if Eddie or Jared came gunning for her and they were around? She could only think of one possible solution—to give Eddie and Jared what they so desperately wanted—before they hurt someone else she cared about.

  * * *

  TESS GOT INTO the car after dropping her dogs off at Dr. Hyatt’s vet clinic to be boarded, and hoped she would be back to get them.

  She had to end this craziness once and for all and the only way she could think of to do it was to give Eddie what he wanted. She couldn’t give him the money he thought she’d stolen from him, but she had money in the bank. A good deal of money even after leasing the ranch. Once she found out how much her mother had stolen from Eddie, she’d replace it. If she played things right, they wouldn’t even know it wasn’t the same money. What better way to spend what was left of her nest egg than to buy her freedom?

  The only problem was Zach. She’d wanted to tell him what was going on. To confess. But in the end she’d decided that the less he knew, the better. He was too damned protective. There was no way he’d agree to her plan, because he didn’t understand her family’s mind-set the way she did.

  Hey, Zach. I need to run to Reno where my stepbrother Mikey is going to help me broker a deal with the rest of my felonious stepfamily.

  Oh, yes. That would have gone over well.

  This was her life, she reminded herself as she backed the car out of the parking space. Her business. She’d come close to putting his family in harm’s way and she needed to do something about it. If this worked out, she’d come back to Barlow Ridge, tell Zach the truth. If it didn’t work out...well, Zach wouldn’t have to worry about her running out on him because she’d be long gone.

  Tess checked the time as she pulled onto the highway. Twelve-thirty. She’d pull into Reno at about five-thirty, ditch her car in a parking garage, take a cab to the casino where she’d meet Mikey at seven o’clock. Once there, she’d take a good look at the place. Get to know her escape routes. Hope to hell this deal worked so she could get on with her life.

  It hadn’t taken long to track down her stepbrother, since he went by his real name, had a sedate career as an IT guy, a wife and two kids. He’d been stunned when she’d called out of the blue, but after hearing her story, had reluctantly agreed to meet her in Reno, which was only an hour and a half drive from where he lived in Sacramento. Tess wanted to meet in Reno because it wasn’t in California where both Eddie and Jared were paroled, she was moderately familiar with the town and she wanted a place that had lots and lots of cameras. Nothing better than a casino for that. She wasn’t certain yet that he would agree to play middleman, but he was her best shot. There was no way she would dare contact Jared directly. Too dangerous.

  If Mikey couldn’t broker this deal, then she had a feeling she would have to disappear again. She was taking a big chance, but Tess could no longer stand the idea of spending her life looking over her shoulder—or endangering anyone who eventually came to care for her.

  * * *

  THE HOUSE WAS empty, Tess’s car was gone. And Zach’s bad feeling was working its way into a really bad feeling.

  He flipped open his cell phone and dialed Jeff.

  “What?” his cousin answered.

  “Tess is gone. She’s not in her house. Hasn’t been there all night.” He’d told himself when he’d stopped on the landing after tucking in Lizzie and noticed that Tess’s lights were off that it was because she finally felt safer. What an idiot.

  “Maybe she went somewhere.”

  “I’ve called her cell. No answer.”

  “Zach—”

  “She’s never not been in her house at night and she agreed to tell me if she was in any kind of trouble.” Which was why he hadn’t tried to contact her the night before. She needed her space and he wasn’t going to shadow her every move. But being gone all night without tell
ing him didn’t seem right. Especially when they were supposed to ride today.

  He heard his cousin exhale loudly. “What do you want me to do?” he asked. “Put out a BOLO?”

  “I want you to ping her phone.”

  “Shit, Zach, do you have any idea what that involves? Especially when we don’t know for sure that something is wrong?”

  “Do you think I care?”

  “Just...give me a minute. Let me check into some stuff. I’ll call you back.”

  The phone went dead and it was all Zach could do not to throw it against the side of the house.

  He was glad he didn’t because less than an hour later Jeff phoned back. “I called in a favor. I know where she is and you are not to ask how.”

  He couldn’t care less how. “Where is she?”

  “A casino in Reno. And, yeah, she’s been seen there alive and well.”

  Zach felt a swell of relief. She was fine. In Reno, but that was her business. As long as she was safe.

  “There’s more,” Jeff said quietly. “Her stepbrother just got out of prison and I guess he’s already been questioned on a possible assault charge.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  TESS FROZE AT the knock on her hotel room door and waited, hoping to hear a member of the housekeeping staff announce their presence.

  There was nothing but silence on the other side of the door.

  Had Jared found her? Was that why Mikey had delayed the meeting until that evening?

  If so, how? She’d paid for the room in cash, declined incidentals so she didn’t have to leave a credit card.

  Heart hammering, she slowly approached the door and peered through the peephole, fully expecting to call security.

  And then, when she saw the very angry man on the other side of the door, she didn’t know what she was going to do.

  Zach. And he wasn’t alone. For a wild moment Tess thought the other man might be Jared, but the guy moved and she could see that it was Zach’s cousin. The deputy.

  Tess leaned her forehead on the door. What freaking now? She’d left to try to protect this guy and here he was. And how the hell had he found her?

  The knocking started again, more insistent this time.

  “Let me in, Tess.”

  Let him in. She’d done that. In many different ways and none of them had turned out well for him.

  “Don’t make Jeff have to call his cop buddies,” Zach said in a voice barely audible through the thick door, but Tess made out what he was saying. Jeff probably did have law enforcement buddies here and the last thing she needed was law enforcement.

  Slowly she unbolted the door and opened it. Zach briefly met her eyes, his expression the picture of cold anger, before he stalked into the room. Jeff followed, taking the door from her and closing it after a quick check of the hall.

  “Why are you here?” Tess asked. She knew that if she was going to remain in control, she had to be the one asking the questions.

  “Why did you run?”

  “I didn’t run. I have some personal business here. I was coming back.”

  “I know about your stepbrother, Tess.” Her eyes widened.

  Tess went to the sofa and sat, pressing her hand against her forehead. Then she looked up at Zach, who was silently staring at her small bag, still zipped shut because she’d had no intention of staying here tonight. Once she talked to Mikey she was grabbing a cab and doing her best to lose anyone who might be interested in where she was going.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about this, Tess?”

  “Because you didn’t need to get sucked into the cesspool of my former life,” she said harshly before she pushed her hair back with both hands, angling her face so he got a good look at the scars. “I didn’t want you involved with people who would do this. And—” she met his eyes accusingly “—I was coming back.”

  “After you took care of this problem on your own.”

  “It’s my problem.” She shook her head and stepped toward the window, wishing she hadn’t seen the icy anger on Zach’s face when he’d walked into the room. She so much preferred remembering him smiling after they’d made love that last time.

  “Law enforcement made it pretty clear that there wasn’t a lot they could do until someone actually assaulted me,” Tess said before glancing at Jeff. “No offense intended.” She ran her fingertips over the scars on her left cheek. “I, uh, decided I didn’t want to go through that again.”

  “There are other options.”

  “Yeah?” Tess said. “Tell me one.”

  “No,” Zach said. “You tell me one. Tell me what you’re going to do.”

  “I’m giving them what they want. Then maybe they’ll leave me alone.”

  “What do they want?”

  “Money,” Tess said with a small shrug. “Of course. All anyone in my family wanted, except for me and Mikey, was money or drugs.”

  “Mikey?”

  “My younger stepbrother. I’m going to meet him, arrange to give Jared, my older stepbrother, and Eddie the money they think I stole from them. I’m giving them my money,” Tess said, so there’d be no confusion on that point.

  Zach’s expression was a study in disbelief. “Paying them off?”

  “I want them out of my life.”

  “How much?” Jeff asked.

  “I don’t know. That’s what I’m going to find out from Mikey. The biggest deal Eddie made that I knew of was in the 50K range.”

  “You’re going to give a criminal fifty thousand dollars,” Zach said.

  “This is why I didn’t discuss it with you,” Tess snapped. “You come from a decent place where stuff like this doesn’t happen. I didn’t think you’d understand.”

  “Of course I don’t understand, because it’s a stupid idea to buy off criminals. What keeps them from coming after you for more?”

  “Because I don’t have any more and I’ll make sure they know that.”

  “Can you trust this guy?” Jeff asked, drawing her attention away from Zach. “Your younger stepbrother?”

  “He’s different. He left home before I did, for almost the same reasons I did.”

  “Almost?”

  “I don’t think Jared wanted to rape him, but you never know.”

  “Did he—Jared, or whatever the hell his name is—rape you?” Zach asked in a deadly voice.

  Tess shook her head. “I left after a close call.”

  “That was why you ended up in the group home?”

  “After I ran away.” She glanced over at the dark window. There was so much she hadn’t told him, but that had been the deal. He’d agreed to it...just as she’d agreed not to face danger without him.

  “I came here because of what happened to William. I didn’t want them getting anywhere close to the girls.” Or you. It would kill me if something happened to you. “I knew you wouldn’t back down if I told you the truth, wouldn’t like my plan. So I didn’t tell you.”

  “When are you meeting your stepbrother?” Jeff asked.

  Tess glanced at the digital clock next to the bed. “In twenty minutes. Downstairs.” She met Zach’s eyes. “It’s the only way I can hope to get out of this.” Then she looked away as she ran a hand over her upper arm.

  “I want to be there,” he said.

  Her eyes shot back to his. “You can’t be there.”

  “We’re going to be there,” Jeff said.

  “No. This is my one shot and I
can’t screw it up.”

  “We’ll be nearby,” Jeff said. “Unobtrusively nearby,” he repeated with a significant look at Zach, who nodded back, looking none too happy.

  Tess simply shook her head, overwhelmed by how this situation was already barreling out of control. As if she’d ever had any control.

  “Mikey isn’t a criminal, but if he suspects anything, he’ll walk. We’re not a very trusting family.”

  “These guys aren’t your family,” Zach said in a low voice.

  “But they were and I’m still dealing with the fallout.”

  “Where are you meeting him?” Jeff asked.

  “The Xanadu Bar downstairs. Lots of cameras there.”

  “That’s good,” Jeff said. “And then what?”

  “I’m checking out of this room before I go, then I’ll grab a cab after I talk to Mikey.” She took pains not to look at Zach when she said, “Disappear so they can’t find me.”

  Neither Jeff nor Zach said a word and Tess refused to look at them. Instead she focused on her fingers which seemed unable to stay still.

  A silence hung over the room and Tess continued to study her hands, wishing Zach had simply let her be. Let her work this out.

  She couldn’t keep from raising her eyes and of course she found him studying her the way she’d been studying her hands. Intently.

  “We should go down to the bar now,” Jeff said to Zach.

  “You go,” Zach said. “I’ll join you.”

  “All right,” Jeff said. He looked like he wanted to say a whole lot more, perhaps something along the lines of “Don’t hurt each other while I’m not here to referee,” but instead he grabbed his hat and headed out the door.

  “Are you really meeting this guy in the Xanadu Bar?” Zach asked when the door closed.

  “I wouldn’t lie about that.”

  “You might if you thought it would protect me,” he said. Tess’s mouth fell open. “Yeah. I figured it out.”

  “Why did you come?” she asked as he let himself out the door.