Her Cowboy Distraction

by Carla Cassidy

  * * *

  It was just before closing time that Sheriff Evans came into the café. Daniel had left hours before and the café was almost empty of people. Lizzy was seated at the empty counter having a glass of iced tea before leaving for the night.

  She got up and greeted Cameron with a tired smile. “How’s it going?” she asked as she poured him a cup of coffee.

  “To be honest, I’ve never felt so frustrated with everything. We just can’t seem to catch a break on anything.” His frown of discouragement instantly arranged into a tired smile as Mary joined them. “I just wanted to stop by and see that you were doing okay,” he said to the pretty blonde.

  Lizzy believed Cameron showed up each night for a cup of coffee, but more important so that Mary was the last person he saw before going home alone.

  It was obvious to Lizzy that the man was heartsick, but it was equally obvious that Mary didn’t feel the same way. Whenever she looked at Cameron there was a guarded distance in her eyes, a slightly wary gaze.

  For the next few minutes they all talked about the crimes and the discouraging lack of leads Cameron and his deputies suffered.

  “My gut still tells me Kevin is good for Candy’s murder, but I’ve got no evidence I can use to make an arrest. Anything I have on him is circumstantial, and he’s got an alibi that I have yet to break.” He looked at Lizzy once again. “As far as the attack on you, I don’t even know where to begin to find answers. Since we can’t come up with a motive, it’s hard to know where to look for the perpetrator.”

  “You’ll figure it out,” Mary said with encouragement.

  He nodded and cupped his hands around his mug, his gaze going back to Lizzy. “What I just can’t understand is how the attack on you relates to Candy’s death.”

  Lizzy raised her hand to her throat, for the space of several breaths captured in that moment of terror. That arm, wrapped so tight around her neck, slowly cutting off her precious air supply, had been the most frightening experience of her entire life.

  She drew a deep breath, shoving past the memory, and dropped her hand back to the counter. “Maybe there’s no link to Candy’s death. Maybe it was just somebody who didn’t like the way I served them that night, somebody who just doesn’t like me at all.”

  “That’s impossible,” Mary said without hesitation. “You’re everyone’s favorite waitress.”

  Lizzy gave her a grateful smile, but she was aware of Cameron studying her intently. “Are you sure there’s nobody from your past? No ex-boyfriend who might have tracked you here?”

  “No, there are no boyfriends in my past.” Both Mary and Cameron looked at her in surprise. She shrugged with a wry grin. “What can I say? I was totally focused on my work for years, and since my mother’s death I’ve been traveling around too much to pick up a boyfriend along the way.”

  “Until now,” Mary said softly.

  Lizzy felt the blush that swooped into her cheeks. “Daniel isn’t my boyfriend. He’s just a nice man who is allowing me to stay at his place for a few days.” She raised her chin as if defying Mary to say anything else about the relationship with Daniel.

  Cameron released a tired sigh. “The other places you’ve been in your travels… Anyone give you problems? Can you think of anyone who might have been angry enough with you to want to harm you?”

  “I try not to make enemies wherever I go. I can’t think of anyone like that. Trust me, if I thought of anyone I’d tell you.”

  “I just thought you might have thought of somebody since the last time I questioned you,” he replied.

  She shook her head with an edge of her own frustration. “I just wish I could have turned my head enough to see who it was, or at least felt something that might identify the person. Thank God Courtney stepped outside when she did.”

  “She seems to have settled in okay at the motel,” Mary said. “I have Rusty out in his cabin, but I’m not putting any other women out there until Candy’s killer is behind bars.”

  “I’d like to think that if Kevin was responsible for Candy’s murder there are no other women in town who are at risk.” Cameron looked back at Lizzy. “Except the attack on you confuses everything.”

  “Go home, Lizzy,” Mary said with a glance at her watch. “Rusty and I can finish up for the night.”

  “Do you mind if I take an apple?” Lizzy asked. “I want to cut it up in slices to feed to one of Daniel’s horses.”

  “You know that’s not a problem. Go get your apple,” Mary replied.

  Lizzy left the counter and headed for the kitchen, where Rusty was scraping off the grill. Rusty was a big man, with copper-colored hair and ice-blue eyes. He wasn’t an unfriendly man, but he wasn’t particularly sociable, either.

  “Hey, Rusty, I’m just going to grab an apple and slice it real quick,” she said.

  “Whatever,” he replied, not turning from the grill.

  She stepped into the walk-in refrigeration unit and grabbed one of the apples from a bin, then stepped back out and grabbed a knife.

  As she sliced the apple into small sections she slid a glance toward Rusty. He was about the right height to be her attacker and his arms were big, like the one that had wrapped around her neck.

  But she and Rusty had never exchanged a cross word with each other, and he certainly wouldn’t see her as a threat to his job. She had no desire to be a cook. It just didn’t make sense that he would want her to leave town.

  As she placed the apple slices into a small baggie, she realized it would be easy for her to speculate and see bogeymen everywhere in Grady Gulch. There were a hundred men who were about the same height as Rusty, and each of them was a rancher and had firm arm muscles. Picking out her attacker from the group of men who had potential was like finding a needle in the proverbial haystack.

  “Good night, Rusty,” she said as she grabbed her baggie.

  “See ya later,” he replied as she left the kitchen.

  As she walked back into the dining area, Cameron stood. “I’m heading out, too. I’ll walk you to your car, Lizzy. Good night, Mary. I’ll see you sometime tomorrow.”

  “Try to get some sleep, Cameron,” Mary called after him.

  “I’ll do my best,” he replied, and then he and Lizzy stepped out the front door.

  The air was warm and the night still except for the sound of their footsteps as they walked to her car in the parking lot. “Not that it’s any of my business, but what’s the deal between you and Mary?” she asked when they’d reached her driver door.

  “There is no deal between us except friendship.” His frustration was obvious in his voice. “I admire her tremendously and I think she’s stunning, but anytime I try to let her know I might be interested in pursuing anything with her, she turns off and shuts me out.”

  He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Guess I’m just not her type. You’d think after all this time I’d just give up, but sometimes she looks at me in a way that gives me just enough hope to be patient. Matters of the heart just seem damned complicated to me.”

  Lizzy smiled. “I don’t stay in one place long enough to have matters of the heart.” She opened her car door. “Thanks for walking with me, and like Mary said, go home and get some sleep.”

  “That’s exactly where I’m headed.” He raised a hand in goodbye as she closed her door and started her

  engine.

  She pulled out of the café parking lot and headed in the direction of Daniel’s home. Matters of the heart. This was the first time in her life she thought her heart might be more involved than it should be with somebody. And that was a bad thing.

  She’d only hoped to pull some of the sadness out of Daniel’s eyes on that first night when she’d sat across from him in his booth. She hadn’t expected the smoky sexiness his gaze held sometimes when he looked at her. She hadn’t expected the tenderness in his touch, the protectiveness that surged up inside him at unexpected times where she was concerned.

  Mary had warned her not to break
his heart, but Lizzy feared that’s exactly what was going to happen if she didn’t distance herself from him.

  Making love with him had been a huge, wonderful, magical mistake. Even now, seated in her car as she thought about being with him, her body warmed and desire cascaded through her and she wanted to be in his arms once again.

  She couldn’t let it happen again. She had to mentally and emotionally keep the distance from him that she needed so that when it was time to move on she could do so without looking back.

  Still, as she pulled into the long driveway that led to Daniel’s house and saw the front porch light burning bright against the darkness of the night, it felt curiously like coming home.

  She got out of the car, grabbed her bag of apple slices off the passenger seat and, instead of heading straight into the house, walked toward the barn, where she knew Molly was stabled.

  It was a gorgeous night with the moon nearly full overhead and stars glittering like jewels in the sky. She felt a serenity of spirit as she listened to a slight breeze rustle through the leaves of the nearby trees, smelled the sweet green pasture grass and anticipated seeing the gentle mare once again.

  When she pulled open the barn door, the utter darkness inside the building greeted her. Knowing there had to be a light someplace nearby, she ran her hand along the interior wall and found a switch. When she pushed it up, bright lights illuminated the barn.

  The building was huge and the area where she stood held a variety of farm equipment. At the other end of the barn she could see the horse stalls, hear the soft whinnies of the animals.

  She headed to that end of the barn, a layer of straw beneath her feet muffling the sound of her footsteps. It smelled like a wonderful blend of horse and hay and leather.

  “Molly?” she said softly as she approached the stalls. “Molly, I brought you a little treat.”

  The first stall she passed was Dandy’s, and she couldn’t help but remember how magnificent Daniel had looked on the horse’s back. The second and third stalls held horses she’d seen in the corral but didn’t know by name. Molly was in the last enclosure and greeted Lizzy with a soft nicker.

  “Hey, pretty girl. We’re going for a ride in the morning, so I thought I’d bring you a little treat. I figure it’s always good to bribe a big animal when you intend to ride on their back.”

  She pulled one of the apple slices out of the baggie and held it out to Molly, who took it from her with a gentle nibble of her lips. “You’re such a sweetheart,” Lizzy said as she pulled another slice from the bag.

  She felt almost guilty giving Molly the apple and not the other horses, but she wasn’t sure of the others’ temperament and she wasn’t going to ride any of them the next morning.

  She had just given Molly the last slice of apple when the lights in the barn went off, plunging her into complete darkness.

  Her heart lurched and a nervous laugh escaped her lips. “Daniel? Is that you?”

  She stood frozen in place and waited for a reply, but none was forthcoming. “Come on, this isn’t funny. Turn the lights back on. I was just giving Molly some apple slices.”

  Fear suddenly tightened her chest as she sensed somebody moving toward her in the darkness. “Daniel?” She whispered his name hoarsely as her throat constricted. “Daniel, is that you?”

  There was no answer, no deep laughter to let her know he was playing a joke on her. “Hello? Who’s there?”

  She felt the person getting closer, heard the sound of deep breathing. “I warned you. You should have listened to me.” The familiar guttural voice came from far too close to her and shot instant terror through her.

  “Why are you doing this? What did I do to you?” Her mind frantically tried to recall what she’d seen before the lights had gone out. But, before she could do anything, she was shoved hard enough that she slammed down to the ground on her hands and knees.

  She didn’t have a chance to scream as a vicious kick to her stomach whooshed the air from her lungs and she collapsed to the floor. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t get enough air to scream for help. In the back of her mind she knew she was in terrible danger, but she couldn’t move and the kicks began in earnest.

  He kicked her ribs, her arms and legs. Sobbing with pain and shock she tried to crawl away, but she couldn’t get away from his foot, from the pain of each blow. A scream was stuck in her head, but she couldn’t find the air to allow it to release into the night.

  She was going to die there in Daniel’s barn and she wouldn’t know who killed her, she wouldn’t know why he wanted her dead. And then she couldn’t think anymore because there was nothing but the pain, terrible, agonizing pain.

  She almost welcomed the kick to her head as it dulled her senses and brought heavy shadows into her consciousness. She welcomed the darkness, and when he kicked her again in the head, everything went black.

  Chapter 9

  Daniel saw her car drive in. He watched in confusion as she left the car and headed toward the barn, then remembered he told her that Molly would love some pieces of apple. She must have brought some with her from the café. He watched until the barn light came on and then moved back to the sofa and turned up the volume on the television.

  He didn’t want her to think he’d just been standing at the front door, eagerly awaiting her return, even though that’s exactly what he’d been doing.

  The weather report was on and he watched the weekly forecast, disappointed that the report mentioned nothing about the possibility of rain. The crops could use a nice gentle rain.

  He was halfway through the sports report when he realized Lizzy should have been inside by now. It shouldn’t take that long to feed Molly a couple of pieces of apple. He got up and walked to the front door and saw that the barn light was now off.

  So, where was Lizzy? He didn’t see her approaching the house. Her car was empty. His heart thrummed a slight rhythm of sudden stress.

  What had happened to Lizzy?

  He stepped out the front door and listened to see if he could hear her. Nothing. The warm night held nothing but the ordinary sounds of home. Tree leaves rustled in a slight breeze, and insects clicked and chattered their nightly song. There was no sound that didn’t belong to the June night.

  “Lizzy?” He called her name as he fought the sense of panic that tried to take hold of him. “Lizzy, where are you?”

  When he heard no reply, the panic flared higher. He’d watched her go to the barn, and so that’s where he headed. Maybe she’d tripped over something, hurt her leg and now couldn’t get back to the house. But, that didn’t explain the lights inside being off or the fact that she hadn’t answered his call.

  The hotter his panic flared the faster he walked, until he broke into a run. When he reached the barn he turned on the lights, and at the far end of the interior he saw her.

  “Lizzy!” he cried as his heart crashed with a sickening bang against his ribs. He raced to her, and when he reached her he feared she was dead. She was curled into a fetal ball, but where her T-shirt rode up on her side he saw the dark, ugly bruises beginning to form. The side of her face was also darkening.

  “No…no!” He fell to his knees at her side and felt for a pulse. Was it there? He frantically moved his fingers along the curve of her jaw, along the soft skin of her neck, seeking a pulse of life.

  When he felt it, he nearly cried with relief. Thank God. She was alive but unconscious and needed immediate medical attention.

  He rose to his feet, torn between leaving her there all alone and his need to get to a phone. He knew it might be dangerous for him to try to move her, so he turned and raced out of the barn and toward the house.

  He fought against the sickening emotion that threatened to overwhelm him. What had happened? What the hell had happened in the barn? Had one of the horses somehow gotten out of the stall and kicked her? Half trampled her to death? It was the only thing that made any kind of sense, and yet he couldn’t imagine any of his horses attacking her.r />
  As he raced into the house, he grabbed his cell phone from the coffee table and punched in the emergency numbers. “This is Daniel Jefferson. I need an ambulance right now at my place.” He quickly gave his address, pocketed his cell phone and then raced back to the barn.

  Lizzy hadn’t moved, and a quick glance around let him know the horses were all still securely stabled. So what had happened inside here? What had happened to Lizzy?

  He sank down next to her, still afraid to touch her in case he caused further damage. “Lizzy, honey, can you wake up now?” His chest constricted with a tightness that left him half-breathless. “Lizzy, I need you to wake up and talk to me. Please, honey. Just open your eyes. Just let me see those gorgeous eyes for a minute.”

  He couldn’t lose her, not now, not this way. Once again he almost cried in relief as he heard the sound of a distant siren growing closer. Help was coming, and somehow, someway, they had to make her okay.

  He left her side again only to rush back out into the night and direct the ambulance to the barn. “She’s in the barn. I don’t know what happened to her,” he said as the two paramedics pulled a gurney from the back of the vehicle.

  Before they got into the barn, a second official car pulled up. Cameron jumped out of the driver door and hurried toward Daniel. “I heard the call for an ambulance needed out here and figured I’d better check it out.”

  “It’s Lizzy. Something happened to her. At first I thought maybe one of the horses had kicked her or trampled her, but they’re all secured and there’s no way it could have been one of them. She got home from work okay and then she went into the barn. Something happened, but I don’t know what.” Daniel was vaguely aware that he was rambling as he and Cameron followed the paramedics into the barn.

  Cameron gripped his arm to hold him back so the medical team could work without his hovering. “Talk to me, Daniel. Tell me what you know.”