by Linda Conrad
“Damn it all to hell, Arn.” The hired goon called Petey swore again and spit out the window of their idling car, almost hitting a willow tree. “Unless she’s dead, we can’t go back without the chick. We’ll be the ones in dead trouble. So what’re we going to do?”
“The boss just now told me on the cell that he’s sure she ain’t dead, stupid.” Arnie pocketed his cell phone and ran a sweaty hand through his hair. “No body looking like hers has showed up in no morgues. She’s not even been booked into any hospitals round here. The boss can find out that kind of stuff.”
“Crap! Can we skip then? Maybe get lost in Mexico?”
“Listen, you idiot, don’t you know the boss has contacts in Mexico? He has contacts where you wouldn’t even believe. There’s no place you can hide from him. Just calm down and let me think.”
“So where could she go?” Petey wasn’t calm and he couldn’t seem to keep quiet. “I know I plugged her at least once. I’m not that bad a shot, and I swear to God I saw her go down. There was a bunch of people around the church. Too many for her to crawl off into some hole to die.”
“Shut up a second.” Arnie rubbed a hand across his face and tried to think.
In a few seconds, Arnie was trying out his thoughts aloud. “Okay, so we know there was some kind of smoky at the traffic jam. He maybe made the tags. But we dumped them right away, so no sweat there. No chance in hell he got a decent look at our faces, either. I figure we’re golden on that score, too. We’re still just a couple regular dudes with nothing to hide.
“But the chick…” Arnie screwed up his mouth to think harder. “Somebody helped her. Took her in. Probably the smoky, or maybe some kind of doctor do-gooder in that crowd.”
Petey started to whine, “But if somebody’s helping her, she’ll turn us in. Turn in the boss, too.”
Arnie nearly cracked his imbecile of a partner across the mouth. “Weren’t you paying attention, idiot? She said she couldn’t remember nothing.”
Petey shrugged. “I figured she was lying. Trying to save her skin.”
“Yeah? Well, what if she wasn’t? What if some sucker is helping her and she can’t tell them nothing?”
“Then we’re in the clear. Let’s get out of here.”
Huffing in frustration, Arnie rolled his eyes. “We’ve gotta find her. The boss ain’t gonna give up just ’cause she’s lost her mind. I’m guaranteeing you, we don’t bring her back, and we’re dead meat. Finished. You understand?”
Petey nodded his head but couldn’t get a word out of his trembling lips.
“Fine,” Arnie said almost absently. “So we’re gonna go see what we can find out about her. Somebody will know something in a town as small as Esperanza, Texas.”
“How? Who’s gonna tell a couple of strangers anything?”
“Shut up, Petey. I’m doing the thinking. In every small town there’s a couple of places where people know stuff and don’t mind spreading it around. If you was a woman, we could go to the beauty parlor. You find out all the gossip in them places.”
Petey opened his mouth as if to complain, but Arnie threw him a sharp look.
“I saw just the right place for us back down the road a ways,” Arnie said. “You know, I think you and me are in need of new hats. I’ve been meaning to get me one of those cowboy hats, anyway. Pulling the brim down over my eyes will make a perfect disguise. And I’m thinking you’d look pretty decent in a John Deere cap.”
“Aw, crap, Arn. I don’t like caps. Can’t I get the cowboy hat? Where are we going get this stuff anyway?”
Arnie put the sedan in gear and pulled out of the roadside park. “Do me a favor, idiot. Do not say one frigging word while we’re in the store. Not one, you hear?”
“Yeah. Yeah. But where?”
“Where every old codger in town usually shows up every day,” Arnie told him with no small pride in his voice. “And all of them cowpokes can’t wait to spill their guts around so they don’t have to go back to work too fast.”
At Petey’s frustrated look, he gave it up. “At the farm-supply store, of course.”
Chapter 5
“I s this the correct way to hold it?” Rosie asked as she grasped the weapon with both hands and pointed it at the target. “It doesn’t feel right.”
Jericho scraped both his sweaty palms down his pants legs and tried to figure out how he’d managed to get himself into this fix. It was one thing wanting the woman to be able to defend herself and quite another completing the mechanics of the thing without touching her.
He’d been standing a minimum of six feet behind her, spouting instructions at the back of her head. Now he lowered his eyes to take in her slender back, narrowing to the tiny waist. A little lower and his gaze stuttered across her small but firm butt encased in Macy’s old jeans. Then his wayward eyes strayed further to look their foolish fill as his stare wavered on down those long, sexy legs. Holy mercy, but those long legs could sure give a man dreams he ought not have.
His attraction to her could not be tolerated or indulged. Too close, and he was bound to give in. She was too tempting, with her sexy body and her vulnerable but bright eyes. He knew with his whole being that if they ever made love, he might find he wanted to keep her forever. Or some other such nonsense in the same vein.
Jericho had a good life here. His father lived and worked nearby and they talked nearly every day as family should. He’d grown up with all the people of this town. People like Macy and Tim, Clay and Tamara Brown and Clay’s brother, Ryder, and his sister, Mercy. Some of them were gone now, either dead or moved away. But still Jericho’s roots here were strong. He didn’t need anything else in his life.
The people of this town and county knew and respected him. Depended on him. That was where his energies should be focused. Not on a pair of lost, sky-blue eyes.
Okay, so maybe on some particularly lonely nights, being single in a small town wasn’t all he’d ever wished for. It could be stark and depressing. That was a fact.
“Jericho?” Rosie turned to see why he hadn’t answered. “Is this right?”
Tamping down his hormones, Jericho stepped up to the task. He slid in close to the warmth of her back and wrapped his arms around her in order to show her the correct stance by example.
The zing of electricity between their bodies almost knocked him back again. But the sheriff of Campo County had to be stronger than all that.
“Not exactly,” he murmured into her ear. “Here, I’ll put my hands on top of yours to show you the right way. Just relax.”
The minute the words were out of his mouth, he knew they were both in trouble. Each of them took a deep breath, straightened up and cleared their throats.
Rosie’s body trembled against his chest, but he felt he had to finish what they’d started. After a few more minutes, he couldn’t have said how he’d ever managed to stand his ground and show her the correct way of pulling the trigger while keeping her eyes open and aiming at the same time. But, he had, and she’d hit the target—twice. So he backed off and took back his weapon.
“You seem to be a natural at shooting,” he told her as he clicked on the safety. “But to tell the truth, you don’t seem very familiar with guns. How does it feel being outside?”
“Weird. Like maybe I don’t get out in the sunshine too often. But I kind of enjoy it.” She stared into the woods behind the tree where he’d set up the target. “I’m not crazy about the wild though. Isn’t it kind of scary in the woods? I don’t think I’d care to go in there.”
Jericho chuckled and took her elbow. “Okay, then. We’ll cross hunting and fishing off our list of possible ways to relax.” He headed them back toward the house. “Let’s go to town and see if Deputy Rawlins has some photos for you to look at.”
Rosie smiled at Jericho’s deputy as he shook her hand. At just about six feet tall, Adam Rawlins seemed to be in great physical shape. But even with all his muscles, the deputy still didn’t appear as formidable as the sheriff.
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br /> “We’ll catch those bastards,” Adam told her with a polite smile. “Don’t you worry, miss.”
She walked with Adam toward a computer that was stored in an alcove at back of the sheriff’s office. Meanwhile, Jericho went to one of the two large desks in a different section of the large room. Even just a few yards away, Rosie felt bereft without him by her side.
Adam pulled two folding chairs up in front of the computer and motioned for her to have a seat in one of them while he sat down beside her. “Let me show you how to work this. It’s pretty easy.”
The deputy smiled over at her and she knew he’d intended to put her at ease. But his perfect brown hair with every strand in place and his sympathetic brown eyes that were studying her carefully didn’t come close at all to settling her nerves. His hair wasn’t the same dark blond color as Jericho’s and didn’t occasionally go astray due to having strong hands stab through it with frustration. Not like Jericho’s. And the plain brown eyes of Deputy Adam weren’t at all the same as Jericho’s hazel eyes that could change from gray to green—all depending on the weather and what the man was wearing that day. Nothing about the deputy sitting next to her did a thing for her nerves.
Trying to hide a secret sigh, Rosie returned her attention to the computer. “Yes, I think I’ve got it,” she told Adam. “The program doesn’t look all that complicated. You don’t have to sit with me. I’ll call you if I run into trouble or if I spot anyone who looks familiar.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The deputy gave her a half smile as he stood and walked toward his own desk.
Rosie shot a quiet glance in the direction of the tall man wearing a long-sleeved white shirt and uniform tie standing across the room and bending over a desk loaded with paperwork. In contrast to sitting beside the deputy, just the sight of Jericho sent her pulse racing and her stomach bouncing. Whenever Jericho touched her, little firecrackers exploded inside her chest. Her palms grew damp, and her thighs trembled. Learning to fire a gun at the target this morning beside him had been a trial of fighting lustful thoughts and urges.
Things were so unsettled in her mind. But one thing stood out clearly. She wanted that man to want her. Badly.
“Is she all right over there by herself?” Jericho asked his deputy.
Taking a quick look in the direction of his boss’s gaze, Adam nodded his head. “Yep. Frankly, I think the lady’s better at using that computer than I am. Seemed to pick up on it right away.”
“Yeah? Well, that should tell us something about her. I just wish I knew what it was besides the fact she knows computers.”
Adam threw his boss a hesitant smile. “Yes, sir. Do you have any ideas regarding how we should go about starting our investigation? Where we should begin if she doesn’t spot anybody from those mug shots?”
Jericho released a breath and turned away from the sight of Rosie’s long legs bunched up under her as she sat at the desk. He rubbed absently at the back of his neck.
“Start with missing persons. Check all the wires to see if someone of her description is listed.
“She’s a real looker, don’t you think, Adam?”
The deputy nodded. “Except for the hair, I do.”
Jericho frowned at Adam’s truthfulness, but then shrugged it off, believing the choppy cut and unnatural color only added to her appeal. “So someone in this county or nearby must’ve seen her at least once before she ended up shot at the church’s doorstep. She didn’t just appear in the back of a car in Esperanza out of thin air.
“Why don’t you start asking around?” he suggested. “Check the gas stations and the truck stops. And go on over to my dad’s feed and supply store. Everybody in the county shows up there sometime or other during the day. Find out if any of the ranchers spotted her or one of those goons driving through or stopping to ask directions.”
“You bet, boss. I’ll go right now. You can help the woman with the computer if she finds anyone familiar, can’t you?”
Yeah, Jericho thought. He could help her. And he would, damn it. Nothing else mattered quite as much to him at the moment.
Frustrated and tired, Rosie clung to Jericho’s arm as they strolled down Main Street and prepared to cross at the corner, heading toward Miss Sue’s town café. It seemed as if over the last couple of hours she’d stared into the faces of hundreds of men, all terrifying and snarling at her from the computer monitor. But none of them had been the ones who’d hurt and kidnapped her.
Worse, being outside in the fresh air now after studying all those criminal faces was giving her the creeps. Every man who either drove by or walked in her general direction made the hairs on her arms stand straight up. Some kind of internal instinct must be calling out, demanding that she run and hide. Stay out of sight.
Definitely someone somewhere wanted an unknown thing from her badly enough to send goons after her. She was positive they wouldn’t give up so easily.
“You okay?” Jericho asked as she took a couple of deep breaths. “Still want to grab a bite at Miss Sue’s? You wouldn’t want to miss her pecan pie.”
“Um…yes. I guess so.” Rosie looked up into Jericho’s face and found a concerned expression, half hidden by the brim of his uniform’s cowboy hat. “It’s just that I can almost feel someone watching me. Waiting for me.”
Jericho stopped directly in front of the café’s door. “I take gut feelings seriously, ma’am. So I can’t say for sure it’s not possible that those guys are in town and waiting. But I guarantee you they won’t be inside the café. And I promise I’ll be guarding your back when we leave.
“All right with you?” he asked. “We have to eat sometime, and while we’re here I can check with some of the folks about your case. What do you say?”
She threw a quick glance over her shoulder and saw nothing but an ordinary small-town street and loads of bright sunshine. “I say, I’m with you, Sheriff. Lead on.”
Jericho did just that. He walked them inside, and hesitated long enough to flip his hat on a peg next to the door. He then found an empty table in the center of the room, away from the huge curtained windows that looked out on Main Street. Rosie could’ve kissed him for being so thoughtful. In fact, she could’ve kissed him just for being so broad-shouldered and steely-eyed. And, actually, she intended to find a time to test his kisses as soon as she could get him alone.
The tough but friendly sheriff greeted every person in the café with a smile and a personal word. Rosie guessed he must know them well since he’d lived here all his life. But no one looked the least familiar to her.
The café itself seemed old but spotless and well cared for. Homey. The mismatched wooden tables and chairs were all full of smiling, happy people who seemed to be enjoying their food. Shouldn’t a place as comfortable as this feel as though she’d been here before? She’d wanted it to be familiar. But it wasn’t.
Jericho ordered for them, since she hadn’t a clue what she might like to eat. Within minutes their lunches were delivered.
“Why do I have a salad?”
“Well now, that’s easy. I’ve found that pretty, thin ladies like you seem to go for salads at lunchtime. Does something else sound more appealing? If so, Becky will be happy to fix you anything you want.”
Without warning, her eyes filled with tears.
Swiping at them, she tried to explain. “I hate this. I hate not even being aware of what I like to eat. I hate looking into people’s eyes and not knowing if I’ve ever met them before.” She gritted her teeth and fought back the sob threatening in her throat.
He put his hand over hers on the table and squeezed. “It’s hard, I know. But the doc said for you to take it slow. Pushing could make things worse.”
“Forgive me, but the doctor doesn’t have goons hiding nearby in the shadows who want to kill him,” she said with a whine in her voice she didn’t care to hear but couldn’t seem to help. “None of you can know how hard this is.”
“True,” Jericho said with another light squeeze of her hand
. “But most of the people in town will be happy to watch out for you once they learn about your problem. Give them a chance.”
Somehow certain she had never been able to depend on anyone the way Jericho was saying she should depend on the whole town, Rosie heaved a heavy sigh. “I’ll try.”
“Good. And in the meantime, why don’t you give the taco salad a chance, too. You might be surprised.”
That made her smile. And relax a little. At least, she relaxed enough to discover that the taco salad tasted pretty good. And that she’d been really hungry.
Just as they were contemplating ordering the pecan pie, a nicely dressed woman with short golden-brown hair stepped into the café and looked around. Her warm eyes skipped over every table as though she were searching for someplace to sit. The sight of someone like that who looked a little lost, got to Rosie. She immediately thought of this woman as a kindred spirit.
When Jericho spotted her, he stood and issued an invitation for the woman to join them at their table. Instead of being frightened, Rosie warmed to the thought of getting to know the lady with kind eyes and a friendly smile.
“Rosie,” Jericho began after the woman had been seated with them and they’d all ordered pie, coffee and a glass of milk for Rosie. “This is Jewel Mayfair. She’s Macy’s friend and her boss at the Hopechest Ranch.”
He tilted his head toward the woman he’d introduced as Jewel. “This here’s our mystery lady, Jewel. I’ve been calling her Rosie because we don’t know her real name.”
Jewel extended her hand across the table. “Hi, Rosie. I’ve heard about you and what happened yesterday from Macy. I was certainly sorry to hear about your troubles. Are you feeling okay now?”
“I’m okay. It’s just…frustrating…not knowing anything.”
