Yeah, and the guy could just hide until he had an easy kill shot. “A helicopter’s on the way. It might help. In the meantime stay down and stay quiet. Kirby, too,” Harlan added. “I don’t want either of you taking any chances.”
“But if someone could get hurt—”
“Wyatt and Dallas know how to handle this,” he said, cutting off any protest. No way did he want Stella out there facing down a hired killer. “Sheriff Geary should be out there any minute now. Call him and tell him what’s going on so he doesn’t walk into an ambush.”
“I will, but get here as fast as you can.”
Oh, he would do that. He damn sure didn’t want Curtis claiming any more victims. It was bad enough that he’d gotten his hands on Caitlyn.
Harlan glanced at her, but it took more than several glances to take it all in, and what he saw turned his stomach. Even in the thin moonlight, he could see the blood. Not just one spot either but multiple places, including a line running from her eyebrow to her chin.
He’d lost count of how many punches she’d taken while in the middle of his fight with Curtis. Too many, that was for sure.
Harlan cursed, shook his head. “Look what that SOB did to you.”
“That bad, huh?” She leaned over and looked in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, that bad.”
Caitlyn used the back of her hand to swipe at the blood. Since there was blood on her hand, that didn’t work very well, so she grabbed some tissues from his glove compartment. But she didn’t dab at her face. She dabbed at his, and even though Harlan tried not to react, he winced when she hit a sore spot.
“Look what that SOB did to you,” she repeated.
Harlan didn’t want to do a mirror check, but he could feel some of his injuries. Maybe even a cracked rib or two. Still, he’d gotten off lucky.
Because Caitlyn was alive.
The realization of that miracle hit him so hard that he hooked his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. He needed to feel her next to him. Needed to know that she was somehow going to forgive him for not doing a better job of protecting her.
“I’m sorry.” He kept his eyes on the road, but he brushed a very gentle kiss on her injured cheek.
She pulled back, looked at him. “For what?”
“For not living up to that complete-package notion you had about me.”
That earned him a scowl. “I would give you an elbow jab for that, but I don’t want to add to the bruises.” She settled against him as if that was exactly where she belonged. “You lived up to the notion just fine.”
Harlan kept his attention fastened on the road, but he couldn’t push the other thoughts out of his head. Thoughts of Caitlyn. Not just of all the bad things that had gone wrong since she’d come back into his life. But of the things that had gone right, too.
Like this moment with her next to him. Making love to her. Hell, just being with her.
“Look.” Her head whipped up from his shoulder, and she pointed to the night sky.
Even with just a quick glance, Harlan saw the light in the distance. The helicopter had arrived and had a giant spotlight aimed at the ranch.
He hadn’t thought it possible, but time seemed to go even slower, and he could have sworn it took him an hour to drive those last two miles. However, the closer he got, the brighter the light was from the helicopter.
Harlan flew past his place and drove the last leg to the main house. When he took the final curve, he saw someone. And not just someone but a man holding a rifle. His heart went to his knees until he realized that someone was Wyatt.
And he wasn’t alone.
Dallas and Cutter were there. The sheriff, too, and they all had weapons pointed at a man kneeling on the ground.
Harlan slammed on the brakes and jumped out. Caitlyn did, too, and she hurried to his side. Just in case things weren’t as under control as he thought, Harlan stepped in front of her.
“You’re a little late,” Wyatt greeted him. “Thanks to the chopper, we found this moron about two minutes ago. Don’t worry. Everyone’s okay. He didn’t get off a shot.”
The relief was instant. A lot of prayers had been answered tonight. “You can thank Caitlyn for the chopper,” Harlan let his brother know.
“Well, thank you, darlin’.” It was Wyatt’s usual charming tone, and he aimed that rock-star grin at Caitlyn. A grin that dissolved right away when his gaze landed on them.
“Sheez, you two look like hell,” Wyatt mumbled at the same time Dallas said, “How many fights did you lose tonight?” Dallas didn’t wait for an answer, because his phone buzzed.
“We won the important one,” Harlan insisted.
Well, the important one against Curtis anyway. Harlan figured there was another battle he had left to fight, and this one was just as important as life and death. He put his arm around Caitlyn and pulled her closer to him.
“I’ll get this guy into town,” the sheriff volunteered.
“I want a plea deal,” the man grumbled as Sheriff Geary led him to the cruiser parked just a few yards away. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. I’ve got proof that Sherry found out Curtis was laundering money. I stashed away some emails and notes. I’ll give ’em to you for a plea deal.”
“The only way that deal will happen is if you also have proof that Curtis killed her,” Harlan argued.
“Got that, too. He killed her himself. Strangled her right there in her office and then he had me help him cram the body into a freezer at my hunting cabin. I’ll show you where it all happened if I get that plea deal.”
Harlan wasn’t about to refuse the information, but it wouldn’t be needed to convict Curtis. Not only did they have his confession, he’d murdered Farris in front of them.
“Clayton, Slade and Declan are on their way to the jail with Curtis,” Dallas relayed when he ended his call. “And I just let the chopper crew know the threat was over so they could leave.”
Good. One less thing to worry about. Next on his list was getting Caitlyn checked out by the doctor. Well, the next to the next thing. He had something he had to get off his mind first, and it wouldn’t wait.
“I don’t want just a dinner date with you,” Harlan told her.
Caitlyn blinked, and thanks to the chopper he had no trouble seeing her surprised expression. He braced himself for some comeback that would dismiss everything they’d found together.
She shook her head. “And I don’t want just sex with you.”
Dallas cleared his throat and muttered something about needing to check on Kirby and Stella. Wyatt mumbled something about them finding a bed—soon.
Harlan ignored them both and kissed her. He tried to keep it gentle because they were cut in all the wrong places, but he wanted it to be hot and deep enough to cloud her head a little. Or maybe just to make her remember that they had something special here.
The sheriff’s cruiser drove past them. The chopper turned and whirled away, taking the clopping noise with it. But Harlan didn’t break the kiss until breathing became an issue.
He pulled back, gathered his breath so he could say what he needed to say.
“I’m in love with you.”
Except he wasn’t the one to say it. Caitlyn did. She took the words right out of his mouth.
“Run for cover if you feel the need,” she continued. “But I’ve been in love with you since I was sixteen. And though I’m sure you’d like me to feel differently, I’m still in love with you.”
He smiled. Winced. Smiled again. “I want you in love with me because I’m in love with you.”
Now she smiled. Slow and easy. She grabbed a handful of his shirt and snapped him to her. Yeah, they both winced, but Harlan was sure the heat and love overpowered the pain.
“Marry me,” he said. Harlan made sure it wasn’t ex
actly a question. Because he couldn’t take no for an answer.
Caitlyn had been in his life for a long time, and now he wanted her in his heart for even longer.
For a lifetime.
She nodded. “Yes, and if I could say it any faster, I would, because I don’t want you to change your mind.”
He had no intention of changing his mind and showed her with another kiss.
“Caitlyn, you’ll always be my first,” he said with his lips touching hers. “And my last.”
She smiled. “Even better.” Caitlyn kissed him to show him how much she meant it.
* * * * *
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Chapter One
JUST INSIDE THE door, she stopped to take a look around the apartment to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. This place, like all the others she’d lived in, held no special sentimental value for her. Neither would the next one, she thought. She’d learned a long time ago not to get too attached to anything.
The knock on the other side of the door startled her. She froze, careful not to make a sound. The building super, Mr. McNally, again, wanting the back rent? She should have left earlier.
Another knock. She thought about waiting him out, but her taxi was already downstairs. She would have to talk her way out of the building. It wasn’t as if this was the first time she’d found herself in a spot like this.
She opened the door, ready to do whatever it took to reach her taxi.
It wasn’t Mr. McNally.
A courier stood holding a manila envelope, a clipboard and a pen.
“Dee Anna Justice?” he asked.
She looked from him to the envelope in his hand. It looked legal. Maybe some rich uncle had died and left Dee Anna a fortune.
“Yes?”
He glanced past her into the empty apartment. She’d sold all the furniture and anything else that wasn’t nailed down. Seeing him judging her living conditions, she pulled the door closed behind her. He didn’t know her. How dare he? He had no idea what kind of woman she was, and he certainly wasn’t going to judge her by the mess she’d left in the apartment.
She cocked a brow at him, waiting.
“I need to see some identification,” he said.
Of course he did. It was all she could do not to smile. Well, sneer, as she produced a driver’s license in the name of Dee Anna Justice. She’d known where to get a fake ID since she was fourteen.
He shifted on his feet and finally held the pen out to her and showed her where to sign.
She wrote Dee Anna Justice the way she’d seen her former roommate do it dozens of times, and held out her hand impatiently for the envelope, hoping there was money inside. She was due for some good news. Otherwise the envelope and its contents would end up with the rest of the trash inside the apartment.
“Thanks a lot,” she said sarcastically, as the courier finally handed it over. She was anxious to rip into it right there, but she really needed to get out of here.
It wasn’t until she was in the backseat of the cab, headed for the train, that she finally tore open the envelope and pulled out the contents. At first she was a little disappointed. There was only a single one-page letter inside.
As she read the letter through, though, she began to laugh. No rich uncle had died. But it was almost as good. Apparently Dee Anna had a cousin who lived on a ranch in Montana. She ran her finger over the telephone number. According to the letter, all she had to do was call and she would be on her way to Montana. With a sob story, she figured she could get her “cousin” to foot most if not all of her expenses.
She had the cabdriver stop so she could buy a cell phone in the name of Dee Anna Justice. After she made her purchase she instructed the driver to take her to the airport, where she bought a first-class ticket. She couldn’t wait to get to Montana and meet her cousin Dana Cardwell.
ISBN: 9781460315828
Copyright © 2013 by Delores Fossen
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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OUTLAW LAWMAN Page 19
