by B. J Daniels
Culhane knew he’d let his thoughts take a detour to the weather only because he didn’t want to think about what would happen when he caught up with the van. He slowed just enough to make the turn. The van was just ahead. But, now what? he asked himself as he glanced at Alexis and wished like hell that he could have left her in Buckhorn.
Even as he thought it, he knew short of hog-tying her to the cowcatcher on the front of his pickup parked back at the café, there was no leaving her behind. “Can you try to find this road on a map on your phone and let me know where it goes?” he asked, barely getting the sentence out before she was on it.
Alexis already had her phone out and was tapping on the screen. It had always been like that when they’d worked together. They seemed to anticipate the other’s needs—in bed as well as on the job. That was a reminder he didn’t need right now.
“It isn’t on any map I can find, but it heads south so eventually it will hit the Yellowstone River and the interstate. Doesn’t look as if there are any towns for miles or other marked roads, for that matter.”
Dust billowed up behind the van, making it impossible to see ahead. Culhane didn’t want to get too close for fear of coming up on the vehicle without warning and crashing into it. If Tina were still alive, he’d like to keep her that way.
“You think they know we’re back here?” Alexis asked.
“Yep. If they can’t lose us, they’ll set up an ambush.” He glanced over at her. “There’s a bulletproof vest behind the seat. Put it on.”
“Culhane—”
“Please.”
With a sigh, she reached behind the seat and pulled out the vest. It was too large for her, but it might help if bullets started flying. He thought about Bessie and how she hadn’t hesitated to step between the man she loved and a killer. Culhane knew in his heart that Alexis would take a bullet for him—and vice versa.
Ahead, the dust seemed to dissipate a little, and he saw the blur of brake lights. He slowed as the dust hung in the air ahead of him. The van had turned. Or stopped. The dust began to settle, and he saw the van had turned off and was now heading east on an even-narrower dirt road.
In the passenger seat, Alexis quickly looked at the map on her phone. “This road has to dead-end.” Her gaze went to Culhane. “If I’m right about where we are, the Musselshell River is to the east. I really doubt there will be a bridge over it on this road.”
“How far before the road dead-ends?” he asked as he turned onto the narrower, less used dirt road the van had taken.
“Half a mile or so... Culhane!” she screamed at the same time there was a break in the cloud of dust—just in time for him to see something lying in the road. He slammed on his brakes making a skidding stop as he realized what it was. A body. He barely got the pickup stopped before Alexis jumped out and ran to the still form.
CHAPTER TWELVE
THE VAN BOUNCED along the rutted dirt road. Gene kept looking back and yelling for him to speed up because they were right behind them.
But when Bobby looked back, all he could see was dust churning up under their tires. He couldn’t be sure that his plan had worked.
“Give it some gas!” Gene yelled, waving the gun in his direction again.
Earlier, he’d already been having trouble staying on the road at this speed. He’d had to manhandle the wheel to keep them from going into the ditch. But every time he let up on the gas, Gene threatened to shoot him.
In his rearview mirror, he’d checked behind them again. Nothing but dust. What if they weren’t even being chased? There might not be anyone behind them. He wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that Gene had imagined seeing someone behind them after they’d turned off the highway. It wasn’t like he could trust Gene’s judgment. The man was in obvious pain and drugged up to the max.
“Can you see them?” Gene had demanded, twisting in his seat to try to look back before groaning in pain. Blood had soaked through the jacket Gene had wadded up and pressed over the wound. Bobby had wondered how much longer the man could stay conscious with all the blood loss.
“If they’re behind us,” he’d said, “I can’t see them.”
“They’re there. Take another road. That one!” Gene had said, pointing to a rutted narrow road to his left.
Bobby had taken the turn, even though the road looked as if it hadn’t been used in years. Dried weeds stood several feet high in the center of the deep ruts. If they really were being followed, they had to do something besides taking roads to nowhere.
“I know a way to slow them down,” Bobby had said, adding silently if they are back there. He just hoped Gene would go along with his plan. Otherwise, the man just might shoot him. He’d thought about throwing out Gus’s body but had quickly mentally revised his plan. “Tina. Let’s dump her out on the road. They’ll stop for her and give us time to get away.” If they were really back there. Either way, they’d be rid of her. He’d thought she might even survive.
Gene had looked over at him as if he’d lost his mind before he’d let out a curse. “You’d better hope this works. If not, you’re a dead man.”
Bobby had a bad feeling he was dead either way. The road he’d turned onto was questionable at best. Maybe it didn’t matter. There was no way they were going to outrun anyone in this old van. Not that he thought they could stay on the run, anyway. Eventually someone was going to catch up to them: if not Culhane Travis, then the law. Either way, Bobby didn’t have much hope. Gene had said he’d die before he’d go back to prison. If it came to a standoff...
Bobby couldn’t shake the feeling that his time had run out. If Gene was right and it was Culhane Travis after them, then it would soon be over. Jana had told him about her husband. When he’d recognized the ex-deputy sheriff back at the café, his heart had lodged in his throat. He’d felt fear as cold and deadly as that blade the woman at the café had plunged into Gene. If Culhane was behind them, then they were as good as dead.
* * *
LARS OLSON HAD never prayed in his life. Until now. He held the sleeping baby in his arms and prayed for Tina as sirens sounded outside. He’d done her so wrong in so many ways. He looked at Chloe and felt such a well of love that he thought he might drown in it. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered to the baby. How had he thought he could walk away from this child? From Tina?
His eyes filled with tears. He’d never been a strong man. That much was clear to him now. He’d told himself that he would only stay with Tina until the baby was born. But months later, he was still there with the two of them—and at the same time still clinging to Shirley. He’d wanted both, to stay with Tina and the baby, and to leave with Shirley. He had to have known that he would have to choose. Wasn’t that why he’d insisted on Shirley going with him this morning to have breakfast at the café and force him into a decision?
Looking down at Chloe, who’d fallen into a deep sleep, he whispered, “What is wrong with me?” and he made a swipe at his tears.
“I could tell you,” Vi said disagreeably.
“Can you ever forgive me?” he asked her. He must have sounded sincere, because she looked at him, studying him, as if in shock.
“I’m not the one who needs to forgive you,” she said after a moment. “Knowing my daughter...she probably already has,” Vi added with a sigh. “There’s no accounting for taste.”
“Tina’s going to be all right,” he said and looked to her for reassurance as he saw cops surrounding the café. He realized how desperate he was that he thought Vi might offer the encouragement he desperately needed. She didn’t, and he went back to praying. He and Chloe needed Tina.
He could see that Vi did, too. They had become a family, and not just the three of them. Vi, alone except for her daughter and granddaughter, needed them as well. In time, maybe she would grow to tolerate him, if not fully accept him as family. Or not, he thought, as Earl Ray rose to open the doo
r for the EMTs and cops.
* * *
ALEXIS DROPPED TO the ground next to Tina and placed her fingers against the woman’s throat to search for a pulse. Culhane followed, fearing Tina was already dead, had been dead before she’d been thrown from the van.
But as he reached the two women, he heard Tina let out a moan of pain as she opened her eyes. She instantly recoiled, first from Alexis and then from him before she seemed to recognize them. As Tina tried to sit up, she groaned in pain and fell back. He could see that she was skinned up from being thrown out of the moving van onto the dirt road. But her injuries appeared to be minor, given what she’d been through.
“Don’t try to get up,” Alexis said next to her. “Can you tell me where it hurts?”
“It’s my arm,” Tina cried. “I think it’s broken, and I...can’t...breathe. I think my ribs are...broken, too.”
Culhane looked over at Alexis. “We need to get her to the hospital to make sure she doesn’t have any internal injuries.” He met her gaze and held it. “You need to take her to the next town.”
“What are you trying to pull?” she whispered from between gritted teeth.
“Let’s get her into the pickup,” he said, and she helped him help Tina to her feet and into the passenger seat.
Closing the door, he turned to Alexis and talked fast. “Tina needs medical attention. I have to talk to Bobby. I recognized him as the man I saw leaving Jana’s the night she was allegedly murdered. I have to find out what he knows. He’s the one person who can prove that I didn’t kill her.”
“Other than Jana herself,” Alexis snapped. “I knew you’d pull something like this,” she said with a curse.
He shook his head. “I swear that’s not what this is about. You need to get Tina to a hospital. Beyond her arm and her ribs, she might have injuries that will kill her otherwise. Either way, she needs medical attention.” He could see that her big heart wouldn’t let her leave a woman in pain. “It’s not that far to the next town to the east. Then come back for me. I promise I’ll be here at the end of this road waiting for you.”
When she shook her head angrily, he took her chin in his palm and lifted it up until their eyes met. “I promise.” He felt her weaken. “Go, and hurry back.”
“So help me, Culhane, if you—”
He kissed her, pulling her into him and kissing her as if he might never see her again. There was a good chance he wouldn’t. Not that it was what he was thinking about as he’d kissed her with the passion that only this woman evoked in him. The thought of losing her made it hard for him to catch his next breath.
* * *
THE KISS TOOK Alexis completely by surprise. There was an intensity to it that frightened her. Was he saying goodbye because he thought he might die? Or because he had no plans to see her again? During the kiss, it hadn’t mattered. She’d melted into him, caught up in her unrelenting desire for him, in the hard lines of his body, in the warmth of his arms around her. She never wanted the kiss to end.
But, of course, it had.
“Go,” he said again. For just an instant, their gazes locked, and she thought he was going to say the words she’d yearned to hear. But then he turned and took off up the road at a run.
Alexis sighed and turned back to the pickup. Her legs felt weak under her, the kiss still churning in her system, making her soft inside and more vulnerable than she wanted to feel. The man could get to her with just one kiss. At the thought that she might not see him alive again, she felt sick to her stomach and had to throw up in the ditch before taking off the too-large vest and climbing behind the wheel.
She looked over at Tina and felt badly that she’d been here in pain even for the length of a kiss. “Hang on,” she told her. “It’s not that far to the hospital.” The woman was covered in dirt and dust, her face streaked with tracks of dried tears, but she looked strong, sitting there holding her arm and taking shallow breaths. She’d faced death and had lived through it. Something like that either made a person stronger or left them frightened and weak.
Alexis started the pickup. She could barely make out Culhane’s dark figure on the horizon. According to the map, he wouldn’t have to go far before the road dead-ended at the river.
Tina also looked down the road after Culhane. She was shaking from fear or relief, Alexis thought maybe both. “You two know each other.”
It wasn’t a question since Tina had probably seen the kiss, but Alexis answered it, anyway. “We both worked for the sheriff’s department as deputies. That’s how we met.”
“You don’t anymore?”
“No.” She sighed as she turned around and headed back up the road. “The new sheriff... It’s a long story. I became a bounty hunter. Culhane...well, he’s still figuring out some things.” She wondered how much Tina knew and realized there was no reason to hold anything back. In fact, telling a stranger felt freeing. Maybe if she said it out loud, then what was happening wouldn’t be so bad.
The rough road was jarring. She saw Tina wince in pain and tried to drive as carefully as possible to avoid the bumps. “His...wife—another long story—was recently murdered. Culhane is the sheriff’s number-one suspect.”
“Sounds complicated.”
Alexis chuckled as she reached the smoother dirt road. “You could say that.”
“You trust him?”
The question caught her flat-footed. She gripped the wheel, biting back her instant smart-ass response of Not a chance. She thought about it for a few moments. “I do.” Glancing over at Tina, she said, “Your life a little complicated, too?”
Tina let out a humorless laugh but quickly stifled it as she grimaced in pain.
They drove in silence for a few minutes before Tina said, “I did something unforgivable, I’m afraid. Lars—”
“The baby whisperer?”
Tina nodded. “I love him, but a year ago I left him because he wouldn’t commit, even though we’d been living together for several years. In a weak moment, I met a man at the hotel bar and...” She sighed. “I realized my mistake at once and returned home. Not long after that, I discovered my one-night stand had resulted in pregnancy.”
She took a few shallow breaths. Alexis could hear the woman fighting tears. “Lars knew at once the baby wasn’t his, but he agreed to stay with me until the baby was born. But unfortunately, my one-night stand and pregnancy made him turn to another woman for those months.” More breaths, more tears. “The two of them had an affair that the whole town knew about. I thought he would leave the minute Chloe was born, but...” Her voice broke, and she began to sob quietly. “My precious baby. Lars...”
“I’m sure Chloe is fine,” Alexis said hastily. “Lars is fine, too. She’s with him.”
Tina nodded and tried to pull herself together. “Lars is wonderful with her.” Alexis nodded. She’d seen the two of them together. She’d held the baby in her arms. The thought made her reach down and put her hand protectively over her stomach for a moment.
“Today was the first time Lars and Shirley had come out in public as a couple,” Tina said.
She heard the woman’s pain. She wanted to say something to make it better but knew there were no words. She’d seen Lars with that other woman, Shirley. “You still love him.”
“With all my heart. My mother...” She cleared her throat and let go of her broken arm for a moment to wipe at her tears. “She keeps saying I need to—” she made air quotes with one hand “—kick him to the curb. I guess there is nothing keeping him from taking off with Shirley now—once I come back for my baby.”
“I doubt things are that clear-cut,” Alexis said. “I saw the way he was with Chloe and the way he came to your defense. I think he cares more than you think.”
“He really was all right when you left?” she asked. Alexis nodded. “And my mother?” She nodded again. “What about Bessie?”
“Earl Ray was taking care of her. An ambulance had been called.”
Tina seemed to relax. Ahead, Alexis saw a town appear on the horizon, this one larger than Buckhorn. She thought about Culhane and worried what would happen when he found the van. Please don’t get yourself killed. Would he be there when she returned? Or would he be long gone? She thought about the promise he’d made her and the look in his eyes. The tip of her tongue touched her upper lip as she thought about that kiss.
From the moment she’d met him, she’d known she could trust him with her life—just not her heart, but damned if he hadn’t stolen it, anyway.
* * *
AS THE VAN came up over the rise, Bobby had only a few moments to take in the scene in front of him. A river with rushing water and large boulders. A few dilapidated buildings off to one side. And what had once been a narrow wooden bridge spanning the deep, fast water.
End of the road, he thought. In more ways than one. In that instant, he felt a wave of relief as he slammed on the brakes. It was over.
“Get your foot off that brake, you son of a—” Gene screamed.
“It’s a dead end,” he yelled back.
“Take the bridge.”
Bobby shot him a look. The van was still moving too fast. If he didn’t get it under control soon... But it was what he heard in the hard gravel of Gene’s voice—and the sight of the gun pointed at him that made the decision for him.
Take the bridge.
Or take a bullet.
It wasn’t over. But it would be soon.
He let up off the brake, knowing that, either way, he was going to die, and tromped on the gas. The van jumped forward even as fast as he was already going. Hadn’t his mother warned him how it would end if he didn’t change his ways?
“Sorry, Mom,” he whispered under his breath as the van roared toward the bridge and the two wooden signs that someone had crudely painted with the words Danger and Bridge Closed.