He pulled up in her driveway and turned to look at her, wanting to take away the unusual slump of her shoulders and the dark look of defeat radiating from her eyes. He would prefer them filled with icy disdain.
“I swear to God, I’ll make this right,” he exclaimed. “I’ll do everything in my power to make it right.”
She broke eye contact with him and unfastened her seat belt. When she looked back at him, her eyes were filled with warmth, and she leaned across the seat and placed her lips on his.
Swift hunger came alive in him as he tasted those lips he’d dreamed about for so long. When she opened her mouth to him, he wanted to get her out of the car, take her into his arms and feel the press of her body against his, tangle his hands in her lush, silky hair.
The scent of her filled his head, dizzying him as the kiss continued. Charlie had always loved to kiss Grace. Her soft, full lips were made for kissing.
She broke the kiss long before he wanted her to and then opened her car door. “Don’t bother walking me in,” she said, as if to let him know the kiss had been the beginning and end of anything physical between them.
“Are you confusing me on purpose?” he asked, his voice thick and husky with the desire that still coursed hot and thick through his blood.
“I just figure if I’m confused you should be, too,” she said, only adding to his bewilderment. “Call me in the morning to set up a time to go to the house.” She slid out of the car and straightened up.
From the corner of his eye, Charlie saw a figure step around the side of her house. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. He saw the figure raise an arm, heard the report of the gun and at the same time screamed Grace’s name.
Chapter 8
Grace leapt back into the car just as she heard a metallic ping above her head.
“Stay down,” Charlie cried, as he threw the car into reverse and burned rubber out of her driveway. She screamed and hunkered down in the seat as the passenger window exploded, sending glass showering over her back.
Her heart pounded so hard that she felt sick as Charlie steered the car like a guided missile. Her mind stuttered, trying to understand what just happened.
Somebody had shot at her. A bullet had narrowly missed her head. The words screamed through her head but didn’t make sense.
As she started to sit up, Charlie pressed on the back of her head to keep her contorted in the seat, and below the window level.
“Stay down. Are you all right? Did he hit you?” The urgency in his voice made every muscle in her body begin to tremble as the reality of what had just happened set in.
“No, I’m all right. I’m okay.” Her voice was two octaves higher than normal, and she felt a hysterical burst of laughter welling up inside her. “If somebody is going to try to kill you, it’s great when he’s not a good shot.”
Her laughter turned into a sob. “My God, somebody just tried to kill me, Charlie. What’s going on with my life?”
“I don’t know.” His hand on the back of her head became a caress. “You can get up now. I don’t think anyone is following us.”
Tentatively she straightened to a sitting position, but she couldn’t control the quivering of her body. “Did you see who he was?”
“No, he was in the shadows of the house and everything happened too damned fast. I’m taking you to my place tonight.”
“If you think I’m going to argue with you, you’re mistaken.” She wrapped her arms around herself, attempting to warm the icy chill that possessed her insides.
“First we’re going to take a couple of detours to make sure we’re not being followed.” As if to prove the point, he turned off Main, careened down a tree-lined street and then turned again onto another street.
“Charlie, why would somebody want to kill me?”
“I don’t know, Grace. The first thing we’re going to do when we get to my place is call Zack West. We need to report what happened.”
He cursed beneath his breath. “I didn’t see this coming. Jesus, if you hadn’t jumped when you did, he would’ve nailed you.”
Her trembling grew more intense. “Don’t remind me.” She brushed away the pieces of glass that clung to her. Her head pounded where she’d been hit before and she felt like she might throw up. “You’re going to need a new window.”
“That’s the least of our problems right now,” he replied, his voice still tense as his gaze continually darted to his rearview mirror.
They didn’t speak again until they reached Charlie’s ranch. He parked in front of the porch, got out of the car and came around to help her out.
It was only after she collapsed on his sofa that the shivering began to ease. As he got on the phone to call Zack, she stared out the window and replayed that moment when she’d seen the dark figure just out of the shadows, sensed imminent danger and dove back into the car.
What if she’d waited a second longer? What if he’d pulled the trigger a second sooner? The trembling she thought she had under control began again, and tears pressed hot in her eyes.
Somebody had tried to kill her. Why? Why? When Charlie hung up the phone, she looked at him, and he pulled her up into his arms.
“It’s okay now. You’re safe here,” he said, as he held her tight. She burrowed her head into the crook of his neck, breathing in the familiar scent of him as her heartbeat crashed out of control with the residual fear.
He ran his hands up and down her back as he whispered in her ear words meant to soothe. Her trembling finally stopped, but still she remained in his embrace, unwilling to let go of him until the cold knot in her stomach had completely warmed.
There was a feeling of safety in Charlie’s strong arms, and she needed that sense of security after what had just happened.
Finally she stepped back from him and sank to the sofa. “I can’t believe this,” she said, as Charlie began to pace back and forth in front of her. “How could this be happening to me?”
He went to the window and looked out, then began to pace once again, his lean body radiating with energy. “In light of what just happened, there’s no way I think that the attack in the store was an attempted robbery,” he said.
The cold chunk in her stomach re-formed as she stared at him in horror. “You think it was the same man as tonight? That he wanted to kill me that night in the store?”
“That would be a reasonable assumption. Give me a dollar.”
“What?” She stared at him blankly as he held out his hand.
“Give me a dollar,” he repeated.
She grabbed her purse from the sofa and pulled one out and handed it to him. “What’s that for?”
He shoved the bill into his pocket. “You just hired me to be your professional bodyguard.” His eyes were dark and simmered with a banked flame. “From now on you won’t go anywhere, do anything, without me at your side. Until we know what’s going on and who wants you dead, it isn’t safe for you to be anywhere alone.”
Grace leaned back against the sofa. Her life was spinning out of control and she didn’t know why. Somebody wanted her dead, but she didn’t know who. “Where’s Rosa?” she asked, surprised that the housekeeper hadn’t made an appearance yet.
“Today is her day off. She won’t be back here until sometime tomorrow afternoon.” Charlie once again moved to the window and peered outside, his back rigid with tension.
“Do you think whoever it was might come here?” she asked, fear leaping back into her voice. “If he recognized you, then what’s to stop him from coming here and trying to get me again?”
Charlie turned away from the window and looked at her. “I won’t let that happen.” He walked over to the wooden desk in one corner of the room and opened the bottom drawer. “From now on anywhere we go there will be four of us. You and me and Smith and Wesson.” He pulled out an automatic, checked the clip, then stuck the gun in his waistband at his back.
“I’m a hell of a shot and won’t hesitate to pull the trigger if I think it�
��s necessary,” he added.
The sound of car tires crunching the gravel of the driveway drifted inside, and he turned back to the window. “It’s Zack.”
He opened the door to admit the lawman, and for the next twenty minutes Grace and Charlie explained to Zack what happened at her house and how it had been too dark for either of them to identify the man.
“You should be able to find a couple of slugs in my car,” Charlie said. “One went into the passenger side and the other one shot out the window.”
Zack nodded and looked at Grace. “And you don’t have any idea who this person might be? No spurned boyfriends, no business problems of any kind?”
Grace shook her head. “I can’t imagine who might want to hurt me. Do you think this has something to do with William’s murder?”
Zack frowned. “I don’t know what to think. I’ll collect what evidence I can from Charlie’s car and send some of my deputies over to your house to check for further evidence.”
“There’s something else I’d like for you to do,” Charlie said. “Two years ago Grace’s mother, Elizabeth, disappeared. I intend to do an Internet search to see if I can find out anything about where she might be right now, but you have better access to government records and can go places I can’t. Would you check it out and see if you can find where she might be living now?”
“You think she might have something to do with all this?” Zack asked.
“No, that’s impossible,” Grace exclaimed. Her mother might have deserted them, but she’d never have anything to do with the terrible things happening now.
Charlie and Zack exchanged a look that let Grace know they weren’t as sure about her mother’s innocence. “I’ll check it all out and get back to you sometime tomorrow,” Zack said. “I’m assuming that you’ll be here?”
Grace nodded. “I don’t want to go home right now.”
Zack nodded with understanding. “That’s a good idea. I recommend you don’t go anywhere alone unless absolutely necessary and then take precautions for your own safety.”
He got up from the chair where he’d been sitting, a weary frown on his face. “I don’t know what in the hell is going on around here, but I’d sure like to get to the bottom of it.”
“This has to put a new light on Hope’s case,” Grace said.
“We don’t know that this incident is tied to William’s murder,” Zack replied. “And if it is, it doesn’t necessarily do anything positive for Hope’s case. The argument could be made that with you dead, Hope is the sole beneficiary of William’s fortune.”
Grace gasped. “That’s a ridiculous argument,” she exclaimed.
“I assume you’ll be checking out Justin Walker’s whereabouts for this evening,” Charlie said.
“He’s top on my list,” Zack replied.
“You might also check out Hank Weatherford,” Grace said. “Apparently there was some tension between him and William about some land William owns that butts up next to Hank’s place.”
Zack nodded. “Anything else you think of, no matter how small, call me.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Charlie said, and the two men left the house.
Grace stared blankly at the front door, her mind reeling with everything that had happened—with all the possibilities of who might be responsible.
Did Hank want that five acres badly enough to kill for it? It seemed ridiculous to even consider such a thing, but thinking that Hope had somehow masterminded William’s murder—and the attempted murder of Grace herself—in order to get all his money seemed equally ridiculous.
The other possibility—her mother—flirted at the edges of her mind, and although she wanted to dismiss it completely out of hand, she couldn’t.
Pain blossomed in Grace’s chest. Thoughts of Elizabeth always brought enormous grief, but this was different—more raw.
Maybe her mother had found another man and didn’t know that William had changed his will so she was no longer the sole beneficiary. Perhaps she and her new man had decided to take out everyone who stood in the way of her getting that money.
It sounded crazy and sick, but Grace had seen enough to know that money could twist people into ugly semblances of themselves.
Or maybe what happened tonight had nothing to do with William’s murder. Somebody tried to killme. The words whirled around in her head, and again the cold knot retied itself in her chest.
She needed to think of something else, anything else. What she needed to do was make arrangements yet again for somebody else to open the store in the morning. She wasn’t sure she’d be in at all.
Grace picked up Charlie’s phone and dialed Dana’s cell phone number. She answered on the second ring. “Dana, I hate to bother you, but could you open the store in the morning and work until Stacy comes in for her evening shift at four?”
“You know it’s no problem,” Dana replied. “I love working at the store. I’m just waiting for the time that you start sending me on buying trips, and I can take on more responsibility.”
“What would that handsome husband of yours do without you if I sent you out of town?”
Dana laughed. “That handsome husband of mine would just have to cope, wouldn’t he? Everything all right, Grace?”
“No, not really, but I appreciate your help with the store. I’ll be in touch sometime tomorrow,” she said, as Charlie came back through the door.
She hung up the phone. “That was Dana. I called her so she could open the store in the morning. She’s a real jewel. Sometimes I don’t know what I’d do without her.” She was rambling, embracing thoughts of the store to keep away other, more troubling ideas.
“She wants to start going on buying trips for me. She has great taste. I probably should let her go.” Charlie’s face blurred as tears filled her eyes. “She would do a good job.”
“Grace,” he said gently. “Why don’t we get you settled in bed? Things won’t look so grim in the morning.” He held out his hand to her.
She took his hand and stood with a small laugh. “Somehow I don’t think sunshine is going to fix any of this.”
“Who knows? Maybe tomorrow Zack will find something that will identify your attacker.”
She used her free hand to wipe at her tear-filled eyes. “I didn’t know you were such an optimist, Charlie,” she said, as they walked down the hallway toward the guest room she’d stayed in before.
“What are we going to do?” she asked when they reached the doorway. “How are you going to be my bodyguard, prepare a defense case for Hope and investigate all this? You aren’t Superman.”
He reached up and touched her cheek with a gentle smile. “Let me worry about it. You’d be surprised at what I’m capable of when I put my mind to it.”
“Are you capable of getting me something to sleep in? I don’t have anything.”
He nodded. “How about one of my T-shirts?”
“Perfect,” she agreed.
He dropped his hand from her face. “I’ll be right back.” He disappeared into the room at the far end of the hallway and returned a moment later with both a T-shirt and a toothbrush still in the package. “Try to get some sleep. We’ll figure it all out in the morning,” he said, handing her the items.
She nodded. “I’ll see you in the morning.” As he murmured a good-night, she closed the door between them and prayed that sleep would claim her quickly and banish all the horrible thoughts and images from her mind.
Rage, revenge or reward.
Charlie sat in his chair in the darkened living room and worked the motives for murder around in his head. No matter how he twisted everything, he couldn’t make sense of it.
His heart accelerated in rhythm as he thought of that moment when he’d seen the figure in the shadows, watched as the figure raised his arm and knew that Grace was in danger. His heart had stopped then and hadn’t resumed its regular, steady beat until they’d pulled up here at the ranch.
Moonlight filtered through the trees and into the
window, making dancing patterns across the living room floor. He stared at the shifting patterns, as if in staring at them long enough something would make sense. Although he hadn’t wanted to show his fear to Grace, the truth was he was afraid for her.
It was bad enough that somebody had tried twice to kill her, but almost as troubling was not having a clue as to the identity of her perpetrator.
Owning and operating a dress shop wasn’t exactly a high-risk profession, and she’d insisted to Zack that there weren’t any spurned lovers, no stalker boyfriends, nothing that could explain what was going on.
So what was going on? A dead man, a child facing trial and two attempted murders. As crazy as it sounded, Charlie’s thoughts kept returning to the missing mother. She was the one piece of the puzzle that remained a complete mystery.
Why had she left? Where was she now? After Grace went to bed, Charlie had done a cursory Internet search for her but found nothing.
The fact that Grace hadn’t told him about her mother when they’d been dating indicated to him how little she’d thought of their relationship. He hadn’t been important enough in her life to share that particular heartbreak.
He reached up and touched his bottom lip, where the feel of that brief kiss in the car lingered. Why had she kissed him? And if their relationship had meant nothing to her, then why did she hate him for how it had ended?
To say that she confused him was an understatement. What he didn’t find confusing at all were his feelings for her. He loved her. It was as simple and as complicated as that. He’d never stopped loving her.
And she would never forgive him.
He released a weary sigh and glanced at the clock with the luminous dial on the desk. After two. Time to go to bed. He wasn’t accomplishing anything here and needed to be fresh and alert tomorrow.
The Rancher Bodyguard Page 9