“As soon as we have some proof for Harper, it will.” He spotted the tow truck and waved his arms in the air.
Forty minutes later, Scarlett had retrieved her belongings from the car and the charred vehicle was sitting on the flatbed of the tow truck.
“Can you give us a lift back to my place? It’s on your way.”
The driver nodded. “Sure, hop in.”
They squeezed into the front seat next to the driver and he dropped them off at Jim’s cabin.
As they collected a couple of shovels, a coil of rope and a pickax from the garage, Jim placed his hand on the small of Scarlett’s back. “You don’t have to go, Scarlett. I can do this by myself. I can tell you how it all turns out while you’re having a glass of wine at a bar overlooking the city.”
“I know you can do it by yourself, Jim.” She turned toward him and cupped his chin with her hand. “But I want to be there with you. It’s one of my people who caused this whole mess.”
“Danny is no more your people than Slick is mine. We’re not responsible for their actions. You don’t have to put yourself in danger to prove anything or to redeem the Quileute.”
“What danger? Nobody but us and Dax knows the location of those drugs, and we may be way off base.”
“Don’t downplay it. You’ve been targeted from the get-go.”
“And that’s why I need to see this through.”
He handed her a shovel. “Then let’s get busy.”
He stuffed two flashlights and the rope in one saddlebag and tucked the head of the pickax in the other.
Once on the bike, Jim rested the two shovels across his lap and Scarlett grasped the handle of the pickax, holding it in place.
“Hang on with one arm. I’ll go slowly. I had wanted to go out earlier while it was still light, but going under cover of the darkness might work out better.”
As he started the bike, Scarlett’s arm wound around his waist and he shoved off. They met only two cars on the way to the area of the forest that contained the abandoned mine where Wyatt Carson had stashed three children in an attempt to recreate the Timberline Trio case.
He cut the engine well before the entrance to the trail and rolled up silently. There were too many low-hanging branches for Jim to attempt to take his bike any farther into the woods, so he parked it off the road, concealing it behind some bushes. No need to advertise their presence here.
He handed Scarlett a flashlight and a shovel, and he took the other shovel and the pickax. He wound the rope around his body.
“Ready?”
She nodded, her eyes wide but her mouth determined.
They ducked into the woods, Jim leading the way with Scarlett close behind him. When they reached the clearing with the entrance to the mine and the tall pine where Slick had proposed to Wendy about a hundred years ago, Jim slowed and held out his hand.
He wanted to check the area first, but Scarlett charged past him. He made a futile grab for her jacket.
“If Dax just buried the drugs, there should be some signs of fresh dirt, even with the rainstorm coming through this afternoon. Hopefully, that rain made the ground soggy enough for some easy digging, and maybe Dax marked the spot somehow.” Scarlett marched toward the pine, her flashlight sweeping the ground in front of her.
Jim choked out a harsh whisper as he staggered into the clearing after her. “Scarlett, hold on.”
Then he heard it—the click of a gun’s safety.
Scarlett yelped as Jim’s flashlight illuminated her pale face, an arm around her throat and a gun to her head.
Her uncle growled. “Drop the tools, Kennedy, and you might as well give up your gun right now.”
“We called the sheriff’s department, Danny.” Scarlett squirmed in her captor’s grasp. “They’re on their way to meet us.”
“Nice try, Scar, but I already know Granny warned you off Musgrove. You wouldn’t have called him.”
Chewy stepped from the shadows and waved his weapon at Jim. “Drop your stuff, Kennedy, and step toward the mine.”
Jim hesitated only for a second before Danny placed the muzzle of his gun against Scarlett’s temple. He tossed his shovel and the pickax in front of him, dug his gun out of his pocket and dropped it on the pile.
“How do you know what Granny told us? How did you know we’d be here?”
Jim licked his lips. Maybe if Scarlett could keep her uncle talking, he could get his weapon back. Chewy wasn’t the brightest biker he knew.
“I had Jason bug her place.”
Scarlett gasped.
“Don’t worry about your little cuz. He didn’t know he was doing it. He just thought he was delivering a gift to her from me—a sentimental gift that had belonged to my brother.”
“Y-you killed my father, didn’t you? Or Rocky had it done.”
“Chewy, get Kennedy over by the mine.”
“Move it, Kennedy.” Chewy stepped forward, his gun gleaming in the low light, a shovel in his left hand.
Jim shuffled toward the mine entrance and glanced down. Someone had removed the boards from the top, leaving a gaping hole.
Chewy came at him, and Jim’s muscles tensed, ready for the attack...or the bullet.
“Hate to do this to a Lord, but you were never one of us, were you?”
Chewy swung the shovel and hit him in the midsection, sending him into the dark abyss—again.
Chapter Seventeen
Scarlett screamed and broke away from Danny, but he grabbed her arm and yanked her back.
“Leave him, Scar. With any luck, he messed up his other leg. He’s not your concern anymore. Your concern is finding those drugs.”
Chewy rose to his feet from where he’d been crouching beside the mine entrance, aiming his flashlight into the depths. “J.T.’s at the bottom of the mine—probably dead.”
Scarlett sobbed and then red, hot fury coursed through her veins and she clawed at Danny’s face.
He smacked her cheek and she stumbled backward, catching a tree branch to stop her fall.
“Start digging. Once I get the drugs back and hand them over to Chewy and his guy, we’ll be on our way. We’ll go to another area, find other kids.”
Chewy brushed his hair away from his small, dumb eyes. “But Rocky...?”
“Rocky doesn’t have to know where the kids came from. He hasn’t been in Timberline for years.”
Scarlett touched her throbbing cheek. “What does Rocky Whitecotton want with these children? What did he do with them twenty-five years ago?”
“You don’t need to know, Scar. Just start digging. I’ll even let you live.”
Scarlett snorted. She didn’t believe that for a minute, but she had to hang on to the hope. If Danny and Chewy took the drugs and left her alive, she might be able to save Jim. She refused to believe he was dead. Refused to believe that fall had killed him.
She picked up a shovel, and Danny leveled his gun at her.
“Don’t try anything stupid. Just start digging.”
Chewy joined them and shined his flashlight at the ground under the tree.
A pattern of rocks emerged under the pine, and Danny must’ve spotted it the same time she did.
“There. Dax must’ve lined up those rocks like that. You should’ve warned me Dax’s loyalties were with his brother, Chewy. I never would’ve handed the stash over to him.”
“Prison must’ve changed him. He was always loyal to the Lords first.”
Scarlett sniffed. Her guess was that Dax was only loyal to the Lords so his younger brother wouldn’t have to be. Had Jim realized that too before...? She squeezed her eyes shut. He couldn’t be gone. She’d know. She’d feel it now if he were.
Danny poked his gun in her back. “Start digging, girl. You’re goin
g to do all the work, and we’re going to make sure you do it.”
Scarlett grabbed the shovel and drove it into the damp ground. She drew it out and tossed a shovelful of dirt to the side.
“That’s not so hard, is it?”
After five minutes of digging, she wiped a drop of rain—or was it sweat—from her forehead. “Did you kill Gary Binder?”
“That loser didn’t know much, but he knew enough to give that FBI agent some ideas. The agent was already looking into the Lords of Chaos. Gary could’ve given him the final link between the Quileute and the Lords.”
“But why? Why did Rocky kidnap those children?”
Danny smacked the back of her head. “I told you. Don’t worry about it. He gives his orders, and I follow them. If your father would’ve done the same, he’d be alive today and living the good life.”
Tears burned behind Scarlett’s eye and the dirt below her blurred. “And Rusty?”
“He wouldn’t play along.” Chewy cleared his throat and spit. “Just like Dax. If Slick were alive, he would’ve been all in.”
“Who tried to kidnap Jim?” She stomped her boot on the shovel to drive it into the ground again.
“That was me.” Danny coughed. “I was no good at it, but I struck a deal with Slick Kennedy that night—the Lords would help us and we’d help the Lords.”
“A match made in hell.” She threw another mound of dirt at Danny’s feet, hitting his silver-tipped boots.
“Why didn’t you read Kennedy, Scar? That’s what I was worried about with the two of you. He had the knowledge buried in his psyche and you had the ability to tap into it.”
“We didn’t need to go there. Granny knew your character. She knew you were involved, and then I heard your voice in the stairwell that night at the hotel.”
“So, that was you.” He kicked at the dirt. “But you never had any proof until Dax hid the drugs I gave him in good faith. One way or the other, we’ll take care of him just like we did his brother.”
Scarlett clenched her teeth. If Jim was really gone, she’d make sure there was no way in hell Danny ever got close to Dax. If he didn’t kill her.
Her shovel hit something pliant but not as pliant as the mud she’d been shoveling. “There’s something here.”
“Keep digging.” Chewy aimed his flashlight into the pit, highlighting the corner of a canvas bag.
Scarlett scraped her shovel across the top of it, revealing more of the canvas.
Danny shoved her aside. “Get that out, Chewy.”
The big man hunched over the hole in the ground and grabbed the sack. He tugged and pulled until he freed it from its grave. Then he swung it onto the ground.
“This is it, Danny. Now I can have it all and I’ll get you your kids. I’ll get Rocky his new kids.”
Danny swung his weapon from Scarlett to Chewy and shot him in the head.
Blood sprayed her cheek and she gagged as Chewy dropped to the ground, next to the drugs.
Danny laughed. “As if I’d trust that oaf to snatch some kids for Rocky. I guess it’s back to the drawing board for me, but at least I have my incentive to get someone to do it.”
Scarlett took a step back from the madness in her uncle’s eyes. He’d never let her live and nobody would ever find Jim in time, even if he had survived the fall into the mine.
But she’d be damned if she’d die without a fight.
She had pivoted to face Danny, her fists raised, when a shot rang out.
For a split second she thought he’d shot her, but then she noticed the surprise on his face.
Danny’s mouth dropped open as his chin hit his chest. Another bullet tore his torso and his head snapped back.
As he crumpled to the ground, Scarlett’s gaze zeroed in on the entrance to the mine, where Jim’s head was just visible over the edge.
Crying and laughing at the same time, Scarlett ran to him where he was dangling from a rope, a gun stinking of gun powder clutched in his right hand.
She dropped to the ground and flattened to her belly. Grabbing the rope tied under his arms and looped over a rock at the edge of the mine, she pulled him over the edge. With a grunt, she hoisted him up and over, and he collapsed beside her.
Smoothing a hand across his mud-caked cheek, she sighed. “You made it.”
He grinned and pulled her down for a dirty kiss. “I’ve made it through worse and never has the reward been so great.”
* * *
“WE CAN SEND you to a specialist in Seattle, Jim. I think that leg can be broken and reset.” Dr. Harrison tapped his clipboard.
Jim shrugged and took Scarlett’s hand. “It’s just a limp. I don’t mind if she doesn’t.”
“Me?” She leaned over and kissed his chin.
He’d never get tired of those lips.
“If you took away his limp, he might stop trying so hard.”
“Give up? Never, not J.T.” Dax beamed from his wheelchair, pride etched in every line of his face.
“It’s an option. Just let me know if you’re interested and I can make the recommendation.” The doctor pointed at Dax. “And you—not too long in here. You need your rest.”
Belinda curled her fingers around the handles of Dax’s wheelchair. “Don’t worry, Doc. I’ll make sure he does everything he’s supposed to.”
Dax shrugged as she wheeled him out of the room. “I’ll catch up with you later, J.T.—Jim.”
Jim held up a clenched fist. “Proud of you, bro.”
When Dr. Harris followed Belinda and Dax out of the room, Scarlett rested her head on his chest.
He’d never get tired of that, either.
“Will it be hard for Dax to leave the Lords? It was hard for you.”
“Different time. The Lords are pretty much done in this area. Nobody’s going to be coming after Dax.”
“I still can’t believe you made it out of that mine and were able to get to the gun strapped to your leg.”
“Chewy didn’t check me for any more weapons. Snipers always carry a spare. And I had that rope wrapped across my body. I guess he missed that, too.”
“Or maybe he figured the fall would incapacitate or kill you.”
“He figured wrong.” He traced a line from her earlobe along her jaw. “Agent Harper dropped by. Did you see him?”
“No. He was here earlier?”
“The FBI was able to trace the drugs to Danny, but they still don’t have any idea where Rocky Whitecotton is. It’s like he fell off the face of the earth twenty-five years ago.”
“So, the FBI doesn’t know why he wanted those children and what he did with them?”
“The Timberline Trio is still a mystery. If they can’t find Whitecotton, maybe we’ll never know what happened to those kids and why.”
“I feel for those families, but I’m done. I’m done with Timberline for a while, except for Granny.”
“Did you tell Jason what he’d done?”
“He feels bad. He figured Danny was up to no good, but he needed the money he was offering.”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t have done it if he thought it was going to put you in danger.”
“That’s his problem.” She tapped her head. “He doesn’t think.”
“And you? What do you think?”
“About what?” She wedged her chin on his chest and gazed into his eyes.
“Seattle.”
“I’ve always liked Seattle.”
“There’s a training program for counselors there that sounds good. I can even start working at the VA center right away.”
“That would be great for you, Jim.”
“And maybe for you? I talked to the VA about that art therapy. The folks there are interested...if you are.”
“Us? Working together?”
“I think we make a good team—that is if you’re willing to throw in with a battered and bruised vet.”
“Battered and bruised, but not broken.”
She pressed her lips against his and he smiled beneath her kiss. Not broken, not broken at all.
* * * * *
Carol Ericson’s miniseries
TARGET: TIMBERLINE comes to a
gripping conclusion next month when
IN THE ARMS OF THE ENEMY goes on sale.
You’ll find it wherever
Harlequin Intrigue books are sold!
Every cowboy has a wild side—
all it takes is the right woman to unleash it...
Keep reading for a sneak peek of
BLAME IT ON THE COWBOY,
part of USA TODAY bestselling author
Delores Fossen’s miniseries
THE McCORD BROTHERS.
Available in October 2016
only from HQN Books!
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