“It is. But he had a head start.” Wade checked the mirror. The tow truck couldn’t be more than a few car lengths behind. “Hold on.”
“Like I have something else to do?” she muttered.
Wade prayed his truck could pick up enough speed to avoid a crash. But he hadn’t recognized the threat soon enough. His late reaction might get them both killed.
“Do something else,” Kelly insisted.
He yanked the wheel. Tires screeched and burned rubber. He steered the truck off the road and thanked God for the flat and rolling land of Texas. They smacked through the guardrail and suddenly the truck was airborne. Kelly let out a gasp. He braced for impact, praying the truck wouldn’t roll. Praying the tow truck wouldn’t come down on top of them. Praying Kelly and he would survive.
Before death, one’s entire life was supposed to flash before him. But all Wade could think about was failing in his promise to Andrew—that he’d failed to take care of Kelly McGovern.
The truck bounced hard. Rolled. Crunched. A vortex of metal spun them and then spit him out.
WADE DIDN’T REMEMBER the truck stopping. Why was he out of the truck when he’d been wearing his seat belt? He’d come to, flat on his back with the rain pelting his face. He had no idea how long he’d been unconscious, but he was soaked to the skin and shivering. The thunderstorm still raged full force, and the sky had darkened with the sun setting behind the clouds.
For a moment he was tempted to just lie there. But then the accident came rushing back. Kelly. He had to find her. She might need him.
He tasted blood, sat up and spit. Despite his seat belt, he’d been thrown out of the truck. Every muscle in his body roared in pain, but he forced himself to his feet, staggered to his truck.
His truck lay upside down, the cab crushed inward, the windshield a spiderweb of cracks on one side, the passenger’s window long gone. Bending and dreading what he would find, Wade peered inside. Between the rain and the fading light, he wondered if he could be hallucinating.
The truck was empty.
Just to make sure, he crawled inside, praying her body wasn’t wedged against the floorboards. His hand caught on the seat belt strap and tugged free. The end had clearly been slashed with a sharp object, probably leaving just a few frail threads intact, which had torn during the crash.
The chance of one seat belt failing had to be astronomically high. The chance of both of them failing at the same time meant that someone had wanted them dead.
A prickle of ice stabbed down his spine. Wade crawled deeper inside the cab. He felt around, ignoring the bits of glass that sliced his flesh.
Nada.
He wriggled back out, confused and breathing hard.
Think.
His cell phone had been crushed. Calling for help wasn’t an option.
The tow truck was nowhere to be seen. The highway stretched empty ahead and behind as far as he could see.
Perhaps Kelly had been thrown out of the vehicle like he’d been. She could be lying by the road hurt…or worse. Wade pried open his toolbox and retrieved his flashlight.
After a thorough search, he slumped next to his truck in despair.
No one had passed by in all that time, and he hadn’t found any sign of Kelly at all. She was gone.
Chapter Four
Dazed and wet, Kelly shivered in the front seat of a passenger car. She couldn’t recall climbing inside the vehicle, couldn’t recall the driver’s name, couldn’t remember anything that had happened since leaving Lambert & Church over an hour ago.
Her head ached, and every time she turned it, a sharp pain sliced down her neck. Her palms stung from road rash and each whipped muscle in her body smarted when she breathed.
The friendly woman driver said she’d found Kelly stumbling down the highway, but Kelly didn’t remember that, either. With her scraped palms and wet clothes, she must have been in an accident. Thank God she didn’t have total amnesia. She knew who she was and recalled her entire life, everything except the last hour—no doubt due to the golf ball-size knot near her temple.
Kelly looked at her clothes for clues. She wasn’t dressed for riding her horse. Jasper hadn’t thrown her and left her for greener grass. As Kelly tried to recall what had happened, the pain in her head sharpened, but she forced herself back to her last coherent memory.
She and Wade had been about to…Wade. Something must have happened to him. And suddenly it all came back, the tow truck, Wade’s truck rolling, her smacking her head and awakening in the rain. Wade was probably back at the accident site.
“Please, turn around,” Kelly requested.
“I need to get you to a doctor,” the Good Samaritan driver insisted with gentle firmness. In the dim light of the car’s interior, the woman’s white hair fluffed around her face in an attractive manner.
“You don’t understand.” The driver’s name came back to her in a flash. “Peggy, I was in an accident. And I wasn’t alone. We have to go back.”
Peggy plucked a cell phone from her purse. “We’ll call 911 and they’ll send police and an ambulance.”
“But we’re closer.” Kelly fought down rising panic. “Suppose he bleeds to death. I can’t just drive off with you and leave him lying there. Please, turn around.”
“Okay, but I didn’t see any accident.” Peggy called 911 and reported the situation, then spoke calmly to Kelly. “When I found you, you were all alone.”
Kelly’s panic subsided a little as Peggy pulled a U-turn. “Wade swerved off the road to avoid the tow truck.” And now, in the dark, they could ride right by and not see him or the truck. “Can you find the spot where you picked me up?”
“I doubt it. This road looks the same for miles and miles. But we can try, dear. Tell me about your fellah. Is he a good man?”
“He’s not mine. He’s a friend of my brother’s, and yes, he’s a good man.” Funny how she’d answered without hesitation. Wade might have a dangerous reputation, he might have lived a rough life, but he could be counted on, and she instinctively trusted him. “He was trying to help me….”
Oh, God. If anything had happened to him because he had been helping her, she might never forgive herself. She shouldn’t have gotten him involved. Her hands shook and she twisted them in her lap, peering through the dark windshield, praying she might spy his truck. A taillight. Something.
She tried to tell herself she would have had the same nauseous worry in her gut over the welfare of anyone who’d been riding with her, but Kelly wasn’t accustomed to lying to herself. She liked Wade. Really liked him.
Perhaps someone else had picked up Wade and even now he was back in Mustang Valley, taking a hot shower. No. Wade wasn’t the kind of man to leave her behind. If he’d been able, if he’d been conscious, he would have found her. He wouldn’t have left her.
If only she had remembered what had happened sooner.
Please let him be all right, she prayed.
The driver began to slow. “I think I found you around here.”
In the dark, this part of the highway looked exactly the same as the rest to Kelly. “Can you please pull onto the shoulder and turn on your high beams?”
“It would help if we knew which side of the road you crashed on,” Peggy suggested, but did as Kelly asked.
Oh, no. Kelly almost smacked her forehead, but memory of her head injury stopped her hand in mid-motion. “I’m not thinking clearly. We were on the other side of the road, heading out of town.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“All right. Let’s stay on this side for two miles,” Peggy recommended. “I’ll keep track on the odometer and then I’ll turn around and head back again. But if we don’t see anything, I’m taking you into town. Deal?”
Kelly knew Peggy meant well, but she wasn’t leaving. Not until she found Wade. She peered up ahead and across the highway and saw movement. Then a light flashed on and off, then back on again. A headlight? A reflector?
; “Look!” Kelly pointed.
Peggy angled the car and slowed even more. “That’s a man with a flashlight waving us down.”
“It’s Wade.” They were too far away to make out his features, but she knew it had to be him. And the fact that he was well enough to stand by the road and signal made her heart thump wildly against her ribs. He was alive.
The future suddenly seemed brighter. As relief and delight raced through her, she realized that she didn’t want to waste more time playing silly games. She wanted to get to know Wade better, and she didn’t mind in the least making her feelings clear to him. But she also feared that her growing attraction to Wade might be her way of hanging on to memories of her brother. Andrew had been such a great guy and she’d hated losing him. She didn’t understand how anyone would have wanted to kill him. But Andrew, of all people, would have wanted her to be honest with his best friend.
Whatever happened between her and Wade—she wasn’t going to hide. Not from herself. Not from him. Life was too precious to squander their days. Or their nights.
A moment later Peggy pulled another turn and stopped. Kelly slid out of the passenger seat and ran toward him, her adrenaline rushing, her mouth dry, her pulse pounding. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine—now that you’re here.” Wade’s arms closed around her. His shirt was soaked and bloody, but he didn’t hesitate to draw her to him. His skin was icy cold, and she snuggled against him, trying to give him some of the warmth she’d gained from the car’s heater.
Her parents must have been wrong about Wade, since being within the circle of his arms seemed so right. And perhaps it was time to make her own decisions. She would no longer live solely for her parents’ approval. She was a grown woman and could make her own choices. Kelly wanted to tell Wade about her epiphany about him, how she’d realized she’d been suppressing her feelings for no good reason other than a schoolgirl habit, but with Peggy there to overhear every word, she couldn’t say what she wanted to.
Wade hugged her for what seemed like much too short a time before stepping back. “I’ve been searching for you since I woke up.”
“After I hit my head, I was dazed. Peggy picked me up as I walked along the highway. It took a while until my memory of the accident came back.”
“And then she insisted we turn around and find you,” Peggy told him. “I’ve phoned 911 and the deputies and emergency medical should be here soon. Why don’t we all wait in my car where it’s warm?”
It seemed like forever until the police wrapped up their investigation. Kelly sat in the back of Peggy’s car, snuggling against Wade’s side. He tried to move away, but after she claimed she was chilled, wrapped his arm over her shoulder and allowed her to snuggle against him.
After Wade told her about the slashed seat belts, she should have been alarmed. When the deputy informed them that the tow truck had been reported stolen just hours ago, she should have felt doubly unsafe, but she didn’t. With Wade’s comforting arms around her, she relaxed amid an overpowering belief that they would be all right, that they would find Andrew’s killer.
After the paramedics checked her and Wade and they both refused further medical care, they learned that another deputy had found the tow truck several miles up the highway.
And there was no sign of the driver.
DEPUTY MITCH WARWICK gave Wade and Kelly a lift back to Mustang Valley. Kelly had thanked Peggy for all of her help. A tow truck would haul Wade’s totalled vehicle back in the morning. However, Wade’s primary concern was not his truck but Kelly’s safety.
Maybe he was overreacting, but Wade preferred for Kelly to stay with him rather than go home to her parents’ house tonight. Before he broached that controversial topic, he wanted backup, and Mitch seemed just the level-headed guy to agree with him.
In the back seat of the deputy’s car, Wade spoke to Kelly, but loudly enough for Mitch to hear, too. “Our questions about Andrew’s death today rattled someone badly enough to attempt murder.”
“Mustang Valley doesn’t have enough law enforcement to protect anyone 24/7. Have you considered leaving town?” Mitch asked from the driver’s seat.
The early-evening storm had come and gone, leaving behind a chilly drizzle and even more questions than Wade had that morning. And more suspects. He’d thought he’d known Andrew fairly well, but if he hadn’t known Andrew had been murdered, he would never have believed his friend could have stirred up this kind of animosity against him.
“I do have a business to run,” Wade answered. Although he had a manager to take care of the saloon when he wasn’t there, his personal touch was required to keep things running smoothly.
“I live here,” Kelly added. “I can’t just turn tail and run. I owe it to my brother to find out what happened.”
Mitch took the highway’s exit to Mustang Valley. “Your brother wouldn’t have wanted you in danger.”
So the level-headed Mitch believed Kelly might still be in danger, too. That confirmation was all Wade required to speak his mind. “Kelly, I’d feel better if you spent the night with me.”
“I’m sure you would.”
Wade couldn’t see her face but heard the amusement in her tone and chuckled. “I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
“You’d be safer with me. And you don’t want to endanger your folks, do you?”
“I could stay with Cara.” Kelly didn’t sound sure, as if she hadn’t considered her plans until now and had yet to make up her mind.
“You really believe two women alone would be less of a target?”
“What kind of target would I be at your place?” Kelly asked, her tone cool.
At her smart comment, Mitch choked back a laugh and Wade had to restrain one as well. However, if the situation wasn’t so serious, he would have enjoyed teasing her right back.
Instead, he kept his voice thoughtful. “This isn’t about you and me.”
“Now I think I’m insulted,” she muttered.
This time Wade definitely heard a chuckle from the front seat. How unbelievable that she could feel snubbed when he wouldn’t make a move toward her. What nonsense. Out of respect for Andrew, he would keep his hands off her. In fact, if she hadn’t claimed to be cold, he wouldn’t have allowed her to nestle up against him like a sunbathing cat. “Would you care to elaborate?”
“If you can’t admit the basic chemistry between us, you aren’t ready for the advanced class.”
“You go, girl.” Mitch egged her on.
“Enough comments from the peanut gallery,” Wade snapped at the deputy before turning back to Kelly. “In case you’ve forgotten, someone murdered your brother. Probably that same someone tried to kill us this afternoon.”
“And we survived. While I understand the need to be careful, I refuse to let my life be dictated by a killer.” Wade opened his mouth to interrupt but she kept talking. “Daddy bought me the cutest little Saturday night special for my birthday and I keep it in the glove compartment of my Jag.”
“Do you know how to use the gun?” Wade asked, wondering if Andrew had been aware that his little sister carried a gun.
“It’s loaded. Daddy said all I needed to know was how to point it and pull the trigger.”
“You’ve never fired the gun?” Wade asked, keeping his voice mild while his anger spiked at her father’s irresponsibility. Without practice, the first time she fired the gun, she was as likely to shoot herself as her intended target.
“I’ve never needed to even take it out of the special pink leather case.” She drew herself up proud and straight. “I don’t exactly hang out with the kind of people who need shooting.”
“And I do?”
She patted his shoulder. “Now I’ve gone and ruffled your male feathers. I didn’t say anything about who you hang with. How could I, when I don’t even know your friends. Ever since we met up at Doc’s this morning, I’ve known I felt safer with you than going on alone.” Aggravation edged her tone. “That’s w
hy I accepted your help in the first place. So I think, yes, I’ll spend the night with you, Wade. Now make me a happy woman and tell me I can have the bed.”
Hmm. Talk about smooth. She was accepting his invitation and setting rules at the same time. “What about that great chemistry you said we shared?”
“That’s all we’re going to share—for tonight, anyway. I’m not in the mood for romance. I have an ugly knot on the side of my head and God knows how many bruises. My blouse is ripped and my shoes scuffed so badly I don’t know if I can ever wear them again. Right now a hot bath, clean sheets and a good night’s sleep sound like heaven.”
“I can do better than a hot bath.”
“Really?”
“My back deck has a hot tub. If you’re not going to let my fingers soothe away your aches and pains, the jets should do the trick.”
She winked at him. “I didn’t bring a swimsuit. But then, I don’t suppose that matters, does it?”
DESPITE ASSORTED CUTS and bruises the thought of a nude Kelly in Wade’s hot tub caused an immediate and disturbing tingle, then blood surged south. He unlocked the front door of the ranch house that his uncle had left him along with the saloon, hoping her interest in his home would distract her from his too-tight jeans.
He flicked on a light, then adjusted the dimmer to low. “Home, sweet home.”
She spun around, taking in the wooden-planked walls, the old two-man hand saw hanging above the sofa, the tan furniture and the shelves of books that lined the wall opposite the stone fireplace. She inspected the only picture he had of his parents, another of him and Andrew and grinned at the blooming white orchid in his kitchen window.
“I’d never have suspected that you liked flowers.”
He raised an eyebrow. “There’s probably lots you don’t know about me.”
No doubt she didn’t even suspect that he’d read every book on his shelves, either. But then again, he’d seen her father’s vast library in his home office and had thought the same thing of Mr. McGovern. But while her father’s collection of thick leather volumes looked shiny and new, the pages uncreased—at least, the few he’d thumbed through—Wade’s books were worn and frayed, comfortable and familiar friends to get him through some hard nights.
Out for Justice Page 5