Out for Justice

by Susan Kearney

Daniels was taking her to Wade’s ranch. Once he slowed down, the possibility of her crashing the car lessened. She had to make her move now while they sped down the highway. This part of Texas didn’t have many trees.

  And they’d passed the last overpass and bridge abutment several miles back. The telephone poles flashed by too fast for her to aim at one of them. But a billboard was coming up on the right. A billboard with steel-poled, solid legs.

  She wedged the scissors into her left hand, crooked her thumb over the edge. Every muscle in her arms and shoulders tensed as she waited for the perfect moment. She saw no cars up ahead. Just one pair of headlights a long ways back.

  You can do this.

  On three.

  One.

  Two.

  Three!

  She slid her hand with the scissors out from behind her back. And she stabbed Daniels’ thigh.

  He shouted in pain.

  The car swerved, knocking into a low wooden fence she hadn’t noticed. Fence slats flew into the sky.

  Kelly released the scissors and yanked on the steering wheel. Daniels cursed. Shoved her away.

  Damn it. They were going to miss the steel poles. Then the car hit a ditch and toppled over.

  WADE COULDN’T BE CERTAIN Kelly was in the car he was following. When he’d entered Dot’s café and Kelly hadn’t been out front, he’d assumed she’d gone to the ladies’ room. However, when he’d heard insistent honking from the street out back, he’d hurriedly knocked on the ladies’ room door, then checked inside.

  No one was there.

  And his adrenaline kicked into overdrive. He shoved out the back exit just in time to see a vehicle’s taillights making a hard right.

  Wade had rushed back inside the restaurant. Neither Dot nor the waitress could tell him Kelly’s whereabouts. They thought she’d left with Cara and Lindsey but couldn’t be sure. He tried to phone Cara but voice mail answered at the Mustang Gazette. He hung up and tried Lindsey at the office. But it was almost midnight. No one answered and he didn’t have her home phone number.

  While he called information, he unlocked the Jag, drove around the block and searched for the taillights he’d seen disappearing at the corner. Fifteen minutes later he still hadn’t caught up with the car he was following. Still unsure if Kelly was in that car, he didn’t consider turning around. One thing he knew for sure, the car up ahead of him was traveling at a high rate of speed and the driver didn’t want to be caught.

  Wade tried Cara at home again—no answer. If Kelly was still with her friends and they’d gone off together without Kelly telling him, he was going to be both relieved and angry at her for putting him through this gut-stabbing fear for her safety.

  She probably wasn’t in the car he was tailing. And yet, suppose she was?

  He pressed the pedal down on the Jag and sped along the country highway. At least he knew the road and its curves well, since he used this route on the way to his property. Up ahead the car careened onto the shoulder of the road, then veered back in a zigzag pattern.

  Was the driver drunk? Or was a struggle going on inside the car?

  Were his instincts on target? The car rolled over and skidded into the billboard’s foundation. He swallowed his panic, jammed on his brakes and ran to the smoking car, which had ended in an upright position.

  The sight of Kelly on the passenger side made his heart pound and his mouth go dry with fear. She wasn’t moving. And he could smell gasoline amid the smoke.

  Yanking open the door, he reached inside, turned the key to switch off the engine and pulled Kelly out. Her eyes were closed. Blood trickled down her forehead. He didn’t stop to see whether she was still breathing or had a pulse. He had to get her away from the car before the flames reached the gasoline tank and the vehicle exploded.

  Sick with worry, Wade carried her about a hundred yards, sank into the grass, ready to go back for the driver. But the car, whose engine he’d turned off, suddenly revved. The driver must be conscious. But what the hell?

  The driver should be getting out of the car, racing from the flames. Instead the idiot was driving, turning.

  Aiming straight for them.

  Wade didn’t hesitate. He scooped Kelly back into his arms, searched for cover. There was none. Except maybe he could place the Jag between him and the oncoming car.

  He had only seconds and strained to sprint with Kelly in his arms. His lungs burned in the smoky air. His thighs stung with the effort. Clutching her tightly to his chest, he vowed that if they couldn’t both get away, at the last moment he’d thrust her to safety or die trying.

  Behind him he could hear the vehicle gaining on him. But he didn’t spare a second to look back. He dived behind the Jag, twisting in the air to cushion Kelly as the two of them hit the dirt.

  The fall seemed to jar her awake. Her eyes opened and stared at him puzzled. “What—” Then he could see memories wash over her. “The mayor—”

  The mayor? Wade spied Daniels turning the car around to make another pass at running over them. Smoke belching from the undercarriage didn’t seem to slow him down.

  “Can you get inside the Jag?” Wade asked Kelly, unsure of her medical condition. She had an assortment of scrapes and bruises but no obvious broken bones. However, after that crash she could have sustained a multitude of internal ailments.

  She scrambled awkwardly, and he could tell she was hurting, but she made it inside. She slammed the door shut, then reached inside the glove compartment and pulled out her gun.

  Wade started the powerful engine. Too late.

  From his left the other vehicle slammed into them hard enough to shatter the driver’s window. Kelly fired two shots.

  He had no idea if the window had broken from the collision or her bullets, didn’t know if she’d hit anything at all, but the gunfire must have frightened the mayor enough to reconsider trying to crash into them again. Daniels roared back onto the highway and sped away in the opposite direction from Mustang Valley.

  “Go after him,” Kelly demanded, her tone commanding, urgent.

  The moment Wade pressed his foot to the gas pedal, he realized he wasn’t attaining full power. “Something’s wrong.”

  “He’s getting away.” Kelly peered down the road, seemingly unconcerned by the blood trickling down her forehead and cheek. “We have to go—”

  The Jag’s engine died.

  Wade shoved open his door, exited the vehicle and hurried toward the engine, but he couldn’t open the hood due to the damage from the collision. Without tools he probably couldn’t have done much, anyway.

  “We aren’t going anywhere. But we can call for reinforcements.” Wade flipped open his new car phone and dialed Deputy Mitch Warwick.

  “Do you know what time it is?” answered a cranky Mitch.

  “Mayor Daniels just kidnapped Kelly McGovern, then tried to run us both over.”

  “What!”

  “Wake up. Even as we speak the mayor is heading due south. My guess it that he doesn’t plan to stop until after he crosses the Mexican border.”

  “Is this a joke?”

  “Mayor Daniels admitted to me that he killed Andrew,” Kelly pitched in.

  “What was his motive?” Mitch asked, the sleepiness now gone from his voice.

  While Kelly explained that the nondisclosure of his ownership in some land deal coming to light could have prevented the mayor from winning his reelection campaign, Wade looked her over. He’d been so afraid when he couldn’t find her at Dot’s. Then he’d watched the car roll over, and when he’d run from the smoking car and danger, he’d been ready to plant himself between her and Daniels’s car to protect her.

  No woman had ever meant so much to him.

  And now as she stood in the smoky field after having almost died twice in the last few minutes, all he could do was marvel at her inner strength. She’d fired two shots at the mayor, then, after almost being run over, she’d urged him to chase Daniels down.

  Another woman would ha
ve been clinging to him, crying, hiding. But she’d been determined to fight for the justice she wanted for her brother, and he suspected her determination might have even been responsible for the initial crash into that billboard foundation. All in all, Kelly McGovern was quite a woman.

  Mitch promised to send an ambulance and backup. He said Sheriff Wilson and his deputies would find Mayor Daniels and bring him back to Mustang Valley for justice. Wade figured with the smoke coming out of that car, finding the mayor wouldn’t be too difficult.

  Kelly hung up the phone and swore. “Damn. Damn. Damn.”

  Wade hurried to her side, ready to grab her if she toppled over. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

  “I’m bleeding.” She touched the blood on her chin as if she hadn’t realized she’d been hurt until just that moment.

  “You’re going to be fine,” he tried to reassure her. “It’s just a small cut.”

  “I’m bleeding on my silk blouse. The stain is never going to come out.”

  He stared at her, his lower jaw dropping in astonishment. “You’re worried about your blouse?”

  “It’s a Donna Karan.”

  “How terrible.” Wade smacked his forehead in mock horror.

  “The stain won’t come out.”

  She glared at him, the gun by her side, pointed at the dirt. “Are you making fun of me?”

  He held up his hands in surrender and teased. “Not while you have the gun.”

  Her eyebrows narrowed. “What—”

  The sound of a loud boom cut off her words.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ambulances, sirens blaring, a fire truck and several deputies in their cars rushed down the road. One black-and-white pulled beside them and stopped. Deputy Warwick exited his vehicle. “Are you two all right?”

  “Yeah, but after the explosion we just heard, I’m not so sure about Mayor Daniels.” Wade’s tone was thoughtful, and all his earlier teasing had disappeared from his demeanor. He stood straight, his face smudged from the smoke, his shirt spattered with her blood, and to Kelly he’d never looked more beautiful. Men weren’t supposed to be beautiful but Wade Lansing was beautiful to her. She didn’t think she’d ever tire of looking at him.

  He’d saved her life, risked his own to rescue her. Without his strength, quick thinking and courage, she might not be standing there right now. Odd how he could commit himself to her with actions but couldn’t follow through with words. While she had difficulty understanding where he was coming from, she knew he hadn’t had a loving childhood. He might not even recognize how he felt about her, and it could be a long time, if ever, before he could give her what she wanted from him.

  And as much as she loved him, she couldn’t spend her life waiting for him to make the first move. She wasn’t ready to give up on him, either, not after what they’d shared. So, just as she’d seduced him, she would have to lead him to the idea that they could be a permanent couple. Only, she didn’t know how to get there from here.

  She must have missed some of the conversation between Wade and Deputy Warwick because suddenly his radio blared with information.

  “The mayor’s vehicle exploded,” a deputy reported. “Mayor Daniels is dead. No one else is injured here, but we could use the ambulance to take the body back to town.”

  “So it’s over.” Wade took her hand, and then she flew into his arms. His powerful chest supported her, his strong arms closed around her. She’d wanted justice for Andrew and she’d gotten that. But along the way she’d found something else. She’d found the love of her life. The other details could wait. Right now she just wanted Wade to take her home.

  Apparently that wasn’t going to happen: Her parents drove up and came rushing over.

  She hugged both her mother and father to assure them that she was safe. At the same time she wanted to bring Wade into their circle of love. But when she tugged his hand, he resisted.

  Standing tall and alone, he spoke with the deputy about towing the Jag back to town. He told her he would hitch a ride with Mitch to give them a rundown of what had happened and suggested she go home with her folks.

  If he thought he could get rid of her that easily, he was so wrong. However, now was not the time to have a personal discussion, with all the medical people, Mitch and her folks around.

  Tomorrow morning she would give a detailed report to Sheriff Wilson and then she intended to meet with the girls for a plan-of-action session. By the time she was done with Wade Lansing, he wouldn’t know what had hit him.

  WADE WATCHED KELLY get into the car with her parents. He made himself keep watching as she drove away and wondered at the sense of loss that gripped him. He would see her tomorrow when she came to his house to pick up her things, but he was accustomed to her living at his house, sharing their evenings together.

  Hell. He had a business to run. With the investigation over and Daniels dead, she no longer needed his protection. She would be safe with her folks. So why did her leaving him feel so wrong? Why did he have this hollow ache in his chest as if he was making the biggest mistake of his life?

  After hitching a ride with Mitch to his ranch, Wade cleaned up in his shower and headed to the Hit ’Em Again, where not even the business details of ordering supplies, hiring a new bartender and paying bills could totally distract him from missing Kelly and worrying about her. By closing time, he’d worked himself up and used his excess energy on a three-mile run back home.

  Tomorrow, he’d take care of purchasing another truck, now that the insurance company had come through. He kept checking his cell phone for messages, but there were none. Which meant that Kelly was fine. In her own home, her own bed—back where she belonged.

  Wade settled into his hot tub on his back deck, hoping the heat would soothe his thoughts. But he could have sworn he smelled Kelly’s unique scent, recalled how she’d soaked in this exact spot, teasing him with her sensuality, taunting him to take one forbidden taste. One taste had led to another and their lovemaking had been so powerful that he would remember her for the rest of his days—and some very long nights.

  It was his own fault, of course. He should have resisted her sweet seduction. He should never have even kissed her.

  Damn it. He should be satisfied that Kelly was safe and back in her protected world. Andrew would be pleased with their resourcefulness and that they’d both survived. And especially that his killer had been revealed and had paid for the crime with his own life.

  Wade should be exhausted after the trying day they’d spent, but he was wide awake. And as he watched the sun rise up over the horizon, the angry streaks of purple and slashes of pink reminded him today would be harder than yesterday.

  When his cell phone shrilled, it startled him so much that he almost knocked it onto the ground. The voice on the line was female—but not Kelly’s, not the woman whose voice he’d been hoping to hear.

  “Sorry to call so early.”

  “Who is this?”

  “Debbie West.”

  Why was she calling him when Kelly had given Debbie her number. “What’s wrong?”

  “The McGoverns aren’t answering their phone.”

  He quickly filled Debbie in about Mayor Daniels and their stressful evening. “They might have just turned off their phone to get a good night’s sleep, or maybe it doesn’t ring in the bedrooms.”

  “You’re probably right.”

  “But?” he prodded, not yet too concerned.

  “Niles tracked me down to the women’s shelter where I’ve been staying.”

  “Women’s shelter? With all the money Kelly gave you why aren’t you at a hotel?”

  “Niles has a violent temper. I felt safer here after he tracked me to my new apartment I’d rented in the middle of the night. He was ranting about Mayor Daniels’s death and how he could lose everything.”

  All along Wade and Kelly had suspected that Niles might have been backing the mayor’s election, that Niles might have been helping Daniels with some of his dirty
work—but suppose it was the other way around? Suppose the mayor had been taking orders from the powerful oil man? That would mean Kelly still might not be safe.

  “What do you mean, he could lose everything?”

  “I don’t know the details, but he borrowed a lot of money and he was counting on a big payoff with a deal he had with the mayor. With his empire about to crash, if this all ends up in the newspaper, I’m worried about him trying to silence Kelly so it can never go to trial.”

  Looked like he’d have to fire up the old Caddy after all. “I’ll try Kelly on the cell phone on my way over to the McGoverns’ house.”

  But the moment Wade opened his front door to leave, Niles was standing there pointing a gun at him and sneering. “We’re most definitely going to call your girlfriend.”

  And Wade no longer needed a lab report to verify that the paint from Niles’s car would prove he’d killed Johnny Dixon.

  EXHAUSTED, KELLY SLEPT soundly and still only half-awake, she reached groggily for the ringing cell phone. “Hello?”

  “Kelly, it’s Wade. Don’t—”

  At the sound of a loud thunk, Kelly jerked wide awake, fear and confusion washing away her sleepiness. “Wade? Wade! Answer me.”

  She heard several grunts and flicked on her light. It was 7:00 a.m. and her heart pounded with terror as her phone transmitted the clear and sickening smacks of a fist striking flesh. Grunts. Curses.

  Oh, God.

  She raised her fist to her mouth and bit down on a knuckle. Wade was in trouble. He’d tried to call her, and someone must have jumped him. From the sound of the fight, he was taking a terrible beating and from that she could conclude only one thing: Someone had taken him by surprise and he was no longer in a position to fight back.

  She had to do something.

  Kelly was reaching for the house phone to dial 911 when a man spoke to her over the phone in a familiar voice she almost recognized. “I have your boyfriend tied to a chair. He doesn’t look so pretty anymore.” She’d thought she’d been hearing a fight, but in reality what she’d heard was Wade being hit as he sat helpless, and her stomach roiled. “If you ever want to see Wade Lansing alive again, you must do exactly as I say.”