Chapter 7
Instead of eating with the crowd, she left after the last training exercises. To her surprise, when she was almost home, the same blue car with two men appeared in her rear view mirror. The grocery store came into view. Coming upon the driveway, she whipped her vehicle in and parked between two big pickup trucks. The trucks blocked her view. It also blocked the view from someone trying to harm her.
She pulled out and entered a different parking spot closer to the store. Acting unconcerned, Kimber went inside, grabbed a hand basket, and moseyed down the main aisle behind the check-out lines to view them through the windows. Two men wearing suits got out and stood beside the car. They both had on baseball caps?
This looked like something she needed to report. Then what? Would Jerry or the sheriff come running to her rescue? No, she had to figure out what to do.
“What’cha doin’?”
What? “How is it you always show up in unlikely places?” Could Zach see her heart pounding beneath her tank top?
“A guy has to shop.” He folded his arms and followed her gaze out the window. “What’s going on?”
“Will you pinch my arm?”
“What? Woman, are you nuts? You want to get me arrested?”
“No. It’s that I want to prove this is real. Do you know those men in the parking lot?” The two men still stood by the car, talking to one another. She couldn’t make out their faces, but if it was the two men in the courtroom—her first suspicion—how had they found her so quickly?
“I’ve never seen them before.” His concerned gaze went to hers. “You okay?”
While looking around the store, she asked with a quavering voice, “Do you know if they have a public restroom here?”
“I’ll show ya. Too much sun today?” He took a few steps away, but Kimber froze in her place. How long would they remain in the parking lot? Zach waited with a look of uncertainty.
“I’m on my way to the ranch to check on the horses. Looks like you need some checking on too. You’ve lost the little bit of color you had from sitting outside.”
“You didn’t stay to eat?”
He chuckled. “I ate all day.”
At the back of the store, she entered the ladies room, closed and locked the door, and sat on the toilet. She lowered her head into her hands. Who could they be? Regardless of her stubbornness, this warranted a call to Jerry. She took out her phone and spoke low when he answered. Quivering inside, Kimber explained the details. “Yes, one car. I can’t get a good look at them unless I move closer.”
Jerry’s answer was, “Call the sheriff.”
“The ranch foreman is with me. Please, I don’t want him to be involved in this. They haven’t done anything.”
“Why the hell is he there?”
“Not planned, Jerry. Zach showed up in the grocery store where I went to get off the road. This is a small town, remember.” She took note of the tremble in her own words.
“Can you get their license number?”
“If they’re still out there, I’ll try if I don’t end up dead first.”
“Stay on the phone with me when you go outside.” Jerry’s voice sounded hurried.
“I will. I have to ditch Zach.” Maybe she’d be better off with him. With those biceps, he looked like a guy who could take care of himself and then some. She left the restroom. Zach had waited, and he met her with a smile. She tried not to smile, but when he did though she couldn’t help it. Kimber kept walking and Zach followed beside her. With the phone still up to her ear, she said to Zach, “Go ahead and do your shopping. I changed my mind. I’ll come back in the morning.” In the front of the store, she glanced out the window.
Again, he looked out. “C’ya at the ranch,” he stated in a dull tone.
Kimber tucked the basket into the stack and headed outside. “All right, I’m headed out now, Jerry. I’m alone.”
“Tell me what you see. Descriptions.”
Like that would help her case? She described the car. One of the men now sat in the passenger side. How would she do this? “I should’ve bought something to be less conspicuous.”
She described the guy standing outside, but all she could give was his approximate height, color of his suit, and hat low over his eyes with no distinguishable emblem. “I’m switching on my camera. Hold on.” Kimber pretended to be looking for her vehicle, and purposefully walked down the wrong aisle. She got a loose cart and walked it up to the cart storage in the center of the row so she’d come up behind their vehicle.
“Hey, did you lose your SUV?”
She groaned with frustration. “No, Zach.” He peered at the car again. Kimber lowered her arm with her phone and pointed it toward the car, but the guy got in and immediately drove out of the parking lot. “Dammit.”
“Ah, Red has a temper,” Zach commented. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Stay out of it!” Kimber stomped off toward her car. “Jerry, they left before I had a chance to get their license plate.”
“Kimber, make nice with the foreman and let him go home with you.”
“He is, but maybe he won’t now since I yelled at him.” She hadn’t meant to raise her voice.
Jerry reiterated, “Be nice. You might need him.”
“I’m hanging up. I’ll talk to you when I get back. Don’t call the sheriff. He’ll think I’m a crackpot.” Maybe I am. Kimber hung up and strolled over to Zach. “I’m so sorry. Can we talk at the ranch?”
He gave a short nod. “I’ll be there in about a half hour or forty-five minutes.”
“All right.”
“Hey,” called Zach. “You okay? Something you want to tell me?”
“No.” Yes. Kimber hurried to her car and sat a few minutes before leaving. She did notice Zach leave, but he turned in the opposite direction. In time, she’d forget. Forget Sam who started it all. And she’d forget the concerned look on Zach’s face, along with his all-absorbing, mind-bending eyes. Mostly, she hoped to forget she was a thirty-one-year-old woman in hiding, and there were men out there who dedicated themselves to killing her.
Before she arrived at the ranch, Jerry called back. “Tell me again what happened.”
“I’d like to forget it happened. I’m supposed to be safe here.”
“Shall I try to find you a new place?”
“No. I can’t go through this again. Please. Maybe it was nothing, and I’m freaking out because it’s been part of my norm for the past year.”
“I’ll figure it out, Kimber. You are safe.”
“What about Zach Bryson? He appears at the oddest times. No one seems to care he appeared in yet another place with me—today at the store. Or is he one of yours?” Now she was being ridiculous.
“No, he’s not one of mine. Think straight, Kimber.”
“Well, well, you said he was safe. Okay, I won’t worry about him.” Unfortunately, there were other things to worry about like waking up tomorrow with no bullets in her body.
“Call the sheriff if you need him. He’s aware of more than you think. He can get to you faster than I can.”
She didn’t want to know what he meant. Kimber hung up before she pulled up to the house. She rushed inside and to her bedroom. She stood in front of the stand-up mirror—sick of this, and she might’ve been better off going away on her own. But that was crazy talk. Like a child, she grabbed the pillow and slammed it down on the bed then grasped her head. “I want my own life.” Kimber squared her shoulders. Enough of this. She took a deep breath and went outside to walk around her property—to enjoy what she had now.
***
Zach turned around to follow Kimber from a distance until she got home. She seemed awful freaked out about the men in the parking lot. He peered at his phone where he had photographed the license number on the car in the parking lot after he came up behind it on the road. Kimber hid something big.
Back at his home in the loft at Jake Lawton’s, he called Dane Carlson. “Do you know anyone who can run
a plate?”
“Beside the sheriff?” Dane laughed.
“I’m serious, Dane. This new woman I’m working for? She was followed earlier by men who don’t belong here. At the store, she was damn freaked out by them.”
Dane replied in a somber voice, “I’ll see what I can do.”
Zach gave him the license plate number. “Keep it to yourself?”
“Yeah, I will. I’ll get back to you when I hear from my contacts.”
He hung up and went out to talk to Jake at the rail watching his boy, Trace, ride. “Hey there.” He glanced off to the bench right of them to a young blonde girl watching. “Is that Tristan’s daughter?”
“Yeah, Destiny. Trace’s girlfriend. She came back with us. Tristan will pick her up later.” Jake laughed. “Want anything to eat? We had a pot roast in the crockpot while we attended the clinic. There’s plenty left.”
“Nah, but thanks. Maybe later? Hey, did Kimber Sinclair come over yet to set up an account with you?”
“Haven’t seen her. I’ll text Wade.” Jake took a minute to text while Zach observed Trace in the ring on his horse named Blu.
Jake looked up from his phone, and Zach nodded toward the kid. “He’s a good rider. Think he’ll follow in your footsteps and saddle bronc ride?”
“I hope not. In a way, I’d like to see him go into it, but I know the lifestyle he could fall into when he starts making money.”
Zach bent down to give Jake’s dog, Kasha, a pat. “Maybe he won’t. My brother is a bronc rider. He turned out pretty good.”
Jake chuckled. “Yeah, I know Trace won’t necessarily fall into the same mistakes I made. But he’s good at riding, so that’s why I’m breaking him in. He should’ve been practicing a couple years ago, but I didn’t know he wanted to be a bronc rider.” Jake checked a text, grinned, and looked up at Zach. “Nope, Kimber hasn’t opened an account yet. Wade’s looking forward to meeting the new lady rancher.”
“She’s a lady, but I’m not sure about a rancher. Wade needs to keep his zipper up with her. Between you and me, Kimber’s got a big secret, and I don’t think she’ll ever admit to it. She’s sure pretty, though.”
“Yeah, she is, and believe me, Wade noticed. Don’t be surprised if he shows up over there.”
Zach frowned. Wade didn’t need to come around. “Yep, sounds like Wade.”
“Why’d you want to know if she opened an account?”
“Hell, there’s a lot of work to be done to her place, and I’d be happy to get some supplies, but I don’t want to pay for them.”
“Hmm, maybe it’s time for me and Beth to make a welcome visit to her place.”
“Yeah, but she’s damn touchy and a bit bitchy. I’m heading over there now. Can you put some wood on a tab so I can rebuild the signpost and make a sign? I guess I can pay for it gradually until she sets up an account.”
“Sure, take what you need.” Jake chuckled. “After all, I know where you live, buddy.”
“Yeah, that’s true, but don’t evict me if I pay too slow.”
“Don’t worry about it. You’re the best renter I’ve had up there. The bed’s cozy for two, if you get the urge.” Jake gave a friendly grin.
Zach wouldn’t look at his bed the same way now. How many others had the urge? “Hey, it’s a nice place. I like to take care of what’s mine, even if it’s temporary. That don’t mean there might not be a few nights I roll in drunk, but you don’t have to worry about me damaging anything.”
“Go ahead and load up with the wood you want. My son hit the dirt. Gotta go.”
Zach looked out as Trace got up and brushed himself off, Destiny Carlson beside him. “You got a real cowboy there, Lawton.” He strode off to the storage area to check out the wood he needed, but Jake strolled in not long after.
“Hey, Zach, I remember we ordered a sign kit not long back. You’re welcome to that one if you want. Put it together and set it up, then make the sign.”
Zach pulled on some gloves. “Sounds great.”
“It’ll be good to see a sign up there again. Old man Brooks is a good guy.”
“Yeah? Good to know.”
“I shouldn’t call him old. He’s around my dad’s age. He’s a retired United States Marshal from this district. Had about six horses before it was all said and done. He married a school teacher from town. A few years later, she retired, and they moved out of the ranch to vacation in Hawaii. I wonder if he misses it here.”
“Ha, I doubt it. Hawaii. Arizona? Nah.” Zach laughed.
“You’re probably right.” Jake called Trace and Destiny. “Come on, you two, let’s go get a second helping of dinner. Catch ya later, Zach.”
Wade pulled up before Zach tossed in the last item in the kit. “Jake told me about taking this over to the Brooks ranch. Need some help unloading?”
Zach didn’t need a mirror to know his glare shot daggers toward Wade. “I don’t need your help, but I can’t stop you from going.”
“Lookin’ forward to it.”
He wouldn’t mind knocking that smirk off Wade’s pretty-boy face. “Don’t mess with this one. I believe she can put you on your ass.”
***
Wade waited back a step while Zach knocked. She came to the door blinking—her hair in disarray. “Hiya. I’m dropping off materials for the signpost. Letting you know I’m here, is all.”
“Thanks.” Kimber pulled her blouse together then folded her arms. “I’m sorry. I was taking a nap, and I didn’t hear you pull in. The sun did get the best of me today.” She glanced at Wade but back to him.
“No problem. We won’t be long.” Wade nudged his back, so Zach caught the door from closing. “This is Wade Emory. He’s the head guy over at the JL Ranch. He can help you set up an account with Jake when you get around to it.”
“I’m sorry I never made it there yet.” Kimber nodded to Wade, and he gave her that innocent grin all the women must’ve got lost in. Their gaze connected, and Kimber’s lip quirked up on one side, but it didn’t last long, and she peered back at Zach.
She fingered her necklace. “Did you buy the material? Zach, you didn’t have to—”
“He put it on my tab until you get the account set up.” Zach went down the steps and lowered the tailgate. He glanced at she and Wade, and an aching twinge shot through his belly.
Wade went down a step but turned. “Come on over to the ranch tomorrow. I’ll get you set up.” He whipped his hat off and reached for her hand. “Nice to meet you, Kimber.”
She gave a faint smile. “See you tomorrow then.”
Zach paid attention to their chit-chat while sorting through the wood. Wade turned his back to her, then her eyes shifted to him. “Let me know if you need anything, Zach.”
Wade could’ve tripped over his tongue coming down the steps. Zach peered back at Kimber, gave her a gentle smile, and a thumb up. “You got some color back in your face. Better check that sunburn.”
“I feel it on my cheeks.” She raised her hands to her face but turned to go inside.
Wade slapped his hat back on. “Wow. Damn. Wanna trade jobs? I could look at her all day instead of Jake.”
“Shut the hell up, Wade.” Zach carried poles into the covered space beside the barn and dropped them. It bothered him that she gave her attention to Wade. Why the hell had it bothered him? He couldn’t get along with her for more than ten minutes at a time.
“Dude?” Wade came in behind him carrying more of the supplies. “What’s up? You never said—”
“Forget it.”
“Shut the hell up didn’t sound like forget it. You want her.”
“Go to hell. She can’t stand me.” Zach came close to popping him. He headed back to the truck to get more wood. Wade got the rest.
“Well, I can see you wouldn’t be happy if I asked her out.”
“You and every other guy in this town. Nothing I can do about it.” Zach slammed the tailgate shut. He nodded when Kimber came out to sit on the step with a mug. Dam
mit, but he couldn’t get the frown off his face or attitude. He had no right to say he didn’t want Wade dating this stunning woman. With his history, dating her would waste his time and hers. Now where the hell had all this come from?
“Zach?” she called from the step.
He waited until his heart stopped skipping beats. Coming to a halt, he peered at her sitting there so appealing with a red nose and loose hair falling around her shoulders. Oh, for crissakes. “Yeah?”
“Of course, I’ll take care of the bill for this.”
“Talk to Jake. He’ll figure it out. Thanks. Night.” He hopped in the truck while Wade stood staring at her, then he walked toward the porch and stood like an idiot. Zach rolled his window down. Neither she nor Wade said anything. He blasted the radio, but turned it down some. Tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, he grumbled to himself. Nobody ever called Wade ugly, him and his Elvis hair, that’s for sure, and it seemed Kimber thought the same thing.
Wade didn’t even know her, and he was stupid enough to ask her for a date? They wouldn’t say anything he wanted to hear, so he turned the radio up again. Zach glanced back at the porch. Kimber gazed at him through the rear window, but then again to Wade with a little shake to her head. Whatever Wade’s game was, she wasn’t playing it. Hah.
Wade got in and slammed the door. “She shot me down. Drive.”
Zach hit the gas, and they pulled out onto the road then the highway. “What the fuck did you say to her?”
Wade placed his hands against the dashboard and flipped his fingers against it. “It was innocent. I suggested a cup of coffee at the Coffee Shoppe and maybe show her around town.”
“Told you she could kick your ass.”
Wade chuckled. “Nope. That’s not it. She’s got the hots for you.”
“Bullshit times ten!”
Wade laughed. “You don’t see what I do. Her green eyes were on you, not me. You wanna get dinner at the Sunset Grille before going back?”
“She and I aren’t going to happen.” Zach’s phone rang. Perfect timing. “Hey, Tyler.”
Finding Kimber (Canyon Junction; Hearts In Love Book 2) Page 9