“Don’t use that tone with me, bitch! You’re not in any position to be defiant with me,” he spat back at her. “And now that you’ve asked, I’ll tell you. You get yourself back here to Houston and to me and I just might decide to let your sheriff live. You’d like that wouldn’t you?”
Her stomach heaved and once again, she pressed her hand tightly to her mouth. Dear God, what was she going to do? she prayed. If she went back to Houston Niles would find her. He didn’t want a wife. He wanted a hostage that he could torture and torment and control on his own terms and wishes. Yet she couldn’t allow Quito to be hurt again. Or God forbid, killed because of her. She was going to have to go to Quito, tell him everything she knew and hope he could deal with it. As her lover and a lawman.
Gathering herself together as best she could, she asked in a clear, but shaky voice, “All right, Niles, I’ll come home, but it will take me a couple of days to get everything taken care of up here.” She didn’t bother to plead with him to keep his gunman away from Quito. Even if he would make such a promise, he couldn’t be trusted. “And then two more to drive home,” she added.
“Till the end of the week then,” he said bluntly. “And you damn well better be here by then or you’ll wish you’d broken your neck to get here.”
He abruptly cut the phone connection and Clementine dropped her own phone onto the bar counter as if it were a nasty piece of garbage.
Shock had turned her legs to useless mush and she wobbled shakily as she made her way through the house to the bedroom.
As she hurried toward the closet to jerk down something to wear, she glanced at the four poster with its tumbled covers. Only a few short hours ago she and Quito had made passionate love there and then she’d slept in his arms, knowing he would always protect her.
Now that Niles had reared his ugly head, she realized it was finally time for her to find the courage to step up and face him. If she didn’t, her future with Quito would be over.
After a quick shower, she jerked on a pair of blue jeans and a long-sleeved white shirt. After she rolled the cuffs back against her forearms and pulled her hair into a ponytail, she hurried back to the kitchen and her cell phone.
Since she didn’t have a directory, she was thankful Quito had given her the number of the sheriff’s department plus his own private cell number. She tried it first, but there was no answer. Not even for her to leave a message. When she called the department, a junior officer answered and quickly informed her that Sheriff Perez was out of the office and wasn’t expected back for the day.
Clementine groaned loudly. “But I have to talk to him. This is urgent!” she practically yelled at the young man.
“I’m sorry, ma’am. There’s been an emergency over on the reservation that Sheriff Perez is helping with. If your problem is that serious, perhaps you’d better talk with Under Sheriff Hastings,” he suggested.
Victoria’s husband, Jess Hastings, was a very nice man and no doubt extremely professional. But this was entirely too personal to explain to anyone but Quito. But time was precious. She had to talk this out with Quito. They had to decide what to do before her four days were up. And that was only if Niles kept his word and gave her the four days. For all she knew he was already on his way up here. Probably with a hired gunman.
Oh God, don’t let that be so, she prayed.
“I can’t discuss this matter with Under Sheriff Hastings,” Clementine finally managed to respond.
“Well, Deputy Redwing is gone with the sheriff. There’s not anyone else here, ma’am,” the officer tried to reason with her.
“Listen to me carefully. Quito is the only person I can talk to. It’s imperative that I see him! Is there any possible way I could see him if I drove over to the reservation?”
“Good Lord, no! I mean, ma’am, that wouldn’t be advisable at all. They’re in a dangerous situation over there. You couldn’t get near the crime scene anyway.”
“Crime scene!” Clementine practically shrieked. “Are you saying a crime has already happened this morning?”
“Uh, no, no. At the last information the department received, Sheriff Perez is okay.”
Clementine sighed with relief. “But you don’t have any idea when he might return?”
“Not at all. It could be soon. Or not until tonight or tomorrow. Hostage situations are unpredictable.”
She rubbed her fingers across her brow as she tried to think. “I understand,” she said finally. The last thing she wanted to do was give this poor guy a bad time. It wasn’t his fault that Quito wasn’t in town. “If he does come in anytime soon, will you give him a message?”
“Sure, Ms.—?”
“Jones,” she said quickly. “Just tell him that Clementine needs to talk to him.”
“Got it. I promise I’ll give it to him, pronto.”
“Thank you,” she replied, then quickly hung up the phone and redialed Quito’s number. There was still no answer, only ringing, and she could only suppose that he’d turned the instrument off so it wouldn’t be a distraction. Or he might have even left the phone in a vehicle.
Sobbing with frustration, she grabbed her purse, tossed the phone inside and hurried out of the house. There was no way she could simply sit here and wait for Quito to return. She had to find him! She had to let him know that her ex-husband was out to kill him.
Chapter Eleven
Inside her car, Clementine dug a road atlas from under the seat and flipped to New Mexico. She wasn’t sure that she remembered how to get to Shiprock or the distance from here to there. Quickly she saw that a good divided highway would take her directly to the reservation town. And with it only forty-three miles away, she could be there in less than an hour.
Once she reached the entrance to the Jones House, she carefully locked the gates behind her just in case Quito should return before she did. The locked gates would, at least, tell him she wasn’t in the house.
As she sped onto the county road and headed in the direction of the highway, another numbing thought struck her.
Did Niles know about the Jones house? She couldn’t remember if she’d ever mentioned the place to him. There was a possibility she might have brought it up in casual conversation. But that would have been years ago. She had not had a casual conversation with Niles in ages. Still, she realized from this minute on that she had to behave as if he did know about her former home.
The fear and horror of what Niles had done and was still threatening to do refused to leave her mind even for one second as she drove far above the speed limit through the desert toward Shiprock.
The fact that she’d caused Quito such pain made her physically ill. And if he should have died from his wounds, she would have never forgiven herself. Even if she hadn’t pulled the trigger, it was her fault that Niles had hatched such a plan.
Clementine was so overcome with emotion and turmoil that by the time she reached the headquarters of the Navajo tribal police, her arms were limp and she was forced to sit behind the wheel and breath deeply to regain enough strength to get out of the car.
She’d just climbed to the ground when she heard two vehicles coming to a quick halt behind her parked car. Quickly turning her head, she looked through the boiling red dust and saw Quito and two other men climbing out. One of them appeared to be Quito’s chief deputy, Daniel Redwing, the other, she assumed must be Yuma Spottedhorse.
As Clementine waited for the three men to gather and head toward the building, she told herself to remain calm and strong. But her nerves had been stretched to such a thin point that tears began to stream down her cheeks.
“Quito!” She took off running in his direction and nearly fell as she stumbled across the loose gravel.
Quito spotted her immediately and ran to meet her. She fell into his arms and sobbed openly.
“Dear God, Clem, what’s wrong? What’s happened?” He tightened his hold around her and rocked her gently in his arms.
Sucking in a long breath, she said in a muffled voice against his
shirt, “It’s awful! So awful! Oh, Quito, I know I shouldn’t have come here. But I was so afraid.”
His hand came up to stroke her hair and pat her back. Over her shoulder, he could see Redwing and Spottedhorse looking on with concern.
“Is there anything we can do?” Redwing asked.
Quito shook his head. “I’ll take care of it. You stay here and help Yuma wind everything up. Drive my vehicle home when you’re finished,” he told his deputy.
Redwing nodded and he and the other officer walked on toward the police building. By now Clementine had gathered herself together somewhat. She stirred in his arms and lifted her face up toward his.
“I’m so sorry for this.”
“Damn it, quit apologizing, Clem. I just want to know what’s wrong. Were you scared about my safety? You shouldn’t have been. We had several officers with us. And the gunmen surrendered without firing a shot. Everything is okay. I’m okay.”
He thought she was worried about this morning. About his work here on the reservation. Oh Lord, how was she going to tell him that it was her fault that he’d nearly been killed?
“Quito, it isn’t that. I understand you know what you’re doing. It’s—” She swallowed and began to wipe at her wet cheeks. “Is there some place we can go to talk? I have something very serious to tell you.”
Grim faced, Quito glanced around him. The two of them could go into the police station, but he didn’t want anyone to overhear what Clementine might say to him. Especially when he had no idea what this was all about.
“Let’s get in your car,” he suggested. “We can roll down the windows and catch the breeze.”
Once they were settled in to the bucket seats of Clementine’s small sports car, Quito turned to her.
“All right. This isn’t like you, Clem. I’ve never seen you fall apart like this over anything. And you look like you’ve just gone to hell and back. What is it? Has something happened to your parents or some other relative?”
She breathed deeply, closed her eyes, then opened them directly on his face. “I don’t know how to tell you this, Quito. But I’ve found out who tried to kill you. Not exactly who pulled the trigger, but the money man behind it.”
He couldn’t have looked more shocked and he reached out and grabbed her by her upper arms.
“Clementine! What are you talking about? How could you have found out such a thing?”
She brought her hands up to his wrists and held on to him tightly. “Because this morning I woke up late and I hurried out to the kitchen thinking I’d find you there. Instead the cell phone rang. I thought it was either you or Oscar. But it was the last person I expected to hear on the line. It was Niles!”
Quito frowned as he tried to assemble her words so far. “Your ex-husband?”
She nodded slowly, her expression sick. “Somehow he got my number. I suppose he paid someone to hack into computer information or something. Anyway—”
“Wait! Just wait a minute!” Quito interrupted. “Why would your ex be trying to contact you? Is there something I should know about this man that you haven’t told me?”
Trembling now, she covered her face with both hands and tried to keep her sobs at bay. “Oh, Quito, I should have told all of this to you sooner. But I hadn’t planned on staying in Aztec. I hadn’t planned on seeing you again, on us being together again. I thought you wouldn’t want anything to do with me. And then when we did make love, I was terrified because I knew my feelings hadn’t changed for you, but I also understood that I couldn’t stay in Aztec because it would eventually put you in danger.”
His dark eyes were narrowed as he searched her bent head and tried to follow her story. “What are you talking about, putting me in danger?”
Dropping her hands, she looked at him squarely. “Niles is crazy, Quito. He became that way while we were married. He was insanely jealous and had my every move followed. Later, no matter what I did or how good a wife I tried to be, it wasn’t good enough for him. The verbal abuse became worse and worse until finally he didn’t stop with just words.”
Bending his head toward her, Quito slid his hands up to her shoulders and gripped them tightly. “Are you saying that he hit you?”
Shame-faced, she nodded slowly. “It started out with simple slaps. But by then I had totally withdrawn from him and that only made him angrier. Eventually he beat me up pretty badly. I had to be hospitalized and my parents found out about the whole incident.” She sputtered, “How could they not when my eyes were black and practically swollen shut? I could hardly tell them that I ran into a door twice. That’s when I had to acknowledge that my marriage was a failure and I had to end it for my own safety.”
“Oh, God, Clementine! Why? Why did you put up with such abuse? Did you love him that much?” he asked incredulously.
Wide-eyed, she stared at him. “Quito, you don’t understand. I didn’t love Niles at all.”
Quito’s head shook back and forth in dismay. “You married him.”
She nodded guiltily. “Yes. I tried to pretend that I loved him. Marrying Niles seemed like the perfect thing to do. He seemed to really care about me and I knew he could provide the sort of life I was used to. I was so young and silly,” she said in a choked voice. “I was too dumb to realize it was too late for any sort of happy life with Niles or any other man.”
“Why?” he asked hoarsely.
“Because my heart already belonged to you. The more I tried to forget, the more deeply embedded you became. After a while I realized that what you and I had together was not something I could easily replace. In fact, I had to accept the fact that I would never know that sort of love again.”
“Oh, Clem. Clem,” he said, his voice hoarse with regret. “Don’t keep blaming yourself for all this mess-up. I had something to do with it, too.” He pulled her upper body into his arms and pressed her head into the curve of his neck. “When you left I should have gone after you. I should have made you see that your place was with me. But I was full of damned pride. I didn’t want to have to admit to myself or anyone else that the only way I could have you was to beg.”
Lifting her head, she looked at him through teary eyes. “If you’d come to Houston after me, I would have followed you anywhere,” she admitted sorrowfully. “But that’s all in the past. All I want now is for you to be safe. And you won’t be unless Niles is caught and put away.”
“You’re saying your ex is the one who tried to have me killed? How do you know this?”
“The idiot confessed to me! That’s how! In his grandiose mind he thinks it’s something to brag about. He says with you out of the way I can come back to him!” She shivered with revulsion. “Oh, Quito, I’m so scared. I can’t go back to Houston! But he says if I don’t get back there in four days time, that he’ll kill you!”
“Like hell!” Quito growled. “The bastard isn’t going to kill anyone. And I swear, he’s never, ever going to lay another finger on you!”
Clementine gathered strength from Quito’s hard, resolute voice and she stroked his cheek with a love that had never died, that continued to grow with each hour of the day.
“I never told him about you, Quito. I thought he didn’t know there had ever been anyone special in my life. But I had kept the badge you’d given me, your lock of hair and one of the letters you’d written to me. I had them locked away, but somehow Niles found them. I suppose he’d broken into my house before, while I was gone to Afghanistan. That’s when he must have hired the gunman to come after you.”
“What a psycho,” Quito muttered.
“Yes,” Clementine sadly agreed. “For the past three years since our divorce, he’s stalked me, threatened me, done everything to try to get me back. I knew that soon he was going to start threatening to kill me and probably would. That’s one of the reasons why I’d started working overseas with humanitarian groups. The job was not only good for my self-worth, it kept me safe from Niles.”
Cradling her face in his palm, he rubbed the pad of
his thumb back and forth across her chin. “Is this why you wouldn’t make a solid commitment to me?”
Groaning with regret, she said, “I didn’t know what else to do, Quito. I knew if I hung around you for very long Niles would find us. And nobody has to tell me what a Wyatt Earp you are. I knew there would be a big battle between the two of you. I couldn’t put your life at risk like that. Not for me.”
He looked at her calmly, his dark brown eyes gentle pools for her to lose herself in.
“Every day I wear this badge, I put my life at risk,” he said softly and firmly. “If not for you, then every citizen of this county. For you, I’d fight a thousand Niles, my darling. And we will fight him. And we’ll get him, too. Trust me.”
Her hands gripped his muscled shoulders. “But how? We don’t have proof!”
“Believe me, if I thought there was a trail of proof, I’d call Jess’s brother-in-law, Seth Ketchum. He’s a Texas Ranger and a damn good one. He’d put the guy where he belongs. But we can’t just use your word. We’ve got to have more,” he mused aloud.
“Maybe I should go back to Texas,” she said thoughtfully, while chewing worriedly on her bottom lip. “Oscar would help. Together we might put together some pieces. In fact, Oscar knows a good private detective.”
“No. Hell no! You’re not leaving my sight. Not for any reason!” he said forcefully.
Clementine eased back from his embrace. “Quito, we can’t just sit around and wait for him or one of his goons to start shooting!”
“You don’t have to tell me that, Clem. But you’ve frankly blown my mind with this whole thing. All this time me and my deputies have been thinking the man who tried to kill me was probably hired from someone around here. Now I suddenly find out that our theory was totally wrong. I’ve got to think about this whole thing, sweetheart. I can’t come up with a plan off the top of my head. Whatever we do, we’ve got to make sure we do it right.”
She couldn’t have agreed with him more. “What are you doing now?” she asked as he turned back in the seat and reached for the key in the ignition.
From Here to Texas Page 14