Wife Most Wanted

by Joan Elliott Pickart

  Cold, Dana thought, feeling a whisper of panic rush through her. Kurt’s eyes were cold again, blue chips of ice. He was tense, appearing like a powerful animal about to leap forward to snare its prey.

  Dear heaven, what had happened since they kissed on the sidewalk leading to the library? Kissed with Lily Mae Wheeler as a witness, so that all of Whitehorn would know that Dana Bailey and Kurt Noble were well and truly together, a romantically involved couple.

  “Kurt?” Dana said tentatively.

  Kurt rested his forehead on his arms for a moment as he drew a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he raised his head to look directly into Dana’s eyes.

  “Chicago cops.” Kurt laughed, the sound a harsh bark. “There you go. It would make a great title for a television series. But the cop from Chicago who I talked to was very real, which is more than I can say for you.”

  Dana felt the color drain from her face. She clasped her trembling hands tightly in her lap.

  “You’re a perp,” Kurt said. “How about that? The heroine of the convenience-store robbery is actually a fugitive running from the law. You sold insider trading information, and you’re facing a jail sentence. Everything you’ve said and done since arriving in Whitehorn has been a lie, a bold-faced lie.”

  “No,” Dana whispered. “No, that’s not true.”

  “Just what is true?” Kurt said. “Do you even know anymore? How do you keep all the lies straight, not trip yourself up?”

  Kurt paused and shook his head.

  “You must have laughed yourself silly over how easy I was to sucker in,” he went on. “The last woman who did a routine on me was the cause of my being shot. This time? I’ve discovered the truth while you were still playing your phony role. I’m one step ahead of you, and I hold all the cards.”

  “Kurt, stop it, please,” Dana said. “Let me explain. Let me tell you the whole story, the complete truth about what happened in Chicago.”

  “And involve me in your terrible nightmare? No thanks. Your offer is too little, too late.”

  “I am not guilty of the charges against me, Kurt. I didn’t sell that information. It was Natalie.”

  “Yeah, right.” Kurt pushed himself off the chair and stood, dragging a restless hand through his hair. “Your twin sister just happened to know about the corporate merger, plus how to access your computer and print out the material. Give me a break, Dana.”

  “She did know,” Dana said, getting to her feet. “Natalie showed up at my apartment after months of my not even knowing where she was. She said she’d changed, matured, wanted us to be truly sisters, friends.

  “We hadn’t been close, had nothing in common since we were very young children. I was thrilled to think I might actually have a sister again, a family.”

  Dana sank back onto the bed, shaking her head.

  “It was all part of a master plan that Natalie had put together. Well, it might have been someone else’s brainstorm, and they paid her for her part in it. I just really don’t know.”

  Kurt folded his arms over his chest as he listened to Dana, no readable expression on his face.

  “Natalie was staying with me at my apartment. She seemed so sincere in her desire for us to be close, have a bond, but looking back, I realize I wanted it to happen so much that I was vulnerable and very gullible.”

  “There’s a lot of that going around,” Kurt said gruffly.

  “Oh, Kurt, I…”

  “Forget it. Go on with your story.”

  Dana sighed. “What’s the point? You don’t believe a word I’m saying.”

  “I deserve to hear this fairy tale. I’ve paid my dues, don’t you think? You decided from the beginning that I wasn’t to become involved in your personal problems. I waited, Dana, waited and hoped you’d learn to trust me enough to share it all with me.

  “It was because of what Winona said about sensing danger hovering around you, Natalie, whoever, that I decided I couldn’t wait any longer. I called the Chicago police, and surprise, surprise, Dana Bailey is a felon on the lam, with an outstanding warrant for her arrest.”

  “Which is why I have to find Natalie, don’t you see?” Dana said, her voice rising. “The police don’t believe my story. No one does.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Not even you.”

  Ah, man, Kurt thought, look at her. Dana’s face was white as a sheet, her eyes were wide and pleading. She looked so lost, so alone and frightened. He wanted to take her into his arms, hold her close, promise her he’d do everything possible to find her sister. He’d stay by her side, comfort and protect her, until this whole crummy mess was cleared up. He’d…

  Damn it, Noble, knock it off.

  It was happening again. He was falling prey to the powerful, inexplicable attraction he felt to her, to those incredible big blue eyes, his own raging and confusing emotions.

  No. No way. Not this time. Not again.

  “You were saying that Natalie knew how to access your computer,” he said, his voice flat and cold.

  “Do you even believe there is a Natalie?”

  “Yeah. It’s too easy to check to determine if you have a twin sister. I can’t imagine you being dumb enough to invent Natalie. So? Natalie and your computer?”

  “Natalie asked me if she could go to work with me one day,” Dana said, sounding thoroughly exhausted. “She’d decided the time had come to go back to school and get some marketable skills. She wanted to see if she was intimidated being in an office…and by computers…so I showed her how mine worked.”

  “Cripe,” Kurt said, shaking his head.

  “I know. It was a stupid thing to do. I even explained that there was a highly confidential file on the computer that was accessible only by a special code, which I proceeded to demonstrate for her.”

  Kurt muttered an earthy expletive.

  “On the night Natalie impersonated me,” Dana said, “I was sick in bed with a cold. She said she’d go to the store and buy me some juice. I never saw her again. She dressed in my clothes, went to my office and used my computer and printer to obtain the documents regarding the top-secret corporate merger.

  “They have it all on a video from a security camera. There I am, just as bold as you please. Only it wasn’t me, it was Natalie. They’ve arrested the man she sold the information to. He didn’t think up the plan, it was presented to him.”

  “By Natalie?”

  “Yes. What I don’t know is if Natalie concocted the whole scheme on her own, or if there is someone else involved.”

  “Is Natalie intelligent enough to have done this alone?”

  “I don’t know, Kurt. I hardly know her.”

  “Mmm.”

  “So? What are you going to do? Call the police in Chicago and tell them I’m here? I assume, for whatever reasons you have, you didn’t do that when you spoke to them earlier.”

  “No, I didn’t. I want you to testify at the trial here. Clem deserves to have that perp put away.”

  “Oh,” Dana said softly. “You kept silent for Clem’s sake. You don’t believe me, do you?”

  Kurt hooked one hand on the back of his neck.

  “I don’t know what to believe right now, Dana. I’ve been blindsided by all this, need some time to sort through it all in my mind.”

  “I understand.”

  “This is worse than a bad movie,” Kurt said, shaking his head. “Good twin. Bad twin. It’s a pretty far-fetched story.”

  “It’s a true story.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Well, reality check. It’s time for dinner. I’m no longer in the mood to cook a meal together at my place. We’ll grab a sandwich at the Hip Hop.”

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “You have to eat. Let’s go.”

  “No.”

  “Dana, don’t push me. You’re going to feel very ridiculous if I carry you into the Hip Hop slung over my shoulder.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Try me.”

  “You’re being despicable
again, Detective Noble, which is something you seem to do on a regular basis.” Dana stood and picked up her purse. “I’m going to order the most expensive thing on the menu, and you can pay the bill.”

  “Go for it.”

  Dana glared at him, then marched to the door. Kurt was right behind her. They stepped outside, into the cool summer evening. Darkness was falling, with just the traces of a disappearing sunset on the horizon.

  “We’ll go in my vehicle,” Kurt said, “then decide later where we’re spending the night. I’m not letting you out of my sight. I’m—”

  In the next instant, a shot rang out, and a bullet slammed into the wall of the motel, missing Dana’s head by only inches.

  Kurt launched himself at Dana, rolling at the same time, so that her weight was on top of him as they hit the gravel parking lot next to his vehicle. A moan escaped from his lips as pain rocketed throughout his entire body from the impact to his injured shoulder. He shifted Dana off him and drew his gun.

  “Oh, God,” Dana said, her voice trembling.

  “Shh,” Kurt said, in a hushed voice. “Stay down. Don’t move, or make a sound.” He looked back at the hole in the wall. “The shot came from the woods. The line of fire is blocked by my truck. Don’t move. Understand?”

  Dana nodded, her eyes wide and terrified.

  Kurt crept to the end of the Blazer and took a quick glance at the woods.

  “I’m going to fire my gun,” he whispered to Dana.

  He aimed above the trees, fired, then ducked back out of sight. He waited…. Three seconds passed, ten, then fifteen.

  “That’s it for today, folks,” he said finally. “He probably split, because he thinks the guy in the office will have called the cops by now. That isn’t true, because people hunt rabbits in that woods all the time.”

  “Kurt?” Dana said, hardly able to speak clearly. “Was he trying to kill me? Dear God, was he actually trying to kill me?”

  Kurt stood, reholstered his gun, then helped Dana to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

  “It sure seems that way,” he said, tightening his hold as he felt her trembling. “Hey, look at the bright side.”

  “Which is?” she said, encircling his waist with her arms for support.

  “I now believe every word of what you told me. I also now know that the danger Winona sensed is directed at you. But, Dana? I swear that nothing is going to happen to you. Nothing.”

  Fourteen

  They had to kill Dana.

  That chilling thought plagued Kurt through the long, dark hours of the night, while an exhausted Dana slept close to his side in Kurt’s bed.

  Badly shaken by the events at the motel, Dana hadn’t argued, had hardly spoken, when Kurt said they’d buy fast food for dinner and head for his place.

  He’d treated her gently, carefully, knowing she was in a state of semishock from nearly being killed by an assassin’s bullet. It was not a run-of-the-mill experience for a corporate attorney to have gone through.

  Kurt sat on the front steps of the porch, a flannel shirt hanging unbuttoned and free of his jeans. He sipped coffee from a mug as the cats finished their breakfast and began to snooze in patches of sunlight.

  He’d left Dana sleeping soundly in his bed, one hand tucked beneath her cheek like a child.

  But Dana was a woman, Kurt thought. A woman who was in deep trouble. A woman who was, indeed, caught up in a living nightmare.

  He swept his gaze over the lush countryside and inhaled the aromas of wildflowers and crisp, fresh air. The sky was changing from the gray of dawn to a brilliant blue, with puffs of white clouds dotting the heavens.

  He needed this peaceful interlude, he knew, this moment of solitude, to gain a modicum of inner peace, tranquillity, a sense of control. Events were rushing forward like a raging river. He had to stop, take a cleansing breath, then he prepared to do what must be done.

  He took another sip of the hot coffee, and with the warmth of the liquid came an emotional warmth, as well, a soothing, calming touch from an unseen hand.

  Dana, his mind echoed. He’d nearly lost her. The bullet that slammed into the wall at the motel had missed her by mere inches. In a tick of time, a heartbeat, he’d almost had the woman he loved torn from his life forever.

  Kurt stiffened, nearly spilling the coffee.

  The woman he loved?

  “Well,” he said aloud, relaxing again as a smile crept onto his lips, “now I know what whispers from the heart sound like.”

  He was in love with Dana Bailey.

  It all made sense, now that he’d taken a quiet moment to examine it. The pain he’d felt when he thought Dana had used him for her own purposes was born of a love thought to be betrayed.

  The icy fear, accompanied by hot, raging anger, when Dana had almost been killed was the emotion of a man who had been a breath away from losing the woman he loved.

  Dana.

  Big blue eyes and swinging, silky blond hair, lush breasts and sweet, sweet lips. A quick wit and a feisty temper. A gentle side that cradled newborn kittens in the palm of her hand. Dana covered in paint, wearing only a skimpy, faded towel, standing naked and so glorious before him.

  She was everything he’d ever dreamed of finding in his life’s partner, his wife—and more. And he loved her with every breath in his body.

  Kurt looked heavenward. “So be it,” he said quietly, lifting his mug in acknowledgment.

  He drained the mug, then reluctantly pulled his thoughts from the serene and awesome place of love just discovered to return to reality, the now and the danger.

  Kurt set the mug on the porch, propped his elbows on his knees and steepled his hands, tapping his fingertips against his lips.

  Natalie was mixed up with the big boys, he thought, frowning. The kind of scum who had hired guns at their beck and call.

  The poor jerk who had been told to buy the corporate stock and had gotten himself arrested was a pawn, a false front. He would have been eliminated once the dust settled.

  The high rollers were mad as hell because their carefully concocted plan had gone down the tubes. Now they were cleaning house, tying up loose ends, making certain there were no bread crumbs on the trail to lead back to them.

  They had to kill Dana.

  If Dana yelled loud enough and long enough that she was innocent, was the victim of an intricate plot involving her twin sister impersonating her, someone would listen. A good cop like Detective Bonner would finally sit up and pay attention.

  With Dana out of the picture, the trail ended with the mysterious death of the guilty party. Natalie could reappear as the grieving twin of the sister who had broken the law, and stake a claim to all of Dana’s possessions, as the only living relative of the dead felon.

  Kurt nodded.

  That was how it was set up. That was the only scenario that made any sense.

  They had to kill Dana.

  And Kurt Noble was willing to put his life on the line to make certain that didn’t happen.

  Because he was in love with Dana Bailey.

  With a decisive nod, Kurt pushed himself to his feet, stepped over several sleeping felines and entered the house.

  Early that afternoon, Kurt replaced the receiver to the telephone, then looked over at Dana, where she sat on the end of the sofa in his living room, her feet tucked up beside her.

  “Okay,” he said. “Pete Parker will be here tomorrow. He’ll fly into Billings, rent a car and drive to Whitehorn. He’s bringing everything he has in his file on Natalie. We’ll go over it together, piece by piece.”

  “Kurt,” Dana said, “there’s something troubling me.”

  “What is it?”

  “You’re harboring a felon who has a warrant for her arrest hanging over her head. Your job, your entire career, is at stake. You’re an officer of the law. If Judd knew that you…”

  “Whoa.” Kurt crossed the room and sat down beside Dana. “Judd doesn’t know. I’m not telling
him what’s going on because I’d bet a buck he’d go along with what I’m doing. But it’s harder for him to bend the rules. He’s the boss. I don’t want to put him in that position. As for me? Don’t worry about it.”

  “Isn’t Judd wondering why you haven’t reported into work?”

  “Nope. I’m officially unofficially sticking close to you to be certain you’ll be in Whitehorn to testify at the trial. Hey, it’s all going to work out just fine.”

  “How do you know that? What if we just can’t find Natalie?”

  “We’ll find her. She may be involved with the pros, but she’s still an amateur. She’ll make a mistake.” Kurt drew one thumb over Dana’s cheek. “Trust me.”

  Dana smiled. “I do. I do trust you.”

  “And I trust you. That ingredient was a long time coming, but it’s finally in place.”

  “Yes.”

  “So, okay, back to business. Let me ask you something. When Natalie showed up at your apartment unannounced, then moved in with you, did she seem impressed with your possessions? You know, where you lived, the furniture, your car, whatever?”

  “Very much so,” Dana said, nodding. “Everything she owned was in a small duffel bag and her clothes were faded and out of style. She helped herself to my wardrobe from day one. She kept remarking on how much she liked my stereo system, the collection of CDs, my books, everything. She kept touching things, smiling and touching.”

  Kurt nodded. “Good. She was taking inventory of what would be hers when you went to jail. Now the plan is such that she’ll inherit it all because…well…”

  Dana shivered. “Because they’re hoping to kill me.”

  “No, that isn’t going to happen.”

  “My God, my own sister is going happily along with a plan to murder me. How can she do such a terrible thing, Kurt?”

  Kurt shifted Dana’s legs to that he could sit closer to her. He encircled her shoulders with one arm and pulled her close, dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

  “Listen to me,” he said quietly. “When my father split when I was a kid, I kept telling myself he’d come back. He wouldn’t walk away from his son and daughter and never return. No way. I mean, hell, what kind of father would do such a thing?