God, but he loved her.
Earlier he’d told himself he’d tell her, but it was harder than he’d thought it would be. It would put her on the spot when she was in bad shape.
But he had to tell her. It was important she knew.
“I want to tell you something,” he said slowly. “I don’t want you to say anything, but I need you to know.”
Her brows knitted and she appeared concerned. “What is it?”
“I promised myself I’d tell you if you if I had the chance, and thank God nothing happened and you’re alive,” he said.
She waited for him, looking confused.
“I love you, Jo.” He did smile this time. “I don’t expect an answer. I don’t want an answer, not yet. I just want you to know that I love you.”
Her lips parted and her eyes widened. “Tate…”
He put his finger to her lips. “You’re beat up and you’ve just been through a traumatic experience. Three traumatic experiences. I don’t want you saying anything until I know you’re clear-headed and not on morphine. Okay?”
She paused and then nodded, her eyes still wide. “Okay,” she said as he moved his finger from her lips.
“I’ve got something to tell you.” He blew out his breath. “I haven’t had a chance with everything that’s happened.”
“Tell me,” she said.
“I had my cousin, Garrett, look into David Smith.”
Her brow wrinkled. “Garrett the PI?”
He nodded. “Smith isn’t who he said he is. You were right that he’s married. He’s also into some shady investment deals.”
“That sonofabitch.” Jo set her jaw. “When did you find out?”
Tate studied her. “The day of your accident. I was going to come in to Jo-Jo’s and tell you but my cattle were poisoned and then you were almost killed that same night.”
She shook her head, looking instantly pissed. “You’ve had time to tell me since then.”
“I planned to tell you today, when I got back from checking the stock tanks,” he said. “One more thing. His name isn’t Smith, it’s Hearn.”
Shock registered across Jo’s face. “The guy who came to kill me said that Hearn was paying him. I didn’t know who he was talking about.”
Tate nodded. “Garret just got a tap on David’s phone and started listening in on his cell phone conversations. He heard it all and called me.”
“Charlee.” Jo tried to push herself up higher in bed. “We’ve got to warn her.”
“I’ve tried to call her a few times.” Tate put his hand on her shoulder to hold her down. “The sheriff is looking for her and Hearn.”
Fear filled Jo’s expression. “They don’t know where Charlee is?”
“No.” Tate eyed her steadily. “But they’ll find her. And him.”
“I need to get out of here.” The panic in Jo was palpable. “I’ve got to get to her.”
“I was planning on leaving after I checked in on you.” Tate slipped his hand down to her arm. “I’m leaving now. You have to stay. Promise me you won’t try to go anywhere.”
“Just hurry,” Jo pleaded. “Find her.”
Chapter 31
Charlee hummed to herself as she walked out of the salon that she managed, carrying her umbrella. She pulled out her mobile phone to turn it on and check messages when she nearly ran into David. She didn’t bother to turn the phone on and slipped it back into her purse. She smiled at him before he stepped under the umbrella with her and kissed her.
“Are you free?” he asked with a pleasant smile. “Would you like to go for a drive?”
Her smile broadened. She loved doing anything with him. “I’m off from work for the day.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s before noon and I don’t have anything else planned.”
“Great.” He gestured to his car. “Let’s go.”
She folded her umbrella just before she ducked into the car. She set the umbrella on the floorboard before she buckled her seat belt and then relaxed against the seatback.
He got in and started the car, and then began to drive away from the salon. “I need to stop at the gas station first. My car’s on empty”
“Okay.” She looked out the window at the street that was wet with rain.
He pulled into a gas station, climbed out, and shut the door. Rain no longer thrummed on the rooftop of the car now that they were under the gas station’s shelter.
She drew her phone out of her purse to go ahead and check messages, and brought the phone to her ear. She had one message, which had been left fifteen minutes ago, just before she turned on her phone as she left the salon.
“Charlee,” came Tate’s voice first message. “I need to talk with you. Call me.” She thought she detected something in his voice, like a sense of urgency but that he was trying to stay calm.
She frowned. She was just about to call him back when her gaze drifted to a scrap of paper on the floor near her feet. She reached for it in order to keep it from being too close to the wet umbrella. As she picked it up, she glanced at the scrap and cocked her head to the side. The initials J.B. were scrawled on it, followed by directions. As she skimmed over them, she realized the directions were to Tate’s ranch.
Her phone rang, startling her, and she saw that it was Tate’s number. She punched on the button. “Hi, Tate.”
“I’ve been trying to get hold of you,” came Tate’s calm voice when she answered. Yes, his voice was calm, but it was as if he was trying to keep it that way.
“My phone’s been off.” She felt cold creep down her spine. “I was at work. Did something happen?”
“Don’t worry,” Tate said. “Jo’s in the hospital again, but she’ll be fine.”
“What happened this time?” Charlee felt a rush of fear for her sister.
“I’ll explain everything when you get here,” Tate said. “Just know she’s going to be all right.” He added before she could respond, “My phone’s about to die and I can’t find my charger so we need to hurry. By any chance do you know where David is?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’m in the car waiting for him. I’ll have him take me to the hospital.”
“Listen to me.” Tate spoke slowly. “It’s important that you get away from him but don’t let him know anything’s wrong.”
“What?” Confused, she glanced out the car window and saw David removing the gas nozzle from the car.
“He’s responsible for what’s happened to Jo,” Tate said. “Tell me where you—”
The phone went dead.
“David is responsible for what’s happened to Jo?” Charlee said aloud as she gripped the phone. She watched David hang up the nozzle and wait for the gas receipt. What Tate said wouldn’t sink in. “Get away from David?”
She glanced down at the paper in her hand and chills rolled through her. The initials J and B were Jo’s first and last initials…and the directions to Tate’s ranch…
Heart pounding in her throat, she unbuckled her seatbelt and reached for the door handle.
David’s door opened and he slid onto his seat. “The rain’s really coming down—” His words cut off as he looked at her. She saw that he registered that something must be wrong because he frowned. He glanced at the scrap of paper in one of her hands and her phone in the other.
His look hardened. “Get your hand off the door handle and put your seatbelt back on.”
A burst of fear shot through Charlee and she started to pull on the handle. He grabbed her arm and dug his fingers into her skin. “Stay put, little Charlee.”
Her heart thundered in her chest. “What did you do to Jo?”
He scowled. “Apparently they know.”
“Let me go.” She tried to jerk her arm away.
He dug his fingers in deeper and she winced. “Shut up and get your seatbelt on.”
“No.” She tried again to get away from him.
He released her then backhanded her hard.
Pain burst through her face as he hit
her across her eye, cheekbone, and nose and she cried out in shock and from the pain. She just stared at him, unable to believe he’d just hit her. She felt warmth trickle over her upper lip and touched her finger to it to find that blood was dripping from her nose.
David started the car. As he pulled the vehicle out of the gas station, he leaned over and opened the glove compartment as he drove and she shrank back against the seat. He grabbed a handful of paper napkins and tossed them at her. “Get that bleeding stopped and don’t get any on your clothes.”
She dropped the phone in her lap as she took the napkins and held them to her nose, her heart beating fast as she tasted the blood that had dripped onto her lips. She wiped off her mouth and her nose.
“Look in the mirror and make sure you got it all off,” he growled. “Then get your seatbelt on.”
With shaking hands, she pulled down the visor and looked at her reflection. Her face was red where he had struck her and she knew it was going to bruise. She wiped away all of the blood but her nose was still dripping and she held the napkins to it again.
He grabbed her phone from her lap and tossed it in the back seat. “You won’t be needing that.”
Tears rolled down her face as he drove through the rain, and she buckled her seatbelt.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, her voice shaking.
His hands were fists around the steering wheel, his jaw set, and his eyes narrowed. “Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”
She clamped her mouth shut. She felt hysteria rising inside her, but he looked so angry she was afraid he would hit her again.
He drove out of town, in the direction of Phoenix. She sat frozen, afraid to move, the napkins and paper scrap still in her hands. She grew more and more frantic the farther they got from Prescott and realized she’d crumpled the scrap in her fist.
There was virtually nothing between Prescott and Phoenix. He could do anything to her.
“Frankly, I don’t know what to do with you,” David finally said as if reading her mind. “Everything’s gone to shit and you’re worthless to me now.”
She stared at him. Her nose had stopped bleeding and she held the napkins in her lap. She wanted to ask him what he meant but she didn’t dare speak. She felt like blood was draining down her face all the way to her toes and bleeding out on the road beneath them. It was as if she was suspended in some kind of alternate universe where up was down and down was up. Nothing made sense. She just couldn’t comprehend what was happening.
And she’d never felt so terrified in her life as she did right then.
“Just shut up and let me think.” David put his fingers to his mouth and started biting off his nails as he drove.
As she cowered against the door, her mind went through possibilities. She could open the door and jump out. But she’d likely be killed and they were in the middle of nowhere.
He bit down on one of his nails again before raising his head. “Maybe you’d be good as a hostage if I need you.”
She wanted to ask him questions but was afraid he’d decide killing her an option.
“If your sister would just have died the first time,” he muttered to himself. “At the very least, the second time. None of this would be happening now.”
Charlee’s eyes widened as another shock hit her system. The words came out before she could stop them. “You tried to have Jo killed?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “She wouldn’t give me any money so I figured if I had her killed, you’d inherit everything she had. Then your own inheritance would have come in and I’d take everything.”
“You’ve been using me?” One thing after another was being piled on top of her and she thought she was losing her mind. “Everything was a lie?”
“You were a good fuck.” He smirked. “Nothing like taking a young and sweet little piece of meat.”
Bile rose in her throat. She suddenly felt dirty, unclean, at the thought that he’d been inside her and the things he’d done to her. And that was compounded on top of him threatening to kill her and trying to kill her sister.
“What else?” she asked, her voice choked. “I suppose you are married like Jo thought you might be. And your name probably isn’t David Smith.”
“You’re not quite as stupid as I thought.” He pushed his hand through his hair. “I have a wife and three kids and you’re right, my last name isn’t Smith.”
After everything else, she was beginning to feel numb. She didn’t know if anything else would surprise her or affect her.
“None of it matters anymore.” He looked at her. “Everything is all fucked up, unless Russ doesn’t give me up after all. But I’m laying low until I find out and keeping you as insurance. I’ll catch a flight to the Caymans where I have enough money stashed from other jobs to get me by. I’ve got plenty of alternate IDs.”
He started biting his nails again and she looked out the window at the nothingness passing by. Her thoughts were a wild mishmash.
The windshield wipers went back and forth, back and forth as he drove. Eventually he turned on the radio to an AM news station. In her state of mind it was all meaningless chatter but she didn’t think there was anything about David being sought after or Charlee missing. Not yet.
When they reached Phoenix and she saw people and cars on the freeway, she had thoughts of somehow catching someone’s attention.
“Charlee.” David’s harsh voice brought her gaze to his. She watched him as he reached beneath his seat and her eyes widened as he pulled out a small handgun and set it on his lap. “If you do one damned stupid thing, I will hurt you. Understand?”
She swallowed and nodded.
He drove past the airport and exited off University and turned into a row of hotels.
He brought his car into the parking lot of a small motel and drove around to the back. He came to a rough stop in a parking space before he killed the engine.
“Slide over here.” He used the gun to indicate she should come his way. “You’re going to get out on my side so that I can keep my gun on you.”
She trembled as she climbed over the console and slipped out of the car on the driver’s side. He shut the door behind her then opened up the back passenger side door and grabbed a windbreaker. He glanced around to make sure no one was looking, then slipped the windbreaker on and put his hand and his gun in one pocket.
He locked the car then pointed toward a sidewalk that led to the front of the motel. The sidewalk glistened from rain, but the rain had stopped and water just dripped from the eves of the hotel. “Come on.”
She went to him, afraid to say or do anything. He put the gun to her back. She could feel the barrel pressed against her through the windbreaker. She found herself shaking.
He moved his lips close to her ear. Her skin crawled. “Act natural,” he said. “Understand?”
She nodded.
When they got to the motel’s small lobby, they went up to the desk and David asked the greasy-haired, middle-aged attendant for a room at the back of the hotel. David gave his name as David Evans and presented an ID.
Who was this man she thought she knew? Charlee wondered how many alias he had. The thought frightened every part of her. She wanted to scream right there and run.
Charlee was having a hard time acting natural. Maybe the clerk figured she was nervous about coming to a place that could be rented by the hour.
“We’ll stay one night here,” David said to Charlee as they walked toward the back of the motel. “I just need to figure out what to do and how to take care of you.”
The moment he opened the door of the basic hotel room he rented and she looked at the single queen size bed.
Her skin crawled even more and she hugged herself with both arms. When she looked at the bed she prayed he wouldn’t force her to have sex with him.
“Keep your mouth shut.” He started pacing, his brow furrowed, like he was trying to figure something out. He pointed toward the bed with the handgun. “And sit down.”
&
nbsp; Her skin prickled and she tried to keep calm when she didn’t think it was possible at all. The way he was glaring and had threatened her let her know that he intended to shoot her if she didn’t obey him.
David’s mind whirled as he paced. Jo was still alive and Russ had been taken to the hospital. Shit. David ground his teeth.
He’d had been in Nectar’s, waiting for Charlee to get off work, when Tess had rushed in to tell her sister, Megan, what had happened.
Tess hadn’t paid any attention to David who had been sitting in a booth behind her. She looked panicked as she talked to Megan and he caught parts of the conversation. “…happened to be at the hospital when Jo was brought in…a man tried to kill her…Tate shot up the man’s face…someone had put a hit out on Jo…the man who tried to kill her was taken to the hospital and is under guard by police…”
With every word Tess spoke, David had felt everything begin to collapse beneath him. Russ would probably talk and implicate David. He had no doubt that Russ would go for some kind of plea bargain.
David had walked out of Nectar’s and had headed straight to the salon. Charlee had been on her way out the door, apparently unaware of what had happened to Jo or that he had arranged it.
But then Charlee had found the scrap of paper that Russ had left in David’s car. The idiot was supposed to have taken the paper with him.
And here he was with the little bitch, everything going to hell.
He chewed on the nails of one hand while he paced and paced, barely aware of Charlee sitting obediently on the bed. She was pale and looked terrified. A bruise was developing around her eye and cheekbone where he’d hit her. She was lucky he’d only hit her with his hand and not the butt of his gun.
A feeling crawled over him, like he might have been found and he walked to the window. He pulled back a fraction of the curtain and peeked out through the pane.
Of course no one was there. He pushed himself away from the window and looked at Charlee again. What a shame. She’d been such a good little fuck. Everything had been going perfect and would have ended up exactly where he wanted it to, if only Russ had killed Jo like he was supposed to have.
Tying You Down Page 17