He jerked his gaze up to Gage’s, his eyes wide. “It’s a text message from Garrison, the man I sent to find Lana.”
Gage’s pulse tripped, and his muscles tensed, bracing for bad news. “And?”
“He’s finally in place, ready to move, but he wants his money before he goes in.”
Gage furrowed his brow. “How did he get the number for your secured line?”
Hank shrugged. “I don’t know. My assistant Cindy must have given it to him. I told her to find him, to find out what was taking so long… I—” Hank looked at the cell when it chirped again, announcing a new message. “He wants it sent to an offshore account in the Caymans. This morning, by eleven. Says to see a man named George Lucas at the First Montana Land Bank in town. He’s given me an account number and—”
“May I?” Gage reached for the phone and read the text messages for himself. “You’re sure this is from Garrison?”
Hank nodded. “The number the message was sent from is the phone I gave him to call me with.” The senator released a deep breath, and a smile ghosted across his lips. “Finally. Maybe by tonight, Lana will be here, and with her out of danger, I can turn in the people behind this nightmare and get my life back.”
Gage handed the phone back to Hank. “What are you going to do?”
Squaring his shoulders, Hank flattened his hands on the tabletop and pushed to his feet. “I’m going to the bank to transfer money to Garrison’s account. Get the car.”
Kate went through the motions—baking, serving and cleaning up breakfast at the diner—but her mind was anywhere but on her work. After her heartbreaking dinner with Gage, she’d wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and lick her wounds. But Janet had shown up on her doorstep, sporting another black eye and pleading for Kate to take her in “until Larry cooled off.”
And something inside Kate had clicked. She wasn’t convinced Gage’s method of helping her abused sister was the right way, the loving way, the supportive way. But she knew she’d heard the same excuses, forgiven the same denials and catered to the same needs from her sister too many times.
And she’d turned Janet away.
“Go to one of the women’s shelters I’ve told you about. They have professional counselors there and experts who can help you file a restraining order against Larry,” she’d told her shocked sister.
“Kate, what are you doing? Let me in!” Janet had cried.
“You have to leave him, Janet. Because I’m through helping you live this lie.” Tears had leaked onto her cheeks as she’d stood her ground. “When he’s out of your life and you’re ready to make a fresh start somewhere, I’ll be there for you. But as long as you stay with him, I’m done.”
And she’d closed and locked her door with Janet standing slack-jawed on her front porch.
In the hours since she’d turned her back on her sister, Kate had doubted herself, castigated herself and tried multiple times to reach Janet on her cell. Without luck.
Janet hadn’t shown up at work hours later. But Larry had. He’d been contrite, looking for his wife and spewing the same meaningless reassurances that he’d change. Kate had told him, quite honestly, that she didn’t know where Janet was, and he’d left in a huff.
An hour later, an unfamiliar number lit Kate’s cell. She answered with a tentative, “Hello?”
“It’s me. I ditched my old phone so Larry couldn’t call me.”
Kate wilted with relief at the sound of her sister’s voice. “Thank God! I’ve been so worried about you! I’m sorry about last night. I—”
“Don’t be. It was just the wake-up call I needed. You were right…about everything.” Janet’s voice cracked and with it, so did Kate’s heart.
She clutched the phone tighter and struggled for a breath. “Where are you? How can I help?”
“Idaho. I’m at a shelter, but…I’d rather not say where. I’m getting help here and…” Janet paused. “…I don’t think I’m coming back. Not as long as Larry is in Maple Cove.”
Kate’s knees gave out, and she sank into a chair by the table she’d been wiping clean. “I…don’t know what to say. I’m proud of you, Janet. This…couldn’t be easy for you. But it’s the right thing. And I’ll support you however I can—”
“You already have.” Janet paused and sniffled. “Y-you’ve put your life on hold for me long enough. It’s your turn to follow your heart and m-make your dreams come true. I know you want more than working in a little diner in Podunk, Montana.”
Kate thought of the job offer the Kelleys had made just last night. Maybe…
“—with Gage,” Janet was saying. Gage’s name snapped Kate’s attention back to her sister’s tearful apology. “I know how much you like him. I think he’s one of the good ones, Katie. Don’t let him get away.”
Kate’s heart twisted, and she swallowed a painful knot in her throat. No point telling Janet that Gage had ended their relationship last night before it had really begun. She stared numbly at the coffee rings on the paper place mats, while she told Janet she loved her, would always support her and wished her luck with her new life. After Janet hung up, Kate sat quietly, staring into near space for several minutes, until Laurie came out of the kitchen with a zipped money bag and found her. “The deposit is ready for you to take to the bank.”
Kate blinked Laurie into focus and offered a half-hearted smile. “Thanks.”
Because the Maple Cove branch of the First Montana Land Bank didn’t have a secure location for businesses to make a deposit after hours, Kate always delivered the daily deposit for the diner when the bank opened each morning. She accepted the money bag from Laurie and shoved to her feet.
“Hey, you okay?” Laurie asked, frowning her concern.
Kate tried harder for a convincing smile. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” Even if my life has turned on its head in the last twelve hours.
“Worried about Janet?” Laurie asked with a knowing tilt to her head.
Kate hesitated. “No. Not really.” And with a freeing swell of assurance in her chest, she knew that was the truth. She told Laurie about Janet’s call. “My sister is strong, capable, resilient. She’s going to be fine.”
Kate tucked the money bag under her arm and headed out of the diner. The bank was a short walk down the street, and she welcomed the chance to get out of the diner for a few minutes. Happy though she was for Janet’s breakthrough, she hoped the bracing October wind, blowing in a new cold front, would help sweep away the lingering doubts and confusion about her own future. She was finally free to pursue the life she wanted…but the man she wanted at the center of that life had walked away from her just last night. The irony stabbed her with a searing pain.
She tightened her fist around the deposit bag and blinked away the sting of tears. She refused to play the poor-pitiful-me part in this scenario. Gage might not be willing to take a chance on her, but she wouldn’t give up on him so easily. Not when he was so clearly hurting and shutting himself off from the world in a mistaken sense of self-preservation. If her sister could find the courage to make a bold, if frightening, change for the best, how could she shy away from a fight for the man with whom she’d fallen in love?
As he drove to Maple Cove, Gage eyed the dark sky to the north. The weatherman called today’s cold and wind normal for October, but the black clouds reminded Gage of the front still days away that could cause trouble for Cole getting his herd to market. The gloomy weather also sent a chill deep into Gage’s bones that warned him something ominous could be coming for him as well.
Or maybe he was just projecting his bad mood over his breakup with Kate onto anyone and anything he saw that morning. Bart had given him a wide berth before he and Hank left the ranch. And Hank, despite his hopefulness that his ordeal was drawing to a close, had commented on Gage’s surliness. He’d blamed it on his lack of sleep and killer headache, rather than admit the real root of his unrest.
He’d only said goodbye to Kate last night and already he missed her. He
missed the idea of knowing he could visit her at the diner or at her house and be buoyed simply by her presence. But his mind was set, his choice made. Giving Kate up was what was best for her. Even if it was killing him.
Gage found a parking place near the bank and met Hank’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “You sure you couldn’t transfer the funds electronically or with a phone call? I don’t like you being exposed this way.”
“The directions were specific. I’m supposed to meet with the manager, Mr. Lucas, to make the transaction. I don’t want to give Garrison any reason not to follow through on his end.”
“Fine,” Gage grumbled, “let’s go then.” He gritted his teeth and braced himself against the cold north wind as he followed Hank to the concrete steps of the First Montana Land Bank. Gage held the door for Hank, then swept an encompassing gaze around the bank as he stepped inside. Inside, the small-town institution was much like the ones in larger towns. Marble floors, velvet ropes separating the lines for the tellers, loan officers ensconced in small offices on each side with large plate glass windows to the main lobby. A handful of customers waited in line to do their business with the tellers—an older woman he remembered seeing at Ira’s Diner, a frazzled mother with two small, active children, and—
Kate. Gage’s heart gave a kick.
Just as he spotted her, she turned, as if feeling his gaze, and the bored look she’d worn morphed into an expression of heartbreaking longing and regret. He tamped the urge that swelled in his chest to cross the lobby to her and fold her in his arms, promise her that whatever stood in their way could be resolved.
But how could he make such promises? Nothing had changed. He was who he was, and he refused to burden her with his past. Their paths might have crossed, but that didn’t change the fact that they had very different lives and were headed in opposite directions.
“Excuse me.” Hank’s voice, as he stopped a woman with a bank name tag, pulled Gage back to the business at hand. “I was told to see a man named George Lucas. Can you tell me where his office is?”
The woman smiled. “Somewhere in Hollywood, I’d assume.”
“Pardon?” Hank didn’t look amused.
“The director? He did all the Star Wars movies.” The woman’s grin vanished when Hank glared at her. “I’m sorry, sir, but there’s no one at this bank named—”
“Nobody move!” a man shouted.
Gage whirled toward the source of the shout, while reaching under his jacket for his gun.
Across the lobby, two men, one tall and barrel-chested, the other much shorter and thin, waved revolvers at the bank’s patrons. Both wore ski masks to hide their faces. The lone security guard for the bank lay in a crumpled heap at the first man’s feet. “Do what we say, and no one has to get hurt! Put your hands in the air and get on your knees. Everyone! Now!”
The bigger man glanced toward Gage, saw his weapon and aimed his gun at Gage’s heart. “Don’t try to be a hero, wiseguy.”
Gage held firm, stepping smoothly in front of Hank. “Drop your weapon.”
The big guy jerked his head toward the smaller man, then nodded toward Kate, who knelt closest to them. The second thug grabbed Kate by the hair and dragged her to her feet. Kate gasped in pain and fear.
An icy chill raced through Gage. Not Kate! Please, no!
“Do something!” Hank grated in a hushed voice behind him. “Shoot them!”
But he couldn’t fire on the men without putting Kate at risk. The smaller man held his weapon to Kate’s temple, his thin arm around her throat as he towed her backward. Kate stumbled and struggled, her panicked gaze glued on Gage’s. Her eyes pleaded with him for help while she gasped for air through the thug’s viselike hold across her neck.
“You drop your gun, or the lady takes a bullet,” the first man said, glowering at Gage.
What to do? Lower his weapon and put his client at risk or hold his position and put Kate in danger? Gage gritted his teeth, hating the odds against him. Two against one. They had a hostage. He had to play the odds if he had a prayer of keeping not only Kate and Hank safe, but the other bank customers and employees. If bullets started flying…
His gut churning with a horrid sense of failure, he raised one palm and set his revolver on the floor.
“Good.” The first thug smirked through the mouth opening of his ski mask. “Now kick it over to me.”
Gage gave the revolver a small push with his toe, but not nearly the kick needed for his gun to reach the thug.
The big guy’s eyes narrowed, and, as he moved toward Gage’s weapon he yelled to the room, “Everyone toss your wallets on the floor and kick them to me. No tricks or you can be the first to die.”
Around him the patrons and employees scurried to comply. Gage added his wallet to the growing pile, feeling a sense of impotent rage building in him.
“You too, pops.” The man waved his gun toward Hank as he collected both Gage’s gun and wallet from the floor.
Gage glanced at his client, who glared stubbornly at the thief. “Do it, sir. Don’t get shot over the cash in your wallet and a couple of credit cards.”
The senator cast Gage a look of disgust that said, Some protection you are, then tossed his wallet to the robber.
Where were the police? Surely one of the bank tellers had managed to trigger a silent alarm by now. What was taking the small town’s police so long to arrive?
The big guy gathered the wallets into a paper sack then backed toward a side stairwell door—no doubt the way they’d come in without being detected until it was too late.
The smaller man tugged Kate with him as he backed toward the door, his revolver still hovering at Kate’s head. Gage’s heart thundered against his ribs. Why hadn’t they let Kate go?
Suddenly the bigger man turned and ran out the door. The smaller man followed, dragging Kate with him into the stairwell, and the door slammed shut with a hollow bang. While the stunned patrons glanced nervously from one to another and struggled to their feet, Gage ran to the fallen security guard, drew the guard’s weapon and shouted to Hank, “Get in an office and lock the door. Stay there until I get back!”
Haunted by the terror that had filled Kate’s eyes, Gage ran toward the stairwell door in pursuit of the bank robbers. An uneasy feeling chased down his spine as he crashed through the heavy door. Too many things about the holdup didn’t make sense, but he didn’t pause to work through the oddities.
The men had Kate. Nothing else was important until he knew she was safe.
Chapter 13
“Hurry up!” Kate’s captor muttered as she was shoved down the sidewalk at gunpoint. “I don’t want to hurt you, but if you give us any trouble, I will kill you! So help me God, I will. We’ve come too far in this to let you blow it for us now!”
Kate frowned, startled. The voice belonged to a woman, not a man as she’d assumed. When she jerked her head around to stare more closely at her kidnapper, she met the woman’s icy stare. Long, mascara-caked eyelashes and umber eye-shadow framed the pale blue eyes that stared back at her through the ski mask.
“Who are you? What do you want from me?” Kate asked, stumbling to keep up as the woman dragged her along the sidewalk.
The woman’s accomplice had peeled off in the opposite direction and disappeared down an alley beside the bank just as Kate and the woman had emerged from the bank into the cool October morning.
Keeping the gun jammed into Kate’s ribs, the woman yanked off the ski mask and long, fluffy blond hair spilled around her shoulders. Kate studied the woman’s fine-boned face, and a niggle of recognition teased her brain.
“I see by your expression that you recognize me,” the woman said and shrugged. “No matter. We want the senator to know exactly who was behind what happened today and why.”
“The senator?” A chill spun through Kate.
“That’s right. It’s not you we want. You’re a tool. A means to an end. If you cooperate, you’ll be home, baking your pies and cakes, in a few h
ours.” As she hustled Kate down the street, the woman shoved the ski mask in a coat pocket.
Baking her pies and cakes? Kate shivered. Whoever these people were, they knew who she was, knew what she did for a living. But how? And what made her their “tool”?
“Keep moving, Betty Crocker, and don’t try anything stupid like running from me. You can’t outrun a bullet, and I have orders to kill you if you give me trouble.”
Fear slithered down Kate’s spine, and she sucked in a deep breath of the cold damp air, fighting to keep her wits about her.
“This way,” the woman ordered, grabbing Kate’s arm and dragging her farther down the street with the gun discreetly hidden in her coat pocket but aimed at Kate’s back.
Gage had seen the woman take her. Would he come after her to help her or would his duty to Hank Kelley be his priority? With a sinking sensation in her gut, Kate realized Gage had answered that question many times already. His job came first, at all costs.
But the bank tellers and other witnesses…surely someone had summoned the police to help her. She just had to stay calm, keep a clear head until she knew how the woman planned to use her, how she fitted in these peoples’ scheme.
When her feet slipped on dry leaves on the sidewalk, Kate stumbled, and her captor’s grip tightened on her arm.
“I’m warning you,” the woman grated, “no tricks!”
“No, I didn’t—”
“In here.” Before Kate could catch her breath, the woman shoved her toward the door of a vacant building. A faded sign that hung drunkenly over the door read, Sue’s Alterations. A fist-sized hole in the door’s window and the fact that her captor was able to open the door unimpeded told her this hideout had been preplanned.
Would anyone think to look for her in this abandoned shop? Kate’s heart beat a panicked rhythm. Her feet rooted to the sidewalk, and when the woman nudged her, directing her inside, she balked. She cast a frantic glance up and down the windswept street, searching for anyone she could signal, someone who would help her.
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