HIDING THE WITNESS

Caught accidentally eavesdropping on plans for a major cargo theft, Lily Doyle’s chased by men who want her dead. And she narrowly escapes when Deputy Sheriff Nate Bedford—her former high school classmate—comes to her rescue. The criminals won’t stop until they finish their mission, though, so going into hiding with the handsome lawman is her only shot at survival. With a troubled past hanging over his head, Nate has something to prove—to himself and the community. And saving Lily’s life could be a step in the right direction. But with a deadly crime ring aiming to silence her for good, will hiding Lily at his friend’s secluded ranch be enough to keep them away?

“Where were you hit?”

Nate quickly unbuckled his seat belt and moved toward her.

Her face was drained of color, her dark brown eyes looking bigger than usual.

When she didn’t answer, he started checking her for injuries, carefully brushing aside the bits of safety glass from her side window.

“I’m not hit,” she finally said, her voice oddly calm. She had to be in shock. He glanced at the windshield and saw a hole surrounded by a spiderweb of cracks where the bullet had passed through.

Ambush was Nate’s first thought. But from where? He twisted in the seat to look in every direction around them, but he couldn’t see anybody. “I’m going to unfasten your seat belt.”

“Okay.” Her voice sounded robotic. He didn’t blame her for being scared. He was scared, too. Maybe they were surrounded. Maybe somebody was getting ready to close in on them.

He unbuckled her seat belt and gently tugged down on her arm. “Slide to the floorboard and tuck down as low as you can. Stay out of sight.”

Dear Reader,

Looking ahead in life isn’t always easy. Especially when there are things in your past that you wish you could fix or change.

Deputy Nate Bedford worried that his tragic and unstable childhood left him without the resources to be a good father. Yet those very experiences gave him the compassion and drive to help others. Lily Doyle made some unwise decisions and was tempted to believe her life was ruined beyond repair. But in the process of recovering from her mistakes, she was reminded that we don’t have to be perfect people to be worthy of love.

With God’s grace and the help of family and good friends, we find we can keep moving forward even when we think we can’t. I hope when you face difficult times you’ll press on in faith and keep on going one step at a time.

You can find me at my website, Jennanight.com. Or at my Jenna Night page on Facebook. I retweet my fair share of cute animal pictures on Twitter @Night_Jenna. Or if you feel so inclined, shoot me an email at Jenna@jennanight.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Jenna Night

JENNA NIGHT comes from a family of Southern-born natural storytellers. Her parents were avid readers and the house was always filled with books. No wonder she grew up wanting to tell her own stories. She’s lived on both coasts, but currently resides in the Inland Northwest, where she’s astonished by the occasional glimpse of a moose, a herd of elk or a soaring eagle.

High Desert Hideaway

Jenna Night

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Behold, I will do a new thing! Now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

—Isaiah 43:19

My mom, Esther. My sister, Bonnie. My brother, Roy. My kitty, Miss Loretta. I look forward to seeing you all again. Until then, I’ll enjoy the good memories.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to my editor, Elizabeth Mazer, and my agent, Sarah E. Younger, for your generous help and support.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

Acknowledgments

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

Copyright

ONE

The cold steel tip of a gun barrel bit into the side of Lily Doyle’s neck just below her right ear. The man holding the gun angled it slightly upward, so a single round would have maximum effect.

At least if the worst happened, it would be quick.

Please, Lord, Lily prayed, but she was unable to think of any further words after that. Her knees shook and her breaths came in short, shallow gasps.

“Relax!” the gunman yelled and Lily jumped.

A truck rumbled by on the highway outside the Starlight Mart. “Everybody, just relax!” the gunman yelled again. He’d pulled his dusty gray trucker’s hat down low and flipped up the collar of his jean jacket to try and hide his face. Lily didn’t know his name, but she did know he’d taken over the convenience store because he wanted to capture her.

The gunman’s accomplice, wearing sunglasses and a rust-colored hoodie drawn tight around his face, grabbed an energy drink from a display case. He flung it at the security camera near the cash register where Lily was being held, breaking the camera and sending purplish fizz splattering in every direction. Two wide-eyed store clerks, both looking as if they were barely out of their teens, stood behind the front counter, not far from Lily. They had their hands held up. Hoodie grabbed a second energy drink, threw it and knocked out the camera by the front door.

One of the shoppers screamed.

“Everybody stay where you are,” the gunman hollered. “Don’t move an inch. Don’t touch your phones. Don’t try to act smart or you’ll find your head exploding like one of them drink cans.”

Lily heard a whimpering sound. It came from the trio of high school kids over by the soda cooler.

This wasn’t a robbery. Well, not primarily a robbery. Lily had no idea what these two creeps were capable of, but she did know it was her fault the people in this store were in danger. She’d overheard part of a conversation at her new job that she clearly wasn’t meant to hear. And the two strangers she’d accidentally heard talking had seen her and come after her.

Now she had to do something. Nobody’s going to ride in on a white horse and save the day, Tiger Lily. She’d heard her mother say it a thousand times. It had always been true before. It was true now.

Fear squeezed her rib cage, making it hard to breathe. She took the deepest breath she could, forcing her attention away from the crawling sensation of a bead of sweat rolling down the side of her face. She needed to look around. Figure out her options. There must be something she could do.

Directly in front of her, a scaled-down baker’s rack displayed factory-made muffins, cupcakes and single-serving fruit pies. Through the thick white wires, she could see a wide-eyed woman with her arms wrapped around a boy and girl, maybe five and eight years old, clutching them close to her body.

To the right, midway down the length of cooler doors that covered one wall, stood the trio of teenagers. Slack-jawed and wearing stunned expressions, each one loosely held a neon-colored sports drink as if they’d forgotten they had anything in their hands.

“What are you looking at?” the gunman shouted at Lily as he pulled his arm tighter across the front of her shoulders, forcing her body closer to his. He jammed the tip of his gun harder into her neck, forcing her head to tilt to the side. “You get any smart ideas, you force me to shoot anybody, and their blood will be on your hands.” His lips were close to her ear and his hot, damp breath clung sickeningly to the surface of her skin.

Lily’s racing heart pounded even harder. The interior of the store started to spin a little and she was afraid she might faint. Oh, dear Lord. Help!

She looked through the tall glass windows to the gas pumps outside. Beyond the pumps, a black ribbon of highway wound past the small old store. On the other side of the road, northern Arizona high desert stretched toward jagged mountains. The Starlight Mart sat at a crossroads nearly twenty miles from the nearest town.

A semi rumbled by on the highway but there was no other traffic behind it.

“We’re just gonna get everybody together nice and cozy and locked up in some office or storeroom, and then we’ll be on our way,” the gunman’s accomplice called out.

Lily’s thoughts turned to news stories of people found murdered in the back rooms of businesses that had been robbed. A chill passed through her body, raising goose bumps on the surface of her skin.

The accomplice pulled a gun out of his hoodie pocket and aimed it at the teenagers, motioning for them to move toward the front of the store. One of the kids tripped over her own feet and fell to her knees, hard. The accomplice laughed.

Lily glanced out the windows again. Her car was pulled up to the front door at a crazy angle, the driver’s door still hanging open.

Hoping someone would pull into the parking lot and end this nightmare wasn’t much of a plan, but fear and disbelief made it hard to think of anything better.

Lily’s entire universe had been upended in less than an hour.

Thirty minutes ago she’d been at work and everything was perfectly normal. Then, twenty-five minutes ago she’d stumbled across a conversation she wasn’t meant to hear. Working a little later than usual at her new job as a part-time clerical assistant, she’d walked through an empty office that was adjoined to the break room. Nearly everyone else had already gone home and the building was quiet. She’d heard indistinct voices, but hadn’t thought much about it. Then, she was able to make out snippets of conversation and her mind had begun to understand a strange collection of words. Cops. Cargo. Lay low for a while. Ditch the guns.

Scared, she’d tried to backtrack through the office, away from the break room and the voices. But she’d bumped into a squeaky rolling office chair, and a man she’d never seen before had yanked open a door and spotted her. He’d demanded to know what she’d heard.

He’d shoved aside the door and started toward her, cursing while trying to grab her. Startled and scared, she’d run from him. Her phone and purse were still at her desk, but her keys were in her pocket. Afraid there would be no one in the office to help her, she’d raced to her car.

Outside she’d looked around frantically for help as she ran, but she was on her own. She’d flung herself into her car, locked the doors and fired up the engine. Without looking back she’d sped out of the parking lot and shot down the short private road leading to the highway, anxious to get to her home in Copper Mesa.

Shaking and numb with fear, she’d barely caught her breath when she realized her car’s low-fuel light was blinking. She’d never make it to Copper Mesa. It was too far. She’d have to head in the opposite direction, toward the crossroads, and hope she had enough fuel to make it to the gas station there.

A couple of minutes later she was pulling off the highway at the Starlight Mart, throwing gravel in a rooster tail behind her. She skidded to a stop right at the front door, jumped out of the car and ran inside, yelling at the startled clerks to call for help. They’d stared at her like her hair was on fire.

She’d forced herself to calm down a little, lower the volume of her voice and try to sound reasonable. But then she’d heard the door behind her being shoved open and the sound of quick footsteps. She’d turned just as the man she’d seen in the office grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. That’s when he’d shoved the gun into her neck.

Her brain knew it had only been a few minutes, but it felt as if that gun had been digging into her skin for hours.

Lily looked again at the people in the store, her gaze settling on the woman with the young children. Their lives were in danger as long as Lily was here.

“I’ll go with you,” Lily said to the gunman, her voice a shaky whisper. “No trouble.” When they got outside, she could break away and run to the highway. Someone driving by might see her and stop. That might be enough to make the gunman and Hoodie let her go while they tried to get away.

The front door of the store opened.

A man walked in. A big guy with shaggy dark blond hair sporting a few sun-bleached streaks. Scruffy beard. Heavy boots. Worn jeans with torn knees, a red T-shirt and a beat-up black leather jacket. He looked like a biker. He wore mirrored sunglasses even though it was now dark outside. He probably wanted to hide his eyes because he was drunk. Or high. After a slight pause, he headed straight for the coolers, toward the section in the back where they kept the soda and beer.

Not the kind of person Lily had had in mind when she’d hoped someone would show up. She turned her head slightly to watch him.

“Don’t even think about saying or doing anything.” The gunman slid his pistol down so it was hidden, but now it was pointed at the base of Lily’s spine. “Make a move and you’ll never walk again.”

Lily swallowed thickly.

His accomplice moved closer to the teenagers and lowered his gun out of sight.

The biker reached the coolers and peered through the glass as if he was trying to decide what he wanted to buy.

Hurry up! Lily thought. Get something and get out of here! He would obviously be more trouble than help. His sudden appearance had ramped up the tension in the store tenfold. The gunman was now holding Lily’s arm in a death grip, his fingers digging deeply into her flesh. His breathing was speeding up, as if he might be getting ready to make a move. The store clerks were getting fidgety, and Lily was worried they might try to do something that would get them killed.

Biker man finally opened a cooler door and grabbed a six-pack of cola-filled cans. Heading toward the cash register, he strode up the aisle toward the man in the hoodie and the group of teenagers. He was tall and broad-shouldered and the cluster of teens moved out of his way.

As he walked past the man in the hoodie, he swung the six-pack and clocked him in the side of the head. In a flash of movement he grabbed the gun from Hoodie’s hand just before Hoodie tumbled into a candy rack and knocked it over. Chocolate bars, mints and packs of gum skittered across the floor as the biker reached beneath his jacket. He pulled out his own pistol and pointed it at the gunman who held Lily. “Drop your weapon!”

The gunman loosened his hold on Lily as he raised his gun to fire at the biker.

It was the chance Lily had been hoping for. She jabbed her right elbow straight back, connecting with the gunman’s ribs. At the same time she raised her left foot and stomped on his instep. Any second she expected to feel the gun blast into the base of her spine or the back of her head, but the gunman shoved her aside as he fired at the biker.

Two cooler doors exploded and glass fell like jagged rain.

The biker disappeared.

* * *

Deputy Nate Bedford crouched on the floor behind an ice-cream cooler. He peered around the edge of the coffin-shaped container and through some wire display racking, watching the gunman at the counter and the woman he’d held by the arm. The man’s unnaturally tight hold on the woman had been the first thing that had caught Nate’s attention when he’d walked into the store. Then he’d noticed the odd way everyone was standing still. And the uneasy quiet.

The car parked at the front of the store with the driver’s side door hanging open had hinted something might be wrong, too. Or the driver could just be incredibly impatient. Nate had seen it all.

The reflection in the cooler doors as he’d searched for his favorite cola had given him a quick sense of who was where in the store. Who looked terrified, and who looked dangerous and ready to snap. By the time he’d found the drinks he wanted, it was clear he’d have to do something.

Nate was on his way home after spending three months working undercover assisting the Phoenix police department’s narcotics unit. The deep undercover assignment had sharpened his observational skills and fine-tuned his ability to read any environment, though the peculiar situation in the Starlight Mart would have been obvious to anybody who was paying attention to their surroundings.

He was exhausted after surviving three months of restless, uneasy sleep every night and his nerves were stretched to their limit thanks to the constant threat of drug-cartel-related violence. He had stopped at the Starlight Mart to pick up a soda to help keep him awake until he got to the Blue Spruce Ranch.

Well, he was awake now.

From his hiding place on the floor, Nate watched the gunman at the counter scanning the store, searching for him. There were large round mirrors in the corners of the ceiling to help detect shoplifters, and reflective glass and steel surfaces everywhere. The gunman was bound to see him any second. Nate shifted his weight and got ready to sprint. Then he heard something. He turned in the direction of the sound.

The teenagers had hit the deck when the gunman started shooting. Now they were getting to their feet. Where did they think they were going?

Nate glanced back toward the front of the store. The woman who was apparently being held hostage by the gunman was also starting to move. Freed from his grasp and shoved to the ground, she’d gotten to her hands and knees and was now crawling toward the front door. Not a good idea. Not yet. The guy in the hoodie Nate had whacked still lay on the floor, moaning. The gunman was obviously spooked and itching to shoot again. Nate had experience with edgy, violent people. This was a textbook definition of an explosive situation.

The woman was still crawling. Her dark hair was tied back, but a few strands had worked loose and fallen around her face. She wore black-framed glasses and looked smart, like a librarian. She looked familiar, too, but Nate couldn’t place her. It could be his mind playing tricks on him. Undercover work always left him edgy and suspicious. It took a little time to transition back into his normal self. Staying up at the Blue Spruce Ranch for a few days would help with that. It always did.

The woman was gutsy, Nate had to give her that. Maybe too gutsy. Any second now she would get too far. The gunman would be afraid she’d escape. He’d panic and shoot her. Nate had to do something to draw the gunman’s fire away from her.

He took a deep breath to steady his nerves and slowly rose up.

The sound of rapid footsteps jerked away his attention. Something screamed, like the sound of a train squealing to a stop, and a whoosh of cooler air swirled through the small store. The clerks were running out the back door, the teenagers right behind them. Someone had pushed open the emergency exit and activated the alarm.

Nate looked over his shoulder. The guy in the hoodie he’d knocked out earlier was no longer on the floor. Nate couldn’t see him anywhere.

At the front of the store the gunman grabbed the woman and yanked her to her feet. Then he looked around, wild-eyed, and fired a couple of random shots into the store, hitting a pyramid of salsa jars and a light fixture that sent sparks spraying to the floor. While Nate took cover, the gunman started toward the front door, pulling the woman with him.

Nate couldn’t return fire. The woman was in the way. “Throw down your gun,” Nate yelled, figuring the gunman probably couldn’t hear him over the screaming drone of the alarm.

The gunman fired a shot in Nate’s direction. Then he backed toward the door, looking over his shoulder several times, dragging the woman with him. Finally, he reached the threshold. He hesitated, then shoved the woman into the store while he turned and ran outside.

Nate sprang up and ran after him.

The sky had gone from dark blue to pitch-black while Nate was inside. Buzzing white security lights shone over the gas pumps, but the fleeing gunman was nowhere in sight. He must have taken off into the wildland.

Nate jogged across the crumbling asphalt, continuing around the back of the store, just in case the bad guys had gone that way. He came across the high school kids and clerks who’d escaped out the back door. They were clustered in small groups. Some were crying, some were hugging each other. Nearly all were on their cell phones.

Nate tucked his gun back under his jacket. “Did anybody see where either of those two guys went?”

The kids glanced at each other and shook their heads.

“I called 911,” one of the clerks offered. Nate could already hear sirens. A couple of cars rolled by on the highway, red taillights glowing in the night, but there was no way to tell if either car held the escaping thugs.

Nate went back inside the store with one of the clerks and they disarmed the shrieking alarm. Blue and red flashing lights spilled through the front window as the patrol cars pulled into the parking lot.

Nate walked all through the store, checking the restrooms, office and storage areas to make sure the man in the hoodie wasn’t hiding anywhere. There was no sign of him. He must have slipped out the back door when everybody else ran.

Deputies cautiously entered the store. They recognized Nate and he waved them in. “Two guys held everybody in the store hostage and then got away,” Nate told the senior deputy. “I guess it was a robbery. I’m not sure. I got here in the middle of it.” He gave their descriptions. “Wish I could tell you if they’re on foot or driving, but I don’t know.”

“We’ll get everybody out looking.” The senior deputy, David Cooper, keyed his collar mic to speak to Dispatch. Meanwhile the other deputies fanned out to do their own search of the premises and get started collecting witness information.

“The gunman at the front counter was hanging on to that lady over there pretty tightly,” Nate said to Cooper after he’d finished talking to Dispatch. He gestured toward the dark-haired woman in the glasses who stood by the main entrance, her arms wrapped across her stomach as she stared at the ground. “I couldn’t tell if they were after her in particular for some reason, but I’d like to find out.”

Nate strode over to her. “Are you all right?”

Her head jerked up. She looked at him, wide-eyed, and tried to take a step back. But she was already pressed against the glass at the front of the store and there was nowhere for her to go.

“The bad guys are gone,” Nate quickly added. “I just wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt. The medics are outside. Maybe you should get checked out.”

“I’m okay,” she finally answered in a low voice. She blew out a shaky breath. “I thought they were going to kill me.”

“You’re safe now.” Nate had been through some terrifying situations in his life. Dwelling on all the horrific things that could have happened never did him any good. Focusing on what went right, and thanking God, did.

“How did all this get started?” Nate asked. “Do you know those guys?”

“I’ve seen them before but I don’t know them.” She reached up to tuck a few stray tendrils of hair behind her ears and recrossed her arms. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. They must have thought I was going to turn them in to the police or something.”

“I’ve got this.” Cooper walked up and gave Nate a look that clearly said “go away.”

It was standard operating procedure to separate witnesses when gathering statements after an incident like this. Nate knew that, but he wasn’t used to being only a witness. He was used to being a cop and taking control.

“Go find Gibson and give him your statement,” Cooper added. “And Sheriff Wolfsinger is on his way. He’s going to want to talk to you.”

“Right.” Nate glanced back at the dark-haired woman, bugged by the thought that he knew her from somewhere. He should have asked her name. He’d find out eventually.

TWO

Lily sat down in the driver’s seat of her car, stretched across the passenger seat and stuck her hand down between the seat and the door, digging around for loose change so she could buy some gasoline and get home.

Deputy Cooper had taken her statement. She’d told him everything, from overhearing bits and pieces of a conversation between strangers to being chased here to the Starlight Mart and held at gunpoint. She’d explained to him that she hadn’t even heard enough to understand what the men were talking about, and she’d given him the name and location of her new employer, though she didn’t have her phone with her and couldn’t remember the phone number. Finally, the deputy handed her his card and told her he’d follow up with her tomorrow morning.

Now she had her car pulled up to the gas pumps outside the Starlight Mart. She worked three part-time jobs and typically got her lunch at a fast-food drive-thru window. Sometimes she dropped her change on the floor or tossed it onto the passenger seat when she was in a hurry. Maybe there was enough to buy the gasoline she needed to get her home. If not, she’d have to walk back into the Starlight Mart and try to borrow the money from somebody.

Home. That’s all she wanted to think about right now. The comfortable old house she’d grown up in. The dogs. And most of all, her mom. Mom would help her hold herself together.

She didn’t want to think about what had just happened to her in the Starlight Mart, or what might have happened if that biker hadn’t shown up. She absolutely didn’t want to dwell on the terrifying possibility that the gunman and his accomplice might track her down tomorrow or the next day. The second time they found her they’d probably drag her out into an isolated expanse of scrub brush and finish the job without witnesses or anyone getting in their way.

She would let herself process what had happened to her after she got home. Right now she would swallow her fear because that’s what you did with fear. Lily had learned that at a young age. When trouble comes—and it always does—you choke back your fear and you take care of the job at hand. You do your crying later.

That’s what Lily’s mom, Kate, did all those years ago when Lily’s father died. She’d pulled herself together. And she kept doing that in the years that followed because money was tight and trouble was never very far away.

Lily only found a couple of dimes in the space beside the seat, so she sat up and opened the glove box. She shoved aside her car registration, a few aged ketchup packets and a collection of plastic forks from fast-food restaurants, and finally found a few more coins. Altogether they totaled less than three dollars. Not nearly enough to get her where she wanted to go.

One of the terrified sobs Lily had choked back while that gun bit into her skin rose up in her throat and escaped as a cross between a hiccup and a gasp. Tears burned her eyes. Her body began to tremble.

No, she commanded herself. You will not do this. Not now.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

The sound of the biker’s voice startled her and she dropped her coins. They rolled under the seat. Fear turned into fury in an instant. She’d been terrorized and pushed around more than enough today.

She got out of her car and slammed the door shut, then turned and glared up at the biker. He was definitely big. He’d taken off his dark glasses and she could see his eyes. Cold, unemotional steel-gray. Why was he even talking to her? She didn’t want to know him. And he certainly wasn’t going to keep her from going home. Not after all she’d been through tonight. It didn’t matter how big he was.

She held his gaze for several seconds and then felt her anger drain away just a little. The man had saved her life, after all. She should probably thank him for what he’d done. Unfortunately for him, she wasn’t in a particularly generous mood at the moment. “What do you want?” she snapped, just barely managing to sound civil.

He crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head slightly. “You look like you’re trying to leave. Sheriff Wolfsinger arrived a few minutes ago. You need to stay and talk to him.”

“I already gave my statement.”

“If you talk to him maybe you’ll remember some new details.”

Lily scoffed. “What are you, a cop?”

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

He couldn’t be serious.

Apparently he was.

He took out an ID from his back pocket, complete with an Oso County sheriff’s department badge, and showed it to her.

“‘Nathan Bedford,’” she read aloud from his ID. “That name sounds familiar.” She turned back to him. His eyes narrowed, as if he didn’t believe her. She didn’t care if he did or not. But his cynical expression goaded her. And then she remembered how she knew him. “Cottonwood High School. You hung out with Joseph Suh.”

His hardened expression gave way just a little. “I was friends with him for a long time,” he said. “You look familiar. What’s your name?”

“Lily Doyle. And I wasn’t exactly friends with him. I tutored him in English composition.” She’d hung around with a totally different crowd than Nate and Joseph when they were all in high school. And every day after school, she’d had a job stocking shelves in a grocery store. If she wasn’t in class or at work, she was either studying or sleeping. She hadn’t had much time for friends.

“Pip-squeak,” he said after a few seconds.

“I beg your pardon?”

“That’s the nickname Joseph gave you. Because you were a couple of years younger than us and kind of small.”

“Oh.” Had Joseph really called her Pip-squeak behind her back? She’d had fond memories of working with Joseph. He’d told her she needed to lighten up and he was always trying to make her laugh. He came from a nice family. His mom made sure Lily had a snack whenever she came to their house to tutor him.

“Joseph said you did a good job,” Nate added. “His mom made him sign up for peer tutoring and he was mad at first, but if it wasn’t for your help, he might not have graduated.”

Lily felt a lump in her throat. For some reason, now that Nate was speaking to her a little more kindly, it was harder to keep her emotions in check.

“I haven’t seen Joseph in a long time,” Lily finally said. “I know he enlisted in the army. I hope he’s doing okay.”

“Deployed to the Middle East three times,” Nate said evenly. “Made it through two of them.”

“Oh.”

The barrier Lily had built around her emotions dissolved in an instant. Tears collected in her eyes and then ran down her cheeks. Her shoulders started to shake and her nose started to run. She wiped at her face with the back of her hand.

Nate grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser attached to a pole between the gas pumps and handed it to her. The thick brown paper was meant for cleaning windshields and it was rough on her nose. She used it anyway.

Leaning against her car, she let the tears fall because this time she knew she couldn’t stop them. Part of her choking emotion was simply the terror of the day catching up with her. But sharp sadness over the death of Joseph pushed her over the top. What a horrible reminder that terrible things happened to people all the time.

Finally she calmed down a little, took a breath and sighed. She wadded up the paper towel and tossed it into a trash can. Nate quickly got her another one. She didn’t really need it, but just throwing it away seemed spiteful so she put it into her pocket.

Trying not to be obvious, she stole another glance at him. Nate Bedford had always been easy on the eyes. But she didn’t ever remember him looking this scruffy. And now he was a deputy sheriff? She would have been less surprised to learn he was an inmate somewhere.

“Thank you,” she finally said. “Thank you for saving my life in there.”

Nate nodded. “You’re welcome.”

He looked past her shoulder into the darkness surrounding the Starlight Mart.

A chill wind kicked up and Lily rubbed her arms.

“It’s cold out here.” Nate flipped up the collar on his leather jacket and turned to her. “Are you ready to go back inside the store to talk to the sheriff?”

“Yes.” Since he was asking instead of telling her, Lily figured she could work with him.

“Good. Try to remember every single detail you possibly can. You never know what might help. I’ll see if I can join in the hunt to track down those two idiots and make them pay for what they did.”

* * *

Inside the Starlight Mart, Oso County Sheriff Ben Wolfsinger had taken up his usual role as the calm center in the midst of the storm. A slender, bronze-skinned man with gray shot through the black hair at his temples, Wolfsinger wasn’t a physically imposing man. But his confident demeanor and calm voice lent him a presence that drew people’s attention.

Wolfsinger saw Nate and quirked an eyebrow. “Bedford. I heard you were here. Why aren’t you at home in Painted Rock getting some rest?”

“I decided to go to the ranch instead. I stopped here to get something to drink on the way.” He introduced Lily to the sheriff.

“You’re the lady we’ve been hearing about from our eyewitnesses.” Wolfsinger reached out a hand and rested it on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry about what happened to you.”

Nate watched Lily look into Wolfsinger’s eyes, take a deep breath, exhale and relax her shoulders a little. She had scratches on her neck and a bruise darkening the top of her right cheek. Thin red lines across her forehead and chin marked spots where something sharp, perhaps shattered glass from the cooler, or pieces of broken lightbulb, had sliced across the surface of her skin.

Thinking about the creeps who had hurt her made Nate’s stomach tighten.

As an elected official, Sheriff Wolfsinger could pull out some impressive political skills when necessary, but he was also a decent and compassionate human being. Which was probably why he kept getting reelected without doing any actual campaigning.

A few minutes later they were sitting in the store’s office. Nate and Wolfsinger listened to Lily finish telling her story of what had happened. Nate was intrigued.

Lily worked at a trucking company—Torrent Trucking.

A sophisticated theft ring had been stealing cargo trailers along the highways crisscrossing Oso County for quite a while. It was a multistate problem and an interagency task force had been formed while Nate was away. Nate already knew he would be attached to the task force when he returned to duty, thanks to the specialized training he’d received as a military policeman investigating large-scale theft of military property. He was itching to get started.

“We need to talk to Bryan Torrent,” Nate said to the sheriff. The owner of Torrent Trucking was well known in Copper Mesa. His parents had started several enterprises that Bryan inherited. Torrent Trucking was the only one still in business.

“I will talk to Bryan Torrent,” Wolfsinger said, turning to Nate. “You go on to the ranch. Tell Bud and Ellen I said hello. Take your week off. Get some rest. There’ll be plenty for you to do when you report back to work.”

“Yes, sir.” Nate stood. “Are you going to talk to Bryan Torrent tonight? He must know the two guys we’re looking for.”

“Maybe not,” Lily said slowly.

Nate turned to her, a quicksilver flash of suspicion squirming in his gut. “Why do you say that?” What did she know and what was she hiding?

“I’ve only been working there a few weeks. Part-time. But I’ve never seen Mr. Torrent in the office. He doesn’t come around much.” She crossed her arms and let out a small, deflated laugh. “I thought working there would be a great opportunity.”

She glanced down for a minute, then looked directly into Nate’s eyes. “Torrent Trucking doesn’t just dispatch trucks and drivers. There are warehouses on the property. Sometimes truckload deliveries are brought in, the pallets are broken down and the items are delivered locally. Sometimes semis bring in an entire trailer full of freight that’s kept in storage until it’s picked up by another driver, who will complete the delivery.

“There are all kinds of drivers in and out of there. Most of them aren’t Torrent Trucking employees. Drivers are welcome to take a break in the break room, where there’s hot coffee and some vending machines. The men I overheard talking, the ones who chased me here to the Starlight Mart, were in that break room.” She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “If they actually worked for Torrent Trucking, I would have seen them before.”

“I’ll call Mr. Torrent in a few minutes and find out what he knows,” Wolfsinger said. “We’ll go to his business and talk to as many people as we can.” He got to his feet and turned to Nate. “If the men we’re looking for are not employees, then we’ll get a list of all the drivers who’ve been in and out of there in the last month.”

Someone knocked on the office door and called out to the sheriff.

“I need to get back out there.” Wolfsinger turned to Lily. “I’ll have a deputy drive you home.”

“I can drive you home,” Nate said to Lily a couple of minutes later as they walked out of the store and into the parking lot.

“No thanks, I can drive myself.”

“I can bring you back tomorrow to get your car.” Despite her brave front, her nerves had to be shattered after what she’d just been through. This wasn’t a good time for her to be driving. And maybe Nate felt a little bit of a personal connection to her now because she had known Joseph.

Growing up, Joseph was the only friend Nate had who didn’t make jokes about how drunk Nate’s mom got or how crazy she acted. Joseph and his family were always warm and welcoming. Maybe it was a stretch, but it felt as if seeing Lily safely home would be a way of doing something for him.

Nate was heading toward Copper Mesa to get to the ranch, anyway. He was also looking forward to sleeping late for the first time in weeks, but he would get up early in the morning and drive into Copper Mesa to get Lily and take her back to the Starlight Mart to fetch her car if that’s what she wanted. And that would be the end of it. No further personal involvement or obligation.

“You’ve been through a lot,” Nate said. “I think it would be wise for you to let me take you home. I’m heading in that direction anyway.”

She looked as if she was going to argue, but then blew out a breath. “Maybe you’re right. Let me go move my car so it’s out of the way.”

Nate held out his hand. “Give me your keys. I’ll move it for you.”

Inside Nate’s truck, Lily sat pressed so close to the passenger-side door that he was afraid she might try to jump out. The apparent shock that had helped her keep herself composed after that one brief crying jag earlier was starting to wear off. He could tell by her slumped shoulders and the pinched expression on her face.

Thank You, Lord, for getting us through this. Nate couldn’t always pray in the midst of trouble, but he always prayed eventually. For help. For healing. For guidance or to give thanks. He couldn’t do his job without it.

Before turning left out of the parking lot and heading toward Copper Mesa, Nate glanced right toward the intersecting highway that led to Painted Rock. His apartment was in Painted Rock. He’d been exiled to the substation up there several months ago. By the time he left for his assignment in Phoenix, he’d managed to make a few friends and develop a fondness for the little town. But he still wasn’t anxious to return to his empty apartment there.

“So, you’re a cop now,” Lily said after they’d pulled out onto the highway and driven a few miles in silence. “From what I remember in high school, I would have expected you to end up on the other side of the law.”

“Yeah, there was a time when I would have expected that, too.”

The highway they followed passed through a stretch of scrubby flatland. In the wash of headlights, it looked like the bottom of an empty sea.

Nate’s life had felt empty from the time he was a kid. He’d had one picture of his dad, a United States marine who was killed protecting an embassy in South America. Nate’s mother, Brenda, had turned to alcohol to deal with her grief. Oftentimes she went on benders and Nate wouldn’t see her for days at a time.

In his midteens he finally moved in with his Uncle Bud and Aunt Ellen at their ranch, the Blue Spruce. Bud and Nate’s mom were brother and sister. Bud offered multiple times to help Brenda sober up and get her life together, but she wasn’t interested. She didn’t want him involved in her son’s life, either. Eventually, against Brenda’s will but with the insistence of the state of Arizona, Bud got custody of his nephew.

At first it was hard living by Bud and Ellen’s rules. Nate was a kid back then, and nearly everybody acts like a jerk when they’re a teenager, but it was still embarrassing to think about how he’d behaved.

Nate cleared his throat. “It took a while, but I finally got my head on straight. I enlisted in the army and served as a military policeman. When my enlistment ended, I knew I wanted to come home and work as a cop.” It was the only way he knew to pay back the people who’d helped him over the years.

The highway rose in elevation and pine trees began to appear on the sides of the road. They rounded a bend and the town of Copper Mesa came into view. Streetlights gave it the appearance of a blazing crown in the darkness.

“All right, which way?” Nate asked as they got closer to town. He glanced in his mirrors. There’d been a couple of vehicles behind them for a while. Not much he could do but keep an eye on them. It could be nothing. If they followed his turns once he got into town, he’d know they meant trouble.

“Head toward Cottonwood High,” Lily said. “I’m living in the old neighborhood. I had to move back into my mom’s house.”

“Do you want to borrow my phone and call her?” Nate asked. He’d offered her the use of his phone earlier, but she’d turned him down.

“I don’t want to wake her up if she’s asleep,” Lily said. “She’s been battling bronchitis for a few days. She has asthma, so it’s kind of a big deal.”

Nate kept his eyes on the road, but he picked up his phone from where it was sitting on the bench seat and held it out to her. If the bad guys really were connected to the place where she worked, they might have access to her home address. He didn’t want to mention that possibility because he didn’t want to send her into a panic without reason. “I think you should call your mom.”

She hesitated, then took the phone and punched in a few digits. Soon she was talking to her mom and giving Nate hand gestures showing him where to turn. Hearing her mom’s voice seemed to relax her a little. It sounded as if everything was okay. She didn’t mention what had happened at the Starlight Mart, but he didn’t blame her. Some things were better shared in person.

Nate kept checking his mirrors. One car stayed on his tail, which worried him. But then Lily directed him to make a turn and the car behind them kept going straight.

“We’re almost home,” Lily said into the phone while pointing Nate toward a house at the end of the road. “I mean I’m almost home,” she quickly said into the phone. “I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.” She disconnected.

Nate pulled into the driveway of the house. The porch light was on and a couple of lights burned upstairs. It was in the older part of Copper Mesa, a little run-down-looking, and it backed up to the ravine that meandered through town.

Nate cut the engine and opened his door.

“What are you doing?” Lily asked, getting out.

“I’m walking you to your door.” He got out and came around to meet her.

“Thank you, but I’d rather you didn’t.” She bit her bottom lip for a few seconds. “It’s just that I’ve already put my mom through a lot lately. Seeing you might make her heart stop. Not in a good way,” she added with a slight smile.

Nate looked down at his leather jacket and torn jeans. He ran his hand over his beard. When he’d gotten the green light to leave Phoenix and go home, he’d just jammed. No cleaning up his appearance first, no haircut or shave. “I’ll tell her I’m a deputy sheriff,” he said. “Show her my ID.”

“I realize you think that would be comforting, but it won’t make her feel better. She’ll realize something bad happened if I need a cop to drive me home.”

“Okay.” Nate glanced up and down the street. “Sheriff Wolfsinger will have deputies driving by throughout the night while they’re on patrol. I’ll hang out here until the first one shows up so I can fill him or her in on the details. Let them know one of the guys they’re looking for should have soda can–sized bruises on the side of his face.”

Lily managed a small laugh despite her apparent exhaustion. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Good night.” He watched her turn, walk up the garden path to the front door and step inside the house.

He got back into his truck, pulled out of the driveway, drove around the block and then parked midway down the street, where he had a good view of the house. The chilly, late-autumn wind started to pick up again, shaking leaves and branches around her house near the windows and the front door.

Something caught his eye. Movement by a corner window. He stared at it, trying to determine if it was something to be concerned about, or if it was just a shifting shadow.

THREE

Lily’s muscles felt stiff and sore as she walked through the front door of her mom’s house. She’d experienced nearly every emotion possible over the last few hours, as well as the physical reactions that went with each one. No wonder she felt like she’d just gone a couple of rounds with a three-hundred-pound prizefighter.

The chilly fall wind loosened wisps of hair from her ponytail, and brushed the skin around her face like itchy, impatient fingers. She smoothed her disheveled hair as she walked through the small entryway in the house. The kitchen, which was to the left, had a dining area with room for a small round table, two chairs and not much else. The living room was to the right, with its comfy, well-worn and unmatched furniture.

The curtains in the window on the far side of the living room twitched.

A furry snout pushed through the spot where the two pieces of fabric met. Another snout poked through beside it and then wagging tails batted the fabric back and forth. Two miniature dachshunds jumped down from the windowsill. Abby and Beatrice. Their dark eyes shone with light that spilled into the living room from the kitchen.

“Hi, girls!” Lily kneeled to let the little pooches kiss her.

She was finally home. And Deputy Nate Bedford had helped her get here. That was still hard to believe. Her entire experience tonight was hard to believe.

Abby and Beatrice whined joyfully. “I’m happy to see you, too.” Lily picked them up for a squeeze and gave them each a kiss on the head before setting them back down.

Once the dogs were settled, Lily took a minute to take a breath and compose herself before going upstairs to tell her mom what had happened at the Starlight Mart.

Kate Doyle had worked very hard at multiple jobs over the years while Lily was growing up, providing for the two of them and keeping a roof over their heads. The memory had made Lily’s failure and subsequent return home from college all the more bitter.

She was supposed to have made something of herself by finally earning her degree after numerous delays. The plan had been to get a well-paying job and pay her mom back for all her sacrifices over the years. Kick a little extra money her mom’s way so she could take a break and put her feet up now and then. Not that her mom had ever asked for such a thing.

It was Lily’s goal to make her mom’s life easier and she had failed. By moving back home, she’d added to her mom’s burdens. She’d been forced to leave college just a couple of months ago, and now she had to tell her mom she’d been held hostage and nearly killed.

She was tempted not to tell her mom about what had happened to keep her from worrying. But Kate was a social butterfly—definitely not an attribute Lily had inherited—and somehow she would find out. Might as well get it over with.

Lily walked through the shadowy living room and up the narrow stairs. “Come on, girls!”

Abby and Beatrice bolted past her, their ears flapping like proud wiener-dog flags as they led the way.

Her mom had a sitting room next to her bedroom. It was really just a small bedroom, but she’d put in a sofa, a comfy chair and a TV.

Lily hesitated when she reached the top of the stairs, trying to decide if she should ease into the details of what had happened or just blurt it out.

The dogs ran ahead of her down the hall and into the sitting room. Over the sound of the TV, Lily heard her mom say, “What have you two girls been up to?”

“I’m home,” Lily called out, trying to sound upbeat as she walked down the hall.

Her mom was stretched out on the sofa, a hand-crocheted multicolored afghan pulled up to her chin. She had to feel terrible. It took a lot to keep Kate Doyle down. A tissue box sat within reach on an end table. A few foil-wrapped chocolates trailed along the arm of the couch.

“Hi, honey, you’re home late.” Her mom sat up. She started to brush her hair away from her face and then suddenly froze. “What happened?”

Lily caught her reflection in a wall mirror. Tear-smeared mascara had left dark circles around her eyes. Her blouse was rumpled and dirt covered the bottom of her slacks where she’d crawled across the floor. She had a bruise and some small cuts on her face.

How could she not have noticed that earlier?

She walked to a chair and sat down, smoothing her hair and straightening her blouse. In this warm, safe, cozy room where Lily could finally let her guard down, the icy terror that came from having a gun shoved into her neck wormed its way back into her consciousness. Her hands started to tremble.

“The good news is I’m okay,” Lily said, her voice a little shaky.

Kate turned off the TV, swung her legs around so her feet were on the floor and dropped the remote onto the couch cushion beside her. “Why wouldn’t you be okay?”

In a wavering voice Lily told her mom what had happened, everything from overhearing the conversation at work to Nate Bedford seeing her home.

“Well, you’re not going back to work at that trucking company.” Her mom crossed her arms over her chest.

Not exactly the comforting response Lily had hoped for, but Kate typically turned practical when she was upset. Lily stood up, walked over and sat next to her mom on the sofa. Kate put an arm around her and pulled her close.

“So, Nate Bedford, huh?” her mom said after they’d sat together in silence for a couple of minutes. Kate didn’t know Nate personally, but his mother’s drunken antics were well-known throughout town. In the quiet, Lily could hear the wind outside rattle tree branches against the side of the house. “Nate’s really a sheriff’s deputy now?” her mom added. “Good for him.”

“Yeah, I didn’t recognize him at first.” And if he hadn’t shown up when he did, there was no telling what might have happened.

“His poor mom was one tortured soul. And it seemed as if she was determined to drag Nate down with her.” Kate shook her head. “It’s amazing to see what God can turn to good. I’m going to track that boy down and thank him for helping you.”

He might still have been outside watching the house, but more likely he’d headed up to his aunt and uncle’s place, the well-known Blue Spruce Ranch. Bud and Ellen Wells had done a lot of good work in the community over the years, much of it with troubled teens. Nate was eventually one of the teens they helped.

“You might get a chance to see Nate in the morning,” Lily said. “I left my car at the Starlight Mart and my purse and phone are at work. He’s going to take me to get them.”

Kate turned to her daughter with a slight smile.

“What?” Lily shook her head, feeling her cheeks warm. “It’s not like that, Mom. It’s his job to help people. That’s all it is.”

And that was all it was ever going to be.

Nate had been completely professional. He had no personal interest in her other than as the mutual acquaintance of a beloved old friend. And Lily had a life to rebuild after her engagement had come to an abrupt end and her carefully crafted plans crumbled like an imploded high-rise building. She worked lots of hours with no time for a personal life these days and that’s exactly how she wanted it.

After the pain and humiliation she’d been through, mind-numbing work was exactly what she needed.

Her mom hadn’t eaten dinner yet and Lily was hungry, too. “I’m going to heat up some soup.” Lily had made a pot of chicken noodle soup from scratch the night before. “Do you want me to bring you a bowl?”

“After what you’ve been through, I should get it,” her mom said, her breath sounding wheezy.

“I can get it.”

“Thanks, honey.” Kate patted the cushion beside her on the couch. Abby and Beatrice jumped up to cuddle with her. She picked up the remote and turned on the TV.

Downstairs, Lily got the pot of homemade soup out of the fridge and ladled some into a couple of bowls. A mental image of the men at the Starlight Mart, determined to grab her and most likely kill her, flashed through her mind. Her hands started to shake and she spilled some soup. Everything is okay. It’s over. I’m fine. She took a steadying breath.

Doors and windows. Were they all locked? Probably not.

She put a bowl in the microwave, set it to heat for three minutes and hit the start button. Then she went to check the front door. Yep, it was locked. She turned to face the living room. Through a thin curtain, she saw shadowy black branches wave outside the windows.

Except for one branch that remained still. Something about it didn’t look right.

Lily stared into the darkness for a moment. Slowly she realized she was looking at the outline of a man. Her breath caught in her throat. The man wasn’t outside the window. He was in the house. In the living room. Standing right there in the corner.

Her first attempt to scream came out as a ragged exhalation. Terrified, she felt as if she was caught in a nightmare, unable to make a sound. The man took a step out of the shadows, toward her, and she could see he was one of the men from the Starlight Mart. The one in the hoodie.

He was pointing a pistol at her. He glanced upstairs toward the blare of the TV, then turned back to her. “Don’t make a sound.”

“What do you want?” she asked, finally finding her voice.

“Let’s go.”

“Where?”

He motioned with his gun toward the back of the house, where the door in the utility room led outside. That was probably how he got in. Lily and her mom often left a window open in that room when they ran the dryer. And they were both bad about remembering to close it.

“Move!” Hoodie shoved her.

“I didn’t hear anything that could get you in trouble,” Lily said, taking a couple of stumbling steps while her heart hammered in her chest. “I just heard voices. Nothing specific.”

“Get moving or we’ll take your mother along, too.”

He wanted to get her outside and into a car. Lily couldn’t let that happen. It would be the end of everything.

He shoved her again. Edging toward panic, she reached for a potted plant on a shelf. If she flung something heavy against the wall and made a loud noise, maybe the dogs would hear it and start barking. Her mom would hear the racket and call the police.

Hoodie twisted her arm, hard, and she dropped the potted plant with a dull thud. So much for that plan.

They reached the utility room and she saw the open window. She also saw a mop propped against the wall. Hoodie loosened his grip slightly as he reached for the handle on the door leading outside. Lily took her chance. She kicked his knee. While he was off balance she grabbed the mop, whirled around and smacked him on the side of the head with it.

He dropped his gun. It clattered to the floor and they both reached for it. He jabbed an elbow toward her face, clipping her cheek, and she was knocked back. She dropped the mop. Then he got the gun.

Lily quickly crawled to a bucket of dry laundry detergent and grabbed a handful. Hoodie turned to her and she flung it into his face.

Cursing, he clawed at his eyes with one hand.

Afraid he might squeeze the trigger if she tried to grab his gun, Lily reached for the mop and struck him again. This time Hoodie slumped to the ground. He was out cold.

Footsteps pounded up the back porch steps. Nate must have been watching the house. Relief washing over her, Lily got to her feet and yanked open the door.

It wasn’t Nate standing there. It was the man who’d held a gun on her at the Starlight Mart. Lily’s heart sank. He had her again.

* * *

Nate crouched down low and crept alongside the house.

Lily’s mom had called 911. She’d reported strange noises in her house and that her dogs were growling. She was afraid someone had come after her daughter.

Nate was afraid of that, too. Dispatch had let him know what was happening and that the responding deputies were a couple minutes out. Nate knew better than to rush in, but he couldn’t just wait in his truck.

Peering around the corner of the house, he saw the gunman from the gas station on the back steps. He was holding Lily by the upper arm and dragging her out of the house. The terrified expression on her face struck Nate like a punch to his chest. Enough. Lily Doyle had been through enough. And that idiot holding her was not going to get away with what he’d done.

Nate had the advantage and he intended to make the most of it. The gunman wasn’t looking around. He probably thought he was home free. He did, however, have that gun. Trying to take a shot at him was too risky. Nate could miss and hit Lily. Or the gunman could shoot her.

Calm, cool, steady. That’s how Nate had to handle this.

At ease working in the shadows, he pressed into the side of the house and took one quiet step and then another. He covered the final short distance in a burst of speed. The gunman turned in surprise just as Nate grabbed his gun hand and landed a cross punch to the side of his head. The gunman dropped like a sack of wet sand.

Eyes wide and filled with fear, Lily swung her fists wildly. Nate had to duck a couple of times before she realized he wasn’t another attacker.

“Are you all right?” Nate asked when she finally stopped swinging. He put his hands on her shoulders, holding her at arm’s length while scanning her body for injuries.

“Someone’s in the house,” she said, trying to catch her breath. “Utility room.”

Nate hesitated, reluctant to turn his back on the man he’d just knocked unconscious.

“My mom’s in the house, too,” Lily said, sounding panicky and tugging on his arm. “Hurry!”

Inside the house he found the man in the hoodie lying unconscious on the utility room floor.

“I hit him with the mop,” Lily said.

Nate felt the corners of his lips tug upward in an admiring grin. “Good work.” He picked up the man’s gun and tucked it into his back pocket. Lily got some twine out of a storage cabinet and Nate tied the man’s hands behind his back.

Two little dogs not much bigger than mosquitoes ran into the utility room from the living room. A uniformed deputy followed them. A woman wrapped in an afghan walked in behind the deputy.

“Honey, are you okay?” the woman asked Lily after a racking coughing fit.

“I’m okay, Mom.” Lily hugged her mom and then introduced her to Nate.

“Thank you for saving my daughter’s life,” Kate Doyle said. “I’d offer to shake your hand, but I’m fighting bronchitis.”

“I think your daughter saved her own life.” He turned to the deputy. “There’s another bad guy out back.”

“No, there isn’t.” A second deputy walked into the utility room through the back door. “Sorry, Nate. If you had somebody out there, he’s long gone. Probably jumped into the ravine and took off. We’ll start looking for him.” He walked off, speaking into his collar mic.

The man who’d held the gun on her at the store had gotten away. Again. Disgusted with himself, Nate shook his head.

One of the little mosquito dogs, the one with a tiny white blaze in the center of her chest, stepped up to sniff the hem of Nate’s jeans. Her bone-shaped metallic tag said her name was Abby. Nate reached down to give her a scratch on the head. When she rolled up her eyes to look at him, he was pretty sure she was disappointed in what she saw. Nate didn’t blame her.

The man in the hoodie started to stir. The uniformed deputy took off the twine and cuffed him, then patted him down. He found a folded switchblade in his back pocket and a keychain in the front pocket. That was it. No wallet. No ID. Not even a phone. He started to regain consciousness. Nate and the deputy pulled him to a sitting position.

“What’s your name?” Nate asked.

The deputy had already tugged back the man’s hood, revealing short curly brown hair, thick eyebrows and a soda can–sized bruise across the side of his face. He was maybe in his early thirties. Powdery white laundry detergent streaked his face and the front of his shirt. He squinted his red, watery eyes and frowned at Nate. “Who are you?” His gaze shifted nervously back and forth between Nate and the deputy. “You’re that guy who hit me with soda cans in the store.”

“Do you recognize this guy from anywhere?” Nate asked Lily. “Maybe you’ve seen him someplace other than work?” He turned to her and she shook her head. When he turned back to the thug, he saw him staring at Lily. The man’s confused scowl had morphed into a bold, predatory stare.

Lily visibly blanched and her eyes grew wide with fear.

“Hey!” Nate snapped at the thug, drawing the man’s attention back to himself. “Who are you? Who are you working for?”

The man cursed at him and then looked away, making it clear he wouldn’t answer any further questions.

The deputy placed him under arrest and read him his rights, then left with plans to take him to the hospital to get checked out before hauling him to the county jail.

Lily sat down in the living room with the second deputy, who’d returned to the house and was ready to take down her statement. Meanwhile Lily’s mom made a call and a few minutes later Kate’s cousin, Penny, showed up to offer the women comfort and support.

While his fellow deputy was wrapping things up, Nate mentally rehashed everything that had happened this evening. If those two thugs could find out where Lily lived that quickly and they were desperate enough to try to grab her at home, she was in even greater danger than he’d thought. She was going to need something more substantial than the hand-holding her mother and cousin could provide.

Lily’s mom had brought out a container of homemade cookies and brewed some coffee. By the time the remaining deputy had taken care of business and gone on his way, there was nothing left but coffee mugs stacked in the kitchen sink and a few butter-pecan cookie crumbs on the kitchen counter.

“Why don’t you two pack some clothes and spend the night at my place?” Penny asked Lily and Kate.

“You should go with your cousin,” Nate said to Lily’s mom. He turned to Lily. “And you should come with me to my aunt and uncle’s ranch. It’s just a few miles north of town.”

“Everybody in the county knows where the Blue Spruce is.” Lily glanced at her mother. “I think my mom and I should stick together.”

“No one’s after your mom,” Nate said. “She’d be safer away from you.”

“Oh.” Lily and her mom looked at each other. Kate was still walking around wrapped in her afghan. She was pale and looked as if she’d rather be lying down.

“The man we arrested might sing like a canary when he gets to booking,” Nate said. “Maybe he’ll tell us his real name and who he works for and everything will be wrapped up tomorrow.”

“That would be great,” Lily muttered.

He wanted to take the frightened look from her eyes. But in all practicality, it was too soon. For tonight, at least, he wanted her worried enough that she’d let him take care of her.

“It’s also possible he’ll keep his mouth shut. And that the gunman who escaped will find you again.”

Lily picked up one of the little mosquito dogs. “I have a couple of other part-time jobs here in town. I can’t stay all the way out there on that ranch.”

Her life was in danger and she was worried about some part-time jobs?

Nate knew she was an intelligent woman. But he could also see she was exhausted and not thinking straight.

“How about you go with me tonight. That way your mom can rest easier at Penny’s house.” He glanced at Kate, hoping she’d back him up. “You can rethink things tomorrow.”

After a slight coughing fit, Lily’s mom voiced her agreement.

Lily pursed her lips and blew out a sad, tired sigh while the dog she was holding sniffed her hair. “All right.”

FOUR

Lily cracked open the window of Nate’s truck and let the cold, sharp air swirl in and nip at her skin. Late autumn would be turning into early winter sometime before morning, she could feel it.

She looked into the darkness as the truck rolled down the highway, her thoughts turning bleaker with every mile. Her plan to get back on her feet after returning to her hometown had already been built on shaky ground, and now this. Her bank account wasn’t going to get any healthier if she had to waste her time hiding out from criminals. It would take forever to pay down her bills and move out of her mother’s house.

She glanced at Nate, wondering what his life had been like the last few years. He hadn’t mentioned a wife, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t involved with someone. Not that it mattered. She just wondered.

He constantly checked the mirrors as he drove, watching to see if anyone was following them. Lily checked the mirrors, too. They still didn’t know how those thugs had found her at her mother’s house. They might have simply followed them from the Starlight Mart. But maybe they had access to her personal information through someone at work. She sat up straighter and put a little more energy into scanning for headlights behind them.

The narrow road they were traveling on was barely more than a line of crumbling asphalt, and they continued to climb to a higher elevation. Most of the time, tall pines lined the road, but every now and then there was a break and she could see the glittering lights of Copper Mesa down below.

“Can we turn on some music?” The tension and terror she’d felt over the last few hours had given her a pounding headache.

“Music’s not a good idea right now.”

“Why not?”

He didn’t really think he could hear someone following them over the rattling and squeaking sounds his old truck made, did he? “It might be nice,” she suggested again, attempting to sound polite even though she was speaking through gritted teeth. He didn’t deserve her wrath, but she couldn’t help it. She didn’t deserve to get attacked—twice—and she wanted to punch somebody. “I think it would help me relax.”

“Well, then definitely no music. This isn’t a good time for you to relax. You need to stay sharp.”

She didn’t want to stay sharp. She wanted to go back to taking her life for granted.

“What kind of lawman are you?” she demanded. “Don’t you know it’s your job to make me feel safe?” She turned to glare at him. In the amber glow from the dashboard she saw the outline of his strong profile, despite the beard. The warm light softened the lines that time and Arizona sunlight had etched around his eyes and he didn’t look nearly as harsh as he had in the Starlight Mart.

“Are you absolutely certain you never saw either of those two thugs before? Hanging around work or maybe somewhere else?”

Lily looked out the window. How many times would he ask her that? Didn’t he believe her?

“You heard me tell my story to the authorities. Twice.” Lily turned toward him and tucked the hair that had fallen loose from her ponytail back behind her ear. He might be trying to help her, but she was tired of being interrogated. She hadn’t done anything wrong. “Why do you keep asking me?”

“Sometimes it takes people a while to remember things.” His tone was neutral, almost to the point of sounding cold. He’d started to feel like a friend as the evening wore on, but now he was slipping back into cop mode and she was stung by the realization he was still suspicious of her.

“How could you possibly think I’ve got some kind of connection with those two idiots?”

He glanced over at her. “People get dragged into situations and do things they didn’t mean to. Or they agree to do something just once, because they’re desperate, and before they know it they’re in over their head.”

“Yeah, well, some people are minding their own business when the next thing they know some jerk is trying to kill them.” If he kept up these calm insinuations she just might jump out of the truck and walk the rest of the way to the ranch.

He loosened his grip on the steering wheel and leaned back a little. “If you’re in some kind of trouble, I want you to know you can tell me. I’ll help you.”

“Oh, please. If you really believe I’m part of some criminal enterprise, why are you taking me to your aunt and uncle’s ranch?”

He hesitated a few seconds before answering. “They’re used to people with issues.”

People with issues? Okay, that was it. She turned so she was rigidly facing forward. “Take me back to town. I can find someplace safe to stay on my own.”

“Oh, lighten up. Everybody’s got issues.” He glanced over at her, this time with a slight smile that made her want to punch him. But he looked rock-solid and she’d probably just hurt her fist. “I’ve made some bad decisions in my life,” he added, sounding a little more serious. “Needed help getting straightened out.”

“Well, I don’t have time to make any bad decisions. I work three jobs and sleep, and that’s about it.”

“Sounds exhausting. How long have you been doing that?”

Was he asking as a friend, or was he still in cop mode and fishing for information he could pass along to Sheriff Wolfsinger? Oh, she might as well tell him everything. It would come out sooner or later.

The truck hit a rut and bounced, and the springs squeaked.

After the truck settled, Lily took a deep breath. “I went to college in Flagstaff.” She hesitated, trying to think of the moment when her life started to unravel.

“What did you get your degree in?” he prompted.

“I didn’t finish my degree.”

“What were you majoring in?”

“Accounting.”

“So you like working with numbers?”

“No. But I thought the degree would help me earn a good living.”

“That kind of thinking hardly ever works out.”

“Yeah...well.” It was tempting to let him think bad grades were the only issue. It was less humiliating than the truth.

“I didn’t date much in high school or after,” she said flatly. “I was too busy.” And not burdened with an abundance of social skills. She turned her attention to the seat belt stretched across her shoulder and picked at a frayed thread. “I met someone in college. Kevin.”

It was so easy now to see how stupid she’d been. Why hadn’t she seen it then?

“We dated. We got engaged. My mind was on him instead of my studies. Then my thoughts were focused on our wedding, where we’d live, how I wanted to decorate our first home.” She shook her head. “Stupid, stupid stuff.” It was a dream come true. And at the end, as with a dream, there was nothing of substance left.

She was grateful Nate didn’t say anything.

“I started working to earn money to help pay for everything. My grades suffered. I quit college. I told myself I’d go back after I got married and my life settled down. A few weeks later Kevin broke up with me. He’d found someone else.”

She’d been heartbroken and bitterly disappointed in herself. Eventually she realized she’d been trying to create an oasis of certainty in her life when she got engaged to Kevin. Being away from home was scary. Life was scary. But a plan like that could never work.

“The guy was an idiot,” Nate said.

Lily smiled. It was the perfect guy-friend thing to say. Not a suspicious-cop comment.

“I had to move back in with my mom in Copper Mesa. I’ve been working three part-time jobs. Torrent Trucking seemed like my best chance to move upward, maybe get on full-time. I thought if I got there a little early, stayed a little late and did a little extra work, my efforts might pay off.”

And look where that had gotten her. Nearly killed. Twice.

Nate turned onto a narrow, unpaved road. The tires rumbled as the truck crossed a cattle guard. Shortly after that, he turned again. They passed by two sandstone pillars inset with bronze plaques identifying this as the Blue Spruce Ranch, and headed up a winding drive to the main house.

“So, am I still a suspect or do you finally believe my story?”

He glanced at her and then turned back to face the road. “I believe you.”

“Good.”

Lily had never seen the Blue Spruce Ranch in person, but she’d seen plenty of pictures. Ellen Stuart had inherited it from her parents and she was the fifth generation of Stuarts to run the land. Her marriage to Nate’s uncle Bud, a “nobody” in county social circles, had caused quite a stir. They’d never had biological children of their own, but they’d opened their ranch to friends and various charity group events and created their own version of a family.

Nate drove along the wide, graceful driveway that followed the edge of a grassy field until the house came into view. It was a long, low ranch house with a covered porch running along the front of it. Lights blazed inside even though it was close to midnight. Nate pulled the truck around the circular drive and stopped. The front door flew open and Lily saw the silhouette of a short, round, bowlegged man with a bald head.

Nate came around and opened the door for her, a surprising bit of chivalry from a deputy just doing his job.

“Welcome to the Blue Spruce,” Bud Wells called out to Lily. He walked up to her, reached for her hands and gave them a reassuring squeeze. “I’m Nate’s uncle Bud. He told us what happened to you tonight and I’m as sorry as I can be about that.”

“Lily Doyle.” Lily barely trusted herself to speak. For the last few hours she’d held fear and dread at bay by indulging in frustration and denial. Being annoyed with Nate had helped. But now the gentle concern in Bud Wells’s voice threatened to knock down a few bricks in the emotional wall she’d built and she couldn’t let that happen. Not yet. The wall was the only thing keeping her from falling completely apart.

“Thank you for letting me come up here,” she finally said.

Bud gave her hands another gentle squeeze before letting go of them. The compassionate expression in his eyes hardened into determination. “It’s a rough world, Ms. Doyle, but you’re safe here. And you’re welcome to stay as long as you like.”

“I appreciate that.”

Bud glanced over at Nate. “Come here, boy.”

Nate dutifully stepped up to the man who was noticeably shorter than him and bent down to give his uncle a hug. Bud wrapped his arms around his nephew’s waist, and squeezed hard. “I worry about you every day, boy.” Bud’s face was pressed into Nate’s shoulder and his voice was muffled, but Lily heard him. “I know better, but I can’t help it.”

He finally let go and took a step back. “All right, let’s get in the house. Ellen’s waiting for the both of you.”

Lily stepped through the front door to a tiled foyer and the wide expanse of a great room with a fire burning low in a stone fireplace. To the right the room opened onto a dining area that curved around, presumably toward a kitchen.

A woman walked out from the kitchen area. Tall and slender, dressed in jeans and a raw silk blouse, she wore her long silver hair clipped back at the sides with turquoise barrettes. Ellen Wells. Responsible landowner. Astute businesswoman and, according to everything Lily had heard and read, the heartbeat of the sprawling Blue Spruce Ranch.

“Oh, honey, are you all right?” she asked Lily. Without waiting for an answer she walked up to Lily and hugged her as if she was a cherished friend and not a complete stranger. For a few seconds Lily let herself soak up the warmth of the embrace. Tears began to form in her eyes and she rapidly blinked them away. There were still good people in the world. Now more than ever she needed a reminder of that.

“I’m fine, thank you,” Lily muttered as she stepped back.

“I’m sure the sheriff’s department will find those men who came after you. In the meantime, we’re always happy to have company.”

Ellen smiled at her and Lily tried to smile back, but couldn’t.

“You’ll be all right,” Ellen said softly. Then she turned to Nate, fisted her hands on her hips and looked him over from head to toe. “Well, you went downhill in a hurry.”

Nate raked his fingers through his scruffy hair and scraggly beard. “What, you don’t like the look?”

In an instant, Ellen had her arms around him in a hug. When she finally let go, she ran her hands up and down his arms a couple of times. “How about you? Are you all right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

A dark-haired man walked out from the kitchen and glanced at Nate.

“You look even uglier than usual,” he said. He appeared to be about Nate’s age, but he was a little shorter and slenderer with brown eyes and jet-black hair.

“I’ve intentionally been trying to look like a lowlife for the last six weeks,” Nate shot back. “What’s your excuse?”

The dark-haired man grinned. “Welcome home. I’m glad you didn’t get yourself killed.”

Ellen threw up her hands. “Don’t talk like that!”

The man walked over to give Nate a one-armed embrace and clapped him on the shoulder.

Lily caught Bud giving both men a cautioning look. Then he turned to her. “Lily, this is Gaston Juneau. He moved up here about the time Nate did when they were kids. Works as a foreman here when he isn’t out in the wilderness trying to make Ellen grayer and me balder by fighting wildfires.”

Gaston nodded. “Good to meet you. Nobody’s going to bother you while you’re up here. We’ll make sure of that.”

A thump and a squeak made Lily turn around. An empty upholstered chair rocked back and forth in front of the fireplace. A few seconds later an enormous orange-and-white cat sauntered around the chair.

“Hank!” Nate picked up the cat and hefted him into the crook of his arm. The cat put his paws on Nate’s shoulder and head-butted him.

Ellen chuckled. “We’ve all been missing you. Hank included.” She turned to Lily. “What can I get you to eat?”

“Thank you, but I’m not hungry. I’d really just like to get some rest.”

Ellen looked at her thoughtfully. “I know you’re exhausted. Did you bring a suitcase?”

Lily nodded.

Ellen turned to her husband. “Honey, would you get Lily’s bag out of Nate’s truck?”

“Sure.” Bud headed for the front door.

“Your room is this way,” Ellen said, heading down a hallway.

Behind her, Lily heard Gaston say to Nate, “Get some sleep. I’ll keep watch until morning.”

Ellen led her to a beautiful room with an attached bath. Bud delivered her bag and both he and Ellen wished her a good night.

After they left, Lily kicked off her shoes, pulled down the top blanket and let herself fall face-first onto the bed. Eventually she pulled up the blanket, but left the bedside lamp on. A Bible lay on the nightstand. It had been a while since she’d picked one up, but looking at it made her feel a little calmer. If she couldn’t sleep, maybe she’d read a few verses.

It was good to know Nate was nearby. But as cozy and secure as this house felt, she was still in danger. And because of her, everyone else at the Blue Spruce was in danger, too.

* * *

“Now you don’t look like a deadbeat anymore.” Bud grabbed a towel and slapped at Nate’s shoulders and the back of his neck while Nate sat in an old straight-backed chair. They were outside, at the far end of the rambling front porch.

Nate rubbed his hand over his head to feel the familiar short bristle cut, then over his smooth chin and cheeks. He’d shaved off his whiskers right after he’d rolled out of bed this morning. “That feels a lot better.”

“Nothing wrong with looking sharp for your lady friend.”

Nate turned to glare at his uncle and Bud winked at him.

“I just wanted to get the grime from working undercover off of me,” Nate said. “I had to be around some nasty people in some filthy places.” That was the truth. Maybe it was also true he wanted to look a little cleaner for Lily Doyle, too. Let her see that he’d made something of his life and hadn’t hit the skids like his mom had. Like so many people assumed he would.

“Well, you’re home and away from those terrible places now, boy.” Bud shook the towel over the railing and Nate stood up.

When Nate had first woken up, the trees and the rooftops of the ranch buildings had all been covered in a hard freeze. Things had warmed up a little since then, but the air still carried a cold edge to it.

It was beautiful here no matter the weather. There were plenty of mornings when he woke up in his apartment in Painted Rock and missed being able to spend a few minutes sipping coffee and looking at this view of pine trees, mountain meadows and rocky peaks. But he’d done what he thought was right. Somebody had to make sure the people who’d been responsible for his mother’s death faced justice. And if getting exiled to Painted Rock was the price he had to pay, so be it.

It hadn’t been revenge, despite loud accusations to the contrary. He knew vengeance didn’t belong to him.

He’d had the opportunity to take down a trio of drug dealers and he’d jumped at it. They’d hired a sharp defense lawyer out of Phoenix who decided his best tactic was to ignore his clients’ blatant drug trafficking and smear the Oso County sheriff’s department, instead. Fortunately, the lawyer hadn’t been successful in keeping his clients out of prison. But during the trial he had managed to turn the trustworthiness of the sheriff’s department into the hotly debated topic of the day. Sheriff Wolfsinger could have buckled under the political pressure and fired Nate. He transferred him to Painted Rock instead.

“So, you knew Lily in high school?” Bud asked as he folded up his towel. “I don’t remember her.”

Good old Uncle Bud, gamely trying to engage Nate in a conversation. It wasn’t always easy for Nate to talk about how he was feeling. He’d spent a long time as a kid trying not to feel anything.

He glanced at his uncle. Sometimes Nate forgot he wasn’t the only one who was abandoned when his mom dove into the emotionally numbing abyss of alcohol and later, in a fatal decision, into drugs. Uncle Bud had lost his sister, too.

“I didn’t know Lily,” Nate said, trying to lighten his tone. “Joseph Suh did.”

“Oh. Well, Ellen’s glad to see you brought a girl home.”

Nate laughed and shook his head. “This isn’t a date.” His smile faded. “I was hoping she’d just need a safe place to stay for one night. But I called the station this morning and I think we’re going to need to find her a place to stay for a little longer.” The news he’d gotten from Sheriff Wolfsinger when he’d called asking for an update was not good.

“We’ve got plenty of room here. You know she’s welcome.”

“I appreciate that.”

Nate heard a meow. A few seconds later Hank wandered around the side of the house and stepped up onto the porch, shaking the dampness of melted frost from his front paws. The cat sat down and his rather large body compacted into the shape of a ball. He rolled slightly to one side.

“Your cat’s getting too fat,” Bud said.

“I’m not the one who’s been feeding him lately. I’ve been in Phoenix, remember?” Nate stood, picked up the cat and hefted him into the crook of his arm. He turned toward the front door to head back into the house. “Thanks for the haircut.”

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