He was the last thing she expected—and everything she needed

From the moment he finds himself staring down the barrel of her gun, Rancher Cade McClain knows Piper Lowry isn’t just another stranded tourist. Armed and desperate, she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to carry out her mission. A mission she claims only he can help her with. Knowing it would be impossible to walk away from this tempting, determined woman, Cade offers her a place to hide from the gunmen on her trail. Despite his broad shoulders and intimidating gaze, it isn’t long before the straight-shooting cowboy realizes he can’t guarantee Piper’s safety. Even if his heart is beginning to tell him he has no choice but to try....

He knew he had no choice but to help her.

“Come on,” Cade said roughly. “Let’s get out of here.”

Piper frowned. “Where are we going? Back to my car?”

“No. My ranch isn’t far from here. It’ll be safer there. We can figure out what to do next.”

“‘We?’” she echoed faintly. “Why would you want to help me?”

It was a good question, one he would have asked if he was in her shoes, one he was still asking himself.

A smart man would get away from this woman and her mess as fast as humanly possible. But it seemed he wasn’t that smart.

So, he gave the only answer he could. “Because somebody needs to.”

Her Cowboy Defender
Kerry Connor

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A lifelong mystery reader, Kerry Connor first discovered romance suspense by reading Harlequin Intrigue books and is thrilled to be writing for the line. Kerry lives and writes in New York.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Piper Lowry—On a desperate mission to save her sister, she finds an unexpected defender in the form of a long, tall cowboy.

Cade McClain—The rancher’s honor demands that he offer his help, even if it means risking everything for a stranger.

Esteban Castillo—A man who wants information…and vengeance.

Matt Alvarez—Cade’s right-hand man warns him not to get involved—for more than one reason.

Pamela Lowry—Piper’s twin sister is in a coma.

Tara Lowry—Piper’s younger sister is a pawn in a dangerous game.

Jay Larson—He’s on Piper’s trail, but what are his true motives?

To Jodi, who introduced me to New Mexico,

for being the kind of friend who’s there when I need her, even when she’s on the other side of the world.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter One

This can’t be happening.

Piper stared in disbelief at the black smoke billowing from the engine of the rental car. She’d barely managed to pull over to the side of the road before the giant plume erupted from beneath the hood, along with a crackling she suspected might be outright fire. Any hope the car would keep running long enough to make it to her destination evaporated into the air much faster than the smoke.

She shot a glance at the clock on the dashboard. The digits glared back, relentless, unforgiving.

Thirty-four minutes. She had thirty-four minutes to be at the rendezvous point. If she wasn’t—

No.

She cut off the thought before it could form. She couldn’t afford to think about that, couldn’t think about anything but what she was going to do now, how she was going to make the deadline.

But when she tried to come up with a solution to this latest hurdle, her mind remained stubbornly blank except for the words that had been running through her head nonstop for the past two days.

This can’t be happening.

The words raced together in a constant loop, picking up speed along with her pulse, her heart pounding so fast and so hard in her chest she found it tougher and tougher to breathe.

It couldn’t end like this. She couldn’t come this close only to fail.

This can’t be happening.

Beneath the shock clouding her brain, some preservation instinct forced her limbs into motion, recognizing the fact that it wasn’t safe to remain in the car. For all she knew, the engine could explode at any moment. She had to get out of there.

Numbly, she switched off the key, then grabbed her bag and the map. Lurching from the vehicle, she slammed the door shut behind her. It was all she could do not to give the door an angry kick. She’d known as soon as she heard the knocking sound that something was wrong, but couldn’t stop. Even if time wasn’t an issue, she knew nothing about cars. She had no choice but to keep pushing on and hope she made it to her destination.

So much for that.

Which just left what she was going to do now.

The sun beat down from directly overhead, her fair skin already beginning to tingle under the unrelenting beams. Raising a hand to shade her eyes, she glanced around. The desert road stretched endlessly in either direction, disappearing into the horizon on both sides with no indication where it stopped. She had no idea where she was, other than that it was somewhere in New Mexico. She’d been following the map that had been provided to her, having no other choice. She hadn’t passed a single vehicle or building on the road in at least a half hour, had no reason to believe she would find any the same distance up ahead if she started walking. She’d known that she was being sent to the middle of nowhere, but she was more aware of that fact now than ever before.

She checked her watch, already knowing what it would show, painfully aware of how quickly time was slipping away.

Thirty-two minutes.

The backs of her eyes began to burn, and she immediately squeezed her eyelids together to keep the tears that threatened from falling. She wasn’t going to cry. She refused to. She hadn’t one bit since this ordeal had begun. She hadn’t cried when she’d learned of Pam’s accident. She hadn’t cried when she’d received the horrible call two days ago. She hadn’t cried during the long journey, even knowing what awaited her at the end.

But never had she been as close to giving in to the tears as she was right now.

A sob rose in her throat.

This can’t be happening.

With her eyes shut, it was the sound of an engine that reached her first, the sound so faint she didn’t immediately recognize it. When she did, she froze in disbelief, afraid to open her eyes, afraid she was hallucinating. It seemed too much to hope for, too much to believe possible, that a vehicle could pass by at this particular moment when she needed it most.

Her heart pounding anew, she slowly opened her eyes and turned toward the sound.

The vehicle was still far enough away that she could barely make it out, its shape shimmering in the sun, almost like a mirage. She held her breath as it approached, gradually gaining enough substance to confirm that it was very real. It was a pickup truck. Red, she guessed, though it hardly mattered. All that did was that it was here.

The black cloud rising from the hood made her car pretty hard to ignore, but she still stepped out into the road, waving her arms above her head to grab the driver’s attention. She couldn’t risk that the driver was the kind of person to ignore someone in trouble. A breath of relief worked its way from her lungs when the truck began to slow long before it reached her, easing onto the shoulder behind the rental car.

Now she just had to figure out what to do.

Thinking quickly, she watched as the driver’s door slowly opened. Moments later, two boots hit the dirt beneath the bottom edge of the door, one after the other. Then a hat appeared as the driver ducked his head out of the truck. It was a Stetson, the shape unmistakable and instantly recognizable.

It was a cowboy. A genuine cowboy. A near-hysterical laugh bubbled in her throat. She didn’t exactly come across too many of them back in Boston, though they were probably fairly common around these parts. And here he was, coming to her rescue like something out of the Old West, except that instead of on horseback, he was arriving in a truck.

A truck.

Her eyes slid past him, narrowing on his vehicle, the burst of humor instantly forgotten.

Cold, hard resolve settled over her, and she slowly lowered her hand into her bag, closing her fingers around the object there.

And suddenly she knew exactly what she had to do.

CADE MCCLAIN SWALLOWED AN impatient sigh as he climbed out of the cab of the truck. He really didn’t have time for this. The trip to Albuquerque had taken longer than he’d expected, and he’d wanted to get back to the ranch as early as possible. There was too much he had to do. There always was.

But as soon as he’d spotted the smoke on the road up ahead and seen the car, he’d known he would have to pull over. Even if the woman hadn’t flagged him down, he couldn’t have simply driven past a smoking car without stopping. Not only would it have been a lousy thing to do, but there was no telling when someone else might have come along to help. This desert road didn’t see much traffic. He wondered how long she’d been here, or what she was even doing here for that matter.

She’d moved out of the road to stand behind her car. He gave her a quick once-over. She was a slim woman with black hair that brushed her shoulders, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. She carried a bag of some kind, the strap slung crosswise over her body from one shoulder to the opposite hip so the bag itself was almost entirely out of view. She didn’t look familiar. Probably just a lost tourist who’d made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up far down a road she had no business being on.

He did his best to keep his annoyance from showing. It wasn’t her fault she was having car trouble. It had to be a lot tougher on her than it was on him.

“You okay?” he called, stepping around the door without closing it.

After a moment, she gave her head a shaky nod. “Yeah, I’m fine. I don’t know what happened. The engine started making this noise, and then all this smoke started coming out of it....”

Her voice quivered, almost like she was about to start crying or something, and he nearly groaned.

Oh, God. Please don’t let her burst into tears. The car he might be able to handle, but the last thing he knew how to deal with was a crying female.

He took a deep breath, hoping if he remained calm his coolness would have an effect on her. “Do you have a phone? Did you call anybody?”

“N-no,” she said slowly, taking a step toward him. “My battery’s dead.” She chuckled, the sound ringing false. “Just my luck.”

“Well, you can borrow mine. Let me get it out of the cab.” He turned away to do just that.

“I have a better idea.”

Her tone immediately put him on edge, the hardness in her voice completely different from how she’d sounded just moments before. He froze, knowing before he looked at her that something was wrong.

He slowly turned back to face her.

She was standing in exactly the same place.

Except now she held a pistol in her hands.

Aimed square at his chest.

Chapter Two

“Throw your keys on the ground in front of my feet,” she ordered. “Don’t try anything tricky.”

Cade did his best to ignore the gun, meeting the eyes behind it. Only now did he recognize the desperation in her voice. Earlier he’d mistaken it for the understandable distress of a woman whose car had caught fire in the middle of nowhere. But this went way beyond that. The woman was seriously on edge.

That still didn’t make her actions any more comprehensible.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

“Taking your truck.”

“It’s not much. Certainly not worth stealing.”

“It runs, which is more than I can say for that car. That’s all that matters.”

“And you’re just going to leave me out here in the middle of nowhere? No water? No shelter? Nothing to do but hope somebody else comes along?”

“I’m sorry about this. I really am. But I have to be somewhere in less than thirty minutes, and it really is a matter of life and death. I know how clichéd that sounds, but in this case, it couldn’t be more true. Now toss your keys over toward me.”

He didn’t move, the weight of his keys suddenly heavy in his fingers. He quickly considered his few options. Maybe if he pretended to throw them, distracted her long enough to dive back into the truck—

She cocked the weapon, her expression hard as stone.

“I told you, don’t even think of trying anything. If you don’t think it’s worth stealing, then it’s certainly not worth getting shot over.”

“But it is worth shooting somebody for?”

“If I have to.”

He stared at her, gauging her seriousness.

The way she handled the gun, her grip tight and unwavering, told him she knew exactly how to use it.

The way she looked at him, her eyes cold and unflinching, told him she wouldn’t hesitate to.

Damn. It didn’t look like he had a choice.

Biting back a curse, he slowly swung his arm and tossed the keys toward her. He didn’t bother to see where they landed.

She flicked her gaze down for only a second, not nearly long enough for him to make a move if he was crazy enough to try. When her attention was back on his face, she bent slowly at the knees, never losing her aim on him. As soon as she was close enough to the ground, she lowered one hand from the gun just long enough to scoop up the keys which had landed practically at her feet. As soon as she had them, she immediately started to rise again, gesturing toward him with a jerk of her chin. “Step away.”

He did as ordered, slowly moving backward, one frustrating step following another. After his first few steps, she was again on her feet and began to match his motions, stepping forward to the truck. Finally he was standing well behind the tailgate and she came to a stop next to the still-open door.

She glanced inside, then began to climb into the truck. Her movements were awkward, since she was still keeping the gun on him with one hand, but her aim remained true enough. “I really am sorry about this,” she said. “I’ll toss your phone out the window on the other side. You can call someone to come and get you.”

“You aren’t worried we’ll catch up with you?”

“By the time you do, it won’t matter anymore,” she said flatly.

Before he could wonder what she meant by that, she started to straighten in the seat, only to stop. A second later, she glanced back at him. “This is a manual.”

“Yeah, so?”

“I can’t drive a stick shift.”

He snorted. “Well, that’s too bad for you.”

She didn’t say anything for a moment, staring at him long and hard. “You’re going to have to drive.”

“Excuse me?”

She jerked her head toward the cab. “Get in.”

An incredulous laugh burst from his mouth. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. It’s not enough you want to steal my truck. Now you want to hijack me into being your driver?”

“I don’t have a choice. The way I see it, neither do you.”

“Or what? You’re going to shoot me? Then who’s going to drive you?”

“If you refuse to drive me, then I’m not going to be where I need to be in time and somebody very important to me is going to die. So I might as well shoot you, because you will have just killed someone I love.”

The seriousness in her voice killed the last traces of dark humor inside him. He hadn’t considered her earlier words too deeply, but the intensity in this statement left no doubt she meant everything she said. Something was going on here. Someone she cared about was in very real danger. She believed that much.

Still, Cade hesitated. If anything, her words gave him more of a reason to want out of this. Whatever this mess was, it wasn’t something any sane person would want any part of.

She motioned with the gun. “If you think I won’t do it, I sincerely suggest you think again.”

And he saw the truth in her eyes. She would shoot him without a second thought. If he wanted to keep breathing, his only chance was to go along with her demand. And as much as he didn’t want to be killed, he didn’t really want to be responsible for it happening to someone else, either.

Matching her glare, he started forward slowly. After a few moments, she disappeared inside the cab. When he reached the open door, he found she’d slid across the seat and was backed up against the passenger door. The gun in her hands instantly adjusted so the barrel was centered right on his head.

Climbing in, he glanced down to find the keys already in the ignition. No point delaying the obvious, he supposed. With a grimace, he tugged the door shut, then reached forward and started the engine.

“All right,” he said, shifting the truck into gear. “Where are we going?”

HOLDING THE GUN STEADY with her right hand, Piper pulled the map from her bag and held it out to him. “Here.”

He took it from her with some reluctance, giving it a perfunctory glance. “What is this?”

“Where I need to go.”

He looked at it again, frowning slightly. “This is Cartwright.”

“What’s that?”

“An old ghost town in the middle of the desert. There’s not much there now.”

“Well, there will be in twenty-five minutes.” At the very least someone. Several someones most likely, but there was only one she truly cared about being there. “If you know where it is, then you must know how to get there.”

“Yeah.”

“Then drive.”

Clenching the map in his hand, he pulled back onto the road and started forward.

“Can we get there in twenty-five minutes?” she asked.

“Probably.”

“That isn’t good enough. Drive fast—but not fast enough that anything bad should happen. Neither of us wants this gun to go off accidentally.”

The muscles on his neck bulged from his clear tension, but he didn’t respond. The truck accelerated smoothly, picking up speed without jostling her.

She kept her eyes on him, not about to let her guard down when so much depended on him cooperating and getting her where she needed to be. He stared straight ahead, his jaw clenched. It was a strong jaw, perfectly fitting his plainly masculine profile. He had to be in his late thirties, his skin tanned from the sun, faint laugh lines worn into the corners around his eyes. It was a nice face. She suspected he was a nice guy. She remembered the clear thread of concern in his deep voice when he’d first pulled over. All he’d wanted to do was help her. And she’d pointed a gun at him and threatened to kill him.

Guilt, sharp and painful, stabbed at her. She ruthlessly pushed the feeling aside. The people she was dealing with weren’t letting anything stop them from getting what they wanted. She couldn’t afford to, either. And given a choice between Tara and this stranger, there was no question what she would do. The only thing that mattered was getting to the rendezvous on time, whatever it took.

Then it hit her. No, that wasn’t all that mattered. What happened at the meeting also mattered a great deal. She’d had a plan, a risky, dangerous, improbable plan, but the only one—the only chance—she had. The rental car had been a key part of that plan. Without it, this wasn’t going to work.

Unless…

She sharpened her gaze on the man behind the wheel, studying that hardened face. He’d wanted to help her once. He must be a good person, or at least good enough for what she needed him to do.

“I need to ask you a favor,” she said.

“Lady, you’re holding a gun on me. You’re not asking, you’re ordering.”

“Not with this. This is for when I’m gone and don’t have the gun on you anymore. I need you to do something for me then.”

“Why the hell would I do anything else for you, lady?”

“Because I’m hoping that the kind of guy who couldn’t drive by and leave a woman standing on the side of the road won’t leave an innocent woman in danger, either.”

He snorted. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re kidding yourself if you think you’re innocent.”

“I’m not talking about me. My sister’s been kidnapped. We’re making the exchange at this location. I’m not going to give them what they want until my sister is safely out of there. My original plan was for her to drive away, but obviously that’s not an option anymore. So I need to ask you to please stay long enough to get her out of there.”

“What about you?”

“Don’t worry about me. She’s all that matters.”

His frown deepened. “Who are these people? Why did they kidnap your sister?”

“That’s not important.”

“The hell it’s not. If you want me to stick around these people, I need to know what I’m up against.”

“They kidnapped her to force…me to provide them…with some information they want.”

“Even if they let your sister go before you give it to them, what do you think they’re going to do to you after you give it to them?”

“I told you, don’t worry about me.”

“It sounds like somebody needs to. What’s going to happen to you after you give them what they want?”

“Her name is Tara,” she said as if he hadn’t spoken. “She’s only twenty years old. She has her whole life ahead of her.”

“And you don’t? You can’t be much older than thirty, if that. What about your life?”

“Please. I know I don’t have the right to ask you for anything, but I’m doing it anyway. Please save my sister. If you want me to beg, if that’s what it will take to get you to agree, then I will do it. It should be clear by now that I am willing to do anything to save her. So I’m asking you, begging you, please save my sister.”

Something in his face softened slightly, and hope burst in her chest at the indication that she might have swayed him.

He never had a chance to answer.

The rear window suddenly shattered. Glass sprayed into the interior of the truck. Piper cringed, instinctively turning away from the blast. Almost immediately, she whipped her head back to see what had happened.

A car had pulled up behind them without her noticing. She hadn’t been paying close enough attention while she’d been speaking to him, hadn’t even considered that she would need to.

Then she saw the arm reaching out of the driver’s side window, the glint of a gun clutched in a hand, just before a dull thud struck the metal of the truck.

Realization struck as hard as the impact of a bullet. Someone was shooting at them, trying to force them off the road before she could even get to the rendezvous point.

Oh, God.

She should have known they wouldn’t play fair.

Chapter Three

The sound of another bullet hitting metal knocked Piper out of the shock holding her in place.

The driver of the other car wasn’t the only one with a gun.

Gritting her teeth, she turned all the way around in her seat, just as the cowboy shouted, “Friends of yours?”

“Just keep driving!” she yelled, pushing her arms out the shattered back window and taking aim. As soon as she had her target, she pulled the trigger.

She didn’t hear anything, but the shot must have hit, because the car wavered slightly, sliding across the road. Satisfaction surged inside her, but she never let the vehicle out of her sights, matching her movements to it.

Confident she had another shot, she took it.

The windshield cracked.

She shot twice more in quick succession.

The glass cracked farther, the webbing spreading across the windshield. If she wasn’t mistaken, there was no way the driver should be able to see through it.

As if to confirm it, the car suddenly skidded across the road. Seconds later, it went right over the edge of the shoulder, disappearing from view.

A triumphant grin briefly flashed across her lips, the feeling unfamiliar, before she sobered, pulling her arms back into the truck and turning to the cowboy.

“I guess you really do know how to use that,” he said drily.

“And don’t forget it.”

He didn’t reply, frowning slightly. She watched his eyes lower to the panel in front of him. It was only then she realized they were gradually losing speed.

“Why are you slowing down?”

“Something’s wrong.”

She cocked the gun. “Knock it off. We don’t have time for this.”

“I’m not doing anything,” he snapped. “I think he got one of the tires.”

“He couldn’t have. The tire would have blown.”

“Then something must have ricocheted into it or we hit something.”

Dread shot through her. “Ignore it. Keep going.”

“I can’t ignore it. The truck isn’t going to let me.”

“How much farther do we have to go?”

“Too far. We’ll never make it.”

Before she could argue further, he was already easing off the accelerator and pulling over onto the shoulder.

She opened her mouth to tell him once more to keep going, but even as she did, she could feel the truck was starting to list on its left rear tire.

The cowboy shifted the truck into Park and shut off the engine, then opened his door and stepped out without even acknowledging her. Piper quickly scrambled across the seat and followed.

To her horror, the tire was already half-deflated. It must have been a graze or a nick or something, since the tire hadn’t exploded, though it might as well have for what the damage meant.

They didn’t have time for this. “Change the tire,” she ordered.

“I’m going to,” he grumbled. “It’s the only way I can get out of here.”

“How long is it going to take?”

“Long enough.”

“I only have fifteen minutes!”

He finally glanced back at her. This time there was a trace of sympathy in his eyes that shook her more than anything he could say. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I don’t think you’re going to make it.”

She raised the gun at him. “Not good enough.”

He simply shook his head and turned away. “You can shoot me, but it won’t change anything.”

She didn’t want to believe him. She wanted to scream, call him a liar.

But as she watched him work, she realized with a sinking heart that he was right. Changing a tire on a pickup truck was a bigger task than on a passenger car. He didn’t seem to be taking his time, but it was still taking far too long. And even if he managed to get the tire changed quickly, they still had to travel to their destination.

She peered down the road, raising a hand to her face to shade her eyes. There was nothing but the strip of highway and endless stretches of desert as far as the eye could see. No indication that they were anywhere near where she needed to be.

Finding it suddenly hard to breathe, she pulled the cell phone out of her bag with one hand, even though there wasn’t much of a point. She couldn’t even call the kidnapper to beg for more time. The two times she’d spoken with him, he’d called her from an unlisted number. All the contact came from his end. She had no way of reaching him.

All she could do was stand there, feeling time—and Tara’s life—slipping away from her with each passing moment.

She watched in horror as her watch counted down to the appointed meeting time all too quickly, then reached it.

No.

She stood frozen, waiting for something to happen. Something should happen. The end of her world, the end of her sister’s life, couldn’t just pass like this, uneventful, in silence.

At exactly two minutes past, the cell phone suddenly rang. She glanced at the screen even though there was no one else it could possibly be. As expected, the caller was identified only as “Unlisted Number.”

She quickly took the call. “Hello?”

A long silence echoed across the line before the silky, superior voice she expected finally spoke.

“It would seem I overestimated how much your sister means to you, Ms. Lowry.”

“I would have been there if your people hadn’t tried to force me off the road! What were you trying to do, get the drive without having to release my sister? We had a deal!”

She’d responded without thinking, the panic and anger inside her too fierce to hold back in the face of the man’s condescension and everything that had just happened. She fell silent just as quickly, a fresh wave of panic washing over her. She couldn’t afford to make him angry, not if there was any chance left of getting Tara back, not when he held all the cards.

His silence lasted for a torturous eternity.

“I assure you, Ms. Lowry, no one who works for me tried to force you off the road. It’s like you said. We have a deal. I wouldn’t jeopardize that with foolish tactics that could prevent me from getting what I want.”

Of course he was right. If she’d been thinking clearly she would have realized that. “Then who—”

“It would seem that someone doesn’t want you to give me the information.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask who that was, but that was exactly what she couldn’t do.

“So what happens now?” she made herself ask calmly instead.

Another silence. She almost wondered if the bastard was really considering his answers this carefully or if he simply enjoyed tormenting her by dragging them out.

“We will have to arrange another meeting,” he said finally. “I will be in touch—”

“But Tara—”

“Your sister is fine for the time being,” he interrupted with a trace of impatience. “And will remain so as long as you do as you are told.”

“How do I know you’re telling me the truth? How do I know you didn’t try to get to me because my sister is already dead and you didn’t have anything to exchange?”

“I suppose you have no choice but to trust me.”

“Not good enough—”

“You will be allowed to speak with her when we set up the meeting.”

“No, I want to talk to her now—”

He’d already disconnected the call.

A sob rose in her throat, and she nearly gagged holding it back. She couldn’t give in to it. If she lost control, she might never get it back again.

The gun was suddenly snatched away from her, far too quickly for her to tighten the grip she’d unwittingly loosened.

She jerked her head up to find the cowboy standing over her, her gun now clenched in his hand. He didn’t point it at her. He simply held it as he stared down at her, his expression thunderous.

“From the sound of your half of that conversation, the immediate danger is over. Now I want to know what the hell is going on.”

Chapter Four

Cade knew he was capable of being intimidating. He was a big man, and his sheer size alone was enough to inspire a certain wariness in people at times. He didn’t get angry often, certainly not truly angry, but when he did he knew it came across loud and clear. He’d seen more than one ranch hand who’d pulled something over the years cowering in the face of his anger, and after everything this woman had put him through in the past thirty minutes, he was angrier than he’d ever been in his entire life.

The woman didn’t even blink. She simply stared up at him, her eyes so bleak and tired he almost felt an involuntary twinge of sympathy before he stifled the feeling.

She gave her head a little shake. “Trust me, you don’t want to be involved any more than you already are.”

He couldn’t argue with her on that. He didn’t want to be involved in this. But as long as he was, there was no turning back at this point. “So what now, you want me to just leave you here and be on my way?”

“I would appreciate a ride back to my car so I can call for a tow truck, but I’m sure that’s too much to ask.”

“Yeah, it is, especially since your friend who was shooting at us is back in that direction. You don’t think he won’t open fire again if he sees us passing by, or he won’t try to make his way to you while you’re waiting for your tow to show up?”

She frowned, her forehead furrowing, and he could tell she hadn’t thought about it at all. “You’re right. Then if you could take me to the next town, wherever that is—”

“I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on.”

Alarm flared in her eyes. “But we can’t stay here. What if that man passes by while we’re just standing around—”

“Then you’d better start talking fast.”

She scowled at him, her jaw tightening. He could tell she wanted to argue, but must have read in his expression that it wouldn’t do her any good.

Finally she cleared her throat. “My sister Pam is an FBI agent—”

“I thought you said your sister’s name is Tara,” he said sharply, wondering if she was lying to him already, if she hadn’t been all along.

“Tara’s my younger sister. Like I said, she’s only twenty years old. Pam is my twin sister. She’s an FBI agent. Late last year she was assigned to the field office in Dallas.”

He suddenly realized he didn’t know her name. “What about you? What’s your name?”

This time she did blink at him. “Oh. It’s Piper. Piper Lowry.”

He couldn’t have said why, but it suited her. “Okay. Go on.”

“Two days ago, I was notified that Pam was in a car accident that left her in a coma. I immediately flew to Dallas from Boston—that’s where I live. I went straight to the hospital from the airport. The accident was pretty bad. She’s in stable condition, but the doctors have no idea when she might wake up. I didn’t really get many details about what happened—her doctor made some reference that there was evidence she was driven off the road, but said I should talk to the police. I went there next. The detective I spoke to confirmed that it looked suspicious and said he’d been in contact with the FBI since Pam was a federal agent. He asked if I had any idea who might want to harm her. I told him I didn’t.

“After that I went to Pam’s house. When I got there, the phone rang. I wasn’t going to answer it, but when the answering machine picked up, this man—older-sounding, with a slight accent—began speaking. He said they knew I was home and that I’d better stop playing games and pick up the phone if I ever wanted to see my sister alive again.

“I picked up, of course. My first thought was that the man was talking about Pam. I had no idea Tara was missing or in any way involved. The man said he was aware of my accident, which is the only reason he allowed me to miss the original deadline, but he still wanted the information he asked of me.”

“He thought you were Pam,” Cade concluded.

“Exactly. Obviously I wasn’t the sister he was talking about, and we only have one other, so I knew he had to be talking about Tara. I immediately asked if Tara was okay, and he said she was for the time being, but wouldn’t be if I didn’t have the information he wanted.”

“What information?”

“I had no idea. I couldn’t tell him that, because then he’d know I wasn’t Pam. I was afraid that if he knew she was in a coma and incapable of providing any information, he might decide Tara was no use to him anymore and do something to her. So I said I had it. He told me to check the mailbox. There was an envelope in it with a cell phone they would use to contact me, and he would be in touch with further instructions. He hung up, and I immediately went to the mailbox. The phone was exactly where he said it would be.

“As soon as I got back in the house, I tried to reach Tara. I hadn’t spoken to her in a few days, which wasn’t unusual. She’s in college in Pennsylvania, and is busy with school and everything. I couldn’t reach her on her cell, but I did get in touch with her roommate. She said Tara left a few days earlier, leaving a note saying she was heading home for a while because her sister was sick. That would have been before Pam’s accident, and nothing had happened to me, so I figured the kidnappers must have left the note so Tara’s disappearance wouldn’t look suspicious and the police wouldn’t be contacted.”

“Obviously they contacted Pam once they had Tara,” he noted. “She really didn’t give you any idea Tara had been kidnapped? Did she try to reach you? What if you tried to call Tara earlier? You would have known the sick-sister story was a lie.”

Piper shrugged. “Pam tends to do her own thing and likes to handle matters on her own. She probably thought she could handle the situation herself and get Tara back before I even knew anything had happened. Or else she was so busy dealing with the situation she didn’t have time to think about me.”

“So did you call the police?”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t. I didn’t want to do anything to endanger Tara, and I couldn’t trust them not to contact the FBI again, which is the protocol in kidnapping cases, especially one involving multiple states, since she was taken in Pennsylvania, not Texas.”

“Why didn’t you want to contact the FBI? Your sister works for them.”

“Exactly. And the information the kidnappers want must be something related to the Dallas field office. Why else would they kidnap the sister of an agent in that office?”

“So wouldn’t the FBI be the best people to contact? They would know who would want the information so badly and probably be able to figure out who’s behind this and how to stop them.”

“Except that’s exactly what Pam would have done, and look what happened to her.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Think about it. Who would possibly want to run Pam off the road? The kidnappers wouldn’t. They had no reason to. They wouldn’t have wanted to endanger her and possibly ruin their chances of getting what they wanted. No, it must have been someone else. The most likely possibility I can come up with is that Pam went to one of her colleagues for help, someone she trusted, and instead of providing it, they tried to stop her from giving the information to the kidnappers.”

He gaped at her in disbelief. “You think the FBI would run one of their agents off the road to keep her from releasing classified materials? Wouldn’t arresting her be a lot easier?”

“Not the FBI,” she said patiently, as though he were the one speaking nonsense. “Someone within the FBI who’s acting on their own and willing to do whatever it takes to stop this information, whatever it is, from being shared.” She sent a nervous glance in the direction they’d come from. “I think what just happened to us proves how desperate this person is.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I should have realized it wasn’t the kidnappers trying to drive us off the road. I was just so focused on them and trying to get to Tara that, in the heat of the moment, I wasn’t thinking straight. But of course it wasn’t. It’s like the kidnapper said, he wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize getting what he wants. It was someone who didn’t want me getting to my destination and making delivery to the kidnappers, the same someone who tried to stop Pam from doing the same thing.”

Cade tried to think of an explanation for who else might have been shooting at them, but came up empty. She seemed to have thought this all out, not surprising, given that she’d had a lot more time to consider all the possibilities than he had.

Not willing to concede she was right just yet, he decided to set the issue aside for the moment. There was a lot more to this story he needed to hear. “Okay, so you decided not to go to the police or the FBI. What did you do?”

“I tried to figure out what I could do to save Tara and waited for the man to call me back. He finally did last night. He instructed me to drive to Albuquerque and arrive by noon. I left immediately. At noon, he called me with the address of a copy shop where he said a fax would be waiting for me. It was that map that I showed you. I was to be at that location exactly at two.”

“What was your plan?”

“I was going to refuse to give them the information until they let Tara go first.”

He frowned again. “Did you really think they would agree to that?”

“I wasn’t going to give them a choice. I brought a flash drive with me and was going to tell them I would only give them the password to unlock the file on it once they let Tara go.”

“Why would they agree to that? They could have just threatened to shoot Tara if you didn’t give it to them.”

“I was going to throw the flash drive on the ground and say that if they did anything to her I would put a bullet through it and destroy it right then and there. If they tried to shoot me, they would risk me pulling the trigger reflexively and destroying the drive anyway. After going to so much trouble to get the information, I was counting on them not being willing to risk losing it when it was so close at hand. We both had something the other wanted. It would be easier to just make the exchange. And if they threatened to kill her outright, I would have threatened to kill myself if they did, because if anything happened to her, I would have just watched my sister die and wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I’d gotten her killed.”

“Even if they agreed to let her go, they wouldn’t have let you go without the password.”

“I know. I was prepared to stay. That was the exchange. Me, the flash drive and the password for Tara.”

An uneasy feeling began to churn in his gut. “Do you have the information they want?”

“No. I still don’t even know what it is. That’s why I had to get them to let Tara go before I agreed to give them the flash drive supposedly containing the information.”

“You can’t believe they would have agreed to that without knowing you had what they wanted.”

“It was the only chance I had, the only chance Tara had.”

“But once they found out you’d cheated them, they would have killed you.”

She stared back at him, unblinking. “I know,” she said simply.

He had no response to that, could only stare at her, the magnitude of what she was telling him hitting him square in the chest.

“You can’t be serious,” he said, unable to hide his disbelief. “What good would that have done? Once they killed you, they would have gone after her to prevent her from talking.”

“I was going to try to give her as much time as I could to get away. I have a map in my bag that I was going to leave in the car with a note telling her to drive to Colorado to get to the police or FBI there and to avoid the main roads. I didn’t think they would expect her to go there and would have a harder time tracking her that way. I also didn’t think she could trust anyone around here in case the kidnappers had connections with the police or the locals. There had to have been a reason they chose this area for the meeting. Pam had two guns in her house. I had one on me and left the other in the car for Tara. I also had the suitcase I brought with me to Dallas so she would have clothes, though I didn’t have time to grab it before I got in your truck. My ATM and credit cards are in my bag, along with enough cash to see her through for a few days. I would have left it in the car for her, too. It was the best I could come up with on the spur of the moment, but I had to pray it would be enough to get her to safety.”

Cade studied her, too stunned to do anything else. She really had thought the whole thing through. There was no doubting it. This had been a suicide mission. She’d come here fully expecting to die, and had done so willingly, to save her sister. No, it hadn’t just been willing. She’d been desperate to do so, fighting tooth and nail and doing whatever it took to get to a rendezvous where she thought she would die.

She had to understand the enormity of the sacrifice she’d been willing to make. Yet there was no sign of it on her face—no pride, no regret, no misgivings. Just simple straightforwardness, as though it was clear what she’d had to do, as though it were nothing at all.

Maybe it was to her.

He tried to think of anyone he’d ever known who would have been willing to do that for him. Not his father, who’d never wanted a kid in the first place and only cared about what he could find at the bottom of the nearest bottle. Certainly not his mother, who’d walked out on them when he was a boy. Not Caitlin, the one person he thought he would have been willing to do anything for—yeah, probably even die—who’d walked out on him, too. There was Matt Alvarez, his right-hand man on the ranch and the closest thing he had to a friend in this world, but he didn’t know if Alvarez would be willing to make such a colossal sacrifice, and frankly, Cade wouldn’t expect him to.

He wondered what this sister of hers was like, wondered if she was worthy of the sacrifice this woman had been willing to make. Obviously Piper Lowry thought so.

It suddenly struck him that he was just standing there, staring at the woman in front of him. He cleared his throat, his anger gone, replaced by an emotion he couldn’t really name. Any doubts he’d had about her story were gone now. It was far too detailed and she’d related it so unwaveringly she certainly hadn’t been making it up on the spot. All that remained was the question of what to do now.

Only one answer came to mind, one he wasn’t happy with. But it seemed he didn’t have a choice any more than she thought she had.

“Come on,” he said roughly. “Let’s get out of here.”

She frowned. “Where are we going? Back to my car?”

“No. My ranch isn’t far from here. It’ll be safer there. We can figure out what to do next.”

“‘We’?” she echoed faintly. “Why would you want to help me?”

It was a good question, one he would have asked if he were in her shoes, one he was still asking himself.

He gave the only answer he could. “Because somebody needs to.”

He damn well wished it wasn’t him. If he had a brain in his head, it wouldn’t be. A smart man would get away from this woman and her mess as fast as humanly possible.

But it seemed he wasn’t that smart. And like it or not—and he sure as heck did not—it looked like he was all she had.

Chapter Five

Esteban Castillo stood at the window of the bedroom he’d commandeered as his own and stared out at the vast landscape behind the house. It was a view he’d contemplated often since his arrival, enough that he seemed to have every inch of it committed to memory. When he’d left the house earlier that afternoon, he’d thought he’d seen the last of it. But here he was again, exactly where he’d been before.

This part of the plan should have been completed. He should have the information he needed, be on his way to carrying out the next step, to finishing this matter once and for all. Instead, the vengeance he’d vowed so long ago had been delayed again.

Impatience churned in his gut, the feeling unusual. He was a man who knew the importance of patience. He’d pulled himself out of poverty, built his businesses, made his fortune by knowing how to bide his time when necessary, knowing how to wait, knowing exactly when he should act.

The skill he’d carefully cultivated over the years seemed to be failing him now. But then, this wasn’t business. This was very personal.

This was family.

The mere thought of the word sent a sharp pain through him; the feeling quickly burned away by the rage that followed closely behind it. He had no family, not anymore. He’d had only one son. He’d certainly never planned it to be that way, but it was the sole instance where his patience was not rewarded. Ricardo had been weak, soft, too much like his mother in many ways. But he’d been his blood, his legacy.

As such, Castillo had tried to make a place for him in his business, though it was clear Ricardo would never rise to take his place at the top. But Ricardo had had his father’s pride, and that hadn’t been good enough for him. He had come to the United States to make his own name out from the shadow of his father, create his own business, prove himself worthy. Castillo had respected that, though he’d doubted Ricardo would find much success. Truth be told, it was the most he had ever respected his son.

And now Ricardo was gone. Dead. Murdered. His killer unpunished.

But not for long.

Resolve hardened in his belly, making his insides clench.

No, not for long. He was closer than ever before. The delay was temporary, that was all.

Drawing a deep breath, he surveyed the desert scene and tried to let the peacefulness of it sink into his soul.When he’d purchased this property, it hadn’t been for the view. It had been for purely business purposes. The land was located in a strategic location, isolated yet near enough to the border to make a good place for the merchandise he had coming into and out of this country to pass through.

He’d never expected himself to be one of those things passing through this location, never thought he’d lay eyes on it in person. But the property had proven ideal for his current purposes, as well.

No one knew he was in this country, and no one would. As soon as this business was completed, he would slip back out of the United States as easily as he’d slipped into it.

But first he needed the Lowry woman to deliver.

He’d been able to tell from the hysteria in the woman’s voice that she hadn’t been lying or acting. Someone truly had shot at her to prevent her from delivering the information to him. The only positive aspect of this turn of events was that it proved there was something to hide about Ricardo’s death, something someone would stop at nothing to keep hidden. It was why the Lowry woman had had her first accident, why they had tried to stop her again.

A tentative knock at the door behind him pulled him out of his thoughts. “Enter,” he said without turning to see who it was.

The door softly slid open. “Do you need anything?” a voice asked moments later. Diaz.

“No,” he said simply. “The girl is secure?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” She meant too much to the success of this mission. He knew some of the men would have enjoyed having their time with her if he’d allowed it, had seen the lust in their eyes. In many cases he wouldn’t have opposed such a thing. The girl would have to be killed at the end of this, of course, as would her sister.

But he didn’t want her too hurt or traumatized to speak if he needed to put her on the telephone with her sister to confirm she was alive, something that would likely be the case now that the planned exchange hadn’t happened.

The rage surged anew, searing at his nerve endings as if threatening to burst through his skin. As though he could sense it, Diaz retreated. Castillo heard the door close gently behind him.

So close. He’d been so close to getting what he needed, the name of those responsible for Ricardo’s death.

Clearly someone knew it—how much they had to lose—to go to so much trouble to try and stop her.

But they would not be able to hide that information forever. No matter how hard they tried to stop her, Castillo wagered that the Lowry woman would come through in the end. He understood her perhaps better than anyone.

After all, this was about her family. She would do whatever she had to.

Just as he would.

PIPER SHIFTED UNEASILY in her seat as the truck barreled down the open highway toward the cowboy’s ranch. She hadn’t felt this uncertain when they’d been headed toward the rendezvous point. Back then, she’d had a plan. She’d known where she was going, where she had to be, what she had to do. Before that, it had all been about getting to Pam. For the past two days, she’d been running nonstop with clear objectives in mind.

Now she didn’t have any of those things. She had no idea where they were going or what to do or what was going to happen next. The only thing she knew was that, once again, she wasn’t calling the shots. This man was, just as the kidnapper had been. She liked the feeling even less. At least with the kidnapper, she’d known what his motives were. With this man, she didn’t even have that.

She studied him out of the corner of her eye, knowing he was probably aware of her scrutiny but hoping he couldn’t read her nervousness. Why would he want to help her after everything she’d done to him, knowing how much trouble she was in?

“Because somebody needs to.”

It was a like a line out of a movie. People didn’t say things like that in real life. People didn’t do things like this in real life, certainly not in hers. She wanted to believe people like that did exist, that there were people who were willing to help a complete stranger, that she’d somehow come across one when she had needed him most. Experience had taught her that she couldn’t. No one in her life had ever offered her as much as that, not even Pam, her supposed other half.

Could she even trust him? It might not be a coincidence that he happened to come along when she’d been on her way to meet the kidnappers. Or even if he wasn’t directly involved, he might know them. She hadn’t thought Tara could trust anyone in the area, and yet here she was doing exactly that. Telling him the whole story may have been a huge mistake. She knew nothing about this man, who he associated with, what kind of life he led.

There was still time to ask him to drive her to the nearest town and let her out there, instead. She didn’t know what she would do when she got there, but his reaction to the request could reveal a lot about his true intentions.

But something told her that she could trust this man. She only hoped it was gut instinct, one she could rely on, and she wasn’t letting desperation cloud her mind, tricking her into placing her trust in a man she knew nothing about.

Including his name, she realized with a start. She’d been so dazed by the offer and everything that had happened in such a short amount of time she hadn’t even thought to ask, simply following him back to his truck without a word. She could have shaken herself. That was definitely a mistake, potentially a fatal one. Damn. She needed to pull it together.

“What’s your name?” she asked. The question came out more bluntly than she’d intended and she nearly winced. Of course, she’d pulled a gun on the man. It was a little late to worry about being rude.

If he took offense at her tone, he didn’t show it. She hadn’t seen a single flicker of emotion pass over the stony expression he’d worn since they’d climbed back into the truck, and she didn’t now. “McClain,” he said tersely. “Cade McClain.”

Her automatic response upon meeting someone was usually to say it was good to meet them, and she felt the words rise to her tongue. She choked them back, knowing how ridiculous they’d sound at this point. Not to mention he probably didn’t feel the same.

“How long have you lived around here?” she asked, instead.

“Four years,” he said. “That’s when I bought the ranch.”

She glanced at him in surprise. So he really had meant it was “his” ranch, not just one where he worked. He must be successful if he’d been able to buy it four years ago when he was only in his mid-thirties.

“So you must know everybody in the area pretty well.”

“Pretty much.”

“Any ideas of anyone who might be involved in something like this?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. Haven’t come up with a name yet.”

Not knowing what else to say, she turned her attention back to the road in front of them. The western landscape stretched out around them, seemingly endless. She was so tired she could barely think straight. It was all she could do not to sink back into the worn leather seat and close her eyes, if only for a moment.

“This is it.”

Piper jolted upright, her eyes flying open, the realization that she had closed them after all shocking her. She couldn’t afford to let her guard down. Yet it appeared she just had.

They were turning onto a driveway. Directly in front of them, a wooden arch with the words Triple C Ranch carved into it curved above the road. Piper had barely taken in the words when they’d passed beneath them.

Ahead she could see a long, one-story house, a barn a short distance from it, and several smaller buildings beyond. There appeared to be a few fenced-in areas, and surrounding it was flat, open land as far as the eye could see. Piper couldn’t detect any signs where the land ended. Clearly it was a massive property, she noted with a flicker of unease. She should have assumed as much. Ranches probably weren’t small, not that she would know. She’d never been to one before.

They were completely isolated out here. If she wanted to leave and he refused to let her, there was likely no way for her to escape. She would be among strangers, all of whom would be his allies, not hers. Most of them probably worked for him. And even if she was right in trusting him, there were no guarantees the same applied to anyone else here. Either way, she could be trapped here with the enemy.

McClain pulled the truck to a stop in front of the house. Through the windshield she could see a man approaching the truck from the barn. Piper felt another flicker of unease. Who was he? McClain didn’t appear concerned in the least, and the man was on his property, so he must be someone who belonged here. She would still feel a lot better if she knew who he was.

Before she could ask, McClain shut off the engine, unfastened his seat belt and climbed out without a word or a glance back, leaving her no choice but to follow his lead and get out.

Shading her eyes with one hand, Piper scrutinized the man approaching, trying to make a quick determination if he was friend or foe. He was a tall, muscular man, dressed in a button-down shirt, jeans and boots like McClain. Another cowboy. Piper guessed he was in his early thirties, his black hair and bronze skin indicating a Latino heritage. As he came closer, she could see he was handsome, albeit in a very different way from the man beside her.

“Everything okay?” he called. “I was expecting you back a while ago.”

“Yeah, something just came up.” As he said it, he turned slightly toward her, leaving no doubt what that something was. “Piper Lowry, this is my foreman, Matt Alvarez. Matt, Piper Lowry.”

She felt a moment of alarm at the sound of her name leaving McClain’s mouth, at having this new stranger learn who she was. Could he be trusted?

In fact, the way the man’s eyes narrowed with something that looked a lot like suspicion, Piper’s gut reaction was that he couldn’t be. She instantly reevaluated her first impression. There was nothing handsome about the cold way he was looking at her.

“Hello,” Alvarez said, not bothering to say it was good to meet her either, since it clearly wasn’t.

Piper glanced up at Cade, her body tensing in preparation to bolt if necessary, even if she didn’t have any idea where she would go. “Is there a problem?”

“No,” he said, glaring at the other man. “Matt is just not much of a people person. Don’t mind him. Come on inside.” He jerked his chin at Alvarez. “You, too. We need to talk.”

Turning back to her, Cade extended his arm toward the house, motioning her to proceed. Inching forward, Piper kept her eyes on Alvarez, who stared right back with that same unrelenting suspicion. Finally she was forced to look forward and climb the front steps, Cade right behind her.

As they crossed the wide porch, Cade moved in front of her and opened the door for her. She stepped into a large entryway.

“In here.” Cade motioned to a room directly to the left. “Have a seat.”

It was a living room. Piper barely took note of the decor, falling into the nearest chair. It, two others and a couch were clustered around a coffee table. Each of the men took one of the other chairs.

“So what’s going on?” Alvarez said before he was even in his seat.

Piper wasn’t sure how much she wanted to reveal to this strangely hostile man. Cade took the decision out of her hands.

“Piper’s sister has been kidnapped for ransom,” he said without preamble. “Piper was ordered to drive out to Cartwright for the exchange, but had car trouble and didn’t make it. I picked her up along the side of the highway, which is when somebody started shooting at us. We managed to get away, and I brought her here so we could figure out what to do.”

Cade offered the sanitized version of what had happened so smoothly Piper almost could have believed it herself. From the way Alvarez’s eyes narrowed again, shifting slightly from Cade to her and back again, he suspected there was more to the story, as well.

“Aren’t you going to call the police?”

“No,” Piper said immediately. “I can’t.”

Alvarez raised one eyebrow so high it nearly met his hairline. “You can’t?”

Cade quickly explained about Pam, the fact that she was an FBI agent, and what had happened to her. “Piper doesn’t know who within the FBI she can trust. There’s a good chance someone there is involved and was the person shooting at us. She doesn’t want to risk contacting the police and having them getting in touch with the FBI, alerting them to where she is.”

“You think you can’t trust the police?” Alvarez said.

“For the kidnappers to bring me here of all places, chances are they have some connection to the area. That could include anyone with the local police. I can’t risk it. My sister’s life is on the line. I can’t afford to trust the wrong person.”

“But you trust us, even though we’re locals?” he asked, his voice tinged with a disbelief she understood all too well. It did seem ridiculous, that she would choose to trust a complete stranger over the police when they were just as likely to be involved with the kidnappers as anyone with the local authorities.

Her eyes immediately returned to Cade, and as she took him in once more, she realized it was true. She felt it in her bones. She did trust him. If he was involved in this, she couldn’t imagine what kind of game he was playing. She’d already admitted she wasn’t the sister the kidnappers were expecting, didn’t have the information they wanted and likely had no way of obtaining it. He had her in his house on his vast, isolated property. No one knew where she was and likely no one could help her if she needed it. There was no reason to continue pretending he was trying to help her if he wasn’t.

As for Matt Alvarez, she had to hope Cade knew him well enough to be right about him. There was no turning back now.

“I do,” she said in response to Alvarez’s question, directing her words at Cade so there could be no doubt who she meant. Cade gave her a small nod. The slight gesture, combined with the solemnity in his eyes, seemed to say he understood and took them as seriously as she did.

Turning back to Alvarez, she looked him straight in the eye. “If it was your sister we were talking about, is there anyone with the local police you would trust with her life?”

As soon as he grimaced, she knew she had him there, and he wasn’t the least bit happy about it. “All right,” he muttered. “So what are the two of you planning to do?”

It was a very good question, one Piper still didn’t have an answer for. She glanced again at Cade. He’d suggested coming here so they could figure it out. He’d been so quiet on the drive she wondered if he’d thought of anything.

“I figure they must be keeping her somewhere nearby,” Cade said slowly. “There has to be a reason they had Piper come all the way out here, and they wouldn’t want to have to transport the sister far to bring her to the meeting place.”

“Unless the sister’s already dead and they had no intention of returning her or producing her at the meeting,” Alvarez said, the words making Piper’s blood run cold. “If she—” he nodded toward Piper “—came all this way and had the information on her, they would have had her cornered and there would have been no reason to hold up their end of the bargain.”

“The man just told me I could talk to Tara the next time he calls, so I have to believe she’s still alive. I have to,” Piper repeated, her voice breaking slightly. She slammed her lips together as though that would somehow bring the sound back and turned her head away from both men, her eyes suddenly burning. The fact that she hadn’t been able to speak to Tara yet had never been far from her thoughts, the possible implications terrifying her.

“You can believe it,” Cade said quietly but firmly. “She’s their leverage. They’re not going to do anything to her until they have what they want.”

She looked up at him. He met her gaze and nodded again, the confidence and reassurance she saw in his eyes bolstering her courage. He’d clearly read what she was thinking, and the unexpected kindness in his response surprised her, touching something deep inside her.

“All right,” Alvarez said, his tone almost grudging. “So if the sister is alive where would they keep her?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Cade said. “What about the Emerson spread?”

Alvarez appeared to mull this over for a moment before nodding. “I guess that makes sense.”

Piper leaned forward in excitement. “Where’s the Emerson spread?”

“It’s the property next to mine to the east,” Cade said. “Everybody else in the area has been here for years. I can’t see any of them being involved in something like this. Jim Emerson had to sell last year. As far as I know, no one knows who bought the property and nobody’s seen the new owners. I’ve heard talk there’ve been people out there recently though.”

“I’ve seen movement over there,” Matt confirmed. “But whoever’s over there has pretty much kept to themselves. They sure haven’t come over to introduce themselves, and nobody in town has met them.”

“That’s suspicious, isn’t it?” Piper asked. “If they were living or ranching or anything out there, they would have to go into town for supplies and things, right? Unless there’s a reason they’re keeping a low profile.”

“Most likely. Some people have been wondering if there isn’t something illegal going on out there. Maybe a meth lab, or some other kind of drugs. It’s also pretty easy to get to Cartwright going through the back of the property. Wouldn’t even have to take any of the main roads.”

“What do you want to do?” Matt asked. “Go over there and talk to them?”

“No. If it is them, I don’t want to tip them off we’re on to them. It’ll only make them more careful than they’re already being. I was thinking we should start by finding out who does own the property if we can.” He raised a brow. “I thought you might give Abby a call, see if she could help you out.”

The look Matt shot him said exactly what he thought of that idea. Cade didn’t cave, simply looking back at him.

“Abby?” Piper asked carefully.

“She’s a friend of Matt’s.” Cade’s expression betrayed nothing, but it was pretty clear what kind of friend the woman was to Alvarez. Piper could only imagine this Abby had seen a softer side of the man than she had. She certainly hoped so.

“And she can help?”

“She works at the county clerk’s office. She can tell us who the new owner is.” He studied Matt. “Well?”

“Can I have a word with you first? In private?”

The look that crossed Cade’s face said he wanted to say no. Piper quickly stood. It sounded like she needed this man’s help, so she was willing to do whatever it took to stay on his good side. If he wanted a word with Cade alone, she could give it to him. She just prayed Cade would be able to convince him to cooperate. “I’m sorry. Is there any way I can use the bathroom?”

“Sure,” Cade said, glancing back toward the entryway. “The closest one is down the hallway, third door on the right.”

“Thanks.”

She wasted no time making her exit, slipping out of the room.

CADE AND MATT SAT in silence staring at each other as Piper’s footsteps retreated down the hallway. Cade could tell Matt was holding his tongue, just as ready to say something as Cade himself was. They waited, locked in a silent standoff.

Finally the sound of the bathroom door clicking shut down the hall reached them.

“What are you doing?” Matt said lowly before Cade could open his mouth. “Why are you getting involved in this mess?”

“Because somebody has to.”

“Why does it have to be you?”

“Because I don’t see anyone else, do you?”

Matt simply stared at him through narrowed eyes for a long moment before giving his head a small shake.

“What?” Cade demanded.

“I remember the last time you decided to save some woman who needed it,” Matt said flatly.

The reminder sent a searing hot pain slicing through him. “This is nothing like Caitlin,” Cade said. “And even it was, I sure as hell learned my lesson the last time. I’m damn well not going to make the same mistake again.”

“Glad to hear it. But you’re still putting yourself on the line for a woman you don’t even know, and this situation’s a hell of a lot more serious than that one. Somebody was shooting at you? I mean, come on. Don’t you think this story is a little hard to believe?”

“Of course. But with everything I’ve experienced in the past hour, I know it’s all true.”

Matt’s expression tightened with suspicion. “There’s more to this than what you’re telling me, isn’t there?”

“I told you everything you need to know.” He wasn’t about to tell Matt that Piper had pulled a gun on him, that that was how they’d first met. It wasn’t exactly something that would make Matt any more eager to help her, and would only further convince him that Cade was crazy for wanting to do so.

“I don’t think so,” Matt said. “Not if you want me to help you. Not if you’re putting more people in danger than just yourself. Because that’s what’s happening here. You’re putting everyone on this ranch in danger. If this woman has people after her, they could come here looking for her and every one of us could be at risk.”

He was right, Cade conceded. It was something he hadn’t really considered in the middle of trying to work out Piper’s situation. But he should have. He owed it to everyone who worked for him.

“I won’t expect anyone else to get involved with this. I’ll give everybody a few days off with pay.” It was still early in the year, and he only had a few hands working for him at the moment. In fact, it may be better that way. He might be letting Piper’s paranoia get to him, but the fewer people who knew about this, the better. As long as he didn’t know who was over there, he couldn’t be sure who they might know and who might tell them things.

“And if this isn’t resolved in a few days, what happens then?” Matt asked.

“I’ll figure that out when I have to.” He had enough to worry about in the present for the time being. He’d deal with the future when it came.

He did have an idea of what to do next, but wasn’t ready to bring it up yet, especially since he knew what Matt’s reaction would be.

“You say you don’t expect anyone else to get involved in this, but you’ve already asked me to.”

“I’m asking you to, because she needs my help and I need yours.”

“You may be enough of a fool to get mixed up in this. That doesn’t mean that I am.”

“Are you really willing to stand by and do nothing while a young woman is being held hostage and could be killed?”

Cade saw the instant Matt relented, exactly as he’d known he would. They wouldn’t have been able to work together this long if Matt was the kind of man who would stand by.

“No,” Matt gritted out, his jaw tight.

“So you’ll give Abby a call?” Under different circumstances, Cade might have felt bad about taking advantage of somebody’s relationship like that, but with somebody’s life on the line, he didn’t feel an ounce of regret. Not to mention that what Matt and Abby had was no love match. It was more an arrangement between two people who had needs and no interest in settling down.

“Yeah,” Matt finally relented.

The sound of footsteps drew their attention back to the hall.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.