Distractedly, Lantry glanced back at the car he’d just passed, then over at Dede. The woman just continued to surprise him—and worry him.
“Dede, I need to know what happened back at the van,” he asked finally.
Her eyes filmed over for a moment. She took a deep breath and let it out. He listened without saying anything until she was finished. “That’s pretty much what I figured.”
He could feel her gaze. “You believe me?”
“Why shouldn’t I?” he asked, glancing over at her as he drove.
Dede was studying him. “What changed your mind about me?”
What exactly had changed his mind? Not her angelic face. Or those innocent big blue eyes. Or the sweet taste of her when he’d kissed her back at the farmhouse. But he had to admit, some of that had played a part.
“I don’t know. I wanted to believe you at some point. Then when I found out Frank had given me a gift just as you’d suspected and someone took a potshot at me…” He frowned. “You don’t seem surprised.”
“I told you Ed would try to kill you again.”
“Except he didn’t try to kill me. Unless he’s a really bad shot, he purposely missed.”
That seemed to surprise her. “You think he was just trying to scare you?”
Hell, he did scare me. “No, I think he wants something he thinks I have, and he just wanted to let me know he’ll be coming for it.”
“What Frank hid in the boat?”
Lantry nodded.
“And you have the boat with you?” she asked, glancing behind the seat into the extended cab and the two boxes there.
He found himself staring at her again. Only this time it had nothing to do with kissing her. “You know what’s in the boat, don’t you?”
“I told you—”
“I know what you told me. How about the truth?”
Those blue eyes narrowed into deadly daggers. “I am telling you the truth. I’m afraid the necklace is in the boat.”
“From the burglary.”
She nodded, then turned to look out her side window as the road climbed into the foothills of the Little Rockies.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t telling him everything. Was it possible that Frank had left something that might incriminate Dede Chamberlain, and that was why she’d risked everything to find it? Or that Dede had been after the necklace all along?
As he turned onto the road to Landusky, he checked his rearview mirror. The large brown car they’d passed earlier was a dozen car lengths behind them, but no other vehicle was in sight.
Lantry tried to relax. They were safe. No one would think to look for them in Landusky.
* * *
“THIS IS WHERE we’re going?” Dede asked, both surprised and apprehensive as she spotted the handful of old buildings clinging precariously to the side of the mountain, half-buried in the deep snow.
“It’s pretty much a ghost town now,” Lantry said. “The town was named after Pike Landusky. He and another man discovered the gold here back in the late 1860s. Landusky was some character, I guess.”
Lantry chuckled to himself. “As the story goes, one time he was taken captive by an Indian war party. Landusky, who should have been afraid for his life, attacked one of the braves—allegedly with a frying pan. The Indians, thinking he must be crazy, gave him two ponies to appease the demon and left him alone from then on.”
“So what happened to him?” she asked, seeing how much Lantry was enjoying the story.
“Pike Landusky got on the wrong side of Kid Curry. The Curry brothers ranched about five miles to the south of here. Kid Curry killed him after an altercation in the local saloon. Landusky was buried nine feet deep—instead of six—to make sure he didn’t come back.”
Dede smiled, thinking Lantry would have fit into that Old West. She wondered, though, whether he would have been a Pike Landusky or a Kid Curry.
He drove through what was left of Landusky’s wild town and took a side road that was even more narrow and lined with banks of snow. Then, shifting into four-wheel drive low, busted up through the pines on what appeared to be nothing more than a trail.
A large log structure appeared as they topped the hill. Lantry brought the pickup to a stop.
“We can stay here for a while,” he said, cutting the engine. “It’s all right. The place belongs to one of my brothers. He’s having it built for his wife’s birthday, but it’s a surprise—so no one in the family knows about it except me. I took care of the legal work for him.”
“This brother…”
“Not Shane, the deputy sheriff. Dalton, the cowboy rancher.”
“How many brothers do you have?” Dede asked as they got out and waded through the snow to the backdoor.
Lantry fished the key out of its hiding place and opened the door. “There’s five of us.” He stepped in to turn on the lights, glad to see the electricity was still on. “It’s kind of a mess because it’s still under construction.”
There were ladders and sawhorses, piles of lumber and tools, as well as sawdust and drop cloths.
“I guess I didn’t realize your whole family had moved to Montana,” Dede said, working her way through to the living room.
“It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you about it some time.” Lantry looked around. “The fireplace is finished, and at least one bedroom.” He pointed to the loft. Apparently the interior decorator had finished up there, since she could see a large bed with a brocade spread and other furnishings.
“See if there’s anything to eat in the kitchen,” Lantry said. “I’ll get the boxes out of the truck.”
Dede wandered into the kitchen. Unlike the ranchhouse they’d broken into, these cupboards were practically bare. But she found some food in the refrigerator that the construction workers must have left.
As she walked through the beautiful log lodge, she envied Dalton Corbett’s wife. To have a man love you so much that he planned such a wonderful surprise…
Dede caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Through the dusty window, she saw Lantry standing outside by his pickup. He was on his cell phone.
Her heart dropped.
* * *
“WHERE THE HELL are you?” Shane demanded the instant he answered.
Lantry had stepped outside so Dede couldn’t see or hear him use the cell phone. He knew he’d be able to get service because the town of Landusky was just down the mountain side. He had thought about telling her he planned to call his brother, but he feared it might make her run again. “We need to talk.”
“What the hell is going on?” Shane asked, lowering his voice.
“I have Dede Chamberlain.”
“When are you bringing her in?”
“I’m not.” He waited until his brother quit swearing. “At least not for twenty-four hours.”
“Twenty-four hours?”
“There’s something I need to check out first.”
Shane bit off each word into the phone. “Do you have any idea the spot you’ve put me in?”
“I’m sorry, but like I told you, I believe her.”
“Damn it, Lantry, Dede Chamberlain isn’t just wanted for escaping a mental hospital or two. Bodies are piling up. Frank Chamberlain, Tamara Fallon, the hospital guard, one of the patients…” A beat, then, “I’m waiting for you to sound surprised, damn it.”
“She didn’t kill anyone.”
“And you know that how?”
“She loved Frank Chamberlain. She still does. And as for the guard and the patient, Dede told me that the guard stopped the van and told her to get out. He was going to kill her, Shane.”
“The guard from the hospital? So you’re telling me it was self-defense.”
“Yes, only Dede never touched the guard’s gun. If you check, you’ll find that the guard is from Texas. He’s an old friend of Frank Chamberlain’s, Dede’s ex, and he only recently got the job at the hospital up here.”
“And what did she tell you happened after the driver told her to get out of the van?” Shane asked.
Lantry could hear the skepticism in his voice. Why did his brother always have to be a cop? “The other escapees saw what was going to happen. The guard opened the metal mesh door between him and them and Roberta went for the gun. She and the guard were shot in the scuffle. Violet ended up with the gun. Dede feared she’d be next and took off across the pasture and hid until she saw Violet hitchhiking up the road.”
“At least that’s Dede’s story.” Shane slammed a file cabinet drawer or something that sounded a lot like one. The noise reverberated through the phone. “Listen to me. You have to turn her over now, Lantry. Otherwise, you are looking at aiding and abetting. I don’t think I have to tell you what kind of sentence that carries with it, since you’re a damned lawyer.”
“I need twenty-four hours. That’s all I’m asking. By then I hope to have the proof I need and can file papers to keep Dede from going back to that hospital.” He could hear his brother breathing hard on the other end of the line. “Shane, I know this woman didn’t kill anyone.”
“You don’t know. You can’t know her after spending only a few hours with her.”
“Either way, I take full responsibility for what I’m doing.”
Shane’s chuckle held no humor. “Even you may not be able to use that high-priced law degree to get out of this one, Lantry. There is a state manhunt on now for Dede and Violet. Turn her over to me, and then you can work your legal magic to get her freed. In the meantime, I will do everything I can to help her.”
“I know you would,” Lantry said. “But I can’t trust that the men after her won’t get to her through one of the mental-hospital guards or some rogue deputy.”
“You’re talking just as crazy as she is,” Shane snapped.
“Don’t forget that someone took a potshot at me. Did either of the three escapees or the hospital guard have a high-powered rifle on them when you found them? I didn’t think so. There’s still a killer out there. Give me twenty-four hours to find out why this person wants Dede and me dead.”
“Do you believe this woman because of that face of hers or those big blue eyes or because she’s actually telling the truth?”
“You should know me better than that,” Lantry snapped back. “Check out Claude, the driver of the mental hospital van. He has a friend named Ed. That’s all I know. But I figure Ed can’t be far behind him.”
“When I find you, I’m going to kick your butt all the way back to Texas,” Shane said.
“Twenty-four hours.” He snapped the phone shut and swore. He hoped the sheriff’s department couldn’t trace the call. He doubted it.
His brother was right about one thing: Dede had gotten under his skin. He just hoped to hell it wasn’t for the reason that Shane thought.
* * *
SHANE HUNG UP, furious with his brother and yet more worried than angry. Lantry had no idea what he was dealing with.
He thought about Dede Chamberlain and could understand how someone could be taken in by her. But Lantry? The divorce lawyer had never even had a serious relationship. He dated but seldom, and he’d made it clear he’d never planned to marry. That was a given, but he’d also never gotten close enough to a woman to give a real relationship a fighting chance.
So what was different about Dede?
She was a woman in trouble. That alone was a siren call for any of the Corbett brothers, Shane thought with a groan. But sticking your neck out to save a woman was one thing. Lantry had crossed a line with this one.
Shane knew what had him so upset. It wasn’t that every law officer in several counties was looking for Dede Chamberlain or even that she was wanted for questioning in three murders.
It was Lantry trusting this woman with his life.
Sheriff Carter Jackson looked up as Shane stepped into his office. They’d just come off a shift change, though Shane had no thought of going home. He had to find his brother before it was too late.
“I just spoke with Lantry,” Shane said, shutting the door behind him.
“Okay,” Carter said. “Let’s hear it.”
“Lantry found Dede Chamberlain. He has her.”
“He’s bringing her in, right?”
“He wants twenty-four hours. He says he’s following some lead and will bring her in then.”
The sheriff was shaking his head. “He needs to bring her in now. I assume you told him that. He knows about the murders?”
“He found the van.”
“So those were his footprints we discovered.” The sheriff let out a curse. “You said he’s a lawyer, so he knows that he’s now wanted for questioning along with aiding and abetting?”
Shane nodded solemnly. “I tried to talk some sense into him, but he’s convinced that if he brings Dede in, she won’t live long enough to make it back to the state hospital. Given what happened to the van driver and the other patient…”
“You know we can keep her safe here at the jail.”
“I’m sorry, Sheriff, but, truthfully, I don’t know that. Look what happened before. Don’t get me wrong. I did everything I could to convince my brother to bring her in. But just between you and me, she might be safer with Lantry right now.”
“But is your brother safe?” He shook his head. “Do you have any idea where he has taken her?”
“He can’t take her to the ranch, because he knows I would arrest them both. I really don’t know where he’s gone, but I intend to find him.” Hopefully before anything bad happened to him.
* * *
VIOLET CAME TO in the dark. Her eyes flew open, panic making her jerk and hit her head. She let out a frightened moan and for a moment thought she was a little girl again and that her grandmother had locked her in the old coal bin.
She shivered at the memory. The cobwebs and spiders. The smell of sour earth. The sound of mice chewing somewhere in the dank basement. She had fought so hard not to cry. To cry meant her grandmother would leave her in there longer.
Violet quickly quieted herself as she realized she wasn’t in the old coal bin, and her grandmother was dead—if not gone.
She could hear the hum of the tires on the highway over the roar of the big car’s engine, and she could smell the too-sweet scent of recently cleaned rental-car carpeting where she lay.
Still, it took her a few minutes before she could chase away thoughts of the coal bin. She rubbed her face into the carpet until it hurt, until she could no longer imagine the brush of cobwebs on her skin or hear the creak of her grandmother’s shoe soles on the other side of the darkness.
As Violet slowed her mind to catch her erratic thoughts, she knew two things. She was still alive, apparently none the worse for wear except for a splitting headache, and she hadn’t been dumped beside the road. Instead, he’d left her alive—and taken her with him in the trunk.
What worried her was why.
Had she been in his position, she would have made sure Violet Evans had breathed her last breath. But then, he didn’t know her, did he, she thought with what passed for a smile beneath the duct tape.
Violet began to make plans for her escape. The first step was getting the duct tape off her wrists. That was made more difficult since her wrists were taped behind her back.
She felt around in the trunk, only to discover it was empty. What tools there were must be in some hidden compartment—probably underneath her. She searched the interior of the trunk with her cold fingers, finding rope and more duct tape. Definitely not a good sign. She kept searching until she found a rough spot on the metal frame of the trunk.
Meticulously she began to work at the duct tape, letting her mind drift.
Ed had made a mistake keeping her alive. One he would live to regret.
* * *
DEDE WAS WAITING for him when Lantry came back into the house with the two boxes from the pickup.
When she’d seen him on his cell phone, she’d thought about taking off again, but soon it would be dark and the snow was even deeper up here in the mountains. The days up here, so close to the Canadian border, were short, and she was exhausted both mentally and physically, a part of her ready to concede. And yet another part of her was so angry and disappointed in Lantry that she wanted to stay and fight.
“Guess what,” Lantry said as he closed the door behind him and set down the two boxes he’d brought in.
“I’m going back to jail. What a surprise since I saw you making the call.”
His face clouded. “I did call Shane, but not to turn you in. I asked him to give me twenty-four hours. I didn’t tell him where we are, and I sure as hell didn’t sell you out.”
Had she misjudged him again? “I thought—”
“I know what you thought. When are you going to start trusting me?”
“Maybe when you start trusting me,” she snapped back.
“Damn it, Dede,” he said closing his fingers over her upper arm and dragging her closer. “I’ve gone out on a limb for you.” He shook his head. “By now there’s an APB out on me as well as you. What more can I do to prove that I’m in this with you?”
He kissed her hard on the mouth, a punishing kiss that took her breath away. Then he practically flung her away from him, swearing under his breath.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he dragged off his Stetson. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
The kiss was all her idea this time. Not that she gave it any thought before she went up on tiptoes and pressed her mouth to his. Just like the first time, his mustache tickled, but only for an instant before he dragged her to him, encircling her with his strong arms.
Her lips parted, opening for him, and she felt the tip of his tongue sweep over her lower lip. It had been so long since she’d felt desire, felt it run like a fire through her veins, felt it blaze across her skin.
She would have been shocked had she thought about how badly she wanted this man, but at that moment all reason had left her. Her body ached with a need for this cowboy, and Dede threw all caution to the wind as he swept her up and carried her to the loft.
He took her to the bed and set her down to look into her eyes. “Dede?”
She knew what he was asking. Reaching down, she grabbed the hem of the sweater he’d taken for her at the Thompson’s ranchhouse and pulled it over her head, baring her breasts.
Lantry groaned and pulled her to him, his kiss as hot as her blood. She breathed in the scent of him as his hands cupped her behind.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down with her onto the cool fabric of the comforter. Her fingers worked at the snaps on his Western shirt, needing to feel his flesh against her own.
He wriggled out of his shirt, tossing it aside, his mouth coming back to hers. She felt his warm palm cup her breast; the rough pad of his thumb brushed the hard nub of her nipple, making her arch against him.
“Lantry,” she cried on a breath, her fingers going to the buttons on her jeans, then to his, both of them needing and wanting this human touch.
She couldn’t hold back the satisfied sound that came from her lips when they’d finally shed all their clothing and he took her in his arms. She touched his face and looked into his dark blue eyes, seeing her own desire reflected there as he made love to her.
The first time was fast and furious, both of them breathing hard, holding tight to each other.
* * *
LANTRY LAY SPENT on the strange bed, the naked, warm Dede in his arms. As he stared up at the ceiling, a smile on his lips, he tried to remember another time in his life when he’d felt like this. Never.
That alone should have scared the hell out of him. But he wasn’t a man who scared easily. He’d ridden wild horses, wrestled his fair share of steers to the ground and even rode mean bulls. He’d known his share of women, drunk his share of good wine and even better booze, and had more than his share of successes in life.
But he’d never known such euphoria as he did at this moment. Or such peace. He pulled Dede a little closer, loving the feel of her skin on his own, breathing in the musky scent of the two of them entwined.
He felt her stir, her breath tickling his neck. “You asked how all the Corbetts ended up in Montana,” he said quietly. “You still want to hear?”
She nodded and snuggled closer.
“Our mother died when we were young. Dad’s recently remarried. That’s how we all ended up in Montana. His wife, Kate, was from here. Trails West Ranch was her family’s. My mother was born on the ranch. Her father was the ranch manager.” He shrugged. “None of us planned to stay here, but then Dad found some letters my mom left. She wanted us to marry Montana girls. Mostly Dad wanted us close by. One of my brothers came up with this inane idea that we should make a marriage pact. Russell suggested drawing straws to see who would get married first.”
Dede started laughing. “You would never have agreed to such a thing. Not you. Don’t tell me that you—”
“I drew a damned straw just to shut them all up.” The truth was, he’d gotten caught up in the moment, wanting to do this for their mother.
“And now all but you are married or engaged?” Dede asked in disbelief.
“I’m not sure how it happened. I guess it made us all more open to marriage.” He realized Dede was staring at him.
“Except for you,” she said, daring him to disagree.
“I still think marriage is a gamble,” he said, cupping her cheek in his large palm. “I’ve never even been tempted. Never met a woman who made me want to risk it.” He looked into her big blue eyes. But then, he’d never met anyone like Dede Chamberlain, had he? “Until—”
She pulled away, drawing the sheet around her as she got out of bed. “Don’t, Lantry,” she said, her back to him.
“Don’t tell you how I’m feeling?”
“No.” She turned to scowl at him. “I don’t trust your feelings. Not right now. It’s too soon.” She glanced toward the living room. “We don’t know what’s in that box down there, and I think we’re both afraid to look.”
He wanted to pour his heart out to her, but he knew she was right. And for a while he’d forgotten that she was still in love with her ex-husband.
Also there was that damned box with the boat in it—and whatever might or might not be inside.
Even if there was no explosive device inside that boat, Lantry wasn’t fool enough to think that whatever was in there couldn’t blow up. He and Dede might never make this mess right again.
Dede looked as worried as he felt. Still, he couldn’t help the way he felt about her. He didn’t want this to end, damn it. And he was scared that whatever was in that box was going to destroy the two of them.
“If we survive this—”
“When we survive this,” he said, grabbing hold of the edge of the sheet and jerking it to free her wonderful naked body. He reached for her hand and pulled her back into bed, back to him, and then he made love to her slowly, deliberately, passionately as snow began to fall outside and the light began to fade to black.
It wasn’t until later, when they lay in the bed listening to the snow pelting the window, that Lantry knew they couldn’t put it off any longer.
It was time to find out what the hell Frank Chamberlain had put into that boat. Something so valuable that it had cost him his life and, just having it, could cost them theirs, as well.