Killer Cowboy. Carla Cassidy
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need to call Dillon.” Adam sat on the sofa next to her. “There’s no way this was some kind of a freak accident. Somebody had to close the door and fasten the padlock.”
A new chill raced through her. Yes, she needed to call Dillon. She had no idea what intention the person had when they’d locked her in the shed, but there was no way it was good.
* * *
Dillon pulled up in front of his ranch house. It was the place he’d once thought would be filled with love and the sound of children laughing. He’d never dreamed he’d come home each night to a dark and lonely place.
He killed his headlights and got out of the car. He’d eaten a burger at the café and now hoped he could empty his mind enough to get a good night’s sleep. His brain had worked overtime all day. As if the murder investigation wasn’t enough, the kiss he’d shared with Cassie had intruded into his thoughts throughout the entire day.
He unlocked his front door and walked in. Minutes later he was in his recliner with a beer in hand. When he’d bought this three-bedroom, two-bath house set on ten acres of land, he’d never dreamed he’d be living here alone.
He’d made so many plans with Stacy, the girl he’d fallen in love with when they’d both been high school juniors, and he’d been utterly blindsided when she’d not only left him, but had also left Bitterroot for life in a big city. He’d heard through the grapevine that she’d moved to Chicago. He hoped she’d found whatever she’d been looking for.
Sipping his beer, he tried to remember kissing Stacy. Strange, he couldn’t remember what it felt like. Instead thoughts of kissing Cassie filled his head.
Her lips had been so hot and so wonderfully inviting. Damn the woman. He needed to keep his distance from her. He was convinced she was just another Stacy waiting to happen and he couldn’t go through that kind of thing again. He’d rather be alone than take a chance with her.
He finished his beer and got up from the chair. Now all he wanted was to shower off the Oklahoma dust and then hit the hay. He’d just entered the master bath when his phone rang.
“Chief, sorry to bother you,” Brenda Kline, the night dispatcher said.
“No problem, what’s up?”
“I just got a call from Adam Benson out at the Holiday ranch. He said something about Cassie being locked up in a shed and they need you out there.”
“On my way,” he replied. His stomach tightened as he left the house and got into his car.
Cassie locked in a shed? Had she been hurt? What in the hell was going on now? Had it just been some sort of freak accident? If that was the case then why would they call him?
He wished he’d gotten more information. It was a fifteen-minute drive from his home to the Holiday ranch. He made it in twelve.
Adam greeted him at the back door. “She’s in the great room,” he said.
She was huddled in the corner of the sofa with the same purple throw wrapped around her shoulders. Her eyes appeared positively haunted as she greeted him.
“What happened?” he asked, fighting the impulse to grab her up and pull her to his chest. She looked so small and so frightened, but he was grateful to see that she appeared physically unharmed.
“I decided to go into the shed to grab some things and while I was inside somebody shut and locked the door behind me.” Her face paled and she pulled the throw more tightly around her.
“I heard her screaming and unlocked the shed,” Adam said.
“What were you doing outside at this time of night?” Dillon stared at the ranch foreman.
“I walk around every night to make sure all the gates are locked and everything is buttoned down,” he replied. “I’m just grateful I heard her screaming, otherwise she might have been in there all night or...” His voice trailed off.
Dillon frowned. “Do you think this was some kind of a joke? Maybe one of the other men thought it would be funny?”
“No way,” Adam replied flatly. “There’s nothing funny about this and none of my men would have done anything to frighten Cassie.”
“Before you heard her and unlocked the door did you see anyone else around?” Dillon asked.
Adam shook his head. “No, nobody.”
“How did you happen to have a key to the shed?” Dillon was still struggling to figure out the how and why of what had happened.
“As the foreman, I have keys to all the ranch outbuildings.” Adam pulled a key ring out of his pocket with dozens of keys.
“Dillon, Adam isn’t the bad guy here,” Cassie said softly. “He’s the one who let me out, not the one who locked me in.”
“Maybe one of the men from the ranch next door is responsible,” Adam said, his disgust obvious in his voice. “We all know Raymond Humes’s men love to cause trouble. One of those creeps was probably skulking around and thought this would be a funny thing to do. It sounds like their sick sense of humor.”
Dillon had to admit that it did sound like something one of those men would do. Still, he had a bad feeling in the pit of his gut. “I’ll take it from here,” he told Adam. “Could you gather up all the men in the dining room?”
“Of course.” Adam gazed at Cassie, a frown etched across his forehead. “Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked her.
“I’m fine. Thank you, Adam.”
“I’m just glad I was at the right place at the right time. I’ll see you in the morning.” With a nod at Dillon, Adam went out the back door.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Dillon asked. He eased down on the sofa next to her. “You weren’t hurt?”
“I’m not hurt, but I’m not really okay. I keep wondering what would have happened if Adam hadn’t shown up when he did.” She pulled the throw more tightly around her.
Stay professional, Dillon told himself. Don’t let your emotions get involved. Still, it was damned difficult to stay emotionally removed from her when her eyes seemed to need some sort of reassurance and she leaned toward him as if desperate for his arms around her.
He couldn’t offer her reassurance until he got to the bottom of things, and he refused to embrace her because he feared he’d never want to let her go.
He got up off the sofa and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I need to go check out that shed and talk to your men. Which shed was it?” He knew there were several on the property.
“It’s the smaller one closest to the house.”
“Will you be all right here alone?” She didn’t look as if she would ever be all right again.
She roused herself from the sofa, clutching the throw around her shoulders. “I’ll be okay as long as I lock the door behind you.”
They reached the door and he turned to face her. “This shouldn’t take too long and I’ll come back in when I’m finished.”
She nodded, her eyes still simmering pools of fear. “You know what I thought when I was in that shed?” She released a small, shaky laugh that had nothing to do with humor. “For just a brief moment I thought the door was going to swing open and somebody was going to attack me with an ax.”
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