Big Sky Cowboy. Jennifer Mikels
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her gift. “I was eleven when I told her daughter, a school-mate, that her dad was going to have a flat tire. No one paid attention until after he hit the streetlight because of a blowout. Fortunately no one was hurt, but the family was convinced I caused it, cast a spell.”
“Jerks.”
Had he said that because he didn’t believe in spells, or because they’d been so judgmental?
“Chelsea said she met you in Chicago. Something about how you helped the police with a case.”
Since Chelsea had revealed that much, Tessa had little choice except to tell him what had happened. “Several women had been killed in the same way. Everyone believed there was a serial killer. An employee at the mall where I was working was one of them. Because I was acquainted with her, I began to have dreams—nightmares.”
“So the visions are dreams?”
“Sometimes. It can happen in the middle of the day, too. But this time, the visions came at night. The last one I saw…” She stopped, made herself go on. “She was happy, laughing with friends. Tall, blond, lovely. She’d been dancing. I felt her fear and pain when he grabbed her, wrapped an arm around her neck.” She stopped, drew a hard breath. The feelings were almost on her again with the remembrance. “He was choking her. She was terrified.”
“You saw her killed?”
She met his stare. “No, I never saw her killed. That’s why I went to the police. I knew then that I was seeing something that would happen.”
“Could you describe her? Where she was?”
“No. Him. I saw him. Chelsea was the forensic expert on the case. She believed in me more than the detectives. She talked to an old-timer. He had me sit with a police artist, describe him. The police picked up a man who’d had a police record. I told Chelsea the fibers she found at two of the crime scenes were from a navy peacoat he owned. They’d find it stuffed in a steamer trunk in an uncle’s garage. They got a warrant, but there was no steamer trunk.”
His brows bent in a frown.
“You’re wondering why I’m telling you this. I’m not always successful.”
“Did they ever convict him?”
“Yes, they did. They couldn’t hold him, but after a few weeks, he tried again. This time someone was around before he hurt anyone.” Tessa didn’t bother to tell him the woman was tall, blond, looked exactly like the one in her nightmare. He wouldn’t believe that really happened. He didn’t want to. And she didn’t tell him that they’d found the coat, just as she’d said in a steamer trunk, or that it was in the garage of a stepuncle in another state.
“Why did you come here?”
Tessa looked at him over the rim of a beer glass. “You mean in Joe’s Bar? Or to Rumor?”
“Both.” She glanced at the door again. Could she have imagined someone following her? Laughing, a twenty-something couple wearing matching leather pants and spiked hairdos strolled in. “I came to Rumor because I want a home, I want to settle down.” She yearned for a place to belong, and she wondered if decades from now she’d still be longing for that.
“What about here?” He held out a hand, palm up. Why did you come in here?” He gave her that slow, easy grin that had undoubtedly kick started a fair share of female hearts.
Tessa rolled her eyes. “Oh, I don’t believe it. You think I came in here because I saw your truck?”
“Did you?”
“Your ego is showing,” she answered, but if she’d noticed the truck, she knew she might have stopped at Joe’s to see him again.
“You’re bruising it.”
She turned away to hide a smile. She didn’t want him to be too charming, too attractive.
He took a hearty swallow of his beer. At a nearby table, a couple in cowboy hats called to him, mentioned a rodeo. The woman gave Colby a little flirtatious wave. While he shared a laugh with them, Tessa glanced toward the entrance for the umpteenth time.
“Hey.” Colby waved a hand up and down in front of her. “Who are you looking for? You keep checking the door.”
She mustered a smile. “Was I?”
“Level with me. You look uneasy every time someone comes in. Why?”
Tessa wanted to tell someone about the car. “I was followed here.”
“Followed?” His brows bunched. “Someone was really following you?” Obviously he didn’t expect her to answer the question. “Who?”
Head bent, she made much of wiping a napkin across greasy fingers. “I don’t know. I should have tried to see who it was, but I wasn’t thinking about that. I wanted to be with other people. Being followed is always a worry for a woman driving alone at night.”
“This was more. You know that, and so do I. When we were at the antiques sale, people were assuming because you were with me that you were helping me. I never gave a thought to the idea that someone might feel threatened.” He paused, nodded a hello to two men passing by to the bar. “Do you want to back out?”
After trying to persuade her to work with him, just like that, he asked if she wanted to stop. He had a nice soft center. She’d never say that to him, though. “I don’t scare so easily.”
“Glad to hear that, but…”
His voice faded. Images came with no warning. Two men. Embracing? Wrestling? A Stetson sailed through the air. She heard a barking dog. A rottweiler. Here. The images were here. “We should leave,” Tessa urged.
Colby rounded a look over his shoulder and traced her stare to the bar. “Is one of the guys there the one who followed you?”
“No.” Tessa stood and reached for her umbrella.
“But one of them bothers you? Bad aura?”
She knew he thought she was out of sync with the rest of the world. “The guy in the Stetson is going to sit on your lap.”
He released a deep chuckle. “No way.”
Tessa didn’t bother to argue. Soon enough he’d learn she was right. “We’d better leave. Or…” She didn’t bother to say more. It was too late.
At the bar, the guy in the baseball cap swung his arm and smashed his fist into the cowboy’s chin. As the cowboy’s head jerked back, the Stetson flew off. He spun and sailed in Colby’s direction.
“Damn,” Colby muttered. His hands went up, blocked the cowboy from landing across his lap. With a hard push, he propelled the cowboy toward the guy in the baseball cap. “Let’s get out of here.” Rising, he snagged her hand and propelled her toward the exit, toward the rottweiler, barking.
She laughed as he led the way. “Told you.”
“How did you know they were going to fight? Lucky guess, right? Body language stuff,” he mumbled as if talking to himself. “You read something in the way those fools were standing, looking at each other.”
He was trying so hard to explain what happened. She realized then that nothing he was told would make him believe. He’d need irrefutable proof about her. “Could be.” She preceded him outside and raised her face to the rain, though she held her umbrella. The air felt cool but smelled musty. In the distance, fingers of lightning stabbed toward the ground. A fire alert was on. The woods were dry.
“Where are you parked?”
She pointed to her right. “Over there.” Before she could protest, he caught her hand in his. Tessa felt the strength, the calluses in the hand wrapped around hers.
“Why are you carrying the umbrella?”
“It’s only drizzling.”
He