Cowboy Undercover. Alice Sharpe
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circles. But then a kid hanged himself in his cell and the prosecutor’s office came under investigation. Jeremy was livid.
“Anyway, I didn’t say the right thing or look the right way, who knows? Jeremy hit me so hard I blacked out and when I came to, Charlie was sitting beside me, crying. I’ll never forget the look on his face. A week later, I’d made my plans and Charlie and I left. The mother of an old school friend took me in for a day or two and then she called your father and he offered me a job and refuge so that’s how I ended up here.”
“You never called the police?”
“No. I’d tried that before and wound up looking like a nutcase trying to ruin my husband’s reputation. It wouldn’t have done any good. Jeremy was respected, and feared, by so many people and I was a nobody.”
They both startled and got to their feet as engine noise came from the yard.
“I hope that’s not the police,” Lily said. By now they were at the back door and could see through the small window.
“It’s Gerard’s truck,” Chance said. “We’re going up to get the heifers today.” He opened the door and watched his brother approach. Gerard had had a couple of rough years, starting with the tragic accident that had taken the lives of his wife and daughter, followed by a spell of amnesia. But he’d come out on top when he fell in love with Kinsey Frost, the woman who helped him find himself in both a literal and figurative way.
Gerard stopped walking as Lily stepped out onto the porch beside Chance. He tipped his hat and said hello the way a cowboy does to a female stranger.
“It’s me,” Lily said, moving down the steps to intercept him.
He still looked confused.
“Lily,” she added, coming to a stop in front of him. Gerard looked from her to Chance. Chance knew that his older brother and Kinsey were probably the only two people in the world who understood what it had meant to him when Lily left and he crossed mental fingers now that Gerard wouldn’t spill it. He should have known he wouldn’t. Gerard gave her a hug and then looked around. “Is Charlie asleep in your car?”
“He’s not with me,” Lily said.
“Come inside,” Chance added. Lily turned to come back up the steps. In a moment of clarity, he saw the terror lurking in back of her eyes.
“Kinsey is going to be so sorry she missed seeing you,” Gerard added as they once again closed the doors on the three dogs. “She flew back to New Orleans to help her grandmother for a couple of days. How long are you going to be here?”
“I’m leaving in a few minutes,” Lily said. “I wanted to ask your father for advice. I thought maybe... Oh, I shouldn’t have come.”
“We can give advice, too,” Gerard said as they entered the house.
“A lot is going on,” she said, picking up the glasses she’d taken off when she first arrived. She folded them into a pocket and added, “Chance can fill you in after I’ve left.”
“No, Chance can’t,” Chance said but he suspected Gerard didn’t need too much filling in.
“Why?” Lily demanded.
“Because I’m coming with you.”
“You don’t even know where I’m going,” she protested.
“You’re going to Boise. You’re going to see Jeremy Block. You’ll need someone to bail you out of jail.”
A defiant expression crept onto her face. “You don’t have to do that,” she said, thrusting her chin high in the way the Lily he’d known before used to. That woman he had chided and baited and given a rough time and she had returned it all with a spirit that intrigued him to this day. “I don’t need someone to take care of me,” she added.
“Yeah, right. Anyway, we’ll stop at my place so I can throw some clothes into a duffel, tuck a big fat gun under the front seat and then we’re off.”
“What is it about men?” she asked no one in particular. “You all think you can rescue the damsel in distress.”
“Well, when the damsel shows up so early in the morning, what are we supposed to do?”
“Listen when she says no thanks.”
Silence ensued until Gerard cleared his throat. “May I say something?”
“Sure,” Lily said.
“Just take him along for the ride, will you please? He’s impossible when he gets like this and he might actually come in handy.”
She looked at Chance, who silently returned her scrutiny. She was beautiful under all that drabness, delicate and feminine as long as she didn’t start arguing. But he couldn’t wrap his head around the thought of her leaving on this mission all by herself. If she refused to let him come with her, he’d follow on her tail.
“Oh, all right,” she said.
“Unless Frankie shows up, you and Pike will have to get the heifers on your own,” Chance told his brother.
“We’ll manage,” Gerard said as he poured himself a cup of coffee and added with a wink, “You two kids be careful.”
“Explain one thing to me,” Chance said.
Lily had been staring out the dark passenger window, her eyes gritty from fatigue. She’d asked Chance to take the wheel because she’d been driving for hours and knew her judgment was impaired. She turned her attention to Chance whose strong profile was undeniably spectacular, a fact she found irritating. She didn’t want to like him or need him or want him around and the fact that she felt all those things to some degree just plain irked her. “What do you want to know?”
“Last summer when Block sent Jodie Brown to take you, he had murder on his mind. If he had a warrant and had established custody of Charlie, why didn’t he just turn you in? Why all the drama and hysterics? Why take such a risk?”
She shrugged. “How am I supposed to know that? All I can figure is that he doesn’t want to share custody with me. Maybe Jeremy has the police in his pocket but if we end up in court, twelve ordinary people will get to hear my side of things. That might bring out distasteful facts about his true character. Plus, he’s no doubt looking ahead to his future campaign for governor. That’s his goal, you know. I could pose a liability to him.”
For a second she heard her father’s voice in her head. In a moment of sporadic sobriety he’d warned her not to look back, to keep focused on the future. You can’t change the past, he’d said, and he was right.
But you couldn’t run from it either and that’s exactly what she’d done.
“Does Block know about those papers you gathered?”
“Probably. I raided his file drawer that last day. Maybe he’s afraid I have something on him. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I actually did? I need to get them out of my safe-deposit box and take a look.”
“Before you see Block?”
“I have to have some kind of ammunition.”
Lily closed her eyes, hoping to find a few minutes’ respite, but Chance had other ideas. “If he had murder on his mind before, why did he take Charlie this time and leave you free to continue causing trouble?”
Weariness had long ago seeped into every cell of her body. Talking was a struggle. She cradled her forehead with her hand. “I don’t think that was his plan,” she said. “Remember I told you about all the mishaps that made me late? I think he was not only making sure he could nab Charlie but that I would arrive home alone. But I didn’t go home. I called a neighbor who promised to call immediately if Charlie showed up. For hours I just drove around and then