Cowboy Undercover. Alice Sharpe
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know you are, Lily.” He put his hand on her arm and even through the sweater, his touch made a warm spot that spread toward her shoulder.
“One more,” she agreed.
“Where did you go when you left the ranch?”
“Reno. I figured hiding on a remote ranch hadn’t worked, so I decided to try a bigger city. I drove to Reno because I had a friend there who said she was leaving town for a few weeks to visit her boyfriend in Florida. She said I could use her apartment and sub at her old job as a waitress at one of the casinos outside of town. Now I’m wondering if my friend ran low on funds and told Jeremy where I was to collect a little quick cash.”
“She’s like that?”
“She could be. For all I know Jeremy set the whole thing up with her just to nail down my location. I don’t know. I try not to be paranoid.”
“With a warrant out for your arrest, you probably shouldn’t have taken Charlie over a state line.”
“I didn’t know about the warrant,” she said. “You just told me about it. It wouldn’t have made any difference though.” She turned in the seat. “I think that’s how Jeremy found me this summer. He must have accessed Idaho school records. My decision to send Charlie to summer school could have gotten me killed.”
They fell silent. She leaned to the side until her forehead rested against the passenger window and closed her eyes. For a few moments she waited for Chance to think of something else he wanted explained, and then she stopped worrying about it. The next thing she knew, Chance was shaking her shoulder.
“We’re here,” he said as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “What now?”
They were in Boise, downtown somewhere. She’d been gone for almost a year but she’d lived here most of her life. She finally recognized the café on the corner and placed their exact location. “My credit union is a few blocks that way,” she said, pointing north. “I want to get that stuff out of my safe-deposit box.”
Chance glanced at the clock on the dashboard. “It won’t be open yet. Let’s grab something to eat.”
“Not in this district,” she said. “Jeremy’s office is pretty close to here.”
“Just give me directions.”
Despite commuter traffic, they were soon approaching the suburbs and a plethora of fast-food establishments. Settling on one, Chance ordered himself a full breakfast but she stuck to coffee, knowing her nervous stomach wouldn’t take kindly to food.
What was Charlie doing right that moment? Had Jeremy employed someone to help him take care of him? Was Charlie afraid he’d never see his mom again? The poor little kid had a fragile spirit that she’d no doubt fostered by putting up with Jeremy’s abuse for so long. She wanted him to be braver about life than she’d been.
Chance plowed his way through half the menu, proving what Lily knew from months of cooking on the ranch: Cowboys could eat. As he was wadding up wrappers and tossing them into the bag, he met her gaze. “You should have something besides coffee,” he said.
“Maybe later. Is it still too early for the credit union to be open?”
He turned the keys and the clock flashed on. “Yeah. Let’s stay right here in the back of this dark little parking lot until it’s time.”
“I guess,” she said. What else were they going to do?
“Great.” He smothered a yawn with his fist as he pushed the lever to half recline the seat. “I’m going to catch forty winks. You okay?”
Did he mean beyond the gnawing nerves and the constant worry? “I’m fine,” she said.
With a little smile, he tipped his dark brown Stetson down over his face, crossed his arms over his chest and seemed to go to sleep in about thirty seconds flat.
For a while, she stared at the comings and goings in the parking lot. Who knew so many people bought their breakfast at a drive-through? That made her think of Charlie who loved fast food and her eyes burned. She wanted to be on the move, not stuck here waiting.
She looked over at Chance when he made a soft little sound as his hand slipped from his chest. She caught it before it landed on the gearshift, carefully returning it to rest beside his other hand.
In a way she wanted to remove his hat and gaze at his sleeping face. Without the cynical glint in his dark eyes that often caused her to look away, would she glimpse the man she’d felt pull at her heartstrings so many months before?
She allowed herself to remember the night last April when they’d been walking alongside the river. Wildflowers had perfumed the air and the still-cold water gurgling against the rocks sounded like music. They’d stopped beside a tree and she’d leaned against it and before she knew it, he had cupped her face with both of his hands and told her she looked beautiful in the moonlight. His gentle voice and soothing caresses had been a balm to her broken spirit so that when he finally kissed her, she was flooded with feelings she’d given up hope of ever experiencing.
Eventually, he’d unbuttoned her blouse and lowered his head to kiss her throat, his lips warm against her cool skin. She’d wanted him with every fiber in her body, yearning for the moment when he stripped her bare. That moment never came because she’d been yanked back to reality when the plaintive call of a coyote rose from the ridge. The terrible decisions she’d made concerning men and desire all seemed to storm through her head as the lonely cry echoed over the valley. She’d withdrawn emotionally and he hadn’t been so far gone that it escaped him. With a sigh, he’d raised his head and looked down into her eyes and she’d bolted, running back to the ranch house like a scared rabbit.
Their budding romance had died that night and eventually turned into an acerbic interchange of half-veiled insults and sarcasm.
Yet here they were.
“Knock it off,” she scolded herself. “Think of something pleasant.”
* * *
“LILY? LILY, WAKE UP,” Chance said for the second time that day, he shook Lily’s shoulder.
She was slow to respond at first and then she sat bolt upright. “Oh, God, I fell asleep. What time is it?”
“Almost one. We slept for hours.”
She rubbed her forehead. “Well, at least the credit union will be open. Let’s go.”
Once inside the building, Chance looked askance at all the security cameras and wondered if anyone there knew about the warrant out for Lily. Thanks to the black glasses and baggy clothes, she looked more like a refugee from a homeless camp than a patron of a downtown banking establishment, but would someone call the cops as soon as she announced her identity? He decided to keep his fears to himself and just stay alert for any sign of trouble.
She went through the security measures to access her box and disappeared with the attendant. A few minutes later, she returned, a couple of fat manila envelopes peeking from the top of her oversize handbag. He took her arm and they left together. The whole thing had taken less than fifteen minutes.
“We need to find someplace private to go through and sort all this,” she said as she hugged her purse as if it was a precious baby. “I’d forgotten how much stuff I collected.”
“Let’s get a room somewhere,” Chance said.
“Good idea.”
They found a room and paid using Chance’s credit card and name. Once inside, Lily removed the thick glasses before upending both envelopes onto the small round table. The contents came spilling out.
“Yikes,” Chance said. The thought of trying to make sense of all that paper was mind-boggling. Maybe he should have stayed at Hastings Ridge and rounded up heifers, which was a lot more fun than pushing papers around. Of course he didn’t say any of this to Lily who would just remind him he was here