Bridal Falls Ranch Ransom (15 page)

The car lurched forward.

He heard the throaty rev of the engine along with a thud coming from the rear of the car. Then another one. The trunk?

“Stop!” he ordered.

Edith accelerated, aiming straight for him.

At the last second, he bolted for the edge of the driveway.

The car shot past.

He broke into a run, spotting a slice of clothing trapped in the trunk lid of Edith’s car.

“Eve!” Adrenaline shot through him, supercharging his legs. Sprinting across the side yard next to the lodge, he aimed for the bridge across the creek, the narrowest point Edith would have to steer the car through.

Edith Weber had to be the third person in the kidnapping plot. He could never let her make it across, or Eve was a goner.

Flipping the snap on his side holster as he ran, he drew the Glock. Jolting to a stop, he took a stand in front of the bridge entrance and raised his weapon.

Edith accelerated past the garage.

Aiming high on the windshield of the passenger side, he squeezed off two rounds.

Pop! Pop!

She kept coming.

Pop! Pop!

Squeezing off two more rounds, he put them through the grill into the radiator.

She kept coming.

J.P. took aim.

Time clicked by at a slow-mo crawl.

He pulled the trigger and saw Edith flinch over the top of the gun sight.

The car veered off the left side of the drive and plowed into the bank of trees next to the creek. Limbs cracked, pine needles rained, the horn blared.

Caution infused his body. He lunged for the wreckage with his weapon raised. Was Eve okay? Or was he too late to save her?

Reaching out with his free hand, he pounded his fist on the trunk lid, once, twice.

A resounding thud answered back from against the right rear quarter panel.

“Hang on, Eve!”

The scuffle of gravel in the driveway drew his attention to where Sheriff Adams and his deputy ran toward the situation with their weapons drawn.

“We saw everything, Ryker. Did you hit her?”

“Yeah, got her in the right shoulder, but I haven’t seen her move. She’s got Eve Brooks in the trunk.”

“I’ll take point,” Sheriff Adams said, easing around the driver’s side of the vehicle. He pulled the door open. “Out of the car, Edith, hands where I can see ’em.”

“He shot me, Sheriff.”

“If he hadn’t, I would have. Now out of the car!”

Edith staggered out of her vehicle, blood spreading across the front of her blouse.

Sheriff Adams led her over onto the grass, where he handcuffed her and made her sit down. He took the handheld radio off his belt and contacted dispatch for an ambulance.

J.P. reached inside the vehicle and pressed the trunk release. He beat it back around to the rear of the vehicle before the lid had time to fully open.

Eve blinked against the glare of sunlight that pierced her eyes through the open trunk. Then J.P. was there, lifting her out of her tomb and placing her on her feet.

She choked back a sob as he reached down and stripped the tape off her mouth in one quick motion.

“O...uch!” Her skin stung.

“Sorry. Are you okay?”

He turned her and untied the scarf binding her wrists together. She wanted to put her arms around him before she collapsed to kiss the ground under her feet.

“She killed her own nephew, J.P. She would have killed me, too.” Turning to him, she slid her arms around his waist and leaned into him. He reciprocated and pulled her close.

“I never should have left you alone.”

“You didn’t know. Neither did I, and she works for me.”

“Miss Brooks?” Sheriff Adams left Deputy Richards to guard Edith Weber and walked over to where she and J.P. stood next to the rear of the car.

“Do you need medical attention?”

“No. I think I’m all right except for a cut on my ribs.”

“I’ve radioed for an ambulance. They’ll take a look at you.”

“Okay.” Eve glanced into the trunk, the claustrophobic cubical that could have been her tomb. “Do you see that?” She motioned to a small shipping box and a large envelope tucked in the well of the spare tire.

“Damn,” he whispered as he leaned into the trunk and retrieved the box containing the cut-up rat carcass and the envelope with the ransom note inside. The one they now knew Grimes had constructed.

“Edith never mailed these. They’ve been in here the whole time.”

“She knew who’d sent them, and she couldn’t risk having any evidence on them come to light.” Eve sucked in a breath and tried to relax, but her nerves were a tangle of knots.

“Tell me what happened.”

“She Tasered me upstairs in the lodge and tied me up. She was bent on collecting the ransom money after she’d listened to the real kidnapper’s call. She’s the one who concocted the scheme. She was the mastermind. She claimed Grimes was nervous about things and planned to go to the sheriff. She killed him to keep him from talking.”

“You said she Tasered you?”

“Twice. She has it in her purse.”

Sheriff Adams went around to the driver’s side and came back with Edith’s purse. He closed the trunk and plopped the purse down, unzipped it and fished around, eventually coming up with the Taser.

J.P. put the parcels down and examined the weapon. “The prongs are about an inch apart. It looks like a match to the burns on Roger Grimes’s neck, but you’ll have to have your forensics department run a comparison to be sure.”

The sheriff put the Taser back into Edith’s purse, turned and walked back over to where she sat with her head down. “Edith Weber, I’m charging you with attempted kidnapping, extortion, assault and first-degree murder. Deputy Richards, put her in the squad car until EMS arrives.”

Edith glanced up, her hatred set in the stony crags of her face as she glared at Eve, before the officer helped her to her feet and led her away.

A shudder wormed its way along Eve’s spine and dissipated the second she looked away. A den of snakes had been eradicated, but not without a price. She swallowed against the sense of regret clutching the back of her throat, tipped her head back, rocked up onto her tiptoes and found J.P. Ryker’s lips.

“What was that for?” he asked, gazing down into her eyes.

Her breath caught in her lungs, trapped by the feel of his body so close to hers. The things she wanted to do to him and the thoughts associated with the effort launched heat into her cheeks.

“For having the good sense to rescue me before that old bat hauled me away to heaven knows where.” Leaning close, she kissed him again.

In the distance she heard the whop-whop-whop of the chopper sweeping into the valley, headed for the landing pad.

“You call for a ride?” J.P. asked, pulling back, but keeping his arms locked around her.

“After you told me about Tyler and I got back to the lodge, I called the hangar and had Henry go and pick up Devon and Tyler’s dog, Hank. I couldn’t leave them stranded in town.”

“That’s what I love about you. You’re always thinking.”

A zing of emotion pulsed in her heart and flooded her brain with the essence of the word.
Love?
Was it possible she could ever experience it again?

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and checked over. Then I’ll head out and let Devon know how much has changed around here in the last couple of days.”

* * *

J.P.
stared out the
window of the chopper as the bird lifted off for their quick trip into the airport in Cascade, where Eve’s private jet was waiting to fly them to LAX.

Taking in the view as the ground pulled away, he realized how much he cared about the ranch. Or was it the woman sitting next to him? There was little chance the feeling would be mutual when he finally told her the truth about Shelly. He would do it tonight, as soon as they settled back into the city.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked, glancing over at her. The scarf she’d abandoned for the pressure dressings was now gently draped across the covered scars on the left side of her face.

Concern wrapped around his thoughts. Would she revert to the shattered woman he’d worked so hard to put back together? Or hold on to the transformation he’d witnessed with his own eyes?

“It had to happen sometime. I have to go back and take care of my business.” She smiled for him, but he saw apprehension in the set of her perfect mouth, in the ripple of tension playing along her jaw.

Taking a final look at the Bridal Falls Ranch before the chopper gained altitude and crested the mountaintop, he turned his concern to L.A. and the nagging knowledge they were about to trade a set of resolved circumstances for a set that wasn’t.

He’d asked plenty of questions in the past couple of days, enough to know neither Tyler Spangler, Edith Weber nor Roger Grimes had set foot out of the great state of Idaho in the past two years.

It backed up Edith’s claim that she’d seized on the opportunity the kidnapper’s call had presented. Additional searches had proved that none of them owned a voice-modification device like the one used to make the phone calls.

Tension locked down his system. Eve’s tormenter was in L.A., of that he was certain.

Chapter Fifteen

“I keep a permanent two-bedroom suite at the Omni downtown for those times I don’t feel like battling bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway out to Malibu.”

“Nice.” J.P. only half heard her. He was too busy tracking the movements of the sleek black car that had been tailing them since they left LAX in the stretch limo.

Traffic on the 110 freeway was light for a Friday afternoon, and the driver was having trouble keeping his distance.

“I want you to look back, see if you recognize the black car in the next lane over, four lengths back.”

Eve turned in her seat and stared through the tinted rear window. “No. Looks like everything else.”

He had to agree. He was being paranoid. Since they’d landed an hour ago, he’d been analyzing everything that moved for its threat value.

“Relax. Your senses are in overdrive with all the noise and visual stimulation. Happens to me every time I reenter this rat race. Takes a few hours to wear off.”

“You seem pretty calm.”

“I’m a good faker. I’d rather be curled up on the porch swing back at the ranch right now, sippin’ a glass of Charleen’s lemonade.”

He looked at her, taken by the way she seemed to blend in with the luxurious interior of the limousine as well as she blended in with the simple cushions on the porch swing at the ranch.

But where did her heart lie?

“What time’s the meeting on Monday?”

“One o’clock, but my lawyers will be there at noon with a cease-and-desist order for Thomas and anyone he has hired in the last six months. Our legal agreement regarding EBBC will be vacated by a judge on Monday. I’m going to give Thomas a generous severance package and he’ll be gone for good.”

He didn’t know much about how the corporate world operated, and he didn’t care to learn right now. His only concern was keeping Eve safe until the threat to her life was extinguished.

“Tell me about your suite at the Omni.”

“It’s great. I don’t have to make my bed, and they put a little chocolate on my pillow every night at turndown.” She looked over at him and grinned. “If you insist on knowing, I use a private elevator with a security code to my floor. No one without the magic number gets in. I had them change it a week ago when I knew we’d be heading back to L.A. for the meeting.”

“Like I said, always thinking, but once this meeting is over, I want to open my own investigation into Thomas Avery’s kidnapping. You’re vulnerable until whoever was behind it is caught or killed.”

“Does that mean you’ll stay on?”

A knot the size of an asteroid orbited in his gut. “For as long as I can.” Hell, after he told her the truth tonight, he’d probably be forced to leave. Head back to his office and nurse the crater he’d find in his heart. But what about her?

He couldn’t risk her life by leaving her alone. Maybe he’d have to call in a favor and spot her with a bodyguard, but the idea of anyone else but him protecting her irritated like ground glass in an open cut.

“We’ll get to the suite, unpack, then take my car out and find someplace great for dinner.”

He nodded and settled back against the seat, his attention focused on the side mirror, trained on the car tailing them.

L.A. was a new game. He’d have to learn the rules in her world.

Eve adjusted her scarf, pulling it tight across the left side of her face, then double-checked the coverage in her compact mirror. Satisfied, she slipped the mirror back into her purse, pulled out her dark glasses and put them on.

“You might want to brace yourself, J.P.”

“For what?”

“I’m pretty certain there’s a mole inside the Omni who knows and relays my comings and goings to the tabloid vermin.”

He stared at her, seemingly less than interested. “Call an exterminator.”

She laughed, glad his sense of humor was intact.

“You remember how chaotic it was getting the calves into the holding pen and separated from their mamas?”

“Yeah.”

“It might be like that when we get to the hotel.”

J.P. sat up straighter in his seat. A blade of concern sliced across his nerves. “Paparazzi?”

“Yes. Hordes of the little vultures.”

“You shouldn’t insult vultures like that.”

She grinned. “I want you to be prepared to have cameras shoved in your face. You’re about to become the subject of tabloid news, if you can call it news. The headlines will probably claim I’ve been held in an alien space ship for the last seven months and just escaped with the alien sidekick who broke me out.”

Now it was his turn to chuckle. “Only if I can be a cowboy alien sidekick.”

He watched her sober, saw the humor drain from around her mouth, saw the slightest tremble of her hands as she worked the handles of her purse, trying to keep her nerves at bay.

He could relate the moment the limo made the turn into the hotel entrance and rolled to a stop under the portico.

A swarm of paparazzi five deep and eight wide had collected at the entrance to the hotel.

Caution sliced through him. “This isn’t safe, Eve. What if he’s mixed in with them, waiting to strike in all the commotion?”

“Then someone will get a great shot.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I. Just sit tight. Hotel security is on the way. They’ll hold them back and clear us a path into the lobby.”

He didn’t like it. Didn’t like the fact the situation could spin out of control in a single heartbeat.

Eve reached out and took his hand. “Just promise me you won’t let go, no matter what.”

“Not a chance.” He interlocked his fingers with hers and watched three security guards push through the crowd. Reaching into his shirt pocket, he took out his shades and slipped them on. “Ready when you are.”

* * *

E
ve stepped out of the
elevator next to J.P. and spotted her red BMW at the far end of the VIP parking garage. She’d have to turn it over to the valet when they returned from dinner. She just couldn’t walk very far in high heels anymore. Heck, she’d give her eyeteeth for a pair of cowboy boots right now.

Reaching out, she looped her arm in J.P.’s, enjoying his body heat as it warmed her skin, and the slant of the Stetson on his head. He hadn’t had much to say since they’d survived their encounter with the rabid pack of paparazzi and checked out the suite, but she was beginning to worry.

Granted, her lifestyle in Los Angeles was extravagant, maybe even a bit overwhelming, but she’d give it all away for a lifetime of days with him at her side.

Somewhere between West 4th Street and South Olive, she’d realized how much she loved him.

“What would you prefer, French or Italian? Patina is on Grand, so is Bottega Louie. It’s early. We can probably snag a table without a long—”

He pulled her to a stop and grasped her upper arms. His eyes were bright, charged with blue fire that frightened her. Staring up at him, she felt the slightest vibration in his fingers where he held her. His throat moved when he swallowed. He swallowed again, like a man drowning and searching for air at the same time.

Fear skimmed across her nerves, leaving a hollow sensation in the pit of her stomach. She sucked in a breath.

“I have to tell you something, Eve. Something I should have disclosed a long—”

The deafening screech of tires echoed against the concrete ceiling of the parking structure.

“Run!” J.P. grabbed Eve’s hand, catching a streak of black in his left peripheral as the car bore down on them from out of nowhere.

They zagged to the right.

The vehicle passed within a hair’s breadth. He recognized the same sleek black car he’d seen following them on the freeway, but it was minus its license plate now.

Brake lights flared red. The driver flipped a 180-degree turn. Smoke spun off the tires as the maniac behind the wheel stomped on the gas pedal and shot forward for another pass.

Squeezing Eve’s hand as tight as he could, he aimed for the concrete pillar five yards in front of them.

They had to take cover or be cut down like grass in the open terrain of the parking garage.

Eve’s left ankle turned in her shoe. Pain fired into her foot. A scream lodged in her vocal cords.

The misstep brought her to her knees. She lost her grip on J.P.’s hand and skidded forward onto her belly.

Glancing up, she saw the car closing in.

Panic shut down her response. Frozen in place, she felt J.P.’s hand on her arm as he dragged her in next to him behind the concrete barrier.

The car shot past and ran over her high heel. It popped out behind the speeding vehicle and landed with a clop on the concrete.

J.P. pulled his weapon from its holster inside his jacket and raised the Glock, taking aim.

“Don’t shoot,” Eve yelled. “It’s the paparazzi.”

Taillights flared for an instant. The car came to a broadside stop.

Caution worked through him as he prepared for another drive-by assault, determined to stop the car with bullets if necessary.

The rear window inched down and a lens snaked out the opening for an instant, then pulled back. The driver hit the gas and the car sped off, then zipped down the exit ramp.

“The bastard almost hit you for a camera angle! Are you okay?” He holstered his weapon, reached down and helped Eve to her feet.

“Better my Manolo Blahnik than my head, and it might have been if you hadn’t grabbed me when you did.”

“Are they always this aggressive?”

“Sometimes worse.”

“Let’s have a look at your ankle.”

Eve leaned against the cement pillar and pulled up her pant leg.

J.P. knelt in front of her and guided her foot onto his leg, where he could get a better look.

Heat invaded his body as he felt both sides of her slender ankle, noting a patch of bruising along the right side of her foot. “We better get some ice on this to keep the swelling down.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” She lifted her foot off his thigh and set it on the ground.

He rose to his feet and offered her his hand, but she refused his offer with a shake of her head. “No, no. I’ve got this.”

Leaning forward she put weight on it as she lifted her right foot and pulled off her other high heel.

“I think I can walk. We can still go out to dinner.” She took a step forward, then another; he caught her on the third step a half second after her ankle buckled under her.

Scooping her up in his arms, he headed for the executive elevator and safety. He wanted her out of the garage now, in case the maniac returned for a freeze-frame.

“Give it a rest, Eve. We’re going to ice it and order room service tonight. With any luck you’ll be on your feet by morning.”

Eve flung the shoe in her hand over J.P.’s right shoulder. It flopped across the concrete floor and landed next to its mate. “C’est la vie, Manolo Blahnik,” she whispered as she relaxed against him.

Now they were a pair.

* * *

J.P.
closed his eyes
, letting the steaming trail of hot water alleviate the agitation cooped up in his body. He’d been a couple of words away from making a confession to Eve. The fact his reprieve had come from a crazy driver with a high-end Canon didn’t sit well. The longer he kept the information to himself, the harder it was going to be once he told her the truth.

He sucked in a breath, taking the steam-laced air deep into his lungs and holding it for a long time before he exhaled.

Bending forward, he hung his head under the steady stream of hot water and tried to come up with a plan he could live with, but every angle formed a sharp edge that stabbed at his heart.

He didn’t want to live without her
,
not a day, an hour, a minute....

A whisper of sound brought his head up.

Slicking the water from his face, he stared through the glass shower door at the foggy confines of the five-star bathroom.

His breath hung in his throat. His body went rigid then melted in the fire of need as he watched Eve step toward him, loosen the belt on her robe and pull it open. An apparition spawned in the backwaters of his mind.

She let the robe slide off her shoulders. It fell to the marble floor, setting off tiny swirls in the mist.

A groan squeezed from his throat, and his mouth went Sahara dry. Staring, he took in every sexy curve of her perfect body. The jut of her round breasts peaked with taut pink nipples. The indent of her slender waist before it swept out to the sensual swell of her hips.

She stepped forward, reached out, opened the shower door and stepped inside, pulling it closed behind her.

Then her hands were on his skin, her fingers exploring the contours of his chest.

He found her mouth and breathed her in. There was nothing unreal about the woman in his arms, nothing superficial or premeditated.

Hunger burned through his apprehension, turning it to sexual need so intense he thought he’d explode. He smoothed his hands over her backside, slicking them over her wet skin. Her entire body quaked under his touch.

Cupping her bottom, he picked her up. She spread her legs and wrapped them around him as he centered her on his hips and backed her into the wall. A sigh puffed from between her lips. Burying himself inside her was what he wanted right now, but he stopped short of satisfying the need. He wanted to indulge hers. Blazing a trail of kisses across the top of her shoulder, he thought of the morning on the swing. The day he’d kissed the scars on her face, the day she’d let him.

He would leave no doubt in her mind tonight that she was beautiful to him.

* * *

E
ve snuggled into her
pillow and gazed over at J.P. He’d made love to her with an intensity that took her breath away, but not before he’d loved her in the most meticulous detail. There wasn’t a single spot he’d missed, but she’d done some exploring of her own.

Heat burned her cheeks. Every image of his virile body and their intimate connection was forever seared into her memory.

She closed her eyes in case he opened his and found her watching him sleep.

In the morning she’d tell him how she felt, right after she coaxed him to finish what he’d been trying to say to her before they were interrupted by the paparazzi driver who’d killed her high heel.