The Sheriff Catches a Bride (23 page)

Once Jason knew she was heading to Chance Creek, he’d taken over her travel plans. When they disembarked from the Greyhound bus in Billings, he organized their switch to a small shuttle bus heading to the town.

When they reached Chance Creek, he insisted on finding her a taxi. There was an awkward moment when Alan Higgens—a man in his late twenties, Fila estimated—had pulled up to the corner and spotted them there. He seemed unable to look Jason in the eye and Fila wondered if she was the cause of it. After all, Jason had recently been engaged, so his arrival with another woman might raise an eyebrow or two. After she’d taken her seat in the back, Alan asked Jason through the open front window, “Does Rose know you’re in town?”

“Not yet,” Jason bent down to answer him. “Why?”

A pause—just enough to tell Fila something was wrong. “No reason. Just… nothing.”

“What?”

“I must be confused, that’s all. I thought…”

“Spit it out, Alan.” Fila could tell Jason was getting angry. She’d grown comfortable with his presence on the bus, but now his features hardened, and she realized he was a man like all other men—not to be crossed.

“A minute ago I saw her and…” Alan trailed off and looked through the windshield at a truck that had pulled to a stop across the intersection ahead of them. Fila made out two people sitting inside it. A large man with short dark hair was behind the wheel. Beside him sat a petite brunette. As she watched, the man leaned down and gave the woman a sensuous kiss, which she returned just as passionately.

Jason followed Alan’s gaze and swore. “That’s Rose right there. What’s she doing riding with Cab? Why is she kissing him?”

“I don’t know,” Alan said, but Jason disappeared from the window and in another second the passenger’s side door opened and he slid into the front seat.

“Follow them.”

“Jason, look…”

“I said follow them, or I’m going to open your door, shove you into the street and drive myself.”

Alan swore but started the car and eased into traffic.

“Hurry up—you’re losing them!”

“I can tell where they’re going,” Alan said. “Look. Out to Carl’s. That’s where Cab’s staying these days.”

“And she’s going home with him? Is she sleeping with him?” Jason’s voice raised and Fila cringed back into her seat. When men raised their voices, trouble quickly arrived. Alan picked up speed, followed the sheriff’s car through town and turned sharply onto a road that quickly wound into the countryside. She clutched the armrest with one hand, used the other to brace herself against the vinyl seat. Jason’s angry tone scared her. She’d seen too many angry men. She knew what they were capable of.

“I don’t know,” Alan answered Cab finally.

“How long has this been going on?”

“I don’t know.” Alan sounded miserable.

“Shit. Go faster.”

Dark fields stretched away on either side of them and Fila spotted the hulking shapes of houses and barns in the distance.

“Step on it,” Jason said.

“I know where Cab lives,” Alan said. “No sense killing ourselves getting there a minute sooner.”

“My fiancée is sleeping with the town’s sheriff. I want to get there now!” Jason banged his fist on the door and Fila shut her eyes. How had she thought she’d be safe in America? How had she hoped the men here would treat her any differently than her Afghani captors?

“Hey! You better not break anything!”

“Go. Faster!”

Fila buried her head in her hands. Her dream was turning into a nightmare. Any moment they’d catch up to the sheriff and Jason would find his woman. He’d kill the sheriff, shoot him dead on the spot, then haul the girl home, truss her up and drag her to the town square. Would he stone her to death? Behead her? Douse her in kerosene and light her on fire?

Jason punched the door again. “That’s Carl’s place! Turn in! Get going!”

Alan swerved the taxi into a long driveway, and Fila toppled over, banging her head on the door. When he hit the brakes and came to a stop still far from the house, she lurched forward and slammed into the seat ahead of her.

“Get out of my car!” Alan yelled at Jason. “Out!”

“Drive, you asshole! Get up to the house! They’re getting away!” Jason lunged across the seat and wrestled him for the wheel.

Fila, cold with fear and shock, tears brimming in her eyes, hands shaking as she righted herself, saw her chance and took it.

She swung the door open and bolted outside. Nearly sick to her stomach, she raced for the woods. Would he come after her? Would he hurt her?

She knew what happened to women who stepped out of line. No matter what the offense, they paid the same price. Beatings, torture, rape… death.

She thought she’d escaped all that.

She’d thought wrong.

That was Jason
across the street, standing next to a taxi cab driven by Alan Higgens. Glaring at her. The woman who stood next to him—a slim, exotic beauty with shoulder-length wavy brown hair, dressed in a sensible, classic pants outfit—had climbed into the back of the cab and shut the door.

Jason didn’t move, however. White-faced and frowning, she had no doubt he’d seen them kiss—maybe worse. She slid down in her seat reflexively but he was already skirting the front of the taxi and climbing in beside Alan. Thank God Cab was already driving away from them.

Cab turned to her, a worried frown on his face. “You all right?”

“No. Could you hurry… please?”

“Sure thing.” Cab put both hands on the wheel and accelerated. She knew he wouldn’t speed through town, but he wasn’t dilly-dallying, either. Thank heaven he hadn’t asked a bunch of questions.

At first she thought they’d given Jason the slip, but a minute later a glance in the side mirror told her the taxi was following fast on their heels. She gripped the armrest, digging her fingernails into it.

“If you need to be sick, let me know.” Cab shot her another worried look.

“Just get me home. Fast.” Running was a mistake; she saw that now. She could have greeted Jason back in town and made arrangements to see him later. Taking off with Cab like this made it all too obvious exactly what was going on. Why was Jason following her? Was he furious?

Would he and Cab fight?

Cab wouldn’t. Not unless Jason started things first. But why would he? Their relationship was over—they’d settled that on the phone. She’d settled it, anyway. She realized now she hadn’t given Jason much of a chance to talk.

Maybe that’s why he was here.

Cab glanced in the rearview mirror. “I wonder where that taxi is headed in such a hurry?”

Could she open the door and bail out the side of the truck? If she did, could she make it to her tree house before Cab caught up with her? Could she hide there for the rest of her life?

Probably not.

She should have gone to North Dakota and sorted things out with Jason in person. But how was she to know he cared that much? He sure hadn’t shown it these last few months.

“Is that… Jason?” Cab said, looking in the mirror again.

“I… maybe,” she said unhappily.

Cab swung into the driveway that led to Carl’s mansion and drove toward the house. Behind them another set of lights swung off the road and flashed them. But instead of following them on up the driveway, the car behind them came to a sudden stop. Cab slowed the truck, too.

“Are they coming in or not?” He glanced back, then looked down while he reversed gear. Rose turned in her seat, and in that split second the rear door of the taxi burst open and a slight shape darted out of it, over the driveway and into the trees beyond. Rose got just one glimpse of brown wavy hair and wide, frightened eyes before the woman disappeared into the woods.

Rose opened her mouth to point her out, but Cab reversed the twenty feet back toward the taxi and parked the truck. “Stay here until I see what’s going on.” He was out the door before she could answer. She scanned the woods as Cab walked back toward the taxi, trying to figure out where the woman had gone. Why had she bolted from the car?

Alan and Jason were arguing in the taxi. Jason slammed his fist against the roof once, twice, then flung his own door open and spilled out, charging around the vehicle to confront Cab. Alan got out on his side and soon all three men were yelling.

“You slept with my fiancée, you son-of-a-bitch!” Jason hollered at Cab.

Rose crouched in her seat not knowing what to do. Should she go out there and defend Cab? Should she go after the woman, whoever she was?

“I don’t think she wants to be your fiancée anymore.”

The slap of fist on flesh spun Rose around just in time to see Jason land a punch on Cab’s chin. Cab didn’t flinch. He simply reached out, grabbed Jason’s collar and put him on the ground in a split second. Rose spun away again. She couldn’t watch this. Wouldn’t watch her boyfriend beat up her ex-fiancé. Sick with shame at how badly she’d handled everything, she hid her face in her hands. A minute later Cab opened the back door of the extended cab and shoved Jason into the rear seat, his wrists cuffed in front of him. Cab climbed in the driver’s seat.

“I’m going to have to make a detour to the detachment,” he told her evenly. “Want to ride along or stay here at Carl’s?”

“I’ll stay here if you don’t mind,” Rose said, already fumbling with her door.

Cab handed her a house key. “Make yourself at home. You and this one can talk things out in the morning.” He jerked his chin toward Jason who was swearing up a blue streak in the back seat.

“Sounds good.” She finally risked a look at Jason. He shook his head at her.

“God damn it, Rose. This is the way you’re going to play it?”

“Sorry,” she said, her voice hardly above a whisper. “I…”

“Tomorrow,” Cab said. He leaned over Rose and opened her door. “I’ll be back in an hour or so. Go in the house and stay put, you hear? We better talk this out, too. Lock the door behind you when you get inside.”

Rose nodded and got out of the truck, unable to say anything more. Behind them, Alan was already backing the taxi out of the driveway. Cab quickly followed him.

She suddenly remembered the mystery woman. “Wait… what about…?” Rose sighed as both vehicles sped away. She scanned the trees beside the drive once more, considered the key in her hand, and made up her mind. She plodded the rest of the way up the long driveway until she reached Carl’s house, let herself in and began to search for a flashlight.

“You cheat with my fiancée
and I’m the one who goes to jail?” Jason said as Cab hauled him into the detachment.

“You’re going to jail for assaulting an officer of the law,” Cab said, “And to give you some time to cool down before you assault your so-called fiancée.”

“She’s not my so-called fiancée. She is my fiancée.”

“She told me she broke things off.”

“She may have, but I sure didn’t.”

Cab held his tongue through the procedure of booking him and turning him over to the officers who ran the detention facility. Once a row of bars stood between them, he figured it was fair game to ask the man a few questions. “Look, she took off her ring before I made my move. She told me you and she were through.”

Jason swore. “She told me that, too, but she’s wrong. She didn’t even let me have my say.”

“Seems to me she’s given you six years to have your say. Just how long of an engagement were you planning?” Cab pressed. “You’ve had your shot. It’s not my fault you lost her.”

“I was trying to make enough money to do it right,” Jason said.

“Really? You held off because of money? Why not at least invite Rose to North Dakota to live with you?”

“She wouldn’t have liked it.” But the way Jason turned his back and walked away told Cab there was more to it than that.

“Be honest. You had another girl over there.”

Jason whipped around. “No. Never. I was faithful to Rose. I thought she’d be faithful to me.”

“Then why keep away? Why not come home on weekends and holidays?”

“I came when I could.”

“Bullshit!” Cab had just about enough of the man’s paltry excuses. The way he saw, it if you engaged yourself to a woman you did right by her. “You came once every few months. You could have done better than that. If you love Rose, why wouldn’t you be chomping at the bit to get to Chance Creek every chance you could?”

“Because I wasn’t working in the oilfields,” Jason blurted out. “Not full-time, anyway. I didn’t want her to know.”

Cab frowned. “What the hell were you doing?”

“Getting my degree.” Jason shrugged unhappily. “I saw the difference between what those engineers earned and what the roughnecks made and I wanted that paycheck. I enrolled at a local school. Decided to go full time to get it as fast as possible. I graduate this spring.”

Cab squinted at him. “Why wouldn’t you tell anyone about that? That’s something to be proud of, not something to hide.”

“Because it meant I didn’t save any money for our wedding. Not one cent. I’m in debt, Cab. I will be until I finish school and for some years after that. I told Rose I’d buy her a house when we got married. I’m so far from that…” Jason spread his hands.

Cab backed away from the bars, an ugly feeling swirling in his gut. He admitted to himself now that he’d cast Jason as the villain in this story. He’d truly believed the man had a piece on the side in his North Dakota town; that he’d been playing Rose for a year or two. And all the time Jason was working to be a better man for his fiancée?

That made Cab the villain. He didn’t like that much.

“Is she in love with you?” Jason came at him again. He gripped a bar in each hand and peered out between them. “Or was it just a fling? I can forgive her if it was just a fling. Maybe.”

“I don’t know,” Cab said heavily. “It was just the one time.”