The Cowgirl in Question Part 22

She stared at him, then began to laugh and cry at the same time.

"You're taking it better than I expected," he said. "I figured you were only interested in marrying me for my money and once you realized there was no money..."

"I thought you killed Forrest," she managed to get out between sobs.

"Oh, Blaze," he said, and opened his arms as he moved to her.

She stepped into his arms. "I did something really stupid eleven years ago and again today, East."

"Did you kill anyone?" he asked, holding his breath.

She shook her head. "But I lied about where I was the night Forrest died. I tried to follow Forrest. I thought he was meeting someone else. I lost him, but Cecil knew because I gave him a ride as far as my dad's ranch."

"Has Cecil been blackmailing you?" Easton asked, wondering how Cecil had made bail. He'd just seen him on the street outside.

"Cecil isn't that smart," she said.

Easton watched as Rourke's pickup pulled up out front, then the sheriff's patrol car. The two men got out and looked into the Suburban Blaze had just returned in. His heart caught in his throat. He hadn't realized how much he didn't want to lose Blaze until that moment. "Blaze, I think you'd better tell me what you did today."

THE SUN WAS HOT coming in the car windows as Ca.s.sidy drove to the outskirts of town. Yvonne lived in a small house that she'd bought after beauty school. The front of the building housed her beauty shop, Hair For You.

As Ca.s.sidy drove up, she saw that the Closed sign was still in the window of the shop. She climbed out of her car and went to pound on the door. Locked. Peering in the window, she could see the place was empty, the door that went into the apartment part of the house closed.

The lot next door was waist-high weeds. On the other side, there was a flower shop that had gone broke, the windows soaped, a For Lease sign out front.

Across the street were more empty lots and several old houses that were in the process of being torn down for a minimall that she'd heard Easton was building.

Ca.s.sidy hurried down the narrow sidewalk along the side of the house. Yvonne's small blue car was parked at the back next to a shed.

Gra.s.shoppers rustled in the tall weeds, the air back here hot and rank. She caught a whiff of the garbage cans along the dirt alley as she stepped up to the back door and knocked. No answer.

"Yvonne!" she called, and pounded on the door. Through a crack in the curtain, she peered into the house but could see nothing beyond the small kitchen and breakfast nook.

She tried the k.n.o.b. To her surprise and concern, the door swung open. She stood for a moment, wishing Rourke was here with her. Wishing she heard the sound of Cash's siren.

Silence. Except for the chirp of the gra.s.shoppers.

She peered in and saw two dirty plates on a small breakfast-nook table, a half-eaten slice of bacon sitting in the congealed egg yolk on one. Yvonne had had company.

"Yvonne?" She stepped in and had to stifle a gasp. The house had been ransacked, everything pulled out of drawers and cabinets.

She stood looking at the mess. Wait for Cash. A noise came from upstairs. Like the scuff of a shoe on the wood floor, the same sound she'd heard earlier on the phone. "Yvonne?"

The living room was also ransacked. A floorboard creaked overhead. Ca.s.sidy looked up the narrow stairway against the wall. She could see nothing at the top of the stairs but shadowy darkness.

Wait for Cash, her instincts told her. Don't go up there alone.

But as she started up the steps, Ca.s.sidy knew she had to go up. She had to see if Yvonne was up there, maybe hurt. Another creak of a floorboard.

"Yvonne?" No answer. Just the old house creaking like old houses tended to do.

Ca.s.sidy ascended the steps coming out on a short dark landing with three doors, two closed, one partially open. She started toward the door that was open a crack.

"Yvonne?" she called as she pushed the door slowly open.

"THERE'S A .22 RIFLE under the back seat of this one and the engine is still warm," Rourke said as he and Cash moved along the side of the green ADC Suburbans.

"I'll go down the street and get a warrant from Judge McGowan," Cash said. "You think you can keep Blaze and Easton from leaving until I get back?"

Rourke just laughed and headed for the front door of ADC. He tipped his hat to the receptionist, not bothering to stop, going straight to Blaze and Easton's office. He wasn't in the mood to wait for anything. Cash had told him that Cecil Danvers had made bail. The good news was that there was a decent print on the casing they'd found up Wild Horse Gulch.

Rourke still couldn't believe either Blaze or Easton had taken a potshot at him and Ca.s.sidy. He knew the reason he was so angry was because of what the shooter had interrupted. He was kicking himself for taking Ca.s.sidy up there and yet, at the same time, he couldn't remember a morning ride he'd enjoyed more. He knew it was probably for the best that he and Ca.s.sidy hadn't made love up there. But it didn't help his mood any.

He'd followed Ca.s.sidy to the cafe, making sure she was safe before going by the sheriff's office. Ca.s.sidy hadn't said much on the way to her place to change her clothing or on the trip into town. He couldn't wait to see her again. He had to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling.

Easton and Blaze both turned in surprise as the door opened and he walked in.

"Rourke," Blaze said. She'd obviously been crying. She shot a glance at Easton.

He had stepped forward as if to protect her. It surprised Rourke. He'd just a.s.sumed Easton didn't care that much about Blaze since he hadn't married her.

"Which one of you just got back from Wild Horse Gulch?" Rourke asked, unable to miss the look Easton shot Blaze.

"I did," he said, and Blaze couldn't seem to hide her surprise. "What's the problem?"

"Someone driving a green ADC Suburban just took a couple potshots at Ca.s.sidy and me."

Easton was shaking his head. "Can you prove that?" He stole a glance at Blaze, obvious worry on his face. "I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding."

Rourke smiled. "Just like Forrest's murder?"

"I didn't have anything to do with that," Easton said. "Look, Rourke, could we talk about this?" He shot a glance at Blaze, who'd sat back down behind her desk. She looked scared.

"Why don't we step outside," Rourke said.

Easton raised a brow. "Okay."

As they left the office, Rourke told the receptionist to make sure Blaze didn't leave.

"I'm sorry I didn't make an effort to come see you in prison," Easton said. "I feel bad about that."

Rourke nodded. "But you started dating Blaze the second I left town, so that probably would have made it awkward during your visit."

"Well, you're here now. There's nothing keeping you from taking Blaze back."

Rourke smiled at that. "Actually there is, but it's not you. I'm interested in someone else." The admission surprised him. "Blaze and I were never serious about each other any way. At least Blaze wasn't."

Easton raised a brow and glanced toward the office as if things were clearer now. "Blaze and I are going to be getting married."

Rourke couldn't hide his surprise. "Why now? It's been eleven years."

"I guess I wanted to be sure she was over you. She loves me and I love her." He seemed to challenge Rourke to say otherwise.

Something pa.s.sed between them, a remnant of the friendship they'd once shared.

"Congratulations," Rourke said, and meant it. "Too bad one of you will be behind bars. I know Blaze took the shots at us, not you. You're willing to go to prison for her?"

Easton let out a soft, amused chuckle. It reminded Rourke of all the good times they'd shared. Gone, just like the past eleven years. But not forgotten. "I think we both know that I'm headed in that direction already and, like I said, we love each other. We're two of a kind, as it turns out."

Cash came up the street with the warrant. Easton took it and nodded, watching while Cash searched the Suburban and found the rifle.

"I'm the person you're looking for," Easton lied. "I did it."

"Why?" Cash asked. He could have meant why did you do it. But Rourke suspected, like him, Cash knew Easton was covering for Blaze.

Easton directed his answer at Rourke, "Sometimes we do stupid things to protect the people we love." He turned back to Cash. "Before I say anything else I'd like to speak to my lawyer."

"I won't be pressing charges," Rourke said.

"What?" Cash demanded.

"Consider it a wedding present," Rourke said to Easton. "I hope the two of you will be happy."

Easton nodded, eyes shiny. "I'm glad you're back, Rourke. You'll have to give me some tips on staying alive in the Big House."

"For a white-collar crime like cooking your own books?" Rourke said. "A good lawyer can get you off. Now that you're marrying his daughter, I'm sure John Logan knows of a good attorney or two."

Easton smiled and held out his hand. Rourke looked at it for a moment, then shook it.

Cash started to say something but the two-way radio in his patrol car squawked. "Don't move. I'm not finished with you," he said to Rourke and went to answer it.

Through the window, Rourke watched Easton go back inside the office. Blaze looked up, her expression filled with fear. Rourke couldn't hear what was being said but he could guess. Blaze's expression turned to one of disbelief, then shock, then she was crying and Easton was on his knees proposing. Blaze must have said yes, because the next moment, she was in his arms.

"Get in!" Cash called from the patrol car and flipped on his siren.

The car was already rolling as Rourke closed the door.

"It's Ca.s.sidy. She got a call from Yvonne. She's gone out there. The dispatcher said Ca.s.sidy heard a sound on the line, then the phone was dropped."

Rourke swore and watched the highway as it blurred past. For the first time in years, he prayed for someone other than himself.

AS Ca.s.sIDY PUSHED ON THE bathroom door she saw the sink, the mirror over it fogged with condensation. Had Yvonne dropped the phone because she'd forgotten she'd left the water running in the tub?

But then where was she now?

Ca.s.sidy caught an acrid wet scent as the door creaked all the way open.

The red shower curtain was drawn across the tub. No water on the floor, but the room was humid as if someone had just taken a bath. Odd. Odd, too, that smell. Like burnt electrical wiring.

She glanced at the red shower curtain, her imagination creeping her out. Don't. Don't even consider it. Don't. Don't even consider it.

She'd seen too many horror movies as a teenager. She reached for the curtain to pull it back. That's when she heard it. A siren in the distance. Cash. She breathed a sigh of relief and thought about going downstairs to wait for him.

But her fingers were already on the shower curtain. She drew it back, telling herself later she'd laugh about how scared she was because the tub would be empty, a faint ring around the edge from where the sudsy water had been earlier.

She heard something behind her. A sound like a soft jingle. But her gaze was on the tub.

It wasn't empty.

Ca.s.sidy screamed, the sound ricocheting off the walls as the sight branded itself on her brain. Yvonne fully clothed lying in the tub of water. Her face blue and floating just under the surface, legs splayed, knees up. The still-plugged-in hair dryer resting on her chest.

Ca.s.sidy swung around, half falling, half lurching back through the bathroom door onto the landing. She heard a sound, a door creaking open. She turned her head.

At first she thought it was Cash, that somehow he'd gotten there quicker than she'd expected. But she could still hear the siren drawing closer and the dark figure came from a now partially opened doorway that had been closed earlier.

She couldn't make out the features in the shadowy darkness of the landing until the figure was almost on top of her. And then it was too late. She didn't have time to react. Didn't even have time to get her arm up.

The blow caught her in the temple, the force knocking her backward. She felt the air rush from her lungs as she fell, then saw nothing but darkness.

Chapter Fourteen.

"Ca.s.sidy!" Rourke took the stairs three at a time with Cash yelling for him to wait as he ran through the ransacked house.

She was slumped against the wall on the landing, her head tilted to one side. His heart caught in his throat. No! Oh, G.o.d no.

But the moment he touched her, he knew she was alive. She stirred and let out a soft moan, her hand going to the b.u.mp on her head. Her eyes came open. She focused on him, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth.

"Rourke."

He thought his heart would burst from his chest as he drew her to him. "Are you all right?" he whispered against her hair.