Cowboy In The Crossfire(35)

A police car whizzed past them.

"Duck!" he snapped.

Amanda hunkered down, her head near his leg, her shallow, quick breaths revealing her fear. He let his hand touch her wild auburn hair, twirling the locks on his finger, hoping his touch would calm her. All the while his foot hovered over the accelerator, his entire body ready to slam the car into gear.

Flashing lights sped by, followed by a fire engine, ambulance and rescue unit.

They didn't slow.

Blake waited another thirty seconds before letting out a slow stream of air. "They passed us by."

Amanda pushed herself up. "I never should have involved you. If they catch us..." Her voice trailed off. "Ethan will be alone."

"I'm not letting that happen." Blake turned to Amanda. "I promised I'd get you back to your son, and I will." He eased the vehicle forward to the end of the alley. With a quick glance, he saw the convergence of emergency equipment. "They'll be busy with the fire for a while."

He turned the opposite direction onto the street, his thoughts clicking through what he'd seen--and what he hadn't seen in the house. "This is going to sound strange, but are you sure Vince is dead?"

She let out a choked gasp. "His eyes stared straight through me. Blood was everywhere. He had a hole where his heart should have been. He was dead." Her voice shook with sorrow and more than a hint of betrayal.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Blake rubbed her leg with his hand. "It just doesn't make sense. Why take the body? They could've used it to frame you and bring you in." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "They didn't expect Vince to betray them," he muttered. "This was all a giant screwup. They're covering their tracks." Blake cursed. "And I let it slip to Glenn that Vince was dead. He'll ask questions. He may be in danger and not even know it."

Blake hit Logan's number on his phone. "This is Blake. We got trouble."

"Really?" Logan's sarcasm rang through Blake's ear. "I'm tracking the Austin police radio traffic. What have you done?"

"Among other things, put a good cop in danger. Glenn Romero. If he starts asking questions, I don't doubt they'll frame him like they did me."

"Get back here before they check the private airports. I'll keep an eye on the Romero situation." The sound of papers ruffled through the phone. "Think long and hard about how you want to play this. You're getting close to a no-win scenario."

"Losing isn't an option, Logan." Blake ended the call and glanced at Amanda. "It's not just you and me now. We've dragged in someone else. We have to find what Vince had on these guys another way."

She didn't respond, and he didn't like her silence. Her hair covered her face, and she twisted one curl around and around her finger. He'd let her down, but a wave of apprehension rose in his gut. "You're thinking too much. It's going to be fine. I'll figure out a way."

"How? Vince is dead. His house is in ashes. Any evidence he left is gone."

She gazed out the car window, shaking her head. Blake rested his hand on her shoulder. She didn't pull away, but he could feel the stiffness in her body. "Don't close me out," he growled. "I won't let them get away with this. I promise."

"Vince didn't have time to do anything with the evidence," she said, her voice flat and certain. "He never did plan ahead. You said so yourself. There's nothing left. We might as well accept it."

Blake didn't like the defeat in her voice. "We don't need Vince's files. I'll go back to my place. There'll be something to identify the guys who attacked my family's ranch. Ballistics, tire tracks, something. They've tipped their hand by coming after you and Ethan. That was a mistake. A big one."

"Maybe, but all I can think about is protecting Ethan."

"Amanda, don't give up. Now that we know how far they're willing to go, we can't give up."

Her utter stillness swelled his sense of unease. She nodded slightly, but he couldn't shake the foreboding. She hadn't caught a lot of breaks in her life. He knew from what Vince had told him over the years she'd had few reasons to believe in anyone or anything. This time, though, she had an ally. Blake wouldn't stop until she and Ethan were safe, and Joey was avenged.

He wouldn't let her down, but he had some thinking to do. With a few turns, he took the quickest back-road route to the private airport outside of Austin and strategized. He was starting from scratch, and after this fiasco, he didn't have much time before he landed behind bars...or dead.

*

THE SUN SHONE THROUGH the windows, heating the inside of the small plane as it taxied to the Carmichael ranch's private airport. The bright rays should have warmed Amanda, but her soul had chilled. She wrapped her arms around her body, unable to stop the dark cloud that threatened to overwhelm her.

The fire had changed everything. For a few short hours, Blake had rekindled her hope for a normal life with Ethan. Now that was gone. Everything was gone. From the evidence to save Ethan to the antique teapot her mother had left her.

She'd run out of options.

She'd shut Blake out the entire trip, feigning sleep. In truth, she'd needed time to think. To plan. Blake wouldn't like her choices, but he would have to understand. Everything she did, she did for Ethan.