At the Crossroads (Buckhorn, Montana #3)(2)

The locals in the café watched the three enter but lost interest—just as they had when he’d come in. Buckhorn, Montana, must see enough tourists that locals were immune to strangers passing through, he thought.

He wanted no part of whatever trouble these three were peddling and reached for his wallet. He’d leave the cost of his breakfast he wasn’t going to get to eat on the counter and clear out. He had enough problems without buying more. He’d just have to catch Leo after whatever was going down here was over.

He shot a glance at the cook. Leo looked as if he wanted to make a break for the back door. Culhane swore under his breath. There was no doubt. The arrival of these men was what Leo had been waiting for. It made Culhane hesitate. Given the fear on the cook’s face, this was about to get ugly.

Reminding himself of all the reasons he didn’t want to get involved in this, whatever it was, he still hesitated. He just needed to talk to Leo, but it appeared so did these men. He groaned inwardly, cursing the way his luck was going.

As badly as he needed information from the cook, Culhane knew that the best thing he could do was hightail it out of there. This wasn’t his fight. Worse, trouble would bring cops, and that was the last thing he needed right now. Once these men finished their business with Leo...

As he started to push to his feet, he heard the bell over the door jangle again. In the plastic of the pie display case, he caught the woman’s reflection. His heart plummeted. With a curse, he slowly lowered himself back onto the stool as Alexis Brand entered the café.

Her timing couldn’t have been worse. Of course she would come after him. He shook his head, remembering how he’d left her bed last night like a thief in the night. It wouldn’t matter that he’d only done it to keep her out of the trouble dogging him right now. Not that she would understand even if now were the best time to explain. He’d left so many of the details out about his life before her. Now thanks to the BOLO for him, she knew the worst of it.

He and everyone else in the café had turned to see her standing in the doorway. Her short dark curly hair framed a striking face with its large brown eyes and thick lashes and that full sensual mouth that he’d never tire of kissing. In a T-shirt, jeans, boots and a denim jacket, Alexis turned heads. She wasn’t just cute. She was sexy as hell, even though she played it down.

Everything about the way she carried herself said that she wanted to be taken seriously. He definitely took her seriously—especially right now with that look in her eye and that gun in the shoulder holster under her jean jacket. She’d come to take him in—one way or the other.

In the pie display he saw her make a beeline for him—the bounty hunter totally unaware of the trouble that had just preceded her in the door.

ALEXIS HAD ACTUALLY hesitated in the café’s doorway at the sight of Culhane sitting bigger than life at the counter. Finding him had been too easy. She didn’t trust it any more than she did dumb luck. So what was he still doing here? He’d had a good head start since he’d learned about the BOLO—a lot quicker than she had. He had to know she would be on his tail. It wasn’t like him to let her catch him, and that worried her.

But then maybe she didn’t know this cowboy as well as she thought she did. After this morning, she questioned if she ever had really known him. When she’d spotted his pickup out in front of the cafe, she’d thought for sure that he’d ditched it and gotten himself another ride. For a man on the run, he sure didn’t look anxious to get anywhere.

After finding her bed empty this morning, she’d showered and turned on the news. Culhane wanted for murder? But that wasn’t the real shocker. He was wanted for the murder of his wife. “Murder? Wife?” she’d repeated, sounding like a parrot before she’d called Al Shaw, a deputy she and Culhane used to work with—before they’d both been fired six months ago by the new sheriff.

“Tell me what’s going on, Al.”

“They haven’t found the body yet, but there was sufficient blood at the scene...The marriage was over seven years ago. Her name is Jana Redfield...Travis.”

“That’s all nice, but where has he gone?” She knew Culhane—or at least she’d thought she had. He would be on any lead he could turn up to try and clear his name. There was no way he’d killed anyone. Let alone his...wife?

That was the part that astounded her. Wouldn’t a wife have come up in conversation over the past year that she and Culhane had been lovers? Even an ex-wife. The man had a whole lot of explaining to do. She’d sworn that she would find him and bring him in.

“Where’s he gone, Al? I know he would have called you.”

“You’re really putting me on the spot here, Alexis. He’ll have my hide for this.”

“So will I, Al, if you don’t tell me right now.”

With a sigh, Al had finally weakened, since Alexis knew when push came to shove, he was probably more afraid of her than Culhane. “He’s gone to Buckhorn to talk to a parolee by the name of Leo Vernon. He’s a cook at the café there. He has some connection to Culhane’s wife, Jana.”

Culhane’s wife. The words made her grind her teeth. So when she’d found Culhane sitting calmly in the café as if about to have breakfast, it was all she could do not to pull her gun and shoot him right there. But then, she wouldn’t have the satisfaction of seeing him behind bars—after she got the answers he owed her.