At the Crossroads (Buckhorn, Montana #3)(34)

“It’s all right. You’re worried about him.”

She’d nodded, afraid of what she would find when she returned. “I hate just leaving you, though.”

“I’ll be fine,” Tina had assured her as they’d neared the entrance. “Does he know?” At Alexis’s confused look, she added, “About the baby?”

She felt a moment of surprise, then shook her head as she pulled into the emergency lane and helped Tina to the door. As she pushed the button, she could see a nurse heading in their direction with a wheelchair.

“He’ll do the right thing,” Tina said.

Alexis felt tears burn her eyes. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

The emergency-room door opened, and Alexis hurried back to the truck. Starting it up, she headed west again as fast as she could go without getting pulled over for speeding.

She kept checking her rearview mirror as she left town. Once on the highway, she began to relax a little. She knew Tina was right. Culhane would do the right thing. He’d marry her. Just as he had Jana.

Once she’d heard about his first marriage, she’d known she couldn’t tell him about the baby she was carrying. She didn’t want that kind of marriage. She wanted Culhane to love her so much that he couldn’t live without her. She wouldn’t trap him with a baby as Jana had done.

She knew why he’d never told her about Jana. She suspected there was more he’d been keeping from her. In the almost four years that she’d known him, he’d never told her much about his family or obviously any other part of his life before they’d met, when she’d gone to work as a deputy at the sheriff’s department and they’d been thrown together.

All she knew was that he and his father didn’t get along. She’d never met the man before attending his funeral a few months ago. Culhane had been dry-eyed at the viewing, which was well attended. It surprised her that he hadn’t seemed to know almost all of the people who’d come to pay their respects, except for his friends that were there.

“My father had a life completely separate from mine after my mother died when I was twelve,” he’d told her.

She’d wondered how that was even possible and said as much.

“Right after her funeral he sent me to boarding school. I went to friends’ homes during holidays and summer break.” When she’d tried to question him further, he’d shut down. She’d been horrified that a father would do that to his own flesh and blood. But between his father and Jana, she figured she now understood why he’d said marriage and kids weren’t for him.

Alexis was watching for the turnoff when she caught the flashing lights in her rearview mirror. Her heart dropped as she slowed down and started to pull over. At least she was driving Earl Ray’s pickup. But by now the law might already know that.

She rode the shoulder as the sound of the siren came closer and closer. She thought she might be sick. She had to get back to where she’d left Culhane. She couldn’t help being worried about him. Maybe if she told the patrol officer what was going on...

The cruiser streaked past her, siren blaring, lights flashing in a blur. Alexis stared after it and tried to breathe. Her heart was a thudding drum in her chest. She willed her stomach to settle down, and hastily she wiped at her tears.

The patrol hadn’t paid her—or the pickup—any mind at all. Instead, he was probably looking for a gray van with bank-robber killers inside. Lucky for her. Lucky for Culhane, she thought as she got the truck going again.

But as she did, she wondered if she should have waved down the officer. After all, she knew where the gray van and the men were. She also knew where Culhane might be found. What she wouldn’t know was what had happened since she’d been gone, and that’s what assured her that she’d made the right decision. At least she hoped in her heart of hearts that she had.

She drove, watching for the road where she had to turn, unable to shake the feeling that if Culhane needed her, she was going to be too late to help him.

A BOARD CRACKED under his boot and fell away, throwing Culhane off balance for a moment. His pulse thundered in his ears as he looked down at the long drop to the water and the large boulders just below the surface. He had to stop for a moment to get his balance, to get his breathing under control.

He tried not to look in the direction of the van and instead concentrated on his footing. If he was walking into a trap, he was giving them plenty of time to take him out. The wind whipped around him, kicking up dust and dried feathers along the shore. The air held the promise of a new season, one that would bring cold and ice and snow, even as the sun beat down on him.

Just a few more steps, and he would be at the spot where the van had gone off the bridge. That Bobby had almost made it all the way across was nothing short of a miracle. He must have just floored it. He had to have known he wouldn’t make it. Otherwise, the van would be fully in the river, the current rushing through it.

Stepping around the gaping, massive hole in the bridge, Culhane found a little better footing on the opposite side. Just a few more yards, he thought, picking his way carefully. He would hate to make it this far and then have the rest of the bridge collapse, dropping him to the rocks and rushing water below.

A board snapped under his left foot; he quickly shifted his weight to his right and then froze there for a moment, the wind buffeting him. As he’d seen from across the river, the driver’s-side door was hanging open. The passenger’s-side door though was only partially open. Something appeared to be lodged in the door, keeping it from closing. The wind whistled through the open doors. Were the men still inside?