At the Crossroads (Buckhorn, Montana #3)(38)

Now he had to decide if keeping her close was safer for her than trying to ditch her. He knew this woman. No one was more headstrong or determined. She’d be even more dogged now about finding him and taking him in if he ditched her.

“Okay, total transparency,” he said. She was right. He did need her in so many ways. He turned north to go around Buckhorn, staying right at the speed limit. With the shoot-out at the café and now the robbers dead at the river, there would be even more law enforcement out looking for them.

Which meant he had to fight the urge not to tromp on the gas pedal and put as many miles as possible between them and the crime scenes they’d left behind. There would be hell to pay when this was over—and not just for him but for Alexis as well.

He felt as if their trouble had only just begun. He’d already had all of law enforcement looking for him. After the shootings back at the café, Alexis was now an accomplice. For better or worse. He wondered if she knew what she’d signed up for with him. He just hoped she’d never regret it.

ALEXIS THOUGHT ABOUT everything that had happened since she’d opened her eyes this morning. She’d hoped that Bobby would have been able to tell Culhane something about Jana—a woman she hadn’t even known had existed until this morning.

“Maybe you should start by telling me about the last time you saw Jana,” she suggested as Culhane drove. “You said you hadn’t seen her for years? Thought the two of you were no longer married? Must have been a surprise when you heard from her.” She hoped she didn’t sound as jealous as she felt, no matter how he’d played down the marriage.

He drove for a few moments before he answered. “She apparently got my cell number from my dad’s lawyer. I hadn’t seen or heard from her in seven years. When she told me that we were still married, I was more than shocked.”

“Let me guess. She wanted something.”

Culhane nodded. “She said she needed fifty thousand dollars to get out of town.”

That made Alexis’s eyes widen. “Did you tell her what sheriff’s deputies make a year in Montana—when they have jobs?” Alexis caught his hesitation and groaned. “Not another secret.”

“She knew I could get the money.”

Knowing how he lived, his answer caught her by surprise. “What are you telling me? That you moonlight as the head of a drug cartel in your spare time?” She tried to joke away the hurt. How was it that Jana, who hadn’t been around in years, knew he could get that much money but Alexis didn’t? Especially if this woman really had been out of his life all these years.

He sighed. “I might have left out a few particulars about my life.”

“A few particulars?” She scoffed and tried to control her hurt and anger. She had believed that the two of them were as close as any two lovers could be. What a laugh. He hadn’t trusted her with anything real about his life at all. Angry, she said as much.

“That’s not true. I didn’t tell you some things, because they didn’t matter.”

Was he serious? She could barely speak. “Apparently they do matter. At least the money part and the marriage to Jana.”

CULHANE KNEW WHY he’d never told Alexis about his family. Her parents were like something out of an old family sitcom. A stable, loving couple who lived in a nice home.

Alexis had come from such a low-key background that he hadn’t wanted her to know how screwed up his upbringing had been. He didn’t want to admit that after his mother died, his father couldn’t stand the sight of him.

“You know I don’t like talking about it,” he said but knew from her expression that he couldn’t leave it at that. “I told you I grew up on a ranch. That was partly true. My father was a businessman who bought a hobby ranch for my mother. So I grew up there until I was twelve and my mother died. Apparently she was the glue that held our family together. The day after my father buried her, he sent me to boarding school, sold the ranch both she and I had loved and moved into a condo in Bozeman. A one-bedroom condo.”

“I’m sorry.”

He couldn’t look at her. He didn’t want to see the pity in her eyes. “I told you that I spent holidays and summers with friends. My father and I rarely spoke. When we did...” He shook his head. “The point is my mother’s family had money and my father made a lot of money, and I am his only heir.”

“Jana knew about your family wealth.”

Culhane wished he’d told her before Jana came back into the picture. Now it was so much worse. “My father, while he hadn’t wanted anything to do with me, had people keeping a close eye on me. He found out that Jana was pregnant and that’s why we were getting married. I would imagine her father called mine. Anyway, my father insisted on a prenup, threatening to disinherit me if she didn’t sign it. Jana was so upset. I was worried about the baby. My father had paid for my education, but I’d always made my own money. I knew I could support us.”

“Knowing you, you got disinherited.”

HE LAUGHED. ALEXIS loved that laugh under other circumstances. Just as she loved the way he smiled at her, the smile lighting up his blue eyes like liquid silver on water. “Once Jana found out that I’d been disowned, suddenly she lost the baby and took off.”

Alexis realized that he had never wanted proof of the pregnancy. Oh, Culhane, you sweet, naive man. “But then she came back seven years later wanting fifty thousand dollars.”