At the Crossroads (Buckhorn, Montana #3)(59)

“I told you they would follow you,” she cried.

He shook his head as he pushed her toward the back door. But at least he had the necklace. “You fool. I don’t know what kind of deal they offered you, but they have no intention of keeping it. Jana, they plan to kill us both.”

She began to cry. “I was scared. They said they would let me go free if I did this one last thing.”

The three of them scrambled out the back door into the falling snow. Jana went first with Culhane right behind her. He had hold of her coat sleeve, but when he turned back to check on Alexis, Jana pulled free and took off at a run down the mountainside.

“Get her!” Alexis cried, coming out of the cabin right behind him. “They’ll kill her!” And frame Culhane.

He could see that Jana was headed for the road—the same road the two deputies were coming up. If they saw her and killed her... But he didn’t want to leave Alexis.

“Go!” she cried again. “I’ll double back to the truck.”

That was enough to get him moving. He raced after Jana down the mountain, hoping he could reach her before the deputies saw her. Maybe with the snow falling so hard—

He hadn’t gone fifty feet when he heard the gunshot. His heart dropped as he slid to a stop. He blinked in the falling snow, unable to tell where the shot had come from.

His heart pleaded with him to turn back, to find Alexis. He stumbled forward, knowing that Alexis was trained for this. She was armed. Jana was completely ill-equipped for any of this. If they killed her, he knew they would plant evidence that would send him to prison—if he was lucky.

He’d taken only a few steps when he saw her. Jana. She stood below him on the mountainside, a gun pointed at his heart.

At least now he knew where the gunshot had come from. So would the deputies if he didn’t move fast.

“Give me the necklace, Culhane,” she said, the gun wavering in her hands. Fortunately the woman was a bad shot, or he’d be dead. “I need it to buy my freedom.”

He nodded. Arguing with her right now seemed like a bad idea. “Fine.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the necklace. Even with the fake jewels it was heavy, unless that, too, had been a lie. Then he took a step toward her.

ALEXIS HEARD SOMEONE go charging into the cabin’s front door as she took off out the back. Huge snowflakes fell in a wall of white in front of her. She started through the pines the way she’d come when she heard a gunshot. Her pulse jumped. Culhane?

Jana had set them up. She’d seen at least two deputies earlier. What if there were more? The pickup was parked down the road in the pines. For a moment, she didn’t know where to go or what to do. She didn’t know who’d been shot.

She stopped to look back, feeling disoriented and scared that the deputies had shot Culhane. Or shot Jana to put the nail into Culhane’s coffin for her murder.

She had to go back. She couldn’t leave Culhane.

Alexis started to turn when she heard a sound off to her right. A twig broke under a boot heel. She couldn’t see anything for the snow and the dense pines around her. But she knew she was no longer alone.

Move! Another twig broke off to her left. She started to turn, her weapon ready, when the gun was wrenched from her hand. She heard heavy breathing and was grabbed from behind. Something dark and scratchy was dropped over her, her arms quickly pinned to her sides as straps bound her. She struggled only to find herself being bound even more tightly. She tried to breathe, but the smell of the thick blanket made her gag.

“Calm down. We aren’t going to hurt you.” Alexis recognized his voice and heard the lie. Deputy Terry Cline was one of the sheriff’s thugs who did his dirty work.

But he was right. She needed to calm down. She was panicking, her heart pounding so hard it made her chest ache as she gasped for each breath. Taking shallower breaths, she tried to compose herself and think. Panic did her no good. She had to keep her head. If they were arresting her, they would have cuffed her and taken her down to a patrol car. Instead...

It was the instead that made her heart hammer even harder. She felt herself being lifted roughly and thrown over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes as she was carried down the hill. She could hear Cline breathing hard. There was another man, the one who’d taken her gun. He was busting through the woods behind them. Both men appeared to be in a hurry, making her wonder about the other two men she’d seen. Deputies who weren’t taking questionable orders from Sheriff Garwood?

As Cline came to a stop, she heard a vehicle door being opened, then a sliding door like on an SUV or a van. He dumped her unceremoniously into the back and slid the door closed. She wriggled around trying to free herself until she was breathing hard again and stopped herself. She could hear the two of them climb into the front. The engine started, and the vehicle began to move.

Where were they taking her? What about Culhane? Jana? She listened, but she couldn’t hear anyone else in the back with her.

Bound, wrapped tight and sheathed in darkness under the heavy fabric, she closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing. If they were going to kill her, they would have already. Instead they were taking her somewhere. To keep her out of the way? Or were they taking her to someone?

She tried to get a hand free, but she was bound too tightly. At least she had to try to push the fabric away from her face. She had about the same amount of luck. What if she could bite a hole in it? She leaned back, trying to stretch the fabric out some. Finally she was able to get some between her teeth. She began to work at it, all the time not letting herself believe that the worst had happened to Culhane. If he were dead, she assured herself, she would feel it. Her heart would know. It would break. He had to be alive. But for how long?