weary body. Her limbs felt heavy and numb. The rain clouds blotted the afternoon sun from the sky, casting gloom across the Ford’s dark interior, drawing her deeper into her own mind.
He was nearby. She felt him, like a chill in the air around her. She struggled to open her eyes, certain that if she looked in the side mirror, she’d see him lurking behind them, waiting to make his move.
She tried to warn Riley, but her voice came out in a soft, voiceless cry. Her arms and legs felt paralyzed, and a growing hum filled her ears.
He was closer. She could smell him, the fetid stench of hate and malice, stronger than the sting of pepper spray that still seemed to linger in her nose. Was he right outside her window? If she opened her eyes, would she find him staring back at her, from a face she had struggled for two days to picture? Or would she see nothing but those hard, cruel hands, reaching for her, determined to finish what he’d started two days ago?
Hard hands grabbed her from behind and squeezed her throat, trapping her breath in her chest. Her head started pounding, and the world around her swirled into a spiral of darkness.
“Hannah!”
The fingers lost their grip. Air rushed into her lungs, and she lurched forward, her paralysis gone. Her surroundings swam into focus. The dashboard in front of her. Fast breathing beside her.
She had to get out.
Fumbling with the seat-belt buckle, she managed to free herself just as someone grabbed her arm. She jerked away, plucking at the door handle, a soft keening sob escaping her lungs as she missed on the first try. On the second attempt, the door opened and she flung herself out of the car into the driving rain, scrambling over the rocky shoulder.
“Hannah!”
She kept moving, though her sluggish brain tried to process how the killer knew her name. And what was he doing in the car?
She heard swift footsteps on the ground behind her, and her heart rate soared. Hands caught at her, missing at first but finally trapping her in their hard grip. She struggled to get away, but strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her tight against a warm, solid body.
“Hannah, it’s Riley. Stop fighting me.”
She fought a few seconds longer until his words seeped into her sleep-addled brain. She twisted around to look at him, needing to see his face, to be sure.
Rain dripped off the brim of his hat, falling against her cheek. Beneath the brim, his anxious blue eyes bored into hers. “Are you okay?” His voice shook.
Relief flooded her body, knocking her off balance. She grasped his arms, her fingers digging in just to keep herself from sliding to the ground.
He caught her up against him. “You were trying to scream in the car,” he said, his voice rough.
“I thought he was here.” Her voice came out in a croak. “I thought he was trying to kill me.”
Riley’s eyes closed as he took a couple of quick, deep breaths. “I didn’t know if you were having some sort of seizure or something. I pulled over and then you just went wild.”
He had parked the Ford off the side of the road, she saw, on a narrow shoulder not far from the exit to the rest area where they’d eaten lunch and played that silly game of popsmack. She must have slept longer than she realized; they’d been back on the road for almost an hour and a half.
“It felt real,” she said, tears stinging her eyes. She’d felt the man’s anger. His hate.
“Nobody’s out there,” he assured her, pushing her wet hair out of her face. His hand lingered against her cheek, his touch warm and firm, full of strength tempered by gentle concern. Her breath hitched, catching somewhere in the middle of her chest. She gazed up into his shadowed eyes, where something glittered, fierce and white hot, stealing the air from her lungs. His fingers tangled in the hair at her temples, trapping her.
He was going to kiss her. And she was going to let him.
As she rose to meet him, his mouth descended, hard and hungry against hers.
Chapter Nine
Though a cold wind whipped around them, and the rain drenched them to the skin, all Hannah could feel was Riley’s mouth over hers, hard and relentless, drawing out of her a feverish passion she thought she’d buried somewhere so deep inside it could never be found again. She dug her fingers into the muscles of his arms, holding on tightly as he dragged her closer to him, until her breasts pressed flat against the hard wall of his chest, until she could feel his heartbeat galloping wildly alongside her own.
Slowly, he ran his hand over her jaw, down the curve of her neck, his thumb settling on the hollow of her throat. His mouth softened, coaxing her to relax against him. His tongue slid lightly over her bottom lip, seducing her until she opened up to him, letting him deepen the kiss.
Their tongues met briefly, a gentle thrust and parry, and a low moan escaped her throat.
The sound seemed to catch him off guard. He went still, his mouth resting briefly against hers, then letting go. His hand dropped from her neck and away from her body altogether.
Released from his hold, she had to struggle to keep her feet, her breath coming in short, raspy pants.
“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice tight.
She didn’t know what to say. Was he sorry for kissing her in the first place? Sorry for pulling away and leaving her breathless and stunned?
“You scared me,” he added, immediately wincing as if he knew it was the wrong thing to say.
The sudden tension between them was almost painful. She pressed the heel of her hand against her suddenly aching forehead. “Let’s get back in the car, okay? We’re soaked.”
He gave a brisk nod and guided her back to the car. He opened the door for her, letting her settle in before he shut it and went around to the driver’s side. He cranked the engine and turned up the heat, pulling back out on to the highway.
The next hour passed in near silence, the beat of the windshield wipers and the patter of rain taking up the slack.
They reached Canyon Creek near nightfall, stopping at the used-car lot to switch vehicles. On the short drive back to Riley’s place, he broke the silence only to make a phone call to the office. “He’s not in? Do you know where he went?”
After listening a moment longer, he rang off, gazing ahead at the road with his brow furrowed.
“What is it?” Hannah asked.
“Joe left the office about four hours ago, headed for the Grand Teton National Park. He didn’t leave any message for me.”
“Maybe it’s not related to my case?”
He shook his head. “Grand Teton is way out of our jurisdiction. Why would he be going there?”
Hannah had a sinking feeling they’d find out sooner rather than later.
JACK’S TRUCK WAS NOWHERE in sight when Riley pulled the Silverado up the gravel-packed drive to his house. He frowned, wondering where his brother-in-law was off to in this storm.
As Hannah started to get out of the truck, he put his hand out to hold her in place. “Let me go get an umbrella for you.”
She stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. “I’m already drenched to the bone. I’m not going to melt.” She slid out of the car into the rain.
He hurried to catch up with her, unlocking the door and guiding her to the narrow mudroom just off the kitchen. He took her jacket and shook off the water, hanging it to finish drying on a hook on the wall. He did the same with his own jacket, trying to ignore the tense silence that had fallen between them.
What the hell had gotten into him, grabbing her up like that, kissing her with all the finesse of a cowboy hitting town after weeks on the trail? Jack, for God’s sake, would have handled her with a more gentleness, and he was a damned bull rider and an unrepentant player.
Hannah crossed the kitchen to stand near the wood stove. Inside the chamber, the embers were dying, but it
