“My God.” Jack rose from the bed and took her in his arms.
“Oh, that was only the beginning,” Josey said, as she leaned into his broad chest. “And now RJ is out there somewhere looking for me.”
Chapter Twelve
RJ thought about taking a page out of Josey’s playbook and drastically changing his appearance. But his last haircut and highlighting job had cost him a bundle and he wasn’t about to ruin that with some disgusting dye job.
He decided he would just have to wear the farmer’s straw hat to cover up most of his blond hair. His bigger concern was gasoline.
There was no way he could chance stopping at a station once he left Billings. There were only two towns between there and Whitehorse—Roundup and Grass Range, both small—and he’d heard on the radio that people were looking for him.
So he bought a gas can, put it in the trunk of the car he’d borrowed from behind the bar and filled it in Billings. Fortunately, the car had a large gas tank. The last thing he wanted to do was run out of gas before he found the Winchester Ranch.
His plan was to get to the ranch early enough that he could watch the comings and goings. He had no way of knowing how many people were on the place or how to find Josey. Once he had her, she would tell him where the backpack was with the money in it. At least the money better be in it, he thought.
There was always the chance that she wasn’t even on the ranch anymore, but if the yellow Cadillac was there, then he would at least be able to find out where Josey had gone.
The drive was a lot longer than the clerk who’d given him the directions had led him to believe. This place was from hell and gone on miles of narrow dirt road. He was getting annoyed, the drugs he’d taken starting to wear off, when the right rear tire blew.
JACK COULD SEE how hard this was for Josey, but he had to know everything. It was the only way he was going to be able to help her. And no matter what she told him, he knew he would help her any way he could.
He’d never planned to let himself become emotionally involved with this woman, especially knowing from the get-go that she was in some kind of trouble.
But she’d brought out every protective instinct in him, and somewhere along the way he’d found himself falling for her.
“I realized he’d framed me for his father’s murder, and the only reason he didn’t dump me beside the road was because he needed to make it look as if I’d taken off with the money. I knew something else.”
“He couldn’t let you live,” Jack said.
She nodded. “With his father dead and my mother unable to take care of herself, RJ would be in charge of everything my father had built. I knew he would destroy Vanderliner Oil, spend until he lost it. But I was more worried about what would happen to my mother.
“RJ was all drugged up, flying high, thinking he’d just pulled off the perfect crime. I had no idea how far he’d driven before he stopped. I thought he was going to kill me then, but he just let me out long enough to go to the bathroom, give me some water and a little something to eat. Apparently, he didn’t want me dying in his car and smelling it up.”
“He didn’t give you any idea where you were headed?”
Josey shook her head. “I asked him to let me ride in the backseat and promised I wouldn’t cause any trouble. I wanted to know where we were. I also didn’t stand a chance of getting away bound up in the trunk. With my wrists taped behind me, what could I do anyway?”
“So he agreed.”
“I think he did it because he was already over Celeste,” Josey said. “She was complaining about everything, especially about having to guard me whenever we stopped for gas or he had to run in and get food. At one point, she told him she wasn’t going any farther unless he dumped me.”
Jack shook his head in disbelief. “She was as cold-blooded as he was.”
“The money was part of the appeal. At one point, they thought I was sleeping, and I heard him explain to her that he had to make sure no one found my body and that was why they were going to a place he and his father had hunted in Montana.”
“You had to be terrified.”
“I watched for an opportunity to get away, but as drugged up as RJ was, he never let down his guard. He seemed ultraintuitive to even the slightest movement by me. By the time we reached Montana I realized he was going to get rid of not only me, but also Celeste. Unfortunately, she hadn’t figured that out yet.”
MCCALL GOT THE CALL about a possible suspect sighting in Billings and hoped the recent incidents down there were RJ’s doing only because it would mean he was nowhere near Whitehorse or the Winchester Ranch.
“We had a drugstore break-in,” the cop on duty told her. “He sprayed something over the video camera, but missed a small spot. It was definitely a white male. Could be this Ray Allan Evans Jr. you’re looking for.”
“We believe he was injured at the scene and might be in need of medical supplies.”
“Drugs and medical supplies were stolen. That same night a man was killed behind a bar and a pickup truck was set on fire near there. We also had a break-in
