“Are you daft?” Alfred demanded, letting go of her and stumbling back.
Josey seemed to come awake with surprise. She stumbled back into the wall, closing the door partway as she caught herself. “What...where am I?” She sounded both surprised and scared.
“Something wrong with you?” Alfred demanded, sounding a little afraid himself.
Josey let out a sob. “I can’t have been sleepwalking again.” She began to cry, covering her face with her hands. Jack had seen her cry and wasn’t fooled.
Alfred cleared his voice, visibly uncomfortable. “You should get back to bed.”
“I don’t know where—”
Alfred let out a curse. “I’ll take you.” Jack could hear him grumbling to himself all the way down the hall as he led Josey out.
Jack waited until he heard the door close before he turned on his flashlight again. He couldn’t chance that Alfred might get suspicious and come back. Taking some of the boards from the cellar shelving, he covered the spot where he’d been working. With luck, Alfred wouldn’t notice if he did come back.
Jack knew he had Josey to thank for covering for him tonight, but he was furious with her. She’d taken a hell of a chance. She had no idea how much danger she’d put herself in.
As angry as he was at her for following him and butting into his business, he was also grateful and more than a little awed. Who was this amazing woman? It made him wonder what he saved her from on the highway. Had she felt she owed him? Well, they were even. He’d make sure she wasn’t that foolhardy again.
But even as he thought it, he realized his aunt was apparently right about one thing. He and Josey were definitely a pair.
JOSEY HAD BEEN in bed when Jack returned to the room. She pretended to be asleep, listening to him slip in and undress in the pitch blackness of the room.
Finally, he settled into the large chair.
She lay awake, listening to his breathing, knowing he, too, was still awake and just feet from her. She thought about rolling over and offering to share the bed with him. For the first time since they’d gotten “married,” she felt they really were in this together.
But she remained mute, not daring to say the words because she knew right at that moment she was feeling scared and alone and would have given anything just to be held in his strong arms.
She knew, too, what would happen if she invited him into her bed.
“Josey?”
She froze, then said quietly, “Yes?”
“Don’t ever follow me again.”
She lay perfectly still, hearing the anger in his words and feeling her own fury race through her veins like liquid flames. She’d saved the bastard’s bacon. “No need to thank me,” she said sarcastically.
“We both have our secrets. Stay out of mine and I’ll stay out of yours.”
In the darkness, she touched the rope burn on her neck and felt the sting of tears. Sleep finally came as a godsend.
RJ DIPPED HIS FINGERS into the salve and touched it to his shoulder, grimacing with pain. He glared into the cheap mirror as if Josey was on the other side, relishing at the thought of the pain he would heap on her.
“I’m coming for you, bitch, and when I find you I’m going to hurt you in ways you never dreamed.”
He opened one of the containers of prescription pills he’d found in the medicine cabinet. All of the pills were at least a year old, but if he took enough of them, he might be able to numb the pain, if not kill any infection.
Downing the pills, he took a drink and listened.
He felt better. His vision had cleared some and if he’d had a concussion, it seemed to be getting better. He’d turned on the radio, but hadn’t heard any news, so he figured no news was good news.
Josey was smart. If he was right, she’d conned the driver of the Cadillac and was now on the Winchester Ranch miles from town. Hard to find, was what the clerk had said when RJ had made him give him the same directions he’d given the Cadillac driver.
Yeah, not that hard to find. He just hoped she stayed put. He figured she would. She’d feel safe. Her mistake.
He wanted to go after her right now. No holds barred. But even in his dazed state, he knew that would be stupid.
First, he had to take care of himself. Get his strength back, patch up his wound. Hell, he wasn’t going anywhere without a vehicle.
Josey always seemed to land on her feet. He hadn’t been worried about her going to the cops—not with a murder rap hanging over her. She knew what would happen to her mother if she ended up behind bars. The thought made him frown. She had the money in the backpack. Would she try to get her mother moved out of the rest home his father had stuck her in?
Hell, yes. He stormed out of the bathroom, picked up the kitchen phone and called the nursing home.
“Just wanted to check on Ella Vanderliner. I mean Ella Evans,” he said, when the night nurse answered.
“I’m sure she’s asleep. May I ask who’s calling?”
“Good. So she’s still there?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
He hung up. Maybe he’d been wrong about Josey. Maybe her first thought had been to save her own skin without any thought to her mother.
He glanced in the bedroom at the soft-looking bed and thought about curling up for a while, but knew he couldn’t chance it.
He’d gotten almost everything he’d needed here and he didn’t want to push his luck. Now he just needed wheels. Unfortunately, all he’d found around this place was some old, broken-down, rusted farm equipment. No vehicle he could steal.
That meant he’d have to hit the road and hope someone stopped to give him a ride. But first he’d find a place to get some sleep in the pine trees again. His head would be clearer
