McCall turned to give him an amused smile. He could tell she didn’t think he knew anything about her. She couldn’t have been more wrong.
“I know you’re going after your father’s killer.”
“You witnessed my discussion with the sheriff. If I get involved I’ll be fired.”
Luke chuckled. “Like that will stop you.” He saw the determination in her expression. “It won’t bring your father back.”
“No, there’s no changing the past, is there?”
He glanced over at her, wondering if she was talking about the two of them or her father’s murder.
“I have to find his killer. It’s the only justice he’s going to get.” He could feel her gaze on him. “Why? Worried where my investigation is going to lead me?”
“Buzz didn’t kill your father,” he said, hoping the hell he was right.
“And you know that how?”
“What was his motive?”
“He had it in for my father.”
Luke thought about all the tickets Buzz had written Trace. It certainly looked that way. But murder? “Do you have any proof?”
“Not yet.”
“What if you’re wrong about Buzz?” Just as you’re wrong about me, he thought as he drove through town and took the river road to her cabin.
“One way or another, I intend to get justice for my father,” she said.
He didn’t like the sound of that. He pulled up next to her cabin.
“Thanks for the ride,” McCall said and started to open her door. “If you’re so sure your uncle is innocent, then get me a copy of Buzz’s daily log for those two days. The day before hunting season opened and opening day.”
Luke swore. “I can’t do that.”
“I know you can. But I understand why you wouldn’t want to. Don’t worry, I’ll find another way,” she said, climbing out and slamming his pickup door.
“Wait,” he called as he reached over, opened his glove box and took out the Colt .45. Opening his door, he went after her. He knew this woman, knew she would move heaven and earth to find her father’s killer. Nothing could stop her. Especially him.
But he couldn’t let her do it alone—or unarmed—no matter where the trail led.
“I’ll help you.” His words surprised him as much as her. If she tried to get copies of that logbook, the sheriff would find out and she would be fired—if not arrested. He couldn’t let that happen.
He grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him. Touching her was like sending a bolt of electricity through him. He felt the surge of desire rush through his veins and prepared himself for the powerful ache it left when she pulled free.
She didn’t pull free this time. Her eyes locked with his. “Why?”
He knew she was asking more than why he would help her.
“You know why,” he said as he let go of her arm. “You’re the reason I came back here. The only reason.”
A BANK OF low clouds made the night darker than normal as McCall watched Luke turn and leave. She felt shaken to her core. He’d come back here because of her?
The tall black limbs of the cottonwood trees creaked and groaned in the breeze against a sky as dark as the inside of a body bag.
She hugged herself against the cool breeze and breathed in the scents of the night, trying to clear her head. His confession changed nothing, she told herself, and yet she knew it did.
Suddenly she felt as if she was being propelled headlong into disaster, no longer in control of anything and completely unable to stop what was about to happen.
“Damn you, Luke,” she whispered as the pickup’s taillights disappeared into the darkness.
McCall rubbed a hand over her face. She was exhausted from lack of sleep, her body ached from her crash into the ditch the night before and she was frustrated and confused.
Luke was so sure his uncle was innocent.
Was she that sure that Buzz had killed her father? All she had was circumstantial evidence at best. Anyone would have known about the old Crawford place being vacant. Anyone could have taken Trace’s rifle after killing him.
Nothing she’d learned had moved her any closer to finding her father’s killer. She’d learned things about her mother she hadn’t wanted to know and even worse things about her father.
Her job had been jeopardized, and she wasn’t even sure she wanted it back now. Maybe worst of all, she had the feeling there was no one she could trust. She’d burned bridges with everyone she knew, and now Luke had her questioning where this obsession had taken her.
She couldn’t change the past. Her father was dead. Even her mother was trying to move on.
All McCall had done was stir up a hornet’s nest that had left her alienated from people she cared about.
She felt like crying and had to fight the tears, knowing that once she started she might not be able to stop.
It wasn’t the cold temperature tonight that chilled her to the bone as she listened to Luke drive away. She needed him, wanted him, thought she couldn’t stand another night without him.
She turned, aching to call him back, wanting desperately to quit pushing him away. Their lovemaking came back to her in a rush, the feel of his body against hers, the gentle sweet way he’d made love to her.
It had been magic, bonding them together in a way she realized that had never been broken. Neither of them had been able to move on.
The past reared its ugly head, but no longer had the power it had held over her. Luke had sworn that he hadn’t gone to high school the next day and bragged about “nailing” her. She’d been so hurt, so confused, so heartbroken. It had seemed so unlike him to brag to his friends but there had only been the two of them down by the river that night. It had
