B.J. Daniels the Cardwell Ranch Collection (29 page)

She slammed on the brakes, but was traveling too fast to avoid the truck crashing into her again. The force made the vehicle rock wildly as she fought to keep control. The tires screamed on the pavement as the SUV began to fishtail.

Liza felt the right side of the vehicle dip into the soft shoulder of the highway, pulling the SUV off the road. She couldn’t hold it and felt her tires leave the pavement. A stand of trees blurred past and then there was nothing but darkness as she plunged over the edge of the road toward the dark green of the river.

Chapter Twelve

Hud was headed home when he heard the 911 call for an ambulance come over his radio. His heart began to race as he heard that the vehicle in the river was a Montana marshal’s patrol SUV.

He threw on his siren and lights and took off up the canyon toward West Yellowstone. As he raced toward the accident, he called home, glad when Hilde answered the phone.

“Tell Dana I’m running a little late,” he said to Hilde. “Don’t act like anything is wrong.” He heard Dana already asking what was going on. Hilde related the running a little late part.

“We’re just fine,” Hilde said.

“It sounds like there’s been an accident up the canyon,” he told her. “It’s Liza. I don’t know anything except that her car is in the river. I don’t know how long I’m going to be.”

“Don’t worry about us.”

“Is it my sister?” Dana demanded in the background.

“I heard that. Tell her I haven’t found Stacy. I’ll call when I have news. I just don’t want Dana upset.”

“Got it. I’ll tell her.”

He disconnected and increased his speed. Liza was like family. How the hell did she end up in the river? She was a great driver.

As he came around a bend in the windy road, he saw her patrol SUV among the boulders in the Gallatin River. Some bypassers had stopped. Several of the men had flashlights and one of them had waded out to the patrol vehicle.

Hud parked, leaving his lights on to warn any oncoming traffic, then grabbing his own flashlight, jumped out and ran toward the river. As he dropped over the edge of the road to it, he recognized the man who was standing on the boulder beside Liza’s wrecked vehicle.

“Jordan?” he called.

“Liza’s conscious,” he called back. “An ambulance is on the way. I’m staying with her until it gets here.”

Hud would have liked to have gone to her as well, but he heard the sound of the ambulance siren and climbed back up the road to help with traffic control.

All the time, though, he found himself wondering how Jordan just happened to be on the scene.

* * *

“W
HAT
’
S
HAPPENED
?” D
ANA
demanded the moment Hilde hung up. “Don’t,” she said before Hilde could open her mouth. “You’re a terrible liar and we both know it. Tell me.”

“He hasn’t found your sister.”

She nodded. “But something else has happened.”

“There’s been an accident up the canyon. He needed to run up there.”

Dana waited. “There’s more.”

“You’re the one who should have gone into law enforcement, the interrogation part,” Hilde said as she came and sat down on the edge of the bed. On the other side of Dana, baby Ella slept, looking like an angel. Hilde glanced at the baby, then took Dana’s hand as if she knew it was only a matter of time before her friend got the truth out of her. “Hud didn’t know anything about the accident except that Liza is somehow involved.”

“Oh, no.” Her heart dropped.

“Now don’t get upset and have these babies because Hud will never forgive me,” Hilde said quickly.

Dana shook her head. “I’m okay. But I want to know the minute you hear something. Are you sure you can stay?”

“Of course.”

“You didn’t have a date?”

Hilde laughed. “If only there were more Hudson Savages around. All of the men I meet, well…they’re so not the kind of men I want to spend time with, even for the time it takes to have dinner.”

“I
am
lucky.” Dana looked over at Ella. “What if Hud is right and Ella isn’t Stacy’s baby?”

“Where would she have gotten Ella? You can’t just get a baby off eBay.”

“She could have
kidnapped
Ella. You know Stacy.”

“I’m sure Hud checked for any kidnapped babies six months old with dimples, blond hair and green eyes,” Hilde argued.

“Yes, green eyes. You might have noticed that all the Justices have dark brown eyes and dark hair, including Stacy.”

“Maybe the father has green eyes and Stacy carries a green-eyed gene. You don’t know that Ella isn’t Stacy’s.”

“No,” Dana admitted, but like Hud, she’d had a bad feeling since the moment Stacy had arrived. “I think Stacy only came here because she’s in trouble and it has something to do with that poor little baby.”

“You think that’s why she left Ella with you?”

Dana fingered the quilt edge where someone had stitched the name Katie. “I wish I knew.”

* * *

J
ORDAN
WOKE
WITH
A
CRICK
in his neck. He stared down at the green hospital scrubs he was wearing for a moment, confused where he was. It came back to him with a start. Last night his clothes had been soaking wet from his swim in the river. He’d been shivering uncontrollably, but had refused to leave the hospital until he knew Liza was going to be all right.

That’s how he’d ended up in scrubs, he recalled now as he sat up in the chair beside Liza’s bed and smiled at the woman propped up staring at him now.

“What are you still doing here?” she asked, smiling.

“I
was
sleeping.” He stood up, stretched, then looked to see what she was having for breakfast. “You haven’t eaten much,” he said as he took a piece of toast from the nearly untouched tray.

“I’m not very hungry.”

He was famished and realized he hadn’t eaten since yesterday at noon. “How are your ribs?” he asked as he devoured the piece of toast.

“They’re just bruised and only hurt when I breathe.”

“Yep, but you’re breathing. Be thankful for that.”

Liza nodded and he saw that her left wrist was also wrapped. Apparently, it was just badly sprained, not broken. His big worry, though, had been that she’d suffered internal injuries.

Apparently not, though, since all she had was a bandage on her right temple, a bruised cheek and a scrape on her left cheek. She’d been lucky.

“So what did the doctor say?” he asked.

“That I’m going to live.”

“Good.”

She looked almost shy. “Thank you for last night.”

He shrugged. “It’s wasn’t anything. I just swam a raging river in October in Montana and clung onto a slippery boulder to be with you.” He grinned. “I’m just glad you’re all right.” He’d been forced to leave the room last night while Hud had talked to her, but he’d overheard enough to more than concern him.

“You said last night that someone forced you off the road?” he asked now. “Do you remember anything about the vehicle?”

She narrowed her gaze at him and sighed. “Even if I knew who did it, I wouldn’t tell you. I don’t want to see you get killed.”

He grinned. “Nice that you care—”

“I told you, I don’t have time to find your killer, too.”

“Why would anyone want to kill me? On second thought, scratch that. Other than my brother-in-law, why would anyone want me dead?”

“Hud doesn’t want you dead.”

“He just doesn’t want me near my sister.”

“Can you blame him?”

“No,” he said with a sigh. “That’s what makes it worse. I would be the same way if someone had treated my wife the way I’ve treated my sister.” He looked away.

“Do you mean that?”

He grinned. “Do you question everything I tell you?”

“Yes.”

He laughed and shook his head. “I’ve been more honest with you than I have with anyone in a very long time. Hud doesn’t want me near you, either.” He met her gaze and saw something warm flash in her eyes.

“I talked to the investigating officer in Tanner’s death yesterday before the accident,” she said, clearly changing the subject. “He cleared you as a suspect, at least in Tanner’s death.”

“Did Brick Savage tell you what I did the day I found Tanner?”

“I would assume you were upset since it was your best friend.”

“I broke down and bawled like a baby until Hud’s old man kicked me in the behind and told me to act like a man. He said I was making myself look guilty as hell.” He chuckled. “I took a swing at him and he decked me. Knocked me on my butt, but I got control of myself after that and he didn’t arrest me for assaulting an officer of the law so I guess I respect him for that.”

Liza shook her head. “Men. You are such a strange breed. I think it would have been stranger if you hadn’t reacted the way you had.”

He shrugged. “Tanner left a hole in my life. I’ve never had a closer friend since. Sometimes I swear I can hear his voice, especially when I do something stupid.”

She smiled. “So he’s still with you a lot.”

“Yeah. You do know that when I say I hear him, I don’t really
hear
him, right?”

“I get it.”

“I didn’t want you to think I hear voices. It’s bad enough you still see me as a suspect.”

She nodded slowly. “I mean what I said about wanting you to be safe. You need to keep a low profile.”

“How can I do that when I have a reunion picnic to go to this afternoon?”

“You aren’t seriously planning to go?”

“What? You don’t think I can get another date?” he joked.

“What do I have to do to make you realize how dangerous this is?”

His expression sobered. “All I have to do is look at your face and think about where I found you last night.”

“You could be next,” she said quietly. “What time is the picnic?”

“The doctor isn’t going to let you—”

“What time?” she demanded.

“One.”

“I’ll be there.”

He grinned. “Good, I won’t have to find another date.” He wanted to argue that she needed to stay in bed. He couldn’t stand the thought that she was now a target. Last night when he’d seen her car in the river— Just the thought made it hard for him to breathe even now.

He barely remembered throwing on the rental car’s brakes, diving out and half falling down the bank to the river. All he could think about was getting to her. The moment he’d hit the icy water of the Gallatin, he’d almost been swept away. He’d had to swim to get to her, then climb onto a large slick boulder to reach the driver’s-side door.

At first he’d thought she was dead. There was blood from the cut on her temple.

Impulsively, he reached for her hand now. It felt warm and soft and wonderfully alive. He squeezed her hand gently, then let it go.

“Unless you need a ride, I guess I’ll see you at one on the mountain then,” he said and turned to leave.

“Liza isn’t going anywhere, especially with you,” Hud snapped as he stepped into the hospital room. “I’ll speak to
you
in the hall,” he said to Jordan.

Liza shot him a questioning look. Jordan shrugged. He had no idea why his brother-in-law was angry with him but he was about to find out.

“Later,” he said to Liza and stepped out in the hall to join Hud.

The marshal had blood in his eye by the time Jordan stepped out into the hall. “What were you doing at the accident last night? Were you following Liza?”

He held up his hands. “One question at a time. I had tried to call her. I knew she’d gone up to West Yellowstone to talk to your father. I got tired of waiting for her to return and drove up the canyon. I was worried about her.”

“Worried about her?” Hud sighed. “And you just happened to find her?”

“The other driver who stopped can verify it.”

“Did you pass another vehicle coming from the direction of the accident?”

“Several. A white van. A semi. An old red pickup.”

“The red pickup. Did you happen to notice the driver?”

He shook his head. “I just glanced at the vehicles. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention since I was looking for Liza’s patrol SUV. You think the truck ran her off the road.”

Hud didn’t look happy to hear that Jordan knew about that. He ignored the statement and asked, “Where is Liza going to meet you later?”

“At the reunion picnic up on the mountain.”

“Well, she’s not going anywhere.” Hud started to turn away, but swung back around and put a finger in Jordan’s face. “I want you to stay away from her. I’m not sure what your game is—”

“There’s
no
game. No angle. Liza is investigating Alex Winslow’s murder. I’ve been helping her because I know the players and I think it is somehow tied in with Tanner’s death.”

“That better be all there is to it,” Hud said and started to turn away again.

“What if that isn’t all it is?” Jordan demanded, then could have kicked himself.

Hud turned slowly back to him. “Like I said, stay away from Liza.” With that, he turned and pushed into his deputy’s room.

“Tell me you weren’t out in the hall threatening the man who saved me last night,” Jordan heard Liza say, but didn’t catch Hud’s reply, which was just as well.

He collected his clothes at the nurse’s station, changed and headed for the canyon and Big Sky. Now more than ever he wanted to get to the bottom of this. Someone had tried to kill Liza. He didn’t doubt they would try again.

But what were they so afraid she was going to find out? He suddenly recalled something he’d overheard Hud say to his deputy marshal last night at the hospital. Something about her condo being ransacked. Someone thought she had something. The alleged photographs?

* * *

L
IZA
COCKED
HER
HEAD
at her boss as he came around the end of her bed. “Well?” she asked.

He gave her a sheepish look. “You don’t know Jordan like I do. He’s…he’s…”

“He’s changed.”

Hud shook his head. “I really doubt that he’s changed any more than his sister Stacy.”

“Talk about painting them all with the same brush,” she said.

“Look, I don’t want you getting involved with him.”

Liza grinned. “I’m sorry, I must have misheard you. You weren’t telling me who I can get involved with, were you, boss?”

“Damn it, Liza. You know how I feel about you.”

She nodded. “I’m the most stubborn deputy you’ve ever had. I often take things in my own hands without any thought to my safety. I’m impulsive, emotional and driven and I’m too smart for my own good. Does that about cover it?”

“You’re the best law officer I’ve ever worked with,” Hud said seriously. “And a friend. And like a real sister to my wife. I just don’t want to see you get hurt.”