Harlequin Intrigue, Box Set 2 of 2 (53 page)

Her sitting position helped her maintain some balance and she landed on top of a heap of rubble, jarred to the bone. Debris rained down on her head and the smell of smoke was already creeping into the building. She glanced upward and saw ragged beams torn from the walls and roof, some swinging precariously.

She turned to look for Jeremy. Caught in motion when the roof gave way, he hadn't fared as well as she had and had landed farther down the pile of rubble. He lay facedown, his left arm twisted at a terrible angle. Even as she stared, he somehow got to his feet and lifted the gun with his right hand. The barrel pointed straight at her chest.

Lily realized she still clutched the backpack. She heaved it forward as hard as she could, her strength and aim sharpened by desperation. At the same moment the pack hit the top of his head, the gun exploded, deafening her. She fell onto her bottom and slid downward, grasping for something to stop her descent, finally coming to a halt when a jutting board caught her in the chest. For a second she sat there winded again, eyes closed, trying to breathe, waiting for searing pain to announce where Jeremy's bullet had struck her. Pain didn't come.

She opened her eyes. There was no sign of the backpack but Jeremy lay nearby, on his back, staring upward at flames licking the edges of what was left of the roof. She didn't see his gun anywhere but she fully expected him to rally yet again.

And then she saw the blood spurting from his neck where a nail-studded board had apparently fallen from the rafters, pinning him down and puncturing his carotid artery. She scrambled toward him on stinging hands and skinned knees. The glancing impact of the backpack must have knocked him off his feet. Maybe a reflex action of his trigger finger fired the gun and maybe the bullet dislodged the rafter that subsequently fell, impaling him.

He blinked and she realized he was still alive. Half afraid the geyser of blood was really a trick of some kind, she moved even closer. Thoughts of smoke and mirrors vanished as she watched the color drain from his skin, shrinking him before her eyes. She knelt beside him. The edge of a handkerchief stuck out of his pocket and she grabbed it. Kinsey's phone tumbled out with the cloth. Lily held the handkerchief against his neck without touching the horrid board, without hearing the fire overhead or feeling the warmth of his blood splattering against her arm. The contact of the cloth seemed to signal his dying brain that he wasn't alone. His focus shifted to her face for the briefest of seconds, recognition dawned in his eyes and then he looked straight through her into oblivion.

“Lily!”

She jerked. The action slid her against Jeremy. Repulsed, she stood on wobbly legs as Chance and Gerard ran into the building. Both men stopped suddenly as their gazes traveled from the dead man, up to her face and then to the roof.

“Look out!” Gerard yelled.

Lily glanced upward and saw a burning board teetering over her head. Caught in some kind of limbo, she saw sparks fly across the sky. The next thing she knew, Chance was beside her. He threw her over his shoulder and scrambled down the pile before shifting her weight into his arms and handing her down to Gerard who asked if she could stand. She nodded. Chance jumped to the ground and grabbed one of her arms. Gerard took the other. It felt to Lily like she flew out of there on the wings of two guardian angels. A crash from behind announced the rest of the ceiling had tumbled into the building.

Her feet finally hit the dirt of Main Street. Chance grabbed her arms and searched her face. “Are you okay? You're covered with blood. Where are you hurt?”

“It's Jeremy's blood,” she said breathlessly. “You have to find Kinsey. She's in a nearby building. It's on the right side of the street as you come into town, the store with a long counter running along the back wall. You have to go save her.”

“Sounds like the old mercantile,” Chance said, glancing at Gerard who was already running down the street.

Lily looked back at Chance to find him studying her hands, which she was surprised to see were torn and bleeding from abrasions and imbedded splinters. No wonder they hurt. Pain was good, though. Pain meant she'd survived despite all the odds, despite Jeremy's pathological desire to erase her from the earth, despite her own misjudgments.

Chance kissed her wrist. “Oh, my darling, darling girl,” he whispered, and met her gaze. There were tears in his eyes. She'd never been so happy to see anyone as she was him but that wasn't true, she'd felt this same way when she found Charlie in Maria's car. “Where's my child?” she asked.

“He's with my father.”

“I'm so relieved to hear that. Jeremy insinuated he killed your family before he hit Kinsey and shooed away our horses.”

“He was playing head games with you,” Chance said.

“It might have worked if it hadn't been for Charlie and Kinsey...and you.”

“You need to see a doctor,” he said.

“I need you,” she responded. “And Charlie and a pair of tweezers and some bandages.”

“What happened to Block?”

“I'll tell you the long story later. The short version is he did his best to kill me but caused his own death instead. I might have contributed to that conclusion.”

“That's my girl,” he said, and raising her chin, kissed her lips.

She'd been fighting loving him for over nine months, leery of caring more than he did, of being hurt, of losing him because she gave herself to him, not just with her body, but with her heart. And all that meant was that she'd been running, yet again, but from herself this time...from the truth.

And she was done. The truth was she loved him. The truth was she needed him. He could accept those truths or not, his response couldn't change the way she felt, the way she would always feel about him.

Chance's and Gerard's horses were skittish because of the increasing smoke and danced around as Chance led them down the street. Lily took her first real breath of relief as Gerard helped Kinsey walk out of the mercantile. The fact she was on her feet was amazing to Lily, and she felt tears of thankfulness sting behind her nose. Kinsey held out Lily's coat and Chance took it, draping it around Lily's shoulders.

Kinsey leaned close to Lily. “Thank you,” she said.

Lily produced a wry smile. “For almost getting you killed? Twice?”

“For helping me,” she said. “For sending Gerard.”

“Your baby,” Lily whispered.

Kinsey smiled and touched her stomach area. “Don't tell Gerard, though. Not yet.”

“That's your news to share,” Lily said as her gaze traveled down the street to the flames tearing through the old wood. In a triumph of poetic justice, Jeremy's body burned in the inferno he'd created.

Chance called his dad who said he would err on the side of safety by topping off the tank in the water-hauling truck and driving the alternate route up to the plateau and across to the ghost town, just in case the winds shifted. He also said he would call the police and all four of them groaned as they anticipated the rash of questions to come.

There was no sign of the two horses Jeremy had released, but they did find a big roan tethered outside of town. “That's one of our mares,” Gerard said, pausing to help Kinsey climb into the saddle.

“Block must have let the horses out of the field when he stole her,” Chance said. “I never thought to check the tack and see if any of that was missing.”

Gerard climbed onto his horse and Chance lifted Lily into the saddle and climbed behind her. There was no way she could handle reins with her injured hands but his arms provided all the stability she needed.

“I have to tell you some bad news,” Chance said as they rode along. “Elizabeth was killed yesterday.”

“I know about that. Jeremy bragged about shooting her through the forehead. But how did you know?”

“Seth Brighton called. His father had been trying to reach you since realizing the only one in the world who would shoot Elizabeth as she stood at the sink inside her own house staring out at all those dead sunflower plants was Jeremy Block. When he couldn't get ahold of you, he asked Seth to call me. Then Gerard tried to call Kinsey but she didn't answer.”

“Jeremy took her phone,” Lily said. “She was out cold in the mercantile.”

“I died a thousand times between hearing that Block was on a murdering rampage and the moment I found you,” Chance added.

“I know the feeling,” she said, leaning her head against his chest. “When he told me he was going after you next, it was as if he nailed spikes into my heart.”

Chance kissed the top of her head. “Just so you know, I'm not letting you out of my sight again.”

She turned to look into his dark eyes. “You're not?”

“No. I'll marry you if I have to.”

She frowned. “Don't do me any favors.”

“I didn't mean it that way—”

“Then how did you mean it? I took care of myself pretty darn good back there.”

“Sure you did. One more minute and you would have been buried under a ton of burning roof.”

“Now just a minute. You act like I go around getting into trouble just so you have to rescue me.”

“I wouldn't put it past you.”

“There's that ego again—”

He put a finger against her lips. “Just shut up and kiss me, will you please?”

“Oh, what the hell,” she said, and touched her lips to his.

* * * * *

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ISBN-13: 9781460388389

Cowboy Undercover

Copyright © 2015 by Alice Sharpe

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