BRIDAL JEOPARDY (21 page)
No, God, no. S
he stared at the
wreck with a knot in her gut.
Not Doyle, too.
Before Dana could unlatch her seat belt, Nix had jerked the
truck in Park and jumped out, running toward the wreck. She joined him, cursing
the high heels that kept getting caught in the uneven, rutted pavement. Terror
sucked the air right out of her lungs as she faltered to a stop in front of the
vehicle.
The beam of Nix’s flashlight scanned across the bloodied
features of her brother Doyle.
Oh, God, please no.
Her brother’s eyes opened, squinting against the flashlight
beam. She felt her knees wobble and grabbed the first thing she could wrap her
hand around—Nix’s arm. “Doyle?”
Her brother’s gaze met hers, and he forced a smile that looked
more like a grimace. “About time you got here. I’m an hour late for my own
engagement party, and nobody thinks to come looking for me?”
She nearly drooped with relief, dropping her hand from Nix’s
arm. Doyle sounded as if he was in pain, but his sense of humor was still in
play. That had to be a good sign, right?
“How bad are you hurt?” Nix asked, shining the light toward the
floor of the cab. Dana could see that one of Doyle’s legs was broken. Grimacing,
she looked back at his face, trying to figure out where the blood was coming
from.
“Broken leg,” Doyle growled. “My head is bleeding, but I
haven’t lost consciousness, so I don’t think it’s bad. My seat belt saved me
from going through the window.”
“Where’s your cell phone?” Dana asked as Nix backed away to
call in the accident.
“Somewhere on the floorboard. I tried to get it but...” He
waved at his broken leg. “I decided I wasn’t about to bleed out and could wait
for help to find me. Although I have to admit, I was about to get desperate
enough to risk wiggling around again to find the phone.”
“Rescue’s on the way, Chief.” Nix walked back over to the
wreck. “What did you hit?”
“The bridge abutment.” Doyle waved his right hand backward,
groaning as the movement apparently shifted his broken leg.
“Be still, idiot.” Dana softened her words with a gentle
squeeze of his shoulder.
He looked up at her. “Call Laney, will you?” he asked. “She’s
probably worried.”
“Okay.” Dana stepped away and pulled out her cell phone,
dialing Laney’s number.
Laney answered on the first ring. “Dana?”
“He’s been in an accident, but he’s alive and making jokes.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nix bend in to hear whatever Doyle was
saying. Gritting her teeth against the flare of curiosity, she gave Laney a
quick rundown of Doyle’s injuries. “Rescue’s on the way.”
“Why couldn’t he call?” Laney asked, sounding suspicious, as if
she thought Dana wasn’t telling her the whole truth.
“His cell phone fell on the floor, and with his broken leg, he
couldn’t stand the pain of trying to reach it.”
“I want to talk to him,” Laney said. “Please?”
Dana knew if she’d been in Laney’s shoes, she’d have demanded
the same thing. She took the phone over to her brother.
Nix backed out, not meeting her gaze, giving her room to hand
over the phone to Doyle. “Laney wants to talk to you,” she told him.
As Doyle reassured Laney that he’d live, Dana crossed to Nix,
who was shining his flashlight on the road behind the wreck. “What are you
looking for?”
He didn’t answer, turning the light back toward the truck lying
on its side.
“I’m a federal agent,” she said quietly. “And I’m Doyle’s
sister.”
“You’re on vacation, and he’s my boss.”
“What did he tell you while I was calling Laney?”
“He just went over what he remembers of the accident.”
Such a dodge, she thought. “Which was what?”
Nix’s dark eyes turned toward her, gleaming darkly in the
reflection of the flashlight beam off the cracked windshield. “He hit the bridge
abutment.”
“I heard that much.” She took the flashlight from his hand and
aimed the beam toward the bridge visible about thirty yards behind the wreck. It
was a truss bridge, not particularly long, but the land fell away precipitously
beyond the nearest edge, and a quick hike down the road revealed why. The bridge
stood over a deep gorge, at least a thirty-foot drop, with a narrow ribbon of
water reflecting starlight below.
If Doyle had missed the abutment and gone over the edge into
the gorge...
She shuddered and walked back toward the truck, stopping midway
as a sudden thought occurred to her.
“Detective Nix, what’s the name of this bridge?” She turned the
flashlight toward him, centering the beam on his face so she could read his
expression.
He squinted, angling his face away from the light. “Purgatory
Bridge.”
Dana’s heart dipped. She turned slowly and ran the flashlight
beam over the delicate ironwork of the bridge, blinking back a sudden burn of
tears. She’d crossed this bridge earlier on her way into town. Passed over it
without a thought.
Never realizing she’d crossed over the place of her parents’
deaths.
She made her way slowly back to the wreck, schooling her
features until she was certain her emotions didn’t show. She gave the flashlight
back to Nix and bent to look in on her brother. He’d finished his conversation
with Laney and sat with his hands folded over his chest, clutching her cell
phone in his bloodstained fingers.
“You doing okay?” she asked softly.
He looked up, handing over the phone. “Laney wanted to come
down here, but I told her to stay put until I find out where the EMTs want to
ship me.”
Dana glanced at Nix and found him watching them, his expression
unreadable. With a sigh, she bent closer to her brother. “What really happened,
Doyle? You’re a good driver. You didn’t just run into a bridge.”
He met her gaze, a hint of apology in his green eyes. “And it’s
your vacation, too,” he murmured.
“What happened?”
Closing his eyes, he laid his head against the headrest. “The
brakes failed.”
A ripple of dread snaked through her. “How long since you had
them replaced?”
He rolled his head and opened his eyes to look at her. “Last
week.”
Nix’s voice rumbled behind her, grim as the grave. “Someone
tampered with his brakes.”
Copyright © 2014 by Paula Graves
ISBN-13: 9781460327777
BRIDAL JEOPARDY
Copyright © 2014 by Ruth Glick
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