Cowboy Who Came For Christmas (Harlequin Romance) (10 page)

Would she forever be running from her necessary lies?

“And we took care of that, too,” Sophia replied, feeling much better since she’d set her plan into action. They’d added more brush and rocks to cover the big rock overhang under which she’d parked the car all those years ago. And a trap near the passenger side door, too.

She always felt better when she could control her environment. Or at least when she knew her crazy ex-husband wasn’t going to try to murder her again.

Now to take care of the good-looking, well-meaning Texas Ranger who’d come to do his duty. If she could stall Adan long enough to get either him or that car off this mountain, she might not have to go to jail after all.

“Alert the media,” Bettye said, spinning in a whirl of skirts and socks. “We got company coming.”

Sophia worked to control the panic rising inside her stomach. “Where’s Melissa? She’s supposed to be the immediate lookout.”

“She’s leading the way,” Bettye replied. Then she poked a thumb over her shoulder. “And your perty Ranger-Man is bringing up the rear.”

“Do you think he’s onto us?” Sophia asked, running to the window to look out at the path behind the cabins.

“He’s a smart one,” Bettye admitted. “But he’s still alive, so that means Jacob didn’t have to shoot him.”

“I told Jacob
not
to shoot him,” Sophia reminded her. “What about the Burtons—are they with them?”

“Right smack in the middle and cooing and cuddling like two doves.”

Sophia didn’t want to envy her friends their perfect marriage, but a twinge always hit her whenever the Burtons were in residence on the mountain. She so wanted that kind of love for herself. “Are they still putting on a show?”

“Those two are the real thing,” Bettye replied. “You could have that, too, you know.” She pointed out the window.

“No,” Sophia said, her tone level and sure. “No, that kind of feeling isn’t in the cards for me. Especially with a man like Adan.”

Bettye gave her a good hug. “You sell yourself too short, honey.”

Sophia didn’t know how to respond to that. She was being realistic. And she certainly couldn’t admit an attraction to a man who might have to take her back to Texas and throw her in the slammer.

“I have to face the fact that I’m not good enough for an honest man. If I had been, I would have never gotten involved with the likes of Joe Pritchard.”

Bettye gave her a shake of the head. “We disagree on that, but we ain’t got time to fuss about it.” She fluffed her always falling-down hair and put on her game face. “Let’s just have some fun flirting with your Ranger-Man.”

Sophia looked out the window and saw Adan’s frowning face, her heart doing a drop that felt like falling off a sheer incline. She didn’t think there would be any flirting going on tonight.

CHAPTER TEN

H
E
HAD
THEM
all lined up like kindergartners waiting for cookies. Only Sophia knew Adan wasn’t about to hand out cookies. He was angry. His anger radiated off every pore and showed in the fine sheen of sweat on his brow as he tugged off his jacket and threw off his hat and jammed his fingers through his damp spiky bangs.

“So everyone here is trying to hide something from me, right?”

No one said a word. Sophia held her head high but refused to spill her guts unless she had no other resort. These people were trying to help her, and she didn’t want their efforts to be in vain. But she couldn’t let them take the heat for her past sins, either. So she held her breath and hoped Adan would understand. At least until she could come up with a good answer.

He stalked in front of the crackling fire, his eyes going a burnished brown. “And no one wants to tell me the truth, either. I let my guard down with you people and now—”

Melissa rolled her eyes. “I really want to call my boyfriend. Can’t I please be excused?”

“No,” Adan retorted. “You were one of the lookouts, so that makes you an accessory to withholding information and obstructing justice. I’m not done with you yet.”

“I got here yesterday,” the girl shouted, her hands across her midsection in standard teen defiance. “I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.”

Sophia lowered her eyes on that one. A sure sign the girl had a lot of clues but she wasn’t going to share them with him. Adan would go into another angry spin if she did that.

This situation was getting out of hand.

“I asked Melissa to help,” Sophia admitted. “But we were scared that man might come back—I mean—show up again.”

“So he was here?” Adan asked, zooming in on her words like a hawk after a rodent.

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Someone wanted us to see that poster, and that scared me into action.” She had to start trusting him, so she left out a breath of air. “I... I’ve always taken care of myself so today, I put an action plan into place so no one—and I mean no one—will harm anyone on this mountain.”

“So you put a young girl out there right in his path?” Adan asked, his tone full of a fuming rage. “How is that in any way a good action plan?”

“I didn’t think about it that way,” Sophia replied, mortified. “I guess I need to leave that up to you since you’re the pro.”

The look on his face changed from condemning to understanding mixed with a bit of sheepishness. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said what I did. If you’re scared, Sophia, then let me help you.” He took a step toward her. “Please?”

The room went silent and to Sophia it seemed as if she and Adan were here alone. She couldn’t speak, so she just nodded. Having a real man willing to apologize and tell her he’d help her touched her more than she realized. No one other than her friends here had ever offered that. Could she trust Adan in the same way she trusted the Crescent Mountain folks?

“I am scared,” she admitted. “But not for the reasons you think.” She plunged ahead. “But don’t blame my friends for trying to protect me. They were only doing what I asked.”

Adan broke the thread between them and the moment of hope was gone. “I need someone to start talking so we can get to the bottom of this.”

Bettye shot her a covert glance, her head down, one hand on old Bandit, who also looked guilty even though he’d slept through the whole affair. Jacob stared straight ahead with a noble silence that implied he was sitting on the chopping block. Poor Maggie and Arnie kept sending glances toward each other with the desperation of two people who were about to go down for helping a friend.

Sophia only hoped the last neighbors left—Karen and David Harper—were safe inside their home. No one had seen them much today but they tended to stay to themselves a lot.

Adan went back to stomping and glanced around. “Don’t look so glum. I can’t prove anything and if no one is going to tell me the truth, I’ll just have to keep digging.” He rolled up his shirtsleeves. “But we won’t leave here until I’m through.”

Bettye pursed her lips. “I guess I’d better start supper then. We can’t confess to anything on an empty stomach.”

She got up off the stool where she’d been perched and ready for flight by the back door. “I can throw something together, I reckon.”

Adan held up a hand. “Bettye, I appreciate that, but please sit down.”

Bettye did as he asked with a resigned shrug. “We gotta eat. Even if we are being held against our will.”

“You are not being held against your will,” Adan replied through a grunt. He pointed to the Burtons. “Look, these two have already admitted they were protecting Sophia. I’d just like to know why they felt it necessary to stall me while Jacob held a gun on me and shot past my ear to prove a point.”

“I didn’t try to kill you,” Jacob said on a gap-toothed grin. “If I’d’a wanted to do that, you wouldn’t be standing there and we’d all be eating supper by now.”

Adan slapped his hand against his jeans, causing Bandit to lift his head and open one droopy eye. Sophia’s heart did more than lift. It shot against her ribs. She was sweating droplets of fear and exhaustion. She couldn’t keep up this farce much longer.

“That is the kind of attitude that
has
all of you sitting here,” Adan explained in the tone of a disappointed parent, his gaze back on Sophia. “Tricking me, consorting behind my back, lying to me.”

“We didn’t lie,” Arnie said in a hoarse gulp. “It really
is
our anniversary and we
do
love each other. We
did
take two hikes today and we built that fire just as we said.”

“And you
did
try to distract me,” Adan reminded them with the same inflections Arnie had used.

Only they sounded more ominous coming from Adan.

“You were interrogating us,” Maggie retorted, her short dark hair tousled and windblown. “I mean, we were simply doing what we always do. Minding our own business and helping out a neighbor.”

“But why do you need to help Sophia?” Adan asked, his eyes now centered on Sophia. “What are you afraid of?”

She tried to smooth things over with a partial truth. “I don’t like law enforcement people.”

“Because?”

She also didn’t like the way his gaze burned hot on her, his expression caught between a big question and a huge disappointment. “Because... I don’t trust people in positions of authority.”

“Because?” he repeated, clearly glad to be on this track. Until he seemed to absorb some of the meaning behind her words. “Sophia—”

“Because she got a traffic ticket once and she’s a good driver,” Bettye said on a not-too-convincing sputter of a lie.

“Oh, I see,” Adan replied, his hand on his hip. “You know what, if I can ever get any signal on my not-so-smart smartphone, I’ll do a background check and pull up that ticket. We can clear that up right away.”

Sophia made a mental note to hide his cell phone charger.

“Good luck with getting through,” Melissa said, holding up her phone with a groan. “Stupid mountain. Sean will never find me now.”

Sophia had to wonder why Melissa was so worried about her boyfriend finding her. If the kid couldn’t make it up the mountain, so be it. Probably trouble anyway. And none of them needed any more trouble.

“Don’t matter,” Bettye continued, digging the hole of their lie even deeper. “She paid it off and went on with her life ’cause she’s a good person.”

Before Adan could move his lips to form an opinion on that, Jacob piped up. “We don’t get many signals at all. Have to go halfway down the mountain—” After all the shushing in the room, he stopped and rubbed a hand down his whiskers. “Uh, and even then it’s shady, mighty shady.”

“This,” Adan said, pointing to all of them, “this is shady. If I have to walk down the mountain and go to the nearest sheriff’s office, I will do a check on each and every one of you. So if you’ve got any past indiscretions, you’d better confess right now.”

Sophia had enough. “You don’t have to do that. I—”

“Where’s David and Karen?” Bettye said, getting up to rush to the back door. “I haven’t seen them all day long.”

“We checked on them last night, ’member? They were in for the night,” Jacob said, making a big deal out of trying to lift up from the leather armchair. “Best go find them so they can get quizzed by the fuzz, too.”

“I’m not the fuzz—” Adan gave Sophia a helpless glance and watched in amazement as one by one they left the building.

Except for Sophia.

Sophia didn’t move, but she glanced over at him with an apologetic shake of her head. “I’m sorry. It’s like herding cats, but they mean well.”

He stalked toward her and leaned down, his finger in her face, his eyes blazing. “This is not over.”

“I know,” she said, resigning herself to what would have to happen sooner or later. Then she stood and faced him and tried really hard to ignore the fresh-snow outdoor scents surrounding him or the sunset gold in his eyes. “But we do need to check on the Harpers. They always come outside to feed the winter birds, and I haven’t seen them all day.”

Before he could say anything more, she got up and ran out of the cabin.

* * *

A
DAN
GLANCED
AROUND
and realized he was alone.

Could he possibly be the dumbest Texas Ranger in history? More like the most appeasing Ranger in history. He’d purposely tried to check his mean streak at the door, hoping these seemingly good people would let him in on the big secret.

Were they all trying to hide Joe Pritchard for some odd reason? Joe could be holding someone they all cared about, maybe forcing them to cover up for him. That was one scenario. Or maybe he was waiting for the snow to thaw so that one of them could get him down the mountain. That was another scenario. Or he could be holed up in one of the cabins that Adan had tried to check out yesterday and again this morning.

Sophia had admitted she was scared and that she had asked her neighbors to help her. The neighbors had practically admitted they’d done things to protect Sophia. But not for the reasons he thought.

Was she scared of any intruder or just this particular one?

That would mean she did know Pritchard and she was terrified that he was on this mountain just as Adan had suspected. But instead of aiding the criminal, maybe she was trying to make sure he didn’t bother her or any of her friends.

And that would also mean that Joe Pritchard could have come here with one purpose in mind—to find Sophia Mitchell.

Adan’s heart did a funny thing. It beat a lot faster.

He couldn’t abide Sophia being in real danger. He couldn’t allow her to be the sole target of a nasty criminal.

Grabbing his hat and coat, he hurried after the trail of suddenly concerned cohorts, wondering what kind of confession Sophia had been about to make. And wondering how he’d get back to the place where she wanted to tell him the truth.

The woman obviously didn’t trust him with whatever escapades she’d been dealing with, but he wanted her to trust him. And he sure wanted to trust her.

Being attracted to her didn’t help his mood one bit and since he’d failed at drawing her or anyone else out with his winning personality, Adan decided he’d try to play along with this haphazard troupe and see what happened.

One thing he could see—she’d probably been all about sacrificing herself for someone else. Her friends or Pritchard? Or both? If she was trying to protect her friends, he could help her. He’d have to find a way to convince her of that.

He was seriously getting a headache. And a bad spell of cabin fever. By the time he was out the door, the others were banging and pounding on the last occupied cabin of the far-reaching semicircle of homes. The snow dripped against the trees and merged into the solid white of the forest, but a cleared, muddy path moved through the back trail behind the cabins.

He followed the trail and found the little posse. Catching up with them, Adan got ahead of Sophia. “Let me handle this,” he suggested.

They all followed him without a word, but he didn’t miss the secretive glances passing between them.

Two cabins sat next to the Harpers’ and the rest of the clan and he’d checked those early today. David Harper had answered right away this morning at their cabin and he and Adan had had a short discussion regarding Joe Pritchard, but David had said he hadn’t seen any strangers other than Adan.

After finding nothing out of the ordinary at that cabin, Adan had gone to the next one—the Burtons’ cabin.

They hadn’t answered yesterday or this morning, either. Today, of course, they’d been out doing their duty for Sophia.

When no one came to the door of the Harper cabin, Adan hushed all the interested parties and called out, “Texas Ranger. Open up.”

He thought he heard a muffled sound. Holding up his hand, he demanded silence from the spectators behind him. “Anyone in there?”

Another muffled sound.

“I think I hear something,” Jacob called, his hand to his ear. “Turned up my hearing aids this morning,” he explained. “That sounded kinda like a cat. Do they have a cat?”

“No,” Bettye replied on a loud note. “No animals. She’s allergic. Coughs and sneezes whenever she comes to my house.”

Before they could get in a big discussion about animal dander, Adan called out again. “Is anyone in there? Can you hear us?”

A definite muffled cry.

“I heard that,” Melissa said, her interest perking up. “That wasn’t a cat.”

“Someone’s in there,” Sophia said, rushing past him. “Karen, is that you?”

“Uh-hmm!”

“She said yes,” Jacob shouted. “We need to break down that door.”

For once, Adan agreed with him. “Stand back,” he shouted. Then he lifted his leg and hit the door with his booted foot.

And promptly fell in a pile of pain on the porch floor.

“They have a fairly strong two-by-four latch on that door,” Jacob said to the now silent crowd. “But we can sure get in through the back door.”

Adan let out a groan. “I really wish you’d told me that before I jammed my leg.”