The New Deputy in Town Page 17

  She shoved off the bottom with both feet, her hands holding the gun trembling as she shot toward the surface, her eyes open. She knew she would get only one chance. If she missed, she was dead. And so was Nick. They were probably both dead anyway.

  She brought the gun up, fighting to keep her hands steady as she burst to the surface, gulped air and pulled the trigger. The boom resounded, echoing like thunder across the pool. She fired again just before she went under. Or at least she heard a shot. Then another and another.

  It wasn’t until then that she felt the pain and knew she’d been hit.

  * * *

  NICK GRABBED FOR ZAK the moment he felt the water change behind him, the moment he heard Laney surface and fire. All he could reach as he lunged out of the water was Zak’s leg. He grabbed hold and jerked as hard as he could.

  A gunshot boomed in the big barnlike room, echoing across the water.

  Zak lost his footing, falling backward, coming down hard on the edge of the pool. Another shot rang out as Nick jerked Zak into the water and grabbed for his gun.

  Zak had recovered from hitting the edge of the pool. Either that or he was running on high-octane anger. Nick didn’t remember him ever being so strong as they struggled for the gun, both going under the water. Nick could see that he’d been wounded by the shots Laney had fired. But still Zak fought like a man obsessed.

  Nick was running out of air. His head ached from where he’d been hit and he knew he’d lost a lot of blood. He needed to surface. He managed to wrestle the gun from Zak but as he swam toward the surface, his lungs bursting, Zak made a grab for the gun.

  Zak had cocked the gun before hitting the water. His finger hooked through the trigger guard as he fought to turn the barrel end away from himself and at Nick. The gun went off. Nick felt the report and looked down an instant before he surfaced. He saw the expression on Zak’s face, saw the surprise, the pain, the realization.

  * * *

  BLOOD FLOATED ON TOP of the water like an oil slick. Laney hung on the side of the pool, fighting for air, fighting against the pain in her side. She cupped her hand over the wound.

  She had seen movement just under the water. The surface of the water was rough, the waves lapping at the side of the pool, the air thick with steam.

  Her vision began to blur. She felt her hand holding on to the side of the pool slip. Her head went under. She grasped for the edge of the pool, the pain in her side excruciating. She knew she had to get out of the water, get help.

  Her eyes were open. She could see something on the bottom of the pool. A body. Nick?

  Laney felt hands lifting her. She was rising through the water toward the light. She could see the rough surface of the pool above her, the light growing brighter and brighter until her head burst through. She took a huge gulp of air, then another. And then she saw that the man holding her was Nick.

  Relief mixed with the pain and the fear and came out in rattling sobs.

  “It’s okay, baby,” he breathed against her neck as he drew her through the water toward the shallow end of the pool. “It’s okay. I’m here now. I’m here.”

  She clung to him as the light overhead dimmed, then blacked out.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Nick stayed by Laney’s side in the ambulance and helicopter that airlifted her to Billings. Doctors had insisted on stitching the cut over his left eye while he waited for her to come out of surgery for a gunshot wound to her side.

  He was exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep. He kept remembering the limp feel of Laney in his arms and Zak’s body lying in the dark water at the bottom of the pool.

  Nick hadn’t been to church since he was a boy, but he prayed that Laney would survive. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing her, even though he knew that once she regained consciousness she wouldn’t want anything to do with him. He couldn’t blame her. This was all his fault. He would never forgive himself.

  Just before daylight, Laney opened her eyes. He moved to her side, taking her hand, relief closing off his throat, making his eyes tear. All he could do was smile down at her. She squeezed his hand, then closed her eyes again.

  The doctor came into the room and told him Sheriff Carter Jackson was waiting for him in the hall.

  Nick kissed Laney on the forehead and went out to face Sheriff Jackson, who he’d heard had returned from Florida to find his jail full and a dead man at the bottom of a swimming pool.

  “I’ve got a lot of questions,” Jackson said. He had two deputies with him. “And when you’re through answering them for me, it seems you’re wanted in California to answer a whole bunch more.”

  Nick nodded and glanced back toward Laney’s room. He didn’t want to leave her, but he could tell if he refused, Jackson was ready to arrest him.

  “The doctor said it looks like she’s going to pull through just fine,” Jackson said, following Nick’s gaze down the hall to Laney Cavanaugh’s room. He eyed the stitched-up cut over Nick’s left eye. “Meanwhile, you’re going to have to come with me.”

  Nick didn’t need Sheriff Jackson to tell him he was in a world of trouble. It was his word against Zak’s about what had happened the night the two cops had been killed. Zak had used what cops called a “throw-down” gun to kill them. It had been untraceable to Zak and now that gun with Zak’s fingerprints was missing.

  The only hope Nick had was the videotape he’d made. If Zak’s voice was on there, it might prove that Nick had killed Zak in self-defense.

  He didn’t want Laney to have to testify. Sheriff Jackson would take her statement and send it on to California.

  Nick hoped that would be the end of her involvement. Zak Keller still had friends in California. Nick was determined never to risk Laney’s life again.

  * * *

  LANEY AGREED TO RETURN to Old Town Whitehorse to recuperate and let her sister and grandfather look after her. What had happened still felt like a bad nightmare. When she’d awakened in the hospital, drugged and in pain, she’d been disappointed not to see Nick.

  She must have dreamed it, but she thought she remembered him beside her bed the first time she’d woken up. She remembered the feel of a kiss on her forehead.

  Her doctor had told her Nick had left with a sheriff from Whitehorse. She’d heard since that Nick had returned to L.A. where he was being questioned on the death of Zak Keller and two policemen killed eight months before. He was on suspension from the police force in L.A. until after the case went to trial.

  The grapevine hummed with all the news. Rumors abounded. She heard that Nick was really a spy for the CIA. She also heard that he was with the FBI and had been working undercover in Whitehorse.

  The publicity had been great for Sleeping Buffalo Resort, which had opened again to record crowds.

  “How are you feeling?” Laci asked as she joined Laney on the porch.

  “Fine.” Laney looked out at the open country. It was late September. They’d had a cool spell but today was hot, the sky cloudless and a blinding blue.

  “I’m baking you some sugar cookies,” Laci announced. “You know the kind you like with white icing and sprinkles?”

  “You keep cooking for me like this and I’ll be as round as a beach ball,” Laney said. The truth was she felt guilty because she barely ate. She’d lost her appetite and wondered if she would ever be hungry again.

  “You sure you feel all right?” Laci asked, sounding worried.

  Laney reached over to squeeze her sister’s hand. “You know the doctor said the wound has healed just fine. He said if I stay here much longer it will be considered malingering.”

  “It’s Nick, isn’t it?” Laci said.

  Laney turned away to look down the road, hating the tears that welled in her eyes. She had such mixed feelings about Nick. She’d gotten most of the real story from Sheriff
Jackson. She understood why Nick had lied about his name, where he was from, who he really was.

  Except she’d fallen in love with Nick Rogers, the man she’d thought he was. She didn’t know Nick Giovanni from L.A.

  “He called again,” Laci said as the timer went off on the oven in the kitchen and her sister rose to get her cookies out before they burned.

  Laney nodded. She hadn’t felt up to talking to him. In truth, she didn’t know what to say. She was sure by now that he’d returned to his job as a homicide detective. She’d heard he’d been reinstated now that everything had been cleared up. She’d offered to go to L.A. and testify if the county attorney needed more than her statement. But the video Nick had made the night she’d been abducted by Zak Keller had been crucial in ending the case.

  “I think you should talk to Nick,” Laci said.

  “I think you’d better see to my cookies.” Laney smiled when she said it.

  “He’s in love with you,” Laci said as the timer went off again. “Any fool could see that,” she called as she scrambled back into the house to save the cookies she’d baked.

  Laney found herself looking down the road. She knew she would never be the same. The doctor had said it was normal considering the trauma she’d been through.

  She smiled at that now. As terrified as she’d been every moment with Zak Keller, that paled next to the real ordeal she’d experienced this summer. She’d fallen in love and now her heart was breaking at even the thought that she would never see Nick Rogers again.

  She knew that was why she didn’t take Nick’s calls. He was back in L.A., back with his family, back being Nicolas Giovanni. The trauma she’d experienced was the death of Nick Rogers, the man she’d fallen in love with one summer day in the middle of Montana.

  She’d been staring down the road so long that at first she thought she’d just imagined the small cloud of dust on the horizon. She watched the dust billow up, the cloud growing larger as the vehicle approached. She told herself it was probably bad news.

  Whitehorse had been rocked when the story had come out about the Evans offspring. Arlene was still in denial. At least when it came to Bo and Charlotte. She had gotten both of them lawyers. Now Bo and Charlotte were swearing it had all been Violet’s idea, including the attack on the men outside the bar. Laney suspected Arlene had persuaded them to say that so she didn’t lose all her children.

  Violet had had to be taken to a maximum-security jail in Great Falls after she’d attacked both of her siblings in court. Word around town was that Violet would be taken to the mental hospital in Warm Springs for evaluation. No one expected her ever to stand trial. Arlene had already gotten both Bo and Charlotte out on bail.

  Laney stared down the road as the sun glinted off the roof of a car she didn’t recognize. Her heart kicked up a beat, her pulse a drum in her ears, as the car pulled to a stop in front of the house.

  She couldn’t see the driver, not with the sun ricocheting off the windshield, half blinding her.

  She watched as the driver’s side door slowly opened and like a mirage, Nick stepped out.

  He hesitated as he looked across the hood of the car at her. He wore a gray Stetson, jeans, a western shirt and boots. She found she couldn’t speak as he closed the car door and started up the steps. Laney caught a whiff of warm sugar cookies and Nick’s all-male scent, the two mixing into a smell that would be forever branded in her memory.

  Nick stepped into the cool shade of the porch, pulled off his hat, turned the brim nervously in his fingers as his gaze met hers. “I’m sorry but I had to see you.”

  She found her voice. “I’m glad you came.” Tears burned her eyes as she pushed herself out of her chair, drawn to him like metal to a magnet.

  He stepped toward her saying, “Please, don’t get up.” But she was already on her feet, already headed for his arms. He opened them and pulled her in, burying his face in her hair.

  * * *

  NICK FELT THE SMALL QUIET shudders of her sobs as he held her, afraid to hold her too tightly for fear of hurting her. He’d talked to her doctors, been assured that the bullet from Zak’s gun had gone all the way through her side and hadn’t hit any vital organs. That she had healed just fine.

  But Nick knew from experience what it was like to come back from a gunshot wound. The trauma wasn’t all in the flesh. And after what Laney had been through, even as strong as he knew her to be, he worried that she might never heal.

  “I’m so sorry,” Nick said against her hair.

  She shook her head and drew back, wiping her eyes before looking up at him. “The sheriff told me everything. It wasn’t your fault.”

  “I should never have looked twice at you,” he said, then felt himself soften. “But I couldn’t help myself.”

  She smiled through her tears. “I know the feeling.”

  He heard the screen door squeak open a crack behind him. “I have Laney’s favorite sugar cookies and iced tea if either of you are interested,” Laci said from the doorway.

  Nick grinned as he met Laney’s gaze. “Maybe in a little while. I need to talk to your sister first.”

  “Okay, well, maybe I’ll make some homemade ice cream,” Laci said and shut the door.

  “There’s a lot I want to tell you,” Nick said, thinking about his best friend Danny O’Shay, about growing up in the streets of L.A., about Zak and everything that had happened culminating in the swimming pool the night she’d been shot.

  But all that could wait. “The Whitehorse sheriff has offered me my old job. He kept it open in case I wanted to come back,” Nick told her. “Amazingly, he thinks I make a pretty good deputy sheriff. He doesn’t realize I had a lot of help solving the local crimes while he was in Florida.”

  Laney was staring up at him. “I thought your life was in California?”

  “I have a huge Italian family in L.A., but none of them have ever been to Montana so I suspect there will be a constant flow of parents and uncles and aunts and cousins for years to come if I stay here,” he said.

  “Are you telling me you’re actually thinking of taking your old job back?” She still sounded disbelieving.

  “I told Carter I had to think about it. That it was contingent on you.”

  “Me?” Laney asked, her voice breaking.

  “You said once that you wouldn’t mind staying here if you met the right man. I’m not saying I’m the right man. But I sure as the devil would like to try to be that man. If it isn’t too late. If you think you could ever trust me after everything that’s happened. If you—”

  Laney touched her finger to his lips and laughed. It felt good to laugh. Just as it had felt wonderful to be in Nick’s arms again.

  “Why don’t you just kiss me and let’s see what happens,” she said.

  “This from the woman with the analytical mind?” he said as he reached for her.

  His kiss was everything Laney remembered and more. She opened to him, surrendering to a man named Nick Giovanni, a man she felt as if she’d just met. The woman who always looked before she leaped, just jumped right in.

  She told herself they had time to get to know each other, as she heard Laci in the kitchen making ice cream. Later they would sit on the porch and watch the sun go down as they ate sugar cookies and homemade ice cream together.

  She remembered her restlessness at the beginning of her summer visit. As Nick deepened the kiss, she knew she would never be restless again. Not as long as Nick was around. It was good to be home. As that old saying went, home is definitely where the heart is. And her heart was right at home here in Montana.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Christmas at Cardwell Ranch by B.J. Daniels, available as an ebook.

  B.J. Daniels

  Christmas at Cardwell Ranch

  Chapter O
ne

  Huge snowflakes drifted down out of a midnight-blue winter sky. Tanner “Tag” Cardwell stopped to turn his face up to the falling snow. It had been so long since he’d been anywhere that it snowed like this.

  Christmas lights twinkled in all the windows of the businesses of Big Sky’s Meadow Village, and he could hear “White Christmas” playing in one of the ski shops.

  But it was a different kind of music that called to him tonight as he walked through the snow to the Canyon Bar.

  Shoving open the door, he felt a wave of warmth hit him, along with the smell of beer and the familiar sound of country music.

  He smiled as the band broke into an old country-and-western song, one he’d learned at his father’s knee. Tag let the door close behind him on the winter night and shook snow from his new ski jacket as he looked around. He’d had to buy the coat because for the past twenty-one years, he’d been living down South.

  Friday night just days from Christmas in Big Sky, Montana, the bar was packed with a mix of locals, skiers, snowmobilers and cowboys. There’d be a fight for sure before the night was over. He planned to be long gone before then, though.

  His gaze returned to the raised platform where the band, Canyon Cowboys, was playing. He played a little guitar himself, but he’d never been as good as his father, he thought as he watched Harlan Cardwell pick and strum to the music. His uncle, Angus Cardwell, was no slouch, either.

  Tag had always loved listening to them play together when he was a kid. Music was in their blood. That and bars. As a kid, he’d fallen asleep many weekend nights in a bar in this canyon listening to his father play guitar. It was one of the reasons his mother had gathered up her five sons, divorced Harlan and taken her brood off to Texas to be raised in the Lone Star State.

  Tag and his brothers had been angry with their dad for not fighting for them. As they’d gotten older, they’d realized their mother had done them a favor. Harlan knew nothing about raising kids. He was an easygoing cowboy who only came alive when you handed him a guitar—or a beer.