Luck of the Draw Read online

  Sid sighed. “That’s why I agreed to talk to you about you staying at Sterling’s Guest Ranch. It’s closed right now for construction so you should be able to get some privacy up there. You should be safe under Mr. Sterling’s care. I don’t think you’ll have to stay there long. I would imagine your family or friends are already looking for you. Once they contact me—”

  “I’m sure I’ll be in good hands until then,” she said as she turned to look at Garrett again. “The doctor said my memory could come back at any time. Or I won’t ever remember.” Their gazes locked as if she was daring him to argue the point. “I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank you.”

  How about telling me the truth? he wanted to say, but instead, he smiled and told her not to worry about it. “I’ll talk to the doctor now and see what time you’ll be released for the arraignment,” he said over his shoulder as he left. His encounter with her had left him shaking inside. The woman was lying through her teeth. He didn’t believe any of it.

  Outside in the hall, he stopped to calm himself. Deputy Conners gave him a quizzical look. Garrett shook his head. He’d known Joslyn would agree to go to the guest ranch, but now that she had... What was he doing?

  Taking one hell of a risk not just with his life—but with his money. But what choice did he have? This might be his only chance to get to the truth. She couldn’t keep pretending she didn’t remember—just as she couldn’t keep lying. It was only a matter of time before she came clean.

  He knew it was dangerous. Who knew how many secrets this woman had? Or how many men there were out there who wanted her dead?

  Garrett had put himself in the middle of it—just as he had that night at the convenience store, the first time he’d saved her. But there was no going back. He was taking her up in the mountains to an isolated empty guest ranch. The construction crew was finishing up the work. So it would be just the two of them.

  That alone should have scared him. He didn’t need the sheriff to tell him that he was vulnerable when it came to this woman. Was it that hard to believe that she might have killed that man on the mountainside in cold blood?

  As he started down the hall to find the doctor, Sid called after him to wait. When the sheriff caught up to him, he said, “I have to ask you—”

  “I’m not changing my mind,” Garrett said, even though he was far from sure about what he was doing. But what was the alternative? Let her go to jail and disappear the moment she got out?

  Damned if he would let her do that if he could help it. He just wasn’t sure how to play this yet.

  Sid opened his mouth to say something, probably to give it one more attempt at talking him out of it, when the sheriff’s cell phone rang. He held up a finger and took out his phone.

  Garrett had been on his way to find the doctor, but he stayed where he was when he heard the sheriff swear and say, “You’re already finished with the autopsy?”

  CHAPTER NINE

  SID GLANCED AT Garrett as the coroner said, “This was one unlucky bastard, I can tell you that. Four shots to the heart at close range? He never knew what hit him.”

  Self-defense? He’d convinced himself that when Garrett fired that shot into the air the woman got lucky, the distraction giving her the upper hand. Still, four shots to the heart? That would make her extremely lucky. Or skilled.

  “I was hoping you might have found a slug in the body,” the sheriff said. “My deputies are searching the mountainside where the man was killed, but have come up empty so far.”

  “Three of the bullets went clean through him,” the coroner agreed. “But you’re in luck. One careened off a rib and lodged in his spine. I dug it out for you and sent it over to ballistics.”

  “You’re the best,” Sid said. “Let me know if there is anything else,” he said, disconnected and looked at Garrett as he pocketed his phone.

  “Anything new?”

  “We should know soon if the man was killed with the gun found at the scene,” Sid said.

  “No ID yet?”

  Sid shook his head. “We’re waiting to see if we get a DNA match. His prints had been...altered so we haven’t been able to get a decent match apparently.”

  Garrett raised a brow. “Altered?”

  “Apparently burned off with acid.” It said something about the man that made him nervous. This wasn’t some angry boyfriend or run-of-the-mill bad guy. This guy would have a criminal record—probably one as long as his arm.

  It made this case even more worrisome since Garrett was up to his neck in it and determined to get in even deeper.

  “Just another day at the office,” Sid said. “Makes you wonder though if the woman was involved with this man and what that would say about her.”

  “You’re wrong,” Garrett said. “She’s the victim in all this.”

  Sid shook his head. “What if you’re the one who’s wrong about her? The map indicates that one of them was headed for your guest ranch. My guess is that they missed the turnoff and ended up on the wrong road.”

  Garrett said nothing as if the thought had crossed his mind as well.

  “You have to be questioning why after all this time she turns up—and in a most troubling way. And now here you are, involved in her life yet again. If you’re not wondering about it, well I certainly am.”

  There were just too many ifs. If Garrett hadn’t come along at just the right moment... If he hadn’t fired that shot... If he hadn’t witnessed what he had... If it hadn’t turned out that he just happened to know the woman...

  He’d allow some coincidence. But given the map, it was no coincidence she was on that mountain because of him.

  “You can change your mind,” Sid said, wanting to give the rancher one more chance.

  With the brim of his Stetson in the fingers of his left hand, Garrett raked his free hand through his hair. He looked as if he hadn’t gotten any sleep last night. Welcome to the club, Sid thought, remembering tossing and turning most of the night as well.

  The rancher shook his head.

  “You were right about her agreeing to go with you,” the sheriff said. “A complete stranger. Got to make you wonder. It sure does me.” What he couldn’t shake was the feeling that Garrett knew more than he was telling him.

  The rancher looked down at his hat for a moment before putting his Stetson back on his thick head of ash-blond hair. He could see what the woman had seen in Garrett Sterling. He was a big handsome cowboy with a cattle ranch and a guest ranch resort. That would look good to any woman. But for the one lying in that hospital bed? For her, maybe add to that the fact that he was also naive about the world after growing up in Montana.

  “I need to talk to Doc to see what time she’s going to be released,” Garrett said. “Then I’m going to pick up something for her to wear to the arraignment.”

  Sid nodded, giving up. “I’ll be driving up to the guest ranch to check on you.”

  Garrett smiled. “I’m sure you will. But don’t worry about me. I know what I’m up against. I can take care of myself.”

  “Let’s hope so.” He wished he felt better about this, but there was nothing he could do legally. “Good luck... I fear you’re going to need it.” He watched Garrett leave before going back down the hall to the woman’s hospital room.

  She was sitting up in the bed when he pushed open the door. He wanted to catch her off guard and he had, because earlier she’d seemed so different from the woman who’d been brought into the hospital. When he’d talked to her after she’d regained consciousness, she’d been scared although she said she couldn’t remember what had happened.

  This woman seemed...in control. She no longer seemed overly upset about not being able to remember who she was. And she’d just agreed to go with a man she didn’t know from Adam. On top of that, he’d startled her. She hadn’t been expecting him to come back. But he saw that her guard had
now gone back up.

  “I just wanted to tell you a little more about this guest ranch Sterling owns, in case you’re having second thoughts. It’s up in the mountains, pretty isolated, no cell phones or internet or television. There won’t be any other guests since they had a couple of fires back in March and some of the buildings had to be replaced. There will be a small construction crew around maybe another day or so, if that long. You two will be alone up there.” He saw that she was smiling as if amused. “What I’m saying is that you can change your mind.”

  “Thank you, Sheriff. But the guest ranch sounds perfect. No distractions. Just fresh air and sunshine. Certainly an upgrade over a jail cell.” Her smile faded. “Unless you don’t trust Garrett Sterling.” She blinked those unusual amber-colored eyes of hers. “You aren’t questioning that he saved my life?”

  “No, I still believe that’s what he did. And Garrett is the kind of man who will risk his life to keep you safe.” Wasn’t that one of the things that worried him? Protecting this woman could get the rancher killed, since he had no doubt that trouble would be knocking at her door and probably sooner than later.

  “Then it’s settled,” she said and gave him a smile.

  “And it’s just until your memory comes back.”

  “Yes,” she said, her smile slipping a little as if for a moment she’d forgotten.

  “I’ll come up to the guest ranch to check on you.”

  “I’m sure that won’t be necessary, but I appreciate everything you’ve done. Thank you, Sheriff. I hope my memory returns soon so I can help you solve your case.”

  Yes, so did he. But he wasn’t holding his breath.

  * * *

  GARRETT SLID THE key into the pickup’s ignition and froze. He’d been thinking about the past, the woman he’d known and what he was about to do. The memory had come out of nowhere, blindsiding him. He’d boxed up his memories of Joslyn eighteen months ago. Seeing her again had been such a shock. It was no wonder that the memories were tumbling out.

  They’d been together 24/7 for months when he suggested she move the rest of her things in with him. She’d seemed hesitant at first, but had agreed she might as well since she was spending so much time with him. He’d offered to help her move later than afternoon.

  “I have so little and I’ve been staying in a furnished apartment, so it won’t take me long,” she’d said. He’d never been to her apartment.

  “Wait and let me help you move out of your apartment after my last class,” he’d said and pulled her to him to look into those amazing eyes of hers.

  She’d nodded and they’d kissed. She really hadn’t agreed. Another lie, he thought now. Because later that day after he left the university, he gave a friend a ride home and after dropping him off, had taken a different route toward his apartment. That’s when he’d seen her. She was coming out of a duplex with a suitcase and heading toward her old sedan.

  “I thought you were going to let me help you?” he said after pulling up next to her car and putting down the passenger side window.

  He’d startled her and it showed. It was almost as if he could see the wheels in her mind turning as she tried to come up with a good excuse. Just then an older woman came out of the adjoining duplex. It was clear that the two knew each other. He’d pulled up and, parking in front of Joslyn’s car, had gotten out.

  As he’d approached her and the older woman, he had the distinct feeling that Joslyn didn’t want to introduce her neighbor. “Hi, I’m Garrett Sterling,” he’d said extending his hand to the woman.

  “Devon Pierce.” She had turned to Joslyn. “I didn’t realize you were moving.”

  “I’m not moving, not that it is any of your business. I’m just taking a few things to the goodwill shop.”

  Garrett remembered being startled by the lie and her rudeness toward her neighbor.

  Devon had lifted a brow, though not nearly as surprised it seemed by Joslyn’s rudeness as he was. “Seems like you’re taking a lot to give away.”

  Joslyn slammed the trunk on her car without comment. “I should get going. Good to see you, Garrett, but, like I told you, I didn’t have so much that I needed your help.” With that she got into her car and pulled away.

  Devon turned to him with a pursed-lip look of disapproval. “Short on manners, that one, and a list of other...shortcomings. I’d keep my distance from her if I were you.” She’d turned then to go back into her side of the duplex.

  When he’d reached his apartment, he’d found Joslyn unloading the few things she had from the back of her car. “Are you mad at me? I know you said you didn’t need my help. I just happened to see you packing your car and stopped.”

  “You just caught me at a bad time.”

  He hadn’t known if she meant that day or since they’d met. But he hadn’t wanted to touch that. “Are you always like that with your neighbor?”

  She’d groaned, finally seeing that he’d been upset by her rudeness. “I didn’t want that nosy woman knowing my business, that’s all. I’m sorry. It is none of her concern where I’m moving or what I’m doing. I didn’t want her knowing anything about us. She was always watching out the window to see when I came and went. She was especially curious about what I did for a living.”

  “You didn’t tell her, I assume?”

  Joslyn had laughed. “Not hardly. So who knows what kinds of stories she made up in her head about me.”

  “So when is your lease up?”

  “The end of the month. I spent so little time there with my work that the place looks just like it did when I moved in. I’ll let my landlord know I’m out.” She’d moved to him, brushing against him. “I didn’t mean to be rude back there. It’s just that woman...”

  He’d kissed her and put the whole thing out of his mind.

  Until now.

  He sat for a moment, thinking about other times that he’d been suspicious of Joslyn’s behavior when they were together. Phone calls at all hours that she refused to answer, saying it was some old boyfriend. Now he questioned all of it—especially why she’d just up and disappeared without a word. And suddenly here she was again.

  While he took most things Dorothea said with a grain of salt, he had to admit, Joslyn Charles turning up here and under these circumstances was more than suspicious. He needed to know. Had she printed the map? Was she on her way to him? If so, why after over a year? And what about the man who had wanted to kill her? The man who he believed would have killed her if he hadn’t stepped in?

  Glancing toward the hospital, he figured the sheriff would try to talk her out of going back to the guest ranch with him. Somehow, he didn’t think she would change her mind because he couldn’t shake the feeling that he had played right into Joslyn’s hands.

  He started the pickup’s engine. His plan had been to do some clothes shopping for her. But since remembering Devon Pierce, he had something he wanted to do first. He drove over to Mitchell Investigations, parked in the alley and slipped in the back door.

  “Someday coming in like that is going to get you shot,” his best friend William “Billy” Mitchell said as he slipped his pistol back into his desk drawer.

  “Maybe you should lock your back door,” Garrett suggested as he pulled out a chair across the desk from his friend and sat down. Billy looked more like a ski bum than a PI. He was the all-American boy, from his shaggy blond hair to his blue eyes and angelic face. It didn’t help that he dressed like an overgrown skateboarder. The man skateboarded to work. Also he spent good powder days in the winter up on the ski hill outside of town snowboarding. But when not living the Whitefish, Montana, laid-back life, Billy was apparently a damned good PI. It helped that he looked fairly harmless. Also he had a talent for being able to talk his way in and out of trouble, something Garrett recalled from their youth.

  “I have a favor. Can you get on Facebook?”

&nbsp
; Billy laughed. “Anyone can get on Facebook. Even someone like you. You don’t need a PI to do it.”

  “I’m looking for someone.”

  “Aren’t we all.” His friend laughed as he sat up and touched his computer keys. “You really should consider joining the twenty-first century. No one is this techno-illiterate.”

  “I grew up on the back of a horse. No internet, remember? Shade takes care of the ranch and guest ranch website. I have no interest in social media and my cell phone is just a phone—when I can get enough of those bar things.”

  Billy shook his head as if there was no hope for him. “What’s her name?”

  “What makes you think it’s a woman I’m looking for?”

  His friend said nothing, merely waited patiently.

  “Devon Pierce. She used to live in Missoula.”

  A few seconds of tapping the keys and Billy turned the computer screen so he could see. “Is she one of these?”

  “Yes, the third one down. You amaze me,” he said.

  “Yes, that was an amazing feat all right,” Billy said sarcastically. His friend eyed him suspiciously. “Are you sure this is the woman you’re looking for? She really doesn’t look like your type. Grandmother of four. Still lives in Missoula it looks like. I hate to even ask why you’re looking for this woman.”

  “I want to ask her some questions. How would I go about that?”

  His friend shook his head. “It’s like you just climbed out of a cave. I’ll message her. What do you want to say?”

  “Ask her if she remembers a neighbor of hers. Joslyn Charles. Cute, brunette who apparently kept odd hours and wasn’t very friendly.”

  Billy’s eyes widened. “Your Joslyn?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  His friend began to type. “You do understand that she might not answer right—Skip that. She says she remembers her. She says she was stuck-up and rude among other things.”