Kitabı oku: «The Lawman's Honor»

Chapter One

The rain had started a few miles back. On a moonless black night on an unfamiliar rural road, a man could easily get lost. Heath Monroe had a feeling he might have done exactly that.

He cast a cautious eye at the sky, at jagged streaks of lightning in approaching clouds. This section of the Ozarks was in for a storm. Hopefully, he could find the little town of Whisper Falls before the worst of it struck.

Heath was weary from the long drive, and his GPS had long ago stopped telling the truth. When he’d pulled off for gasoline at a tiny whistle-stop community no bigger than a convenience store and a handful of houses, he’d grabbed some junk food to hold him over. He’d eaten worse and certainly gone longer without healthy food. The friendly woman at the store assured him he was headed in the right direction.

“Keep going until you see the turnoff,” she’d said. “It’s kind of hard to see at night but there’s a little green sign.”

A muscle in his left shoulder had tightened and the pain now ran up the side of his neck. Heath exhaled through his lips, eager to find that road sign.

But it wasn’t only the drive making him weary. He was soul weary, the only reason he could think of for his sudden decision to exchange a job he’d loved for work in a small Ozark town. He was tired of the constant travel, the short-circuited relationships that were over before they had a chance, and worst of all, the feeling that he was trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon.

And yet, he was driven to keep fighting. His father had taught him that. Never give up. Right the wrongs. Fight the fight. He was an army of one. One man could change the world.

Heath took a hand from the wheel to touch the badge in his pants pocket. His father’s life mattered and Heath aimed to carry the torch. Had carried it for a lot of years. The new assignment was different but the overriding mission remained the same.

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

“Couldn’t be too much farther.” He’d give Mom and Holt a call as soon as he hit town. They’d both be worried, his brother as much as his mother. After all the places he’d been, the training he’d received and all his successful missions, Mom still feared he’d end up like his father.

He hoped she was wrong, but he couldn’t count on it.

* * *

Cassie Blackwell hunched over the steering wheel and squinted through the rain-lashed windshield. Wind buffeted the dependable little Nissan as a clap of thunder vibrated through Cassie’s bones. She shivered, though the heater pumped out plenty of clammy warmth. Her eyes burned from staring into the pitch-black night lit only by the pale wash of headlights and the frequent, unpredictable lightning.

In the last ten minutes, the storm had gotten progressively worse. Scary bad.

Like blue laser fingers, lightning suddenly splayed across the ominous clouds. As if the skies had opened, rain fell in sheets, loud and unnerving. The lightning was quickly sucked back into the swirling masses overhead, into a blackness so deep Cassie couldn’t tell for sure where she was.

This looked bad. Real bad. Tornado season was upon them and though she was no meteorologist, she understood tornadic thunderstorms. Texans cut their teeth on tornados, and a half dozen years in the Ozarks couldn’t erase a lifetime of experience.

Through the deluge, she spotted the car ahead. One lone vehicle other than hers crawled through the night, clinging to the curvy mountain roadway. It reminded Cassie of a commercial in which the tires had grown tiger claws to grip the pavement. Tonight her Nissan needed claws.

If a tornado fell out of those ominous clouds, she didn’t know what she’d do. There was no ditch, no storm shelter, no houses for miles, other than her own still a dozen miles ahead.

Her eyes had started to burn from the strain of peering into the astonishing blackness. The air was sticky, a harbinger. Small hail ping-ponged off the hood and bounced in the headlights like popcorn on the blacktop. Her windshield wipers kept up a rhythmic whap-whap to battle the sluicing rain, a battle they couldn’t win tonight.

She punched on the radio, hoping for weather reports. Static, intensified by sizzles of lightning, filled the car. She turned off the useless noise. Whatever the weather, she would have to ride it out.

Normally, Cassie loved thunderstorms. The clean smell, the invigorating wind, the sudden burst of cold wetness. Most of all she enjoyed the wild, showy side of nature, the power of an awesome God. She liked to sit on the ranch’s front porch and watch the storms move over the mountains, to wrap in a blanket and sip a cup of hot tea and dream of the one and only time she and Darrell had gotten to do that very thing together. Before they married. Before he was gone.

Lightning flared in the sky for scant seconds. Cassie noticed the car again, its watery red taillights barely discernible through the deep black curtain of heavy rain. She watched the lights waver and then fishtail crazily as the driver lost control.

“Jesus!” Cassie cried, a prayer for the driver. The lightning disappeared as quickly as it had come. In the blackness, she didn’t know if the car had righted itself or if even now, the driver plunged down an incline into the thick woods...or worse, into one of the canyons.

She dared not speed up, lest she, too, lose control. The road curved sharply ahead where she’d last seen the other vehicle. She crept forward, a prayer on her lips, her eyes wide and scratchy as she tried to make out the exact spot where she’d seen the driver lose control.

There. Cassie decelerated and tapped her brake. To her right and fifty feet down into a deep ravine she spotted the faint impression of light. Dread in her gut, heart racing, she pulled as far to the side of the road as possible and stopped. The rain still came in drenching torrents. Storm or not, she had to do something. Someone could be hurt.

Cell phones were great when they worked, which was rarely the case in remote areas like this one. In this storm she had serious doubts, but she quickly pressed 911 anyway. When nothing happened, she fired a text to her brother and another to Police Chief JoEtta Farnsworth in the nearest town, Whisper Falls. Maybe, just maybe, the text could get through the storm.

Then, she did what she had to do. Flashlight in hand, she leaped out into the wild, raging night and plunged down the brushy incline toward the accident.

In seconds she was drenched. Brush grabbed at her naked legs, ripping flesh. Of all the crummy times to wear a skirt. Slipping and sliding, Cassie stumbled once on a fallen tree her light hadn’t picked up. A bolt of lightning, blue with fire, had her up and scurrying faster. Old leaves mushy with rain squished beneath her pretty new heels, a gift from her mother from only yesterday.

Through the noisy storm, she heard the rumble of a motor. The vehicle, which she now saw was a smaller SUV, was still running, the headlights eerie in the deep, tangled woods.

Cassie ran to the driver’s side and pounded on the window. “Hello. Are you all right? Hello!”

A dark form slumped over the steering wheel. Shaking now, from both cold and anxiety, Cassie pulled at the back door. Locked. Frustrated, she banged on the driver’s window.

“Wake up. Wake up.” She prayed he wasn’t dead. The last dead person she’d seen had been her husband.

Darrell’s lifeless face flashed in her mental viewer. She shook her head to dispel the image.

Shivering, face dripping rain, hair plastered against her skull and vision skewed by the torrent, she shined the flashlight toward the ground, searching for anything to break out a window. Finding a thick branch, she heaved it against the back passenger glass. Nothing other than a jarred wrist for her efforts.

She hurried to the front of the car. The windshield had spider-webbed in the crash but hadn’t given way. It was weak. She could possibly break through the glass, much as she disliked the idea of exposing the injured driver to a flood of rain. She started around the car to the passenger’s side. Better to break the windshield out on the side farthest from the driver.

Behind her, the driver’s door popped. In a burst of adrenaline, Cassie whirled toward the sound. The dark woods were eerie and she was alone. Her flashlight picked out a man’s hand and wrist on the armrest. A watch glowed green in the darkness right before the arm fell, limp.

Cassie hurried to the door and pulled, but the door had opened as far as it could. Only a few inches. Her fingers fumbled around inside the door and found the locks, popping them.

“Thank You, Lord.”

She yanked the back door open and crawled inside, shivering at the interior warmth and the sudden, wonderful cessation of rain. Rain dripped all over the nice leather interior, but that was the least of her worries.

She shook the broad shoulder in front of her. “Can you hear me?”

He mumbled something.

Cassie shined the flashlight at the side of his face and scrambled over the seat, leaving a trail of water.

The man’s face turned slightly toward her. “What—?”

“Where are you hurt?”

“Hurt?”

He must be addled, concussed or...something. She owned a beauty salon. What did she know about injuries other than sunburn from too much time in the tanning beds?

“Do you think you can walk? I have my car up on the road. I can take you to a doctor.” Dr. Ron, the only physician in Whisper Falls, was accustomed to being awakened in the night for emergencies.

He shook his head. “My leg.”

What about his leg? Was it broken? Crushed? Were bones sticking out? The last, grizzly thought rattled her nerves but bones or not, she was his only help.

Using the flashlight, Cassie started at the top of his head and began a slow perusal of the driver. “I can’t see that well, but let me check you over. I texted for help. I don’t know if I had reception though. The storm.”

He nodded, his jaw tight and lines of pain radiating from his lips all the way into the stretched cords of his neck. His was a manly face with wide, chiseled jawbones and deep-set eyes. She couldn’t tell the color but she could see the pain and confusion. He was addled, no doubt about it.

She’d never been much for facial hair but his suited. A wisp of whiskers above his lip and on his chin. Just a little, just enough to make a woman notice. Not that she was noticing in a situation like this.

“Forgive the intrusion,” she murmured, not sure if he heard or understood, but her vision was limited. His medium-length dark hair could easily conceal a wound. She had no choice but to touch him. “Are you bleeding anywhere?”

Her fingers scanned the back of his head, up and over to the forehead. There. A knot the size of a softball along his left temple. “You’ve hit your head.”

She pulled her fingers back and shined the light on them. No blood. She breathed a sigh of relief. No blood suited her fine.

“My leg,” he said again and attempted a slight shift in the seat.

Cassie aimed the light lower, searching in the dimness. “I can’t see.”

He reached above his head and snapped on the dome light. He wasn’t as addled as she’d thought. She hadn’t thought of that.

Cassie blinked against the brightness. “Thanks.”

“What happened?”

Or maybe he was. “You missed the curve and hit a tree.”

That was the short version.

“My leg. What happened?”

“I can’t tell. I think it might be stuck. Can you move it at all?” Beneath the dash was a crumpled mess of metal and wires. She didn’t want to think about his leg underneath that weight.

“No.”

“Does it hurt?”

He paused as if having to think about the question. “I don’t think so.”

Strange answer. Either it did or it didn’t.

She shined the light in his face. Glazed eyes barely blinked.

Okay, this was not good. The man had a head injury and couldn’t get out of the car. And it was likely her text hadn’t gone through.

Thunder rumbled. Rain kept up a steady swoosh. Flashes of lightning radiated through the night sky.

She did not want to make that trip back up to the road.

“Will you be all right while I go to my car and try to call again? I left my cell up there.” Stupid decision but water and cell phones didn’t mix. She should know. She’d knocked one into the shampoo bowl before and that had cost a pretty penny to replace. “With the storm moving on, I might be able to get through.”

“Yeah.”

As Cassie pulled at the passenger door, an iron grip manacled her wrist. She whipped around.

“What’s your name?”

She stared down at his fingers. For a wounded man, he was strong! “I’m Cassie. What’s yours?”

“What happened?”

There again the hint that he was more injured than he let on.

“You’ve had an accident.” Gently she wiggled her wrist but he held fast. “What’s your name?”

Not a bad idea to know in case he went unconscious again before emergency help arrived. You could never tell about head injuries.

“Monroe.” Did his voice sound slurred? “Heath Monroe.”

It fit him. Masculine. Strong. She tugged against his powerful grip. “You can turn loose now.”

Slowly, he shook his head.

“Cassie.” The way he said it sent a little tremor down her spine. He moistened his lips and swallowed. “Don’t go.”

His fingers went slack. Definitely addled.

“Hang tight, Heath, I’ll be right back. Promise.”

As good as her word, she was back in minutes. This time she’d tucked her cell phone inside a plastic shopping bag and brought it along. Just in case.

By the time she returned, he’d removed his seat belt and was rummaging in the console. The deployed air bag draped over his lap like an enormous melted marshmallow. Maybe that explained his confusion. An air bag packed a wallop.

She slammed the door, grateful to be inside again. The wet cold seeped into her bones.

“I made contact with my brother. He knows the area. He’ll get help and bring them here.”

The man’s head dropped back against the headrest, eyes drifting closed. Whatever he’d been rummaging for was forgotten. He was still as pale as toothpaste. “Good.”

“It could take a while. We’re deep in the woods.”

He rolled his head toward her. Beneath the dome light, his eyes were green like hers, though darker and more intense. The knowledge gave Cassie a funny feeling, as if they were connected somehow. “How far to Whisper Falls?”

Talking seemed to take more effort than it should.

“The town or the waterfall?”

“What?”

He was either addled or a total stranger to the area. “Whisper Falls is both a waterfall and a small town up here in the Ozarks. It’s a long story but basically the town council decided to rename the town for the waterfall to attract tourists.”

“And other things,” he murmured, a statement which made her wonder all over again about his mental acuity.

“The falls is north of town, not far from where I live. The town itself is another six miles east. If you’re headed to town, you missed the turn.” Which made her wonder—why would a stranger be driving into Whisper Falls at this hour of the night?

Though the heater pumped out a warm hiss, it wasn’t enough to penetrate the wet chill that had settled over her skin. Cassie shivered.

“You’re cold.”

“I’ll live.” She hugged herself, rubbing her hands up and down on her goose-bumped arms. She had a sudden memory of accident victims needing a blanket to keep from going into shock. Or something like that. There was no blanket available, but she had a suitcase full of clothes in the car. She could cover him with a sweater or two. “Are you warm enough?”

He didn’t answer. He’d closed his eyes again and gotten quiet. Cassie fretted. Had his pallor increased? Was he asleep or unconscious? Remembering all the movies in which sleep was bad for a head injury, Cassie thought she should keep him talking. If there was one thing other than haircuts Cassie was good at, it was talking. “How’s the leg?”

His eyelids fluttered but he didn’t move otherwise. “Numb. Stuck. Frustrating.”

“That’s an understatement.” She’d always been a talker, but years as a hairdresser had honed the skill. As her brother, Austin, often said, she could talk to a fence post. He should know. She talked to him, a man who’d rather have a stick in the eye as to carry on a conversation. “Do you hurt anywhere? Any other injuries you can determine?”

“A little headache.”

“Little? Or one of those headaches where a burly construction worker is slamming your brains with a hammer?”

“Yeah. Rattled my brains.” He drew in a shuddering breath, wincing at the effort. Something else hurt whether he acknowledged it or not. “Careless. I’m a better driver than that.”

Now they were getting somewhere. An entire coherent thought.

Encouraged, Cassie pushed on. “Male pride. You sound like my brother when a horse throws him.”

One corner of Heath’s mouth moved the slightest bit as if he wanted to engage but didn’t quite have the energy. “Cowboy?”

“Austin’s a rancher. His place is a few more miles up this road and then back down a gravel road another mile and a half. Or did I tell you that already?”

“Boonies.”

The comment was both apt and revealing. “Where are you from, Heath? Are you a city boy?”

He went silent again though Cassie was pretty sure he was conscious. It was as if he had to think about his answers. Either he’d had his memory knocked sideways or he was avoiding the question, something that made no sense. The headache must be taking a toll on his thought processes.

Finally, as though his mouth was parched, he moistened his lips again and muttered, “Houston.”

“Texas?”

He managed a wry glance, one eyebrow arched the tiniest bit. “Is there any other?”

Good. He was sounding better. Texans were a proud lot.

“Surprised, because I’m from Texas, too. Austin and I moved here from outside of Dallas. We’ve been here a long time, but Mom and Dad still live there. That’s where I’ve been this week. A friend got married and I was in the wedding.” She smiled a little at the memory of her old friend so much in love. She’d suffered a bite of the green-eyed monster, too, normal she supposed even though she never expected to fall in love again. “I did some shopping, ate Mama’s cooking. Gained weight. Fun times.”

That brought about as much response as kissing a mirror. She glanced at the clock on the dash, fretting again. Where was Austin? He should have been here by now. She was growing weary of trying to carry on a one-sided conversation with a disturbingly attractive, head-injured man during a pretty scary thunderstorm. But keeping him alert, or at least awake, was imperative. Wasn’t it?

She should have paid more attention in first aid classes.

“I do hair,” she said. Okay, that was lame, but what was she supposed to talk about to a total stranger who didn’t give her much to work with? “I’m good at it, too.”

Not that you could tell right now, with her straight black layers plastered flat against her head and dripping all over his leather interior.

“’Scuse me?” His eyelids lifted to half-staff. He had noticeably long lashes, thick and spiky, that shadowed his cheekbones. Thick eyebrows slashed above his eyes. No wax. She would know. She did plenty of wax jobs, even on men, though some of them swore her to secrecy.

“I’m a hairstylist. I do nails, too. My partner, Louise, and I run the Tress and Tan Salon in Whisper Falls.” She wiggled her fingers at him. Her nails were acrylic, a tidy length but decorated with tiny tuxedoes in honor of the wedding. “Need a mani-pedi?”

His face was still too pale, but he managed a faint smile. More of a grimace, really, but an attempt to stay awake. “If I have any toes left.”

Ouch. “My brother should be here soon. Don’t worry. We’ll get you out of here and that pedicure will be on the house. All ten toes.”

“Optimist.” The word had weakened, tapering off at the end so that it sounded more like ‘optimisss.’ Not good. Come on, Austin.

“Do you always drive off into strange places during raging thunderstorms? And why Whisper Falls? Visiting relatives?” When he didn’t answer, she touched his arm. “Come on, Heath, stay awake.”

“Late start.” He was trying. She’d give him that much. “GPS...not too dependable.”

“You got lost. Figures. Anyone can get lost out here.” And he probably had been too proud and stubborn to stop and ask directions. Darrell had been like that, confident the location was right around the corner. “Mountains and trees are not impressed by modern technology.”

He closed his eyes again, worrying Cassie. The car engine was still engaged, and a quick glance at the dash indicated plenty of gas. At least he’d had the presence of mind to fill up sometime in the recent past. They were warm and secure, the thunderstorm subsiding somewhat as it moved toward the east, though the rumbles continued and lightning flickered.

“Thunderstorms here are pretty spectacular. The noise echoes for miles.” His cheek twitched but he didn’t answer. Cassie reached for his pulse. “Are you still with me?”

“Yeah.” The word was barely a whisper.

Was he bleeding internally? Going into shock? Cassie’s mind raced, but all she could come up with were scenes from General Hospital and crazy words like subdural hematoma. Whatever that was.

The car grew silent. Cassie thought she should be doing something proactive but didn’t know what. So she sat beside the injured man and chatted away about Whisper Falls and every single head of hair she’d ever groomed, praying that Austin and an emergency crew would get here soon. The man would know more about Whisper Falls than she did—if he could remember.

“Heath?” she said, shaking his shoulder.

His eyes fluttered up. Did they look more glazed now than before?

“You’re pretty,” he mumbled. “Got a boyfriend?”

Yes, he was delusional. Delirious. Poor man.

“No. My husband died.”

“Sorry.”

Not wanting to discuss Darrell’s death, she shifted the topic to him. “What about you? Any significant other I should call? Girlfriend? Wife?”

“No more.”

Okay, so he was either divorced or had recently broken it off with a girlfriend or worse, like her, his spouse had died. A curl of empathy circled through her. Being alone hurt. No matter how she’d tried to fill her life with activities, she missed the closeness of being a couple. She missed Darrell. In fact, she’d been missing him the day she’d climbed Whisper Falls. And guess what? Her prayer hadn’t been answered. She was still laughing at herself over that silly episode.

“Who are you visiting in Whisper Falls?”

“Police chief.”

“JoEtta Farnsworth?”

“Know her?”

His words were definitely slurring.

“Everyone in Whisper Falls knows Chief Farnsworth. Tough, fair and...eccentric to say the least. Are you related?”

The chief had kids somewhere but Cassie couldn’t recall whether they were male or female or where they lived. One thing for certain, they didn’t come around Whisper Falls too often. Heath’s last name was different but that didn’t mean much these days, and if Heath was the chief’s son, he was a jerk of the first order for never coming to see his mother. JoEtta was gruff and rough but a good person.

Whatever the connection, Heath didn’t answer. The car went silent again except for the endless drip of rain from the overhanging trees.

“Heath?”

He didn’t move.

She touched him. “Heath.”

He didn’t respond.

“Come on, pal, stay with me. I don’t like it when you take naps. It’s not fair. You can’t nap if I can’t.”

Heart in her throat, she grabbed his wrist, felt for a pulse. A thready beat pulsated against her fingertips.