Deliverance at Cardwell Ranch

She remembered something, he saw it in her eyes.

“So your name is Gillian?”

She didn’t answer, but now she looked more afraid than she had before.

Austin sighed. He wasn’t going to get anything out of this woman. For all he knew, she could be lying about everything. But then again, the fear was real. It was almost palpable.

He had a sudden thought. “Why did you attack me on the highway?”

“I...I don’t know.”

A chill ran the length of his spine. He thought of how she’d kept looking back at the car as they walked to the cabin. She had thought someone was after her. “Was there someone else in the car when it rolled over?”

Her eyes widened in alarm. “In the trunk.”

He gawked at her. “There was someone in the trunk?”

She looked confused again, and even more frightened. “No.” Tears filled her eyes. “I don’t know.”

“Too bad you didn’t mention that when we were down there,” he grumbled under his breath. He couldn’t take the chance that she was telling the truth. Why someone would be in the trunk was another concern, especially if she was telling the truth about the car, the purse and apparently the baby not being hers.

He had to go back down anyway and try to put up some kind of flags to warn possible other motorists. He just hated the idea of going back out into the storm. But if there was even a chance someone was in the trunk...

Austin stared at her and reminded himself that this was probably a figment of her imagination. A delusion from the knock on her head. But given the way things weren’t adding up, he had to check.

“Don’t leave me here,” she cried as he headed for the door, her voice filled with terror.

“What are you so afraid of?” he asked, stepping back to her.

She swallowed, her gaze locked with his, and then she slowly shook her head and closed her eyes. “I don’t know.”

Austin swore under his breath. He didn’t like leaving her alone, but he had no choice. He checked to make sure the handcuff attached to the chair would hold in case she tried to go somewhere. He thought it might be just like her, in her state of mind, to get loose and take off back out into the blizzard.

“Don’t try to leave, okay? I’ll be back shortly. I promise.”

She didn’t answer, didn’t even open her eyes. Grabbing his coat, he hurried out the back door and down the steep slope to the highway. The snow lightened the dark enough that he didn’t have to use his flashlight. It was still falling in huge lacy flakes that stuck to his clothing as he hurried down the highway. He wished he’d at least taken his heavier coat from her before he’d left.

His SUV was covered with snow and barely visible. He walked past it to the overturned car, trying to make sense of all this. Someone in the trunk? He mentally kicked himself for worrying about some crazy thing a delusional woman had said.

The car was exactly as he’d left it, although the lights were starting to dim, the battery no doubt running down. He thought about turning them off, but if a car came along, the driver would have a better chance of seeing it with the lights on.

He went around to the driver’s side. The door was still open, just as he’d left it. He turned on the flashlight from his pocket and searched around for the latch on the trunk, hoping he wouldn’t have to use the key, which was still in the ignition.

Maybe it was the deputy sheriff in him, but he had a bad feeling this car might be the scene of a crime and whoever’s fingerprints were on the key might be important.

He found the latch. The trunk made a soft thunk and fell open.

Austin didn’t know what he expected to find when he walked around to the back of the car and bent down to look in. A body? Or a woman and her baby?

What had fallen out, though, was only a suitcase.

He stared at it for a moment, then knelt down and unzipped it enough to see what was inside. Clothes. Women’s clothing. No dead bodies. Nothing to be terrified of that he could see.

The bag, though, had been packed quickly, the clothes apparently just thrown in. That in itself was interesting. Nor did the clothing look expensive—unlike the diamond wristwatch the woman was wearing.

Checking the luggage tag on the bag, he saw that it was in the same name as the driver’s license he’d found in her purse. Rebecca Stewart. So if Rebecca Stewart wasn’t the woman in the cabin, then where was she? And where was the baby who went with the car seat?

He rezipped the bag and hoisted it up from the snow. Was the woman going to deny that this was her suitcase? He reminded himself that she’d thought there was someone in the trunk. The woman obviously wasn’t in her right mind.

He shone the flashlight into the trunk. His pulse quickened. Blood. He removed a glove to touch a finger to it. Dried. What the hell? There wasn’t much, but enough to cause even more concern.

Putting his glove back on, he closed the trunk and picked up the suitcase. He stopped at his rented SUV to look for something to flag the wreck, hurrying because he was worried about the woman, worried what he would find when he got back to the cabin. He was digging in the back of the SUV, when a set of headlights suddenly flashed over him.

He turned. Out of the storm came the flashing lights of a Montana highway patrol car.

Chapter Four (#ulink_9725464a-87bd-5e07-92c0-21642c79988a)

“Let me get this straight,” the patrolman said as they stood in the waiting room at the hospital. “You handcuffed her to a chair to protect her from herself?”

“Some of it was definitely for my own protection, as well. She appeared confused and scared. I couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t go for a more efficient weapon than a tire iron.”

The patrolman finished writing and closed his notebook. “Unless you want to press assault charges...that should cover it.”

Austin shook his head. “How is she?”

“The doctor is giving her liquids and keeping her for observation until we can reach her husband.”

“Her husband?” Austin thought of the hurriedly packed suitcase and recalled that she hadn’t been wearing a wedding ring.

“We tracked him down through the car registration.”

“So she is Rebecca Stewart? Her memory has returned?”

“Not yet. But I’m sure her husband will be able to clear things up.” The patrolman stood. “I have your number if we need to reach you.”

Austin stood, as well. He was clearly being dismissed and yet something kept him from turning and walking away. “She seemed...terrified when I found her. Did she say where she was headed before the crash?”

“She still seems fuzzy on that part. But she is in good hands now.” The highway patrolman turned as the doctor came down the hallway and joined them. “Mr. Cardwell is worried about your patient. I assured him she is out of danger,” the patrolman said.

The doctor nodded and introduced himself to Austin. “If it makes you feel better, there is little doubt you saved her life.”

He couldn’t help but be relieved. “Then she remembers what happened?”

“She’s still confused. That’s fairly common in a case like hers.”

The doctor didn’t say, but Austin assumed she had a concussion. Austin couldn’t explain why, but he needed to see her before he left. The highway patrolman had said they’d found her husband by way of the registration in the car, but she’d been so sure that wasn’t her car.

Nor had the highway patrolman been concerned about the baby car seat or the blood in the trunk.