24 Karat Ammunition

“Then you’d better talk fast.”

Not that he was going anywhere. There was no way he could walk away from her as long as she needed him.

But there wasn’t a chance he’d let her sneak back into his heart.

Chapter Four

Trish had been totally unnerved before Langston arrived on the scene. Now it was worse. Langston wasn’t the same youthful, high-flying college guy he’d been that hot, sultry summer in Houston. She wasn’t the same naively optimistic woman she’d been. Still, the past seemed to dominate the situation and sensual tension charged the air.

Langston leaned against the kitchen counter, his piercing, dark eyes boring into hers. “Tell me about the carjacking.”

Trish pulled a sprig of pine straw from her hair, dropped to one of the worn kitchen chairs and propped her elbows on the table. “I’d gone to lunch with one of the sales reps from my favorite jewelry line, but had taken my own car so I could stop by the drugstore on the way back to the boutique. I was still buckling up when some guy opened the passenger side door and jumped in.”

“Buck Rivers.”

“Right. How did you know that?”

“A friend told me, but that’s about all I know. The guy must have been watching you when you exited the restaurant.”

“I guess, but I didn’t see him. If I had, I wouldn’t have thought anything about it. The parking lot was crowded and it was the middle of the day. And he was just a normal-looking guy—except for the pistol he pointed at my head.”

“Go on.”

“He was yelling at me to drive faster and ordering me when and where to turn. At first I thought he was just desperate to get somewhere and thought he might actually let me go after that. Once he forced me to turn on a deserted back road, I got a lot more worried.”

“Did he act as if he knew you?”

“He just referred to me as a rich bitch. When he told me to stop, I panicked and hit the gas instead. He tried to kick my foot off the accelerator. That’s when we left the blacktop. We were headed right for a bridge. I hit the ravine just before I hit the railing.”

Langston joined her at the table. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

She looked up and let her eyes meet his. His gaze was still piercing, but shadowed now. She dropped her eyes and focused on his hands. No longer the hands of a rancher, she noticed. They were smooth. And there was no wedding ring on his left hand. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t let it.

“I wasn’t hurt in the wreck other than sore muscles and a few bruises. The carjacker didn’t have on his seat belt and was knocked out when his head hit the side window. A car pulled up and stopped on the side of the road. I thought he’d just happened by and saw the wreck, but it was an off-duty detective.”

“Gary Packard.”

She nodded. “He said he’d seen us speeding recklessly down the exit ramp when we left the highway. He thought I was drunk, then got close enough that he recognized my abductor as someone he’d questioned before.”

“So he followed you?”

“Right, but he didn’t see the pistol pressing into my rib cage and didn’t realize I’d been abducted. He just wanted to see what we were up to.”

“How did he come to kill Rivers instead of arresting him?”

“Buck Rivers came to while I was explaining the situation to the detective. He took off running and Detective Packard gave chase. I ran to the car, retrieved my cell phone from my handbag and made a 9-1-1 call. When I heard gunfire, I panicked again and hid in the woods until a state trooper responding to my call showed up.”

“So you didn’t see the shootout?”

“No. The detective came wandering out of the woods after the trooper arrived. He said he’d shot the carjacker in self-defense.”

“How did you go from saved by a cop to thinking he is trying to take you out?”

“I’d like to know that myself. We hung around for a long time while the detective and the trooper searched the area. I guess they were looking for clues. Then when I refused to go to the hospital, the detective drove me back into town, asking questions the whole way. I had the feeling even then that he didn’t really believe I was a random victim.”

“Meaning?”

“I think he still thought I might have willingly been with Rivers. But he let it go and dropped me off at the car rental agency to get a replacement vehicle. He said mine would be towed, impounded and searched for clues even though the detective had spent a lot of time searching it while we were at the scene.”

“What kind of clues? They already knew who abducted you and he was dead.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t argue with him. I was still in shock at that point and just glad it was over. At least I thought it was over. Turned out I was badly mistaken. I got a phone call the next day demanding I return the video that Buck Rivers had left with me. When I told the caller I didn’t have it, he called me a few obscene names and said if I was lying, I was dead.”

“Did the caller give his name?”

“No. But when he first called I would have sworn I was talking to Detective Packard, but that he had a cold or something.”

“What did you do?”

“I called Packard and told him about it. Then he questioned me about having a video. I’m not sure he believed that I didn’t. But then he blew the whole thing off and said if there was no video then it was probably a crank call and that I should ignore it unless I heard from the man again. I didn’t hear from him so I thought I was home-free.”

“And then someone broke into your house last night.”

“Selena told you?”

“No, I went to your place first. It’s trashed.”

“My house is trashed?”

“Didn’t you know?”

“No. I left rather quickly after I rammed a screwdriver into the intruder’s face.”

“Keep talking.”

She explained the situation as best she could. It had all happened so fast that she was short of facts.

“Why didn’t you call the cops once you got away instead of coming here to hide out?”

She hesitated. Selena had thought she was paranoid. Langston would likely think she was plain crazy, but… “I think Gary Packard was the man who broke in my house.”

“You couldn’t tell?”

“He was wearing a ski mask. Look, I know this sounds crazy, but when I saw the intruder, I thought it was the detective. He had the same build, the same voice, but more gruff—like he was trying to disguise it, the same as the man had sounded on the phone.”

“You can’t just accuse a cop of trying to kill you, Trish.”

“I know that.” Her frustration level skyrocketed. “But I can’t ignore all my instincts, either.”