Burn on the Western Slope (Crimson Romance) (32 page)

Tanner glanced at her dad. “Start a fire, but don’t do anything stupid.”

The howling wind shook the cabin. Reagan had little hope for survival. No one knew where she was, and if the snowstorm worsened, no one could save them even if they did know where to find her.

She wasn’t going to sit here and die. She would fight to the end.

“Where’s the wood?” her dad asked.

“Right outside.”

Great. Her dad, who hobbled on his leg and still didn’t know how badly his arm was hurt, had to shuffle outside and find the wood. The wood that Tanner had known where to find. Had he been here before? Were he and Ray friends at one time?

“I’ll get it,” Reagan said, shooting a desperate look toward her dad.

“I’ll manage.”

“Make some coffee,” Tanner demanded.

Coffee? If coffee was available, weapons may be available. Coffee making was a good excuse to search, and she rifled through the cabinets. Styrofoam cups, plastic silverware. The coffee pot was made of stainless steel, not glass. She could possibly hurt Tanner with it, if she had the strength, but the warmth of the coffee was the only thing to fuel her, and at the moment it was better than the thought of taking Tanner down.

She could always throw coffee in his face.

Her dad used his strong arm to stack a few pieces of wood in the fireplace as the coffee brewed. Tanner had already removed the fireplace pokers as if he knew Frank might use them. Frank unrolled his body from his crouching position on the floor and Reagan didn’t miss the pain written all over his face.

“Where’s a match?” he asked Tanner.

“I’ll do it.”

Frank crouched, confiscated a piece of wood, and swung it at Tanner as he approached. Tanner sidestepped, the wood barely striking his shoulder. He knocked it out of Frank’s hand, and it crumbled to the floor. Tanner pushed Frank to the wall and struck his gun on her father’s cheek.

“Don’t try anything stupid again,” Tanner said. “I’m stronger than you. I’m smarter than you. I’m FBI and I’m trained to survive.”

• • •

Garret pulled the door of the helicopter closed, fighting against the wind to secure it. As the minutes passed, the weather worsened and he feared before long the roads would be treacherous, never mind the sky. He tried to blame it on the blades which churned the snow, but he’d heard the weather warnings.

Chayton glanced at him before taking off, but Garret couldn’t see the expression on his face through the gear they both wore. Chayton wouldn’t have stayed behind even if Garret had asked him to, and Garret hoped they’d be at their destination within minutes. Then they’d have the safety of the cabin when the worst of the storm hit.

“Shit,” Chayton said as the helicopter sputtered and coughed. Garret didn’t know a damn thing about the machines, only that he wanted to load it up with as much gear and as many people as possible to help, but Chayton warned him of the danger of overloading. They still had to bring Reagan home safely and their packs of food, water, and extra clothing weighed more than she did.

“What’s happening?” Garret asked.

“Nothing,” Chayton said, but his voice didn’t reassure him. Garret no longer cared about himself as long as he made it to Reagan in time. But he worried about his brother, sorry Chayton had to be involved yet aware Chayton would have it no other way.

Dark skies reigned ahead. He knew they were heading toward a snowstorm, but he planned to beat it.

“Dammit, we won’t make it,” Garret said. He punched in Reagan’s phone number again, but nothing happened.

He’d tried calling several times, all to no avail. What he knew thus far was that Tanner had taken Reagan and they were headed to Ray’s cabin. Panicky, Naomi had mentioned something about jewels, about Ray, but he couldn’t be sure of anything until he reached his destination, and the only thing he cared about right now was Reagan.

He would kill Tanner with his bare hands, but that was only after he knew Reagan was safe. If she wasn’t, Tanner would die by more extreme measures.

Chapter Twenty-Two

There had to be a knife here somewhere. Tanner hadn’t yet tied her up, only her father. As if she was too weak and stupid to do anything to hurt him. She’d use a plate and knock it over his head if she had to.

Oh wait, there were no plates. Nothing of any substance to use as a weapon. She didn’t understand how a cabin like this had no knives, but it was hard to explore when Tanner kept a close eye on her.

They ingested a cup of lukewarm coffee. Her bones ached, and she no longer hoped to throw coffee in his face. It was barely warm and it’d only piss him off. She’d lose her chance to attempt anything that might be worthwhile.

She helped her dad drink, bundled him up in blankets, and prayed he’d be okay. Tanner didn’t seem to care. He probably planned on killing both of them when he did what he came here to do.

“Ray had a safe here,” Tanner said. “I want to see what’s in it. I believe you have the key.”

An image of Dr. Till propped on her pillows rose in her mind, but she was proud of herself for not reacting. The key was in her purse. It had to be the same key. “How do you expect me to have the key? I don’t know anything about Ray.”

“Chris was working for your brother, but he double crossed him. I think Ray was onto him and hid the jewels somewhere. Chris killed him. See, I think Ray had every intention of giving the jewels to Javier. He was a good guy, but Chris killed him first.”

“How do you know Chris didn’t hide them somewhere?”

“We’ve searched everywhere.”

“We?”

“Do you think I work alone?”

“But you said Chris gave Ray the jewels. That he was the thief. So why give Ray the jewels only to try to take them back?”

“So he wouldn’t look guilty.”

Reagan shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“You don’t have to understand.”

Her breath lodged in her throat as the reality of her situation suffocated her. The FBI was supposed to be the good guys. They wouldn’t hit, tie up, or threaten innocent people, would they? If Tanner really was an FBI agent, he was not in it for the good. She doubted Garret was involved, doubted he even knew about Ray’s involvement, but she wasn’t sure. He’d known Ray for so long. Longer than Tanner by the sound of it.

If Garret was involved, he wouldn’t have told her about Kyle. He would have taken her to this cabin with the pretense of loving her. And she would have willingly complied.

“I found a piece of jewelry in my condo. I’ll give it to you.”

Tanner gave her a look that made her heart flop in dread.

He knew she was lying. He’d probably been the one to take the necklace.

“Where’s the safe?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I never knew this place existed until now. But I know where the safe is at my condo,” she lied, hoping if he took her home she’d have a better chance of survival.

Her toes ached, the heel of her feet mashed into boots that had grown too heavy for her. She wasn’t sure she could make it back to the condo. The possibility of survival dimmed.

“Bullshit. I’ve been through every nook and cranny of that condo.”

Tanner shoved pictures from the wall, throwing them on the floor with abandon and letting them shatter. Reagan cried out at the atrocity, trying to save what she could of Ray’s memories. Saving these memories seemed important and gave her something to focus on besides the last few minutes of her life.

She didn’t want to dwell on that.

She recognized Garret and Chayton, smiling widely as they crouched beside a large black bear. Montana in the summer, Ray fishing. The pictures had been enlarged and framed and fixed with strategic care upon the walls.

Tanner carelessly and selfishly threw them aside as if they didn’t matter. And they didn’t, to him. If they had monetary value, that’d be another story.

“Aha,” Tanner said as the last picture he destroyed revealed a safe with a keyhole and combination knob. Tanner turned the knob a few clicks and cursed.

She glanced at her purse, then swiveled her gaze up, hoping Tanner hadn’t caught her.

Stupid, stupid Reagan. Tanner grabbed her handbag and dumped everything out on the table. He rifled through the pockets, tried every key he found, opened lipstick tubes, and unzipped every zipper.

“I know the key. I found it in a stuffed animal. But I didn’t think it was significant. If you’ll let me go back to the condo, I left it there. I know right where it is.”

A key pinged to the floor. She tried to step on it and conceal it with her foot. Tanner shoved her and grabbed the key. It seemed to work, but none of the combinations he used worked.

“Fuck!” Tanner turned on her. “What’s the combination?”

“How would I know?”

He grew frantic, shuffling through the things that had fallen out of her purse as if the combination would leap out at him.

“You know someone will catch you. Even if you kill us. Especially if you kill us.”

“I’m an FBI agent. I’ll come up with something and they’ll believe me.”

“Garret is FBI too.”

“So?” Tanner’s eyebrows notched into a frown as he stopped his search. “When’s your birthday?”

“Are you the one Garret has been investigating all this time? Are you the one who killed his partner?”

Tanner grabbed her hair, twisted it, and pulled her toward the safe. “When’s your birthday?”

She mumbled the numbers. March twenty-second. Surely Ray would never use her birthday for the password.

He turned the knob. Three-two-two. The safe opened. Who would have guessed? How many people knew of her existence before his death?

Well, apparently Chayton and Garret. Were they involved somehow? Did they know about Ray?

Reagan sank to the chair, her legs unable to sustain her. She’d never seen so much money. Stacks of money. And jewels. Glistening diamonds, an emerald necklace reminding her of the luminosity of Garret’s eyes when they darkened after making love. A huge sapphire ring reminding her of Garret’s eyes the day they’d played in the snow then fallen into bed and made love. She still couldn’t describe the broad range of color from green to blue, even if she looked into them every day of her life.

Which now seemed pitifully short.

“If it wasn’t for Javier Mass’s collection, they probably wouldn’t have even cared about this loot,” Tanner said.

“What collection?” she asked.

Tanner shoved her aside. “They collect rare objects of all kinds. One of those collections consists of fossilized shells probed back before the Cretaceous period. Like this ammonite.” He held up an object boasting more colors than she’d ever seen before. Like a rusted seashell bursting with gold and blue, crimson and violet. It was like peering into the soul of high-definition earth.

Gasping, Reagan extended her hand. “Can I see?” She knew she wasn’t safe with Tanner but wanted to experience the texture of the object and understand why it would be worth killing over. It was the most striking thing she’d ever seen, unlike anything she’d come across while walking the beach. Yet similar, in a strange way.

Tanner scowled and removed the fossil from her reach. “No. Most of these were stolen from museums. It has taken years for the Mass brothers to accumulate their collection. Saving this probably just saved my life.”

“What about the jewels?” Reagan asked. Might as well learn everything she could, not that she’d make it out of this alive.

“The jewels are for their clients. They’ve already lost a lot of money on these.”

“So they get paid to steal jewels, yet they collect these seashells for their own personal gain?”

“They aren’t merely seashells,” Tanner said. “And every crime lord has a penchant for something. For the Mass brothers, it’s these fossils. Javier is a collector of artifacts.”

“He’ll kill, steal, and destroy to get them? Why? What makes them more important than human life?”

“Stop trying to understand,” Tanner warned as he closed the door to the safe, the trinkets still secured inside.

“You have what you want,” Reagan said.

“See, that’s what I love about this weather,” Tanner said. “I can kill you and leave you outside. No one will find you until spring.”

• • •

“I’ve got to land.”

“Where are we? How close are we to the cabin?”

“I’d say a ten-minute walk.”

“Can’t we fly a little closer?”

“And risk landing on top of the damn house, or worse? It’s surrounded by mountains and I can’t fly safely in these conditions. I can’t see a foot in front of me and we are risking an avalanche.”

That was the extent of Garret and Chayton’s conversation right before Garret feared they were plunging to their death.

Adrenaline shot through him. As they spun around, his ears rang, his throat wouldn’t close, and his heart was on the brink of exploding. The helicopter bounced on the soft earth. Chayton managed to get the machine under control and land.

They sat a moment until Chayton looked at him and smiled. “Told you I needed to land.”

Garret rolled his eyes and unbuckled his seatbelt. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Can I just close my eyes and pretend this is all a bad dream?”

“Not an option.”

Garret crawled out of the helicopter and Chayton handed him their backpack before following. Creeping on all fours, Garret tested the spongy earth to make sure they weren’t perched on anything dangerous that might fall out from under them anytime soon.

“All’s clear.”

Garret was tempted to leave everything behind. He didn’t want to waste time, he had to get to Reagan. But he might as well dig his own grave if he went unprotected. Ray’s cabin was nestled between mountains, and the northern wind was unsympathetic.

He fought for patience as Chayton fed him the gear, their clothing, the weapons, only taking what they needed. He was grateful that Chayton’s elbow sprain had healed, because he didn’t know how they’d manage with a wretched injury.

Dressed in their caps and gloves, Garret slung his backpack around his shoulders and grabbed his gun. Chayton followed close beside. In the gorge of the mountain they were in, the snow wasn’t so bad. The wind shifted up to a good ten miles an hour at times, but other than that everything seemed to be going their way.