Outlaw Lawman (11 page)

Harlan wanted to turn around and go back to haul this guy in for questioning, but the sheriff must have had the same idea. The cruiser braked to a loud stop, the tires kicking up smoke on the asphalt, and Harlan caught just a glimpse of the two officers spilling out of the car and heading for the runner.

Slade didn’t stop. Didn’t slow down. He sped away. Of course, that didn’t mean they were out of the woods. The sheriff had probably seen them leaving the scene. And if not, Devin or some other eyewitness would give him enough details so that he’d know exactly whom to arrest.

That ate away at Harlan.

He’d hoped this meeting would give them information to help their cause, but now it was just another note in their fugitive status. Worse, he’d entangled Slade in this now.

“We’ll have to ditch the truck as soon as we can,” Slade reminded them.

Just hearing the words hurt, too. Worse than any gunshot wound he’d ever had. Heck, they were acting like criminals, and even though an arrest would be bad, it couldn’t be as bad as this.

Harlan glanced back in the mirror. “Turn around.”

Caitlyn lifted her head, stared at him. “Have you lost your mind?”

“No. I’ve regained it. We’ll just have to conduct the rest of this investigation behind bars. I want to go back, tell the sheriff what happened and check on the bystander who might have been shot.

“Turn around,” Harlan repeated when Slade kept staring at him, too.

Cursing, mumbling and sounding generally displeased with this notion, Slade hit the brakes and did a screeching U-turn in the road. “You’d better know what the hell you’re doing,” he added.

He did. It was the right thing. And no, it wouldn’t be justice, since he and Caitlyn had been framed, but it was the only way he could live with himself.

Caitlyn huffed, sat up and pushed her hair from her face. “Always knew you were a Boy Scout.” And it didn’t sound like a compliment. Except after another huff, she leaned over, kissed his cheek. “I never was good at this running-from-the-law stuff either. Last time I did it, I ended up in reform school.”

“Ditto,” Slade growled. But unlike Caitlyn, he didn’t seem nearly convinced that this was what they should be doing.

Harlan’s phone buzzed, and he put the call on speaker when he saw Dallas’s name on the screen. “We have a problem.” Harlan greeted his brother.

“Yeah, I just heard. Someone tried to kill you. Wyatt’s monitoring everything on the police radio, and I’m listening to it as it’s happening,” Dallas added. “I’m on my way to Rocky Creek now, not far out, so I should have some more details in the next half hour.”

Good. They would need someone on their side at the police station. “We’re on our way back, too.”

Dallas didn’t say anything for several moments. “Hold off on that and let me handle this. Caitlyn and you should go somewhere and wait.”

“I don’t want Slade in trouble for this,” Harlan protested.

“He won’t be. If someone sees the shot-up truck and reports it, I’ll just tell the sheriff that I ordered Slade to get Caitlyn away from the scene. She’s a civilian and doesn’t need to be in the middle of a gunfight. I’ll also convince the sheriff you went with them so Slade would have some backup in case Caitlyn was attacked again.”

Harlan could hear the chatter from the police radio in the background. “Ranger Morris is calling in as we speak,” Dallas continued, “and I want to find out what he has to say.”

“But someone was shot at the scene,” Harlan argued.

More radio chatter. “Yeah, and the sheriff is taking someone into custody.”

The guy running from the scene, no doubt.

Caitlyn pulled in a hard breath. “Is it Devin Mathis?”

“No,” Dallas answered. “According to the man’s ID, it’s Billy Webb.”

Chapter Eleven

Caitlyn sank onto the far end of the sofa at Declan’s cabin and tried to focus on the lanky dark-haired man on the laptop screen.

Billy Webb.

Maybe he had the answers that would help them clear all of this up. Of course, he might only give them more questions, and that didn’t help steady her any.

The cup of tea she’d just made herself was too strong and bitter, but she drank it anyway for the caffeine hit. She needed to be alert.

The wait and watch could go on for hours.

Maybe she wouldn’t fall apart during that wait, but the odds weren’t good. She already felt like one big raw nerve, and the images of the shooting just wouldn’t stop. Hopefully, those images would end with their wait, and she could find some way to keep herself from losing it.

Some way that didn’t involve leaning on Harlan’s shoulders.

He hadn’t offered his shoulder, and Caitlyn hadn’t pushed. It would have been nice to be able to come unglued in his strong arms—even if that would only make things worse in the long run. Harlan didn’t need her boo-hooing all over the place, and she didn’t need to think of his arms as anything other than off-limits.

Despite the mental pep talk and her attempts to stop it, Caitlyn felt tears burn her eyes, and she blinked them back, praying they didn’t spill onto her cheeks. But they did, and when she went to swipe them away, Harlan looked at her.

“I’m okay,” she quickly lied. He knew it was a lie, too, but he stayed put on his end of the sofa and fastened his attention back on the computer screen.

Thanks to Dallas, who was at the Rocky Creek sheriff’s office, she and Harlan had not only visual but audio, as well. Ditto for his brothers back at the Maverick County marshals’ office. All of them, including Slade, were tuned to it to see what Billy Webb had to say.

Or rather not say.

Because the only talking Billy had done was to ask for a lawyer.

Dallas hadn’t mentioned to Sheriff Bruce Sheldon that the computer feed was also going to the cabin for Harlan and her to view. Probably for the best, since there was still a warrant out for their arrests. Though Harlan obviously didn’t agree with her
for the best.

His mood had been past the surly stage since Slade had dropped them off so he could head back to Rocky Creek and see if he could help. Like Harlan, Slade was a lawman to the core, and it was eating away at Harlan that the only thing he could do was sit, watch and stew. The only thing she could do was sit, watch and fight back tears.

“If we’d stayed, the gunman probably would have started firing more shots,” she reminded him—again. “More people could have been hurt.”

Or dead. They’d gotten lucky. According to Dallas, there was only one wounded bystander, and he’d already been treated and released.

Harlan made a sound, sort of a grunt of disagreement.

He glanced at his phone. No messages or calls since the last time he’d checked a few minutes earlier, and he got up and went to the front window.

“If Billy moves, let me know,” he grumbled.

But Billy didn’t move. He sat at the table in the interview room, not looking especially concerned about anything. In fact, nothing about him was what Caitlyn had expected. The boy she remembered had been scared of his own shadow, but this Billy was, well, poised. The expensive-looking gray suit helped. So did the fashionable haircut. Definitely not the appearance of a man with mental issues or someone who’d been in hiding and off the grid.

And that in itself posed yet more questions.

Maybe Dallas would soon have some answers for them when he got back the results of the background check. Answers to questions like where had Billy been all this time. Why was he dressed like a business executive?

And had he been the one to shoot them?

He’d already submitted to a gunshot-residue test, and it had come back negative. That wasn’t the only thing working in his favor of innocence. Dallas had already relayed to them that Billy had had no weapon on him when the sheriff had taken him into custody. Plus, there’d been no evidence in his car to prove he’d been the shooter or even part of the attack.

Maybe he wasn’t. It was possible someone had set him up just as they’d done to Harlan and her.

Harlan did another phone check, huffed and leaned against the window frame. He was no doubt as exhausted as she was, but he didn’t have the same weary look that Caitlyn was sure she had. He just looked, well, rumpled in his jeans and shirt. Of course, Harlan had a way of taking rumpled to a whole new level.

What the devil was she going to do about him?

They couldn’t get within five feet of each other without touching or kissing. Good kissing, too. The kind that reminded her that she only wanted more from him, and more was something she was reasonably sure Harlan couldn’t and wouldn’t give her. Beneath all the rumpled hotness was still a nice guy who probably thought it best not to start something with her that he couldn’t finish.

“I don’t suppose it’d do any good if you tried to rest?” she suggested. “Might be a while before Billy’s lawyer shows.”

“Rest?” His left eyebrow rose.

Uh-oh. Did he think she meant
that
kind of rest? Maybe. Despite her teary red eyes, she was probably giving off weird vibes that his very male body had no trouble detecting.

“Could you rest?” And it sounded like a challenge coming from him. So, not
that
after all. He was just pointing out that neither of them would get much resting done until Billy did some talking.

Yes, it was going to be a long wait.

Or maybe not.

Harlan’s phone finally buzzed, and he answered it so fast that it bobbled in his hand. “Dallas,” he answered, and put the call on speaker.

Caitlyn set her tea aside and turned the laptop monitor in Harlan’s direction so they wouldn’t miss anything if Billy’s lawyer showed. However, she also didn’t want to miss any of this phone conversation, so she hurried closer to Harlan.

“Got the initial background check on Billy,” Dallas started. “The clothes and car aren’t an act. About ten years ago his paternal grandparents let him tap into a huge trust fund they’d set up for him, and he’s been paying with cash this whole time. He’s also been living in a house that’s still in his grandmother’s maiden name.”

“Why didn’t Billy’s mother know any of this?” Harlan immediately asked. But he didn’t wait for an answer. “Maybe she did and just didn’t say.”

Bingo. Of course, they couldn’t ask her now because Sarah Webb was in a coma and might never wake up.

“Sarah could have lied about his whereabouts because she didn’t want him to have to answer questions about that night,” Dallas went on, “especially if he had anything to do with his father’s murder.”

Caitlyn tried not to huff, but she’d wanted more. Something that pointed the finger at Billy or else excluded him as a suspect. “Is there anything in Billy’s background to indicate why he’d go after Harlan, me, Tiffany or Sherry?”

“Nothing.” Dallas’s sigh was louder than hers had been. “The fingerprint could have been gotten without his knowledge, as you two well know. And with no GSR on his hands and no solid evidence to point to him, I doubt the sheriff can hold Billy long. Heck, even Devin is saying he doesn’t think Billy’s the shooter, and he probably got the best look at the guy.”

Interesting. Devin didn’t seem like the good-hearted type to remove suspicion from a man he hardly knew.

Unless he did know him.

“Is it possible Devin and Billy were working together?” Caitlyn asked. “Because there was something...private in the threats I received.”

She looked at Harlan at the same moment he looked at her.
You’ll always be my first, Caitlyn.
Yes, definitely private and intimate. Too bad just the reminder brought back other recollections. Of that night. Of the recent kisses. Memories of everything she shouldn’t be remembering.

Great. Her body reacted. The heat swirled through her. Slow and easy.

“Private?” Dallas questioned.

No way would she spell it out for him, so Caitlyn settled for an explanation that wouldn’t make Harlan and her squirm. “Something that could have possibly been overheard by someone at Rocky Creek and then told to the person who’s trying to kill us.”

Dallas made a sound of agreement. “Someone like Billy. I’ll look into that, but again, I doubt it’ll be enough to hold him. I’ll call you as soon as I have anything.”

Harlan clicked the end-call button, and even though he didn’t say anything, Caitlyn felt his frustration. It helped her a little because it kept her tears at bay. Tears and crying would only add to his frustration. Hers, too.

He made another of those sounds, part huff and part groan, and his gaze met hers. Her gaze of him was a little distorted, however, because she was literally seeing him through tear-speckled lashes. She didn’t dare wipe her eyes again because it would only draw attention to something she didn’t want him to notice.

“You should really think about getting some rest,” he said. “You heard what Dallas said. Even when Billy’s lawyer shows, it’ll probably be just to get him released.”

“And maybe a rightful release,” she muttered.

He lifted his shoulder but didn’t break the stare they had locked on each other. He did move, though. He reached up and brushed the pad of his thumb over those tears. “All those bad times at Rocky Creek, I never saw you cry.”

“I’d rather have eaten glass. Tears are a sign of weakness.”

Another shrug. “They’re normal in situations like these.”

“You aren’t crying,” she pointed out.

The corner of his mouth lifted just a fraction. “Wouldn’t go with my image.”

The corner of her mouth rose, too. Not a smile exactly. The fear and emotion from the shooting were too close to the surface for that, but it felt good to share a moment like this with Harlan. A moment that didn’t involve her crying on his shoulder.

But the moment changed when he didn’t pull back his hand. He kept it there. His fingers rested on her cheek while his heavy-lidded gaze melted all over her. Okay, the melting was her interpretation. Harlan certainly didn’t look on the verge of kissing her again.

“Why me?” he asked.

Caitlyn blinked, shook her head.

“Why did you really give yourself to me at Rocky Creek?”

Oh.
That.
She didn’t miss the
really
part of his question. After all, she’d already told him she had offered up her virginity because he was a good guy. That was true, but it was more than that.

“Why not Wyatt?” Harlan pushed. “He had the hots for you.”

Caitlyn couldn’t pretend that she hadn’t noticed Wyatt’s attention. She had. “Wyatt certainly had the looks,” she confessed. “But you were the total package.”

Ouch. That seemed way too relationship-y, and Harlan got that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look. Time to put this right back on him.

“Why me?” she fired back.

His hand moved from her cheek to her chin. So near her mouth. And his touch felt so good that she wanted to move into it. And maybe would have, but coming on the heels of her
total package
slip, the timing sucked.

He shook his head. “Doesn’t work that way for a guy. You offered, and I accepted.”

Now it was her turn to give him the skeptical eye. “Plenty of girls offered, not just at Rocky Creek but at the high school, too. The gossip mill worked pretty well in those days, so if you took up anyone else’s offer other than Amy Simpson and that cute cross-country runner with the big boobs, I didn’t hear about it.”

And Caitlyn would almost certainly have heard, because she hadn’t exactly hidden her feelings for Harlan. Also, since she was somewhat of a pariah, people would have loved to have thrown in her face the fact that Harlan was into someone else.

This time, the sound he made was of agreement. “Old water,” he mumbled. “Old bridge.”

“Yes, except this old water still feels...a little warm,” she settled for saying.

The corner of his mouth lifted even higher, and while they truly had nothing to smile about, that helped with her raw nerves, too.

She figured that would do it. No way would Harlan keep touching her and staring at her after that comment. Things were no doubt getting too
trip down memory lane
for him. But he surprised her—and judging from the profanity he mumbled, surprised himself—when he leaned in and put his mouth to hers.

That brief jolt of surprise vanished. Tears, too. In fact, it was as if his mouth took her on a supersonic ride to another place, another time.

Of course, it didn’t stay just a kiss. They were stupid and weak when it came to each other. Caitlyn wrapped her arms around him, moved in closer and bam! She got what she’d been fantasying about but knowing it shouldn’t happen. She got Harlan’s shoulder, arms and chest.

Oh, and pretty much everything else, too.

Now body to body, they deepened the kiss, and the ache it created felt just as necessary as air.

The feeling only got worse when Harlan ran his hand between them, touching parts of her that were begging for attention. She remembered this touch. This raging insane need that he could create inside her.

Thank goodness oxygen soon became an issue, because they had to break the kiss and gulp in deep breaths. During those brief seconds their gazes met again, and Caitlyn was sure Harlan would realize the mistake they were making.

But nope.

They went right back to each other, the kiss even more intense. The touching harder and crazier. They grappled to get closer and knocked each other off balance. Harlan’s shoulder slammed into the wall, but that still didn’t loosen the grip they had on each other.

Or the precise alignment.

Harlan’s beefcake chest gave her breasts some mind-blowing pressure. Ditto for the rest of him. Every part of them aligned so that his sex was against her. Yes, there were clothes between them, but she could still feel every last inch of him.

There was a serious problem with their being former lovers. Her body was trying to convince the rest of her that a round of quick sex with Harlan would be good for both of them.