Bodyguard Father

“Earlier tonight I was never going to see you again.”

“I’m not married,” she said.

“But the car is registered to Jack Ryder.”

“My father. Recently deceased.”

“I’m sorry.”

She said, “You shouldn’t be. If he hadn’t died, you’d be riding back to Reno with two thugs, names unknown.”

He had no idea what her remark meant, but the wistful smile following it piqued his interest. He’d known she was pretty from the moment the bad wig slipped off her head, but standing here in the half light, her coppery hair shimmering, cheeks flushed, peachy lips curved just the tiniest bit, she looked breathtaking. Despite the smoke. Despite the bandages.

Once again he considered his options.

“Who’s Joanna?” she said.

“I need to hear about the thugs,” he answered, returning to the business at hand. There was no time for impulsive lovemaking with a stranger hired to get him. What was he thinking?

“Why did you come back for me?”

That question was a hard one to answer and best delayed. He said, “Joanna owns this place. She boards Scio for Ben Miller during the winter. Speaking of Scio, he’s had a hard night.”

“So have I,” she said, stepping back.

He released his grip on her delicate wrists.

“Why did you come back?” she asked again, head tilted, hair falling softly around her heart-shaped face, eyes inquisitive.

He thought for a moment, then walked away.

Chapter Four

“You said there were two thugs,” Garrett said an hour later.

They’d taken his duffel into the tack room and hunkered down to talk. They had a few granola bars, bottled water, a couple of apples he’d packed at the cabin, plus her cell phone, camera and her dad’s gun.

They’d rubbed down Scio after his walk. The big bay gelding, now locked into a stall, munched on hay, a blanket secured on his back. He looked cleaner, drier, and better fed than either one of them.

Annie stretched out her legs and took a bite of a Golden Delicious. Though the stall was plush by barn standards, it was still drafty and cold. What she wouldn’t give for a shower and realized with a start that she still had a room at the motel in Poplar Gulch. That meant clean clothes!

“Annie?”

“Sorry. Okay, two men drove up. They cracked a few jokes about the wreck at the top of the driveway then went looking for you. They said you’d probably killed me and buried me on the hill. And then they laughed.” It still made her tremble deep inside.

“What did they look like?”

Annie described them: one bald, one a smiling man with a single eyebrow.

“Sounds like they were distinctive,” Garrett said. “Do you know them?”

“No. Did they know about you? Did they know your name?”

“Yes.”

“Did anyone besides Shelby Parker know you intended to come to Ben Miller’s cabin?”

“Nope, and that means they know Shelby Parker, right? That means Shelby sent them instead of the police. Why?”

“I don’t know. I expected Klugg to try something like this, but what does Shelby Parker want with me?”

“Well, you did kill her mother.”

As soon as the words left her lips, Annie had one reaction followed by another. The first was a jolt of pure panic: she was munching on an apple while in the company of a killer.

The second reaction was just as strong. No, she wasn’t. This man wasn’t a killer, at least not in the cold-blooded way Annie suspected the two gangster-types who had burned down Ben Miller’s cabin might be.

“I didn’t kill her mother,” he said. “But I guess Shelby doesn’t know that. What I mean is why doesn’t she want me brought to justice? Why would she want me brought to her? To kill me herself? Isn’t that a little far-fetched? And wouldn’t she be concerned about your safety?”

“Beats me. Maybe someone tapped Shelby’s phone, maybe they heard she hired my father and were waiting to get a message that he’d found you.”

“I wouldn’t put anything past Klugg.”

“But they never mentioned the name Klugg, you know.”

He rubbed his temples.

“Who is this guy, anyway?”

“Klugg?” He finished off a granola bar, and brushed the crumbs from his fingers. “He used to be a boxer. He owns a string of health clubs now as well as a few gyms where people train. When two of his associates ended up dead, he was charged with hiring a hit man. Elaine was his attorney. He blamed her when he got a guilty conviction. First he fired her and then he started making threats.”

“What kind of threats?”

“The kind that make a person scared to go out in the dark. Someone followed her home one night, ramming her bumper, turning off their headlights and then there was a delivery of dead roses—stuff like that.”

“But you said Klugg was in jail.”

“Trust me, a guy like Klugg maintains connections on the outside. All he has to do is give orders.”

“Why would anyone think you’d kill Elaine Greason? What motive would you have had?”

He was silent for a moment, then took a deep breath. “I went to see Klugg in prison.”

“Then you know him?” She couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice.

“No, I don’t know him. What happened was this—he demanded a visit from Elaine. She didn’t want anything more to do with him. I was supposed to tell Klugg to leave Elaine alone or she’d get a court order. I delivered the message. The man stared at me like I was a piece of dead meat. The cops decided that meeting was when Klugg hired me to take care of Elaine for him.”

“Then the motive they settled on was—”