B.J. Daniels - Wrangled

Moving just as silently now, she stepped into the bathroom and studied herself in the mirror over the sink a moment before she reached up and took out the white contact lens. She blinked, waiting for the eye to focus. Then she removed the dark brown contact lens.

She slowly began to remove the burn scar, peeling it off as she peeled away Mrs. Crowley. At last she stood at the mirror, her face scrubbed clean, her eyes blue again.

As she stared at herself, though, she felt she was looking at a stranger. It had been so long since she’d been herself, her image came as a shock.

But it was nothing compared to the shock it would give others in the house when the time came to end this charade, she thought with a wry smile.

The moment Zane had gone into the bathroom and turned on the shower, he’d changed his mind about staying hidden while Dakota handled the sheriff.

He’d never run from trouble in his life, and he wasn’t going to now. But as he’d reached for the bathroom door handle, he’d glimpsed his face again in the mirror over the sink. The scratches were an angry red and, maybe worse, he had no explanation for them.

Dakota was right. He needed to find Courtney and he couldn’t do that behind bars. He feared anything he said to the sheriff would come out sounding like a lie. If Sheriff McCall Crawford saw Courtney’s cell phone …

He’d stayed put even though it was hard. He couldn’t hear what was being said. For all he knew, Courtney had been found and that was why the sheriff was here.

Zane jumped at the tap on the bathroom door. He quickly turned off the shower and opened the door.

“The coast is clear,” Dakota said as he came out.

“What did McCall want?” He hated the fear he heard in his voice. From Dakota’s reaction, she’d heard it too. She had to be wondering if she was wrong about him.

“Apparently Courtney called about a disturbance out here between you and me.”

“ Courtney called? Then she’s all right?”

“Apparently.”

He shook his head. “But why would she …” The thought struck him like a brick. “She wanted the sheriff to see the scratches on my face and arm. What the hell is going on with her?”

“She seems to have it in for the two of us,” Dakota said. “That’s why we have to find her and find out what she’s up to.”

“The two of us?”

Dakota looked away for a moment as if she hadn’t meant to say that. “The last time I saw her was a few days ago. Right after that I realized she’d been in my house and taken something of mine.” She waved a hand through the air. “The point is, I want it back. She had no business in my house, let alone taking anything of mine.”

He nodded, seeing that whatever Courtney had taken, Dakota didn’t want to talk about it. He changed the subject. “What did McCall make of all this?”

“She seemed to think it was my sister being jealous.”

“We know better.” The date last night, what he could remember of it, hadn’t been anything special. In fact, he recalled before he’d lost his memory that he hadn’t planned to see Courtney again. She was beautiful, but not that interesting.

His head still hurt, but a thought wormed its way through. “You said Courtney showed up two weeks ago. That’s the same time someone broke into my house and used my computer to set up the rural dating account. Could she have been planning this that long ago, trying to set me up for more than a date?”

“Why go to the trouble?” Dakota asked, frowning as if she was trying to work it out herself.

“Why me at all?” It didn’t make any sense to him either. “The requirements I put down for the perfect date apparently made Courtney the perfect match.”

Dakota raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t put down any requirements, but whoever signed me up must have rigged it so that my requirements matched Courtney’s. It had to be Courtney.”

“A lot of trouble and to what end?”

“I guess that depends on what happened last night,” he said as he glanced around the living room. Nothing seemed to be missing, but then he’d made that mistake before.

“You really don’t remember what happened after your date?” she asked.

“I’ve never had a hangover like this before.”

Dakota was looking at the scratches on his face again. “Maybe you should get a drug test at the hospital.”

Dakota was willing to consider that he’d been drugged? Zane was surprised and relieved. But why hadn’t he thought of it? Because he’d been running scared from the moment he’d opened his eyes this morning.

He had to know what he was dealing with. Courtney Baxter seemed to be setting him up. But why? He was just grateful that Dakota seemed to be on his side. If he’d just gotten drunk and didn’t remember, that was one thing. But if Dakota was right and Courtney had drugged him …

“I think a drug test is a good idea,” he said, but Dakota didn’t seem to hear him.

She was looking at Courtney’s cell phone. She had picked it up by two fingers. He could see the smeared blood from here.

“Any idea how it got blood on it?” she asked. “Or how it ended up under your bed? I noticed there was also a broken lamp on the other side of the bed. You probably don’t know anything about that either.”

He shook his head. “You said you heard something crash in the background when you were on the phone with her.”

“Could have been the lamp.” She looked down at the phone again. “Maybe we should see about getting DNA off this phone to find out if it is even Courtney’s blood. We can have a doctor run a blood test on you at the same time for possible drugs. Do you have a small plastic sandwich bag we can put this in?”

“Top drawer on the right.” He watched her head for the kitchen, trying to figure out what about Dakota was bothering him. She certainly was taking all this better than he would have thought.

“I doubt there will be fingerprints other than ours, but …” She stopped on her way back from the kitchen, the cell phone in a plastic bag she’d found in the drawer. “What’s wrong?”

He wasn’t sure. “You just kept me out of jail—at least temporarily—and now you’re going to help clear me? What’s going on, Dakota?”

“I told you. I need your help to find Courtney.”

“Because she took something of yours that you want back. If you just wanted to find Courtney, you could have told the sheriff everything you know and thrown me to the wolves,” he said. “The sheriff, with all her resources, would be looking for your sister right now. So why didn’t you? It wasn’t just to keep me out of jail so I could help you find her. I hate to sound suspicious, but I have to wonder why you’re so anxious to find her that you would throw in with me.”

“She’s my sister.”

“Uh-huh.”

Dakota sighed. “Okay, maybe I’ve suspected she was up to something from the first time I laid eyes on her.”

“You said your father’s name and signature are on her birth certificate. Are you saying you’re questioning that?”

She shrugged. “All I know is that something’s wrong with her story. After what you’ve told me, I’m even more convinced.”

“But not enough to go to the sheriff.”

“I want to do some investigating of my own before I get the sheriff involved,” Dakota said.

He suspected there was more, something she was hiding, but right now he was just glad he wasn’t in jail. “Then you believe me?”

“I’m willing to consider you were set up.” She stepped to the door and opened it. “On the way into town, I think we should see who Courtney’s been calling—and who’s been calling her.”