Caroline Burnes - Texas Midnight

Well, it might take him a little while to get free, but when he did… He twisted his hands and, losing patience, pulled at the ropes. His only reward was that the loop around his neck tightened a little more. Now the rope was a constant pressure. He was furious. He knew that if he didn’t get free, someone would eventually find him—and the humiliation would be worse than dying.

As he tried to calm down and work the ropes, he focused his mind on images of what he would do to Anna when he caught her. That he’d underestimated her was obvious. He’d sneaked up on her as if she were an average female. For all his research and all his savvy, he’d failed to consider that Anna Red Shoes might be as good in the wilderness as he was.

He felt the rope on his left wrist loosen slightly and he concentrated on getting his hand through. But despite the millimeters of progress he made, he couldn’t get free of the ropes. This was going to take a long, long time.

Three hours later he finally shucked the bonds off his hands. In a matter of moments his feet were free and he rolled and stood. When the circulation began to come back to his feet and hands, he felt as if he’d just escaped a bed of fire ants.

Hopping and cursing, he headed for his truck. He didn’t even bother to utter an oath when he saw the four flat tires. Anna had done him one better.

But he had a secret weapon. Unless she’d taken it.

He went to the pack he’d stowed in the truck and opened it. Everything was there, including the cell phone. He dialed the number he knew by heart.

“Ellie?”

“Do you know what time it is?” Ellie asked, more amazed than upset.

“I need your help.”

He could tell that his words and tone had awakened her completely.

“What is it?”

“I’m sorry, this is going to be a shock. Henry’s been murdered—in my house. I’m after the killer. Remember that woman who came to the signing?”

“Oh, my Lord,” Ellie said, coming fully awake. “She threatened to make you pay for what you’ve written.”

“That’s her.”

“Why would she kill Henry?” Ellie’s voice contained the shock and grief that Jeremy hadn’t allowed himself to feel. Tender emotions were for women. Anger was what he wanted to feel. And he wanted it now more than ever.

“It looks like she sneaked into the house and stabbed him. There was some kind of struggle. I can only guess that she thought he was me, and that once she started she couldn’t stop herself.”

“Was there evidence it was her?”

“A knife. Just like the one she left in the bookstore. I found it in the room. It’s still there.”

“What did the sheriff say?” Ellie asked.

“I haven’t called Lem. I’m on the woman’s trail. I want to bring her in myself.”

“Jeremy, this isn’t one of your books. This is real life. Oh, my heavens, I can’t believe Henry is dead.”

“Ellie, the important thing is catching this woman and making her pay. I almost had her…” He hesitated and decided against giving any more detail. It would only shake Ellie’s confidence if she knew he’d been hornswoggled by Anna Red Shoes. And it wouldn’t do much for his reputation, either.

“I need a couple of horses,” he continued. “A good riding horse and something to pack some supplies on. I need a week’s worth of food.”

“Jeremy, I’ll get you the horses and supplies.” She took a deep breath. “What about Henry’s body?”

“Give me a few hours’ lead. Then call Lem.”

“Where are you, and why don’t you take some of your own horses?”

There was no way around the truth here, but Jeremy knew he’d tell only as much as he had to. He gave her directions first. “I’m stranded. She slashed my tires.”

“You already went after her alone—and she got away?”

He could hear Ellie’s panic building. “This is between me and her.”

“Even you’re not macho enough to believe this makes anything up to Henry, are you? Henry’s dead.”

Jeremy scowled, though he didn’t try to deny the truth of her words. He heard the echo of Anna Red Shoes’s comments and it only made him madder. At this point he was after one thing—revenge.

“I have to do this,” he said.

“You don’t have to. You want to.”

He took a breath. Arguing was senseless. “Are you going to help me?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“No. I’m going after her, one way or another.”

“I’ll bring the horses. But when I get home I’m calling Lem. You can have that much of a headstart on the law.”

It was all he was going to get, and Jeremy knew it. Once Ellie made up her mind, there was no changing it. “Bring me some fast horses, then.”

“I’ll be there in an hour.”

WHEN THE FIRST LICK of pink brightened the horizon, Anna pushed Calamity into a trot. She’d walked during the night, afraid of the potholes and stumps that could easily cripple a horse and kill a rider. But with day breaking, she picked a level pass between the hills and began to cover some ground.

She had no doubt that as soon as Jeremy Masterson untied himself, he’d be after her. As soon as he found a way home. She grinned. Instead of damaging his tires, she’d only let the air out, but she’d made sure there wasn’t a compression tank in his truck. He’d have a long walk back to civilization.

Anna had never met Henry Mills, but she regretted his death. He’d been stabbed several times, as if he’d tried to defend himself. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed the finger of guilt pointed at Jeremy. Who else in the area would have any bone to pick with an editor from New York?

Unless, of course, Henry’s death was an accident and Jeremy had been the intended target.

In that case, the list of suspects was endless. Jeremy was a ladies’ man and that was a quick ticket to trouble. No telling how many women were angry with him and eager for his hide.

A woman would need the advantage of surprise. It wasn’t an easy thing to kill someone. She’d heard her grandfather speak of such things and knew that he told the truth.

Anna found that she was blinking back tears, and they weren’t from the bright sun that now struck her full in the face. She was mad at herself when she realized they were from self-pity. She now found herself in a situation where there were no good choices.

She was running from Jeremy Masterson, and soon the law would be behind him. She was accused of a crime she hadn’t committed, but if they captured her, she felt certain no one would believe her. And why? Because of who she was.

The situation mirrored the same predicament in which her grandfather had found himself in. Accused of a series of brutal murders that he hadn’t committed, he’d also run—deep into the wilderness, into the land that was supposed to belong to him and his people. He’d tried to develop a life as far away from the white settlers as possible.

But every murder that took place on the Texas range had been blamed on him.

The history books had convicted him without benefit of a trial or even of reading his version of the truth.

Anna’s hand drifted to Calamity’s saddlebag. The handwritten document she’d labored over was still there, still safe. But she’d been a total fool to think that Jeremy Masterson might look at it.

Like all the others, he didn’t care about truth. He only wanted a good story. And a scapegoat.

Jeremy shaded his eyes against the glare of the sun as he studied the tracks. For the past two hours, he’d been following Anna’s trail. She’d allowed her horse only a walk during the night, as any horseman would have done. Now the tracks showed she’d picked up her pace: she was trotting. He guessed that this was the point when daybreak had given her the advantage of sight.