COLD CASE AT CAMDEN CROSSING (20 page)
He waved the gun in her face. “Shut up and get out.”
“Chaz will never believe I killed myself.”
“I’ll take care of that.” He dragged her toward the ravine. He’d parked at almost exactly the same spot where the bus had gone over the edge seven years ago. It fit with his plan.
Everyone would think that she was overcome with guilt and decided to end her life where she’d taken Ruth’s.
“Even if Chaz believes you, my sister won’t. Besides, you’ve forgotten that I had a broken leg. There’s no way I could have killed Ruth.” She struggled against him. “How did you get her on White Forks without my father seeing you?”
Mr. Camden’s voice trembled. “I buried her while he was at the hospital with you. Now it’s time to end this.”
He squeezed her arm. “You grabbed Ruth’s leg and pushed her down,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “She hit her head on a rock.”
Tawny-Lynn shook her head. “Killing her was an accident. If you explained that Ruth fell, everyone would understand,” she said, “but killing me is premeditated murder.”
He shoved her toward the edge. “With you gone and your heartfelt confession, no one will ever know about either.”
She stumbled forward, the ravine below resurrecting memories of the crash that day. She could hear the screams of the other girls as the bus went over.
Remembered the cries of the parents as they’d arrived. Her terror in searching for Peyton.
She’d finally found Peyton again. She couldn’t die like this.
And she couldn’t leave this world with Chaz thinking that she’d killed his sister.
Chapter Twenty-One
Panic crowded Chaz’s chest. “Mother, someone broke in and abducted Tawny-Lynn tonight. Do you think Dad would hurt her?”
“I don’t know, Chaz,” she cried. “I’ve never seen him like this. He was...out of his head.”
“I have to find him before he does something to her,” he said. “Do you have any idea where he might take her?”
She shook her head as more tears filled her eyes and spilled over. “He just kept saying that the day of the crash ruined our lives. That Tawny-Lynn did.”
If he was thinking about the crash, then he might go there, take Tawny-Lynn back to the place where everything had fallen apart.
He squeezed his mother’s hands. “I have to go. If you hear from him, call me.”
She nodded, terror streaking her face. “Please find him, stop him,” she whispered. “If he hurt Ruth, he didn’t mean to. But if he hurts Tawny-Lynn—”
“I know,” he said. “I know.”
He pushed to his feet and jogged back outside. His tires screamed as he accelerated, sped down the drive and veered onto the highway.
He phoned his deputy, relieved when he answered. “How’s Peyton?”
“Worried.” He paused. “Did you find Tawny-Lynn?”
“Not yet. But I have a lead. Stay with Peyton. I’ll call you back.”
He hung up, then swung onto the road leading to the bus crash site, his heart throbbing. Dawn was on the horizon, red and orange swirls painting the sky, promising a clear day instead of the rain the weatherman had predicted.
As he rounded the curve, he spotted his father’s car on the side of the road, parked sideways, nose heading toward the ravine. He slowed, his breath stalling.
His father stood behind Tawny-Lynn, a gun pressed to her back.
He rolled the car to a stop several hundred feet back, then eased his door open. In spite of the fact that he was careful, gravel crunched beneath his boots as he slowly walked toward them.
His father swung his head toward him. His mother was right. He’d never seen his father looking so crazed. He tightened his hold on Tawny-Lynn’s arm. “Don’t come any closer, Chaz.”
“Dad, you have to stop this right now,” Chaz said. “You don’t want to hurt Tawny-Lynn.”
“She has to die—don’t you see that?” his father snarled. “She saw me that day. She’ll ruin everything for our family.”
“It’s not her fault.” Chaz’s gaze met Tawny-Lynn’s. She looked scared, but gave him such a look of sorrow and trust that he nearly choked on his love for her.
Love?
Yes, he did love her, he realized. But he’d been such a fool that he’d never told her.
Instead he’d run from his feelings for her by turning on her like everyone in the town had.
* * *
T
AWNY
-L
YNN
HATED
the anguish in Chaz’s eyes. She’d never once suspected his father of killing Ruth. And neither had Chaz.
He had to be in shock.
“Just walk away, Chaz, and let me handle this. You’ll see. She wrote out a confession.” He waved the barrel of the gun at her temple. “She was jealous of Ruth and Peyton, jealous of the coach because he wanted Ruth, not her. Isn’t that right, Tawny-Lynn?”
She cut him a scathing look. “You know that’s not what happened, Mr. Camden.”
“I can’t lose my family,” Camden said, anger radiating from his every pore. “I won’t.”
“You will if you kill Tawny-Lynn, Dad,” Chaz said in a gruff voice. “Right now, Mom and I know that what happened with Ruth was an accident. But doing this, intentionally hurting Tawny-Lynn is not the same thing.”
“I didn’t mean to do it,” he said. “Ruth was arguing with me. She said she was going to tell everyone about Coach Wake. I just tried to stop her and I grabbed her arm, but she fell. Her head hit a rock.” Tears clogged his voice. “I loved Ruth....”
“I know that, and so does Mom.” Chaz slowly inched toward his father.
“We can forgive that, Dad. It was an accident. But we can’t forgive you if you hurt Tawny-Lynn.”
His father’s hand trembled, the gun shaking as he waved it back and forth between himself and Tawny-Lynn.
“Dad, please put down the gun.” Chaz held out his hand. “Just set it on the ground and we’ll talk.”
“No, then everyone will know...” He swung the gun up and aimed it at his own head, and fear seized Tawny-Lynn. If Chaz’s father killed himself, Chaz would never get over the guilt.
Camden clenched his hand tighter on the gun, but Tawny-Lynn threw a sharp jab to his side with her elbow and knocked his gun hand up into the air. The gun fired, a bullet flying upward, but in his panic, Camden shoved her aside.
Chaz lunged toward his father, wrestling for the gun. The gun fired again, but Chaz managed to wrangle it from his father’s hands and tossed it a few yards away, then threw his father onto the ground.
She stumbled, lost her footing and slid. Gravel rained down the ravine as she slipped over the side.
She screamed, grappling for something to hold on to so she wouldn’t plunge into the ravine below.
* * *
C
HAZ
FRANTICALLY
SEIZED
his father’s hands and yanked them behind his back, then snapped handcuffs around his wrists. He didn’t want to arrest him, but he had to take him in.
Tawny-Lynn’s scream brought him out of his shock, and he jerked his head up and saw her going over the edge. She’d saved his father’s life by throwing that punch.
He couldn’t let her die.
“Stay put, Dad,” Chaz said in a low growl in his father’s ear. He ran to the edge of the embankment, then knelt. Tawny-Lynn had managed to grab a rock jutting out, but dirt and gravel were spewing down the embankment in her face, and her fingers were slipping.
“Hang on,” he shouted. “I’ve got you.”
He wrapped his fingers around one wrist, then reached for the other hand but she lost hold. Her hand missed, and she dangled over the ravine. His arm muscles strained as he braced himself in the dirt and stretched to reach for her.
“Chaz!” she cried. “I can’t hold on.”
“Yes, you can! You have to,” he said. “Trust me.”
She was trembling, her body flailing to grab hold. He fell to his belly and stretched, finally latching on to her other arm. Her fingers dug into his wrist, and he grunted and slowly hauled her up over the edge, crawling backward and pulling her with him until they were safely away from the overhang.
His father lifted his head and looked up, his expression defeated as Chaz folded Tawny-Lynn into his arms.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair.
“I...didn’t remember, not until tonight.”
No wonder she’d blocked it out. “I know, I know.” He cupped her face between his hands and checked her for injuries. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, although tears trickled down her face. “I’m sorry, Chaz.... Sorry about Ruth.”
“Shh,” he murmured. Then he wrapped her in his embrace. “I love you, Tawny-Lynn. I was so afraid I was going to lose you before I could tell you.”
She looked into his eyes, the sweet passionate, courageous woman he’d come to know staring back. “I love you, too, Chaz.”
His heart swelled with emotions, with the need to hold her, possess her, to keep her near.
They had to talk about the future, deal with his father, with his mother...
But not yet.
For now, he bent his head and kissed her, savoring the fact that she was alive and in his arms.
Epilogue
Tawny-Lynn couldn’t believe how happy she was. Today was her wedding day.
Peyton peeked in, then straightened her veil. “You look beautiful, sis.”
“Thanks.” Tawny-Lynn hugged her sister, thanking God every day that Peyton had survived. “I like Ben.”
Peyton smiled. “He’s a good guy. He’s been patient with me. And—” she wiggled her finger, a diamond glittering on her left hand “—he asked me to marry him.”
“That’s wonderful.” They hugged through their tears, then Peyton pulled away, grabbed them tissues and laughed. “Now, stop crying or you’ll mess up your makeup.”
Tawny-Lynn dried her eyes, and Peyton hurried to the door. “Come on, they’re about to play the wedding march!”
A sliver of sadness dampened her mood as she opened the door and saw Chaz’s mother sitting alone in the front row in one of the chairs they’d set up for the ceremony. Arresting Chaz’s father had torn Chaz apart, but he didn’t blame Tawny-Lynn. He’d had to do it for Ruth.
His father had pleaded guilty to kidnapping and threatening her, and was spending time in a psychiatric facility to receive counseling. Mrs. Camden, though heartbroken about her husband, had actually apologized to Tawny-Lynn for the brutal way they’d treated her years ago. Occasionally things were tense, but they were working hard at a relationship because they both loved Chaz.
She and Peyton had decided to keep the ranch. Chaz was moving in with her and planned to help her repair the house. Cindy Miller had introduced Tawny-Lynn to her husband who’d hired her to do all the landscaping at the new developments around town.
For a girl who’d felt shunned by the town, she finally felt a part of it.
Peyton had worked with one of their old classmates, Andrea Radcliff, who had opened a bridal shop, to set up the wedding on the lawn of the ranch. With the garden she’d planted, a gazebo draped in lace and fresh flowers and a white tent complete with champagne and wedding cake, the place looked gorgeous and more romantic than she could have imagined.
Peyton, dressed in a summery pale blue sundress, carried a bouquet of lilies. Tawny-Lynn smiled as she followed her sister down the center aisle between the rows of white chairs.
When she saw Chaz standing at the foot of the gazebo in his long, dark duster and cowboy hat, her heart leaped with joy.
* * *
C
HAZ
’
S
GAZE
MET
his bride-to-be’s beautiful eyes, and he couldn’t believe this day had finally arrived.
The day he was going to make Tawny-Lynn his wife.
His deputy surprised him by admitting that he played guitar, and now was strumming the wedding march as Tawny-Lynn walked down the aisle.
She was so beautiful that it made his heart hurt every time he thought about the fact that he’d almost lost her. That wild wheat-colored hair of hers fluttered in the wind as she approached, the red roses she carried stark against the soft, white, strapless dress hugging her curves.
He couldn’t wait to take it off her.
She paused in front of him, and he took her hand and led her up the steps of the gazebo. The reverend commenced the short ceremony, and minutes later, announced them man and wife.
Chaz turned to Tawny-Lynn and framed her face between his hands. “I love you, Mrs. Camden.”
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
Then he claimed her mouth with his lips, pouring his heart and love into their first kiss as husband and wife.
* * * * *
Look for the sequel to
COLD CASE AT CAMDEN CROSSING,
COLD CASE AT CARLTON’S CANYON,
featuring Texas Ranger Justin Thorpe and
Sheriff Amanda Blair as they tackle
the case of the missing girls from Sunset Mesa!
Coming January 2014, only from Harlequin Intrigue!
Keep reading for an excerpt from DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS by Mallory Kane.
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