Head Over Heels (The Bridesmaids Club Book 3) (10 page)

Sally’s smile returned. “That’s good. You know how hard it is finding homes for adult animals. This one’s going to be perfect for Annie and Dylan. Can you pass me a new box of gloves? We used the last of them when we stitched the cut on Percy’s head.”

Todd opened the cabinet beside him and passed Sally the gloves. “Dylan saw Logan this morning. He said you thought you’d been followed.”

Sally’s happy smile tore deep into his heart, made him curse all of the things he’d done. When he’d started looking for his wife and son’s killer he’d wanted justice. If that cost him his life, he didn’t care. He had nothing to live for, nothing to look forward to. But now, four years later, he’d found the beginning of something worth living for. Sally didn’t realize just how much danger she could be in, and it was all because of him.

“It was silly. I’ve been watching too many police shows on TV.”

“What happened?”

Something in his tone must have caught her attention. She stopped what she was doing and stared at him. “I was driving back from Safeway yesterday. A black pickup followed me through town, which wasn’t all that weird. But the same pickup was behind me when I went to mom and dad’s place. It was parked outside my school last week, too. It’s almost too much of a coincidence.”

“Did you report it to the police?”

Sally shook her head. “What would I say? I’m being stalked by a black pickup? They’d think I was crazy.”

“How do you know it was the same vehicle?”

Sally thought about her answer. “It had a rental company’s license plate. Why would tourists go to the same places I’m going?”

Todd’s heart sped up. “I don’t suppose you’ve got the license plate number?”

Sally nodded. “I recorded it on my phone as I was driving. Matthew and Sean installed a fancy hands-free thing on my dashboard. It’s the first time I’ve used it. What’s going on?”

He raked his hand through his hair. This wasn’t a conversation he ever thought he’d be having with anyone. It was all his fault. Even after the police had told him to keep away from the case, he’d ignored them. And now he was paying a price that wasn’t his to negotiate.

“Someone might be following you because of me.”

“Why would they do that?”

“My wife and son were murdered four years ago. We’ve found the people responsible and they’re not happy.”

“Can’t the police arrest them and get them off the street?”

Todd frowned. “They tried, but they didn’t have enough evidence. Four years ago I was supposed to go into the Witness Protection Program with my family. We never made it.” And now the people around him might be paying the price for his stupidity.

Sally’s mouth dropped open. “Why did the police want you to change your identity?”

“I saw a man being killed.” He looked at the crisp green sheet they’d put on the table. He still had nightmares about the bloody mess he’d seen, the cries for help that had ended in silence.

“I used to be a pilot. My work schedule was crazy. One night I was driving home after a long-haul flight. I hadn’t had dinner, so I stopped at a restaurant and ordered takeout. By the time I got back to the parking lot, it was almost empty.”

Todd could see the scene in front of him, feel the freezing night air seep into his bones. It was so cold that he’d thought snow wasn’t far away. He’d been in a hurry. He’d rushed out of the restaurant and sprinted across the parking lot before his dinner got cold.

He’d nearly missed the fight on the other side of the road. And he wished, more than ever, that he hadn’t seen it. “There was a street light not far from where I was parked. Two men were arguing. They were yelling at each other, pushing each other around. Then one of them pulled a gun out of his jacket. He shot the other person at point blank range. The victim didn’t stand a chance.”

Sally’s face lost all of its color.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded. “What happened after the man was killed?”

“The guy with the gun saw me. I jumped in my car and took off. He followed me, so I drove to the nearest police station. I called 9-1-1 on the way there. I had his license plate number. He had mine.”

What had come next had been everything his worst nightmares were made of. “When the police were getting close to making an arrest the violent texts and emails started. Then came the surveillance of our home, the vehicles that followed my wife wherever she went. As soon as the FBI linked a high profile gang leader to the murder, all hell broke loose. The texts and emails stopped and the unexpected visits started. We hadn’t wanted to be part of the Witness Protection Program. We thought we’d be okay, but we realized we couldn’t go on as we were.”

Todd swallowed the bile that rose in his throat. “The night before we were due to leave, four men broke into our home. They tied us up. I pleaded with them to let my wife and son go. Josh was a baby…” Tears fell down his face. He heard his son crying, his wife screaming at the top of her lungs until they’d knocked her unconscious.

Sally wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “You don’t need to tell me what happened.”

Todd was so lost in the past that he didn’t hear her. “They shot my wife first, then my son. When they aimed the gun at me, I wanted to die. My life was over. They’d taken everything that was important to me.” He wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt, tried to hold years’ worth of grief inside him.

“I don’t know what to say, Todd. I’m so sorry it happened.” Sally waited silently beside him, rubbing her hand across his back to offer what comfort she could.

After a few minutes her hand stopped moving and her whole body went still. “You think the person following me has something to do with your wife and son’s murder?”

“I don’t know, but I’m not taking any chances and neither should you.”

“But this is Bozeman, not New York. People don’t act like that here.”

“They do if they’re from New York. We need to go to the police.” He could see Sally thinking about what he’d said, weighing what they knew against what they didn’t.

“Why now?” she asked. “What’s changed?”

“I went to New York a few weeks ago. I talked to someone who’s willing to testify against Mitch Zambezi, the leader of the gang. They’re in the Witness Protection Program waiting for the case to go to court.”

“What about you?”

“I thought I’d be okay. The FBI have added my family’s murder to the case they’re working on. But it’s not the only charges that have been laid. Mitch’s business has spread into other areas that make me sick. The evidence they’ve got ties him into some of the worst criminal activities they’ve ever seen.”

Sally paced backward and forward. “So why is this Mitch guy coming after you? Your family was killed four years ago. If he’s doing even worse things now, wouldn’t he be covering them up first?”

“I guess I’m a loose end that he wants to get rid of.”

“Or you’ve stumbled across more than you think you have,” Sally muttered.

The same thought had crossed Todd’s mind, but he was over it. He’d told the FBI everything he’d learned in the last few months, given them all of his contacts and evidence. He didn’t want Mitch Zambezi in his life any more. He wouldn’t go back to New York. Regardless of what happened, he was done with the scumbags that had killed his family. Done with running from life.

Sally stopped pacing. “What do we do now?”

“We go and see Dan Carter at the Bozeman Police Department.”

“Now?”

“The bad guys work seven days a week,” he said dryly. “If Dan’s not in the office, I’ll call him at home.”

Sally looked around the small room and bit her bottom lip. “Do you really think someone has been following me? I mean, it could have been a coincidence, couldn’t it?”

“Let’s go, Sally.”

She moved slowly toward the door. Before she left the room, she picked up his hand and squeezed his fingers. “You’re not responsible for what the head of the gang is doing.”

He pulled her into his chest and for a few minutes held her tight. She didn’t know how obsessed he’d been, how much Mitch Zambezi had taken over his life. From the moment he’d identified Mitch as the person who’d shot the man on the street, he’d made choices he regretted.

One way or another, everything that had happened over the last four years was about to come to an end. And this time, no one he cared about would die.

***

Sally kept her gaze on Dan Carter, the Deputy Chief of Police. He was listening to Todd, taking a few notes and asking more than a few questions. Even hearing everything for the second time didn’t make it seem real. She’d never realized what Todd had been going through. There was a reason why he had a less than bubbly personality, a reason why sometimes he growled like a grizzly bear.

But all of those reasons didn’t change what was happening now. With no evidence of anything odd going on, apart from a suspicious truck, there wasn’t a lot the police could do.

Dan looked between Todd and Sally. “I’ll call Detective Munroe first thing in the morning. You said Dylan knows what’s going on?”

Todd nodded.

“I can increase road patrols around Sally’s home. But that’s not going to help if you keep doing what you’re doing.” He looked at Sally. “You shouldn’t go anywhere alone. If Mitch Zambezi thinks you’re important to Todd, he may target you. Have you considered moving back home?”

Sally couldn’t think of anything worse. “I’ll be fine. I’ve got a security alarm in my apartment that I never use. I’m at school for most of the day, anyway. Nothing’s going to happen to me there.”

Todd fidgeted beside her. He’d been getting more agitated by the minute and she knew why. There was no way she’d let him wrap her in cotton wool. Her family had always been over-protective of her. They treated her like a child, someone who couldn’t make her own mind up. But she
could
look after herself, they just refused to acknowledge what was staring them in the face.

Dan walked out of the meeting room to get them a cup of coffee. She leaned toward Todd and whispered, “Why are you acting like you’ve got ants in your pants?”

“You would too if you were listening to the words coming out of your mouth. We’re trying to keep you alive. All you’re doing is finding reasons why you won’t listen to us.”

“What do you expect me to do?” she asked. “I’m not a wimpy woman who needs a man to keep her safe.”

“Neither was my wife, but that didn’t stop Mitch’s gang from killing her.”

Sally sat back in her chair. He’d made a good point. “I’m sorry. That was thoughtless.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Are you referring to my thoughtlessness or not being wimpy?”

Todd sighed. “I almost feel sorry for anyone mad enough to mess with you. They’d die of stress before doing anything illegal.”

She clamped her lips shut. Bickering wouldn’t get them past their different definitions of being careful. “What if I asked one of my brothers to take me to school in the morning and pick me up afterward?”

“It’s a start, but you’re still going to be alone each night.”

A blush streaked across her face. She hated having such a pale complexion. Why she couldn’t have been born with her brothers’ olive skin was beyond her. She covered up her embarrassment with a calculated charm offensive. “Why, Mr. Randall, are you asking if I’d like to spend my nights with you?”

She’d expected Todd to leap a mile in the air and tell her not to be an idiot. But he didn’t leap or speak. Instead, he stared at her with a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“I was joking,” she said quickly.

“It’s not a bad idea. At least that way I’d know where you were.”

“And that’s really going to help. We’d drive each other nuts. It’d be better for both of us if I stayed with mom and dad.”

“Good decision. Do you want me to help you move your things tonight?”

Sally glared at Todd. He’d tricked her. He’d known from the get go that she wouldn’t want to stay with him. Just for a moment she thought about calling his bluff, insisting that his home would be better. But the warning light in his eyes told her not to go there. She might not like the consequences. Or she might like them too much.

The door to the meeting room banged open. “Two cups of coffee. Are you sure you don’t want more than water, Sally?”

She shook her head. “I’m being healthy.”

Todd coughed into his hand. “Since when?”

“Since I need to get into two bridesmaids’ dresses soon. I don’t know why you’re suddenly being so chatty. Anyone would think we’ve been planning a vacation and not where I’m going to hide. We haven’t talked about what you’re going to do to be safe.”

Todd glanced at her over the rim of his mug. “I can look after myself.”

Sally couldn’t help the snort that left her mouth. “I heard someone else say the same thing a few minutes ago, and no one took any notice. I think you should come out to mom and dad’s ranch, too.”

“No way.”

Dan put his coffee mug on the table. “That’s not such a bad idea. Three of Sally’s brothers work there. With all of the other ranch hands, you’d never be alone.”