Nightfall (3 page)

“
You’ve got a lot of dirt in
here,” he said. “What were you doing in the woods, anyway? Weather
like this, you’d have been better off staying in your vehicle to
wait for help.”

“
I know. But I got out to
check the damage and someone started shooting.”

He froze.
“
Shooting?
”

“
Three shots. Two missed.
Third one hit the van, and I took off.”

“
Someone
shot
at you.” He said it as a
statement, not a question, and she could tell by his tone that he
didn’t believe her.

She eased back. “That’s why
I ran.”

“
You sure they were
shooting
at
you,
and not just nearby?”

“
I’m sure.”

His jaw tightened. He looked
away and muttered something.

“
What?”

“
Nothing.” He took out a
butterfly bandage and positioned it on her forehead. Something had
changed—she could see it in his face. He’d gone from relaxed to
super-tense in about three seconds.

He stood up. “That should do
it. Phone’s by the fridge there.”

Holly stood, too. “Thanks.
I—”

“
Take all the time you need.
I’ll be back in a minute.”

She felt a jolt of panic.
“Where are you going?”

“
To check something.” He
pulled the keys from his pocket and moved for the door.

“
But… don’t you want your
jacket back?”

“
I’m good.” He grabbed a
camouflage hunting jacket off the chair and then used a key to
unlock a cabinet by the door. Holly saw an array of guns. He took a
pistol off a shelf and turned around. “You know how to use a
handgun?”

“
Yes, but it’s been a
while.”

He held it out to her, grip
out and barrel pointed toward the floor. She took the gun and
tested the weight in her hand.

“
It’s loaded?”

“
Fifteen rounds.” He closed
the cabinet and reached for the door. “Lock up after me,” he
ordered. “And don’t aim that at anything you don’t intend to
shoot.”

Chapter Three

Twenty minutes later, Colin
hiked up the steps and stomped on the porch. He needed to get the
snow off his boots and he also needed to give Holly a heads up so
he wouldn’t get his ass shot off with his own gun. He rapped on the
door and it instantly swung open.

“
What’d you see?” She
stepped back to let him in.

He looked her over as he
peeled off his jacket. The terrified, blue-lipped stranger he’d
rescued less than an hour ago was long gone, replaced by this
rosy-cheeked woman who looked totally at home in his cabin. Her
dark hair was still out of control, but she’d managed to pick most
of the leaves out. Without the bulky layers, he saw that she had a
nice, curvy body under that T-shirt and jeans.

“
Well?”

“
No sign of a shooter,” he
said. “Any brass is either gone or covered in snow.”

“
Brass?”

“
Shell casings.” He tossed
his jacket on the sofa. “I saw the mark in the bumper, though. Good
thing he missed.”

“
Probably because it was
snowing,” she said, looking anxious. “What about my
van?”

“
You’re going to need a
tow.” Something smelled really good, and he glanced around. Damn,
she’d made coffee. “I called a buddy of mine over at Al’s
Motorworks. He’s tied up right now, but said he’d be out first
thing in the morning.” Colin took a mug down from the cabinet and
poured some coffee. When he turned to look at her, she was watching
him and nibbling her lip.

Clearly, she didn’t like the
idea of sticking around.

“
Do you have a trailer hitch
on your pickup?” she asked. “Maybe we could pull it out tonight. I
could help.”

“
That’s not going to cut it.
You’ve got some kind of engine trouble. The keys were inside, so I
gave it a try. My guess is you busted a fuel line, plus your tire’s
blown and your spare’s not worth crap.” He sipped the coffee. It
was strong and hot, just like he liked it. “You get hold of the
sheriff?”

She huffed out a breath.
“They patched me through to a deputy. Everyone’s busy, like you
said. I’m supposed to stop by there tomorrow and file a report
about the gunshots.” Her jaw tightened. “He seemed to think I was
imagining things.”

“
People are pretty private
around here. Maybe he thinks you were trespassing and someone tried
to scare you off.”

“
That’s not what
happened.”

Colin nodded.

“
You don’t believe me
either.” She folded her arms over her breasts. “I did
not
imagine
this.”

“
I know.”

Even if he hadn’t seen the
bullet mark himself, he would have believed her. The fact that she
was driving a white van on the same night as an arms deal—involving
a white van—had been set to go down made her story not just
possible, but probable.

He stepped closer. She
looked pissed, and now he had to un-ruffle her feathers if he was
going to have a shot in hell of getting her to trust him. “You talk
to your sister?”

She nodded. “She managed to
smooth things over with our client. They’re expecting my delivery
by ten tomorrow. The wedding’s at noon, so it should work
out.”

Colin stared down at her.
All those flowers would be dead by tomorrow.

“
Listen, Colin.”

He braced himself. He hadn’t
had a girlfriend in a while, but he remembered a thing or two about
women and this one definitely wanted something.

“
I need a favor,” she said,
and the warm tone of her voice made his pulse pick up.

I’m feeling a little
traumatized by my near-death experience. How about wrapping those
arms around me and making me forget about it?

Yeah, right. He already knew
she wasn’t the type to sleep with some random guy she’d just
met.

“
You can stay here
tonight.”

“
Oh.” She looked startled.
Then she flicked an uneasy glance at the sofa. “Thanks,
but--”

“
There’s a guesthouse just
up the hill.” He nodded at the door. “The utilities are on, and I
can get the heat going for you, no problem.”

“
Thanks. I appreciate that.”
She eased closer. “But there’s something else. I know it’s late,
but… I really need those bouquets.”

“
Bouquets.”

“
The flowers. They’ll die in
the van overnight, and if that happens I’m
completely
screwed.”

He shook off the mental
image that accompanied this announcement.

“
You want me to bring your
flowers here?”

“
Do you mind? I’ll help
you.” She gazed up at him with those baby blues.

Did he mind? Shit, yes, he
minded. He was in the middle of an op. He owed his boss a phone
call and had to send out a half dozen emails tonight to get
everything they were working on back on track. And now someone
wanted him to spend the next hour—at least—hauling wedding
flowers.

“
Please?”

Colin gazed down at her and
did what he always did when he got a request from a pretty
woman.

***

Holly opened her eyes and
found herself staring up at a giant set of antlers mounted above a
fireplace. The morning sunlight peeked through a gap in the
curtains. She sat up, and pain lanced through her skull.

“
Oh my God,” she murmured,
rubbing her forehead. Maybe Colin was right. Maybe she should have
gone to the ER last night. But she hadn’t had time, and she didn’t
have the time now, either. She checked her watch. It was after
seven, which meant well past time to get up and make a plan to
transport eighteen bouquets of roses to a bed-and-breakfast in
White Falls.

Holly surveyed her flowers,
which surrounded the queen-size bed like a moat. They were in
decent shape, considering, but she’d still need some time on the
other end to spruce up the arrangements and make repairs. She’d
brought a few dozen extra stems specifically for that purposes, and
as she scrutinized the pink, yellow, and orange blossoms—sunset
colors, per the bride’s request—she knew she was going to need
every last one of them.

Holly took a deep breath and
tipped her head back.
This is the day you
will save your business,
she told herself.
She hoped it was true. She’d chanted the same mantra yesterday and
barely escaped with her life.

Holly got out of bed. The
shirt and jeans she’d slept in looked… slept in, unfortunately. She
wrestled into the bra she’d left on the nightstand and stuffed her
feet back into Ugg boots. She grabbed her ski vest. Colin had been
kind enough to lend her his jacket again, and she pulled it on over
the layers. The jacket was cold, but it smelled like him, and she
took a brief moment to close her eyes and savor the tantalizing
man-scent that she so rarely smelled these days. Since moving out
to Montana to live with her sister, Holly’s world had consisted of
weddings and funerals and sweet-sixteen dances—all of which were
accompanied by the scents of flowers, perfume, and hairspray. It
was a feminine universe, and Colin’s jacket reminded her how much
she missed men.

She thought about Colin
coming to her aid last night. She thought of the way he talked, the
way he moved, the way he’d handled that gun, and she felt certain
he was way more than a caretaker. In fact, she felt ninety-nine
percent sure he was some kind of cop—although why he wouldn’t just
tell her, she didn’t know. She planned to find out, but first, she
had her own business to attend to.

Holly opened the door to the
cottage. The sky was a crisp blue. As she walked the short distance
down the hill, she studied the cabin flanked by pine trees. The
layer of snow made it look like a freshly iced gingerbread house.
Holly hiked up the stairs and knocked on the door.

No answer.

She knocked again and
glanced around. Her stomach tightened as she realized what was
missing from the gingerbread scene. An old black pickup.

She tried the door and found
it unlocked.

“
Colin?” She glanced up at
the loft. No brown head peeking up from the covers or big, manly
feet dangling off the end. The bathroom door stood ajar.

She spied a note on the
table, tucked beneath a box of corn flakes.

Had to make a run to town.
Help yourself to breakfast.

Holly checked at her watch,
panicked. How long was a “run to town”? If he left her stranded
here all morning, she could kiss her deadline goodbye, right along
with her money.

She glanced around and her
gaze landed on the gun cabinet beside the door. Above it was a tidy
row of hooks.

She spotted what was there
and felt a burst of hope.

***

“
I found three casings,”
Colin said as soon as Bruce picked up the phone.

“
How the hell’d you do
that?” his boss demanded. “We had four inches of snow last
night.”

“
Metal detector,” Colin
said, veering his truck around a patch of ice. “Borrowed it from a
guy in town who does treasure hunting under the ski lifts.”
“So,
what do we know?”

“
Shooter set up on the
shoulder, about fifty yards back, from the looks of it. I’m betting
he stepped out and stood behind the engine block to take the
shots.”

“
Three
shots at fifty yards? Should have been a walk in the
park.”

“
Maybe he wasn’t taking kill
shots. Maybe he just wanted to scare off the driver and grab the
load.”

“
Or maybe she saw something,
and they’re trying to eliminate her.”

Colin didn’t like the idea,
but he knew it was possible. Right before her “accident,” Holly had
spent half an hour at Mae’s Truck Stop, which was just across the
street from the site of the handoff that never happened. Maybe the
sight of her van had botched things up somehow. Or maybe she
had
seen something, and
she just didn’t realize it. Colin had pressed her for details while
they were hauling flowers, but she’d been pretty vague—not to
mention preoccupied about her delivery. He got the distinct
impression she was hard up for cash right now.

Colin passed the patch of
highway where less than fifteen hours ago, Holly had sailed off the
road.

“
Where are they now? The
shell casings?”

“
I overnighted them,” Colin
said. “Look for them by ten tomorrow and run them through IBIS. If
anything pops in the database, we’re going to need it in
court.”

“
If you’re so sure about
this, why didn’t you bring them in? You’re two hours
away.”

“
Too much going on,” Colin
said. “This isn’t over yet. Tempers are hot. Hooks is still out
there, waiting to get paid. Lopez still doesn’t have his
guns.”