Chapter Nineteen
When Goldie saw the stranger ride in on the motorcycle, she thought he might be the one—the one she’d been waiting for who would take her away. He pulled up in front of the café and cut his engine. He was dressed in all-black leathers. The only color was the American flag on his helmet.
For a moment, he simply sat there as if admiring the view—the view being Dry Gulch.
Goldie couldn’t help but stare when he took off his helmet.
His long dark hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, which heightened his lean features, the high cheekbones, and when he looked in her direction, his eyes looked dark as midnight.
She felt a shiver she took for desire. This man was nothing like Max Lander, so he was perfect. She heard Maggie hit the bell three times in succession and finally turned.
“Something shiny outside catch your eye?” the older woman asked. “Your order is up.”
Goldie grabbed the plates off the pass-through and hurried them over to the waiting table. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched the biker, wondering if he would come in the café. She was sure he was only making a quick stop in town. He looked a little young for her, but maybe that was good.
She realized that what she was really looking for was someone who would make Max jealous—and this biker might be just the ticket. She hoped he was staying in town at least long enough for a meal in her café.
When an SUV pulled up next to the motorcycle and someone got out, Goldie hardly noticed—that wa3s until she saw the biker burst into a smile and walk over to the woman and give her a hug.
For a moment, she was too shocked to take a breath. Amy Sue Brand? The biker was holding her at arm’s length. Was Amy Sue actually blushing? Goldie had never seen Josie’s younger sister looking like this. Even the way she was dressed—as if she was going on a date. With the biker?
* * *
News traveled at the speed of mouth in Dry Gulch and the town had its share of loudmouths. Josie was having a hard time understanding what Goldie was trying to tell her because she was whispering.
“Your sister just stole my pretend boyfriend,” Goldie finally blurted out.
“Have you been drinking?”
“No, I’m down at the café working and this good-looking biker pulled in. I was thinking he might want to help me make Max jealous when your sister pulled up. They know each other, if you know what I mean.”
“I don’t.”
“They hugged and were real friendly.”
“I think you’re making a bigger deal out of this than—”
“Amy Sue is dressed for a date. She’s wearing makeup.”
Josie spun her chair around to look out the window down the street toward the café. She could see Amy Sue’s SUV parked out front. “I don’t see a motorcycle.”
“That’s because she climbed on the back of it—without a helmet, I might add—and they roared off together,” Goldie said. “With her arms around him and her face pressed into his shoulder.”
For weeks, Josie been waiting for the darkness on the horizon to either evaporate like a false alarm or descend on the town. She’d been frustrated with her inability to see what it might bode. All she’d felt was that the menacing threat was out there waiting for something.
“You’ve never seen the man before?” Josie asked.
“No. Why do you sound worried?” Goldie asked, her earlier excitement gone.
She stated the obvious. “This is not like Amy Sue. She hinted there might be a man in her life, but I thought it was Tillis at the grocery store. I saw the two of them laughing together the other day. She put her hand on his shoulder.”
“Tillis? He laughs with everyone.”
“Not me.” She could tell that her friend didn’t want to touch that remark with a retort. “Let me know when they come back.” As she disconnected, she looked down the road out of town, frowning as she felt wisps of the darkness moving in. “Oh, Amy Sue, what have you done?”
* * *
Cordell had been mentally kicking himself since the night he and Josie had dinner at the hotel. “She couldn’t have made her wishes clearer,” he told his brother when he took Max lunch from the café. “I keep thinking about the look in Josie’s eyes standing by that king bed in the owner’s suite.”
They were eating on a picnic table in the grass behind the sheriff’s department. “Wait, aren’t you the owner?” Max said between bites of his sandwich.
“I’m staying in one of the rooms until…” Cordell shrugged.
Max stopped eating to stare at him. “You’re saving that room for when Josie…does what?”
“Realizes she can’t live without me and marries me,” he said indignantly. “I want a commitment from her. I’m not looking for a roll in the hay.”
“Hay, or in your big king bed, either, it appears,” his brother mumbled. “When did you become such a romantic?” Max demanded, making it sound like a bad thing.
Cordell bristled. It was one thing for him to call himself a fool, but he resented it when it came from his brother. “I don’t want a relationship like you’ve had with Goldie where neither of us commit for years. If she wants me, then she has to be all in. She has to be my wife.”
Max dropped his half-eaten sandwich back on the waxed paper it had been wrapped in as if he’d lost his appetite. “You know why I can’t commit to Goldie.”
“Roger Grimes is dead. For real this time. Max, we survived it. The worst thing we thought that could possibly happen, happened and we all lived through it. We’ve had weeks to process what happened down there.
Everyone is fine. Grimes is gone for good.
It’s over. We can finally put the past behind us.
No one cares about our childhoods. People are just glad that we’re here and life is going on.
So tuck your ego into the hip pocket of your jeans and tell Goldie how you feel about her. ”
His brother shook his head stubbornly. “I’m not like you. It’s not that easy for me to brush off everything as if the bad things never happened or couldn’t happen again.”
Cordell shook his head. “You’re scared. I get it. You could have died.”
“And left Goldie a widow, left our kids fatherless.”
“But you’re making a mistake, brother.” Cordell rose from the picnic table, wadding up his trash. “Spend your life alone, a miserable old man that no one wants to be around. Your choice, but a woman like Goldie is only going to wait so long before she finds someone else.”
* * *
Max balled up his sandwich and threw it in the trash container behind the sheriff’s department, his brother’s words dying off as he left.
He was already miserable. Cordell didn’t get it.
Goldie had been abducted and held at gunpoint.
She could have been killed—all because of him and from his past that he’d thought he’d outrun.
Hadn’t he always known it would follow him to Dry Gulch, the one place he had felt safe? He no longer felt safe, and worse, he knew that the people of this town weren’t safe. Maybe if he left…
“I heard you were back here,” said a lilting young female voice.
He turned to see Lindsey Dean standing in the doorway.
The sixteen-year-old wore a pair of cutoff jean shorts and a tank top that hugged her ample body, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Her long dark hair was pulled into a ponytail to one side.
She tilted her head as she grinned at him, her hair swinging.
All he could think about was that if he and Goldie had gotten married when he was twenty, they could have a daughter this age. “You need something, Lindsey?” Max asked. He’d heard she’d been helping out down at the café after the “incident.” He hoped this wasn’t about Goldie.
She grinned. “I’m selling raffle tickets to raise money for my cheerleading squad so we can go to Billings for the finals.”
“Sure,” he said. “Just tell Deputy Fletcher I said to buy a half dozen. He can use the money from the swear jar.”
Lindsey laughed, her breasts jiggling. What was she doing not wearing a bra? “I can’t imagine you swearing, Sheriff.”
He rose from the table, feeling much older than thirty-five.
“Lindsey, as sheriff, I want you to go home and put on a bra. And those shorts are way too short and stop flirting with men who are old enough to be your father.” Her eyes widened in alarm.
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
“Now get out of here before I call your mother. Come back when you are properly dressed, and I’ll be happy to buy some raffle tickets. ”
And Cordell thought his brother would turn into a miserable old man. Max was already there, he thought with a curse.
* * *
Josie couldn’t concentrate on work. For starters, Cordell was doing some painting on the front of the hotel. He had his shirt off, his skin darkly tanned, his muscles rippling as he worked. She was tempted to close her office blinds, but she was too anxious for her sister to return to her SUV.
When was Amy Sue going to tell her about this man? she wondered. How had she met him? When had she met him? And why had she kept him a secret?
Josie had thought they shared everything.
Worse was the bad feeling that this man was the trouble she’d sensed coming to Dry Gulch. Whatever this new dark threat was, she couldn’t shake the fear that it had something to do with her sister and this man.
“Don’t let Amy Sue be hurt,” she whispered to herself when she heard the throaty roar of a motorcycle and looked up to see her sister hanging on to the back of a man in all-black leather.
The look on Amy Sue’s face was enough to bring tears to her eyes. Even from here she could see her sister’s wide smile. Her long hair, almost always tamed by a clip, had been unleashed and looked wildly knotted as if she’d been going very fast on the back of that bike.
But it was the look of total abandonment on Amy Sue’s face that hit her the hardest. Josie knew that look.
Her sister had always been reserved, timid sometimes, rational and reasonable.
Amy Sue’s expression was wide open with a kind of newfound freedom, and she looked as astonished by that as Josie felt.
She pulled back from the window as Amy Sue threw her arms around the man’s neck. An image flew at her, making her start. She wanted to scream no and began shaking inside, sick since she’d never felt anything this strongly or ever been this sure.
Amy Sue would soon be fighting for her life at the hands of the man now holding her close.