Safe with a Stranger. Linda Conrad

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      Without another thought, Josh gunned his truck again and began chasing down the men. He used the Ford like he had his old mare back in the bronc-cutting days of his youth on the Delgado. But rounding up the two thugs turned out to be easier to manage than wild broncs had ever been.

      Rooster-tailing it on the loose gravel as one of the men turned and tried to aim his pistol toward the truck, Josh sent a spray of caliche toward both guys, and they bolted. The two dudes headed away in the opposite direction as he nudged his bumper up close behind them. If they’d spilt up, one of them might’ve stood a chance at getting off a shot at him. But it turned out that neither of them was as bright as any year-old colt.

      He wore the two creeps slick and left them panting and limping off the lot as they slithered back into the darkness behind the roadhouse. Then Josh spun his pickup and went after the girl.

      With no clue as to what kind of trouble she was in, Josh should’ve just let it be. If he’d had a lick of sense, he would’ve been long gone down the road toward home by now. But nobody had ever referred to Josh Ryan as the most brilliant SOB in the world.

      And besides…he’d become downright curious.

      

      Clare slowed, trying to catch her breath. She couldn’t believe her bad luck. She’d almost made it to the relative safety of the roadhouse when Ramzi’s two goons spotted them.

      They would’ve overtaken her and Jimmy, too, if it hadn’t been for whoever it was in that old pickup. The fellow behind the wheel had driven like a maniac, but he’d done a fine job of blowing off the two thugs. It made her curious who her knight in scratched and dented armor might have been.

      Now how was she going to get back to the bus station in time for the next bus? She couldn’t get past the roadhouse without being seen by those men again.

      With a cramp nagging at her side, she gulped for air and tried to think of a way out. Jimmy hadn’t made a sound while she’d been running with him in her arms. But after she’d stopped, he began to squirm.

      “Down, Mommy,” he whined as he kicked at her stomach.

      “Not here, honey,” she said with a breathless gasp.

      Her no didn’t get through to the two-year-old. He kicked again, harder. At that same time the lifesaving pickup turned and came roaring up beside her.

      She should have been frightened. Maybe she should have run in the other direction. Instead, her curiosity about what the fancy driver looked like had her standing on tiptoe and staring into the pickup’s cab.

      The guy leaned over and opened the passenger door. “Get in.” All she caught of his face in the flash of the overhead light was a stubbled jaw and the brim of a beat-up Stetson pulled low over his eyes.

      “What?” Belatedly she found her caution. “No.”

      “Look. Those dudes will be back here any second. And if you didn’t notice, they have big, frigging guns. Get the hell in.”

      He was right. She was in no position to argue. Still…“I can’t. But we should be okay thanks to you.”

      “Can’t?”

      This must have seemed like a good time to try to get his own way, because Jimmy squealed. When Clare tightened her grip around him, her child finally looked up at the pickup.

      “Bye-bye,” Jimmy said as he pointed toward the truck.

      “Is that a kid?” The guy in the truck sounded incredulous.

      “My son. I don’t dare put him in your truck without the proper restraint. It isn’t safe.”

      Just then, a loud ping resounded off the truck’s back bumper. And a tiny spray of gravel exploded right next to the back rear tire.

      “They’re shooting now, lady. That ain’t exactly safe. Climb in or not, but I’m getting the hell out of here.”

      Shooting? Ramzi would never allow anyone to shoot at his son. Just who were these goons, if not his men?

      From that thought, it didn’t take her a whole minute to load herself, her son and their duffel into the wide front seat of the pickup while the driver doused his headlights. “Go,” she urged while still fumbling with the seat belt.

      The driver took off with a crunch of tires against gravel. The whining engine strained to keep up with the man pouring on the gas. His takeoff bounced her around in the seat, but she hung on valiantly to Jimmy.

      “Those city dudes are still on foot,” the cowboy told her as he fought the wheel. “This old truck might not look like much, but it’ll do zero to sixty in ten seconds. They won’t stand a chance of getting to their vehicle or catching a glimpse of this truck in the dark before we’re long gone.”

      Clare swallowed hard. She was grateful to this man, whoever he was. But she didn’t want his crazy driving to end up taking any risks with Jimmy’s life. After all, Ramzi’s men couldn’t possibly want to kill her son. They must just want to take him back to his father.

      She thought of the bullets those goons had fired and amended that idea. They might not mind killing her to get to Jimmy.

      “Can you go any faster?”

      The man turned the lights back on and downshifted to take a corner. “Sugar, this heap may be fast off the line, but it won’t hold together pushed to the limit.”

      He took four more corners in quick succession. When she’d gotten totally turned around and lost, he slowed down.

      “They’ll never make us now,” he said. “So, you wanna tell me what the hell is going on? Why were those dudes after you?” He took one more corner, but this time on four wheels. “Tell me those weren’t some sort of cops.”

      “Oh yeah,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “Cops shoot at women and children all the time—sure. I was just walking from the bus station to the roadhouse to get my son something to eat. How should I know those jokers?”

      He shot her a quick glance before returning his attention to the road ahead. “It’s after ten. Not exactly a terrific time to be waltzing around these streets with a baby. Isn’t there a restaurant in the bus station?”

      “Uh, I don’t know,” she lied.

      “Yeah, I’ll bet. And I suppose you have no idea why those guys were trying to get to you, either. All that drama seems extreme for a simple robbery.”

      “Well…Maybe they wanted to kidnap my little boy.”

      That shut him up for a few minutes. Finally, he cleared his throat and changed the subject. “You never made it to the roadhouse. I would’ve noticed you there. Is the kid still hungry?”

      She looked down at Jimmy in her lap. “He and I both could use a little food. It’s been a long time since we’ve eaten anything.”

      “You were planning on a bus trip, I’d guess. When’s the bus leave?”

      “Not СКАЧАТЬ