Cowboy Undercover. Alice Sharpe

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СКАЧАТЬ the end the violence was trickling down to Charlie. He’s not suitable to raise a child.”

      “I guess that’s what he says about you, too,” Chance observed.

      “I know. He’s twenty years older than I am. When you’re adrift and all of nineteen, that kind of attention from a man like him is pretty exciting. He could do anything, or so I thought. He raced cars, he rode horses, he flew a plane—anything. Long story short, I wound up pregnant. He insisted we get married and I thought I’d hit the jackpot. At first I barely noticed the way he didn’t want me associating with my friends or holding down a job. I just thought he wanted to take care of me. My father was an alcoholic. It was...nice...to have a man take charge for a change.”

      “But eventually?”

      “After Charlie was born, Jeremy started taking on high-profile cases to make a name for himself. It wasn’t enough to just be a prosecutor anymore. He wanted me as arm candy at parties to impress the ‘right’ people. I hated those parties and he knew it. In fact, I suspect he knew my heart wasn’t in our marriage anymore. At some of those parties, I felt so light-headed and disconnected I was afraid I was going to pass out. People looked at me funny and made comments I wasn’t supposed to hear about how I was a drunk like my father. The thing was, I didn’t drink anything but seltzer. Jeremy told me it was my nerves and for a while I kind of believed that. I was so blasted stupid I made things easy for him.

      “Then one day I found a bottle of barbiturates in Jeremy’s desk drawer and I knew in a flash that he’d been drugging me so I’d appear intoxicated in front of other people. I worked up the courage to ask for a divorce. He said I was welcome to leave as long as I left alone. I protested, of course. I planned to take Charlie, but Jeremy promised that would never happen. He said everyone knew how paranoid I’d become, and that I drank. He said I’d trapped him by getting pregnant and everyone knew that, too, and felt bad for him. He said it would be better all the way around if I just died. That way he would get total control of Charlie and be a sympathetic widower to boot. He laughed when he said it, but you have to know Jeremy. His laugh has nothing to do with humor.”

      “So you bolted,” Chance said. With her now austere hair and colorless clothes, she actually looked like the kind of person life beat into submission. He suddenly missed her bleached hair and dangling earrings and then it occurred to him that perhaps that persona had been as much a facade as this one.

      “More or less,” she said. “I started gathering every scrap of paper I could find, every receipt, anything that looked potentially valuable. I found a few photographs, made copies of records... Anyway, they’re all in a safety-deposit box in Boise. I’ve never tried to make sense of them, there was never time. I just knew I needed something on him if I was ever going to win custody of Charlie. I was hoping I’d find evidence of collusion or something. But then he came home one night and he had had a horrible day. He’d been riding high after winning a conviction against a child murderer and his name was being discussed in political circles. But then a kid hanged himself in his cell and the prosecutor’s office came under investigation. Jeremy was livid.

      “Anyway, I didn’t say the right thing or look the right way, who knows? Jeremy hit me so hard I blacked out and when I came to, Charlie was sitting beside me, crying. I’ll never forget the look on his face. A week later, I’d made my plans and Charlie and I left. The mother of an old school friend took me in for a day or two and then she called your father and he offered me a job and refuge so that’s how I ended up here.”

      “You never called the police?”

      “No. I’d tried that before and wound up looking like a nutcase trying to ruin my husband’s reputation. It wouldn’t have done any good. Jeremy was respected, and feared, by so many people and I was a nobody.”

      They both startled and got to their feet as engine noise came from the yard.

      “I hope that’s not the police,” Lily said. By now they were at the back door and could see through the small window.

      “It’s Gerard’s truck,” Chance said. “We’re going up to get the heifers today.” He opened the door and watched his brother approach. Gerard had had a couple of rough years, starting with the tragic accident that had taken the lives of his wife and daughter, followed by a spell of amnesia. But he’d come out on top when he fell in love with Kinsey Frost, the woman who helped him find himself in both a literal and figurative way.

      Gerard stopped walking as Lily stepped out onto the porch beside Chance. He tipped his hat and said hello the way a cowboy does to a female stranger.

      “It’s me,” Lily said, moving down the steps to intercept him.

      He still looked confused.

      “Lily,” she added, coming to a stop in front of him. Gerard looked from her to Chance. Chance knew that his older brother and Kinsey were probably the only two people in the world who understood what it had meant to him when Lily left and he crossed mental fingers now that Gerard wouldn’t spill it. He should have known he wouldn’t. Gerard gave her a hug and then looked around. “Is Charlie asleep in your car?”

      “He’s not with me,” Lily said.

      “Come inside,” Chance added. Lily turned to come back up the steps. In a moment of clarity, he saw the terror lurking in back of her eyes.

      “Kinsey is going to be so sorry she missed seeing you,” Gerard added as they once again closed the doors on the three dogs. “She flew back to New Orleans to help her grandmother for a couple of days. How long are you going to be here?”

      “I’m leaving in a few minutes,” Lily said. “I wanted to ask your father for advice. I thought maybe... Oh, I shouldn’t have come.”

      “We can give advice, too,” Gerard said as they entered the house.

      “A lot is going on,” she said, picking up the glasses she’d taken off when she first arrived. She folded them into a pocket and added, “Chance can fill you in after I’ve left.”

      “No, Chance can’t,” Chance said but he suspected Gerard didn’t need too much filling in.

      “Why?” Lily demanded.

      “Because I’m coming with you.”

      “You don’t even know where I’m going,” she protested.

      “You’re going to Boise. You’re going to see Jeremy Block. You’ll need someone to bail you out of jail.”

      A defiant expression crept onto her face. “You don’t have to do that,” she said, thrusting her chin high in the way the Lily he’d known before used to. That woman he had chided and baited and given a rough time and she had returned it all with a spirit that intrigued him to this day. “I don’t need someone to take care of me,” she added.

      “Yeah, right. Anyway, we’ll stop at my place so I can throw some clothes into a duffel, tuck a big fat gun under the front seat and then we’re off.”

      “What is it about men?” she asked no one in particular. “You all think you can rescue the damsel in distress.”

      “Well, when the damsel shows up so early in the morning, what are we supposed to do?”

      “Listen when she says no thanks.”

      Silence ensued until Gerard СКАЧАТЬ