High Desert Hideaway. Jenna Night

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СКАЧАТЬ not to be obvious, she stole another glance at him. Nate Bedford had always been easy on the eyes. But she didn’t ever remember him looking this scruffy. And now he was a deputy sheriff? She would have been less surprised to learn he was an inmate somewhere.

      “Thank you,” she finally said. “Thank you for saving my life in there.”

      Nate nodded. “You’re welcome.”

      He looked past her shoulder into the darkness surrounding the Starlight Mart.

      A chill wind kicked up and Lily rubbed her arms.

      “It’s cold out here.” Nate flipped up the collar on his leather jacket and turned to her. “Are you ready to go back inside the store to talk to the sheriff?”

      “Yes.” Since he was asking instead of telling her, Lily figured she could work with him.

      “Good. Try to remember every single detail you possibly can. You never know what might help. I’ll see if I can join in the hunt to track down those two idiots and make them pay for what they did.”

      * * *

      Inside the Starlight Mart, Oso County Sheriff Ben Wolfsinger had taken up his usual role as the calm center in the midst of the storm. A slender, bronze-skinned man with gray shot through the black hair at his temples, Wolfsinger wasn’t a physically imposing man. But his confident demeanor and calm voice lent him a presence that drew people’s attention.

      Wolfsinger saw Nate and quirked an eyebrow. “Bedford. I heard you were here. Why aren’t you at home in Painted Rock getting some rest?”

      “I decided to go to the ranch instead. I stopped here to get something to drink on the way.” He introduced Lily to the sheriff.

      “You’re the lady we’ve been hearing about from our eyewitnesses.” Wolfsinger reached out a hand and rested it on her shoulder. “I’m so sorry about what happened to you.”

      Nate watched Lily look into Wolfsinger’s eyes, take a deep breath, exhale and relax her shoulders a little. She had scratches on her neck and a bruise darkening the top of her right cheek. Thin red lines across her forehead and chin marked spots where something sharp, perhaps shattered glass from the cooler, or pieces of broken lightbulb, had sliced across the surface of her skin.

      Thinking about the creeps who had hurt her made Nate’s stomach tighten.

      As an elected official, Sheriff Wolfsinger could pull out some impressive political skills when necessary, but he was also a decent and compassionate human being. Which was probably why he kept getting reelected without doing any actual campaigning.

      A few minutes later they were sitting in the store’s office. Nate and Wolfsinger listened to Lily finish telling her story of what had happened. Nate was intrigued.

      Lily worked at a trucking company—Torrent Trucking.

      A sophisticated theft ring had been stealing cargo trailers along the highways crisscrossing Oso County for quite a while. It was a multistate problem and an interagency task force had been formed while Nate was away. Nate already knew he would be attached to the task force when he returned to duty, thanks to the specialized training he’d received as a military policeman investigating large-scale theft of military property. He was itching to get started.

      “We need to talk to Bryan Torrent,” Nate said to the sheriff. The owner of Torrent Trucking was well known in Copper Mesa. His parents had started several enterprises that Bryan inherited. Torrent Trucking was the only one still in business.

      “I will talk to Bryan Torrent,” Wolfsinger said, turning to Nate. “You go on to the ranch. Tell Bud and Ellen I said hello. Take your week off. Get some rest. There’ll be plenty for you to do when you report back to work.”

      “Yes, sir.” Nate stood. “Are you going to talk to Bryan Torrent tonight? He must know the two guys we’re looking for.”

      “Maybe not,” Lily said slowly.

      Nate turned to her, a quicksilver flash of suspicion squirming in his gut. “Why do you say that?” What did she know and what was she hiding?

      “I’ve only been working there a few weeks. Part-time. But I’ve never seen Mr. Torrent in the office. He doesn’t come around much.” She crossed her arms and let out a small, deflated laugh. “I thought working there would be a great opportunity.”

      She glanced down for a minute, then looked directly into Nate’s eyes. “Torrent Trucking doesn’t just dispatch trucks and drivers. There are warehouses on the property. Sometimes truckload deliveries are brought in, the pallets are broken down and the items are delivered locally. Sometimes semis bring in an entire trailer full of freight that’s kept in storage until it’s picked up by another driver, who will complete the delivery.

      “There are all kinds of drivers in and out of there. Most of them aren’t Torrent Trucking employees. Drivers are welcome to take a break in the break room, where there’s hot coffee and some vending machines. The men I overheard talking, the ones who chased me here to the Starlight Mart, were in that break room.” She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “If they actually worked for Torrent Trucking, I would have seen them before.”

      “I’ll call Mr. Torrent in a few minutes and find out what he knows,” Wolfsinger said. “We’ll go to his business and talk to as many people as we can.” He got to his feet and turned to Nate. “If the men we’re looking for are not employees, then we’ll get a list of all the drivers who’ve been in and out of there in the last month.”

      Someone knocked on the office door and called out to the sheriff.

      “I need to get back out there.” Wolfsinger turned to Lily. “I’ll have a deputy drive you home.”

      “I can drive you home,” Nate said to Lily a couple of minutes later as they walked out of the store and into the parking lot.

      “No thanks, I can drive myself.”

      “I can bring you back tomorrow to get your car.” Despite her brave front, her nerves had to be shattered after what she’d just been through. This wasn’t a good time for her to be driving. And maybe Nate felt a little bit of a personal connection to her now because she had known Joseph.

      Growing up, Joseph was the only friend Nate had who didn’t make jokes about how drunk Nate’s mom got or how crazy she acted. Joseph and his family were always warm and welcoming. Maybe it was a stretch, but it felt as if seeing Lily safely home would be a way of doing something for him.

      Nate was heading toward Copper Mesa to get to the ranch, anyway. He was also looking forward to sleeping late for the first time in weeks, but he would get up early in the morning and drive into Copper Mesa to get Lily and take her back to the Starlight Mart to fetch her car if that’s what she wanted. And that would be the end of it. No further personal involvement or obligation.

      “You’ve been through a lot,” Nate said. “I think it would be wise for you to let me take you home. I’m heading in that direction anyway.”

      She looked as if she was going to argue, but then blew out a breath. “Maybe you’re right. Let me go move my car so it’s out of the way.”

      Nate held out his hand. СКАЧАТЬ