Rustled Read online

  Slim returned, slid behind the seat and shifted the car into gear as he pulled through the open gate. Lyndel must have been selling the quarry stone again, because this end of the quarry sloped down to the water and she could see where workers had been blasting.

  “Drive down to the edge,” Lyndel ordered.

  Moonlight shone on the dark surface of the cold, deep water as Slim drove closer to the edge and what appeared to be no more than a fifteen-foot drop to the water at this end.

  As Slim started to slow, Jinx shot Dawson a glance, then slipped her foot over and tromped on the gas. She heard Dawson snap on his seat belt. Jinx had hoped she could catch Slim by surprise. But she couldn’t take the chance that he would go for the brake. Or even throw the car into Reverse.

  Fortunately Slim wasn’t quick, not mentally or physically, and she had managed to catch him by surprise. She’d also shoved against him, slamming him into his door as she tromped on his big foot on the gas pedal, throwing him off balance enough that he didn’t recover before it was too late.

  Beside her, Lyndel let out a curse and grabbed for her, latching on to her arm to pull her back toward him, then quickly letting go as the car soared over the edge and began a nosedive for the water below. Jinx braced herself and prayed that she hadn’t just killed them all.

  DAWSON COULDN’T BELIEVE IT. When he’d looked into Jinx’s eyes, he’d known she was going to do something desperate. He’d been trying to come up with something himself, since it was clear what Lyndel had planned for them when he realized what she was going to do.

  He braced himself as the engine revved and he felt the vehicle go airborne. It seemed to hang in the air, then did a slow nosedive, rolling forward. The ranch hand who’d been beside him flew forward along the headliner as they struck the water with a force that shook Dawson’s teeth.

  The car plunged, then bobbed up as it flipped over on its top. Everything went quiet except for the slosh of waves against the sides of the car and the sound of the water rushing in.

  Dawson found himself alone, suspended upside down by his seat belt in the backseat. “Jinx?” he cried, seeing her hanging, as well. The others seemed to be piled on the windshield upfront, none of them moving. At least not yet.

  He quickly unsnapped his seat belt and dropped to the interior roof of the car. Hurriedly he crawled to the front. Water was rushing into the car at every crack and crevice. His movements made the car pitch as if it was a boat. A sinking boat.

  Jinx was fumbling with her seat belt.

  “Are you all right?”

  She nodded. He saw that there was a cut over her eye and it was bleeding. He helped her unsnap the belt and lowered her to the headliner, which was now already soaked with water.

  One of the ranch hands or Lyndel moaned. They’d all been thrown into the windshield. The water around them was turning red with their blood.

  Dawson looked around for something to break out one of the windows, as the water seemed to be coming in faster, leaving less air space. It wouldn’t be long before the weight of the water would sink the car.

  He spotted his shotgun and remembered Slim picking it up and carrying it toward the car. “I’m going to bust out the back window, but when I do the water is going to rush in. We won’t be able to swim out until it fills the car.”

  Jinx nodded.

  “Hang on to the seat. Hold your breath, then take my hand, okay?” He met her gaze. “We’re going to get out of this.”

  Another groan from the front of the car. Hurriedly Dawson took a swing at the back window with the butt of the shotgun, his back to what was happening behind him.

  DAWSON DIDN’T SEE LYNDEL push himself away from Slim and the other man, both of them unmoving. But the movement caught Jinx’s eye. She watched in horror as Lyndel’s hand snaked out and latched on to a gun that had been lying at the edge of the bodies.

  “You really are a jinx,” he said, his words slurred, his eyes wild.

  “Dawson!” she cried as Lyndel lifted the gun and aimed it at her head.

  Dawson was already in midswing with the butt of the shotgun. He started to turn when the glass shuddered. The water came rushing in like a tidal wave. Jinx saw Lyndel’s eyes widen as Dawson was washed back toward them. Lyndel might have gotten off a shot. Jinx didn’t know. If he did, the shot went wild. The wave surrounded her, slamming her back against the seat she’d been holding on to as the car quickly filled with water and began to sink.

  The water was colder than anything Jinx had ever felt in her life. It stole the breath she’d been holding and she was sure she would drown. But then she felt Dawson take her hand and he was swimming her out through the gaping hole where the back window had been.

  She could see moonlight above them. Her lungs felt as if they would burst. They weren’t going to make it. The surface was farther than they’d thought. She felt his hand tighten on hers and a moment later they burst to the surface.

  Jinx gasped for breath, choking and crying.

  “You’re all right,” Dawson said as he pulled her to him.

  She couldn’t catch her breath and the cold had seeped into her bones, leaving her numb. He drew her over to the edge of the rock quarry and pulled them both up the rock ledge and into the warmth of the summer night and his strong arms.

  “It’s over, Brittany Bo. You’re safe and I’m never letting you out of my arms ever again.”

  Epilogue

  “I’d like to make a toast.” Everyone turned their attention to Hoyt Chisholm at the head of the table. “We’ve had one interesting year so far and it isn’t even half over.” He raised his glass. “Here’s hoping the next six months aren’t half as eventful.”

  Everyone said, “Hear, hear,” and raised their glasses.

  Emma smiled across the table at her soon-to-be daughter-in-law, Halley. The deputy had eyes only for her fiancé, Colton, though. She was smiling up at him as they touched glasses.

  Next to them Dawson and Jinx were also smiling at each other. Dawson hadn’t let her out of his sight after everything that had happened to them. Emma shivered at even the thought of the two of them underwater with killers in the quarry in Wyoming. She gave a silent thanks to God that they had survived, and that the men who had been trying to kill them had perished—only because she didn’t want Jinx and Dawson to have to go through a lengthy trial.

  Emma liked Jinx. She was a good strong woman, capable and smart. She’d had the good sense to get Lyndel Thompson’s confession on a digital recorder, which she and Dawson had given to the sheriff in Wyoming. The rustlers had been rounded up and were facing serious charges in connection with Jinx’s father’s murder.

  Across the table, Tanner and Billie Rae were sharing a private toast of their own. Emma loved the way Billie Rae seemed to radiate with happiness when she was with Tanner. He’d said he’d fallen in love with her at first sight. Emma loved nothing better than a happy ending.

  “It’s been a good year so far, too,” Emma added after everyone had taken a drink of their champagne. She’d thought that the night had called for prime rib from one of their beef and champagne and all the trimmings. “We have a lot of celebrate, including those who have joined us tonight.”

  She lifted her glass to Colton and Halley, then Jinx and Dawson, then Tanner and Billie Rae, turning to smile down the long table at Sheriff McCall Crawford and her husband, Luke. The sheriff was glowing and Emma wondered if it was possible…

  She turned back to her own husband. As she touched his glass, her eyes locked with his. A silent look of love and relief passed between them.

  “To even happier times,” she said, followed by applause.

  “Now can we please eat?” Marshall joked.

  Emma loved the sound of laughter around the table as her gaze took in her other stepsons. Zane had gone clear to California looking for her. Her father had said how lucky she was to have such wonderful stepsons. Didn’t she know it.

  Next to him, Logan seemed lost in thought. Of
the six, he puzzled her. She knew he loved the ranch, but as they said, he definitely heard a different drummer, with his long hair and his love of his motorcycle over horses. Emma knew he was also a puzzle to his father, but she had great hopes for him.

  She’d seen a change in Marshall after everything that had happened and wondered what had caused it. He was now in the process of remodeling the farmhouse where he lived. It was part of the Chisholm Cattle Company, the most isolated of the places.

  When she’d first married into the family only months ago, she’d been determined to bring the family together and she’d had this crazy idea of finding each of her stepsons the perfect mate.

  She chuckled at her naïveté. Three of them had found mates in the least likely places. Emma had tried to help things along with Colton and even a little with Tanner, but she’d had nothing to do with getting Dawson and Jinx together.

  Not that she had given up matchmaking. No, she thought as she looked at the three stepsons who were still single. She was making no promises. Now that her own life had settled down, the cattle all rounded up, Hoyt cleared of any criminal charges and Aggie soon to be headed for the state mental hospital, Emma thought she might see what she could do to help Cupid along for Marshall, Zane and Logan. Look how happy the other three were! she thought.

  “SHE SHOULDN’T GIVE YOU any trouble,” the deputy said as Aggie Wells was loaded into the back of the state mental hospital van. “Doc gave her something to calm her down.”

  The driver glanced back at the woman in his rearview mirror, but made a point of not making eye contact.

  “You must be new,” the deputy said.

  “Just started yesterday,” the driver said. “Needed a job and this was all I could find.”

  “I guess there are worse jobs,” the deputy agreed. “At least it’s not the middle of winter where you have to fight icy roads and blowing and drifting snow a lot of the times. Good luck,” he said as he started to close the van door.

  “Thanks. I hope I don’t need it.” As he pulled away, he saw the deputy go back inside the sheriff’s department.

  He didn’t look at the woman again until they were out of Whitehorse and headed across the open prairie. It was twilight, the sun somewhere behind the Little Rockies and the Bear Paw Mountains.

  The driver checked his side mirror first. No cars behind him and none ahead as far as he could see. This really was an isolated part of the state—even during tourist season in the summer.

  He finally glanced back at his passenger. “How are you doing, Aggie?”

  She looked up, her gaze meeting his. “Okay, now that you’re here.”

  He hadn’t had a choice when he’d gotten her message. He owed her and had told her a long time ago that if she ever needed him… Years ago she’d proved that his wife had been systematically selling off the jewelry he gave her and replacing it with fakes, which she then paid her boyfriend to steal so she could collect on the insurance money.

  He’d gotten rid of the boyfriend, kept the wife and gone into business with her. They had a nice life and he didn’t have any more trouble with his wife after she’d seen what he’d done to her boyfriend.

  Aggie Wells? Well, he was indebted to her in a big way.

  “Did you have trouble getting the van?” she asked.

  “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-0830-8

  RUSTLED

  Copyright © 2011 by Barbara Heinlein

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  For questions and comments about the quality of this book please contact us at [email protected].

  ® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  www.Harlequin.com

  * Whitehorse, Montana

  † Whitehorse, Montana: The Corbetts

  ** Whitehorse, Montana: Winchester Ranch

  †† Whitehorse, Montana: Winchester Ranch Reloaded

  ‡ Whitehorse, Montana: Chisholm Cattle Company