“I still can’t see the van. Oh, there he is.”
Cash pressed his foot harder on the gas pedal. A sign flashed by. He knew it cautioned a speed of thirty. With luck, he’d make it through the first turns. If he tried to take the last curve at this speed, they’d skid off the road.
But he didn’t plan to take that last curve at all. Just ahead, right where he’d been picturing it, was a wide circular area of the shoulder that had been cut into the rock face. It was the only section of the road where a vehicle could pull off. Timing would be everything. Sweat beaded on his forehead and he prayed that his maneuver would work.
He began to tap the brake just before the wide arc of shoulder came into view. When they reached it, he eased the pickup closer to the opposite side of the road before whipping his vehicle to the left and into a spin. Tires spit gravel. Holding on to the steering wheel for dear life, Cash let the momentum take them.
JORDAN WOULD HAVE SCREAMED if her heart hadn’t been trapped in her throat. They were going to die. Her mind was numbed by the thought. Her life didn’t flash before her eyes. What did was a stream of scenes blurred by the dust the truck was spewing up, each one freeze-framed for an instant in the windshield of the truck. One second a solid wall of granite was dead ahead, the next a dizzying spin of road. Then nothing but air. Her stomach plummeted, and before the images could flash by again, she shut her eyes.
When metal screamed against rock, she knew the end was near. Now she’d never get to know Maddie or her father. Or Cash. She felt the sudden lurch of the truck, knew that he was doing his best to save them. He was the last thought in her mind before the truck suddenly shuddered to a stop.Cash’s hand gripped hers. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” And it was true. She opened her eyes. The scent of burning rubber filled her lungs. It was real. They weren’t dead. As her vision cleared, she saw out of the corner of her eye that the rock face was to their right and they were facing up the hill.
Then through the haze of dust, she saw the van lurch around the curve ahead of them—the same one they’d just taken. The back end fishtailed, sending the vehicle into a fast skid. It was a little like watching a movie, Jordan realized. For an instant as the tires spun, the car careened down the road sideways—the front facing the rock face, the rear end spewing up gravel on the nearly nonexistent shoulder.
“He took the curve too fast,” Cash said.
Jordan caught the grim satisfaction in his tone. She might have said something then, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the van. It was still about fifteen yards away them when the tires found traction. For one horrifying moment, the vehicle shot forward, and she was sure it would crash into the granite wall. But at the last moment, the driver avoided the collision, by jerking the van back onto the road.
“He’s overcompensating,” Cash murmured.
As if to prove the point, the van tipped crazily to one side, the roof kissing the rock face and sending off sparks.
Then the vehicle careened forward, weaving drunkenly down the road.
“He’s not going to make it,” Cash predicted.
He was right. The driver had clearly lost control, and he was going way too fast. As the van whipped toward them, it shimmied and shuddered. When it tore past them, she and Cash both twisted in their seats. Together they watched it shoot sideways into the air at the side of the road. There was a sudden and complete silence, and for a moment, as it hovered in space, Jordan half expected the vehicle to fly.
Then, as if a magician had waved a wand, the front end pointed downward and it plummeted out of sight. The sound of the impact shattered the silence.
Releasing her hand, Cash unfastened his seat belt and opened the door. “Stay here.”
“No way.”
He waited for her to join him on the other side of the truck. Then he gripped her hand in his and led the way across the two lanes.
The van was about fifty yards below them, lying on the passenger side with two of its tires spinning.
Cash pulled out his cell. “I hope I can get a signal.” He breathed a sigh of relief as he punched in 9-1-1.
A moment later, Jordan listened to him give the information and their location to someone on the other end. Everything had happened so fast. She was still trying to get her mind around it. By the time he slipped his cell back into his pocket, the van’s tires had stopped spinning, most of the dust had settled, and she’d figured out what had happened.
Turning to him, she said, “You intended for him to go off the road, didn’t you? That was your plan.”
He met her eyes. “I won’t deny that I was hoping it would work out this way. That bastard was trying to kill you.”
He half expected her to cringe or pull away, but she didn’t. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close.
Cash couldn’t have described the emotions that tumbled through him at the simple gesture. His knees nearly buckled. No woman had ever been able to push so many of his buttons so fast. She was taking him into uncharted territory. There was none of the fire or desperation he’d felt when they’d made love during the night or this morning. Now as he held her close to him, it was warmth that spread through him. And he felt suddenly and completely at home.
When she drew back, he didn’t want to let her go.
“Thank you,” she said simply.
Cash gathered his thoughts. “You helped, you know.”
Her eyes narrowed. “How? You’re the one who ought to start a new career as a race car driver.”
He managed a smile. “You did everything I asked. You didn’t ask useless questions, and you didn’t fall apart.”
She tilted her head to one side. “I don’t usually fall apart. But I’m not sure you should depend on me not asking questions or being so obedient all the time.”
He threw back his head and laughed. The sound was still lingering in the air when he pulled her close for a quick, hard kiss. At least his intention was to make it quick. But the softness of her lips, the flavors in her mouth tempted him to linger. Just for a moment. And that was all it took to have the heat igniting and spreading like a flash fire in a drought. Before he could think, he’d pulled her close and his hands were running over her, pressing, teasing, tormenting. It was as if his will had been snatched completely away.
It was the sudden feeling of helplessness that gave him the strength to pull back.
She was as breathless as he was, her eyes as surprised. “This is happening so fast.”
“Can’t argue with that.” Another moment and he might have taken her right there where they stood. And he was damn sorry that he’d had to put on the brakes. Another time, another place he promised himself as he dropped his hands.
“You remember what you said about my not counting on you being so obedient all the time?”
She nodded.
“Why don’t we give that a little test? What would you say if I asked you to stay here while I climbed down and checked on the driver?”
She shook her head firmly. “No way.”
“See? One simple statement and you’ve totally adjusted my expectations.”
Keeping her hand gripped in his, Cash led the way down to the wreck.
AN HOUR LATER, Jordan stood on the narrow shoulder of the drop-off giving her statement to Detective Shay Alvarez. He hadn’t introduced himself, which made her suspect that Maddie knew him. How well was the big question. She’d made it her business to get his full name by the tried and true method of eavesdropping.
As Alvarez reviewed the notes he’d been taking, Jordan watched the scene below where a helicopter was lifting a stretcher carrying the injured body of the van’s driver. For a moment, Alvarez also turned to watch until the man was safely pulled inside.Earlier, when they’d reached the van, Cash had climbed up to the window and found the man still had a faint pulse. They hadn’t dared to move him. Not that they’d have been able to. The police had used some sort of a pulley to get the van upright before the medics could deal with getting him out.
The sun beat down ruthlessly, and the dusty breeze stirred up by the helicopter as it lifted brought even hotter air. Jordan felt sweat trickle down her back.
Detective Alvarez glanced down at his notebook. “You’re sure you have no idea why this man tried to run you and Cash off the road?”
“No.” That much was true, but she was beginning to feel little pangs of guilt because neither she nor Cash had admitted to him that she wasn’t Maddie. That constituted lying to the police, didn’t it?
“There have been some incidents of vandalism at the ranch,” she said. “Someone tried to poison my horse, and this morning, my studio was vandalized.”
Shay Alvarez took a moment to study her. “Cash told me.”
Jordan figured that conversation must have taken place right after he’d arrived and taken Cash aside for a few moments. She’d gotten the distinct impression from their body language that they knew each other. But she could hardly ask. Maddie would know something like that.
After talking briefly to Cash and turning him over to one of the uniforms who’d accompanied him, Detective Shay Alvarez walked up to the curve that had ultimately sent the van out of control and examined the skid marks.