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The day had turned hazy and dark clouds had begun to surround the mountain peaks. “Where do you think you’re taking me?”
“Away.”
She looked back at her house in confusion. “But I just can’t leave. Cody—”
“Cody’s with his dad!” Chase snapped. “Do you think Blake will hurt him?”
“No, but-—”
“Then come on! We’ll be back by the time that Cody gets home!”
“But I should leave him a note!”
“Yeah, maybe you should. But you don’t have time.” Chase jerked open the door on the passenger side of the Jeep and waited for her to climb in.
“It will just take a minute to scribble a note,” she said, the wind picking up and whipping her hair around her face, “Be sensible, Chase.”
“I have been! Now it’s time we did things my way!”
Dani stood her ground and didn’t get into the Jeep. “Where are we going?”
“To Johnson’s.”
“What the devil—”
“I’ll explain later,” he said, eyeing the darkening sky and releasing her. “Go on, write your damned note. But be quick about it.”
Anger radiating from her body, she marched back to the house, wrote a quick message to her son and strode outside. Chase was where she’d left him, leaning insolently against the side of the dusty Jeep, the door of his vehicle still swung open and waiting.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re an arrogant bastard?” she asked as she climbed into the Jeep.
“You! Several times.” He slammed the door shut, ran around the front of the vehicle, climbed in the driver’s side and then did a quick U-turn in the driveway, spinning gravel from under the tires as the Jeep bounced down the long lane leading to
the main highway.
Dani sat with her arms crossed over her chest, staring straight ahead. “Do you mind telling me what you’ve got up your sleeve?”
“You’ll see,” Chase said grimly, shifting down and barely slowing as he turned off the highway and into Caleb’s tree-lined lane. The Jeep roared up the gravel drive and Dani’s stomach twisted nervously at the thought of confronting Caleb again on his property. After all, she’d never caught Caleb himself on her land and none of what he’d done to her could be proven—until now.
“Get out,” Chase ordered once he’d parked the Jeep.
“Wait a minute—”
“You wait a minute! You’re the one who’s been itching to have it out with Johnson. Okay, here’s your big chance. Let’s go.”
“But what if Larry Cross lied? It’s just his word against Johnson’s.”
“Except that I’ve got the evidence, remember?”
“Which is?”
“The drum of dioxin—the drum that Caleb purchased.”
Without any further words, he jumped out of his side of the Jeep, slammed the door shut and waited, his jaw set in anger, as Dani climbed out of the rig and fought the urge to run away. She was seeing a side of Chase she hadn’t seen since the first day she’d watched him wading in the creek. But then she’d had the advantage; she’d been on her property and in the right. Now she wasn’t sure whose side he was on and even where the battle lines were drawn.
Trust him, she told herself as she stood next to him.
Chase scanned the stable yard, his eyes going over every inch of the clean white buildings and fence surrounding the parking lot behind the large farmhouse. Then, seeing the object of his wrath, he took Dani’s hand in his and started walking quickly to the track where Caleb was watching his latest acquisition sprint at breakneck speed for a quarter of a mile.
