AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Vance will be here in a couple of minutes,” Leigh relayed to him. “He’ll look for the SUV along the way. We might get lucky,” she added.
Mightfell into the slim-to-none category. Unless the driver of the SUV was a complete idiot, that is. Because anyone would have been able to figure out that Leigh would have called for backup, and even if that backup had had to come from town, it wouldn’t have taken long for help to arrive.
Leigh looked back at the mangled front end of the cruiser and muttered something under her breath that he didn’t catch. Cullen caught the gist of it though.
“Yeah, this is connected to Alexa and Jamie,” he said.
Leigh certainly didn’t argue with him. “But was I the target, or were you?” she asked.
He looked at her, their gazes connecting, and in that moment it seemed as if all the bad blood between them vanished. Nearly being killed could do that. It could tear down the walls from the past and, well, connect you. Cullen certainly felt very connected to Leigh right now. Protective, too.
And guilty.
Because he could be the reason that she’d nearly just died. Cullen didn’t know the specific motive of this killer. Not yet, anyway. But he soon would. He intended to give this plenty of thought and then go after the SOB who was responsible for this hellish night.
“I doubt the SUV will be back this way,” Cullen said. The sleet was coming down harder now. “We should probably wait for Vance in the cruiser.”
That would not only get them out of the bitter cold, it would also give him a chance to figure out just how badly Leigh was hurt. She was still limping as they made their way back to the cruiser and slid into the back seat. Cullen got in beside her to avoid the airbag debris in the front and so he could examine Leigh. It was too dark for him to see if there was any blood on her jeans, but he used the flashlight on his phone.
Yep, there was blood all right.
“You cut your leg,” he pointed out.
“More like a scrape,” she corrected. “When the SUV hit my door, it pushed against my knee.”
Pushedwasn’t the right word. More likebashed. But he couldn’t exactly blame her for downplaying her injury. Not when they had much bigger problems to deal with. Still, he wanted her examined.
Leigh gave the back of the driver’s seat a shove, but Cullen thought the gesture was from frustration rather than trying to create more legroom. Her frustration seemed to go up a notch when her phone rang, and she saw Jeb’s name on the screen. She hit the decline button.
“Your father will press you to arrest me,” Cullen threw out there.
She didn’t look at him but made a sound of agreement. “But this might convince him that you’re not responsible for Alexa’s death.”
“Maybe. But he might just say I hired someone to do this so I’d look innocent,” Cullen pointed out. “After all, the collision was mainly on your side of the vehicle. You stood the greatest chance of being hurt.”
Leigh made a quick sound of agreement to that, too, which meant she’d likely already considered it. Then she turned her head and stared at him. “You didn’t do this,” she said, and then she paused. “Would your father have done it?”
Cullen tried not to be insulted that Leigh had just asked if his father was a killer. A killer who wouldn’t hesitate to murder his own son.
“Not with me in the cruiser. Bowen might be bullheaded and unable to let go of the past, but he wouldn’t have put me at risk.” Now Cullen was the one who paused. “But perhaps this goes back to the man Alexa met in that café. Maybe he was the one behind the wheel.”
Leigh didn’t get a chance to give an opinion on that because the approaching headlights grabbed their attention. With their guns ready, they got out of the cruiser, watching and waiting in case this was their attacker returning.
“It’s Vance,” she said, releasing a breath of what was almost certainly relief.
Cullen didn’t relax just yet. He had no intention of standing down until he knew for sure there wasn’t another threat. But this wasn’t an SUV. It was a silver Ford truck, and it pulled to a stop directly in front of them.
“Are you okay?” the deputy asked the moment he got out. It was Vance all right, and while he’d drawn his gun, he didn’t aim it at Leigh or Cullen.
“Fine,” Leigh answered. “Any sign of the SUV that hit us?”
“None, and like you said, I made sure to look closely at the trails that lead off the road.” Vance studied the cruiser and shook his head. “Man, that looks bad. You sure you’re okay?”
“I’ll live,” she muttered. “No thanks to the driver of the SUV.” She looked at Cullen. “You have a vehicle we can use? If not—”
“I have something,” Cullen assured her. One that would hopefully handle better on the icy roads than her cruiser. Since there were more than two dozen cars, trucks and four-wheel drive vehicles at the ranch, there wouldn’t be any trouble accessing one right away.
Leigh grabbed her purse from the cruiser, and they got in the truck with Vance to head back to the Triple R.
