Jon held up his hand like a traffic cop. “I just want a word with her,” he said and turned to Kate. “Are you sure about this?” he asked, his voice a hoarse whisper.
She met his eyes. Danny’s eyes. This man might be someone named Justin Brown, but her breaking heart knew him, loved him. She couldn’t bear the thought that she would never see him again. To find him and then lose him... “I have to go. Collin and I are meeting some of his associates who’ve been skiing north of here in Canada.”
“Kate—”
“I’m sorry if I...upset you by coming into your life the way I did. Of course you can’t be my husband, Danny. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
Jon held her gaze for a long moment.
“You heard her, carpenter,” Collin said loudly. “We’re leaving and not coming back. That’s what you said you wanted, right?”
Something changed in Jon’s gaze. Just a flicker of anger followed by what might be regret. “Have a safe trip,” he said to her. His gaze shifted to Collin. She could see by the way he stood that he wanted to take the man on. One more word out of Collin, the slightest movement in his direction...
But Collin stepped back, rounding the front of the SUV to go to the back to load her suitcase. She spoke quickly and quietly, hoping Collin wouldn’t hear.
“You stay safe, Justin.”
Jon heard the name, his eyes widening.
The hatch opened, and Collin threw in the suitcase before slamming it and stepping around to open the driver’s-side door. As he slid behind the wheel, he looked at her still standing outside with her door open. “Let’s go,” he barked.
Kate gave Jon one last look before she climbed into the passenger seat and buckled up. She’d seen the surprise and the worry on his face. He was afraid for her? She was the one trying to save him by warning him.
As Collin shifted into Reverse and yanked the steering wheel around, she couldn’t bear to look at Jon’s retreating back as he limped toward his workshop. She closed her eyes tight, her heart thudding brokenly in her chest. She yearned to throw open her door and run after him through the snow.
But like she’d told Collin, she wasn’t stupid. Her daughter’s life was at stake. So was the life of this man now walking away. One wrong move on her part... Worse, whatever business Collin had across the border, it was dirty and dangerous. She hated him for dragging the people she loved into it, but she was in it now up to her neck with no way out.
As he drove them out of Buckhorn, Kate feared she would never see her daughters again—let alone Buckhorn or Jon Harper. Worse, she was now with a dangerous man. She could smell it on Collin. His desperation warned her just how dangerous he could get.
Even if she did what he wanted, she thought her chances of surviving this engagement trip weren’t good.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
TOO UPSET TO go back to his workshop, Jon had headed for Earl Ray’s house. He couldn’t believe that he’d let Kate go with that man. But what could he have done? Kate was a grown woman. Had he been going to warn her about Collin Matthews? Not that it mattered since she was the one warning him.
She’d called him Justin, which meant the report on his fingerprints from the coffee mug had come back. Collin knew who he was. By now he could have let everyone else know. He probably already had ratted him out and was pretending otherwise to force Kate to go with him.
Jon swore. Why hadn’t he grabbed her and... And what? Just because he didn’t like Matthews, none of this was his business. Maybe the man wasn’t headed for the border to do anything illegal. Right.
He hadn’t grabbed Kate and kept her from going because she’d asked him not to. He’d seen the pleading in her green eyes. Which meant Collin had something on her. It was the only thing that made sense. Jon’s true identify—and what would happen if word got out? He hoped to hell that wasn’t what Collin was using to force Kate to go with him. The irony wasn’t wasted on him. He’d planned to warn her and she’d ended up warning him.
Because she believed he was her husband, Danny. He swore under his breath as he neared Earl Ray’s house. He no longer even knew who he was.
He banged on Earl Ray’s door until the older man opened it. “She just left with Matthews,” he said as he stepped in. He wasn’t sure why he’d come here. Maybe so Earl Ray could tell him that there was nothing he could do.
As he took off his coat and boots, Earl Ray handed him a large manila envelope. “What’s this?” Jon asked frowning. “I hope it isn’t more bad news about Collin Matthews.”
“It’s a dossier on you.”
He jerked his head up, his nostrils flaring as he looked at the older man who stood in the middle of the room. The expression on Earl Ray’s face was one of pity and concern, two things that Jon didn’t want to see there. “Where the hell did you get—”
“I put it together myself.”
Jon took a step back. “Why would you—”
“Because I had to know.”
He didn’t need to open the envelope. He knew what was inside. He tried to choose his words wisely. Earl Ray was as close to a best friend as he’d had in years. He told himself he could trust the man. “I’ve lived here five years. When did you—”
“When you arrived. I had to know what you were running from. I love this town and the people in it. I couldn’t have you hurting any of them.”
Jon shook his head. “What took you so long? Why show it to me now?”
“I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t gotten involved with that woman and her fiancé.”
“Excuse me? I didn’t get involved with her. I did my best to send her on down the road.” Earl Ray merely held his gaze. “What’s in here?” Jon asked, holding up the envelope.
The old man stepped into the kitchen to tend to the coffee maker that had finished brewing from the smell of it. “Everything.”
Jon stared at the man’s back, finding that hard to believe. “You weren’t a war hero.”
“Who says?” Earl Ray demanded with a smile as he turned from the coffeepot with two filled cups. “Sit down.”
He sighed as he tossed down the envelope on the table, pulled out a chair and sat. He felt anxious on so many levels. “Why the interest in me?”
“I had to know what you were running from,” Earl Ray said. “Not just for the sake of the town as it turns out. But for your own good. I had to know who you were if I was going to protect you.”
“Protect me?”