Once in the SUV again, Collin handed her one of the hot dogs and a cola, and without looking at her said, “I’m afraid I’m going to need you to pay for everything from here on out.” She could hear the embarrassment, the anger, the disappointment and resentment in his voice.
Kate had wanted to howl with laughter. She’d basically been kidnapped, forced into crossing an international border and would soon be forced into a criminal act—and her abductor wanted her to foot the bill for all of it?
She kept her expression from showing the roiling emotions bubbling up in her. She couldn’t look at him, could hardly form the words. “I figured as much.”
Collin sat for a few moments longer before he started the engine and pulled away from the pump. She could feel waves of resentment coming off him. Add that to his anxiety and fear and whatever else made Collin Matthews tick, and he was a man close to the edge. She tried not to breathe too loudly, afraid of how little it might take to set him off.
It wasn’t until he’d eaten part of his hot dog and tossed the rest out the window before he spoke. “I know you despise me right now.” She said nothing, not wanting to lie, half-afraid it would make matters worse if she did. “I wish things were different. Staying in Buckhorn as long as we did depleted my resources. I thought I’d have enough money for the trip. I was wrong. I’m sorry.”
Kate looked over at him then. She’d gulped down her hot dog and now reached for her cola. She was afraid of what might come out of her mouth. “I’m low on cash. You’ll have to use my credit card.” The card would leave a trail. It wasn’t much in the way of a plan, but it was all she could think of.
Then she remembered that he’d been in her purse to get her passport. Had he seen how much cash she had? Also, he hadn’t returned her passport. Even if she could get away from him, she wouldn’t be able to cross the border without it. She was sure that’s the way he’d planned it.
Collin said nothing as he finished his cola, put down his window and tossed the cup out as he drove. He didn’t look at her. But when she glanced at him, she saw the set of his jaw and felt a shudder.
* * *
THE SIGNALS ON Matthews’s SUV had stopped in Moose Jaw. As Jon drove toward the city, he waited for them to move again. They didn’t. He stopped at a convenience store for gas and something to eat, drove another hour and then pulled off the road outside of the small Canadian town. Matthews’s vehicle still hadn’t moved. He slept for a couple of hours, waking at one in the morning.
Jon checked his watch. He had two clear signals where they’d been earlier, still unmoved. From under the seat of his pickup, he untaped two of the weapons Earl Ray had given him, checked to make sure they were loaded and ready.
He wasn’t planning on using them. He didn’t want to kill anyone. But if he was forced into a corner, he would kill anyone he had to if it meant saving Kate’s life. If it came to that, then his cover would be blown. Even in Canada, he wouldn’t survive a night in jail.
Once he knew that Kate’s daughters were safe, he planned to make his move. Not that it wouldn’t be dangerous. Anything he did could jeopardize Kate’s life. But he couldn’t leave her with Collin any longer than he had to, fearing what could happen to her if he did.
As he drove into Moose Jaw, he thought of Kate. Earl Ray was right about one thing. It was crazy the way he’d gotten involved in this. Just because she’d walked into his woodshop that day and thought he was her dead husband, Daniel Jackson.
Just his luck, he thought. Otherwise he would be in his woodshop right now, working. He often worked late. Instead, he was in Canada, not sure what he was about to get involved in because of a green-eyed brunette with a heartbreaking story about a dead husband.
He was close now, almost on top of the signals. He looked around, surprised to find himself in a residential neighborhood. He’d thought he’d find them in a highway motel.
Kate had said Matthews was meeting associates who were up here on a ski trip. Often there was a little truth in every lie, he’d learned. So did Collin’s buddies live here? Or was Matthews meeting someone here?
The signal took him to a house on the edge of a creek. Each lot was large, except for the last one where the signal was coming from. The house was older, as if it had been the original farmhouse on the property and the subdivision had been built up to the west of it. The house also didn’t look as well kept-up as the others. A rental? That made sense. Make whatever deal was going down in a nice neighborhood. Both Matthews and Kate were clean-cut enough that the neighbors wouldn’t pay them any mind.
He drove around the block, which turned out to be quite large, the creek cutting through the backs of the yards to form a park of sorts.
He checked his watch. 1:37 a.m. The neighborhood was dead quiet. No lights on in any of the houses. A working neighborhood where probably both husbands and wives had jobs to get up for in the morning.
He found a place to park without attracting undo attention. Now the question was how to approach this. He had no idea how many people were in the house or what kind of weapons they would have. He had to assume they would be armed or have a weapon close by, even in the middle of the night.
Matthews had flown to Montana, which meant he could have brought a handgun in his checked baggage on the plane. Or he could have purchased one easily enough once he landed. Jon had to assume that Collin had a weapon or that there had been one waiting for him in the house. If this were a drug deal, then everyone in that house would be carrying—except for Kate.
Because the house wasn’t as large as the others in the neighborhood, there wouldn’t be many bedrooms. Maybe the deal hadn’t gone down yet. His hope was that the associates had rented the house but hadn’t arrived yet. Which meant it would only be Kate and Matthews inside.
He knew he could sit here all night speculating on what he was going to find once he reached the house. But there was only one way to find out for sure as he double-checked the weapons. He figured neither was registered, so if he were caught, nothing would trace back to Earl Ray.
With one gun in the top of his boot, another tucked in his back waistband and covered with his coat, he locked the pickup and headed toward the creek. At one time, he’d been a crack shot. He hoped it was like riding a bike.
The night air made his breath come out in frosty puffs as he walked. The snow was deep. He pushed through it, noticing that his limp was getting worse. He was a woodworker now, no longer a cop, no longer chasing down bad guys.
But he knew he could do this because when he was a cop, he was good at it. Only this time the stakes were higher than they’d ever been. He didn’t have a badge, was across an international border and was about to blow his cover if he got caught. None of that mattered as long as he got Kate out of this.
He reached the edge of the park and dipped into the trees. By staying near the creek, he would have cover. But at some point he would have to cross the creek. It looked frozen over, blanketed in snow, but that didn’t mean the ice was thick enough to hold his weight. Nor did he have any idea how deep the water might be at the middle.