“Aren’t you supposed to wait until you get the phone call?” she asked, pretty sure she remembered Gerald’s explicit instructions. Don’t cross the border. Gerald would call when it was time.
Except now Gerald hadn’t called. Nor was Collin slowing the SUV. He was ignoring not only her query but also Gerald’s instructions. He was going to cross and not wait for the call.
Kate held her breath as they got closer and closer to the flashing lights at the border. Why was he doing this? Just to show them that he couldn’t be bullied? It was a little late for that, she thought. This seemed reckless even for him.
“Collin!” She hadn’t meant to yell. But it did get his attention.
He shot her a warning look. His face was twisted into a look of abject misery as if he was in pain. “You made love with him. I could tell the moment I saw you.” His voice shattered. “I loved you. Maybe not the way Danny loved you, maybe more than he did if he’s Jon Harper. Did you ever consider how I felt when you couldn’t stay away from that carpenter? Everyone in Buckhorn knew that you two-timed me. Did you make love in his workshop? Right there in front of that woodstove in the sawdust?”
“No. I’m sorry,” she said in a whisper. They were going to argue about this now?
“Whatever happens now, it’s on your head,” he said, sending fear careening through her veins, setting off her pulse as he sped up the SUV.
“What are you doing?” she demanded as he raced toward the border crossing directly ahead.
He didn’t look at her. “What I have to do.”
He was going to kill her. Had to kill her now. Was that what this was about? Getting angry enough at her that he could do it? She could see it on his handsome face. She wondered if the nanny had seen it in that split second before she felt the shove and realized she was headed down those basement stairs.
Looking away, she saw that they were at the border. He slowed, driving past the Canadian side, apparently not required to stop. Ahead on the US side, Collin pulled in, stopping in front of a signal light now glowing red.
* * *
COLLIN FELT AS if his brain was on fire. He could hear his blood pulsing in his veins. He tried to calm down only to realize he might be in more trouble than having a cheating fiancée.
On the way across the border yesterday, he hadn’t noticed the apparatus they had to pull through that looked like a weigh-station platform. That’s because there hadn’t been one to the east of it where they’d driven through before.
“What is that?” Kate asked breathlessly.
“I don’t know. It looks like it might raise vehicles to look under them.” He hated the way his voice broke. Why hadn’t Gerald mention this?
“What if they lift up the car?” Kate asked in a hoarse whisper.
“I don’t think we’ll find out—unless they suspect us.” He stared at the red stoplight, waiting for it to turn green, begging for it to turn green.
He was just now realizing what a mistake it had been to ignore Gerald’s orders. Maybe the guard who came on in the next shift was planning to wave them right through because he was one of them? By not waiting for the phone call, had he just blown everything? He was thinking what a fool he was, when Kate asked, “What happens if they lift the car?”
“Nothing. Just sit there and wait.” He hoped Gerald was right about the guys who added the undercarriage containers being the best in the business because according to the plan, they were filled with enough drugs to make them all rich. Then there was the wedding dress with its small fortune sewn inside. If everything went as planned, this would be the largest shipment yet.
“The light turned green,” Kate said, her voice high and squeaky with obvious relief. As he pulled forward a large overhead door opened. He drove in, the door closing behind him.
He didn’t look at Kate, couldn’t. They weren’t out of the woods yet. But once that door opened in front of them and he drove through, they were safe. Unfortunately, the realization of how this was going to end had struck him a few miles back. He had no choice but to kill Kate. It was him or her. He hadn’t done all of this to end up buried up here in this frozen country—if you could even bury a body out here in the sagebrush this time of year.
Before that moment, he hadn’t even thought about what he would do with her body once he was done. Or even how he would kill her. In truth, he wasn’t sure he could, and that made him furious with himself.
Nor had he thought about what ignoring Gerald’s orders would mean. If they got through and into the States, then what would it matter? Gerald had treated him like he was stupid. Maybe he was. How else had he ended up in this mess? When had he lost control of everything? He wanted to believe it was when Kate stumbled into Jon Harper’s workshop and decided he was her dead husband.
But he knew it was long before that. Now as he watched the Homeland Security cop come out of his glass enclosure, he told himself he didn’t care if he got caught. Maybe that would be the best way out. Years of prison? With his fear of small places? No, he’d rather take a bullet.
“Turn off your engine,” the cop said. Collin quickly turned off the SUV’s engine and put down his window, smiling at the uniformed officer who couldn’t seem to crack a smile if his life depended on it.
“Passports,” the cop said. It wasn’t the same one from before.
Last time, Collin had been ready. This time he had to dig them out. Handing them through the open window, he waited as the officer took them and went back into his cubicle.
He seemed to be gone longer than last time. Collin felt sweat trickle down his back. He shifted in his seat as he stared at the glass and metal door in front of the SUV. He wondered how hard the front of the car would have to hit it to break through.
“What was your business in Canada?” the cop asked when he returned, startling him.
“Just a few things for the wedding,” Collin said. “This is our engagement trip. My fiancée wanted to see snow and Canada.” He shrugged. “We saw some of both.”
“Please put down the window behind your seat,” the officer said. Collin did, noticing that it had frosted over because of the temperature outside.
The cop peered in. “What’s in the box?”
“My wedding dress,” Kate said, speaking up.
The officer continued to peer in for a moment, then returned to Collin’s open window. The smile he gave the cop hurt his face. He held his breath, afraid the officer was going to want to look inside the box or maybe even search the car. “We’re getting married next week.” He sounded happy about that fairy tale, wishing it was true. How different their lives could have been if it was.