As the officer handed their passports back, Kate reached for hers. In front of the cop, Collin had no choice but to let her take it. But he couldn’t help smirking over at her. Who was she kidding? She wouldn’t be needing that. Not after today, since she wasn’t going to be leaving Montana. Not alive, anyway.
“Please wait until I am inside the booth and the door is open before you restart your engine.” With that, the cop walked away.
Collin put up his window, his hand shaking as he restarted the engine as the large door rose slowly. He drove out. He couldn’t believe it. They’d gotten through and without Gerald’s help. He couldn’t help grinning. He could breathe again. His heart was pounding. He’d been so scared that something would go wrong. But it hadn’t.
His cell phone rang. He didn’t even have to look to know who was calling. He realized he shouldn’t have taken matters into his own hands and crossed before he was supposed to. But he had, and he’d made it. No problems. Screw you, Gerald. The man would be livid. Right now Collin could have cared less. He let it ring four times before he picked up. By then he could no longer see the border crossing in his rearview mirror. There was no one behind him. No one in front of them.
He was home free with a shitload of drugs worth millions.
* * *
JON COULDN’T BELIEVE what he was seeing. He’d been able to catch up to Matthews, who seemed in no hurry to get to the border—given the orders he’d been given. That gave Jon the edge. Matthews was supposed to pull off before the border crossing and wait for a phone call from Gerald.
Knowing what Gerald had planned, he was nervous as it was. He’d been waiting for the moment when he saw the SUV turn off the highway. That’s when he’d planned to make his move.
But Matthews hadn’t turned off the road to wait for the call.
Instead, he’d seemed to speed up—racing toward the border. Had Gerald called to change the plan? Jon hadn’t considered that. Now he didn’t know what to think as he held back, watching from a distance as the SUV pulled in. Even from this far back, he could see the glow of the red light.
What would he do if the border guards found enough evidence to arrest both Matthews and Kate? Had that been Gerald’s true plan?
Jon was beginning to panic when the light in the distance turned green and the SUV pulled into the building. He tried to breathe a sigh of relief. But until Matthews got all the way through...
To his surprise, the SUV came out the other side of the building minutes later. Jon shifted into gear, praying he didn’t get held up long at the crossing. He’d put in a call to Earl Ray earlier, asking for his help. Earl Ray had promised to do what he could.
Now, as Jon drove toward the border crossing, he found himself holding his breath. So much was riding on his getting across and to Kate before it was too late... He told himself that she couldn’t have come into his life to be taken away so quickly. He held on to that hope as he pulled up to the red light and saw both of the officers in the glassed-in area looking at his stolen plates.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
COLLIN FELT THE blood rush from his head as he disconnected from the phone call. Speeding up, he dropped over a small hill, pulled off onto the first secondary dirt road he came to, slammed on the brakes and threw the SUV into Park. Swearing, he began to beat the steering wheel with his fist.
“What’s happened?” Kate cried, sounding close to tears. “Is it Jon? Is he...okay?”
He stopped swearing and hitting the wheel to stare at her in disbelief before he let out a bitter howl somewhere between pain and laughter. “Jon? You think I would get this upset over your precious Jon taking a bullet?” He saw her instant relief and wanted to backhand her. She had no idea how much trouble they were in. How much trouble he was in.
“Jon wasn’t in the basement when Gerald went down to...release him. Add to that, I didn’t make the call before we crossed the border, and he’s pissed,” Collin said, spitting out each word. “Apparently, there’s another vehicle crossing at Opheim. He wanted to coordinate them with us. That’s why I was supposed to wait for his call.” He swore again as he looked into her wide green eyes. It hadn’t been all that long ago that he had lost himself in the depths of those eyes.
“Jon got away?”
“Yes, and no one knows where he is.”
Her eyes widened a little more as if now wondering the same thing he was. What would Jon do once free? Collin realized from the look on her face that there was something else she was thinking. If Jon was free and so were her daughters, Collin no longer had any leverage over her. She was dead wrong about the tables turning, he thought. He had a bullet with her name on it. If she jumped out of the car and tried to run, he’d shoot her down in the middle of the road.
Taking a breath, he let it out slowly and tried to calm down. He’d been nervous about crossing the border. But they had breezed through. Who gave a damn about the other vehicle that was crossing at Opheim? He wondered why it mattered that they cross at the same time. Just some stupid plan of Gerald’s.
Collin had the drugs. They hadn’t been confiscated. He wasn’t on his way to prison. He wasn’t sure how bad the repercussions would be from double-crossing Gerald, but he realized he wasn’t that worried. As long as he made this deal, the man should be delighted that Collin had gotten the drugs through and overlook everything else.
Now all he had to do was meet the distributor. But before that, he was to have gotten rid of Kate. He looked from her to the white empty landscape. This was as good a place as any. He could probably just dump her out here, and she’d die of hypothermia. He wouldn’t have to kill her himself.
But he couldn’t chance that the stubborn woman would find a way to save herself. Reaching under the seat, he pulled out the loaded handgun he knew was taped there with the silencer on it. “This is all your fault.”
* * *
HE WAS BLAMING HER? Even in her fear, she wanted to remind him that he was the one who had gotten involved with drug-smuggling criminals. That he was the one who’d lied to her about this trip. Lied to her about how much trouble he was in financially. Basically lied to her about everything.
Eyes narrowed, he was studying her with an intensity that told her this was the end of the line for them. For her.
Kate felt her heart drop as she looked at him and the gun he was holding. Her pulse took off at the sight of the silencer on the weapon. No one would hear the gunshot. As if there was anyone around to hear. This was the way he’d probably always planned it to end. The whole wedding had been a ruse. He’d known she would never go along with becoming his partner in crime.
She met his gaze. This suddenly quiet Collin scared her more than the ranting and raging one. His look sent a chill through her—even more than the gun he now held. There was cold, raw hatred in his eyes. Her blood ran cold at the way he had the weapon trained on her heart.