Cardwell Ranch Trespasser - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,31
his chest.
Her lips parted and she felt a rush of heat as he enclosed her in his arms and deepened the kiss.
She felt light-headed. No one had ever kissed her like this. She leaned into him, into the kiss. For the first time in days, Dee Anna Justice was the last thing on her mind.
Colt pressed her against the wall. She could feel the passion in his kiss, in his body. She wouldn’t have been surprised if they had made love right there.
Headlights washed over them. Dana pulled in behind Hilde’s SUV. They both drew back as if the lights were ice water thrown on them.
“I should go,” Colt said. He touched her hand, his gaze locking with hers for a moment. Then he sauntered out to his patrol pickup and drove off.
“Are you all right?” Dana cried. “Hud told me what happened.” She turned to look after Colt. “Did I interrupt something?”
“No, it...” She waved a hand through the air. “I’m just glad to see you. Did you want to come in?”
“Just for a moment. I know it’s late, but we were out of milk and I couldn’t sleep without making sure you were all right,” Dana said as she stepped inside. “You’ve been through so much lately.”
“Haven’t I,” Hilde said.
“You found his body? That must have been horrible.”
“You have no idea.” She realized she couldn’t confide in her once best friend.
“Dee is a basket case.”
Hilde tried to hide a smile. “I’m sure she is,” she said.
But Dana knew her too well. “Hilde, the man was her boyfriend.”
“Was he? Or is that just what she told you? Dana, the only thing you know about her is what she’s told you. How can you be sure any of it is true?”
Dana stood in the middle of the living room, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “I know you don’t like her, but to be this suspicious about everything she says or does—”
“She’s playing you, Dana. You told her about the past six years that you didn’t have your family because of the fight over the ranch, didn’t you?” She saw the answer in her friend’s face. “You are so desperate to have family that you’re blinded by this woman.”
“I don’t understand why you’re acting like this,” Dana said, sounding close to tears.
Hilde tried to stop herself, but she couldn’t. She had to tell Dana everything, had to try to reason with her, to warn her.
“She tried to kill me, Dana. At the falls? She pushed me while you were getting your camera, only grabbing me at the last second before I fell.”
“Why would she—”
“Because she doesn’t want me around you.”
“That’s crazy,” Dana said.
“Yes, it is. And she’s living with you and your husband and your children.”
They stood only inches apart staring at each other, but Hilde felt as if there was a mountain range between them, one neither of them might be able to climb.
“I’m worried about you, Hilde.”
“Really? Because I’m scared to death for you. She killed Rick to keep him from telling me the truth tonight. He’d called me and said he’d tell me Dee’s secrets, but I got there too late.”
Dana was shaking her head and Hilde saw that her friend was never going to believe her. Until it was too late. “I should go.”
Hilde nodded. “Watch her, Dana. I think she’s after Hud.”
Dana gave her a disbelieving look as if Hilde had finally lost her mind, then she turned and left.
Hilde closed the door behind her and leaned against it. She hadn’t even realized she was crying until she tasted the salty tears.
Chapter Eight
“You can’t blame yourself for Rick’s overdose,” Dana said the next morning at breakfast. Hud had left early, called in on some new case. Her “cousin” had been trying to console her. “There are just some people who can’t be helped no matter how hard we try.”
Dee heard something in Dana’s voice. “Like Hilde? I feel responsible for this rift between the two of you as much as I do for what Rick did.”
“Don’t. Hilde has just been under a lot of strain lately. I didn’t realize how much. Then to find Rick like that...”
“So Hilde was the one who found him?” Dee felt her blood pressure rise like a rocket. That bastard. After their horseback ride, he’d threatened to blow her plans out of the water if she didn’t include him. “Why would she go over to Rick’s?”
Dana looked away to tend to one of the kids. “Apparently he was upset after you broke things