Cardwell Ranch Trespasser - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,38
known Hilde not to open the shop. His concern grew even more when he tried later in the afternoon.
He’d finally called Dana and asked for Hilde’s cell phone number. “I tried the shop and couldn’t reach her.”
“That is odd,” Dana agreed after she’d given him the number. “She stopped out earlier and brought the kids ice cream sandwiches.”
Colt swore silently. “How did that go?”
“Okay. But she was acting...strange. Is she all right?”
“She’s been through a lot the past few days,” he said. “So she didn’t stay long?”
“No.”
“I’ll give her a call and make sure she’s all right,” he said.
“You’ll let me know if...if there is anything I can do?”
“Sure.” He quickly dialed Hilde’s cell and felt a wave of relief when she answered on the third ring. “You went out to the ranch.” He hadn’t meant for those to be the first words out of his mouth.
“Don’t be mad. I got her fingerprints.”
He bit back a curse. “Hilde.”
“I know. But she stopped by the shop right after I opened this morning.”
If he’d been scared before, he was petrified now. “What did she want?”
“To threaten me. Again. She made it clear that if I didn’t back off—”
“So you went out to the ranch and got her fingerprints. I hate to even ask.”
“I feel like we are racing against the clock,” she said. “I had to do something. She’s more dangerous than even I thought.”
He agreed. “Okay, just do me a favor. Where are you now?”
“I’m at home. I was too antsy to work today.”
“You have the items with her fingerprints on them at the house, right?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, just stay there, lock the doors, don’t open them for anyone but me. I’m on my way from West. I should be there in an hour. You don’t happen to own a gun, do you? Sorry, of course you don’t.”
“You think you know me that well?” she demanded.
“Yep. Are you going to tell me you do own a gun and know how to shoot it?”
“No.”
He laughed. “Go lock your doors. I’m on my way.”
* * *
DEE WAS DISAPPOINTED when she reached the ranch and found out that Hud was working late at the office. He was the only bright spot in a dreary day.
“I see your ankle is better. That’s good,” Dana said when Dee came in with the small presents she’d brought the kids. She hadn’t wanted to spend much, so she’d found some cheap toys. Mary and Hank thanked her, but she could tell she’d bought the wrong things.
Dinner was just the four of them. Dana had fed the twins and put them to bed. The house was deathly quiet since Mary and Hank were practically falling asleep in their dinner plates.
Dee walked around the ranch while Dana bathed the kids and got them to bed. The night was cool and dark. As she walked, something kept nagging at her about earlier at the sewing shop.
She hadn’t been surprised when Hilde had picked up the scissors and lunged at her. Just as she wasn’t surprised the woman was slow and uncoordinated, so much so that it had been child’s play to take the scissors away from her. Often anger made a person less precise, even clumsy, right?
Coming at her with scissors had seemed a fool thing to do, but Dee hadn’t questioned it. Until now.
She recalled how easily it had been to get Hilde to drop the scissors and how surprised she’d been when Hilde had stood there rubbing her wrist as if Dee had broken it.
Hilde hadn’t been trying to stab her. Far from it. Then why—
The truth hit her like a ton of bricks.
The scissors.
She swore, stopping in her tracks, to let out her anger in a roar aimed at the night sky. All the pieces fell into place in an instant. The triumphant look in Hilde’s eyes.
The woman had gotten her fingerprints!
All the implications of that also fell into place. Once she had her boyfriend Colt run the prints...
Dee slapped herself hard. The force of it stung her cheek. She slapped herself again and again until both cheeks burned as she chanted, “You fool. You fool. You fool.” Just as her mother had done.
By the time she stopped, her face was on fire, but she knew what she had to do.
* * *
HILDE COULDN’T REMEMBER the last time she was this excited about a date. Well, not exactly a date, she supposed. Dinner. Still she wore an emerald-green dress she’d bought and saved for a special occasion.
Colt’s eyes lit when