Cardwell Ranch Trespasser - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,45

help would be a waste of time.

“You don’t have to look so scared,” Dee called to her. “I came to give you some news that I think will make you happy.”

Hilde let the woman get within a few feet of her. “That’s close enough. What is it?”

“You win.”

“You’re the one who made it into a competition.”

Dee chuckled as she took another step closer. “I’ve known women like you my whole life. Everything comes so easy to you. You’ve never had to fight for anything. You wouldn’t have lasted two seconds in my world.”

“I’m sorry you had a rough life, Dee, if that is really your name. But that doesn’t give you the right to take someone else’s—literally.”

“You’re right,” Dee said, not even bothering to deny anything. “I’m leaving. I just wanted you to know. That, and I’m sorry. I don’t expect you to understand. I don’t even understand why I’m like I am sometimes.” She put her head down, actually sounding as if she meant it.

Hilde wondered what kind of life this woman really had lived through. Dee was right that her own had been cushy. As much as she hated it, she felt some sympathy for the woman. “You should try to get some help.”

Dee slowly raised her head. It took Hilde an instant to realize Dee had stepped closer during all this. When she met her gaze, Hilde saw that something had changed in her eyes. It was an instant too long.

Before Hilde could react, Dee grabbed her right hand and raked Hilde’s nails down her own left cheek.

Hilde let out a cry of shock and jerked her hand back.

Dee was smiling as she touched the four angry scratches down her face. Laughing at Hilde’s reaction, she reached down and picked up a chunk of broken sidewalk at the edge of the street.

Hilde took a step back as Dee said, “You think I need help? Maybe I should see someone.” She hit herself in the face with the piece of concrete and for a moment, Hilde thought Dee would buckle under the savage blow. But she straightened, dropped the chunk of sidewalk and, in the next instant, began to tear at her clothes.

“What are you doing?” Hilde cried. “Have you lost your mind?”

“Isn’t this what you wish you were able to do to me?” Dee asked, smiling again. Her left eye was already swelling shut from where she’d hit herself. There was blood at the corner of her mouth and her lip was split and bleeding. The scratches down the left side of her face were bleeding now as well.

“No, I would never—” The rest of Hilde’s words died on her lips as she realized exactly what Dee was doing. “No one will believe I did that to you!”

“Won’t they?” Dee asked with a smirk. “Wanna bet?” With that she turned and ran screaming down the street.

Chapter Eleven

Hilde rushed back to Needles and Pins, fumbled the key in the lock and, once inside, relocked the door behind her. She was in shock, never having witnessed anything like that in her life.

Her hands shook as she took out her cell phone. She tried to call Colt but only got his voice mail. She left a message that it was urgent she talk to him. Only after she hung up did she remember he had to go back to West Yellowstone today.

She’d barely hung up when she saw Marshal Hud Savage pull up in his patrol pickup in front of the shop. Past him, across the street, she spotted her SUV with the flat tire. She hadn’t had a flat in years. Why hadn’t she realized it was a trap?

Because that wasn’t how her mind worked. She’d never had to read evil into everything—until Dee arrived in town.

Hilde felt like a fool. She’d played right into the woman’s hands, not once, but time and again. The more she protested, the worse it got. She knew that even if she hadn’t started to walk home, Dee would have found an opportunity to make this happen.

Lightning cut a zigzagged line across the sky behind Hud as he headed for her front door. Thunder followed on its heels. Large drops of rain pelted the sidewalk as she put her cell phone back in her purse and hurried to unlock the shop door. “Hud, I—”

“I need you to come with me down to the station,” he said, his voice hard as the sidewalk Dee had hit herself with.

“I didn’t do any of that to