machine tape before I could get them. I haven’t been working for a while.”
She stopped dead in the middle of the street. “Then how did you know where…”
He stopped, too, looking at her as if she’d lost her mind. “We really need to get out of here. Unless I miss my guess, we’ll be seeing those guys again.”
“How did you find me?” She couldn’t move because even before he said the words, she knew.
He sighed as he pulled off his cowboy hat and raked a hand through his thick hair. “Your father told me you were in Montana. I figured out where you were headed by tracking the credit card charges he gave me.”
She stared at him, her heart sinking like the Titanic. “My father? Why would my father…” She couldn’t believe this. Fear shot through her, mixed with equal amounts of anger and disappointment. “No. You wouldn’t.”
He rocked back, seemingly surprised by her reaction. “Could we talk about this somewhere else besides the middle of the street?”
She felt her car keys in her coat pocket and glanced toward the back of the museum, gauging whether or not she could reach her car before he caught her.
It wasn’t her anger that brought the hot stinging tears to her eyes but the betrayal. She would have trusted Chance with her life. Had. She’d stupidly contacted him believing he was the one person who couldn’t be bought by her father.
“What is my father paying you to do?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
He was looking at her closely now, a wariness in his gaze. She knew he’d seen her anger—as well as her tears. He didn’t even try to deny that her father had hired him. “Look, clearly you’re in trouble. I just want to help you.”
She laughed and looked away, biting at her lower lip, still considering making a run for it. “If you’re working for my father then you aren’t here to help me.” She met his gaze. “What did he pay you to do? Stop me?”
“He just wants you to come back to Texas. He’s afraid for you. But I would imagine you know more about that than I do.”
She stared at the man she’d measured all men by since she was twelve. “You bastard.” She turned and took off at a dead run for her car.
Chance couldn’t believe it. He tore off after her. She was fast, all legs, but he caught her before she reached the curb. Grabbing her arm, he spun her around to face him.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he demanded, holding her shoulders in his palms.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she snapped instantly, anger flashing like lightning in all that blue. Her voice was deeper than her sister’s. This was no mealy-mouthed, soft-spoken Southern belle. This woman had attitude, as well as backbone. She was a firecracker, hotheaded and sharp-tongued. A real handful—just as her father had warned him.
He should have known that the unmanageable, stubborn, too-smart-for-her-britches girl he’d known at twelve would grow into this fiery to-be-reckoned-with woman.
In answer, she swung that shoulder bag, to cuff him the way she had the other poor sucker, but he’d been expecting it. He caught the bag and blocked her next move, not interested in being kneed in the groin or ending up in a snowbank.
“Damn it, I’m trying to help you. Why can’t you believe that?” he said, holding on to both of her arms and keeping her at a safe distance from his groin.
“Because you were bought by my father, just like the rest of them.” She spit the words at him, her eyes narrowed to slits. He could feel the anger coursing through her body and feared if he let go of her, she would launch herself at him again. They were wasting valuable time arguing on the street like this.
“I wasn’t bought by anyone. Especially Beauregard Bonner. Don’t you know me better than that?”
“I thought I did.”
“Look, whatever this is between you and your father, I don’t care, okay? I want to help, starting with getting us both out of here.” He gave her arms a little tug. “Come on.” He thought she’d fight him. But somewhere in the distance came the roar of an engine.
He watched her face, trying to read her expression. Fear? Or something else?
She didn’t look happy about it but she let him hustle her across the street to his pickup.
Fortunately with the holidays so close, this part of town was pretty