Out of the Storm (Buckhorn, Montana #1) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,58

could be wrong about Matthews.”

He met Earl Ray’s gaze. “Nice try.” They weren’t wrong, and they both knew it. “Someone has to help her. It’s just my luck that she chose me.” He’d lived in the shadows for so long, he’d felt incapable of coming out in the light—even if it wasn’t dangerous. Now he had no choice. “You know I’m going after her no matter what.”

“Of course.”

“Then why did you try to talk me out of it?” he demanded.

“Because I had to know how committed you were to this...fool’s errand.” Earl Ray smiled. “Also I didn’t want you going off half-cocked. I wanted to be sure you knew how much you have to lose if you do this. And I wanted your permission to help you.”

Jon laughed, shaking his head as he studied the older man. “Thank you.” He picked up his coffee and drank it before rising to his feet.

“You have a plan?” Earl Ray asked.

“Collin is meeting some friends at the Canadian border. If it looks and smells like a drug deal, I’m figuring it probably is. No reason to stop him before he’s got the goods. Katie should be safe until they cross back into the States and he doesn’t need her anymore.” He realized he’d said Katie. Earl Ray hadn’t seemed to notice.

“Which crossing?”

“Not sure. She said they were headed north. That gives him several options due north of here.”

“How will you be able to find her?” Earl Ray asked, sounding more curious than worried.

“I put a tracking device on their rental in the middle of last night. Actually two devices, in case he should find one of them,” Jon said. His friend laughed.

He checked his phone. “They’re headed north no doubt to one of the smaller border crossings. If I had to guess, I’d say they’ll cross at Port of Morgan. It ranks as the twelfth least used border crossing between the US and Canada. But there is also Opheim and Turner. They are even smaller, with even less use.”

“That doesn’t mean they will be less dangerous if things go south.” Rising to his feet, Earl Ray walked to his pantry door, opened it to a wall of canned goods. Jon watched him press a panel on the wall. The shelves of cans opened to reveal another wall—this one covered in firearms and ammunition.

Jon let out a low, appreciative whistle. “Expecting Armageddon?”

“I just like to be prepared for anything that might come up.” He stopped for a moment as if caught in the past. “I can’t go with you.”

“No, you can’t,” Jon said.

“It’s not that I’m too old.”

He smiled. “No, it’s not that. You can’t leave Buckhorn. This town needs you. I need you to be here when I come back to return your weapons. Also, I need you to keep this for me.” He reached into his coat and pulled out the cashier’s check made out of Earl Ray. It was nearly everything he’d saved for the past five years.

Earl Ray met his gaze. “Then you’d better come back.”

* * *

“WHAT THE HELL was that back there?” Collin demanded not far out of town.

Kate could feel anger coming off him in waves. She pretended to not know what he was asking.

“Tell me you weren’t trying to pass a message to Jon right before we left,” he snapped and when she didn’t say anything, he quickly added, “I should call my friend with Danielle and tell him to—”

“I was just trying to keep the two of you from getting into a fistfight,” she said. “I wanted him to know that I was going with you of my own volition.”

She waited for her words to soothe him, praying that they did.

“Skiing? The man isn’t stupid. He has to know there’s no skiing to the north of this border.”

“But he doesn’t know that’s where we’re going,” she said reasonably. “I don’t even know where we’re going.”

She could hear his breathing begin to slow. He shot her a look. She put on her best innocent face and saw him relax a little. Sitting back, she concentrated on the highway ahead as she tried to still her own raucous heart’s frantic beat. Jon had gotten the message. She’d seen his eyes narrow, felt him start at just the one word. Justin. He had to know that not only she knew—but Collin. Jon had to get out of Buckhorn before the mobsters came after him.

Collin turned on some music, nervously switching from station to station. When he couldn’t find