Out of the Storm (Buckhorn, Montana #1) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,80

border—without her. Unless Gerald’s men were successful and found her—and Jon Harper.

As he drove back to the rental house, he began to get nervous again. What would happen if Jon and Kate couldn’t be found?

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

WHEN COLLIN REACHED the house, he drove into the garage, shut off the engine and went inside to find Gerald in better spirits. Apparently the man put the word out on the pickup with Montana plates. Jon’s truck had been found in the parking garage at a local hotel.

That surprised him. He’d expected Jon to take off with Kate. Maybe not to the border, but at least to run and hide. Not stay in a local hotel. But if Kate told him about the highway patrolman who stopped them, Jon might have realized that running was the wrong thing to try to do.

“You have Kate?” Collin asked, half-afraid of the answer.

“Not yet. My men are waiting for them to leave the hotel,” Gerald said.

“What are you going to do with her?”

Gerald studied him for a long nerve-racking moment. “You still need her. Given what you’ve told me about her feelings for the man, it sounds as if we can use him to get her to do what we want.”

Collin nodded. “That’s good.” Especially since he’d lost Danielle. “She would do anything for him.” He hated the bitterness he heard in his voice.

Gerald hadn’t missed it, either. “You aren’t getting too personally involved, are you?”

“I was planning to marry her,” he snapped.

The older man raised an eyebrow. “You seriously thought that was going to happen after this little engagement trip of yours? I think that is pretty naive of you. She doesn’t sound stupid. Even if this other man hadn’t come into the picture, do you really think she wouldn’t have caught on? You just picked up a wedding dress for her that she didn’t choose, didn’t even get to try on.”

“I could have sold that,” he said stubbornly. “After all, I talked her into this trip.” Gerald said nothing. “She was ready to marry me.”

“Until she saw this carpenter she believes is her dead husband.”

Collin looked away. “I told you, she might be right about that.”

“I suspect so, since he followed her all the way up here to get her away from you.”

“He’s just that kind of guy,” Collin said, thinking how much worse that would make it if his fiancée had fallen in love on their engagement trip with a complete stranger. It wasn’t a story he would be telling anyone when this was over. If he lived that long. That was still a chance he couldn’t ignore.

Gerald had found Kate. Collin would get her back, and they would cross the border together. That still left a lot of what-ifs. He saw Gerald check his phone.

“Your fiancée is about to get our version of room service.”

* * *

KATE WOKE FROM a restless, short sleep. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was. But then it all came rushing back at her, leaving her emotionally exhausted. She eased out of bed. She wore one of Jon’s T-shirts and her panties. She couldn’t bear putting on the clothes she’d worn for the past two days.

Pulling the comforter around her, she tiptoed into the adjoining room. Jon lay on the couch, his eyes closed. She stopped to study his face. She couldn’t look at him without seeing Danny. Did she just want to see Danny in this man?

Maybe, since it seemed she couldn’t trust her instincts after trusting Collin. Had she known something wasn’t quite right with him? Was he right about her never getting to the altar with him, even if they hadn’t broken down outside of Buckhorn, Montana? Would she have seen through him?

“I’m not asleep,” Jon said, startling her as he opened his eyes. He swung his legs off the couch and sat up to look at her. He was still fully clothed as if he’d been biding his time until they left. “Can’t sleep?”

She shook her head, swallowing as she met his brown eyes. They were filled with so much concern for her. She’d gotten herself into this mess, and now she’d dragged him into it. And yet, he was worried about her.

He moved over to give her room to sit on the couch. They’d talked some before daylight. Jon wasn’t much of a talker—just like Danny. It made her heart ache to think of all the wasted years. Danny had been alone in the world because of a mix-up, and so