Out of the Storm (Buckhorn, Montana #1) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,88

she was going to get. She gave him a nod and turned back to the dishes.

“Collin, go check on Jon, then get ready to leave,” Gerald ordered as he walked out of the kitchen. “The car’s here. You and Kate are leaving for the border.”

* * *

COLLIN RINSED HIS hands in the sink, his gaze going to Kate. He couldn’t believe that she’d called Gerald a liar to his face. He shook his head as their gazes met. Didn’t she realize the kind of men she was dealing with? She looked calm, but he saw her fingers tremble a little as she reached for the dish towel to dry her hands.

He took it from her when she’d finished and dried his own, all the time holding her gaze. What was she up to? Something. What made her so brave? Or was she reckless? He felt a jolt. He knew this woman pretty well. She looked as if she knew something he didn’t. As he started to turn away from the sink, he realized what she hadn’t handed him to put in the dishwasher.

Collin grabbed her wrist. “Where is it?”

“Where’s what?” she demanded and tried to pull free.

“The paring knife you used to cut up the peppers,” he snapped.

Gerald stepped back into the kitchen, his gaze on the two of them. “Do you have the paring knife, Kate?” he asked in that patronizing tone of his.

She hesitated but only for a moment as if realizing they would find it on her if she refused to give it up. She didn’t need the humiliation of them frisking her. Slowly she nodded, her gaze still locked with Collin’s.

“Would you please give it to Collin,” Gerald said as if talking to an unruly child.

Kate jerked her wrist free of his grasp and bent down to pull the paring knife from her boot. She held it for a moment, the blade pointed at his chest before she tossed it into the sink. “I need to get my purse and my suitcase,” she said and pushed past him and Gerald.

He heard the man laugh. “Nice work, Collin. Now, check on Jon, and let’s get you two on the road,” Gerald said. “I guess I don’t have to tell you to watch her like a hawk. That woman is...” he chuckled appreciatively “...something else, isn’t she?”

Collin couldn’t agree more as he left the kitchen and headed for the basement door. He figured he wouldn’t have to go all the way down the stairs. He should be able to see Jon by just looking through the opening between the ceiling and railing. He entered through the door and snapped on the light. Hadn’t he left it on earlier? He stared down the steps, realizing that he wouldn’t be able to see Jon from here because a beam was in the way. He’d have no choice but to go all the way down.

But as he started to take a step, he was hit with a sudden prickling on the back of his neck that felt like a premonition. He looked behind him. Through the front window he saw Gerald outside talking on his cell phone. Phil was looking at his own phone in the dining room and not paying any attention to him. And yet Collin had the strongest sensation that if he went all the way down these steps, one of them would slam the door and lock him in the basement.

He quickly turned out the light, closed the door and locked it. “Everything’s fine downstairs,” he called to Phil as Kate came out of the bedroom rolling her suitcase behind her. He hurried to get his. The sooner they got out of here, the better, he thought. Until he was in the car and on the road, he wouldn’t feel safe.

The thought almost made him laugh. As if crossing the border with a shitload of drugs and a woman who hated him was safer.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

JON HAD BEEN about to wriggle out the basement window when he’d heard a voice just outside. He stepped back, caught movement by the large pines at the front of the house. At first he couldn’t make out the words.

But then Gerald moved closer. He was talking on his phone. Jon listened, catching enough to feel his blood pressure rise. It was all he could do not to storm upstairs and take his chances. Fortunately good sense kept him hunkered just below the window as he listened until Gerald finished his call and