Out of the Storm (Buckhorn, Montana #1) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,92

him to do. Ahead she could see the flashing lights of the border crossing. She looked over at Collin. He had a death grip on the steering wheel.

“Aren’t you supposed to wait until you get the phone call?” she asked, pretty sure she remembered Gerald’s explicit instructions. Don’t cross the border. Gerald would call when it was time.

Except now Gerald hadn’t called. Nor was Collin slowing the SUV. He was ignoring not only her query but also Gerald’s instructions. He was going to cross and not wait for the call.

Kate held her breath as they got closer and closer to the flashing lights at the border. Why was he doing this? Just to show them that he couldn’t be bullied? It was a little late for that, she thought. This seemed reckless even for him.

“Collin!” She hadn’t meant to yell. But it did get his attention.

He shot her a warning look. His face was twisted into a look of abject misery as if he was in pain. “You made love with him. I could tell the moment I saw you.” His voice shattered. “I loved you. Maybe not the way Danny loved you, maybe more than he did if he’s Jon Harper. Did you ever consider how I felt when you couldn’t stay away from that carpenter? Everyone in Buckhorn knew that you two-timed me. Did you make love in his workshop? Right there in front of that woodstove in the sawdust?”

“No. I’m sorry,” she said in a whisper. They were going to argue about this now?

“Whatever happens now, it’s on your head,” he said, sending fear careening through her veins, setting off her pulse as he sped up the SUV.

“What are you doing?” she demanded as he raced toward the border crossing directly ahead.

He didn’t look at her. “What I have to do.”

He was going to kill her. Had to kill her now. Was that what this was about? Getting angry enough at her that he could do it? She could see it on his handsome face. She wondered if the nanny had seen it in that split second before she felt the shove and realized she was headed down those basement stairs.

Looking away, she saw that they were at the border. He slowed, driving past the Canadian side, apparently not required to stop. Ahead on the US side, Collin pulled in, stopping in front of a signal light now glowing red.

* * *

COLLIN FELT AS if his brain was on fire. He could hear his blood pulsing in his veins. He tried to calm down only to realize he might be in more trouble than having a cheating fiancée.

On the way across the border yesterday, he hadn’t noticed the apparatus they had to pull through that looked like a weigh-station platform. That’s because there hadn’t been one to the east of it where they’d driven through before.

“What is that?” Kate asked breathlessly.

“I don’t know. It looks like it might raise vehicles to look under them.” He hated the way his voice broke. Why hadn’t Gerald mention this?

“What if they lift up the car?” Kate asked in a hoarse whisper.

“I don’t think we’ll find out—unless they suspect us.” He stared at the red stoplight, waiting for it to turn green, begging for it to turn green.

He was just now realizing what a mistake it had been to ignore Gerald’s orders. Maybe the guard who came on in the next shift was planning to wave them right through because he was one of them? By not waiting for the phone call, had he just blown everything? He was thinking what a fool he was, when Kate asked, “What happens if they lift the car?”

“Nothing. Just sit there and wait.” He hoped Gerald was right about the guys who added the undercarriage containers being the best in the business because according to the plan, they were filled with enough drugs to make them all rich. Then there was the wedding dress with its small fortune sewn inside. If everything went as planned, this would be the largest shipment yet.

“The light turned green,” Kate said, her voice high and squeaky with obvious relief. As he pulled forward a large overhead door opened. He drove in, the door closing behind him.

He didn’t look at Kate, couldn’t. They weren’t out of the woods yet. But once that door opened in front of them and he drove through, they were safe. Unfortunately, the realization of how this was going to end had struck him a