Out of the Storm (Buckhorn, Montana #1) - B.J. Daniels Page 0,94

the orders he’d been given. That gave Jon the edge. Matthews was supposed to pull off before the border crossing and wait for a phone call from Gerald.

Knowing what Gerald had planned, he was nervous as it was. He’d been waiting for the moment when he saw the SUV turn off the highway. That’s when he’d planned to make his move.

But Matthews hadn’t turned off the road to wait for the call.

Instead, he’d seemed to speed up—racing toward the border. Had Gerald called to change the plan? Jon hadn’t considered that. Now he didn’t know what to think as he held back, watching from a distance as the SUV pulled in. Even from this far back, he could see the glow of the red light.

What would he do if the border guards found enough evidence to arrest both Matthews and Kate? Had that been Gerald’s true plan?

Jon was beginning to panic when the light in the distance turned green and the SUV pulled into the building. He tried to breathe a sigh of relief. But until Matthews got all the way through...

To his surprise, the SUV came out the other side of the building minutes later. Jon shifted into gear, praying he didn’t get held up long at the crossing. He’d put in a call to Earl Ray earlier, asking for his help. Earl Ray had promised to do what he could.

Now, as Jon drove toward the border crossing, he found himself holding his breath. So much was riding on his getting across and to Kate before it was too late... He told himself that she couldn’t have come into his life to be taken away so quickly. He held on to that hope as he pulled up to the red light and saw both of the officers in the glassed-in area looking at his stolen plates.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

COLLIN FELT THE blood rush from his head as he disconnected from the phone call. Speeding up, he dropped over a small hill, pulled off onto the first secondary dirt road he came to, slammed on the brakes and threw the SUV into Park. Swearing, he began to beat the steering wheel with his fist.

“What’s happened?” Kate cried, sounding close to tears. “Is it Jon? Is he...okay?”

He stopped swearing and hitting the wheel to stare at her in disbelief before he let out a bitter howl somewhere between pain and laughter. “Jon? You think I would get this upset over your precious Jon taking a bullet?” He saw her instant relief and wanted to backhand her. She had no idea how much trouble they were in. How much trouble he was in.

“Jon wasn’t in the basement when Gerald went down to...release him. Add to that, I didn’t make the call before we crossed the border, and he’s pissed,” Collin said, spitting out each word. “Apparently, there’s another vehicle crossing at Opheim. He wanted to coordinate them with us. That’s why I was supposed to wait for his call.” He swore again as he looked into her wide green eyes. It hadn’t been all that long ago that he had lost himself in the depths of those eyes.

“Jon got away?”

“Yes, and no one knows where he is.”

Her eyes widened a little more as if now wondering the same thing he was. What would Jon do once free? Collin realized from the look on her face that there was something else she was thinking. If Jon was free and so were her daughters, Collin no longer had any leverage over her. She was dead wrong about the tables turning, he thought. He had a bullet with her name on it. If she jumped out of the car and tried to run, he’d shoot her down in the middle of the road.

Taking a breath, he let it out slowly and tried to calm down. He’d been nervous about crossing the border. But they had breezed through. Who gave a damn about the other vehicle that was crossing at Opheim? He wondered why it mattered that they cross at the same time. Just some stupid plan of Gerald’s.

Collin had the drugs. They hadn’t been confiscated. He wasn’t on his way to prison. He wasn’t sure how bad the repercussions would be from double-crossing Gerald, but he realized he wasn’t that worried. As long as he made this deal, the man should be delighted that Collin had gotten the drugs through and overlook everything else.

Now all he had to do was meet the distributor. But before that, he