When Twilight Comes - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,44

stared at the cliff just feet in front of the Jeep. The logging road had ended without warning in a fifty-foot drop into a creek bed.

“I guess I should have taken the other road back there,” Mike said as he carefully put the Jeep in Reverse and backed up.

Rose didn’t let out the breath until they were far enough from the dropoff that she dared inhale again. Her hand went to her side.

“Are you feeling all right?” Mike asked.

She dropped her hand. She could feel the scar through the fabric of her shirt and realized that it had become a habit, touching it, almost as if it had become a reminder.

“The knife wound is healed. I’m fine.”

“Right.” Mike turned the Jeep around in a wide spot and started back up the road. “You really think you’re up to taking on some really bad bad guys?”

“I’m just going to warn Jenna, that’s all.”

Mike chuckled. “Right. Lorenzo isn’t already out on bail and tracking her, too. Probably hasn’t sent any of his thugs after her, either.” He shook his head and shot Rose a glance. “It isn’t your fault she married him.”

“People make mistakes,” Rose said, remembering the young, gentle woman she’d met in the park. “Jenna made a big one. But she shouldn’t have to pay with her life. Not to mention the price that little girl might have to pay.”

Rose swallowed, willing back the tears that burned her eyes. She remembered Lexi from the park.

Mike seemed to let the silence lie between them for a moment. “You have a plan if Lorenzo and his gunmen show up?”

She had no plan. That wasn’t like her. She preferred having a plan of action, if it was working on her house or working on a case. She was winging it and that alone should have scared her. “I’m going to get Jenna out of there before they can find her.”

“There’s something you should know,” Mike said. “The word on the street is that a big payoff is missing. Raymond Valencia is looking for Franco. Lorenzo is somehow involved. But there is a fear that there will be retribution. If there hasn’t already been.”

Was this about a missing payoff? Or about Jenna?

Rose closed her eyes. “I just can’t shake this feeling that Jenna is in worse trouble than even having her ex after her.”

Chapter Twelve

Charlene Palmer had taken every precaution to make sure she wasn’t followed. In the busy traffic around Seattle she hadn’t spotted any car twice.

But once on the two-lane road heading east she kept seeing a large black car behind her. She figured Lorenzo would have her followed. She’d hoped she’d lost the tail before now. Maybe she hadn’t.

She wasn’t that worried. Even if it was one of Lorenzo’s men, he wouldn’t stop her until she had the package, and since she had a backup plan…

She’d locked the doors on her car while waiting for the road to open, and patrolmen to remove the barricades. There hadn’t been but a handful of vehicles in line behind her, the black sedan one of them.

Now that they were moving again, she didn’t see the vehicle. Maybe it had turned off. Maybe it hadn’t been following her at all.

She tried to relax. She had a nice car. Soon she would have twenty thousand dollars to go with it. Actually, more than that if her plan worked. And unless she missed her guess, she would no longer be needed to spy on Jenna Dante. She’d never liked doing it, anyway.

Wisps of fog began to drift across the highway. She’d been climbing for miles. Up here, the trees were thick on each side of the road, walls of green that hemmed in the highway. Around the next bend, the fog grew more dense. She caught a glimpse of black clouds shrouding the tops of the mountains. A storm was coming in. She liked storms.

She turned on her headlights and slowed as she checked her rearview mirror. There was one set of headlights a good distance behind her, but she quickly lost them in the fog and trees as the road snaked up the mountainside.

Glancing at the mileage gauge, she saw that she should be almost to Fernhaven.

And there her life would finally begin.

FEAR KEPT JENNA’S EYES squeezed tight. Hurry, Charlene. I have to get out of here.

Jenna tried to remain calm. Charlene would be here soon. By this time tomorrow Lorenzo would have his money back. She and Lexi would be on a flight to some