priorities mixed up. I guarantee, they’re not mixed up anymore. He’ll be sitting beside his pilot, trying to make the plane go faster.” She shook her head. “I’ll bet he didn’t even realize that he loved her.”
* * *
THAT WOULD HAVE been a safe bet. Terrified of what he might find when he went home, Jake could have kicked himself for not realizing it sooner. He was crazy about Ida. Maybe he always had been. But certainly, from the time he’d driven her to her doctor’s office, that first day, she’d never been far out of his mind. He’d taken care of her, worried about her, married her to keep her safe. And even after all that, he hadn’t realized how he felt about her.
He certainly realized it now. He just hoped that it wasn’t too late. He ground his teeth in anguish.
* * *
MEANWHILE, IDA WAS sitting in the back of the limousine drinking a cup of coffee that Fred had bought for both of them at a coffee shop in Billings. It had been a long drive. Fred had been quiet and miserable, especially when Ida realized that they weren’t headed toward Pam Simpson’s house.
“Where are we going, Fred?” she asked, leaning forward, her beautiful face drawn with fear. “Please tell me you’re not mixed up with Bailey. Please tell me that!”
The terror he saw in her face, added to his own guilty conscience, had slowed the car. He pulled into a grocery store parking lot and let down the glass between the front seat and the back and switched off the engine.
“Mrs. McGuire, I’ve never hurt a human being in my life,” he said miserably. “But he’s got my mother...” He stopped, almost choking on the fear.
“Oh, Fred,” she said softly and winced. “I’m so sorry!”
“No. I’m sorry. He promised he’d let her go. All I had to do was bring you to a house he was staying at, over near Powell, Wyoming.” He averted his eyes. “It didn’t sound so bad. I mean, I didn’t think he’d hurt you.” He looked back at her. “I didn’t know what he’d done to you. I was unhappy about him hurting your cat. I have a cat. She’s twenty years old. I love her.”
“I love Butler, too,” she said.
“I don’t know what to do,” Fred said heavily. “See, I worked as a wheelman for a robbery ring in Denver, years ago. Bailey knew. He sent me to apply for that chauffeur job with Mr. McGuire, once he found out that Mr. McGuire was taking you out. I thought he was helping me. You know, giving me a second chance because I’d just got out of jail and there aren’t a lot of people who’ll hire an ex-con. He said he’d make sure my background looked real clean.” His eyes closed. “I didn’t want to do this.” He looked back at her. His face was torn with discomfort. “I don’t want to let him hurt you. But he’s got my mom, and she’s all I have in the world. She stood by me when I got arrested, in spite of always warning me to stay away from bad people. She came to see me every week when I was behind bars. I don’t know what to do!”
“Fred, will you trust me?” she asked softly.
“I would. But you shouldn’t trust me. I’m an evil man!”
“You aren’t,” she said, her voice quiet and soft. “I’m going to call my attorneys in Denver. They sent Bailey to prison in the first place. I want to tell them that you’ll testify against Bailey. Will you let me do that?”
“My mom...!”
“They have a first-rate investigator. He was a mercenary before he took on the job.” She smiled. “He’s got contacts that you wouldn’t believe.”
“As long as my mom doesn’t get hurt...”
“I can promise you that she won’t.”
He hesitated, but only for a few seconds. “Okay.”
The parking lot was well lit. They were waiting for the investigator. He’d been with them for years, all through Ida’s turbulent second marriage and its aftermath. He was in his midthirties now, but still as dangerous a man as she’d ever known.
He parked next to the limousine, giving Ida and Fred a few anxious seconds until he climbed out of the dark sedan and opened the back door of the limo.
He didn’t waste words. “Where is Trent?” he asked Fred.
Fred told him. “He’s got my mom,” he added.
Hunt Garrison just smiled. “No, he doesn’t.”
Fred almost gasped. “He doesn’t?”
“She’s safe and