She watched as a deputy took photographs of the dead tree with the broken branch at the edge of the bank, watched as another made plaster casts of both the tire prints and the footprints in the camp.
Sheriff?
She was starting to hate hearing that word. She turned to see the deputy with the camera pointing into the river just feet off the bank.
I think we found the missing car.
Chapter Four
This definitely could have been a mistake. He felt a surge of warring emotions. A very male part of him wanted to protect her and had from the moment hed stopped to pick her up on the highway.
But an equally male part of him was stirred by a growing desire for her. Josey was sexy as hell. To make matters worse, there was a vulnerability in her beautiful green eyes that suckered him in.
His taking a wife had been both brilliant and dangerous. The truth was he didnt have any idea who this woman in the next room was. All he knew was that she was running from something. Why else agree to pretend to be his wife for a week? The thought worried him a little as he glanced toward the bathroom door.
The sweet scent of lilac drifted out from behind the closed and locked door. But nothing could shut out the thought of her. After having her in his arms, it wasnt that hard to picture her lush, lanky body in the steamy bathroom: the full breasts, the slim waist and hips, the long, sensual legs.
The provocative image was almost his undoing. He groaned and headed for the door. He couldnt let her distract him from his real reason for coming back to Montana and the Winchester Ranchand that was impossible with her just feet away covered in bubbles.
Opening their bedroom door, he headed down the hallway toward the opposite wingthe wing where he and his mother had lived twenty-seven years ago.
Jack had expected to find his mothers room changed. As he opened the door, he saw that it looked exactly as he remembered. The only new addition was the dust. His boots left prints as he crossed the floor and opened the window, needing to let some air into the room.
The fresh air helped. He stood breathing it in, thinking of his mother. Shed been a small, blond woman whod mistakenly fallen in love with a Winchester. Shed been happy hereand miserable. He hadnt understood why until later, when hed found out that Angus Winchester was his father.
His jaw tightened as he considered the part his grandmother had played in destroying Angus Winchester, and that reminded him of the reception shed given him earlier when he and Josey had arrived.
He shouldnt have been surprised. When he was a boy, Pepper hadnt paid him any mind, as if he were invisible. Theyd all lived in some part of the huge old lodge, but seldom crossed paths except at meals.
It wasnt that shed disliked him. She just hadnt cared one way or the other, and finding out he was Anguss child hadnt changed that.
He stood for a moment in the room, promising his mothers memory that hed see that Pepper Winchester paid for all of it, every miserable day shed spent in this house or on Earth. Then he closed the window and left the room, anxious to get back to Josey.
Who knew what a woman on the run with a trail of secrets shadowing her might do.
FROM THE TUB, Josey glanced over at her backpack resting on the floor of the bathroom. Just the sight of it turned her stomach, but she was pretty sure shed heard Jack leave and she had no idea how long he might be gone.
She quickly climbed from the tub and didnt bother to towel off. Instead, she grabbed the robe hed bought her and avoided looking in the mirror at her battered body. She also avoided thinking about how shed gotten herself into such a mess. She was sick to death of all the if only thoughts.
As the saying went, the die was cast.
All she knew was that she couldnt keep carrying her backpack around like a second skin. Shed seen the way Jack had eyed it. He was more than a little curious about what was so important in it that she wouldnt let it out of her sight, and hed eventually have a look.
Which meant she had to find a safe place for its contents.
She listened. No sound outside the bathroom door. Hefting the backpack, she cautiously opened the door a crack. The room appeared to be empty.
She shoved the door open a little wider, not trusting that
he hadnt returned.
No Jack. She wondered where hed gone. She wondered a lot of things about him, but mostly why hed wanted her to masquerade as his wife. Hed have to have seen she was in bad shape when hed picked her up on the highway.
So what was in it for him? After meeting his grandmother, Josey was pretty sure it couldnt be money. She just hadnt figured out what Jack was really after.
Josey reminded herself it had nothing to do with her. All she had to do was play her part, hide out here on this isolated ranch until the heat died down. No one could find her here, right?
She quickly surveyed the room. She couldnt chance a hiding place outside this room for fear someone would find it.
Across the room, she spotted the old armoire. The wardrobe was deep, and when she opened it she saw that it was filled with old clothing.