Fugitive

She didn’t know that he’d been a deputy sheriff for five years and had worked on the Green Bluff police force for five years before that. Didn’t know that he had been falsely accused and convicted of drug trafficking.

What she didn’t know, he could use against her.

For her?

It didn’t matter.

All that mattered was keeping her safe.

He’d failed Amanda. And she’d died because of it.

He wouldn’t fail Laney.

He yanked her hand down, then moved so close he could smell melting snow mixed with flowers in her hair. “Don’t make the mistake of believing that, Laney.”

“I don’t believe you’re a murderer. I don’t believe you’d hurt me.”

“Then believe you’re in trouble if you’re caught with me.”

“Caught by the police?” Her gaze dropped to his jumpsuit.

“It’s not just the police I’m worried about.”

“Then who?”

“It’s a long story.” Too long to tell when danger was breathing down both their necks. Logan felt the clock ticking, trouble drawing near.

“We have time. The storm won’t break for hours.”

“How far are we from the main road?”

“Five miles.” She repacked the first aid kit, putting everything back exactly where it belonged. Neat and tidy. Just the way her parents had trained her to be. He’d hated that about her when they’d met. Her perfection against his rough edges. Her pristine dresses against his worn and dirty clothes.

Now, she wore faded jeans and a soft sweater, the fabric hugging her slender curves.

“Are there other cabins nearby?”

“No. My husband bought a hundred and fifty acres from a logging company fifteen years ago. This is the only place around.”

Not what he’d wanted to hear.

If this really was the only place around, anyone hunting him would know exactly where to look. He needed to get the cuffs off his wrists, get out of his prison orange and put on a few layers of clothing. Then, he needed to get going while he still could.

“Does your husband keep clothes up here? I’m not exactly dressed for the weather. I can pay him for everything I borrow.”

“My husband passed away two years ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me, too.” She opened a trunk at the end of a queen-size bed and pulled out a pile of clothes. “You can use whatever you need.”

“Thanks. Now, I just need to find a way to put them on.” He lifted his cuffed wrists.

“We might be able to pick the lock.” She leaned over the cuffs, her hands on his wrists as she studied the lock. Warm fingers on cold flesh. Flowers and slow waltzes in the moonlight. It had been a long time since he’d thought of any of those things. In the three years since Amanda’s death, he’d mostly stayed out of the dating game. A few dinners set up by friends. A lunch here or there. Nothing that had stuck because he hadn’t wanted anything to.

He stepped back, pulling his wrists from Laney’s hands.

“Do you have a tool chest in your car?”

“A small one, but I doubt there’s anything in there that’ll take these off. I think I’ll have better luck in the shop. William kept tons of tools in it.” She shrugged into her coat, dragging her braid over the collar.

“Where’s the shop?”

“Out back. I’ll just be a minute.” She opened the back door and frigid wind blew in, spraying snow across the wood floor and plastering the wet jumpsuit to Logan’s frozen skin. He pulled the blankets closer, gritting his teeth. The last thing he wanted was to walk out that door and follow Laney into the cold, but he couldn’t stay in the cabin while she went herself.

He walked onto the back porch, the wind biting into his throbbing, thawing flesh. He would be frozen again before they were done, but if he was able to ditch the cuffs and the jumpsuit, it would be worth it.

“You should stay in the cabin,” Laney said as she picked her way down snow-covered stairs.

“I don’t think so.”

“You’re nearly thawed, Logan. Do you really want to freeze again?”

No.

But he didn’t want her out in the storm by herself either. He didn’t trust that the men who’d shot at him had run when the police showed up. Hidden? Yes. Disappeared from the picture? No way. No one went to as much trouble as they had to fail, and Logan had a feeling that the only way for them to succeed was for him to be dead, his body buried somewhere in the wilderness.

He followed Laney across the clearing. If a shop existed, it was well hidden by the night and by the storm. Snow blew into Logan’s eyes, the raging wind snatching every breath before it formed. He glanced back and saw the vague outline of the cabin and light spilling out from its windows. How far would they have to go before they lost sight of both? In a storm like this, not far.

“This isn’t a good idea, Laney.” He snagged her coat, nearly bumping into her back when she stopped. “If we go much farther, we may not be able to find our way back.”

“We’re already here. William kept the workshop locked, but there’s a spare key.” She brushed snow from a birdhouse nailed to the side of a large building, her fingers sliding under it. It seemed to take forever, but she finally pulled out a key.

Logan crowded into the shop behind her, catching a whiff of wood chips and sawdust and summer flowers.

“There’s a light here somewhere.” Fabric rustled as Laney moved, and a light went on, spilling into the cavernous room.

She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d said her husband had tools. Logan figured there were a couple of tons of tools in the building. Table saws. Band saws. Lathes. A plainer. Rows of shelves that housed chisels and sanders. Handsaws hung from the far wall. Antique and new, side by side. Everything orderly and neat.

Obviously, William had loved his tools.

“I think we can drill through the lock mechanism to open the cuffs,” Laney said, her voice tight and her movements stiff as she walked to one of the shelves and lifted an electric drill. Was it the shop or the situation that had her tense?

“You don’t have to help me, Laney. It would be better if you didn’t,” he said gently because he wanted her to take the out he was offering, to run before anyone knew that they’d ever been together.

“You never told me why.” She grabbed a drill from a tool chest, patted a worktable. “Put your hands here.”

“Why what?” he asked, placing his hands palm down on smooth wood.

“Why it’s so dangerous for us to be together. Why you think someone other than the police is after you.” She aimed the drill straight into the cuff lock, her hands steady. If she was nervous, it didn’t show, and he couldn’t help thinking how different she was from the scared and anxious girl he used to know.

“The police cruiser that was taking me to state prison was run off the road. The driver was shot and killed. Another officer was wounded. Whoever was responsible took a shot at me.”

“Why would someone help you escape and then kill you?”

“That’s a good question, and I don’t have an answer.” But he would. All he needed was time and a place to hunker down and plan.

“Why were you on your way to state prison?” The drill whined and protested, a few sparks flying as she pressed down.

“I was convicted of trafficking in illegal narcotics.”

“Were you guilty?” Laney asked—because she had to know and because she couldn’t believe that the teenager who had been so adamantly opposed to drugs had turned into a man who sold them.

“No.” Logan’s answer was short, his hands pressed hard to the table that William had fashioned out of thick oak slabs. Laney had been there with him the weekend he’d finished it. She had smiled as he’d caressed the golden wood and imagined out loud all of the things he could create on it.

The thought of selling his cabin and shop and everything in them made her stomach churn.

Her hand slipped, the drill sliding from the lock and digging into the wood.

“Careful.” Logan grabbed her hand, holding it steady for a moment.

“Sorry.” She pressed the drill in again and focused her attention on forcing the lock open. It took three tries, but the lock finally popped. Not a pretty job, but done. “You’re free.”

“Thanks.” Logan slid out of the cuffs, rubbing the raw red welts on his wrists. He was still shivering, but he had some color in his face.

Good.

Not so good that she’d just freed a convict from handcuffs. She might believe Logan’s story, but a jury hadn’t.

“We should go back to the cabin.” She put the drill back exactly where William had always kept it, then ran her finger over the ding it had made in the table.

For some reason, tears burned behind her eyes.

Not grief. She’d cried a million tears in the weeks after William died. Maybe it was just sadness over all the dreams she’d never live with him.

“You okay?” Logan lifted her hand from the wood and ran his thumb across her knuckles. Even hurt and cold, he seemed larger than life, his dark blue gaze so intense that she had to look away.

“Fine. I just think we should get back and start planning how we’re going to get off the mountain.”

“We’re not going to get me off. I’m going to do it. You’re going to pretend that you never saw me.” He tugged her outside and back into the cabin, slamming the door against the bitter cold. The fire had nearly died, and Laney shrugged out of her coat, shivering a little as she piled logs on the embers and stoked them to life.

Logan didn’t speak as he grabbed the pile of clothes she’d pulled out for him. He didn’t say a word as he walked into the small bathroom and closed the door.

She wondered if he’d return, or if he’d climb out the bathroom window and disappear into the storm.

Would she go after him if he did?

She’d been raised to follow the rules, to strive for perfection. Nothing short of that had ever been acceptable. As an adult, she’d tried to move past the need for flawless living. She’d tried to concentrate on what God wanted from her rather than what people wanted. She’d let her hair be messy sometimes, allowed herself to dress in jeans and sweaters.

Still, she’d never skirted the law, and in helping Logan she’d done more than that. She’d broken it.

The bathroom door opened, and he walked out, William’s flannel shirt hanging open over a black T-shirt. His faded jeans hung low on Logan’s leaner hips. William had been shorter, a little broader and a lot older. On him, the clothes had looked comfortable and easy.

On Logan...

She frowned, pouring still-warm water into a mug. “Warmer?”

“Much. And, now that I am, I really need you to leave. If this is the only cabin on the mountain—”

“It is.”

“Then eventually someone is going to show up here looking for me. I don’t want you here when it happens.”

“If I leave, how will you get off the mountain?”

“I’ll manage.”

“You can’t walk out. It’s too far.”

“Like I said, I’ll manage. Did your husband keep a handgun around?”

“In the lockbox on the top shelf of the closet,” she responded and then wished she hadn’t. She’d already broken the law. She was breaking it again by providing a felon with a firearm.

He grabbed the box and set it on the satiny wood of the little table William had crafted on their last visit to the cabin together.

“Do you know the combination?”

“Why do you need a gun?” she asked, unable to look away as Logan fiddled with the combination lock. With his dark hair almost dry and his chin shadowed with the beginning of a beard, he looked tough and dangerous.

“I’m not planning to kill a cop with it, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking that helping you get out of those cuffs was one thing. Giving you a weapon is something else. Unless you have a really good reason for wanting it, it’s probably better that it stays locked up.”

“It’s not a weapon—it’s a firearm. And I’m only planning to use it for protection.” He looked up from the box, his eyes blazing. Familiar eyes, and she couldn’t deny them, couldn’t turn away from the truth she saw there. She rattled off the combination, and he lifted the pistol, checking to see if it was loaded and then grabbing the ammunition that William had locked up with it.

“I’d better go,” she said because looking at him wearing William’s clothes and carrying William’s firearm made her chest tight and her stomach ache. She’d loved William. He’d been her best friend and confidant. Her cheerleader and supporter. With him, she’d had freedom from the chaos and drama that she’d grown up with.

The thing was, she’d loved Logan, too, all those years ago. Had loved him with the kind of love only a child who’d been desperate for affection could feel.

She didn’t want to leave him, but she didn’t know how she could stay when staying meant turmoil and trouble. She’d run from that thirteen years ago. And she’d lived more than a decade with peace and stability and order in her life.

“Be careful on the roads, and don’t stop for anything but a marked police cruiser,” Logan said as she opened the front door.

She nodded but couldn’t speak. Her eyes burned with tears, all the things Logan had done for her when she was young and hurting and scared crowding into her brain.

Don’t cry, Laney. Don’t give them that power over you.

Those were the first words he’d ever spoken to her. She’d shoved the memory so far back in her mind, she hadn’t known it was still there.

She walked outside, let the wind cool her hot face and burning eyes and tried to tell herself that she wasn’t abandoning the man who’d lived in her parents’ home for five years because he hadn’t wanted to abandon her.

She was doing the right thing. She had to believe that, had to trust that God’s plan would work itself out. He would protect Logan.

He didn’t need Laney’s help for that.

Still...

Thirteen years, and Logan was suddenly back in her life.

That had to mean something.

Didn’t it?

She slid behind the wheel of the Jeep, her gaze jumping to the cabin. She needed to drive away, but she couldn’t quite make herself start the engine.

The cabin door opened, and Logan appeared, silhouetted in the light. He walked to the car, his stride long and confident.

She unrolled the window as he approached.

“Did you change your mind about wanting a ride?” she asked, half hoping that he’d say he had. Half hoping that he wouldn’t.

“I need to toss this into the woods. Ten minutes, and it’ll be covered with snow.” He held up his prison uniform. “If anyone finds it, they’ll assume I’m hypothermic and out of my mind with it. I don’t want anyone knowing I was here. Not for a while, anyway.”

“Logan...”

She wasn’t sure what she planned to say, what she should say.

“Everything is going to be okay,” he cut in before she could gather her thoughts. “Now, go. Because the longer you sit there, the longer I’m going to be standing out here, and the colder we’re both going to get.”

He meant it.

She was absolutely sure that he’d stand there until she left. She nodded, rolled up the window and started the engine, her heart beating a heavy, hard rhythm as she pulled away.

THREE

Snow splattered against the Jeep’s windshield and Laney turned on the wipers, her hand shaking a little.

She had to do this.

Had to.

Because it was what Logan wanted, and because Laney’s trip back home was designed to help her close the door to the past. Not revisit it.

She frowned, her hands tight on the steering wheel, snow swirling as she inched down the long driveway. She’d given herself two weeks to clean out the cabin and her parents’ house. Two weeks to get them both on the market and return to her interior design job and to her clients.

She hadn’t expected it to be easy, but she had expected it to go smoothly. She’d planned everything out—called the lawyer who’d handled her father’s estate after he’d died and asked him to have the electricity turned back on at the farmhouse, contacted a real estate agent and a contractor, asked friends to water her plants while she was gone.

Yeah, she’d planned everything out, but she hadn’t planned on Logan.

Hadn’t planned on having to turn her back on a part of the past that was suddenly very much in the present.

She flipped on the heat, trying to drive away the chill in her bones.

A light flashed somewhere below. It was just a glimmer that she wasn’t even sure she’d seen, but her pulse jumped, adrenaline streaming through her blood.

Just keep going, keep driving.

She wanted to, but her foot had a mind of its own, pressing on the brake so that the Jeep eased to a stop.

She sat for a moment, peering into the storm, her body tense as she waited for some sign that there really was someone else on the mountain.

There! Another glimmer of light.

The police?

Someone worse?

She thought about Logan, completely unaware of the threat closing in on him.

Just. Keep. Going.

But she couldn’t.

He’d done too much for her all those years ago, and she couldn’t leave without warning him.

She put her car in reverse and backed toward the cabin, her heart racing with fear. Logan had warned her that trouble was coming. He’d told her to leave. Alone, though, trapped on the mountain with no transportation, he’d die.

She couldn’t let that happen.

No matter how terrified she was.

* * *

Danger.

Logan could feel it coming as he put on a coat that he’d found in the closet and shoved his feet into hiking boots that were a size too small. He tucked the gun into one pocket of the coat and extra ammo into the other, then searched the drawers and cupboards in the kitchen, grabbing matches and a slender paring knife. He shoved the first into his back pocket and tucked the other into his boot. This wasn’t his way, digging through other people’s things and searching for whatever he could put to use. He felt like the criminal the jury had said he was.

He doused the fire and turned off the lights.

He stood in the pitch blackness of the cabin and prayed that God would lead him down the mountain and to safety.

Headlights splashed across the front windows, and he knew that he needed to run. He wanted to run, but he felt weak, shaky, still disoriented, his body trying to thaw but still so cold that his teeth chattered.

Going outside to toss the jumpsuit had been risky, but he’d had to do it. For Laney’s sake. Maybe even for his own. He didn’t want there to be any link between the two of them.

He walked to the back door, his legs heavy, his mind sluggish. Another hour in the cold would probably kill him. He knew it, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Die trying to live, or give up and just die?

Footsteps pounded on the front porch, and he pulled the gun, waited as the doorknob turned and aimed as the door flew open.

Someone raced into the cabin, whirled in the darkness, hair swinging in a long pale rope.

“Logan?” Laney called, her slender figure silhouetted against the gray night revealed by the open door.

“Do you know how close you just came to dying?” Logan growled, his legs weak from what had almost happened. If he hadn’t served as a police officer for a decade, he might have pulled the trigger before he realized who was on the other end of the barrel.

“You can lecture me later. I saw lights down the mountain. We have to get out of here.” She grabbed his hand and yanked him out into the storm.

He let her because sending her alone toward whatever was coming up the mountain felt like sending a lamb into a lion’s den.

“Are you sure you saw lights?”

“Yes. I’m not sure if they were on the road or in the woods, but they shouldn’t have been there. There’s nothing between here and the highway but trees.” She opened the door of her Jeep, motioned for him to climb in then ran to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel. “Should I head down or up? The road goes both ways.”

“How far up are we talking? Can we get to the other side of the mountain or will we hit a dead end somewhere?”

“I don’t know. William and I never walked to the end of the road. The farthest we ever went was a couple of miles.”

“I think we’d better try it. Worst-case scenario, we’ll get out and walk down the other side of the mountain.”

He hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but he’d rather ride away from certain danger than into it.

“Okay.” Laney pulled away from the cabin, the Jeep crawling along the driveway, the headlights off. Snow lightened the road they turned onto, swirling down into a valley far below. The wind had died, and the trees were still and quiet. Nothing but the snow moved, and that made Logan nervous. The Jeep shimmying from side to side as Laney inched up the road made him nervous, too. If they tumbled off the side of the mountain, they wouldn’t have to worry about running out of road or running into trouble.

He shifted in his seat, searching the area behind them, probing the woods. A light pierced the darkness, too bright to be a flashlight, too still to be headlights. The cabin? Another light appeared. Windows illuminating the darkness. His heart jerked.

“Think we can go any faster?” he asked, and Laney tensed.

“What’s wrong?” Her voice was tight, her grip white-knuckled on the steering wheel.

“It looks like there’s someone at the cabin.”

“The police?”

“No.” There’d be flashing emergency lights, more motion and action.

“How much of a head start do you think we have?”

“If they’re on foot, plenty.”

“What if they’re not?”

“How about we just keep moving forward?”

“Funny. That’s why I came to the cabin this weekend. To move forward,” she said quietly, her voice shaking.

“Yeah?” He wanted to keep her focused on the conversation rather than her fear and the threat that was following them.

“My father left me the family property when he died. I’m supposed to be in Green Bluff tomorrow night so that I can clean out the house and get it ready to go on the market.”

“You’re selling your parents’ place?” The property had been sitting vacant for twelve years. Logan had driven past it several times a week when he was on the force. Every time, he’d thanked God that the Mackeys had gotten what they’d deserved and that Laney hadn’t had to suffer for their crimes.

“Like I said, I’m trying to move forward. Strange how I finally made the decision to let go of the past and one of the biggest parts of it is suddenly in my life again.” She laughed a little, but there was more sadness than humor in the sound.

“I’m sorry, Laney.”

“For what?”

“Coming back into your life.”

“It’s not like you planned it, Logan. It happened the same way as the first time you did. God worked it out. Who are either of us to say that it’s not for the best?”

She had a point, but that didn’t change the fact that Logan had endangered her or that every minute that they were together the danger grew.

They rounded a sharp curve, the car fishtailing and sliding toward the two-hundred-foot drop to their right. Laney wrangled the vehicle back into the middle of the road, her breath coming in short quick gasps.

“You doing okay?” he asked.

“This is crazy, Logan. We could be navigating switchbacks for hours, and in this kind of weather, it’s just not safe.”

“Want me to drive?” He’d driven in worse conditions, and he wasn’t as nervous as she seemed to be. At this point, that could only play in their favor.

“Yes.” The Jeep rolled to a stop, trees pressing in on one side, a gray expanse of nothing to the other, the road barely visible ahead.

“Hold on.” Logan grabbed Laney’s wrist before she could open the door. Her pulse throbbed rapidly beneath her skin, but her face was cool and composed.

“What?”

“I’ll come around. You can just slide over. No sense in both of us going out in the cold again.” He didn’t give her time to argue, just got out of the Jeep.